by Fabio Bueno
“Him?”
It’s like time is standing still. Jane is bleeding on my sofa, and I’m torn between calling 911 and handing her over to the police and hearing more of her B.S.
“Who’s ‘him’, Jane? What game are you playing now?”
She grunts. “I don’t need Mona or Skye. Just find any witch who can make me a potion. Do you know any others?”
Is that a gambit? Anyway, I do know the Weird Sisters.
My mind races faster than I can follow it. If I bring Greta or Yara here, they’ll know about Jane. And Jane knows about Mona’s secret. I can’t risk that. But I must help Jane.
“Hold on. What kind of potion?”
“Do you know a witch? Let me talk to her.”
“No, I have potions upstairs. Skye left some.”
Yes, she did. To protect Mona and me from, of all the people on the planet, Jane. How’s that for ironic?
“What do you have?” she croaks.
I know it’s a risk telling Jane all the defenses we have against her, but we’re past that point now.
“A few Shield, one Energy, one Blinding, four Sleep, a Dispel—”
“You have a Dispel?” For the first time, Jane is alert.
“Yeah. Let me finish: a Night Sight, a Clean Plate—”
“Do you mean a Clean Slate?”
“I guess.”
Jane’s free hand points at me weakly. “That’s the one.”
“Are you sure? Skye said it was for magical diseases.”
“It’ll work on this poison.”
I rush upstairs, fetch the vial, and climb down the steps two-by-two. I’m relieved that Mona is not coming home tonight. It’d be hard to explain what Jane is doing in our living room before my sister exploded or something.
When I get back, Jane is still in the same place.
“Do you drink or pour it over the wound?” I ask.
Jane looks at me. “Maybe pour?” That’s what she does.
The liquid coming in contact with the wound produces a white foam and a crackling noise.
She grits her teeth.
I hand her a clean towel. “We still need an antiseptic.”
“No, the potion will take care of infections. I just need to stop the bleeding.”
The gash is not too deep. I clean her wound and bandage it. “Keep an eye on it. It might not hold.”
“I need water.” Her voice is still weak, but clearly better than before.
I bring a pitcher and two glasses. We look at each other while drinking.
“Thanks,” she says, adding to the surrealism of the night.
“Why didn’t you call Connor? You were lovers and all.”
“Connor is not like you. He wouldn’t trust me. He’d hand me over, or leave me to die.”
“You don’t know me at all. Now that you’re not going to die, I’ll call the police.”
Jane shakes her head again, but now she is the one looking at me with pity. “No, you won’t,” she says softly. “If you wanted to do it, you would already have done it. And I know why you don’t want to do it. You think I’ll expose Mona. Or break the Veil.”
“Wouldn’t you?”
“I’m here precisely to prevent that. Mona’s secret is what’s keeping my brother alive.”
“What?”
“Just give me a minute.”
***
We’ve changed Jane’s bandage once already, hoping the new one will hold better. Jane finished eating a few crackers and took the Stamina and Restore potions I found. Now she’s drinking juice from a bottle. We’re still in my living room, like normal people. Like she’s visiting.
Please, please don’t let me regret this.
“Jane, I’ll hear your story, but you must know this: I’ll never let you hurt Mona or Skye again. I might not be a witch, but I can get rid of you.”
She tries to smile, but the corners of her mouth point down. “You’ll never kill me, Drake. It’s not in you.”
“I can do other things. Put you in jail and run away with Mona. Ask her to brew a Forget potion so strong, you’ll have permanent amnesia.”
Jane’s eyebrows go up. “You’re right. She would have personal magic enough to pull that off. Is she brewing potions already?”
“Jane!”
She lifts a hand up. “Force of habit. It won’t happen again.”
“Just tell me what’s up with your brother.”
She drinks the last of the juice and stares at the empty bottle. “I know you might not believe it, but I’m sorry for what I did to your sister and your girlfriend.”
“Right…”
“I am sorry! Well, not sorry for them, to tell the truth. Sorry for my choices.”
