by Fabio Bueno
The intense magical energy and the aftereffects of the Sleep Potion and of whatever Yara drugged me with make me dizzy and confused. I need to focus. I try to recognize the place.
The absence of windows tells me I’m in a basement. It’s not a rundown house, but an eerily normal one. Except for the metal pole against my back. When I try to get in a better position, the pain in my wrists hints at handcuffs. I don’t feel the cold touch of steel handcuffs, though. I use my fingers to find out what is holding me: hard plastic strips.
My heart beats faster. I’ve been kidnapped. Where’s Liam?
“She’s awake,” says a voice behind me. The noise alerted my captors.
Liam comes into my field of vision, followed by a short, mid-twenties, red-haired woman. He has a bored expression, but she is downright pissed. The magical energy comes from her.
This is not good. My heartbeat is out of control.
My cell was inside my jacket, and I’m not wearing it.
The woman kneels in front of me. “Hello, princess. Yes, you’re sensing it right. I’m a Sister too.”
“Are you insane? This is a crime. Let me go right now!”
“Of course no one can hear you, so please stop screaming. It’s really annoying.”
I clench my teeth, trying to take calmer breaths. “Who are you?”
Instead of answering, she turns to Liam. “Get the Truth potion, will you, dear?”
He goes to a table to my left and collects a vial.
“I won’t drink it.”
The woman turns to me and smiles. She’s beautiful. Allure. “You won’t need to. You will tell me all I want to know, won’t you, princess?”
I feel an urge to tell her anything she asks. Trust. She has a Trust Charm. She must be a Night Witch.
Liam is coming with a vial and a syringe. This must be about the Search.
Yara’s tattoo. I can’t see what I’m doing, but I make my spine straight to bring my lower back close to the pipe I’m handcuffed to. Without moving my arms, I scratch myself madly on the small of my back over and over again, hoping to break through the tattoo’s film.
The pain is almost imperceptible, lost amidst the dull throb of the handcuffs on my wrists and the strong True Sight buzz from having a witch so close. But a warm liquid trickles down my back. The scratches drew blood. The Dispel potion laced into the tattoo should have mixed with my blood. Goddess, please make it so.
Just in time. Liam kneels downs by my side and without uttering a word, plunges the needle into my arm.
I grunt. The room swirls around me. The woman’s black-and-white power suit blurs for a second. Oh, Goddess, the tattoo didn’t work.
But soon my vision straightens. A light dizziness is still there, though. The Dispel didn’t cancel the potion completely.
Liam scoots over in front of me and puts his hand on my face, pulling the skin underneath my eye down. “Her pupils are dilated. She’s ready. Remember, start slow.”
She kisses him on the cheek. “I’ve done this before, my sweet little Knowing. And my potion is strong.” She switches position and sits cross-legged in front of me. “Are you Skye, daughter of Dame Katherine?”
I nod.
She slaps me.
My face burns, and my heartbeat goes up again. Only I can’t show it. She must believe I’m under her potion.
“Why did you do that for?” Liam asks. “She will tell you everything anyway.”
“I just felt like it,” she snarls. Then she adds with a sweeter voice, “Go make us some coffee, will you, sugar?”
I need to fake it better. I’m glad Liam distracted the woman, giving me time to recover. But now he’s gone, and I’m at her mercy.
“I’m Skye,” I say meekly.
“Where’s Jane?”
I almost betray my surprise. “I don’t know.”
“What did you do to her?”
“Nothing.”
“Is she dead?”
I know what I should say, but I almost blurt out, “No.” The potion is strong. The Dispel doesn’t work on her Trust Charm. Her Charm and the residual Truth potion make a compelling case for telling her all my secrets. I can’t rely on the Dispel alone. I must fight.
She mistakes my hesitation and looks at the vial. She gets the syringe, refills it with the last drops from the vial, and stabs me with the needle again. Lying will be even harder now. She looks at her watch, and then she repeats, “Is Jane dead?”
