by Wendy Knight
And then on her other side, Fate. And Luca. Damien. All digging. All risking their lives because she was locked in her own head and couldn’t. Stop. Her. Hands.
Until she broke through.
One second she was digging, and then her bloodied hand crashed through the rock. She screeched and lunged for the hole, bashing it wider with her shoulder. She felt the skin tear, felt the bruising, but couldn’t stop until the hole was big enough for her to fit through.
The tunnel did not continue on to the other side. It ended right there, about two feet past where she’d been frantically digging.
In the middle of the space was a cauldron. “What in the world,” Fate whispered, inching closer.
Destiny scrambled through the hole and crawled to the cauldron. She picked it up and cradled it to her chest, and suddenly, the bars were free and she was able to escape her head.
And then she collapsed to the ground, sobbing.
“Destiny!” Fate fought her way through and scrabbled, all crouched over, to Destiny’s side.
“I’m sorry,” Destiny whimpered. “I couldn’t stop. I tried…”
“I know. I could see it, too. It’s okay. You’re safe now.” Fate cradled Destiny in her lap, smooshed in the small space, and rocked back and forth.
“We need to get out of here. And we need to clean her wounds.” Luca peered through the hole.
“Hand me the cauldron,” Quin said, reaching his hands toward them.
Destiny shrieked and clung to it, suddenly forced back into her head.
“No no,” Fate said quickly. “She’ll bring it out. It’s okay, Destiny.” She supported Destiny awkwardly as they both crawled out and into the tunnels. Destiny held her breath, horrified eyes watching the creaking beams overhead. Luca grabbed the lantern and Destiny’s elbow, hauling her to her feet, and they ran.
She expected the tunnel to collapse behind them. She expected explosions to chase them the entire way out.
None of that happened. They ran. She sort of ran, clutching the cauldron and trying to run at the same time, while Luca refused to let go of her elbow, and they made it back to the light, and the clean, clean air.
Exhausted, Destiny sank to the ground, keeping one hand on the cauldron, and closed her eyes.
“Destiny,” Quin knelt next to her. “You’re safe now. We’re out.”
She nodded.
He brushed her hair away from her face. It had been caught in her split, dry lips, and she hadn’t even noticed. “I hate seeing you like this.”
A tear snaked from her eye and slithered down her temple, catching in her sweaty hair. She must look a mess, covered in dirt and blood and sweat, as she was. But it didn’t matter. She had the cauldron. And whatever would save them all was inside it. Forcing herself to sit up, she peered into its depths.
“What the—?”
Fate looked at Destiny, frowned, and looked down into the cauldron. “Apple, Jasmine, Thyme, Cinnamon, Vanilla… White Rose,” she finished slowly, raising wide, confused eyes to Destiny.
“We have all these at home,” Destiny wailed. “We came all this way and ran so hard and dug and dug and we have all these things at home—”
“For a love potion,” Fate said. She stared hard at Destiny, and Destiny, caught in her gaze, stared back.
“A love potion.”
“What can stop a war fueled by hate?”
“Love.“
“A love potion.”
“We had the answer all along!” Fate yelled.
“We have to make a love potion!” Destiny said the same time, and then they were talking all over each other, too fast for anyone to understand, and Luca and Quin just stared at them, clearly terrified that they had lost their minds.
“But we might have needed the cauldron. It’s old, I can feel it.”
“These ingredients might be sacred. I mean, we just get ours from our garden.”
“Or Amazon.”
“Sometimes Walmart.”
“A love potion? To save the world?” Luca asked incredulously.
“Ah yeah.” Damien grinned.
“We fought off warlocks with two potions, bats, and parts from my truck, but they’ll keep coming because they’re fueled by hate. What stops hate?” Fate asked aloud.
Quin met Destiny’s eyes and held her gaze. “Love.”
“Love,” Destiny whispered.
“Destiny, are you done here? Can we find somewhere to rest for the night before we head home?” Luca asked.
