13.

CHLOE.

Cut & Curl closed at 7 P.M., and by seven fifteen Janice was slipping in through the back door.

"I hope you ordered Chinese from Golden Wok," she said as she breezed into the shop. "I can't do this on an empty stomach."

"Luke's picking it up," I said. "He should be back any minute."

"Where is she?"

"Up front working on that gansey I started last week."

"What happened to the bubble?"

I grinned at my friend. "I popped it with a straight."

"Good thinking." She grabbed a can of diet soda from the store fridge. "What kind of mood is she in?"

"She has a million questions."

Janice rolled her eyes. "They always do. Let's get started."

Janice nimbly deflected Karen's queries and started asking questions of her own. Karen worked on the gansey while she answered Janice's almost-embarra.s.sing barrage of inquiries. I wasn't sure how many of those questions actually pertained to the seance and how many were barely disguised attempts to ferret out information for me. If Karen was annoyed, it didn't show. She answered with painful honesty, sparing neither herself nor Luke in the process.

Janice grilled her for details about Steffie's attempts to break through the barrier that separated the spirit world from this realm of existence, taking notes on a crumpled index card that she didn't really need. She used it to make the humans comfortable.

"She wanted her father," Karen said, eyes on her knitting. "That's the only reason I'm here."

"Unfinished business," Janice said with a nod of her head. "Too bad we're not doing this next week when there's a full moon. The portal will be more porous."

"There's a portal?" Despite what Karen thought, I'd never been anywhere near a seance in my life.

Janice shot me a look. "Of course there's a portal. There's always a portal."

"Even I know that," Karen said.

"Where is it?"

"The cemetery is the closest."

"I don't like cemeteries," Karen said.

n.o.body liked cemeteries. "Can't we do it someplace else?" I asked.

Janice barely disguised her annoyance. "You go where the spirits gather."

"Won't they gather wherever you tell them to gather?" Karen asked. "I thought the medium tells them what to do."

"They gather where they gather. It's up to us to make it easy for them."

"They gather where they gather?" I started to laugh. "You sound like you've been hitting the Zen tapes again."

"The cemetery is on sacred ground," Janice explained to Karen, pointedly cutting me out of the loop. "It shares land with an Indian burial site that preceded the white man by hundreds of years. Your daughter's spirit will recognize she's safe there."

It was clear the thought of midnight in a cemetery didn't make Karen feel either safe or comfortable.

"Don't look at me," I said to her, pushing down my own uneasy feelings on the subject. "This is Janice's ball game. I've never been to a seance in my life."

Karen remained unconvinced. "They didn't hang around a cemetery in Ghost. Ghost. They sat around a table They sat around a table."

Could it get any worse? I could feel Janice struggling to control her temper. If there was one thing my friend hated, it was movie mediums who got it all wrong.

"Fine," she said. "Maybe you're right. We'll do it here."

"But we don't have a portal," I said.

"A second ago you didn't even know we needed one."

"But you did," I shot back. "How can you proceed without a portal?"

"We can use a proxy." She got up and walked over to the counter. "Help me take down the tapestry."

"The tapestry?" I went totally blank.

"D'oh," Janice said, imitating one of her kids. "The tapestry that's been hanging behind the register since the shop opened."

The needlework representation of Sinzibukwud Falls had been part of my life for so long that I barely noticed it anymore. Before I opened Sticks & Strings, it had held a place of honor in Sorcha's cottage, and before that it had been my mother's and her mother's before her right back to Aerynn.

These days it served as a makeshift bulletin board. Notes, sketches, receipts, pending bills, magazine clippings, all manner of things were pinned to the surface until you could barely see any of the lovely, even st.i.tches peeking through. And yes, I felt a little guilty.

"I wish I knew who made this," Janice said as we carried it over to the table. "You can feel the energy popping off the fabric."

Karen walked around the table and studied the tapestry. "You have waterfalls around here?"

"Just that one."

She shivered. "There's just something . . . uncomfortable about it."

Janice rolled her eyes. I said nothing. n.o.body had ever expressed unease about the Falls before. Good to know I wasn't the only one who found the place less than welcoming.

"Okay," Janice said, "now we need a round table."

"I have a card table in the storeroom."

Janice provided the white candles, frankincense, cinnamon, and sandalwood.

And the music.

"Enya?" Karen wrinkled her nose as the music from Janice's iPod filtered through the tiny speakers.

"The spirits love her," Janice said. "Go figure." She glanced across the table at me. "Did he go to Sichuan province for the food?"

Something told me it wasn't the Chinese food that was holding things up. I excused myself and ducked out the back door, where I found Luke leaning against the Dumpster.

