by Chloe Adler
“You did this?” the woman shrieked.
Aurelia slammed the door in her face but as soon as the woman went home, my mother turned the entire family into hedgehogs. It wore off a week later, and they moved out of the Edge for good.
I shiver. Even as an empath I can’t understand why Aurelia did that. Plus Thorn, poor Thorn. I throw my shoulders back and raise my chin. “Mama, let’s just go back into the living room with Alistair.”
She huffs and glares at Army.
“Just promise me you won’t turn any more creatures into other creatures. Let’s have a drama-free afternoon, all right?”
“It’s up to the cat.” She bares her teeth, which are surprisingly white for a woman her age. “If he shuts his trap, things will work out for him.”
“I thought you loved Army.”
Mom huffs. “I love the way he chases and eats rats. But love the cat? Why would I? He’s your cat. I’m just his food dispenser.”
“Did he act this way after I left?”
She glares at him. “He acted like I was his queen, but that was obviously an act.” She moves to kick him and he leaps out of the way with a strangled cry.
It makes sense that he would turn his affection toward her with me not there; that’s a survival mechanism in all animals. Most species need physical contact and love in order to survive.
Even Aurelia, who is obviously hurt over Army’s loyalty to me. I’m not surprised that she’s falling back on her usual coping mechanisms, saying whatever mean thing she can to cover up her true feelings. She can’t admit that the cat means anything at all to her or that he hurt her by missing me.
“Let’s go to the living room.” I pick up Army and walk behind her. On the way we pass the large bookcase in the hallway and I glance over, spying a few of my dad’s psychology books and running my finger along the spines. I wonder if Dom has any of the same books: Obedience to Authority, The Social Animal and of course, an early DSM. Mom kept a lot of Dad’s belongings but only the things that weren’t overtly his, the items no one would have looked at twice. The books tug at my heart. Each and every day that passes, I miss him. Is he still alive? Will he ever return? Maybe it’s because he was a psychologist that Dad loved Aurelia. It was how he saw past her facade and into her true nature. The one she hides, even from herself. Is it why Dom gets me too?
Where is Dom now and why are my thoughts on him and not on Caspian or Rhys?
Alistair sits in his favorite armchair.
“Let me just take the bread out of the oven before I forget.” Mother motions for me to take the couch, excusing herself to disappear into the kitchen.
“Your mother won’t say it outright, but she’s over the moon to have you back home,” says Alistair.
I let Armageddon go and he curls up on my lap, purring. “Thank you for saying so. She has mentioned she is happy that I’m here.”
Alistair’s eyes twinkle. “Beyond happy. And I’m glad too. I love living with her but the house felt too big. Too empty.” His eyes move to the sliding glass doors that take up the back of the living room, facing west, toward the water. The man is used to living with his grandsons on his houseboat, having more people around.
“Have you seen Carter and Julian lately?”
He looks back at me as though he only now realizes he’s not alone. “Yes, of course. They come for dinner at least once a week.”
“Here? With Chrys?” I cannot imagine Mom allowing Carter’s girlfriend back into her house. Even if she is my oldest sister. Not after Chrys turned her into a frog.
“Oh no, Chrys doesn’t join us.” He shakes his head a little, causing his wire-framed spectacles to drop down the bridge of his nose. “Or Rhys. I can’t get him over either. How is he?”
“Your other grandson is fine,” I lie. “He’s figuring some things out right now but after he does I’m sure he’d love to join his brothers.”
“I don’t know about that.” Alistair crosses his arms over his chest. “They didn’t grow up together. I always treated Rhys and Nolan poorly, like outsiders. I couldn’t wrap my head around what they were. I told myself I did it for them, so they could grow up with their cousins, because they had shifting in common.”
They did? So that’s why his cousins refer to Rhys and Nolan as crossbreeds! I thought it just meant they were part vampire and part shifter, not that they could actually shift.
Alistair is still talking and I zone back in. “What a fool I was, a racist fool, and I still haven’t apologized to either chap.”
