“Jane,” a molten-gold voice murmured behind her, and she let out a tiny scream.
Malcolm.
She spun around, but the sidewalk was empty.
“Jane,” Malcolm’s unmistakable voice said again, and she whipped her head back and forth, trying to find him.
Just get in a cab and get the hell away! her brain shouted, but something was wrong. His voice sounded wrong. Her body hovered halfway between the stairs and the curb, between danger and freedom, waiting for her mind to click to a decision.
“I have to get to Jane,” Malcolm whispered, and she finally understood: she wasn’t hearing his voice. She was hearing his mind.
It doesn’t matter. Just get in a damn cab! But she hesitated again, glancing at the main door a few yards away. No one was coming yet, and she’d see them first if they did, wouldn’t she?
It’d be useful to know as much as I can before I go, she told the skeptical part of her brain, but the truth was that Malcolm’s “voice” sounded choked and desperate, and she just wanted to . . . check. On your grandmother’s murderer, the skeptical part reminded her, but she shushed it. As true as that statement was, so was the desperation and love she felt in his thoughts. She stood frozen, indecisive, then flattened herself against the gray stone of the mansion, pushing very quietly into Malcolm’s mind.
He was somewhere dark with stone walls—a basement? It was hard to get a clear picture of his surroundings through his eyes, though, because he had surrounded himself with mental images of Jane. Everywhere she looked, there she was, laughing, blushing, brushing on lip gloss, eating, showering, working. They were meeting, flirting, arguing, making love, and getting married, but fear infiltrated every image. She followed the thread of fear, and there she was again: bloodied, broken, tortured, and dead in hundreds of painful-looking ways. In most of the images, Lynne was there, gloating, and something nagged at Malcolm’s memory wherever his mother appeared. Jane couldn’t quite catch it the first few times that it flickered by, but the repetition felt significant.
She tapped her foot impatiently while, in the newest vision, Lynne snapped her neck and she fell to the ground. She waited for the flicker to pass by again, and this time she saw it coming. I chose wrong, he was thinking and, carefully so as not to alert him to her presence, she drifted toward that thought.
“No other member of this family requires so much handling, Malcolm. Can’t you try a little harder to remember your loyalties?”
“I don’t see why we can’t just—”
“Malcolm,” Lynne snapped, twirling a gleaming black pen between her long fingers. “You’re simply not qualified to make this sort of decision.”
“It’s murder,” he said, but his voice wavered, lacking conviction.
“It is,” she snarled softly, dropping the pen. “But do you remember what happened the last time you had the slightest bit of responsibility for our family’s welfare?” Malcolm flinched, and his mother leaned toward him, dark eyes glowing cruelly. “Don’t you realize that you are the reason why it has come to this at all? We only need this girl because you have never wanted to be responsible. So I’m making it easy for you: no hard choices, no moral dilemmas. All you have to do is exactly what you’re told. Enough of that and maybe you’ll come close to making up for what you did to my darling girl.”
Malcolm recoiled as if he’d been slapped, but Lynne’s hands had risen to cover her face, and her shoulders shuddered with what looked like sobs. He crossed the distance between them in two long steps and knelt by her feet, tears standing in his own eyes.
Then memories of Annette crashed in on him and Jane both: a little girl with a round face and a light-brown bob, in a pink bathing suit, shoveling sand into a bucket while the grown-ups hid from the sun’s glare in their shady house. Malcolm, thin at twelve but already growing tall, had wandered off down the beach, drawn by the sight of older boys playing soccer. Then there were frantic calls behind him that quickly became desperate wails, and he saw that the bucket and shovel were still on the sand, purposeless and ownerless.
“You’re right,” Malcolm whispered against Lynne’s trembling knees. “I’m sorry, Mom. Of course I will. I’ll do whatever I have to. Just don’t cry. I’ll get the girl here. I’ll make this right.”
Jane threw herself violently away from the memory, revulsion making her clumsy. Everything spun around her as Malcolm became aware of the intruder in his thoughts.
Jane! his mind shouted. Jane, get the hell away from this place!
