by Coralie Moss
Rose nodded at her friend, tucked her hands behind her back, and lowered her voice. “Calliope, your Blood Ceremony did not follow the sequence most others do. You had uninvited…” She paused mid-sentence as L’Runa elbowed her gently and spoke into her ear. “Let me rephrase that,” she said. “You had unannounced guests, and while we always expect there might be visitors from other realms, one of yours was…” She searched the darkening woods surrounding my house and rubbed her upper arms. “One of your visitors lingered at the periphery of the ceremonial area in a way that whispered of a threat. And two other visitors came in their animal forms, as though to protect you from that threat.”
“When moments like that occur during a Blood Ceremony or even during one of the lesser ceremonies, Calliope, our policy is to let it unfurl without interference,” said L’Runa, lifting a lightweight shawl out of her capacious bag and handing it to Rose. “Much as one would, say, when watching an outdoor theater production or musical performance. One cannot always control the weather or the actions of the local inhabitants while the show is going on.”
“But,” Rose interjected, “we had to ask Tanner for help once the sun rose and you emerged from the tree.”
“I remember some of that,” I said. “Thank you for taking care of me.”
“We’re glad to see you alive and well on this side of your ceremony, Calliope. It’s the best of all possible outcomes.”
My conversation with the two witches left me pondering what the not-so-best of all possible outcomes might have looked like. I shook off the thought, found an empty chair in a cluster of round tables, and let myself be surrounded by well-wishing family and new friends.
* * *
Stifling a yawn from the lack of sleep, I took stock of the party. Harper, Leilani, Thatcher, and Sallie had spread a blanket at the far end of the property and were on their backs, pointing up at stars, and seemingly deep in conversation. Nearer to the house, other clusters of partiers had me calculating how much longer I should stay before it was acceptable to gracefully usher myself off to bed.
Where I would gracefully await the dark-haired druid standing with his back to me, in lively conversation with his trio of druidic cohorts. Watching Tanner could easily become a favorite pastime, and a rush up my spine confirmed my crush was real.
Enough mooning. I was chilly. Rubbing my full belly, the feeling of fullness extending into my heart, I excused myself and went into the house to find a sweater.
The moment I planted my foot on the strip of lawn between the house and the driveway, I knew something was different. The ground was askew in a way that was simply wrong. Though the surface of the lawn looked smooth, my feet couldn’t find purchase, and my gut clenched in reaction to a presence I could not see. Lack of hysteria in the remaining partygoers pointed away from the possibility of a mild earthquake.
I whirled to my right then left. Underneath where I stood, an undulating presence extended its long-fingered reach, and each of those fingers created fissures in the thick underlayer of fine, intertwined roots.
Did no one else feel what was happening? The teens were still on their blanket. Rowan was head-to-head with Wes, the reds of their hair a coppery glow in the light cast from a nearby torch.
Nearer to the house, River and Rose were with Clifford and Abigail, gathering sweaters, jackets, and purses while continuing their conversation. At another table, Mal, James, Kaz, and Belle were laughing. Tanner was walking toward them, a bowl of cookies from the dessert table balanced in his hand.
I pinched the fabric of my flowy dress so I wouldn’t flash anyone and scooted back up the stairs, darted through the house to my bedroom, and went to grab my wand.
Which was now becoming one with its twelve-inch replacement. Tiny branchlets clutched the old stick to the new. I picked up the conjoined pieces, thinking I could separate them like bamboo chopsticks, but the branchlets and leaf buds were having none of it.
“Okay, okay, I get it,” I whispered.
I peeled off my dress, rolled myself into a sports bra, and wedged the conjoined wands between my breasts.
Wands. Gauntlets.
What I wouldn’t give for an instruction manual.
I slipped the gold hoops out of my earlobes, pulled on a pair of clean jeans and a T-shirt, and affixed the bear and the apple to the top of my T-shirt and called myself ready.
