“Where are you going?”
“Serena’s place. Delta's on her way to pick me up, and I'm in a hurry. It’s urgent.”
“I’m going with you.” He raised his voice and repeated. “I’m going with Lexi unless you need me for protection here."
Gran waved a hand over her shoulder to hurry us along.
“I’m not scared of Jett, but you’re welcome to come along if you want to. They'll be fine here. The godmothers have this place warded so tight a mosquito couldn’t slip past.”
“No, they don’t. Serena can’t be inside a warded space while she’s giving birth. Not to a Fate Weaver baby, anyway.” Did everyone know the protocols except me?
“I had no idea.”
Salem opened his mouth, no doubt to point out what I already knew, that I was behind on my reading. Still.
“Don’t even think about it.” I cautioned him. “There’s no time for a lecture.”
“I wasn’t going to lecture you. I just came to say Delta’s waiting in the kitchen.”
Flix gentled his voice when Serena whistled out a short cry of pain. “She’s terrified, Lexi. Let’s hurry.”
Calypso and Aunt Mag slid into sight just as I ducked out the fireplace behind Flix with Salem on my heels. Mag caught my eye, noted my dead-set expression and the determined looks of my companions, and held up a finger. I paused long enough for her to reach into her tie-dyed fanny pack—don’t get me started on that—and toss me a small disk. At first, I thought she’d thrown me a coin, but a quick glance showed hand-carved runes decorating both sides, and the level of power coming off the thing made my fingers vibrate.
“Protection.” She mouthed. I nodded my thanks, pocketed the charm, and hurried to catch up with Flix. I found him deep in discussion with Delta that ended when they saw me come around the corner.
Only a few short blocks, the ride on Delta's bike wasn't long enough to put me in a Zen state. Not with Salem's claws digging into my leg, anyway. Flix popped into place as we pulled up to the curb.
“I’m waiting out here.” Salem refused to step one foot in Serena’s house. “I’ll stay behind and guard the exit.” It sounded noble, but I knew it was because her familiar had a thing for him and Morana might be inside.
We ducked through the hole in the wall, and I made my way down the short hall.
The talisman was right where Gran said it would be. A small, hand-bound book with a leather spine and silver clasp. Totally appropriate for the Snodgrass family since they were born bookworms.
Wrapped in four layers of oilcloth, dropped in a plastic bag, spelled to blend into any background, and submerged in the toilet tank of the downstairs powder room was an odd choice of hiding place, though. Calypso had resorted to severe measures to keep Serena from laying her hands on the family talisman and I wondered why.
“Are you sure that’s it?” Delta eyed the palm-sized book suspiciously. It hadn’t taken four of us to retrieve the thing, and why everyone had been so keyed up about it was beyond me.
“Fits the description and was hidden in the right place.” I slid the book into my pocket. “While we’re here, I want to gather up some things for Serena. I think she’d feel better if she had a change of clothes, her own robe, maybe. And I’m betting there are baby clothes around here somewhere even if she wasn’t totally prepared.”
Working quickly, and with help from Delta, I packed a bag with things that I hoped would make Serena feel more at home.
“Lexi. You’d better get out here.” Salem called through the gaping wall.
“I’ll go.” Flix vanished and returned just as quickly. “Jett’s coming. He has Kin.”
Jett had Kin. The way Flix said those words turned my insides to ice, and with the chill came a sense of clarity and purpose. Anger is hot and red and pulsing. Fury is cold and hard and just exactly what I needed at that moment.
I loved the man, but he was a magnet for my enemies. If I’d known bringing on my powers would pull every whack job in the universe out of the woodwork and aim them at Kin, I’m not sure I would have gone through with it.
Ice coated everything except the burning desire for justice. Jett might be a demigod, but the only power I’d ever seen him display with any dexterity was his inherent ability to lodge like a splinter in my backside.
What made him think he could take me on and win? He’d tried before and failed. I carried the Bow of Destiny, I was a Balefire witch. I was more than a match for...
