“Were you able to catch him?”
Patrick sighed. “No, he was incredibly fit. He dashed about as if he ran daily.”
In any other situation Ivy would have laughed. “Marathons and races are sort of a hobby in my time. He likely does them.”
“I lost him. I spoke with our High Priest. I’m not sure if you remember him, he’s not open to traitors. A search is out for Jared now, but if he’s left this time, I’m sorry to say you might need to return home.”
“Now, this might be me getting my head all twisted in knots, but if you can time travel, why not travel back to before he does something and stop him?”
“This time travel appears to drop you on the identical date you cast, just a different year. My goal is to get home and seek to work with a djinn to tweak the spell and stop him.”
“Why not do that now?” Patrick asked.
“We were ordered to bring him in. If we leave without him, there’s no telling what damage he could do to the timelines. Future us might not even know there is anything wrong.”
Lita whistled again. “That is rough.”
Ivy nodded and let her gaze glance to the door—to her mother and Elijah who she could hear speaking just beyond it. “You don’t even know the half of it.”
19
The smells of roses, honey, lavender, and vanilla tickled Elijah’s nose. The sooner he got out of the tea shop, the better. And not just because it gets Ivy away from Patrick. The warlock showing up and saving her life was convenient, but Elijah didn’t like the idea of her being around another man. Lovely. A night of good sex and instead of being over her, you’re hitching yourself to her. What is the matter with you, Vikander?
“How is it you come to trust my daughter when I’ve reached out numerous times to seek peace between our kind without so much as a response?” Ivy’s mother narrowed emerald eyes at him as her hands landed on her hips.
Elijah refrained from swallowing. Barely. “I apologize for my past engagements. I’m a difficult man to change his ways, but your daughter came to me with something I think is long overdue.”
Aspen arched a brow but her tone didn’t shift. “Then say it, this shop doesn’t need to stink like bayou wolf. It’ll deter other witches from entering.”
Breathe. Elijah listened to his command and blew a long breath out his nose. The woman before him was a product of her time and environment, nothing more.
“She believes unity across the species can help us police are own and offer services otherwise unavailable.” Oh, good, spill the council nearly a hundred years early. He cleared his throat and focused on nothing but the task at hand. “If one representative from each species met on a regular basis to discuss business, it would allow us to stay connected in a world we choose to continue to live in separate communities. Warlocks can use their necromancy gifts to help shifters make peace with alpha’s they’ve usurped. Witches can use shifter senses to find criminals. Registries can be kept of family lines and businesses that can be shared amongst our communities.”
Stating the basics of the Council of Supernaturals to another suddenly made the usefulness of the meetings abundantly clear. Even if he hated going, this might be the first time he’s truly accepted them as necessary.
“My daughter, my Ivy, thought of this?” The skeptical tone of her voice seemed off since the Ivy Elijah had known for so many decades was one hell of a logical thinker.
“She came with the idea. I helped embellish it as needed to suit my interests.”
“I see.” Aspen crossed her arms over her chest. None of the hostility was gone. “And you are here, in the shop because?”
Think. Years of leadership taught him not to so much as blink when he couldn’t answer the questions. “The warlock. She requested a meeting with him as well and I wished to be present. To see his take on things.”
A moment of silence wrapped around them and Elijah saw Ivy in every bit of her mother. The way her emerald eyes seemed to show the wheels turning, the slight tap of her foot as she took in the information, and even the way her red hair hung just over her shoulder reminded Elijah of her daughter.
“Why now?”
“Excuse me?” The question took him completely off guard.
“Why are you interested in something of this nature now, when my beautiful and single daughter brings it you?”
His eyes narrowed. “I’m not certain I like the implication in your tone.” He knew his control slipped with every second they spoke. Mrs. Lancaster reminded him of the witches he hated right down to her condescending assumptions.
Before he could respond a strange ringing came from under the cash register. The color drained from Aspen’s face before she cleared her throat and approached to the humans in the store. Though she spoke in hushed tones, Elijah’s hearing heard everything as she apologized to the humans and requested they leave.
