Part 16 (1/2)

”You. Lied. Too,” he exclaims, his finger pointing straight at me.

”If you had told us what you did for this man sooner, then maybe your sister wouldn't be-”

”I did!” I shout. The flames in the fireplace flare silently in response and I stare at them, distracted for a moment by the pulsing feeling in my palms. Then I force myself to continue.

”I told Grandmother that he came into the store one night and asked me to find something and that I did. I did find it.” Both of my parents are staring at me, but it's my mother who recovers first.

”You told her?” my mother whispers.

”When?” Then her face seems to lengthen and grow pale in the shadows of the room.

”When you called home.” I nod.

”I didn't tell her everything. But I told her that I found something that I didn't think I should have found” I pause, thinking back on my grandmother's words.

”And she told me that since I started this, I had to see it through. That she didn't see any other way for me. Or for any of us” I shake my head.

”I didn't know what she meant. I thought it was just. .”

I shrug and let my words trail off.

”But if she knew who he was, why would she tell Tamsin to *see it through'?” my mother asks. Her question doesn't seem to be aimed at me, so I look at my father, but he seems equally lost. Finally, he says, ”Because Althea must have foreseen something worse if Tamsin didn't help him.”

”Who is he?” I whisper.

”He's one of the Knights. That was their family name. The Knights,” my father says heavily because my mother seems unable to answer. She's staring down at the book, squinting occasionally as if something lingers just outside the boundaries of her vision.

”Oh” Knights conjure images of s.h.i.+ning armor and bright s.h.i.+elds embossed with gold and green. Jousting and-”They were never content with what we had.”

”'We'?”

”Oh, yes. At one point there was no division between us. Between any of us. We were all Talented. We came to this new country seeking a place to start over.

We had been persecuted in other countries. You learned about witch hunts in school?” my father continues, his hands clasped behind his back. He really should have been a professor in a college somewhere. I nod.

”That was us?”

”Well, some of us. History doesn't always have it right. But yes, we were persecuted until we came here.”

”But there were witch hunts here, too. I remember we studied the Salem witch trials and . .”

And then Leah Connelly and Melanie Nightingale cornered me in the girls'

bathroom during recess, turned on the taps, and tried to force my head under the sink to see if I wouldn't drown like a true witch. They were planning to do the p.r.i.c.k test, too, until I split Melanie's lip open.

”Yes,” my mother agrees, lifting her head finally and rubbing at her eyes.

”But by then we had learned how to mingle, how to disappear into society.”

”Really?” I ask.

”Um ... did we forget how to do that now? Because we're not so great at mingling and disappearing.” My father makes another rumbling sound, but this time it sounds more like laughter. My mother shrugs.

”Oh, that. Times are different now. Anyway, back then some of us chose to use our Talents to heal and others chose to use our Talents to farm. Peaceful choices. Except for the Knights. Over time they began what they had started doing back in the old countries. Always they had to explore the deeper and darker realms of their Talents, pus.h.i.+ng them past their limits until their Talents turned. Warped” My mother's voice falls away on the last word and she presses her hands to her eyes again for an instant.

”Some of their ... explorations involved other humans. They found ways to extend their natural life span by draining away the life force in humans.”

”How?” I whispered, but my mother shakes her head.

”We've never known. They used spells, the origins of which we never could understand. Spells that involved their victims' blood.” All at once Rowena's black umbrella blooms in my mind and I see again the long red scratch on her hand. And Alistair dabbing away her blood with his handkerchief. My father clears his throat and says, ”At first they were content with using Talentless people. But then once they had mastered that, they began to move on to Talented people. Now instead of extending only their life span, they extend their powers as well” He begins pacing again, pauses.

”You studied parasites in school?” A brief lesson on whales and their various barnacle guests comes swimming back to me.

”Um ... yeah?”

”Well,” my father says, leaping back into lecture mode, ”think of a parasite and how it leeches everything away from its host. Sometimes without the host knowing.”

”Or knowing after it's too late,” my mother interjects.

”Rowena,” I whisper.

”Her wrist,” I blurt out.

”He's ... taking her blood?”

”Yes. Being part of the Knight family, this man would know the spell. He may not have been able to use it all these years, but he would have been ready and waiting for just the right time, when enough of the power of the Domani had escaped.” My mother turns the pages of the book again with shaking hands, as if hoping the answers will suddenly appear.

”He's in her blood now, like a fever. Or like an addiction. One that's very, very hard to break.”

”Can't you just... kill him?” My father regards me gravely.

”We've thought of that. I would take another person's life gladly in this case.”

My mother puts her hand on his arm.

”Even though life is sacred, as you know,” she says.

”But there's another aspect to this spell. There's a mirror effect. Whatever you do to the spell caster reflects back onto the enspelled,” my mother whispers as if quoting a text by heart.

”Three times over.”

”What if I ... Traveled, then?” I whisper.

”Back to the time when ... when ...”

”No,” my mother says sharply. She comes around the desk and seizes my upper arms.