Barely Bewitched (26 page)

Chapter 45

I wasn’t going home. I was going to help collect the wounded people, too, but first I needed to check on Neutered Nixella’s progress. I called her and, when she first appeared, I didn’t recognize her. She had skin the shade of a ripe avocado; I guess she was showing her true colors—literally. Her fingers and toes and ears were twice as long as a human’s, and I studied her warily.

“Did you do what I asked? I mean, commanded?”

“Yes,” she said glumly.

“Are there any more fae loose in Duvall who wouldn’t have been if the doors hadn’t opened?”

“No.”

“All right, I command you to go home and not to come to Duvall ever again unless I call you.”

“Wait,” she said.

I waited.

“I want to make a deal. If you promise never to use my name to call me and you promise never to tell anyone else my name, I’ll tell you something you don’t know, but would want to.”

“Nixella Pipken Rose, I command you to tell me what I don’t know, but would want to.”

“Your friend Georgia Sue bought you a black cocktail dress for Christmas. She thinks your other one is too worn. She doesn’t know why you still wear it when the color’s faded.”

I gasped, slapping a hand over my mouth. Faeries are so mean. And so are best friends apparently. “That was the information you wanted to trade for?”

“No.”

“Well, then what was the secret?”

“There is none.”

I knew she was a trickster, but I also had this weird feeling that there was something that I needed to know and didn’t.

“Tell me the information that’s worthy of my promise not to call you again.”

“Do you promise not to call? And to keep my name secret?”

“Nixella Pipken Rose, I command you to tell me the worthy information right now.”

“Incendio Maldaron has your cat. If you don’t get to the inn immediately, he’ll be dead.”

I felt the blood drain from my face. “Go home,” I shouted. She disappeared instantly, and I started the car. I jammed the gas pedal to the floor and paid no mind to the cars or bikes I ran over.

I careened down the road as fast as I could. I can’t say how long it took me to get to Old Town, but since I couldn’t travel in an instant, it took too long.

I threw the car in park and scrambled into the Yellow Rose, but the second I crossed the threshold into the parlor, I heard a pop that sounded suspiciously like when Bryn had closed me in a circle.

“What’s going on? Mercutio!” I ran to the doorway, trying to step into the dining room, but bounced back. Sure enough. Trapped! I looked down at the symbols in the doorway and then into the next room.

Mercutio was locked in a cat carrier. Incendio was lying on the rug, unconscious with blood pumping from a wound on his head. Jordan Perth was reading from a spellbook.

“What are you doing?” I asked, nausea roiling in my belly.

Jordan’s gaze flicked up for a second and he smiled. Then he continued reading, tapping his wand in time as he did. “This transfer I seal with heart’s blood,” he said as he closed the book and dropped it to the floor. I cringed as he pulled a huge knife from his crimson robe’s pocket.

“From the ten fires of Hell, I draw his power,” he said. Walking around Incendio, he repeated the same line over and over. “From the ten fires of Hell, I draw his power.”

Mercutio hissed, but Incendio never moved.

“Incendio, wake up!” I yelled. “Incendio!” I sure wasn’t a big fan of Incendio’s work, but everyone knows it’s wrong to kick someone when he’s down, let alone to stab him in the heart and steal his powers.

Finally, Jordan knelt next to Incendio. I slapped my hands over my eyes. There was a blast of heat, and I staggered away from the doorway. I could hear Mercutio yowling.

“Give me my cat!” I yelled.

The air cooled rapidly, and I peeked back in, immediately wishing I hadn’t. Jordan licked some blood off his knife, and I gagged, slapping a hand over my mouth.

He came to the doorway, grinning like a dirty, rotten psycho.

“Thank you for sparing me the trouble of finding you. Saves time, which I value. And thanks for shooting Incendio. That made him more vulnerable to my attack, since he needed help getting inside.”

“Why did you kill him?” I stammered. For a small town, we sure had more than our share of homicidal maniacs these days.

“Someone has to take the blame for Tom Brick. It might as well be the thug who killed him. And while he’s at it, Incendio can take the blame for Earl Stanton’s murder, which was mine. And yours and Bryn Lyons’s. Mine and mine.”

My murder! And Bryn’s?
My heart banged in my chest. I needed to get out. I turned and ran, trying to break the circle by going out the front door, which didn’t work.

“Trapped,” he said with a smile.

“Uh-huh. So I see.”
Plan B: Stall!
He looked so pleased with himself, I bet he wanted to brag. “What the heck did you kill Earl for?”

