A Necklace of Water Read Online Free PDF Page A

Source, you’ll be ready.”
    That sounded like what I wanted. “What other things?” I pictured small dead animals and knew I just couldn’t do anything like that.
    Daedalus looked at me, his blue eyes glittering. “Almost anything,” he said, his voice mild. “From fire, from water, from plants, from the ground itself. From animals. From people.”
    I had a split-second image of Cerise, dead on the ground, followed immediately by an image of myself, also dead on the ground. Drowned. Was that what was going to happen to me? Would someone kill me to use my power? It wouldn’t make sense—there were so many people who were stronger than me and whose power would be more useful.
    But those people were immortal.
    Oh.
    “I see,” I said, nodding. I had wondered whether to tell him about the awful, wonderful spell I had done on the neighborhood cats and decided not to. I didn’t want him to think I was more evil than I actually was. I mean, I’m totally not evil at all, but telling him about that spell might give him the wrong impression.
    “I’m not sure you do see,” Daedalus said, “but I can show you. Let me walk you through a simple spell, teach you how to take something’s power.”
    “You mean subvert its power?” Which was what I had done to the cats. Borrowed their power.
    “No. Actually take its power. To keep.”
    Please, Deésse, don’t let him bring out a live animal
, I prayed, feeling my stomach tighten.
    Instead he opened a wooden box, painted black and inset with a silver
D
, which seemed kind of prosaic—like, it should have been anotherpentacle or a rune or some other symbol instead of just his initial. He took out an egg-size chunk of smoky quartz, uncut, just an irregular, flawed hunk of crystal.
    “Everything has energy, Clio,” he said softly, holding out the crystal. “Everything is vibrating, according to its nature. If you attune your vibrations, you can assume them. Then it will become part of you, and its power will be yours to use.”
    A tingle of excitement stirred despite my nervousness and tension. I licked my lips, looking at the crystal.
    “How do we do it?” I asked.
    “Ce n’est pas facile
,” he said, unexpectedly switching to French.
    “Oui, comprends
,” I said.
    He gave a quick nod, then gestured to my purse, which I was clutching as though it were a lifeline. “Put that down and any electronic things you might have, like a phone or digital watch or a—what do you call it—a pager.”
    I set my purse outside the door of the little secret room, fully aware that my cell phone was in it and that without it I was completely alone and unreachable. Daedalus waved his hand in the air and the small door silently swung shut. I could just barely make out its outline in the black wall, and I thought,
Oh, frick
. My heart started pounding so hard I wondered if Daedalus could hear it.
    My whole life I’d lived with a witch, Nan, and around witches. Nan had always been much, much stronger than anyone else. I had been the second strongest. Now I knew it was because of our heritage, because of the Treize. Even so, I’d never seen Nan just wave her hand and close a door.
She’d probably think it was tacky
, I thought with rising hysteria.
    I looked up at Daedalus, at his cold, unreadable eyes. He looked very intent, focused on me, and I hoped it was because he was glad to have someone who wanted to learn.
    “Come,” he said, holding out his hand, and I stepped closer to the exact center of the silver pentacle on the floor. A long, slim black wand was resting on a shelf, and he took it and traced the pentacle’s circumference with it. Our circle was cast. Then he placed my right hand over the crystal in his hand so that we were holding it together.
    “First we center ourselves where we are and get in touch with our own power,” he said softly. I’d never been this close to him before, and I was uncomfortable and unbearably tense. Suddenly I was afraid that I