Juniper

by Eva Delaney

  I shoved Sammy with all my strength so he would be clear of the attack. From my other side, strong arms wrapped around me. I smelled old books and pine and leather as Shakespeare shielded me from the curse.

  “No!” I screamed.

  “Grand romantic gesture,” he yelled.

  Purple light seared my eyes, and I squeezed them shut. The warm, strong touch of Shakes’ arms and chest vanished.

  I blinked my vision clear. Ram’s joyous laughter filled my head like a hangover.

  At my feet lay a jumble of bones. Each was cracked like the lines on a map. The slightest breeze would turn them to dust—and blow Shakes and his soul to nothingness.

  My eyes pricked with tears I couldn’t afford to shed, not when I had to fight for our lives. Shakes’ skull grinned up at me with empty eyes and a fake smile frozen on his skinless face.

  We should have run. The men shouldn’t have followed me. I should have run faster and farther from them, from everyone.

  I met Sammy’s eyes. His gaze held a tender worry I hadn’t seen on him before.

  If I couldn’t stop Ram, Sammy would be a pile of bones soon. Both of them turned to dust. No ghosts, no afterlife, just torn to component parts and gone. Oscar might have already suffered the same fate, for all I knew.

  Sandra was screaming, but I didn’t care. Despite being fucked to shit, she kept her feet and held Ram’s tablet in front of her. “What did you do to me?”

  “I fucked you,” I said coldly. “And I’m going to keep fucking you like a virgin neckbeard fucking a fleshlight.”

  Ram laughed as though he was having the time of his life—and that was why he was winning. I had lost that ability, and it was going to get me and everyone else killed.

  “So you kept the Stone for yourself,” Ram said. “You see what happened here? This is why you ran away, because you know, deep down, that you can’t be trusted with power. You wield it sloppily, harm old friends, get new ones cursed, and for what?”

  “To fuck you over like a neckbeard fucking a fleshlight.” Okay, I had already used that one, but I was about to die, so give me a break. “After four years, you’re no closer to achieving a thing.”

  Ram shook his head as though disappointed. “Let me help you, Juniper. Give me the Stone and I’ll take the magic from you. You don’t want it anyway. That’s why you ran and stopped using your dark powers. You locked up your strongest magic, didn’t you? Built walls inside yourself and hid away. It wants out and you want it gone. I’ll free you from it, then I’ll restore your friend.”

  I had been hiding my affinity for dark magic, and that was why I sucked at it now. I spent years telling myself that I wasn’t that person anymore, I wasn’t a dark witch.

  So, shouldn’t I give it up? It would be easy to avoid blasting people to dust if I lacked the skill. No more struggling to rein in the pulsing desire to let the power flow and destroy everyone in my way. No more worry that it would get out despite my best efforts. No more staying away from people, so I wouldn’t hurt them either from my own power or from Ram and his people showing up.

  It made sense to take his offer. It would save me and Shakespeare and Sammy and Oscar—assuming Ram kept his word.

  Except if you cut me open, my insides would glow with spelled words. Dark magic was engraved on my flesh. The thought of giving it up made my body try to vomit my brain out of my mouth to stop it from thinking.

  “He’s right,” Sammy said. “Ye’re fucking dangerous, and I fucking love it.”

  I smiled through my fear and total melancholic angst. “I’m not dangerous enough.”

  “Ye are. Ye just have to find it within ye.”

  I shook my head. “I can’t stop him. What about Shakes? I have to save him. I have to protect you.”

  “Pfft, ye can take that asshole like I hope ye take my asshole later. Together we’ll stop these scurvy bilge maggots. Now, toss me.”

  “Huh?” I glanced over. Sammy was a dildo lying on the road. The Scourge Stone butt plug sat next to him. I guess it was immune to shifting. His knives and clothes weren’t, because those were nowhere in sight.

  “Hey Ramrod, I’m going to fuck you like I pegged your father last night,” I called. “Or maybe your mother. Whichever one isn’t related to me as well.”

  Ram’s smile vanished. He raised his hands, and this time, he didn’t try to hide his spell with whispers. He shouted the words to his curse, so I would know exactly what was coming.

