“We have to hurry,” he mutters, waving his hands across the chains binding me to the chair.
The chains wiggle, snap apart, and stand up like charmed snakes before clanking to the floor.
“Come on.” He reaches for my hand.
Shaking, I put my hand in his and let him stand me up. “You came for me.”
He quirks an eyebrow. “I never left.”
I frown. “I don’t understand.”
Reyna lets out a choked wail, and Charming’s gaze shifts toward her.
“I was cloaked. Gemma’s magic is too strong for me, so I hid. Now come on, we have to hurry.”
He turns and then shoves me behind his back.
“You two really have to work on making speedier exits.”
I peek out from Charming’s side and spot Mac. His face is scrunched in pain, and his voice is laced with something that sounds like regret. He leans back against the door and shakes his head.
“You,” Mac hisses.
Charming’s jaw clenches. “Harker.”
Mac raises his hands in the air like a magician with flair. “Well, that explains so much about tonight.”
“Just let us go.”
“I’m afraid I can’t do that.” His eyes flash toward me, and I read sorrow in them. “I really did everything I could to help you, Kinsley.” His gaze shifts back to Charming and narrows. “Seems you sided with the wrong witch.” He spits out a laugh that fills my gut with dark butterflies. “Does she know?”
I frown and peer up at Charming. His face flushes crimson. “You don’t want to be doing this, Mac.”
Mac’s face falls. “Well, for once in your life—or whatever—you’re right.” He pulls his amber wand from behind his back. “But now I really don’t have a choice. I’m not going back to the tree. Ever again.”
Reyna lets out a series of grunts and moans, stealing my focus. I’d almost forgotten she was there. Her arms flail out in front of her, and they rock up and down. She looks like Frankenstein’s monster, only sitting down and held back by something invisible.
Something like magic.
A chilled wave dances across my skin, and I scoot closer to Charming.
“Ah, you’ve met Reyna.” Mac smiles as his eyes scan her up and down.
“No way I’m letting you put that thing inside of her,” Charming growls.
My eyes widen. Inside of her? Inside of me? Oh, hells no.
“You know, the only thing I’ve ever envied about street witches is your modernity.” Mac’s eyes travel back to Charming. “The downfall of being a hereditary witch is the promises our parents make to create powerful alliances.” He gestures with a hand toward Reyna. “I was promised to Reyna before I was even born, did you know that?”
My mouth falls open, and I glance between Mac and Charming. Finally, my gaze rests on Reyna.
“We met when we were twelve, have always been the best of friends. But I never loved her, not like that. I suppose that’s why I killed her.”
My head snaps back in Mac’s direction.
Did I just hear that right?
He laughs. “Well, I don’t mean I killed her, killed her. It was an accident.”
“So they say,” Charming says with a dark edge in his voice.
Mac’s eyes glint in the apricot lighting. “I manifested a lake on the eve of our wedding. We were eighteen.” He looks above our heads, his eyes focused on something miles away from here. “That was the night I confessed that I wasn’t in love with her. She became so angry! And I wasn’t as in charge of my magic as I am now… She told me to get over it and do what hereditary witches have done for centuries… Marry for power and have love on the side. But that isn’t what I wanted.”
His eyes flash anger, and I find myself backing away from him.
Heat radiates from Charming’s body. I glance down and notice that same bright, white light dancing across his fingertips.
“I couldn’t make her see reason. I couldn’t make any of them see…and before I knew it, the water had swallowed her up…” His eyes lock onto mine. “And when it spit her out, she was quite dead.”
His voice is so casual that it’s hard to believe this is the same Mac Harker that I met earlier this evening. The one who fought for me. The one who seemed so…good.
Mac so abruptly that it’s scarier than his murder confession. “Of course, now Mother has found a way to right my mistake.”
Charming steps in front of me so that my view of Mac is completely blocked.
“It’s not going to happen.”
“I really wish it didn’t have to.” His voice is so sincere, so full of remorse, that for a moment I don’t sense the danger anymore. Even with Reyna thrashing and groaning in the corner.
“Then don’t let it,” Charming says, his tone changed. He’s gone from threatening to pleading.
“I don’t have a choice.” Mac steps to the side and peers down at me. “Kinsley, please try to understand.”
I open my mouth, and then shake my head. I don’t know what to say. I’m not even sure I completely understand what’s going on. A cool sweat breaks out on my forehead. What the hell was I thinking throwing my damn pills away? A couple would come in real handy right now.
I clear my throat. “I don’t…I don’t really understand what’s going on.”
Mac nods at me. “Well, this is going to be hard to accept…”
Charming scoffs. “Are you serious right now, dude?”
Mac eyes him, and Charming’s hands ball into fists at his side.
“As I was saying.” His gaze is back on me now. “This is going to be hard to understand…but my mother and I kind of need to put her…” He points at the struggling Reyna then points back at me. “Into you.”
The spark from Charming’s fingers flares up. Mac glances down at the white light then back at us with a smile.
I gasp, and Charming backs up, pushing me farther from Mac.
“You’ll have to get through me,” Charming growls.
