She’d learned the statue spell while figuring out how Isobel had escaped it during the Baba Yaga test. That was useful now because Carol knew the spell did eventually wear off.
“You can’t keep the healer hidden from me forever,” Isobel-Veronica growled in anger. “I have all the power I need to find her, and I will. Then when I have taken her power from her and added it to the power of the rest of those who betrayed me, I’ll be coming back for you, Baba Blowhard. I will be the one and only Great One. Not you. Me!”
Making a mental note to kill them instantly and never again incarcerate a magical who was clinically insane, Carol shook her head. “Call me crazy, but I don’t think your plan’s going to work out like you think.”
The lightning bolt Isobel-Veronica threw in her direction flew straight up the sidewalk. The speed of it forced Carol to hit the ground to avoid being hit. The lightning wouldn’t have killed her, especially not since she was covered in rubber, but it would have certainly hurt like seven hells.
Climbing to her feet, Carol waved another hand to send all the frozen people she loved to her home. Now that the men in her and Hildy’s life were temporarily safe, she could focus only on Isobel-Veronica. Hopefully, Harry or Fabio would break the spell before Hildy did and stop her from returning.
Carol smiled as she brushed the dirt off her clothes. Rubber made that a little more challenging than it would have been if she’d been wearing cloth, but whatever… she looked fabulous.
“The dragon transmutation spell was a brilliant idea. Almost no one ever gets around a ward Zenos puts into place. I admire that you accomplished something I never did in my training. If you weren’t such an evil bitch and so determined to destroy me, we could probably be friends.”
“That could never work. Power is my only friend.”
“Guess that means you’re not going to be talked out of this lunacy. Are you ready to die today?” Carol asked.
Isobel-Veronica threw back her head and laughed. Carol inched closer. She sent out a call to Morgana for help and hoped the Goddess answered quickly. She wasn’t sure how much magic she had, but she knew the woman fighting her was loaded with it.
As she moved forward, Isobel-Veronica threw multiple lightning bolts at her in rapid succession. Dodging as best she could, one managed to knick her arm and split the rubber.
“Hey, watch it now…” Carol chastised, glancing at the damage. “I was planning to buy a Madonna bra to wear over this suit. Rubber is not that easy to repair.”
“You should thank me then. Madonna is an overrated 80s icon not worthy of emulating.”
“Take. That. Back,” Carol bellowed, her Baba Yaga voice booming in the yard. Thunder rumbled overhead and the ground beneath them shook with her fury. “Do not insult Madonna. I already plan to kill you. Don’t make me torture you first. I’ll make you listen to toddler songs until your brain melts. You’ll be begging for your death before the first song repeats for the hundredth time.”
Her threats brought on another flurry of lightning bolts with Isobel-Veronica’s evil laughter acting as a background for the action. What she needed was to distract her enemy. What she needed was something unexpected.
“Razzle-dazzle, whackamolepaddle,” Carol chanted, throwing out a hand with all the power she possessed.
A large wooden mallet half the size of Ahmed’s Thunderbird form appeared and swatted Isobel-Veronica on her off-the-rack legging-covered ass. As her nemesis squealed and dodged the next swipe of the giant paddle, Carol tackled her from the side.
They rolled on the ground, over and over. Isobel-Veronica was a lot stronger than she’d looked. When it became clear they were physical equals, Carol shifted immediately to kill mode. She drew back and punched Isobel-Veronica in the face just as the Amazons had taught her to do. The woman’s head hit the ground with a thud and a bounce.
Ready to end the fight, Carol summoned a lightning bolt in her own hand.
Now she would rectify her mistake in letting someone as evil as Isobel go free. She drew back and went to plunge the lightning into her nemesis, but her hand refused to obey the command. She looked up at the lightning bolt hanging in her palm. Just beyond her hand was a nine-foot golden goddess staring down at her.
“I know you’re not going to like hearing this, but you can’t kill her,” Morgana said.
