A Lying Witch Book Four

by Odette C. Bell

  I swallowed. “What do you mean I have to take him down? You are going to help, right?” I said in a shaking voice. “I may be a lot of things, but I’m not a miracle worker.”

  “No, you can just see the future,” Sarah Anne said quietly, a strange expression on her face. It wasn’t a simple expression. It wasn’t exactly one of surrender or submission, but it was something close.

  I felt my cheeks pale to the point of dropping off. “Didn’t you hear what Bridgette said earlier? I can’t use my powers. The cost will be my future, and that’s what he wants. He’s been manipulating me since the day I inherited my grandmother’s house and this stupid curse,” I said, even though I was well aware no one else would know what the hell the curse was. “From the beginning, he’s been pushing me into situations where I have to use my powers, where I have to see the future. Because every time I do, it robs me of my own future. So no, I can’t use my powers to defeat him. Because that won’t defeat him. It will play into his hands.”

  Sarah watched me, watched the passion crumple my features and pitch through my voice. She didn’t back down and agree it would be a completely awful idea to give myself up to the fireflies and give in to Max at the same time.

  “All powers cost,” she said in a quiet tone. “That’s the cost of doing magic.”

  “I know that,” I said, voice rattling with anger. “You think I don’t know that?” I couldn’t help but cut my gaze toward Max. He was still lying there on the couch. Even though the witches had obviously made an effort to make him comfortable, it didn’t change the fact that his sightless eyes were still open, that shadow still dancing between his irises and pupils.

  “Magic costs all. That’s how the universe works,” Sarah continued, ignoring what I’d said and the hot flush of rage that took to my cheeks.

  This time, I really did ignore my injuries as I pushed to my feet. “You’re not listening to me. Every time I use my powers, it costs me my future. And that’s not something I’m willing to give up. It’s what McCain wants. He wants me to become some soulless, mindless automaton so he can control me.”

  “All powers cost,” Sarah repeated once more, tone completely neutral, expression unfazed. She stared at me like she was a patient teacher trying to hammer home some simple lesson. “There is always balance to be found.”

  All I wanted to do was scream at her that there was no goddamn way I could use my powers and give my life up to McCain.

  Suddenly, I stopped. I stopped because of the unique look in her eyes. It wasn’t exactly powerful, or at least not powerful in a way I could recognize. It had at once a quiet submission about it and yet an unmistakable energy beyond anything I’d ever seen Sarah amass.

  “There is always a balance to be struck between power and weakness.”

  “What? What the hell are you talking about?” I asked through clenched teeth. “Are you telling me that there is some way I can use my abilities as a seer without them costing me?”

  “No.” She shook her head, the move soft but still powerful. “Magic will always cost the practitioner. And yet, within each unique skill set there is a balance to be found.”

  “Look, you’re wasting my time,” I spat. “If you know something about my powers, if you know some way that I can use them without losing my future, then tell me.”

  Again, Sarah considered me with that same grim expression. “All I know is that within every single type of magic there’s a balance to be sought.” She gestured toward Bridgette. “Though strong displays of magic will bring about strong costs, smaller, infrequent displays,” she looked at her hands and looked up at me, “you can usually get away with them.”

  I brought my arms wide and gestured with them. “Do you honestly think small, infrequent displays,” I matched her tone exactly, “are going to be enough to defeat a sorcerer king?”

  Bridgette was still propped on her shoulders, and it was clear she wasn’t following. “Why do you keep talking about sorcerer kings? What the hell is going on here? Who was that guy? Why did he look like Max?” she insisted.

  Sarah turned to her. “He was Max. At least, what Max once was. Max isn’t a fairy. He’s a soul shadow.” Sarah hesitated. She cut her gaze toward me.

  I felt a chill race down my back. Though I knew Max wasn’t a fairy, I still didn’t technically understand exactly what he was. Yet, at the mention of a soul shadow, I swore my body reacted to that news as though somewhere deep inside me was buried a clue. I even brought up a hand and clutched it against my sternum. “What the hell is a soul shadow?”

