The Lie Spinners (The Deception Dance) (8 page)

“
So
you are just going to feed her to the trap you know is set for her?”
Jones voice calls out.

I
turn in the direction of Jones’ voice, and see where he lies on
a couch in the far side of the cabin.

Madeline
raises her voice, “We do not
know
the trap is set for her—”

“
A
woman of consequence? A bird? Are you kidding me?” His voice
sounds almost mocking.

Madeline
crosses her arms over her chest, “She cannot be killed by
demons, and she now has two of
Leijonskjöld’s
finest to protect her—”

Jones
cuts in, deadpanning, “It’s a trap for her, obviously,
they’ll have whatever is necessary to—”

“
Enough!”
Madeline stands. “It’s done; I already invoked her life
debt.”

“
You
did
what
?”
His voice comes out deadly serious.

Madeline
takes a step back, her arms tightening around her chest. “Besides,
I raised her once from death, I can do it again. And this time, I
can… I’ve prepared...”

“
Be
prepared;” Cassidy sings, leaning back into her chair, “Didn’t
you know the little witch is a boy scout, Richard?”

“
Did
you know that she’s been using mind-control spells, unnatural
magic, Dixon? This is the type of witch you’re involved with
now? This is the type of plan you’re involved in?” Jones
asks voice low.

Cassidy
raises her eyebrows. “I didn’t know the plan, only that
there was one; and I knew I couldn’t stop Madeline from
kidnapping Raven, so I simply refused to be left behind.”

“
Witch,”
Jones pronounces his words with slow articulation, “I’m
only going to say this once: I know that you are pregnant, so you
better be far away from me when I get untied.”

“
I’m
with Jones,” Linnie says. Then she picks up her bowl of bean
mush and flings the contents at the back of Madeline’s head.
“If you didn’t already wave the unborn-baby-flag, I’d
yank out your scraggily hair!” The hatred in my sister’s
voice makes me flinch. “And what the hell does calling in a
life debt mean?”

Madeline
rolls her eyes not bothering to wipe away the mush that’s
dripping onto her shoulders. “You can yell all you want, but
the thing is done. She doesn’t have a choice but go, and the
more time you waste, the less prepared she’ll be. Period. So
stop wasting her time and mine, the message was clear: send Raven in,
or Stephen dies.”

“
Actually,
I didn’t find the message clear, at all!” Linnie shouts.

I’m
glad she said it so I didn’t have to.

Madeline
raises her chin as she says, “The message is clear enough: men
will be devoured and the inconsequential ensnared. The consequential
will break through. The bird to the nest or the friend will die.”

“
Yeah…”
I say, “But you’re just looking at the words, the
surface; each of the quotes has a meaning behind them, a message.
And… also it could be significant the way he changed the
quotes, what words he chose to delete. Or, the situations the quotes
were said in. Or even who said the quotes, and in what situation.
Sure, all but the last of the quotes are about spiders, but there
could be many layers, many ways to analyze…” I trail
off, trying to remember the exact wording.

All
three of the girls, Linnie, Madeline, and Cassidy stare at me, their
brows slowly furrowing. Obviously, this didn’t occur to any of
them.

Go
team!

Madeline’s
brow unfurrows first. She says, “That could take hours; and, we
definitely don’t have time for that. And even if we did, I
don’t think the message needs to go any deeper. I need to
prepare you and the others. I lost track of each group I sent in
within two hours of them landin’. The third team had not even
left the airport for their hotel. I was on the phone with my friend,
and then it just cut out.”

“
Well,
if the messages mean that Raven is the only one able to survive this
demon nest trap…” Cassidy says dryly, “…I’m
rather glad you kidnapped Jones. As much as I detest the wanker, I’d
like someone’s hand to hold when you send me in for this rather
nasty torture and death.” She picks up a cup of what looks like
tea but hesitates with it at her lips to say, “What I want to
know is if you really think Stephen will forgive you, after you do
all this?” She takes a sip of her tea.

“
That’s
a chance I’ll have to take,” Madeline says; then quietly
as if to herself she whispers, “We can get past anything, if
he’s alive.”

“
What
a sweet love story,” Cassidy says almost sounding delighted,
“Don’t you think so, Linnie?”

Tears
course down Linnie’s face; her arms cross tightly over her
chest. She says, “Sickly.”

“
Enough!
Enough! You’re wasting time we don’t have,”
Madeline says. “If we do this right, there will be nothin’
to forgive.”

Cassidy
shrugs, “Except the twelve lives you already sacrificed,
kidnapping—”

“
I
will tie up and gag all of you, if I need to,” Madeline
practically spits at Cassidy.

I
take a deep breath, and say, “Okay, do what you have to do.”

Linnie
stands up and shouts out an unintelligible word, then stomps to what
I’m pretty sure is the lavatory and shuts herself inside.

“
I’m
goin’ to do a number of natural-magic transformations on you,”
Madeline explains, “But I don’t have enough power to make
them last more than a couple days.” From where her fingers
touch me cold tingles spread up my arms.

