Halfway Hexed

by Kimberly Frost

  “This not a good idea, Mr. Boyd. We all sit down. Have coffee. Or better yet: no-caffeine tea. You like cinnamon?” Johnny asked.

  They dragged me out of the kitchen.

  “Or peppermint! That soothing!” Johnny shouted.

  They ignored him and pulled me out the front door into the pouring rain. The last thing I heard was, “Don’t worry, Tammy Jo. We come after you!”

  They shoved me onto the floor of an SUV and tied me up with rope, then Boyd’s thick-necked, curly-headed cousin, Abe, and Lucy and Sue told me I’d better put a stop to all this evil or I’d be going to Hell sooner rather than later.

  “Forget all that!” Boyd snapped. “Where’s Jenna?”

  “She’s at the Duvall Motor Inn,” I said, figuring that if John Barrett and the Winterhawk could turn people into salt lick sculptures, they’d be able to handle my latest band of kidnappers. Of course, I’d also be delivering myself into John Barrett’s hands. Well, no plan is really perfect.

  We passed the busted-in front gates that they must’ve rammed several times to get access to Bryn’s property.

  “Rain’s really comin’ down,” Abe said.

  “Yeah,” Boyd agreed. “Streets are getting flooded.”

  “Uh-oh.”

  “What?” Sue asked. “What’s wrong?”

  I wrestled myself up into a sitting position to get a better look out the window. “Floods are kind of . . .” I trailed off as lightning streaked through the sky. A moment later, the ground rocked and thunder rumbled.

  “What?” Sue demanded. “Floods are kind of what?”

  “Biblical,” I murmured, putting my nose against the slightly fogged glass. Another flash of lightning lit the night, and I saw water gushing out of gutters and lapping up the curbs. “This can’t be good.”

  “Your fault!” Lucy accused. “You’re an abomination that the heavens are planning to wash away.”

  Sue nodded. “We should drown her, don’t you think? Then all her cursed magic will die with her, and everything will go back to normal.”

  My heart kicked up a fuss in my chest. “Do that and you’ll never find Jenna.”

  “So you admit it!” Lucy crowed. “You admit that you hexed her?”

  “Boyd, the town’s between two rivers,” I said.

  Boyd narrowed his eyes.

  “Admit it! Admit what you did to my sister-in-law,” Lucy said, giving my arm a hard pinch. “Jenna always knew there was something wrong with you and your family. I should’ve listened to her sooner!”

  I glared at her, but then turned my head to look at Sue and Abe. “We need to wake people up. If the water makes the rivers overflow and the town floods, people will drown. People need to get out of town until the storm’s over.”

  “This town doesn’t flood,” Sue sneered. “It’s never flooded. Sure there’s water in the streets, but even when we’ve gotten inches of rain, it runs off. Duvall never floods. It never has a drought. It’s the perfect town. Or it was until you got a hold of it.”

  “Listen, we have to start calling people before the phone lines go out.”

  “First, we’re getting Jenna,” Boyd said. “I’m driving, and we’re getting my wife back before we do anything else.”

  “C’mon now, y’all. We can drive and call. No reason we can’t do both at the same time,” I said in a cajoling tone I hoped would convince them.

  “We could call. Or we could take a more direct approach to handling the problem,” Sue said, looking me over.

  “We’re here,” Boyd announced, pulling into the parking lot.

  “She’ll be in Room Seven,” I said. “Or, if not there, in Room Five,” I said, not giving them Mrs. Thornton’s room. I didn’t mind if Barrett got shot in the fight or if they discovered Gwen’s body, but I didn’t want them to take Mrs. Thornton by surprise when I was hoping for her help with the brooch and with clearing Bryn and me from the trouble with WAM.

  Boyd and Abe got out of the truck with their guns and jogged through the rain to the motel room doors. Boyd kicked in the door to John Barrett’s room. He and Abe went in and the room light blinked on, but a minute later, they came back out. Abe pounded on Room 6’s door while Boyd kicked in the door of Room 5. He went inside and turned on the light. A few seconds later, he was back out, waving his arms and yelling. Abe bent his head forward, looking in the window of Room 6. Then they ran to the office. A few minutes later they returned to the truck.