“Stanton double-crossed me. He had some powerful jewelry. Incendio wanted it to help him control the tor—something to do with your family’s claim on it.”

What? The tor? The only jewelry Incendio would’ve been after that Earl had were the earrings, but maybe Incendio had lied to Jordan about why he wanted them. He might not have wanted a wizard to know he had a weakness.

“. . . I paid Stanton twice the money, but he gave them to Incendio anyway. Incendio, who didn’t need more power,” Jordan hissed. “I couldn’t let him have it. I’m the one who was born with too little. But not anymore. Now I have Incendio’s magic to eliminate you and Lyons. With you both dead, I’ll stake my claim on the tor here and be as powerful as anyone in the Conclave.” He grinned. “No one will ever dismiss me as insignificant again.”

“Why did Incendio kill Tom Brick?”

“Brick wouldn’t cooperate, and Incendio flew into a rage. We needed Brick to lower the wards on his property to give us access to the Amanos. The river was the only way to get to Lyons’s property to spy on him. His wards on the land side were too powerful.”

“You
were
here to spy on Bryn!”

“We were here to find an excuse to kill him. I was surprised to see him so preoccupied and reckless because of you. Not like Lyons to get distracted. And now I hear he’s been weakened. Poisoned by elf magic.” He smiled and licked the bloody knife again. “I do hope I’ll get most of his magic intact when I cut out his heart.”

He turned and walked away from the parlor doorway.

“Wait!” I yelled.

He ignored me and kept walking. He opened a French door on the opposite side of the dining room and stepped out.

Seconds later, there was a blast that shook the house and flames swept in. Mercutio went wild in his cage.

“No!” I screamed. “Help! Help us!” I kept screaming as the fire spread up the curtains and walls. Black smoke billowed through the rooms, choking me, and the heat smothered me.

“Nixella Pipken Rose, come to me now!” She appeared in Mercutio’s room.

“Come here,” I said.

She skipped toward the doorway, but stopped short with a laugh. “You’re stuck, you stupid witch,” she said.

“I command you to cross the circle and break it.”

She grinned. “You can’t command me from inside that circle. I wasn’t compelled to come when you called this time. I came because I wanted to see you burn.” My heart sank, and from the other room, Merc yowled. My eyes darted to the doorway.

“Nixella, take Mercutio outside.”

“No.”

“If you do, I promise I’ll never call you again, and I’ll never tell your name to anyone.”

She laughed. “You’ll never do that anyway.” She looked around at the smoke and flames.

“Please! Please take him. It’s not his fault he’s here.”

She walked over to the cage and looked at him. “I do like cats,” she said. “He’s got beautiful eyes. Almost as nice as a faery’s.”

I prayed my hardest, clenching my hands together.

“All right, but he stays in his cage until this house burns down with you in it.” She picked up the carrier and skipped out.

I lay down on the floor, coughing as I rummaged through my pockets and pulled out my cell phone. No signal. Too much magic around. I moved to a corner of the room and curled up.

Sweat drenched my shirt and I concentrated, calling for rain, sleet, snow, a bucketful of water. Nothing happened. Trapped and helpless! I felt sick and scared, my head throbbing, my stomach churning.

I still had Bryn’s and my magic, but I couldn’t seem to use it in the circle. I felt a pang of worry over Bryn. Would Jordan get to him? Bryn was weak. Steve and Mr. Jenson would try protect him from Jordan, but with Incendio’s firepower . . .

I pulled my shirt over my face and tried to breathe through it. My lungs burned like the fire itself. The ceiling blazed over my head, and I squeezed my eyes closed because they hurt from the heat. It would all be over soon, I thought as I choked on the smoke.

Chapter 46

“Tammy Jo!” Edie’s voice called.

I squinted my watering eyes, trying to find her among the thick smoke. “Here!” I rasped, my heart leaping at not being alone.

“Where are you?”

“I’m trapped in a circle.”

I held the locket in my hands and finally saw her, glowing despite the darkness.

“This way, darling. Come this way.”

I crawled along until I got to the doorway leading to the stairs.

“Come with me.”

“I can’t,” I said, tears sliding down my gritty face.

“Of course you can. Be brave.”

“No, it’s the circle,” I said, shoving my hand against the barrier to show her, only it went through.

“I broke the circle when I came in.”

Really? Was it true? Hope surged through me as I inched forward. “How?”

“My soul is tied to your witch magic, to that of the family line. When I crossed the circle, so did a sliver of your own magic.”

