by Multiple
“Rah?”
He nodded. “She said to give you this.” He handed me a long pink hair.
“I take it she likes him.”
“He’s a charmer. Wondering where you are, though. When I said you were mixing up the potion, he jumped out of his skin, but I assured him you had gotten fresh ingredients.” He sniffed. “He already wrote a check for the costs.”
Hallow stepped out from his corner. “Not the brightest bloke. He should be asking why a nix is mixing, if he’s trying to continue the ruse.”
I shrugged. “He’s just playing along. We all are. Tell him I’ll be there with it in just a moment.”
“Jet, you sure you know what you are doing? Once you come out of the lair, you’re not safe.”
I shrugged. “Dumb luck has gotten me this far.”
“I can’t lose you, too.”
“Hey, worst-case scenario, you’ll have evil overlords as grandkids.”
“But this man’s father…”
I bit my lip. “If I’m his daughter-in-law, I assure you, Mom will be avenged.”
Dad stepped down into the lair and pulled me into his embrace. “I don’t think I’ve told you how proud of you I am.”
I pressed my face into his shirt, still sooty and reeking of smoke and dungeon. “You told me every day, Dad.”
“It wasn’t enough.” He let me go.
I dropped the hair into the cauldron, and it puffed up with tendrils of pink smoke. “I guess I’ll take a stab at these words.” No one had ever pronounced them for me. I’d just have to do my best.
Powers to the east, rise to the chant.
Powers to the west, grant the spell I incant.
Edel aye benevel arun
Constalent aye mal
Bestill amar en naught
Faire luven todos ovan
The cauldron began to bubble, and the pink mist spurted upward. Dad and I stepped back, holding on to each other.
After a moment, it settled down. I peered into the bowl. A thick pink liquid lay along the bottom.
“Pour it up,” Dad said. He rummaged on a shelf and produced a slender clear bottle.
I wasn’t sure how to dip it out or lift the heavy cauldron to pour, but when the bottle touched the edge of the bowl, it didn’t matter. The pink potion siphoned itself into the glass, filling it to the brim.
“Look at that,” Dad said. “It’s beautiful.”
Tears pricked my eyes. Was this worth Mom’s life? I suddenly wanted to smash it against the wall and walk away. This was nonsense, the whole thing. I think Dad knew what I was feeling as he pulled me in. “Sometimes we have to make the best of what life brings us.”
I nodded and clutched the bottle close. “Let’s do this thing.”
25: Threesomes
Hallow rode on my shoulder as we passed through the kitchen to the living room.
Rah sat on the floor at Dei Lucrii’s feet like a supplicant, or part of his harem. She’d dressed up for the meeting in a tawny gold dress, and her hair curled around her shoulders like a pink cloud.
Dei Lucrii seemed to be attentive to her, and I thought for a second, hey, maybe this could work, but when he saw me, he stood as if Rah had never existed. She frowned for a moment, then spotted the pink potion in my hands and brightened.
“Jet! Your mark!” Dei Lucrii stepped forward, hands out.
“Let’s cut the bullshit. I know you already knew.” I stopped in the center of the room, Dad just behind me. “You planned to trap me in the spirit world, but I was too plucky for you. We Goldens come with some common sense, standard issue.” I thrust the potion at him.
He took the bottle. “You got it done.”
“I didn’t owe it to you. I don’t owe you anything after what happened to my mother.” I wouldn’t accuse him, not yet.
“I am so sorry about that accident. This is a volatile potion. She knew it was a risk.” He stared down into the pink liquid.
I saw Dad tense and knew how hard it was for him to just stand by. “So are you going to drink it now or what?”
He glanced up at me, still sporting the friendly look. “Oh, no, it’s not for me.”
“Right. You think it’s for me. You want my everlasting love and Golden babies.” I backed away a few steps. I didn’t really know where this was going, but I had to keep him here and get him to drink it.
