by Leia Stone
Cass slapped his butt back down on his booster seat, to give me his full attention. “You’ve never sensed anything like that before.”
Damn, he was right! My lips pulled into a frown. “Shit’s getting out of control fast.” My bestie understood what I actually meant by that, though I’m not sure Molly did.
“It’s okay,” he reassured. “Just because you’ve never sensed another witch’s magic before, doesn’t mean anything bad. It’s actually good, right? Your powers are growing. Now that your kitsune side is coming out, it makes sense.”
“I suppose... only how’s it going to work with my witch side?” After all these years, all this time, thinking I was a dud, to finally have my witch powers emerge was amazing. But without Gran here to train me… it didn’t seem all that great.
“I can’t wait to find out,” Molly announced. “There’s nothing on this in any of the supernatural books.”
No, there wouldn’t be. I was some kind of unique freak.
Yay.
“Lucky for us,” Cass added, “there’s a witch in this cabin that has answers.” He opened his door.
Right.
Hopping down, he flapped his small wings a couple of times to steady himself along the drop. “Come on, Ev. Let’s do this.”
Numb already, I pushed the door and got out, just as Willemena walked out onto her front porch.
‘Damn,’ Cass mumbled in my mind. ‘That’s one mean-looking witch.’
‘Definitely,’ I agreed.
Willemena Worst looked like she ate ground glass for three square meals a day just to keep her tough. Slender, with long silky strands of silver hair that reminded me of the moon, she wore one of those dresses you’d see at a Renaissance fair or something—crushed purple velvet, with an empire waistline.
“Well? What are you waiting for? I’m not getting any younger,” she hollered from the porch. The woman didn’t look a day over eighty, but in witch years she could be over a century old.
Cass, Molly, and I hopped to it; obviously this was a woman used to giving orders.
When we got within forty feet of her, she squinted, and held up a hand that crackled with unspent magic. “Halt right there.”
We ground to a stop.
“No humans, and certainly no demon imps.”
Cass squared his shoulders and tilted his chin upward. “I protect Evie. She’s not going in there without me.”
“Son, she doesn’t need you to protect her. Not anymore,” the witch assured.
Cass opened his mouth to protest, but the crone looked Cass up and down intently, silencing him.
“I am tempted to let you in. It’s not every day that I get company, and it’s certainly not often that I get visitors willing to dress to impress. I like your sense of style.”
“Hmph,” was all Cass said, but apparently her appreciation of his fashion sense mollified him enough.
“She’s in no danger from me,” the witch confirmed, looking between the three of us. “It’s the rest of the supernatural community you should be worried about. You two take a seat on the porch, if you like. Evie, let’s get to it. Time’s a wastin’.”
I nodded obediently and made my way inside, not even considering whether I should object. I was possibly under the influence of her magic, but if Gran trusted her with something this important, there was no reason to doubt her.
‘I’ll be fine. I’ll let you know if anything weird goes down,’ I reassured Cass.
‘Fine,’ he grumbled with obvious reluctance.
“Take a seat,” Willemena offered as she closed the door behind her, and gestured to a pair of chairs at a small table in the corner of her dining room. “Tea?”
“No, thanks…” I started, before catching her wicked smile.
“Tea is for pussies,” she added before I could beat her to it. Her grin and sparkling eyes made her look a decade younger—not a day past seventy.
“Right,” I agreed, wondering how out of my league I was. I hadn’t wanted tea because that was one of the rules of bounty hunting, never eat or drink anything a mark gives you. The witch wasn’t a mark, but it was still prudent not to ingest a thing while I was here.
“I see you’re smarter than you look,” she admitted, taking a seat across from me at the small table. “There are a hundred different ways I could have incapacitated you if you’d taken the tea.”
Swallowing, I cataloged that frightening piece of information in my holy-shit file.
“Let’s get right to it, shall we?” she added. “I don’t think it’s news to tell you that you’re in deep trouble.”
“No, it isn’t.” My life was definitely not flowers and flitting butterflies at the moment.
“I hadn’t realized you were pregnant through the smoke though. That definitely adds a certain... complication to things.” She stared intensely at my belly.
I opened my mouth to ask how she knew, when my body hadn’t changed at all yet—on the outside, at least—but I didn’t bother. The magic around this witch was strong, as intense as I’d ever sensed it. She was more powerful than Gran, and that was saying something. Gran was one of the better witches of the Black clan.
“And by a werewolf?” She arched both dark eyebrows. “You don’t do things halfway, do you, girl?”
I shrugged. “Never saw any point.”
“And spunky. I like it. Never could figure out why people bothered being insipid. What a waste of life.” Her eyebrows came back down and the lines of her face softened for a moment. “I’m very sorry to hear of Belinda’s death. There weren’t many like her in the world.”
“No, there weren’t.” The heaviness of my heart was in every single one of my words.
Willemena studied me so intently that I was certain she could see into my very soul. Finally, after far too long for courtesy, she reached across the table and patted my hand. “Belinda was a dear friend. I’ll do everything I can to help you along your path.”
Painfully, I swallowed yet again. “Thank you.” Gran never mentioned Willemena, but then, what Gran had failed to mention was enough to fill a house.
