by Jamie Hawke
Realizing how difficult this must be for her—entering a place that was not only part of the whole shadow world, but that embraced it full on—I wiped away my smile. Stepping aside, I held out an arm like I’d escort her in.
“Not here,” Hekate said, brushing past us and slamming my arm away.
“Gotta act the part,” Chris said as he followed.
Suddenly the fact that he’d survived this place and likely even started to fit in all made sense. He was my friend, but had always been a major douche. I nodded, standing a little taller and looking down my nose as stuck up asses often did, and followed. At least my new attitude earned a little chuckle from Pucky.
The mansion took on a whole new level of darkness once we were inside. Not that it was dark in the visibility sense, as there were candles burning along the walls, torches at the far end at the sides of the two staircases. But the paintings were all dreary, of snakes and dead trees and strange circles with patterns—some glowing unnaturally.
As much as they were trying to tell me this wasn’t something out of Harry Potter, I couldn’t help feeling this would’ve been what Voldemort’s house would’ve looked like if he’d retired.
“I think I’ll wait outside,” Sharon whispered.
Red caught her arm. “We can’t split up. Not in a place like this.”
Hekate gave her a brief nod. “Stick close, you’ll be fine. It’s the others we have to worry about.”
“How’s that?” Elisa asked, glaring.
“She’s at least closer on the spectrum. You all ooze goodness like a toddler’s runny nose that first week at daycare. It’s disgusting.”
“Thanks,” Elisa replied, taking the lead, but pausing between the two stairwells.
“Always left,” Mirna whispered, helpfully.
“Because it’s the opposite of what’s right,” Pucky said with a grin.
“No, because your left side of the brain is more logical,” Mirna said. “Deals with science. In the end, witchcraft all starts at a point with science.”
“And for the record, there are good witches,” Hekate hissed, clearly offended.
Pucky pretended to zip her mouth, tossing the key behind her.
We made our way up the stairs to the left, a winding, marble staircase that led to a hallway. Long and dark, with tiled floors and gilded gold trim along the ceiling. Speaking of the ceiling, as we walked along I noticed a mural of the witch trials stretching all along the length of it, and what seemed to be pictures depicting various events in witching history.
“Where is everyone?” I asked as we passed several empty rooms and connecting halls.
“Many are off fighting,” Hekate said. “Some are here, refusing to join in the war.”
“But I’d think the witches would be the first to join Ra.”
“You’d think wrong,” Chris interjected. “Think of it this way—chaotic evil, or some chaotic neutral. And the chaotic part often wins out, in the case of these groups, so…”
“When did you learn to speak nerd?” I asked.
He laughed. “That’d be all thanks to Mirna. Got me playing table top games in the evening.”
“Figured it was the best way to help him understand what’s what,” Mirna offered with a proud smile. “Meanwhile, the fucker didn’t even come calling,” “Oh, not that I would’ve accepted if he had, of course. But still, it’s nice to know people want your skills. Or gods want… you know what I mean.”
Pucky laughed, then covered her mouth with a glance at our surroundings. “For me, knowing that I’m on the side of what’s right is enough.”
“Says the nature lover,” Mirna replied. “If it weren’t for Chris and his sweet-talking ways, I honestly don’t know if I’d be on this side or not.”
“What?” I said, looking from her to Chris.
“I mean it, how do I know you all are actually on the right side.”
I shook my head. “I was surprised at the mention of Chris and sweet talking, that’s all.”
Chris chuckled and shot me a glance. “You forget who always had the luck with the ladies.”
“That so?” Hekate asked, nudging him.
Elisa cleared her throat. “Maybe we focus on the task at hand, then compare notes on who’s sweet and who was able to get all the ladies.”
“Or wasn’t either,” Chris nodded my way, but then held up his hands. “Sure, sure. Of course.”
She gave him a pointed look, so he stepped back, turning to Hekate. She’d stopped at a hallway to our right, gesturing us over.
“It’ll be this way, but…” She held up a hand, then cursed under her breath. “Back—there.”
