Chapter 14
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Max walked into the library around noon.
I shouldn’t say that, because of course that’s not how Max moves.
He saunters. He sauntered into the library, big, bright smile on his face, hat drawn over his head, hands in his pockets, the perfect cool guy.
Meanwhile, my hair was a wreck, eyeliner smudged down my cheeks.
It’d only been a couple of days, but I felt like I hadn’t bathed in weeks.
He sat down at the table and pulled two books from my unread stack. “Marboli’s Hex and Other Curses from the Ancient World? Curse Tablets, Dolls, and Spells That Bind? Looks like we’ve got our work cut out for us.”
I propped up on my elbow, eying the notebook across from me. “I’ve been thinking … There’s something else we need to try. Or someone else. But you’re not going to like it …”
He looked at me, and I looked at him. He’d already started backing away. “Oh no no no no, Cella, no way. Come on.”
“We need to talk to her, Max …”
“No, come on, there are tons of other leads still.” For his size and general—let’s go with woodsy nature—you wouldn’t think Max was scared of anything, but he could be the biggest chicken.
Spiders sent him running into the next room, complaining about headaches or poor air quality as he scurried out the door.
Heights were also a particularly sore topic.
I was all but forbidden to mention the time we went to the county fair and he very nearly had a heart attack on the kids’ Ferris wheel.
“Look, we’re not going to be able to fix her if we never see her, and she might be able to give us something concrete that points to who did this to her and how. Our council meeting is two days from now. Do you really want to show up empty-handed? We have to talk to her eventually.”
He grumbled, shoulders sagging. “I know. I was just hoping it would be later rather than sooner.”
When we stepped into Maritza’s cottage, everything felt about ten degrees colder than the air outside. Dani was lying in the bed, and Maritza was at the stove, brewing tea.
“How is she?” I whispered.
She shook her head. “She is getting worse. Whatever this is, her body can’t take it for much longer.” She held up a rag near the copper sink, nearly soaked through with blood. “Started last night. I’ve had to change the bandages on her arms and legs twice already this morning.”
“Would it be okay if we speak to her?”
Maritza bit her lip. “She’s not good today. You should come back tomorrow.”
Max turned around; that was all he needed to hear, but I took a step closer.
A feeling of wrongness swirled up around me. She wasn’t this bad the last time I’d seen her. “We only need a few minutes.”
“You heard the lady, Cel,” Max said. “We can come back tomorrow.” He lowered his voice. “Or never …”
Dani was bound to the bed with leather straps. Her fingernails had scratched down her palms, leaving jagged cuts where she’d tried to get at the binds. A groan built in her throat.
I took another step closer. I could practically hear Max’s heart beating from where I was standing, his aura spiking with alarm. He held the rein bit that was his object, clenching his fingers stiff against the leather. If I concentrated, I could almost hear horses nervously stamping the ground.
Max’s voice lowered to a whisper. “She can’t get out of that, can she?”
Maritza shook her head. “The binds have held so far, and the room is enchanted. Even if she does get out, she can’t escape.”
“Oh, okay, so then we’re trapped in here … with her.” Max scratched the back of his neck. “That makes me feel loads better,” he whispered.
Dani’s eyes were ringed in black circles, and her blond hair stuck to her cheeks and neck. She looked so helpless and frail—something about it struck me as familiar. She looked like Aaron had in the hospital, after they’d tried to resuscitate him.
Blood flowed freely from the bandages on her legs. “Will she need a tourniquet?”
Maritza shook her head. “A cut from Magic is not like a normal cut … It will bleed for a bit, then stop, off and on throughout the day. If it keeps on much more, we will need to take her to a hospital.”
“You didn’t do this, Dani,” I whispered. “I know you didn’t.” I touched her hand, and Max’s shoulders stiffened.
“Cella,” Dani rasped suddenly.
“I’m here.” She tried to sit up and coughed herself hoarse. “I think she needs water.”
“Cella, help me,” Dani rasped.
“Of course,” I said, sitting down next to her. “Just tell me what to do. I want to help in any way I can.” I looked over at Max. “I knew we should have seen her sooner.”
Her gaze took on a hopeful, hungry look. “Please.” Her hands twisted in the restraints as blood trickled down her wrists.
“Are these really necessary? She’s clearly in a lot of pain.”
“Yes,” Maritza said firmly. “And you shouldn’t get so close.”
“I agree with Maritza. Come back over here,” hissed Max.
“Please,” Dani rasped, her fingers stretching out toward me. “Please stay. Don’t leave me here alone.” She shot a frightened look at Maritza.
“How can I help?” I asked, my voice quickening, my heart thumping in my chest. “How can I make you more comfortable?”
She squirmed in her binds, her wrists twisting this way and that to get out of them. “They burn.”
My teeth ground in my skull. How could they just leave her like this, tied up like some kind of animal? “She’s in pain! This is barbaric!” As soon as we got out of here, I was going straight to Robetresse’s office. Just what kind of school was she running here?
“Please stay,” Dani rasped.
I ran down the list of symptoms I’d read for hexes.
The scarring of her skin and the blood were consistent with what I’d read.
I peered into her eyes, looking for constricted pupils.
But her pupils were the opposite of tiny; they were blown wide, like she needed to drink in every inch of her surroundings, everything that entered or left the cottage.
“Dani, I want to help you. I need to know who did this to you. Was it one of the other students?” My voice dropped. “Another teacher? Was it Dr. Strauss?”
Something flashed over her face, but it was gone in an instant. Her voice took on a more urgent plea. “Please,” she said, “they burn.”
Blood pooled around her wrists and dripped down her palms.
