by Nova Nelson
“It sounds like a sorceress,” said Tanner. “Is that what you’re getting at?”
Eva nodded. “A sorceress or some sort of magical temptress. Either way, a powerful woman with sex appeal who knows her way around magic. And who still has it bad for Liberty.”
“Where is she, though?” asked Donovan. “Is she just hiding out in the woods, causing all this trouble until she can make her move on Liberty? We should start looking for her. Tanner, you and Eva should take Fluke Mountain, and Nora and I can search the Deadwoods.”
Tanner stepped forward, placing his hand firmly on Donovan’s chest and pushing him back a step. “Easy there. I really don’t want to hit you with another stun spell, but … well, no, I kinda do want to right now. Don’t give me an excuse.”
Donovan nodded and stood down.
She was hiding somewhere in Eastwind, but where? And for how long? Something told me she hadn’t been here long but—
Oh no.
My stomach sank when the idea popped into my mind. “I don’t think she’s hiding,” I said morosely. “Or rather, she is, but she’s hiding in plain sight.”
I was such a fool. Right under my nose, and I hadn’t seen it.
“What do you mean?” Tanner asked.
I looked at Eva and watched it dawn on her. “Oh swirls,” she said. “I didn’t see it either. But now it seems kinda obvious, doesn’t it?”
“What?” Tanner demanded. “What seems obvious?”
I turned to Liberty. “Any chance you know a witch from a farm outside of town who goes by the name Cassandra?”
Liberty’s eyes bounced between mine and Eva’s before he shook his head minutely. “No, should I?”
“Yes, you should,” said Eva. “Because you’ve dated her multiple times.”
Chapter Twenty
“I can help,” Liberty insisted. “You’ll need all the help you can get against her. Trust me. If she’s an archetype, that means she’s also a master manipulator.”
We’d been going back and forth like this for minutes now, and I was only repeating myself when I said, “No, Liberty. I’m sorry, but I don’t see how you could help when she has you under her spell like this.”
“She has you under her spell, doesn’t she?” He brandished the words like a sword, jabbing them in my direction.
A little on the rude side for the congenial genie, but I didn’t let it get to me. “I don’t know how you know that, but yes, she does. Only, it’s not her I can’t stop thinking about. That’s the difference.”
What I left unsaid was that I flat out didn’t trust him in this situation. After all, he’d fallen for this same woman multiple times, fallen straight back into her arms. Why would this time be any different? If he didn’t break the cycle, all his presence there would do was put us in more danger.
The only thing more daunting than taking on an archetype was taking on an archetype and a genie at the same time.
He groaned. “Okay, fine. But if you all get murdered, I’m going to feel terrible about it.”
“That’s all we can ask of you,” announced Tanner.
Liberty nodded at him. “Don’t worry. You especially.” He broke the tension with that giant grin of his, teeth sparking with sheer charisma as he reached out and patted Tanner firmly on the shoulder.
“Thanks, my man,” said Tanner, grinning hopelessly back at the genie.
An owl flew out of the night and Tanner held out his hand to offer it a perch. He plucked a note from the bird’s claw and rolled it open delicately. “I know,” he said to the owl. “I’m already doing the best I can.” The owl squawked at him aggressively, and Tanner rolled his eyes, reached in his pocket, and pulled out a pellet as payment. After eating it, the owl was happy to disappear again.
He turned to me. “We should get a move on.”
“Was that an emergency owl?” I asked.
He stuffed the tiny slip of paper into his pocket. “Yep.”
“You can’t leave yet,” I said. “We need you with us.”
He laughed. “I have no intention of leaving. I know that if I have any chance of keeping this town from self-destructing tonight, I’d better follow your lead. All I’m saying is we should probably get to it because things aren’t getting any less weird.”
“At least take this,” Liberty said, holding his fist out to me. When he uncurled his fingers, a small metal object rested in his palm.
“Cool trick,” I said, “but what is it?”
