Pig was tough. At times it seemed like she was cast from concrete as I tried to pry her from my seat on the couch. But this was different. She wasn’t indestructible. She was a dog, and no dog, no matter how much of a good girl she was, could survive a six-story fall.
I spun in circles, trying to find her. “Esme, I can help, I can help.” I turned toward the voice, and through the haze of tears, I saw Mallory running toward me. Behind her, I could see a demon, and without thinking twice, I held up my palms, grabbed it with my kinesis, and then smashed it into the ground, over and over, until it was dead. I felt numb as Mallory caught up to me, out of breath, and grabbed my hand. We started to run around the side of the hotel.
“She has to be here,” I babbled. “Somewhere, and she’s hurt…” My eyes moved over every inch, looking for white fur. A crumpled, broken pile of white fur, the body of the gentlest creature that had ever lived, better than 99.999 percent of these trash humans.
“We’ll find her, we’ll find her,” Mallory said, stumbling as I pulled her along. But we didn’t. We went all the way around the building, and we didn’t find Pig.
I screamed her name. Maybe there was a chance she was just injured, and she’d managed to drag herself to a hiding place, but again, I didn’t see any sign of her. I was starting to sob, and I ran faster, letting go of Mallory. I stopped at a patch of bushes and pawed through them. Nothing but old Taco Bell wrappers and a dirty sock. I started running again, and suddenly Cassandra was next to me and wrapping her arms around me.
“You have to help me find her!” I screamed into her shoulder. If Wanda wanted my tears, well, here they were. It felt like my eyes were melting and pouring down my cheeks. I couldn’t see clearly. I was starting to hyperventilate, and I felt like I couldn’t stand up anymore.
Janis was here now too, and Amirah behind her, and they were talking, but I couldn’t understand what they were saying. Then Cassandra was in front of me, holding out her hand, and the world went black.
I was lying in a bed in a hotel room. Not my room, but it was still a disaster and it smelled like skunk. The TV was on, and someone was sitting in bed next to me. I felt like I’d OD’d on Benadryl, and my head felt fuzzy. I groaned and pushed myself up on my elbows. The person in bed next to me jumped and then started screaming, “She’s up! She’s up!” The bathroom door banged open, and Amirah came out. Ji-A was the one in bed next to me, and now she was on her knees, leaning over me on one side while Amirah leaned over me on the other.
“Hey,” Amirah said. “How are you feeling?”
I moaned. “Like I’ve been run over by a whole train of shopping carts,” I said, wincing with every word. “What happened?”
Amirah grimaced. “You were really upset,” she said. “Cassandra cast ypnos on you, but it barely put you under, so Ji-A and I had to do it as well. Triple-layer spell, basically.”
My mouth felt dry, and my head was throbbing, and I was wondering why they were all piling on me when it came flooding back. Pig. Flying over the side of the roof. Me, running down six flights of stairs to find her. The memory felt like a knife in my belly, and my tongue was a swollen sea cucumber. “Did you find her?” I croaked.
Amirah shook her head, and I swear it looked like even she was trying to blink back tears. “No, not yet,” she said. “Cassandra and Mallory are looking, but it’s kind of chaos out there. We’re hoping she’s just scared and that she’ll come back when things have calmed down.”
I pushed myself up to sit, and it felt like the hardest thing I’d ever done. “Jeez,” I said, “what did you guys do to me?”
“You’re not injured,” Ji-A said. “It’s like you’re waking up with a really bad hangover. It will wear off soon. Drink this,” she said, wrapping my hand around something cold. “It’ll make you feel better.” I looked down, expecting to see some sort of healing potion, but instead it was a can of La Croix. Still, I took a grateful chug.
Amirah’s phone rang and she answered it quickly. “Whew, okay, good,” she said after a bit. “See you soon. Love you.” She hung up and turned to us. “My mom’s chartering a jet and picking a few people up along the way. She’ll be here tonight.” She laughed. “And man, is she pissed. Everyone’s pissed. She’s lucky you flushed her, Esme. Mom wants to flay her alive.”
