Leo could join the club, because this night wasn’t going anywhere near the way I’d planned. It would have been better for all of us to have let my ultimatum slide into oblivion.
And have Mazie haunt you for the rest of your life? Great plan.
True, but I’m sure I could have located a spell to have kept her on the other side. None of that mattered now. We were here at the temple, and it was only a matter of time before my mother found us a way in.
Or not. Is that who I think it is?
Angelica was bundled up in a red dress coat and matching scarf. I wasn’t one to give fashion advice, but the two reds clashed enough to make a woman wince.
“Mom?” I whispered, squeezing her hand and hoping that she was paying attention. She’d been muttering a chant underneath her breath that wasn’t doing a lick of good. “Mom, do you see—”
“Yes, Raven. Now let me finish.”
Sure enough, my mother took another minute to complete whatever invocation she’d been casting out to prevent anyone guarding the temple from locating our presence. It was foolish to think they would fall for it, especially considering a spell against a spell was like a catch-22. With that said, I could literally feel the energy from the earth travel through the soles of my black knee-high boots, into my body, and out through the palm of my hand to enhance my mother’s power tenfold.
I believe your mother is just gaining us some time to retrieve the package. That warlock is very, very powerful. Merrick Bronach won’t be deceived for long.
I was more worried about the fact that Angelica had entered the temple without exception. Mom had mentioned breaking and entering, but the front door was apparently unlocked. Maybe this was going to be easier than we all thought.
A witch’s temple is just like a church, Raven. What good would it serve to have the door closed to its faithful followers?
That made total sense, but it still didn’t explain why Mom thought we’d be breaking and entering into the temple.
There’s a very powerful spell that is being used to prevent human beings from entering the sanctity of the shrine. Get it? Breaking…then entering?
It appeared that I had been worried over nothing. We weren’t technically committing a crime, but the punishment of being turned into a toad was still viable. We needed to get in and out of the temple—with Strifle in hand—as quickly as possible.
At least ten minutes had passed since we’d left Liam sitting in his truck. How long did we have before he came looking for us? What would happen if he decided to knock on the front door of the house that we had feigned entrance into as if it were Aunt Rowena’s residence?
“Angelica isn’t where the council believes her to be, which tells me that she’s the guilty party,” my mother surmised, nodding her head as if she’d just solved the mystery. Had she? Could it be that simple? Maybe we’d be able to make it back to Liam before he became too curious about our whereabouts. “Angelica must have Strifle locked up somewhere inside the temple, and now she has no choice but to remove the evidence to prevent the coven from discovering her deception.”
“Remove the evidence?” The way my mother had phrased the last part of her statement seemed a bit dire. “I know this is going to sound rather foolish on my part, but isn’t that what we want? For Strifle to cross over to the other side?”
“Raven, Angelica isn’t going to free Strifle from whatever confinement vessel she’s been placed in,” my mother informed me as she began to walk toward the temple. I reluctantly followed. “Angelica will merely move the familiar to another hiding place, this time farther away from the coven so that they can’t detect the distressed energy that Strifle must be omitting.”
Strifle’s pain and anguish sounded horrible. I’m pretty sure my sympathy for the little pixie was the only reason my legs allowed me to keep walking toward the door of the rather large church. I mean, it looked like a church with the tall steeple, although there was only a spire with no cross.
Don’t let the outside appearance fool you.
“Stay one step behind me, Raven,” my mother warned right as she opened the door. I fully expected warmth to envelope us, but there was absolutely no difference in the temperature. “Leo, I need you to keep watch for anyone or anything approaching the front doors.”
Why do I always get to be the one to stand outside in the…
Leo’s grumblings faded away as Mom and I stepped into a—get this—a dark and menacing forest. It was hard not to instinctively back up a step. And trust me, I tried. The door to the temple had already shut behind us, oddly leaving us still exposed to the outside elements.
