by Liz Long
“I have to tell you something,” she said, her voice a nervous whisper. He gave her a curious look and the words spilled out of her. “When I came here earlier to get the spell, Michael tried to talk about getting back together. He kissed me and X saw us and called his phone to tell me he didn’t approve. He told me not to say anything to you or the cops about his call or I’d regret it.”
Cooper’s lips parted in surprise and Ruby winced at the angry vein in his temple. The elevator door opened and Michael came out to open the door. His eyes on the floor, he appeared defeated already. At his appearance, Cooper faced the front, clenched his teeth together so hard his jaw twitched. Ruby’s guilt at his expression sat heavy in her stomach and she turned her attention to Michael as he opened the door.
Ruby could see he was distraught; worry wrinkled his face and slumped those muscular shoulders. When he saw Cooper, however, his posture jerked upright to his full height. Scowling, he folded his arms across his chest. Clearly he’d been expecting only Ruby.
“What are you doing here?” he asked Cooper. Not even the usual polite British accent could hide his flat, uninviting tone.
Cooper held his hands palm up in truce, but his tone was far from friendly. “Ruby shouldn’t be making herself an easy target for this psycho, but she’s stubborn.”
Ruby rolled her eyes. “Enough, thank you. Now how do we save your girlfriend?”
“We broke up,” Michael said. He made sure to add, “As I said when you were here earlier.”
She restrained another eye roll and repeated her question, much to Michael’s annoyance. He heaved a large sigh as he opened the door to let them both in.
“I’ve been preparing a location spell. We can scry for her.”
Wordlessly, they stepped into the elevator and went up to the fourth floor. When they walked into his apartment, Ruby bit her tongue to prevent a gasp. She’d never seen Michael’s beautiful, exposed brick loft in such disarray.
Stepping carefully around remnants of shattered glass, Ruby pretended to ignore the rest of the apartment, its usually tidy area covered in photos - Michael and Rebecca on a hiking trail, Rebecca striking a pose at the beach, Michael and Rebecca kissing in a field. It was a little overkill, really, as though Rebecca had made sure she was around even if she wasn’t physically in Michael’s space.
Ruby at least admired that Rebecca appeared to have put up quite a fight. Several of the frames were broken, glass strewn across the shiny hardwood floors. A side table had gotten knocked over, taking down a vase of red roses and white baby’s breath that mixed in a brilliant color with broken glass and spilled water.
Rebecca had clearly been preparing dinner - maybe her attempt to win Michael back? Vegetables lay scattered across the granite kitchen counter, while a pot of water on the stove sat waiting to boil. Perhaps the worst part, however, was the giant kitchen knife that still lay on the tile floor, covered in a sticky red substance Ruby was growing all too familiar with.
Ruby’s jaw clenched at her favorite painting that now hung in a different spot from its original position Ruby had chosen when living here. Swallowing her pride, she turned to face Michael, who was watching her with a peculiar intensity. Perhaps he’d expected her to break down at the sight of their old place together. She focused her attention back on the situation at hand and couldn’t help one last snarky retort.
“Thought you said you broke up with her.”
“We did,” Michael replied. “Like I said earlier, Rebecca and I are through.”
Ruby didn’t dare sneak a look at Cooper, but she felt him tense next to her. “So why does it look like she was playing Susie Homemaker with no idea of said breakup?”
Michael sighed, his wide shoulders coming up to his ears and back down again in a defeated shrug. “I guess she thought she could convince me we’d work it out. She called, told me she was here and wanted to talk, so I headed home.”
“Where were you before then?” Cooper asked, his tone and gaze both sharp with suspicion. Ruby gave him a warning look.
“After Ruby left my building, I went to the gym. I cut my run short but there’s plenty of video evidence, I’m sure. Maybe you want to go check that out right now,” Michael replied in an even tone. His voice may have been smooth but his hand twitched into a fist at the implication.
Cooper held back a grin at Michael’s anger and Ruby directed the conversation back on track.
“Let’s do this tracking spell. I assume you’re ready to go.”
