Each girl took a boy’s hand and set off to deliver him home. A long straggling zombie parade marched out of our yard and down the street.
“You’d better pick them up tomorrow morning and take them to school,” I warned the girls.
Jasper and I sat down on the porch steps, and I placed my head in my hands.
I told Jasper about Sookie sneaking extra ingredients into my love charms. My sister found this a convenient time to put Buddy back in his hamster cage up in her room. She said she didn’t want him to catch a cold.
“How did Sookie learn so much about magical plants and potions?” Jasper asked.
“From Lea’s aunt,” I said. “Bea seems so kind, but I’m starting to think that there’s a reason I get a creepy feeling whenever I’m at Lea’s house, or when I’m around her aunt.”
“What do you mean?” asked Jasper in a way that made me wonder if he sensed something wasn’t quite right about them as well.
“The house is ugly on the outside, but nice and exotic on the inside,” I mused. “Lea’s aunt always seems so nice, and she looks so attractive on the outside … but …” I didn’t want to say she seemed ugly on the inside, so I just said, “There’s darkness there.”
“What about Lea?” Jasper said softly.
“I’m worried about her,” I confessed. “I think she’s afraid of her aunt.”
“She did seem quiet earlier.” Concern crept into Jasper’s voice. “But why would Lea’s aunt trick Sookie into turning those boys into zombies,” Jasper pondered with disgust.
“I keep thinking it’s got something to do with our Valentine’s dance.” My mind began racing. “And the dance Lucinda attended seventy years ago,” I said, pulling the crumpled newspaper out of my pocket. My eyes ran across those headlines again about a boy missing and found. That didn’t make sense, but alarm bells clanged in my head. It doesn’t add up – Lucinda doesn’t remember much, so how can she be sure her dance had really turned out okay …”
“Maybe you’re looking at this the wrong way,” said Jasper as if deep in thought.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“What if the dance was just an event and what mattered was the time of year on the – ”
“Celtic calendar,” I gasped. Of course! During certain times of the year life got more dangerous on Grim Hill. Humans are more vulnerable against fairies when the veil that separates our world and theirs becomes thinner – that’s when fairy magic can slip into our lives and cause trouble. The Celts, who lived in Europe a couple thousand years ago, didn’t have much science or technology. But what they understood perfectly were fairies – and how you had to watch out for them.
I ran upstairs and came down with a stack of books given to me by Forenza, the niece of Alice and Lucinda. I wasn’t able to return them to her as she’d fled our town after the last close encounter with fairies.
If only I could do the same right now.
Jasper and I began flipping through pages. “Look,” Jasper said pointing to a page. “February is the time of year the Celts held their festival of Imbolic.”
“We had fairy trouble during Samhain and a close call during the winter solstice,” I said worriedly, “but Lucinda said Grim Hill is locked tight now. I think she’d know.” After spending seventy years inside a Fairy hill, Lucinda was very sensitive to Grim magic.
“Imbolic doesn’t sound too dangerous.” Jasper scanned the pages as I stood over his shoulder trying to keep up. “It seems the Celts wanted to prepare for spring crops, so they built bonfires and passed through them hoping to leave ill fortune behind and bring in good luck. Then they used the ashes to sprinkle and purify the ground.” Jasper rubbed his head, which was always a sign he was deep in thought.
“The Celts were smart,” he said after a moment.
“Ashes also make good fertilizer for the soil. It would help their crops grow.”
Growing plants – nothing was growing as fast as Sookie’s stupid plants, and that’s what got us into this mess. Still, I couldn’t connect all the dots. “Does it mention fairy trouble anywhere?”
“No, not during Imbolic,” said Jasper. “Not like when there was the Celtic festival of Samhain or the winter solstice.”
There had to be a link to what was happening now and this Celtic festival, but what was it? “Sookie’s been very particular about the moon – whether it’s a storm moon or a gibbous moon,” I added. “Is there anything in these books about storm moons and Imbolic?”
Jasper flipped more pages. “Oh.”
