by K. C. RILEY
“What did Meghan say?” Cassie’s hand sat locked on the page she had been reading.
Whatever it was, it looked like it was important and only made me curious.
“The same thing she always says these days. The one is the many and the many is the one. I tried a spell on her but it backfired, knocking me to the ground. I think there’s some kind of protection spell around her.”
“Yeah, well, we’ve got bigger problems,” Josie said.
“What’s wrong?”
“You know how we said we thought the elements and magic we were channeling were coming from you?” Cassie asked.
“Yeah. It is.” They looked at me surprised. “But, I have no idea how.”
“Well, we think we do,” Cassie said with both her hands pasted on the pages in front of her.
“Where’d you get that book? It looks old.”
“Alexandria,” Cassie replied.
“I thought we couldn’t take books from the library, that they were spellbound.” And what was I saying? Mrs. Ellington had done that very thing.
“They are and technically we can’t. I hacked it. So you can’t say anything.”
“I won’t. I swear.”
“There’s something bigger going on with your magic.” Cassie lifted the heavy book from her lap and onto the floor. “This is an old myth about the four elements.”
The pages were filled with symbols and glyphs I didn’t understand. “What language is this?”
“The language of nature and the elements. Druid,” Cassie replied. She flipped back a page. “It all starts here with the woman bathed in white light. They called her The Woman in White, the first witch, Eve.”
She then flipped forward to a page where four women each held an element in the palms of their hands. One for earth, one for air, one for fire, and one for water. The symbols also appeared at the center of their hearts. And all four women stood around one woman at the center of it all.
“Eve was one with nature. It was through the power of the Great Mother, the Divine Feminine, that she called forth the four elements into human form. Containers. Vessels. The four maidens. They were the handmaids of Eve and served her in Eden.”
“It was all about a balance of power,” Josie said.
“Wait, you read druid too?”
“Of course not. But isn’t obvious?”
“She’s right,” Cassie added. “According to the story, Eve understood the danger of holding all of the elements inside of her. It was too much power for one person. Instead, the elements stood in balance around her, available for when she needed them.
“Kind of like last night,” I said.
“Yeah. But it gets complicated.” Cassie turned to the next page.
The woman at the center, Eve, had kissed each maiden. Cassie turned the page again and I gasped. All four maidens laid dead at Eve’s feet. And Eve was no longer bathed in white light. Cassie turned the page one more time.
Eve had been transformed into the darkest aspect of herself. Her eyes were black and her body was bathed in a black mist.
“The Queen of Hell and Shadows,” Cassie muttered.
“Lilith,” I whispered. All four women and their elements had been devoured by her. She sat on a throne made from the shriveled skin and bones of their bodies.
“Yep. And that’s what we’re afraid of,” Josie added.
“Guys, you don’t think I would ever—”
“No, of course not,” Cassie said.
“Well, not you, per se.” Josie’s green eyes widened with angst. “It’s Lilith we’re concerned about. Did you feel anything, sense anything other than yourself last night when you cast that spell?”
You mean the one that saved your boyfriend? I came close to saying. Sister Clara’s voice rang through my ears. That book is pure chaos. And in the wrong hands, utter destruction.
“No,” I quickly lied. There was nothing to worry about. There was only me and I was fine. The same. Aside from the hair, there was nothing different.
“You just seemed a bit spicy today,” Josie tacked on.
“Wow, and what am I usually? Bland? I mean was that a compliment or an insult? Maybe you would prefer me to stay weak, timid, and in the background, constantly afraid of my own shadow.”
“That’s not what she meant,” Cassie said.
Too late. By then I was already heated. “You know, the next time your boyfriend needs to be saved from the brink of death, leave me out of it.” Unbelievable. I shook my head and got the hell up out of there.
“Liz, wait. That’s not what she meant. We’re just concerned.”
I was already out the door and inside my own room. What happened to we’ve got your back, Liz? How could they ever think I would do something like that to them? That’s not who I was.
I went and stood in front of the full-length mirror hanging on the back of my closet door. My reflection devilishly smiled. The problem, however, was that I hadn’t been smiling at all. It was…Lilith.
“I’m not afraid of you,” I said.
“You should be,” she replied.
The dark image quickly shifted back to me, the real me.
I held myself tight.
20
I woke up the next day, 3:38 p.m., surrounded by shopping bags full of clothes. One, I had missed an entire day of class. Two, who sleeps for thirteen hours? And three, wtf?
I rustled inside the bag and pulled out a brand new pair of jeans. The price tag? Two hundred dollars. I dug into another bag and pulled out a brand new black knit top. In the other bag were new shoes and a brand new jean jacket. The entire cost was almost seven hundred dollars for one outfit. Maybe I was dreaming. But I wasn’t. What the hell was happening? A joke? A prank?
My phone buzzed. There were a bunch of texts from Cassie and Josie wondering why I wasn’t in class.
I tapped on an incoming message from Kai asking me what time I wanted him to pick me up.
Pick me up? For what?
Out of my head, I quickly backtracked through the messages and realized I had texted him earlier in the morning to invite him to Christopher’s party. I never gave Christopher’s party a second thought. There was just too much to do.
