Witchlight by L.J. Smith

Author:L.J. Smith
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon Pulse

CHAPTER 11

She’s what?” Keller said, coming out of the bathroom, toweling her hair.

“She’s sick,” Winnie said. “Runny nose, little temperature. Looks like a cold. Her mom says she has to stay home from school.”

Well, it looks like we’re having a run of good luck, Keller thought. It would be much easier to protect her inside the house.

Winnie and Nissa had spent the night in Iliana’s room, while Keller, who was supposed to be asleep on the sofa bed in the family room, wandered the house in between catnaps. She’d asked Galen to stay in the guest room, and he had done just that.

“We can have a quiet day,” she said now to Winnie. “This is great—as long as she gets well for Saturday.”

Winnie grimaced.

“What?”

“Um—you’d better go in and talk to her yourself.”

“Why?”

“You’d just better go. She wants to talk to you.”

Keller started toward Iliana’s room. She said over her shoulder, “Check the wards.”

“I know, Boss.”

Iliana was sitting up in bed, wearing a frilly nightgown that actually seemed to have a ribbon woven into the lace at the neck. She looked fragile and beautiful, and there was a delicate flush on her cheeks from the fever.

“How’re you feeling?” Keller said, making her voice gentle.

“Okay.” Iliana modified it with a shrug that meant fairly rotten. “I just wanted to see you, you know, and say goodbye.”

Keller blinked, still rubbing her hair with the towel. She wasn’t crazy about water, especially not in her ears. “Say goodbye?”

“Before you go.”

“What, you think I’m going to school for you?”

“No. Before you go.”

Keller stopped toweling and focused. “Iliana, what are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about you guys leaving. Because I’m not the Wild Power.”

Keller sat down on the bed and said flatly, “What?”

Iliana’s eyes were that hazy iris color again. She looked, in her own way, as annoyed as Keller felt. “Well, I thought that was obvious. I can’t be the Wild Power. I don’t have the blue fire—or whatever.” She tacked the last words on.

“Iliana, don’t play the dumb blonde with me right now, or I’ll have to kill you.”

Iliana just stared at her, picking at the coverlet with her fingers. “You guys made a mistake. I don’t have any power, and I’m not the person you’re looking for. Don’t you think you ought to go out and look for the real Wild Power before the bad guys find her?”

“Iliana, just because you couldn’t stop that car doesn’t mean that you don’t have power. It could just be that you don’t know how to tap into it yet.”

“It could be. You’re admitting that you’re not sure.”

“Nobody can be absolutely sure. Not until you demonstrate it.”

“And that’s what I can’t do. You probably think I didn’t really try, Keller. But I did. I tried so hard.” Iliana’s eyes went distant with agonized memory. “I was standing there, looking down, and I suddenly thought, I can do it! I actually thought I felt the power, and that I knew how to use it. But then when I reached for it, there was nothing there.

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