Carolina Conjuring

by Alison Claire

  I now knew that he was lucky to escape with a black eye; fate had intervened on his behalf to keep me from subconsciously shattering his jaw. Or spine.

  Calista brought us down next to the tree; it was late enough that the small visitor’s center was closed for the day and we had the park to ourselves, but for a night watchman who Aleta dealt with.

  Palmer and Lukas settled onto the ground as softly as infants being placed in their cribs by their mothers.

  Emma squatted down next to the massive trunk of the tree, placing both her palms on it. After a moment, she moved one hand to Palmer’s bare chest and gritted her teeth.

  Josephine took Palmer’s hands in her own and sent him all the inspirational love she could muster. I felt like the ultimate fifth wheel; my power was useless here. I was a spectator.

  Aleta placed her hands on Emma’s temples to boost her somehow, and Calista, to my surprise, came up behind me and placed a hand on my shoulder.

  “Emma’s going to save them,” Calista assured me. “Both.”

  The last thing I expected was to be comforted by Calista Embers. But I was grateful for it.

  I covered Calista’s hand with my own, and we settled back to watch.

  The trembling began with Josephine.

  Silent tears rolled down her cheeks.

  Aleta began to shake, throwing her head back and whispering a mantra none of us could hear.

  Wind began to whip through the branches of the Angel Oak, the massive branches groaning with the strain.

  Emma was the center of the maelstrom, digging her fingernails into the bark of the tree. Her eyes had ben tightly shut, but she opened them and stared hard at Palmer’s unmoving form.

  “Give! Him!” Emma shouted, punctuating each word by hammering on Palmer’s chest with her closed fist. “Back!”

  As her fist crashed down on Palmer following the word “back,” a bolt of lightning split the sky.

  The miracle began.

  It started as a sputtering cough, small and quiet, but unmistakable.

  Palmer’s head lolled to one side, and he coughed again, more forcefully.

  Calista reacted first, kneeling next to Palmer and rolling him onto his side. She struck him on the back and he coughed again, vomiting water.

  Aleta looked at Emma in wonderment. We all did.

  Emma collapsed, looking as if she’d just ran a marathon. Josephine embraced Palmer, whose eyelids fluttered open.

  I dropped to my knees and pulled Emma upright, holding her tight. “Oh my God, Emma, you’re… I can’t even put into words…”

  She pushed me away. “Lukas. We have to save Lukas!”

  She crawled to him and put a hand on his shoulder and one on the tree.

  “Emma, are you sure?” My twin was completely spent. Selfishly, I wanted desperately for her to help Lukas, but she looked near death herself.

  “I…got…this,” Emma said, steeling herself to save a second life.

  Headlights flashed across Angel Oak, announcing visitors.

  Moments later, we were joined by Virginia and a tall, handsome older man with long gray hair, dressed in a blue suit.

  By then, Emma was lying across Lukas’s chest, barely able to move.

  “I have…there’s nothing left,” Emma whispered. “I’m so sorry, Briar…”

  Virginia crouched gracefully beside Emma. The man who accompanied her stood at some distance, watching solemnly.

  “Let me, sweet Emma,” Virginia said. She held Emma’s hand and stroked her hair. “You rest now.” Virginia turned her attention to Lukas, and within moments he experienced the same “awakening” as Palmer had.

  I sat with Lukas, rubbing his back and supporting him as he regained his strength.

  Palmer had attempted to stand, but he was too weak. Aleta cradled Emma’s head on her lap.

  We were a pitiful bunch, to be certain.

  More headlights arrived, this time Fiona driving the Land Rover we’d left outside the hospital.

  When Palmer and Lukas had their wits about them, and they noticed the man who Virginia had with her, their demeanor became almost reverential. But also… fearful? I was confused.

  The stranger spoke.

  “Sasha and Warren are dead. Beyond even the help of Virginia Embers. By all rights, you two should be, as well. You almost cost the healer her life, trying to save you. You two have been very foolish. The council will meet, but I would anticipate that you’ll both be banished. Not that it matters, as you’ve both lost the ability to shift. To say that I’m disappointed would an understatement. You’ve put us all in great danger.

