The Nightmare Affair (20 page)

Moira frowned, her eyes thoughtful.

Sensing she was about to cave, I said in my softest, most desperate voice, “What is the Keeper spell guarding, Mom?”

Several seconds passed while Moira continued to stare at me. Then she glanced out the door as if to check that we were still alone. She turned back to me. “The spell is guarding the most powerful magical object in existence. A sword, which I’m sure you’ve heard of. In ordinary folklore, it’s known as Excalibur, although that’s not its true name.”

Say what?
She had to be pulling my leg. “Very funny, Mom.”

“I’m not joking. I would
never
joke about something so important.”

I could tell she meant it. My fingers clenched around the bedsheet. I was dimly aware that I was no longer wearing my ball gown but a green infirmary robe. “I thought the Arthur legend was an
actual
myth?”

Mom shook her head. “That is what the Magi want you to believe, but in truth, it’s nothing but an elaborate work of propaganda. The story has been twisted and turned into legend to hide the truth of real events and people.”

I considered the idea. Hiding truth behind stories was a familiar concept with magickind. The Tinkerbell version of fairies was nothing more than a good PR campaign. Far from being cutesy and harmless, fairies were fearsome, capable of reducing an ordinary into a pile of gooey mush in a matter of seconds—if they wanted to and if The Will wasn’t keeping them in check. It was a sobering thought, and I found myself glad a Nightmare’s magic was so rare.

I cleared my throat. “So Arthur and Merlin were real people?”

Moira knelt, resting her arms on the side of the bed. “No. Those are fictional characters
based
on real people.”

I looked her in the eye, my mind running through all the movies and books about King Arthur. The influence of that myth was everywhere, even on campus, depicted in statues and artwork. “Then what’s the true story?” I asked.

Moira waved the question off. “No time for that now. The important thing for you to know is that the sword is the power source for The Will.”

I gulped, a tremor of fear rippling through me. The power source of a magical spell was essentially the spell itself, the heart of it. “Are you saying the killer is trying to break The Will?” It was suddenly hard to breathe, as if someone had punched me in the chest.

“Either that or he’s trying to gain control over it. The sword is what makes The Will possible. Whoever controls the sword controls The Will. They will wield the same level of power. Power they can use over anyone and everyone. However they choose.”

I thought about Rosemary, lying dead in the cemetery, her body bruised and mutilated, and of Mr. Ankil, his body a ruin of burned flesh. There was no doubt the killer would use it to do even more evil.

Mom stood, a triumphant look in her eyes. “So, now that you understand the danger, stay out of it.”

I opened my mouth to argue, but Moira spun around at the sound of someone entering the room. The duty nurse’s eyes registered surprise, but before she could react, my mother pointed her hand and said, “Amnes-somni.”

The nurse’s face went slack. She stood there, motionless and senseless. I didn’t recognize the spell, but I had no doubt it was an illegal one.

“What are you
doing
?” I said.

Moira turned back and pointed her hand at me. I was asleep again before she finished uttering the spell.

*   *   *

When I woke next, it was to the feel of warm light on my face. In less than a heartbeat, all the details of the night before came rushing into my mind.

Mr. Ankil.

Dead.

Another victim. Another death my useless dream-seer powers had been unable to prevent.

And a killer, determined to conquer The Will.

I heard the sound of ruffling paper and slid my eyes open, glancing around for the source. When I saw Eli sitting in a chair next to me with a magazine in his hands, I closed them again. I tried to remain perfectly still, willing myself unconscious. I wasn’t ready to face anybody, least of all him.

“You can stop pretending,” Eli said. “I can see your eyes moving behind your eyelids.”

I peered over at him. “It’s not called Rapid Eye Movement for nothing.”

He smiled. “You must be feeling better if you’re being snotty already.”

I wasn’t feeling better, worse actually, but I didn’t say anything, hoping to avoid the topic of feelings at all costs.

“What are you doing here?” I asked. He was wearing regular clothes again, but he didn’t appear as if he’d slept much.

Eli set down the magazine on the table in between the chair and the hospital bed. “I wanted to make sure you’re okay.”

