by Jamie Magee
“Don’t play coy,” Raven said in her ‘it’s okay to be nervous’ voice.
Crap, Crappity, crap, crap.
“Ash said he was fine,” Raven said. “If he weren’t, all of us would have gone up this time. She gets why you’re wigged but is totally lost on why you bailed without a word. Soren was second-guessing himself on not following you, but it’s not like we aren’t in the middle of a remodel or anything. Oh yeah, and you guys treat me like I’m made of glass every freaking time the holidays roll around.”
River was so lost. Remodel, yes, she got that, they were remodeling a townhouse, their first ‘no parent’ house. The townhouse was still in the Quarter, but it was going to be all their own.
“Raven, I have no idea what you’re talking about. You have to be twisted on why I’m up here.” And clearly we are not talking about Dagen.
“Nope, you must be in shock. Told you he was fine. The only reason we didn’t tell you about it when it happened was because we knew you would flip out. We had tickets booked and everything, were on our way to the school to pick you up when his Dad called and said all was good again.”
“Raven. Who? Who is fine?”
“Mason.”
All the air in River’s lungs evaporated. She saw spots in her vision and her legs gave way she slowly kneeled down. Mason. Mason Wade. Braxton’s twin. Soren’s cousin. Her first…too many of her firsts.
“Something happened?” River asked in the most even voice she could manage.
There was an awkward silence on the other end of the line. “Yeah,” Raven finally said. She must have believed River wasn’t fooling around—she had no idea something happened to him. “A few days ago he and a few friends were in a car wreck, or were run off the road, he ended up in a lake somehow. They had him on life-support. The doctor’s said he was gone, and you know…after what went down with Braxton they decided to turn the machines off, they were just waiting for everyone to come up. Then he, um, well, he woke up.”
River’s gut clenched, she felt nauseous. Every memory she had of that boy was flooding her mind, along with every emotion he birthed, good and bad.
In the Quarter, in the coven, everyone had full in family, and on the down low in. Meaning, that in some cases the entire family is in on the mystical gig. Others, only a few, maybe just the parents or grandparents, or something like that.
The Wade family was on the down low. Their grandparents and everyone before them were all the way in but then the last son married a girl from Virginia, someone who was not at ease with the mystical side of life. They lived in Virginia, and when River was really young, their grandparents traveled to see their son and grandkids, but once Mason’s parents starting having trouble, even split for a while, the Wade boys started to come to the Quarter.
Well, at first just Braxton came. He and his dad were tight, both easy going and liked the slow southern life, big neighborhood gatherings and such. That’s how Braxton became River’s middle school boyfriend slash friend. Twins get twins. They had a lot in common, beyond that too, he was a bookworm, liked to debate old text and had a heyday finding relics in the antique shops in the Quarter.
Braxton and Mason would switch back and forth between their parent’s. That’s how Mason became River’s first real boyfriend. River could still remember how scared they were to tell Braxton. He was cool with it, though, at least around River. Mason gave River the impression that maybe that wasn’t the case when she wasn’t around.
The reason their parents were fighting was because of career moves. Their mom wanted to move further north, their dad already felt like he was too far away from his roots, and wanted to come back to the Quarter, that fight lasted just over three years.
Then the Wade’s decided to give a trial run at being a family again ‘for the boys sake,’ it was supposed to be for four weeks. The memory, the pain in River’s chest, was just as raw as if it happened yesterday.
She remembers Mason holding her, promising her that no matter what they’d find a way. He was older than her by at least a year and a half, so worst case scenario they just had to wait until he was eighteen so he could strike out on his own and come back to the Quarter and stay with his dad’s family. Mason was in a solid quandary; live that far away from River and have his family in one spot, or have a broken family. It was hard to know what to wish for.
River’s roots said family. Her heart said stay with me. Come back to me.
Two weeks later Braxton and Mason were in a canoeing accident. Braxton hit his head on a submerged rock and was on life support, they finally let him go; it took his parents a while to come to the decision. River was pretty sure Mason pushed the point. He told her outright, “River, he’s gone. You know what I mean. If Ash was, you’d know, too. Even if you weren’t there.”
He was right about that. River may squabble with Ash at times, but she was her sister, her twin, someone she couldn’t imagine life without.
River and the others had planned to come up for the funeral, the whole deal, even stay awhile. But then Ash and River both came down with mono, like bad mono, like one notch below being put in the hospital, and in the middle of that a wicked case of the prickles came, someone made a move to hurt Raven. So the girls were on lock down in the Quarter. That killed River. Wanting and needing to be in two different places at once.
Oddly enough, losing Braxton healed the Wade’s marriage. The decision was made that Mason would stay up there.
River talked to Mason every day, or rather she listened to him breath on the other end of the line during their phone calls. He was destroyed. River begged to come and see him, but because of the drama with Raven she couldn’t. It wasn’t safe.
And Mason’s crazy mother, at one point thought, or even still did, that the Quarter had cursed Braxton—that his grandmother was mad at her for moving, so she punished them. Mason was forbidden from coming home. And we were the weird ones, yeah, right. River thought when she heard that BS.
