by Amy Boyles
“Pleasure to meet you, dear,” Hermit said in a deep voice. “You are very brave to take on Lacy.”
“Or stupid,” I said.
He chuckled. “No, I don’t think so. There aren’t many of us who dare think differently than our leader. When we do, it tends to get us murdered. And to think she was once my protégé.”
Lacy his protégé? Seemed Hermit had suffered a lack of judgment somewhere down the line.
I peered into his eyes. “Are you saying Bee was murdered because she went against Lacy’s wishes?”
Rufus cleared his throat. “Perhaps it’s best if we stick to your lessons, Pepper. Save the political talk for later.”
Hermit nodded in agreement.
Great. I’m outnumbered.
But I did as I was asked, listening to Hermit. “I believe Rufus has told you of Lacy’s propensity toward fire.”
“He has.”
Hermit extended his hand inside the caverns. “We will use this place to give you a glimpse of what fighting her might be like.”
The last time I had been in the Conjuring Caverns was ages ago. The caverns had shown me my greatest fear, and it had been terrifying.
I wasn’t sure I wanted to relive that element of terror, but if I wanted to survive Lacy, what other choice did I have?
“Grab a stone, young lady,” Hermit commanded.
I did, palming the cool rock in my hand.
With his finger, Hermit drew a straight line in the air. Lacy appeared in front of me.
I gasped and rocked back, losing my balance and falling. Strong arms grabbed me before I hit the ground.
“It’s only an image,” Rufus murmured in my ear.
“It’s dadgum good.” I snorted.
Hermit spoke. “You will fight this image until you win. I cannot know exactly what Lacy will do, but I have knowledge and experience guiding me. You will fight fire with ice, yes?”
I nodded.
“Then go.”
Lacy raised her arm. A spear of flames appeared in her hand. She bowed her arm back and flung the weapon at me.
I didn’t have time to think. I begged the rock to become ice and flung it at the image.
The spear hit me in the chest. The flames disappeared, while the rock landed dully behind the smirking Lacy.
It hadn’t even tried to transform into ice.
“You are dead,” Hermit said.
“Can someone insert another quarter and I’ll get my life back?” I joked, referring to video games.
Rufus tsked.
“I guess not.” Sighing, I turned to stare at Hermit. He placed the lantern on the cavern floor.
“You must ask differently,” he instructed.
“How? I don’t understand how I can ask something that isn’t alive to do something for me.”
“That is part of the problem.”
“What is?”
“You don’t see the rock as living.”
“It isn’t.”
“Are you sure about that?”
I stared at the unmoving stone. “Yes, I’m pretty sure.”
Hermit slowly smiled as if he took great pleasure in feeling every inch of his face transform. “Until you learn to see, to really see, you will be limiting yourself.”
I scoffed. “I saw some ribbons of light the other day. I can close my eyes and see magic.”
Hermit paced the cave. “That is a good first step. Now you must see more, believe more.”
“You want me to believe that this rock will listen to me?”
He nodded slightly.
Every cell in my body wanted to argue this. It made no sense. How was I supposed to ask an inanimate object to turn into something?
I decided to go with the phrase, fake it until you make it. Seemed like a good enough mantra for me at the moment.
I inhaled deeply and shut my eyes. “I will try.”
“That is all we ask,” Hermit said. “Try again.”
I could do this. I knew it was possible. I only had to see inside myself, believe that I was capable of more than I was giving myself credit for.
Lacy’s image raised the fire spear. I cupped the rock, asking, begging for it to turn into ice. The stone felt warm in my hand. A bubble of power popped from my palm, and I stared at the rock hopefully as Lacy unleashed the spear and it hit my heart.
“You’re dead,” Hermit said flatly. “Again.”
“I was so close last time. Let me try,” I pleaded.
“Until you conquer it,” he said.
So I tried again.
And again.
And again.
