“Strangely enough, it seems the security camera in the stadium cut out right before your model died, but right before it cut out, just for a moment, it seemed as though you and your partner were talking to another person. A woman.”
“That is strange,” I said. “But I assure you, there was no one else there.”
A woman? What the crap? I mean, I was lying, sure. There was no woman, though, and no way in heck the warlock we saw there could be confused as anything other than a guy. As if I weren’t confused enough already, this added a world of stress I didn’t need.
“Right . . .” He cleared his throat. “Now, that day you told me no one else was there. That you and your partner went into another room and when you came back, Elle was lying dead on the runway. Correct?”
“Yes,” I said, keeping my voice as steady as possible.
“Then how do you account for what we’ve seen in the footage? Who was it you were talking to, exactly?”
“I don’t know,” I stammered. “Maybe it was Elle.”
“Elle was on the runway, walking,” he said. “Both you and Babbs were looking off to the side, completely away from her.”
“I . . . I don’t remember,” I said. “Why? What are you getting at?”
“I’m not getting at anything. But something is clearly amiss. Either you’ve made a mistake and forgotten a small part of the day, or you’re lying to a detective during an ongoing investigation.”
“I’m not lying!” I lied.
“Of course.” He smiled. “Then you’ve likely forgotten. Tell you what. Think it over for a little while and we’ll talk again. Perhaps your memory will clear up.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said. “I just want to be done with this. I just want to make it to Fashion Week!”
“Fashion Week.” He gave a wicked smile. “I’d hate to think this investigation would hamper your career, Ms. Black. Though I doubt it’ll get that far. I mean, surely, you’re not holding anything back? Surely, you won’t be considered a person of interest. Right?”
There it was, the declaration I’d been dreading. This could ruin me. This one simple thing could take everything I’d worked for and toss it to the wolves. This is it, I thought. No more playing around. I had to find the truth behind all of this. I had to find out what kind of magic was used to kill Elle and I had to find out who wielded it. You fight fire with fire and magic with magic. If I was going to move forward with my dreams, I’d have to take a step back. I’d have to become a witch once more.
One witch hat later . . .
“I can’t even with this right now!” Babbs squealed with glee. “I mean, are you sure? Are you, like, totally sure?”
“I have no choice,” I said. “I’m gonna have to become a witch again!”
“This is the best thing to happen all month!” she said. “I mean, if not for those two hot twins and that Jacuzzi, it might have been the best thing to happen all year!”
“I’d forgotten about the twins,” I said.
I knew better than to tell Babbs the news anywhere but in a public place. I loved her to death, but her excitement often got the better of her and I was afraid that in the seclusion of our apartment, she’d have passed out. At least in the small café, she had to keep it relatively calm, right?
“I’m just so excited!” She slammed her hand against the table.
Maybe I was wrong . . .
“I mean. Does this mean you’ll finally teach me spells and hexes and stuff? Like, the real ones?”
“Sure,” I replied.
“Oh . . . my . . . everything.” Her eyes nearly popped out of her head. “I want to learn how to boil water with a single word. No! I want to know how to make water. No! I want to know how to create boiling water!”
“What?” I asked. “Boiling water?”
“We need to calm down.” She pressed her hand against her chest and took a few deep breaths.
It was true Babbs had asked me numerous times how to cast and hex, but for the most part, I never really wanted to share that. Not because I didn’t want her to know or anything, but because that part of my life was behind me. That, and well . . . magic is a tricky thing. Once you get used to using it the way most witches did, it became a sort of crutch.
“So . . .” I said after a minute or two. “The first thing we need to do is go to that warehouse Everly told me about. The one where she saw the warlock keeping those demons.”
“Right!” Babbs said. “Let’s go!”
“No,” I replied. “We can’t just head off like that. If you’re going to be part of this, you’re gonna need to learn a few things. We need to get you ready.”
“Ready for what?” Babbs asked.
