The Zodiac Collector (28 page)

Guess it's been a while since I've seen his room.

“I'm gonna change.” I tuck my head and leave. It takes every ounce of control not to run into the bathroom. I have no reason to be embarrassed. William's my best friend. He's the only other person who knows what's going on. He's seen me sweaty, puke-y, asthma-y, and brain freeze-y. We've swum together in our underwear, for heaven's sake. Okay, so we were preschoolers and it was in a kiddy pool in the backyard, but still, him seeing my undies isn't new. I have no reason to be embarrassed.

I'm confronted with my timid, blushing reflection. Dark circles stain the area between my eyes and cheekbones. There's an angry red scratch above my right eye. My lips are blue. A drowned Chihuahua would look better than me. I rest William's clothes on the vanity and drop the blanket.

First things first—getting rid of these muddy, yucky bandages wrapped around my feet. I run the hot water and fill the tub. My aching body needs a good soak.

I sprinkle some bath salts into the steaming water, drop the gown and take off my panties. I ease into the tub, wincing at the heat, then relaxing into it.

It's an hour later when I return to William's room.

“Hey.” He's sitting on the bed, has a shirt on, and is folding the socks that had littered his floor. He stands and extends an arm to his chair. “Make yourself comfortable.”

I can't help but smile at his properness. “Thanks.”

His eyes linger on my feet. “Are you hurt?”

“Just sore. A soak in the tub helped.”

“Oh. I wondered what took you so long. Figured you needed some time to yourself, though.” He grabs some socks from his dresser drawer. “Here.”

I slip my feet into them.

“Tell me how you figured out Mary was inside you.”

“I…” I hesitate, riddled with hissing doubt. For a millisecond, I actually consider Mary's voice to be just that, a voice. A hallucination. Something my mind made up. And William and I spend so much time together, maybe we both believe the same delusion. It's called
folie a deux
. I came across it when researching mental illness. It was after Mom's suicide attempt, when I thought knowledge could keep me safe and help me save Mom.

William's brow furrows. “Anne?”

You know I'm real. Please, Anne
.

My voice stalls and I clear my throat to restart it. William listens to my story without interrupting me. Mom's flipping out, her crazy driving, me leaping out of the car, falling in the woods and ending up in the psych ward, running into Shequan (who doesn't remember he's Shequan), his blowup, Mom's visit, and my escape—I tell him all of it.

When I finish talking he's mute and completely still.

“So, that's it.” I shrug.

He blinks. “Wow. That's…awesome!” He smiles and runs his hands through his hair.

“What?”

“You're like an action hero or something. Like, like Lara Croft.”

“Who?”

He shakes his head, “One of my brother's games. Anyway, how come you didn't get caught?”

Oh, crap
. That's right. The hospital staff will have figured out I'm missing by now. I lean forward and put my face into my palms, groaning.

“Anne?” William kneels before me. His hands alight on my knees, soft as moths.

“I can't stay here. They'll come looking for me sooner or later.” I stand and pace the room. William retreats to his desk chair. “I need to figure out how to put everything right. Mary, Evan, Shequan… I'm not sure what happened to Shequan after Z took him, or why she dumped him, but he's a mess right now. He must not have had whatever it is she wants.”

William's brows knot tighter with every step I take. “Do you think her spell went wrong?”

I shrug. “Could happen, though she's so powerful it's hard to imagine. Then again, maybe that's why she took Evan instead. Plus, he'd invoked his sign. That could be an important step.”

“Would it help to know how she does the spells?”

“Of course it would. The words she used, which signs she invoked, the sacrifices she used, all of it. But I need Z to figure all that out. She's the one who's created all this chaos. It has to end with her.”

“And how do we find her?”

“We'll have to search the faire. I'll need a disguise.”

His head drops. “Haven't we done that enough already? Besides, the faire's been closed early from rain damage. Most of the vendors are heading to the next site early.”