“I don’t know.”
“When did you last see her?”
Not in the gym, Skye. Tell her part of the truth. “At the hospital. She was unconscious.”
“When did you arrive in Seattle?”
“October 21st.”
“When did you find the Singularity?”
“November 17th.”
“Who is the Singularity?”
Mona! Mona is! No, no. What’s her name again? “Brianna.”
“How do you know?”
How indeed? Nobody has asked me this before, so I don’t have a prepared lie. “The gym. She set the gym on fire.”
She leans over, studying my face. “But how can you know?”
Think fast, Skye. “I was there.”
She’s taken aback. “I didn’t know that.”
Liam comes with two mugs of coffee and gives one to the woman. “Miranda, why don’t you try being more conversational? It looks like an interrogation.”
She rises, still holding the mug, and puts her hand on his abdomen. “Liam, sugar, I love you very much, but you need to let me do this my way. Okay?” Her hand goes to his back and she pulls him into a kiss. “Would you do that for me?”
He smiles. “Of course.”
“Thanks. You can sit in, but let me do the talking.” She takes up her position in front of me.
The interruption allowed me to clear my head, calm down, and come up with a story. I’m ready now.
She sips her coffee. “What were you doing at the school?”
“I felt Brianna’s energy during the earthquake.”
“We all felt the energy then. How could you pinpoint Brianna’s location?”
“She lives close to school and to Aunt Gemma’s house.” My lies need to sound truthful, so I try to sprinkle a few real facts into my story. “There was residual energy after the quake.”
She turns to Liam. “I’ve never heard of ‘residual energy’.”
Liam shrugs. “You told me the Singularity’s energy didn’t follow the usual patterns.”
Miranda considers this carefully.
During that stoppage, I realize that Jane has never told them about Mona. It’s been weeks now, and they don’t know. They don’t even know that Jane was there. Or that she’s still alive. Why? Why hadn’t she told them? Maybe she’s dead. Or hurt.
Or maybe Jane wants the Singularity’s power to herself.
Miranda addresses me again. “Then what?”
“We followed her to school, and maybe she saw us. Drake and I.”
The worst part is having to make a benign face while she interrogates me. I can’t show my contempt, my fear, or my discomfort with the handcuffs. The Truth potion drinker is docile and malleable.
“Is Drake your boyfriend?”
“Yes.” I show her a puppy-love smile to sell my acting.
“Is he a Knowing?”
Crap. “Y-yes.”
Her eyes narrow. “Why did you hesitate?”
“Because… Because… I broke the Veil!”
She relaxes and smirks. “Yes, you did. So you followed Brianna, and…?”
“And she saw us. I was looking for the Singularity. I couldn’t just let her go. So we chased her into the gym. She was terrified. She had just caused the earthquake. She freaked out and set the place on fire. We rescued her and called 911.”
“The call came from her cell.”
How do they know that? “Yes. We got it from her. I didn’t want to be involved with the fire and the investigation.”
/> Miranda’s fingers drum on the floor. She gets up and approaches Liam. “This was useless.” She drinks more coffee and rests the mug on the table.
“Something’s wrong about Brianna being the Singularity.” He faces me and asks, “How could Jane be so close and not know?”
I lied about that before, so I do have an answer. “I think Brianna wanted to get close to a Sister so she could learn how to control her magic. She doesn’t come from a coven family. When Jane came to Greenwood, Brianna sensed a Sister’s energy and got attached to Jane.”
Liam nods. “It makes sense.”
Miranda snorts. “Yeah, the princess is smart. I just can’t believe Jane got played.”
He points his mug at her. “Well, she did get played by your coven.”
“Did she? Then why hasn’t she come back?” She turns to me. “Why, princess?”
“I don’t know.”
“Guess!” Miranda commands.
“She wanted to steal the Singularity’s power for herself?” I hope they buy it.
Liam is surprised. “How do you know about Jane’s Charm?”
