The Wayward Deed (Vacancy Book 2)

by A. K. Caggiano

  “You’ve got to be shitting me!” Lorelei gaped at the word, both believing it and not. She looked at the old man in the chair, ever rocking, then back to the paper. What they’d been looking for all this time was finally in her hands, and now Conrad wasn’t even around to give it to.

  “Why didn’t you say anything?” she hissed at Mr. Ecknees who of course did not answer beyond a gentle snore. Lorelei folded the page back up, felt around her body for a pocket she didn’t have, and then stuffed it into her bra along with the skeleton key. It had spent however long crammed into a book, it would fare just as well if not better there. “I’ll get you another bookmark tomorrow.” She swallowed. “If I survive tonight.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” Mr. Carr’s voice was shaking again.

  “To get you home, we need to get my friends back and in one piece first. Do you understand?”

  He nodded, eyes pried open.

  Lorelei glanced around the quiet sitting room. Seamus and Arista were gone, and she had no idea how to contact them, and Grier and Hana were hopefully locked up safe in their rooms, sent there by Ando when he realized what they had turned the white room into. She was the only one who knew what had happened save for Mr. Carr and maybe a few guests, but they had either gone to their rooms or fled. What she needed now was a witch—someone skilled enough to find those who were lost and powerful enough to bring them back. Lorelei slapped her face with both hands and raked her fingers down her cheeks—she knew exactly what she had to do, and it was going to freaking suck.

  “Stay,” she said, pointing at Mr. Carr, and he fell onto a chair beside the fireplace. She squinted into the dancing firelight, recognizing a blob that popped out and waved a hand-like bit at her. “Can you watch him, please? He isn’t to leave this spot.”

  The fire broke itself apart, and a sentinel of four hearth sprites jumped out, standing at attention around his feet. Mr. Carr looked at her like he would pass out, but she didn’t care—that would keep him in place with or without the sentient fire.

  “I’ll be back as soon as I can.” She threw off her other heel and ran for the front door, pulling on the thickest coat she could find and stuffing her feet into a pair of Grier’s way-too-large boots. When she swung open the door, she was blasted in the face by freezing cold. The sky was black and snow was falling even heavier now, whipping into her face. Lorelei pulled the coat tight around her and stepped out into the blizzard.

  ***

  For as modern as the house was, it didn’t appear to have a bell, at least not one Lorelei could see through half-frozen lashes in the pitch black of the middle of the night, so instead she pounded on the front door of Blackburn Estate without end until it finally opened.

  In the space where the door had been stood a creature, maybe three feet tall with long, pointed ears and a face that was somewhat like a groundhog. It wore a grey robe, pink slippers, and was exactly not what Lorelei expected to see.

  “What in the nether do you want?”

  “I need to see Bridge—ow!” Lorelei tried to push past the creature and into the house, but a barrier at the doorway stopped her. She rubbed her face, pain shooting through it at both the impact and how numb her nose had gone. “What the hell?”

  The creature just looked up at her on the other side of the invisible wall and crossed her little arms, three clawed fingers drumming on each elbow. “My question stands.”

  She pulled her arms back in around herself, shivering. “I’m Bridgette’s…friend, and I need to talk to her.”

  The groundhog lady scowled. “She doesn’t have any of those. How did you even get here?”

  Lorelei gestured feebly with her shoulder, muscles aching. “Bicycle. Listen, this is an emergency. I work at Moonlit Shores Manor, and I need—”

  “The manor?” She seemed slightly more amenable then, lifting her chin. “She doesn’t like you folk much.” The groundhog glanced back into the darkened house behind her, then took a paw-like hand to the wall on the inside and looked to be pressing a few buttons. “Well, come in already, you’ll freeze without any fur on your legs.”

  Lorelei shuffled over the threshold, trailing in snow, heat embracing her though her body still rattled with cold. Even in the dark, she could see the house was open and airy. When the lights came on, she shielded her eyes, blinded by how white the furniture was. The groundhog offered her a seat and left, but Lorelei just paced wet footsteps over the tiled entryway.

