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I tuned back into the present. "How do I fit into this, ma'am? I already figured out where she is. Why am I in danger?"
"Sydney," Mrs. Terwilliger said, looking at me strangely. "There are few young women out there with your abilities. Along with youth and beauty, she intends to suck someone's magic away and use it to make herself that much more powerful. You, my dear, would be the ultimate coup for her."
"She's like Strigoi," I murmured, unable to repress a shiver. Although those undead vampires could feast on anyone, they preferred Moroi because they had magic in their blood. Drinking Moroi blood made Strigoi more powerful, and a chilling thought suddenly hit me. "Practically a human vampire."
"Something like that," Ms. Terwilliger agreed. "This amulet should hide your power, even from someone as strong as her. She shouldn't be able to find you."
A calico cat jumped up on the table, and I ran a hand over her sleek fur, taking comfort in the small contact. "The fact that you keep saying 'should' makes me a little nervous. Why would she even come looking in Palm Springs? Does she know about me yet?"
"No. But she knows I'm here, and she may check on me once in a while - so I need to hide you in case she does. I'm in a bind, however, because I need to find her but can't actively do the hunting. If she finds out I'm investigating, she'll know that I know she's here. I can't alert her. If I have the element of surprise on my side, I'm more likely to stop her." She frowned. "I'm honestly surprised she would come so close to me in California at all. Regardless, I need to keep a low profile until it's time to strike."
Ms. Terwilliger looked at me meaningfully, and I felt a sinking feeling in my stomach as I began to put together what she was saying. "You want me to hunt her."
"It's not hunting so much as gathering some data. You're the only one I can trust to do this. She and I can sense each other if we're close, no matter how much we try to hide our magic. I know this is going to sound shocking, but I actually think it'd be best if you hunted her - even if you're the one she's after. You're one of the few I can trust completely and you're resourceful enough to pull something like this off."
"But I'd be putting myself out there. You just said I'd be a big catch for her." The twists and turns here were mindboggling.
"Yes. Which is why I gave you the amulet. She won't sense your magic, and if you're cautious in your investigation, she should have no reason to notice you."
I still wasn't following the logic here. "But why me? You have a coven. If you can't do it yourself, then there must be someone else - a stronger witch - who can do it."
"Two reasons," she said. "One is that you have excellent investigative skills - more so than others older than you. You're intelligent and resourceful. The other reason . . . well, if another witch goes after her, she might very well kill Veronica."
"Would that be such a bad thing?" I didn't like violence and killing by any means, but this might be a case where it was justified, if it could save other lives. "You said you were going to 'take care of her.'"
"If I have no choice . . . if I must kill her, then I will." She looked dejected, and I had a moment of empathy. I loved my two sisters. What would I do if I was ever in a deadly conflict with one of them? Of course, it was hard to imagine Zoe or Carly committing this kind of atrocity. "However, there are other ways of neutralizing and subduing a magic user. If there's any way - any way at all - I can do that, I will. My coven sisters won't feel that way, which is why I need your help."
"I can't." I pushed the stool back and stood up, nearly stepping on a cat in the process. "There must be some other way you can do this. You know I'm already bogged down in supernatural affairs." I actually couldn't bring myself to admit the real reason I wanted to dodge this. It was about more than just risking my life. So far, all my magical interactions had been with Ms. Terwilliger. If I signed on for this, I would be plunging into the world of witches, something I'd sworn I would never do.
Ms. Terwilliger tapped the article, and her voice was quiet when she spoke. "Could you let this happen to other girls, knowing there's a way you could stop it? I've never heard of any of her victims waking up. The way this spell works, Veronica needs to renew it every few years, and it requires five victims within one month. She did this once before, and it caught me off guard. This time, we have warning. Four more people could suffer this fate. Do you want that?"
There it was. She'd called me on the other part that had been nagging me because she knew me too well. I couldn't let innocents suffer, not even if it meant risking myself or facing the fears that haunted me. If I could stop this, I had to. No one deserved the fate of that girl in the paper. "Of course not."
"And let's not forget that you could soon be one of her victims."
I touched the garnet. "You said I'm hidden."
"You are, for now. And I hope against all hope you'll stay that way." I'd never seen her so grim before, and it was hard to watch. I was used to her prattling, bumbling, no-nonsense nature. "But here's something I've never told you about how magic users sense each other."
Something I'd learned over the years: it was never a good thing when people said, "Here's something I never told you. . . ." I braced myself.
"Untrained magic users have a particular feel that's unique from the more experienced," she explained. "There's a oh, wild-ness about the magic that surrounds you. It's easy for advanced witches to sense. My coven keeps track of novice magic users, but those are tightly guarded secrets. Veronica won't have access to those names, but there are spells she can use that can pick up on some of that untamed magic if it's near her. It's how she probably found this poor girl." Ms. Terwilliger nodded toward the article.
The idea of me having some "wild" magical aura was as shocking as her saying I had magic in my blood.
"When she absorbs a victim," Ms. Terwilliger continued, "she gets a burst of that wildness. It fades quickly, but when she possesses it, it can briefly enhance her ability to scry for another untrained victim. The more victims she takes, the stronger that ability will grow. There's a chance," Ms. Terwilliger said gravely, "that it could be enough to break apart the garnet. I don't know." She spread out her hands.
"So you're saying . . . with each victim she attacks, the chance that she'll find me increases."
"Yes."
