A Hold on Me

by Pat Esden

  The Professor groaned. “No—yes.”

  I rushed out of the stacks just in time to see the Professor bolt for the door, hunched over, holding his middle like his guts were about to burst. “Must have been breakfast. Oh, my. I have to go. Oh, my.” He vanished into the hallway.

  Snickering, Selena shut the door. “Have to go is a good word for it. Go and go for the rest of the day will be more like it.”

  I couldn’t believe my ears. “You gave the Professor the runs? I thought you liked him?”

  Selena shrugged. “He’s easy on the eyes. But we’ve got things to do. Friends forever, right?”

  “I don’t know what to say.” I shook my head in amazement. “It is so wrong, but so perfect.”

  Zachary flopped down into the leather couch. “It’s awesome, that’s what it is.”

  “I’ll go along with that.” Chase’s voice rose a little. “Unfortunately, I’m not finding anything new here.”

  Selena walked over to the desk and peered at the book. “You’re researching?”

  Chase glared at her. “I am capable of more than babysitting you.”

  “I didn’t mean you’re stupid. I just—I never took you for a library geek.” Selena smiled. “Hey, and thanks, I didn’t realize you never told them about the beach parties.”

  I cleared my throat. Chase was willing to help, and so was Selena. It was time for someone to speak up and make this officially a team effort. “I don’t know about you guys, but I’m sick of being kept in the dark and lied to by Grandfather, Kate, and everybody else. We deserve the truth, all of us. And we are more than capable of helping.” I looked at each of them in turn. “I assume you all feel the same?”

  They all nodded.

  Zachary pulled up his baggy T-shirt, revealing a Chase-like knife holstered on his belt. “Ready for anything,” he said.

  “Okay, then, how about for our first assignment we lock all the doors and windows?” I said.

  Chase shook his head. “I wouldn’t do that. It’s too obvious. Leave them the way they are. Trust me. I’ll know if we’re not alone.”

  At the party, Chase had heard the cops coming before anyone else. He’d figured out I was in the sheep shed without turning around. Like his stealth mode, his time as a slave and Death Warrior training had probably left him super aware of his surroundings or something. “Fair enough,” I said.

  After that, I took a few minutes to tell Zachary and Selena all I knew about Dad’s possession and my mother’s kidnapping, and about the sea glass and the cat’s ashes. “Grandfather’s supposedly researching ways to help Dad. But I don’t think we have that much time. The genie inside him is getting impatient—and bolder. Above everything else, we have to make sure the genie doesn’t figure out we’re onto him.”

  Chase confessed to Selena and Zachary that he’d also been kidnapped by Malphic and enslaved for years, and how he’d escaped.

  “Way cool,” Zachary said.

  Selena listened intently and gasped at the right moments like she hadn’t known anything. Once he’d finished, she tapped her lip in thought. “If it’s not Malphic inside Annie’s father, then who is it?”

  “Malphic has a son, Culus,” Chase said. “Most genies aren’t powerful enough to possess a person, but he is. I’m sure he’d do it too. In fact, there probably isn’t anything Culus hasn’t or wouldn’t try—as long as it brought him pleasure.” He looked at me. “He also hates your mother because she has influence over his father. If Culus returned home, bragging about how he’d outwitted the Freemont family and stolen from them, he’d gain respect in the eyes of a lot of genies—and upset your mother at the same time.”

  “So Culus’s motive is political?” I asked, unsure I’d followed Chase’s logic.

  “Partly. I’m also certain it’s him for more obvious reasons. Culus likes gold jewelry, wears a ton of it the way your dad was doing earlier. Plus, he has a fetish for ripping open sheep and eating their hearts raw.”

  I grimaced. “That’s really creepy and gross. But it fits.”

  Chase nodded. “If your father didn’t find what Culus wanted in the mausoleum, it would be like him to take out his anger on Kate’s sheep. Using your father’s body to do it would have been an added bonus to him.”

  Zachary pulled his knife from its holster. “If I saw a genie doing that, I’d—”

  “You would do nothing,” Selena said sharply.

