Leah’s magick. Her red-veined door magick settled around Paige like a weighted blanket.
But then, another set of hands found her, pressing down on her shoulders. Words were muttered into her ears that registered only as sounds. Speech was so limiting.
The All Mother’s language filled her with knowledge of where and how and when and why, of life and death and acceptance of both, of… so much.
Eventually, her consciousness crammed itself into the boxes of words and her ability to understand human came back as though she were floating to the surface of the ocean.
She listened to those words, spoken by a female voice she didn’t recognize, coming back to the human world. The world stopped rotating, and everything solidified.
She found herself staring up into Phoebe’s black eyes. Synapses fired as if the Blackman witch were downloading information into Paige’s psyche. It wasn’t that she understood what was being said, exactly. It felt more like a software update, where a necessary patch was being installed. Paige knew just enough about computers to understand that. She was the one who fixed everyone’s computers when they stopped working. One would think that would be Tru, but no.
Phoebe’s eyes and face left, and Paige just laid there, doing her best to keep the floor from leaving. Her only responsibility in that moment was to make sure the tile didn’t float into the sky because… it could happen. Not really, but it made her feel like less of a schmuck for just lying there.
Why was she able to take the mage magick, and what was it doing to her? If she hadn’t been pulled back, would she have made it? At the time, she’d felt so in control, but as soon as she’d been taken out of the battle, she’d lost herself.
This didn’t make sense. She needed more information. What was happening with her magick? What was she becoming? Not a mage. She refused to believe she was becoming a mage on top of everything else because… no. Just… no. She was already a very powerful witch and shifter. If she had suddenly inherited a bunch of mage magick on top of all that, she was giving it back. She’d be giving something back.
But it certainly didn’t feel like it was working. Her magick wasn’t—It was hard to explain. But it just felt like it was out of sync with her. Like there were two different things trying to occupy the same space. She imagined this new magick was an asteroid, she a planet, and her original magick was a dinosaur waiting to be exterminated.
What would happen if this new magick killed her old magick?
Cawli growled low in the back of her mind. He gave her a mind a brush of comfort and disappeared again.
As Paige struggled to her feet, her ears started to function. Words weren’t making any sense yet, but she comprehended meaning and other sounds. Shoes scuffed against the floor, people moaned in pain. Heavy sighs of frustration. That was certainly a step in the right direction.
Eventually, however, words did make sense. Merry had taken charge alongside Leslie and they were getting the Blackman witches and the wounded cared for.
How had the DoDO gotten in? That was the question. Whatever weakness they had found needed to be plugged.
However, it appeared as though that was exactly what Merry and Leslie were working on.
Irritation flared a bit that they hadn’t talked to her about what to do with the wards, even though that wasn’t rational. She’d been knocked out. What did she want? The world to stop until she was ready to take charge again?
No. And it wasn’t as if those wards were singularly Paige’s. Everyone had invested a little bit of themselves, which was the reason they were so strong. And now, with Merry and Eldora having a bit of input on the consciousness of the wards, they were almost just as much theirs as hers anyway. However, Paige had been the one to initiate them, and so she felt a sense of ownership? That probably shouldn’t be what she felt, but she did.
Nobody owned the wards. That line of thinking went to a bad place. She had bigger things to handle and this moment just amplified that. A year ago, her top concern would have been the wards. She’d have been in Merry and Leslie’s place, trying to figure out how DoDO had gotten in to take the Blackmans.
So, what was she supposed to do? What was her job now? She was the “bigger problem” person. So, what was the bigger problem?
Well, they had a lot of those. Communication. Information, extraction, protection. How could they communicate with each other and the world? Who needed extraction? Who needed protection? Where would they set up protection hubs? How would they keep DoDO out?
What was the mage magick doing to her?
She really needed to make time to read those books, but… why did they have to be so thick?
Focusing on what she could handle, Paige took in a deep breath and gave Phoebe a nod of thanks.
The woman nodded back and continued her conversation with Merry.
Okay. Well, first, they needed to see if they could get networks set up so that when something like this happened, someone could help. Communication and extraction first. Set up the infrastructure. They couldn’t afford to be this blind. Reacting would get them killed.
Paige turned to Leah. “I need you to work with Phoebe—” Who’d just lost someone in her family. Grandmother? Aunt? Paige needed to not be callous. She’d lost Alma recently, so she understood what that meant. “—to work together and see if you can make these doors a reality.”
Leah’s blue eyes shone with concern. “Are you okay?” she asked, her voice small. “Really okay?”
No, she wasn’t. “I’ll be fine, Bean. If we get word that someone needs us, we need to be able to get to them, but we may not get good location information all the time.”
Leah took in a deep breath and visibly pushed her fear away.
Pride swelled in Paige’s chest. She hated that her daughter was learning that skill, but she was so glad she was stepping up to the plate.
“Okay,” Leah said. “But we need information.”
Nice one. Paige held up her hand to give her daughter a high five.
Leah paused and then did a half-assed slap, confusion marring her expression.