He raised it higher, implying I should take it, so I did. It was heavier than I’d expected.
“It’s a way to reach me if you need,” he clarified.
I held it up to the light of the park’s oil lamps to inspect it. “It just looks like a chain link.”
“Because it is. More specifically, it’s an iron chain link. Broken. If you need me, just hold that in your hand and make a wish for me to appear.”
I slipped the link into the pocket of my coat then narrowed my eyes at him. “I thought you were freed. You’re still granting wishes?”
“Sometimes,” he said. “There’s a difference, though. I don’t have to grant wishes anymore, and that makes all the difference. If I never granted wishes, well, I would still be a slave to my past, letting it tell me what not to do. In that, I would still be a slave. I have a real choice now, and sometimes I grant the wish, sometimes I don’t.” He winked.
“Noted,” I said, returning the smile despite having no intention of asking for his help later on.
He vanished in a blink.
What next? I allowed myself a moment to think before turning to face the other three. We needed one more to complete the circle, and I knew just who it had to be.
He wouldn’t be happy about me showing up unannounced on his doorstep again, and this time with others to back the cause. But Landon Hawker was a relatively small person, and we could overpower him if it came to that. Yeah, I was willing to go there.
But I guessed that wouldn’t be necessary. He would eventually give in long enough to hear our side and why we needed to do what we were about to do. He would see the light. He had to. Then we could get on with the tricky part.
When he answered the door, he was grinning as broadly as before, a smile that spread from ear to ear and caused his cheeks to glow bright pink.
It vanished as soon as he saw me standing there, and in its place came a dark skepticism as he looked from Tanner to Donovan to Eva. “What’s up?”
“Sorry to do this to you, but we need your help.”
“Again?”
“Yes, again.”
He slipped out and shut the door behind him. “Now’s not a good time.”
“No time is a good time to take on an archetype.”
He tilted his head to the side like a confused puppy. “Did you just say archetype?”
“Yep. She’s the one that’s cast the love spell over Eastwind, and things are going south quick. We need your help to break the spell and send her back.”
He opened his mouth to respond, but nothing came out except a small croak. He scanned the faces awaiting him eagerly. “You can’t be serious. From everything I’ve read about them, they can’t be beaten. They can manipulate anyone. They can tap into your personal history and twist it around against you. The only way the five of us could possibly, maybe muster enough power to confront one would be through a connection ritual.”
“Yep. That’s what I was thinking.”
“Wait, what?” said Tanner from behind me. “I didn’t know that’s what we were doing.”
I ignored him. He was already on board regardless, that much was obvious. I could iron out the details with him later. Landon, on the other hand, didn’t even have one foot in the boat yet.
Another owl flew out of the night sky, and Tanner waved it off, saying, “I know, I know. I’m already on it.”
“You’re basically talking about forming a circle,” Landon continued. “You know I have no interest in that.”
�
��Neither do I,” I said honestly. “But desperate times call for desperate measures, and we just witnessed two werebears nearly tear each other apart over a leprechaun.”
That piqued his interest, and I thought, Yes! I have him!
Then he took a half-step toward the door. “Nope. I’m not interested. I still don’t see why a second chance at love is such a bad thing.”
Tanner stepped forward. “Want me to explain it to you?” he said, his voice so low it was almost a growl. “I reckon I have less than twelve hours before I have to physically restrain my girlfriend and my best friend to keep them from running off into the Deadwoods together.”
Landon narrowed his eyes at me. “Is that true, Nora?”
“Oh yes,” I said. “I’m literally thinking about ways to make that happen right now.”
“Ditto,” said Donovan. Eva smacked him in the chest with the back of her hand.
(Tanner waved off another owl.)
Landon sighed, then cracked his front door again and slipped through. “I’m sorry. Really, I am. But you’ll need to find some other North Wind to help.”
