Barely Bewitched (20 page)

Chapter 34

Several deputies took calls and hurried out of the station, mumbling about how the darn town had lost its mind. I fidgeted, anxious to go myself.

In a low voice, I said, “If you didn’t do anything, I want you to tell the truth. Will you?”

“If I told them I wasn’t there, guess who they’d arrest next?”

“The person that Abby fingered?” I offered.

He nodded.

“Well, can you tell the truth first thing day after tomorrow? I need a day to put things right.”
And if I can’t by then, I’ll be dead of a wizarding challenge, so it won’t matter if the police get a warrant to arrest me.

He folded his arms over his chest. “Just one day, huh? Guess straightening your life out doesn’t include working things out with me.”

To explain everything would take hours, and I knew he’d never believe me anyway. Plus, Zach never really was that big on talk. I reached out and squeezed his hand. He didn’t intertwine our fingers or lean toward me, so I knew the calm way he was acting was just a cover-up for how mad he was underneath. It made me unhappy, and my heart told me to talk things out with him right then, but my head said there wasn’t time. Also, I was starting to doubt that Zach and I even stood a chance if he wasn’t going to believe me about the supernatural stuff being real. Funny how I’d just accepted his refusal in the past, but couldn’t anymore. I knew on some level that was because of Bryn.

I let go of him and smoothed my jeans. “We can talk tomorrow.”

He put his damp T-shirt on. “Smitty, you guys could use some help out there. Ain’t no use me sitting in a cell. You know I’m not leavin’ town. I’ll face the magistrate when the time comes.”

“Why don’t you change your statement?” Smitty glanced between Zach and me.

“Nope, but we’ll get it all sorted out eventually,” Zach said.

Smitty scowled at me, and the dispatch phone rang again. He glanced at Zach. “We
could
use the help,” Smitty said with a slow nod. When he went to answer the phone, Smitty purposely turned his back.

Zach swung the door wide and stepped out. He grabbed his cowboy hat from a hook near his desk and settled it on his head.

When we got outside, Zach said, “I wondered how long it would take you to come looking for me. Seein’ as Smitty dragged you in here, I guess I’ll never know if you’d have come at all.”

“I would’ve come. I was tied up.”

He looked me up and down. “So I heard.”

Guilt washed over me, and the breath caught in my throat, burning there. He yanked the door of his truck open and climbed in.

“I would’ve come,” I repeated. My tone was soft, and I wasn’t sure he’d heard me as the motor started. I didn’t say it again though. I understood why Zach hadn’t called me. He’d been testing me. He believed that people’s actions stood for them. Like him taking the Fifth so they couldn’t lock me up. And he’d stuck to that story even knowing I’d been with Bryn. Zach didn’t have to say the words to tell me he still loved me and would keep his promise to protect me no matter what happened. I was the one who was changing. There had been a time when, if I hadn’t known where he was, I would’ve looked all over town for him. The fact that I hadn’t tracked him down in jail meant something, and he and I both knew it.

I swallowed the lump in my throat and squeezed my hands tight as he drove away. It hurt me that I was hurting him. We’d been in love so long that losing him would be like losing a part of me. As the dust settled, I chewed on my lip for a moment. Our relationship needed sorting out. But whatever was going to happen with me and Zach would wait, because it had to.

With the other guys gone, Smitty couldn’t leave the station, and he wouldn’t have agreed to drive me anywhere anyway, so I started hurrying toward Bryn’s on foot.

About half of the businesses along Main Street were closed, and a lot of them had broken windows, like folks had been looting. When I got to Magnolia Park, I spotted some deputies who seemed to have fallen under the dust’s spell. They sat at a picnic table playing checkers while people broke plenty of sensible park rules, like the one that said you couldn’t have target practice there with real guns.

I got to the edge of the park, keeping my head down and walking in the shadows. Then a bright orange-gold light nearly blinded me. It was like a sliver of sunshine that started on the ground and rose to pierce the night sky.

I cocked my head, peering at it. From out of the light, a spear tip thrust at me. I jumped to avoid it, which made me fall. It missed my skin by a hair. I scuttled backward like a crab and saw a second spear, big as a harpoon, come through and wrench back and forth. The light widened, offering me a glimpse of a monstrous creature with a long pointed face and straggly hair the color of milky charcoal. His mouth formed a snarl, and he snapped his pointed teeth at me.

“Seelie! I’ll pick my teeth with your finger bones,” he said.

I gasped.

“Open it. Wedge it open!” he cried, and I saw some dirt-smudged hags behind him. They had thin gray hair and hooked noses, and their long warty fingers poked knives and spears through the opening. They levered the blades back and forth, and I realized they were trying to pry the seam between our worlds apart.

Oh my gosh, no!

For a moment, my body went rigid, then I stood up, knowing that I couldn’t let them come through the gate. I scrambled over to one of the guys who’d been shooting and snatched his gun.

“Hey, what are you doing?” the guy demanded, but I darted away to the opening and pointed the gun at the faeries.

“Go back,” I said.

A blade whizzed out and poked through my jeans, nicking my thigh. I ignored the sharp pinch of pain, stepping back and squeezing off several rounds. The bullets went through the crack, hitting their mark, but none of the fae fell. And none of them bled.

Don’t our weapons hurt them?