Each time the magic bubbled in my hand, but that was it. Every encounter, Lacy killed me.
I worked with Hermit until it felt like someone had scooped all the magic from my body.
“I’m spent,” I said after being killed by Lacy for the fiftieth time.
Hermit patted a rock beside him. “Come sit.”
Rufus drifted to the front of the cave. “I’ll keep an eye out here.”
When we were alone, Hermit asked, “What is it you want most in life?”
I balked. Wow. I didn’t know. I wasn’t exactly one of those ten-year-plan people, but maybe I should start. Hmmm. Something to consider.
“I don’t know…to be happy, I guess.”
He nodded. “What is happiness to you?”
“It’s being safe, secure. Knowing whatever happens, I’ll be okay.”
Hermit sat silently for a moment. “And how do you feel right now?”
“Right now I don’t feel okay.” Before I could stop myself, I blabbed everything to Hermit. “I feel like it was partly my fault that Bee was killed. She was coming to talk to me, Mr. Hermit. She was going to tell me a way that I could get out of this. I feel like no one cares that she’s dead. The sheriff can try to find her murderer, but Lacy has made it clear that she’s in charge. I don’t know if he’ll be able to ask the right questions—and what if Lacy was the person who killed Bee in the first place?”
I slapped my thigh in frustration. “What am I supposed to do about all this? Where’s my happiness? I don’t have any because my stomach is knotted up with worry.”
He patted my knee. “My dear, until you put this anxiety to rest, you will never be able to do what you need to match Lacy.”
“Oh,” I said flatly. Crap. I felt like Hermit had just pulled the wind right out of my sails.
He inhaled deeply and wrapped his hands around his knee. “Bee may have been a quiet, kind woman, but that doesn’t mean she didn’t have enemies—even without your presence, I mean.”
Wow. Was Hermit going to help me? “Okay. Who were her enemies?”
“With Bee gone as one of the three heads of the Order, another witch will have to take her place.”
“Okay,” I said.
“There will be a meeting tonight to discuss it. If you want to know who killed her, I would start there.”
Hermit rose. I followed suit. “Where will the meeting take place?”
“At our camp. Where we are staying, near the Hangman Tree inside the Cobweb Forest.” Hermit peered down at me, his silvery eyes flashing a warning. “You must quench this worry in your heart and this indecision.”
Rufus entered the cave.
“I’m not indecisive about finding the killer. It’s what I want.”
Hermit turned toward Rufus. “That’s not the indecision I was talking about. Tell me, son. Is it safe for me to exit?”
Rufus nodded. “The way is clear.”
Hermit exited the cave without another word.
Rufus slowly crossed to me. “Well? What did he say?”
I cringed. “He said we have to infiltrate the Order’s camp tonight if we want to find Bee’s killer.”
Rufus smiled wickedly. “Do we wear furs or silk, do you think?”
I stifled a laugh. “I would suggest we wear black.”
As I walked out with Rufus, I wondered what Hermit was talking about, but ev
en as my head was unsure, my heart knew one hundred percent.
TWELVE
“Do you think you should put some sort of invisibility spell on us?”
Rufus and I sat in a thicket of wild hydrangeas. The leaves had all turned green and the smallest of buds were beginning to form on the branches.
Rufus stared through the bush to the gathering assembly. “I don’t want to risk one of the witches sensing the magic. If they find us, I’m not sure the truce you have with Lacy would hold.”
I shivered. Not from the cold but from the thought of what Lacy would do to me if we were discovered.
“Then I suppose we should be quiet,” I said.
Rufus frowned. “I’m not the one talking.”
I rolled my eyes. “Tomato, tomahto.”
He dragged his gaze back to the witches and wizards. “It didn’t go well today.”
“I’m still learning.”
“You must learn faster.”
“I’m trying,” I snapped. “It’s all I can do to focus on everything going on. Axel is gone, and I’m to be burned at the stake. It’s kinda hard to concentrate.”