Following her indication that we move to the next hall over, we quickly found ourselves in one of the side rooms. Judging by the mirror and desk, it was nothing more than a powder room, or so I thought until Chris stood between me and the mirror and pulled a curtain over it.
“Best not look into those,” he said. “Not in a place like this.”
“And not with how the glamour makes him look,” Sharon added. At my scowl, she frowned and said, “What? I like the real you, not… this.”
She actually looked kinda hot in her glamour, but I wasn’t about to say that. Not more attractive than normal—because that was hard to beat—just different.
“Someone’s out there,” Elisa hissed from the doorway with Hekate.
The witch nodded, glancing back and then shooing her away. “That’s right, so keep it quiet.”
I nodded, scooting back but bumping into Red. There wasn’t much room in there with all of us crammed in. She didn’t mind, and put an arm around my waist as she whispered into my ear, “Nice and cozy.”
The dirty part of my mind wondered if she was trying to come on to me in this place. It wouldn’t be the first time that a ‘dangerous situation’ had turned on one of these ladies, but there was something about Chris being in there that totally killed it for me. Maybe it was the fact that I’d now seen him in two sexual situations, both of which had been odd enough to leave my retinas scarred, or at least my mind. Even just standing there I couldn’t help seeing Hekate and remembering the first time we’d found him with her doing something to his ass—I tried not to think about it.
“We just wait them out?” Pucky asked. “Or…”
“If you’re thinking you’d rather charge out there, dicks swinging,” Mirna said, shaking her head, “give up that line of thought right now. We’re hardly the most powerful witches in this place, and the house works in mysterious ways.”
“Speak for yourself,” Hekate countered. “I’d put my powers up against any one of them.”
Mirna gave her a skeptical glance, then shrugged. “Yeah, maybe.”
Hekate looked offended, but left it alone.
“Aren’t we all glamoured anyway?” I asked. “Shouldn’t we be able to walk around freely, or what was the point?”
“From a distance you’re safe, but with magic like theirs, getting too close will expose you for sure.” Hekate
“Almara,” Chris said, and I turned to realize the third, mostly silent, witch, had one of her hands down his pants. The fact was mostly hidden by her robe and long sleeve, but not enough. At my look, Chris tried to cover the fact, and shook his head while hissing, “Not now.”
“Looks like his team is as frisky as yours, huh?” Pucky said to me with a wink.
I chuckled.
“One level below, I’d say,” Mirna interjected. “Otherwise, one of you would be—”
“This isn’t the time or place,” Hekate said, and then waved her hand. In a flash, all of our voices were cut off. I even tried to say something, and no sound came out.
We stared at her in horror, and she smiled back smugly. Her hand went to the door to prop it open slightly and have a look.
“We might be in the clear,” she whispered, “but can’t go risking it with you all—shit!”
She pulled back, eyes wide, and quickly scanned us all. “Okay, her
e goes nothing.” Eyes roaming over us, she nodded. “Mirna, Alrmara, you two go out and pass them, pretend you’re on your way to sparring practice or something of the sort, and maybe they’ll have just assumed it was you over here.”
We all shared a nervous glance, then moved aside as best we could to let them exit. The silent one had to pull her hand out of Chris’s pants to do so, and used that same hand to blow him a kiss.
He gave me a ‘what can I do’ sort of look, and grinned. Of course, he loved it.
As soon as they exited, a voice spoke up. Husky, but definitely feminine, and with some sort of accent. “The time for inaction is over, gather your coven.”
“Yes, of course,” Mirna’s voice sounded, soft and muffled.
Hekate frowned, staring at the floor with her hand on the door. It didn’t strike me though as a real problem until I noticed the glow coming from her hand, moving along the edges of the door, filling in the cracks.
A look from Red and then Pucky showed it wasn’t the time to make jokes or even ask what was going on. Sharon was on the opposite side of the room from me and her eyes had a clouded look, one I recognized from our brief training sessions. Push back the shadow, my internal voice urged, sounding much like her voice in that moment.
