Practically snarling, I say to her, “I hope you don’t claim innocent minds as your predecessor did.”
Considering the look she gives me, I would say she does. I see a trip through her brain is in my near future. Matching my snarl with one of her own, Sylar says, “Unlike my predecessor, my mind is impenetrable.”
To my left, Alita touches a hand to her forehead. Tightening his arm around her, Kegan says to Sylar, “If you make my wife ill again, I will show you just how penetrable your mind is.” Go Kegan.
I smirk at Sylar. “He’s not kidding.” She doesn’t respond so I move on. Waving a hand at Mammoth and Redhead, I ask Grandpa, “Which one of these is your other binder, the one who can plant emotions in someone.” The last binder did this without mercy and for his own personal gain. Especially when it came to women, so I’m told. At least, he did until I made his magic backfire on him. My guess is he’s in a psychiatric unit somewhere.
“We have not yet replaced Midar,” Sylar snaps.
Frowning, I point at the two male Witches again. “Then who are they?”
“Gunnar,” Grandpa says pointing to Mammoth, “is my chief of security. Aiden,” he points to the redhead, “is his second in command.”
“Security, meh,” Taz growls from the floor. “I could eat his face off in sixty seconds flat and he couldn’t do a thing about it.”
“What is that beast doing in here?” Sylar screeches.
Ow, my ears. “As my familiar, Taz goes where I go,” I tell her.
“He is an evil, wild beast and should be put outside before he hurts someone,” Fatin says. What, so the ‘evil, wild beast’ can terrorize the neighborhood? He didn’t really think that through.
“He will only hurt someone who is trying to hurt me. As long as none of you have plans along those lines, then you’re safe.”
“That’s not true, it depends on who is hurting you and why. Sometimes you probably deserve it,” Taz says. I somehow refrain from kicking him. He’s so lucky no one else understands him.
“Is it speaking to you?” Grandpa asks.
I nod. “Yes.”
“What is it saying?”
I glance down at Taz. “He’s just confirming what I said.”
“Liar,” Taz mutters.
With a sigh, I address the Witches again. “I’ve already introduced my friends to some of you. This is Kallen, my husband,” I say, pointing to him. “Next to him is his cousin, Kegan and his wife, Alita.”
“Do the Fairies marry their teenagers off as a common practice?” Mohana asks. She sounds sincere, not like she’s making fun of us.
A blush rushes to my cheeks and Kallen comes to my rescue. “Fairies marry for love and some of us find it younger than others.” His voice is hard, making it clear the subject is now off limits.
I continue with the introductions. “This is Adriel, she is an Angel of Death.” Yes, she is still leader on the scary scale. “And this,” I lean around Adriel to point at Tana, “Is the Fairy realm’s Queen Santana.”
The redheaded guy snorts and it surprises me when Grandpa glares at him. “You will show the Queen respect.” Yeah, he has the hots for Tana alright.
Tana gives him a soft smile. “Thank you.”
Is she batting her eyes? She is! No, no, no mental images of the two of them together, I tell my brain. Like usual, it doesn’t listen. “Moving on,” I hurry to say, wanting to think about anything else. “There were a lot more security people here earlier. Where are they?”
“I sent them home shortly after the King declared you would be his guests,” Gunnar says tightly.
I see. They were only on hand to keep us out. Once we were in, they lost their functionality. Does that mean Gunnar doesn’t see us as a threat, or is he just resigned to the fact that we’ll do what we want and he can’t stop us no matter how many security Witches he has on hand?
Getting back on topic, I say, “We need to figure out who is responsible for the iron attack.”
“Gunnar?” Grandpa says to his head of security. “Assuming it was not you, how did this happen under your watch?” Um, I’m not assuming it wasn’t him.
Gunnar’s mouth is in a grim line. “I do not know. I would review the security feed, but all of our equipment has been fried.” Kallen’s mouth is also in a grim line now.
Feeling defensive, I say, “Well, if you hadn’t decided to use your equipment to spy on us, there wouldn’t be a problem.”
“I assure you,” Gunnar growls, “I am not interested in watching any of you.” Ouch. So much for my ego.
Staring down Gunnar, Kallen asks, “Did you check for a magical signature?”
Genuine confusion reigns over Gunnar’s face. “What?”
I roll my eyes while Kegan explains. “At the point where the iron was introduced into the ventilation system, there should be evidence of the perpetrator’s magic. Even if it wasn’t used to spread the iron. You should be able to sense it.”
Aiden smirks. “Are Fairies part blood hound?”
“Are Witches inept fools?” Kegan counters.
Aiden stands so fast his chair goes flying. “There were no fools here until you arrived.”
Kegan takes a step towards him. “It can be difficult to see what is literally right under your nose.” This is going to hell fast.
Kallen steps between the two of them. “Sit down,” he says to Aiden. Or else is implied.
