"Get away from him! I'm the one who set this up!" Thea screamed. She reached Eric and grabbed wildly at the wraith, at the part of it around his throat. Her hands felt Eric's hands, felt cold air.
"No-Thea, watch out-"
She saw the thing come free of Eric, who staggered. She saw it re-form, gather, then dive straight for her.
"Thea!"
Eric knocked her sideways. Cold air rushed by.
She and Eric fell in a heap. She gasped "Eric, go," even before she got up. She tried to shove at him, looking around for the wraith.
"Go-get out of here!
The jeep's running-get in and just drive.
I'll call you later."
"Stay back to back," Eric said breathlessly. "She's incredibly fast." He added through his teeth, "You know I'm not leaving."
"This is witch stuff, you jerk!" she snarled, standing back to back. "I don't want you. You'll just get in my way!"
It was a valiant effort. She even managed to inject something like hatred into her voice. And Eric wasn't perfect. He turned around, grabbed her by the shoulder, and yelled, "You know I'm not going, so don't waste any more time!"
Then he shoved her sideways again and freezing wind streaked by her cheek, leaving her ear numb.
"Sorry," he said in his normal voice. "You okay?"
Thea spun and looked behind her. The wraith was bobbing there. It was shaped like a woman made of vapor, with arms and legs only suggested, but with a long tail of hair that whipped around.
"I've got the stuff," Thea muttered to Eric. Admit-
ting
she knew he'd never leave. "But it'll take a few minutes to do the spell. We'll have to keep out of-" She was watching the lashing tail, but she wasn't fast enough. There was a sound-something between the snap of a whip and the crackle of electricity- and the tail flashed out. It was around her neck.
At first it just felt cold. Insubstantial but icy, like a scarf of subzero wind. But then the wraith gave a jerk and it tightened and it did have substance. It felt like metal, like a pipe full of supercooled liquid, like the tentacle of some alien creature with ice for blood. It was choking her.
She couldn't breathe and she couldn't get her fingers under it. It squeezed tighter, hurting her. She could feel her eyes start to bulge.
"Look at me!" Eric yelled. He had a stick that was blazing at one end and he was dancing up and down like a crazy person on the other side of the fire. "Look! Suzanne! I'm going to get your little sister!" He poked the burning stick at the dummy Lucienne, not at the wood piled around her, but at the actual
doll
.
"There! There! How do you like that?" He jabbed at the doll. A ring of fire blossomed in the black clothes. "Confess you're a witch!"
Thea felt something slide away and her neck was free.
She tried to shout a warning to Eric, but all that came out was a croak. He was already diving to one side anyway. That must be what he's been doing all this time.
Dodging.
"Eric, keep it up!"
"Okay, but work fast!" He threw himself the other way.
She forced herself to turn her attention from him. Her backpack was at the edge of the circle where she'd dropped it. She grabbed it and dumped the contents out on the ground.
She had to do this right and she had to do it faster than she'd ever worked a spell before.
Oak and ash.
She threw them on the central fire,
then
scooted toward it, dragging the other materials close with a sweep of her arm.
She ripped open a plastic bag and grabbed the quassia chips. They were light, and she had to thrust her hand into the flames to make sure they actually went in the fire. Blessed thistle was powder; she threw it. Mandrake root was solid, she threw it, too.
She had just grabbed the ounce vial when Eric shouted, "Thea, duck."
She didn't look up to see what she was ducking. She fell flat instantly. It saved her. Icy wind blew her hair almost into the fire.
"Suzanne!" Eric was yelling. "I've got your brother! Look!"
There were fires at all three stakes now, and Eric was dashing between them, poking at one figure after another.
Thea pulled the plastic cap off the vial with her teeth. She shook it into the fire, her hand in the flames again.
One, two, three.
The fire roared up, louder than ever, and pure blue. Thea fell back from it.
"Suzanne! Over here!" Eric's voice was faint beyond the roar.
Tears were running down Thea's face, her nose and eyes stinging from the acrid smell. She fumbled for the last object necessary for the sending-back ... the bag of residue from the bronze bowl. She took a handful in her left hand and dropped it between two charcoaled logs at the edge of the fire.
Then she stood up-and saw that Eric was in
trouble
.
He'd lost his burning stick. The wraith had him by the throat and it was whirling him around, changing shape every second. His mouth was open, but Thea couldn't hear any sound.
"May I be given the Power of the Words of
Hecate
"
She screamed it, into the roaring fire, toward the wheeling, changing spirit shape.
