The Gleaning (8 page)

Her eyes flashed at the accusation. “I looked for you. I couldn’t find you.”

Yeah, sure.

“Well, you were right about one thing,” I said. “I was the one Logan could reveal his mark to. Because he did. Tonight.”

I expected cheers, but the room remained silent. Some of the elders still seemed groggy and confused, but others were just skeptical—including Orchid.

Camellia stood and stepped toward me, escaping the heat of the fire.

“What did it look like?”

“It was a raised black crescent on his iliac crest.”

“It wasn’t just his ink?”

“No. He’d never seen it before, and it burned me.”

“You were touching it?” Camellia asked, raising her eyebrows.

I blushed and ignored the question. “You should have trusted me, Camellia. I didn’t need the Enchantment to draw the mark. It was meant to come out naturally, not by deception.”

“Lily, why did you block your mind to us? We all should have witnessed this revelation.”

She was such a smooth liar. Instead of answering her, I addressed the elders. “When I told Camellia I’d had a change of heart, she left me trapped in quicksand, and cut off contact. By the time I escaped, Logan was with another girl—my doppelganger—in the field. Did you all See this, or were you already drugged and immobile by then?”

The room burst into an uproar of questions. The elders didn’t seem to know what was going on.

“Slow down. I left you in quicksand?” Camellia challenged.

“No, we didn’t See any of that,” Iris said. “You were with Logan in the clearing, you were talking and then kissing. And then…” She rubbed her forehead. “I can’t remember what happened after that.”

“That wasn’t me in the clearing with Logan. Someone drugged you.”

Iris realized she was altered, and looked around in suspicion. “Camellia, did you do what Lily is accusing you of?”

Camellia shook her head. “Why would I leave Lily trapped in quicksand? It makes no sense. Sweetie, you’ve had a huge night. The enchantment spell does strange things to girls; sometimes they have side effects. A post-enchantment psychosis, so to speak.” Her eyes swept over the crowd and flashed a hypnotic glow. There was no way she was backing down and admitting anything. I braced myself for whatever whopper she’d come up with next. “The aberrations in Lily’s story are disappointing, but we should give her the benefit of the doubt about the mark.”

The coven nodded in a manipulated haze.

“Here’s proof.” I held up the crescent-shaped burn on my thumb. “But you shouldn’t need it, because I’m perfectly lucid.”

Camellia stared at it for a moment in silence. “This is good news,” she said somberly. “I believe Lily has in fact found the Rognaithe.”

Everyone gasped, then started crying and hugging. “Our covens will have peace!” one elder exclaimed.

“Bring on the champagne!” Orchid added.

I watched the spectacle in shock. Why had they believed Camellia and not me? I hadn’t even had a chance to tell them about Jude and the hex. Or the fact that Jacob had followed Logan and taken him to the dungeon.

With everyone distracted, Mom pulled me aside, and whispered, “Honey, you’ve had quite a night. Go on up to bed, and I’ll join you after. I have some things I need to get to the bottom of.” She eyed Camellia tellingly.

“Goodnight, everybody,” I said with a wave.

Everyone gathered around to give me ecstatic hugs and compliments. Finally, Orchid got a turn. “Rescue me!” I whispered when she pulled me close.

“What was that all about?” I asked in bewilderment as we slipped out to the porch. “What happened here?”

“We thought you blocked us out so you could have more sexy time in private. Then we just sat around waiting for you to come back. I was really worried.”

“But you conked out on me! Do you think you were drugged?”

“We’re just exhausted, Lil. It’s been a grueling week. But FYI, I don’t think you had a psychotic break.”

I sighed in relief and hugged her. “Thank you! He’s really the one, Orchid. It was incredible.”

Her smile faded somewhat, and I worried she might be feeling a little jealous. She fiddled with my amulet for a moment, maybe remembering the first time Logan had secretly switched amulets with me. “Anyway, you look like a disaster,” she said. “You should go to bed ASAP. Talk tomorrow?”

“Def. Good night, Orchid.”

“Night! Love you!”

Upstairs, I took a hot bath, listening to my own romantic-emo music in my head. I made my bubbles dance around the room as I recounted the events of the evening—Logan’s magic still pulsing in my veins.

After drying off, I put on a clean tank-top and matching soft-pajama shorts and pounced atop my feather bed, buzzing from everything and much too hyper to sleep.

