Crossroads Burning

by Nash, Layla

  Luke adjusted his hat and tried not to smile at the close way Nelson and Mason watched him. “If I stick around too long, my dog will get fat and then he won’t be able to work. So maybe not.”

  “You sure?”

  “No,” Luke said. “But your federal friends don’t want me around, so I will go. Besides, I need to ask Nona about these werewolves. She might have some interesting thoughts on the matter. She will at least want to know how Sass liked the fry bread.”

  “You could take them all back through the res,” I said, nodding at the feds. “Then they can explain themselves to Nona on their own. I can get back to town myself.”

  And I could flash back to the house if I really wanted to, although I wasn’t sure I wanted Hazel to see that. Maybe normal witches couldn’t do that, either. But a pressure built in my chest that made getting home sooner rather than later an imperative. It wasn’t the dart of desperate need that meant my sisters were in trouble, but it brewed up like a spring thunderstorm promising tornadoes.

  Luke eyed me and then the feds, considering, then slowly nodded. “I could take them onto our land. The Great Spirit tells me they must be tested before they can be brought into our way of communing with the spirits.”

  I covered my eyes with my hand, wanting to laugh and groan at the same time. He really loved fucking with white people. “Right. Well, tell the Great Spirit and Nona both thank you for the fry bread. Just make sure these five make it back to town in one piece, you hear?”

  He waved his hand in dismissal and the dog watched with interest, apparently waiting for a command or another treat. “They’ll be fine.”

  “Luke,” I said, and used my I-mean-business voice. I even waited until he looked at me, and I used a little of the ley magic to put some oomph behind my words. “They make it back to Rattler’s Run in one piece. Agreed?”

  “Agreed,” he said, and the magic rippled again.

  Satisfied, I nodded and started cleaning everything up while Lincoln and Hazel frowned at me. As soon as there was a pause, Mason and Nelson edged closer to Luke and started asking questions about skin-walkers and coyotes and how the transformation happened and all kinds of things that sounded as foreign as Hazel and Lincoln’s conversation about magical metaphysics.

  I tuned them out and packed up my tent and the rest of my things, wondering whether I could ask Eddie to deliver the tent later in the week, after he got back. I didn’t want to flash with too many extra bits, otherwise something important might get lost along the ley lines. Or it could snag on something in the ether and I could drag back the Bell only knew what with me. I’d never heard of a witch getting stuck in the ley lines, unable to get out, but it wouldn’t have surprised me if I managed it by accident by hauling half a campsite through with me.

  “Luckett,” Lincoln said quietly behind me, and I glanced back as I wrestled my sleeping bag into its sack.

  “Yeah?”

  “I thought we agreed that everything we shared between the team and you would remain a secret?” There was a hint of reproach in his voice, and it set my hackles up immediately. It seemed like such a small thing, but with the ache in my chest and the pressure rising from far away, I felt as sensitive as if I’d gotten third-degree burns all over.

  I shrugged, still struggling with the slippery bag. “I thought so too, but you went ahead and told Hazel about the ley lines, and something about the cave as well. Don’t think I didn’t notice that, or how close she was standing when I came up. The cave knew about it as well. So I wasn’t sure where the rules were, and figured Luke of all people needed to know who was traipsing across his land.”

  “I thought the Crossroads belonged to the Lucketts?” He folded his arms over his chest, watching me and not offering to help. Him just standing there was a dead giveaway that he was all kinds of peeved, though it looked like he lost a little steam when I mentioned sensing Hazel right at the edge of the cave’s stairs. They still underestimated me, it seemed. It was good to know, even if it hurt a little to know what they really thought.

  I strapped the compression sack with the sleeping bag to my other packs, then bound up the tent to make it as small as possible. “Doesn’t belong to anyone, really. I’d say the Lucketts belong to it more than anything.”

  “I’d still appreciate if you didn’t tell anyone else about who and what we are.” Lincoln tried to sound reasonable and calm, but it was that masculine lecturing tone that made me want to do the exact opposite of what he said. I knew I was being immature, but there was the middle child part of my personality that didn’t give a shit and just wanted to make a spectacle. Especially if it meant ending the conversation and getting the hell out of there one breath faster.

