Chapter 17 #2
On the sidewalk in front of the shop, I shuffled my feet indecisively.
Where should I go now? I didn’t want to go home and try to act normal under my mother’s scrutiny.
Part of me wanted to just follow Nova back to her house, and demand she tell me whatever it was she was hiding.
I didn’t think I could wait until tonight to understand what bizarre twist of fate had caused us to reach for that book, of all books, in the very same moment.
I wandered down the sidewalk, fully distracted by my encounter with Nova, which was unfortunate for me, because that’s how I got abducted.
“Hey!” Was all I managed to get out as I was yanked backward by the hood of my jacket, and pulled toward the tiny alleyway between two buildings.
“Calm down, you’re not being mugged,” came a familiar voice, and I realized it was Zale pulling me toward the side door of the cafe. “This is an intervention.”
“What the hell are you—” I began, but my words were cut off as I nearly tripped over a garbage can. “Zale, stop it, I can walk, okay?”
“Huh? Okay, fine,” Zale replied, sounding disappointed. He let go of my jacket, and held the door open. “Just… just go in and sit down, okay?”
I glared at him, but walked past him into the kitchen.
The warm, spice-scented air hit me like a wall, and for a moment all I could do was sniff deeply and realize that all I’d eaten that day was half the muffin I’d grabbed on my way out the door that morning.
My mouth was watering in spite of myself as the door closed behind us, and Zale pointed to a chair in the corner beside the shelves of fresh produce.
“Sit,” he said, trying to look stern, and spoiling it by being unable to suppress a smirk. Zale loved drama too much to hide it.
I turned toward the chair and saw that Eva was there as well, sitting on the counter with her legs swinging. I scowled at her.
“This was your idea, wasn’t it?” I asked.
“Whatever gave you that idea?” she asked, raising her eyebrows in an innocent expression.
I sighed and plopped down into the chair. “Okay,” I said. “Let’s get this over with.”
“Wren, we’re your friends,” Eva said, crossing her arms over her chest. “And we know something is up with you, and we’ve tried to respect that and give you space, but now we’re worried.”
“Worried? Why?” I asked, trying to sound puzzled, and failing as badly as Zale had done at looking stern.
“Because you’re a ghost,” Zale said, and when I looked confused, he added, “Not like, a literal ghost. We just mean, you’ve vanished. You don’t call. You don’t text. You don’t hang out.”
“I’m just busy,” I said, my tone rising defensively.
“Too busy to respond to your friends? Too busy to even acknowledge them?” Eva shot back.
“I do… I have… that’s not fair!” I said. My face was getting hot, because I was lying. It was fair. I had basically isolated myself, and I couldn’t truthfully deny it.
“Look, we get it,” Zale said. “Well, okay, no, we don’t exactly get it, but like, we understand. You’ve got a lot of pressure on you. You’re going through some shit. But don’t you think it would be easier to go through if you let us help?”
“I…” I swallowed hard. “It’s not really something that anyone can help with.”
“Wren, the Darkness has singled you out, and that sucks,” Eva said, sounding impatient. “But that doesn’t mean that no one else can help you! We’ve helped you before! At the lighthouse. With Jess. You don’t have to shoulder this all by yourself.”
“This isn’t like those times,” I said, even as I could feel my throat getting choked with emotion. “And I… I don’t want to sound ungrateful, because I couldn’t have done any of that without you, but this is… different.”
“Different doesn’t have to mean solitary,” Zale said. “Even if it isn’t something we could actually help with, even just telling someone—sharing the burden a little.”
“We know you’re not telling your family,” Eva said. “Our last conversation proved that. And that’s fine. There’s plenty of stuff I don’t share with Xiomara or my mom.”
Zale snorted. “I avoid sharing things with Davina at all costs.”
“The point is, we can see the toll it’s taking on you. And the Darkness is the whole Cove’s business. It affects all of us. Come on, Wren. Let us help, even if it’s just a shoulder to cry on.”
The word “cry” had a completely unexpected triggering effect on me. Without any warning at all, my eyes were full of tears, and before I could try to hide them, they were spilling down my cheeks as great heaving sobs began to rise up through my chest.
“Oh, shit!” Zale gasped, and hurried forward to put an arm around me.
“There it is,” Eva muttered, and slid off the counter to join what had now become a group hug.