I dropped the gun and grabbed a spear, yanking it. A hag’s hand came through the opening after it, but the seam clamped down on her wrist. She howled and let the weapon slip free of her grip. I flipped the spear around and thrust it through. It banged against the breastplate of the leader and slid off, striking a tall goblin who brandished a serrated iron blade. My spear’s tip cut through his muscle into his chest, and he fell hard, levering the spear up, so it lifted me off the ground. My sweaty palms slipped down the metal, and I slid toward the rift—and toward the weapons jabbing through it.

Rather than be skewered, I let go of the spear and fell to the ground. The leader yanked my spear free from the goblin’s body, and it dripped greenish gold blood.

“Tomorrow the doors will open!” the leader announced.

The rest of the creatures cheered, and he glared at me.

“And we’ll boil the Seelie witch in oil and feast on her flesh,” he shouted.

I shuddered and took a step farther back. “You stay on your side!” I stammered.

The leader laughed and, as they receded from the seam, it contracted into a single beam of light.

“Making friends?”

My heart contracted painfully, and I spun to find Jordan Perth.

Uh-oh.
My body went rigid. I wasn’t sure whether he was furious with me and would act on that, but I decided to pretend we’d never had a standoff outside town.

“We have to reinforce the doors between worlds or the faeries will get through,” I said. “I tried to do it, but my spell obviously didn’t work.”

“Not surprising. It’s an upper-level skill, and your casting talents are, thus far, nonexistent.”

I bristled, but knew he was right. “That’s exactly why I need magical help.”

“We have something to settle first.”

He didn’t look mad at the moment, so I decided it was probably best not to ask how his wand was after I’d thrown it out the car window.

He glanced around at the dust-crazed people in the park. “Come with me,” he said.

“I don’t have time for this,” I said. I needed to get to Bryn. Not that I could admit that to Jordan.

“Then hurry,” he said, cutting into the woods that separated Magnolia Park from the tor.

I needed whatever magical help I could get, so I went a couple feet into the woods after him. “Here’s far enough. What do you want to talk about?” I demanded.

“You have to make a decision. Tonight. Right now.”

“What?”

“Bryn Lyons has broken the law and will be held accountable. You, however, still have a chance. I can influence the Conclave to postpone the challenge if you prove that you intend to be a law-abiding witch, one who is loyal to the sacred order of magic.”

I studied his face. He looked completely sincere.

“Listen, you must believe me,” he continued. “Lyons is not your friend. He wants to use you for his own ambition, and the things he intends . . .” He shook his head violently. “He intends to usurp power from the lawfully chosen leaders, and you’ll be a pawn in his attempt. He controls a faction, an underground network of terrorists, who are being hunted and eliminated for their crimes. You must disavow any association with him. To do that will save your life and will gain you the World Association of Magic’s favor. In exchange, I’ll help you rescue your town.”

“Is that why you’re really here? To keep me from getting involved with Bryn? Was the challenge going to be too hard for me to face alone so he’d be forced to intervene or let me die?”

“I came here to train you. Nothing more. But I can’t ignore what I’ve seen. Lyons has sealed his fate with his own actions. Not that his treachery is a surprise. We’ve suspected for some time that he’s a traitor. We just couldn’t prove it until now.”

“He helped me when I needed it.
Because
I needed it.”

“Only to gain your trust. So that he could use you later.”

“You don’t know that,” I said. There was no way I could know Bryn’s motives for things, but I doubted he’d risk his own life for the chance to use my power later. Seemed too risky a gamble.

“You must swear fealty to John Barrett through me,” Jordan said.

I blinked. “I don’t even know John Barrett.”

“He’s wizardom’s rightful leader. To swear an oath to us is to swear an oath to the magical world order,” he whispered fiercely. Bright spots colored his cheeks, and I knew he believed what he was saying. “Anything but absolute loyalty is an endorsement of anarchy. It’s high treason. You must not be a party to that.”

He grabbed my hand and pulled it toward him. “It’s a blood oath,” he said breathlessly. “It only takes a few words and a few drops of blood. It’ll be over in seconds.” He pulled a case from his pocket and withdrew a silver pin.

“No,” I said, snatching my hand back in shock.

“You have to pick a side, and you have to pick the right side to survive!”

“That may be, but I don’t make promises to guys I’ve never met. If that makes me a rebel, well, that’s what I am.”

“You’ve met
me
. You should trust me. I’ve been trying to help you from the beginning.”

“You have been partnered up with Incendio, who’s going around killing people.”

“Maldaron is a loose cannon, but don’t let that influence you. He was an effective enforcer for several years, but he can’t overcome his nature, can’t overcome his tendency toward rage. The things he’s done here . . . The Conclave will deal with him, once and forever.”

“Then I’ll wait to see what they do about him.”

“There isn’t time. You have to choose now.”

“I can’t,” I said. Before he could react, I turned and rushed out of the woods.

I’m not sure if the cracking sound I heard was Jordan throwing spells at me or gunfire from the park, but I didn’t look back. I ran as fast as I could and bobbed behind as many big trees as got in my path.

With every step, I knew that I’d made my choice. I just hoped it was the right one.

By the time I reached Bryn’s gate, I could barely stand. My muscles cramped and sweat beaded in the hollow of my back as I leaned my whole body against my finger on the buzzer.

“Yes?”

“Steve, it’s me,” I said, gasping for breath.

The gate opened, and I shuffled to the door. While I waited for it to open, I fought the urge to fall to my knees. I was so darn tired.