I drop onto the bed. “How far away is that?”

He shrugs. “Dunno.”

I shoot to my feet again.
Steep, steep, step, turn. Steep, steep, steep, turn
. “She won't go too far. Maybe she's heading to the next location with the other vendors.”

“She doesn't have to stay with the faire, circuiting the country.”

“She
is
the faire. Think about it. An old woman, dressed in a black cloak, selling potions, jewelry, and doing tarot readings—where else could she be?”

“If she can do magick long distance, it doesn't really matter where she goes.”

He has a point. Then again… “Gamma said not everything is solved with magick. I didn't use magick to get out of the psych ward.”

“But you said she was close.”

I snap my fingers. “That's right. Mary felt her. Mary, you got any ideas?”

No, except she's not as close as she was
.

“Mary says she's not close anymore. More evidence that she's traveling.”

“You can hear her?”

“I told you that already.”

“Yeah, but it's so wild.” He snort-laughs.

“What if she's leaping across dimensions or the time-space continuum or something?” William twists in his chair and the gears squeak.

“Well I don't know how to do that, so I'm gonna have to track her the old-fashioned way, with Google.”

“Google?”

I pause in front of him. “Is your computer on?”

He spins to face his desk and flips open his laptop. “Yeah.”

“Good. Look up the next stop on the faire circuit, will you? I need a map.”

He opens a search engine. “All right, then. Let's Google her.” He searches for the “New York State Ye Olde Renaissance Faire” circuit calendar and within minutes has a map to the next location, Alabaster, New York, printed.

William traces a finger along the route. “This city is over four hours away. How are we going to get there?”

Can't ask Mom or Dad to drive us. And if I'm considered a fugitive of a psych ward, I can't take a bus or train. To come this far only to be beaten. “Crap.”

The rap music rumbling through the house ceases. Of course! “James can take us!”

“I don't think—”

I'm out of his bedroom and down the stairs before William can finish his sentence. He rushes after me, slamming against each step so hard he might fall through.

“Anne, this isn't a good idea!”

I fling open the basement door and collide with James. He looks up at me, a startled expression on his face. His mouth gapes open. “Hey, Anne.” He grins and shifts to walk past me.

I trail behind him as he winds his way to the kitchen. The click of a soda can opening precedes a long belch by mere seconds. “James, I—”

William rushes to my side. “Let me talk to him.”

He approaches his brother much like a lion tamer approaches a lion. “Hey, man. Um, Anne was wondering if you knew how to get here.” He points to the next faire location on the map.

James finishes off his cola and crinkles the can before chucking it into the sink. High class right there. He glances at the paper. “What does it matter?”

“I need a ride.”

James laughs and scratches his bare belly. Both nipples are pierced with rods, and an eagle tattoo marks his left chest. And that's in addition to the gauges in both ears, eyebrow ring, lip ring, and bull ring in his nose. I dread to think where else he has piercings. His jeans hang low on his waist and the red plaid of his boxers is visible. “I could do that.”

“Really?” I flutter my lashes—something I
never
do—and abruptly stop. Something knocks around my skull. Mary. I wonder if she has a secret crush on the grubby guy. Man, being in the same body really takes this twin thing to a new level.

Shh! Focus
, she yells.

She does like him, ew! “What about Evan?” I counter in a whisper.

She replies,
I do
not
have a crush on Jimmy. He melts when girls flirt with him, Anne. I've seen it
.

I swallow my pride and lean into him, placing a hand on his. William stiffens—I catch it out of the corner of my eye.

It's okay. You'll explain everything to him later. Go on
.

I wish there's a way to smack her, but I'd have to hit myself. I smile. “Actually, we both need the ride. We're meeting someone, and it'd be really awesome of you to help us out.”

He slides his hand out from under mine and stuffs in his pocket to pull out a crumpled cigarette pack. He taps a cigarette on the pack and lights it up. After a long drag—it takes forever, I swear—he smiles at me and says, “Sure. Why not?” Smoke billows out of his nose like he's a dragon.

