She systematically stole locks of Rita’s hair and made more brew. Rita appeared to change. She stopped being the bubbly girl who’d laughed as she made potions. She became listless and sickly. It became too painful to watch her. The last scene was heart wrenching, but I didn’t stop watching until I didn’t need to anymore.
I opened my palm, and the amulet dropped on the table. Rita and Gina watched me with wide eyes, and I realized why. Tears were racing down my face. I swiped at my cheeks. I was definitely not cut out for this Seeress business.
“Are you okay?” Gina asked.
I nodded, glanced around, and wasn’t surprised to see more customers had arrived. “How long was I out?”
“Almost an hour,” Gina said. From her voice, she wanted answers yesterday.
My watch said it was ten to one. I blew out a breath. How the heck did you tell someone you saw them die a horrible death? Tread in slowly? She didn’t just die quietly in her sleep. Someone would body slam her, breaking every bone in her body like a twig. It was the kind of move I’d seen Torin pull, except Valkyries were forbidden to kill Mortals. My eyes volleyed between them, then stopped on Rita. She looked as bad as my father did after the plane crash.
“Your mother gave you the amulet on your sixth birthday. She threw you a big party in your backyard with a bouncy castle.”
They both nodded, but I could see in their eyes that they knew I had bad news.
“You, Rita, played violin.”
“I still do whenever I can,” she said sadly.
“Gina, you play soccer.”
“You only saw our childhood?” Gina asked impatiently. “Then why were you crying?”
Because I’m a wimp. “I cry when I’m happy or sad. I haven’t had a clear vision until I met you two. So that’s kind of great.” They gave me uncertain smiles as though they had no idea why I was complaining. “Anyway, when did Rita start studying herb and potions under the woman?”
“She was fourteen. Madam Bosvilles is the most powerful Seeress in our sector,” Gina said. “She only works with the most gifted witches. My mother worked with her too, but her gift wasn’t that strong. Her abilities faded.”
I glanced around. Her voice tended to rise. Once again, a few people were looking at us. “Keep your voice down, Gina. What do you mean abilities?”
“Communicating with the spirit world and seeing the future,” Gina said. At least she lowered her voice. “My sister was as strong as you, but during a séance, she’d go into a trance with Madam Bosvilles and journey with her to the spirit world. It started when she turned fifteen.”
“How long were you with her before you started feeling sick, Rita?”
Rita frowned. “The summer I stayed at her home. Why?”
“How long was your mother with Madam Bosvilles before her abilities faded?”
They shook their heads. “We don’t know,” Gina added.
“Madam Bosvilles has been cutting locks of your hair and making a potion with it, which she drinks.”
Silence followed. Their eyes were wide with disbelief. Rita spoke first.
“No, that’s not possible.” She shook her head. “That’s evil magic. Madam Bosvilles told me to never listen to anyone who talks or mentions evil magic. Evil.” She glared at me then pushed back her chair and stumbled away from our table, muttering under her breath.
Gina’s eyes volleyed between me and her fleeing sister. Something weird began to happen. The chairs and tables rattled as though they were trying to jet off the ground. Not all the chairs, just those closest to Rita as she staggered toward the entrance of the car. It was a Magneto moment. I expected her to lift her hands and float everything metal.
Customers didn’t seem bothered. Some gripped their chairs while others reached for their drinks and plates.
“It’s another one,” someone said at a table a few feet away.
“Feels like a five pointer,” another added.
“More like a three-point-five,” someone yelled at the other end of the café.
Earthquakes were a dime a dozen in Oregon. We got one a day. This month alone, we’d had about twenty reports. Since they were usually about three-point-zero magnitude, except the six pointer off the coast two weeks ago, people just waited for them to pass and then continued with their business. This time the epicenter followed a muttering witch.
Gina jumped up. “I have to calm her down.” Then she leaned down and added, “I don’t believe you’re evil. I never liked Madam Bosvilles, and she doesn’t like me visiting Rita at her estate. I should have known she was stealing my sister’s powers.” She started to leave, then pivoted on her heel, and came back to the table. “Will she die?”