  “Thank you, Virginia, and you, Emma, for saving these two, even though they clearly don’t know how to conduct themselves or what to do with the gift of life anyway.”

  With that, he turned and walked back to his vehicle.

  “Who was…” Virginia answered my question before I could finish asking it.

  “Solomon Lambiotte. He’s chief of the mermen. He’s an insufferable twit, but he has a seat on the shifter’s council.

  “The mermaids and mermen here operate under a strict set of parameters we in the supernatural community have agreed upon.

  “In other places, they’re free to take whichever form they desire, whenever and wherever they wish. Down in the Florida Keys, for example, their existence is almost common knowledge.

  “Around here, they’re merely rumor… like the lizard men you encountered. Some people swear up and down to have seen them, but we work together to keep them out of the public eye.

  “I realize it was all in good fun, but what you girls did today at the beach was a serious breach of etiquette, and due to your indiscretions, two are dead and these two were on the brink.”

  “It was Ezekiel,” hissed Calista. “We’re allowed to exist. I’m tired of having to pretend we don’t. And that they don’t.” Calista waved her hand toward Palmer and Lukas.

  “I realize that you’re tired of a great many things, Calista, but this is neither the time nor the place to air your grievances,” Virginia replied, with her typical, unflappable cool.

  “With. All. Due. Respect. To you, everything you’ve done for me, and to your lineage, I’m done pretending, finished hiding, and ready to finish Ezekiel,” said an enraged Calista.

  Virginia’s impeccably made-up face twitched as she swallowed her own anger and frustration. She and Calista stood nose to nose, and the air around us crackled with energy, like the lull in a thunderstorm.

  “Calista…” Josephine called out, trying to defuse the situation. I could feel her empathically calming me. I hoped it would work on Calista and Virginia.

  The next thing I knew, we were all back in Virginia’s mansion, seated around the long dining room table. All of us. Save Calista.

  Virginia sat at the head of the immense, majestic table, flanked by Josephine and Aleta. I was next to Aleta, opposite Emma. The pair of mermen were next to my twin, and Fiona was beside me, her duties temporarily set aside for our evidently very important meeting.

  “How did we…?” Emma asked.

  “The situation at Angel Oak was untenable,” Virginia explained. “So, I brought us home. Calista is resting. We’ll be joined soon by some friends with whom we can consult and figure out how best to preserve our way of life, if possible keep the peace, and come out of this with no further bloodshed.”

  “My uncle will be arriving shortly,” Aleta added. “With Chantelle.”

  “Delightful,” Virginia commented. “You two must be famished.” She nodded toward Lukas and Palmer. They nodded their assent.

  “You were in death’s clutches,” Virginia continued. “It nearly cost Emma everything to pry those cold fingers apart and extricate you. Describe to us what happened, please. I know you visited with my girls at the beach earlier today. What happened once you left?”

  Palmer cleared his throat. “First of all, thank you, Emma,” he said, reaching across Palmer to take Emma’s hand. “It isn’t ne
arly enough but thank you.” “No thanks necessary,” Emma replied. “I couldn’t have faced Josephine and Briar again anyway if I didn’t do everything possible to help.”

  “Ah, but you did the impossible, Emma,” Virginia interjected. “Make no mistake about that. According to Aleta, Palmer was gone. Your power is healing. There wasn’t anything left to heal. I’ve lived a very long time, Ms. Emma, and I’ve never seen a feat to equal what you did today.

  “We’ll discuss the particulars later,” Virginia said. “For now, let young Lukas and Palmer have their say.”

  “We left Isle of Palms, heading down the coast,” Palmer began. “We were racing. We went into the Harbor and circled Drum Island. Lukas was ahead of me heading back out of the Harbor, but close enough that I could see him. Out of nowhere, he changed back to his human form.

  “At first I thought he was taunting me; like turning backwards during a running race, almost – like ‘I can beat you even swimming with my legs” that sort of thing. But then I realized he was as surprised as I was. He swallowed a bunch of water, out of instinct, trying to breathe. The water was rough near the surface, but calmer deeper down, where we were. When he surfaced and hadn’t shifted back, I knew something was wrong.

