Witch's Brew - Spellspinners 1 (Spellspinners of Melas County) (18 page)

Lily, kill it!

Logan, it’s okay. He’s going.

Turn your back on him and he’ll kill you.

No. He won’t.

I watched the creature turn and, in lonely solitude, swim back into the empty socket of the ship’s eye.

Rushing to him, I held his face in my hand.
We have to deal with your wound. Can you make it to the surface?

He half-grinned.
Don’t be so melodramatic. I’m fine.

But I knew he wasn’t fine. He was losing a lot of blood. The serpent’s teeth were more like needles than teeth. His skin was ripped, not cut. Lashes of flesh peeled off his bones like bloody ribbons.

The saltwater is healing.

He frowned.
The saltwater stings like hell.

I kissed him hard on the lips, and then, clutching his good arm, I pulled him toward the place where the water meets the sky, to fix him.

Logan winced as lashes of his bloody skin healed under my touch.

“It was the amulet? It drew the serpents out?”

“I’m afraid so.”

“That’s not…I mean, you didn’t lure me down there to get eaten alive, right?”

“Lily. Of course not.”

I left my palm on his muscle, which was still hot from my spell. “Stick around.” The new skin’s pigment was lighter than the skin around it. “That was nothing.”

“I’m trying to.” Under dark lashes his glance was disapproving.

“What?” I asked.

“Messing with the serpent was too risky. I know you wouldn’t have done it unless you
knew
he wouldn’t hurt you. So how’d you know?”

I shrugged. “I just did.”

His eyes narrowed. “How?”

“You aren’t going to drop this, are you?” I leaned back, running my fingers through wet sand.

He leaned back too. I couldn’t help tracing the Celtic knot inked to his chest with my eyes. My eyes ran down his chest, to his hips that were barely covered by his dripping wet pants.

“Let me dry those up for you, nothing worse than soggy pants.”

“No, that’s okay,” he rolled out of the way, pulling his waistband up.

“Just trying to help,” I said, careful to keep my mind clear of specifics.

Nice try, anyway.

“What was a nice try?” he asked, easily Reading me.

Thank the goddesses he was okay. That the serpent hadn’t hurt him worse. If anything happened to him, I’d…I just wouldn’t let it. No matter what.

“I’m fine, Lily. You can stop worrying.”

I punched his good shoulder. “I hate that you can Hear me.”

“Ouch,” he play-whined. “No, you don’t.”

“Okay, most of the time I don’t. But sometimes, I…I don’t always want you to Hear
everything
I think…”

“Remember the trick,” he bent forward, moving a strand of wet hair off my cheek. “Don’t think anything sweet about me.”

I kissed him, leaned in for more, but he pulled back. Instead of meeting my lips again, his fingers rested under my chin. He looked deep into my eyes. “What happened back there? The truth, Lil.”

“Okay, fine. I could Read him. The creature. It was the same breed I was telling you about—the same mutated sea creature I saw when I was a kid.”

The look on his face caused a ripple of discomfort to roll down my spine. “Those serpents are
our
totem animals. They are
warlocks’
.”

My heart stopped. “Why didn’t you tell me that before?”

“I figured you knew, how else would you know how to stop them?”

“I just followed my instincts. I don’t understand. Why was it trying to hurt you…” my voice trailed off as if I was waiting for the universe to fill in the blanks. “And didn’t try to hurt me?”

His look was steady. I hoped it meant whatever I said next— whatever he said next didn’t matter. Theories, dark and implausible, rippled in the energy between us as we sat, thinking, saying nothing, but Hearing everything.

Then, “Lily, where’s your amulet?”

I felt my chest where the amulet used to hang. My heart sank. “The ocean! We have to go back.”

“It’s too dangerous. The other serpents will be back, and they’ll bring others.”

“Logan. I
just
got my amulet back, I’m not leaving without it.” I felt my eyes narrow, heat rising in my core. “This is awfully coincidental, you know. You take me down to your childhood lair, we get attacked, and my amulet just happens to turn up missing? Do your totem serpents have my amulet?”

“Lily, I have no idea. I don’t know what they were doing down there, and you know I would never intentionally put you in harm’s way…”

“…except when you cross me in the Gleaning.”