I winced. “If you don’t stop Madam Bosvilles.”
“I plan to. Thanks.” She took after her sister. The rattling stopped. Torin appeared just as Gina went through the door. Andris, Ingrid, and Blaine were right behind him.
Everything was normal inside the restaurant, but they still spread out around the room while Torin came to my table. My eyes fell on the protective amulet. In her haste to get away from “evil” me, Rita had forgotten it. I covered it with a plate of Gina’s half-eaten baklava just before my ready-to-kiss-ass boyfriend reached my table.
“Hey,” I said lamely.
His eyes roamed my face. “You okay?”
“Yep. I came for some baklava and time just flew by.” I stood and pretended to notice the others. “Oh, are you guys here for lunch?” I reached under the plate and pulled out the amulet by its chain.
Torin frowned, still searching for an invisible enemy. “No. I sensed you were in danger and thought you were being attacked.”
The runes must have reacted to the magic, and he did have a way of knowing when I was in trouble. “It was just an earthquake.”
“A minor one,” Nikos’ server said from behind him. “We had a few rattling of chairs, but no one was hurt.”
“True.” I took Torin’s arm and led him away from the table. He glanced back and frowned.
“Hawk said you were with friends.”
“Yeah, from school.” The others headed outside, too. Andris was on his cell phone. “I didn’t need rescuing, guys, but thanks for coming. It was just an earthquake.”
“They haven’t reported it yet,” Andris said.
The problem with geeks was they looked up every bloody, freaking thing. “Yeah. Well. It just happened, duh.” Thankfully, Rita and Gina were gone. “Let’s go home.”
***
I was still reading to Dad when I heard the doorbell. Then voices followed. People who came to my house rarely used the door, let alone the doorbell. I angled my head to listen as I continued to read. Multi-tasking was my middle name. The voice grew stronger and then faded. I hoped it wasn’t Rita and the witches coming to burn me at the stake.
My cell phone dinged. I angled the screen and read the text message.
“Your father has visitors,” Femi said.
“Who?” I texted back.
“The Jemisons.”
Cora’s parents. “Give us ten min.”
“Why did you stop?” Dad asked, his voice low, his eyes closed.
“You have visitors. Cora’s parents. Let’s finish the chapter first.”
He chuckled. At least it sounded like a chuckle. “It’s okay, bumpkin. We can finish it some other time. I’m not ready to check out yet.”
“I should hope not.” It was nice to hear him crack a joke. A sucky one, but a joke nevertheless. I debated kissing him, but fear of rejection kept me from trying. The only time I did that was when he was asleep or feverish. I still didn’t get visions when I touched him. “Okay, Daddy. I’ll see you later.”
“Go out and do something fun, sweetheart,” he said.
“I did. Yesterday. We went to L.A. Connection for a party some girls threw, and tonight I’m going out to dinner with Cora.”
“Good. Send Femi in first. I need to look my best.”
We exchang
ed a grin. His best would still look sickly and emaciated. I closed the door behind me and saw the Jemisons in the kitchen talking to Femi. The scent of freshly baked pie filled in the air.
“Is that still warm?” I asked when I saw the two pies on the counter.
“One is,” Cora’s mother said and gave me a hug. “I thought you might want a piece, so I brought a cooled one, too.”
“Femi told us you were reading to your father,” Mr. Jemison said.
“Yeah.” I got a plate and a knife. “Oh, Femi, he needs you.” I cut a huge slice. When I looked up, Femi was gone and the Jemisons were looking at me expectantly. What were we discussing? Oh, yeah, the whale. “We’re reading Moby-Dick. It’s one of his favorite books. That and The Hobbit. We finished The Hobbit last month and watched the movie. Now it’s Captain Evil Ahab and then the movie.” My father always insisted I read the books before watching movies based on them.