  “You know it’s, like, almost two in the morning, right?” Bridgette snapped at her from the landing above. That didn’t bode well. She hurried down each open step, her feet moving noiselessly in slippers, and waved the groundhog away from where she was still standing at the glass railing overhead. “What could you possibly want?”

  Lorelei was suddenly afraid to tell her, shivering from fear and the cold, unsure where to start. “I need your help.”

  “And why in the abyss would I help you?”

  “There was a party and a big cat, and one thing led to another, and now everybody’s gone.”

  Bridgette blinked back at her. Nothing on her face changed. “Kay?”

  “Disappeared, I mean,” Lorelei corrected herself. “In the white room. They were there, and then the switch got flipped while they were inside.”

  Bridgette narrowed her eyes.

  “Seamus and Arista are on vacation, and there was an attack by another of those god guys, you know, like Zyr? The book of faery tales, it says there’s four of them, and did you know the freaking deed was in there all along? And of course Conrad is gone, so I can’t even give it to him, but that’s the thing, I don’t know how to find them to get them back. They’re in danger, and I didn’t know who else to go to, but I know you’re amazing at scrying, and witches like you can get people back from far away, so please, Bridgette, I really, really, really need your help.”

  Bridgette’s eyes had widened as she spoke until the anger had been wiped away. “Did you say you found the deed?”

  “That’s what you took away from all that?”

  Bridgette snorted. “Well, you said a lot!”

  “Listen!” Lorelei shivered again, but pulled her arms out from her sides to help explain. “I chose a place for the white room, I don’t know where exactly, but it’s Hana’s home, so it’s probably enchanted. It was a mistake because there was some kind of entity trapped there that was feeding off the magic we brought to the place. The others had to stay with it while they cut off the connection to the manor. But that thing, the god or monster or whatever, it’s really powerful, and—”

  Bridgette put a hand up, her eyes flaring as she looked back up into the darkness at the top of the stairs, and Lorelei reined in her voice.

  “And even if they stop it, they’re going to be stuck on the top of a mountain somewhere. Please, Bridgette, I know I ruined your relationship.” At that the witch rolled her eyes. “But you don’t want Conrad to die, do you?” At that she rolled her eyes even harder, clearly not the direction to go. “You’re also powerful, I know that. If anyone can help me here, it’s you. You’re smart and strong, and I really need you right now. We all do.”

  Bridgette’s face softened in a slightly less disgusted way. Her arms fell by her sides, and she sucked her teeth. “You really think I’m smart?”

  “Yeah!” Lorelei threw her arms up. “I mean, you practically killed Zyr!”

  Anger flared in Bridgette’s face, and she looked back up the stairs again, shushing her. After a moment in the silence, she ran a hand through her curls. “Stay here,” she said, even quieter than before. “I’m going to need all my stuff. And I gotta change.” She turned for the stairs. “I have the perfect outfit for this.”

  CHAPTER 35

  GONE

  Bridgette threw her hands out, fingers spread, a pink glow emanating around them. “What’s he doing here?”

  Lorelei shut out the cold, taking in a ragged breath of the warm air inside Moonlit Shores Manor. Jordan Carr was still
in the sitting room, staring back at them, mouth open but unmoving, the sprites dutifully sitting at his feet. “Long story, but I guess he’s human or something,” Lorelei mumbled. “Don’t worry about it right now, save your magic for the others.”

  Bridgette clicked her tongue, but sauntered into the room, and Mr. Carr just stared. She had pulled back her hair so that it sat in a high ponytail away from her face. She’d also found the time to throw on some lip gloss along with a lilac sweater and white leggings. She hadn’t offered Lorelei anything warmer for the trip back, but she had made that faster if not warmer with her own enchanted moped, taking them briskly through the forest even as the snow whipped at them in wet, strong gusts of wind.

  She went to the coffee table in the room’s center and dropped her bag there. “We need something personal from everyone you want to find. Something they carry or use a lot. And a map or whatever.”

  “A map?” Lorelei watched as Bridgette pulled a familiar box from her bag. “Not a mirror?”

