Cut to the Crone (A Spell's Angels Cozy Mystery Book 4)

by Amanda M. Lee

Rather than quake in fear, which wasn’t her way, Mama Moon chuckled hoarsely. “That probably would’ve been the smart thing to do.”

  “I won’t make that mistake twice,” Emma promised.

  Realizing she was about to unleash a torrent of magic, I rolled to my knees in an attempt to cut her off. I didn’t get the chance, because suddenly Mama Moon’s hands were free and she was firing her own magic at Emma.

  The first barrage hit Emma dead center in her chest and I could read the pain that twisted her features. She managed to avoid the second burst, but only by dropping to her knees and rolling behind a bush.

  Confused, I glanced back at the tree and found Sami appearing from behind it. She had a knife in her hand, one she’d obviously used to free Mama Moon, and her mouth was a grim line. “How did you get back there?” I was legitimately dumbfounded.

  Sami didn’t answer. Instead, she placed her hand on Mama Moon’s battered face and released the same blue magic I’d witnessed her mother use for healing purposes.

  “Well, aren’t you a useful little thing?” Mama Moon noted as she tentatively touched her fingers to her recovered face. “I think I might want to keep you.”

  Sami blinked several times in rapid succession but didn’t smile. “Everyone says that.” She didn’t stop to check on me, jumping over my knees and racing toward the vampires, who still weren’t looking in our direction. It was only then that I remembered Rafael.

  “Crap.” Despite every muscle in my body aching I moved to follow, my back and knees protesting yet another fight. Sami was already engaging with the enemy before I could catch up to her.

  “See you on the other side,” she said cheerfully as she slapped her hands on either side of the closest vampire’s head. Instantly, he turned to ash and disappeared.

  The vampire standing next to him jolted at the child’s sudden appearance. “Where did you come from?”

  Sami didn’t have to answer because Rafael distracted the vampire by slamming him with a shoulder. Opting to help this time rather than watch, I caught the careening creature and poured my own magic into him. He burned from the inside within seconds, turning black and flaking away on the mild wind.

  “What are you doing here?” Rafael demanded, his expression stern.

  “I’m here to save you,” I replied.

  Sami rolled her eyes. “He’s talking to me.”

  “I am indeed talking to her.” Rafael moved so his tied hands were on display. “A little help please.”

  Sami dubiously eyed the ropes. “Maybe I shouldn’t untie you.” Now that she’d rescued him, she was clearly ready to play. “I mean, I’m the big hero here. I deserve a reward.”

  Rafael narrowed his eyes to dangerous slits. “Exactly what did you have in mind?”

  “Oh, don’t ask her that,” I groused, making a face. “She’s going to say something totally inappropriate and gross us all out.”

  Rafael’s expression remained impassive. “You act as if I haven’t heard the exact same thing from her mother.”

  Now there was a point I hadn’t thought about. “I still don’t want to hear it. In fact—”

  “Behind you!” Rafael bellowed, throwing himself at a surprised Sami.

  I reacted out of instinct, jumping away from the girl in case she accidentally got clipped with incoming magic. Sami and Rafael hit the ground with muted oomphs, but I quickly focused on the area at my back rather than them. Emma was back on her feet, a deep gash on her cheek, her hands clenched into fists at her sides.

  This time I knew she wasn’t playing around. The arrival of Sami, the one thing Zoe might actually relinquish the book for, had Emma seeing a new way out of this. I threw a hard spell at her, muttering a curse under my breath, and grimacing when she slammed into the tree Mama Moon had been tied to only seconds before.

  The older witch appeared to be completely recovered. And she was angry. “You shouldn’t have come for me, girl.” She grabbed Emma by the shoulders and released a torrent of fire magic, enough so that Emma screamed in pain as she writhed in a desperate attempt to escape.

  She wasn’t my friend. I didn’t want to help her. Yet the pain coursing through her had me cringing, and I called out to stop Mama Moon without thinking. “Don’t kill her.”

  Incredulous, Mama Moon fixed her eyes on me. “Why?”

  “Because we’re asking you not to,” another voice answered from my left.

