Traitor.
My fingers tightened around my teacup and I set it down on its saucer with a shaking hand.
I hadn’t even tasted the strong smelling tea he’d given us; Ophelia had taught me that much by accident. ‘Is it a strange house with strange people? Don’t drink anything unless you brought it yourself.’ Those were the exact words she’d said to Maia one night. Maia hadn’t touched any of her tea either. Plus, I’d seen enough horror movies to know how that ended, and I had no intention of waking up tied to a bedframe in a damp basement.
“I can take that eternity from you. You don’t deserve it…” the old Laudan’s voice was cold and dark. Panic tightened in my chest.
“No! No… I didn’t mean to sound ungrateful—“
“I can read your thoughts, your memories, as clearly as if you were shouting them in my face,” the old man shouted, cutting off my attempt at an apology.
“You don’t know everything,” Maia said sharply as she glared at him.
I couldn’t do anything to try to silence her, I felt trapped by the old man’s words. He was right. I was ungrateful. I was angry. I’d had my life ripped out from under me, and then I’d been cast aside. Forgotten.
“Help me,” I choked on the words. I’d never asked for anyone’s help. Never.
Silence fell over the room, and I could hear the wind blowing outside making branches of the forgotten trees scrape against the few remaining unbroken windows.
“I can help you child,” the old one said quietly. He stepped forward, his hands outstretched towards me.
“Oh, no you fucking don’t!” Maia cried, leaping up from her chair, knocking over the table that held her teacup and saucer. The cup went flying and the dark liquid splashed over the ruined piano and dripped off the threadbare upholstery of the bench that sat nearby. So much for being polite guests.
“Don’t you touch her!” Maia put herself in the old Laudan’s path, and I opened my mouth to scream or shout at her, anything to warn her as the old vampire’s face changed.
His mouth opened wide, his fangs gleaming in the candlelight.
“Maia!” I tried to shout, tried to get up, but my cry came out as a whisper. As she turned towards me, the old Laudan leapt forward and sank his teeth into her throat.
I’ll never forget the sound she made. The choking gasp. The look of surprise and pain in her eyes.
“No!”
I jumped up out of my chair to push the old vampire off my friend, the silver dagger I’d taken from Vivienne’s shop raised high. But the old Laudan pulled her against him and bit down harder, his silver-shined eyes locked on mine. Maia’s body was blocking his, and I couldn’t strike him without hitting her. She let out a shuddering gasp and old man closed his eyes as her blood touched his lips.
Then the world imploded in a flash of hot blue light. I was launched backwards, crashing into the crushed piano. I landed awkwardly on the ruined carpet, my nose inches away from Maia’s shattered teacup. Everything was blurry, my ears were ringing and I felt the house shudder around me.
Maia was lying in the middle of the floor, a halo of blue fire illuminating her body.
“Maia,” I choked out, grabbing the dagger and scrambling across the floor towards her. The old vampire had been thrown across the room, and he lay groaning against the ivy-covered wall.
Ignoring the flames that seemed to be coming out of her pores, I threw myself across Maia’s body. On the other side of the room, the old vampire struggled to stand. He leaned heavily on the wall, using the thick branches of the ivy to pull himself to his feet. “What is this?” he stuttered, stumbling over the words. His chin was stained with a thick black liquid and he wiped at it absently as he spoke.
“You can’t bite just anyone,” I spat. “Especially a Daughter of Hecate.” The old Laudan’s face changed as I said that. He’d heard of them. Good. “Even I know we’re not supposed to feed on a Daughter,” I snapped. “But now you’ve done it. You tasted her blood. The Goddess will be after you now.”
I had no idea what I was saying. As soon as the words left my mouth, I knew that they were ridiculous, but I couldn’t stop talking.
“Hecate never forgives. Hecate never forgets. Her three faces will look for you everywhere… her eyes will seek you out and destroy you.” It was all bullshit. Every single word. But the old Laudan didn’t seem to know any better. All he knew was that he felt sick. I could see it in his face. He felt sicker than he’d ever felt in his entire existence. From the way his face twisted, and the way he wiped desperately at his face, I’d be willing to bet that everything from his mouth to his stomach felt like it was on fire.
