by Ts McKinney
“Where am I?” I asked as I tried moving my body into a sitting position. As it turned out every damned inch of me throbbed and ached. Maybe I did smack into the ground before Morgan scooped me up and brought me to her den of sin. “Motherfuck! My entire body hurts. Did they beat me half to death before or after that knocked me off my ride and sent me plunging to the earth?”
Alastair’s eyes were sad as they gazed at me. “No, you didn’t get beaten. The pain is from where Morgan’s coven bound your magic after you entered Salem. I’m feeling the same bullshit agony. You’ve got to push through it, Nico.”
“Bound my magic? Can they do that?”
“Of course, they can. It’s not the same as Corbin’s magic being dulled if he entered Salem. That would happen because he’s a high witch. Our magic is bound because of the spells the coven cast. On a bright note, you’ll be happy to know that it took the entire coven working together to bind you.” He smiled, again sadly. “You’re incredibly strong, Nico. Corbin must be so proud.”
I looked around the small room where we were being held. There were no windows to be seen, but there was magic flowing all around us, strong enough that it was visible to my naked eye. Morgan wasn’t taking any chances with our escape.
“Corbin, I’m sure, is really pissed at me right about now,” I answered. “Of course, he didn’t approve of me coming to Salem to confront Morgan and try to rescue you.” I winked at him. “He always wants to be the one to save the day.”
Alastair huffed in frustration and frowned irritably at me. “This isn’t a joke, Nico. Morgan plans on killing you. Dead. Gone. Poof. You cease to exist! When you die, Corbin becomes weak again and my entire coven suffers for it. Not only have you thrown your own life away, but you’ve hurt the man you love in the process and destroyed our coven again. Not cool, Nico. Not cool, at all.”
I stared at him, unblinking.
He stared back for a few seconds before a tear slid out from the corner of his eye. “I know why you’re here, Nico. I know you came to try and save me. I just really, really wish you wouldn’t have done that. I’m already dead. There was no reason for you to have to die, too.” His voice broke on the last sentence.
“Don’t give up on us, yet, Stair. I’m working on a plan.”
I had absolutely zero plan ideas. To be honest, I was surprised I’d made it this far without killing myself.
“There isn’t a plan, Nico. There’s no getting out of this. Corbin will come for you, but he’ll be helpless against Morgan while in Salem. She’ll destroy him completely this time.” He looked away to say the next words. “I’m useless to you. My magic is always sketchy, at best. It took one witch to bind my magic. Imagine my humiliation,” he muttered in disgust. “My life wasn’t worth the risk you took, Nico. Why did you do it?”
“I did it because you’re my friend. And because that bitch has had her way for far too long. It’s time to stop her. I wasn’t going to let Morgan destroy you without at least putting forth a valiant effort. Anyway, it ain’t over till it’s over.”
Alastair had already given up. He’d given up on himself, me, and his coven. That wasn’t going to work for me. It pissed me off and made me sad that Alastair had such a low opinion of himself. He’d kept it hidden well behind his friendly smile and playful attitude.
“Well, well, well, aren’t you two useless witches all lovey-dovey?”
Morgan’s voice interrupted us. When I whipped my head around, she magically appeared in front of us. An ugly smirk marred her face, and my stomach rolled with hate. Focus on love. Focus on love.
“At least we know what love is.” I stood up, careful not to show any weakness, and positioned my body between Morgan and Alastair. “Tell me, bitchy witchy, how does it feel to cruise through life knowing that nobody cares if you live or die…or that most folks are just hoping that you die?”
She didn’t even flinch. Obviously, she enjoyed knowing that she was hated by all.
Smiling, she answered, “I don’t know, little orphan, why don’t you tell me how it feels? Poor, poor, little lost boy floating through life without any parents to love him. That must have been a bitch. Tell me, love, did you cry your pretty eyes out at bedtime? I bet you did. Nobody to love the last little Bailey descendent…because everybody else was dead?”
“You’re seriously a bad movie just waiting to be made.”
“Don’t provoke her, Nico,” Alastair murmured from behind me. “She’s dangerous.”
