“The ritual is to be repeated. In a month.”
My heartbeat stopped.
Not again would I throw myself on that altar down there for the vultures to eat.
“If nothing happens...” The woman looked pityingly at Mum. “...She’ll have to forget.”
Mum swallowed nervously and stared motionlessly at Amanda for three seconds. I looked questioningly at Amara, but she ignored me. Then I looked at Julie, who was still leaning against the doorway and seemed to be eyeing me as pityingly as Amanda was eyeing my mother.
What had been meant by forgetting? Did they want me to forget all of this? If so, what was so bad about it? Wasn’t it better, if I just forgot? Would I even be able to convince Mum to move away from here?
Just the idea raised hope in me that there was still an escape from this nightmare here.
I wanted nothing to do with any of this. I wanted to live a human life together with my human friend at a university full of humans.
“Agreed!” it blurted out abruptly, as if I had any choice at all.
“Bay...” Mum looked at me in shock.
I would explain to her later.
“If it doesn’t work again next time, you’ll erase my memories, and I’ll be free. Did I understand that correctly?”
I looked at Amanda, then at Amara. The mayor of Blairville nodded in hesitation.
“Good. That’s settled then,” I said hurriedly and was about to pass Amanda through the doorway when she made a quick arm motion and I flew back through the air to the couch.
Stunned, I looked up at her.
Had she seriously just let me fly? Controlled me?
“You should teach your daughter some manners.” Amanda looked at Mum with amusement. “And maybe teach her the rules of the game, too, so she knows where the ball is in our court.” She looked at the slim silver watch on her equally slim wrist. “If you’ll excuse me.”
She looked at me again and shook her head as if she’d seen a ghost. Then she disappeared as frantically as she had come.
“Free.”
Julie was the first to say something which I was definitely not used to from her.
“Excuse me?” I asked.
“You said earlier in Moenia that you would be free after we erased your memories.”
I looked dumbly ahead at her, and she stared out the passenger window.
“You don’t know how much truth there is to that.”
Julie sounded thoughtful, almost melancholy.
I had a month to convince this cult. Of course, that also meant another month in this town, although it wasn’t even certain I’d be able to convince Mum at all. She just had to say yes if she had meant what she had said in the car last night.
“Don’t be silly, Julie. Forgetting is painful, and lots of things can go wrong.”
The usually talkative Grace was focused on the roadway ahead of us, where the oncoming rush hour traffic was stalling. We were on our way to campus.
What did she mean by going wrong?
Julie looked over at her seriously, as if Grace had just said something she didn’t want me to know. As she did, her now elfin platinum blonde waves, pinned up with a silver pin, slipped over her shoulders.
“Wait a minute... Painful?”
Grace scratched her shoulder.
“Yeah, but don’t worry, if it was that bad, I wouldn’t be allowed to do it on you.”
I widened my eyes in shock.
“Don’t worry, Novice,” Grace laughed nervously. “You’ll be fine, and we may even have discovered your gift by then.”
“Novice? And why would they allow you to do that to me? I thought Amara was your head witch.”
And anyway, where did she get the idea, I had a gift?
Grace looked at Julie with a grin before starting up again and crossing the crowded downtown intersection.
“Amara is our Domini.”
Grace assumed I understood Latin.
