The witch’s flesh
Her bones will hollow
And her ashes mesh
Lucia was lost in a trance-like stupor. Her incantation was blocking whatever elemental energy remained in the parking garage. The old curse even ate away at my connection to my own core energy. Curse spells like that could briefly strip a lunar witch of her magic.
In capable hands, the curse could even make my heart stop.
Faion pulled me close. “She salty as fuck, let’s work on that door.”
“Stay in place and face the curse,” the masked man growled. His command of the paralyzing spell had improved. Both Faion and I felt it crawl up our legs like we had cement boots on.
Lucia moved forward and hissed, “Areika!”
A sorcerer’s fire curse. My blood froze. How could she know an outlawed word that had been banned from being spoken since 1666 (sorry, London)?
The blaze from the back wall spewed forth. Someone had been tipped off about my aversion to fire sources.
“Mankara!” Lucia chanted, opening her arms wide. The glowing markings on her skin went from white to scarlet as the blaze behind her leapt higher.
Wonderful. A curse I didn’t know. I readied the energy that was available to me, hoping I wouldn’t have to use it.
Lucia moved forward. Her voice echoed off the concrete walls.
“Pyrrha!”
Please, Lucia, I don’t want to hurt you, I don’t want to hurt you.
“No elements to draw from, witch,” the masked man mocked. “What will you do now?”
Oh, but I am not only a witch.
Information is king. And what they did not know was about to become a painful lesson. If I had initially rejected the truth of what I am, if I hesitated to embrace my fiercest voice—well, that was about to change.
The flames raged, stirring a hot wind that would make the temperature unbearable. With a wild scream, I freed myself from the paralyzing spell.
I stomped my right foot hard. The ground shook, chunks of concrete broke off and fell, but I controlled them. I sent the debris straight for the masked goon. He ran but the concrete pieces swept him into the air and launched him. He hit the wall with a thud.
“Luna!” Faion cried out.
I turned. Faion fell to his knees. A circle of fire formed around us, the flames roared, getting hotter by the second.
Faion’s translucent aura fizzled into a thin veil of smoke. The heat must have knocked him unconscious. Great, now I had to use energy to keep him protected from the fire on top of everything.
Lucia’s eyes had gone blank, like there was no life left in her, no thinking mind. Her lips kept moving but no sound came out. She looked possessed.
My head ached as I tried to find a way to stop her without hurting her. She was way more powerful than I ever thought she could be.
The masked man surged to his feet. His scream sounded like a roar inside the burning concrete tomb. His resolve was impressive. He glared through the flames at me, dagger in hand.
Lucia gasped, clutching her chest. She stumbled down to sit on the cracked cement, folding her arms in her lap like a school kid. Her eyes were wild, like she didn’t know where to aim them.
Faion’s eyes snapped open. “Yes!” he said, in an almost celebratory voice. “I’m in her head. I have her contained! Somewhat… I think.”
I leapt into action. Balling my hands into tight fists to control my energy, I jumped out of the fire ring. The flames licked at my jeans and sneakers and I felt the heat roasting my skin.
I came face to face with the masked man. “Extinctus!” I said. Instantly, the fire ring was dissolved. The flames creeping alongside the garage walls shrunk down into a flicker and died.
The man stared into my eyes, bewildered. Spells like the one I had used to control the fire took an enormous amount of elemental energy. They could only be cast when an elemental witch had an abundance of resources at her disposal. I had none.
Faion stepped next to me. His eyes held the same curiosity.
Out of nowhere, the puppy ran at us, ears pointed to the ceiling. Twenty feet away, it started to shift—body expanding, legs elongating, fur sprouting from its back, huge claws sliding out of paws, crooked jaw gaping wide open like it came unhinged, with rows of serrated teeth sprouting.
“The fuck?” Faion yelled as the demon was on us.
No time to think. My magic reflexes just reacted.
