Bella turned and stared at Koshka, who hadn’t moved past the middle of the room. “And would anyone like to explain to me how Jazz got to the Otherworld? Anyone?”
Koshka padded over and put his huge head on the couch next to Bella’s knee. “I took her. I thought she really might have a chance to give the Riders back their immortality, so I helped her.” He sighed, staring at Jazz’s prone figure. “If I’d had any idea . . .”
“Are you insane?” Now Bella’s temper flared, although Jazz was grateful it wasn’t aimed at her. “What the hell were you thinking?”
“I was thinking,” Koshka said in a deeper-than-usual voice, one that echoed with the reminder that current appearances to the contrary, he was in fact a dragon, “that my friends, who you have only known for thirty-some years, but who I have spent centuries with, were suffering. And none of the Baba Yagas were doing anything about it.”
“Don’t you think we tried?” Bella cried. “Each of us on our own. Then together. No matter what the Queen said. Of course we tried! But we failed. The Queen was right; it just couldn’t be done.”
“Please don’t fight,” Jazz said, her voice cracking. “Please. This was my fault. You can punish me any way you want. You can take away my phone or ground me forever. Please just don’t send me away. I promise I’ll never try anything on my own again.”
Bella scooped Jazz up into a hug, letting go of her anger with a sigh. “Oh, sweetie, I’m not going to send you away. I would never do that. You just made a mistake. We all do it, especially when we’re teens and think we know better than all the adults around us.” She sat back, releasing Jazz and giving her a wry smile. “I did it myself, if you’ll recall.”
“With slightly less world-shaking results, I might say,” Koshka added, staring at Jazz. “Did you know she had this much power?”
“I don’t think anyone knew,” Bella said.
Jazz had no idea what they were talking about. “But I didn’t make the spell work,” she said, pulling herself upright with an effort that almost made her heave. “I just made myself really sick and yelled for you to come save me.” She sniffled.
“That you did,” Bella said. “And I heard you from over thirty miles away. I’m pretty sure the caravan bent more laws of physics than usual to get us back here so fast.”
“Huh,” Jazz said.
“Yeah. Huh, indeed.”
Jazz heard the sounds of the front door opening behind them and footsteps coming toward them. Sam stuck his head in the doorway and glanced around quizzically.
“Hey, I’m home. Am I interrupting something?” He looked in their direction. “Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t realize we had a guest.”
Jazz wondered if she’d hit her head when she fell onto the floor. “What do you mean? There’s no one else here but us.”
“Jazz?” Sam said, his eyes widening.
Bella nodded. “Yes, Jazz. She tried to do a spell to give the Riders back their immortality, and something went wrong. Really wrong, as you can see. But in the middle of it all, she managed to send out a psychic call that brought me and Koshka running back in time to save her life.”
Save her life? Crap. She’d really messed up.
“Is that why you guys keep staring at me?” Jazz asked. “Because I almost died?”
Sam opened his mouth and closed it again. He looked a question at Bella, who shrugged. Koshka just shook his furry head.
“What?” Jazz said. “What’s going on?”
Without a word, Sam left the room and came back holding the square mirror that usually hung in the hallway by the door. He knelt down in front of her and held it so she could see her own reflection staring back at her.
Except it wasn’t her reflection.
Oh, it looked a lot like her, but the girl—woman—gazing at her from the mirror was about ten years older. There were small lines around her eyes and mouth that hadn’t been there that morning, and the face was thinner. The woman looked like Jazz thought she might in ten years, when she was twenty-six, instead of sixteen.
Jazz put one hand up to her mouth, and the woman in the mirror did the same thing.
“Holy crap,” Jazz said. “Is that me? I mean, is it real or some kind of illusion? Will it wear off?”
Sam put the mirror down, leaning it against the wall, and came back to put one arm around his wife. He looked pale and shaken, which was about how Jazz felt.
