Chapter Sixteen

 

Eric was seated on the sofa between Poppy and Jude. Holly and Delphinium pulled up chairs on the other side.

“So how does this thing work?” Eric asked.

“It’s a matter of channeling energy,” replied Delphinium. “When we create a proper harmony of energy, we can make the water and the vapor talk to us.”

“If you know what to look for,” added Poppy.

“Do all witches do it this way?”

“Not all of them,” replied Delphinium. “But I think most of them have something similar.”

“Some use oils instead of water,” said Holly.

“Some actually use blood,” Poppy informed him.

“Or awful, reeking concoctions,” agreed Delphinium.

“Or fire,” added Holly.

“Grandpa said one time that he heard of someone using a lava lamp,” said Jude.

“That was funny,” remembered Holly.

“There’re all kinds,” admitted Delphinium.

“Others just cut open some poor animal,” said Poppy, the distaste in her voice perfectly clear. “Some of those people are really sick.”

“There’s no way to know what the really nasty ones do,” said Delphinium.

Poppy shuddered visibly. “I don’t ever want to know.”

Eric had to agree with that. “So there’s no goddess involved, or anything like that?”

Delphinium smiled. “Nothing like that. Just energy.”

“I’m catholic,” said Poppy, reaching into the front of her shirt and withdrawing a small, silver cross on a chain.

“Regina was Jewish,” recalled Jude.

“I still expect most churches would frown on all this,” Eric guessed.

“The stupid, superstitious ones,” said Poppy. “You ask me, it’s God who made us what we are. And he did it for a reason.”

Well-spoken, thought Eric. He’d never been a terribly religious person, himself, but he’d never once thought that any of the weird things he saw on these adventures was any kind of proof that God didn’t exist. If anything, it was precisely the opposite. He’d felt a closer connection to God since he entered the fissure the previous year.

In fact, sometimes, when he awoke in the mornings, he had a strange feeling that God had been speaking to him in his dreams…but he could never quite remember it…

He pushed the thought away and looked down into the large, silver bowl. “So do we chant something or something?”

“Just watch the water and relax,” said Delphinium. “You don’t have to do anything.”

Eric did as he was told and stared into the water.

It looked like nothing more than water, but he kept looking.

Five minutes passed. Then ten.

Eric frequently glanced around at the others at the table. Delphinium’s dark eyes constantly washed over the water, as if she were reading words floating across the surface, as did Poppy’s. Holly’s eyes slid more smoothly around the bowl, as if she were looking for something. Jude’s eyes were on the bowl, too, but he looked like his mind had wandered off. He had a blank stare on his face.

Another five minutes passed.

Another ten.

Eric’s mind kept wanting to wander. He wasn’t seeing anything.

Then Delphinium said, “His presence is there, all right.”

“I feel it, too,” said Poppy. “Magic man.”

“I feel like he’s right there,” observed Holly, “looking back at us.”

“It’s strange,” agreed Delphinium.

He looked up at each of them as they spoke, but their eyes remained fixed on the bowl.

Even Jude was still staring obediently into the water. Eric was sure he’d have lost interest and begun studying Holly’s chest by now.

More minutes passed.

“I see it,” said Poppy. “Eric.”

Eric looked up at her, curious.

“Everywhere he’s not,” marveled Holly, “there’s nothing but death and pain.”

“Our only hope,” said Delphinium. Now she lifted her eyes and met his. “I don’t know why, but he is.”

Eric didn’t know what to say, so he said nothing at all. When she lowered her eyes again, so did he. He tried to see what they were seeing, but it was still just water and steam.

Perhaps they were playing an elaborate trick on him. Perhaps this was some kind of witchy practical joke.

But he thought those sharp-toothed imps were going a little far for a prank.

“Where he’s there,” Holly said, “he’s always standing between us and him.”

“But why?” asked Poppy.

“And how does the magic man keep finding us?” added Holly.

“We need to go deeper,” said Delphinium. “Concentrate.”

Everyone fell silent.

Eric tried to concentrate, too, but he still saw nothing more than steaming water.

Then a thought occurred to him. Why was it that the water was still hot? Shouldn’t it have cooled by now?

More minutes passed. Eric had lost track of how long they’d been here.

“I see your blanket,” said Holly.

“Blanket?” asked Eric. Had they tuned into someone’s bedroom?

“My protection spell,” explained Delphinium. “I cast it out over the entire area. It’s what prevents the enemy from knowing where we are.”

Eric nodded. “And yet, the magic man seems to be doing a fine job of locating everyone.”

“And we have to find out why.”

More silence. More passing minutes.

“Do you see that?” asked Holly. “Something…shiny?”

“Is it inside him?” asked Poppy.

