Entangled

by Nikki Jefford

  “My body’s not an option.”

  “And why is that?”

  “It’s decomposing at the cemetery.”

  Adrian’s eyes nearly popped out of his head. Now Gray had his full attention. Adrian placed his hand on his chest.

  “You mean you died and were brought back?”

  “That’s correct.”

  Adrian looked at Raj. “How could you keep this from me?”

  Raj crossed his arms. “It’s on a need-to-know basis.”

  Adrian looked back at Gray. “I’ll do it, but I don’t want money. I want to know how the spell was performed.”

  Gray snorted. “It didn’t even come out right.”

  “Is that all you can think about? You were brought back from the dead. Death is final.” Adrian leaned in closer. “I wonder, why you?”

  Right, because Gray was nothing extraordinary. That’s what Adrian was implying, wasn’t it? She narrowed her eyes. “Sorry, can’t help. Don’t know a thing about it.”

  Adrian leaned back and folded his arms over his chest. “What’s in it for me?”

  Gray stretched out of her chair and ran the tips of her fingers along the table as she circled to Adrian’s side. “Poor Adrian. Can’t perform magic anymore.” She came to a stop beside him.

  Adrian shot her a menacing look. “What do you know about it?”

  Gray squatted so that she was eye level with Adrian. “I know what it’s like to have your powers blocked. All we need to do is find the responsible party and then . . .” Gray paused for emphasis. “We put a fissure in their spell.”

  Behind her, Raj sucked in a breath.

  Adrian’s eyes glittered.

  * * *

  Raj wasn’t just flicking his Zippo open and closed, he was slamming the palm of his hand over the lid to snap it shut. They stood on the walkway just outside Adrian’s shop. “Why did you promise to unblock his powers?”

  “He’s not much good to me if he can’t perform the purge or whatever it is I need to do to keep on existing.”

  “There are other options. We can still do a transfer, just not to your body. Adrian could have instructed me. I could have performed the transfer!”

  Gray didn’t like the way Raj raised his voice with her. He wasn’t her boyfriend. She didn’t need to listen to this. “I’m running out of options, Raj! And I’m running out of time.”

  “So your only plan is to stoop to your sister’s level? You might want to think about the consequences before you rush in.”

  Gray’s mouth flew open. “I wouldn’t be in this mess if it weren’t for my sister!”

  “I don’t like where this is leading, Gray.” Raj shook his head.

  First her mom deserted her, and now Raj. It was too much. Did they expect her to just lie back and let her sister take the life force out of her? No thanks, she’d already done that once. “Then walk away,” Gray bit out. “And let me deal with the dirty work.”

  Raj stopped flicking his lighter. He grabbed Gray’s hand so suddenly she gasped. “What are you doing?”

  “You want to play dirty . . .” Raj said. He grabbed the handle on Adrian’s storefront roughly. “Let’s settle this once and for all.”

  Adrian grinned as they walked inside. “Back so soon?”

  “First we try a transfer,” Raj said. “And if that doesn’t work we move on to the purge.” When he looked at Gray she nodded. “It’s most likely someone in the coven blocking Adrian’s powers. Probably Holloway. What do you suggest, Gray?”

  Both men looked at her. She felt like shrinking under the weight of what she had to do; instead, she straightened her spine. “Truth spell. Does anyone know how to do one?”

  Adrian grinned. “My Nan practically invented the truth spell.”

  Gray rolled her eyes. “Why am I not surprised?” She looked from Adrian to Raj. This time Raj was the one to nod. “I’ll give it to Marc Phillips, he’s Holloway’s second in command. And then—I’ll get the truth.”

  “I’ll have Nan make you up a potion. She doesn’t give out her spell.”

  “Fine,” Gray said. “Just get it to me soon. Time’s running out.”

  “Give it to me and I’ll get it to Gray,” Raj said.

  “Or I could bring it to Gray directly.”

  Raj’s jaw tightened. “No.”

  Adrian smiled. “Very well, McKenna.” He turned to Gray. “You do realize that if we transfer you into an ungifted body you’ll keep your powers, but you can’t pass them on to your children?”