“Landon,” I scolded. “What has gotten into you? Since when do you have zero interest in getting into trouble?” I placed a hand on the side of the door to keep him from closing it in my face. There wasn’t another North Wind we could wrangle. I knew it had to be him. And the fact that he wasn’t being affected by the love spell only made him an even better choice.
When I began to pry open the door, he yanked it back.
“What are you hiding?” I demanded. I pulled the door harder and bobbed to try to see around him. He moved to block my view each time.
“Nothing,” he insisted.
I didn’t believe him, obviously, and continued to try to see past him into his home. “Then can we come inside?”
“No!” he barked. Then less urgently, “The place is a mess.”
“Unicorn swirls,” I said. “You’re hiding something from us. Does this have anything to do with the archetype? Wait.” My jaw dropped and I gasped. “Is she in there?”
Horror washed over his face. “What? No! She’s not. I, uh, I don’t know where she is.” He blinked twice. “Wait, who are you talking about?”
“Cassandra!”
The clues made sense in the moment. Cassandra presented as cute and young, but not dumb by any means. She would be the perfect crush for Landon, and if she was truly the archetype we were hunting, she could manipulate his feelings any which way she wanted. Even without that, Landon would likely help her hide if she claimed to be in danger. Especially after he was unable to protect the last girl he loved.
But his reaction wasn’t what I was expected following the accusation. Instead of denying it, he said, “Who?” and in his confusion, his grip on the door loosened. I seized my chance and ripped it open.
He tried to jump in front of me, but Tanner intervened and moved him to the side so I could get by.
If the last few days had taught me anything, it was that I would find who I was looking for in the bedroom.
Since I didn’t know precisely where his bedroom was, I had to do a little searching, but I found it easily enough; it was the one with the closed door.
Hera, Landon’s lynx familiar, slept outside the room like a sentry but raised her head when I came charging toward her. “I mean no harm,” I said cautiously.
She stood, arching slightly.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, girl.” I held up my hands defensively. She may not be a mountain lion like Eva’s familiar, but the fierceness of a lynx was nothing to scoff at. “You know me. We’re cool. And I didn’t bring Grim.”
Slowly, she laid down again, and I gave her a wide berth as I approached the door.
I gripped the knob, and shut my eyes briefly, knowing Landon and the others were likely not far behind.
Please don’t let me see something I can’t unsee.
Then I pushed open the bedroom door.
And when my gaze fell on her sitting there, absorbed in her book, a whole heap of reality came crashing down around me.
Chapter Twenty-One
She was nestled on a cushion in a bay window of Landon’s bedroom. The shades were drawn behind her, and she had a thick open book propped against her bent knees. At her feet rested a snowball of a cat who didn’t bother to look up at the sudden sound and movement. The witch’s head, however, jerked toward the door when I burst in, and the look of trapped prey flashed in her eyes once it was clear I wasn’t Landon.
She may not have known who I was, but I recognized her immediately from the pictures.
“Grace?” I said.
Footsteps pounded down the hall and Landon skidded to a stop just in front of me, blocking my view of the previously missing witch. “I can explain.”
It felt like I’d swallowed a cinderblock. “You don’t have to. I get it.”
He swallowed hard. “Now you know why I can’t help you undo the spell.” He sounded miserable, and I didn’t envy him the position in which he now found himself.
“Oh, for fang’s …” Tanner muttered from behind me. “If anyone asks, I never saw the missing person. I currently have enough on my plate without this case coming back.”
Donovan and Eva finally arrived in the hall behind us and peered into the room.
“Sphinx’s riddle,” said Eva. “Is that who I think it is?”
Landon approached Grace then took a seat beside her on the window bench. “It’s okay,” he said. “They’re not going to tell anyone you’re here”—he glared back at us—“right?”
We bobbed our heads compliantly.
“I want to help you guys, really,” he said, “but I would be an idiot to stop a spell that, well …” He nodded at Grace.
“I get it.” But at the same time, the only plan I had was falling apart. “I hope you don’t begrudge us if we try to stop it anyway.”