Eric stared hard into the water. The entire bowl was shiny. It was stainless steel. But that didn’t seem to be what Holly was talking about.

“There’s definitely something there,” agreed Delphinium.

“What does it mean?” asked Holly.

Delphinium lifted her eyes and gazed at Eric. “I don’t know.”

Eric stared back at her. “What?” Were they talking about him? He didn’t have anything shiny inside him.

Did he?

“What’s that?” asked Poppy.

Delphinium lowered her eyes again and studied the water. “It’s my spells. The ones I used to tell me where you girls were hiding.”

“That’s it…” realized Poppy. “He’s using those. He’s tracking your spells.”

“Impossible!” gasped Delphinium.

“Apparently not.”

“It doesn’t make sense. We’re protected. How could he do that? Especially without me knowing?”

Eric followed the conversation as best he could. It seemed like an awful lot of fuss over what still looked to him like a bowl of hot water.

But for the first time, his eyes fell on the candles. He hadn’t realized it until now, but the flames were burning much higher than they were when he sat down, as if the air had somehow become richer in oxygen while they’d been sitting here.

Shouldn’t the opposite have been true? Shouldn’t there be an abundance of carbon dioxide with everyone leaning over the table?

Eric watched the candles burn. They were melting faster, too, he realized. Wax was dripping over the holders and onto the tabletop.

“Is that Cierra?” asked Holly.

Delphinium nodded. “She’s next.”

“I can’t tell where she is.”

“Because I’m pushing it away,” explained Delphinium. “I don’t want him to see her.”

“I hope she’s okay.”

“Cierra’s usually the last person I worry about,” said Poppy.

“Still…”

“Deeper,” encouraged Delphinium. “We need to see what we should do next.”

Silence fell again.

Eric watched the candles. It felt hotter in here.

“Bring Cierra home,” said Poppy.

Delphinium nodded. “You and I will start strengthening the blanket. She’ll help when she gets here. The three of us might be able to keep him from tracking the next spell, but I don’t think the two of us are going to be strong enough.”

“Holly can’t help with that?” asked Eric.

“Whoever casts their energy into the blanket has to stay here to keep it up. And Holly still needs to go with you.”

“They won’t trust you unless she’s with you,” Poppy explained. “I wouldn’t have. And I sure can’t go.”

It made sense. There was no denying that.

“And it needs to be Holly anyway,” explained Delphinium. “It’s right here.”

“I see it,” said Holly.

Eric looked down into the water again and was surprised to see that bubbles were forming along the surface of the bowl. One by one, they were rising to the surface. The water was actually starting to boil. How was that even possible? There was no heat source. The bowl was simply sitting there on the table. There were no wires or anything.

“But how do we get to Cierra without the magic man following?” asked Jude. It was the first he’d spoken since they began. Eric had nearly forgotten about him.

Delphinium looked up from the water and fixed Eric in her gaze again. “We trust our savior.”

Eric wished she’d stop calling him that.

Holly gasped and closed her eyes. “I keep seeing Sylvia…”

“I do too,” Delphinium assured her. “We were too late to save her. She’s bound to turn up in the water because she weighs so heavy on our minds.”

Holly nodded. “It’s painful.”

“I understand. But we need to go deeper. We need to look farther ahead. We need to know what’s waiting for us at the end of this night. Lend me your vision, Poppy. Help me see what morning will bring.”

Poppy leaned closer to the bowl. Again, everyone fell silent.

Eric was impressed with the candles and the self-boiling water, but he almost wished there were a few more theatrics. This wasn’t nearly as fun and exciting as he thought spell casting would be.

But as he looked down at the water again, he saw that it was boiling faster now. Steam was rising off of it. Water droplets were dripping down the sides of the bowl. The surface of the water danced, almost seeming to breathe.

It was like Delphinium said when he first saw her peering into the water. It was calming.

“I see this house,” said Holly. Then she squinted into the water. “It’s so…”

“Hazy,” said Poppy.

“Yeah. I can’t tell…”

“It’s chaos,” said Delphinium. “It clouds the scene. Look deeper. As deep as you can go.”

The water was at a rolling boil now. Eric found it hard to look away.”

“Fire,” said Poppy.

“Blood and tears,” added Holly. “Heartache.”

Poppy lifted her eyes. “Death.”

“There’s more than one outcome,” explained Delphinium. “But they all end here at this house. And they’re all painful.”

Eric continued to stare into the water. He felt almost as if his mind was floating on its churning surface. He even thought he could almost make something out, a strange little shape in the chaotic bubbling. Something he couldn’t quite make out but seemed somehow…familiar…

Delphinium finally lifted her eyes and looked around her. Immediately, the candles dimmed and the water began to calm. “No matter what happens,” she said, her voice grim, “the magic man will come to us. There’s no avoiding it.”