Off With Her Head
My mouth was so dry. Like cotton. Head…so…foggy. And pounding.
I sat up, rubbing my eyes. My body felt anemic, almost faint.
The crowd was screaming inside the Stones. Cheering. They started without me?
I licked my tingling lips, and was instantly filled with horror.
Oh, no. No.
I ran into the circle of stones, just in time to see my doppelganger hovering in the air over Logan’s twitching body. A blinding green current extended from her chest to his, electrocuting him.
Harbingers of death they are. The warning wasn’t for me. It was for Logan.
I watched in horror as rays of magical energy ebbed from Logan’s core, fueling her electric assault.
“Stop!” I screamed. “You’re killing him!”
I was too late. With a final twitch of his leg, Logan’s body went limp. The doppelganger lowered to the ground, to wait for the count.
Without thinking, I sprinted into the ring. Ignoring the questioning chaos from the covens, I grabbed Logan’s dragon sword off the ground, and swung it at my jade-eyed doppelganger. She leapt over my swing, but didn’t strike back.
Who are you? Why would you do this to him?
She didn’t answer.
“WHO ARE YOU?” I screamed out loud. I don’t know what I was expecting, but when my blade sliced through her chest, her blood—real blood—spilled onto the dirt.
24 Hours Ago
Enchanted bare feet seemingly flew over the forest carpet of pine needles and damp euca-leaves. Her soles pressed so hard to the ground, that when she lifted back off, she caught air on her upswing, flying a few seconds longer than a normal human could, longer than a witch even, before landing again. She grinned with pride. This magic was stronger than anything she’d experienced before.
The doppelganger ran. Faster than a goddess.
The spell wouldn’t last long, however, and she needed to make the most of it while she could. If Lily caught her, she’d have to confess. That certainty was all she needed to keep one foot in front of the other.
“You look a mess. What happened to you, love?” a suave, British-accented voice asked from overhead.
The doppelganger looked up, surprised to see a boy about Logan’s age, with modelesque bone structure and a tight-ass bod, sitting on a tree branch. Dressed in a V-neck black shirt and black pants, his mischievous blue eyes shone through the darkness like the Cheshire Cat’s.
“What’s it to you?” She didn’t have time for games. Even if this particular player was red-hot.
Sensing her urgency, he slid down and landed in front of her. Right in front of her. Practically chest to chest.
“I don’t have time for poppycock either, so I’ll cut right to the chase. Your Mistress sent you to see if Logan’s ‘the one,’ yes?”
She nodded.
“Did he show you his pretty mark?”
“No, but we were interrupted.”
The warlock laughed. “You don’t really think he’s the Rognaithe, do you?”
“Why shouldn’t I?”
“For one thing, he’s Jacob’s adopted son. If Logan had light magic, do you think Jacob would take him in? No, he’d leave him to rot.”
She frowned in surprise. The warlock made an interesting argument.
“You want to know who always gets the short stick and last pick of everything? Me. Want to know why? He thinks I’m the Rognaithe. He hates me.”
“Nice try, but I have no reason to trust you.”
“So why would you trust Logan? Because your coven’s little queen bee fancies him? Feels a special connection? Is that why you’re all so hung up on him?”
“No,” she said, but without much conviction.
“What if he’s tricking you all? If Lily is paired with him in the Gleaning, she won’t stand a chance, and you know it.”
“What’s your point?”
“You have to fight him.”
“I can’t choose who I’m paired with.”
“Of course you can.”
“How?”
He pressed closer, pinning her against a tree, breathing heavily in her face. “Be this." He brushed her face and torso with the back of his hand. "Be her in the Gleaning. He’s no Rognaithe, but he is still quite a prize if you can beat him. And you have the advantage, because he’s not expecting much of a fight.”
She didn’t answer. “Just think how powerful you would become. Your elders would be listening to you, for a change.”
“But I couldn’t do that to Lily.”
Jude laughed. “Ah, so you don’t deny that you want to.”
“Who wouldn’t want to lead the Sisters? But I can’t hurt her like that.”
“You’re protecting her, not hurting her. She thinks with her heart, and it’s putting your whole coven at risk.” He twined a piece of her hair around his finger and stared into her eyes. “I’ve seen how you run—how you almost fly. I think you might be the only witch powerful enough to draw my mark. And I believe it will happen tomorrow in the Stones.”
The doppelganger licked her bottom lip. It did sound intriguing. “Even if I wanted to, I can’t overpower her.”
He leaned in again. “You’re a witch, sweetheart. I’m sure you can think of something.”
“And you? What’s your role?”
“I’ll weaken her for you.” He reached for her sparkly, enchanted hand. “Just give me some of her essence, and I can cast a dream spell—haunt her all night. By tomorrow, she’ll be more reasonable, as far as Logan is concerned.”
Now
I dropped the sword in horror.
I’d never killed anything before.
But I was more concerned about Logan. I dashed to his side, and knelt over him. Running my hand over Logan’s chest, I cooled his flaming skin and checked for wounds.
Though his flesh wounds were minor, I knew he was dying. I couldn’t see it, but I could feel his energy slipping into a dark abyss.