  “They’re on this plane, right? I’ve got more to go on than what I had before, and if they’re not trying to block out a scry, I can pinpoint them better.” She opened the box and carefully took out her crystals to lay out on the table. Then she looked up at her. “Well, hurry up!”

  Lorelei ran off, thundering up both sets of stairs before abandoning Grier’s boots and the coat in the staff’s common room. She was still freezing, but they were slowing her down. The door to Ziah’s room was locked, of course, and she swore loudly, rattling it until she remembered the skeleton key Conrad had given her. Digging it out of her bra, she unlocked the door and almost stepped in when she heard another door creak open.

  “What are you doing?” Grier was standing in the hallway, rubbing an eye, the scarred one staring shrewdly at her. Hana had wandered out of her room as well, hugging the edge of the wall with a worried look. Lorelei hadn’t been very quiet, she supposed.

  But there wasn’t time to explain, at least not well. “They’re gone. We need to scry for them. Go get something personal of Ren’s from the barn.” She pointed at Grier.

  “What?”

  “Something he carries or uses a lot. Bring it to the sitting room. Go. Now!” The boy blinked at her, then turned and ran. She pushed open Ziah’s door and unlocked Ando’s as well. “Hana, do the same for Ando and Ziah. Find something we can use to scry for them.”

  “What happened?” She had been jolted awake by her words but was still confused.

  “Bad stuff. Meet me in the sitting room.” Lorelei went to run off for the basement, but stopped. “Bridgette’s down there, by the way. She’s helping, so we need to…to tolerate her.”

  Down three flights of stairs and past the underground pond, Lorelei skidded to a stop in her bare feet in front of Conrad’s bedroom. She plunged the key into the lock then let herself in. Light flooded the space when she flipped the switch, and she went straight to his desk. It was a mess, of course, covered in papers and books. There were texts on anatomy and herbs and spellcasting, but nothing he carried consistently, and the pages with notes scribbled all over them were unloved and easily discarded. She pulled open some of the tiny drawers, but it was all junk, chewed up pens, a dried bundle of thyme, a dark, smooth stone.

  She turned back to the rest of the room. Bed, dresser, mirror, a glowing orb that hovered over a dais on the nightstand—all the normal sorts of things a twenty-something-year-old man might have. For a brief moment her eyes lingered on the painting she’d given him, propped up on a shelf, then she kept scanning until she saw his grey flannel hanging from the closet doorknob. She grabbed it and his smell was suddenly there with her, but there was no time for sentimentality, and she ran, swallowing the lump in her throat.

  Bridgette had set up everything, candles included. Mr. Carr was still unmoving by the fire, not even blinking he was so terrified, but the sprites had returned to the hearth. An atlas from one of the bookshelves was laid out in the center of the coffee table, surrounded by her scrying accoutrements.

  Hana was already downstairs, lighting the last of the candles that were scattered around. Bridgette sat cross-legged doing breathing exercises, staring down at her lap. Lorelei brought her the flannel, and she yanked it out of her hands, balling it up and placing it beside the circle. Atop it, she put a golden-colored tube of lipstick and Ando’s chef hat.

  Grier burst into the sitting room then, shaking snow off himself as he did, apparently forgoing a coat or shoes. “It’s a damn blizzard out there,” he said, handing over the teacup Ren always used.

  Bridgette took the cup and added it to the pile. “Searching for one person is difficult enough, but four is—” She let out a low whistle. “And I have no idea where to even start, so you’ll have to help.”

  Hana flipped through the pages of the atlas, pointing out a mountainous region. “There.”

  “You can’t be, like, more specific? This thing’s got about a billion pages.”

  Hana shook her head, eyes glassy.

  “It’s better than starting with the whole world,” said Lorelei, sitting on the ground across the coffee table from Bridgette, back against the couch. Hana and Grier knelt down on either of her sides.

  “I’m going to need to use your energy to do this and get the most accurate reading possible. If I can reach out to them—and it’s a big if—what do you want to say?”

  Lorelei looked from Hana to Grier, neither of which offered any help. “How do we get you back?” Lorelei shrugged.

  Bridgette rolled her eyes. “Okay, sure.” She sucked her teeth, then eyed Lorelei. “You said you had the deed, right?”

