Last Exit

by Catie Rhodes

  Metal clanged and leather squeaked as my command carried itself out. I found myself seated on a huge black horse. Black leather pants covered my legs. A leather shield covered my chest. The sword, still in my hand, shrunk into a jeweled dagger with a blade in the shape of a flame. Fire winked in its depths. My fire. I shoved it into a leather scabbard attached to my thigh.

  Some part of me, probably from one of the witches who’d come before me, knew how to command the horse. I turned it to face my army.

  The people who’d loved me enough to come when I needed them awaited my command. They all sat astride black horses with red eyes. The hunt had clothed them in black leather, and they held swords with flame shaped blades that gleamed like the coldest ice. Behind them stood an army of hounds, black with red eyes, and glowing red-tipped ears. The snarl of the beasts rumbled. They were ready to go. So was I.

  “I call the Wild Hunt,” I yelled again. “Oscar Rivera is my first target.” With a rustle of feathers, Orev and I raised the dagger.

  Oscar’s headless body shifted. The middle of it roiled and wiggled. Out crawled the mandrake root. It had a pointed, ridged head with a sprig of roots for hair but no eyes or face, root-like arms with no fingers, and legs of a similar fashion. The thing scrabbled out onto the road and took off running.

  “Now,” I shouted, and we chased him into the night. The clouds moved off the moon and made the mandrake containing Oscar’s soul glow.

  We raced after it.

  Finn and Jesse rode around me to get ahead of Oscar. The hounds followed, baying their excitement. We surrounded Oscar. The weird mandrake man ran from horse to horse, only to have the hounds snapping at him. I slid off my mount.

  Sol had told me not just to destroy Oscar, but to make an example of him. I glanced at Mysti.

  “I’d appreciate help from both you and Brad.” I didn’t wait to see if she would comply. She would. That was a given.

  “What do we do?” Brad said from behind me.

  “I’m going to draw him out of the mandrake…” I began.

  “Then we’ll need to prepare a ritual.” Mysti dug in her pockets.

  “I won’t need it.” Our eyes locked, and hers widened. I’d always wonder what she saw but would never ask.

  I spoke to all my huntsmen in a booming voice. “Once the soul is out, I’m going to tear the spirit apart. Each of you will consume part of it.” I swept my eyes over my huntsmen. Revulsion, greed, and excitement stared back. “You’ll take on part of Oscar’s power, which is vast. This is my reward for your help.”

  I spoke to Mysti. “Once he’s out, you and Brad hold him.”

  Mysti began digging in her pocket again. She drew out a weird little cross with red thread twined around where the wood met. She held it up to me and nodded.

  I stalked toward Oscar and held out one hand, palm up. I imagined a hook. I reached inside the mandrake and pulled.

  For the first time, I saw the real Oscar Rivera, shed of his beautiful sloe eyes and full lips. He was an ugly little creature resembling a furry frog. He snapped at me, flashing needle teeth. One of them punctured my spirit.

  The pain shot through my midsection. I dropped to my knees but kept pushing. My body shook with the effort. One of the dogs whined next to me. I changed the hook into a dog’s mouth and latched onto Oscar.

  He fought harder than I’d thought him capable. I locked my jaws and let him whip me around, saving my energy and waiting. He stopped to rest. I jerked him out of the mandrake.

  Mysti and Brad crowded in, faces pinched in concentration.

  “We bind you to this spirit maze

  Oscar Rivera

  There you’ll wander lost in haze

  Unable to break free.”

  They repeated the chant, and I used my will to push Oscar at the red thread. He went screaming. Once on the red thread, he became a white, shifting mist. I pulled my dagger from its sheath.

  “Shelly Gregg,” I yelled and sliced off a sliver of Oscar.

  His scream cut the night, so intense and pain-filled the hounds howled. So did a few coyotes in the distance. Shelly lapped down the piece of spirit I offered her, eyes dark with greed. I kissed her cheek.

  “Finn Gregg,” I yelled and cut off another sliver. Oscar’s shrieks shook the night. I ignored them.

