Inborn Magic

by Kim McDougall

  He should feel guilty for spying on her. He didn’t. She had no one to look out for her. No one who understood the real danger she faced. Jane wanted proof before they moved against William Fain.

  “He’s soothing her!” Quinn had said, ready to pull out his hair.

  He’d shown Jane the video, but she dismissed it with the wave of a hand.

  “Tell me you never used your power to get a pretty girl into bed,” she said, with her usual infuriating calm. “That doesn’t mean he’s working for Koro, only that he’s horny.”

  Even the handkerchief with Fain’s blood hadn’t moved her.

  “I want you to stay away from that woman,” was all she said.

  This was why Quinn had left the coven ten years ago. Jane was dead inside. He’d felt it all his life. Bitterness bled into all her relationships, keeping even her closest family at a distance.

  When his father died, Jane’s aloofness reached a new plateau. He’d left the coven, traveling down south as head of security for a company that catered to visiting dignitaries. He came back for good three years ago, when Abilene was fourteen and Jane began grooming her to take over as High Priestess. Abilene was brilliant and a powerful witch, but young. She needed other influences in her life to balance Jane’s cold, authoritarian views.

  So he’d come home. And Jane hadn’t changed. She saw no reason to interfere in Bobbi’s affair as long as it didn’t touch the coven. That Bobbi was being mind-fucked by that bastard was of no concern.

  He bared his teeth at his reflection in the bathroom mirror. He’d get the proof. Then he’d see William Fain on the wrong side of hell’s door.

  In the living room, he checked the bookshelf and the stack of DVD’s under the TV. He closed his eyes and tried to sense any odd magic in the room.

  There.

  Behind a sofa cushion, he found the statue. The terra cotta face had been oiled to a deep red. Nubs of blackened horn protruded from its head. Quinn’s fingers tingled when he touched it. He tried to sense its purpose, but could only read its vague malevolent aether.

  Wind blasted the front window, and he nearly dropped the statue. Behind the wind came the distant rumble of a car.

  Bobbi was home.

  He glanced at the room, hoping he’d put everything back the way he’d found it. He adjusted a throw pillow, then slipped out the patio door, hiding in the shadows behind the barbecue.

  A door slammed and voices came from inside. She wasn’t alone. He had no time to make it to his spy nook in the tree, and the way his legs shook, he wasn’t sure he could climb it.

  The voices rose. Gavin was right. Bobbi was upset.

  He could see them in the kitchen. Bobbi tipped her face up to Fain’s, then pressed it against his shoulder.

  Was she crying?

  Quinn had been watching her for days. She walked and talked and smiled like a normal person, but that was Fain’s aether masking the real Bobbi. Maybe he should thank Gavin for provoking some kind of emotion from her. Something had reached her through the fog of magic. Something powerful. He wanted to call Gavin and find out what happened, but without an obfuscation spell, he didn’t dare move.

  Fain led Bobbi into the living room, stopping to open the patio door, and slide the screen into place.

  Quinn crept closer.

  “You can tell me anything.” Fain wore a tight golf shirt that did nothing to hide his paunch. His eyes darted from side to side as if he expected an attack. Bobbi’s gaze fixed on his face. She didn’t look upset, though her eyes were red-rimmed as if she hadn’t slept. Her face had a dreamy look. Fain had already been working on her.

  “I have a brother,” she said in a flat tone. “His name is Gavin.”

  Quinn’s world shifted. Gavin?

  “And Koro is real. He’s a devil or a demon. I’m not really sure.” Her forehead wrinkled with confusion.

  “Koro?” Fain frowned.

  “Yes. I don’t really understand all of it. But he…he took my mother and some other women. He took them away.” A long moment passed. Bobbi licked her lips and went on in a dead voice. “He let them go. They were pregnant. All of them. I am his daughter.”

  Holy fuck. Jane what have you done? His mother was involved in this horror. Quinn had no doubt. Always, she’d hidden something about Koro from the rest of them. Now he knew. For one terrifying second, he wondered if he was also a spawn of that demon. But no, Gavin was two years older. If Jane was involved it had been before she met his father.