With bloodlust still coursing through her veins, Carol thought about throwing the lightning bolt at the being who’d dared interfere in her fight.
“Don’t make me kill you, Child. Your thoughts alone give me sufficient reason,” Morgana warned.
“I don’t understand this. Why can’t I kill her? She deserves to die,” Carol said fiercely. She climbed off Isobel-Veronica and kicked her body once before walking a short distance away. “If I don’t kill her, she’ll just do this shit all over again. She was going to steal Hildy’s magic. Isobel—Veronica—or whoever the hell she is now—has learned how to take power from other magicals. Stopping her is my freaking job—the job you gave me.”
“I know,” Morgana said with a softer tone. “But you still can’t kill her. Gaia is involved. According to her…”
Carol heard the goddess sigh before she saw Morgana turning away. “What? Don’t stop now. I have a right to know.”
“There is no good news in this situation for the current Baba Yaga. It’s a waste of breath to try and explain the unexplainable.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Morgana turned back. “I didn’t mean to imply you aren’t going to be the Baba Yaga for as long as you wish to do so. The job is yours—that’s the deal. But if you kill Isobel, there will be no one to replace you—no one ever. It takes a lot for the mother of the earth to intervene in physical matters, but Gaia could see things were not going as she planned. Mother Gaia reminded me that Isobel was designated to bring the next witch protectress into being. If Isobel doesn’t, there won’t be one. I got the three of you mixed up. I don’t know how I missed the nuance that Isobel was the one. Gaia accused me of not listening to her carefully enough.”
Carol was stunned and didn’t know quite how to reply. How could Isobel ever be anyone’s mother? She stared at her goddess in shock. “You made a mistake so Isobel she gets off free?”
“No,” Morgana’s booming voice rang out in denial. “I did not make a mistake—I never make mistakes. I just… I didn’t get things quite right… that’s all. This can be fixed.”
Carol pointed a finger. “You can’t take your confession back now. I heard you. You made a mistake.”
“I did not make a mistake. You weren’t listening carefully enough,” Morgan said.
“All this came about because you left Isobel with her stupid uncle instead of bringing her to be trained with us. You knew where she was,” Carol yelled, thunder rumbling overhead again.
“There’s this little thing called free will. Isobel chose to follow that life.”
“Except her uncle made her too evil to be changed. That means I’m going to have to kick her evil ass every damn day. It will become my full-time job to keep Isobel in line, and I’ll get nothing else done. And sooner or later I’m going to lose my temper and kill her accidentally. Anyone with my training would. She’d be dead right now if you hadn’t stopped me. I want her dead.”
Morgana nodded and pushed her waist-length red hair behind her shoulders. “I know. I know. I warned Gaia this was not going to be an easy issue to resolve. None of us can let someone that evil go running around loose until she gets pregnant and pops out a witch protectress replacement. Isobel’s got even more magic at her disposal, so we’ll never be able to keep her incarcerated either. Death really is the only sure way to deal with someone like her, except it’s not an option.”
“Morgana, please… let me get it done before Isobel comes back around and tries to escape again. She determined to kill Hildy before coming after me. Worry about my replacement when I’m dead and gone. There have to be other witches in the world like Hil
dy and me.”
“Destiny doesn’t work like that, Carol. You sidestep one thing only to find yourself drowning in seventeen others that are worse scenarios. When Gaia sets something this important in motion, she expects her plan to be honored because she’s thought out all the eventualities. Even though I don’t like this any more than you do, I have made the decision to go along with Gaia’s plan. Isobel is coming to the sacred grove with me.”
Carol snorted loudly. “She already has a new name. She goes by Veronica. Guess she said that before you got here.”
“No, no… the woman needs a newer name… a softer, nicer name. I can’t really remove the evil in her, but I can work on shoving it down really, really far inside her. If I’m lucky, that will last until she produces your replacement and raises the child to adulthood.”
Carol stared in utter disbelief. “So that’s it? She kills people, she lies, and she steals magic, but Isobel gets to live out her life and have children anyway.”
