The Wild (Book Four The Hayle Coven Novels)

by Patti Larsen

  Although, had I done that, we’d all be dead anyway, so none of this would have mattered.

  Still sucked.

  I jumped at the sound of thunder. The whole house shook above us, dust drifting down from the exposed beams above. One of the boxes we never unpacked actually rattled.

  Mom’s good china. Right.

  The power around the circle flashed and everyone sighed, swaying as if a wind blew against them. The magic faded as the last rumble of thunder sounded in the distance.

  Mom’s face was lined with weariness, but her smile shone as supportive as ever. “Well done, all of you.” She squeezed Dad’s hand. “One more push should do it.”

  “Why are we bothering?” James Crossman was always a whiner, even more now that he had a daughter. I guess becoming a dad himself turned him into a worry freak. It also pissed me off, after everything Mom did for him and Sandra, that he sided with Celeste these days. “What good are we doing, really?”

  I was surprised Celeste stood back and let him talk. Then I understood. She knew she was in Mom’s bad books for stirring up trouble. Now she had an accomplice.

  The smug look on the big woman’s face made me sick.

  “Every time the Hunt tries to rise,” Mom said as if she’d explained it to them a million times before but was still willing to say it again, “we must do what we can to reinforce the spells that have kept the Wild in sleep for centuries. We have no other options.”

  “So you say,” Patrick said. “But I don’t see or feel any other covens helping us in this one. Not even the vampires are here.” A few of the family muttered sullenly in answer.

  “I’ve contacted the Council,” Mom said. “They have ignored our request for help yet again.” She frowned and shook her head. “I have no idea why they refuse to offer aid, but it means we are the only ones who stand between the Wild Hunt and the destruction of the world. Would you like to stop, Patrick?”

  He looked away, but he was still angry, I could tell. At least he learned to shut up.

  “What is she doing here?” Celeste spoke up at last, her brown eyes fixed on me, face hard, one hand tugging on the long, thick braid hanging over her shoulder and the other pointing right at me.

  Everyone turned to look. Oh goody. Center of unhappy attention.

  My favorite.

  Mom’s eyes flickered with concern as she came toward me, breaking the circle to wrap one arm around my shoulders. My little sister Meira peeked her head through between Erica and Gram. Her eyes were so sad I wished I hadn’t noticed her there.

  “Syd was just leaving.” Mom fixed me with a no-nonsense look.

  Which I naturally ignored.

  “You could have told me.” That came out all sullen and pissed off. Like a kid whining about having to go to bed early. Crap.

  “We’ll discuss this later.” She turned to Erica. “Please escort Sydlynn upstairs. We have more work to do.”

  Everyone sighed, shooting me some nasty looks. Meira’s little head disappeared. I wasn’t surprised. Not like me showing up and making a fool of myself would change how she thought about me. Or acted around me for that matter. When she was around me. Which was never these days.

  Yup. Even my baby sister couldn’t stand to be with me anymore.

  I let Erica lead me away, shot Celeste a scowl she ignored, growing angrier and angrier as my feet climbed the stairs.

  Erica paused on the threshold, one hand on the knob. “Stay out of this, Syd,” she said. And closed the door in my face.

  I stood there for a long time, torn between tears and a frightening rage. I finally stomped my way outside to the back yard and spent the next several minutes picking up rocks and throwing them against the fence as hard as I could.

  Naturally the rain returned. Within seconds I was drenched, but I didn’t care. Rock after rock impacted the sturdy wood as I vented my fury. Lightning flashed around me, but I ignored it. It wasn’t until the first clap of thunder came that I stopped, clamping my hands over my ears and huddling low as the sound literally tore through me. I gasped for breath and ran for the house, realizing only then how stupid it was to make myself a target.

  Just as I reached for the back door, the rain stopped, like someone turned off a faucet. And through the tightly woven protection I was growing to hate, I actually felt the easing of power from all around me as the danger passed.

