Chapter 13
Next morning, I was
torn. My heart urged me to sneak over to Geoffrey’s, to break in
and find the antidote. But it would require far more stealth and
planning than I could pull off by myself. I had to accept that
rescuing Grieve wasn’t going to happen in a day. And killing Myst
wasn’t going to happen in a day, either. The blood fever was a mild
bed of embers and I was able to ignore it as I rose and dressed,
then headed downstairs for breakfast.
Today Peyton would
come over and—as hard as it would be—we’d finish up our business
fronts and be open for calls. I fretted, but Ulean brushed through
my hair and shushed me.
You cannot win wars in a single day. You cannot build
plans askew. Give yourself the time to think. Don’t rush out in a
half-baked attempt that will only get you
killed.
As I poured myself a
bowl of corn flakes and added milk and sugar, Rhiannon glanced at
me, her expression pained. “How are you doing?”
I paused, considering
her question. Memories of Lannan and Crawl crept through my
thoughts like earwigs rustling through cornhusks, but I managed to
brush them away. The tryst with Grieve had done much to soothe me,
at least for a little while. He loved me, not Myst. He hated her. And he wanted to be
with me. Those thoughts alone kept me
going.
“I need to get
ready—Peyton will be over in an hour or so and we’re going to
finish tidying up and then open to business this afternoon. Maybe
that will keep my mind occupied.” I paused, shaking my head. “I
wish we could just leave. Pack up and run. But Lannan would trace
me down. You can’t just walk away from a contract with the
vampires.”
“Myst would trace you
down, too. If what you say is true, then she’s out to hurt you—not
just kill you, but actively hurt you.”
I shrugged. “I
betrayed her. I betrayed her when she was my mother. Now I
understand why she’s out to get me—it’s more than I turned my back
on her Court. I was the heir apparent. I turned my back on her in
front of everyone. And now you’re in danger. Everyone I love is in
danger.”
“I’ll take my
chances,” Rhia said softly. I glanced up at her and she was
smiling. “I’m here to help you see her die. She took my mother, you
know.”
Slowly nodding, I
slipped into a chair and spooned my cereal into my mouth. What
would Rhia say if she knew I was planning on rescuing Grieve? Would
she help me? Leo would be furious and might tell Geoffrey. Kaylin .
. . who knew what Kaylin would do? He seemed to have returned to
his old self, but I knew that wasn’t true. I could feel his demon,
just below the surface. He looked at the world through eyes we
recognized, but behind there . . . inside . . . he had changed. And
Peyton . . . hmm, what about Peyton?
“What’s going on in
there, Cicely? I know something’s up.” Rhiannon sat down beside me,
espresso in hand. She handed me a homemade latte and I gratefully
sipped at the steaming caffeine. “What are you
thinking?”
“I want to tell you
something, but I’m afraid you’ll try to stop me.” I shook my head.
“Maybe it’s best if you don’t know.”
“We’re family,
Cicely. I’ve got your back. It’s something about Grieve, isn’t it?
I know you were with him last night and I know that it helped ease
your pain. I promise, I won’t say anything to anybody else.” Her
eyes were wide as she crossed her heart. “Cross my heart
and—”
“Don’t finish the
rhyme,” I said softly. “Grieve told me that long ago. Never promise
your life away.”
“Then what is
it?”
I bit my lip. “If I
tell you, you cannot tell Leo or
Kaylin. At least not until I give you the okay. It’s
important.”
“I
promise.”
Taking a deep breath,
I let it whistle slowly between my teeth. “I’m planning on how to
rescue Grieve. Myst is tormenting him, and unless we sever the
connection, I’ll just keep taking on his pain every time she hurts
him. And I refuse to break the bond. Grieve and I . . . there is no
life without the other. I never used to believe in soul mates or
twin souls until . . . until I came home and realized how tightly
we are linked.”
