by Teresa Roman
“She came by, and I explained that you needed to rest.” Delilah crossed the room and took a seat on the edge of the bed. “Are you feeling any better?”
I wasn’t sure how to answer that question. I felt well rested, but now that I was awake, that awful churning feeling in my stomach had returned. I remembered what had prompted my aunt to give me the sleeping potion in the first place. And then I thought about Grace and how, by sleeping through our planned night out, I’d only delayed the inevitable. Eventually I’d have to figure out how to answer her questions.
Delilah tucked a few strands of my hair behind my ear. “Get dressed and come downstairs after, okay? I’ve got breakfast waiting.”
I nodded. After she left the room, I called Grace.
“I’m so sorry about last night. I only meant to take a nap. I had no idea that I’d sleep for so long.”
“You’re forgiven. As long as we can go out tonight instead.”
“Yeah. Of course.”
“Great. I’ll pick you up at around seven?”
“I can drive, if you prefer,” I offered. “Just let me know what hotel you’re staying at.”
“No, that’s all right. If you don’t mind, I’d rather drive.”
Grace hung up, and I got out of bed. While I ate, I made a decision. Grace and I had been friends for practically as long as I could remember. I trusted her, which meant there was no reason I couldn’t tell her everything. I’d been hesitant to confide in her while Maria and the Korzhas remained in Beaver Falls. Sharing my secrets was one thing, sharing secrets that belonged to other people was another. Still, if I asked her not to breathe a word to anyone about Nicolai and his brother being werewolves or Maria being a witch, she wouldn’t. Perhaps that was why she’d been acting so strange lately. It hurt that I didn’t trust her enough to tell her everything.
Since I still had several hours to spare before Grace arrived, I decided to head back upstairs to the attic to do some research. Delilah had offered to help, but I preferred to look for answers on my own. I wanted to know what kind of magic had made me hear Nicolai’s voice so clearly. My search for answers did not yield much information. The only thing I learned was if a witch possessed a deep connection to another witch, they could communicate telepathically with each other. Was that what had happened? My heart dropped. Did that mean Nicolai was searching for me? I remembered him asking me to tell him where I was. How was I supposed to put Nicolai behind me like this?
I was so immersed in my studying that Delilah had to knock on the door to let me know that it was almost seven. With a sigh, I returned Delilah’s books to their shelves. Even though my heart wasn’t in it, I dressed for a night out.
A short time later, the doorbell rang. My mouth almost dropped when Grace walked into the house. Her skirt was so short that it barely covered her butt, and her breasts were practically spilling out of the top she wore.
“Who are you, and what have you done with my best friend?” I asked.
“What are you talking about?” she replied innocently.
“You don’t usually dress like this.”
She shrugged. “That’s ’cause whenever we go out, we’re in boring Beaver Falls. Now that we’re not, I want to have a little fun.”
“Yeah, but—”
“Are we going to stand here talking about my clothes all night, or can we go?” she snapped.
“Yeah,” I said, taken aback not only by the way she was dressed but by the way she’d just spoken to me. “Just give me a minute.”
I went to the kitchen to let Delilah and Lisa know that I was heading out and then followed Grace to her car. A few minutes later, we arrived at our destination. This bar was very much like the one we’d gone to two nights earlier. I’d hoped for a quieter spot so we could talk, but given the way Grace was dressed, it was obvious she had something else in mind.
Heads turned as we walked in. Grace’s satisfied smile told me she was clearly pleased with all the attention. It was as if leaving Beaver Falls had changed her. Ever since she showed up at my aunt’s house, she’d been so different from the Grace I knew. On the drive to the bar, I wanted to say something about it, but I didn’t want to cause an argument when things between us were already so tense.
Before we even managed to find a table, someone had already pulled her to the dance floor. I decided to make a beeline for the bar.
