Crossroads Burning

by Nash, Layla

  The debt would be repaid. I couldn’t fix what had broken, but I could return a little of the misery to Ronan.

  Lincoln was too far away. They were all too far away, and even if they were closer, I wouldn’t have listened.

  Ronan stared up at me, but instead of snarling, he smiled. His teeth flashed bone-yellow and sharp, and magic flared in his eyes as he breathed hate out and filled the air with rage. “Yes. Perhaps you are more mine than hers. Listen to me, Anastasia Luckett. Give in to it. Listen to me. There is unimaginable power. Open yourself to it. They don’t know how powerful you are. They’ve been holding you back. You deserve to be celebrated and honored.”

  The insidious whispers latched into my thoughts and blocked out all the other voices, including the shouts. Only the steady beat of Luke’s chant broke through and gave me pause, making my heartbeat stutter and follow a different rhythm, and the fire crackled still closer. It was too late. It was almost too late. We would burn. A fitting end for a bunch of witches, maybe.

  I hoped Lincoln got Lucia and the others out of the way. I hoped he took Nona with him. I would make sure Ronan died, that he didn’t hurt anyone else, and then I would follow him. I’d already killed eleven beings, possibly a few people and the rest of them wolves, but either way—I was a murderer. I was no better than Ronan.

  What was bound had to be freed. I’d been bound to the Crossroads for too long, bound by rules and laws and promises of evil coming back times three. If only I was freed from those restraints, I could truly make things happen.

  I tilted my head back to the sky, not seeing the stars for all the smoke, and let the magic unfurl in my chest. It was there in the ley lines intersecting under my feet, a spiderweb of power that surged and rushed through me. My legs moved in time with Luke’s drums as the chant slid through me at the same time, riding the ley magic as it flowed, as if Luke were the magic. He connected to the land itself and the sky and everything all around.

  I felt his presence like a hug, wrapping around me and saving part of me from myself. I couldn’t breathe.

  Ronan reached for me, despite the binding, and shook his head. “Don’t listen to them, Anastasia. Listen to me. That sorcerer will destroy you, the witches will try to bind you from using your power, and the druids—the druids will seek to kill you or steal your knowledge or keep you from eclipsing them. They have no idea who you are, what you could be. They are jealous and cruel and will use you for their own ends.”

  He would know. He was one of them.

  His words held a ring of half-truth at least, though I couldn’t pinpoint why.

  And there were too many other voices in my head and around me, and the smoke closed in like a veil under the night sky and through the flashes of lightning and the roll of thunder.

  Far away but still too close rose strange magic, sticking to my skin in hungry tendrils as it unraveled from far to my right. Someone else shouted a warning and I distantly recognized the voice—Lincoln—as I stared down at Ronan. My left hand, cold and curled into a claw, held tightly to a book, something I had but didn’t want, and I started to drop it. If I listened to Ronan—if I killed him—then I wouldn’t need the book. We would die in the fire and everyone else would be fine.

  Another voice, a woman’s that time, shouted into the back of my head. Do not let him win.

  The drums changed, grew more urgent and the voices higher pitched, and a cool breeze blew through the fire and drove away some of the smoke. My eyes stung but I could see the stars.

  “Sass, let’s go,” someone else yelled. Her voice, at least, cut through the bullshit. Lucia. Lucia didn’t tolerate bullshit and silliness. But she’d left me behind to save Olivia instead. Even if I’d understood, it hurt. She wanted to protect Olivia, so she left me to fight—and die—alone.

  My breath hitched. Not even Lincoln fought with me from the beginning. He talked with his boss instead. Even knowing I might die or end up a werewolf, he chose his work over me.

  My vision blurred again until I almost couldn’t see Ronan’s smile.

  “Yes,” he whispered. “Yes, I am the only one who understands. Everyone betrayed me, too. They walked away when they didn’t understand what I tried to achieve. But you understand. We will be powerful together.”

