Casting Curses

by Yasmine Galenorn

  She frowned, a worried look in her eyes. “If it’s that strong, then I’m afraid we might be in trouble.”

  “Just watch out when you’re around upstairs. Or I guess anywhere in the house. Hopefully, the energy just swooped up and out the roof. But until we know for sure, just be cautious.”

  She shook her head. “Don’t go up there alone, Maddy—you’re a powerful witch, but there are some things more powerful than you are.”

  “Trust me, I know that. I have to think about this for a while.” I stopped when the doorbell rang. As Kelson went to answer it, I returned to the dining room, where Trey was still unconscious on the table.

  Leonard walked over to my side. He stared at his friend for a moment, then looked at me. “What do you think that thing was?”

  I grimaced. “I have no idea, but it scared me, too. Whatever that smoke was, it hit my lungs as well. And I can tell you right now, it didn’t feel good.”

  “Are you all right?”

  I shrugged. “I don’t know. I feel…unsettled. But at least I’m not unconscious.”

  Kelson returned, with Jordan Farrows behind her. He set his bag on the table next to Trey. “What happened?”

  “Basically, an urn broke, a bunch of black powder hit the floor and smoke rose from it, and Trey was caught in it.”

  “Anybody else?”

  “I got slammed by it too, but didn’t lose consciousness.” I pointed to the ceiling. “Apparently, we have a secret room in my attic. It looks like it might have been used for some sort of ritual magic, but I can’t read the glyphs that are painted on the wall.”

  Jordan frowned. “Let me examine him, then I also want to check your vitals, too.”

  Kelson and I retreated to the kitchen, leaving Trey to Jordan. Leonard stayed with them.

  “Seriously, how are you feeling?” Kelson asked me, firing up the espresso machine.

  I tried to assess my state of health, but it was difficult to tell whether I felt off because of what had happened, or because of my emotional reaction.

  “I don’t know,” I said. “I can’t tell. I think the storm fried my senses a little bit. Plus, what happened upstairs left me feeling shaky.”

  She slid a double shot mocha in front of me, adding a dollop of whipped cream. “Maybe this will help.”

  “Well, it can’t hurt,” I said.

  A few moments later, Jordan entered the room. Leonard had stayed in the dining room.

  “What’s wrong with him?” I hoped to hell it was fixable.

  “To be honest? I don’t have a clue of why he’s unconscious. Everything checks out. His blood pressure is fine. His blood sugar is normal. His heart sounds okay, his pulse is normal. The man should be awake, but he’s not. I’m going to take him back to my office for a complete battery of tests. Now, let me take a look at you.”

  He took my blood pressure, checked my heart and pulse, and asked me how I was feeling. I told him exactly what I had told Kelson.

  “Well, if you start feeling the least bit off, give me a call. Meanwhile I’d like to see that room. I might be able to figure out something if I recognize any of the glyphs on the wall.”

  “I’m leery of going back upstairs.” I really didn’t want to go back in that attic again. “Are you sure you want to go look?”

  Jordan took my hands in his. “Maddy, I know you’re nervous. But you’re the High Priestess on this island. You’re the leader of the Moonrise Coven. I’m afraid the buck stops with you, especially when it comes to your own house.”

  I rubbed my forehead. I had been promoted to the coven’s High Priestess shortly after I first arrived on the island. I was still getting used to the responsibility. “I never thought about it like that. But hell, you’re right. Okay, I’ll go up with you, but I need someone to pull down that ladder. I’m not tall enough to reach it.”

  “I’ll help,” Leonard said from the doorway. He was leaning against the frame, arms crossed. “Come on.”

  We followed him back upstairs, stopping below the trapdoor leading into the attic. Leonard let out a long sigh. “All right, here goes nothing.”

  He used a chair to reach the trapdoor, then extended the ladder so that it rested on the floor. After that, he cautiously lifted himself into the opening. Jordan followed him, and then I climbed up, steeling myself. Once we were up in the attic, the men on the roof waved down from the roof.

  “Hey boss, how’s Trey?” Robert called.

  “Still unconscious, but he’s in stable condition,” Jordan answered for Leonard.

  “How’s the roof look?” I asked.

