That was where Suzanne was now.
At the edge of the bonfire, where the residue had been, there was a lump of soft clay. Thea knelt and picked it up. She looked into the center of the fl ames-and saw a coil of long hair, the color of mahogany. The ends were start ing to blacken and shrink in the fire.
Thea reached in to grab it. She folded the hair over and quickly pressed the clay around it. It was a clumsy job, Blaise would have done much better, bu t the hair was enclosed. She groped on the ground for the wooden seal, found it, punched it into the clay. Suzanne"s symbol, the cabalistic sign for her name, was printed.
It was done.
The amulet was restored, Suzanne was trapped again. She"d stay where she belonged unless somebody else was stupid enough to summon her.
Thea dropped the amulet without looking at it, got up, and staggered around the fire to where Eric was lying. Her vision was strangely gray.
After all this ... he has to be all right ... oh, please, let him be ...
He moved when she reached him.
"Eric, we did it. She"s gone. We did it."
He grinned faintly. Said in a scratchy voice, "You don"t have to cry."
She hadn"t realized she was.
Eric sat up. He was terminally mussed, his hair wild, his face dirty. He look ed wonderful to her.
"We did it," she whispered again. She reached out to smooth his hair, and he r hand stayed there.
He glanced at the fire, then back at her. "I kind of hated to say those thing s to her. I mean, no matter how bad she was ..." He touched Thea"s neck, stro king gently. "Are you okay? I think you"ve got a bruise."
"Me? You"re the one who really got it." She put her free hand to his throat, fingers just barely touching. "But I know what you mean," she whispered. "I f elt-sorry-for her at the end."
"Don"t cry again. Please. I really hate that," he whispered, and he put his fr ee arm around her.
And then they were just kissing madly. Deliriously. Laughing and kissing an d holding each other. She could taste her own tears on his lips, warming wi th his warmth, and she was trembling like a bird in a thicket.
A few moments later a noise broke in. Thea didn"t want to move, but Eric lo oked, and then he stiffened."Uh, we"ve got company."
Thea looked up.
There were cars just outside the sandstone pillars. Parked cars. They must h ave driven up sometime during the fight with Suzanne, while the roar of the fire blocked out the sound of their engines, while Thea"s attention was focu sed on the wraith trying to Ml her.
Because the people were already out of the cars. Grandma Harman, support ed by Aunt Ursula. Rhys in his lab coat. Dumpling-shaped Mother Cybele, with her hand on Aradia"s arm. Old Bob, Nans Buruku.
Most of the Inner Circle was here.
CHAPTER 16.
Thea started to let go of Eric. She could still try to save him.
But he wouldn"t let go. And her own instincts told her to hold on to him.
They stood up together, holding each other, facing the Inner Circle as a unit.
"Well," Mother Cybele said, blinking rapidly. "Aradia brought us here thin king you might need help. But you"ve taken care of things yourselves. We s aw the end, very impressive."
"I saw it, too," Aradia said. Her face was turned toward Thea, the faintest trace of a smile on her lips. "You did a good job, Thea Harman. You"re a t rue Hearth-Woman."
"Yes, and where did that last invocation come from?" Gran said, shifting he r weight to the cane Rhys gave her. "I"ve never in my life heard of anybody calling on their own power as a daughter of h.e.l.lewise." She said it in a g rumbling way, but Thea had the strange feeling that she was almost pleased.
Thea faced them all. Maiden, Mother, and Crone of the Inner Circle. She was s till holding Eric. "I don"t know where it came from," she said, and was glad to hear that her voice wasn"t shaking too badly. "It just. . . came."
"And what about you? What"s your name, young man?" Gran said.
"Eric Ross." Thea was proud of the way he said it, quiet and respectful, but not cowed.
Gran looked from him to Thea. And back again.
"You"re in this with my granddaughter?"
"He doesn"t know anything. ,. ." Thea began, but of course that was hopeless . And ridiculous.
"I know I love Thea," Eric said, cutting her off. "And she loves me. And if the re"s some rule that says we can"t be together, it"s a stupid rule."
He sounded terribly brave and terribly young. Thea felt a wave of dizziness.
Her fingers tightened on his until both their hands were shaking from the pre ssure. She realized for the first time that her right hand was fairly serious ly burned."Please let him go, Grandma," she whispered. And then, as Gran stood silent, "Please ... I won"t ever see him again and he won"t ever tell. All he"s done is try to help me, try to save lives. Please don"t punish him for what"s my f ault." Warmth pooled in her eyes and spilled over.
"He tried to uphold the law," Aradia said. "At least, I think so."
Thea wasn"t sure she"d heard right. Gran didn"t seem to be, either. She said, "How"s that?"
"h.e.l.lewise said it"s forbidden for witches to kill humans, didn"t she?" Ara dia asked, her face serene. "Well, that spirit was a witch who"d already ki lled a human-and who wanted to kill more. And he helped send her back. He h elped Thea undo the forbidden spell, and he helped prevent witch law from b eing broken again."
Rhys muttered, "Neatly put," but Thea couldn"t tell whether that meant he ag reed or not.
Gran shuffled a step forward, looking at Eric. "And just what did you do to help, young man?"
"I don"t know if I did help," Eric said in his quiet, straightforward way. "Mai nly I just tried to keep her from killing me-"
"When did you light the fires?" Thea asked in an undertone, still clutching h is hands.
