Chapter 19 #2
Nova had already distanced herself from Jess and everything to do with the Vesper grimoire and the Source.
I hadn’t spoken to her since those texts the day after we broke Jess out of the morgue.
She wasn’t standing in our way, but she also wasn’t helping.
Could she possibly be persuaded now to do something to aid our cause?
“Do you think she could get her hands on it?” Jess asked eagerly.
“I don’t like getting a child involved,” Rhi said, wringing her hands on the table.
“Rhi, she’s already involved. Every Claire is involved, at least indirectly,” Persi said.
“And she’s not a child, she’s seventeen,” I said. “The same age as me!”
Rhi’s answering smile was sad. “You’re both children to me, my love.”
“It’s not like we’d be asking her to be there when we summon Sarah,” my mom said. “We don’t want to put her in danger. We’re just asking her to… borrow something for us.”
“Do we absolutely need it?” I asked Jess.
“Not necessarily,” Jess said slowly. “It is possible we could lure Sarah out without it. But the pull would be much harder to resist if we had something like the Claire coven grimoire in the circle.”
“Then I’ll try Nova,” I said. “If there’s anything we can do to hedge our bets, we should try it.”
“Agreed,” Persi said.
“Let’s say we do successfully summon Sarah Claire. What then?”
“Then we find out what she’s done to that Gateway so that I can try to repair it,” Jess said. “If the Gateway can be restored to working order, then your spirit abilities should return, and your Source should be stable again.”
“What are we waiting for, then?” Persi asked, half-rising from her seat, but Jess held out a hand to stay her.
“Hang on, now,” Jess said. “There’s another factor here, and that’s the so-called Darkness.
There’s not much in the spirit world I haven’t dealt with, but entities like the Darkness are above my pay grade.
If we go through with this, what are the chances we summon more than just a ghost, and what the hell will we do about it? ”
I watched my mom and her sisters look at each other in silent conference.
Then my mom turned to Jess again. “The Darkness has been Bound from the Source since the last Covenant was signed. That said, if the Darkness ventures to rear its ugly head during your summoning, the Vesper Coven will be there to meet it head on.”
I shivered, though whether from dread or excitement, I couldn’t tell.
Everything—every unanswered question, every fear, every half-understood warning and cryptic message—it all seemed to be coming together in this moment.
And instead of running from it or waiting helplessly for it all to happen, we were walking right into it, battle ready.
I felt terrified. I felt elated. But as I looked at each of the four women sitting around me, there was one feeling that overwhelmed all the others.
I felt ready.
The phone on the wall rang shrilly, making us all jump.
Everyone’s expression immediately morphed into visible panic.
Had someone spotted us? Had we left evidence behind?
Had Eva and Zale been caught and forced to confess what we’d been doing?
The bleak possibilities flashed through my mind, each more horrifying than the last. I watched with my heart in my throat as Rhi rose from the table and hurried to answer it.
“Hello?” she said, keeping her voice even. She listened for a moment, and then her eyebrows rose in surprise. “Oh! Sure, I can… hang on…” She placed her hand over the mouthpiece and called over to the table. “Persi, it’s for you, honey. It’s one of the nurses at the health center.”
Persi’s complexion went pale, and she rose to her feet. Nobody spoke as we watched her cross the room and take the phone from Rhi’s hands, pressing it to her own ear.
“This is Persephone Vesper,” she said, and then, “Oh hi, Jacinda, is everything—” She listened for a moment in silence. Then, so slowly that it felt like a dream, we watched as she sank right to the floor with a terrible moan.
“Persi!” Rhi cried, dropping to the floor beside her. “Honey, what is it? What’s wrong?”
But my heart—or maybe something else entirely—was telling me. I didn’t know how I knew, but I did. I knew it.
“Bernadette,” I whispered.
My mother hurried over to her sister’s side as Persi’s voice rose in a keening wail, and then fragmented, like shattered glass, into heaving, broken sobs.
“No,” she just kept saying over and over again. “No, no, no, no…”
Beside me, Jess was frozen with horror, waiting.
It seemed to take forever for Rhi to prise the phone from Persi’s hand, and place it to her ear again.
She listened, stricken, as the nurse continued to speak.
She closed her eyes and stroked Persi’s hair, as Persi continued to sob inconsolably.
Then she said, in a husk of a voice, “Thank you for letting us know.” Then she rose slowly to replace the receiver.
We all stared at her.
“Bernadette Claire has… has passed on,” she said quietly.
The words, spoken aloud, seemed to break Persi all over again.
Her crying intensified, and both her sisters covered her shuddering body with their own, while Jess and I stood there helplessly.
It seemed to go on forever, each second of grief stretched to a minute, each minute to an hour.
