“What’s the supposed to mean?”
Sarah took a step toward her. “It means you’re all for me thinking for myself, but only as long as it lines up with how you want me to act.”
Kai shook her head. “That’s not true.”
“It is completely true!” Sarah felt weeks’ worth of silence and repressed opinions erupting out of her. “I love you, Kai. But I’m a witch. A witch, who by the way, is stronger than you. And let’s face it, that’s your real problem.”
“What?” Kai’s mouth hung agape.
“I might not be able to kick someone’s ass with punches and roundhouses, but I don’t need to. The weapons I have are much more dangerous, and you can’t stand it.” Sarah was on a roll now, the words falling from her lips of their own accord. “You think I haven’t noticed all the sudden door opening, decision-making, and bravado—like that time you tried to take on three drunk frat boys and had the ovum to be mad at me when I managed to handle it without you? You’ve been trying to prove you’re stronger than me, but you’re not, and you hate it.” Sarah hadn’t realized the truth of her words until she’d said them, and they broke her heart. She finished in a small voice. “And you hate me because of it.”
Sarah stared at the ground, watching as fat tears dropped to the pavement.
“I do not hate you, Sarah.” Kai stepped forward and put her hands on Sarah’s shoulders. “Not even a little bit. I love you.”
“I love you too.” Sarah sniffled as she wiped her eyes. “But this isn’t working.”
Mikel drove the streets of Somerland while chatting amiably about the weather and how quaint the town seemed compared to his own city.
Eden made the right responses each time his flow of conversation ebbed. “Yes, much colder than I’m used to” and “quaint is the word I use too.” But all the while, her thoughts were churning.
Maybe it wasn’t terrible that Mikel was there—especially if it was only Mikel. If Davida had arrived, it was another story, but if it was only Mikel…
He likes me, and he outranks Alex.
A new plan was forming.
“Oh,” Eden said when Mikel missed a turn. “Coventry House is back that way.”
“Oh, child.” Mikel’s sigh sounded like regret as he turned toward the highway. “We’re way past Coventry House.”
Chapter 37
Sarah felt numb. Shell-shocked. Had she just broken up with the only person she’d ever loved?
“Sarah, let’s go inside. You’re shaking.” Kai peeled off her jacket and draped it over Sarah’s shoulders.
She knew she should be cold, but the sensation felt far away. She felt far away, as though everything that had just happened had happened to someone else. She let herself be led inside.
“I thought you’d dined and dashed, but there wasn’t any dining.” Sarah heard the waitress but didn’t glance up from the floor. She wished it would swallow her whole.
“Sorry,” Kai said. “We had an emergency. I’ll just pay our check.”
“Want me to box it?” The waitress gestured to their plates.
“No, it’s fine, thanks. We just need to go.”
Sarah dropped into the booth.
“Or…maybe we’re staying.” Kai slid into the seat opposite her. “Sorry. Again. But we’ll pay, I promise.”
The waitress dropped the check and left them alone.
Sarah lifted her fork and used it to cut a piece of the biscuit soaked in gravy. She took one lukewarm bite and then another.
“Sarah…”
“I’m hungry,” Sarah said, still unable to look at her.
“Okay.” Kai raised her own fork then laid it back down.
Sarah felt as though someone had punched a hole in her chest. She would never be able to fill it—not with food, not with anything.
She paused before taking another bite. This is how Eden feels all the time.
Sarah dropped her fork, and it clattered to the plate, gravy splattering the tabletop. She pressed fingers to her temple.
“Sarah, what is it?” Kai reached across and grabbed her hand. Sarah gripped it tight.
“Headache.” Sarah forced the words out through gritted teeth. “It’ll pass.”
But it didn’t, and soon Sarah was seeing stars.
“Do you want to go back to the cabin or to a hospital?” Kai was still holding her hand.
“Cabin.” Sarah forced out the words. “I’ll be fine.”
“Wait here. I’ll be right back.”