“Mom,” I whispered, not seeing anything or anyone else but the stark oak trees all around us. Strangely, there was a thin blanket of snow on the ground with several footprint paths all headed in one direction—forward. I couldn’t help but glance upward. Sure enough, there was no ceiling. In its place was a full moon, shining its shadowy beams on the pathway in front of us. “Mom, what is this place?”
“The temple is nothing but a designation for where the coven comes together to show their appreciation for everything the earth provides for us.” Mom gestured toward the shadowy footpath, but I wasn’t so keen to go in that direction. The door behind me seemed like the better option. “The altar is that way. I’m betting Angelica has Strifle near the dais somewhere to disguise the energy.”
How had everything fallen into place so perfectly? Was this rescue mission really going to be that simple? Why was my mother helping me as if she’d never expressed her discontent with the life I’d chosen to lead?
I fully expected Leo to answer me, but he’d gone back outside to stand watch. Not having him reply to my questions was rather similar to when his short-term memory decided to kick in—I didn’t like it.
Leo was my sounding board, but he could also be rather knowledgeable in times like these. He provided a background for these new discoveries. One would have thought having my mother here to guide me would have been just as good, but without Leo by my side…I was a bit lost.
If my past experiences with two dead bodies and one resolved fifty-three-year-old murder was anything to go by, nothing was ever as it seemed. Was Angelica really responsible for preventing Strifle from crossing over into the afterlife? Maybe that was the reason Merrick Bronach had been so proactive in his bid to stop me from investigating.
The crunching of the snow seemed to echo throughout the trees, but my mother didn’t slow down in the least. Instead, she quickened her pace and it wasn’t long before a clearing emerged with an ancient gnarled oak tree in the middle of a wide opening as if no one dared to go near it.
Its power was undeniably strong.
“There,” my mother whispered, pointing with a bare finger toward Angelica. The woman’s red coat was easily seen drifting behind her as she disappeared behind the thick trunk of the old oak tree. “We need to follow her. She’ll lead us straight to Strifle.”
Before either my mother or I could take a step forward, someone reached out of the darkness and dragged us back into the shadows.
Chapter Sixteen
“What are the two of you doing here?” Angelica asked us once she released us from those long red nails of hers. “Do you realize what you’ve done?”
I couldn’t help but look back over my shoulder, knowing one hundred percent that I’d seen this woman walk around the ancient tree as if she were a mirror image. How had she pulled a stunt like that?
I know, I know.
You don’t have to say it.
She’s a witch, but I hadn’t seen her use any spells, which had me one breath away from really freaking out. Even the simplest forms of cantrips require some sort of verb, material, or somatic component. I hadn’t seen her move her lips, gesture oddly with her hands, or produce a material object which precludes everything but an enchanted item. I was beginning to realize just how far we were behind the eight ball.
“Wait just a second,” Angelica said rather cautiousl
y, taking a step back and holding up her right hand as if she’d touched a snake. She pointed a long, extended finger directly at my mother. “You’re Regina Lattice Marigold.”
My mother tilted her chin a little higher in acknowledgment, almost taunting the older woman to try something.
“Mom, I don’t want to be a toad. Compel her or something,” I muttered, using my elbow to jab her in the side. The black leather coat she had on cushioned my poke, but I’d done it with enough force to knock her off balance. “Angelica, we know that you have Strifle. Mazie isn’t going to rest until her familiar is released to continue her journey to her next destination.”
“Raven, we told you when you made your unannounced visit that we had nothing to do with that pesky pixie going missing.” Angelica might have answered me regarding Strifle, but her slanted eyes remained focused on my mother. “I remember when you last visited here, wanting answers that your mother wouldn’t give you. It seems as if history repeats itself, now doesn’t it?”
Don’t get me wrong. I was well aware that my mother had visited the coven looking for answers when she was a teenager, but I hadn’t realized it had been because my grandmother had purposefully kept details of our family history from my mother. After all, Nan had left behind a ton of boxes full of papers and journals about our ancestors. She hadn’t seemed to want to hide anything from me.
