“Mermaids exist,” Ivy says, “but not the way you think. They are dark fae. Monstrous creatures who lure people to their deaths. If you ever see a mermaid, swim the other way.”
“What could it mean, then?”
Ivy cocks her head as though mulling it over, and Krista chews her lower lip and twists her fingers as she watches Ivy. It’s like she’s holding her own hands to keep from caressing Ivy. I wonder if Ivy knows about Krista’s crush on her.
“I can communicate with water animals,” Ivy says finally. “I guess I could ask a whale or a dolphin to give me some water from down below.”
“That’s brilliant!” Krista says, a little overenthusiastic about the simple idea.
“I think you’re on the right track,” I said, “but it has to be a gift, so we have to be careful with how we actually procure the water.”
“I know where to get the fire,” Krista says in a conspiratorial whisper.
“Really?” Jaxon asks.
She nods excitedly. “I’ve always known, as soon as I saw the ingredient.”
“Well, spit it out. Where is it?” I ask.
“Near my gran’s home,” she says. “Back in Scotland. There’s a waterfall near there with a cave behind it. In the cave is a flame that’s been burning since longer than anyone can remember. It’s never gone out.”
“How is that possible?” I ask.
“Scientists say there’s a natural source of propane seeping up through the ground, but there’s no source for the spark. It’s not hot or anything in the cave. There’s no explanation. People have tried to smother it out, but it just comes back. Some say it was lit by Merlin himself.”
I blink and have to replay in my mind what she just said. “Did you say Merlin? As in...King Arthur’s Merlin?”
“More like Merlin’s King Arthur,” Krista corrects. “But yes, he was real. One of the first druids.”
“Okay,” I say, pointing my finger at her as though pinning her in place. “We are so going to come back to that. But for now, we at least know that we can go to Krista’s gran’s house and get the eternal flame.”
“Smoke from a broken promise,” Jaxon says. “Go for it, air witch.”
I look at the paper and realize he’s probably right. Earth, Water, Fire, Air. All the elements are represented in the potion. So even though I have no idea what smoke from a broken promise is, it has to be something only I can procure.
“Well...it’s smoke,” I say. “And smoke is in the air…”
“It’s fantastic watching your mind work,” Krista teases.
“Shut up,” I say. “I’m trying to figure it out.”
But I’m totally blank. I’m sure I can use my air powers to gather the smoke from the broken promise to add it to the potion. But where do I find the smoke? Smoke comes from burning something. So the promise has to be set on fire. But how can you burn a broken promise? That’s not a thing. A promise is more abstract than that. It’s something you say.
“Sorry, guys,” I finally say. “I don’t know what it is.”
“That’s okay,” Ivy says. “No one else does, either. Not even Ms. Brewster.”
“Just keep thinking about it,” Jaxon adds. “It will come to you.”
“In the meantime, we can keep working on the other ingredients, so we can be ready when you are,” Krista says. “Jaxon will work on the flower, and when we have time, we can go to my gran’s house.”
“And I’ll keep thinking of the best way to get water gifted from a sea creature,” Ivy adds.
“This is so cool!” I can’t help but blurt out. “We are so close! I wonder if anyone else has three of the four ingredients sorted out.”
“I don’t know,” Krista says. “But if we want to win, I think we should keep this to ourselves.”
“I agree,” Jaxon says, and he holds out his hand with his pinkie finger up. “Pinkie swear on it.”
“This isn’t elementary school,” I say.
“Oh, you want to do this the hard way?” he asks.
“Yeah, I do.”
“Fine.” He stands up and holds his hands over the table. It begins to shake, and there’s a rumbling sound.
“Oh, geez,” Ivy says. “Don’t ruin another table!”
“What’s happening?” I ask, but Jaxon is straining as he motions like he is pulling something out from inside the table.
The table rocks and jumps so violently, I think it’s going to explode. A light shoots up from the middle, and I realize it’s glowing white hot.
“Krista!” I scream. “Put it out!”