“Aiden.” Grandpa’s order is terse and also has an implied ‘or else’ undertone. To Kallen, he says, “If you are escorted to the area, can you determine who’s magical signature is there?”
Kallen nods. “I will be able to detect it and then can compare it to the magic of the others in this room.”
“I will take him,” Mohana says. Gee, the seductress wants to show my gorgeous husband the way. What a surprise.
Sensing my thoughts, Kallen leans down and whispers in my ear so quietly no one else can hear, “There’s not enough magic in the universe.” He gives my cheek a soft kiss, making my skin tingle. Straightening, he gestures towards the door and says to Mohana, “After you.”
“Are we expected to simply sit here and wait for them to return?” Fatin drawls.
I raise a brow. “Concerned about what they may find?”
His eyes narrow. “If I wanted to kill you and your friends, I would make it look like an accident.”
Good to know. I guess. “Then, do you have any suspicions?”
Fatin’s lip curls. “I can think of a number of people who may want to see you dead, but none that I believe are truly homicidal.”
Liar. “Except you and every member of the previous Witan.”
Tana clears her throat and moves around me to take a seat at the table. “Perhaps we should leave the past in the past,” she says with a small smile to Grandpa. Again, kettle black. She needs to take a little of her own advice.
Since Kallen isn’t here, Adriel steps up to physically restrain me from killing Tana. She is surprisingly strong for a Fallen Angel. Her fingers wrapped around my arm are like steel. I take a deep breath and try to get my heartbeat back to normal. What is Tana playing at?
“Excellent suggestion,” Grandpa agrees. Of course he agrees. He wouldn’t want his new crush to think he was still capable of parricide. Weenie.
“Okay,” I snipe, “Fine. Where was everyone tonight? Why are you all here instead of your own houses?”
“Not that it is any of your business,” Sylar begins, making me want to slap her. “We live here.”
That’s a surprise. “All of you?” Her ‘are you deaf or stupid’ look answers my question. Okay, moving on. “Have the Witan always lived with you?” I ask Grandpa.
Discomfort is making him squirm a little in his chair. Or he has to pee. Could be both. “No, it has not always been this way.”
There is something he isn’t saying. It’s obvious he doesn’t want all these Witches living here. Then why doesn’t he kick them out? I’m going to pursue this with him la
ter, when we don’t have an audience.
“We are accomplishing nothing,” Gunnar says.
He’s right. We’re not. But, he’s still a jerk. “You’re chief of security. Providing it wasn’t you who did the iron thing, shouldn’t you be heading up this meeting? You know, doing your job and all that?”
If looks could kill, I’d be road pizza right now. “You haven’t really given me the opportunity, have you?”
This sniping back and forth isn’t going to get us anywhere. Besides, he’s right. “Fine, you take over.” I try to sound gracious, I really do. Unfortunately, it’s not in my nature when dealing with a jerk like him, so I come off as bitchy.
Taking me at my word, Gunnar stands up. I nod to the rest of my party and we sit down at the table with the Witches. I’m curious to see how he handles this.
“I need to know where you were this evening around the time of the attack.” Didn’t I just say the same thing? I must have mumbled that out loud because Gunnar glowers in my direction.
“I was taking a bath,” Sylar says.
“I was in my room reading,” Fatin replies. He was probably reading up on how to kill someone and make it look like an accident.
Gunnar looks at Beren and Divina. “We were taking a stroll around the property,” Beren says.
Yawning widely, Glinda says, “I was sleeping.” Gunnar looks at the clock and then back to her. It’s awfully early for her to have been in bed when it happened. Feeling his doubt, she says, “I haven’t been sleeping well. I was tired.”
Gunnar doesn’t believe her, but he moves on. He turns to Aiden, who looks back at him with rage in his eyes. “You think I did this?”
His anger doesn’t faze Gunnar at all. “I need to know where everyone was.” Hmm, trouble in paradise?
“I was doing a perimeter check, making sure the defensive spells are still strong after the disturbance this afternoon.” That’s the first time I’ve been called a disturbance. It’s a lot better than what some of the other beings I’ve met have called me.
Trying to move things along, Adriel says, “I was reading in my room and the rest of our party were finishing their dinner in the sitting room upstairs.”
Gunnar looks from Adriel to me. “Is that true?”
Adriel’s eyes become blue flames. Trying hard not to scoot my chair away from her growing rage, I say, “Um, Gunnar, you really shouldn’t imply that an Angel is lying. They don’t respond well to that.”
Turning his gaze to Adriel again, Gunnar takes an unconscious step back. “My apologies,” he says. He’s not as stupid as I thought he was. Adriel doesn’t respond with anything except the hateful stare she has trained on him.
Alita draws in a sharp breath and puts a hand to her temple. Uh oh, someone’s in trouble. I lean closer to her. “Who?” I ask, expecting her to point at Sylar again.
As if reading my mind, Sylar gets defensive. “It is not me.”
