My eyes turned to Britney, lying on the bed. With a pang of guilt, I saw she was asleep. The black stitches still marred her face, but her color had lost its zombie-ish hue.
I glanced at Selene. “Should we wake her?”
Selene sighed. “I’m afraid we have to. We came all this way and might not get another chance anytime soon.”
“Right.” I took a step nearer the bed. “I’ll do it.” I leaned over and gently touched Britney’s shoulder. She reacted at once, her eyes snapping open. For a second she looked like she might jump up and run away. She was staring at me like some kind of monster that had come to eat her.
I took a step back, my hands raised in an attempt to calm her. “It’s okay. It’s just me, Dusty.”
Britney frowned, her eyes narrowing. “I know who you are.”
“Oh, I thought … never mind.” I smiled. “How are you?”
She pushed herself into a sitting position. “What are you doing here? Nobody’s supposed to be here.”
Selene clucked her tongue. “Good to see you, too, Brit.”
Britney’s gaze wavered between Selene and me, as if she couldn’t decide which of us posed more of a threat. She’d always been on the flighty side, but this was downright paranoid. I wondered what kind of damage the spell had done to her.
“I mean it,” Britney said. “You’re not supposed to be here.”
“We just, uh…” I broke off as my cell started ringing. “Sorry.” I reached into my pocket and pulled it out. Glancing at the number, I felt my stomach flip over. I’d deleted Paul’s contact information off my phone ages ago, but it didn’t matter. I had the number forever memorized.
I debated answering for a second, but then I pressed the END button and the phone fell silent.
“We just need to talk to you about what happened the night you were attacked.” Selene came forward and sat on the foot of the bed.
Britney recoiled away from her, drawing her legs up to her chest. She was wearing a green robe, thicker than an ordinary hospital gown, but not by much. More runes and magical symbols had been stitched around the collar and the hem of the sleeves. “I don’t want to talk about it. I don’t remember what happened.”
Right away I knew she was lying. Eli had drilled the signs into me during our last “case” when we’d gone together to interview one of the suspects. Britney was displaying all of them—rapid blinking, short responses, defensive behavior, and so on.
“It’s okay, Britney. You can tell—” My cell sounded again, this time alerting me to a text message. Of all the times for the stupid thing to start working properly. “One second.” I pulled the cell from my pocket. It was Paul again:
Are you with Britney Shell?
Now my stomach contracted into a tight ball. How did he know I was here? The idea that he was spying on me made all the hairs on my neck and arms stand at attention.
I closed the text without responding and slid the phone back into my pocket.
I returned my focus to Britney. “You can tell us anything,” I continued. “Selene and I are here to help. We want to find out who did this to you and make them stop.”
Britney’s mouth fell open, and for a second, she looked at us like we were insane. She shook her head. “You can’t help. You can’t.” She sounded half-angry and all-the-way scared.
“Yes, we can. Eli’s helping, too.” I said, stumbling over the words in my embarrassment. “You heard what we did, right?”
“You defeated the Red Warlock,” Britney said in a low, desperate voice.
I nodded vigorously and then brushed back the hair that had fallen into my face. “That’s right. So whoever you’re afraid of has got to be easy by comparison.”
Ice crept into her expression. “You have no idea what you’re saying.”
I winced, because it was mostly true. I was trying to make it sound like we’d gone into the fight with Marrow with a clear plan of victory. In actuality, we’d just gotten lucky. Me in particular when I delivered the blow that killed him—well, his current incarnation.
“Then why don’t you tell us what’s really going on?” Selene pressed.
My cell went off again. “Crap.” I yanked it out, getting annoyed now.
So was Selene. She turned a stony gaze on me. “Who is it?”
I didn’t answer her. I couldn’t.
Leave now, Dusty, Paul’s message read. It’s dangerous. Don’t talk to her. Don’t do anything except get out.
An automatic jolt of fear went through me at his words. But doubt followed quick on its heels. What kind of danger could we be in inside a hospital? I glanced back at the door, which we’d left open. My mom was right there, peeking in on us every couple of seconds as she kept the police officer busy.
“Nobody,” I finally answered, closing the text once more. Selene returned her attention to Britney. “We know that Lance was in the alcove. Do you remember that?”
Britney paled. She opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out.
“You do remember, don’t you?” I said in a soft voice.
Tears filled Britney’s eyes. “Is he … is he all right?”
I tilted my head, surprised by her answer. It wasn’t what I was expecting. “Mostly … but he’s been cursed and we’re not sure what it was or how to take it off.”
Without warning, Britney let out a huge sob then burst into tears. “I’m sorry. It’s my fault. I did it. I didn’t mean to. It wasn’t supposed to be him. I messed up. I didn’t want to do it, but I had to. I had to.”
Selene and I exchanged a look.
“Wait, slow down.” I raised my hands. Britney sobbed again, her words disintegrating into garbled cries.
Selene reached out and touched Britney’s leg. “Shhhh. Try to calm down.”
A few seconds later, her cries died away.
“Okay,” Selene said, exhaling in relief. “Are you saying that you cursed Lance?”
Britney didn’t respond, just sat there, red-eyed and frozen.
“You can just nod if you want,” said Selene.
I sucked in a breath as Britney did. It didn’t make sense. If Britney attacked Lance then who had attacked her?
“Why did you attack him?” Selene said. The sound of her voice made my skin tingle, and I realized she was invoking her siren magic. Not much, just enough to lure Britney out of her paralyzing fear.
“I didn’t mean to.” Britney’s voice quavered. She pulled the bedcovers up over her arms.
Selene patted her again. “It’s okay. So you didn’t mean to attack Lance. Your target was someone else, right?”
“Who?” I said, and Britney flinched.
Selene didn’t glare at me, but I got the feeling she wanted to. It seemed of the three of us on the Dream Team, Selene had the best knack for interrogating. With her siren skills, she should always play good cop.
“Who did you mean to curse?” Selene said, her voice almost singsong now.
For a second I didn’t think Britney would answer, but then she said, “Eli.”
A weakness struck my knees and I grabbed the bed rail to steady myself.
Without any prompting, Britney went on, the words spilling out of her. “I left the message in his dorm room, knowing he would meet me in the alcove. But when Lance showed up instead, I panicked.”