"Eric... I don't know how to say this, but... I care about you. I know how that sounds. You're thinking that I have dozens of guys, and the way I treat them I can't possibly care about any of them. And I don't blame you if you just want to walk away right now, without even listening to any more." Blaise fiddled with the zipper at her throat.
"Oh, look, I'm not going to walk away. I wouldn't do that to you," Eric said, and his voice was even more gentle.
"Thank you. You're being so nice-much nicer than I deserve."
Absently, as if it were the most casual of gestures, Blaise reached for the zipper at her throat and pulled it down.
The necklace was revealed.
Don't look directly at it, Thea told herself. She stared instead at the back of Eric's sandy head-which suddenly went very still.
"And you know, this is going to sound strange, but most of those boys don't really like me." Blaise's voice was soft now-seductive but vulnerable. "They just-want me. They look at the surface, and never even try to see any deeper. And that makes me feel... so lonely sometimes."
In Thea's peripheral vision, gold stars and moons were shifting and flowing. Yemonja root and other delicious scents wafted toward her. She hadn't even noticed that the first time; she'd been too deep in the necklace's spell to analyze it. And a faint, high resonance hung in the air-two or three notes that seemed to shimmer almost above the threshold of hearing.
Singing crystals. Of course. Blaise was assaulting every sense, weaving an inescapable golden web... and the whole thing was tuned to Eric's blood.
"All I've ever wanted is a guy who cares enough about me to look deeper than the surface." Blaise's voice had a slight catch now. "And-well, before I knew Thea liked you, I guess I thought you might be that guy. Eric, please tell me-is that completely impossible? Should I just totally give up hope? Because if you say so, I will."
Eric was standing oddly now, as if he were crippled. Thea could see his breath coming faster. She didn't want to see his face-she knew what it would be like. Like Luke's. Blank wonder changing into slow adulation for Blaise.
"Just tell me," Blaise said, raising one hand in a gesture full of pathos. "And if you say no, I'll go away forever. But if... if you think you could care about me... even just a little..." She gazed at him with luminous, yearning eyes.
"I..." Eric's voice was thick and hesitant. "I... Blaise..." He couldn't seem to get started on a sentence.
And no wonder. He's lost already.
Certainty hit Thea, and she stopped shaking her plastic bottle. Her little Elixir of Abhorrence didn't stand a chance against Blaise's magic. Eric was hooked and Blaise was reeling him in.
And it wasn't his fault. Nobody could be expected to hold out against the kind of enchantment Blaise was using. Enchantment and psychology so beautifully mixed that even Thea found herself half believing Blaise's story.
But she had to try anyway. She couldn't let Eric go without a fight.
With one final, violent shake, Thea took her thumb out of the bottle neck. Colorless liquid skyrocketed, spraying up and then raining down on Eric. A geyser of loathing.
Only one thing went wrong. As soon as the mysterious downpour hit Eric, he turned to see where it was coming from. Instead of looking at Blaise when the elixir soaked into his skin, he was looking at Thea.
She stared back into his gray-flecked eyes with a kind of horror.
Twice. He'd been twice enchanted now, once to love Blaise and once to hate her.
Oh, Eileithyia, it's over....
It was a crisis, and Thea responded instinctively. She reached for Eric, to save him, to be saved herself.
She flung out a thought the way she'd fling out a hand to someone going over a cliff.
Eric.
A connection...
Like dosing a circuit-and that was all it took. Thea felt a wave of... something, something hot and sweet, more magical than Blaise's magic. Distilled lightning, maybe. The air between her and Eric was so charged that she felt as though her skin was being brushed with velvet. It was like being at the intersection of cosmic force lines.
And it was all okay. Eric's face was his ordinary face. Alive, alert, full of warmth-for her. Not zombie worship for Blaise.
Thea.
It can't be this simple.
But it was. She and Eric were staring at each other in the quivering air and the universe was just one big singing crystal.
We're right together.
A yell shattered the silent communion. Thea looked toward the dugout and saw that Blaise the vulnerable had disappeared.
"I'm wet," Blaise shrieked. "Are you crazy? Do you have any idea what water drops do to silk?"
Thea opened her mouth, then shut it again. She felt giddy with the sweetness of relief. She had no idea if Blaise really thought the elixir was only water-but one thing was clear. However strong Blaise's spell had been, it was broken now. And Blaise knew it.
Blaise jerked the zipper up and stalked off.
"She's mad," Eric said.
"Well..." Thea was still dizzy. "I told you she likes getting mad." She took Eric's arm, very gently, and partly to steady herself. "Let's go."
They'd only gone a few steps when Eric said, "Thank God you hit me with that water."
"Yes." Even if the elixir hadn't worked it had somehow broken Eric's concentration or distracted Blaise or something. She'd have to see if she could figure out what had happened to disrupt a spell as potent as the one Blaise had created....
"Yeah, because, you know, it was getting really awkward," Eric went on. "I kept trying to think of a polite way to tell her there wasn't a chance, but I couldn't. And just when I realized I was going to have to say it and hurt her feelings-well, you soaked us."