Casually Cursed (20 page)

“You call your momma ‘Momma Just’?” I asked. This was the other thing I really wanted to ask about. Now that I knew that my granny Justine Trask in Houston had been my great grandmother, I wanted to find out what had happened between Momma and Mrs. Hurley. When I’d asked Aunt Melanie about Josephine, Aunt Mel had gotten tears in her eyes and said her momma was someone she never talked about. She said she couldn’t.

Momma glanced at me. “Just is short for Justine. It’s her first name. It’s also short for
justice
. She always treats people fairly.”

“Most girls would simply call her Momma. Is there a story there?” I asked.

Momma’s gaze settled on my face. She seemed to reach past my eyes right into my head. She couldn’t actually do that with her magic, especially in the Never, where her powers didn’t work, but when I was a little girl she’d always known when I was fibbing or angling for something. She could read me like a book.

“I was born in London, but I live with my grandmother in Houston. She’s the mother of my heart.”

My mouth opened, but it took me a few moments to come up with any words. “How come?” I asked.

“My mother and her sister did things I couldn’t forgive. So my sister and I ran away from home when we were thirteen.”

“All by yourself? From England to Texas?” I asked with wide eyes.

She nodded. “We had company.”

Aunt Edie, I thought. But she couldn’t have helped them if they’d been kidnapped or hurt.

“What did your momma do to make you leave like that?”

“We have a family ghost. They forced her to spy for them. If she didn’t do exactly what she was told, they punished her. They trapped her in increasingly small spaces, stealing her energy so she couldn’t wander and travel to places she loved. Her closest friends in New York were gone by the time she was able to return there; the place they’d haunted was demolished, and our ghost still doesn’t know what happened to them. We hope they crossed over.”

“They kept her a prisoner?” I asked, shocked.

“My mother’s highest priority is the community of witches. The future of witchcraft in general is the most important thing in the world to her. More important than her own family. When she was really strict, our ghostly aunt encouraged us to rebel. I suppose my mother resented that. She began to keep us apart from our aunt Edie. My sister and I accepted that when we were small, but then Melanie found out what they were doing to Edie, and we couldn’t stand it. I decided to protect our aunt from them. I decided to take her out of their reach.”

“It was your idea to leave?”

Momma nodded.

“That must’ve been a hard decision.”

“No, it wasn’t. Not for me. My sister was the one who wasn’t sure about leaving our life in England.”

“How did you convince her?”

“There was no real debate or discussion. I just said I was leaving and would never be back. I didn’t consider Josephine Hurley my mother anymore. Melanie chose me. She chose to help rescue our aunt from forced servitude and cruel punishments. It was the right thing to do. That’s what got us through. You see, we didn’t get away clean. We were caught and put in shackles and held in a dungeon by the witches’ association.” Momma smirked. “Our mother tried to make us too terrified to run again. It did scare us, but it made us mad as well. Melanie became very determined. We were both good at sleight of hand and glamours. Our aunt was great at them and had helped us master them. We put a death glamour on ourselves. When our captors checked on us, they were shocked and terrified that our mother and her sister would hold them responsible for our deaths. I lifted the key from one of the witches who was guarding us. They left us alone while they tried to decide how to handle things. We escaped.”

I stared at her. “Who were the people who captured you?”

“Members of the Conclave. Our aunt Margaret’s colleagues.”

“They sent the Conclave after you? When you were thirteen?”

“I’m glad they did. It convinced Melanie they were capable of anything. She was sure that if our mother got us home, she’d lock us up for months. Or do the worst thing imaginable: She might separate us. When we got to Houston and told our grandmother Justine what happened, she called England and told her daughters that if they set foot in Texas, she’d consider it an act of aggression. It could’ve turned into an all-out war. Momma Justine has powerful friends who don’t like answering to the World Association in England. They consider American witches independent. They wouldn’t let English witches come for us without putting up a fight. We’re American witches now.”

“But you’re underhill in Great Britain. With the Seelie.”

“No one hates the World Association of Magic more than the Seelie court. So we have that in common.”

