by Kimbra Swain
My eyes drifted around the room, looking through my sight. The pictures on the wall of Matthew and Kady glowed with the warm light of love and family. On the dresser, a wedding band laid with a watch. I wondered if it was his band with Robin or if it was from his first marriage. Kady returned with a picture of her mother. In the picture, she wore a long white robe with the hood pushed back. Golden brocade edged the long armholes of the robe. Her dark hair looked a lot like Kady’s. There was no doubt that every time Matthew Rayburn looked at his daughter, he saw his wife.
Jeremiah had told me about how Matthew became the spiritual leader in Shady Grove. A large band of druids had settled in this area but had to disband their services because they kept being mistaken for another white hooded robed group that haunted these areas. Matthew never left, because he had found his place in the fairy town of Shady Grove. He was a connection between the two worlds. Human, but aware of the fairy world. He had the ability to cross from one realm into the other by the portal in the church. He told me that he had the power to open and close the portal, which made him a little more than human.
“Is there something still in this house that belonged to Robin?” I asked.
“No, I got rid of all that bitch’s stuff,” Kady said.
“Alright. It just seems like she knows we are here. Like she is watching us,” I said.
“Whoa!” Levi said as he entered the room. “That looks like…”
“The bonds that Riley had on you,” I said. “We could call her over here, but I’m sure that would be all kinds of awkward.” Both of Levi’s exes in the same room.
“That’s a no way, no how,” Levi said.
“Might be fun,” I said.
“For you!” he said.
“Nobody else matters,” I smirked. He knew I didn’t mean it because he shook his head at me.
“I will do anything for my father,” Kady said.
“No, Grace, we can do this together,” Levi said. “Do you want to take off Aydan?”
“Yes, I don’t want anything to go wrong,” I said, as I unwrapped the baby. With Kady’s state of mind, I knew he shouldn’t be in her arms. I handed him to Caleb whose eyes grew wide. “It’s okay. Just take him for a moment. He won’t bite.”
Caleb took the baby from me, then stepped back against the wall. He cradled Aydan who continued to sleep.
“I had a collar. What’s holding him?” Levi asked.
“There has to be something,” I said. “Did he wear a wedding band with Robin?”
“No, they weren’t officially married,” Kady said as she chewed her nails. Nasty habit, but I understood her nervousness.
“Where did the nurse go?” I asked.
“She went outside,” Kady said. “Do you need her?”
“No, I just wondered if she ever found anything unusual in the room,” I said.
Levi offered me his hand. As I took it, I sucked in power from him and the world around us. I’d charged my own tattoo before coming into the house. That was when I felt it. It was under the bed, whatever it was.
“Levi, don’t let go of my hand but look under the bed. Kady, you and Caleb get out of the room with my child,” I said.
“But,” Kady protested.
“I feel it. Kady, please. It’s very strong-whatever it is,” Levi begged.
She and Caleb backed into the hallway as Aydan started to stir. I knew it wouldn’t take long before he realized he was in the arms of a stranger.
Reaching under the bed, Levi’s arm stretched to its limit. He knew what was there without looking. A red velvet bag with a gold string appeared in his hand as he drew it from under the bed.
“What is it?” Kady asked.
“Levi, you know what is in there?” I asked.
“Got a pretty good idea,” he said.
With one hand, he pried open the bag. As I looked down into it, Aydan began to whimper. “Shiyat,” I said, drawing out the curse word. Two brown eyes stared back at me. The green haze that surrounded Matthew was the same haze that we had warded off with the evil eye talismans. Only we hadn’t warded it off at all, the power in it seethed from the bag.
The haze lurched toward Matthew as he began to struggle to breathe.
“Daddy!” Kady called out. Caleb stood between her and the room to keep her out. With her screaming, it would only be a moment before Aydan woke up. I needed to rush this, but not so much that it killed Matthew in the process. My child came first.
“What do I do? Burn them?” Levi asked.
“I don’t know that there is anything we can do,” I said.
