Something Witchy This Way Comes: A Jolie Wilkins Novel (25 page)

Luce then faced me again. “She is neither a Daywalker nor an Elemental,” he said simply.

“Then what is she?” I asked.

“A human,” he answered.

“Then how is she one of your kind?” I continued.

“We have humans who assist us,” he finished succinctly. “I believe she provides cleaning duties.”

That revelation made me incredibly sad. Granted, I had never been close to my mother, but she had always thought of me as her own. Now that I knew I’d been someone else’s child, it just made me feel for her.
What made it worse was that her real daughter, her real flesh and blood, was just a cleaning lady for these bastards. My jaw tightened as hatred filled my body. I suddenly detested Luce for relegating my mother’s daughter to such a position—cleaning up after his kind!

“So when did you realize the mix-up?” Bryn asked.

“After it was too late.”

“So why not just tell the hospital there was a mix-up or go after Jolie yourself?” she continued. Hearing her say my name struck me as odd. Well, the whole situation struck me as odd because it was so completely … wrong, hideous in how wrong it was.

“There were outside forces that intervened,” Luce said simply. “And we were unable to locate Jolie or her adoptive mother.”

That was when I realized the Underworld had somehow gotten involved in all this. It was a feeling that surged through me, a triumphant one. Somehow, someone had known what was going on, and they’d made sure the Lurkers didn’t get me. That someone, I had to imagine, was Mathilda. Why Bryn had ended up in the hands of the enemy, I had no idea.

I realized then that Rand had gone completely quiet on the other end of our bond. It was as if the truth in what Luce was saying had sunk into him too. I didn’t even want to think about what that might mean. My fear—that he might forsake me for my connection to the Lurkers—hit me hard.

All of a sudden, anger flared through me and I realized that Rand had received my thought. He rebutted it instantly and filled me with feelings of love and adoration.
He would never give up on me!
That’s
what he was saying. He loved me and that’s all there was to it.

Luce glanced at me and smiled, but the sight of him sickened me. I wanted to hit him until I could force that smirk right off his face. “We have been seeking you ever since.”

“And how did you find me?” I demanded, attempting to squelch my anger.

“When we learned there was a Queen of the Underworld, I immediately knew she had to be you.”

“How?” I insisted.

“Because I knew children,” he glanced at Bryn, “born of fae and Elemental parents would have powers that have never before been seen.”

“Then you heard about my abilities?” I asked, referring to my gift for reanimating the dead.

He simply nodded. “I knew you were she and she was you; and I refused to let up until I had returned you to your rightful home.”

My rightful home …
Just the thought made me want to retch out the bile coming up my throat.

I didn’t know what to think. I was angry, depressed, and confused all at the same time. I couldn’t say which emotion was winning in the race for dominance. Questions and thoughts spun through my head as I tried to recall everything Luce had told me, as I tried to piece it together and make some sort of coherent story out of it. But, really, before I could even hope to do that, I had to accept his words as true, and that’s where I was having a tough time. Yes, I could tell Rand still doubted, but I knew I had to make this decision for myself.

Could everything that Luce told us be true? That was the one-million-dollar question. Granted, I was sure that parts of his story had been fabricated, other parts skipped, and still others completely exaggerated. But I couldn’t help walking away with the feeling that it was essentially true. Bryn really was my fraternal twin sister, and we had been born from fae and Elemental parents. Most important, the Lurkers didn’t want to hurt me, they only wanted to claim me as one of their own.

What did I think about the whole twin sister thing?
I couldn’t really say. I mean, from the moment I met Bryn, I’d had the uncanny feeling that she and I were somehow connected. My reaction to her had hinted at intimacy, a mutual understanding. But at the same time it was hard to get the warm and fuzzies when it was obvious that Bryn hated me and, worse, she was a Lurker, and thus my enemy. It was almost like this bitter twist of fate had been designed to test my sanity and my ability to cope.

The one thing helping me to hang on was that Rand finally knew where I was, and I knew he was working on rescuing me. But as I thought about it, doubt began to churn in my stomach. I had to ask myself if I really believed that Luce would announce the location of this Lurker camp so readily, and so quickly. Then I felt a stronger surge of doubt: Rand’s.

Jolie
, his voice suddenly sounded in my head.

Rand, this isn’t safe
, I barked back at him as I stood up and closed the blinds in the living room. I felt as if Lurker spies could see into my mind as easily as they could see into the living room.
Someone could be listening
.

I could sense his dilemma.
We have no other choice. I can’t communicate through our bond, although I have tried
.

Quickly then
, I answered him, already afraid that we were being overheard.

Luce lied to you, Jolie. You aren’t in Tennessee and you aren’t in the Smoky Mountains
.

My anger overwhelmed me. It was now more apparent than ever before that I couldn’t trust Luce—he was no good.
How do you know?

Mercedes was able to perform a Liar’s Circle on Luce
.

How?

Our bond is strong enough, Jolie, that she was able to use me as a link to you and Luce
.

Wow
, I thought, my eyes reaching for the ceiling.

At any rate, the Liar’s Circle revealed that what Luce told you about your location was a lie
.

Anger burned in my throat again.
Then where am I?

I felt more doubt flowing through me, followed by a sense of helplessness, worry, and determination.
We don’t know yet, but I promise we are working on it night and day. There’s just too much magic buffering wherever you are—it’s basically impenetrable
.

So what do we do now?
I asked him, the hopelessness of the situation hitting me hard.

He was quiet for a few seconds and then I heard him sigh.
We continue to try to figure out where you are, and as soon as we do, I’m coming for you … we’re coming for you
. He paused for a few seconds as more fierce resolve flowed through me.
We’re coming for everyone
.

