Mad Magic

by Nicole Conway

  I flashed him a glare as I grabbed the marker. “I thought I was just a tourist.”

  “You were. But you pull this off, and I’ll be forced to retract that.” He nodded to the circular spells he’d drawn in the snow. “They’re ready.”

  “Just a second.” I unbuttoned the front of my blouse far enough to draw one last symbol … right over my heart.

  Hank shot me a startled look, his eyes wide.

  It was excessive—I knew that. Not to mention it probably wasn’t a good idea for me to start improvising on Dad’s spell designs. But this would pour an immense amount of power into him at once. I had one shot. One chance.

  If this didn’t bring him back, nothing would.

  Hank helped me position Zeph within one of the circles he’d drawn in the snow, and then he took a big step back.

  My racing pulse made my chest ache as I knelt down on the other circle, so close to the edge I could reach Zeph’s head. I put my hands on either side of his face and stared down into his lifeless violet eyes. I ran my thumbs over his cheeks. They were so cold. Tears blurred my vision. I gasped back another sob and bent down to press my lips against his—sealing the spell.

  My heartbeat skipped and my fingers and toes began to tingle as though they were falling asleep. A numb, aching sensation swelled through my body, as though an icy riptide was dragging me under. It sucked all the air out of my lungs. Chimes clamored and thrashed in my ears, growing louder and louder. My body wanted to jerk away and break contact.

  No—I’d come this far. His lips were still cold, I couldn’t stop yet.

  I gripped him harder, pouring every drop of magical power I could into his body.

  A thundering crescendo of chimes boomed in the air. It sent spasms through every muscle in my body. My spine curled involuntarily as a wave of buzzing, tingling heat roared from my head all the way down to the ends of my toes.

  My arms and legs ached, so numb I couldn’t move them at all. My vision tunneled, going darker and darker. I couldn’t hold on. I … I wasn’t strong enough. He was going to need more than that to regenerate from—

  Zeph’s lips moved against mine. Warm—they were growing warmer.

  My eyes flew open in time to see the fires of life return to his. He took in a deep breath, and his hands shot up to grip my shoulders. His heartbeat pounded so loudly I could hear it like a crashing cymbal in my mind.

  I gasped back, breaking the kiss as he groaned through clenched teeth. His hold on me tightened and his whole body tensed and shuddered as the runes on his skin glowed to life. His wings lifted and grew as paw-shaped feet burst out of his shoes.

  “Zeph,” I rasped. Had I done it right? Was he going to be okay? If he got sick, I needed to be there. I had to take care of him.

  “Josie—” his voice broke as his expression skewed. He sprang forward, arms closing around me with fierce urgency.

  I buried myself against his chest.

  “Are you all right?” he whispered against my ear. “Are you hurt?”

  “Stop it. I’m fine.” I hugged him tighter. “Don’t ever leave me like that again.”

  I could hear the smile in his voice. “I’m sorry.”

  “No you’re not.”

  A loud explosion from the clearing shattered over us.

  I winced, looking up as the spriggan howled with fury. It had Eldrick’s giant wolf-form in a headlock and was beating his head with repeated, crushing blows. Eldrick yelped every time, and yet continued to snarl and flail. Jack was still casting his frosty magic, trying to distract the monster long enough for Eldrick to get free.

  How was this possible? I didn’t know much about Jack, but Eldrick was faerie royalty. Was that mossy monster really stronger than him?

  “Never seen a spriggan like this before,” Hank murmured as he came to stand beside us.

  “That’s because Fir Darrig made it. He used a centerstone. It’s an old sidhe trick. You can do whatever you want to the outside of it, but if you don’t hit the centerstone, it doesn’t matter,” Zeph growled hoarsely. He tried to get up, but his knees threatened to buckle. “Eldrick can wail on it all day if he wants. It won’t make any difference. I’ll have to try—”

  “No! You’re not fighting that thing anymore. You can barely stand.” I looped an arm under his shoulders to steady him.

  “I’m fine,” he muttered.

