Rebel Witch

by September Stone

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Bryn

  I call out until my throat is raw and my voice is hoarse. Tears stream down my face, peppering my shirt with fat droplets. I’ve thrown myself against the force field at the door so many times and been pushed back and onto my rear end so often that I’m sure I’ll have a bruise. When I finally accept the door won’t release me, I pick up the small table beside the couch and hurl it at the window. But just like at the elders’ mansion, the table comes bouncing back, catching me in the arm as I try to jump out of its way. With a scream of frustration, I pick it up again, this time keeping hold of the legs as I slam it against the window like a baseball bat. Still, nothing.

  By the time I admit defeat, my muscles are screaming from exertion and my tears have run dry. Whimpering, I fold myself into the smallest ball I can manage, wishing I could disappear completely. Only then might the ache in my heart finally go away.

  They’re gone. The men I love, the ones who I thought would never leave me have abandoned me. And although they claim it’s chiefly for my safety, the looks in their eyes tell a different story. The beautiful future full of love and contentment that was my reality just yesterday evaporates into nothingness. I’m alone as I ever was.

  No, that’s not quite right. I’m even more alone than before, because before now, I didn’t know the full depths of love. Whoever said it’s better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all had it all wrong. Had I never loved these men, I wouldn’t feel like my soul has shattered into a million pieces. This pain is worse than anything I’ve ever known—worse than being abandoned by my mother or than the hours of isolation at Mona’s compound. It’s an enduring agony that threatens to destroy me, bit by little bit.

  “Have you finished your hissy fit?”

  The muffled voice shocks me back to the present moment. I twist around, searching for the source of the words before reality hits me with the force of a freight train.

  I’m not alone in the house. Mona is still here.

  Although I want nothing more than to ignore her and wallow in my pain, part of me rebels against limiting my suffering to myself. After all, I didn’t act alone. If I hadn’t reached out to Mona, none of this would be happening. And for her part in what’s happening, she needs to pay.

  I pull myself to my feet, stumbling a few times as I make my way toward the room she’s sequestered in.

  When I push open the door, Mona tuts loudly, shaking her head. “Dear girl, no man is worth those kinds of theatrics.”

  “You have no idea what you’re talking about,” I snap. “This is all your fault.”

  She tilts her head to the side. “As much as I know you wish that were true, it simply isn’t. I didn’t force you to call me. You reached out on your own. And, yes, I told you to come alone to meet me in the woods, but I never said you couldn’t tell your lovers you we’re going.” She pushes out her lips in a condescending pout. “Like it or not, you’re in a prison of your own making. Well, metaphorically, I suppose.”

  I stare at her, baffled how anyone in handcuffs can have the audacity to chastise me for my behavior. “Don’t pretend like you care about me or what I’m going through. I know you too well for that.”

  Mona holds my gaze. “I’m afraid you don’t know me well at all. Contrary to what your boyfriends believe, I’m not in league with Lillian. I’m not trying to kidnap you and lock you away. I want what you want: To stop a dangerous vampire from hooking the supernatural world on euphorium. To keep her from becoming incomprehensibly more powerful than she is now. But, unlike your boyfriends and the people they work for, I understand that the only way we can stop Lillian is with you.”

  I’m not sure she could have said anything more shocking. “What do you mean? How am I supposed to stop Lillian?”

  Mona’s mouth twists into a smile. “You’re more powerful than you know.”

  I snort. “So you keep saying.”

  Ignoring my tone, she nods. “You forget—I knew how strong you were when you were at the compound. You weren’t the only earth-affinity witch to pass through my collection, but you were the only one I couldn’t bear to part with.”

  “Lucky me.” I cross my arms over my chest. “Well, it seems whatever plans you had for me this time aren’t going to work out. We’re trapped in here. There’s no way out.”

  Mona tips her head to the side. “Are you sure about that?”

  I can’t help glaring at her. Is she going to tell me she didn’t hear everything I tried in the other room? I wasn’t exactly quiet when I tried to throw myself through the door and break the windows.

