Of Potions and Portents

by Nyx Halliwell

  He taps the edge of the papers. “She said this is theirs.”

  I stare at the name of the client who ordered the analyses, then glance to where Dara is smiling up at Tristan. “This says the client was Dara.”

  Dad nods. “Autumn says she paid for it as a gift for Annie.”

  For each chart analysis, the date, time, and birthplace of the person are listed. “But this states Annie was born in Raven Falls. Dara told me yesterday she was from Minnesota.”

  Storm looks over my shoulder at the birthdate listed for Annie. “That’s Dara’s. Valentine’s Day. We were in school together, and I remember she always brought cupcakes decorated with candy hearts on top. She said she was destined to be loved by everybody because she was a Valentine’s baby.”

  I glance across to where she stands with Tristan. It looks like he’s trying to wrap things up. As he starts for the shop, she puts her hand on his arm to stop him.

  “Dara got pregnant at sixteen and dropped out,” Storm continues. “After her mom died, she got her GED and raised Aaron alone.”

  I don’t remember any of this, but then, I was a year older and dealing with my own social outcast situation in high school. “What about his father?”

  “I never heard anything about him.”

  “She doesn’t have any other family here, right?”

  “None that I know of. I don’t think her dad was ever in the picture.”

  “This wasn’t a gift for Annie.” I feel like crumpling the papers in my hand. “Dara was the one in love with Jace and wanted to see if they were compatible. She gave Autumn her informaton, not Annie’s.”

  The pieces of the puzzle are falling into place. Storm doesn’t understand what’s going on, but Dad nods. I’m on the right track. Now that Jace is out of the picture, looks like Tristan is her next conquest.

  “Annie took things into her own hands, assuming Jace was having an affair with Shoshana after Dara lied to her about it,” I continue, thinking out loud. “In reality, he might’ve been having one with Dara, who was trying to cover it up. Either way, when Annie’s efforts to save her marriage started working, Dara got upset, believing she and Jace were soulmates.”

  Dad’s dark eyes are sad. “You think Dara killed them?”

  “Wait,” Storm says, obviously confused, “are you saying what I think you are? But if Dara was, why would she kill him? And how would she murder both, at the same time, without leaving any clues?”

  “If she summoned a demon, she may have gotten in over her head. Maybe she didn’t intend for Jace to die—or jealousy drove her to kill him as well, I don’t know—but I need to find out.”

  “How?” Storm and Dad ask in unison.

  Doubtful Dara will admit to raising a demon. “It takes specific tools and spells to raise a demon for your own purposes. I need to get into her house and see if I can find any of them.”

  “Breaking and entering?” Storm looks excited. “I’m in.”

  This is one of the reasons we’re friends.

  Dad tries not to smile at her enthusiasm. “I’ll keep Dara busy. You two go.”

  This may be one of the reasons I love him.

  “Before we do anything extreme, I’m going to ask her about the birthdates. I want to see what she says when I call her out on it.”

  I’m walking off the pergola to head to the poet garden when the ground begins to shake. It’s just a small tremble at first, then it grows.

  Hoax loses his grip on the porch railing, screeching as his skinny bird legs fly up in the air and he falls over. Godfrey scatters. Aaron stands straight up, opens his mouth and screams at the top of his lungs.

  Storm cries out behind me. Dara tumbles into Tristan, his arms instinctively stopping her fall as he whips his head around to look for me.

  My heart leaps into my throat. The ground shakes so hard, it knocks me off my feet. My hands hit hard as I fall. The papers are crushed into the grass.

  From the north, heading fast along the path from the woods to the shop, past my gardens, the greenhouse, and our cabins, a jagged rip in the earth splits it in two.

  Earthquake.

  16

  The crack heads straight for me.

  Tristan sends Dara running to the porch for Aaron. Hale leaps off and heads for Storm. I try to gain my feet, but a heavy weight presses me down. I hear Tristan call my name and look up to find him scrambling to get to me even as the divide grows wider. He loses his balance, climbs to his feet, ends up on his knees again. I swear, it's as if he’s being blocked.