“Um, have you told them that? Because right now you’re dressed up like a cartoon and living in a birdcage room.”

“That’s a little thing.” She paused and added in a low voice, “I never did mind about the little things.”

I froze. I knew that line.

Momma shrugged her brows, and my mouth went dry.

That sentence was from an action movie where the girl with strawberry-blond hair was a spy and assassin. I wasn’t supposed to watch it, because I was too little. But I’d snuck into the room and hidden under the couch. They’d caught me when they heard my wrappers crinkle. I’d been eating Hershey’s miniatures.

Before I’d gotten caught, I’d seen the way they trained the girl to pretend everything was okay even when it really wasn’t. I’d had a lot of questions about that. Edie had explained how a person sometimes had to hide what she really thought so she could get the chance to escape. I hadn’t understood at the time, but I’d never forgotten the way the girl had pretended not to be scared or sad about the violence all around her.

I never did mind about the little things
, the girl had said. And in the end, she’d gotten away and was free.

By saying that line, I knew what Momma telling me: She was pretending not to mind the birdcage and costume, even though she did. She was biding her time.

Without saying so, she also told me something else, something that made my heart slam against my ribs in excitement.

Momma watched that movie after I was born. If she remembered it, my momma didn’t have amnesia at all.

I DRAGGED MY
eyes from her face. Obviously she had her reasons for pretending that she’d lost her memory. I looked over my shoulder toward the bars. The queen had backed up.

The sound of something being dragged over the floor made Momma walk to the bars. A moment later a stone wall began to slide into place, blocking our view through the bars.

“What the hell?” I yelled, rushing forward.

“You want privacy, don’t you, Kismet? Well, this should give you plenty.”

I shoved my hands through the bars, trying to push the wall away, but it was too heavy. Someone—or likely more than one strong creature—was putting it in position. The room fell into shadow, with the only light coming from the one small window.

I continued to try to dislodge the huge stone barrier, but I’d have needed bigger muscles and more leverage to shift that mammoth thing. After a few moments I slapped my hands against it in frustration, panting from the effort.

I looked over my shoulder. Momma folded her arms across her chest as she stared at the sand-colored stone.

Then she muttered, “For fuck’s sake.”

My brows shot up.

Glancing at my surprised face, she gave a sheepish smirk. “Sometimes a four-letter word is the only one that really fits.”

I smiled. Then I laughed, and she chuckled, too.

She walked to the desk and lifted the glass sitting on it. She offered it to me. I drank the water while she lit a candle. She stood near the flame, as if waiting for it to do something besides burn. The candle seemed to be handmade and smelled of earth and herbs. An insect buzzed near it, and Momma made a sharp move, slamming the overturned cup down, capturing the insect under it.

My jaw dropped.

“A bug, but not the usual sort,” she said. “One of her spies,” Momma whispered.

I strode to the desk and peered through the glass. Sure enough, there was a tiny pixie flying in circles in the small enclosure.

The pixie flew toward me, bumping against the glass and shaking her fist furiously.

“Well, if you weren’t spying, you wouldn’t be in there,” I said with a shrug. “We have to get out of here,” I said to Momma, looking around for something long and heavy to wedge against the wall. Zach and Bryn would eventually come looking for us, but I didn’t want the false wall to make us impossible to find.

“She must have figured out that I palmed a key,” Momma said, pulling the band off her ponytail. Hooked to the band was a brass key that had been tucked into her hair, hidden from view.

“Where—”

“All witches need to be good at sleight of hand. I would’ve made a great pickpocket,” she said with a wink. “Do you remember me teaching you?”

“Yes,” I said, recalling it suddenly. I’d been able to palm things. I’d used it to cheat at cards. I remembered showing off for Zach’s daddy when we were little. He’d gotten a big kick out of me.

“Show me,” she said.

I only looked at her.

“You have magic now. It’s important to have fast hands and to show you can use them for tricks, so that your real power can be concealed,” she said.

I did as she asked, taking the key from her several times. At first I was rusty, but after a few moments, my light-fingered technique returned.

