by Nova Nelson
A goofy smile appeared before she bit it back. “Would you say … Stella got your groove back?” She raised her eyebrows at me.
My mouth fell open. “Sweet baby jackalope … I forgot! We have the same pop culture references!”
As we cracked up, Donovan looked over, concerned. “What? What is it?”
Eva waved a hand at him as she slid back onto the barstool. “Nothing. Earth girl stuff.”
Donovan and Tanner exchanged looks as Donovan mouthed, “Earth girl?” and Tanner shrugged.
I found a seat at the table next to Landon and asked, “How’d you know Tanner would be coming?”
He smiled, clearly proud of himself. “While I might not be the best in social situations, I understand them well enough as the outside observer. I figured Tanner would want to come and you would, of course, let him, though you wouldn’t tell him the real reason you wanted to speak with me.”
I glanced over my shoulder where Tanner leaned against the bar, chatting animatedly with Eva and Donovan. Good. He hadn’t heard that last bit. “I do also want to have a drink with you, you know,” I said, feeling guilty at being found out.
“Sure. But it’s never just having a drink, even when it’s just ‘having a drink.’ You drink, you talk. And the thing that’s on your mind, that you want to talk about, is also the thing that’s been on my mind. So, let’s compare notes.” He grinned, and I thought it was just a figure of speech until he pulled a stack of notecards from the back pocket of his pants and began sorting through them.
“I left mine back at Medium Rare,” I said.
His eyes stayed on his cards as he said, “No, you didn’t.” He nodded as he landed on the one he wanted to start with, then looked up at me and said, “Why don’t you go first. Anything new happen since the attempted burial of Count Malavic?”
I chuckled. “Uh, yes.” And then I dove into it, keeping my voice low so we weren’t overheard and I could give him all the facts about the strange things that had been happening to me and around town lately.
Well, almost all the facts. I’d considered telling him about the dreams, but I decided against it. They felt too personal. They were something I wanted to keep all to myself. Besides, telling Landon Hawker about the romantic nature of them would likely cause him to blush so hard he passed out.
“Blisters?” he said incredulously. “You had actual blisters?”
“Yep. And the strangest part is that Stella said they seemed like they blistered from internal heat, not external.”
The conspiracy theorist was stumped. His eyes grew wide and his mouth went slack. “I’ve never heard of that before.”
“I don’t think she had, either. But the— Ow!”
I was interrupted by a large, rounded object jabbing my thigh. I looked to my side and saw the large mass of Grim staring back up at me, a small string of spittle dangling from his left jowl. “You did not go to Franco’s Pizza without telling me.”
“Sorry, Grim, it’s been a bit of a long day. I just forgot.”
He lowered his head and placed a giant paw over his snout. “I can’t even look at you right now.”
“For fang’s sake,” I said aloud. “Just lie down and I’ll order you some meatballs when the waiter comes around.”
“He’s mad at you?” Landon asked.
“Of course.”
“Yeah, I hate it when Hera gets mad at me. She can make my life truly difficult.”
“Hera’s your familiar?”
He nodded.
“And what kind of cat is she?”
“A bobcat.”
“Bobcat?” I’d been expecting something a little less deadly.
“Yeah, I can’t bring her around a lot. When she gets hungry … it’s not pretty. Can’t keep her from hunting.”
“Maybe you should bring her some meatballs, too,” I suggested.
He shook his head fervently. “No way. Gotta keep her on a vegetarian diet. The taste of real meat sets her off.”
“Ah.”
At least I’d identified a possible source of his persistent anxiety.
Trinity fluttered up on her fairy wings and took our order, beginning with me, and as Landon asked a litany of questions regarding the specific temperatures of each item, I tuned into the conversation happening just behind me.
“I totally beat you at it,” Eva said, as Tanner cackled. “It wasn’t even close.”
“No, no, no,” Donovan said, “I let you win. I could beat you at scufflepuck any day of the week, but I figured I’d give you a victory since you’re still fairly new in town.”