Alita shakes her head then grimaces. “No, not her. No one in here.” A cry is ripped from her and she slumps against Kegan, unable to hold herself up through the pain. His arms wrap around her and he holds her tight, whispering calming words into her ear. It doesn’t help. In a heartbeat, she loses consciousness.
That’s when I see it. Black smoke is slowly seeping in under the door. “What the hell is that?” I ask the room in general. Whatever it is, it’s powerful. The back of my mind is vibrating now.
Tana mutters several oaths before saying, “From what I can tell, it is a breathless curse.”
Feeling snarky as the black smoke begins to rise in the room, I say, “I’m not up on my dark magic studies. What is a breathless curse?”
“It is a curse that leaves its victims breathless. Permanently.”
My head snaps around to her. Is she serious? “You mean it’s supposed to kill us? All of us?” The Witches are going to be caught just like the Fairies this time? We need to broaden our search for suspects then. Who would want me and my friends and the Witches dead? A rival of Grandpa’s maybe?
Clearing my head with a shake, I focus on the here and now. We can worry about who did it later. “How do we break the curse?” I demand of Tana.
Panic suffuses across the smooth lines of her face. “It takes…it takes dark magic to counter such a strong curse.” I don’t know if her panic is because of our impending doom, or if it’s because she doesn’t want to get back on the dark magic crazy train.
Great. This is reason she gave for wanting to come and now she’s going to freeze up on us? I knew I should have said no to her coming with us. I get up and move to her chair. I spin it around and crouch down in front of her. “Tana, tell me how to do it. I understand, it’s too soon for you to do something like this. That’s okay.” I will pretend to understand since all of our lives are in danger and I need answers fast.
With a nervous glance in the direction of the smoke getting ever closer, she says, “It would take too long. It’s a matter of thinking of the right runes while doing the correct hand motions and twisting the magic in a certain way. I…I do not know if I am strong enough.” If I had any thoughts before that her joining us was just an excuse to do dark magic, they are wiped away by the sheer terror in her eyes. I try to tell myself this is a good thing. It’s ill-timed, but a good thing.
“Xandra, do something!” my grandfather orders.
“You are King of the Witches, and it was obviously a Witch who did this. Why are you doing nothing to stop it?” Kegan grinds out. He has lifted Alita into his arms and is moving her farther from the door and the black curse seeping into the room. He’s right, why aren’t the Witches doing anything? They hate me but they expect me to save their lives when they’re too weak to do it on their own?
“I don’t do dark magic,” Grandpa claims, the implication being then that I do.
I don’t have time to worry about his opinion of me. “Tana, I want you to twist the magic. You can channel it through me. I will power it.” Before her objections are spoken, I say, “We don’t have a choice.” Push her over the edge of the dark cliff or let everyone in the room die? It’s not a difficult decision. Besides, she could recover again, right? I’m trying hard to convince myself that the ends justify the means on this one.
If only my nagging conscience wasn’t getting in the way. No matter how I feel about this woman, she’s important to Kallen and Dagda. I can’t take her away from them again. Not when they just got her back. “No.” I shake my head and get to my feet. “No, I won’t make you do this.”
“What the hell is going on?” Grandpa demands. “Who is going to stop this damn thing?” He’s ready to jump up on the table like he’s afraid of a mouse or something. So much for being him being a brave King. I’m glad he didn’t pass on his cowardice genes.
“Be quiet,” I tell him. “I need to concentrate.”
“What can you do against a dark curse of this magnitude?” Sylar snipes.
I can be snippy, too. “You seem to know something of dark magic, would you like to try?”
I’ll take her lack of response as a no. Closing my eyes, I shut out the noise of the room, the hushed prayers and the hushed conversations about how we’re going to die. Only the Witches are saying these things, of course. My friends have a bit more confidence in me than that.
Taz, who has been unusually quiet, says, “Is the old bitty bothering you? I can take her out for you.”
I scowl down at him and shake my head. “Have you been watching gangster movies today?”
“It’s not like there is anything else to do in the god forsaken place. Now, do you want me to take the old bitty out or not?”
“Not.” Disappointed, he slinks over to a corner well away from the curse.
I feel a hand slip into mine and grasp it tightly. I open my eyes and find Adriel standing next to me. “You can do this,” she says, squeezing my fingers together painfully in an attempt to reassure me.
I sure hope she’s right. Reading my mind, Tana rises and takes he
r place on the other side of me. “Yes, you can do this. You are strong enough.” She’s feeling better now that she’s off the hook.
Okay, here goes. Closing my eyes, I pull magic inside me. Slowly, I let it slip outwards, seeking the dark curse that’s coming for us. When I make contact, I feel an electric shock and I jump. It wasn’t lightning strong but still strong enough to hurt like hell. This isn’t something I can just ram with my magic and it’ll dissolve. Crap.
Blood of the Exiled (Witch Fairy Book 10) Page 15
