“Gus!” Laura gasped as she dropped to her knees.
He could see she was in a lot of pain, but he was powerless to make it stop. This had to be done if they were going to be able to help her. They had to drain all her power away and work while she was depleted. There was no other way. Or so, the High Priestess had assured them.
Gus sank down beside her and tried to take her into his arms, but her skin was charged with energy. He was actually shocked by the contact and pushed away. He tried again, but had the same result.
“Honey, I’m going to go bear. Lean against me. I’ll support you.” He met her gaze as he quickly shucked his clothing.
He held her gaze throughout the shift to his bear form, and when he approached her, this time, the energy crackled along his fur and dissipated. He was able to touch her.
Gus snugged right up against her side, hoping she would loop one of her arms around his neck, but her control was wrenched away as John stepped into the space between the standing stones, taunting her. Laura’s hand shot out, and lightning leaped from her fingers to be absorbed into the ward and sizzle along the stones into the ground.
When she drooped, Gus was there to support her. Her left arm draped over his body as she turned into him, but there was still magic sizzling through her. He could feel it singeing his fur in places, but he didn’t care. Whatever he was experiencing, it was nothing to the pain she had to be feeling.
It was brutal. Gus almost couldn’t bear to watch as his lover self-destructed. One by one, the men of Grizzly Cove moved closer, as John had done, provoking a response. She could only raise her right hand, and each volley of power was a little weaker than the last, until…
She flamed out.
There was no other way to describe the phenomenon. Gus saw that last bit of magical energy flicker, then die. She was tapped out.
The others saw it, too.
“Clear?” John asked, still at the perimeter of the circle.
Laura passed out as the last of her energy drained away, and Gus quickly shifted to his human form so he could catch her in his arms. He lifted her, carrying her to the altar slab at the center of the circle of stones. He placed her upon it as gently as he possibly could.
“She’s out,” he told his friends and brothers-in-arms.
John stepped into the circle first, and walked cautiously closer. When nothing happened, he gave the signal for the other men to advance. When Laura made no move at all, the men closed the circle around her. Gus stayed with her as the other six joined him.
“Is it safe for the women?” John asked, but his question became superfluous as Urse marched right out from behind the stone John had been behind and jogged up to the altar. John rolled his eyes. “Honey, did I give you the signal?”
Urse pushed past him. “We’re wasting valuable time while I wait for your signal, J. We’ve got to do as much as possible before she regains power and starts blasting again.” Urse was examining Laura as she elbowed her way closer, through the circle of men. “We don’t want to do this to her over and over. Too much strain on her spirit and body could kill her. If we do this right, once will be enough. At most, twice. Just give me some space.”
She said no more as John gave the nod and the men backed away. Only Gus remained with Laura. Nothing and no one would keep him from her side. Not now. Not ever.
Urse worked her spell craft while Gus watched and prayed. He beseeched the Mother of All to protect Laura’s spirit while the bonds of evil were removed from her being. He could actually feel the release of each of the compulsions as Urse did her thing. Something had changed drastically about the way she was approaching the magical bindings, and Gus felt sure that, with the High Priestess’s help, Urse was on the right track.
As each evil spell broke, Laura’s spirit grew lighter. She seemed to be in less pain, not more. Yet, she was breaking free of the bonds that had weighed her down for so long.
“Bettina was right,” Urse murmured at one point. “They tied a lot of this to her own power. This garbage was draining her to sustain itself.” Urse made a face of disgust. “She ought to be a lot stronger without all this nonsense.” Urse waved her hands a bit and spoke some words of human magic that were mumbled to Gus’s hearing. It didn’t matter. He trusted Urse to use her powers for good, as she had proven, over and over, she would.
“That’s it for me,” Urse said after a few minutes more when Gus had felt more of the bonds break to slither away into the altar. Harmless. The energy reabsorbed into the earth.
