“Except the hex, which he didn’t see.”
It was possible my picking up the hex was what had re-triggered his suspicious attitude, whether he saw it or not. When this was all over and Carole was back in town, I was going to sit down with her for several extended sessions on types of magic I’d ignored a decade ago. Who knew? Ignorance wasn’t bliss. Especially with your friend’s life on the line.
“All right. I’ll see you soon. Call if you get delayed.”
Fortunately, Boston traffic cooperated — the end-of-the-weekend traffic jam that I’d seen as I headed out had mostly cleared up now, leaving only the usual heavy traffic — and I got to Beth’s apartment, grabbed an emerald green silk cowl that she’d worn almost daily this spring, and headed out again without even getting a ticket for parking in the yellow zone.
That was when my luck stopped. Mass Ave was backed up crossing the Charles, but I made it across without getting too impatient, even though the Check Engine light and the temperature gauge had me really worried. I was going to need to take the car to a shop after this, and Benjamin was never going to trust me with it again if the engine seized. I glared at the paper with the hex on it, sure the car’s misbehavior was Clay’s fault, even if I didn’t know what the hex did. Even if I hadn’t known he was a witch.
When I was halfway to Maggie’s house, the phone rang. My eyes darted over in surprise — Matt wondering how much longer I would be? Maggie calling to caution me again? Mom wanting to talk about what had happened in my old room? But no, it was Carole.
“Answer call.”
“Pepper, you’re a hard woman to get hold of.”
“Did I not text you my new cell number today? Sorry, it’s been a rather full day.”
“I imagine. Why is Maggie asking me about precautions for viewing hexes? Especially when she starts to mention your name and then changes her mind?”
“Because you’re the expert on Sight?” I tried for brightness and failed.
She didn’t bother responding, not even so much as clearing her throat.
I sighed and gave in. “Beth’s been kidnapped, there was a hex in the room that she was staying in this weekend, and Maggie wants to see it. Oh, and Dorothy and some of the others are going to help me do a location spell so I can find Beth before she gets turned into a ghost, too.”
“And it didn’t occur to you to let me know any of this was going on sooner?”
“It’s been a hectic couple of hours.”
“Be careful. And make sure Maggie is, too. I don’t want to lose either of you.”
It seemed a little late for the warning. The past week had consisted fairly regularly of throwing caution to the winds and charging in to do what needed to be done. “I’ll remember.”
“Make sure you do. When you’re open to the Sight, you’re open to other magics even more. It lets you see the boundaries between the worlds where the patrons are and we are. By giving you that tea, I’ve left you vulnerable.”
“I asked. And I wouldn’t have made it this far without that help. I’ll take my chances.”
“No. Be careful.”
Chapter 33
Carlos let me in when I got to Maggie’s. “You took longer than we expected.”
“I wasn’t sure I was going to make it at all.” I nodded to the car, smoking at the curb. “Engine trouble.”
He looked over my shoulder. “You’re going to need a tow truck to get that moving again. Although the city might tow it for you if you leave it there. You going to want a lift?”
“Depends on what we find out, doesn’t it? If it’s near enough, I can always catch the T. It runs until almost one.”
“Let me know.”
“Thanks. I appreciate it.”
I stepped past him into the house, bumping against the chairs in the narrow space. A cold spot grew on my hip where the paper rested in my pocket. Cold and slimy and ready to swallow me whole, although I might have exaggerated. It didn’t like Maggie’s home, though, and I was mindful of Carole’s warning. I’d switched from “How bad could it be?” to “How bad is it going to be?”
Carlos frowned, looking me over, and I wondered whether he was sensitive to the patron’s touch in the hex, since he’d been possessed by the ghost. He didn’t say anything, though, and I went past the closet and the spiral staircase tucked in next to it and into the kitchen to find Maggie.
“There you are! I’m finding it positively annoying not to know when you’re going to show up.”
