by Jamie Magee
“Where is Miriam?” Gwinn demanded.
“The whore? Reveca gave her over to somebody named Jamison, she said he could get further with unlocking her witch mind.”
“Where?”
He shrugged then walked away.
“Holy shit!” Gwinn turned and clenched Sven, “You take me to the swamp, now!” He shook his head. “You listen to me, Adair has the wrong spell—if she gets the chance to cast it, it will not free Talley, it will make that asshole right there forevermore in charge—it will make him undefeatable.”
Sven raised a brow.
“You heard me,” she said, gripping him and stepping closer like he was superman ready to soar her away. “Now.”
***
Adair’s palms twitched ever so subtly against the cold stone floor of her Church, her eyes were moving rapidly behind her closed lids, taking in this unexplainable head-trip known as a trio.
All around the dome, the swamp life was in audience, staring at the witch within. The snakes slithered up and down, the gators encircled the base, some swimming by, fish were hauntingly still.
The fire in the dome ring had lifted, the air was now thick with heat. Adair’s body was slick with sweat…but her soul was stricken with fear.
The books were clear, the order gives power. It’s not the changes you make but the order you make them in and the intent you set that matters the most.
If she were to honor her agreement with Scorpio, she had no choice but start with arguably the darkest night in Judge’s life.
It was a gamble for her to agree to this, for the first of the trio was the longest stop she’d have. The other two would barely be minutes, but in Adair’s mindset, they were far more crucial than this one. There was nothing she could really change on that dark night of Judge’s.
When she arrived in the past, the canons made her gut clench. It didn’t matter that she wasn’t seen yet, she still felt the hell of it. She ran past the carriages on the road, those fleeing for their lives, not daring to stop for what they dropped.
Adair passed the open trunk on the road, then doubled back and grabbed the pale blue cloak with spatters of mud on it already. Then she ran toward where she knew Scorpio and Judge were going to be.
Seconds before she saw them, she drew the cloak around her and made her choice to been seen.
Scorpio drew backward, clearly wondering where this beautiful woman before him appeared from; she pushed the cloth in his hand. He didn’t bother to look at it—he was listening to Judge telling him to hurry.
“Read it first,” she said, moving her hands across his chest, to the very place she knew his Phoenix tattoo was, a silent gesture meant to tell him she was not some mortal in his way right then.
She turned and pulled the hood of her cloak as far down as she could and approached Judge.
“Please help, we need escorts,” Adair told Judge, claiming the carriage he was before as her own…and in some way it was, her bloodline was the child inside.
“Follow the path,” Judge responded, not bothering to look at her.
Adair reached for his chest, and the second she touched him, he drew in a sharp breath as if he had just awoken from a dream.
His hands shot to hers. At first, his grip was tight, but then it turned to silk as it rushed down her wrist. He ducked his head, trying to see her face, but she dropped her head more, playing the part of a timid girl.
“Where is your husband?”
“Fighting,” she responded honestly.
Scorpio approached then, apparently somewhat clear on what was happening. “Let’s get them up the road, we can come back through the woods to your families.”
Judge nodded then shamelessly gripped Adair’s arms and urged her to the carriage. She climbed in and drew her finger to her lips when the little girl looked up at her with wide eyes and the woman with her cowered.
Adair waited for the carriage to move then slid out the other side, falling into the woods. The cloak stopped the scrapes but not the impact of the hard ground.
She struggled to catch the wind that was all but knocked out of her as she made it to her feet and then sprinted toward the home.
Tears streamed down her face at the very thought of what was about to happen.
She passed the house and ran for the woods, as fast as her feet would carry her. She had no idea how much time was left.
She didn’t see him at first, he blended into the moonless night, so she tripped over his body.
Chalice stirred awake, he was coming back from the death Zale tried to lay upon him. He smiled up at her as if he’d reached some heaven he craved.
