Mysterious Ways

by Christine Pope

  That wasn’t why I touched him, though.

  No, I let the prima energy flow through me and into him. His body jerked, but I wouldn’t allow him to pull away. I held on, showing him every crime he’d committed, every person he’d hurt, every piece of his soul he’d given up to summon his dark powers. And as he began to writhe and twist in my grasp, I showed him everything he could have had — love, and acceptance, and a peaceful heart…if only he’d been able to look past his hate.

  He let out a terrible cry, even as the ghostly tornado that had surrounded us melted away like morning mist under the sun’s heat. Hands clutched to his head, he sank to his knees in the gravel.

  In pain, in torment…but still alive.

  “Simon — ”

  He looked up at me, eyes blazing in fury. “You bitch!”

  And his hands lifted.

  I steeled myself for the attack — and startled when once again a shadow passed over the sun. Looking up, I saw great leathery wings beating against the air.

  Not Simon’s demons, though. The Lord of Chaos dove toward us in a terrible dark streak. One hand pushed outward, driving Simon a few steps backward, his balance lost. Free of his grasp, I stumbled and nearly fell to the ground, breath catching in my throat. The demon lord bent toward me and murmured, “Now, young witch.”

  I had this one moment. That was all the Lord of Chaos had given me. I had to hope it would be enough.

  Not out of revenge, but out of sorrow for what he should have been, and never would be.

  “Goodbye, Simon,” I murmured.

  I raised my hands, and the prima energy flared within me, combining with the gifts that had been there since I was born — even if I hadn’t known they existed until a short time ago. A flare of light, golden as sunrise, warm with life…but bearing death with it now.

  The surge of light hit Simon full in the chest. He gasped, eyes widening. For one terrible second, I saw that magical illumination flow through his body, overloading his every vein and muscle and cell. Then the light went dark — and he fell to the ground, limp, a trickle of black blood flowing from the corner of his mouth.

  Above me, the demon horde shrilled in terror. What they planned to do next, I had no idea, because the Lord of Chaos raised both his hands and extended them toward the sky. All at once, the demons who hovered there shivered away into puffs of dark smoke that were quickly carried away by the wind.

  What the — ?

  I stared at the demon lord as he approached me, then, to my surprise, bowed slightly. “You are uninjured?” he asked once he had straightened up.

  “I — ” This had all happened far too fast. Was Simon really dead?

  One glance seemed to confirm that he was. Surely if he had a single breath remaining, he would have tried to come after me, but he hadn’t moved for more than a minute. I was thankful that he’d fallen facing away from where I stood, though. As much as I hated what he’d done to me, to so many others, I wasn’t sure I was ready to see his dead eyes staring at me, accusing.

  The world seemed to spin around and around. I pulled in a breath and said, “I think I’m okay.”

  Oscar, Tony, Rafe, and Cat emerged from behind the Jeep. Both Tony and Oscar were staring at the Lord of Chaos as though they were caught in a nightmare from which they desperately wanted to awaken. Rafe came to me, took my hand.

  “You’re all right?”

  “I’m fine…I think.”

  He looked from me to the Lord of Chaos, who stood a few feet away, watching all of us. “How did you know to come?”

  The demon lord’s gaze moved to Cat, who suddenly seemed very interested in scrutinizing her chipped fingernail polish. “I came because I was asked,” he said.

  “‘Asked’?” I repeated. Then I realized why the Lord of Chaos had made Cat the object of his attention. “Cat, did you call him?”

  She hesitated for a second, then flashed us all a brilliant smile. “Well, you brought me along because you thought I could help with the demons. I tried to control them, or block them, but that didn’t work. So I thought of the one demon I had been able to talk to, and I asked him to come help. And thank you for that,” she added, looking directly at the demon lord.

  “It was nothing,” he said. “Or rather, it was an opportunity to get my revenge on the one who brought me here against my will. I could not raise my hand against him directly, but at least I could give some small assistance.”