One day, the girl might understand Paige’s pride, but now she wouldn’t. Probably. “I’ll work on getting you information and locations. But right now, I just need to know what you can set up, how quickly you guys can get it set up, and what you can do to make it easier. Also, what you guys need. We might need a few doors or a lot. I don’t know.”
Leah nodded once and turned away to find Phoebe.
“What about me?” Ollie asked, stepping up, his hands clasped behind him.
This was so weird. “Your mom doesn’t need you?”
“She might, but I think we need all door magick on deck. Don’t you?”
“Probably.” That certainly seemed to be the issue. “You’ve also got blood magick, though. You and Leah will become stronger as blood is spilled?”
Ollie nodded. “It’s pretty handy in a war. We have plenty of prisoners to draw from.” His normally warm eyes went cold. “That will help.”
Paige didn’t agree. “We’re not the animals they are, so don’t stoop to their level.”
Ollie nodded but with a sigh that said he knew she was wrong and he was right.
“You can see how handy it’s going to be setting up the network but with your own first. You two might be taking point on difficult extractions.”
Ollie’s eyes softened as he silently acknowledged what Paige had done there.
Leah was her daughter, her teenaged daughter, and she’d just admitted to letting her to go to war.
“I’ll teach her a few things about her blood magick.” Ollie’s voice softened. “And keep her safe.”
“Please.”
Troutdale could only be one hub. It could only be one destination. There had to be others.
Paige stepped out of the Eastwood magick workroom and saw busy. Everyone had something to do.
Everyone, that is, except for her smaller children.
Sometimes, being
a mom was kind of a pain. She had bigger fish to fry, and she still needed to somehow keep track of her kids and find a way to save the world.
Leslie came up to her, both of her eyebrows raised in an expression of awe and excitement. “That was new.”
It certainly had been. “Ley line magick. It affects me somehow, and I don’t think I like it.”
“Eldora really stayed behind?” Leslie turned toward the room, visually scanning the faces of the other Blackman witches.
Paige did the same. She recognized her half-brothers. Derrick, William, Ian, and Stephen were all accounted for and were assisting others. She didn’t know any of them very well at all. They hadn’t been raised together, and she had only discovered that they were even related recently. She hadn’t tried to get to know them any better because Eldora had been kind of a deterrent. Paige had never trusted Eldora.
She just hoped that Phoebe would be a better coven leader and would be someone Paige could trust because she had made Eldora a promise: treat them as she would her own.
She’d have to make good on that.
Leslie turned back to Paige. “I can take the kids from here.”
Just the tone in Leslie’s voice when she said that made Paige feel like she really was a horrible mom. “No. I need to figure this out. There has to be a way to do this and be a mom at the same time.”
“If you were just going to work, it’d be impossible. But you’re not. This is…” Leslie shook her head, her hand flopping to her side. “You don’t have to be superhero mom.”
Paige sighed. “If I don’t, then I won’t be a mom.” Paige turned and gathered her younger children. Rai was sleeping in a medium-sized ball of fur and fluff. She made a really cute bear, but Paige found out quickly that even baby bears were heavy. She touched Rai’s head and commanded her to change into something else.
She shifted into a baby fox. Kits were so much lighter.
Ember was in leopard form and pouncing on a much taller Bobby.
Bobby held his own pretty well, which should have surprised Paige, but he was almost as tall as Tyler now. Not—he really wasn’t. He looked like a five-year-old maybe? A tall five-year-old, but he was definitely not a toddler anymore.
Whatever was going on with him was going to eventually bite her in the butt. She needed to be concerned and she was. But there were her kids and then there was the world. Which did she care for first?
Paige had to be glad the boy could carry himself.
Her stomach rumbled, reminding her she didn’t remember the last time she had actually eaten anything. She shoved her kids into the car—and realized that a five-year-old Bobby didn’t fit into the car seat she had for him anymore, so he went without one and she just had to drive super carefully.
Paige took the kids back to the house—making a stop by the nearby thrift store for a car seat for Bobby—and fed them all, and then she put all three of them down for a nap. She wanted to nap as well, but she knew that was a bad idea. She didn’t have the luxury.
So, instead, she called Michelle. “Have you been able to set up a communication network?”
“I’m on my way to you. Talk to you in a minute.”
How long before the cell towers stopped working? Would it even matter? They didn’t have power. How long before they didn’t have juice to power their phones?
And, joy of joys, the Whiskey house had no water. They had a well, but it had an electric pump. And the food in her fridge was starting to get warm. They needed to find a way to save the food. Fast.
So, she called Suzanne while she still had power in her phone and asked the mayor to see what she could do about the refrigerated food. Suzanne assured her she was already on that and to have all food that needed cold storage brought to the high school.
She would give that fun chore to Margo, who would probably give it to her brother.
Paige wasn’t certain what else she could do. She walked out to the back yard.
It was filled with people.