“Thank you, sweetheart,” Morgan said with a huge smile. “I’m so relieved to see that at least one of you has some sense.” She peeked around me and looked Alastair up and down. “I can see why Roman wants you so badly, Alastair Harlowe. You’re such a pretty thing.” She made a tsking sound between her teeth as her eyes returned to me. “Do you have any idea what kind of ugly mayhem awaits your sweet Alastair, Nico? After you fail in your ridiculous attempt to save the day, you’ll die, Corbin will die, and Alastair will spend the rest of his miserable life being a plaything to a warlock. Don’t you just love it?”
She was so fucking confident. I needed to end this. “That’s your plan, Morgan,” I countered. “Maybe it will work…but maybe it won’t.”
Something flashed across her face--something that made me feel warm and fuzzy on the inside. It was fear. She hid it swiftly, but it’d been there.
“Cocky, aren’t we?” she asked quietly. “Where did you get all this new confidence, Nico? The last time I checked, your opinion of yourself was as low as Alastair’s. Why do you think you have a chance of defeating me all of a sudden?” A smile spread across her face. “It doesn’t have anything to do with that silly visit you had from your mother, does it? Please tell me you didn’t fall for my parlor trick. Sweetheart, that was Basic Magic 101. Anybody could have pretended to be your dearly departed mother.” Her eyes cut around to Alastair. “Even that weak witch could have accomplished a magic trick that simple.”
“No!” Alastair hissed from behind me. “Please tell me she didn’t use a trick to get you here, Nico.”
I could literally taste the guilt pouring out of Alastair, and I hated Morgan even more. On top of that, I hated that I was going to have to act like I believed Morgan. I didn’t want her to know that I’d seen the fear in her eyes. I had no idea how she knew about the image in the mirror, but there was no way I believed it had been her. It was my mother. My soul told me so.
“Wh-what?” I stuttered after a loud gasp. “That…that wasn’t you! That couldn’t have been you. It was my…”
“Mommy?” she finished with an arrogant arch to her brow. “You thought I was your mommy, didn’t you? Sweetheart, I destroyed your parents a long time ago. Almost twenty-five years ago, to be exact.” She glanced down at her watch. “Would you look at that? We’re only thirty minutes away from your huge birthday celebration, Nico.” She clapped her hands together, feeling confident again. “Let me go make sure everything’s prepared for the big event. Corbin should be arriving at any moment. I can’t wait to see the despair on his face! I swear to you both, it gets better and better each time it happens.”
She vanished before my eyes and the stench in the room eased up immediately. I turned to Alastair and asked, “Is it just me, or does she stink?”
He looked at me in exasperation. “Why are you so calm, Nico? She tricked you. You and Corbin both are going to die. There is no happy ending to this story!” Several seconds ticked by before he added, “Yes, she stinks. It’s the dark magic.” He slammed his fist against the wall. “I should have smelled it on Roman. I…I should have known. All these years…”
I didn’t have a plan. I didn’t have any magic. Alastair didn’t have any magic. There was a damned good chance that I was about to die and, worse than that, Corbin was about to die. I didn’t even want to consider what Alastair would endure if I failed. Even with all this, there was peace in my heart.
I could do this.
Not wanting Alas
tair to worry, I tried for humor, “So tell me about this Riker? Was he the reason you blushed the day I asked you about boyfriends?”
“You can’t be serious,” Alastair whispered. “I’m not talking boyfriends with you right now, Nico. You and Corbin are about to die. There won’t be any coming back from this. I’ve heard them talking. They plan on burning both of you at the stake. Witches don’t come back from that, Nico. It’s the one sure-fire way to destroy us.”
“I’m overwhelmed by the confidence you have in my magic, Stair,” I responded dryly, and then shoulder nudged him. “We’re going to do this. I promise. Me and you, Stair. Not Corbin and Riker. Us.”
“Your magic is bound, Nico,” he reminded me. “Plus, I’m pretty sure I overheard that you were powerless against Morgan until your birthday hour, anyway. And then there’s me. I’m useless. One witch, Nico,” he hissed in disgust. “Remember? One witch to bind me.” He took a deep breath. “I wasn’t always like this. I used to be powerful. When Riker…no, Roman, messed with my head all those years ago, everything went to shit with me. It was like all my magic vanished in one day…and it’s never returned.”