“Yeah, right,” Tanner said.
“Seriously,” said Eva. “You’re such a gentleman, Donovan. I never would have guessed.”
“What?” he said defensively. “I am! I’m all good manners and hospitality … unless you’re more into bad boys, in which case, I am the baddest.”
I rolled my eyes but continued to listen.
“I think I’m just about done with the bad boys,” Eva said. “I tried that enough times back home, and it never worked out. I think I need a nice guy, more like Tanner, but obviously not Tanner.”
Oh swirls. Donovan would not like to hear that. Not with the complex he had about his best friend.
But, to my surprise, Donovan didn’t seem bothered by it. “You’re in luck, because I’m the nicest. Way nicer than Tanner. For instance,” he paused, and when I glanced over my shoulder I caught the tail end of him pouring her another glass of wine by hand. “Here you go, my lady.” He bowed as he handed it to her, and she giggled.
It was strange. I was staring at Donovan, but the only plausible scenario was that someone had taken over his body. I looked for signs of possession but found none.
“I need to hit the ladies’ room before I start on another round,” Eva said, walking off.
I downed the rest of my cocktail and slipped out of my chair, bringing the empty glass to the bar with me. “I need another, kind sir,” I said sarcastically.
“Eavesdropping, were we?” Donovan asked disinterestedly. He didn’t pour my drink by hand. Instead, he waved his wand lethargically and let it do all the work.
“He’s really bringing it today, isn’t he?” Tanner said proudly.
“You think she’s into it?” Donovan asked.
Tanner nodded emphatically. “Oh yeah. She’s playing a little hard to get, but I think you’re on the right track.”
Donovan turned to me. “What do you think, Nora? Think I might have finally found someone who’s into me?”
I forced a smile. “Stranger things have happened. Speaking of strange things, maybe you should, I don’t know, dial it back until we know a little more about her.”
He chuckled mirthlessly. “I know plenty about her, Nora. And I plan on getting to know a lot more.”
“I just don’t want you getting your heart broken if it turns out she’s been cursing people or whatnot.”
He snatched the shaker out of the air and yanked my empty glass from my hand before pouring my drink and setting it down on the bar in front of me just a little too hard. “I can see why Tanner fell for you like he did. You’re always thinking of other people’s feelings, aren’t you?” The bitterness was unmistakable.
“She’s very thoughtful,” Tanner interjected, wrapping an arm around my shoulders. “You know empathy is actually a common Fifth Wind witch trait,” he explained.
Donovan laughed dryly. “Coulda fooled me.”
We glared at each other for another moment before I grabbed my drink, spun around, and took my seat next to Landon, trying not to show how angry and inexplicably upset I was.
I rolled my shoulders back and plastered a smile on my face. “Where were we?” I asked the North Wind witch.
He stared at me through wide eyes before glancing over at Donovan then back to me. “What was … wait.” His eyes went wider and he leaned forward and hissed, “Did you two…?”
“Shh!” I hissed, kicking him under the ta
ble. “Whatever you’re thinking, the answer is no, okay?” I raised my eyebrows at him, pressing my lips together tightly and hoping he got the message.
He swallowed hard and nodded rapidly before blinking a few times and saying. “Got it. I must have been imagining the sexual tension and unspoken heartbreak.”
“Yeah. You were. Now can we get back to the task at hand?”
“Of course, of course.” He shuffled through his notecards. “Okay, so there’s a pattern I noticed. It might be nothing, but it might also be something.”
I refrained from asking if “it might be nothing, but it might also be something” was the Hawker Family maxim. Instead, I nodded for him to go on.
“There’s a pattern for the victims of the memory loss. The first one was Zoe Clementine. Then Oliver Bridgewater. And now you say Evangeline Moody. See where I’m going?”
“They’re all witches.”
He waggled a finger at me. “Right, but more specifically, what type of witches are they?”
“Zoe is an East Wind, Oliver is a West Wind, and Eva is, I think, a South Wind.”