Michael nodded and they followed him into the living room where he’d set up his magic station. Ruby sat on the couch, ignoring the gorgeous photo of Rebecca on her left, and faced the coffee table. A map of the city, a crystal on a leather strap, and a bowl of herbs sat waiting to be used.
“You consider calling the police?” Cooper asked. Michael didn’t bother hiding his dirty look.
“I thought it unwise to involve them with magic.”
Ruby cut him off. “Once we get a location, I’m calling Ben.”
“Who’s Ben?” both men asked at the same time.
Ruby didn’t have time to consider it amusing. “Officer Marshall,” she reminded them.
“Since when is it Ben?” Cooper mumbled. Ruby caught Michael’s small smirk. At her stern glare, however, both of them gave her a nod to get to business.
Michael took a swift step around Cooper to sit down next to Ruby on the couch. She didn’t miss the slight satisfaction on Michael’s face, but he began crushing the herbs in the cauldron on the table so she kept quiet. Seconds later, he placed the amethyst in the bowl, muttering an incantation. He took the crystal back out, held it above the map by the worn leather string until it held completely still.
He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. He muttered Rebecca’s name under his breath a few times and Ruby resisted glaring at the photo next to her. She and Cooper sat patiently, waited for the magic to come and help them save Rebecca. For over a minute, Michael continued to hold the crystal above the map, but it didn’t so much as twitch in any direction.
He finally looked up at them, confused. “It’s not working. Why can’t I find her?”
“Let Ruby do it,” Cooper suggested. “She’s good at scrying, more powerful than either of us.”
Michael’s jaw twitched at the notion, clearly annoyed that he might not be the best one in the room. Instead of arguing, however, he silently handed her the crystal and got up to sit on the other end of the couch to watch her.
Ruby copied Michael’s exact ritual, held the amethyst over the center of the map and waited for it to reveal Rebecca’s hiding place. She tried her hardest to focus on the venomous redhead, but even with Ruby’s power behind the ritual, nothing happened. Finally, she gave up on the map idea.
Ruby shook her head. “Get a bowl of water. That might help since the guy’s MO involves the river.”
“Good thinking.” Michael took the time to look impressed as he got up. He returned with a large metal basin full of water and sat it on the table.
Ruby hunkered down onto the floor and got comfortable. She took several deep breaths, calmed her nerves before beginning. Concentrating on looking deep into the water, several minutes passed before she looked up. She gave them a blank look, tried to make sense of what she might’ve seen. She’d focused all her energy on Rebecca, but aside from a brief swoop of red hair in the vision, nothing appeared.
Michael looked stumped when she told them. Cooper, however, looked down at the floor as he spoke. He rubbed the back of his neck and Ruby picked up on his hesitation.
“I might know a way with fire scrying,” Cooper said.
“Do it,” Michael replied immediately. “Save Rebecca.”
“No,” Ruby said. Her hands went up in protest. “If it involves dark magic, no way.”
“It’s not dark magic,” Cooper said. “I’m just not crazy about doing magic with other people in the room. I don’t want anything weird to happen.”
“Nothing
will happen. Do it!” Michael said.
“What do you mean, weird?” Ruby said at the same time. Cooper’s shoulder ticked upward in a slight shrug.
Michael looked directly at her, leaned in to her with a lowered voice. “You sure you want to save Rebecca?”
Ruby caught the ever-so-slightly smug tone in his voice. Was he really so pleased that his ex-girlfriend might be jealous over his possibly dead girlfriend? She scoffed. “Not at the expense of Cooper. We can find another way.”
“We don’t have any time,” Michael argued. “If she’s not dead already, she will be soon.”
None of them said the obvious: they might not be able to find Rebecca right now because she was already dead. They wouldn’t be able to search for her energy and find her through scrying.
Cooper sighed, pulled a lighter from his pocket and reached for the bowl of herbs. He looked at Michael. “I assume this is the usual? That’s all I need.”
Michael nodded and Cooper lowered the flame, caught the herbs on fire inside the small metal bowl. Instead of calling Rebecca’s name, he remained silent, instead focused his green eyes on the flickering orange and red light.
