by Eleri Stone
Grace sat on the couch in the living room with Hallie curled against her side in flannel pajamas watching cartoons. She whispered something to the girl and then followed them into the kitchen. The whole time, Christian’s hand stayed low on Raquel’s back. Under the circumstances, the gesture felt more like a jailer’s touch than a lover’s. She’d considered calling in her mother and sister as reinforcements when Christian stepped onto the balcony at the restaurant to make his phone calls but had decided not to. Her mother could be difficult when upset, and Raquel didn’t need the distraction. And...it seemed wrong to hide behind her parents. Her fiancé. Her clan. Her battle.
Taking a seat in the chair Christian held for her, Raquel folded her hands in her lap and struggled to conceal her anxiety. He immediately crossed the room to break up the argument Aiden and Lois were engaged in at the other end of the kitchen. It wasn’t a big enough room that she could ignore what was being said.
“She’s useless to us.” That was Lois.
“She’s sitting at the table,” Christian snapped. “Behave yourself and let’s talk. Try to figure out what to do about this.”
Grace took the chair in the corner and Fen leaned against the wall not more than a foot from Raquel’s shoulder. She didn’t look up at him. She couldn’t. Fen was the only friend she’d made so far. He’d be angry too, and she was barely holding on as it was.
“The twins?” Christian asked.
“They’re not answering their phones.” Aiden broke away from Lois and walked to the table. The chair scraped harshly against the floor as he pulled it out and sat directly across from Raquel. Her shoulders began to droop and she fought to straighten them. Her palms were sweating and her stomach was knotted, but they didn’t need to know that. She wouldn’t cower. No matter what. When Aiden fixed her with a hard look, she met it dead-on.
“Christian tells us you’re not a witch.”
“I am a witch.” Maybe not the caliber of witch they’d ordered but...
“You failed your initiation.”
She nodded. “That’s the truth. I have the power and the training but not the control. Kathy, our clan witch, says it’s something like a spigot—but there’s so much pressure on the one side, it makes it...difficult to release the valve.” Impossible was actually the word Kathy used, but Raquel had never accepted that, still didn’t even now. “It doesn’t mean that I won’t ever be able to pass the initiation, just that I can’t yet.”
“You’re calling yourself a late bloomer?” Lois spat. “You’re twenty-five years old. Most people begin to learn to control their gift at puberty.”
With no good answer to that, Raquel remained silent. She wasn’t certain why Christian had insisted she come here. She’d explained her problem to him and this was a decision for his clan to make. She’d given him an out. If he didn’t want her...if he’d only agreed to the wedding so his clan could have their witch, then this was his chance to run.
“There was never any guarantee that she’d be able to fix the problem with the portal,” Fen said into that tense silence.
Aiden’s expression flickered. Worry not anger, she realized. Worry tamped down tight and hard. “We’ll need to replace the wards one way or another. Lois said you have an idea that will buy us more time?”
“Yes.”
“And you’re sure you can manage it?”
“Yes.”
“Then we’ll contact a few of the nearer clans and see who we can borrow that will be able to do the job,” Aiden said, not sounding happy but not sounding murderous either.
“Kathy will come if I ask her.” Kathy hadn’t wanted her to leave in the first place. She’d pleaded with Raquel’s parents to contact the Odin and postpone the wedding.
“Good, I know Kathy. She has a good head on her shoulders.” There was a hint of Why didn’t Kathy warn me about this? in the statement, but Raquel let that pass too.
“Or we can find a new witch,” Lois suggested. “Even if we manage to stabilize the portal, we need a witch. It’s past time I start training my replacement.”
A ripple of unease passed through the room, followed by complete silence. Everyone’s attention fixed on Christian, who leaned against the counter, hands gripping the edge to either side of him, head bowed.
