Chapter 26
Chapter
Twenty-Six
Broomstix
“ S o?” Ethan asked. “How do we do this?”
He’d convinced Stella to close her store early. Yes, she’d lose a few hours of potential sales, but when it came to saving her store, she had to know it was too late to turn things around. Maybe she’d always known it, which was why he still couldn’t understand why she’d rejected his help.
Now, the store was lit with only the dim glow of a hundred battery-operated candles. The witch board sat in the center of the now-cleared display table in the middle of the sales floor. The gold bracelet lay on top of the board.
No one made a move to touch either one of them, and Stella looked like she was going to chew a hole right through her bottom lip.
Ethan got a piece of paper and a pen to jot down whatever messages came through.
“What do you mean, ‘how do we do this?’” Abby asked. “Didn’t you ever mess around with ouija boards at sleepovers? I didn’t even know I was a witch and?—”
“Hybrid, babe,” Hawk interjected.
“Shifter-witch hybrid,” she amended, “and I had a ouija board.”
“The few sleepovers I went to as a kid,” Ethan said, “didn’t involve summoning spirits. At worst, we TP’d houses or played ding-dong ditch.”
“Crimes that would’ve no doubt dogged you on the campaign trail,” Hawk said good-naturedly. “Smart to get out before you hit the scandal rags.”
“Let’s be serious,” Stella said.
“I think everyone’s got a case of the nerves,” Jade said, flicking her hands back and forth like she was trying to dry them. “We all need to shake ‘em off.”
“The two daughters should do this in private,” Goody Joan said. “This is a pathway your mother established to communicate with you. Not with us.”
“ These people should hear whatever it is our mother has to say,” Stella said, “They’ve been our allies in everything having to do with the Collector.”
Ethan heard the subtle accusation in Stella’s tone, but Goody Joan had no reaction to it.
“Should we all put a finger on the edge of it?” Jade asked.
Ethan refocused on the bracelet.
“First,” Stella said, “we need to ask the board a question.”
“I’ve got a question,” Hawk said. “How is the board supposed to answer anything when there aren’t any letters on it? Only numbers.”
“That’s true,” Abby said. “Ouija boards have letters. That’s how my friend knew that Jacob had a crush on her in the fourth grade. It spelled out his name.”
“Let’s just try it and see what happens,” Ethan said.
They all reached for the bracelet and touched it with an index finger.
“Okay,” Stella said, sounding more uncertain than Ethan was used to. Even when she was nervous, she’d always seemed in charge. “M- Mom, it’s me and…Jade…and some friends. I guess what we want to know is…how can we get the advantage over Dad? We want to stop him from killing more people, taking their magic, and changing history.”
“And borrowing faces,” Jade added quickly.
Ethan stared at the bracelet and all of the six fingers resting along its edge. He expected to feel some kind of vibration. Magic. An energy. But nothing happened. “Is it working?”
“Maybe we need to ask one question at a time,” Abby suggested. “That was like four all at once.”
But suddenly the bracelet shot across the board.
Abby and Hawk lunged forward, having kept their fingers securely along its edge.
“Yikes,” Abby said.
Ethan bent his head so he could look straight down at the board through the center of the bracelet. “It stopped on a number one.”
“Okay…” Abby said, and for some reason she looked up at Hawk as if he might understand it.
“Not to be a downer,” Hawk said, “but to reiterate…how does the number one answer any of your questions?”
The bracelet zinged across the board, and all of their arms moved with it.
“Now, it’s over a zero,” Jade said.
Zing!
The bracelet shot across the board stopping in front of Goody Joan. She peered down at the board. “Three.”
Zing!
Once more, the bracelet slid across the board. This time, stopping in front of Stella.
“One,” she said.
Ethan held his breath, trying to come up with some kind of meaning. One, zero, three, one. Was it some kind of code?
He waited for the next number to be revealed, but nothing happened. They waited—it seemed —for at least a minute before Hawk withdrew his finger from the edge of the bracelet.
“That can’t be it,” Stella said, sounding defeated.
Ethan withdrew his own finger and quickly scribbled the numbers onto the paper.
“One, zero, three, one?” Stella asked. “What the hell is that?”
“You don’t…” Jade started, but she looked a little sick. “You don’t think it’s a year, do you? Like, she’s not telling us to find him in the year 1031?”
“Listen to your mother,” Goody Joan urged.
“I’m not going back to the Middle Ages,” Stella said, finally pulling her finger off the bracelet. Jade, Goody Joan, and Abby did the same.
The bracelet immediately started to vibrate against the board, though it remained over the same number.
