“I’m one of your knights. I gave you my oath so now it will be done. I won’t rest until I find a way to bring her back to you.” His ocean eyes were a storm of emotion. Emotions only someone who lost their mother would know.
“We’ll both do it, together.” I sucked in a deep breath and stopped my flowing tears. “I think I’m ready now.”
“Okay.” He motioned toward the door. “Cross and I have it all set up. Nova is back too.”
I stepped out through the door into the hallway. To my right, Cross stood just outside a door with warm light glowing from within. I paused, looking him up and down. He was covered in dirt. It smudged his body from just under his gold eyes all the way down to his biker boots. “What happened to you?”
He handed me a huge jar of dirt. “Grave robbing always requires dry cleaning afterward.”
“I really don’t want to know why you know grave robbing always requires dry cleaning.” I held the jar away from my side. “This is grave dirt?”
“Mixed with some crushed-up bones from my ancestors. I figured they didn’t need it anymore and we did.” He shrugged.
“Oh, um, okay. Thanks?” I examined the contents and there were indeed white particles mixed into the black dirt.
He tapped the glass. “You’re going to need it in there.” He pointed toward the room.
“Okay.” I swallowed my nerves down and walked into the room. And sucked in a deep breath. “Mom?”
Chapter 30
Zinnia
My mom squeezed both of Tuck’s hands with hers. “Promise me you’ll take care of her? Protect her?”
“I swear it.” He looked her dead in the eyes. My mom gave a single nod and turned toward me.
She held her arms out and spun around. “I figured if I was going to sleep for a while I might as well be comfortable.” She wore a white airy nightgown that fell from her shoulders all the way down to her bare feet. Her wild chocolate hair was piled into a high ponytail on her head.
“It looks great, Mom.” My breath hitched in my throat and I swallowed around it. I placed the glass jar of dirt and bone on the floor.
“I’ll say. If I wasn’t married, you’d be awfully tempting.”
I spun around toward the deep voice. “Hades? What are you doing here?”
Hades leaned up against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest. He wore only a completely open navy-blue satin button-down shirt that exposed him from his chiseled neck all the way down his flat abs to the button of his leather pants. His hair was damp and fell in curls just above his shoulders. “You all love to interrupt my showers.”
“I didn’t mean to.” Nova’s cheeks flamed bright red and she let her white blond hair fall over her face.
“Nonetheless I’m here in a purely supervisory role.” He motioned to the coffin and my mother. “The lovely Catherine has made quite the impression. I wouldn’t want to see anything happen to her.”
My mother fanned herself, literally fanned herself. “Hades is overseeing my spell. I feel special.”
I rolled my eyes. “Mom, focus.”
“Zinnia, sometimes you have to laugh when the situation demands tears.” She offered me her hand. “Now, let’s get this over with. The sooner you save Evermore, the sooner I’ll be awake.”
The room was a twelve by twelve perfect square. Candles of all shapes and sizes lined the walls and floor. At the center of the room there was an upside-down pentacle painted in thick black paint. My mother’s coffin lay in the center of it. I never thought about what it would look like but clearly someone did. It was smaller than I expected. There was something about her that always felt larger than life to me. Like that coffin was too small for her.
The bottom half was made of a shining cherry wood that held plush white cushions and a fluffy white pillow. The top half, which stood open, was made of glass. So my mother won’t be closed in. “Oh God, I can’t do this.” I sucked in a deep breath and began to back away. “Mom, please. I can’t.”
She pulled me closer to her, then placed her hands on my cheeks. She pressed her forehead to mine. “You can and you will do this. It’s the only way.”
“No. W-we could try the Golem again. Maybe if we don’t kill it . . .” I searched my mind for anything that might help.
Nova shook her head. “If Golems aren’t killed, they try to kill the person they resemble and take their place. It wouldn’t be safe for your mom.”
I wanted to run away from this. I didn’t want to face putting my mother to sleep. It felt too permanent, like she’d never wake up. My mom pulled me toward the coffin. “We are doing this. You can do it, my brave girl. I know you can.”