I wanted to tell them I was fine, that I was handling it, that this really wasn’t necessary, but while my brain was trying to make this true, my body was insisting the opposite.
I was breaking. Slowly but surely, I was crumbling under the pressure, and no amount of denial was going to change that.
So I let the tears come. I let the sobs shudder and break like waves on the shore, until I had cried myself out.
Zale and Eva didn’t try to console me or quiet me with meaningless platitudes, like “it’s going to be okay.
” They just put their arms around me and held me together until I finally felt I could hold myself together.
As the sobs quieted, they backed off, releasing me from the collective embrace but still staying close, Eva stroking my hair, and Zale holding one of my hands as he handed me a tissue from his pocket.
“Thanks,” I said, blowing my nose. “And sorry. That was… a lot.”
“Don’t apologize,” Eva said. “You needed it.”
“Yeah,” I said. “I did, and I didn’t realize it. Well, no, that’s not true. I knew it. I was just ignoring it.”
“Classic Vesper,” Zale said, and when I looked at him, he said, “What? It’s a well-known family trait.”
I sighed, thinking of Persi. “Yeah, actually, that tracks. We are the suffer in silence type.”
“So… do you want to talk?” Eva asked.
I hesitated only a moment, and then nodded. “Can I talk and eat?” I asked.
Eva laughed at the hopeful little note in my voice. “Oh, mija, you’ve come to the right place,” she replied, in a flawless impersonation of Xiomara.
A few minutes later, with a heaping plate of food in front of me, and a captive audience seated on the other side of the table, I started to talk.
At first, I didn’t intend to tell them everything, but once I started talking, it was hard to stop.
All the barriers I’d built broke with the first onslaught of tears, and I didn’t have the energy to put them back up.
I have to admit, it was kind of gratifying, hearing all the gasps and exclamations from both Eva and Zale as I told them about Granny Nightjar, the disappearing sea glass, the visions and what was in them, as well as what I’d learned about Abaddon.
By the time I’d finished, Eva had to reach over and close Zale’s gaping mouth for him.
“Sorry,” he whispered. “I’m just… processing.”
I shrugged, shoving half an empanada in my mouth. “So, yeah. That’s why I’ve been so… absent.”
“Those are very good reasons,” he whispered.
Eva leaned in. “You actually saw Granny Nightjar? Like… up close?”
“Unfortunately.”
“What does she look like?”
I shrugged. “It’s hard to tell. She never takes that veil off. But she’s old. Like, really, really old.”
“Do you think she’s the one causing the visions?” Zale asked. “I mean, you gave her the sea glass, right? Maybe she enchanted it, and now she’s sending it to you?”
I frowned, considering. “I guess she could be. I haven’t gone back to see her since that first time, and I’m not going to if I can avoid it.”
“I don’t blame you,” Eva said with a shudder. “I can’t believe you went in the first place.”
“I was desperate,” I said. “I needed a spirit witch who wasn’t going to rat me out to my mom or my aunts.”
“Not that I don’t condone some healthy teenage subterfuge,” Eva said, plucking a crumb of empanada from my plate and popping it in her mouth, “but why don’t you want your family to know?
They know you need to find out about the Darkness.
Wouldn’t they be glad that you’ve found a way to get answers, even if it is a little unpredictable? ”
“You saw me after that first vision,” I told Eva. “You think my mom would be okay with that continuing? It’s not typical scrying. I can sit in front of the mirror for hours asking questions, but the answers only come when they want to. It’s like something other than me is in control.”
“So what do they want you to do instead?” Zale asked.
“Read books,” I said.
Zale rolled his eyes. Eva made a sound of disgust.
“Right? I know they want to protect me, but I think we’re past the point of curating a reading list,” I said.
“So what’s that, then?” Zale asked, pointing down to my bag where the copy of Conjuration Moste Wycked was peeking out of the top.
“A book they would not approve of,” I said, pulling it out. “I needed to see if I could find out more about Abaddon.”
“And did you?” Eva asked, sitting up straighter.
“He’s a demon,” I said. “A really powerful one.”
“Wait, so are the Darkness and Abaddon the same thing?” Zale asked, his voice rising a full octave in his alarm. “Is the Darkness a demon?”
