But no, I hadn’t misunderstood her. I knew Talon well enough by then to know that was just like him.
“Cooper…” I whispered.
“They’re keeping him unconscious mostly, same as they did at the barn. He’s too dangerous to them otherwise. But no permanent damage done.” She gave me what I supposed was meant to be a reassuring smile. “He’s a valuable hostage now. They’ll keep him alive.”
Yes, but keep him alive for what?
Balls. What am I going to do?
“You need rest,” I said to Arabella.
“There’s no time to rest. We’re supposed to make the exchange the day after tomorrow.” She gestured at her missing eye. “If we don’t show up that day—no sooner and no later—they’ll start taking body parts.”
“No sooner? Why on earth not?”
“Talon didn’t share his reasons. But the day after tomorrow is Halloween.”
“Is it?” I pulled out my phone to glance at my calendar. “Maybe he thinks he’s being funny.”
“No, it’s more than that. Beacon Hill is famous for going all out on Halloween. It’s total chaos in the streets. He’s up to something, but damned if I know what.”
“Maybe he just figures it’s a good day for screams and dead bodies to go unnoticed,” I said. “We’ll add it to the list of things we need to talk about. Later. For now, the fact that we don’t have much time is all the more reason for you to rest. I need you in top form as quickly as possible. And I need to think. If you don’t want to eat anything, then go and get some sleep.”
I was being shockingly calm and practical, considering that what I really wanted was to run screaming through the hotel, crying for help, perhaps tearing at my hair like some gothic heroine.
Arabella looked like she might argue more, but after a second, her shoulders slumped. “I am exhausted,” she admitted. “And I need sleep to finish healing, this leg especially. The bone was coming right out of my calf, and my foot was almost off.”
I winced. “More torture?”
“No, that was from the fight where they got us. Cooper…” She smiled again. “He’s a hell of a fighter. Killed three of them before they took us down, and wounded at least six more.”
“Balls, how many were there?”
“Twenty, maybe a couple dozen. They stormed my father’s house.”
Something Dalton once told us was impossible. Just one of many lies.
“Did he betray you?” I asked. “Your father?”
Arabella flinched at the question, but it had to be asked. “Honestly?” she said. “I don’t have the slightest goddamned idea anymore. I don’t know who to trust. I don’t imagine you do, either.”
I ignored that; it skirted too close to my earlier suspicions of her. “What about the North Seed? Do you still think your father has the real one hidden away?”
“I believe he gave them a fake,” she said. “But the Wicks are in his house now, and they’re likely to search it. There’s a chance they’ll find the real one.”
That was a good point. One way or another, the only sapwood seed not in Wick hands was likely to be the one in my vault. The West Seed had to be protected at all costs.
Even if that cost is Cooper?
Arabella went into the bedroom to sleep, while I reflected on her comment about not knowing who to trust. I’d been thinking along similar lines, but of course that wasn’t true. I wasn’t alone. I had friends now. People I could count on to help me, people who’d already shown themselves willing to fight to keep the sapwood seeds safe from the Wicks.
Except Phineas was out of reach, away visiting his mother, and Lydia would be joining him shortly. I could catch her before she left, and she could try to get a message to him. But one hour in that world was a day in ours. By the time Phineas got back, and they got to me, it would probably be too late.
I could at least call Wendy and Caleb. And Granny. I knew they would want to help save Cooper, and I was so tangled up with worry for him, I could use some cooler heads to help me make a plan. They could provide practical support, too, by way of magical charms and protections.
By the time Arabella woke up, three or four hours later, the three of them were ensconced in my suite. Wendy and Granny had set up shop at my table, making potions and poppets and anything else they could think of that might be useful, while I sat at the desk writing spells, and Caleb approached the whole thing like a logic problem, making checklists of pros and cons and things to consider.
I made the introductions as Arabella eyed this roomful of strangers with suspicion. Let her be unhappy about it. Cooper’s life was in my hands, and for once in my life I was going to take all the help I could get. Which included calling downstairs for a lot of food and sweet tea. It wouldn’t do to plan an almost certainly fatal rescue mission with low blood sugar.
“So,” I said. “Now that we’re all here, let’s talk strategy. I’ll be honest: I’m probably too anxious to think completely clearly, so don’t be shy about giving opinions.”
“When have you ever known us to be shy with our opinions?” Wendy asked.
“I’m not the reticent type, myself,” added Granny.
But it was Arabella who gave her opinion first. “Obviously, you can’t take the West Seed out of this hotel.”
I’d already concluded as much myself, or nearly so. But I was still surprised to hear the option of simply paying the requested ransom dismissed out of hand, as if it wasn’t even worth discussing. Even more so when nobody argued the point.
“The seeds are secondary to saving Cooper’s life,” I said. That much, at least, needed to be clear.
But Arabella shook her head. “Cooper would never agree. We’re trained to die to protect the seeds, if necessary. Especially the carriers. I can tell you right now that neither Cooper nor my father is holding his breath for a rescue.”
“Well, they’re going to get a rescue, whether they’re counting on one or not!” I said.
