Somehow, in the stress she'd felt since Aunt Ursula came to get her, she had completely forgotten that he was waiting in the desert.
But now she could see him, the vision in her mind's eye as clear as if she were standing there with him. Eric watching the clock, minutes going by, and Thea still not arriving. Eric looking at the bonfire and at the three black-clothed dummies tied to their stakes. And the party. The Halloween party at school. Blistered metal doors being opened and people flooding in. Shoes walking across the scuffed wooden floor, costumed kids standing underneath the dangling witch figures. Kids shrieking with laughter, handing over goblin money, crowding into the torture booths. While something lurked around the exposed pipes on the ceiling. Maybe invisible, maybe looking like a white figure and feeling like a blast of arctic wind. Maybe like a woman with long mahogany hair. Lurking... then suddenly sweeping down... She's going to kill them. They're completely defenseless....
Fear tore into Thea like jagged metal. It was all happening right now, and she wasn't doing anything to stop it. It had been happening for almost an hour, and she hadn't even given it a thought.
Chapter 15
Thea." Dani was shaking her arm. 'They're talking to you."
The visions were gone. Thea was standing in Gran's workshop, seeing everything as if through a distorting lens. People's faces seemed to stretch; their voices seemed to drag.
"I asked, how did you learn the invocation for summoning spirits?" Gran said slowly.
Eric. He won't wait; he'll start without me. Or will he? I told him not to. But he'll be worrying about the party....
The party. All those kids... even little kids. Humans, but people. like baby chicks with a hawk up above. How many of them will end up like Kevin?
"The invocation for summoning spirits!" Gran was shouting, as if Thea were hard of hearing.
"I... we... I heard you at Samhain two years ago. In Vermont. I saw the summoning the Inner Circle did." Even her own voice sounded weird and distorted.
"We saw you. Both of us. We were hiding behind the trees and you never even noticed," Blaise said clearly, and the bells rang again.
Dimly, Thea felt appreciation. But most of her mind was reeling from horrible thought to thought. Eric... but if I try to get to him, if the Inner Circle finds out he's involved... that will get him killed. A human who knows about the Night World. Immediate death sentence.
But Suzanne. If he burns those dummies, Suzanne will kill him the way she killed Kevin.
No matter what happened, Eric was going to end up dead. Unless...
"Which... of the spirits... did you call?" Gran was shouting, as if Thea was now not only hard of hearing but slow of understanding. Unless...
"That's what I want to tell you," Thea said. She could see the way. It would mean the end for her, but she might possibly save Eric. If there was enough time, if they would let her alone, if Eric wasn't right now trying to be a hero....
"I want to tell you about it," Thea said again. And then the words were tumbling out in a rush, faster and faster, as if some dam had broken inside her. "And I'll tell you everything-but please, Grandma, please, you have to let me go out now. Just for a little while. There's something I have to do. You have to let me go, and then I'll come back here and you can do whatever you want to me."
"Hold on a minute," Mother Cybele said, but Thea couldn't stop.
"Please-please. Grandma. I've done a terrible thing-and I'm the only one who can take care of it. I'll come back-"
"Wait, wait, wait. Calm down," Gran said. She looked agitated herself. "What's this rush all of sudden? Try it slowly. What do you think you have to do?"
"I have to put her back." Thea saw that she was going to have to give some explanation. She tried to speak dearly and slowly, to make them understand. "The spirit I let out, Grandma. Her name is Suzanne Blanchet and she was burned in the sixteen hundreds. And she's out, out there, and she's already killed a human."
Everyone was listening now, some leaning forward, some frowning. Thea looked around at the circle of faces, talking to all of them. She was still terrified, but what did that matter? Eric mattered.
"Last week she killed a boy at my high school. And tonight she's going to kill more people, at the high school Halloween party. I can't explain how I know-there isn't time. But I do know. And I'm the only one who can stop her. I called her; I'm the only one who can put her back."
"Yes, but unfortunately it's not that easy," a low voice said. Thea turned and identified Rhys, a wiry man in a white lab coat. "If the spirit's at large-" "I know about that, but I have a way to trap her.
It's all set up, and I..." Thea hesitated. "I've tricked somebody into helping me," she said slowly. "And he's in danger right now. Which is why you have to let me go, let me take care of this. Please."
"You want to go to the high school, where the party is," Aunt Ursula said. Although her lips were as thin as ever, she didn't sound angry. More-astute.
Thea opened her mouth to say no, and then stopped, confused again.
The party-or the desert? If Suzanne was really killing people at the party, she should go there. But only if Eric wasn't doing something to attract Suzanne to the desert. He was still more important to her than anyone else. But if he wasn't doing something-and if Suzanne was at the party-she might kill before Thea and Eric could lure her.... I'm going crazy.
She felt, literally, as if she might faint. Her head was swimming. There were too many possibilities. It all depended on where Suzanne was right now, and there was no way to know that.