Thantos bristled, then laughed dismissively. “The rabbit hole, that’s what we called it. A childhood playroom. I haven’t thought about this place in years.”
Cam had already entered the tunnel. Her uncle’s voice echoed through the dark chamber. “There’s nothing down there that has anything to do with this,” he insisted impatiently.
“Nevertheless —” Cam heard Miranda say, then heard her delicate footsteps on the creaky spiral staircase, followed by Ileana’s high-heeled tread.
“What new madness is this?” Thantos’s voice reverberated as he reluctantly brought up the rear. “What do you hope to find in this dank and deserted place?”
“I think you know,” Cam shot back over her shoulder as she entered the round cavern. And then she stopped, silenced by shock. The central cave and all five tunnels that radiated out of it were dusty, deserted, eerily quiet. There was no outcropping of stone, no hint of the rock formation that the ponytailed scribe had used as a desk, no telling globules of wax on the stone walls and floor to prove that candles had been lit here.
Thantos read her mind and loosed a bellowing laugh that shook the empty chamber. “It was foretold that you and your rebellious sister would become powerful witches,” he sneered. “Yet you cannot tell the difference between a nightmare and an omen.”
Cam was shaken. Could she have dreamed this? Had it been a vision — the first ever that had not come to pass?
“No!” The decisive voice was Ileana’s. She, too, had heard Cam’s thoughts. “Say it. Say what you saw. I believe you, Apolla!”
Miranda looked from Ileana to Thantos. And made her choice. “Daughter, I trust you with all my heart. Don’t be afraid to speak.”
“Right here, in this exact spot,” Cam asserted, “I saw a boy, a scraggly-haired young warlock who was writing with a quill pen. The pages he had gathered looked just like the ones in the book you brought, Ileana. He must have been copying them.”
Thantos began to applaud; his hands clapped loudly, keeping up a slow, steady beat. “I commend your vivid imagination, Apolla.” He bowed his head, feigning respect. “It has been said that imagination is more important than knowledge. Apparently, you agree.” Before Cam could protest, he hurriedly continued, “And you are to be praised for the loyalty to your guardian Karsh — misguided though it is. But there is no evidence here to verify your wild accusation.” He gestured to the circular staircase, indicating that it was time to leave.
Cam knew this much. A copy of Karsh’s real journal had been forged. That’s what she’d seen.
For a moment, Thantos stared malevolently at Cam. A chill ran through her as she realized he could be conjuring a spell. One capable of anything from paralyzing her to transmutating her into a separate creature.
Instead, he turned, disgusted, and started up the stairs.
Ileana charged after him, grabbing his black cloak. “You did it. You had another book made, a near duplicate of Lord Karsh’s sacred journal!”
Thantos turned slowly, tearing his cape from her hand. He was close to the top of the stairs. From this vantage point he glared down at Ileana. “Don’t ever touch me again,” he hissed menacingly, “nor cast doubt on my word in front of Miranda. Never, do you hear me?”
“Do what you will. I won’t back down. That boy Cam saw, fledgling or prisoner, servant or hostage, worked under your command — under your orders to create a duplicate book and to twist its conclusion to your own advantage!”
A few steps below, Miranda and Cam stood shivering at Thantos’s threat and Ileana’s audacity. Cam felt it first. A sudden but soft balmy breeze enveloped them, swirling as though to wrap them in a cocoon of warmth.
Miranda gasped. Her eyes searched the narrow alley in which she and Cam stood. Above them, Thantos and Ileana were at each other, but the invisible bandage of heat encircling Cam and her mother seemed to form a protective barrier between them and the father-and-daughter face-off.
“Aron?” Miranda whispered, as if she expected a reply. Cam felt it, too. Someone or something was protecting them. A moment later she knew why.
Still holding Cam, Miranda announced, “I believe her.” Her tone of quiet authority silenced the din above them. “If Cam said she saw a man, a warlock writing down here, copying Lord Karsh’s handwriting, then she did. She is my daughter. And Aron’s daughter — as powerful, good, and honest as her father. Born to learn and lead. She doesn’t imagine things. And she doesn’t lie.”
