by KB Anne
I sigh as I lead him through the back gate and into the fenced backyard. Every few boards there’s an inch-wide gap—just enough space for a person to peek through it. I creep over and look into my own backyard.
The bonfire area is well hidden on the other side of the garden shed. Even prying eyes wouldn’t have been able to witness any magic that was conducted there through the years. But Gram’s bench is clearly visible. The spot where she and I sat for hours talking about . . . well, everything. No wonder I always had the strangest feeling I was being watched—I was.
“Gi,” Alaric says, “we need to get moving. We promised Scott and the rest of them we’d be back as soon as possible.”
I swallow. “I know. Let’s go.”
The back door’s unlocked. We enter into a kitchen filled with endless cabinets.
“Should we split up to search?”
He pulls my hand into his. “Not a chance. We’ll move slowly and methodically. Now, what should I smell for?”
I grapple with whether I should tell him or not. It’s not that I don’t trust him. I don’t want anyone to know. But his nose might be able to find it faster than my magic, which seems to be blocked inside the house.
A really old spell book. It’ll probably be protected with Maleficium.
He squeezes three quick times. “Got it. I need to go to the center of the house.”
He guides me through the kitchen doorway and into the living room. Sheer curtains hang from a rod covering the giant picture window. I creep over to the side of the window and hide behind the heavy decorative curtains. I peek outside to see the front yard where my mother gave birth to me one snowy winter night. How did Naisha feel when my mother fell to the ground in the midst of a contraction? Did she want to run out and help her the same way my mother had assisted her during her delivery of Lizzie, or did she watch from her post and immediately report the news of my birth to Carman? Naisha tried to claim she was in charge, but I know better. Carman doesn’t share. Even Naisha’s relationship with Clayone was probably orchestrated by her.
From my position, I study the picket fence surrounding the front of Gram’s property. I can clearly see the sidewalk, the front porch, and the yard. When Naisha was here, she was always watching me.
“Okay,” Alaric says, lifting his nose. His nostrils flare in and out as he inhales deeply, sniffing for an object we’re not even sure is here.
After what seems like an eternity, I break the silence. “Well?”
He shakes his head. “I don’t smell anything.”
“Are you sure?”
“Even if there was a trace of Maleficium on it, I would smell it.”
“Your nose is that good? Or maybe we need to go upstairs?”
No, trust me. It’s not here.
“Okay,” I whisper as he pulls me back toward the kitchen door. I take one last look at the picture window in the living room before he closes the door behind us. I can’t believe all this time Naisha was watching us. I shiver, feeling so invaded.
“I’ve got you, Gi,” he says, rubbing his hands up and down my arms. “I got you.”
Sphinx lifts his head. I told you not to bother.
“Actually, you didn’t.”
That’s why I took a nap.
“Where to next?” Alaric asks.
“Follow me.”
“With pleasure. I love a take-charge kind of woman.”
I lead him along the greenway to Lizzie’s development.
* * *
Apparently, Lizzie and Naisha shared many secrets. It would stand to reason that they hid their secrets where they felt safest, where they spent the most time, where they could cast Maleficium spells to keep away even the most persistent of friends. All those times I tried to speak with Lizzie’s parents after she “died,” they never came to the door, even when their car was in the driveway and the front window had a candle lit as a welcome sign for unexpected guests. But I was never welcome there. And now I know the reason.
“Her dad might be there,” I whisper, as if even the air around their backyard could be spelled.
They have the same style fence as the house next to Gram’s, but instead of a peephole between every few boards, it’s sealed shut. Familiar with the protective spells Naisha added to the other house, I conjure one powerful spell to knock out the barriers. I fling it at the house with sick fascination, hoping that maybe the boring cream vinyl siding will melt away and reveal the twisted frame that once housed incredible malicious intent.
My spell encompasses the entire shield again and crushes it. I smile at the power of it. Maleficium might be capable of unfathomable levels of evil, but green magic will destroy its counter-magic with vigor.