He looked up, into Raquel’s eyes, and her breath caught at the intensity. For the first time, she couldn’t see the pretty face or the charming smile, only the battle-hardened warrior. Christian didn’t truly want her, he only wanted to fulfill his duty. She knew that. But his expression, full of determination and possessiveness, made her heart beat faster.
“I’m not backing out,” he said.
Nothing but challenge in that look and she’d never backed away from a challenge.
“I’m not backing out either.”
Chapter Six
Fen parked in one of the angled spots on Main Street and stared at Lois’s shop for a moment before turning off his truck. He shouldn’t have volunteered to come. But Aiden wanted the rune stones placed as soon as possible and Christian was working. Fen thought the real truth was that Christian wasn’t particularly anxious to see Raquel again so soon after their travesty of a first date.
Nothing like a little interrogation and public humiliation to romance a girl. For such a smart man, Christian was sometimes incredibly dumb. He depended too much on his looks, wealth and position when it came to his dealings with women. Not that any of those things had failed him yet. Raquel, Fen thought, might be the exception to that rule.
She wasn’t quite the little mouse he’d first thought she was. She was...nice, easy to be around. Part of that was because she had the worst poker face he’d ever encountered. Every thought and emotion was right there for all the world to see. Last night when Christian had dragged her to Aiden’s house, Fen had thought she’d burst into tears. But she’d pulled herself together and held her own against the leaders of their hunt—the angry and desperate leaders of the hunt. And he’d felt a weird mix of pride and disappointment, which was stupid. She wasn’t his to be proud of, and the only reason he’d been disappointed was because he’d wanted to be her champion again.
And wasn’t that a bitch of a revelation.
He’d been attracted to different women through the years—of course, he had—but it had always been a purely physical thing and while not easy to resist, it was bearable. This felt...different. Maybe it was just time, like Grace had said, to consider finding someone he could trust to bind himself to. He’d made a good run of the whole celibacy thing, but if he was starting to lust after every new woman to enter his social sphere then it was time for a new strategy.
The song ended, shaking him out of his reverie, and he climbed from the truck. His breath puffed white in the air as he jogged up the steps to the sidewalk and pulled open the old wood door. A bell above his head jangled a welcome and warmth surrounded him, like walking into a summer day. The scent of flowers almost overpowered the other assorted herbs Lois kept here, but not quite. Such an interesting mix of earth, magic and living things—he could have spent hours trying to sift through it all.
Raquel stood behind the display counter, a worn mortar and pestle beside her, a thin scrap of paper folded between her fingers as she tapped powder into a clear glass jar. As he crossed the room, she glanced up and smiled.
Christian was an idiot.
“Hey, Fen. I’ll be with you in just a minute.”
He came to the counter and tilted the pestle. “Valerian?”
“A tonic for insomnia.”
He examined the other items spread across the countertop. Skullcap, hops, what looked like a clip of human hair. He wrinkled his nose. “They have pills for that you know. Ones that don’t involve body parts.”
“This will work better. It’s gentle. No side effects and no chance of developing a dependence on it. And besides, there are always the purists.”
Mostly the elderly who didn’t want to let go of the old ways. Of course, it was impossible f
or any of them to completely give up on the old ways—it was what kept them alive. But Fen had always thought it was a sad way to live...no modern medicine, TV or internet. Their society was insular enough.
“I’ve never understood the hair thing,” he said. “It seems like that should be an old wives’ tale.”
“Well, I say that the hair works and I’m not an old wife.”
“Not yet.” When she raised her eyebrows, he added, “You’re not married yet.”
She leaned over the counter and her scent enveloped him, sunshine and magic. His gaze dropped to where her hand rested on the glass display case. Slender fingers and short, perfectly shaped nails. The large, very expensive engagement ring Christian had bought her looked gaudy on that pretty little hand.
“It’s a DNA sample,” she said in a low voice, like a spy imparting state secrets. “The hair. It ties the magic to the physical plane. Well, all of the ingredients do. They each bind some aspect of the spell to this world. The order is important. For example, you wouldn’t want to mix a crow feather—or any death avatar—with water unless you wanted to drown yourself or call a flood. But if you bind the feather to a specific person first...”