  My cousin didn’t welcome his gift as Shelly had, but he took the offered reward without argument. He accepted my kiss and staggered away holding his chest.

  “Just let it settle,” I called after him. I faced the grouping of people again. “Tanner Letts.”

  My sweetie came forward, shoulders stiff, eyes gleaming and eager. He understood this ritual and the exchange of power. He put both hands on my wrist and took his bite of soul. He kissed my lips. I kissed him back.

  “Hannah Kessler,” I called.

  My friend hurried to me and hissed, “Corman got away while you were burning.”

  “I know. We’ll get him. I promise.” I held out the sliver of Oscar’s spirit to her.

  She took it, eyes closed in pleasure. Once the extra presence in her hit, she clapped her hand to her chest, eyes widening. Shelly came to take her away.

  One by one, everybody who’d come to my aid received what I had to offer, including Mysti, Brad, and Desiree. Then the last and largest sliver of Oscar hovered on my blade. I sucked it down like a delicious bit of candy. Somewhere I heard Sol laughing.

  I mounted my horse and yelled, “I call the Wild Hunt. Our target is Michael Gage.”

  We shared his spirit too, and all the ones after. King Tolliver tasted the worst. My mother’s spirit gave me indigestion. Which fit, I guess.

  At the end of the night, we went back to the crossroads, stuffed and satiated. We stood in a circle around Wade’s corpse. Desiree joined us. Her cold eyes bored into me. She’d always blame me for her brother’s death.

  “He wanted a warrior’s burial.” She dropped to her knees next to Wade. I dared not follow suit.

  Shelly, the only one who knew what she meant, directed us in cleaning up our mess and wrapping Wade in someone’s old sheets.

  Tanner worked alongside me. Was he going to stay? He’d kissed me passionately when I gave him his share of Oscar’s soul. My heart leapt at the thought, like I’d dodged a bullet. But then I remembered the look on his face when I was crying over Wade. He’d known something. Tears burned in my eyes. I wanted to say nothing and just hope he stayed. But that was the coward’s way. Tanner had to know the truth, even if it made him leave. I screwed up my courage.

  “I slept with Wade,” I whispered when we were off by ourselves.

  “I knew when you were crying over his body,” he whispered back.

  “Can you forgive me?” I clasped both his hands in mine, wanting to make excuses, wanting to convince him, and knowing I’d better not.

  He pressed his lips together and shook his head, brilliant eyes downcast. “I’ll help you finish burying Wade. Then I’m going back to California.”

  Heart aching, I slunk away and picked up my end of the litter we’d built to ferry Wade’s lifeless body to a lonely hilltop. All of us carried the still form in silence, save for a few grunts of effort. Wade had been a big man. We got him to the hilltop and set him on the pyre we’d built.

  Desiree turned to me, eyes wintry. “Will you?”

  I raised my arms with a rustle of feathers. I didn’t even have to call the elements. A mist of humidity coated my skin. Breeze rustled my hair. The earth sang at my feet.

  “Fire,” I sobbed and pointed one finger at the mount on the pyre.

  Lightning popped down on it. I gave it a little magical push, and hot, blue fire blazed over the man I’d once loved, the one who’d saved me, and the one I’d let ruin the best relationship I’d ever had.

  I inched closer to Tanner and tried to take his hand, wanting his steady comfort. He twisted away and took off walking down the hill alone. He didn’t say goodbye, but I knew that was it. He’d find his car and head back to C
alifornia. Out of my life forever. Back to Dave, back to Neecie, who’d felt such propriety over Tanner that she took it upon herself to throw away his phone.

  A scream built in my throat. In less than two days, I’d managed to lose the three most important men in my life. I might have had the power of a demigoddess, but I sucked at love and romance.

  Hollow beyond what I believed possible, I watched Wade’s shrouded form burn. Tears rolled down my cheeks and dripped off my chin. My chest ached as though something inside had been cleaved in two. Though I’d fallen out of love with Wade, I had loved him as my friend. Nobody would ever replace the man who’d saved my life, over and over, just because he liked me. I’d never forget him.