When Urse stepped back, Mellie came forward. She had a number of small bottles clanking in a small pouch. She took one out and used the dropper of the little bottle to place one drop of the potion on each of Laura’s hands and feet, one over her heart and one on her forehead. Gus watched as the blueish potion disappeared into Laura’s skin. He’d never seen anything like it before.
“What was that?”
“Just a little insurance,” Mellie said with a twist of her lips. “Just in case she starts to wake up.” She put that little vial back into her pouch and pulled out another. “Now, this one will work from the inside out,” she murmured, placing a drop of pink liquid on Laura’s lower lip. It slid into Laura’s mouth as if it could move under its own power and disappeared.
The effect was visible. Laura’s body began to glow with a cheerful pink tinge. Bubblegum pink. Happy pink. It was like looking at her through rose-colored glasses, only he wasn’t wearing any glasses. When that faded, Gus could feel that, somehow, more of the bonds had been swept away with it.
Mellie repeated the anointing with a bright yellow—almost golden—concoction, this time, speaking some kind of incantation as she did her work. A few moments later, as the golden fluid seemed to spread over Laura’s skin like a thin film, going under her clothing and over what seemed to be her entire body, a golden glow suffused her whole body, starting out a dark ochre and ramping up to the intensity of the sun, only without the heat. Laura’s body actually lifted up a little off the stone altar as the golden shimmer dissipated straight upward, rising from her solar plexus and drawing off more of the malevolent magic with it as it left.
Laura sagged back against the altar when the light faded. But Mellie, apparently, wasn’t done. She moved to stand at Laura’s head and drew a thin line straight across her brow with a third, green potion, then covered the line with a large fresh leaf Gus recognized as a simple bay leaf.
“Let the laurel open your inner eye,” Mellie muttered in English, just loud enough for Gus to hear. “Like the Oracles of Delphi, let it give you vision to help yourself,” she continued. She interspersed the English with some Italian and even Latin words, plus some things that Gus couldn’t make out, which were probably words of high magic that usually sounded muffled to non-mages.
The green leaf fluttered then pressed itself firmly to Laura’s skin as a green glow started at her head and moved downward through her limbs and torso, to leech out through her fingertips and feet, directly into the living stone of the altar. More of the evil energy drained away with it.
This time, Mellie sagged after the work was complete. She held herself up with one hand on the altar, while she removed the bay leaf from Laura’s forehead with the other. Her mate, Peter, was right behind her, and she leaned against him as he lifted his hand. It held a small, shiny copper bowl with ornate designs etched into the rim. Mellie placed the leaf, now dried and crackly where before it had been green and vibrant, into the bowl.
“Urse?” Mellie looked up at her sister. “Would you?”
Urse raised one hand, and the leaf in the ceremonial copper bowl went up in a little puff of flame. The smoke was green, not gray, and the flame itself was bright yellow with an aura of green around it.
Mellie closed her eyes briefly then looked at Gus. “That’s all I can do for now. I just hope it’s enough,” she told him quietly.
“Thank you,” Gus said, nodding gravely at Mellie before meeting Peter’s gaze over her shoulder. Pe
ter looked a little unhappy but resigned to the fact that his mate liked to help people. It was her calling as a strega witch.
Peter caught Mellie up in his arms and carried her away from the altar, taking her outside the circle of stones entirely. For all Gus knew, Peter took Mellie home. She had expended a great deal of her own energy in the potions and spells she’d cast here. Gus didn’t blame Peter one bit for wanting to look after his mate. Gus would have done the same, had he been in Peter’s shoes.
“Wow,” Marilee said quietly. She had come up beside Gus as Peter had departed. “Mellie did something huge.” Gus knew that Marilee could see magical auras under certain circumstances. He wasn’t quite as gifted, but he could see some of what Mellie’s potions had wrought, and he agreed. The little human potion witch had outdone herself.
“Mel’s been growing. Ever since her success with warding the coast from the leviathan, she’s gained in both confidence and ability,” Urse said, coming up on Gus’s other side.
