07 The Return_ Midnight - L. J. Smith

“Who is not a ‘Mrs. Saitou’ at all,” Mrs. Flowers said, almost sharply. “I have no idea
what her name really is—perhaps she is really Inari, a deity gone bad. Ten years ago, I didn’t know
what made Orime Saitou suddenly so diffident and quiet. Now I realize that it began just around the
time her ‘mother’ moved in with her. I was quite fond of young Isobel, but she suddenly became—
aloof—in an unchildlike way. Now I understand. And I am determined to fight for her—and for you—
and for a town that is worth saving. Human lives are very, very precious. And now—here we are.”
Matt had just turned onto the Saitous’ block. Meredith took a moment to openly stare at
the figure in the front passenger seat. “Mrs. Flowers!” she exclaimed.
This made Matt turn to stare in his turn and what he saw made him clip a Volkswagen
Jetta parked by the sidewalk.
“Mrs…. Flowers?”
“Please park now, Matt. You needn’t call me Mrs. Flowers if you don’t want to. I have
returned to the time when I was Theophilia—when my friends called me Theo.”
“But—how—why—?” Matt stuttered.
“I told you. I felt that it was time. Sage left me a gift that helped me change. An enemy
beyond your powers to fight has arisen. I felt this back at the boardinghouse. This is the time that I
have been waiting for. The last battle with the true enemy of Fell’s Church.”
Meredith’s heart actually seemed ready to fly out of her chest. She had to be calm—calm
and logical. She had seen magic many times. She knew the look of it, the feel of it. But frequently she
had been too busy comforting Bonnie, or too worried about aiding Bonnie to take in what she was
facing.
Now, it was just her and Matt—and Matt had a stricken, stupefied look, as if he hadn’t
seen enough magic before. As if he might crack.
“Matt,” she said loudly, and then even louder, “Matt!” He turned, then, to look at her,
with his blue eyes wild and dark.
“They’ll kill her, Meredith!” he said. “Shinichi and Misao—you don’t know what it feels
like…”
“Come on,” Meredith said. “We have to make sure that it doesn’t kill her.”
The dazed look passed from Matt’s eyes. “We have to do this,” he agreed simply.
“Right,” said Meredith, finally releasing him. Together they got out of the car to stand by
Mrs. Flowers—no, by Theo.
Theo had hair that hung almost to her waist; so fair that it looked silver in the moonlight.
Her face was—electrifying. It was young; young and proud, with classic features and a look of quiet
determination.
Somehow during the drive, her clothes had changed too. Instead of a coat covered with
bits of paper, she was wearing a sleeveless white gown that ended in a slight train. In style, it
reminded Meredith a little of the “mermaid” dress she herself had worn when going to a ball in the
Dark Dimension. But Meredith’s dress had only made her look sultry. Theo looked…magnificent.
As for the Post-it Note amulets…somehow the paper had disappeared and the writing
had grown enormously, changing into very large scrawls that wrapped around the white gown. Theo
was literally swathed in haute couture arcane protection.
And although she was reed slender, she was tall. Taller than Meredith, taller than Matt,
taller than Stefan, wherever he was in the Dark Dimensions. She was this tall not only because she
had grown so much, but because the train of her dress was just brushing the ground. She had entirely
overcome gravity. The whip, Sage’s present to her, was coiled into a circle attached to her waist,