“What’s in the bag?” Peter asked.
“Two dozen birthday candles, a can of cream soda, a bag of glass marbles, gingerbread man cookies, and a picture of an oak leaf. It was supposed to be an actual leaf, but I couldn’t find one so Lacey said a picture would be fine. I had to go to the library and pull one out of a book.” I felt rather bad about it.
Peter’s pale eyebrows disappeared into the light fringe of his hair. “Really? Lacey and that teacher are going to conjure up some major mumbo jumbo and that’s what they need?”
“Yup.” I didn’t want to admit it, but I’d been wondering if Lacey had given me the list to waste my time out of spite. I couldn’t even imagine how any of it would be useful in banishing a ghost.
“What’s our cover story then?”
“Miko’s worked it out. She’s telling Tynan and Daley we’re having a sort of magic intervention for Lacey at Cailleach’s.”
“We’re going to her place?”
I shook my head. “Lacey said it was a neutral location that wouldn’t make Melusine suspicious.”
“Nice.” Peter grinned and I could feel his renewed tension through our bond. He was so tightly sprung now that he always seemed ready to explode into action. That terrible anger was gone, but I couldn’t lie to myself anymore that a Protector was a glorified bodyguard. A Protector was a warrior.
When we arrived at the mansion, I grabbed the bag and climbed into the middle row after a look from Peter. Miko slipped into the seat I’d vacated, but after a murmured greeting, they were silent.
I was surprised when Tynan got in the van and sat in the very back. Daley eased in beside me. Melusine floated into the empty spot beside Tynan with an acid look in my direction.
“So,” Peter said, “where are we going again?”
I checked the map on my phone. “Go north on Holt Road. Right before you get to Conlin, turn at King Lane.”
He nodded. “That’s not too far, maybe 5 minutes.”
I checked the clock on the dash: 5:45. By the time we turned on to Holt at 5:52, my stomach was wound tight around a knot of marigold and I was having serious second thoughts about the whole thing. The sun hadn’t fully set, but there were no streetlights and it was dark and eerie—particularly with a ghost in your car on All Hallow’s Eve.
Peter stopped the car and put it in park.
“What’s wrong?”
“What was the address again?”
“King Lane, corner of King and Holt.”
“That can’t be right. Holt ends here.”
I took off my seat belt to look over the dash. Peter was right—the road had come to an end and the headlights showed an overgrown path in front of us. I checked my phone again. “Holt’s supposed to go all the way to Conlin Road.”
“Well, it doesn’t.” He grabbed the phone. “Wait a sec while I check something.”
I glanced over at Daley. Melusine had her arms wrapped around his shoulders from behind and her claws had become translucent fingers again. The helpless longing of her pose and Daley’s constant caress of the necklace made me feel guilty, but also seriously creeped out.
And then Melusine’s eyes opened and there was so much menace in them that I couldn’t wait to exorcise her pretty little behind.
“Cool.” Peter said as he passed the phone back to me.
“What?”
“It’s a trap street.”
“What?” Tynan repeated from the back.
“A trap street.” Peter twisted around. “You’re kidding me, right? Do you guys seriously not know? A trap street is a street that doesn’t exist. Map makers put them in so if somebody copies their map, they can tell. I read about them online, but I never thought I’d find one.”
Peter was in geek heaven, but I wondered if this was another element of the spell. Names were important. Maybe magic flowed freer in a place that didn’t have a real name to bind it.
Daley was impatient. “We must have the wrong address. Somebody call Lacey.”
I checked the clock: 5:59. “There’s no service,” I lied as I put the phone in my pocket.
Tynan leaned forward. “There’s probably something up ahead we can’t see, maybe a private road. If Lacey’s got as deep into witchcraft as Rhi says, then we should at least try.”
“Ty’s right.” Miko pointed. Easy to miss in the darkness, Lacey’s car was parked just off the path.
Daley shrugged and the ghost hopped on his knee and nestled into him.
Peter pulled forward a few more feet and then put the van back into park. “I think we’re walking from here.”
