I didn’t know if it was even okay to talk about what I was, never mind acknowledge that someone else knew what we were. Gage had said that they each recognised each other for what they were but Étoile hadn’t given me the wolves and the witches talk yet. There simply hadn’t been time, and, as far as I knew, my friends still didn’t know what I had discovered virtually on my own doorstep, all on my own.
I barely noticed the rustle of movement outside as I turned my back on the window and took my position. I concentrated on the circles. The six of us – Étoile, Seren, David, Chyler’s two aunts Victoria and Hayley, and me – formed an odd perimeter around the conjoined cages. Étoile and Seren were next to each other, to my left, and they linked hands first, their silence telling me that they were sending their message to Evan. With a nod from the both of them we all quickly linked hands. It was with a sudden rush of air that I realised Evan had shimmered into my home seconds later, depositing Chyler in a heap in the circle closest to me, before hurtling forward at such a pace that he didn’t stop until he crashed into the living room wall. I realised David must have left some kind of get out clause for Evan so he wouldn’t be caught too, or maybe the magic was just aimed at witches. I couldn’t be sure.
While I couldn’t follow the chant that David was giving in his low baritone, each word said forcefully and clearly, I could complete the circuit so the magic could flow through me and channel into the spell casting. The wards were so strong that, to me, the air seemed to vibrate in columns the longer David spoke. It was like looking ahead on a hot day and seeing the heat wave in the air. Here, all I got was a cold chill.
“We can break the circle,” said David at last and I blinked. Chyler had stumbled to her feet and was turning around and around in her circle, bouncing off the invisible walls. Eventually she ceased spinning and dawdled to a stop, staring at each of us in turn, her face anything but happy. She looked tired and drawn, like she had a severe case of anaemia, and her unfocused eyes had the glossy patina of someone not quite there.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” she hissed, picking us each out in turn.
“To whom are we speaking?” asked Étoile.
Chyler smirked. “Chyler Anderson, of course.”
“Oh, we know that’s not the truth.” Étoile’s voice was soft but strong. She leaned in and whispered, taunting, “You’re clearly not a very clever witch.”
“Not a clever witch? I’ve been a witch for years. My family was revered.” Chyler turned again, assessing her surroundings as if she was just joining us for afternoon tea and wasn’t too pleased at the spread. “My family would have ruled the council if it weren’t for yours,” she said, stopping turning so she could focus on Étoile.
“So you’re a Lawley?” Étoile’s eyebrow arched as recognition struck her. I watched Hayley and Victoria exchange glances. They obviously recognised the name even if I didn’t. I leaned in to Seren, “Fill me in?” I asked in a whisper.
“The Lawleys were an old and powerful family but they had a habit of dying out early. Spells gone wrong, illnesses, that sort of thing, not to mention that there was a long running feud with our family that didn’t work out so well for anyone. Dina Lawley died twenty years ago when she performed a spell that backfired.”
“It didn’t backfire,” snapped Chyler. “I was murdered. And now I’m back.”
“So you are Dina Lawley.” Étoile pursed her lips like she had just said something quite unpleasant. “How on earth did you get into Chyler’s body?”
Chyler smirked. Or rather, Dina smirked with Chyler’s face. “Like I’m going to tell you that.”
Étoile put her forefinger to her lips. “Let me guess,” she murmured. “Chyler’s dabbling in dark magic somehow brought you back into the world and you’re just hanging on by the barest of threads.”
“Something like that.” Dina shrugged. “But let’s not dwell on it. Chyler let me in and I want to stay.”
“You can’t stay in Chyler’s body,” hissed Hayley, stepping forward.
“I remember your family.” Dina looked at Hayley with scant regard. “Never liked you. You were always kinda whiny. Now Chyler, she’s fun. She always wants to try out fun stuff.”
“She would never have wanted this,” Hayley protested. “She’s only a kid. She didn’t know what she was doing.”
“Who cares?” came Dina’s answer from Chyler’s pouting lips.
