living covenant 03 - eternal covenant (24 page)

I’d heard enough, so I tapped on Kelsey’s mind. She widened her eyes when she realized what was happening, and then I stepped inside. It was a surreal experience. That weird clown sat in the corner staring at me – offering me some really goofy waves and tooting one of those handheld horns to get my attention as I worked overtime to avoid eye contact. We were going to have to talk about that clown.

“I’m coming,” I said. “It won’t be long. I know where this spot is. Don’t worry. Don’t say anything. The wards won’t be a problem. I’ll have help. This will all be over soon.”

Kelsey didn’t know how to respond without talking out loud, so she mutely nodded.

“I’ll be here soon,” I said. “I’ll make them pay. Don’t worry. I’m getting married tomorrow. I’m taking care of the rest of this tonight. I don’t care how it happens, but it’s going to happen. Have faith, because I’ll never abandon you.”

Those were my final words before retreating. It was time to end this.

24

Twenty-Four

^“
Well?”

I met Aric’s expectant eyes as I walked out of the bedroom, gracing him with a small smile to reassure him that feeling sorry for myself wasn’t an option. “She’s down by the river,” I said. “She’s not by the totem. She’s farther down, close to the spot where I saw the wolf that day I went for a walk.”

“Is there a safe way to approach?” James asked.

“They said they’re putting up wards.”

“Wait, you heard the witches talking?” Rafael asked. “I thought you were hopping into Kelsey’s mind and then returning?”

“I did that,” I said. “It was a little different than I initially envisioned. In fact, I kind of know what it feels like to fly now.”

“Did you hear the
Superman
theme in your head when you did it?” Paris asked.

I didn’t want to laugh. Part of me was still angry with her for letting Kelsey get taken. I couldn’t stop myself, though. “You know me too well.”

“Okay, how are we going to do this?” Aric asked. “If they’re setting wards, I think that means we have to take Paris with us.”

“We need Rafael, too,” Paris said. “They might fear a vampire. That means we’ll have to wait until dark.”

“We’re not waiting until dark,” I said.

“Are you going to fry him alive?” Pemberley asked. “While I wasn’t keen on his appearance when he first showed up, I’ve grown rather fond of him now.” He winked in Rafael’s direction. “I would like to dance with him at the wedding..”

“That’s not going to happen,” I said. “He’ll be fine.”

Rafael pursed his lips as we locked gazes. “How are you going to do it, little mage? Are you going to make me dress in a trench coat and hat?”

“Would that work?”

“No.”

“Then I’m not going to do it,” I said. “I’m going to do something else.”

“I can’t wait to hear this,” Aric said. “Don’t keep us in suspense.”

“You can go outside as long as it’s not sunny, right?” I asked. “I mean … if it were to storm for a couple of hours you would be able to help as long as there was no chance of the sun coming out, right?”

Rafael knit his eyebrows. “Are you telling me you can control the weather?”

I licked my lips, unsure of how I wanted to answer. “You can go outside if it storms, right?”

“Technically yes,” Rafael answered. “It has to be a storm that lasts for a long time, though. I cannot risk a brief cloudburst.”

“Don’t worry about that,” I said. “It’ll be a big storm.”

“Wait a second, Zoe,” Aric cautioned. “How are you going to make it storm? Are you going to cast a spell with Paris?”

“I guess we could do that,” Paris hedged. “I’m not sure it would work, though, and I would need hours to prepare. I’ve never tried it before. I’ve heard about other witches being able to do it, so it’s feasible.”

“We’re not casting a spell,” I said. “I’m going to make it storm on my own. If we cast a spell we’d risk the other witches being able to reverse it. Speaking of the other witches, we need to be careful. I didn’t see the three wolves from the ice cream parlor, but I have to believe they’re involved in this somehow.

“My guess is the witches either charmed or spelled them to do their bidding,” I continued. “I’ll bet they’re in the woods. We need to avoid them until we have Kelsey back. Then all bets are off.”

“You’re making a lot of plans,” Aric said. “I like that. When you’re proactive things tend to work out. You still haven’t told me how you plan to control the weather. I’ve never seen you do that.”

“Technically you have,” I countered. “I just had … help.”

Aric frowned as he racked his brain. It took him a moment, but when he realized what I was talking about his tense smile slipped. “You didn’t control the weather that day,” he argued. “You touched The Archimage and the skies opened up with lightning. It only lasted as long as you touched the book.”

“Did she actually make it storm?” Rafael asked, intrigued.

“Yes, but … not really,” Aric replied.

“I will really turn into a big pile of ash if the sun comes out,” Rafael said. “What makes you think you can control the weather?”

“It happened when I touched the book,” I said, licking my lips. “Now that I’ve absorbed the book, I should be able to do it for a longer period of time.”

“But you don’t know that you can,” Paris pressed.

“Not yet,” I said. “I haven’t tried yet. Don’t say that I’m going to fail until I try. If I can’t do it, we’ll leave Rafael behind.”

“I don’t like that,” Aric said. “That leaves me the only one to protect Paris and you. There are five witches out there, and I somehow have to protect Kelsey when we get there. I don’t like those odds. Rafael evens things up, although it makes me sick to my stomach to say it.”

“I can do it,” I said. “I know I can.”

“But … .”

