Dead Over Heels

by Lily Webb

  I tried to move my hands, but found that someone had bound them behind my back — and all at once, the fog that’d settled over my mind blasted away and everything came rushing back to me in a wave of panic. Ryder and Marcus were working together, and they’d ambushed Zoe and me, which meant that, wherever we were, Zoe must be nearby.

  “Zoe?” I whispered into the darkness and strained to hear a response, but it never came. Despite the fear that writhed in my stomach at the realization that I might be alone, I tried to stay as calm and collected as I could — because if I was going to have any hope of getting out of this mess alive, I had to keep my head on straight.

  That started with figuring out just where the heck Marcus and Ryder had taken me, so I attempted to roll onto my back, but with my bound hands made it awkward. Eventually, I managed it, but all I saw was more darkness. Panicked, I kicked my legs around me, desperately trying to shoo away the inky blackness as if it were closing in to suffocate me, and yelped when my left foot connected with something firm.

  Tentatively, I reached out with my foot again until it reconnected and nudged, but whatever I’d found didn’t give. It felt too firm to be another person, so I applied more pressure and jumped when something crumbled and poured all over my leg. I bolted upright and scurried away from whatever had just covered my leg and kept moving until my back collided with what felt like a wall.

  Using it to steady myself, I pushed back against it while my legs heaved upward. The wall also shifted underneath the pressure, and bits of something rolled over my shoulders as I used every ounce of strength I could find to get to my feet. With solid ground under my shoes again, I sucked in a deep breath through my nose and couldn’t help laughing at myself. It was dirt that’d broken off the walls.

  But my laughter quickly gave way to panic again when I realized where I was: the same tunnel where I’d overheard Marcus and Leo arguing in my vision! I didn’t know how or why Marcus and Ryder had moved me there, but as I remembered the details of the vision and matched them to my surroundings, I was sure of it. But where was this tunnel, and where did it lead? If I just started walking, would I eventually find an exit, or were there twists and turns in the path that would leave me lost? Though I strongly considered running for it, I thought better of the idea when I realized I could just as easily run into Marcus or Ryder again, and that was the last thing I wanted.

  Given that I had no idea how large the tunnel was or where it led, and that I was literally running blind, I needed to be careful — and I needed to find Zoe. For all I knew, she might lie knocked out on the ground nearby, which would explain why she hadn’t answered when I called out for her; she’d definitely gotten hit harder by the stunning spell than I had.

  With no better ideas, I pushed off the wall and carefully stepped around, extending my feet much further forward than I normally would just in case Zoe was there; I didn’t want to step on her accidentally. I kept flailing in the darkness that way for several minutes until my foot finally found something that didn’t feel like another wall.

  “Zoe?” I whispered, but got no answer, so I pushed against the object with my foot again, harder this time, and my heart skipped a beat when a groan pierced the darkness and silence. “Zoe!” I hissed, convinced it had to be her. “It’s Selena! Wake up!” I continued with a few more nudges from my foot.

  “Ugh,” Zoe groaned over the sounds of her stirring, and I almost started crying because, as bad as things were, at least I wasn’t going through them alone. “Where are we?” Zoe asked groggily.

  Fumbling against the darkness and my restrained hands, I sank to my knees to get on her level. “We’re in the tunnel from my vision.”

  “What? How?”

  “I don’t know, but we’ve gotta find a way out of here before Marcus and Ryder come back for us,” I said as a new sense of urgency washed over me. I didn’t have any idea how long we’d been out, nor what our attackers were planning to do with us when they did check in.

  “Shh!” Zoe hissed, and I froze as I heard what sounded like footsteps pounding down the dirt walkway in our direction. “Quick, lie back down and pretend you’re still out.”

  Without an alternative, I moved away from Zoe on my knees and tried to lower myself down as quickly and quietly as I could back in the position I thought they’d left me in. My heart hammered in my ears, nearly drowning out the hushed, hissing voices that carried to my ears along with the footsteps that grew steadily louder — and I realized that these were the same voices I’d heard when I first woke up.

