Bram drives me to Chloe’s house and insists on coming inside, in case we need his help. Chloe, Peregrine, and I are forbidden by the rules of zandara from involving outsiders in anything related to our sosyete, but I don’t think Bram really qualifies as an outsider. The lines are getting more and more blurred by the day.
The front door is open, so we head inside the house without knocking. We find Chloe in the living room with Peregrine and Peregrine’s mother. Chloe’s mother is lying on the couch, apparently unconscious, with several slash wounds through her blood-drenched silk blouse.
“What happened?” I demand.
“Scarlett was attacked!” Peregrine’s mom says. “Right in her own home!”
Chloe is crying, and I’m filled with horror as I turn to her.
“Is she . . . okay?” I ask.
“I don’t know,” Chloe says. “That’s why we need you. To help us with a charm.”
I nod. Queens from different sosyetes can’t cast together, so Peregrine’s mom couldn’t do much to help her daughter and Chloe before I arrived. Now that I’m here, my sister queens and I should be able to cast powerfully enough to save Chloe’s mom. “Has someone called my dad?” I ask. “He should know about this too.”
“He’s here with all the protectors,” Peregrine says. “They’re in the parlor with . . . the person who did this.”
A chill runs through me. “Another Main de Lumière soldier?”
I’m thinking of the terrifying man who attacked me last week, so I’m surprised when Peregrine nods solemnly and says, “Yes. Mrs. Potter.”
I blink at her, my lungs suddenly constricting. I’m sure I’m hearing her incorrectly. “Mrs. Potter? The sweet old lady who runs the library?”
Chloe chokes out a laugh. “Sweet? I’m not sure you’d call her that if you walked in on her slicing your mother to shreds.” She begins to cry again.
“Girls, you can’t waste any more time,” Peregrine’s mother says. “You have to help Scarlett before it’s too late. We can deal with the Potter woman afterward.”
I nod and join hands with Peregrine and Chloe.
“Who’s Mrs. Potter?” I hear Bram whisper to Peregrine’s mother as I begin chanting with Peregrine and Chloe.
“Someone we’ve all known for years,” she replies. “And someone I intend to destroy as soon as we’re done here.”
I call on Eloi Oke to open the gate, and Peregrine invokes white oak bark, althea, wormwood, and walnut leaf. As Chloe begs the spirits for help, we begin to tap our feet slowly in rhythm and sway to the beat. A wave of gratitude sweeps through me as I watch the wounds on Chloe’s mother’s chest close and some of the color return to her face. We stop dancing when her eyelids flutter open.
“Chloe?” she asks, her eyes rolling around frantically until she sees her daughter.
“Mesi, zanset,” Chloe says, her voice thick with relief as she thanks the spirits.
“Mesi, zanset. Mesi, zanset,” all three of us say in unison, ending the charm.
Chloe releases our hands and rushes over to her mother. She throws her arms around her and cries, “I thought you were going to die!”
“What happened?” her mother asks, looking around at all of us.
“That’s what we’re about to find out,” Peregrine says, her voice heavy with anger as she leads the way into the parlor.
Mrs. Potter is sitting on the floor in the corner of the room, her feet bound so she can’t run away. Oscar’s father, Anton, and Patrick’s father, Benjamin, stand watch over her while my father speaks to Caleb, Oscar, and Patrick on the other side of the room. Caleb’s eyes lock with mine as soon as I walk in, but then he sees Bram beside me and quickly looks away.
“Scarlett,” my father says, staring at Chloe’s mother. “You’re okay.”
She nods weakly and glances at Anton, who looks like he’s about to cry.
“I’m so sorry, ma’am,” he says, his voice choked. “I would never be able to forgive myself if she had succeeded in . . .” He can’t finish the words.
“But she didn’t,” Chloe’s mom says right away. “And you didn’t do anything wrong.”
But he doesn’t look any less miserable, and when I glance back at Caleb, he’s looking right at me again.
“You really think this is the only attempt that will be made on your life?” Mrs. Potter surprises us by asking from the corner, her tone full of venom. “You fools! The end is near for you evildoers!”
Her words and the way her normally docile eyes are blazing trigger a wave of fear in me. I glance at Peregrine and Chloe, who look as worried as I feel.
“Nonsense,” Peregrine’s mother shoots back. “You’re just a crazy old hag. Who would recruit someone your age to act as an attacker? You practically have one foot in the grave already.”
“Annabelle,” she says in the sweet, high-pitched voice I’m accustomed to, “how you’ve underestimated me.” She laughs and adds, “Or are you not bright enough to have realized by now that the biggest threat always comes from the people you least expect?”
“Whatever,” Peregrine speaks up. “Main de Lumière is getting desperate. If you’re the best they could do, we have nothing to worry about.”