The phone-like sound continued for three more rings and then stopped. Just as quickly it started again. Mrs. Lancaster rushed to the register and pulled out a very old looking mirror with a scuff mark across the silver back. She tapped it, and the sound stopped.
“Aspen, we have a problem. The Coven, something’s happened to some members. You need to get to Jackson Square—now.”
Elijah stepped closer. “Did a voice just come out of that mirror?”
Ivy’s mother nearly hissed at him. “Do not distract yourself with what does not concern you.” She turned her to attention back to the mirror. “Delores, what is going on?”
“Six coven members,” she stuttered. “They’re attacking humans in Jackson Square.”
“Jared,” Elijah snarled, feeling the familiar tingle of an oncoming shift. “Ivy!” His cry seemed to penetrate through the store, and she pushed the door open.
“Everything okay?” She tilted her to the side and glanced around to the mirror her mother held. “A mirror call?”
“Ivy,” Elijah crossed the space in two large strides. “Jared’s in the square, he’s using witches this time.”
“Shit,” Ivy hissed, grabbing a potion bottle from under the counter. “Remember that time travel potion I dumped out to take the djinn’s blood?” She dropped the vial in her bag. “Back up.”
“What in the name of the goddess are you talking about? Who is Jared and why are you running around with djinn blood—disgusting creatures.” Her mother sneered the final bit.
Patrick stepped out from the back with Ivy’s friend Lita. “We need to transport Elijah and Ivy to the square. Now.”
“Young man, you have not been a part of my daughter’s life for some time. You will not command us.”
“Mother,” Ivy interrupted, looping her hand into Elijah’s. “There’s not time to explain. A warlock is either controlling coven members or swayed some ladies to his side. He’s out to destroy the peace we have with humanity. We have to go.”
She looked as if she would argue, so Elijah opened his mouth. “Look -”
Her mother raised a hand and grabbed a potion from the shelf just behind her tucked behind a Chinese-themed teapot. “Everyone together now. Always have a transport potion brewed for emergencies.”
Ivy squeezed Elijah’s hand. “Hold on, this is going to suck.”
The words were no sooner past her lips than Mrs. Lancaster shattered the vial at their feet, enveloping them in an almost maroon cloud of smoke.
“Humans will bow!” A woman’s voice cackled and Elijah nearly stumbled sideways as a bout of violent queasiness rolled through him.
“What the? Witches can do this?” In all his years he had always thought warlocks to the be escape artists.
“Not now.” Ivy let go of his hand. “Don’t shift. Not now. Stay back as much as you can.” She kissed him then, in front of everyone. “Do not get in their way. Please.”
Elijah blinked, surprised at the affection and his enjoyment of her emotions. Someone screamed, and he turned his head to see a woman levitating above the nearest grassy patch. “I can’t pr
omise that. I’m going to help.”
Everything screamed at him to kiss her back, but he took off toward Jared where he stood on top of the Andrew Jackson statue in the center of the square.
“I have had enough of you!” Jared hissed, lobbing a ball of yellow fire at Elijah.
Relying on his wolf instincts, Elijah rolled to the side. “Funny, I was about to the say the same. Jared, by order of the Council of Supernaturals, I sentence you to death.” His lips pulled back in a snarl.
“That’s amusing,” Jared hurled a ball of fire. “That sounded like a werewolf daring to threaten a much stronger being.”
“Only when it comes to magic.” Elijah rushed at the statue, slamming in to it. Pain jolted through his body, but he needed to launch Jared off the status or break it, whichever came first. Backing up, he hit it again.
Jared shouted a word Elijah didn’t understand and suddenly his feet didn’t move. He focused on his foot, tried to a move a toe, and couldn’t.
Jared jumped down, seemingly moving in slow motion as screams and howls clouded everything. Elijah could focus on nothing save for the arrogant smirk on the warlock’s face.
“What did you do to me?” Elijah howled, trying to thrash about with no success.