  I bent down to tighten my boot laces and check the rest of the straps on my pack. The ley lines echoed and rippled, and from far away, it sounded like trouble. Bad trouble. “Ditto, my friend. Remember what you said about not putting me in that damn report of yours. Now I really have to go. I have to…I don’t have time for this right now.”

  “Luckett—” Something changed in the way he spoke, but I couldn’t examine it in depth. I didn’t have time to figure it out, not with the feeling of being chased and hunted and in danger. My movements turned frantic as I searched for anything I’d forgotten. His gaze went past my shoulder, back toward town and where that damn sense of impending danger dragged at me, and his head tilted as if he heard it calling, too.

  I forced a smile as I straightened and slung my pack across my back, double-checking my pockets. “You can pay me when you guys get back to town. I’ll leave the invoice at the bar; you can give the money to Clara or to Eddie, and they’ll make sure I get it. Best of luck with the rest of your trip. I have to go.”

  Before he could speak, I nodded to the rest of his team. “It was mostly nice to meet all of you. Safe travels and best of luck in all your future endeavors.”

  They all looked puzzled, checking on Lincoln and then me and then back and forth, as if they couldn’t figure out what had changed. I needed distance. I needed quiet and calm and a chance to think and read the book I’d gotten from the cave without Lincoln or Hazel breathing down my neck, and I needed to get the fuck out of there. Something wasn’t right, but I had no idea what it was. Not anything that would happen around them, but something else dragging me back to town. It had to be Lucia and Olivia. I should have stayed and finished the job, but I knew time ran out and I didn’t have the extra days to loiter around in the Crossroads or the park, making my way back to town at a mule’s walk.

  I waved to Eddie. “Just make sure the horses get back to Grady, will you? And thank him for me as well.”

  The ranger blinked, turning to look at my borrowed mule. “You’re not going to ride?”

  “Nah. Faster this way.” I turned once more to look at Luke, pointing the I-mean-business finger at him. “As I said. One piece. And let me know if you learn anything from Nona about the werewolves. I need to check on Olivia and Looch, and if we figure anything else out, I’ll send a message. Smoke signals or some shit.”

  Luke checked on his horse’s tack and just raised a hand to acknowledge what I said. He didn’t ever watch me walk away, and I never watched him leave. It was a habit that had started a long time ago—never say goodbye, never look back at a place you’re leaving, and never watch someone else go. It just felt like bad luck.

  So I started walking, needing a little distance, and heard Hazel and Lincoln arguing behind me. Even Eddie sounded puzzled, calling after me. Had to get back. As I moved, the ley magic drew me in the direction of home. It had to be something at home. My throat closed and my heart started to pound as I focused on home, letting it draw me back.

  I waved them back as feet hushed through the long grass, and I kept going until I walked down into a small depression in the prairie. I opened a rift and stepped into one of the ley lines, letting the cold power swirl around my feet. From there it was a few long steps to get to an intersection near our house. As far as
the others were concerned, though, I just disappeared. Just like I would reappear right behind our house. It was like jumping feet-first into an icy river, the shock of it taking my breath away, and I squeezed my eyes shut so the sick feeling of the world whirling past didn’t overwhelm me.

  It felt like an eternity and just a blink before the familiar sensation of home approached and I flung myself out of the ley line at the intersection, bursting into the cool air of our backyard and right into chaos.

  Chapter 31

  I dropped a good five feet to the ground, my knees giving out as I landed unevenly and the impact took my breath away. The straps of my pack tangled around my arms and prevented me from getting up or doing more than kicking as a dire wolf leapt at me from the porch of the house.

  “Sass!” Olivia’s voice screeched from the window, and the sound of a rifle being cocked made my blood run cold. She wasn’t a very good shot, not at all. “Hold still!”

  “Don’t do it!” I ground my teeth together and heaved at the dire wolf, managing to keep its teeth away from my throat. “Don’t you dare shoot me, Liv!”

