Mute the baiting! Cam frantically telegraphed Alex, climbing higher on her sister’s back. Just get our necklaces …
I need to put these three out of action first.
“Who are you talking to?” Sersee whirled suddenly. “Where’s the rodent?”
“Where’s the rope? Is that what you said?” Alex was locked in mock-mode. “It’s right here!”
She focused all her fear, rage, and hope, again hearing Aron’s words, “I’ll be with you, I always have,” then willing her father’s gold chain to whiz off its spool and whip forward like a gleaming snake, a golden lasso. She sent it flying toward Sersee. It looped through the air at astounding speed.
Not faster than Sersee, however, who ducked.
Fascinated by Alex’s telekinetic trick, Epie didn’t. She stared at the wildly whipping chain, which slapped her ankles and corkscrewed itself up her bulging body. Like a gold-encrusted mummy, she went down hard.
Recovered from her shock, Sersee lunged at Alex, sneering, “I remember now, you did win the telekinesis round. Too bad your aim is off.” Gloating, she hadn’t noticed the hamster skitter out from behind Alex, didn’t realize it was staring at her with smoldering intensity, pinpointing its beady, blazing eyes directly on Sersee’s violet orbs …
The lunging witch shrieked and froze as Cam’s stinging ray blinded her.
Score! She had stunned Sersee. The formerly large-’n-in-charge witch was rooted in place. In the second it took for Cam’s beam to completely immobilize her, the First Fury bellowed, “Attack!”
Michaelina made her move. She looked from the chain-wrapped Epie to Sersee, stiff and standing like an angry statue, to the hungry, prowling panther. And she ran, dashing for daylight as fast and as far from them as she could get.
But Jason, starved, taunted, and painfully taught to obey Sersee’s commands, crouched lower to the ground, ready to pounce at the twins. Only his eyes betrayed his fear, his abject terror of committing such a heinous act. But his hunger and the cruel instincts Sersee had instilled in him were getting the best of him. Growling, he drooled and bared sharp, flesh-tearing teeth at Alex.
Cam, staring at Sersee from her sister’s shoulder, telegraphed Alex: I’m still myself inside this rodent coat. That means Jason is, too. Talk to him.
“Jason, it’s me, Alex. And this hamster is really Cam. You were right; we were in danger. Now you really can help us.”
Alex heard or, rather, felt Sersee sending a scrambled message. It must have been something like, “Sink your teeth into them now!” because the panther cocked his head at the frozen witch, his ears up and twitching in concentration.
“Don’t listen, Jase. She’s evil,” Alex pleaded, trying to contain her terror as the animal swung his head toward her.
Jase. Cam’s fear began to disintegrate in a wave of aching compassion for Jason. For Jase, whose motives had been pure and unselfish, and whose reward was to be captured, tortured, starved, and turned into an untamed beast, all because of his loving concern for her.
“Jason, I know you’re in there somewhere,” Alex urgently continued. “You can use your own free will. You do not have to follow her commands. I promise, Cam and I will get you out of this.”
The panther’s tail began to lash. He bared his teeth at them, his mouth foaming with hunger.
“Kill!” The single cry came from Sersee, who had nearly thawed from Cam’s immobilizing glare.
Startled, the panther whirled toward the witch who’d just commanded him — and pounced. As his claws raked Sersee’s purple robe, Cam dug her tiny claws into Alex’s shoulder. They both watched, horrified as Sersee stumbled backward, her cloak in shreds.
“No!” Alex and Cam screamed together.
Cam’s urgency and passion had released her human voice but at a painful price. Her throat burned, her ears rang, and her head ached fiercely. She was nauseatingly dizzy. Violently tightening her grip on her sister, she feared that she might pass out and plummet, smash unconscious onto the rock-hard floor.
“Down, Jason!” Alex yelled, trying to unfasten Cam’s nails from her flesh. “Stop. Don’t kill her!”
The starving panther started to back off, then changed his mind. He lunged at Sersee, knocking her to the ground, and sunk his teeth into her shoulder.
As Sersee howled in pain and shock, Cam tumbled from Alex’s shoulder, landing on the wildcat’s back. He swung around roaring.
