by Quinn Loftis
“Did you hear that?”
Jewel nodded and then reached for Anna’s hand. Together, they crossed into the other side. But instead of entering a forest, they stepped directly into Volcan’s study.
“The veil opens into your lair?” Jewel asked, her brow drawn down in a deep frown.
“My power is increasing,” he informed them. He stood from where he’d been sitting at his large desk, piled high with books. “I would be even stronger if you two had succeeded in the task I commanded you. Have you figured out how to make the witches?”
Jewel nodded. “We have.”
“Tell me,” snapped Volcan.
Anna wanted to tell him to get some freaking manners but figured that wouldn’t go over too well with the crazy fae freak, CFF for short. It was a fitting title, she decided.
Jewel began explaining what they’d learned, and Anna tuned her out the minute she heard Gustavo’s voice in her mind.
“Are you alright, my female?”
“I’m not chained to a table with a vampire carving me up like a Christmas ham, if that’s what you mean.”
“You are not putting my wolf at ease, Anastasia,” he growled.
“I didn’t realize it was my job to take care of your wolf,” she snapped. “I sort of thought you were a grown man and capable of taking care of yourself.” Anna couldn’t believe those words had filled her mind let alone that she’d sent them to her mate. Gustavo had been nothing but kind to her, so why on earth did she feel like clawing his eyes out?
“We are two halves of the same whole, mi amor. We were meant to take care of one another,” said Gustavo, his voice still calm and patient.
Anna wanted to scream at him that she didn’t need anyone to take care of her. She’d been taking care of herself long before he came along, and she’d still be doing it long after he was gone.
“This is his magic speaking. The darkness of Volcan’s power is growing in you, and being there in his place of power is making the darkness spread faster in you. Please fight it, Anna. If not for me, then fight it for yourself. Don’t be a slave to Volcan’s power.”
“I am a slave to no one,” Anna bit out. “You would do well to remember that.”
She heard a sigh that sounded full of exhaustion and weariness, and Anna wanted to say she took the words back. She wanted to beg him not to leave her, but something was keeping her from saying those things.
“Come back to me, mi amor. I realize that right now you probably don’t feel like yourself, but please come back to me.”
Anna realized Jewel was shaking her arm and pulled her mind from Gustavo’s. She looked at the other healer and then at Volcan, who was smiling. It wasn’t a happy smile. It was one of those creepy ones that made you want to spit in the person’s eye just to wipe the smile off their face.
“We’ve been given our orders,” said Jewel. “We are to do the spell tomorrow, when the moon is at its highest.”
Anna nodded. They took hands again and flashed from the CFF’s castle. As soon as they were standing back in the forest on the other side of the draheim veil, Anna released Jewel’s hand and stepped quickly away. She leaned over as her stomach heaved, and she vomited up the contents of her stomach.
She heard Jewel’s own retching sounds and realized the other healer was just as sick as she was.
“What the crap is wrong with us?” Anna asked “And why is my puke black as if I’d eaten a couple pounds of licorice?”
“It’s Volcan’s magic,” Jewel said in between retching. “Our healer magic is trying to fight it.”
“I think mine is losing. I just treated my mate like dirt,” admitted Anna, and it twisted her stomach, causing her to vomit again.
“I think we should take a few minutes to compose ourselves before we flash back to Peri’s,” Jewel suggested. “I’m not in control of myself. I feel so angry, and I don’t really know what about. I just want to … to…”
“Kill something or someone?” Anna offered.
Jewel flinched at the cruel words but nodded. “Exactly.”
“I can feel Gustavo trying to get through the block I’ve got in my mind. I don’t want to say anything more that could hurt him.”
“It’s not like he would hold it against you. Those damn males are so forgiving. It’s like we can do no wrong in their eyes. It kind of makes me want to push the boundaries of Dalton’s patience and see how far I could go before he’d finally say he doesn’t want me or can’t forgive me. I’ve lived all these years without him anyways. It’s not like I couldn’t live without him again. Especially once we have changed the others. We won’t need anyone else. We will have our family in our coven.”