  I sat on the bench and listened to the sounds of people moving around on the main floor, the slamming of car doors echoing around the sides of the house from the driveway, the hum of engines as they drove off.

  I stayed where I was even when those sounds became less frequent. I didn’t want to see any of them. Not even my own immediate family. I planned to sit there in the quiet dark forever.

  The door creaked open and Dad peeked out.

  “Hey, cupcake.”

  I ground my teeth and stayed silent. He came outside, sat beside me, tried to put his arm around me, but I was in no mood to be comforted. Dad sat back with a sigh when I jerked away.

  “Are you okay?”

  I wanted to smack him. “What do you think?” It came out louder than I expected. I hadn’t wanted to shout at him. It wasn’t his fault. But he was an easy target, sitting there, not fighting back, looking so sad. “I might as well not exist to you guys anymore. I’m worthless.”

  He didn’t say anything. Good thing. I wasn’t interested in hearing platitudes and attempts at comfort.

  “You could have told me,” I said after a long pause. “Instead of lying to me.”

  “You’re right,” he said. “But we didn’t lie to you.”

  “You didn’t tell me,” I snapped. “Close enough.”

  “We were worried what affect it would have on you,” he said. “We didn’t want you to feel left out.”

  “Nice try.”

  “Obviously not.” Dad’s fingers touched my wet hair. “We’re trying, honey. But so much is different now.” His hand dropped away. “With all of us.”

  I refused to feel bad for him after what he and Mom tried to pull. “Whatever.”

  His weight shifted forward on the bench, elbows on knees.

  “How was dinner?”

  Did he just try to change the subject? No freaking way. And yet, it gave me something to throw in his face.

  “Oh great,” I snarled, “Alison’s mom is a real peach. Invited me to the lake house when school is over. Perfect chance for all of you to get rid of me.”

  “That might be a good idea.”

  I spun on him, fury rising to the surface. “No way. I’m not leaving while all of you are dealing with this mess. I have to help.” Tears fell then. I couldn’t control them and was angrier for the weakness. “No matter what it takes.”

  Dad’s face wasn’t sad for me, or sympathetic. Just neutral. Smart Dad.

  “There’s nothing you can do,” he said. “In fact, despite what your mother said, there’s not much any of us can do.”

  That shock slapped the anger out of me and revived my fear. “What are you talking about?” He had to be wrong.

  “We have five, maybe six days,” he said, “before the Wild Hunt wakes completely and comes for us.” He looked up at the stars. “Everything will be decided then.” His eyes returned to mine. “You can’t help, Syd. And you can’t be here when it happens.”

  I shook my head as the door creaked again. “I agree with your father.” Mom stood on the threshold, a shawl around her shoulders. She looked beat, but I wasn’t allowing myself to feel any sympathy. “Whether you go with Alison or with the children we’re sending to safer ground, you’re leaving.”

  “No.” I stood up and faced her. “I’m not.”

  “Yes,” she said, voice calm but with anger in her eyes, “you are. I’m giving you a direct order from your coven leader.”

  “That won’t work on me anymore,” I said even as I felt the spell around my mind twitch. Seriously? Damn it.

  She must have understood the look on my fac
e. “You are not to come near the coven site until this is all over.” Before I could say something I knew I’d regret, and probably to prevent me from doing so, she spun and went back inside.

  I stood there in the darkness, body trembling from pent up emotion. Dad’s hand settled on my shoulder and I let him leave it there.

  “It’s for your own good, Syd.”

  He had to say it, didn’t he? But I let that go, too, in favor of the more important question.

  “What’s going to happen?”

  Dad shrugged, but gave it to me straight for once.

  “We don’t know for sure,” he said. “But we do know this family is the focus of the Wild’s power. It’s possible we’ll find some way to stop it by then. But far more likely the coven will be destroyed with most of the town and its inhabitants.”

  I stared at him, mouth hanging open.

  He nodded once, hand falling away. “And that’s just the beginning.”

  Dad went back inside, leaving me to be alone in the dark.