  I hear screaming, Hoax cursing, and the horrible sound of the earth tearing itself apart as the fissure works its way to me. It breaks off into branches, cutting me off from everyone.

  The one before me becomes a deep valley that grows too wide, too fast for Tristan to jump.

  The section I’m on shrinks and I’m unable to go anywhere because of the invisible anchor on me. I can’t lift my hands to use my magick, can’t do anything but watch as the crack spreads closer to them.

  To my horror, the rippling, nearly invisible demon I met in the woods the previous day claws its way up in front of my face.

  As one of its hands touches mine, I feel it latch onto my magick. The same icy hot sensation floods my body and the demon becomes slightly more corporeal, the large, tilted eyes locking with mine, the rubber band lips moving as though it could speak.

  Its talon claw grips my wrist as it pulls itself onto my small island of earth, the other gripping me around the neck.

  I’m held immobile as the demon drains me. I feel as if I grow smaller, nearly fading. I’m aware of my sisters running out to the porch, their telepathic, as well as verbal cries of dismay in my head as they flood down the steps and try to get to me.

  The chasms running between us keep them stuck and helpless, many yards away. They’re also separated from Tristan and I feel all of their energies pouring toward me, mental encouragement filling my mind as their anger and fear swamps my body. I hear their spells yelled across the expanse, but even those seem useless.

  Winter’s invisibility will not help her bridge the torn earth or stop the demon from killing me. Neither will her mediumship. She tries to make me disappear, but it doesn’t work, something about the demon’s hold preventing the spell from reaching me.

  Autumn reaches for her astral projection, and she tries to send herself—ghost-like—across the broken land to my side, but the demon repels her, and I sense her astral spirit being tossed back to the physical one.

  Summer’s gift is that of fireballs which she can send at anyone or anything. She attacks the monster, firing one after another, and this at least garners its attention.

  A slick tongue licks its lips and the head turns to glance over its shoulder at my sisters but the fireballs themselves do little more than fizzle every time they strike the rippling skin.

  “Your ssissterss are powerful,” it hisses. It looks back at me, and although the lips don’t move in accordance with the words, I hear them anyway. “You are the weak link and yet may be the mosst powerful of them all. The Masster will be happy. He should have never sent my ssisster to get you, worthless little demon that ssshe is. Only driven by desire. So eassily distracted by you and your unquenchable needs.”

  The demon’s tongue snakes out, the size and circumference of a small snake, and seems to sniff my face as I realize the Master is our imprisoned demon. I recoil, but go nowhere with the vise around my neck. The tongue glides along my chin, touches my nose, hovers over my lips.

  I open my mouth to scream, but force myself not to, fearing the tongue might actually invade it. There is all kinds of shouting, and I feel my father’s energy joining the others. I sense him trying to needle into the demon’s aura, find a weak spot he can attack.

  It laughs as if being tickled. “It will be ssssimple to take each of you out, one by one.”

  A new type of fear penetrates my system. It’s not just after me, it wants my sisters too. The Master, as it calls
the thing in the earth, came after my mother, now it’s after me—the weak link? It won’t stop there. It plans to destroy all of us.

  I feel my sisters band together, hearing my mental scream at the idea of the Master getting a hold of us. More of Summer’s fireballs strike and nearly knock it over this time, the combined magicks of Winter, Autumn, and Dad helping increase her own.

  It turns, the band around my throat loosening ever so slightly with the distraction. The idea of this thing hunting us fires something deep inside me. A spark of my magick flares to life.

  I reach for it, diving deep into my soul, coddling and feeding it tinder as I imagine breaking the monster’s hold.

  The spark is so small, I can’t seem to keep it from struggling and almost flickering out. It falters and I dive deep again, searching for anything to nourish it. The air around me picks up, swirling and blowing my hair straight back.

  That’s it! Nature.

  The demon turns to me, staggers slightly from the combined force of the fireballs and the wind that has come to my aid. My little spark grows and expands.