Self-righteous ego carried me through Serena’s small house, toward the ragged wall, then melted like cotton candy on a child’s tongue when I glanced out the floor-to-ceiling bay window in the dining room.
Through the glass, I saw Jett stalking down the sidewalk, maybe a half a block away. Even from this distance, I could tell Kin was hurt. His body hung with the lip grace of someone who'd been knocked out. As the gap closed between us, I spotted a bruise blooming around one eye and a small cut on his forehead.
The man I loved had been attacked even when he didn’t love me back. The sound of blood pumping through my veins roared in my ears, my hair lifted to float around my head in the static haze of magic seeping out of my pores.
One keening crystal note sounded in my head, and I couldn’t say if it was my magic or the Bow of Destiny that directed pure sound toward the fragile panes and blasted window glass to dust that fell like a curtain.
I stepped through the frame to face the dark side of my family.
“Delta, will that sword of yours do us any good?” I’d take it from her if I needed to. Jett was mine.
“It’ll cut.” The sword slid out of its scabbard with a ratcheting sound that alone was enough to strike fear into anyone with half a brain. Not that I thought my half-brother fell into that category. “Skin, and certain types of enchantments. If it has to, Fury will kill.”
I had to ask. “Fury?”
“Every great sword has a name. Excalibur, Anduril, Sting.”
“The Sword of Gryffindor,” Salem tacked his favorite on the end of the list and earned himself a poke in the ribs from Flix.
“What? Harry Potter is a modern classic. Just because Lord of the Rings has been around forever...”
“Shut up, Salem. Does this look like the ideal time for literary debate?” I put no heat into the caution—my full attention was focused on Jett—and by the time he sauntered to a stop, just a few feet away, I’d forgotten Salem or Flix or Delta existed. There was only Jett and Kin and me.
Without my thinking about it too hard, witchfire sparked to life and blazed between my palms; tongues of flame eager to taste Jett’s strength, to pit itself against his flesh or his magic, whichever burned easiest. The fire cared little for the target, only for carrying out the will of my intention whether for good or ill.
The color of the flame flipped between black and red. Either would do.
I gathered myself for the throw.
“Do it, and I’ll break his fingers. He’ll never play guitar again.” Jett’s voice held no malice, the statement took on a neutral tone that seemed mild compared to the snapping sound, like dry twigs, when I didn’t immediately douse the flames. Kin writhed, but it was Flix who grunted in pain.
Fury rode me as my fire streaked toward its mark.
Jett must have picked up a few tricks during his time in the Faelands. He lobbed the ball of magic back at me and we indulged what amounted to a game of tennis minus the bounce. As if picking up kinetic energy from its travels through the space between us, snapping tongues of witchborn flame grew with each volley until Delta reached out with her sword and cleaved the ball in two. A sizzling sound and a curl of smoke were all that remained.
“What do you want, Jett?” As if I didn’t already know.
“Serena, and the clock is ticking on the deal. Take me to her before the baby utters its first cry, or this one dies.” My heart wanted to lodge in my throat, but giving in to the urge to scream and try to take Kin forcibly away would only result in another endle
ss tussle. I needed to keep my head clear, so I forced the worry and fear into the dark recesses of my mind. Freaking out would have to wait.
No surprises in Jett’s demand, but if he was that dead set on gaining access to my little niece or nephew, I needed to know why. A doting father does not speak of his child so clinically. Every ounce of my willpower went into ignoring Kin’s tortured form and fixing a sneer on my face.
“You’ve picked the wrong bait, brother mine. Kin and I are no longer an item. It seems you’re out of the loop.” A half-truth, one I had to force off my tongue. Anything to pull Jett’s focus off Kin long enough to figure out my next move.
“Sorry Lexi, I’ve got to...” A shrieking wind sucked the rest of Delta’s words away and took my breath along for the ride. The scream of our passage tore the sky on our way to wherever she’d taken us. Or not all of us, Flix and Salem remained behind either by accident or design.
A shock traveled through the soles of my feet when they made contact with solid rock. “Where are we?” My voice sounded strangely flat, almost alien.