“Okay.” Tears ran over my face and I sniffled. “Okay, okay.” I shook my hands out. “I can do this.”
My mom stepped over the side of the coffin and laid down. She quietly folded her hands over her stomach and rested her head back on the pillow. Quiet teardrops rolled from the corners of her eyes and fell on the pillow. “You all take care of my girls.” She pointed her finger at Cross. “That includes you, Mr. Malback. Don’t make me come back early and kick your ass.”
Cross held his hands up. “Yes, ma’am.”
Ophelia walked over to the coffin and squatted down. She handed my mother the vial she’d been working on only moments ago. “Drink this. It’s going to open up your soul to the binding. I also slipped a little something in there to help you relax.” She winked at my mom, then placed her hand on my mother’s shoulder. “I love you.” She shot to her feet and rubbed the back of her hand over her nose. “Enough of that. See you soon.”
My mom held the vial up to Ophelia. “Cheers.” She tilted her head back and sucked the liquid down like a shot of alcohol.
Cross grabbed up the glass jar of dirt and handed it to me. “You need to pour it around the coffin in a circle to seal her in.”
“Got it.” I opened the jar and walked around her slowly, letting the dirt fall until I completed the circle. Her eyes fluttered and her skin began to glow a ghostly white. “Mom, are you okay?”
“The potion is working.” Nova handed me an athame. The blade was short and pointy, with a thick black hilt wrapped with gold wire. “You need to bless the circle in your blood. She will be tied to you from now on. You’re her anchor to the world of the living.”
“So if I die?” I laid the blade across my palm.
“The protection around her fails and she will wake up.” Nova pulled an old brown piece of parchment from the back pocket of her cut-off jean shorts. She opened it up and placed it on the floor at her feet.
“That won’t happen, Zin.” Tucker reassured me.
“Good to know.” I sliced my palm with the blade. On TV it always looked so cool when people did blood bonds by cutting their hands. In real life it hurt like a bitch. My whole hand stung and warm blood gathered in the palm of my hand.
Nova pointed to the dirt circle. “You need to do the same thing with your blood.”
I walked around my mom, once more letting drops of my blood drip out from between my fingers onto the dirt. When my last drop of blood met my first drop, the circle glowed a bright white around my mother’s coffin, illuminating it as though a spotlight shinned down on her.
Nova stepped up to the circle. “Everyone needs to stand at the circle. Well, except you, Tuck.”
Hades cleared his throat. “Just overseeing things.”
Nova rolled her eyes. “Fine. Then every person in this room who is a witch or warlock step up to the circle. Better?”
Hades nodded. “Much.”
As I stepped up to the circle, my heart hammered in my chest. My mouth was dry and all I wanted to do was walk away and not watch my mother go through this. Yet here I was with Tuck, a guiding presence at my back, and Ophelia at my side. Nova nodded to me from across the circle. “You ready?”
No. Not at all. “Do it.”
“First I’ll say the main spell, then I’ll tell you when to join in. By air and earth, by
water and fire so you be bound as I desire.” The candles in the room flared high and the white light around my mother turned a lightly swirling wind. “By line of blood, dirt of death, I bind this soul of every breath. Buried deep thy life is sealed, until the wound is forever healed.” The wind blew even harder within the circle. My mother began to convulse. Her body shook the coffin over the floor.
“Is that supposed to happen!?” I screamed to Beckett. Panic overcame me, my heart hammered in my chest, and I wanted to run to her. I took a step forward.
Beckett held his hand out. “Don’t break the circle. We don’t know what’ll happen.”
“What do I do?” Nova’s hair blew in the wind.
“Keep going!” We couldn’t go back now. Blood tears dripped from my mom’s eyes. “Say the words!”
“Repeat after me: By line of blood, dirt of death, I bind this soul of every breath. Buried deep thy life is sealed, until the wound is forever healed,” Nova screamed the words over the howling wind. Yet my mother shook harder and screamed.
