by Nicole Hall
“Jake texted you to come over.”
“Forgot you were a master detective. Yeah, he thought you might want some company. In my defense, I thought the note was a terrible idea and advised him strongly against the keys.”
That made Sera smile a little because she agreed with him. She was still pissed at Jake, but summoning Ryan, whatever his reasons, had proved useful.
The trod carried them further into the woods than Sera thought it would. They’d gone into the trees at mid-day, and it appeared to be dusk in the fairylands. She wondered if the ritual was supposed to be completed in Fae time or in human time.
Sera stopped and looked up at the darkening sky, considering. It would make sense for the two times to converge at points of power, like midnight on Samhain. She’d bet it would be both.
Ryan nudged her. “Staring at the trees isn’t going to make the time difference make sense.”
She stepped past a bush thick with brambles and glanced back at him. “Actually, I think Samhain will be the same here and outside the woods.”
This time Ryan stopped. “If that’s true then—”
He was cut off by the sound of growling to their left. Ryan immediately pushed Sera behind him, much to her chagrin. They’d come past the brambles into a wider part of the path, but she could feel that they weren’t at the end yet.
Sera couldn’t find the wolf at first, but as she shifted out from behind Ryan, it appeared a few feet off the path. The sprites were still dancing around them in the weakening sunlight, and Sera remembered the last time they’d faced the wolf on one of the trods.
He’d been unable to approach them as long as they stayed within the boundaries of the path.
Sera had no idea if Ryan knew that, but when she tried to tell him, he shushed her. Zee was right, it was a miracle her species survived. She caught sight of her glowing hands and corrected herself. Her human side anyway.
The wolf was staring at Ryan, and Ryan was watching the wolf, both of them appeared on the verge of violence. In that matchup, she’d bet on the wolf, so it was a good thing they were protected. She tugged on his sleeve, and when he ignored her, she huffed, then resumed following the path without him. Let him continue the stand-off until midnight, she had shit to do.
Sera hadn’t taken more than a few steps when a yelp of pain had her spinning around.
Ryan had a long scratch in his forearm that was dripping blood, and the wolf had maneuvered between them on the path.
“Go, Sera. I’ll keep him busy.”
The wolf lunged at him, and to her shock, narrowly missed his leg. They were supposed to be protected. Chills shot up her back as she realized that the sprites were few and far between now, most of them congregated around her. When she’d walked away, she’d taken the sprites with her.
It wasn’t the trod that protected them, it was the sprites. Which was exactly what Zee had told her in the beginning.
Sera wanted to smack herself, but the wolf was inching closer to Ryan. He’d managed to back Ryan away from her, and no matter how hard she’d tried she couldn’t make shields appear outside of herself. She’d have to go past the wolf to bring the sprites back to Ryan.
“Sera, stop standing around and go. I can handle this.”
He dodged another lunge, and Sera made up her mind. She was sick of people, men especially, trying to protect her. She could handle this.
She relaxed her sight and caught her breath at the beauty of the magic all around her. The forest breathed with it. Streaks of colors blended into one another. If she’d had more time, she could have stood there for hours gazing at the movement, but Ryan was still dripping blood.
The wolf was encased in a shimmering dark blue field shot through with black. It looked like oil, and she recoiled at the thought of touching it. He was still ignoring her in favor of Ryan, probably went for the weakest first she thought with irritation. Her magic flared, and the number of sprites doubled. She’d intended to use her magic to knock the wolf to the side, then rush past him with her army of sprites. Her plan didn’t extend beyond covering Ryan in sprites, but she was confident something would come to her.
Before she had a chance to do much more than rev her power, the wolf made his move. The oily covering pulsed, and the wolf jumped at Ryan’s throat. It was clear he wasn’t dodging this one, and Sera’s magic sputtered as she gasped in fear.
Ryan said something low and flung his injured hand out. A spattering of blood shimmered and flew, striking the wolf across the nose before he slammed into Ryan’s chest. They both went down with the force of the leap, but the wolf whined instead of tearing out his throat.
