Chapter Thirty-Two

 

Jude and Alicia brought extra chairs in from the dining room as they gathered around the steaming water bowl. They now numbered ten and no longer fit in the current seating arrangement.

“Don’t expect too much the first time,” Charlotte told Shondra. “It can take a while to learn to see anything.”

Shondra looked a little scared, sitting there on the couch between Charlotte and Poppy, still clinging to her daughter, who was sitting on her knee. Her eyes were nervously scanning the bowl and candles as if they might be implements of torture. “I still don’t understand any of this,” she said in a small voice.

“That’s okay,” Charlotte promised her.

“Anyone can learn to use the water,” Delphinium said. “Even those without gifts. But it does take time. I doubt you’ll be able to see anything, but you should sit in with us. Your presence might be helpful. Maybe it’ll tell us how you both fit into all this.” Then her eyes drifted to Siena. “I’m not sure, but I think this one might surprise us.”

Charlotte glanced at the girl. “I think she might have something,” she agreed.

But Delphinium only nodded. “I know she has something.”

Siena looked back and forth between the two. “Me? What do you mean?”

“You have gifts,” explained Delphinium. “I’ve been searching the world for girls like you for the past fourteen years.”

“Why?”

“To save them, of course.”

Eric took a chair from Jude and seated himself between the two armchairs. “So she’s one of the girls you’ve been looking for?”

Delphinium smiled. “No. I never would’ve met her if not for these circumstances. I look for special girls who are afraid and alone. My sisters need me, the way I needed Grandpa. They have no one else in the world, nowhere to go.” She turned her eyes on Shondra. “Siena has her mother.”

“She almost didn’t,” said Charlotte. “I hate to say it, but if all this hadn’t happened… The magic man… I keep thinking about it and I’m sure I never would’ve volunteered at that hospital if not for all this mess.”

Delphinium seated herself in one of the armchairs and frowned thoughtfully at Siena. “That might be true.”

“At least something good came of all this, then,” offered Eric.

“So far,” said Cierra.

“We can’t afford to be negative,” returned Holly.

“We can’t afford to be naïve,” countered Cierra.

Delphinium didn’t seem to notice them. She was still staring at Siena. She seemed to be pondering some deep thought.

“The sun’s going to be up soon,” observed Poppy. “Time’s running out and Marissa’s still out there somewhere. We have to get started.”

“Yes,” said Delphinium, tearing her eyes from the girl. She leaned over the table and lit the candles. To Shondra and Siena, she said, “Just relax and watch the water. Clear your mind. Be open to it. You don’t have to do anything else.”

Shondra still looked uncertain, but Siena was clearly curious. Her eyes were already washing across the bowl of water, searching for something magical.

Jude and Alicia seated themselves at either end of the table and everyone fell quiet.

Minutes passed.

The water steamed before them. The candles burned.

Eric saw nothing but water and steam. He glanced around the room. Everyone was concentrating hard on the bowl except for Shondra, who kept glancing around at the others, as if she thought this was all some kind of bizarre prank.

He understood precisely how she felt.

Siena, meanwhile, looked curious, almost hopeful. She actually wanted something to happen, he realized.

He understood that, too.

He thought about what Delphinium said about her being special, like her sisters, and recalled the way she seemed to know that there were monsters in the hospital. He’d thought at the time that she was only feeding off the bizarre conversations that she must’ve overheard. After all, they’d discussed the “evil thing” that had ensnared her poor mother right in front of her, not realizing that she was taking in every word. But now he wondered if she might possess a special understanding of the world around her, not that unlike Charlotte.

“Siena,” said Holly.

Siena looked up, but Holly wasn’t talking to her.

“I see her, too,” said Delphinium.

“It’s true,” said Charlotte.

“What about her?” asked Shondra. She was looking around, concerned.

“She’s one of us,” replied Poppy. “Gifted.”

Delphinium lifted her gaze from the bowl and met Shondra’s eyes. “She’s been protecting you.”

Shondra squeezed her daughter a little tighter. “I don’t understand.”