“How can you rescue
him, though?” And then she stopped. “The
antidote . . . you plan on getting hold of the antidote that
Geoffrey and Lainule are making and you’re going to give it to
Grieve, aren’t you?”
I blinked. Rhiannon
was more astute than I’d thought. “Yeah. That’s what I’m thinking.
But I have to figure out a way to get into Geoffrey’s house, and
then to find the damned thing.”
“That’s not going to
be easy. And if Geoffrey finds out, he might take it out on Leo.”
At the expression on my face, she hurried to add, “Don’t worry—I’m
not going to tell him. But we’ll have to think
carefully.”
“We? I’m not asking you to help me, Rhia. It’s going
to be dangerous.”
“And our lives aren’t
dangerous now? Don’t be ridiculous. Of course I’ll help you. I wish
you could walk away from him, but I understand.” She paused, then
slowly added, “You have something with Grieve that I don’t know if
I’ll ever have with Leo. I love him dearly, and he loves me. And
I’ll be happy to spend the rest of my life with him but . . . but
we weren’t destined for each other. I know that in my heart. I
always thought there was someone out there waiting for me until he
came along and then I . . . I wasn’t sure, anymore. And we grew
close and then I fell for him and now . . . we mesh. We aren’t a
complete fit, but we mesh.”
“Maybe that’s all we
can hope for and anything else is gravy. In my case, painful
gravy.” I cupped the latte with my hands, feeling the warmth of the
mug seep into my body. A knock on the door interrupted my
thoughts.
Rhiannon motioned for
me to stay seated. “I’ll get it.”
She returned with
Peyton in tow.
“Sorry I showed up
early, but I was just too excited about getting things moving and I
figured you’d be up.” She slid into a chair and put her purse on
the table, looking dour.
“Are you sure that’s
the reason? I mean, it’s fine but you don’t look very
happy.”
She shrugged. “I had
an argument with my mother and needed to get out of the
house.”
“What about?” Anadey
and her daughter were both strong willed. It wasn’t hard to imagine
them getting into a spat.
“I got a letter.”
Peyton let out a long sigh and opened her purse, pulling out a thin
envelope. “Mother wasn’t happy about it.” She tossed the letter on
the table and shrugged. “It’s from my father.”
“Your father? But I thought he ran off and left you years
ago!” I stared at the note and then at Peyton’s face. “This is the
first time you’ve heard from him since then, isn’t
it?”
She nodded. “Yeah. He
wants to be a part of my life now. He’s sobered up, been in AA for
three years, and he wants to get to know me. He’s got himself a job
in Seattle and he’s pulling his life together. I didn’t know he’d
been an alcoholic when Mother kicked him out. She never told me.”
And then she promptly burst into tears. “I don’t know what to
think. I don’t know if I want to see him—he left us. He left us
high and dry. But now . . . what if he’s changed?”
She leaned forward,
resting her face on her hands, crying softly.
Rhiannon scurried
around to give her a hug, and I leaped up to get her a glass of
water and the tissue box. Peyton fumbled for a Puffs tissue and
blew her nose, then looked up, her face red.
“Mother tells me not
to trust him. That he’ll just skip out again on me. She won’t allow
him in the house and says that if I want to see him, it’s up to me
but she doesn’t want to hear about it.” She bit her lip. “I know he
hurt her, and left her with a baby and no money. I know what he did
was horrible . . .”
“But he’s your father
and you want to see him. You want to know if he loves you.” I
whipped up a quick latte and slid it in front of her. “Drink this.
It’s okay. Rhiannon and I understand. We’ve never even met our
fathers. I know the name of mine but nothing more than he’s Cambyra
Fae.”
“That’s more than I
know. I used to ask Heather about my father when I was little,”
Rhia said, sliding into the chair next to Peyton. “She wouldn’t
tell me anything. I used to get so mad at her.” She paused, then
added, “I’d almost forgotten—I set a fire once when that happened.
