The End of Magic (The Witches of Echo Park #3)(25)

That she was, for all intents and purposes . . . untouchable.





Lizbeth





"Hello, there."

Lizbeth looked up to find Tem's brother, Thomas, standing in the doorway of the Red Chapel. He was wearing a ripped T-shirt and tight black jeans, his thin frame well-muscled. Though they were both tall and lanky with pale skin and dark hair, their features were so different you would have to know they were related in order to see the resemblance. There was a sadness to Tem that didn't exist in his brother. The gangling awkwardness that made her Tem so charming was reversed in his brother. Thomas had a fierceness to his gaze, his bright blue eyes scalpel sharp.

This only hinted at their different personalities. Lizbeth could sense one was a giver and the other a taker. One put others before himself and the other . . . he was ambitious and out to succeed. She just hoped that didn't mean Thomas would throw them all under the bus to further his own ends. 

"You don't look happy to see us," Thomas continued, leaning against the doorjamb. His voice purred and Lizbeth remembered that he, too, could be very charming, but in a brasher, more confident way than his brother.

"LB?" Ginny said, a tremor in her voice.

Lizbeth swallowed hard, shaking herself from her thoughts. She tried to focus on the little girl standing in front of her, tried to compartmentalize her own feelings so she could be there for Dev's daughters. Marji was shaking, her body so ridiculously thin and small in her bright red cotton dress that Lizbeth wanted to hold her even tighter. Hug the grief out of her. Instead, she began to unconsciously stroke Marji's long dark hair, a gesture she'd seen Dev perform a thousand times.

"It's okay. It'll all be okay," Lizbeth said to the girls, though her eyes searched out Tem. He looked grim, his jaw set, gray eyes flashing with concern.

-I'll find out what happened.

He spoke the words in Lizbeth's mind and she was glad they had this link, could discuss things without frightening the girls. She nodded, letting him know she would keep an eye on the girls so he could go speak privately with his brother.

"Shall we go inside, Thomas?" Tem asked. Thomas quirked an eyebrow but didn't argue.

"Of course. Let's leave the ladies to their reunion  ."

He turned and went back inside, disappearing into the darkness.

-I'll be right inside if you need me.

She nodded and watched him follow his brother into the cabin. When they were gone, Lizbeth turned her attention to Marji and Ginny.

"You have a pretty voice," Marji whispered, tilting her chin up to look at Lizbeth. But her gaze was empty, her eyes hollow and without luster. It was as if she was looking through Lizbeth. Or, rather, her gaze was directed inward, but she was going through the motions of interacting with the outside world.

Despite the shock of what they'd been through and the awfulness of the situation, leave it to the girls to be unfazed by Lizbeth's newfound ability to speak.

At least Marji isn't shaking now, Lizbeth thought, but then she realized this zombielike stare was somehow worse.

"Can we go to the playground?" Ginny chirped.

"The playground?" Lizbeth asked, not sure where someone would hide a playground here on this miniature island.

"It's behind the chapel," Marji said, in a listless voice.

"Can we?" Ginny repeated, grabbing at the hem of Lizbeth's plaid shirt.

Wait a minute, Lizbeth thought. I'm not wearing a plaid shirt. Yet when she looked down at herself, she was, indeed, wearing a purple plaid shirt and a pair of cuffed indigo jeans with black moccasins. This was an outfit from her past . . . before all of the craziness had started. When Eleanora was alive, when Lyse was still living in Athens, Georgia, and when The Flood wasn't even on Lizbeth's radar. It made her realize something important: The dreamlands had tried to cater to what they thought she wanted.

It was odd to realize she'd totally misunderstood the place. She'd always thought the dreamlands changed of their own volition, creating the places they wanted you to visit. Now she wasn't so sure about this. It was actually more like the dreamlands sensed a need in you and then changed themselves accordingly. Trying, in a not very straightforward way, to fulfill that need. A few people, like Tem, had found a way to bend this aspect of the dreamlands to their will, but everyone else was at the dreamlands' mercy . . . trapped in a land that was trying desperately to please them. It had been frightening here in the dreamlands when she was a child and had visited them without meaning to. She'd been lucky enough-or maybe luck wasn't the right word-blessed enough that the Tall Lady had found her and had made sure of her safety during her childish wanderings. Now she would do the same for Dev's girls, protecting them and making sure they were never at the mercy of the dreamlands' whims.