I was on my third drink by the time I realized Grace must have forgotten all about me. I wanted to be okay with that, to be happy that she was enjoying herself. But hadn’t she come to Ithaca to be my shoulder to cry on? Things hadn’t really turned out that way so far, and it bothered me. The Grace I knew would’ve never asked to hang out and then pull a disappearing act on me. We needed to talk. I’d lost so much already. I didn’t want to lose Grace as well. It was time to make things right between us. I got up and weaved my way through the crowd. When I finally found Grace, my mouth dropped. Just like the other night when we’d gone out, the man she was dancing with had her pinned against the wall. His head was buried in her chest, and it didn’t seem to bother her a bit. Her eyes were closed, and she wore a wide satisfied smile.
I walked over to her and tapped her on her shoulder. An angry look crossed her face as she realized it was me.
“We need to talk,” I shouted in her ear.
She frowned. “Right now?”
“Yes. Now.”
“Fine,” she huffed. Then she whispered something into the ear of the man she’d been dancing with. A moment later he slunk away.
Grace crossed her arms. “Since you want to talk so bad, then go ahead, talk.”
“Not here,” I said. “It’s way too loud.”
“You know what? You’re right,” Grace said. “We should go somewhere quieter.”
I followed her out to her car. As soon as I buckled my seatbelt, she sped out of the parking lot, her tires screeching as she turned onto the street.
“Where are we going?” I asked.
“Someplace quiet,” she replied without elaborating.
I glanced at her out of the corner of my eye. “Ever since you got here, you’ve been acting really weird. Are you planning on telling me why?”
“Oh, I will. But you go first. Once you tell me all your deep, dark secrets, I promise I’ll tell you mine.” She smiled, but it didn’t put me at ease. Instead, a chill crept up my spine. Something had happened to my best friend. The person sitting next to me was not the Grace I knew.
We drove in silence for another few minutes. “Grace,” I finally said. “Where are we going?” We’d put downtown Ithaca far behind us and were on some rural country road.
“Would you like to drive instead?” She swerved over to the side of the road and slammed the brakes. I opened my mouth to say something, but before I could, she hit me, hard. Everything went black.
The first thing I noticed when I came to was the pounding of my head. I opened my eyes. Not that it helped much. It was so dark outside. There were no streetlamps illuminating the night sky, so the only light came from the stars and the thin sliver of moon. I tried to bring one of my hands up to my forehead. That’s when I realized that my back was pressed against a tree and my wrists were tied together behind it.
“What the—”
“Sleeping Beauty finally awakes.”
I lifted my head. “Grace. What are we doing here? And why am I tied to a freaking tree?”
“You said it yourself. We need somewhere quiet and private to talk,” she replied. “And I couldn’t risk you running off, so I had to tie you up.”
“Have you lost your mind? Untie me now.”
Grace stood there, staring at me with a strange smirk. Finally, she took a step toward me, the sound of leaves crunching under her feet breaking the silence. Instead of reaching behind me, she grabbed my chin and kissed me. I tried to wrest myself free of her grip, but she was supernaturally strong.
Finally, she let go and took a step back. And I knew why Grace had been acting
so peculiar. Earlier I’d only had doubts. but now I knew for sure that the person standing in front of me was not my best friend.
I did my best to bite back the fear that now coursed through me. “Who are you?”
“Tsk, tsk tsk. Don’t you remember the rules? You tell me your secrets first, then I’ll tell you mine.”
I gritted my teeth. “What do you want to know?”
“What happened to Peter?”
“Peter?” Is that what this was all about? “I have no idea what happened to him.”
The fake Grace stepped forward again and slapped me across my cheek. I cried out in pain.
Concentrate.
“Lie to me again and I will make you bleed.”
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. A telekinesis spell would work, but I’d never tried moving an object I couldn’t actually see. I could feel the rope that bound my wrists, though. That had to be enough to magically remove it from my wrists. I chanted the spell in my head. Nothing happened. I tried again, this time mumbling the words quietly to myself.
