Dark Traveler

by Catie Rhodes

  The contrast between this gentle man and the fierce warrior who’d beaten my useless ex-husband fascinated me. I sat down across from him, stuffing down all the questions that came to mind. I had a feeling I’d gather more if I let him take the lead.

  “This is it,” he muttered.

  “What is it?” The wheel had saved my life but at great personal cost. After seeing Tanner’s cornucopia and ankh, I didn’t see why he’d be so impressed. It was the same sort of magic.

  “My ability is not just finding items of power,” Tanner said, gaze still fixed on the disk. “I can tell what an item will do if I get close enough to it. Do you know what it does? What it is?”

  I was absolutely not going to admit how little I knew about the disk. “I’ve seen this disk used once.” In a vision, but it still counted. “And I’ve used it once myself. It helped me kill a bunch of people.”

  Tanner frowned. But then he started to nod. “That makes sense in its way.” He raised his head and met my gaze.

  My body tightened. “Why don’t you tell me what you know about the disk?” We weren’t getting anywhere bandying about, and Tanner might give me a hint for how it could be used to discover where Oscar hid his soul. Given recent events, I needed to immobilize Oscar more than ever.

  “For starters, I wouldn’t call it a disk. It’s a wheel. More specifically, it’s the wheel of life.”

  I thought about that. Samantha had called it a wheel. But Tanner’s calling it a wheel of life gave me an immediate reference.

  Mysti had an expensively framed poster on her wall with the words “wheel of life” printed on it. The poster listed the eight seasonal festivals and had stylized graphics for each one. My favorite, Beltane, showed a group of figures dancing around a maypole. Mysti said the wheel and its symbols represented the constant movement and cyclical changes of the year. She also said it represented our journey through life. Imbolc was the beginning, Samhain, the end. Tanner watched me, those amazing eyes probing into me.

  When he spoke, his voice was soft, reflective. “No matter what else happens in Texas, seeing the wheel of life makes the trip worth it.”

  I tilted my head. Wasn’t it just another arcane object?

  Tanner shook his head as though I’d asked the question aloud. “The wheel of life is legendary. Nobody I ever spoke to knew if it was a myth or real. And if it had once existed, if it still did.” So this was why he held it like something breakable. He was in awe.

  I was still confused. “I thought the wheel of life was more of a calendar than a magical object. Mysti never mentioned anything magical about it.” I bit off my words, too aware of how stupid they made me seem.

  Tanner turned the wheel over and back quickly. The eight-piece pie shape etched itself into the metal. “But you’ve seen it do this? You had to’ve if you used the wheel.”

  “Yeah, I’ve seen that.” I watched the wheel warily, waiting for it to open in the middle and for waterlogged hands to appear and start pulling to get out.

  Tanner traced the pie shape. “These represent the seasons of life, the phases of life.” His eyes sparkled. It was as though he’d woken up after a deep sleep. “The sorceress who can manipulate those seasons and phases may bless or curse anybody she chooses. Their fate is in her hands.”

  No wonder he was in awe. Power like that would come at a high premium. What Tanner said about the wheel fit with what I’d seen it do. Both Samantha and I had called down divine intervention in the form of Sol, a chthonic being, to snuff out the fates of dangerous people.

  Tanner gazed at the wheel. “This is capable of great and terrible things. The consequences of using it for less than honorable purposes are too horrific to comprehend.” He glanced up at me. “Only the most powerful of witches could use this without summoning a more powerful entity to help. You said you made the wheel work?”

  Tanner stared at me the same way he’d stared at the wheel, with an awe that almost bordered on adoration. That I couldn’t tell him I was a super-powerful witch disappointed me. Then I caught myself. Why did I care if I impressed Tanner Letts?

  “I had to summon a dark being to help me do what needed doing.” I shrugged and raised my eyebrows. Then I began explaining myself again, in spite of my declaration of not caring. “Both my life and the life of Dillon and Finn’s daughter depended on it.”

  “That’s a damn good reason. If it comes down to you or someone else, make sure you’re the one who makes it out. Always.” Fierce light burned in Tanner’s eyes. It was the same way he’d looked when he’d punched out Tim.