“He’s got it under control,” she yells for me to hear.
Finally, from inside the table, a piece of dark paper rises up. The table calms, and the light dims, and the paper floats back down and rests calmly on the table.
“You...made paper from the wooden table?” I ask.
Jaxon pulls out a pen from his shirt pocket and hands it to me. “And it’s ready for you to sign.”
I lean forward and see that, indeed, written in a scrawling calligraphy is, “We, the below signed, hereby vow to not reveal the ingredients of the Soul of Loss to any person who is not among those who have signed below lest my hair fall out and I sprout warts on my face.”
“We could have just used my notebook,” I say as I sign the paper.
Krista and Ivy sign as well, and Jaxon adds his John Hancock last.
“But then I wouldn’t have been able to show off,” he says. “And this is a binding document, forged by nature. If you breathe a word about the ingredients to anyone else… Well, let’s just say you won’t be finding a date to the Samhain Festival in the fall.”
“As much as I would love to still be here in the fall,” I say, watching Jaxon roll the paper up and put it in his bag, “if I don’t pass my actual classes, that is not going to happen. The potion should be the last thing on my mind, as much as I would love for us to be the ones to create it. Ms. Brewster would be so shook!”
“It would be a fantastic boon for you,” Krista says. “If Ms. Brewster was your mentor, there’s nothing you couldn’t learn. Plus, she’d have to let you stay. She couldn’t expel her own mentee. It would look terrible.”
“That’s a good point.” I smile down at the contract and then back at my friends. “Maybe the potion should be my priority.”
“Don’t pin all your hopes on one star,” Ivy says. “And don’t plan on failing. Love yourself, remember?”
My chest warms, and when I place my hand on my heart, I can actually feel the warmth there.
“Thanks,” I say. “That’s good advice.”
“If there’s no other urgent business,” Jaxon says as he stands, “I have an orchid seed to procure. Good day, ladies.”
He gives a little bow and then walks out of the room as Krista and Ivy snicker.
“I guess you guys have noticed his manners sometimes seem rather odd, too,” I say.
“It’s like he read too many Jane Austen novels and thinks that’s how a guy should really talk to girls,” Krista says with a chuckle.
“Yes!” I said. “That’s how I’d describe him. Old-fashioned. Not all the time, just in little words and actions sometimes.”
Ivy shrugs. “We all have our quirks. What are you going to do now?”
“Stay here and read probably,” I say. “I’m not too keen to go back to my room just yet.”
“Must be weird with Giselle being gone,” Krista says sympathetically.
“If only that were the case. But I think her ghost is lingering to torment me. I wish she would leave.”
“What?” Ivy asks. “What did you say?”
“That Giselle is haunting me…” Maybe I should have kept my mouth shut. The concern on their faces is making my stomach twist. “I’m sure it’s nothing,” I quickly add. “Probably my overactive imagination. It’s weird that she’s gone.”
“What’s been happening to make you think it’s a ghost?” Ivy asks.
“You kno
w, doors opening, drawers slamming, wind, ominous presence,” I say. “The usual poltergeist stuff.”
“Shh!” Ivy and Krista both say as they look around as if to make sure no one is listening.
They crowd to each side of me on the small sofa.
“Don’t say that out loud,” Ivy warns.
“Why?”
Krista shakes her head. “There’s no such thing as ghosts.”
“Then why can’t we talk about them?” Part of me wants to laugh, but their forcefulness also has me a little freaked out. “Don’t you tell ghost stories and stuff? What happens to people who die?”
“We return to Hecate,” Ivy says. “She decides what our next life path will be.”
“Like reincarnation?” I ask.
“Spiritual reincarnation, if you like,” she says.
“But why can’t we talk about this?” I ask again. I don’t want to get sidetracked.
“You’re talking about psychic powers,” Krista says. “The ability to communicate with the dead, like a medium, isn’t real. No one can do that. If you think you can, it’s probably a demon you’re talking to. Ms. Brewster would be super pissed if you, like, summoned a demon to the school.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” I say. “I didn’t summon anything. After Giselle died, weird things started happening in my room. That’s all.”
