by E J Elwin
“It’s kind of a bummer you had to burn the house down,” said Lizzie, as she offered her hand to Jessica. “I’m sure your mom will understand, though.”
“She will,” I said. “My dad, though, is going to want to kill me. If he’s still alive…”
I explained to them my idea that the Brotherhood had probably killed him to get to my mom, and they solemnly agreed that it was very likely.
“He sounded like a dick anyway,” said Sylvie flatly, as she gave Jessica her hand. I laughed, remembering how Connor and I would grouse to each other about our dads during our Friday nights together. The flame grew and turned bright red with Sylvie’s blood, then Jessica began to chant:
“A loved one is lost, a mother is sought
A vile abduction, a dastardly plot
Guide us to her, to the woman taken
Let Arthur’s mother not be forsaken
Blood of the Sacred Four, may it break through the shields
Of the witch who betrays, the enchantments she wields
Reveal to us now, inside of the sphere
The place we may find, the mother so dear.”
Just like before, as soon she spoke the last word, the crystal ball glowed with a shining white light that illuminated the already well-lit Concoction Cave. We all shielded our eyes against the brightness before it vanished a second later. I eagerly leaned in toward the ball and squinted into its crystalline depths, looking for the outlines of buildings and passing cars like there’d been when the Purple Haze had appeared inside it.
But there was nothing. I could see only clear crystal and my own face hazily reflected back at me. I looked up at the others and saw them all squinting as hard as I was.
“Are any of you seeing anything?” I asked.
They all shook their heads. The girls tilted their heads from side to side as if a different angle might show them what we were seeking inside the ball. A cold feeling of dread settled over me. I was sure that the absence of images inside the crystal wasn’t the result of a mistake in Jessica’s spellcasting.
“How about if the four of us say the spell?” suggested Sylvie.
“It’s worth a try,” said Jessica. “Do you all remember it?”
I thought that was a weird question since the spell had been fairly long and we had all only heard it once; then I found that I did remember it. It was as if the words had been written clearly on a page inside my mind. I saw the entire spell laid out neatly in verse form down to the last letter.
“Holy crap, I do remember it!” said Hortensia. “Every word!”
“Me too!” said Lizzie, her eyes wide with fascination.
“So do I!” said Sylvie. “How is that even possi— never mind.”
“It’s part of the gift all witches have with words,” said Harriet. “The ability to memorize large amounts of text in a short time goes hand in hand with the ability to quickly come up with a rhyme.”
“That is so cool,” said Hortensia.
“And could be very useful in school,” said Lizzie.
“Um, shall we?” asked Sylvie.
“Right, sorry,” said Lizzie and Hortensia.
The four of us took each other’s hands. Harriet and Jessica looked around, and I knew they were expecting the rainbow force field to pop up, but there was no sign of it. Without agreeing aloud to do it, the girls and I had kept it from appearing. We fell silent and then began to chant at the same time.
Just as I had when I teleported out of my burning bedroom, I focused every particle of my energy on what I wanted. Mom, where are you…
We came to the last word and the crystal ball dazzled the room again with its white light. When it was done, all six of us leaned in breathlessly to peer into its depths, certain that this time we would see the place where Deidre and the Brotherhood were keeping my mom.
My heart sunk as I saw nothing but clear crystal once again. I had so believed that the girls and I could make it work. I saw the disappointment and sadness on their faces, the fear…
“I’m sorry, sweetie,” said Jessica softly.
The girls leaned in close to me as if to support me physically as well as emotionally.
“What do we do?” I whispered. “What else can we do?”
“Well,” said Harriet, “it looks like we’re going to Deidre’s party in the cemetery after all.”
“Didn’t you say it was a trap?” asked Lizzie.
“I did,” said Harriet, “but now we know what it is they have that they didn’t have last time. We’re all still capable of beating them, it’s just that… now they have Arthur’s mother.”
“And they think that’ll help them win?” asked Sylvie.
