Hallow House - Part Two (32 page)

"But you're not company, you're family," Vera told her. "I've enjoyed your visit."

"Don't forget your promise to come and see me in Seattle," Amanda reminded her.

Naomi moved closer to Ronal. "How long will you be gone?" she asked him in a low tone.

Before answering, he glanced at Katrina. "About two weeks," he told her. "Then I'll be here for an indefinite stay."

"What?" Her voice rose.

He ignored her, picking up Amanda's suitcase and taking them out to his car. Naomi made a move to follow, but was forestalled when her mother linked arms with her. She was forced to go outside with both her mother and Katrina, not alone, as she'd intended. She could do nothing but watch as Ronal handed his grandmother into the car, waved, slid behind the wheel and drove away.

"Amanda's a wonderful woman," Vera said as they walked back toward the house. "Being a stepmother isn't always easy. And she wasn't as lucky as I, to have two girls of my own besides my stepdaughters."

Two weeks, Naomi thought, her heart sinking. He won't be back until Katrina and I are already at St. Bianca.

"Tomorrow we must start looking over your clothes," Vera said as they entered the foyer. "You leave for St. Bianca next week and I know you'll need to buy things."

Naomi numbly climbed the stairs, Katrina following her. Ronal had left and she'd be gone herself before he got back. When they reached the landing, she turned to Katrina.

"What did Ronal mean about being here indefinitely?"

"He's not going east. He'll work with Mama and Brian for a year, then make up his mind what he wants to do. I'm so glad he's come to a decision. He was miserable until he did."

"So you and Mama talked him into staying."

"We did not! He decided. I'm glad he's going to stay, though. He'll be here when we're home on vacations."

"What's the status of your--affair with him?"

Katrina bit her lip. "It's not like that."

"Well, I call it an affair, because that's what it is."

Katrina's cheeks flamed and she rushed past Naomi to their room.

Naomi stared after her, tamping down her guilt at baiting her sister by telling herself it was no more than Katrina deserved. She didn't want to share a bedroom with her twin any more, but supposed she was stuck in the same room with her until they left for St. Bianca. If she made an issue of it now, Mama would be sure to wonder why. Best to wait until they were at St. Bianca and then write and tell Mama she and Katrina had decided to have separate rooms when they came home for Thanksgiving.

Because she was stuck going there, no way of avoiding it now that Ronal had caved in. She should never have gone to see Samara, she should have stayed right here and argued with him.

Dinner was a quiet meal with only the three of them, plus Frances at the long dining room table. And Frances, she knew, was planning to return to San Francisco to nurse her ailing sister. Thinking about it gave Naomi a glimpse of how lonely her mother must be with Daddy dead.

No wonder her mother wanted Ronal to stay on here. Still, it was terribly unfair to him.

"I hope you'll decide to travel, Mama," she said.

"Being along in one place is the same as being alone in another," Vera responded.

"You could buy another house, maybe in San Francisco where there are things to do."

"This is my home," Vera said. "I've grown too accustomed to Hallow House to give it up for a strange place."

"I'll never tie myself to a place," Naomi said. "I want to be able to go anywhere, any time, and not worry about what I leave behind."

Katrina and Vera both stared uncomprehendingly at her. "Travelers grow weary," Frances put in. "Everyone needs a place to come back to."

"I like it here," Katrina said. "I like the idea of it just being here waiting for me when I go away."

"That's how your father felt," Vera said.

Naomi excused herself and went upstairs, on impulse slipping into Ronal's room. He hadn't taken all his belongings--clothes hung in the closet. She took down a shirt she'd seen him wear and held it to her face a moment before rehanging it. Wandering over to his dresser, she opened the top drawer, empty except for a comb. He'll never miss this, she thought, taking it and sliding it into the patch pocket on her skirt. Now she had something of his. Then she lay on his bed, her head on the same pillow he'd used. But that made her wonder if Katrina had been in this bed with him.

She pushed the thought away, telling herself men were like that. Everyone said a man would make love to any girl if she offered herself, whether not she meant anything to him. And, after all, if Ronal wanted her, as he'd said he did, Katrina was almost the same, wasn't she? This thought disturbed her so much she shot up from the bed and left the room.

Not wanting to go to the room she shared with her sister, she wandered along the corridor until she stood outside Delores' door. After a moment she opened it and entered. Avoiding so much as a glance at the portrait, she retrieved the journal and the pendant from the drawer and made her way up to the north tower.

Just to read the journal in private, she assured herself. She had no intention of opening the secret panel. When she sat on the window seat and opened the journal, the chain and pendant slid out, dropping to the floor. Picking it up, she stared for a moment at the twins in the circle, then defiantly hung it around her neck. What was there to be afraid of?

Naomi began to read:

"Boris never comes to my bed any more. I must use the spell that will bind him to me if I wish to keep him in thrall."

Wondering if Tabitha had done that, Naomi flipped over the pages.

Naomi scanned the strange gibberish that followed, words she took to be the spell, flipping through the journal to the end. There were no more entries, just other strange recipes and incantations, there was no indication of whether or not the binding spell had been successful.

Nestled between her breasts, the pendant felt warmer and heavier than it should be. She put her hand around it, intending to remove it. Instead, she found herself on her feet, staring at the wall concealing the secret panel.

She'd never actually taken a good look inside that that room. In fact, she'd barely been in it at all, just to drag Johanna out that night. What harm was there in taking a look?