“You’re the same as me, Stair. Your magic wilted because the man you love disappeared from your life. You were in love with Riker, weren’t you?”
“No.” He answered immediately and then, hanging his head, he amended, “Yes. Embarrassingly so. I loved him so damned much, Nico. He meant everything to me. He was my world and then one morning, that world was destroyed. No need going into the details since none of it is going to matter in twenty minutes, but Roman, Riker’s twin, tricked me into thinking he was Riker and did…did something really mean. Then, before I could even confront him about it, he was gone. He and Roman both left the training academy the next day. When he walked out of my life, a part of me died. And I’ve hated him all these years. I’ve blamed the wrong man.”
“Well, he’s been to Corbin’s house looking for you, so wake that love back up. Riker’s hunting for his cute little witch, and I don’t think he’s ever going to walk away again.”
He snorted and then hiccupped. “Whatever. I’m going to belong to his brother, the evil, sadistic, son-of-a-bitch. I should have known Roman was behind everything. I should have had more faith in Riker.”
“Probably,” I agreed and was briefly thankful that his magic was being held captive by Morgan’s coven. He looked like he might want to turn somebody into a toad. And I was handy. “But, more than that, you should have had faith in yourself. You’re a keeper, Stair. No way would Riker have taken a taste of you and not wanted to keep you forever.”
Corbin’s writings flickered through my brain. This one will be important. Important…how did he mean that? A plan started to form. Excitement flowed through me, and I whipped around to tell Alastair what I’d come up with. But he’d vanished. “Alastair? Stair!” The room was empty. “Morgan!” I screamed in fury.
A wave of dizziness muddled my brain, and when I came back to my senses again, I was standing in the middle of a clearing, surrounded by Morgan’s coven. Morgan stood a few feet from me, grinning like the damned evil witch she was. To my right, up on a tall platform, was Corbin and another unidentified man. They were both tied to stakes and stacks of wood surrounded them. As my eyes met Corbin’s warm gaze, I was terrified of the anger and disappointment I feared would be swirling in those beautiful depths.
But as I gathered my courage and gazed up at him, I saw that it wasn’t there. Only love shone from his beautiful eyes. Pure enough to make my legs feel weak. I winked at him, but he shook his head from side to side in a negative movement and the words I love you--always have and always will, reverberated in my mind. He was letting me know that he didn’t have a rescue planned for us. He’d come to die because he thought I was going to die.
Not so fast, cutie pie.
The unidentified man was ignoring me completely. I followed his gaze across the clearing and saw Alastair. He was kneeling next to a man that looked identical to the first guy. Ah, Riker and Roman. There was a leash around Alastair’s neck, and Riker’s twin was holding it tightly, sneering and smirking. Dark magic swirled around him. When Alastair looked at me, the despair and shame on his face broke my heart. Alastair needed this victory as much as Corbin and I did.
“Looks like the gang’s all here,” I said, sneering at Morgan. She looked at me strangely, maybe wondering why I wasn’t falling apart. I put on my game face. This had to work. Morgan had been allowed to run rampant for far too long. She had destroyed too many lives. Time for her to pay the piper.
Her gaze fell on Corbin, and I wanted to scratch her eyes out. The arrogance swirling around her made me want to forget magic and just smack the ever-lovin’ shit out of her.
“Thank you for joining us…brother, dearest. It’s been awhile, hasn’t it?”
I felt my body jerk in shock. Brother? Morgan was Corbin’s sister? It couldn’t be.
I looked at both of them, studying their features. The resemblance was so blatant that I’m ashamed that I hadn’t noticed it before. Their oddly colored amethyst eyes--Corbin’s beautiful and Morgan’s ugly with evil--were identical in shade. Both of them had dangerous amounts of magic swirling inside them. Alastair was right. Morgan’s magic had gone dark. As with Roman, I could see the difference between them and the rest of the witches.
