Rebecca hissed. “You cockroach.”
“She might want to rethink that.” I kept my voice even, but it took an effort.
“Why’s that?” I’d managed to surprise him.
“Because I have her body,” I said. “And Willow’s continuing existence is the only thing keeping me from building a great big fire and tossing Hecate’s body into it.”
“You’re lying,” he said.
“Want to take that chance?” I said. “If I were you, I’d scurry back and tell the boss lady.”
We watched him leave. “I guess we’ll have company tonight,” Rebecca commented.
“If that doesn’t get Hecate here, nothing will,” I said.
In our absence, one of the Fates’ flunkies had brought a couple of folding cots and set them up near the cage where we’d stashed Hecate’s body. I persuaded Rebecca to get some rest, but she wouldn’t leave the building. “I promised you,” she said. “I’m staying.”
My sister was stubborn. Instead of arguing with her, I stretched out on one of the cots. “You take first watch.”
I’d dozed off, but a small sound woke me up. In the cage across from us, the Phoenix cawed softly and then ruffled its feathers.
Willow/Hecate walked in. Her hands were bloody. I had a feeling I knew what had happened to the security guard. Rebecca was still in the cot next to mine, but she was awake.
“You have something of mine,” Hecate said, “and I want it back.” Willow’s complexion was normally a translucent blue, but ropy green veins ran under the skin.
“How about I trade you for it? Willow’s body for yours.”
I grabbed her arm and smeared the elixir on her forehead, lips, and cheeks. “Expello,” I commanded. “Get the hell out of Willow’s body.” I added. Her eyes rolled back in her head and she slumped forward.
“Where am I?” Willow said. “Nyx, what happened?”
It had worked. Willow was free, but something still held me back from celebrating.
She flung herself into my arms. She felt like Willow.
“Nyx, you saved me. I’m so grateful.” She sounded like Willow, but I still wasn’t sure.
She kissed me, a wet passionate kiss full of nymph magic. My suspicions were correct.
“Kiss me again,” I commanded, struggling to keep my voice sound like that of an eager lover.
She did. My grip on her tightened. She mistook it for passion and put her head on my shoulder. “Let’s go home.”
“I don’t think so, Hecate.” Willow, the real Willow, had made a Pignus Sanguinus, a blood oath to her loathsome groom. She was bound by honor, and by magic, to remain faithful. She wouldn’t have risked her life or her honor to kiss me, no matter how much I wanted her to. And not once had ever she used nymph magic to seduce me. She hadn’t needed to. She wasn’t Willow.
Willow’s face changed and for a second, something dark and deadly swam in her eyes. Hecate’s voice came out of Willow’s mouth. “You thought it would be that easy to reverse a possession? I’ve seen that little trick before.”
“I know,” I said. “But you haven’t seen this.” I tightened my grip even more before I used my athame to cut my hand.
She’d taken my blood when Wren slit my throat. “You wanted my blood so badly,” I said. “You’re about to get a bellyful.” I smeared my blood onto her lips and began to chant. She tried to spit it out, but I held her jaw tight as my blood ran into her mouth.
A trickle of a chartreuse substance came out of her mouth. Her body slumped and I caught her in my arms before she fell.
A piercing scream cut the silence. Then another and another. I couldn’t tell if it was Willow or Hecate screaming in pain, but the possibility that it was Willow made me shudder. The noise continued, but weaker, like she was walking through a long tunnel.
“Jesus, Doc, did you know?”
“I did,” he admitted. “But I didn’t want to tell you.”
“Why not?”
“I didn’t think you’d go through with it if you knew Willow would be in pain.”
I glared at him. “You’re right.”
Forced out of Willow’s body, Hecate’s spirit headed for home. Hecate was forced back in her own body, which we’d covered with more of the black asphodel elixir. I smeared more of my blood onto her skin and watched as the elixir crystallized into long strands and bound Hecate tight.
