Cashton narrowed his eyes her. “Did you just spell me?”
“I’m a witch, that’s what I do.”
“You think I was going tell them about King?” Cashton asked in a tone that was dripping in disgust.
“No, because you trust your heritage too much, trust that all ends well in the way of love.”
Now he was really confused.
Reveca reached for his wrist, not the one that was branded but the other, and tied the bracelet in place. “You’re in this family, in this war. You are going to help me get these souls. We can debate the rest later.”
Cashton looked down at the bracelet on his wrist, wondering how she made it out of the mud soaked seat of the bike. It looked brand new, edgy, like something he would wear right along with his biker ring and his guitar pick necklace.
“To catch darkness you must carry the essences of such,” Reveca said, staring up at him ensuring he understood what she wanted of him. “I would think that you would need to build up to the status of a God Slayer, that taking out souls who toyed with darkness beforehand might exercise your aggression.”
“You’re asking me to kill,” Cashton stated in an even tone.
“I’m not asking. You know what’s before me. I need you to. I’m putting you at my side and if you choose not to, that’s a choice we’ll both have to live with.”
Cashton’s pained stare rained down on her.
“Time is of the essence,” Reveca said. As she walked toward the bike, she whispered something but the bike never moved.
“The mojo is broken. I’m sure if you let this block down, before the river, it would work better.”
“It’s just fine,” Reveca said with sly smile as she walked back to her bike.
“You’re just going to leave it there?” Cashton asked, following her. “This is still a crime scene. Anyone could see it. They’re looking for it.”
“I’m aware,” Reveca said as she sat astride her bike.
“You truly are starting to scare the bloody shite out of me.”
“Never heard that one before,” she said as she roared her bike to life then made her way toward her boys.
Every one of them had their bikes on and were prepared to chase her, but she wasn’t running. Not even the cold look in Talon’s eyes was going to make her run. There was a space between them just then, this dense energy she couldn’t pass and that made it hard to look at him.
When she stopped her bike and turned it off, one by one they turned their bikes off. Talon was the last to do so, clearly trusting her the least.
Cashton was right behind her and earned his fair share of cold glances as he parked.
“Did we move Church to the side of the road?” Reveca asked, in the easiest voice she could.
“What the hell, Vec?” Judge asked.
“This was my barter, my Edge, it had nothing to do with any of you.”
“If it deals with you it does,” Thrash said, clearly more pissed than the others, and rightly so. He had lived through more of Reveca and Talon’s splits than anyone else, and each time she charged him to go with Talon, to never leave him.
“I paid the souls that you collected to Crass.”
“And,” Talon bit out.
Reveca refused to meet his stare. Instead, she looked at the others. “This drug, the power they’re using for it reached the dead.”
“How did it do that if Evanthe is covering the pages?” Thrash asked.
“The mortals assumed the Lord they were pulling from had lost power and sought another. Even though the words are pointless, they are still calling on Lords, making deals that neither side can deliver.” She let her eyes meet each of theirs with the exception of Talon’s. “Lords are territorial, you know that. Crass wants the souls that are involved in the spells and the benefits of the spells to be brought to him.”
“Or?” Talon asked, not letting her shut him out.
Reveca ignored him. “I am to deliver three in as many moons.”
“What did you get in exchange for that, Reveca?” Talon nearly yelled.
“This doesn’t do anything but push our timeline up a bit. Our enemies are the same that Crass seeks. In effect he has given us the exact names of those involved, and once we lay these three down there will be more. In the end, Crass gets his souls, and we stop the epidemic before it becomes one.”
She glanced back at GranDee’s home, the rubble of it and then back to the boys. “You all know your roles. Let’s take care of business.” And with that she roared her bike to life and took off before any of them could say a word. When she looked in her mirror she saw them still parked, talking to Cashton.
She was starting to wonder if she should have sealed his words. She told herself no, she could trust him. And even if the boys did read through her vague explanations, if Talon saw right through them like he always had, they were not going to stop her from freeing King. Not possible.
Her bike soared down the highway toward her Boneyard. When she arrived it looked like business as usual. Bikers were in the lot huddled in groups talking about their rides. All the bays were open. Some bikes were being built, others repaired, and customers were coming in and out.
King’s car was gone, and so was he. She was sure he and Bastion were test driving it again and was grateful that she didn’t have to come eye-to-eye with him just then.
She nodded hello to a few people then made her way toward her home. On her path Star jogged up to her side.
“You had everyone freaked. Talon and the others are still out looking for you.”
“Found. I saw them already.”
“Where are you going?” she asked, doing her best keep her pace with Reveca.
“I’ve been on the river for a good day. I need a shower.”
“Blackwater just left,” Star said.
Reveca halted on her path.
“He got in the kid’s face,” Star said. “Asked him if his momma knew where he was. King stopped the kid from charging him, took him somewhere in the Boneyard.”
Rage came over Reveca. “He came here to harass that kid?” she fumed.