  “From what I’ve read, knifing won’t do much good.” I paused for a second, gathering my nerve. Hopefully, my Internet research wouldn’t make me sound like a total sucker. “Is it true that you can kill a genie with a fruit pit?” I asked Chase.

  Selena covered a snicker with her hand. “Sorry, couldn’t help it.”

  “It can work,” Chase said, dead serious. “But it’s a nearly impossible throw, and the genie has to be in its solid form, not shadow or smoke. Actually, Zachary’s right. Stabbing won’t kill them, but it’ll slow them down.” He glanced at me. “A flashlight beam can hold off a weak one, for a while. But the best solution is to trap them or force them into something.”

  “And salt,” Selena added. “There’s not a single supernatural being that isn’t repelled by salt.” She turned to me. “That’s why Moonhill was built here. But you knew that, right?”

  “Uh—no. I mean, I knew about the mines. But I never stopped to think the family wanted the salt for any reason other than making money.”

  “Well, they did,” she said. “And the underground tunnels and caves that were left behind are pretty amazing too.”

  I ran my fingers through my hair, thinking. Culus didn’t just need Dad for his knowledge about Moonhill and to unlock doors. He also needed Dad’s body to protect him from the salt.

  Looking back down, Chase flipped to the book’s next page and huffed.

  I walked over and studied the book. A woodcut of a dragon spreading his wings covered both pages. “What are you looking for?”

  Chase flipped back to the previous page. “I read this section a while ago. I remembered there were only two pages about genies. But I was hoping I’d missed something.” Hesitating, he rubbed his brand.

  “What is it?” I asked.

  His voice softened. “If the host willingly allowed the possession, Annie, there’s only one way to make the genie leave. The host’s death.”

  My heart leapt into my throat and I grabbed the back of his chair to steady myself. “There has to be another way.”

  “I’m sorry,” Chase said. “As long as your father allowed the possession, I don’t think anything else will work.”

  I stared at the book, strange letters blurring as tears stung my eyes. Death? No. I couldn’t believe that. “Why would Dad allow such a thing? He couldn’t have.”

  Selena got up and came over. The warmth of her arm surrounded me as she pulled me close. “We’ll figure something out.”

  “Yeah,” Zachary said. “One time, I saw this television show where they killed someone to get the demon out of him, and then they tried to bring him back to life.”

  “Oh my God!” I shrieked. “That’s what Grandfather must be researching, I’m sure of it. They’re going to kill my dad. What if they screw up? What if they can’t revive him? Dad has a weak heart!”

  “The guy in the movie died,” Zachary said, his voice quivering.

  Selena swatted the back of his head. “Shut up, Zach.”

  She led me to the couch and cleared away the pillows for me to sit. Trembling, I sank down into it. I wanted to run and find Dad, warn him. But telling him wouldn’t free him. It would only put the entire family in danger.

  “Don’t listen to Zachary,” Selena said, sitting down next to me. “He doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”

  I rocked forward and buried my face in my hands. “There has to be another way. They can’t kill him.”

  Zachary crouched in front of me. “I’m sorry,” he said, then he lowered his voice. “I bet you could trick the genie into co
ming out.”

  I sat up and blinked at him. “You’re absolutely right,” I said, stunned by how much sense his idea made. Why hadn’t I thought of that?

  “That may sound good, Annie,” Chase said. “But if the trick fails, you’ll end up with a pissed-off genie. Remember what Culus did to the sheep?”

  I gritted my teeth in defiance, my body tingling with renewed energy. What did that matter as long as I could free Dad?

  Selena got up and began to pace the room. “If Culus likes human girls as much as his father does, I could try to lure him out.”

  “No.” The last thing we needed was Selena ending up kidnapped like my mother.

  She shrugged. “You have a better idea?”

  I stared past her to the stacks upon stacks of books. “Grandfather and the rest of them think Culus is here to rescue the imprisoned genies. But when Chase and I were on the beach with Dad, he wanted to hear about something called the Lamp of Methuselah. I made up a story, and when I told him the lamp was hidden in the mausoleum, he stormed off. I think he’s after the lamp, not the genies. That’s why you were looking for Methuselah as well, right, Chase?”

