Time Spell (25 page)

We walked around the living room wall and down the short hall to what used to be Simone’s room. I sighed with relief when I saw that the wood paneling still encircled the room. I crouched under the window and prodded the seams of the panels until they popped up. I couldn’t believe it. The bag was still there.

“Whoa. It’s here. After all these years, those diamonds have been sitting in the wall of this dingy hovel. I can’t believe it.” Jack picked up the bag and pulled on the handles.

They were there—the other half of the VonRue diamonds. While Jack sifted through the stones, I spied the box of letters. I picked it up and carried it under my arm.

“What’s in there?” he asked.

“Letters. Who knows? There may be more to Simone’s story. This place is going to be torn down in a few months anyway.”

We each handled a piece from Simone’s past and walked out to meet our cab a block down the street. One more feat ahead of us, and this nightmare would be over. Too bad it was the one I was the most nervous about.

“I
JUST
want to be sure, Jack. Let’s go over the plan one more time.”

It was almost dark and almost time to meet Helen for the diamond and Ivy trade. Until a few hours ago, I didn’t have a plan. Now that we had loosely knit one together, I wanted to make sure Jack and I were on the same page. Thanks to Simone, we had a new weapon in our arsenal.

Jack spent the last twenty minutes pacing in front of the great wall of windows, trying to talk me out of what I had in mind. He was persuasive, but not enough to deter me from I knew I had to do.

“This is too dangerous for you. I saw what Helen tried last night. Why do you think you can even get in the same room with her?” He stopped in mid-stride and faced me. “I can do it. I’ll take the diamonds. You don’t even need to go.”

He didn’t understand. “Ugh! Jack, if you take the diamonds and I don’t show up, she’s going to have those Neanderthals cart you off somewhere. On top of that, our families go right back on the chopping block. As long as Helen is hunting for magic, my family isn’t safe. No, my way is the only way.”

He reached for my shoulders. “I’m not going to be able to talk you out of this, am I?”

He had the sexiest, most forlorn look on his face. Part of me did want him to talk me out of it. However, this was it. There was only one plan.

“You know the answer.” I looked at the clock. “It’s time.”

He shook his head at the floor. “I’ve got your back, Ivy. I’m in. I don’t like it, but I’m in.”

“Ok, just grab that bag of diamonds and let’s go kick some Proxy ass.”

The crumbling mansion blended in with the darkness of the street. The front gates were open. Jack and I walked through them, past the parched fountain, and up the steps. Helen’s minions were waiting at the top of the stairs, hands folded on their belts.

“Please tell Helen we’re here to see her.” My voice was firm.

I didn’t want these goons to know how scared I was. Scared my plan wasn’t going to work, scared I had put Jack in danger by bringing him. I looked at him. He was strong—I knew that—but a strong man against evil magic wasn’t much of a match. His hand rested on my back. If he was scared, I couldn’t tell.

“Follow us.”

The men opened the doors and led us into the candle-lit room. Relieved they didn’t manhandle us into separate rooms, we willingly followed them into the recesses of the house.

Helen had changed into a wispy pale pink chiffon dress. The folds and layers engulfed her frail body. For a moment, I pitied her and what she had become.

“Do you have them?” Her voice was sharp.

She had lost last night’s playful, ethereal tone. Her stare was directed at me. Immediately, I felt an invasion of my mind’s barrier. The witchy tingle transformed into a stinging sensation that seared my thoughts and movements. I reached out to the wall to steady myself.

“Yes, they’re here.” Jack took the bag from my grasp before it landed on the floor and handed it to Helen.

I used my free hand to grab his shoulder. I couldn’t shake the buzzing feeling.

She opened the clasp to look inside. Her simultaneous gasp and cackle echoed in the barren room. Piece by piece, she drew out necklaces, rings, and stones. She shoved them back in the bag and snapped in the air at her minions, who were waiting in the corner for directions.

The shorter man delivered a black folder. “Your signatures are required here,” she snapped while pointing at the papers being held midair by the man.

“What is this?” Jack barked. He had one arm around my shoulder—at least it felt like his arm. The room faded in and out around me.

“My insurance, Mr. Coleman, that there won’t be a sequel or a story run in the press about this chain of events. Sign the document that this secret stays here in this room.”

“What happens if I break the agreement?”

“Isn’t there someone important to you in your life? A sister perhaps?” She lifted her eyes to look at Jack.

“She stays out of this! What do you need me to sign?” Jack took the pen from the second man and flipped through the flimsy contract.

I did my best to sputter out a sentence. “Helen, this contract can’t be legal. This is ridiculous.” I watched Jack sign the open line at the bottom of the page.

“Legal?” She laughed. “I’m not worried about legal. This is an agreement between us. I’ll keep my end of the deal. No harm will come to either of your families. You have my word. But, not a peep.” She lifted her index finger to cover her mouth and then wagged it in our direction. “No, no, not another written word, interview, anything. Do we have an agreement?”