“Regardless of all that, you won’t be squatting in Chyler’s body any more. Actually, you should probably say goodbye now,” interrupted Étoile.
Dina’s eyes widened in surprise then she rolled her eyes. “That is not going to happen. I need this body.”
Thanks to David’s plan it was time for me to step in. Our plan wasn’t great but it was a one shot wonder that stood a slim chance of working. If it didn’t Dina would stay in Chyler’s body, clinging on with all that she had, while Chyler continued to reject her. Eventually that fight would weaken Chyler and they would die. Even if Dina did succeed she wouldn’t be allowed to live as a parasite. Either way, Dina would return into the ether or the afterlife, but wherever it was that she went, she would be right back to square one. No closer to life than she had been since her death. The only compromise was to offer her something that she wanted more.
“You can have my body,” I said and took a moment to enjoy the surprise etched across her young, borrowed, face. “I’m stronger than Chyler and I won’t fight,” I added, tempting her further.
“I know you. You’re Stella Mayweather. I knew your father. He was at school with me,” said Dina. “I heard you had been found.”
“Oh, really?” How, I wondered, was she getting news updates when she technically didn’t exist. I couldn’t be distracted now. I held firm, saying, “The offer’s there. Make your choice.”
Dina shook Chyler’s head. “It’s a trap.”
“There’s no trap. It’s an offer. A take it or leave it offer,” I emphasised, David nodding in support. I hoped to hell his plan worked as Étoile and Seren looked at me in concern, Étoile just barely shaking her head.
Dina looked around at us, trying to fathom what the trap might be, but all she got were hopeful expressions from Chyler’s aunts who had no interest in me anyway, and a lot in their niece’s safety, and stone cold expressions from my friends. But the clincher for her was the fear that I could see, over her shoulder, in Evan’s brown eyes.
“No, Stella.” He shook his head desperately. “You can’t sacrifice yourself.”
“I can.” I stiffened my jaw and refused to look at him.
“How’re you going to do it?” Dina asked, peering at me.
“You know I can teleport?”
“Right, that thing you do. It’s in Chyler’s head.”
Ick. I tried not to think about them sharing brain space. “Well, I can shimmer my consciousness out of my body. When I’m out, you’re in. Simple.” I tried to not look at Evan. I fixed on Chyler and kept my gaze even.
“Nothing’s ever that simple.”
“This is.”
Étoile stepped in before I could start to shake with the effort of being brave. “You’ve got twenty seconds to agree or turn us down,” she said.
“And what if I don’t?”
“We’ll kill Chyler.”
Chyler’s aunts started and Étoile had to shout above them to be heard. “Don’t think that I won’t.” She checked her watch and looked at Dina expectantly, mouthing, “Tick tock.”
I watched Dina weigh up her options. She had twenty seconds to decide whether to stay in a body that was about to die, and she couldn’t risk disbelieving because if she was wrong she would lose her one real shot at a second life. Or she could try and take my body, even though we could be lying about that too. Only one of those options gave her a slim chance of life.
She took it. “I’ll do it.”
“Stella, take your place in the other circle. When I give you the go ahead, shimmer out. Dina, that’
s when you leave Chyler’s body. This is a one chance only offer. Understood?” said David, stepping forward.
“Fine,” said Dina, her eyes fixed on me.
I stepped into the empty circle and faced the innocent exterior of my enemy. A thousand things were going through my mind and most of them were on the not okay end of the emotional spectrum. But most of all there was fear, and somewhere in the middle of that, hope.
“Stella, it’s time to go,” said David with a solemn nod, adding sadly, “Thanks for doing this.”
I nodded and braced myself, summoning everything there was in me and the electric feeling crawled all over my skin. I visualised and just as the room grew hazy, I blinked and the shouting started.