Then, with a snap, he expelled her from his mind. She gasped and fell into her own body again. The everyday New York sounds of cars revving, pedestrians laughing, and cell phones ringing swooped in on her at full volume. Jane kicked the stone wall in frustration, leaving a gray smudge on the point of her ivory shoe. She could never forgive Malcolm for what he’d done, but now she had to admit that she couldn’t hate him, either. His family had twisted him until he broke. It was Lynne who had made him what he was . . . but that could also make him an asset to Jane. No one knew Lynne better—strengths, weaknesses, everything—than the son who had disappointed her so thoroughly.
Jane tapped in the code to the service door, feeling a reckless rage boil up slowly but steadily. It was time to storm the freaking castle.
Chapter Forty-seven
The stairway was just as still as it had been on her way out, but there was a charge in the air that made the hairs on the back of Jane’s neck stand up. She tried to tell herself it was just her nerves, but her nerves were telling her quite firmly that the hunt for her was on. She wasn’t sure how far along it was, but there was no doubt she’d been missed.
The door at the bottom of the last flight of stairs looked like it had been built to withstand a nuclear blast. It was reinforced steel with three dead bolts on the outside—not one of them locked. She flew through it, the maze of pipes indicating that she was in the basement. Although with its array of hooks, chains, and what she was fairly certain were a variety of medieval torture devices, “dungeon” would have been a more appropriate term.
Is that a freaking rack?
Chained to the far wall and naked to the waist was Malcolm. He raised his golden head in terrified disbelief. His right eye was swollen almost shut, and a trickle of blood ran from a nasty cut on his nose. But the worst damage she could see was the absolute despair in his eyes. “Jane, what the hell are you doing?” he rasped. “You need to get out of here.”
“Malcolm, honey,” she choked, her voice barely more than a whisper. “Did you know your mother was this kinky?”
“Jane, seriously,” he wheezed.
She crossed the dungeon at a run, her stupid wedding shoes clacking obnoxiously over the concrete floor. “I’ll go as soon as you do,” she promised him, reaching for his chained wrist. “Just tell me where those bitches hide their keys.”
He shook his head and winced. “No keys. She conjured the chains out of thin air.”
The rage was boiling faster and redder now in Jane’s body, coalescing behind her eyes. A familiar electric tingle came with it, and she knew her magic had fully shaken off the dampening effects of whatever Lynne and the twins had done to her. She took a step away from Malcolm.
“Thank God,” he mumbled, clearly taking her step back as a retreat.
Footsteps sounded overhead, along with shouts. Time was running out. Inhaling a deep lungful of stale air, Jane called together all of the power in her body. Conjuring? They’re not the only ones who can do tricks. She let out a dry laugh as the magic formed a hard, angry ball in her chest.
Malcolm’s head lolled up, uncomprehending. “Jane . . .” he began, but he met her eyes and clamped his mouth shut.
She moved the ball of fire outward, toward her fingertips, and clenched the chains around his wrists. She felt a detonation somewhere inside her, and at the same time the chains exploded into rusted sand that rained down on their feet. Without the chains to support his battered body, Malcolm slumped to the damp cem
ent ground.
“Jane,” he whispered, dark eyes wide.
“Shush,” she told him. “Talk later. Right now we’re in the middle of a daring escape.” They headed for the service door, Malcolm limping miserably on an injured leg while Jane tried to contain her impatience. You’re the moron who insisted on rescuing him, her mind informed her huffily, and she smiled in spite of herself.
The smile lasted through their slow progress up the stairs, but disappeared abruptly when the service door refused to open. “Shit.”
She entered her code again, and then Malcolm’s, and, finally, what she was pretty sure was Laura Helding’s, but the little LED flashed red and the door didn’t budge. “Shit shit shit shit.” The footsteps sounded louder now, more frenzied. She channeled a few exploratory tendrils of magic into the keypad, but they bounced back painfully into her hands. Magic-proof—I’d want that, too, if I spent my time going around killing other witches’ families.
“Let me try,” Malcolm offered, stumbling toward the door. He winced, and she wondered if he’d cracked a rib or two.
“No point,” she disagreed. “They’ve locked the place down.”
