Broken Spell (17 page)

If that’s true, I feel for her.
If
it’s true.

Neither of us knows how or wants to discuss the elephant in the conversation, so she just goes on.

“The beatings got worse. Sometimes it got real bad, but he’d fix me with potions and spells. He never let me go to a hospital. This nose,” she points to her face, “wasn’t like that. So once again, I ran away. I knew some things and had hidden some money from him. I just lay low. I knew how to avoid Cillian. I used the only magic I knew, Night magic, to survive. Sold drugs, slipped Sleep potions into guys’ drinks so I could get their money. It was a living. But one day, Mona’s energy wave hit all of us.”

“The thing that alerted the covens?”

“Yes, that ‘thing.’ The Singularity had arrived. I had no idea what it meant at the time. Then Cillian found me.”

“How?”

“If you know how to brew a Truth potion, and you’re a willing Night witch, you can be quite persuasive. He knew about my Charms. I had stolen his energy accidentally a few times, so he knew about my Magical Absorption.”

“You mean, your Steal Charm.”

She scowls. “Okay. My
Steal
Charm. It was the cause of a few beatings, actually. He was paranoid and thought I was doing it on purpose.” Then her eyes glaze over, and she stops talking altogether.

I give her a minute. Oh, boy, what did they do to Jane? Nobody should go through that. Her scarred face makes me empathize with her even more. “Do you need anything? Water? Aspirin?”

“No,” she says with pride. “He introduced me to Miranda, who told me all about the Singularity and the Search. She is one of the lieutenants in charge of the Search. That’s when I first learned about regular magic—the kind Skye and most covens practice. Miranda told me she wanted to make sure her coven was the one to find the Singularity. And that, in case they found her, they would ensure they’d have the Singularity’s power.”

“They wanted you to steal her magic.”

“I said yes just to get out of there. But then Cillian took me home, and everything started again. The covens found me and took Jason as insurance. After Cillian died.”

“He died?”

“It was an accident. Sort of. It was self-defense,” Jane says with no emotion.

I stare at her, stunned. Jane is indeed a killer. No doubt she had the potential; I mean, I saw her trying to kill Skye. But to know, to hear it from her lips, it’s chilling.

“You don’t know what it was like.” She’s not defiant anymore. “But he had already told Miranda about Jason, and she took him. They made me do it. You think I’m bad. I’m not. I did what I had to do to get my brother back.
They
are the bad guys.”

If any other person had told me this story, I’d probably side with her right away. But this is Jane, so I weigh everything. This could be all part of a trap, or a delusion. And we have baggage. She’s the enemy. She made herself my enemy.

But I believe her. She’s had many chances to get Mona already. If this is her real story, I can’t help but understand where she is coming from.

“Which leads me to tonight and this,” she points to her wound. “I saw when they took Skye—”

“They took Skye?”

“Not tonight, dummy. Last time.”

“What time?”

She blinks a few times.

“Jane!”

“She didn’t tell you? Miranda kidnapped Skye and almost killed her. You saw her face, didn’t you?”

I want to grab Jane and shake her. “What are you talking about? Do they have Skye now?”

“No, they left her for dead. Last Wednesday. Almost a week ago. She was okay. Beaten up, but okay.”

All the puzzle pieces that were putting themselves together after Jane’s story now scramble in different directions. Skye was almost killed. Again!

And she didn’t tell me. Why?

A sudden headache hits me. My cheeks are cold. I hate that I don’t know what’s going on. My hands press my temples as if to squeeze out the pain inside.

“Wow,” Jane says. “I thought she told you everything.”

“Don’t twist the knife, Jane.” My voice is a snarl. “Wait. How do you know that? And what’s up with her face?”

“I was watching Miranda and her coven. From a distance, so they wouldn’t sense me. I hoped it would lead me to Jason. That’s when I saw Skye. She spent about three hours in there. I followed them when they left—again, I thought they might take her to the same place they’re hiding my brother. But they just left her at the park. Her face was destroyed.”

“Jane, you—”

“Calm down. The Allure will fix her. And I made sure she was alive.”

I’m still confused, but this last bit of information jumps out. “
You
made sure she was alive?”

Despite her wound, Jane is perched at the edge of the seat. “Of course. I need her.”

“You need her for what?”

“To find Jason! He is surrounded by Sisters. Skye has the witch radar, right?”

“How do you know?”

“
Cillian’s Charms. Seduction and Intuition. I got them. Seduction is how I got you and Connor to…cooperate. That and the Fancy Me potions—you had no chance. And when Skye sensed me from far away at the park, something clicked in my head. My Intuition helped me figure out what it was. The Intuition also told me to follow Mona on the day of the earthquake.”

Jane is becoming this super-witch—how many Charms does she have now? Four? I shudder, thinking of her with all this power. But I have other priorities now.

This strange night is getting stranger by leaps and bounds.