  Hannah came and clasped hands with me. We cried together. Howled, really. Knees buckling, yelling our grief at the dull morning sky.

  The fire burned hot and fast, but it finally died down. We buried what was left of one the best friends I would ever have in an unmarked grave on a nameless hill.

  I walked to the largest stone and called my magic. I traced a W, turning the stone permanently black beneath my finger. I had to mark this place as special, even though I knew this was the last time I’d step foot on it.

  20

  Hannah and I walked down the hill together in the new dawn, Tubby trailing close behind. We reached the bottom. I glanced around for Tanner. Sure enough, he and his nondescript rental car were long gone. I bit back a crying jag.

  “I’m going to kill Corman,” I said to nobody in particular.

  Desiree came abreast of me. “Revenge won’t bring my brother back. Otherwise, I’d kill you.”

  I lit a cigarette and stared her down. I could scramble her brain with barely a push. “I take it you don’t want to help us.”

  “Hell no. I've got a daughter still in high school and a grand baby. This is your clusterfuck.” Desiree brushed past me and stomped to her car. She got in and started it. Backed up. She glanced at the seat beside her, face sour and disgusted. She rolled down the window and held out something.

  “It showed up on my kitchen table about an hour after you left,” she yelled.

  I hurried to see what she had. It was the spell book I’d always thought was Priscilla Herrera’s. Now I understood it went back much further than that, to a time so old I couldn’t even fathom it.

  “Thank you.” I took it with eager hands, excited to see what new information it held for me. Feeling Desiree’s eyes on me, I quit staring the book.

  “I’ll be in touch.” She drove off without waiting for my answer.

  Hannah had come to stand beside me, also staring at the spell book. We exchanged a smile.

  “Do you want to help me kill Corman?” Voice casual as if I were talking about making monkey bread, I raised my eyebrows at Hannah.

  She turned to Tubby. They had a silent conversation.

  Tubby shrugged. “He’s coming for us one way or the other. Best get him first.”

  “We’ll help,” Hannah said.

  We? I smiled at them, happy for them in spite of losing Tanner.

  Mysti and Brad approached.

  “I’m in,” Brad said. He had liked Wade, even though they argued sometimes.

  “Griff and I are in,” Mysti said. She and Wade had shared a special relationship, full of respect disguised as insults. She had to be feeling his loss. Griff had found in himself a man not unlike Wade, one who operated on brute strength and used violence to send a message.

  Griff stood a few feet back, brow pinched in worry. “Tubman’s right, you know. Corman will come for all of us.”

  “We’ll have to watch our backs.” Tubby put his arm around Hannah.

  Griff nodded. “I’ll put out feelers. People owe me favors.”

  “Same here,” Rainey and Jesse said at the same time.

  Everybody watched me. It took several seconds for me to understand they were waiting for my yes or no. This new station was going to take some getting used to.

  I nodded. “Find him any way you can.”

  I could have found Corman with the wheel of life, but it had burned back at that hotel with the rest of my supplies. Or were things like that indestructible? Perhaps they simply moved on to the next owner when it was time. My new knowledge about the way the universe worked suggested I had it right.

  We took over a tiny roadside motel outside San Antonio. From there, I got used to my new position in life as I caught up with the business of the Gregg family.

  The mantle of the Gregorius Witch reminded me a lot of the forests of East Texas. Shadowy, vast, and full of things with sharp teeth.

  Orev and I ruled over a meager group of psychopomps who helped spirits of those who died too early into the afterlife. I now had the power to open those gates myself. Approvals and denials ran in the background of my mind, almost on autopilot.

  My witchcraft changed from spells and rituals to a simple moving of energy. Mysti coached me through the worst of it. I didn’t mess up too many things.

  And the hunt. It belonged to me until another worthy leader came forward. In one year, either at Samhain or Yule, I and my court would take over the skies. Like Santa Claus, only with weapons in our hands and death on our minds.

  The business of the Gregg family was almost as complex. Cecil had left elaborate plans with his lawyer about my takeover of the family. I signed the papers he sent and emailed them back.

