Chapter Twenty

Midnight I was jolted awake-this time by tiny sniffles. The dead girls were back. I didn’t pause this time, didn’t wait for them to approach me, just shot out of bed and headed to Dana’s room. At least this time I was dressed. I’d taken to sleeping in my clothes, never sure when I’d be awakened again, or by what.

Her door creaked as I pushed it open. The noise jolted me into realizing I was unarmed, without even a ward ready to protect myself. I paused, but only for an instant. I was too close. I wasn’t waiting for my mind to slow down enough to think of a spell. If the killer was waiting for me, I’d have to come up with something while on my feet.

I pushed the door the rest of the way open, and heard the soft rustling sound of movement in the bed.

“Dana?” I whispered. “Is that you?”

More rustling, then the sound of a hand feeling around in the dark.

“Dana. It’s Mel.”

A groan, and a lamp clicked, blasting the space in a blinding yellow glow. A tousled head appeared from behind a mass of covers. “Mel? What’s wrong?” Dana shoved her body to a sitting position.

“Nothing. Nothing. I just thought I heard something.” I backed from the room, pulling the door shut behind me. Then stood there with my heart pounding.

False alarm.

Or was it? Harmony…

I took off in a run, my bare feet pounding against the wood floors. It was a short trip, and this time I didn’t bother with the niceties. I slammed into the door, twisting the knob as I did. The door banged into the wall and I didn’t stop, kept going until my legs smacked into the bed and I’d jerked the covers back revealing my daughter, her eyes round and a scream ready, staring up at me.

I jerked her into a hug.

She panted against me, not resisting as I began rocking forward and backward, pulling her with me as I did.

“Mom, are you okay?” she finally got out.

I stroked her hair and squeezed my eyes shut, refusing to let the tears I could feel there spill out.

“Mom, seriously. You’re scaring me,” she whispered, her voice still rough with sleep.

I was scaring myself too, but I couldn’t let go…wouldn’t.

“Melanippe?” Bubbe stood in the doorway, her hair wrapped in a turban and a staff in her hand. I’d never seen my grandmother carry a weapon of any kind. That scared me too.

“Let the child go. She has school. Needs sleep.”

I nodded and tried to relax my arms, to release my daughter, but somehow my grip tightened and my face got lost in her hair.

“Mel. That’s enough.” Mother this time. Her hand touched my shoulder, then my hair.

A sob escaped my lips, and I knew they were right. I was losing it, but I couldn’t, not around Harmony. I dropped my grip on my daughter and pushed her lightly back against her pillow. Murmuring words even I couldn’t understand, I tucked the covers around her and pressed a kiss to her forehead. She stared up at me and I knew I’d screwed up-scared her when I wanted her to feel safe. I wanted to say something to fix what I’d done, but at that juncture my mind was a blank. I let Mother take me by the hand while Bubbe stayed with Harmony, probably casting some spell to make her forget what she’d seen, to keep her from realizing her mother was insane or close to it.

With Harmony’s door shut and Dana tucked back into bed too-she’d wandered into the hall when I’d exploded into my daughter’s room-Mother led me into the kitchen and put a kettle of water on the stove.

Mother cooking. Things were worse than I’d imagined.

After a few minutes, she set a mug of hot water and a packet of instant cocoa on the table in front of me. I shook the packet and poured it into the water, more for something to do than because I wanted the cocoa.

Mother pulled out a chair across from me and sat, just watched me while I stumbled through stirring the mix into the water with a dirty spoon still on the table from dinner.

“There’s something you aren’t telling us,” she announced after I’d finally submerged the last of the mix into the cup.

“There’s much she isn’t telling us.” Bubbe walked into the room, her staff tapping with each step. She stopped next to the table. “Good she starts with the spirits who circle.”

My head snapped up. My grandmother held my gaze. How long had she known?

Mother straightened, her eyes shifting back and forth between Bubbe and me. I glanced at her, then down at my cup.

“I thought the killer…” I wrapped my hands around the cup, let the warmth seep into my fingers. “They came when Zery…I was afraid.”

“Who are they, Mel?” There were lines on Mother’s face I’d never noticed before.

I looked at Bubbe. She took a breath. I didn’t need to tell her. She knew. “How can we help, if you don’t trust?” she asked.

I grabbed the cup tighter and started to talk. I told them about finding the girls, about releasing their spirits and moving their bodies. I told them about going to the safe camp and delivering the totems, about trying to break into Bubbe’s office to learn more. I told them everything-except why I hadn’t told them before.

I saw the hurt and confusion on their faces, the realization that I didn’t trust them. Suddenly, I couldn’t look at them anymore. I dropped my gaze to my cup, stared at the hot cocoa my mother, the warrior, had made for me.

“Both of the girls who were killed went to this one bar, and were pictured on the Web site. Three other girls were too. Dana was one of them. When the girls’ spirits came back, I panicked.”

“You didn’t try to speak with them?” Bubbe moved closer, placed her gnarled hand on mine.

“No, but the last time they came was when Zery-” I looked up. “Zery.”

I shoved my chair back and headed for the steps. Mother and Bubbe were right behind me. The trip down the stairs felt longer than it ever had before. The ridged metal strips attached to the edge of each step cut into my feet.

I reached the doors first, didn’t wait for my family, jerked the doors open and fell onto my knees. A body…blond, face turned away from me, lay on the cold concrete porch. My hands shaking, I couldn’t bring myself to touch her, didn’t want to live this again…didn’t want to know…

“Mel! What? Who?” Zery stood a few feet away, a sword held in a halfway position, like she was lowering or raising it, I couldn’t tell which.

“Zery?” Relief hit me. A laugh exploded from my constricted chest. My hands dropped and brushed the body before me, reminded me Zery might be safe, but someone else wasn’t.

Zery raised her sword higher, crossed the few paces between us. “Step back, Mel.”

When I didn’t move, she pointed the blade at my throat.

I lifted my hands and edged my body backward.

“Who is it?” she asked.

I shook my head. “I don’t know. I thought it was you-was afraid-”

She shook her head in return, her hair moving around her face as she did. “Don’t say anything and don’t move. Whatever you do, don’t move.” Her voice was shaking. There was a slight tremble in the blade as well.

Behind me the doors creaked open. Bubbe and Mother. I could feel them, smell the scents of my home drifting out and mixing with the night air. It should have been comforting, but it wasn’t.

Couldn’t be.

My best friend was holding a sword to my throat, and she meant to use it.

“Put it down.” Mother, her voice strong, missing the deference she’d normally show a queen, was back to the voice she’d used on Zery when we were little and got caught messing with Mother’s weights. Rolling them across the room. Staging races.

Bubbe ignored them both, moved forward to place her hand on the woman’s shoulder and carefully roll her onto her back.

Pisto, her face peaceful, lacking the hate I’d seen sketched there the last time she’d looked at me.

My breath caught and my gaze shot to Zery. The sword moved up and down, as if she’d forgotten she held it. Mother jerked me backward, behind her.