Chapter 20
Chapter
Twenty
S tella clambered down the ladder and hit the top of the stairs just as Jun dumped a stack of books on the counter, grunting as he divested himself of the weight.
“What did you bring?” Stella was already halfway down the stairs with Marietta following more slowly.
Ethan moved from the bottom of the stairs toward the sales counter where Jun was spreading out the books.
“Magnus called me,” Jun explained. “He said you were cleaned out of books on magical artifacts this morning, and since I was the one who found that book on runes, he thought I could help out again. I called a friend of mine in Baltimore who dabbles, and…” He made a sweeping hand gesture toward the stack of books as if to say, “voilà.”
Ethan opened one of the books and began flipping through its pages. “Your friend dabbles in what, exactly?”
“Oh, this and that,” Jun said without making eye contact. He pulled another book off the stack and handed it to Stella.
She decided she didn’t care if Jun’s friend dabbled in underwater fortune telling, especially if it meant the answer to the witch board lay in one of those books. But there was one thing she still didn’t understand.
“How did he get them to you so fast?” There hadn’t been enough time for even an overnight delivery to Salem.
Jun gave her a confused look. “I went and got them.”
“You’ve been to Baltimore and back since we saw you last night?” she asked.
“Uh… yeah ,” he said.
“But—”
“Stella, I’ve been traveling via runes for years. So long as I have what I need to steer, it’s pretty damn efficient.”
Stella bit down on her bottom lip. Jun may have had the one crucial element her mother had missed— the need for an anchor— but Stella continued to approach the whole thing with caution.
It was unnerving to think of Jun casually popping through space and time like he was doing nothing more than hopping on a city bus.
Marietta grabbed another one of the books. “I take it you’re looking for information about the witch board?”
“Yes,” Stella said. “No one seems to know anything.”
“What questions do you have?” Marietta asked.
“Primarily…” Ethan said, “where did this one come from, and why did the Collector give it to Hurley?”
“I doubt any of these books are going to give you such specific answers,” Marietta said.
“Probably not,” Ethan agreed. “All this book has is the definition, and this bit about planchettes.”
“Planchettes?” Jun asked.
“The reader,” Stella explained.
“The who?” Jun asked again.
Ethan read aloud. “Every witch board has its own planchette, a smaller, often triangular board on casters that conducts energy when users place their fingers lightly upon it.”
“Planchettes are the things that read the messages,” Stella added. “Without a planchette, the board is just a hunk of wood.”
“Oh!” Ethan exclaimed, “Now, this bit is interesting. It says that the planchette can be anything that the board maker has designated, but the most powerful are made of precious metals—most often silver because gold is harder to obtain for most makers.”
“So, whoever made our board also made its planchette?” Jun asked. “Does that help us find the planchette that goes with this board?”
“It might be if we knew who made the board,” Stella said.
“Have we decided that the Collector didn’t make it himself?” Jun asked.
“We haven’t ruled anything out,” Stella said.
Marietta turned a few pages in the book she was reading.
“Some planchettes,” Ethan said, picking up where he left off, “also called messengers , hold vertical pencils for the purpose of producing automatic reading. See footnote 121. Others have a window through which users can see the letters and/or numbers that create the ultimate communication.”
Stella picked up the witch board and tilted it this way, then that.
“What are you doing?” Jun asked.
“Trying to see if this one was used for automatic writing. I thought I might be able to see indents where a pencil moved across it. Cedar is a pretty soft wood.”
Marietta cleared her throat. “This book is more about magic chalices, lanterns, and mirrors, but there is this one paragraph about witch boards. It says, ‘While mass produced ones are made of cardboard, they were originally made by individuals who practiced prophetic arts and preferred the energies conducted by hardwoods like maples, oak, ash, and birch.’”
“So, cedar would be unusual?” Ethan asked, glancing at his mother, who was still sitting quietly at the back of the store, doodling on a pad of paper. “Does that help us any?”
“None of this helps,” Stella said.
“Let’s not get prematurely discouraged,” Jun said. “We’ve only just started digging for information.”
“Do you think we might have missed something else at Hurley’s office?” Stella asked. “Something else we were supposed to find to make this all make sense? The planchette could’ve been there too.”