  “Yeah,” Chase said. “Not all genies like each other. There are different kinds and clans. They feud all the time, and steal each other’s women and slaves. It’s more likely Culus is happy Solomon’s genies are imprisoned.”

  Zachary waved his hand in the air, like a kid in school. “Why don’t we just find Solomon’s genies and let them go? They’d probably know how to help Annie’s dad.”

  “I said it’s likely Culus is happy they’re captives. It’s also possible the imprisoned genies could be a worse threat than Culus or Malphic.”

  I flopped back against the couch cushions and let out a long, dejected breath. “So this lamp, is it good for anything other than brightening dark places?”

  Chase held his hands up in surrender. “Beats me.”

  “Maybe it can be used to see into the future?” Selena suggested.

  I let my mind wander again, this time thinking about the Middle Eastern exhibit I’d seen at the Met last winter. The dark pottery, the jewelry, and the small terra-cotta lamps that a man could hold in the palm of his hand, like the man in the book’s woodcut was doing. What did that lamp and the one in the museum have in common? What made the Lamp of Methuselah—the so-called Lamp of the Everlasting flame—different from other lamps?

  “The oil!” I said, excitedly. “That has to be it.”

  “What?” Chase’s brow wrinkled.

  “The everlasting oil. It’s not the Lamp of Methuselah itself that’s special, other than that it can reassemble itself. It’s the oil that burns forever without running dry.”

  Chase closed the book and got to his feet. “That makes more sense than you know.”

  “You’ve lost me,” Selena said.

  “I don’t remember everything about when Kate and your father came to rescue Annie’s mother. But I knew right away there was something off about them.” Chase half-sat on the edge of the desk. “In the djinn realm, most humans appear as smoky shadows, the way most genies do in the human world. But, like some genies, some humans can maintain solid bodies for maybe an hour at the most.”

  Zachary sighed. “So what does this have to do with my dad and Aunt Kate?”

  “When I saw them in the djinn’s realm, they didn’t look like shadows. They had solid bodies and looked exactly like genies. They wore the right clothes. Their hair was right. No one would have guessed they weren’t genies, except they smelled bad—like wet sheep, cloves, and cabbage. Genies do nasty things, but they never have body odor like that. I’m certain it was their smell that gave them away to Malphic.”

  “What does body odor have to do with lamp oil?” As soon as the words were out of my mouth, the answer came to me. And everything I’d learned at the Met’s exhibit snapped together, suddenly making sense. “Oh! A sheep smell as in lanolin, as in sometimes used as a lamp fuel back in Methuselah’s time. You think Kate and David covered themselves in the oil to give themselves solid bodies in the djinn realm, but it also made them stink?”

  “Exactly.” Chase grinned. “Plus, I’m betting if the oil gives humans solid bodies in the djinn realm, then it will have the opposite effect on genies here. In other words, the oil will give them solid bodies in the human world. Since the oil is self-renewing, Culus would have an endless supply, enough to create an army of solid-bodied genies. People might overlook a few shadows, but they’d bow in terror if faced with an army like that.” His eyes went ice-cold. “Like I said before, Culus has always wanted to prove himself. Taking over even part of the human world would do that and more.”

  With fear settling in the pit of my stomach, I got up from the couch. I didn’t trust Kate or David. I only half-trusted Grandfather, maybe less now that I’d figured out what he might have had planned for Dad. Still, I couldn’t afford to make a mistake.

  “I have an idea,” I said. “But we have to find out from Grandfather if we’re right about the oil. And now, before they decide to do something drastic. Before they . . .” I couldn’t bear to say the rest out loud. Before they tried to kill Dad.

  CHAPTER 22

  Burn her body to a pile of ash, lest she

  return and her spell be cast.

  —Disturbing Nursery Rhymes

  www.DarkCradleTime.com

  Chase got out his phone. “I’ll call your grandfather and find out where he is. It’ll be faster than hunting him down.” He held the phone to his ear for a second, then frowned. “It went to his voice mail. That’s not normal.”

  I opened my mouth intending to suggest he try Kate next, but something occurred to me. I glanced at Selena. “When we saw Kate in the garden did you notice what she had in the sandwich bag?”