Destiny hesitated and then nodded. There was something else. Something they were missing, but it wasn’t here. She didn’t know where or what, but she didn’t doubt her psychotic other self would tell her when it was ready.
“I can’t wait to get out of this heat and back to Montana where I belong.” Quin winced up at the sun trying too hard to roast them alive.
Destiny collapsed backward, letting her hand fall from the cauldron. Fate settled next to her, far more gracefully.
“So… you’re making a love potion?” Luca asked. “To stop a war?”
Destiny smiled, brushing Fate’s silky white hair away from her face. “Not me. We. We are making a love potion. To stop a war.”
****
QUIN COULD BARELY REMEMBER the last time he’d taken a shower or felt clean. He thought he’d have to fist fight Damien and Luca for first dibs on their hotel room shower, but Luca was too busy checking Destiny’s hands. Fate had tried the spell she’d done on Luca and it had stopped the bleeding and healed the obvious broken bones, but Destiny was still in bad shape. Too much in too few days, and she was on the verge of collapse.
Quin kept thinking back, now that there was time to think, to when Destiny had rested her head on his shoulder after the attack while they’d watched the warlocks burn for several hours. She’d barely moved in all that time, but what he couldn’t get over was how natural it had seemed. How easy. Like she belonged there. And having her that close to him, willingly and without him having to tackle her first… it did crazy odd things to his blood pressure. Even now, all these hours and hours later, his pulse picked up and he had a hard time swallowing.
So the crush wasn’t a crush anymore, and he didn’t know what to do about that. He couldn’t exactly profess his adoration while they were fighting warlocks, fighting her head, and fighting to save both their mothers. He knew one thing, though. This wasn’t something that would just go away. It wasn’t something he could just forget about. Destiny was special, and no matter how hard this battle was right now, or how much she didn’t believe in love, he wouldn’t let her go without a fight.
And he’d always been a fighter.
He got out of the shower and got dressed in his same dirty, ragged clothes and went to check on Luca’s progress. Destiny was passed out under the covers, and snippets of gauze and bandage wrappers still littered the small bedside table. “I think she’ll be sleeping for weeks,” Luca said from where he sat in the chair next to the bed, his head in his hands. “She needs to for what she’ll be facing soon.”
“The warlocks?”
“They’re going to save the world. By themselves.”
Damien spoke up from behind Quin. “Not by themselves. You’re free to do what you want. I’m not a witch, but this is my battle and I’ll be right there with them. With my bat.” He grinned at Quin.
Quin nodded. “Me too.”
Luca sighed and stood. “I wasn’t implying that I would let them go in alone. But the weight of this stands on their shoulders. We can swing our bats and our tire irons all we want, but we’ll make very little progress.”
“The witches won’t let them fight alone. They’ll be there. They’ll fight with them,” Quin said. Destiny stirred. She had a bandage across her temple and the hands tucked under her chin were bandaged, as well. One eye was starting to blacken, and he couldn’t even remember when she’d been hit in the face.
“Where were the witches today, Quin? They knew the warlocks were coming. They w
arned us, but they left us to fight alone. And your mother, as well.”
Quin swallowed. “They—they couldn’t get there in time.”
“They probably think Destiny and Fate are these prophesied witches and they don’t need help.” Damien squeezed into the room and leaned against the desk. He’d been burned and beaten nearly as badly as Fate and Destiny but hadn’t complained. Maybe he felt like Quin and had only just realized how everything hurt.
“Even if they don’t. Even if it’s just Destiny and Fate against the world, we’ll be there. And that’s all they need,” Damien finished. He fist bumped Quin and then winced, because his knuckles were bruised and scabbed.
Luca smiled, but it was sad. “Ah, to be young again.” He stood, stretching, and brushed Destiny’s hair away from her face. “I’m going to find dinner. If there’s anywhere still open this late. We’ll start early tomorrow.” He looked up at Quin. “You’ll stay with her?”
Quin nodded. Because watching Destiny sleep would be so good for getting a handle on his raging emotions.
But he wouldn’t complain.