Thirteen
Seconds can feel like a lifetime when your life is hanging in the balance. In the moment that I left my living room, I felt my essence as it was caught and dragged in the slipstream of something amazing and terrifying that lit everything around me in flames of gold and red. Just as quickly as it came, just as I felt the heat lick at my skin, it was gone and I was blinking, trying to adjust my vision to the low-lit room. I was on my side, on the floor, the cool wood pressed against my cheek but I was in my own damn body. Well, hallelujah! I shuffled awkwardly until I was sat up, heat still prickling my skin. With a strange sense of déjà vu, I suddenly realised that this had been exactly what I’d envisioned when we were sat in the restaurant when I’d had my first vision. Evan had saved me, saved me from Dina Lawley, and it was an experience as frightening as it was a relief.
I was surrounded by chaos. In front of me, I could see a new thick chalk line drawn between the circles, splitting them. Seren sat panting on the floor, strands of hair flying out from her ponytail and settling around her face. Chyler’s aunts were knelt to her left, on the floor next to the circle in which Chyler had slumped in a heap again. The thick prison of magic undulated around both circles now, but stronger in the one that appeared empty. I shifted to my knees so I could lean in closer for a better look. Just as I started to topple forwards a strong pair of hands landed on my shoulders and stopped me face-planting on the floor.
The apparently empty circle was anything but on closer inspection the air seemed thicker. Something buzzed inside and it was angry. Very, very angry.
“That was a stupid thing to do,” Evan whispered in my ear, his voice hard, as he held on to me, his strong arms like a vice around my torso.
“I knew you wouldn’t let me die,” I whispered back, dragging my eyes from the scene so I could look at him. My skin felt scorched from the heat that accompanied the way he teleported. A vague part of me hoped for a tan as compensation.
“You should have told me. I had a second to realise what you were doing. A second, Stella!”
“How could we say anything to you? For Dina to take the bait your reaction had to look real. Besides, you’ve been gone for days.” I couldn’t resist slipping in angry words as I turned my head away, too close for comfort right now. I was both grateful and furious and I couldn’t look at him. Saving me clearly outweighed any slight over the last few days but that didn’t mean I couldn’t have a damn good sulk. A part of me felt guilty that we, David and I, had relied on Evan’s ability to teleport as extra protection for me. He had wrapped himself around me just as I’d shimmered, body and soul, and transported me through a plane Dina could never reach. We’d tricked Dina, but only just.
“I deserved that,” Evan said after a moment and I could feel his warm breath on my neck. He didn’t move his hands but he didn’t try and hold me either. I could have wriggled away from him if I really wanted to, but I didn’t.
“What happened to Chyler?” I asked, changing the conversation so I wouldn’t have to think to hard about whether I was mad at him, or angry, or relieved, or... anything.
“I don’t know. I’ve only been here a minute or two longer than you. You were unconscious. I think you got knocked out.”
“What was that anyway?” I asked. I’d cooled rapidly but I could still feel the heat against my skin. In those seconds it had been intense and relentless. I snuck a glance at Evan; he didn’t seem even remotely affected by it.
“I caught you at the moment you shimmered,” Evan confirmed what I already knew, “but I had to move you through a different plane so that Dina couldn’t attack you. But I thought you knew that?”
“I knew you’d be able to get me, but I didn’t think it would be like that.” What Evan had done was amazing and terrifying, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to experience it again.
He added, “It’s different for you.”
I dipped my head, nodding briefly, even though I wasn’t sure if it was a question or a statement.
Étoile stepped over to us, navigating her way around the circles, her heels clicking on the floor. “That went well, don’t you think?” she asked brightly, stooping to kneel on one knee so she was level with me. She inclined her head towards Evan. Almost reverently.
“Is Chyler all right?” I asked.
“I think so.” Étoile held out her hands to me and when I took them she tugged me up, Evan’s arms slipping from where they had circled me. She pointed to the twin circle that was now occupied. “We’ve contained that thing.”
“So all we have to do is get rid of it... her?” Evan asked, stepping forward so he was abreast with me, so close that if I moved a muscle I’d brush against him.
“Hmm, well there is one small problem.”
“What’s that?” I asked, wondering what else could possibly go wrong now.