“No,” Alex commanded. “That’s Cam!” She grabbed the animal’s swishing tail and held on tight. “We don’t hurt people! Jason, we believe in healing, helping,” she babbled, bouncing along the floor. “So that all things — even Sersee — may grow to their most bountiful goodness.”
While Cam clung quiveringly to his back, the panther sank to the floor, exhausted, weak, and confused.
Squatting beside him, Alex put her arms around his slick black neck. “It’s okay,” she cooed, petting him. “Oh, Jason, we are so sorry.”
Cam was down on the cave floor now, breathing hard as she watched Sersee hug her wounded shoulder and whimper. Cam telescoped in on the puncture wound. It wasn’t as drastic or deep as she’d feared. Already the dribble of blood was beginning to dry. Jason had been too frail to cause real damage.
“You’ll be fine,” Alex assured the wounded diva. “There are enough herbs and healers on this island to cure everything.”
Okay, Doctor Done-enough, tell her to take two aspirin and call you in the morning, Cam chattered a message. Remember me? Sister. Twin. Best friend. Hamster! Pick up our amulets, do the unmorphing spell, and get me out of this rat’s body.
Speedily, Alex found their moon and sun charms on the cold, wet floor of the cave where they’d been flung. She held out Cam’s sun amulet, expecting her to take it. But raising her paws in exasperation, the little hamster began to babble irritably.
Whoops. Gotcha, Alex sent back, embarrassed. “Look, Als. No hands. Duh!” Is that what you’re trying to say?
Cam rolled her eyes as Alex held both necklaces, one in each hand. But the hammered gold charms made to fit together as one whole were not reacting as they usually did. They were not pulling toward each other as if they had a life of their own. They were as cold as the cave floor, not heating to a glowing warmth. Clasping them, looking straight at Cam, Alex began, with a sinking heart, to recite the un-morphing incantation.
I’m not feeling anything, Cam sent nervously.
I know, her sister admitted. Me, neither. It’s not working. No juice.
Try again, Cam pressed, hoping it wasn’t because Alex was trying something alone that they’d always done together. This had to work, she thought, unsure of what other options they had. Ileana and Miranda couldn’t help; their powers were sapped. Karsh was gone. Thantos and Idiots, Inc. wouldn’t. And Shane? Iffy at best.
The tip of her nose was twitching nervously. Her tiny teeth were chattering. Cam so did not want to leave the cave like this. Equally horrific: If Alex couldn’t help her, then they couldn’t help Jason.
No! Cam thought — this is not how this ends. She was Camryn Barnes, the girl who got what she wanted. She was also Apolla DuBaer — one half of the most promising sister act ever.
Epie was clanking around the floor, struggling with the chains that bound her. Sersee, still nursing her wound, was ignoring them for the moment. Neither would stay that way for long.
I promise, Alex said, though she had no idea how she’d keep it, we’ll figure something out —
And then she felt it.
Her back pocket was heating up, as if she’d leaned back against a warm oven.
Cautiously, she reached inside and drew out the amulet she’d found in her parents’ house, the one Nathaniel had been holding in the portrait at Crailmore, the gold disk with its dancing bear, which she’d planned to give to Ileana.
Cam had not seen it. She had her eyes squeezed shut and was trying to will a vision to come to her. She wanted more than a hazy premonition, a hint, or a clue. She want
ed a detailed picture of the future: a visual promise of what was to be.
Alex turned the warm medallion in her hand, afraid to look at Cam in case the charm didn’t work. But it continued to heat up in her hand, feeling very much like her moon charm did. As she rotated the amulet, the DuBaer crest glinted in the candlelight, flashing across Cam’s stressed hamster face.
Anxiously, Alex began the unmorphing incantation.
All at once, Cam, her face lit by the glimmering amulet, gasped. And saw herself as herself, free of Sersee’s curse. Back in her own body!
“Good magick that lights the night …” Alex recited, holding the disk on which her family crest had been lovingly carved.
“Moon and stars that make the sky bright …”
She heard her own voice getting stronger as it reverberated off the walls of the cave. “It is time for Apolla, a good and compassionate witch
To return to her human form,
To make the switch
From hamster back to Camster, this I request.
