Always a Witch

by Carolyn Maccullough

  His words have shaken me more than I want to admit.

  "Not that you'll be around to see it." I inject a breezy note into my voice as I add, "It's been three days for you, hasn't it? You've got what, hours to live?"

  "Enough," La Spider says, breaking our locked gazes.

  "This is the girl you were warning us about? The maid? She's a member of the Greene family?" Liam says, studying me with something close to amusement.

  "Took you long enough," I say, mostly to drag the smirk off of this face. "I've been in your house for almost three days. You guys are kind of pathetic."

  La Spider tightens her lips and flings up her hand again. A sharp prickling washes over me, followed by that super sense of clarity.

  I smile sweetly at her. "Still here."

  "Kill her," the old woman hisses just as Clarissa disappears. I reach out with my mind and snap her back into sight. Next to her, her son flickers and then stretches, growing larger and larger by the second until his head's about to bump into the ceiling. He cracks his knuckles and begins lumbering toward me.

  "Stop it," I say almost kindly to him, and with a quick snap he shrinks back down to his normal size. Too bad I couldn't keep going until he was the size of a pencil.

  "Don't use your Talent on her," Alistair roars just as La Spider shrieks, "Enough!"

  "This is truly fortunate," Liam purrs into the silence. He places a hand on his mother's arm. "We were going to start selecting members of the Greene family as it was. But now one has fallen into our laps." He smiles warmly at the rest of his family. "As I was about to demonstrate with our honored guest here"—he nods to Alistair—"I have discovered how to borrow someone else's Talent. Of course, the process still needs a little refining, but now that we have her—"

  "I don't think I'll be sticking around for that," I interject.

  "Oh, really?" Liam says coldly, and now there's no amusement in his voice whatsoever. Behind his back, Jessica is staring at me. She looks afraid, but I can't tell if it's of me or for me. "I'm afraid you don't have a choice in that matter."

  "Restrain her," La Spider says to Mr. Tynsdell.

  I glance sideways at the butler, who is hesitating.

  "Now," La Spider says, her voice like a whiplash.

  I have a second to feel almost sorry for him as he comes toward me. He raises his arms to grab me. Twisting sideways, I evade his grasp and slap him on the forehead.

  A terrified expression crosses his face and he jumps back as if I've burned him. He scrubs his hand across his forehead.

  Great. Perfect time for Aunt Beatrice's power to desert me.

  The rumble of the dumbwaiter rising behind me shatters the silence.

  "Seize her," La Spider calls again, and this time Calvin Knight moves forward.

  Rage has tightened his mouth into a snarling knot. "You little b—"

  Gathering myself, I coalesce into what feels like a ball of energy, and then I dive straight into Calvin Knight's chest. With a flash, my flesh evaporates, my sight dulls, and I feel a pulling sensation as if a strong wind could suddenly scatter me into a thousand pieces.

  And then I am solid again.

  "What happened?" Clarissa shrieks just as Alistair stumbles forward.

  "She's inside of him," he says hoarsely.

  The entire room erupts into pandemonium.

  "Get her," La Spider shrieks again, clenching her hands together as if to prevent herself from flinging me/her brother against the wall.

  La Spider's other brother darts forward and drives his head into my chest. I struggle away from him long enough to grab the champagne bottle. With a wide swing, I manage to clobber the side of his face. He grunts and steps back, and that's all the space I need. Moving as fast as I can in my new body, I throw myself into the dumbwaiter shaft and pull the rope.

  Hurry, hurry, hurry.

  Thankfully, each servant in this horrible house has learned to move with a clockwork precision. With a creaking groan, the dumbwaiter platform begins to descend through the dark shaft into the kitchen below.

  With a crash the dumbwaiter stops in the kitchen. Dawn, her arms coated in a thin gray film of soapsuds, turns from the sink and starts toward me, intending no doubt to take the next load of dirty dishes. Instead, she stops short, staring at me, her hands dripping water across the stone floor. Abruptly she claps one wet hand over her mouth. A sort of moan leaks out between her fingers.

  "Hi, Dawn," I say, scrambling off the platform and knocking aside a dish. Calvin Knight's dark evening suit is blotched with the remains of dinner. Good.

  At the sound of a male voice, Cook whirls from the stove, her silver whisk clutched in her right hand. Her eyes widen.

