“Till you dry,” he said, tossing it my way. “Let’s get going. I want to put as much distance between here as we can before nightfall.”
Everyone knew why. If we camped too close to the mud, would we wake up to a river of it right next to me?
I didn’t say a word about it, though, and no one else did either.
24
I collapsed next to Tuesday in front of the fire Koz was starting. We were inside the shell of what used to be a stone house that no longer had a roof. There was a stream only a hundred yards away, and I couldn’t even make it to my feet again to wash up.
“Is your neck okay?” Tuesday asked, her back propped up against the stone wall.
“I think so.” I didn’t feel any weirder than I had earlier today, if that counted.
She glanced around. Callon and Koz had both stepped out. Zink and Hess were having their own private conversation across the room.
“Are you two fighting?” she whispered.
“I’m not sure.” Callon hadn’t said anything to me for the rest of the day, but we’d been moving at a brisk pace. At this point, I had a better idea of the sun’s position in the night sky than Callon’s feelings for me.
She grabbed Koz’s water sack and took a swing before handing it to me. “Well, at least you’re okay.”
I drank down the last of it, realizing that put me on the hook to refill it. That meant I had to stand. I didn’t know if I could anymore.
“Callon said he couldn’t taste it, so I guess so.” I flopped my arm down. I’d get up in a couple minutes. I really would.
“You mean smell it?” Hess asked from across the room.
My head snapped up. I hadn’t realized they’d been listening. Those beast ears could be awful sneaky.
“No. He licked it. He said something about saliva helping.”
Hess and Zink were staring at me, and Koz’s head whipped in my direction as he stepped back inside.
Koz stepped closer. “He licked you?”
All eyes were fixed on me. Boom, back to being the center of attention again, and I didn’t feel any better about it this time. I shifted in my spot as if I could shake the eyeballs off.
“I know. I was worried about it being dangerous too, but he did it before I could stop him. He said he didn’t taste any of it, though.”
“His tongue came out of his mouth and then ran up your skin?” Hess asked, like he didn’t know what the word “lick” meant.
“Yes, that’s the definition, right?”
No one responded, but the undercurrent shooting beneath the three of them was intense enough that even Tuesday, who wasn’t the object of their attention, shifted beside me.
“She didn’t tell him to do it. He did it on his own,” she said, an edge in her tone, warning them.
Koz nodded and gave me a shrug of sorts. Zink and Hess stopped glaring at me and went back to huddling in their corner. There was something wrong here, but damn if I could put my finger on it. If Callon dropped dead, though, it was not my fault.
Would he drop dead? He was grumpy, pushy, and bossy, but I didn’t want him to die. I was starting to get used to all his irritability.
“Is there something I don’t know?” I asked everyone in the room.
“Nope. Not at all,” Koz said quickly, before anyone else could think of answering.
Callon walked back in a few minutes later. All the guys were staring in his direction, and Koz seemed to be actively fighting the urge to walk straight over to him.
Koz couldn’t keep his feet still for longer than two minutes before he was beside Callon. “Teddy said you licked the spot that had the mud?”
Callon stopped in his tracks and asked, “So?”
I elbowed Tuesday, making sure she was paying attention to this. I needn’t have bothered. When she didn’t nudge me back, it was because she was too engrossed watching them.
Koz nodded slowly. “So all’s normal? Nothing has changed?”
Callon didn’t budge. “Yes.”
“But what about that thing Bitters said?”
“Bitters is crazy. He was also stoned out of his mind. We’re not talking about this again.” Callon ended the conversation by walking away from Koz and squatting in front of the fire. He grabbed a stick and poked at it.
“It wasn’t a big deal,” Hess said, not sounding that sure either but backing up Callon.
It was quite predictable on his part, if someone were to ask me. Since I wasn’t even listening, though, no one would.
Too bad I wasn’t a part of the conversation, though, because who was Bitters and what did he have to do with Callon licking mud off my neck? Did Bitters warn them about the weird mud?
“Who’s Bitters?” Tuesday nearly barked.
Koz looked in my direction, pausing, before turning to Tuesday. “No one special.”
If Koz wasn’t going to tell Tuesday, I definitely wasn’t getting any answers.
25
I’d gone to sleep that night alone but woke sprawled on top of Callon. How had that happened? I glanced around. I was still in the same spot, so he must’ve come to me. Apparently that hadn’t been enough for my sleeping self. It wasn’t happy simply being warm. It had to drape itself over him too.
I slowly detangled, trying to not wake him until my limbs were back in neutral territory. It was quiet, so hopefully the others were still sleeping. The second I cleared the leg I’d draped over his, he sat up.
“You sleep like the dead lately,” he said.
I definitely did not. But he had rolled right next to me, moved me onto his pelt, and then we’d had a snuggle-fest, all without me waking. Maybe I did?
Callon got up but then knelt next to me. “I want to get going soon.”
“What about everyone else?” I asked, looking at the still-slumbering bodies.
“We’re going to Hecate’s alone, in case we’re being watched.”
I glanced across the room at Tuesday.
