by Catie Rhodes
“He kicked me out too quick.” I put my hand over hers. “But if I can get back in there, just for a little more time, I could maybe see where he has her.” I watched her face for signs of understanding. All I saw was dull grief. “All this stuff we’re talking about are ways to immobilize him.”
She slowly nodded. “Y’all mentioned the disk that water monster crawled out of.” She slumped in a chair next to me. “Is it just lost?”
Cecil shook his head. “I don’t know. This was one of items Mama and Fern argued over after Samantha died. It never turned up.”
“Maybe it’s for the best.” I dragged hard on my cigarette. “I’m not negotiating favors with that thing from the dark outposts.” My one dealing with him had been quite enough for one lifetime. I couldn’t fathom why Priscilla and Samantha sought him out and made bargains with him. I’d never be that desperate.
“No. Don’t ask for his help.” Wade pulled up a chair next to Jadine and sat in it. Brad watched, lower lip stuck out. “One of those things killed my Aunt DeeDee.” Wade’s aunt taught him the old ways. His stories painted her as more of a mother than his birth mother.
“For once, I agree with Wade.” Mysti pulled her purse onto the table, took out a scrap of paper, and began drawing the disk we’d seen on it. She saw me watching her and shrugged. “I wanted to document it before I forgot it. It’ll go in our files.”
Cecil leaned across the table. “I could hardly see the thing. Mind if I look?”
Mysti handed him her drawing, and he held it close to his face, studying it.
“The family has a storage unit not far from here.” Cecil pushed the drawing back at Mysti. “We’ll head over there tomorrow. Might be right there in Mama’s or Aunt Fern’s things. Both were capable of lying about having it.” Cecil yawned so hard his jaw cracked.
“Before we go home, there’s one more thing I’d like to do.” Griff had never sounded so unsure.
“What’s that?” Cecil managed to keep his expression neutral.
“Peri Jean said she found the remnants of a spell in an old schoolhouse. We’d like to examine it.” Griff crossed his arms over his chest again and gripped his sides as though he had to hold on for dear life just to confer with Cecil.
“Of course.” Cecil hid another yawn behind his hand. “What is it you’re looking for?”
“I’d like to scan the spell.” Mysti gave Cecil a sweet smile. She didn’t even look like someone who could make an abusive man impotent with a few herbs and a powerful incantation. But she could.
“Ahh, yes. Peri Jean mentioned your talent for detecting magical signatures.” Cecil yawned again and shook his head in apology. He reached for a bottle of unopened water on the table and knocked it over. Mysti grabbed it before it rolled off the table, twisted the top off, and handed it to him.
Dillon watched us talking, a blank look on her face. “What’s the use in that? What if they turn you all into toads?”
Griff laughed when she said toads. “I have a theory the Coachman needs those people to summon him, at least right now when he’s weak and without another source of power. Without those peoples’ power…” He trailed off with a shrug. “Now if he could gain control of Peri Jean, he’d have his own power source. We couldn’t stop him then.”
Cecil stood, hiding another yawn behind his hand. “Kids, I just can’t go any more. I’m going to bed. Do whatever you need to get Zora back to us. You have the use of the entire property. Jadine, honey?”
She stood and took Cecil’s arm. Wade got out of his chair so hurriedly he had to grab it to keep it from turning over. “Mr. Gregg? Cecil? Could I escort you and Jadine back to your RV?”
Cecil motioned with his free arm for Wade to come along. My entire body flamed as I watched Wade hurry ahead to hold the door open for them.
Brad leapt out of his chair, features set in more determination than I’d ever seen from him. “I’m going too,” he announced to Mysti.
Finn gathered our empty cans and bottles. When he got to me, he leaned and whispered in my ear, “Don’t worry. The big guy’s heart belongs to you. He just can’t admit it yet.”
My face heated, and I turned away from my well-meaning but nosy cousin. No wonder Dillon threatened to make him go naked. Nobody had any privacy around him.
Dillon began corralling Zander. His eyelids drooped, but he kicked and screamed when she pulled him away from the toys. She stared into his face. “Stop crying.” To my amazement, he did and lay his head on his mother’s shoulder.