He glanced at her. One side of his mouth quirked slightly.
"Nine o"clock," he said.
"Even though I wasn"t there." Thea"s voice was just slightly louder now. "
And you knew Suzanne would come and try to get you, and you didn"t have an y magic to fight her. So why did you do it?"
He looked at her, then at Gran. Then at her. "You know why. Because otherw ise she"d have gone over to the party."
"And killed more people." Thea looked at Gran.
Gran was staring at Eric, her dark old eyes very keen. "So you saved lives."
"I don"t know," Eric said again, maddeningly honest. "But I didn"t want to t ake the chance."
"He saved my life, too," Thea said. "Suzanne tried to kill me. And I could ne ver have gotten through the spell to send her back if he hadn"t kept her dist racted."
"That"s nice, but I"m not sure it"s enough," Old Bob said, running a hand o ver his stubbly chin. His weathered face was quizzical. "There"s nothing th at says upholding one law makes up for breaking another. Especially Night W orld law. We could get in a mess of trouble fooling with that."
Gran and Mother Cybele looked at each other. Then Gran turned to Old Bob .
"I changed your diapers-don"t tell me you know more about Night World law,"
she snapped. "I"m not about to let a bunch of bloodthirsty vampires dictate to me." She looked at the others. "We need to take this somewhere private . Let"s go back to my place."
Somewhere private. Hope kept racing giddily through Thea as the jeep boun ced and rattled home.
Eric was driving, and Thea was in the backseat, so they couldn"t talk. Aunt U rsula was in the front beside Eric.
Gran"s fighting for me. And Aradia, and maybe even Mother Cybele. They don "t want me to die. I don"t think they even want Eric to die.
But reality kept trying to push the hope away.
What can they do? They can"t condone a witch and a human being together. T hey can"t risk war with the rest of the Night World, not even to save me.
There"s no solution.
The little caravan pulled up the back alley behind Gran"s store.
And then Thea was in the workshop again, in the circle of chairs. Creon an d Belfana had been waiting. So had Blaise and Dani, who were both sitting down.
"Are you okay?" Dani began, standing--and then she shut up. She was lookin g at Eric, her dark, velvety eyes huge. A human in the Circle.
"We put Suzanne back," Thea said simply. She took Eric"s hand again.
The Inner Circle re-formed around the two of them, witch and human, standi ng centered.
"We have a situation," Gran said. And she explained even though most of the m already understood the problem. She did it thoroughly, looking at each of the Circle members in turn. Aradia and Mother Cybele sat on either side of her, occasionally putting in a thoughtful remark.
Thea figured it out in a few minutes. Gran was recruiting each of them, ap pealing to them-and showing that the Mother and Maiden both agreed with he r. She was working them all over to her side.
"And the end result is, we"ve got these two," she said at last. "And we have to decide what to do with them. This is a decision for the Inner Circle, fo r the daughters and sons of h.e.l.lewise. Not for the Night World Council," she added, looking at Old Bob.
He ran a hand through rough gray hair and muttered, "The Council might not see it just that way," But he smiled. "There was a time," Gran said, "whe n witches and humans got along better than they do now. I"m sure anybody who"s gone far enough back with their family tree knows that."
Eric looked at Thea, who shook her head and looked at Blaise.
"She means," Mother Cybele put in, "that we used to take human husbands, a long time ago. To make up for the fact that there have never been enough witch men. That was back in the days when there was still the third Circle , Circle Daybreak. The one that tried to teach magic to humans.""Until humans started burning us," Belfana said, her freckled face grave under its coil of deep red hair.
"Well, this one isn"t likely to burn anybody," Aunt Ursula said acidly. At t hat moment, Thea loved her.
"n.o.body is arguing that the laws should be changed," Mother Cybele said, p utting her plump fingers together. "We can"t go back to those days, and we all know the danger from humans now. The question is, is there any way to make an exception in this one case?"
"I don"t see how," Rhys said slowly. "Not without all of us ending up accuse d of treason."
"It"ll be the Night Wars all over again," Nana Bur-uku added. "Each race of Night People against the others."
"I don"t wish them harm," Creon said from his wheelchair, his cracked voice barely audible. "But they can"t live in our world, and they can"t live in th e human world."
And that, Thea thought, sums it up perfectly. There is no place for us. Not while one of us is witch and the other is human. . . .
The idea came in a single flash, like the lightning from the balefire.
So simple. And yet so terrifying.
It might work. . . .
But if it did, could I stand it?
Would you give up everything?
Everything-including Gran and Blaise. Dani and Lawai"a and Cousin Celesty n. Uncle Galen, Aunt Ger-deth. Aunt Ursula . . . Selene and Vivienne, eve rybody at Circle Twilight.
The smell of herbs, lavender mixed with rose petals. The kiss of cool stones in her palm. Every chant, every invocation ... all the spells she"d learned.
The feel of magic flowing through her fingertips. Even the memory of h.e.l.lewis e . . .
h.e.l.lewise in her white shift, in the dark forest . . .
Would you give up everything . . . for peace?
For Eric?
This time the inner voice was her own. She found herself looking at Eric a nd knowing she already had her answer.
He was so good, so dear. Tender but intense. Smart and brave and honest and insightful. . . and loving.
He loves me. He was willing to die for me.
He"d give up everything.
Eric was watching her, his gray-flecked eyes concerned. He could tell that something was going on with her.