I shook my head firmly. “No. I don’t quite understand yet how the current form of the Darkness came to be, but it has something to do with the man that summoned Abaddon, Ambrose Wright.”
“Is there anything we can do to help, Wren?” Eva asked. “You’re getting into some really malevolent stuff. Conjuration, bargains with demons… this is next-level shit.”
I shrugged helplessly. “I’m not really sure. I think I need more visions before I can figure out what it all means, and what to do next. And I’m not exactly in control of those.”
“You can’t let the Conclave know about this,” Zale said. “Seriously. They will freak the fuck out, Wren. Anything to do with this kind of magic is forbidden within the town limits. That’s the kind of stuff the Kildare coven got kicked out for.”
“I’m not conjuring demons myself, Zale,” I reminded him. “I’m just getting visions of when someone else did.”
“No, he’s right,” Eva said, expression grave. “If Xiomara ever saw that book in here, she’d burn the whole cafe down, and bury the ashes for good measure.”
“I’m surprised Susan was allowed to stock this book in the bookshop,” I said, shoving it back down into my bag where no one else would chance to see it. “No wonder Nova didn’t want to—”
I froze. Damn it. For about half a second, I held my breath, hoping that my words would pass unnoticed, but, of course, Eva and Zale both pounced.
“What about Nova?” Zale demanded.
“Wait, how is Nova mixed up in this?” Eva asked, her words spilling over Zale’s.
“Nothing!” I said. “I didn’t… just forget I said any—”
But they were both glaring at me with an intensity that assured me they would torture it out of me anyway. I sighed.
“She had a copy of the same book. Just now in the bookshop.”
“She bought it?” Zale gasped.
“No, she shoplifted it, actually,” I said. “And then returned it. I don't think she wanted anyone to know she’d read it, even Susan.”
“Well, yeah,” Eva said, her eyes wide. “If Ostara ever caught sight of that, she’d probably kick Nova right out of the Manor.”
“Oh yeah,” Zale agreed, nodding sharply. “She’d probably disown her. Boot her right out of the Claire coven.”
“But why does she have it?” Eva asked. “Why would Nova suddenly be researching demons and conjuration? It can’t be a coincidence. There’s no way.”
I wanted to argue with her, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. Eva was right. For whatever reason Nova had that book, it had to be connected, somehow, to what I was doing.
“There’s something else,” I admitted, and once again, Zale and Eva locked in with an intensity that was startling. “When I asked her about it, she told me to come to her house tonight. When her mother isn’t home.”
Zale and Eva traded startled glances.
“And she didn’t say why?” Eva asked.
I shook my head. “She just begged me to come.”
Eva looked at Zale, who nodded. “We’re coming, too,” Eva announced.
“What? No!” I gasped. “You can’t tell her I—”
“Wren, enough with the secrets,” Eva said. “If Nova is mixed up in this, she’s in over her head, just like you are. There’s no way we’re letting you go there alone if this has anything to do with conjuring demons.”
“Nova wouldn’t do that!” I cried. “She’s too… she’s got too much Claire coven pride to try something like that!”
But Eva’s expression was skeptical. “I don’t know. She’s been acting as sketchy as you have lately. Ignoring phone calls and texts. Bailing on plans. Every time I see her, she looks more and more stressed out.”
“She left the house without makeup yesterday,” Zale announced. “When have you ever seen her less than perfectly turned out in all the time you’ve known her?”
“She was our next intervention, actually,” Eva said.
Zale nodded. “We considered kidnapping her first, but decided you were the more pressing case.”
“Lucky me,” I said dryly.
“So it’s settled, then,” Eva said. “We’ll all go to the Manor together.”
“It’s not settled!” I cried. “I didn’t agree to that! Nova will kill me if she finds out I told you!”
Eva shrugged. “It’s a risk we’ll have to take.”
“I’m not telling you what time,” I said, in a desperate final attempt.
“That’s fine,” Zale shot back immediately. “One of us can stake out Lightkeep and the other can stake out the Manor. We’ll spot you eventually. I love a good reconnaissance mission.”
I slumped in my seat, recognizing defeat. “Fine. Ten o’clock.”
“Great,” Eva said, smiling broadly. “That wasn’t so hard, was it?”
I didn’t reply. I had a growing feeling this was all going to be a lot harder than any of us had yet realized.