Then there would be a battle! I kept my realization to myself, not wanting to broach the topic over the insecure line. I felt worry saturating my gut—my own. Rand was too busy dealing with his own anger. Nausea worked its way up my throat and I had to magick it away.

I have tarried long enough, and if it’s true that someone is listening, we aren’t safe discussing this any longer
, Rand finished.

I nodded and resigned myself to doing everything I
could to find out where the heck we were. I was going to continue to give Rand as much information about this hellish place as I could through our bond.

Jolie, just focus on yourself, focus on your own safety and protection
, he continued.
Whatever choices you make, make them solely on that basis
. He sighed, long and hard.
I will get you out of there soon
.

I love you, Rand
. I thought the words and automatically felt an answering of adoration well up inside of me. But while the feelings elated me, I felt tears prick behind my eyes. No one had a clue where I was, and escape seemed impossible, such an improbable feat. But I couldn’t allow myself the luxury of moping. I had to be strong—I had to try to figure my own way out of here in case Rand and Mercedes couldn’t locate me.

Jolie, don’t give up
, I told myself resolutely.

And for the first time in a long time, I felt my other side agree.
No, I will never give up
.

There was a knock on the front door, and worry immediately suffused me—Rand’s. I tried to calm him down, but it wasn’t any good. Strangely enough, as soon as I pulled open the door and found Bryn standing before me, his worry subsided, and I had to admit, mine did too.

“I—” she started, and clamped a hand over the back of her neck, appearing restless and frustrated. “We need to talk,” she finished, then pushed past me, showing herself into my house.

“Okay,” I said, closing the door behind us. When I turned around, I noticed that she’d already made herself comfortable on my couch.

“You should sit,” she said, and motioned to the chair just beside her.

I said nothing. I just took a seat and faced her, faced my sister.

“I’m sure this is as much of a surprise to you as it is to me,” she started, and then shook her head, almost angrily. “Surprise doesn’t begin to cover it.”

“Yeah, I’d say this is one of the bigger shocks of my life.”

She nodded. “I … uh, I’m not good with this sort of stuff,” she started.

“What, being nice?” I asked, and then laughed, helpless to resist the fact that I desperately wanted to reach out to her, to be close to her, to understand our sisterly bond. But as soon as those feelings suffused me, I had to remind myself that she was first and foremost a Lurker.

“I’m sorry about the circumstances,” she said. “I’m sure it was pretty crappy to find out that your mother wasn’t your real one.”

“And what about your mother?” I asked, realizing I hadn’t even tried to put myself in her shoes.

“I have always been told that my mother died in childbirth, like what Luce told us. Only I wasn’t aware that she was fae. I thought both she and my father were Elementals.”

I nodded, silently appreciative of the fact that she and I were even having this discussion. It was suddenly clear to me that Bryn had to be interested in getting to know me better too, which was probably the reason for this visit. “And what did Luce tell you about your father?”

She sighed deeply, running her hands through her
hair as she shook her head in obvious frustration. “That he’d died shortly after my mother did and Luce also believed my father’s death was at the hands of your people.”

I immediately wanted to change the subject. The best course to maintain the friendliness between the two of us was to steer clear of anything that would serve as a reminder that we were technically enemies. “I know what Luce has planned for us.”

She glanced at me and quirked a brow, interested. “Go on.”

“I reanimated one of your dead Daywalkers,” I said flatly, watching her as her eyes narrowed and disbelief pasted itself across her face.

“You did what?”

I shrugged. “It’s my gift. Just as you can heal people and eavesdrop on their thoughts, I can reanimate the dead.”

Her eyes went wide and she studied me suspiciously. “I’ve never even thought that was possible.”

I grinned and raised my brows. “If you don’t believe me, ask Luce.” She frowned and then simply nodded, saying nothing. “ ‘There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy,’ ” I said, quoting Hamlet, the very words Rand had uttered to me in the first few days of our acquaintance, when I’d doubted the fact that I was a witch. I was suddenly overcome with a feeling of longing and homesickness. I yearned to see Rand in the flesh, to feel his strong arms around me and to rest my head against the warmth of his chest. But I pushed the feelings down. Now wasn’t the time.

“Nice,” she said with a small laugh that sounded sad more than anything else.

“Luce believes that together you and I will be strong enough to heal the Daywalkers, to reanimate them and free them of their disease.”

She nodded, but didn’t seem surprised. A second or two later a familiar expression of suspicion closed over her face and she regarded me snidely. “And you expect me to believe that you’ll willingly go along with this?” She laughed cynically. “I know you still consider yourself one of them.”

I nodded, unable to deny the truth in her words. If there was one thing I felt I could rely on about Bryn, it was her honesty. She didn’t seem to possess Luce’s gift of bullshit. Instead she respected only the truth—plain, sterile facts. As strange as it seemed, I suddenly thought that Rand would respect Bryn; they appeared to be cut from the same cloth, only from two completely different colors. But anyway, I was sure that trying to pull a fast one on Bryn would be a waste of time and, moreover, I didn’t want to disrespect her by even attempting it. And so I decided to be truthful with her. “I’m just trying to survive.”

She nodded and glanced down at her hands, spreading her fingers wide and then scrunching them into fists again. When she faced me, she nodded again. “That’s the best thing you can do. As I mentioned earlier, you should do exactly what Luce tells you. I’m sure you think he’s this helpless, old, silly man, but he isn’t. He’s powerful. More powerful than you can ever imagine, and what’s more, he’s smart and driven. He has an agenda.”