That didn’t sound good. As I scanned, I read that the Celtic calendar was based on the moon phases. Then, a passage at the bottom of the page sent chills along my neck and back as if I was rubbing up against an iceberg.
“The storm moon is also known as the hunger moon during Imbolic,” I finally said. “Creatures who have been hibernating awaken and creep out of their lairs looking to feed.”
“You mean like bears?” Sookie had finally returned.
Jasper and I nodded, but both of us knew I didn’t mean bears. Fairies drained humans of their life force – that was like feeding …
“Sookie, do you know how to undo the charm?” I tried sounding calm. “Can you turn everyone back to normal?” Maybe we could fix this.
“Not exactly,” said Sookie. Then she brightened. “I could ask Aunt Bea.”
“No,” Jasper and I said at once.
“There’s something else I should tell you, Cat.” Sookie looked guilty. That balloon kept inflating making my stomach ache big-time.
“I sort of made new conjure bags from Mom’s blouse.” Sookie gave a little sniff. “That’s why I needed to get to school early. I … I … set up a chair and table in the schoolyard and sold my valentine charms.”
“What?” My head began to spin. “Why?”
Sookie’s eyes glistened as she looked at me. “Kind of like last summer, Cat, when you helped me set up a lemonade stand. Only this time, lots of people wanted to buy the charms.” She sniffed again. “I was selling them because I wanted a part-time job like you.”
“Lots of people? Don’t you mean kids?” I asked, but my heart pounded. I remembered the flash of red I’d seen beneath Mr. Keating’s apron, and I recalled the other adults who had been shuffling down the street.
Sookie shook her head. “Most of my friends didn’t want to buy a valentine charm,” she said with a scowl. “They don’t like romance either. But parents bought charms on their way to work, and so did a few teachers and passersby.”
Jasper turned pale. I gulped. “How many did you sell?” I asked.
“Fifteen dollars worth,” said Sookie. “At fifty cents each, that’s, um …” Even though my sister was a master magician and had a way with words, she still only knew grade three arithmetic.
“Thirty bags,” I said miserably.
“Oh, hello, Jasper,” said Mom. “So what have you three been up to?”
“Nothing,” we all said at once.
“What’s this?” Mom picked up the box I’d dumped on the porch and opened it. “Oh,” her voice sounded flat. “So that’s why you wanted a part-time job,” Mom said in a quiet way that managed to make my stomach twist even more.
“I like the outfit you’re making me,” I said quickly, “but …” There were too many things going on at the moment, and I couldn’t think of the right way to tell her about the dress. I’d blown it by not asking her about it earlier, but she didn’t lecture me. She just kept holding the box and looking at me. Somehow, that was worse.
“Mom, could we talk about this later?” I glanced at Jasper.
Mom, thinking I didn’t want to argue in front of my friend, simply said, “I guess so, Cat,” as if she didn’t care that much. Instead of being relieved, a lump formed in my chest, but I had to go.
Promising to talk to her about the dress later, I made an abrupt exit and hurried with Jasper to the Greystones. Lucinda just had to remember more about her Valentine’s dance … we
had to gather all the pieces of this puzzle and put them together fast. We pounded on the doorknocker, and for the first time when Alice opened the door, she didn’t greet us with her warm smile. In fact, she looked terrible.
“Oh, my dears,” Alice said as she wrung her hands. “I’m just on my way to the hospital. Lucinda has taken ill and she collapsed. I’m so sorry, but I have to rush away.
My poor sister.” Alice sounded miserable.
I thought about how frail Lucinda seemed the last time I saw her, and dread seeped inside me just when I thought I couldn’t feel worse. All we could do was bring Lucinda’s suitcase to the car, and stand helplessly on the curb and wave goodbye.
“Lucinda will get better,” I said in a cheery tone that I knew Jasper didn’t believe. I wasn’t sure I was even convincing myself. “In the meantime I’ll just have to get Lea alone tonight and ask her more about her aunt,” I said, although my heart filled with alarm. “And I’ll keep a very close eye on Bea.”