“If the car had died sooner, I might not have.” I forced a smile to show that I was kidding, then asked, “What can I do to help? Or has everyone else just been waiting impatiently for me to arrive?”
“You need to ask?”
Her words were overrun by Dorothy’s more strident tones coming from the door on the far side of the kitchen. “Did you expect us to wait all night for you? Some of us have lives, you know.”
“And some of us are trying to save lives,” I said tartly. Yes, I needed her help, but Dorothy rubbed me the wrong way every time we met. Maybe because I was afraid of turning into her. That wasn’t going to happen tonight, however, and I bowed my head in apology. “I’m sorry. I’m worried about Beth. They left the bed and breakfast yesterday morning. Who knows what’s happened already?”
Olive branch extended.
“It has occurred to you that you might already be too late?”
Olive branch thrown to the ground, stomped on, and spat at.
Maggie intervened before I could say anything intemperate. “I made some tea to clear our minds before we start. Don’t want hostile intent messing up the spell, after all.” She motioned to the tray sitting on the counter behind her. “Dorothy, could you please carry this into the dining room, since you’re standing there? Carlos, if you could tell Lashonda, please? And Pepper, I need to have a word with you about Aunt Carole.”
Had Carole called her too? No, Carole had told me that Maggie called her. Confused, I followed Maggie out to her front room. We stood next to the usual tea table, and she tapped the carving. My ears popped, and I looked at her for an explanation.
“Privacy ward. Don’t use it much, but as I’ve said, witches can be interfering busybodies.” She held her hand out. “The hex?”
I was oddly reluctant to pull it out, given how much I’d already handled the paper, but my hip felt even clammier, like it was sitting in ice-cold water and in danger of hypothermia. Better to take it out of my pocket than keep that up. I extended it to Maggie.
Her eyes flashed over it as she took it, and then she promptly dashed it onto the table. “You’re right. Obviously a hex, and not one I want to spend a lot of time with. I’m worried that we have a witch that strong in Boston and we didn’t know.” Her eyes met mine seriously. “I can see why the others assumed it was you. You’re the only one they know who has that sort of potential.”
“Not even Carole?” I scoffed, but Maggie shook her head. I opened my mouth, but I wasn’t sure what I was going to say. I knew that I could become powerful, but I didn’t want to. The witches wouldn’t believe that, though. Dorothy wouldn’t believe that. And the most powerful? That was an unsettling thought.
She didn’t answer, just traced her finger around the World Snake circling the table. I saw a brief flash of light, and then the nagging feeling of cold anger vanished.
“I enclosed it in a ward,” she said, rather unnecessarily, but I wouldn’t begrudge her teaching habits. “If you deal with the witch properly, I shouldn’t even have to research how to get rid of it later because it will have no more power.”
Neither of us commented on what it would mean if I didn’t deal with the witch properly. I had been Clay’s target all along, although I didn’t know why. I expected him to try to kill me tonight.
“All right, let’s go find out where Beth is.”
The house, being narrow, was laid out in a straight line — front room, kitchen, dining room, then sunroom. I didn’t need to be told the spell w
ould be done in the sunroom — Maggie was a traditionalist and did all of her magic as close to outdoors as possible.
We paused in the dining room to drink the tea that she had prepared. The others already had their cups in hand, and Dorothy handed each of us a cup as we came in. The jasmine was easy to pick out, as well as the touch of valerian — I’d certainly been drinking enough tea with both recently, but there was also a touch of sage, and something darker I didn’t recognize, loamy and woody, like chicory, but not quite that.
I raised my eyebrows at Maggie, and she said, “Old family recipe.”
So it was based on the same one that Carole had given me. I’d have to ask her later about the addition and its purpose. So very much I had to learn!
“Everyone should leave their phones and such here,” Dorothy announced before leading the way. “We don’t want any interruptions.”
Amusingly, Carlos grumbled more about leaving his devices (yes, plural) behind than I did, but we all piled our things obediently on the table.
