Grim Haven (Devilborn Book 1)

by Jen Rasmussen

  Wendy walked in without waiting for an invitation. The woman with her gave me an apologetic smile and followed, then the man.

  “Okay, hello then,” I said. “Come on in.”

  Wendy glanced at Lance, Agatha, and Cooper sitting around my table, then turned to me. “Sorry, I can see you have company, but this can’t wait. These are my friends Lydia and Phineas Murdoch.”

  I nodded at them absently, then looked back at Wendy, waiting for her to tell me what had her so worked up. But Phineas stepped forward and gave me a lopsided smile, higher on the left side than the right. He held out his hand, and I shook it automatically.

  “I’m glad to meet you,” he said. “I have a lot—”

  “Not now, Phineas, there’s no time,” Lydia interrupted. “You can do that after.”

  At the same time, Wendy said to me, “Max sent us.”

  “What?” So Max had found a way to get in touch with me, after all. “Where is he? How do you—”

  “I’m afraid it’s an emergency,” Wendy said. “In fact, I think it might be starting already.”

  “What might be starting?” Cooper came to stand beside me. “What is this?”

  It was Lydia who answered.

  “The hotel is under siege,” she said.

  Why hadn’t I felt the darkness earlier, gathering so close? Maybe I’d been too distracted by Cooper, or maybe it was just the usual unreliability of my slim, sporadic clairvoyance.

  I certainly felt it now. Gray, black. And green. The green was troubling.

  It seemed that while I’d been busy fortifying the hotel’s defenses, Cillian Wick had been equally busy making friends. He’d formed some sort of unholy alliance with the Bristol Garden Club. And now, according to Max Underwood, they were mounting some unspecified—but deadly, he was sure of that much—attack on the Mount Phearson.

  I had no idea how Max had come by that intelligence, but Wendy and her friends seemed to trust him without question.

  “Anyway, I saw Elise Minnow’s minivan in the parking lot,” Wendy said. “And a police car.”

  My heart sank. “Asher?”

  Wendy shrugged. “Seems likely.”

  Wise woman that I was, the first thing I did upon learning of this imminent threat was: get into a power struggle with Cooper.

  “You need to stay here,” I told him. “I’ll go down and—”

  “The hell I will!” He was looking at me like I’d grown an extra head. An ugly one.

  “Cooper…”

  “Cooper what? This is not your call. Cillian Wick is my enemy, and I will decide how to deal with him.”

  “And the Garden Club is my enemy,” I said. “Or so it would seem. And this is my hotel. I am responsible for defending it.”

  He waved me off and started for the door. “I’m going down to meet him. I’m not about to hide up here when the head of the Wick clan is within my reach, weak—”

  I rushed between him and the door, then rounded on him. I knew, of course, that he could move me out of his way with no effort at all. I was banking on his being too much of a gentleman to manhandle a lady.

  But standing nose-to-nose, looking into his eyes, I thought I might lose that bet. There was no sign in that cold, hard face of the man I’d kissed the night before.

  “Verity—” His voice was so fierce, he didn’t even sound human. But then, he wasn’t. Maybe I’d do well to remember that.

  “Fine, I won’t try to stop you from going out there,” I said. “But the witches he has with him are not weak, I can promise you that. I can defend this place. Just give me thirty seconds to form some kind of strategy, will you? And then we’ll go together.”

  He didn’t answer, but he crossed his arms and leaned against the wall. I turned back to the others.

  Lance and Agatha were, of course, looking at us like we were escaped mental patients. But Wendy said, “How can we help?”

  “Are you sure you want to help? This isn’t really your problem.” I glanced at her two friends. “Especially yours.”

  “Any friend of Max’s is a friend of ours,” Phineas said.

  “No disrespect,” said Cooper, “but I don’t know that that’s good enough for me. I don’t know you. And that’s my mortal enemy out there.”

  Phineas shrugged one shoulder. “I don’t know you, either, but if that was my mortal enemy out there, I’d take all the help I could get.”

