Deadly Darlings (October Darlings Book 2)

by Wendolyn Baird

  “These are all the candles I could find,” Eden says as she stumbles into the living room with her arms overflowing. Different colored waxes and wicks tumble onto the makeshift coffee table as she kneels and Terra stares at her, aghast.

  “Really?” She asks sarcastically. “Just those? You couldn’t have scrounged up anymore?”

  Sneering, Eden shakes her hair out of her face and cocks her head to the side. “They’re all burnt already,” she explains. “I’m hoping to find at least one of them without my energy stuck to it. As long as I clip the wick, hopefully it won’t interfere with the bond.”

  “Great,” Terra mutters under her breath, “more magic that shouldn’t exist.”

  “I heard that,” I snap at her. Glancing back at Eden, I purse my lips and roll my eyes. “Thanks, Eden. I’m sure it will be fine.”

  “Everyone, just get along!” Ramona exclaims as she strides back into the room. In her combat boots and dramatic eyeliner, she’s an intimidating figure. Her crimson painted lips pucker in exasperation, and as she taps her fingers alongside the couch in agitation, I find myself mimicking the movement at the kitchen counter.

  “You’re right,” Marlowe whispers to me. The action is strange coming from a ghost but considering everyone in the room except Eden can see and hear her, this is what we’re reduced to. “Your life really is complicated.”

  “Tell me about it,” I mumble back from the side of my mouth. Tiny golden sparks hit the tiles as I fidget and although Marlowe’s eyes widen, she chooses not to comment.

  “Do you know who you’re choosing yet? Or is it up to them?”

  “Ramona and Tomas?” I clarify. “I honestly have no idea. I don’t think I can choose.”

  I would have chosen Tomas in a heartbeat, if it weren’t for that one, amazing, terrible idea of a kiss. As for Ramona... she’s chaotic alright, but don’t we balance each other out? And hold each other’s secrets?

  Mulling over the Nix twins’ warning though, I’m not sure I can pick out which one makes me stronger.

  Apparently, neither can anyone else.

  Ramona and Tomas bicker noisily for over ten minutes about which one of them should go through the ceremony, and by the end of it, Eden is exhausted, I’m hiding behind Eden pretending to be invisible, and Terra looks like she’s regretting her decision to come over more than ever.

  “For the love of everything!” She sputters. “You two need to shut up!” Reaching into her purse, she feels around for a second and glares at the siblings. “Tomas,” she tells him, “you’re heads. Ramona, you’re tails.”

  With that, my life, or the life of one of my friends, is left up to a coin toss. And I let the mundane decision stand.

  Ramona slits the side of her hand with a queasy face, and all I can focus on beside the flame burning between us is the knife sitting to the side of the candle I’m expected to use next.

  I just need to be sure of this. If I’m sure of this... no one will die.

  My heart is in my throat as I lift the handle, the blood rushes through my temples as I press the blade to my skin, and as I cut, Tomas hisses as though it’s his flesh being sliced through and not my own.

  Bringing our hands together, Ramona and I lift our wounds over the candle and let the blood hit the flame. As it mingles with the melted wax, the world in front of my eyes stretches and shifts as though I’m not really present. Everything is all at once, far too real, and not real at all. Like I’m watching myself through someone else’s eyes and if I looked in the mirror, I wouldn’t know who I saw.

  “Hold it for another four seconds,” Terra whispers. Counting down, she watches us with shallow breaths and half uttered words, until finally, she signals us to let go of one another.

  My head is spinning, and no sooner than the candle is extinguished, Eden and Tomas are at our sides with bandages. What’s done is done, and all there’s left to do is live with it... or not.

  WITH OUR HANDS SWINGING at our sides, we join the group of tourists ready to embark on their graveyard journey. Terra left for home as soon as she felt she was no longer needed, which was pretty quickly considering the spat she and Eden got into over lineage, and so it’s just the four of us again. Trekking through the dark, our breath floats about our faces and we step gingerly across the sidewalk, wary of ice.