Anna found herself nodding even though there was a small voice in her mind screaming that what Jewel was saying was so wrong. “You don’t really mean that,” she finally said, though she felt like she was going to choke on the words.
“I know, but it feels like I do.”
“Maybe if we go back, it will help. Being farther from Volcan and being back in Peri’s home, with our mates.”
Jewel took several deep breaths. Anna imagined she was attempting to figure out a way to keep her mouth from spewing awful things to people they cared about because she was doing that as she took deep breaths. “Did you know that the average dog can learn about 165 words?” Jewel asked. “And in the 1600’s cannibalism was a common practice among some Europeans? And during the Cold War the military trained dolphins to find explosives and bring equipment to divers, among other things?”
“Is this you trying not to want to kill someone?” Anna asked, recognizing Jewel’s penchant for reciting facts when she was stressed.
“Pretty much.”
“Is it working?”
Jewel shrugged. “Maybe it would be better if we just didn’t talk once we got there.”
“Good idea.”
“Better yet,” said Jewel, “maybe we should have Peri bind us so we can’t move or speak. That way we can’t hurt anyone with our words or actions.”
Anna considered it, and when she thought about the things she’d said to Gustavo through their bond, she finally nodded. “I think you’re right.”
Jewel nodded. “Alright. That’s settled. Let’s go.”
They flashed from the draheim veil and were in Peri’s living room a few seconds later.
Jewel’s feet landed on Peri’s living room floor and the rage she’d been feeling while at Volcan’s only intensified. She knew it wasn’t her own emotions. It was Volcan’s magic but it felt so real. She had no idea if she’d be able to control herself.
Her hands were raised before she even realized it, and she said a word that she didn’t even recognize. Light flew from her hands at the high fae. Peri flicked her hand as if she were batting away a fly, and the bolt of power Jewel had shot at her was redirected toward the wall beside Peri.
Before Jewel could speak another word she didn’t know she yelled, “Bind us!” A second later, Jewel couldn’t move or speak. If she could have sighed in relief she would have.
Dalton and Gustavo came barreling into the house, and their eyes jumped from Peri to her and Anna. Both males looked enraged.
“Release my mate, Peri,” Dalton snarled.
Jewel wanted to shout her agreement at the same time she wanted to scream for Peri to do no such thing.
“Even if I did take orders from you, my answer would be no. But since I don’t take orders from you, my answer is go jump off a cliff, wolf,” Peri said calmly.
“Why have you done this?” Gustavo asked.
“Because Jewel demanded it.”
Dalton looked at Jewel, and his eyes were full of worry. He stepped toward her and ran a finger gently down her cheek. “Why, Little Dove?”
Gustavo was the one who answered, which was a good thing, considering Jewel couldn’t speak and didn’t have a magical bond to communicate with her mate.
“Anna says that
Volcan’s magic has a stronger hold on them. They can’t be trusted not to try to hurt us.”
“Well, considering Red just tried to fling a spell at me, I’m going to have to agree with your female,” said Peri.
“So we’re just going to leave them like that?” Dalton asked.
Gustavo spoke again. “Anna says they think they will be better once they’ve been here awhile. That being around us”—he motioned between him and Dalton—“will help as well.”
Dalton walked over to Jewel and wrapped an arm around her waist and a around her mouth. “Can you unbind her long enough to let me sit her on the couch with me? I want to hold her, and she doesn’t need to be standing for a long period. It can’t be comfortable.”
Gustavo nodded and headed for Anna. Jewel couldn’t see him but assumed he was probably holding Anna in the same manner.
