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“But you know otherwise, don’t you?” she asked, her eyes narrowing as her mood quickly morphed from mirth to anger. “Oh don’t you worry, sweet little princess,” she hissed. “Jilo know you think she killed Ginny for yo’ little love spell, but those lily hands are clean. Jilo ain’t no fool. If they a price to pay for stealing a little bit of power, what do you think gonna happen to someone who take out an anchor? Jilo, she might be up for a skirmish with a witch or two from time to time, but they ain’t no way she taking on every last damned last one of them. Killing Ginny, whoever done that signed they own death sentence.”
I wanted to believe her, but I’d also wanted to believe Maisie. My family seemed so certain that transporting Martell was beyond anything she should be able to do. If I found out how she’d worked this particular feat, it might help me figure out the true depth of her power. Whether she really could work miracles under her own steam, or whether she was lying to me too. “But you moved him like you moved me. How do you find the power to do that unless you took it from Ginny?” I asked.
She looked me up and down, “If Jilo tell you, can she trust you not to go blabbing to your people?”
I knew she expected a lie, so I tried to take her off guard. “Of course not. I’ll tell Aunt Iris as soon as I get within earshot of her,” I responded.
My words were met with laughter. “You all right, girl.” She winked at me. “And it a good thing you tell me the truth, ’cause Jilo was gonna lie to you anyway. Someday, when you know what your people been up to, then Jilo gonna be able to trust you. And then she tell you. But for now, she gonna let you in on a little secret. Just ’cause something look the same don’t mean it is the same.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
She began to move the stone between her fingers again, rippling it over and under each digit smoothly before returning it to its starting point. “I mean that what Jilo done with her gran’baby ain’t the same thing she do with you. All I had to do with Martell was bend the light around him so that no one see him. When they open the doors, he walk out on his own.”
“You made him invisible?”
“That’s right, and it don’t take no power at all to do that. Well, at least not much. There now. Jilo done hand you enough on good faith. You want the rest of what Jilo know about the day Ginny killed, you gotta give a little back. You ready for your first lesson?”
“Yes, ma’am, I am ready.” I felt nervous and distrustful, but my pulse raced at the thought of finally touching magic. Suddenly I found myself questioning my true motivation for having risked this visit with Jilo. There was no doubt that I felt guilt over Ginny’s death, but the thought of having my own magic was seductive.
The slightest smile curved on her lips. She held the stone up to me. “You see this here rock?”
“Yes, I see it.”
“Good, now you look real good at it. Don’t you take your eyes off it, you hear?”
“Yes, ma’am,” I replied.
“You lookin’?”
“Yes, ma’am,” I responded again.
“Good,” she replied and then threw the stone right at me. I yelped as it bounced off my shoulder and onto the ground.
“Why are you throwing stones at me?”
“Just ’cause it felt so good to do so.” She was bent over with laughter.
“Well I am not going to stand here and let you hit me with rocks,” I spat out, turning to leave.
“Wait girl, don’t go off all mad, I didn’t hit you with no rock.” She continued laughing. “I just threw it. You did all the hitting yourself.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” I asked. My shoulder was visibly starting to bruise. Jilo stopped laughing and walked cautiously toward me, like she was approaching a spooked animal; at that moment it wasn’t far from the truth. She reached out slowly and brushed my shoulder with one wrinkled hand. The pain disappeared, and the bruising faded before my eyes.
“There now,” she said patting me. “What that mean is that Jilo threw that rock, and she threw it at you. But you stop and think, though. You slow it down in your head. What happened?”
“You hit me with a stone,” I replied tersely.
“No, think it through. You see Jilo with the stone. You see her throw the stone at you, but what did you think when she threw it?”
I stopped and let the event run through my mind. “I thought the stone was going to hit me, and then it did.”
“That’s right. Jilo put the energy in by throwing the stone, but they ain’t no reason it had to hit you. It coulda fallen to the ground. Hell, it coulda flew cross the river. The power was Jilo’s until she threw. When that stone left her hand, the power went with it. It was you who took that energy and hit yourself with it.”
“Wait. You’re blaming me for being hurt? I didn’t do anything wrong. You’re the one who threw the stone.”
“You want to talk about right and wrong, you go to Sunday school. This ain’t about right and wrong. Someone try to hurt you, sure they doin’ wrong. But when they attack you, they are sending energy your way. Strong energy. And that energy belongs to you. You have every right to use it for your own purposes.”