  The pack broke as something gray and huge streaked past and rolled me and the dire wolf at the same time, and I couldn’t do more than gulp air and try to scream. More growling and snarling erupted but it was headed away from me—I took the opportunity to stagger to my feet and head for the house.

  Lucia jumped off the porch to run over to me, hauling my arm over her shoulders so she could drag me faster back into the wards that protected the house. I tripped on one of the porch stairs but at least fell forward, sprawling under Olivia’s rifle as she tracked the beasts still fighting in the dirt just outside the wards.

  I clutched my side and gasped for breath, squeezing my eyes shut. “What the hell is going on?”

  “You were supposed to be back days ago,” Lucia said under her breath, crouching next to me. Her hands slid over me, searching for wounds, and she sounded pissed off more than worried. “And those strangers were supposed to be gone. What the fuck happened, Sass?”

  “It’s a long story.” I patted at my chest, exhaling with relief to find the book still strapped tight against my ribs. “We’ve got time. Why is a dire wolf fighting another one? It’s the middle of the day!”

  “One is a dire wolf,” Liv said, still holding the rifle up as she maneuvered through the door and onto the porch. At least her stance had improved as she aimed the rifle; Lucia must have been working with her. “The other... is not a dire wolf.”

  And my heart sank, because I could piece together what another massive gray beast might be. I sat up, wincing as my ribs creaked and my vision blurred. I needed to see it. There couldn’t be a werewolf that close to town. We’d killed all of them, or so we thought. “Let me see. I’ve gotta…help me up, Looch.”

  She did, though she wasn’t pleased. “It’s been wild the last few days. We tried to reach you but nothing worked—no cell phones, none of the rangers’ radios, not even a whistle spell. Just…silence.”

  “I’m sorry,” I said, and leaned against the railing. The growling cut off, and then a huge werewolf stood over the dire wolf, the smaller beast silent and still. Its blood soaked into the grass, and I winced to think of the purifying we’d have to do. “But that’s a werewolf. We’ve got to do something about it.”

  “Kill it?” Olivia swung the rifle around. “Check.”

  “Wait.” I caught the rifle barrel, forcing it down, and stared at where the werewolf stood, watching us. Some kind of intelligence lurked in its eyes. Maybe it wasn’t entirely gone. Maybe some of the human remained behind. Maybe we could do something to save it. “Can we trap it?”

  “Are you out of your fucking mind?” Lucia reached for another rifle leaning against the door. “That’s the kind of thing we should kill and be done with. I don’t want that on our property, but I want to know where the hell it came from and how you know what it is.”

  “They used to be people,” I said. I pushed away her rifle as well. “They were people before the virus took them over, or whatever happened. We can…maybe we can bring the person back. I already killed eleven of them. I just want to…to try to save one.”

  Lucia frowned as she looked at me, and something like sympathy flickered in her eyes. She exhaled in a gust, then rolled her eyes skyward. “Jesus Christ. Okay, fine. We’ll…ward it, I guess? Can we make it compliant and lock it in the shed?”

  “Uh...” Olivia looked between us, then back at the werewolf as she kept her rifle up and aimed in the beast’s general direction. “We’re going to keep it? Seriously? In the shed?”

  “Where else do you suggest?” Lucia asked.

  “No, it’s just…that’s where I keep my gardening supplies. And the Christmas ornaments and the Halloween decorations...” She trailed off as Lucia and I both stared at her, and finally groaned. “Fine. Fine. Whatever. But don’t bitch at me when we have nothing to decorate the house with.”

  Lucia set her rifle aside and leaned through the doorway to pick up a bag of salt and some sage. “Maybe let’s worry about surviving the next week, Liv?”

  She scowled and kept the rifle aimed at the werewolf, which paced along the edge of the wards around the house. “Fine. You guys do whatever, like you always do.”

  I pressed the heels of my hands against my eyes, then took a steadying breath. “I can fill you in on what’s going on, or at least what I know of it, as soon as we’re done here. There’s big stuff—really big stuff. I think Bess broke something in the Crossroads, and now everything is going haywire. It’s why there have been so many dire wolves. And I don’t know whether this werewolf is part of that, or was sent by someone. But the only way I figure we can learn more is to fix the werewolf right there, so maybe he can tell us what the fuck is going on. Okay?”

