The Zodiac Collector Read online

  I do. Slowly and with a shaky voice, I repeat it all, day by day, moment by moment.

  By the end, Gamma’s perched on the edge of the love seat. “You…have a twin?”

  “You don’t remember her?” My insides wither.

  “Not one bit.”

  Evan chimes in. “If someone’s been erased, can they be brought back?”

  I grip William’s hand. He winces, but doesn’t break free.

  “This sorceress is powerful indeed if she’s wiped all our memories clean of a twin.” She picks up the spellbook and rests it on her lap, tracing her finger along the Zodiac wheel. “Let me think.”

  “Don’t forget about Shequan,” Evan whispers.

  I guide William’s squished hand to my opposite shoulder. He slides into my chair and tightens his hold around me.

  Gamma flips open the book. “You boys invoked your signs too?”

  Evan shakes his head.

  William says, “No.”

  “I thought about having them do that, but I wanted to talk to you first.” I rest my head on William’s chest.

  He tangles his fingers in my hair.

  Gamma’s eyes twinkle. “You two have gotten close.” She flips the pages of the spellbook and settles on one. “Libra and Aries are cardinal signs. We should be able to lump them both together into one chant. Did you take that stardust off the table?”

  “Yes.” I draw the bottle from my pocket and palm it.

  She purses her lips at me, then says, “Go fetch some candles, matches, and pins from my den. And grab some rubbing alcohol and tissues from the bathroom.”

  Evan visibly pales. “What’re the pins for?”

  “A drop of blood is the quickest way to invoke a sign,” Gamma says. “Off you go now, time’s a’wastin’.”

  I pop up and lay the stardust on the table. “Okay.”

  William helps me gather the items Gamma listed off. When we return, Gamma has the stardust spread on the table. Evan kneels across from her. His eyes are closed and his breathing is slow.

  “What did we miss?” I place candles at the four corners and light them.

  Gamma adjusts her glasses. “Your friend is afraid of blood, so he’s meditating to stay calm. He could teach you a thing or two.”

  I take the lick and kneel next to Evan. William settles in next to me.

  Gamma douses the pins in alcohol and pours some on William’s and Evan’s index fingers. William pricks his finger with a pin and squeezes a drop onto the stardust. Evan does the same. His hand shakes and he keeps his head turned away as he adds his own offering. I’m the last one to prick my finger and shake a drop of blood in.

  “What do we chant?” I press a tissue to my finger. It throbs in time with my pulse.

  “I’ll do that, dear. Just concentrate.” Gamma holds her arms out, palms up, like a priestess preparing to pray over her flock.

  “Four elements of life,

  Earth, fire, water, air,

  We invoke thee.

  Four corners of the earth,

  North, South, East, West,

  We invoke thee.

  Four elements of the Zodiac,

  Earth, fire, water, air,

  We invoke thee.

  Four bodies of the cosmos,

  Planets, stars, moons, comets,

  We invoke thee.

  The Twins of Gemini,

  We invoke thee.

  The Scales of Libra,

  We invoke thee.

  The Ram of Aries,

  We invoke thee.

  The Goat of Capricorn,

  We invoke thee!”

  As I’ve come to expect, a blitz of lightning and thunder rounds out the chant’s finale. At least one sign has given an answer. I have no idea how the others will respond. A goat’s bleat? The smack of rams’ horns echoing? The balancing of scales? Because that sounds like…nothing.

  “Look!” Gamma slowly scans the four corners where the candles sit.

  Following her lead, I take in the yellow orbs of Gemini and Libra, the green orb of Capricorn, and the red orb of Aries. Each takes over a candle flame.

  “Wow.” I blink, and the orbs leave their fiery posts. They float toward the stardust and hover above it. Gamma and I lock gazes.

  “We invoke thee,” she whispers.

  The orbs respond by rotating in a circle. Faster and faster they spin, until they blur. Their combined motion creates a whirring louder than a room full of four-prop planes and just as much wind. All the colors blend into one, creating a burning white light brighter than the sun.

