Page 28 of Witches of Dubious Origin
“Eloise, tell me the truth,” I demanded.
“I have.” She held her hands wide as if to show her innocence.
“No, you haven’t,” I argued. “Why me? Why doIhave to help you? Why can’t you just die again?”
“Because her vessel is bound by magic,” Olive said. “She can’t die again. I thought we covered this. Just because you don’t like something doesn’t mean you can deny it out of existence.”
“Can’t I?” I cried. I noted that both Tariq and Miles looked nervous, but Olive looked even more bored, which was a much bigger insult than if she’d gotten angry.
“Zoe, I found Eloise’s obituary.” Tariq moved to stand beside me. “It all checks out. She died thirty-four years ago in the same Pennsylvania town she was born in. I printed it out so you could read it. See? She looks just like her picture.”
Tariq held out a sheet of paper. I glanced at it. It was a digitized photo of the original newspaper from 1991. I glanced at the entry he pointed to. Sure enough, the same ash-blond bob and guileless smile peered out at me from the paper. The photo next to the nameEloise Tatewas of the woman standing in front of me.
I glanced up at undead Eloise and said, “I’m sorry, but I can’t help you.”
Eloise looked crushed and lifted her hand to tuck her hair behind her ear. As I watched, her ear fell off.Her. Ear. Fell. Off.
Being the unflappable professional that I was, I screamed as her ear bounced across the carpet to stop at my feet. I stopped shrieking and stared stupidly at the ear on the floor.
“Well, shoot!” Eloise opened her handbag and crouched in front of me. She snatched the ear off the carpet and tucked it into her bag. She stood and smoothed her clothes, as if not having any creases made up for missing an ear.
I swallowed. It went down hard, and I felt myself sway on my feet.
“Steady there.” Jasper stepped forward and grasped my elbow, supporting me when I just wanted to slide down to the floor. Suddenly, being unconscious seemed like a lovely state to be in.
I glanced at the faces around us, noting that their expressions ranged from curious to wary but not surprised. “You saw that, right? You saw her ear land on the floor, yes? And there was no blood, no gore, just herEARon the carpet.”
“We did.” Miles nodded, as if this wasn’t the most insane thing that had ever happened.
“I’m so sorry,” Eloise said. “I have no idea why this has started happening.”
Olive’s head snapped in her direction, and she tapped her chin with her index finger as she considered the undead woman. “This has happened before?”
Eloise sighed. She nodded reluctantly and held up her right hand. Her pinkie was missing. How had I not noticed that? Then she held back the hair on the other side of her head. She had no ear on that side of her head either.
“I’m also missing a toe. I started losing body parts shortly after Juliet was mur— Er…died,” Eloise said.
“Interesting.” Miles pushed his glasses up on his nose. He and Olive glanced at each other as if to confirm that they were thinking the same thing. They nodded in unison.
“It’s just a theory, but I suspect it’s because Juliet didn’t have the gift of necromancy, but Ziakas might,” Olive said. “While Juliet was alive and the book was in her possession, the spells cast by Toni remained intact because Juliet didn’t have the ability to reverse them, but once the book was passed to Ziakas, any spells cast by Toni using the grimoire are now weakening because Ziakas does have the ability.” She cast me a doubtful look. “Potentially.”
“But why would Mamie’s spells weaken because of me?” I asked.
“I don’t know for certain, not without more research,” Miles said. “But at a guess, I would say Olive’s right. Now that the book is in your possession, the magic that your grandmother used to bind Eloise to her vessel is weakening as the book bonds to you. You will have to either recast the spell that brought her back from the beyond or send her on,” Miles said.
“I’m going to have to decipher the book, aren’t I?” I could feel the panic spiral starting to swirl inside me.
“Yes,” Olive said. She made it sound likeduh.I chose to ignore her.
“What if I can’t do it?” I cried. “What if Eloise starts falling apart at a rapid rate and she’s just a pile of body parts while I’m flitting around trying to figure out what sort of language the book is written in?”
“Oh, I wouldn’t like that.” Eloise shook her head. “Not at all.”
“We’ll help you, Zoe,” Miles said. His voice was soft but assured, as if he were talking me back from the edge of a precipice. “You’re not alone in this.”
Olive shot him a skeptical look, which he ignored.
I raised my hands in exasperation. “I don’t even know where to start. I have a job with responsibilities in Wessex and I can’t take care of Eloise. I mean, I don’t even know how to take care of a dead person. Oh God, I can’t believe I just said that.” There was a minor note of hysteria in my voice that I was powerless to stop.