  “It’s a fragment of somebody’s everafter, of their destiny,” she explained.

  As soon as Sarah said that, my expression soured. Because there was that word again. That treacherous word. The word that haunted me and threatened to take away everything I’d ever worked for. I hardened myself against it, clearing my throat with a snap as I continued to face Sarah. “Say I believe you. Say I believe in destiny for half a second. How exactly can we save Max?” I twisted my head back to him, my expression instantly softening. “And how can we defeat McCain at the same time? If you’re right, and Max is somehow,” I swallowed, “a shadow of McCain’s soul, then how the hell do we save him without saving McCain?” I struggled with my complicated thoughts, fighting against my fatigue at the same time. Because I was still very much injured. Though a few of the medi witches had come into the room, they were justifiably concentrating their efforts on Bridgette.

  I caught a few glances of her stomach. It looked as if somebody had tried to carve her in half with a samurai sword.

  “The answer is I don’t really know,” Sarah said. She dropped my gaze and stared at her feet. “You’re going to have to find out.” She shifted her attention back and faced me once more. “Because you’re the only one who can end this. You’re the only one close enough to Max and McCain to figure out how to save them both.”

  “Save them both?” I spluttered. “There’s no way I’m gonna save McCain. He’s a monster. Some twisted shadow of humanity.”

  Sarah offered a grim nod then shook her head. “That doesn’t change the fact that you’re right – there’s no way to save Max without saving McCain. Max can’t function on his own. He’s only a scrap of a soul. If you get rid of McCain, he….” She simply shrugged and trailed off.

  Cold swept through me. It felt as if I’d grabbed one of Dimitri’s transport keys and opened a door into the heart of Antarctica. I’d never felt more frozen, more stuck. My worst fears were coming true.

  Bridgette snorted. “Sarah, you didn’t face that guy. He had power the likes of which I’ve never seen. The Lonely King may have been a powerful sorcerer, but this guy—” Bridgette’s voice cut out and she took a rattling breath. “He’s worlds apart. We only got out of there because of Chi’s quick thinking.”

  Sarah slowly nodded her head but then shook it straight away. “I get that, but it doesn’t matter. The only way to save Max is to save McCain. You need to knit his soul back together.”

  “I won’t,” I said in a rattling voice that shook so hard through my sternum it was a surprise it didn’t cause an earthquake and tear the building down around my ears. “That bastard has to pay for everything he’s done to my family. For everything he did to Mary.”

  Bridgette shook her head. It was obvious she wasn’t following. “Who’s Mary? You mentioned a curse? What on earth is going on?”

  Sarah switched her gaze to me, and I wondered just how much she’d managed to figure out about Max and my family. Max had told me the day we’d met that I should never reveal the curse to anyone. Doing so would activate it in full. But, hey, I didn’t need to fear that anymore. McCain was out there, and I was rapidly running out of time. I pushed to my feet, locking a hand on the chair for support. Though, to be honest, I didn’t need it. My anger was enough to cut through the nausea and waves of pain that kept crashing against me like a swell from a storm. “My family are cursed. The McLane women have always been cursed. It was som
e time hundreds of years ago, back in Scotland. One of my forebears, Mary McLane, was a seer. She was…” I trailed off, “in love with Max McCain,” I said uncomfortably, shuddering at the memory of how Mary had felt for him. That vision had been so sharp that I’d been able to feel every single time her heart had beat for him. The wash of sweat that had slipped over her brow at the prospect that he wouldn’t give up his magic, at the prospect that he was twisting further and further away from her.

  I shook the memory from my mind and clenched my teeth harder. “He was some kind of sorcerer king. And she was helping him, I think. But his powers became too much for him, started to cost him everything, and she….” I had to clench my teeth now as I fought to push the words out. “She lied, tried to stop him. In return, he cursed her and the rest of my family. I don’t really understand why, but he was waiting for a seer, somebody like me. Somebody he could control to bring his twisted future to life.” I stumbled over my words, recounting the tale with such clumsiness, it was a surprise any of them understood.