“You listen to me. You will fail this night, but they will rise to the light. Your life will be tested, and tried. You will walk with evil, but you must for it will lead you to hell…and there you will silently defend the will of the Pentacle Sons. You will listen and inquire when able and tell them the ploys set to destroy them. You will redeem yourself by defeating the beast from his very gullet.
He wept. “I’m not worthy. Don’t make me.”
“You are strong, and I make you do nothing. Honor him, the man you will rob this night, whose family you slay. You honor him when you see him again. Give him his vengeance, then you fight this evil from hell.”
“Leave,” he ordered as his gaze grew wide.
Adair did because she knew he could sense more than she ever could.
She ran to the end of the woods. Deer, squirrels, rabbits, and every kind of game one could imagine moved closer to her, surrounding her, hiding her very scent, masking her racing her heart.
She watched as Zale approached and spoke his curse over Chalice once more, assuming he was now the risen dead.
Adair dropped her head when Chalice went toward the home. The sick feeling wasn’t something she could hold in any longer. She got sick, more than once.
As she caught her breath, all the animals twitched their ears as if they could sense something in the distance.
When she focused her eyes in the darkness behind her, she saw them—Judge and Scorpio.
She couldn’t figure out why Judge had dropped to his knees in shock and despair.
When she looked toward the house, she understood. Beautiful, white, haunting lights were soaring from the roof of the home. Then, in a majestic rush, they charged toward the woods, past where she was and to Judge.
The spirits moved all around him, a warm embrace, each taking their time with him, and his gaze—his all-seeing, all-knowing gaze peered deeply into his mortal family.
Then they began to leave, ushering slowly toward the heavens.
Judge roared, denial thick in his grief-stricken tone. He went to charge forward into the house, but Scorpio used all his power to grasp him. Right as Judge stood, overpowering Scorpio, Adair jerked her stare back to the house.
As Chalice staggered out covered in blood, the entire home exploded behind him, swallowing him whole.
Adair lurched deeper into the woods, sure the light would expose her. From her new angle, she managed a smile. Adair understood the fire now; it was Talley and Rush who had set the house afire, who had kept Judge from seeing the unthinkable.
One tiny note sent back in time at Scorpio’s request had changed so much. Adair had no idea how Scorpio had managed to do what he had in such a short time, but she felt a sense of relief. This had to have impacted Judge in some way.
Robbing Judge of this grief, the degree of pain he had warred with for ages, was only the first way she’d betray him tonight…but as Jade said, she didn’t regret it. This was her compromise. Judge would still crave vengeance, he’d need it, but his final moments with his family would not be horrific, they would be them telling him how much they loved him, of the peace they felt.
And Chalice, he’d have time to prepare himself for his journey to hell, the one place he might make a difference in this war.
All at once, the entire forest grew silent around her.
She glanced over her s
houlder to see the eyes of pure evil staring back at her—Zale.
In that beat of her heart, she doubted she’d ever know the impact of her actions…
***
Judge felt remarkably calm, of all the times he had imagined this very moment, calm was not a feeling he thought he’d own.
As he’d waited for the van to arrive, he had tried to think of his family, to build himself up with rage when he thought of how robbed they were, how gruesome their deaths had to have been, how they should have never happened.
But instead, something he must have touched a time or two when he was in Zen over the years came to him—his family at peace, not afraid but content, blissful, set to move on to a place he couldn’t even fathom. Full of light. Each of them telling him he had to stay, that he had a family all his own that needed him to protect them.
Judge was at peace with their deaths but not with the reason of the event, the cause.
Judge had to wonder if it was Adair who had shifted his mindset…
Holding Adair again, being seated deeply within her body and feeling his little witch pull him deeper—feeling so connected to another so that he could not find a division…it was humbling. Uplifting.
Across his life, he had walked through hells, too many to remember, but they never felt like such because of his boys, his Club. The past five years had been tough, he’d hid it well, but Judge was heavy with resentment. He was angry he couldn’t have it all—the family who had been at his side through all his hells and the woman who made it worth fighting them.