  “Cut the crap,” Hank barked. “She gave you enough juice to regenerate your wounds, but as long as the curse is sucking your life away, you can’t hold enough power to fight a creature like that. You won’t last two seconds.”

  Zeph shot him a glare. “Got a better idea, old man? I’m all ears.”

  I did. “So … if we can destroy that stone, the magic holding it together will dissolve?”

  “Basically.” Zeph arched an eyebrow at me. “But the centerstone is hidden deep inside it. You’d need one hell of a blast to—”

  I broke away from him, snatched up the burnt stick I’d used to draw my spellwork, and started running.

  “Josie! No! Are you crazy?” Zeph shouted.

  Yeah, maybe this time I was. But there wasn’t time to think about it. I couldn’t afford to second-guess myself now. I’d brought Zeph back from the brink of death. I could do this, too.

  I could fight for the people I loved.

  Okay, so this probably wasn’t one of my better ideas. It was one thing to bring Zeph back using a spell I’d already seen in practice before. It was another to go charging headlong into a fight with a colossal earth monster that was slinging trees around like baseball bats.

  A bad idea, really. Awful. Just terrible.

  I sprinted headlong toward the clearing where Eldrick and Jack Frost were still fighting for their lives. The only weapon I had was the charred stick in my hand. That’s probably why all my friends were staring at me like I was completely out of my mind.

  Well—except for Zeph. He was trying to limp after me while Hank held him back, yelling curses at the top of his lungs.

  But I had a plan.

  Using my power to revive Zeph had made me an even bigger target, so as soon as I was out in the open, the spriggan whirled around and let out a bellowing cry. It tossed Eldrick aside before charging straight for me.

  Eldrick was up again in an instant, shaking the snow off his back and taking up the chase. He wasn’t going to make it. He was fast, but the spriggan had a head start.

  I skidded to a halt, gaping up at the creature that was looming right in front of me, thundering closer and closer.

  Oh god. I was … about to die.

  I looked back at Zeph. His face had gone pale. He was flailing against Hank, shrieking my name.

  A burst of blue light exploded in front of me, sending me sprawling backwards. I landed on my back in the snow, breathless. My head throbbed as I sat up, squinting at the figure hovering above me on gleaming white wings.

  “You guys are fun.” Jack laughed. He did an aerial front flip and started wheeling in circles around me. “We should hang out more often!”

  Jack’s blow had stunned the spriggan long enough for Eldrick to catch up to it. With his powerful jaws locked onto one of the creature’s thick hind legs, Eldrick struggled to drag it backwards.

  This was my chance.

  “I need some clean snow!” I called after Jack. “I have to make a big spell circle!”

  “Coming right up!” Jack grinned as he fluttered up, sweeping his hand toward the ground in front of me, conjuring up a fresh layer of untouched snow.

  Perfect.

  I used the charred end of the stick to draw a big circle in the untouched frost. That was the base of most spells, I’d learned. A framework to build from. This was one of the more complicated spells from Dad’s journals—and also one of the most useful. It was the first one I’d even tried committing to memory. A failsafe, just in case.

  Sweat made my hair stick to my face and neck as I scrambl
ed, quickly adding symbols all around the outside of the circle. They had to line up perfectly outside the rim and there wasn’t time to start over. I drew more circles within the first one like tree rings emanating from a central point. Some of them were a little crooked. It wasn’t my best work—I mean, who can draw in snow very well?

  It didn’t have to be pretty. It just had to work.

  A crash made the earth shake and I stumbled, nearly falling as Eldrick’s massive wolf form hit the ground nearby. Blood dripped from his toothy jaws as he slicked his ears back, snarling at the spriggan as he stood again.

  The spriggan was barreling straight for me again.

  From the air, Jack called my name and dove toward me.

  “No!” I yelled at both of them. “You have to run! Get out of the way! Now!”

  Eldrick’s silver eyes flashed to me, then to the design I’d drawn in the snow. His pupils went as small as pinpoints. Jack took one look at it, and his face went pale. Well, pale-er. He made an immediate turn, streaking toward Zeph and Hank to take cover with Eldrick galloping after him, tail tucked.