“For whatever comes next.”
Two quick relocation spells and one mountaintop later . . .
“This is so cool!” Babbs said, looking around at the stunning mountain vistas around us. “Where are we?”
“Valaryia,” I replied. “It’s kind of between realms. This is a sacred place among witches. We come here to practice spells, to get ready for battle, and to meditate. The magic used here is powerful and pure.”
“I always knew places like this were real,” she said, reaching out her hand, her fingers cutting through the glittering air. “I can see it. I can see the magic in the air.”
“Yes,” I replied. “It’s very powerful here. Now come. I need to show you a few things.”
Babbs followed closely behind me as we made our way to the edge of the tall mountain ledge. Below us, outstretched as far as the eye could see, lay nothing but water, alive and ferocious in its actions. Large waves and torrents of walled water slammed hard against the base of the mountain, each one reflecting the ever-changing rainbow of colors in the sky. It had been so long since I’d seen its beauty, so long since I’d heard its song. Too long.
“Wow!” Babbs said.
“There’s a spell,” I said. “One that brings you back to the start.”
“The start of what?”
“Of the moment you died,” I replied. “Remember that video game you made me play? The one with the little blue guy trying to find the coins?”
“Sonic the Hedgehog?”
“Yeah. You know how when he dies, he just kind of pops back up, all blinking and everything, right at the moment before he jumped into the hole?”
“Yeah . . .”
“It’s kind of like that,” I answered. “Think of it as insurance. But . . . it only works once. At least, once per battle.”
“Why are you telling me this?” Babbs asked. “And why are we standing on the edge of a cliff?”
“I’ll say the incantation,” I said. “Then you repeat it. Then, we jump.”
“Yeah . . .” Babbs took a step back. “That’s a little intense for the first spell, don’t ya think? I was thinking more of changing my hair color, or maybe turning a rock into a butterfly or something. This whole jumping to our death thing seems like something for day two.”
“There is no day two,” I said. “I know it seems like a lot, but I can’t have you coming along with me unprepared. I need you ready. I need you armored. I need you to know how to defend yourself.”
“Isn’t there another way?” she asked.
“Babbs.” I wrapped my hands around her cheeks. “I need you to trust me. I need you to repeat my words, then I need you to jump.” I slowly took her hand into my own, then turned and faced the water. “Et ante me adducere, detrahet me ad satus!” I said, repeating it over and over until Babbs finally got it down. Until her words harmonized with mine exactly.
Then, with one final and loud chant, we leapt off the edge and into the glistening magic-filled air. Seconds later, we were back where we started and the look in my best friend’s face was unmistakable. For the first time in her life, she’d experienced magic in its true and unfiltered form. She’d felt what it was like to have the fabric of time and space tear apart, then reweave all around you and bend to your will.
&nb
sp; “That was amazing,” she said breathlessly. “I’ve never experienced anything like that in my life. What . . . what was that?”
“That was magic.”
We spent the next few hours practicing an entire set of magical hexes and incantations, each one designed to do a different thing. Invisibility, luck, elemental . . . everything. It was important for Babbs, yes, but it was also important for me. It had been quite a while since I’d done anything other than parlor tricks for my friends and I needed the practice too.
“All right,” I said finally. “I think you’ve got enough down for now.”
I probably shouldn’t have been surprised given everything I knew about her, but for a mortal, Babbs was a fast learner. Not that she was up to my level in terms of magical knowledge, but in sheer abilities, she was pretty darn close. For whatever reason, it just all seemed to come so naturally to her, something I was very happy about.
10
“We look freaking awesome!” Babbs said, scanning the mirror. She wasn’t wrong, though maybe this wasn’t the time to worry about how we looked, right? I’d whipped up—yes, magically—three outfits, each one all-black with padding and sculpted armor in all the right places.
