Magic or Madness (28 page)

I turned to Fibonacci. I could feel my ammonite in Danny’s pocket. On the backs of my eyelids I saw it clearly: a tightly wrapped spiral, the impression of a seashell, long ago broken down into sand. I traced the growing spirals, the area of each section equal to that of the previous two. The spiral grew, bigger than my ammonite, bigger than me, big as a car, big as the block we were running along. A neatly turning spiral. I jumped into it as though into a whirlpool. Spinning and floating.

Below me, Danny ran faster and steadier.

Jay-Tee was running rather than
thinking. In school she had always been the fastest girl. She could keep going for ages too. She liked it, but not as much as dancing. When she’d run at school, there were coaches yelling at her: knees up, elbows in. Running now she could still hear their shouted instructions. When she danced, she just danced. No one told her how to do it better, faster, longer. She just knew.

As she ran, her mind was with the crowd, seeing the gaps, the clearest paths, how to duck and weave, thread her way through, avoiding slick ice, people’s toes, discarded trash. She was glad it wasn’t that cold, no snow, and the wind blew from behind her, making her run faster and easier.

She’d stay warm as long as she was running. She shot a look back. Danny ran with Reason slung over his shoulder. Jay-Tee felt a wave of homesickness for her brother and for her dad, for how it had been before he’d turned into a monster. Part of her was dying to stop and hug Danny, but how on earth was she going to explain everything that was going on?

Seventh Street. She cut left. Jay-Tee knew where she was going now. The door. If Reason had the key . . . hidden, she’d said in her dream. If she’d hidden it on her person or, more cleverly, near the door, they could go through, grab Reason’s stuff, and keep going.

Maybe they could even figure a way to shut the door against Esmeralda. Reason knew how to hide in Australia, out in the country with the kangaroos. Jay-Tee liked the idea of living with kangaroos.

Tom pulled on the rest of his winter gear in the street, trailing behind Esmeralda, still stumbling over his explanations. “Hurry, Tom,” she said. “She’s not that far ahead.”

“Right,” he said, pulling his glove on and then off again when he realised it was the wrong hand. He could see Reason up ahead, slipping and sliding. He took off. Within seconds the man from the restaurant had sprinted past him. “Crap!”

Tom ran harder, determined to stop him from doing anything to Reason. He’d seen the fear on her face. But he kept slipping. Up ahead Reason was having an even harder time with the salt and ice. The guy caught up to her, grabbed her, leaning close, yelling in her face. It looked like he was shaking her.

“Reason!” screamed Tom. The man threw her over his shoulder and started off again. Tom forced himself to run harder. He was not going to let that mongrel get away.

He
was sitting on the front steps of the house. Legs casually crossed as if he were waiting for good friends and didn’t mind how long they took. He was even smiling, white teeth gleaming.

Jay-Tee didn’t see him until it was too late. She skidded to a halt and there he was, smile growing wider. His car double-parked in the street, ready. Jay-Tee found she was too scared to move. Without thinking, she crossed herself.

“You’re not going anywhere, Jay-Tee, are you?” he said as if he could see her paralysis.

I’m not scared of you,
she told herself. But she was. She wasn’t like Reason. He terrified her. She didn’t ever want him to take her magic by force again. The memory of it still made her shrink inside.

Jay-Tee heard a car and turned her head. A taxi pulled up behind his limousine. The back door opened and Esmeralda got out, walked toward him. He wasn’t looking at Jay-Tee anymore. He was standing, eyes fixed on Esmeralda’s, like moose locking antlers. Jay-Tee could almost see a gash cut through the air between them. The hair on Jay-Tee’s arms stood on end. Everything was crackling; it felt like the air was melting.

Neither moved, not even the tiniest muscles on their faces. Jay-Tee stared. They weren’t even blinking. They were statues. Jay-Tee fervently hoped they would stay that way.

She heard the sound of feet pounding along the sidewalk. Danny with Reason bouncing on his shoulder.
That’s got to hurt,
thought Jay-Tee. Danny smiled at her, sort of, halfway between a smile and a grimace. “You’re still too fast for me,” he said.

He put Reason down, who wobbled unsteadily on her feet and then looked up, seeing Esmeralda and Jason.

“Bugger,” she said.

I could feel something in
the air. It made my skin crawl, the hairs on my body stand on end. A buzzing whine cut through my head. I was completely awake now. “Bugger,” I said.

Esmeralda and Jason Blake stood staring at each other. They looked dead, but the air around them was almost on fire. The ground beneath seemed to be moving, wavering like the air in the distance on a hot summer’s day.

“Yeah,” Jay-Tee agreed.

“What—” Danny began.

“Shhh,” we both said at the same time. We exchanged an “oh, bugger” glance. I wanted to move away, but I couldn’t. It was impossible to look anywhere but at Blake and Esmeralda.

“We should run, shouldn’t we?” Jay-Tee said.

“Can you run? Because I can’t.” My legs felt like concrete.

She shook her head, then turned to her brother. “We’ll explain later, I promise.”

“No, you’ll explain now. Why were you running away from me?”

“I wasn’t. We were running away from them.”

He stared at Esmeralda and Jason Blake. “Who are they?” I wondered what he saw, whether Danny could sense the electricity, hear the whine radiating from them. “What the hell are they—”

“I don’t know.” Jay-Tee shook her head.

“She’s my grandmother,” I said softly.

“Let’s just go,” Danny said, looking down at Jay-Tee. “You’re running from them, right? Then let’s go and you can tell me what’s going on. Why you’ve been hiding from me.”