Finally, though, Persi’s sobs quieted enough that my mom and Rhi managed to get her onto her feet and, with one of them on either side supporting her, led her out of the kitchen and up the stairs to bed.
Jess and I stood there for a few seconds in the echoing emptiness they left behind, and then Jess sank slowly down into her chair, looking shaken.
I followed suit, my legs giving way completely so that I sort of fell into my own seat.
“They were in love,” I said, my eyes focused on the phone on the wall. “Years ago. Even as Bernadette’s powers started to pick away at her sanity, Persi stuck by her. I think she was the only person left who hadn’t given up on Bernadette. She couldn’t.”
“That’s awful,” Jess said. “I’m… I’m so sorry.”
I just nodded. I wasn’t the one who needed to hear those words.
I had never known the real Bernadette, and I could hardly be expected to mourn the twisted and dangerous woman she had become in recent years.
But I could understand, even after all Bernadette had put me through, that this ending was not what she deserved.
My mother came into the room, looking bewildered and exhausted.
She moved over to the stove and, perhaps just needing something to do with her hands, began brewing a pot of tea.
Almost automatically, I used my nose to assess the ingredients: chamomile, lemon balm, lavender.
She was brewing something to help Persi sleep.
She came over and joined us at the table while the water heated, sinking heavily into her chair.
“How’s Persi?” I asked.
She shrugged helplessly. “Heartbroken, though I think a part of her expected this. It’s the guilt more than anything that’s tormenting her. Guilt that she couldn’t save her.”
“It’s not her fault,” I said.
My mom smiled sadly. “Feelings like guilt and grief are rarely penetrated by anything so weak as objective reality.”
“Did they say how she… how it happened?” I asked.
“By her own hand,” my mom said. “I don’t know any more than that.”
The kettle behind her began to whistle, and she rose to take it off the burner. She pulled five cups down from the shelf, and lined them up on the counter, pouring tea into each one. Then she turned and placed two of those cups in front of Jess and me.
“Where is it you’re staying, Jess?” my mother asked, as she set the cup and saucer in front of Jess with a gentle clink.
“Just one town over, in Camden,” Jess said.
“I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to try to return there tonight.
The police will be on high alert after what happened at the lighthouse tonight, and so too will the Conclave.
We’d be happy to have you stay the night here.
I… don’t think we’re going to be able to settle any more details tonight, not after… well…” She gestured to the phone.
“Of course,” Jess said. “But I don’t want to intrude on what is obviously a really heavy moment here.”
But my mom was already shaking her head. “If you go, we’ll only worry that you’ll be caught. You’d be doing us a favor, not giving us another reason to worry.”
Poor Jess. How was she supposed to argue with that? “Okay, sure, that would be great,” Jess answered, “as long as you really don’t mind.”
“We don’t mind at all,” my mom said. “And that tea in front of you is something to help everyone sleep. It’s up to you if you want to drink it, but it’s an old Vesper family recipe, and it’s very effective. At least eight hours of dreamless sleep, guaranteed, and a clear head when you wake.”
“I never thought I’d voluntarily drink anything brewed by a witch, but that sounds amazing,” Jess said.
My mom nodded. “We haven’t got a spare bedroom, but I could—”
“Don’t trouble yourself,” Jess interrupted. “I can literally sleep anywhere. Just a couch will be perfect.”
My mom nodded again, looking grateful. “There’s a comfortable one in the library. Just let me take this tea to Persi, and I’ll bring you down some linens and a pillow,” she said.
We watched her load up a tray and carry it carefully out of the room. Jess looked at me, one corner of her mouth hoisted into a sad little smile.
“What a night,” she said.
“Yeah.”
“Do you think, with what’s just happened… will they still want to…?”
“Bernadette’s death is terrible,” I said, “but it doesn’t change anything. And I can’t imagine Persi letting her final warnings go unheeded. It would be like letting her death be in vain, you know?”
Jess nodded, looking relieved. “Good. Because I’ll have to proceed regardless, and I’ll be grateful if we can do it together.” She picked up her cup, took a long swig of tea, and immediately swayed in her seat. “Whoa.”
“Oh yeah, sorry, that stuff works quick. You should probably go into the library before you drink any more. Here, I’ll show you where it is.”
I showed Jess where the library couch was and then, figuring my mom had enough to worry about upstairs, I ducked into the linen closet and grabbed two pillows, a sheet, and a patchwork quilt.
By the time I delivered them to Jess, she was already curled up on the couch, struggling to keep her eyes open.
“This tea is… wow,” she mumbled.
I laughed. “Yeah. It’s good stuff.”
“Hey, Wren.”
I turned back to her. She was looking at me earnestly.
“It’s going to be okay. We’re going to figure this out.”
I wanted to agree, to say “I know,” and really mean it. But I didn’t want to lie, so instead I said, “Good night, Jess.”