She pressed the panel and the dark opening was before her. But she had no light, so she wouldn't be able to see anything. Thinking about it, she remembered smelling burnt wax the night Johanna had been rescued--there must have been a lit candle in the room even though there was only darkness when they'd actually pulled Johanna from inside.

Did she have the courage to crawl in there and try to find that candle in the dark? Something seemed to drive her on. She crawled through the passage, remaining on her hands and knees to feel along the floor. Though her heart pounded alarmingly, she kept searching until her fingers closed around a candle, then a book of matches.

Sitting on her haunches, she lit the wick of the candle--a red one, the flame showed her. Standing up, she looked around. Red walls, and there was the inside of the door, as black as the outside. Mirrors hung to either side of it.

She saw what looked like an altar, which took her aback. But she climbed up onto it and pulled aside the red drapery hanging on the wall. She gasped. What was a religious picture doing in Tabitha's room of magic? It'd been covered though. The Virgin Mary's eyes seemed to ask her what she was doing here, so she dropped the red drape over the picture again.

Turning, she saw a uneven chalked circle on the floor below the altar and stepped down to look at it. Inside was a partly charred dried sprig of something. She lifted it to her nose, inhaling the faint scent of rosemary.

Rosemary.
The spell in the book. And she had Ronal's comb in her pocket. Even as she tipped the candle and let melted wax drip inside the circle so she could set the candle into it, thus freeing her hands, Naomi denied to herself what she intended to do.

Feeling as though she was in a dream, she took out the comb, found three hairs caught in it and twined them carefully around the tiny sprig of rosemary. Then she stepped into the circle, crouching inside it as she dropped the hair entwined herb onto the candle flame, causing it to flicker and flare.

There were words she was supposed to chant, but she hadn't memorized any of them. Instead, she found herself intoning:

"By the gate the two wolves lie

Of children two, the one must die.

God hears not the prayers you send

Death and destruction mark the end."

She felt a touch of surprise she'd remembered all the words even though it had seemed they were etched in her mind. Why had she said them? They had nothing to do with the binding spell.

Fear filtered through her, seeming to tangle her thoughts, jumbling them together. The pendant pressing against her chest made it difficult to breathe. Her eyes focused on the black door. Barricaded, no one could get through. But she was inside with the candle and the ancient spell.

Alarm glowed in her mind. Katrina had foreseen her in this room. What had she foreseen happening? She wished Katrina were with her now.

Katrina. Sister. Closer than sister, twin. So close they even loved the same man. Katrina was part of her, a bond that could never be severed.

Naomi tried to rise, but her legs refused to obey her. What had she done in this room?
Katrina
, she cried silently.
Help me.

In her mind she thought she heard her sister's voice telling her
I'm with you.

The candle began sputtering, almost burned away. How long had she been here? Her legs ached with cramp. She watched in growing terror while the flame flickered and died, leaving her in darkness.

She screamed and the strange paralysis was broken. Staggering to her feet, she groped toward where she believed the secret passage to be. But there was no light to guide her--shouldn't some light filter through from the tower room?

Where was the opening? Frantically, she scrabbled along the walls, her fingers brushing over a mirrored surface. She was by the black door--nowhere near where she needed to be. Panic clawed at her. She turned and inched along the other way only to fall over the raised step to the altar. She whimpered in fright. Baby Jesus was covered by the red cloth, God could not hear if she prayed.

Finding a wall at last, she banged her fists against it, screaming and crying until she slumped to her knees, temporarily exhausted…

Naomi found herself standing in front of
Hallow House. Night shrouded the hills but the house shone white under a three-quarter moon. As she stared the twin towers seemed to nod to each other, then the entire house settled in on itself and she knew the end had come, destruction and death, the house crumbling to lie with the headless bones…

Then she was back in the dark room, realizing she'd had a vision. Like those Katrina had? True ones?

"No!" she cried.

She must get out of here. There was a way and she vowed she'd find it. On her hands and knees, she crawled along the wall, running her fingers over it, probing for a crack. When she finally found a small slit, she couldn't believe it at first. She worked her fingers into the space and pushed until suddenly the wall gave and she tumbled through the opening.

Crawling through the passage, she found herself in the dark north tower. As she rose to her feet, she thought she felt the floor lurch under her.

Oh, my God, she thought. What I saw
is
true--the tower is falling.

Chapter 42

Naomi felt her way to the door and rushed down the stairs to the second story. The lights were on in the hall and, to her surprise, everything looked normal. Had she imagined the floor quivering beneath her.

In their bedroom, Katrina lay asleep. Naomi sat on her own bed staring at the illuminated dial of the clock on her dresser. Eleven? Had she been in that room three hours? Impossible. Exhausted, she gave up trying to understand and began to undress.

Finding the chain with the pendant around her neck she yanked it off. She never wanted to see it again, she'd had more than enough of Tabitha's magic. Thoughts clouded by fatigue, she fell into bed and let sleep overwhelm her...

Naomi stood in the darkness of Skull Cave, the only light from phosphorescent skulls above her, She didn't want to be there, but she didn't know the way out.

"Death is the way out," one of the skulls told her, its pale blond hair letting her know it was Tabitha's.

"No one escapes," another said, and she knew it was her Grandmother Celia who died before she was born.

"Your mother is next, Delores said, staring at her from the skull's empty eye sockets, the raven wings of her hair caressing the bones.