“It’s no illusion,” Bella said. “Although I don’t know how the hell you did it, you seem to have aged ten years since this morning. I doubt there is any way it is going to wear off or reverse itself.” She sighed. “I can see how this might have happened with the spell you created—just barely. But I don’t understand why, if your goal was to give the Riders back their immortality, you somehow ended up with this result instead.”
“Oh,” Jazz said, closing her eyes briefly as she recalled the last moments before everything went to hell. “I’d done the spell, and it wasn’t quite working, and I remember thinking that I wished I was older and wiser and more experienced. I was holding on to the leaf while I thought it.” She smacked herself on the forehead. Hard. “I’m an idiot.”
“Well, the ‘wiser’ part definitely worked,” Koshka snarked, breaking the tension.
Bella glared at him. “I’m pretty sure that you are living proof that being older doesn’t necessarily confer wisdom, mister. Since you’re the reason she had that leaf in the first place.”
“Leaf?” Sam said, sounding understandably confused. “What did Koshka have to do with all this? And are you saying that Jazz isn’t a teenager anymore? Does that mean she isn’t going to stay with us? What the hell is happening here?”
“It’s a long story,” Bella said. “Some of those questions I don’t know the answers to. But I can tell you two things for sure. One, Jazz needs to be taught now more than ever, and she is still a part of our family, so she’s not going anywhere. And two, we’re going to have to tell the Queen about this right away, and I don’t have any idea how she is going to react.”
Jazz suddenly felt both relieved and very, very worried.
* * *
Bella had given Jazz a couple of hours to rest and pull herself together before they’d headed to the Otherworld via the doorway in the caravan, but she’d said even that was pushing their luck. Something like this was too big to put off telling the Queen about right away.
Sam had offered to come with them, even though the Otherworld made him twitch, but Bella insisted it was better if he stayed behind, and gave him the unenviable task of breaking the news to Barbara and Beka instead.
So now Jazz trailed after Bella and Koshka as they walked through fields of amber and lilac flowers, past a stream where a unicorn lifted its head from drinking aqua blue water long enough to say, “Good day, Baba Yaga,” and into the midst of some kind of airborne game played by tiny faeries with iridescent wings trying to keep a chiming bell away from bumblebees larger than they were.
Jazz sighed to herself at the wonder of it all, hoping this wouldn’t be the last time she’d get to see it. The Queen was as unpredictable as she was lovely, and there was no way to tell how she was going to react to the news of what Jazz had done. It was more than likely that this would be Jazz’s last day as a Baba Yaga in training. The thought made her unbearably sad, but she tried to hold her head up anyway.
It felt strange—her head, and everything else. She’d had to borrow some of Bella’s clothes, since the ones she’d been wearing didn’t quite fit right anymore. All her pants were a little too short and a little too tight, and her shirts . . . Well, apparently she was a late bloomer. Jeez.
Eventually they arrived at the palace, where they found the Queen and her consort watching a chess match involving living pieces that moved across the colored squares, which appeared to have grown on the front lawn. The pawns were dwarves and brownies d
ressed in either black or white, and the rooks were actual knights on horseback. Jazz would have been fascinated if she hadn’t been so terrified.
Bella marched past the players without a second look, leading her small party to stand before the King and Queen. She bowed politely, and Jazz and Koshka followed suit. “Your Majesties,” Bella said. “I am sorry to interrupt your entertainment, but I had news that couldn’t wait.”
The Queen raised one graceful eyebrow that matched the silvery-white hair piled in elaborate braids atop her head, then took a closer look at her unexpected guests. She blinked her amethyst eyes twice and put her teacup down carefully on the gold table next to her chair.
“Is that your apprentice, Baba Yaga?” she asked, exchanging glances with the King, whose own cup was now dangling unnoticed from his fingers, dripping brown liquid onto the ground. “Whatever have you done to her?”
A number of courtiers sitting nearby tittered in amusement, and the Queen waved her hand imperiously. “Go away,” she said. They went. As did the chess players, the board, and everyone else within earshot.
