Free A Feather of Stone #3 by Tiernan Cate Page B

wasps, or streetcar accidents.”
    Petra shook her head. “I’ve questioned everybody,” she said. “Of course, all of them are terrific liars—we’ve all had to be over the years. But someone must also be using a spell of concealment.”
    “The snake might have been just a coincidence,” Melysa said. “They’re everywhere. I’ve seen copperheads in the lagoon at City Park. Maybe the attacks really are over.”
    Petra nodded, looking like she wanted to be convinced. “Maybe so.” She smiled at me. “At any rate, I’m always glad when you two get home.”
    I smiled back and finished my yogurt. I was glad I had a home to come to, no matter how weird it was sometimes. The months I had spent at Axelle’s, in the Quarter, had been totally unsettling. Even though Petra and Clio were witches, even though I was now even more caught up in the Treize’s drama than before—still, I had a home and people who cared about me. I didn’t know if I would ever get over my dad’s death. But at least I wasn’t floating, lost, in a world I couldn’t relate to.
    I did my homework at the table while Melysa tied herbs in little bundles to dry. There were racks in the outside laundry room, and now I knew what they were for. Many of Petra’s herbs and medicinal plants had been destroyed in the fire, but she’d gathered the ones she could save, and now we had yarrow, skullcap, catnip, lemon verbena, and other plants whose names I hadn’t learned yet, all hanging upside down to dry.
    Petra was steeping other plants in small copper pots on the stove. She had a whole system where she strained the infusions through cheesecloth into small glass bottles, then stuck preprinted labels on them. These she stored in a cabinet in the workroom. I would never learn everything they knew.
    “This stuff I’m going to save till Sunday,” I said, closing my chem book. “I got the worst out of the way.”
    Petra smiled at me. “Clio always leaves everything till the last minute.”
    “I know. But I hate having it hanging over my head.”
    Melysa looked up. “Would you like to learn more about a witch’s tools?”
    I knew about the four cups and the special gowns witches usually wore during circles. Clio had mentioned other tools, but I didn’t know much about them. I nodded. “Like what?”
    “Well, there’s the wand,” Melysa said. “You don’t have one, do you?”
    “No.”
    “Clio does—why don’t you use hers?” Petra suggested. “I’m sure she wouldn’t mind. You won’t do enough magick to alter its vibrations very much. I think she keeps it in a box under her bed.”
    “Okay.” I got up and hurried upstairs. A wand. Like Harry Potter! In Clio’s room I got on my hands and knees and pushed her bedspread aside. She never made her bed, and the covers always looked like a wrestling match had taken place. An instant image of Clio and Luc together on this bed flashed into my brain, and I literally winced and drew in a breath.
    I sat back on my heels and let that breath out. I didn’t know if they’d gone to bed or not. I didn’t want to know. I thought they probably had—Clio was way ahead of me in that department. I’d never even gotten to third base. But thinking about it, picturing them doing it, was intensely painful, and I’d tried to banish the idea from my mind.
    Which I did now.
    Another deep breath out, and then I looked under her bed for the box. It was made of inlaid wood and looked very old but well kept. An intricate rose made of several different kinds of wood decorated the top. I pulled it out, and as I did, I noticed the edges of some paper sticking out from between Clio’s mattress and her box spring.
    I bit my lip. There was no reason I had to know what those papers were. If they were love letters from Luc, I didn’t want to see them or even know they existed. If they were Clio’s diary, I didn’t want to read it.
    But I slid my fingers in and pulled it out, as if I were watching someone else