Then with our feet, we kicked up the hot ashes from the bonfire and spread them on top of the ground to seal the hole and purify it against any fairy magic if the banshee tried to escape back to our world.
When we returned to the car, Sookie jumped out and ran to me crying. “Cat, I waited so long, I was so worried; but when Alice saw the smoke we knew no fairy would build a fire and that you were okay.” Then Sookie gave Jasper a huge hug. Jasper might not appreciate it, but Sookie adored him. Still, he flashed a weak smile as he climbed into Alice’s Austin Mini. As we drove back to the school, my sister asked, “Is Lea all right?”
I nodded as I noticed she never asked about Bea. I thought Sookie sensed through her weird connection to Fairy that Bea was gone for good.
At the school, the dancers were getting up off the floor, and the musicians stood on the stage looking dazed. Alice left, anxious to check back with Lucinda, but she suggested we try and make things seem as normal as possible.
“You might want to put on your jacket, dear,” said Alice before she made her way back to the car.
Why? I had been freezing before, but we were now back inside where it was positively steamy from all the dancing that had gone on earlier. We climbed up on the stage, and Jasper asked one guitarist to switch to a slow waltz. Finally, there was some use for those stupid dance lessons.
“Last dance of the evening,” Jasper announced into the microphone.
“I don’t care; I want to sit down,” complained Amarjeet. “I feel like my feet are going to fall off.” She and Rabinder stumbled toward the refreshment table and began downing soda.
Before the song finished, all the partners broke up, looking puzzled as to why they were with that person, let alone at a dance.
Ms. Dreeble noticed her pajama legs had slid down below her dress. With a small yelp, she ran into the girls’ changing room.
Skeeter stood over his broken drum saying, “Really, Clive, I didn’t step on it.” When Skeeter spotted Sookie, he jumped off the stage and they ran and grabbed iced Valentine’s cookies from a platter.
“You are a disgusting mess. Seriously.” Clive grimaced.
It took me a minute to realize Clive was talking to me, and that it was as if I’d purposely annoyed him by not looking good. What was wrong with the way I … But then other kids started calling out.
“What happened to you?” squeaked Mia.
“Are you okay? Did a car run over you or something?” asked Mitch.
“Looks like she rolled in compost,” observed Zach.
I looked down and checked my nails. They were filthy – come to think of it, so were my hands. The pink scarf was smudged in muddy fingerprints. Then I noticed that one spaghetti strap had broken from my party dress, the tulip skirt hung in tatters, the bodice was caked with dirt and sweat, and my entire outfit had turned from hot pink to ash grey. The dress looked worse than the rags Mom kept in her dustbin. All that money … all that work … what a waste!
Meanwhile my two friends who had been so worried about their outfits looked great. Amarjeet had worn a red silk sari, and Mia had jazzed up a plainer dress with cool gloves, a belt, and gold chains.
When I ran my hand over my hair, all I could feel was the crunch of dried leaves.
“Don’t worry, Cat. It’s just that you’re the ugliest anyone ever saw you,” Skeeter said with blunt honesty.
Everyone fell silent and stared at me.
A leaf fluttered out of my hair and onto my dress. I flicked it off and stomped on it, crushing it with my foot. “Do I look like I care?”
And I didn’t care – not one bit. Because something inside me had changed and I realized things would never be the same.
CHAPTER 24 - A Grim Determination
MAGIC SLIPS INSIDE you when you’re vulnerable and attacks your weakest spot. At least that’s what I figured. Whenever I had a heart’s desire to go to a nicer school, win a soccer match, or even to try to recapture the life I’d left behind in my old town, I let my guard down and disaster struck.
Not anymore.
It was as if a switch had clicked inside me and I was heading down a different path. Like on the soccer field, if I’d found out I’d never get the glory position of forward or goalie, then I’d have to play defense. From now on I was playing defense in this town.
It’s not that I didn’t care about the life I missed anymore, it was just that I figured out what was most important to me now.
Wicked fairies were not only locked up inside our fairy hill, it seemed magical creatures were drawn to it. At any time something bad could come our way. My family and friends needed someone to stand between them and the evil that roamed in our area.
That would be me.
Mostly nothing or no one else changed though. The day after we defeated the banshee, Sookie stomped her foot impatiently as she complained, “Cat, we’ll be late, and Lucinda said she’d help me with my plants.”
We met up with Jasper and headed for the Greystones’. Lucinda was waiting for us on her porch. She rocked in a chair, wrapped in a heavy blue quilt to protect her from the chill of a sunny February day. Even though she was getting better, I couldn’t help but notice how her skin seemed paper thin as if she herself was slipping away. Worry gnawed me, but as we climbed the steps, she broke out in a smile and her eyes sparkled.
“I was out in my garden today,” she said softly, “and I could feel Gordie’s presence, sweet as a summer breeze blowing in from the west. I could hear the faintest whispers as if he’d come to say goodbye, and that he’d forgiven me.”