I blinked in surprise at the sincerity in his words. For the first time ever he didn’t look menacing or dangerous. Instead he looked like I felt—scared, exhausted, and guilt-ridden.

I sat up and stretched, realizing too late that I was braless beneath the infirmary robe. I wrapped my arms around my chest and looked around, hoping he didn’t notice my blush. “I’m feeling a little better. But what’s been happening?”

Eli grimaced. “Not much. They haven’t caught the killer or anything.”

I swallowed, resisting the urge to be sick. My throat ached, and my tummy felt hollow. Of course they hadn’t found him. Someone powerful and crazy enough to go after The Will spell wasn’t going to be caught easily. “Has Paul been by?” I said, searching for an easier topic.

“He was here, but his uncle came and made him leave.” Eli glanced at the door. “Selene should be back soon. She’s getting something to drink.”

“Oh. Does she … know what happened?”

Eli scowled. “She’s not supposed to. The sheriff and those guys are telling people Ankil’s death was an accident caused by a lighting spell backfiring on him due to the ‘instability of magic during Samhain’ or some nonsense,” he said, finger-quoting. “You and I are supposed to play along. But Selene cornered me and
made
me tell her the truth.”

I smiled at the exasperation in his voice. “Yeah, Selene can be forceful when she wants to be.”

“No kidding. Are
all
your friends like that?”

I dropped my eyes, not wanting to look at him. “She’s my
only
true friend. Here at least.”

When Eli didn’t respond, I fixed my gaze on the door, hoping Selene would get back soon. I wasn’t surprised Ankil’s death was being played off as an accident, but it felt wrong. He deserved better.

“I’m sorry,” Eli said, his voice throaty with emotion.

I looked at him. “What for?”

“Everything. Especially for not making more of an effort to work as a team.” He stood up and started pacing. “I was just so
pissed,
you know? About leaving my old life. Coming here to this strange place. And I hate feeling like the only kid on the short bus.” He stopped midstride and faced me. “I blamed you at first, but that’s stupid and doesn’t matter. I know it’s not your fault. And now I can’t help thinking that maybe if we’d been friends from the start, we would’ve been more focused on the dreams. Then maybe we could’ve done something to save Mr. Ankil.”

I stared at him, stunned speechless. Tears welled around my eyes, and I fought to hold them back. “It’s not your fault. I wasn’t exactly waving the friend flag your way. I’ve been avoiding you because the dream-seer stuff scares me. And I understand why you blamed me. I felt the same way when I first came here. Only I was pissed at my mom for being a Nightmare.”

He opened his mouth to say something more, but Selene arrived in the doorway.

“Hey you,” she said, beaming at me. “How you feeling?”

“Better.” I kept glancing warily at Eli as he returned to the chair.

Selene gave me a look that told me she knew I was lying. She sat down on the side of the bed and handed me the glass of water she’d brought in with her. “You aren’t responsible for what happened,” she said matter-of-factly. “I just want to make that clear right up front.”

Eli smacked his hands against the arms of his chair, making Selene and I both jump. “Of course she’s not. But what’s the good of having these dreams if we can’t save anybody?”

“But it’s not that simple, Eli,” I said, feeling the urge to defend us. “There was no way we could have known that the Minotaur symbolized Mr. Ankil.”

“What are you talking about?” asked Selene, brow furrowed in confusion.

Eli filled her in about the Minotaur getting beheaded by the black phoenix.

“Wait,” Selene said when he finished. “The Minotaur had a
ring
in its nose? And then Ankil’s hand was missing?”

I nodded, knowing exactly where she was going. I’d already come to the same conclusion.

“Then the senate must’ve known he was in danger.”

“How do you figure?” said Eli.

“Because he was a Keeper,” I answered, setting down the glass of water that I’d finished in three swallows.

“A what?”

I hesitated, unsure if I should trust him. I wasn’t supposed to know about the Keepers myself. But I
had
to tell him. He was as much a part of this as I was.

A stricken expression spread across his face as he listened. “So all this time the killer’s been targeting specific people?” he said as I finished.

Selene and I both nodded.

Eli turned his icy blue eyes on me. He swallowed. “I really wish you’d told me sooner, but I’m glad to know now.”