“I put you in your place. Be a dear Council Elect and wait right here while I finish this up.” Jared patted Elijah on the back, not needing to dodge the snap of Elijah’s jaws because Elijah couldn’t snap them.
* * *
Jared’s lip curled in a snarl. A lifetime of hiding was over, yet three witches, a warlock, and a wolf stood against them in the middle of a sunny morning right out in the open.
They’re adding to my cause and they don’t even realize it. He chortled to himself as he walked to the edge of the park and watched the fiasco unfold. Despite the noise, he muted everything out. He saw only the fight–only the flashes of magic–and the desperate attempts the humans made to flee. The cops came, and with mere waves of his hands, the barrier spell erected over the park, locking those who were present in. Including the party crashers.
Finding his wife had been simple, convincing Ginnie to join his fight to save her life, even easier. She carried their child within her and so her emotions were clouded by hormones. He merely suggested that in a future where witches and warlocks hid in the shadows, they were hunted. Ginnie was a truly intelligent woman. She saw the writing on the wall and knew she clearly did live in the future he claimed to be from.
A tree next to him caught on fire with a purple glow—Ivy’s magic. The persistent witch didn’t know which side to be on.
Racing to the nearest witch whose name Jared didn’t know proved difficult with the fighting. One of the witches with Ivy, the younger one with similar looks to Ivy, slammed him with a knockback spell. His barrier stuttered, and he stumbled long enough for her to get close and drive her athame into his stomach.
“Silly witch,” he grinned around the blood leaking from his mouth.” With the swirl of his wrist, his athame rose out of his boot and slashed across the witch’s ankles.
She shrieked, dropping to the ground due to severed tendons. Jared made a snapping motion without letting his fingers touch and the blood covered white athame dove straight into her heart. Her cry was muffled and short before he crushed the athame deeper in with his boot.
“Well, that was messy.” Stepping around her, he reached the witch he sought out. “Kill the wolf.”
“With pleasure.” Her eyes seemed to glow with merriment as she exploded the nearest column and sent cement flying.
Jared’s gaze found Ivy, her mouth open in a soundless scream as she dropped over the witch he’d killed. He hadn’t intended to kill any witches, but if Ivy continued to get in his way, the time had come for her to die.
First things first. He turned away from the women and man fighting off his band of merry witches to the wolf. The witch before him seemed to be opting for a more painful method of death than merely casting a spell. Blue fire grew and sparked in the clear sky just above Elijah’s head.
With a snap of her fingers, the bolt and blaze slammed into the wolf, drawing out a guttural cry before he hit the ground.
20
Tears streaked down her face as Ivy held onto the Lita’s unmoving body. Lita’s eyes stared up at her, cold and dead. “We’ll fix this. I’m so sorry this happened to you, but I promise, this ends now and you’ll be alive before you know it.” Despite the chaos, Ivy smoothed Lita’s hair off her face.
Elijah’s howl drew her head up. He convulsed as a current of storm magic slammed into him.
“No!” Ivy’s voice echoed despite the vastly open space and her hands shoved outwards, pushing to both sides.
The witch who attached Elijah lifted in the air and slammed into a tree–head first–before crashing to the ground. Ivy killed again, only this time, Ivy would not mourn the loss of a traitor. She saw Jared’s wife in the crowd and knew these six women came willingly.
“Elijah,” she stumbled as she raced to him, her hand smacking down onto his chest.
She watched his neck cave in a fraction of a bit. He breathed, though his eyes did not open, and he didn’t speak. “You are not allowed to die on me.” Tears flowed faster down her cheeks until she caught sight of Jared. When she looked back, Elijah wasn’t breathing.
“You,” Ivy hissed the word, standing and staring at Jared from across the way. Dropping her wand, she dug in the bag across her waist and pulled at the potion. “I’ve only got one shot.” Jerking the lid off she cracked the glass in her hands and quickly brought it to her lips, finishing it in one gulp.
A cloud rolled through the square. When it passed, she was ten seconds prior and across the park. “Elijah!”