Peri rolled her eyes but nodded. “Fine.” For a heartbeat, Jewel was able to move, but Dalton had her in his lap and restrained and then she was bound again by Peri’s magic. Dalton had been right. It was much more comfortable being frozen and sitting instead of standing. She’d have to thank him later for being so considerate, if she ever got past the darkness that wanted to harm him. It made her sick to her stomach to feel any sort of anger toward him, especially when she knew it wasn’t her own but simply a product of the magic Volcan had infused into her blood.
Dalton nuzzled her neck, and she felt his warm lips on her skin. “Don’t let him win, Little Dove,” he whispered in her ear. “Come back to me.”
Jewel wanted to do just that. She didn’t want to be controlled by a mad man. But her head was a jumbled mess of her own desperation to be free of Volcan and Volcan’s voice commanding her to harm those she loved. She just had to last until tomorrow night. Then they would do the spell, and the darkness would no longer have a foothold. Five more minutes, Jewel. Be brave for five more minutes. She would continue to tell herself that until those five minutes ended with the full moon tomorrow night.
Chapter 15
“Sometimes love is beautiful and wondrous. But sometimes love is the darkest kind of dark—all-consuming and without any care for who it destroys.” ~Jezebel
“Thad, what is this word?” asked Jewel. She’d spent all morning poring over the pages of Jezebel’s spell book, cross-referencing the spell to the ancient texts Wadim, the Romanian pack historian, had brought. It would’ve been nice if the man had stayed and helped. Jewel could tell right away he knew his business when it came to supernatural history. But, apparently, he had a new mate back in Romania and, according to Peri, he was needed to help the wolves there fight a threat even more sinister than Volcan. Jewel shuddered at the thought. She didn’t see how anyone or anything could be eviler than Volcan. “Sengoisegnom. It looks to be some derivative of Latin, a combination of signum, symbol, and sanguis blood.”
“Very astute, young healer,” replied the djinn. “Sengoisegnom is an ancient word from the fatimil.”
“Fatimil?”
“Yes, it’s a long-dead language. Generally spoken only by supernaturals even when it was in common usage.”
“Can you please read the text following the words of the spell to me again?”
Thad pulled the crumbling tome back across the desk to him.
“Easy!” said Jewel. “That book is about to fall apart. We can’t exactly run down to the local pharmacy and grab a paperback copy if it disintegrates.”
“My apologies,” said Thadrick. “I, of course, have the pages committed to memory. As such, its preservation isn’t my top priority.”
“Wait a second. You have it memorized? Then why bother reading it to begin with?”
“You asked me to. Had you asked me to recite the text following the spell, I would have done so.”
Jewel rolled her eyes. Then a realization hit her. “Thadrick.” She said and bit her lip to keep from chuckling. “Have you always known what was on the missing pages of the book?”
Thad tilted his head. “That’s a strange question, healer. I thought you were a genius, at least according to human standards.”
“I am,” she said.
“Then why would you ask something that hinges on an impossible premise. I can’t have always known what was in the book because, at some point, the book didn’t exist. Before it was written, I couldn’t have possibly known of its existence.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
“And even after it was written,” he continued without acknowledging her statement, “before I was shown the book, it existed outside my awareness.”
“I mean did you know what it said before you visited Jezebel at her shop?”
“You must be able to deduce, given the information available to you, the answer to your question.”
“I have. I just want to confirm my suspicions.”
“You should trust your own considerable intellect, healer. You needn’t rely on the confirmation of others.”
“Humor me.”
Thad shrugged. “Very well. Of course, I’ve known since I read the spell when Perizada, the witch Jezebel, and I cast it a hundred years ago.”
Jewel nodded. “That’s what I thought. And, unless I’m wrong—and I’m very rarely wrong—at any point, while we were discussing our predicament, you could have said, ‘Hey guys, guess what? I already know a spell that will create good witches, and I can tell it to you. There’s no need to involve Jezebel whatsoever. I don’t need to remove the spell from the pages because I keep a record of everything in my giant djinn-computer brain, and I can simply recite the pages to you.’ Isn’t that right, Thad?”