“I didn’t see anything weird in your room,” Ivy says. “But you said you had been scrying. Did you accidentally open a portal or something?”
“No! I just opened the mirror to look at my mom to confirm she was lying to me on the phone.”
“Why did you think she was lying?” Krista asks.
I rub my neck where I felt the hairs prick up when I was talking to Mama. “I could just sense it.”
Krista and Ivy both lean away from me and look at each other, worry etched on their faces.
“What?” I ask.
“Come on,” Ivy says. I grab my bag and follow her. “We need to stop by my room first.”
In her room, she grabs a sage stick and lighter, then we all head to my room.
“I hate to tell you this,” Krista says in a low voice in the hallway outside my room so no one else can hear us, “but ghosts don’t exist. If something unseen is causing a disturbance, it’s probably a demon.”
“Are you joking?” I ask her. “You know I can’t tell when you do that.”
“I’m not,” Krista says. “I swear it.”
“She’s telling the truth,” Ivy confirms. “We don’t like to talk about it, but it will be in your Ethics of Magic book. You can ask Jaxon about it.”
“But don’t ask Mr. Hamilton,” Krista says. “If he thinks you’re dabbling in demonism, he’ll tell Ms. Brewster. Then all hell really will break loose.”
“Uh…” I say. “So what do we do?”
“We just go in and see what’s going on,” Ivy says. “If there’s a demon, I’ll cleanse the space with the sage and a spell.”
“You think a bit of chicken seasoning is going to banish a demon?” I ask.
“It’s not chicken—” Ivy stops and sighs. “If you don’t believe, it won’t work, okay? Just trust me.”
I groan, mentally kicking myself for saying anything. I really like these girls, but I have to be careful. I still don’t know the rules here. But we are here now, so I open the door and step into the room. Ivy and Krista follow closely behind, with Krista shutting the door once we are all inside. Ivy lights the sage and holds it up, waving it back and forth.
“Hello?” I say. “Are you here?”
Krista nudges my arm. “You’ve been talking to it? Madison!”
“I thought it was Giselle! I was trying to get her to, you know, chill out.”
“Shut up, guys,” Ivy says, looking at the sage.
When I look, too, the smoke is clearly blowing toward the window—even though the window and door are both shut.
“Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit,” Krista says.
“There is definitely something there,” Ivy says, doing a much better job of keeping her cool.
“Giselle?” I say. Krista elbows me hard, but I continue. “If it’s you, can you let us know? I really hope there’s not a demon in here.”
The door to the closet creaks as it slowly swings open, reflecting all three of us in the mirror.
And Giselle, her neck bent at a horrifying angle.
I scream bloody murder, and Ivy drops the sage to the floor.
Chapter 14
“What is it?” Krista screams, shaking my arm.
I glance at her, but when I look back, Giselle is gone.
“Didn’t you see her?” I ask.
The three of us are huddled together, holding each other tightly.
Ivy trembles beside me. “See what?”
“Giselle,” I say. “In the mirror. Standing right here with us!”
Ivy narrows her eyes. “You saw Giselle?”
“Yes! Didn’t you? She was right there!”
“No,” she says, easing away from the group huddle. “I didn’t see anything.”
“Me neither,” Krista adds, also taking a step back.
They can’t be for real. “Then why were you screaming?”
“Because you were screaming,” Krista says, shaking herself out and making a face like she just ate something gross.
Ivy picks up the sage, stamping out any smoldering embers that spread on the floor.
“Don’t ruin the carpet!” I say instinctively. I don’t know why I care. My carpet back home has all kinds of burn marks on it from dropped ashes. Maybe I just don’t want any reminders of that.
“Whoops,” she says, pulling out her lighter and relighting the sage. The smoke is so thick, I can’t help but cough. “Sorry.”
“What are you doing?” I ask. “You said that was for demons.”
