“Now you see.” His face pulled into a sharp smile, and he ran his fingers through his oily hair. “I find you intriguing, Zinnia Heart, and not just because you and I are Siphon Witches.”
“Enlighten me, oh great one.” Poke the bear much, Zin?
Alataris launched a fist at the bars. “Watch your tone.” Again, he started pacing and mumbling to himself. “Is she talking to us? Or them? Or me? I don’t know…what say you?”
Alataris the evil king is…mad? “Are you asking me?”
He straightened his stance and cleared his throat. “Yes, I do believe I am talking to you.” And every other voice in your head…
We were going round and round, not getting anywhere. Perhaps my line of questioning was off. Maybe I just hadn’t asked the right way. “Why do you want to keep me?”
“A Siphon Witch can only take magic from other witches.”
I nodded. “I know.”
He pressed his body back against the bars. “And yet you killed my sirens with your powers…how did you do that?”
He was right. I’d used the siren power against them. I’d even used Tuck’s own powers. How did I do that? “I don’t know.” Could I take his powers? Possibly, or we could get stuck in a vicious cycle of taking from each other. With no one winning or losing. Personally, I didn’t want to spend the next millennium finding out.
He rammed his head into the bars, and blood trickled down the side of his face. When his icy gaze bored into mine, I saw the swirling silver magic in them.
He seethed. “Don’t lie to me.”
“I’m not lying. I’ve been a witch for all of four days and no one, not even Niche, has been able to explain to me how my powers work. So I’m not lying when I say I honestly don’t know.”
Alataris steepled his fingers and pressed his lips to them. “I should just kill you. But you see…” He took a handkerchief from his pocket and dabbed at the blood trickling on the side of his face. “If I do that, then they’ll surely put the last three queens in hiding, never to be found again. And I”—he pounded his chest with his fist—“will have to wait for yet another cycle to begin before I can take a crack at them again. And I need that stone to do it.”
“Why do you need the stone? All it does is hold up a barrier.”
Alataris jabbed his finger into the air. “Wrong! That stone is a siphon stone. Not all Siphon Witches can pull from any being they want to like you can. Some of us need a little help.” He waved his hands through the air. “It can protect whole worlds or take them all down. All I need do is drip my blood on it then touch it to create a bond and it will answer to me.”
“Wait, you don’t want to take down Hexia? You just want the stone to amplify your own power?” This was bad, extremely bad. If Alataris became more powerful, there would nothing stopping him…ever.
He shrugged. “Having Hexia under my rule would be nice.”
An idea stuck me, a horrible, awful idea. But it might just be my ticket out of here. “Then why wait?”
“What do you mean?” He leaned forward.
“I am in need of a mentor. Those girls…they don’t like me very much. They fear my power.” Not a lie. “But you, you don’t. You could teach me how to control it, how to use it. Couldn’t you?”
His dark cackle echoed around the room. “You want me to teach you?”
I put my hands on my hips and mustered up as much bravado as I could. “Damn straight.”
He reached his hand past the bars. Before I could flinch away, he ran his cold clammy finger down the side of my face. “You are so like your mother.”
I felt like I’d been struck. The air whooshed from my lungs. “M-my mother? How do you know my mother?”
The sound of clicking shoes rang all around the room, and Alataris turned toward it. “Ah, here she is now, my favorite daughter.”
“Don’t toy with the prisoners, father.” Ophelia glared at me. “It drives them to madness faster.”
He wound his hand in one of the braids going down the side of her head and tugged her closer to him. “But can’t you see the possibilities? With two queens at my side, I’d be unstoppable.”
Ophelia slowly unwound her hair from his grasp. “There is only one way to know if she is telling us the truth.”
They shared a look, and then Alataris turned toward me. “I think it’s time for a little test.”
Chapter 24
Tucker
“How could this have happened?” I marched back and forth in front of the table Niche set up in the center pavilion in Hexia.