  The iron gates of the cemetery aren’t as welcoming as before and the flowers have been replaced with battery powered Christmas lights and small wreaths leaning against the tombs. Not a single one of the persons in our group is giving off the least bit of purple light and the more of a disappointment the evening becomes, the less of a handle I can keep on my nerves.

  “I just don’t understand,” I hiss in Eden’s ear. “As soon as I saw the brochure, I thought this was something special. But all it is, is disrespectful to the dead!”

  Our guide is indeed dressed in what they consider a ghoulish outfit and rambling about different manners of death and tales of vampires haunting the lots. Beside me, Tomas shakes slightly, and I can’t tell if it’s from the cold, or irritation.

  “He could at least pretend to care about these people,” he spits out.

  “Why should he?” Ramona rolls her eyes. “He gets paid either way.” But even while her words are flippant, I can feel her hurt, her fear. She was just as hopeful about finding another witch tonight as I was.

  Nearing a row of above ground graves, a shadow moves through the trees.

  “Did you see that?” I lean towards the tree line and Tomas catches my arm.

  “No way, not again. The last time you ran off looking at something, you almost drowned,” he says.

  “No, no,” Eden pats my shoulder, “I saw it too.”

  Moving as one Ramona and I dart away from the group, Eden quick on our heels and Tomas lingering behind. Someone or something is on the other side of the trees, and I’m going to find out who.

  “You’re the sneak who won’t leave my construction site alone!” A shockingly familiar voice booms out. As my eyes adjust to the shadows, I realize I’ve led my friends headfirst into the mage. His tattoos are just as brilliant as Eden’s and the twins go still at the sight of them. Instead of even glancing their way, he focuses on Eden alone. “You’re more than just a mage,” he mutters out loud, wonder clear in his voice. “I thought I was supposed to be protecting a mage. Your family never mentioned anything else. What are you?”

  “She’s a person,” I correct him. Standing to my full height, I straighten my shoulders and stare him down. “We’re all just people.”

  “Yeah, I get that” he agrees, but continues eyeing us, no doubt searching for our abilities with whatever magical sight he possesses. “Does that mean you’re going to tell me why you’re hanging around a dangerously haunted site? I’ve been working all semester to get the negative energy out.”

  Laughing wordlessly, I let relief wash over me while Ramona speaks up in my place. “She’s a clairvoyant, and probably could have helped you solve that months ago. But if you really want to help, we’re going to take care of that problem tonight.”

  “My mother never told anyone what I was,” Eden explains, “not even me. Not until the second magick started kicking in. If you really are here to watch after me, I need to know two things. One, you leave my friends alone, and two, you help us with the hag.”

  Raising his eyebrows at us, he waits until the tour group moves on without us into the next section of graves. “Deal,” he decides. “But we stay together as a group. I’m a healer, but I don’t want anything to go wrong.”

  We leave the cemetery behind in the dark, mausoleums rising out of the ground in magnificent marble beneath the star filled sky. Maybe I can’t get all the answers I needed tonight, but at least I can keep my friends safer after this is all over. All I need to do is pretend to be bait and hold the spirit off until the gallowbirds can get a clear shot. Ramona and Tomas can take care of the rest.

  THE MOON IS FULL AND bright as it glints down on us. Blackwo
od is abandoned to feral cats and the birds that lurk in the branches, lifting their heads from time to time to stare at our slow progress. Eden stays huddled in the center of the group, worried as ever about the target she has on her, but I can’t think about those odds.

  A renewed sense of hope courses through me as we pass under the archway, and I'm not sure if it’s my own emotion or Ramona’s. By the time we reach the fountain and the siblings shift, I’m trembling. Only Ramona and Tomas are calm, soaring overhead as terrible ravens. Their wings shine cruelly under the moonlight, but as they swoop overhead, their pale eyes watch me encouragingly, and it’s easier to remember my friends underneath.

  Like every other night on campus, the torturous scraping of metal comes quick enough, only this time, I’m not running. Eden and I stand back-to-back, waiting for the inevitable, while the mage, Jason, watches silently from a few feet away, ready to intervene against a foe he can’t even see.

