The Magick of Dark Root (Daughters of Dark Root) (25 page)

“As you can see,” she said, raising a pointed eyebrow. “I’m no great beauty. Never have been, really. That was all your mother. She was beautiful, charming, strong, and willful. All the men ignored me when she was in the room. As her cousin, I grew up in her shadow. Something you and I have in common, right Maggie?”

I pressed my lips together but didn’t speak.

“But we were family, and you don’t turn your back on family. Am I right?” Larinda’s eyes flickered, burning like the embers beneath the cauldron. She softened her eyes, a slight smile touching her lips.
 

“It was impressive how you handled my daughter.” She snapped her fingers and Leah appeared on the bed, looking tired and confused. “Cutting off her hair. Brilliant. You see,
that’s
the sort of thing I expect from the great Maggie Maddock.”

A witch’s power was directly related to the length of her hair and I had shorn Leah’s, rendering her magically impotent, at least until it grew back.
 

Leah turned to me, her face expressionless.

“But I’m not the fool my daughter is,” Larinda said, stepping so close I could smell her breath, a mixture of soil and soot.

I stepped back. “What do you want?” I asked, shining the light into her eyes.

She didn’t so much as blink. Placing a finger into the cleft of her chin like she hadn’t given the question much thought until now she said, “ I need something from you.” She took a lock of my hair, coiling a red strand around her finger. I grabbed her wrist firmly until she let go.

“You’re as fiery as your hair. Just like your father.”

“I’m leaving,” I said. “I’m done playing your games.”

“You can try.” She cocked her. “But the forest here is outside of your mother’s jurisdiction. It obeys me.”
 

I swallowed hard, knowing she was right. “If you don’t want the Circle, what do you want? Stop with the games!” The cauldron hissed at my words.

Leah rose from the bed and added kindling to the fire pit. Then she sat back down and continued to stare vacantly ahead.

“On the Winter’s Solstice, you and your sisters will perform a ceremony meant to keep certain
things
out of Dark Root. More specifically, me and my kind.”

“Your kind?”
 

“Witches. Those whose interests don’t align with your mother’s.”

“So? Why should you care if we do?”

“I have my reasons.”

“She doesn't want your kind of magick in Dark Root.”

“And what kind of magic is that?” she asked, fluttering her lashes innocently.

“Dark magick. Summoning. Banishment.” I tried to think of what else Aunt Dora had told me. “Demonology. Necromancy.”

She licked her lips, as if she had tasted something delicious. “Don’t let your mother and aunt fool you, young Maggie. We’ve all dabbled in
dark
magick from time to time. I’ve known your mother for years. She wasn’t always the
good
witch. You will test your powers, too. It’s in your blood.”

I stood taller, meeting her eye to eye. “Then you don’t know me.”

“Oh, I know enough.” She lowered her lashes. “How’s the pool-playing coming along? Making any money yet?”

I glared, clenching and unclenching my fists. From the corner of my eye I noticed that Leah had managed a smile.

“If you need money, I have plenty of it. More than enough for you to buy your Dora’s precious Harvest Home.”
 

Larinda opened her palm and produced a gold coin, then closed her hand and it was gone.
 

“On the solstice, you will not perform that ceremony,” she said flatly. “In return, I will give you enough money to last you a lifetime, and leave you and your family alone. Forever.”

My fingers trembled at Larinda’s promise. But one gold coin didn’t mean anything.
 

“I don’t need your money,” I said. “And you already seem to be able to come and go in Dark Root as you please.”

“When your mother transferred the Circle to you…and I know she did by the way…the dome slipped. Parts of me
are
able to get in. My essence, so to speak. But my tribe and I need to be able to enter completely, without restriction. That’s where you come in. Only she who wields the Circle can ensure the spell takes shape. All I ask is that you forgo it for a year.”

“Assuming everything you’ve said is true, why would I do that?”

Larinda paused, appraising me.
 

She passed one of her hands over the other and produced a crystal ball, the size of a snow globe. Pictures moved within the glass.
 

“In Dark Root grows a unique tree, the Lightning Willow, which has fed itself for the last century on the magick of the land.” Larinda waved her hand and the image of a golden willow tree appeared in the ball, a metallic river rushing behind it.
 

“When your mother dies, and she will, very soon I think, the tree will die too.”

“Don’t talk about my mother dying.” My fist clenched again.

“It’s a fact of life, Maggie. All things die. Your mother may be a witch but she won’t live forever. Her fault, really.”

I wondered what would happen if I hit her? Would Larinda take the blow, or turn to ash? Or perhaps seal me inside this cabin forever? I dug my fingernails into my palms to keep from striking her.
 

“Leah, the dunce that she is, has not chosen her wand,” Larinda continued. “I simply want her to have access to the tree. She will cut her wand before the sun sets on your mother’s life. That’s all I ask. Then we all go our separate ways.”