Botting meows at the foot of Alistair’s chair and leaps into his lap. I have no idea how he got out of my room. I thought I’d closed the door. Armageddon tenses but I hold him on my lap and he stills.
“What an unusual cat.” Alistair pets Botting and he sits upright, pressing his head into the man’s hand.
“Iphigenia.” Mom returns, taking her seat in the other wingback chair. “I told you to leave that filthy cat in your room.”
“Darling,” Alistair’s voice is soft and smooth, “I wanted to meet Botting, give him a chance to integrate with our family. It’s not your daughter’s fault.”
Mom doesn’t say a word, just leans back with a huff. People lie around Aurelia all the time to manage her, to keep her from blowing her top like a pressure cooker, but I’d never heard Alistair do it. I throw him a smile when she’s not looking and he nods at me once, his lips tight, his white mustache quivering.
“Mama?” I fold my hands in my lap and sit up straight. You can do this, Iphi.
She glances at Alistair. “She’s calling me ‘Mama,’ she must want something.”
“And she’s your favorite daughter right now, darling, so do put on your listening ears.”
Did he really just say that to her?
Mother just crosses her arms over her stomach.
“I need your help,” I venture.
“With?”
“I need to cast a protection spell for the Edge, a ward—”
“No!”
Alistair leans over and places a hand on her arm. “Hear her out, Aury.”
She turns to glare at him. “Has she spoken to you about her wants before asking me?”
“No,” Alistair and I say in unison.
She looks between us and so does the cat. He’s watching her, watching us. “Why?”
“I . . .” I wet my lips. “You know the town is under attack.”
“Of course I do.”
“Terrible thing that,” Alistair clucks.
I don’t dare tell her that I gave my amulet away to the vampire responsible for turning this town on its end or that the ghouls and their master appear to be after me for reasons unknown. “If we put a ward over the town, the ghouls can no longer wreak havoc.” I brush some of Army’s hair off my sweater, anything to keep that multicolored gaze from burning through me.
“From what I understand, they’re only attacking humans. Why should I care what they do to that demographic?” She scrunches up her nose in disgust.
Alistair looks at me, eyes wide.
“They’ve started attacking vampires now too.” I glance from my mother to her vampire consort and back again.
Aurelia shakes her head slowly and stands. “Come.” She walks into the kitchen.
Really? That’s all it took to secure her help? I’ve been dreading this moment for days, plotting it and rehearsing it and thinking up a thousand different ways—including bawling and begging—to get her to help. But all I had to do was wait for Alistair to be in the room?
I shift Amy off my lap in a daze. Alistair scoops up Botting and stands, jutting his chin toward the open doorway. He leads and I follow.
The kitchen has always been my favorite room of this house. I take in the scents of all the herbs hanging from the rafters and cross to lean on the counter next to my mother. She lights the coals under her large cauldron. Alistair settles into a seat at the large wooden table, placing the cat back in his lap.
“Get me some
of my moon water,” she barks.
“Full, new, waxing or waning crescent?” I open the cabinets next to the sink and peer in at the labeled jars of water sitting in blue glass.
“Full, of course,” she snorts.
If I knew what to do, I’d have done this myself. But I bite my tongue and remove the correct container. At least she’s letting me watch. I half expect her to shoo me out of the room because what she wants to do is too dangerous, something she did a million times growing up.
She uncorks it and pours it into the cauldron. “Cast the circle.”
Oh wow. Not just watching then. I fly across the kitchen to grab four white candles and her athame before she can change her mind. I pace around the kitchen, placing them in their perspective bronze holders. Each is four feet high and permanently situated in the four directions with bowls attached to hold proper representations. The east bowl holds a feather for air. The south is for fire and I light the incense there. Water glistens in the west bowl, and earth packs the north.
“Can I help?” Alistair asks, but Mother just tsks. Botting leaps off his lap onto the kitchen table and sits in the center, peering at us through slitted eyes.