  Olivia still didn’t look happy about it, but she put the rifle down and rubbed her hands together as she picked up some of the salt and a bundle of lavender. “Fine. But I’ll lead. You’re both shit at compulsion spells.”

  “Thanks for reminding us,” Lucia said, but she let our little sister take the lead.

  Liv mixed herbs and lit them, keeping her focus on the werewolf, as Lucia and I started a low chant. The werewolf growled and its pacing slowed as it felt the magic rise up, and its demon-gold eyes fixed Olivia in their disconcerting stare. There was definitely some kind of intelligence in its gaze. I knew it. I could just feel it. There had to be some remnants of humanity there. Whether we’d be able to draw it out was another matter entirely. But we had to try.

  I didn’t want twelve werewolf souls to be on my hands, if werewolves had souls. I wanted to know that I’d at least done all I could to help it. If we left it for Lincoln and his team to deal with, the werewolf would definitely end up dead without any further discussion or consideration.

  Liv raised her hands and drew up some of the ley magic, weaving and building a net that she could cast across the werewolf. As she got ready, she murmured, “Wards down in three... two... one.”

  Lucia dropped the wards around the house and the air crackled, the werewolf charging toward us with snarling, dripping teeth. I clenched my jaw and considered praying that Liv had the net strong enough, but it was too late for anything else. Liv cast the net with a curse, and it flew up and over just as the werewolf leapt to the porch, and the blue-gold net tangled around it and dragged it to the ground.

  Liv immediately lurched forward, hands moving so fast they practically blurred, and Lucia and I followed behind her, flanking her as we all three approached the werewolf as it struggled against the invisible net. She’d made it strong enough, certainly, and large enough that the more the werewolf struggled, the more it tangled itself. Exceptional magic, exceptionally done. I exhaled some of my worry, and figured we were at least a step closer to controlling the beast. If all else failed we could still kill it, but at least... at least we had it isolated now and could approach it a little closer. I took a rifle with me just in case the spell fa
iled or someone tripped or some other werewolf showed up to attack us, and kept a clear shot on the beast as it lay panting and snarling under the weight of Liv’s spell.

  Lucia covered her mouth and nose with her sleeve, nearly gagging as she got closer. “What the hell is that smell?”

  “Rot,” Liv said. She gestured at one of the beast’s legs, which had a series of gaping wounds oozing pus and other multi-colored liquids. “Looks like he was injured and it hasn’t healed well. Or at all.”

  I stood back, trying to stay upwind of the nasty-looking cuts. “Would it be kinder to put him out of his misery now?”

  “Seriously?” Olivia said, staring at me. “We just caught it. I’m going to be exhausted for three days after that much magic, and you changed your mind?”

  “I didn’t change my mind,” I said under my breath, folding my arms over my chest. “It’s just…no use using more magic on him if he’s already dying.”

  “I don’t think it’s gone septic,” Lucia said. She crouched to get a better look, though she remained well out of reach of the beast’s dirty and broken nails. “But we won’t have much time. Either we get him changed back in the next twelve hours, or we put him down so he’s not suffering. Agreed?”

  “Agreed,” I said, though I didn’t feel good about it at all. “Let’s get him in the shed. Do we still have those tranquilizers from the last time the horse was acting up?”

  Olivia stayed behind to manage and control the compulsion spell as Lucia jogged to the shed and jimmied the padlock on it, flinging open the doors as she peered inside. “I’ll check the barn and get some straw. We can probably drag some of the decorations and ornaments out if you’re that worried, Liv, but it would be a hell of a lot easier if we had chains and stuff to keep him from rampaging around. You can’t maintain that spell for twelve hours.”

  Chains and shackles—not usually things we kept around, although plenty of people in town assumed the witches were up to all kinds of kinky no-goodness. Olivia might have had some fuzzy handcuffs in her room, but I didn’t dare ask. She’d probably tell me, and then I’d never be able to forget.