“You have a death spell.”
She nodded and a strand of hair fell from her shoulder, curling down to rest on her breast. He lifted his gaze to her face.
“It’s all about the DNA. Hair and nails are easy because people shed them constantly, but saliva would work, or semen.” She smiled and pointed at him. “Don’t tell Lois I’m giving away our secrets. She’s the kind of purist that holds them tight.”
He straightened and cocked his head to one side. “I thought you were...blocked. That you couldn’t do magic.”
“I can do small magics, the kind of things any hedge witch can do. Kathy made sure I was well trained, and this is just prep work really. If it’s a simple enough spell, you don’t need to be very powerful to activate it. And runes...well, I’ve always been good with runes. There are a few that help, ummm...thin the barrier between me and the magic. I haven’t quite got the combination right, but when I do I’ll tattoo them on my forehead.”
“Subtle.” He laughed at the mental image. “You find the right combination, I’ll work them into a design for you. We’ll find someplace better than your forehead to put them.”
He winced, hoping she wouldn’t take that the wrong way. Tried to ignore the images in his own mind of creamy skin and hidden places.
She paused in putting away the materials to look up. “You do that? Tattoos?”
“Graphic design, actually. It lets me work from home. Office work can be hard on hounds. But yeah, I’ve designed tattoos before and placed them, mostly for the pack.”
She straightened. “Are you serious about the offer? Because I’m serious about trying to use runes to break through the block. I’ll take you up on it, if you mean it.”
Heaven help him. “I’m serious. I still have the equipment.”
Her smile was slow and brilliant, chasing away the storm clouds in her eyes. And no matter how stupid, he couldn’t make himself regret the offer.
“Okay, then.” She tucked the shoebox away behind her on the bookshelf and pointed toward a crate beside the door. “The wards are over there. I carved the runes onto the rocks and Lois sealed them to the stone. Just place them about five feet away from the ward stones on this side of the fault. I’ll come out and power it up in the morning. It should keep a portal from forming unexpectedly.”
“Lois says it may make a split more likely to form somewhere else.”
She nodded.
“And there’s no way to predict where it will happen? Or when?”
“Not with any certainty. I used to walk the fault with my grandmother and can usually feel the weak spots, but they can also form quickly.” She crossed her arms in a classic defensive pose and he wondered at it until she said, “Lois isn’t sensitive enough to feel the changes. She tries to hide that from your Odin, but she can’t hide it from me.”
It didn’t surprise him one bit that Lois would put her pride before the safety of the clan. The note of bitterness in Raquel’s voice did surprise him, however. Lois must be riding her pretty hard. “I’ll let Aiden know...discreetly.” No point in adding any more tension to the mix between Lois and her apprentice. He did his best to ignore the warm thrill of pleasure that she trusted him enough to confide in him. “Thanks for telling me.”
She waved it aside and he hefted the crate into his arms, trying to pretend it wasn’t heavy. It had to be at least a hundred pounds of rocks. She came around the counter to open the door for him.
“If you have any trouble with those, let me know.”
His shoulder brushed against her hand and she startled. Afraid he’d accidently hurt her, he paused. But he hadn’t hurt her, that wasn’t it. There was a faint blush at the crest of her cheek and when she looked up, he saw something in her eyes that shouldn’t be there, felt something inside himself rouse sleepily awake.
She wouldn’t admit she felt that strange little connection if he waited a hundred years, which was just as well. She was Christian’s and this—whatever this was—would fade. It had to.
Chapter Seven
Lois picked Raquel up first thing in the morning to set the rune stones. After the last rogue surge, everyone was on edge. She’d been told the surges were becoming more frequent and unpredictable as time passed. Usually, the winters were a little bit slower, at least in this hemisphere. Usually, the surges didn’t occur outside the new and full moons. No one had a good answer as to what was causing the irregularity other than that the wards had reached the end of their life expectancy. Everyone looked to the clan witch and her new apprentice to solve the problem. The first step was strengthening the wards that surrounded the fault.