Hecate was trapped inside a crystal web. The more she struggled, the tighter the strands wound around her body. Her eyes were black with fury and she screamed over and over, muttering command after command, spell after spell. As fast as she uttered spells, I repelled them.
I threw a counterspell at her. A strand covered her mouth and she tried biting through it, but it held fast. The strands wrapped around her until she looked like a mummy. She fought until she didn’t have any breath left. Eventually, she stopped struggling.
“Is she dead?”
“No,” I said. “But she won’t get out of that, not in a thousand years.”
Willow’s prone body lay on the floor.
“Willow?”
Hecate was gone, but Willow was cold and unmoving. I laid my head on her chest and listened. There was a faint thump, but it was so weak. The knowledge that I’d failed to save her was a lump in my throat.
I wrapped her in my jacket and fumbled for the healing amulet. Panic blanked my mind, but I finally remembered the words to the spell.
I completed the ritual and then waited, but there was no change. I wasn’t going to let my aunts snip Willow’s thread of fate.
“Damn it, Willow, just breathe.”
She leaned over and retched. More of the foamy yellow substance came out of her mouth.
“Nyx, where am I?”
“Don’t talk,” I said. “I’ll get you to the water.”
A naiad healed best surrounded by water. I ran to the Caddy with Willow in my arms and then broke several traffic laws to get her to the lake.
I threw the Caddy into park and carried her to the water’s edge. I stripped off our clothes and dove into the water. She sank into its healing depths with a grateful sigh.
She floated, encircled in my arms, for a long time. Her color gradually returned.
“Better?”
“Yes, thank you.”
“Do you remember anything?”
Her eyes narrowed. “Danvers.”
“You’re safe now,” I said.
“But my dear husband is not.”
“It’s not the right time to go after him,” I said. “We have bigger problems.”
I explained everything that had happened since Hecate had possessed her.
“You did that for me?”
I don’t know what I expected, but it wasn’t the slap that landed hard on my jaw.
“What was that for?”
“You’re an idiot,” she said fiercely. “We have to fix it. We have to make it right. I’m not worth it.”
“You are to me.” A lock of dark hair fell into her eyes and I tucked it behind her ear.
She touched my jaw again, softly this time.
“Willow, I—”
She put her hand on my mouth to stop the words. “There is no time for sentiment.”
“There’s always time,” I said. I bent my head and tried to kiss her, but she blocked it.
“I made a vow, remember? The Pignus Sanguinus. I am not free.”
I nodded and instead, rested my forehead on hers, until we were eye to eye, nose to nose. Her lips were a breath away. It took a minute, but she pushed me away.
“No, Nyx,” she said. “There will be no more of that. You have things you must do. And so do I.”
“You need to rest,” I said. “Regain your strength.”
“Where is my husband?”
“Why do you want to know?” I asked.
“I will find him, with or without your help,” she said. “Please.”
Not even a god could resist Willow when she wanted something. An
d she wanted Danvers’s head. Preferably on a platter with an apple in his mouth, like the pig he was.
“I’ll take you to him.”
She slipped on the robe Hecate had put on her, but not without a shudder, and I pulled my tee and jeans back on. We headed to Magician’s Row.
Danvers and Carlos weren’t home. Willow headed straight for the master bedroom. She rummaged through the closet until she found what she was looking for. It was a simple green dress, long and flowing.
She stripped, not bothering to check to see if I was watching. I was. She put her dress on and then kicked Hecate’s robe aside. “Burn it,” she said. “I never want to see it again.”
I scooped it up and took it to my car. It might be useful to have a Tria Prima robe. Carlos and Danvers showed up as I locked the Caddy’s trunk.
The curse had done more damage than I imagined. Danvers was covered in pustules and his once-strong frame had shrunk. He no longer had the strength to push his own chair. Carlos was at his side.
Carlos drew me aside. “It’s only a matter of time,” he said. “He has a week, maybe two. What happened to him?”
“Nothing he didn’t deserve,” I replied. Carlos’s attention wandered and I looked over. Willow had a firm grip on her husband’s wheelchair. Danvers had the good sense to look terrified.