To join Artemis and do what she does best —”
Alex stopped for a second. Was there an echo in here? Or was … Cam reciting it with her? Was it possible? Cam!
Alex spun toward her sister. On her own two sturdy legs, her face mirroring not just Alex’s features but her glowing joy, Cam was back. Their arms reached out at the same moment, their tears dampened each other’s shoulders.
“Thank you, thank you,” Cam murmured, wondering if she’d really created a vision that had turned to reality.
“Thank Aron,” Alex responded, showing her sister the DuBaer amulet. “This was his. Nathaniel must have left it to him. I found it in the cedar chest.”
“Let’s use it to bring Jason back,” Cam said, stroking the panther’s head.
“Let’s get out of here first,” Alex decided. “We’ll take him with us.”
“Good plan, twinsies. I bet he’ll be thrilled to know you’re witches … just like us!”
Cam paled. “Oh, no,” she murmured.
“Oh, yes,” Sersee cackled wickedly.
“Never mind the Queen of Mean,” Alex urged, taking Jason’s collar.
“Love to hang with ya, Sers, and you, too, Gold-wrapper.” Alex grinned at the chain-encased, wriggling Epie. “But you know … errands to run, spells to cast, wrongs to right, lives to ruin! Like yours.”
Inspired, she handed Cam Jason’s leash and whipped the baby blanket from around her own neck. Skullcap, she thought, sniffing the herb-packed panels of the quilt.
“What do you know of skullcap?” Sersee demanded, trying to lift herself with her one good arm.
They ignored her.
Alex clung tightly to their grandfather’s amulet. “Good spirits that dwell within these caves,” she improvised. “Ancestors who here went to their graves —”
She paused and Cam picked up the thread. “We call upon the heritage that is ours … to put these Furies to sleep …”
Alex shrugged. “For hours and hours?”
“Good enough!” They each drew a pinch of skullcap from the quilt and together let it rain down on The Furies.
CHAPTER TWENTY
A BUMPY ENDING
Cam and Alex dashed back through the twisting tunnels of the enormous caverns, the panther at their heels. They’d reached the slippery steps leading up to LunaSoleil’s basement when Alex flung her arm out, blocking Cam.
“What do you hear?” Cam asked.
“Someone’s … wait, no, there are two of them,” Alex replied. A huge grin spontaneously erupted on her face just as the trapdoor above them flew open.
Hovering at the top of the steps were their beloved guardian and the woman they were just beginning to know but already loved. Ileana and Miranda.
Startled gasps gave way to a torrent of questions, answers, expressions of joy and relief — all tangled up, since everyone spoke at once.
Neither Miranda nor Ileana had actually heard Cam’s anguished cries for help, but both women sensed that the twins were in trouble. Ileana rejected her witchy senses, still not trusting her instincts.
Miranda trusted them completely.
She’d run from Crailmore, found Ileana, and together, the women made a beeline for LunaSoleil.
Miranda put a consoling arm around Cam, studying her daughter, who had all the symptoms of having been transmutated. Her eyes were glassy, her skin sickly pallid, her hands shook pitifully. What had she become and who had cursed her? Involuntarily, Miranda shuddered.
Apolla and Artemis — her babies, hers and Aron’s, had been forced to tread on very dangerous ground. They’d been exposed to powerful, dark magick that no one their age, especially the uninitiated, should have gone through. The twins were out of their league. Worse they might not be able to save themselves the next time around. She wanted them to stay, but Miranda knew they had to go back to the mainland, their best chance of staying safe.
She was about to tell them when she was interrupted by Ileana, who’d knelt down to study the panther. “I see you managed to adopt a pet while all this was going on.”
Before Cam could explain, Alex jumped in, a mischievous twinkle in her eye. “He’s not exactly a pet.” She deliberately turned to Miranda. “Uh, Mom … Cam would like you to meet her boyfriend.”
Cam elbowed her with more force than necessary.
Which led Alex to rub her arm and giggle, “Bad hamster!”
Miranda was stumped. Ileana lifted her clear gray eyes to Cam and said gently, “They did this to a friend of yours?”