Malcolm looked stricken. “Then it’s over. They’ve won.”
Jane fought the urge to shake his broken-looking shoulders. “What is wrong with you?” she demanded. “Why are you so in awe of your family? They’re just witches, not gods. Are you really going to just give up? Stand here and wait for them to come and make up a new set of chains for you?”
Something changed in Malcolm as he processed her words. He seemed to stand up straighter, and his eyes blazed beneath his puffy, blackened lids. “We have to get to Gunther’s desk,” he said resolutely. “Which means—”
“That we have to go through the main house.”
He nodded slowly, and without waiting for more discussion, she dragged him grimly toward the main hall: if this was the end, they’d go down swinging.
A shout echoed through the high-ceilinged entryway when they burst into it, and Jane spun toward the sound. Belinda Helding was raising a bony finger to point at them, but Jane—who didn’t bother with the dramatic gesture—was faster, and the woman smashed against the wall before slumping to the floor in an unconscious heap.
Jane had never felt so powerful, so angry—but also so in control. She ran toward Gunther’s desk, shoving Belinda’s limp body out of the way with her shoe. “Malcolm, tell me what all this is,” she urged. The control panel was an incomprehensible mass of buttons and lights.
He shook his head helplessly. “Can’t you just . . . ?” he wiggled his fingers as a demonstration.
She consulted the magic sparking through her veins for a moment, finding power but no intelligence, and shook her head. “I’m pretty sure I’d blow the whole thing up, which probably wouldn’t open the doors.”
He turned back toward the console. “What if we—”
Ding. It was the softest noise, but they both turned toward the sound as if it were machine-gun fire. It had to be Lynne. Heart pounding, Jane funneled all the electricity in her body to her hands, where it crackled almost visibly.
The elevator doors slid open painfully slowly. Jane started to launch her magic at it, but managed to pull it to the side just in time as Malcolm’s father stepped out, scotch glass in hand, looking beyond dazed.
“What are you kids doing setting fireworks in the hall?” he slurred, crashing into the door frame as he staggered toward them. He didn’t appear to notice the charred hole in the marble wall beside his head, the remnant of Jane’s aborted attack. He did stop when he reached Belinda’s prone form on the floor, but only for a brief moment before he stepped over her body. “Huh. Never liked her.” He turned to his son. “Malcolm, Blake’s got a poker game on two”—he frowned suddenly—“but this isn’t two.”
“Dad,” Malcolm said carefully, “do you know how the security system works?” Jane stared at him incredulously: the man couldn’t even work the elevator. But Malcolm nodded reassuringly as his father tottered toward them.
“I always did think these gizmos were neat,” he announced happily, setting the scotch down so hard on the desk that some sloshed out. “Malcolm, have you talked to your mother? I think she’s mad at you. You know how she gets. I got worried so I locked her in our room upstairs, but I think she’ll find a way out. She always does.”
Malcolm put a hand on his shoulder. “Dad, we’re leaving,” he said softly.
The older man turned his bleary eyes up to his son’s face, taking in the damage there for what appeared to be the first time. “That sounds right,” he agreed, turning back to the control panel with a shrug. “Wish I had . . . well, water under the bridge. You remind me of her,” he added suddenly. Jane, who’d been watching the stairway for more intruders, frowned in confusion when she realized that he’d been talking to her. She was like Lynne?
“She was sweet when we met,” he explained, his words alternately hesitating and running together. “Smart young thing, and pretty, too. More like you, less on her shoulders. You two should go now,” he added sadly, and a soft beeping noise was followed by an audible click. He frowned at Malcolm’s naked torso, quite possibly noticing it for the first time. He unbuttoned his own pink shirt and handed it to his son before settling into Gunther’s padded chair in just his undershirt. “Even taxis still have standards. Some things do stay the same.” He sounded sleepy.
“Malcolm, come on,” Jane urged, pulling him toward the door, but he resisted, wincing at the pressure on his ribs. “It’s only a matter of time before your mom gets free.”