  “Since that night I killed those people, the wheel has been dormant. Maybe it decided we weren’t a good match.” I let out a humorless laugh. If that was the case, I’d never be able to use the wheel to find Oscar’s spirit. Or I’d have to bargain away more of myself to the dark beings than I was willing.

  “Nah. You just haven’t figured out how to make it work.” Tanner said the words the way a man does, with absolute confidence in their truth.

  I found myself telling Tanner about the mantle and the spell my own grandmother had put on me to keep me from my gifts. I went on to the story about how Sol, a chthonic being, had eaten through the spell tissue but said I still had to get rid of the rest before I accessed my true power.

  Tanner listened, a frown line deepening between his eyes. “Then we get rid of the spell. Because I have a strong feeling this wheel is just waiting for you to figure out how it works.” He handed it across the table to me.

  I took it, wanting to tell him my fears about removing the spell, how I wondered what of the real me would be left. But I couldn’t find the right words. I didn’t want to whine in front of this haunted yet tough man.

  Outside the tent, a familiar sound started up. “Hoooooo.”

  Miss Ugly. Dark must have fallen, and she’d come to collect me. The fears and insecurities I’d been battling all day rose up again to smite any confidence I’d managed to hold on to.

  “Hoooooo.” Closer than ever.

  Tanner half rose from his chair. “Is that what I think it is?”

  “If you’re thinking about a monster who has come to kill me, you’d be right.” I delivered the pronouncement in the same way I might have said I needed to get back to work. “She’s convinced I stole something from her. I’m going to try to find out what it was and see if she’ll give me a chance to find it.”

  Tanner’s eyes widened. “What do we do?”

  “You run.” I pushed back my chair and stood.

  “Don’t you tell me to run.” Tanner glared at me. “I’ve never run in my life, and I’m not going to start now.”

  I gripped his arm, too aware of the charge passing between us, and tried to pull him toward the tent’s flap. He locked his legs and used his weight to throw me off balance.

  “Hoooooo.” So close the wheel clattered on the table.

  “Tanner, it’s going to be too late. Get out.” I let go of his arm and pointed at the flap.

  He shook his head. I wanted to argue some more, but the tent’s flap blew open. Miss Ugly flew toward me.

  “Hoooooo.” The sound rattled my eardrums.

  Somewhere underneath it, I heard Tanner’s scream. He should have left when I told him.

  9

  I stepped in front of Tanner, wanting to help him the same way he’d helped me. He didn’t deserve whatever Miss Ugly might do to him.

  Tanner pushed me aside and assumed a boxing stance in front of Miss Ugly. His first punch hit her in the chest. The second one slammed into her long, hooked nose. The punches had no effect.

  She raked her claws across Tanner’s chest, laying open shirt and skin. Blood soaked into the ruined white cloth. Tanner staggered backward, eyes full of pain but also burning with hate. He tripped over his own feet and sprawled on the dirt floor.

  Miss Ugly advanced on me. I backed to the other side of the tent, hoping I’d lead her away from Tanner. She followed, a line of saliva dripping from her mouth. W
as it from eagerness to skin her teeth into me? I nearly gagged.

  “Hoooooo.” Her awful sound made the tent sound like a wind tunnel.

  I clapped my hands over my ears and walked backward, not sure exactly what to do. My heels connected with my cedar chest of magic items. I’d forgotten to look behind me. What a genius move.

  The impact knocked me off balance, and I sat on the thing with a hard thump. The impact jarred me so hard I bit my tongue. Pain radiated out from it.

  “Wait a minute.” I held my hands out in front of me.

  “No more minutes. You are mine.” Miss Ugly’s teeth, awful green and black clumps, flashed. I imagined those teeth biting into my cooked flesh. The idea froze me in place. Miss Ugly’s swampy, mildewy smell filled my nostrils, burning my sinuses.

  My mind ran crazy circles, trying to remember what it was supposed to do. A question? Yes. There was some question I was supposed to ask Miss Ugly. Now if I could only remember it.

