A Circle of Ashes (6 page)

“Are you guys okay?” I asked, looking over at them.

Racey was lying on her back in the corner, muttering curses.

“Holy mother!” Clio said. “What is happening to us?”

Just then the shed door was flung open and Mrs. Copeland was there, her eyes wide.

“What happened?” she cried, hurrying to Racey. “What are y’all doing out here?”

Racey’s sister Ceci rushed in next. After a quick glance around, she said, “Race, what did I tell you about conjuring demons?”

“Very funny,” Clio muttered, rubbing her shoulder.

“What were you doing?” Mrs. Copeland said again, her arm around Racey. Her long black braid swung over one shoulder. She looked barely older than her daughters.

Racey shook her head, wincing. “Just a normal spell.”

“A
réléver la griffe
,” Clio explained.

Mrs. Copeland frowned. “To see other spells? And what happened?”

“I don’t know,” Clio said slowly, looking at me. Instinctively I felt that she didn’t want me to mention the twin-magick thing. “I was following the form, right from Nan’s book. We were singing, just normal stuff, stuff we’ve done before, and then kablooey.”

I felt Mrs. Copeland looking at me.

“Are you trained in magick?” she asked gently.

My face burned. Was this all my fault because I didn’t know what I was doing? She left Racey and came over to turn my face carefully to the light. “You need ice on this,” she said, looking concerned. “All of you need arnica. Ceci, go put the kettle on. I’ll make some tea.”

Standing up, she looked around the room, at the circle that had all but disappeared. “What was this?” she asked, pointing to a small black pile of gray dust.

“Uh, jet,” Clio said. “I’ll get you a new one. Sorry.”

“It doesn’t matter, sweetie. But you guys, do not repeat that spell unless Petra can be with you, okay?”

“Don’t worry,” I muttered. Right then I never wanted to do magick again.

We were all so upset that after Mrs. Copeland patched us up, we were forced to go to Botanika and have cheesecake and iced mocha frappés.

“It’s either this or go buy shoes,” Clio said, stirring her drink glumly.

Racey nodded. “I have to say, that totally sucked. But at least I don’t have a shiner.”

I made a face. Though Racey’s mom had given me stuff to help with the pain and swelling, I still had a black eye. She’d given me arnica to take home with me and said it would help clear it up really fast, but still, I had a sort of bar-fight look going on that I hated.

“This has to be my fault,” I said, stirring my drink.” This never happened to either of you before I came along. I think… maybe my magick is just off somehow. Or it just doesn’t work right.”

“That’s a possibility,” Racey said thoughtfully. “Tell me, are you a spawn of Satan? That would explain it.”

I looked at her in horror, and Racey said, “Ouch!” when Clio kicked her under the table.

“Don’t tease her,” Clio said, then turned to me. “Our religion doesn’t even believe in Satan or the devil or anything like that. There’s nothing wrong with you. I don’t know what’s going on, but I’m sure there’s an explanation. If only Nan—”

I nodded. If only Petra would come home.

The brass bells tied to Botanika’s door jingled, and I saw my friend Sylvie Allen come in. She was the first person who’d been nice to me when I started school here, and we were in the same homeroom and several classes together. She was with her boyfriend and another guy.

“Hey!” I said, waving, happy to see her. She was so normal. Not a witch. Not immortal. It was a relief.

“Thais!” Sylvie came over, concern on her face. “Are you okay? What happened?”

“Oh,” I said, remembering my black eye. “I ran into a door.”

Sylvie just looked at me, then at Clio and Racey.

“She really did run into a door,” Clio said.

“Hmm,” said Sylvie. “Well. Anyway—are you guys doing something? Do you want to come sit with us?”

Suddenly I desperately wanted to go sit with them and pretend to be a normal high schooler. Stop worrying that every person I saw on the street was a potential threat, every step I took just bringing me toward a new danger. I glanced at Clio and Racey. Clio gave me a little nod.

“It’s cool,” she said. “I’ll call you if I go to Ouida’s, okay? But Racey and I can hang.”