“No!” Malcolm cried. “We have to—you have to do something about my dad. When she finds out he helped—”
“Don’t worry ’bout a thing,” his father slurred in a relaxed singsong, swiveling the chair back and forth. “Never did figure out how you managed to hide things from her, kid. Bet it’s good—you always were a smart one. But my way works, too.” He winked and raised his scotch glass pointedly and drank a lengthy farewell toast as Malcolm finally let Jane pull him through the carved wooden door for what she fervently hoped would be the last time.
Chapter Forty-eight
The streetlights had come on along Park Avenue, and Jane strained to see the familiar glow of a free taxi. She pushed Malcolm, bloodied and limping, down the avenue. The light changed and a fleet of taxis rushed toward them. One screeched to a halt several feet in front of them, the red taillights flashing. Jane slid across the seat and Malcolm slammed the door behind them.
“Grand Central,” he announced.
The driver put the car in gear and pulled away from the curb. Jane breathed a sigh of relief, relaxing into the seat as the car lurched forward. But just two blocks later, the wheels locked with a sharp thud and the cab jolted to a stop in the middle of the road. “What the—” the driver muttered darkly. A black BMW zoomed past, and a minivan taxi leaned on its horn, coming within inches of their stalled cab.
“What are you doing?” Jane cried to the driver. Malcolm breathed heavily through his mouth; his nose had begun to bleed again.
“I’m not doing anything! It’s the damn car.” The driver threw the car in and out of gear a few times to no avail, and even shut off the engine before restarting it. The car hummed to life, making all of the right noises, but wouldn’t budge so much as an inch along the pavement.
“Forget it,” Malcolm ordered, grimacing as he reached for the door. “Let’s just take a different cab.”
Jane clutched Malcolm’s wrist urgently, every hair on her arm standing on end. The air had changed. It was thicker somehow, foggy almost, and the world outside looked as if it were unfolding in slow motion. Each drop of moisture in the air sparkled like crystal.
“Malcolm,” she whispered, her gaze transfixed on the rear window. “Don’t get out of this car.”
“What?” he asked, baffled, but she turned in her seat and he swiveled to follow her gaze. “Oh shit.”
A wind had picked up, blowi
ng brown leaves across the wide, tree-lined avenue, and the trees in the median and along the sidewalk bent in the sudden gust. But all Jane could see was Lynne, her peach wedding jacket billowing around her as she strode purposefully toward their beached taxi. Her hands were at her sides, and her eyes looked as dark as the night sky. She was walking in the middle of the street, but cars swerved harmlessly past, as if the entire world had bent itself around her. From what Jane could tell, it more or less had.
“She’s doing it,” Jane whispered.
“I know,” Malcolm said. In the front seat, the driver swore and tried the ignition again. “Can you do anything?” Malcolm whispered to Jane.
As if I hadn’t thought of that, Jane thought darkly, probing for any hole in Lynne’s defenses. “She’s too powerful.” Jane turned her attention toward the taxi, but the wall of energy holding them in place was even more intense than the protective cocoon around Lynne. Jane felt like a child who had picked a fight with a grown-up, and she spun the rings on her left hand in frustration. Celine Boyle’s silver band sparked, sending a bolt of electricity down her finger.
Jane’s heart pounded and her eyes narrowed. That bitch killed my grandmother.
Lynne was less than a block away now. Jane knelt on the bench seat, calling her magic and feeling it spark to life in her veins. She stalked me, murdered Gran, attacked my friends, destroyed Malcolm, and tried to have me raped. The power in her grew with every offense Jane recounted, and she suddenly felt very sure that her eyes were as black as her raging mother-in-law’s. The magic thrummed in her veins almost painfully, but she held on, knowing she couldn’t afford to release it carelessly.
An SUV swerved blindly around Lynne’s tall form, and Jane sent out feelers to the protective bubble around her mother-in-law. It was solid and seamless, but it was taking a lot of energy, too: between maintaining her shield and holding the taxi in place, Lynne had nothing left over. We just need one good distraction, Jane thought urgently. One thing to make her forget about us, even just for a second. The trees in the median continued to thrash wildly in the wind that was coming down the avenue along with Lynne. A plan formed in Jane’s head, and she could only hope it would be enough.
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