“Same place, different dimension.” Sweat glistened on Delta’s brow and dripped with a syrup-like consistency. “Delaying tactic, only good for a short time, so quit faffing around.”
If Delta’s purgatory was a place where little artifice survived, it meant she’d brought me here for one reason, to show me some truth about Jett I needed to see. Once I forced myself to focus on him, the flat light revealed Jett’s karmic x-ray. Showed the scared, lonely boy huddled inside the man. For a split second, I mourned the relationship we could have had if he’d come to me with anything other than jealousy and hate for that which had never been under my control.
As it was, I had no shred of compassion left to give. Jett had more than earned whatever might happen to him this day.
What did Jett see when he looked at me in the light of this place of truth? A sister, an adversary? Or did he see the witch and the Goddess who shared my skin? His face gave away nothing. Now that I understood what this place could show me, I wished for a mirror but contented myself with a casual glance at Kin.
There was no Kin, only the vision of a card from Diana Diamond’s Tarot deck followed me back when Delta let go of her hold on the place between worlds, and we landed in chaos.
Rather, we landed in the middle of a coup staged by Flix and Salem to get Kin to safety. A coup that looked a lot like an offensive trap play.
Flix ran interference while Salem, tossing a potion bottle at Jett’s feet, blitzed the field. He bounced off one of the lawn chairs onto the table to gain added height and executed a flying tackle worthy of the ones that came at the end of every episode of Diagnosis Murder. Salem had a thing for Dick Van Dyke, so he never missed the reruns.
Whatever was in the potion bottle created a cloud of noxious purple smoke that put Jett into a fit of coughing just long enough for Salem to make contact with Kin’s limp body. Flix made a shoving motion with one hand, and both Salem and Kin winked out of sight.
“Touchdown,” Flix shouted and did his end zone dance while the smoke cleared to show a stunned Jett minus his bargaining chip. The smug look fell off his face in slow motion as he pondered his next move, but there was nothing slow about him when he lunged for the Snodgrass family talisman poking out from the top of the bag I’d packed for Serena. Flix moved like lightning, but he was still too late.
When Delta snaked a length of golden rope around Jett’s wrists, one of the writhing ends clipped the talisman, wrenching the silver clasp free of the leather binding.
“Nice work, Wonder Woman.” The reference passed over her but elicited a chuckle from Flix.
“You can’t do this to me. I need to get to Serena and the baby. Lexi, please. You have to let me see them.” As if I would fall for his fake nice face after the way he’d already played me once. To think I’d almost forgiven him.
My hard look did all the talking for me, and Jett went from pleading to threatening.
“Don’t you know who I am? My father will smite you like a grape.” The more furious his struggle, the tighter Jett’s bonds became.
“Don’t you mean squash?” I asked.
“Why would anyone smite a gourd?” While I tried to follow the fruit and vegetable references, Delta tied the other end of the rope around her own wrist. “That will keep him until it’s time to go.”
“Go? Where do you think you’re taking me? You have no authority over me, I’m a demigod. My father will...”
Delta yanked Jett toward her with a vicious motion of her wrist, then she insulted him even more by flicking him on the end of his nose. The look on his face was snort-worthy.
“You are an arrogant...” Another flick. “Jackass with an inflated ego...” Flick. “Who possesses neither the wit nor the common sense to use what little power he commands for anything useful. Your father would have sent me after you himself were he able to do so.” Another flick. “Now shut up, or I will zip your lip for a hundred years.”
Time was running out and worry rode me hard, but I had to know. “What’s going to happen to him?”
Delta appraised him with a haughty look. “Oh, I don’t know. I thought I’d give him to the furies. They’re the best at teaching naughty boys a lesson.”
While she explained, I’d been gathering the pieces of broken talisman. “Bring him back with us now, and if this can’t be repaired, you can make sure the furies fit the punishment to the crime. If my mythology serves, I believe they’re particularly protective of mothers, so I’m betting they’ll take a dim view of what he’s done to Serena.”
