imagined it? But Seth’s fingers had jerked away too, when he’d touched the book.
Suddenly, the feeling of no longer being alone was so strong that Angel turned away from the window, and for just a moment she thought she caught a glimpse of something — someone? — at the very edge of her vision. But before she was even sure she’d actually seen it, it was gone.
For the next hour, until her mother called her for dinner, she tried to concentrate on her homework, but over and over again she found herself getting up to go to the window, gazing out into the gathering darkness toward the bluff. And each time she went to the window, she had the feeling there was someone else — someone right behind her — looking over her shoulder.
As night fell, she imagined the cabin with a fire blazing in its hearth, the warm glow of a kerosene lantern suffusing it with a soft light, its door closed and its window barred.
The world shut out of a place that no one knew was even there.
No one but she.
She and Seth.
And someone else…
Chapter 23
T’S WITCHCRAFT.”
Angel stared across the table at Seth, certain at first that he must be kidding. But there was nothing in either his expression or his tone of voice that said he was anything but dead serious. In fact, his face looked pale and there was a look in his eyes that she hadn’t seen before. It wasn’t fear, exactly, at least not the kind she’d seen in his eyes when her father had found them in her room the other day. Today the look in his eyes told her he wasn’t so much afraid of what he’d found out already as what he might find out next.
Unless she was wrong. If he was kidding her and she fell for it, she’d feel like a complete idiot. They were in the cafeteria, and Seth had found a table way off in the corner, where no one else ever sat. When she’d seen him sitting there, with empty tables all around him, she’d assumed he’d found out something about the book on the Internet last night and wanted to make sure nobody else could hear what they would talk about. She’d filled her tray, doing her best to resist the macaroni and cheese but failing so miserably that she took a double portion, telling herself she’d share it with Seth, then assuaging her conscience by taking a glass of water instead of a Coke, even a diet one. It was as she was setting her tray on the table that he’d spoken the two words:
“It’s witchcraft.”
“You mean like witch doctors?” she asked as she dropped her backpack on the chair next to her and sat down across from him.
“No, I mean like witchcraft,” Seth told her, eyeing the macaroni and cheese covetously. “You going to eat all that yourself?”
“Maybe,” Angel said, but seeing the look of disappointment in his eyes, she relented. “I got enough for both of us. Here.” She handed her plate across to Seth, who transferred a little less than a quarter of it to his plate. “You have to take half — if you don’t, then I’ll eat it all and be even fatter than I am now.”
“You’re not fat,” Seth told her. “You just look healthy.”
“Yeah, right,” Angel said, rolling her eyes. “And you’re going out for football!”
Seth shrugged. “Okay, so you’re a pig! Happy now?” Angel stared at him. “Well, if that’s what you want me to say, I’ll say it! So, do you want to know what I found out on the Internet or not?”
Angel ignored the question. “You don’t really think I look like a pig, do you?” she asked.
Now it was Seth who rolled his eyes. “I already told you what
“The truth, I guess,” Angel said. “But I do weigh too much.”
“Okay — maybe twenty pounds. Who cares?”
“Would you dance with me? I mean, if we were at a dance or something?”
Seth reddened. “I’ve never danced with anybody.”
“That’s not what I asked. I asked if you’d dance with me!” Angel pressed. “And remember, you have to tell me the truth.”
“Why wouldn’t I dance with you? But you’ll have to teach me how. And we’re not going to any dances anyway, so what does it matter? Now, do you want to know what I found out about the book?”
“You mean you actually found it on the Internet?”
Seth shook his head. “I Googled ‘Recipees and Remedies,’ and I didn’t find that book, but I found out a bunch of other stuff. I mean, like there’s hundreds and hundreds of sites that are all about witchcraft.”
“Just because there’s a bunch of sites doesn’t make it true. There are sites on the Net about everything.”
“I didn’t say it was true,” Seth said. “All I said is that there are lots of sites, and that’s what I think the book’s about.”
“The way you said it sounded like you believe it,” Angel said.
An uncertain look came into Seth’s eyes. “I don’t know — I mean, it seems like if so many people believe it, maybe…” His voice trailed off and he shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe it’s like voodoo. I read once that voodoo actually works — you know, where they stick pins in a doll, and the person the doll is supposed to be feels the pain?”
“That’s just superstition,” Angel said. “It doesn’t really work.”
“It does if the person the doll’s supposed to be believes in voodoo and knows someone’s doing voodoo on him.”
Angel frowned. “Really?”
Seth nodded. “Somebody did a big study about it, and if the person who’s being hoodooed believes in voodoo, they’ll actually get sick. Sometimes they even die!”
“ ‘Hoodooed’? What’s that mean?”
“It’s like a voodoo curse,” Seth said.
“I don’t believe in curses,” Angel said.
“It doesn’t matter if you believe in them or not. If someone gets cursed who believes in them, then the curse can work.”
“I still don’t see what it has to do with the book.”
“Maybe nothing at all,” Seth said. “But if it’s a book of potions—”
“But it’s not!” Angel interrupted. “It’s a book of recipes and remedies. Yesterday, you thought it might be some kind of cookbook, remember?”
“Maybe it is,” Seth agreed. “But when I ran recipes and remedies on the Internet, all I got were a bunch of new-age stuff and a few about witchcraft. I found one that has all kinds of spells and things, and according to that one, there really are magic remedies and potions, and things you can eat that make things happen.”
“The only thing that happens when I eat is I get fat,” Angel insisted. “And everybody knows none of that stuff works.”
“I didn’t say it did, did I?” Seth said, starting to sound exasperated. “All I said was that that’s what I think the book is.”
“Well, how are we going to find out if you’re right?”
“Meet me at the library tonight — there’s a whole section on the history of Roundtree, and I bet we can find out all kinds of stuff. Even if we can’t find out exactly what the book is, I bet we can find out more about your house.” His voice rose. “I mean, what if it turns out all the stories about your house are true?”
Angel felt a sudden rush of adrenaline. Could it really be possible that—
No! There was no such thing as witchcraft, no matter what Seth had found out on the Web. “I don’t know—” she began.
“What’s the matter?” Seth broke in. “You scared?”
