“Pass. Gather the final ingredient.”
Siobhan flounced over to a cage Ceri hadn’t noticed. Bony, gray pixies huddled in the back corner, squeaking shrilly as her cousin opened the small door to the cage. They tried to stay away from Siobhan’s hand but she was fast, striking like a snake and grabbing one. Two pixies clung to its arms but she shook them off and pulled out her prize, closing the door as she pulled out her arm.
“Ceridwen. Don’t just stand there gawking, get one,” her grandmother snapped.
“What?”
“A pixie, child. Or have you gone daft?” A warning glint shone in grandmother’s eye as she glared at her. If she didn’t act now, the punishment would be swift and unpleasant.
She didn’t know why she was hesitating. They were just pixies. She didn’t care about pixies. They were pests.
Swallowing down her discomfort, she marched over to the cage. Her traitorous fingers shook as she opened the little door.
When she stuck her hand inside, one of the pixies marched forward toward her hand instead of cowering like the others. Another tried to drag him back, but it shook off their hand with an imperious squeak. The pixie stared up at her defiantly, there for the taking.
“Ceridwen, don’t waste my time!”
Her grandmother’s voice startled her into action. She grabbed the pixie that had walked up to her. It must be an especially dumb one.
The pixie didn’t struggle on the way back to her work bench but it was trembling. Stupid little pest. She glanced back over her shoulder and saw the other pixies watching. They wouldn’t like what they were about to see.
“The cut on the wings must be clean. Don’t waste any of it. Make sure you get the hearts too, those don’t need to be fresh,” her grandmother said, crossing her arms and glaring at each of them in turn.
Siobhan held her wriggling pixie down and grabbed her knife with the other. It was an awkward affair to cut off the wings while they were moving, but they had to be taken while the pixie was alive or it just wasn’t the same. The potion would be weaker.
Using a finger to stretch the wings out, Siobhan placed her knife as close to the pixie’s back as she could get it. Then, with a smooth press, severed them cleanly. The pixie shrieked in pain, a piercing noise that made Ceri’s head hurt.
“You going to do it too, or just watch, loser?” Siobhan taunted, holding up the delicate little wings and wiggling them at her.
Ceri looked down at her pixie and it looked back up at her. “Stop looking at me like that,” she muttered, slamming it down on her table harder than was necessary. Still, it stared up at her. Almost…defiantly.
She stretched out the wings with her finger and picked up the knife. The pixie wasn’t struggling. Why wasn’t he struggling?
Her hand shook as she held the knife over the wings. This was for the coven. For power. For everything she’d ever wanted. She had to do this. This was just the price of doing magic. Something had to pay it.
The pixie’s heartbeat fluttered under her palm.
“Enough hesitation, Ceridwen! Do it now or I will remove you from this coven,” her grandmother snarled, anger contorting her features.
Ceri’s hand wouldn’t stop shaking. The pixie patted her hand, then made a strange symbol with its fingers. Somehow she knew it meant I love you. That didn’t make sense. Pixies didn’t love. They didn’t speak.
A flash of memory cut through her confusion. Woggy.
She dropped the knife and grabbed the pixie, holding the pixie protectively against her chest. “I won’t do it.”
Her grandmother advanced on her, shoving everything off her workbench in a fit of rage. “I trained you! I taught you everything! How could you be so weak after all that?”
“I’m not weak!” Ceri shouted back, her shaking hands betraying the very thing she wanted to deny.
“You’re scared to hurt a pixie!’
“It doesn’t deserve this!”
“No one gets what they deserve, only what they take!” her grandmother shouted, spittle flying from her lips. “And if you won’t take it, then I will!”
“No!” Ceri took another step back. “You won’t take anything! You’re––” Confusion swept over her once again. “You’re dead. You’re both dead.”
Siobhan rolled her eyes. “Do I look dead?”
“You did when…” Ceri shook her head, feeling something strange tugging at her. There was a voice, someone yelling for her in the distance. “This isn’t real.”
Siobhan groaned in irritation. “Don’t be stupid, Ceridwen. Of course this is real.”
“You’re dead. The sorcerer killed you.”
A cold wind swept through her. She curled in on herself, collapsing to the floor and burying her head in her knees. The scene shifted, the work room and her grandmother disappearing.
“Only because you let him kill me,” Siobhan snarled.
She looked up and saw Siobhan’s lifeless face staring back at her. Eyes gone. Beautiful hair hacked off. “You were too weak. You failed me.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t know they’d hurt you.”
“Sorry isn’t enough!” Siobhan screamed, her pale hand reaching for Ceri.
A vicious growl startled Siobhan and she whirled around to face the intruder. A large, ruddy wolf walked toward them, her eyes glowing blood-red.
“Amber.” Remembering the name gave Ceri strength. This was an illusion. This wasn’t real.
Siobhan lunged at Amber, but the wolf walked through her like she didn’t exist. Ceri rose and met Amber halfway, pressing her head to Amber’s.
Points of light broke through the darkness around them, like stars appearing in a dark sky. They grew larger and larger and the darkness began to crumble. As the light touched her legs, the numbing cold fled from her limbs.