Sera took a step forward, not sure what she planned to do, but the wolf shook himself and jumped away from Ryan. The fur along his back was still stiff, but he wasn’t baring his teeth, only growling low in this throat. Ryan hopped to his feet, and the wolf positioned himself solidly between them with his back to Sera. If she’d had any kind of offensive magic, she’d be able to use it on him with ease, but all her magic wanted to do was protect. Too bad they hadn’t taken a look at that handbook.
To her amazement, sprites began pouring out of the trees by Ryan’s side. He ignored them, but she heard the muttered curse. The oily magic covering the wolf shifted and gathered around his mouth. Sera couldn’t get a good look at what happened because she wasn’t keen on approaching the pointy part of the dangerous demon animal, but solid bits of crimson dropped to the ground as the wolf shook his head again. The magic returned to normal, and he lunged forward and snapped at Ryan.
Sera crept closer to the stand-off to get a better look at the red bits on the ground and realized that it wasn’t blood, it was magic. Ryan had used magic, and it appeared dark red. The wolf had moved Ryan at least another ten yards by the time she looked up again. She watched as he tried to juke the wolf and dart around him, but Ryan wasn’t fast enough. Whatever the reason, the wolf wanted Ryan and Sera separated.
She glanced at the blood drops on the ground then back to Ryan’s arm, which had stopped dripping at some point. He’d done something magical to the wolf to defend himself, but it hadn’t lasted long. Behind her, the trod wound through the woods, leading to the clearing around Torix’s tree. If she left Ryan and ran, would he follow?
Ryan had lied to her. Just like everyone else. He seemed capable of protecting himself, and the sprites were gathering, which would hopefully give him an advantage. She couldn’t trust him, but she didn’t want him to die.
He’d even told her to go, but it went against her morals to leave someone in danger. A small part whispered what if Ryan is part of the danger? At least, he and the wolf seemed to be opposing forces. She could use that.
She opened her mouth to shout a warning to Ryan, but with an overpowering jolt, something knocked all the air out of her. She sank to her knees and dropped her head. It was like the time she’d almost hyperventilated and fallen hard on her back, but this time she was conscious and trying to suck in air. She pressed hard on her abdomen and forced in oxygen. Her shields were still in place and the wolf was dancing Ryan further and further from her. This wasn’t from them; it had come from the bond.
Jake had taken her power, and it had hollowed her out.
12
JAKE
An hour earlier, Jake had parked his truck next to his Corolla in front of Maddie’s place. It had deteriorated since the last time he’d been there, admittedly several years ago. He’d tried to stay away out of respect for Maddie having her own space. Sera hadn’t mentioned how much work the house needed, but he guessed she’d been preoccupied.
He was preoccupied now, but thinking about Sera naked in his bed wasn’t going to make things go any quicker. Halloween night was only hours away, and they desperately needed a better plan than run away and hope for the best. Speaking of Halloween, it wasn’t like Maddie to not decorate. She’d always loved Halloween, but there wasn’t a single skeleton or pumpkin near her house.
What was going on
with her? Maybe Mom was right and she needed some time away. It didn’t feel right to reward her for skipping out on work and being generally irresponsible with a European vacation, but nothing he did seemed to be working.
He remembered Sera’s insistence that Maddie’s house was shielded, but he wouldn’t have been able to tell unless it physically knocked him back. The only magic he had was the bond with Sera, and that was more like borrowing her magic. Jake sighed. Time to get the whining over with. The porch shuddered suspiciously when he walked across it, but nothing stopped him from knocking and then opening the door.
Maddie was in the kitchenette stirring something on the stove. It smelled like old gym socks, but she was always trying new disgusting foods. “Hey, that was a pathetic excuse for a knock.”
Jake winced, both from the smell and the comment. “You’re right. I’m always getting on your case for doing that to me. I’ll try to remember next time.”