“Okay, great,” I said, picking up my drink and cheesecake.

“Later,” said Clio.

I grabbed a new table by the window while Sylvie, Claude, and the other guy went and ordered. A minute later they came back with their coffees.

“Oh, Thais, this is Kevin,” Sylvie said. “Kevin LaTour. He goes to L’École too.”

I smiled and nodded. “Yeah, I think I’ve seen you there.”

“I
know
I’ve seen
you
there,” said Kevin, smiling back. I blinked, realizing what he meant at the same time I realized he was pretty cute. He had a great, warm smile—bright against his dark skin. His eyes were a clear, olive green, and his black hair was twisted into little spikes all over his head.

“I loved having today off,” said Sylvie. “School would be so much better if we always had three-day weeks.”

“Hear, hear,” said Claude, emptying a sugar packet into his coffee.

Just then Racey and Clio stopped by our table. “We’re taking off,” said Clio. “I’ll call you later, okay?”

“Okay. And tell your mom thanks,” I said to Racey. She nodded, and they left.

“Racey’s mom patched me up my eye,” I explained. “It happened at her house.”

“Does it still hurt?” Sylvie asked.

“Not too much. Just looks stupid.”

“Not too stupid,” said Kevin. “How are you liking school here? You’re from up north, right?”

“Connecticut,” I said. “Um, I like school here okay. You know, it’s school.”

Sylvie nodded. “At least we only have eight more months. Yay.”

“Then we get to do it all over again for four more years,” Kevin said.

I made a face and laughed, and he laughed too. He was actually really, really cute. Of course,
cute
didn’t even begin to sum up Luc’s attraction, but still. The fact that I could even distinguish that about Kevin seemed healthy somehow. Good for me.

“Hey, we were thinking of hitting a matinee and then maybe going to Camellia Grill for a hamburger,” Sylvie said. “You want to come with?”

I thought for just a second. Axelle almost never told me where she was going or when she’d be back, and I almost never told her anymore. The idea of being a free agent, just taking off and doing something like this without having to let anyone know, seemed great.

“Matinee’ll be air-conditioned,” Kevin coaxed.

“You talked me into it,” I said, and he grinned. At that moment, I felt so happy to be sitting there, so un-witch-like, like I used to be.

Of course, I was kidding myself.

“T
his apartment is okay, isn’t it?” Sophie asked Manon. She stood at the sink, washing their lunch dishes. Manon was at the kitchen table, reading the newspaper.

“It’s fine,” said Manon. “I like being on the second floor.”

It had been lucky, how quickly they’d found a nice place to live, Sophie thought. The apartment wasn’t big, just four rooms, but the two of them didn’t need much space. And the building was charming, an old Victorian home that had been cut up and rented out. It was only a block from the streetcar line. Maybe if they stayed here awhile, they would rent a car.

Manon came up behind Sophie and put her arms around her waist. Sophie turned her head and smiled at her, still up to her elbows in suds. They didn’t have a dishwasher, but she was used to that.

“Do you think Petra’s twins will want to do the rite?” Manon asked her. “Want immortality?”

Sophie thought. “I don’t know. Daedalus can’t be making a good impression—he has ‘power hungry’ written all over him. And I don’t know the girls at all. I just don’t know. It wouldn’t be an easy choice.”

Manon was silent for a while, resting her head against Sophie’s back.

“If you could choose this time, would you want it?” Manon asked.”Last time, we didn’t get to choose. It got shoved down our throats. But do you think you’d have wanted it, éternalité, if you’d had a choice?”

“Hmm. I guess so,” said Sophie, thinking. “There’s been so much I enjoy doing. I like modern life. I’m so glad I’ve gotten to experience a life that isn’t so hard and short, like it was when we were born.”

“Also, it took you about a hundred years to fall in love with me,” said Manon, and Sophie laughed, a little embarrassed.

“True,” she said. “I was a slow learner.”

“I wouldn’t choose it,” said Manon, letting go of Sophie and walking over to a window. “I wouldn’t choose immortality.”

