“But what if he gets hurt?” Helena said. “If he gets struck?”
“If he stays focused, he won’t get hurt. I swear it.”
I would have to trust him. I looked at Helena and spread my wings around her as the witches came around the house.
It didn’t look like Billie had so much as scratched them.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Helena
I knew this was coming. But facing the moment was still filling me with dread.
I knew all these bitches.
They were all on the council. And they were all my mom’s friends. I’d seen them drinking tea. I’d seen them running a garden show. I once got in trouble at one of their houses for trying to ride the dog like a pony when I was little.
Now, they were here to force me to behave like a pack of scolding aunties. But I had also listened to their conversations where they talked about “those people” or “taking care of it”, and even as a kid I knew when they were talking about hurting and even killing Sinistrals. At the time it didn’t mean much to me, it was just what people on the council did.
Now, my feelings could not be more different, but I was facing them head on.
“Helena,” said Shoshanna. She was the oldest of this group, but they were all the younger councilwomen. Shoshanna was about fifty, a tall thin hard working woman with thick black hair striped with white. Astra and Melusine were close friends with each other, Astra with largely Asian heritage and Melusine as blonde and WASPy as they come; both enjoyed discussing astrology and medicinal plants. Riggs usually just went by her last name, she was the youngest and newest member of the council, with a military demeanor and an eagerness to please the older women.
It would be much easier if I didn’t know their names and their hobbies and who grew the best roses.
But, here we were. They weren’t soft people. I couldn’t be soft either.
“I don’t know what’s going on,” I said. “I’m out here doing my job and suddenly you’re attacking my friends.”
“We have intel from the warlock council,” Shoshanna said. “You have been systematically working on houses that were owned by Sinistral warlocks that are on the list.”
“The list?”
“Persons of interest. And they were in possession of some valuable, ancient artifacts that we know you now have in your possession. You’re working with a crew of Sinistrals. The jig is up. Your parents have pleaded on your behalf not to hurt you, but we can only guarantee that if you come peacefully. Give up now and your work crew can go. You have about five seconds to come with us before we cast an honesty spell on you, interrogate you, and dispatch the rest of your friends.”
“What the hell? I’m a grown woman obviously just doing my job! Look how dirty I am! Do you think I’m concerned with ancient artifacts?”
“Why are these incubi here?”
“They’re…helping.” This was going nowhere fast.
They knew I knew. I knew they knew. It was like…just a silly game we were playing.
The weird thing was that I knew how far the council would go to maintain power. I’d even seen how my brother was hurt. But some part of me didn’t really believe they would ever turn brutal toward me.
Or…maybe this is actually them being gentle, I thought. If they really wanted this thing and it was just Jake, Jasper, Graham and Byron without me here, they would have killed them all without even engaging in conversation or offering them any mercy.
“Did you kill Billie and Gaston?” I asked. “Or are they just injured?”
“I don’t know,” Astra said. “We didn’t check on them. Billie went down hard and her familiar is dead.”
She said that so casually that I was horrified. Not just for Billie, but because I could tell Astra had killed enough familiars that she felt it was barely worth faking that she cared.
“Your time is up, Helena,” Shoshanna said. All four of them lifted their wands, and the wind picked up, swirling around them, as they swiftly generated a spell together.
“Don’t give in, Hel,” Byron said. “We’ll protect you.”
“Byron—”
“Don’t—give—in!” he cried. “Promise me! Be my brave queen of a new dynasty.”
I understood what he meant. I had a chance to be brave. A chance to stand with the werewolves and incubi and demand a better world.
But I wondered what good it would do, anyway, if they killed us all.
I wondered if I had a single attack spell in my arsenal that would work on four council witches.
It was equally possible that I was just freaking out about killing my mom’s friends. I mean, my brother didn’t kill Piers. These things were hard to do, to say the least. I never expected to be in the center of a war, but it was starting to look that way.
I had to trust the people who trusted me.
The council members spoke in unison, in a spell language that I didn’t even know, one too powerful to be taught to anyone below the highest of ranks, and they unleashed their spell toward us. It rushed at us in a blast of light, and I cast a defensive spell, even as I knew it wouldn’t stand against the four of them.
I’m going to die.
Chapter Thirty
Helena
Graham and Byron didn’t have to block the spell.
Bevan suddenly appeared in front of all of us—in his human form.
“No!” I screamed. “Bevan, no!”
He took the blast head on and fell back into Graham and Byron.
“Bevan, what the fuck!? I didn’t call you because I don’t want you to die like Eleanor!” Harris’ hawk familiar was just like Bevan in that she barely made an appearance in the human world. When she did, it was to sacrifice her life for him. Familiars were often the first line of defense when a witch stepped in it.
He was unconscious. Maybe dead. I tried to feel for a pulse but I didn’t have time before the witches were preparing for another attack. It was so strange to see him with a human face, to see him as a young man with dark brown hair that curled on his brow, that he looked different from me and was his own person and not just a perpetually grumpy bat.