Griff smiled at Mysti and me. “Guess it’s just us, huh?”
I could have punched Wade right in the gonads. He’d climbed to the highest ranking of douchecanoe in my estimation.
13
WE TROMPED through the park holding flashlights. At the trailhead, I shone my flashlight on the sign, looking for the one marked Blessed Union Schoolhouse.
Wade buzzed up to us in the golf cart. “Cecil suggested we use this.”
I glared at Wade. He stared back, mouth open in puzzlement. I wanted to tell him not to bother with giving me a ride, that I’d just walk to the damn schoolhouse. Even if it broke both my feet and pulled out all my hair. Then I remembered what Finn said about Wade not being able to admit his feelings for me. What if he never did?
“You want a ride or not?” Indignation, which would blossom into anger soon, laced Wade’s voice.
I climbed into the back of the golf cart without speaking. Griff, eyebrows raised, climbed in next to Wade.
“Take the trail to the left,” I said without turning around.
“Jadine gave me a map,” Wade returned.
I fumed all the way to the Blessed Union schoolhouse. We all climbed out of the golf cart. Wade stopped at the historical marker to read it. “‘The schoolhouse was the only building to survive when arson destroyed the African-American settlement of Blessed Union.’” Another, smaller sign read, Upkeep provided by Crossroads Full Gospel Church.
Mysti tried the door. It swung open with a tired groan.
“Wait a minute. I’ll go first.” Wade pushed around me, but Mysti ignored him and went inside.
“Damn hippy witch,” he grumbled.
We shone our flashlights around the empty room. The desks were pushed to the room’s perimeter, as they had been when I found the place. We took a few more steps inside. Mysti stopped again. She held an arm out to keep me from going farther and pointed at a mess surrounded by a bunch of tracks on the floor.
“Yeah, that’s what I saw last night.” I felt like a silly kid with her arm across my chest.
“No. This is fresh.” Mysti sniffed. “Smell it?”
I sniffed once, twice. “No.”
Wade inhaled noisily and shook his head. Griff shrugged.
“If the three of you didn’t smoke like some weird breed of tobacco dragon, you’d be able to smell incense.” Oh, boy. Mysti the teacher had come out to play. School was in session.
She led us over to what looked like melted licorice and burned mushrooms.
Mysti put her hands on her knees and bent at the waist. “The black stuff is candle wax. Here’s the incense.” She tapped at one of the things I thought were mushrooms, and it fell apart. Ash. She lifted her finger and sniffed it. “High quality incense too.” She took her seer crystal out of her purse. “Just had a feeling I might need this.” She winked at me. I held my light on it. The smoke inside had started to swirl. I definitely wanted one of these. She glanced around. “Looking for the circle. If we can get inside it, we can see more.”
I shined my flashlight on the floor.
Wade rubbed his hands on his arms. “This ain’t no good. At all. Something bad was done here.” He walked around looking for the circle. Finally he turned to Mysti. “I’ve heard of people who summon without a circle. Usually it’s people summoning things they ought to leave alone. They think summoning with a circle is a sign of mistrust to whatever they’re calling. They don’t realize it leaves them wide open for the enti
ty to control them, terrorize them…” He caught Mysti and I watching him with interest and stopped. “Like I said, something bad got my Aunt Deedee. She summoned it without a circle. Thought she had the power to control it. It rode her to death.” Wade leaned over and ran one finger over the unfinished floor. “This is blood. These people are in way over their heads.”
I made a face at the black candle wax. “Why I am I not feeling the residual magic?”
“Maybe whoever did this magic took whatever they used to do the calling, a sigil or maybe a mojo bag, with them.” Wade knelt on the ground and ran his fingers over the candle wax.
“Why take it with them?” My newness to magic meant I never quit running up on stuff I didn’t know.
“They probably use the same one every time they call the Coachman. I would.” Wade shrugged. “Make a good one, and you can use it several times.”
“It’ll only take me a few minutes to scan this.” Mysti glanced at Wade. “But I need you not to react to what you see here. In Peri Jean’s parlance, I don’t need your shit.”