“You’re unbelievable. That’s not an apology at all!”
“It’s the best I can offer. Hear me out. What I mean is, I didn’t want to kill anyone. I had to.”
I snort. “Nobody ‘has to’ kill, Jane.”
“Really? What if they got Mona and told you that you had to kill to keep her alive?”
I ponder that. “There would be other ways…”
“Not for some people, there wouldn’t! That’s what the Night covens did to my brother. I had to find the Singularity and steal her power, or they’d murder him.”
***
I can’t believe I’m entertaining Jane. Dad has just called saying he’ll work late again. I had forgotten about him. Those bloodstains on the sofa will be hard to explain. Since we have time, I’ll try to extract as much information from Jane as I can.
The effort of maintaining a calm conversation with her is physically taxing; my back stiffens, my muscles ache, my head feels heavy. I draw short breaths.
“If you want me to listen to you, you should tell me the whole story. I mean everything.”
We’re both surprised at my harsh tone. What can I say? I want to get to the bottom of this, and it’s time to stop playing around.
Jane’s bleeding has stopped, and the color is returning to her damaged cheeks. “Fair enough,” she says.
Somehow, “fair” and “Jane” don’t seem to belong in the same universe.
“When the Night covens found me—”
“Wait, Jane. The whole story. Come on, it’s your show. I want your full bio.”
“You wish.” Her face darkens. That’s the Jane I remember.
“No deal, then. Let’s go back to hoping our siblings will survive.”
“Fine. You want to know? We’re from Idaho. When my parents found out I was a Sister, they kicked me out. I was fifteen.”
“That’s harsh.”
“To be honest, it was a relief. Living with them wasn’t…safe. That’s why I took Jason with me.”
“Your brother?”
“Yes. I was fifteen, and he was ten. Ten! We ran away to Spokane. A Mormon family, the Neills, took us in. My original family never went looking for us; the Neills never questioned us after we told them the situation we had come from. I don’t even know if, legally, we could have stayed with them. They told family and friends that we were orphans, and that was the end of it. The Neills were great to us. Of course, they didn’t know about the Craft.”
It’s hard to imagine ruthless Jane with a loving family. Well, after her not-so-loving real family rejected her.
She leans over. “That’s when I met Cillian. He was a boy from Spokane, a male witch. I was working at a Burger King, and we sensed each other when he drove through one day. You know about witch sense, right?”
I nod.
“He drove past the drive-through window, parked, and came to talk to me. He told me I was wasting my talent, and that he could teach me magic.”
“And you went with him.”
“You don’t understand. Imagine if Mona—I’m not asking about her, by the way—imagine if she didn’t have Skye to guide her. How lost would she be? What if she didn’t have a family or a future and a charming guy with this kick-ass gift entered her life, saying she could do whatev
er she wanted, be whoever she wanted? Of course, I went with him.”
“And Jason?”
“He had the Neills. He was better off without me.” She checks the bandage. “I just hopped into Cillian’s car and rode to Seattle with him. He taught me the basics, took me to get the silver tat. I was seventeen then. Yes, we lived together. What’s this stare? You’re judging me, aren’t you?”
“I didn’t say anything.”
“Right,” she says, not convinced. “But I didn’t fall for him. I liked him, and I idolized him. He was my everything, but I didn’t love him. He had a Seduction Charm. That’s why I ran away with him; that’s why I stayed with him. And he taught me magic. Only, it was Night magic.”
“Didn’t it upset you?”
“It did. At the time, I didn’t know it was Night magic: for all I knew, it was the only magic in existence. I thought I was a witch, and that was magic, and that was that. I didn’t even meet his coven.” She shrugs. “Then things took a turn for the worse. He was drinking. Taking potions to get high. He beat me up. Forced me to do…things. That wasn’t any better than what I had left in Idaho.” She raises her eyes and mutters, “Crap.”
If that’s true, I feel for her. If it’s true.