“Like a ghost?” Sookie’s eyes brimmed with curiosity. “A real ghost?”
Despite our latest disaster, my sister was still far too interested in the supernatural.
“Sookie, come show me your plant-growing skills.” Slowly Lucinda got up from her rocking chair, took my sister’s hand, and they headed for the back garden. Sookie puffed out her chest as she strutted past me.
Alice beckoned Jasper and me inside where we sat down on the red velvet sofa in her parlor, and I told her about my theory of magic and how it could trick a person and wreck their judgment.
“Magic traps me when I’m selfish,” I finished and hung my head, ashamed at how I’d turned people in the town into zombies. “Look what we went through – all so I could have fun at a dance and keep the peace between my new friends and old friends. I keep thinking how if Bea had won, what would have happened,” I confessed.
“Cat’s onto something,” said Jasper. “I felt lonely and rejected and didn’t care what happened around me. People could have been doomed, and I was busy writing love poems.” He shook his head and I understood how awful that made him feel.
“I think you both are forgetting an important point,” said Lucinda as she came through the kitchen. “You two have grave responsibilities, but …”
“You are all only children,” said Alice. “You’re being forced to grow up fast and take on impossible tasks.”
“Of course, you want to enjoy yourself and try to escape from the terrible burden of knowing what goes on inside Grim Hill,” Lucinda told me, and then she turned to Jasper. “And you would like your affections returned.”
“But we live in a magical place,” warned Alice. “You can’t forget that, but you also can’t forget you are not adults. It’s easy to get confused about what you want and what you must do. And because your sister is the youngest, she is the most vulnerable of all.”
I gulped. “How does magic attack her?”
Alice’s face brimmed with concern and she fiddled with a lace doily on her old-fashioned coffee table. “Magic doesn’t attack Sookie. She’s become a magical creature herself.”
That was my worst fear. I grabbed a satin cushion and hugged it to my chest.
“But Sookie is good,” Lucinda quickly reassured me. “That’s why we have to guard her – because the powers of wicked creatures can work their way into Sookie still.”
“How?” Jasper asked.
“Just as magic influences your desires, it works its way through Sookie’s innocence,” Alice said. “Sookie has no idea what a powerful magician she’s become. It remains a game for her – a treacherous game.”
“And you both can only do your best,” Lucinda said, weariness creeping into her voice. She gazed at me, her grey eyes clear and grave.
“Remember, your feathers will always keep you from forgetting what happened here – unlike everyone else in this town.”
We pulled our feathers from our belts, but I couldn’t help wondering if they were much good to us anymore. They didn’t stop Jasper from going after his heart’s desire, or stop Sookie from practicing her magic at anyone’s peril, and as for me … well, I suspected something slightly different was going on with me.
Catching me drifting, Lucinda said more forcefully, “You don’t have the luxury of forgotten secrets, so while you cannot afford to feel regretful or ashamed of your mistakes, you must keep the feathers to remember all the same.”
Jasper and I promised Lucinda as Sookie came into the parlor and demanded Lucinda return to the garden with her. I quickly scolded my sister. “Sookie, leave your boots at the door.”
“Stop bossing,” Sookie folded her arms in defiance, but she stared at her muddy boots and her face turned red.
“Not to worry,” said Alice. “I need to sweep up anyhow.”
Neither of the Greystones seemed to mind she’d tracked dirt across their polished wood floor and onto their Oriental rug. But I minded that when they turned away, Sookie stuck her tongue out at me.
“We will help you for as long as we can,” said Lucinda.
As I wondered what Lucinda had meant by that, I saw that she had to sit down in the chair and catch her breath.
*
Monday rolled around and on the way to school I wondered how my friends would greet me. But of course, no one seemed to remember much about the dance. Fortunately, fairy trances end up seeming like hazy dreams. The zombie incident was forgotten; but as if a shadow still hung in the air, I can’t say there was a lot of chatter at our lockers in the morning. That is, until we saw a sign pasted on the gymnasium door: dance classes were over and soccer practice would begin again tomorrow after school.
Hope surged through me. Trading in my dance shoes for soccer cleats sounded great. “I can’t wait to get back in the game.”
“You can say that again,” said Mia.
“And I want to clean the field with the guys,” challenged Amarjeet.
“Oh yeah – as if,” said Clive.
“Remember, we’re supposed to pull together as a team, or who knows what else they’ll have in store for us,” I reminded them. The bell rang and I took off in a run along the dingy hallway.
“Cat, do you have your biology research paper?” Ms. Dreeble was back to wearing her hair in a ponytail, but she still wore her cool new glasses.
Oh no, not again. Finishing my report had vanished from my mind after battling and defeating banshees and saving people from a terrible fate. I hadn’t thought of the report once during the weekend.