For the pants, I’d taken inspiration from tires. Yup, you heard me right. Tires. You might not think rubber pants with deep treading were the most tactical thing in the world, but remember, I had magic on my side. They had amazing flexibility, perfect fit, and the ability to reflect both bullets and magic. Our jackets matched. Short in the front and a bit longer in the back, they had to ability to deflect a series of dark hexes. For those, I’d chosen simple black leather, though it had been magically enhanced quite a bit.
“We do look pretty good—”
“Shut up!” Babbs interrupted as Nicco stepped out of the bathroom. “Nicco . . . look at yourself!”
“What?” he replied.
“You just look . . . I mean, look at yourself,” she stammered, then jabbed her elbow into my side. “Look at how hot he is. I’ve never seen clothes fit anyone like that. The man is hot!”
“Babbs, you have got to let it go.” I chuckled. “He’s hot. We know.”
Once again, she was right. I’d seen hot guys before, mortal, warlock, Lycan . . . the whole shebang. But in all my life, I’d never seen pants fit anyone the way they fit Nicco. Heck, I’d never seen anything fit anyone the way clothes seemed to fit Nicco, including their own skin. The black, treaded rubber snaked around his thick calves, wrapping its way up his muscular thighs until . . . I tried not to focus on his shapely behind, which believe me, was pretty difficult.
And that jacket. Oh, my goodness, don’t even get me started on the way his massive pectoral muscles bulged out, the way the zipper stopped just between them, revealing the perfectly tanned skin of his chest. I took a deep breath.
“She’s just saying you look good.” I smiled.
“Good!” Babbs snapped. “Just look at you—”
“Babbs!”
“Right.” She ran a hand through her blonde hair then took a deep, cleansing breath. “Let’s get this party started!”
The truth was I had no idea what we’d be walking into. For all I knew, this night could end in disaster. I could end up hurt, or even trapped in some magical hell realm, or worse, it could happen to Babbs or Nicco. It hadn’t really occurred to me until I saw us all dressed like some enchanted gang, but my best friend and the man who loved me might get hurt, like really hurt.
“Maybe I should go this alone,” I said as the realization settled on me.
“What?” Babbs asked.
“I . . . don’t know what I was thinking.” I was suddenly awash in guilt. Was it really fair of me to ask this of them? I knew with every fiber of my being the lengths Nicco would go to in order to protect me, but did that mean I had to exploit them? Was I exploiting them? And what about Babbs? She was a mortal, for goodness’ sake. Magical, yes, but a mortal nonetheless. What if she were to get hurt? I’d practiced magic with her for a few hours. Was it really reasonable for me to ask her to walk into an unknown and likely dangerous situation? No.
“What are you talking about?” Babbs asked.
“This is a warlock. We’re walking into a situation we don’t understand. What if he sees us coming? What if you get hurt? I can’t risk it. It isn’t fair.”
“Ginni . . .” Nicco started toward me. “How—”
“Not to interrupt your fine self, but hold up.” Babbs stepped closer to me. “Fair? Did you say fair? What’s not fair is for some warlock to kill our model on the runway. What’s not fair is for it to hurt the business we’ve built from the ground up. What’s not fair is for me to spend my while life feeling like an outcast just because I was born on the wrong side of a realm. There are a lot of things that aren’t fair in this life, babe. But me helping my best friend isn’t one of them.”
“You might get hurt,” I said. “You barely have any training.”
“I don’t need it,” she said. “I have instinct. I have Nicco and I have you. That’s more than I ever thought I was going to get in this life.” Her eyes began to fill with tears. “You still don’t get it, babe. I’ve found you. I’ve found my tribe and I’m not letting go. If you walk into danger, we all walk into danger. That’s it. Nothing’s gonna change that.”
“She’s right.” Nicco stepped closer. “You’re not alone. You never will be.”
“You didn’t choose that, Nicco,” I said, trying desperately to make them understand my position. “You didn’t choose to love me.”