  “You lying bitch,” Boyd yelled, rubbing water off his face. “The English people were staying in those rooms, but they checked out this morning. Guy on the desk says Jenna was never here.”

  Checked out? Then where were they staying? And what the heck had happened to Gwen’s body?

  “They said they all checked out? All three of them? Did they actually see the young woman?” I asked, sounding as bewildered as I felt. Had Barrett and the Winterhawk taken Gwen’s body away? Like those CIA guys that they called cleaners who got rid of bodies and any evidence of a crime scene? On the one hand, that would’ve been kind of a relief. On the other, yikes! Really scary. Would they kill Bryn and me and make us disappear next?

  “Abe, I’m going to drop you and Sue off. You need to get people organized,” Boyd said.

  “And what are you planning to do?” Abe asked.

  “Nothing for you to worry about. Lucy and I will find out what she did with Jenna, then we’ll take her to the police station. The sheriff’ll lock her up for kidnapping. I’ll see to that.”

  I wasn’t exactly keen on getting locked up, but, compared to getting tortured or killed, it didn’t seem so bad.

  Boyd took Abe home and dropped Sue back at her place, telling her to get her neighbors up and out of town.

  “What about Lindsey?” Sue asked, referring to Boyd and Jenna’s daughter.

  “My parents took her to Disney World,” Boyd said.

  “You sure you can handle the witch alone?” Sue asked.

  I narrowed my eyes. “I have a name. It’s Tammy. Or Tammy Jo. Or even, sometimes to some people, Tamara!”

  Boyd’s dark glance in my direction made me shiver. Something told me that I didn’t want to be alone with him without witnesses.

  “You should stay, Sue. I’m sure there’s—” I started to say, but Boyd’s sharp voice cut me off.

  “Hurry and get out!” he said. “If Jenna’s tied up somewhere on a ground floor, she could drown if it floods.”

  Sue got out, her feet slapping the water-soaked ground. “You both be careful. We don’t know what else the witch is capable of.” The door slammed shut, and Boyd pulled away.

  “So, what’s it going to be? My sister swears that you made Jenna disappear; that it wasn’t some trick. I know—and we’ve seen—a lot of things the past couple of weeks that can’t be explained. Me, I don’t care which it is. Whether you tricked Lucy or whether you used some unholy power. All I care about is getting my wife back.” His voice was angry, but there was also some fear, which made me feel bad. No matter how rotten Jenna and her people were, I wasn’t trying to torture them with worry.

  “Listen, Boyd, she’s okay.”

  “Where is she?” he demanded.

  Should I tell them about her being in Bryn’s other house? That we’d left Bryn’s butler Mr. Jenson in charge of taking care of her? What would happen if I took them there and they saw that Jenna was only a few inches tall? They already seemed to have a notion that killing me would undo my magic spells, which was true.

  “She’s safe, and if you let me go, I’ll make sure you get her back right away. As soon as the storm’s over.”

  “She’s lying. She’s stalling. She has no intention of bringing Jenna back. Not ever. If you want your wife back, we’re going to have to get the witch to tell us where she is,” Lucy said.

  “Okay,” Boyd said.

  Uh-oh! “Hang on!” I said as Boyd turned left.

  “Let’s go to the cemetery. No one will be there this time of night in this weath
er.”

  “Wait! Okay, I’ll tell you. The truth is she’s in a whiskey decanter in a spare house outside town. She’s okay, just a little short at the moment. She’s not hurt.”

  They ignored me.

  “It’s the truth!” I said, struggling to loosen the ropes. Lucy grabbed my wrists to keep me from getting my hand out. “Leave me alone.”

  She slugged me. “Be still!”

  I swung my arms and bopped her in the side of the head. Boyd slammed on the brakes, but the wheels didn’t catch. We hydro-planed through the water, slammed into a curb, and rolled over and over. The last thing I felt was my head bouncing off the window.

  I woke up in a big metal tub of freezing water with huge stones on my belly and across my hip bones. The rocks were secured with ropes, so I couldn’t knock them off. The tub sat just outside the Glenfiddle Whiskey factory that’s shaped like a castle. It’s where Lucy works, so I guessed that she’d used a key to get in, and they’d pulled the tub out.