Matthew’s voice filled the room, and it shook the rafters so hard that dust fell from the ceiling. Only it wasn’t really Matthew’s words.
“This town is cursed. It is as it has always been. As it will always be,” Matthew screamed into the room. “You cannot stop something that has been there for ages!”
“Daddy!” Kady screamed again.
Suddenly, the loud screams of Aydan filled the house. My mother’s heart lurched toward my child, but my hand held steady to Levi above Matthew. We tried grabbing the blackness around Matthew, but it was no use.
Kady rushed across the room, grabbed the velvet bag. She threw it on the ground, then began to stomp on the bag of eyes. “No! No! No!” she screamed.
Her father’s mouth opened releasing a tortured bellow as his eyes turned bloody. The more she stomped, the worse they became.
“Levi, stop her!” I screamed above the noise. The house continued to shake as Aydan cried out. Caleb stood in disbelief.
Levi shoved Kady away from the battered bag on the floor. Sandy, the nurse, walked back down the hallway toward us with a sneer.
“Poor Matthew. He just wanted to be loved again,” she said as her lip poked out in a faux pout. “Such a lovely baby.” As she reached for my child, I released the power I had held trying to save Matthew, turning my attention to Aydan.
“Hold!” Levi yelled. Power rushed out of him to the woman, and she halted her movement toward Aydan. Her finger twitched as she tried to fight the spell. “I can’t hold her very long!”
I rushed toward Caleb who backed away from the nurse.
“You, filthy bard,” she said through gritted teeth.
Grabbing Aydan from Caleb, I shouted at him, “Get her out of here!” He pulled Kady toward the hallway as I faced the nurse. “You tell him that I’m coming for him. His days are numbered.”
“Brock holds more power in Winter than your father ever did,” she said. I was sure that Robin was somehow possessing the nurse, and that the body was just a shell for her. The nurse, whoever she once was, had died prior to this encounter. Robin wasn’t physically here, so there was nothing I could do to harm her without harming the nurse. In case she wasn’t dead, I deferred to common sense. I ran like hell for the front door. Kady was kicking and screaming. Caleb released her at the door, and I shoved her out of it as the house began to crumble.
“Levi, get out!” I said.
“Just one more minute. Caleb is coming. I have to hold her just a moment more,” he said. I noticed Caleb had run back into the house. He appeared at the door carrying the limp body of Matthew Rayburn.
“Now!” I screamed, as the house crumbled in on itself. Strong arms curled around me from behind and I heaved a heavy sigh. Aydan’s whimpers settled as Levi brushed his forehead with his thumb humming a lullaby in my hair.
The only sound as the dust settled around the collapsed farmhouse were the sobs of Kadence Rayburn as she leaned over her father’s body. Then, by some miracle, I saw his hand twitch. She gasped grabbing it. His fingers wrapped around hers. His eyes were still a bloody mess, and I doubted they could be saved, but he was alive.
“I’m never leaving you, Grace,” Levi said as my heart pounded. I felt his pounding in his chest. It was close, but he’d made it out.
I couldn’t respond, but I didn’t need to. He knew the rush of feelings that poured out of me in the seconds between t
he house imploding and his arms circling around me.
Once I managed to calm down, I was able to survey the damage as we waited for a make-shift ambulance to take Matthew to the clinic. Remy and Tabitha had arrived before Troy and some of his wolves. The green haze continued to writhe around the remains of the house. I had no idea how to dispel something so large. This version of the haze was darker, closer to a forest green. Evil to its core. I could feel the sticky heat of the Summer magic. It made me woozy just focusing on it. It felt like when you step out into the heat of a southern summer day from the chill of an air-conditioned building.
“Are you okay?” Levi asked softly.
“Yes, it’s just that thing is evil like I’ve never felt before,” I said pointing at the haze.
“I feel it too,” Levi said.
Levi had grabbed the velvet bag just before he skipped out of the house to me. I made him put it in a box in the back of the truck. I didn’t want that thing anywhere near Aydan. We had to figure out how to destroy it without killing Matthew.
