A Chalice of Wind

by Cate Tiernan

  Thais

  “Luc?” Clio said to me. “No. This is Andre, my boyfriend. Andre, this is my sister, Thais.”

  Luc didn’t say anything, just stared at me. His face looked grim and white, and tension made his body as tight as a bowstring.

  I felt like I’d been kicked in the stomach, the wind knocked out of me. I tried to swallow. Luc still had his arm around Clio’s waist. I’d seen him kissing her, seen him pick her up and whirl her off her feet. Luc dropped his hand and stood apart from Clio, not touching her, and I saw a look of alarm come over her face.

  “Luc,” I said again numbly, my voice sounding broken, brittle as glass. By now people around us had started to realize that something weird and much more interesting than the party was happening, and heads were turning.

  Just last night, we’d lain in the wet grass on the levee, and he’d held me while I’d cried and told me he wished he could have no memory of making love to anyone but me. I’d even come close to giving him that memory, against every grain of logic in me. Now I’d just seen him kiss my sister, kiss her deeply on the mouth, their hands on each other as if they knew each other very, very well. God, had they . . . ?

  At that moment, I knew I was going to be sick. I turned and raced upstairs. I found a small bathroom and slammed the door shut in back of me. I made it to the toilet just in time, just as all the pain and horror and disbelief made my stomach turn inside out.

  I don’t know how long I was up there, but I had washed my face and was sitting on the floor against the tub when I realized someone was knocking on the door. If it was either Clio or Luc, I would stab them through the heart.

  “Go away,” I croaked, fresh tears starting to my eyes. Stop it, idiot! I lashed out at myself.

  Still, the door opened and Della, one of Clio’s friends, came in. She wore a sympathetic look and held a can of Sprite. “Drink this,” she said. “It’ll help settle your stomach.”

  Given how much alcohol I suspected Clio and her friends put away, I figured she knew what she was talking about. I took it and sipped. It was deliciously cold and fresh, and it tasted incredible. “ Thanks,” I muttered, feeling more wretched than I had since my father had died.

  Della leaned back against the tub next to me. “Well,” she said brightly, “this is one party people won’t forget anytime soon.”

  A quick, surprised laugh escaped my throat, and I envied her so much, to be able to look at this situation in that way. “Nope,” I agreed, bleak again. “What’s going on downstairs?”

  “World War Three,” Della said matter-of-factly. “Needless to say, people are slinking out the door as fast as they can, and the ones who want to stay and see the fireworks are getting herded out by Racey and Eugenie. So it appears your guy was two-timing you both.”

  A fresh pain stabbed me, and I almost choked on the Sprite. “It appears that way,” I managed to say.

  “Clio is furious—throwing things at him and trying to kick his ass out of here, but he’s out front, saying he won’t leave until he talks to you.”

  “Why?” I was flabbergasted. “I don’t want to hear anything he says.”

  Della shrugged. “Don’t blame you. Still, he says he’s not leaving till he talks to you.”

  My jaw set as a welcome wave of fury lit inside me. “Fine,” I snapped, getting to my feet. “I’ll go talk to him.”

  As I stomped downstairs, I refused to dwell on how utterly humiliated I felt and instead seized the anger that was consuming me inside. In the dining room, Kris and Eugenie glanced up as they snapped plastic lids onto dip bowls. They took one look at my face and quickly feigned no interest in the horrible soap opera that was playing out in front of them.

  Clio was standing in her open front door, her body arched and taut as she yelled at Luc. I saw his outline in the small front yard, right before the gate. His hands were held wide, and I couldn’t imagine what he could possibly be saying to defend himself.

  Clio whirled when she felt my angry footsteps vibrating the floorboards. We stared at each other, taking in the other’s furious expression, and for an instant, a bolt of pain shot into my heart as I pictured her and Luc together.

  “Get rid of him!” Clio snarled. “Before I start whipping steak knives at him.”

  I nodded grimly and strode past her to the open door. Clio crossed her arms and stood behind me. I didn’t know if it was to lend support or to make sure he and I didn’t somehow end up together.