“Lil. Look,” he ran his hand through his hair. “I swear, I will get it back for you.”

“You better.”

His eyes looked past me toward the road. “But you may have to wait.” He shielded his eyes as bright lights—headlights—bounced down the beach toward us.

I jumped up, grabbing his arm.

“Is it Jacob?”

“Jacob drives a BMW. That’s a…but Chance drives a Jeep.”

The lights drew closer. Logan grabbed my hand, and together we sprinted down the cold sand, then ducked under the old pier. Logan hid behind one of the tall wooden beams and, wrapping his arms around my waist from behind, pulled me into him.

Are they warlocks?

I’m not sure.

Can you trust Chance?

Yes.

Are you sure?

As sure as I am about you.

Should I take that as a compliment or an insult?

Shh.

We watched as two beefy men got out of the jeep and shone their flashlights into the ocean. They scanned their beams along the beach, tracing our footprints in the sand. One of them said something into his radio. I cued right in.

“Calling for back-up from the Cove. Two juveniles spotted, male and female, but they ran off when they saw the lights. Confirmed. Male and female. There’s a trace of blood in the sand. I’ll bring the sample into the lab.”

Logan, we've got to get out of here. They found your blood.

If we move, they’ll spot us.

Logan, if they test your blood they’ll see how different your DNA is. Logan, they’ll know you weren’t human.

Can you get rid of it?

I think so. If you help me.

We clutched hands and focused on the dried blood on the sand. Drop by drop, we crystallized it into grains of sand.

After, my hands tingled, coursed with our conjoined power.

Thank you,
said Logan.

“What the...?” the Coast Guard said. “It was just here.” He shone his flashlight toward the pier. “Got an identification. They’re under the pier.”

He started toward us.

How well can you climb?
Logan touched the beam. Barnacles stuck to the wood.

I can climb, but I loathe barnacles.

He grinned.
You’ll stab a serpent, but you won’t touch a barnacle.

I didn’t say I wouldn’t touch one. I said I loathed them.

Before he could utter a witty comeback, I was halfway up the beam and swinging my leg over the pier’s rail.

A cluster of seals barked on the far end, but other than that, we were alone.

“I guess it was a couple of seals,” the Coast Guard said. “There’s no one here. Ten-four.”

He’s leaving.
Logan’s voice behind me.

Good.

We were quiet for a while, waiting till the coast was clear, till we were fully alone, before joining hands and walking to the edge of the pier to look out at the horizon.

“It’s almost dawn,” he said.

“I’ve never spent the whole night with someone before.”

“I hope I wasn’t too bad of company.” He turned to look at me.

“Logan, I…”

“I know. Me too.”

“But I've got to get home.”

“I know.”

“I hate to ask you this, but…”

He touched my elbow. “Of course I’ll find it for you.”

“Thank you.”

“It’s the least I can do. It’s my fault it’s lost. Where can I give it back to you?”

“Does this mean you want to see me again?” I teased.

“Maybe.”

“Meet me in the forest. In the euca grove where we met.”

“Isn’t that dangerous?”

“Isn’t everything, Logan?”

Above us the stars shifted then, aligned, twinkled like a code. Under the milky way’s magic he erased the distance between us, firmly tracing the bottom of my collarbone to the soft spot in my neck with his thumb, then, when I let out a small gasp, he grazed my jawline, his mouth replacing his thumb, and when his mouth met mine, he kissed me like he knew our stolen moments were running out. Like this was the last kiss we’d ever share. And I kissed him back, as if, when the danger finally caught up to us, this moment, this twinkle in time, was the shared breath we’d cling to forever.

Logan

Logan checked Chance’s room first, and when he wasn’t there, he headed toward the Stones, where he was surprised to find him hovering over something. Dawn’s early light cast an ominous steel ring around the grove.

“There you are! I need to talk to you,” Logan said.

The urgency in his voice lilted into amusement when he glanced down at the object in his friend’s hands. “That is, if you can part with your toy.”

“You know, if this whole dark magic thing doesn’t work out, you should take your routine on the road,” Chance said, but the strain in his voice flattened the joke.

On closer examination of the “toy” Logan frowned. “Is that a doll?”

Chance quickly shoved the lumpy thing into his pocket. “Why are you wet?”