I didn’t mean to but I was so angry that one day I stomped outside
and was sitting on the back porch and my mother’s rosemary bush
went up in flames. I know it was my doing because I felt the fire
shoot out from my heart. But I hurried to put it out with the hose
and she never asked me what happened.”
I glanced at her.
“Was this before . . .”
She nodded. “Yeah,
before the accident.”
Peyton bit her lip.
“I don’t know what to do now. If I contact him, I know my mother
will be upset. I think she really hates him. She won’t stop me from
seeing him, but she won’t support me, either. He hurt her pretty
badly, I guess.”
“Give her a little
time; maybe she’ll come around.” I let out a long breath.
“Meanwhile, let’s get started early. It will help both of us to
keep busy.”
We headed into the
back parlor and finished tidying up. Our sign had arrived via UPS
the day before and I stared at it—it was ready to set up in front
of the house, by the road.
“This makes it real,
you know.” I glanced up at her. “Think we should take out an
ad?”
She shrugged. “Why
not? We don’t have overhead costs in terms of rent since we’re
using your house and the mortgage is long paid. I can easily come
up with a couple hundred for a spot in the New
Forest Times.”
I nodded. “Me, too.
Okay, let’s do it. What should we say?”
After about half an
hour, we’d pounded out a classified ad to go in the local paper and
phoned it in. I handed Peyton a check and she used her credit card
to place the order. I picked up the sign and a hammer.
“Let’s go hang our
shingles.”
The sign was like one
of those FOR SALE signs, but instead of advertising a house for
sale, it read, WIND CHARMS—MAGICAL NOTIONS & SPELLS, and below
that, MYSTICAL EYE INVESTIGATIONS. I carried it out the front door,
Peyton following, and we stopped by the mailbox at the side of the
road.
“Here we go.” I gave
her a crooked smile. “It’s not like we’re going to have a hundred
people on our doorstep the minute we put this up but you know, it
feels so very official, doesn’t it?”
She nodded, a glint
in her eye. “Yeah . . . who knows where this will lead for both of
us?”
As she held the sign,
I pounded it into the ground, first scooping away a good foot of
snow to reach the dirt. As we finished and stood back, I realized
that in some weird altaverse I’d been hoping that a throng of
people would descend on us, but for the moment, we were alone,
standing in the snow. I brushed back my hair and glanced up at the
sky.
The clouds were
rushing by, white cotton mixed with gray haze, and always the
ever-present silver sheen that accompanied snowstorms. They were
billowing by in the stiff breeze and the temperature was steadily
falling. I turned, slowly, staring down the street, across the
road, at the woods.
Everywhere, a silver
and blue wasteland. The Ice Queen held the world in her grasp, and
she was steadily squeezing tighter as her magical storms passed
through. We were up to a good four feet of snow in parts of the
yard. Drifts were higher. In Seattle, they were reporting the
coldest winter in recorded history, with fifteen inches to two feet
depending on how far out the neighborhoods were.
And in that moment, I
knew. “She could do it.”
“Who could do what?”
Peyton glanced around, then at me.
“Myst. She could
bring on another ice age. I can feel it in the wind—I can feel the
shifting of currents and the cooling gusts racing around the world.
She’s sent her people into all corners of the northern lands. And
they all carry her magic.”
“Ragnarök.”
I glanced at her.
“Not quite. That’s the twilight of the gods. This could be the
twilight of the mortals. And this will be ice, not
water.”
“Stopping her won’t
be easy.” Peyton stared at her feet. “When she held me captive . .
. Heather and I were put into the same cell and Myst came to me.
She was so beautiful . . .” Her voice drifted off. “I couldn’t
believe how beautiful she was. But so cold, and so . . .
inhuman.”
I nodded. “She has no
more humanity in her than a rock.”