  I squint and hold a hand in front of my face.

  “What’s happening?” Evan calls. He ducks, covering his head with his arms.

  William drags me to him and uses his body as a shield. For me.

  Peeking over his shoulder, I watch the light expand. It envelops us in a flash. The glass rattles and shatters. I stuff my face into William’s chest. His chin pushes against my skull. A frail scream rips through the air.

  “Gamma!” My yell is muffled.

  “I’m okay. Stay covered, Anne!” Her voice wobbles.

  Evan screams.

  I twist to face him.

  Or at least where he was.

  “Where’d he go?” William shouts.

  “Evan!” I crawl to the spot where he huddled seconds ago, scanning for signs. Signs of what, I don’t know. Maybe an Aries symbol or something.

  There’s nothing.

  Gamma sits up and brushes her fingers through her hair. Her glasses sit cockeyed on her face. The left lens is cracked. “Who’s Evan?”

  William and I glance at one another.

  “He’s a friend. He helped with the invocation chant.” I get to my feet and help Gamma sit in the love seat.

  A delighted cackle blows in on the breeze.

  Gamma rubs her temple. “Eneaz?”

  She must be delirious from the intense chant. “No Gamma, it’s Anne.”

  She squints up at me. “Oh.”

  We’re way too exposed out here. “Let’s get to the house.”

  William and I help Gamma stand. We walk alongside her, William on her left and me on her right. Raindrops pelt us, soft and questioning. They become stronger and more forceful with every passing second.

  We climb the front steps and usher Gamma inside.

  Hail covers our tracks, erasing our steps, cleansing the memory of our chanting.

  “Where we headed?” William has an arm hooked around Gamma’s waist and I have one looped above his.

  “The kitchen.”

  We guide her to her favorite seat. William plunks in Mary’s seat and I put a kettle on the stove to boil.

  “What just happened? Why would Evan disappear? Did Z take her? Doesn’t she already have Aries?” William fires his trebuchet of question bombs while we wait for the water to boil. He plucks a single hydrangea blossom off a cluster and spins the tiny stem between his finger and thumb.

  “How is it that, every chant I do, Z’s always there, swooping in to ruin it?” I buzz around the tiny space, gathering tea, spoons, mugs, sugar, lemon juice, and milk, slamming cupboards and refrigerator doors as I go.

  William catches my wrist after my last delivery. He draws me into his lap and rubs my back. “Hey, relax. We’ll figure something out.”

  I stare into his serene eyes. They’re cool, collected, and envelop me in a pool of calm. “I wish I could believe you.”

  His fingers trace the line of my jaw while his gaze affixes to my lips. Then they slide in Gamma’s direction and I’m on my feet again, moment broken. I cross the cracking linoleum tiles to save the whistling kettle from the fire.

  When I pour steaming water into Gamma’s cup, she blurts, “I have something to tell you, Anne.”

  My hand wobbles and I spill some on the table. I set the kettle on a potholder while William dashes for a towel. “What is it?”

  “I may have led you astray by helping invoke Libra and Aries.” She twirls her long strin
g of beads around a finger.

  I drop into William’s chair before he has a chance to. She can’t think this is a mistake. It may be our only way to get Mary, Shequan, and Evan back.

  William sops up the spilled water and wrings the towel out in the sink. “I don’t think what we did was a mistake. This is pretty cool. It’s like I’m hyped on five Red Bulls without the jittery after effects.”

  Gamma shakes her head and releases her necklace. “I didn’t realize how truly terrible things had gotten.”

  “Gamma?” I drag my chair to her and clasp my fingers over her hand.

  “Magick doesn’t solve everything.” She slips her hand away. “I should’ve prepared you better.”

  “No, Gamma. I’m the one who messed up. I couldn’t wait to start chanting and I screwed everything up because I didn’t listen to you.”

  Gamma cups my cheek with a shaky hand. “My sister loved magick too. She thought she could solve every problem, fix every mistake, and right every wrong with it. But it doesn’t work that way. Magick can’t solve everything.”

