No. We were saying that Ryan Shea was currently resting in a mismarked grave somewhere. The man who had killed Sonya and tried to kill me was his brother.
Roger.
The instant he made the connection, he went white as a ghost. “Ryan’s dead, isn’t he?”
Opal nodded, not without compassion. “That would be my guess, yes. And since we know about Sonya’s little secret gathering pastime, we can only assume that this time, it got her killed.”
“Sonya wouldn’t have tried to profit off Ry-Ry. She was even closer to him than I was. But it’s possible she stumbled onto something and approached him about it.”
“And that would have been enough to do it,” Opal agreed. “From what I understand, you and Sonya were the only people really close to Ryan. Roger may have thought to eliminate both of you in one fell swoop. Sonya’s murder, and your conviction for it.”
Arc bent over and put his face in his hands. “They’re both dead. My best friends in the entire world and they’re both gone.”
“It’s understandable that you’re upset, but we need every hand on deck right now, including you. We have a major problem.”
Another one?
Senior stepped up. “Sapphire?”
Mom? What was he talking about? How could Mom be the problem?
“Her gem on my necklace went off about a half hour ago. She’s in trouble. I’m guessing he has her.”
My heart sank. “Can you find her?”
Opal nodded. “Yes, but I’ll need to borrow Lily’s lab. It was closer than the farmhouse.”
“Follow me.” Lily led Opal to a door I hadn’t even noticed before, and they disappeared beyond it. From the sound of footsteps on stairs, it must lead down into the cellar of the house.
I was still in shock, finding it hard to breathe. Opie’s arm reached around me and squeezed.
Ruby got up and picked up five small boxes from the entry table. “Better late than never, I guess,” she said as she handed them out. “These are the spells Lily, Arc, and I did today. Personal protection spells. But these do more than just warn you of danger to yourself. They let you know when any of the others are in peril too.”
“Opal said Mom’s gem went off in her necklace. What exactly does that mean?” Please let it mean she was still alive and just needed help.
“Our moms did one of these spells ages ago. Opal added stones for me and you to her necklace as well. It’s something I’d have done long ago, but it’s a really hard spell to master. I couldn’t have done it without Lily.”
Each of the boxes held a small bracelet of gemstones threaded onto a simple golden chain. The sapphire on each of them was glowing. I touched it gently.
The other stones were normal looking. I could guess the identity of each of my family by color. That part was easy. We weren’t the Gemstone Coven for nothing. But I wasn’t so sure about the five remaining stones.
“Green is Arc, yellow is Senior, orange is Merlin, and the black is Lily.” She looked over at me. “I wasn’t so sure what color to make Opie’s stone, so I went with gray.”
I nodded. The color of stone didn’t matter a bit as long as it glowed when it was needed. I couldn’t take my eyes off Mom’s glowing stone.
“Arc?” I asked quietly. “Where did Ryan live?”
Opie squeezed me tighter. “We can’t rush into this, Amie. We have to have a plan first. Opal can find your mom with magic, right?”
Sure, but finding her wasn’t the problem. The problem was finding her in time. By now, Roger probably realized he’d made a huge error in taking her. If he thought the police were convinced that Stan Grayson was the killer, then he would have no need to keep her alive as a bargaining chip with us.
I was pretty sure that was what he’d intended to use her as. Nothing more than a bargaining chip.
At least Senior was with me. He stood over me and reached down a hand. I took it.
“I’ll take you there myself.”
“Better yet, we’ll all go.” Opal and Lily came out of the doorway behind us. Opal glanced over at Arc. “Did Ryan live about five miles east of here?”
Arc nodded.
“Then that’s where we are going to start.” Opal’s gaze fell on me. “That thing you did to Naomi Hill. Could you do it again?”
“Oh hell, yeah.”
“Good. Just don’t plan on me stopping you this time.”
Chapter 22
We all piled into Lily’s van and headed out. Ryan had lived in a small house just outside of town. The good thing for us was that he had no close neighbors and there were plenty of ways to sneak up on the house.
The bad thing was, they weren’t there. They had been, though. The scent of Mom’s perfume was still in the air.
“Can you revise the spell on the go?” Opie asked.
From the grim look on Opal’s face, the answer to that one was no. But by then, I had a pretty good idea where Roger’s next stop might be.
“We need to head to Firestorm. The warehouse,” I said, already moving.
It didn’t take long for everyone to get on the same page as me. All you had to do was put yourself into Roger’s frame of mind. He’d taken Mom before he’d heard about Grayson’s arrest. Now he had an eyewitness that he needed to get rid of. But if he used his normal method of brutally smashing in her skull, the cops might figure out they had the wrong man.
Little did he know that would soon happen, anyway. Just as soon as their forensics teams did that little DNA melting spell . . . or test, whatever.
The main thing here was that he would be looking for another way to get rid of her. And there was a warehouse filled to the brim with demolition supplies. Meaning, in all likelihood, a ton of explosives.
Senior took the keys this time, and we made it to the warehouse in nothing flat. A little magic might have been involved. He pulled into the parking lot for the warehouse, and we split up into teams of two. Opal and Ruby went to the left around the side of the building, and Senior and Arc headed to the right. Lily and Merlin were circling around to the back, and Opie and I were to take the front.
