by L. J. Smith
Eric looked around, found a rock, and sat on it. He stared down at his hands for a minute or so. Finally he looked up, his expression helpless.
“Give me a break, Thea,” he said. “How stupid do you think I am?”
Oh.
“Oh.” Then she thought, don’t just stand there. You bluffed him before. You talked him out of knowing he’d been bitten by a snake. For Earth’s sake, you can talk him out of whatever he’s thinking now. “Eric—I guess we’ve all been under a lot of stress….” “Oh, please don’t give me that.” He seemed to be talking to a clump of silver cholla, eyeing the halos of awful spines as if he might jump into them. “Please don’t give me that.”
He took a deep breath and spoke deliberately. “You charm snakes and read guinea pigs’ minds. You cure rattler bites with a touch. You tap into people’s brains. You make up magical potpourri bags and your insane cousin is the goddess Aphrodite.” He looked at her. “Did I miss anything?”
Thea found another rock and backed up to it blindly. She sat. Of everything in the universe, right then what she was most aware of was her own breathing.
“I have this feeling,” Eric said, watching her with his green eyes, “that you guys are in fact the descendants of good old Hecate Witch-Queen. Am I close?”
“You think you win a prize?” Thea still couldn’t think, couldn’t put a meaningful remark together. Could only gabble.
He paused and grinned, a wry and painful grin, but the first one she’d seen today. Then the smile faded. “It’s true, isn’t it?” he said simply.
Thea looked out over the desert, toward the huge, bare cliffs of rock in the distance. She let her eyes unfocus, soaking in the expanse of brown-green. Then she put her fingers to the bridge of her nose.
She was going to do something that all her ancestors would condemn her for, something that nobody she’d grown up with would understand.
“It’s true,” she whispered.
He breathed out, a lonely human figure in that vastness of the desert.
“How long have you known?” she asked.
“I…don’t know. I mean, I think I always sort of knew. But it wasn’t possible—and you didn’t want me to know. So I didn’t know.” A kind of excitement was creeping into his haggardness. “It’s really true, then. You can do magic.”
Say it, Thea told herself. You’ve done everything else. Say the words to a human.
“I’m a witch.”
“A Hearth-Woman, I thought you called it. That’s what Roz was telling me.”
At that, Thea was horrified out of her daze of horror. Stricken. “Eric—you can’t talk about this with Roz. You don’t understand. They’ll kill her.”
He didn’t look as shocked as she might have expected. “I knew you were scared of something. I thought it was just that people might hurt you—and your grandma.”
“They will; they’ll kill me. But they’ll kill you and Roz, too—and your mom and any other human they think may have learned about them—”
“Who will?”
She looked at him, floundered a moment, and then made the ultimate betrayal of her upbringing.
“It’s called the Night World.”
“Okay,” he said slowly, half an hour later. They were sitting side by side on his rock. Thea wasn’t touching him, although her whole side was aware of his presence.
“Okay, so basically, the descendants of Maya are lamia and the descendants of Hellewise are witches. And together they’re all this big secret organization, the Night World.”
“Yes.” Thea had to fight the instinct to whisper. “It’s not just lamia and witches, though. It’s shape-shifters and made vampires and werewolves and other things. All the races that the human race couldn’t deal with.”
“Vampires,” Eric muttered to the cholla, his eyes going glassy again. “That’s what really gets me, real vampires. I don’t know why, it follows logically….” He looked at Thea, his gaze sharpening. “Look, if all you people have supernatural powers, why don’t you just take over?”
“Not enough of us,” Thea said. “And too many of you. It doesn’t matter how supernatural we are.”
“But, look—”
“You breed much faster, have more children—and you kill us whenever you find us. The witches were on the verge of extinction before they got together with the other races and formed the Night World. And that’s why Night World law is so strict about keeping our secrets from humans.”
“And that’s why you tried to hand me over to Pilar,” Eric said.
Thea could feel his eyes on her like a physical sensation. She stared at a patch of rock nettle between her feet. “I didn’t want you dead. I didn’t want me dead, either.”
“And they’d really kill us for being in love.”
“In a minute.”
He touched her shoulder. Thea could feel warmth spread from his hand and she had to work to make sure she didn’t tremble. “Then we’ll keep it a secret,” he said.
“Eric, it’s not like that. You don’t understand. There’s nowhere we could go, no place we could hide. The Night People are everywhere.”
“And they all follow these same rules.”
“Yes. It’s what allows them to survive.”
He breathed for a moment, then said in a voice that had gone husky, “There’s got to be a way.”
“That’s what I let myself think—for a while.” Her own voice sounded shaky. “But we have to face reality. The only chance we have of even living through this is for us to just go our separate ways. And for you to try as hard as you can to forget me and everything I’ve told you.”
She was trembling now, and her eyes had filled. But her hands were balled into fists and she wouldn’t look at him.
“Thea—”
The tears spilled. “I won’t be your death!”
“And I can’t forget you! I can’t stop loving you.”
“Well, and maybe that was just a spell, too,” she said, sniffling. Tears were falling straight off her face and onto the rock. Eric looked around for something to give her, then tried to wipe her wet cheeks with his thumb.