As I got out, Miko linked her arm through mine and pulled me ahead of the others. Her skin was cold and clammy and I suppressed a shudder of revulsion as I shook her off.
Her face went blank. “He knows,” she hissed and I shivered again at the new sibilance in her voice.
“Daley?”
She shook her head. “Tynan. He was getting suspicious so I had to tell him everything.” She glanced over her shoulder to make sure no one was close enough to hear. “He wasn’t surprised.”
“He remembers seeing Melusine?”
“I don’t know. He’s not happy though. The only thing that convinced him was telling him Melusine wants to hurt you and is getting strong enough to do it.” She wasn’t wrong. The long scratch on my forearm was proof.
The fairy looked scared. “And there’s something else. I heard Binnorie singing yesterday when I was in the hallway outside my room. I’ve never heard her sing on her own like that.” She hesitated. “I don’t want to tell you . . .”
“Miko . . .”
She sighed. “She was singing that the dragon was going to peel your skin off like a banana.”
My heart thumped in my chest and yellow alarm pulsed with it, but I ignored them both. I checked my phone again: 6:02. The path ended at a small clearing with a picnic table off to one side. Lacey and Cailleach were waiting for us.
“Give me the bag,” Lacey demanded and I handed to her.
The others arrived and Peter put the camping lantern he was carrying on the table. The light illuminated a lit cigarette balancing on the edge and Melusine flitted over to it, gazing at it longingly.
“Melusine used to smoke in her room when Daley wasn’t home,” Miko said with wonder in her voice. “She knew he wouldn’t like it if he ever found out.”
“You can see her?”
Miko nodded. Melusine was getting stronger.
Cailleach’s eyes were black pits in her face. “Belief begets reality. The god of thunder’s belief in his love for the dragon girl has tethered her to this world, but it is your belief and desire for her which has brought her back to the brink of life.” The woman wasn’t looking at me or Daley with her unblinking, round eyes.
She was looking at Tynan.
“What’s she talking about?” Daley asked.
Tynan’s eyes were fixed on the ghost. “Melusine is with us. I can’t always see her, but I can feel her. She misses you. She misses me too. Sometimes I talk to her so she won’t be lonely.”
Daley tried to put his hands on his brother’s shoulders, but Tynan shook him off. “Ty, I know you cared for her—maybe more than you should have, but that’s OK. I wish it wasn’t true, but she’s gone. We have to accept it.”
Tynan’s face changed and his voice became darker. “Try telling that to Rhi.”
Daley frowned and looked at me. I pointed to where Melusine hovered around the cigarette. “Melusine is here. Her spirit is tied to her necklace, but she needs to move on. You can’t see her, but I can. You don’t know that she’s changing, becoming something more than just a ghost. Lacey and Cailleach offered to help us, but we were afraid that if we told you, you wouldn’t come.”
Sparks began to flicker around Daley’s head and thunder boomed in the distance. “You know what you should do, Rhiannon? You should mind your own damn business.”
Miko rushed forward. “It’s true. I can see her now too.”
A gasp to my left. “Holy crap!” Peter said, “So can I.”
“Me too,” Lacey said calmly.
Daley clenched his fists. “Why can’t I see her then?”
That’s a good question.
Cailleach advanced and Melusine moved away until she hovered between Tynan and Daley. “The collective power of our belief in the girl, aided by the Path close by, is making her more solid by the minute. What we have come to do, we must do quickly or we will have no control over her at all.”
I checked my phone again: 6:04.
I closed my eyes. Maybe the bond between Melusine and the necklace was keeping Daley from seeing her. Extending my senses, I found the spot of blazing aquamarine centered over Daley’s heart. Wisps crept from it and connected to his colors.
It was worth a shot. I opened my eyes and put out my hand. “If you want to see her, give me the necklace.” Thunder boomed, closer now, but after a brief hesitation, he slipped the necklace off and gave it to me. The wheel charm had been threaded onto the chain as well. I removed the jewel and then passed the chain and charm back to Daley.
