My bladder stung. I shoved open the door at the end of the hall, hoping for a bathroom.
It was a bathroom, but it was occupied. Isadora stood in front of the bath, naked, wrapping her hair in a towel. My eyes immediately flew to her hip, where a dark shape stood out from her creamy skin – a green cross surrounded by words in Latin. The edges of the design were red and swollen, the skin around it puffed up in tiny lumps. It looked like a tattoo that had become infected.
“You need to get that seen to,” I said, by way of greeting. Even with so many other assets on display, I couldn’t take my eyes off that tattoo. With her designer clothing and haughty airs, Isadora didn’t seem the type to have a tattoo, especially not one so obviously shite.
“If you don’t mind,” Isadora snarled, whipping the towel across her body and slamming the door in my face. I stared at the white wood for several moments, then slumped away to find another bathroom, my bladder howling in protest.
If Isadora wanted her hip to go gangrenous and fall off, that was her own bloody fault.
12
MAEVE
I stalked down one of the endless drab hallways, fire dancing in my veins. Daigh’s mocking expression played in my mind, blurring with Corbin’s burned corpse sliding down the stake to become a constant showreel of horror. My hands ached from the magic pulsing through them. I rubbed them together, but that only made the magic leap down my arms and sizzle against my collarbone. My stomach twisted. If I touched another person, I’d probably do some serious harm.
I needed the magical equivalent of a cold shower. Talking to my sister would do the trick.
It took me some time to locate Kelly in the enormous house. Ryan had given us the run of the place, and everyone seemed to have taken his invitation literally. Kelly sat in a lounger by the fireplace in the yellow drawing room, rocking a sleeping Connor in her arms. She looked up as I leaned against the doorframe, and gave me a tentative smile. “I told Jane I’d watch him for a bit so she could sleep.”
“That’s nice of you.”
“Hey, what’s a girlfr— a friend for?” Kelly’s cheeks reddened. “This house is unreal. I can’t believe you’re friends with a billionaire artist.”
“Ryan’s not really a friend. Well, I guess he is now. Recently, I seem to have acquired more friends than I know what to do with. Pity I have no idea how to treat them right. Can I join you?”
Kelly nodded. I slid into the chair opposite her, gripping the arms and pumping my flaring magic into the inanimate chair as I tried to think of what to say and where to begin.
“Do you want to hold Connor?” Kelly held him out to me. He turned his head away and flailed out a tiny fist, as though he couldn't bear to associate with me. I didn’t blame him.
“I’m kind of dealing with an overdose of magic at the moment. I don’t think Jane will thank me if I feed him nightmares I stole from the Fae King.”
“Probably not. Is that your power? You steal nightmares?” Kelly shuddered.
“Honestly, I don’t really know. The guys have powers that relate to the four elements. Flynn manipulates water. Rowan can grow things and command the earth itself, Arthur’s fire burns along with his rage and passion. Corbin…” I swallowed. “He controlled air. He was breath and light. All their powers I kind of understand in a scientific sense. Everything in the universe is made of energy, and those energies come together and bounce off each other in different ways. That’s what we’re doing all the time when we walk and talk and pick up objects. But my powers are ripped straight out of a dorky fantasy novel.”
“Tell me, Maeve. I really want to understand.”
“I have spirit magic. It’s quite rare among witches, so it’s a genetically-recessive trait. You remember me telling you about natural selection and genetic traits in a population can change over time because of bottlenecks and catastrophic events and other—”
Kelly rolled her eyes. “Sure, Einstein, I remember.”
“The witches put on trial or burned or forced into exile are usually spirit magic users. The ones who see things they shouldn’t see or manipulate the world in a way that isn’t natural. Honestly, I can see why people are afraid of us.” I stared down at my hands, the nerves twitching as the hot magic coursed through them. The chair arms warmed up and hummed with strange energy, as though the fabric were somehow alive. “This power is scary, and a little bit pointless unless you’re an evil person who enjoys inflicting pain on others.”
“What does it do?”
