by Lissa Kasey
Luca had promised to arrange a phone meeting later in the day for all the members of the council. He would call me when he had everyone together. Whatever decision I began with would set the tone for anything I did with the Ascendance. I didn’t have the power to disband them, but I did hold the purse strings. When I spoke to Kelly on the phone, he pointed out it was likely the council members had substantial wealth individually, since they all donated cash to the organization, much like Maxwell Hart told me he did. The thought was not comforting.
I put the phone beside the bed, set it to loud in case it rang, and watched Gabe for a few minutes. He granted me a sleepy smile. Instead of the lamp, he’d left the bathroom light on and mostly closed the door. Since I’d left him in total darkness that morning, I knew he’d done it just for me. His consideration made me love him even more.
He lifted the blanket and motioned for me to curl up with him. I didn’t bother stripping this time, just kicked off my shoes and plunged into the warm cocoon he created for me with his body and a couple of worn blankets. It wasn’t until I was drifting off to sleep that I realized I hadn’t had a panic attack when I should have.
Gabe was so deeply embedded in my head that I could almost feel him massaging my thoughts, lacing his own with mine to remind me how much he cared. If I’d known years ago how he could calm and comfort me like this, I might have become his focus sooner. I liked that he could help me sort through the swirl of emotion and stave off the worst of my anxiety.
His smile against my cheek was the last thing I remembered before dreams took me away to more peaceful things. The chirp of a text woke me out of a light sleep a little while later. I blinked at the phone, trying to adjust to its brightness. Only an hour had passed. I really needed to get more than three hours of sleep at a time. Gabe was still wrapped around me like a vise, though now he was very still, in a deep sleep. His thoughts were calm. I wondered what he dreamt of, or if vampires dreamt at all.
Shopping for window coverings. Back in an hour, Timothy’s message said. I sighed and stretched. Maybe a little sunshine would wake me up. After kissing Gabe on the cheek and tucking the blankets around him, I made my way downstairs and out the back door. Caleb had cleared a path again, and fresh dirt lined the cobblestone pavers that led to the cottage house. He’d even de-weeded a marble bench that sat between two giant maples. I sat for a moment, soaking in the fresh air and warmth.
A breeze rustled the overgrown grass, causing an eerie whistling sound. The brown edge of a thorny branch made me shudder, the nightmare still fresh in my head, though it had been hours ago. I slid to the end of the bench and peered down into the growth of a small briar bush. Shit.
Without even thinking, I reached down and ripped the nasty thing from the soil. It fought me for a few seconds, tearing the hell out of my hands with its thorns, but then it came up roots and all. I felt triumphant for all of a minute and a half when I noticed another one by the fence.
I stomped around the side of the house to where Caleb slammed a shovel in the ground to clear another hole for some leafy green plant that appeared more native to California than Minnesota. “Help me!” I demanded of him.
He paused, glancing up, then blinked and stood up straight. “You’re bleeding.” He tried to reach for my hands, but I held the briar bush out instead.
“Don’t worry about the blood. Help me get rid of these.” Caleb grabbed the weed from me and tossed it in the trashcan he had for the used planters. “Briars are pretty common in this area. They don’t need a lot of water to grow. I can get some chemicals to kill them off if you’d like.”
What about the fairies? Deadly chemicals couldn’t be good for them. “Can I just borrow a shovel and a garbage bag?” I’d dig every last one of the damn things up if I had to.
“Knock yourself out.” He pointed to a wheelbarrow that had shovels, rakes, and other supplies in it. Grabbing a small hand shovel, trowel, a pair of gloves, and a trash bag, I surveyed the front yard. They really were everywhere, ugly brown patches of harmful thorns. These things kept critters out of the yard and stole sunlight from other plants. The vision of speared fairies kept flashing through my mind. I’d dug up a half dozen before making my way to the overgrown backyard. At the base of each plant, I searched for any little lives that might need rescue or had been lost, but found none. Had it really been only a dream?