  The drums beat faster, urgent and climbing. Coyote howling turned into singing, many voices gathered together, and the golden thread through it all was Luke’s voice. Luke. And Nona.

  With that breath, with that memory – strength. Strength returned. I was strong.

  I lifted the book and spoke the words that Temperance made a chant in my head, in time with and singing along beside Luke’s vast expanse of magic. “You are bound. You are bound. By my will and with the balance, I bind you. What was freed is now bound.”

  He bared his teeth in a snarl and raged, shouting powerful words at me in a torrent, but they slid off me like oil across a puddle. I repeated it even as the flames licked around my ankles, singeing my eyebrows, and someone tried to grab me. Strong arms wrapped around my middle and attempted to haul me backward and away from the flames, but I didn’t care. Neither did the magic. Ronan had to be bound.

  Neither Temperance nor I could tolerate him getting away again. Even if it meant we both burned.

  “Damn it, Sass,” Lincoln growled next to me, but he didn’t leave.

  His hands, firm on my waist, became conduits and then power—power like I’d never dreamed—raced through me and boosted the torrent I’d already taken from the lines. We floated. We hovered and spun and everything exploded until I couldn’t see a damn thing, not even Ronan where he curled into a ball and wailed as the binding wrapped around him and cut off his magic. Cut off his connection to the ley lines and the earth and everything. The binding sucked away all his magic and drove it into the earth, trying to heal the damage he’d done, and as the earth bucked and shivered, Luke shouted and the heavens opened up.

  Rain poured down and we were instantly soaked. The force of it pounded down like nails driving through my skin until I expected to see blood. When I looked down, the only blood was from my leg and the festering werewolf bite. I blinked and the whole world shifted and moved in the eternity it took to open my eyes again. People appeared and moved through a strobe light of lightning, clicking by in jerky motions that didn’t connect to anything I was seeing or feeling.

  Ronan was bound, though. The fire sizzled as it went out, smoke billowing up, and I looked at Ronan and felt... empty. Hollow. He was bound, but at what price?

  I went to my knees as I saw Luke and all his people standing in a circle to the side, still chanting and singing and calling the drums from far away. I couldn’t face where Nona lay behind me, but I knew she was there. I could never forget.

  Chapter 61

  It felt suddenly like there were too many people all over, all of them moving and speaking and shouting and doing magic in the same small space, and Lincoln still stood close behind me.

  I staggered away from him and Ronan, desperate for air even as the rain continued to fall. Some of the thunderheads retreated and the sky cleared, but still the rain fell. I couldn’t complain despite my soggy clothes; it concealed the tears that continuously streaked my cheeks.

  The emptiness felt more complete without Lincoln’s magic or the rest of the power from the ley lines. I felt like the snakeskin left behind, brittle and torn. I almost dropped the book and barely managed to shove it into the back of my jeans, not caring if it got wet. It was too heavy a burden. Olivia should have gotten it; Temperance liked her best.

  As I got closer to the cave, I could start to pick out voices and familiar threads of magic, even if none of it made sense in the strange echo chamber of my thoughts. I stumbled to a stop as my head grew too noisy and the cave was too close and somewhere to my left was Nona. Lucia stepped in front of me, trying to see my face, and her mouth moved but I didn’t understand her. I just shook my head and drifted around her, wading through knee-high molasses back to the cave
. Had to reach the cave. Had to touch the stone...

  The drums pounded ferociously as the voices escalated, climbing and climbing and climbing, and I thought my heart would explode. They cut off abruptly, high and plaintive, and the world snapped back into full speed and focus. I staggered and fell again, clapping my hands over my ears to block out the shouting and demands.

  It was all too real and close, too loud. Somehow Luke’s magic protected me, it shielded me when I needed it. Without it, I almost fell apart. The singed grass and stone reeked, clinging to my hair, and the burned magic settled deep into the earth from the battle with Ronan. He howled and condemned me, accusing me of assault and every other crime he could come up with, and Heathrow spoke soothing words about how the witches would all pay for what they’d done to him.