Missing class. The new clothes. Kai picking me up for a party? Panic trembled through my fingers as I checked the navigation in my phone. It just wasn’t possible. And, yet, it was. There were directions to stores in Shadowick I had never even heard of, let alone been to, including a spa and a nail salon. My nails. They were completely redone and polished in a different shade of blue for each finger. This wasn’t a dream. It was a living nightmare.
How do you forget spending an entire day of shopping and getting your nails done?
Maybe I did belong in Crown Hill. I was about to lose it when the anxiety was soon replaced by a heat that unfurled through my body, one that calmed and soothed both my senses and my mind. I had never felt anything like it, a magic that was like drinking a hot cup of cocoa on the coldest winter day, or maybe a cup of hot chicken noodle soup.
I was overreacting. There was absolutely nothing to worry about. Besides, the clothes and nails were…fabulous. Why wouldn’t I spend a thousand dollars on myself? Or more?
Calmed and slightly buzzed, I admired the different shades of blue at my fingertips. The color on my index finger was more of an indigo. My thumb and pinky a light grayish-blue. My middle finger was a true blue and my ring finger a beautiful, sexy silver gray. It was the same for both hands. I got up and tried on the stonewashed blue-jean jacket to see how it would look with my nails. Pure genius. I couldn’t wait for Kai to see it.
Someone knocked at the door and I answered it.
“Hey,” Cassie said. “Are you okay?”
“We missed you in class today.” Josie ran a strand of her platinum-dyed hair behind her ear.
“Sure. I’m fine. What’s up?”
“Well.” Josie’s voice changed from cautious to well, Josie. “There’s a party tonight.”
“Christopher?” I asked.
“Yeah.” Josie looked surprised. As though I would be the last person anyone would invite to a party.
“He invited me yesterday. I’ve got plans to go with Kai. But thanks,” I said bluntly.
“Oh,” Cassie said. “Kai, huh?”
“Yeah.” An awkward silence filled the doorway. Cassie was about to say something but I cut her off. “Anyway, I’ve got so much to do. I’ll see you guys there.”
“Sure,” Cassie said. There was more she wanted to say. It was all over her face.
“Right,” Josie added.
“Great,” I said closing the door.
If that was their attempt at an apology, it was utterly lame. Anyway, it was back to me and my nails.
Kai pulled up right on time and I smiled. My jeans were snug and a gentle breeze tickled the bare skin at my stomach. The knit top was scandalous, at least for me, and stopped a couple of inches above my navel. Everything was perfect. Why on earth would I ever hide myself in a big ole stuffy hoody or sweatshirt? No more.
I hopped into Kai’s car and his eyes said all the right things.
“You look amazing.”
I smiled. “So do you.”
Hints of his aftershave wafted through the air stirring the energy that tingled up my back. Kai was gorgeous. I had been dying to say so for so long. And why hadn’t I? It was the truth.
He plugged in the directions to the party and we were off.
“So, how have you been?” he asked once we were on the main road. “I mean since the other night.”
It was a warm and comfortable evening. I rolled my window down a few inches to let my hair blow in the wind. The air was electric. I closed my eyes as it encircled me, awakening every nerve in my body. Just like magic.
“Good. Amazing,” I said, smirking. “Alive.” I then rolled the window down, stuck my head out, and hollered my lungs out like Josie at a school game.
“What’s gotten into you?” Kai asked laughing.
“Everything. Life. Magic. Can’t you feel it?” I asked, sitting back in my seat.
“I can now.” Kai glanced over at me and smiled as though he could feel what I was feeling. He glanced at me again. And again.
He couldn’t keep his eyes off of me. And, well, I couldn’t keep my eyes off of him.
I admired the buttoned charcoal-gray shirt he was wearing, the way it clung to his chest and how the sleeves rolled up his arms. Our eyes caught for a second and we smiled.
“So, what’s it like being a wolf? Anubis?”
“I still haven’t gotten the Anubis part down. But I like it, the freedom to run as fast as I want in the woods. Nature. That’s what I did last night after everyone left. When I’m the wolf, all the noise turns off. The spirits. The ghosts. Everything. The only time I’ve ever felt anything like that was with you.”
For a second, I thought of Jake and how it was the same for me, the quiet in my head when I was with him. Jake. The name faded like a forgotten memory.
“Not to mention Alexei and the guys seem great.”
“They are,” I said, distracted by the outline and fullness of Kai’s lips.
“I’ve never been part of a pack before or a part of anything other than myself.”
I knew what that was like too. “I had to admit, I thought you joined because of me.”
“Who says that I didn’t?” Kai’s voice was edgy. Playful.
I liked this side of him.
We talked more about his new found freedom until the topic shifted to the Black Ball along with everything that had happened with Mason and Sheriff Johnson. He smiled with those insane dimples and all I wanted to do was grab him and eat him up. Literally. And, so it was official, I had turned into some kind of hormone monster. But who cared?
By the end of the night, Kai would be mine. Attacking him straight forward would never work. He was too much of a gentleman. I needed to seduce and lure. Take my time with him. And I knew exactly how.