I found another dozen more briars in the backyard, some incredibly large, and had to return to the front for a new bag. Caleb assured me he would haul the offensive plants off the property.
The wrought iron fence had a pretty large gate on the opposite end of where the cottage stood. I left the gate open as I progressed into the wilder lands of the Merth family. Vaguely I recalled the path I’d followed as a lynx and how it wove through the forest, past a stream, and around to the ring. This time, as I wound my way toward that awful place, I dug up thorny bushes and pressed each spot with earth and power. In school they called the ritual a blessing; to me it was more like a subtle spike of power to remind the ground it belonged to a greater whole.
The stream whistled by, untouched by briars, flowers blooming on the edge in bright colors instead, yet so close to that awful ring I could feel it. The ground snaked out in lines of cracked parchment, brown and dying, briars crawling across the barren path.
These, too, found a quick death and a new home in my trash bag, but my power couldn’t touch the tainted ground. Each little shove of earth would bring a spike of unpleasant electricity coursing back through me. Eventually I stopped trying and continued to pull up plants. The effort likely had the effect of killing off wasps one at a time while trying to hurt the queen of a hive. It would never work, but it made me feel marginally better.
One giant brush glistened menacingly just a few feet outside the ring. The waist-high stones seemed glossed in brown, inviting the crawl of thorns up the side. This was the plant I remembered chasing a ladybug into several days ago. Cinnamon and red—had that been the fairy? I moved carefully around the base, prying up smaller plants and tossing them and yanking out large branches to get to the root of the problem. The dirt was richer here, almost moist, and filled with nutrients. How was that possible when the rest of the ground appeared sucked dry of life?
I kept digging, praying I’d finally get the plant loose. It wobbled a little; progress. Breaking up the dirt and tugging worked it free enough that I stood up, put both hands around it, and yanked with everything I had. The briar roots popped out of the ground, sending me sprawling backward. The giant bulb that made up the roots lay beside me. I shook the dirt out of my hair and sat up to glare at the stubborn plant.
The numerous roots wove outward like little white shoots, all connecting to a dirty light-brown ball. I poked it with my shovel, having never seen anything like it before. It rolled slightly, settled again, a clump of mud falling off the side. Two empty eyes stared back at me.
I screamed like a girl.
Chapter 17
WHEN the police arrived in my yard for the second time in a week, they weren’t quite so friendly. The head detective looked hard at me, like he expected me to crack and admit I’d somehow killed these people. When I led him through the backyard to the ring and the skull I’d unearthed, he stood open-mouthed for a few minutes before stepping away from me and making a call I couldn’t hear.
Lily arrived just as the rest of the police trickled in, brandishing shovels and body bags. Were they expecting more dead? I shivered at the idea that the entire yard could be covered in bodies. Maybe all of the two acres of land that made up the property. I really didn’t want to know.
Whatever Lily said to the officers must have appeased them to her presence and mine, since they didn’t ask us to leave. She sat with me, thumbs rubbing my injured hands while we sat in the grass.
“Do you think that is one of your missing people?” I asked her. “Maybe.” She seemed worlds away, eyes focused on the digging. They even brought a small backhoe out, but each time it g
ot close to the ring, it stopped dead and had to be reversed.
The body they unearthed had likely been there a while, as it was just bones and bugs. More than a dozen other cops dug around the circle, looking for anything else. No one, not even the cadaver dogs they brought in, would go inside the ring. The rocks went down into the earth as far as they dug. A group exclaimed when they found another body.
Two hours, twelve bodies, one for each stone, all in shallow graves. One facing the house was still fairly fresh. He still had flesh and hair. The mass of bugs eating him and the smell had me throwing up and hiding behind a tree. Lily turned ghostly white when they pulled him up and zipped him in a bag.
