I had twisted and turned my body as I landed, not wanting to land on the killer lizard, but I needn’t have worried. It was nowhere to be seen.
“Wow,” Kelly said, struggling to sit up. I took her arm and tugged, but I wasn’t in a much better position than she was.
“You all right?” I asked her.
“Yeah, the magic cushioned my fall. I think,” she said.
“Where’s Quinn?” I asked.
Kelly pointed behind us. The floor had broken near one end of the dance hall, and Quinn had landed in the middle. Somehow we had turned in midair, and he had ended up behind us.
The sheriff was already on his feet. His sharp eyes scanned the room and landed on us. As usual, his expression was unreadable.
“Are you okay?” he mouthed to me. For the first time, his face looked pained.
“Fine. Water is soft.” I smiled a bit. He smiled in return.
Without another word he pivoted and dashed away, sliding through the water like a fish. My mind flashed to how fast he was.
“Let’s go!” cried Kelly. “There are more Vixens! He can’t catch all of them!”
We spun around to see Hannah, Taylor, and some of the other witches standing there. I figured the rest were still hiding.
“Let’s get them!” cried Taylor.
The other witches darted off.
“You ain’t going nowhere,” said a rough voice.
Standing in the red doorway were the men I had seen loitering outside. With glowing eyes and everything from machetes to cleavers in their hands, they blocked the exit.
“Move,” Hannah waved her hand dismissively.
“Move she says,” said one of the men, mocking her with a dismissive hand motion of his own.
Hannah bristled. “Clearly you don’t know who I am,” she started again.
“Clearly I don’t care. Don’t worry, though. We can take this outside. Would hate to corner you in a . . . dance hall.” He said it as if he’d walked into a makeup store and it was terribly embarrassing to be there.
Hannah liked this idea, probably because it got her closer to the Vixens. She nodded and started toward the door.
The men hadn’t expected her to agree so quickly. There was a moment of confusion, then they turned around and rushed away.
I was now alone in the dance hall, or so I thought. I was about to follow the others when something caused me to turn around.
Jackie was standing rigidly across the room, her face pale. She shook her head slightly when she saw me looking at her.
I turned to glance at the other witches, who were already racing out of the dance hall. I turned back to Jackie and motioned for her to come. We could catch a Vixen. Maybe we’d finally find out who belonged to the secretive organization.
Jackie shook her head again. It wasn’t until that second time that I looked at her more closely.
My friend wasn’t moving because she couldn’t. There was someone standing behind her and keeping her immobile.
With one tentative step I moved closer to my friend. I saw her eyes widen in fear.
“What is it?” I asked, though it should have been more like “Who.”
From behind Jackie, Damien stepped forward
I came to a halt, momentarily immobile from shock, definitely not from the fact that my shoes were squishing after Quinn’s water bath.
Damien was holding a knife, which shimmered. A minute before she’d been just a nice baker around town. Now she had revealed herself as something else entirely. After a moment I realized that it was a bread knife. She probably carried it all the time, but so unremarkable was it that no one would even notice.
As my eyes fell to the weapon in her hand, she let it clatter to the floor.
“This is a magical fight,” she said softly, her eyes burning. There was no doubt in my mind that she’d have no problem killing Jackie.
“I didn’t know we were fighting,” I said. It was the first thing that came into my head.
“We are,” she assured me. “You’re going to do me a favor. While I have your friend here, I want you to go see Kyle. They’ll let you in. I want you to kill him. Then I’ll let Jackie go.” She said it as if it was the best offer anyone had ever received.
For a minute I didn’t say a word. Was she really serious? When she shook Jackie and my friend whimpered, I realized that Damien was deadly serious. Emphasis on deadly.
I frowned at her. “But then won’t you have to kill us? Isn’t the problem with Kyle that he knows who you are?”
Damien held Jackie closer. She didn’t respond. “I’m trying to save my work with the Vixens. They’re doing great things. If they can just get the right ingredients, they’ll be amazing.”