  “Yeah.” Selena nodded. “Nightshade berries. But that’s not weird. She’s always messing around with something.” The color drained from her face. “Whoa, nightshade’s poisonous. You don’t think—”

  “Oh my God! Zachary was right. They’re going to kill Dad now!” I sprinted across the library and up the circular staircase. I had to get to Dad’s room. I had to tell them my plan, before it was too late.

  Behind me I could hear Selena’s panting breaths and the squeak of Zachary’s sneakers. If Dad’s door was locked, I’d kick it in. I couldn’t lose him.

  “I hope you know what you’re doing,” Chase called out.

  “I’m a hundred percent sure.” I dashed past the book stacks, flung the secret door to Dad’s hallway open, skidded out—and slammed into a food cart, and Laura.

  The cart and dishes skittered to one side. Laura grabbed for the teapot.

  “Sorry,” I said as Chase, Zachary, and Selena piled up behind me.

  Angry red blotches rushed up Laura’s neck as she let go of the pot and straightened the jostled dishes. She scowled at us. “You need to watch where you’re going.” Her eyes darted to the dishes, and then back to us. “If you’re hungry, I just put out sandwiches and lemonade in the dining room. This, however, is spoken for.”

  I eyed the cart. Food: the perfect disguise for poison. Tea. Macaroons. They were grandfather’s favorites. The sandwiches, it had to be them.

  Snagging a sandwich, I peeled back the rye bread: lettuce, tomato, what looked and smelled like roast lamb—with black-speckled mayonnaise. Laura might be delivering it, but Kate had probably made it.

  Laura’s hands clenched. “Put that back,” she snarled.

  “Dad won’t miss just one.” I reassembled the sandwich and opened my mouth.

  Laura launched herself at me, slapping the sandwich out of my hand.

  I snagged her by the wrist, twisting her arm. “Why don’t you want me to eat it, Laura?”

  Livid, she yanked away from me. “Leave it alone. Go away!”

  Selena picked up the sandwich pieces and thumped them down on the cart. “We can’t leave. Annie doesn’t want her father poisoned, and we’re going to make sure it does
n’t happen.”

  Sweat beaded on Laura’s upper lip. “Poisoned? That’s—that’s a preposterous idea.”

  “No. It’s not,” Zachary said.

  Chase stepped toward Laura. “Who’s in the room with Annie’s father?”

  “Their grandfather and Kate.” Laura’s gaze darted down the hallway to Dad’s room and back. She lowered her voice. “If this is some kind of joke, you’re going to be in big trouble.”

  “Zachary,” I said. “Go tell Grandfather that Laura needs to talk to him. But don’t say anything else, understand?”

  “Yes, boss.” He took off down the hallway.

  I turned back to Laura. “I’m sorry you got caught in the middle of this.”

  She gripped the edge of the cart, her jaw so taut I expected to hear her teeth crack. “You’re going to be sorrier once your grandfather gets here,” she said.

  A moment later, Zachary reappeared. Grandfather was a few steps behind. He had one finger crooked over his collar, loosening his bow tie. His face was totally unreadable. “What’s the meaning of this?” he said as they came up to us.

  I raised my chin.

  His lips pressed into a thin line. Just like Kate, that’s what he was thinking.

  Laura pointed a shaking finger at the mutilated sandwich. “They think it’s poisoned.”

  Grandfather cut her off. “Don’t worry about that. While I’m straightening this out, why don’t you go make sure Tibbs knows lunch is ready?”

  With a toss of her head, Laura took off down the hallway.

  Grandfather herded the rest of us back into the library where we could talk without being overheard.

  “So, what is this all about?” he asked.

  I squared my shoulders and stood up as tall as I could. “We know you are planning on poisoning Dad so the genie will leave. But you can’t do it. There’s another way.”

  Selena clutched Grandfather’s arm. “Listen to her.” She cut me a sideways glance and whispered, “I thought you were just going to ask him about the oil. But you have another plan, right?”

  I nodded. Then I let my eyes meet Grandfather’s. “Did Kate and David use the oil from the Lamp of Methuselah to make their bodies solid in the djinn’s realm?”