Playing the Witch's Game (Keepers of the Veil)

by Zoe Forward

  They ran. He pulled her up into what turned out to be a huge cavern. Shannon pulled up behind them.

  “What’s wrong?” Jen asked when he stilled.

  “I’ve seen this. We have to leave…” His voice trailed off as his head whipped around to Shannon. Instantly, he blocked Jen with his body, obscuring her view of Shannon.

  Shannon cried out in distress.

  Jen’s stomach cramped tight. She tasted bile in the back of her throat as a malevolent evil surrounded her.

  Shannon’s camera thudded against the dirt floor. Jen peeked around Nikolai. Shannon gripped her stomach where blood seeped through her fingers. Shannon’s shocked gaze flew to them as she fell to her knees.

  A gunshot echoed through the cave. Nikolai grunted but remained standing in front of Jen.

  The producer, Rick Holloway, stood at the cave’s entrance. He pulled a long blade out of Shannon’s back.

  Nikolai had been shot. Shannon stabbed. Her mind couldn’t process. “What did you do?”

  “I am the one who will finally right Orion’s wrong.”

  “What?” She gripped Nikolai’s shirt, frantic to get to Shannon.

  Nikolai pushed her back behind him and whispered, “Shift.”

  “Not without you and Shannon,” she whispered back.

  “Get the hell out of here,” Nikolai ordered loudly. “Take me with you if you must, but get out.”

  She wrapped her arms around him and closed her eyes. Nothing happened. She tried again. “I can’t. He did something to me.”

  “I know you didn’t miss the bedtime story about Orion and the Pleiades.” Rick cackled like a horror movie villain who’d lost all his upstairs marbles.

  Seriously? Orion, the god whose sexual fascination with the Pleiades’ human descendants, which later turned homicidal, and led Zeus to grant the girls the ability to jump dimensions?

  Rick laughed again. “Finally, our line will triumph over you bitches.”

  “Don’t move,” a lethal male voice ordered. Alexi emerged from the cave’s darkness. “You will not shoot Jennifer.”

  “As if this is about her.” Rick sneered. He muttered what Jen recognized as a powerful and dark spell, which caused Alexi to stagger, drop his gun, and grip his head. Rick targeted Shannon with his gun.

  Charlotte materialized and jumped in front of Shannon in sync with the firing of Rick’s pistol.

  Shannon screamed.

  Jen stared in frozen shock as Charlotte fell to her knees. Oh God, no. Not Charlotte.

  “Now your line is ended, Charlotte.” The man laughed.

  “You will never win, Richard,” Charlotte wheezed out.

  “But I already have, you bitch. Your three children are dead. Your line is over.”

  A boulder whizzed through the air to bash into Rick’s head. Jen surmised that its movement had been facilitated by Charlotte’s magical ability to manipulate elements. Given the rock’s size, Rick was dead when he hit the ground.

  “Mom…” Shannon cradled Charlotte.

  “It’s your time, darling. You’re hurt, but you won’t die. You can’t. Your father…take care of him. I love him. He knows that.” Charlotte whispered something else to Shannon.

  Nikolai sank to his knees in front of Jen.

  Crap, he’d been shot, too.

  Panic licked down her spine, sweat chilling on her back. “Talk to me, Nick.”

  His eyes glazed with pain. He kept his hand firmly against his middle.

  “Don’t die,” she demanded. She glanced up to Alexi. “Can you help me?”

  “I’m fine,” Nikolai declared, yet wavered unsteadily.

  Alexi shook his head. “I am no healer. Serenity went to get Eli, but he was well over a mile away.” Alexi’s troubled gaze swung to Shannon. “I didn’t see that. The man must’ve blocked me. That’s never happened to me before.” His gaze returned to Nikolai, worry for his brother evident on his face.

  “It’s okay not to know everything once in a while.” Nikolai cast his brother a sardonic smile.

  “How long until Eli is here?” Jen demanded.

  “I’m not sure. I can’t see anything in the future like I normally can. I don’t know,” Alexi snapped.

  “Swear to me he won’t die.” Tears swam in her eyes, and she swiped them away. Now was not the time to give in to tears. The man she loved was fighting for his life.

