Sweep: Eclipse Part 6

"This was Ciaran's," I explained, offering it to Mr. Niall. I forced my hand to stay open while he took it.

"When did you get it back?" Hunter asked, surprised.

"The last time Ciaran was here," I explained, feeling very tired.

"And you kept it?" Hunter knew as well as I how dangerous it could be to have something of someone who wants to control you.

"Yes. It was my mother's." I was aware I sounded defensive-I had kept this a secret, even from Hunter. "I buried it outside of town. I was going to leave it there until it had been purified, all its dark energy gone.Years."

Mr. Niall was examining the watch, turning it over in his hands. "I can use this," he said, as if talking to himself. He looked up. "But are you sure? It will be completely destroyed, you know."

I nodded, looking at the watch. "I know. It's okay. I don't need it anymore." Still, even as I said the words, something in me knew I'd feel its loss. I shivered from leftover chill.

When I looked up, Mr. Niall was watching me. "This will help," he said. "Thank you." His eyes looked at me as if he were seeing me for the first time. I got the impression I had just moved up several notches in his estimation.

"Okay, well, I'll get out of your way," I said, standing up. In the kitchen I washed my hands, soaping them over and over, holding them under the warm water as if I were washing off more than dirt. Then I went into the living room and sank down on the floor in front of the fireplace. Hunter sat down next to me, and soon I was warm enough to take off my coat.We scooted back until we could lean against the couch, and I rested my head against his shoulder. Gently Hunter lifted me up onto his lap so I was sitting sideways across his legs. With his arms around me, I felt incredibly safe and warm. I was so happy to be there that I didn't even care if Mr. Niall came out and found us like this.

"Thank you for making that sacrifice," Hunter murmured close to my ear."Why didn't you tell me about it?"

I shrugged, not really knowing myself. "I knew I wasn't going to use it, not for a long time."

He nodded and kissed my ear. "I know what it must mean to you."

"Not as much as my life, your life, my family. My friends," I said, closing my eyes and snuggling closer.

"Morgan," he said, his voice low. I felt his fingers under my chin, raising my face so he could kiss me. It felt so good, so right, and it made everything else fade away: all my worries, the way I felt physically, the sadness of losing my watch. Ever since Hunter had gotten back from Canada, we hadn't had much time alone together. I'd been concerned about what I had seen-Hunter and the Canadian witch-and sometimes it made me feel insecure and out of sync with him. But right now those feelings were melting away, and once again I felt that quickening, that rush of desire that made me tremble.

We clung together, kissing, and I now knew him well enough for there to be comforting familiarity mixed in with the rush. I remembered the last night we'd been together, before he'd left for Canada. I had planned for us to make love for the first time: I'd actually started taking the Pill because I didn't know how witch birth control worked, I'd psyched myself up, shaved my legs, everything. And we had almost done it. We'd come so, so close. Then Hunter had talked me into waiting until after he got back from Canada so we wouldn't have to say good-bye afterward. Of course, we didn't know that he'd be bringing his dad back with him and that almost immediately we'd be threatened by a dark wave.

I gripped Hunter's collar in one hand and pulled him closer, kissing his mouth hard, feeling his fingers tighten around my waist. Hunter, I thought. I want to be joined with you. Are we ever going to get there? Or are we going to die before we get the chance?

8.

Alisa.

*"Tonight we opened a rift in the world, in time, in life. I fell to my knees in awe as the source of our power swelled above my head. I could only stare in wonder as my coven leader called upon the dark power, right in front of us. Every day I thank the G.o.ddess I found this coven, Amyranth."

-Melissa Felton, California, 1996*

"Alisa, are you okay?"

My head snapped up to see Mary K.'s big brown eyes gazing at me with concern. We were sprawled in Mary K.'s room after school on Monday, listening to music and sort of doing homework.

"I'm okay." I shook my head. "It's just, like, everything's coming down on me at once. It's giving me a headache."

Mary K. nodded sympathetically. "Everyone has a headache lately. It must be the weather." I was so glad that we were friends. My best friend had moved away at the end of last summer, and though I still missed her, being friends with Mary K. had helped a lot.

"Like the wedding and Ms. Herbert's science fair project?" she asked.

"Yeah." Oh, and the fact that I was half witch. That, too. I hadn't told Mary K. about my realization-I knew that she still had a problem with Morgan's involvement with Wicca, and I wasn't ready to test her reaction.

"Any ideas for the science project?"