  She nodded.

  Flicking her eyes to the pile of personal affects, she sighed. “If you want a better chance at finding them and bringing them back, it wouldn’t hurt to add it in.”

  Lorelei dug the folded paper out of her dress’s neckline and placed it with the rest, the key included.

  Bridgette’s eyes lingered on the paper for a moment, then snapped back to them. “Hold hands. You two, touch the table.”

  Without hesitation, they formed a circle.

  “All right.” Bridgette placed her left hand on the pile of objects and held her right over the atlas pages. She opened her fist, and from her palm fell a pink stone suspended on a chain. Closing her eyes, the stone fell still, the chain so stiff it was like a metal rod and not many, tiny links.

  Then the sharp point of the scrying stone began to move in looping circles that grew with every rotation. Lorelei watched it spin, the movement dizzying. Her grip on the two at her sides was tight, and she could feel electricity jumping in her palms like when they had conducted the seance.

  The crystal spun faster and then broke from its circular pattern, more erratic. Lorelei’s eyes bounced with it as her vision blurred. She was tired, yet a jolt of energy passed through her limbs. She could feel it move onto Hana and back through to Grier, but she couldn’t look away from the stone as it coursed over the atlas, hopping and spinning until it finally landed hard against the page.

  The tip of the stone attached itself to a spot, but did not fall lax, pointing like a hound. Bridgette opened her eyes, leaning closer to the book. From under her blonde brow, she looked up at them. “Can you keep going?”

  The three nodded, and she glanced over at Mr. Carr, still unmoving in his chair. She flipped through the atlas pages until she came upon a blown-up section of where the scrying stone had landed. Again, she set herself above the book, eyes closed, the stone hanging from her hand, and again it began searching the page.

  Lorelei still watched, but her vision blurred, the candlelight a hazy halo at its edges. She could just barely see Bridgette’s other hand as it pawed at the objects in their stack beside the book. Lightheaded, she leaned slightly against the couch, taking a deep breath. She remembered sitting there at Christmas between Conrad and Ziah as Ren droned to them a story about ghosts and redemption, and her heart ached.

  The scrying stone landed o
n the page again with a tap. Bridgette leaned forward even quicker this time. “There,” she said, her voice calm, eyes unblinking. “They’re all there. Alive. We can try and speak to them, if you can last.”

  “I want them back,” said Lorelei, her voice woozier than she expected. She blinked, not realizing her eyes had been closed and glanced at Grier who was shaking his head as if he had just been knocked senseless.

  “Okay, well, this isn’t the counter at Moondoe’s, so you can’t just order whatever you want,” spat Bridgette.

  “Tell them to go to the lake.” Hana was more attentive than the others, her eyes still sharp as she inspected the map.

  “The lake?” Bridgette cocked her head, then shrugged. “You think they’re going to swim home in a land locked—”

  “Just do it.” Hana closed her own eyes and sat back, lips drawn together tightly.

  Once more, Bridgette dropped the stone. Almost immediately, Lorelei felt as though she were fighting anesthesia. There were voices in the back of her head, familiar voices, breathing heavy, trying to communicate to one another, but they were hurt. She couldn’t say anything back, but she could smell the forest, hear running water, feel a cool breeze on her skin, and even deeper she could feel the cold drip of fear that had just passed.

  What would they do now? The threat was behind them, Ziah’s voice suggested, and they were stuck, alone, and overtoiled.

  The lake. Lorelei heard Bridgette’s voice even though she knew she wasn’t actually speaking into the sitting room.

  Ziah asked something, but the words were only a muffled, questioning sound.

  Bridgette, though, was clearer. I seriously have no idea, it’s just what Hana says. Lorelei mustered the strength to huff.

  The sound of the water intensified, the smell of damp earth and fungus overwhelming for just a moment, but there was nothing to see. Lorelei tried to open her eyes, but they were already open, weren’t they? Had the candles gone out? The darkness was everywhere, and even the lapping waves were falling away into silence. Lorelei tried to squeeze the hands she knew she held, and then there was nothing.