“You will.” She returned her gaze to the water. “We’ll talk later. There will be time. Right now we can’t afford to linger.”

Cierra frowned at the water. “It still looks bad.”

“Pain and death,” agreed Poppy.

“And heartache,” added Alicia.

“We keep seeing those,” said Holly. “Even when it showed us we could win it warned us we’d suffer.”

“There will be sacrifices,” said Delphinium, her voice solemn.

Eric looked up at Charlotte. She glanced up from the water and met his eyes. Sacrifices. Mr. Hamblin had spoken of a sacrifice in his sleep.

“No matter what, there will be pain,” continued Delphinium.

“There already has been,” Holly reminded them. “Regina and Marie. Sylvia… I keep seeing Sylvia.”

“You have to concentrate past it,” said Delphinium. “I see her, too. She was the most difficult of the three. You were there. You saw her body. We were so close to saving her… But now isn’t the time to dwell on it. When the magic man is defeated we’ll have time to mourn them properly.”

The steam was rising faster now. Bubbles were already beginning to form inside the bowl. The candles were burning brighter. The process definitely seemed to go faster with more witches at the table.

Eric glanced at Shondra again and saw that she’d noticed this, too. Her eyes were sweeping across the table, taking it all in. She looked a little afraid.

“What is that?” asked Alicia.

“It’s Eric,” replied Holly.

Eric looked around, surprised.

Alicia shook her head. “No. The…”

“It’s Eric,” Holly said again.

“We saw that before,” recalled Poppy. “Something inside him.”

He recalled something like this being said the first time he sat through this process. He’d been so busy tonight, he hadn’t had time to consider it. What was it Holly had said? There was something shiny inside him?

“Something really special,” observed Alicia.

“He’s a very special man,” said Delphinium. “It’s why he’s here. It’s why the spell pointed me to him.”

Eric shifted in his seat, feeling uncomfortable again.

“He’s still standing between us and him,” said Holly. “Like a shield.”

“He’s awesome…” sighed Alicia.

He ran his hand through his hair and glanced around. The witches were all focused on the bowl, but Shondra was staring at him now, as if trying to understand what in the world they were talking about. He didn’t blame her. He certainly didn’t look very awesome.

Bubbles were rising to the surface now.

Eric peered into the water, trying to catch a glimpse of what the witches were seeing, but all he could see was hot water and the bottom of the bowl.

Delphinium let out a shaky breath beside him and he glanced over at her. She looked pained.

“Oh hell…” breathed Cierra.

Eric leaned forward to see what was going on, but of course there was still nothing there but lightly boiling water in a big, stainless steel bowl, exactly as it had looked a few seconds ago. He only managed to make himself feel silly.

“Is that this house?” asked Charlotte.

Delphinium nodded. “In flames. Just like…”

“Just like before,” Cierra finished for her. “It’s going to happen all over again. Except this time he’ll kill all of us.”

“Not necessarily,” said Holly, but she didn’t sound very confident. “We still have Eric.”

“Death. Pain. Heartache,” said Poppy. “Every time…”

“But is there another way?” asked Delphinium. “Can we win?”

Several of the girls gasped.

“What the hell was that?” asked Cierra.

“It’s him,” said Delphinium. “The magic man. He’s pushing back. That was a hard one.”

“Felt like an electric shock right in my heart,” said Alicia.

Delphinium leaned forward. “Concentrate. We’re strong enough to push past him. Go deeper.”

More minutes passed in silence.

The water in the bowl continued to grow hotter, boiling faster and faster. The candles flared higher. The wax began to drip down the sides. Soon, they’d burn away and be gone.

Shondra was watching all this with wide, frightened eyes.

Siena looked fascinated.

Everyone remained silent.

As the water reached a rolling boil, Eric found himself staring into the bowl again. It was strange how calming it was to watch it.

Not what it seemed, he thought, although he had no idea why. What wasn’t what it seemed? Was that just a random bit of nonsense brought about by his overactive imagination, or was it a message from the water?