“Mom!”
“She’s too strong for the spell. The magic isn’t getting into her fast enough.” Hades pressed his hand to my back. “Someone has to force it into her.”
“Shit.” I leapt over the line and the wind kicked up even harder. I dropped down to my knees and crawled over to her. “I’m coming, Mom, I’m coming.”
The others continued chanting and I could feel the dark magic building around her. As I crawled up to the coffin, I wrapped my hand under her arms and pulled her into my lap. Her head fell onto my shoulder. “It hurts. Please make it stop.”
I wrapped one hand around her back and hugged her tight. “I’ll make it stop, Mom. I promise.” I opened my powers, letting all the magic the others churned up inside. The darkness flooded my body. So much power it nearly chocked me. My blood ran hot and sweat poured off my body. This dark magic was like nothing I’d ever felt, like I could walk hand in hand with death and let it rain down on the earth . . . and I wouldn’t care. No, I’d like it.
I pressed my cheek to the top of her head. “Mom, thank you, Mom. Thank you for getting me through the last sixteen years. I couldn’t have done it without you. Rest, Mom, rest. I’ll take care of you now.” My tears poured down my face and into her hair. I sucked in a deep, shaking breath and spoke the words. “By line of blood, dirt of death, I bind this soul of every breath. Buried deep thy life is sealed, until the wound is forever healed.”
I forced ever bit of magic I took from the spell into her body. She stopped shaking and slowly slumped in my arms. I rocked her back and forth. “I love you, Mom. I am so sorry. I love you. I’m so sorry.”
The wind died down and silence filled the room. I still held her lifeless body in my arms. Her head lolled back against my arm and I still cradled her. “I love you, Mom. I promise I’ll find a way.” Heaving sobs wracked my body. I could barely breathe. Yet even now I could taste the dark magic still in my body.
Tuck came over to me. “Let me take her.” He held his arms out to me.
I shook my head and held her closer. “No, I have to hold her.” I closed my eyes. “If I let her go, then it’s real and she’s gone.”
Ophelia moved to his side. “Give her to me, Zinnia. I’ll take care of her . . . she’s my mom too.”
I brushed my mom’s hair back from her face. “O-okay.”
Cross squatted down next to Ophelia and helped her move my mother back into her coffin. I scrambled over to her and leaned my arm on the side of coffin. I rested my head on my arm. With my other hand I straightened her dress and brushed the backs of my fingers over her cheeks. Silent tears streamed down Ophelia’s cheeks as she placed my mother’s hands over her stomach.
Hades stood over us all with his hands on his hips. “That was very brave.” He held his hand out and white dust shot from his fingers over my mother. It landed on her skin and seeped into it. Her cheeks grew pink and her lips as red as a rose. Her hair smoothed to thick lustrous waves.
I sat back, looking at how at peace she was. “What’d you do?”
“This spell can be painful and indeed it was. But Catherine deserved more than that. Now she’ll dream of her favorite place in the world and there she will wait until it’s time for you to wake her.”
Exhaustion overcame me and I slumped against the side of her coffin. “Thank you.”
“Just don’t bust in on any more of my showers, okay?” Hades faded from sight, leaving us all around my mother.
Nova walked into the middle of the circle and slowly lowered the lid on her coffin. She fell to her knees just across from me. Beckett threw one of his arms over her shoulder and placed his hand on the glass. “You did well.”
She leaned her head against his shoulder. “It doesn’t feel good.”
Kumi belly crawled through the door. She whimpered and rubbed her cheek against my arm. The Kumi will stay. The Kumi will stand guard over mom for as long as it takes.
Thank you my firend.
There the seven of us sat around my mother, mourning her absence from the world. I didn’t know how long it’d take to break the soul mate bond, but I did know we all loved her and wouldn’t rest until she was free. The only thing I had to do now was kill my father . . .
Chapter 31
Tuck
In the dim light of my dorm room Zinnia and I lay facing each other in my bed. Soft blue moonlight streamed in through my window, caressing her pale skin. The school was still and silent as though they too had lost someone today. She was curled in on her side. Her eyes were red and puffy.
