The car wound up and down streets lined with human trick-or-treaters, to a big ranch-style house with high block walls screening the backyard. Selene"
s house, Thea realized, seeing the name Lucna on the mailbox.
It must be where they"re having the maidens" Circle Midnight meeting.
Aunt Ursula got out. Thea and Dani sat in the car with Nana Buruku. In a f ew minutes, Aunt Ursula came back with Blaise.
Selene, dressed in silver, and Vivienne in black, followed as far as the driv eway. They looked sober and scared, not like wicked witches at all.
Blaise did. Barefoot and apparently indifferent to the cold, little bells ri nging, she looked flushed and angry and proud. She opened the door with a je rk and sat down hard beside Thea, who scooted over.
"What"s going on?" she said, almost out loud. "I"m missing the moon cakes, I"m missing everything. What kind of Samhain is this?"
Thea had never admired her more.
"We"ll get back in time," Dani said, and her voice was steady, even if her fin gers were still cold.
They"re both brave, Thea thought. And me? But however much she wanted to, she couldn"t get a word out through the tightness in her throat.
She half expected Nana Buruku to get on the freeway and head out toward th e desert, toward Thierry"s land. But instead the Lincoln headed down famil iar streets and pulled up in the alley behind Grandma Harman"s store.
Thea could feel Dani"s questioning eyes on her. But she had no idea what wa s going on, and she was afraid to look Dani in the face.
"Come on," Aunt Ursula said, and shepherded them through the back door, in to the shop, through the bead curtain that led to the workshop.
All the chairs for Gran"s students had been pushed into a rough circle. Peo ple were sitting in them, or standing and talking quietly, but when Thea st epped through the curtain behind Nana Buruku, they all stopped and looked.
Thea"s eyes moved from face to face, seeing each in a sort of disconnected , dreamlike flash. Grandma Harman, looking so grim and tired. Mother Cybele, who was the Mother of the Inner Circle, just as Gran was the Crone, loo king anxious. Aradia, the Maiden, her lovely face serious and sad.
Others she recognized from two years ago, people who were so famous she knew them by their first names. Rhys, Belfana, Creon, Old Bob.
Aunt Ursula and Nana Buruku made up the last two of the nine.
They looked like ordinary people, working men and women and still-sharp-as- a-tack retired seniors, the kind you"d see any day on the street. They were n"t.
This was the biggest concentration of magical talent anywhere in the world.
These people were the witch geniuses, the prodigies and the sages, the far-s eers.
The teachers, the policy-makers. They were the Inner Circle.
And they were all looking at Thea.
"The girls are here," Mother Cybele said softly to Aradia. "They"re standing in the middle."
Gran said, "All right, let"s get this thing started. Will everybody find themsel ves a seat." It wasn"t a question, it was an order. Gran was senior to all these celebrities.
But she wouldn"t look at Thea. And that was the most terrible, nightmarish th ing of all. She acted as if Thea and Blaise were strangers.
Everyone was sitting, nudging their chairs into a more evenly s.p.a.ced circle.
They were all wearing their ordinary clothes, Thea realized: business suits o r uniforms or pants and tops. In Aradia"s case, jeans. In Old Bob"s case, dir ty overalls.
Which means they never even started their own ceremony tonight. This is imp ortant enough to skip Samhain over. This is a trial.
Red-haired Belfana pushed Creon"s wheelchair to an empty spot. She was the l ast to sit down. I"m centered, Thea thought numbly. It was her worst fear, t he very thing that had driven her away from Eric in the desert, the first ti me she"d felt the soulmate connection with him. And now it was true. She cou ld hear Dani breathing irregularly, and the faint tinkle of bells as Blaise shifted from foot to foot. "All right," Grandm a Harman said, sounding tired but formal. "By Earth, by Air, by Water, and by Fire, I call this Circle to unity." She went on, reciting the age-old formula for a m eeting of deliberation.
For Thea, the words blended into the pounding of blood in her ears. It was strange, how terrifying it could be to be surrounded in all directions by p eople. Everywhere she looked, another grave, unreadable face. She felt as t rapped as if they had been humans. "Thea Sophia Harman," Gran said, and sud denly Thea was listening again. "You stand accused ..." There seemed to be an endless, empty pause, although Thea knew it was probably no time at all."... of working forbidden spells in direct disobedience to the laws of h.e.l.lew ise and of this Circle. ..." All Thea heard for a while was "working forbidde n spells." It seemed to hang in the air, echoing. Part of her kept waiting to hear the other, more terrible charges of betraying the secrets of the Night World and falling in love with a human. But they didn"t come.
"... summoning a spirit from the far places beyond the veil . . . binding two humans with a forbidden love charm ..."
And then Gran was reading Blaise"s name.