“Why did they kidnap Skye?”

“I’m guessing they did it to know about the Singularity, since they think your girlfriend is the one who collected the prize.”

“Do they know about Mona?”

“I’d bet that they know now.”

“Skye would never talk.”

She slaps her hand on her leg. “You still don’t get it, right? It doesn’t matter how tough she is. They have Truth potions.”

No, no!

Jane says, “But, Mona is still safe, right? If Skye had talked, they’d have taken Mona by now. Why would they wait?”

“Maybe they have a plan? Maybe they don’t want to attract attention?”

Jane loses her cool. “I don’t know what you’re thinking. Because those guys don’t give a damn about the Veil. The Night covens are much more powerful. They run the world. They steamroll everything. Once they get their hands on your precious sister, they will use her power—
very
publicly. And if they can’t, they will kill her. If they can’t have her, they’ll make sure no one else will.” She pants. “I was their golden ticket. Do you know how rare the…Steal Charm is? I’m the only one they know with it. Maybe I’m the only one who has it! But they wanted me to be their slave, not their queen.”

I can barely breathe. I try to enunciate my words. “What does it matter? You’re still
you
. Why are you telling me this?”

She hesitates. She lowers her eyes and looks at her fingers. “I told you. I need Skye to find Jason.” Her voice becomes icy. “And if I can’t, I want revenge. I can’t kill them. But I can stop them from getting what they want the most.”

Wow, maybe she is insane. “I’ll never let you near my sister. Ever. Again.”

She nods as I speak. “Of course not. That’s not what I am asking.”

“What, then?”

“I want you to help me kill Brianna.” She looks at me as if
she
is exasperated. “Isn’t it obvious?”

I stare at her for a few seconds. Maybe it’s a joke—a bad joke. Maybe she’s just trying to confuse me. If that’s her intention, she’s succeeding. I think hard but come up empty. “No. It’s not obvious at all.”

She sighs. “If Brianna dies, everybody will think the Singularity is dead. They may let Jason walk. They’d have no reason to keep him. The Night covens will never have a reason to go after Mona.” Her eyes have a glint. A sense of triumph. “Drake, no one will ever know about Mona.”

Even my slow brain catches up. “Not even the other covens,” I mumble, mostly to myself.

Jane nods again. The glint is still there.

“You will know,” I say. “You want Mona’s power. You just don’t want to share it with the other psychos.”

“Is this how you believe me?”

“Okay, I need to ask. I thought you wanted Mona to find Jason. Why didn’t you just steal her powers?”

“So your opinion of me hasn’t really changed, has it? Are you asking why I didn’t kill your sister?”

“Let’s just say the old Jane—”

“I’m the same Jane. I won’t kill someone if I don’t have to do it.”

I point my finger at her. “Jane, that’s not the point. I’m sorry for what happened to you and Jason, but it doesn’t justify… It
never
justifies killing someone.”

“Don’t be so righteous. And give me some credit. Even I know that I’m playing with destiny if I kill someone’s sister to save my own brother.”

“You understand how this is hard for me to believe, don’t you?”

She looks away. “I promise you I won’t go after Mona. I promise. I’m here, and we didn’t try to kill each other. That’s progress, right?”

“Jane, do you realize that what you’re asking—”

She stares at me. “Listen to me. I won’t touch Mona. It’d be like killing a unicorn.” She sees my fake-shocked look and answers my mental question. “No, unicorns don’t exist. It’s a figure of speech, stupid.”

“Why would I trust you? I want to believe you. I really do, Jane, but give me a reason.”

She scoffs. “Nobody trusts me anymore, Drake. No one. You can be suspicious and do just what you think is safe. But I swear to you: my brother is in danger. I just hope he’s still alive. Wouldn’t you do anything for Mona? It’s the same with me and Jason.”

Priscilla and I are watching one of the classics, “When Harry Met Sally”, and gorging on gourmet popcorn when the doorbell rings.

“Pause, pause,” she says. “I need to get the door.” She stands up, knocking the bowl over.

“I’ll clean it up,” I offer. I get down on my knees and collect the popcorn off the floor, from between the cushions, and from under the sofa.

I’m so distracted that I don’t see who comes in.

“Hey,” Drake says.

I freeze, still kneeling, a handful of popcorn in my hand and probably a shocked expression on my face.

Behind Drake, a distressed Priscilla mouths, “I’m sorry.”

He says to me, “Not looking good. What happened?”

My free hand touches my face where the swelling is at its worst. I finally come back to Earth and stand up. I turn to Priscilla, “Would you mind—”

“Not at all. I’ll be in my room,” she says. She climbs the steps in a hurry.

I sit down on the sofa, knocking the bowl over again, but this time I don’t bother. Drake sits by my side.

“Are you okay?” His voice has no warmth.

“Yes. It’s not as bad as it seems.”