It really brought the whole thing home to me. The witches didn’t even look affected.
Their hands were glowing. “We’ll give you another chance to reconsider now,” Astra said.
“Fuck that!” I said. “I see all of you for what you really are now. You act like you’re the good guys, and it’s all bullshit. Mourir!” I screamed out my death spell, one of the spells that was never taught in school but that my mother wielded casually to get rid of mice. Like all children, I tried it anyway, only on bugs. I was never even able to kill a cockroach. I was not that kind of kid, to be able to wish to put an end to another creature with the force of my will alone. Bug spray was easier.
My sisters teased me. I collected bones and cicada husks and yet I couldn’t even kill a bug?
I didn’t love death. I loved cycles and processes. How one thing decays and another thing is born. And I loved bringing things back to life most of all—not people, but homes.
Now I was so angry I just shouted it, because I felt like nothing else would do. I was just a girl, and they never taught me how to attack other witches. This was my only chance.
“Ooh, I felt it,” Astra said.
“This confirms that she’s a traitor, at least,” Riggs said. “She tried to kill us.”
“You can’t do it,” Shoshanna said. “But not a bad effort!” She flicked her arm back and forth, striking me with a couple of hard jolts that left me reeling. Graham pulled me into his arms and surrounded me with his wings. He held me close, taking the strikes. Byron moved in front of both of us.
“Imprison!” Shoshanna cried, the other three moving to help with the spell, lending her their strength with their hands together.
I tried to block the spell.
No use when it was a team of four against one. That witch sisterhood really worked out well. In hindsight, if I’
d known I’d be going up against it, Billie and I could have practiced or something.
A swirl of light surrounded us, imprisoning us where we stood. Even Byron, putting out his hand, hit against the bars. Bevan’s body was left outside the cage. Shoshanna glanced at him like she was considering if he could be used for leverage. She crouched to see if he was still alive. I held my breath. I prayed he was still alive, but if he was, they could threaten him.
“Over there…” Astra looked up at a rustle in the trees and brush near the old smokehouse.
“Ah—who’s there? Riggs, you watch them. We’ll scope it out.”
Riggs parked herself in front of our magical cage while the other three went and flushed the two wolves out of the bushes. They were in their animal forms, but it was true that their teeth wouldn’t do much good when even my magic was useless. The Sullivan brothers were herded toward us. Riggs tracked them with her eyes.
“More Sinistrals,” she said. “The hits keep on coming.”
“Transform!” Shoshanna ordered them.
Jasper and Jake growled at them, and promptly got zapped.
I was starting to feel incredibly helpless. “Don’t hurt them!” I cried. “They’re just contractors I hired, for crying out loud!”
“They’re not in on the rest of it?” Shoshanna asked. “Is that true? Transform and swear your innocence under an oath spell, and you can go.”
They didn’t transform, so that pretty much answered that.
“It seems like you were trying to secure this as a Sinistral parallel,” Riggs said. “And maybe you were considering becoming a Sinistral witch bride as well.”
“I think it’s worse than that, considering the vision that led me here,” Shoshanna said.
“A vision?” I scoffed. “Visions are wrong all the time!”
“All right, Helena, if you think that is the case, then you will speak only the truth!”
Astra and Melusine quickly drew a circle of truth around us. Now the witches had me trapped, and I felt a spell wrap around my throat. “Did you find a treasure in this house?”
“Nngh…”
“Did you?”
“Guhhh…” My mouth wanted to spill the beans, and I was trying my best to make their job harder.
I knew we’d lost. So…I was just stalling. As if an idea would come. I didn’t want to succumb without a fight.
You could still save your life if you told them everything and asked to go home to your parents, I thought.
But what kind of a life would that be?
So instead, it was this standoff, this futile end…and I wasn’t scared. I’m sure I should have been, but instead I just felt this incredible frustration. I’d escaped my family, worked my ass off, and then my old life was about to kill me.
“Where is the treasure?” they pressed.
“No!” I gasped. “No! I won’t make it any easier for you!”
“Then, you know what comes next.” Riggs jabbed me with her wand and lit all my nerves up with pain. I sank to my knees, with tears in my eyes.
Graham pounded at the magical cage as Jake and Jasper launched at Riggs. The witches whirled on them and I knew they would not hold back even a little when it came to killing wolves.
“Please, stop!” I screamed, knowing it was hopeless as they opened their mouths to cast a spell of destruction. I held on tight to Graham.
The swans suddenly flew in out of nowhere. They absorbed the entire blast with little more than a reshuffling of their wings and the witches all looked stunned.
“What’s happening?” Riggs said. “Aren’t these spirits on our side?”
“They should be,” Astra said. “Swans have been Ethereal guardians forever.”
“Why are they guarding you?” Shoshanna asked me.
“Damned if I know!” I said.
Riggs, who was a determined little monster, zapped me again. Through my screams, I saw a figure materialize in front of us. An Ethereal. A true one. She had shimmering wings and a flowing gown, and white-blonde hair down to her dainty bare feet. She held a hand out toward Riggs and blasted her with a wave of light.