“I don’t think that was his plan, but that’s what he ended up doing. I don’t know what he said to him. I just heard the kid yelling and saw King stop it. Taurus got in the middle of it, too. Blackwater asked where you were, we said out.” She pulled a note from her jeans. “He said to give this to you. Taurus rode out to talk to Cartier.”
“Cartier?” Reveca asked, opening the note.
It said there was another body found the night before, fresh, and Blackwater needed her alibi, immediately.
“Yeah, to tell him that Blackwater was here looking for an alibi.”
“All right.”
“You okay?” Star asked as Reveca started to walk on.
“Yeah. When you see the kid tell him I want to talk.”
“Got it,” Star said as she stopped trying to follow Reveca.
Inside Reveca took the stairs two at a time. In her room she went to the portable altar she used when she was trying to heal Gwinn.
She tore through it with little care. And when she found what she was looking for, what was left over of the herbs and the spell that Jamison had given her for Gwinn, she sighed. All night she had worried there wasn’t enough there. She was sure there was.
She pulled out the herbs she had harvested from the garden the day before and laid them in the center of the pentagram on her floor. One candle was all she needed for this and with a lift of her hand one flowed her way and lit itself as it settled next to her.
Reveca closed her eyes and recounted the spell that she knew by heart, the one that had always laid down Talon in the past. She put twice as much energy into the words. Twice as much desperation.
And when she opened her eyes again the herbs were ashes, fine ones that looked more like glitter in the air.
Reveca breathed in, not letting one minuscule ash escape her. Then she sat there with her eyes closed and set her int
ent, and let herself see a victory, the success of a flawless spell. She felt the rush come to her then, the spell taking root, waiting for her to whisper the words that called it to life.
She cleared her space then sealed her altar and let the candle die out and return to its spot.
Then she did just as she told Star she was going to do, took a long hot shower, cleansed her body and washed away the aroma of the river, of death, of Crass, of all of it.
Once she was dressed again, she found the same bag that River had given the book of shadows to her in and laid it on her dresser.
A wave of her hand opened the chest there. She stared at those guns for a long moment, realizing how lethal they were, how the forty-five was the last thing that GranDee saw. She pushed her rage down, which was getting harder and harder to do. Then she pulled a smaller box from her top drawer out and opened it before carefully placing the guns within it. Once it was sealed, she stuffed it in her bag
She went back to her altar and retrieved the pouch that had Jamison’s spell within it and placed it deep in her pockets.
Sure she had everything she needed, she left her room. As she walked she pulled out her phone and sent two text messages. They were as coded as possible so even if Knight thought to look through her phone they would seem ordinary. As if she were just conducting her plots as normal.
As she hit send on the last she arrived at Gwinn’s door. Reveca knocked softly and waited.
A moment later it opened, and the look on Gwinn’s face was full of shock, maybe fear, and a whole lot of guilt.
“I was so worried,” she breathed.
Reveca smiled. “Now, Gwinn, I surely taught you better than to let the boys rattle you. They’re always looking for a reason to ride out with guns blazing.”
“Right,” Gwinn said, moving out of Reveca’s way as she came in.
It was clear to Reveca that Shade was right; Gwinn had thrown herself into her craft. There was now a fixed pentagram painted on her floor, candles in place. She even had her own moveable altar.
“You’ve been practicing,” Reveca said with a proud smile.
“The ones you taught me, yeah,” Gwinn said, going to her knees in her circle.
“Show me.”
Gwinn looked up at her. “I have to talk to you first.”
Reveca dipped her head. She wanted to be nice and caring, wanted Gwinn to feel safe coming to her with anything, and she would be if her time was not currently limited. So it was a struggle for Reveca to kneel beside her.
“Shade spoke to me,” Reveca said, hoping that would speed this up.
“I know he did but it’s my place to tell you…I’m so sorry,” Gwinn said as her eyes welled.
“You did nothing wrong.”
“I did. Somehow I was caught in the first place and he knew where I was staying, took me there, only to kill us.”
A smile twitched on Reveca’s lips but it never came to life. “You know…I wanted you to remember who you were for various reasons. I did want to understand what happened that night, how it all fell into place. But the thing is with the boys, all of our gifts, just knowing the human condition, I could have figured that out by other means.” She looked Gwinn over slowly. “I know that when you have an ache, even one you have managed to forget about, it still hinders you, it stops you when you least expect it. I knew if you remembered you’d get past it, that it would never stop you again—you wouldn’t be a victim of it any longer.” Reveca let her eyes search Gwinn’s for a moment. “The most important reason I wanted you to remember was because I wanted you to remember GranDee.”
Gwinn’s eyes watered even more.
“She had a big heart, always enough love, but she let very few near her. Very few came under her watch and those who did, well she had her reasons for doing so.”
“I don’t remember.”
“You will, one day you will,” Reveca promised. “One day you may get a memory of sitting on her porch as she snapped beans that she grew herself into a bowl. You’ll remember her humming a hymn that seemed like it was made just for her voice, her energy, to embrace it. You’ll remember how she could make you understand the most complex ideas by teaching you to understand the simplest. You’ll remember her laugh, when the understanding washed over you. You’ll remember the looks she gave you, ones that made you think she knew it all, that she was angel sent here just for you, to guide you, to open you up.”
