Gemstones, Elves, and Other Insidious Magic (Dowser 9)

by Meghan Ciana Doidge

  I unfolded my legs, sliding off the bed. I felt ungainly and awkward standing before the tiny oracle. So I kneeled instead.

  Shock, replaced by a grim acceptance, flitted over Rochelle’s face. Then she nodded.

  I reached for my necklace, ready to pull it off. The last time Rochelle had tried to ‘read’ me, the necklace had been an issue for her. And that was even before it had absorbed the instruments of assassination.

  “Leave it,” Rochelle said, her voice thick with magic. “Please.”

  I dropped the chain, taking her offered hand. She placed her other hand over mine. Her oracle magic rose, shifting up my outstretched arm, questing around my head and shoulders. Tart apple filled my senses.

  Silence stretched between us. The oracle’s cold hands warmed in mine. I could feel the edge of her tattoos, the black butterfly fluttering underneath my fingers.

  But I didn’t flinch, didn’t pull away.

  I was all in.

  I was a believer.

  Rochelle sighed, but the sound was tinted with satisfaction. “You are a maker of chaos, Jade Godfrey. A disruption to … what is possible.”

  “Not by choice.”

  She laughed quietly. “It’s not necessarily a bad thing, is it? Though neither of us can control destiny. Not even with set patterns or schedules. Not even with the careful application of cupcakes.”

  I looked up, checking to see if she was mocking me this time.

  She wasn’t.

  Rochelle smiled, her gaze a wash of white-tinted power. She looked older than her twenty-three years, as though the magic that channeled through her was ancient, all-knowing. And maybe it was.

  “What am I to do about it, then?” I asked. “About attracting chaos?”

  Rochelle lifted her top hand from mine, brushing her forefinger and middle finger across the scar on my forehead. More magic writhed under her touch. “I don’t quite know yet. But … I have a plan. As I slotted in each piece, the future shifted. Sometimes slightly, sometimes significantly, though not always for the better. Let’s free Scarlett from the boundary spell, just to make certain that doesn’t alter anything. And then … we can gear up.”

  “We?”

  “Yes. You aren’t storming the castle, as Jasmine says, alone.”

  “My father —”

  “Jade.” Rochelle squeezed my hand.

  I shut my mouth.

  “I need you,” she whispered. “I need you, dowser, alchemist, wielder of the instruments of assassination. I don’t think I can do it without you.”

  “Do what?” I whispered, though I already knew the answer.

  “Save my daughter from the future waiting for her.”

  The confirmation was overwhelming. If I was a supposed ‘chaos maker,’ then I had no idea how to avoid my own destiny.

  “We’ll work through it together.” Rochelle’s tone was suddenly matter-of-fact as she dropped my hand. Then she abruptly turned toward the door.

  “I am grateful, oracle,” I said.

  She paused, her hand on the doorknob, turning to look back at me.

  “I would never bring harm to your family,” I said. “Not if I could help it.”

  She nodded curtly. “I know, Jade. I think … it’s not just something you do … I think … what I saw … starting two weeks ago is what happens if you die.”

  My stomach bottomed out, but Rochelle just pushed forward, determined — but trying to be rational, detached. “You have to let us help you,” she said.

  “I trust you, Rochelle. I wouldn’t be here without you. Without you sending Blossom with the sketch. Twice. Without —”

  “It’s not just me you need to trust, Jade. Just … I know you want to protect everyone. Just please … let us, all of us, play our parts.”

  Then the oracle opened the door and exited into the hall before I could come up with an answer.

  I stayed on my knees, feeling the magic shifting around in the house beneath me. I could pick out individual tastes. Lilac and shortbread. Toasted marshmallow. Spiced, dark chocolate …

  Rochelle didn’t know what she was asking, what the elves were capable of. She couldn’t know. Otherwise, she’d never have asked me to allow anyone else to risk their lives …

  Except when had that become my decision? Why was it my place to dictate what the other Adepts who called Vancouver home could or couldn’t do?