“Now, Baba Yaga, please explain, if you will,” the Queen said. Her startlingly lovely face was frosty under its diamond crown.
Jazz took a deep breath and stepped forward. “She didn’t do anything. Uh, Your Majesty. I mean, Your Highnesses. I did it to myself. It was all my fault and I take full responsibility.”
Bella opened her mouth to speak, but the Queen held up one slim finger. “It would appear that your protégé’s newfound maturity is not merely skin-deep. Let her continue.” She gestured at Jazz. “You were saying? This . . . impossibility before Us is your doing?”
“It is, Your Majesty. You see, I was trying to do a spell to give the Riders back their immortality. Bella didn’t know anything about it.” She wanted to look at the ground, or anywhere else other than at the Queen, but she didn’t dare. “I went into her book behind her back and came here with Koshka and got some supplies, including a Kalpataru leaf, and then I did the spell and it didn’t work. Only, well, it did this instead.” She pointed at her new self. “It was nobody’s fault but my own.”
The Queen tapped an ivory lace fan against her chin. “No? It seems to me that your mentor should have taught you not to do powerful magics on your own. That is, after all, part of her job.”
“She tried,” Jazz said. “I just didn’t listen.”
“I see,” the Queen said. “And Koshka brought you here to procure the supplies you needed, when he knew what you were going to attempt. Yet you say it was not his fault either?”
Jazz patted Koshka’s furry head, which had somehow ended up pressed supportively against her leg. “No, Your Majesty. He did insist that once I had everything ready, I had to turn it over to Bella so she could do the spell herself. He just didn’t want to tell her until it was good to go, in case she made me stop working on it.”
“Indeed.” The Queen stared at Jazz as if she could somehow see into her soul. Jazz wouldn’t have been the least bit surprised to find out that she could.
“Tell Us,” the Queen said, “why you were so determined to cure the Riders’ unfortunate state. After all, you barely knew them. Why was this so important to you that you would go to such lengths to accomplish what all others had given up as impossible?”
Jazz tried not to squirm. “Well, um, it seemed so unfair. I mean, they did so much for the Baba Yagas for so long.”
“Yes.” The Queen’s purple gaze didn’t waver. “And?”
“You probably don’t know much about the foster care system the Humans have, but it really sucks. I mean, it can be really rough,” Jazz said. “I saw so many kids waiting for someone to come save them and no one ever did, and I just hated that the Riders were waiting too. I wanted to be the one to help them.”
“We all wished to help them,” the Queen said. The King nodded, the sadness in her voice echoed in his emerald eyes. “Why should you take this task upon yourself?”
Jazz bit her lip, clenching her hands at her sides. “Because I was just another kid thrown away like garbage, with no future and no hope. Then Bella found me and saved me. She gave me a life and a family, and you allowed me to train to be a Baba Yaga, and it was all so wonderful, and most of the time I felt like maybe I wasn’t good enough, that I didn’t deserve to have a life this wonderful. And I thought that if I could fix the Riders, it would, like, I don’t know, balance things out somehow. That it would make it okay for me to be this happy.”
Bella stepped up next to her and put one arm around her. “You silly girl,” she whispered. “You’re my Jazz. You deserve all the good things you can get.” She wiped away a tear. “Your Majesty—”
The single finger silenced her again. “Anything else you would like to add, young lady?”
“Yes, ma’am. There was also the selfish bit.” She sighed, hating to admit this part to the Queen or Bella or, finally, to herself. “You see, the other Baba Yagas had always had the Riders to help them. I was already scared that maybe I wouldn’t be good enough, because I started so late and everything. I thought it would be easier to be a good Baba Yaga if I had the Riders to help me. But I swear, that wasn’t the main reason.”
“It is easier to be a good Baba Yaga if you have the Riders to help,” Bella said softly. “But I’m sure you’ll do just fine.” She kissed Jazz’s cheek.
“Will I?” Jazz said to the Queen, bracing herself. “Will I still be a Baba Yaga? Or are you going to make me stop training because I did something so stupid?”