“We stopped being family long ago, Morganna,” Corbin said quietly. His voice was filled with hatred and disgust as he spoke to her. “The day you murdered our mother and used her precious blood to cast this evil spell of yours.” He glanced back toward me and his eyes were filled with love. “Just finish this. I long to spend eternity with my beloved.”
She giggled. “You always were such a nag, baby brother. Stop hurting the animals. Be nice to people. Don’t kill mommy. Blah. Blah. Blah.” She blew a kiss to him after she’d finished. “I’m almost going to miss tormenting you. Almost.”
I searched the faces of Morgan’s coven, hoping to see something that would make the person I was looking for stand out. And…score. There was my little prize.
“Tick tock, Nico. Ready to die again?” she asked. “Trust me, darling, this will be the last time. Burning witches is such a nasty job, but it is…final. Seven minutes and counting.”
She walked toward me, and with a wave of her hand, a container of gasoline was in her possession. I watched, helpless to do anything to stop her, as she dumped half the contents all over me. When she finished, she whispered, “I’m not going to kill him until I’ve forced him to watch you die. I think it will hurt more that way, don’t you? No, wait, I know it will. I’ve done it time and time again!”
I shrugged and her eyes glittered dangerously.
“You could always save yourself, you know, Nico? All you have to do is vow your allegiance to me and my coven and I’ll let you live. Corbin will, of course, still die and you’ll be my plaything for the remainder of your life, but you’ll live. What do you think pretty one? Would you like to live a little longer?”
I took a deep breath, focused on love, and hoped for the best. “Megan Buchanan! I demand that you pay me the debt you owe!”
There was a nervous murmur from Morgan’s coven, but the high witch merely looked amused at my request. Surprised, but amused. With an arched brow, she asked, “You think there’s something Megan can do to save you, Nico? She couldn’t save her mother, so I assure you, she won’t be able to save you. You’re wasting precious time…time that you don’t have, love.”
Megan stepped forward, her hand clutching the shoulder of the young daughter I’d saved from being flattened in the street. “I’m honor bound to fulfill his request, Morgan.” She looked at me and asked, “What is it that you request of me, Nicholas Bailey?”
Morgan snorted out a laugh. “Be prepared to join your mother, Megan,” she warned. “But, please…go ahead--amuse me before I destroy you.”
Megan leveled her gaze at me. “I don’t have the p
ower to lift the binder on your magic, Nicholas. Nor do I have the magic to fight Morgan. Don’t ask for what I can’t give. You have one request…make it a good one.”
Morgan’s eyes narrowed in fury.
“Unbind Alastair’s magic,” I demanded with confidence.
Alastair’s head whipped up to look at me. There was a stricken expression on his face as he shook his head from side to side. “I…I can’t help, Nico. You know I can’t help.”
Roman and Morgan burst out laughing. Riker growled. As for Corbin, he watched me closely, a thoughtful and proud expression on his face.
“For a moment there, I was worried about some plan you might have cooked up. You think the weakling can help you? Surely that’s not the best you’ve got, Nico?” She squinted. “Is there any Banks’ blood in your veins at all?”
Megan looked disappointed, but she turned, and with a wave of her hand, I assumed she released Alastair’s magic. She turned back to me and said, “It’s done, young one.”
I looked at Morgan and answered, “As a matter of fact, there’s plenty of Banks’ blood flowing in my veins. My mother sends her regards.” I watched with a smile as Morgan took a couple of steps back from me.
“Your powers are still useless, Nico. You’re as helpless as a kitten for the next minute and, trust me I won’t need more than a minute.”
Flames tickled her fingertips, and she laughed hysterically when I jerked back in fear.
“Ooh, baby, this is going to hurt so badly…so much more than jumping off that cliff. You remember, don’t you? You remember what it felt like the second your body made impact with those rocks? This, Nico, is going to be so much more painful. Fire is a most…unpleasant way for a witch to die.” Her eyes danced with laugher as she mocked, “Tell your mother I said hello.”
“The curse leaves me powerless against Morgan until the very second of my birth, Alastair.” I turned from Morgan and locked eyes with my friend. “I have faith in you. Corbin has faith in you.” I looked at the man next to Corbin and then back to Alastair. “Riker has faith in you.”
