The Lingering Grace (10 page)

“I’m sorry to ask, but … did magic have anything to do with it?”

It was the first time Alice had seen Eva genuinely lose her cool. She stared at a spot over Alice’s shoulder, exhaling heavily and inhaling slowly. Alice had no idea what to do; she remembered the way her mom had held her just the night before, but that sort of embrace was too intimate and motherly for someone who was barely more than a stranger. And so she did the only thing that came naturally: pretended not to notice the look on Eva’s face and focused all her attention on opening the box of raisins.

“She fell into the pool. I was there,” Eva said numbly.

She asked, so quietly she could hardly hear herself say it, “Was it … a curse?”

“No.”

“You’re sure she didn’t die because of … ”

“Yes.”

Alice took a deep breath of relief as that particular worry slid from her shoulders. She looked up again and saw that Eva, however, looked anything but relieved. Her lips were pursed and her nose screwed up. Her eyes were turning redder by the second.

“I couldn’t save her at the time,” Eva said.

Now that her own question was answered, Alice felt a pang of guilt for bringing this up in the first place. Maybe it
could
have waited. She barely knew Eva, after all. This was hardly the time to interrogate her about something so awful. If it had been her, if it had been Jeremy who had died—her throat clenched. Even the thought hit her like a knife to the heart.

She put a hand on Eva’s knee, not caring if it was awkward. She had started this. Now she had to help.

“You didn’t do anything wrong,” Alice said reassuringly. It was what she would have wanted to hear.

But Eva’s gaze locked onto hers with bitter intensity. “Don’t say that I couldn’t save her. I
didn’t
save her.”

“But no one could have—”

“
No
.” Eva shook her head vigorously. The blood came rushing back into her cheeks. “I can save her.”

“You could have saved her?” Alice asked, confused and a little alarmed by the wild look on Eva’s face.

Eva blinked. When she opened her eyes again and looked at Alice, her face was composed and her voice steady.

“I can.”

Alice opened her mouth to ask again what she meant by that, but shut it just as quickly. She had already pressed Eva enough, and Eva had just avoided tears by a hair. No point sending her straight back into a meltdown.

“Do you have the book with you?” Eva asked. She seemed relieved to change the subject.

Alice glanced down at her backpack, leaning against the base of the wall. She pulled out the spell she had copied down.

“The whole thing’s still at home, but I have this.”

Eagerly, Eva took the page. She read over it quickly and when she got to the incantation, she whispered it under her breath. Alice could have sworn the air around her face went icy.

“It’s beautiful,” she said when she finished. Alice reached out to take back the page, but Eva didn’t offer it back to her. Immediately, a fluttering sense of panic filled Alice’s chest. She clasped her hands in her lap, interlacing her fingers so tightly that her fingertips began to go numb. There was no good reason for the anxiety—and that made her even more nervous. No reason to get so possessive over a few old spells. Right?

So why had her chest suddenly constricted?

“It’s slightly different than the one I learned, but I like it,” Eva said, looking back down at the incantation. “This looks a lot more like the ones I’ve seen online. You said it was a printed book, not handwritten? And it was old?”

“Yes,” Alice said. She tried to bite back the rising anxiety, but her mind was clinging to only one thought. She had found the book. It was hers. It was hers.

Maybe she sensed Alice’s discomfort because Eva handed the page back to her. Alice immediately folded it and stuffed it into her pocket, leaving her hand resting on top so she could feel the slight stiffness of the paper under the fabric of her jeans.

“I’ve seen something in our forums about a book that set the standards for practice across the country—the first one that was published. Depending on how old this book is, it could be from that period.”

“It’s possible,” Alice said.

“Mine was made before there were any published spellbooks, I think. It was handwritten; she was still developing some of the incantations. I’d love to take a look at yours.”

“She?” Alice asked, ignoring Eva’s request. “Do you know who wrote it?”