Maps of all the possible locations of Alataris’s floating island were outlined in detail, yet not one would give us a solid lead. I needed to see Zinnia with my own two eyes. I had to feel her safely next to me. It was a selfish thing to think of when my whole crew was recovering from being knocked out or holding up millennia-old barriers and trying to live through a siren attack. Gray was hanging on by a thread. Even now I didn’t know if he would survive the night. Yet here I was focused on one person…Zinnia.
The siphon stone sat at the center of everything, just across from Niche’s table. Like a beacon, it glowed bright orange and red. But at times, its light would flicker and the walls of Hexia would rumble. “My first quest and I failed.”
Niche leaned over the table and placed her hand in front of her. “You did not fail. How could any of us have prepared for this? We didn’t know there were sirens or that Alataris had found a back door into the caves.”
I shoved my hands into my pockets to hide the shaking from Niche. If anything happened to Zinnia, I wouldn’t be able to stand it. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself. Where she went, I would follow, even if that meant into the afterlife. “We have to find her, Niche.”
“This way.” Niche walked over to a smaller tent hidden on the side of the main pavilion. She pulled the flap to the side and motioned me into the darkened area. The sound of the bustling streets outside were muffled by the thick fabric. To the back of it stood a large shelf with dozens of pendulums hanging from stands, an array of every color crystal dangling from delicate chains.
Niche waved to them. “Ask them what you want to know.”
“What?” How were little stones on chains going to help me?
“If the pendulum swings away from you and back again, the answer is no. If it swings from right to left, then the answer is yes.”
I threw my hand up and sighed. “How does this help us find Zinnia? I don’t have time to play yes or no games.”
Niche plucked one up from the shelf. “Pendulums have been used for many things over the centuries. They can answer questions, give directions, or even be used to scry for a person using a map…”
I rushed forward and stood in front of the shelf. If it could help me find her on a map, I was all in. “Is Zinnia alive?”
They all swung in unison. It was creepy to witness. Left to right…means yes. I closed my eyes and bowed my head, sucking in a grateful breath. “Can you tell me where she is?”
Again they all swung from right to left. My eyes darted from the tiger’s eye, to the amethyst, to the rose quarts. “Which one do I use?”
Every single pendulum stopped swinging…all but one. A sapphire blue one swung in a circular pattern as though calling to me, waiting for me to grab it up. I plucked the end of the chain from its holder and rushed from the tent out into the pavilion. The crystal dangled and swung in all different directions as I stumbled and fell into the table. I held the pendulum over the many maps Niche had spread over the table.
She came running up behind me. “It doesn’t work like that, Tuck. We have to narrow it down a bit first.”
I didn’t care. I needed to know where she was at this exact second. “Show me where Zinnia is.”
The pendulum spun wildly in my hand, swinging in a wide circle again and again. My eyes were locked on it, and my hands shook with anticipation. I needed to find her. With everything in me, I had to get Zinnia back safely. The pendulu
m shot from my hand down to the table. It stood straight on its point.
Niche leaned over the map, her eyebrows raised. “It says she’s…here.”
An explosion erupted over our heads, and the roof of the barrier came crashing down on us all…
Chapter 25
Zinnia
High above Hexia, I floated on a pillow of black smoke. Dark magic seeped all around me. Beside me, Alataris held his hands over his head, making enormous balls of glowing silver magic. Like a cannon ball, he fired them down over Hexia. We floated on a black cloud above Hexia I could see cracks fanning out like a spiderweb all over the barrier protecting it. Alataris tilted his head back, letting loose a cackle so deep I felt it vibrate in my own chest.
As the cloud drifted lower toward Hexia, I could see chaos in the streets. People ducked away from the falling pieces, and screams drifted up toward us. I wanted to look away, but for Hexia I wouldn’t. I was a witness to this. I needed to see what Alataris was going to do. That moment would give me the courage to do what would come next.
We landed in the middle of Hexia. Thralls terrorized the streets. They ran through the windows of shops and pulled witches out into the open street. Witches scrambled away from them, falling to the ground and clutching their children.
