by Multiple
“Hush,” I said. “I’ll think of something.” I pulled the bottle of sea foam from my pocket. “I have this, which means I can make the passion potion. Maybe that will put Dei Lucrii off for a while.”
Hallow snorted. “Right. He’ll probably use it on you as soon as he sees the mark.”
“I’m pretty sure he already knows.” I turned the vial around in my hand. “Dad, what do you know about the original offer from Dei Lucrii? If Mom knew he was coming for me, she never would have done it.”
“I agree.” Dad wiped at the smudges of smoke still on his hands. “She only told me that an enchanter had found her, but not to worry, she was just going to do what he asked and hopefully he’d leave us alone.”
I turned to Mavis. “Did she tell you any more? You obviously knew about Dad.”
Mavis swallowed. “Dei Lucrii was after a Golden Nix — they are pretty rare — and wanted a potion to make her be more, well, amenable to his attention. Such a creature is a grave threat, as a nix is what breeds Dark Enchanters.” She patted my shoulder. “That’s why we kept Jet here hidden.”
I frowned. “So Dei Lucrii wanted this illegal potion, one that violated enchanter code, and thought he could blackmail Mom into making it, since she was in hiding?”
Hallow hopped up on the table. “The original deal was just for the potion. I was there when the transaction took place. But Tess needed a lot of capital to buy the ingredients. She refused to go to the spirit world and harvest them herself since she couldn’t leave Frank and Jet unprotected.”
Dad stepped forward. “So that’s why she borrowed all the money.”
“Dei Lucrii could afford to pay her when it was done,” Mavis said. “But when the first few didn’t work out, she had to find stronger ingredients.”
I whirled around to Hallow. “Where did she get that last batch of sea foam?”
“Dei Lucrii brought that one himself,” Hallow said.
Dad pushed away from the wall. “So you think Dei Lucrii set up the potion to explode?”
My throat was threatening to close up. “I don’t know that he knew. He’s being all nicey nice to me for someone who killed my mother. But at Martel’s house, there were definitely the ingredients to set it up.” I remembered the book. “Have any Goldens been abducted? The Book of Shadows in Martel’s house had the explosive potion in it, and a Golden was the last owner.”
“What was the name?”
Shoot, I couldn’t remember. “I don’t know. Nothing normal.”
Mavis shook her head. “There are only three reigning Goldens: Cristaba, Deja, and Ellondra. No one’s been stolen, and the last one to be harmed was your grandmother.”
I turned to Dad. “Gem and Grandpa did not die in a car accident.”
He signed. “I know. She was killed.”
“By Dei Lucrii’s father.”
“He’s a terrible man,” Mavis said. “Martel was exiled for breeding nixes, trying to create a golden line, and after that he just didn’t care who he hurt. His son has been halfheartedly looking for gold as well, prodded by the father, but as far as I know, he would not kill anyone. He’s more of a snake charmer. Tess believed Jet was safe.”
Dad exhaled in a long slow rush. “So it appears that between the time Dei Lucrii made the original deal with Tess and when he brought the explosive foam, his father found out who you were and arranged for her to die, knowing it would flush you out.”
“They know you are a Golden?” Mavis asked.
I nodded. “I’m sure of it. He said he’d make me create a portal. I don’t think a nix can do that.”
Mavis shook her head. “No, only a Golden can create them. At every enchanter birth, the Golden presides, marks the baby, and creates their portal if they are enchanters.”
“A nix doesn’t get one?”
“No,” Mavis said. “But she can use any that she comes across.”
I sank into the chair. “Well, that’s it. I don’t see any way to get Dei Lucrii to leave me alone. If Martel wants me, maybe I should just make the potion and take it myself.”
“No!” Dad said. “These people are animals!”
“At least I’ll be happy with him, then.”
Dad grabbed my shoulders. “I won’t let you do that.”
Mavis wrung her hands. “There’s got to be another way.”
A knock at the entrance of the lair startled all of us. “Mom? I think dinner’s burning.” It was Rah, the annoying daughter.