I thought. "Maybe a life-size modeling-clay version of a digestive system?"

Mary K. giggled. "Fun. I'm thinking about something with plants."

"Can you be more specific?"

Her shiny russet hair bounced as she shook her head. "I haven't worked out the details."

We both laughed, and I pulled over the box of Girl Scout cookies and had another Thin Mint.

"Any wedding news?"

My eyes closed in painful memory. "Right now the flower-girl dress of choice is emerald green, which will basically make me look like I died of jaundice, and it has a big wide bow across the a.s.s. Like, look at my humongous big b.u.t.t, everyone! In case you missed it!"

"I still can't get over the fact that you're the flower girl," Mary K. laughed, falling back on her bed, and it was hard for me to remain sour.

"My backup plan is to break my leg the morning of the ceremony," I told her. "So I'll be bringing you a baseball bat soon, just in case."

I turned my attention back to my algebra problems. Art cla.s.s I was good at. But all these little numbers jumping around the page just left me cold. "What did you get for the equation for number seven?" I asked, tapping my pencil against my teeth.

"A big blank. Maybe we should get Morgan."

"I'll get her," I said casually, getting to my feet. There was the slightest surprise in Mary K.'s eyes that I would voluntarily talk to the witch queen."Where is she?"

"In her room, I think."

Mary K. and Morgan's rooms were connected by the bathroom they shared.The door to Morgan's room was ajar, and I tapped on it.

"Morgan?"

"Mpfh?" I heard in response, and I pushed open the door. Morgan was lying on her bed, a wet washcloth draped over her forehead. Her long hair spilled over the side of her bed. She looked awful.

As I approached the bed, she mumbled, "Alisa? What's up?" She hadn't opened her eyes, and I got a little nervous shiver from this evidence of her witch skills.

"How do you do that?" I asked quietly. "You can just feel someone's vibes or something? Or like my aura?"

At this Morgan did open her eyes and bunched her pillow under her head so she could see me. "I gave you a ride after school, so I knew you were here. I heard someone open the door and walk into my room. I knew it wasn't me. Mary K. sort of flounces through and makes more noise. That left you."

"Oh," I said, my cheeks flushing.

"Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar," she said.

I had no idea what that meant. "Anyway, Mary K. and I are stuck on an algebra problem. Could you come help us? If you're up to it, I mean." She looked really sick. "Do you have the flu or something? Why were you in school?"

Morgan shook her head and sat up very slowly, like an old lady."No. I'm okay."

"Hunter's sick, too.Why didn't you just stay home?"

"I'm okay," she said, obviously lying."How do you feel?"

"Uh, I have a little headache. Mary K. thinks it's the weather."

Our eyes met just then, and I swear Morgan looked like she wanted to say something, was about to say something.

"What?" I asked.

Standing up, Morgan pulled down her sweatshirt and flipped her hair over her shoulder. "Nothing," she said, heading toward the door. "What's this problem you need help with?"

There was more here than she was telling me. I knew it. Without thinking, I reached out to grab her sleeve, and at that exact instant there was a thud and a sound like gla.s.s. .h.i.tting something. I looked around wildly, wondering what I had destroyed this time, feeling cursed.

"That was Dagda," Morgan explained, a tinge of amus.e.m.e.nt in her voice.

Sure enough, I now saw her small gray cat getting to his feet on the floor by Morgan's bed. He looked sleepy and irritated.

"Sometimes he rolls off the bed when he's asleep," Morgan said.

Frustrated, I pulled back my hand and curled and uncurled my fingers. There was something happening here, something I didn't know about. Something Morgan wasn't telling me. I remembered the other day, when Morgan had run out of the kitchen to talk to Hunter, how upset she had seemed. But her face was now closed, like a shade being pulled down, and I knew she wouldn't tell me. We went into Mary K.'s room, back to algebra and away from magick.

That night I was slumped on my bed, taking a magazine quiz to find out if I was a flirting master or a flirting disaster. By question five, things were looking bad for me. I tossed the magazine aside, my mind going back to Morgan. For some reason I had a terrible feeling-I couldn't even describe it. But I was somehow convinced that something weird or bad was happening, and that Morgan and Hunter knew about it, and that they were keeping it to themselves.

But what could it be? They both looked physically ill. Morgan had seemed so close to saying something, something hard. And last week there had been a day when Hunter had sat outside school literally all day. I didn't think it was just because he couldn't stand to be away from her.

