“Why didn’t you make her forget the entire incident?” I asked.
“He tried. Apparently, debt compulsion can only go so far. Cassie, we need to talk.”
I shook my head. “Wait, were you trying to get into my house?”
“Your house? Until recently, your house was in town with your friends.”
I didn’t miss his neat sidestep of the point. Why not just answer the question? I backed away from him, all the while wondering what I had done. I had just allowed the family’s greatest enemy–or maybe second-greatest–into our sanctuary. Didn’t that make me a traitor, no matter what my intentions had been?
“Are you sure you’re all right?” Evan asked.
Physically? Yes. Emotionally? “I should have let you die.”
“Probably. Why didn’t you?”
Before I had a chance to reply, the ground shook, nearly knocking me off my feet. I grabbed for the nearest rock wall but Evan caught me instead, his strong arms pinning me back to chest against him while he steadied us. Meanwhile, the assault on the tunnel door continued, leaving me with no option but to trust my enemy.
“Will it hold?” Evan asked.
“Probably. These tunnels were built to withstand an army.”
The ground stilled, but I didn’t trust it. We stood there like that for longer than was wise. He didn’t release me, and I didn’t push him away.
“Is there another way out besides your basement?”
“I–” I hesitated. There was another way out, but why should I tell him, if he didn’t know? I had already betrayed my family enough. “Why did you attack, anyway? What are you trying to do?”
“I needed to get something from the castle.”
“And you think I’ll just let you?”
“I think you haven’t pushed me away.”
My face heated but since my back was to him, his arms circling me in front, he couldn’t see. Why had I just stood there like that, cradled in his arms? Quickly, I pushed his arms aside and took several steps away.
“You probably saved my life,” Evan said.
I shrugged. “Just looking after my own interests. Can’t get my magic back if you’re dead.”
“You could have been killed.”
“Great. Then you owe me.”
We both hesitated, eying one another, and I knew he was thinking the same thing as me: Did he owe me? After he had saved my life countless times, how did the scales weigh out?
“Why did you do it?” Evan asked finally.
“I don’t know.” I wished I did.
“You’re still in love with me.”
“No!” That much, I did know. “Get over it, Evan. It’s never going to happen. I don’t know where you’re from that you think what you did to me is okay.”
“My father did it.”
“And you’re not making it right.” I teetered on the brink of asking him one more time whether he would, but I stepped back in the nick of time. He couldn’t reduce me to begging. I still had my pride. Mostly. It rankled, every time I saw him, that he knew he had something I wanted. He knew how badly I wanted it in more intimate detail than even my family did. Throughout our childhood, in confidence, I had shared more with him than with anyone else.
“Cassie.” Evan’s voice went all soft and soothing, and it was almost more than I could stand.
I stepped back into a defensive stance. Without taking my eyes from Evan, I fumbled with the potions in my belt until I found the one I had been saving for just this occasion–Backlash. It mimicked a gift I had once seen a sorcerer use to take out both Evan and Nicolas in a matter of seconds. The fact that Scott Lee had broken his neck soon afterward didn’t lessen the impressive nature of his feat.
“What are you doing?” Evan asked.
“Defending my home.” I took a water gun full of fire out of my right holster, and one full of electricity out of the left.
“You’re going to fight me?” The look he gave me clearly told me how much of an impression I made on his threat meter. He almost smirked. I think he wanted to, so I imagined a smirk, and then I imagined myself wiping it off his face.
He made a sweeping movement with his hand, probably intending to take the guns from me, but my rune-powered shields, low as they were, still held. Frowning, he made another sweeping motion, but this time he stumbled backward, falling against the tunnel wall.
I smiled. Backlash seemed to be doing its job, even against someone as powerful as Evan.
“What was that stuff you drank?” Evan asked, rubbing his arm where it had collided with the wall.
“That stuff is what’s going to prevent you from getting into the house. And just in case you need extra incentive, this stuff is pretty potent, too.” I shook the guns.
“I’m impressed,” Evan said, without a trace of irony.
“Thank you.”
“There are just a few problems with your strategy.”
My heartbeat quickened but I didn’t say anything, I just looked into his almost apologetic gaze and waited.
“First, I’m guessing that the potion you took only lasts an hour or so–the usual time limit for similar concoctions. That’s if it’s strong, which I’m sure it is. So all I really have to do is wait you out. I don’t see another vial of that stuff.”
My hands shook slightly, but I managed to keep them under control. An hour would be long enough, because I knew something very important about him, a weakness I could exploit: He wouldn’t hurt me.
“The second problem,” Evan continued, “is that your shield is going to give out in about five seconds.”
“No.” It may have taken damage, but Juliana had given it a full charge; it would take more than a single blow to take it down.
Evan shook his head, gathered blue sparks to his fingertips, and shot them at my shield, disseminating it on contact. It hadn’t been a direct attack on me, so Backlash hadn’t worked. I hadn’t realized someone could attack shielding directly.