  Alexi pressed two fingers into his temple as if he had a monster headache. “There are multiple options for his future. But…the dead man blocked me. I can’t be sure.” Alexi groaned and grabbed his head. He backed into the shadows, disappearing.

  “No one move,” a feminine voice ordered from the cave’s entrance. A busty blond stepped in. The one from the jumbo screen. Owen’s fiancée. Anaïs. She held a gun, but the chill of evil power held all of them frozen.

  Jen’s gaze darted to Shannon, who stared transfixed. Jen didn’t know if the horror etched into Shannon’s face was because of the aura she picked up from the woman, or because blood loss made her weak and vulnerable. Jen may not be able to read auras, but the waves of dark power radiating from the new arrival suggested impending badness.

  The blond’s gaze fixed onto Nikolai, morphing from jealousy-inducing adoration to a scowl. The woman glanced at the now-dead Rick. “Damn it, Dad. And now you got yourself killed. Owen will be pissed, but then again, he might be thrilled.”

  “Dad?” Nikolai questioned.

  “Well, almost father-in-law. I’m sorry you’ve been played, darling. But I’m going to make it better. Then we can be together. Finally.” The blond advanced and pulled a small vial from her jacket.

  “Stay away…” Nikolai warded her off with his hands.

  Whatever dark liquid swirled in the vial wasn’t on the right side of healing magic.

  Alternate dimension time. Maybe this try would work. Just as she leaned forward to wrap her arms around Nikolai, the woman uttered a few words to what she recognized as a dark spell. An invisible force seized her and knocked her away from Nikolai. She sprawled on the ground, helpless. In seconds Anaïs kicked her onto her stomach and zip-tied her hands behind her. Jen struggled until her wrists bled. She couldn’t dimension-hop with her hands tied in such a manner, a secret known only to those intimately acquainted with the Pleiades or the witch hunters who stalked them.

  A whisper at her ear said, “Stop struggling. Sit up.”

  Serenity was here and using her invisibility power. Thank you, gods. Jen sat.

  The bond around her hands was cut. Serenity whispered, “I want to shoot the bitch, but this one is for Alexi to kill. Count slowly to ten. Then we’re going to sing everyone in this room to sleep. Don’t let her touch you.”

  Jen counted slowly, watching as the woman uncorked a vial and moved toward Nikolai.

  Shannon started the song well before Jen had reached ten, her voice soft but strong.

  Jen joined in on the melody she’d learned as a little girl from her mom.

  Serenity’s voice joined in.

  “Stop the singing,” Anaïs ordered. She kicked Jen in the stomach. Although winded for a moment, she sang through abdominal pain.

  Anaïs covered her ears.

  The three women repeated the song from the beginning. This time louder, stronger.

  Anaïs dropped to her knees.

  Jen smiled and sang.

  Nikolai slumped to the ground. Sorry, she thought. Within seconds, Anaïs looked to be unconscious. Asleep.

  They stopped singing.

  “Why didn’t you…shoot her?” Shannon wheezed out.

  Serenity shook her head. “This one must be done by Alexi. Let me wake him up.” Moments later a disgruntled Alexi emerged from the shadows with Serenity.

  “Don’t ever do that to me again,” Alexi grumbled.

  Serenity smiled. “Do your thing, darling.”

  Alexi leaned over Anaïs.

  Anaïs surged to sit up, but Alexi held her throat. She managed to say, “It’
s not over. This is only the beginning of the end.”

  “Today, we win,” Alexi said.

  Anaïs scratched at the hand around her throat as Alexi leaned in. The waves of darkness coming from Alexi caused Jen to crab-walk backward to get away.

  “It’s done. Her soul belongs to Hades,” Alexi announced. Anaïs’s body collapsed, lifeless.

  Jen crawled to Nikolai. She wanted to repeat the healing magic she’d invoked earlier, sending up a quick prayer to the goddess, but nothing happened. “Why can’t I help him?” she asked Serenity.

  Serenity shook her head in a no idea and glanced to Alexi.

  Alexi knelt by Nikolai and shook him gently. “Come on. It’s not the right day to die.”

  Serenity said, “Maybe the song required too much juice. Or maybe because you already did it once in the past twenty-four hours, you can’t do it again?”

  “Wake up,” Jen ordered Nikolai.

  Nikolai’s eyes fluttered. Relief hit her so hard her head spun.