Her shout worked, but not enough. He turned to look at her, stepping just far enough out of the blast of storm magic that it went into his shoulder. Still, he dropped to the ground and shook as the power passed through him.
Ivy raced, Goddess, not again. I only have one potion. She hadn’t enough time to save Lita, but she’d thought she could save Elijah.
She tripped, just as she did the first time she lived this moment. Only this time, when she landed on him, he coughed.
“Jesus, that hurt.”
Ivy’s throat constricted. “You’re not dead this time.”
“This time?” Elijah winced as he tried to sit up.
“Time travel potion.” She blinked and tears tracked down her cheeks.
Content with knowing he was okay she stood and glanced around. Destruction and blood covered every inch of the space. Jared threw up a barrier spell, she broke it with one word. “Xekleídoma.”
Unlock.
Sound rushed in, as did a hail of bullets from the police offers.
“Na stamatísei.”
Stop.
The bullets stopped, and she rose. Somehow, Jared still stood. His eyes met hers and panic blazed with a fury not unlike the anger controlling the ferocity of her normally non-violent casting.
She flicked her wand. “Mágisses péftoun.”
Witches Drop.
Unfortunately, the spell dropped her mother to her knees. Patrick, Jared, and herself were the only ones who stood in the carnage. She let the wand drop, knowing she’d pay for breaking another later, and let her hand grasp around the only other potion Mrs. Perrow gave her in the late eighteen hundreds. A tracking potion.
“Ginnie!” Jared screamed his wife’s name in much the way she’d shouted Elijah’s moments before—with a voice filled with terror.
Jared turned to run and Ivy pushed the cork out as she ran.
“I don’t think so.” She tossed the vial and smiled as the clear potion landed on him.
He patted himself and looked at her aghast. “Whatever you did, it failed. I’m done. I’ll be back to collect my wife and see you in the future of both our designs.” In a puff of yellow smoke, Jared was gone.
Or so he thinks. She closed her eyes and like footprints on a map, she co
uld see his path laid out before her. I’m going to end this.
“Ivy,” Elijah’s voice was strong despite the injury. “Ivy,” he growled.
She ignored him. “Patrick, stay with Elijah and my mother. The witches will wake up soon, call my father,” she choked saying the word wishing she could see him one last time as well.
“Where are you going?” Patrick crossed the desiccated space and met her beside Elijah.
“After him,” her fists clenched at her side.
“Not without me.”
She glared down at Elijah. “We had a deal. I didn’t get killed last time, you don’t this time.” A sense of hysteria bubbled up. “And damn it, you did. You would have been dead if I hadn’t grabbed a time potion. Just like Lita.” Her strangled cry drew Patrick’s hand to her back.
“Not now, Ivy. That’s callous, but you have a way to save her. If you can stop Jared before he gets home and you lose track of him. Don’t play this game on a loop. Stop him now. Fix the past, and your future, later.”
She closed her eyes and forced the grief to the corner of her mind where thoughts of her parent’s resided for the past sixteen years. “You’re right. Promise me you’ll protect Elijah.” She glanced down at Elijah. “I might sound like a lunatic when I get home and I’ll need his story to validate mine.” She tried to smile at him but her lip quivered.
Patrick nodded but said nothing.
“You can’t go after him alone.”
“And you can’t even stand up, Elijah.” There was no venom in her words. “You’re an alpha. You know when a battle is won and when one is lost. Stay here, the warlocks and witches will fix you and track me. We’re going home just as soon as I finish this little fucker off.”
She didn’t wait for Elijah to respond, partially because if she didn’t go now, she never would.
Turning to leave, Ivy raced past the chapel and down Orleans Street to the park where Jared flashed. “You can stop now,” Ivy’s words held the bitter chill of her anger, and her athame twirled over her fingers as impatience settled in. She wasn’t fiery hot. She was frigidly cold. Nothing would stop her from doing what needed to be done. Karma, and the universe would forgive her in time.
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