The Mayhem Sisters (20 page)

Paul gasped for breath and bucked like a wild horse, but Vivi grabbed his throat and pushed on his windpipe. It took all her strength to hold him down. Her muscles trembled, and she didn’t know how long she could control him. “Stop!” she screamed.

He went still. His eyes bulged. His skin was slippery with sweat under her hands.

Esmeralda had been right all along. The seer had warned her about the witch’s snare, and here it was—the future catching up to her in real time. But where the trap had gone in the struggle, Vivi had no idea.

“He is stronger than anyone realizes.”
The words echoed in her memory.

“Don’t do this, Paul. You don’t have anything to prove to Dr. Fowler or the Menders,” Vivi said, trying to quiet him.

He choked back a gurgle and she loosened her grip on his throat. “That’s where you’re wrong. Don’t you get it? This is my invention.”

“Your invention kills. You aren’t a killer.” Reason was all she had left to bargain with. “There’s still a way out. Let me help you stop this.”

He went quiet and still as a stone. Something in his eyes changed. They stared at each other for a few achingly long seconds, until he nodded. “Will you talk to the sheriff?”

“Yes.”

“You’re lying.”

“No, I promise to speak with him. We’ll help you end this.”

“Okay, but on one condition.” His voice was low and hoarse.

Vivi leaned closer. “What?”

“I want your magic first,” he whispered, his hot breath against her ear. Suddenly, he screamed the activation spell, calling the knot toward her. The fibers sprang off the floor, alive with magic. Vivi tried to jerk away, but the trap sprung instantly. Coarse hair shot out of the tiny knot and spun around her, sealing her in a cocoon of hair, thread, and fiber. Paul rolled out from under her, shoving her as far away as possible.

The snare was rough against her skin and smelled like a wet sheep. She dropped to her knees and then keeled over. Her limbs were pressed tightly together as the fibers twisted, rendering her completely immobile and at his mercy. This was what flies must feel like when they got caught in a spider’s web, spun up until they’re served for dinner.

“Where are you taking me?” she asked.

“Someplace where no one will find you.” Paul pulled a black hood out of his pocket and covered Vivi’s head.

The world went dark.

Paul mumbled a phrase of spells and Vivi was lifted off the ground. Her body floated and she struggled, but it was no use. He was moving her. She felt a hard thud against her hip as she was dropped onto a flat surface. Then a whooshing sound from the magical thrust of a hovercraft filled the darkness, but where he was taking her, she had only one guess—Fox’s Rock.

She had underestimated him. It was all so clear now. He lived in the area, just like all three of the victims. He had access to both Dr. Fowler and Miranda. He could easily be providing them with the magical formulas for the device, and they would never be the wiser to how he was obtaining the data.

Vivi’s mind raced. Pepper was out cold and Honora was in Stargazer City. With the search in full swing, everyone would be busy and would probably assume she was out looking for Sabine. She had to accept that no one was coming to help.

They didn’t travel far. He moved her again, lifting her like a doll and leaving her in a cold place with loose earth beneath her.

“Paul! Paul!” Vivi yelled. The hood was claustrophobic, causing her to panic. Sweat poured down her face. The snare tightened with every twist and turn.

“What?” he asked. The sound of his voice was close.

“I can’t breathe,” she gasped. The fibers were strangling her, cutting into her skin. “Too tight. I’m being squeezed to death.”

He yanked the hood off and gazed down at her. “Damn, your face is turning blue.” He let out a sigh. “I guess I could cut you loose. Don’t want you to die yet.” He snorted. Something brushed her side and Vivi jerked. “It’s just me. You’re so jumpy,” he said. “You’re just lucky I have the knife on me. These snares are impossible to escape.” He tugged at the rough hair. She heard scraping and cutting sounds, and the knot loosened.

Vivi kicked free and untangled herself from the snare. Relieved, she collapsed onto the ground and rubbed the circulation back into her legs. She rested her head on an earthen wall and looked around. Paul’s face was shadowy and hollow. The tip of his wand glowed in the darkness of a tight underground tunnel. “There’s no way out of here, so don’t even try to run.” His breath was hot on her face as he leaned in close.

“Is she here?” Vivi asked. “The other witch. Her name’s Sabine, in case you were wondering.”

