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My computer? I darted to my desk and flipped open the laptop. But even that brief hope was squashed a second later. The icon for the internet connection was crossed out. I tried to reconnect to the house’s network, and an error message popped up. Incorrectpassword.
“Is that bad?” Philomenaventured.
I straightened up, my stomach knotting. “Yeah. I can’t talk to the guys atall.”
Celestine wasn’t taking any chances. I was surprised she hadn’t tracked me down in town the second she’d come across the other phone, if she was resorting tothis.
Maybe she simply hadn’t had a chance yet. Where was she right now? In her magicking room, already working some spell to trap me heremore?
The heat of my spark quivered inside me, bright from Jin’s attentions not that long ago. I focused on it as I padded to my door and eased itopen.
There was no way of telling whether she was using the magicking room or not, not without opening it up and looking inside. Unless… Maybe I could use my own magic to sense where she was, at least if she werenearby.
I ducked back into my room. My hand shot back to my pocket with the contract. I didn’t have time to find a perfect hiding place, but for now… I glanced around and shoved the photocopy behind a row of books on one of the bookcases. Better thannothing.
Moving back to the middle of the room, I inhaled deeply and spread my arms out at either side. Then I turned in a slow, smooth circle, gently rotating myhands.
A trickle of magic flowed from my spark through me and out into the house. Seeking out the essence I’d recognize as my stepmother. There was a figure bent over the desk in his bedroom—Derek. There was one of the cleaning staff in the bathroom. A kitchen helper loading the lunch dishes in the rooms below.The—
I felt her, with a cold prickle that rushed over me. She was close—she was coming into the front hall and heading up thestairs.
I dropped my arms, hugging them to me. After a moment, Celestine’s shoes tapped softly past my door. I edged up to it and pressed my earclose.
She stopped. There was a pause, and then a quiet knock. The squeak of a door hinge. And my former fiance’s voice. “Yes?”
My stepmother spoke in such a hush I only made out the words by straining my ears. “We need totalk.”
Derek didn’t say anything else, not right then. The hinge squeaked again—the door clicked shut. Then I couldn’t hear anything atall.
Philomena clutched her skirts. “We must find out what they’re saying. They’re conspiring against you rightnow.”
“I know.” My heart was outright racing now. I clenched myhands.
I could do this. I had magic now, even if it wasn’t as much as shehad.
The spark inside me danced. I closed my eyes, picturing that hard closet floor, the press of the clothes with Derek’s spruce-y cologne, where I’d crouched when I’d heard him with Polly. His room was only maybe forty feet away. Not that far at all. I’d have rather my first attempt at this sort of magicking had been an even shorter distance, but I didn’t have a whole lot of choice, didI?
I gathered the heat and the light inside me, and then I spun on my feet, whipping my arms around me at the same time, following the form of teleportation exactly as I’d beentaught.
A chill and a crackle snapped around me. Everything went black. Then I was reeling against the hanging pants in the closet I’d imagined, my head spinning. All the magic I’d held in my chest snuffed out as I caught mybalance.
I braced my hands against the floor, stilling any sound, clamping my mouth shut against a hitch of breath. I’d been lucky I’d had enough vigor in my spark to carry me this far. My chest was totally hollow now. Ireallyneeded not to getcaught.
The closet door was slightly ajar. I shrank deeper into the shadows, away from the thin streak of light that cut across the floor. I could make out the back of Celestine’s form where she stood in the middle of Derek’s room, the curve of her silver-blond bob and the sharp lines of her dress suit. The faint rasp of metal wheels shifting against wood suggested Derek had gone back to his deskchair.
“Are you sure she hasn’t run off?” he said. I couldn’t tell from his flat tone whether the idea concernedhim.
“One of my staff saw her returning from town a short while ago,” Celestine said. “I laid down a spell when we arrived here last month to alert me if she traveled more than a few miles beyond our property. And I’ve just finished a magicking that will prevent her from leaving the boundaries of this estate, at least until tomorrow. So I’m not worried aboutthat.”
My lungs constricted. I really was trapped here then. But Celestine couldn’t keep a spell like that up once Dadreturned.
Derek sighed. “What if she doesn’t even know what we’replanning?”
“She knows something,” Celestine snapped. “Someone’s been poking around in our business. That’s enough. We can’t risk delaying anylonger.”
“And herfather—”
Celestine’s shoulders went rigid. Her voice took on an iron edge. “Should remain undisturbed. We can have the matter settled without him knowing there was anytrouble.”
