Light as a Feather, Silent as the Grave

Chapter 10

I thought of the chilling family portrait that hung in the Simmons' living room of Grandmother Simmons, with the same steely blue eyes that Violet had inherited. Grandmother Simmons, who had so coldly instructed her son to turn his back on Trey's mother. Grandmother Simmons... who'd enlisted the assistance of evil to save her son's marriage after he cheated on his wife. If Grandmother Simmons' ghost was floating around in the same space as those of Olivia, Candace, and Violet's other victims, I was happy to leave her there. She was definitely a ghost I did not want to contact.

"Your friend's grandmother wasn't the one who actually authored the curse," Esther informed us. "She cast it, but it was given to her by someone else. Someone better-versed in the art of magic."

She folded her hands on top of the table, and blinked patiently at me and Trey as if expecting a response... as if she knew that a name popped into both of our heads simultaneously: Father Fahey.

Neither of us said a word. I didn't even dare look at Trey. Something about this entire situation with Esther and Laura had shifted since we'd entered the house, and now I was definitely wishing that I'd trusted Trey's gut. Maybe stowing away aboard  FedEx plane would have been a disastrous idea, but being stared down by Laura's boss was starting to feel kind of creepy. "So, if we figure out who that person was, who authored the spell, then what?" I asked. We'd come this far and entered this odd woman's house; I figured we might as well try to pump her for information we might be able to use later.

Almost imperceptibly, Esther and Laura exchanged glances, and it was obvious to me in that split-second that Esther was keenly aware that Trey and I already knew who'd authored the curse. And that we were onto her, whatever her strange motives were, at least enough to not share that information with her readily. "Well, it's rather easy in theory. We have to isolate the energy from the curse, then have he who cast the curse recite a few words to prompt its end, and then capture it in a physical object so that it can't escape into our realm."

"How do we capture it in a physical object?" Trey questioned, seeming to take the same approach as me in terms of harvesting as much information from Esther and Laura as possible. He posed his question in Laura's direction, perhaps sensing we'd get a more honest answer out of her than out of the owner of the bookstore. I was grateful beyond measure that he was there with me, although in the back of my thoughts I was already wondering how we were going to make a graceful exit from the house and away from Esther.

"We command it into the object, and contain it there," Laura volunteered. "It's an ancient practice, probably best known as witch bottling, which sounds kind of funny. It's not like you capture a witch in a bottle. It's more like you capture the spell in a charmed bottle, or any kind of object that can be closed."

It hadn't escaped my attention that Esther had referred to the author of the curse as he. I wondered if she already had a suspicion about Father Fahey's identity and was hoping that we'd confirm it. This alarmed me a little because I couldn't remember how much about the Simmons family I'd shared with Laura back in January when we'd met, and it didn't seem like Henry to have indulged her in so many details over emails. It occurred to me that maybe Laura and Esther had been conducting significant research on their own, either on the internet or using a more devious, possibly paranormal approach. I asked, "How do we get the person who cast the curse to say whatever words they need to—"

Trey's voice cut me off. "Wait a second. What kind of tea is this?" he asked hoarsely, looking into his tilted mug just seconds before his eyes rolled to the back of his head and it hit the table. He dropped the mug and it spilled all over Esther's table.

I was only horrified for a second or two myself before I became so instantaneously exhausted that I closed my eyelids and everything went black.

#

When I opened my eyes, I was lying on a bed in a well-decorated bedroom next to Trey, who was snoring. It seemed like at least a few hours had passed because the ceiling light was on, filling the room with an amber glow, and it was dark outside the window next to the bed.

"There, there," a woman's voice said, startling me as I took in my surroundings. I bolted away from the voice and sat upright in the bed before I realized that Esther was seated at the foot of the bed, and Laura stood near the doorway looking cross. It was dark in the room but moonlight spilling in from the window allowed me to see the features of Esther's face. The door, not surprisingly, was closed. Terror shot through me. "Just relax, McKenna. It's not my intention to hurt you. You're very valuable to me, and if you do exactly as I say, we'll be able to banish this curse once and for all."

Terrified of this woman, I looked down to my left at Trey, who was still sound asleep. I could hardly believe that after everything we'd already been through, we'd walked willingly into this woman's trap—sensing from the moment we arrived at the house that something was amiss but drinking her tea like total idiots anyway.

"Don't worry about him. He'll be fine. I'm going to take good care of him; he's valuable to me, too," Esther told me.

"What does she mean—she'll take good care of him?" I asked Laura in a high-pitched, strangled voice that didn't sound like my own.

Laura's chest heaved as if she were about to tell me, but Esther answered for her. "Tomorrow morning, bright and early, you and Laura are going to fly to California to fetch your little gymnast friend and bring her to me. Your boyfriend will remain here with me as collateral to make sure that you come back, and don't waste time."

Esther suddenly looked older and more haggard than she had when she'd first greeted us, and I wondered if she'd cast a glamour on herself to seem more trustworthy, or if my soured opinion of her was making me see her in a different light. I was completely panicked, wishing that Trey wasn't asleep so that we could try to overtake these two women and make a run for it. But there was no way I could take off and leave him there in such a vulnerable state. Even if by some wild chance I was able to get away, there was nowhere I could go for help. If I were to go to the police for assistance, they'd only arrest Trey and send him back to Northern.

All of which, I realized with a hardened heart, Esther and Laura must have known when they'd hatched their plot to bring us to this house and hold us prisoner.

"Why are you doing this?" I asked, feeling my eyes fill with tears. "I'm not going to be able to make Mischa come here.  She doesn't want anything to do with this curse. All she cares about is the Olympics!"

With false sincerity, Esther smiled at me. "She'll come here because you'll convince her to. And if you don't, it won't be difficult at all for me to dispose of Prince Charming, here. He's already technically missing, so it won't come as a surprise to anyone if, say, his body were to turn up along the shores of the Fox River."

My blood ran cold. I hissed, "You wouldn't do that."

Esther rolled her eyes at me. "Hopefully I won't have to, McKenna. I mean, it's hardly any work at all for me to get rid of a pesky teenager. But for your sake, I hope it doesn't come to that. You seem like a nice young woman and it's not really my style to snuff out young lives. You asked me why I'm doing this? Because the curse that your friend has inherited is very powerful. If we're able to capture that power, then I can use it for more positive purposes. Sometimes a witch has to dabble in a little evil in order to fulfill her potential of goodness. I have a feeling that one day you'll understand."

I glared at Laura, hating her with all of my heart. She had completely blind-sided me; I had thought that we were on good terms, especially since she'd taught me how to use a pendulum and had so keenly encouraged me to develop my paranormal powers when we'd met. "I can't believe you did this to me. Henry's going to be so pissed."

Laura's shoulders slumped. "I'm sorry, McKenna. But Esther's right. The curse on your friend is really dangerous, and we have to find a way to harness that power. This is the only way."