We were hoping at least one of the teams would reach her in time.
In fact, we all did.
But that had been his plan.
In the most unoriginal move ever, he’d tied Mom to a wooden office chair in the center of the big room. Once we were all gathered around her, getting her loose, he stepped out into view. When I saw how close he was to the doorway, I figured out his plan pretty quickly.
I think the others did too. The fact that he was waving a large detonator in his hand helped.
“Leave me. Run!” Mom yelled.
Even if that had been an option, which it certainly wasn’t, it was far too late for that. Boxes and barrels of explosives surrounded us. If he set off just one, there would be nothing left here but a very large crater.
Opal stood and faced him. Ruby and I stepped up on either side of her. It would have been nice if we’d come up with a plan on our way here, but truthfully, all we’d been thinking of was getting to Mom in time. A little shortsighted now that we’d done that.
“I was kind of hoping you’d show up,” Roger said, looking at me. “But I didn’t know you’d bring the whole bloody gang. Well done! And thank you very much. You’ve made my job so much easier.”
Opal was the first of us to speak. “You have no idea who or what you are dealing with, do you?”
His smile never faltered. “I’ve heard rumors and hints that the Minehearts are witches, but even if that’s true, I don’t think a bunch of people who love to dance naked around a bonfire under the full moon are anything for me to worry about.”
I risked a glance at her. She was cool as a cucumber. Me? I was sweating like crazy, even with the draft on the back of my neck.
“Then you are a fool,” Opal said. “Any one of us is more than a match for you. And to have gathered us all in one place? That only ensures your doom.” Her voice was firm and steady. How d
id she do that?
“Funny,” he said, waving the detonator once again. “I’m the one about to blow you all to kingdom come.”
“Lily, how’s that spell coming?”
“Almost there, just need a little more juice . . . ah, thank you, Merlin.”
Roger actually laughed. “Should I be scared? What are you going to do? Turn me into a frog or something?” He grinned at us. “Can you do it before I press the button?”
“You press the button while you’re still in here with us and you die too,” I said, finally finding my voice. “If you were willing to do that, I don’t think we’d all be here right now, would we?”
He shrugged. “Granted, I hope to be out the door first, but then, I’m closer than all of you.”
And he turned and started running. Thing is, it’s hard to run when your feet weren’t making contact with the floor.
I was trying something new. I didn’t just want to slam him into a wall. Not with what he held in his hand. So, I took him up instead.
My magic danced and sparkled around him as it lifted him up three feet off the floor and holding.
“How about now, Lily?” Opal asked, and for the first time, I heard the strain in her voice. Sure, she could handle a detonator-holding madman, but when her niece used powerful magic, she came a bit undone. Typical.
“Arc,” I called out, “how you holding up?”
“I’m fine. If you need more juice, feel free to pull it.”
As I watched the swirling, sparkling magic in front of me, I had to wonder just how much magic Arc had. Were all the Minehearts this powerful? If so, we Air witches wouldn’t stand a chance against them in a fight.
It was a really good thing they were on our side. But I could see why up until now Opal had shied clear of them. Envy was a powerful thing too.
“Lily? How much longer?” Opal called.
I’d love to know what they were talking about, but I held my concentration on my magic. Too many stray thoughts wouldn’t be good.
“Sorry, dear, I got a tad distracted. Just a second . . . got it!” Lily called back. “And Sapphire’s free too. It’s time to go.”
“Drop him, Amie. We need to get out of here.” Opal’s voice was still sounding pinched.
But the magic didn’t want to let him go. It wanted to squeeze him until every last ounce of breath had left his body, and then squeeze some more. It wanted to end him.
Or maybe that was just me. The man had tried to kill Mom. He needed to die.
“Arc?” Opal said. “We might need you up here.”
He was beside me in an instant, his hand resting on my elbow. I felt the magic start to ebb out of me. He was pulling it back to him.
Within seconds, Roger fell to the ground. He must have had a little cat in him, because he hit the ground on his feet and running.
Once again, he didn’t get far. Opie hit him with the taser, and he did what anyone hit by a taser would do. He went down.
“Stop or I’ll shoot,” Opie called out softly as he disconnected the prongs. Then he looked at the detonator and back at Opal. “Why didn’t that thing go off?”
“Lily’s got it in a technology lock, but those spells don’t usually last long. We have to get out of here now.”
Opie nodded and reached down, picking Roger up and throwing him over his shoulder in a fireman’s carry. If I hadn’t been so distracted, I might have found it hot to see him using such strength.
But right now, I was having a hard time just standing. The ability to think and feel was quickly leaving me too.
Arc copied Opie’s move, and the next thing I knew, my head was dangling halfway down his back. And we were moving. Fast.
We made it to the van, but barely.
“The spell is slipping!” Lily cried out.
“Minehearts to the front.”
Arc dropped me to the ground. I was pretty impressed that I had managed not to lose consciousness this time. Maybe my use of magic was improving. If only I could learn how to stop using it when the time was right.