  Protecting those who were mine to protect wasn’t the same as controlling them.

  And with that uncomfortable thought, I stood and crossed to the bed to retrieve my mother’s powered-up rapier.

  So. The oracle thought she was seeing my death in her daughter’s future. Well, it certainly wouldn’t be stupid to give her a bit more time to figure out how to thwart that, would it?

  7

  My father was standing in the hall outside the map room, leaning against the wall across from the open door with his arms crossed and brow creased. He might simply have been frustrated. Or he might have been holding back a simmering fury that told of a mounting need to manifest his sword and start slashing through magic until there was nothing left.

  I knew exactly how he felt.

  Thankfully, though, neither of us was stupid enough to ignore the warnings and concerns of those who were much, much wiser regarding the casting of that magic.

  “Hey, Dad,” I said, a few steps away.

  My father tore his gaze away from the empty doorway. It was an easy guess that he had a direct sight line to my mother from his position. “Jade.”

  His gaze fell to the rapier in my right hand. So much of my alchemy had been pumped into the delicate golden blade and the sapphires that decorated the intricate cross guard that it glowed.

  “You’ve worked with your mother’s weapon, then?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then it will hold for as long as we need it to.” My father pinned me with a fierce gaze. “I would like you to see the healer again before we confront the elves.”

  “You took a walk around the stadium?”

  “It is well warded. More than expected. And I cannot sense the size of the force contained within.”

  “Alivia,” I said. “They were joined by a ward builder. She brought Reggie a gem of power.” I rubbed my scarred forehead. “As best I can remember. That’s probably why Mory couldn’t get Ed through their wards anymore.”

  My father grunted in acknowledgement, his gaze angling back through the doorway. “I can cut through it.”

  “Of course.”

  “But I cannot predict the consequences of doing so.” He flexed the fingers of his right hand, most definitely recalling the feeling of wrapping them around the hilt of his sword. A frustrated growl edged his tone. “So we will do it your grandmother’s way. For now.”

  “Actually, I think Rochelle is running everything behind the scenes.”

  My father’s shoulders relaxed slightly. “Yes. Right. That makes much more sense. I am comfortable working with the oracle.”

  Yeah, Dad and Gran weren’t the best of friends. I wasn’t completely certain what Yazi held against my grandmother, though I certainly suspected it might have to do with her managing to hide me from him for twenty-three years. In Gran’s defense, though, she hadn’t known who exactly she was hiding me from at the time.

  “They’re almost ready for you,” my father said.

  I stepped into the open doorway. And then I stopped, because I needed just a moment to wrap my head around what I was seeing within the map room.

  Gran and Angelica Talbot had painted a series of concentric circles radiating out from the column of magic that still contained my mother at the center of the room. They were approximately two feet apart, with a series of runes painted within them. Different symbols for each circle. Each with an opening on a diagonal with the door — creating a direct pathway to my mother from where I currently stood.

  Angelica was crouched a few steps to my right with her back to me, adding more runes to the outermost circ
le nearest the wall. Her brown-sugar-shortbread magic tickled my senses as she dipped her brush into black paint, then carefully added a second leg to the end of what looked like a diamond set on the tip of a triangle without a base.

  “Careful to not splash the baseboards, Angelica,” my grandmother said, straightening from where she was carefully placing flat stones around the innermost circle, just feet away from the base of the column of magic that held my mother aloft.

  “I know, Pearl,” Angelica said testily. “I can feel the magic.”

  The room pulsed with power. Layer upon layer of magical energy roiled so strongly that I found it hard to believe the house was still anchored to its foundations. It should have been hovering two feet off the ground along with my mother, floating within the sea of magic.

  Gran sniffed, brushing her hands together as she spotted me within the doorway. “Paint,” she said with much disgust. Then she curled her lip into a sneer that was somehow also a smile. For me.

  Angelica sat back on her heels, surveying her work. “Yes, you will have to replace the carpet, unfortunately. I wouldn’t mind waiting until Stephan and Liam are back to check over the runes.”

