by Patti Larsen
We quickly filled him in on the details while he curled up on the end of the bed to listen.
“You have to tell your mother,” he said the moment I was done. “She needs to be brought up to speed on this.”
I knew he was right and instantly felt better. Of course. Mom. She’d come back right away, the moment she understood how dangerous this situation was. And while I was worried for Gram, I knew the old lady could take very good care of herself.
And I needed my mom.
I reached for her immediately, following the path of the family magic to her, using my demon power to boost my reach. She was still blocking me out, but when I threw all three magics at her, she reacted with instant fear.
Syd, are you all right?
Mom. I wanted to cry, clutching at the front of my T-shirt as if I had a grip on her instead.
Honey, tell me.
And I did, poured it all out all over her. I felt Uncle Frank touch us, knew he was listening, welcomed him and his presence though he felt harsher around the edges than I remembered.
Mom hung onto me though her consciousness broke from mine for a moment. When she came back, I could feel the stress in her mental voice.
Syd, she hugged me even from afar, I need you to tell Erica what you just told me.
Erica? What? Mom, did I stutter? Was I in some way unclear? This is very, very bad.
I can’t come home. She was as bad a liar as me. Her focus was already slipping, her fear for and about Gram far stronger than her concern for me and the coven. I have every faith in you, Syd. You and Erica can handle this. Go get the old man and make him answer the knock. You can do it, I know you can.
Was she really brushing me off? Did she think it was that easy, really? Just fetch the old man and…
Was she right?
Keep me up to date. I could feel her tense, knew she was about to sever the connection. I love you. Be safe.
Mom—
But she was gone.
Syd. Uncle Frank’s cold mind remained. Tell Sunny. And then he left me too.
I’m pretty sure the boys were listening in on my conversation because they both looked about as cheerful with the outcome as I felt.
“Sunny is a good idea,” Sassy said. At least he was trying.
But I shook my head. “The vampires have nothing to do with this,” I said. “How could she possibly help with Sidhe magic?”
Galleytrot nodded slowly. “Have to agree with Syd on this one.”
“Are you going to talk to Erica?” Sassafras touched my leg with one paw, hooking his claws in the fabric.
I nodded, glum. Great. Just freaking great. Celeste would totally find a way to blame this on me, I just knew it. But I couldn’t keep Erica out of this any longer, which honestly meant telling the whole coven. Chances are if all hell broke loose I’d be better off with them in my court, prepared and scared, than dropping it in their laps after the fact.
With great reluctance, I reached for Erica.
We have to talk.
What’s up? She sounded distracted, like I was taking her from something. That triggered my anger all over again.
I’m calling a coven meeting. Um, Syd? Totally unnecessary when I could just inform them all through our connection. But her attitude, as innocent as it may have been or not, had me needing to throw my weight around a little.
That’s not something to do lightly. Like I didn’t know that already. Have you heard from your mother? She sounded so whiny, as if I might know something she didn’t and she was sulking.
I’m calling it, I sent, just giving you the heads up. You’re welcome.
I don’t appreciate the tone or the attitude, young lady. Ooh. Bite me.
Syd is in control of this coven, Sassafras sent, his mental tone so sharp Erica gasped. You will answer the call, Erica Plower, and you will obey your leader.
Her reaction was startling. Of course. I’d never heard her so muted, quiet, repentant. I glanced at Sassy, wondering for the first time about him and his real role in the family.
One amber eye winked at me before he began grooming a paw with great care.
I stretched my reach, letting my magic flow along the threads of the family, coming in contact with everyone. It was much easier this time, more natural, with Erica practically hiding in the background.
The coven will gather, I sent to the hundred or so curious minds, in two hours time. I broke off without further explanation, sagging as I severed my touch with Erica.
Sassafras paused in his grooming for one moment to meet my gaze again.
“You’ll do,” he said, before returning to his bath.
Smart ass cat.
***
Chapter Twenty One
Nerves took a hold of me the moment I realized what I’d done, so I went looking for a distraction to fill the next couple of hours.
“Where’s Meira?” I reached out for my sister and came up blank. Even my demon couldn’t track her down. She shielded as tightly as I always had, back when I wished I was normal.
The twinge of that old wish returned for a minute before I sighed it away. With the acceptance of my magic and the many sides of my power came the inability to just walk away. And I really was okay with that. I just hoped my whole life wasn’t lined up to be one dance with disaster to another.
Several phone calls got me nothing. In fact, one of Meira’s friends refused to talk to me at all. Her mother softly confessed she and Meira were on the outs, that Meira was mean to her at school and was hanging out with a different group.
I immediately thought of the rude little snot Alicia and asked for her last name.
Easy enough to track her down, as easy as Liam. Though my drive to Alicia’s house was much angrier than the one to Liam’s. I tried to keep my temper in check as I knocked on the lovely front door of the three-story house in the rich part of town, forcing myself to smile at the housekeeper who let me in when I told her why I was there.
She led me, her wide hips swaying hypnotically, to the second floor and a closed door. Her first soft knock was ignored. So was the second one. The dear woman smiled an apology.