  "Cook, it's me, Tam ... er ... Agatha. Seriously, it's me. It's not him. Sorry about crashing in on you guys here. Tell them I went out the front door."

  Even now I can hear voices above our heads somewhere calling. "Lock the doors," La Spider is screaming, and then there's an answering shout.

  Cook crosses herself with the whisk still in her hand as I thud down the back stairs.

  "How did you ... are you ... is it—? Wait!" she calls.

  Fumbling with the latch, I throw one look over my shoulder.

  "My sister," she implores. Her eyebrows slant upward in such a desperately hopeful expression that I bite my lip.

  "Elements," I mutter, flinging the door open.

  Behind me, Cook cries out, "You promised."

  An almost full moon sails across the sky, shining down on the stone woman trapped in the garden. Sprinting across the frozen grass, I skid to a stop before her. "Please let this work." My breathing comes in ragged gulps as I slap one hand down onto where the woman's heart should be.

  A pulse abruptly kicks to life under my fingertips, and the cold stone heats to hot skin so fast that I jerk my hand away. The statue lifts her head and blinks her eyes, and even in the bleach-colored light I can see that blood is rushing to fill her cheeks. With an audible popping noise, she stumbles toward me, her arms pinwheeling. Terror spasms across her features like a tidal wave.

  The door creaks open behind me and I jump, but it's only Cook, still carrying her whisk, and hurrying across the grass to us. "Mary?" Cook whispers, and the woman swings her head toward her sister.

  "Matilda," she says in a creaking voice as if stone dust has clogged her throat.

  "Oh, thank God, thank God," Cook sobs. Dropping her whisk, she runs forward, and the two women careen into each other's arms. Looking up, I can see lights flooding through the windows of each room on the second and third floors. The hunt's in earnest.

  "Take my advice?" I say to both of them. "Leave this house. Now." Without waiting for an answer, I dart across the lawn. Peering through the side gate, I check out the street beyond it. Empty.

  I ease open the gate as quietly as I can. Still, it makes a creaking noise that sets me to grinding Calvin Knight's back teeth. Inching down the walkway, I listen as hard as I can. There's a shout in the distance, a burst of laughter from a small group of passersby, and then the sound of carriage wheels rolling down Twenty-seventh Street. All the normal night noises.

  My fingers work the latch as quickly as possible, and then I open the gate door just enough to slip through. I figure I have just enough time to find Gabriel and have him help me figure out a way to slip out of Calvin Knight's body and then—

  Pain explodes across the left side of my face.

  I stagger backwards, my body falling through the half-open gate. Black spots weave and dance across my vision and slowly coalesce into the form of Liam Knight. He is standing over me, wielding an iron poker.

  "Sorry, Uncle," Liam says, his voice not sounding sorry at all. I shake Calvin Knight's head, but that only makes things worse. Blood is trickling down my jaw, and seems to be pooling in my ear.

  "It couldn't be helped," La Spider says, emerging from the shadows to stand next to her son. She studies my/her brother's body with merciless eyes. "Calvin will just have to u
nderstand."

  "He doesn't seem like the understanding type," I mutter, or try to anyway, but my words come out all slurry. The black spots are getting worse, although oddly enough one of them seems shaped like a crow. A small crow perched on the stone banister just above Liam and La Spider's heads.

  "Isobel," I gasp. "Help me."

  La Spider's eyes narrow and then she glances upward. Instantly the crow takes flight, but La Spider jabs one finger at it.

  "No," I scream. I reach out with my mind to snap off La Spider's Talent, but my reflexes are just seconds too slow.

  The crow's body slams once, twice in a first-floor casement window and then flops to the pavement below. Slowly, the bird's body shifts into Isobel's supine form. One dark feather drifts gently downward to land in her outstretched right hand.

  "Well, well, what a harvest," Liam murmurs.

  I do the only thing left that I can do. I black out.