  This was one time I wished he hadn’t told me everything.

  Chapter Twelve

  I refused to let it stand there. I think Dad knew it because he was waiting for me just on the other side of the door and reached for me too late. I felt his fingers slide over my arm as I stormed into the house.

  She wanted wild? I’d give her wild.

  I found Mom in the basement, naturally. She spun on me as I marched down the stairs and confronted her.

  “This is stupid,” I said. “If you would up the search for Demitrius and the Chosen so I could get my demon back, I could just help you instead of being banished like some bad six year old.”

  “We have been looking.” The tightness around her eyes told me she was being honest, but still felt guilty. In other words she’d been looking, all right, just not with any amount of focus.

  I wanted to tear my hair out.

  “It’s been six weeks.” I struggled to keep my temper and the bitterness from my voice. That kind of attitude only ever started a fight and I needed her on my side. “You’re a powerful witch. It can’t be that hard.”

  Yeah, okay. So I didn’t take my own advice.

  An atomic storm swirled behind her blue eyes. “You’re not the only issue at stake here, Sydlynn,” she said through tightly clenched teeth.

  “I know,” I grated back, my whole body shaking, hands aching from being clenched into fists at my sides. “But if you let me, maybe I could be part of the solution.”

  “I told you to stay out of it.” A flicker of power traced around her hair, flashing through amber, white, blue and green. Visible even to me. Which meant she must have been really losing it.

  “What about when you find Demitrius?” I had little hope of that, especially after what Sunny said.

  “The coven will take care of it.” Her face was totally closed.

  This was too much. And getting me nowhere. I had to act smarter, but it was hard through the haze of my frustration and hurt. Still, I’d learned what ticked her off and what made her crumble over the years, and I wasn’t above manipulating my mother to get what I needed.

  “Why won’t you help me?” I tried appealing to her Momness first. Usually worked.

  Her anger faded instantly, the visible magic disappearing.

  Bull’s-eye.

  “I’m trying,” she whispered, body sagging forward. “I really am, honey. I wish you believed me.”

  I still didn’t. “When was the last time someone went looking, scouting, asking questions?”

  Her cheek twitched, guilt rising in her eyes. “I thought this was what you wanted?”

  Oh she did not just change the subject and put this crap on me. Did not.

  On the other hand, it answered my question.

  “Thanks a lot, Mom,” I said with all the venom I could muster. “Your own daughter and you don’t give a crap enough to spare one or two of your precious witches to help me. That’s just great.”

  Her shoulders snapped back. “You do not talk to me like that, young lady.”

  “Why not?” I dug the verbal knife in as hard as I could, hating her so much in that moment it shocked me. “Unless you’re going to make that a coven leader order too.”

  She held very still for a long moment before drawing a shaking breath. I knew I was one more word from being turned into something unpleasant.

  So much for the master manipulator. I’d never learned to keep my mouth shut.

  “Fine,” she said, “you want the truth? Here’s the truth. We are alone in this. There is no High Council or Enforcers to help us. There is no other coven coming to our aid. As a matter of fact, everyone we’ve contacted has told us it’s our problem.” Her cheeks flushed with fury. “Now, if that wasn’t enough, if we weren’t facing the most powerful natural disaster magic ever created, if it weren’t trying to wake up and destroy us before razing the entire world, you want me to pursue the Chosen of the Light, a powerful organization of sorcerers and witches who hate us and our magic and in their misguided sense of purity want to kill all of us.”

  Well. When she put it that way.

  “I can’t afford a war on two fronts.” Her voice dropped, the shaking gone. But the plain truth was perfectly clear. “The Wild Hunt is the priority and has been since the night your demon was taken from you.”

  That long? I had no idea. Kind of hard to hang onto my anger at that point, even though I tried.

  “You’re not looking.” She really wasn’t.