“That one was Charles,” she whispered to no one in particular. The lead detective turned her way as she began to topple. I caught her and helped cradle her to the ground, where I held her as she sobbed. My uncle, her baby brother, Timothy’s dad, had been stuffed in a hole to fuel the death magic of the ring. That sounded a little worse than a heart attack to me.
Lily clung to me, even though she was bigger than me, as we headed back to the house. We left the cops to do their thing, and they knew where to find us. Timothy was pacing just inside the gate by the cottage house. “Bring her up to my place.”
Did he know his father had been buried back there? My heart pounded with unease, but I followed him up the stairs, guiding Lily with me. Inside, the place was clean, neat, and very institutional. He invited us past some fairly strong wards on the threshold, then Timothy put together tea without being asked and brought Lily a blanket as I settled her on his large couch.
“Do I want to know?” he asked me almost too quietly to hear. “Not much rattles Lily.” “I don’t think your father died of a heart attack,” I told him, though I really didn’t know. Maybe he had, but somehow I was pretty sure Charles Merth had been alive when he was brought to that circle.
Timothy’s eyes blurred with tears and he looked away, his lips scrunching into a tight line. “I don’t want to know.” I nodded. Probably for the best. He got up and paced the room, wringing his hands and glancing at the back of the house in the direction of the ring. Finally he said, “I have magnetic curtains. I left them just inside the foyer.” Again with the fast pacing and hands moving. “I should work on that. It will keep my mind off things.” He looked at Lily, who appeared to be dozing from the shock. “Can you maybe reinforce the wards so if we leave her here, she’s safe?”
“Sure.” I stepped up to the door and poured my strength into the wards, adding a strong push so that any who did enter, human or otherwise, would lose all sense of violence they might have entered with. I tucked the blanket around Lily and made my way toward the big house with Timothy close behind. Caleb still worked in the yard, and I needed to clear out my head before I could talk to anyone about what had just happened.
If I could get the windows covered, Gabe could actually spend time with me in the kitchen. I missed him watching me while I cooked. Timothy waited for me in the foyer while I washed and bandaged my hands, then brushed my teeth. He had apparently made several trips from the car, because the stack of curtain rods and giant bags of packages would never have made it in one.
“I got a bunch of different ones so we can try to match rooms. They are pretty easy to install. I did them in the cottage yesterday, since I’m kind of a night owl.” He grabbed one of the bags and strong-armed several boxes of rods and headed for the stairs. “How about we start upstairs and work our way down?”
“Okay.” I was pretty clueless when it came to fixing things, but I could pick out tools and hold things up. He wore a tool belt, and I grabbed the box with the drill in it he’d left by the stairs.
We actually got through four rooms fairly quickly. Once the first set had been installed, I knew how to put the magnets around the window to secure the fabric and snap the rod into place once the curtain was on it. My phone rang when we were halfway through the upstairs. I’d already borrowed Gabe’s earpiece so if someone called I could still talk hands-free. It was Luca.
“I’ve got the council meeting set for four o’clock. Do you have a pen handy to write the number down to call in?” Timothy took the rod I was working on from me, and I whipped out my phone. “Go ahead.” I typed in the number he gave me and saved it.
“Max will be at the meeting, but I will be mediating.” “Okay. I’m going to have Kelly Harding and Jamie Browan attend as well,” I told him, wondering if I were breaking some sort of meeting etiquette. “They will just have to announce who they are. Likely most of the council won’t say much to any of you until you make your statements.”
That was fine. I had a lot to say. Luca and I said goodbye. I sent texts to Jamie and Kelly. They would be available. Timothy and I continued with the window dressings. He surprised me with a covering for the kitchen entryway too. We completed most of the windows before I had to call in for the meeting.
“Do you want me to go?” he asked. “Naw, keep working. I’m going to start on dinner while I do this; it will help keep me calm.” I began pulling out ingredients for dinner, then dialed into the meeting. Timothy vanished into the giant dining room. There were four windows in there to be covered. The phone beeped.
“Hello, who joined?” Luca asked.
