“And a happy nightmare to you too,” Zoe drawled, wrinkling her nose. “Why do we keep getting dragged here?” She ignored Celeste and stomped closer to the river. “There has to be a reason.”
I expected Celeste to be happy at Zoe’s appearance. Instead, she looked distressed.
“No one invited you, witch,” Celeste hissed.
Zoe’s chuckle was hollow. “You need to read more than one book. I’m not a witch.” She flicked a derogatory gaze toward the cult member. “And I don’t do what anybody says. I’m my own person.”
“As all witches are,” Celeste intoned.
“You need to get off the witch train.” Zoe was firm. “I’m definitely not a witch. I know a few if you’re that desperate to meet one. In fact, I was hanging with one in Michigan not too long ago that has a mouth like a sailor and rides a motorcycle. She cracked me up.”
“Witches are abominations,” Celeste insisted.
“Witches are all sorts of crazy sometimes,” Zoe agreed. “You need to get off this abominations kick, though. Saddling someone with an identity only means that you’re putting your limitations on them. You’re bound for disappointment when you do that, because the rules you’ve established for them very rarely come to fruition.”
“You don’t belong here.” Celeste was insistent. “You’re not part of this.”
“I’m part of it now.”
“This isn’t your place.”
“It’s not your place either.” Zoe knelt down and touched the water, shaking her hand as she drew it back. “Feels wet enough.”
I was confused. “What did you expect?”
“This dream is more lucid than most,” she replied. “It means our friend here likely created a place on a different plane for our minds to talk freely. I’m betting it’s a safe place, too.” Before I could respond, she unloaded a burst of magic in Celeste’s direction. It was harmlessly deflected without the woman raising a finger. “That’s what I thought.” Zoe planted her hands on her hips. “What are you?”
I’d never liked the question, but in this instance I was as curious as Zoe.
“What are you?” Celeste demanded.
“Her name is Celeste,” I volunteered. “That’s what she told me to call her before you showed up.”
Zoe pursed her lips. “Another word for goddess. That’s interesting, huh?”
“Do you think she’s a god?” I was dumbfounded at the possibility.
Zoe shook her head. “Gods are weirdos who live in holes in the ground and show up only when they want to further their own agendas. They’re powerful. This woman isn’t powerful. Everything she has is borrowed.”
“You mean she stole it from others.” I thought back to Charlotte. “I don’t think the women being targeted are magical. I know Charlotte wasn’t.”
“They don’t have to be,” Zoe replied. “All that’s required is that Celeste here assign magical significance to the blood she’s taken. By the way, nobody buys that your name is Celeste. I bet your name is something like Helga ... or Pansy ... or Pickle.”
I arched an eyebrow. “Pickle?”
“Oh, I guarantee someone out there has named their kid Pickle.” Zoe cocked her head as she regarded the woman. “What are you using? A talisman? A book?”
She was off on a tangent I didn’t understand. “What are you accusing her of?” I asked.
“Nonsense,” Celeste replied.
I ignored her. “You suspect something.”
“I’ve been around the block a time or two,” Zoe said. “Talismans and books are often used when people want to harness power they haven’t rightfully been given. I’m not sure which way this woman is going, but given the robes, I’m leaning toward a book.”
Celeste folded her arms across her chest. “What do you think you know about ancient texts, witch?”
“More than you can possibly imagine,” Zoe shot back. “I absorbed one once. An evil book. It gave me one heckuva power boost. Of course, I have legitimate magic running in my veins. You’re trying to force the issue. You likely can’t absorb a book unless ... .” She trailed off.
“You’re killing me here,” I growled. “I’m not following what you’re trying to say.”
Zoe’s eyes were keen when they locked with mine. “Remember what I told you a few days ago? All these cult idiots want the same thing. They fancy themselves powerhouses of magic. They don’t understand that being magical isn’t all fun and games because all they care about is lording it over others.”
“I believe you’re mistaken,” Celeste drawled. “You know nothing about me.”
