Her fingers were clutching her necklace so hard her knuckles were white. "It did this the day of the ball too," she said, her eyes still on the pendant in my hands. "When you got that dirt out. I should have said something then, but you seemed so happy with the dress, and I thought black magic couldn't make something so pretty."
I was barely listening to her. I was remembering that Mrs. Casnoff said no one knew how Alice had become a witch. How she had only spoken to me after Chaston was attacked, how much more alive she'd seemed after
Anna.
And Elodie's face when Alice had given her her necklace.
Elodie was with her right now.
I dropped the necklace, and the stone cracked against the corner of my desk. A drop of black liquid seeped from the crack and sizzled on the floor, leaving a small burn mark.
I was amazed at how stupid I'd been. How naive.
"Jenna, get Mrs. Casnoff and Cal. Tell them to go to the woods, to
Alice's and Lucy's graves. She'll know where that is."
"Where are you going?" she asked, but I didn't answer. I just ran--the way I had the night I'd found Chaston.
I plunged into the woods, branches scratching at my face and arms, rocks cutting my feet. I was only wearing pajama pants and a T-shirt, but I barely felt the cold. I just ran.
Because now I understood how Alice had been corporeal, how she had all that power even though she was supposed to be dead. That black magic ritual Alice had gotten caught in hadn't turned her into a witch: it had made her a demon.
You too, my mind whispered. If that's what she is, that's what you are.
I was certain I'd find Elodie lying bleeding or maybe even dead when
I got to the cemetery. So I was shocked when I saw her standing next to
Alice, smiling as she faded away--only to reappear seconds later about a yard away.
She'd finally mastered the transportation spell.
Alice saw me first and lifted her hand in greeting. I stared at her and wondered how I'd ever believed she was just another ghost. None of the ghosts at Hecate had ever looked so real, so whole. Life radiated from her. I felt stupid for not seeing it before.
I neared them, fear racing through me. Elodie had stopped smiling the instant she saw me and was now looking somewhere over my head.
"Elodie," I said in what I'd meant to be a calm voice, but I know I sounded as strained and scared as I felt. "I think we should go back to the school. Mrs. Casnoff is looking for you."
"No she's not," Elodie answered. She reached down into her blouse and pulled out her necklace. "It glows whenever someone's looking for me, and tells me who it is. See?" The pendent was glowing, and I could make out my own name etched across it in dull gold.
"Family heirloom, huh?" I asked Alice.
She smiled, but I saw something flicker in her eyes. "Now, Sophia, don't be jealous."
"I'm not jealous," I said too quickly. "I just think Elodie and I should head back to the school now."
Mentally, I was calculating how long it would take Mrs. Casnoff and, I hoped, Cal to get out here. If Jenna had found them right after I'd left, surely they were only a few minutes behind me.
Alice frowned and lifted her head, sniffing the air--there was nothing even remotely human in the gesture. I felt myself start to shake.
"You're frightened, Sophia," she said. "Why on earth would you be afraid of me?"
"I'm not," I replied, but again my voice gave me away.
The wind blew through the trees, making them creak against each other and sending strange shadows skittering across the ground. Alice turned her head and took a deep breath. This time her expression hardened. "You've brought intruders on us. Why would you do such a thing, Sophia?"
She flicked her hands toward the woods, and I could hear a loud groaning, like the trees were uprooting themselves and moving. She was slowing Mrs. Casnoff and Cal down, I realized with horror.
"You led Casnoff here?" Elodie asked, but my eyes were locked on
Alice.
"I know what you are," I said, my voice little more than a whisper. I'd expected Alice to look surprised or at least angry, but she just smiled again.
Somehow, that was much scarier.
"Do you indeed?" she asked.
"A demon."
She laughed, a low throaty sound, and her eyes flashed a reddish-
purple.
I turned to Elodie. She looked guilty, but she didn't flinch from my gaze.
"You did summon a demon," I said, and she nodded, like I'd just accused her of dyeing her hair, or something equally innocuous.
"We had no choice," she insisted. "You heard what Mrs. Casnoff said: our enemies are getting stronger all the time. I mean, my God, Sophie, they turned one of ours and used him against us. We had to be prepared."
She said all of this in the patient tone of a kindergarten teacher.
"So what?" I asked, my voice shaking. "You let her kill Holly?"
Now her eyes dropped, and she said, "A blood sacrifice is the only way to bind a demon to you."
I wanted to run at her, hit her, scream, but I was frozen in place.
Elodie looked at me with wide, begging eyes.
"We didn't mean to kill Holly. We knew we needed four to hold the demon and make it do our bidding. But we had to have blood. So I did a sleeping spell on her and Chaston pierced her neck with a dagger. We thought we could stop the bleeding before it was too late, but she just bled so much."
I could taste bile at the back of my throat. "You could have taken blood from anywhere," I said. "You took it from her throat so you could blame Jenna for it. Kill two birds with one stone, huh?"
I went on. "You knew that you killed Holly, but you let everyone think it was Jenna. You made me wonder if it had been her."