“It’s not just important out there. Even in here, that skill may do you good,” she said as she put the key into the gate’s lock. She turned the key and the gate slid open, but of course that wasn’t a help, since there was a giant slab of stone blocking the way.

“How come you didn’t use that key before?”

She opened a drawer and pulled out a pair of black stretch pants and a green V-neck T-shirt. “There was no point,” she said as she changed clothes. “As long as we’re underhill, wherever we go she’ll eventually find us.”

“So you have to get out of the Never.”

Momma lifted the mattress of her bed, and I gaped. There was an iron mallet and a metal pickax. “He smuggled them in for me.”

“As what? A Valentine’s Day present? Anniversary gift?” I scoffed.

She grinned.

“What he should have done is taken you out of the Never for good.”

Her smile faltered. “If only it were that simple.”

“Why isn’t it? He can live humanside. He’s done it plenty of times.”

“He’s sworn his allegiance to her. He can’t leave unless she gives her permission.”

I froze.

“Which she will never do.”

“Momma, you can’t stay here. You must see that. She thinks she poisoned you into losing your memory. When she finds out—And, hey, how come her curse didn’t work?”

Momma rolled her pretty eyes. “She’s so vain. She loves the human faery tales. She considers them a tribute. So she tried to poison me with a magic apple.”

“Like you were Snow White?” I asked.

“Exactly,” Momma said, smiling. Momma tipped her head and drew a hand quickly across her mouth. “I pretended to swallow a few bites, but didn’t.”

“I never knew you could be so sneaky.”

“Well, now you do,” she said.

I laughed. I couldn’t help myself.

“See if you can lift that mallet,” she said, taking the pickax.

I hoisted it. It was really heavy. I started toward the stone wall, but she went the other way. My eyes widened as she swung the ax, puncturing the bricks under the window with the sharp edge.

“The mortar between the bricks is old. This side faces the back of the castle.”

“But we’re upstairs. How far is the drop?”

“We’ll soon find out,” she said, nodding toward the wall she’d damaged.

I swung the mallet and pounded open a big hole. Bricks spewed outward and the wall under the window crumbled.

“That should do it,” Momma said, taking the candle in her hand and looking through the opening. “It’s a big drop. Too far to jump.” She took the linens from the bed.

“Momma, you’re not thinking we’re gonna tie those sheets together and climb down, are you?”

She looked at me through her lashes.

“Seriously? Knotted sheets? You think they’ll hold?” I asked.

“Do you have a better plan?”

I opened my mouth, but since I didn’t have any helpful suggestions I shut it again and shook my head. “Here, gimme one of those,” I said.

She smiled as she handed me a sheet. “That’s my girl.”

*   *   *

AS WE RAPPELLED
down the side of the castle, I told her Zach and I had broken up for good and that I’d gotten involved with Bryn.

She paused, and my feet nearly bumped into her head.

“Despite the prophecy?” she asked, and then proceeded on the downward climb.

“Yep.”

“Falling for the wrong guy is risky.”

“I know. It’s the whole reason I’m climbing down the side of a castle. My momma got involved with the
wrong
guy.”

She laughed.

“It’s all right. Falling for the wrong guys is getting to be a family tradition, I guess. I met one of Aunt Mel’s exes, who was a killer fire warlock. Nearly got murdered by him.”

“Oh. I remember him. I never met Incendio, but she told me about him.”

“Anyway, Bryn’s a lot nicer than a fire warlock. He’s saved my life instead of trying to end it. So he’s got that going for him.”

She didn’t answer, which made me frown.

“Try to keep an open mind, Momma. You were gone for over a year. You can’t expect everything at home to stay the same when you’re gone that long,” I said. Of course, almost all the changes had happened in the past couple of months. It had been a real whirlwind. But she didn’t need to know that. “And by the way, I kind of got engaged.”

“Kind of?”

“Bryn got down on one knee and made the prettiest speech you ever heard.”

“Did you give him an answer?”

“Yeah. I said yes.”

“So you’re engaged to a Lyons.”

“Edie hates him. And she’s alive again.”