I knew I should be scared, but all the emotion had drained out of me with the magic. I watched the scene unfold like a television drama.
The three Minehearts ran to the front of the van just as the first, smaller explosion hit. They formed a short line to the side of the van, holding hands with Arc in the middle.
I wanted to go to help, but I couldn’t get my legs to work right. Watching was all I could do, and that wasn’t any help at all.
Merlin and Senior held up their non-holding hand toward the warehouse, and all three of them were chanting. As for the rest of us, the other women were already in the van, and Opie was trying his best to stuff me in there too. I was fighting him. I felt like I had to be here, out in the open.
I could feel the power still ebbing out of me, and I didn’t want anything between me and Arc but air. I’d taken his magic, and he needed it right now more than ever before.
Then the main blast hit. There were a lot of explosives in that building, and they all seemed to be set off pretty much instantaneously. One second, there was a warehouse standing there, and the next, all that could be seen was a massive ball of fire.
The shockwave of the blast knocked us all back five feet or more, including the van. But the men were still standing and chanting.
Debris started raining down, but not a single piece of it hit us or the van. When the wave was over, and it didn’t take long, the parking lot and everything in it had been obliterated. All but a small rectangle covering the area of the van’s parking space and the people still outside it. Not a scratch.
Dang, those Earth witches were powerful. Protection was their thing, yeah, but . . . well, dang.
By this time, I was kind of going in and out brain-wise. Truthfully, I might have blacked out a second or two here and there, but not the total faint as before when I’d done something with major magic.
I was awake when Senior and Merlin turned to Arc.
“What the hell was that?” They looked surprised for some reason. I couldn’t fathom why.
Arc was still staring at the building as they released each other’s hands. “I tried to tell you. Amie is special.”
Me? What the heck did I have to do with this?
The two men turned toward me with a look of almost horror. What the hey?
I used the last of my strength to give them a small two-finger wave. I’d have added a smile in for good measure, but my face wasn’t working, either.
Then I did what I’d been so proud of myself for not doing.
I passed out.
Chapter 23
This time was much different than the last two times I’d passed out because of magic. For one, I’d managed to hang on for longer, but that had come at a price it seemed.
When I woke up this time, it was to a feeling of extreme thirst and hunger. A glance around showed that I was back at the farmhouse and in my own bed.
As soon as I opened my eyes, Ruby—who’d been sitting in a chair beside the bed—called down to Opal. “She’s awake.”
I heard thundering footsteps running up the stairs, and Arc and Opie came in through the door into my kitchen area. Both of them were grinning.
“Thank the Goddess!” Arc said, coming over to hold my hand. “I thought I’d killed you.”
I opened my mouth to ask him why on earth he would have thought that, but just then, Mom rushed into my room and gathered me into a fierce hug. It’s hard to talk when your entire face was pressed into someone’s bosom. And Mom’s was somewhat larger than most.
The moment passed. Opal pushed her way through to me with a bottle of ice-cold water. “Drink this.”
She didn’t have to tell me twice. I downed it in mere seconds. It helped, but now my stomach rumbled. It wanted its little piece of the pie too. Ooh, pie!
Opie laughed. “I think we’d better get her something to eat too.”
I grinned at him. “Yes, please.”
Even with t
he hunger and thirst, I didn’t have the lingering headache that I had experienced before. Well, I had a bit of a headache, but it was dull, not the sharp pain like before.
Grimacing up at Opal, I had to ask. “How long was I out?”
“Two days and . . .”—she glanced over at the clock—“two hours.”
What? I was stunned. No wonder I felt so rested.
“What happened?”
“The boy drained you completely,” Opal said with a nasty glance at Arc. “A witch needs a little magic just to survive. Your body took the time it needed to heal. It just needed every ounce of resources you had available. Hence the whole unconscious thing.”
“I’m really sorry, Amie.” That was Arc. “I panicked and took more from you than I should have. We really need to get this binding broken before I hurt you.” He gave me a sad smile. “Being bound to you is almost like a drug. I just can’t seem to get enough power.”
I wanted to know what the heck he was talking about, but the larger—and much hungrier—part of me wanted food. Any food, though pie would be nice, as that thought had already crept into my brain.
“Okay. All people with dangly parts between their legs need to leave my bedroom so I can get up and get dressed.” Normally things like that didn’t bother me. After all, I was a witch and totally fine with dancing naked around a bonfire under the light of the moon. But I didn’t want Opie’s first time seeing me without my clothes on to be like this.
Opie and Arc went into the kitchen area—hopefully one of them would have the forethought to start making me something to eat. Although, with my grocery buying habits, there wasn’t likely to be anything there to fix.
When the door shut behind them, I jumped up and hurriedly put on jeans and a T-shirt. I had to admit that my brain was pretty much solidly fixated on food, so Opal’s question caught me totally off guard.
“How long have you had magic like that? And why did you keep it from us?”
I felt the frown form even as I tilted my head toward her. “Huh?” Eloquent, I know. That’s me in a nutshell. A gal great with words.
Relatively Familiar (Accidental Familiar Book 2) Page 13