  “Of course we are,” Mom said. “But we can’t act until this is over. The High Council has made it very clear by their silence they consider this our problem. And they are right.” She glanced at Dad before turning back to me. “Even though it was Batsheva and Dominic who created this mess by waking Galleytrot, because I accepted them into our family, the rising of the Wild is my responsibility.”

  There were those stupid coven laws again. “They’d rather see the world destroyed than help?”

  Mom didn’t say anything for a long moment. “They can’t,” she said. “Celeste and some of the others may think the High Council will interfere, but it’s quite possible outside magic will only make things worse. And since we’re barely holding our own…”

  Gears churned, understanding clicked. “Pain’s magic waking up isn’t helping.”

  Mom nodded. “It’s not her fault. But if I did break her blocks at this point… Syd, I have no idea what would happen. I’m already feeling an outside influence, a power disrupting what I’m trying to do. I’ve tried to chase down the source, but it vanishes every time.”

  “Is it Pain?” It couldn’t be. Mom agreed obviously.

  “I doubt it,” she said. “But it does keep me from acting outside this current situation.”

  What did that mean? “You know where Demitrius is? Where my demon is?” There’s no way she would keep that from me. Was there?

  “I didn’t say that.” Mom sighed deeply. “Syd, I promise we will get your demon back. But to be honest, you’re just not that important right now.” She winced. “I know how that sounds, honey. I do. And if you were in physical risk or any harm was coming to you, there would be nothing I wouldn’t do to save you.” Now she was turning the manipulation table on me. “But until I’ve dealt with the Wild and figured out a way to return the riders to their rest, you’ll just have to wait.”

  At least she was honest. That was something.

  “Please don’t ask me to leave when the rest of you could die from this.” I hugged myself, shuddering in the sudden damp chill of the basement now that my rage no longer kept me warm. “Mom, I can’t do it. I need to be here with you.”

  She stepped forward and gripped my shoulders in her hands. “And I need to know you and your sister are safe.” Mom shook her head. “Your father told you, I take it. That this will probably end badly.”

  I nodded, now miserable and wanting to hug her, but just not willing to let go yet.

  “Sydlynn.” I lo
oked up into her eyes. Hers were calm and full of love and strength. “I love you. Nothing will ever change that, not losing your demon, not being latent. And not the coming of the Wild Hunt. Or death, if it comes to that.”

  “If you fail,” I said, “it won’t matter whether I was with you or not.”

  She didn’t say anything. We both knew I was right.

  If Mom failed to stop the riders the whole world would be destroyed.

  “Miriam.” We both turned to see Dad at the bottom of the stairs, watching us. “She’s right.”

  Mom’s hands fell from my shoulders. “Maybe.” She stroked my hair back from my cheek, “but the order still stands. You are to stay away from the coven site until this is done. Do you understand?” Power flashed out from her in a pulse, reaching through the very earth.

  Not only had she made it official between us out in the yard when she gave me the initial order, now she’d sent the knowledge to everyone in the coven.

  I was so screwed. It was enough to bring my anger back.

  Mom didn’t give me a chance to fight back. “You will go with your friend on Wednesday,” she said, “and I will see you after this is done.”

  There was nothing I could say or do. Nothing. Except show her my back and march upstairs.

  I exploded out the back door in a rush, intending to throw some more rocks. Maybe it was time to invest in a punching bag. I could even tape Mom’s face to it.

  “You had to make her do it.”

  I spun with a snarl on Quaid who slouched on the bench by the door.

  “Piss off.” I was not in the mood. Not.

  “Fine,” he said, unwinding from the seat, stretching so his leather jacket creaked, “I will. But that means I can’t bring you to the site when everything goes to hell.”

  I glared at him. “You heard her,” I said. “I can’t go there, anyway. She made sure of that.”

  “Not to the site, no,” he said, a grin on his face.

  “Do you want to just spit it out?” Didn’t I say I wasn’t in the mood?

  Yeah, double that.

  “Just trust me,” he said. “When the time comes, you’ll be where you need to be.” He stepped up to me, chocolate eyes full of grim joy, “and you’ll have your demon with you.”