We kept discussing books and movies until Femi came out to get them. I carried my pie upstairs. Torin had been gone since he picked me up from the Mirage. He’d taken Blaine with him.
We didn’t get a chance to talk last night, but the explanation he’d given me for his disappearance for two days had seemed sketchy at best. He’d been checking on leads to whoever had robbed his mother’s tomb and even got to interview his relatives. Like that would stop him from popping in and out of my room. He’d done it at the hospital, right under my mother’s nose and the nurses’ watchful eyes. He was up to something, and his obsession didn’t make sense.
I finished my homework and practiced the oboe pieces for the upcoming concert. I’d stopped my daily practice after the Norns started messing with me and even fudged the entries on my practice chart a few times. I didn’t feel guilty then, or now. It was the Norns’ fault.
Downstairs, Femi was watching something on her laptop while working on dinner. Dad ate mainly soft or pureed foods. Cora’s mother had left. Probably went shopping. She often did that while her husband visited with Dad.
“Heading to the mansion for a bit,” I told her.
“When is your dinner date?”
“Six.” I had a couple of hours to kill. I started for the portal, but then I remembered something. “What kind of potion involves using someone’s hair?”
Femi froze in the process of chopping a celery stick. “The bad kind. Where did that come from?”
“Just something I saw.”
“Where?” Her voice was harsh.
I shrugged. “Does it matter? What happens to the person?”
She stopped cutting the veggies all together and came toward me. The look in her eyes said she didn’t like what she was hearing. The way she held the knife was unsettling. “The person practicing bad magic or the victim?”
“Both.”
“It depends on what the evil witch is after or what the person they made the potion for wants. They could control the victim. Make them sick or even kill them. Where did you see this?”
“A vision.” She stopped and frowned. “The person making the potion is an old Seeress. The hair is from a young girl, a powerful witch.”
Femi pursed her lips. “Poor defenseless thing. That’s the kind of magic you find in old grimoires. The hag’s magical powers must be waning, so she’s using the girl’s hair to link with her energy and steal it. If not stopped, the girl will not have any magic left in her. What’s going on, Raine?”
“Can the damage be reversed?”
“I don’t know. People who own grimoires keep them hidden. Whoever the witch is, she will not want the spell reversed. She’s probably destroyed the page with the spell. Whose future did you see, Raine?”
“A girl from my school. She’s sick. In fact, she’s convinced she’s dying. Can you use your contacts to see if we can reverse the curse?”
“Not you. I will deal with this. You must not get involved. This is evil stuff. Spells and potions.” She shuddered.
“But you just said she was like me,” I protested.
“She probably doesn’t know it yet. Please, stay away from this girl, whoever she is, until I find out what to do.” She shook her head and smiled. “What are the odds of the two of you in one place?”
Part of me wanted to tell her about the witches, but I had to talk to Torin first. “Okay. I’ll see you later.” I opened the portal to the mansion and entered the grand foyer. It was quiet.
“Is anybody home? Andris?” Thuds came from upstairs and the dining room, which was across from the living room. Mrs. Willow must still be around. I assumed she came on Saturdays.
I peered inside the dining room, but it was empty. The door connecting it to the kitchen was slightly open. My watch said it was almost seven, a bit too late for the cook to be around.
Voices came from upstairs. I stopped at the foot of the stairs and called out again. Andris had a room upstairs by the library. Even when he wasn’t feeding his inner geek with some sci-fi book or a gadget, he loved to be surrounded by books.
Maybe he had his latest conquest up there or was deep in some science fiction world and didn’t want to be disturbed. I turned to leave.
“Hey,” came from upstairs, and I looked up. Ingrid stood at the rail with a sheet around her. Her boyfriend must be around, which might explain why Andris was gone.
“Where’s Andris?”
“With Torin.”
“Oh. Torin said he was leaving him in charge.”
She shrugged. “Uh, about earlier,” she added. “You weren’t just meeting with ordinary friends from school, were you?”
I frowned. “Why do you say that?”