“I’ll hit the books and the internet,” said Jasper who’d thrown most of my books in his bag back at my house. “Be careful, Cat.”
And as if to drive that home, a blood curdling wail unfurled in the night.
CHAPTER 17 - The Mask Slips
THE KITCHEN CLOCK ticked second by second, minute by slow, agonizing minute. Nine girls on our soccer team had turned the boys into zombies thanks to my brilliant idea. And Sookie had sold thirty more love charms. We were in deep.
“You don’t seem particularly hungry,” Mom said as she glanced at my dinner; I’d barely touched my food. “I thought you liked turkey burgers.”
“About the dress …” I began, but Mom cut me off.
“Cat, it’s your money, you earned it. I just hope you get enough satisfaction from it. After all, that money could have gone a long way.” Then Mom smiled more kindly and said, “Eat your dinner, honey.”
Staring at the burger reminded me of the boys and how they now had the brain of a turkey. I tried taking a bite, but it tasted like sawdust. Sookie, on the other hand, happily chomped away.
“You better take your money and buy Mom a new blouse,” I whispered harshly. That was all I could think to say because none of this was exactly Sookie’s fault. She’d meant well, but she had to learn that her powers had consequences.
Sookie nodded weakly and put her burger down. I took another small bite and chewed as the seconds dragged out even longer. What if Lea wouldn’t tell me anything about her aunt, or what if all the boys stayed zombies forever and … and … Stop, I told myself. One step at a time.
If only each step didn’t seem to last forever.
After I dried the last plate and placed it in the cupboard, the doorbell rang. I dropped the tea towel on the floor and raced for the door. Of course, Sookie beat me to it and was already inviting Lea and her aunt inside.
Bea was wearing a stunning silk dress in the palest grey, and her long blond hair flowed over her shoulders in gleaming waves. She appeared so different from Mom who was in her faded jeans and had her hair pinned back in a tidy bun “I’ll put coffee on,” Mom said.
“For us too?” asked Lea.
“Certainly not,” Mom laughed. “But I’ll tell you what, I’ll throw a few marshmallows into your hot chocolate.”
My cheeks should have burned with embarrassment because Mom wasn’t hip and she treated us like little kids, but instead it created warmth inside me and a longing to be a little kid again. I followed her into the kitchen and blurted out, “Mom, could we move from this stupid town? Could we please go back to the city?”
“What? Don’t be silly, Cat. You know better. The rent is much cheaper here, and besides, things are going well with my night classes, and look at all your friends. Even Sookie seems to be thriving.”
Blood drained from my face. She had that right.
“Is something wrong?” Mom put her hands on my shoulders and looked at me in alarm. “You know you can tell me anything, sweetie.”
Tell my mom that an evil zombie enchantment lurked right under her nose? Tell her that her youngest child was a powerful magician that wreaked havoc by accident? That maybe the kind lady she’d invited for coffee was someone wicked? Yeah. “Nothing’s wrong,” I said. “I just miss our old life.”
Mom’s smile tightened as if it was pasted on her face, and I suspected she missed that life as well.
“But you’re right,” I said and hoped I sounded cheerier. “Things are going well.” I grabbed the milk and sugar tray and hurried to the coffee table so she wouldn’t see that my cheeks were burning now.
Before I could get Lea alone to ask about her aunt, Sookie asked, “Would everyone like to see my garden?”
“Definitely,” said Bea.
Wary of Bea’s dark influence on my sister, I followed them outside.
Sookie’s plants now looked like plant-people with their bobbing flower heads stretching their leafy arms up to the moonlight. I shuddered and looked away.
“How odd,” Mom said in an almost dreamy voice.
“This is an astonishing garden,” Bea said slowly with a smile that I could now see had a cruel hook. “You are very … talented.”
Sookie beamed, but Lea, who’d been extremely quiet since she’d arrived, gulped. Her eyes darted constantly toward her aunt.
“Why don’t you take Lea to meet Buddy,” I said to Sookie.