  “What do you want?” I demanded when I was close enough. My voice was thrumming with fury—I could hardly speak. Even to myself I sounded like a cornered, spitting cat, growling deep in its throat before it struck.

  “Thais.” Luc took a deep breath and ran a hand through his hair. He was frowning, his jaw set, his eyes dark with emotion.

  “Clio told you to go,” I bit out. “So go.” I forbade myself to look vulnerable, hurt, or heartbroken. All of which I was, of course.

  Luc glanced at Clio, then stepped forward, his eyes on my face. “ Thais,” he said again in a low voice. “I never meant to hurt you or Clio. I never meant for this to happen.”

  “How could it not!” I exclaimed. “What were you thinking, you bastard?”

  “Neither of you mentioned having a sister,” he said. “I actually didn’t know if you knew each other.”

  “So what?” I exploded. “You knew we were sisters! Not only sisters, but twins! You knew what you were doing! And you were lying through your teeth and using us. You even gave us different names! I don’t even know your name! How long did you expect to get away with it?” I shook my head in disbelief. “I know the lies you were telling me,” I said in a lower voice. “I don’t even want to think about what you were doing with Clio.”

  “Maybe he was hoping for a three-way,” Clio said behind me, and I winced.

  “Of course I wasn’t!” Luc said angrily; then he forcibly got himself under control. He looked away from me, and it made my soul hurt to see the profile I’d traced with my fingers, my lips. I felt beyond heartbroken and didn’t know how I would stand the pain.

  “I’m sorry, Thais,” he said. “Everything happened so fast—I didn’t expect us all to take everything so . . . seriously.”

  I stared at him.

  “But we did—and I took you both very seriously, in my way,” he went on, his voice dark and strained. “Thais—my name is Luc. Luc-Andre Martin. I do live where I told you. I have been in New Orleans only a few months.” He lowered his voice, his dark blue eyes focused intently on mine. “Everything I told you about how I felt about you is true. Everything I said when we were together was absolutely sincere and from my heart.”

  “What?” Clio burst out, storming past me. “So you were being sincere with her? What was I? Nothing? A diversion? You fricking bastard!”

  “No, Clio—of course I care about you. You’re beautiful. Fun and exciting. You make me forget—”

  “Now you can forget about both of us!” I cried. “Get out of here!”

  Luc looked first at Clio, then at me, and raised one hand as if to ask me for something. In his eyes I saw both regret and anger, and I hardened my heart against him.

  “ Thais—”

  If he didn’t get out of here this second, I was going to turn into a shrieking, frothing, out-of-control banshee. “You’re a lying, faithless bastard,” I said, speaking slowly and clearly to keep myself from breaking down. “And I’ll hate you for the rest of my life.” I turned on my heel and went back inside the house. Clio snapped something else at him, then she came in and crashed the door shut so hard that one of its stained glass panes cracked.

  She and I were both wild-eyed, breathing hard, shaking.

  “I put the guard spells back on the gate,” she muttered. “ Took ’em off for the party.”

  Racey, Eugenie, Della, and Kris peeped out from the workroom. Racey took one look at us and immediately assumed a brisk, no-nonsense control.

  “Into the kitchen,” she said, motionin
g with her hand. “Come on.”

  I followed Clio into the kitchen and almost fell into a chair.

  “I need a shot of something,” Clio said faintly. “For medicinal purposes.”

  “No—no alcohol,” said Racey firmly. “Here. Racey’s private recipe. Guaranteed to help soothe frayed nerves.” She poured two cups of a steaming herbal tea and set them in front of us.

  Mindlessly I took my cup and drank, not caring that it was too hot. I saw Clio pass her hand over her cup, as if to feel the steam, and then she drank without wincing.

  Within two minutes I felt like someone was smoothing aloe on all the burning pain inside me, over my heart that felt wrapped in barbed wire, around my mind that felt like acid had been dumped on it. The tea was putting out fire after fire, and I found I could almost think clearly.

  “I feel better,” I said, looking up at Racey. “ Thanks. I’ll have to get that recipe.”

  She smiled at me. “You’ll be able to come up with one yourself soon.”

