My eye looked to where Jazz stood on the ground, at least four feet below. Her glare was hot enough to wither the hardiest of plants, and I had a feeling from the way she was looking at me she was seriously thinking about it.
“You two-timing jerk!” Jazz fisted her hands at her sides and I saw her eyes sparkling with tears.
Hey, why did she look like she was going to cry? Why did she turn me into a plant? Why was she mad at me? Why was she calling me a two-timing jerk?
Crap. We so didn’t have time for this.
All I could do was rustle my leaves a bit and glare back at her. The witch. I hadn’t done anything and she’d turned me into a freaking flower. A flower so stinky I smelled like rotting fish combined with burned sugar.
Okay, now I was getting mad. Mad was good.
But I had to fight the urge to cross-pollinate. And the bugs crawling down my spadix to the thousands of flowers within the leaves around my base were tickling me so bad the leaves trembled.
“I can’t believe you kissed her.” Jazz scrubbed the back of her hand across one of her eyes, smearing the black makeup around her lashes. “Not only did you cheat on me, you cheated with your brother’s girlfriend!”
My lone eye blinked. What?
“Don’t even try to look innocent, you-you stinking flower.” She wiped tears from her other eye. “I—I loved you.”
This time she grabbed the gold and silver band from around her ring finger and yanked it off. My heart pounded against my spadix and all I could do was watch as she gripped it in one tight palm. She glanced at the pond, then back to me, and for the briefest of seconds I thought she was going to throw it into the water.
Instead she flung it at me.
Oww. The metal sank into my soft spadix before it tumbled into the flowers at my base. But what hurt worse was my heart when Jazz looked at me that way. “I trusted you. I believed in you.”
She turned away from me and started toward L.O.S.T. “Now what do I have to believe in?”
All I could do was watch her walk away. She disappeared down the rise and into the township.
Firestorm snorted and I rolled my single eye to look at him. The huge blue slither looked at me as though trying to decide whether to trample me, eat me, or give me a good blast of fire from his nostrils.
I was really glad when he went back to grazing and I could get back to figuring out how I could get out of this mess. Unfortunately, I’d learned the time she’d spelled me into a donkey—oh, and the time her mother turned me into a mouse and a few other things—that it was almost impossible to undo another witch’s transformation spell. At least not a powerful witch’s spell. Jazz and I had been able to do it together, but I didn’t know if I could do it alone.
But I was sure as heck going to try. I was King of the Witches and I had a combination of my power and Jazz’s within me.
The flowers at my base stirred. I waved my leaves. I tried to ignore my stinkiness and focused on changing back into my human self. I could feel a small flare of power within my spadix, traveling up from my spathe. I mentally tried to feed that flame until I could use it to free myself.
My entire floweriness glowed silver-gold. I was going to do this! I pushed. I concentrated. I used everything a flower could have to make my magic work.
Nothing.
Nothing, nothing, nothing.
If a flower could shout, I would have been heard for miles.
Okay, now I was more than mad. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t make it work. It looked like I was going to have to wait until Jazz came around and freed me from her magic, and that didn’t make me happy at all.
She would come back, wouldn’t she?
I had a long time to think about it. The sun was warm on my blossoms and the beetles and flies continued to tickle me as the day waned. I stank, I was restless and frustrated because of Jazz, and because of the fact that I was immobilized from doing anything when there was so much to do.
I had to find out exactly what Jazz was talking about when she said I cheated on her with Sherise. I had to search for more clues to find my brother. I had to talk to that kid from New York who looked like Todd, and I had to find out what he could tell me about that purple stone around his neck. And I had to find out about the one he’d given me.
When I’d taken it from the kid, Acaw had snatched the stone from my hand. He’d studied it, squinting his eyes and turning it over and over with his short, gnarled fingers. The stone was an unusual shade of brown on one side that blended into purple and then to blue on the opposite end. It had been almost translucent in the light of the New York City afternoon.
