by Bonnie Lamer
“We can never be, Kegan. It is pointless to discuss this further.” Ah, their age old argument. Alita is one stubborn Fairy. “I was hoping your interest in Xandra meant that you have finally moved on.” The way her voice cracks belies the truth in that statement.
“Damn it, Alita, you know my ‘interest,’ as you say, in Xandra is no more than foolish rivalry with my cousin.” Foolish indeed. “It is you that I love.”
“Kegan, please stop.”
Damn it. He made her cry again speaking of his reckless foolishness. She will never run with him. The guilt over him losing his father would kill her. My gentle push this morning did not budge her at all. But Kegan keeps pushing, making her cry harder. I should walk in there and punch him for her. I believe Xandra is about to do just that so I grab her arm and gently pull her to me so I can whisper, “Let them be. This is their problem to solve.” After a moment, she nods reluctantly.
We listen for a few more uncomfortable minutes. If we move, they will surely hear us and then Alita will feel even worse. It does not take long for Kegan to come storming out of the fort. He stops short when he sees us, his silence carrying his anger and hurt like a cloak. He does not say anything to us when he starts walking again towards the beach.
“I should talk to Alita,” Xandra says.
And I should speak with my cousin. “I will talk to Kegan. I was not aware that his feelings were still that of our childhood. He has done an excellent job of hiding them.” Not that that has helped. Everyone who has known him his whole life still knows he loves her. Everyone except his father.
I have to trot down the beach to catch up with him. His anger has turned his walk into a half run. “Hey, wait up,” I say.
He hesitates but then says over his shoulder, “Eavesdropping was not enough, now you want to what, play healer to my soul?”
“If there was a competition for who could be the biggest jackass, you would lose.”
That got his attention. He stops and turns around, confusion crawling all over his face. “As insults go, that was very weak.”
“You cannot be a jackass when you already hold the station of biggest dumbass in the realm. There are overlapping characteristics but one is just so much more pitiful than the other.” I am smart enough to stop outside of punching range.
“I am a dumbass because I love a Fairy who refuses to be with me?”
I shake my head. “No, you are a dumbass because you are trying to convince the wrong person.”
“So I am supposed to walk into my father’s office and say, ‘Dad, I am going to enter into a hand-fasting with Alita. You know, the Cowan Fairy you told me never to bring in the house again?’”
Glad Xandra was not here to hear that. She would already be on her way to Kegan’s house. “Something along those lines, yes. You may want be a tad less snarky and petulant though.”
His eyes narrow and he takes a step towards me. I ready myself to block any punches he may throw. “You know, it was not that long ago that you agreed with my father. Before you went to the Cowan realm, you would have been right there with him telling me how it would taint the bloodlines and how any children we may have would be useless, weak creatures without magic.”
There is a loud ringing in my ear that I want to turn off. Unfortunately, it is the ringing of truth. He is more right than I care to admit. “I never suggested you should not be with Alita.”
His brows practically shoot off his forehead they raise so fast and so high. “Really? You can honestly stand there and say that you have not been trying to steer me in the direction of true blooded Fairies all of our lives? You may not have said her name, but you never had to. We both knew what you meant.”
I struggle to figure out how to respond to that. I suppose his truths must be met with my own. “I apologize that I was not supportive of you being with the Fairy you love. I would now be proud to see you and Alita hand-fasted and welcome her into our family as more than just friend.”
He snorts and shakes his head. “It never ceases to amaze me how big your ego is. Suddenly it is okay to not be with true blooded Fairies because you are not with one. Are all of your basic tenets you spouted for years so easily tossed aside when it suits you?”
Now I am getting pissed. “Look, I admitted I was wrong. What more do you want – blood?"
He is about to say something when he looks over my shoulder. Then he turns around and walks away. I shake my head as I watch him go. He is right; I could have helped make this path easier for him long ago. I may not have changed my uncle’s mind, but at least Kegan would not have been fighting him alone.
I turn to Xandra and Alita and my heart is heavy for Kegan. “You both just need time,” I say to Alita. “You will find a way to be together.”
Her eyes tell me to shut up and mind my own business. So I shut up.
Chapter 26
I am as surprised as Xandra to find the house in array when we return. The living room has been cleared and a circle drawn in the center. Inside of it is a chair and all of the things that Xandra will need to do the spell. I am having major second thoughts about helping to talk her into this. She will be working unknown magic on a grand scale. As confident as I would like to be, a part of me is terrified that something will go wrong. I try to keep that fear off my face when I look at her.
I am not alone in my fears. “Xandra,” her mother says, floating to her side. “Honey, are you sure that you want to do this? Giving up your magic to save your aunt is a huge sacrifice. No one would blame you if you did not want to go through with this.”