  I put my head in my hands. She meant if I learned magick. Which reminded me of the awful vision Clio and I’d had, right before Luc had ripped our hearts out.

  This was pretty much one of the top-three worst nights of my entire life.

  “I think we’re going to go,” said Della. “Unless you need us to stay.”

  Clio shook her head and drank more tea. “No,” she said, her voice thin. “Thanks, guys. And thanks for cleaning up and everything.”

  “I’ll call you tomorrow,” Eugenie said. Clio gave a wan smile and nodded.

  “Want me to stay?” Racey asked after the other three had left.

  Clio glanced up at me and bit her lip. “That’s okay,” she said softly. “I guess we can take it from here. But thank you.” She stood up and hugged Racey.

  “Yeah, thanks for the tea and being here,” I added inadequately. Racey patted my shoulder, picked up her purse, and left.

  And Clio and I were left alone.

  Clio

  If I looked as bad as Thais did, I was seriously going downhill. Her face was pinched and bloodless, and her shiny black hair lay limply on her shoulders.

  “I think I’ll go too,” Thais said, starting to get up. “I just want to go to bed.”

  “How are you going to get home?”

  “Streetcar,” she said, putting her teacup in the sink.

  “Not this late. I’ll drive you home.”

  She looked like she wanted to refuse, but she was too sensible to. “I wish I’d never come to New Orleans!” she burst out.

  That makes two of us. My skin was crawling: Andre had actually meant what he’d said to Thais, and I had been just the good-time girl. He might even love her. Her. He hadn’t left until she’d come down and talked to him. Even out on the porch, it was her understanding he’d wanted, not mine. He’d kept talking to her, explaining to her. Oh yeah, I’d been beautiful and exciting and fun. Yay for me. But he’d cared about her. I felt like I was going to shatter into sharp, bitter shards, like colored glass.

  I drank my tea, trying to think about anything else. Unbidden, the image of the crying newborn popped into my mind. Why had we seen that? Why had it all been so real? Because we were doing it together?

  “Who do you think that baby was earlier?” I asked, and Thais blinked at the shift in gears.

  “Uh, I don’t know,” she said. “I was thinking maybe our mom? Dad told me that Mom had this same birthmark.” She touched her cheekbone lightly. “He thought it was so strange that I had it too—birthmarks aren’t usually inherited.”

  “So you think it was real, what we were seeing?”

  Thais looked up, surprised. “You mean, maybe it wasn’t? Do you usually see real things or just possibilities, or even stuff that never happened and couldn’t happen?”

  I thought. “All of the above,” I decided. “But that one felt so real, more real than they usually do. Sometimes it’s like watching TV, kind of, where you’re still aware of your surroundings. That one was so complete. I wish Nan were here to talk about it.”

  “Where is she, anyway? Isn’t she coming back tonight?”

  Amazingly enough, it was barely ten o’clock. It felt like three in the morning.

  I shook my head. “She had to go out of town for a little while. She should be back in a day or two.” I hoped. Memories of how I’d planned to spend my free days—and nights—made my teeth clench.

  “You’re lucky,” said Thais. “I wish Axelle would go out of town. For a long time.” Suddenly she looked over at me. “Did you love him?” she asked in a broken voice, her face miserable.

  I let out a slow breath. “No,” I lied. “I was just using him. He was hot, you know? And I wanted a fling. But I’m still really pissed,” I added.

  She nodded. It was so obvious that she’d really loved him too. She sighed and I could practically see her heart bleeding inside her. I wondered if we were linked somehow—I’d heard of twins who could finish each other’s sentences and did the same things at the same time, even if they were in different cities. And those twins weren’t even witches, like us.

  “Can I go home now?” she said. “Are you sure I shouldn’t take the trolley?”

  “Not this late. It’s not safe. Hang on and I’ll get my purse. And I’m going to change.” I hated this skirt, hated this top, never wanted to see them again. I headed upstairs and heard the front door open.

  “I’m going to wait on the porch,” Thais called. “Get some air.”

  “Okay,” I called back. In my room I put on gym shorts and an old T-shirt and pulled my long hair back into a ponytail.