I flick a searchlight ball at the house to make sure Lizzie’s dad isn’t home. I wonder if he knew who his wife really was, or who his daughter’s real father was. He always seemed dull, but maybe that’s why Naisha chose him. He made an excellent cover parent, especially since Lizzie’s birth father was locked away for all time (or at least until I screwed it up).
“All clear,” I whisper and reach for the latch on the gate.
“Wait,” he says, throwing out his arm to block me. He sniffs the air. Someone is there.
But my spell didn’t find anything.
Are you going to believe me or your spell?
What should we do?
Sphinx’s ears perk up. He crouches down in front of the gate. I am a majestic beast.
“Oh brother,” I groan aloud as Sphinx launches himself through the air.
Cat screams erupt from the other side. Absolute chaos breaks out. Sphinx may be my partner in catastrophe, but he sounds like he needs my help. I quickly reach for the latch.
Alaric stops me. Wait.
Sphinx needs us.
He shakes his head, his ear tilted toward the fence. “Okay, now.”
I leap into the yard with my palms ready to throw a quick protective shield up or shoot vines out of the ground, but my magic isn’t needed. Sphinx has a black cat pinned to the ground. The other cat tries to move but the effort isn’t very convincing. Sphinx hisses, baring his teeth, and the black cat gives up.
“What’s going on here?”
Restrain him please.
“Sure.”
Vines quickly spiral up and wrap themselves around the black cat’s body. The cat screams like it’s being mauled to death, but Sphinx has already climbed off of him and is busy licking his paws.
“Why did you attack this cat? It seems pretty harmless.”
He’s harmless now, but he’s no ordinary cat. He’s the evil faerie’s familiar.
“I thought the politically correct term was ‘partner in catastrophe.’”
That is reserved for those who align themselves with good. Those who choose to align with evil are familiars.
“And who is this?”
This, Sphinx says and flicks his paws at the black cat, is Greg, Lizzie’s dad, or at least he pretended to be.
“Greg?”
I can’t believe my eyes as the black cat morphs into Lizzie’s dad. Naked. There are sights for sore eyes, and there are sights that make eyes sore. I don’t know if mine will ever recover.
Did you ever wonder why you never really saw her dad anywhere? It was always her mom.
Lizzie’s funeral flashes before my eyes. Me, an inconsolable mess when I finally gathered the nerve to enter the funeral home and say goodbye to my best friend one last time. I remember latching on to the anger because my classmates were acting like they were the ones who had lost their best friend. But they hadn’t. I had. I blamed myself for killing Lizzie, no matter what Dad, or Gram, or Scott said. If it wasn’t for Dad manhandling me, I would have slashed out at my classmates, slicing faces and poking out eyes to try and relieve some of the emotion swirling around inside me. I remember seeing Nancy watching me. Her eyes flashed red when she whispered to Greg before she stormed over to us. What did she say?
I’d been far too self-ab
sorbed to notice her red eyes or what she’d said to who I thought was Lizzie’s dad. All I wanted to do was tell them how much their daughter meant to me. How much she meant to me still. The girl who’d given me the gift of friendship when no one else had. She was my person. When she died, the best parts of me died too.
My eyes kept skimming over the casket. I was relieved it was closed, but then I also wanted to see her one last time. Nancy had marched up to my dad and asked him what I was doing there. My dad defended me, telling her I had nothing to do with her death.
She accused him of being a devil worshipper—oh, the irony. She said when they had left the coven all those years ago, they should have moved far away. Also lies.
When she said, “That thing killed her,” I thought someone was finally talking sense, but when she started pushing my dad, he had to release me in order to stop her. She’d screamed, “You and this heathen had everything to do with it!”
Every eye had been on me standing there awkward and sad, not really sure what to do. They missed it when she turned and glared at my dad with red eyes. They missed her lifting her hands and running at him. They missed her hitting his chest so hard that he stumbled back into the casket. And then the casket had smashed to the tile floor. A thunderclap shattered the shocked silence as the cover fell open. She’d wanted us to see that the casket was empty.
