“Um, that’s a little more than weird,” I said.
Selene waved at Lance. “Let me see your necklace.”
“Why?”
“Just let me see it,” she snapped. Selene normally wasn’t this rude to people, but Lance was the exception, part of their strange love/hate thing.
Scowling, Lance obeyed, pulling the thick silver chain out from underneath his shirt collar. “Happy?” he said.
“Never with you,” said Selene. “Take it off and place it on the table.”
Lance grunted but again did as she said. He unclasped the chain and dropped it in front of her.
Selene didn’t pick it up, but held her hand over it. Then she closed her eyes and began to hum. My skin tingled with the familiar, pleasant feeling of her siren magic. The chain and the round, flat charm attached to it began to glow. At first it shone bright yellow but then little tendrils of black began to seep through like bloodstains through clean gauze.
I examined the charm that I’d first taken as some kind of Catholic saint medal, but then I realized it was an engraving of the Joker, Lance’s pop culture hero. I flashed Lance a you’re-a-moron look, but it was wasted as he wasn’t looking at me. Instead his eyes were fixed on the joker playing card he was shuffling back and forth in his hands. From the beat-up look of the card, it was time for a new one. A piece was missing from one of the corners.
I returned my attention to Selene, who stopped humming and pulled her hand away. The glow on the necklace vanished.
Lance returned the card to his pocket and, with something like his normal swagger, said, “Well, my little Sherlock, what did you deduce?”
Selene didn’t answer at once. She picked up the note and ran her thumb over it. I half-expected her to start humming again, but she didn’t. Finally she said, “I think you’ve been cursed.” She hesitated, biting her lip. “At least, there’s some kind of unpleasant magic lingering on your necklace. It’s a talisman, right? And you never take it off?”
Lance nodded, his gaze fixed on the joker charm as if seeing it in a new and sinister light.
I touched Selene’s arm. “How can you tell?”
She turned her eyes on me, the irises a startling shade of violet. “It’s a detection spell we’ve been learning in my musemancy class. We’re studying siren defense right now. It’s supposed to reveal the presence of any magic on an object to let us know if it’s safe to touch.” She grimaced. “I guess back in the day, a lot of witchkind and even some ordinaries used to enslave sirens with magical necklaces and bracelets and things. Pretty nasty business.”
“No kidding.” My mind drifted back to the conversation with Brackenberry and Lady Elaine about the unrest between the kinds. I had a feeling that Selene wasn’t studying siren defense right now because the curriculum called for it.
Lance picked up the necklace and put it on. “So you’re saying somebody cursed me?”
“I think so,” said Selene, “although I’m not really skilled at the spell yet. But the magic I detected is residual, not active. And it’s clear something happened to you. Question is, who would want to harm you?”
“Um, anybody that’s met him?” I offered.
“Ha, ha,” Lance said, rubbing his temple.
Selene’s brow furrowed. “Who was the last person you remember seeing?”
“Eli probably. Who else? He is my roommate.”
I rubbed my arms, warding off a sudden chill at the coincidence. Was it possible Eli had seen the note, too? If so, it might’ve given him reason to be down in the alcove.
Selene started to ask Lance another question, but someone called his name from across the way. Lance stood up, his eyes lingering for a moment on Selene. “See you later.” Then he turned and walked off.
Selene made a noise like a grunt, although it was far too feminine and delicate a sound to be labeled one. “Typical.” She returned her focus to the note. “Looks like somebody wants to hire us for a case. I wonder who it is.”
“I’ve got a pretty good idea,” I said, a little surprised Selene hadn’t come to the same conclusion already. Then again, I hadn’t gone into details about where Britney had been found.
Selene arched her eyebrows. “Who?”
“Britney Shell. The library tunnel alcove was where she was attacked, and assuming the note did arrive yesterday, then the timing lines up, too.”
Worry clouded Selene’s expression as I finished speaking. She began to trace a finger along the pink scar that ran down the side of her face from her hairline to jaw. I knew the gesture was a recently developed nervous habit. I could tell she was connecting the dots just as I had. Two people cursed in the same night, one unconscious in the hospital and one with unaccountable memory loss. And the only things connecting them were a note and … Eli.
“Are you still so sure Eli had nothing to do with it?” I asked, hating the doubt rising up inside me. I wanted to believe his complete innocence, but always the memory of Paul haunted me. And this was the magical world where anything was possible. He could be under a spell, or maybe it wasn’t Eli at all but some kind of shapeshifter. Either way, I had to get to the bottom of it.
Selene’s finger stilled on her face. She stared back at me, her eyes thoughtful. But she didn’t answer. There wasn’t one to give.
8
Conductor
That night, I headed to my dream session with Eli, dreading it more than I had in months. The school day had ended with no sign of him, but he’d sent me an e-mail a few hours after dinner saying he was finally back.