No one looked at me when I skidded to a stop at the top of the porch stairs, locked and loaded for the cosplay part of the evening. But when Tanner and the other druids turned as one and faced the road as the wards ringing the house snapped to life, most everyone else came to their feet on high alert.
“Calliope,” Tanner barked, waving me toward him.
“Something’s coming,” I said, shoving my arms with the unlaced gauntlets at him. “Is it the Apple Witch? If it is, there’s something very different about her approach. And she hasn’t said anything.”
He closed his eyes as he laced me up and shook his head as he answered. “If she’s here, she’s being very restrained.” He pointed toward the road and the trees and bushes to either side of the entrance to the driveway. “Company’s coming from that direction, if the wards are any indication.”
Tree limbs and leaves glimmered with the now familiar flecks of emerald green lights, stronger to the North and East. With a bit of squinting, I could see dimmer lights flickering throughout the woods.
I took a couple of deliberate steps away from the house, thinking I had time to get a read of the underground, when a posse of silvery gray SUVs with tinted windows and extra antennas roared to a stop and blocked the entrance of my driveway. The tires skidded on gravel, and six high-beam headlights went dark at the same moment.
The driver’s side doors faced the road. As each one opened and the driver exited, more drama was added to the entire performance in the extra beats it took to reveal who, exactly, had arrived.
Oh, for fuck’s sake. Meribah Flechette—Doug’s mother and my ex-mother-in-law and self-appointed judge and jury. She was joined by the woman in the passenger’s side of her car and Doug and Roger, who exited the lead vehicle.
“Calliope,” Meribah started, “we heard you were having a party, and we hoped we might join you and share in whatever it is you’re celebrating.”
Chapter 22
I wanted to laugh at Meribah. Someone must have suggested the Merry Widow and her band of sycophants watch all three Men in Black movies and take notes: black pants and two-button jackets for the men; tight black skirts and form-fitting jackets for the women; pressed white blouses and shirts for all. Their faces feigned a stoic attitude and absolutely none of the movie’s underlying humor.
“I can’t imagine why you’re really here,” I said, palming my wand and securing the thicker end into one gauntlet.
And now that I knew she was Fae, everything that had always been flawless about her exterior, everything I had compared myself against and come up wanting, took on new meaning. My ex-mother-in-law had been hiding her true self from me the entire time I was a member of the Flechette clan. I should have paid more attention to the discrepancy behind her perfect mien and the venom in her words and actions.
“I’m here for my grandsons,” Meribah said. “Douglas informed me their magic has begun to rise, and they are Flechettes first and foremost and should receive their training under my aegis.”
“Will you be providing the same level of training you gave your sons?” I was ready to spar with Meribah—on my own turf, bolstered by the strength of my bonds to the soil under my feet and the reinforced wards around the property line.
As long as she and her crew stayed outside the wards and I stayed inside.
She cackled. “You’re the idiot who never suspected a tattoo had anything to do with your diminished abilities.”
Ouch. “He’s the idiot who lost his hand.”
“Douglas, show Calliope your hands.”
He stepped forward, pushed up his jacket and shirt sleeves, an
d turned the undersides of his forearms to face forward. The bones in his hands glowed dark blue, and one by one his fingernails elongated into pointed claws. He seemed mesmerized by his shiny new weaponry. “You did me a favor by allowing me to justify the expense of an upgrade.”
“Dad?”
Doug peeled his gaze off his hands and glanced past my shoulder to Thatcher. Spreading his arms and fingers wide, Doug asked, “Pretty cool, hey, son?”
“Put those away, Douglas. You’re scaring your children,” his mother commanded.
The speed with which he obeyed his mother was embarrassing. So much of our marriage was beginning to make sense.
“Meribah,” I said, my wand inching its way into my right hand, “you have no claim to my sons. They come and go between this house and their father’s, and if you want to see them, you should reconsider doing anything that would cause me to place restrictions on those visits.” I could sense people moving closer to my back. A quick check to either side showed both sons had stepped up beside me. “That said, I will also honor their wishes. Last we spoke, Harper and Thatcher wished to continue living with me and attending school on this island.”