  She sucks her teeth. “I’m not talking about brute strength. Did it never occur to you to try the obvious course?”

  I continue to stare at her, unsure what she could be alluding to. Going through the door didn’t work. Neither did escaping through a window. Unless there’s a tunnel under the floor I don’t know about, there seem to be no other options.

  “Your magic,” Mona says at length, her eyes so wide they seem to pop out of their sockets.

  I can’t contain the laugh that bubbles to my lips. “My magic? How’s that supposed to help? I don’t have any spell supplies in here. And even if I did, what kind of potion could break through these enchantments?”

  Mona sighs in the long-suffering way of someone forced to deal with an imbecile. “My dear girl, I thought you’d learned a little about your capabilities since leaving my employ.”

  A sharp laugh cuts its way out of my throat. “Your employ?”

  She lifts her chin and shakes the hair out of her face. “You don’t have to create a potion to do magic, child. You can call on your element at any time. It’s all around you. Call on roots to thicken and break the cabin’s foundation. Confinement spells like this depend on discrete boundaries. If you breach them, the spell loses its power.”

  “I can’t,” I say immediately, but somewhere in the back of my mind I wonder if it’s the truth. I’ve never tried to control the nature surrounding me while inside a structure. I always assumed my feet needed to be planted firmly on the ground to draw the energy needed, but such an assertion suddenly seems silly. After all, it isn’t like I need to be barefoot for the magic to flow into the earth. Why should a few inches of wood and concrete make any difference?

  After seeing the hurt and anger in the guys’ eyes when they left, part of me wants to ignore the advice due to its source. But if there’s a chance I can get out of here, I have to take it. Maybe I can still catch up with the guys. I’m sure if I can see them again, face to face, I can make them understand why I did what I did.

  Closing my eyes, I reach for the magic coiled in my center. It needs little coaxing to stretch out into the world, but finally I’m able to send the green and gold threads out to do my will. The echoes of my magic grow stonier as I connect with the dirt below the cabin. My element lends me its power as my gossamer strands speed toward the nearest tree, coaxing the roots to thicken and lengthen. Sweat beads on my forehead as the largest root pushes its way through the ground toward the cabin’s back wall. My body vibrates in unison with the energy of the tree, making my fingers tremble and my knees knock. Still, I push harder until the root smashes into the cabin’s foundation. The shockwave sends a surge of pain through me, but I keep going until I’m sure it’s made a hole big enough for me to climb through.

  When I open my eyes, I find I’m on the cabin’s floor, on my hands and knees.

  Mona gazes down at me, beaming. “That’s a girl. Now, if you don’t mind…” She twists against her chair until her wrists are barely visible.

  I stare for a long moment. “You want me to set you free?”

  A crinkle forms between her eyebrows. “Of course, dear. How else am I going to help you take Lillian down?”

  I chuckle. “You? You’re going to fight?” I shake my head. “No, you’re much better at making other people do your dirty work. I just need to catch up with Calder and Taj and Poe and Silas
, and we’ll be able to handle Lillian.” I start for the hole in the back of the room. If I run fast enough maybe I can catch up with the guys before they reach the car. How long has it been since they left? I do my best to remember how long it took us to walk to the cabin last night, but much of the trip is a blur.

  “Even if you could catch up with them, which I doubt,” Mona says, “it wouldn’t do you any good. You don’t know where Lillian is.”

  I stop, turning to face her. “Of course I do. You said she’d be…” The sentence trails as realization dawns on me. “You lied.”

  “I left out some key details,” Mona amends. “And, after how I’ve been treated, can you blame me for playing my cards close to the vest? I told you where the vampires are congregating, but Lillian won’t be on site. She’s broadcasting from another location for dramatic effect, I suppose. And so no one can interfere with the ritual to absorb your powers when the death mark claims you—which we both know isn’t going to happen.”

  I gape at her, unable to process what I’m hearing. Even when she claims to be on my side, she can’t be trusted.