  The spriggan was coming. The ground shook under its weight. It roared, reaching out for me. “jooooosie!”

  I had five seconds—maybe six.

  I stood in the center of all those circles, watching the spriggan get closer. Calmness washed over every part of me—a certainty I’d never experienced before—as I added the final symbol: an arrow pointing straight at the oncoming spriggan.

  This was it; this was my chance to slap away the hands of fate that wanted to choke the life out of me.

  Stretching my arms out wide, I took a deep breath. My gaze focused on the spriggan as every corner of my mind went quiet. No more doubts. No more insecurities.

  No backing down now.

  I stamped a foot on the star-shaped symbol in the center of all the circles. The rings lit up one-by-one, flashing to life. White light exploded into the air with a force that rocked me back onto my heels. There was a loud, concussive burst of sound like a cacophony of tolling bells. The spriggan’s roars became broken and garbled as the force of my spell radiated outward, following the path of the arrow, and consumed the monster.

  My vision spotted. The dull, tingling ache swelled through my body as more of that magical power was sucked out of me. My knees gave out as the ground shook. I fell forward, barely catching myself on my forearms. Everything was spinning and my stomach rolled dangerously as I wheezed for breath.

  Had I … used too much magic?

  Everything was eerily quiet.

  I raised my head, my vision still swimming.

  There was a huge pile of rubble only a few yards away from where I lay. A mixture of crushed-up boulders, shredded roots, and bent trees was all that remained of the spriggan. At the very top of the heap was a single, smooth glittering stone the color of milky glass. It was about the size of a potato with something tied around it.

  It was hair—a small lock of red hair. My hair.

  How? How had Fir Darrig gotten his hands on …

  Lumi.

  I clenched my teeth. When she’d tried to kidnap me from the fair, I’d heard a cutting sound. I’d almost forgotten about it. After all, almost suffocating to death had been a little more important.

  She must have stolen it. It was such a small amount, I’d never even noticed.

  “Josie!” A pair of arms lifted me up suddenly. The motion made my head spin again and I slumped against the familiar warmth of Zeph’s chest. “What the heck were you thinking? Do you have any idea what would have happened if you had messed that spellwork up? How do you even know how to do that?”

  I forced a drowsy smile. “You’re not the only one with secrets.”

  He studied me with bloodshot eyes. “Shit. You did mess it up,” he muttered through clenched teeth. “You have to put a cap on a spell like that! Otherwise it’ll drain you completely and …”

  I couldn’t hear the rest. My ears were ringing and my body shivered with a cold sweat.

  Had I messed it up? I couldn’t remember. Everything was getting hazy. My chest was heavy and everything was going numb. The harder I tried to focus, the more everything seemed to slip away into blurred shades of gray.

  The next thing I knew, I was stretched out on my back staring up at the starry night sky. My back and legs were cold—cold and wet. From the snow? Yeah, that had to be it. I was lying on the ground like I’d just gotten finished making snow angels.

  Something blocked my view. A face? Suddenly, a blast of warm air forced its way past my lips, directly into my lungs. My body jerked out of control. I pitched forward, sitting upright and sucking in a frantic breath of the frigid night air.

  I coughed and wheezed, blinking away the blurriness in my eyes. “W-what happened?”

  No one answered.

  Zeph was kneeling in the snow next to me, his face blanched of all color and his eyes wide and haunted. His broad shoulders sagged and his head slowly dipped toward his chest. Behind him, Eldrick and Hank were gazing down at me with similarly tense expressions. Dried blood was smeared around Eldrick’s frowning mouth as he stood with his arms crossed. Hank didn’t look any happier as he combed his fingers through his goatee with one hand. In the other, he held the centerstone with the lock of my hair still tied around it.

  “You almost died,” Jack said quietly. He was crouched at my feet, his golden eyes glittering in the starlight. He offered me my coat with an uncertain smile. “Here, you must be freezing.”

