by S. L. Watson
“Hey, Selk,” Darion said, following Selkie into the kitchen. “I’ll grab a vase for these.” He was carrying a bouquet of fresh-cut flowers.
The energy in the room tensed. Darion’s gaze fell on Calista, and his silver eyes darkened with apprehension.
Calista had barely tolerated Darion before she’d left for her trip three months ago, and her constant distrust of him had begun an unsettling rift between her and my mom.
“Hi, Cal,” he greeted Calista dispiritedly. “It looks like you are all having a moment. I’ll come back for the vase.”
Calista slid from between me and Jasper. “Darion, wait. I have something for you.” She offered him a bag.
Selkie took the flowers from Darion’s hands. I caught the encouraging nudge she gave him before she left his side and went to look through the cabinet where we kept the vases.
Selkie had wholeheartedly forgiven Darion for what he’d done to her when he’d first come to this planet, under Siobhan’s control, and she’d taken him under her wing to help teach him about plant magic. In the process, the two had developed a bond, and Darion looked up to Selkie like an aunt, as I always had.
Darion accepted the small bag from Calista with a blank expression. When he unfolded the tissue paper, revealing a large teardrop-shaped stone, he met Calista’s watchful stare.
“It’s an Indonesian stone,” Calista explained. “It represents willpower and determination. Both your mom and Selk have told me how hard you’ve been working to change. The stone is meant to be carried on you. It’s up to you if you want to,” Calista added.
I held my breath, hoping Darion wouldn’t respond with one of the sarcastic comments he used to avoid showing his emotions.
My shoulders relaxed when his expression softened as he held the stone up to the light, examining the multiple shades of red, gold, yellow, and specks of blue and black.
Calista’s gesture made his energy glow warm. “Thank you for thinking of me,” Darion said, tucking the stone in the front pocket of his black jeans.
The low growl of Jasper’s stomach broke the sudden silence, just as the oven timer buzzed.
“Finally!” Jasper hustled over to the oven. He shoved his hands into the oven mitts and pulled out the dish that’d been baking in the lower oven, as well as Selkie’s stuffed mushrooms from the top oven.
“Was that the timer?” my mom called from the dining room.
I flicked Jasper’s hand as he was about to dip in and sample the dishes he’d just pulled out.
He feigned injury as he called out to my mom. “I got it, Ms. C.”
“Thank you,” I whispered into Calista’s ear as we all pitched in to help set the table.
Calista nodded and whispered back as she grabbed the fresh-made apple cider from the fridge. “I’m offering an olive branch. For your mom,” she added, hinting that she was still hesitant to completely trust Darion’s transformation.
I didn’t blame her. Darion had been atrocious when he’d first entered our lives, but that had been before we all knew the truth, that he and I were twins. So much had changed since then.
The dining room sparked to life as my mom lit the candles with a snap of her fingers.
The first few months after I’d learned the truth of our heritage had been strange, and Mom, Calista, and Selkie no longer kept their magic secret from me. Now I looked forward to these moments when it was just us Vitarians, and we didn’t have to hide our abilities in the presence of humans.
The dining room echoed with laughter as everyone sipped their cider and wine. The smell of buttered sage tickled my nose as I lifted a portion of the polenta and fried sage onto my plate. I grinned when I saw Jasper starting his meal off with another Monarda tart. He chewed a bite with a dreamy smile on his face. I didn’t blame him; I looked forward to enjoying the creamy custard myself.
Darion fidgeted in his seat before lifting the wine bottle from the table and refilling our mother’s glass and then Selkie’s. The candlelight flickered with his movements, causing prisms of light reflected from the crystal chandelier above to dance across the table.
“So, Cal, did you meet any interesting practitioners on your trip?” Darion swirled his wine around the inside of his glass. “Isn’t Bali a hot spot for witches and fortune-tellers? I’ve heard voodoo is a common practice there.”
Here we go again, I groaned internally. Darion hadn’t let up about his speculations since Calista’s departure.
