4 Tiddly Jinx

by Liz Schulte

  Though he didn’t say it, I could hear it beneath his words. He loved her. Not in a selfish way, like one would expect from a vampire, but in a legitimate, wanting-what’s-best-for-her way.

  “I know the two of you connected in the underworld in a way I’ll never understand.” Corbin was still. I kept going. “I don’t mind that you’re in love with her. Frankly, it’s hard to imagine anyone not loving her, but I’m going to marry her. Not as a trophy or because she’s beautiful. I love her. She’s a pain in the ass and she’s always in trouble. She almost never makes the right decisions and she has completely turned my life upside down on more than one occasion, but I still love her. I always have, and she has been a part of me since the first day I set eyes on her. I have lived without her once, but I won’t do it again. I will do whatever it takes to protect her and keep her. Do you understand what I’m telling you?”

  A slow smile eased over his face. “You seem to think I’ll try to prevent your marriage.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “Won’t you?”

  He shook his head. “I don’t need to. She’ll never marry you, elf.”

  My muscles tightened. “She married me once before.”

  “And she broke it, didn’t she, Erlking.” He leaned forward. “All I have to do is wait and she’ll once again find a way to free herself. She can’t be caged, no matter how lovely the cage may be. So I’m helping her now because one day, she will be by my side.”

  After the urge to punch the smug smile off his face passed, I stood and offered him my hand. Though his words ate at me, I appreciated the straightforward honesty in his intentions. It wasn’t something one ran into with fae very often. Corbin’s waxy fingers folded around mine and we shook. “You’ll be at the wedding?” I asked.

  “Wouldn’t miss it.”

  My phone buzzed in my pocket. A text message from Sebastian.

  Selene needs you now.

  SEBASTIAN SAT CLOSE TO Katrina just inside the castle doors. Though they weren’t speaking or even looking at each other, her hand rested securely in his while she chewed on the fingernails of her other hand. They both stood up when I walked through the door, and Sebastian pulled away from her. Katrina hugged me while Sebastian scowled.

  “You shouldn’t have stayed,” he said.

  “I’m fine. Actually, everything went surprisingly well.” I opened my palm, displaying the piece of bronze. “Okay. Let’s figure out how to save Jess.”

  “I’ll find Devin and Leslie,” Katrina said. “Meet you in the garden.”

  Sebastian fell in step with me with his arms behind his back. “That was irresponsible.”

  “What? Doing my part to win over the people?” I raised an eyebrow. “Trusting that the fae could be reasonable and not trample me in an angry mob? Was that irresponsible?”

  “You stayed alone with a lot of hurt and furious people who had been protesting and burning effigies of you for the past few weeks. I think you can see why that was irresponsible. You could have left me and taken Katrina back yourself. Cheney isn’t rushing to judgment on Jessica. We have time. You didn’t need to risk your life.”

  I nodded. “But they listened. It was a risk, but if you don’t take a risk now and then you’ll never know how far you can go.”

  “You take too many, Selene. Someday it will backfire on you and Cheney.”

  I looked over and smiled at him. “I thought that’s what this was.”

  He sighed.

  “So you and Kat…”

  I sat cross-legged in the grass. It was our favorite spot to cast. Sebastian stood at the entrance of the clearing like a bodyguard, completely ignoring my prompt. I focused on the object in my hand and searched for anything—a feeling, a scratch, an imprint—that could lead me to who was controlling Jessica and how.

  The magical imprint left on the object was little more than a whisper. I breathed in deeply and placed my other hand over the top of it. Using the warm, coursing energy in my hands, I stabilized the talisman between them and then separated them six inches apart, though the object remained where it was, hovering in the air. Blowing out my breath then taking a new one, I extracted the remaining magic from the object. It formed, swirling in a thin mist around the object, cloudy and hard to identify. It was a delicate procedure. If I lost my hold on the magic it would evaporate and be lost forever. Every breeze, distraction, and sound threatened to tear away my focus.