  I swiveled quickly, my eyes going wide when Ezekiel appeared. Where had he come from? How had he been drawn into this fight? Were he and Emma working together from the start? Questions ran a relay race through my head, and before I had a chance to give any of them voice, Ezekiel took control of the situation.

  “She’s my granddaughter,” he implored Mama Moon.

  “What?” My mouth went dry and my heart hammered. “I knew you were lying. All that talk about your buddy Geoffrey and worrying about some little girl. You were lying from the start, working against us.”

  The sigh Ezekiel heaved was long and drawn out. “No, little one, that is not true. I’m not only her grandfather, I’m your grandfather, too. I wasn’t lying. Nothing I said was a lie, except the part about being friends with your grandfather.”

  I had no idea what I was supposed to say. No words would come to me. My sharp tongue, which was always my greatest weapon, suddenly failed me.

  Apparently Sami didn’t have that problem. “What sort of grandpa lies to his granddaughter?” she demanded. Since I’d last bothered to pay attention to her, she’d freed Rafael and now stood shoulder to shoulder with him.

  The vampire was still ready to throw himself in front of the girl should it become necessary.

  “The sort who wanted to get a chance to know a long lost relative before revealing himself,” Ezekiel replied kindly, flashing a small smile for Sami’s benefit. “I’m a brave man by nature, although perhaps not as brave as you, but the thought of seeing my girl for the first time in more than twenty years filled me with fear.”

  Sami flicked her eyes to me. “Don’t look at me. I don’t know if he’s telling the truth. My mom is better off figuring out stuff like that.”

  “Speaking of your mother ...” Rafael gently nudged Sami toward the clearing. “Perhaps we should be joining her.”

  That sounded like a good idea to me, but Ezekiel stopped them with a head shake. “The mage’s power is building to a crescendo. Your enemies will fall soon enough. It’s best if you wait here.”

  Sami didn’t look convinced. “You’re not my grandfather. I don’t have to listen you.”

  “I’m not your grandfather,” Ezekiel agreed. “However, if you belonged to me, I would be thrilled beyond belief. You’re a very courageous girl.”

  “I’m mean, too,” Sami shot back. “You’ll want to keep that in mind in case you’re one of those dirty perverts my father keeps warning me about.”

  Rather than be offended, Ezekiel grinned. “Fair enough. Just stay right there with your friend. This is almost over.”

  Unbidden, the image of the Detroit vampires invaded my mind. I wanted a piece of them. I wanted to rip them to shreds. Odds were they were already gone. Still, part of me wanted to flee this place, and not simply because this was a story I wasn’t ready to hear, but also because I wanted my vengeance.

  As if reading my mind, Ezekiel gently cajoled my eyes to him by clearing his throat. “You belong here, Allegra.”

  “Is that my name?” The question escaped before I could really think about it. “Is that what name I was born with?”

  “That’s who you are,” he replied. “You’ve always been my little Ally.”

  The proprietary nature of the statement irked me. “No, I’m not your anything. I’m my own person. And you’re nothing to me.”

  He looked pained. “Ally...”

  “My name is Scout.” I stood straighter, my eyes drifting to Emma, who remained under Mama Moon’s control. I was torn where she was concerned. Was she really my sister? It seemed lik
e a surreal possibility, and yet when I searched my heart, it felt true. As for Ezekiel, my emotions were running rampant and I couldn’t contain them. My brain felt as if it was about to overload. While I needed to think, I was completely out of time.

  “I’m not asking you to set her free,” Ezekiel implored Mama Moon. “She’s done wrong. It’s not her fault, though. She was taken against her will, turned—”

  “That might’ve been true weeks ago,” Mama Moon cut in. “She still knows right from wrong.” She gave Emma another jolt. “She knows that she picked the wrong team. She was looking for the Archimage, for crying out loud. Do you know what sort of trouble she could’ve wrought with that book?”

  Ezekiel held up his hands in a placating manner. “Give me a chance to turn her back to what she once was.”

  “You can’t change someone if they’re evil,” Sami said. She was paler than usual, dark circles under her eyes from lack of sleep. “She’s evil. She wants a book that doesn’t even exist anymore.”