The forward doors to the middle vehicle opened. A woman emerged from around the front, and a man stuck one leg out the passenger side while turning to face the back seat.
Meribah smirked. “You might change your mind when you see the special guests we’ve brought.”
The wards crackled and grew brighter. Man in Black Number Three opened the back door of the SUV, reached in with both arms, and tugged. When he stepped away, two males of shorter than average height, with bindings around their wrists and bags over their heads stood next to the vehicle.
“Bring them closer, Josiah,” Meribah said.
Josiah Flechette. Meribah’s brother. As soon as he’d taken two steps closer to where the wards held strong, I recognised the man’s face in the ambient light. And when the woman driver closed the car doors and took her place to the other side of the bound figures, her name registered in my brain—Garnet Flechette. These were Sallie’s parents.
“I will allow these two guests to remain on the island and continue the work they came here to do,” Meribah said, “if you release one of your sons into my custody. Mine, not Douglas’s.”
“Absolutely not. I have no idea who or what you’ve got under those bags, but my sons are not up for sale, barter, or trade.”
Meribah shrugged and lifted her right arm as though waving off a pestering bug. A blue glow, similar to the glow in the bones of Doug’s hands, only more concentrated, shot down her index finger and continued, revealing a long, thin blade with a pointed tip. She raised her arm above her head, touched the edge of the ward with the tip of the blade, and sliced a hole through the magic-charged air.
The woman accompanying her, who had yet to speak, grabbed one edge of the slit and held it to the side, allowing Meribah to step through and place one booted foot and then the other onto my land.
I sucked in my breath, expecting all hell to break loose, just like it would in the movies, with explosions and lasers and sound effects.
Silence.
“There are old wards here, wards that know my blood.” Meribah gave me her cold, brutal smile and a one-shouldered shrug. “They don’t like me, but they know me.” Reaching behind her, she held hands with the woman I didn’t recognize and pulled her through the opening.
With that, the wards shattered, falling like brittle glass curtains ringing a massive stage.
Josiah and Garnet each placed one hand at the back of the necks of their captives and pushed them forward. Garnet took the rope attached to the wrist bindings and handed it to Doug’s mother.
I sucked in a breath, certain I was about to drown. Saltwater filled my lungs, and overwhelming panic blacked out my ability to see a way around the bizarre situation unfolding in front of me.
Until cracks and snaps rose out of the wooded area on the other side of the driveway. Ivy bind?
Yes, I breathed. Ivy wind, ivy bind.
My vision cleared. Before I could send a more specific instruction to my loyal invasives, Garnet grabbed the hoods covering the men’s heads and ripped them back. Both men choked and dropped to their knees.
“Peasgood! Hyslop! What are you doing with my boys?” Abigail’s low wail rose from the guests gathered behind me.
I whipped my head side to side, searching to see who was positioned where.
“Abigail, no!” Clifford ambled across the grass, trying to keep Abigail with him, but she slapped his hands away and continued, spindly arms outstretched.
Josiah and Garnet stepped away from the two shackled men, giving tacit permission for them to stumble forward and be met by their grandparents.
I spun in place. Behind me, Tanner, Rose, River, L’Runa, Wes, and Kaz had spread out, forming an arc with their bodies. Belle and Rowan were hustling Leilani and Sallie into the darker part of the yard, with James protecting the rear. I didn’t see Malvyn anywhere.
The four Pearmains huddled in a tight bundle of hugs and tears on the grass between me and the invading Flechettes.
“What the hell are you trying to accomplish here, Meribah?” I demanded.
“Land, Calliope,” she said, as smug as I had ever seen her. “I want more land. And I will do anything I have to do to acquire it.”
“Including murder?”
She shrugged, and the drop of her shoulders signalled the start of a transformation. Her glamour faded, as did Doug’s and Roger’s and those of the other three. Ears elongated into points, and bodies morphed into taut, battle-ready silhouettes. Weapons strapped to their torsos and hidden behind their cultivated facades appeared, crackling with magical charge.