Étoile looked embarrassed. “Apparently we’ve drawn some attention to ourselves. We can feel other witches arriving. Your wards are strong so they can’t enter the house and Seren will strengthen them in a moment but they’re outside. Waiting.”
“So, basically everything is fine, we just can’t go outdoors because of the witches? And we don’t know whose side they are on?”
Étoile nodded. “That seems to sum up it up.”
“Oh, crap,” I muttered.
“We want to take Chyler and go,” said Hayley, her voice forceful as she interrupted us. “Whatever is going on out there is nothing to do with us.”
“Whatever is going on out there is everything to do with Chyler,” hissed Seren.
“I agree. Besides, I don’t think it’s a good idea to go, not when we’re surrounded and not while Chyler is unconscious,” Étoile added.
“But Chyler isn’t a threat to anyone, not anymore,” protested Victoria.
“We don’t know that. More importantly, they don’t know that and we don’t know what they want.” Étoile jabbed a finger to the door.
I used the distraction caused by their bickering to move away from Étoile and Evan and edged around the periphery of the room to the big window that looked over the front of my house. I could already feel the vibrations that I got when another witch was present; this was stronger and more forceful. Several small groups of people were dotted around, no more than three or four to a group, and they all took care to keep a good distance between themselves. I could see a small line of cars on the street so it was obvious that some had come the regular way. They were all facing the house, waiting.
I stepped back. “If we tell them Chyler’s fine, will they go?” I mused to no one in particular.
“They might be here for that.” Seren nodded at the buzzing inside the circle. It was getting slower and more solid and seemed to be taking shape; legs, a body, arms, a head, all translucent but nevertheless, there. I could make out a face of a woman. When she spoke, her voice was surprisingly strong. “We had a deal.” Dina was apparently back in the building.
I grinned at her. “There’s no honour among thieves.”
“I want out. Now.” Semi-visible hands felt their way around the circle, testing its strength, until she came to a stop and looked at Chyler slumped on the floor. Dina gave a wisp of a sigh and folded her semi-corporeal arms.
“What would they want with her,” I said
, nodding at Dina. She turned to me, flicking her ghostly hair, and narrowed her eyes.
“Who wants me?” she asked. Dina had taken a couple of minutes longer than me coming around to make herself almost completely visible, so she was behind the rest of us in noticing the supernatural cannonball race pitching up on my lawn.
“Witches,” I replied.
Dina seemed to shrivel for a moment then her form came back slightly stronger. I could still see through her. “I don’t want to go to them. Help me, Stella. They’ll imprison me for years and years. I’ll never move on.”
“Is that why you came to me? So I could help you?” I frowned at her suddenly wheedling tone.
“You dumb bitch! Chyler came looking for you. But when I realised who you were, it suited me to stay. I needed you because you killed Eleanor Bartholomew. Because you’re a murderer. A witch killer,” Dina spat.
I shuddered and it was all I could do not to take a step back. I said, “I didn’t murder her, it was self defence.” It didn’t matter how I said it though, the end result was still the same. I was responsible for another being’s death.
“You ripped her heart out.” Dina smiled at me. Actually smiled.
“Not because I wanted to,” I protested. “I was just trying to stop her.”
“Like I care. You killed her and you can kill them, you can kill them all. Do it or...”
“Or what?” I hissed. “You’re nothing. You barely even exist.”
“I’ll kill Chyler,” she said smugly. “She’s given me the strength to get me this far. All I need is to suck a bit more of her life-force. I probably don’t even need a body now. I can become me again and you can help me do that.”
I mulled the idea over in my mind. She’d been co-habiting with Chyler long enough to become incredibly connected to her and Chyler had tried desperately to warn me about the malevolent spirit inside her. It may have been Chyler who had come to me for help, but it was Dina who had tried to manipulate me into doing what she wanted. There was no way I could let Dina go; I couldn’t be sure what she would be capable of. If she was strong enough to linger here where she didn’t belong and still tried to leach life from another, who knew what she would do when she got what she wanted: her life.
Unruly Magic (#2 Stella Mayweather Paranormal Series) Page 21