  Pathetic, desperate thoughts swirled around me like dust devils. Maybe Andre was still outside. Maybe they would both be gone when I got out there. Or maybe after I dropped Thais off, I would see Andre on the street, and he would be so miserable and tell me he had been trying not to hurt Thais’s feelings, but it was me he loved. . . .

  I raced out through the house and found Thais by herself on the front porch, looking up at the stars.

  “It was cloudy earlier,” she said, sounding like she’d been crying. “Now it’s clear.”

  “Yeah.” There was a bitterness at the back of my throat that I couldn’t swallow away. My blue Camry was parked on the street: hardly anyone has a garage in New Orleans, and not many people even had driveways.

  Thais went out through our front gate while I locked the door behind me. I felt drained, totally spent and exhausted, and just wanted to get rid of Thais so I could go collapse in bed and cry without anyone seeing.

  I started down the front steps, and just as I reached the front gate, I heard a dull buzzing, humming sound that was growing louder with every second. I looked up at the overhead telephone and electricity wires—was something going funky? Was it music from somewhere?

  “Clio!”

  I snapped my head down to look at Thais, then gasped. A huge dark cloud was moving toward her fast. “ Thais!” I yelled. “Get back inside the gate!”

  But it was too late—the dark cloud enveloped her, and she screamed. In horror I realized it was a cloud of wasps, a huge, droning mass of angry wasps, and they were attacking her. In the next second I realized that this was unnatural, that wasps didn’t do this. Which meant they’d been sent on purpose, to harm Thais or me or both. Rushing out the gate, I started a dispelling spell, drawing the powerful protective sign of ailche in the air, followed by bay, the sign for wind.

  “Clio!” Thais shrieked, the sound muffled.

  “I’m coming!” I yelled, and then I dove into the middle of the cloud and grabbed her. If I could pull her back inside the gate, the protection spells should help. Suddenly it felt like a thousand hot needles plunged into my skin, and I cried out. Thais was crying, waving her arms, lurching around, and I started pulling her back toward the gate.

  I was frantic: my eyes were swelling shut, one wasp stung me inside my ear—my entire being was a mass of burning pain. I shouted a banishing spell, and it s
eemed the droning let up for just a second, but then the wasps were around us again, so thickly that I couldn’t even see the gate or the house. The two of us stumbled off the curb into the street—we’d gone in the wrong direction!

  “ Thais!” I shouted. “Give me your energy!”

  “Wha—I can’t!” she cried, sounding hysterical.

  “Just send me your energy, your strength—any way you know!” I yelled. “ Think!”

  I had her by both shoulders. My hands were so swollen and numb that it felt like my skin was splitting. Everything in me wanted to scream my head off and run a hundred miles, but I forced myself to stand still and concentrate, trying to ignore the pain, ignore the burning, salty tears running down my swollen, stinging face.

  “Ailche, protect us!” I said, crying, my tongue thick. “Bay, dispel this swarm! Déesse, aidez-nous!” I concentrated on Thais, pushing past her outer, terrified body and into her core, where her unawakened energy lay. It was familiar to me, similar to mine, and I sought out the power she didn’t know she had. I joined my power to hers and repeated my banishing spell:Force of darkness, leave us be

  Your power’s gone, your secret found—

  My twin has given strength to me

  Three times this curse on you rebound!

  My eyes were almost completely swollen shut, but my ears heard the droning lessen, and I thought I felt fewer new stinger jabs. I risked opening my eyes and saw that the swarm had in fact started to disperse, untidy clumps of wasps staggering through the air as if unsure of how they’d gotten there or what they were doing. Our feet were covered with wasp bodies.

  A minute later, they were all gone, and Thais and I were standing in the street. Amazingly, no neighbors had come out to see what the shouting was about, but they might have been spelled to stay indoors.

  “Come on,” I said, barely understandable. My tongue filled my mouth, and I knew we needed help fast—we’d both been stung hundreds of times.

  Thais was shaking, sobbing, her eyes shut, her grossly bloated arms still covering her head. I took her shoulder and started towing her back to the house. In my mind, I sent one of my teachers, Melysa, an urgent help message. I couldn’t talk on the phone at this point, and I didn’t know how much time we had.