  “I turned back to check on him and suddenly I switched back to human as well. It caught me completely off guard. It’s never happened to me against my will before, shifting either way. I also swallowed water trying to breathe, it was instinctual. But, of course, I had no gills.

  Lukas picked up the retelling of their near-tragedy. “Once we were both up, we compared notes and knew we were in trouble. I couldn’t change, and neither could Palmer. There weren’t any boats around and getting zapped of our powers like we did had us both as weak as newly hatched sea turtles. Not to mention totally confused.

  “We decided we could make it to Shute’s Folly, but the closer we seemed to get to the island, the farther away it got. I know it doesn’t make any sense, but something was moving the island.”

  “Or making you think it was moving,” Aleta offered.

  “Either way, we were in bad shape and making no progress,” Palmer said. “He started toward James Island and I followed him. But that was no better. And soon I was drowning. Lukas pulled me up and treaded water with me as long as he could, but we’d both swallowed too much water. It was hopeless. I don’t know what happened after that.”

  “The Coast Guard found you,” Virginia explained. “Two handsome young men floating in the shipping lanes outside Charleston Harbor, completely naked. As you can imagine, the press is having a field day with the story of the two presumed inebriated College of Charleston students who must have fallen off a boat and then subsequently disappeared from MUSC.

  “Not even Aleta will be able to make the story go away, and your pictures are already in too many places to make them disappear.

  “Solomon is furious, and despite my best efforts, he seems determined to have you both banished. Which may be a moot point anyway, if neither of you can shift any longer.”

  “Is there anything that could have been in the water that could have done it?” I asked. I hoped I didn’t sound like a complete idiot.

  Before anyone could answer, Dr. Ibis and Chantelle arrived, trailed by a round woman in her fifties or sixties with long, thick braids hanging over each shoulder down the front of her green sweater. I wondered if she’d ever cut her hair in her entire life. She also wore multiple sets of brightly-colored beads, all colors of the rainbow.

  Last to enter the room was a black man in a burgundy suit. Whereas Dr. Ibis guided the woman with the beads to the end of the table and pulled out the chair opposite Virginia for her, and Chantelle went straight into the kitchen, the man in the suit strode purposefully directly to Virginia, taking her hand in his and kissing it.

  “Thank you for coming, Silas. Sorry to be a bother.”

  “No bother at all, Ms. Virginia, he assured her. His smile and green eyes were captivating. Every eye in the room was on him.

  “I think we’re all here then, everyone who’s coming?” Virginia asked, and heads who knew nodded accordingly.

  The man who entered the room last, Silas, melted into the shadows in the corner of the room, producing a small notebook from his coat pocket. He began scribbling notes.

  “Belles, you know Dr. Ibis, of course. The friend he brought with him is Darla Counts Owls. She’s a shaman from the Congaree tribe, near Columbia. Darla has been a dear friend of mine and ally of ours for a very long time. She’s also close to Solomon Lambiotte. I’ve invited her here to consult with me as to solving some of our various problems. Welcome, Darla.”

  “Thank you, Virginia,” Darla replied. “Emma and Briar, it’s wonderful to finally meet the two of you. Virginia has told me so much about you.”

  Emma thanked her, but I was barely listening. The man in the corner was mesmerizing; it was difficult to draw my attention away from him.

  He’s not somebody you want to fall for, Aleta spoke into my mind. Besides, I thought you and Lukas were a thing?

  I replied, trying to look nonchalant. It would take a while to master this whole “participating-in-a-verbal-and-a-telepathic-conversation-simultaneously-without-appearing-distracted” thing. It’s not like that, Aleta, he’s just…

  I know, Aleta answered. But he’s a whole different ball of wax. Pay attention to the table. If Darla came all the way here from Columbia, Virginia thinks things are serious.

  She’s a shaman? Like a medicine man? Err, Dr. Quinn, supernatural medicine woman?

  Afford her the proper respect, Briar. In many ways, she’s the most powerful person in this room.

  Suddenly, Aleta’s voice was joined in my head by another.