Then she put on a show by crashing to her knees and wailing, “Noooo,” over and over again.
The only thing Lizzie’s dad did was walk over and ask Dad to leave.
My dad offered Greg his hand, horrified by what had occurred. He was trying to salvage some semblance of dignity. Her dad stared at my dad’s open hand. I assumed that he was ignoring him, but now, I wonder if he couldn’t. My dad was a powerful witch. He would have noticed that something was off with Greg if they’d touched.
“Gi,” Alaric says, “what does this mean?”
“It means that lies have abounded in every aspect of my life. But at the funeral, I’m almost positive Naisha had wanted me to know that Lizzie wasn’t in the casket. Why would she risk it?”
“Why did she do any of the things she did? She’s pure evil.”
“But then why did she offer to give me the thing we’re looking for? She had to know we’d go searching for it and discover that her husband, ‘Greg,’ was a black cat.”
Sphinx grimaces at the human’s naked frame. He raises his paw, and Greg morphs back into a cat.
“What are we missing?”
“Let’s go see,” Alaric says and pulls me to the door. “Wait right here. Don’t move.”
For once, I do what he asks me. He lifts his nose and smells the air. Finally, his green eyes find mine. “There’s not a trace of Maleficium here either, now that the shields are gone and Greg’s been exposed.”
“In more ways than one.”
He winces, reminding me of Sphinx’s reaction to Greg’s body.
“There’s one more place we could look.”
“Third time’s the charm.”
“I certainly hope so.”
* * *
The day I realized that Lizzie had stolen the spell book was after I went to school with a neck full of hickeys from the biggest mistake of my existence, both godly and otherwise. The rumors about my hickeys and where I had gotten them almost put me over the edge I already skirted on, but my protective nature flared, and all I wanted to do was find Lizzie. I remember cutting through the greenway to get to her development after leaving Gram’s, but instead of turning toward her house, I followed the path to the abandoned Smith farm. The very one where Scott had once fallen down the well and little old me had found him without ever having been to the property before. I refused to accept that I was a reincarnated goddess, even after Gram and Dad made it exceptionally clear I was magical. I was and am a stubborn asshole.
Alaric follows along beside me with Sphinx in his arms. He’s even more sexy cradling my cat. I lick my lips as I meet Alaric’s gold-rimmed green eyes. He gives me a seductive smile as if he can read my mind. Maybe he can.
“Sometimes your thoughts are very loud.”
“You heard me call you sexy?”
“I did. And I think you’re sexy in your black leather jacket, tight black jeans, and beat-up Docs, searching for what will remain unnamed.”
I snort. “Finally, someone gets me.”
“Oh, I got you, and I will get you again many times.”
I laugh at his innuendo. He makes this effed-up situation tolerable.
As we approach the barn, I remember hearing Lizzie crying inside. She had hidden herself in a corner. And she was scared. Definitely scared. If she had been already evil, she wouldn’t have been scared. She had no idea what was happening to her, and she wanted me—no, she needed me to help her. I remember reaching out to touch her hand, thinking, she falls. I fall.
But she hasn’t fallen out of reach yet, has she? There’s still hope we can retrieve her and turn her back to our side. I just need to find the spell book and destroy that along with the eyeball necklace. The sooner the better. I break away from Alaric and hurry into the barn.
“Gigi, wait! We need to check—”
But it’s too late. As soon as he steps in after me, the ground rumbles and breaks apart.
“Gi,” he shouts, leaping over to me. He clutches me to his chest along with Sphinx. Sphinx’s eyes widen in alarm, which scares me. Sphinx seems to know everything that’s going on, but he certainly didn’t foresee this.
The floor falls away around us. Boards crash toward us and the roof goes up in flames. We are going to die in here. We are going to burn to death. All because of my impulsiveness. I should have known better. I do know better. The spell book is not here. It was never here.