  Tanner ran over. He’d taken his nine irons amulet off his belt and picked the cross out of the jumble of charms. He pushed the cross against Miss Ugly’s flesh. It sizzled where the cross touched it.

  Miss Ugly let out a ground-shaking howl and clapped her hand to the side of her face. Her bony shoulders heaved. A sound similar to sobs came from her, and she curled away from us, using her free arm to guard her head.

  Tanner held out one hand to me. I let him pull me to my feet and climbed out of the corner where Miss Ugly had trapped me. My mind went back to normal programming. I had been going to ask her what she thought I’d stolen.

  Tanner gave me a light tug to follow him. I took a big step around Miss Ugly. I’d rather be as far away from her as possible when I asked her my question. I’d think better. Just as I went past, she pulled her hand away from her cheek. Burned flesh stretched with it and tore off. The smell of seared meat hit me.

  That and the look of that rubbery skin pulling away from her face sent my stomach into a tailspin. I scrambled, trying to get away. She whipped forward and closed the hand with the burned skin stuck to it on my bare forearm. The burned flesh still sizzled from its contact with iron, popping against my skin. My stomach hitched.

  “Do something,” Tanner yelled. For a man who hadn’t wanted to give up a few minutes ago, he sure looked pissing-his-pants scared now. Eyes eating up his face, tanned skin faded to a sickly yellow, his panicked breathes tore out of him.

  I was supposed to ask Miss Ugly something. What? A few seconds ago, I’d known what to ask. But the feel of Miss Ugly’s flesh on mine had clawed it away.

  “Thief,” Miss Ugly growled. “Thief must be punished.”

  It came then. “The man who said I stole from you lied. I don’t have anything of yours.” I tried to yank my arm out of her grasp. She pulled me closer like she was going to lay a kiss on me. I shrank away from her, but she held me where I had to look into her ugly face.

  “Thieves always lie.” The smell of her breath coated the inside of my nose. I gagged, then took a few breaths and got myself under control.

  “I’m not lying. Oscar Rivera is the liar.” I gave my arm another yank.

  Tanner, still holding on to my other hand, tugged me. Miss Ugly gripped me tighter. Tanner, teeth bared, bent his knees and put his whole weight in the tug of war.

  “No,” I yelled. “You’re going to pull my arm out of socket.” Tanner relaxed some of the pressure but tightened his grip on me.

  Miss Ugly cupped my chin with her free hand. “If you come without a fight, I’ll kill you before I cut you up to cook you.”

  Images, each more horrific than the last, flashed through my mind. I begged Tanner, “Please don’t let go.”

  “I won’t.” Tanner repeated himself several times, eyes locked on mine. “I will not let you go.”

  Hannah ran into the room. “What’s this I hear about your sorry ex…” She trailed off, eyes widening as she took in my visitor. Her brain snapped back into gear quicker than mine had. “Ask her a question, Peri Jean.”

  I stared at Hannah. “Huh?”

  Hannah hurried over to stand behind Tanner. “When she had you pinned last night, you escaped after asking her a question. Maybe it’ll work again.”

  I was so panicked, I could barely mold my thoughts into question form. “If it doesn’t work, do what it takes to get me away from her.”

  “I’ll help Tanner pull,” Hannah said.

  I turned back to Miss Ugly, that combination of frying meat and swamp rot shooting up my nose. “What did I steal from you?”

  Miss Ugly shrank. It wasn’t by much, but the length of her fingers shortened by half.

  I got myself together and did it again. “What did Oscar tell you I stole?”

  Her fingers shortened to normal human length, and her body shrank to eye level with me. I gave my arm a good hard yank and got it away from her.

  I ran at Tanner and Hannah and pressed myself against them. We all held on to each other as Miss Ugly examined her newly reduced fingers.

  “I am your fate. You cannot escape. If not this night, then the next.” But her voice sounded smaller, weaker. Could I kill her? I was afraid to try.

  “Even though I didn’t steal from you, I’m willing go get whatever is missing. Return it to you.” Rivulets of sweat streamed down my back, one right after the other.

  Miss Ugly came toward me, her lips puckering. “Hoooooo.” Her eyes bugged out so far it looked as though they’d pop out on their stalks. Her face wrinkled and seemed to pull backward. She grew several inches.