  “Is she dead?” He nodded toward Anaïs.

  “Yes,” Jen said. “Alexi did some sort of soul-suck thing.”

  Alexi grumbled, “I do not soul-suck. Why does everyone think that’s what I do? I release the soul for Hades.”

  Nikolai sat upright slowly and looked around the cave, holding his head. “Got anything on the immediate future, Alexi?”

  “You need to get something on camera. Make this public or you’re all at risk for whatever is coming next.” Alexi advised.

  “Risk from what else?” Jen asked.

  Nikolai gazed sadly at Jen. “This wasn’t the ending I wanted, but…expected.” His tone’s finality scared her.

  “You’re going to be fine,” Jen said, but her words lacked conviction.

  “I don’t think much got on camera.” Shannon’s red-rimmed eyes met Jen’s. “Mom’s gone.”

  Jen stumbled to Shannon and hugged her tight. “I loved her so much, too.” Jen swiped away her tears. “She was like a mother to me.”

  Shannon cried harder and clung to her.

  Something cold and menacing caught Jen’s attention. She drew back from Shannon, but didn’t let her go. “Do you feel it?”

  “Feel what?”

  “It’s coming off you. It’s…” Jen pointed at Shannon’s ankle. “The tracker?”

  Shannon touched it and yanked her hand away. “It burned me.”

  “Oh, no. You got hexed, too. This is all my fault. I’m so sorry. Sorry for all of this. Maybe this is why you’ve been…off. I thought you were just really into the show, but maybe it hexed you so you couldn’t help us. Definitely not the overbearing Shannon I know.”

  Shannon glared.

  “No offense, but you’re usually up my ass about everything. You would’ve had me off this show the second I showed you my blistered foot.” Jen squeezed her in a brief hug again. “I love you for it. I wouldn’t expect you to be any other way.” She glanced around. “Serenity, I need your help.”

  Serenity jumped to sit next to her. “What do I do? I suck at spell shit.”

  Nikolai wavered. Jen met his pain-filled gaze. He said, “Be quick. Got to get back on camera. To get help.”

  Jen bit her lip. “Alexi, can you…”

  “I’ll make sure he stays with us,” Alexi vowed as he wrapped a supportive arm around his brother.

  Nikolai’s eyes fluttered shut.

  “Shit.” Alexi shook Nikolai until his brother hissed out a breath. “He’s…just hurry.”

  She needed to help Nikolai, not burn her power on Shannon’s hex. But this was Shannon. The new Pleiades witch in her line. And her best friend and almost-sister.

  She glanced around the barren cave. “We usually need rosemary, paprika, string, cloth…damn it, I don’t have the right stuff to deal with a hex.” But she hadn’t had anything before when she and Charlotte broke the one on her. Unlike previously, right now she remembered the real hex-break spell. If the crappy spell she and Charlotte cast before worked…

  “Do you have a spell or chant or something?” Serenity asked.

  She glanced worriedly at Nikolai, who looked paler than a moment ago. Distractedly, she replied, “We can try a hex-break spell alone. Maybe if all three of us do it together…hold hands.” The three women clasped hands. “Repeat after me. We’ll say it a few times.”

  “Enemy Mine your power is gone.

  The hex is broken.

  The spell undone.

  The evil has been shunned away.

  Enemy Mine’s power has gone astray.

  So shall it be.

  This is my will, so mote it be.”

  “It’s burning…hurts a lot.” Shannon tugged at the tracker.

  “Keep saying it.” Jen grabbed Shannon’s hand to get her back in the circle. Power swelled in her. Tiny flickers of electricity leaped and tingled among the three of them.

  They repeated the words two more times. The electrical current intensified almost to the point of pain. With a surge it blasted the three of them apart.

  “Now. Get it off,” Jen ordered.

  Serenity wedged a knife into the tracker’s hinge and popped it free. “Holy fuck, Jen. It worked.” Serenity grinned.

  Shannon fell back to the floor, wheezing. “Mom said Nicole saw this. All of it. That’s how Mom knew to show up.” Tears poured down Shannon’s face. “Mom died for me. My brothers died for me… Now there’s only Dad and my uncle…”

  Alexi said sternly, “Pull yourself together, Shannon. Get that camera on and get help. Get all of you off this show. When do you think you stopped recording?”