My mom’s shoulders rolled forward. The constant tension between her son and best friend weighed heavily on her.
I was about to send Darion a jolt of energy to shut him up, but I froze at the expression Calista wore.
She sat quietly a moment, as if lost in memory. When she glanced up, a shadow of anxiety haunted her eyes, and the murky blue-gray color returned to the outer edges of her aura.
My nerves buzzed. Calista’s reaction to Darion’s question made me think he’d been right all along. If she wasn’t holding something back, she wouldn’t have hesitated with such foreboding.
Darion studied her. “Did the Spider Witch give you a reading?”
Calista’s eyes widened. “How did you know?” She glanced at my mom, who’d been observing the two with mounting uneasiness.
Darion’s silver eyes narrowed to slits. “I’m a Tracker, or did you forget?” He wasn’t asking her a question but stating the obvious.
Calista’s voice lowered to a hiss. “You were spying on me? How?” She turned to my mom. “Cacsha? You can’t be okay with this behavior.”
My mom pushed her glass back as she turned toward her son. Her face had paled at Darion’s revelation, and the disappointment was unmistakable when she spoke. “Darion. I don’t understand. Why would you violate Calista’s privacy?” Her dark lashes lowered.
Selkie’s melodic voice floated across the table. “Why don’t we all take a pause? I’m sure Darion has an explanation.” Her hazel eyes pleaded with him to give some good reason for his actions. When Darion didn’t speak, Selkie sighed and shook her head.
Jasper broke the tense silence and asked the question that burned at the front of my mind. “Who’s the Spider Witch?”
Darion leaned forward, facing Calista. “Better question,” he said. “Why were you seeing the Spider Witch, and what did you learn?”
All eyes shifted to Calista.
She placed her hands on top of the table.
Whatever she had learned it wasn’t good. Being evasive wasn’t usually Calista’s style. A tremble took hold of her fingers before she finally pushed her chair back from the table. “It would be better if I showed you.”
I shot Darion daggers while we waited for Calista to come back into the room. The disappointment shrouding my mom’s aura cut at me. Darion had no business spying on Calista, even if he’d been right. If it hadn’t been for the pained expression he wore right now, while he tried apologizing to our mom, I’d have sent him flying across the room.
My mom tucked Darion’s hand into hers. “We’ll talk about this later.”
He cast his gaze down, no longer feeling smug with his revelation.
Calista came back into the room carrying what looked like a deck of tarot cards. She sat down and stared across the table at Darion. “Don’t ever spy on me again.”
She glanced around at the rest of us, settling her gaze on my mom. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you the real reason I went to Bali, Cacsha, but Darion’s right. I did see a witch. She’s known as the Spider Witch, and these were her cards. She insisted I keep them after her reading. Maybe she foresaw this moment. I don’t know. She speaks in riddles and gives half answers. The experience was more than frustrating.” Calista glanced down at the deck in her hands as she split the stack and shuffled the cards.
Everyone at the table leaned forward in their chairs, hanging on Calista’s words. “I learned of the Spider Witch years ago, on one of my trips. She’s a revered conduit of eclectic magic and highly respected among Vitarian warl
ocks, and the only human they consider worthy of consulting with.”
She tightened her grasp on the cards she held. “You see, her readings are never wrong. And if she allows you into her den, she has a message from the spirits. She’s descended from a long line of eclectic practitioners who understand a great deal about dark magic and who still have a strong connection to the ancient power of earth that has long been forgotten by most of the modern population. I was hoping”—she turned toward me—“she might have some insight into how to break the curse linking you and Darion.”
Being an Empath, I didn’t need to hear what the Spider Witch had told her to know the news wasn’t good. Calista’s demeanor spoke volumes.
“Well?” Darion urged Calista to continue.
My mom watched her friend intently, hopeful for some good news to come from tonight’s debacle.