  “And — and the other demons he summoned?” I glanced upward again. The sky was clear now, with only a few clouds floating serenely past. “You destroyed them. Why?”

  A negligent shrug of his massive shoulders. “They betrayed me by answering to a different master, so they deserved their fate. Besides,” the Lord of Chaos added, “you would not have much liked having those demons loose in your world, would you?”

  No, I most certainly would not. It still surprised me that the demon lord would strike out against his own kind like that, but I would be the first to admit that I didn’t know much about demons’ codes of conduct.

  “But with Simon dead, how will you get back to your world?” Cat asked. She sounded genuinely concerned. “Aren’t you stranded here now?”

  The Lord of Chaos gave another of those careless lifts of his shoulders. “Perhaps. Perhaps not. He cannot have been the only warlock in this world with the gift of summoning demons.” A pause, and then he went on, his tone quieter, “It is better for your prima not to have that death entirely on her conscience.”

  How he knew I was now the Castillos’ prima, I had no idea. Possibly his otherworldly nature could detect such things when ordinary mortals — or not-so-ordinary witches and warlocks — couldn’t. There were so many things I still didn’t know. I knew one thing, however.

  I couldn’t have defeated Simon if the Lord of Chaos hadn’t given me that little bit of an assist.

  “Thank you,” I said.

  A flash of those terrible fangs. Was that the demon equivalent of a smile? “You are most welcome. But now I must go.”

  His enormous wings flapped, stirring up dust and dead leaves. He hung in the air for a second, and then he was gone.

  We all looked at one another. I couldn’t help but glance over at Simon’s lifeless form. Someone would have to come out here and take care of him, I supposed. I could worry about that later, though. For the moment, I was only aware of a bone-deep weariness.

  My hand slid into Rafe’s. His fingers locked around mine, strong and warm.

  “Take me home,” I whispered.

  18

  Homecoming

  Rafe and Oscar and Tony managed to tip the Jeep over so it sat on all four wheels. The passenger side was horribly dented, but to all our surprise — Rafe’s included, I thought — the Wrangler started right up when he pushed the ignition button.

  “That’s my baby,” he said with an affectionate pat on the dashboard.

  Other than that, none of us seemed inclined to say much. I could tell that Tony and Oscar were still trying to wrap their heads around the notion of a demon lord loose in the world, and I couldn’t really blame them. Even though I’d known such beings truly did exist, since the McAllisters had had a run-in with them before I was even born, it was one thing to understand something on an intellectual level and quite another to be confronted with it in the flesh.

  But the Lord of Chaos had given me the opening I’d needed, and in doing so had possibly been just as responsible for saving us as I was. I’d wounded Simon when I’d shown him the truth of his existence, but it hadn’t been enough. Somehow I’d known all along that it would have to be my hand which brought him down, even if I hadn’t wanted to admit it to myself. Despite my seeming lack of magical powers growing up, I’d been wanted and loved and accepted by my family, while Simon had only been an outcast. Yes, he had done terrible things, had killed and lied and used magic that had been forbidden for centuries…but he was also someone I’d laughed with, had shared meals with. Simon had given me m
y magic. True, he’d only done so because he wanted to use me just as he used everyone else he encountered, and yet….

  I didn’t want to feel guilty. No one in the world could blame me for taking Simon’s life, not when he’d presented such an obvious danger to the Castillo clan, and very likely all the other witch clans as well.

  A witch wasn’t supposed to use her powers to harm another, but what if by harming that one person, she could save so many more?

  I pulled in a breath, watched the golden landscape pass by outside the car window, and told myself it would be all right.

  It had to be.

  Just as we were pulling onto the 599, Cat got a text. She dug her phone out of her purse, looked down at the screen, and let out a happy little sigh. “Dad just texted me,” she said. “Malena woke up about ten minutes ago. She can’t remember much of what happened to her, but she seems to be fine.”

  “Just like Louisa,” I commented. “Do you think she came out of it because Simon — ” I stopped there, letting the words hang on the air. It had probably been exactly ten minutes earlier when the Lord of Chaos pushed Simon away from me and I had sent the prima power into him, ending his life.