“Burning at the stake,” he said pointedly, “would probably be easier than enduring Lacy.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence.”
Rufus scowled. “I have a world of confidence in you. Do you not see that?”
I regretted my words. “I know you do. I’m sorry. It’s just…”
“What?” he said quietly. “You can tell me.”
“It’s nothing.”
Silence blanketed us. I opened my mouth to speak, but no words came out.
“Say it,” he said, not looking at me. “Whatever it is, say it.”
Here went nothing. “How can you be around me?”
Rufus didn’t hide the surprise on his face. “You would ask me that,” he whispered.
“Axel asked me to marry him.”
Rufus’s jaw clenched. “And so he should. The two of you are meant to be together.”
The pain on his face made my heart tighten. “I didn’t say that to hurt you.”
“Then why bring it up?”
“Because…”
He turned and stared at me.
“Why did you come back? Really?” I said.
He didn’t skip a beat. “Why did you call me?”
“Because the way we parted was wrong. You’ve come so far. I knew you couldn’t be bad. Not with me,” I whispered.
He scratched a spot on his cheek. “What is it you want to hear? You want me to divulge my deepest secrets to a woman who can’t accept those words?”
I fought back tears. “I know what is right and I know what is meant to be, but what I don’t know is…why?”
He took my shoulders in his hands. “On this planet, on this entire earth, you are one of the few people that can hurt me. I came to you because I care. We have limits, Pepper Dunn. Those limits are set by you and by me—for what I was. Maybe I just feel bad about everything I’ve ever put you through. I’m only trying to make up for an evil past.”
I shook my head. “That isn’t true. You know it.”
His mouth parted to say something, but stopped.
“I don’t have any strength,” I whispered.
Rufus leaned away. He cursed and shook his head. “You are under stress. Great stress. We shouldn’t even be here.”
An eruption from under the Hangman’s Tree grabbed our attention.
Lacy stepped forward. “Unfortunately, because of an evil witch and her dragon familiar, we are short one of the three. Bee Sowell was a wonderful witch and served the Order well, but now we must find her replacement. I look to you, brothers and sisters, to find the person best fit to take her place.”
Bonfires burned throughout the witches’ encampment while large, elaborately designed tents dotted the open field on either side of the tree.
Lacy’s eyes glittered in the firelight. “Now. Who volunteers to take Bee’s place?”
The young man that I had seen Bee argue with the day of the commencement stepped out from the crowd of witches.
“I volunteer,” he said.
He had a curly mop of blond hair and a round, cherubic face. “Who is that?” I whispered to Rufus.
Rufus leaned closer to me. “Sherman Oaks.”
“What do you know about him?”
“Other than he’s young? Not much.”
“I watched him argue with Bee.”
Rufus quirked a brow. “That is interesting. We might have to discover more about him. I’ll see what I can find out.”
A woman with long black hair strode forward. “I volunteer.”
“Who’s that?”
Rufus clicked his tongue. “That is Slug Worley.”
“Slug?”
Rufus nodded. “She used to be one of the three before she was kicked out.”
“What happened?”
“Apparently Slug was trying to recruit non-head witches into the Order.”
Slug took her place beside Sherman. “And I take it that’s a bad thing?”
“Most definitely,” Rufus replied. “She’s seen as pretty liberal on that front.”
A short, fat man stepped forward. Rufus chuckled.
“What’s so funny?”
“That,” he said into my ear, “is Widdon Franks. Not only does he have a glass eye, but he’s as mean and nasty as Lacy, hates anyone who isn’t a witch or wizard and once tried to make himself lord of all witches.”
“What?”
Rufus nodded. “He had his own coven of about two hundred beneath him. They lived in New Orleans, and from there he ran a thievery ring the likes of which that city had never seen.”
“New Orleans hadn’t seen a racket that bad?” I couldn’t believe it. “Is that even possible?”
