The Magick of Dark Root (Daughters of Dark Root) (39 page)

Merry’s eyes widened. “Maybe she wants access to Dark Root to do something even more terrible to Mama while she’s under the sleeping spell! We can’t let that happen!”

I swallowed. They were right, of course. Larinda couldn’t be trusted, no matter what oath she took. “Okay, no deals with Larinda. We perform the solstice ritual to ensure they stay out.”

“You know,” Merry said thoughtfully, staring out the window at June Bug and Leo. “The wand was destroyed during the resurrection. Perhaps that voided the contract with the tree already?”

“Merry! You’re a genius!” I said, reaching over to hug her.

“I am?”
 

 
“We can probably take a wand from the Lightning Willow now. And if not, well…there’s always Plan B.”
 

Ruth Anne removed her glasses and squinted at me. “Not trying to be a Debbie Downer here, Mags, but have you considered that keeping Miss Sasha alive is cruel? The wand doesn’t turn back time, it just immobilizes it. She gets a few more years living in pain and confusion, then what?”

“Well, we don’t lose her.” I said.
 

The chandelier over our heads flickered at my words.

“I could use that time to get better at healing,” Merry offered. “And keep training June Bug. Maybe in a few years and we could erase the dementia and the pain.”

“Maybe.” Ruth Anne returned the glasses to her face. “Or maybe she continues to sleep up there like Rapunzel for the next ten-to-twenty years.”

“Sleeping Beauty,” Eve corrected, then shrugged. “Sorry, wrong fairy tale.”

“We’ve got to try,” I said. “June Bug needs her grandmother and so does my baby.”

Three sets of sad eyes turned on me. I had said the “b” word––an admittance of a future I didn’t like to think about. But I couldn't deny it any longer.
 

I was having a baby and I wanted my mother to be a part of its life.

Ruth Anne patted my hand. “I know this is hard, Mags. Losing someone you love is always hard.”

“I’m going to find the Lightning Willow,” I said. “And if the tree won’t let me take the wand, we put the feign death spell on Mother ourselves and get it that way. Mother is going to live, with or without your support, Ruth Anne.”

Ruth Anne looked at me solemnly. “Maggie, you have my support. I’m just pointing out the facts. And here’s another. When the wand was destroyed, it may have weakened Miss Sasha, since she had absorbed some of its essence during its creation.”

“Do you think that’s why she’s gotten worse?” I asked, my voice cracking.

“I dunno. Maybe.”

“Then we have to find the tree now!”

“But how?” Eve asked. “Illusion magick is so powerful. She could have made the Lightning Willow completely invisible or made it look like something else altogether.”

Maybe Ruth Anne was right. Maybe things had run their natural course and we should just enjoy the last few weeks we had with our mother. That was the most logical thing to do, and the most honest.

Leo and June Bug burst through the door.
 

“This way, Leo,” June Bug said, leading him into the powder room.

“What’s wrong?” Merry asked.

“Ouchies.” Leo pointed to a large blue bruise near his wrist. Around the bruise, his skin seemed to peel away.
 

“I don’t know how he got it,” June Bug said. “It just started.”

But I knew. Mother’s time was short, but so was Leo’s.

And I wasn’t prepared to lose either one of them.

“Go to sleep,” I ordered Leo, who sat on my bed, beating his head against the wall. “It’s late.”

“Not tired,” he said, folding his arms across his chest.
 

I climbed into bed and pulled him onto his back. He fought me but he wasn’t strong enough to resist. Not anymore. Eventually he settled into a deep sleep.
 

I fluffed my pillow, ready to try for some sleep myself, when my phone rang. It was a California area code and I hit decline. It rang again. Decline. Again.

“Geez, Michael, what do you want?” I asked, not bothering to say hello.

“Maggie, I’ve been thinking of you and the baby. Please? I really need to be there for my son.”

“Who says it’s going to be a boy?” I asked. “Or that it’s even yours?”

“You did.”

“Oh.” I stifled a yawn. “Well, maybe I lied.”

“Stop punishing me, Maggie. I know what I did was wrong. I’d do anything to take it back, but I can’t.”