“Well, I had intended to use it on another, but now that I’ve seen you —”
“Spare me the love talk. We’re here to strike a bargain, not act like teenagers.”
“It’s probably in your best interest to go easily.” He gestured to Dad and Rah. “Your friends and family can be part of your future. Or not.”
“Why try flattery when a threat is just as good?”
“Be reasonable, Jet. Think of how powerful our children will be.”
Suddenly, I had it. I stepped forward. “Tell me.”
“I’m a Dark Enchanter. One of the few that exist. You are a rare Golden. Our kids will have both legacies in their blood.”
“So they could choose to be good like their mother or horrible like their father?”
“I’m not so horrible.” He gave a wide smile, and I had to confess, damn, he lit up the room.
I sidled closer to him, feeling Hallow tense on my shoulder. “Not so horrible. Dad, Rah, can you leave us a moment? I want to see if there is any spark here.” Manufacturing sparks was the one thing I did best.
“Come, Rah, to the kitchen.” Dad took Hallow from me. “Jet has a big decision to make.” He led her out of the living room.
“We’re alone now,” I said, taking the bottle from his hand and setting it on a table. He smelled of winter and forest, and now that I was close, his jaw was seriously chiseled, a cleft in the chin. “Did you run a romance-novel-cover spell or something to look like you do? I’m pretty sure you’re probably ordinary under all this GQ goodness.”
“Why try a threat when flattery will do?” His eyes narrowed, as if he were focusing in on what part of my speech was a lie. All of it, honey. Every word.
“You like threats better?” I grabbed his shirt and jerked him toward me. “I’m not some virginal nix who doesn’t get what breeding entails. Make me happy, or lose your equipment.”
He laughed, low in his chest. “I could get used to threats.”
His mouth was inches from mine. For the first time in the past few days, I was glad of my wealth of experience with men. “I’ve been wondering about those lips. Do they taste as good as they look?”
Dei Lucrii still didn’t relax into me, and I felt his distrust in the firm hold of his arms when he wrapped them around me. “You decide.” He bent down and crushed his lips into mine.
His kiss would have been up there, had I never met Caleb. Rough and fiery, with a lot of kick, his arms pressing me into his chest so hard that my hands were trapped between us. But he only had the hot part down, and none of the tender. He probably wasn’t capable of that. Dark Enchanters couldn’t afford the risk of emotions.
I was a really good fake, and I sighed against his mouth like a lovelorn schoolgirl. “I only ask for one thing.”
“What’s that?” He smiled down at me as though he was certain I was under his spell.
“If we’re going to do this, we should do it the right way.”
He released me. “And how is that?”
“I just think that, rather than the obvious conquer and impregnate that you’re used to, we should actually join in an equal partnership.”
He crossed his arms. “I don’t trust you any more than you trust me.”
I picked up the potion. “This would ensure we didn’t care.”
He raised his eyebrows. “You really think I would drink your potion?”
“I’m sure you can tell what it is. You can’t be tricked.”
He accepted the bottle again, sniffed it, and turned it in his hands as though he were reading something. Caleb had said the bottles had labels once you knew the sp
ell to reveal them. “I can see that it’s the passion potion.”
“I say we both drink it. We’ll bind to each other rather than making me your love slave.”
“Ha. No way. I don’t want to bind to anyone.”
“Then watch your back. Because I already escaped you as an untrained nix who didn’t know anything. How easy will it be to control me when I am a full-fledged enchantress?”
“I’ll make sure you are under my control.”
“Will you?” I circled him. “What about the other Goldens? You don’t think they won’t try to rescue me? Or my father? He blames you for Mom’s death.”
“I had nothing to do with that. I had nothing to gain from her dying.”
“Really? Didn’t it seem much easier to get to me without a trained enchantress protecting me? Too bad you were too slow. Seems I’ve already started figuring things out.”
“You’re not like any Golden our world has ever seen.”