“It was until the High Witch Council discovered what he was up to and made him disband his followers. Widdon was pretty irked about it, from what I heard. But here he is, trying to climb the social ladder once more.”
Widdon’s belly shook at every step as he made his way over to Sherman and Slug.
“So now he wants a position as one of the three,” I mused. “Seems like a good way for such a man to get his power back. But the only thing that bothers me about suspects other than Lacy is that Lacy didn’t like Hugo and the fact that someone burned Bee makes it a quick jump to point the finger at my dragon.”
“Lacy could have told any of them what happened,” Rufus said.
“That’s true, and now we have three witches ready to take her place.” I tapped a finger against the bush. “How are we going to get time with any of them?”
Rufus smiled wickedly, and a shiver snaked down my spine. “Leave that to me.”
We sneaked away from the Hangman’s Tree and headed back to the house. I was just thinking about Axel when my phone buzzed in my pocket.
I slid it out and glanced down.
I’ve arrived safely. Out of wolf form.
“I would hope so,” I murmured. “I didn’t know wolves could text.”
“What’s that?” Rufus said.
I dismissed him with a wave. “Axel is okay. He’s just letting me know.”
“Good. Tell him I wish him luck.”
Rufus says good luck.
I’ll need it, he replied. This is going to be harder than I thought.
Why?
I’ll explain later. It’s late. Get some rest. Stay away from Lacy.
I scoffed at that. I love you.
I love you. See you soon. Xoxo.
Xoxo.
“I’ve been thinking about your situation,” Rufus said.
I slipped my phone back into my pocket and tipped my head toward him. “How’s that?”
“I’m wondering if the dragon fire could help you create ice.”
I frowned. “Seems like it would do the opposite.”
“Perhaps, perhaps not.” He stopped and scooped up a small stone. He palmed it as we continued.
“Sometimes you need the opposite of a thing to push you forward. The opposite will spring forth from the very thing that it is the antithesis of.”
“Fascinating,” I said sarcastically.
He glared at me. “Your life is on the line.”
I glanced down. Shame burned my cheeks. “I know. I’m sorry. Hermit told me today that basically I need to quit all the confusion in my life and then I’d be able to be focused enough to change the stone into ice.” I smirked. “Do I really need a stone? Can’t I just grab an ice cube and make it snow from that?”
Rufus chuckled. “You could, but I don’t think it would be as effective.”
“How do you mean?”
“The stone will hold more latent power. Let me show you.”
Rufus plucked an ice cube from the sky. Like, literally he simply pulled it from nowhere—or everywhere, since we were talking about magic.
Once it was in his hand, Rufus spoke. “I can feel its energy. What the thing is capable of and this—is what it will do.”
The ice cube shimmered and shook until it popped, transforming into a snowball.
Rufus handed the ball to me. “That’s all it had within it. Now this”—he nodded to the stone—“is different. Its energy has never been used, unlike the ice, which was at one time water and then gas.”
He capped a hand over the stone. “Let’s see if I can do it.”
Light shot out from under his hand. Rufus released the stone, and it exploded out. I shielded my eyes. When I pulled my hand away, a thousand snowflakes surrounded us, falling from the sky.
“Wow,” I said in amazement. “That is cool.”
“That is only the tip of the iceberg of the power inside that stone.” A flake dropped into his open palm. “That’s what you can do, Pepper. That and more.”
I opened my hand, and a few wet, fluffy flakes drifted onto my skin. “You think Hugo may be able to help me?”
“He may.” Rufus grabbed my arm. “We should get out of here. Any of the witches back there could’ve felt my magic. They could arrive any time.”
“Then let’s get out of here.”
We scurried from the area, making sure we watched for sentries who were patrolling for people breaking curfew.
Yes, the curfew was still instated. I really, really didn’t like Lacy.
We reached the house and found Betty sitting up, the guinea pig in her lap. She stroked its furry little body and whispered to it.