  He called when he got them. “You people left a hell of a mess at that RV park over in Atascosa County. There’s a warrant out for the arrest of just about everybody in the Gregg clan.” He paused and chuckled. “If you want to surrender to the police, I’ll go with you.”

  “Send your bill, and I’ll let you know.” A few seconds later, his bill came. I paid it and fired him in an email. I turned to Rainey and said, “You’re hired. Do your magic.”

  Within twenty-four hours, the police were no longer seeking anybody in the Gregg family for questioning, and insurance papers for our destroyed RVs and vehicles had been filed. Rainey showed me my bill. I wrote a check on the Gregg family trust to pay it.

  Rainey and Jesse left that afternoon for Gaslight City. She couldn’t leave her one-woman law practice for very long.

  Everybody who had any kind of connections put out feelers for Corman. He seemed to have vanished. After a week, Mysti and Griff went back to The Woodlands, Texas. After two weeks and a very intense affair with Hannah, Tubby went back to Gaslight City to tend to his various illegal businesses.

  What was left of the Gregg family checked out of the little roadside motel. We tried to make plans, but our days of traveling together were over.

  Brad and Jadine went back to Summervale Carnival. They’d made friends with some other young couples and wanted to enjoy themselves. To my complete surprise, Shelly stayed with us rather than going with her daughter and son-in-law.

  “You’ll need me,” she said to my unasked question of why.

  Hannah and I had had enough of the carnival lifestyle. So had Finn and Dillon. They had children to raise, and doing it in an RV was putting a strain on all of them.

  The six of us traveled west of San Antonio in a rented van and stopped in a tiny town’s soda shop. By the time we finished our frappes, we’d agreed to look for temporary lodging. None of us quite knew how to move forward.

  Cecil would have known exactly what to do. I missed him wildly and spoke often with his ghost. He refused to give me advice.

  Shelly rarely spoke. She spent her days smoking and staring out the window at the dusty street that ran in front of the old two-story hotel where we'd rented rooms.

  One day, Hannah walked up to me holding out her phone. “What do you think of this?”

  I studied the screen. “Mountains. Desert. What about it?”

  Her lips stretched into one of her rare smiles. “Those are the Christmas Mountains, one of the best places in Texas.”

  I squinted at the picture, not sure what the point was.

  “It’s beautif
ul out there.” She started talking fast, which meant she wanted something. “Big Bend National Park is nearby. Balmorhea State Park is less than a day’s drive away. So is Marfa. Maybe we could go see the Marfa lights. That’s where they filmed Giant. The best part: nobody knows us. We could just disappear.”

  I took another look at the way blue clouds hung over the mountains and the way deep, impenetrable shadows pooled at their base.

  “There’s five hundred acres for sale.” She showed me another picture, this one of a little ramshackle house. “The property was a hunter’s retreat. There’s this house and another one. Both houses have solar power, electricity, and plumbing.”

  We sat in comfortable silence. I let out a sour burp. My stomach had been bothering me more than usual lately. I ate an antacid and offered them to Hannah as though they were candy.

  Hannah shook her head and named the price of the property. I looked at the pictures again. There was something special about the empty space. I could see myself out there building something worth keeping.

  “I’ll put in what I can on the purchase,” I finally said.

  Hannah squealed and hugged me. We did the jumping up and down thing for the first time in a very long time. It felt good.

  We told Shelly, Finn, and Dillon over supper at the town’s only diner. We’d eaten there so much we knew the nightly specials by heart, and the waitress knew what to bring us without asking.

  For the first time in weeks, Shelly sat up straight. “I’m ready to go. Get it started.”

  I’d have eaten a rat out of a rat trap before I turned away Cecil’s wife. The idea of rats and rat traps made my stomach do a queasy somersault. I needed to get away from this greasy, diner food.

  Finn and Dillon exchanged a glance. She nodded at her husband. He cleared his throat, olive skin darkening over his cheekbones.

  “You remember me marrying Brad and Jadine?” He played with his tea glass.

  I nodded. He’d been competent and amusing, his natural talent for public speaking coming through.