His teeth must have burned too, and I smiled widely as he clapped a hand over his mouth.
“Hurts, doesn’t it? You’d better have a good apology prepared for her when she wakes up…” I said, bracing myself as I dragged Maia to her feet. She groaned as I shoved my shoulder under her armpit and lifted her up. The Laudan’s teeth had punctured her neck deeply, but the puncture wounds weren’t bleeding, they were filled with blue light, and tiny veins around the marks pulsed with the same blue glow. Her magic was working to heal her from the inside out.
“What the fuck…” she muttered, lurching to the side as she tried to support her weight. Way to ruin everything, I thought furiously. Power. Mystique. Come on!
“I’m taking her out of here,” I announced loudly. “And you’d better not follow us! Or… or…” I flailed desperately for a horrible consequence, but I couldn’t find one.
The old Laudan laughed thickly and spat a mouthful of dark blood onto the ruined floor. “You’re running out of time miláčku,” he said, wiping at the dark gore that dripped over his chin again.
I winced as the blue fire that enveloped Maia’s body licked against my cheek. That was gonna leave a mark.
The old vampire smiled as I pulled Maia towards the door that led back to the courtyard and out to the street.
“Come on, Maia,” I grunted. “Help me out here!”
As we neared the door, Maia’s stupor began to wear off and she found her feet again. She was unsteady, stumbling over the threshold, but when the warm air and the scent of rotting magnolia’s hit her, her eyes snapped open and the blue flames that had covered her body faded away.
“I’m gonna puke,” she muttered thickly, leaning against the doorframe.
“Not right now you’re not,” I snapped, tugging her down the stairs and pushing her ahead of me down the dark path. “We need to get the hell away from here right now.”
“I need a drink,” Maia whined, pouting in my direction.
“You’re the worst, we need to get—“
“Why is the gate closed?”
OMG why was the gate closed… I had watched Maia struggle to close it when we’d arrived, but she hadn’t been able to budge it one inch. Now it was shut tight, and it looked like it was stuck. Rusted shut. Maia reached out and gripped the bars, shaking the wrought iron fence. Nothing moved. The magnolia tree above our heads creaked in the wind as our boots ground its blossoms into the concrete path.
“Fuck no. No way. I’m not getting stuck here,” Maia said sharply, a hint of panic in her voice. She threw her shoulder against the gate, but it didn’t move.
“Maia,” I said, pulling her away. “Maybe you should,” I held up my hands, palms towards the lock, “you know…”
Maia raised an eyebrow and lifted her hands. “What?”
“You know…” I looked over my shoulder frantically. I could see the open door we’d just fled through, it was empty, the space behind black and menacing. He was coming. I wrinkled my nose. I could smell him now. Like rotting meat that had been forgotten in a broken fridge. That was new. He’s smelled fairly pleasant not too long ago. Getting old was so gross.
“Just… something. Can’t you light it on fire of blast it off its hinges? Melt the iron, I don’t know!” I squeaked as the old Laudan appeared in the doorway. The black gore that had covered h
is chin dripped down over his neck and chest, staining the white button up shirt he wore and soaking into the worn linen of his suit jacket. “Maiaaaaa come on!”
Maia looked over my shoulder and saw the old man coming and she let out a little shriek of her own and gripped the gate’s bars firmly in her hands. She closed her eyes tightly and muttered something. Her hands burst into blue flames, and the bars glowed white hot, bending under her hands as they melted away under her touch.
“Oh shit, I should have done that to the lock,” she muttered dong her best not to make eye contact with me. It was probably for the best, because I was getting frantic. The old Laudan was obviously wounded, or in a lot of pain, and he lurched down the stairs unsteadily.
“Maia…. Hurry, hurry, hurry, hurryyyyy!”