They were facing the altar from the land side, the rocky beach and ocean beyond, just visible through the stones on the opposite side of the circle. Gus saw movement that caught his eye, and Urse sighed.
“Good,” the Alpha female said, sounding relieved. “They’re here.”
The answer to who she was talking about was obvious as two women—mermaids, they had to be—walked up from the beach. They had donned quick coverings in the sarong style that covered the essentials. They must’ve had them stashed on shore somewhere or brought them in water-proof wrappers.
Gus knew one of the women. It was Nansee. The leader of the mer pod and the one who had befriended Laura to some extent. The woman beside her was someone Gus thought he’d seen around town once or twice, but he didn’t know her name.
Gus gauged Laura’s level of consciousness, and she was still down for the count. The expenditure of all her energy in the thwarted attacks, plus the drawing away of the bad energies by the spells and potions they’d used so far had combined to put her well under. They had a little more time to work before Gus would become concerned. For now, Laura’s spirit was holding steady. That much, he was certain of. The spirit realm was his bailiwick as a shaman.
“I’m glad we made it in time,” Nansee said as she approached. “How is she doing?”
Urse spoke for them all. “Holding steady. Mellie’s potions did a lot of the work, but there are still some things left over from the Venifucus that we need to handle before she wakes up.”
“This is Francis.” Nansee gestured toward the other woman. This mermaid wasn’t as robust looking as most of the others. She was smaller, almost petite, and she seemed shy. “Frannie, I’ll introduce you to everyone more formally later. Right now, we’ve got work to do.” Nansee smiled at her own words.
“I see that,” Francis said softly, stepping closer to the altar. The ring of bear shifters had let the mermaids through, but Nansee held back and let her companion make the next move. Francis raised her hands over Laura’s prone body and held them about a foot above her midsection, palms facing downward. “She is strong. Her spirit is pure, but it’s clouded by the presence of…” Francis’s head tilted to the side, and her eyes shut as she seemed to concentrate. “Evil laid on her soul,” she said quietly, her eyes popping open. She looked back at Nansee. “It’s just as you said.” Her voice was pure and musical, like most of the mer that Gus had encountered.
“Can you help?” Urse asked gently.
Francis smiled, and Gus caught his breath. This little mermaid was, by far, the most enchanting member of her species Gus had ever encountered. And he meant that in the magical sense, not any sort of romantic way. She was clearly some sort of mer mage—or maybe she was their version of a priestess. He didn’t know how the mer worked it, but this mermaid was very different from her sisters. He’d almost suspect she was at least part fey…
Which made total sense. The light began to dawn in his mind.
“Bettina sent you?” Gus asked Francis directly. The shy woman smiled up at him.
“When the High Priestess asks for a favor, I like to help out,” Francis replied, grinning so that her dimples showed.
CHAPTER TWENTY
From the light blonde hair flowing down her back to the bright blue eyes, bluer than the most tranquil lagoon, it was clear this mermaid was something more. With Francis’s help, a lot more of the evil magic that had been laid on Laura’s soul was taken away. When Urse took over working the active magics again, Francis watched over the entire operation, closing her eyes and communing with Laura on the spiritual plane.
Gus could see some of that, but the two women—Laura and Francis—were deeper. In the fey realm, perhaps? Or that between space that had safeguarded Laura before? He’d have to ask, later. For now, it was enough that Francis could see Laura’s spirit and safeguard that precious essence while the last of the Venifucus magic was removed from her body.
When it was done, Francis smiled brightly. “I think that’s it,” she said, her musical voice reaching everyone in the circle. “She just needs to wake up.”
“It’s all gone?” Gus asked. “Are you sure?”
Francis nodded. “Her spirit is wholesome and unencumbered. I don’t see anything from this side.” Francis closed her eyes and seemed to search, then reopened them and smiled once more. “Yup. Pure and clean from the inside out.”
Gus felt nearly overcome with relief. “I can’t thank you enough,” he said honestly. “I know Laura will want to thank you for your help, as well.”