I no more had the most ridiculous idea in my head when suddenly everything went black.
*
I lay on my back in Santaland, my face covered with fake white beards. I sat up. How did I end up in Mavis’s front room?
Footsteps thundered from farther back in the house. Dad and Mavis were running for the front door, but they halted when they saw me lying in a pile of red velvet.
Rah came in after them and laughed. “Overcome with Christmas spirit?”
“What are you doing out here?” Dad asked.
Mavis crossed her arms over her chest. “What are your bad intentions, Jet?”
She was on to me.
“I had a crazy notion about Rah, that was all.”
Mavis drew her daughter close. “Leave her out of this. She’s isn’t part of this world.”
Rah jerked away. “Is this about your crystal banging? I know all about it.”
Mavis clasped Rah’s face with both hands, staring at her. “What do you know?”
“That you think it’s magic.” She rolled her eyes. “I think it’s dumb.”
I pushed the Santas aside and struggled to my feet. “Rah just made me realize that we might be able to bind Dei Lucrii to a human, and then he wouldn’t be able to breed with nixes or Goldens anymore. We’d stop his line.”
“He’s already bred a half-dozen brats,” Hallow said. “He wouldn’t stop.”
“Mavis, how long does the potion last?”
She glanced at Rah, as if wondering if she should say anything more in front of her, then shrugged. “Indefinitely, if it’s made that way. One ingredient is just until the binding ceremony — probably primrose. One would be until a child is born — grasswort, most likely. Another could be until death. A trace amount of Lyceria would do that, I bet. I can’t do that sort of spell, so I’m not sure.”
Rah’s eyes widened. “You people are talking crazy.”
“Go find your brother and father,” Mavis said. “Dinner’s probably ruined.”
Rah backed up but didn’t leave the room.
I moved to the hallway. “I need to get to Mom’s lair. My idea was that if we could get Dei Lucrii to take his own potion and bind him to someone else, then I wouldn’t have to worry about him.”
Hallow leaped onto a table beside me. “He’ll never fall for it. Besides, who would be willing to bind to him?”
“He’s rich, right?” I asked, looking at Rah. “And he looks like a movie star.” She was pretending to be uninterested, but I could tell she was listening. “I actually found him pretty charming. There was a point during the spirit-world jaunt that I just accepted my fate with him.”
Rah moved closer. “You got a picture?”
“Portal back with me,” I said. “You can meet him.”
Mavis’s face had gone red. “You are obviously not a real Golden yet. What you are suggesting is not for the good of my child.”
But I remembered what Caleb had said. “It’s for the good of the world. But still, I have no intention of hurting your girl.”
“The lair threw you right out!” She was furious.
“Right, right.” Time to retreat. “I’ll think of another way.” Maybe I could bind him to a tree or something. Or a fairy. I glanced at Hallow. Or a ferret.
“Don’t look at me that way,” Hallow said.
“Let’s get back to the lair,” I told Dad. “Let Mavis have her Christmas.”
We walked through the linen closet. I picked up the pouch of Poison Lyceria. If M
avis was right and this could bind him to death, then I might want it. “You ready, Dad? Your last portal ride was probably a little rough.”
“I was glad to have skipped lunch,” he said. “But I’m ready to do it again.”
“You remember the song, or should I take you through?”
“The colorful whirl one, right?”
“That’s it. Remember that Dei Lucrii doesn’t know we are on to him at this point. You invite him into the house while I finish his potion in the lair.” I touched his shoulder. “Can you do that? Can you be in the room with him, knowing he may have been a part of Mom’s death?”
He nodded. “It’s part of his takedown. Let’s do this.”
I picked up Hallow and started the chant. Time to face the enemy.
23: Hoo-Rah
Hallow wheezed at me on the floor of Mom’s lair. “Trying to squeeze the life out of me, nix?” He gestured wildly at my forehead. “You might want to wear a hat. It’s bloody chilly in here.”
Yikes. Right. I was marked correctly now. I clapped my hand over my star and looked around for something to cover it before Dei Lucrii realized I had changed it.
