4
Nellie sipped her tea, her brows furrowed. “So, you’re saying he wants to pin it on Esme?”
“Yes,” I said. “It’s not right to accuse her just because she’s there. In the wrong place at the wrong time, you could say.”
Nellie nodded slowly, thinking. “I really can’t imagine who else it must be, though.”
“Me neither. But we have to try.”
Nellie reached across the table and put her hand on mine, eyes bright with determination. “And we will. We’ll do our best to make sure Esme is cleared.”
“And maybe even find out who it really is,” I said uneasily. “If it wasn’t Esme, then it was someone else, and that someone is on the loose.”
I recalled the feeling the magic on the body had given me, how it had repelled me so strongly. It was clearly some kind of deeply evil magic. Not dark magic, ex