The sound of Grace’s laughter cut through my concentration. “Don’t bother using magic. Surely your affair with my son has taught you a thing or two about our kind.”
My eyes flicked open. “Your son?”
“That’s right, Peter is my son. Or should I be saying was? Did you kill him, or was it that creature you left him for that did?”
“I didn’t kill Peter and neither did Nicolai.”
“So you’re saying my son is alive?”
If this woman truly was Peter’s mother like she’d just claimed, that meant she was a succubus. She could extract the truth from me if she wanted to, so whatever I told her had to sound convincing.
“I don’t know.”
“I think you do,” the succubus said. She took my chin in her hand again and squeezed hard. “So I’m going to ask once more. Is my son alive?”
I spat at her. She let go of my chin and wiped her face with the back of her hand. “You’re going to pay for that.”
Peter’s mother grabbed me by my hair and pulled hard. I stifled a yelp, refusing to let her know that she was hurting me. “You don’t seem to grasp your situation, witch. I just fed. You saw me dancing with that human at the bar. Right now, I’m at my strongest, and you are at your weakest. So you better cooperate, or I can make this very painful for you.” She let go of my hair and again asked, “Is my son alive?”
I shook my head.
“What happened to him? How did he die?”
I couldn’t tell her what had really happened. She’d be after Nicolai next. I had to protect him by convincing her that the blame for Peter’s death rested squarely on my shoulders. A satisfied smile crossed my face. “I killed him.”
“You? I don’t believe that. You’re nothing but a baby witch,” she said. “It was the wolf, wasn’t it?”
“No. It was me. I hated Peter. I wanted to make him pay.”
“I told Peter you couldn’t stay inside that castle forever. I told him to wait until you left, but he was so impatient. I worried that he was underestimating you and those wolves, but he was so sure of himself.”
“You were the one who helped him that night?”
“What kind of mother would I be if I didn’t help my own child?”
“You should have tried harder to talk him out of coming to the castle that night. Did the two of you really think you stood a chance against four werewolves and a witch?”
“What did you do to him?”
“I burnt him alive.”
The succubus narrowed her eyes at me. “You’re lying.”
“No. I’m not,” I said. “Peter lied to me, and he murdered my father, and I hated him for it. I wanted revenge. You’re right. I don’t know much magic. I shouldn’t have been able to cast the spell that killed Peter, but my desire for vengeance was all the fuel I needed to succeed.”
“What happened to my son after he died? What did you do to his body?”
“There was nothing left of him but a pile of ash.”
The succubus’s face paled. “I will make you pay for this. You and that animal you left my son for.”
“Nicolai has nothing to do with what happened to Peter.”
“Tell me where he is.”
“I don’t know.”
“Don’t make me torture the truth out of you,” the succubus said. “You won’t like it.”
“Torture won’t help you find Nicolai. We broke up before I left Beaver Falls, and I haven’t spoken to him since.”
“My son was the best thing that happened to you. He was handsome, rich, charming. Peter would’ve made you a happy woman, but you tossed him aside in favor of what … a mangy werewolf.”
“Your son was a leech. He didn’t care about me. He only pretended to so he could get what he wanted.”
“How is that different from any other couple? Don’t tell me for one moment that your precious Nicolai doesn’t want something from you.”
“Nicolai is nothing like Peter.”
The succubus smiled again. She reached out and rested her hand on my cheek. “Will he still love you if I mangle this pretty face of yours?” My eyes went wide as she started to transform. Her skin grew thick and gnarled, and her fingernails turned into claws. I’d seen Peter transform before, but that didn’t lessen the shock. The succubus grabbed my arm and squeezed it so hard I thought she’d break my bones. I bit my lower lip, determined to not give her the satisfaction of knowing how badly she was hurting me.
My heart thudded. It felt like my insides were being squeezed. I could hardly talk, but somehow I managed to say, “Please, let me go. I don’t know where Nicolai is. I swear.”