  Robert shook his head. “You definitely need a new one, but I’m pretty sure we can patch it for now until you can make arrangements. Be best to replace it in spring when the weather’s better. What about it, Len? Should we start in putting on the patches?”

  “Get everything ready. In a few minutes, I’ll come up to take a look at what you found.” Leonard waved him away. “Be careful up there.”

  While he was chatting with his men, I led Jordan over to the door to the secret room.

  “This was hidden behind paneling. I had no idea it was here when I bought the house. Leonard thinks it was walled off after the original attic was built, and Franny doesn’t remember the room being separate, so he’s probably right.” I handed Jordan a flashlight. “Get ready. I’m not sure if there’s anything in there, but I want to be prepared.”

  I cautiously turned the handle, opening the door. As the hinges creaked and the door swung wide, I tensed, waiting for something huge and horrible to come shrieking at us. But nothing happened, and after a moment, I took a deep breath and plunged inside, followed by Jordan.

  Jordan flashed his light on the walls, then walked over to look at the glyphs. While he did that, I slowly crossed to the table in the back. The pieces of the urn were scattered on the ground, along with the remains of the blackened powder. The smoke had vanished and I prayed that meant it was gone for good. I knelt, cautious to avoid touching the powder, and picked up a shard from the urn. As I turned it over, I saw that it was made from some form of pottery, a yellowish clay that looked to be very, very old. There were glyphs on the shard, as well. I had no clue what they meant, but they were very angular and reminded me of Egyptian hieroglyphics, though something told me they weren’t.

  Jordan was examining the wall. “This is a cuneiform script, that much I can tell you. I have no idea what it means, though. And the paintings are two dimensional, like Egyptian art, but it doesn’t have that feel to it.”

  “That’s what I was thinking. The broken urn has the same sort of writing on it.” I stared down at the powder. “You may want to take some of this powder for examination.”

  He joined me, frowning at the black granules. “Yeah, I should. You say the powder spilled out when the urn broke?”

  “Along with a mass of black smoke. At first I thought maybe the spilled powder caused the smoke, but I’m thinking maybe that’s not actually the case.” I didn’t want to touch it. There was something greasy feeling about the powder—about its energy. I kept thinking that if I touched it, I’d never be able to get it off my fingers.

  Jordan slipped on a pair of plastic gloves, then scooped up some of the powder into a small container. He closed it, tucking it into his pocket. “I took enough for analysis, but I suggest you leave this until I’ve had a chance to examine it further. Who knows if I’ll need more?” He glanced up at the hole in the roof. “There’s something very uncomfortable about this setup, but I can’t tell you exactly what or why. It makes me nervous, though.”

  “It makes me nervous, too,” I said. “I don’t like the idea that it’s here, in my house.”

  “I understand. Well, I’ll get back to the office and start running tests on both Trey and this powder. Hopefully, I’ll know more in a few hours.” He motioned for me to follow him and we made our way back to the trapdoor.

  Leonard had swung himse
lf up on the roof, through the hole. “I’ll duck back down to talk to you in about ten minutes, when I’ve looked over what my men found.”

  “We’ll be downstairs,” I waved at him as I turned and began to descend the ladder. Jordan followed me.

  JORDAN HAD ORDERED an ambulance to take Trey back to his office. As they headed out, Kelson washed the table and began to lay a cloth on it for dinner. I went into my office, feeling tired and listless. Even the extra caffeine hadn’t done anything to pick me up. I glanced out the window. The sun had vanished behind the clouds again, and we looked in for another rainstorm. Usually, I loved the rain, but today it just felt dreary. I finally decided to throw myself into holiday plans since we were guestless, except for Henry, and likely to stay that way for a few days. I pulled up Aegis’s notes with the Thanksgiving menu he had planned and looked over it.

  Sandy, Max, and Jenna would be here. As would Henry. We’d have guests, the gods willing. I was reading through the list of dishes Aegis wanted to make when my cell phone rang. I frowned, not recognizing the number, and answered it.

  “Maddy?” The voice was low but smooth, and the man had an English accent. I had lost my Irish accent decades ago. “Hi. This is Gregory, your brother.”