“Shut up about her,” he snapped. “Can’t you stop?”

“No, I can’t. I can’t stop seeing what you did to her. That’s what having my
persuasion
does to me.” Vivi had to keep him talking while she figured a way out.

“There’s plenty of pain to go around. Pain made me stronger. Gave me purpose.” In the low light of the tunnel, he looked like an animal.

“You steal
persuasions
. You kidnap, torture, and kill. That’s not power.”

“That was an accident. I didn’t mean to kill the flyer.” Paul turned away from her, unable to face what he had done. “Sacrifices have to be made for the sake of magical science.” The line was an excuse to ease his guilty conscience.

“What will you do with my
persuasion
? You can’t just peer into the future.”

“I don’t want it for myself. It’s a gift for Miranda. I told you, she loves power. Soon she’ll need me. I just have to prove to her how much. I knew the minute I met you in the alley. You were the one.” He smiled.

“Empathy. You were using Clarissa’s magic.” She had walked right into his plan.

Vivi reached out her hands, feeling the hard-packed ground beneath her fingers. The walls were made of rough earth. There was no door, no window, no discernible way in or out of the small space. He tapped the low earthen ceiling with his wand and whispered a spell under his breath. The ground parted, and a row of earthen steps appeared. Sabine hadn’t been buried alive; she had been kept in the ground, stored like a nut for winter.

“We’re inside a rabbit hole,” Vivi said. “Is that where you’re keeping her?”

“Does it look like it?” Paul held out his hands. “Just sit there and be quiet. I have something special in store for you,” he said cryptically and hurried up the steps, leaving her underground.

A rabbit hole was old-world magic. It was an escape spell used in the days when witches were hunted in the human world. The spell created a burrow in the earth with no way in and no way out. The witches used them to hide from hunters and would stay hidden for hours or days until the hunter left. It was kind of ingenious. Only the witch, or wizard, in this case, who cast the spell, could open the burrow. What Paul lacked in natural magical talent, he more than made up for in intelligence and creativity. Too bad he was such a psychopath. His talents were going to waste.

Vivi closed her eyes and reached for an image of Sabine with her mind. All she wanted was a sign that the witch was still alive and close by. But it was an image of the basement she’d seen in her vision at Mender Corp that flashed into her head. Vivi felt Sabine’s presence almost immediately, but Sabine wasn’t in the ground like she was; the young witch was being held in the basement. Then, Vivi gagged as her own throat tightened. She reached her senses further out to the young witch. This time Vivi felt Sabine cough and grab at her neck. Paul was hurting her, draining her, but not with the bracelet, with something else, more powerful.

Something heavy and tight hung around the young witch’s neck—a collar.

The purpose of the collar made sense to Vivi when she thought about it. Paul had taken his magic to the next level. By creating the collar, he had created a powerful siphon to obtain higher amounts of magic to store. That was why he was still holding Sabine, pulling more power from her. The metal bracelet wasn’t enough. He needed a stronger device. With a cuff, the magic only lasted for a short amount of time, as demonstrated by the flyer at the Mender Corp party. By design, the collar pulled more magic from the witches, but it also left them as a shell or dead. The thought sickened her.

He was going to drain Sabine dry, killing her in the process, and then he was going to collar Vivi. Panic sharpened her focus. The good news was Sabine was still alive. Now all Vivi had to do was figure out a way to trick Paul into letting her out of the rabbit hole. That’s what made them perfect hiding places. The only way out was when Paul opened up the hole to enter.

Vivi ran through a list of spells she had learned from her days at Haven Academy. When she first learned basic magic spells with her sisters and classmates, they all wanted to have spells at the tips of their wands. Then they realized how hard it was to memorize and retain the spells, and the list dwindled. It wasn’t like she had an encyclopedia of spells in her head, and she knew of no spells strong enough to break out of a rabbit hole.

Basic spells for lifting heavy objects, opening and closing doors, and turning on an illuma light just weren’t going to help her. Neither would movement spells like propulsion or shifting. Being underground didn’t help. She didn’t want to shift or move the ground. The last thing she needed was a collapsed burrow, raining earth down on her, burying her alive. The only thing she could think of was to make it so miserable out there for Paul that he would have to open the rabbit hole. All she needed was for him to open the burrow for a few seconds. The fire alarm had worked well at Mender Corp, but she was in the woods and needed more than an alarm. Perhaps what she needed was a natural noisemaker with claws, one that was feathered and not so friendly like a flock of angry squawking birds.