  “Even from strangers with no obvious motivation to help?” Cooper shot back.

  “Cooper,” I muttered, uncomfortable with the confrontation despite the fact that he had a point. Who were these people? Why should we trust them? I didn’t even know Wendy very well.

  “Max asked us to help you,” Lydia said. “That’s enough for us, and I think it should be enough for you. He seemed to feel you were friends.”

  I blinked at her, having no response to that.

  “But even aside from that, we’re not lacking in the motivation department,” Lydia went on. “We’ve had our share of run-ins with the Bristol Garden Club. As far as I’m concerned, they’ve got a reckoning to face. For a few things.”

  Phineas’s chuckle undermined his wife’s solemn tone. “The pepper spray incident comes to mind,” he said.

  Under other circumstances, I’d have been dying to hear that story. But I could practically feel Cooper behind me, coiled and ready to spring. I thought as quickly as I could. “Okay then, good enough. You’re right, we’ll take all the help we can get, with our thanks. So, Wendy and I will handle magical defense.”

  “I can help with that too,” said Lydia.

  I nodded at her. “Great. Listen though, we need to work with the hotel, not against it.”

  “What does that mean?” Wendy asked.

  “Let’s just say the Mount Phearson has some magical energy of its own,” I said. “Madeline Underwood muddled it a little, and that might work to her coven’s advantage now, but since Marjory was here last I’ve been working with the hotel’s power, twisting it together with my own. Hopefully to make something stronger than either of us.”

  “Place-magic?” Wendy asked.

  “Exactly,” I said. “You know it, then.”

  “I’ve heard of it, but I don’t know anything about it.”

  “Well, this is an inn, see? A haven. It’s built to give sanctuary to anyone under its roof.”

  Phineas gave me a curious look that I couldn’t interpret. Wendy and Lydia both looked skeptical. And I wasn’t even sure why Lance and Agatha were still there. They were clearly convinced this whole thing was either a group hallucination or a bad joke.

  But I guessed I was managing to speak with all the confidence I didn’t feel, because despite my being (I was pretty sure) the youngest one in the room, nobody interrupted or argued.

  “So don’t try to kick them out, or put up any wards against them,” I went on. “Don’t try to hurt them at all. You risk bringing down this whole delicate protection mechanism I’ve been working around the hotel, if you do.”

  “What do you want us to do, then?” asked Lydia.

  “Defense only,” I said. “Just focus on protecting everyone inside. If they can’t hurt anyone here—or take anything from anyone—then they’ve lost. So that’s our priority.”

  I looked at Cooper, who as I expected, showed no outward reaction to the part about taking anything. I wouldn’t betray his secret, but I wanted him to get the point.

  You might be in the mood to play cowboy, but not at the expense of losing that seed.

  “Our only priority,” I added, still not taking my eyes off his inscrutable ones. “Whatever they’re doing here, it’s their plan, and they’ve come on their terms. We’re going to protect the Mount Phearson, and let it protect us, so we can meet them on our terms when we’ve got a plan of our own. Got it?”

  “Live to fight another day, is that it?” Cooper asked.

  I didn’t blame him for the resentment in his voice. It sounded like he’d been living to fi
ght another day his whole life, when all along what he really wanted was to fight today.

  But I stood my ground. “Yes. Exactly.”

  “And if that protection should fail, I have some skill as a healer,” said Phineas.

  “Good,” I said. “And Cooper, since you can heal yourself, you handle any physical fighting that might prove necessary.”

  He nodded, with a glint in his eyes that suggested he hoped it would indeed come to that.

  Lance, on the other hand, felt differently. He stepped toward me, I guess in hopes that towering over me would intimidate me. Unfortunately for him, I was way past that. I’d snapped into survival mode, which made me both brave (at least outwardly) and bossy (sometimes stupidly).

  “Okay, that is enough,” Lance said. “There will be no physical fighting. I cannot believe what I’m hear—”

  “Lance,” I interrupted. “I am not going to stand here and try to talk you into believing in magic. Either you’ll see something today that takes care of that, or you won’t. Either way, I am your boss, if nothing else.”