So what had happened was that Kyle and Henry had seen something they shouldn’t have, just as we’d suspected. They probably hadn’t even realized it at the time.
The sky was still pitch black. Now and then flashes of lightning drew my eye, but I tried to focus on Damien and her threat to hurt Jackie.
“I’ll be long gone by the time you come after me,” she said.
Jackie locked eyes with me, and I saw her fingers straighten down by her side. She was going to try a spellcast. I subtly tried to shake my head. That was a terrible idea.
Jackie didn’t care. She quickly brought her fingers together as she tried to shove out of Damien’s grasp.
At the last possible moment, Damien realized what was about to happen and tried to reach around and perform a crackle of her own. Instead, the two witches ended up tangling. I felt like I was watching in slow motion as they both tumbled to the ground.
“Get off me!” Jackie grunted.
“You aren’t going to get away! I must serve the Vixens,” Damien hissed back.
Then she spun and rolled and got the upper hand. She was much bigger than Jackie, and I gasped as she grabbed her.
I rushed forward and tried to push Damien off my friend. Just as I did that, Jackie used her legs to make a final shove at her attacker. The three of us ended up bumping into each other and falling down again.
I hit the floor hard. The water that Quinn had magicked had disappeared, so there was nothing to cushion my fall. I winced as pain blossomed in my hip, but Damien wasn’t injured and wasn’t finished. She flashed above both of us, her fingers coming together and her hand twisting.
“Enough of this,” she hissed. “I’ll take care of you two and find another way to get at Kyle. There’s still Kelly, isn’t there?” Her eyes glittered maliciously.
Just then a snowy white owl came flashing toward us, claws outstretched. When the owl screeched, shock turned me stationary. I had been thinking of owls as nothing other than feather producers; now I remembered that they were so much more.
The great creature swung back around as Damien, who had tumbled onto her back, shot to her feet.
Fear split through me. Something deep inside told me that I was missing something, but before I could process what it might be I saw movement just behind the owl, then a dark head darted forward.
Damien lunged, but I was closer. Scanning the room had given me the moment’s notice that I needed.
Inside my pocket was one of the potions I’d been working on with my grandmother. I lunged in front of Damien and threw it hard, directly at her.
An orange cloud curled up in front of Damien. She skidded to a halt and screamed. A flash of white told me that the owl had swooped above the cloud.
I gasped and looked around, not quite believing what I saw. Maybe like the melting doors and moving nails, this bird had been conjured out of the thick, strange air.
But of course that wasn’t really what was going on. There was a much simpler explanation for where the owl had come from.
Michael was standing in the doorway. The young man was pale, but calm. He had two snowy owls on each arm. One had shockingly blue eyes, like the sky trapped in a diamond.
“What did I miss?” he asked.
Chapter Thirty-Fo
ur
A moment later, Quinn came charging back into the dance hall. I couldn’t help but notice that he was without a Vixen captive. Maybe the other members of the Young Witches group had caught one, but I doubted it.
His eyes went to me first, I noticed smugly.
Once he had assessed my condition and realized I was fine, and drying out after his water bath, he scanned the rest of the room. Michael was talking quietly with Jackie, who hadn’t met him before. She still looked upset, but somehow Michael was oddly calming. His monotone way of speaking proved soothing in a crisis. Not to mention that the owl was now busily trying to clean Jackie’s hair. The owl appeared to like the bright color, and when Jackie realized what it was doing she nearly smiled.
Meanwhile, they had bound Damien tightly, and she sat on the floor next to me, snarling. “You’ll never get away with this,” she spat out. “The Vixens will make you pay.”
Quinn strode over. “Aren’t you just the middle woman?” he asked sharply.
“You have no idea what I am!” she countered.
He actually rolled his eyes, deliberately making it clear that he was not impressed with her. That only enraged her more.
“You run their errands and you take the fall for them. They messed up by letting Kyle see their faces, and they expected you to fix it. Good job you did at that,” said Quinn.
