She shook her head. “I know that, Carla. It was a demonic curse. Now we understand that our souls halved and familiars couldn’t bond with us any longer. But then … we didn’t know. Witches were trying everything to reconnect with our familiars. Nothing worked, no spells, no ceremonies, no amount of meditation. So why not science? Your father believed the curse created a genetic flaw that could be repaired once he identified the witch gene. Like cloning or something … I don’t know. I just believed. I clung to that hope and to him. But he also believed in me as a woman. He taught me the things I needed to know to live without high magic and he encouraged me to open a real bakery. He believed in me, the whole me.”
Carla was taken by surprise. “Mom, that’s—lovely.”
She smiled that secret smile of love. “There was real love there.”
“And you had Keri and me.”
“When I got pregnant, your father was thrilled, but he was even more ecstatic when he found out you were girls. Twin girls. He knew you’d be witches, and he thought, believed, hoped that he could learn the genetic code of witches and reverse the curse.”
Softly, she said, “We are his daughters, Mom, not lab rats.”
She lifted her gaze to Carla. “Oh, honey, don’t you see? He was racing against time to find the cure so you and Keri would be safe. Your father knew about rogues, and he was scared that he couldn’t protect you. All he had was science. He wasn’t physically strong enough to fight off a huge, blood-crazed rogue. He was terrified for his daughters. Before you were born, he’d lay with his head against my stomach, and we’d talk about the future for hours. But then you girls were born and time went on with no answers.”
She paused and Carla sat quietly, letting Chandra take her time.
“Witches were being slaughtered. Your father got more and more obsessed, and the fear between us got bigger every day until we couldn’t even look at each other without seeing the fear. It became bigger than our love.”
“Mom,” she breathed, feeling the woman, not her mother, but the woman through their joined hands. “The love is still there.”
Chandra looked her directly in the eye. “Yes. All our fear didn’t do a damned thing to save Keri. All it did was wrench us apart when we needed each other the most.”
Regret snaked up her throat. She thought of her dad telling her that all he had was science. And then this morning, when she turned to Sutton, he’d said she obviously didn’t need him. Maybe they all had some blame in this. After all this time, Carla finally understood. “Dad blames himself for not finding the answer to prevent Keri’s murder.”
“He loved her, Carla. She scared him because she was led by her heart.” She reached up and stroked Carla’s hair like she used to do when Carla was small. “Let’s see if you can reach Pam.”
“Okay, but Dad …”
“I didn’t tell you this to make you feel guilty. Jerome’s obsession was an ugly thing, and it hurt you girls. But there were real reasons for it. Being a part of freeing Keri from the knife will help him. Right now, you need to focus on Pam.”
Her mom was right. Carla let go of her hand, and turned to rest her fingers on Pam’s shoulder. Her first four chakras had been bubbling with excess power all day, now they popped open and burst out like an explosion from a soda bottle.
The lightbulb in the bedside lamp shattered.
The candles blew out.
The stereo playing sounds of the rain forest turned to loud static.
“Carla, pull in, focus.”
She was trying. Keeping her hand on Pam’s shoulder, she struggled to bring all her elemental power of fire, earth, water, and air into a singular line to flow up to her fifth chakra. The static in the air around them settled and her throat tightened, a signal that she’d gotten her energy under control enough to push the chakra.
She’d never had this much power at one time.
There you are, a male voice said in her head. With brutal suddenness, her mind was yanked from her body and slammed into a small steel space. Cold, metal darkness clamped down around her, getting smaller and smaller, pressing in on her mind with increasing pressure from every side. The ice-cold agony sliced deep into her brain and shut down her powers.
Her mind screamed out the only word she could remember, “Sutton!”
Sutton stood in the living room of the Branch Bed and Breakfast with his arms crossed, keeping an eye on Drake. Phoenix and Key had left with the two women to find Acacia Branch. Everything was contained, but he was still uneasy.