Mac’s expression morphs when he shifts his gaze from me to Charming. It goes from sympathetic and wide-eyed to outright hostile, nostrils flared and all.
He sidesteps and looks Charming up and down. “Oh, right. You’re going to stop me.”
“Damn right I am.”
“Now that…” He aims his wand at Charming. “I can’t wait to see.”
Before I have time to blink, Charming shoves a bolt of light back at me. I sail backward and through the wall. My head darts left then right, but all I can make out is blackness. When I extend my arms, they hit a rough, textured surface.
A wall.
I try to walk forward and run into it.
“Ouch.” My hand flies to my forehead. Just beyond the wall, crashing, banging, and moaning reaches my ears.
In a panic, I throw my hands out in all directions. Wall in all directions.
I stomp my foot. “Damnit!” Then I lean forward and press my ear to the surface. I can make out Mac laughing and the sound of someone choking.
“Charming!” I bang on the wall.
Mac’s laughter booms louder.
“Mac!” I try again. “Please! Don’t hurt him. I’ll give you whatever you want!”
“Kinsley!” Charming’s voice calls out. “Remember the touch! When you lose yourself, remember it!”
A loud boom vibrates the wall, and I jump back, hitting the wall behind me. The wall in front of me starts to quake, crashing to the ground in large slabs.
Dim light floods in.
Mac steps toward me, his mother at his heels.
He tilts his head. “Oh, come now… Don’t cry.”
My hand automatically goes to my cheek and comes away wet. I hadn’t even realized I’d been crying. Mac takes me by the arm and guides me back into the room. My eyes scan the place.
Charming is nowhere in sight.
“This won’t hurt a bit, dear,” Gemma assures me.
I barely hear what she says. Barely register that
Reyna is once again shuffling toward me. Gemma and Mac join hands and form a tight circle around the both of us.
My head swims. It doesn’t dawn on me what’s about to happen.
Then Gemma and Mac’s voices buzz in unison.
My mind snaps on like a light switch. Without thinking, without having time to think, I lash out at both of them, driving my fists into the nearest body parts. None of it even rattles them. I stand helpless as Gemma’s black ooze slips around me.
A flash of light goes off in my eyes, stealing my sight.
Then I hit the cold floor, and there is nothing.
WHEN I WAKE up, I’m not quite myself. I’m on something soft, and the sound of voices buzzing and laughter ringing comes from downstairs. I try to lift my head, but it feels like it’s been filled with sandbags. I plop uselessly back onto a silk pillow.
Even though I’m covered in at least three blankets, I shiver from the cold. That’s not the worst part. My skin itches. And I mean itches. The kind of itch that burns. I grit my teeth, trying to get my arms to work so I can relieve myself, but I can’t move.
Then I start trying to move anything. Anything at all.
Nothing works. They’ve turned me into a useless, life-sized doll.
The room is draped in a soft, yellow glow. Shadows crawl against the wall like the lighting is coming from a dancing candle flame.
I close my eyes and groan, then something flickers behind my eyelids. Moving pictures projected inside my brain. A young, beautiful girl with black and purple-streaked hair wields a wand against an older man with a long, sleek ponytail. She whips it at him at the same time he does, and she goes flying backward.
In my vision, she pouts up at the man who is now laughing.
“You’re going to have to do better than that if you’re going to best your old man.” His eyes smile down at her. Kindly. Affectionately. Then he reaches a hand toward her and pulls her up.
The girl brushes off her dress and squares her shoulders.
I gasp, and the vison dissipates.
Reyna, something at the back of my mind tells me.
Somewhere deep inside me, soft, female laughter pushes its way up from my diaphragm and comes out of my throat.
It’s not my laughter.
My heart pounds like a bongo drum in my chest.
Last year creeps into me like an unwanted visitor. This was how it started. The possession. Slowly, memories that aren’t your own haunt you before you know you’re walking on your legs, but someone else is controlling them. Speaking with a tongue that no longer belongs to you.
The door creaks open, and I sink down into the blankets as much as I can.
“Kinsley?” Mac’s voice rings out, followed by his footsteps padding toward me.
I grit my teeth. Soon he is over my bed, looking down at me in concern.
I want to bite his face off. “Where is he?”
He raises an eyebrow.
“Charming!”
“Oh!” Mac claps his hands. “He’s in a place where he can’t interfere.” Mac smiles. “I just came to check on you. Everything went very well.” He sits on the edge of the bed.
I want to scoot away from him, but my stupid limbs are still weighed down. Just being this close to him makes me want to climb out of my skin and let Reyna have it.
“Screw you,” I mutter.
He frowns, and for a moment, I believe he’s actually hurt.
“I really am very sorry about this,” he says.
“If you were sorry, you wouldn’t be doing it.”
“Don’t you understand?” He leans closer to me. “This is all my mother’s idea. She saw you in the news, targeted you, researched you, offered you passage to lure you here.” He shakes his head as if in disgust. “She figured people would be so fascinated by the story–‘Kinsley Lane possessed a second time, Harker witches unable to stop it’—that no one would ask questions. And since there really is no one that cares about you…”
“That’s not true,” I growl, cutting him off.