Kai and I had arrived. We got out of the car as the music thumped from outside the house. Other people were staggering toward the porch and front door, which was still a good walk away.
“So how fast would you say your wolf is?” I asked.
“He’s pretty fast,” Kai replied confidently.
“Oh, yeah? The last person to the door has to bring breakfast to the other for a week.”
“You’re on,” he said.
I had already taken off.
“Hey, wait. No fair.” It didn’t take long for Kai to pass me. He was almost to the door.
A speed spell, I thought to The Book of the Unnamed.
“Turesh Batar,” I muttered under my breath. My legs picked up speed passing Kai by a second.
I was just about there when Kai grabbed me with a growl and we fell laughing to the ground.
“Hey, you cheated,” he said smiling and out of breath. The weight of his body pressed against mine.
I grinned and whispered. “You never said I couldn’t use magic.”
Kai’s gaze deepened. He wanted me as much as I wanted him. That was clear. I rolled out from underneath him, jumping to my feet, and offered him my hand. We had been practicing that routine all afternoon. He took it.
I interlaced my fingers into his and led him up to the porch.
“So, who won?”
“Me, naturally,” I said, turning the knob.
The house was in full swing. And Christopher wasted no time coming over.
Christopher had been to see Meghan and I still wasn’t exactly sure why. He had an angle, one I needed to figure out. And also one that would have to wait. I needed a break from everything. Just one night of unadulterated fun. And Kai was exactly what the doctor ordered.
“Hey, Liz. You made it,” Christopher said.
“Hey. I hope you don’t mind. I invited a friend.” I held my hand locked into Kai’s up into the air.
The excited look on Christopher’s face dimmed. The tone in his voice was restricted. “Oh. Sure. No problem.”
“Can you point us to the liquor?” Me. Drinking. And why not?
Kai leaned down and whispered in my ear. “Maybe we could just dance? I don’t really drink, it makes it harder to control the whole medium thing.”
“We both deserve a time out. After everything we’ve been through? Besides you’re a wolf now. You’ve got this.”
“The bar is through those doors,” Christopher said.
I led the way as every guy in the room checked me and my jeans out.
“You seem pretty popular,” Kai said.
There were a good number of seniors from school. The others I guessed were local and I didn’t recognize at all. I shrugged.
We both sat with shots from the bar in our hands. “Okay,” I said, over the music. “The game is called Categories. So I’ll call out a category, for example like cars, you’ll have to come up with something from that category and vice versa. We keep going until either one of us repeats a word already said or can’t think of anything else.”
Kai grinned. “All right. I’m in.”
“Good. People who have dated Taylor Swift.”
“What? What kind of category is that?”
One I had no answer to myself. “Come on. You’ve got five seconds.”
“That’s not fair,” Kai said. “I don’t know anything about Taylor Swift.”
“Three seconds, two, and one. Sorry. I win.”
Kai took the shot like a champ. “I didn’t know you were so tricksy.”
Me neither.
“All right, my turn,” he continued. “Breakfast cereals.”
“Lucky charms,” I quickly answered.
“Frosted Flakes,” he quickly said.
“Cap’n Crunch.”
We went on and on until a crowd formed around us. It only took seeing Cassie and Josie from the corner of my eye to trip me up.
“Uh…Um…”
“Times up,” Kai said.
The crowd egged me on. Drink. Drink. Drink. I chucked it back and slammed the empty shot glass on the table like a pro. Kai and I got two more drinks.
“Harry Potter spells,” I said. The room ohhhhhed.
“Accio,” Kai immediately said.
“Expecto Patronum,” I quickly replied.
“Lumos.”
“Wingardium Leviosa.”
We had probably gone through at least twenty spells. The room was dead silent as I grasped at straws to think of a spell he hadn’t already used.
“What’s that?” Kai asked.
The alcohol was already turning my brains to mush. Damn this body.
I tried to get the words out, but couldn’t.
“Damn it,” I said. “You win.”
Everyone roared. I was about to happily chug the next shot back when Kai placed his hand over it. “You don’t have to, you know. It’s just a game.”
“I’m fine.” I chugged it back and wiped my mouth. “One more round.”
“How about we just go dance instead?”
“Why? Are you scared I’ll win?” I leaned into Kai completely unaware of everyone around us. It was like they had all disappeared.
He leaned in closer to me until our foreheads touched. “I think you’re buzzed.
“Have I told you how beautiful you are? You have the most gorgeous lips.”
I pulled Kai in and kissed him.
“Hey,” he said, securing me off of him with his hands at both sides of my shoulders. “This is not you.”
The sting of rejection hit every nerve point in my body. I looked around at everyone staring.
“Fine. I’ll find someone else to kiss.”
Before I knew it, I was already up and leaving. I could hear Josie and Cassie talking to him.
“Just let her cool off,” Cassie said, talking as if she knew me.
All I knew was that I was starving. And it wasn’t for a burger.
A guy across the room was checking me out as I walked toward him. Christopher. Also known as Ken doll. He wasn’t Jake, and he wasn’t Kai, but he would do. Even if he was up to no good.
I parted through the group of girls idolizing him, grabbed his hand, and led him up the stairs.