“Why are you changing the subject?” Logan grabbed a knotty arm of the doll where yellow yarn hung off the hand-sewn head like limp spaghetti. Black-eyed peas where eyes should be. Glue still wet. He held it up. “What is this?”

“Nothing.”

“This is a voodoo doll.”

“Don’t shake it!”

“Why not?”

“You could hurt her.”

Logan’s face went pale. “This is Lily.”

Holding up his palms, Chance insisted, “It’s not mine, Logan, I swear—I found it here.”

“Why were you hunched over it then like you were performing a Voudoun ritual?”

“I wasn’t trying to hurt her. I swear.”

Pacing in front of the boulder, Logan scratched the back of his neck. “Help me understand. Quickly.”

He didn’t want to hurt his best friend—but the fury boiling in his gut was practically impossible to contain. The eerie doll stared at him: beady eyes, pink button nose, X-crossed mouth, ugly substitutes for everything beautiful and alive about Lily.

“When I found it, this was sticking out of its arm.” A long, sharp needle lay flat in Chance’s palm.

Logan’s eyes narrowed. “Which arm?”

“Left. Why? Was Lily hurt there?”

The wound on Logan’s left arm burned, as if the bite happened mere seconds ago.

“No, I was.”

“What happened to you after I left?”

The bonfire felt like forever ago. “It’s too much to explain right now. Does Jacob know I was gone?”

“Nah, I covered for you. He was distracted anyway. Conference call.”

“Thanks, Chance.”

Logan’s mind felt like it would implode. Who was behind this? Had to be one of the warlocks. But who? Jacob? Jude? But what would they want with a voodoo doll of Lily?

“The serpents were sent,” Logan said, testing Chance’s reaction.

“Slow down. Serpents?”

Chance’s eyes were honest. He couldn’t have done this to Lily, or him. Of all the warlocks, Logan trusted him the most. Always had. Plus, he’d kept his secrets about Lily this far. What choice did he have but to trust him?

Cradling the doll in his hand like an injured bird, Logan said, “If you aren’t lying, prove it. Tell me everything you know about voodoo dolls. And don’t leave anything out, Chance. I swear. You better be telling the truth.”

Lily

“Lily Rose! Where have you been? I’ve been worried sick!”

“I … spent the night at Orchid’s.”

I guarded the truth I couldn’t tell her. Iris would forgive me—she’d understand up to a point—but making out with the warlock we all suspected to be the Roghnaithe on the beach, without even searching for the mark, because I was supposed to wait until Camellia gave me the order to be with him alone?

“Orchid said she didn’t know where you were.”

“You know how she likes to mess around with you, Mom.”

She looked at me strangely, but then blew it off. “The orders came in! You have to get ready. Tonight is your enchantment.”

“Enchantment?”

“Yes. Lily! Listen! You’re going to find out if Logan wears the mark of the broken rose moon.”

“Tonight?”

“Yes. And you look terrible. Did you sleep at all?”

“Orchid’s dog… kept me up.”

“Why are you lying to me?”

I hated lying to her, but could I tell her the truth?

“Lily, your arm!”

I glanced down and gasped. My left arm was swollen to twice its size.

“What happened to you?” Under the swelling was a bite that only began to hurt when I looked at it. Why hadn’t I noticed it before?

“It looks infected. I’m calling the doctor.”

“Mom, wait. Tell me more about the enchantment. Why do I need to be enchanted to look for Logan’s mark?”

“So he’ll be willing to show it to you.”

“Why would I need to trick him into showing it to me? “

“Why
wouldn’t
he need to be tricked to show it to you?”

I didn’t know what to do. Tell the truth and admit I’d completely ignored explicit orders to stay away from Logan, or lie and go along with a stupid enchantment to trick him into showing it to me?

Logan

“Voodoo dolls aren’t always meant to harm, Cheese. My ancestors used them to cast love spells and ask Loa for guidance. See this wrapped around the sticks? It’s Spanish moss—this is an authentic doll, woven from one long piece of moss. Spanish moss doesn’t grow naturally here—whoever did this went to a lot of trouble to find the correct ingredients. And these eyes…”

“Black-eyed peas.”

“Right. Also not native to Northern California. But they were glued on. Pretty recently it looks like.”