He spoke to us in quiet tones. He seemed to be confused, and hardly remembered Robin at all. She had enthralled him from the moment he set eyes on her. It was forced upon him. If I knew the correct procedure to turn him, then he definitely met the criteria. If I didn’t know by the inheritance of knowledge from my father, I knew there were several sources in town that I could approach before resorting to extreme measures.
“Call Finley and tell him to meet us at the house,” I said.
“Okay,” Levi replied. He promptly dialed my brother and walked away from the scene to be able to talk to him without distraction. Aydan had forgotten his nap completely. He sat up in my arms watching the movements of the people attending to Matthew as he grasped a handful of my hair with slobbery hands. Ah, motherhood.
“I’m glad he’s coherent, but I warned Kady, I don’t think I can save his eyes,” Tabitha said, walking up to me.
“I’ve got the other eyes in my truck. We need to figure out how to destroy them without killing Matthew,” I said.
“Grace, I’m sorry about…”
“Nope. I don’t want to hear it. We are good, Tab. Seriously,” I said.
“Thanks, Grace,” she said. “I’ll keep him stable until you figure out the rest. Do you want me to take them with me? I could store them.”
“Yes, I don’t want to take them into my home,” I said.
“Gotcha,” she replied.
“He will meet us there,” Levi said returning to where I stood. He reached up and pried Aydan’s hand out of my hair. “Sorry. He’s all tangled up in it.”
By the time Levi got one hand hair-free, Aydan had grasped another handful and was sticking it in his mouth. “Just give up, Levi. He’s probably hungry,” I said.
“He’s always hungry,” Levi replied. “Why don’t we go home and leave them to take care of this?”
“Sounds good to me,” I said. Troy looked back at me as if he had heard our conversation. I nodded to him, and he back to me. Wolf hearing. They were trying to retrieve the nurse's body from the debris left from the house.
“He’s got this covered,” Levi said.
“You got some kind of empathic thing going on with him?” I asked.
“No, but I can talk to animals,” Levi said.
“What?”
“Yeah. It’s a neat trick,” he smiled, then lowered his voice. “I’m full of neat tricks.” He popped his eyebrows up once for emphasis.
“Oh my god! You gotta do better than that,” I returned his smile.
“You love that shit. The cornier the better,” he said. Then clamped his hand over his mouth. “Sorry. Forgot not to cuss in front of the baby.”
“For the record, corny shit is nasty,” I said.
“Vulgar woman,” Levi said. “Aydan, don’t listen to your mommy. You’ll end up with a potty mouth too. Ew, stinky.” Levi wrinkled up his nose at Aydan who copied him. They were both adorable.
Aydan finally fell asleep after fighting it for over an hour. I threatened every living, breathing thing in the house to dare wake him up. He had been an easy baby, so I couldn’t complain. This was just one of those rare nights when he couldn’t settle down. Unfortunately, he was probably feeding off of my tension.
“That goes for you, too,” I said to Rufus who cocked his head sideways at me. I’d just finished a shower to wash the slobber out of my hair. I skipped the bra because my boobs hurt from Aydan’s feeding. He was getting bigger and a little rougher with the milk jugs. A loose dark t-shirt was enough coverage, but I had to put on shorts instead of jeans. It was hot in the house even with the central air blowing snowflakes. Perhaps it was just me after being exposed to the Summer magic and then feeding the Phoenix’s son.
Dylan.
I looked up at the closet that held the leather jacket. The memory of its smell floated around me. I sighed, then forced myself to carry on.
When I joined the boys in the living room, they were sipping adult beverages. Levi had a glass of brownish liquid in one hand, and a beer in the other. “Lush much?” I asked him. He held the dark glass up to me, which I gladly took, then plopped down next to him.
“You’re welcome,” he said taking a swig of the beer.