  I call more nature energy to me, as much as I can, and, for the moment, the wind rushes across my forehead. I hear my mother’s voice in my ear. “That’s it Spring, whatever you do, you can’t let it take you to the Master. You can’t leave your sisters. Without you, they will topple like dominoes and the Master will devour everything.”

  There’s a weird tugging sensation around my breastbone, and I leave my body, floating above everyone and looking down. I see Tristan pull out his gun and point it at the demon, but frustration and anger slide over his face. If he shoots at this angle, the bullet might pass right through the demon and into me.

  He shouts my name again, searching in vain to find something to help him bridge the gap between us.

  My sisters are in a similar state, leaving the porch and trying everything they can to disable this monster and knock it back into the pit it came from.

  Hale is protecting Storm, having pulled her behind the pergola. He holds her against him on the ground.

  Dara and Aaron have disappeared inside the shop, only my father standing on the porch with his hands raised and eyes closed. The walking stick once more lies across his open palms, glowing and vibrating.

  I look around in my spirit state. “Mom?”

  She appears, a ghostly spectral, floating off the ground like I am, high above everyone else. Her hand reaches out to brush a strand of hair from my face. “My precious girl. It’s not your time to leave yet. Your sisters need you. I need you. You must go back.”

  “Am I dead?”

  Her fingers pass across my cheek, a feathery touch. “It’s your choice whether to stay or return to your body, but you must go back, Spring. If the Master gets you too, there will be no stopping him.

  “Why does he want me?”

  “He wants all of us. My ancestors bound him to the land, weaving their magicks into the ley lines. Others have done the same. It wasn’t time yet, but I should have taught you all how to do it myself. Too late, too late…” She shakes her head. “I made an error and it could cost us everything. But you four can save magick, keep the ley lines intact. Your energy is what he needs to keep cracking open his prison and escaping. He needs Summer’s ability to attract humans so he can enslave them. He wants Autumn’s to astral project to other worlds, dimensions, so he can enslave them as well.”

  “And Winter?” I ask, sure I don’t want to know the answer.

  “She can raise the dead as an army to fight for him if he needs it. But her biggest skill, the reason he needs her the most, is because she has the connection directly to Source, God, whatever people choose to call it. The Energy that created all of us. If the Master can claim her soul, he can drain the Source of life in this universe. It’s what he does. He goes from universe to universe sucking out its power and destroying it to keep himself alive.”

  I don’t understand all of this. Don’t understand what’s too late, but the thoughts flow through my brain like strands of fog. Nothing sticks. Even in spectral form, I shudder, barely able to speak. “And you, Momma? Does he have your soul?”

  Below us, the demon has grabbed my hair and spun me around, pulling my physical body toward the pit it crawled out from.

  “You must go back now,” she insists. “We’re out of time. Unleash your power Spring, embrace it. Stop worrying about what other people will think when they know how powerful you are. Stop playing small around your sisters. If you want to unleash a hurricane to prove your abilities, then do it. You must fully embrace who you are if we’re going to stop this Master.”

  Was mom in the woods with Tristan and I? Is she still telepathically linked to us?

  There's no time to worry about that right now. I see the staff in my father’s hands rise into the air and propel itself like a projectile toward the demon. At the same time, my sisters hurl one giant fireball.

  The combined power knocks the thing off balance. It turns and glares at them, evil emanating from every pore.

  The walking stick hits near the demon’s neck, then bounces off and lands on me. The giant fireball does little to hurt it, but the sparks fall on me as well. They don’t burn.

  Magick.

  I feel it coming from the stick and every little spark that touches my skin. I am suddenly snapped into my physical body, the flame inside my soul flaring bright and strong.

  Following my mother’s instructions, I unleash every bit of my power. I call upon the earth supporting my body, and my hands grow talons, the nails sinking into the soil anchoring me from getting any closer to the deep valley the demon left.

  My hair becomes Medusa’s, a nest of vipers hissing and sinking their teeth into the hand holding it. A high pitch shriek comes from it and I feel a wave of gratitude when it releases me.