Paige wasn’t certain why people sometimes gathered here, but they’d started to do so after Alma’s funeral. For some reason, the Whiskey lands had become the town hub when things got bad.
She saw Danny Miller with new people and headed toward him.
He looked up at her with a frown that was quickly replaced with a slight smile. “Paige.”
No time to waste on pleasantries. “How’s the information network?”
Danny took in a deep breath and released it slowly. “It’s not as easy as we’d like. The power is just one issue. Our internet is down all over. Cell coverage will likely be next.”
That’s what she’d thought. “Phones will run out of power first.”
“Agreed. But even that’s only a small problem. They’ve got—I don’t know. They’re deleting everything we post and share. They’re erasing us from the net. The only voice being heard right now is the president’s.”
Fear froze in her. What… this should be impossible. They weren’t in a dystopian novel. This was supposed to be real life. “That’s not good.”
“No. It’s not.”
“What about—” Paige hadn’t always paid attention when Dexx went into his aluminum-hat tirades, but she did occasionally. “What about the dark net?”
“I’m looking into it.”
Shit. That was real?
A mask slid over Danny’s face. She recognized it all too well. When she’d been a detective, she’d had a mask of her own. “What are we doing?”
She knew he wasn’t talking about the details. He wanted to know about the big idea. Were they succeeding? Were they going to war? “That hasn’t been fully decided.”
“And who’s deciding this? You?”
Paige realized that she had to be careful what she told Danny. Yes, she trusted him. But how much of what she said could be taken out of context? She raised kids and a man, so she knew what that meant. She could say the words she meant out loud, but they’d be reported as they were interpreted, not as they were delivered. And how much did she want to admit? They had no idea what they were doing. That wasn’t something the public really needed to hear.
“We’re building a council of the top leaders. Leaders of each of the represented groups, paranormal and—” Oops. She needed to add the mayor or someone onto their council. “—human. And as more come in, I’m sure our counsel will grow. We want to make sure everyone’s voice is heard.”
“How far do you think this is going to go?”
Paige gave the reporter a frank look, the reality of their situation making her words harder. “Looks like pretty far.”
Danny narrowed his eyes at her. “Well, we have been able to get some information gathered.”
This was certainly news. “What do you have?”
Michelle came up to them and assessed Danny.
He barely acknowledged her. “The National Guard has been called. They’ve set up checkpoints along state borders. They’re making sure refugees don’t get past them. They’re not just checking the highways. There’re reports of refugees being captured everywhere. Out in the country, in fields. People are trying to shield and protect them. Those people are being rounded up with the paranormals.”
This was bad. “Do we know where they’re being taken?”
Danny shook his head.
Michelle nodded. “They’re being rounded up and sent to prisons and camps, gulag style. It looks as though this has been in the works for a while. The infrastructure is already up. There were entire prisons emptied, and now they’re being filled.”
Paige had almost forgotten the best thing about having a dryad was that they had direct connections to trees everywhere.
She vaguely remembered hearing about private sector prisons. At the time, she really hadn’t thought about it much. She’d had had bigger fish to fry like she always did.
At the time, the ruckus had been that the private sector prisons had quotas that needed to be filled. That if those quotas weren’t met, the gove
rnment had to pay these private owners lots of money. Millions of dollars. Trumped up charges. Stricter sentencing. People going to jail for things they didn’t do, all because it was cheaper to imprison them than to let them pay taxes.
But now, they had an inrush of people being herded to these prisons.
At least that gave her a location. With the location, Paige could open a door, and they could get these people out, they could take them to safety.
That had to be something. “Do you happen to know of at least one of them?”
Michelle gave Paige a very hard look. She was pissed. “I have the locations of several. They don’t know how to hide from us.”
Danny frowned. “What are you?”
Right. He didn’t know. “Dryad.”
Danny’s eyes flared. “How many of you are there?”
Michelle turned a cold hard gaze to Danny. “What are you trying to get?”
“I’m a reporter.” He held up his hands. “And if we can use dryads to get the news out there, that could help us spread our network.”
Michelle glanced over at Paige.
That might work better than the dark net. Paige had no idea how that worked, but if the government could control the internet, then chances were they could control the dark net too. “If you have someone you can spare, I think it’s worth it.”
Michelle slid her gaze elsewhere but nodded once. “I’ll send someone over, but you won’t sideline me.”
She had addressed that last statement to Paige.
“I would never dream of it.” Paige got the sense that Michelle wasn’t just upset with the way the paranormals were being treated. She was also upset because her team had been hit by one of their own.
And that was something Paige was going to have to deal with as well. But, again, not right then. At that moment, they had a prison to break into. And that was exactly what Paige intended to do. But not before she handed off the baton. “Danny, talk to Tru. See if he can help get the technological infrastructure in. Then, set up with Michelle’s contact. Build on what you’ve already got.”
Danny took a step to turn away.
“And Danny?”
He stopped and turned back toward her, his expression filled with eagerness and excitement.
Whiskey Storm (Whiskey Witches Midnight Rising Book 1) Page 22