“Oh, Peregrine,” Mrs. Potter replies. “Stupid, stupid Peregrine, who believes the world revolves around her. Don’t you see that this is all part of the bigger plan? Your magic is the work of the devil. All of you. But I, dear friends, am a messenger of God.”
She turns her fake smile on me, and I shudder.
“And Eveny Cheval,” she goes on. “How naive you are. This is all about you. Don’t you see that? You hold the key to everything, and that’s why you must die. But first, all those who support you will be sacrificed to atone for their sins and yours. And in the end, you’ll be struck down in a field littered with the bodies of your family and friends. How I wish I could stick around for the show.”
I can feel myself shaking. The venom in her voice fills the air like poison gas.
Bram puts a hand on my back and steps forward. “How dare you try to scare Eveny with empty threats?”
“Empty?” she laughs. “Oh no, young man. Main de Lumière will prevail, bringing with it the dawn of a new era, an era free from your evil, free from your filth and your destruction. I’m merely the opening act. Rest assured, the next time we come after you, the job will be complete. Peregrine, Chloe, you might as well say good-bye to your mommies now. Their end is coming soon.”
“Bitch,” Peregrine says as Chloe chokes back a sob and hugs her mother tightly, as if by holding on, she can protect her against Mrs. Potter’s words.
“Sadly, I must go now,” Mrs. Potter says, her tone suddenly eerily calm. I look at her in confusion as she focuses on me and says sweetly, “I would say I’d see you in heaven, but we all know you’re not going there, devil-child.”
Before anyone can make a move toward her, she flings herself forward, smashing her necklace hard on the floor, shattering the glass beads. In less than a second, her tongue flicks out, picking up a small pill that must have been inside one of the beads. She swallows quickly and smiles at us. “Cyanide, you see,” she says before her words dissolve into choking and foam pools at the corner of her mouth. She doubles over, writhes for a moment, and then goes still.
Anton steps forward and puts a hand on her wrist. “Dead,” he says. “What the hell? Why would she commit suicide?”
“Because she knew you’d kill her,” I say, glancing at Caleb, who looks upset. “She’d delivered her warning, and she didn’t want you to get any information out of her that she wasn’t supposed to give.”
“Eveny, the things she said,” my father says after a moment of stunned silence. “She’s wrong. Nothing’s going to happen to you. I won’t let it.”
“Me neither,” Bram says. His hand is on my shoulder again, and I try not to notice Caleb glaring at him.
“But what if her threats weren’t empty?” Chloe asks. “She managed to get past Anton and Oscar to my mom, didn’t she? And if someone like her could be allied with Main de Lumière, who knows who else has been compromised? They told us on Caouanne Island that there were at least two operatives here.”
We all stare at the crumpled body of Mrs. Potter.
“How do we stop this?” Chloe finally asks in a near whisper. “How do we prevent Main de Lumière from coming after us?”
“We don’t,” I say after a pause. All eyes turn to me as I add, “We learn to fight back before it’s too late.”
I say good-bye to Bram and my sister queens, and then my father, Caleb, and I drive home together, the silence heavy around us. I don’t know what they’re thinking about, but I can’t stop replaying Mrs. Potter’s death, the way her body thrashed around violently and then suddenly went still.
What would make someone so convinced of a cause’s righteousness that she’d willingly die for it? What would make someone buy into something so dark and malicious?
Caleb pulls into our driveway and cuts the ignition. None of us moves for a moment, and the quiet suddenly feels loaded.
“You’re going to be okay, Eveny,” my father finally says. “We won’t let anything happen to you. I promise.”
“I promise too,” Caleb says, his eyes flicking to mine in the rearview mirror.
“But you can’t know that for sure,” I say. “Main de Lumière wants me dead. They want all of us dead. There’s no guarantee that we’ll be able to fight them off.”
No one says anything, so I speak up again. “Look, everyone’s fine for now. Let’s just stay safe tonight, and we can all meet tomorrow and figure out what to do. Do we have to call the police or something? Ask Chief Sangerman for help covering this up?”
“I think we just get rid of the body,” Caleb says softly. “I don’t think Mrs. Potter’s death will lead back to us. The fewer people involved, the better.”
My father nods and gets out of the car, cueing Caleb and me to follow. That’s when I notice the silver Mercedes parked in the driveway, just slightly down the hill. My father sees it at the same time and frowns.
“Who’s that?” I ask.
“No idea,” he says. He glances at Caleb. “Stay close to Eveny.”
Caleb nods, and as I fall into step behind my father, my heart thudding, I can feel Caleb behind me, his breath on my neck, his heat radiating through me. We approach the front door, but before my father can insert his key in the lock, the door swings open, revealing an old man standing there, his eyes sunken and hollowed.
He focuses first on me, then on Caleb, and finally on my father. He smiles slightly and in a low, raspy voice says, “I hope you don’t mind, but Boniface let me in. Hello, son. It’s good to see you.”
My dad’s expression is unreadable. “Hello, Father,” he says.