“Exactly. So isn’t it better if we do this together? No one will want to take me away if it’s clear we’re happy together, that I wasn’t conquered.” I moved in close again and ran my finger down the chilly bottle. “Because otherwise, I’m going to fight you. I’ve already sent out doppelgängers to rally the other Goldens. They are to watch you, to see how you treat me.” God, the bluff. I had no idea how to contact them.
But he seemed a little shaken by this and looked around the room, as though expecting someone to arrive.
I took the bottle from him. “If only I drink it, you’ve abducted me. If we both do, then we are a match.”
I tugged a strand of my hair from beneath the headband and held it above the bottle. “Just me, and a rescue to fight off? Or do we do it together and be stupid lovesick parents of evil underlords?”
He pressed his hand on my forehead and chanted something I didn’t recognize.
“Is this the passion potion I sent you?” he asked.
I couldn’t control my lips. “Yes.”
“Did you modify it?”
My mouth was a direct feed that I couldn’t intercept.
“Yes.”
“I thought so. What did you change?”
“Grasswort to Poison Lyceria.”
He looked down at the bottle. “You made it permanent?”
“Till death do us part.”
He let go of my forehead. “It was only supposed to last through the birth of a child.”
My mouth was my own again. “I have abandonment issues.”
“Okay,” he said. He pulled a hair from his blond ponytail. “Give me yours.” He took both strands and blew on them. They twisted together, blond on blond. He let them fall into the bottle.
The potion hissed. “It’s done, then,” he said.
“All but the drinking,” I said. “Ladies first?”
He passed it to me. I took a sip.
“Small for me and small for you, then bigger for me and bigger for you?”
“All right.” He accepted the bottle and also sipped.
Sparks started flying through my head. I grabbed the bottle and drank again, a hearty swig this time. I stumbled a moment, feeling light and happy. “Here.” I passed the potion to him. “This is too much fun.”
He watched me a moment, waiting.
In the firelight, he looked so striking and young. “You are the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen,” I said, and meant it. But another tug began to move inside my belly. Where was Rah?
He smiled and took the bottle back and also gulped it down.
I ran his hand down the ponytail. “I’ve always liked long hair on men.” I meant that too, but still the nag persisted. Where was Rah? I wanted her with an urgent need. I had to see her right now. “Where did Rah go?”
“You mean that human girl?”
I heard voices in the kitchen. “I have to go right now.” I pulled away from him.
He grabbed for my hand. “It’s time to go home. We can use your portal. The bad-intentions spell won’t keep out your match.”
My match. Caleb. Thinking his name drew out something else in me, but still, the strident need for Rah kept me moving. “Let me go to the kitchen just for a moment.” He watched me, and I saw the change hit him as well. I dashed to the door.
Rah and Dad stood by the sink, talking quietly. Just seeing her made me feel better. I rushed up to hug her.
“Um, Jet, are you okay?” Her eyes went wide. “Did you drink the potion?”
“We both did!”
“Where is she?” Dei Lucrii’s voice boomed from the living room. “Where is Rah?”
Dad headed toward the door. “I think it’s working.”
Rah smoothed her hair. “I’m coming, my dear!”
I ran after her. “Wait!” I didn’t want her to leave me.
Dad stopped so suddenly just outside the door that Rah smashed into him, and then I crashed into her. The living room was blinding with golden light.
“We have company,” Dad said.
I peered around him. Three Golden Enchantresses stood together in the living room, frowning at Dei Lucrii. “Who performed an illegal love enchantment?” one demanded.
Everyone turned to look at me.
26: The Golden Girls
I held a hand in front of my face. “Can you put a dimmer on that thing? You’re going to melt the snow off the roof.”
The three Golden Enchantresses looked at one another, and just like the doppelgänger of Gem in the spirit world, they reverted to their normal selves. I looked down at my hands, wondering how I could get my glow on.
The one in the center, the tallest, with lovely long red hair flowing around her aging face, peered at my forehead. “We were not told another Golden had been born.” She turned to the others. “How was she missed?” They began talking among themselves.