The first time I’d ever seen a Thrall, I was terrified by their lack of humanity, their dark sunglasses, and the bright green shirts Alataris made them wear. It was like he had his own personal army in uniform. They were mindless zombie-like figures that Alataris himself drained and then infused with black magic. There were hundreds of them roaming the streets. Every witch they caught, they brought to the pavilion and forced them down to their knees. Row after row of witches of all shapes and sizes knelt before Alataris. Across the street, a Thrall wrapped his meaty arms around a small girl and grabbed her up. She clung to the stuffed rabbit in her hands. Tiny curls fell from the pigtails just above her ears. She couldn’t have been older than five. Tucker ran headlong toward it. He spun around and slashed his swords through it’s neck. Its head slid from its shoulder, and the Thrall turned to black dust. The girl fell to the ground and ran away.
My heart leapt out of my chest at the sight of him. But I couldn’t budge or give myself away at all. So I stood motionless at Alataris’s side. That’s when I saw them. A line of Thralls carrying Nova, Serrina and Tabitha to the center of town. They were bound, with their hands tied behind their backs, and gagged.
Alataris clapped his hands together and spun in a circle. “This is wonderful.” He motioned to the queens on the ground in front of him. “What an offering.”
“Zinnia!” Tucker bellowed my name and sprinted forward.
If he came to face Alataris head on, I knew he would die. I did the one thing I thought of that might save him. I grabbed the nearest Thrall, and with the power I’d siphoned from Tucker earlier, I set him on fire. The body erupted into towering flames. Its arms flailed wildly. I spun him toward Tucker and kicked him square in the back. The Thrall crashed into Tuck, taking him to the ground. More of the Thralls piled on top of him.
Alataris laughed even harder. “Marvelous, simply marvelous.”
Next, Grayson was dragged forward, unconscious and with blood spilling from his midsection. The life he always showed was nearly extinguished from him. Would he survive this night or the things I was about to do? He was followed by the rest of my friends, all bound and offered up to Alataris like a thanksgiving turkey. They hadn’t even had time to defend themselves. Tears prickled the back of my eyes, yet I had to hide what I felt. Soon, the cries around town died out and all that was left were the smoking heaps of leftover homes and shops. This wasn’t a war; it would be a slaughter if my plan didn’t work.
Alataris reached down and grabbed my hand up. “Now, my dear Zinnia, it’s time… Bring me the stone.”
Tucker struggled against the Thralls holding him back. “Don’t do it, Zin.”
I stepped forward. “I’m sorry, Tuck. I have to.”
“No! Zinnia, no!” My mother’s voice carried over the crowd. Her face was lit with warm firelight and covered in ash. A light breeze blew through the pavilion, and the flames flickered, casting shadows everywhere I looked.
Alataris dropped my hand and stood frozen. “Catherine…”
My mother rose to her feet and pulled the hood from her head. Her thick black hair tumbled over her shoulder. Those streaks of gray looked even whiter in the dark. “Alataris, it’s been a long time.”
He took a small step forward. “You’ve been here all this time?”
“No.” A single word was all he got out of her before she turned to me. “You don’t have to do this.”
“Mom, everything is going to be okay. Remember what you always told me. Be brave.” Was she getting the message? Could she see what needed to happen here? There was only one way for this to go. She tilted her head to the side, looking at me like I was a crazy person. Come on, Mom. You know me. I need your help. I wanted to yell to her, but I held still as stone.
“Catherine,” Alataris breathed in awe. “Come to me. I must see you.”
I shook my head, trying to get her to step away from him. Don’t come any closer, Mom, please. But she didn’t take my hint. She walked toward him. Her eyes were wide with terror, yet she held her chin up and marched forward. When she came to his side, he gazed at her with adoration.
“The years have been kind to you.” He bent down and grabbed her hand and placed a kiss on the back of it.
My mother closed her eyes and turned her head away. When his lips touched her skin, the muscles in her jaw ticked. “Zinnia, was there something you were going to do?”