Our heads nodded. I waited for Jack to hand me the pen. The mind-numbing invasion temporarily stopped. Helen smiled at me and motioned to me to sign the papers.

“Wonderful, wonderful.” Her voice warmed. “Thank you, Mr. Coleman. You may go.”

She waved at Jack to leave the room while her eyes were fixated on me. The swishing in my head started again, and I felt the stinging pulse pushing against the inside of my skin. I tried to step closer to Jack but I wasn’t sure what direction my legs carried me. I tried to focus on a speck on the floor, anything to keep me from toppling over.

“Wait, Helen. Before I go, I have something for you.” I heard his deep voice through the murkiness in my ears.

“For me?” She placed a withered hand over her chest, deflating some of the chiffon clouds.

The pull subsided and my mind felt numb. She was focused on Jack. I took a deep breath and tried to steady myself on my shaky legs.

“Yes, we found this with Simone’s things. It’s rather personal though.” He reached inside his jacket and pulled out a stack of envelopes. They were bound together and tied with a red ribbon. He tossed the letters into Helen’s chair and waited for her response.

She slinked toward the chair and batted the bundle with the back of her hand. “Why, Mr. Coleman? What could I possibly find of interest in that little bitch’s things? She was trash. Nothing of hers could be valuable.”

“It’s information, that’s all. You should know what’s in there.” Again, Jack was casual and non-pressuring. He traced his steps back to me and wedged his body between mine and Helen’s forceful current. It was zeroed in on all things in me that were witchy.

I realized the night before that Jack was a block to the magical conduit she created. He wouldn’t be able to shield me completely, but enough that we could buy some much needed seconds. I was relieved he was staying calm. It wasn’t easy with Helen’s antics. There was no way to persuade a Proxy unless they wanted to be persuaded.

She pulled the end of the ribbon and unfurled the tie binding the letters together. Her eyes squinted and hardened as she scanned the page of the first letter. “What is this? I demand to know who wrote these lies? Answer me!” She frantically ripped open the other letters in the chair. “No! No, this isn’t true. Who wrote these?”

Jack answered. “We found them with Simone’s things. My guess is Langford wrote them. We thought you should know.”

Helen began shredding the letters, tearing at them with her nails and teeth and stomping on them under her pointy heels. “No, no, no! That little vixen ruined everything. This isn’t possible. She stole Holden; she hid the diamonds… She, she took Langford too?” Helen crumpled on the floor, surrounded by clouds of pink chiffon and scraps of Langford’s adoring letters to Simone. “Not, Langford. No, not him. He was all I had.”

Helen’s henchmen ran into the room, alerted to danger by the wrenching sobs of their employer. Jack drew back and threw a hard punch, landing on the jaw of the taller man. He rocked back on his heels and hit the tiled floor with a thud. The shorter, pudgy opponent grabbed a candlestick from the floor and branded it like a sword, swinging at Jack’s head. Jack ducked and punched the man in the stomach. The man doubled over, grabbing his protruding belly, and then reached behind him. His hand fiddled with his belt.

“Jack!” I screamed when I saw the man was trying to wrestle a gun from the belt holster secured to his back.

Jack leaned to his left side, raised his right foot, and delivered a powerful kick to the man’s face. The man crashed to the floor and the gun slid across the room.

We faced Helen. She was still crumpled on the floor, desperately shredding the letters into tinier pieces. Now was my chance.

I took a deep breath, zeroed my eyes on the contemptible figure in front of me, and brought my palms within inches of her.

“Extinguish!” I held my hands as close to her as I could without touching her. “Extinguish!” I called the spell again.

Helen jerked her head around and peered at me. “What? You can’t, there’s nothing you can do to stop…” Abruptly, she stopped speaking and started twitching. First her hands, then shoulders. “What is happening? What have you done, Ivy?”

Her eyes were wide with fear. Terror coursed through my body when she clutched my shoulders and screamed. I waited for the sharp sting to zip through my mind and separate the witchy essence from the rest of my body. I squeezed my eyes tightly, anticipating the blistering pain. Helen screamed again. I opened my eyes.

“Ivy? Ivy, are you ok?” Jack shoved the old woman from my shoulders and I heard her hit the floor. His hands gripped my shoulders and held me in front of him.

My eyes traveled around the room before I registered what had happened.

“Yes, yes, I’m great!” I laughed and looked down at my hands. I flipped my palms over to examine them. “She can’t…she didn’t…it worked. The
Extinguish Spell
worked.”

He pulled me into his arms, almost crushing me. I hugged him and rested my cheek against the coolness of his shirt. My eyes were heavy, and my body was exhausted from the magic I had used and what had been used on me. I wanted to stay there in the safe circle of Jack’s arms and sleep.

“Can I sleep now?”

He laughed at me and squeezed me tighter. “Wait, where’s Helen?” He held me in front of him, and we looked around the room. The knucklehead guards were knocked out, the bag of diamonds was next to the chair, and like bread crumbs, a tattered paper trail led through the front doors. “We should go after her.”