“You may go now. He’s my husband,” Willow said sweetly to Carlos. “I’ll take care of him.”
Carlos looked at me, but I shrugged. “I went to the wedding.”
And hated every minute of it.
“I shouldn’t leave him alone,” he replied uncertainly.
“He won’t be alone,” Willow said. “I’ll take care of him.”
He took one look at her dark hair tumbling down her back and her luscious lips and nodded. “I’m sure it will be okay. After all, you are his wife.”
I snorted, but quickly repressed it when Willow elbowed me in the ribs.
Carlos gave Willow one of his Mesmerizing smiles, but she didn’t even blink. “Thank you for your service.”
“Rich guys have all the luck,” Carlos muttered enviously.
Luck? Danvers would be lucky to make it through the night alive.
Willow sweetened the deal by reaching into Danvers’s wallet and handing Carlos more cash than he made in a year.
I had an idea what Willow had planned for her husband, but I wouldn’t interfere.
“Willow, maybe he’s already suffered enough?”
She glared at me. “I’ll decide when he’s had enough.”
“I know he killed your sisters,” I said. “But…”
“But nothing,” she said. “I am still under the Pignus Sanguinus as long as my husband lives.” The blood curse Danvers had insisted on in order to insure Willow would remain loyal.
The blood curse was driving me insane. I wanted Willow. Maybe she was right and I wanted only the things I couldn’t have.
“Please leave, Nyx.”
She wasn’t going to change her mind. I did as she asked and left.
Chapter Eighteen
Hecate had been trapped and we’d won, but the sense of unease I felt never lifted, despite my becoming the magical version of a Tiger Beat poster hunk. The Houses treated me like a rock star for trapping Hecate, even though many of them had sided with her.
Things gradually returned to normal, or at least what passed for normal. Members of the Houses stopped spitting when they saw me and, instead, nodded and smiled with a “Buon Fortuna, Nyx Fortuna.”
The entire Wyrd family had been invited to a party hosted jointly by the House of Poseidon and the House of Zeus, held at Trey Marin’s house. It was across the lake from Elizabeth’s house.
I went because I thought there was a chance I might see Willow there. And for the free liquor. Trey’s home was almost hidden by trees, shrubs, and a wild profusion of flowers.
The house itself was big, but not too flashy. It looked like it had been there as long as Minneapolis had been a city. A uniformed naiad answered the door and ushered me in with a seductive smile.
Trey’s house was decorated simply, but expensively. Hand-carved furniture, simple lines, and nautical artwork.
I was early. Only a few guests had arrived and because of the warmth of the evening or their personal preference for the outside, they were out on the terrace.
It looked like Trey was expecting a crowd. Rows of tables had been set up on the back lawn. I watched them from the floor-to-ceiling windows in the great room.
There was no sign of any of my family members or Willow.
A server handed me a glass of champagne. I turned to join the party outside and almost ran into Trey.
“She’s not coming,” Trey said.
“Who isn’t coming?”
“My niece,” he said. “That’s who you were looking for, right?”
There was no point in denying it. “Yes, but why won’t she be here?”
“She is a recent widow,” he replied. I wasn’t going to have to kill Danvers after all. Someone had beaten me to it.
“We talked about it and decided it would not be seemly.”
“Seemly? Nobody mourns Danvers,” I said. “Not even his wife.”
“She is my niece, Nyx,” he said. “I know you don’t understand how the Houses work, but believe me, the House of Hades would not appreciate openly showing glee at one of their members’ death.”
I shrugged. “I don’t really give a fuck what the House of Hades thinks.”
“Rumor has it that you are more involved in that House than you’d like to admit.”
I stared him down. “You know what they say about rumors.” Hades was my father, but I didn’t want any part of that inheritance.
“Shrug it off all you’d like, but you must realize that some members of the House of Hades do not like the idea of Hades’s heir coming in and taking over.”