  I thread my energy out to meet my sisters’, drawing on that well of power to assist me. Their magicks snap into line, creating a battery charger.

  “I call on the animals of the forest, fairy folk, messenger birds,” I declare at the top of my lungs. “I call on every tree, flower, the wind, the hot springs that run under our land. Help me!”

  All of it responds, a great surge of power flooding my system.

  Using the staff to brace me, I stand and call on every molecule, every strand of DNA, pulling it toward me to aid my quest. Birds trill, wolves howl, bear and moose thunder in the woods, answering my plea.

  Reaching into my heart, I seek one more thing—Tristan’s inner wolf. “Aid me, Grayson. Come to my call. I command—” I stop myself. I can only ask for his assistance. I meet his desperate gaze across the torn land. “If you have any feelings for me, now is the time to show it.”

  I am so tuned into him, it’s as if I feel the bones in his body begin shifting, his chest expanding, his nose and mouth growing. His energy bursts out, shocking him, and yet feeling as natural as his human form ever has. A lightning bolt of that energy hits my diaphragm, merging with my own power.

  I send healing into the ground between us, imagining the two jagged edges mending together. Success. The earth moves. Just a few inches—a counterforce, much like the one that held me down earlier, resists.

  A tug of war.

  But they still move closer. I continue willing the breaks to heal, the giant tear to grow smaller.

  With my earth magick, I can reverse the quake.

  Before I fully mend the valley between us, Tristan lunges across the divide in wolf form. He comes to stand at my side, eyes fired up and his lips snarling at the demon.

  I take a deep breath, pushing the last of the evil energy out of my body and filling my lungs, my blood, my very bones with the power of the earth. The cracks and gullies all around finish repairing themselves, the grass grows higher, flowers burst into bloom.

  The demon struggles to maintain form.

  No longer attached to my magick, it teeters toward the last remaining crack. Shrieking, it makes one last, desperate attempt, and l
unges for me.

  I raise my empty hand to freeze it, but Grayson attacks in all his beautiful, wolf-y glory.

  He springs, intending to take the thing back to its master.

  The portent. I’m suddenly back in the shop, seeing the bottom of his cup. The Grim.

  He’s going to die, sacrificing himself to save me.

  The demon reaches out to grab him by the throat—I see it all in slow motion. I know in the next second, demon and wolf will plunge into the abyss below.

  What have I done, calling the wolf to my aid?

  “No,” I scream, and freeze them just as the demon’s hand locks on Grayson’s neck.

  They shake, my magick straining to hold them against their wills, to keep them from going over the edge. I bite my lip, fighting to draw Grayson to me.

  He seems to float for a second, inertia and evil pulling him one way, my magick yanking him the other. I want to save him and send the demon back to its master. Separating the two is trickier than I imagined.

  As I hold onto Grayson, I lift the walking stick and point it at the monster. “You don’t belong here and are not welcome. Your sister either. Return to where you came from and take a message to your master.”

  The earth begins to quake, but it’s under my command now. Carefully, I slip a knife of magick in between the wolf and demon, severing the thing’s hold. It unfreezes, its too-long arms flailing as it tries to find stability.

  Having pulled Grayson to me, I unfreeze him as well. The wolf glances at me for a second, then stalks toward the demon.

  I walk beside him, jabbing the demon with the stick. “Tell your master hunting season is over.” It hisses and shrieks, the ground under its feet beginning to crumble.

  Grayson and I take another step. “And one more thing,” I say. Closing in, I put my face close to the demon’s, now beginning to ripple into invisibility. From all around me animals have emerged, I hear the chatter of fairies, I feel the wind in my hair.

  “Tell him I’m coming for him.”

  The demon has no more ground to support it. My sisters and father are across the thin divide still, but I feel their magicks supporting me. Hoax runs up to the edge, squawking and cursing. “May the Lamb of God stir his hoof through the roof of Heaven and kick you in the arse down to Hades!”