Broken Spell (3 page)

The restaurant is fancy, but not obnoxiously expensive. Mr. Hunter has chosen well. Except for one thing.

“Are you sure, Skye? Just a salad?” Mr. Hunter asks.

“I’m a vegetarian…”

“Oh,” he says. “Not a great idea coming to a steakhouse, then. You should’ve told me, buddy.”

Drake says, “It’d be easier to warn you if you didn’t want to make it a surprise.”

Mr. Hunter drove us all here. He looks dapper and much younger
in the blue suit with his hair groomed.

“Mr. Hunter—”

“It’s Ben, Skye. No need to make me feel older than I am.”

“Nice suit, Ben.”

His face lights up and he looks down to his chest, as if seeing the suit for the first time. “Thank you, Skye. It’s new. I got it for the convention.”

Drake is wearing somewhat formal attire. Well, formal for him: a blue and white pinstriped dress shirt. Pain and Mona are dressed in
their
version of formal.

Mona looks stunning in a black
goth dress, with a laced halter strap and a draped skirt. Her long black gloves are lying on the table. The Allure makes her even more gorgeous.

Pain’s dark green gown is beautiful, but she’s too tall for it. She looks uncomfortable. And she should’ve eased up on the makeup, especially the green eye shadow. Her hair is a miracle of styling, looking classy even with one side almost shaved.

“I love seeing you all dressed up, Mona,” I say.

“Thanks. These are our sophomore dance dresses. They’re so expensive, so it’s nice to use them another time. Also, we need to break in these damn heels.”

“Do you have dates for the dance?” I ask.

Drake groans.

“We’re both going stag. Well, not really, since we’re going together.” Pain smiles at Mona, the first time I’ve seen Pain not tense. Few Knowings are as devoted as Pain.

“Excuse me for a moment. Need to wash my hands,” Mr. Hunter says abruptly and leaves. He’s a bad actor. I know he’ll be talking to the staff about the cake he dropped off earlier in the day. Judging by Mona’s smirk, she knows what’s going on.

We’re in a corner booth away from the other patrons, so I take the chance to talk about the Veil. “Are you drinking your Protection potions, Mona?”

She’s getting the hang of it. Her eyes scan the surroundings. Good job. “I don’t miss a day.”

Pain taps Mona’s hand affectionately and whispers, “I call her every morning to remind her, Skye. Not that she needs it.” Pain’s voice is slightly high and sweet. It doesn’t fit her tall figure or her harsh expression. At all.

Drake asks, “Are you sure going to the dance is a good idea? With Jane out there?”

“We’re taking precautions. We’ll share a limo with some girls, and Skye gave us a few potion vials to use in an emergency.”

“I want to be there. I’ll be outside, making sure you’re safe,” I say.

Pain and Mona look at each other. Pain nods.

“Okay,” Mona says. “A chaperone of sorts.”

Mr. Hunter is back. “What are you guys talking about?”

“The dance, Dad,” Mona says. “What else?”

***

Ten days later, Drake and I are in his car, parked outside Mona’s school gym. It’s the night of her dance, and the Volvo wagon stands out in the sea of luxury cars and limos.

“Do you sense any witches?” he asks me.

“No, nothing. We need to keep an eye out for Knowings, but Mona is safe tonight. She has the potions and the cell.”

“And Pain.”

“Her too.”

Most students are already inside. The parking lot is quiet, except for a few parents and relatives waiting, like us.

“You’re enjoying this bodyguard stuff, aren’t you?” I ask him.

“As long as absolutely nothing happens to her.” He looks at me with a glint in his eye.

“What?”

Drake says, “Well, since we’re at the dance, we should probably make out.”

“Should we?”

“Definitely. It’s a tradition.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t want to mess with tradition. I’m a very traditional girl.”

“I know you are,” he whispers before kissing me.

A wave of warmth washes over me. Every time a few hours pass between our encounters, I forget how good it feels.

Only this time, an annoying tingling accompanies it. I break off the kiss and say, “I sense someone.”

His eyes are trained on me. “Where?”

“At the dance,” I tell him while opening the car door.

He follows me, not bothering to lock the car.

We rush to the gym. I take out my cell and call Mona. It goes to voice mail. We reach the entrance.

A smiling middle-aged woman wearing large glasses addresses us. “Invitations, please.”

Drake points inside. “We’re chaperoning my sister. I need to get a message to her. She’s not answering her phone.”