  Emma jolted, her eyes snapping open. “What are you saying?”

  “The book.” Sami’s tone was soft, reasonable. “It’s been gone for fifteen years.”

  “No.” Emma vehemently shook her head, ignoring the way Mama Moon gripped her hair. “Nobody would destroy that book. It’s too powerful.”

  “It wasn’t technically destroyed,” Sami replied, her eyes flashing darker than normal, “but it’s still gone, and there’s no way you can ever retrieve it.”

  That was when I really absorbed what she was saying. Zoe said the book was absorbed fifteen years before. Sami was fourteen. If the timelines overlapped even a bit, then part of that book had gone into Sami, which was only one of the reasons she was so powerful.

  As if reading my mind, Sami held my gaze, a small dose of fear permeating from her before she brutally shoved it aside. I simply smiled at her. I would die before sharing that secret.

  “We’ll take Emma into custody,” I said decisively. “’We’ being us Spells Angels.” I fixed Ezekiel with a hard look. “She’s not going to you. I don’t care who you claim to be.”

  “I’m your grandfather,” he promised. “I’m not lying.”

  “We’ll have to wait and see, won’t we?”

  Twenty-Nine

  The battlefield was littered with bodies when we emerged into the waning eclipse, the sun forcing its way through the darkness. We used the same ropes that had bound Rafael to tie Emma’s hands behind her back and I added a bit of extra magic to the mix ... just in case.

  Emma was morose, continuously shooting dark looks toward Ezekiel. It was obvious, even though she didn’t say as much, that she remembered him. How they were separated, why he didn’t come for her, those were questions that would have to be answered after cleanup was finished here.

  “Sami!”

  Aric caught sight of his offspring first, breaking away from the group and racing toward her.

  Even though she’d been a total badass in the battle, Sami turned into a crying little girl at the sight of her father. “Daddy!” She raced toward him with abandon, letting him sweep her into his arms.

  I cast a glance at Rafael and found him smiling. Despite being held captive for two days straight, he looked none the worse for wear. Not only that, he found true joy in watching the child reunited with her father. That made me glance down and smile. It was one of the only things bringing me joy right now.

  “Scout?”

  I jerked up my head at the sound of Gunner’s voice and hurried toward him, realizing — with a bit of shame — that I had a lot more to be happy about than I pretended. Yes, my life had just been turned upside down, but I had so much to live for.

  “Hey.” I let him pull me to him, burying my face in his chest. I never doubted he was okay, but it felt good to have my intuition reinforced.

  “I was worried about you,” he whispered into my hair, clutching me against his broad chest. “I lost track of you when you took off toward the creek. How did you end up in the woods?”

  I pulled back and offered up a hollow laugh. “Blame the little mage.” I inclined my head toward Sami, who was busy trying to extricate herself from her father’s crushing embrace. “She appeared out of nowhere and went on a rampage.”

  Zoe stood a few feet away from her husband and daughter, watching the tender scene with a grimace. “Did she kill anybody?”

  I wasn’t sure what answer would make her feel better, but I went with the truth. “A couple of vampires.”

  Zoe didn’t appear disappointed at the news. “Okay.”

  “She was a total badass,” I added, mostly because I felt the need to stand up for the kid. She had saved me a few times after all. “Your training shone through, and brightly.”

  Zoe merely nodded as Sami slowly shifted her gaze to her mother. “I’m in trouble, aren’t I?” The girl’s voice was piteous.

  “Big trouble,” Zoe confirmed. “I mean huge trouble. You know those old television shows I like to watch? I’m going to make you watch all of them.”

  Sami’s expression morphed into one of abject horror. “Not the one about the facts of life.”

  Zoe nodded grimly. “And Family Ties. And Growing Pains. And The Golden Girls.”

  Sami’s mouth dropped open. “Not the old ladies. That’s just mean.”

  “Daddy has some old westerns for you to watch as well,” Zoe added. “If you think Cheers is bad, just wait until he makes you watch Bonanza.”

  “Oh, man.” Sami turned her imploring eyes to Aric. “I’m okay. I shouldn’t be punished.”