“She already has, in a way. She’s still kind of unconscious, but she is aware on some level of what’s going on. I feel her relief and gratitude. She has a pure spirit,” Francis reported in a gentle tone, as if she was impressed by what she saw. “I didn’t know land shifters could be so…” She seemed to realize what she was saying and blushed. “I mean…”
Nansee stepped forward and put her hand on Francis’s shoulder. “Frannie doesn’t come ashore much, but I’m trying to talk her into working part-time at one of the shops in your building,” Nansee told Gus.
“You would be most welcome,” Gus told Francis formally. “Laura is going to manage the building and the White Wolf Gallery, so you could get to know each other a bit more. I’m sure she’d like that. She doesn’t have a lot of information about her fey heritage.”
“Neither do I, really,” Francis replied, “but I’d like to talk with Laura when she’s feeling better,” she replied softly, then moved back with Nansee, letting Urse take over once more.
“Let me just do my own little check,” Urse said, then glanced over at Francis and Nansee. “No disrespect intended. It’s just a formality.”
Francis held up her hands, palms outward. “No offense taken. I understand. You can’t be too careful with so many beings depending on your judgment.”
Urse paused and smiled at Francis. “You do understand. Thank you.”
She shook her head and focused once more, waving her hands over Laura from head to toe several times over. On the last pass, she began a soft chant, and though Gus couldn’t make out the magical words, he felt the impact of the spell Urse was weaving. It was a protective spell. A personal ward. Urse was gifting Laura with something few people were ever given.
It was protection from anything like this ever happening again. The ward Urse was crafting before Gus’s astonished eyes would virtually guarantee that Laura could never have another person lay a malicious spell on her again. Not without some serious backlash.
When Urse was finished, she looked a bit drained, but John was there to support his mate. Gus just stared at her.
“Did you just do what I think you did?” he asked, unable to put the right combination of words together to describe what he thought he had just perceived.
“I gave her a special ward.” Urse raised one hand to push back her hair, out of her face. “If anyone tries to put the whammy on her in the future, they’re going to get it back, right in the teeth. It’s a modifie
d mirror ward. Something I cooked up especially for Laura.”
Gus just shook his head at the generosity of spirit everyone had shown Laura. Especially Urse and her sister. They had really gone above and beyond.
“I bless the day the Mother of All brought you to our town,” Gus said, with fervor. He would have said more, but Laura began to stir. All eyes went to her as Laura’s eyes blinked open.
She squinted at Gus. “How’d we do?” she asked, sounding both groggy and cautious.
“You can’t tell?” Gus grinned at her and helped her sit up on the low altar, supporting her with one arm around her shoulders. “It was a roaring success.”
“It was?” Laura pushed her hair away from her eyes and took stock. Now that she thought about it, she felt lighter. Freer. Liberated, yet somehow protected.
“I hope you don’t mind,” Urse spoke up from where she stood leaning back against John’s chest. He had both arms wrapped around his mate’s middle. “I took the liberty of doing something, and I thought it would be easier to beg forgiveness than ask permission. I gave you a permanent, personal ward.”
Laura wondered for a quick moment if the ward was for her protection, or theirs? And she felt a little uncomfortable about someone putting yet more magic on her, when the goal had been to get it all off. Why had Urse done it? Shouldn’t she have realized that, once free of the magical taint, Laura wouldn’t want any more magic put on her?
“It’s a type of mirror. So, if anyone ever tries to do anything to you, it’ll reflect back on them. It won’t be pleasant. And the worse their intent, the more it’s going to hurt them,” Urse said quietly. “I know I might’ve overstepped a bit, and I want you to know that I can take it off, if you want. I made it so that only I can remove it, just as a precaution in case you really didn’t want it, but I thought…” Urse cleared her throat and forged ahead. “I thought it might ease your mind a little. You’re protected now. Nobody should be able to cast evil on you, ever again.”
“Urse’s special gift is warding,” Gus reminded Laura in a gentle tone. “If she says you’re safe from now on, you are.”
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