Kai grabbed the check and hurried to the register.
Sarah consciously slowed her breathing and tried to relax. She checked her phone for the time and was surprised to see Eden hadn’t texted her back.
At the thought of Eden, pain seared twice as hot through her temple. Pieces of a puzzle locked into place.
It’s Eden!
Again, the pain.
Eden wasn’t causing it, but the headaches were somehow related to her. Sarah was sure of it.
She sent Eden another text.
Sarah—Call me asap. It’s an emergency.
For good measure, she texted Quinn.
Sarah—Tell Eden to check her phone.
She followed that one up with: Now, please!
Relief flooded through her when she saw thought bubbles coming from Quinn, meaning he was about to reply. That relief fled when she read his text.
Quinn—Isn’t she with you??
“Where are we headed?” Eden tried to sound casual, even as her heart thrummed in her chest.
“Not far.” Mikel flashed a reassuring smile.
A member of the Council—even one as nice as Mikel—would not appreciate being questioned. She decided to remain quiet.
He had to be taking her to the Council of Magic. Did they know about Bes’tal, or was it something else? Maybe she wasn’t in trouble at all, and this was about the “storm” Davida had felt coming. Maybe they needed her help, or—
Mikel took a turn she recognized, and soon they were bumping along a dirt road. Off in the distance, still out of view, she knew there was clearing. A vortex of power she, Sarah, and Jules had used to petition the goddess Selene for their hearts’ desires.
“The Council of Magic is meeting here?”
Now her heart pounded. Did they need the extra power of the vortex to strip her?
Before he could answer, she blurted out, “I was going to Alex. I was going to tell her everything. I came back early just so I could do it.”
And so I could leave Sarah out of it.
She had made the decision in Sarah’s room right before the glamour test. She’d planned to throw herself at whatever mercy Alex possessed and beg for help. Help that didn’t include Sarah or Quinn. She’d already hurt them enough. She’d known it was a risk. Alex might love power, but she wasn’t stupid. If she wasn’t sure how to help or just didn’t want to, Eden knew she’d be handed over to the Council. It was a risk she’d been willing to take to keep the people she loved safe.
Mikel had pulled to a stop and now gazed at her thoughtfully.
“You are a brave one, aren’t you?”
Eden shook her head. “If I’d been braver, I’d have done this weeks ago.”
“Still,” he said, opening his door. “Points for effort.”
Had what she’d said done any good? Did he believe her, and would the Council go any easier on her if they knew she’d been about to do the right thing? With a shaky hand, she opened her own door.
Time to find out.
“What do you mean, she’s with me?” Sarah had called Quinn the second she’d read his message. “She’s supposed to be with you at your parents’ house.”
Sarah raced out the door of the diner and motioned for Kai to hurry.
“She was, and then she got Alex’s text about an emergency meeting with the Council of Magic.” Quinn’s voice held the same edge of panic Sarah recognized in her own. “So, we came home.”
Kai met her at the car. “What is it?”
Sarah held up a hand, a request for Kai to be quiet.
“What text?” Sarah put him on speaker so she could scroll through her history. “I didn’t get a text from Alex.”
“That’s all Eden said—emergency meeting, everyone who could, had to come back.”
Alex knew Sarah was less than an hour away—much closer than Eden. Why wouldn’t she have reached out to her? And why hadn’t Eden?”
“Hang on,” Sarah said. “I’m going to text Alex.”
Sarah—Hey.
Alex—Hey what?
Alex’s irritation came through even with only two words.
Sarah—Is anything happening at the house?
Alex—Darby tried a new thing with her hair and she looks like a skunk. What do you want?
Sarah—Nothing. Happy Thanksgiving.
Alex—That was yesterday.
“There’s no delegation from the Council,” Sarah said.
“Why would Eden lie?” Quinn’s voice was filled with dread. “Do you think something happened to her?”
White-hot pain hit, and Sarah nearly dropped the phone.
“I-I don’t know.” She knew. “What are you doing right now?”
