Hold Tight (The Embrace Series) (31 page)

“So we’re going to create a circle out of meadowsweet and leave it in my kitchen until Reed says uncle and steps back through the door?” I paused. “Don’t you think my dad is going to wonder why a girl with pointed ears and sparkly cheeks is standing in a ring of leaves?”

“You said yourself he can’t see her,” Josh replied.

“Yeah, but he can see the meadowsweet.”

“Madison’s right,” Isaac interjected. “We can’t do this at her house.”

“Besides,” I said, “we don’t have anything for her to eat.”

“How long do you think Reed would leave his sister to starve?” Josh said.

“We aren’t going to torture Brea!” I protested.

“Of course not,” Isaac said. “We’ll provide three meals and snacks. We’re civilized people.”

“We’re not trapping her here. She hasn’t done anything!” I’d be no better than Reed if I forced Brea to eat something from our realm.

“Has she stopped by to visit since Reed told her to leave?” Isaac asked.

“She brought me more flowers.”

“That she conveniently dropped off when you weren’t home.” He stuck a scrap piece of paper inside the grimoire and closed the book. “If she was your friend, she’d be helping you get away from Reed. Her absence proves that she won’t cross her brother.”

I swallowed audibly. I really didn’t like the idea of using Brea as leverage, but I didn’t have a better suggestion. Reed was too smart to allow himself to become trapped in a faerie ring, and even if we did manage to deceive him, I doubted he’d agree to walk through the door without some sort of motivation. Besides, we wanted Reed gone, not stuck in our world.

Whether it was because Isaac’s powers wrapped around me like a security blanket or that we eventually devised a plan, over the course of the morning, the burning in my gut lessened to a nagging whisper, and my hands only trembled when Reed’s name came up. Considering our evil plan centered around him, that was a lot. Thankfully, however, it didn’t come up once during the hours we spent hustling about Gloucester to get everything we needed to execute Plan Faerie Exile.

Now all I had to do was hope my newfound stability wouldn’t completely dissolve the moment I saw Reed.

Chapter 27

Last Chance

Josh’s and my shoes slapped the sidewalk as we made our way to the back of the cemetery. The soft
thump thump thump
of our footsteps almost drowned out the nerve-curling moans of the dead.

“I don’t like this,” I muttered.

“Madison, we have less than an hour before Caden comes back, and it’s not like you can go into hiding to buy us more time,” Josh said, hiking the backpack we’d brought higher onto his shoulder.

The beams of light from our flashlights sliced a path through the darkness and allowed us to see an occasional shadow float past.

“They can’t hurt us,” Josh reminded me when a long thin shade stopped in front of me.

I stepped around it. “Yeah, well, I’d prefer not to see them.”

“Ever stop to think they’d rather not see you?”

We were on the east side of the cemetery, far away from my mom. I had tried to talk Josh into setting up near her grave, knowing the whispers of the dead couldn’t reach us there, but it was too close to the main road. Someone might see our lights, and we needed privacy.

Josh stopped behind the crypt of a family who’d died long ago and scanned the area. A cluster of overgrown shrubs lined a rusty chain-link fence about twenty feet from where we stood. Tall maples and ash trees dotted the open field of overgrown weeds. Immediately to the left of the crypt was a decaying statue of an angel, her blank stare focused on the grave she guarded.

“This should be good,” he said.

For a séance, maybe
. “I’d feel better if Isaac and Kaylee were here.” I started when a shadow rubbed my leg and slithered by. It was blacker than the night, giving the impression of a bottomless void crossing my path, and it left the air next to me cold as death. To my amazement, Josh still wasn’t bothered by the cemetery’s ethereal residents.

“Isaac can’t be a part of this. Not after the promise he made about harming a member of the Seelie Court.” And Kaylee wasn’t here because Josh didn’t want to put her in danger.

He dropped the backpack in the unruly grass. Three shadows lingered in the gloom not far from us, hovering above the ground eerily.