And the words came, rolling off her tongue with a power of their own:
"From the heart of the flame ... I send you back! Through the narrow path ... I send you back!"
She put all her own power into the words, too, screaming them with an authority that she'd never felt in herself before.
Because the wraith was fighting.
It didn't want to go anywhere.
"To the airy void ... I send you back! Through the mist of years ... I send you back!"
Eric staggered, was jerked sideways. He seemed to be lifted off his feet by the wraith.
"To beyond the veil... I send you back! Go speedily, conveniently, and without delay!"
Eric's feet were kicking in the air. This is how Kevin died, Thea realized suddenly and with absolute certainty.
She found herself yelling words she'd never heard before.
"By the power of Earth and Air and Water!
By the power of Fire on this night of Hecate! By my own power as a daughter of Hellewise! Go speedily, conveniently and without delay, you bitch!"
She had no idea where that came from. But the next instant Eric fell. The wraith had dropped him.
It shot toward Thea-but then it stopped as if it had slammed into an invisible brick wall. It was directly over the fire.
Caught.
The blue flames were belching smoke-but sideways. Thea could see the wraith dearly above them. And for the first time, it didn't look like a cloud shape. It looked like a woman.
A girl.
Older than Thea, but still in her teens.
With long dark hair that floated around her and a pale face and huge sad eyes. Her lips were parted as if she were trying to speak.
Thea stared. She heard herself whisper, "Suzanne . . ."
The girl held out a pale hand toward her. But at the same moment the fire flared up again. It seemed to turn the girl's hair to fire, too. Dark fire was burning all around her and there was an expression of infinite sadness on her face. Thea reached out a hand instinctively-
The fire roared-
And there was a flash like lightning.
Suzanne had been drawn to the heart of the flame. And now the lightning formed a cone: the narrow path.
Plastic bags and other debris whipped around the circle as if caught in a whirlwind.
Suzanne and the cone of white lightning disappeared into each other.
To the airy void.
Through the mist of years.
The fire flared up above Thea's head, and then sank down. The blue seemed to fall to the bottom. The flames turned yellow, like ordinary fire.
It was as if a curtain had been drawn.
To beyond the veil.
That was where Suzanne was now.
At the edge of the bonfire, where the residue had been, there was a lump of soft clay. Thea knelt and picked it up. She looked into the center of the flames-and saw a coil of long hair, the color of mahogany. The ends were starting to blacken and shrink
in
the fire.
Thea reached in to grab it. She folded the hair over and quickly pressed the clay around it. It was a clumsy job, Blaise would have done much better, but the hair was enclosed. She groped on the ground for the wooden seal, found it,
punched
it into the clay. Suzanne's symbol, the cabalistic sign for her name, was printed.
It was done.
The amulet was restored, Suzanne was trapped again. She'd stay where she belonged unless somebody else was stupid enough to summon her.
Thea dropped the amulet without looking at it, got up, and staggered around the fire to where Eric was lying. Her vision was strangely gray.
After all this ... he has to be all right ... oh, please, let him
be ...
He moved when she reached him.
"Eric, we did it. She's gone. We did it."
He grinned faintly.
Said in a scratchy voice, "You don't have to cry."
She hadn't realized she was.
Eric sat up. He was terminally mussed, his hair wild, his face dirty. He looked wonderful to her.
"We did it," she whispered again. She reached out to smooth his hair, and her hand stayed there.
He glanced at the fire, then back at her. "I kind of hated to say those things to her. I mean, no matter how bad she was ..." He touched Thea's neck, stroking gently. "Are you okay? I think you've got a bruise."
"Me? You're the one who really got it." She put her free hand to his throat, fingers just barely touching. "But I know what you mean," she whispered.
"I felt-sorry-for her at the end."
"Don't cry again. Please. I really hate that," he whispered, and he put his free arm around her.
And then they were just kissing madly.
Deliriously.
Laughing and kissing and holding each other. She could taste her own tears on his lips, warming with his warmth, and she was trembling like a bird in a thicket.
A few moments later a noise broke in. Thea didn't want to move, but Eric looked, and then he stiffened.
"Uh, we've got company."
Thea looked up.
There were cars just outside the sandstone pillars.
Parked cars.
They must have driven up sometime during the fight with Suzanne, while the roar of the fire blocked out the sound of their engines, while Thea's attention was focused on the wraith trying to Ml her.
Because the people were already out of the cars.
Grandma Harman, supported by Aunt Ursula.
Rhys in his lab coat.
Dumpling-shaped Mother Cybele, with her hand on Aradia's arm.
Old Bob, Nans Buruku.