  “You’ve made a real mess yet again, Marcus,” one of them snapped, clarifying that it was Ryder speaking. “And, yet again, it’s up to me to clean it.”

  “I didn’t know what else to do,” Marcus whined, sounding more like a scolded child than a grown man, which made it difficult to reconcile the fact that he’d murdered Officer Dunham and attempted to take Blackwood out, too. “Help me, Ryder. You’re the only one who can.”

  “Lucky me,” Ryder said, and sighed. “What in Lilith’s name were you thinking, attacking them like that? Blackwood’s going to kill you when he finds out. This is a real wrench in the plan.”

  Wait, what plan? Marcus had just tried to assassinate Blackwood, so why would Leo care Marcus had attacked Zoe and me?

  “Then we have no choice but to kill them. We can’t leave any more loose ends,” Marcus said, and pure dread poured over me in an icy wave.

  “Are you insane? Prison really changed you,” Ryder snapped. “We can’t kill them, especially not the reporter! Do you have any idea who she is?”

  “I do, but who cares? What other choice do we have at this point? They know too much. If we let them go or they escape, they’ll ruin everything. You and I will never be free of this nightmare.”

  “Don’t say that! We can still turn this broom around.”

  “No, we don’t! You and I are dead warlocks walking, Ryder. We’re pawns to Blackwood; we always have been. Once he’s taken everything he wants from us, squeezed us for every drop to his benefit, he’ll kill us like everyone else. Besides, we don’t have much time. We can’t keep fooling him about our indoctrination; eventually, he’s going to figure it out or one of us is going to slip.”

  Indoctrination? Simply hearing the word gave me chills, even without knowing what it meant.

  Ryder sighed. “Why couldn’t you have just killed him in the square? This little stunt has already made our lives infinitely more complicated, so we might as well have gotten the added benefit of Blackwood being out of the picture,” he said, making my head spin. Wasn’t that exactly what Marcus was trying to do?

  “Believe me, I wanted to,” Marcus said, “But it wouldn’t have helped. We need him alive so he can go down for all of this, not us. And that’s exactly why we can’t let these two live. They’ll ruin everything, all the planning we’ve done.”

  “We can keep them here until this is all over. Once Blackwood’s behind bars, they won’t be a threat to anyone anymore,” Ryder argued.

  “Not unless Blackwood gets them under his spell first,” Marcus countered.

  “Then we won’t let him know we have them. Besides us, no one knows the witches are here.”

  “He’ll find out eventually, Ryder! He always does. I swear, the man has spies everywhere. I mean, if he can buy off the cops, he can buy off anyone.”

  “I hope for your sake you’re not implying I’d double-cross you,” Ryder said menacingly.

  “No, that’s not what I meant at all. It’s just that we can’t be the only ones who know about these tunnels. For Lilith’s sake, they run under ninety percent of Starfall, so how could we be? And do you really think Blackwood doesn’t have people patrolling them? For all we know, he could be listening to us right now.”

  “You’re paranoid,” Ryder snapped, but I’d gotten hooked on what Marcus had just said: The tunnels ran under most of Starfall. So, how did anyone access them? And where exactly did they run?

  I had to bite
my tongue to keep from gasping when I realized that must have been how Marcus broke out of jail — and based on what I’d overheard so far, he’d almost certainly had help, either from Ryder or one of Blackwood’s hired lackeys. I didn’t want to believe that there could be a secret tunnel entrance inside or near the SVPD that the cops didn’t know about, but how else could Marcus have escaped without leaving a trace?

  “I have every right to be paranoid, Ryder! We aren’t in control of anything, as much as we pretend to be. I have… Gaps. There are a lot of things I’ve done that I can’t remember, and things I wish I could forget.”

  “You can’t blame yourself for what happened to Dunham. It wasn’t you. Not anymore than it was Dunham who killed my sister,” Ryder said with a cracking voice, and my entire body went rigid because he’d just confirmed my theory about Dunham killing Rory. He’d also echoed what Marcus had told Zoe and me when we’d spoken to him in prison, but I still didn’t know what the heck he meant when he said it wasn’t really Marcus who’d killed Dunham.