What I’d once thought was a precious blue stone in silver was just white glass surrounded by silver-plated wire. Placing it on the picnic table, I smashed it with the base of the lantern, shattering the glass and twisting the metal.
“What are you doing?” Daley yelled and then stopped as he saw Melusine’s ghostly form for the first time. “Mel?”
Lacey laughed as she rummaged through the contents of the bag. “I meant regular candles, not birthday candles.” But she pulled them out, so I guessed they would do. Marking out the edges of a short walkway with the candles, she then made a circle with the marbles at the end of it. She lit the candles with the cigarette and took a long drag before snuffing it out.
Lacey smoking is almost as disturbing as standing five feet away from a ghost that wants to peel me like fruit.
Cailleach gestured and Lacey addressed us in the same voice she used to belt out show tunes. “At the setting of the sun, we embrace Samhain and the world stands on a knife edge between light and dark, life and death. Cailleach, the divine crone and great queen of winter, rises in her power and the door to the Otherworld opens. I pass through the candles for purification and the circle of stones is my protection from all hostile spirits.” Lacey promenaded through the candles and Cailleach watched as if she were judging her performance at a beauty pageant.
Lacey held up the picture of the oak leaf. “The veil is thin and like the druids of old, we summon immortality by the power of the sacred oak.” She burned the picture in the flame of the last candle. A thread of slate-grey flashed across my eyes and seemed to wind through my skull and down my spine. Talk of immortality didn’t sound like an exorcism. Yellow warning flickered on the edges of my sight.
Lacey scattered the ashes in the center of the circle and poured the can of soda on top. “Food and drink to appease the spirits who walk free this night. It would normally be milk or wine, but milk is too weak for this casting, and sending you to buy wine might have drawn too much attention. It doesn’t really matter; it’s the looks that count. Most spirits aren’t too smart. Sorry Melusine.” Lacey giggled and her pupils were dilated.
Melusine drifted away from Daley and wafted into the circle. As she brushed ghostly fingers at the liquid puddled on the ground, her claws returned and an impression of pearly scales rippled across her hands.
“What’s happening?” Daley whispered.
Tynan replied before I could. “Melusine is haunting you and we’re sending her on.”
Daley rounded on his brother. “What?” The thunder crashed closer this time.
“It’s what Rhi wanted.”
Daley grabbed me. I gasped as his nails dug into my skin and electricity followed. “What are you doing?”
“Melusine doesn’t belong here. We’re doing this to protect you!”
“Shut up!” Lacey’s voice was unnaturally amplified. “You’re interrupting my casting!”
Daley’s hair and face sparkled with electricity as he shook me. “What gives you the right? Who made you Melusine’s judge and executioner?”
“Daley, she’s already dead!”
“I won’t let you take her away from me again!” Daley’s fingers emitted electric shocks and I cried out in pain.
With a murmured incantation, Cailleach gestured and an invisible force pushed us away from one another. “Enough! This casting is bound by the circle of stones and none may disturb it. See.” She pointed. “The spirit is already caught.”
“Mel . . .,” Daley groaned. The ghost reached for him with claw-tipped fingers and then pulled back as she encountered an invisible barrier at the limit of the stones. Daley stared at her in desperation and a hot wind began to swirl between them. Tynan stood behind his brother with a sad expression on his face.
I felt as if someone had thrown cold water over my head. Had I truly believed Daley would thank me for ripping his dead girlfriend away from him? Was I really that stupid? Ugly honesty the color of dead worms smacked me in the face.
I’m doing this because I’m jealous of Melusine.
Miko touched my arm. “This doesn’t feel right. Make it stop.”
I looked at Peter and he shrugged. “Your call.” But I could feel his true emotions through our bond. Peter currently wasn’t very fond of supernatural exes and would be just as happy for me to send Melusine on her merry little way.
Despite my less than pure motives, I knew the ghost was a threat, but the colors of this magic were dark and reminded me of the Dobhar-chú. Cailleach watched me closely as I approached the stone circle. “Lacey, stop. I don’t want to go through with this.” She ignored me as she crushed the gingerbread men and scattered the fragments on the ground.