“Is there a way I can help?” Wade might have enjoyed ribbing Mysti, but he knew when to keep his mouth shut.
“Actually, yes. Peri Jean told me about viewing Jadine’s dream-walking vision of the Coachman making himself immortal. I’d like to see if she can view this spell with me.” She glanced at me. “You up for it?”
Fear clenched my guts, a sure sign I needed to at least try. I managed one word. “Y-yes.”
“If something goes wrong…” She shrugged at Wade.
“I’ll do what I can to break y’all out.” He gave me a hard pat on the back. “You can do it.”
I considered wiping a booger in his thick, black beard but didn’t quite have the brass.
Mysti took my hand and made me kneel with her in the remnants of the spell. She put the seer crystal right on top of the pile of black wax, leaned her head back, and went into her trance. She got bright, and her fingers lengthened again.
My black opal heated. Her magic seeped through her hand and into mine. My vision blacked out. Chanting echoed, too garbled to understand. I sank deeper and deeper until I again smelled wet stone.
Please, please, let it work. The voice trembles, but I still recognize it as the Coachman’s. His thoughts are mine. He’s been trapped in this dank hell for almost a century, isolated and cold with no form or body. The day the boy, Jeremy, found the bone rune changed everything. Now he might actually escape this place.
Chanting reverberates in the small enclosure, all through the Coachman’s spirit. The garbled words, if they work, mean freedom from this prison. His hope soars.
The words increase in volume. Magic, heavy and powerful, creeps into the darkness and lends it a tiny glimmer of light. It is working. All the effort will finally pay off.
The Coachman rises from the depths and passes through a fire, which feels no hotter than warmth radiating from a heater, and stares upon a circle of blurred faces. All young, all but one, and she’ll be disposed of when her purpose is served.
They drop to their knees. “Lord of Babylon,” they chant.
“Only one thing left,” says an almost familiar voice. I strain to place it, but the Coachman’s thoughts in mine are too much.
“No, no. Please. I thought y’all said the dog would be enough.” The male voice, a young one, rises in hysteria. His blurred form is forced to his knees. Silver flashes and blood arcs over the fire. The figure slumps.
Someone holds up the tile with the symbol on it, and the Coachman moves into it, happy for the first time in many years.
The vision faded. I glanced at Wade to see his reaction. His eyes showed white around the almost black irises but he let nothing else show. Mysti slumped forward, breathing hard, the glow around her fading. I waited for her to tell me how to help.
“Just give me a second,” she said between gasps. Griff dug in her bag and handed her one of her tamarind remedies. She ate it and regained some of her composure. She spoke first to me. “That voice. Could you place it?”
I shook my head. “His thoughts, the Coachman’s, overpowered everything else.” She nodded and tucked the seer crystal back into her bag.
I tried to stand and nearly fell down. Two visions in one night had sapped my energy. I needed sleep and maybe a leftover doughnut. Wade caught my arm with one hand and helped Mysti stand with the other.
“You think the guy they killed was Jeremy?” I stepped away from Wade. The silly way he’d acted around Jadine still chapped my ass.
“Wait a minute.” Griff held up both hands. “Nobody but the two of you knows what you’re talking about.” When we said nothing, his jaw tightened. “It’s not fair. I want to know what happened.”
We filled Griff in on everything we saw. He led the way out of the schoolhouse when we got to the part where they’d murdered someone. He started talking as soon as we got back out into the cold. “I’m sure the murder victim was Jeremy. The Coachman probably promised them all their wildest dreams. Getting rid of one heir to the throne makes the pot even bigger.”
“You heard a familiar voice?” Wade walked back to the golf cart, zipping his jacket.
Mysti and I both nodded. She spoke. “And I sensed the magical signature. It’s something I’ve felt in camp.”
“So there’s a rat in Cecil’s cellar.” Wade’s brow furrowed. He glanced at Griff. Usually Griff couldn’t wait to hear details. But now he stood at the tree line staring into the field where the Coachman had pretended to be Chase.
He turned to us. “I’ve got a gut feeling about that field.”