“We didn’t have time to un-morph him. We’ll do it now.” Cam took Alex’s hand and clasped her sun charm.
Ileana leaped to her feet. “Bad plan!” she announced.
“Huh?” Now the twins were stumped.
“Before you show off,” their guardian witch said, “think for a moment. Together, you have the ability to return your friend to his proper form —”
“We have to,” Cam interrupted, her voice catching. “They used him; they hurt him.”
Miranda understood now. “The moment he takes his true form, he will remember everything. He’ll have questions, of course. It’s your choice, Apolla. Are you ready for that?”
Cam wasn’t. In her eagerness to make Jason whole and human again, she hadn’t considered the side effects. “So what do we do?” Her stomach twisted at the possibility. “We can’t leave him —”
“Speaking in your native tongue — duh!” Ileana rolled her eyes. “No one is suggesting that. Sit down, my brave, foolish fledglings.” She softened, hearing Karsh’s voice in her head, then reached for Miranda. “Come. You and I may be weathering a ‘power outage,’ but there’s much we can teach them.”
Miranda hesitated. “What you’re about to teach them is well above their level: tracker skills. We probably —”
“They’re quite advanced, I assure you,” Ileana explained. “I say we go for it.”
“Let’s,” Miranda decided, a little of her own rebellious nature coming back. She liked the feeling.
And so, under the guidance of the women they trusted and loved, Cam and Alex repeated the incantation that brought Jason back painlessly to his human form. While he groggily shook his arms and stretched his neck, they learned a spell to wipe out memory. With oil of valerian root, which Miranda contributed, and a foggy green crystal from Ileana’s herb pouch, the twins chanted the incantation. And Jason, blinking at Cam as if trying to bring her into focus, seemed to fall asleep. Lastly, they cast the transporting spell to return him to his friends and what was left of the vacation he should have been enjoying.
Back at Ileana’s, Cam and Alex got ready to go. Miranda and Ileana were in the front room waiting to escort them to the ferry.
While Miranda looked on with amusement, Ileana lugged her furniture back to where she’d had it before Cam’s restless reorganizing fit.
“When I need a decorator,” their stylish guardian grumbled, “I’ll send for Emily Barnes. Of cours
e,” she quickly tagged on, “I appreciate everything you did here, especially the cleanup. That was a real gift.”
“Speaking of —” Alex began.
“— we have another gift for you,” Cam finished.
Ileana, who normally adored gifts, was somehow ill at ease. “What for?” she cracked. “My generous hospitality?”
Cam clarified, “Just for being our cousin.”
Alex opened her hand. The DuBaer family crest sparkled, glinting in the late afternoon sun. “Welcome — officially! — to the family.”
“Strange as it may be!” Cam added.
Ileana’s hand flew to her lips; her electric gray eyes widened. She turned away so no one would see them grow misty.
When she turned back, Miranda had cupped Cam’s face with one hand, Alex’s with the other. “This, Artemis and Apolla, is what I’m proudest of. The talent, the power you were born with. But the kindness, the selflessness, and the compassion; this is a gift no one can give you. Use it well.”
The four women set out for the ferry — Alex in her frayed denim jacket hoisting her backpack; Cam, back in cargoes, wheeling her rollie — each buried in her own thoughts.
Cam was disappointed and blamed herself for all that had happened. Jason would forget all this. She wouldn’t. She’d caused him unbearable torment. Worse, she’d fallen for Shane, a deceiving skeve. A liar. With Jason, what you saw was what you got. It was all right out there.
“Sis,” Alex busted into her head. “Try this. How about, with Jason, what you see is what you want to see. Maybe the boy has layers, depth, secrets you don’t want to see.”
“Thanks, Oprah,” Cam cracked.
The “normal” girl from Marble Bay had arrived here feeling like a stranger in a strange land. Like ET, an alien who only wanted to go home. Instead, a part of her finally admitted what Alex seemed to have embraced from the start. They had two homes. The one they were going back to and the one to which they would surely return. Two halves of her heart that made a whole. Like herself and Alex.
T*Witches: Kindred Spirits Page 14