  “Can it bring Mary, Evan and Shequan back?”

  Gamma’s eyes drown in tears.

  She doesn’t answer.

  Chapter Nineteen

  I rock back and forth for hours on my bed, bedsprings creaking with the motion. I half-expect Dad to come in and tell me to knock it off, but he doesn’t. Castor and Pollux avoid me, preferring their own beds as opposed to my shaking one. My eyes burn from watching the clock measure the passing minutes, each second ticking by in a regular rhythm.

  Dad leaves before dawn, giving me the opportunity I want. With darkness as a cloak, I make my way down the stairs, out the front door, and to the road. The brooks brim and bubble from too much rain, washing out the bridge I’d generally cross to get to William’s house. I have to wind my way through muddy fields and ankle-deep ponds that have formed overnight. My purple zebra-striped galoshes come in super handy.

  The sun crests over the surrounding hills by the time I circle around to a different route. A police barricade of two cruisers with lights flashing blocks the road to William’s. Three officers dressed in highlighter-yellow raincoats mill about. My cousin Tommy, a rookie cop, is one of them.

  “Anne, what’re you doing here? It’s six o’clock in the morning. Go home.” He frowns until his dimples create Grand Canyon-sized craters in his cheeks. I stare at his plastic-covered hat. A couple of summers ago, he was thrown out of the family reunion for being drunk. To think he represents the law now.

  “I’m heading to William’s house. We…we’re working on stuff for the faire before school.”

  “The road is closed.” He waves his flashlight at the pavement beyond the cruisers.

  “Why?”

  “Rain washed it out.”

  I click my tongue against the back of my teeth. “How am I supposed to get to William’s?”

  “You’re not. You should go home. The faire won’t be open with this weather. Whatever you’re working on can wait.” He jerks his head toward the way I came.

  “I can’t go home.” I wonder if I should tell him about Mary and see how far the spell goes…even though I can guess the answer.

  “Why not?”

  “It’s important.”

  “Go home, Anne. I can’t do my job with you hanging around.” He’s so endearing when he whines.

  “Someone took Mary.” I blurt.

  His face contorts. “Who’s Mary? You got a stuffed teddy bear or something?”

  My jaw drops. A teddy bear? “My twin sister, that’s who.”

  He laughs. “Is this some pretend faire thing?”

  “I hate Z!” I stomp my foot, splashing mud right onto Tommy’s uniform pants.

  “Hey!” He grabs my jacket at the shoulder. “Enough. I don’t have time to play around with your silly games. Get home before I call your parents.”

  “But—”

  “No buts, just go.” He waves his hand.

  “Fine.” I pretend to head back home, but veer off into the woods after rounding a corner. Carefully, I step along the path, making sure one foot is securely planted before lifting the other.

  Finally, I reach a two-story blue house—William’s house. I sneak to the back, where his bedroom is on the second floor. His parents are usually off on business trips, so there’s a good chance they aren’t home. I pick up a couple of loose stones and toss them at his window. They ping off the glass.

  Moments later, he appears and throws opens the window. “What’re you doing here?”

  “Can you get out?”

  He frowns. “I’m not in prison.” He shuts the window and disappears.

  I pace around the backyard until he joins me. He’s wearing sweats and a red hoodie.

  He stretches and I catch a glimpse of his flat belly. “This whole thing is out of control, Anne.”

  “I know.” I play with an oversized button on my Kelly-green trench coat.

  “What should we do about Z? You think she’ll come after us?” He tugs on the strings of his hoodie.

  “We have to prepare in case she does. And we still have to figure out how to rescue Mary, Evan, and Shequan.”

  “We’ll find a way.”

  “How? None of the magick I’ve done has helped.”

  “Your grandma said magick doesn’t solve everything. Maybe there’s another way.” He grabs my hand, moving closer.

  “Like what?” I duck my head.

  “Dunno yet.”

  “I wish I could rewind time to the day I first chanted to the twins.” I bury my head in his chest.

  “What, and miss out on spooking horses, flying tree limbs, freak storms, running in the woods at night, scraping your knees, and hanging out with a witch who has bad breath?” He wraps his arms around me.