“They’re so tight,” I pleaded. “She’s rubbing them raw.”
Maritza gave me a hard look. “Cella, step back.”
I reached a hand toward Dani. “Help me figure out who did this to you. If you give me their name, I promise it won’t get back to you. We can get you out of here—”
“Now,” Maritza said, forcefully pushing me out of the way. I fell back into the sharp corner of the table and opened my mouth in protest. They couldn’t treat students like this, like chattel. They couldn’t abuse people, this wasn’t right—
But then I saw the look Dani shot Maritza. It was the cruelest look I’d ever seen, eyebrows angled down, mouth twisted into a gruesome snarl.
I hadn’t even noticed she’d gotten a hand out of her restraints. The bloody thing swiped at Maritza, fingers outstretched like claws. I took a step back in shock.
“I’ll kill you, you fucking bitch—”
Then, apparently remembering she had an audience, Dani turned back to me, her face slipping back into its innocent expression. “Cella,” she said, voice sugary sweet. “Cella. Cella, please,” she pleaded as my footsteps slid backward. My eyes widened.
“Cella, Cella, Cella, Cella!” She screamed and shook the restraints, beating her limbs wildly. Her spine jostled up and down, rattling the bindings. With her free hand, she reached for the binding over the other wrist.
With a tug, I felt a rush of Magic leave me.
Max was holding onto his rein object with eyes closed.
A soft wind circled his ankles. I could smell fresh grass on the wind, hear a horse whinny in the distance.
And I realized what he was doing. The leather binding lifted itself, snaking back over Dani’s wrists.
She snarled.
“Your Magic, Cella!” Max hissed.
I frantically reached for my leather cord and the small jar of water in my other pocket.
I let the Magic brush up against me. When I accessed Magic, I went somewhere else, in my mind, at least. I always landed in different bodies of water—lakes (the worst were in Florida, the alligators were as big as sedans), community pools, the Mediterranean Sea at midnight.
More often than not, I was just dropped somewhere in the Pacific.
* The first few times I was terrified I was going to drown or get dragged under or eaten, but I got used to it after a while.
This time, I plunged into water circling me, deep as the Mariana Trench and just as cold.
Magic swirled and sucked around me, drawing me into a vortex. I gargled water, my lungs tightening in my chest, and felt myself sinking farther down. With a gasping breath, I wrenched myself from it.
“I can’t,” I gasped, shaking. “I can’t.”
Dani smacked the leather snaking over her hand away.
Dani roared, then turned back to Maritza. She started writhing, her hips beating against the straps, moaning and panting like a dog. “You’ll fucking pay for this, you whore. I’ll fuck you like a dog. I’ll wrap my hands around your throat until you feel the life seep from your veins—”
Max grabbed me by the waist and dragged me to the door.
His back was shoved against the door, trying to pull me out and open it at the same time, but my feet were planted to the floor.
My heart shrieked in my ears, telling me to move, get out, before she wrapped those bloody fingers around my throat and squeezed.
But I was in utter shock about what I was seeing, about how quickly things had turned.
About what might have happened if I had removed her restraints, as I’d wanted to.
Maritza shoved her sleeves up and furrowed her brow in determination, speaking the words of a powerful sleeping spell. Even as Dani fought it, I saw the first of its effects crash into her. Something to knock her out and calm her.
“Go,” Maritza shouted at us, angry now.
My voice seemed to regain its sound. “Can you—will you be able to hold it on your own?”
“Yes,” she said furiously. “You’ve done enough damage. Now go.”
Dani looked at me one last time, her eyes heavy with sleep that she could no longer resist. I saw her mouth try one last time—“Cel—”—before my name died on her lips.
Max threw his hands up once we were outside. “Well, that was just about the stupidest thing we’ve ever done!”
“It was necessary,” I said rotating the studs in my ears. I paced back and forth, rubbing the sweat off my palms and onto my jeans.
“Necessary?” he balked. “In case you forgot, she murdered someone not too long ago. Was it necessary for us to nearly get maimed, too?” His voice went high. “I don’t know, Cel, I think that’s debatable—”
But I needed to see what had happened to her, and whatever he said, I’d made up my own mind about the situation.
For better or worse, I felt a connection to this girl.
Someone had done this to her, had hurt her, had made her hurt other people.
And now I had the sinking feeling that no one else cared to make sure she was okay.
Sure, they wanted to know who was responsible, but did they really care about fixing Dani?
The council had brought me here, but it was more than the promise of money in my pocket that was making me stay. She needed someone. She needed my help.
And I needed to be ready. I’d been too afraid in there, unwilling to face my Magic head-on, too terrified to try, and it had nearly drowned me.
That couldn’t happen again. Not if we were to save her.
Max walked away, still loudly complaining to shrubs, random passersby, and what he thought was me dawdling behind him. “I swear you’ve got one hell of a death wish. One of these days, you’re gonna get me killed right along with you.”
As I stood at the door, I swore it on my objects, on the mug and the leather cord that were all I had left of my brother: This wasn’t going to be another Aaron.
I wasn’t going to let another person I was supposed to protect slip out of my grasp.
This time, I’ll be there. I’m not going to leave or miss anything.
I won’t let you slip away into the darkness.
I’ll figure this out and fix you, I promise.
I pressed my hand to the door, whispered my silent oath against the wooden frame. “I’ll find out what’s happened to you if it kills me.”
FROM THE JOURNAL OF DANICA STEWART
MARCH 25TH [ONE WEEK BEFORE THE MURDER]
You Promised. You PROMISED ME. YOU LIED YOULIEDLIEDLIEDTOMELIED
MARCH 26TH
TRUST NO ONE.*