“Maybe they expect me to trade myself for her,” I said. There was an uneasy silence. “I’m not doing it. There’s no bargaining with Deidre or the Brotherhood. If I give myself up, they’ll just use my heart to raise a horde of demons or whatever, and come after all witches.”
“I think you’re exactly right,” said Harriet.
“So we just have to find a way to beat them and also save Arthur’s mom,” said Sylvie.
“If they don’t kill her before then,” I said quietly.
There was another tense silence, then Hortensia spoke. “Hey, what if Arthur’s mom is the thirteenth heart?” We all looked at her. “What if she’s a witch? I know the prophecy says we all come from non-witch parents, but what if it’s wrong? What if Arthur’s mom is an exception for some reason? We assumed Deidre was bluffing about having the thirteenth heart but maybe she was telling the truth? Maybe what she wants us to see at her party is, um… the, um…”
“It’s okay, you can say it,” I said.
“The, um… harvesting of the thirteenth heart,” Hortensia finished.
Lizzie looked horrified by this idea and Hortensia looked mildly apologetic.
“I wouldn’t put something like that past Deidre,” said Harriet slowly. “But I strongly believe that there is no mistake in Ursula’s prophecy.”
“I agree,” said Jessica. “She made a lot of wild predictions around that period but the prophecy of the Sacred Four is completely genuine, as we’ve seen so far. There’s no reason to believe that that one detail about your parents is wrong.”
“Well, if Deidre really only has twelve hearts,” said Sylvie, “she’s really banking a lot on Arthur giving himself up. She must know there’s a huge chance he won’t and we’re just going to kick her ass.”
“We’ll figure all this out tomorrow,” said Jessica. “We’ll make a plan, just like before. For now, I think we should all rest. I suggest you girls stay here, but I can drive you home if you—”
All three girls shook their heads and accepted her offer to stay. The three of them climbed up to the fourth floor to use the phone by the floor-to-ceiling window in the library. It was an unspoken given that none of them were going to school the next day. It was probably starting to seem trivial to them, just like it had become to me after I’d discovered all this.
Jessica and Harriet bade me goodnight and went to their bedrooms. On my way back to my room, I suddenly doubled back to Harriet’s door. It was open but I knocked out of respect.
“Can I talk to you for a minute?” I asked.
“Sure!” she said. “Come in!”
I walked into her bedroom and saw that it was very similar to mine. There was a four-poster bed with translucent white curtains, a tall wooden wardrobe, and bright blue curtains on the windows. Stacks of books and cardboard boxes, along with her various other possessions, stood in the corner. We sat on her bed and she looked at me expectantly.
“I just want to say,” I said, “that I’m sorry.”
“What for?” she asked, looking concerned.
“You know…” I said, “for almost walking out on you all and then sticking you with my dead body for the second time in forty-eight hours.”
“Oh, that,” she said softly. “Well, I’m not going to lie to you and say that it wasn’t upsett
ing… But I understand what you were going through.”
“I just… I saw him about to leave, and I couldn’t handle it… I needed him. I’m selfish and a bad person,” I said plainly.
“Arthur, you came back,” said Harriet. “That’s what counts. And you’re not a bad person. You’re a wonderful person. Connor certainly thought so.”
I smiled, even through the pain of hearing her refer to Connor in the past tense.
“You know, I made a conscious decision not to have children,” she said. “You’re the closest thing to a son that I’ve ever known.”
I looked up at her, startled and also touched by the sentiment.
“And you’ve helped me to see,” she went on, “just how much having one of my own would have driven me crazy.”
I laughed, and she laughed, then she pulled me into a hug.
“I love you, honey,” she said into my shoulder.
“I love you, too,” I said.
CHAPTER 25
The Cemetery by the Sea
On the way down to breakfast the next morning, Harriet offered to cast the same spell for the girls that she’d cast for me to keep their school from calling their parents about their absences. They dipped into their rooms and brought out three items that had been issued to them by Seaside High: Lizzie, a pen; Hortensia, a paper clip; and Sylvie, a detention slip.
