“Oh, do give up, Doctor dear.” Anabel moved to my side. Her voice sounded as sweet and innocent as ever, and it sent a shiver down my spine. Should I really be relieved to see her? Anabel Scott was far and away the craziest, most dangerous person who had ever crossed my path—how could I have forgotten that? She hadn’t changed her appearance; she still looked like a reincarnation of Botticelli’s Venus, even in plain jeans and a T-shirt. Her golden blond hair fell over her shoulders in soft waves, going all the way down to her waist, and her huge turquoise-green eyes could cast a spell over you at once. She was so beautiful that it almost hurt to look at her. In that respect, she’d really been a perfect match for Arthur.
“How are you, Liv?” she said in friendly tones, and then beamed at Grayson. “Hi, Grayson. To be honest, I’m surprised to see you here. I thought you’d given up all this.”
“Aha. Aha.” Senator Tod nodded. “Grayson Spencer, is it? The stupid, vain, na?ve, good-natured member of the group.”
“No, you genius. That one is Jasper Grant,” Anabel set him right. “Grayson is the cautious, sensible, responsible, unimaginative one. Henry is the one with the authority problem, and Arthur is the good-looking guy with the giant ego.” She cast Grayson a glance, with her eyes twinkling. “Sorry, he’s not so good at remembering names.”
So far Grayson hadn’t said a word. He was just looking from Anabel to me and then to Senator Tod, with a baffled expression on his face.
Anabel’s smile widened. “As usual, your face tells me exactly what you’re feeling, Grayson. It’s a while since you came here—maybe we ought to update you. Okay, so while you stayed in your own dreams like a good boy, trying to forget about setting a demon free, Liv, Arthur, and Henry got to know my psychiatrist out here. Let me introduce Dr. Otto Anderson. Not the brightest spark in his field, I’m afraid, but just the man for my purposes.”
“This is…” Senator Tod looked as if he’d explode with fury any moment now. Before too long, he’d be hurling thunderbolts. “I’ve never for a second let you manipulate me! I saw through you right away!”
Anabel tilted her head on one side. “Just the man!” she repeated gently.
“I don’t understand a word of this,” said Grayson. “What does it have to do with Mia? Why are you doing this to her? To revenge yourself on Liv?”
“Mia?” Anabel raised an eyebrow. “Liv’s little sister?”
“Yes, damn it, Liv’s little sister,” said Grayson. “And I want you to leave her alone. My God, Anabel, you’ve done enough harm already.”
Anabel looked genuinely confused. “Can someone tell me what he’s talking about? Maybe you, Henry?”
I was about to spin around, but managed to turn and look without haste. Sure enough, there was Henry leaning against his door, arms folded and one knee slightly bent, as if he’d been standing there all the time.
He was the only one of us who managed to return Anabel’s smile.
“Good to see you,” he said. “We were anxious about you.”
Anabel nodded. “I know. My father told me you’d phoned. So sweet of you. Did you really think the good doctor here had put me out of action with sleeping tablets?” She uttered a tinkling laugh.
Senator Tod looked as if he were grinding his teeth.
“Well, you haven’t been here for some time,” I pointed out.
“Are you so sure of that?”
Oh, damn it. Of course not. Arthur had been right: Anabel was too clever for Senator Tod. And for me, too, I’m afraid. She was the best of us all at managing her dreams. Nothing was easier for her than to roam around the corridors without any of us noticing. And she wasn’t to be underestimated in the real world either. Idiot that I was, I’d phoned her father because I felt sorry for her, while she’d presumably been tricking the entire hospital.
Although I really didn’t want to, I glanced at Henry, only to find that his eyes were resting on me. That in itself was enough to make my heart contract painfully again.
“How nice it is to see you all!” Anabel went on in a conversational tone. “All we need is Arthur, and it would be like the old days.” With a contented sigh, she leaned back on the wall beside Henry’s door. “You learn an amazing amount when you’re invisible, but it’s kind of boring.” She grinned at me. “Sorry if I scared you, Liv, but I really couldn’t resist! A little rustling, and you felt sure the devil was after you.”
“And so he was.” Only now did I notice that the pupils of Anabel’s eyes were tiny, as if she were looking at a bright light. Even though it had turned quite dark around us. And colder. I felt fairly sure that she’d soon be conjuring up her demon.
But for now Anabel was aiming at subtler effects. “You’ve no idea how boring it is in the hospital—without the dreams I’d probably be dead of sheer tedium. No, I wasn’t about to give them up. I just wanted the good doctor to think so while I was studying his weaknesses at my leisure. You have a good many weaknesses, don’t you, Otto?”
“If you think you can blackmail me, you greatly overestimate the credibility of a mentally ill patient,” said Senator Tod. “No one would believe someone like you. And what’s more, I’ve never broken any laws.…”