I grabbed the beast by the neck and hurled it against the wall. The thing howled in a savage, bone-chilling way and vanished into tendrils of vapor.
Damn.
That second of wonderment cost me. The masked man came at me from behind and planted his dagger in my left thigh.
I sighed and turned to him slowly. I watched as my maniacal grin quickly erased his resolve.
You fool. Your basic weapons are no threat to a Mist Rider.
His hand came for my throat. He was a foot taller, yet my hand blocked his attack with a speed and ease that blew my own mind. With my other hand, I raked the mask off his face.
The unmasked man let out an ear-splitting growl before he fled. He pulled out a remote control to open the roller shutter. He had to tuck and roll on the ground in order to miss colliding with the rising shutter.
I watched him run in shock. He was famous for running. The unmasked man was none other than Lily’s jock crush, Rocco Barnes.
My hand fell to my injured thigh to apply pressure. Some pain registered briefly, but the healing process had already begun. My previous enhanced recoveries had activated an automatic regeneration in my cells. Winter mentioned that might happen. I was a self-cleaning oven of sorts.
It was then I noticed that Lucia had not recovered. She did not have the benefit of immortality. She had collapsed.
Faion dropped to his knees to check her pulse. “Heartbeat’s stable.”
I inhaled, filling my lungs with the fresh oxygen pouring through the now open entrance. Lucia would survive. She would wake up in her own bed. That was the important thing.
I placed my hand on Faion’s shoulder. “Let’s take her home.”
Faion nodded. He was shaken. He had never come that close to a hostile entity before, let alone a scent demon disguised as a cute puppy.
“Faion, I need you to do me a favor.”
“Yeah, okay, as long as it’s basic.”
“As soon as we take Lucia home, I want you on a train, bus, plane, whatever we find first, to Astoria.”
His two stunned eyes locked on mine. “You want me out the way.”
“Out of harm’s way, yes,” I corrected him. “You did your part, my friend. The rest is up to me now.”
“I’ll go to Oregon, if you go to the hospital,” he said, motioning to my leg. “Here, let me take a look.”
I twisted away before he could get his eyes on my wound. The last thing I needed was for Faion to discover my healing powers. “It’s not that bad, but I’ll go to an urgent care near my place, I promise, once we take care of Lucia.”
He grabbed my hand. “Luna, I’m not afraid to fight.”
“I know, but this is the wrong kind of fight for you.”
He relented, reluctantly. Faion Trice was one of the kindest and purest spirits I had come upon in my two worlds. Though we had not known each other long, his friendship already meant the world to me. He had been there when no one else would or could and it was time that I returned the favor.
After getting Lucia home safely, we took an Uber to the train station.
CHAPTER 25
____________________________________
I walked away from Old Town Station worried about Faion, Lucia and Lily. To survive the upcoming days, I would need to forget about them. Knowing Faion would be with his very capable family in Astoria helped. He’d be safe there.
When we put Lucia in her bed, Faion and I had combined forces to wipe her memory clean of the events at the parking garage. We also attempted to implant an impulse spell to c
onvince her she had a bad virus, hoping she’d stay home for two days. We couldn’t be sure it would work.
My brain processes were on overload. I had no clue why Lucia would come after me, or how she acquired intimate knowledge of sorcerer curses and banned fire spells, or how Rocco, the football player, fit into all this.
There I was again, trying to rationalize for Lucia. I had made excuses for her before and it cost me. Her dealings with magic wasn’t some middle-aged woman’s lark. She had a demon animal with her, for fuck’s sake. Whatever was going on, she was knee deep in it.
I stared at Winter’s number on my phone with shaking fingers. It was five minutes after ten. My stomach growled. I was ravenous after skipping dinner and burning through my energy reserves. I was hungry like a wolf.
I know, bad word choice.
Winter’s phone rang. One… two… three times.
Nada. Maybe he was with the Magistrates. Did phones even work down there?
He answered on the fifth ring, after I had already given up.