“If R.G. was worried about the witch board falling into your hands,” Marietta said, “I doubt he’d keep the planchette anywhere near it.”
“Still…” Jun said, “maybe we should go back to make sure.”
“We’re not going back there,” Stella said. “At least, not yet.”
“How about we go through those screenshots I took of the documents in Hurley’s file,” Ethan suggested. “There could be another clue buried somewhere in those notes.”
Stella sighed. “I feel like my mother would know exactly what to do.”
“Just like Bridget Bishop,” Ethan quipped.
Stella jerked her chin back toward her neck. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Just that, when we wanted to know how to break Bridget Bishop’s curse, you went to the source.”
“Okay. But what does that have to do with my mother?”
Ethan looked at Marietta, then back to Stella as if he thought the answer should be obvious. “If you want her advice, why don’t you just ask her?”
“You mean, like, summon her? My mother?” An icy chill ran down Stella’s spine.
“Yeah,” Ethan said. Plain as that. As if he hadn’t just suggested she open Pandora’s box.
“No. Uh-uh.” Stella backed up. “I’m not doing that.”
“Why not?” he asked. “In fact, I’m surprised you’ve never done it before.”
Stella stared up at him for a few beats, always amazed when she tripped over a hole in his magical education.
“Ethan, wanting to talk to her, and summoning her from the grave… You just don’t do that.”
Jun made a face that suggested he was on Stella’s side with this one.
“But you’ve summoned Bridget Bishop,” Ethan said, glancing back and forth between her and Jun and Marietta.
“That’s different,” Stella said, and her heart pounded erratically.
“I don’t see how,” he said.
“Marietta?” Stella asked, turning to her for help.
“Bridget Bishop,” Marietta explained softly, “has been dead for over three centuries. She has no claim on our earthly bodies. She’s more…distant.”
“I would think that would make it harder to summon her.” Ethan’s gaze slid to his own mother, who, after all this time, was still pacing along the bookshelves, rubbing her crystal.
Marietta shook her head. “What it ‘makes’ is for it to be easier to let Bridget go once the conversation is over.”
“I’ve seen psychics on TV before,” Ethan said. “They pass on messages from deceased loved ones all the time. I used to think it was fake. Now, I know different. And those people in the audience, it seems to bring them peace.”
“Those people feel peace,” Stella explained slowly, “because they have confirmation that their loved one is still aware of what’s going on in their lives. I already know my mother is around in spirit. I don’t need that confirmation.”
“So, what’s the problem?” he asked.
“What happens after those TV cameras turn off?” Stella asked.
“They roll the credits,” Jun said, chiming in, and his smile said that he was hoping to break the tension in the room.
It didn’t work. They all turned their heads to him, and he shrugged sheepishly.
“It’s not enough,” Stella said. “For a lot of those people, that one conversation isn’t enough. They want to talk to them more. It can become an obsession, and that kind of hold on a spirit is like a shackle. For both sides. I won’t do that to my mother.”
“Marietta?” Ethan asked. “What about you?”
She shook her head. “Claire Aldren was like a sister to me.”
“Mom?” Ethan asked, turning to Catherine next. “You’re a prophetic witch, and you didn’t have a relationship with Stella’s mom. You should be able to scry her spirit easily.”
Catherine lifted her gaze from her crystal, then blinked once as if coming out of a dream. “Of course. But even though I’ve never met the woman on this earthly plane, she is my son’s future mother-in-law. We likely would have been good friends.”
A lump rose up in Stella’s throat. Had Ethan shared their future plans with his mother? Or was she making predictions about their future?
Marietta blinked once, then looked questioningly at Stella.
Stella ignored this and asked, “You’re saying you feel too close as well?”
“I’ll do it,” Jun said. “I’ll need Catherine to call her up, but I’ll talk to your mom. If she has any advice for how to proceed with the witch board, she can tell me. Then we can end the conversation and let her go.”
Stella was simultaneously grateful and unnerved.
“Okay,” Catherine said, checking her watch. “but not now.”
Ethan shook his head. “Mom, we?—”
She held up her hand. “Not now. It’s two o’clock. Magnus’s talent show is in an hour.”
Oh my god. Stella pressed her palm to her chest.
“Figuring out your witch board is important,” Catherine said, “but you promised Magnus you’d both be there, and you can’t let him down.”