I heard a sizzling crack and the reverberating echo of Maia’s boot landing solidly against the iron gate. With an ancient metallic groan, the gate fell outward. It slammed onto the concrete sidewalk, and with a whoop of desperate relief I pushed Maia forward and we jumped over the fallen gate and took off running. Maia paused to look back, her eyes narrowed as she peered down the pathway we’d just escaped.
“Maia, what are you doing? He’s coming!” I glanced at the lightening sky and felt panic settling over my shoulders. How long had we been in there? Any longer, and I would have been trapped. I shivered at the thought of being a prisoner in that ruined house with that ancient monster. “We have to get out of here! It’s almost dawn!”
“Wait,” she said quietly as I fretted in the middle of the street.
“Maia…”
I could hear the Laudan’s footsteps scraping over the uneven paving stones, and as he came into view, Maia bent her knees and raised her hands. I could feel something vibrating through the pavement under my feet.
“Maia,” I whispered. She didn’t answer me, but as soon as her name left my lips, the fallen gate lifted off the ground and smashed into its hinges. Ropes of blue fire held the gate upright, binding it to the wrought iron posts that Maia had knocked it loose from. The old Laudan grabbed the bars and shook the gate, but it didn’t move. He opened his mouth and a guttural scream emerged from his mouth that made even Maia recoil in horror.
“Now,” she said. “We can fucking run now.”
I didn’t need any other encouragement, and I focused on putting as much distance between us and that house as possible. “How long will that hold?” I gasped, trying to keep up with Maia’s long strides.
A loud clang echoed in the darkness behind us and I tried to run faster, but my legs were starting to give out. I hadn’t eaten since before we’d left New York… and I was fading fast, especially now that dawn was well and truly happening.
“Not long!” Maia shouted.
Obviously.
We ran headlong down the street, and Maia ducked into an alley, pulling me behind her. “We need to get out of the street,” she said breathlessly, her eyes on the quickly lightening sky.
I nodded, trying to catch my breath, but I didn’t have a chance as Maia spotted something. “There.” She pointed and jumped up from her crouch and ran headlong down the alley towards an open door.
“What is it?” I gasped.
“I have no fucking idea, but we have to get you inside now.”
There was no time to argue, I followed as fast as I could and jumped through the door behind her. Maia slammed it shut and held her hands over the lock, muttering quietly as blue flames leapt from her palm and into the lock. The lock clicked shut and Maia leaned her head against the door.
“Maybe we can wait it out until sundown,” she said quietly.
There was a crash from somewhere inside the building and my head snapped around. Maia pulled away from the door, lighting the dark space with the blue fire of the magic that encased her hand.
“I’m sure it’s nothing,” she said with a nervous smile. Another crash echoed in the dark. “But then again, I’ve always had really shitty luck.”
14
Ophelia
We were getting nowhere. Vivienne Surette had finally agreed to help me locate Maia, but no matter what we tried, no matter what strange item she pulled from the shelves of her shop, we couldn’t find her.
“It shouldn’t be this difficult,” I said with a groan.
Vivienne shook her head and pushed her hair out of her face, tucking it back into her braids with a long peacock feather.
“You’ve done this before?” she asked me with a raised eyebrow.
I shrugged. “Teenagers, they don’t ever seem to change.”
Vivienne smiled and pulled a velvet bag from a nearby shelf. “It’s very late…”
“Or just early,” I replied. It had been a long time since I’d really eaten anything, and even longer since I’d gotten anything remotely resembling a good night’s sleep, but I had to find Maia, and Lacey would definitely be with her.
Once I knew they were both safe I could relax. Maybe. I might even be able to get them back to New York without Bishop noticing that Lacey was gone. But judging by how many of Eli’s calls I’d missed in the last few hours… he definitely had an idea that something was up.
My iced tea was gone and my mouth was dry, but I still wasn’t taking any of the tea that Vivienne offered. I hadn’t come this far to wake up cuddling a garbage bag beside a dumpster in a strange city.