“Sure, sweetie. Go right in.”

Inside, it’s hard to see. The dim lights and the crowd hide Mona. And whoever is stalking her.

“We’re close. She should be sensing me now. To our left.” I tip my chin to the other side of the gym.

Drake gives me his keys. “Go after her. You have the radar thing. I’ll find Mona.”

I nod and try to traverse the sea of partygoers. They’re playing an old slow dance number, and all the couples are on the floor.

The tingling sensation is diminishing a bit. The Sister is getting away.

Disregarding any pretense of politeness, I bump and push through the crowd. A few groans and complaints are hurled my way, but for the most part the dancers are too engrossed in their moment to protest. I still cannot see who I’m after.

An alarm sounds off in the direction I’m going. A back exit door was opened. The noise is muffled by the music. Now the siren and the energy signature point to the same place.

I arrive just as a teacher is about to close the door.

“Excuse me,” I say, pushing through the opened door.

“Hey,” he yells.

I’m back at the parking lot. I see a silhouette—a woman—getting into a silver Focus in a hurry. That’s her. In a split second, I calculate in my head the best course of action. She’ll be gone before I reach her car. Better to get the Volvo and use my True Sight to guide me.

It takes too long to get to the car. The tingling is faint now. She’s left the lot. I turn on the engine and take off after her.

Drake’s car takes forever to accelerate. A couple of blocks away from the school, the energy vanishes. I’ve lost her.

I pull over, call Drake, and tell him the news.

“I’m here with Mona and Pain. No strangers approached them, and they didn’t see anything unusual.”

“Drake, I got a look at the Sister. It wasn’t Jane.”

“Damn! It means Jane told someone else!”

“Yes,” I say. “The Night Sisters must know about Mona.”

Worries swirl inside my head. I thought Skye would occupy my mind during all my waking moments (and a few sleeping moments too; I can’t lie), but other issues are creeping inside my noggin.

College is still a distant dream. Fremont High won’t offer the advanced courses that I was taking at Greenwood. Planning is not my thing. Just thinking about the future is unsettling. Now that I finally have a present with Skye, am I supposed to worry about the future? It seems a waste of time.

This is annoying, all right, but not life
or death. My main concern is, of course, Mona’s well-being. She needs to be safe. For that, I need to know more about the witch stuff.

Skye wakes me from my daydream. “Why are you so serious?”

“Just thinking.” I kick a pebble out of the trail path. It goes tumbling and rolling until it falls into Lake Washington. The gray of the lake is darker than the gray of the clouds today.

“About?”

“Why exactly you decided not to tell the covens about Mona?”

She adjusts her ski cap. “Oh, wow. Are we brooding today or what?”

“If you don’t want to go there—”

“No, it’s not that.” She lets go of my hand and grabs my forearm with gentleness. “It’s just hard to describe. But you deserve the full explanation.” She takes her time, but at last, she whispers, “Okay, please don’t hate me for what I’m about to tell you.”

“Is it that serious?” I glance at her face. She looks helpless.

She lets out a little groan. A
cute
groan. “No. I don’t know. Just hear me out. When I hid Mona, it was a snap decision. I mean, I made up my mind while we were dragging you and Brianna away from the school fire.”

The silence comes back. “How did you decide?”

“To understand it, you need to see it with my eyes. If we’re born Sisters, then that’s what we will be our whole lives. It’s not only part of who we are, it’s
who
we are, you see? We start to learn stuff at an early age, so we’re prepared when Daybreak comes. Then the real training begins. I’ve seen girls older than me, and all they do, all they think about, is the Craft.”

“But still, you can do magic.”

“Sure. Don’t get me wrong. It’s great. Amazing, really. Being a witch is the greatest experience and totally worth the countless hours of training. But Mona wouldn’t be your regular witch—”

“As regular as a witch can be…”

She bumps her shoulder against mine. “Silly. But a good point,” she concedes.

“How can they get to Mona? If she’s in danger, she can always start a fire or a blaze.”

“Not without breaking the Veil, she can’t. Then every coven on Earth will be after her again. And what if they—I don’t know—knock her out and steal her powers before she wakes up?”

I feel a bitter taste in my mouth. “So Mona would be doing what? Training her whole life? Incarcerated in a monastery or something?”

Skye looks at me with pleading eyes. “That’s where the ‘don’t hate me’ part comes into play. I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?”