I pulled the trigger of the water gun in my right hand, sending a stream of liquid fire across his chest before he had a chance to regroup from his offensive and defend himself. He gave a satisfying cry of alarm when his shirt caught fire, but I didn’t wait to see what he would do next. I turned and ran, hoping he would follow, thinking to lead him on a chase out of the tunnel system. There was another exit, through a labyrinthine maze I hoped he would not be able to retrace.
At each fork, I stayed to the right, but I didn’t even pause when I recognized the short flight of stairs leading up to the basement. Behind me, I heard loud footsteps pounding the ground, gaining on me with each passing moment. He would catch up long before we found the way out.
I stopped, whirled, and readied my water guns for another strike. If he noticed the weapons, he didn’t show signs of it because he didn’t even slow down as he sprinted into firing range.
I pulled the trigger, but this time, though the liquid splashed across his chest, nothing happened.
He still had to contend with the effects of the backlash potion, so he couldn’t attack. That gave me a chance, however slim, to get in an attack on him. I went for my other water gun and sent a stream of electric shock potion his way. This time, the potion didn’t even hit him. He diverted the stream of liquid with his gift, causing it to splash harmlessly against the wall.
Somehow, I had to get in under his guard. I kept firing streams of shock potion at him while simultaneously uncorking and unloading the rest of my arsenal–hives, itching, asthma, clumsiness, and even heartburn (though since that one had to be taken orally, it was a waste).
Nothing got through.
With my water gun nearly empty and the best potions gone from my belt, I stood there, panting from exertion, trying desperately to think of another way to win this fight. I had known that Evan would be my greatest challenge, probably an impossible one, but it was nowhere near time to give up.
Evan stared at me with his eyes slightly unfocused, and brushed something away from
his eye. My mouth opened slightly in surprise when I realized that I’d been mistaken–something had gotten through. I had no idea what, but something had definitely penetrated his defenses.
“Cassie?” Evan made it a question, and in that moment I realized what must have splashed across his face–confusion. I kept that vial around the back of my belt because it had limited uses, but apparently in my frenzy I’d grabbed it and hit my mark.
I might be able to use it, if the potion didn’t backfire. I clearly remembered a time once, many months ago, when Evan had lost control of his mind and nearly raped me. I shuddered at the memory, which I tried to keep deeply buried in my subconscious, never to see the light of day. I didn’t blame him; it hadn’t been his fault, but I never wanted to feel that helpless again.
“Cassie, is that really you?” Evan asked.
Nothing to do now but work with what I had. And pray. “That’s right,” I said, keeping my voice calm and even. “We’re almost there. Just a little further.”
He blinked. “Where are we?”
I took him by the hand, trying to ignore the heat of his touch as I pulled him further into the labyrinth. Just stay to the right.
“I didn’t think I’d ever see you again,” Evan said. “Might not be seeing you now. Could just be a dream. Do you ever dream about me?”
“Wouldn’t know,” I said. “I don’t remember my dreams.” Well, I had remembered a few of them recently, but since the dream catcher only allowed pleasant dreams through, I didn’t think he would feature in them anytime soon.
“Would be weird if we were both dreaming the same thing.”
I decided not to respond to his confused babbling as I led him through passageways which seemed to go on forever. I didn’t know how long the confusion potion would work, but I sensed when the Backlash potion stopped working, a corridor or two shy of the exit.
“That’s right.” I kept my voice low and soothing. “Just a little further.”
“I had this really awful dream the other night that you were in danger.”
“Well as you can see, I’m perfectly safe.” Just a little further.
“Yeah… In my dreams, I like to kiss you. Well, not just kiss you….”
He stopped, suddenly, and pulled me firmly against his chest. I tried to take a step back, but he encircled me in two powerful arms that would not let go. His head descended toward mine, but though I saw, I could not prevent his lips from touching mine.
11
A SPARK OF ELECTRICITY SHOT BETWEEN US, shocking me back to my senses before the effects of his kiss had a chance to take hold and apparently, shocking him back to his senses as well.
“What the hell was that?” Evan asked, wiping a hand across his mouth.
I mirrored his action, marveling at the strength of the lipstick I’d designed for just this purpose. After his kiss at Aunt Sherry’s shop, I’d had no intention of succumbing again. This was the first field test and, I thought, it worked remarkably well.
“Shocking berry,” I said. “It also comes in electric pink.”
“Ouch.”
I stared at the wall, just a few feet beyond, wondering how I would manage to get him through it with my arsenal depleted, my shield down, and Evan back to sanity. Damn. I had been so close to actually defeating him I could taste it and still I had failed. For a moment, I felt the sting of tears threatening to fall, but I blinked them back.
“Is that the way out?” Evan asked.
Mutely, I nodded. He had been confused, so perhaps he hadn’t paid attention to the path we’d taken. He might get hopelessly lost in the underground tunnel system and never find his way into the castle, which was the only hope remaining to me.
“I know you don’t believe me,” Evan said, “but I’m not the bad guy here. Someday soon, I hope I can convince you of that.”
“You killed my father,” I said, without thinking. Technically, his father had but until that moment, I hadn’t realized how much I blamed him, too.
“I did not.”
“You could have stopped it. I begged you to.”
“Nothing I did would have stopped a thing.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“Then why’d you save my life?” Evan asked.