“This is Seiran Rou,” I replied.
Two more beeps followed mine: Jamie and Kelly. Then another beep: Max. “Everyone is here. I’m going to introduce everyone and then we can begin.” Luca rattled off a bunch of names I wrote down and planned to research later. No one else spoke. “Now that the introductions are complete, I’m going to hand the meeting over to Seiran, who is currently in place for Charles and Dorien Merth, and is 40 percent shareholder. Seiran?”
Wow, talk about pressure. “Thanks, Luca. I asked for this meeting for several reasons. The first of which was to introduce myself and designate the extra chair. Secondly, I would like to review my agenda and some general changes that Charles Merth’s will makes to the organization.
“I will be taking my father’s seat on the council, and I would like to ask Kelly Harding to take Charles Merth’s seat, so we have a full twelve members.”
“Kelly, do you accept the position?” Luca asked. “I do,” Kelly replied. I wondered if he was as nervous as I was.
“In his will, Charles Merth left the bulk of the finances to me, and to help with management of those monies, I would like to appoint Jamie Browan as Financial Advisor,” I told the group.
Luca spoke again. “Jamie, do you accept?” “I do.” Everyone was so quiet, I wondered what they were thinking.
“This is Max,” Max spoke up. “I am designating Seiran Rou the 20 percent I own of Ascendance and providing him with full control and disclosure of all properties and monies.”
My jaw dropped again. What was he doing to me?
“This means Seiran Rou is 60 percent shareholder and therefore head of the council. All actions must be approved by the head before it can be taken,” Luca stated to the group. “Any events forthwith that occur without the consent of the acting chairman can be punished with excommunication from the organization and blacklisting.”
It seemed harsh, even to me, but changes had to start somewhere.
“This is ridiculous. They are children,” one man spoke up.
“Pillar or not, this is a business, not a playhouse,” another stated. My mind reeled. It was like being placed as head of the Dominion by default. My heart pounded. The link to Gabe, still thrown wide, provided me with a bit of calm. I could do this, he assured me. In fact, this could benefit everyone. I ran through the ideas I’d been working on most of my life for equality among witches. How much could I propose? And now that I was the head of the group, how much power did I really have? I sucked in a deep breath and prepared for battle.
“Like it or not, I’m in charge,” I pointed out. “I have appointed Jamie and Kelly because they both are wellprepared to help run this as the nonprofit business it should be. They are both male witches who
have strong wishes for equality among witches, just as I do, and that is the vision of this group, is it not?”
There was a grumbled reply of assent. “Good. Since we are agreed, the first step I would like to take is to communicate with colleges and universities who offer magic studies programs. I would like for them to begin testing and accepting any and all natural witches, male or female.” I specified natural because those who were stealing power by killing others had no right to the training they could get in school. If I could find a way to remove that inflated power from them, all the better.
“We’ve asked for that for decades and have always been denied.” “I just graduated from the magic studies program at the U of M. Kelly is enrolled, along with three other males. There will be almost two hundred males testing in the spring for the fall semester. I think many more schools are going to begin opening options to male students. Since two of the five Pillars are now male, they can no longer ignore us.”
“Luca can begin contacting other schools. He’s good at public relations,” Max stated. I wondered for the first time if Luca was his focus, since he seemed to rely on him so much.
“Equality needs to extend further than education,” someone on the phone stated. “Understood. However, we cannot expect the Dominion to offer jobs to uneducated male witches. I believe the road to equality must begin somewhere. Just like any other group facing discrimination, we must take one step at a time and not expect everything to change overnight. Gaining education and recognition is a big step.”
“Agreed,” Jamie, Kelly, Luca, and Max all said. Time to drop the bomb. The ring and all its evil would end with me if at all possible. “I am also stating from this day forth, no witch, male or otherwise, shall be subjected to any sort of power enhancement spells. No rituals, curses, death magic, or anything to give one witch’s power to another.”