Midnight Dolls (22 page)

“They're not the same as you at all,” I say. “You've used your power to hurt, to destroy, to
kill
. Here in Carrefour, we may have been irresponsible with our magic, but we never used it maliciously. And that's what makes us different from you.”

He stares at me, his eyes cold and beady. “At the end of the day, though, there's little distinction, is there?” He nods at Caleb. “After all, who could forget what happened to Drew Grady? Are you telling me you didn't kill him?”

I glance at Caleb and see guilt written across his face. Liv surprises me by speaking up in our defense. “Whatever Eveny and Caleb did to Drew, they did in self-defense,” she tells Bruno, her voice shaking. She grabs my hand, which makes me feel so relieved that my knees go weak. “That's not the same thing as killing people for personal gain,” Liv adds. “And the way I see it, it's
your
fault he's dead.”

Bruno just stares at her. “And who exactly are you?”

Liv glances at me and then fixes Bruno with the dirtiest look I've ever seen. “I'm Eveny's sister, you scumbag. Just like Peregrine and Chloe are. And no one messes with my family.”

Bruno and his brother begin moving toward us, snarling like wild animals, their eyes crazed and angry. I grab Aunt Bea so we're all connected, then I use zandara to create a protective shield around us, just like the one I used to save Caleb from Drew's knife in New Orleans a few weeks ago.

I know I can't hold the protection for long, so I'm relieved but surprised when the twins suddenly stop their advance. Bruno visibly gathers himself and smiles coolly. “On second thought, I think I'll kill your sister queens first, so you can watch the life drain out of them. And then you can follow them to the grave.”

“You can't hurt us,” I say. “We have magic on our side.”

Bruno laughs, and his creepy twin follows suit. “Oh, you foolish, foolish girl,” he says. “Do you really think we'd come after you like this without magic on our side too?”

“But the gate has been fixed,” I say. “You can't lay a hand on us here.”

“Yes, I admit, you've restored your gate's protective abilities,” Bruno says. “Too bad it wasn't before we killed your friends' mothers. The hanging was a creative touch, don't you think?”

“Go to hell,” I say.

He ignores me. “Still, you've failed to consider something important. We may not be able to kill you using our own hands, but the charm that protects Carrefour doesn't prevent me from killing you using a natural force. Say, for example, fire.”

I realize in a flash that he's right. The gate was set up to keep people who wished us harm—especially Main de Lumière—away. But the founders of the town hadn't counted on the fact that Main de Lumière would be working with someone magical who could summon a ring of fire—and use it as a weapon.

“You won't kill us with fire,” I say, trying to project confidence. “You kill people who practice magic by stabbing them through the heart. If you burn us to death instead, there's a chance we can resurface as spirits in the nether. You know that as well as I do.”

He waves off my comment. “That won't matter after we wipe out this town. Your sister queens won't be able to communicate from the spiritual plane if there's no triumvirate here to reach out to them. And after today, I assure you there won't be. Zandara will die forever.”

“Then why lure
me
back?” I say, buying time. “You don't need to kill me too if you have them.”

He chuckles. “Can't it be enough that I want you to watch them die? That I want you to always remember our power?”

I draw myself up to my full height and say, “Leave them alone. I'm the one you want, and you know very well that if you kill me, the future of zandara dies just the same.” If the Sauvages go after me instead, we'll have a fighting chance of surviving. They'll be expecting me to fight back with zandara. But they don't know that I've been training in andaba too. I can harness both forms of magic at the same time.

“No, Eveny!” Caleb cries, his eyes filled with tears. He begins moving toward me, but I hold up a hand to stop him.

“Caleb, you have to trust me to do this on my own,” I say.

He slows down but doesn't stop. “No, Eveny. I can't let you do that. I can't let you sacrifice yourself.”

“Because you'd die too?”

He looks wounded. “No. Because I can't imagine a world without you in it. Because pushing you away was impossible; you live in my heart. Don't you know by now that I love you?”

I feel a surge of power shoot through me, and I know it's because his words are true. Zandara is based in love, and the more love I'm giving and receiving, the stronger I become. “Then trust me,” I say. “If you love me, Caleb, you have to stay back.”

He stares, his expression mournful and conflicted, but he stops. I turn to my father, who's also walking toward me.

“You too, Dad,” I say. “Please. I know what I'm doing. You have to believe in me.”

He looks unsure at first, but then Caleb puts a hand on his shoulder, and my father stops. I take a long look at them, drawing strength from the love I see in both of their faces.

Slowly, I turn back to the Sauvages. I spread my arms wide and think about all the love I've ever felt—from my mom, my dad, Aunt Bea, my grandfather, my friends, Caleb, Bram, even Peregrine and Chloe. I draw all of that love into me; I imagine it flowing from the air into my heart, the source of my power. My Stone of Carrefour burns hot against my chest, and I could
swear that I feel the sachet Boniface made me, the one with my mom's Rose of Life petals, heating up too.
Mom, if you can hear me
, I think,
I need you now more than ever
.