  Bridgette looked pale, even paler than her massive blood loss would account for. As for Sarah, I’d never seen her looking grimmer.

  I swallowed and continued, “The curse apparently stops us McLane seers from lying. If we do,” I looked down at my hands and gave a dour chuckle, “we pay the price. When I first met Max, he told me turning from my powers – or worse, using them to see the future and then lying about them – would cost me everything. Would cost me my life,” I said through a false, fake smile as I kept staring at my hands. “It was all an act. I didn’t know yet that he was being controlled by McCain. McCain was using him to ensure I kept following my powers, kept calling on them so they would cost me my future.”

  I watched Bridgette share a look with Sarah. Both of them were frowning.

  I chuckled. “The more I think about it, the more I realize there never was a curse. It was always Max.” I cast my mind back to the incident with the pixie. Could I be sure that pixie had come after me of its own accord? For all I knew, the shadow could have called it. And heck, after my first vision in the bathtub, I’d come down the stairs to find Max on the phone to someone, and I’d never figured out who that person was.

  The more I thought about it, the more I realized it could have been Fagan. McCain could have been setting me up for another fall.

  I let out another hardened chuckle as I continued to stare at my hands.

  “Hold on, that doesn’t make any sense,” Sarah interrupted.

  I looked up at her, a pronounced frown spreading across my face. “What are you talking about?”

  “If McCain was pressuring you into using your powers so he could ultimately control you, why would he care about you lying?” Sarah Anne said. She frowned at me.

  I opened my mouth to reply, but couldn’t think of a thing to say.

  Bridgette was still pushed up on her elbows. “Sarah, get to the point.”

  “If McCain was only interested in you developing your powers so he could ultimately control you, then it wouldn’t matter if you tried to lie – you wouldn’t be able to.”

  I looked between both of them in turn and shook my head. “You don’t get it. The incident with Mary, my forebear, it twisted McCain. He hated her. Every time I mention it, it sets him off.”

  “It’s gotta be something more,” Sarah said. “Why would he specifically write that clause into your contract if it was just because he was pissed off at this Mary?”

  I opened my mouth, ready to defend myself, but I stopped. “What do you mean?” I asked quietly in such a careful voice it was almost as if I were scared they’d snap at me. But that wasn’t the particular fear that squirmed through my gut. No, it was that I’d missed something. Missed something key.

  “How much do we really know about your powers?” Bridgette asked as she remained there, propped on her elbows. “I mean, you said yourself that every time you use them, especially if you use them frequently, they control your actions. Do you know if that’s it?” Bridgette asked.

  A kick of true fear sailed through my stomach. “What do you mean?” I said in a shaking voice.

  “I mean, are you sure that’s the extent of your powers?”

  “What?”

  “It’s not unusual for witches to have more than one set of powers, especially the truly powerful ones,” Sarah explained. “What we’re asking is are you sure seeing the future is your only ability?”

  I stood there with my hands still locked on the back of the chair, my body rocking back and forth. It wasn’t because my injuries were finally getting to me. Nope, it was what they were suggesting. Max had mentioned before that I might have other abilities that hadn’t come to fruition yet. And McCain had mentioned it, too. In fact, that was the crux of why he’d had to wait for me for all these hundreds of years. He’d been waiting for a McCain seer with the exact powers I had. And now I was here, he could enact his plan.

  But what the hell were the powers he’d waited for?

  I shook my head again as I realized something. “I can go into the past,” I stuttered. “I can… look, this is gonna sound crazy, but I’ve had visions of McCain from the past. I’ve seen my forebear, Mary. I’ve been in her head. But it was more than that. It wasn’t just that I saw what she was going through. It was like I was actually there. And if I pushed….” I swallowed. It felt as if my throat would crack in half. “If I really pushed, the vision would turn into reality. What do you think it means?” I tilted my head up and looked at Sarah, a note of vulnerability echoing through my tone.