“Your statement has no fallacies I can detect.”
“Hmm.” Jewel tapped her bottom lip with her finger. “That is strange behavior, even for a djinn.”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“You’re a strange cat, there’s no doubt about that. But even as obtuse as you are, I don’t think you would have withheld this information without a good reason.”
“I withheld the information because no one asked me directly if I knew the language of the spell.”
“Tut, tut, tut.” Jewel narrowed her eyes. “I thought you might say that … but I don’t think that is entirely factual, Thadrick, my good man.”
Thad began to turn red, and Jewel knew she was on the right track. “Are you accusing me of lying, healer?”
“Of course not. No one asked you what the spell said so you weren’t obligated to tell us. That’s certainly true. BUUUTTT … that’s not the reason you willingly withheld the information.”
“And why would I do such a thing?”
“Simple. You knew there was one other person who knew about the spell, and you knew Peri would get her involved eventually. Had you intervened earlier, Jezebel’s help wouldn’t have been necessary. We could have done this entire thing without her.”
“That’s a considerable logical leap.”
“Nope, that’s the only logical conclusion. But it does raise one very interesting question. Why, djinn, would you put us through all that just to force a confrontation with Jezebel?”
Thad blanched. “Force a confrontation? I’ve done no such thing.”
“You could have easily visited Jezebel countless times, couldn’t you, Thad?”
“I’m a djinn. I go where I will when I will.”
“Exactly. But you haven’t. Instead, you fabricate a scenario where you're forced to come into contact with her after a hundred years.”
“I haven’t fabricated anything!”
“What’s going on between you and Jezebel?”
“Nothing!”
“I’ve seen the way you two look at each other when you think no one is watching. You two have a history.”
Anna’s voice came from the doorway. “They don’t call her a genius for nothing.” Thad and Jewel looked up to see Anna and Jezebel watching them.
“You might as well tell her,” said
Jezebel. “I’ve already told Anna everything. I’m done keeping secrets. They do nothing but hurt the ones we love. I’m tired of hurting the people I love, including you, Thadrick.”
“Perhaps you should have considered that a century ago,” Thad said, his voice as cool as a winter night in Maine. “You could have saved us all from your secrets.”
Jezebel didn’t respond. She simply stared at the man she’d been telling herself she was over for the better part of a hundred years. The lie was getting old.
“Jewel, can you come have a chat with me?” Anna asked.
“No can do, voodoo woman,” Jewel said, completely oblivious to the fact that Anna was trying to give Jezebel and Thad some privacy.
“Heaven save us all from oblivious geniuses,” Anna muttered as she walked over and tugged on Jewel’s strawberry blonde locks. “Come on, wheeler. Let’s give the adults some space.”
Jewel’s eyes widened as she glanced between Jezebel and the djinn. Realization dawned and she hurried to her feet. “Right, um, we’ll just go, we’ve got to, uh, wash our hair,” she said, tripping over her words. “But separately. Not together. That would be weird. Two grown women washing their hair together. I mean, who does that?”
“Jewel?” Anna asked.
“Yes?”
“Shut up.”
“Thank you.” Jewel sighed as if Anna’s words had somehow been the dam she’d needed to stop the word flood.
When the girls were gone, Jezebel stood there, unable to take her eyes off Thad. He was as handsome as the day she’d first seen him. He held the same intensity and cold aloofness that had drawn her to him in the first place. It was also the same thing that had pushed her away and into another’s arms.
“You may exit with the healers,” he said, staring down at a book he had likely memorized.
“I think we should talk.”
“I have nothing to say.”
“Then will you at least listen?”
“There is nothing you could say that I could possibly need or want to hear.”
Ouch. Thadrick never was one to beat around the bush. It was time she took a page out of his book. “You left. One minute you were there and then you were just gone,” she said, the pain from that time welling up inside of her. “I waited for you. I worried about you. I was terrified something had happened to you.”