Sitting up, I decided to confront Morgan again. I would somehow make her tell me what was going on, what was wrong with her and Hunter. The flaws in this plan were immediately obvious: (1) I had already asked Morgan, and she'd made it clear that she wasn't going to tell me. (2) Mary K. would wonder why I needed to talk to Morgan. And if it was some weird witch thing, I didn't want to drag her into it.

So how could I find out?

Hunter.

No. I knew him, but we weren't good friends. I was kind of impressed by and wary of him at the same time. What would he think if I asked him to tell me their secret? Would he get mad at me?

Hunter was out. But . . . there really wasn't anyone else. I went through the members of Kithic in my mind. No one else had seemed nervous or ill. Just Morgan and Hunter. The blood witches. I shook my head. My brain kept coming back to this again and again, the way it had about my mother's green book.This felt the same.

I had to talk to Hunter.

I didn't have his phone number, but I knew where he lived. Now, did I have the nerve to ask him? I had no choice. I ran downstairs: Girl of Action. In the living room I encountered Hilary, watching a dvd of s.e.x and the City. Too late I remembered that Dad had gone to a union meeting at the post office, where he worked. d.a.m.n, d.a.m.n, d.a.m.n. I met Hilary's inquiring look. I had to go ahead and ask her.

"Um, I forgot my algebra book at school," I said, giving an Oscar-caliber performance. Not. "My friend has the same book and says I can borrow his. Do you think you could give me a ride to his house?"

Hilary actually looked touched to be asked, and I felt a little pang of guilt over the way I usually treated her.The fact that I would now owe her was not lost on me. Once again I wished the state of New York would lower the freaking driving age to, say, fifteen. Then I wouldn't have to ask anyone for favors.

"Sure," Hilary said easily. She clicked off the TV and stood up, stretching. She gave me a smile and almost looked pretty for a split second. "Let me go to the bathroom real quick. Since I've been pregnant, I have to pee every five minutes."

She turned and left the room then, so she didn't see the horrified expression on my face. Oh, gross! Why did I have to know that?

Not being a complete idiot, I held my tongue, and a few minutes later I was directing her to Hunter's house. When Hilary parked behind Hunter's car, I said, "I'm having trouble with this one section. Is it okay if I stay for a minute so he can explain it to me?"

"Take your time," Hilary said. She clicked on the radio and closed her eyes, leaning back against the headrest.

"Thanks," I said, and hopped out of the car. Up on the porch I rang the doorbell, and after a moment it was answered by an older man I didn't know. Oh, this had to be Hunter's dad-I'd heard he'd come back from Canada to live with him. He didn't look much like Hunter-almost too old to be his real dad.

"You're a witch," he said after a moment, startling me.

"Uh-" I was caught off guard. No one had ever sensed this before. Including me.

"I get a strange reading off of you," he said, squinting at me. He had a slightly different accent from Hunter, too.

"Da," came Hunter's voice, and then I saw him push in next to his father. "Oh, hullo, Alisa. Are you all right? Did you come here alone?" He looked out past me to the dark yard.

"My stepmother-to-be drove me," I said, feeling an attack of shyness and regret sweeping over me. "I really need to talk to you."

"Sure. Come on in." Hunter turned to his father. "Da, this is Alisa Soto. She's a high school student, part of Kithic."

I noticed that Hunter looked as bad as Morgan had this afternoon. It was as if all the witches I knew had, like, witch pneumonia or something.

Mr. Niall looked at Hunter. "What's going on? Who is she? Why does she feel strange?"

"Calm down, Da," Hunter said. "She might feel different to you because she's only half witch."

I felt like a microbe, the way his dad looked at me.

"But she has power-I can feel it. How is that possible?" he asked.

Hunter shrugged. "Here she stands. So what can I do for you, Alisa?"

Unfortunately, I hadn't planned what to say. So what came out was, "Hunter, what's going on? Why do you and Morgan look like death? Why won't she tell me what's happening?"

"I'm off," Mr. Niall muttered abruptly, and left the room.

Strange dad behavior.

I turned back to Hunter, aware that Hilary was waiting outside."Hunter, what's the deal?" I asked again.

He looked uncomfortable, then ran one hand through his short blond hair, giving himself bed head. "How do you feel?" he asked.

I stared at him. Why did everyone keep asking me that? "I have a headache! What is going on?" "

Alisa, there's a dark wave coming to Widow's Vale," he said gently."Do you know what that is?"

A what? "No."