Dei Lucrii bent down to peer beneath the half-raised garage door. Snow had drifted in and melted on the floor, leaking in rivulets across the concrete.
I whipped away and lunged for a scarf on a hook in the back corner, winding it around my head and covering as much of my face as possible. “It’s freezing in here! We left the door open!”
“You left in a hurry,” Dei Lucrii said. “Did I spook you?”
“Yes!” I said. He couldn’t know I was on to him, despite my dramatic exit at his house. “I got lost in the portals! Sorry if I was rude.”
Dad sailed through the portal then, landing awkwardly on the floor. “Blooming brilliant way to travel,” he said. He righted himself and waved at Dei Lucrii. “We have a guest! Come on in!”
I tapped Dad on the back. “He’ll muss his very distinguished clothes. Bring him in through the front door.” I tried to smile with dazzle, but Hallow groaned. I shoved him with my shoe.
Dad didn’t miss a beat. “Right-e-o, Jet. Of course. Come around front, young man! I’ll whip up some eggnog.” When Dei Lucrii walked away, Dad turned to me and squeezed my hand. “Do well, Jet. I have faith in you.”
He headed through the kitchen, and I fought with the garage door to get it lowered again. Hallow waited on the desk as I unwrapped my head. It was still wretchedly cold, so I used the scarf as a shawl.
“Hopefully Dad can keep him entertained,” I said. “I’ll work swiftly.”
The lair was a wreck. The cauldron was smudged with soot, and the ingredients had scattered. The grasswort vial was broken and the contents useless, but that was all right. I was replacing it with Poison Lyceria anyway. The newborn tears were still fine, and a few mushrooms still seemed usable. I searched around the lair and found another pea spider’s web. The toad eggs were okay, and the bottle of rat urine was sideways but still had enough inside for another batch.
I couldn’t find the hair of the virgin, though. Dang. Even if my hair had been red, well, yeah. I didn’t exactly qualify. I looked at Hallow. He raised his paws. “Don’t look at me. I’m a ferret lothario.”
I had to think. If we could substitute poison for grasswort, then maybe we could replace the hair of the virgin with something else. Why did it have to be a virgin’s hair anyway?
I arranged the ingredients for quick mixing and flipped through the Book of Shadows, which was pristine despite the explosion. I needed a protection spell as good as that.
Cookbooks always had a list of substitutions. Maybe this one had something similar. The handwriting of the spells at the front of the book was done in calligraphy, like the one at Martel’s house. “Æ ábelgan,” one said, and scribbled below, “Anger Rite.”
Didn’t need any more of that around here.
I thumbed through others, some without modern notations, then skipped through blank pages to the back. A last page was titled “ǽrendraca.” Below it said, “proxy.” Hopefully this was it.
Some of the words were still in the old language, but farther down the list they became normal again.
Werewolf teeth — substitute wolf teeth for level 3 and under
Hempfly larvae — monarch butterfly larvae works for most spells
I scanned the list. The only reference to hair was a warning never to replace enchanter hair with nix hair.
“That didn’t help,” I told Hallow, who was punching a paw into his bed and recoiling from the soot.
“You need to learn some household spells.” He pushed aside a pile of papers to uncover a knit hat that I recognized as Mom’s. He curled up inside it, and my chest tightened, remembering the bright red stripes covering her hair in winters past.
“I need Mom. She didn’t prepare me for this.”
“She couldn’t have seen this coming. You’d been perfectly hidden for twenty years.”
“Who ratted us out?” I turned the book back to the passion-potion spell, not sure what I’d do without virgin hair.
“Tess had no idea. But everyone knew Gem had a daughter. They just had to search.”
“Now that I’m marked as a Golden, should we try those shops for more hair?”
“Not until I’ve had a nap.”
“Hallow!” I snatched the hat and tumbled him out of it. “Do you think it’s safe to leave the lair for a while?” I’d left Dad with Dei Lucrii. Not good. Not good. “Will anyplace be open on Christmas?”
“I’ll let you go find out.”
He really was a little rat. “I’m going to change your name to Rodent.”