The jungle was gone along with the strange, oppressive warmth. She curled her fingers into Amber’s fur to stay standing and looked around.
“Where the hell are we?” she whispered, afraid to speak too loudly in the cavern. It was maybe twenty feet across but the ceiling must have been fifty feet high. Wind and snow howled outside, whistling past the narrow entrance.
“I don’t know,” Derek replied.
She turned around and saw the rest of the pack was with them.
“The darkness swallowed you up,” Derek explained as he pulled her into a hug. “Amber decided to go in after you. When the two of you reappeared, the jungle was gone and we were here.”
The wolves gathered around them. Tommy licked her elbow and sniffed her carefully, as if to make sure she was real.
“Are you okay?”
She nodded into Derek’s chest. “Yeah, I’m okay. That darkness wasn’t what I thought it was though. It wasn’t anything I created. It was a trap.”
“What kind of trap?”
“An illusion spell. One that drew on my worst fears to make them real. If I hadn’t been able to break out of the dream I was trapped in, I would have stayed here until my body wasted away and I died.” She took a deep breath, the gravity of the situation finally hitting her. “That’s not the kind of thing I could have broken on my own.”
“Then I’m glad you weren’t alone.”
Amber barked sharply, then nodded toward a raised dais a few feet away. Laying on the surface was half of a broken, clay tablet.
Curious, Ceri walked up to the dais. “This must be what the spirit wanted me to find.”
“Should we take it?”
“I think so.” She reached for the tablet but just before she could touch it, electricity exploded through her, throwing her backwards like a rag doll.
“Ceri!” Derek shouted, running after her.
“It didn’t hurt,” she reassured them, rolling back up to her knees. “But I think it reacted to my magic somehow. It was…odd.”
Derek looked back at the tablet thoughtfully. “I don’t have any magic.”
“I could be wrong,” she said, rising to her feet. Her sp
irit felt a little wobbly but she’d been through worse.
Derek brushed past Amber and jogged back up to the tablet.
“Derek, don’t––”
He picked it up. Nothing happened.
“Huh. Guess it just doesn’t like witches.”
She looked at him incredulously. “Are you kidding me? You could have been hurt!”
“It didn’t hurt you!” he shot back.
“That’s not the point! That was insanely risky!”
Amber cut their argument off with a whiny howl and motioned for them to look up. The ceiling of the cavern was crumbling.
“Oops.”
Ceri glared at Derek. “Everyone, stand together, just like we laid down.”
The pack quickly arranged themselves around her and she pulled them back toward their bodies. The ceiling of the cavern caved in with a loud crack as a strong wind hit them, pushing them out of the spirit realm just before the rock rained down on their heads.
As the spirit realm was fading from view, she caught a glimpse of the tarot card that had been haunting her. It gave a little goodbye wave, then disappeared in a shower of golden sparks.
Chapter 63
Amber
Amber jerked upright and blinked water out of her eyes as she patted her body. Rain was pouring down and she was soaked through, but she didn’t care.
She was back in her body. No more spirit wolf. “Let’s never do that again.”
“I second that,” Genevieve said with a groan, her limp, pink hair plastered to her face. “Not a fan of jumping off cliffs or not being able to speak or watching Ceri writhe in a mass of darkness.”
“Jumping off cliffs?” Steven asked in alarm, leaving the shelter of the porch to see if Genevieve was okay.
“What do I do with this?” Derek asked, holding up the broken half of the tablet they’d seen in the cavern.
With his always impeccable timing, Kadrithan appeared in front of Amber. The rain hissed as it touched his skin, turning into steam instantly.
“This is not the time,” she groaned, rubbing at her demon mark with a grimace.
The demon ignored her, focusing on the broken tablet in Derek’s hand instead. “Where did you get that?”
Derek hid it behind his back. “None of your business, demon.”
“You have no idea what you’re holding––”
“Then explain what it is,” Amber interrupted, crossing her arms.
“Why is the human holding it?” he asked instead of explaining. He always had a billion questions and never any answers.
“Kadrithan––
“I have to be sure,” he said, relenting slightly. “Can the rest of you touch it?”
“I’ll try again. It wouldn’t let me in the spirit realm,” Ceri said, smoothing her wet curls back out of her face. Her cardigan was falling off her shoulders it was so heavy with water.
“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Derek asked, hesitating to let her near it.
“I’ll be careful,” she reassured him.
Derek nodded reluctantly and held the broken tablet out within her reach.
Taking a deep breath, Ceri moved her hand slowly toward it, stopping about an inch away, then shook her head. “I still can’t touch it, and if I do, it will actually hurt me in this realm.”
Kadrithan nodded and turned away, facing Amber. “You have to hide this and keep it safe.”
“Why?”
“It is half of Raziel’s key.”
They all went silent at that. Cassandra, the crazy elf had talked about it, as had Deward in the note he’d left in Tommy’s room.
“What, exactly, is Raziel’s key?”
Kadrithan clenched his jaw tightly, looking away as if searching for a way to get out of explaining it.
“You’re going to explain and you’re going to do it now,” Amber demanded, thrusting her finger at him.