She started downstairs, the sheet dragging behind her. I wondered if she was naked underneath it. What if she stepped on it? Stupid thing to think about now, but she tended to walk around the house half-naked. I often wondered if it was an attempt to draw Andris’ attention or because she was a cheerleader and comfortable in her body.
She glanced upstairs when she reached me and whispered, “I felt the magic, Raine. You found the sister witches, didn’t you?”
So she knew. “I did. At school. They came to see me at the shop, so I took them to Nikos to talk.”
She pouted. “Oh, phew. I was going to impress you guys with my news. You know, call a meeting and tell everyone about them.”
I grimaced, feeling bad for her. The others were just starting to see her as a useful member of the group. “Sorry.”
“It’s not your fault.” She gathered her sheet, which was starting to slip.
“We can pretend I don’t know about them if you’d like,” I said. “Call the gang and wow them. I’ll act surprised.”
A weird expression crossed her face. “You would do that for me?”
I shrugged. “Sure. That’s what friends are for, right?”
She smiled. “Thanks, Raine. Happy to know you have my back, but you don’t have to. I’ll be okay.” Her cheeks grew pink. “Oh, uh, you can be the first to know my secret. I’ve decided to leave at the end of the school year. Femi has contacts in the fashion industry, and she made a call for me.” She grinned. “I did an interview last month with a market editor at A-la Mode last week. She loved that I know so much about the fashion industry and market. I’m going to intern for her in New York.”
“That’s great, Ingrid. I’m happy for you.” Andris had wanted her to have a hobby. This one was taking her far away. A portal away, but still… Oh, he was so going to hate this.
“Don’t tell anyone yet, including Torin,” she warned.
I pretended to zip my lips, which made her chuckle. Another sound came from the dining room, and the hairs on my nape rose. “Is Mrs. Willow working late today?”
Ingrid shook her head. “No. She left already. Why?”
“I keep hearing sounds from the kitchen. I don’t want her to see me use the portal.”
Frowning, Ingrid angled her head. “I don’t hear anything. Blaine left with the others, and Echo doesn’t come here unless Torin is around.”
>
She gathered the sheet tighter around her, engaged her runes, and zipped down the stairs past me and into the dining room. Within seconds, she was back.
“There’s no one there, but one of the guys left a mess in the kitchen again. I’m not cleaning it.” She muttered something in her language. Sounded like a curse. “They never admit it.”
“Maybe you have a ghost in the house,” I teased as I headed toward the foyer portal.
“Don’t joke about that, Raine.” She shivered. “I don’t like souls. I used blocking runes so I don’t have to deal with them.”
Most Immortals did. I was the opposite. I wanted to see souls. I couldn’t be a Valkyrie and work with Torin unless I saw them. I waved to her.
Lavania had insisted that I didn’t need to escort souls or do anything because I was a Seeress. The gods would take care of me, whatever that meant. She didn’t understand. I didn’t want to be a pampered Seeress just because I could see when Ragnarok started. I wanted my life to have a purpose. Like Torin, Andris, and Echo reaping souls. Even Cora had found a way to use her abilities.
Just before I entered the portal, I stopped. I had a weird feeling that I was being watched. I turned and studied the foyer. Ingrid was gone and there was no one but me. A chill filled the air, making me shiver. Weird. Shaking my head, I engaged my runes and went home.
13. DOUBLE TROUBLE
The lights in the bedroom across the yard from mine were the first sign that Torin was home. He didn’t come to the window. The stinker.
I found the perfect outfit. I wasn’t a dress person, but this was going to be a one-time DD. Two alpha males just didn’t mix. They’d knock heads over everything—who drove us, the bill, where to go. The whole evening was bound to be a disaster.
I was putting the final touches on my makeup when the portal opened. Torin. Finally. I turned, expecting to see him saunter into the room.
“Can I come in?” Cora called out.
Disappointed, I sighed.
Seeress: Book Three (Runes Series) Page 19