Tonight as he walked away from Adair, he imagined her safely cocooned in deep dreams nestled in her Church. He thought of how he’d wake her, how they may have to run and fight throughout this night and days to come, but he would never let her feel the strain of it.
Tonight, Judge was closing the book on this dark portion of his life and opening a new one, starting over with his woman—the one who was fierce and had no qualms about calling him on his bullshit one minute and showing her own vulnerability the next. His Dove.
Seeing Chalice grin almost in relief when Judge met his eyes flared up his cold vengeance a bit—he’d wanted the man to beg for his life, to see fear in his eyes, the way the darkest part of Judge had imagined his family had reacted.
“You’re looking a bit less crispy these days, Chalice,” Judge stated.
Rush and Scorpio glanced at one another with the slightest glint of a smile in their stare.
The look Talon and Reveca gave each other had no smile. Crispy? How did that word make any sense?
Knowing they needed to get back to Adair and speed this up, Talon reached back for the non-crispy Chalice and lunged him forward, followed by Latour.
Talon marched them into a hunter’s cabin, one that was so worn you could see the water under the boards.
All along the walls were full gasoline jugs, cloths dangling from under them.
Chum had been spilled between the boards, and underneath the worn floor, the gators were swarming, waiting for more blood.
“We’s workin’ somthin’ out?” Latour asked a bit shakily. “You can kilt me, they’ll gut youins, they’d be no Boneyard left. My witches will curse you.”
Chalice knelt before he was asked to.
“Angel bon rein fool, what you doin’? Save us!”
“Shut him up,” Judge said to Rush. One slice, and Latour was gone. Reveca and Cashton spoke their spell and watched his soul surge right to Crass.
In her mind’s eye, Reveca saw Crass sneer then pull Tisk forward, waiting for his other gift before he sent the whore back.
Latour’s blood pooled on the floor, oozing between the boards. The thrash of water below all but shook the whole cabin.
Carefully and slowly, Judge circled Chalice, his knife slicing here and there, teasing the gators who were already unnerved.
Not once did Chalice so much as flinch.
“How did you do it? How did you destroy an entire family within seconds—what did you do!” Judge roared.
Again, Talon and Reveca looked to each other in question, clearly on a different page.
When Talon’s sharp stare met Rush’s, he shrugged slightly.
Chalice dropped his head.
“No,” Judge said, drawing his head up with a point of a knife. “You don’t get to pray. You speak to me. Now.”
Chalice looked over him. “I honor you as she said, and I will be a servant in hell.” He looked over Judge. “If you wish, I will scream, I will fight you. I will beg for my life, but I give it freely. I begged for a reason for my torture, and she came, she told me.” He looked over Judge carefully. “I am your servant.”
Judge coldly glared at him as he causally tilted his head to the side. “Who?”
“My angel. Her cloak was as blue as the sky, her hair dark as a raven…her eyes like sapphires.”
Judge jarred back. A faint, oh so faint memory—or maybe a dream—slammed into his mind…the woman who needed an escort. Her touch as brief as it was had seized his heart. She lingered in his mind right up until…until he saw the spirits of his family.
Right now, Judge could remember both—the gore and the calm end—but the gore felt like a nightmare he had touched on and the calm end as the truth.
Wide-eyed Judge glanced back to Reveca, a glance that said it all—yes, he remembered Adair there now. She’d changed the past.
“Kairos,” Reveca said on a panted sigh. “It came. Creator help her.”
Talon stepped up. “This angel, was she hurt, where did you see her last?” he demanded.
Chalice looked up at him. “I sent her away as soon as I heard him…I don’t know how far she made it. I honor her, too.”
“Where did you send her?” Talon roared again.
“Deeper into the woods.”
