“So you couldn’t get any readings from Edie at all?” I said, driving too fast on the winding road back into town.
“She put out a load of anxious guilt—a blind person with one eye closed could have seen that. But it’s all about the plant mix-up. She hasn’t done anything seriously wrong. What about the other thing? The names? What does that mean?”
“It doesn’t mean anything,” I said, navigating the road like a race car driver. “None of it means anything. Not yet, at least.”
There was no more playing around with this. No matter my attraction to Conri, I couldn’t ignore the ominous warning in my gut every time I thought about the vet. Alibi or not, he was a secretive man with a list of suspicions against him getting longer by the day, and here he was ordering curse herbs from a witch.
And where did that leave Tom Jenkins? Wasn’t a suspect list supposed to get smaller rather than longer as you went along?
“I should ask my brother about it,” Lila said. “He’s a lawyer, so he would know about investigations and stuff.”
“Lawyers don’t do much of the actual investigations, do they?” I asked. Lila shrugged.
“Anyway, it’s probably best not to say anything to anyone yet,” I added.
“I won’t tell him anything about you,” she said defensively.
“It’s not me I’m concerned about,” I said. “It’s too soon to start getting legal people involved here.”
“I don’t think it’s too soon, at all.”
I stole a look at her. She was frowning, something I had never seen her really do before, staring out the window into a blank space. “I think we’re already in deep water here, and honestly, I’m worried,” she said.
Lila was right. We were definitely out of our depth, but in deep water, when there’s no going back to the shore, you have to keep on going until you reach the other side, or until something comes along you can grab onto and stay afloat. That, or you drown.
“Don’t fret about it, Lila,” I said. “Let’s just solve the problem with the maze first and then we’ll think about the rest of it. We’ll get to the bottom of this.”
“It’s sinking down to that bottom that scares me,” Lila said.
Again, I had to agree my friend was right.
There was no way I would be able to pull off a spell of the size needed to disarm the maze on my own. We were back at the store even though we were still closed for the day.
“It doesn’t matter what spell it is, I can’t do magic like a witch,” Lila said before I had even asked her, demonstrating exactly what kind of magic she could do.
I flicked through Adela’s book again. Obviously, disarming the hedge was the reason the Naarin had given it to me, but even with all the spell books in the world, there was no way I was good enough to do magic like this. There had to be something else.
The book had a spell for a temporarily debilitating yet harmless illness illusion (which I considered using to get me off the maze committee, or maybe putting on Neville Norton himself). There was another for going three days without sleep, something else that might come in handy considering how my nights had been lately. But besides the Dearmo charm, there was nothing else I could throw at the maze.
The front door opened, and I shoved the book out of sight underneath the counter, cursing myself for forgetting to lock the door when we came back inside.
Adela entered. “It’s only me,” she said. “No need to hide anything.”
I sighed, relieved, and retrieved the book, opening it again to the disarming charm.
“Sorry for the intrusion. I know the store is closed, but I saw you as I was passing and came to see how you were getting on with…” She pointed to the book.
“You were right,” I said. I didn’t bother asking how. “This disarming spell is exactly what we need.” I ran my finger across the page. “Too bad I’m not nearly powerful enough. I’d need at least another two witches to brew up enough energy. That maze is massive. Someone else has to do it.”
“A mirroring partner?” Adela said.
I didn’t know what she meant. “Is that a spell?” I asked.
“It’s where a witch uses a receptive partner to channel his or her magic. Like a mirror reflecting a mirror will show endless mirrors, a mirroring partner can increase a spell caster’s potency exponentially. The partner doesn’t need to be a witch, just supernatural.”
“Sounds perfect,” I said. “Lila, you can be the mirror and you Edie can do the spell together.”
Lila held up her hands in protest. “Are you serious? You want to push Edie’s wonky magic through me?”
“I’m sure it’ll be fine,” I said, trying to convince myself as much as Lila.
“No way. It has to be you,” Lila said.
“I can’t,” I said. “I’ve never been in a coven. I’m totally untrained, unprepared and absolutely unable to do it.”
Lila rolled her eyes. “You keep saying you’re not a real witch, but you’re always doing plenty of real spells.”
“They’re not—” I started, but Lila continued, not going to let me interrupt.
“I’ve already told you I’ve noticed your supposedly secret magic. I can sense the little shift in the air whenever you do a spell, like the one you did on Abbi Flannagan’s book—genius, by the way—or how sometimes my tea stays hot longer than it should? Sometimes even after it’s already gone cold?”
“But that’s not real magic. They’re just little tricks I make up,” I insisted. “This is actual witchcraft we’re talking about, serious stuff.”