“Take it in the house,” Kadrithan said, crossing his arms behind his back. “I need to speak with Amber alone.”
No one moved. They all looked to her for direction, ignoring his orders entirely. Part of her wanted to refuse and make him explain now, in front of everyone, but based on the stiff set of his jaw, she had a feeling he wouldn’t.
Turning to Derek, she nodded. “Go ahead and get out of the rain. I’ll explain everything to y’all once I get some answers. Even if I have to beat them out of him.”
Derek, holding the tablet close to his chest, cast a glare at the demon as he headed inside. The others trailed after him. Genevieve closed the door behind them but reappeared at the window and stood guard there.
“Walk with me,” Kadrithan said, turning and floating toward the tree line.
She obliged but she wasn’t happy about it. After he’d explained the true nature of the angels to them, she’d expected he would just be honest with them. Apparently that was expecting too much.
They reached the edge of the forest and she stopped, finding shelter under a tall tree to keep most of the rain off. “This is far enough.”
He turned to face her slowly, his features sharpening as he drew on the mark. His feet touched the ground and he looked more solid than she’d ever seen him.
He smoothed his hands back through his wavy, black hair. She suppressed the urge to mock him when she noticed that he needed to shave. The rough stubble looked out of place above the old-fashioned suit he wore but now wasn’t the time for banter.
Tapping his fingers restlessly against his crossed arms, he caught her gaze. “I need you to understand how important this is. What I am about to share with you is information that I have killed to protect, and would kill again to do so.”
That was ominous. Taking a deep breath, she nodded. “We have the thing, I need to know what exactly it is and why it’s important.”
Angel rubbed a hand across the back of his neck. “It’s part of the curse, as well as the key to breaking it. Or, at least half the key.” He spoke as if she were dragging every word out of him.
She looked back toward the house and her pack. Right now, sitting in their living room, was the source of a curse that had cast an entire race into ruin. Everyone would want it. “Will the angels know it’s gone?”
“I don’t know.”
“If they do, will they know we took it?”
He exhaled sharply. “I don’t know.”
She pressed her hands into her eyes and told herself to stay calm and not rage at Kadrithan just because he was here. This wasn’t his fault, for once. They’d gone into the spirit world and retrieved this without knowing what it was. This was on them. “What do you know?”
“This will change everything. If I could take it back to the demon realm with me, I would,” Kadrithan said, his arms held stiffly behind his back. Even when Evangeline had been in danger he hadn’t been this desperate. He leaned forward and took her hand, holding it between his own. “Please protect it.”
She stared at him in shock. “I’m surprised you aren’t calling in your demon mark.”
“If you aren’t doing this willingly, it won’t be enough. And…” He released her hand and sat back, jaw clenching. “I don’t intend to ever call in that mark. I need you to help me until this is over.”
“And when is it over?”
“When we win the war.”
She leaned back against the tree and fiddled with the hem of her shirt. “How long has this war been going on?”
He was silent. The only sounds were the rain beating the forest canopy and her heart thumping painfully in her chest. She’d never thought about it, but he had no heartbeat at all since he wasn’t really here.
“Kadrithan, how long?”
He sighed. “Centuries.”
She squeezed her eyes shut. This was insane. Demons. Angels. Centuries long wars. She didn’t want any of this.
“Amber, I’m begging you. We can win this. You don’t understand how close we are. We have half of the tablet, we are close to finding the rest. We have Evangeline
––”
“She is a child.” Amber pushed off the tree and advanced on him, anger at this whole mess rushing through her. “And you said she wasn’t involved in this.”
He took a step forward, invading her space. “I never would have told you if it had been an option. My niece’s role in this is pivotal. If I could free my people without her and let her be a child, then I would. But the incubus took that option away from us.”
“Is she even really your niece?”
He smoothed his hair back with an angry swipe. “Yes. She is.”
“I don’t know which of the things you’ve told me are truth and which are lies. How am I supposed to believe any of this?” she demanded, throwing her hands in the air. “For all I know, it’s all a lie.”
“It’s not!” he shouted, all pretense of control now gone. “You must understand the position you have put me in! We are fighting for survival. For our freedom. I owe you nothing. Not explanations, not the truth. Nothing.” He grabbed her by the shoulders and pushed her back into the tree. “But I have given you both because I need your help.”
She yanked his hands off her shoulders and shoved him back. “That’s not how this works, Kadrithan. You’re asking me to put my life and the lives of everyone in my pack on the line for this. So yes, you do owe me explanations and the truth. If you want us to fight this war with you then we are part of it.”
His lip curled in derision. “You are not fae––”
“I don’t give a shit.” Her hands shook with anger and the wolf moved restlessly in her mind. A red haze filtered across her vision as she drew on the power of the pack. On her strength as alpha. “You do not own me.”
He pressed his thumb into the mark above her heart. “You sure about that?”
She grabbed him by his fancy collar and dragged him down to her face. “I am. You need that mark just like you need me. Don’t forget that.”
Gently, he unwound her fingers from his collar, but didn’t move away. “Whatever you need to tell yourself to sleep at night.”
Misfit Fortune Page 27