I turned. I couldn’t see the way out, and all four walls were on fire. It was still too late.

“This way!” Edie said. I had no choice but to climb the stairs on hands and knees with the walls of the stairway burning around me. The heat was so terrible, my skin felt like it would melt off my bones.

“Hurry!” she cried.

I followed the halo of light that surrounded her.

I can’t breathe.
I pressed my hand over my mouth. Every breath I took seared my throat. The heat burned my eyes, too, and it was hard to see through the blur of tears. I felt dizzy.

“In here!” she said.

I stumbled forward. We were in a bedroom. Her phantom hand rested on the top drawer of a side table.

I pulled the handle, but it didn’t open. I didn’t hesitate. I threw it on its side and slammed it up and down until it cracked open like a walnut.

“What?”

“The earrings!”

I sifted through the rubble until I came to a small white box. I flipped it open, and there they were. Aunt Mel’s emeralds.

“Hurry.”

I choked down mouthfuls of smoke.

Can’t—can’t breathe!

I pushed the first one into my ear and snapped it shut. I stabbed the second one through the hole and flipped the back closed.

A blast of cold fresh air smashed through the ceiling and funneled around me.

Oh my God!
I held my head, overwhelmed to be able to breathe again. “I can’t believe it,” I rasped, shaking with relief.

Edie laughed and clapped her hands. “Yes, wonderful! This way. You have to get out. You could still fall or get crushed.”

I followed her to a second-story window and smashed it with a lamp. I shimmied down the drainpipe, engulfed in flames that didn’t burn me. I landed hard on the ground, then struggled to my feet, still coughing and sputtering. I ran around the house and found Mercutio.

I wanted to shout for joy, but my throat hurt too badly.

“You’re okay,” I croaked, yanking the carrier open. He leapt out, and I grabbed him, hugging his neck.

He yowled.

“Yeah, I’m okay, too.” We ran to the car and got in. Edie appeared in the passenger seat with Merc.

“Thank you, Edie.”

She smiled and blew me a kiss. “Incendio forgot about me. He shouldn’t have done that. A ghost saw where he hid the earrings. One of us always sees,” she said with a self-satisfied smile.

“You’re awesome!”

“I can’t disagree,” she said, tilting her head as she began to fade. “Must rest though. Creating light in such darkness is tiring. Stay out of trouble,” she said and shimmered into a faint orb that disappeared immediately.

“Incendio underestimated more than ghosts, huh, Merc? You believe Jordan Perth murdered him?” I shook my head. “Surprised the heck out of me.” My voice sounded like I had a bad case of the croup, and every time I talked or swallowed it felt like someone was rubbing sandpaper up and down my throat.

“I guess you realize it’s up to us to stop Jordan.”

Merc purred that he did.

At Bryn’s, the security intercom had been fried, literally, and the front gate had been firebombed open.

I parked the limo and rushed into the house. I called out, but no one answered. I went through the door to the courtyard and found Mr. Jenson treading water in the pool.

“Mr. Lyons insisted!” he said.

“Where is he?”

“He and Steve went to the river.”

“Stay here.”

I ran through the courtyard to the lawn.

“Oh my gosh,” I said, staring at the ring of fire. It was at least fifteen feet tall, and Jordan was walking around it, marking symbols in the ground. I couldn’t see through the flames, but three guesses who was inside.

I rushed toward Jordan, but he spotted me before I was close enough to knock him down. He sidestepped my attempt to dive at him. I rolled away as flames shot from his wand.

I lunged through the fire wall to get inside the circle. God bless Aunt Mel’s earrings.

Bryn was on his hands and knees, sweating, and mumbling what seemed to be a pretty ineffective spell. Too bad someone had borrowed all his magic, or he might have been able to do a better one.

“Hey,” I said, dropping down next to him. “Wanna go for a swim?”

He didn’t answer me.

“Bryn, honey, can you hear me?” I pulled on him, and he collapsed facedown on the grass, totally unconscious. “No way,” I said. I kissed him and did my best to transfer some power to him.

His eyes opened, and he blinked at me.

The fire wall came down suddenly. I looked around and saw that Merc had distracted Jordan, who was blasting balls of fire out of his wand. Merc zigged and zagged all over the lawn.

“I need you on your feet, Bryn,” I said.

He squeezed my arm. “He said you were dead.”

“And doesn’t that make him look silly now? Shouldn’t count his chicks before they’re barbequed. I want you on your feet,” I said, only it came out as a rasp so soft I could barely hear it myself.

“You!” Jordan screamed.