  “Blackwood is to blame for it all, not us,” Ryder insisted. “Now get yourself together and help me move the witches before he gets here. We don’t have a lot of time.”

  Chapter 14

  My breathing doubled as Marcus and Ryder moved closer to Zoe and me. It took everything I had to play dead as someone seized the ropes tying my arms together and heaved me off the ground. I let my feet drag along behind me and tried to cling to the hope that Ryder’s plan would win out. With any luck, Marcus and Ryder would leave Zoe and me alone after moving us.

  My arms and wrists, however, screamed in pain. The rope chafed against my skin, and my shoulders burned from the force of movement as we walked for what felt like an agonizing eternity through the darkness. I didn’t understand how Ryder and Marcus could navigate in the blackness. Did they know the tunnels like the back of their wands? Or were we just in a part of the tunnels that they were familiar with?

  When a blinding blast of light flooded the tunnel, I gnawed the inside of my cheek to keep from crying out. After a moment, I dared to crack my eyes enough to see where it’d come from. Between the light itself and my eyes’ reaction to it, my vision was blurry. But I thought I saw a set of stairs leading down into the darkness, and when I heard footsteps clomping down them, I knew I was right.

  A moment later, the light vanished as abruptly as it’d appeared, plunging everything back into all-encompassing darkness. A voice boomed down the tunnel. “Where are you, Drach?” The person carrying me froze for a moment before they set me down and cleared their throat to shout back.

  “Down here! Ryder’s with me.”

  “Good. We need to talk. Lumino!” Leo Blackwood said, and again light spilled throughout the tunnel in a controlled beam from Blackwood’s wand — before settling on me. “What in Lilith’s name…?” Blackwood trailed.

  “We had some unexpected visitors show up,” Ryder spoke up. “But we’re taking care of them.”

  “Wait a second, is that the reporter from Moon Grove?” Blackwood asked, and stepped closer to hold his wand over Zoe’s head. She didn’t flinch in the slightest.

  “Unfortunately, yes,” Ryder confirmed.

  “Are you kidding me, Hallewell? This is outstanding,” Blackwell said and laughed. Using the tip of his wand, he pushed a locket of Zoe’s red curls out of her face and behind her ear. “Imagine how many minds I could change if I could read them all.”

  It shouldn’t have been a surprise that Blackwood knew about Zoe’s powers, but it still caught me off guard — and Blackwood’s enthusiasm about our capture didn’t give me a good feeling. What did he mean by changing people’s minds?

  “It’s a good thing I brought an extra dose of the elixir,” Blackwood said, and pulled a small vial from a pouch that dangled from his belt. A liquid as inky black as the darkness surrounding us swished as he shook the vial at Marcus. “Besides, the two of you are due for another dose. I can’t have you slipping out of my control now.”

  “Yes, sir,” Marcus said through gritted teeth, and took the vial from Blackwood. He popped out the cork stopper stuffed into the glass and took a deep swig of the liquid. Marcus shivered as if an icy chill had seized him before devolving into a coughing fit that lasted for more than a minute. Then, like nothing had happened, he straightened up in the light from Blackwood’s wand.

  “Your turn, Hallewell,” Blackwood said, and took the vial back from Marcus to pass it to Ryder, who followed the same process. After a few moments in which both Marcus and Ryder stood staring almost drone-like at Blackwood, he smiled and nodded. “Good. Now hold the witches still while I convert them to our cause,” he continued, and my heart clawed its way up my throat. I didn’t know what the stuff in the vial was, but I sure wasn’t about to drink any of it. But then again, with three warlocks holding me and without my wand, how much of a fight could I put up?

  Unluckily for her, Marcus and Ryder sat Zoe up first, and she gave up the dead act. “Get the spell off me!” she shouted as she kicked and flailed against the men holding her. But it was futile. Ryder held her in place while Marcus sat on her legs and pried open her mouth, just long enough for Blackwood to pour in several drops of the black liquid. Zoe gagged and tried to spit it out, but Marcus slammed her mouth shut and plugged her nose, forcing her to swallow.