He was taunting a suspect.
She snarled at him.
Sometimes I really loved Twinkleford.
Damien fell into a dark silence, but her eyes bore into Quinn’s. If I had been Quinn I would have been very glad that she was tied up. But he didn’t look fazed by the glare. He had probably seen worse, possibly from his own ex-wife.
“Where is everyone else?” he asked me.
“They went after one of the Vixens who attacked the dance hall,” I said.
He nodded, but made no move to find them. “I’m sure they’ll be back soon. We don’t appear to have much luck tracking down the Vixens right after an attack,” he said.
“There are a lot of witches this time,” I pointed out.
Damien snorted. Quinn also did not look convinced. His black uniform was ripped, so I scanned him for injuries.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
“Oh, fine,” he nodded, glancing down at the tear in his uniform. “At least there were no poisonous lizards this time,” he said.
“If we haven’t killed them, they’ll be back,” said Michael, wandering over with Jackie, who kept glancing sideways at him.
“They’ll be back,” Jackie said quietly. “The queens are supposedly dealing with the Vixens, but there’s no evidence of that today.” She had a red mark on her shoulder and she looked shaken. “Maybe I’ll talk to my mom about it. I’m sure that when she hears about what happened today, she’ll have a lot to say anyway.” Jackie sounded a bit dejected about that prospect. As the mayor of Twinkleford, her mother always spoke forcefully. Given that her daughter’s life had been threatened, this time would be no different.
“We have to do more. The Vixens are doing more. These skirmishes haven’t ended in tragedy so far, but they will,” said Michael. His voice was quiet, but we all turned to listen. Even Damien stopped snarling. She had started to drool a bit and I quickly looked away.
I’d had no inkling how crazy she was when I met her at the bakery. I wondered if her coworkers knew. The guys had acted pretty unconcerned with everything, so maybe they didn’t notice or didn’t care.
“I have to get back. Are you finished with me?” Michael asked Quinn.
“We can take it from here. Thank you for coming. You arrived just in time. I know you don’t often leave your home,” said Quinn.
“With this much protection I could do with leaving it more often,” said Michael with a slight bow. “Ladies.”
Awkwardly, he sort of glided away.
Just then there was a commotion at the other end of the dance hall and all the other Young Witches came tumbling in. They stopped short when they saw Quinn, Jackie, and me standing over Damien. This was going to be some explanation.
Hannah braced her hands on her hips. Her blond hair had gone stringy and her skin was pale. “I demand to know what happened,” she said.
“In a minute,” Quinn replied, as a commotion from outside interrupted us.
Chapter Thirty-Five
My grandmother and Lowe had come, with Gill and a lot of other townspeople trickling in behind them. Gill scanned the crowd with terrible concern until his eyes landed on my cousin. Then the tension in his face seeped away and the goofy glint returned.
Quinn went to talk quietly with Hannah and Taylor while Kelly came with us, figuring she’d get a less official explanation that didn’t involve being close enough to Hannah to smell her perfume.
Eventually, everyone in town that I had ever seen before was there. The drunken goats, all sorts of cats, vampires, and werewolves, not to mention the ogres and the ghouls and the pixies and fairies buzzing overhead. The throng of witches and warlocks was overwhelming. In the back of the crowd I saw Gael, her thin face drawn and her cheeks pale. When she caught me looking at her she rolled her eyes and turned away. I had suspected her for nothing. Hannah’s mother and the other queen witches were making their way through the crowd, brushing past other townsfolk as if they didn’t exist.
Speaking of unpleasant townsfolk, I soon spotted another one. Cynthia was there, glaring around at all of us. When she caught sight of me, I imagined fire coming out of her eyes and consuming me. I checked my hair to make sure it wasn’t singed. It wasn’t, but it was fluffy and ugly. I tossed my hair and pretended she wasn’t there.