  A mind breaker. The curse meant to shatter your brain and make you spill every secret, too broken to resist.

  I yelled the same curse back at him as I grabbed Sammy and tossed him toward Sandra. Sammy the dildo bounced and rolled along the ground, coming to a stop at her feet.

  Ram’s curse burst from the tablet, a wave of purple and black knives aimed for my head.

  I screamed out my curse. I was going to smash this piece of shit to dust if it was the last thing I did. My blood and skin tingled and burned as my magic unleashed. I laughed as my wave of purple, blue, and green energy slammed into Ram’s.

  No hesitation this time. I would kill him if I could before he killed Sammy and Oscar.

  Behind Sandra, Sammy shifted into a pirate in all his swashbuckling glory. He knocked the tablet from her hands. As it hit the ground, the curse went with it, arching down to hit the road. The pavement glowed purple as it broke into pieces, and the earth shook.

  Sandra lunged at Sammy.

  “Se contracta,” I shouted, and she shrank until she was too small to see. I knew she was there somewhere, waiting for me to step on her. The thought made me laugh again as the dark power flooded me, flooded the world around me.

  “Damn ye, devil box!” Sammy swayed with the movement of the shattering ground as though it was a ship in a storm. Then he dropped to one knee and stabbed his knife into the back of the tablet. Sparks flew, probably burning his hand, but he pulled the knife free and stabbed it again and again. As he did, the curse faded and the world stopped shattering.

  I laughed in relief. Sammy’s madness had served a purpose after all. Shakespeare had been right.

  Shakes.

  My laughter choked off and the flood of power ebbed back to a creek, trickling through my veins. I turned. Shakespeare was still a jumble of cracking, dying bones. And where was Oscar? Was he even still alive?

  Chapter 20

  “I told ye those glowing boxes were the work of the devil,” Sammy said. He shook his hand as he swaggered toward me. The skin was bright red from the tablet’s sparks burning him.

  “You’re okay.” I threw myself into his arms.

  He squeezed me against his chest, nestling his face in my hair. His dick was already hard and pressing against my pelvis.

  I was immediately wet. Not that I’d tell him that. He already thought he was too damn sexy, so I would tease him instead. “Are you hard after a fight?”

  “Aye! Ye were amazing while slashing the purple light cutlasses and smashing up the ground. Ye’re like a warship in woman form.”

  I nestled closer against him, pressing my slit against his rod. I could feel the clit-vibrating extensions growing hard too.

  “You were bad-ass. Standing against an enemy who was totally going to kill you as though you weren’t scared.”

  “Pfft, who needs fear in a fight? Danger makes ye feel alive. Danger and…something else.” One of his hands trailed down my back and grabbed my ass, hard.

  Well, I was ready to drop my pants and demand Sammy fuck me against a tree like some kind of kinky squirrel.

  Except Shakespeare and Oscar were in trouble still.

  With a grunt, I broke away from Sammy. “Check the area for cell phones or tablets and smash any you find. I’m going to look for Oscar.” My voice caught on his name. He hadn’t made a sound or re-appeared yet. He could be hiding like I had told him, or he could be dead. Cursed.

  I tried not to look at what was left of Shakespeare as I grabbed the dropped Scourge Stone butt plug a
nd stuffed it into my coat pocket. I couldn’t help Shakes, but if Oscar was hurt, I might be able to save him.

  I rushed through the forest with bushes and sticks crunching under my feet. “Oscar, it’s me. Are you here? Are you hurt?”

  A little sniff followed by a choked sob sounded from somewhere ahead.

  My heart stopped for a moment. He was injured.

  I ran through the forest. Sticks tore at my clothes and skin, but I ignored them. “Oscar!”

  “Here.” He crouched against a tree, staring down at his hands. His shoulders shook with quiet sobs. His red hair, the brightest part of him in the starlight, shone like a dying fire around his shoulders.

  I squatted before him. “Oscar, where are you hurt? What did they do to you?”

  “Nothing. They did nothing,” he said, shaking his head and crying softly.

  I frowned and reached out to grasp his face in both my hands. I slid my thumbs under his jaw to tilt his face upward so I could see him.