“Um, the research was taking a little longer than I …”
“I’m sorry, but you have used up all your excuses.” Ms. Dreeble took out her mark book, and I didn’t even want to think about what she was scribbling on the page. I figured it was only a matter of time before I was grounded – right after report cards to be exact. I sighed.
But I wanted to tell Ms. Dreeble how I understood “parasitic” and “symbiotic” perfectly now. That Bea had a parasitic relationship with humans and had wanted to drain them of their life so she could thrive. And that Lea and I truly did have a symbiotic relationship – how we’d helped each other and both of us had benefited. Except Ms. Dreeble wouldn’t understand …
Mia leaned over and whispered in my ear, “That’s just not fair. How can you get a bad mark when it wasn’t even an actual assignment? No one else had to hand in a report.”
The fact that my friend cared helped – a lot – even though once more, as things got back to normal, I seemed to always end up one more step behind.
Or did I?
When I walked home that day and passed the decrepit house where Lea and her aunt had lived, I realized something very important. I had sensed wickedness about that place right from the start – even when neither Jasper nor Sookie had felt a thing. I hadn’t needed my feather to show me dark magic was at work. I’d felt that darkness on my skin, in the way chills prickled up and down my spine, and how my hair stood on end and tingled as if catching an electrical charge. What’s more, I could even smell the pungent scent of dark magic in the air.
My own power was growing, but it wasn’t magical like Sookie’s powers. My power was more like a magic detector – a sort of fairy GPS.
Right this minute when I inhaled the chill air of the wind, I knew we were safe and we would be for a long while.
I wrapped my pink scarf one more time around my neck.
It was the cold that was making me shiver, right?
Linda DeMeulemeester has worked in the fields of literacy and education for many years as a teacher and program adviser. She credits her grandmother, a natural storyteller who was born over a hundred years ago, for her love of mystery and suspense. Linda is a graduate of the Clarion West Workshop for writers of science fiction and fantasy, and her short stories have been published in several magazines. The Secret of Grim Hill was her first novel. Fans can connect with Linda at www.grimhill.com.
Discover the entire award-winning
“Grim Hill” Series
The Secret of Grim Hill
978-1-897073-53-7
Discover the entire award-winning
“Grim Hill” Series
Grim Hill, Book 1
The Secret of Grim Hill
978-0-09920923-0-6
Uncover the secret that started it all! This suspenseful tale pits Cat Peters and her friends against diabolical fairies and their powerful spells in a Halloween sho
Grim Hill, Book 2
The Secret Deepens
978-0-9920923-1-3
Sookie’s dabbling in magic unleashes a brutal winter and a strange sickness, and forces Cat to return to the last place she wants to go – Grim Hill!
Grim Hill, Book 4
The Family Secret
978-0-9920923-3-7
When Cat and her friends take part in a student exchange to Sweden, Cat uncovers an old family secret about fairy fighters and an ancient battle with Scandinavian fairy folk.
Grim Hill, Book 5
Forest of Secrets
978-0-9920923-4-4
In the most chilling “Grim Hill” book yet, Cat and her friends are in terrible danger. Sookie may be able to use her magic to save them, but is it worth the risk to bargain with the beings in Fairy?
Coming Soon, Grim Hill Book 6
Carnival of Secrets
978-0-9920923-5-1
Cat has lost the things she holds dear. A sinister carnival holds her town in a thrall, and her sister has gone over to dark magic. Cat will do whatever it takes to set things right even, if that means setting out on the most dangerous adventure of all.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
reviews
Title
Rights
Dedication
CHAPTER 1 - A Wistful Wish
CHAPTER 2 - What an Easterly Wind Blows In …
CHAPTER 3 - A Dark Deal
CHAPTER 4 - A Diabolical Match
CHAPTER 5 - Shadows from the Past
CHAPTER 6 - A Garden of Secrets
CHAPTER 7 - A Mysterious Discovery
CHAPTER 8 - Lost Love
CHAPTER 9 - Love’s Dangerous Charm
CHAPTER 10 - Digging up Trouble
CHAPTER 11 - A Deadly Mix
CHAPTER 12 - A Storm Brews
CHAPTER 13 - Spells by Moonlight
CHAPTER 14 - A Dark Obsession
CHAPTER
15 - A Grim Parade
CHAPTER 16 - A Terrible Twist
CHAPTER 17 - The Mask Slips
CHAPTER 18 - A Dark Hunger Awakens …
CHAPTER 19 - A Dark Visit
CHAPTER 20 - Inside the Secret Garden
CHAPTER 21 - The Heart’s Deadly Beat
CHAPTER 22 - Dance of the Dead
CHAPTER 23 - A Deadly Sweetheart
CHAPTER 24 - A Grim Determination
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Discover the entire Award Winning Series
Grim Hill: The Forgotten Secret (Grim Hill Series) Page 14