“Alicia is a bit stubborn,” she said.
Um hum. I stepped past her and pounded on the pretty pink door with one fist, smiling at the woman as I did.
When it jerked wide, a puff of perfumed air almost making me choke, I stared Alicia down. She’d clearly prepared some snide snark for the patient and lovely woman standing next to me so facing off with me instead seemed to shake her.
“What?”
She was this close to a spanking. “What?” I snapped back.
Alicia looked me up and down, sullen expression settling. “Meira,” she called over her shoulder, “your boss is here.”
I glanced in the room, seeing a group of girls sitting on the large canopied bed. They all giggled nastily behind their hands as my sister glared at me like she wished I were dead.
“Home.” I didn’t mean to embarrass her, but I was on the edge of my very last nerve and her whole brat act was on the bottom of my tolerance list.
She almost didn’t come. I saw the rebellion in her eyes, the way she stiffened, started to turn her back on me.
Coven business. I slapped her mentally with it. Home, now.
Meira finally obeyed. The girls sniggered and whispered while Alicia’s attitude came back, aimed right at me.
No way in hell I was letting a ten-year-old get away with something like that. But there was nothing I could do. So I just smiled at her, wide and bright. “Have fun playing your sad little games.”
I didn’t wait for her reply, knowing it was a weak shot, but the best I could do without giving my demon a suggestion we’d regret. I still remembered the ill-fated Halloween party I’d attended last year, when I’d told the group of pops who hurt Alison they made me sick.
It was hard not to be both proud and horrified by the disgusting aftermath.
Meira belted herself down in the back seat withou
t me having to ask. We drove home in total silence, me fuming but trying to find a way to get through to her without making things worse.
As we pulled into the driveway, I knew I had to hit this mess head on. “You know you’re not supposed to go anywhere without telling someone first.”
She didn’t answer. Strike one.
“Who are those girls?” I turned in my seat, looking back at her while she glared out the window. “I thought you and Jolie and the others were all best friends. Then her mom tells me you were mean to them, bullied them. Meira, what the hell?”
More silence. Strike two. I knew my tone wasn’t getting the job done, but damn it I was tired and nervous and overwhelmed with my own stuff, with coven stuff. And she just added to my grief.
“There’s a whole lot going on,” I snapped, unbuckling my belt, “and I could use a little slack here, Meems. I’d appreciate it if you would just behave yourself for five minutes while I figure this crap out. I don’t need your hassle at the same time.”
That got a reaction, oh boy, did it. She spun on me, demon fire alive and well in her eyes.
“You can’t tell me what to do,” she shouted as she ripped the belt off of her and kicked open Minnie’s back door. “You’re not my mother!”
As she ran off into the house, I tried to reach her with my magic, my very angry and judging magic.
Only to be blocked firmly and completely by Sassafras.
Shoe pinches on the other foot, doesn’t it?
My demon hummed a growl at him, but it was enough for me to pull back my temper.
Oh shut it, Sassy. You have no idea.
Don’t I? His mental snort came with a jab of power to my stomach. I seem to recall this same argument. Let’s see, how many generations? I’ve lost count.
Fine, I snapped. Whatever. Just fix her.
He chuckled. I’ll do my best.
I’m never having kids, I shot at him.
To which he laughed and laughed and laughed before cutting me off.
He was such a jerk sometimes.
***
Chapter Twenty Two
When the knock came on the kitchen door, it made me shudder. The echo of the Gate was fresh enough I hated the sound, as shallow and real as it was compared to the booming of the Sidhe magic. I went to answer it, distracted, wondering why anyone in the coven would bother to knock.
Sonja O’Dane stood on the other side, and she didn’t look happy. In fact, Liam’s mother’s dark brown eyes flashed with barely suppressed anger, whole body trembling with it.
“I’m here to talk,” she snapped without preamble, “and you’re going to shut up and listen. You are to stay as far away from my son as you can and not say another word to him ever. Is that understood?” She backed up a half step before surging toward me again. “I mean it. If I find out you’ve been filling his head with more lies…”
“Mrs. O’Dane,” I said, reaching for her, but she snatched herself out of my reach, still shaking.
“You’ll be sorry,” she snarled, “I swear it.”
Before I could say a word, argue, try to convince her further, she spun and marched off. Swearing softly to myself, I started to go after her, only to have Erica’s anxious and angry arrival block my exit.
There was more to Sonja’s opinion of this town than simple dislike. What drove her to drag her son all over the country in an effort to keep him from home after his father’s death, and why did she suddenly return now? It had to be connected to the Gate and the knock. But if she was shielding him from his history, if she knew what he was and hated it that much, why bring him back at all?
There was no time to speculate. The coven gathered and I had to focus on them.
Once they were all standing in front of me, the whole family together, eyes locked on where I stood in the center of the basement pentagram, my panic started taking over again. I struggled with it, felt Erica’s growing anxiety and jumped in with both feet before she could screw me up again.