Dei Lucrii grasped Rah’s arm. “We’ll just be going now. You can sort all this out.” He pulled her toward the front door, but paused to look at me with disdain. “Why did I ever even think of capturing you?”
Great. One last rejection.
He was already halfway across the room. “Wait!” I called. “You can’t take her!”
Dad held on to me, preventing me from moving away.
Without a word, one of the Goldens held up a hand, and everyone froze except me. I walked around Dei Lucrii to approach Rah, her pink curls flying around her face in perfect stillness, like a video on pause.
“Tell us who you are,” the smallest enchantress said, looking very stern with her hair all tied up in a gray bun.
“I’m Jet, daughter of Tessandra and granddaughter of Gem.” I grasped Rah’s stiff hand. “Don’t let him take her away.”
The women muttered a few more things, but I couldn’t pull myself from Rah. Her clothing wasn’t frozen, so I straightened her skirt where it had hiked above her knee.
“Why did you run an illegal spell?” the redhead asked.
“No choice.” I reached up to smooth Rah’s face. Such a beautiful girl.
“Did you take the potion yourself?” The redhead came forward.
“Oh, yes. I had to drink it to get Dei Lucrii to take it. Seems like we’ve both fallen for Rah.” I turned to them. “Can you release her now? It will be a lot easier to get away if you give us a head start.”
“You can’t go with her,” the small one said. “You’re already matched. It’s on your wrist.”
I glanced down. I couldn’t see anything.
“Oh, for Pete’s sake, repeat after me.” The redhead was definitely annoyed. “Bedelage amante.”
“Bedelage amante,” I said. And there it was, a marking on my inside wrist. A green CEG. “What does that mean?”
“Caleb’s mark. You already did the first ritual, so you were marked.”
“The kiss?”
“Untrained enchanters,” the redhead muttered. “Yes. All your first rituals were marked on you until Caleb dismissed the others and you agreed.”
“The initials
of all the boys I kissed were on my arms?” Did I have that much room?
The redhead tapped her foot in annoyance. “I’m sure you looked like a tattooed lady from the circus, but you’re designated now.”
I looked at Rah. “But she’s the one.”
“It will take all of us to break the spell,” the third one said, a plump woman with bright eyes. “She used Poison Lyceria in it. It’s until death.”
“She’ll have to live with it,” the redhead said. “Same as Dei Lucrii.”
“I don’t mind.” I tried to go back to Rah, but the redhead held me with a threatening lift of her eyebrow.
“What a mess,” the little one said. “Binding Dei Lucrii to the human was probably helpful, but that girl can’t have them both.”
“If we three are all in agreement, we can release her,” the plump one said.
“I’m not in agreement,” the redhead said. “Illegal potions are illegal for a reason. Besides, if we break it, then he’s free too.”
Hallow chose that moment to stroll into the room. “Hello, ladies. Looking for a familiar?”
“Good grief, Hallow, you’re still hanging around here?” The little one bent down to pet him.
Geez. He was nice to THOSE enchanters.
Dei Lucrii started to move, his hand coming down by degrees.
“Shall we renew the freeze enchantment or let them thaw?” the plump one asked.
“Oh, let them go,” the redhead said. “This is a mess.”
“Are we going to punish her?” the plump one asked. “Illegal spells are usually an exile offense.”
“She’s not even trained. And a Golden. Someone would snatch her immediately.” The redhead circled the room, looking at Dad. “An unmarked enchanter. This is a huge problem.”
“I always thought so,” Hallow said. “But no one asked me.”
Dad’s arm dropped suddenly, smacking against his leg. The women were looking elsewhere, so I headed back to Rah, who was still unmoving.
Dei Lucrii moved his arms, then his head. He emitted a strange sound but wasn’t quite up for speech. Who cared? I waited for a change in Rah.
“Jet,” the redhead said. “Caleb dropped his other matches. I assume this means you wanted him?”
I tried to pull him forward in my mind, to feel something for him rather than Rah. “I did then.”