Translation…do it now before I vomit.
I stepped toward the stone at the center of the pavilion. “Yes, I have an offering.”
“I can’t think of anything that would make this day better. Bring it here.” He waved me forward.
Please let this work, please let this work.
As I passed by Tucker, he shoved at the hands holding him down. “Zin, don’t.” Blood caked his face, and his clothing was torn and hanging from his body. He shoved at the hands holding him down to no avail.
My legs carried me to the pedestal where the stone sat. I reached up, expecting it to burn or hurt in some way, yet it didn’t. When I placed my had on the egg-shaped stone, it was cool to the touch. Sparks of energy flickered out toward my fingers, and warmth flooded my body. Ancient magic seeped into me, and I felt as though I could run a marathon.
“I’m sorry, Tuck, I have to. Mom.” I met her gaze. “I’m so sorry.”
My mom lifted her hand and pulled her sleeve up, revealing a tattoo like the one I had. “Alataris, do you remember this?” She held her wrist in front of his face, distracting him. “The mark.”
His eyes drifted over her face, then down her arm to her wrist. Then he pulled his own sleeve up to his elbow, holding his wrist next to hers. “How could I forget, soulmate?”
Soulmate! I nearly dropped the stone. Soulmate? Flashes of Tucker kissing that exact mark on my wrist flashed through my mind. Did that mean he was mine? How could he have kept something like this from me? If we survived this, I was going to kill him.
No, no, I couldn’t think about that right now. Focus, Zin! I closed my eyes and opened my senses. I wrapped my magic around the ancient spell in the stone and began to pull it toward me.
“Hey! What is she doing?” Alataris moved to grab the stone from my hands.
My mother was quick to leap onto his back, knocking him sideways. Chaos broke out as more witches jumped to their feet to fight back against the Thralls holding them. Tuck’s wings exploded from his back and knocked away any who tried to pin him down.
He summoned his swords to his palms, igniting them before he moved to stand beside me. “What’s the plan?”
“I need a minute.” I sucked in the power, taking it into me. The color leeched from the stone. It turned from a glowing orange to opaque white. I held i
t out in front of me. “You want the stone, Alataris? Come and get it.”
Alataris pulled my mother from his back, holding her at bay with one hand. With the other, he reached for the stone. I squeezed it as hard as I could. Like and egg, it cracked into pieces. When I dropped it to the ground, it turned to dust at my feet. White particles scattered across the pavilion. Alataris’ face crumbled into a mask of anger, and his lips pulled back from his teeth.
He hissed, “No! Do you have any idea what you’ve done?”
“I know what that stone does! You can’t have it.” I kicked the dust at my feet up in the air and let it scatter to the wind.
He shoved my mother to the ground at his feet. “You think you’ve stopped me, but you haven’t. I’m still taking Hexia. Only the strongest Siphon Witch can make another stone. And I won’t do it.”
A smile spread across my face. “You were the strongest.” I dove for one of Tuck’s swords and ran my palm over the sharp blade.
Blood poured from my fingertips as I reached up and yanked the necklace from my neck. I let my blood flow over the sapphire stone Tuck gave me for my birthday. I closed my eyes remembering the spell I’d seen on the scroll. I only prayed I said it right. “Casts of old, casts of new I now share my power with you. Combine them all in this hour, I call upon the ancient power. Draw the line here and now.” I squeezed the stone in my hand. Blood tricked down my fingers and fell into the dirt.
Alataris reached out for me. “No!”
It didn’t stop me from completing the spell. “With blood and power I call on thee, with blood and power I bless it be. By the power of five times five let this barrier come alive!”
I slammed the necklace down onto the pedestal. All at once, the barrier shot up from the center of the pavilion. The rolling wave pushed the Thralls out of Hexia like a tornado lifting and throwing them. They tumbled over each other, gusts whipped through the pavilion and tossing people to the ground. Tucker came up behind me and wrapped his arms around my hips, holding me down.
Wicked Witch (The Royals: Witch Court Book 1) Page 16