“My reasoning for visiting the council all those years ago had everything to do with my father and nothing to do with a crime committed against one of our own.” Regina very deliberately took a step forward, clearly not afraid of Angelica. I happened to disagree with that rather hazardous assumption. Then again, the palm of my hand produced not one ounce of energy. Was Angelica really not a threat to our safety or that of Strifle? “I found no answer then, but my daughter and I fully intend to right a wrong against Mazie Rose Young—a member of this coven. Now, what has been done with Strifle?”
It was well known that the falling out between Nan and Aunt Rowena had been over a man, and it had always been assumed that the male in question had been my mother’s biological father. Apparently, the answer lies somewhere with someone in this coven—the same coven we were about to go to battle with.
“Mom?” I wanted to remind her that we were outnumbered, and not by a slim margin. We’d been found, and it would be wise to retreat before the others arrived. “Mom, we need to leave.”
I couldn’t have been the only one to notice the gust of wind that had come out of nowhere, managing to change the stark quality of the cold air. There was a threatening sense of vulnerability that hadn’t been there before. Had something happened to Leo? Was there someone else nearby, listening to our conversation?
Had Angelica set us up or was she just waiting for reinforcements?
My mother was too busy studying the woman to hear a word I said, which was rather unsettling. I began to run through a list of the few spells I’d memorized for times like this, but only one came to mind effortlessly…and it wasn’t an invocation.
The longer this dragged out, the faintest beginnings of tingles began to warm the palm of my hand. I’d only ever lost control over the energy that I’d absorbed into my body once, and it had almost cost Ted his life. I was grateful that my right glove was still encasing my hand, and I even clutched the glove my mother had removed to prevent myself from doing some serious harm.
“Mom, we need to hurry this up,” I murmured, wondering why Leo wasn’t getting any sense of our troubles. My mother’s intention to follow Angelica to Strifle had been great, but it had been a bad idea to separate the group. Maybe that’s where the sense of vulnerability came from. “We need to find Leo. Now.”
I’m here! I think they’re headed this way, and—
Leo was in his physical form when I finally set eyes on him running toward us with his tail all puffy. If I were honest with you, it was more of an erratic hop instead of an all-out run.
What are you doing talking to the gold-digger?
“I beg your pardon?” Angelica exclaimed, resting her hand over her red scarf. The two drastically different shades of reds were still bothering me, but clearly there were more important things to worry about than coordinating our clothes. “I will have you know that I love Merrick Bronach very much. He’s a visionary of our time. A powerful warlock who had been deprived of his seat on the council for far too long simply because of politics.”
Ew. Yuck. Don’t they have someone to clean up around here?
At first, I thought Leo was describing his thoughts on Merrick Bronach. That wasn’t the case. A large black insect had been crawling across the tip of my boot, and it was headed straight for Leo. With one smack, he’d sent the six-legged insect sailing through the air.
I couldn’t suppress my shudder of disgust, but my mother was oblivious to anything but what Angelica had to say about Merrick Bronach.
“The Merrick who I once knew never wanted anything to do with the council,” Regina said with a shake of her head. “What changed?”
Is your mother seriously having an old home moment right now while an entire coven of witches is descending on us? We need to skedaddle while we still can. Right now!
“What changed?” Angelica asked, as if she hadn’t heard my mother correct the first time. “Everything. This coven has disintegrated in the ensuing years, and the only one who has been able to keep it from falling apart into total anarchy has been my dear husband.”
I couldn’t help but look for anymore six-legged creatures, but I was also very careful not to trip over a tree root as I scanned the ground. The temple, or whatever these witches wanted to call this displaced wood, was nothing like I’d imagined. It was dark, damp, and eerily quiet. The earth I received energy from was vibrant and alive…not dark or evil.
Then call up one of those little incantations to stop your mother from setting up some type of group therapy for the coven! It took you weeks to memorize three of them well enough to use them offensively.