She whacked his hand away. “Listen to me. You did miss something when you were adding up what I did. I also make love spells for me. I put one on you, and that’s why you fell in love in the first place.”
Eric didn’t look impressed. “When?”
“When did I put the spell on you? The day I asked you to the dance.”
Eric laughed.
“You—”
“Thea.” He shook his head. “Look,” he said gently, “I fell in love with you before that. It was when we were out here with that snake. When we just looked at each other and…and…I saw you surrounded by mist and you were the most beautiful thing in the world.” He shook his head again. “And maybe that was magic, but I don’t think it was any spell you were putting on me.”
Thea wiped her eyes on her sleeve. Okay, so the yemonja had nothing to do with it. Anyway, love spells just seemed to bounce off Eric—even the dolls hadn’t worked….
She bent suddenly and picked up her backpack. “And I don’t know why this didn’t work,” she muttered. She took out a quilted makeup bag, unzipped it, and reached inside.
The dolls came out as a bundle. At first glance they looked all right. Then Thea saw it.
The male doll had turned around. Instead of being face-to-face with the female doll, it had its back to her.
The scarlet ribbon was still wound tightly around them. There was no way that it could have slipped, that this could have happened by accident. But the dolls had been inside the case, and the case had been inside her backpack all day.
Eric was watching. “That’s Pilar’s ring. Hey, is that the spell on me and Pilar? Can I see it?”
“Oh, why not?” Thea whispered. She felt dazed again.
So it couldn’t have been an accident, and no human could have done it. And no witch could have done it either.
Maybe…
Eric was gingerly unwinding the scarlet ribbon. “I’ll give the ring back to Pilar,” he said. He reduced the binding spell to its constituent parts, put them gently back in the makeup bag.
Then he looked at her.
“I’ve always loved you,” he said. “The only question is…” He broke off and looked like the shy Eric she knew again. “Is, do you love me?” he finished at last. His voice was soft, but he was looking at her steadily.
Maybe there are some things you just can’t fight….
She made herself look at him. The image wobbled and split.
“I love you,” she whispered. “I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I do.”
They fell—slow as a dream, but still falling—into each other’s arms.
“There’s a problem,” Thea said some time later. “Besides all the other problems. I’m going to be doing something next week, and I just need you to give me some time.”
“What kind of something?”
“I can’t tell you.”
“You have to tell me,” he said calmly, his breath against her hair. “You have to tell me everything now.”
“It’s magic stuff and it’s dangerous—” A second too late she realized her mistake.
“What do you mean, dangerous?” He straightened up. His voice told her the peaceful interlude was over. “If you think I’m going to let you do something dangerous by yourself….”
He wore her down. He was good at that—even better than his sister—and Thea was no good at refusing him. In the end she told him about Suzanne Blanchet.
“A dead witch,” he said.
“A spirit. And a very angry one.”
“And you think she’s coming back,” he said.
“I think she’s been here all along. Maybe hanging around the old gym, which hasn’t done her any good since nobody’s been there assaulting dummies. But if they open it to have the Halloween party…”
“It’ll be full of humans, all visiting those booths, all reminding her of what she hates. She can pick them off like ticks off a dog.”
“Something like that. I think it could be bad. So what I’ve got to do is quietly lure her somewhere else and then send her back where she came from.”
“And how are you going to do that?”
“I don’t know.” Thea rubbed her forehead. The sun was dipping toward the cliffs and long afternoon shadows had fallen across the desert.
“You’ve got a plan,” Eric said matter-of-factly.
Not you, Thea thought. I promised myself I wouldn’t use you. Not even to save lives.
“You’ve got a plan you think is dangerous for humans. For me, since I’m going to be helping you.”
I will not use you….
“Let’s make this easy on everybody. You know I’m not going to let you do it alone. We might as well take that as given and go on from there.”
This is the crazy guy who ignores snakebites and attacks people with punch, she reminded herself. Do you really expect to talk him out of helping you?
But if something were to happen to him…
The voice came back again, and Thea didn’t understand it and she didn’t like it at all.
Would you give up everything?
CHAPTER 14
A week passed more or less quietly. Grandma Harman came home, her cough better. She didn’t seem to notice anything different about Thea.
Night came earlier, and everyone at school talked about parties and costumes. The air got colder and there was an announcement that the old gym would be opened for Halloween.
Thea heard that Randy Marik had been moved to a psychiatric hospital and was in intensive therapy. He was making some progress.
Thea and Eric worked every day on their plan.
The only real excitement came the night when Thea walked in, sat on Blaise’s bed, and said, “Bullets won’t stop him.”
“What?” Blaise looked up from creaming her elbows.
“I mean, spells won’t stop him. Eric. They just bounce off. I’m telling you this because you’re going to notice that he’s not with Pilar.”
Blaise snapped the tube of cream shut. She stared at Thea for a full minute before she said tightly, “What are you saying?”
Thea’s humor drained away. She looked at the floor. “I’m saying we’re soulmates,” she said quietly. “And that I can’t help it. There is really, truly, nothing I can do about it.”