“Exactly!” Landon nodded like I should know the significance of it already. When I grimaced and shook my head vaguely, he added, “Think of the archaic names for each.”
This was something Oliver had grilled me on when he’d discovered I didn’t know, so because of that intense night of studying, I had this down pat. “Zoe is a hydromancer, Oliver is a terramancer, and Eva would be a pyromancer.” I paused. “Oh. Okay. Yeah, I see where you’re going now. But I don’t understand what the pattern signifies.”
“I don’t fully understand it either. But it does make me fairly certain that the three cases are related. And it also leads me to believe that no one tried to drown Zoe.”
“You think … she did it to herself?”
He shrugged a shoulder. “It was her wand clogging the fountain with magic and causing it to overflow, wasn’t it?”
I exhaled. “Sheesh, yeah. I guess that makes sense, even though it’s not a pretty picture. And following that pattern, Oliver was the one to bury the count. The terramancer draws power from the land.”
Landon leaned forward and added. “And it also means that Eva … you know.”
“Yeah, I know.” A hydromancer blacks out and ends up facedown in water. A terramancer blacks out and attacks a vampire with a mound of earth. A pyromancer blacks out and sets a wooden stake on fire. There was a pattern, yes, but no clear significance.
Trinity fluttered out of the kitchen with a tray that looked heavier than she was, and she set our plates in front of us, plus two extra: one plate of lasagna, and one plate of meatballs. The meatballs I understood, because I’d ordered those for Grim. But the lasagna made me pause. I was just about to tell her we hadn’t ordered it when Tanner flopped down in the chair next to me, across from Landon, and thanked Trinity. “Ordered at the bar, but I figured I’d sit at a real table to eat. Hope you don’t mind,” he said.
“Not at all,” said Landon. He smartly looked to me to see if I wanted to jump back into the conversation or wait until it was just the two of us again.
I set the plate of meatballs on the floor for Grim and then resumed the conversation. “It still doesn’t make sense why they did it, though. Or rather, why someone else would make them do it. And it still doesn’t explain my visions.”
His mouth was full of veggie pizza, so he conceded with a nod until he could speak again. “True. But it does tell us one important bit of information, I think.”
“And that is?”
“Whatever happened with Zoe, Oliver, and Eva, it’s not over yet. There is still one, maybe two more instances to come. But I can help you narrow it down. Significantly.”
“And how’s that?”
“The pattern. Hydromancer, then terramancer, then pyromancer… what’s next? My guess is either an aeromancer or a necromancer.”
Tanner perked up, speaking around a mouthful of lasagna. “But that’s”—he pointed at Landon and me—“either one of you.”
“Well,” Landon said, “not necessarily. The odds are fairly high that it would be Nora, simply because there is only one other Fifth Wind witch in Eastwind, and only a fool would try to take over Ruby True. But there are plenty of other North Winds besides me. However, I believe that if we could figure out the motive, we would be able to pinpoint who is next and possibly spare whoever it is the danger.”
“So how do we figure out the motive?” Tanner asked. “We don’t even know what kind of magic is being used.”
“Agreed,” said Landon. “But I believe the first thing we need to do is locate a single commonality between all three events. Is there someone associated with all three?”
“Yes,” I said, “though it’s a loose connection, and I don’t quite understand it.”
Landon arched his brows. “Go on.”
“Count Malavic. He had just met with Zoe before her memory went out. And he was the one Oliver buried. And it was a burning wooden stake outside Medium Rare today, which is one of the few things that can kill vampires.”
Landon considered it silently while he packed another bite of pizza into his mouth. Finally, he said, “It’s true, it’s a common thread, but I don’t see it. There has to be something else.”
“Nora’s visions,” Tanner said like he was stating the obvious. “Nora had a vision at each one.”
“True,” Landon said. “And while we don’t understand the significance of the visions, at least not yet, we can take a step back from that and say that the commonality between all of these strange incidents is … well, it’s you, Nora.”