  It was three-quarters full, and the rain went on pouring down, but Corsic Creek was just on the other side of the factory, so if they were planning to drown me, there was sure a faster and easier way.

  “She’s up,” Lucy said. I turned my head and had to crane my neck to see over the side of the tub. Lucy and Boyd were standing under the awning of the covered porch.

  Boyd was drinking from a bottle. Liquor and good judgment, not usually the best of friends.

  Boyd handed Lucy the bottle. “Get her to drink it. It’ll help get the truth out of her.”

  “You don’t have to get me drunk to get me to tell the truth. Really,” I said as Lucy walked over. “I’ve got a crick in my neck. How about you let me up, and I’ll take you to where Jenna’s at? I promise I will.”

  “Drink,” Lucy said, bang ing the bottle against my bruised lip.

  “Ouch. Cut that out! You get more flies with honey than whiskey, and I’m just like flies in that regard. I don’t want—”

  She poured, and I choked and sputtered, most of the liquor splattering over my chest.

  Lucy grabbed my hair and yanked my head back. She poured whiskey over my face, choking me some more until I was mad as hell.

  “Come and help me, Boyd,” Lucy said.

  He did. He took my head and pinched my nose until I opened my mouth, then she poured whiskey into it. I choked it down, and I glared at her.

  I couldn’t resist trying a spell.

  As bad as your sister, in every way.

  Join her then, in a bottle-stay.

  With a soft pop, she was gone and the bottle she’d been holding dropped to the ground with a splashing thump.

  “What the hell? What the hell did you do?” Boyd said, backing away and looking around.

  I gasped for breath, still shaking with fury. “You’re next, bud, unless you get me out of this tub.”

  He pointed a finger at me. “You unholy bitch!”

  “I’m not unholy or a bitch. You guys were pouring whiskey on my head when I’m half drowned already. I’m sure God is going to agree that I was provoked.”

  “Well, I was provoked, too.” He reached in and grabbed my legs, pulling me so that my shoulders sank underwater, and my head was below the level of the tub’s rim.

  “Hey!”

  Boyd walked away.

  “Hey! Hang on.”

  He didn’t turn back. I saw light when he opened his SUV.

  “Boyd!” I called. The water was already to my chin. I needed to get out. “C’mon. I promise not to cast any more spells. Come back, and let’s talk this over.”

  The door slammed shut and a moment later the engine roared to life.

  “This is not good.”

  I heard Boyd drive off. I craned my neck, trying to get my head above the tub’s lip. Not happening. What’s more I could hear water sloshing against the outside walls. I wondered what would happen first, the rain filling the tub up and drowning me or Corsic Creek overflowing and drowning me. It was also possible that I’d freeze to death before I drowned because maybe the water was not quite as cold as the water that the Titanic sank in, but I swear it was close.

  This abuse was the ultimate snub.

  I need out; turn over this tub.

  Nothing. I huffed a sigh and tried several more times without success.

  “This is really not good.” My heart pounded in my chest, and I closed my eyes, trying to stretch my mind out. “Edie!” I called. “Bryn!” I took a deep breath and exhaled, licking my swollen lip. “Mercutioooo!”

  Unfortunately, I could tell it was no use. Even I could barely hear my cries over the sound of the wailing wind.

  Chapter 35

  At just the right angle, I could keep my chin, my nose, and my lips above the waterline. I’d been trying to cast all sorts of spells to tip the tub over or to empty it or to be ejected out of it, but nothing worked. What’s more, I kept getting water in my mouth when I tried.

  I did have a strategy that was working. I held my breath, pulled my legs in and shook them back and forth to make the tub overflow as much as possible, then lifted my legs out, and I’d have a little more room to keep my mouth out of the water. I had no idea how long I’d been doing it for when I saw light through my closed eyelids.

  “I’m here!” I said, barely hearing my own voice. I coughed on the nasty water that got in my mouth and spit it out.

  My ears were underwater, plus there was the storm, so I couldn’t hear much. If I hadn’t been half frozen, the quiet would’ve been kind of peaceful.