  Aric stared hard at his child for a long beat, his lips slowly curving. “Just wait until I introduce you to Hoss.”

  I was amused, despite myself. When I glanced to my left, I found Ezekiel watching me with compassionate eyes. Since it hurt to look at him, and enraged me a little to boot, I opted to look away. “What’s the count out here?”

  “All dead or fled,” Gunner replied, stroking his hand over my hair. It was obvious he was concerned but he didn’t immediately leap in and start questioning me. He knew my moods better than I did at this point and he’d obviously decided to wait for the interrogation.

  Honestly, I appreciated that.

  “What about the blonde?” I asked, my temper flashing. “The female who looked Norwegian.”

  Zoe’s eyebrows hopped, curiosity evident. “Did you know her?”

  “A long time ago I ran across her in an abandoned building in Detroit. She … got away.”

  “That seems to be her forte,” Zoe replied darkly. “She got away this time, too. She had a dark-haired male with her. They barely engaged in the fight before taking off. I’m pretty sure they knew which way the battle was going to go.”

  I had no idea if that was good or bad news. I decided to file it away to ponder at a later time. Something occurred to me. “What about Jeanie?”

  Gunner flashed a smile, although it didn’t make it all the way to his eyes. “I caught her on the second wave. She recognized me. I threatened her, told her to go home. Last time I saw her, she was running that way.” He pointed in the direction opposite of the creek. “She’s probably halfway to her mother’s house by now.”

  “Will you check on her?”

  He hesitated and then shrugged. “I’ll call out there, maybe send my father. If she’s smart, she’ll have learned from this little adventure. If not, I won’t be able to step in a second time.”

  He looked sad at the prospect, but also resigned.

  Instinctively I reached out and rubbed his arm. “We’ll figure it out.”

  He leaned in and kissed my forehead. “We’ll definitely figure it out. Tomorrow. After a good night’s sleep.”

  “Hallelujah!” I threw my arms around his neck and laughed as he held me tight. It felt good to lean, yet again, and I didn’t want to pull away. We still had things to deal with, though.

  “What about the people in the accident?” I queried. “You know, that vehicle we found.”<
br />
  Gunner held out his hands. “I have no idea. We’re not even sure who we’re looking for there. We’ll have to play it by ear.”

  That wasn’t the news I wanted to hear but there was little I could do to change that.

  “What about her?” Rooster asked, swiping at a cut on his cheek as he inclined his head toward Emma. “I wasn’t actually expecting to take her alive.”

  I hesitated, unsure what to say. Sami, per usual, didn’t have that problem.

  “She’s Scout’s sister. Her real name is Allegra, by the way. That dude said it was anyway, but he called her Ally.” She jerked her thumb at Ezekiel. “He’s her grandfather, although apparently he claimed to be friends with her grandfather or something — I really didn’t follow that part — and he begged for them to leave the evil chick alive.”

  Gunner’s eyes went wide. “No way.”

  I simply nodded. Really, what else was I supposed to say?

  Zoe moved away from Aric and planted herself directly in front of Emma, her expression dark. “I think it would be smart to end her now. She’ll move on you if you try to play nice with her.”

  Ezekiel immediately started shaking his head. “She’s my granddaughter.”

  “I’m sorry for you.” Zoe’s eyes flashed with impatience. “She’s still a menace. I don’t care about her. I don’t care about you either. I care about Scout, though, and this chick will kill her if she gets the chance. That means she has to go.”

  “Zoe.” Aric’s voice was low and full of warning as he drew his wife’s challenging gaze. He didn’t shrink in the face of her ferocity. “That’s Scout’s decision to make. You’re not in charge here. Not anymore. We got what we came for, which means it’s time for us to go.”

  I was taken aback. “Wait ... you’re going?”

  The amusement returned to Zoe’s face. “We’re done here.”

  “But ...” I felt as if I was losing my emotional backup without warning and I had no idea what to do without her.

  “Scout, you’re going to be fine.” She wrapped her fingers around my wrist. “You never needed us.”

  I glanced around the remnants of the battlefield, fallen wolves, and small piles of ash everywhere. “I’m pretty sure that’s not true.”