  Gray lifted her chin. “Sign me up.”

  Adrian bowed slightly. “Miss Perez, a pleasure. I look forward to exchanging services.”

  “Just get Raj the potion, stud.”

  * * *

  “Charlene?” Marc Phillips raised a brow when he saw Gray standing on his doorstep.

  It was dark out by this time, but at least Adrian had gotten the potion to Raj that same day. Actually, it turned out to be a powder, not a potion, sealed inside a tiny plastic bag. The white powder looked like crack.

  Mr. Phillips was looking over Gray’s shoulder. “Ryan’s at Paul’s house playing video games.”

  “Do you mind if I come in for a moment, Mr. Phillips?”

  “Please do,” Mr. Phillips pulled open the door. “Is everything all right, Charlene?”

  Gray squeezed several tears out of her eyes. “I miss my sister.”

  Mr. Phillips put a hand on her. “Does your mom know you’re here?”

  Gray’s lip folded over. It wasn’t part of the act. “She left town this morning.”

  Mr. Phillips stopped and ran a hand through his hair. “Can I get you something? A soda?”

  Gray lifted her face slowly with the wounded doe-eye look. “Could I have a cup of warm tea?”

  “Tea! Good idea.”

  Brilliant idea, especially as Gray planned to request Mr. Phillips’s favorite—Earl Grey—which would easily lead to two cups of tea, one in which she could sprinkle the truth powder. She settled into a chair on the dining table adjacent to the open kitchen. Mr. Phillips set a kettle on top of the stove. He cleared his throat. “I was pleased to see you at Gathering yesterday. In times like these it is even more important to have the support of people who understand you.” He looked at Gray and she nodded to show she understood. “I wish your mother had come with you.”

  Gray shrugged. “I’ll mention it to her.”

  “She needs the support of her coven.”

  Gray pursed her lips. She didn’t like Mr. Phillips telling her what her mother needed. She was a grown woman. She could make her own decisions.

  The kettle whistled.

  Mr. Phillips further irked Gray by setting out one teacup, filling it with hot water and a teabag and setting it in front of her. He took a seat across from her. Gray stared at the empty space directly in front of him as she blew on her tea.

  “At times like these guidance is particularly important,” Mr. Phillips continued. “You and your mom could have benefited from Holloway’s lecture two weeks ago. Accidents and illness are especially hard on the gifted. We tend to believe ourselves beyond the reach of misfortune and when it does strike it not only feels unfair, but unacceptable. We believe we ought to be able to reverse it somehow. I did everything I could to reach out to your mother after your sister died, but she turned her back on me and on the coven.”

  Gray’s lips tightened. She was beginning to understand why her mom was done dating warlocks. She tipped her teacup back, swallowed, and winced. Not only was she unable to sprinkle the truth powder inside Mr. Phillips’s absent cup, but she now had a burnt tongue. “Ouch.”

  “Too hot?”

  Gray nodded.

  “Want a glass of water?”

  Water—great idea. “I’m fine, thanks,” Gray said quickly. She looked at Mr. Phillips over the rim of her teacup as she blew over the steaming liquid.

  “I’m happy you and Ryan have remained close, but I worry about your mom. She hasn’t kept
in contact with anyone in the coven. She has no friends to get her through the grief. What she needs”—Mr. Phillips next words were temporarily caught off by a deep cough—“is to turn to those (cough, cough) who understand . . . Sorry, I seem to have something in my throat.” Mr. Phillips’s torso shook with the force of his hacks.

  Gray set her teacup down. “Let me get you a glass of water, Mr. Phillips.”

  “That’s all right, Charlene, I’m fi . . .” A full bout of hacking swallowed the last of Mr. Phillips’s words and he nodded through tears.

  Gray smiled the moment her back was turned to Ryan’s dad. She grabbed a glass from the cupboard and filled it with cool tap water. While Mr. Phillips coughed she reached into her bra, pulled out the packet, and sprinkled the powder into the water. It fizzed and then dissolved.

  Mr. Phillips took the glass from Gray’s outstretched hand and began to drink. When he was finished he set the glass down. “Thank you, Charlene, much better. Sorry about that. What were we talking about again?”