“Of course not,” he said.
I turned to Tanner, Donovan, and Eva. “I guess we need to find another North Wind.” Who, though? Who could we trust? Who had their wits about them enough right now? Who would be willing to take on something so potentially dangerous as an archetype?
From behind me, Grace spoke. Her voice was firm. “I’m a North Wind. I’ll help.”
“Grace, no,” said Landon, the betrayal ringing through his plea.
The tiny blonde witch might have looked meek, but I’d clearly misjudged her. She marked the place in her book with a light blue ribbon and then shut it and set it neatly on the pillow as she rose, staring down at Landon. “Someone has to, genius.”
He hurried to his feet. “Yeah, and it doesn’t have to be you.”
“It does if you won’t do it,” she replied.
“Please,” he pleaded. “Just let them handle it, we can stay here and—”
“No way,” she said. “You know how much I’m risking just to be in this realm. You think I’m going to sit by and let the town I love fall apart?”
He rested his hands on her arms and muttered, “But … the baby.”
Oof. Awkward.
I was immediately thankful that I wasn’t present for their initial discussion of the baby Grace carried inside her who was most definitely not Landon’s. Had they made arrangements for when it came? What if it turned out to be a werewolf like its father instead of a witch like its mother?
Not the time, Nora.
Grace put her hands on her hips. “If you don’t want me doing something dangerous, then there’s an easy solution. But one of us is going to go out there, complete that circle, and try to stop whatever is messing with this town. Your choice who.”
Landon’s lips pressed into a thin line, and even from ten feet away, I could see a taut muscle in his jaw twitch. “No,” he said. “We’re both staying here.”
Grace chuckled and placed a hand on his cheek, gazing into his eyes. “Oh, Landon, it’s really cute that you think you get to make that choice for me.” She paused. “Go. I promise I’ll still be h
ere when you come back.”
“No, you won’t. Not if we break the spell.”
“I think you underestimate what I can do when I set my mind to it. You have to trust me when I say I didn’t come back because of the spell. I came back because I realized there was someone here who cared for me, and I’d been an idiot to leave that behind.”
Landon was silent as he lifted a hand to his face, placing it over hers. “Okay. I’ll trust you.”
He turned toward the rest of us. “Just so we’re clear, I eat for free at Medium Rare until the day I die.”
I nodded vigorously.
Donovan rolled his eyes. “Considering that might be today, it’s not exactly a hard bargain.”
“Whatever. Let’s go.” Landon breezed past us without another word, and we followed behind him.
But not before I cast one last look into the bedroom and nodded at Grace Merryweather. “Glad to see you’re safe.”
She flashed me a lightning grin. “If you get him killed, I’m coming after you.”
I cringed, recoiling. I cleared my throat. “Right. Got it.” I forced a smile, aware that I was already pushing my luck tonight; the last complication I needed was to end up on the wrong side of a pregnant witch.
Chapter Twenty-Two
As Landon grabbed a jacket, Tanner asked, “Do we go find her, or do we call her to us?”
“I already know where she is,” I said. “She’s at Medium Rare. I’m starting her off with night shift under Bryant until she gets the hang of it. Eventually, I’ll transition her to day shift so Eva can look for a better job.”
“Um …” said Eva. “I guess this hasn’t clicked for you yet, but you will not be transitioning her to daytime.”
“Oh, right.” So many details to keep track of. “Then, um, sorry, but I’m going to need you to stay on a little while longer.”
She nodded. “I understand, and assuming I’m alive come tomorrow, I’m happy to do so.”
Landon opened the front door and we filed out. Hera tried to follow us, but Landon stuck out his leg to stop her. “No, girl. You stay here with Grace and Kiki. If something happens to me, it’s your job to keep them safe.” He paused, staring down at the lynx. “Yes, of course I want you to avenge my death. We’ve talked about this.” He paused again. “Exactly. Just don’t get caught.”