Tabitha creates a distraction, saving Xandra from having to respond. Tabitha is carrying an assortment of odd items and is precariously close to dropping them all. I move to help but she shakes her head. “I have iron in here; I do not want you to get hurt.” I step back and let her pass unaided.
Tabitha carefully positions the items. Grandmother brings in more and these are laid out as well. All too soon, it is time to start.
“Are you ready for her?” Dagda asks, coming from the direction of the staircase.
“Yes,” Grandmother says, stepping back out of the circle that I now see is made of salt. She and Tabitha are both careful not to disturb it.
Grandmother nods and then turns to Xandra. “We will first attempt to extract the information that we need. Then you will work the spell. I have translated it from Latin.” She has thought of everything.
Dagda comes farther into the room with Barb trailing behind him. She is obviously sedated and Dagda is using his magic to transport her, giving her an eerie, lifeless appearance as she floats in his wake.
When he has her in the chair in the middle of the circle, Dagda holds the potion to her lips and pours some in her mouth. Some of it sloshes back out, but she has ingested enough for his purposes. Her eyes open and she tries spitting some of it out, but Dagda holds her jaws together until he is sure she has swallowed what was left in her mouth.
“Get away from me, Fairy, before I kill you,” she growls when Dagda releases her jaw.
Dagda is not impressed. “I am not interested in your empty threats, but I am interested in what you know. I want to know which realm all of you hale from.”
“The Cowan realm, as I am a Cowan.”
Dagda walks around her chair, forcing her to turn her head to follow his movement. “The body you have taken hostage is from the Cowan realm. I want to know where the rest of you hale from.”
“You may ask the question as many times as you like, the answer will remain the same.”
Dagda steps back in front of her. “Are you telling me that each piece of soul within you originated in the Cowan realm?” That cannot be true. She has obviously used some magic. Unless there are Witches amongst her soul pieces. I had not thought of that. That is very bad for the spell because we do not have any Witches here to extract blood from. At least, no corporeal ones. I doubt Xandra’s blood would work.
“There is only one soul in this body.” The way she
says this makes it hard to doubt her. Even Dagda looks confused for a moment.
Shaking it off, he continues. “Your ability to lie will last only a moment or so longer. Then, you will tell me what I want to know.”
“You may ask whatever you like, I will answer you truthfully; regardless of what poison you have put in my system.”
“Then why do you lie about the number of souls in this body?” He waves his hand from Barb’s head to her feet.
“I have not told a lie. There is but one soul in this body,” she spits out angrily.
This is going nowhere. Fast. Tabitha feels the same way. “Let me lay my hands on her.” Dagda nods and steps back.
Tabitha walks back into the circle and moves behind Barb, putting her hands on both sides of her head. The way Tabitha’s eyes fly open, it cannot be good news. “She speaks the truth. There is only one soul in this body,” she gasps.
I watch Xandra’s face fall as the realization that her aunt truly is evil sets in. I put my arms around her and try to comfort her but it is no use. The shock has her deaf and mute at the moment.
“Perhaps you need to dig deeper,” Grandmother says. “Will you try again?”
Tabitha nods and repeats the process. We can tell from her face that her verdict is not going to be different this time. “I searched every part of her soul. She did not lie.”
Xandra’s father is even more devastated. “Barb, how could you have done the things you did? You tried to kill Zac and you poisoned an innocent girl.”
An evil grin crawls onto her lips. “If your little brat is gone, I can get back to my real life.”
A brief exchange takes place between Xandra’s parents and her aunt. It is both heartbreaking and insane that this Cowan woman has become this hateful creature. Xandra lets me pull her close now. I wish I could make this all go away for her. Short of killing her aunt, I am not sure how to do that though.
“Xandra.” Zac enters the room and when he sees his aunt, his blue eyes become huge and he stops walking. “What’s going on? Why is Aunt Barb all tied up?”
Xandra moves quickly to her brother. “Zac, something happened to Aunt Barb when you two were in the Shadow realm. She isn’t herself right now, so we need to help her get better. But you need to go back upstairs so we can do that, okay?”
He looks over Xandra’s shoulder shoulder at Barb. “Is that going to happen to me too?”
The boy is rightfully shaken to the core. No one in this room could answer that question with one hundred percent certainty. Xandra tries. “No, you’re fine. You have nothing to worry about.”
“Can’t I stay and help her, too?”
“No, this is something only big people can do.”
“Will you come up with me? This house is kind of scary when I’m alone. It makes funny noises.”
Xandra laughs and agrees to take him back upstairs. I hope she does not stay up there too long. Her brother’s fears aside, we need to get to the bottom of what happened in the Shadow realm.
Chapter 27
Xandra is taking longer than I hoped. Meanwhile, her aunt is sitting impatiently in the chair, trying to break through the magic holding her in place. Since she has no magic of her own, she is failing miserably.