“When has anyone ever chosen who they love?” he asked, his deep voice dropping a little as he focused in on my eyes. “You look at my imprint on you as magic. You see it as some spell or incantation I can’t control.”
“That’s what it is.”
“No,” he said. “It’s love, plain and simple. I love you. I always will. I’ll never ask you to love me back, but I’ll hope you do. It was magical, for a second. After that, it’s just love.”
The last thing I’d expected when I woke up was to spend my evening walking through an emotional minefield, but that’s what happened. It took me a few minutes and a lot of talking, but over the next little while, it became clear to me that nothing I said was going to stop either Nicco or Babbs from coming along with me. We were a team, like it or not. And the more I thought about it, the more blessed I felt.
I can’t say that I’d ever felt alone or unloved in my childhood. I’d had my dad, and for a while, I’d had my mom. I’d had friends and a community of witches, warlocks, and other magical creatures, each one ready and willing to be part of my life. But until I met Babbs, until I felt the depth of Nicco’s love, I hadn’t really realized how much I’d walled myself off after losing my mother. But that was then and this was now, and as I’d come to learn, now was a very different time, with very different people.
I took one final look in the mirror. Even I had to admit how well Nicco and I fit next to one another. I’d never fancied myself as a supermodel or anything, but I tried to take care of myself. Standing next to Nicco, though, the embodiment of physical perfection, I looked like a million bucks. A phrase I’d taken from Babbs.
“All right . . .” I said after a few minutes of silence. “Let’s go!”
We stepped out into the night, all dressed in black and ready for action . . .
The bright lights of Atlanta’s skyline filled the air, illuminating the dark clouds like a million different dreams, each one rising high above us, just waiting for someone to scoop them up and run. Night in the magic realm was different, almost less magical in a way. There were no skyscrapers, no bustling city streets, and no pulse of nightlife.
I still remember my first night alone in the city, well, not completely alone. By the time the sun set, Babbs was already by my side. Still, though, to me, it was something awesome, something I’d never seen before. I wanted so badly to step out into the fog, into the fray of people, and just be part if it all. And with Ba
bbs by my side, that’s exactly what I did.
We went dancing, we ate food from a truck, and we did everything and nothing all in one night. It was completely amazing, a memory I would forever treasure.
“What is this place?” Nicco asked as we stepped out of the car.
“I don’t know,” I answered. “This is just the location I gleaned from Everly when she mentioned it in the café.”
“This is Old Towne,” Babbs said. “Not much goes on here, really. I think they use it for horror houses during Halloween time. A lot of abandoned buildings and stuff . . .”
“Horror houses?” I asked.
“Oh,” Babbs said. “They’re awful. You’ll love it!”
“All right . . .”
It took a little while to find the place, which made sense, seeing as how it was cloaked in magic. I have to admit, that was one, I wasn’t expecting, which made me once again think we might have jumped the gun with this whole vigilante witch thing.
“I’m sorry I said I thought you weren’t ready.” I turned to Babbs. “I’ve seen witches born in the magical realm with less instincts than you. You’re amazing, you know. I want you to know I see that.”
“Babe . . .” Babbs gave a big smile. “Of course, I’m amazing. Don’t even worry about it.”
“No,” I argued. “I’m serious. I shouldn’t have asked you to stay. You put just as much work into this line as I have. It’s fifty-fifty all the way. Good, bad, or dangerous.”
“Thank you.” She smiled. “I knew you’d see it one day.”
The building was large, with ornate stonework on its edges, the kind that didn’t seem to still be in vogue based on all the tall glass buildings I noticed sprouting up around the city. Wrought iron covered its windows in large ornate swirls, again, a design element seemingly lost on modern-day structures.
I couldn’t help but wonder what Enchanted Lake might look like over time if everyone saw it the same way. If, like the mortal realm, it was built by hand, not by magic. Would witches and warlocks also move forward with the times, or would they hold on to their past? Something told me it would be the latter.
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