“Oh, fuck,” Scorpio exhaled, looking to Rush. For all they knew, they walked right by her—they left her alone with Zale.
Talon met Judge’s eyes. “Finish this. We’re out.”
One swipe, a quick, painless, death—a warrior’s death, full of honor was what Chalice received, and Judge didn’t think twice about it—Adair was consuming his every thought now as his mind rapidly tried to grasp what was truly his memory now.
This was the second time he had felt this odd push of memories, her Church was the first time. When he was there, he was sure he had been there before. If not, he was sure one of the endless times he had been deep inside of Adair had been in a place like that, but then, and now, he hadn’t had even a second to discount or understand the rush of deja vu.
“Call the Boneyard—make sure Gwinn is with her,” Talon ordered to Rush as Reveca made sure Crass received Chalice.
Judge’s shoulders tensed as he paused at the door. “She’s at her temple.”
Reveca was watching Tisk’s soul soar from death and into the prison she had set up for her when Judge spoke. She turned to look at Judge. “Do what?”
“She’s guarded. Shade is there. You know Dagen is.”
Reveca rushed from the room, ready to steal any bike she could.
“What?” Judge said, running after her. “Kairos will move her, when it’s over, her body will appear in the last place she changed. Dagen can’t sense her until she’s there, and it will take him a second to do so—she needed a witch at her side, a seer. Now she is lost to us.”
“Where the fuck are you going?” Judge asked, roaring his bike to life.
“To where I would have gone if I was her,” Reveca answered, flying forward.
She wasn’t surprised King was nowhere near her—she knew he was searching for Adair, but for all Reveca knew—Adair’s dead body was lying in a haunted forest across the globe.
If Zale had found her there all those years ago, he could have done anything to control her, ended her life only to bring her back when he need her, spelled her to come to him at an appointed time—the dark ideas were endless.
If there was life in her body, they could conjure a
spell and watch where she was set to go, ensure she had a least made it beyond her first stop.
If there wasn’t…Reveca had no idea how Judge or Talon would survive this, and she’d be too weak to do a damn thing about it. For if King was right, and Reveca knew he was, and Adair was an Escort, created of her and him—they’d feel her death.
Reveca didn’t feel weak now, so she had hope, but not much. Not until she knew for sure Adair was not in the grips of Zale.
Chapter Two
Adair thought the bastard was going to take her right there. The look in his eyes was lust filled, hungry for power, and clearly, he knew how to recognize an opportunity when he saw it.
“Adair Vallet…or shall I call you mother?”
Bravely, Adair circled Zale, looking him up and down. He was just a story to her before tonight. An enemy her lover had spoken of, a whisper among the witches…and an evil who had cursed Talley.
“You’re confused,” she said finally.
“Am I?” Zale said as a slow grin spread across his striking face, the fact he was a gorgeous man made his evil all the more sinful.
Adair matched his grin.
“I have seen your future,” Zale said as his eyes flicked to the massive fire behind her, to the sound of the Sons voice.
“Have you?”
Zale’s stare snapped back to her. “What have you done?”
Adair had been nervously chanting an illusion spell in her mind, and apparently it took effect—she’d glimpsed long locks of red hair across her shoulder. She was now appearing in Miriam’s image.
Zale leaned his head back slightly, not completely buying what he was seeing.
“For starters, I convinced you I was Adair Vallet,” Adair stated, perfectly mimicking Miriam’s voice.
Before Zale could respond, she felt a wind pick up—the wind that would end this jaunt in the past and take her to the next. In the image of Miriam, Adair bowed, giving him the impression she had complete control of this power.
The illusion spell vanished the second she found her way to the second point of change.
Her old bathroom.
Adair gasped, shocked her mind was powerful enough to lead her to where she wanted to go—had to go—and completely humbled by this unexplainable authority of the trio. According to everything she had read, this was not an easy task, landing correctly. Those who had practiced for years, sought their points of change, often fumbled.