Soon, Mom slunk through the door, and quietly closed it, I was happy to see her. She ran her fingers through the air, mumbling a chant, protecting our conversation from the others downstairs.

First, she took me in her arms and hugged me tight. “I’m so proud of you, honey. You were so smart to stop talking and let Camellia re-direct the conversation with her party. But I want to hear everything. You saw the mark, but it wasn’t revealed in the clearing was it?” Iris said, like a detective.

“Nope. It was after. A fox dug me out of the quicksand, and I ran down to the Grove, expecting to find Logan alone, wondering where I was and why I stood him up, when I saw him there with…this replica of me. It was horrible, Mom. He was kissing her, and she was doing these things to him.”

She looked appalled but patted my hand, letting me finish.

“I screamed to him that she wasn’t me, but he couldn’t hear me. I finally broke the spell that was binding them in there, and the doppelganger ran off into the woods. I tried to find her, but I couldn’t. Instead I found a warlock, hovered over yet another effigy of me, this time a voodoo doll. Logan’s friend, Chance, helped us unhex it and during the unhexing ceremony, Logan revealed his mark.”

Mom blinked.

“Right? It was insane. I was so lucky to find them. This warlock, Jude, is wicked bad and a total tool. He was trying to torture me through this doll.”

“Probably trying to weaken you for the Gleaning.”

I nodded. “Yeah, he was a creeper. Anyway, we can’t trust Camellia anymore.”

“Did you tell her you wouldn’t enchant Logan, honey?”

“I did.”

“Why?”

“I didn’t feel right betraying him like that.”

“Even though it was your coven duty?”

“Mom! Whose side are you on here?”

“Yours, yours of course, sweetie. But if you told her you wouldn’t look for the mark, maybe she got desperate and found a replacement.”

“A replacement? You know that kind of magic is dangerous. And you can’t replace me! Who does that?’

“Someone like Camellia.”

“That someone also left me stuck in quicksand and blocked me from calling you for help.”

“Do you know that for sure?”

I raised my eyebrows like
obviously.

“If she’s not too jolly off spirits, I will talk to her about all of this. Get to the bottom of it. No, she shouldn’t be practicing shifter magic, especially without the rest of the coven’s consent, and she should’ve let me talk to you, convince you to stick with the plan—”

“Mom. I made my decision. I’m
glad
I didn’t go through with the plan. I found the mark anyway. Naturally. Don’t you get that?”

“Of course I do, honey. And this is huge. Something to celebrate.”

“Then why do you look so disturbed?”

“Because when people start making choices as individuals instead of as a whole, it leads to trouble. And while the results of tonight may be positive, you were put in a whole lot of danger. There is broken trust in our coven, and we can’t have that.”

“Camellia went rogue.”

“But, Lily,” Mom said, her eyes bottomless pools, “so did you.”

Logan

Back in his cell, Logan’s mind whirled from all the fantastic developments that had occurred in only the last few hours—the memories of his mother; the incredible experience with Lily in the woods; the fact that he was, undeniably, the Rognaithe.

Just as he was about to succumb to exhaustion, Logan heard the unnerving sound of frenetic scratching, like claws on metal, followed by a painful squeak.

“Not rats,” he muttered. If he had an Achilles Heel, it would be anything furry sporting a thick, wiggling tail.

He peered out the aged keyhole.
Squeak!
He heard it again, the sound of rats trying to escape from a metal cage.

Through the window in his cell, Logan peered down the corridor and saw an unfamiliar warlock carrying two small cages to a room across the hall. When the door opened, Logan saw Jacob barking orders to the other warlock, who seemed to be some kind of lab technician. Then, Logan closed his eyes and Saw what Jacob saw.

Rows and rows of cages stacked on top of each other like moving boxes. White rats with red eyes ran on spinning wheels or alternately huddled together in straw nests. In the corner of the room was a metal-topped examination table. An old man Logan didn’t recognize, frail like Jacob, but with no noticeable magic energy, was strapped to it. Oddly, his eyes looked more hungry than frightened, as he stared down at a rat strapped to a steel tray next to him.

Jacob’s crony poured a liquid substance into an IV drip. The cord ran from the old man’s veins to the rat’s tail.

