The Shattering (22 page)

The shop looked mostly empty, and Daisy was nowhere in sight, but Janna lurked on Copper Road, making a big deal out of eating an ice cream until she was sure Daisy had gone for the day. Sam from the beach came by and tried to flirt with her, which gave her a little more padding time, and when she got rid of him and went in, it was ten minutes until closing. Sandra-Claire was leaning her elbows on the counter, looking more sour than usual.

‘Hi,' Janna said.

Sandra-Claire's spine snapped upright. ‘Do you know what your midget mate did?' she demanded.

‘Um,' Janna said, deciding that she should play innocent on this one. ‘No.'

‘She freaking
destroyed
the storeroom! It took us hours to clean up! Daisy had to go home with a migraine, and there's still a heap of things to put back on the shelves.'

‘Wow,' Janna said. ‘What happened?'

‘I don't know. Daisy said she was making all kinds of strange accusations. Says Keri's
grieving
, won't let me call Lillian and George. I said vandalism isn't grieving, but she shut me down. That girl is trouble, definitely. She always hated me, couldn't stand that me and Jake were in love.' Sandra-Claire shook her sheets of blonde hair over her shoulder. ‘Daisy's too nice,' she concluded. ‘So did you come to look at the new stuff? Some great books in.'

Sandra-Claire had never quite figured out that Janna didn't want to read.

‘Are you in Daisy's coven?'

‘Nah, my coven's in Nelson. I really only see them on the Sabbats — Samhain and Beltane and that.'

‘I know what Sabbats are,' Janna protested, but felt reassured all the same. ‘Who is in her coven, do you know?'

Sandra-Claire gave her a long look. ‘That's none of your business,' she said. ‘Or mine, either. I think Daisy's coven are mostly old-school, you know. Don't want people knowing about them. People can be so freaking prejudiced. Why do you want to know, anyway?'

‘Just curious,' Janna said. ‘Actually, I was hoping you could help me with a protection spell.'

‘To keep someone from harm?'

‘Yeah.'

‘It has to be selfless,' Sandra-Claire warned. ‘You can't protect someone against a rival lover, for example — that'll come back to you, and you'll lose him for good.'

‘You still believe in the Rule of Three, then?'

‘Of course.'

‘Does Daisy?'

Sandra-Claire's gaze sharpened. ‘Why do you keep asking about Daisy?'

‘She wouldn't let me join her coven, that's all. I wondered what I did wrong.' Janna tried to look embarrassed, which didn't come easily.

It must have been convincing, though, because Sandra-Claire relaxed again. ‘Don't take it personally. You're underage. And she wouldn't invite me, either. I think it's a pretty tight group.' She came out from behind the counter and started scanning the shelves. ‘So, protection spells. I've got a couple of options for you. Let's see what suits you best.'

The biggest, best protection you've got
, Janna thought, and prepared to learn better than she had in her entire life.

CHAPTER TWENTY

SIONE

Sione was relieved when Keri fifinally got hold of Janna.
He'd been thinking about ‘accidents.'

‘Stardust turned her mobile phone off to sneak into the gallery,' Keri reported at the end of the conversation. She tossed her own phone onto the hotel room table and sank into a chair beside it, moodily shoving at the carpet with her toes. The hotel didn't feel like the haven it had before. But they'd checked all the places Keri said might hold bugs, and she'd decided that Mr Davidson's spying couldn't be very high-tech, or he'd have known they were breaking into Rafferty's today.

‘Did she see the crown?'

‘It's been taken away. For “cleaning”. ' She made sarcastic quote marks, one-handed, and then looked at him. ‘She wants to check her car for one of those figurines.'

Sione thought of anomalous Jake, who didn't fit the murder patterns, and wondered if an ‘accident' had happened to him.

‘I don't think they want to actually kill us,' Keri said in answer to what he hadn't voiced. ‘Daisy thinks she's doing good by killing those boys. Getting rid of us would be harder to justify.'

‘Unless we start making real pests of ourselves. Like maybe if we started telling people,' he suggested, wondering again. He was pretty sure that wasn't it, though; if Jake had known or suspected something, he'd have told his sister first. Anyone could see they'd had kind of closeness Matthew and he had never managed. If he'd been gay, he could
neverr
have trusted Matthew enough to tell him first.

‘We've still got the same problem as before,' Keri said, unaware of how envious he suddenly was. ‘No proof. And this is even worse because we've got no method or opportunity that anyone would listen to. People don't
believe
in magic.'

‘People' had, until today, clearly included Keri, but Sione thought it wouldn't be wise to point that out. He looked out the window in an effort to avoid her eyes. The afternoon light glittered on the sea.

‘Hey,' Keri said. She was tugging at his sleeve. A moment ago she'd been ten feet away.

‘I did it again,' he realised, feeling sick. Even
knowing
, he couldn't stop being caught in the illusion of Summerton's beauty.

Keri's face was full of sympathy. It was an odd expression on her. ‘Janna's going to come here after,' she said. ‘Wanna play Wii Bowling?'

It turned out that Sione was pretty good at bowling. He got strike after strike, while Keri scowled at her losses.

‘I think your arm is pulling you off balance,' he offered at one point.

Keri gave him a long look. ‘Nope,' she said finally. ‘My balance is fine now. You're just better than me.' She put the controller down on the coffee table and shook out her hand. ‘Where is she? I had to be home at five. My mum's going to have fits.'

It was five forty now.

‘I wonder if other things are magic that we just don't notice,' Sione said, and sent a ball into the gutter, sort of on purpose.