  He was as pale and beautiful as the moon. For the first time, I noticed the pale freckles sprinkled across his face like a constellation. Bright light must have washed them out, but in the dim starlight with his skin like alabaster, they stood out. Blood tears streaked his skin like scars.

  “I was so scared they had hurt you,” I said.

  His lush lips trembled. I wanted to kiss them still, so I did.

  Oscar tasted of coppery tears and cool night winds. The touch of his lips goosebumped my skin, chasing away the lingering touch of curses and battle. Oscar swiped for entrance, and I parted my lips to let his tongue stroke mine.

  He hiccuped, and it broke off the kiss.

  “Sorry,” he said.

  I chuckled and stroked his cool face. “It’s okay.”

  He glanced away, silence falling between us.

  “What happened? You’re safe now,” I added to make him feel better. It was a lie. He wouldn’t be safe until he was a ghost again, trapped in the ice cream factory. Maybe not even then because he’d be trapped with his personal demons.

  “That witch came looking for me,” Oscar said. “He stomped right past me, a foot or two away.”

  “He didn’t see you. Good.”

  Oscar shook his head. “No, it’s not. I’m a vampire. I have claws and sharp teeth, and he didn’t know where I was. I could have shifted and attacked him from behind. He’d never know. I’d stop him and then he couldn’t hurt me or you or Sam or William.”

  Admittedly, that would have been smart.

  “But I didn’t,” Oscar said and hiccuped a little sob. “I was too scared. What if I failed? What if he hurt me? And…and…worse, what if I succeeded? I didn’t want to hurt anyone. I never did.”

  “That makes you a good person.”

  “It makes me weak.” Oscar pulled his head away from my hands and dropped his gaze to the ground. “The same thing happened with Volos—”

  At the name of the man who had murdered Oscar, a hot, dancing rage lit inside me. I had to lock up my magic before it flared out and burned the forest down.

  “I knew I should have fought him when he grabbed me, but I knew if I did, I’d rip out his throat. I didn’t want to kill him. I thought I could talk him down, or if I did what he wanted, he would go away and leave me alone. I thought that right up until he slit my throat.”

  “Oscar, listen to me.” I took his face in my hands, forcing him to meet my eyes. His skin was cool in a way that made me want to cuddle him to warm him up. “Not wanting to hurt people is never a weakness. It’s never something to be ashamed of. If more people were like you, we wouldn’t be in this mess.”

  “I guess, but you and Samuel and—”

  “Don’t compare yourself to us.” I took a deep breath. I was about to do a careless thing: tell him the truth. But he trusted me with his. “I’m good at hurting people.”

  Oscar startled under my touch. His eyes went even wider, gleaming in the dark. Was he afraid of me now? Too late. I had started to tell him the truth, so I had to press on.

  “I’m a dark witch. That’s my natural skill. I haven’t told anyone that in years because, well, people hate you for it. Before Silver Springs and The Magical Rooster, I worked with the people who attacked us.” I swallowed a lump in my throat. “We hurt a lot of people. I was very good at it. The best, actually. The top warrior, the best thief. But I left. I stopped. I hid my past, because the truth is, I don’t want to be someone who hurt others anymore. I want to be someone like you, who is brave enough not to rip out a bastard’s throat even when they deserve it.”

  Oscar gaped at me.

  “I started a sex shop because I wanted to create some good in the world. Bringing people pleasure rather than pain. Now the assholes from my past are back, and I’m trying to stop them without being like them. But I don’t know how. The point is, there’s no shame in being kind-hearted like you. It’s what I want to be.”

  Oscar sniffed, and though his face stayed in my hands, he dropped his gaze to his knees. “Have…have you killed people?”

  I let go of him, and my hands fell to my sides. My gut turned to bile as dread settled deep inside it. “Mostly I cursed them, which might be worse sometimes.”

  “Are you avoiding my question?”

  I was silent for a moment. I didn’t want him to hate me, but I didn’t want to lie, either. “I think that answers it.”

  Oscar turned his head away. I didn’t blame him. Someone had killed him, and now he knew that I had done that to others.

  “I’ll always protect you,” I said. “I won’t hurt you.”

