They looked like ordinary people, working men and women and still-sharp-as-a-tack retired seniors, the kind you'd see any day on the street. They weren't.
This was the biggest concentration of magical talent anywhere in the world. These people were the witch geniuses, the prodigies and the sages, the far-seers.
The teachers, the policy-makers. They were the Inner Circle.
And they were all looking at Thea.
"The girls are here," Mother Cybele said softly to Aradia. "They're standing in the middle."
Gran said, "All right, let's get this thing started. Will everybody find themselves a seat." It wasn't a question, it was an order. Gran was senior to all these celebrities.
But she wouldn't look at Thea. And that was the most terrible, nightmarish thing of all. She acted as if Thea and Blaise were strangers.
Everyone was sitting, nudging their chairs into a more evenly spaced circle. They were all wearing their ordinary clothes, Thea realized: business suits or uniforms or pants and tops. In Aradia's case, jeans. In Old Bob's case, dirty overalls.
Which means they never even started their own ceremony tonight. This is important enough to skip Samhain over. This is a trial.
Red-haired Belfana pushed Creon's wheelchair to an empty spot. She was the last to sit down. I'm centered, Thea thought numbly. It was her worst fear, the very thing that had driven her away from Eric in the desert, the first time she'd felt the soulmate connection with him. And now it was true. She could hear Dani breathing irregularly, and the faint tinkle of bells as Blaise shifted from foot to foot. "All right," Grandma Harman said, sounding tired but formal. "By Earth, by Air, by Water, and by Fire,
I call this Circle to unity." She went on, reciting the age-old formula for a meeting of deliberation.
For Thea, the words blended into the pounding of blood in her ears. It was strange, how terrifying it could be to be surrounded in all directions by people. Everywhere she looked, another grave, unreadable face. She felt as trapped as if they had been humans. "Thea Sophia Harman," Gran said, and suddenly Thea was listening again. "You stand accused..." There seemed to be an endless, empty pause, although Thea knew it was probably no time at all.
"... of working forbidden spells in direct disobedience to the laws of Hellewise and of this Circle...." All Thea heard for a while was "working forbidden spells." It seemed to hang in the air, echoing. Part of her kept waiting to hear the other, more terrible charges of betraying the secrets of the Night World and falling in love with a human. But they didn't come.
"... summoning a spirit from the far places beyond the veil... binding two humans with a forbidden love charm..."
And then Gran was reading Blaise's name.
Blaise was charged with fashioning a necklace out of forbidden materials and binding humans with a forbidden charm. Dani was charged with aiding and abetting Thea in the summoning of a spirit from the far places-which was wrong, of course, Thea thought dizzily.
Her whole body was tingling, from the soles of her feet, to her palms, to her scalp. With fear... and with something like relief.
They don't know. They don't know the worst part of it, or they would have said so-wouldn't they? And if I just keep quiet, why should they ever know?
Then she focused on Gran, who had finished reading the charges and was now talking in an ordinary voice again. "And I have to say that I'm disappointed in all three of you. Especially you, Thea. I'd expect this from her, of course"-she nodded at Blaise, speaking to the rest of the Circle-"that descendant of mine there who's dressed up like Hecate's bad daughter. But I honestly thought Thea had more sense."
She looked disappointed. And that-hurt. Thea had always been the good girl, the golden girl, youngest and most promising of the Hearth-Woman line. Now, as she looked from face to face, she saw disappointment everywhere.
I've failed them; I've disgraced my heritage. I'm so ashamed....
She wanted to curl up and disappear.
Just then, there was a silvery ripple of bells. Blaise was tossing her dark head. She looked defiant and scornful and very proud and a little bored.
"What I want to know is who turned us in," she said in an almost inaudible but definitely menacing whisper. "Whoever it is, they're going to be sorry."
And suddenly, somehow, Thea was less frightened. The disappointment didn't mean so much. It was possible to shock the Inner Circle and still be standing up. Blaise proved it.
It was then that irony struck Thea. She'd spent her life getting in trouble because of Blaise, and now here they were, in the worst trouble imaginable-because of her.
And Dani was in trouble, too. Her velvety eyes were filled with tears. When she saw that, Thea found the tightness in her throat easing. She could talk again.
"Look-excuse me-but there's something you need to know. Before this goes any further-"
"You'll have a chance to speak later," Mother Cybele said, her voice soft and firm, like her little dumpling-shaped body.
"No, I have to say it now." Thea turned to Gran, speaking, for just these few seconds, to her grandmother rather than to the Crone of the Inner Circle. "Grandma, Dani shouldn't be here. Really. Really. She didn't know anything about the summoning; I did it all. I promise."
Gran's expression gentled slightly, the creases on her face shifting. Then she was impassive again.
"All right, all right, we'll see about that later. The first thing is to find out just what you've been doing. Since you seem to be the instigator here."
It was when she said "later" that realization hit Thea like a tsunami. And everything changed. Later... time... what time is it? She looked frantically around for the clock. There-behind Old Bob's gray head... Ten minutes to ten. Eric.