“You sure those things can’t hurt us?” I asked, taking the pillar candles Josh held out.

“Pretty sure.” He set his flashlight on its end so that the light beamed upward.

I shined mine in his face. “‘Pretty sure’? You dragged me back here on a ‘pretty sure’?”

“No, you refused to stay home.”

He had me there. I had insisted on coming, reasoning that two witches were better than one. Truth was, I couldn’t let someone else get hurt because of what I’d done. Natalie was gone. Chase had almost died. No way would I let anything happen to Josh too.

He stood, one hand held to his side. The sweet aroma of apple cider encompassed us as his powers glowed bright red in his hand. He turned slowly, and as he did, the grass around us became matted as if smashed by a heavy object.

“You could help me build the circle instead of obsessing over spirits,” he said.

I placed the pillar candles on the freshly crushed grass. They would act as the perimeter of our circle. Next, I set my flashlight on the ground so that the light stretched upward toward the heavens. We stood facing each other, arms raised above our heads, and closed the circle. When we finished, the candles burned bright blue.

“I still think this is a bad idea.” I really hated to be skeptical, but Josh’s plan didn’t sit right with me. “If we mess with Reed’s family, don’t you think he’s going to mess with mine? The guy doesn’t like to be threatened. He’s made that clear.”

“That’s why we convinced your dad to take Chase to the movies.”

Isaac had placed a bewilderment spell on my father to help sway his decision. Dad would kill me if he ever found out we’d manipulated his thoughts. But the safety of my family wasn’t the only thing that troubled me.

“Brea’s not like her brother,” I said for what had to be the tenth time that day.

Josh’s black hair fell around his eyes when he met my gaze. “She could have kept Reed from getting into your head.”

I opened my mouth, then closed it. If Brea had told me her brother had come through the door with her, if she had warned me not to eat anything I didn’t recognize, Reed wouldn’t have gotten the better of me.

“She’s a faerie, Madison. She survives the same way Reed does. Just because she hasn’t fed off your energy doesn’t mean she’s given the other humans she’s come in contact with the same respect.”

“I still don’t get the whole essence thing. Brea said faeries do favors for humans in exchange for their company. Even if ‘company’ was code for ‘suck on your aura,’ how could Reed feed off mine? He didn’t do anything for me.”

“You’ve eaten their food. That changes your physical makeup and the rules.”

“Yeah…well…with all the mystical guidelines governing supernatural creatures, you’d think tricking your prey into submission would be forbidden,” I griped. Seriously, if saying,
I promise
, bound me to my word and a deal had to be made for a crossroad demon to help a human, why the hell didn’t faerie food come with a warning written in bold letters: MADE IN LA LA LAND. EATING WILL OPEN YOU UP TO FAERIE ATTACKS.

We laid a ring of meadowsweet in the middle of our circle. Josh touched the sprigs with his fingertips, willing magic into them and creating a faerie prison of sorts. He set the ceramic bowl we’d brought inside the ring, placing in it three acorns. Next, he held a wilted red rose by its stem. A moment later it perked up, looking as if it had just been cut from the bush. He plucked off three petals and added them to the bowl, which he used his magic to fill with spring water. More shadows had gathered, but none crossed the invisible barrier of our circle.

“You with me?” Josh asked, peering at me through his hair, which had fallen in front of his eyes again.

I pulled my attention away from the creepy spirit floating near the crypt behind him. “Just promise me you won’t hurt Brea.”

Josh frowned. “She’ll be fine if Reed plays nice.”

“That wasn’t a promise.”

“Would you rather owe Caden more than you already do?” Josh asked with a hint of frustration in his voice.

Worrying about what more a demon would demand from a witch was definitely second on my list of crappy situations I’d gotten myself into. It was the “no questions asked” part of my existing deal that concerned me. It meant that regardless of my morals, I’d have to do as I was told. I may as well have lost my soul.