He threw flames from his wand, and I threw myself in front of Bryn.

“You will burn!” Jordan snarled.

But I didn’t burn. Yay for me and my family’s magical earrings.

I jerked on Bryn’s arm and felt him move. I stood up as he did, and his fingers entwined with mine as we backed up toward the river. Jordan tried getting around us, but I kept Bryn behind me and moved toward the water. Finally, Jordan tried throwing other spells. He shouted random words and I saw bright white energy come from the end of his wand, but Bryn’s arm shot out and deflected it. Even as weak as he was, Bryn’s defensive powers were better than Jordan’s regular abilities.

Jordan turned and put up a wall of fire in front of the water’s edge.

“Turn back, right now!” Jordan said. “You’re not leaving this property.”

He tilted his wand and the fire wall started to wrap around us. It herded Mercutio toward us, and I yelled for him to get back. I talked to Bryn over my shoulder. “We’re going into the water. Stay as close to me as you can until we get past the fire and then you get under the dock.”

He didn’t say anything. I didn’t even know if he could hear me with my froggy voice. But when I pulled on his hand and started moving forward, he came with me. I closed my eyes and barreled toward the sound of rushing water. We crashed into something, and then fell into the water, going under. Cold water shocked my system.

When Bryn and I surfaced, I let go of his hand. Jordan was in the river, too. He was what we’d rammed.

Jordan sputtered and cursed as his robes took on water. I saw my chance and dove under, swimming toward him. When I felt his robes against my face, I surfaced suddenly and yanked his wand from his hand.

He howled in fury. I tried to swim away, but the current was strong, and he grabbed my hair. I snapped his wand in half. I guess he felt it because he screamed like he’d turned banshee. I threw the wand pieces. A part landed on the dock. The other hung up in some tall grass.

Jordan tried in earnest to drown me. It was working pretty well. I twisted, which wrenched a clump of hair out of my head, but when I came up, he and I were face-to-face, and I punched him right in his perfect nose.

Blood splattered, and he looked stunned. I socked him again, and he let go of me and grabbed his face.

I turned and tried to swim upstream toward where Bryn was calling for me. He and Steve were making a human chain. Steve held the dock with one hand and Bryn’s right arm with the other. Bryn stretched his left hand out to me.

I swam my hardest, but the current pulled me farther away. My legs burned from kicking, and my arms felt heavy. It was like I’d used up all my adrenaline fighting Jordan, and my body just didn’t want to fight to survive anymore. I bit my lip.

C’mon! He’s not that far!

Bryn yelled at me, and I tried to reach him, but I couldn’t. I heard a splash and Merc was with me, swimming and pulling me by the shirt.

The river wanted me though. It sucked me farther from the dock. Even treading was getting hard. I sank under the water and bobbed up sputtering. If I drowned, I wasn’t taking Merc with me.

I pulled him off. “You can’t save me. You get onshore. Get onshore, Merc, right now,” I said, shoving him away.

He yowled.

“Let go,” Bryn said to Steve.

“No, Steve. Don’t let him go!” I yelled in a voice full of gravel.

“Let go,” Bryn snapped, and I felt a pulse of magic. Steve dropped Bryn’s hand like he’d been stung.

Bryn swam, taking only a few moments to reach me.

“Put your arms around my neck.”

“We’re not going to make it,” I sobbed. “Why did you let go?”

“Put your arms around my neck,” Bryn repeated, yanking them into position. My weight dragged us both under for a moment. I came up, sucking air. Bryn licked his lips.

“It’s all right,” he said.

“Let me go! You save yourself.”

He shook his head, holding on. The river widened and its fast grip propelled us downstream, sucking us under and splashing us with icy water when we bobbed up for breath. The roar of Cider Falls filled my ears.

“When I kiss you, hold on. Don’t let go of me for any reason.”

“Are you strong enough to cast a spell to stop us falling and getting smashed on the rocks below?”

I saw the answer in his eyes, but I’d known it anyway. I could feel there wasn’t any magic left. We’d burned through the power we had.

“Promise me you won’t let go,” he said.

“No one goes over the falls and lives,” I said, coughing out water.

“Then I’ll damn well die with you kissing me. Swear you won’t let go.”

My body burned in response, and I knew a part of me was already in love with him. “I—Yes, I swear.”

In the last few feet, I couldn’t hear anything over the sound of the water, but I did feel his mouth. I held on as tight as I could just like I promised, even when the falls flipped us over, pounded us with fists, and dropped us over the edge.