“There’s not a chance in hell of that happening,” I said. I wasn’t sure about Rebecca’s interest in lording over the House of Hades, but I was even less sure if the magical world knew who her papa was. It had evidently gotten out who mine was.
Despite my earlier interlude with Willow, there was a hollow aching inside me. I wanted to be dancing with her in front of everyone. I wanted to hold her hand and smile at her the way Talbot smiled at Naomi.
The sun had gone down while we were talking. Fireflies lit up the darkness, more than I’d ever seen.
I spotted Willow in the woods edging the lake, dancing with the fireflies.
“Gorgeous,” I said. “Excuse me.”
I tried not to attract attention, but was stopped every few minutes by people wanting to shake my hand. I was as patient as possible, especially since some of them had cursed my name and the House of Fates only a few days ago.
I made the excuse that I had to go to the bathroom and then snuck back out through the front door and then cut through the neighbor’s yard to avoid the party entirely.
She was still there.
“Willow, you look beautiful.” She was dressed for the party in an emerald silk dress and summer sandals.
She took my hand and led me deeper into the trees, where it was quiet and dark. She kicked off the tortuous heels and then slipped out of the silk dress.
Her bare skin gleamed in a sliver of moonlight. She shook out her dark hair and a tiny smile crossed her face. “Thank you, son of Fortuna,” she said.
She held out her hand, but I grasped it and pulled her closer into a tight hug and then kissed her with all the passion I’d been denying.
She unbuttoned my shirt. Our gazes stayed locked while she stripped me. She laid my clothes carefully on a nearby bush and then stepped into my arms. I slid my hands down to her hips and kissed her.
She moaned into my open mouth. I picked her up and she wrapped her legs around my waist.
Somehow, we ended up in the lake. A drop of water trailed down her neck and settled into the hollow of her throat. I licked it away and she moaned agai
n.
Making love in the water was slippery work, but we managed. Much later, we lay on the shore and let the warm night air dry our skin.
Willow’s mood shifted when the sounds of revelry drifted over the water.
“It’s time you went back to the party,” she said. She handed me my shirt and pants.
“Come with me,” I coaxed.
“I am happier here,” she said. “You go ahead.”
I kissed her good-bye and then watched as she dove back into the lake.
The party was in full swing when I returned.
As the evening progressed, the party became louder and more crowded. The backyard was full of the magical community, including those who had turned their backs on the Wyrd family only days before. Luke Seren manned the grill, while Trey circulated.
My aunts held court in the center of the room. My aunts were both attractive and didn’t lack for admirers. Nona looked like a hot soccer mom barely old enough to have a daughter Naomi’s age and Morta had the ice-queen thing down pat. She could freeze someone’s balls off with one look, but some guys liked that.
With her eyes, Morta gave the order to join them, which I ignored. Rebecca and Claire sat in a couple of chairs a few feet from her and Naomi had been cornered by a sweaty mage in purple shorts and a bad haircut.
Talbot and I stood watching the crowd. My attention was caught by a guy wearing board shorts and a loose white cotton shirt. A trio of naiads surrounded him. I couldn’t hear the conversation, but he said something and the naiads burst into gales of laughter.
“That’s Johnny Asari,” Talbot said. The sour note in his voice made me give him a long glance, but he didn’t elaborate.
A few minutes later, the stranger approached us. “Talbot, I thought that was you. You’ve lost a few pounds.”
Talbot blushed. “Johnny.” His voice was cold.
“Man, you’re not still pissed about that girl?” Johnny asked. “That was ages ago. College. Bygones.”
From Talbot’s expression, he was still pissed about that girl, whoever she was. I’d grill him about it later.
“And you must be the man of the evening, Nyx Fortuna,” Johnny said. He held out his hand. I didn’t take it. He had wavy dark hair that fell into his eyes when he spoke, which was a mannerism I suspected he practiced in the mirror at home. He had dark brown eyes with full lashes and his skin was the color of a walnut.
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