  Hazel argued with Newton, and a man equally as broad and intimidating as Lincoln talked with the druid, periodically waving his hands around. And still the rain fell.

  Lucia crouched next to me as I stayed there on my knees in the mud, staring at where Nona lay. “You promised to still be here when I got back.”

  “I was.” I felt too tired to argue. “I am.”

  Something about the way she squeezed my shoulder told me she didn’t agree. But she didn’t push, for once. Lucia picked up the rifle and the backpacks, moving slow, and straightened. “You need anything out of the cave?”

  I couldn’t think about anything but Nona. But when Lucia held out her hand, I took it and stood as well. I followed her into the cave because it was easier than standing outside in the rain with all those strangers asking me questions I couldn’t answer and only half-heard.

  I didn’t comment on Lucia’s shaking hands as she re-lit candles and burned some sage to clear the remnants of ill-intentioned magic, and I leaned against the wall and tried to breathe. Temperance reappeared in the center of the cave, her expression once more serene. “You have a... unique approach, daughter. But you did well.”

  The words rang hollow. “At what cost?”

  Her head tilted and Lucia’s movements hitched as she heard me speak. But my sister said nothing and continued to sprinkle salt and lavender around the cave, waving the sage and humming quietly. Temperance studied me for a long moment, then understanding dawned in her ghostly expression. “Ah. The coyote. You were attached to her.”

  “She was more a grandmother to me than my own. She did not have to die today.” Saying the words aloud just scraped out the rest of my insides and burned them to ash. Numbness settled through me. A numb hollow emptiness that would consume me almost as quickly as the fire would have.

  “She fought because she saw something worth fighting for,” Temperance said. Her hands folded neatly at her waist, as if she feared she might reach out and try to touch me. “It was a risk she took with full knowledge and commitment. Just as you would have died to protect your sisters, she chose to die to save this place. And you.”

  What was taken had to be returned. Nona fought for the Crossroads, to get back her sacred land from the man who stole it.

  My sinuses burned and I looked away, feeling childish and small for crying. “She died because of me.”

  “She died because of my brother,” Temperance said, and some steel slid into her words. “Never forget that. It goes back to him. The debt is his.”

  “It doesn’t matter.” I pushed upright and debated whether I could make it all the way back up the stairs or if I should just sleep there in the cave. I didn’t know if I could make it home through the ley lines. I certainly couldn’t face Luke. I didn’t want to face Lincoln. “It’s still my fault.”

  Lucia paused in what she was going to look at me, even taking a step in my direction. “Sass, it’s not—”

  I held up a hand to cut her off and dragged myself up a few stairs at a time, stopping to breathe as my lungs refused to cooperate. It didn’t matter what they said. I knew what had happened.

  Chapter 62

  There were still too many people outside the cave, and I mourned that its location would no longer be secret. Heathrow and his people held what looked like GPS loggers, sniffing around and digging into the earth, and Lincoln just stood there next to the big stranger and watched.

  I tripped on the last stair out of the cave and nearly fell, catching myself in time, although I froze as I glanced over and noticed what wasn’t there. Nona. Nona was gone. For a brief, shining moment my heart lifted and I thought she hadn’t died, that she’d only been stunned, and she ran off to join Luke and the others. But when I turned, I caught a glimpse of Luke and his circle, bearing a white-wrapped bundle off into the darkness.

  They disappeared in smoke and fog, and a whisper of magic revealed they’d truly left. I stared after them, even the hollow shell that was left of me crumpling. Of course Luke wouldn’t want to talk to me, either. He probably didn’t care that I’d survived. I’d gotten his great-grandmother killed, after all. Why would he want anything to do with me?

  “Hey there, Luckett,” a quiet voice said, and I looked over to see Hazel standing next to me. A hint of wariness plagued her expression, along with fatigue, and she didn’t try to touch me. “That sure was... something. Are you okay?”