Calista shook her head. “She invited me to come for a reading, but she had no information to offer about how to break the curse. Her message was a warning”—she placed the deck on the table and cupped her hands atop it as if to shield us from the cards—“of something else.”
Calista hesitantly flipped the top card of the deck and set it faceup in the center of the table.
My heart skipped a beat when I saw who looked up from the card. It was Erebus, the Greek god of darkness.
She flipped over the next card to reveal the Tower, another bad omen, signifying upheaval and destruction—chaos.
The final card she laid down was the ominous image of Death wielding a deadly scythe.
“I’ve reshuffled the cards a dozen times since my meeting with the Spider Witch. The reading is always the same: darkness, chaos, and death.”
My eyes locked with Darion’s, and then my mom’s.
“What did she say, Cal?” My mom’s tone darkened with her straightened posture. “The cards could have multiple meanings. Tell me exactly what this witch told you—word for word.” She extended her hand out to Calista.
Calista nodded, knowing my mom’s intention. She planned to channel her magic through Calista and use her ability to retrieve memories. Then we’d know exactly what the witch had said as if we’d all been there in that moment.
When Calista slipped her hand into my mom’s, the air in the room stirred with Vitarian magic. Calista closed her eyes, and when she opened them, they were as black as night.
A chair fell backward to the floor.
Without turning her eyes from Calista, my mom responded. “It’s okay. She’s fine, Jasper.”
Jasper picked up his chair and sat back down.
The candles burned low, and maybe it was just me, but an icy chill seemed to pass through the room. Goose bumps spread across my skin.
Calista sat frozen, her black eyes void as she eerily stared ahead.
I’d never seen my mom use her powers on another person like this before. I rubbed my arms, but the prickles refused to diminish. Then, suddenly, the candles flickered brighter, to an unnatural height, and a warm breeze flowed my way. I glanced around the table and met Darion’s eye. He offered a supportive smile. He’d used magic to increase the light and heat of the candles.
Jasper came and took the chair to my left and scooted close, as if to shield me from some unseen threat. Before a year ago, I’d always considered him an overprotective best friend, but now I knew that, as a Shield, it was in his nature to guard and protect. I still thought he took it too far sometimes.
Calista sat on my right in her trancelike state. Her hand darted across the white tablecloth, scooping up the three upward-facing cards. She placed them back on the deck while her hands moved around them in circular motions.
Darion huffed impatiently, earning him a nudge from Selkie.
Calista’s hand hovered over the stack. Then she flipped the top card back over, laying it once again on the table. When she spoke, it was her voice, but the words and the countenance belonged to someone else. Calista covered the upturned card with her hand. “A dark soul from long ago has returned to claim what he believes he is owed.” She turned the second card, laying the Tower next to Erebus. “His destruction has no bounds. He has taken life and will take more.” Calista’s hand shook as she laid the third card down. “Light will be consumed by dark, and a soul will be lost.”
Thick incense permeated the air, only no incense burned in the room. The chandelier rattled above, and the lights flickered out, leaving only the candlelight.
Calista whipped around in her seat and snatched my hands, squeezing them tight. Energy sizzled between us.
“Hear me, child,” she commanded.
A low growl vibrated from Luna, who sat below me. I tried pulling my hands free from Calista’s, but her grip tightened. “Don’t give him what he wants.” She released my hands and grabbed either side of my face, forcing me to stare into the black pits of her eyes. “The answer is written in the stars.”
Tiny specks of white light began to take shape and form in the dark marbles staring back at me, but then her hands fell from my cheeks, and Calista’s head drooped down over her chest.
The chandelier lights flickered back on. My heart hammered against my chest so hard I could hear the pounding in my ears.
“Someone’s knocking at the front door.” Jasper’s voice cut through my shocked stupor.
My head snapped up. “What?”
My mom pushed up from her chair and knelt in front of Calista, ignoring Jasper’s announcement. “Cal, honey, are you okay?”