Morgana stuck out her lip. “You make it sound so bad, Carol. Can’t you have some trust in Gaia’s plan, if not in me? This is the best idea I have for getting Isobel out of your hair.”
Carol kicked at the dirt again. “This idea sucks large and is only slightly worse than your other stupid idea that Fabio and I belong together.”
Morgana burst out laughing. “What are you talking about? You and Fabio do belong together. You’re a perfect match. He would annoy a normal woman, but you just laugh at him. He needs you to make him a better man. You need him for… well, for all the reasons women need men. He’s very well-trained from what I hear.”
“I’m not interested in Fabio fulfilling my needs.”
“Liar… you’re still dreaming of his kiss. You gave up being with your djinn for him. Tell others what you want them to think, but I know the truth of your heart.”
Carol closed her eyes and shook her head. “I can’t do my job if you keep saddling me with huge things to worry about that you won’t let me resolve. How am I supposed to sleep at night with Isobel running loose in the world? She might forget about Hildy and me for a short while, but she’ll never forget she’s evil.”
“How about I drain all the magical power she stole? I can make her as mortal as the next woman. I can’t remove what remains of her dark magic, but I can set free the magic she stole. I know the perfect person to give it to.”
“Who?”
“Someone who will use it for the highest good. Gaia knows, the original owners of it didn’t.” Morgana went to Isobel and drew out the magic with her hands. She formed it into a massive ball of energy and threw it at Carol who didn’t see it coming in time to duck.
The magic made Carol scream as it exploded inside her and knocked her to the ground. “Damn you, Morgana.”
“Feel better now? All she has left is what she sacrificed to get from the demons.”
“No, I do not feel better,” Carol snapped, climbing to a standing position on her wobbling legs. “One day she’ll break free of all attempts to reform her. I may not be a goddess, but I know enough about the nature of evil to know that no one like her can exist peacefully in Gaia’s realm. Isobel’s spirit has aligned with the energy beyond the veil that separates the realms.”
Morgana shrugged. “I’ll concede to you in that matter, but it is a risk we all must take for the greater good of bringing the next witch protectress into the world. However, I do not understand why you put the fabulous Fabio in the same category of concerns. With all the practice he’s had with women, I’m sure he’s quite talented in bed. That man is every woman’s fantasy come true outside of the whole wandering eye thing.”
“Believe it or not, his weakness for women is not my primary problem with him. I can handle his quirks.”
“Then what is your problem?”
Carol glared at her goddess. “My weakness for him is my problem—my worry that he’ll get killed because of me. The fact that I do feel the connection between us makes me want to stay with him and not go do my job. There is no room in the Baba Yaga’s life for a possessive male who doesn’t want her leaving his side. I can’t… I can’t… do I really have to explain this?”
“Ah…” Morgana said, finally understanding. “You don’t think you can be the Baba Yaga while in a committed relationship. I thought you might feel differently than all the others before you had. In the past, I purposely kept men away from my chosen witches until their service neared its end. I felt a bit differently after I saw that I had kept Elenora from finding her true self. I see I’ve created a conundrum in bringing Fabio to you too early.”
Carol watched as her goddess began to pace. With her nine-foot height, Morgana’s long-legged large stride ate up Hildy’s small yard in just a few steps in each direction. Finally, Morgana stopped pacing and turned back to her. She held out a hand, drew up a golden ball of light in it, and then manifested a small sack in the middle of her palm.
“No solution is perfect, but I have one about Fabio that perhaps you’ll find more palatable than the one about Isobel,” Morgana declared.
Carol took the sack when it was offered. “It’s heavy. What is it?”
“A few decades worth of fairy dust. I confiscated it from Queen Arraign several millennia ago. You only need to use a few grains at a time. The fairy dust will allow you to enchant Fabio whenever the mood strikes. When you order him to forget you afterward, he’ll be spirit-bound to obey. I don’t think this is the healthiest way to handle your relationship, but your reluctance to claim him as your own actually fits in with Gaia’s strange plans for Isobel.”