“Harnesses the power of spirit, supposedly. I’m not sure if that means spirit in Mom and Dad’s Biblical soul-sense, though. Apparently, spirit magic manifests itself in different ways. Some people see hallucinations that supposedly predict the future, or manipulate emotions, or move objects with their mind. I’m a dreamwalker, which means I can manipulate dreams.” I turned my palms over. “I can also touch someone and force them to experience their own dreams, or their nightmares.“
“You’re right,” Kelly said. “That is kind of useless.”
“There are some spells that only spirit users can do. I can bring the guys into my dreams and then project us into another place. That was the first real spell I ever did, when we traveled to the fae realm to save Connor and another baby, and we ended up bringing Blake back with us.”
“Blake uses spirit magic, too. What’s his special power, apart from being gorgeous?”
I grinned. Of course Blake’s ethereal, otherworldly beauty wasn’t lost on my boy-crazy (or bi-crazy) sister. “Blake’s all… messed up. He’s human, but he was raised by fae and exposed to their magic and teachings. His spirit magic gives him the ability to use a bit of fae magic, like compulsion, and the ability to cast glamour. He can’t do it as well or as powerful as a fae, but it comes in handy. When we combine our powers, we create a brutal force. That’s what we did last night – we used Blake’s compulsion and my ability to show dreams to send the fae a message to head back to the crack without hurting anyone else, and we gave the villagers the message to run toward the house.”
“And now they’re all arrested.”
“Yes.” The word came out in a harsh hiss. “They’ll be held accountable for Corbin’s death.”
“But they didn’t kill him, did they?” Kelly looked stricken. “I mean, the fae were the ones who did that.”
“Because the villagers were calling for his blood! They chased him out of the house and right into the waiting fae army.”
Kelly’s face darkened. I braced myself for a lecture about how Jesus turned the other cheek and forgave. Instead, she said, “Maeve, I’m so sorry about everything.”
“Me, too.”
“I know, but let me go first. I messed everything up. I tried to pretend I was okay when I came here – that I was going on this grand adventure with you and the guys. I wanted to be the Kelly you remembered who was fun and zany and flirts with everyone. But it’s like I’m wearing this cloak of sadness and it’s so heavy and I have to drag it around everywhere. When you were in Arizona with me, and Arthur was there, I felt like you understood what I was feeling, but when I got to England you just seemed like you were living your life, and it make me so angry—”
“I know. It’s okay to be angry. It might not look like it, but I’m still dealing with the pain of losing them, too.” Spirit magic slid through my fingers. Beneath me, the chair vibrated. I let out a breath as my body relaxed its grip on my magic. “So much has happened since the night of the fair and I’ve barely had time to process it all. Having you here made me think of them, and every time you spoke about them or their beliefs, I thought about the magic and the guys and how I was betraying them.”
“I didn’t mean to make you feel bad,” she whispered. “I didn’t even mean half the things I said. I guess I thought if I was just like them, if I was good enough and believed hard enough and made everyone around me good enough, too, then I’d get to see them again. Isn’t that crazy?”
“It’s not crazy at al
l,” I whispered. “You’re a much better person than I am.”
“That’s not true. You’re trying to save the world.”
“Oh yeah,” I grinned, as the last of my magic drained away. “I forgot about that.”
I slid out of the chair and we hugged, squishing Connor between us. He opened one sleepy eye and blew a raspberry. Kelly and I burst out laughing, clinging to each other as tears rolled down our cheeks.
“It’s weird,” Kelly said, wiping the corner of her eye. “As soon as you touched me, I got this flood of sensations – sort of like memories, but not a complete picture. Just flashes of sound and scent and touch. I think they were from our childhood.”
“I’m sorry.” I drew my hand away from her. “I thought it was all gone, but—”
Kelly grabbed my wrist.
“Nope. No apologizing for who you are, big sister. I got used to you being a weirdo science nerd who totally cramped my style. I can deal with you being a badass magic bitch, too.”