“They were here you know,” Vivienne said suddenly. “Just a few hours ago.” She tugged at the silver cord that held the velvet bag closed, fraying the end between her nails.
I leapt up from my chair, anger coursing through me. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
She surveyed me calmly, not moving from her chair. “Because I knew how you would react,” she replied. She paused to stroke the massive bird sleeping on the perch beside them. “They broke in, but don’t worry, I’m not angry. Archimedes scared them off… he’s a wonderful watchdog. What is your familiar like?”
She was stalling now, but why? “Suki. She’s… a cat,” I said sharply. I wasn’t here to talk about my cat, or her owl monster. “Why did they break in? Did they take any—“
“I still don’t understand why it’s so hard to see them,” Vivienne mused, interrupting my angry words. She pressed her thumbnail against her chin as she pondered. “Maia may have come to New Orleans to look for me, but the little one— she has… other plans.”
“Other plans? Lacey? That’s impossible.” What the hell could Lacey be doing? I’d never known her to make plans more complicated than ordering ahead for pizza. “Wait… how would you know that anyway? Did you talk to them?”
Vivienne shook her head. “Sometimes the Goddess speaks to me, and I can hear nothing but her voice whispering from every nook and cranny.” I stared at the other woman carefully, hoping that she wasn’t insane like Magdalena de Leon Alleban had been. The last thing I wanted to deal with was another Daughter with delusions of grandeur. But she seemed calm, and I forced myself to sit down in the chair I’d almost knocked to the floor. Vivienne smiled as I regained my seat, as though she had won a small battle in the fact that I hadn’t freaked out.
“When Hecate’s voice fades away, I can hear everything else…”
“Wait. Everything?”
Vivienne nodded and looked at me knowingly. Get used to it, my brain always sounds like this, I thought furiously. Vivienne chuckled just a little and opened the velvet bag she held. A collection of polished stones tipped out onto the counter. Rune stones.
I’d never used them before, but they were my mother’s favorite divination tool, and while she’d never let me touch them, she would let me watch while she divined the sex of the unborn babies of the young mothers under her care. She was never wrong, even in the case of twins. The women were leery of her gifts, but she had been a gifted midwife, and even though they were suspicious, the women always came back.
“Your mother was quite adept with the stones… did she pass that on to you?” Vivienne asked quietly.
I didn’t l
ook at her. “I think you know the answer to that already. Let’s get on with it; I’m not here for therapy.”
Vivienne didn’t reply. She spread her hand over the scattered rune stones and closed her eyes as her palm began to glow. Suspended in pale green mist, the stones began to move, swirling around each other and scraping over the wooden counter before rising up to tumble lazily through the air. “Close your eyes, focus on the Goddess, and then ask your question,” Vivienne murmured, her eyes still closed. The stones rose higher in the air above our heads.
I sighed heavily and closed my eyes. I didn’t know what ‘focus on the Goddess’ meant, but Suki’s little black face popped into my head; that would do for now. An image of Maia dancing around the living room with Suki in her arms would be enough. It had to be.
“Where is Maia Hickson?”
Please help me find her.
Vivienne clenched her fist and the green mist disappeared. The stones fell to the counter with a gentle clatter and she opened her eyes to survey the results. Her eyebrows rose instantly and I leaned over to see if I could see what she was finding so interesting.
“They’ve appeared again. I don’t understand it at all,” she said, holding her palm above the stones. “Yes… yes, they’re not far away, but they’re disoriented. Lost. Trapped. They must have been cloaked from the Goddess’ sight…”
Not this again.
“Okay fine, but where are they now?”
“Can’t you see it?”
I thought my eyes were going to roll out of my head. “Pretend you’re talking to someone who hasn’t really used their magic or been taught anything since they were nine.”
Vivienne blinked at me awkwardly for a moment while I stared at her. “They’re just at the edge of the Quarter… It’s not far.”
“Take me there. Now.”
Thankfully, it didn’t take much for Vivienne to agree to come with me, but if it had come down to an argument I would have settled for a map scrawled on a napkin.
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