“I can’t believe, after all that—”
“Right. After all that work. And after me trying and trying to stop, because I’m scared to death. But there’s no way to fight it, Blaise. That’s what I’m trying to tell you. I’ve got to find some way to try to live with it.” She looked at her cousin. “Okay?”
“You know it’s not okay. You know it’s completely not okay.”
“I guess what I mean is, okay, will you please not kill him or turn us in? Because I can’t stand being in another fight with you. And I can’t stop breaking the law.”
Blaise tossed the cream jar in the direction of the dresser. “Thea, are you all right?” she said seriously. “Because you’re acting very…”
“Fatalistic?”
“Fatalistic and generally scary.”
“I’m okay. I just…I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I am sort of…calm. I’m going to do my best. Eric’s going to do his best. And beyond that, nothing’s guaranteed.”
Blaise stared for another minute, her gray eyes searching Thea’s face. Then she shook her head. “I won’t turn you in. You know I would never turn you in. We’re sisters. And as for trying to kill him…” She shrugged, looking grim. “It probably wouldn’t work. That guy is impossible.”
“Thank you, Blaise.” Thea touched her cousin’s arm lightly.
Blaise covered Thea’s hand with her own red-nailed fingers, just for a moment. Then she sat back and straightened her pillows with a little jerk.
“Just don’t tell me anything, all right? I wash my hands of you two and I don’t want to know what’s going on. Besides, I’ve got worries of my own. I have to decide between a Maserati and a Karmann Ghia.”
Halloween.
Thea looked out the window at the darkened world. There weren’t any kids in the alley, but she knew they were flitting around the city. Goblins and ghosts and witches and vampires—all fakes. Real vampires were sitting inside at fireplaces, or maybe at exclusive parties, chuckling.
And real witches were getting dressed for their Samhain Circles.
Thea put on a white shift, sleeveless, made out of one piece of material. She pulled a soft white belt around her waist and made a loop pointing up with one side of the tie, then wrapped the other end around the base of the loop three times. A thet knot. Witches had used them for four thousand years.
She took a breath and looked outside again.
Enjoy the peace while you can, she told herself. It’s going to be a busy night.
Eric’s jeep pulled into the alley. The horn honked once.
Thea grabbed the backpack, which had been stuffed under her bed. It was full of materials. Oak, ash, quassia chips, blessed thistle, mandrake root. The hardened residue from the bronze bowl, which she had painstakingly scraped off with one of Blaise’s art knives. A wooden seal, also carved with Blaise’s tools. And an ounce vial with three precious drops of summoning potion stolen from the malachite bottle.
She started for the stairs.
“Hey, are you leaving already?” Blaise said, emerging from the bathroom. “You’ve got—what?—an hour and a half before Circle.”
Blaise looked gorgeous, and more herself than at any other time of year. Her shift was black, also sleeveless, also made in one piece. Her hair hung loose to her hips, woven with little bells. Her arms were pale and beautiful against the darkness of hair and shift, and she
was barefoot, wearing one ankle bracelet.
“I’m going to run out and do something before Circle,” Thea said. “Don’t ask me what.”
Blaise of course didn’t know what Thea and Eric were planning. Not even Dani knew. It was better that way.
“Thea…” Blaise stood at the top of the stairs and looked down as Thea dashed out. “You be careful!”
Thea waved at her cousin.
The back of the jeep was full of wood.
“I thought I’d better bring some more, just in case we need it,” Eric said, throwing her backpack in. Then he added in a different voice, “You look—amazing—like that.”
She smiled at him. “Thanks. It’s traditional. You look nice, too.”
He was wearing the costume of a seventeenth-century French soldier at Ronchain—or as close as they could get from looking at woodcuts in old books.
They drove into the desert, past the huge bare cliffs, off the main road and far out among the Joshua trees, until they found the place. It was tiny, just a dip in the ground almost enclosed in red sandstone pillars. The pillars didn’t look like the monoliths at Stonehenge—they were knobby and squished sideways, like towers of Play-Doh that some kid had smashed—but they served the same purpose.
They’d found this place all by themselves, and Thea was very proud of it.
“The fire’s still going,” she said. “That’s good.”
It had been burning for the last three days inside the circle. Thea’s hope had been that it would keep Suzanne interested—and away from the people setting up in the old gym. And it seemed to have worked.
Not just the fire, of course. The three dummies lying on the ground tied to stakes were supposed to be interesting, too.
“These guys all look okay,” Eric said. He picked up the smallest dummy and dusted it off. It looked something like a scarecrow when he thrust the stick into a hole in the ground, standing it up.
A scarecrow dressed in a black shift tied with a thet knot. With a sign hanging around the neck: LUCIENNE.
The other small dummy had a sign that said CLÉMENT. The big dummy’s sign said SUZANNE.
“Okay,” Thea said when they had unloaded the wood, leaving her backpack in the jeep. “Now, remember, you don’t do anything until I get back, right? Not anything. And if I’m a few minutes late, you just wait.”