“That goes without saying,” she agreed. “We just need to do it the right way.”
“And anyway, that seed is the only thing you have that the Wicks want,” Wendy said. “I’m not sure taking it out of sanctuary and making it vulnerable helps you save anybody. If they get their hands on it, they have no reason to keep hostages around anymore.”
I nodded. I knew all of this; I just had to accept it. It was an awfully big risk, to go up there without the West Seed. I knew what Talon Wick was capable of.
“Okay then,” I said, looking at Wendy. “If we’re leaving the West here, I need to ask you guys to keep it safe. Lance and Agatha will help, of course, but I want magic on our side.”
“We’ll give it all we’ve got,” she assured me. “No matter what the Garden Club tries to pull.” I’d already filled them in on the fact that Marjory Smith was, even as we spoke, looking for ways to break the sanctuary spell.
“Don’t give it another thought,” Caleb said. “We’ll see to the seed.”
“I might even enjoy a little battle with Miss Smith, if it came to that,” said Granny.
I blushed as I thanked them—I still wasn’t quite used to having people on my side—but was saved from getting teary and sappy by the delivery of the food I’d ordered. It took a while for us to settle back down, and I had to nag Arabella like a mother before I could force her to take anything to eat.
I studied her face as she stared sullenly into her glass of tea. It wasn’t just that she was wounded and ragged and worried, although no doubt she was all those things. I knew that look; I’d seen it before on Cooper. She was taking what had happened as a personal failure, as if she should have single-handedly saved everyone before it came to this.
Blackwoods.
“So, Arabella, if these three are going to guard the seed, that leaves us for the rescue mission,” I said. I could only hope she was up to it; I knew there was no way she’d agree to stay behind. Not that I’d have been able to do much on my own, anyway. “Against twenty Wicks, yo
u said?”
“Thereabouts,” said Arabella.
“I don’t suppose there are any secret entrances they don’t know about?” I asked.
“No. And they’ll be using magic to ward off intruders. Plus if we really do go on Halloween, that adds a lot of confusion to our approach and escape routes. Which can work either for us or against us, depending.”
“Speaking of which…” I turned to Granny, who was still at my table, quietly making poppets, while the rest of us sat in the living area eating. “Granny, any idea why Talon would have insisted on having this meeting on Halloween, specifically?”
“I imagine he’s got some nasty magic in store for you,” she said with a shrug. “Magic tends to be at its strongest at certain times of the year. Solstices, equinoxes, a few other important days. Samhain is probably the strongest of the lot.”
“I thought that was just an old wives’ tale,” I said.
“Old wives know more than they’re credited for,” said Granny. “Especially old witches. I would guess this Talon chose the day to make sure he’d be at his strongest.”
“Even knowing Verity is a witch, and she would be at her strongest, too?” Arabella asked.
“He’s not planning on giving me the chance to do any magic,” I said. “He’ll feed on me, the second I walk through that door.”
“Which would only make him that much stronger,” Granny added.
“Okay, so maybe it’s a good idea to get in and out of there before Halloween,” said Arabella. “Which makes time even more tight.”
“That’s fine,” I said. “I don’t like leaving Cooper in Talon Wick’s tender care any longer than absolutely necessary, anyway.”
“You’re skirting the issue,” Caleb said.
“Pardon?” I asked.
“Making plans to keep the seed safe while you’re gone, choosing the best time to go,” he said. “That’s all well and good, but it kind of ignores the big question.”
Of course it did. It was just that the small questions were so much easier.
“How do you get in and get Cooper out of there without getting killed?” Caleb finished.
“Get in and get them out of there,” Arabella corrected. “Cooper and my father.”
I nodded, although I didn’t meet her eye. Neither of us knew for sure whether Dalton Blackwood really needed to be rescued. And even if he did, I surely didn’t care how things turned out for him. But she clearly had complicated feelings where her father was concerned, and I was in no position to judge, having never known a father-daughter relationship myself.
We spent another hour debating various combinations of firepower and stealth, magical and mundane. But we couldn’t come up with a plan we all agreed had any better odds of success than failure.
“We need more people, more weapons, something,” I said, then turned to Arabella. “What about the rest of the Blackwood clan? We have some things to bargain with. What may be the last seed outside of Wick control is at stake. And we know who the Wick spy was, which is valuable information.”
“Valuable if you want my father to be executed by the Blackwoods, if he survives the Wicks,” Arabella said with a scowl.
I had no constructive response to that, so I ignored it. “We all want to protect the seed and the clan, right?” I went on. “Surely at least Cooper’s parents care what happens to him, if not the extended family. We should all be on the same side. Maybe it’s time to bring them in on this. Don’t you think they would help us?”
“They would almost certainly agree to help, in exchange for your location,” said Arabella. “Then they would storm this place to try to take the West Seed, and leave Cooper and my father to die.”
And they could take the seed, if they did try.
Okay, so maybe it’s not a good time to bring in more people I don’t trust.
I let the idea go. And it was about the last one any of us came up with. We were nearly ready to just go up there and straight-up storm the castle like a couple of idiots, and let fate have its way, whatever that might be. But then I thought of one last thing.
