The Dolls (27 page)

It takes me a moment to realize that she and Peregrine think I’m shivering in fear because of what happened during the ceremony. “It’s not that,” I tell them. “I . . . I tried to run home, but in the cemetery, I was attacked by the guy from Main de Lumière.” I add pointedly, “The one who was posing as Blake Montoire at your party.”

I watch as their eyes widen into saucers, and I realize for the first time how dilated their pupils are. “Wait, what?” Peregrine whispers.

“Are you sure?” Chloe asks at the same time.

“Yes,” I say and recap my encounter in the cemetery.

“Well, he was just bluffing,” Peregrine says when I’m done, her eyes darting nervously to Chloe, who’s chewing her lip. “The ceremony worked. He’s powerless in Carrefour now.”

“But he confirmed that there’s already an operative here,” I tell them. “Someone we trust. Someone who killed Glory. Someone who
isn’t
powerless because they have a key to Carrefour. It’s just like we thought.”

Peregrine grabs my right hand and Chloe my left, and before I know it, I’m being pulled away from Caleb. The moment I’m out of his arms, I feel cold and exposed.

“We’ll call our mothers now,” Peregrine says. “Let’s get inside.”

Caleb steps back into the darkness, and I hesitate. “Aren’t you coming in?” I ask.

“There’s something I have to do.” His jaw is set, and I realize what he means.

“You can’t go after him, Caleb,” I say. “It’s not safe.”

“I’ll be fine.” He doesn’t give me a chance to argue. He turns away and strides toward the cemetery, his fists clenched.

“Caleb!” I cry out. But Chloe and Peregrine hold me back as he vanishes into the darkness.

“He’ll be okay,” Peregrine says. “Don’t worry.”

“Don’t worry?” I demand. “You just let him go after a Main de Lumière general!”

“A Main de Lumière general who’s powerless now,” Peregrine corrects. “Caleb can take care of himself.”

I don’t believe her. I call out once more for him, but the only answer is the cawing of a raven from somewhere beyond the cemetery wall.

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“Y
ou performed a ceremony with Eveny without “ bothering to explain it to her first?” Peregrine’s mother demands twenty minutes later once we’re all gathered in her living room. She and Chloe’s mother came right away from a cocktail party on the other side of town. Peregrine’s mother has her black hair done in a thousand tiny braids, and she looks impossibly slim in a shimmery silver dress. Chloe’s mother’s sleek blond hair is pulled into a chignon at the nape of her neck, and she’s wearing a black cocktail dress that hugs her slender curves. They’re both clutching flutes of champagne, which the maid handed to them as soon as they walked in the door.

“We thought it would make it easier on her if she didn’t know what was going to happen,” Peregrine whimpers, looking at the floor.

“Easier on her?” her mother asks, her eyes flashing. “Or easier on
you
?”

“I—” Peregrine begins, but her mother cuts her off.

“Enough,” she says in a voice that’s deadly calm. She looks at me. “Eveny, on behalf of my daughter, and of both sosyetes, yours and mine, I apologize. What Peregrine and Chloe did was inappropriate. You’re one of us, and you deserve a full explanation from now on.”

“Chloe knows better too,” Chloe’s mother pipes up, looking nervously at her daughter, who, like Peregrine, is staring at the floor like it’s the most interesting thing she’s ever seen.

I shrug uncomfortably. I don’t need an apology—particularly not from the mothers, whose carelessness has nearly destroyed the town. “What about Caleb?” I ask. “He’s out there all alone.”

The mothers exchange looks. “He’s not alone,” Chloe’s mother says. “Oscar and Patrick are with him.”

“Besides, it’s certainly not your job to feel such concern for him. Quite the opposite,” Peregrine’s mother says. “Now, on to the more pressing matter at hand. Main de Lumière. Eveny, what did you find out?”

As I tell them about the conversation with Aloysius Vauclain, everyone in the room stands completely still. There’s a collective gasp when I tell them how easily he admitted to Main de Lumière’s involvement in Glory’s murder, and another gasp when I say that he disavowed any Main de Lumière involvement in my mother’s death.