Maggie’s sunroom had been cleared of furniture and its usual throw rugs, and the seven-pointed star etched into the flooring had been exposed. She appeared to have taken my suggestion about the cats literally, as Bast and Sekhmet napped at neighboring points of the star. Candles ringed the glass walls of the room, giving light that was necessary with the waning moon.
Dorothy directed everyone to different points of the star. She frowned at the cats, glanced at Maggie, and discarded any notion she had of asking them to move. Once everyone was in place, she said, “Put Beth’s item in the center.” As an afterthought, she said, “Please.”
I stepped forward to do so, and Dorothy raised her hands. Magic snapped around me. No doubt, if I tried to leave the center the star, I would be hurt in some gruesome fashion.
“What are you doing?” Maggie, voice cold and clipped.
“What you should have done years ago.” Dorothy, even colder. “She is a danger to us all.”
“She’s not the one behind this,” Lashonda protested. “She helped Carlos.”
“Carlos wouldn’t have needed her help if she hadn’t been here to begin with. She brought this on us. If she’s gone, the threat vanishes with her.”
I couldn’t help myself. I laughed.
“You think this is funny?” She bit out.
“There’s a witch out there who hates me enough to tear the entire emotional foundation of Boston apart, and you think this person is sane enough to stop just because I’m not around? Someone else will offend him — or her—” I caught my slip, but so did Maggie. Her sharp glance told me we would be having a talk when this was all over. Assuming it ended well, which I wasn’t quite ready to grant yet. “—and more destruction will begin. Who are you going to persecute then? Who’s the next victim of your own little witch hunt?”
“How dare you?” She drew herself up, and I was conscious again that she might seem to be a little old lady, but she was solid as iron. If her magic couldn’t take me out, she’d probably tie me up like a pretzel. “How dare you, of all people, accuse me of starting a witch hunt?”
“Um, because I’m a witch, and you hunted me?”
“Trapped you, you mean.”
“Right. Like a trap-door spider.”
I was baiting her deliberately, and by the looks on the others’ faces, they all knew it. They also had trouble believing it. Was I crazy? Dorothy wanted to kill me already.
That was the point, of course. I literally had nothing to lose. I was trapped, unable to go anywhere without inflicting who-knew-what kind of damage on myself, and somewhere, Clay was out there, ready to kill Beth. I had to get Dorothy to make a mistake.
But I’d pushed it too far.
“You think I’ve never seen any movies? You taunt me until I come after you in rage, breaking my own spell, and then you defeat me? It’s not going to happen, Pepper, and you know why? Because I’m not the villain.”
She hummed, low and guttural in her throat, and I felt more bindings wrap around me, fixing me even tighter to the center of the star. If I squinted, I could even see fine barbed wire chains winding in a rubber-band ball pattern. Dorothy planned to kill me, using the others as power sources to be able to do it.
I tried to draw on my own magic, to put up a shield, but it was weaker than it had been. I thought of the tea and its off flavor — not Maggie’s addition, but Dorothy’s, to make me more susceptible to her power. No wonder she’d insisted on no cellphones. She probably figured I could use it to hex her, and she was right.
The barbs started to cut into my skin, and I flinched.
Why hadn’t my little green sparkly friend warned me about the tea? But no, whatever it was, it led me to things, not away from them. And I hadn’t seen it since I’d arrived. Maybe it couldn’t cross Maggie’s ward. Maybe it was hiding from the other witches. It didn’t matter. Thinking about it right now was a distraction I couldn’t afford.
The one thing about distractions is they keep you from thinking about pain. Focus on the moment, and you notice the pain again, the barbs hooking and pulling, drawing blood that beaded on my skin, too fine to fall as droplets and stain Beth’s cowl. So far. I whimpered.
That’s when the others figured out that they couldn’t move either. Dorothy wasn’t about to let anyone interfere with her plan. This would be a great time for the cavalry to come charging to the rescue. Unfortunately, I hadn’t seen the Lung dragon earlier, and I had no idea how to get in touch with Haris except passing along a message as I had before. No one was coming to save me.
