Thea stared at the window curtains, trying to remember. That awful bloated face... the protruding tongue... and dark bruises on the throat.
"No," she said softly. "There were marks-but whatever strangled him was gone."
"She took it with her." Dani shivered, then put both hands on the book. "Or maybe not. Look, Thea, this may make a great bonfire story, but, really, it's all speculation.''
Thea was staring at the yellowed page beneath Dani's fingers. "I don't think so," she said quietly. "See this symbol by Suzanne Blanchet's name? I recognize it. I saw it for just a second-on the amulet in the fire." "You're sure?"
Thea looked away. "Yeah. It's her, Dani. And it's my fault. I let her out... and now she's killing people. Because of me, somebody's dead."
It was only when she said it that the full realization hit-as if forming the words had somehow made it true. Kevin was dead. He wasn't going to school anymore, he wasn't going to get a chance to repair his Porsche. He wouldn't ever smile at a girl again. He'd lost everything a person had to lose.
"And I just-I just feel so bad," Thea said. The ache in her throat rose up in a sort of spasm, as if she were going to be sick. But what came out was tears. Dani held her while she sobbed. And at last, when Thea was crying more quietly, she said, "You didn't know. You didn't mean to do anything bad. You were just playing around and it went wrong. You didn't know."
"It doesn't matter." Thea wiped her face on her sleeve, sitting up. The ache in her chest was duller now, and she was slowly realizing that something else was there, something that felt hot and bright. A need to act.
"It doesn't matter," she said again. "I still made it happen. But I'll tell you one thing-I'm not going to let it keep happening. I've got to stop her. Which means I've got to send her back."
"I'm with you there," Dani said, her small jaw set in determination. "But how?"
Thea stared at the wall a moment, then said, "I have an idea."
Chapter 10
Gran told me that the only person who can send a spirit back is the one who called it up," Thea said. "But the problem is that you have to be able to see the spirit, you have to be close to it. Then you can do the sending-back spell."
"Okay," Dani said, nodding. "But-"
"Wait, I'm getting to it." Thea got up and began to pace the few steps between her bed and Blaise's. She spoke slowly at first, then more rapidly. "What I'm thinking is that this can't be the first time this has happened. Sometime, somewhere, somehow, some witch must have called up a spirit and let it get away. And then had to go out and get hold of it again."
"I'm sure that's true. But so what?"
"So if we could find a record of how she did it-how she tracked the spirit down-we might be in business."
Dani was getting excited. "Yeah-and it wouldn't even have to be a case of a summoned spirit. I mean, some spirits just won't go to the other side at all after they've died, right? Maybe there's a record about how one of them got sent across the veil."
"Or a story. Or a poem. Anything that would give us a clue about how to get them to stay in the same room with you while you do the spell." Thea stopped and grinned at Dani. "And if there's one thing Gran has lots of, it's records and stories and poems. There are hundreds of books in the workshop."
Dani jumped up, dark eyes snapping. "I'll call my mom and tell her I'm staying over tonight. Then- we find it."
After Dani called her mother, Thea called Eric to make sure he was okay. Now that she knew there was a demented spirit on the loose she was worried about him.
"You're sure you're all right?" he said. "I mean, I still feel awful about taking you to that place. I wanted-well, I'd like it if we could see each other without something terrible happening."
Thea felt as if someone had squeezed her heart. "Me, too."
"Maybe we could do something tomorrow. If you're up to it."
"That would be good." She didn't dare to keep talking to him with Dani around. It would be too easy for anyone listening to guess her feelings.
The first thing Thea noticed in the workshop was that Blaise had taken her new project with her.
She must be close to finishing it.
"I'll start here," Dani said, standing in front of a large bookcase. "Some of these look really old."
Thea picked another case. There were books of every kind: leather-bound, paper-bound, cloth-bound, suede-bound, unbound. Some were printed, some were handwritten, some were illuminated. Some were in languages Thea didn't know.
The first shelf yielded nothing except an interesting spell titled "how to make an elixir of abhorrence, which works quite as well, or perhaps a little worse than the traditional Elixirs of Loathing or Detestation, and is less delicate and expensive than the Elixir of Odium used by royals and members of the nobility, and will also keep extremely well for a very long time."
Hmm...
Thea put that book aside. She'd looked through another half a shelf when Dani said, "Hey, I found your family tree."
Thea scooted over. "Yeah, that's the one Gran keeps. It doesn't go anywhere near back to Hellewise." She laughed.
"Who's this guy?" Dani put her finger on a name. " 'Hunter Redfern.' I thought the Redferns were that hotshot vampire family."
"Lamia family. I mean, there's a difference, you know. Someone who's made into a vampire can't have kids."
"But what's the lamia guy doing in your family tree?"
"He's the one who did a kinship ceremony with Maeve Harman, back in the sixteen hundreds. She was the leader of the Harmans then. See? And we're all descended from their daughter Roseclear."
"She did it with a vampire? Creepy."
Thea smiled. "She did it to stop their families from fighting-they had a feud going on. And so now all of us modern Harmans have a little vampire blood."
"I'll remember to watch out if you start looking at my throat." Dani traced a finger down the tree. "It looks like you and Blaise are the last of the female Harmans."
"Yeah, we're it. The last Hearth-Women."
"That's a big responsibility."