And indeed, there was a darkness around the glow, as if the light from Hekate and a shadow power were fighting each other, each working for domination regarding those doors. I stared at the darkness, watching it shift, change shape, seep through… and I started to walk toward it, pushing my way to the doors.
Red’s hand met my chest and I swatted it away, mind reeling with sensations of pain, anger at watching everyone I loved suffer. I froze, closing my eyes and remembering all I’d learned, hand going to my chest.
I had a fucking spirit animal, or familiar or whatever it was called, living in me. A lion with wings. How did some shadow bullshit hope to touch me? No way.
Clenching my jaw, I stepped back. A smile from Sharon, though forced, showed me she had felt the same calling, and overcome it.
And just like that, the shadows were gone.
Hekate turned back to us, sweat on her brow, but also relief.
“Who is it?” Elisa asked, clearly sensing the main part of the danger zone.
“Not one of ours,” Hekate replied. “And apparently the idea of us being chaotic no longer matters. They’re calling in all possible forces.”
“Must have an inkling that we’ve returned,” I said.
Elisa cringed. “Actually, I’ve been wondering about that. If they have any way of knowing, or sensing.”
“I wouldn’t assume so,” Hekate said. “This might be in relation to the pushback from the normies. When they found out their lead agent and many of his followers were actually Legends or gods in disguise, a lot of the agencies put in place to hunt our kind went into war mode. Now they’re trying to exterminate us without worrying about the general populace finding out. They don’t care, since Ra and his followers haven’t exactly been discrete.”
“Meaning they’re going to try and exterminate us as quickly as possible,” Pucky said, a sour look on her face.
“Exactly.”
“But if we can defeat Ra and them first?” I asked.
“It’ll help, but not in the grand scheme of things.” Red approached the door now, pulling her cloak around her. “We’d best get moving, because they’re not going to give us time to sit around.”
“One second,” Hekate said, listening at the door again.
“Myths are likely dying out there,” Red went on. I’m not going to stand around hiding—”
“Don’t make me silence you again,” Hekate hissed. A moment of silence followed, during which Red’s cheeks took on a flush that could have almost matched her cloak. She was just starting to look like she would explode, when the door swung outward, revealing Chris’s other two witches.
“Clear,” Mirna said, and then nodded.
“Who was it?” Hekate asked.
Mirna hesitated, then grimaced. “Fucking guess.”
“No…”
“What?” Pucky asked. “Who?”
I was leaning forward in interest by that point as well.
“Think of one bitch you hear about in all the myths and whatnot, who would you assume?” Hekate asked.
I pursed my lips, then stood straight. “Medusa!”
“What?” Elisa scoffed. “That’s just… no, she came over to our side a long time ago.”
“Oh… Pandora?”
Elisa just shook her head this time, everyone turning back to Hekate. Yeah, I gave up.
“One hint—mother of the underworld, they called her.” Hekate looked to me, hopefully, but I was drawing a blank.
Pucky moved her mouth, but I didn’t get it. “Persephone,” Pucky whispered my way.
“Ah, Persephone. Didn’t she escape the underworld, and...” I scratched my head. “There’s a bit of a mumbo-jumbo thing going on in my brain where I’m getting the mythology and the video game stuff confused.”
“Doesn’t matter,” Hekate said. “Because we’re talking about reality here, not the stories. Reality is that she’s a very powerful Legend, at goddess status, and her shadow magic is fucking badass.”
“Ah.”
Sharon nodded at me, and for the first time I noticed the worry in her yes.
“You knew her?” I asked Sharon.
“Sure,” Sharon replied. “Since she kind of made me evil to begin with.”
“Tell him as we go,” Hekate said, “if you’re going to tell the story. Either way, we need to be moving.”
“Seconded,” Elisa said, and followed the witches out the door.
As we went back to the hallway Hekate had originally indicated as the way to go, I turned to Sharon and gave her a look of compassion and curiosity.