  My teeth clamped down on my lower lip, and I used the pain to focus my thoughts on the mist. Centimeter by centimeter I pushed the mist together, trying to psychically knead it into a solid substance that could offer up a signature or at the very least a clue. The more solid the energy became the darker it turned. Black magic—probably—definitely.

  “What’s that?” A finger popped the energy bubble I had been working on and the object fell to the ground.

  I blinked a few times and clenched my hands to keep from strangling Frost. “Son of a bitch.” I scrambled to my feet. “What did I tell you to do when someone is casting?” I asked through clenched teeth.

  She shrugged. “To sit or stand quietly and do not interrupt. I guess I’ll go back inside.” She winked at me, though her eyes glowed coldly.

  I flicked my wrist and knocked her into the hedges with a burst of telekinetic energy. Cold, intense hatred for her filled me. She purposefully kept me from doing this. Lifting her from the ground with my mind and immobilizing her limbs, I held her aloft as I approached her.

  “I have tried to be nice to you. You don’t want me for an enemy. You mess with me or my friends, and I will take it personally. So personally, in fact, I don’t think you will survive it.”

  Frost’s dark eyes darted back and forth looking for help, but I wasn’t letting her go.

  “What did you do to Jessica?” I asked as calmly as I could.

  She didn’t say anything, so I imagined her lower rib cracking. She cried out, breath hitched.

  “What did you do?”

  “Nothing, you crazy bitch!”

  “You haven’t even seen a fraction of what I am capable of.” I could vaguely hear people talking to me in the background, but I didn’t care. Frost and I were ending this now. I would figure out what to do about the Pole without her. “I’ll give you three seconds to tell me what you have done or I will break every bone in your body.”

  “Selene,” Cheney’s voice chipped away at the angry fog. “Set her down. You made your point.”

  “I don’t think I have. She isn’t talking.”

  “Because she hasn’t done anything.”

  “She has.” I squeezed her harder, making her squeak. “She ruined the spell and our lead on purpose.”

  “I didn’t know what you were doing. I thought you were just messing around and showing off,” Frost wheezed.

  Cheney tilted his head to the side and gave me a look that seemed to say, “It’s up to you.”

  I dropped her. “If you cross me again, I will end this. They won’t stop me again.”

  “Yeah, right,” she hissed, clutching her side as she scrambled back to her feet and limped away.

  I mentally shook the rest of the anger off me like a dog shaking away water. “You honestly believe her?” I asked Cheney.

  He nodded. “I do.”

  Jessica was our lie detector. Maybe she could settle this fight. “Let’s take Frost down to talk to Jess. She’ll know if she’s lying.”

  Cheney shook his head. “It won’t matter what she says. I can’t believe her word over Frost at this point.”

  “But she’s Jessica,” I said.

  “She killed six people.” He crossed his arms over his chest, but his eyes were sympathetic.

  It wasn’t that I didn’t understand his point, and had it been anyone but one of my best friends I would have even agreed, but this wasn’t some stranger. It was Jessica. She fought with us and for us without thought of herself. The fact that he wouldn’t believe her over some mercenary set my teeth on edge. “I can’t even
look at you right now.”

  I picked up the talisman again and turned away from him and back to the coven, who all appeared as upset as I felt. I held up the talisman. “This had traces of dark magic on it. I am nearly certain. Someone could have used it to take control of her.”

  “What’s the symbol on the front?” Devin took it from my hand and held it a couple inches from her eyes. “Is this a dog?”

  “Do you have a pencil and paper?” Leslie asked, and Sebastian handed some to her.

  She took the emblem from Devin, knelt on the ground, and began working on rubbing the design onto the paper. After a moment, she held it up. “It’s a dog.”

  I took the paper from her. It was an angry dog with a crack down its center. Cheney moved up behind me, but I was still annoyed with his lack of loyalty. “That’s not a dog,” he said, plucking the paper from my fingertips. “It’s a hellhound.”

