The Dolls (22 page)

“Well,” Peregrine says coolly, “it’s probably because in actuality, he’s one hundred seventy-six years old, and zandara is the only thing keeping him alive. Or it
was
, anyhow, before you cleverly removed it. Nice work.”

My whole body goes cold. “What?”

Chloe interrupts in a gentler tone. “Eveny, Boniface is one of several people in town who rely on the zandara queens to extend their lives. He’s been in his seventies for more than a century now.”

“Same with our groundskeeper, Milo, and Peregrine’s groundskeeper, Samuel,” Chloe explains. “When the town was founded, they made a bargain: They’d help watch over the Queens of Carrefour and continue to keep up our homes without pay, in exchange for lodging and continued life.”

“Like indentured servants?”

“Not really,” Chloe says. “They could leave at any time.”

“But if Boniface leaves, he’d die?”

“Yes, unfortunately he would, when the magic wears out,” Peregrine says nonchalantly. “That’s one thing zandara
can’t
reverse—death. Once someone has expired, it can’t be undone.”

I gape at them. I have a hundred questions I want to ask. But first: “Please, help me save him,” I whisper.

“Of course we’d be happy to help you,” Peregrine says sweetly.

“But you have to agree to join us,” Chloe adds. “We need you, Eveny. It’s the only way.”

“We know it’s a lot to absorb,” Peregrine says diplomatically. “But we promise you’ll like it, Eveny. And you’ll have a one-third vote in how we handle things from now on.”

“Like, I can tell you I think you’re a real snob, and you treat people outside your sosyete like crap?” I ask coldly.

Peregrine looks surprised, but she laughs. “Eveny, I can’t be wonderful to
everyone
. I simply don’t have the time.”

I just glare at her until she sighs heavily.

“Fine,” she says. “I’ll try to be more decent to your little friends. Are you happy now?”

I look down at Boniface, whose breathing is growing shallower by the moment. “Fine,” I say. “I’ll do it. Just help me fix this.”

“Wise choice, Eveny,” Peregrine says.

She and Chloe lead me reluctantly away from the gasping Boniface and back into the parlor. While Chloe lights some candles, Peregrine asks me to remember exactly which herbs I invoked. When I tell her, she walks out the door.

“You’ll have to focus your energy on this house and the grounds like you did when you cast the original charm,” Chloe says while we wait for Peregrine to come back. “Feel the energy as deep in your heart as you can.”

Peregrine returns a moment later with a handful of mint, nettle, and rue. “Fortunately, you didn’t destroy the herb garden entirely.”

“Casting with the herbs themselves instead of only relying on your Stone of Carrefour to channel the herbs will help make us stronger,” Chloe explains. “Now put your left ring finger on your stone, and your right hand here.”

I do as she says, reaching for my stone and then folding my right hand over Peregrine’s, which is upturned and clutching the herbs. Chloe’s hand comes down over ours, and as soon as she touches us, I feel a surge of power. “When Peregrine’s done, you’ll recite the words
Mesi, zanset
with us,” Chloe instructs. “It’s what finishes an important charm.”

“What does it mean?” I ask.

“
Thank you, ancestors
,” Chloe replies. “It’s Creole. When our great-great-great-grandmothers founded Carrefour, they dealt with a lot of Haitian immigrants who had lived and died in this swamp. Some of their words became a part of zandara.”

“Are we going to have a history lesson here,” Peregrine asks, glancing from Chloe to me, “or are we going to fix what you messed up?”

I take a deep breath while Peregrine calls on Eloi Oke. I feel the air in the room shift, and then Peregrine chants:

                
Mint, nettle, and rue were invoked to cast a charm.

                
Reverse it now, oh spirits, before it’s too late.

                
A mistake was made here, and it must be righted.

                
We humbly beg you for your sympathy and assistance.

Together, the three of us say, “
Mesi, zanset. Mesi, zanset. Mesi, zanset
.”

I feel a whoosh of air, and suddenly the whole house is shifting beneath our feet. The walls straighten, the crimson pool of blood vanishes, and the peeling wallpaper is vibrant and new again.

When Chloe pulls away a moment later, her eyes are wide. “Did you feel that?” she whispers to Peregrine.

Peregrine nods, looking just as shocked. “Power,” she whispers.