“It is a sardonyx, the stone of your birth, and has positive energy,” Acaw had finally said. “Wear it. The stone will enhance your magic.”
I hadn’t been too sure, but I trusted the old elf. The stone had been cold in my hand, but I’d felt nothing else.
I also hadn’t been crazy about being tied to the Circle witches. I didn’t want any part of whatever it was that they were up to. Hags and all—no way.
Well, it would be better than being a titan—a titan … whatever Jazz had said I was. A corpse flower.
This time when my thoughts returned to the mysterious stone, I felt a strange warmth at the base of my spadix. The sardonyx?
The warmth grew, moved slowly up from my spathe, ruffling the thousands of flowers within it, and then traveled up the huge spadix toward my lone eye. I flared silver and gold, much brighter this time. The heat flooding through me was unnerving, but thrilling and exciting all at once. I felt powerful, like the first time I’d experienced my true magic as the Shadowalker.
The feeling was so great that I knew I could do anything at that moment. I closed my eye and focused on my flower body. I imagined my arms sliding out from the spadix, my feet separating from the spathe, and the plant vanishing as I slowly transformed.
My head swam as I felt as if I was being dropped ten feet to land on my hands and knees. I struck the ground hard. I opened my eyes. Eyes, I had two eyes. Hands, knees, body. They ached, but they were there.
Deja vu.
It wasn’t that long ago I’d been in the same position when Jazz had turned me back from a donkey into myself again.
Only this time I’d done it without her.
I couldn’t help a grin as I pushed myself to my feet. Yes! Now the witch couldn’t turn me into something and just leave me again. I brought my hand to the stone at my neck. It was still warm, but that warmth was slipping away and the sardonyx quickly turned cold in my palm.
My grin faded as I realized I had some thinking to do and some things to figure out. And that started with finding out what Jazz was talking about. Me and Sherise? Never. Jazz was the only girl I’d ever love.
If I got over being pissed at her for turning me into a stinking flower. I still stunk, too, at least a little. Or maybe the smell was just stuck in my nose.
Something glittered at my feet and I crouched to retrieve the promise ring I’d given to Jazz on the Winter Solstice. Celtic knot work made up the band that glittered in the sunlight as I turned it. The band was an endless knot, woven of silver and gold metal. Like our energies, our magic, blended. Inside was the promise I’d made to her—
I will always be yours.
How could she think I would ever cheat on her?
I clenched the ring in my fist and shoved it into the pocket of my jeans. I had to figure out what was going on, and I needed to figure it out now.
I glared at the picnic basket Acaw had loaded with food for Jazz and me, and the cans of soda pop. I was so angry that I drew my sword and pointed it at the basket, planning to blast it into a thousand pieces. Silver-gold light flashed from my sword—
The basket vanished, along with the blanket and the two cans of soda.
I blinked. Closed my eyes. Opened them again.
A surge of satisfaction flooded me. I’d made something disappear!
The question was, where did I send it?
Still thinking about what I’d done, I took Firestorm back to his day-lair so he could sleep for what was left of daylight hours. Then the first thing I did was search for Sherise. She could tell Jazz that I didn’t kiss her, and get this whole mess straightened out. And then I’d throttle Jazz for turning me into a corpse flower.
I was worried that Sherise would be with the rest of the Circle girls, or around Jazz, but I found her feeding Harold strips of raw meat, just around the corner from Firestorm’s lair. I wondered why he was awake, when he should have been sleeping now since it was still daylight. Maybe he was missing Todd. Sherise looked a little sad, and I was sure she missed my brother, too.
When I reached her, I said, “Hey, Sherise.”
She startled then whirled.
A furious expression flashed across her face.
She raised her hand and slapped me so hard my head snapped to the side. My face stung, especially the scar on my cheek.
Sherise’s glare was nearly as bad as Jazz’s had been. “How dare you even talk to me!” She reached out to slap me again, but I caught her by the wrist. She tried to jerk her arm away from my grasp and nearly did, probably due to all of Rol’s strength training. Thank goodness she was a lesser witch, or I’m sure she would have turned me into something. Wicked, red fires flared in her dark eyes. Oh, yeah. She’d burn me if I gave her half a chance.