“We’re in England now,” I beamed back at her. “You have to learn how to say arse.”
That set us off on another round of uncontrollable giggles. Connor woke up and copied us, his tiny face exploding into a wicked smile that quickly turned into a howl. Kelly stood up and bounced him in his arms as she walked around the room. “Are you really with all five guys?” she yelled over his wails.
“Are you really with Jane now?” I shot back.
Kelly blushed. “I asked you first.”
“Fine. Yes, I’m with all the guys,” I met her eyes, daring her to turn away in disgust, hoping with everything I had left that she wouldn’t. “We’re in love. All of us. I know it’s crazy. I never meant for it to happen. I resisted it at first because I thought Mom and Dad would disapprove. When we came to see you in Arizona, Arthur still wasn’t part of the group, but he decided he wanted to be. After we paid Uncle Bob that visit—”
“I knew you did something,” Kelly’s eyes glinted. “Uncle Bob just wouldn’t give me all that money and let me roam free like a harlot. I hope you didn’t hurt them.”
“I didn’t! I mean, not really. Not badly. I just wanted you to get what you needed so you could have a life.”
“Just tell me what you did.”
“Mostly I just yelled at him. Then we sort of accidentally… burned his house down.”
Kelly snorted. “You didn’t!”
I shrugged. “It really was an accident, but then Arthur was involved and things got… heated. In a literal sense. See what I mean about you being the better person?”
Kelly grinned. “I always knew it. I am pretty awesome. What did you do after you set fire to Uncle Bob’s house?”
“Arthur drove me to the cemetery. I talked to Mom and Dad.”
“You did?” Tears welled at the corners of her eyes. “I did that, before I met Jane. It never helped, and now I’m too afraid.”
“At first it felt stupid, because I believe they returned to the stardust they’re made of, not souls hanging around watching everything I do. But then… it didn’t feel stupid anymore. It felt really important that I explain about the guys in a way they could understand. Talking to them helped me figure some stuff out for myself. And I do believe, wherever they are now and whatever their souls are doing, they would want us both to be happy and to deal with our grief the best way we can.”
“But if I talk to them, I know exactly what they’ll say,” Kelly shook her head. “I remember the bible verses about homosexuality.”
“Do you also remember Dad saying in one of his sermons that the Bible was written in another time, and that when God’s word contradicted itself, to ask Him for guidance? If your heart tells you to be with Jane, and being with her makes you stronger, makes you a better person, then how can God disapprove of that? Don’t let words in a book overwhelm what you know in your heart. Mom and Dad were good people, and even if they didn’t want this for you, I feel as though if you came to them and said, ‘this is who I am, and I’m happy,’ they would have supported you. Take it from the filthy heathen scientist – they always supported me.”
“The filthy heathen scientist polygamist,” Kelly sniffed, wiping tears from her eyes.
“I think the term is polyamory these days,” I grinned. “I like to think of them as my harem.”
Kelly smiled through her tears. “It figures. You couldn’t get a single guy in high school and now you’re making up for lost time.”
“Hey, I may have been a late bloomer, but I had a great teacher.” I leaned over Connor’s flailing arms and kissed her forehead. “Are we good, little sis? I can’t stand it if we’re not good.”
Kelly leaned her head against my shoulder, her tears soaking my t-shirt. “I’m so sorry about Corbin,” she whispered.
“Me too.”
Her jiggles turned Connor’s cries into whimpers. “What’s going to happen now?”
“In two days time, the Slaugh will come. That’s an army of the souls of the restless dead.” Kelly gasped. “Don’t worry, we’ve already come up with a way to stop them.” As simply as I could, I explained about the belief magic and how we’d stored it in Flynn’s statue and how Ryan was going to release a painting to increase the magic still further. Okay, so it wasn’t exactly quick, but I thought I got there in the end.
Kelly brightened as I detailed the plan. “Are you saying that belief is a form of magic?”
“Yeah.”
“So, like, when I pray, I’m doing magic?”
I shrugged. “In a way, yeah.”