She didn’t answer, and he tried not to get irritated that she’d called him out of bed for an imaginary emergency. How self-centered could she be? He missed his nice little sister, but this selfish one was the version he was dealing with most of the time lately.
“Maddie, I have stuff to do today. What was so important that I had to come over right away?”
She looked up and smiled through the steam. “I need to use your truck.”
He wandered around the living room looking at the items she’d put on the shelves he’d built. “We already covered this. You can’t use my truck. Is there anything else?”
“How about… I’m your favorite sister, and if you let me use the truck, I’ll stop harassing you about Sera.”
“This feels an awful lot like blackmail.” A wooden duck got his attention on the top shelf. He remembered seeing it in Rosie’s, in the kitchen. He searched his memory, but all he could recall was that it had been a gift to Mr. Hogan.
“Eh, I’m not particular about the label.”
Jake glanced up when something in the pot sizzled. The room was starting to smell like bacon, which was a welcome relief. Maddie bent to pick up a towel she’d dropped, and a heavy necklace swung out from inside her shirt. The duck bothered him, but the pendant around Maddie’s neck pissed him off.
It was a family heirloom Evie was saving for Sera. She’d shown him several times. There was no way Evie would have given that to Maddie, no matter how much she liked his sister.
She’d gone back to adding things to her pot. Jake left her collection of potentially stolen things, and joined her in the tiny kitchen. “What are you doing, Maddie?”
“I thought Sera might have gotten to you, so I took a precaution.” She looked up and smiled at him again, but there was something wrong with her eyes. “You know Evie always liked me better.”
The room was getting a little fuzzy, but Jake blinked it away. “Mad, I don’t know crap about crap, but you can’t take stuff from Evie’s house.”
The smile faded and her jaw clenched. “It was rightfully mine. I listened to her talk for hours, days, about Sera’s legacy and the Fae and wasted time. I was right there in front of her, and she went on and on about how sad she was that she’d have to wait to pass on her knowledge.”
Jake was wary about the way Maddie phrased that, but he pressed on. “I’m glad she had you to talk to, but that doesn’t automatically mean you get her stuff. The pendant is a family heirloom. It belongs to Sera.”
“Always Sera, isn’t it, big brother? Well, she’s not here now, is she?” Maddie flung her arms out wide. “But I am. I always am.” She sighed and scraped her hair back from her face with both hands. “Ugh, this glamour is distracting. I hate having to hide myself, especially when I’m hanging out with my favorite brother. You don’t mind if I drop it, do you?”
He was having trouble focusing his thoughts. “A glamour? You look the same.”
“It’s to hide magic, not an ugly haircut. I don’t know why I even bother with you. You’re about as magical as a box of hair. It’s too bad you didn’t bring Ryan, that would have been a fun test. Eh, I’ll keep it up for now.”
He did not like the way she’d said Ryan’s name. It was likely he’d have to punch his friend later, but it was getting more difficult to follow the conversation. His head felt like it was full of cotton.
The steam wafting gently from the kitchen was slowly filling the top part of the room. That had to be it. It wasn’t affecting Maddie, but he felt like he’d had one too many six packs.
“We have to get out of here. That steam is making me loopy.” He stumbled over to the door, but the handle wouldn’t turn.
“Oh, I locked that. It was one of the first spells Evie taught me.”
Jake’s brain finally caught up to his ears as he slumped to the floor. “Spells? You have magic? Since when?”
She shook her head at him, but there was glee in her eyes. “Since Torix. We had to keep it a secret though, so he taught me the glamour to hide my power.”
Jake closed his eyes for a second to stop the room from spinning. He was in trouble. Sera had been right, and he’d dismissed her. Hell, he’d taken her keys. It seemed like there was something significant about that, but he couldn’t pinpoint what it might be right now. He needed to focus, but Maddie? His little sister? Jake just couldn’t bring himself to believe that she was one of the bad guys. For the first time in his life, he sincerely hoped he was hallucinating.