“Now what?” Hawk asked.
Nobody responded. Apparently, nobody knew.
The vibrations put the bracelet into shallow spin, which eventually intensified until the bracelet was on its edge, spinning like a top. It rotated across the board, finally collapsing over the number two.
Everyone exhaled, and Ethan reached across the table to pick up the bracelet, but Jade slapped his hand.
“Hey,” Stella said in his defense.
“Wait,” Jade replied. “See what it does next.”
“Is this still in response to your initial questions?” Abby asked.
“Put your fingers back on the planchette,” Goody Joan said. “I don’t think you want to irritate your mother for long.”
They all did so, and the bracelet immediately sailed across the board, stopping on another zero, another one, then the number five.
After that, it moved no more. And they waited. They waited a long time, just to be sure.
“If two, zero, one, and five is supposed to be another year, at least 2015 sounds more reasonable,” Hawk said.
“The Collector told me that Jun almost captured him in 2015,” Abby said. “That’s why the Collector went back to 1995, to try and kill Jun when he was still a kid.”
“It’s possible 2015’s a significant year,” Hawk said, still considering the significance of the numbers. “But we still don’t know what those first four are supposed to mean. What were they again?”
“One-zero-three-one. Then two-zero-one-five.” Ethan read off his paper before turning it around to show the others. “Do these numbers look familiar to anyone?”
“They look like some of your mother’s millions of doodles,” Stella said. “All the numbers zero through five, but no number four.”
“Well, that’s encouraging,” Ethan said.
They all stared down at the witch board, which remained as silent as before.
Ethan suddenly jerked his head up. “What if it’s more of the same?”
Stella glanced up at him. “What do you mean?”
“What if it’s all part of the same? Maybe your mother wasn’t giving you the year 1031, but the date ten, thirty-one, October thirty-first.”
“Halloween, 2015,” Stella said softly, her face taking on a faraway expression.
“Oh my god,” Jade whispered.
“Jade?” Abby asked.
Jade pulled out her phone and hit a couple of buttons.
Everyone watched her intently as she stared down at the witch board while waiting for someone to pick up.
Someone did finally answer, and Jade’s head shot up. “Izzy? What year did we go to Bethany Roger’s Halloween party?”
Ethan could hear Izzy’s muffled but definitely puzzled voice coming over the phone line.
“Yeah,” Jade said. “That one.”
Another long pause as Jade listened to whatever Izzy had to say, and Ethan watched, fascinated, as it seemed all the blood ran out of Jade’s face.
“That’s what I thought,” she said. “Thanks.”
Another pause.
“Yeah. I’ll explain in a bit. I gotta talk to Stella first. Bye.”
She ended the call and pocketed her phone.
“I don’t like the look on your face,” Stella said.
“Do you remember Bethany Rogers?” Jade asked.
Stella turned her head and gave her sister a quizzical side-eye. “Sure?”
“She was one of my BFFs in elementary and middle school,” Jade explained for the rest of their benefits. “And then her family moved to Medfield. Bethany invited me and Izzy to her Halloween party in 2015. George drove us out there.”
“Medfield?” Ethan was familiar with the small suburban town southwest of Boston, as well as its infamous past. “Didn’t Frannie’s letter say the Collector was telling people he was a psychiatrist?”
“Yes,” Abby said. “What about it?”
“Do you know what’s in Medfield?” Jade asked her, but it was Ethan who answered.
“Medfield State Hospital,” he replied.
Jade nodded, and everyone turned his way. Everyone, that is, except for Goody Joan, who stepped away from the group and began pacing along the bookshelves.
“It was originally called the Medfield Insane Asylum,” Ethan added.
Not too surprisingly, Abby wrapped her arms around herself. Not that long ago, she’d been confined to a similar place.
“It closed its doors over twenty years ago,” Ethan said, “and some movies have been filmed there, but nothing recently. There’s a push to renovate the complex into housing or maybe even a cultural center.”
“The place is patrolled,” Jade said. “But you can still walk around the grounds. It’s very popular on Halloween.”
“That’s where Bethany had her party?” Stella asked.
Ethan kept watch on Goody Joan while the conversation continued. The ancient witch put her fingers to her temples and shuffled along the bookshelves, mumbling to herself.
“Not exactly,” Jade said, “but we found our way there after Bethany’s parents went to bed. You’re not supposed to go inside the buildings, of course.”
“Let me guess…” Stella said.
Jade pressed her lips together. “We might have gone into Building R.”
“Jade,” Stella said, sounding aggrieved.