“Why would I allow that?” I reiterated.

With another wave of her hand the image of the willow was replaced by one of Mother, sleeping in her bed. “The Lightning Willow has special healing properties. You can take a wand from the tree, too. We take ours, you take yours. Save your mother…”

“Stop it!” I shouted. The ball in Larinda’s hand disappeared.
 

“Very good, Maggie. What you just did was a mild form of banishment. See? We all walk the line.”

“I’m done listening to your propaganda. Aunt Dora told me what a liar you are. You probably want to get into Dark Root so that you can cause harm to us all. Just like you sent Leah to do before.”

Larinda’s face went a shade whiter. “I never sent her to cause harm. She had one simple order, retrieve the Circle, and she bungled it. I’m sorry your family suffered because of it. That was never my intent.” She glided towards the cauldron, stirring the pot. “Stay in denial if you will, but we both know your mother is sick. She doesn’t have long left. Months maybe.” She looked up from the pot, her eyes twinkling. “The willow can not only heal people, but extend their lives. Indefinitely, perhaps.”

“That’s impossible.”

“Long ago, your mother cut a branch from the tree. She used the wand to keep herself young. All of us, really. That was one of the allures of joining The Council. No matter how what our differences, we all wanted eternal youth.

“But then she began to use it on outsiders. Soldiers, the sick, even a common prostitute once.” Larinda spat in disgust. “She squandered its power. The more she used it on others, the less she used it on us.
 

“Sasha developed these ideologies. Said she didn’t want to live forever, that no one should. Eventually, she stopped using it on herself altogether. As for us, we had to beg for it. Crawl around like dogs at her feet for a fix.”
 

Larinda’s face morphed from disgust to rage.
 

“Who the hell was she to decide for us what was best? The power got to her head. When your mother locked the wand away, it only had one charge left. And to this day I don’t know if she used that last charge or not.

“I only want what I deserve. What we all deserve. We are witches. We shouldn’t be bound by normal laws.” She floated towards Leah, lifting her daughter’s cheek. “The end is coming, Maggie. We’ve held it back for too long now. But it
is
coming. And when that day comes, mankind will suffer. Greatly. I suggest you prepare yourself now.”

“People are always saying the world will end,” I said. “But it never does.”

“That day is shielded from us,” Larinda said. “Even us. But when that day comes, think what would happen if you had a wand that would heal those you love the most: your sisters, your aunt, your friends, your mother.” Her eyes fell to my stomach. “Your child.”

My lips trembled and my heart thumped in my ears. “And if that day never comes?”

“You can use it now. To save your mother. Or others you love.”

Larinda placed a hand on Leah’s shoulder. “Someday, I will be a grandmother. I want my grandchild to live in a world without disease and fear. I want this for his generation. Not mine.”

“You don’t mean a world. You mean a select few.”

Larinda’s eyes brightened. “I shielded the location of the Lightning Willow many years ago. Do not perform the ritual and I will show you where it is. We will both get our wands and life will go on. Forever.”

Shouts outside the cabin startled us both.
 

“Maggie! Maggie!” It was Shane. A beam of light shone through the boards in the window.

Larinda hissed, drawing her cloak around herself and Leah. A thunderous clap sounded beneath the cloak.
 

In an instant, the women vanished, replaced by two ravens.

Shane and Ruth Anne burst inside. The black birds screeched as they flew out the door, whisking past my rescuers.

“Thank God for Shane!” Ruth Anne covered me in my discarded blanket. “Or I never would have found you.”

“What the hell were you doing all the way out here?” Shane asked, looking around the room. The fire was gone and the cauldron was bone cold. Only smoke and soot remained.

“Keeping warm,” I said, my eyes following the birds who became one with the night.

Fifteen

SPIDERWEBS

“We called a towing service in Linsburg. Since tomorrow’s Thanksgiving, they won’t be able to get here until Friday.”
 

Shane’s eyes did not move from the road as he drove us home.
 

I sat quietly beside him while Ruth Anne occupied herself in the back seat with a bag of Tootsie Rolls left over from Halloween.

“Merry will be so upset.” I chewed on the ends of my hair, imagining her face when she heard the news. “Not only did we not get her turkey, we ruined her car.”
 

“She’ll be alright,” Ruth Anne said, chomping on a mouthful of candy. “I already talked to her on the phone. Her insurance should cover most of it, after we meet the deductible.”

“Deductible? How much?”
 

“Five hundred.”

“Ugh.” I slunk down in my seat as I added the cost to my ever-growing expense list.
 

“I’m glad you’re okay,” Shane said, placing a hand on my knee. I left it there a second before removing it.

“Maggie, I wanted to talk to you the other day when you saw me and…”

I glared at him, my eyes unblinking.

“…it really wasn’t what it looked like,” he said.