Meri got up and shook it off. He circled the man like a shark but kept his distance.
“What do you want?” I asked. “Why are you… why are we here?”
“Fine, I’ll explain it,” he said. “You keep waiting for your husband to appear, but he’s tied up inside. He’s not going to help you, Kinsley. So, I guess we have time for a monologue.”
I rolled my eyes, but if he noticed, it didn’t stop him.
“I’m going to sacrifice your child to get to her lifeforce and then I’m going to use your body to bring back my dead lover,” Zane said with a shrug.
“Excuse me, what?” I snarled.
You would have thought that I would have shrunk back, but I felt something stir inside of me. There was a distinct tickle at the base of my spine like something had woken up. That prickling energy spread from my lower back to my limbs first and then my head.
“My dead lover. I’m going to bring her back from the grave. It’s cliché, I know, but I miss her. I’ve had lots of practice, and with the baby’s energy, I should be able to get it to stick this time.”
“That’s what happened to them?” I asked.
My mind reeled back to Samara dead under the hanging tree, Lilith walking around with a knife confused, and then Mercy coming back to “life” in front of me.
“You killed Samara and left her body in front of my house. Why?” I asked.
Zane sighed. “I didn’t kill her and leave her in front of your house. Samara’s spirit is strong. She fought off the spell, and she was going to your house to get help. I had to kill her before she reached your front door.”
“And Lilith? What happened to her?” I asked.
“She was chasing after me. Samara made it to Lilith’s house and knocked on the door. I chased after her, Lilith saw it happening and tried to come after us. She was kind of slow, though. By the time she caught up, I’d taken care of Samara. Of course, Arietta jumped to Lilith’s body. She always was a little too impetuous.”
“That’s what was wrong with Lilith? Your dead girlfriend had possessed her?” I asked the question, but it all sort of made sense.
“Except that your aunt is way stronger than Samara. So, you know, that all went well. I couldn’t get to your aunt because she was in the hospital and then surrounded by your family. Eventually the old hag kicked Arietta out on her own,” Zane said.
“Or she left when you killed Mercy,” I said. “Because that’s what you did, right? You killed Mercy to give Arietta another body.”
“See, now you’re catching on,” Zane said with a smile.
“The thing I don’t understand is why Samara wanted to hurt Mercy? Was she originally in on this with you or something?”
Zane snorted. “I don’t know why those cows were fighting with each other. It doesn’t matter. Has nothing to do with any of this,” he said.
So the skull next to Mercy’s name in the grimoire had been a red herring. I knew then that I’d probably never know what happened between the two, and that it most likely didn’t matter. But that wasn’t true. Something prickled at the back of my mind.
“How did you get close enough to Samara to get your dead girlfriend into her body?” I asked. “Did you just kidnap her or what?”
He clapped his hands together once, and it made me jump. “There you go! So, maybe I wined and dined her until she trusted me,” he said with a shrug.
There it was. Mercy had said that Samara had changed. It might have been because she was possessed by Arietta, but I would have bet it started before that. It started when she met this psychopath necromancer that had manipulated her.
“So, what’s in Samara’s secret trunk that is so incriminating you had to hide the key in Mercy’s casket?”
“That was just to get you here,” he said. “I’ve been following you for a while, but you knew that. You fancy yourself a real life Nancy Drew, so I planted a clue for you to find. You’re actually pretty easy to manipulate.”
“So, the pizza thing was all part of that?” I asked. “How did you know that we were ordering pizza? Were you standing outside my window with a glass up to your ear?”
“There’s a listening device in your purse,” Zane said smugly. “I slipped it in while you were flirting with me at the grocery store. Outside pocket so it wouldn’t disturb the cat.”
“I wasn’t flirting with you,” I protested.
“Really not what’s important right now,” Zane said.
The smell of the smoke was getting stronger. I turned to see if the house was actually on fire, but it wasn’t. Then, I started to feel weird.
“Ah, there it is,” Zane said. “I can tell you’re starting to feel it. It’s just bay leaves. Lots and lots of bay leaves. They are mildly hallucinogenic when you burn them. Makes the transition easier.”
“What makes you think that your girlfriend is going to stick in me?” I asked. “I’m stronger than any witch you’ve tried so far.”
But was I?
Maybe at one time.
“Because I’m going to kill you, and right as you take your last breath, that’s when Arietta will take your body. It’s got to be just the right time, so I’ll have to kill you slowly. I’m sure after you watch your baby die, it will be a sweet relief.”
“I don’t understand how this is happening,” I said, but my head was getting foggy. Meri was no longer circling around Zane. Instead he’d begun to chase and bat at something I couldn’t see. He was probably hallucinating. “Magic isn’t really working anymore. How are you doing all of this?”
Zane let out a peal of mocking laugher. “You’re funny. It’s cute that you think all magic was affected by that little brat. If you