“First Jazz gets ticked off,” I said, trying to maintain my temper. “And now you go and slap me. What’s going on?”
Her eyes narrowed. “As if you don’t know.”
I let her arm drop. “Help me out here. What happened?”
“You kissed me!” She clenched both fists at her sides. “You pretended that you had news about Todd and when you got close enough you actually kissed me!”
“Whoa.” I held my hands up, my head swimming. I’d entered La-La Land. “I don’t know what you and Jazz are talking about. You’re an all right kid, but I would never kiss you. Besides, I love Jazz and you’re my brother’s girlfriend.”
“Yeah, right.” Her eyes still smoldered with fire. The moonstone—the pearl on the chain around her neck, her birthstone from the month of June, started glowing white flecked with orange, almost as if flames danced within it, too. “Sure, Jazz and I imagined the exact same thing.”
Harold snorted behind her, and I couldn’t tell if it was in agreement with her or in defense of me.
I rubbed the still-stinging scar on my cheek. “Look. I don’t know what you guys are talking about. I just got back from a witch rescue and I was supposed to meet Jazz by the pond. That’s it.”
“I don’t want you near me.” She spun and walked away, vanishing somewhere in the maze of holding pens and slither day-lairs.
Oh, jeez. What was going on? Something wasn’t right.
Now if that wasn’t the understatement of the century.
I thought about going to Rol, but I knew he was busy with the new kid and I wasn’t ready to face a Todd look-alike right now.
The only thing I could think of was to go see Jazz’s mom.
Dame Corey’s house was a cheerful yellow, like a big sunflower in the middle of drab-colored buildings. I’d never found Jazz’s mom to be overly cheerful—well, er, never exactly cheerful—so the house seemed out of sorts with her caustic personality. Apparently she was easier to get along with since Jazz had died and then came back from the land of the dead, but she wasn’t exactly what you’d call sunny, especially during our magic lessons.
Concentrate, Bren…
Focus, Bren…
You’ve got to increase your control, Bren…
She was like the teacher from hell. But then that sense of satisfaction curled through me. Apparently all that training was working. I’d made the freaking basket and stuff disappear. I just couldn’t get over it.
Well, that and the fact that Jazz had turned me into the world’s worst smelling flower.
When I reached the house, Dame Corey yanked open the door before I even had a chance to knock. Her black eyes held fury and her equally black and silver hair was a wild mass, as if she was having a really bad hair day.
I took a step back and held my hands up, this time ready with quick reflexes or magic, whichever was needed.
I fought the urge to back up some more. “Uh, what’s wrong?”
“Why don’t you ask your father?” she screeched and sparks crackled at the end of her fingertips. She looked like she wanted to turn someone into a corpse flower really bad. And I sure didn’t want it to be me.
Before I had a chance to say anything, she slammed the door in my face. I heard a rattle, then a crash, and wondered if Dame Corey cleaned house the same way Jazz did. One blasted vase at a time.
What was with all these women today?
My thoughts were spinning by the time I got to my dad’s. My scar ached, my injured hand throbbed, and my head was pounding. I pushed open the door—
And found a giant anteater in my dad’s living room.
It raised its head to look at me, then turned to shuffle off, snout to the floor, and a two-foot-long tongue flicking out while it looked for ants or termites, or whatever else the things chowed down on.
For a moment I watched the thing as it snuffled around the room. It couldn’t be—she wouldn’t have—
She would.
As my dad raised his snout at me again before snuffling away, I raked my hand through my hair. Dame Corey had changed my dad into an anteater. Things were getting peachier by the moment.
“Uh, Dad?”
The anteater paused in its snuffling and looked at me.
I sighed. Here we go again. I had changed myself back from a stinkin’ flower, so I bet I could transform my dad, too.