About two miles in length and located dead smack in the center of acres of Æsir-owned farmland, the fault cut through a large stretch of woods that surrounded a lake. The portal could open anywhere along it and the wards hemmed the entire thing, so Raquel had dressed for a hike.
No snow yet, which was good, but there was a thick layer of fallen leaves on the ground she knew from experience could be slippery as hell, especially since there were no real trails maintained through the trees. The clan did its best to discourage trespassers as much as possible.
Parking at Aiden’s farm, which adjoined the property, they rode horseback to the edge of the woods. It was a beautiful day. Blue sky, high and cloudless. The farmland was long since cleared but still stubbly with the remains of harvest. Yellow grass, brown brush, black crows peppering the empty fields looking for lunch.
Lois was silent. She’d been pretty quiet since picking Raquel up, but when they passed through a break in the brush, she turned slightly. “You’ll set the runes. I’m here to observe. I want to see exactly how much power you have to work with.”
Raquel raised her brows but didn’t comment. Lois should be able to sense that without having to see her in action. Raquel could sense Lois’s power—middling for a clan witch but nothing to sneeze at. Nearly on a par with Kathy, who was very competent and who Raquel respected immensely. Raquel hoped that once Lois saw she didn’t mean to force her out of the coven, they could come to work together peaceably.
It became hillier the closer they got to the lake, rockier too, and eventually they had to abandon the horses. Dismounting a short distance into the woods, they secured the reins to the saddle so they wouldn’t snag. The horses were Æsir stock, intelligent, loyal and responsive creatures. They wouldn’t wander far and would come when called.
Raquel extended her senses, checking the edges of the fault for weakness. It didn’t feel as if there had been a recent breach even though she knew it had happened only two nights ago. Usually, there was a slight thinning to the wall separating their worlds around the new moon and full. That was what allowed the demons to push through. Raquel tapped at her thigh where she’d strapped the Skimstrok blade her father had given
to her on her twelfth birthday.
“It’s like they punched a hole through a solid brick wall and someone patched it up again. There aren’t any weak spots now.”
Lois pursed her lips. “I assure you there was a breach. Ask Aiden if you don’t believe me. A demon damaged the Abrams house and one of the hounds was injured. We can go see the claw marks in the siding if you need proof.” She sighed and shook her head. “Poor Dan. You can’t put an insurance claim on something like that.”
“Brian,” Raquel said. Lois gave her a blank look. “Poor Brian, you mean. He was the one who was injured, wasn’t he? Christian said he’s all right but still limping a bit.”
Lois shrugged. “I’m sure Alan will be able to fix that. Dan is Julia’s husband. It was their house.”
Raquel bit her tongue on a sharp response. Really, the more she got to know Lois, the less she cared to.
Lois seemed to be struggling with the uneven terrain, but Raquel didn’t offer her arm. When she paused at a patch of disturbed earth where there’d obviously been a struggle, Lois kept walking. The leaves were churned up, revealing dark, damp earth. Hoofprints and paw prints. A black, sticky substance splattering some of the leaves and a nearby rock. Raquel shivered. Fen had been here, risking his life to protect the clan. Christian too.
“Over here. I found one.” Lois squatted to brush the leaves off the first rune stone and Raquel turned away from the bloody patch of earth to do her part in protecting the clan.
Fen had done the heavy work of placing the stones precisely as she’d ordered them in a circle ringing the ward stones. Those stones contained the fault and kept it from spreading. They kept the portal from opening in town or worse, in an area populated by humans. They couldn’t prevent the portal from opening during the lunar surges, but they should prevent it from opening at other times. The fault should be at its most stable right now. Even without the ward stones in place, a portal shouldn’t have opened so near a quarter.