  Sebastian came over to look. He nodded his agreement. “What does that mean?”

  “She was possessed?” Devin asked.

  I licked my lips. It was either possession, or she had summoned a demon.

  “Are we even sure this was with her?” Katrina asked.

  I shook my head. “No, but it couldn’t have been there long or the magic would have been gone.”

  Devin circled her hand. “Then she must have been possessed.”

  “Yeah, because Jess would never—“ Leslie started to say before Katrina launched into a coughing fit to keep her from mentioning the option other than possession—summoning.

  Cheney and Sebastian watched us like a tennis match. “Would never what?” Sebastian asked.

  “Kill someone,” I said. “Enough of this. We have research to do. Come on, girls.”

  The coven went toward the castle and I followed them, but Cheney caught my arm, holding me back.

  “Jessica’s our friend. I do understand why you believe her, but Selene, we have to at least try to be impartial.”

  I nodded. “If I were the one in the dungeon and I’d been forced to kill people, would you believe in me?”

  He closed his eyes for a moment. “You know I would.”

  “Then believe in me now. She didn’t do it.”

  “Find me proof and I’ll personally set her free and make a public apology.” He took my hands. “There’s a fine balance right now. If we free her without proof then that decision will be used against us.”

  “You don’t even want to be Erlking. Why do you care what they think?”

  He shifted. “I don’t know what I want. Part of me wants nothing more than to just be with you and the baby, but…”

  “But?”

  “But the other part of me doesn’t want to walk away from this. We’re making a difference.”

  “You’re just now noticing that?”

  “If they elect us, then there are worse things than staying. Plus, who will bail you out of trouble if I’m not Erlking?”

  I smiled despite myself. “Maybe it will be our daughter getting into trouble and not me.”

  Cheney groaned. “Let’s hope that is the one trait she gets from me, not you.”

  Warmth blossomed in my chest and spread. I loved planning our future together. It calmed me, relaxed me. There was a time not too long ago when making plans like this would have been suffocating. With Cheney it was an adventure—just a different kind.

  “Um, Selene,” Alana’s voice came from behind us. “Can I talk to you for a moment?”

  “Sure.” Cheney kissed me then went inside.

  “I found a dress for you. Do you have a moment to try it on?”

  I followed her inside. We went to a room we hardly used, which thankfully had only one dress laying on the table. I gently ran my hand over the yards of material as I looked at it. It was gorgeous. Strapless, lace, and in a mermaid cut with a champagne-colored, jeweled belt. Alana helped me slip it on. She’d had two large dressing mirrors moved into the room for me to stand in front of.

  Alana brushed my hair over my shoulders. “I think you should wear your hair with a wave.”

  I nodded. I looked like I should grace the inside of a wedding magazine, but something wasn’t quite right.

  “Do you not like the dress?” she asked.

  “It’s perfect,” I said. And it was. It was exactly me. Had she put me in a room with fifty other dresses I would have chosen this one, but I was still bothered by something. Unfinished business. “I should get back to what we were doing.”

  Alana nodded. “We just need to arrange a time for a fitting.”

  I sighed. “Um, how about in three days?”

  Three days from now we would either have the Pole of Charon back and taken care of, or there would be no wedding.

  I was caught again before I could make it to the archive to meet up with everyone else. This time it was Corbin hissing at me from the shadows. I followed him to the cellar beneath the kitchen—surely Frost wouldn’t think to look for us there. I still didn’t trust her that much, and after the events of this afternoon, what little trust I possessed had dwindled to almost nothing.

  “What?” I asked him.

  Corbin leaned against the shelves. “What in the hell did I do?”

  “Nothing,” I said, straightening the hem of my shirt. “We aren’t supposed to talk. Last thing I need is for Frost to catch on.”

  “Tell that to your boyfriend who stopped by my house today with Skipper.”

  “Skipper? Skipper who?”

  “You know. Blonde, big eyes, short, and mouthy. A luck fae.”