  He raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms. I knew he hated to think of me that way, but I wasn’t in a diplomatic frame of mind. I’d just have to hope he didn’t quit before I could smooth things over. He really was good at his job.

  “Don’t worry,” I went on. “I’m not asking you to draw chalk pentagrams on the lobby floor. You and Agatha are in charge of public relations. Keep everything looking normal, and if the guests notice anything, make up excuses.”

  “If the guests notice what?” Agatha asked. “What exactly are you expecting to happen?”

  I glanced at Lydia and Phineas, who apparently had been the direct recipients of Max’s warning. Phineas’s shrug, I noticed, was as lopsided as his smile.

  I turned back to Agatha. “I have no idea. But I guess we’d better go and find out.”

  And so we did.

  The Mount Phearson still had a central grand staircase, that had been part of Colonel Phearson’s original mansion before it had been converted to a hotel. From its landing, we had an excellent vantage point of the lobby below. We stood at the railing and watched Marjory Smith, Cillian Wick, and Asher Glass chatting in the rocking chairs in front of the fireplace. Casual as could be, just passing a pleasant time with friends.

  Almost as disturbing as who was there, was who wasn’t. There was no sign of Falcon Wick. Nor of Elise Minnow, or any other members of the Bristol Garden Club.

  “Okay then,” I said softly. “Places, everyone.”

  Lydia, Wendy, and I split up, forming a sort of magical zone defense. Although Lydia apparently had some skill with witchcraft, she was a beginner who needed a lot of props, and had brought quite a few herbs and oils with her. I sent her and Phineas to defend the out-of-the-way back hallways, where her rituals would be less likely to be noticed by guests.

  Wendy, on the other hand, was a very practiced witch. She’d brought a couple of potions and poppets, but judging by the power I felt simmering beneath the surface, a few off-the-cuff protection spells wouldn’t be a problem for her. She was to cover the front entrance, and the adjoining halls that led to the newer wings. Lance and Agatha went down with her, to focus on the lobby, and trying to keep the coming battle away from the guests.

  Cooper and I went straight to the fireplace, to confront the enemies we could see.

  It was harrowing, walking right up to Cillian Wick, putting one of the things his clan had been hunting for centuries within his grasp. Especially now that I knew what it might mean, if he ever got all of the seeds. I’d sympathized with Cooper while I was listening to his story. I understood how hard it must have been for a guy like him, to always be told to run away like a cowed dog. But looking into Wick’s hungry eyes, I couldn’t help but feel there was wisdom in that directive.

  Wick rose from his chair, as did his companions. Asher was smirking at me, and I wished I could just knee him in the groin, right then and there. But I supposed that would wreck my protect-all-from-harm plan.

  Which would work. There was no reason it shouldn’t. My spells were everywhere already. I knew that. It would be fine.

  Please let it be fine.

  Cooper saw the way Asher was looking at me, and made a sound in his throat that was an awful lot like a growl. It didn’t seem loud enough for the others to hear, but maybe Asher saw something in Cooper’s face, too, because despite being in uniform and clearly armed, he took a step back.

  See? It’ll be fine.

  Nobody had said a word yet. And it seemed our opponents had no plans to. Silently, with just the barest of nods from Marjory, the three of them turned in unison, and walked away.

  And not in a hurry, either. Just strolling.

  “Hey!” Cooper called out.

  None of them turned around. They were heading toward the staircase. We followed.

  There were no guests on the stairs, nor in the hallway they turned down when we reached the second floor.

  “You won’t be able to harm anyone here,” I said.

  They showed no sign of hearing me. But they must have realized it was true; they’d made no move toward Cooper. Maybe they felt it.

  Unfortunately, I knew it worked both ways. Unwelcome or not, these three were guests under the Mount Phearson roof. I didn’t dare harm them, for fear of shattering everything I’d done. Like I’d told the others, it was complicated, this protection magic I’d worked, weaving my power together with that of the hotel. If one of us broke that spell, all hell would break loose right along with it.