“Ivy wind; ivy bind. Ivy wind; ivy bind,” I murmured, sweeping my wand across the array of altered Fae standing in front of me. I urged the vines to start with my ex and his twin brother.
Bursting from the ground as tendrils, the vines thickened, growing thorns and oily leaves as they threaded over and around one another in a rush to follow my command.
Doug and Roger reacted by unleashing their claw-enhanced fingers. They dodged the Pearmains and headed for my sons, who had the presence of mind to run in opposite directions. Wes and River followed the Flechette brothers then stopped, dropped, and shifted into their river otter forms. I had no time to gawk at the beauty of the transformation, only a second to wish them sharp claws, sharp teeth, and all the viciously protective instincts they could muster.
I whipped my attention back to Abigail and Clifford, terrified her frail body wouldn’t withstand the violence of the erupting chaos. Having my attention diverted away from my sons ripped at me, but I had to trust my vines and the druids.
The wards reactivated, flaring brighter and taller than before and further lighting the scene in front of me.
From the side of the road, an explosion rocked the cars.
I could see the upper half of Malvyn’s body on the other side of the lead SUV. His arms were raised to shoulder height. A spinning wheel of red hovered in front of each palm.
Garnet and Josiah’s arms flailed out as the backsides of their bodies slammed against the side of one of the SUVS, held there by Mal’s spell. Arms up, elbows locked, he skirted the vehicle and slapped his hands against Josiah’s wrists then Garnet’s and again at their ankles, leaving the husband and wife manacled to the metal doors.
Two of the six Fae were contained, and two more were close to going down, leaving Meribah and the mystery woman to me.
Adelaide. It was Adelaide Dunfay, the realtor who’d left her card with the Pearmains week after week, trying to get them to sell.
Anger rose along my limbs. I wanted that woman disarmed. I wanted to know why she’d chosen the Pearmains, and if she had anything to do with the deaths of the hidden-folk. But I knew charging at her, my untested wand raised to the sky and a battle cry on my lips, was a laughable tactic.
In the next breath, the animal presen
ce I sensed outside my bedroom door approached my left side. A light gray snout nudged my fingers, and the silver-white fur of a ghost wolf pushed its weight against my hip. And then it was gone, folded into the shadows.
As if all this wasn’t enough, she arrived. The Apple Witch.
I felt her longing, her confusion, even as Meribah and Adelaide joined hands, swung their blades out to the sides, and move in Abigail’s direction.
The Apple Witch would have to wait.
I had given my blood to the soil on this island. I would protect the next generation of hidden folk, the ones who would shepherd the trees safely into the future. I mustered my energy to try a naming spell like the one I’d inadvertently used on Tanner. “Meribah Gratiana Flechette, Adelaide Flechette Dunfay—stop.”
Meribah and Adelaide jerked to a stop. I had a handful of heartbeats to savor the shocked looks on their faces before their mouths morphed into twisted grins, only to change again into cries of shock as they were knocked to the ground from behind.
The ghost wolf planted his paws on Adelaide’s backside, bit at her jacket, and threw his head side to side, tugging the jacket down her arms until they were trapped behind her. The beast took her wrist in its mouth, shook its head, and dislodged her weapon. It yelped when it tried to bite the blade.
Meribah was rolling away faster than I could get to her. She sprang to her feet, slicing at the air around her until she fell a second time, onto her back, kicking as the wolf went after her ankles.
I tore forward, landed my knees onto Adelaide’s back, and tried the naming spell again. This time, I put more into my delivery and added a caveat. “Adelaide Dunfay Proctor, do not move.”
Her body stiffened, and a growl of frustration rumbled in her throat.
Meribah and the ghost wolf were circling each other; another blade, as thin and deadly-looking as the first, extended out of her other hand.
The wolf tensed to leap—I could read it in the way his joints bent, loading his tendons for power and height. Meribah must have read it too. She burst into a spiral, going from stillness to a blur of movement from one moment to the next, building force and momentum from her feet to the ends of her swords.