“Yeah. She was so
aloof. It wasn’t as though she cared, one way or another. We were
just . . . objects. She made us get down on our knees—or her guards
did. And then she walked up and said, ‘One of you will walk out of
here alive. One of you will join my court. It’s up to the two of
you, which one.’ And then . . . and then Heather stood up and faced
her and said, ‘Take me. Let Peyton go.’ Myst shrugged and motioned
to her guards and said, ‘As you wish.’ And then she just turned and
left. The guards threw me across the room. As I slammed into the
wall, they forced Heather to leave with them.”
I hung my head. We
hadn’t heard about this before, though we had some inkling of what
had happened.
“Heather saved me—at
least for the time being. If you hadn’t rescued me, I doubt I’d
still be alive. I owe your aunt—I owe you everything.” Peyton
reached out and brushed her hand across my cheek. “Whatever you
need me to do, however you need me to back you up, you’ve got
it.”
I felt shaky. So much
had gone wrong. To have someone on our side, clearly, ready to take
up the battle flag without complaint, meant so much. “Thank you,” I
whispered. “I’ve been feeling so mired. And after last night . . .”
I told her what had happened with Crawl and Lannan and
Grieve.
“I’ll help you get
the antidote. Whatever you decide, I’m in on. Just tell me what to
do. I’m your soldier.” She gave me a buck
up smile and, throwing her arm around my shoulders, turned
me toward the house. “It’s cold. Let’s go in before we catch our
death.”
By afternoon, we both
had our first customers—Peyton had a tarot reading walk-in, and I
was talking to Dorthea, a local woman who was frightened because
her neighbor had been one of the ones killed in the theater
incident. She wanted a protection charm to wear, and one to put in
her house.
Dorthea looked like
she didn’t have much money—she was dressed in a faded housedress,
and her eyes had a look of hunger in them. New Forest had its share
of povertystricken individuals, and this woman fit the
bill.
I took her name and
then, with a momentary hesitation, followed Marta’s instructions in
her Book of Shadows and took Dorthea’s
hand. I cautioned her to be silent and lowered myself into the
slipstream, trying to suss her energy.
As I listened to the
currents, I could hear whispers surrounding my client.
A plaintive child’s
voice. Mom, I’m hungry—what’s for
breakfast?
You’ve got to get a handle on the spending. I can’t make
enough to keep up with the bills if you don’t start cutting
corners. The gruff sound of a man on the edge, trying to
keep his temper.
I’m doing the best I can. What do you expect from
me? Dorthea herself.
Then, the crack of
flesh on flesh, a whimpering cry, and a man’s voice. I’m sorry—I didn’t mean to do it. I promise—this time I
mean it. I won’t do it again. Only the energy behind the
voice didn’t ring true. It was only a matter of time before it
happened again—and worse.
And . . . the
faintest sparkle of magic, hidden deep within, unnoticed and buried
through the years. I opened my eyes and let go of her hand. As I
stared at her money on the table, I let out a long sigh and pushed
the ten-dollar bill back to her. “Keep it.”
“But the
charms—”
“I’m giving you a
charm to protect you and your child. Use the money for food, or to
get yourself and your son to a women’s shelter. Don’t let him have
another chance at you.” I knew it wouldn’t do any good. Dorthea
wasn’t ready to hear that it wasn’t her fault, that she couldn’t
change her husband. But I had to try—had to reach out.
Her eyes went dark
and I could feel her shut down as she slammed up her barriers. I
shrugged and pushed the charm across the table. “Tie this over your
front door, and use this oil on the window latches and any other
doors to the outside in your house. It will keep the monsters
out.”
But only the monsters that you haven’t already allowed in
your house. I wanted to blurt out another warning—that he
would hit her harder next time. That maybe he’d take it out on
their child.
Ulean swept around
me, a soft cloak against the frustration I was
feeling.
You can’t save the world, Cicely. You can’t stop her from
going home to her husband. You couldn’t save your mother and you
can’t save every woman in danger. You do what you can, and you
accept the fact that you aren’t a goddess. You aren’t a superhero.