“Problem?” he said.
“Yes. How soon can you be here?”
Twenty minutes later, his tires screeched in front of Perry’s Café, a block from the station. I’d grabbed a tuna melt and a chocolate shake. Funny how much worse my food choices had been since I found out I was immortal.
“You’re hurt,” he said when I got in the car.
I’d borrowed some of Lily’s old clothes but hadn’t wiped my leg clean. Blood had seeped through the gray skinny jeans, forming a small brown stain at the spot where I had been stabbed.
“Another ambush tonight,” I said.
I told him everything. He listened silently. I kept stealing glances. He was especially unreadable tonight, but I noticed his biceps flexing as he squeezed the wheel tighter and tighter.
“You’re staying with me,” he said when I was done.
I knew he’d say that, and I was cool with it. That’s why I had called him. There was no reason I should go about my business as usual until we fought off thousands of morphs and survived. My place for the next three days was by Winter’s side. I would soak up whatever he wanted to teach me.
“I have information that might cheer you up,” he said. “The girls you saved have been reunited with their families.”
His words gave me the greatest feeling of relief.
“Luckily,” he continued, “the paramedics and good Samaritans did not mention my red Honda Civic to the authorities.”
I furrowed my brow. “What did you do?”
His eyes grinned. “Me? You saw me, I bathed in the river.”
“That’s not what I mean. And I can assure you I saw nothing.”
“And I can assure you that nobody got hurt.”
“Maybe not physically…”
“Luna, it’s different in Mexico. And I would be a fool to ever leave my car without cloaking the license plates.”
It made sense, but the truth was I didn't trust him, not completely. I knew there was a roaring ocean of history behind him, a long, dark past I wasn’t sure I would want to know or could even understand.
Winter never lied, but the greatest dishonesty was never lying, it was omission, leaving out all the things that mattered.
“Could Chaos be the one sending demons after me? Maybe he knows you’re planning to use a lunar witch to stop his morphs.”
A grimace wrinkled his perfect face. “I don’t think so.”
“How can you be certain?”
“If Chaos wanted you dead or captured, it would be done, the first time, faster than you can take a breath.”
I shuddered. “That’s terrifying.”
“Yeah,” he said, switching lanes. “That very fate awaits countless others if we don’t succeed.”
“Okay,” I said, “then maybe he’s sending you a message.”
“That’s not Chaos, that’s not his MO. He doesn’t tiptoe around things. He blows them up. He attacks head on. He was a soldier, an enforcer, not a diplomat. He cracks nuts with a sledgehammer.”
“You sound confident. How well do you know him?”
“Chaos is well known amongst our ranks. He’s been a thorn in the Council’s side since Marco Polo was in Sumatra.”
“That’s oddly specific,” I said.
“Oh, no, there’s nothing odd about it,” Winter said. “Someone was using Marco Polo to destabilize two regions. We didn’t know it was Chaos at first, but until we found out, a lunar witch aided us in creating monsoon winds to keep Polo stuck on that island for months.”
“Ah, so when you need us, we’re fine,” I said. “Other times we’re totally expendable. That’s so fucking typical of tyrants.”
That pretty much ended the car conversation.
We reached the condo and he parked the car inside his spacious, three-car garage. His wards hummed like kittens before a saucer of milk when they sensed him. A soft glow framed the door like a silver aura when his fingers hovered over the lock. The door popped open without a sound as the wards ebbed, letting us in.
Winter took out his phone and plopped onto his couch.
I planted myself in front of him, hands on hips. “If not Chaos, then who?”
“I don’t know,” he said, completely indifferent. “Some renegade who has sensed your power and wants to challenge you—some unsavory beast exiled from his realm, seeking revenge. Maybe your friend’s mom has lost her mind. Unauthorized use of chants and curses often drives basics mad.”
He seemed to have stopped in mid flow.
“What?” I prodded.