“Speaking of...” Flix reached for my hand and for Delta’s then whisked us back home with Jett trailing along behind.
Chapter Twenty
“DID YOU GET IT?” RED-faced and sweating, Serena panted at me the second she saw me step out of the fireplace. “Tell me you found it.”
“I did.” Telling her the talisman was in pieces seemed unusually cruel, so I squeezed her hand, and the second her focus fell off me, caught Aunt Mag’s attention. “You’re doing great, Serena.” I looked to my grandmother for clarification, and she nodded but continued on with the ritual chanting. Her voice sounded hoarse. “I’ll be right back, okay. You’re doing great.” I repeated because Serena seemed to need the reassurance.
When I got Mag away from prying ears, I said, “It was right where Gran said it would be. The last place Serena and I would ever have thought to look. What does that say about Calypso?”
“Shh. Be careful what you say about her, she’s right over there. Give it to me?” I showed Aunt Mag what had happened when Delta and Jett came to blows.
She inspected the damage. “Where is that sniveling weenie. I’m going to give him donkey ears and a set of elephant balls for this.”
While the mental image was eminently satisfying, we didn’t have time for revenge at the moment.
“Can you fix it?”
Shrugging, Aunt Mag yanked the zipper on her fanny pack and rummaged around in there until she found what she wanted: a jeweler’s loupe, which she fitted to one eye.
“He really did a number on it, didn’t he? I’m adding a set of boobs to the list of stuff I’m going to do to him. Three of them. I think. Maybe another set on his back.”
Stifling the snort, I repeated, “Can you fix it?”
“I’ll do what I can.” A grim promise. “I’ll need Calypso, so send her over here, keep Serena calm, and let me work on it. We’re running out of time.”
Doing as she asked, I returned to the summoning circle and assured a harried-looking Calypso I would take her place. I’d never seen the woman look so vulnerable as she did with mussed hair and eyes burning a hole in her pale face. A little break from watching her daughter in the throes of labor might help regain her composure.
“I’ve got her. You go see Mag.” It was hard work to keep from yelping when Serena’s fingers closed over mine like a vice. Minutes or maybe hours passed before Clara announced it wa
s time to start pushing, but the baby’s head crowned quickly after that.
A few vague curses issued from the workbench where Mag and Calypso fought to restore the blood receptacle Clara would need in the next few minutes. One by one, the faeries were called over to work their magic on the elements that made up the talisman. I’d have rather been watching that process than this. Birth is said to be a beautiful thing, but if you ask me, the only people who say that are the ones who get to go home with a baby.
“I think you should let the man speak to his woman.” I hadn’t heard Vaeta step up behind me. Not an unusual occurrence since she practically walked on air. “He has a truth to tell.”
“I’m not his woman,” Serena hissed. “Not after what he did to me.”
“Are you so certain his motives were evil that you won’t even hear him out?”
“Why are you defending Jett? After everything he’s done to me, to Kin. Kin. Oh, my Goddess. Where is Kin?” I was mortified I’d become so caught up in Serena’s drama, I’d forgotten about him and Salem. “Where’s Salem?” Handing Serena off to Vaeta, I rose from her side and rushed over to Flix who apparently agreed with me about the beauty that was the birthing process considering he was in the farthest spot from it he could find.
“It’s okay, Lexi. I sent them to County General.”
“But Terra could have...” Well, of course, Terra couldn’t have helped heal Kin right now. Not with Serena about to deliver at any time. “Never mind. You did the right thing.”
“Salem will stay with him.”
Swallowing around the lump in my throat, I nodded, and Flix gave me a one-armed hug. One crisis at a time. Story of my life lately.
As crises go, this one shaped up to be a list-topper. With Jett straining at his bonds, godmothers and elder witches chanting while Aunt Mag frantically worked to repair the talisman in time, I felt like I should be in four places at once.
“Lexi, I need you.” Aunt Mag tossed the command over one shoulder. The Snodgrass talisman appearing good as new should have erased the wrinkles of worry from her forehead. “Look at this. Waste of time and magic.”
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