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You know, he probably only loved you because of the yemonja," Blaise said
Thea looked up fro break, and this was the most private place they could find at school "Thanks, Blaise I needed that"
But otten that she’d used a spell to get him in the first place
That should make a difference, she told herself If it was all artificial, I shouldn’t even miss it
She still felt as if she were encased in ice
"Did you get it?"
"Sure" Blaise tossed a ring on the high table "I asked her if I could look at it, then pretended I dropped it in the bushes She’s still out there searching"
Thea pulled the binding spell out of her backpack
Two anatomically correct dolls, both made with the blue wax Blaise used for her jewelry Beautiful little creatures-Blaise was an artist The male one contained the Kleenex with Eric’s blood and a single sandy hair Thea had found clinging to her shoulder
Thea put Pilar’s turquoise ring around the feet of the female doll and tied it with a red thread to keep it on She held out a hand
Froonal bottle The liquid inside was round bezoar stone Thea held her breath as she poured it over the two figures, which iether," Blaise said, coughing and waving a hand to clear a space to breathe
"I know" Thea took a thin scarlet ribbon seven feet long and patiently began winding it around the two figures It wrapped them like mummies She tucked the loose end into a loop
"And there they are," Blaise said "Bound till death Congratulations Let’s see, it’s ten fifteen now, so he should have forgotten your existence by about say, ten sixteen" She reached up and her hair ran like black water through her hands as she stretched
Thea tried to smile
The pain was bad It was as if some part of Thea’s physical body had been cut off She felt raw and bleeding and not at all able to deal with things like French or trigonoo so for other people; I’ll work in third world countries or try to save an endangered species
But thinking about future good works didn’t help the raw ache Or the feeling that if the ache stopped she would just be nuain
And all this for a human
It didn’t work any Huht be alien, but they were still people They were as good as witches Just different
Sheinto Eric-whichand being tardy for classes She was scuttling after the last bell toward Dani’s US government class when she almost collided with Pilar
"Thea!"
The voice was surprised Thea looked up
Deep amber-brown eyes, fra at her very strangely
Wondering at your good luck? Thea thought Has Eric proposed to you yet? "What?" she said
Pilar hesitated, then just shook her head and walked off
Thea ducked into the history classroom
Dani said, "Thea!"
Everybody sounds the sa all over for you"
Of course, I should have realized Blaise rong-he’s not just going to forget about entle away
"Can I go home with you?" she asked Dani wretchedly "I need soed her to a corner and looked her over with anxious eyes "Eric really wants to find you but what’s wrong?" she whispered "Is it soym’s still closed, isn’t it?"
"It’s nothing to do with that" She was about to suggest they get ure walked in the door Eric
He walked straight to Thea The kids hanging around the teacher’s desk were looking The teacher was looking Thea felt like a freak show
"We have to talk," Eric said flatly She’d never seen hilassy-eyed, hollow-cheeked He soed to look as if he’d
And he was right They had to talk to end it She had to explain that it was okay, or he’d never be able to go I can do that
"Somewhere private," Thea said
They left Dani and walked through the cay lih the football field
Thea didn’t knohere they were going, and suspected Eric didn’t either-they just kept ht of people
The green of the tended grass gave way to yellow-green, and then brown, and then desert Thea wrapped her arotten in just a week and a half The last trace of su to talk about it, she thought as Eric stopped Okay I don’t have to think, just say the right words She forced herself to look at hiard, haunted face on her and said, "I want you to stop it"
Funny choice of words You mean end it, break it off, put it quietly out of its et all that out, so she just said, "What?"
"I don’t knohat you’re doing," he said, "but I want it stopped Now"
His green eyes were level Not apologetic,His voice was flat
Thea had a sudden sense of shifting realities All the hairs on her ar brain, she said, "I- what are you talking about?"
"You knohat I’ at her steadily
Thea shook her head no
He shrugged It was a you-asked-for-it shrug "Whatever you’re doing," he said with terrible distinctness, "to try and ot to stop Because it’s not fair to her She’s upset right now because I’ crazy But I don’t want to be
with her It’s you I love And if you want to get rid of me, then tell me, but don’t try and foist me off on somebody else"
Thea listened to the whole speech feeling as if she were floating several feet above the ground The sky and desert seeht, not warm, just very shiny While her brain ran around frantically like Madaet out, "What could I possibly have to do-with you liking Pilar?"
Eric looked around, found a rock, and sat on it He stared down at his hands for a minute or so Finally he looked up, his expression helpless
"Give me a break, Thea," he said "How stupid do you think I aht, don’t just stand there You bluffed hi he’d been bitten by a snake For Earth’s sake, you can talk hi now
"Eric-I guess we’ve all been under a lot of stress"
"Oh, please don’t giveto a clu the halos of awful spines as if he ive me that"
He took a deep breath and spoke deliberately "You chars’ minds You cure rattler bites with a touch You tap into people’s brains You oddess Aphrodite" He looked at her "Did I ?"
Thea found another rock and backed up to it blindly She sat Of everything in the universe, right then what she was
"I have this feeling," Eric said, watching her with his green eyes, "that you guys are in fact the descendants of good old Hecate Witch-Queen Am I dose?"
"You think you win a prize?" Thea still couldn’t think, couldn’t put a abble
He paused and grinned, a wry and painful grin, but the first one she’d seen today Then the smile faded "It’s true, isn’t it?" he said simply
Thea looked out over the desert, toward the huge, bare cliffs of rock in the distance She let her eyes unfocus, soaking in the expanse of brown-green Then she put her ringers to the bridge of her nose
She was going to do so that all her ancestors would conderown up ould understand
"It’s true," she whispered
He breathed out, a lonely huure in that vastness of the desert
"How long have you known?" she asked
"I don’t know I mean, I think I always sort of knew But it wasn’t possible-and you didn’t want me to know So I didn’t know" A kind of exciteardness "It’s really true, then You can do ic"
Say it, Thea told herself You’ve done everything else Say the words to a huht you called it That’s what Roz was telling me"
At that, Thea was horrified out of her daze of horror Stricken "Eric-you can’t talk about this with Roz You don’t understand They’ll kill her"
He didn’t look as shocked as sheI thought it was just that people randma"