Suddenly the woman was all business. She leaned back in her chair, and pierced me with gray eyes that didn’t miss a thing. “I see that you already know you’re a kitsune.”
“Yes, I do. I only just found out, though.” I’d left my katana in the truck.
“Before or after you became pregnant with a werewolf’s baby?” She raised an eyebrow again.
I chuckled. “After.”
She nodded. “But you’ve shifted already. How many times? Hmm, twice?”
“Yes, exactly twice.” This woman was a mind reader! Goosebumps broke out onto my arms and I swallowed hard.
“And did you sprout a second tail?”
My mouth dropped in shock, though it shouldn’t have. Clearly I was out of my league with this witch.
She smiled sympathetically. “I see you didn’t know that was coming.”
“Not at all. I didn’t know about any of this.”
Willemena’s face was all serious lines again. “You can expect to eventually grow nine tails, assuming that you’ll take the path of your father’s kitsune powers.”
“Nine?” My voice was the faintest of whispers. Was I not freak enough already?
She tilted her head to one side. “Actually, maybe not. I’m not exactly sure how your kitsune magic will interact with your witch magic. I don’t think anyone knows. The mating of a witch and a kitsune is forbidden for a reason.”
“It’s forbidden?”
“Oh yes, since the beginning of the kitsune and witches, so many centuries ago. It was theorized that the witch magic might be strong enough to combat the magic of the kitsune, and vice versa. It’s essential that a being’s magic be balanced within themselves. If not...” She clucked her tongue. “All sorts of problems can come about. Your mother was a remarkable witch. Her magic was as strong as Belinda’s, even though she died young. I never met your father, but if his magi
c was as strong as your mother’s, we’re in for a surprise.”
What she really meant was that I was in for a shitstorm. “Why did they marry, then? Why’d they have me?”
“Don’t you know? It’s the oldest answer there is, something I suspect you’re starting to have a notion about.”
What on earth was she talking about?
“Love. Your parents loved each other so fiercely that no one could stand in their way. Not even Belinda, and there weren’t many who could stand up to her,” the witch explained.
No, there weren’t. Gran had been a bit of a bulldozer when she needed to be.
“Ultimately, your parents married despite Belinda’s warnings and my own, and despite the ancient laws that forbade it. And even though the most dangerous thing they could have done was have you, they did.”
The sting must have been apparent in my eyes.
“I assure you that Belinda never regretted you for a moment.” she added. “Neither did your mother or father. You were the light of their lives, never doubt that.”
Shit, I was going to cry, and this witch would eat my emotional mess for dinner.
She offered me a sense of privacy by ignoring my reaction. “Since your parents did have you, and combined powerful witch and kitsune magic, my advice would be to allow your powers to settle. Give yourself as much time between shifts as you can, so as to let your abilities a chance to merge together harmoniously. It will be much more pleasant for you if your magic can learn to work together, instead of against each other.”
“It would seem like it,” I agreed, then cleared my throat. “How long do I have to give myself in between shifts?” I could scarcely believe those words were coming out of my mouth. If I had things my way, I’d never shift again. I hadn’t asked for this kitsune deal, and all it’d done was complicate my already messy life.
Her sharp gaze trailed across my body before settling on my face again. “Who knows?”
I chuckled, unsettled and off balance since meeting the witch. I hadn’t been expecting that.
“There’s never been another one like you,” she emphasized. “That means we can approximate and guess, but we can’t be certain. If you err on the side of caution, and shift as infrequently as possible, that should delay the full activation of your kitsune—and witch—magic.”
“Should delay?”
“Yes, should. Again, there are no guarantees. Evie Black, my advice to you is to be prudent in all things. That means that, had you not already been pregnant, I would have counseled you not to become so.”
Yeah, no shit.
“Is there a threat to the baby from all this?” My voice went up two octaves before I could subdue it.
“Maybe. Maybe not.” Willemena whipped her silver hair casually over one shoulder.
I waited for more, but there was none. This woman wasn’t proving to be very helpful.
“So... we really have no idea what’s going to happen to me, or even if it will be good or bad?”
What the hell had I driven out here for?
“You’ve been listening,” she commented dryly.
“And I should be ‘prudent.’” The word left a sour taste in my mouth.
She cackled abruptly, a grating sound. “I have no taste for prudence either.”
“So just lie low?”
She paused, meeting my eyes with her gray ones. “I take it Belinda already told you that the kitsune’s duty is to guard the gate to the underworld.”
“Yes.” I grimaced. There wasn’t a hint of playfulness in the woman’s eyes now.
“You must guard it with your life, child.”
Thanks for the ominous advice, lady.
“I-I don’t know how,” I confessed.
“First, you’ll need to locate it. Something your grandmother could never do without kitsune sight.” Her face had softened so I could glimpse the woman my Gran had been close to during her life.
“Kitsune sight?” My brows drew together. I needed another freakish power, like I needed a bee sting on the ass.
The witch nodded. “In your kitsune form, you’ll be able to see the gate clear as day.”
“But you just told me not to shift too much.” My head was officially spinning.