“Someone named Hester, I think. She wrote her name at the front, but the next person who owned it crossed it out. Still readable, though.” Eva was staring at Alice’s box of raisins, but when Alice offered her one, she shook her head. She reached into her backpack and pulled out a water bottle. “You know, Alice—it would be fun if you could sleep over tonight.”

Alice hadn’t slept over at anyone’s house since middle school. And she couldn’t help but think that, with her parents fighting again, she’d rarely been so eager to be away from her own home.

“It would be. But I don’t have any stuff with me.”

“Why don’t we swing by your house after school? I don’t mind.”

Alice hesitated. As desperately as she wanted a friend and as much as she would rather go to someone else’s house than her own, she didn’t know what to make of Eva. After all, this was the same girl who had, only a day ago, seemed totally uninterested in Alice. And now she wanted her to spend the night.

Then there was the fact that she would be sleeping in the house of a dead girl—surrounded by her toys, her family. Walking where she had walked. After the hotel, even brushing up against the memory of death creeped Alice out.

“I don’t know,” she said. “Wouldn’t that be a lot of trouble for you? I live fifteen minutes away.”

“It’ll give us more time to talk,” said Eva with a shrug. “Besides, I’d much rather be driving around with you than doing homework. So are you up for it? Unless you had other plans for tonight … ”

Alice wasn’t eager to miss her afternoon hours with Tony. But this morning he’d been so out of sorts that she doubted he would be his usual good-humored self later. Tony surely wouldn’t be too disappointed if she didn’t come over, since the less she was at his house, the less likely she would be to run into his brother. The more she thought about it, the more sure she was that a day apart would be a good thing for both of them.

“No,” she assured Eva. “No, I’m game. Let’s do it.”

“It’ll be fun!” Eva insisted. “I’ll show you the Wiccan community online and everything. It’ll be like your initiation into the real world.”

Alice smiled despite her lingering discomfort. “I never thought I’d find another wi—” She stopped herself, grimacing at the word. “Another person who could do this stuff.”

Eva smiled too, genuinely beamed at Alice. She glowed when she smiled; something about the way she looked at you made you feel like you were the only person in the world.

“Alice, you have
no
idea how happy I am that I found you.
No idea
.”

“This ‘real world’ sounds lonely,” Alice said, popping a few more raisins into her mouth. “I’m not sure I should be getting involved.”

“But you will,” Eva said knowingly. “And it’s a good thing. You know, yesterday I
thought
you were doing magic in class, but then when you made a joke about it later, I had almost given up … But then I saw you this morning and I just knew … ” She clasped her hands around her water bottle and said, so earnestly that it took Alice by surprise, “I need your help.”

“My help? I don’t know if I can help much. You know more than I do.”

Eva shrugged and shook her head, and the intensity was gone before Alice was sure she hadn’t imagined it.

“You’ll be useful,” Eva assured her. “You’ll see.”

Alice stared down at her phone and wondered why she was lying—again. There was absolutely no reason for her not to tell Tony the truth about where she was going that night, but almost without conscious planning she had typed out, “Dad wants me home more, so I probably shouldn’t come over today.”

A bit ashamed of herself, she deleted the text and started over.

“I talked to Eva again today. We’re hanging out after school.”

She read it over, proud of herself for finding a way to phrase this that didn’t involve her
explicitly
saying she was choosing Eva over him. It had a nice vagueness to it, clear enough for him to get the point but just open-ended enough to imply she was somehow doing Eva a favor by consenting to hang out with her. With any luck, Tony would read this as nothing more than her kindly befriending this grieving girl.

The courtyard was packed with students and Alice sat down on a picnic table to avoid the crush of the crowd. She kept an eye out for Eva’s rainbow backpack, but she didn’t have high hopes for spotting her in the mob of students trying to get to the parking lot. She did see Emily, bouncing past in a cluster of thin, toned volleyball girls. Unfortunately, Emily saw her too and immediately started fighting her way toward the table. Alice grimaced, but to her relief one of Emily’s friends grabbed her arm before she got too far. Emily, clearly torn, was swept by the throng past the table and ended up just shouting over her shoulder, “We’ll talk!”