She sniffled. “I put my mom in a coffin today.”
I reached out and ran my hand over her cheek. “I know, baby. I know. I’m so sorry.”
I felt her heart break as though it were my own. It tore at my chest and down my back, making it hard to breathe. She pulled my blanket higher, curling it under her chin. “I’m so tired of feeling like we’re just barely getting by. Yes, we’ve beaten Alataris in some small skirmishes, but at what cost? He hurts people like my mother every day. There has to be a way to stop him for good. The crown is gone. It can’t amplify his powers. But when we faced him in Time Square, he still kicked our asses. We’re lucky he tried to get to my mother, or he might have killed one of the other queens.”
“Don’t you want to rest tonight? Give your mind a break, get some sleep.” I didn’t want to tell her the other queens had a plan, that they wanted something Zinnia wasn’t prepared to give into. I wanted to give her this night to grieve for her mother, to actually sleep.
“I can’t sleep. There has to be a way, otherwise what is this all for?” In the darkness of my room, in the dead of night she wouldn’t give up for a single second.
“Look, the other queens have an idea, but let’s talk about it tomorrow. Don’t you want one night to yourself before you face anything else?”
Zinnia sat straight up and let the blanket fall to her waist. “No, tell me.”
I flipped over to my back, then reached over to my bedside table. I pulled on the chain, flicking the light to life. I opened the top drawer and pulled out the piece of paper Ophelia gave me and handed it to her.
Zinnia unfolded it and held it out to the light. “I don’t understand . . . it’s a picture of a crown.”
“The other queens decided that if we were going to beat Alataris we needed to give our most powerful witch every advantage.” I motioned to the picture of the crown. “They opted out of taking a piece of the crown from Hephaestus. They decided to elect you Queen of the Witch Court and give it all to you.”
Her mouth dropped open. “But I don’t want it. We need to rule together.”
“You all will . . . but they’ll be your advisors. They think the crown should be yours and yours alone. Your power needs to be at its strongest.” I leaned in closer to her.
She held the paper between both of her hands, staring down at it. “They elected me?”
“Unanimously.” I wrapped my hands around
hers. “I believe in you. With everything I am, I believe in you.”
“This means I’ll have to face Alataris alone?” She looked up at me with wide eyes.
I shook my head. “No, I will be there, fighting by your side.”
She brought her legs up and crossed them. She let the paper drop into her lap. “Tuck, what if . . . what if he kills one of us? My mom is gone. I don’t even know for how long. Or if she will ever come back. I can’t lose you too.”
I’d lost her once before. I knew what that soul deep pain felt like. “I can’t lose you either. But Beckett has a plan, and so do the queens. A plan I think will work.”
“When were you going to tell me about this?” She wasn’t angry, just looked utterly exhausted.
“I was on my way to tell you this morning when all the stuff happened with your mom. I decided it’d be best to wait.” I reached up and plucked up a lock of her hair and twirled it around my finger. The feel of her silky strands against my skin soothed me. Long moments passed of her sitting staring at the picture in silence. “What are you thinking?”
“I’m thinking we need to complete the soul mate bond before I do this.”
“Zin, no. I can’t have anyone using me against you the way your father’s enemies would use your mother against him. I can’t be a liability like that for you.” I let her hair fall back into place. “I was hexed once, and it nearly killed you. I couldn’t live with myself if that happened again.”
“Have you seen yourself, Prince Tucker Brand. The students in this school revere you. You took out more than a dozen warlocks when Alataris attacked the school. You fought that hex for days when others would’ve fallen to it in hours. You’ve taken on High King Alataris and lived to tell the tale. There isn’t anything you can’t do. Now are you going to say no to me again?”
I chuckled and wrapped my hand around hers. “I won’t say no to you again. But after we take down Alataris . . . deal?”
Wicked Queen (The Royals: Witch Court Book 5) Page 16