Neither of us knows how or wants to discuss the elephant in the conversation, so she just goes on.
“The beatings got worse. Sometimes it got real bad, but he’d fix me with potions and spells. He never let me go to a hospital. This nose,” she points to her face, “wasn’t like that. So once again, I ran away. I knew some things and had hidden some money from him. I just lay low. I knew how to avoid Cillian. I used the only magic I knew, Night magic, to survive. Sold drugs, slipped Sleep potions into guys’ drinks so I could get their money. It was a living. But one day, Mona’s energy wave hit all of us.”
“The thing that alerted the covens?”
“Yes, that ‘thing.’ The Singularity had arrived. I had no idea what it meant at the time. Then Cillian found me.”
“How?”
“If you know how to brew a Truth potion, and you’re a willing Night witch, you can be quite persuasive. He knew about my Charms. I had stolen his energy accidentally a few times, so he knew about my Magical Absorption.”
“You mean, your Steal Charm.”
She scowls. “Okay. My Steal Charm. It was the cause of a few beatings, actually. He was paranoid and thought I was doing it on purpose.” Then her eyes glaze over, and she stops talking altogether.
I give her a minute. Oh, boy, what did they do to Jane? Nobody should go through that. Her scarred face makes me empathize with her even more. “Do you need anything? Water? Aspirin?”
“No,” she says with pride. “He introduced me to Miranda, who told me all about the Singularity and the Search. She is one of the lieutenants in charge of the Search. That’s when I first learned about regular magic—the kind Skye and most covens practice. Miranda told me she wanted to make sure her coven was the one to find the Singularity. And that, in case they found her, they would ensure they’d have the Singularity’s power.”
“They wanted you to steal her magic.”
“I said yes just to get out of there. But then Cillian took me home, and everything started again. The covens found me and took Jason as insurance. After Cillian died.”
“He died?”
“It was an accident. Sort of. It was self-defense,” Jane says with no emotion.
I stare at her, stunned. Jane is indeed a killer. No doubt she had the potential; I mean, I saw her trying to kill Skye. But to know, to hear it from her lips, it’s chilling.
“You don’t know what it was like.” She’s not defiant anymore. “But he had already told Miranda about Jason, and she took him. They made me do it. You think I’m bad. I’m not. I did what I had to do to get my brother back. They are the bad guys.”
If any other person had told me this story, I’d probably side with her right away. But this is Jane, so I weigh everything. This could be all part of a trap, or a delusion. And we have baggage. She’s the enemy. She made herself my enemy.
But I believe her. She’s had many chances to get Mona already. If this is her real story, I can’t help but understand where she is coming from.
“Which leads me to tonight and this,” she points to her wound. “I saw when they took Skye—”
“They took Skye?”
“Not tonight, dummy. Last time.”
“What time?”
She blinks a few times.
“Jane!”
“She didn’t tell you? Miranda kidnapped Skye and almost killed her. You saw her face, didn’t you?”
I want to grab Jane and shake her. “What are you talking about? Do they have Skye now?”
“No, they left her for dead. Last Wednesday. Almost a week ago. She was okay. Beaten up, but okay.”
All the puzzle pieces that were putting themselves together after Jane’s story now scramble in different directions. Skye was almost killed. Again!
And she didn’t tell me. Why?
A sudden headache hits me. My cheeks are cold. I hate that I don’t know what’s going on. My hands press my temples as if to squeeze out the pain inside.
“Wow,” Jane says. “I thought she told you everything.”
“Don’t twist the knife, Jane.” My voice is a snarl. “Wait. How do you know that? And what’s up with her face?”
“I was watching Miranda and her coven. From a distance, so they wouldn’t sense me. I hoped it would lead me to Jason. That’s when I saw Skye. She spent about three hours in there. I followed them when they left—again, I thought they might take her to the same place they’re hiding my brother. But they just left her at the park. Her face was destroyed.”
“Jane, you—”
“Calm down. The Allure will fix her. And I made sure she was alive.”