  She took several seconds to answer. She brought a hand up, clapped it on her chin, and pulled her slender, long fingers against her lip. “To be honest, I have absolutely no idea. But it’s a clue.” She let her hand drop, and she looked at me directly. “It’s one you’ll have to figure out. I doubt McCain would have written lying into your contract if it wasn’t important. And I imagine,” she cast her gaze back to Max, “it’s the key to everything.”

  I felt myself swallow. One of those swallows where you’re suddenly completely aware of not just your throat, but your lips and lungs and mouth and tummy and diaphragm. Your whole body is pushed into sharp refrain.

  I brought a hand up and slapped it across my head as I tried to battle past my thoughts. What the hell could this mean? What other kind of ability could I have? Yeah, sure, I was a pretty good liar. But I doubted my sheer ability to create fiction would be the key to ending this. Or maybe, maybe I was overlooking something. Because I couldn’t deny McCain’s incredible reaction to the way I’d taunted him in the attic when I’d suggested I could lie and he wouldn’t be able to know the difference. He’d snapped, and that had been the only reason I’d been able to get out of there. So it was a clue, wasn’t it?

  I brought a hand down and latched it across my stomach, letting the fingers drag through the torn scraps of my top. It brought Sarah’s attention to the blood that caked my arms and fingers. I watched her clench her teeth and push a breath through them.

  “You’re still injured. And no matter what’s happening, we have to see to those injuries. We also,” she cast her gaze back to Max then over to the door, “have to remain on the run.”

  A kick of fear shoved hard through my gut. “What do you mean? I thought we’d be safe here for a while.”

  “For a while,” she conceded with a tight frown. “But if McCain is half as powerful as you’re describing, then it won’t take long to find us. Our only option is to keep on the run. We still have those keys from Dimitri,” Sarah revealed. “Max gave them to me for safekeeping. Though ordinarily we wouldn’t have the magic to keep on the run, those keys are all we need.”

  I let myself feel a brief flicker of relief. Then I returned my attention to Max. “What about him?” I asked as I brought a hand up and extended a shaking finger toward him. He was still prone on the couch, unmoving as that shadow danced deep within his eyes.

  “He’ll be okay. What’s afflicting him is no normal in
jury.” Her voice dropped down low, and I had to struggle to pick up the quiet words. “It won’t matter if we move him. All that matters is you find a way to fight McCain.”

  “But hold on. How exactly am I meant to fight him? You told me I couldn’t kill him for the risk of killing Max. So what option do I have?”

  Sarah shrugged. “You’ll find a way,” she said as she took a quick, jerked step over to Max and started explaining things to the other witches.

  It was all up to me? I tried hard not to wobble on my feet as several of the medi witches helped Bridgette to her feet.

  Chapter 5

  I couldn’t wrench my gaze off Max. My mind was stuck in the moment we’d kissed, my body too. If I let my eyes lock on him for too long, exactly the same sensations started to chase hard down my jaw and deep into my chest. They thawed me a little, but it didn’t last. Fear slammed even harder into my heart. McCain was still out there, and he wouldn’t stop until he found me. And then? God knows what would happen then.

  I brought a hand up and slammed it over my face, blinking hard into my sweaty fingers.

  Suddenly, I felt a hand on my shoulder. I shifted my attention and saw Bridgette there. Though she was being propped up between two witches, she still looked as if she had the gall to stand on her own, despite her injuries. Her pants were completely blood soaked, and though there were now magical looking bandages wrapped around her middle, she still shouldn’t have the strength to stand, let alone smile.

  “I may not have known you long, Chi, but there’s no one else who can do this. Trust me. Don’t question your powers, just go with it. Go with your anger, fear, love,” she added in a quiet tone as she cast her gaze back to Max. “You may be new to this magical world, but that doesn’t matter. You’re smart enough to figure this out. Just believe in yourself.”