  At my side, Frank clambers up my own arm, snapping his claws as he goes. Despite the coats that hide their tattoos, a faint, lavender glow surrounds both Eden and Jason. If what I know is true, then energy attracts energy, and our hag is coming.

  The fountain behind us is shut off, but the tiles are still coated in droplets of water and covered in dead leaves and old coins. Now that I know the secret behind its tiles, the whole thing feels as though it should be in a cemetery. They should be laid to rest.

  The scraping grows louder as the wind picks up, and this time, when sparks fly off the sidewalk, I’m prepared with my own. Snapping my fingers together, I close my eyes and let the warmth of my magic keep me still against the biting cold. Eden shakes at my back, her teeth clattering as the hag materializes.

  With Ramona and Tomas circling above, I know I can’t let her get too close to Eden, but the more energy she draws into her own personal black hole, the less confident I am in our survival. How long could I contain a spirit as strong as she is?

  She slumps our way, her jagged teeth dripping with black decay, a pair of garden scissors dragging along at her side, and my stomach wrenches as the ground writhes beneath her feet. Where Frank has called forth dozens of scorpions around my ankles, the entire lower half of the hag’s body is squirming with larvae. Her eye sockets are sunken and nearly empty, save for the shriveling, cobwebbed eyes of death she fixes me with.

  “Two pretties, come to play,” she hacks through her rotting throat. She’s unlike other spirits I’ve met before; firmer. As though she’s more fully on this side of the realms than the dead, and as she continues our way, completely dismissing the others, the smell of putrescence and decay nearly knocks me over.

  We just need to hold her off until Tomas or Ramona can narrow in on her, that’s all we need to do. My hands tremble as I inhale the vile air, gagging as I try to focus on a restrictive energy to slow her down. Flashes of images pass through my mind.

  Shovels, kilns, razor sharp points for pottery making.

  And then worse images.

  Screaming, blood, jaws ripped apart and bleached clean until they gleam on her kitchen counter.

  Each victim, unsuspecting of the kind professor who offered them tea. Each student, just on the cusp of surpassing her own artistry.

  “Stop!” I scream, throwing my arms over my head. The onslaught of pictures gets worse, accompanied with gore that makes me vomit. I throw my magic towards her, focusing on containing her in place, but pressure pounds against my skull as she resists. The images continue, worse with every second.

  “Stop!” I gasp, and then everything is silent. The shrieking in my ears ceases and my mind goes blank.

  Lifting my head, I’m no longer in the courtyard at all, but a twisted version of the place. The in-between, again.

  “Did you bring us here?” Ramona demands. In her human form, she rushes to me and helps me to my feet, traces of ice clinging to her skin.

  I raise a hand to her cheek and wipe off the frost, full of fear and confusion. Ramona was nowhere near me when I was pulled through, and she should still be in her raven form. What is going on? Why now?

  “No.” I shake my head and shudder violently, wiping my mouth as I turn around.

  “Of course, you didn’t,” a pair of all too familiar voices ring out. The twins, again. “We did.”

  Grabbing my arm, Ramona pulls me to her side as she measures up my approaching ancestors. I try to shake her off, but the tighter she grips, the more I realize she’s clinging to me out of panic, not protection.

  “What do you want?” I ask them.

  As always, their startling calm demeanor fades as soon as they’re questioned. Their dark eyes go flat, and they cross the space between us in less than a second. Caressing the sides of my face with one of each of their hands, they coo into my ears, invoking chills of horror so deep, it’s a wonder I don’t lose consciousness.

  “We didn’t want you to die yet,” they say. “And that spirit really is a mean one, isn't she? I hope your friends survive.” Turning their expressionless faces towards Ramona, they add, “do you think you made the right choice?”

  Ramona pulls me away and shifts, landing us in the drained fountain back in the mortal realm.

  Chaos is everywhere.

  Tomas is hunched over the remains of something I turn away from, only to find Jason kneeling over an impossibly small, shadowy shape.