Four, but I wasn’t about to argue with Leo when Strifle still needed to be located and rescued from whatever prison the coven had trapped her in these past few months.
“What do you mean the coven is disintegrating?” Regina asked with what sounded like true sincerity.
That’s from the acting class your mother had when she was six. Don’t buy it. I’ve seen it all before. Regina is buying you time to cast one of those emergency spells I made you memorize.
“No, I’m not,” my mother snapped, shutting down Leo’s best efforts at having me try to get us out of here unscathed. “Raven, don’t you do a thing until we get the information we’ve come here to get. Don’t you see? If the coven is disintegrating, the council would have the very motive for taking Strifle. They need her power.”
The same coven who is closing in on the temple right this minute! I won’t make it too far as a toad!
“I’m going to say this one more time,” Angelica exclaimed with irritation as she looked over her shoulder. The air was beginning to shift all around us. The brightness of the moon seemed to dim, and the bark on the trees became almost black. We were running out of time, but why did Angelica seem to want us out of harm’s way? “The council did not take Strifle. As for the reason the coven is disintegrating, you have no need to look any further than your own family. Rosemary’s excommunication caused a huge rift, and it’s only gotten worse over the years. No one wants the inconvenience of the council’s oversight or the tax.”
Toads don’t have the ability to smoke catnip in a pipe, you know.
Leo was still stuck on the fact that the council might exact revenge like one of the old witch’s tales, but I was beginning to believe Angelica was telling the truth. What if the council wasn’t responsible for Strifle’s disappearance?
“Are you saying that there is a war brewing between the two factions?” My mother rarely showed when something knocked her off balance, but her amazement upon hearing such news was evident. She slowly shook her head, but it wasn�
�t in an effort to say she didn’t believe Angelica. It was more that she was beginning to realize how catastrophic a war could be between the divided witches. I agreed with her, because the ones who could get hurt the worst were the human bystanders—like Liam. “Are the council members in danger of losing their seats? Are you? Don’t answer that. I don’t want to know. Raven and I want no part of any war, but are you suggesting that the other faction might have Strifle?”
Oh, I can see where this is going a mile away. And I really would rather be miles away from here when your mother figures out who is leading the other side, so can we go now? Please?
“Angelica, who’s leading the opposing faction?” my mother asked cautiously, taking a step back so that we were side by side. She even grabbed my hand, but it wasn’t the one without the glove. “Give us a name.”
“Rowena, of course. Your mother’s sister.”
Raven, I’ll see you at home. I can find out how all this ends another time, and I really need a hit or two of my catnip after ingesting all of this new information. My acid reflux is acting up. I don’t suppose I could trouble anyone for a saucer of milk, no?
It wasn’t surprising to see Leo vanish into thin air, but I’d come to know that he usually didn’t go far in times of crisis. He just hid behind his ability to cloak himself.
Why are you giving away my secrets? I was serious about my acid reflux. Maybe I have an ulcer. You have caused a lot of stress in my life. I should seek compensation.
I couldn’t worry about Leo right now, especially when my mother had a death grip on my hand. It was a wonder my fragile bones didn’t crack under the pressure.
“Ever since Rowena took in that boy, she’s been spouting hearsay about the coven’s rules being too strict,” Angelica shared, shaking her head in aversion to such a proclamation. I wasn’t sure what boy she was talking about, and I wasn’t given a second to ask. Angelica was speaking rather rapidly now, and I realized we didn’t have long before our chances of getting out of here went from slim to none. “Nearly half the coven is on your aunt’s side, and the others remain faithful to Merrick, though some are only loosely affiliated. I was here to check on the artifacts due to the alarm being sounded. We were all assigned posts. Attacks on the neighborhood have happened a lot recently, which always seems to coincide with an invaluable relic going missing. Merrick and I decided to set a trap, but that’s when I realized you’d snuck into the temple for other reasons.”
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