Logan watched in horror as a beeping machine pumped, and the rat aged backwards, like a time lapse series of photographs. The creature grew younger and younger until it possessed the wrinkled, nearly translucent pink skin of a newborn. Then, just as quickly, the process reversed; the rat regenerated into a full-grown adult, fat and thick with fur, before deteriorating into a skeletal, desiccated thing. Like a rapidly deflating toy, it twisted unnaturally to its side, and then seized with a final jerky gasp before lying still.

What…the…?

Jacob cursed, chastising the lab tech. Clearly that wasn’t the result he was after. The lab tech apologized profusely as he pulled a white sheet over the old man’s body. Shriveled up toes stuck out from the sheet. Jacob’s experiment had killed him, too.

A lot of weird crap went down here, sure, but
murder
? Jacob experimented on rats? And who was that old guy anyway? A human? A prisoner? He hadn’t looked too keen on escape—wasn’t hollering for help or anything—so maybe he was agreeable to having his fluids intermixed with a rat’s? Unlikely.

Sensing dark energy approaching, Logan jumped back from the keyhole.

He slumped down on the cot as if he was resting. He had mostly recovered, but that didn’t mean he wanted Jacob to know. His father would be much easier on him if he thought he was already beaten down.

Almost as quickly as that poor rat completed its lifecycle, Logan cleared his mind of Lily, his dream memories, and what he’d just seen.

“You’re awake, I see.”

Since playing dumb sometimes worked, Logan decided to go that route. “What happened?” He rubbed his eyes. “Where am I?”

“Someplace safe. I need to protect you from the witch; prevent any further…incidents before the Gleaning.”

“I don’t need protection from her.”

Jacob sighed, and a cloud of black soot exhaled with his breath.

“You are special, Logan, and thus more vulnerable than your brothers. You understand that, right?”

Logan chose to remain silent, which caused Jacob to sigh again. Logan coughed through the volcanic ash.

“The way you’re feeling now—that loyalty you feel for her? The urge to protect her? It is all a result of her enchantment. She cast a spell on you, son. This is why you feel the way you do.”

When Logan still didn’t respond, Jacob pushed further. Logan could see he was digging deep to find restraint, to not unleash rage on Logan before the Gleaning. “You gave her an opening, boy. A chink in your armor. If you are chosen to fight this witch, will you show her mercy, like a lovesick fool? Or will you stand your ground and drain her dry?”

“It’s against the Congression’s rules to drain our opponents.”

He sneered. “Damn their
rules
. Do you like to see me this way? Old before my time? Suffering? This will be your fate, too, son, sooner than I’d like to admit. We have
no choice
. The Seven Sisters’ curse left us nothing but enough strength to glean our youth back in this fashion. It may seem barbaric to you, but we are only taking back what was stolen from us. And believe me, they will be doing the same to you. The witches are after one thing and one thing only: your powers. Protect yourself, boy, protect our future. Win this for us.” He paused in the doorway, holding it open for Logan. “Come on, now. You’ve done sufficient penance, and you need to wash up before breakfast. You smell like a diseased garden.”

Lily

“Hey you. I didn’t think you’d ever wake up.”

It was the best I’d slept in ages. One of those deep, utterly comfortable sleeps you never want to wake up from. And now this voice lured me back into consciousness. This deep, sexy, familiar voice. My eyes flew open and saw a blurry but familiar mess of hair hanging over those blue eyes. I blinked. “Logan? How can you be here?”

“You came to my rescue, remember?” he said in a flirty voice.

“I did?” My foggy head wanted to argue that detail, but here I was lying in his arms, my cheek against his smooth, toned chest, my white sheet tangled loosely around our bare linked ankles.

Bare. Linked. Ankles.

“Am I? Did we?”

Smiling shyly, he traced the outline of my jaw, tucking a stray piece of hair behind my ear. “You’re beautiful.”

“I’m naked.”

He smiled wider.

I blinked. “I’m naked in my mother’s house.”

His eyes ran down my body. “No you aren’t. This is our house.”

“It is?”

“I’m the Rognaithe, remember? Our covens are at peace. We have our full powers back. Come on, I’ll show you.”

He pulled on a pair of jeans, and stood next to my window while I threw on a tank top and boxer shorts. He reached out his hand, and I clasped his tightly. There we stood on the windowsill together.