Logan! Please. Where are you hurt? I can’t help you if I don’t know.
A crowd had gathered around us, arguing and shouting. Witches accusing warlocks, warlocks accusing witches. While the Congression demanded answers from our coven, Camellia was hovering over my doppelganger, trying to staunch her bleeding. The image was too chilling, and I turned away.
Tears trickled from my eyes, as I laid my head on Logan’s chest, listening for his heartbeat. Then I gasped.
On his hip, a mark appeared.
The broken-rose moon.
So vivid and stunning and true, it made Jude’s mark in my dream look like a press-on tattoo.
My Logan was my chosen one.
Our Rognaithe.
And now he was dying.
Logan, I’m so sorry. How could I have ever doubted you? I cried, my hot tears dripping on his chest. I pressed into him, giving him everything I had, but knew I couldn’t fix him alone.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Jude smiling from the sidelines.
Bastard.
Then I saw Iris fighting her way toward me through the crowd.
He has the mark! I screamed mentally.
Thank goddesses! Lily, use the amulets! Put them together! We just had to be sure he was the one, first, or we’d have lost everything.
I stared at the two tear-shaped amulets. In the diary, Rose’s mother had given her one stone. Something had happened. William and Rose must have been torn apart. And in that parting, they’d broken the peace. Broken the piece.
Our amulets were two halves of what was originally one amulet.
My hands shook as the cold jewels flashed in my hands, begging me to piece them together. I flipped them both upside down, backed one into the other and sucked in a breath as the two upside-down jewels fused themselves into one. A perfect match.
The two teardrops formed a heart.
One perfect heart.
Press it to his heart! Iris screamed mentally. Behind her, Jacob rushed toward
us, his eyes wild and focused on the conjoined amulet. I felt a surge of energy, and he stopped suddenly, held by Iris’ palm, and a surplus of magic.
On the other side of Mom was this trio of creeps in white masks and robes, just standing there staring at us.
I wasn’t sure how long Mom could ward Jacob off, or how in the world she was managing to do that, but I wasted no time holding the conjoined amulet against Logan’s beautiful chest. I breathed all my energies—everything good, everything pure and true that had ever come out of me. It poured out of me and into him. Everything I read in the journal. All of Rose’s first experiences with her warlock: flowing fountains, glittery light, golden butterscotch candelabras floating in a utopian ballroom, top hats and stolen glances and carriages black as night, dancing snowflakes kissing a child’s nose. I gave him silken rose petals and freshly cut grass. And then our memories: grains of star-colored sand, waves on a moonlit beach, an underwater kiss in a sea of kaleidoscope rainbows.
All my memories.
All my dreams.
Our wonderland.
Logan, please.
Please.
A heartbeat. Faint as the wings of a new butterfly fleeing its transformative cocoon, vibrated under my warm cheek. But then, as if it lacked the patience to finish its duty, the necklace chain slipped through my grasping fingers, and before my eyes, it rose until the conjoined amulet, the brilliant heart-stone, floated over us.
A hush muted the frenzied crowd as the amulet hovered. Jacob smiled at it like a rat swiping at a moth.
Don’t look at him, Lily! Iris’ voice sounded desperate. Her face was visibly aging as she struggled to hold him.
Mom! What’s happening?
I had to take back some of my power to protect the amulet, but now you are no longer safe from Jacob’s eyes.
What does that mean? Mom?
Before she could answer, a grotesque sound of a snake shedding its skin overtook everything, and no one was looking at us anymore. I followed the eyes across the ring of stones, to the bloody puddle where my doppelganger had evaporated into thin air. In her place, in a tangle of grim repose, lay my best friend.
THE END
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We stood side by side, with my arm crossed in front of his chest, holding on to his hand. We stepped together in perfect unison, like he’d always been my dancing partner. We bowed to the line of couples facing us and switched places. Eyes like magic stones: sapphires and emeralds and amethyst like William’s watched me with a mix of curiosity and contempt. This time there was no questioning their meaning.
They looked at me like I was stealing something of theirs.
“Don’t mind them,” he whispered to me. “They are envious of the strange girl on my arm.”
“I’m not strange,” I lied.
“In my world, strange is the highest compliment one can give.”
“Oh?” I cocked my head and grinned as he twirled me under his arm.
His voice broke me out of the sensation as he pulled me in closer for a more intimate part of the dance. “This is an interesting jewel, Rose. Where did you get it?”
It must’ve slipped from under my cape when I spun. “My mother,” I said honestly. “She gave it to me tonight. It was a gift.”
The warlock’s eyes lightened from amethyst, fading into a near lilac, like they had in the carriage. In the candle-lit ballroom they were effervescent; and in that moment, I never wanted to be far from his enchanting gaze.
“Shaped like a heart, this rare jewel. How telling. I wonder why she chose tonight,” he said thoughtfully, staring at me intensely, so intensely that I felt my blood might boil right out of my skin, “to give you such a precious gem.”
“Mother said…” I worded it carefully, trying to read his eyes as they absorbed my words, “the necklace would keep me safe.”