Sophie was surprised. Manon had never said anything like that before.

“In fact,” Manon said, looking out the window, “I’ve been doing a lot of thinking. If we can do the rite and change things, the way Daedalus says—I think I would choose to die this time. At last.” She turned to look back at Sophie, but Sophie was frozen in place, shock turning her to stone.

Sophie had never, ever considered that Manon might want to
die
. The idea, after all this time, was unthinkable. They’d always been together, even before they were lovers. They’d always planned to be together in the future. Now, out of nowhere, she wanted to die? Sophie had no words. Without Manon—she would die also. There was no way she would want to continue in this life without Manon to come home to, to share everything with. They made each other laugh, comforted each other, held hands in scary movies. Took care of each other when they were sick. They were two halves, joined together. One half alone would never survive.

Carefully Sophie rinsed the plates and put them in the dish drainer. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt so panicked, so desperate. Her heart was pounding, and cold sweat had broken out on her forehead. She couldn’t even form the words yet to ask Manon why, why she’d want to leave her, to die. She couldn’t even look at her.

But there was no way she would allow that to happen, no way she would let Manon die.

I
ended up buying a pair of new shoes anyway. Racey and I hit our favorite shoe store on Magazine Street, and they had an adorable pair of Doc Martens on sale that would be great for what passed as winter here.

“Now what?” said Racey. “We’ve done the medicinal snack and the medicinal shoes. I for one am feeling a little better, though I never want to do magick with Thais again.”

“Do you really think it’s her?” I said. “But why would she have this effect? She hardly has any power yet. And it’s not just because she isn’t trained—I mean, I can do spells with some untrained little kid, and I wouldn’t get blown across a fricking room.”

“Well, I know it’s not
me
,” said Racey dryly.

For the hundred-and-oneth time I wished Nan was back, despite how upset I was with her, and that reminded me: I took out my phone and called Ouida’s cell phone number. It rang, but in the end I only got her voice mail. I left a message, asking her to call me.

“Okay, so I’m going to take you up on your sleep-over offer,” I told Racey. “I just don’t want to be in that house alone another night. Let me go home and get some stuff, and I’ll come back later, okay?”

“Cool,” said Racey, getting out of the car. “Later, then.”

“Later.”

I drove home, worry really starting to weigh me down. Just a few weeks ago, I’d been totally on top of my life. I’d met Andre, who was my soul mate and the guy I wanted to spend the rest of my life with; Nan was just my Nan; and everything was normal.

Now nothing was. I had an identical twin—me, gorgeous Clio, who all the guys stared at. I wasn’t unique anymore. Nan wasn’t really my grandmother, and she was part of some science-fiction setup with a bunch of other witches who made
Survivor
look like a tea party. Nan, my Nan, had lied to me my whole life. Everything I had thought was true about me and her had been a lie. It made me feel like I didn’t know her, like I’d
been living with a stranger. But… she was still my Nan, the only grown-up who always took care of me, and I couldn’t help feeling like she was still the only person I could trust to keep me safe, especially with someone out there trying to hurt me and Thais. I shivered, automatically glancing in my rearview mirror at the thought. I knew just what Thais meant about feeling constantly on edge, like someone could be lurking anywhere, ready to come at you. It was beyond freaky to know someone wanted you dead and to have no idea who that person was.

I looked back at the road as I drove up to the house, feeling relief wash over me when I spotted Nan’s old Volvo parked three cars down. Finally, she was back!

Now I would get answers to my questions, hear her explanations. I leaped out of my car and raced through the gate and up the steps. Then Nan was opening the door for me. I hesitated for just a second—I was really angry at her—but old habits and my worry won out, and I threw myself into her arms.

“Nan!” I said. “Nan! I thought you were never coming back!”

She held me tightly, one hand stroking my hair, murmuring, “Shhh, shhh,” the way she used to when I was little and I’d skinned my knee. And then, taking us both by surprise, I burst into tears. “Don’t go away again,” I sobbed, effectively leaving my calm, cool Clio image in the dust.