  Twenty-One

  HEAT THROBS THROUGH MY jaw. An answering throb in my temple almost makes me moan, but somehow I manage to stifle it. Keeping my eyes closed, I try to take a quick inventory. I'm sitting upright and what feels like ropes are digging into the skin on my wrists. I seem to be tied to a hard-backed chair. There is a crack and a pop. It sounds like a log has shifted in a fireplace. I have to be in either Liam's or La Spider's study. Risking a quick peek through nearly closed eyelids, I confirm that yes, it's Liam's study, and yes, Isobel is tied up in a chair next to me. I shift my mostly closed eyes to the wall where the clock once hung. It's gone. with a jolt I remember Alistair's gloating words at the dinner. "You won't succeed. I've made sure of that."

  Never mind. gabriel can find it again and then—

  Gabriel! I'm not there to let him in the side gate and now he's going to be walking into danger at any minute.

  Snapping my eyes open, I confirm that it's just me and Isobel in the room. An unconscious Isobel.

  "Isobel," I whisper, rocking my chair back and forth until it's closer to hers. "Wake up. We have to get out of here." There's a faint blue shadow forming on her right temple, and I'll bet she has a headache to match mine. "Isobel," I hiss, and this time her eyes snap open. She studies my face, frowning.

  "It's me, Tamsin. I'm in Calvin Knight's body, but I swear it's me."

  She swallows once as if trying to get rid of an unpleasant taste in her mouth, then nods at me. "I saw what they did, before ... I fell?"

  "La Spider got you. I'm sorry. I was too slow. What the hell were you doing out there anyway?" I flex my fingers against the rope. Too tight.

  Her eyelids flutter closed, then open again. Color is slowly seeping back into her cheeks as she takes in her surroundings. "Thom, my grandfather, sent me here. To find you.

  "Thom sent you? That doesn't make any sense. Why?" Why would he put his granddaughter in danger? Then I decide that since my own grandmother frequently seems to fling me into dangerous situations, it must be a Greene family trait.

  Her lips flicker into a wry twist. "Often what he does makes very little sense. To other people." She shakes her head, then winces, seeming to regret that she did that. "Something he read in the book made him send me here. No one else knows. They wouldn't have let me come. The others..."

  "Cera and her brothers?"

  She nods. "They still don't believe that the Knights will—"

  But she stops speaking at the sound of raised voices in the hallway.

  "Why?" Someone is sobbing, and after a second, I recognize Clarissa's voice. A steel murmur overrides it. La Spider.

  "Hurry," I whisper. "Can you—?"

  But I don't need to even finish my sentence. Lightning fast, she's morphed into a crow. Fluttering free of the ropes, the bird hops to the floor, one wing dragging a little. And then as quickly, she turns back into a human. Stumbling to her feet, she kneels behind my chair. Her fingers scrabble against my skin, picking away at the knots in the ropes. Throwing another look at the partially open door, I whisper, "We have to hurry. There's a secret passageway here. Just before we get in there, I think the best thing is for me to come out of Calvin's body and then—"

  "What an excellent idea. I believe my uncle would appreciate that," a soft voice purrs.

  Both Isobel and I jerk upright. Liam's standing in the doorway. And next to him is La Spider. Her eyes glitter and her white face seems to gleam with a cold triumph. But my eyes can only focus on the small silver revolver that she's pointing directly at us.

  Twenty-Two

  IN A VOICE LIKE A STEEL trap, she says, with a nod toward Isobel, "Move. Toward the other side of the room."

  Isobel hesitates, then stands slowly, and moves a few steps away toward the fireplace. The muzzle of the gun tracks her progress. "If you try anything. Anything at all, I will shoot her." La Spider says to me. I study her milk white face and decide she's serious, so I nod. Then again, I don't have much of a choice.

  "Trust me, she's an excellent shot. As my father could have attested had he lived to tell the tale," Liam says.

  "Charming family," I murmur, but La Spider ignores that.

  "You will come out of my brother on the count of three. Is that clear? Again, if you attempt in any way to—"

  "I got it," I snap, furiously trying to come up with a brilliant plan in all of three seconds that doesn't involve getting shot.

  "Now," La Spider says, and she clicks back the hammer on her revolver. "One, two, three."

  "Okay, okay," I whisper. Closing Calvin's eyes, I grope upward. It's like reaching for a shaft of light on the surface of water.

  "Ugh," Calvin groans as I stumble to the floor. La Spider trains her gun on me.

  "Trust me, I felt the same way about you," I mutter, rubbing the side of my face. In the middle of all this, I note that even back in my own body, I still feel the pain in my jaw from when Liam hit Calvin's face with the poker.