  Stumbling over the edge of the fountain, I run as fast as I can to the glowing form laying on the ground. The violet hue is so bright, it can only mean one thing, but it can’t, not again. Not another person I love!

  Before Ramona has even realized what happened, I’m kneeling at Eden’s side, brushing the tangled hair off her forehead. Jason works over her tirelessly, but the scars on her face have opened wide, pouring her precious blood across the concrete.

  Finally, his head hangs dejectedly and there’s a resigned air to his voice I can’t accept. “She’s gone,” he mutters. “I’m so sorry, but she’s gone.”

  As everyone else catches on and Ramona and Tomas collapse into stunned grief around me, a gleam of violet catches my attention and looking up, I lock eyes with Eden once more.

  Already transparent, hovering just over her body, she’s as beautiful as ever, and I don’t have the words to tell her that she's dead.

  A forge sparks between us, and I feel her spirit tether onto mine, hooking itself deep into my heart. My soul is bonded to a gallowbird and haunted by a ghost, and I don’t know if I’m doomed, or just deadly.

  Continue reading for a preview into Forever Darlings

  Forever Darlings

  Chapter One

  Eden’s been dead for ten days now, and I hate the way she keeps staring at me. I knew from the moment her soul left her body that we were stuck together, but I never imagined just how far a personal haunting could go.

  Her transparent form flickers in and out of view in the rearview mirror, and she's exasperated with my guilt. “It wasn’t your fault, Nix,” she tells me for the millionth time. “How were you supposed to know that getting dragged to the Shadow World would take Ramona out of action too?”

  Down one protector and missing her only means of seeing the oncoming hag, Eden paid for my screw up with her life. All because my ancestors decided to pull me into a conversation at literally the worst possible time. They told me to make a choice and I left it up to chance... I can’t even fully blame them. It still comes back to me.

  “I should have known. I should have chosen Tomas, or maybe learned how to resist the pull of the in-between!” I insist, pulling too far left on the steering wheel and skidding across the yellow line. Holding my breath, I adjust the car and grit my teeth.

  “But it wasn’t the in-between that pulled you in,” Eden argues. “It was those twins, and you couldn’t help it. If the hag didn't take me down, it would have been you, and honestly, I like it better this way. No one’s chasing me, and I can still talk to y’all. If you were gone, I would have lost you altogether."

  The
gift of clairvoyance lends me a few extra senses and the ability to commune with the dead. Too bad I can’t stop death from coming.

  Sighing heavily, I flick my fingers against the steering wheel and relish the feel of sparks flying off my fingertips while I drive.

  “Careful,” Eden warns. “You’ll set the car on fire.”

  Glaring at her from the rearview mirror, I stop, clenching my teeth and hoping agitation can hold off my grief. The mage we’d been watching all semester was able to smooth things over with the police and Eden’s death was chalked up to improperly healed wounds. I’m still not sure how he got them to believe that, but I do know her mother didn’t buy it one bit when we saw her at the funeral.

  “Cut it out,” Eden snaps at me. “Stop feeling sorry for me, I already know I’m dead, bruja.”

  “Actually,” I mutter as I follow Ramona’s car up a winding mountain path, “I was thinking about your family. And our friends.”

  Cringing, Eden flickers out of view and leaves me alone in the vehicle. Guilt and pain left me with no choice but to follow Tomas and Ramona away from Blackwood, and only the occasional text from Sabrina reminds me of a time life was sane.

  As the trees on either side of the road converge into an archway of branches, a large, black gate comes into view. Ramona stops to open it, and then waves me to follow her in.

  “Well, Frank,” I tell the iron scorpion at my wrist, “I guess we’ve got a new home. You up for another adventure?”

  As a creature of living metal, bound to protect my bloodline, Frank is more than a fashion statement or a pet, he’s my friend. Snapping his claws at me, I swear he nods, and then Tomas is honking behind me and it’s time to drive in.

  “And here I thought Nix House was in the middle of nowhere,” I mumble as I climb out of my vehicle and stretch my stiff legs. The wind picks up speed, sending waves of hair into my face, but even as I struggle to look past them, the Erebus estate is intimidating.