Whoa.
“Riggs!” Melusine shrieked. Then she got a good look at the Ethereal spirit and got to her knees. “An Ethereal…!”
“My lady!” Shoshanna bowed. “You are the one who appeared to me in my vision! You led us here! Why would you stop us now?”
Oh, crap. She was on their side too? Could the universe give me a break? Was she going to say something like, You have done well. Now I will deal the final blow…
“I never trusted those swans,” Graham said under his breath.
“Yes, I did give you this vision. I showed you what Pandora’s Box could do. I showed you how it would bring witches and faeries, as well as wolves and demons, all together. You woke up shuddering, sweating, thinking it was a nightmare you must stop, but I was never the one who told you that.”
“My lady!”
“No,” the Ethereal said. “Ethereals, if I do speak for my race, are spirits of order, balance and peace. You, witches of the council, have not been upholding your vows to serve these ideals. Most of my kin pay no attention to you unless we are called upon, but I have paid attention. I’m sure you have noticed among humans, though you may be blind to your own faults, that their ideals do not always match their behavior. So it is, too, with wizards. Every so often…your leaders—by which I actually mean you—fall to widespread corruption, using the banner of order as an excuse to oppress, not to keep the peace. It happened a thousand years ago, and it is happening again. I fear I must intervene. Helena…” She turned to me and smiled. “You have passed your test.”
Chapter Thirty-One
Helena
The cage melted away. The witches were knocked out cold with a wave of the Ethereal lady’s hand. Jake and Jasper were safe. And now the Ethereal woman bent down and brushed her hand across Bevan’s face, and he opened his eyes.
I leaned heavily on Graham all of a sudden, as all the fight drained out of me.
“How do you look so calm?” I asked Graham. “Did you know we were about to die?”
“I’m not sure I was thinking at all,” he said.
“So…you were testing me?” I asked the Ethereal.
“Yes,” she said. “I wanted to make sure you were willing to risk your life to help Byron bring the worlds back together. And after all of that, I’m feeling much better about your chances. Not just you, but your lovers and friends as well. My appearance to Shoshanna was also a test. I gave her a vision of the future where the Ethereal witches could learn to work with the other realms. She took it as a prophecy of horror and immediately summoned up her fellow witches to stop you. I’m going to strip all of them of their connection to Etherium. So that’s four less you have to worry about…”
“You’re an Ethereal, but you want the walls between worlds to come down?”
“I’m Byron’s sister Marisa,” she said. “Half-sister, that is. We were both born of an Ethereal mother, but his father was a high demon. But how I loved my baby brother! So maybe my perspective is a little different.”
“So you must know where his body is,” Graham said.
“Yes.”
“Can you tell us? Or are your lips also sewn shut?”
“I’m not dead!” she said. “No, I won’t tell you anything. It’s important that he tells you himself.”
“Why?” Graham said. “That just seems like a lot of unnecessary work for—”
I squeezed his hand. “It’s no use, Graham. She won’t tell us. That’s how the magical realms are.”
“That’s ridiculous.”
“It’s because we have to figure things out on our own,” I said. “If you ever have to actually go there, you just expect that you have to solve riddles and take on side quests and demonstrate random feats of bravery and selflessness…” I shrugged. “Fairy tales aren’t considered fiction in the magical world, they’re travel guides.”
“It’s not that,” Marisa said. “It’s really that Byron will be so mad at me if he doesn’t get to tell the story himself.” She gave him an impish smile. “I won’t take that power from him.”
“It’s really still the first reason,” I whispered to Graham.
Jake and Jasper had gotten their jeans back on and were walking out from the smokehouse to join the party.
“Did you catch that?” I asked them.
“Most of it,” Jasper said. “So…that’s it?”
“You won,” Marisa said. “Thanks to me. Now…all you need to do is find the last piece of Pandora’s Box.”
“You’re really patting yourself on the back,” Byron said. “Are you going to help us when the council inevitably attacks us at Sam’s house? No. You won’t. Go home.”
“I can’t!” she said. “You know I can’t interfere with the box itself. That has to be you. The sword can only be pulled from the stone by one hand, and so it goes.”
“I know,” Byron said.
“Hey, at least we’re getting somewhere,” Jake said. “But the next house…is it up for sale yet?”
“It will be,” Byron said, a bit darkly.
“Of course, all we need is the piece of the box,” Graham said. “We don’t actually have to buy the house to get it. We stole this one before Billie showed up.”
“Good point. But if I can get a house at a bargain, a girl still has to make a living somehow,” I said. “This time, Billie and I won’t fight each other over it. So Billie and Gaston are all right?” I said. “We should probably check on them! They haven’t shown up since they rode out the driveway…”
“They’ll be fine,” Marisa said. “I cast a protection spell on all of you so that you could be hurt but not killed, just in case things got out of hand. If anything happened to them, I can heal them as I healed Bevan. Then, I will take my leave.”
Wolves at the Door Page 17