“It’s supposedly where the most dangerous patients were treated,” Jade protested, as if that was sufficient excuse. “Totally wigged me out. I swore I felt someone staring at me, and… Okay, normally I’d say this was going to sound nuts, but under the circumstances…I swore I felt Dad’s presence that night. Like, his ghost.”
“It’s haunted?” Abby asked. “I suppose—a place like that—that would make sense.”
“Except it doesn’t make sense because our father’s not dead,” Stella reminded them.
“Yeah, but I didn’t know that at the time,” Jade said. “Maybe it wasn’t his ghost. Maybe it was really him. Anyway, I totally freaked, and we got the hell out of there.”
“You never told me any of this,” Stella said.
“Because Izzy convinced me I’d imagined it. We might have been smoking something that night.”
“This might explain why the Collector was telling people he was a psychiatrist back in the 30s,” Abby said. “It would explain why he was going to Medfield. The hospital was still in operation then. Maybe he was using the grounds for his own purposes, and he was still doing it in 2015.”
“Decent theory,” Jade said. “There are a ton of buildings and new ones keep getting closed, then completely abandoned. Especially today, it’s a great place to hide.”
“Does this mean we’re going to Medfield?” Hawk asked.
“There must be a reason Mom is giving us that date, and I trust Jade’s instincts. There’s a good chance the Collector will be at the Medfield Hospital on Halloween, 2015. And if we’re able to get the advantage by getting there before him…”
“If we’re opening a portal to go to Medfield Hospital on Halloween 2015, what’s our anchor?” Hawk asked.
“Shit,” Stella said, and everyone’s face fell. In all the excitement, they’d forgotten about their need for an anchor.
“Never fear,” Jade said, her eyes twinkling. “Give me an hour. I’ll be back.” She dashed out the door.
They all watched the door swing shut behind her, and Ethan took a deep breath.
“If your sister somehow comes up with an anchor to the hospital,” Hawk said, “are we all going?”
“We’ll need every method of attack available,” Stella said. “I’ll go get the poppet.”
Goody Joan stopped dead in her tracks and turned slowly to face Stella. “It will not matter who goes to Medfield, unless you face the monster with the beetle in your pocket.”
Stella shivered, and Ethan instinctively put his arm around her shoulders.
“There were tons of beetles in the basement of the tattoo parlor,” Stella said. “Down where the Boston coven kept its grimoire. Do you mean we need to face him with blood magic?”
It wasn’t a bad guess, Ethan thought. Prophetic magic had a way of speaking in symbols and metaphors. His mother’s magic was much the same as Goody Joan’s.
“Or maybe’s she’s referencing Alastair?” Hawk suggested. “He was abducted from a Beatles concert.”
“No,” Abby said. “She means me. When the Collector was in my head, he always referred to me as his ‘little beetle.’ When you face him, you need to do it with me.”
“And if we find him?” Hawk said. “How do we kill him this time? Without him slipping away.”
“I’ll weaken him with the poppet,” Stella said, “But we kill him with fire.”
“That’ll work?” Hawk asked.
“The Collector let something slip when he held me captive,” Stella explained. “He said that a prophetic witch once told him he would die in fire. That’s why he wanted Frannie’s magic. She’s fire resistant.”
“But if you were able to survive something as awful as demon fire,” Hawk said, “wouldn’t the Collector be able to do it too?”
“I don’t know,” Stella said. “But whoever that prophetic witch was, the Collector believed her, so I trust her too.”
“Well,” Goody Joan said. “’Tis about time.”
Ethan’s surprise caught in his throat, and he choked. “You?”
“He tortured me for information,” Goody Joan admitted.
This didn’t surprise Ethan. He’d often wondered why she hadn’t been a target. Her longevity had to be incredibly enticing to the Collector.
“How did you escape?” he asked.
Her lips turned up just the slightest bit, and she shrugged. “I am a survivor, you see?”
“I may not always appreciate a prophetic witch’s methods,” Stella said, “but I’m glad you told him about his downfall. Indirectly, you gave us the information too.”
Goody Joan tipped her head to the side, as if accepting the barest hint of a compliment.
“So, fire is the answer,” Ethan said.
“But not just any fire,” Stella said. “You didn’t feel how strong the Collector’s magic was. It’ll have to be stronger than demon fire.”
Ethan’s gut twisted remembering the sight of Stella curled into a fetal position in the middle of a forest, surrounded by ash and devastation, some of her own hair burned right off her scalp.
“What’s stronger than demon fire?” Hawk asked.
“The three of them,” Goody Joan said. “If they lay their cards just right.”