  I felt hands grabbing me, heard muffled shouts. Then the ropes were being cut and someone hauled the rocks off me.

  I opened my eyes, but water blurred my vision as I was pulled from the tub.

  Mercutio yowled louder than the wind, and I blinked several times. Bryn stood in knee-deep water next to the tub as Steve climbed back into a canoe. When Steve was sitting, Bryn, who was holding me, handed me to Steve, then climbed in himself.

  Steve set me on a cushioned bench and wrapped a coat and blanket around me.

  “Who put you in there?” Bryn demanded, glancing back at the tub.

  “Jenna’s people.” My teeth chattered. “What’s going on? Is the town evacuated? Where’s Andre?”

  “He wanted to come, but there wasn’t room,” Bryn said. “Lennox and Andre took another canoe to Macon Hill. I think Barrett must be casting from there. I’m not sure how he tapped into the tor’s power. He doesn’t have a connection to it. Lennox says the tor’s core power can only be used by certain families. The first families who found it and, through a ritual, claimed it. Yours and mine and Tom Brick’s.”

  “Huh.” I shook, rubbing my numb legs.

  Mercutio climbed on my lap, and I wrapped the blanket around us both. Bryn passed me an umbrella, but my hands were too cold and stiff to hold the handle. Instead, I put the blanket over my head and huddled inside it. Bryn recovered his paddle from the floor, and he and Steve started us going.

  “How’d you find me?”

  “Mercutio. He’s able to track your magic with incredible sensitivity. And your power’s mingled with mine, so it wasn’t hard for me to feel it when we got close enough, even submerged in that water.”

  “The boat’s filling up. We’ll sink,” I said, unable to stop shaking. My muscles and joints ached.

  “We’ll be all right.”

  “What happened to the bad guy? Scarface?”

  “I didn’t have time to question him. Andre handcuffed him to the banister at the top of the stairs.”

  “I can’t feel my feet,” I mumbled.

  “I know you’re freezing. We’ll get out of the rain as soon as we can,” he said, shoving the paddle in and giving the water a hard stroke.

  “Mr. Lyons,” Steve shouted.

  Bryn glanced over his shoulder.

  “Current’s pulling us south. I don’t think we’ll be able to reach Macon Hill.”

  “Just keep steering east,” Bryn yelled. His magic fla
red as he whispered a spell. The boat surged forward, but the water lapped over the sides and tilted us to the right.

  Branches and other debris banged into us, and the water continued to rise. The town was flooded. In some places, the water only filled the streets. In others, whole houses were partially submerged.

  We passed through a neighborhood where people were being rescued from their rooftops. Our canoe rode low, half sunk from all the water we’d taken on. I cursed the rain and the wizard who’d brought it.

  “We have to empty this water out,” Bryn said.

  The first couple rooftops Steve aimed for, we couldn’t reach, but finally, we got to one.

  The water ran down, but the shingles were ridged, and the texture helped me keep my balance as I climbed on it. Bryn and Steve flipped the canoe and lifted it upside down before flipping it back over.

  Mercutio hissed, and I turned my head. His eyes shone in the moonlight, and I followed the line of his gaze to Steve.

  The water streamed around Steve’s ankles, but he seemed steady on his feet as he and Bryn lowered the canoe onto the water’s surface.

  “What?” I asked Merc as he darted forward.

  I saw the swishing movement a moment too late. I screamed, “Snake!”

  Mercutio’s teeth clamped down on the middle of the water moccasin at the same time it struck, sinking fangs into Steve’s forearm. Steve howled and jerked his arm. The snake recoiled and twisted toward Merc.

  I lurched forward as it bit Merc’s shoulder. I grabbed the snake’s slimy neck and squeezed. Merc’s teeth tore the snake’s middle open as he jerked his mouth sideways. The snake writhed and I yanked it back, pulling its fangs away from Mercutio.

  I shook the heck out of its head until Mercutio let its body go and looked at me, giving a soft “We’re done here” yowl.

  It took me a minute to realize that there was no reason to hang on to a dead snake. I whipped it into the water, and the current dragged it away. I turned to see Steve holding his arm and talking to Bryn, who nodded.