I wrapped my arms over my stomach. “Let’s just get this over with.”

Josh pulled a piece of paper out of his back pocket, picked up his flashlight, and aimed the light on the spell. “From here to there and neverwhere. Through time and space and ethereal. I call to thee Sanctus majestic, Rhoswen Brea Reedsnap, and beckon thee, come forth and grant us sight.”

Brea appeared, wearing her long thick sweater and furry boots. Her iridescent violet eyes found me before following the ring of meadowsweet to Josh. She reached in front of her, palm flat on the magical wall that would hold her prisoner.

“I suppose I should have seen this coming. What do you want?” she asked, still taking in her surroundings.

“You and your brother gone,” Josh replied icily.

“And you plan to accomplish that by trapping me in the final resting place of your people?” She turned to face me. “I thought we were friends.”

I cringed under her disapproving glare. “When I told you my friend was missing, did you know then that Reed had kidnapped her, or did you find out after you returned home to get warmer clothes?”

“I suspected that was Dellis’s doing when you told me she was gone. My brother can be a bit entitled.” She shrugged and trailed her fingers around the barrier as if looking for a weak spot. “Spoiled prince syndrome.”

“What about me? Did you know I’m next?” I hoped she’d say no.

Her violet gaze locked on mine. “For eleven long months, Dellis vowed to find a way to make Isaac pay for interfering in his business with that mortal. Every blasted free moment was spent plotting his way back to your realm. He needn’t have wasted his time, because just as he was about to give up, you summoned us to your home using Isaac’s spell book. Yes, I knew my brother would plan on taking you to replace the human he’d lost.”

“You could have warned me!” Anger burned in me for being so foolish as to trust a faerie. Isaac and Josh were right: they were all the same.

“For all I knew, you were another vindictive witch taking advantage of your powers just like the last one.”

I threw my hands in the air. “And once you got to know me, you couldn’t say, ‘Hey, by the way, my brother is here too, and he’s taken an unhealthy interest in you’?”

Brea lowered her gaze.

“I assume you have a way to contact your brother,” Josh said, interrupting our exchange.

Her expression turned steely. “Dellis’s previous behavior will seem like child’s play compared to what he’ll do when he finds out you’ve trapped me. This is his season. His time to be strong.”

“We’ll take our chances,” Josh replied, his tone unwavering.

Brea cocked her head to the side. “You’re not looking well.” She pulled a clear vial the size of her thumb from her pocket. Shimmering fuchsia liquid sloshed inside as she held it out to me. “I was saving this for an emergency, but it appears you need it more than I do.”

I licked my lips, simultaneously taking a large step away from her.

“Suit yourself.” Brea brought her shoulders up to her ears and returned the vial to her pocket. “I can smell the Fae coming from your pores. My turn to ask a question: Will you be able to resist Dellis when he arrives?”

Josh cursed and spat a string of words under his breath that included
I knew it
and
You’d better.
The flames of the candles flared skyward. The air within the circle stirred, whipping our hair around our faces.

I caught mine as best as I could. “Josh, I’m good. Really.” I held a hand out. “Look, no shakes.” Only, my hand did tremble slightly. I quickly lowered it to my side.

Josh growled at Brea, “Call your brother.”

“As you wish.” She inclined her head.

I knew the moment Reed arrived. A hole in my stomach ripped open, making me feel as if I hadn’t eaten in days.

“He’s here,” I whispered, positive that Josh’s plan wasn’t a good one.

The sound of grass and leaves being crushed beneath graceful steps circled us. I could feel Reed’s eyes on me, disapproving and furious.

“Rhoswen, are you all right?” Reed asked.

“I’m fine.”

Josh and I spun around, trying to pinpoint his location.

Reed appeared to Josh’s right, just outside the circle. His snowy white eyes were trained on me. “If you wanted an audience with me, all you needed was to call.”