‘I think they must make us not notice,' Keri said, and knocked down three pins. ‘That has to be a big part of it. Otherwise people would really start to wonder, you know? They don't. They just go, “oh yes, Summerton is so pretty and so safe for the children. Why would we leave?” We noticed only because we
had
to think about it. Because all your spreadsheets made the pattern so clear. Where the hell
is
she?'

Someone knocked on the door, which could have been a spooky coincidence if Keri hadn't been repeating that question every three minutes. Sione should have felt relieved when he let Janna in, but instead he felt a heated annoyance prickle at his skin. Keri was glaring at Janna, too, and Sione sneered inwardly.

Keri was always scowling. If she wasn't careful, her face would be stuck in that sour expression forever.

‘I went to Inner Light —' Janna began, and Keri, naturally, lost what little self-control she had.

‘You
what
?'

Janna rolled her eyes theatrically, like the drama queen she was, dying to stay the centre of attention. ‘I waited until Daisy was gone. I wanted to research
protection
spells. Jeez, you can stop looking at me like I'm a moron. Sandra-Claire told me —' ‘You
are
a moron,' Keri said. ‘How could you talk to
Sandra-Claire
? She hates me!'

‘She's always liked me.' Janna hesitated, her face twisting, and then said, ‘Maybe she's nice to people who aren't total bitches.'

Keri looked as if someone had slapped her.

‘I don't want you doing magic on me, Janna,' Sione said. ‘Keri's right. You're not the brightest bulb in the socket.' He couldn't believe he'd said it, but Janna went dark red, humiliation and rage warring on her face, and he was glad, so glad that he'd finally managed to hurt her.

‘God, get over it, Sione!' she spat out. Her eyes were huge, her pupils little black points in the middle of all that glistening blue. Her stupid, pretty face, the only reason anyone liked her. ‘I kissed you
one time
, to make your brother jealous. You were
second prize
, okay?'

Sione felt it like a kick in the gut, and Keri followed up, laughing right in his face.

‘You really should have expected it, Sione,' she said. ‘Everyone knows about Janna.'

‘What?' Janna demanded. ‘What do they
know
, Keri?'

Keri smiled, an evil thing. ‘They know you'll kiss anything, if it has a pulse and a dick. What gets me is that you always try for the guys who are brighter than you — not that that's hard. Do you think smart is a communicable disease? Maybe you can fuck yourself into a couple of extra iq points.'

‘You fucking bitch! Just because no guys want you, you
midget
.'

‘Or girls,' Sione said, and Keri's face went grey. For a moment he felt alarm, but there was a sly voice in the back of his head, wet and rotten, whispering all the worst things to say.

And he was glad the voice was there. He
wanted
to say those things. ‘Maybe you're pissed because Janna won't ever kiss
you
, dyke.'

Janna hooted. ‘Oh,
now
it makes sense.' She pointed at Keri's hair. ‘You're not just a freak, you're a
lesbo
freak.'

Keri put her good hand on Sione's shoulder and shoved, hard. ‘You're an asshole,' she said. ‘An untrustworthy little shit. Trying to buy friends, Sione? No wonder no one likes you,
potato.

' White-hot with rage, he shoved her back.

She stumbled, trying to catch herself against the table.

But she'd forgotten about the cast. Joyful, he watched the pain explode across her face, followed by a look of startled understanding. ‘Calm down,' she said.

But Janna was screeching at Sione, calling him a whining dick, a coward, a loser, and he was shouting that she was a cock- teasing bitch and a dumb drama queen. It was as if she were seeing all the sick, secret, decaying things buried deep in his brain, the ones that rose up and tortured him, and he had to hit back with the same, only worse, all the worst things he could possibly say. Things that weren't actually bad in themselves, but that he knew would hurt her, give him power over her at last.

Keri said something else, something about
magic
, or tried to, but the minute she spoke, Sione turned on her, too, the poison spilling from his lips. She was a nasty bitch, a coward for not coming out, not a real girl, a horrible daughter lying to her parents.

‘I don't need you,' Keri screamed over both of them. ‘Fuck you both. I wish
you'd
killed yourselves.'

In the ringing silence that followed, Sione thought,
She's right
. He'd known it all along. It should have been him who died.

The pain of that thought was so great it doubled him over, so great that it momentarily quieted the thick, rotten voice in his head. This wasn't right. This wasn't
normal
.

Keri deliberately knocked her cast against the table again, and gasped. ‘It's a spell,' she said. ‘It's not real, they're
making
us like this. Pain helps.'

Janna's lip curled, but there was something uncertain in her eyes. ‘I —'

‘Okay,' Sione said, and tugged hard at his hair. It did help, dampening the little voice again, and letting him see what it was. ‘You're right.' Another one of those clay dolls? ‘Get out of here, okay? I'll try to find it.'

Janna was pinching and twisting the pale skin of her inner wrist. ‘The figurines attracted trouble
to
us, around it. This is trouble inside us, imposed from outside. The spell might be somewhere else.'

‘Are you sure?' Keri demanded.

‘Of
course
I'm . . .' She stopped and took a deep breath. ‘Sorry. No, not completely sure. He should check. But it could be anywhere.'

‘Inner Light? The art gallery?'

‘Maybe.'

‘It started when you came in,' Sione said.‘Keri and I were fine. It started with the three of us together.'

‘after Daisy went home for the day,' Janna said. ‘That total bitch.'

Keri was breathing fast. She'd stopped banging her cast about, thank Jesus, because Sione was pretty sure that the grey tinge of her skin wasn't a good sign. Instead, she was yanking at her hair, like him. Short dyke hair —
no
.‘They're trying to break us up, keep us away from each other,' she said. ‘So that we can't interfere in their plans.'

‘Let them think it's working,' Janna said.

‘It
is
working,' Sione said, and then winced at his tone. ‘I didn't mean that how it sounded.'