I started to ask who Amirah was talking about, but my mouth refused to form the name. “Wanda,” Amirah said, saying it for me. “As soon as she was gone, the other members of the Synod ratted her out. Apparently, she’d been planning this for years, and then I guess when Cassandra’s dad got out on Halloween, it bumped up her timeline.”
Everything on the roof was coming back in nonlinear chunks, but I remembered the Portal. Wanda standing under it, nothing going in as she tried to call something out. Still, I had flushed her. How? “What was she trying to do?” I asked. “It looked like a Red Magic ritual to…” I trailed off. Amirah was still on her phone, furiously texting, but Ji-A was nodding.
“Only Wanda knows for sure, but what we think is that she was trying to call Erebus out so that you could all, um, take care of each other.” Ji-A grimaced. “You know…,” she said, drawing one finger across her throat.
“Why all the demons, though?” I asked.
“We don’t think you guys were the only ones she was trying to get rid of,” Ji-A said. “I think she thought that if we were all trapped in the hotel with no powers, then she could wipe most of us out. The weaker the Sitterhood, the easier it would be to bring her Red Magic use out into the open.”
I nodded as I sipped the La Croix. “What happens now?” I asked. “The Synod can’t stay the Synod. They suck.” Amirah tossed her phone onto the bed, where it made a dent in the pillow it landed on.
“No one knows what’s going to happen, because it’s not like we’ve ever had to replace a whole Synod before,” Amirah said. “But my mom’s coming, and several other former Sitters too, to help figure things out and make sure everyone’s okay. Maybe we won’t have a Synod for a while?”
I was holding the La Croix can in both hands, and I didn’t want to look away from it, afraid I might start crying again if I met anyone’s eyes. “How did you know?” I asked.
“Know what?” Ji-A asked.
“That something was up when Wanda took us away,” I said. “That Cassandra and I didn’t steal the book.”
Amirah came over and gave me a side hug. “Oh, come on, Esme,” she said, “no one who’s spent five minutes with you would ever actually believe you were a Red Magic mastermind. I mean, you can’t even conjure dog food.”
Was that a compliment? It sure as heck didn’t sound like one, but Amirah’s arms were still around me, and I could smell her mints on her breath. I reached up and wrapped my arms around her. “Thanks,” I said. “For everything.”
“No problem,” she said, shrugging. “Sitters stick together.” She plopped down on the bed, then looked over at Ji-A. “Do you think it’s too late to ask my mom to bring me some uni?”
I tuned them out and went back to staring at my hands. I wanted to ask about Adrian, but there was a part of me that didn’t want to know. If he was a part of this, then he was a part of Pig…I squeezed my eyes shut to trap the tears, then blinked them open again.
“Where’s Janis?” I asked.
“She went to get you coffee,” Ji-A said. “Which is probably a good thing, because it looks like you’re going to need it. But don’t worry, Ruby and a couple of the other girls are with her. We think we got all the demons, but we’re not taking any chances.”
“Where’s the rest of the Synod?” I asked.
“The Counsels are debriefing them right now,” Amirah said. “Brian told me that they’re probably going to have to blast the whole town again first thing in the morning, and then as soon as that is done, all the Synod will be stripped of their memories and their powers.” I winced a
t hearing that Spring River’s brain would be blasted yet again, but I assumed it had to be done. There were probably already local forums devoted to investigating mysterious bobcat sightings.
Then the door to the room opened, and it was Janis, holding a tray of coffee cups. She was no longer dressed like Lady Miss Kier—instead, she was clad head to toe in Amirah’s clothes, including the Louboutins. I leaned forward a little so that I could see what shoes Amirah was wearing. Sure enough, they were Janis’s Fluevogs. I couldn’t help it—I felt a little pang of jealousy, as lots of bonding had clearly happened while I was passed out.
Janis squealed when she saw me awake, turned and set the coffees down on a table, and then ran over, throwing herself on me in a hug. Ruby came in and closed the door behind her.
“Oh my God, Esme! You’re awake!” Janis ran back and got one of the cups of coffee, then brought it over to me. I wrapped my hands around it, the condensation cold and welcome on my palms.