“Nothing,” he said. “I was studying.”
“Kai and I are on our way. We’ll be at your place in an hour.” Sarah glanced up at Kai, who nodded. “Wait for us.”
She hung up as Kai sped back toward the rental cabin so they could pack as quickly as possible and check out. When reality intruded, it really intruded.
“Sarah—”
“Don’t.” Sarah held up her palm. “Whatever you’re going to say to convince me not to save Eden from whatever is happening, just don’t.”
“I wasn’t.” Kai eased the car to a stop at a light and squeezed Sarah’s knee. “I was going to ask how I can help.”
Sarah met her gaze and set her hand atop hers. “Just get me home.”
Eden walked on unsteady legs with Mikel in the direction of the clearing. But when they reached the path, Mikel didn’t turn. Instead, he continued forward in an area overgrown with bushes.
Mikel made small gestures with his hands, and ahead of them, branches seemed to move out of the way of their own accord.
“Apologies for the rustic nature of the walk. We take secrecy very seriously. Can’t have someone happening upon our meeting place.”
“Of course.” Eden swallowed.
Not knowing where she was going only added to the anxiety of not knowing why she’d been brought.
“Here we are.”
They had been about to pass a steep rock face, but now Mikel stopped and approached it. Eden’s eyes searched for an opening but found nothing.
“Of course.” Mikel swiped a dismissive wave. “Because of the binding. You can’t see it.”
Eden’s breath caught. How did he know she was bound? The weaves were hidden.
Mikel rested a hand upon the rock, and the glamour dissolved, revealing the entrance to a cave.
“After you.” He flashed a pleasant smile and motioned for her to go inside.
Eden licked her lips. “I think I’d like it if you told me why I was here.”
It was a bold request, but she’d gone as far as she was willing without any answers.
Mikel tsked.
“A high-ranking member of the Council of Magic has just given you an instruction. Are you refusing?” Mikel’s voice stayed soft but had lost its gentle tone.
“No.” Eden took a step backward. “Not exactly. I’d just like to know why I’m here.”
“As you wish.” Mikel spread his hands in a conciliatory manner. He turned on his heel and stepped into the cave. “Bring her.”
Two women and one man dressed in midnight blue robes emerged from the cave. There was a feral quality about them, and their pungent odor told Eden they hadn’t showered in days if not weeks.
She scrambled back and turned to run. This was not the Council. This was something else entirely.
Greedy hands with jagged fingernails grabbed at her. She spun around and landed a kick into the abdomen of one of the women. She doubled over as the other two continued their assault.
“No!” she roared, slamming her elbow into the woman’s jaw.
Her knee made contact with the man’s groin. He groaned and released her.
Eden made it two steps before something sharp struck the back of her head. A split-second later, she was gone.
Chapter 38
Sarah’s leg bounced in agitation as Kai sped toward Coventry House.
“Why would Eden have lied?” Quinn asked from the back.
They hadn’t stopped to talk, just scooped Quinn up on their way to go see Alex.
“I’m guessing to protect us,” Sarah said. “I’d bet she’s doing something dangerous and didn’t want us to know. But she’s in trouble. I can’t see it—” Her breath caught with renewed pain. “But I know it.”
Kai pulled to a stop, and all three of them raced inside.
“Where’s Alex?” Sarah demanded of Darby watching TV in the common room. Alex hadn’t been kidding about her hair.
Darby pointed over her shoulder without taking her eyes from the screen. “Carolyn’s study.”
The trio raced down the hallway and burst in to find a startled Alex at the desk. Her eyes narrowed.
“Knock much?”
“I need your help,” Sarah said. “Show me how to do a locator spell.”
Alex leaned back in her chair. “I know alternate realms exist. But I didn’t realize I’d fallen into one,” she said over steepled fingers. “Tell me, Sarah, in your world, do I take orders from you?”
Kai stepped forward. “In this one, today, you do.”