“You won’t be going anywhere.” She reached a clawed hand out and ran it down one of my arms. I screamed as I watched my skin split open. Blood dripped down my arm, but the pain was the worst part of it. It felt like someone had poured acid into my open wound.
“I don’t need your help to find Nicolai. He will come to me.”
“Peter is gone. Nothing I do can change that.” Tears streamed down my face. “I shouldn’t have killed him; I see that now. He was your son, and you loved him. Just like I loved my father. It’s done. An eye for an eye. I lost my father, and you lost your son. Hasn’t enough damage been done?”
“I don’t think so.” Peter’s mother ran another of her claws down my other arm. I screamed again.
The pain of my flesh being flayed open by the succubus’s claws made it impossible to speak or think. I fought the urge to cry out, knowing that it would not ease my pain. After several agonizing minutes, I managed to catch my breath.
“This won’t end until I decide it does,” she said. “With my poison running through your veins, you won’t make it through the night.” Her appearance shifted again. Gone were her claws and gnarled flesh. Peter’s mother now looked exactly like me. That’s how she’d lure Nicolai to her. “And by tomorrow Nicolai will also be dead.”
“No, please,” I begged.
But my pleas fell on deaf ears. The succubus turned around and walked away without another word.
Chapter 21
Nicolai
We arrived in Ithaca just after eight. I rapped on Delilah’s door. A woman who was definitely not Willow’s aunt opened it. My heart dropped.
“Can I help you?” she asked.
“I’m looking for Delilah Whitmore. Do you know her?”
“Yes. Delilah is my wife. And you are?”
Maria replied before I could, “My name is Maria.” She gestured toward me. “And this is Nicolai. We’ve been looking for someone. A young woman named Willow. We have reason to believe she’s been staying here.”
The woman appeared to consider what to say before finally replying, “Wait here.”
A minute later, she returned. The woman with her had to be Delilah. The family resemblance was impossible to miss.
“Willow isn’t here,” Delilah said.
She started
to shut the door, but I grabbed the knob and held it tight. “She was here at some point, wasn’t she?” When Delilah didn’t reply, I continued, “I know I’m right, so there’s no point in lying.”
Delilah sighed. “I know enough about werewolves to realize you’ve already picked up my niece’s scent.”
“Can you tell her I’m here? All I want is to talk. Once I’ve told her what I came to say, I’ll leave her alone if that’s what she really wants. I swear it.”
“I would, but Willow isn’t here at the moment.”
“Will she be back?”
“She’ll hate me for telling you, but yes, she’ll be back, though not for another few hours.”
“Where did she go?”
Delilah hesitated before replying, “Out, with a friend.”
I furrowed my brow. Willow had never mentioned any friends in Ithaca. “What friend?”
“Her best friend, Grace. She came down from Beaver Falls a few days ago.”
“Grace?” I suddenly felt like someone had their hand wrapped around my throat. “Are you sure?”
Maria and I exchanged glances.
“Yes, that’s right.”
“It can’t be,” Maria said, shaking her head.
“What can’t be?” Delilah asked.
“Grace can’t be the one with Willow because Grace is dead.” I fought to keep my head straight. “She committed suicide a few days after Willow left Beaver Falls. Or at least, someone made it look like she did.”
“What?” Delilah’s face blanched. “Are you sure?”
“We are the ones who found the poor girl’s body,” Maria said. “So yes, we’re sure.”
“It’s one of the reasons I’ve been looking for her. I wanted to let her know.”
Delilah pulled the door wide open. “You two need to come in.”
When we stepped into the living room Delilah spun around to face us. “I grew up in Beaver Falls. I knew Grace as a child. The woman who showed up here looks like the little Grace I knew years ago. Older, but still. And Willow introduced her as Grace. So if Grace is truly dead, then who has Willow been hanging out with for the past few days?”