I had to save myself, and I had no magic.
Except — the troll had told me I was magic, hadn’t he? So as long as I was alive, I had something to draw on. No, that wasn’t true. I had been completely wiped out after dealing with the first ghost on my own, and even the second with Haris’s help. I might be magic, but I was human, too, and I could fail.
And I could want revenge.
Second nature to me, really, something I had trained myself out of doing willy-nilly, but if ever there was someone who deserved the world to say “What goes around, comes around,” it was Dorothy. All I had to do was gather enough magic to feed it back to her.
No magic? No, I had a flicker, the tiniest of sparks. I wasn’t as empty as I had been, but this was going to have to be a work of finesse, not brute strength. Time for youth and skill to win out, after all.
I let my eyelids drift downward, peering through my lashes. Let the others think it was in response to the pain, but it was to help me see the magic, to see what weak spots Dorothy might have left. When it hit me, it was obvious — she’d woven the spell for four participants, but the room’s geometry called for seven. The circuitry was off-balance, and I could work with that. Especially since she’d already had to refactor for the presence of the cats.
Dropping to floor level, as though overcome, I put out one hand toward Bast. “Psst, psst, psst.”
Bast opened sleepy eyes to peer at me, then closed them halfway in a feline smile.
“Here, Bast.”
“She can’t!” Dorothy almost sang her triumph. She was wrong.
Bast stood up and slowly stretched, first her front legs, then her hind legs, then took three delicate steps toward me before pausing to consider me again. It was enough.
I grasped part of the barbed magic with my hand and cracked it like an electrified whip through the broken seal, tagging Dorothy with her own magic. It wasn’t my usual technowitchery, but I was getting pretty used to improvisation by now.
The air shrieked with feedback, just like any good amplifier should do. Wind whipped through, making the candle flames jump, and the spell died. Dorothy lay on her point of the star, a small bloody spot on her forehead but otherwise untouched.
“Is she—?” Lashonda started.
I shook my head, but Maggie was already kneeling next to the older witch. “Just unconscious.” She looked over at where I still knelt on the floor. “I didn’t know she was g
oing to do this.”
“I know.” I took a deep breath. “Can I have another cup or three of that tea — undoctored, this time? And then I’m going to head over to Clay’s place. Since the locator spell isn’t going to happen, I’m just going to have to go with the next logical place.”
“You think logic has anything to do with this?” Carlos asked.
“No, but I have to go somewhere. I’m not letting him turn my best friend into one of those ghosts.”
“Right.” He nodded. “That offer of a lift is still open, if you don’t want to deal with the T.” He rubbed his head. “But can I get some Tylenol instead of the tea? That stuff leaves a mean headache.”
Chapter 34
It took me a bit of coaxing to get Clay’s home address out of the Internet. He had very assiduously opted out of most publicly available search engines. Certainly all the ones I came across. On the other hand, I knew the college had his information because he’d gotten the mailings for the reunion.
No, of course I didn’t hack into the college servers. Not precisely. I texted Carole and asked her to look up the information and get it back to me. I also told her that Maggie hadn’t looked directly at the hex and had hidden it behind a ward as quickly as she could.
She wanted to know more — why I needed Clay’s address, what had happened to the spell, what everyone else was going to be doing while I went gallivanting around town.
“Clay’s the witch — Dorothy tried to kill me — everyone else is going to sleep off Dorothy’s tea, I think.”
I decided that might be too terse, so I sent one more line. “Call Maggie in half an hour. She can explain everything.”
I wasn’t far off with the “sleeping it off” comment, either. When Carlos pulled his motorcycle up to the curb in front of Clay’s house, he said, “If you don’t need me to stick around, I’m going to head home. This headache isn’t going away.”
My own head hurt almost as much as it had on Thursday, so I understood what he meant. “Thanks for the lift. Go get some sleep.”
Ghost Garages_A Boston Technowitch Novel Page 23