  I turn my head to the side and laugh. “There are other things, too.”

  “Like what?” His voice rumbles through his ribcage.

  “Spending more time with you.” I pull back, sniffing and wiping my nose with my sleeve. “I’m glad you’re with me. I couldn’t do this without you.”

  “Glad to be of service, m’lady.” He takes a bow.

  I giggle and slug him in the arm. “Why are you always so calm?”

  He rubs his arm, laughing. “Dunno. I’m freaked out about everything that’s happened too.”

  “You don’t look freaked out,” I complain.

  He shrugs. “Things changed since we invoked Libra. I think it helped somehow.”

  “I wish I had your sign.”

  The edge of his mouth creeps up.

  I sigh and use my fingers to shake out my hair. “We have to go back.”

  His head tips to the side. “Go back where?”

  “To the faire grounds. Maybe we’ll find some clue or something about where Z went.” I pick at a fading red dot on my arm.

  “Like what? She took everything.”

  “We have to do something.”

  “Come inside. We’ll eat some breakfast and think about this logically.” He tugs on my belt.

  A flash of Zeena’s light rope crashes into my mind. I jitter and retreat from his hold. “I can’t sit around and do nothing.”

  “Whoa, take it easy.”

  “I can’t.” I storm away from him, too jacked on adrenaline to care if I slop in mud. My toe catches on a rock and I crash to the ground. I can’t even get walking right.

  William grabs my elbow and tries to haul me up.

  I shove him off. “Stop it. I can do it myself.”

  He doesn’t really let go until I’m fully upright. “So stubborn.”

  I scrape the muck and mud off my jeans and coat and end up smearing it all over. “Yeah, I know.”

  William’s blue eyes spark. “I know you blame yourself for all this, but you shouldn’t. And you don’t have to solve this alone.”

  “I am alone.”

  “Weren’t you just saying a couple minutes ago how glad you were to have me around?
What am I supposed to do? Hang on the bench until I’m called into play?”

  “Huh?”

  His mouth twists. “Sports reference.”

  “Oh.”

  He leans close, until the space between us fizzes with possibilities. His mouth is so close to mine I can feel the warmth of his skin.

  “William?” My brow arches.

  “Yeah?”

  “What’re you doing?”

  He smiles. “Something else happened when we invoked Libra. I got this clarity about things. About how I should trust my instincts and stop putting off things I know are right.”

  “Like what?” So unfair. I didn’t get anything like that from invoking Gemini.

  “Way to ruin the moment, Anne. I’m kissing you. If you shut up, that is.”

  I suck in a breath.

  His lips brush against mine, light as a whisper. I fall into him. He pulls me closer and sucks on my bottom lip. I run my hands through his thick hair and give a solid yank. A laugh barks from his throat and his hands move lower. While our mouths duel, our auras meld. The wild energy from Gemini leaches out of me in golden streams, and the calming force of Libra soaks in through my pores, immobilizing my worries and fears as it goes. Inside, a flux of power sloshes around, turning my brain to mush and my heart to a hard jewel of flame.

  The war within pours out of me and splits us apart.

  William pants. “Wow.”

  “Yeah.”

  “I’m not sure what just happened.”

  “Me neither.”

  “It was pretty cool. We should try again.”

  I don’t disagree. Mud is caked on his sweatshirt. Impulsively, I brush it off. “If I don’t at least try to look for some clue or something, then I’ll never be able to stand it. No one remembers Mary, Shequan, or Evan exist, so who else will look for them?”

  “So, no more kissing?”

  I stare at his mouth. For a long time. “Come with me to the faire?”

  “I’ll go wherever you go.”

  The faire is shut down due to the weather, like cousin Tommy said. It’s the first time that has happened in my lifetime. The paths are just as washed out and muddy as the main roads. William has a harder time walking in his grubby three-million-year-old sneakers. We shift to the grass, which is slightly more solid, but way more slippery. It’s like walking on gelatin instead of sponges.