“How does my man phobia fit in with Gaia’s plans for Isobel?”
Morgana’s voice rumbled loudly, “It just does, Doubting One. You’ve challenged me enough for one day. I’ve told you more than I usually bother to do with mortals even magical ones. Goddesses don’t have to explain themselves, so take my offer or not. A woman should be the master of her own fate when it comes to love.”
Carol bounced the bag of fairy dust in her hand. It did give her options… and time to get used to the idea that Fabio was the one for her.
“Speak your answer so I may take my leave of you. Does my concession meet with the Baba Yaga’s approval or not?” Morgana demanded.
Carol shrugged. “I need to think about it.”
“Fine. You have three seconds.”
“In that case, I’ll take the fairy dust,” Carol said quickly, hiding the bag behind her back.
She watched and frowned as Morgana bent down to Isobel and picked her up. Carol hated letting Isobel go, but she also knew there was no changing the minds of two goddesses who’d decided to gang up against her.
Carol stood tall and met Morgana’s gaze. “With all due respect, Goddess, I can’t promise not to kill Isobel when I see her again.”
“If I’m successful, you won’t see her again until Gaia’s plans have come to fruition. I swear by the Ancients, I won’t care who kills her after that.”
“I just didn’t want there to be any secrets between us,” Carol stated flatly, wanting to end their discussion on the highest note she could. She still needed Morgana’s concession in another matter. “And about Ahmed?”
“It’s already done, Child,” Morgana said. “The next familiar will arrive shortly.”
“Thank you, Morgana,” Carol said, bowing as her goddess left.
Then she kicked the ground, threw some thunderbolts, and swore about seven dozen times before heading to the woods to unfreeze her man tools.
12
Chuck ran a hand over chest before reaching down to grab his crotch. “Why do I feel like I need a shower? Someone touched me who wasn’t my mate.”
Though used to Chuck’s bold statements about his man package, Carol still laughed. All men should be that dedicated to one woman. Hildy was damn lucky to have her bear. “You want to shower here or back home?”
“Is the evil witch really gone?”
Carol nodded. “Yes. She’s really gon
e. Goddess Morgana took her away.”
“Home then. I need to go get Mom and the cubs. They’re probably worried sick about us.” Chuck walked to his mate. “Kiss me, so I don’t feel contaminated.”
Hildy giggled before hugging her bear tightly. “Don’t worry. The evil witch didn’t touch anything important. Just your chest.”
“I don’t like it. She wasn’t you,” Chuck said firmly. He kissed his mate thoroughly and then looked at the best witch he knew, next to the one in his arms. “You can send me home now, Baba Yaga.”
Nodding, Carol lifted a hand. In a blink, Chuck was gone
“Now unfreeze my brother,” Hildy ordered.
“No. Not yet,” Carol said. “Come into the kitchen. We need to talk.”
They found Ahmed and Ibarra still dressed in their modern clothes. There were croissants from Paris on the table with a café of coffee. She could smell Mexican food keeping warm in the oven.
“I am really, really, really going to miss you, Ahmed,” Carol declared as she sniffed.
Ahmed walked over and hugged her until she almost couldn’t breathe. “I knew you were fine when you sent everyone else here, but you could have called me. I will always come whenever you call me. Always—you have my word.”
“You word means the world to me,” Carol said, patting his face. “Isobel—Veronica—whatever the hell her name is—wanted attention more than anything else. Any kind of attention feeds the darkness she carries. I had to get her focused on me, so she’d make a mistake. And she did. I had her down in less than three minutes after we were alone. The thunderbolt was in my hand to drive it through her evil chest…”
Ahmed leaned back to inspect her face. “But the Baba Yaga didn’t kill her?”
Carol shook her head and frowned. “No. It’s a long story involving two goddesses who wouldn’t let me. Apparently, I must wait to kill her. Morgana took the evil witch back to her grove and promised to keep her out of trouble. She didn’t give me a choice in the matter.”
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