“Don’t worry. Koz has her. They’ll follow a distance away.” Callon stood and held out his hand.
I let him tug me to my feet. Koz could protect her better than I could.
Three hours later, we stopped on the edge of a field. About three hundred yards away was a huge metal arch. Beyond it, a miniature village. Colorful houses were scattered all about with the greenest grass I’d ever seen. Even from here, the pitched roofs of the houses looked like they’d barely clear my head. Tuesday would’ve loved this. It was exactly like what we’d both wanted to see when we were sitting back at the village. Maybe we could find our own little place like this?
“What is that?”
“It’s an old miniature golf place.”
“What’s miniature golf?” I asked. Callon spoke like this wasn’t something foreign to him. Did they still have this miniature golf where he was from?
He was scanning the trees of the perimeter. “A game they played where they took clubs and hit balls into small holes. Now it’s Hecate’s home. Come on.” He took a few steps away from the direction of the arch.
I didn’t move. “I thought we were going in there?”
“We are, but not through the front gate.” He turned back around, grabbed my hand, and pulled me after him.
He was doing it again, moving me where he wanted me to go. It wasn’t worth fighting about. If this Hecate could undo the death spell, there wouldn’t be any reason to mention it. We’d be going our separate ways at that point.
No more tugging me about, or being bossy, or fighting, or waking up next to him.
That was good.
Or better.
It wasn’t bad, anyway.
We worked our way around the perimeter of the tiny village until the trees nearly touched the fence that surrounded the place. A portion of the iron gates were rusted and leaning sideways off their posts.
We stepped into the village, which was especially magical up close, even with the chipped and faded paint. The grass was really strange, though, cropped impossibly shor
t and with a crunch.
“Are you sure she’s here?” I asked.
He waved me up from where I’d crouched down to feel the funny green stuff. “Yes. We’re being watched by her people right now.”
We turned another corner and made our way to the largest building. It was modeled to be a small castle, centered in the middle of the tiny village. It came complete with a moat and a drawbridge probably ten feet long. The door to this building was human-sized, as if it had been used for something other than to pop tiny balls into.
Two brawny men exited the building as we approached and stopped outside the door. We walked past them and entered the tiny castle.
The place was nearly windowless except for several colorful windows up high. Candles burned on every surface, and crystals sparkled from the domed ceiling as if they were strange stars hanging low. Pelts lined the floor and tables lined the walls, covered in bottles and heaped high with strange dried plants, a heavy perfume thick in the air.
There, in the center of the room, a young woman lay upon a thick pile of furs. Silk clung to a curvy form, and dark tresses framed an exotic face. I’d never seen someone as striking. She didn’t look real.
She unwound her limbs, her leg peeking out from the silk, as if standing itself were a dance of seduction. She glided over, hips swaying and eyes only for Callon.
She laid a finger on his chest and purred. “Where’ve you been, my pretty?”
My?
He smiled. Until now, I wasn’t even sure his facial muscles could pull that off on demand.
“I need your help.”
“You know I’m always willing to help out an old friend. What can I do for you?” She ran her palm up to his shoulder and then over the roundness of it, following the dip before his bicep swelled.
Yeah, I bet he couldn’t wait to sever the spell and drop me off as quickly as possible. I was surprised I wasn’t getting kicked out the door now.
I crossed my arms, watching the two of them.
“Do you know how to transfer life from one person to another?”
My eyes snapped from her fingers back to Callon’s face. What?
“That’s not why we’re here.” It wasn’t what I’d signed up for, and he knew that well. I hadn’t agreed to use that magic, so there was no point in getting that spell. I didn’t know what he was thinking.
Her hand dropped and the purring was over. “I can’t do that spell.”
I stepped in front of Callon before he tried to convince her. “That’s fine, because we don’t really need that. We need you to sever a death spell that joined us together.”
Callon picked me up and moved me to the side. There he went again, getting all pushy. He’d have to keep moving me if he thought I was going to stand back and let him hijack this meeting.
I darted around him. His arm shot out, blocking me and then pushing me back.
“Do you know how the transferring could be done, if that type of magic was available?” he asked.
I tried to elbow Callon out of the way, but he was unmovable. All I got for my efforts was another arm in front of me acting as a barricade.
“There’s only one reason I can think of that you’d want to know.” Her eyes narrowed. She shifted her attention from Callon to focus on me. “You’re the one the Magician wants.”
Oh, shit. How many people knew about me now? Would she call him? How much did Callon trust this woman? I already didn’t trust her as far as she swayed her hips. Maybe less. She really swung those suckers.
Didn’t mean I wouldn’t try and get what I needed, though.
“Please, can you help us sever this link?” I packed every ounce of pleading I could into the question. I’d thought I was through with begging, but the idea of her giving me up suddenly made it a bit more palatable.
I’d do pretty much anything at this point, because although I feared how I’d fare on my own, I’d made a colossal mistake. When I tied myself to Callon, I’d handed over my fate to someone else. Hopefully, he’d be true to his word and help me get somewhere safe after this, but even if he didn’t, I’d still go through with it. Callon asking her how to transfer life proved that I needed to take control of my life, fully. Not in little bits and tastes.