“I know more than you think,” Zoe said. “I know that you want power because at one point in your life you felt powerless. Is that why you’re using the girls? Were you about the same age as them when your power was taken?
“You’ve found some bad book with blood ritual spells in it,” she continued. “You want to harness more magic, and this book has revealed how. The unfortunate part is that it requires human sacrifice. Each girl you kill makes you more powerful, but it also eats away at your soul, leaving you emptier.”
“You should become a therapist,” Celeste said with a laugh. “You all speak the same sort of nonsense.”
The statement was too pointed to ignore. “How many therapists have spouted their nonsense at you?”
“None,” Celeste shot back. “I am beyond this world.”
“You only wish it.” Zoe held Celeste’s gaze a moment longer and then focused on me. “You have to stop letting her into your head, Poet. I do too. She’s looking for answers, ways to hurt us. We can’t open ourselves up to that.”
“I didn’t think I was. She shouldn’t be able to cross the dreamcatcher, even in sleep.”
“And yet she crossed it without it alerting when she mounted her attack in the main tent last night,” Zoe pointed out.
I was taken aback. “I ... huh.”
“We’re showing her our bellies right now,” Zoe insisted. “We have to cut her off.”
“Do you really think it will be that easy, witch?” Celeste challenged.
“Actually, I do,” Zoe shot back. “The fact that you keep calling me a witch means you don’t understand the game you’re playing. Trust me when I say that you will before this week is over. You’re not going to like what you find when the knowledge finally comes.”
“I’m not afraid of you,” Celeste growled.
“You should be.” Zoe snagged my gaze. “Close your mind. Keep her out. We have a lot to discuss tomorrow. Don’t let her in for the rest of the night.”
And, because I knew she was right, I took a step away from Celeste.
“I’m not done,” Celeste called out. “I can offer you a way to save yourself.”
“I’m good,” I replied. “I’ve already been saved.”
I WOKE TO THE EARLY MORNING SUN PEEKING through the blinds. I was in the exact same position I’d fell asleep in. I wasn’t surprised to find Kade already awake.
“Hey.” He stroked his hand over my hair. “How are you feeling?”
“I’m okay.” I managed a smile for his benefit, the dream still fresh in my mind. “Something happened while I was sleeping.” I laid everything out for him. When I finished, he looked perplexed.
“Do you think these dreams are somehow real?”
“I think they’re very real.”
“But ... how?”
“I don’t know.” I lightly ran my fingers over his chest, considering. “Zoe is figuring things out. She mentioned a magic book, and even though Celeste denied it, I think Zoe was spot-on. There’s some sort of book involved.”
“How does that help us?” Kade asked. “Can we end this if we find the book?”
“Maybe. We can definitely end it if we figure out the end game. Zoe thinks Celeste is sacrificing these young women — who bear a striking resemblance to Celeste, mind you — because she’s deriving power from blood rituals.”
“I’ve never heard of that,�
�� Kade admitted. “This is an instance when my lack of magical knowledge comes back to bite us.”
“This isn’t an exact science,” I said. “You’re learning fast on the job. In this instance, there are many religions that believe anything can be achieved through blood magic. Celeste clearly believes that.”
“I just want to know how we’re going to defeat her.”
“We have several options.”
“Name one.”
“We can kill her.”
Kade nodded. “That’s always an option. We couldn’t get close enough to her last night to do that. Zoe wanted to kill her, but Celeste managed to deflect her magic without breaking a sweat.”
“She has some sort of spell protecting her,” I mused. “It stops magic, but we don’t know that it would stop Nellie’s ax.”
“Oh, right.” Kade exhaled heavily. “We need to get close to her to try using a weapon. That makes sense.”
“It still might not work,” I admitted. “The spell she’s using is a mystery.”
“Any other options for beating her?”
“We can find a way to break the shield spell. Then she’d be easy pickings.”
“How do we do that?”
“I don’t know.” I rolled to my back and dragged a hand through my hair. “We have one other problem, and I didn’t even realize it until Zoe brought it up in the dream.”