“Thanks.” I sigh with relief and give him plenty of space. I'm done flirting, especially since staying in a five-foot radius of him puts me in danger of an asthma attack.

He fetches a bag of chocolate-chip cookies from the cupboard. “What're you going to give me?”

A hope-crushing sledgehammer descends, effectively squelching any plan I had of getting to Zeena. My heart gets mashed with it.

“I don't work for free, sweetheart. William should've told you that.”

Hadn't thought of that.

“Well? What do I get for driving you to another state to
meet someone?”
He mashes the remains of a cigarette into an ashtray and tears open the cookie bag, jamming three of them in his mouth at once.

I twist my mouth to the side. He wouldn't be interested in my collection of scented candles and Tarot cards. I could go at him with a staple gun. As many piercings as you want for free!

Mary chuckles, and the vibrations shudder through my entire body. She can hear my thoughts?

Yep. I have all along, I just couldn't figure out a way to talk back until a few hours ago
.

This'll make communication easier.

Yeah, you don't have to look like a raving lunatic
.

Shut up.

She giggles and it vibrates in my lungs.

William glances at me and tips his head, motioning for me to follow him toward the stairs.

I mouth, “What?”

His eyes roll in the same direction.

“Aw, you guys are so cute when you make googly eyes at each other.” James scratches himself, erm,
below decks
. “Let me know when you've got something to offer, then we'll talk about that little road trip. I take fifties and hundreds.” He brushes past me and thumps his way to the basement.

William gives up his body-language signs and joins me in the kitchen. “There's no way he'll do anything for us unless we give him money, or beer, or weed.”

“I don't have any of those things!”

He's such a jerk
, Mary says.

“Sorry. I was hoping…” I trail off. Hopping on the counter to sit, I roll my eyes and huff. “One more stupid move for Anne.”

William anchors his hands on either side of my legs. “Stop being so hard on yourself. You're not stupid.”

“How are we going to get to the next faire site?”

William's mouth curls up in a smile. “What if we convince him with magick?”

“You can't change people. Besides, I'm close to my fill of magick.”

“I'm not talking about changing him.”

“Then what do you mean?”

His thumbs rub along my thighs. “It's totally weird, but these past couple of nights since we invoked Libra, well, I've been hearing things.”

Great, more voices.

Listen to what he has to say
, Mary tugs at my ears.

“It sounds crazy, but it isn't. I think it's the scales talking to me. They've been telling me about balance and how every person on the planet is governed by it. My brother is a taker. Maybe if I chant, I can pull on the giver side of him and he might agree to drive us.”

“Might.”

“Let me do this to help you.” His lips pucker.

My ability to think clearly dissolves. He could tell me the sky is orange with pink triangle clouds and I'd believe it. “Okay. We'll try it. What're you going to chant?”

He takes a step back and holds out his hand.

I latch onto him and hop off the counter.

In the basement, James yells at the screen, thumbs jabbing at his controller like a pair of tiny jackhammers.

William walks right up to him. “Stop playing for a minute.”

James grunts. “I'm busy. What do you want?”

“We need a ride.” I fold my arms over my chest.

His grin widens. “I need five hundred bucks.”

“Five hundred!” I screech.

He toggles his lip ring with his tongue. “Yeah.”

“You're ridiculous.” I slam my shoulder against the doorframe and pout.

Mary huffs.

James rolls his eyes and starts up the game.

William grabs my hand and drags me to him. “Concentrate.”

“Wait. I might mess it up.” I try to wiggle out of his grip, but he won't let me go.

“This will work, Anne. Trust me.”

I fall into his blue eyes and drown, but I don't care. I trust him.

He chants, and every word echoes in my body, my mind, and my heart. They ring truer than any chant I've heard. It's pure, raw power. More potent than my chants.