“We need to figure out who the Main de Lumière operative in Carrefour is,” I conclude. “If we find out who killed Glory, we can protect ourselves.”

“You know,” says Arelia, “the only new people in town in
years
have been Eveny herself and her aunt.”

I open my mouth to defend Aunt Bea, but Peregrine’s mother beats me to it. “Arelia, I don’t care for Bea Cheval either,” she says stiffly. “But to accuse her of being affiliated with Main de Lumière is taking things too far.”

“And how do we know it wasn’t you?” I hear myself say to Arelia. I hadn’t meant to confront her, but her blind accusation of my aunt makes me furious.

“Eveny,” Peregrine says in a warning tone.

“No,” I say, turning to her. “Glory said she was meeting Arelia only hours before she died.” I look back at Arelia. “Do you have an alibi for the night she was killed?”

I expect Arelia to have a retort ready, but instead, her face crumples, and she looks away. It’s Margaux who steps forward and says, “She was with me. I swear it on our sosyete.”

“Well, there you have it,” Chloe’s mother says, clapping her hands together enthusiastically. “I take it that will be the end of that discussion.” She turns to me and adds in a lower voice, “In Carrefour, the women of the sosyetes stick together. They don’t accuse each other of things.”

I’m being chastised. I don’t have a response, but I shoot a suspicious look at Arelia, who’s glowering at me now.

Peregrine takes a step forward. “I say we hold a ceremony tomorrow night to cast as many protective charms over our sosyetes as we can.”

“I think we should stop practicing zandara for now, at least until the big Mardi Gras ceremony,” I say immediately.

“This again?” Peregrine asks.

“I’m just suggesting we stop until we figure out what the situation is and who’s after us,” I say. “We’re a target as long as we keep practicing magic.”

“You’re assuming that this Vauclain person was being truthful with you about their motives,” Peregrine says.

“I don’t think he would have bothered lying if he thought he was about to kill me,” I point out.

“I agree with Eveny,” Chloe says. “It doesn’t mean we won’t be ready if there’s an attack. But there’s not much we can do without knowing the identity of the traitor.”

“But we can’t just stop doing zandara,” Margaux protests. “That’s who we are.”

“Which is all well and good until another one of us winds up six feet under,” Peregrine’s mother says sharply.

“I agree,” Chloe’s mother says. “For now.”

“There we have it,” Peregrine’s mother says crisply. “This means that for the next few days at least, no zandara in Carrefour. We must avoid calling attention to ourselves until we know what we’re facing.”

“But Mom—” Peregrine begins to protest.

Her mother cuts her off sharply. “That means you girls.”

“So what now?” asks Arelia.

“Now,” says Peregrine’s mother, “we attempt to make contact with a few sosyetes we trust in other parts of the country.”

“And in the meantime,” adds Chloe’s mother, “we lie low and keep our eyes open for signs that something’s not right.”

“But—” Peregrine begins.

Her mother interrupts again. “This isn’t open for discussion.”

Peregrine seethes in silence as the meeting draws to a close.

After I say my good-byes, I head out the front door, thoroughly exhausted. I’m worried about the walk home, but Peregrine’s mother hands me a sachet of protective herbs and promises that she’ll cast a charm so that she’ll know if I’m in any danger. “Besides, you’ll be fine,” she says. “Caleb and the boys are taking care of things.”

I’m too tired to argue, plus I’m glad to get away from the sosyetes for the night. Still, I’m relieved when I hear Caleb calling my name. I turn to see him emerging from the cemetery, his shirt ripped on the right side and dirt streaked across his left cheek.

“Hey,” he says, falling into step beside me.

“What happened?” I ask.

“We caught the guy who attacked you.” Caleb hesitates. “He won’t be bothering you anymore.”

Something cold wraps itself around my heart. “You killed Vauclain,” I say softly.