“Janis,” I started, then found that I couldn’t get the words out. “Pig,” I said finally. Each time I thought about her, I felt like I’d been ripped in two again.
Janis’s eyes started to water, but she smiled and nodded. “I know,” she said. “Everyone’s looking for her. She had a lot of fans. I would have gone too, but I wanted to stay here until you woke up.”
“Thanks,” I said, taking a sip of coffee and then a sip of La Croix. I was starting to feel better. Maybe it was the beverages. Or maybe it was just…friends.
* * *
—
I must have fallen asleep again, because the next time I opened my eyes, Cassandra and Mallory had joined us. Cass and Ruby were actually sitting in the same chair, deep in conversation, but Cass jumped up and came over to me when she saw me stirring.
“That was some move you pulled on the roof,” she said, sitting down on the bed.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“You totally overpowered Wanda’s ritual,” she said. “That was supposed to be a one-way Portal, but you powered right through and pushed her in.”
“I don’t understand,” I said. “I just did what I always do and…”
Ruby stood up and walked over to us, though she hung back a little. “You were really mad, though,” she said. “And anger is its own kind of Red Magic. You’re really powerful, Esme.”
I didn’t know what to say. All I could do was nod. “You didn’t find Pig, did you?” I asked finally.
Cassandra shook her head. “The whole town is a mess,” she said. “But we asked everyone we ran into, and no one has seen a white pit bull.”
Ruby leaned forward. “But I think that’s a good thing. If Pig was that injured, she wouldn’t have been able to get far. So hopefully she was just scared and is hiding somewhere.”
“Yeah,” I said, even though I knew that wasn’t true. All Pig ever wanted was to be with her family, so if she was scared, she wouldn’t be hiding, she’d be trying to find us. “I want to go home,” I said, and Cassandra nodded. I was still woozy from the spells that Wanda had cast on me, so she and Janis gathered up my stuff, and then she and Ruby walked Janis and me out to Janis’s car.
“Do you want us to go with you?” Ruby asked, but I shook my head. I wanted to be alone right now, and being with Janis was the next best thing to being by myself. We got in the car, and Cassandra tapped on the passenger window, then waved goodbye. Janis turned the key, and as soon as the car started, “Jingle Bell Rock” started playing on the radio. I groaned and leaned back, turning my head so that I was looking out the window.
“Janis, please,” I said.
“I’m changing it, I’m changing it,” she said, hitting something on her phone. Missy Elliott started to play. We had just pulled out of the parking lot when I remembered.
“Oh my God, Janis!” I said. “The chickens!” She tossed me her phone so I could text Cassandra, which, considering the state of Cassandra’s phone, was only slightly better than sticking a Post-it on an underpass. “I can’t believe we totally forgot about them.”
“Well,” Janis said, “it’s a good thing they’re not real.”
We were quiet for most of the drive, and Spring River matched us. There weren’t many cars on the road, and there seemed to be fewer Christmas lights too. I felt bad for Spring River, and I hated that Wanda had called it a hellhole. Sure, I’d called it that myself plenty of times, but it was always out of love. This was my home. Where my friends were, my family, and, somewhere, my dog.
“Wait,” I said to Janis, something suddenly hitting me as we were stopped at a light. “Cassandra and Ruby are friends now?”
Janis laughed. “More than friends,” she said. “They’re crazy about each other.”
Oh, of course. I nodded, then was thrown back against my seat as Janis peeled out.
“Sorry,” she said. “Still getting used to driving in these red bottoms.”
When we pulled up to my house, I could tell the electricity was still out. Janis parked in the driveway and we walked up to the front door. Sure enough, inside the house, none of the switches worked.
“Man,” Janis said, “I am tired AF right now. And I’m assuming that you guys don’t have any food in the house?” I shook my head. “And you can’t just wave your wand and make a pizza appear?”
“No,” I said, half smiling in the dark. “(A) I don’t have a wand, and (b), even if I did, that would be against the rules.” Dad and I had several junk drawers in the kitchen, and I rummaged through all of them and managed to find a couple of candles and some matches. I lit one of the candles and handed it to Janis. “You should stay here tonight,” I said. “Just in case. But you should go to my room and go to sleep. I’m just going to sit here for a while.” Janis nodded, and took the candle from me wordlessly. As she walked out of the kitchen, I saw her look at Pig’s bowl and pause for a minute.