Michael had been under Leah’s spell when he had been unfaithful to me.
 

I wrestled with this bit of trivia on my continuum of whether or not I should forgive him. I was leaning towards compassion at the moment as I watched Leo sleep. Then I remembered Jillian’s words: that a spell will only work on a person who has it in their nature already.
 

I tightened my grip on the phone, ready to hang up.

“I’m not asking to be a part of your life,” he continued. “Just our child’s. I want to help.”

“If you want to help,” I said, drawing up the image of his arms around Leah. “You’ll stop calling me.”

“You can’t keep him from me, Maggie.”

“Yes, Michael. I can.” If there was a spell that could keep Larinda out, there was probably one to ward off adulterous ex-boyfriends as well.

He exhaled into the phone. “A kid needs to know his father.”

“I never knew mine, and I’m fine.”

“Are you, Maggie? Are you?”

That time, he hung up the phone.

“Maggie, wake up. We’ve got trouble.”

I opened my eyes to see Ruth Anne and Eve hovering over my bed.
 

“Don’t wake Leo,” I said, pulling hair out of my mouth. He was sprawled across the mattress on the floor, snoring peacefully.

“The fuzz is here,” Ruth Anne said, pulling the blankets from me.
 

“The cops?” I asked, rubbing my eyes.

“One cop. And he’s asking a lot of questions.” Eve opened my drawers and tossed me a pair of sweat pants and a T-shirt.

“What? Why?”

“Someone has reported our friend, Leo here, missing. And the bartender identified you and Eve as the last people to be seen with him.”
 

I jumped into my clothes, running through scenarios. “We can take Leo downstairs? Show the cop that he’s okay? Then he’ll leave us alone.”

“And what if he starts talking about birdies or screaming for candy?” Eve asked.
 

“You’re right. Fuck.”

“Cut the potty mouth and get your ass downstairs,” Eve ordered. “You’re going to act innocent and charming and say whatever you need to say to make Mr. Policeman go away.”

“And what if he doesn't go away?”

“We might make a potion.”

“That’s what got us into this mess.”

“What are we going to do with the monkey, here?” Ruth Anne asked, nodding to Leo. “I don’t think it’s a good idea to leave him in this room alone. The walls are paper-thin and the cop will be able to hear him thumping around up here if he wakes up.”

“He won’t wake up,” I said, checking Leo’s breathing. It was steady and deep. He was out for at least a few more hours. “Give me five minutes and I’ll be down.”

“Be quick,” Eve said, pushing out her chest. “I can only hold him off with these for so long.”
 

“Hang in there, Leo,” I said, kissing him on the cheek. “I’ll be back again soon.”

The officer was young, probably right out of the academy, with golden hair and trusting blue eyes. He reminded me of some of the recruits we had back at Woodhaven, young men not yet jaded by life, who still believed they could do some good in the world.
 

In about five years, he’d be hardened by the same old sob stories and endless red tape, but for now he believed in the justice of the system and probably of the world.

“Miss Maddock,” he said, extending a ring-less left hand to shake. “Sorry to bother you. My name is Officer Braden and I’m investigating the disappearance of a man named Leonard Winston. His mother reported him missing a couple of days ago.”

“Leonard?” I asked. “Is that his full name?”
 

Eve shot me a look.
 

“You know him, then?”

I bit my lip. I had no idea what Eve and Ruth Anne had already said and I didn’t want to contradict their stories. Fortunately, Ruth Anne chimed in.

“We already told the officer that you only saw him briefly. That you were at the bar for a girl’s night out with Eve and that you met him playing pool.”

 
“And then Ruth Anne came and picked us up. That was the last we saw of him,” Eve concluded, wiping her hands together.

Officer Braden took out his pen and nodded. “The bartender on duty that night said about the same thing, but I thought I’d see if you could provide any additional details on that night.”

Ruth Anne’s eyes slid to the window when Officer Braden wasn’t watching. Leo’s car was parked outside.

Oh, fuck. He knows.

“Well,” I said, as sweetly as I could. “I’m sorry it has to come out this way, Eve, but that’s not entirely true.”