As our eyes locked something seemed to click between us, and I felt my resentment toward him slipping away.

“So if the senate knew Ankil was a Keeper,” said Selene, “why didn’t they keep a better guard on him? And why did he go down into the tunnels in the first place?”

Nobody answered for a moment.

Then Eli said, “Maybe he was bait.”

Selene and I both looked at him, horrified by the idea.

“Well, if that’s true,” said Selene, “they did a bang-up job of it—he died and they still didn’t catch the guy.”

“Just goes to show how dangerous and clever the killer is,” said Eli.

Selene looked sick. “No wonder Ankil was so nervous lately.”

“Yeah, I noticed that, too,” said Eli. He ran a hand through his hair. “But it only started a couple of days ago. You’d think he would’ve been nervous as soon as Rosemary died.”

I bit my lip, an idea occurring to me. “He must’ve been a
new
Keeper. Think about it. The senate probably decided to change the Keepers after Rosemary died to hide their identities. And Rosemary was so young, too. I heard Lady Elaine say that the spell had become more of a rite of passage than something to take seriously. So if the other Keepers were just as young and inexperienced, they would’ve had to change them.”

“Rite of passage my foot.” Selene scowled. “They shouldn’t have been messing around with illegal black magic in the first place.”

Eli leaned toward me. “So what’s this Keeper spell guarding?”

I sucked in a breath, once again shocked by the enormity of the situation. “You won’t believe it,” I said, glancing between the two of them. Then I recapped what my mom had told me about the Arthur legend and how Excalibur was now The Will’s power source.

“You’re right, I don’t believe it,” said Selene, rubbing her temples.

“Well, I could believe anything with this crazy magic stuff,” said Eli, his voice wry.

Selene turned a fierce gaze on him. “Do you know what would happen if The Will stopped working? Total chaos.”

Eli scoffed. “Why do you think so? Isn’t that like saying if the United States legalized drugs, everybody would turn into crackheads? Don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t do it just because it was legal.”

Selene snorted. “
Drugs
are nothing like
magic
.”

“She’s right,” I said. “Drugs mostly hurt the person doing them. Magic can hurt everybody.”

“Especially when we’re talking about the predatory magickind out there,” said Selene, hugging herself. “Don’t forget, the only reason why a lot of the demons and such don’t hurt people is because The Will doesn’t let them.”

Eli held up his hands, his arm muscles flexing. “I get it. No Will is bad.”

I shook my head. “It might be worse than that. My mom said the killer wouldn’t necessarily want to break The Will but control it.”

“You mean so he could control us?” said Eli, raising a single eyebrow. “Like how I’m forced to fall asleep for our sessions?”

“Yep.”

Selene shuddered. “That’s horrible. Who knows what we might be forced to do.”

Silence descended around us as we considered the frightening prospect.

Selene exhaled loudly. “Well, at least we know there’s still one person holding the Keeper spell together.”

I frowned. “How do you figure?”

“The senate always does things by threes at a minimum. And since Rosemary was naturekind and Ankil witchkind—”

“—the third must be
darkkind
,” I said, making the connection.

“Right.”

“But why?” said Eli.

“Because that’s the way it’s done,” Selene answered. “The senate is divided into three parties, one for each kind. There’s a lot of distrust between the kinds, enough that it’s a sure bet if a fairy and a psychic were a part of the spell, a darkkind was, too. They would insist on keeping things equal.”

“Makes sense,” said Eli. “But can we be sure there are only three?”

“We can’t. There could be more, but there are at
least
three,” said Selene.

Eli looked at her, his expression hard. “Then someone else is going to die, too.” He turned that gaze on me. “Unless we stop it.”

Nobody spoke. I kept picturing Mr. Ankil with his big, flamboyant personality. The way he always acted like one of the students. He was so cool and so
young
.

And now he was gone.

Selene broke the silence first. “You’re right. We’ve got to do something.”

I shook my head, images of Mr. Ankil’s death in my mind and that terrible smell thick in my nose.

“Come on, Dusty,” said Eli. “You and I can do this. We’ve got the dreams to help, and I know loads about detective stuff. We’ve got to
try.
”