“From what, I wonder?”
“Not a what, a who,” I said, fingering the heart-shaped charm.
“Any ideas who this dangerous person could be?”
“I suspect it could be you.”
“Ah, that couldn’t be it, because I would never hurt you.”
I sucked in a breath. He was so close, my hand in his; fitting so perfectly like it’d always been there. And the way he looked at me…so…knowingly. It both confused and delighted me. I wasn’t like Mother. I wasn’t afraid of him at all.
“How is it that I’m not stepping all over your toes?” I grinned. “I’m two left feet in our parlor.”
“Perhaps,” Will said, his eyes like stars, “it’s because we aren’t touching the floor?”
Then maddeningly, the words disappeared. I wondered what happened next. If that was a hundred years ago, right around the time of the curse, if William’s father was insisting his son court humans, then that must’ve been the beginning of the end of the utopian society of Spellspinners.
I knew Rose’s clue had something to do with the amulets. But I couldn’t figure out what.
I stumbled down the stairs for some coffee, and when I was in the kitchen brewing a fresh pot, I heard the sounds of arguing coming from the backyard by the fountain.
“I know what you did. You sent in a doppelganger! You drugged the coven with a potion and gave me an extra dose. I’m her mother! I’d never fall asleep while Lily was on such a dangerous mission! How dare you?”
My ears were keen; I could hear everything even without Listening.
“As she admitted to the entire coven, and to you, Lily refused to go in and complete her task. We had to find out if this boy was the one.” Camellia’s voice.
“The doppelganger couldn’t draw the mark! It had to be Lily. So foolish of you! What if Jacob had followed Logan into the clearing?” Had she known it was a possibility? “What if he had caught one of the girls? Then where would we be?”
“Better off than we would’ve been knowing nothing! Entering the Gleaning without knowing if the Rognaithe was among us? How would that be better?”
Iris rushed her, pressing her swordfingers into her chest. “Don’t you forget where you got your powers. What I gave you, I can take back.”
“You’re going to hang that over my head forever, aren’t you?”
“If you’re going to abuse it by going off on your own without the greater coven’s consent, then yes. I will have to.”
Camellia was silent for a minute. “Now that we know Logan is the one, when will it happen?” she asked finally.
“During the Gleaning. I believe from what the Seven Sisters have revealed, the first step toward breaking the curse will happen within the Ring of Stones.”
The first step? What did that mean?
“What will you tell Lily?”
“I’ll tell her what she needs to know to prepare herself.”
They stopped talking and began swirling the birdbath fountain with their fingertips, causing a vortex of spinning water. By spying, I knew I might be compromising their attempt to communicate with the Seven Sisters about Logan. So I poured my coffee and stole back to my room to wait for Mom.
“Hi, honey,” she said about twenty minutes later. “I’m glad you’re up. I need to talk to you.”
“About the first step in breaking the curse?”
She stood behind me, her hands on my shoulders. Her calm reflection in the mirror told me she wasn’t mad that I had overheard. It was hard to keep secrets from other witches, especially those in your own family.
“That and a few more things.”
“Did you tell the Seven Sisters about Logan?”
Her smile was wide. “Yes. But they already knew, of course.”
“And what did they say?”
“That they are thrilled. They predicted this day would come. That they were happy you were the one to find him.”
�
��Did Camellia admit to her trickery?”
“She didn’t have to, my love, The Seven Sisters see everything.”
“Then why didn’t they know I would find the mark?”
“Seeing and controlling are different things, Lily. You were given a choice to act, and the fate of our coven came down to the decisions you made.”
“What if I had made the choice to betray Logan and meet him while under the influence of the Enchantment? Is it possible that he wouldn’t have revealed his mark under those circumstances?”
“I suppose it is. While it unnerved me at first that you disobeyed your orders, I’m proud of your choices. You obeyed your instinct and followed your heart. That quality will serve you well as you mature and your choices become more and more important.”
“Thanks,” I said. The air was heavy in that ‘we’re having a serious moment, pay attention’ kind of way.
“But it scares me to think how close Camellia came to ruining everything. She prevented you from helping me, Mom. If Logan’s totem creature hadn’t clawed me out, I might still be stuck in the quicksand.”
She sighed. “Camellia has really broken the trust in this coven.”
“That scares me, Mom.”
“Lily, there’s something I need to tell you.” Iris’s chest rose and fell in deep, meditative breaths. Her youthful skin and hair seemed to glow in the morning sunlight, but her eyes looked world-weary. I gripped the sides of my chair, bracing myself for whatever she was about to say. My instincts warned me it wouldn’t be good, but at least it’d be something.
“Have you ever wondered why Camellia is the Mistress of Light, even though we’ve obtained the same level of magic?”
“I assumed it was because you didn’t want to be Mistress.”
Her look held me like I was glass—if I moved, I would slip from her grasp and shatter.
“Not want the top honor in our coven?”
“Well, yeah…I don’t mean to be insulting, but you are sort of more a…um…”
The Gleaning, Spellspinners Series #2 (The Spellspinners of Melas County) Page 13