"Can you do that?" she prompted at last.
"Yes. I can do it. I can try."
And that was all he said. Keller turned to the door. Then she turned back. "Thank you," she said softly. But what she really meant was Good-bye, and she knew he knew it. For a long moment, she thought he wouldn't answer. At last, he said, "Thank you, Keller."
Keller didn't know what for, and she didn't want to think about it right now. She turned and slipped out of the room.
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 Diana'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 Diana'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 good-bye."
Keller blinked, still rubbing her hair with the towel. She wasn't crazy about water, especially not in her ears. "Say good-bye?"
"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?"
Tm talking about you guys leaving. Because I'm not the Wild Power."
Keller sat down on the bed and said flatly, "What?"
Diana'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.
"Diana, don't play the dumb blond with me right now, or I'll have to kill you."
Diana 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?"
"Diana, 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."
Diana'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. I tried so hard, and I wanted it to work so much..." Diana's eyes filled, and there was a look on her face that struck Keller to the heart. Then she shook her head and looked back at Keller. "It wasn't there. I know that. I'm certain."
'It has to be there," Keller said. "Circle Daybreak has been investigating this ever since they found that prophecy. 'One from the hearth that still holds the spark.' They've tracked down all the other Harmans and checked them. It has to be you."
"Then maybe it's somebody you haven't found yet. Some other lost witch. But it's not me."
She was completely adamant and genuinely convinced. Keller could see it in her eyes. She had managed to vault back into denial in a whole new way.
"So I know you'll be leaving," Iliana went on. "And, actually, I'll really miss you." She blinked away tears again. "I suppose you don't believe that."
"Oh, I believe it," Keller said tiredly, staring at an exquisite gold-and-white dresser across the room.
"I really like you guys. But I know what you're doing is important."
"Well, is it okay with you if we just hang around for a little while longer?" Keller asked heavily. "Just until we see the light and realize you're not the Wild Power?"
Iliana frowned. "Don't you think it's a waste of time?"
"Maybe. But I don't make those decisions. I'm just a grunt."
"Don't you treat me like a dumb blond."
Keller opened her mouth, lifted her hands, then dropped them. What she wanted to say was, How can I help it when you're determined to be such a nincompoop? But that wasn't going to get them anywhere. "Look, Iliana. I really do have to stay until I get orders to go, all right?" Keller said, looking at her. "So you're just going to have to bear with us for a little while longer."
She stood up, feeling as if a weight had fallen on her. They were back to square one.
Or maybe not quite.
"Besides, what about Galen?" she said, turning back at the door. "Do you want him to go?"