Harriet bundled the three items together with a small piece of ordinary-looking blue ribbon, then stopped in front of the crackling fireplace in the living room.
“No longer in their thrall
No longer may they call
Three students they hoped to teach
Their parents now out of reach.”
She tossed the items into the flames, and we carried on to the kitchen and then out to the balcony, where Jessica was setting out omelets and pancakes.
We ate quickly, all of us restless and itching to get started on the new battle plan. Jessica had convinced us to refrain from talking about it until we were done eating.
“Let’s make the breakfast table sacred for today, shall we?” she said.
Afterward, we waited for Jessica in the Concoction Cave with cups of coffee while she went to take a tray of breakfast to Jasper. She met us a short time later looking worried.
“He ate all his food,” she said, “but I had to practically prop him up and spoon-feed him.”
“I’m sorry,” I said. “He wouldn’t have cast that second Sight Heightening Spell if I would’ve been able to teleport at the time.”
“It’s not your fault, sweetie,” she said. “Jasper knows what he can handle. He’s definitely sitting out tomorrow night’s battle in the cemetery, though. He’s exhausted for one, but casting a third Sight Heightening Spell so soon… It could put him in a coma, or worse…”
The girls and I looked at each other in fear. “Okay, so Jasper’s definitely not coming with us tomorrow night,” said Sylvie firmly.
“There are some spells,” said Jessica, “that can help us predict some details about tomorrow night, even without Jasper’s help. They can’t replace his Sight, but they can help us with some things…”
She went to one of the wooden shelves and picked up two glass jars and two glass bottles. One jar contained herbs; the other held white rose petals marked with dark blue lines that looked like veins, which I recognized as Varicose Vines. The bottles held liquid: one, a shimmery silver substance that I knew to be Silver Solvent; the other, a thick red liquid that had to be—
“Blood,” said Jessica. “It’s all the combined samples of the Brotherhood blood I took the other night in the clearing. It can answer some basic questions about them for tomorrow night.”
“Even though the guys whose blood that is are dead?” asked Hortensia.
“Yup,” said Jessica. “It’s enough to represent them all as an entity.” She poured some Silver Solvent into the nearest cauldron, then tossed in a pinch of the herbs and some Varicose Vines. The label on the herbs said they were Twiddle Root. She cleared her throat and chanted:
“In peril and uncertainty, and threat of executions
May the hateful blood of enemies bring about solutions.”
She swirled the blood around in the jar, then dipped a dropper into it. “How many members of the Brotherhood will be at Seaside Cemetery tomorrow night?” she asked of no one in particular.
She held the dropper over the cauldron and let out a single drop of blood. The contents of the cauldron sizzled and let off silvery white steam like the kind we had seen during the Bonding Ceremony. It dissipated after a few seconds but a thin wisp remained. It hovered in the air above the cauldron like a papery ghost and then, incredibly, formed itself into the number two.
“That’s how many Brotherhood members will be at the cemetery,” said Jessica. “Two.”
“That can’t be right,” said Sylvie, frowning.
“I promise it is,” said Jessica. “I know it seems strange, but it makes sense. They know they can’t beat us with force. You saw what Deidre wrote in that letter, ‘congratulations on killing the four pawns you see’… She knew they would die at Huerta’s trying to kill us. They were just messengers.”
“So it’s just going to be two men and Deidre?” I asked in disbelief.
“Well…” said Jessica, “two men, Deidre, and… some demons.”
I shivered at the word, and I noticed that Lizzie did too. Harriet then spoke.
“Deidre’s obviously very confident that she’s going to succeed at this Malevolent spell,” she said. “It really is some arrogance on her part to think that she’s going to get her thirteenth heart from one of you and then finish her spell with the rest of us there.”
