Spellbinder (15 page)
"No." Vivienne looked mildly curious. "What happened?"
Instead of answering, Thea said, "Where's Blaise?"
"Upstairs packing.
She's going to stay overnight at ray house. You can come, too-Thea?"
Thea was already racing up the stairs.
She burst into the bedroom she and Blaise shared. Blaise had a small suitcase open on her bed.
Thea didn't waste words. "Did you kill Kevin Imamura?"
Blaise dropped a black silk teddy. "Did I what? What are you talking about?"
"He's dead."
"And you thought I did it? Thanks a lot, but it's not him I want to kill." Blaise narrowed her eyes and Thea felt cold. Then she tilted her head. "So how did he die?"
"He was strangled. Somebody murdered him."
Blaise just raised her eyebrows and murmured, "Hm. I wonder where Randy
is?
" She held a shirt up, considered it, and added, "Do you want to
come
stay at Viv's with me? It's better than staying here by
yourself
."
"I don't know. Do I have to watch you to make sure Eric
doesn't
end up like Kevin?"
Blaise gave her a scorching look. "When I go after a boy, I get him first. I don't strangle him before the fun begins."
She slammed her suitcase closed and stalked out.
Thea sat on the bed.
In spite of her sharp words, Thea now knew Blaise hadn't done it. Her cousin had been genuinely surprised.
And Randy?
I suppose it could have been, if he somehow got out of wherever they've taken him. He had a reason to hate Kevin.
But . . .
The alternate explanation slid into place so quickly that Thea realized it must have been in her mind all along.
The spirit.
She sat there for an endless time, trying to think. It was like trying to find her way through a thick fog.
Gran's gone . . . and if she's sick I can't bother her anyway ... of course, Blaise won't help ... but I need to trust somebody. . . .
Dani gently pushed the door open. "Can I come in?" When Thea nodded, she walked in and sat down on Blaise's bed.
"They left. I told Tobias to go too-he had a girlfriend he wanted to see. I'll stay here tonight, if you want."
Thea took a shaky breath. "Thanks, Dani."
"Look, Thea, I don't want to pry, but . . . are you okay? I mean, you're as pale as a corpse-" Dani bit her lip. "Sorry, bad choice of words. But I am your friend, and if there's anything I can do, I'd like to help."
Another breath.
Then Thea made her decision.
"I worked a forbidden spell."
Dani looked shocked, but not appalled.
"Which one?"
"Calling back the spirits."
When Dani didn't scream or faint, Thea told the whole story. All about her summoning-everything except why she'd been doing it. "And now I'm scared," she finished. "I let something out yesterday, and today Kevin gets murdered. Blaise didn't kill him. She thinks Randy may be involved, but . . ." Thea shook her head.
"But, Thea, be logical. Why should it have anything to do with your spell?" Dani's rational voice was soothing. "You let someone out, not something. The elders summon the ancestors all the time without anything bad happening. You just feel guilty because you know you weren't supposed to be doing it."
"No. Dani, I can't explain it, but the thing I let out-it wasn't friendly. It knocked Blaise and me down. None of the spirits I saw the elders summon ever did that."
"Well . . ." Dani looked doubtful. "But why would one of the ancestors
went
to murder a human?"
"I don't know." Somehow talking about it had cleared Thea's mind. She said slowly, "
But.
. . maybe the book would tell us."
Ten minutes later, they were sitting side by side on Thea's bed, with the iron chest on the floor and the book between them.
"First, could you tell anything about the amulet that fell in the fire?" Dani asked in scientific tones. "Like, if the hair was gray, it could mean-"
"The witch was old." Thea caught on immediately. "No, it wasn't gray or white. It was dark-sort of like mahogany." She closed her eyes, trying to remember.
"It all happened so fast-but I think it was long. It was doubled up lots of times in the clay."
"So maybe a woman."
"Yes." Thea read for several minutes. "Wait a minute. Look at this."
" 'Suzanne
Blanchet,' " Dani read with difficulty. "
'Bom sixteen thirty-four in Esgavans on the day that they made bonfires for the peace between
Tried sixteen fifty-three at Ron-chain, prisoner at the court of Rieux.'
"
"And listen to the charges," Thea said grimly.
" 'Bewitching
men's corn, killing cattle, bringing hunger into the country, and strangling babies at night with her long hair.' "
"Strangling," Dani breathed.
"She denied it, so they tortured her. Listen: 'Being a little stretched on the rack, she screamed ceaselessly that she was not a witch, but being more tightly stretched, said that it was true.' "
"And then they tortured her family," Dani said, her finger skimming the lines. "Oh,
"And burned them."
