"I'm sorry, sweetheart," he said, looking down at the ground. "I know we've made a lot of mistakes in the past sixteen years. We tried to do our best. But Morgan," He looked at me. "We've buried this for sixteen years. It isn't easy to dredge it up. I know you want answers, and I hope we can give them to you. But it isn't easy. And in the end, it might be that you wish you didn't know."
I gaped at him, then shook my head in disbelief and stalked back to the house. What was I going to do?
On Saturday night I dropped Mary K. off at her friend Jaycee's house. They were going to meet Bakker and a bunch of other people at the movies. I was going on to meet with our coven at Matt's house.
"Where's Bakker's car?" I asked as I pulled up in front of Jaycee's house.
Mary K. made a face. "His folks took it away for a week after he flunked a history exam."
"Oh, too bad," I said. "Well, have a good time. Don't do anything I wouldn't do."
Mary K. rolled her eyes. "Oh, okay," she said dryly. "Note to self: Try not to dance around naked, doing witchcraft. Thanks for the ride." She got out and slammed the car door, and I watched her go into Jaycee's house.
Sighing, I drove on to Matt's house, following his directions to the very outskirts of town. Ten minutes later I parked in front of a low-slung brick modern house, and Jenna let me in.
"Hey!" she said brightly. "Come on in. We're in the living room. I can't remember—have you ever been here before?"
"No," I said, leaving my coat on a metal hook. "Are Matt's parents here?"
Jenna shook her head. "His dad had a medical convention in Florida, and his mom went, too. We have the whole place to ourselves."
"Sweet," I said, following her. We took a right into a large living room, a white rectangle with one whole wall made of glass. I guess it must have looked out onto the beck-yard, but right now it was dark outside, and all I could see was our own reflections.
"Hi, Morgan," said Matt. He was wearing an old rugby shirt and jeans. "Welcome to Adler Hall."
We both laughed as Sharon came into the room. "Hi, Morgan," she said. "Matt, what's with all the bizarre furniture?"
"My mom is into sixties stuff," Matt explained.
Ethan poked his head up from a red plush couch. It was so deep, it looked like it was about to swallow him. A white floor lamp shaped like a globe with one flat side curved over his head. "I feel like I've gone back in time," he said. "All we need is a conversation pit."
"There's one in the study," said Matt, grinning. The doorbell rang, and I felt a warm thrill of recognition even before Jenna went to answer it. Cal, I thought happily, a tingle going down my spine. Muirn beatha dan. Moments later I heard his voice as he greeted Jenna. All my nerve cells came alive at the sound and at the memory of yesterday, in his room.
"Does anyone want tea, or water, or a soda," Matt offered as Cal came into the room, holding a big, beat-up leather satchel. "We don't keep alcohol in the house 'cause my dad's in AA."
This frank admission startled me. "Water sounds great."
I crossed to Cal and gave him a quick kiss, marveling at my own boldness.
The doorbell rang again. A moment later Matt came back into the room, carrying some bottles of seltzer. Robbie was right behind him. "Hey," he said.
I stared. I guess I should have been used to it by now, but I wasn't. It was as if Robbie's personality and lame social skills had been transferred into the body of a teen star. "Where are your glasses?" I asked.
Robbie took a bottle of seltzer from Matt and popped the cap. "That's the funny thing," he said slowly. "I don't need them anymore."
"How could you not need glasses?" I demanded. "Did you have laser surgery without telling me?"
"Nope," Robbie said. "That's what all the tests this week were about. Apparently my eyesight has just gotten better. I was having headaches because I didn't need to wear glasses anymore, and the lenses were straining my eyes."
He didn't sound happy, and it took me a few moments to realize that slowly, everyone's attention had turned to me.
"No!" I said strongly. "I absolutely did not do another spell! Honestly—I swear! I promised Robbie, and everyone else, that I wouldn't do another spell, and I haven't! I haven't done any spells at all!"
Robbie looked at me with his clear, gray-blue eyes, no longer hidden by thick, distorting lenses. "Morgan," he said.
"I swear! I absolutely promise you," I said, holding up my right hand. Robbie looked unconvinced. "Robbie! Believe me."
Conflict showed in his face. "What could it be, then?" he asked. "Eyes don't just get better. I mean, the actual shape of my eyeballs has changed. They were giving me MRIs to see if I had a tumor pressing on my brain."
"Jesus," Matt muttered.
"I don't know," I said helplessly. "But it wasn't me."
"This is incredible," said Jenna, sounding short of breath. "Could someone else have put a spell on him?"
"I could have," Cal said thoughtfully. "But I didn't. Morgan, do you remember the actual words of your spell?"
"Yes," I said. "But I put the spell on the potion I gave him, not on him."
"That's true," Cal mused. "Though if the potion was supposed to act on him in some way… what were the words?"
I swallowed, thinking back. "Um, 'So beauty in is beauty out," I recited softly. "This potion make your blemish nowt. This healing water makes you pure, and thus your beauty will endure."
"That was it?" Sharon asked. "God, why didn't you do it sooner?"
"Sharon," Robbie said in irritation.
"Okay, okay," said Cal. "We have a couple of possibilities here. One is that Robbie's eyes have spontaneously healed themselves due to some unfathomable miracle."
Ethan snorted, and Sharon shot him a glance.
"The second possibility," Cal went on, "is that Morgan's spell wasn't specific enough, wasn't limited only to Robbie's skin. It was a spell to eliminate blemishes, imperfections. His eyes were imperfect; now they're perfect. Like his skin."
The enormity of that thought was just sinking in when Ethan said brightly, "Great! I can't wait to see what it does for his personality!"
Jenna couldn't help snickering. I sank weakly into a chair shaped like a giant cupped hand.
"The third possibility," said Cal, "is that someone we don't know has put a spell on Robbie. That doesn't seem likely—why would a stranger want to do that? No, I think it's more likely that Morgan's spell has just continued to fix things."
"That's kind of frightening," I said, chilled. Did I really have that kind of power?
"It's pretty unusual. That's why you're not supposed to be doing spells until you know more," Cal said. I felt terrible. "When we start learning spells, I'll show you how to limit them. Limitations are just about the most important things to know, along with how to channel power. When you work a spell, you need to limit it in time, effect, purpose, duration, and target."
"Oh, no." I dropped my head into my hands. "I didn't do any of that."
"And actually, now that I think about it you banished limitations at the very first circle. Remember?" Cal asked. "That might have something to do with this also."
"So what now?" Robbie demanded. "What else is going to change?"
"Probably not much more," Cal said. "For one thing, even though Morgan's really powerful, she's still just a beginner. She's not in touch with her full powers."