  “Oh …” I swallowed, reaching shakily for it. “T-thank you.”

  The silence was thick as I dared to look at Zeph again.

  “Who taught you those spells?” he demanded in a low voice.

  I stiffened.

  Before I could say anything, Zeph was on his feet. He lunged for Eldrick, seizing him by the shirt collar. “You!”

  The two men growled and bared their teeth like animals as Zeph slammed him up against the trunk of the nearest tree and pinned him there with a forearm under his throat.

  “No!” I scrambled to my feet. “Stop! Leave him alone!”

  “I told you no magic. No spellwork. None,” Zeph roared. “You almost killed her, you son of a bitch. Now you basically have. They’ll be coming for her.”

  Eldrick didn’t fight back. “Don’t be a fool. They were coming either way. Nothing about her situation has changed. The only difference is now she doesn’t have to face that without you.”

  Zeph’s face flushed and his mouth screwed up, brow twitching as he stared Eldrick down. At last, he took a step back, releasing his chokehold.

  “Or maybe I should have told her there was nothing we could do to save you?” Eldrick snapped, his tone pure venom. “I am doing what you should have been every single day since her father’s death—arming her for a battle that has always been an inevitability for her. You cannot change fate. You cannot change what you are. You can only change yourself and how well equipped you are to handle it. So far, you have failed miserably in that regard.”

  Zeph looked away, past everyone else, right at me. Our eyes met for an instant, and his expression skewed. His jaw went rigid and he squeezed his eyes shut. “I …”

  “Don’t speak. You’ve already made yourself look sufficiently idiotic for one evening.” Eldrick straightened his shirt collar and walked away. He went straight up to Hank and held a hand out for the centerstone. “We must destroy it.”

  Hank didn’t argue. He passed the hunk of crystal over, and Eldrick crushed it into dust with one squeeze of his hand.

  I turned to look back at Zeph, who still hadn’t moved. He stood alone in the snow, separated from the rest of us. His beautiful wings had melted away, leaving behind the tall, human-looking shape of the man I loved.

  My footsteps crunched on the frozen earth, giving me away as I approached. “Zeph?”

  He wouldn’t look at me again. “He’s … right. I am an idiot. I just …”<
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  I took his hand and wove my fingers through his. “I know. You just wanted to protect me.”

  “I suck at it.”

  “Well, I guess I suck at spellwork.” I gave his hand a little tug, coaxing him into looking back at me. “We’ll both have to practice some more.”

  Zeph didn’t smile.

  His expression remained distant and bleak as he walked along with the rest of us out of the forest. My hold on his hand was all that kept him near me. I wondered if I let him go, if he would disappear altogether. That thought made my chest constrict, and I gripped his hand harder.

  “You didn’t tell me she was the vessel,” Jack piped up as he fluttered by, spreading his lovely wings for a graceful landing on his birdlike feet. There was a mischievous twinkle in his eyes as he studied me. “I can sense you clearly now, though. You better be careful. Are you going to pick the next ruler this year? There’s a Singing Moon soon, isn’t there?”

  My pulse stalled and started. That’s right … if everything Zeph and the others had told me about the vessel was true, then I was going to have to pick a new king or queen for the faerie court.

  “I, um, I haven’t decided.” I stole a sideways glance at Zeph. His brow was furrowed and his jaw was clenched, like there was something he wanted to say.

  Eldrick cleared his throat and changed the subject. “How is your lovely mother fairing, Jack? I haven’t paid her a visit in quite some time.”

  Jack fluttered excitedly over to him, chatting with Eldrick like they were old acquaintances as we made our way back to the vineyard again. I spotted the ghostly outline of the barn and farmhouse through the trees.

  Chills prickled over my skin as we got closer. The police cars were all gone. There was no sign of any of the guests, either. No lights. Nothing but the wind whistling through the bare limbs of the trees. The house itself bore no sign of life at all. Some of the windows were smashed out, and the doors had all been boarded shut. Even the barn looked like it was about to cave in from decay.