“One more,” Ella murmured.
Their final target for the first wave of Plan B was Dorothy Yamaguchi, a senior at Hazelhurst and now second-in-command of the League’s state chapter, after Lydia’s election put Rosemarie in the lead role. Dot was sharp and trustworthy, like the rest of the women—and she lived inPhiladelphia when school wasn’t in session, which meant she could start the ball rolling there.
While schoolwasin session, though, Dot lived in a campus dorm with a roommate. A roommate, reportedly, with a beau who took her out on Sunday afternoons and did not bring her back until lights-out.
But when they knocked on the door, the roommate answered.
“She’s not here, sorry,” the girl said, her arms full of dresses. “Best to try tomorrow—she’s got three papers due in the morning. Probably won’t leave the library ’til then.”
Beatrix sighed. Christmas was Friday. Most of the campus would hightail it out of town tomorrow afternoon. She’d wanted to catch Dot before the young woman went home.
“Will she still be here tomorrow night?” she asked the roommate, who’d turned to toss the clothes haphazardly into a suitcase.
“Sure, her train’s on Tuesday. Mine’s tonight, though, so if you don’t mind …”
Ella grinned on the walk back to the car. “Far fewer people on campus tomorrow. Even better.”
Beatrix smiled back, but it wasn’t better. She’d planned it this way for a reason. When Peter asked her that question tonight, there would be no way to wriggle around it.Why yes, Peter, Ihavebeen telling women about magic. Oh, and teaching them, too. And you won’t believe what we’ve asked them to do!
She’d counted on being done today. If he called on her Vow to him when she was finished, it wouldn’t matter—she hoped. But now he might be able to keep her from recruiting Dot. And without her, Ella couldn’t do it. What League leader would agree to something so explosive behind Lydia’s back without her sister attesting that it was necessary?
SheneededDot’s out-of-state connections.
She chewed over that as they drove home, the news program on the radio unable to keep her attention for more than a few seconds at a clip.Government offices will be closed Thursday and Friday for Christmas … Snow is expected … Roads in need of repair …
Then she heard “the Abbott administration” and focused.
“… as tensions with Canada continue to mount,” the newsreader said. “The Pentagram says it has received credible reports about attempts to recruit and embed spies.”
Anxiety, like a spell, pinged along her nerve endings. Not anything that would affect the League, no. But a hyper-vigilant Pentagram might cast a closer eye on a top-secret weapons researcher who left under unusual circumstances—to work as a small town’s omnimancer for free.
As she pulled into the garage, the voice coming from the speakers switched from the grandfatherly newsreader to the clipped tones of Vice President Draden.
“Let this be a warning to Canada: We will not stand idly by while foreign aggressors seek to undermine?—”
Ella switched the radio off. “I do so love shutting Draden up,” she said. “Shall we?”
That night, as the rest of the house readied for bed, the two of them crept to the dining room—the one part of the property, save the third-floor bathroom, with spells to keep what was said inside it from being overheard outside.
“So—we’ll try Dot immediately after work tomorrow,” Ella said.
Beatrix, still wondering if she would be able to, heaved a sigh. “Why are our Vows allowing us to do what we’re doing?”
Ella blinked. “Well,” she said, with the air of a dancer en pointe in a minefield, “one way of looking at it is that it’s what we ought to be doing to protect Lydia.”
“Yes, or?—”
“Or it only proves that our intentions are good, yeah.” Ella frowned. “You’re worried about our dear omnimancer, aren’t you.”
Ella knew about the argument in Peter’s basement the night Beatrix foolishly told him her initial plan. And unlike Lydia, Ella knew about the fused Vows and the warped feelings. But even she did not know about the dreams and what happened there.
Beatrix thought for the four-hundredth time about explaining, then put it off again. She didn’t care to admit what she did with him there, that her resolution about not giving in to artificial desire was tested and found wanting every single night.
She didn’t even like to admit to herself that, tonight excepted, she went to bed with a quickening heart.
“There’s no need to worry—he doesn’t know the whole of it, and he’ll have no way of finding out,” Ella said, meaning well, trying to make her feel better.
Beatrix shook her head. “But let’s say he calls on my Vows. They specify that I’m not to harm him or Lydia. So what happens if I believe there’ll be no harm and he disagrees? Does he get the final say if he actually forces the point? Will the Vows’ restrictions belatedly kick in?”