  "Why am I tied up? What has happened?" Then Calvin's eyes light on mine. "You!" he hisses. "You..."

  "It's over, Uncle," Liam says, hurrying forward. With swift fingers he unknots the ropes and helps his uncle stand. Calvin touches his jaw, winces, then starts toward me. But Liam steps in between us and wheels his uncle toward the door. "And now, perhaps it's best if you comfort your wife. She'll be very glad to see you ... returned to yourself, so to speak."

  "Lavinia," Calvin says in a tight voice. "What exactly is going on here? Who is this guttersnipe and how did she—"

  "We'll speak tomorrow," La Spider says. And even though they're worlds apart, there's something in the finality of her tone that reminds me of my grandmother at her most impassive. Calvin blinks once, touches his jaw again. Then he looks at me one last time before leaving the room. He slams the door shut behind him.

  "Don't move," La Spider snaps at me, her gun trained on Isobel's heart. I settle back down from my attempt to get to my feet. Isobel and I exchange glances.

  "Why not just kill us now?" Isobel asks, and I have to admire the pitch-perfect scorn in her voice, even though I can see that her lips are trembling.

  "Because Liam likes to play with his food first," I answer her.

  Liam gives me his lazy perfect smile.

  "Agatha," he purrs. "Excuse me. Tamsin. If only I had known you were so ... feisty." Moving briskly to his desk, he presses a small black button that I know will ring a bell through the servants' quarters.

  "Rosie won't be coming," I tell him. "If that's who you're calling. She's frozen at the moment." I decide not to tell him that it'll wear off in a week or so. At least according to what my Aunt Beatrice always claimed.

  Liam tugs on his lip thoughtfully. "You are going to be such a fascinating creature to study."

  La Spider frowns at me.

  I pin my eyes on the revolver that La Spider is now holding so steadily on Isobel and gather myself silently. If I can jump into La Spider and point the gun at Liam, somehow we can—

  A loud banging shatters my focus. A loud banging followed by the pealing of the front doorbel
l over and over.

  La Spider and Liam exchange glances. Although her gun never wavers, any remaining color drains from her face.

  "Whoever it is—" Liam begins.

  "It's obviously them," La Spider hisses. "I knew this was not a good—"

  "Trust in me, Mother," Liam hisses back. If the situation weren't so dire, I'd be fascinated by this apparent schism between them.

  "Sirs," Mr. Tynsdell's voice rises. "This is a most inappropriate hour. No one ... young man, where are you going? Stop at once. I—"

  Isobel turns her face to mine and I can see the question in her eyes.

  His voice is cut off as Liam shuts the door, turns the silver key in the lock, and pockets it.

  "Gabriel," I scream. "Up here. We're up here." As La Spider swings the gun on me, I duck and pull Isobel down with me just as she changes into a crow and half flutters, half flies toward the window.

  With deadly aim, La Spider points her gun at the winging black crow and pulls the trigger. The bullet slams into the wall a second after Isobel banks sharply left and flies directly at La Spider's face. La Spider takes two steps back, flinging up one arm protectively as Liam begins to shimmer and fade.

  "No, you don't," I whisper. Reaching out, I pull hard.

  His form becomes solid again and he swings his head directly to me. "So, that's what you can do," he says softly. "Oh, how I will enjoy taking that."

  "I'd like to see you try," I snarl, shoving myself to my feet.

  "Tamsin," Gabriel shouts from outside the room just as there is a tremendous crash against the wooden door. Followed by another. And then a third. At that the door splinters just as Isobel's crow form is suddenly hurtled with an awful speed against the wall. There is a sickening thud and then the bird slides down the wall to huddle at the foot of the fireplace.

  "Isobel," I scream, and run to her. Slowly she morphs into her human form again, but her eyes remain closed. Blood seeps from her lower lip.

  "Don't move," I hear La Spider say in her chilling voice, and I look up to see Gabriel standing in the doorway. His eyes find mine and I nod. He jerks his chin back at me before turning to face La Spider and her gun, which is pointed directly at his head. Gabriel puts his hands up, but he adopts more of a boxing stance than an "I surrender" one. As La Spider's gaze rakes over him, I notice Mr. Tynsdell hovering in the hallway.