Thirty seconds later, Cooper seemed to be in a trance. No one spoke for several minutes; Ruby and Michael didn’t dare move or distract Cooper in any way. Beads of sweat broke out on his forehead, slowly dripped down the side of his face. After a while, his lips moved as he said something too low for them to hear.
Then Cooper’s arms jerked upward, knocked the flame-filled bowl off the table and onto the floor. For a heartbeat, Ruby feared the floor might catch fire and send them all ablaze, but Michael darted in to stamp out any lingering flames. She watched Cooper wake out of his daze, shake his head as he regained his senses. Finally, he looked up and found her again.
“1648 Charming Road.” His flat voice sent a chill up Ruby’s spine.
“That’s four blocks from here,” Michael said, astonished. “Come on, let’s go!”
Even as Michael moved to the door, Ruby bent down to touch Cooper’s elbow. “What’s the matter? What did you see?”
Cooper stood up in one swift movement, catching her off guard. “Fire magic is a little different, takes me a few minutes to get back to reality. Plus I think I’m having a fuckin’ heatstroke.”
“What did you see?”
Cooper gave a sideways glance to Michael, who stood by the door putting his jacket on. “Ruby, I don’t think Rebecca made it.”
Ruby’s heart dropped, reminded her that she still at least had one. “That means…”
“Yeah. X got his fifth heart.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
The three of them raced downstairs to Michael’s sleek SUV, barely got the doors shut as he ripped out of the parking space and swung a wide right around the corner. Ruby called Officer Marshall and told them their intended location; he’d be there with units and sirens in eight to ten minutes. After she hung up, none of them spoke, until they arrived at 1648 Charming Road.
They piled out of the car and ran to the front door of the house. Ruby grabbed a vial from her bag, a potion meant to temporarily blind an enemy. When Michael tried to open the door, he found it locked. Cooper shoved him out of the way and kicked his boot into the door frame; it splintered and the front door swung open.
Another abandoned house in a poor neighborhood, the empty structure was almost as creepy as the one Ruby had been lured to, though less rotted out. Dust coated the insides and plastic covered what little furniture that still remained. The floor complained underneath their weight as they all looked at each other.
“Now what?” Cooper asked.
“Basement,” Ruby replied without hesitation. She stepped forward to search for the right door that would lead them down. Cooper went in the opposite direction and when Ruby paused in the hallway to look around, she found Michael had followed her.
“Try searching for a basement door,” she hissed at him.
“I’m making sure no one pops out to surprise us and grab you, actually,” he replied.
“That’s very nice of you, but seeing as how it’s your girlfriend we’re trying to save, maybe you put in a little more effort.”
“Trust me, I’m pretty sure a basement is the last thing I want to see if what we’re expecting is down there. I’m not stupid, Ruby, I know what we’re in for - and I’m absolutely terrified.”
She spared a second to look at him, saw the fear in his eyes. Her stomach tightened; she didn’t want him in this kind of pain anymore than he did for her when Courtney died. Michael opened his mouth to speak and she shook her head, instead took several steps forward and found a door on her left. Swinging it open, they saw steps leading downstairs. She yelled for Cooper, who rushed back to them, a vial in his hand at the ready.
“I’ll go down first,” Michael said. He sucked in a deep breath and took a few steps down.
“Big of you,” Ruby muttered, rolling her eyes at Cooper. They followed him down to the pitch-black basement, where they all whispered Ruby’s incantation for a light.
The second the glow emanated from their palms, however, that creepy feeling Ruby had gotten before came back over her. The hair on her neck stood straight up and she braced herself for what might come next. She wasn’t disappointed.
The lights cut on, brighter than an airport runway, and that strange dark cloud of magic rushed at them. Michael almost fell back in fright, but Ruby ignored it, impatiently looked around until—
“Oh, shit.”
“What? What is it? Is it Rebecca?” Michael asked, his hand over his heart as he tried to get his breathing under control.
“Um…it’s a lot more than that.”