The ferret didn’t even flinch. “Your insults mean nothing to me.”
I approached the pewter bowl, wishing I could see Caleb. My stomach clenched, picturing the last time I saw him, as he disappeared into nothing. “What did Genevieve’s mom do to Caleb?”
“Dissolve spell. Standard issue. Pretty bloody uncomfortable, I hear. You become a spirit for about twelve hours.”
Even with the drive, only about four hours had passed. I shook the bowl, bringing up the mist. “Mavis? Are you there?” She was probably still mad.
But the face that came up was Rah’s.
“What are you doing in your mom’s lair?”
“She’s trying to fix Christmas dinner. I’ve been sitting here forever trying to figure out how to use this thing.”
“It’s a portal, but I don’t think you can come through it by yourself, since you’re human.” I couldn’t see a mark on her, and her true nature would be visible to me.
“Tell me about this guy.” Her pink hair was down now, and she tugged at the ends nervously. “I like the rich part.”
“He’s one of the most powerful enchanters of this generation,” I said. “But he’s not a good kind.”
“Like the bad boy of magic?” Her eyes lit up.
“More like the big bad guy.”
“So you can make this guy like me?”
“I think so.”
“And I can’t screw it up even if I try?”
I glanced at Hallow. He shrugged.
“Yeah.”
“Okay, so here’s what I know.” She held the portal with both hands, and her face was so close I had to back away. “Mom said that if I saw you again, no matter what, do NOT give you one of my hairs.” She grasped a thick hunk of it. “I’m guessing that means you could use it in your spell.”
I paced in a circle. What if I did use her hair instead of a virgin’s? “Wait a second.” I remembered another spell I had passed in the book. I flipped through. Yes, this one Mom had apparently used a few times. “Be Agreeable,” the spell said. For a version called “To the random lady at the DMV,” she’d used virgin hairs. But for one, she’d substituted the actual hair of one of my teachers. Ms. Morgan. I totally remembered her. Big. Mean. And, nice to me. Oh, that Mom! She’d put a spell on her to save me sitting in the corner all the time!
But wait, if she used virgin hair when she didn’t know someone, and the actual hair when she did know them, that meant a virgin hair created an open spell, to be used on anyone.
If I had an actual hair, it could be for someone in particular.
“I’ve got it. I’ll come for your hair.”
“I want to see this guy first.” Rah glanced behind her. “Someone’s coming.”
“He’s at my house with Dad. Can you get away?”
She nodded. “I will.” She moved away, and all I could see was the wall of the lair.
We had a plan.
24: Like a Virgin Hair
I dumped the potion ingredients into the cauldron. Newborn tears. Rat urine. Spiderweb. Toad eggs. Mushrooms.
“This isn’t going to work,” Hallow said.
“Of course it will. I’ll put Rah’s hair in the potion, Dei Lucrii will drink it, and then he’ll love her —” I dropped in a berry of Poison Lyceria to replace the grasswort —“until he dies.”
Hallow sat up in Mom’s hat. “Why would he drink it? He wants YOU to drink it.”
I sat down in the chair. “Right.” Crap. “We’ll have to trick him.”
Hallow began pacing the desk. “You have to think this through.” He stopped in front of me. “I don’t want to live in that hellhole realm. You should see the ferrets there!”
I forced a stunted laugh. “I have, trust me.”
“When Dei Lucrii sees you, he’s going to see your mark, and he’ll know the game is up.”
I leaned my head on the desk. “I know, I know.”
“He has to think it is to his advantage to drink it.”
I stood back up. “It’s going to work out. I know it.” I pulled the bottle of sea foam from my pocket.
“You sure that is safe?”
“Nope.”
Hallow jumped from the desk to the far corner of the lair. I glanced at the portal. Everything was dark. No Caleb would come out to save me.
“I have to try,” I said.
I uncapped the bottle and tilted it, allowing one small drop to fall into the cauldron. The inside hissed, but no explosion. I let a breath escape and tilted it once more. Except for the hair, the potion was complete.
The door to the lair opened, and Dad poked his head through. “We have more company!”