  Gray took her place across from Mr. Phillips. The good news was the effects of the powder were instant, according to Adrian, anyway. The bad news was it only lasted five minutes. Gray had to tread carefully—this was a truth, not a memory, spell, meaning Mr. Phillips would remember their conversation after it took place and she didn’t wish to say anything to make him suspicious after she left.

  Mr. Phillips’s eyes lit up. “Oh, right, the importance of regular attendance at Gathering.”

  “Mr. Phillips!” Gray hadn’t meant to sound so desperate. The man startled in his seat. “I ran into Adrian Hedrick Montez in town this afternoon. Actually, I was passing his shop when I saw him. He tried to get me to come inside. He said he could dull my feelings of sorrow.”

  Mr. Phillips’s eyes narrowed. “You want to stay far away from Adrian Montez.”

  Gray made a show of shrinking into her chair. “Is he dangerous? I thought he had no powers, but people say he uses magic on his clients.”

  “Adrian is no longer able to perform magic.”

  “How can you be sure?”

  “Because I, along with Mr. Holloway and Mr. Curry, are blocking his abilities.”

  Gray’s eyes widened. Three of the coven’s most powerful warlocks were blocking Adrian. This was going to be more difficult than she thought.

  Gray let out a breath. “Oh, thank goodness, I feel much more secure knowing that, but how can you be sure the block will stay in effect?”

  Mr. Phillips stared at Gray so intensely she thought for a moment the spell had worn off early. Then, slowly, he drew a pendant out of his shirt and held a small vial between his fingers. “Blood,” he said. “We each have a drop of Adrian’s blood in a vial. We have to wear it around our necks at all times.” The blood was encased in a silver tube. There were etchings—words—wrapped around the narrow enclosure.

  “All the time,” Gray repeated.

  Mr. Phillips tucked the vial back under his shirt. “It’s a small sacrifice to keep the world safe from Adrian’s mischief.”

  “I thought blocking spells didn’t require . . . props.” The one Charlene and Ryan had performed on her certainly hadn’t. Those two hadn’t gone around with a drop of Gray’s blood below their throats. Ick.

  “Blocking spells are weak at best. You usually have to be in close proximity of the person to impair their powers. We needed a guaranteed way to control Adrian at all times no matter where he was.”

  “What a relief. And there’s no loophole for him to break through the block?”

  Mr. Phillips smiled. “Not so long as we have the pendants. Don’t worry, Charlene.”

  Oh, she wouldn’t. Not anymore. Gray tipped back her teacup and drank the last dregs of black tea.

  * * *

  “He’s going to need a memory wipe, otherwise, he’ll know it was me.” Gray paced in front of the table in Adrian’s shop.

  Adrian leaned against a bookcase, a smile stretched over his face. Raj had his arms crossed, standing a foot away from the wall. Daylight had never broken through the clouds and now it was pitch-black. The surrounding storefronts were dark and deserted.

  Gray stopped pacing and looked at Adrian. “Am I correct in assuming your grandmother has some kind of powder for that, too?”

  It didn’t seem possible for Adrian’s grin to widen, but it did. “She already has a batch made up. Nan gets banned from certain establishments from time to time and likes to give a little dose to the proprietor or, in the last instance, her dentist.”

  “Heaven help us,” Raj said, rolling his eyes skyward.

  “I can have it here in twenty minutes. Are we doing this tonight?”

  Gray nodded. “I have three and a half hours left.”

  “I suggest we split up,” Adrian said. “Three of them, three of us. I’ll take Holloway.”

  “No,” Gray said. “It’ll be easier for me to get all three pendants. I can turn invisible.”

  “So can I.” Raj stepped forward.

  Gray’s mouth hung open. “For how long?”

  He shrugged. “Four days.”

  “So Saturday you were just pretending you didn’t know the spell?”

  “Oh, Raj,” Adrian said, voice lifting. “Well done. He’s sneaky, that one.”

  Raj frowned. “I’m not sneaky. I just didn’t get a chance to tell you.”

  “Maybe because your lips were otherwise engaged,” Gray snapped.