“What’s that?”
“The dreamcatcher didn’t alert when they crossed our boundaries.”
“Yeah, I wondered about that.” He reached over and brushed his thumb against my cheek. “If I’m not mistaken, most of those people are human. They wouldn’t alert the dreamcatcher.”
“Celeste would. She has magic at her disposal. Besides, the dreamcatcher is supposed to alert if humans with nefarious intentions cross.”
“What if they don’t have intentions? What if she’s controlling them?”
“We really need more information. As long as we’re flying blind, we’ll never figure any of this out.”
“Any suggestions?”
“Not right at this moment.”
“So, what do we do?”
“We keep looking for answers.”
“Well, as long as you’ve got a plan. Oh, wait. You don’t.” Laughing, Kade rolled on top of me and started to tickle. “It’s a good thing I’m already hopelessly devoted to you because otherwise all this vague ‘We need answers and yet I don’t know how to find them’ stuff would drive me crazy.”
I wiggled beneath him, fighting his insistent fingers. “We’re going to figure it out.”
“We are,” he agreed. “But first I’m going to figure you out. I feel the need for some bonding.”
“Okay, I’m up for some bonding. Show me what you’ve got.”
“Finally, something I want to do.”
21
Twenty-One
The Winters family was already grouped around one of the picnic tables when Kade and I exited the trailer. Zoe held a book that she and Aric were reading. Sami stood behind them and glared.
“This doesn’t look good,” Kade noted as he put his hand to the small of my back. “Is she doing an audition as a chicken?”
I couldn’t swallow my laugh. It was true. The way Sami bobbed her head indicated she was in the middle of a righteous diatribe.
“You’re being unreasonable,” Sami complained. “Nobody will know.”
“I’ll know,” Aric said as he pointed toward a passage in the book. “Right there. I knew I read it somewhere. Ha!”
“I have to read it and agree that you were right before there can be a ‘ha,’”
Zoe said.
“Oh, I earned that ha.” Aric gave his wife a peck on the cheek before focusing on Sami. “You’re not performing in the big show and that’s all there is to it.”
Sami’s expression was murderous. “Nobody will know!”
“I’ve already told you that I’ll know and that’s all that matters.” It was rare for Aric’s tone to turn from teasing to serious when dealing with Sami. “Even if there weren’t murderous cult members making life hell for us, you still couldn’t.”
“Why not?” Sami jutted out her chin. “I think I’ve earned the right to shift and perform.”
“Earned?” Aric cocked a challenging eyebrow. “You haven’t earned anything.”
“I have so.”
“How?” Zoe asked.
“I’ve behaved myself the entire time we’ve been here,” Sami replied. “That deserves a reward.”
“First, that’s not true,” Zoe argued. “Second, that’s not how it works in the real world. Do you see me getting rewards for behaving?”
Sami nodded her dark head, causing her mother to make a face.
“Oh, you do not,” Zoe shot back.
“Oh, really?” Sami apparently had some dirt on her mother. “Three weeks ago, that day I was supposed to stay in my room because I stole your Red Vines stash, I came out long enough to hear you and Dad talking.”
Zoe shrugged. “So?”
“He was asking you to go to a wolf retreat with him on some weird island.”
Zoe asked again, “So?”
“So, you said you would rather rip your fingernails out with pliers — and then do the same to him — than go to the wolf retreat.”
“I still don’t know what you’re getting at,” Zoe said.
“Dad said it was important to Grandpa and he didn’t want to let him down. You said you had no problem letting Grandpa down. Dad reminded you that Grandpa takes me every Sunday so you guys can do gross stuff in the hot tub.”
“Oh, geez,” Aric muttered, apparently realizing where Sami was going. “This dragging things out to win an argument thing she does, she gets it from you, baby.”
Zoe held up a hand to silence her husband. “I’ve yet to hear how I was rewarded for not being a jerk.”