  “Maybe,” Cat said. “Although that doesn’t explain why Louisa woke up so much earlier.”

  No, it didn’t. Then again, magic wasn’t an exact science. Whatever dark spell had sent the two sisters into their comas, it didn’t necessarily have to have worked on them both in exactly the same way. Louisa was the stronger witch all on her own, and when she’d fallen into the coma, she’d still possessed her prima powers. For all I knew, that was why the spell hadn’t weighed on her as heavily.

  I said as much, then paused as a thought suddenly came to me. “What if — what if I can give Louisa her powers back, now that Simon isn’t a threat any longer?”

  Because I knew I really, really didn’t want to be the Castillo prima if I didn’t have to be.

  Oscar replied almost at once, “I don’t think that’s how it works, Miranda.” His tone was gentle, as though he knew he was giving me unwelcome news. “Even if it was physically possible, I doubt Louisa would agree to something like that. She gave you her powers because she knew you were stronger, were the one best suited to lead our clan. What if she took her powers back, and then a threat just as bad as Simon Escobar — or worse — appeared? The prima talent isn’t something that should be passed back and forth like a football.”

  No, I supposed it wasn’t. Rafe glanced over at me, although briefly because he needed to keep his eyes on the road. “It’s going to be okay,” he said quietly. “I’m here for you. We’ll deal with this whole prima thing together.”

  I shot him a grateful smile. Really, this couldn’t be all that easy for Rafe, either. He’d spent most of his life struggling against the future fate had planned for him, and now he was going to have to be the consort of the prima. Our lives would never be completely our own again after this, but he looked singularly untroubled at the moment.

  Maybe he was just relieved that he would never have to worry about Simon Escobar again.

  We pulled down the long driveway at Oscar’s house. Louisa must have heard the tires on the gravel, because she came running out the front door, her long black hair — loose for once — blowing in the brisk breeze. Rafe had barely stopped before Oscar was out of the Jeep and going to her, taking her in his arms. She held on to him for a long moment, then looked over at Rafe, who rolled down the window.

  “It worked, didn’t it?” she asked.

  “Yes,” he replied. “Although we had a little unexpected help.”

  “‘Help’?” Louisa repeated, a puzzled frown pulling at her brows. “From whom? Did the Montoyas come through for us after all?”

  “No, no one like that,” he said. “Oscar can tell you all about it.”

  She still looked confused, but she didn’t seem inclined to ask any more questions. Tony opened the door on his side of the Jeep and got out, saying, “Well, it’s been real, but I think next time I’m going to sit out saving the world. That thing is going to give me nightmares for weeks.”

  “He’s not a thing,” Cat protested. “He’s the Lord of Chaos — and he helped to save all our butts. Show a little respect.”

  “Okay, I’ll show some respect…from a safe distance.”

  Cat shook her head at Tony, and he grinned before he closed the door behind him. He went over to say something to Louisa, but I couldn’t hear what it was.

  “Well, let’s get back home,” Rafe said. He raised a hand and waved toward Oscar and Louisa, then again to Tony, before he turned the Jeep around and headed up the driveway.

  “Which home?” Cat asked. Her tone wasn’t exactly plaintive, but when I glanced in the rearview mirror, I could tell that her expression was troubled. “You’re the prima now, Miranda — you’ll have to come live in the big house.”

  Oh, hell. I’d forgotten all about that. Just the very thought of having to live in that elegant mausoleum made me shudder slightly. “Do I have to? I mean, we’re kind of breaking tradition just to have me as your prima. Can’t we break it just a little more?”

  To my surprise, Rafe shook his head. “That’s exactly why we should follow this particular tradition. It’s going to be difficult enough for everyone to accept what we’ve done. But at least if they see you living in the prima’s house, they’ll begin to think of you as their clan leader. It will feel like more of a natural transition to them.”