“Yes!” Ileana shouted triumphantly.
Thantos spun on his heels and faced his daughter. Assuming he would try to grab the book she held, Ileana turned, intending to toss it to Miranda for safekeeping. But it wasn’t Karsh’s journal he was after. He caught her face between his huge hands and forced her head around, forced her to face him.
She tried to look away, but too late. Thantos’s glistening black eyes bored into hers. A second later, Ileana wailed in anguish. “No. No! I’m blind. I can’t see anything!”
Breaking the warm bond that joined them, Miranda pushed away from Cam. Her hand flew to her neck. Aghast, she screamed, “How could you? Thantos, you —” She never finished the sentence. With a wave of his hand, he silenced and then paralyzed her.
Cam would not be stealthed. She grasped her sun necklace and whispered as her mother had, “Aron. Father …” She felt the heat encasing her body center itself in the charm her father had made for her. She felt ready.
But crafty Thantos would not be predicted. He didn’t seem interested in wasting or immobilizing her. “Come with me now, Apolla.” He turned his back on her and walked up the few remaining stairs to his old room. “Your mother is safe. She feels no pain. You may return to her in a moment.”
Cam felt safe — and curious. Clinging to her amulet, she followed him. He stopped before the low, opened hatch that had hidden the cellar.
“Only trust me, Apolla; stand with me,” he said with frightening tenderness. “What does it matter which book the old warlock wrote? He is dead. I am the head of this family. When your mother marries me, you will inherit all this —”
Understanding came in waves, sickening but crystal clear, washing away all doubt. Of course Ileana had the true book, the book that said Aron’s twins were to head the powerful DuBaer dynasty.
Of course Thantos could not tolerate that reality. Thantos, whose only true belief was in his superiority, his unearned but inalienable right to rule.
Her uncle, it was clear from everything Cam had seen, not only by his actions, but in his childhood room, had been consumed by jealousy all his life. And had tried to take what was not his through deceit, dark magick, and worse.
Cam clamped her sun charm tightly. But there was nothing he could do — he had tried and been thwarted time and again — to capture and destroy her sister and herself. None of his brutal plots had succeeded. And they never would. Not while she and Alex had each other’s backs. And not with Miranda — and their guardian, Ileana — on their side. Not after their initiation.
You will never be initiated!
Whether Thantos had meant for Cam to read his mind or hadn’t believed she could, Cam realized that her uncle’s startling thought was also a vow. It was a promise that he intended to keep at any cost. Which was when she realized, maybe for the first time since she and Alex had met, how important it was for them to be initiated. To be empowered as full-fledged witches on their sixteenth birthday — which was only months away. To take their place in the Coventry community — and at Crailmore.
Thantos ducked and was about to leave the stairway and enter his room. “Release my mother,” Cam demanded, “my mother and Ileana —”
He paused. “All in good time. Miranda is fine. She feels nothing, no pain. Do you honestly think I would harm her?”
“Why wouldn’t you? You don’t love her, you need her. And you didn’t rescue me from the quicksand because you loved me. You needed me to get to her,” Cam answered.
“Oh, but that’s where you’re wrong,” her uncle
said coldly. “I do love Miranda. I’ve always loved her. But she chose unwisely when she chose my brother. Aron was weak. His aims and ambitions were insane, destructive. He wanted to put all the wealth and power of the glorious DuBaer line at the service of strangers. No, I am the only one strong and determined enough to hold on to what is rightfully ours. As for you? Your mother was right. You are a powerful witch, Apolla. An alliance will benefit both of us.”
Correction. An alliance with either of them, Cam or Alex, was what he needed. As long as they were kept separated, prevented from working together, their powers would be diminished, giving Thantos the upper hand. But why had he chosen her? Had she been so much easier to play?
“I admire your self-awareness,” the tracker said acidly.
Good call. She could be self-aware. Beware the fool who got in her way when she did become aware of her inner slayer — and acted on it. Cam went to pin him with her eyes, but he deftly averted her heat-bearing stare.
“You’re a smart girl — in a staring contest you won’t win. So join me. All this will be yours. You don’t need Alex. You’re the star.”