“Me? But I don’t have anything to do with it!”
Both Tanner and Landon were staring at me now, and the intensity of their attention drove a warmth into my cheeks.
“You discovered every single one of them,” Landon said, like he was just waking from a dream. “You stumbled onto them, sure, but you were the first on scene.” His voice grew more excited. “Who else could the burning stake be intended for on the Outskirts at that hour if not someone from Medium Rare?”
“Why couldn’t it be Tanner?” I said defensively. “He works there. And he found Zoe in the fountain with me.”
“But he didn’t go to Mount Reign with you. It was Manchester who was with you there.”
I didn’t like where this was going. Even if Landon wasn’t about to outright accuse me of doing these things, he was definitely saying that they involved me somehow. Yet again, I was behind the chaos. No. I wouldn’t accept that without clear evidence. “What are you saying exactly, Landon?”
“I think whoever is doing this might be trying to send you a message. They might even be setting these traps to intentionally trigger off your visions.” He stared just past my shoulder and blinked rapidly before returning his attention to me. “Yes! That actually makes sense!”
I laughed humorlessly. “How does that make any bit of sense?”
Tanner coughed beside me.
Landon’s gaze turned to the table, and he shook his head as if trying to clear it. He shut his eyes tightly, massaging his temple as if fighting off a sudden migraine. He didn’t answer my question, though.
Tanner’s coughing continued, growing more forceful. I turned to him. “Okay there?”
And that’s when I realized, Tanner wasn’t coughing. He was choking.
He clutched his throat, trying to suck in air. As he bent forward, I smacked him on the back, hoping to get out whatever was blocking his passageways.
Then behind me, I heard another wheezing sound and turned to find Donovan wide-eyed, bracing himself on the bar as he tried to suck in air. Eva was next, then Grim, and slowly, everyone in the restaurant began to gasp desperately. Trinity dropped out of the air, hitting the ground with a dull thud as I whirled around, trying to understand what was going on. After all, I wasn’t choking.
And, I quickly discovered, neither was Landon.
His expression had gone slack
, though, as he sat up straight in his chair. I leaned forward, and that’s when I noticed it. Landon’s clear blue eyes had a tint of green to them.
Sweet baby jackalope. But I couldn’t be sure of what I was seeing just yet.
I ran another test. “Landon, where do you work?”
His mouth opened, but it took way too long for the words “Parchment Catacombs” to issue from it.
For fang’s sake. This wasn’t really happening, right? Landon wasn’t actually sitting in front of me possessed and casting some weird aeromancer spell that caused people around us to shake and choke and gasp for air.
I hadn’t yet performed a successful exorcism all on my own without a little help from Ruby. But I knew the basics, and no time like the present to try.
To complete this, I had to pull the spirit into me, to channel it then gain control over it so I could banish it once and for all. At least that was the theory behind Fifth Wind exorcisms, but whether I could handle a spirit powerful enough to make Zoe try to drown herself, cause Oliver to launch an incredibly ill-advised attack on a vampire, and get peaceful Zoe to commit a veritable hate crime against me, I had yet to see.
Would I be able to draw out the spirit from Landon without it hurting him in a struggle? Could I coerce it to pass into my body? I had to give it my best shot.
I pulled off my staurolite amulet, setting it beside my drink, and reached across the table to grab Landon’s hands. He didn’t pull away, so I closed my eyes.
Then suddenly he spoke: “You’re almost there, Diana.”
Another vision hit me like a hurricane.
The hands around my throat squeezed tighter as I clawed at the man’s arms. I couldn’t see the man himself yet; everything but his arms was black as the vision had yet to form around the edges. I struggled to suck in air, but it didn’t work, and each heave of my lungs only caused sizzling pain to shoot out in every direction from my throat, pounding in my head, filling my chest with lava. It would be easier not to breathe, and I had no doubt it would be over quickly if I just gave in.
My rasping breath tugged at a memory. No, not so much a memory as … a reality.