  “Oh, don’t look so scandalized. It’s actually quite lucky Lillian will be at a separate location. She’ll have fewer vampires around to protect her, which will make what we have to do all the easier.”

  “What we have to do,” I ask with a sneer. “And what’s that? Kill her?”

  “Not unless she leaves us no choice,” Mona says, as if shocked I would suggest such a thing. “No, I take no pleasure in the idea of killing Lillian. She needs to be stopped, and in order to be stopped, she can’t have an unfair advantage. You need to take her magic.”

  Whatever I was imagining Mona would say, this isn’t it. “I need to do what, now?”

  “I don’t mean you take her magic for yourself, of course,” Mona says as if we’re having a pleasant chat over coffee. “But there are spells that leech the magic out of an object. They’re used to discharge a spell from something—sometimes so the crystal or what-have-you can be reused for another spell.”

  I stare at her. It can’t be that easy, can it? The idea of simply pulling the stolen magical affinities from Lillian sounds absurd. “And that will work?”

  “It’s never actually been tested on a vampire whose taken on magical affinities before—since Lillian is the first and only vampire who’s ever done it. But in theory, yes, it should work.”

  If I’m going to go along with this plan, I’d like something more than a theory to back it up, but Mona has a point. In dealing with Lillian, we’re in uncharted territory. But if we’re able to pull the magic out of her, it would level the playing field tremendously.

  “Okay,” I agree at length. “But we need to figure out how to contact the Front and tell them where we’re going. That way—”

  “That way what?” Mona asks, lifting her eyebrows. “They can send in a team and blow our cover? Lillian is smart; she’ll have people on the lookout for anything suspicious. The best-case scenario for anyone who gets caught is they get dosed with euphorium so in the next few days they’ll be begging to give their blood in exchange for another hit. Worst case…” She lifts her shoulders. “Vampires can be rather violent when they sense a threat.”

  Images of Poe, Calder, Taj, and Silas being drugged or attacked spin though my mind. No. I can’t risk that. The pain of being left behind is still fresh in my chest, but the sting of betrayal isn’t enough to drown out the truth: I love the four of them, and I can’t let anything bad happen to them.

  Mona smiles, as if sensing the struggle playing out within me. She shifts from side to side in her seat, her shoulders rolling as she twists her bound wrists. Before I can ask what she’s doing, she murmurs an incantation and the metal cuffs clatter to the ground.

  My jaw drops. “How did you do that?” I asked Poe about those cuffs when he entered his room earlier to retrieve them. There is no key, so an incantation must be spoken over them to make them release their hold. But the person wearing them shouldn’t have access to enough magic to make the spell work.

  Mona works to lift her loose sleeve to reveal an S-shaped cuff hugging her upper arm. “I figured there was a chance I’d end up a prisoner, so I came prepared. I could have escaped at any moment, Bryn. If I wanted to do you or the others harm, I could have done it at any time. You can trust me.”

  Coming from Mona, the sentiment is almost laughable, but something in me can’t help giving weight to this new revelation. If she means to do me harm, she could have done it. Maybe it’s true that Mona has changed.

  “Tell me what I have to do.”

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Silas

  The twelve-passenger van speeding toward the location Mona gave is almost halfway to its destination when I feel it. A dense fog seems to lift from my brain and the world is suddenly sharper, like the moment after realizing the events unfolding around you are playing out in a dream.

  We left Bryn behind. At the time, the reason had seemed so clear; the choice was obvious. Bryn was behaving erratically and we couldn’t trust her. She had betrayed all of us by reaching out to Mona behind our backs.

  But even as the reasons echo in my head, I can’t dredge up the accompanying emotions. The anger and indignation that had lit up my soul back at the cabin is strangely absent, leaving a cold knot of dread in its place.

  I don’t want Bryn anywhere near Lillian for Bryn’s own safety. Hell, I don’t want to be anywhere near Lillian because I know too well what she’s capable of. But leaving Bryn alone in a cabin with Mona doesn’t just feel foolish and cruel, it feels wrong.

