We eased our way through the crowd and into the hallway. I led them down the spiral stairs to the room with tall murals, columns, and the bronze dancer in its high-up niche. “Do you know what’s through there?” I asked Poppy, pointing to the door across the room.
“It’s a pool,” Poppy said. “The water witches use it for practice. Or for swimming, too. It’s really quite nice, especially if you warm it with fire magic first.”
We continued through the door and into the stone hallway.
“Chilly,” Mom remarked, rubbing her arms.
We turned the corner at the end of the hallway and entered the pool room with its arched ceilings and swirling geometric tile mosaics.
“Somehow I just never pictured swimming pools in New York,” Mom said. “Especially not ones that looked like this.”
“I guess they are pretty few and far between,” I said. “Mostly in private buildings or health clubs.”
“You ran into an old acquaintancehere? Were they swimming?” Poppy said.
“Not exactly. He was floating above the pool.”
“Above it?” Poppy said. “And ‘he’?”
“Prospero.”
They looked at each other, then me.
“Prospero?” Poppy said. “In the League of Women’s Welfare?”
I nodded.
Poppy looked baffled. “Why would he show up at a swimming pool?”
“I don’t know,” I said.
Mom crouched by the pool and trailed her fingers through the clear water. “Did he manage to say anything other than your name this time?”
“Does ‘Beware!’ count?”
“Well, that certainly sounds threatening,” Poppy said.
All three of us fell silent, seconds still falling away with every drip of water from the shell-shaped fountain.
“Maybe he wants revenge,” Poppy continued. “Youwerethe enemy.”
All I heard was:You killed him. Guilt stung like salt in a knife cut. I stared into the water until my vision blurred into dancing blue fireworks. “Poppy,” I said, “can a witch banish a ghost?”
Poppy paused, appearing to think it over. “Now that’s an interesting question. We witches haveelementalmagic, you see. Fire, air, water, and earth are not usually linked with ghosts and what have you. Although you do get into a bit of a gray area when you start looking at the ‘soft’ skills, so to speak, that are associated with each element. Like mind-reading and fire magic, for example. But it’s a moot point, though, because you can’t banish something that isn’t here. You’d have to summon him, first.”
“Summon the vampire who trashed my restaurant and nearly murdered all the Gentry?”
Poppy’s hands flew to her mouth. She lowered them and whispered: “You said the v-word.”
“Does it matter?” I said, the volume rising with my temper. “Really? What are all these rules we follow? Who thought them up? Who decided this particular arrangement of everything magical was the way things had to be?Because I don’t think it’s working very well.”
The last word bounced around the room, and then someone cleared their throat. Someone who wasn’t me, or my mother, or Poppy.
Malkin, Azure’s young witch assistant, stood framed by the archway leading into the hallway. In her tan gentleman’s suit with a matching vest, a golden watch chain peeking out with a metallic glint, and short but stylish hair, she looked like a European prince—the confident gleam in her eye only emphasizing the easy way she leaned against the arch, casually demonstrating that she now controlled the only way out. “Seems like the real party’s down here.”
Poppy let out a panicked laugh. “We were just…” She looked at my mom and me and widened her eyes.
All I could think of was glowing blue ghosts and how I might have eaten three or four more desserts than I was supposed to.