“I'm here, Sauvage,” I say aloud. “Do what you will.”

Bruno and Gustave both smile coldly. “Oh, Eveny, how very little you understand,” Bruno says. “We promised to save you, you see. As abhorrent as it is, we've made a deal.”

“A deal? With whom?” Suddenly, my mind goes to Gerdeaux and the way he was trying to talk me into joining him. “I'll never work with Main de Lumière, you know. Ever. Not after this.”

He chuckles. “That's not what I hear. My sources tell me you were meeting with my foolish pacifist cousin in New Orleans. Well, rest assured, Gerdeaux has been dealt with appropriately.”

I swallow hard. “You killed him?”

“What's a little murder between friends?” he asks. His brother laughs and then fixes his empty eyes on me.

“Who, then?” I demand. “Who are you working with? Who wants to keep me alive while you destroy everyone else I care about?”

“The only person who'd have a motive to do such a crazy thing, Eveny,” he says, his voice tinged with amusement. “The only person who'd benefit from both Carrefour's destruction and your survival. The only person powerful enough to make an alliance with him worth our while.”

I stare at him, confused, before I suddenly understand
exactly what he means. “My grandfather?” I whisper.

I don't want to believe it, but I know with instant certainty that he's the only person in the world who would benefit from having Carrefour destroyed while I survive, for I'd presumably have no choice but to return to Caouanne Island and assume what he feels is my rightful place there. And because of his advanced age, he's surely one of the most powerful magic practitioners on earth, which must have made him all the more appealing to Les Jumeaux Noir. Still, how could he betray his own flesh and blood that way? “No, he wouldn't do that,” I protest weakly. “He would never take your side over mine. Never.”

Bruno Sauvage throws his head back and laughs. “Oh, but he has, Ms. Cheval. I can see by the look in your eyes that you already know that deep in your heart. And now, with his help, we'll destroy your town. But first, let's have a little fun, shall we?”

M
y grandfather's enormous betrayal shatters me, and for a moment, I can't breathe. But then I straighten up and manage to pull myself together. My grandfather must have been aligned with the Sauvages from the start, which means that everything he's said to me since appearing in Carrefour has been a lie.
I haven't really lost anything
, I try to reassure myself.
I never really had his love. He was pretending all along.

The thought is little comfort, but it's enough to help me refocus on the situation at hand as Bruno Sauvage begins chanting in French. He's saying something like,
“Pour la vie que vous vivez, vous payez un prix. Je nettoie le monde de péché avec votre sang. Équilibre est rétabli
.
”
I search my rudimentary French knowledge and realize he's saying we must pay the price for the lives we're living, that the world will be cleansed
with our blood, and that balance will be restored.

Something in the air shifts, the way it does when I cast a charm, and I know now that my traitorous grandfather is close by, controlling the ring of fire with magic. It begins to close in, and I can already feel its heat, sharp and deadly. The smoke is making it hard to breathe, and as the flames get closer, I can already feel my skin blistering, turning red and raw. The pain is almost unbearable.

“It's about time you meet some of my followers, don't you think?” Bruno says, turning back to me, his icy eyes flashing. “We don't actually
plan
to kill you, of course, but if it happens anyhow, well then, I suppose you weren't as powerful as we thought. And you never know, if you get into trouble, perhaps your grandfather will save you.”

“I don't need his help,” I shoot back. I raise my voice and yell toward the flames, “You hear that, Grandfather? You're dead to me!”

“I'm growing impatient, and I don't have time for family disputes,” Bruno says with exaggerated boredom. “Come, soldiers!” he calls toward the flames. “Come join us.”

Three shadowy figures emerge, backlit by the flames. It takes me only a second to recognize them. Drew's mother; my physics teacher, Mr. Cronin; and Cristof's assistant, Sharona. They're the insiders working for Les Jumeaux Noir. And in an instant, I know they've been against us all along. Drew's mother isn't a shock, of course. I'm surprised to see mild-mannered Mr. Cronin, but I'm stunned most of all to
realize Sharona is a Main de Lumière operative. After all, she was a member of the mothers' sosyete. Suddenly, I have the feeling she was somehow responsible for luring them to their deaths. I wonder if she was involved in my mother's murder too.

I stare them down, and as I think about the depth of their betrayal, my anger flares. Something in me sparks, and I can feel heat pouring into my fingers, something that has never happened before. When I hold my hands up to look at them, my fingertips are a furious red, but I'm not in pain. Instead, it feels like my whole body is buzzing.

I glance at my father, who's staring at the advancing trio. He too has his hands outstretched. His gaze meets mine for a second, and I mouth,
Andaba?
as I hold up my fingers.