When he heard a car pull up out front, he walked to the window to see if it was Key and Phoenix returning with Mrs. Branch. Two feet from the window, he felt the room begin to spin. “Shit, not now!” He grabbed his head, struggling to stay in his body.
The eagle went apeshit on his back, and the pain seemed to help. The room was spinning like he was in the center of a tornado. His sense of balance vanished and he dropped to his knees. Blue-and-white fog was filling his vision. “No! Carla, not now!” He squeezed his head between his hands, fighting to …
Carla’s scream of agony exploded in his head and he was ripped out of his body and into a vortex of spinning fog. He forgot about his body, didn’t care about his body. He let the vortex sweep him where he needed to be.
With Carla.
Her scream kept ricocheting around him as if the sound came from each molecule of the fog. He had no body, no form, just his mind hurtling in this tornado until he crashed into something hard and unyielding.
His doppelgänger body slid down to the hard ground. It felt like cement. “Carla?” He sat up and looked around. He appeared to be in some kind of dark room. Not bedroom-dark, but total-absence-of-light dark. Getting to his feet, he bumped his left shoulder into something hard. He carefully ran his hand over it. Cold, smooth metal.
Raising his right hand, he felt … brick.
His eagle started to fight, trying to force wings out of Sutton’s back. “No,” he told the bird. If the creature somehow got free of his back in this tight space, he’d break his wings in panic. “Easy,” he soothed. “We’ll find her.”
The eagle settled down, but both of them were tense.
Carefully, Sutton walked forward, using his hands to guide him. In a few seconds, he figured out that they were in a small, round room with walls made of brick. The walls went higher than he could reach, or even jump. In the center was some kind of steel structure that was about the size and shape of a refrigerator.
“Carla?” He called again. This was the room she’d described Styx trapping her mind in. He hadn’t felt a door along the walls.
There was no response from Carla.
Don’t panic, he told himself and the bird. He felt around the steel box and after what seemed like miles of nothing but cold metal, he found a lever. He pushed it down and the door swung open. “Carla?” His voice echoed.
“Sutton?”
“Where are you?” Her voice had sounded faint and muffled. He reached out and touched another steel box. “Jesus,” he whispered.
“He’s got me trapped. I don’t have my powers.”
He ran his hands over the front of the box to find the lever while wondering: How could Styx take her powers from her? He didn’t understand all the rules of magic or psychics. He knew from previous experience that he was in his doppelgänger body. Because his mind was out of his body on the physical plane, he had no idea what was happening to it, only what was happening to the doppelgänger body. But Carla always had her powers in either body, so what was happening?
His hand hit the raised metal bar and he exhaled in relief at finding the lever. This was some strange shit. He pushed down the lever and opened the box.
He wished he could see. In normal darkness there was enough ambient light for his eagle vision to see pretty well, but this was dark as a grave. And why was Carla inside these steel boxes?
What kind of game was Styx playing?
He swung the door open as far as he could. “Carla,
talk to me.”
“I’m trying to connect to Keri to get you out.”
Her voice trembled, he couldn’t tell if it was fear, fatigue, or intense concentration. He reached out and … “Son of a bitch,” he snarled low in his throat. The eagle screeched frustration in his head. Another, smaller steel box. “Honey, I’m not leaving you.” He quickly found the lever, pushed it down, and opened the door.
“Leave. Keri, help me get him out!”
Her voice hit the same pitch as his eagle’s screech. She was terrified. He could smell it now. He wrenched open the door, reached in and found air. Okay. She had to be here, maybe on the floor. No more games. His entire body coated in sweat as he dropped to his knees to feel around the inside of the box. His hand landed on the sharp corner of something.
A bad feeling snaked down his spine. “Carla?” He felt around the sharp corner. It was another box, about the size of a box of computer paper. She couldn’t fit in there! “Carly, are you in here?”
“He’s caged me. My spirit and soul. In steel. No body, no chakras.” The box shivered in his hands. “I… can’t … reach … Keri. Can’t help you.”
