by Eve Langlais
“No,” Katherine replied while interrupting her mother. “It seems terrible. What could be a worse idea then pairing your daughter with a cold–blooded murderer? She didn’t just kill some random stranger, she killed five members of her family.”
Her mother flicked distressed eyes from the road to the rearview mirror and back again.
“Katherine, that’s enough of that. Yes, she killed members of her family, but I will remind you that she was acquitted of all charges,” her mother said firmly.
“Why was that, Mother?” Rose asked.
Katherine rolled her eyes and stared out the window stubbornly as rain poured down the glass in the night. She had no illusions that Rose was either trying to help her or gain information for her. She had her own motivations. It might be something as the desire to know out of morbid curiosity or something more sinister–you never knew with Rose, after all–but she would be grateful if Rose stayed out of her business for once.
Their mother sighed. “You know I can’t tell you. Either of you. Those records were sealed and with good reason. Just know that I would never willingly put either of you in danger.”
“So you did know she was one of the ones in the stones?” Katherine said bitterly.
“No!” her mother said they turned into their driveway. “Well, I never excluded her precisely. She removed her name from all township records and I foolishly assumed that included the blood registry.”
Then her mother parked the car and turned around in the driver’s seat. “I am sorry about that, Katherine, but we really must make the best of a difficult situation.”
“You mean I have to make the best of difficult situation,” Katherine said as she flung open the passenger’s side door before a guardian could approach and rushed into the home. She wanted to be alone. Even if she couldn’t precisely have the house to herself, she knew the guardians wouldn’t follow any of them inside. Their job was complete once the queen was escorted into the safety of her warded home. At least from outside threats. The tempers of her daughters was something she would have to deal with on her own.
Simmering resentment building, Katherine rushed into an older part of the house on the first floor, bypassing the stairs up to her room and going into a sanctuary that made her feel not so dreadful. Her father’s old study.
Flinging open the door, she rushed to the lounge chaise, which was piled with blankets just as it had been when he was alive, and felt a sob tearing from her throat. She started crying and she couldn’t stop. She cried because she was different. She cried because her mother and sister didn’t understand her. She cried because she missed Ethan and her father. But, most of all, she cried because she could. If felt raw, it felt natural and strangely cathartic to rage and beat her hands against the pillows, hunch into the soft fabric of the chaise, and wail to her heart’s content.
Katherine had no idea how much time had truly pasted before a soft knock heralded the creak of the door. She couldn’t stop crying but managed to rein it all into hiccup–filled sobs instead of outright wails. She turned to see her mother walking in a soft, fuzzy robe and carrying a tray filled with tea and cookies.
Katherine was sure her eyes were puffy and red, her face looked horrible, and she knew her lips were trembling as she tried to stifle her cries. She sat up as her mother hurried over, put the tray down on a side table, and gathered her unwilling daughter in her arms.
Burying her face in her mother’s shoulders, Katherine listened as her mother muttered, “It will be all right, my darling,” over and over again.
When Katherine had regained control over her emotions, she sat back and her mother pushed her hair out of her face to tuck the errant strands behind her ears.
“Mom–” Katherine started to say.
Her mother hushed her and replied, “It’s all right, Katherine. This is my fault. I’ll fix this. I’ve called a council meeting in the morning. I’ll break the blood pact and pay the debt.”
Katherine should her head hurriedly. “No, it’s too much. You can’t.”
A heavy silence settled over them then her mother lifted her chin. “I would do anything to protect my daughters, including this.”
“They’ll strip you of your throne!” Katherine cried out.
Breaking a blood pact wasn’t a very easy thing to do, but it could be done. The witch or warlock who did such things faced multiple punishments for doing so, though. The lightest of the ruled punishments was being ostracized and then they had to take a harder punishment: physical pain. Not torture. But close. For a queen that meant having her ties to the land voluntarily unbound, which was as close to torture as you could get for a witch. For an ordinary person, it meant doing a magical feat for the community so great they might die in its attempt. Either possibility was unpleasant.
Her mother shook her head. “I don’t care.”
Katherine looked at her with disbelief on her face.
The queen sighed and then cupped her cheek. “That was the wrong way to answer. The truth is I do care. I care very much for the well–being of my people and of our small town. But I love my family as much or more than the duty I bear this province. I cannot forsake you or your well–being for that.”
Katherine put her arms about her mother’s waist and tightened them into a hug. “I won’t let you. I won’t let them have the satisfaction of flogging you through town, which is what breaking your ties to the land would amount to. You could die.”
“And so could you,” her mother said. For some reason that Katherine couldn’t put a finger on, she didn’t sound very convinced.
“No,” Katherine said. “No, you said there was a reason. A reason she killed her family.”
Her mother’s face turned guarded. “Yes, and I promise you, my darling, I know Natalia well enough that I can ensure she would never harm you. Because if she does she knows I can sign her death warrant, legally and with pleasure.”
“Then I trust you,” Katherine said, “and I trust you’ll give me the answers I need to make sure she’s not pissed off enough to kill me.”