  Shannon swiped an arm across her eyes. “After I’d been knifed.”

  Alexi’s gaze met Nikolai’s. In silence, Alexi grabbed Charlotte’s body. “We’ll take care of Charlotte and that evil bitch.”

  “Burn the necromancer,” Nikolai said.

  Alexi nodded. He and Serenity departed with the dead.

  “Camera. On my cue. Don’t film yet,” Nikolai prompted. “Jen, I need hysterics, Angel.”

  Shannon lifted the handheld camera and grunted in pain. “Can’t hold it for long.”

  Jen asked, “How am I supposed to be…”

  Nikolai struggled to a stand, but stumbled backward against the cave’s wall. “Now.” He nodded to Shannon. He lifted the hand he’d kept pressed tight to his abdomen and held up his bloodied palm. “I’m shot.”

  “Oh. My. God,” Jen screeched, horrified to realize his entire side was coated in blood. He’d hidden its severity from her.

  Nikolai crumpled to his knees. And then collapsed onto his side.

  Jen yelled toward the camera, “He’s…they’ve both been hurt. Nick’s shot. The producer tried to kill us. Help.” She shook Nikolai, who didn’t respond. “Oh God. Don’t you dare die.”

  Shannon groaned and dropped the camera. “I couldn’t hold it up any longer, but…damn it, it hurts.” She lay down. “Let me click the camera…it’s off.”

  Jen knelt beside Nikolai. “Don’t die…please. Tell me you saw beyond this and that it’s going to be okay.”

  His eyes fluttered open. He smiled sadly. “You will find your gods match soon, Angel. Someone worthy of you. Someone who isn’t me. It’s not me.” His eyelids closed.

  “I don’t want someone else. I want you.”

  Chapter Twenty

  Jen dropped her head into her hands. The condensation from the cold soda can she’d wedged between the side of the hospital’s vinyl waiting room chair and her thigh had soaked through the green scrubs the hospital provided her. She kicked the heel of one of the Keds knockoffs she’d been given against the chair’s leg to ease the tingles from holding it in one position too long.

  What would she do if they couldn’t stabilize Nikolai? If he died?

  Minutes after he’d collapsed, they’d been swarmed by Extreme Survivor staff, and evacuated via helicopter to the nearest hospital. She wasn’t sure if they were still in Guyana, but they spoke Spanish.
>
  The hospital staff didn’t allow anyone associated with the show near Nikolai. Not even her. That should assure her he was in good hands and safe, but it didn’t. Those targeting them had deep tentacles. Bypassing the minimal security at this hospital would be a joke. They could slip something into his IV. Or cut his oxygen under anesthesia.

  Oh God. They needed to get him and Shannon out of this hospital.

  How long had she been sitting here? Eight hours? Ten? She was panicked and exhausted. And alone. Eli hadn’t been allowed on the helicopter. She’d tried making a collect call at the front desk to the druids in New York, but she couldn’t speak Spanish to negotiate the phone system. She couldn’t find a representative from the show to help. The show’s staff had been kicked out of the hospital about an hour after Nikolai was admitted. They refused to stop filming, not that they cared beyond knowing if he lived or died. A part of her didn’t understand why they still filmed. They weren’t in the jungle. Some other couple must’ve made it to the finale by this point, not that it mattered.

  People moved around her, oblivious to the fact that her world hung in a precarious balance. Their lives probably did, too, but the noise…the noise of all those unknown people was almost too much. She glanced at a guy who sat one chair away, suspicious. He shot her a brief smile. Friend or foe? Whom did she trust? Who might be here to kill her?

  She didn’t detect any magic from the guy. But her radar for good versus evil magic was apparently dysfunctional, given her infatuation with Owen.

  She didn’t want to be alone in this. She wasn’t used to being alone. Druids usually suffocated her with protection.

  Please let Nikolai be safe. And live, she prayed silently.

  With her eyes clamped shut to close out the swarm around her, she bowed her head and prayed to the Greek gods. She made every deal she could think of with the hope one of the gods might listen. She meant it when she said she’d do anything, give anything as long as he lived.

  Nikolai’s words echoed in her head. You will find your gods match soon, Angel. Someone worthy of you. Someone who isn’t me..

  There was no one else for her. There was only him.