Sookie had already grabbed Lea’s hand and was half dragging her upstairs, so I had to rush after them – anxious to talk once we were out of Bea and Mom’s hearing range. After we stepped through the piles of clothes, shoes, and toys that cluttered Sookie’s floor, Lea fiddled with Buddy’s equally messy hamster cage.
“Lea,” I began, “remember how you told me about lavender and yarrow being good for romance? Do you know how to, well, undo love charms?”
“Why don’t you let me ask Aunt …” Sookie started to say, but I glared at her and whispered for her to hush.
Lea shot me a frightened look, but I wasn’t sure if it was because she knew we were in trouble, or if she was afraid to help us. She picked up one of Sookie’s stuffed dolls and hugged it to her chest and said, “Say a love charm was set by a storm moon, it might dissolve after the dark moon rises. Except …”
“Except what?” I didn’t like how Lea’s face twisted with dread.
Lea’s face twisted some more, and I suddenly realized it was because she was trying to tell me something, but her lips were frozen and her mouth had been locked up. As if someone had hit me in the stomach, it was all I could do not to double over. I’d seen something like that before at Halloween when Lucinda had tried to reveal how to break the link to Fairy, but fairy magic had locked her mouth tight.
“What’s wrong with Lea?” Sookie whispered urgently in my ear. She then said, “Lea, say something.”
As Lea struggled to talk, a quiet terror made me dizzy. If my hair wasn’t already streaked with green, it would be streaking grey from worry, just like Mom said was happening to her hair – but unlike Mom, I wasn’t joking.
“Cat?” Sookie said in a frightened voice.
Lea moaned in pain. Sookie cried out, “What’s happening?”
“Some kind of fairy magic,” I said to Lea and Sookie. “A magic that’s freezing your mouth shut, right Lea?”
Of course Lea couldn’t answer, but she nodded and her eyes didn’t show surprise.
Sookie studied Lea and her little face dimpled with deep thought. “Give Lea one of your possessions, Cat.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Just try it, hurry.”
I rushed into my room and grabbed a clean pair of socks Mom had bundled on my dresser. I ran back to Sookie’s room, handing them to Lea. She clutched the socks in her hand.
“I … I’m okay now. That was close. If my aunt found out I was trying to …” Lea took a deep breath. “Be careful, Cat. Be really careful.”
“Careful of what?” I asked as terror seeped into my blood.
Keep my socks? I’d grabbed the first thing I saw, but Lea had been generous with me … and I got the feeling I should pay back in kind. What did I have that was as special as the scarf she’d given me? Lea always wore green. Ah, I knew what I had to give to my friend.
I went and rifled through my closet and brought out the soccer jersey I’d worn for the Grimoire Halloween match. I’d loved that jersey with the black and green stripes, but I didn’t have much use for the shirt anymore. The match ended in disaster, and the school didn’t even exist anymore. I raced back to Sookie’s room.
“Would you like my soccer shirt instead?” I asked. “It’s the perfect color for you. With my hair this way,” I pointed to my streaks, “it seems a bit too green for me now.”
Lea’s eyes teared up and she put on my jersey. “No one has ever given me anything before,” her words burst out at last. “Oh, Cat. Please promise me no matter what, you’ll wear my scarf to the dance. Promise?”
“Sure, the scarf goes perfectly with my new dress.” What was Lea trying to tell me? She knew I wanted to wear the scarf with my dress anyway.
“No matter what.” Lea shook her head. “Don’t forget.”
“I promise,” I said. Then she pulled her fancy cashmere sweater over the jersey and fled the room.
What just happened? I wandered down the stairs as Lea rushed out the door. Mom and Bea had finished their coffee and Bea said, “Well, I guess that’s my signal to go home.”
I stood with Sookie on the porch as Bea and Lea walked down our front path. When they crossed under a street light, the yellow fluorescent glare turned Bea’s face first into a young girl’s face that was strangely familiar, and then in a flash it morphed into a Halloween mask of scars and wrinkles. I gasped, but the image only lasted a second.
Grim Hill: The Forgotten Secret (Grim Hill Series) Page 10