Armageddon pads into the kitchen. The chimera looks down his nose at Army, who glides over to my mother and sits at her feet, watching Botting. Not five minutes before, they were ready to battle to the death, but now they’re lazily indifferent to each other. Cats.
I light the northern candle and gaze into the flame.
“I, Iphigenia Holt, am Diana incarnate.”
“I, Aurelia Holt, am Selene incarnate.”
“I, Iphigenia Holt, am Hecate incarnate.”
“I, Aurelia Holt, am perfectly aligned with Kerunnos.”
“I, Iphigenia Holt, am perfectly aligned with Pan.”
I hold the flame above my head and walk to the east, where I light the candle and say the appropriate words to draw in the guardians of the watchtower of the east. I move clockwise, repeating the casting incantation for every direction until all the flames are lit.
Alistair tries to stand but is pushed back into his chair as though by invisible hands. He’s obviously never been around before when Mama is casting, otherwise he’d have known better.
“Hand me some oil of abramelin, girl,” Mother says and I open the cabinets above the sink, fish it out and hand it to her. I watch her add it, counting the number of drops.
As she’s stirring, I remove the rest of the herbs I think she’ll need and turn back to watch. At Army’s hiss, I whirl around to find Botting stalking closer. He must want to be closer to me. I bend down and scoop him up, turning back to the cauldron with the chimera facing away from it. He scrambles in my arms, trying to turn around, accidentally clawing me in the process. I shriek and place him on the kitchen counter, looking at the red streak of blood staining my forearm.
Mother turns and glares a moment, then her eyes widen. “Ah yes, the missing piece. Come here.” I do as she says and stand next to her. Botting pads closer, along the kitchen countertop, and knocks a bottle of black peppercorns into the simmering cauldron.
“No, bad cat,” Aurelia hisses and in one fluid motion she scoops him up, cranks open the kitchen window next to her workspace and tosses him out.
Army mewls loudly in apparent approval.
“Mother!”
She slams it shut, whirling back to me. “That cat just ruined everything. We have to start completely over now.”
Alistair tries to rise again and can’t. I blow out a candle and break the circle. “You can get up now.” He does and crosses over to Aurelia, his arms circling her waist. I expect her to brush him off or worse but she doesn’t.
Instead she sinks back into him, laying her head on his shoulder. “I’m exhausted, Iphigenia. You take over.”
He leads her to a chair and sits her down, perching next to her on the edge of a chair. She gives him one of her hands and he pats the top of it.
That’s it, Alistair is officially a miracle worker. Witches don’t have saints, but maybe we should make an exception for him.
Chapter Eighteen
Iphigenia
Thirty minutes later, the cauldron is simmering. After I recast another circle, Mother walked me through the sequence again. She had me prick my finger and add exactly seven drops. The blood Botting drew had already clotted.
“Now we do a trial,” she says. “We won’t know for sure if the ward works unless we test it with a ghoul, so we’ll ward you.” She blinks her crimson lashes at me.
I thought we’d be warding the house. “You can cast a ward over a person?” I continue stirring the pot. Why she hasn’t done this to us before? Or maybe she has. My hand moves to the back of my neck, touching the brand she put there last year to track me. My mother’s instant Iphi GPS. Chrys had hers removed, changed actually, so that Mother can’t track her anymore, but I’ve always found comfort in it. And Mom hasn’t used it that I know of. She could always look in her crystal ball to see where I am anyway, though that doesn’t always work. The brand does.
“Certainly, but the ward will be around you, not over you.”
Well that’s clear as mud.
Aurelia rises and moves to the freestanding cabinet under the window, next to her cauldron. She pulls out a drawer. Crystals and gemstones twinkle in the dying afternoon light. Mother holds her hand over them, eyes closed, and waves it slowly back and forth, then up and down. After a few minutes she stops, hovering over something, and picks it up, tossing it into the cauldron.
“Mama?”