Astor had a glass of wine, and Finley swirled a glass of clear liquid and ice around. If I had to guess, it was gin. He only drank when he was worried or upset. I hadn’t asked him anymore about Nelly, but I assumed that was what was eating at him.
“So, what’s the family meeting about?” Finley asked.
“I’m not family,” Astor said.
“What? You most certainly are,” I said.
“Oh,” he replied. “Okay.”
“If you don’t want to be…”
“No, I want to be. Definitely,” he said. “Really?”
I shook my head at him. I’d considered him part of the family since he’d arrived, but yet he still felt out of place. I’d have to deal with that at some point, but for now, I had no idea what to do make him feel better about his place here. But before I got to the main point, I had a good idea.
“Astor suggested that I have my own war council,” I said.
His eyes flickered with excitement.
“I agree,” Levi said. Astor nodded to him thanking him for the support.
“Are you going to war, Glory?” Finley asked.
“Yes,” I said. “To preserve this town, this world, and what I can of the Otherworld. Yes.”
“Count me in,” Finley said immediately. My brother for all his arrogant fronting was a follower which made it even more clear to me that this wasn’t a task I could hand off to him. Father must have known this as well.
“So, who else do we bring in?” I asked.
“You want to have your own roundtable?” Finley asked.
“Actually, I don’t think the roundtable works,” I said.
“What? Everyone being equal is the way it should be,” Finley said.
These men knew me. Levi better than any of them, but they knew I had no desire to be the final say on anything, but when it came down to it, I had to make the final decisions. It laid on my shoulders. I had no desire to sit on a throne. My seat of power was a trailer and a park bench. But my responsibility shouldn’t be handed off to just anyone. Perhaps I missed the concept entirely, but as much as decisions might be made with the whole group, the consequences were mine alone to bear. To me, the roundtable was an unreachable ideal. Even seated around that table, all of those men knew that Arthur’s word was the final word. I had no desire to feed an illusion. If I had a war council, they would know who was in charge, who would hold them accountable, and finally, who would bear the blame in the case it was needed.
“She’s right,” Levi said. “Her father wants her to do it differently. There is no reason she shouldn’t sit at the head of the table.”
“You going to sit on the other end, Levi? Just keep shoving Dylan out of the picture,” Finley said bitterly.
&
nbsp; “Whoa! Wait a minute, Finley. What the hell?” I asked.
“She hasn’t come home. She’s off fucking someone else,” Finley said. His anger wasn’t related to Levi at all. Nelly was on his mind.
“I’m pretty sure when you came to town you sampled quite a bit of the local fare,” I said. “Fucking double standard, Brother.”
“I’ll sit by her side,” Levi said controlling his tone. I felt his body tense next to me as he held back his anger toward Finley. Astor sat quietly watching Finley who decided to pace the room.
“She was a means to an end, right?” I asked.
“But she is mine!” Finley retorted.
“That is just like father,” I said.
“Don’t you dare! You hopped this globe fucking with every dick you came across,” Finley said. “You don’t get to scold me, Glory.”
“Not every dick. Just most of them,” I said, trying to lighten the mood.
“Most of them?” Astor asked.
“Well, a few,” I said backing down. Levi snickered beside me. “I’m experienced.”
“They call that a whore,” Finley said.
“Take it back,” Astor said. Thankfully the house had been heavily protected from the evil eye curse or this could have turned into a Summer and Winter throwdown. Which might have been interesting to watch.
“I’ll take the over on Astor,” Levi said. I slapped his leg as we laughed at the other two.
Astor leaned back in the chair, my recliner, and took several long sips of his wine.
“Gosh! I was beginning to think this was a brilliant idea. I appreciate you two clarifying how wrong I was,” I said. Finley grimaced, then threw back the rest of his liquor.
“I’m sorry, Grace. I’m just frustrated,” he said. Sexually. He didn’t say it, but I knew. I’d been there a time or two. Hell, I was living it now, just had too many distractions to dwell on it.
“Luther,” Levi said.
“I agree,” Finley said.