  “No, no, no,” Tanner chanted beside, his arm tightening around my waist.

  “What was stolen from you?” I yelled the question, and Miss Ugly shrank again.

  She stopped in her tracks, cutting off her ‘hoooooo’ in mid o. “It is hours to daylight. You can’t continue this way. If you do not come now, I’m going to eat you alive.”

  There was no way I’d go with this thing so she could turn me into steak tartare. “What did I steal from you?”

  Miss Ugly shrank so much, she was barely taller than me.

  This time I didn’t give her time to respond. “What did I steal? Tell me.”

  She shrank again, now shorter than me. If she got small enough, maybe she’d wink out of existence. Maybe. But she’d be back again tomorrow. In my pause, she grew back a few inches of height. I spoke quickly. “What do you need me to find?”

  She shrank again. This time a howl, one I recognized as frustration, came from her. She bared her rotten teeth at me. “You stole my lantern.”

  I fired out another question. “If I get back your lantern, will you leave me alone forever?”

  She shrank at my question, now the size of a grade-school kid. Her head hung, and her sides heaved. She was tired. Had to be.

  I begged the universe to let her say yes to my proposal. If the dark beings were taking bets on whether I could survive her, there must be some clever way of beating her. Maybe I’d found it.

  “I reward a good deed with a kindness.” Her voice, now thin and weak, was barely audible.

  That was no kind of answer. She wasn’t promising to quit coming after me. She was simply promising kindness. Kindness to her might be giving me a choice of the apple she put in my mouth as she roasted me.

  “But will you…” I began the next question. This might reduce her to baby-sized. The next one after that would make her too tiny to see. Even if she came back tomorrow, I’d be rid of her for one night.

  She shouted over me, her voice small and squeaky. “I cannot promise more than a kindness. Our fates are married.”

  She rushed forward, the ugliest troll in the world, and launched herself at my legs. Within seconds, she’d climbed up my body, grunting and making slobbery sounds, against my skin. I shuddered with revulsion.

  I pushed at her with all my might. My hands just slid off her rubbery skin. Tanner grabbed Miss Ugly’s short little legs and tried to yank her off me. She dug in her claws, ripping at m
y skin. I screamed in pain. Tanner let go and backed away, face set in desperation.

  Shelly burst into the tent, her mouth open in shock. Cecil crowded in behind her. He took one look at my predicament, and his mouth opened with a scream that the roaring in my ears prevented me from hearing. He clutched his shirt and fell to his knees. Shelly dropped next to him, frantically pulling at him, trying to see if he was okay. They couldn’t help.

  Miss Ugly had wrapped herself around my torso like a deranged toddler. She lifted herself up. With one sharp fingernail, she pricked me on the forehead between my eyes. That done, she popped out of existence.

  One other part of Jadine’s vision came back. She’d claimed to see me with light streaming out of a spot between my eyes. Everything in her vision was coming true, and I didn’t know what to do about it. I sagged, sobs of frustration just begging to be let out into the world. Tanner held me up with one arm, but his knees wobbled.

  “It’s okay,” I mumbled and let my legs fold. Tanner eased me to the dirt floor and plopped down beside me. I barely reacted to his presence. I was too busy thinking how I’d probably be spirited away to be eaten the next night.

  10

  I closed my eyes. What could Miss Ugly have meant by her lantern? I didn’t know much about her. All I knew had to do with eating. Maybe I should just wrap myself in a bow tomorrow night and meet Miss Ugly with a bottle of hot sauce. But I wouldn’t. I was too angry at Oscar and at Miss Ugly herself. I wanted to fight them as hard as I could.

  Hannah staggered a few feet away to sit down. She closed her eyes. “That was intense.”

  I nodded and rocked back and forth on the dirt floor. My skin tingled from the blood still rushing through my veins. My cheeks felt numb. Gray dots danced on the edge of my vision.

  “Don’t pass out.” Tanner nudged me with one hand. “You gotta figure out how to find her lantern.”

  He didn’t have to keep reminding me. It wasn’t as though I’d forgotten. I groaned and hung my head.