“Spice cake in the shape of the god of death to feed him as he returns to the underworld,” Lacey intoned.
“Stop!” I tried to cross the circle, but it was like hitting a brick wall. Falling hard on my back, the air was knocked out of my lungs and searing pain flashed into my head.
This has gone to hell.
I forced the pain away as Peter helped me to my feet. “This isn’t right. There’s got to be another way.” Lacey hesitated, but Cailleach gestured and she flinched.
“C’mon Lacey, we’re friends . . .”
“Friends! Are you kidding me? How could I be friends with someone who sneaks around in the shadows? I’ve always seen you for what you really are.” Her voice broke. “You took away the only guy I ever cared about. And do you want to know what the worst thing about that is? Do you? You didn’t even want him! You were going to do the same thing to Melusine. You think you have power, but I have power now too. And wait till you see what Melusine’s really like once she’s reincarnated into her true form.” She smirked. “Actually, maybe you’d better skip that part. I have absolutely no idea why, but she doesn’t like you very much. Isn’t it funny how you have that effect on people?” Lacey’s face had hardened into an echo of Cailleach’s.
Dismissing me, Lacey put out her hand and Melusine raked a claw across it. Lacey winced and then made a fist. Drops of blood dripped on the ground.
Blood magic.
The strands of their hair rose and mingled together as the spell gained strength. Lacey began to chant and Cailleach joined her:
I am the wind on the sea.
I am the roar of the wave.
I am the bull of seven battles and the hawk upon the cliff.
I am dew and flower, fish and lake.
I am the mountain made flesh.
I am the word and the point of a weapon.
Fire bursts from my head and the moon is ordered by my will.
Return from Tethys’ kingdom, O beast of the sunset,
And receive my enchantment of wind and spear.
I wanted to hide from the mess I’d made—run and hide until the world was black and white and choices were easy—but I’d bungled everything in the
worst way possible and I was going to have to somehow fix it. If Viviane’s frozen wall in my soul was keeping me from accessing real power, then it was time to bring all barriers down.
I descended through myself to that bruised and damaged place. Morgan’s spell had healed most of the wound, but the dark spot in the center still remained. Mom—Viviane—had built this wall in my mind to protect me from the power I was heir to—a power that was maybe too powerful for me to contain. I needed that power to make things right.
I wanted it too.
I believe fear is white and thickly veined with blue the color of the sea. I believe it is an icy edifice which keeps me from my true self.
But ice melts.
The wall was a symbol of everything that had been denied me. I could see power as color and there was enough crimson rage to call up a fire capable of destroying it. I brought Viviane’s wall down, damning all consequences. As the colors of her spell dissipated, a dark emptiness was revealed—the corruption that had been breaking through the barrier. I had a moment to register its full horror and then color poured through it from somewhere outside myself. I reached for the surface of my mind before I drowned in it.
I had done something terrible.
When I opened my eyes, flames of magic still danced on my palm. “Daley,” I whispered. He saw the flames in my hand and understood. Joining me, he gestured for Tynan to flank us, but Tynan had backed up to the edges of the clearing, slinking into the darkness like the figure in my dream. I turned back to the witches and their ghost. In response, Cailleach moved behind the circle, but Lacey and Melusine were oblivious.
“Lacey, I’m not kidding. You need to stop. Now!” I flicked my wrist and sent a tongue of flame out to test the boundary of the stones. It held. Lacey lifted her arms to the sky and Melusine’s ghostly form began to solidify into living flesh.
We were running out of time. I could sense Peter at my back, ready to fight. There was a ripping, flapping sound and I knew Miko had unfurled her new wings.
“Well done, little witch, but you need to go back to the kiddie table and let the grown-ups take it from here.” A woman in a white coat and gloves stepped into the clearing with someone unexpected in tow: Boudica.
Sword of Elements Series Boxed Set 2: Bound In Blue, Caught In Crimson & To Make A Witch Page 19