  I supposed his logic made sense, even though I really didn’t want to acknowledge it to myself. “We don’t have to move in right away, though, do we?”

  He chuckled. “No, of course not. My dad will need someplace to go, although the logical thing to do would be to have him move into my place. That way, he’ll still be close by everything he knows, and the transition won’t be as difficult.”

  “And then there’s me,” Cat said. “I suppose I could go with Dad, but I’d rather have something of my own.”

  “We’re not kicking you out,” I protested. “You can stay as long as you want. That house is so big, it’s not as though we’d be tripping over each other.”

  But she only shook her head. “No, I was only staying there because my mother wouldn’t hear of me moving out on my own when I wasn’t married. Now….” She hesitated for a moment, her big dark eyes sad. “Now I don’t have to worry about that. I can get an apartment or rent a little house or something until I figure out what I really want.”

  “Your green place?” Rafe asked. Something about the way he phrased the question made me think he was referring to a conversation he and Cat had had previously, one I hadn’t been privy to.

  “Yes,” she said. “It might take me a while to find it, but I know it’s out there, waiting for me.” She shifted, her eyes meeting mine in the rearview mirror. “I told Rafe a while back that what I really wanted was a place of my own someplace green, someplace out in the country. Now I guess I can go look for it, since I don’t have my mother telling me what to do.” A pause, and then she shook her head. “That sounded terrible, didn’t it? Like I was glad my mother was gone.”

  “No,” I replied at once. “I don’t think so. I understand.”

  My response elicited a relieved smile. “Thanks, Miranda. I think I’m going to like having you as my prima — and my sister-in-law.”

  Her words warmed me. Of course I had a sister of my own already, but Emily and I had never been super-close, partly because she’d always been very conscious of her role as prima-in-waiting and the future leader of the McAllister clan. How she’d react to finding out that I was now the prima of the Castillos, I had no idea. First, though, I’d need to call my parents, let them know I was all right, that all of us were all right. I could only imagine how frantic they must have been, not knowing what was happening behind the barrier spell Simon had cast.

  Smiling at Cat, I said, “I think I might be able to live through this whole prima thing with you and Rafe to help me out.”
>
  “You won’t just live through it,” Rafe said, his voice ringing with confidence. “You’ll make it a roaring success. I have faith in you.”

  He lifted one hand from the steering wheel and reached over to wrap my fingers in his. His touch, the warmth of his skin, gave me so much reassurance, so much confidence that this was all going to be okay. After all, we’d just faced down one of the darkest warlocks the world had ever produced. Everything else would feel like a piece of cake after that.

  We dropped Cat off at the house, promising her we’d return for a sit-down with her and Eduardo once we went home and got cleaned up and took a little time to let everything sink in. She waved goodbye before turning to let herself in through the garden gate. I shifted toward Rafe.

  “Is she going to be okay?” I asked. “The last thing I want to do is kick her out of her own house.”

  “She’s going to be fine,” Rafe replied. “If it weren’t for our mother, she would have been out of there a couple of years ago. Her plan sounds like a good one to me — she’ll find a place here in town to be on her own for a while until she can get herself her little country retreat.”

  “Doesn’t she ever want to get married?” Because of course, now that I was married to Rafe, I felt as though everyone should be able to experience something so wonderful.

  “Eventually,” he said. “When the right person comes along. He just hasn’t crossed her path yet.”

  I supposed I had to be satisfied with that. Right then, I resolved to be nothing like Genoveva Castillo. I wouldn’t tell people what to do, or try to make them get married to someone just because it was a match that would be good for the clan. Cat was only twenty-four; she had all the time in the world. And after spending her whole life under her mother’s thumb, it was probably a good thing for her to have some time on her own before she even thought about settling down.

  We pulled into the garage, and Rafe turned off the Jeep. For a second, we both just sat there, neither one of us wanting to move. It was as if we both knew that once we got out of the car, we’d be taking the next step toward our future. At last, though, he put his hand on the door handle and let himself out, and I reluctantly followed suit.