  Adrian pushed away from the bookshelf and chuckled. “I’ll get the memory potion. Do me a favor and refrain from killing each other until after we get the pendants.”

  Gray and Raj glared at Adrian’s back as he left. Raj’s expression softened as soon as Adrian was gone. “Gray . . .” he said, taking another step forward.

  Gray sighed. “Don’t worry about it. You’ve done nothing but help me, which is more than I can say for anyone else.”

  Raj shoved his hands inside his pockets. “What’s the plan?”

  “We go together.”

  Raj nodded.

  Gray wrapped her arms around herself. “We’ll wait till they’re asleep. If anyone gives us trouble you’ll hold them down with your freezing spell.”

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  They started with Marc Phillips. It turned out that performing a memory wipe on a warlock was a lot more complicated than, say, a doctor or a waiter. There wasn’t actually a powder or a potion. What Adrian brought back was magic smelling salts with the reverse effect of knocking a person out cold, which was what they needed in order to perform the memory wipe along with candles that required time to burn out completely. They only had to clear a small chunk of memory, the one involving Gray’s visit earlier.

  Adrian’s instructions to Raj had been hasty and she hoped it worked. At least the magic salts had. Once Gray unscrewed the lid and held it under Mr. Phillips’s nose his head rolled to one side. Apart from the rise and fall of his chest, he practically looked dead.

  Gray exchanged a look with Raj. She reached around Mr. Phillips’s neck and unfastened the pendant. She fastened it around her own neck for safekeeping.

  Raj was already pulling candles out of his backpack and setting them on Mr. Phillips’s dresser: three white and three red. The Zippo flicked open and he lit each wick. Then he pulled out the scraps of paper, reading over the first before burning it as he spoke: “Bit by bit Charlene shall fade, shall disappear.”

  Raj held the next scrap into the flame of the next candle. “Day by day this is as I say.”

  The third: “Memories from this afternoon shall disappear.”

  The fourth: “Sunk into a forgotten bay. As this paper is consumed in flame, memories of her shall burn away.”

  And the final candle: “All encounters and words gone from today.”

  There was no point making themselves invisible as they tiptoed down the stairs. If they made a noise, Ryan would hear them whether or not they were see-through, and it was a lot easier to take the stairs quietly when they co
uld see where they were placing their feet.

  Max Curry’s father was next. Raj sat outside the Currys’ driveway, drumming his fingers on his steering wheel. Gray was determined not to rush him even as her last minutes ticked away. “Sorry,” she said.

  Raj continued drumming his fingertips on the steering wheel. “About what?” He stared absently out the windshield.

  “For dragging you into this whole mess.”

  Raj stopped drumming and looked sideways at her. “I wanted to be dragged into it.”

  Gray stared at him a moment before climbing over the armrest and landing in his lap. She pressed her lips to his. At first Raj was so taken aback he didn’t respond, but then he was kissing her, holding Gray cocooned in his embrace. Warmth spread from his hand where it was pressed in the hollow between Gray’s shoulder blades. Raj’s arm wrapped around Gray’s lower back. He caressed her with a delicacy that put Gray into a trance. The movement sent shivers of pleasure through her body. All her muscles relaxed. Raj’s body felt warm against hers.

  Gray pulled back slightly to look at Raj, but only briefly. Looking at him made her want to kiss him anew. Their lips fell into a delicate rhythm. It seemed like it should feel awkward, kissing Raj McKenna, but it wasn’t. Gray could kiss him till the end of time.

  How could she have died and missed out on this?

  Of all the reasons to be brought back, this was the best. Everyone should experience a kiss like this before parting.

  Gray pulled away, but only so she could nestle her head against his shoulder. Snuggling felt good, too.

  “Um, Gray.”

  Gray closed her eyes. “Can’t we stay like this a little longer?”

  Raj ran a hand down the side of her face. It made her want to weep.

  “Not if we want to get the last two pendants tonight.”

  Gray sighed. “Do you think Adrian will help me once he gets his powers back?”

  “I’ll make sure of it.”

  Gray glanced up. She took a deep breath then sat up in Raj’s lap. “We better get to it then.”