  Boo!

  The voice was Darla’s.

  I’ve never been compared to Jane Seymour before. That’s quite a compliment. Thank you, Briar.

  I looked at Aleta, who gave me a little smile and a shrug. I turned my head to Darla, who was fixed on Virginia and gave no indication she was communicating with me.

  “Sasha Martin, Palmer’s cousin, and her boyfriend Warren Richburg died today,” Virginia recounted. “They drowned in the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Sullivans Island. We haven’t lost two of our local mers on the same day since Hurricane Katrina, some thirty years ago.

  “I believe our friend Ezekiel Walker is responsible, but I have no proof. Palmer and Lukas, I’d like Aleta and Darla, with your permission of course, to review the events of this afternoon with you, for all of us to watch and see if we can find any clues. Josephine will soothe you if things prove difficult. I think it’s important, especially with Silas present, that we’re all involved. If he’s to help me present a compelling case to the Conclave, we need all the facts. Agreed?”

  Palmer and Lukas nodded, and we rearranged ourselves so that Lukas and Palmer sat on either side of Josephine, holding her hands. Aleta and Darla sat opposite them, clasping hands with the two mermen and with each other.

  I had questions, but I’d save them for later. Conclave?

  Virginia, Emma, and I retreated away from the table to couches set against the wall near the entrance to the kitchen. Fiona dimmed the lights in the room were to near complete darkness before excusing herself to assist Chantelle in the kitchen. Silas was completely invisible.

  On the far wall, lights began to twinkle and flicker, like a handful of fireflies. They were joined by more and more lights until the flickers coalesced into an image. It was like watching television, but 3D. Like a hologram. Ocean sounds filled the room; waves gulls, and a ship’s horn.

  The image filled the room, and we were, all of us, immersed in it. We were in the ocean, seeing the events of earlier in the day through the eyes of Palmer. Or Lukas. Or both. I had no way of knowing. My mind was blown, anyway. I rubbed my fingertips together, surprised to find myself dry.

  I made eye contact with Emma, who was evidently having the same difficulty processing reality as I was.


  12 Emma

  By the light of the ocean waves in Virginia’s dining room (A sentence I never dreamed I’d say, type, or even think), I made eye contact with my twin, who was as awestruck as I by what we were witnessing.

  Dolphins splashed “nearby,” and I felt a pang of jealousy that Briar had gotten to experience swimming with them firsthand.

  A behemoth of a cargo ship moved by, sending large waves billowing out in its wake. We were back beneath the water, a wonderland of fish making way as we knifed through the water as surrogate mermen.

  The viewpoint shifted back and forth between Palmer and Lukas, which was initially unsettling, but when I considered the fact that were experiencing it at all, thanks to Aleta and Darla, was insanely cool.

  Lukas cut through the water like Michael Phelps wished he could, reaching out to grab the dorsal fin of a stocky gray shark that had to be twelve feet long before zipping away from the annoyed beast, who gave up its pursuit quickly. The move was pure Lukas, and we all laughed despite the solemn occasion.

  Shortly thereafter, we watched as Lukas slowed and stopped, floating to the surface as his tail split into a pair of legs. He looked terrified and in trouble, coughing and struggling.

  We switched to Lukas’s point of view, Palmer bobbing to the surface twenty yards away, similarly afflicted.

  “Pause here, please.” The velvet baritone of the man we knew only as Silas.

  He stepped into the center of the room and performed a slow turn, making notes on his pad. When he faced the corner from where he’d just been standing, he made a motion with his hands as if he were pulling a rope, reeling it toward him, hand over hand. A sailboat which had been at some distance moved toward, then past him as he zoomed in and enlarged the frozen image.

  “As I suspected,” Silas muttered.

  A shape appeared on the horizon, a dot, which grew as Silas “pulled” it closer. It was a boat… a yacht. An enormous but sleek white yacht with a pale blue stripe running from front to back. Starboard to bow? Bow to stern? I could never remember the proper terminology. What I knew about yachts could be written on the head of a pin with room left to spare. But I knew the craft I was looking at screamed wealth.