She was relieved when she felt a light tap on her shoulder and turned around to see Eva, breathing hard.

“I got here as fast as I could. My bio class is all the way across campus.”

“No worries!” Alice assured her. “I’m not in a rush.”

“Yeah, neither were the people in front of me,” Eva said with a laugh. She dug a pair of car keys out of her pocket. “You ready to go?”

They joined the crowd, and Alice glanced at the keys in Eva’s hand.

“I didn’t realize you had a car,” she said, a little envious. Alice had her license and occasionally got to drive her mom’s car to the drugstore and back, but didn’t have a car of her own. She’d been trying to convince her parents that it was a good idea for a year now, but her mom was sure that the minute Alice got behind the steering wheel of her own vehicle, crazy teenage driving hormones would kick in, and she’d be dead the minute she got onto a main road.

“I don’t,” Eva admitted. “My mom lets me take the minivan.”

“Doesn’t she need it?”

“She doesn’t leave the house much.”

Eva’s tone didn’t change perceptibly, but Alice glanced at her face and saw her mouth tighten and her gaze drop to her feet. Trying to pretend she hadn’t noticed anything unusual, Alice laughed and said, “Yeah, my mom probably wouldn’t leave either if she didn’t have all her ‘society’ meet-ups. She’s religious about them, thinks the whole world will turn on its head if she misses so much as a luncheon.”

“Sounds fancy!” said Eva. The tension on her face disappeared when she smiled.

“Oh, they’re dreadful. Believe me. I’m just lucky I got out of doing cotillion. Now
that
was an epic battle.”

Eva seemed so relieved by the change of subject that Alice blabbered on about the historic Cotillion War of last year all the way to the parking lot. Eva pointed to a dusty red minivan, probably ten years old. In a lot full of immaculate, sleek sedans and a couple flashy sports cars it stood out like a muddy footprint. Eva unlocked it and got into the driver’s seat with shocking speed, keeping her head down. Alice didn’t blame her. She wouldn’t have been eager to be identified as the driver of this car either.

They both relaxed when Eva finally turned onto the main road. But, when they drove into Alice’s neighborhood, Eva’s shoulders tightened again. Her eyes darted between the fancy houses and she sat up straighter.

“I’m the first left—last house on the right,” Alice said, and Eva nodded. “You can just pull into the driveway.”

As they pulled up in front of her house, a wave of embarrassment shot through Alice. She was so used to living here that she didn’t give it much thought anymore, but it clearly made an impression on Eva—and not one that Alice would have wanted. She looked up at her house and realized that it
was
a little … impressive. With two stories, and wide oak doors, the house sprawled across a huge, immaculate lawn. The rose bushes her mother was so proud of were covered in heavy pink and red blossoms. Gold letters on the mailbox spelled out MONTGOMERY.

“It’s a little ridiculous,” Alice said with an embarrassed laugh.

Eva gulped and tried to smile. “It’s a beautiful home.”

“You’re welcome to come in if you want…. Or you could wait here.”

Eva shook her head sharply. “No—I’ll come in. I’m sure it’s even lovelier inside. You’ll have to give me the tour.”

“Oh, it’s nothing special—just a house, you know … ” said Alice, cringing at the thought of showing Eva around. Even for the area, her house hardly qualified as “nothing special.” Her mom worshipped at the feet of Martha Stewart, and as a result, their house was always magazine-spread ready.

“Nothing special,” Eva repeated, eyebrows raised suspiciously. “I can’t wait to see it.”

Thanking the universe that her mom was picking up Jeremy right now instead of wandering the house, Alice led Eva up to her own room as quickly as possible, gesturing halfheartedly to the kitchen, living room, media room, etc. on the way up. Eva followed her, not saying too much. Alice watched her face carefully, but Eva stared blankly around and Alice had no idea what was going through her head.