The desolation in her voice was breaking his heart. His eagle started pulling at his skin, trying to break free. Sutton didn’t know if he’d ever get real wings like Axel, but he knew it couldn’t happen like this. Not in this confined space. He lifted the box, then sat on the stone floor and leaned his back against the brick to keep the eagle contained. The bird didn’t give a shit about the rules of the soul mirror. He wanted out, and if he got out of Sutton’s skin, he’d destroy his beak and claws trying to free Carla. Keeping the bird pinned, he ran his hands over the box. “I’ll get you out, Carly.”
“I heard you. Heard you tell me not to bring you here. I tried …” her voice broke.
Jesus.
The box was closing in, tighter and tighter.
The eagle threw itself against his skin, the force of it bouncing his entire body off the wall. He felt around the box, believing there had to be a latch.
Nothing. Smooth as glass.
He began to pray silently to the Wing Slayer. I’ll do anything, just don’t let that bastard Styx destroy Carla. Not her, not his beautiful golden witch. Every instinct told him to keep searching. Some kind of psychic shit was keeping him from finding the latch. There had to be a latch. Styx was purposely delaying him from releasing Carla. Why? What was the bastard doing?
First things first, he had to free Carla. He could do this, he knew he was connected to her deeper than any of Styx’s psychic shit. He slowed down, took a breath, and concentrated. He stopped searching the way he would on the physical plane. They were somewhere else, on some alternate plane of existence. His connection to Carla had brought him to her, and it would find her. He used his fingers to feel for her soul, the other half of his soul.
A warm circle appeared beneath his right index finger on the side of the box. He stroked that area gently, and a small button rose under his fingers.
Sutton said a quiet, “Thank you,” and pressed the button, then carefully lifted the lid. It was absolutely dark where they were, like being wrapped in black velvet. But as he lifted the lid, sparkles of silver light began to float from the box.
His eagle tat sighed.
Sutton stared in awe. He was seeing Carla’s spirit, and it was more beautiful that anything he’d ever witnessed in his life. The lights flowed toward him, turning to a shimmering gold as they wrapped around him. Then he slipped from one dimension to another with barely a bump.
* * *
Carla’s first indication that she’d successfully returned to her body on the physical plane was the agony in her head. It felt like several long prongs had rooted deeply into her brain. She had to close her eyes and center herself with her chakras to contain the pain.
“Carla, sweetheart, you’re scaring me,” her mother said.
She opened her eyes and stood up. “I’m okay, Mom. It was Styx, and he’s getting stronger. I have to call Sutton. Now.” Containing her building panic, she quickly checked Pam.
No change. She hadn’t even had a chance to attempt to find her. She hurried out of the bedroom and across the family room to her small office.
Her dad looked up. His face was even more haggard, the skin around his eyes and jowls appearing papery and loose. “What?”
“Styx did it again. He grabbed me and shoved me into a steel box. It’s like he was forcing me to call Sutton. And I did it, I called him.” She reached for the phone on her desk, sickened by her weakness. She had heard Sutton tell her not now. How she’d heard him, she didn’t know. Maybe Keri had conducted his voice?
The prongs in her head flared red-hot. Her hand shook and pissed her off. Jabbing the buttons, she dialed Sutton’s cell number, and while waiting for the call to connect, she worked to control her powers. She needed to isolate the pain and send healing energy to those locations. She felt her powers flow toward her brain.
Then the energy suddenly bounced back and pinged around inside of her. Weird. At the same time, Sutton’s voice mail picked up. Why wasn’t he answering? She hung up and dialed Darcy.
She answered on the first ring. “Carla, something wrong?”
“Yes.” She didn’t question how Darcy knew. She wasn’t psychic, but she was a very powerful witch. Her knowledge chakra must have showed her something. Quickly, Carla explained what had happened. “Sutton didn’t pick up his phone. He’d know it was me. I’m worried. Why did Styx do it? Fun and games, or is he up to something? Or what if Sutton had been flying the airplane and …” She couldn’t say crashed. “… Please tell Axel. Tell him to find Sutton.”