Blaise was charged with fashioning a necklace out of forbidden materials a nd binding humans with a forbidden charm. Dani was charged with aiding and abetting Thea in the summoning of a spirit from the far places-which was wrong, of course, Thea thought dizzily.
Her whole body was tingling, from the soles of her feet, to her palms, to her scalp. With fear . . . and with something like relief.
They don"t know. They don"t know the worst part of it, or they would have s aid so-wouldn"t they? And if I just keep quiet, why should they ever know?
Then she focused on Gran, who had finished reading the charges and was now talking in an ordinary voice again. "And I have to say that I"m disappointe d in all three of you. Especially you, Thea. I"d expect this from her, of c ourse"-she nodded at Blaise, speaking to the rest of the Circle-"that desce ndant of mine there who"s dressed up like Hecate"s bad daughter. But I hone stly thought Thea had more sense."
She looked disappointed. And that-hurt. Thea had always been the good gir l, the golden girl, youngest and most promising of the Hearth-Woman line.
Now, as she looked from face to face, she saw disappointment everywhere.
I"ve failed them; I"ve disgraced my heritage. I"m so ashamed. . . .
She wanted to curl up and disappear.
Just then, there was a silvery ripple of bells. Blaise was tossing her dark he ad. She looked defiant and scornful and very proud and a little bored.
"What I want to know is who turned us in," she said in an almost inaudible b ut definitely menacing whisper. "Whoever it is, they"re going to be sorry."
And suddenly, somehow, Thea was less frightened. The disappointment didn"t mean so much. It was possible to shock the Inner Circle and still be standi ng up. Blaise proved it.
It was then that irony struck Thea. She"d spent her life getting in trouble b ecause of Blaise, and now here they were, in the worst trouble imaginable-bec ause of her.
And Dani was in trouble, too. Her velvety eyes were filled with tears. When she saw that, Thea found the tightness in her throat easing. She could talk again."Look-excuse me-but there"s something you need to know. Before this goes any further-"
"You"ll have a chance to speak later," Mother Cybele said, her voice soft an d firm, like her little dumpling-shaped body.
"No, I have to say it now." Thea turned to Gran, speaking, for just these fe w seconds, to her grandmother rather than to the Crone of the Inner Circle.
"Grandma, Dani shouldn"t be here. Really. Really. She didn"t know anything a bout the summoning; I did it all. I promise."
Gran"s expression gentled slightly, the creases on her face shifting. Then sh e was impa.s.sive again.
"All right, all right, we"ll see about that later. The first thing is to find ou t just what you"ve been doing. Since you seem to be the instigator here."
It was when she said "later" that realization hit Thea like a tsunami. And ever ything changed. Later . . . time . . . what time is it? She looked frantica lly around for the clock. There-behind Old Bob"s gray head . . . Ten mi nutes to ten. Eric.
Somehow, in the stress she"d felt since Aunt Ursula came to get her, she had completely forgotten that he was waiting in the desert.
Spellbinder But now she could see him, the vision in her mind"s eye as clear as if she were standing there with him. Eric watching the clock, minutes going by, an d Thea still not arriving. Eric looking at the bonfire and at the three bla ck-clothed dummies tied to their stakes. And the party. The Halloween party at school. Blistered metal doors being opened and people flooding in. Shoe s walking across the scuffed wooden floor, costumed kids standing underneat h the dangling witch figures. Kids shrieking with laughter, handing over go blin money, crowding into the torture booths. While something lurked around the exposed pipes on the ceiling. Maybe invisible, maybe looking like a wh ite figure and feeling like a blast of arctic wind. Maybe like a woman with long mahogany hair. Lurking . . . then suddenly sweeping down . . . She"s going to kill them. They"re completely defenseless. . . .
Fear tore into Thea like jagged metal. It was all happening right now, and sh e wasn"t doing anything to stop it. It had been happening for almost an hour, and she hadn"t even given it a thought.
CHAPTER.
Thea." Dani was shaking her arm. "They"re talking to you."
The visions were gone. Thea was standing in Gran"s workshop, seeing everythi ng as if through a distorting lens. People"s faces seemed to stretch; their voices seemed to drag.
"I asked, how did you learn the invocation for summoning spirits?" Gran sai d slowly.
Eric. He won"t wait; he"ll start without me. Or will he? I told him not to. But he"ll be worrying about the party. . . .
The party. All those kids . . . even little kids. Humans, but people. like baby chicks with a hawk up above. How many of them will end up like Kevin?
"The invocation for summoning spirits!" Gran was shouting, as if Thea were hard of hearing.
"I. . . we . . . I heard you at Samhain two years Spellbinder ago. In Vermont. I saw the summoning the Inner Circle did." Even her own voice sounded weird and distorted.