I felt it too, but I don’t have time to dwell on that. “I have to make sure Boniface is okay.” I run out of the parlor toward the backyard.

I find Boniface sitting on the ground, rubbing the back of his head. I exhale in relief when I see that he looks like he’s seventy-something again instead of a hundred and seventy-something.. He appears to be breathing normally.

“I don’t know what happened there!” he says, looking up as I approach. “I must have fallen and hit my head. I feel a little woozy.”

I hurl myself at him and wrap my arms around his solid body. “I’m so glad you’re okay,” I tell him.

“Well, that sure is the best greeting I’ve gotten in a long time,” he replies, hugging me back.

Peregrine and Chloe step out on the deck and call to me. “Come on, Eveny!” Peregrine says impatiently. “We have things to discuss!”

My stomach twists itself into a knot.

“When did they get here?” Boniface asks.

“Just in time,” I tell him in a shaky voice. With a heavy heart, I stand up and head toward my fellow zandara queens.

UNCORRECTED E-PROOF—NOT FOR SALE

HarperCollins Publishers

..................................................................

P
eregrine is standing in my living room filing her nails when I reenter the house. Chloe is applying lipstick in the mirror on the wall.

“You’re welcome,” Peregrine says as I linger in the doorway, watching them.

I give her a look. “I don’t remember thanking you.”

Peregrine shrugs. “I assumed that was just an accidental lapse in manners on your part. After all, I
did
just save your house and Boniface’s life.”

“So I made a mistake. But can we agree that we won’t do any more big charms without consulting each other? Like I won’t destroy my house, and you won’t endanger everyone just because you’ve run out of guys to make out with?”

Peregrine glowers at me. “You’re being awfully bossy for someone who’s new at this.”

Chloe elbows Peregrine. “Eveny’s right,” she says. She turns to me and says, “We’ll scale it back until we know for sure what happened to Glory. Deal?”

I nod.

Peregrine doesn’t look happy. “I still get to work zandara on guys, though.”

I open my mouth to protest, but Chloe cuts in. “Don’t bother arguing,” she says to me. “Peregrine would wilt without male attention.”

Peregrine walks out of the room without another word to me. “I’ll be in the car, Chloe!” she calls over her shoulder.

I hear the front door open and close a moment later. I turn back to Chloe, expecting that she’ll leave too, but she’s just standing there. She shifts from stiletto to stiletto for a moment and twirls her honey blond hair nervously as she stares at me.

“What?” I finally ask.

“Look, I’m not accusing you of anything, but did you dig up the Justin doll? In the cemetery that night that you spied on us?”

“Oh, crap,” I say. “I’m sorry. I was just trying to figure out what was going on.”

“You need to put him back.” She looks like she’s about to cry. “You don’t mess with another queen’s magic! I mean, I know you didn’t know, so I’m not mad this time. But Justin’s been acting weird, and I had no idea why. Just rebury him before I have to break up with him, okay?”

“Chloe,” I say slowly, “is
everything
between you and Justin magic?”

She gives me a look. “Not everything. It’s just easier when there’s a little charm involved. I don’t have to worry about stupid stuff like him checking out other girls.”

“It’s called real life,” I say.

Chloe makes a face. “But why would I want to go through that if I don’t have to?”

“Maybe because it would be great to know that Justin likes you for you, and not just because you’ve forced him to?”

She studies the ground. “But he wouldn’t like me,” she says so softly that her words are almost inaudible. “He’d like Peregrine.”

“You don’t know that.”

“Every guy in town is into her, Eveny. And I’ve been in love with Justin for a really long time. I can’t lose him.”

She looks miserable, and I feel sorry for her. “Fine. I’ll rebury the doll tonight.”

“Thank you so much. I’ll write down a super easy reinstatement charm.”

She grabs a pen and notepad out of her Louis Vuitton bag, jots something down quickly, then rips out the page and hands it to me. I stuff it in my pocket. “You have to mix damiana with balm of Gilead buds,” she says. “When you use them together, they strengthen a charm’s ability to bring back a drifting lover.”

“You sure you want to do this?” I ask.

“Of course, Eveny.” She pauses, then brightens suddenly. “Hey, want me to write a love charm for you too?”