She placed a hand over mine across the table. “I’m sorry, kid. But you’re going to have to make some hard choices, and deal with some hard outcomes. There’s no rulebook for this sort of thing.”
“I guess I’ll have to take your word for it.” I actually felt worse since coming to see the witch.
“When in doubt, trust yourself above all others. As your magic comes alive, it will guide you. It will tell you what to do. If you listen carefully, and follow your own innate wisdom, your path will be true.” Her words rang with truth, and I finally understood why Gran had chosen her to speak with me.
Trusting myself was something I could do.
“Okay.” What else was there to say? I could barely make sense of my thoughts after what she’d told me.
Willemena stood.
“What? That’s it?” I blurted out, working to keep the panic at bay.
“Just one last thing and then you can be on your way.” She went over to a bookshelf, and pulled down a medium-sized black lacquer box, blowing the dust off it. When she reached me, her hands lifted the lid of the box to reveal a black leather-bound book nestled inside. A moonstone in the shape of an eye graced the center of its cover, reflecting a rainbow of colors from the sun rays that reached us through the window.
“Do you know what this is?” Willemena asked.
I swallowed hard, remembering Gran’s spell book and how similar it was to this book. Gran’s was black leather as well, though her moonstone was larger and in the shape of a crescent moon. When a witch’s magic presents itself by age five, they’re given a family spell book. They are invaluable to a witch’s education.
“A grimoire,” I whispered.
A freaking grimoire!
But why did it look familiar?
“It was your mother’s, and your great grandmother’s before that. Now it’s yours.” Willemena deposited the heavy book into my arms, and a sudden jolt of electricity raced down my body.
“What am I supposed to do with it?” She did get that I had no idea, right?
She chuckled. “You’ll have to figure it out, kid. But when your witch magic settles in, you’ll want this. Trust me.”
Great.
“Okay, ah, thanks.” I said it almost like a question and stood.
“That’s all for now, but I’ll be paying attention, Evie Black. If I get something that might help you, I’ll let you know through the smoke.”
“What do I owe you for your services?” I asked. No witch worked for free. In fact, no member of the supernatural community did, and I didn’t want to owe any favors.
“You owe me nothing, dear. Belinda already paid in full. If I can help, I will, and not just because of Belinda and the debt she made sure I owed her, but because of that gate. If you don’t manage to keep it shut, there’ll be lots more to worry about than your unpredictable magic and hybrid baby. We’ll all be lucky to keep our heads.”
And she seemed like she meant that—literally. Well, if her plan was to shake me up, it worked.
As she shoved me out the door, closing it rapidly behind her, I met Cass’ questioning gaze first, before I offered Molly the most tremulous smile in history. No one bothered to ask how badly it had gone. It was obvious. Cass only raised an eyebrow at the spell book in my hands.
We all trampled to the truck in silence and headed toward home. Cass must’ve really felt the weight of Willemena’s message, because he let me get halfway home before he made me tell him everything. After I did, neither he nor Molly had anything to say until we pulled up the long dirt road that led toward the cabin, Brock’s mansion, and apparently the gate to torment.
“What the fuck?” Cass spat, the hairs on the tops of his ears standing straight. “Hurry, Ev. Drive like the wind.
Something bad happened while we were gone.”
My skin crawled at the truth of his statement. The air smelled like sulfur and oil.
Demons.
I pressed the pedal to the metal, and we hurtled down the road, signs of chaos erupting all around us.
20 Hell Runneth Over
That bitch. I was going to kill her.
I ground the truck to a halt in front of Brock’s house, and flung the door open. “Molly, take the grimoire to the cabin and lock the door behind you.”
Water was flooding onto Brock’s land. As if a lake had overflowed onto the property, water cascaded down the hill, right up to the back porch of Gran’s small cottage. The only person with enough power to conjure that much water was a siren.
“Calista?” Molly asked, grabbing the grimoire from me and jumping down from the truck.
“Yes,” I ground out, the word an angry slither.
It was pitch dark, and from the sound of the howling wolves, Brock and his pack were deep in the woods that surrounded the property. Probably hunting the siren.
I reached into the truck to grab my katana. I was hoping it held some untold powers that would magically make me badass enough to kill this woman.
“Are you sure you don’t need me? I’m handy with a shotgun,” Molly offered, hesitating with the grimoire clutched to her chest.
“I need you to keep that grimoire safe and protect my Gran’s cabin. Call me if it starts flooding.”
Molly nodded reluctantly, and sulked toward the path that led down the hill. She wanted to be a part of the action, I got that, but if Calista saw Molly as a weak point, she’d capitalize on it and Molly would pay the price. She wasn’t even an official bounty hunter apprentice yet.
“Cass, make sure she gets to Gran’s safely, then fly to meet me,” I rattled off to my bestie while I pulled spell vials from my bag. A stun spell, smoke spell, and a glass spell should do it.
Cass frowned. “You sure? Sounds like a big fight out there.”
Lifting my katana, I wrapped both hands around the hilt. A purple glow flashed along the length of the blade, signaling some magical property I had yet to explore. “I’ve got this thing. I’ll be fine. And Molly is human, remember?”