Vivi had never excelled in music, so there was no way she could send out anything elegant or enchanting, but she could call out for help. Having a bird for a familiar had its advantages. She knew a lot of birdcalls, and they could be really compelling and annoying, especially when amplified with a magic spell, and so she pressed her lips together and blew. Then she coughed. It had been a while. She licked her lips and tried again. She whispered the spell to amplify the sound and then blew. This time a lovely tune filled the burrow. She repeated the tune over and over until her throat was hoarse.

Black birds, lots of black birds,
she thought. If the spell and song worked properly she was conjuring up a swarm of angry black birds, pulled out of their own habitat and into the woods, surrounding Paul. Within minutes, caws filled the air above her. The spell was working. Vivi intensified the spell, agitating the flock. She was hoping Paul would be overconfident enough to open the burrow.

Suddenly, the ground shuddered and the earthen steps appeared, but he didn’t descend. “What do you think you’re doing down there?” Paul’s voice was exasperated. The burrow immediately filled with the screaming of birds and sound of ruffling wings. “Call off those stupid birds.”

Vivi was ready and, in a split second, yelled a tumbling spell that knocked Paul off his feet, followed by a pulling spell that yanked him violently forward. He tumbled down the stairs, and she leapt around his body, raced up the earthen steps, and exited the rabbit hole. She squinted at the bright light. She was in a wooded clearing with a small, thatched roof cottage that appeared to be near Fox’s Rock. Her suspicions were right. Paul had been here all the time, hiding right in Willow Realm. She ran in the opposite direction of the cottage, but was suddenly and violently thrown to the ground. Her body was dragged across the rough surface, and she grabbed wildly at the underbrush, but it did no good. Paul had chased her down and was pulling her back. Her escape attempt had been futile. Once returned to the clearing, Vivi rolled over and sat up.

“I can move anything.
Anything
. Even you.” Wearing a crazed expression, Paul held out his hand, and Vivi’s entire body levitated off the ground. She hovered two feet off the ground. She gasped and flung her arms out for balance, but she didn’t need it, for he held her perfectly still, pinning her arms down to her side. Paul had obtained one of the strongest
persuasion
in Everland. “It’s brilliant and it’s mine. Oh, I’ll make some cuffs for minor
persuasions
to keep Mender Corp happy, but the really valuable magic will be mine alone.”

“You can’t do this. Look at yourself and what it’s doing to you. All that magic isn’t safe. It takes years to master a
persuasion
. They’re meant to be a part of us, to grow and develop with us, so that we know how to use the magic.” Vivi tried to reason with him, but he released her body with a wave of his hand, and she plummeted to the ground with a hard crash.

“Says a witch with power.”

Vivi crawled to her feet. “I would gladly let you take every drop of my power, but I can’t. I have it for a reason, and I have to learn to use it, to keep it. We have to be the witches we were born to be with whatever magic we were given. It’s how the witching world works. I’m sorry if it’s not fair.”

“I wasn’t born with a strong
persuasion
. I’ve had to learn everything. What am I supposed to do while the rest of you have all the advantages?” He held up his wrist. “This is what I did. I made this happen when Fowler couldn’t.” His eyes gleamed with pride.

“Sounds like you’re doing pretty fine without magic. You’ve made tremendous advancements in the lab with little or no help. You just have to keep doing that in a positive way. You were succeeding. You just can’t do it like this.”

“That’s a nice speech. But I don’t care anymore. About you or anyone else.” His face had gone blank. He held up a collar.

Vivi stumbled backwards. Paul was done talking. “Sorry, this is gonna hurt.”

Before he could reach her, black clouds filled the sky. The wind picked up. The birds erupted from the trees and flew away in a burst of wings. A storm was coming, but she didn’t think it was a natural one since the energy formed too quickly. The clouds appeared to be boiling above them, churning up wind. Sparks of lightning crackled across the sky. This storm had been made with magic.