“She tried to kill me. She tried to steal my Allure.” My hatred is genuine.
Liam raises his eyebrows. “That sounds like Jane.”
“If Jane had stolen the princess’ Allure, maybe it had fixed her horse face. So maybe Jane was playing us, huh?”
“Come on, we knew she could try that.”
Miranda nods. “Yep. Now we have to kill Jason.”
Liam makes a face. “Do we? It’s always a hassle. And a mess. Let’s keep him until Jane resurfaces. We can still use him.”
“What difference does it make? We need to get rid of her too.” Her, I realize with terror, is me. Miranda is pointing at me.
Chapter 30: Drake
Boulder is leaving us. I know it. I can feel it.
The way the accident happened weighs on me. I keep replaying the night in my head. If Priscilla hadn’t heard Boulder’s comments. If Sean hadn’t asked her—or if she had refused, or if Boulder hadn’t seen them.
And all the things I could have done—or not done. Not forcing him to open up. Not telling him to talk to Pri right away. Not leaving his side to get a towel. Making sure he didn’t have his car keys.
I once read that for a catastrophic event to happen, many things have to go wrong at the same time. The book said that in a particular nuclear plant incident, twenty-two different systems and safety measures failed in succession.
It’s cruel that Boulder had such bad luck—on top of his ongoing bad luck streak: being hated by two schools and losing everything he truly wanted—football, college, Priscilla.
Seeing him like this is the worst. I wish I could do something. I wish I were a doctor. A great doctor. A doctor with super powers.
Dumb.
Dumb, stupid Drake. I don’t have super powers, but Mona does. She may even have that Healing Charm that Skye mentioned. I mean, she helped Brianna and me after the fire.
I need to know how she would feel about it. I go upstairs and knock on her door.
“What?”
I open the door. “I think you mean, ‘come in’.”
“You think wrong.” Mona is seated on her bed, a couple of upturned books around her, a highlighter pen in her hand.
“What’s this annoying music?”
“It’s Thursday.”
“No, it’s Wednesday.”
“Thursday, the band, you geek. And they’re great.”
“Mona, have you thought about what you’re doing with your magic?”
Her face loses its color. “What?”
“You’re this super-girl now. What are you doing with your powers?”
“Damn, Drake. That’s a hell of a thing to spring on me.”
“Come on, you must have thought about that.”
She scratches her head. “I did. I don’t think it’s an accident.”
I walk up to her and sit on the bed. “What do you mean?”
Mona props herself up on the bed so her spine is straighter. “If I have this, I should use it, right? Not for me. For people. What? You’re smiling like an idiot.”
“That’s good to know.”
“What did you expect of me, Drake? That I would use it for make money or something?”
“No, no. What you said is exactly what I expected to hear from you.”
“Oh.” She looks embarrassed. “Then it’s okay, I guess. But it’s pointless, right? I can’t use the magic without trigging a witch tornado warning. If we don’t solve that, all this power will be for nothing.”
“We’ll figure it out, Mona. Don’t worry.”
“Is that it? That’s all you came here to ask me?”
“Yep.”
She rolls her eyes. “You’re so weird! Get out of my room.”
After I leave her bedroom, I walk down the stairs, beaming. I need a plan. We might be able to help Boulder.
Chapter 31: Skye
Liam hesitates to kill me. “I prefer not to do that. I see no point in hiring a witch assassin if we will end up doing the killing ourselves. Maybe we should have Scythe go after Jane instead.”
Miranda ponders that. “Jane is not important. The Singularity is.”
“Anyway, I think we should spare this one.” He points at me. “You told me that when the Truth potion wears off, she won’t remember it anyway.”
“It doesn’t work like that,” Miranda says. “The person doesn’t remember what she said, but the other memories will be there. She’ll know that something happened. She will have a bad feeling about you and might remember you’re not her friend. But the main reason is that there’s a slight chance she’ll remember my face and this place. We can’t afford that.”
“We should’ve thought of that before bringing her here.”
