"And a... please, you've got to help me! I've got this Angel who's trying to kill people!" She broke off the song and rushed to Melusine.
"You've... what?"
"I've got this-angel thing. And I can't stop him from talking to me...." Gillian suddenly realized that Angel had stopped talking. "Maybe he got scared when I came in here. But I still need your help. Please."
Suddenly her eyes were stinging with tears again.
Melusine leaned both elbows on the counter and rested her chin on her hands. She looked surprised, but willing. "Why don't you tell me about it?"
For the second time that day, Gillian told her story. All of it. She hoped that by telling everything, she could make Melusine understand her urgency. And her lack of experience.
"So I'm not even a real witch," she said at the end.
"Oh, you're a witch, all right," Melusine said. There was color in her cheeks and a look of fascination in her dark eyes. "He told you the truth about that. Everybody knows about the lost Harman babies. Little Elspeth-the records say that she died in England. But obviously she didn't. And you're her descendant."
"Which means it's okay for me to do spells?"
Melusine laughed. "It's okay for anyone to do spells who can do spells. In my opinion. Some people don't feel the same way-"
"But can you help me take the spells off?" Gillian opened the shoe box. She felt ashamed to show the dolls to Melusine-even though she'd bought them here. "I wouldn't have done it if I'd known," she murmured feebly, as Melusine looked at the dolls.
"I know." Melusine gestured at her to be quiet. Gillian watched tensely and waited for the verdict.
"Okay, it looks as if you've started the process already. But I think... maybe some healing salve...
and blessed thistle..."
She bustled around, almost flying in her chair. She applied things to the dolls. She asked Gillian to concentrate with her, and she said words Gillian didn't recognize.
Finally, she wrapped the wax dolls in what looked like white silk, and put them back in the box.
"Is that all? It's done?"
"Well, I think it's a good idea to keep the dolls, just in case we need to do more healing. Then, after that, we can unname them and get rid of them."
"But now Tanya and Kim will be okay?" Gillian was anxious for reassurance, and she couldn't help the quick glance of doubt she cast-at Melusine's missing leg.
Melusine was direct. "If they've had anything amputated, it won't cure them. We can't grow new limbs."
She touched her leg. "This happened in a boating accident. But otherwise, yes, they should get better."
Gillian let out a breath she seemed to have been holding for hours. She shut her eyes. "Thanks. Thank
you, Melusine. You don't know how good it feels to not feel like you're maiming somebody."
Then she opened her eyes. "But the hard part's still to come."
" 'Angel.'"
"Yes."
"Well, I think you're right about it being hard." She looked Gillian straight in the eye. "And dangerous."
"I know that already." Gillian turned and took a quick pace around the room. "He can get into my mind and make me do things-"
"Not just your mind. Anyone's."
"And I'm pretty sure he can move objects by himself. Make cars skid. And he sees everything." She came back to the counter. "Melusine-what is he? And why's he doing all this? And why to me?"
"Well, the last question's the easiest. Because you died." Melusine wheeled quickly to a bookshelf at the end of the counter. She pulled down a volume.
"He must have caught you in the between-place, the place between earth and the Other Side. The place where he was," she said, wheeling back. "He pretended to be the welcomer, the one who guides you to the Other Side. That thing rushing at you at the end-that was probably the real welcomer. But this 'Angel'
got you out of the between-place before it could reach you."
Gillian spoke flatly. "He's not a real angel, is he?"
"No."
Gillian braced herself. "Is he a devil?"
"I don't think so." Melusine's voice was gentle. She opened the book, flipping pages. "From the way you
brought him back with you, I think he must be a spirit. There are two ways of getting spirits from the between-place: you can summon them or you can go fetch them yourself. You did it the hard way."
"Wait a minute. You're saying I brought him?"
"Well, not consciously. I'm sure you didn't mean to. It sounds like he just sort of grabbed on and whooshed down the tunnel-what we call the narrow path-right along with you. Spirits in the between-place can watch us, sometimes talk to us, but they can't really interact with us. When you
brought him to earth, you set him free to interact."
"Oh, wonderful," Gillian whispered. "So on top of everything, it's my fault from the beginning." She looked around dazedly, then back at Melusine. "But what is a spirit, really? A dead person?"
"An unhappy dead person." Melusine turned pages. " 'An earthbound spirit is a damaged soul...' " She shut the book. "Look, it's actually simple. When a spirit is really unhappy-when they've done something awful, or they've died with unfinished business-then they don't go on to the Other Side. They get stuck in-well, the book calls it 'the astral planes near earth.' We call it the between-place."
"Stuck."
"They won't go on. They're too angry and hopeless to even want to be healed. And they can do awful things to living people if they get down here, just out of general miserableness."