I turned my face away so he couldn’t see the shame and anger I felt at myself for what I’d done. Then I gave him the only answer I had, the same one he hadn’t believed earlier. “If you die, my magic dies with you.”
“If you die, you’re even worse off.” His voice cracked. “You could have died.”
“I wasn’t thinking clearly, obviously.”
“Weren’t you?” He gazed at me intently, forcing me to look away.
“Don’t say it.”
“Say what?”
“You know what.”
“That deep down inside you’re still in love with me.” Evan made it a statement, not a question.
I snorted, but when I looked at him, I saw something in his eyes that gave me pause. There was hope, but also something akin to fear. It was gone almost as soon as I noticed it, his mask more or less back in place, but I’d seen it, and it made me nervous.
“Don’t bet on it,” I said.
He stared at me, openly, and though at first I tried to stare back, I couldn’t maintain the stance. Something was going on inside that brain of his, but I couldn’t work out what and didn’t think I wanted to know.
“I will bet on it,” Evan said, suddenly.
“Huh?”
“I bet you’re still in love with me.”
“You’ll bet that I’m still in love with you?” Maybe the confusion potion was still working after all. I eyed the exit, considering.
“Exactly,” Evan said, his voice rising in enthusiasm. “We’ll ask James Blair, human lie detector, to settle the truth of it. He owes me a small favor.”
“Am I dreaming now?” I asked.
Evan didn’t even crack a smile. “I’m serious about this.”
“All right then, assuming you’re serious, what do I get when I win?”
“If you win.”
“When.” Seriously, did he think I wouldn’t know? He definitely had to be suffering the aftereffects of the confusion potion.
“Fine, have it your way.” Evan paced back and forth, thinking. I could see some kind of war going on inside of him, but I left him to fight it, content to observe from the outside while he and his internal combatants wore a tread in the dirt floor. Finally, he stopped and turned to look at me.
“Well?” I asked.
“If you win….” He paused and took a deep breath. “If you win, you get half of my magic.”
My head snapped around so fast I almost got whiplash. “What? My magic?”
“Yours, mine… that’s debatable. But it won’t matter if you win.”
The tunnel suddenly began to spin and I sank, heavily, to the ground, propping my back against a wall for support. It had to be the confusion potion talking, so I couldn’t take advantage of this, could I? But my magic… I’d had the chance last summer and I’d given it away. Now here it was, the chance of a lifetime, falling in my lap. No one had to suffer and die for it, all I had to do was accept a crazy wager I couldn’t possibly lose.
Or could I? “Wait a second. How do I know if James Blair is telling the truth about what he detects? If he owes you a favor, he might lie.”
“He can’t lie about what his gift tells him,” Evan said.
“Oh yeah, that’s convenient.”
“Ask your mom. She’ll know. If she tells you otherwise, it’s off.”
I would ask, but not because I planned to accept this crazy wager. “It’s not on yet. I–I can’t take advantage of you if you’re still under the influence of the confusion potion.”
“I’m not confused. I’m thinking more clearly than I have in months.”
I looked at him, crouched across the tunnel from me, his steady gaze never wavering from my face.
“What do you get if you
win, anyway?”
“When I win?” He meant it as a joke, but to me, the whole thing felt too serious.
“Whatever. What’s your stake?”
“You.”
“Me?” My eyes widened in alarm as I met his intense, deeply disconcerting stare. “You’re going to have to be more specific.”
“I want you to marry me.”
“Marry you?”
“It shouldn’t be so bad, if you love me. I’m really the one getting the short end of this deal.”
“Why would you want to marry me?”
“You know the answer to that, Cassie.”
“Because you think you’re in love with me?”
“I know how I feel,” he said, his eyes boring relentlessly into mine as if he could read something in them. “You’re the one who’s confused.”
“I am not.”
“Then why’d you save my life? Any why’d you stop Alexander from arresting me last fall? You never needed a bet to get at the magic you claim to want so desperately, you could have had it months ago.”
I tried to look away during his little speech, but he wouldn’t let me. He didn’t touch me except with the power he liked to use on me, as if to assure himself that he could. If he thought manhandling me with magic would help his case, he was sorely mistaken. It just reminded me of all the reasons he and I were never meant to be.
“You’re so full of yourself,” I said, letting him see the disdain I felt for him and his opinions. “And do you really think pinning me in place with magic is going to help your case?”
He released me, but didn’t back down. “What’s it going to be, Cassie? Will you take the bet? If you’re so convinced you hate me, this is the only way you’ll ever get some magic of your own.” He paused. “Or are you afraid?”
I looked away. I would not be baited by the oldest taunt in the book. “This is insane. You can’t mean this.”
He reached out and took one of my hands in his, rubbing his thumb across my palm in little circles that sent tiny shivers of awareness down my spine. I shook myself, drawing the hand away, roughly, cursing my body for its betrayal.
“That doesn’t mean anything.”
“If you say so, but I bet it means you’re still in love with me. I bet half of my magic vs. you agreeing to marry me.” Evan glanced at his watch. “Will you take the bet? You have sixty seconds.”
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