“Pardon me?”

I explained, and she laughed until I thought she’d lose her grip and fall. When I told her that Mrs. Hurley and Edie were together at WAM Headquarters, she shook her head. “My money’s on Edie.” She licked her lips. “But mostly for sentimental reasons. Josephine’s like those prophecies of Lenore’s: You never want to get on the wrong side of one.”

We reached the ground, and she pointed to the path we should take.

“We need to avoid the trees,” I said, explaining the way they’d been spying.

“It’s impossible to do that. The trees are everywhere,” she said, striking out through the woods. “But the ones near Caedrin’s won’t be loyal to anyone but him.”

We walked for a while in silence, and I found it hard to judge time and distance. Finally she said, “It’s okay to talk now.”

“We won’t be overheard?”

“There’s always a risk, but it’s safer here.”

“It’s good to see you, Momma. I missed you.”

She turned and hugged me. She held me real tight and whispered, “I missed you, too, baby. Every day.”

“You should come on home. He knows it’s not safe for you here. If he really wants to be with you, he should find a way to do so out there.”

“It’s not possible. The laws that govern the world of the Never are complicated.”

“Even if he can’t come out, you have to leave here. You see that, right? No matter how much you love him. You can’t be locked up behind a giant stone wall in some castle.”

She looked over her shoulder at the castle cloaked in clouds and sunlight. “It’s been bad here since Kismet left and Ghislaine heard that we helped her.”

“Did you guys help her?”

“In a roundabout way we did. It’s not easy. There are restrictions on what Caedrin can do.”

“So you care about Kismet?”

“Of course.”

“She thought you said you didn’t.”

Momma gave me a sharp look. “She said that? You’ve talked to her?”

“Yes.”

“How is she?”

“Um, she’s a real good assassin. She can flip out of trees like an acrobat and shoot an—”

“That’s not what I meant. How is she? Really?”

“Kind of sad and lonely, I think. She got mad at me over something. . . . I think she gets mad pretty easily. So about saying that you didn’t care about her, she made a mistake about that, right?”

“No, I said it.” Momma shook her head with a pained look. “She wasn’t supposed to hear that. I told Ghislaine I didn’t care about Kismet because Ghislaine is so jealous. I didn’t want to add fuel to the fire. Though it’s hard to imagine things getting worse.”

“Why does Ghislaine care what you think of Kismet?”

“Kismet is supposed to be Ghislaine’s. Caedrin brought her here and gave her to the queen. He thought it would cool Ghislaine’s fury. Caedrin was once Ghislaine’s lover, and she hates that he fell in love with anyone else, especially a witch.”

I clucked my tongue. “There’s a lot of supernatural prejudice here. And out there. It’s a problem.” I bit my lip and shrugged. “I’ll maybe have to work on that, being half-and-half. Start a group or something. I’ll think on it. Now, back to Ghislaine and Kismet. If Ghislaine doesn’t think much of Halflings, why did Caedrin think she’d want Kismet at all?”

“Because she wanted a tribute . . . repayment for the slight. Ghislaine assumed there was one daughter and that she had her. A child was the biggest apology gift he could’ve given her. But she didn’t raise Kismet in the castle. She put her out and forbade Caedrin from ever revealing that she was his child.”

“How did you forgive him for that?” I said, my voice louder and sharper than I’d intended. “He took one of your babies and gave it to some jealous psycho faery. How are you even talking to him, let alone living in this place with him?”

“He had to do it.”

“He did not!”

“You don’t understand. The law made it impossible for him to leave Kismet with me. He had to take her into Never and to offer her to the queen.”

“There are some messed-up laws here. Someone should change them.”

“Yes, but the person who benefits from the laws isn’t likely to alter them, is she?”

“Maybe somebody should force her to.”

“Easier said than done,” Momma said, crossing a stream.

A pretty house shimmered into view. A silvery mist hung all around it, but I could see its archways and windows.

Momma put a hand on the door. “I’m home,” she said, and like magic, it opened.

In an instant I knew there was trouble, because I heard raised voices, and one of them was Bryn’s.