  Dustin. The grave in Ashlet cemetery. He’d had a brother. Jane visited his grave once a year on the anniversary of his birth and death. Was Dustin also a child of Koro?

  “Who told you this nonsense?” Fain laughed and pulled away from Bobbi. He fidgeted, shoved his hands in the pockets of his jeans, yanked them out and tugged at his shirt. The man wasn’t comfortable in his own skin.

  “Molly.”

  Molly McFadden? What did she have to do with all this? Quinn inched backward, ready to sneak away and get some answers from his mother.

  “Would it be such a bad thing?” asked Fain. “Being the daughter of the Great One?”

  Great One? Quinn stopped and turned back to the scene in the living room. Fain gripped Bobbi by both shoulders, forcing her to look up. He seemed to come to a resolution.

  “What do you mean?” Bobbi’s voice stuttered. The light caught her giant eyes.

  “I mean that if I was the descendant of Koro, I could do great things. I could be great. Maybe you should think about that.” He held her gaze and Quinn felt aether pouring from him.

  He had power but it was wild, untethered by practice or discipline, and soother magic wore off over time. He needed to keep Bobbi dosed, until his plans were complete, whatever those were.

  Quinn remembered the night in Jane’s garden when he’d inadvertently soothed Bobbi, and how violated she’d felt. With good reason. She would be horrified to know someone had such a hold over her emotions. And part of her did know. Somewhere, inside her mind, Bobbi was screaming to be let loose.

  He would break Fain’s hold on her and he would break Fain, but he wasn’t sure Bobbi would ever be the same.

  “Relax,” Fain said. “You are the seed of the Great One. The blood of the seed will call the father and he will provide for you.”

  “Yes.” Bobbi’s mouth hung slack.

  “He’s been watching over you for a very long time. He’s getting ready to meet you. That’s why he sent me.”

  “When?”

  “Tomorrow.”

  Samhain. Tomorrow was Samhain, the one night of the year when dimensions were more easily opened.

  “Tomorrow.” Bobbi’s voice fell flat. Her face lost all vigor. Fain had her completely under his control. He kissed her forehead and patted her cheek as if she were a small child.

  A moment later, Quinn heard a car pull out of the driveway. Fain had gone.

  Bobbi puttered in the kitchen, her face barely visible in the window above the sink. She wandered around the house, a glass of wine forgotten in one hand, touching knickknacks as if trying to remember who put them there.

  Quinn backed out of his hiding spot behind the barbecue, still gripping the red statue. He had to get back to the coven. It was long past the time for Jane to come clean about Koro. He took two steps toward the back fence and the patio screen squawked.

  Bobbi stepped barefoot onto the deck. Quinn froze.

  “You!” Her voice rose in surprise but her eyes were dead.

  Quinn hadn’t meant to face her tonight, not while his aether was so dangerously low. Not while Fain’s hold on her was impenetrable. But now he had no choice. He would make one last attempt to reach her.

  “Bobbi, listen to me. Fain is soothing you. Look, I can prove it.” He held up the statue.

  She whipped a hand forward. Her wine glass smashed the statue, shattering both in an explosion of glass, wine and terra cotta shards.

  The sound shocked Bobbi to stillness. He waited, looking
for a sign that Fain’s spell broke with the statue.

  Her face twisted with rage.

  “He told me about you.” She wielded the broken stem of glass like a knife. “He told me you would try to come between us. He told me to stop you no matter what.” Blood dripped down her arm from a cut on her thumb.

  Quinn held his palms out as if trying to placate a wild animal.

  “Bobbi, please. You know I would never hurt you. Think about it.” He inched forward. Her lips twisted in an ugly snarl. Tangled hair fell across her eyes, sunken in deep shadows.

  Bobbi swiped the air in front of his nose. He grabbed her hand, twisting, trying to force her to let go of the glass blade.

  She made a sound like a rabid snarl. Quinn spun her and pinned her arms. He hated this. He didn’t want to be the aggressor, but she had to listen to him. He was glad his aether was dry because he wasn’t sure he could resist soothing her to open her mind. And that was the last thing Bobbi needed right now.