  “The oracle has them tasked elsewhere —”

  “I know that —”

  “Jade is ready. We must proceed.”

  Angelica flinched, turning to spot me in the doorway. The dark-haired sorcerer straightened, her magic shifting around her. And for the briefest of moments, I felt as though she might attack me.

  “Lots of magic here,” I said carefully. “I couldn’t even taste either of you from the hall. Or this … magnificent spell.”

  Angelica nodded, turning to survey her and Gran’s work with some satisfaction. “It is a sight. Perhaps the most complex spell I’ve ever attempted. In this short a time, at least.”

  “Yes,” Gran said. “Let’s hope it —”

  My mother sighed so softly that I barely heard her. The magic writhing across the ceiling and walls contracted into the center column that held her aloft. Then it all just dimmed. My mother dropped an inch closer to the floor, and as she did, the boundary spell tying Scarlett to the witches’ grid slowly feathered back out across the map etched along the walls and twined over the ceiling.

  The magic brightened as it resettled. I might have been imagining it, but the white tendrils of power appeared shorter and thinner than they had a moment before.

  “About five minutes this time?” Angelica asked.

  “Yes.” My grandmother pursed her lips. “We need to cast. Now.”

  “It would be safer with Stephan and Liam.”

  “Perhaps. But we are spread thinly. And my daughter is dying.”

  A flush of weakness ran through my limbs. “What can I do?”

  “Wait there, Jade.” My grandmother stepped over to the opening to the innermost circle, gazing past me. “Yazi? We’ll need Rochelle and Jasmine.” She hesitated. “And Burgundy.”

  Angelica gave Gran a look. “Olive would be a better choice.”

  “Not if it goes badly.”

  “You need to fill me in, Gran,” I said, trying to keep my voice calm and even.

  “Yes, yes. I’m sorry. We’ve just been working on the fly. Angelica and I have devised a way for you to substitute the rapier for your mother. This should allow the boundary spell to naturally fade after it has consumed the magic within the weapon.”

  “Without also killing Mom.”

  “Exactly. I have every confidence we will make it work.”

  “It works in theory,” the dark-haired sorcerer interjected. “But a casting this complicated usually takes months to perfect.”

  “Yes,” my grandmother snapped. She almost snarled. “But we have Jade.”

  Angelica eyed me without comment.

  Jasmine stepped into the doorway behind me. The magic in the room was so intense that I only sensed the golden-haired vampire a moment before she appeared.

  “Ah, good, Jasmine,” Gran said. “I believe the outer circle is yours to seal, yes?”

  Jasmine studied the room for a long moment, then nodded.

  “Shouldn’t the junior witch seal the outer circle?” Angelica asked quietly. “She is the least … tested of us.”

  My grandmother threw her shoulders back imperiously. “My understanding is that when the original spell was cast, Jasmine triggered it from the four corners.”

  “Yes, but —”

  Burgundy brushed past the golden-haired vampire, standing shoulder to shoulder with me. She was cupping her focal stone in both hands. Next to everyone and everything else in the room, her magic was dim, confined to an almost imperceptible blue hue around her fingers.

  A tiny fissure of terror cracked open inside me. That magic, Burgundy’s magic, could be snuffed out so easily … overwhelmed, swallowed, consumed by the spell waiting to be unleashed in the black paint etched across the floor.

  “Gran?”

  “You will leave this to me, Jade.” My grandmother gave me a stern look. “Burgundy, I believe your spot is in the second inner circle. That is where your magic wants to rest. But you must look for yourself. You must choose. And once you have done so, when we begin to cast the spell, you will cross through the circle along the pathway, stepping nowhere else, and stand before the first opening.”

  Burgundy swallowed hard. Then she lifted her chin, cast her gaze around the room, and nodded.

  My stomach churned uneasily.

  The magic holding my mother aloft contracted again. Scarlett moaned softly, sounding pained. Then she slipped farther down toward the floor.