He pouts a little then sighs. “Reyna will give you a good life. Power. You just have to hold on till 6:00. By then, she will have taken over your being entirely. You’ll even look like her. And we’ll plant a staged body for your funeral.”
I stare at him and shake my head. “You’re crazy.”
His eyes flash dangerously, then he smiles in such a friendly way, I wonder if I imagined it all.
I shudder.
“Are you cold? That tends to happen.” He stands up and tucks me tighter into the blankets. “There, that’s better.” With another smile, he leans over and presses his lips against mine.
I tighten my mouth and let my body slack. Having him kiss me, touch me in any way, makes me feel in desperate need of another hell shower.
He chuckles and pulls back. “Gods, it would drive him crazy to know that I took you from him… You know, while you’re still you.”
He brushes his fingers through my hair, and I jerk away.
With another laugh, he straightens. “Don’t worry. I’m not like that.”
Great, not a rapist, but he’s okay with stealing my entire life.
“Wait till you find out about him…” He shakes his head and straightens his top hat on his head.
I narrow my eyes. “Find out what about him?”
He shakes his head and clicks his tongue. “Oh, no. That, you’ll have to work out on your own.” He turns around and starts for the door. “I’ll be back to check on you in an hour.”
“Wait,” I call out, my heart pounding in desperation.
He stops.
“Please, don’t do this.”
His back tenses, and for a moment, I hold onto hope.
Then he drops his head and reaches for the doorknob. “It’s already done.”
The door clicks shut behind him. With great effort, I turn my head toward the night stand. The numbers 1:00 flash in angry letters from a digital clock just before another foreign memory takes me over.
16
THE ITCHING ON my skin gives way to intense tingling. It’s like someone stuck me in one of those cribs that vibrate babies to sleep. My limbs are lighter now, leaving me to roll around on the bed, trying to keep Reyna’s memories from taking me over. I’m not quite strong enough to stand.
My mind flashes between her and me like a turn signal.
Off. Her.
On. Me.
Finally, in a moment of being me, I pull the pillow over my face and let out a frustrated scream.
She laughs somewhere far away at the back of my mind.
Just let it happen. She sounds like an overzealous prom date.
“Fuck you,” I mumble into my pillow.
Another laugh. Not unkind, but not quite amused either. It sounds like a laugh that belongs to someone who knows what’s about to happen and is pleased with their own cleverness.
Kinsley. I think we can help each other.
Her voice echoes inside my skull like she’s speaking to me from the bottom of a canyon.
I throw the pillow on the ground and stare up at the ceiling. Help her, my ass. She just wants to take over my body. Over my life. No way am I going to make that easier for her.
That’s not true.
I scoff. “I’m not stupid enough to trust the dead.”
My mind starts flashing again.
Off.
On.
Her.
Me.
My body is sheened in sweat.
After several moments of silence: You can trust me.
The flashes start coming in rapid succession. It’s like staring into a strobe light. My breath is stolen, and my head starts to pound. Sand fills my limbs. I’m itchy and heavy all at once.
Finally, Reyna flashes on, and I’m backed into a small corner of my body.
Her memories, her life, play out in my head as if it were my own.
She’s strong. The fight is going to be over quickly if I can’t do better than this.
It takes me a moment to realize that this memory isn’t of Reyna. Mac’s mother fills my vision. She’s in a room splattered in dark greens and sturdy, wooden furniture. When my mind’s eye focuses, a pool table comes into view.
Gemma Harker is naked and bent over it.
I recoil from the image, and my mind flashes again.
Off. On. Off. On.
The image slams back down inside my head. Another form comes into view. The man with the sleek hair and kind eyes from Reyna’s earlier memories.
Her father, I realize.
He’s slumped over Gemma’s back, and it’s very obvious what they’re doing. If I could narrow my eyes and spit at the image, I would. But Reyna has the reins. For some reason, this is something she wants me to see.
Gemma and Reyna’s father breathe heavily. Slipping a long, silky black dress back over her shoulders, she turns to the man and smiles.
“So, we’re in agreement?” she asks.
The man falters, and Gemma’s eyes darken.
“Look, Gemma. You know you drive me crazy. But…it’s just not something I can make happen.” He reaches for her. “Anything else you ask will be yours, just not that.”
Gemma jerks out of his arms. Her face twists in anger then is quickly replaced by a smile. The effect is jarring. It reminds me of Mac.
“I was hoping you wouldn’t say that,” she growls.
“Gemma…” He extends his arms out to her, but she holds a hand up to stop him. She crosses the green carpet to the other side of the room. There, she punches a combination into a safe with a small, red light glowing top center.
She removes a small SD card, crosses over to a desk, and places it into a laptop.
She holds her arms out in front of her. “Come, darling.”
The man’s eyebrows furrow. “What is this?” he asks as he joins her behind the desk.
Keeping her eyes on him, Gemma smiles and presses a button on the laptop.
Whatever he sees on the screen turns his face ghost-pale. Sounds of passion boom out of the laptops speakers. After a few minutes, Gemma hits another button, and the noise stops.
Wicked Legends: A Dystopian Paranormal Romance and Urban Fantasy Collection Page 183