I tapped into the power under the house and it rose to greet me easily, sliding up through my feet, traveling up my legs, flooding my whole body from the ground up until I vibrated with it. So far so good. The nervous energy in the basement shifted to more calm. This part went very smoothly, nice and easy. I just had to keep it together long enough to finish the family greeting and I was golden.
Teeth clenched against the happy, bubbling power so I didn’t hurt anyone with its enthusiasm, I slowly opened myself to them and let it flow from me into each and every one of the family. They sighed as it touched them, filling them up with the love and welcome composing our coven’s power core. Perfect, I was doing it right. I was doing it right!
Which was, of course, when everything went wrong.
Something nudged me, a subtle touch, but inside the circle. The power turned toward it, distracted, even as I tried to lure it back. Like snapping rubber bands, the magic feed snapped free from each of the members, like a huge bungee cord of blue energy recoiling right at me. I grasped for it, managed to wrestle it back under control, but the damage was done. No one would meet my eyes anymore. I let the power flow back into the ground as though it was sad to go and did what I could to keep my poise.
And my anger in check. That was on purpose. Someone was trying to undermine me and I had a shortlist of people capable and willing. Celeste stared directly at me, one of the only ones who would, and I knew then, without a doubt, it had been she who caused me to fail.
Okay then. We do it the hard way.
I gestured at Galleytrot who’d been hiding in the darkness. He padded forward, through the quickly parting coven, to sit at my side. Celeste frowned instantly, but I didn’t give her or Erica a chance to speak.
“Were facing a situation.” I mentally kicked myself as the family shifted, and not toward me. The last thing they wanted was another one of those. But they had to listen. I boosted my words with some power and went on. “We’ve all been aware there is something odd about Wilding Springs. Something supernatural.”
A few heads nodded and Celeste remained silent. Fab.
“There’s a reason for that.” I quickly sketched out the threat, telling them about the Gate, the missing Keeper and the fact we had two nights left before the Sidhe broke through into our world.
“It’s vital we find the Gate,” Galleytrot said in his rumbling voice. “But we can’t do that without the Gatekeeper.”
“Then fetch the old man,” Celeste said. “Make him answer it.” She looked around at the others who seemed to agree with her.
“It’s not that simple,” he said. “If the old man doesn’t know how to answer it any longer, and there’s reason to believe he doesn’t, we’re still in trouble.”
“Can we find another Gatekeeper?” Erica at least offered a suggestion that might help. “From another Gate?”
That was actually a good idea. Or at least I thought so until Galleytrot shook his head. “Each Gate is keyed to one family and only they can answer the knock.”
“I called this meeting to warn you all,” I said, feeling more confident now that they knew what was up and with the huge dog beside me. “I’m going to try to bring Mr. O’Dane to the Gate and see if he can fix this. But the trouble is, without knowing exactly where the Gate lies, dragging a senile old man around Wilding Springs could attract attention from the normals and I want to avoid that if possible.”
“Where is your mother? Does she know about this?” Celeste’s frown deepened, the weight of her disapproval hanging over everyone.
“She knows,” I said, “and she trusts me—trusts us—to deal with it.”
“Typical Miriam,” she snapped. “Off chasing after her insane mother who could bring ruin to us all while her child brings us to the brink of destruction.”
“Miriam’s absence is necessary,” Erica said, injecting herself when I honestly wished she would just back off.
“I’m sure,” Celeste huffed. “And we’re to believe your little story abou
t this, are we, Sydlynn?”
“I’m sorry?” Was she really that much of an idiot? Who would make something like this up?
“It seems rather convenient. Of the only two witches in our coven with Sidhe magic one is missing and the other a girl known for her troublemaking.”
I felt it, the subtle shifting, as the coven turned toward Celeste. They were tired of conflict, weary of all that happened to us and they were willing to believe her if it meant their normal lives could go on even for a little while longer.
Pull this together or I’m ending it. Erica’s words slapped my mind.
Like I needed her antagonism to make me feel worse about the total and utter disaster this was turning into.
“How dare you waste our time?” Celeste snorted and drew herself to her full height. This was pure personal, her way of getting back at me for kicking her out of the house. Her way to prove to me I wasn’t even close to keeping up with her in this twisted game. “This is nothing more than a case of overactive imagination.”
“I’m not imagining things,” Galleytrot said.
“You’re not exactly trustworthy either, are you?” James’s voice held an edge he’d gained after enough time spent with Celeste, I guessed. “For all we know, you’re the one putting these thoughts into Syd’s head.”
Celeste turned away from me. “I’ve had enough of this nonsense. Don’t ever call another coven meeting unless you have a real issue to discuss. Or better yet, don’t call one at all.”
She left then, back straight, all of her self-righteousness wrapped around her. And one by one, then in a trickle, and finally in a flood, the coven followed her out.
Just the fact she left without permission was a huge insult. But taking everyone with her… I was screwed. And I knew she was right. I might be able to make her stand down one-on-one, but she had the manipulation thing down to a science.
Louisa and Martin Vega paused on their way, the sweet woman offering a gentle squeeze to my hand, but I neither wanted nor appreciated their pity, it was just too awful. And so they left without a word.