  “I didn’t think you’d hurt me,” he said. “I…don’t know. Can we leave before anyone else shows up?”

  I hope that meant he needed time to think or that he was sticking with me…but it could mean he was pulling away. I had seen every version of shutting down when learning that your friend was a dark witch. Acting like we should just move on was a common one. Right before people ran away or snitched on me to cops, covens, and teachers.

  “Let’s go.” I stood and offered Oscar my hand. He didn’t take it as he climbed to his feet.

  I forced myself to smile to cover the stinging pain in my chest. If he didn’t want me around, that was okay. We’d be apart when the soulbinding wore off anyway. This was never meant to last.

  I led the way back to the road where Sammy stomped a phone into pieces on the pavement.

  Oscar looked around with wide, scared eyes at the unconscious woman, the giant pus ball, the torn pavement, and finally, the pile of bones topped with a grinning skull. “You did all this?”

  “Not all of it. I didn’t hurt Shakes,” I nodded to the bones. “I just failed to save him.”

  Oscar choked on a sob.

  Swallowing a lump in my throat, I knelt before what was left of my friend. I squeezed my eyes shut against the tears. This was why I had abandoned my old life and locked up most of my power. Heists and adventures were fun, but mine always ended like this.

  Sammy squatted next to me. “What now?”

  “Alas, poor Shakes! I knew him, Samuel—”

  “Ummm, yeah. We all did.”

  “A fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy.”

  “Where be your gibes now?” Oscar whispered. “Your gambols? Your songs? Your flashes of merriment that were wont to set the table on a roar?”

  Sammy looked from Oscar to me. “Ye’re both mad.”

  “No, we’re literate,” Oscar said.

  “Pfft, overrated,” Sammy said.

  Oscar knelt on my other side. I forced myself to blink my vision clear of its tears and face the empty eye sockets where Shakes’ tender brown eyes should have been.

  “Is he…?” Oscar said.

  “Cursed,” I said. “He’s conscious in there…for now. Until the fragile bones fall apart and take his memories and mind with them.”

  “Fix him,” Sammy said.

  “I was always the one to cast curses, not remove them. Sand
ra was our curse healer.” Now, she was the size of an ant somewhere nearby and bereft of her magic.

  “So?” Sammy said.

  “I don’t know how to remove curses without amulets that I don’t own.”

  “Pfft. Ye downed two witches while battlin’ a third. Ye can fix this.”

  I shook my head. “My power doesn’t work that way. It’s inherently destructive.”

  “You make toys,” Oscar said. “Those are good things. So, maybe your power can do other good things.”

  “If I dam my magic like a river, and let only small amounts out, I can do good things with it. But this…this requires a lot of power. When I let that much out, it’s always destructive.” I tried to meet Oscar’s gaze, but he stared down at Shakes.

  “Can you try?” Oscar whispered. “We have to save him.”

  “Maybe…” I sniffed.

  “Pfft and pfft,” Sammy said.

  “Pfft to you,” I snapped.

  He rolled his eyes. “Who says yer power is only boom boom blammo kapow?”

  “I do.”

  “Then decide it be more than that.”

  “That’s not how magic works! Why am I taking advice from a human?”

  “’Cause ain’t no one else here!”

  “I believe in you,” Oscar said softly. He looked at me for the first time since I had told him who I really was. “You said you want to use your abilities to help others. I know it’s hard and that you don’t know how to cure curses yet. But deciding to do things differently is the first step, even if you stumble.”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Nothing’s either good or bad, but thinking makes it so,” Oscar said, quoting Shakespeare.

  I nodded. “I’ll try. It’s the only option we have unless we return to Silver Springs, but moving him might crumble the bones.” If I failed, maybe I could find a way to harness Sandra’s magic from the Scourge Stone.

  “Ye don’t need me to believe in you,” Sammy said. “Not when ye can break hellfire from devil boxes.”

  I snorted. Well, here goes nothing.

  Chapter 21

  Reaching out with my magic, I felt the curse seeping through Shakes’ bones. It sent a happy little tremor along my skin. Ram’s dark magic stroking mine like a kitten rubbing their face on my hand. My stomach turned at the sensation.