  Cillian Wick walked down the middle of the hall, Marjory and Asher on either side of him. They paused at each guest room they came to, Marjory on the left, Asher on the right, and placed a palm against the door before moving on.

  Cooper stepped forward, as if to interfere, but I held him back. Instead I stopped and put my ear to one of the doors they’d passed.

  I could hear guests inside. A man asking a question, something about dinner that night. A woman saying something in reply, laughing as she did.

  They’re fine.

  Cooper had stopped with me, but he was watching Marjory, Asher, and Wick, still making their silent way down the hall.

  “Trust me,” I whispered. “They know they can’t hurt us. They’d have attacked you by now, if they could.”

  “So what are they doing? Why are they even here?”

  I shook my head. I wasn’t quite sure what their game was yet. “Trying to spook us?”

  He smiled, just the tiniest bit, and leaned forward to whisper even more softly into my ear. “Then I don’t mind telling you, it’s working.”

  I watched our enemies, nearing the end of the hall now. It was so tempting to just attack them while they were within reach. Even for me. I could only imagine what it was like for Cooper, who’d apparently been dreaming his whole life of a chance to hurt Cillian Wick.

  And vice-versa, for that matter. Did Cillian know that the carriers kept their sapwood seeds on them at all times? Did he trust my magic, or his companions, or whatever their plan was, so much that he could resist just reaching out and trying to take it?

  “Maybe that’s it, then,” I said. “They’re trying to provoke us. Marjory was Miss Underwood’s best friend. She knows the hotel. It’s possible she understands the magic I’ve been working here. They may want to draw us into trying to hurt one of them, as a way to break the protection spell.”

  “Good thing you warned everyone that this is a defense-only operation,” Cooper said.

  I nodded and gave him the sternest look I could manage. “Just you remember it.”

  Cooper glowered at Wick, who was smiling at him. They were coming back our way. Cooper looked like he was ready to spring, but all he said was, “Your hotel, your show. For now.”

  Just then, a family turned into the hall, two young boys running in front. The kids passed Cooper and I, but stopped dead when they saw the trio of terror.

  Cillian grinned and put his hand
s on his knees, bending toward them. “Well, hello there. On vacation, are you? What will you be doing while you’re here?”

  “Ian, Jake, don’t talk to strangers,” their mother said. She didn’t even bother putting a polite twist on it.

  Their father stepped forward. “Can I help you?”

  There shouldn’t have been anything suspicious—especially in the South—about a kindly, possibly sickly old man making vacation small talk with a couple of excited kids, in the presence of their parents and other witnesses. Maybe he was lonely. Maybe they reminded him of his own grandsons. Or maybe he was just nice. Under normal circumstances, the couple probably would have chatted him up for a while. Even told him all about their boys.

  But they must have felt what I did, even if only subconsciously: power. Angry power.

  It was emanating not from Cillian, but from Asher and Marjory behind him. They were trying to work magic to harm these people. Cursing them.

  Why, when they hadn’t tried to hurt us?

  Because civilians make easier targets.

  Asher caught my eye, and flicked his tongue at me. Disgusting pig. It was all I could do not to attack him.

  Which was probably exactly what he wanted. But now more than ever, I had to stick to my defense plan. I gathered up my own power, and pushed my will outward as hard as I could, focusing on the words of one of my spells.

  All are safe at the Mount Phearson Hotel.

  My magic wasn’t especially strong outside my stories, as a rule, but I’d already infused so much energy through the hotel. All I needed to do was tap into it.

  All are safe at the Mount Phearson hotel.

  I felt my force of will pushing against Marjory’s and Asher’s. The air was thick with pressure. One of my ears actually popped. The moment felt like it stretched on for ages.

  And then time moved again. The hostility faded as quickly as it had come, and Cillian straightened up, cupping an ear and smiling at the boys’ father.

  “What’s that?” Wick asked.

  “I asked if we could help you with something,” the father said, but his voice was less firm now. He seemed confused.