Tears were coming down Gwinn’s face then. “That’s how you remember her?”
Reveca nodded sharply once. “When you remember all that, you’ll remember that she had the gift of sight. It didn’t come from the cards she read or the tea leaves she would shift in her cup after dinner each night. It came from somewhere else. She saw that night coming, and she chose to let it happen.” Reveca couldn’t keep the anger out of her voice that was stirring with the emotions within. “I want to be mad about that and I will be for a while, but that is just a stage of grief. It’s not your fault and it’s not hers. Her sight saw something we can’t understand right now, but we have to trust it.”
“What if she didn’t see it?”
Reveca nearly smiled. “I have no doubt that she did. She may not have known the exact hour but the moment she gave you the necklace with my energy she had not only seen it but reflected on it for some time.”
Gwinn nodded and looked down.
“You’re in this family now. A natural witch that I have trained.”
Gwinn looked up. “I’ll learn anything you put before me. Anything.”
“Right now I want to see this spell that you have mastered.”
Reveca stood and went to Gwinn’s nightstand, pulled out a pen and paper then came back to Gwinn. She wrote down three herbs that she knew were in her garden at the edge of the Boneyard.
“I need these,” Reveca said.
Gwinn looked down at the words and pulled in a deep breath.
Reveca sat back and watched as Gwinn drew herself into a deep thought as the candles around her flamed up.
Even when Gwinn was starving, when she was barely awake in her immortal life, Reveca had sensed a power in her. One that only needed focus and direction. Now she was nourished and falling into place at the Boneyard. That focus was there and that pull of hers was so strong it did nothing but make Reveca proud.
A moment later her window just barely opened and on a breeze that was so faint not many would notice, three leaves danced inside then found their mark—her palm.
“Good,” Reveca said with an easy smile. She reached for the rim of one of the tanks Gwinn had on. “Is this Shade’s?”
Gwinn blushed. “I need to get some clothes. I only have a few dresses here. I borrowed this so I could wash today.”
Reveca ripped a strip from the bottom of the tank, shocking Gwinn. She clearly had no idea how to read Reveca, then again not many people did.
“Calling something to you is simplistic. You’re pulling it to your own force field. Sending such things to someone else takes more focus, a solid intent.” Reveca put the cloth she had torn in front of Gwinn alongside the leaves she had called to her. “Send these to him.”
“Herbs?”
“Yes.”
“Where is he? In the lot?”
“I doubt it. I’m sure he his running down some long highway now.”
“Look, I know I told you about that hum with him but I don’t get what you’re asking. It’s not like I can track him, not when he’s that far away. I can sense him in the lot at best, maybe the edge of the Boneyard.” She glanced away and blushed. “Possibly if he is facing danger.”
“It’s not about being connected to someone. You have your connection, right here,” she said, looking to the cloth.
“How do I know it got there though?”
“You see it,” Reveca said, lifting her brow to remind Gwinn of past lessons. “Speak it, send it, watch it.”
“Right,” Gwinn breathed. “How do I know what I see happened and not what I
wanted to happen?”
“You feel it. Just like you felt the end of the spell you just did.”
Gwinn lifted her brow.
“I know you saw it, but you felt it, too.” She nodded for Gwinn to go on.
Gwinn’s doubt was in her way, and surely Reveca was making her nervous but moments later the leaves lifted, and a breeze that Reveca couldn’t even sense took them away. Reveca didn’t say a word, just waited and waited, and watched Gwinn’s face, her closed lids, how rapidly her eyes were moving behind them.
It was nearly fifteen minus later that a smile spread across her face. “He has it. He’s so confused,” she said, with a bit of a laugh.
When Gwinn opened her eyes she found Reveca smiling at her. “Good.” Reveca pulled a ring from her finger, one that she’d had for centuries. It was silver and made in the shape of a pentagram. “Your reward for progress.”
Gwinn took the ring with a perplexed look on her face.
“You’re not going to be a witchling much longer. I can see that clearly,” Reveca said with a warm smile. “I want you to practice that spell over and over. You raid the boys’ rooms, take something of theirs then send something to them. And once you have mastered that we’ll move on.”
Reveca stood in one fluid motion. “Distance will be an obstacle. I’m going to have the kid work with you on this, too. I’m not sure if he knows the spell but I know his energy can focus your energy.”
“Why does it sound like I need to know this now?”
“Because you do,” Reveca said with a faint smile. “Protection is the first lesson I teach. How to protect your own. And sometimes doing so means sending a weapon they need their way.”
“A gun?” Gwinn asked with wide eyes, not sure how she could ever lift something that heavy on a breeze.
“Far too obvious,” Reveca said with wink. “You tell Shade we talked, what I have you practicing, and he’ll know when to tell you to use this spell.”
“He won’t be with you?”
“They are all always with me, Gwinn. Just as you are, but young or not, Shade knows this war. He’ll know when to tell you to use this gift.”
“Okay,” Gwinn said. “You’re not going to tell me more are you?”