He leaned in a little closer, his eyes washing over the bowl. Something seemed to flicker across the boiling surface, a familiar shape, but it was gone as quickly as it appeared.

Betrayal.

He cocked his head. Where did that word come from? Why would he think something like that?

He tried to clear his mind. He didn’t trust these thoughts. His imagination was too uncontrollable. He focused all of his attention on the bowl.

He concentrated.

Something was there.

A face appeared for just a moment, flashing across the rolling surface of the water and then disappearing again, forgotten almost as quickly as it came. But he thought the face was familiar. It was someone he’d seen before, though he couldn’t remember where or when.

He had no idea what it meant.

“I feel him,” said Delphinium. “He’s with us.”

“It’s like he’s looking right back at us,” said Holly.

“He’s not going to intimidate us,” Delphinium insisted. Raising her voice, she asked, “How can we beat him?”

Eric saw something. A flash of dull metal at the bottom of the bowl.

“It’s Eric!” said Holly.

But before anyone could say more, Delphinium gasped.

A split-second later, the bowl erupted. Boiling water shot up out of the bowl and collided with the ceiling. All of them screamed and covered their faces as hot water rained down all around them.

“Is everyone okay?” asked Charlotte.

Eric looked around, half-expecting to find everyone writhing in agony, their faces red and blistered, but by some remarkable stroke of luck everyone seemed to be unharmed.

Or maybe luck had nothing to do with it. Maybe Delphinium’s magic had protected them.

“Maybe we should start trying this with lukewarm water,” suggested Jude as he shook the water from his arms.

“Sounds reasonable,” agreed Eric. “I take it that’s not supposed to happen.”

“Definitely not,” said Poppy as she wiped at a sizable wet spot on the lap of her capris.

“That was the magic man,” said Alicia. “He just blew it all right back at us. Right into our faces.”

“I’ve never felt anything so powerful before,” sighed Delphinium.

“But did you guys see it?” asked Holly. “When Del asked how we could beat the magic man, it showed us Eric.”

“It also showed us more pain and suffering,” groaned Cierra.

“But there was a way,” Holly persisted. “And it has everything to do with Eric.”

Eric sat in the chair, looking around at them. He had no idea what he was supposed to do.

“We can’t use the water again,” decided Delphinium. “Not like that. It’s too dangerous.”

Holly stood up, concerned. “But we still have to find Marissa!”

“I know where Marissa is,” said Delphinium. “I saw it.”

“You got it before he shut us down?” asked Eric.

She met his gaze. There was something in her eyes that he hadn’t seen before. It looked like dread. “No. He showed me.”

He frowned at her. “He… Wait… What?”

“He showed me where she was. He already knew.”

Eric’s heart sank. The magic man already knew where Marissa was? Suddenly it occurred to him that there had been no fire at the hospital. And now that he thought about it, Charlotte had said that the monster in the basement of the hospital first seized Shondra a few days ago…

The magic man had no reason to go to that hospital tonight. As soon as he left Clodsend, he probably went immediately after Marissa, giving him a huge head start.

“No…” said Holly. “We have to get to her!”

“It might already be too late,” said Cierra.

“We can’t think like that!” cried Holly. “We have to try to save her!”

“We have to think reasonably!” returned Cierra. “He’s probably waiting for you! If you and Eric rush out now, he’ll just kill you both too. We need to stick together.”

“We do have to stick together! All of us. We’re not abandoning Marissa. She’s our sister.”

“She’s probably already dead.”

“Stop it!” snapped Poppy.

“I’m going after her,” said Eric. Cierra and Holly both turned to look at him. “I don’t know what this magic freak is up to, but somehow I don’t think he’s going to kill her. It just doesn’t fit. He has something else planned. I’m going to find out what.”

“He’s planning to kill you,” said Cierra.

“He’s already had plenty of opportunities to do that.”

She couldn’t argue with that.

“The sun’s coming up,” observed Poppy. “Whatever we do, we’d better do it fast.”