To this day it breaks River’s heart when she sees Mason’s grandmother; the woman is heartbroken.
The phone calls between River and Mason moved to every other day, then a few days between. The last call, it ripped River’s soul in two.
She never spoke his name after that point.
The girls and River came up with the term “regrettable” for boys like Mason. You knew as soon as you laid eyes on them that it was going to be a wild, fun, ride, one that you’d never forget, but in the end it would hurt so bad that you almost regretted it.
“You’re sure he’s okay?” River asked after an awkward hesitation.
River was seeing the little hints her mother had given her earlier that day a little differently now. Emery was more than likely pretty positive that once River was in Connecticut, once she knew Mason was laid up helpless in a hospital bed she would fold and go and see him. Close a dark chapter in her life and hopefully cure the torment of her nightmares.
Right then River was almost grateful she was under ghost siege. It was far less terrifying to face them than the likes of Mason Wade, no matter what condition he was in.
“You tell me, you’re at his house.”
River was starting to doubt Raven’s sanity. Or hers. One of the two.
“I’m at the Falcon’s, you know the name—they have all those grants and such.”
“Um, yep. And he stays there.”
“Do what?”
“That’s what Soren said. His grandmother put a gift package together for Mason and told Soren to ship it up. Coincidently, the UPS man picked up his box and yours—that had matching addresses—at the same time, so stop playing dumb. You finally gave in, swallowed that River pride and took off to see him. And without us. What are you going to do if you see her, or if there is another her?”
Puke.
“Look it has to be a coincidence. Mrs. Falcon asked me to come here and go over text that was found in this ginormous house. I didn’t know about any accident, and if I did, trust me you wo
uld be here with me.”
A girl has to have backup.
“Sure, coincidence.”
“Wait, you don’t think Saige and Mom set this up do you?”
If they did I swear—wait no, the ghosts are real. The creep at the gate was, too!
“I don’t know. I just assumed that was why you bailed, Emery really didn’t offer up a reason. What text?”
“You got me. I haven’t made it that far.”
“Then why are you looking for dad?”
River wasn’t sure she wanted to bring up this Queen of the Veil stuff to Raven. One thing about them, when they’re hurt, they do not mention the cause.
“This mammoth house has a few spirits lurking, and I wanted some insight on how to rock my Ghostbuster skills.”
“Liar.”
“That’s the truth.”
“Like the G-rated truth, you calling Dad about a few haunts, sure.”
“Fine. It looks like the Veil has a hole in it, and I want to know if Jamison has any bandages, or if I should just ignore it and pick out a matching zombie dress to go with the soon to be new raging trend of death shrouds.”
“No joke.”
“Nope.”
“In the house?”
“No, outside.”
The phone beeped. After a glance River said. “Hey, it’s Jamison, I gotta go.”
“Call me as soon as you see Mason, I gotta be in the know on that drama.”
River didn’t justify that with an answer because it would mean that she believed that Mason might be under the same roof as her. No time to puke. She had work to do.
She clicked over.
“Da—I mean Jamison.”
She heard him breath a smile. “River, stop catching yourself.”
“Just weird,” she said under my breath. “Did mom tell you she put me on a plane?”
“Do you have any doubt that I would ever not know where you are?”
That wasn’t a scary comment, that was an, ‘I got your back’ comment. When Jamison taught them how to move through the Veil, he promised them all that he would always find them, no matter what. Way too easy to get lost in that death time warp.
“Why did she tell you she was sending me here?” River supposed now was just as good as any to make sure she was there to read text and nothing else.
“You’re brilliant, River. Those people need you.”
Okay…for the text.
“Why do you sound shaken up?” His voice still carried the fatherly tone, but the fierce coven leader was emerging. River could swear she could feel the power of his energy moving through the phone.
“I haven’t made it to the library or anything, but something is whacked here,” she said as she made it to her knees and peeked out her window. “There are like thousands of spirits outside the gate.”
“That is somewhat understandable, if the heiress is who Saige thinks she is, then the dead are going to feel her pull.”
“Yeah, I get that, but someone was with them, someone like, twisted, and full of malice. He burned hundreds in front of me and told me I’d trespassed.”
There was a chilling silence.
“Hello?” River said looking at the phone wondering if it had died on her. Technology was not her friend on any day of the week.
“What did he look like?”
“Dark hair, I think his eyes were gray, kinda small, at least compared to you.”
“I see.”
“Is this bad? Like, should I bail?”
“If he were going to hurt you he would have already. The man after you girls resembles Dagen, all those under the current Escort King match up pretty well. He’s either one of the Lords of Death, or someone after your heiress.”
River was the quiet one now. She wasn’t sure how truthful she wanted to be right then, if she should tell him that dude had made it into her head, her dreams at least.
“I told you about the Lords before,” Jamison said in a comforting tone.