The star. Right.
“Where does your daughter, Ileana, fit into your grand scheme?” Cam wanted to know, but also wanted to bait him.
“She doesn’t,” Thantos retorted, glancing back at Ileana, who had sunk to her knees, her hands covering her blind eyes. “The mother was Antayus. The daughter is too much of a risk, a potential danger to me.”
It was the way he said it. His casual honesty was chilling. He would kill Ileana and think nothing of it. And if one of Miranda’s daughters had to be sacrificed for Cause DuBaer, so be it. Was he actually psychotic enough to think Miranda would be okay with that? Or that he could hide the sick truth from her forever?
Thantos’s back was to her. Crouching slightly, he disappeared through the door at the top of the stairs.
“How long did you think it would be before my mother saw right through you?” Cam called after him. “All the way to your rotten core?”
“What an interesting question, coming from you,” he retorted. “I should think you’d already know the answer.”
Cam hurried after him. “What are you talking about?” she demanded, entering her uncle’s childhood room.
“Love is blind,” he said, chuckling maliciously. She followed his gaze to a tall, strapping young warlock who stood staring out the window. “Even for the sun princess.” Thantos snapped his fingers, and the boy turned.
The last thing Cam saw before she was plunged into darkness was the glint of a horseshoe pendant — the symbol, she now realized, of a Thantos loyalist. It was Shane’s.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
THE BATTLE
The Traveler spell, fueled by the rage of three Furies and one ticked-off T*Witch, kicked into warp speed. At least that was how it felt to Alex, who was so winded she was practically wheezing when the spell deposited her with a jolt at the front gates of Crailmore. Her traveling companions suffered no such whiplash. All passion and purpose, they barged through the estate’s massive doors, easily overpowering the few fledgling servants foolhardy enough to try to block their way.
Alex heard the voices first. Thantos was growling, “It seems we have more company — unexpected, unwelcome, and extremely inconvenient.”
“I didn’t know anything about it,” Shane declared nervously. “You’ve got to believe me!”
Alex raced toward the tense tête-à-tête in the east wing of the mansion, where the childhood lair of America’s least wanted was located.
Sersee, however, went where she had seen Thantos last and where his scent was still strong. Out of habit, Epie and Michaelina followed her down the portrait-lined corridor to the salon.
Alex burst into the tower room, ready to face her brutish uncle and his backstabbing underling. It was Cam’s face that unhinged her. Her double was unfocused … sightless.
Thantos, of course, was ready for Alex. Stroking his dark beard, he flashed her an acidly amused look and announced, “You’ve come a long way. For nothing. Your sister is beyond your help. Why not leave while you’re still mobile?”
“Cam!” Alex shouted, ignoring him. Holding her moon charm, she whirled on Shane. He was shaking; but she couldn’t tell whether with fear or rage. “What have you done to my sister?!”
“He has blinded her with love,” Thantos mocked, trying to lock eyes with Alex.
“Don’t look at him,” Cam frantically ordered. “Don’t look at either of them.” From the moment she had gazed at Shane, Cam’s precious eyesight had been damaged. The warlock and his horseshoe amulet had been burned into her retinas, blocking clear sight of anything else. Explosions of light surrounded the two images, painfully obscuring all else. “Run! Get out of here!” Cam told her sister.
It took a second for Alex to read what Cam had left unsaid — that she was almost as blind as Ileana. And another second for Alex to “see” their guardian kneeling in the dark … beside their mother, Miranda —
Had she really seen them? Alex’s ace in the hole had always been her hyperhearing. Reading people’s minds was no biggie. But seeing? To actually envision Ileana in her wretched condition, bowed and wailing in some dark cave, while Miranda was frozen in grief? Could Alex now see what Cam could not?
It’s the island, her sister answered. Being here enhances our powers.
“Sad but true,” their uncle confirmed. And Alex knew instantly that on Coventry his dark skills were strengthened, too.
Still clutching her moon amulet, which was heating up quickly, Alex turned toward the grinning trickster — exactly as he had wanted her to. But one glimpse of the firelight dancing in his black eyes, and the malevolent glint revealed his true intention. To burn her eyes, blind her as he had her sister and Ileana.