Rebecca lay on the ground in the corner, unclothed and heartless as the victim Ruby found the other day. Gorgeous red hair spilled around her head on the floor, matched the blood surrounding her body. Her blank green eyes seemed to stare at Ruby, accuse her of being a part of her murder. But that wasn’t all. Laying next to her on the ground were Gary and Alec, the same men who’d come to collect on Cooper and Ruby only hours earlier.
Some sort of fight had gone down between them - Alec had black soot over his chest, as though a fire spell had been thrown at him. His pained face told Ruby he’d been charred alive. Gary lay a few feet away, gun in his hand and a pool of blood next to his head.
Michael wailed, cursed at the sight of Rebecca’s body, threw himself on to the ground next to her. He ripped off his jacket, tucking it gently around her naked skin. He didn’t let go of her, instead remained on the ground, holding his bloody murdered girlfriend.
Cooper dared to step towards them and saw something on the ground next to Gary. “It’s a note,” he said.
“Don’t touch it,” Ruby warned him. “Can you make out what it says?”
He leaned forward, took a moment to read the messy handwriting scrawled across the page. He came back to stand next to Ruby, his voice cold and flat.
“It says he’s sorry for what he’s done, that he never meant to get this far but he loved the power too much. His friend got in the way and he regrets his decision to hurt innocent women. He took his own life.”
Police sirens wailed somewhere nearby and the next few minutes seemed to stand still as they waited for Officer Marshall and Detective Phillips to arrive. Ruby watched Michael as he cradled Rebecca in his arms, tears of grief streaming down his face. When he looked up, she saw the regret in his smokey gray eyes.
“This is my fault,” he said. “I should’ve known…done something…”
He continued to babble like that so much that Ruby felt sorry for him. Sure, he was an asshole and Rebecca had never been anyone’s favorite person, but what an awful way to go. As much as she couldn’t stand Rebecca, she hadn’t wished anything like this for her, or for Michael to suffer this way. Sympathy flooded through her.
“No one should have to go through this,” she whispered to Cooper, who’d remained oddly quiet. Perhaps he was in shock from the g
ruesome sight of Rebecca, maybe even comparing it to Courtney’s death. Ruby, unfortunately quite familiar with the mutilated handiwork, nudged him.
“Are you all right?” she asked.
He shook his head, seemed to snap out of it though with a frown on his face. “Sorry? Oh, yeah. I’m fine. Just…sorry for them, I guess.”
“What’s the matter?” she pressed.
“It’s too clean,” he abruptly replied. “It’s too perfectly wrapped up.”
“What are you talking about? It all fits. Those guys were waiting for you to come back so they could get their money. They took Courtney to get your attention, stalked and threatened me to make sure you came out of hiding. Consider it a lucky break, Coop. Now I might actually sleep again.”
“Does Alec look like he’d be the angry giant in the room?”
Ruby knew he referred to the spell that had given her Courtney’s killer. She glanced back at Alec, shrugging a little. “He’s a pretty big guy, maybe he was magically enhanced or something. He might be big enough. Does it matter? I mean, we have the killer.”
“I don’t know…”
His angry, confused tone clued her in. He didn’t want to accept what it meant, to have his past revisit in such an ugly way. Something inside Ruby snapped. “I get that you’re feeling guilty right now since this means you did have a hand in it, but if it looks and acts like a witch killer, it probably is one.”
His face turned from shocked to angry in a millisecond. “That’s not fair—”
He never got to finish his argument, however, since Officer Marshall barged down the stairs with what seemed like the rest of the police department behind him. Marshall went straight to Ruby.
“You okay?”
Ruby nodded, relief flooding through her as the cops assessed the scene. Marshall gave her a sharp nod.
“Phillips and I will take your statements. Go wait outside; I’ll be there soon.”
Without another word, Ruby turned and went up the stairs, leaving Cooper and Michael down there with the cops and bodies. Exhaustion threatened to creep over her, the emotions of tonight’s events finally hitting her. She collapsed into a ball on the front porch, drew her knees up to her chest to prevent the cold from seeping into her bones.