A startled laughter burst from her mother’s lips. “When did you get so smart?”
Katherine flipped her hair over her shoulder. “The moment I started taking care of you.”
“Oh,” the queen said with a sigh while she tightened her grip on Katherine’s shoulders. “It’s been a long and hard six years, hasn’t it?”
“Yes,” whispered Katherine. Six years since her father had died. Six years since life at home had never been the same.
“But I promise you it will get better Kat,” her mother said with hope in her eyes.
Not wanting to disappoint her and tell her that the reason she had been crying had more to do with how she felt about her shambles of life than the upcoming three–days–with–a–murderer fest, Katherine simply smiled and said, “It already has.”
Her mother beamed beautifully, and Katherine felt a little bit of her mother’s happiness settle in her heart.
She sighed and repeated, “It already has.”
“Good then,” the queen said, sitting back, a little bit chipper. “How about we dispel this dreadful air of darkness about us and have some tea then?”
She turned to flip over two mugs in the tray and Katherine watched her carefully place three lumps of sugar in her cup with some cream and a tea bag.
“What are you drinking?” Katherine asked.
“Earl Grey,” her mother answered as she grabbed the second mug and prepared Katherine’s tea bag with a little slice of lemon.
As the air filled with the pleasant smell of fresh brewed tea, Katherine sighed.
Her mother glanced back at her with a quick grin. “It’s your favorite. Oolong.”
“Thanks, Mom,” Katherine said weakly as she accepted the tea and stared at the woman who was her world. For a moment Katherine resented her mother’s quick change of emotion. Nothing much ever got her down. She could go from somber to happy with a flip of the switch. Sometimes
Katherine wished she had that ability. To seemingly be carefree if the moment called for it and stern if duties were around. Unfortunately, if she felt something, she really felt it. It stayed with her until it was resolved no matter what she was doing or dealing with that day.
“Now,” the queen said with a girlish grin, “let’s talk about that dear boy I saw you with. Tomorrow will be soon enough for me to tell you what little I know of that dreadful Natalia Cumberbatch.”
So Katherine sat back and dutifully told her about Ethan. Answering some questions and avoiding others…like what he was. By the time their talk was over another hour had passed and they slipped off to bed for much needed and restful sleep.
Or rather her mother did. Katherine had someone she needed to talk to.
Ethan. Katherine curled into her window seat and pulled out a cell phone.
He answered on the first ring with a tired, “Katherine?”
“Yeah,” she said softly.
He immediately sounded more alert. “What happened? You mother canceled the blood pact, right?”
“Not exactly.”
“What does that mean?” he said as she heard him sitting up, presumably in his bed.
Katherine sighed. “It means I’m going to be meeting with my fae counterpart, and I’m hoping I’ll still be living at the end of it.”
“I don’t like this.”
“Neither do I,” she said flatly.
“Then you’re not doing it?” He tacked the suspicious question on.
“I am,” she confirmed.
“For gods’ sakes, Katherine, why…”
“Because my mother would take the fall for me backing out and you know it,” Katherine said. “For something like this, the guardian witch or wizard always takes the fall. I don’t want to her see her broken and bleeding on the ground, do you?”
Her tone was combative.
His voice became angry. “I don’t want to see your body in the darned cursed lake, either.”
Katherine hugged her knees to her chest. “Neither do I. So let’s figure this out.”
Chapter Seven
He shuffled out of bed.
“Where are you going?”
“To find a grimoire,” he answered.
“I have one here,” she said quickly.
She heard the scrap of furniture on the floor from his end. “Good, then I’m sitting down and we’re going to talk through this. Starting with who Natalia Cumberbatch is, what she is, and what we can expect from someone of her background.”
“Sounds like a long night,” Katherine said as she stood reluctantly and picked out the grimoire from her shelves by the light of the moon.
“Since this contract starts tomorrow morning, it had better be,” he grunted.
She snorted. “You know I hate all–nighters.”
This time laughter escaped from his voice. “Yeah, didn’t help you much with that last chemistry exam.”
“You shut up,” she teased. “I almost had it.”
“Yeah,” Ethan said dryly. “I’m sure your lab partner was super pleased when you set your experiment on fire and managed to knock the teacher out so hard that he failed you both.”
“That was an accident.”
“I know,” was Ethan’s placating response.
Katherine sniffed. “I’m just…not cut out for chemistry. I aced that French final, though.”
“Because you’ve been studying it since you were five,” Ethan pointed out dryly. “If you had to learn the language now, you would have failed that too.”
“What kind of boyfriend are you?” complained Katherine through the phone. “What happened to support and motivation?”
“It extends to keeping you alive. Not helping you blow me up in chemistry,” he replied with dry wit.
“You know if we had been paired up I might have aced that final,” she grumpily complained.
“Yeah, if I did the work,” he teased.
“I would have made it worth your while,” she teased right back.
“You would have distracted me so badly I wouldn’t have gotten any work done,” he replied in a heavy tone. “That is why I refused to partner with you. I needed to focus.”