  No, he’d have to use plain old persuasion to get through to her.

  “You know me, Bobbi. Remember us. Remember the time we spent together. That hasn’t ended. You’ve only forgotten.” She squirmed against him and his senses filled with the scent of her hair and the feel of her body against his.

  Then she tensed. A keening noise came from her throat. The wind picked up and screamed through the yard. The patio table jerked upward and slammed into his side. He grunted as pain lanced his leg, but he held on to her. The barbecue crashed into the wall. The sliding door smashed closed, then open again. Chairs spun around them.

  Bobbi shrieked as kinetic aether burst from her in a chaotic frenzy, then she went limp. The chairs dropped with a crash and the night calmed. Quinn released his hold and she crumpled to the ground, staring up with wide, unseeing eyes.

  A lone tear dripped down her cheek. Her fingers relaxed and the wineglass stem broke on the patio stones.

  Quinn lifted her into his arms and carried her inside to the couch. She lay like a rigid corpse, as if her muscles were fighting themselves. Fain’s magic controlled her, but something inside rebelled. He took comfort in that. He could do little else.

  By the time he’d cleaned and bandaged the cut on her thumb, her eyes had closed and her breathing calmed. He wanted to stay by her side, but that was not an option. She was too deep in the magic. If she woke and found him, she’d only attack again. He tucked a blanket around her and left.

  He had questions for his mother.

  10

  Direction

  ASHLET CEMETERY LAY IN DARKNESS.

  “What’s she doing here?” Jane glared at Molly. Her feet crunched dried leaves as she swept past gravestones toward them.

  The two women faced each other. Jane was impeccably dressed as always, her silver hair catching the moonlight. Of the three of them, only Molly had no magic, yet she looked the most like a hedge-witch with black hair streaked grey, sticking out in kinky waves, layers of bright clothes and scarves despite the warm weather.

  Quinn hadn’t mentioned Molly’s attendance to this late night meeting when he called his mother to join him. The two women had been friends in high school but a falling out shortly after left them bitter enemies.

  Too bad. He needed answers from both tonight.

  He’d spoken to Gavin and understood the basics of what happened all those years ago, how four young women fell victim to Koro, but he wanted to hear it from Jane and Molly. Then he would make his mother understand that the time for collecting proof was over.

  “And why are we meeting in this gods-forsaken place?” Jane asked.

  “The place you buried my brother?” Quinn said. “Let’s hope the gods have not forsaken it.”

  Jane pursed her lips but didn’t answer. She made one obligatory visit a year to Dustin’s grave. Did she ever think about her lost child, the one who only lived for a few moments? Quinn knew about baby Dustin because his father, Henry, had thought it was important to acknowledge his brother’s existence. Dustin wasn’t even Henry’s child.

  A car door slammed. Moments later, Abilene and Gavin joined them.

  “We’re meeting here because it’s neutral ground.” He glared at Jane and Molly. “And because I’ve been tracking William Fain by GPS. In the past four days, he’s come here twice, in the middle of the night.” Unfortunately, Fain had been gone both times when he arrived, so Quinn didn’t know the reason for those midnight visits with the dead. “If what I suspect is true, tomorrow night this will become our battleground.”

  They stood around a small grave-marker, a simple flat stone embedded in the ground. Grass encroached on the edges of the stone, nearly obscuring the name: Dustin Redner.

  Abilene knelt by the grave, closed her eyes and recited a quick prayer for their brother. Jane stood with her body turned away.

  Jane Smith had been born Arabella Redner, then became Arabella Mason when she married. She gave up both names when she was anointed as High Priestess. Tradition granted her the right to choose her witch name. Most chose dignified or grandiose names that paid homage to the Lord and Lady. Arabella said she represented every witch and would take a generic name to suit: Jane Smith.

  Quinn watched his mother now. He wondered who Arabella Redner had been.

  “You won’t even look at the gravestone of the child you murdered,” Molly said.

  “I didn’t murder him.” Jane didn’t lose her equilibrium, though Molly looked like a spitting cat ready for a fight.

  “Please,” Quinn said, “I didn’t bring you here to rehash old hurts. Bobbi needs us. She’s completely under Fain’s influence.”