"You can't stay out here forever," I said to him. "We need to get started."

"I'm out."

"No, you're not. You asked me to put it together and I did. Now you have to follow through."

A faint smile flickered, then died. "You're tough."

"You don't know the half of it."

He grabbed the bag of takeout from the ground, then followed me into the shop.

"About time," Janice said as we joined them at the table. "Did you get spring rolls? I'd kill for a spring roll."

"Can't you eat after?" I aimed a pointed look in her direction.

She couldn't. We toyed with our food and waited while she wolfed down a spring roll, a handful of crispy noodles, and a bottle of water.

Finally she nodded for me to dim the lights.

"The lights went down," Karen said, glancing around. "Are we having a power outage?"

Note to self: next time do it the old-fashioned way. "Remote control switch," I lied.

Lucky for me, the woman had other things on her mind.

"We are all here of our own free will," Janice said. "Is that true?"

Luke hesitated but he concurred.

"We'll be joining hands. I'll offer a short invocation. We'll close our eyes and open our hearts and allow the benevolent spirits entrance."

"Spirits?" Luke interrupted, sounding grim.

"I don't want to see my great-uncle George," Karen said. "I want my daughter."

"People, this isn't rocket science. I can't guarantee who or what will slip through the portal. I can't promise you that anything will. But if you could wait until tomorrow when Saturn transits the full moon-"

"We can't wait," Luke snapped.

She glared at him. "Then you have to accept the limitations. If you can't accept them, let's call it a night."

"Sorry," Karen murmured. "We're freaking out. Ignore him."

Luke muttered something that sounded a lot like "bulls.h.i.t."

"I'd tell you to leave if your daughter hadn't asked for you specifically," Janice said to him. "Spirits sense lousy att.i.tudes."

It wasn't a lousy att.i.tude; it was fear. I wanted to tell Janice to ease up on him, but there was no way I could do it without embarra.s.sing him so I let it go.

"Let's try again," Janice said, aiming a pointed look in Luke's direction. "Clear your minds of negative thoughts. Join hands and close your eyes."

I didn't close my eyes at first. I was too busy making sure Luke closed his his eyes. And I have to admit I wanted to see if Janice had any nonmagick tricks up her sleeve, like jiggling the table or switching on a sound machine. eyes. And I have to admit I wanted to see if Janice had any nonmagick tricks up her sleeve, like jiggling the table or switching on a sound machine.

I guess I was hoping for some fireworks, maybe some flashing lights or spooky noises. Everything looked disappoint ingly ordinary.

Janice lifted her chin slightly and took in a long deep breath and closed her eyes. I did the same.

"Spirits, thank you for giving us your time this night. We gather together in love and harmony and invite you to join with us and share your wisdom."

We sat quietly for what seemed like a week and a half. I caught the scent of cinnamon wafting from the shallow dish on the side table, Janice's lavender essence, and the aroma of Kung Pao chicken from the bag of deliciousness I intended to dive into the second this was over.

Which was probably not the right att.i.tude. I pulled together my random thoughts and centered myself again. This was for Karen and Luke. This was their chance to contact their daughter. I wasn't going to be the one who screwed it up by daydreaming over a bag of takeout.

"Spirits, we welcome you with open hearts," Janice said. "We bid you enter this blessed circle of protection."

Are you out there, Steffie? Your mommy and daddy miss you so much.

I felt silly and self-conscious and everything in between but there was no denying the sorrow that suddenly seemed to rise up and surround us all. An emptiness that pulled the oxygen from my lungs and made me light-headed.

"Steffie?" Karen broke her silence. "We're here, honey. Come talk to us."

"n.o.body's coming," Luke said. "This is all bulls.h.i.t."

"You're not helping," Janice snapped. "If you can't keep a positive att.i.tude, at least keep your mouth shut."

"Janice!" My eyes popped open. "Telling Luke to shut up doesn't promote tranquillity."

"He lacks respect," Janice said. Respect was huge in her world and I understood why. The witches of Salem had been treated with anything but respect. But she knew the situation going in. She really needed to give him a little breathing room. "The spirits don't appreciate that."

"Please!" Karen sounded desperate. "I know Steffie is out there. Can't we try again?"

"f.u.c.k this." Luke pushed back his chair. "And you put yourself through college with this stuff?"

Janice, her face scarlet with anger, turned to me. "This is one of the reasons why we don't need another human in town."

"Another human?" Karen was all over it. "What does she mean, human?" Karen was all over it. "What does she mean, another another human?" human?"

"Figure of speech," I said, my heart slamming into my rib cage. How many bullets could I dodge in one day? "Janice is the queen of hyperbole."