“Hang on,” Darcy said.
Carla looked at her dad. “I need shields, Dad. What do you know about shields against psychics?” She was a witch, not some helpless mortal. She would not be this bastard’s pawn one second longer.
Jerome rubbed the back of his neck and frowned. “You can use mental shields, like visualizing a wet blanket over the intruder or imagining silver lights protecting you. Too vague.” He dropped his hand and said, “What do you feel now? Exactly?”
“Pissed.”
“I mean in your mind. You’ve been having headaches, right?”
“Right. Only now it’s more specific. Like prongs have been driven into my brain.”
“How many?”
She heard Darcy talking to Axel in the background, but she let that slip to white noise and concentrated on the pain in her head. “Four. I can feel four prongs.” She had to think in spite of the pain. “Why four?”
Her dad’s eyebrows rose and his eyes grew keen. “How many times has Styx attacked you psychically?”
She counted, while realizing that Darcy was now silent on the phone, obviously listening to her. “The first time when he showed up was when he showed Sutton and me the missing witch hunter Brigg. The second time while I was talking to you, Dad. The third time when I was healing Sutton on the astral plane and the last time was just now. Four. He’s been marking my brain! Using Keri’s connection to me to establish pathways.” She shook with anger, frustration, and pain. “I tried to send healing energy to the areas that hurt and the energy bounced back.”
Her dad’s face hardened. “You have to mentally pull the prongs out.”
“But what about Keri?” her mom said next to her. “What will that do to her?”
“Carla, can you feel Keri at all?” Jerome asked.
“I’ll try.” She closed her eyes and tried to feel her sister. The scar on her back warmed and tingled, but more important, she felt Keri in her blood moving through her chakras. A spike in power confirmed it. “Yes. I feel her.” She opened her eyes. “Keri’s connected to me, in my blood and chakras.”
Chandra breathed a sigh of relief.
“Carla,” Darcy interrupted, “Axel’s working on contacting Sutton, Phoenix, and Key. The three of them flew to Colorado.”
Her stomach tightened. “Sutton isn’t answ
ering for Axel?”
“Not at the moment, but Axel’s trying the other two. They might be out of cell range—it is in the mountains.”
“True. Okay, you’ll let me know?” She had to be satisfied with that.
“Yes. Do you want me to come over? I might be able to help with the prongs.”
“No, stay there until we know what’s happening with Sutton, Key, and Phoenix.” If they needed healing, Axel could get Darcy to them faster if she stayed there where Axel was. “Call me as soon as you know anything about Sutton.”
“You got it, and you call if you need my magic to help with the prongs.” Darcy hung up.
Carla turned to her mom as she set the phone back in the cradle. “I need your help. We need to funnel as much pressure as possible against Styx’s shields to get those prongs out.”
Chandra answered, “It’s going to hurt, Carla. We need the Circle Witches. They can funnel some of their energy to us, and maybe help with the pain.”
She opened her mouth to argue, then snapped it closed. “We can use their help. How long will it take to get it?”
“Few minutes.” She walked over to the desk, leaned over Jerome, and said, “I’m going to open the Circle Witch loops over your files.”
Carla watched her dad inhale slowly, like he was drawing Chandra into his body. He tilted his head with her hair laid against his cheek. It was a sensual, intimate act filled with longing and regret. Carla realized that Jerome still had feelings, very deep feelings, for Chandra.
Instead of typing, her mom magically connected to the Circle Witches through the computer and spoke, “We need all witches to send their energy to Carla Fisk. She’s suffered four separate psychic attacks, and we need to break the connection.” She went on to explain.
Carla walked around to the other side of her dad and stood there, waiting for responses to come in. She looked down at the gray T-shirt her dad wore, seeing the tension in his thin shoulders and neck. Swamped by a need to connect with her dad, she raised her arm and laid her hand on his shoulder.
His muscles froze for a second, then he put his hand over hers.
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