“Leash your dog.” Alex’s green eyes flashed as she addressed Sarah. “Otherwise I’m going to make that limp far worse.”
“Show her the damn spell.” Quinn’s voice was more forceful than Sarah had ever heard it. “Eden is in danger.”
Alex stood. “What has she done now?”
“Nothing,” Sarah said. “We don’t know if she’s done anything.” They had decided as a group not to tell Alex of Eden’s deception. It would only make Alex less likely to help. “But something is being done to her, I know it.”
“Tell me what you see.” Alex inched closer toward Sarah, clearly taking them more seriously now.
“That’s just it—I can’t. Anytime I try—” She made an effort to see Eden and paid for it in pain. “Something is blocking it.”
Alex put her hands on Sarah’s temples and hissed. “You’ve been cursed.”
“What?” Kai’s head swung from Sarah to Alex. “What the hell does that mean?”
“It means someone doesn’t want us knowing what’s happening to Eden.” Alex spun around to her bookcase and ran her fingers along the spines.
She grabbed a thick volume and turned back, thumbing the pages.
“Stay still,” she commanded. She flicked a hand toward Quinn and Kai. “Hold her.”
“They don’t need to hold me, I’m perfectly capable—” Sarah’s eyes rolled back in her head as the wave of pain crashed down upon her.
The world came back slowly.
First, Eden felt the throbbing in the back of her head. Then she was aware of the tight ligatures binding her wrists behind her back. Voices drifted in. Not the familiar ones of lost souls, but those she didn’t recognize, sometimes in a foreign tongue. Then recognition. Mikel.
Eden fought to open heavy lids. She had a hard time focusing on the figures huddled in the far corner. When she twisted her hands, her knuckles scraped stone. She’d been backed into a corner in more ways than one.
This wasn’t the Council, that much she knew. But who were they, and what did they want?
What was an amorphous blob in Eden’s blurry vision, coalesced into Mikel as he drew closer.
“I’m going to heal that for you.” He gestured in the direction of her head. “But first…”
; He leaned closer, his fingers finding the wound, and Eden shrieked, pain exploding in fiery bursts as he pressed deeper.
Mikel dropped his hand, but the wound continued to pulsate. He stooped low, so they were eye to eye.
“We’re going to be together for a little while longer,” he said, sounding as amiable as ever. “Planets aligning and all that. And I don’t want to have to hurt you again. So, before I heal you, I need you to remember that pain. Do you understand? Remember it as incentive to never defy me again. Can you do that?”
“Yes.” Her tongue was thick in her mouth. “I won’t forget.”
Oh, how she would not forget. Not any of this.
She didn’t even mind that Bes’tal’s desire for vengeance burned with her own.
Mikel nodded, satisfied and laid his hand—gently this time—on the back of her head. A shudder passed through Eden, and then the pain was gone along with the mental cobwebs.
Mikel turned to go, but Eden stopped him with a question.
“What is this about?” Eden kept her tone neutral. If she made Mikel believe she didn’t object to helping them, maybe he would let something slip. “Who are these people, and what do you want from me?”
“A small thing,” Mikel said. His eyes were as kind as they’d ever been. “Almost nothing really.”
“Will you tell me?” Eden said. “Please?”
“Of course, child.” He bent low again and placed a hand on her cheek. “You have suffered so much—with the Av Rek killing so many of your coven and now being bound—cut off from the very force that truly gives you life.” He must have seen Eden’s surprise at him once again mentioning her binding. “Yes, I know about that. I’ve known since we met. I have a way of seeing what is meant to stay unseen. Which is how I know what you took from Davida.” He waggled a finger at her. “Strictly forbidden, but you know that. The only thing I can’t see, what I can’t seem to puzzle out, is why you are bound. And completely now. Was this the doing of that ridiculously petulant High Priestess of yours?”
Eden was certain a lie would be punished, so just in case he did know the real reason she’d been cut off from her power, she answered truthfully. “Alex doesn’t trust me with magic.”
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