“Not for sure. I can make an educated guess. Mona would be taken from your family. She’d have to live far away, only surrounded by Sisters and trustworthy Knowings.”

“Wouldn’t that be her choice? They wouldn’t make her a prisoner, right?”

She stops, making me halt too. “No. Any other Sister, maybe. But not Mona. She hasn’t been raised as a Sister. Her power is so unfathomable that they can’t take that risk. If Mona is exposed, we all are. The covens just can’t hope for the best and let her be free. They must ensure the Singularity will never break the Veil.”

We see a cyclist and step out of the way, onto the grass. I look around, confused, as if the real world is the strange one.

“And what would they do?”

“That’s what concerns me the most, Drake. They would do anything. We’ve heard stories about how rebellious Sisters were kept in check with potions and spells. To protect the Veil.”

“I thought you were the good guys.”

Her expression hardens. “We are. But we can’t be passive when someone threatens our existence. Even if the threat comes from inside our own circles.”

The chilly wind strikes my face. On the lake, a couple of seagulls are playing tag.

“So do you hate me?” Skye asks. Her voice is raspier than before.

I lean over and kiss her. She hugs me tight.

Her face is close to mine when I whisper, “I could never hate you. I need to think about this more. You may have made the right decision, after all.”

“The truth is, it should be your decision too. And your Dad’s. And Mona’s most of all, of course.”

We hold hands and resume our walk.

Something tugs at my brain. I ask her, “What makes you think Mona is in better hands now? We know nothing. She can do magic and post it on YouTube, for all we know, and we wouldn’t be able to stop her. Why would she listen to us?”

“Because you’re family. And I’m her friend. Mona listens to us. She trusts us. And we trust her.”

“Does that make a difference?”

“Maybe that’s the only difference that matters.”

***

When I imagined having a steady girlfriend, I always listed the perks. We’d date and make out and do nothing and everything. It didn’t cross my mind that there would be much more than that. Not negative things. Just unexpected things.

Skye is a person, not a figment of my imagination or an idealized poster girl. She has the average number of problems of a regular girl, plus the considerations of being the daughter of a famed movie star. Oh, and a witch. Not a regular witch—a celebrity witch, since she found the Singularity.

There’s also the annoying fact that her ex, Connor, is a witch dude as well. I try to be cool about it, I really do, but it’s…complicated. I want to be the understanding boyfriend, not the psychotically jealous one, but in the end I feel like a mix of both.

She told me that he called and asked to meet her. His request did not sit well with me.

At home, alone, I try to wrap my head around it. I look around the kitchen, trying to figure out something useful to do. Even homework would be fine, but my school was razed by the fire. That’s how nervous I am: I miss school.

Sometimes it feels like a dark cloud follows me everywhere. Then I realize I live in Seattle.

I open the fridge, looking for a Coke, but I find only green tea and a Red Bull. Energy drink it is.

Bad choice. After a few minutes, I get even antsier. I resist the urge to call her.

It’s not that I’m concerned that something could happen. I trust Skye. I don’t trust her ex, especially with all those Fancy Me potions flying around. He’s a player. I can tell. I’ve been friends with Boulder and Sean long enough.

The front door opens, and Mona comes in.

“In here,” I shout.

She joins me in the kitchen. “You look terrible. Are you drinking? Alone?”

“Where have you been, Mona?”

“Having a life. Definitely not being miserable by myself. And where’s Skye?”

“I don’t know. She might even be meeting her ex—”

“She dumped you again? Is that why you’re drinking?”

I raise the can with the label toward her. “It’s an energy drink, sis. Skye is doing witch stuff, I guess.” I empty the can and smash it on the table.

Mona is startled.

“Sorry,” I say. “I just wish all the witches were girls.”

Mona squints at me. “You’re imagining them dancing naked in the woods, aren’t you?”

In spite of myself, I snort. “No, no! Well, I am
now
.”

“Have fun with the thought. Now, I’ll go do homework. Some of us have school tomorrow.”

“Yeah. Thanks for setting my school on fire, by the way.”

She smirks. “When do your classes start?”

“They say Fremont will be ready for us on Monday.”

“Are you all going there?”

“Yes. I don’t know how Priscilla did it, but her father made the district put us all in the same school.”

“Hey, speaking of fathers: where’s ours?”

“Still working.”

Mona starts to climb the stairs. “Some things never change.”