The Witch Hunter (The Witch Hunter #1)(63)

Caleb. Is that what the potion is trying to tell me? That I want him more than anything? That may have been true once. I don’t feel as if it’s true now. I can’t forget how he never came back for me at Fleet, or the things he said about me at Veda’s. I can’t forget that when I needed him the most, he was nowhere to be found.

I dump the rest of the potion in the grass.

I settle down onto the ground to wait. I examine my ring, holding it up to the light, the sun penetrating into the deep blue stone. As I tip it back and forth in the light, I notice some sort of marking on the bottom. I take it off and turn it upside down and there, etched into the underside of the stone, is a tiny heart. I slip the ring back onto my finger. Too bad Fifer hadn’t known that was there. That would have driven Chime crazy.

I’m back to pondering the allure of shandygaff when Fifer walks over in a huff.

“What’s wrong?” I stand up and dust myself off.

“He is impossible,” she fumes. “Impossible! He always says he’ll change. But he never does.” She looks at my empty cup. “What was that?”

“Bram gave it to me. Said it was some sort of truth potion.”

“Oh. What does it taste like?”

“Lemons. And spice.” Fifer gives me a sharp look. “Why? Have you ever had it before?”

“Yes.” She grimaces.

“And?”

“And nothing. Mine only ever tastes foul.”

I raise my eyebrows. “Speaking of foul, where’d Schuyler go? Isn’t he going to help us look around?”

“Who knows,” she says irritably. “As if I can ever guess what he’ll do, or why. He told me I was being unreasonable.”

“You? Unreasonable?” I fight the urge to laugh. “I can’t imagine.”

“That’s what I said!” Fifer says. “I told him, if you think taking one girl to a party and going home with another is reasonable, you’ve got another thing coming. Then he said, why’d you go home with another boy last year? Then I said, John is not another boy. He’s like my brother, which Schuyler very well knows. Then he said…”

As Fifer rages on, I search the crowd for Schuyler. Most of the boys here are dressed normally, but since he looks as if he just came from his own funeral, he shouldn’t be hard to spot. I do see some boys all in black standing around a fire, but on closer inspection, they’ve all got bloodred eyes, not revenants but definitely some sort of demon.…

I’m about to give up when I spot a figure in black trudging up the hill by the nymph-filled lake, the coattail of his long black coat flapping in the wind.

Schuyler.

I turn to Fifer.

“Then I said, if you want to go home with a nymph, don’t bother calling on me again. As if I care what they can do underwater—”

“Fifer.”

“What?”

“There he is.” I point at the hill. We watch for a minute as Schuyler winds his way around the water, the trees to his left, the lake on his right.

“Where does he think he’s going?” Fifer murmurs.

I shrug. “Who knows. But we really need to start looking around. If he’s not coming with us, that’s fine, but we’ve only got a few hours, and this place is huge, and—what?”

Fifer is shaking her head and muttering under her breath. Her face is like thunder.

“What’s wrong?”

“Oh, nothing. Just thinking about Chime again.” She rips open the flap on her bag and starts pawing through it. “Do you know what her specialty is? Love spells. Can you believe that?” She pulls two necklaces from her bag and snaps it shut. “What a waste of magic. I’ll bet anything that letter for John had a love spell on it. Well, I warned him not to mess with her. Never trust a girl with three last names.”

I blink. “Fifer, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

She reaches over and drops one of the necklaces over my head, then puts the other one on herself. She lets out a huff of relief.

“Finally. Now we can talk.”

“What do you mean? What is this?” I hold up the necklace. It’s long and delicate, with a series of odd-looking charms hanging from the end.

“Do you have any idea what it’s like being involved with a revenant?” Fifer demands.

“Uh, no.”

“They hear everything you say, know everything you think. They know what you’re going to do before you do it. They can even manipulate your actions. They have all the power, and you have none. I think you’ll agree that’s not right, yes?”

There are about a million reasons being involved with a revenant isn’t right without adding that to the list, but I don’t say this.

“Right.”

“That’s why I came up with this.” She holds up the necklace. “Brass chain. Ampoules filled with salt, quicksilver, and ash. Alone, they’re nothing, especially to a revenant with Schuyler’s power. But together, they act as a sort of shield. A barrier. With this on, he can’t hear me or feel me or penetrate my thoughts. Yours either.”

“Okay… but why do you need this now? I mean, why not wear it all the time?”

“I don’t wear it all the time because I don’t want him to know I have it. And I’m wearing it now because I’m going to follow him.”