After
a few minutes Madeline whispers, “I’ll keep your sister
out of it, put her to sleep or somethin’.” It almost,
almost, sounds like an apology.

“
Thanks,”
I say, rubbing the gooseflesh on my arms.

The
tingles increase, prickles boring into my skin. It feels like my
appendages are falling asleep in an aggressive way. I concentrate on
ignoring the sensation, thinking about anything but the
ever-increasing intensity.

Madeline
doesn’t speak for a long time, seemly also concentrating on the
magic. The whole plane is in a state of stasis: Linnie hides in the
bathroom. Cassidy concentrates on her tea. Jones lies, tied up and
silent. And, I am being refrigerated.

Madeline
interrupts the growing silence with, “I did not—I don’t
think that—Stephen and I have…”

“
You
don’t need to explain.” I interrupt her because she’s
probably about to go into Stephen and her wedding plans, and I’m
already having to focus so I don’t start tearing at my own
skin. “I’m not agreeing with what you’re doing,”
I say, shivering, “but, I get it. We don’t need to talk
about it.”

She,
thankfully, doesn’t respond, just kneels down in front of the
couch I’m sitting on and closes her eyes. The feeling is less
painful than uncomfortable, like my skin doesn’t quite fit. Any
way I shift, I can’t get comfortable.

“
You
want something to drink?” I hear Cassidy’s voice say.

“
No,
nothing,” Madeline says. “Don’t you be drinkin’
either, you’re next.”

“
No
I’m not, I don’t take transformations. Besides, if I
don’t have what I need to survive in the nest, nothing you can
do will help me,” Cassidy says. I hear her pouring some liquid,
but I don’t look. Cassidy adds, “I wouldn’t try to
do any transformations on Richard either, or do any type of magic for
that matter on him, if you know what’s good for you. Though, I
doubt you do.”

Seconds,
minutes, hours drag on, in a prickly, discomforting anti-trance.
Thoughts collect in my mind, and I watch them gather and billow;
thoughts about demons, about Hell, about the darkness that will never
let me go. Maybe that’s just what Hell is: a pool of quicksand,
you can never surface from. All you do is dip your foot in, and it’s
already too late.

Technically,
Hell did release me, my soul was in purgatory before I was born; I
unwittingly made a deal to go to Hell, told Andras that I would
follow him there when, in a past life, I stupidly fell in love with
him; and I did follow him. But, Hell has no intention of letting me
go again. Ever.

Warm
hands touch my forehead. “I apologize for this part,”
Madeline says. Then, what feels like a metaphysical sledgehammer
slams into my head.

And
I pass out.

When
I wake and blink around the bright cabin all the windows that had
previously been shuttered are raised; outside the bustle of airport
vehicles and trucks pass under our window.

We’ve
landed in Bangkok. Thailand.

Day
Three

“
I
need to tell you something,” My sister whispers, as she perches
beside me on the couch’s armrest, sipping her tea. “They’re
hiding something… Madeline lied to you.”

“
What
are you talking about?” I ask. I feel better, entirely better.
After waking, I washed my face of dried gel and there wasn’t so
much as a splotch of discoloration. Madeline gave both Linnie and me
tea, each with our different ingredients: mine is earl grey and
Linnie
thinks
hers is earl grey (not-so-much). We’ve just been sitting here,
having a little tea party.

“
When
you were asleep, Cassidy said to Madeline, ‘you lied, you
didn’t tell Raven about…’ but I didn’t hear
what Cassidy was going to say, because Madeline shushed her and then
said, ‘you will not speak of it!’ and I think it was a
spell because it sounded crazy and I felt tingles—wait a
minute… something is up,” Linnie says.

“
What’s
up?” I say, focusing on my tea cup.

“
We’re
supposed to leave in two seconds and you haven’t said anything
to convince me not to go with you today. You missed your line ages
ago, it was something like: ‘you can’t go! Stay behind
while I sacrifice myself!’”

I
slap her knee, and force a laugh before I say, “My voice is not
that high pitched. So what do you think Madeline lied about? And,
what do you think is happening at home? Albert has probably torn down
the mansion in a rage.”

Linnie
says, “You’re rapid-fire changing the subject—”
She looks at her cup, then at me, and then says, “You didn’t?”

I
chew on my lip and don’t answer her.

“
Raven…?”
She says, throwing her tea cup. “Raven! This is one of the
shittiest, of the shitty things…you’ff donefff,”
Her voice gets heavy, “Screw thifff. You alwayth pufth mettt…”
She topples, but I catch her, moving her back onto the couch.

The
irony is not lost on me; last summer I hated Linnie’s friend
when she drugged me (or, I thought she did, it was Andras who truly
did it). But Madeline’s words ring true for me also, my sister
and I can get through anything, if she’s alive. And if I die,
again, at least I know she’ll be safe.

“
She’s
out,” I say, raising my voice.

“
Finally,”
Madeline says, as she pulls bags out of compartments. “Then
it’s time for you to be gettin’ goin’.” She
rushes over to me, and then hands me a charm that looks like a smooth
stone.