"We saw you. Both of us. We were hiding behind the trees and you never even noticed," Blaise said clearly, and the bells rang again.
Dimly, Thea felt appreciation. But most of her mind was reeling from horrible thought to thought. Eric . . . but if I try to get to him, if the Inner Circ le finds out he"s involved . . . that will get him killed. A human who knows about the Night World. Immediate death sentence.
But Suzanne. If he burns those dummies, Suzanne will kill him the way she killed Kevin.
No matter what happened, Eric was going to end up dead. Unless . . .
"Which ... of the spirits ... did you call?" Gran was shouting, as if Thea was now not only hard of hearing but slow of understanding. Unless . . .
"That"s what I want to tell you," Thea said. She could see the way. It would m ean the end for her, but she might possibly save Eric. If there was enough tim e, if they would let her alone, if Eric wasn"t right now trying to be a hero.
"I want to tell you about it," Thea said again. And then the words were tumbl ing out in a rush, faster and faster, as if some dam had broken inside her. "
And I"ll tell you everything-but please, Grandma, please, you have to let me go out now. Just for a little while. There"s something I have to do. You have to let me go, and then I"ll come back here and you can do whatever you want t o me."
"Hold on a minute," Mother Cybele said, but Thea couldn"t stop.
"Please-please. Grandma. I"ve done a terrible thing-and I"m the only one who can take care of it. I"ll come back-"
"Wait, wait, wait. Calm down," Gran said. She looked agitated herself. "Wha t"s this rush all of sudden? Try it slowly. What do you think you have to d o?"
"I have to put her back." Thea saw that she was going to have to give some explanation. She tried to speak dearly and slowly, to make them understand.
"The spirit I let out, Grandma. Her name is Suzanne Blanchet and she was b urned in the sixteen hundreds. And she"s out, out there, and she"s already killed a human."
Everyone was listening now, some leaning forward, some frowning. Thea looked around at the circle of faces, talking to all of them. She was still terrif ied, but what did that matter? Eric mattered.
"Last week she killed a boy at my high school. And tonight she"s going to ki ll more people, at the high school Halloween party. I can"t explain how I kn ow-there isn"t time. But I do know. And I"m the only one who can stop her. I called her; I"m the only one who can put her back."
"Yes, but unfortunately it"s not that easy," a low voice said. Thea turned and identified Rhys, a wiry man in a white lab coat. "If the spirit"s at large-" "I know about that, but I have a way to trap her.
It"s all set up, and I..." Thea hesitated. "I"ve tricked somebody into helpin g me," she said slowly. "And he"s in danger right now. Which is why you have to let me go, let me take care of this. Please."
"You want to go to the high school, where the party is," Aunt Ursula said. A lthough her lips were as thin as ever, she didn"t sound angry. More-astute.
Thea opened her mouth to say no, and then stopped, confused again.
The party-or the desert? If Suzanne was really killing people at the party, s he should go there. But only if Eric wasn"t doing something to attract Suzann e to the desert. He was still more important to her than anyone else. But if he wasn"t doing something-and if Suzanne was at the party-she might kill befo re Thea and Eric could lure her. . . . I"m going crazy.
She felt, literally, as if she might faint. Her head was swimming. There we re too many possibilities. It all depended on where Suzanne was right now, and there was no way to know that.
Thea began to shake violently, black dots dancing in front of her eyes. I don "t know what to do.
"I"m sorry . . . could everybody listen for a moment? I"m seeing something."
It was Aradia"s voice, quiet and gently self-possessed. Mature, even though s he was only a little older than Thea. Thea tried to see her through the black dots.
"I think it"s something important, something about what we"re talking about, " Aradia said. Her beautiful face, with its smooth skin the color of coffee with cream, was turned towa rd Thea. Her wide brown eyes looked straight ahead without focus, the way they always did.
Aradia couldn"t see with those eyes-but then she didn"t need to. She saw wi th her mind-and saw things that were hidden to most people.
"I"m seeing a boy-he"s dressed in some old-fashioned costume. He"s beside a fi re, inside a circle of stones."
Eric. . . ."He"s got a stick-an ember. He"s looking around. Now he"s going to ... it looks like a scarecrow. I can"t see it well. There"s a pile of sticks underneath it.
He"s bending. He"s lighting the sticks."
No.
"I have to go," Thea said. She wasn"t asking permission anymore.
Aradia was still speaking. "Okay, the sticks are catching fire. Now I can see better . . . and it"s not a scarecrow; it looks sort of like a witch. A doll."
She stopped, her lovely blind eyes widening. "It"s-and it"s moving-no, there"
s something moving it. I can see it now-a spirit. A spirit is moving the doll.