  “We need to go now, Pearl,” Angelica said tensely — and suddenly more than ready to throw her previous caution aside. She stepped toward the door, carrying the open can of paint while carefully avoiding the runes still drying underneath her feet.

  Rochelle appeared behind me in the hall. She was holding three paintbrushes. She nodded as she met my gaze.

  “Yes, yes,” Gran said, also crossing to the closest opening between the circles. “We will proceed in a procession, entering the room one at a time. Jade first, crossing toward the innermost circle. Burgundy will follow, sealing Jade in. I will be third, sealing Burgundy.”

  “And I will seal you, Pearl,” Angelica said. “Then the oracle behind me. With the vamp … Jasmine sealing the final circle.”

  “Each of us is powering a separate section?” Burgundy asked.

  Gran nodded. “Bare feet for everyone but Jasmine, I believe.”

  The golden-haired vampire laughed quietly. “Yeah, magic doesn’t work like that for me anymore.”

  “You will anchor us perfectly, Jasmine,” my grandmother said. “Burgundy, you’ll want to place your stone down first, before the opening. Then seal Jade within. I have already imbued the paint with some of my essence. But when you close the circle, you will add your own. Do you understand?”

  Burgundy nodded. “Like I’m healing the circle.”

  A pleased smile flitted briefly over Gran’s face, cracking her stern exterior. And through that crack, I saw that she was scared.

  Underneath all her brusque orders, my grandmother was afraid. That realization was chilling.

  The magic in the room shifted again. My mother cried out, a brief and utterly forlorn sound.

  My father pushed off from the wall across the hall, where he’d been silently listening. “Now!” he barked.

  “Jade,” my grandmother said, shooing us all back out of the door to cluster together in the hall. Then she stepped to the side. “You first.”

  “But I … I don’t know the spell.”

  Angelica plucked two of the new paintbrushes from Rochelle’s hands, practically shoving them at Burgundy and Jasmine. “You don’t need to. You’re the lightning rod.”

  “I’ll talk you through it, Jade.” My grandmother touched me lightly on the shoulder. “After all the circles have been sealed, you will release your mother. And hopefully, the spell will accept the rapier as her rep
lacement.”

  “Fingers crossed,” Jasmine murmured, stripping the protective plastic off her paintbrush. “Otherwise it’s going to be a hell of a backlash.”

  “Not helpful, Jasmine.” My grandmother turned to my father. “I’m sorry to ask the mundane of you, guardian.”

  “Just ask, Pearl.”

  “Would you hold the paint can here by the door, so we may wet our brushes in turn?”

  Angelica offered the open can of paint to my father. He grabbed the handle, stepping to one side of the door. I met his gaze.

  He nodded. “Go get your mother.”

  “Okay.”

  Shoving all my worries aside, I stepped back into the map room. The magic twined across the walls and ceiling reacted to my entrance this time, tugging lightly at the rapier in my hand. I quickly crossed through the rune-scribed circles until I stood before my mother. Her toes were almost touching the floor now, making her shorter than me even though she was still suspended in the column of magic.

  I glanced back as Burgundy stepped up behind me, carefully placing her focal stone between her bare feet. Her toenails were painted bright yellow. She was holding a paintbrush slick with black paint in her other hand. It glistened with magic.

  The young witch crouched over her stone, hovering the paintbrush over one side of the narrow opening in the circle between us.

  “Wait,” I said, carefully setting the rapier down so that it didn’t touch either circle or the painted runes. “Wait, wait.”

  “Jade,” my grandmother snapped from the hall, “we don’t have time for second-guessing.”

  Ignoring her, I hunkered down so I was eye to eye with Burgundy. She met my gaze. The whites of her eyes were wide and round. She was scared. But being brave about it.

  “May I add some protections to your focal stone?” I asked.

  Her eyes widened even further, but she nodded, palming her stone and holding it before her. She had carved a single rune into the stone’s face, its edges smooth to suggest it was the result of repeated etchings.

  “What does the rune stand for?” I asked quietly. I tried to block out all the other frantic energy in the room, and to simply focus on the witch crouched before me. “Strength?”