“It looks pretty bad to me.”

“How did you know?” I ask.

“We’ll talk about that later. First, tell me what happened.”

I’m ashamed. I look around as if asking for support, but the only friendly face in the room is Meg Ryan’s on the screen. Worst of all, Drake seems angry. He hasn’t even touched me.

There’s no point in lying now. I tell him everything.

When I’m done, he stays silent. Then he snorts, but not in an amused way. “We keep having the strangest conversations, don’t we?”

I don’t answer.

He looks at me. “So to recap: you were drugged by the Weird Sisters—supposedly, your friends. You trusted a guy you had met only once before to give you a ride and ended up kidnapped. Then you refused Jane’s help. Finally, you didn’t tell me any of it. And you lied to me. Again.”

“You’re twisting it a little bit,” I point out.

“Don’t you think you have a problem? Why do you always trust the wrong people?”

I don’t like being accused. “Am I supposed to trust Jane now?”

“For what it’s worth, this time she tried to help you. And she’s the one who told me what happened to you.”

“What?”

“She showed up at my house last night, bleeding badly. We stopped the blood loss with potions and stuff, and then she told me the weirdest story. She has a brother, Jason, who’s a prisoner of the Night covens. They were blackmailing her into finding the Singularity and stealing her power.”

“And you believed Jane?”

“There’s no excuse for what she did, but it’s a good explanation.”

“The woman who beat me up, Miranda, mentioned something about Jason. She wanted to kill him. But don’t you see? Miranda and Jane might have created this story to fool us.”

Drake stands up. “No, they didn’t. Why would they do that? They could just get Mona and be done with it.”

I look down, inadvertently staring at the fancy, fluffy white carpet. Priscilla’s house, so accommodating a few minutes ago, doesn’t look that cozy anymore. I’m getting tired of being the bad guy in this conversation. “You talk about trust. What are you doing entertaining Jane? Why do you trust her now?”

“Why? To be honest, I had every motive to throw her out. But I believe her story.”

“You’re too trusting, Drake. It’s just who you are. Remember when you gave your coffee money to the homeless man? I saw that. That’s the same thing.
Too
trusting. Couldn’t it be a scam?”

“That’s possible. But then I think: if it is, I’m just losing five or ten bucks to a con. But what if it isn’t? I may be helping him to get one more meal, one more warm night. It could make a difference. It’s a bet, and I prefer to bet on the good side.”

“Even with Jane?”

He paces the room. “Especially with Jane. If there’s a chance we can turn her around, it’s our responsibility to try.”

“Even with Mona’s life at stake? If you’re wrong, it’s not ten bucks you’re going to be losing.”

His confidence is shaken, but he recovers soon. “But what if she is telling the truth and holds up her side of the bargain? Mona would be safe.”

“Oh, Drake…”

“Terrible things happened to Jane when she was a kid. She was acting desperate.”

“I’m sorry for her, but so what? Terrible things happened to you, and you don’t try to kill people.”

“It’s different. And she doesn’t have a friend, not even someone to use as a sounding board. Come on, Skye. I believe she’s being honest, but we can still be careful. Have a failsafe. We can help her.”

“That’s the smart move too.”

“What do you mean?”

I hate the practical, calculating thought I’m about to voice, but he needs to be aware of it. “Imagine she’s telling the truth and that she loses her brother because we didn’t help. She’ll blame us. Can you imagine Jane’s wrath then? Even if she couldn’t hurt Mona, she’d expose the Singularity for sure.”

“In Jane’s defense, she has never threatened to do that.”

“She doesn’t need to, Drake. We know what’s she’s capable of, right?”

“I like to have faith in people,” he says.

I lose my patience. “Drake, I have no idea what’s going on with you lately.”

“Me neither. All we’ve been through, and you still don’t trust me!”

“I didn’t want to worry you.”

“We’re together! We’re supposed to worry about each other. That’s the whole point.”

It’s my turn to stand up and pace the room. I stop by the mantel, play with the Tiki trinkets on it. “What about these arguments? Are we supposed to be having them too?”

For the first time since he has arrived, he approaches me. “We’re just having different opinions, Skye. Come on.” He caresses my face. His touch is so soft; it doesn’t hurt my swollen cheeks.

I lean my face against his hand, welcoming his gesture, but I’m not convinced. “Okay, sweet-talking guy. But you need to go. We’re having a girl’s day in. We’ll talk later. I still cannot appear in public like this.”

Drake kisses me, but this time, there’s no spark. He leaves.

It’s like I don’t know him anymore.

Drake and I have been disagreeing a lot lately. We’ve been at odds not about little things, like places to eat or movies to watch, but about important matters: the Veil, his Sister’s life, maybe even ours.

Shouldn’t we be on the same page? Not about everything, but at least on those crucial issues? If we aren’t, maybe we’re not as close as I thought. Maybe we’re too different.