  Zoe coughed and sputtered. When the liquid had worked its way through her system, she settled and stared up at Blackwood, who beamed at her. Then he pulled another vial from his belt, and its liquid silver contents flashed in the light from his wand. Blackwood drained the vial in a few gulps and sighed in delight as he stared down at Zoe. “You’re mine now, Ms. Clarke. Say it.”

  “Yes, sir. I’m yours and only yours,” Zoe said, and horror gripped me as I realized what was happening — and all the missing pieces crashed into place. Out of shock or dissociation, I flashed back to Blackwood’s speech in the town square. The reporters listening to him seemed unable to resist or question the things he said. Even Thorn, one of the most critical thinkers I knew, had succumbed to Blackwood’s seductive charisma.

  As far as I knew, none of them had ingested the black liquid Blackwood had forced on Marcus, Ryder, and Zoe, but maybe they didn’t have to. Maybe the counterpart Blackwood saved for himself gave him a silver tongue, literally and figuratively. It was so obvious now that I couldn’t believe I hadn’t seen it sooner: Blackwood was using some sort of dark magic to take control of people’s minds! That must’ve been why Zoe couldn’t read his targets’ thoughts.

  So, was the black stuff he’d given Marcus and Ryder some sort of brainwash booster? And was this what Marcus had been smuggling for him all along? If anyone would know where to find something like that, it would be Marcus, because a mind control substance definitely qualified as “illegal magical contraband.”

  Rory must’ve had some suspicion that it was happening, but didn’t have the proof. That’s why she’d confronted Ryder; she knew about her brother’s friendship with the smuggler and had reason to suspect a connection. Ultimately, her suspicion got her killed — but little did she know how deep things went.

  Then there was Officer Dunham, who I now realized had been under Blackwood’s influence in more ways than one. I wasn’t sure if his bribes had come before his brainwashing or vice versa, but it didn’t matter. What mattered was that Blackwood had someone on the inside of law enforcement who could misdirect cases and help bury any that got too close to sinking him. So, who better to send after a private investigator than an officer that no one would suspect — and one who could help cover up the crime at the SVPD?

  And that must have been why Blackwood had sent Marcus to kill her! No one would have trouble believing that a disturbed ex-con could kill someone, especially a cop. Blackwood killed two birds with one spell by framing Marcus for the murder, while also tying off the loose end that was Officer Dunham. He had to know Zoe and I were digging around, and that must’ve worried him. Despite his control over Dunham’s min
d and life, Dunham was cracking from the guilt of killing Rory, who was once her best friend.

  In a genius series of moves, Blackwood had played all his victims against each other. But all along, what Blackwood didn’t know was that Ryder and Marcus had been doing their own secret plotting. I didn’t know if what Marcus had said about them “fooling” Blackwood was true then or now, but I had to hope it was.

  Knowing I had no choice, I chose not to fight them as Ryder gripped my torso and Marcus sat on my legs, just like he’d done with Zoe. Instead, I looked deep into his eyes, pleading and hoping that he’d find it in him to spare me. But when Marcus seized my jaw and pried it open, I knew I’d lost. Blackwood stepped into view and dribbled the black gunk into my mouth, and I gagged. It burned the back of my throat like I’d swallowed pure acid, making me cough.

  “That’s a good girl. Let my influence course through every synapse,” Blackwood whispered as he stared in my eyes and took another sip of the silver liquid. I stared back as my coughing fit subsided. But nothing happened. Other than a residual tingle in my mouth and throat, I felt the same as I had before I’d swallowed the liquid.

  “You’re mine now. Say it,” Blackwood commanded, and though I expected a magical compulsion to force the words out of me, it never came. My heart hammered in my chest as I realized that something must’ve gone wrong, so I acted quickly to prevent any of them from noticing.

  “Yes, sir. I’m yours and only yours,” I repeated Zoe’s words, mimicking her tone and inflection as best as I could. Judging from the exuberant smile that split Blackwood’s face, my act must’ve convinced him.

  “That’s a good girl,” he said, then turned to Marcus. “Now free them and give them back their wands. I have a special assignment for these two. With a mind reader in my grasp, I guarantee the Brotherhood will rise again.”