Number Twelve.
“The house,” I said, smiling for the first time since the wall at the old stable had moved that morning. “There is a definite, strong energy in that house. And maybe now I’m starting to understand why.”
“Serena’s house?” Arabella asked. “The Wicks put a bunch of spells on it. It’s working for them now.”
I nodded. “I know, but you said it had been in her family for generations, right?”
“Since the Victorian era.”
“And what about Serena?” I asked. “Are you sure she’s a hostage? Are you sure she’s not cooperating with the Wicks, that the magic they wrapped that house in wasn’t worked with her permission?”
“I don’t think much of Serena, as you’ve probably gathered,” said Arabella. “But she’s no traitor. She’s a genuine prisoner.”
I bit my lip, thinking that Arabella wasn’t much of a judge of character to go by. She didn’t think her father was a traitor, either. Even now. “I wish there was a way to be sure,” I said. “We need to know that the Wicks are her enemies.”
“They’ve sent my father pictures,” Arabella said shortly. “He showed them to me, when I found out. When he had to explain himself. There were a couple of times they had to put him in line. I’m not the only one Talon’s cut body parts off of.”
I felt both relieved and guilty for that relief. That was surely a sad and hard thing for Serena, but it did put my mind at ease, for our sakes.
“What are you getting at, Verity?” Wendy asked. She was looking both hopeful and curious, and I knew she was thinking as much about that cookout at her house as I was.
I nodded at her. “Just what Granny told me to get at. A combination of storytelling and place-magic.”
“The house wants something?” asked Wendy.
“Every story wants a happy ending,” I said.
Granny laughed. “Well, maybe you can just write it one.”
“You guys want to let me in on what you’re talking about?” Arabella asked.
“I’m getting a little lost, myself,” said Caleb.
“Serena’s energy is in that house,” Wendy said. “Her family’s energy is there.”
“The vitality of generations of witches, built up over decades,” Granny added.
“If you don’t mind a little personification, you could say the house is loyal to Serena,” Wendy finished.
“Okay.” Arabella’s eyes began to light up as she saw the potential, although she was clearly struggling to fully understand it. “But can that help us, if we don’t have Serena?”
“You don’t need Serena, if you have Verity to nudge the house in the right direction,” said Wendy. “The place has been taken over, violated by people who have hurt Serena and become her enemies.”
“In other words,” I said with another smile, “that house is resentful.”
“I might not be able to do it,” I said. “I literally just started practicing this today.”
“Better than if you started practicing it tomorrow,” said Caleb with a shrug.
“And you didn’t really just start today, anyway,” Arabella said. “You were practicing with that barn.” She smiled at the others. “You should have seen it.”
Granny laughed. “Wish I had.”
“Plus you did something very like this last spring, with the hotel,” Wendy said. “You wove your story magic together with the power of an inn, and you protected everyone here. How is that different?”
“It’s not much different,” I agreed. “But the place-magic in an inn is special. It’s a lot stronger. Not to mention it was my inn. I don’t know Serena’s house, and it doesn’t know me.”
“But you felt some connection, while you were there,” said Arabella.
“I felt some energy,” I corrected, and I was thinking not of Number Twelve Fenwick Street, but of Lily Wick. The energy I’d felt from her,
and how it only seemed to flow one way. “Just because I felt the house, doesn’t mean the house felt me. Or that it will remember me.”
Am I really about to stake Cooper’s life on what a house might or might not remember?
“It’s a natural progression for you,” said Wendy. “You can do it.”
I appreciated all their encouragement, but after the initial surge of optimism I’d felt at just having any kind of idea at all, I was terrified. I bit at my bottom lip, which I’d already gnawed almost raw between anxiety and failed attempts to come up with brilliant ideas.
“Okay,” said Caleb. “So basically, you’re going to walk right up to the front door, same as if you wanted to meet Talon’s demands and make the exchange. Pretend you have the seed, argue with him over why you came a day early, whatever you need to do to stall him however you can. While you convince the house to help you take the Wicks down.”
This plan is insane.
It depends entirely on the house.
It depends entirely on me.
And it’s the only plan we have.
I swallowed back the lump in my throat, along with a little bit of blood from my lip. “The main thing is, we’ve got to distract Talon from feeding on me right away,” I said. “He was there, in the barn. He’s not going to want to give me a chance to do anything like that again. But if he thinks I have the seed, maybe if I can convince him I’ve hidden it, or—”
“Or let bullets do the stalling for us,” Arabella said. “Who has guns they can lend us?”
Caleb started to answer, but I interrupted him.
“No guns. We’re flying.” I got up to get my laptop. “In fact, I’ll start looking for flights right now.”
“We can still make the drive, if we leave tonight,” said Arabella.
“No, you have to sleep tonight,” I said. “I need you healed all the way, and with enough vitality stored up to heal some more, if things go badly up there. And it’s cutting it too close to drive if we leave tomorrow.”
“I am not going up there without weapons!” Arabella said.
Gathering Black (Devilborn Book 2) Page 17