“Dad said it was important that we do this for Grandpa because he’s getting old and won’t always be here,” Sami replied. “I don’t want to think about Grandpa not being here, and it hurts my feelings that you brought it up.”
Zoe pinned Aric with a dark look. “And that right there, that ‘woe is me’ crap she does, she gets it from you. That’s how you got me to massage you for two straight hours the other night. You claimed you threw your back out cleaning the house.”
“Um ... I did throw my back out,” Aric fired back. “I would think you’d have a little sympathy for your poor husband, who just wanted you to come home to a clean house.”
Zoe’s eye roll was pronounced. “Next time you run that scam, don’t leave the receipt from the cleaning company on the kitchen counter.”
Aric’s cheeks colored. “I ... um ... you should be happy.” He changed tactics quickly. “You didn’t have to lift a finger. That house was immaculate. You wanted to give me that massage out of the goodness of your heart anyway.”
“Uh-huh.” Zoe let loose a sigh and turned back to her offspring. “You were about to explain how I get rewarded for not being a jerk.”
“I would’ve already done it if you and Dad didn’t keep distracting me,” Sami groused. “Don’t think that I don’t know what you’re doing when you do that. I’m on to you.”
“Sami, either get to the point or sit down and shut up,” Aric instructed. “We’re all tired of listening to you.”
Sami sniffled but her eyes were dry. “Anyway, you didn’t want to go to the retreat. Dad asked you for a favor. He promised a great suite in a nice hotel and fruity cocktails. He also promised ‘outrageous beach sex’ — those were his words, not mine — and you agreed to go.
“After he thanked you with kisses — and I know there was tongue — you said that you were looking forward to torturing the wolves,” she continued. “He said he would arrange another vacation, one for just the two of you and clothes wouldn’t be necessary, if you agreed to be on your best behavior.”
One look at Zoe told me Sami had her. Worse, every fa
mily member – and the others sitting around the table – knew it.
“I don’t particularly remember that conversation,” Zoe hedged, keeping her eyes from Aric.
“Well, I filmed it on my phone in case I wanted to use it against you later,” Sami drawled.
Aric leaned closer to his wife. “She gets that from you, too.”
Zoe, never moving her eyes from Sami’s face, slammed her elbow into Aric’s stomach. “You’re not shifting and performing in the show and that’s final.”
Sami’s mouth dropped open. “You’re the meanest parents ever!”
“We’re fine with that,” Aric said, going back to the book. “Read this passage, baby. I’m telling you I’m right. Once you’re finished reading it, you can tell me I’m right too.”
“This day already feels endless,” Zoe complained as she went back to studying the book.
There was finally an opening in the conversation — man, these Winters people can talk — so I decided to redirect the conversation. “Did you find something?”
“Maybe,” Zoe replied. “After that dream last night, I had a few ideas where to look. My friend Paris called the library here and managed to secure a book for me. That’s what we’re going through right now.”
“I wondered if you would remember the dream,” I admitted. “You never said anything about the previous one.”
“Neither did you.”
“Yeah, but I wasn’t sure if it really happened or if I was imagining things.”
“It really happened.” Zoe read the passage Aric was so keen on. “My dreams have been wonky since I got pregnant with the pouty wonder over there.” She jerked her thumb toward Sami. “That freaky Celeste chick is somehow sliding in when we’re asleep. We need to make sure she doesn’t do that again.”
I didn’t disagree. “Any suggestions?”
Zoe was distracted by the book. I was about to suggest I leave her to her research and focus on cooking breakfast when her demeanor completely changed and she snapped up her head.
“Daddy.” Sami, who had been pouting near one of the tents, hurried to her father.
“Now I’m Daddy?” Aric made a face. “Have I mentioned that I can’t wait until you’re no longer a teenager? All these hormones and feelings are driving me insane.” True surprise washed over his features when Sami ducked under his arm and wriggled into the tiny space between her father and mother. The girl who was bigger than life was trying to make herself as small as possible.
Mystic Caravan 11 - Freaky Mage Page 20