“It’s a tough one,” Sharon started.
When she didn’t say more, I let it go, continuing on up more stairs and passages, until finally, when Hekate went ahead to scout out the final hallway and I found myself standing close to Sharon, she said, “Do you want to know or not?”
“Of course I do.”
“Then ask.”
“I…” With a grin and a nod of surrender, I asked, “What happened? Why was it a tough one?”
“She both saved me, and destroyed me.” Holding out her hand, she waited until I took it to continue. “I would’ve died if not for her, as I’d been bitten, see… bitten and discarded, left to die. She found me—”
“How?” I interrupted, then squeezed her hand. “Sorry.”
“No, it’s okay. I… was sort of on a date. Experimenting with this girl from college, and she took me to this shady bar, took me out back and I thought it would be my first female-on-female kiss. Turns out her friend was there—the Big Bad Wolf of the time. It was apparently a bar a lot of Legends liked to visit, because after the bite and leaving me, I remember seeing Persephone—stepping out, sniffing the air. She gave me the power, but said she’d come to deal with the Big Bad Wolf. Told me I could live if I settled things for her, and then… entrapped me.”
“You used this power to kill the old Big Bad Wolf, and therefore took over the name and associated darkness,” I said, filling in the rest for her based on where I saw this going.
“She essentially kept me as her slave until… well, until you all freed me.”
“You freed yourself.”
She scoffed. “Don’t feed me that corny bullshit.” The look in her eyes was one of affection and appreciation.
“If you meet her again… are you worried?”
A simple nod in response. I took her hand, kissed it, and said, “I’ll be here with you. No matter what.”
“Pssst,” Hekate signaled us, and we all moved forward to where she stood. There was a cabinet in front of her in a sort of alcove. I was half expecting her to open it and reveal the Golden Goose. Instead, she opened it and moved two bottles near the back, which resulted in a secret passage openi
ng up at the edge of the walls near the window, almost out of sight even if it weren’t completely hidden.
“I want this house,” I said, having always been fascinated by places with secret entrances. Blame it on Duck Tales.
“Already spoken for,” Chris said with a grin. “And we’ve marked our territory on half the secret passages. I didn’t know about this one, though.”
“Because I’m not an idiot,” Hekate said as she led the way. “Taking you here would’ve been too dangerous. But now we don’t really have a choice.”
Moving along the corridor, shadows seemed to move along with us, as if of their own accord. Spiders appeared in the corners, scurrying along before vanishing, and at one point we passed a mirror that didn’t show our reflections at all, but images of what I suppose our souls were like. Mine, to my relief was gleaming a rosy gold, with only small spots of gray around the edges. Those could be polished away, I figured, with some help from my team.
After continuing past several of these corridors, we reached a room that was exactly what I’d imagined a witch’s room would look like. Well, maybe not real witches, but fairy tale versions. I’m talking skulls, caldrons, all that bullshit you know the ‘real witches’ don’t actually touch. In a world where fairy tales are real, though, the idea of real witches gets a bit muddy.
“It’s in here?” I asked, glancing around and hoping to be the first to spot it.
“I wish,” she said. “What we will find here is a locator spell, but even for that we’ll need something belonging to the Golden Goose.”
“Like a feather?” a witch asked with a heavy New Orleans accent. She stepped out from the far corner, where a shorter secret entrance emerged. This witch was short, with dark skin that was even darker in most places because of tattoos in the shapes of birds. Her purple robes were pulled around her tight, showing off cleavage that didn’t quite fit on such a petite frame. “It was stolen, unfortunately.”
“Toewi, Queen of Crows, what’re you doing here?” Mirna asked, hands up, ready to cast a spell. Now I understood the tattoos, though wasn’t familiar with the tale of any queen of crows.
“Same as you,” Toewi said, “I’d thought at first. Then I noticed your company, and figured hiding out, making an escape… wasn’t enough. Whatever this is,” she indicated us, making a circle with her finger in the air, “I want in.”