He looks surprised, but he nods. “It means you're channeling a great deal of power. But I didn't teach you how to do that.”

“I think my body knows how anyway,” I say. After all, zandara is fueled by love and andaba by anger. The stronger the emotions, the stronger the magic, and for the first time in my life, I have both feelings flooding through me with equal strength. I can feel power pumping through my veins.

Drew's mother is the first to attack, coming at me with a knife, just like her son did a few weeks earlier. “This is for Drew!” she says, lunging for my chest. I hold my breath and force myself to focus my love and anger.

“Come to us now, Eloi Oke, and open the gate,” I whisper,
just as the blade of her knife slices into my upper arm. Behind me, I can see Caleb and my father hurrying toward me despite my warnings, but I can't have them in danger too. I have to stay focused and work quickly.

“Caleb! Dad!” I yell. “I mean it! Stay back! You have to trust me or we're all going to die!” I focus on my Stone of Carrefour, and as I stagger forward with the pain of my wound, I manage to call on Eloi Oke two more times. I reach for my Stone of Carrefour and quickly chant, “Prunella vulgaris, coriander, and rue, I invoke your power. Spirits, help heal my wounds and protect me from harm.” But that's just my zandara side, and I know I've tapped into only a fraction of my power.

As the words leave my mouth, several drops of my blood fall from the gash in my arm onto the dirt below me. I can feel the ground rumble slightly, and I know Drew's mother can feel it too, because her eyes widen, and she looks down. Something flickers in the air in front of us, then vanishes before I can tell what it is.

I gather myself. “I never meant to hurt your son!” I tell Drew's mother. “I didn't want him to die. But if you led him to this, to Main de Lumière, you might as well have killed him yourself!”

I'm trying to draw out the verbal battle with her, because the Sauvage twins are focused on what's happening between us and aren't noticing what's going on behind them. Liv has quietly made her way over to my sister queens and is untying them from the stakes. Peregrine is still out cold and slumps to
the ground, but Chloe, although unsteady, is strong enough to begin walking toward me, helped along by Liv. I feel a surge of hope. If I can cast with another queen, my magic will be exponentially stronger. Still, to be as powerful as possible, I need three, and Peregrine is clearly not an option.

“The only thing I got wrong was trusting you and your dirty little mother, who had the gall to pretend to be my friend,” Drew's mom says, lunging at me again with her knife. I dodge her blade, but Mr. Cronin moves toward me at the same time, his features warped with anger. I twist out of the path of his knife, but not entirely; the edge of the blade nicks my elbow, and I cry out in pain.

“You're dead, Cheval,” he says, already preparing to come at me again. But I touch the wound and with my bloodied fingers reach for the muerte dust that hangs from my wrist cuff. I quickly recite the words my father taught me.
“Con mi sangre, regreso a su intención.”

I don't know if the charm will work in a situation like this, though, so I'm surprised when Mr. Cronin recoils immediately and falls to the ground, blood oozing from his chest, his eyes wide and lifeless. It takes me a second to realize that I've killed him the way he intended to kill me. “I'm so sorry,” I whisper, because I truly didn't want him to die, but there's no time to feel bad, because Sharona is coming at me now.

“You uppity bitch,” she says, swooping her arm forward and slicing the knife toward me.

“Please, Sharona, stop!” I cry, dodging the blade just in
time. I don't want to have to kill her too, but her face is twisted with rage, and I wonder what lies Les Jumeaux Noir have been telling her to fill her with so much hatred. She comes at me again with the knife, and I touch my fingers to the muerte dust cuff and repeat the words of the charm. She falls back, wounded but not dead, and I realize that as a member of the mothers' sosyete, she has probably cast some sort of protection charm on herself, so she's out of commission for the moment, but she's still a threat.

I fend off two more attempted jabs from Drew's mother before I cry out, “Mrs. Grady, please think about what you're doing! I don't want to have to kill you!”

But her eyes are flashing wildly, and her sneer makes her face nearly unrecognizable. “I plan to kill you first.” As she lunges viciously for me again, I reach for my open wound, touch the cuff, and with some regret, whisper the words to stop her. She falls back, her eyes already wide and blank, blood pouring from a gaping wound that's opened in her chest. Like Mr. Cronin, she's dead in exactly the same way she planned to kill me. A few feet away, Sharona is still unconscious. I sink to my knees, gasping for breath.

Bruno Sauvage lets out a long, low whistle and claps a few times as I turn back to him. “My, my, you're a worthier adversary than I imagined you'd be,” he says. “I hadn't expected that you'd be so well-versed in andaba already. Still, everyone you love is going to die regardless. It's unavoidable, I'm afraid. Your sister queens. Your father. Your protector. Your
aunt. Even your useless friend, who I'm sure will regret getting involved in this mess.”