“It’s a trap! It’s a trap!” I scream, but it’s not for Alaric to hear. Of course, he knows it’s a trap. It’s for Scott and the others. “It’s a trap!” I shout a third time, knowing there is awesome power in threes.
“Hold on!” I shout as I envision a portal. The Maleficium magic combats it, pushing the edges back down. I concentrate on Granda’s cottage. My portal keeps fighting the Maleficium. Maleficium magic is strong, but my magic is stronger. Finally a bright, shimmery light emerges.
“Jump!”
And we do.
She falls. I fall.
16
Seven of Swords
Caer flew toward Naisha and Maddie. Maddie clutched Naisha’s legs. No matter how hard she kicked at his face or how powerfully she jerked her body, he held on. Naisha flew higher and higher, as if trying to reach what lay beyond the clouds. The air grew noticeably thinner. Their breathing became labored. Caer assumed that was exactly what Naisha was trying to achieve. The only way Maddie would let go was if he passed out.
Caer glanced down at the earth. Scott and Amorin’s figures grew smaller and smaller the higher they flew. Caer had to make a decision. She could save loyal Maddie and most likely lose Naisha, overpower Naisha and risk losing Maddie, or wrap them both in her wings, tear open a portal to the Faerie Realm, and force Naisha to face judgement from those she had betrayed. It would mean leaving Scott, but it wouldn’t be forever. She’d be back before the Storm Moon. She’d be back to fulfill her destiny. In the end, it was her only choice.
“Maddie, don’t let go,” she yelled to her new friend.
“I . . . I . . . won’t but it’s getting c-c-cold. I c-c-can’t breathe.”
He was fading fast. She had to hurry.
“Hold on,” she said as her wings burst from her back. She didn’t need them to fly, but she’d cocoon them all within them.
Once she had a hold of them, she focused her emotion on opening a portal. Her sword usually aided her in portal making, but now her hands were otherwise occupied. Intense emotion was an old friend, however, and had aided her portal making in the past. It would guide her now.
The air around them shimmered. The portal was locking into position below them.
“No
,” Naisha screamed, her body stiffening. “No!”
Naisha should be terrified, especially after what she had done. Keturah was a force to be reckoned with.
“Oh, yes,” Caer said, adopting one of Gigi’s lines, and they plummeted back toward the earth before disappearing into the portal.
They continued spiraling and spiraling toward the ground. Something wasn’t right. They shouldn’t still be falling.
“What’s hap . . . pening? We . . . aren’t . . . slowing down,” Maddie yelled, most of his words getting lost.
Caer realized the problem as the wind tore at her hair and eyes. They’d entered the portal in a freefall. It felt like her skin was getting ripped off. She’d have to use her wings to slow them down, but to do that she’d have to release Naisha and Maddie because if she continued to hold them, the abrupt change in direction with their added weight could damage her wings.
“Maddie, don’t let her go,” Caer instructed him.
“I won’t,” he said through gritted teeth.
She released Naisha and Maddie and flapped her powerful white wings. The air whooshed beneath her wings, and she soon gained control of her flight. She hovered in the sky to get her bearings before folding her wings behind her and diving toward Naisha and Maddie. Naisha was trying to use her own wings, but they were plummeting too fast. Her wings were neither as large nor anywhere near as powerful as Caer’s. Caer easily caught up to them and wrapped her arms around them. She held Naisha with everything she had, preparing for the jolt that came as she expanded her wings and caught the air once more. Maddie wouldn’t let go. He was the son of Keturah. Powerful. Strong minded. His own force to be reckoned with.
When she mastered control of their fall, she flapped her wings and carried her cargo to her father’s castle. Her castle, as Scott had reminded her.
Scott. He’d worry about her. He’d been so engaged in fighting the two werewolves that he hadn’t see them disappear into the portal. She’d return to the Earthly Realm soon. After all, she had a monster to kill.
* * *