  Jane made a noise to interrupt, but Quinn held up a hand. “Mother, you asked for proof. I’m getting to that. But first I want you to hear what happened this afternoon. Gavin?”

  Gavin nodded. “I took Bobbi to see Mom. If I’d had all the facts, maybe I wouldn’t have.” Gavin glared at Jane, then Quinn in turn. “Mom freaked out when she saw Bobbi. She thought Hannah had come back from the dead. I didn’t realize they looked so much alike.” He took a deep breath and Quinn resisted the urge to shake the story out of him.

  “Then Mom started babbling about ‘him,’ saying we should leave before ‘he’ got there.”

  “Koro,” Abilene said.

  “We don’t know that,” snapped Jane.

  “Molly, what did you say to Bobbi about it? She was clearly upset tonight,” Quinn said.

  “I told her the truth, since none of you felt she needed to know it. I swear, all these years, I’ve kept your damned secrets but not anymore. Bobbi is a powerful witch, even I can see that.” She turned on Jane like wildfire. “You promised if she ever came into her powers, you would tell her the truth.”

  “Molly, please.” Quinn prayed for calm. “Just say it.”

  Molly crossed her arms. “I told her that she and Gavin are the offspring of Koro.”

  Abilene sucked in a breath and turned to Gavin. “What?”

  Gavin shrugged. Moonlight filled his eyes with shadows.

  “It’s the truth,” Molly said.

  Quinn faced Jane. She nodded. “Dustin, too?” he asked. She nodded again.

  “Is that why we’re here?” Abilene said.

  “Fain said something earlier.” Quinn remembered the fanatical look in Fain’s eye. “Something about the blood of the seed calling the father. Well, this ground is saturated with blood of the seed. And Fain is planning something big. I think it’s going to happen here.”

  “Like a rite?” Gavin asked.

  “Like a sacrifice.” Quinn let that sink in. “He’s been soothing Bobbi for days. She’s as pliable as pudding now. I think he’s going to bring her here for a blood sacrifice.”

  “To what end?” Molly asked.

  “Samhain,” Abilene whispered. “By the Lady! Tomorrow is Samhain.”

  Quinn nodded. On Samhain, the veil between worlds thinned. With the proper rites, witches could speak to dead loved ones. Some could even call the
dead back to life. And demons could break through from whatever hell detained them—if they had the proper acolytes in this world to perform the sacrifice.

  “He’s going to call Koro to manifest on this plane,” Quinn said. “He’ll no longer have to work through human agents. Koro will stand in our world with all the power of hell at his fingertips.”

  And his first target would be the coven that had defied him for so long. Koro almost destroyed the Hidden Coven when Aidan, acting as his agent, brought in the wraiths. Now Koro would need no such help. His touch would burn through their ward like hot coals through paper. Then he’d drink every witch in the village dry. Quinn’s friends and family would die or become wraiths in Koro’s dark army as he sought out other covens in his relentless pursuit of aether.

  “And that’s why you killed your baby and mine.” Molly wasn’t letting it go. Quinn reigned in his impatience. Bobbi was most important, but they needed to work as a team. Better to have old grudges aired now.

  “You knew. We all knew. He told us time and again. He would claw his way into this world through our wombs.” Molly was shaking now.

  “I didn’t kill my child.” Jane’s expression was flat, but Quinn knew his mother well enough to see anger building around her eyes. Jane was hard to read, but she had tells—a slight lowering of lashes, a tightness in the nostrils. As a child, he’d learned to read those signs and make himself scarce.

  “You miscarried. I had nothing to do with it,” Jane said.

  Molly looked like she wanted to punch her. She stood with eyes blazing fire, fists clenched and mouth working on a curse. Then she took a deep breath and walked off into the shadows of a stand of cedar trees. Quinn let her go.

  “You have no proof Fain is working for Koro,” Jane said.

  “I heard him!” Quinn said. “He didn’t even try to deny it. Bobbi is so far under his spell, he thinks he can do as he wishes. She’ll come like the lamb to slaughter.”

  “So we’ll be here ready to stop it,” Gavin said.