I’m still confused, but this last bit of information jumps out. “You made sure she was alive?”
Despite her wound, Jane is perched at the edge of the seat. “Of course. I need her.”
“You need her for what?”
“To find Jason! He is surrounded by Sisters. Skye has the witch radar, right?”
“How do you know?”
“Cillian’s Charms. Seduction and Intuition. I got them. Seduction is how I got you and Connor to…cooperate. That and the Fancy Me potions—you had no chance. And when Skye sensed me from far away at the park, something clicked in my head. My Intuition helped me figure out what it was. The Intuition also told me to follow Mona on the day of the earthquake.”
Jane is becoming this super-witch—how many Charms does she have now? Four? I shudder, thinking of her with all this power. But I have other priorities now.
This strange night is getting stranger by leaps and bounds.
“Why did they kidnap Skye?”
“I’m guessing they did it to know about the Singularity, since they think your girlfriend is the one who collected the prize.”
“Do they know about Mona?”
“I’d bet that they know now.”
“Skye would never talk.”
She slaps her hand on her leg. “You still don’t get it, right? It doesn’t matter how tough she is. They have Truth potions.”
No, no!
Jane says, “But, Mona is still safe, right? If Skye had talked, they’d have taken Mona by now. Why would they wait?”
“Maybe they have a plan? Maybe they don’t want to attract attention?”
Jane loses her cool. “I don’t know what you’re thinking. Because those guys don’t give a damn about the Veil. The Night covens are much more powerful. They run the world. They steamroll everything. Once they get their hands on your precious sister, they will use her power—very publicly. And if they can’t, they will kill her. If they can’t have her, they’ll make sure no one else will.” She pants. “I was their golden ticket. Do you know how rare the…Steal Charm is? I’m the only one they know with it. Maybe I’m the only one who has
it! But they wanted me to be their slave, not their queen.”
I can barely breathe. I try to enunciate my words. “What does it matter? You’re still you. Why are you telling me this?”
She hesitates. She lowers her eyes and looks at her fingers. “I told you. I need Skye to find Jason.” Her voice becomes icy. “And if I can’t, I want revenge. I can’t kill them. But I can stop them from getting what they want the most.”
Wow, maybe she is insane. “I’ll never let you near my sister. Ever. Again.”
She nods as I speak. “Of course not. That’s not what I am asking.”
“What, then?”
“I want you to help me kill Brianna.” She looks at me as if she is exasperated. “Isn’t it obvious?”
I stare at her for a few seconds. Maybe it’s a joke—a bad joke. Maybe she’s just trying to confuse me. If that’s her intention, she’s succeeding. I think hard but come up empty. “No. It’s not obvious at all.”
She sighs. “If Brianna dies, everybody will think the Singularity is dead. They may let Jason walk. They’d have no reason to keep him. The Night covens will never have a reason to go after Mona.” Her eyes have a glint. A sense of triumph. “Drake, no one will ever know about Mona.”
Even my slow brain catches up. “Not even the other covens,” I mumble, mostly to myself.
Jane nods again. The glint is still there.
“You will know,” I say. “You want Mona’s power. You just don’t want to share it with the other psychos.”
“Is this how you believe me?”
“Okay, I need to ask. I thought you wanted Mona to find Jason. Why didn’t you just steal her powers?”
“So your opinion of me hasn’t really changed, has it? Are you asking why I didn’t kill your sister?”
“Let’s just say the old Jane—”
“I’m the same Jane. I won’t kill someone if I don’t have to do it.”
I point my finger at her. “Jane, that’s not the point. I’m sorry for what happened to you and Jason, but it doesn’t justify… It never justifies killing someone.”
“Don’t be so righteous. And give me some credit. Even I know that I’m playing with destiny if I kill someone’s sister to save my own brother.”
“You understand how this is hard for me to believe, don’t you?”
She looks away. “I promise you I won’t go after Mona. I promise. I’m here, and we didn’t try to kill each other. That’s progress, right?”