  I turn to Taj, who stares out the window beside him. “What are we doing?”

  He turns, a quizzical wrinkle between his eyebrows. “We’re going to stop Lillian before she can enlist a vampire army to do her bidding.”

  I shake my head before he’s finished speaking. “No. Bryn. We left her with Mona.”

  “Yeah,” he says, drawing out the syllable. “We can’t trust her. She betrayed us.”

  Coming from Taj, the reasoning sounds even more ridiculous. “Do you really think that?”

  He nods emphatically. “Of course. Mona is dangerous. She can’t be trusted.”

  The absurdity of the sentiment grows with each passing moment. “We can’t trust Mona, yet we’re following the lead she gave us? She’s dangerous, yet we left Bryn trapped in the same cabin with her?” My head spins as I try to rectify the clashing views vying for dominance. Slowly, a single thought begins overshadowing the others. What have we done?

  Taj is still surveying me like he’s sure I’m going nuts. Instead of trying to explain the revelation occurring in my head, I wrap my fingers around his wrist and use to contact point to push my thoughts—my views—into his mind. I can’t force him to see things my way, but I can give him a fresh perspective on the situation.

  It takes a second for him to realize what I’m doing, and when he does, he tries to pull away from me. But in our confined space, he doesn’t have anywhere to go. Moments later, he stops moving altogether, the confusion on his face morphing to wonder, then regret, then fear. “Oh, no.”

  Relief floods me, briefly overpowering my own worry. “She must have used her song on us.”

  “But how?” Taj asks. “She was wearing the anti-magic cuffs.”

  I twist in my seat to look at the person who bound her. “Poe, is there any way Mona could have used her song while wearing those cuffs?”

  Poe turns from the window, blinking as he focuses on me. “No. The only way it would be remotely possible is if she were wearing a strong negating charm. But Taj checked her.”

  Taj nods emphatically. “She didn’t have anything on her.” A wrinkle forms between his eyebrows. “Except for the cuff on her right arm, but there was no reason to worry about that.”

  His words set off warning bells in my head. “Why didn’t you have to worry about her arm cuff? Doesn’t that seem like exactly the kind of thing to be worried about?”
>
  He shrugs. “Well, yeah. But Mona told me it was just a bracelet and I shouldn’t give it a second thought…” He trails off, his eyes widening with realization. “Dammit, she used her song on me!”

  “She used it on all of us,” I mutter. How could I not have noticed? What took me so long to see the truth?

  Poe leans forward in his seat. “Stop the van!”

  The driver, a woman with short-cropped hair that Taj and Calder know from the front, glances over her shoulder. “Can’t. We’ve got a schedule to keep.”

  Calder twists around in the passenger seat, his face scrunched in confusion. “Is everything all right?”

  “Mona used her song on us,” I say, my stomach churning as the words make their way out. “I don’t know why, but she wanted us to leave Bryn alone with her.”

  “Which is why we have to turn around,” Poe reiterates. “She could be in real danger.”

  But the driver shakes her head. “It’ll take an hour to get back to Twin Rivers. If I take you back, there’s no way we’ll get to our destination in time to rendezvous with the other teams.”

  “At the location Mona gave us.” A shiver courses over my skin. “Probably just an excuse to get us to leave Bryn behind. I bet Lillian won’t be anywhere near wherever we’re going.”

  “Contrary to what you must believe, we’re not idiots,” the driver says, catching my eye in the rearview mirror. “We’re not going to take intelligence from Mona Ward at face value. We’ve spent all day verifying her story, and it checks out. Vampires are definitely gathering outside Haven.”

  The news should be comforting, but it’s difficult to detect reassurance in her words. We’re playing into Mona’s hands for something, but I have no idea what.

  “Can we at least put a call in?” Taj asks. “We must have some contacts still in Twin Rivers. I’m sure not everyone is out on this mission. We can have someone check in on the cabin and make sure Bryn is safe.”