He took his chair as Fate came out of the bathroom, her hair up in a towel. It was shocking how much she looked like Destiny with her white hair hidden, and Quin had to blink a couple times to make his brain cooperate. He slumped down, exhausted and hurting.
“Have you talked to your dad recently?” Fate asked quietly, taking her hair out of the towel and shaking it a few times. She tried to run her fingers through it, but it was too tangled. She held the knots out, glaring. “I need a pick.”
“I’ll go grab you one. Do you need anything, Quin?” Damien asked.
Quin shook his head. To Fate, he said, “I sent him a text a few minutes ago.”
“How is she?” Fate sat gingerly on the other bed. Her clothes, like Quin’s, were ragged and torn and dirty. It almost made the shower pointless.
Almost, but not quite.
“No change. He said the Coven is in a panic, though. The warlocks are gathering.”
Fate looked up. “Gathering?” She glanced at Damien, who had the same confused look. “What?”
“They’re gathering. Around the Coven.”
Fate’s already pale face paled more. “Why?” she whispered.
“Well, traditionally the warlocks have followed the coven. That’s why there are only attacks in these northwestern states and nowhere else in the world. They’ve followed them all over the world, slowly dwindling their numbers. Because they feed on witches, so—”
“I got it, Quin. Why now?”
Quin shrugged. “Their pattern was thrown off when they attacked us at our school. Either they knew of the prophecy and figured it out before we did, or they were just drawn to Destiny like her, um, destiny drove her. And then they were all migrating this way, toward us. But after their advance team was slaughtered by a couple little girls,” he grinned at Destiny, “they retreated and are migrating toward the coven. All of them. Every known warlock. Now no one knows what to expect from them.”
Destiny whimpered in her sleep and burrowed deeper under the covers.
“I think we need to go back to the coven. That’s where Destiny will make the potion—”
“I think she’s made it clear it’s a group project,” Damien said, nudging her.
She smiled gratefully at him and continued. “Where we’ll make the potion. We’ll use the witches there for their knowledge and figure out how to catch all the warlocks in our love spell, and then when they’re all googly eyed, we’ll save our mothers. Easy peasy.”
Quin slid down in the chair and absently smoothed Destiny’s hair. It felt like silk against his rough fingers. “Yeah. Easy.”
“We’ll survive to save her, Quin. Don’t doubt us so easily.”
Quin blinked, forgetting that Fate and Destiny could both do weird things with his head. Scowling, he said, “I wasn’t doubting. It was an errant thought.”
Luca returned with dinner after that. They ate in silence, and Damien went to take a shower, and then Luca. Damien fell asleep on Fate’s bed and Fate followed, curled around him. Luca fell asleep in the chair next to Quin’s, but Quin didn’t sleep. He just stared into space or stared at Destiny and tried to absorb the fact that he might not survive to play football in college.
He might not survive to play football again.
Or ask Destiny to the dance he swore he wasn’t going to ask her to.
Or see his mom awake.
He didn’t realize the huge blue eyes were watching him until she spoke. “It’s okay to be more worried about her than the final battle, Quin.”
He started, nearly falling out of his chair. “Luca said you would sleep—”
She shrugged and eased herself to a sitting position. Even beat up and dirty and broken and bloody, she was still the most gorgeous thing he’d ever seen. She winced and settled herself against the headboard. “I slept.”
He smirked.
“I’m more worried about waking my mom than I am about stopping the warlocks. Luca was right. Where were the witches when we needed them? I don’t owe them anything. But my mom? I owe her everything.”
“You were awake for that?” he asked.
She smiled gingerly around her split lip.
“I just feel like—like if I had listened better when she tried to teach me — or worked harder or something — I could have saved her.”
“You did save her, Quin.”
His chin fell to his chest in defeat. “I didn’t. You did.”
She snorted. “I didn’t. A potion and my sister and mom did. I was getting my butt kicked, same as you.”
Quin laughed softly. “That’s not the way I remember it. I saw a badass little witch riding a broomstick and throwing potion on everything around her and warlocks falling all over themselves trying to escape her.”