All the magic in the world can’t help someone who’s not ready to
listen.
I nodded, softly.
Thank you, my friend. It’s a hard thing to
face.
I know.
Dorthea picked up the
charm, hesitating for a moment. She looked at the money I’d pushed
back across the table. “I . . . are you sure?”
“Ten dollars can buy
soup, macaroni and cheese, a loaf of bread. Put it to good use,
please.” I gave her a soft smile, even though I wanted to reach
across the table and shake her by the shoulders.
She pocketed the
money and, with another smile, headed out the door, charm and oil
in hand. I sat back, wondering what Marta would have done. Would
she have taken the money? Or turned away the woman? Or would she
have done what I did? This was new territory, and I had the feeling
it wasn’t going to be easy to pick my way through the
landscape.
After a few minutes,
Peyton waved to her reading, and as the woman left the room, we
turned to each other. Her face had the same stricken look as
mine.
“Rough reading?” I
pushed back my chair and stood up, shaking the cobwebs out of my
brain.
She nodded. “Woman
wants to find love, has a bad habit of self-destructing in good
relationships and going for the bad ones. Had to tell her that
Prince Charming is more likely to be wearing a pair of geeky
glasses than riding a Harley, but she didn’t want to
hear.”
I let out a long
breath. Were we all lost and confused, searching for our loves,
searching for the answers when they were there in front of our
faces?
“I think we need a
drink. Can I make you a latte?”
“Mocha would be
better.” Peyton grinned. “I need me some chocolate!” She glanced
around. “Where are the guys?”
“Out and about. At
least Leo is. Kaylin might be with Chatter, wherever he is. One
mocha, coming up. Iced or hot?”
Peyton glanced
outside at the blowing drifts. “Hot. Today I need warming
inside—something to convince me that there’s hope and sunlight
around the bend.” We headed toward the kitchen.
“Sometimes I think it
would be a whole lot simpler to be a vampire, you know? They don’t
feel the cold or heat, they have their own agendas, they . . .” I
stopped. “Geoffrey offered to take me into his stable, to turn
me.”
“No! You can’t let
him do that. I know you’re upset, but Cicely—that’s not the
answer.” Peyton looked horrified.
“No, it’s not,” I
said slowly. “But . . . what if he thought I was interested? What
if I asked him to show me his stable of vamps, to introduce me, so
I could think about it? And what if I brought you and Rhiannon with
me, and while Geoffrey was off with me, you guys just happened to
find the antidote? I know it’s a long shot. I know it’s dangerous,
but damn it, that’s the only way I can think of to get invited into
his house without waiting for him.”
Peyton stared at me,
her mouth agape. “I dunno about that. It sounds like a setup for a
bad end. You know I’ll do whatever you need me to, but are you sure
you want to put your cousin in danger? What if they catch
us?”
Reality hit with a
sledgehammer. “Yeah . . . I know. A bad idea all the way around, I
guess—”
“What if who catches us?” Rhiannon entered the kitchen,
cocking her head to the side. “What’s going on? What are you
planning?”
I frowned. “I thought
of a way to go after the antidote. But Peyton’s right. I can’t risk
you guys.” I quickly explained Geoffrey’s offer to her. “If I could
get in there, keep him occupied, maybe . . .”
“Too dicey. But what
about this? It’s still dangerous, but . . .” She
hesitated.
“What is it?
Dangerous I can handle, as long as there’s a chance of breaking
through.”
“Kaylin took you
dreamwalking once before. Suppose you go dreamwalking through
Geoffrey’s mansion and find out where he’s keeping the antidote? If
you can find it, and nobody’s guarding it, maybe you can manage to
steal some for Grieve?”
Rhiannon looked
positively shocked at herself, and I almost laughed. She had spent
so long keeping her nature under wraps that it was going to take
some time for her to get used to putting herself out
there.