Selkie quickly brought around a cup of water and handed it to my mom. The two women shared a distressed glance before my mom shifted her worried frown back to Calista.
“I’m sorry, Cal. I had no idea that would happen.” She pressed the cup of water into Calista’s hand. “Here, drink this.”
Calista shakily lifted the cup to her lips and sipped, then set it down on the table. She started to speak, her words a raspy whisper. “It was the witch. She used magic to channel through me. I don’t know how she did it, but I know it was her.”
Darion’s hand slammed down on the table, causing the water to splash over the cup. “It was her cards. They’re spelled.” His features darkened into an expression I hadn’t seen him wear since we’d first met, when he’d been a different kind of person. “She linked them to herself so she’d know when you were using them. She was waiting for this moment …” His words trailed off as the knocks continued at the front door.
My mom tossed a linen cloth over the tarot cards. “Just in case,” she said as she tightly wrapped the cards. “We don’t know what kind of power this witch has or what her intentions are.”
“A message,” croaked Calista. “And she didn’t finish. I felt her struggle to maintain the connection before her energy faded.”
Whoever knocked at the front door persisted.
“I’ll get it.” I jumped up, and the room swayed. Nauseating knots pinched my stomach, and the dense, smoky incense I’d smelled clung to my lungs. I craved fresh air.
I stopped before I left the room. The persistent knocker could wait another minute. “Why does the Spider Witch go by that name?” I asked.
It was Selkie who answered. Strands of her strawberry hair frizzed out of her bun in every direction. You’d think she’d just gotten off a roller-coaster ride.
Glancing around, I saw that everyone looked a bit frazzled and out of sorts.
Selkie’s singsong voice brought my attention back to my question. “She’s called the Spider Witch because of her ability to weave together ancient magic from numerous traditions and cultures. The Spider Witch practices every magic ever known on Earth.”
Selkie’s answer confirmed my suspicion. The witch had hijacked my energy when she’d grabbed hold of me. If she was powerful enough to tap into my energy field, what else could she do? Hairs on the back of my neck prickled. She knows about us and isn’t afraid to use her knowledge to her advantage.
“Don’t leave out the best part, Selk,” Darion added, almost excitedly.
“She collects venomous spiders from around the world and uses their venom in her spells. She doesn’t exclude any magic from her repertoire.” Darion locked eyes with me.
I turned for the living room, ignoring the chill that settled in my bones. As I neared the front door, I picked up the familiar energy that hovered on the other side. On any other night, I would have opened the door elated to see him, but tonight, of all nights, was not a night for outsiders. I pulled open the door with a forced smile.
“Lucas! What are you doing here?” I didn’t mean for my words to sound accusatory, so I backstepped. “I mean, I’m glad to see you, but I wasn’t expecting you until tomorrow.”
His brows drew down, and the porch light reflected in his cobalt-blue eyes. He passed his hand through his sandy-blond hair and shifted his backpack on his shoulders. “I’m sorry, Ev. I tried to call ahead but got no answer. I found something I know you’ll want to see.”
“Oh?” I muttered. The tone in his voice wasn’t what I would have expected from someone with good news.
I stepped aside from the doorframe as the witch whispered in my ear: “Destruction, chaos, death.”
“Come in.”
The others had already started clearing the table when we entered the dining room. I no longer had an appetite after what’d happened, and by the look of it, everyone else felt the same.
The candles had all been blown out, and the scent of sulfur lingered as the smoke dissipated.
Lucas paused. “I didn’t mean to interrupt.” He glanced at me apologetically.
“You’re not,” I assured him, and slipped my hand into his. “We were just finishing up.”
My relationship with Lucas was new. We’d only just started dating, and it was long-distance, since he still lived in Eugene, where he attended college and ran one of Neil’s bars. We’d met when I’d been investigating a lead on who my father was meeting with before his murder. Lucas had helped show me around the area, and we’d stayed connected ever since.
Luna yelped excitedly when she saw Lucas, and ran up, rubbing her body across his legs.