Thea had begun to tremble involuntarily. The room wasn't cold, but she had a feeling like ice deep inside her. "Look
. '
The children having been promised the mercy of being strangled before burning, but the executioner not having been paid, they were committed alive to the flames ...'." She couldn't finish.
" '
. . . before the eyes of their sister,' " Dani whispered. She was shaking, too, and huddling close to Thea. "How could they do that?"
"I don't know," Thea said flatly.
"I mean, no wonder Night World laws are so strict. No wonder we have to keep ourselves a secret-look at what they do to us when they find out." | Thea swallowed-she didn't want to think about Night World rules. "And then they burned Suzanne," she said quietly, keeping her eyes on the book.
" 'Being
consigned to the fire, she uttered several exclamations, crying out upon revenge.' "
"I would too," Dani said
,
her soft voice threaded with steel. "I'd come back and kill them."
She stopped and she and Thea looked at each other.
"And maybe that's just what she did," Thea said slowly. "Only she couldn't get to her torturers. But she found something that looked similar-a reproduction torture chamber. And there was Kevin, doing something to a witch dummy-hanging it, maybe. Maybe treating it in some way that reminded her of . . ." Thea nodded toward the book. "Anyway, doing something that made her lose it."
"And kill him. By strangling him-what she'd been accused of doing.
Thea?"
Dani grimaced,
then
went on. "When you saw Kevin's body-was there anything around his neck?"
Thea stared at the window curtains, trying to remember. That awful bloated face ... the protruding tongue . . . and dark bruises on the throat.
"No," she said softly. "There were marks-but whatever strangled him was gone."
"She took it with her." Dani shivered,
then
put both hands on the book.
"Or maybe not.
Look, Thea, this may make a great bonfire story, but, really, it's all speculation.''
Thea was staring at the yellowed page beneath Dani's fingers. "I don't think so," she said quietly. "See this symbol by Suzanne Blanchet's name? I recognize it. I saw it for just a second-on the amulet in the fire." "You're sure?"
Thea looked away.
"Yeah.
It's her, Dani. And it's my fault. I let her out . . . and now she's killing people. Because of me, somebody's dead."
It was only when she said it that the full realization hit-as if forming the words had somehow made it true. Kevin was dead. He wasn't going to school
anymore,
he wasn't going to get a chance to repair his Porsche. He wouldn't ever smile at a girl again. He'd lost everything a person had to lose.
"And I just-I just feel so bad," Thea said. The ache in her throat rose up in a sort of spasm, as if she were going to be sick. But what came out
was
tears. Dani held her while she sobbed. And at last, when Thea was crying more quietly, she said, "You didn't know. You didn't mean to do anything bad. You were just playing around and it went wrong. You didn't know."
"It doesn't matter." Thea wiped her face on her sleeve, sitting up. The ache in her chest was duller now, and she was slowly realizing that something else was there, something that felt hot and bright.
A need to act.
"It doesn't matter," she said again. "I still made it happen. But I'll tell you one thing-I'm not going to let it keep happening. I've got to stop her.
Which means I've got to send her back.
"
"I'm with you there," Dani said, her small jaw set in determination.
"But how?"
Thea stared at the wall a moment,
then
said, "I have an idea."
Gran told me that the only person who can send a spirit back is the one who called it up," Thea said. "But the problem is that you have to be able to see the spirit, you have to be close to it. Then you can do the sending-back spell."
"Okay," Dani said, nodding. "But-"
"Wait, I'm getting to it." Thea got up and began to pace the few steps between her bed and Blaise's. She spoke slowly at first, then more rapidly. "What I'm thinking is that this can't be the first time this has happened. Sometime, somewhere, somehow, some witch must have called up a spirit and let it get away. And then had to go out and get hold of it again."
"I'm sure that's true.
But so what?"
"So if we could find a record of how she did it-how she tracked the spirit down-we might be in business."
Dani was getting excited. "Yeah-and it wouldn't even have to be a case of a summoned spirit. I mean, some spirits just won't go to the other side at all after they've died, right? Maybe there's a record about how one of them got sent across the veil."
"Or a story.
Or a poem.
Anything that would give us a clue about how to get them to stay in the same room with you while you do the spell."
Thea stopped and grinned at Dani. "And if there's one thing Gran has lots of,
it's
records and stories and poems. There are hundreds of books in the workshop."
Dani jumped up, dark eyes snapping. "I'll call my mom and tell her I'm staying over tonight. Then- we find it."
After Dani called her mother, Thea called Eric to make sure he was okay. Now that she knew there was a demented spirit on the loose she was worried about him.
"You're sure you're all right?" he said. "I mean, I still feel awful about taking you to that place. I wanted-
well,
I'd like it if we could see each other without something terrible happening."