My mind immediately goes to Caleb and how drawn I feel to him, how many things stand in our way. “Nah,” I say. “Thanks, but I think I’ll do it the old-fashioned way.”

Chloe looks perplexed. “Suit yourself,” she says and disappears out the door after Peregrine.

Exhausted from working the charms in the parlor, I go to bed early and set my alarm so I can make a quick trip to the cemetery on Chloe’s behalf under cover of darkness.

At nearly two a.m., clutching the Justin doll, I slip out the back door and over the garden wall by the light of the moon.

“Don’t freak out. Don’t freak out,” I say to myself as I move past fog-draped tombs. I don’t think there will ever be a time when I’m not nervous to be in a graveyard in the middle of the night. But I promised Chloe, and I’m eager to see if a charm like this works when I do it alone.

Standing at the crossroads, I touch my Stone of Carrefour and call on Eloi Oke. I feel the now-familiar change in air pressure, and I know the door to the spirit world has once again opened. I take a deep breath and quickly skim the words Chloe has jotted down. I shake my head in amusement when I realize she’s written them in rhyme, then I chant them quickly aloud.

                
The magic lifted, and some were hurt.

                
I restore it now, back in the dirt.

                
The charms of Chloe will work through this doll

                
On Justin’s heart, through it all.

I rebury the Justin doll and a flannel sachet of damiana and balm of Gilead buds along with it. As I kick the dirt over the doll, concealing him completely, I feel a quick whoosh of wind, and the dust settles.

I stand there for a moment, then bend and touch the dirt again. I reach for my Stone of Carrefour with my left ring finger and say, “Also, spirits, if you’re still listening, if Justin isn’t a good guy, or if he doesn’t care about Chloe at all, please make her realize that before he breaks her heart.”

I hastily straighten up, brush my hands off, and turn to walk back toward my house, and that’s when I suddenly hear pounding footsteps getting rapidly closer. I gasp and flatten myself across a tomb. Someone’s running toward me, and I’m out here in the darkness all alone. I curse my stupidity. What if it’s the faux-frat boy who’s unaccounted for, or the person who murdered Glory?

A moment later, a figure shrouded in darkness bursts into the clearing less than a foot away from me, breathing hard. I scream before realizing that it’s Caleb Shaw.

A shirtless Caleb Shaw, with ripped biceps, taut abs, and caramel skin sparkling with moonlit perspiration.

He whirls to face me and pulls out his earbuds. “What are you doing out here?” he demands. “You scared me to death!”

“
I
scared
you
?” I manage. Just as quickly, my heart is racing for a different reason entirely.

He wipes his arm across his forehead and then puts his hands on his thighs as he catches his breath. He’s wearing olive green running shorts, dark gray running shoes, and nothing else. “You shouldn’t be out here, Eveny,” he says. “It’s not safe.”

“Well, what are
you
doing out here?” I counter.

He looks a little embarrassed. “I like running in the cemetery at night when I can’t sleep,” he says. “My dad’s buried here, so I kind of see it as my time to visit him.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. About your dad, I mean. I didn’t know.”

“I don’t talk about it much.”

I study him for a minute. “How old were you when . . . ?”

“Four,” he says. He wipes the sweat from his brow again, and the moonlight highlights the tendons and muscles in his arm. “Not much older than you were when you lost your mom.” He scratches his head and says, “What are you doing in the cemetery anyways?”

“A favor for Chloe.”

“Zandara?” he guesses.

“Yeah.”

He gazes at me for a moment, but seems to accept this. He leans beside me against the tomb, and I’m acutely aware of his near-naked body just inches away.

“You shouldn’t be here all by yourself,” he says, and I have the strange feeling that he’s as nervous as I am.

“Nothing happened,” I tell him.

“But it could have.” He shakes his head and changes the subject. “So Peregrine and Chloe have swayed you to the dark side?”

“I don’t know that I’d call it dark, exactly.”

“I’m not sure this qualifies as light either. You’re standing in a cemetery in the middle of the night, all alone.”

“But now you’re here,” I say before I can second-guess myself.

For a moment, we just stare at each other. In the silence, I can hear both of us breathing rapidly.

“So this protector thing,” I say after a minute. “I don’t get it. Before I got back to Carrefour, you weren’t responsible for me?”