I lit the other candle and sat down at the kitchen table. I wasn’t sure how long I’d been there, maybe thirty minutes, maybe three hours, when I heard a car pull into the driveway. Dad came through the back door and jumped a foot when I said hi.
“Esme! Why are you sitting in the dark?” he asked. He looked truly confused.
“It’s my only option, remember?”
“Crap,” he said, seeming to recall the electricity situation. “I’m sorry. I forgot. I wasn’t sure what time you were going to be back from your field trip, but I was hoping to beat you home.” He looked around the kitchen. “Where’s Pig? Did the dog sitter take her home?”
“Dog sitter?” I said, shocked, since this was the first time I’d heard anything about a dog sitter. “Dad, no one ever came for her. Janis came by here on Saturday and Pig had no food and no water.”
“Oh my God,” he said. “Did something happen?”
“Your phone’s been off all weekend!” I said, my voice shaking. “If the dog sitter had an emergency and couldn’t come, how would you have known? Why did Pig need a dog sitter anyway? Where were you?”
He pulled out the chair opposite me and sat down. In the candlelight, I could see how weary he looked, and that the lines around his eyes seemed deeper, like they’d been gouged with a butter knife. “I’m afraid I haven’t been honest with you,” he said.
“No crap,” I said. He leaned forward and picked at some wax that had melted onto the table.
“Es, I lost my job,” he said. “I didn’t want to tell you, because it seems like you’ve been pretty stressed out lately, and I was hoping I would get another one soon and just tell you then. But that hasn’t been working out.”
“And we’re running out of money,” I said.
He nodded. “I’ve been trying to pay whatever bills seemed the most important,” he said. “But the electricity bill got away from me. I went out to Sunflower City this weekend to see about selling your grandma’s old farm, but that won
’t happen for a while. In the meantime, we’ll have to really cut back and try to save.”
“Dad,” I said, “Mom’s facility called this weekend. Her bill’s way past due, and Brian paid it to make sure she could stay.”
“Brian?” he asked, looking confused. “Brian Davis?”
I nodded.
“How did he know?”
“I told him,” I said, “because I didn’t know what else to do. I couldn’t get ahold of you and I was freaking out.” He slowly nodded, let out a long sigh, then gave a fake laugh.
“Man, Brian’s a good friend,” he said. “And I’ve messed things up big-time. I’m sorry, Esme. And I’ll apologize to Pig too.” At this, he gave a sharp whistle, then waited. But instead of the jingle of a collar, there was silence. His face grew confused.
“Esme,” he asked, “where’s Pig?”
“Dad,” I said, my voice cracking, “I haven’t exactly been honest with you either.” He nodded again, and then I told him everything.
It’s been almost two weeks since Spring River’s collective brain was wiped, and everything seemed back to normal, or at least as normal as it was ever going to be: “Jingle Bell Rock” every five minutes, children subsisting on powdered sugar and sprinkles, the resident jokers turning the inflatable snowmen displays into a page from the Kama Sutra. You know, the normal holiday stuff.
Cassandra and I weren’t able to figure out the spell that would protect Janis’s and Dad’s brains before the new Synod zapped the town to erase all memories of what had happened the weekend of the Summit, but we got it eventually, and now I was pretty sure they were safe from all future mind melts. Or, at least we could hope.
Of course, we had to tell them everything, again, but Brian let me borrow his PowerPoint, and I could see why he’d made it. It did make things easier to explain. In a certain way, it was funny to see Janis and Dad on the same team. They were each other’s one-person support system for navigating how to be a normie in a world of Sitters, and I told them I’d better never catch them ganging up on me. It brought Dad and Brian closer too, and I think Brian was enjoying not having to talk about football all the time. Dad landed an interview at a countertop place next week, and I’d been helping him with his résumé and coaching him for his interview.
For Better or Cursed Page 29