“Oh, I did. But I needed to question her myself. Look at me.” She caresses Liam’s face. “This is on me, Liam. My coven trusted me with the Search. I tracked down Jane and put her to it. If we don’t get the Singularity back, Kendall will have my head. Literally.”
“I’m kind of attached to your head,” he says.
She stares at him, perplexed. Then she smiles and kisses him. “Me too.”
My mind spins everywhere. Even with my brain still muddled by the potion, I need to think. I had a couple of vials in my back pocket, but I can’t feel them in my pants anymore. They have taken them. The plastic handcuffs are fastened tight, but they’ll have to uncuff me to kill me.
Will they kill me here and dump my body? Maybe they’ll take me somewhere else and then kill me there. Grim thoughts or not, I need to consider all possibilities: the cell in the jacket’s pocket, their strength versus mine, running through the door.
“Okay, one last thing,” Liam says. “She’s pretty high profile. She is a heroine to them. Wouldn’t that stir things up? They might increase the security around the Brianna girl.”
“Well, I also want to kill her because she beat me to the Singularity,” Miranda says with venom. “But you’re right. Kendall might not like it.”
Miranda looks dejected. The prospect of not killing me is hard for her. She paces the room while Liam sips his coffee.
They’re discussing my death in a relaxed way, as if they have an unshakeable confidence that nobody is looking for me and that nobody will catch them. I wish they were yelling at me. Their calm is terrifying.
“Damn it!” Miranda snaps. “Let’s give her a Forget potion. Then she’ll have absolutely no memory.”
Liam gets a syringe and approaches me. He sticks the needle into my arm and the potion enters my bloodstream. After he leaves the syringe on the table, he says, “You’ll have your revenge, Miranda. Just be patient.”
She smiles with malevolence. “No, I don’t need to be patient.” She approaches and stands in front of me. Miranda raises her foot and kicks me in the face.
I yelp. The back of my head bangs on the metal pole, and the sharp sting under my eye add
s to the throbbing pain in the back of my head. I need to lie down. My body slides down to the concrete floor. My arms, still cuffed, twist.
“Let’s test the limits of the Allure Charm,” Miranda says. Then she stomps on my face.
A cut above my eye starts to bleed. I see Liam rising.
“I’ll leave you girls to it.” He goes out of the basement and closes the door behind him.
Miranda doesn’t turn, doesn’t say anything back to him. She just kicks me in the nose.
After a few kicks, I faint.
***
When I regain my bearings, I’m down on the floor of something bumpy. It moves. It’s disorienting. I open and shut my eyes quickly. A van. I keep faking I am out.
It isn’t easy. I want to moan, to yell, to cry.
My entire head hurts like hell. My face is on fire, covered with something liquid, viscous—it must be a mixture of tears, dirt, and blood. She didn’t just break my nose; she destroyed it. I’m using all my strength not to yell. The excruciating pain is like a hot iron poking my brain.
They gave me an injection with Forget potion, but the Dispel took care of it. So far. I hope it holds. Under any other circumstances, I’d want to forget what had happened. But I need to remember. I need to remember all they said. And I need to know who did this to me, so I can get back at them.
A small part of me is actually grateful she only battered my face. I was afraid they would break me, scar me for life, violate me. The Allure might heal that—in time.
And I’m still alive. It’s the worst of feelings: being grateful to somebody because they didn’t kill you.
Since I don’t dare to open my eyes, I can’t tell where they’ve brought me. They think I’m still out while they drag me out of the van. Miranda’s energy this close is overwhelming, but I keep my control and don’t let my body shake.
The freezing night air doesn’t even bother me. It’s nothing compared to the pain.
Liam catches me under my arms and carries me, my feet scraping on the ground. It sounds like a gravel path.
Then I feel it. Another signature. Far away, but distinct. Another Sister is nearby, but not close enough to alert Miranda.
“Just leave her behind the bushes. Remember to get all her valuables,” Miranda instructs.