The whole town had heard there was a Vixen battle. The government’s hope of keeping the presence of the Vixens quiet was out the window now.
Bethel rushed over. “What happened?”
“It’s a long story,” I said.
“Is everyone okay?” Lowe demanded.
“Mostly,” I said. When I saw that my response alarmed my family, I hastened to add, “No one died. I’ll tell you when we get home.”
Jackie’s mother wasn’t there yet, but her chief assistant had arrived. An official-looking man with a long face that reminded me of a wolf took Jackie in hand. She waved solemnly. “I’ll catch you all later. Duty calls.”
“Speaking with your mother isn’t a duty,” said the man. Jackie didn’t answer that one.
“I’ll see you tomorrow,” I assured her.
“Maybe. I might still be explaining things to Mom by then,” she said dejectedly.
The throng kept growing, and Bethel started urging me to leave. Even in the stress of the moment, I was fascinated. The ghouls were especially interesting. The vampires stood like sentries watching the proceedings. Since one of their own had recently been murdered, I was sure they watched these events with some satisfaction.
“Shall we go?” Bethel asked, eyeing the queen witches with distaste. I realized that if I didn’t get her out of there she would give them a piece of her mind. Given that she had so few pieces left, I told her we should go. Her face instantly lightened. Lucy the hat bird chirped her appreciation from the top of Bethel’s head.
We made for the trolley. I hoped today’s colors were cheerful; we needed something bright to set off the horror we had just lived through.
When we were almost home, Lisa and Lucky materialized out of nowhere to escort us. Various other witches and townsfolk tried to speak with Bethel and me, but my grandmother wasn’t having it. In general, when I imagined angry beings I tried to think what a cat thrown into the middle of a lake would look like at being forced to swim. Never having seen it myself, all I could imagine was murderous eyes, furious hissing, and the best, most miserable swimmer I had ever seen. That type of fury was flaming from my grandmother’s face now.
Even so, we made it home without an outburst, if only barely. The cats were waiting for us at the edge of the property. I counted six of them forming a protective circle around us
.
“Think we should hear the rest of this story in the back pasture? If we’re close to the unicorns, we just might live,” I murmured to Lowe.
She smiled slightly. “You didn’t do anything wrong.”
“It feels like I did,” I whispered. She nodded sympathetically.
Luckily for us, Bethel was in fact making for the unicorn pasture. Lisa and Lucky peeled off, preferring not to get in the middle of the coming family drama. I didn’t want to be in the middle of it either, but I didn’t think it would do any good to say so to Bethel.
My grandmother listened to the story, the unicorns standing nearby watchfully. Her expression ran the gamut of emotions I knew she was capable of: anger, definitely annoyance, and fear. Then there was one that I didn’t recognize.
The pasture had turned cold by the time I’d finished. The unicorns had gathered around us to shield my grandmother from the oncoming winds. I couldn’t help but notice that they were less concerned with Lowe and me. By the time I finished talking, I was so tired that my shoulders were sagging.
“What’s that face?” my grandmother asked me. Despite being much older than I was, she didn’t show how tired she was.
“Just couldn’t read your expression there,” I said as my eyelids drooped.
She smiled a bit and took a step forward. “That face was pride.”
She drew Lowe and me in for hugs.
That evening I sat in the study with Bethel and Lowe nearby. Tiger had come in for a quiet chat with those witches who could speak cat. His tail swished lazily back and forth as he heard about the events of the day.
When we got to the part about Damien’s arrest, he gave me an impressed look. I just rolled my eyes back at him. I hadn’t yet gotten annoyed that the cats had conversations I couldn’t hear, but it was only a matter of time.
Instead of feeling impressed with myself, I just felt foolish.
Quinn hadn’t come to the cottage yet. He’d arrested the feather trader, saved the day, and come charging into the dance hall to help. After all that I expected him to come to Bethel’s, but he still wasn’t there.
The Rhinestone Witches Omnibus: Books 1-3 Page 45