“We had to,” Caleb says. His voice breaks, and he pauses before continuing. “Patrick was the one who caught him, and Oscar was right behind him. He was already dead by the time I got there.”

“He was their leader,” I say. “They’ll want revenge even more now.”

“We didn’t have a choice,” he says. “If anything had happened to you . . .” He trails off, sending a shiver up my spine. “Eveny, I never would have forgiven myself.”

He stops walking, and a few steps later, I stop too. I look up at him, and he puts a warm, rough hand on my cheek. We stare at each other for a long moment. He leans in, and I’m sure he’s about to kiss me, so I close my eyes. But his lips never meet mine, and when I open my eyes a moment later, I feel like an idiot.

He’s just staring at me. “Eveny. Have you made plans for the Mardi Gras Ball yet?”

“No.” I hold my breath.

“Do you think . . . What I mean is. . . . Would you want to go with me?”

My heart leaps into my throat, but there’s something about his expression that feels off. “You don’t have to ask me if you don’t want to, you know,” I say.

“I know. It doesn’t change anything between us, but,” he says, looking into my eyes, “I want to. So is that a yes?”

“Of course it is.”

“Good.” He clears his throat and looks up at the moon. “Now come on. Let’s get you home before we lose the light.”

I walk inside to find Aunt Bea pacing the living room. “There’d better be a good explanation for what happened tonight,” she asks, but before I can open my mouth, she adds, “Because this isn’t the way I raised you, Eveny. You have no idea what you’re dealing with here.”

I open and close my mouth before I finally settle for, “Who called you?”

“Chloe’s mother,” she says. “I
told
you this was the sort of thing that could happen if you got involved in zandara, Eveny!” Aunt Bea slams her fist against the wall.

All of a sudden, a wave of calm rushes over me. “Aunt Bea,” I say, “I can’t run away from this.”

“But
I
can. And I can make you come with me. We’re going back to New York. I never should have brought you here.”

They’re the words I would have given anything to hear a few weeks ago. But now, everything’s different. “No.”

“
No?
” she repeats.

I shake my head. “It’s not what Mom would have wanted. I know things are messed up here, Aunt Bea, but I think I’m the one who’s supposed to fix them.”

Her eyes are suddenly awash with sadness. “But Main de Lumière
killed
your mother,” she says. “You want to wait around and have the same thing happen to you?”

“But Main de Lumière
didn’t
kill her,” I say, explaining what Vauclain told me in the cemetery. “I don’t think he was lying. He had no problem admitting what they did to Glory.”

“Well, if they didn’t kill your mother, who did?”

“I was hoping you’d have some idea,” I reply. “Vauclain said I should be worried.”

Aunt Bea looks down at the floor. “That doesn’t make any sense.”

“Maybe it was my dad,” I venture after a pause.

Her head snaps up. “Where would you get an idea like that?”

“You despise him. You refuse to talk about him. And he’s completely vanished.”

Aunt Bea looks away. “Your father didn’t kill your mother, Eveny. We are not living in an episode of
The Jerry Springer Show
.”

“You hate him so much, though.”

She gazes out the window. “Yes, because he left. Because your mother always believed he’d done the right thing, even when he abandoned you. Because he can’t run from who he is, or who he was born to be.”

Something inside me lurches. “What do you mean? Who was he born to be?” My heart pounds quickly; I have the feeling that whatever she’s about to say is important.

But her face goes blank, and she looks away. “It’s none of your concern, Eveny,” she says tightly. “It has nothing to do with you.”

“Of course it does,” I reply, but Aunt Bea is already striding away, her heels echoing on the hardwood floors. “It has everything to do with me!”

But there’s no reply. She’s already gone.

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A
week passes and everyone in the sosyete is on edge. True to their word, Peregrine and Chloe stop practicing zandara, but in the meantime they’re assembling a stockpile of herbs and furiously poring over charms from their mothers’ notes. I stay up late and cram too, trying to memorize the uses of all the herbs my mother lists in her journal. “We have to be ready,” Chloe keeps saying.