“Well, it’s a good thing you’re a serious witch, then,” Lila said. “You know so much more about magic and witches in general than you let yourself believe. It’s time you got some confidence in yourself and your abilities.”
“Lila is right,” Adela said. “You underestimate yourself, Belinda. After all, I wouldn’t have given my book to just anyone.”
I stopped. Adela believed in me? I had known the woman precisely two seconds, but still, her vote of confidence encouraged me. I still knew I wasn’t going to be able to do it, but at least I felt better about trying and failing. I sighed.
“Okay. I’ll try. But, Lila, you’ll still need to do this mirror thing.”
She shook her head.
“It won’t hurt,” I said. I stopped and turned to Adela. “It won’t, will it?”
Adela smiled. “It won’t.”
“What about Edie?” Lila suggested.
“You just said we couldn’t trust Edie’s magic. Come on, Lila. You’ll be great at it.”
“I’m not sure,” Lila said. “I really want to help, I do. But—”
“I’ll be your mirror,” Adela said.
I swallowed. “Um… okay?”
Sure, performing a massive spell way out of my league with a demon partner I barely knew. That wasn’t terrifying at all.
I agreed to meet both Adela and Edie at the hedge at 7 p.m. By then, the town was settling down for the night. I would have enough time to do the spell without too much of a risk of anyone seeing and get home and go out again for the moon cleanse I’d been so desperate to do since this whole mess had taken hold of me.
We didn’t need Edie there, but when I’d called her to let her know what we were doing, she had insisted on being a part of it.
“It’s my mess,” she said. “And since I’m too old to clean it up properly myself, the least I can do is bear witness to you doing it.”
Great. An audience for the biggest spell and the most critical failure of my life.
What would Quentin have thought about me getting mixed up in murder investigations and death curses, or trying a spell like this? I was only younger than him by two minutes, or so our social services officer had told us, but those two minutes were enough for my brother to get it into his head he had enough worldly knowledge to pass on to his little sister. But this was no time to think about my wayward brother or anything but what was about to happen.
When seven o’clock came, the world washed in the dark grey of early night, I was ready. Mostly. The spell was clear in my mind, but I was no less nervous. I tucked the book inside my coat just in case I needed to refer to it at the last minute.
Edie and Adela were both already waiting at the maze, Edie’s head bowed, her hands clasped in front of her, when I pulled my car into the otherwise deserted parking lot.
“Thanks, both of you, for doing this,” Edie said. “I’m too ashamed to even think, but I’m grateful.”
“It’s okay, Edie,” I said. The old woman’s remorse and genuine gratitude were palpable.
“You must be a really powerful witch,” Edie said.
“I guess,” I said, clearing my throat. “Adela is here to help, though.” It probably wasn’t the time to tell Edie her only hope in ending the mess she’d made was a phony witch who had only even heard about this spell days before.
The maze thrummed with magical intensity on the field beneath us. Neville had done as I’d had suggested and had the place cordoned off with official-looking Do Not Enter tape. What he had told people to keep them away without causing a panic, I could only guess.
“Are you ready?” Adela asked. I nodded, but I was anything but.
I took a deep breath.
We joined hands to begin.
I closed my eyes, focusing on the rise and fall of my chest. Adela’s skin was warm and smooth, and the chilly night bit the edges of our fingers.
I tried to picture nothing, simple and pure whiteness. Snow. White and cold and devoid of life in all but the deepest places. When the light space in my thoughts cleared, I started the chant, a soft murmur at first, growing louder.
“Take the power laid down here, spread it thin until the light shines through. Take the power away from here, dissolved in air and light anew.”
As I repeated the phrases, Adela joined in. The pressure grew in my mind with every word, our voices harmonizing. A warmth simmered in my middle, extending through my blood to every part of me, a rising magic preparing to release.
I was tempted to steal a look at the Naarin, but the slightest break at this point and who knew what we would do to the ghost maze, or ourselves?
We continued to chant, the words coming faster, louder. A floating sensation, lightness, emptiness, and purity. Adela squeezed my hands, telling me she felt it too.
We released our grip and lifted our arms skywards. The spell released.
I opened my eyes, and only then did I realize I actually was floating. Adela and I stood two feet off the ground, our shoes dangling. We lowered gently to the earth like softly falling mist.
“Are you okay?” Adela asked. She didn’t seem to be affected by the magic at all.
I nodded. “Yes. Incredible, actually,” I said through breathless gasps. I looked up to the sky. A few early stars and the white orb of the full moon, struggling to shine through a low cloud cover. “Is it done?”
The maze was a labyrinth of black shadows below us. The thrum of enchantment had dissolved into the night. The spell had worked.