Destiny grinned. “You saw all that?”
He nodded.
“Well, what about you pounding their faces into the ground? That wasn’t too shabby, either.”
Chuckling he held his knuckles out. “We make a good team.”
“Imaginary fist bump,” she said, holding her bandaged hand near, but not touching. “Because ow.”
He caught her hand and, barely able to breathe, brought the injured fingers to his lips, kissing each bandage gently. Destiny sucked in a breath but didn’t pull away from him. “I’m sorry you have to go through this, Destiny.”
It was her turn to shrug, and her voice was a bit shaky when she said, “It could be worse. If you weren’t here…”
Hope surged in his chest but before he could say anything else, Luca mumbled, “We have no idea what the next day will bring. You should probably get some sleep.”
Destiny blushed and ducked her head. “Yes sir.”
Quin hesitated. He didn’t want to go back to his empty hotel room. He didn’t want to be any further away from Destiny than he already was. In fact, he felt like if he could just touch her, maybe the world wouldn’t end. If he could listen to her breathe, his heart might not shatter in his chest. Slow, as if a sudden movement might take this whole dream away, he edged around the bed and then sprawled out next to Destiny, watching Luca to see if he objected.
Luca opened one eyelid and frowned. “Make sure you stay on your side.”
“Yes sir.” Quin blew out a pent up breath.
Destiny rolled toward him, whimpering just a bit, until she got settled. She cracked one eye and peered at him. He sucked in a breath again, wondering if she was going to kick him out of the bed.
She didn’t.
Her eye fell shut and her lips curved up in the barest hint of a smile.
There was hope.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
DESTINY WASN’T SURE WHERE LUCA SLEPT the night before. She was fairly positive he slept, still battered and bruised, in the chair by her bed.
You almost died today.
But he didn’t seem to remember that.
She had been hyper-aware
of where Quin had slept, though. When he lay down next to her, she’d been sure she wouldn’t sleep at all, but exhaustion had won out despite the super hot boy lying next to her, and she had slept. When she woke, the blinds were shut and everyone was talking in hushed whispers.
“How long do we have? She needs to sleep as much as possible.” Quin’s voice. She recognized it even in a whisper. And even in a whisper it sent delicious little shivers up her spine. She tried to will her eyes to open again, so she could tell her roommates she was awake, but her eyelids wouldn’t cooperate.
“A couple hours at most, but do we really want to cut it that close?” Luca, this time.
“We don’t have any more potions. If we can make it to the coven, they’ll have supplies there. We can make some of the burning ones while Destiny makes the love spell. Buy her more time.” That one would be her stubborn sister. Annoyance at Fate’s determination not to make this love spell nearly got Destiny to make some noise.
Damien took care of it for her, though, so she settled back into the bed. “She said you’re both supposed to make it.”
She could picture Fate’s grateful, yet unbelieving, smile. She wasn’t sure when Fate had become so unsure of herself. The Fate she knew had no fear and didn’t even know the word can’t. But this Fate was different. Destiny wanted the old Fate back.
“How fast do warlocks move?” this new Fate asked.
“They move with the wind. If there’s no breeze, they move slowly, like at Craters of the Moon.”
“That was slowly?” Fate gasped. Destiny would have gasped, too, but that would alert them that she was awake.
Luca continued, “If there’s a wind, they move faster than we can.”
There were footsteps, and light blazed through the window, frying her eyeballs. She groaned and buried her head. “No breeze.”
“She’s awake,” Fate said more loudly. “We can get moving.”
Slowly, she peeked her head out of the covers and glared at her sister.
Fate smiled brightly.
Destiny wanted to point out that she hadn’t had a shower yet. Everyone else had taken one the night before but she had hurt too badly and had been too tired. However, from the look of things, they had all been up for a while now. Breakfast sat on the table, waiting for her, but theirs was eaten and in the garbage already. She grunted and rolled toward the clock. Every muscle and fiber and probably every hair hurt. “This is why I’m a potions witch,” she mumbled.