  I sat back in my chair, blinking. The last person I had expected to hear from was Gregory.

  He was my half-brother, actually. We hadn’t even known about each other until a few months ago. Right before my mother died, she broke down and told me about him. Forced to give him up when she was young—five years before I came along—Zara had kept a long-distance watch on him, making sure the couple who took him in raised him with love. But she never reached out to him, terrified of rejection. She had made me promise not to contact him until after she died and I begrudgingly agreed. I had emailed him, and we had exchanged a few letters since then, but we had never talked on the phone, nor had we met. Gregory had needed time to process everything.

  “Gregory…” I stumbled for the right words. “Hi, hello—I didn’t expect your call.” It wasn’t the brightest thing to say, but I had to say something.

  “I know, and I apologize. But I’m leaving for America tomorrow, and I’ll be in the Seattle area for a couple of days before heading to New York for a conference. I thought, if you’d like, we can meet.”

  Again, my heart thudded in my chest. “I’d love that. Will you be able to come up to Bedlam?” I held my breath, hoping he would say yes.

  Gregory paused, then cleared his throat. “If you like, yes. I can take an extra day or two and come visit you.” Another moment, then he added, “You’re sure you want to meet me, now?”

  “Yes, I do! Please come.” I wasn’t sure why it was so important to me, but all of a sudden all I could think about was meeting Gregory and getting to know him.

  “It’s set, then. I’ll email you my itinerary. I’ll arrive in Seattle on Friday, the sixteenth. I’ll rent a car and drive up to the island. Email me the details of how best to get to your place.” With little more than a quick good-bye, he signed off.

  Thoroughly flustered and unable to focus on what I had intended to do—which was balance my checkbook—I jumped up and ran in the kitchen.

  “Kelson! Kelson, we need to make sure the place is sparkling by Friday. My brother’s coming to visit.” I froze, hearing the excitement in my voice.

  Kelson watched me for a moment. “What’s wrong? I saw that shift in your expression.”

  I jumped up on the counter, swinging my legs as I sat there. “It just occurred to me. What if…what if we don’t like each other? I never knew I had a half-brother until recently, but I’ve been thinking a lot about him since then. What if he doesn’t measure up to what my imagination has been spinning out for me? What if I don’t meet his expectations?”

  “That’s always a risk. But what else are you going to do? Pretend you aren’t excited? Stifle yourself? Refuse to meet him because you’re afraid it won’t be what you hoped for?” Kelson wiped her hands on a dishtowel and leaned against the counter next to me.

  “I hear what you’re saying and no, I’m not going to back away because I’m afraid this won’t be the reunion I hope it will be. But I am scared, Kelson. And I don’t really know how to talk about it, because I don’t even know what I want out of this relationship.”

  And there was the crux of the problem. I didn’t know what I wanted out of Gregory. Did I want long talks on the phone, brother to sister, where we shared our secrets and hopes? That seemed like something reserved for childhood, but our childhoods were long gone. Did I want an easy relationship, where we sent holiday cards and called each other for a few minutes each month? Did I want him as a friend or as the protector big brothers sometimes were?

  The phone rang, interrupting my thoughts. As I glanced at it, half-expecting it to be Gregory, cancelling plans, I saw that it was Jordan. I punched the talk button.

  “Hey, what’s up?”

  “What’s up is that Trey’s in trouble. I need to talk to Leonard and I don’t have his number. Is he still there?”

  Wanting to ask what was wrong, I suppressed the urge. I turned to Kelson and motioned to her. “Can you take my phone out to Leonard? Jordan needs to talk to him, stat.”

  Kelson nodded, jogging into the back yard with my phone. I walked over to the dishwasher she had been unloading and began to take out dishes. I had set three glasses on the counter and was reaching for a fourth when one of the glasses whipped off the granite counter and wheeled past me, missing my head by less than an inch. Instinctively, I ducked, and it was a good thing, because the other two glasses sailed right past where I had been standing, smashing into the wall.

  I slammed the dishwasher closed, breathing hard, as I stared at the broken glass. What the fuck?

  “Franny? Did you do that?” I knew it couldn’t have been her, but right now, my thinking cap wasn’t on straight.