  “No,” I said, and I didn’t elaborate. I just stood and looked at the earth and the ley lines beneath, trying to figure out what the hell to do next. Maybe when Lucia finished in the cave, we could close it up or bury it forever. We’d have to ward the hell out of it to make sure Heathrow and his kind didn’t try to find it again and steal all the Luckett secrets, so maybe we were better off just destroying the place. There wouldn’t be any Lucketts left in short order, if we were all arrested or died childless—since no one in town would ever look at us again.

  Hazel nodded, clearing her throat, then gestured at my leg as she said gently, “Can I take a look at that bite?”

  My thoughts glitched and I struggled to remember what had happened that ended up with me being bitten. I couldn’t feel it. My whole leg was numb. Everything was numb. The fight unrolled slowly, skipping and jumping and blurring, until I saw the werewolf biting me, then Ronan, then Nona... I blinked and banished the ugly part of it, shaking myself. I couldn’t think about it. Not yet.

  She held up a test kit though, and murmured something about needing to take a swab. I just stood there, watching Lincoln argue with the big scary dude. Another one of them running around town. Just great. Rattler’s Run was getting too damn crowded. Maybe Lucia and I and Olivia could sell the house and buy an Airstream and move out to the Crossroads and set up camp over the cave to get away from it all and protect the family secrets. We could probably learn to farm. Maybe raise sheep or goats or cows. My thoughts spilled out like an overfilled cup, sinking into random places until anything and everything seemed feasible. Including becoming a farmer in a Crossroads.

  Because I knew in my heart that the bound thing that had been free meant the werewolves, not the Lucketts. We were still bound, for whatever reason, and it didn’t seem like Temperance’s book knew the way to free us.

  Hazel crouched and fussed with the torn fabric of my jeans, cutting part of it away before pulling some threads from where they’d clotted into the wound.

  The air moved and I looked west toward the reservation, waiting for the cool breeze to dissipate. It felt like Luke, for some reason, although I couldn’t pinpoint why. I’d never seen him work magic like that before, and certainly not with other men and women from his tribe. I never knew there were so many coyotes in the tribe. I’d kind of assumed he and Nona were the last ones. It was comforting, at least, to realize he had so much family to help him.

  It made the breath hitch in my throat. Luke had a hell of a lot of help, but I didn’t.

  And after getting Nona killed, I wouldn’t even have his help. I’d never be able to joke with him about rain dances. I’d never learn how he did what he did, or whether they knew about Temperance and her warrior love, or if they wanted vengeance against Ronan.

  Hazel made a soft
sound in her throat, absently patting my shoulder as she shook the vial with the bloody swab in it. “Sorry, Luckett. I know that had to hurt.”

  It all hurt. The air moved again and I knew it was Lucia; her presence felt substantially different from everyone else, although Lincoln vibrated like echoes of the same. All of my senses were off, a little wobbly and a touch out of focus, like my brain had the settings rewired and nothing quite worked the way it was supposed to.

  Lucia didn’t look pleased to see Hazel anywhere near me, but I figured the blood test was why no one else on the team got close. I watched Heathrow and his team as everything else moved around us.

  My sister carried our backpacks and the rifle, handing me the bags but not the gun. It was probably better that way, although from her expression, I wasn’t sure anyone should have felt any safer with Lucia armed. Even if we’d used all the ammunition. Lucia gave the witch a hard look.

  Hazel didn’t back down. “We have to do the test. She’s been through this before, Lucia. It’s just a blood test for contaminants. If the venom transferred, we have an antidote.”

  “It’s not venom,” I said quietly. I wondered what their little test measured, though. It seemed like a very academic question as the rain slowed to a gentle patter, warmer than I’d expected. How many people had died because they tested for something that didn’t really exist? Would a curse change the blood enough for it to be tested? We should have made them test Ronan. Maybe that would have revealed the curse still on him, instead of taking us too long and getting people killed. “It’s a two-stage, transferable curse, at least the way Ronan used it.”

  The witch blinked. “But—”