“Where is she? You have telephoned the police? You have told Miss Almay?” Marilyn asked.
“No. No one knows but us,” Eliza said, her own tears spilling over onto her cheeks. “Us and Alice, who’s back in her room.”
“What happened?” Clarissa asked, sitting forward. “I don’t understand? Who would wander in the woods alone on a night like this?”
Eliza and Theresa exchanged a glance.
“She had a sulfur stick and was trying a spell to make it light,” Eliza said, withdrawing the stick from her pocket.
“But why didn’t she return to the temple first? Why didn’t she wait for us to go with her?” Clarissa demanded. “Why would she go into the woods alone?”
“We don’t know why. She just did,” Theresa snapped.
Clarissa blinked and sat down again. Lavender wrapped her arms around the girl’s back in a comforting way.
“I’m sorry, Clarissa,” Theresa said, rubbing her brow. “I’m just exhausted. I can’t believe this is happening.”
“Why haven’t you told anyone, Theresa?” Jane asked, her bottom lip trembling as she looked up at Theresa.
“Because,” Eliza said, “we’re going to bring her back.”
“What?” Viola, Genevieve, and Marilyn said at once. Bia’s sobs grew louder as she clung to her sister’s side.
“There’s a spell—the Life Out of Death Spell,” Theresa explained. “We’ve already laid Catherine in the temple so that we can use the spell on her and bring her back.”
“But we’re going to need all your help,” Eliza added, trying to look each one of them in the eye. “The entire coven needs to be present for the spell, and we’re going to need to spend the day tomorrow gathering all the ingredients.”
“And if we succeed, if we can do this spell properly, we can make her alive again?” Marilyn asked hopefully.
“But this is impossible,” Genevieve said. “No one can bring someone back from the dead.”
“It’s not impossible,” Theresa replied firmly. “Two weeks ago would you have thought it possible to change the color of someone’s dress at whim? To give a boy boils? To take someone’s voice? No. If we can do all that, we can do this, too.”
“We have to do it,” Eliza said, her heart feeling heavy. “We must, at the very least, try.”
“I’m willing,” Clarissa said, standing.
“Me, too,” Lavender added, rising next to her.
“If it will bring Catherine back, I’ll do it, too,” Viola said.
“Bia?” Bia nodded mutely, sniffling against Viola’s shoulder.
“Jane?” Theresa said.
“I’ll be there,” Jane said resolutely.
“Marilyn? Genevieve?” Eliza prompted.
The two girls looked at each other, communicating silently the way only lifelong friends can.
“We will do it,” they said in unison, facing Eliza.
“Then we are agreed,” Eliza said, stepping forward so that the group formed a true circle around the still seated Viola and Bia. “Tomorrow night, we all gather at the temple to bring Catherine back.”
She reached for Clarissa’s hand, then Theresa’s. Theresa hesitated but a moment, then clasped Eliza’s fingers. Suddenly, her locket felt warm against her skin. Slowly all the girls grasped one another’s hands, and Eliza felt as if she could sense their strength coursing through her. With her friends, her sisters, her coven, anything was possible.
Roll Call