Danny reached out to take Jay-Tee’s hand. He pulled her into a huge hug. Jay-Tee was crying. “Reason?” she asked. “What should we do?”

I didn’t respond. I was too busy recognising where we were.

Blake and Esmeralda were in front of the door that had brought me here. A man carved in the stone above, his moustache, eyebrows, and eyes crudely painted on. The moustache was bigger than I remembered, hiding any hint of mouth. He was sadder too, looked like he might cry any minute. Or maybe it was the horrible noise emanating from the two statues below him, the growing heat, that made him miserable. It was making me miserable.

The door was of a heavy wood; above it a half circle of stained glass showed a rising sun. I hadn’t noticed it before, yet I knew this was the door.

I looked along the street, recognising the houses, the fire escapes, the railings. I’d’ve known this street straightaway. Jay-Tee had led me to the wrong place yesterday. Yet another lie.

“Do you have the key? Is it hidden here?” Jay-Tee said softly, still in her brother’s arms. “Can we get through?”

“What key?” Danny asked.

I shook my head. “Lost it. Must’ve dropped it when I first stepped through.”

“Damn,” she said, pulling away from Danny.

“And if I had it? How were you planning to get past those two?”

Neither Jason nor Esmeralda had moved, eyes still locked on each other. It had started to snow, light, floating flakes like the first snow I’d ever seen, right here, only a few days earlier. The snow landed on the tops of their heads, their noses. Neither of them so much as blinked.

A woman walked past, pushing a child swaddled in sheepskin in a pram, shooting anxious glances at us all. Jay-Tee smiled, but the woman hurried past. She must’ve thought we were all mad.

Danny was pacing, looking about ready to explode. We definitely owed him a long, detailed explanation. I wished my head would stop pounding; the sound from the two statues, the pressure of their battle made my skull feel as though it were shrinking, pressing in on my brain, which any minute would start pouring out of my ears and nose. Did Jay-Tee feel it? She was still crying, trying to explain things to her brother, but was only managing to confuse him further.

Was it just me hearing them? If I didn’t get away or stop them, I was going to start screaming. I tried to take a step, but my feet wouldn’t move. Now I couldn’t even walk.

Someone was running towards us. Tom. I gave him the biggest smile I was capable of (not very) and then remembered that he’d been pleased to see Esmeralda. Which complicated things. My head hurt. It would be fabulous to sleep awhile, not have to think.

“Tom,” I told Danny. “He’s a friend.” I wondered if he actually was. “Danny.” They nodded at each other, which felt weird, like we were at a tea party, not freezing to death on a New York City street half paralyzed by two witches engaged in silent fireworks. I hoped they’d burn each other’s brains out before they burned out mine.

Danny turned to Jay-Tee. “Look, this is ridiculous. I’ve got a place where you can live now. Dad left lots of money. It’s yours too.”

“Would you just shut up for a second, Danny?” Jay-Tee cried, holding her ears. She was hearing the battle too.

Tom bent over, panting. “Are you okay?” he asked, while Danny continued to plead with Jay-Tee. He looked up at me. He frowned. “You look like crap.”

“Ta, mate.” He seemed unaffected by the two statues. Or maybe it didn’t hit you straightaway. “You were looking for me with Esmeralda?” I asked. “She’s the one I ran away from. She’s a witch.”

He nodded. “I know, but she’s not what . . .” He trailed off, catching sight of Esmeralda and Jason Blake, lowering his voice. “Who’s he? What’s going on? What’s that noise? Is he—”

“Bad,” I said. “He’s really bad.”

I had Danny’s attention too now. “Did that man do something to you?” he asked Jay-Tee.

She opened her mouth to speak, then shut it again.

Jason and Esmeralda seemed to be glowing. I could feel the heat. I wondered if it was real or not. Even the footpath under my feet felt warmer. Underneath their feet the ground was rippling, as if its constituent elements were breaking apart. It was spreading towards the footpath, moving towards us.

The whine had become more of a whirr. It was getting louder, more insistent. I had to concentrate hard to stop from screaming.

“If he’s so evil, shouldn’t we be helping Mere?” Tom said, as if it were obvious.

Jay-Tee had started to shiver. Danny pulled his arm out of one sleeve and pulled her into his coat. My ears were so cold I was expecting them to hit the ground any minute, yet there was a steady warmth radiating from Esmeralda and Jason Blake—the noise they were making was getting louder. I couldn’t think. I had to make it stop.

“Do you feel that?” Danny asked. “The sidewalk?”

If even Danny could feel it, then the heat must be real. We all stared at Esmeralda and Blake.

“Can you see it?” I asked Jay-Tee and Tom.

“Yeah,” Tom said. “All those shapes.”

“Huh? I meant under their feet. Do you see it glowing?” That wasn’t the right word.

“No,” Tom said.

Jay-Tee shook her head. “I feel it, though. Hear it too. I hope they both burn themselves all up. Dead.”

“Not Mere,” Tom protested, looking horrified. “She’s my friend. She’s good.”

“You like it when she drinks you?” Jay-Tee asked. Her upper lip curled.

“Huh?” Tom said. “What do you mean?”

Danny looked just as dumbfounded. “Drinks you? Someone’s been drinking from you?”

“She’s never done anything like that,” Tom protested. “Drinking me?”

Jay-Tee nodded, pointing at Jason Blake. “That one’s a regular vampire.”

Danny was looking at Jay-Tee and then at me. “Vampires?”