She stepped around Callon, and he didn’t try to block her, seeming resigned to losing this battle. He never gave up. Something about that was off, but I’d figure it out later.
As she neared, she took in everything from my head to the soles of my shoes. I saw a depth in her stare that spread goosebumps all over. There was something not right about this one. She might even make me seem normal.
“Don’t worry. I’ve no allegiance to that monster. But even if I did, that wouldn’t have worked on me.”
She walked back to her pile of furs and reclined.
“I can help you, but I won’t separate you.” She smirked as if there was some deep amusement there.
I followed her across the room.
“Is it money? He can pay you.” I pointed at Callon, knowing he’d pay anything to lose me. Or I’d thought he would. Why wasn’t he standing here beside me trying to convince her as well? Why was he across the room as if biding his time until I accepted her answer? That wasn’t him. He was as stubborn as I was.
“What’s going on here?” This time I was speaking to him. Something about his accepting nature was setting my teeth on edge.
“Callon, you should’ve told her,” she said.
He leaned against one of her tables, arms crossed. “Tell her some made-up crap I don’t believe? No.”
For some reason, Hecate threw back her head laughing. “Always so stubborn,” she said once she was done. “Fine, I’ll tell her.”
“Tell me what?” I asked Hecate, the only person in the room not holding on to every secret like it was their last grain of food.
She reached over to a glass nearby, took a sip, and then swirled the red contents as she spoke. “When the dark trickery rises, the beast must dance among the shadows of death. As the world shudders with wounds unhealed, the reckoning will come at the cost of souls.”
I squinted. Callon was shaking his head as if the whole thing was ridiculous. I didn’t agree with him regularly, but we were hook, line, and sinker together on this piece of crazy.
“What is that and what does it have to do with me?” I asked.
He shrugged, crossing an ankle as he half sat on the table.
“What does it have to do with you? It is you. And now I think we know who the beast is.” Hecate sipped from her glass and then laughed again.
I couldn’t tell if she’d been tipping that glass too much or if she was insane.
“Do you want me to dance with him? I don’t know how to dance, but if that’ll get you to help me, fine. I’m all in. I’ll do whatever your little poem requires.”
“It’s not her poem,” Callon said.
Hecate licked her lips, becoming almost gleeful. “And not the type of dancing you seem to think. The beast is Callon and you are surrounded by the shadows of death. Dance, well, hopefully you can figure that out on your own, but I’ll give you a hint: it doesn’t mean waltz.”
“You’re saying you think if I sleep with Callon, we’re going to heal the world?” I pointed behind me. I’d look at him some other time that wasn’t right now.
“More like fuck, but yes, that’s what I’m saying. It’s not only me who believes. Many people believe it. It was foreseen by Bitters, the greatest wizard of our time.”
Bitters. I knew that name. I’d heard them talk about him. That was the name they mentioned the other day. They acted like it had nothing to do with me. My cheeks grew warmer, and this time it had nothing to do with embarrassment.
I walked over to Callon and grabbed his arm, pulling him after me. I didn’t stop until we were outside. I’d reached my quota of crazy and shady dealings for the day, maybe the week. I walked all the way to the edge of the drawbridge, ignoring Hecate’s men.
“What is going on
here? Why aren’t you trying to get her to break the death spell and why didn’t you tell me I’m part of some weird prophecy?”
“It’s not worth retelling.” He shrugged. “The great Bitters is some stoner wizard that’s always going on about something.”
I didn’t like being part of a made-up prophecy, but I had to agree with him. It was a hard pill to swallow, way too big, with jagged sides. That wasn’t the only questionable thing going on here, though. There was a huge, gaping question looming that he still hadn’t answered.
“Why aren’t you trying to get her to reverse the death spell?”
“It’s not the right decision anymore.”
“Why? What do you mean? That’s why we came. Isn’t it? You said—”
He raised a finger and turned his head to the left. His jaw tensed.
I didn’t have a chance to ask what was wrong before his hand wrapped around my arm.
“They’re coming!” he yelled to Hecate’s men as we took off over the drawbridge.
When I tripped, he grabbed me and tossed me over his shoulder without missing a step, and we were zooming back the way we came. He was running much faster carrying me than I could’ve on my own. The gates of the place flew past us and he kept going.
26
We were deep in the forest again when his pace slowed and suddenly dirt was beneath my feet. They’d barely hit the ground before I flopped down on a mossy bed, breathing deeply, as if I were the one who’d run miles with a hundred-pound weight slung over my shoulder.
“Are we safe?” It was an idiotic question. He would’ve kept going if we weren’t, but part of me, the part that’d been chased since I left the village, had to hear it anyway.
“For a few, but we need to keep moving.” He had his ear angled toward the direction we’d come from.
I didn’t ask how many he thought might’ve been chasing. I wasn’t ready to ask. Callon had taken on four men by himself without a problem. Knowing the number of men it would take to make him run instead of fight would only lead to panic. Panic wasn’t going to help right now. The Magician had gotten close, and that was all I needed to know for the moment.
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