She moves in front of me and puts her hands on my face.
“Why haven’t you cast wards on us before? Do they wear off?”
“Always so many questions.”
“Is that what happened with the spell you and the other witches cast over the city to keep the Trackers out?”
“Now is not the time to talk. Please focus and repeat after me. I, Iphigenia Holt, am protected by the earth from the ghouls and all other malicious beings in Distant Edge.”
I repeat it.
She fishes the stone out of the cauldron with a slotted wooden spoon, blows on it and then holds it out. I hold out my hand and she drops a crystal into my outstretched palm. It’s warm but not hot. My fingers close around it. “Now focus on the stone. Ground yourself and see the energy surrounding you like a bubble.”
I do as she commands and though nothing noticeable happens, my mother’s spells are strong and I have complete faith that whatever she casts will work. I open my eyes and she kisses my forehead.
“Unfortunately you’re going to have to test this one out before we try to protect a larger area. I hear the Edge PD is out trying to catch ghouls.”
“They are?” Why didn’t any of the men tell me?
“We’ll go tomorrow. For now, let’s retire to the living room and have a spot of tea.”
“I’ll be right in.” I hurry back to my room and open my window. “Botting?” I call softly. There’s a rustle in the large oak outside my window and a flash of red. “Thorn?” No response, and silence from above. I try again several times, but no luck. I don’t want to leave my window open when I’m not in my room, so I slide it closed. I really hope that cat comes back.
I lie down on my bed for a minute and bask in the day’s success. Finally, finally, I have a spell to work with. If this ward works—and of course it will, it’s of Aurelia’s design—then I’m one gigantic step closer to kicking the demon out of town and freeing Nolan permanently from its influence. With some more tinkering and experiments, especially with Aurelia’s help, it’s only a matter of time until the Edge can breathe free again.
And me too? Flush with success and newfound confidence, I let myself think of the men, something I’ve been avoiding since moving back in. It’s been a few days since I’ve seen Caspian. Longer since I’ve seen Rhys. I figured if I gave myself some time away from them, I would know. If I didn’t miss them, then that would mean my feelings were something e
lse, something transitory. Or if I missed only one of them, I’d finally know who to choose. But I do miss them. Both of them. Wouldn’t it be silly not to keep exploring our relationship? Why should I deny myself just because of societal norms? I never held my siblings or anyone else to those standards. Throughout our lives they told me I was the most accepting and least judgmental person they knew. So why am I making the rules different for myself?
And if I let myself go down that rabbit hole, why shouldn’t I explore things with Dominic?
But I’m not ready to go there quite yet. I jump up, shove my curls out of my face and go out to the living room to join Mother.
“There she is.” Alistair stands when I enter.
“Let me grab the tea.” Mother excuses herself and goes to the kitchen.
Moments after I’ve settled onto the couch, she returns, carrying a tray. She puts the tray on the coffee table, collecting her own cup and saucer before sitting near Alistair. Taking a sip, she clears her throat. “I understand you’re in the market for a boyfriend, Iphigenia, and although you’re my youngest, I’d hoped you’d wait at least as long as Chrysothemis did before jumping into something.”
Wow, she waited through the entire afternoon to bring this up? Guess I wasn’t the only one who wanted something today. “I’m not jumping—”
She holds up a hand. “I’d rather see you with Dominic than any of the others. That boy is going places.”
Huh. Well that’s a first.
“What about Rhys?” Alistair reaches forward for his teacup and saucer, placing them on his lap.
“What about him?” Aurelia snaps.
“Mom, I can speak for myself. Yes, Rhys and I are working a few things out.” I screw my eyes shut, pinching the bridge of my nose. I wish I knew where he was so I could apologize for being yet another person in his life that doesn’t support him for who he is. I put far too much pressure on him and ended up highlighting his inadequacies instead of valuing his assets.
“A young girl like you has a lot of options. I would encourage you to explore them all.” Alistair takes a sip of his tea.