“Yeah, and you said you saw Giselle.” Ivy walks around the room, waving the sage stick. “That’s definitely a demon.”
“It’s Giselle. She’s trying to tell me something.”
Krista leans over the desk to open the window and let the smoke out. “That’s just not possible. There’s no such thing as ghosts or mediums or psychic powers.”
I cross my arms. “Way too many people have had encounters with ghosts and spirits to just discount them completely. We don’t all know the ways of the universe.”
“Umm, we do.” Ivy motions at our group with a circular wave of her hand as if to indicate that knowledge is common among students at our school. She shakes the sage stick on the outside of the window pane to put out any residual flame, then lets it sit on the edge until the smoke dissipates. “We are witches,” she continues. “We have so much more insight into the ways of the spirit realm than anyone else. We know what we are talking about.”
“I’m a witch, too. So you’re saying I don’t know what I’m talking about?”
Ivy turns away without comment.
“Fine, then,” I said. “Tell me about it.”
I walk over and peek out the door of my room into the hall to make sure no one is listening. I’m surprised after our screaming fit that no one came running. But when you have people experimenting with witchcraft, a scream now and then is probably normal. When I turn back, Ivy is leaning against the wall next to the window, looking right at me.
“Angels and demons exist,” she says. “But they aren’t people. Heaven and hell aren’t what you’ve probably been taught.”
Krista nods as she sinks down to sit on the edge of my bed. “Like we said, when people die, they just move on to the next stage of their existence. Some move on to their next life, some become guardian angels, or some move up to a higher spiritual plane we can’t understand.”
“So Giselle wouldn’t be here,” Ivy emphasizes. “She’s somewhere else. Whatever is in this room is probably demonic. It’s just using Giselle’s form because that is what will get your attention.”
“Well, the demon got that right,” I say. “So how do we
communicate with this demon?”
The color drains from their faces, and I half expect at least one of them to faint.
“You don’t!” Ivy says. “First, it isn’t possible since no one has the psychic powers to do so. Secondly, you wouldn’t want to. They’re evil.”
“They are servants of Marduk,” Krista adds with a shudder. “The soul eater.”
“Like...Satan?” I ask.
“Worse!” Krista throws her arms up to exaggerate her point. “Satan was a fallen angel. Marduk was created by Satan as evil incarnate.”
I roll my eyes before I can stop myself, then gesture the time-out T with my hands. “Okay, that’s enough. Either you are teasing me, or this belief system is just way too hokey for me.”
Krista jumps to her feet, clearly offended. “It’s as real as I’m standing here. If you believe in ghosts, you can believe in Marduk.”
“I’m not saying demons don’t exist,” I say. “But if they do, then I think ghosts can, too.”
“If they did, don’t you think the elders would have found them by now?” Krista asks. “In hundreds of years, no witch has made contact with the other side. It’s always just ended up being a demon every time they’ve thought that. Now we know better.”
“What about the angels?” I ask. “Can we contact them? You said some are guardians.”
“It’s believed they can influence the world around us,” Ivy says, “but they don’t have conversations with us. It’s more like a gentle nudge in the right direction when we need it.”
I pace, biting my lower lip. It’s weird that witches don’t have psychic powers and have no connection to a spirit world. Maybe they just don’t have all the answers. So many belief systems teach that we can contact the other side. What about Hindu spiritualism? Or Voodoo? Or the Native Americans? Maybe that kind of witchcraft just isn’t available to followers of Hecate.
But then why would the witches completely deny it? Can’t they just say, “we can’t do that” as opposed to “it doesn’t exist”?
I have the feeling someone is hiding something. Not Ivy or Krista. They only know what they have been taught. But maybe the higher-ups. The clan elders, the legacies, maybe even Ms. Brewster. She is the high priestess. If anyone knew anything about spiritualism, it would be her. But I can’t even begin to talk to her about this. She already has her eye on me.
Curse of Stone (Academy of the Damned Book 1) Page 13