She tries another tactic. “You should go check on her, you know. She probably needs your help.”
I cock my head. “I believe she is capable of calming her brother’s fears on her own.”
Barb laughs like a maniacal hyena. “You all are so stupid. You have no idea what is really going on in this house. If you let me go, I will help her. I know what has to be done and I will do it.”
She did not veil her murder threat well. Might as well humor her as we wait for Xandra to return. “You should enlighten us with these mysteries you hold above us,” I say with no small amount of sarcasm.
Xandra’s mother is getting antsy. “You all keep talking to her; I am going to check on Xandra.”
Barb laughs her hyena laugh again but she will not say anything more while Xandra and her mother are gone. I know she will not. So, I do not continue to question her but the others do and it is causing quite a racket when Xandra returns.
The last thing in the world I expected to see is Xandra bringing Zac back down here. Her whole point of going up there with him was to keep him from witnessing this. And why is she carrying him? He is rather large for her to be toting him up and down the stairs like that.
When the others notice her approach, they stop speaking. Except Barb. “Get your hands off from him,” she snarls. That is odd considering she tried to kill him herself.
Xandra ignores her and looks at me. “Kallen, will you please remove my aunt from the chair?”
If someone else asked me to do this, I would say no. But I know Xandra well enough to know that she would not ask me to do this unless she is absolutely sure it is the right thing to do. Her tone of voice and her facial expression tell me she is that sure.
Barb attempts to struggle but without magic, she has no hope of doing anything we do not want her to do at the moment. When I have removed her from the chair and planted her on a couch, Xandra moves into the circle with her brother. When she has him situated, she says, “Wake.” His eyes pop open.
His lips are moving, but no words are coming out because his sister has stolen his voice. Turning to Grandmother, she says, “Where is the translation?” No one in the room dares to ask her why she changed her mind on who should be sitting in the chair.
The first thing Xandra has to do with the spell is ask for a blood volunteer. I am about to ask her what type of blood she needs when she stands before her aunt. I guess it is Cowan blood. Son of a bitch. The soul pieces must have been using Zac’s magic to cause chaos.
Moving to help her, I hold Barb still while Xandra makes a small cut on her arm with the knife Grandmother just gave her and catches the blood with a goblet. Next, she must mix in her own blood. I hate watching her do this. I wish I could give her mine.
Continuing the ritual, Xandra marks and lights the candles that have been placed for her. When she is done, she kneels before her brother and marks him with the blood mixture she has created. It is now time for her to say the words of the spell. “Blood of realms, encasing your soul, deeds of trespass taking their toll; from time unknown be free what’s hidden, your actions past lie unforgiven. Sacrifices not freely given, willingly imbibed by this virgin.” I flinch here. She has come dangerously close over the last several days of not having the ability to work this spell. At least her parents and Grandmother know for certain where things stand between us. At the moment.
I know this next part is the hardest for her. She has to drink the blood and iron mixture in the Goblet. I have my doubts on whether she will be able to keep it down. I know that I would have a hard time. Swallowing iron is like swallowing glass to a Fairy, not to mention the ‘ick factor’ as Xandra would call it. If she pulls this off, she is a stronger Fairy than I am.
After a moment of uncertainty, Xandra finishes the spell. “Represented now, by candles black and white, this fragile connection between sin and light. Power, held back by the devout, be mine now as the candles snuff out.” Instantly, each candle extinguishes. “Trapped by flesh, now released, connected by blood, your bond has ceased.”
Zac’s body begins thrashing about as the dark souls try to stay with him. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Xandra move to the salt line and touch it with her toe. A tiny opening is created. What the hell is she doing? The darkness could escape through that tiny opening! In a flash, she connects the line again. What was the purpose of that?
A deep voice resonates from the circle. “You will not succeed, Witch. We will not be so easily tamed.”
Now, all hell breaks loose within the circle. An air current caused by the darkness begins whipping at Xandra and her brother. Xandra falls to her knees and is struggling against an unseen force. My first instinct is to run to her side, but suddenly Grandmother has a firm grip on one arm and Dagd
a on the other. Obviously, they saw this coming. And my reaction to it.
It looks as if the darkness is trying to take her soul; ripping it from her body in pieces if need be. A wind current has formed, beating against Xandra while she fights for control. It is the tornado I like to tease her about, only she is not making it.
I am beginning to fear that the darkness may win. I struggle against them, but Dagda and Grandmother hold tight. Not only physically but magically. I am rooted to this spot cursing them at the top of my lungs. “I need to help her!” I shout above the winds.
“You cannot!” Grandmother yells in my ear. “The circle cannot be intruded upon from the outside. It will free the darkness!”
The noise of the wind is deafening. Xandra is getting weaker by the minute. I will never forgive Grandmother if anything happens to her because she would not allow me to help. Xandra is strong but she is not infallible.