“Hold on, Dad.” I drew my sword with my right hand.
My power came easily to me when I needed to use it and this time was no exception. My silver-gold magic flowed over my skin and down the tip of my sword. I put everything I had into my witchcraft, letting it build within me. I pointed my sword toward the anteater and a stream of silvery gold flowed from my weapon to the animal. I could feel the spell on him, and my magic simply spread over him like a bubble encompassed him.
I put more energy into my magic. Gritted my teeth. Sweat broke out on my forehead. And still he didn’t change back.
Then it occurred to me. Duh. The last time I had focused on the energy of the sardonyx stone.
I continued to let my magic flow from my sword toward the anteater. At the same time, I reached up with my remaining three fingers on my left hand and clutched the Circle stone in my palm. It grew so hot that I almost let go. Immediately I felt a rush so powerful that it made me feel like I was going to explode.
The flow of silver-gold grew in intensity. I heard a loud pop and the bubble of witchcraft around the anteater vanished. I quickly retrieved my magic, pulling it into me while I watched the animal turn back into my dad.
It was funny, really. He slurped the long tongue into his mouth, the snout whittled down to become his nose, all the hair on its body changed, its limbs contorted, and then there was my dad, kneeling on the hardwood floor.
He looked dizzy, like he was going to pass out. I hurried to sheathe my sword and released the now cool stone from my palm while I moved toward him. A sour look was on his face and he wiped the back of his hand over his mouth. Using a little of his new magic, he brought a glass of water to himself and took a drink. Coughed. Took another.
Ants and termites probably tickled going down.
“Snakes, wasn’t it, last time?” my dad said with a wry expression.
I had to laugh. “I’ve been a donkey before, and a praying mantis. Don’t forget the stockades, too.” Dame Corey had turned me into a mouse not that long ago, and then the pair of us into snakes. Somehow we ended up in stockades with human upper torsos and our lower bodies were part horse—or something.
I extended my hand and helped him get to his feet. “So, what did you do?”
Dad put down his water and scratched his head. “I have no idea. I was just about to go upstairs to monitor my last changes to Spellnet when Winnie charged in here. She called me about fifty different names—I think a few in oldeFolke language—and then blasted me into an anteater.” He gave a sour face again. “Who’d have thought we had termites?”
“This is nuts.” I started to rub my scar with my fingers but dropped my hand away. That was getting to be too much of a habit. “Jazz and Sherise are mad at me. They both insist I kissed her. Sherise I mean. And then Dame Corey flips out on you. Something’s just not right.”
Dad braced one hand on the railing of the stairs that led to the office in the loft. “You’d better tell me everything.”
I took a couple of minutes to fill him in on what had happened with the rescue in the 1965 Sanctuary, including the abandoned village, the kid’s Circle stone, the sardonyx he gave to me, and how the kid looked like Todd and how he had a silvery glow. Then I explained what had gone on with Jazz, Sherise, and Dame Corey as soon as we got back.
“The kid.” Anger flared within me. “All of this happened after we brought him here to L.O.S.T.” My gaze met my dad’s. “Maybe the Erlking sent him to stir up trouble.”
That thought didn’t sit well in my gut, and the next one was even worse.
The “kid” might just be the shapeshifting Erlking.
What if he was the weirdness Jazz had picked up in that Sanctuary a couple of days ago, but couldn’t find? He could have faked that faint on the New York rooftop. And he might have already killed a few healers and headed out to hurt more witches.
I started for the door when Acaw and his crow-brother appeared out of nowhere. The elf had an almost disturbed expression on his normally impassive features. “The queen,” he started.
“What about her?” I was too frustrated about this mess to be angry with her anymore, but I had to go find that “kid” in a hurry.
Acaw cleared his throat. “I was guarding her human shell as her spirit left to monitor all the Sanctuaries.” My heart started to pound against my breastbone. “Nobody touched her, did they?”
L.O.S.T. Trilogy Box Set Page 53