  “Oh.” I leaned my head back. “Lily. His sister.”

  “Huh,” Corbin grunted. “Anyway, they came by, and then he had to leave abruptly. I had to bring Lily home and I have thirty minutes to kill before I meet with Frost. Want to catch me up or should I think of more interesting ways to make the minutes fly by, pet?”

  I chose to catch him up on the day’s events. He listened quietly until I was finished. “I hate to side with Prince Charming, but I think he might be right on this. She seemed genuinely confused and maybe even hurt last night when I hinted you might be planning on betraying her.”

  I hadn’t even thought of that. Maybe that was why she purposefully ruined my spell.

  He glanced at his watch. “Times up. Watch your back, love.” Corbin slipped into the shadows and silently stole through the night like death himself.

  I went out the opposite door that lead outside and walked through the garden to get back, just in case someone happened to be watching. As I approached the entrance, movement caught my eye.

  Frost’s white hair went past as she headed toward the center of the maze. Making my decision in less than a second, I turned and followed her, hoping to catch her in the act this time. I slowed when I heard voices: hers and Corbin’s.

  “You were right,” she said to him. “She does hate me. She blames me for her friend killing some people.”

  “Did you have anything to do with it?” Corbin asked smoothly.

  “No,” Frost sounded exasperated. “Why does everyone think I do? I don’t care what happens to her friends or to her. I want the book, and the sooner this is over, the sooner I can get it.”

  “And I’ll help you get it, pet, if you help me get what I want.”

  I couldn’t help but look around the corner. He called her pet…that was my nickname. Frost was leaned against the hedge and Corbin was in front of her, their bodies nearly touching while he trailed the back of his fingers down her neck.

  “Why do you want the half-elf so bad? I seriously don’t get what you all see in her.”

  “Why I want her is not important. Only that I get her.” His lips grazed hers and she tilted her head to accommodate him.

  My heart thundered in my ears and I forced myself to walk away, though I wanted to go and tear the two of them apart. I knew Corbin was helping me and I loved Cheney, but it still felt like a betrayal. A very emotionally confusing betrayal.

  WHEN SELENE JOINED US
in the archive, her mouth was pinched and her brows were drawn together. I shot her a questioning glance and she shook her head, her face melting back into the pretty perfection I was used to.

  I refocused on the books. The coven had completely obliterated any organizational system the room once held. Now it was impossible to find anything in the haphazard stacks strewn across the room. Somewhere in this mess was a thin book, a child’s story really, about a hellhound. I never read it, but my sister used to love it. She used to tell me about it, but I only ever half listened to what she was saying. I did vaguely recollect that it had to do with a witch, though. Not that a children’s story was a legitimate reference or was going to be of any solid help where the talisman was concerned, but what other leads did we have?

  “If she was possessed by a demon, where did it go?” Leslie asked with a shudder. “Like, is it still in her?”

  “The charm is cracked,” Devin said. “I would guess the connection is lost, or…”

  “Or it got out,” Selene finished. “Maybe it shifted into those weird baby creatures that came at us in town.” She shuddered.

  “Maybe,” I said, not wanting to argue, but the creatures had been too easy to defeat for demons.

  She crossed her legs. “Or…well, when I was in town talking to the crowd, I felt something staring at me. Something sinister, but I couldn’t see it. Maybe whatever made Jessica do what she did is still here, but why?”

  Why would something possess one of Selene’s coven? And why would it stick around afterward? There was really only one reason that I could see, and it explained who was doing all the talking around town about the Pole being here, too. “To get the Pole. We aren’t the only people who know you took it. The underworld knows as well, and my guess is that they want it back.”

  “Why possess Jessica, though?” Katrina asked.

  I shrugged. “Maybe she was just an easy target.”

  Selene nodded. “She was tired and weak after the spell. I also gave her the tea to help her sleep, so her natural defenses would have been down.” A smile grew on her face, making her eyes squint a little. “That’s it. They must have possessed her and made her do all of those horrible things.”