  “Maudlin, help me!” Franny came flying out of the wall into the powder room, a panicked look on her face. As she whirled in the air, colliding with the refrigerator and passing through it, a dark form rose up from the wall behind her, emerging in a smoky mist. It looked one hell of a lot like the mist I had seen upstairs.

  I held up my hands, intent on creating a wall between it and me, but the next thing I knew, that little zing I got when casting a spell sputtered and died.

  The shadow form turned away from Franny, toward me, and began to advance. As I backed up, all I could feel was a wash of fear racing through me. What the hell was this thing, and what did it want?

  Chapter 6

  I LEARNED VERY quickly just what it wanted. The shadow leapt at me, slamming through me. For a moment, it felt like I was about to be knocked out of my body. I grappled with it, doing my best to shove it away. As it passed through me, I jumped to the side, pulling away from it. But the kitchen wasn’t very big, and I ended up jabbing myself in the ribs on the corner of the counter as I ducked.

  “Damn it!” I could barely take a breath—the jolt had knocked the wind out of me. But at least I could tell what the shadow was trying to do. It was either trying to take over my body, or render me helpless so it could feed on my life energy.

  I held out my hands, summoning up my energy, as I focused on the blur of mist roiling through the kitchen. I needed to disrupt it, and luckily, I knew a pretty good disruption spell.

  Bars that break, bars that bind

  Shatter now, those of your kind.

  Disperse, dispel, scatter wide,

  Run in fear, run to hide.

  Franny screamed again and I turned in time to see the shadow begin to break apart, but then it reared up, stronger than ever, and the energy that I had pushed toward it came hurtling back. I could feel it rebounding on me, and the next moment, I tripped and fell to my knees, gasping for air. I couldn’t breathe. My throat was swelling up, and I struggled, grasping at my neck.

  Kelson appeared in the doorway. “What the hell—” She sto
pped, staring at me as I reached out toward her. At that moment, the shadow aimed for me again and came barreling toward me. Franny screamed, throwing herself in front of me, as Kelson ripped off her clothes, leaping over the table in wolf form, growling and snapping at the shadow creature. She bit through him and he retreated toward the wall.

  At that moment, Bubba came racing into the kitchen.

  “Get out of here, Bubs—you don’t want—” I panted, still struggling to breathe, terrified he’d become the shadow creature’s target. But Bubba took a long look at me and flopped on his belly in front of me. I realized what he was offering. I reached out, trying to form my thoughts as coherently as I could, and rubbed his tummy, focusing on the wish that the shadow creature would vanish without any of us being hurt.

  There was a shimmer in the air, and then the shadow pulsed and disappeared.

  I rolled over on my side, my throat feeling like it was so swollen inside I could barely breathe. Bubba nosed me and turned to Kelson, who immediately shifted back. I barely noticed she was naked. She knelt beside me as Leonard raced in, his eyes wide.

  “What the hell was that thing?”

  But I couldn’t answer. I opened my mouth, trying to breathe, and he jumped up.

  “She’s having an allergic reaction. She can’t breathe. Are witches able to use epinephrine? One of the guys is allergic to nuts and has an injector on him.”

  I couldn’t answer. I just scrabbled, trying to ease my throat.

  Kelson glanced at me. “I don’t know if she can or not. Let me call Jordan.”

  But before she could make a move, Bubba leaned down and sniffed my neck. He closed his eyes and flopped over on his belly. Kelson immediately reached out and ruffled his fur.

  “Help her breathe, Bubba.”

  There was another shift in the air, and the swelling in my throat subsided enough for me to gasp down a lungful of air.

  Bubba nudged Kelson. “M-row!”

  “I’m calling the doctor, Bubba. Don’t worry.” Kelson took my phone from Leonard, who was still clutching it, and flipped to my contacts. She punched a button and the next moment, she was talking to Jordan. “Listen—Maddy needs help really bad. Her throat swelled up… No, I don’t know why, but she could barely breathe. Bubba helped a little but I don’t think he can clear it entirely. Can witches use epinephrine? … No? All right, can you—okay, thanks. We’ll see you in a few minutes.” She turned back to me. “Jordan’s on his way over. He said to get you into a sitting position. Leonard, can you help me?”