I glance at Liv, but she doesn't look frightened—she looks furious. Fortunately, Bruno still doesn't seem to be paying her any attention. She's making her way toward me with a half-conscious, limping Chloe.

I gather all my strength, struggle to my feet, and direct the andaba charm toward the twins.
“Con mi sangre, regreso a su intención!”
I shout, feeling the fury pour out of me. But nothing happens; Bruno and his brother are unharmed, and the fire continues to advance.

Bruno chuckles. “Valiant try, Ms. Cheval, but your magic can't stop us, even if you are some sort of andaba-zandara abomination. Your grandfather is much more powerful than you are, even with your dual blood. He's been practicing for years, and he has assured me that he knows all the tricks you might try. Only the power of three Queens of Carrefour could save you, and as I'm sure you've realized, that's not going to happen.”

“Then where is he?” I demand, trying not to sound as panicked as I feel. “If my grandfather wants everyone I love dead, you'd think he'd have the guts to come out and face me. But instead, he's a spineless coward, just like you.”

“I'm growing tired of your insults,” Bruno says. “I see Chloe St. Pierre has recovered somewhat, and apparently, you think there's some use in having her join you.” He pauses to give Liv and Chloe an almost amused look. “But no matter.
Your third queen seems quite unable to help, and I intend to make sure she stays that way. Without her, I'm afraid there's simply no way you can beat us.”

“I'll never let you take this town,” I tell him, my heart full of resolve. He's triggering a blend of emotions in me—love for my town and fury at him—that's perfectly suited to bring out my zandara and andaba powers.

“I'm not sure what makes you think you have a choice,” he says. “Without the power of three queens—or at least three kings, but you don't have that either—you're just filling the last few minutes of your loved ones' lives with empty, meaningless babble.” He sighs and shakes his head, as if I'm boring him. He turns toward the flames and yells, “Brother Desjardins, let's get this fire moving, shall we? I'm running out of patience.”

The fire begins advancing more quickly, and Caleb steps closer to me. “We have to do something,” he says. “They're going to burn us alive.”

“No. I won't let that happen,” I say, and turn to my father. “Is there anything I can do with andaba to stop this?”

He shakes his head miserably. “Not without another king. It's only me and you here.”

That's when I notice that the wound on my shoulder from Drew's mother's knife has opened wider, and a steady drip of blood is falling onto the dirt. I reach out instinctively to stop the bleeding, to press my shirt into the wound, but there's something flickering in front of me, just like there was when
my blood first hit the ground minutes ago. It looks like a faint shadow, as if I'm seeing the reflection of someone who's not really there. Each time a drop of my blood lands, the hazy image gets a little clearer and then vanishes again. “Do you see that too?” I ask my father.

“See what?” he asks.

“Eveny, you're bleeding,” Aunt Bea says, stepping forward to touch my arm. I turn to her and see that her face is white.

“Yeah, well, that seems like the least of our problems right now,” I say.

“No, that's not what I mean,” she says quickly. “You have to tell me: do you have your mother's Rose of Life petals somewhere on you?”

I nod and gesture to the sachet around my neck. My father gasps, startling me. “What's going on?” I ask, first looking at him and then at Aunt Bea.

“I never believed it could work,” Aunt Bea breathes, her eyes wide with awe. But there's something else in her expression too: hope. “The Rose of Life . . . My God. She succeeded after all.”

“What are you talking about, Aunt Bea?” I ask. “What about the Rose of Life?”

The Sauvage twins are staring at us. The fire is advancing. We probably have another sixty seconds before it reaches Peregrine, another ninety before it closes in around all of us.

“Do you remember what your mother told you when she was dying, Eveny?” Aunt Bea asks urgently.

“‘I live on in you,'” I say. “I assumed she meant her magic lived on in me.”

“But what if she meant it literally?” Aunt Bea says. “If she succeeded in imbuing the rose with power, you can bring her back because you share her blood. But a drop here and there isn't enough. That's why you're only seeing her shadow. She's trying, but she can't cross the boundary between life and death with so little blood spilled.”

The fire is roaring toward us, but suddenly, I'm very cold. “What are you saying?”

There's a faraway look in Aunt Bea's eye as she bends to pick up the knife that Drew's mother dropped when she fell. “She can be your third queen, Eveny. It's the only way. She lives on in me, too.” I can see tears rolling down her cheeks, and I take a step forward, confused about what she's saying. She holds up a hand to stop me and adds quickly, “I've done all I can to protect you. Now it's up to you. I love you, Eveny. Never forget that. I'll see you again someday, on the other side.”

It takes me a split second to realize what she's about to do. “No!” I cry, rushing to grab the knife from her, but she's already slitting her own wrists, slumping to the ground. Blood pours out of her onto the dry earth.