“I like that.” Kelly set Connor on the rug and rolled a plastic ball toward him. Her eyes twinkled. “We’re not so different after all, Einstein.”
I knew I should find my guys and figure out what was going on with Arthur. That outburst of his this morning was not cool. But I couldn’t bring myself to leave Kelly’s side. Even though she’d been beside me all this time, I’d missed her. Now we had no more secrets it felt just like the old days. She played with Connor and chatted about random stuff while I pretended to read some books on DNA and epigenetics I found on Ryan’s bookshelves. I could tell from the glint in her eye that she wanted to ask me about the sex, but she held back.
The day drew on, and fatigue and sadness dragged me closer to sleep. The book slid from my fingers and my head slumped on my shoulders. Simon came in and lit the fire for us and left steaming bowls of soup on the table. Jane came in and took Connor to bed. She and Kelly had a hushed conversation in the doorway that I knew was about me, but I was far too tired to lift my head to listen. Kelly kissed my forehead and left with Jane.
Pale moonlight poured in the high windows, illuminating long rectangles across the sofa, like the stripes of prison bars. In two days time it would be a full moon, and the Slaugh would arrive.
Let them come. I was sick of waiting. I was sick of everything.
The door creaked open, startling me awake. Rowan scurried in, a steaming cup of my favorite raspberry and vanilla tea in his hands. “Hey,” he whispered. “I thought this would help you sleep.”
“Tea contains caffeine,” I reminded him, accepting the cup anyway. My fingers warmed on the smooth china as I lifted it to my lips.
“Not this tea. I checked. You make things good with Kelly?”
“Yeah. At least that’s one thing in my life I don’t have to worry about anymore.” I sipped the tea. A weary, heavy sensation spread across my chest. I was really tired.
I handed the half-empty cup back to Rowan. “Thanks for this, but I think… I think I’m going to be asleep any moment now…”
Rowan wrapped me in his arms and lifted me off the sofa. My eyes fluttered shut and my head lolled against his shoulder as he carried me down a darkened hallway. Every time I prised my eyes open, the still eyes of Ryan’s gilded portraits watched our every move. Rowan wasn’t as big as Arthur, so he stumbled a little, but I was too sleepy to care. His warm lips against my forehead dragged me deeper into slumber.
“Sweet dre
ams, Maeve,” he whispered. “Please, find Corbin.”
I opened my mouth to protest, but sleep claimed me instead, and I slipped into a dark, peaceful slumber.
13
MAEVE
A loud cough startled me awake. My eyes flew open, expecting to see Ryan’s drab, un-renovated hallway and Rowan’s kind face gazing down at me as he carried me off to bed.
I was in a very different hallway.
On both sides, dark walls of veined black stone jutted from a dirt floor. The gleaming walls were punctuated by alternative rows of wooden doors, each clamped shut with an enormous iron lock. Torches – the kind that adorned medieval castles in movies – stuck out from the walls between the doors, and from behind the wood issued tortured screams and choked cries.
I hung in the air for a moment, long enough for the stench of sulphur to scratch my nostrils. My feet slammed into the dusty floor, sending shock through my body. I threw my hand out to steady myself, and my palm slammed against the stone wall. I expected it to feel cold, but instead it hummed with shuddering warmth, as if something grew inside it, fighting for freedom against the brittle surface.
Footsteps thudded in the dust behind me. I whirled around. Big mistake. A cloud of dust flared up around me, obscuring my view.
I swung my arms at the air, trying to dissipate the cloud. Dust and sulphur scratched the back of my throat. “Corbin, is that you? I don’t want to see you.”
A dark shape stepped out of the dust cloud, the flickering light of the torches catching on his sleek black hair.
“Hello, Princess,” Blake grinned.
Rowan slunk out of the swirling dust and stood beside Blake, his head bent down, arms spread wide to keep his balance. He looked up, his eyes blazing into mine.
“What are you doing here?” I growled. “This is my dream. I didn’t invite you.”
The Castle of Spirit and Sorrow Page 10