I thought uneasily of Hortensia’s idea from the previous night that maybe my mom was a witch after all. Maybe Deidre already had all thirteen witch hearts, and we were going to arrive at the cemetery and be ambushed by otherworldly monsters from the Hopeless Place… I reminded myself of what Jessica and Harriet had said about Ursula’s prophecy being genuine. I had to agree with them that Ursula couldn’t be wrong on this one point. It didn’t make sense.
“Here’s something else for you to see that this spell works,” said Jessica. “How many Brotherhood members attacked Harriet’s house the other night?” She squeezed a drop of blood into the cauldron, and it sizzled and steamed in silvery white. A second later, all the steam was gone except for the numbers one and zero hanging hazily side by side.
“That’s right,” I said. “It was ten.”
“Can it tell us the name of Deidre’s boyfriend?” asked Lizzie.
“It can only give numerical answers,” said Jessica. “Questions that begin with ‘how many’.”
“How many total members of the Brotherhood are left?” I asked.
Jessica repeated the question and squeezed another drop of blood into the cauldron. There was a sound like bacon sizzling on a frying pan and a puff of white steam. After most of it faded away, a two-digit number remained: 44.
“That’s it?” I asked in surprise. “I thought there were thousands!”
“It might feel that way because they’re widely spread and have heavy influence,” said Harriet. “But they’re still a secret cult, and a secret cult can only be so large.”
“So now we know,” said Jessica, “that they won’t be relying on guns this time, but on Deidre’s spell. Most demons can be killed pretty straightforwardly with your weapons, but we’ll likely be dealing with some very rare and powerful breed. There may also be more than one…”
Lizzie put a hand to her lips but kept her composure.
“For that,” said Jessica, “there are Banishing Spells. One good Banishing Spell cast by a strong coven can banish any number of demons and spirits brought forth by a Malevolent spell. They won’t die, they’ll just be sent back to the Hopeless Place, which, for all intents and purposes, is good enough for us. The coven has to be in the presence of the demon or demons, and there’s a type of Cosmic Crystal
used called a Banishing Crystal which we have downstairs.”
“Thirteen witch hearts…” said Harriet. “Who knows what such a powerful tribute might raise. If all hell breaks loose, and it might, the four of you need only cast the spell in front of one of the demons, and you’ll banish them all. Our goal, of course, is to kill whatever Deidre summons, along with Deidre herself, but take comfort in knowing you’ll have a backup plan.”
Jessica picked up the jar of Brotherhood blood and swirled its contents around again. “When this is over,” she said, “we’ll work with this blood to find a Brotherhood meeting place, some witch hunter convention or something, and then we’ll plan to take them down completely.”
“Now that sounds like a party,” said Sylvie.
“There will always be witch hunters,” said Harriet. “Crazy morons who will want to murder innocent women and girls because of some ridiculous belief. But we have a chance at wiping out the Brotherhood of Armin, at least; one of the oldest and most destructive cults to have ever existed. Believe in and take power in that.”
**
Sylvie, Lizzie, Hortensia, and I spent the next two days in what felt like an intense study session for a final exam. When we weren’t up in the library reading about the Hopeless Place and different kinds of demons, we were in the Illusion Room training with our weapons and practicing our powers.
We started in the Irish meadow, where I had sword fights with Sylvie under the starlight and sparred with Hortensia using quarterstaffs. Then we switched to a gym environment that was more like the one I had first imagined when Jessica told us about the room. I took shots with Lizzie’s crossbow on targets that hung on the walls, then they all tried out my crescent axes. Each of us fought best with our own weapon but it seemed useful to practice using other ones.
We went back to the street in Tokyo, where we had the most fun time running through the traffic that passed right through us and flicking the environment from day to night like a light switch. Sylvie gave us a crash course in basic martial arts self-defense, and we all cheered as we watched her fly to the tops of the city skyscrapers, level with the signs that flashed in neon Japanese characters. Jessica had assured us that, while not limitless, the room was meant to allow ample space for flight, as that was what her mother had originally created it for. It was also completely fireproof, and I felt like some bizarre street performer as I threw out jets of fire in front of pedestrians in late night Tokyo.