She turned away quickly, suffering a stinging pinprick of pain. Tears momentarily blurred her vision. But as her eyes closed, her hearing became more intense than it had ever been.
Stand up, Ileana! Alex heard Miranda’s far-off command. I can see, even if I cannot move or speak. Only listen carefully to my mind and I will guide you up the stairs.
They were in a cave; that much Alex knew. But where? Was it the cave in which the Furies had lived, under LunaSoleil?
“What shall we do with the moon child?” Thantos’s deep voice called Alex’s thoughts back to the tower room and the trouble she was facing. A slow, steady heat seemed to be building in the pocket of her camouflage jacket. Karsh’s crystal! The pink stone had been used many times by the beloved warlock and once or twice by Alex and Cam, to help create powerful magick. Perhaps it could free Cam of their uncle’s spell —
“Warlock, I am speaking to you! What shall we do?” Thantos repeated.
“Whatever you wish,” Shane pledged.
Cam took hold of her sun charm and twisted her face toward Shane’s voice. “Leave her alone, Shane. You may be a liar but you’re not an idiot. Don’t you know that what he’ll do to you — whether or not you follow his commands — will be a hundred times worse than anything you can do to Alex?”
“How touching,” Thantos responded. “She still loves you.”
“Yes, I do,” Cam called out, to Alex’s horror. “I was taught — we were taught,” her sister amended pointedly, “that vengeance hurts the revenge-seeker more than its victim. That payback is poison and that only love —”
“Conquers hate,” Alex finished Cam’s thought, understanding now what her sister meant — and remembering with almost painful tenderness the old tracker who had taught and given them so much. Including the pink quartz crystal in her pocket.
Thantos’s booming laughter echoed in the stonewalled room. “Let’s see, Shane, what would be a fitting end to your bedazzled girlfriend’s twin? She is … a thorn in my side — yes! Shall we have thorns erupting from her skin?”
Alex watched Shane. Visibly trembling, the blond boy stood before Thantos with his head bowed. “Is that what you want?” he asked
, his voice breaking nervously.
Thantos heard the hesitation. “Does that frighten you?” Driven by his instinct to attack wherever he sensed weakness, the tracker turned on his servant.
Shane fell to his knees at Thantos’s feet.
“Get up, you double-dealing dog!” Sersee commanded, crashing into the room like a giant bowling ball, with tiny Michaelina at her heels.
Thantos’s sneer turned to an astonished O. He’d known that Shane and Cam had put a prideful curse on Sersee, but even he was astonished. She really did resemble a prideful balloon.
Alex used the Furies’ entrance to rush to Cam. The sight of Alex, though shadowy and haloed by starbursts, loosed a torrent of tears in Cam — welcome tears that bathed and soothed her wounded eyes.
“Hang on to your charm,” Alex whispered. “And give me your other hand.”
“You’ve got a plan!” Cam said softly, already beginning to smile.
“Well,” Alex hedged, “I’ve got a crystal. It’s a start. Got any incantations up your sleeve?”
“You!” Thantos growled at Sersee, regaining his composure. “You have failed me bitterly! Artemis is here. Here to subvert all that I have worked for! Is this how you do my bidding?”
“Why don’t you ask Epie?” Sersee snapped back. “I’m alive and here, too — though you sent her to kill me. Obviously, she kinda blew it, too, wouldn’t you say?” Turning back to Shane, she repeated her command. “On your feet, traitor. Undo this spell at once or I will crush you!”
The young warlock stood. His lips twitched and his jaw muscles rippled as he struggled to hide a smile. “I’m sure you could,” he agreed cruelly.
Sersee’s hands flew up, curved into eager claws.
“Universe of love and light, please restore my sister’s sight,” Alex whispered.
“Let us live to do good works —” Cam stopped, at a loss suddenly.
“And?” her twin restlessly prompted. Cam shrugged apologetically.
“Okay, okay.” Alex tried to think. “Works, perks, smirks … Got it,” she hissed triumphantly. “And kick the butts of these betraying jerks!”
T*Witches: Split Decision Page 13