When he opened them again, she had moved the table out of the way to draw a complicated circle on the floor. She was almost finished. How long had his eyes been closed? His limbs felt like spaghetti, but with effort he could flop them around. One of Maddie’s little treasures sat on the bottom shelf next to his hand. A ceramic bird’s nest of all things.
She was humming as she drew intricate symbols around a multi-layered circle on the wood floor. He slid his hand over and was able to close his fingers around the nest. It was light, but he didn’t have many options. There wasn’t much of a plan involved, but he figured he could probably heave it through the window behind him and get some fresh air.
Jake hadn’t done much more than shift around when Maddie flicked her hand at him. He drooped back against the wall and the nest rolled out of his hand. This time he couldn’t move at all.
“Oh no you don’t. Can’t have you mucking around in here causing problems.” She dusted her hands on her pants and stood. “Tim will be here any minute, and I need you still.”
He wanted to ask who Tim was, but he couldn’t get his mouth to move. It was a spell he recognized because Zee had used it on him before. He could still breathe and think, but that was all. Maddie kept talking though.
“Tim is one of the high school jocks. Plays football, big into 4-H. Poor guy lost his prize rabbit recently. Really a shame how irresponsible kids are these days.” She tsked, but her smile widened. “I’ve been tutoring him in English. He’s supposed to come over today for a session, but I have a better idea.”
A dawning sense of horror washed over Jake. She was all the way a bad guy, and he couldn’t do a damn thing to stop her. Maddie crouched in front of him and patted his cheek.
“Don’t worry, he won’t feel anything. I’m not a monster.” She raised a brow. “Stop looking at me like that. I’m not. The way to get Torix through the shields is to replace him with someone else. No one is going to miss a whiny kicker who’s failing English.”
Jake hoped she didn’t mean that. That was some serious dark-side shit, and he wanted to believe his baby sister was acting out instead of evil.
“It’s not like I’m killing him, just trapping his essence in a tree for all eternity. Torix is going to need a body after all, and he swears the kid won’t feel anything. Unlike what those douchey Fae did to him, Tim won’t be conscious for his imprisonment.”
Maddie rolled her eyes and pouted as if Jake had said something, and he desperately wished he could. At least if he could talk, there was a chance he could reason with her. She flounced back to the cir
cle on the floor and gestured at a symbol that looked like gibberish to him.
“See, this is so he’ll sleep.” She pointed to another. “This is so he won’t feel anything.” The third was almost at his feet. “This is to convince the shields that he’s Torix. The tricky part is the timing. They have to pass at the exact same moment.”
She flipped her long hair behind her shoulder. “I’ve been practicing this for years. Evie was the hardest, and I was worried she’d counter it for a second, but it worked in the end. It was tough getting the circle done before she wandered into the clearing, but we need it to prep the body. Humans don’t pass easily through Fae shields.”
It was like she’d never seen a superhero movie. She was honest-to-god monologuing. Jake wasn’t sure who she was trying to convince more that she wasn’t a bad person, him or herself. He clung to the hope that she wasn’t a lost cause.
The fog in his brain was receding, probably because his face was so close to the ground, and if he quieted himself, he could feel the warmth of the bond inside him. When they’d been together yesterday, he and Sera had been able to share emotions, and he’d felt her panic once before that. The bond flared to life when he nudged it with his mind, and he could feel Sera’s power trickling into him, barely more than a whisper. It gave him an idea. He couldn’t stop Maddie on his own, but he hoped he could at least do something to help the kid.
Right on time, what sounded like a truck engine cut out in front of the house. Maddie nudged him to the side so she could look out the crack in the curtains above him. He collapsed to the floor completely, but that was fine with him. The circle was inches from his face, and he needed to be as close as possible in case his crazy plan worked.
“Guess I didn’t need your truck after all. Tim brought his own.” Maddie stepped back and surveyed the living room. Jake could barely see her out of the corner of his eye. He didn’t think Tim would see him until he was fully into the room, and by that point it was probably too late.