“So you say,” she shot back. “Let’s get to this grimoire. Unless you need to focus now.”
“No ma’am,” Ethan said with a hint of a southern accent. “I’m all yours for the night.”
“I like the sound of that,” she said as she flipped through the pages.
“Let’s start with the basics,” Ethan said. “Do you know what she is?”
Katherine paused. “No, you don’t?”
“I’m not exactly on speaking terms with her, so no,” replied Ethan.
“We know what the rumor mill says,” Katherine admitted.
“And what’s that?” Ethan asked.
“That she’s a soul–sucking valkyrie that turns into a mermaid at night,” she said flatly.
“Are you serious?” Ethan said, cursing on the other end of the line.
“That’s what the second–string cheerleader told me at gym practice before Rose forced her not to speak to me,” Katherine replied while gathering a stick of gum.
Ethan sighed. “We can’t plan for her if we don’t know what she is, and valkyrie and merpeople are two races of fae which can’t mate, so it’s not possible.”
“I didn’t think it was,” Katherine said with a hint of amusement. “You asked for the rumor mill. I gave it to you.”
Ethan grumbled, “It’s definitely going to be a long night. Let’s start from the top. We know how she killed her parents. We’ll check her heritage and her family’s from there.”
“Fair enough,” Katherine said as she opened the grimoire.
“I’m in section two of the book now” she said to Ethan as she paged through the old text. “Did she kill them with an extension of bodily weapons or a weapon forged independently?”
“From what I heard,” Ethan said, “she stabbed them with some kind of curved extension of her arms, then drained him dry.”
Paging through text after text kept them talking long into the night.
The next morning Katherine woke to the grimoire laying on top of her chest and a knock on her door. Disorientated for the moment, she tried to remember what exactly she was doing in her window seat and why she had a crick in her next that felt so painful she was afraid to move.
“Katherine, get up!” Rose shouted through the door.
“Mother said now,” Rose called with the all the urgency and smugness of a teen who knew she was in the right because their mother had ordered her to do so.
Sighing, Katherine yelled, “All right! I’m up. I’m coming.”
Then she shrugged off the afghan she had used to cover herself and stood with a stretch of her arms. Stretching out her joints took a moment, and then she rushed for the bathroom as she called out, “What did she want?”
“What she always wants!” came the yell through the door.
“Right,” Katherine muttered as she entered her en–suite bathroom and grabbed for the toothpaste.
“And Katherine?” yelled her sister at the top of her lungs.
“What?” Katherine groused as she spit out the swill in her mouth and grabbed for some of her mouthwash.
“Mother wants you ready to go in thirty minutes!”
“That’s barely enough time, and I need to shower afterward its done,” Katherine wailed.
“Not my problem,” yelled Rose as she went into her room and slammed her door shut.
Cursing, Katherine hopped into some dirty jeans and raced out the backdoor to tend to their family…guest, she guessed you would call him. She didn’t know what else to refer to Mr. Gestap Vanders as. An unwelcome guest at that, as he had fallen squarely inside her responsibilities.
After she finished her tasks with him, she raced back to the house, took a shortcut, and managed to run out the front door just as one of the large black SUVs pulled up out front. S
ometimes her mother drove herself and sometimes she was driven by a guardian. Today was clearly one of the latter days as her flustered mother raced out the front door and Katherine raced to catch up with her.
As they flung themselves in the SUV’s backseats, Katherine asked, “Mom?”
She didn’t need to say more; her mother tended to know what she was asking without further prompting.
The queen grimaced. “The coven council has called an emergency meeting, dear, and the pair–ups have already started.”
Katherine’s eyes widened. “At the council meeting?”
“No,” her mother said with a dismissive wave of her hand. “That’s something else I have to worry about. Since you all are on school break, the principal has kindly allowed us to use his gymnasium for the initial meet–ups.”
“When?” Katherine said faintly.
Her mother glanced at the clock sitting on the dashboard. “In twenty minutes.”
Katherine stiffened and tried to catch her breath. That was sooner than she had thought. She’d opened that she would at least get a chance to go over everything she had discussed with Ethan last night in person, so he could…well, calm her nerves.
Instead Katherine took a deep breath and nodded. “Okay, that’s fine.”
“No, it’s not,” her mother said absentmindedly as she thumbed through files that she had in her lap. “I promised you I’d be there.”
“No you didn’t,” Katherine said.
“Well, not explicitly,” her mother said firmly, “but that’s my job…as your mother and your queen.”
Katherine put a calming hand on her mother’s wrist. “I can handle it.”
“Katherine, I don’t think you’re ready.”
“Why not?” Katherine asked, generally puzzled. I mean, when was the right time to meet a murderer accused of fratricide anyway? Not that she hadn’t considered offing Rose a time or two herself, but only in jest. She loved her sister, but she didn’t like her.
“Because,” her mother said while pulling her glasses off her face in frustration. “Just because.”
A small smile blossomed on Katherine’s face. “Is this my mother talking or the queen?”
“Does it matter?” her mother asked while running frazzled fingers through her hair.