“That’s actually got
a chance of working. It means getting Kaylin on our side.” I bit my
lip. “But it’s the only way I can think of. It also means I have to
find a safe place to keep him once we have him free, because even
though I love him with all of my life, I won’t chance you guys
living in the same house with him. I’m not that stupid. Even
without the light-rage, he’s still plenty dangerous.”
I thought of Leo, of
how he’d react. “We’re going to have to tell all the guys, but we
have to put up a united front or they’ll let testosterone get in
the way. This isn’t up for a vote. I’m going to do this . . . well,
if Kaylin agrees.”
“Leo will be home in
a few minutes for an early dinner. He’s got some evening chores to
attend to for Geoffrey. I guess I’ll go get Chatter and Kaylin.”
Rhiannon pulled out a frozen pizza. “Here, stick this in the oven.
Make sure we have something sweet for dessert. You know the best
way to influence men is through their stomachs, and we need all the
help we can get.”
Then she took off to
look for Kaylin and Chatter. Peyton unwrapped the pizza while I dug
through the cupboards and found pudding mix and cookies. I whipped
up some instant chocolate pudding and topped it with whipped cream,
then set it in the refrigerator and opened the
cookies.
“Do you trust Leo?”
Peyton suddenly asked, her voice low.
I glanced at her,
surprised. “He can be a butthead, but yeah, I guess. Why?”
Actually, I’d had nagging doubts over the past week or so, but
ascribed it to my own nerves.
“I don’t know. He’s
in thick with the vampires. He owes his loyalty to Geoffrey—and
every time we bring up your connection with the vamps, he seems
defensive, like he thinks he’s being edged out.” She shrugged.
“Maybe I’m imagining things, but I am a little uneasy with the way
he acts.”
I blinked. I’d had
the same thoughts but hadn’t wanted to articulate them because they
sounded petty. Coming from Peyton, they sounded
reasonable.
“I . . . I’m not
sure. I kind of wondered, but Leo’s in love with my cousin. They’re
engaged to be married. I can’t just up and ask him, ‘Are you
jealous because I’m indentured to Geoffrey and Regina? And Lannan,
by default.’”
“Yeah, I guess not.
If he were, he wouldn’t admit it. And if he’s spying on you for
them, he’s not going to tip his hand.”
Now I was nervous.
The thought that Leo might be spying on me for Lannan made me
queasy, and I would have wiped the thought right out of my mind if
I were sure about him. But honestly, I didn’t know. I couldn’t say
for sure how much I trusted him.
Stricken, I stared at
Peyton. “What if you’re right? What happens if he runs back and
tells Geoffrey what I’m planning?”
“Then I guess we’d
better be ready for the shit to hit the fan. Because I don’t think
we can pull this off without everybody in this house knowing what’s
up.” She began to set the table as I checked on the
pizza.
“Fifteen more
minutes.” I stared out the window. We were all in the midst of
personal crises. And things didn’t seem to be lightening up any.
“Have you decided what to do about your father?” I finally asked,
pushing the matter of the antidote to the side.
Peyton nodded. “I’m
going to see him, but do you mind if he visits me here? I can’t ask
him to come to my house, not with my mother there. And I’d rather
chat someplace where we’ll have more privacy than a coffee
shop.”
I nodded, absently
wishing my only problem were meeting my father for the first time,
then immediately felt guilty for thinking that. Peyton had a lot
riding on getting to know her father.
“Sure,” I said,
glancing over at the door. Leo was scuffing the snow off his boots
out on the back porch. “Well, I guess we’re about to find out which
way the cookie crumbles.” I flashed Peyton a strained grin. “Let’s
just hope the crumbs all fall close to home. Hansel and Gretel had
it easy compared to me.”
“Yeah.” She gave me a
thumbs-up. “Because if Lannan so much as gets a whiff of the
gingerbread house, he’s going to be on your tail like white on
rice.”
“Or snow on snow,” I
added softly, staring out the window at the drifting banks that
continued to grow ever taller.