He had, they were sick bastards in collusion with the current Escort Kings, basically if you died with any dark emotion swimming through you, and somehow didn’t move on, then the Lord of that emotion owned you. You were a constant source of food. Those Lords saw fallen Escorts as gourmet meals. How did River know all of this? One of them has Rydell currently. Some bastard named Crass was in ultimate control of him. Dagen had been hardcore trying to find a way to kill his ass; he had asked River to look at several old texts he had found across dimensions. No such luck so far.
“River,” Jamison said again.
If she didn’t speak up, he was bound to appear in front of her. Yep. He could do stuff like that.
“I, um, d—dad—I mean, Jamison…I’ve dreamed about this guy for a while. Not in a good way.”
“What happens?”
“Shows up at the tail end of one of those flashback dreams. I’m like not me, though. I’m in a robe and the place seemed like heaven.” She glanced around. “This house kinda looks like a place in my dream, one of them anyway.”
“I see...”
“So, uh, you want to zap me home?” River said silently crossing her fingers. And that had nothing to do with Mason. Crap, yes, it had everything to do with Mason!
“River, I have a feeling you’re the only one that can read the text there, your dream proves so. I’m going to send people to watch over you from a distance. Saige’s daughter is there. I know the house has to be protected. Stay on the grounds.”
“Roger that.”
“There’s something else, isn’t there?”
Silence.
“The Wade’s,” Jamison said pushing River into the one conversation she didn’t want to have.
“I knew it. Mom knew and still sent me here.”
He breathed another smile. “It was just another arrow pointing to the fact that we needed to send our daughter to Connecticut.”
“How do you mean?” River asked with a furrowed brow.
“Someone who has our coven’s blood is there, Saige’s daughter is there as well. This is family, inner circle.”
He saw this just like a dad would see it, just like a powerful coven leader that protected his own would. Protect fiercely.
“River, sometimes fate makes no sense and perfect sense at the same time.”
River pursed her lips and tried to see the logic.
Back in the day she blamed Emery and Jamison for her and Mason’s split. She was mad at them for keeping her alive and safe in the Quarter. The irony was, it was Mason, not her parents that trashed what was between her and Mason.
“When the idea of seeing him scares you, imagine how you would’ve felt if you got a call a few days ago that told you that he was gone. It’ll take the edge off.”
Sure it will.
“Do you have something to write with? I’m going to tell you what text to look for first.”
Good idea, pops, let’s read this and get the heck out of dodge.
Chapter Five
As usual Phoenix left Indie craving more as he left to check on Guardian—she was never going to get enough of him, and she was good with knowing so. He was worried about Guardian, Draven and his crew. He wanted to track them down and get their take on a few things.
Indie had wrapped up a few emails, returned some calls and was shutting down the office, when Ben appeared just before her on the threshold of the office.
“So did you figure out if the decoder is going to sue me for not having the sidewalk salted?” she quipped.
He didn’t find it very funny. Never did.
“She fainted, Indie, she didn’t slip. Then Gavin picked her up and vanished. Mason dragged me toward the gate, like he was going to kill someone, then vanished.”
No comment from Indie.
“Look,” he said pushing his hand through his dark hair. “I get it. You almost died, all of you did, hell maybe you did die, and now you’ve unlocked some kind of sixth sense. Don’t shut me out, Indie.”
“
I’m not, that’s pretty much it. I can’t explain what I do not understand. The boys move fast, so fast they seem to vanish.”
“Sure.”
Dropping this subject ASAP. “I sent you an email with where I was on the charities. I want to kind of cool it for a bit, spend time with Phoenix.”
“Understandable.”
“I mean, I can do this, don’t get me wrong.”
“Indie, you should still be in a hospital as far as I’m concerned. Don’t push yourself.”
That’s why she loved her brother.
“I’ve tripled security, human security that is, at the gates. Mason knows your decoder; apparently she’s a psychic as well and picked up a bad vibe. So, perhaps you can do what you need to get that kind of security in line.”
All Indie could do was stare for a second. Mason knew her?
“Indie?” Ben said ducking his head. “I was only halfway joking. If you need me to put the National Guard at the gate, I will.”
“No, I’ll figure it out. No worries. I’m sure it’s nothing.”
“Just like the vanishing and disappearing staircase under the dome room.”
It took all she had to hold in a smirk.
“I told you it was just a trick of light.”
“Yeah, and I wasn’t born yesterday. How were you planning on getting your decoder down there? Blindfold?”
Indie shrugged. She hadn’t thought that through.
“Well, let me ease your worries on that front. She’s on your level in some way. I checked out her family after she refused to sign the nondisclosure agreement.”
“And?”
“And I don’t think you could shock her, lets put it that way,” he said with a wink before he turned to leave.
Yeah, he enjoyed leaving that comment hanging there.
Indie had to get to the bottom of this, like now. Since this transformation deal, she could sense the boys with little effort and move to where they were with just a thought.
A beat later, she was on the south balcony on the second floor. She appeared behind Mason and Skylynn. At first she didn’t announce herself—she was too taken back by the sea of dead she could see in every direction.