“It’s a stretch, but it could be someone among my kind who wants to challenge me through you. As Chief Magistrate, I often bring other Immortals to justice and that has made me enemies among my kind.”
Hold the phone… Chazona.
“It’s Chazbona,” I said. “Makes total sense. I saw it in her eyes, total disdain, pure hatred for all that I am, a witch of the Lunar Order.”
He flared his nostrils. “You're reaching.”
“Am I? If you had seen the way she looked at me. Trust me, girls know when other girls hate them. She’s like a mean girl of the Immortal kind.”
“It’s not Chazona.”
“How do you know? She’s all about you and your muscled vibe. She wants to get with you and make a bunch of mean babies. And when she noticed you have taken an unusual interest in me, her claws came out.”
“Do you hear yourself, Luna Mae? You sound like a basic. Female intuition does not exist. That’s just paranoia rebranded with a more noble name.”
“Okay, answer me this,” I said. “Did you two ever… comingle?”
“Luna, that’s enough.” His voice was authoritative and harsh, like he was chastising a spoiled child.
It stung. Time to change the subject.
“Were you ever going to tell me what I was?” I said, doubtfully. “I mean, if I hadn’t ended up on the brink of death, would you have even bothered?”
He shrugged. “Everything’s a bother. It is what it is.”
I lowered my eyes. “I’ll take that as a no, Eeyore.”
“You often make references I don’t understand,” he said.
“You literally just told me a whole thing about Marco Polo.”
“He’s very famous,” Winter said.
“Yeah… in swimming pools.”
His whole face contorted. I loved how confused he looked.
“I might have told you,” he said. “I very well might have. I did think about it. And if not me, I am sure someone would have come to you eventually.”
Someone… but who? My long-lost bastard of a father? Another Mist Rider in hiding? Or someone waiting for me to get stronger before they sank their teeth in to drain my gift and, possibly, my life?
My eyes watered. What in effing hell was wrong with me?
“Immortality is a bitch,” I said. “I don’t know if I can handle it.”
“We don’t get to choose the load we’re born to carry.
” He let his guard down for the first time. The Immortal took a backseat to the man. “The higher the power, the higher the stakes. The greatest danger for you lies with the Eternals, the Immortal gods. If word of your existence reaches the Eternal halls, they will want to test you. We must make sure you are ready. I don’t want them to break you before you even know what you can do.”
He stood. A twitch above his eye told me he wanted to reach out and touch me, but he quickly managed to control that temptation.
I wished he would have touched me. I wished he would wrap me in his arms again like the night I almost died, so I could fall asleep without fear and not wake up until I felt the sun on my face.
Get it together, girl.
“Chaos knows about our night at the morph camp by now,” I said. “Isn’t it likely he’ll call off the whole 33rd parallel North transformation tea party?”
“He gets this chance once every hundred years and there’s no guarantee the morphs will survive another century. He’ll follow through. Believe me.”
“But if Chaos sees me, why won’t he just kill me in a single breath like you said?”
“Because I won’t let him,” he said, standing. “You can sleep in the master bedroom. Make yourself at home.”
He wanted me to sleep in his bed? I don’t think so. “With you?” I said.
“Don’t you have a guestroom?”
Winter chuckled. “I have an errand to run.”
“You’re leaving me alone?”
“You are hardly helpless,” he said with a wink. “And don’t worry, my wards like you. They will protect you.”
“Jonas,” I said. “Be safe. I’d rather you were here.”
He closed the door and was next to me in an instant. There was darkness in his eyes, hungry, fathomless, demanding darkness.
His intense gaze mesmerized me. We said nothing. I instinctively put my hand on his chest to get him to move. Instead, he took my wrist.
The darkness in his eyes turned into something different, more savage and desperate. He pulled back, letting go of my wrist.
“I’ll protect both of us,” he said. “Try to remember that.”
He left, the door locked, yet I could still feel him. His wards closed around me with a gentle swoosh, eager to keep me safe.
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