To her surprise, the Queen gave a light, musical chuckle. Behind her, vines burst into blossom at the sound. “My dear girl, the last thing We need is someone with your kind of power running around untrained. Quite the contrary. If you are to catch up with your new body, you must study even harder than before.”
She turned her basilisk stare toward Bella, who flinched a little but stood her ground. “Apparently your student is going to be going out on her own even sooner than anticipated. Not to mention that such abilities need to be honed in a more controlled environment. We strongly suggest that you and . . .” She pointed her fan at Jazz. “What is your name again, girl?”
“Jazz, Your Majesty.”
The Queen’s perfect lips twitched. “Jazz. Not a very traditional Baba Yaga name. But then, you are clearly never going to be a traditional Baba Yaga. Perhaps, with the Human world changing as fast as it is, that is just as well.”
If she had been anyone else, she might have sighed.
“So, Baba Yaga, We suggest that you and Jazz move your lessons here to the Otherworld, where you can practice more intensely. We can no doubt find some corner of Our lands where the vagaries of Otherworld time can be used to your benefit, so you can return to your own world with more accomplished sooner.”
Beside Jazz, Bella drew a deep breath. With the Queen, suggestions were a lot more like orders, and one didn’t argue if one wished to retain one’s original shape. But Jazz knew what Bella was going to say, so she said it herself. After all, it was her fault they were in this situation.
“But what about Sam?” Jazz asked. She wasn’t sure the Queen hadn’t forgotten that Bella was married now. Or didn’t care.
“Ah, yes. Well, you can visit, of course. Work hard, and you will be home before you know it.”
“I’m sorry, Bella,” Jazz whispered. “I messed everything up.”
“It’s okay, sweetie,” Bella said with a smile. “Sam and I are used to being apart from time to time. It comes with the job. Besides, I’m your teacher, and clearly you still have a lot to learn. You might look like you are ten years older, but you’re still my responsibility. Some of this is on me, no matter what you say. For not recognizing the extent of your abilities, if nothing else. You may well end up being the most powerful Baba Yaga yet.”
“More powerful than Barbara?” Jazz asked, her jaw dropping open.
“Well, maybe not more powerful than Barbara. She’s like a force of nature. But close.”
“So, it is settled,” the Queen said with an air of finality. She snapped her fingers and the chess set reappeared. She gave Jazz one more piercing look. “We trust you will not disappoint Our faith in you.” The “or else” was unspoken but clearly there.
“No, Your Majesty,” Jazz said, bowing as low as she could. “I promise.”
She meant it too. Because if she really was as powerful as Bella and the Queen said, and if she redoubled her efforts to master the magic of the Baba Yagas and somehow become as mature in spirit as she now was in body, then maybe someday she’d actually be able to make that spell work and finally give the Riders back the immortality they deserved. Bella had been right that sometimes magic couldn’t fix everything. But if you had enough magic and enough love to go with it, miracles might happen.
Maybe things wouldn’t turn out to be so unfair after all. You never knew.
Keep reading for an excerpt from
DANGEROUSLY DIVINE
Available from Berkley Sensation November 2017
Gregori Sun stared at his reflection in the spotty bathroom mirror of a cheap motel: waist-length straight dark hair pulled back in a tail, black eyes set at a slight slant over the flat cheekbones of his Mongolian ancestors, and the Fu Manchu mustache he’d worn since he’d become a man, longer ago than anyone who met him might imagine. The harsh glare of the light fixture glinted off the straight razor in his right hand. It trembled almost imperceptibly, a leftover echo of the debilitating damage he’d taken a year ago at the hands of the deranged and powerful witch who had once been his ally and a trusted friend.
A deep breath and a moment’s focused attention banished the tremor and steadied his hand for the task ahead. Sun entertained the wistful thought that it would be nice if all his other remaining issues could be dealt with as easily. But he was not a man who had ever taken the easy way, even if there had been one available, which there was not. Hence this next step.
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