“That’s where the Coachman attacked me last night.” I walked to stand at the tree line with him.
“I’ve just got a feeling about it.” Without another word, Griff plunged through the thick stand of trees and stepped into the field. He turned back to us, brow creased into a frown, and he rubbed one temple. He shook his head. “The fillings in my teeth hurt.” He tugged at his shirt collar. “I’m hot, burning up.” Griff tried to laugh, but he gagged. The retch turned into a volley of coughs that doubled Griff over.
Mysti ran to him, holding both hands out. I followed and stood at his other side. She held on tight to Griff’s arm. “Did you stop at one of those roadside taco stands again?”
Griff didn’t answer and sat down hard on the ground. Sweat rolled down his face, and he shivered. He coughed into his hand and ended up dry heaving. “Do either of you smell smoke?”
Mysti and I exchanged a glance. Her normally placid brown eyes had gone hard with fear.
“I don’t smell smoke, honey.” Mysti’s gentle voice trembled. She glanced at Wade. He grunted but came forward willingly enough.
“Gonna touch you,” he said to Griff. “See if I can figure out what’s wrong.”
Griff didn’t answer and continued shivering. Wade put his hand on Griff’s back, frowned, and put it on the top of his head.
“You’re not sick, bro.” Wade squatted down beside Griff and stared into his face. He put his hand on Griff’s stomach and shook his head. “This never happened to you before? Like in the presence of a ghost? Or maybe something else you saw?”
Griff shook his head, and a bead of sweat rolled down his face. “I c-c-c-can’t stay here.” He doubled over coughing again. This time I did smell smoke, but it came from the Griff’s direction and nowhere else. I opened my second sight and could see smoke rising from his body.
“We need to get him out of here,” I said to nobody in particular.
Wade grabbed Griff and pulled the other man’s arm over his shoulder. He stood, and Griff rose with him. He dragged Griff out of the clearing. Five steps out of the clearing, Griff straightened and took a deep breath. He let go of Wade and stood on his own.
“What the hell was that? Felt like an elephant sitting on my lungs.” He took another deep breath as though to make sure he could. A giggle bubbled out of him. “I can breathe,” he yelled. He ran back into the clearing.
&nb
sp; “Griffin, no!” Mysti hurried after him.
I rolled my eyes and followed without much hope for a good ending.
As soon as Griff crossed into the clearing, he doubled over coughing again. This time, he shook with the effort. His face darkened and spittle flew from his lips. Mysti went to stand beside him and pointed the way we’d come. Wade hurried to his side.
“Don’t help him this time,” she snapped at Wade.
Griff staggered out of the clearing. Again, his symptoms disappeared as soon as we left it. We rode the golf cart back to the RV park. The lights were out in most of the RVs, including Cecil’s motor home. Jadine and Brad sat at a picnic table in front of Cecil’s motor home talking. Brad saw us, said something to Jadine and rose. She held out one hand. He grabbed it and kissed it. Ick. Ick. Ick. Wade glared at Brad as he approached us.
“Ready to go home?” Brad grinned ear to ear.
I got out of the cart and approached him. “I need to talk to Cecil about…a new development.” I kept my voice low in case the traitor was listening.
“He went straight to bed. Can’t you hear him snoring?” Brad pointed at the motor home’s metal side. Sure enough, the sound of Cecil’s exhausted snores filtered through.
“You’re seeing him tomorrow.” Wade climbed out of the golf cart. “Tell him then.”
We staggered toward the SUV, Griff leaning heavily on Mysti. I felt like I’d fought a million wars and lost them all.
“Staying in a motel?” Griff spoke to Wade.
Wade shook his head, still glaring at Brad.
“Come back to the house.” Griff opened the SUV’s door.
Wade stared at Brad a few more seconds. “’Preciate it, man.”
Brad scooted in the SUV and shut the door. I thought I heard him lock it.
Wade gestured toward his bike and grinned. “Want a ride?”
“And freeze to death? Pass.” I got into the SUV and left him standing there. Then I saw Jadine still sitting at the picnic table and immediately regretted it. I leaned my head on the window. When would I ever learn?