“You told me you had faith I could do anything,” I said. “You didn’t believe I could save you when we were trapped in your old apartment, but I did. Why don’t you believe I can do this?”

“It’s just so … out there,” Aric replied. “You’ve never done it before. You’ve been hiding your magic for years. Then you let it out to play and it grew exponentially because of the book. The last time you really let go … .” He left the end of the statement hanging.

“My eyes turned black and I almost wiped out an entire compound,” I finished. “I remember. I also remember that you didn’t run away. You believed I wouldn’t hurt you. I need you to believe in me now.”

“I will always believe in you,” Aric said. “I just … .” He shook his head and squared his shoulders. “I promised I wouldn’t doubt you ever again. If you say you can do this, I believe you.”

“I’m still on the fence,” Rafael said dryly. “However, I think if anyone can do this, it’s definitely you. It’s up to you, Zoe. Make it storm.”

I scratched the side of my nose as my gaze bounced from one expectant set of eyes to another. “Are you going to watch me do it?”

“Yes,” Rafael said. “I need to know you can control what’s about to happen.”

“Okay,” I said, letting out a shaky breath. “I guess now I know what it’s like to have performance anxiety, huh? This must be how Aric felt this morning after becoming a virgin again.”

“What?” James asked, screwing up his face. “What are you talking about?”

“That was private, Zoe,” Aric hissed.

For some reason his feigned anger relaxed me. No matter how things changed in our world, some things never would. “I’ve got this under control,” I said, pushing myself to my feet. “I love thunderstorms. Now I’m going to create one.”

Aric ran his hand down the back of my head and pressed a soft kiss to my temple. “I love you dearly and I know you can do this,” he said, his voice low. “I’m going to spank the crap out of you later for telling people that virgin stuff, though. That was just between us.”

“I’m looking forward to it,” I said, walking to the window.

I reached out and pressed my hands to the glass, internally tugging on the energy I found pooling in my chest. If I didn’t know better, I would think the magic was excited. It didn’t have form or feeling, but there was exuberance. I simply had to release it. So that’s what I did.

The magic rushed out, flying through the window and hitting the sky. The moment it did the sky opened, a torrent of rain falling as lightning crackled and thunder roared. My smile was triumphant when I turned back around. “See.”

“Very impressive,” Rafael said. “It’s still sunny out.”

“Give it a second,” I said, smirking as I saw the light in the window fading. It took only two seconds to turn completely gray outside, not even a hint of light peeked through the clouds. I crossed my arms over my chest. “You can all start applauding now.”

“Good grief,” Mom said, shaking her head. “We’ll never hear the end of this, will we? She made it rain and now she wants us to applaud. A little humility never hurt anyone, Zoe Lake.”

“I don’t want her to feel humility,” Aric countered. “I want that ego of hers on full display for what we’re about to do. She’s stronger when she wants people to marvel at her intelligence and power.”

“Yes, she’s a delight when that happens,” Rafael said, strolling into the room. He didn’t look worried about the possibility of my power failing. “Let’s do this, mage. I’m dying to see what kind of tricks you’ve learned since the last time you slapped the crap out of some witches.”

“Here we go again,” Paris said.

“DON’T
get ahead of yourself, Trouble,” Aric said ten minutes later, grabbing my hand and forcing me to remain at his side instead of racing into the woods. “We’re approaching this as a unit. It’s not Zoe Lake against the world. It’s Zoe, Aric, Paris and Rafael against the world.”

“Are you saying we’re like the X-Men?”

“You make me so tired sometimes,” Rafael muttered, his eyes busily scanning the trees.

“Can you see anything?” I asked.

“Just rain,” Rafael replied as the lightning overhead cleaved the sky. “I have to say, I’m ridiculously impressed with how you did this. I thought you were going to put some sort of force field around me and make me go out into the sun. Part of me was looking forward to that. The other part was terrified I would turn to ash when we tested it. This is a much better solution.”

My heart stuttered at the realization that Rafael hadn’t seen the sun in hundreds of years. I mean, I knew it on a certain level, but the reality of thinking about it was something else. “We can try that when things are more relaxed,” I offered. “If you want, I mean. If you haven’t seen the sun in a long time, you might enjoy it.”

“I’ll consider it,” Rafael replied. “For now I want to focus on this.”

“The witches have to be confused,” Aric said. “Bad weather wasn’t expected and the sun was high in the sky before Zoe dropped the rain bomb. If we’re lucky, they’ll be caught off guard by our arrival.”

“I’m going to fry two of them right away,” I announced. “I’m hopeful that’s enough to scare the crap out of the rest and force them to surrender.”

“Okay,” Aric said.

I glanced at him out of the corner of my eye. “Aren’t you going to try and talk me out of that?”

“Not even remotely,” Aric said. “They tried to kill us. They have whatever you want to dole out coming to them.”

“If Rafael is right, they did kill you,” Paris pointed out. “Now you’re like Lazarus. You’ve come back from the dead. Or, even better, you can be a good-looking zombie who doesn’t eat people.”

“Yes, that is much better,” Aric agreed dryly.

I lifted my finger to my lips to quiet them. We were close, and I didn’t want to tip the witches off to our arrival too early.

“Can you cloak us?” Rafael asked, the question taking me by surprise.

“I … don’t know.”

“You cloaked the house,” he reminded. “How hard can it be to cloak us?”

“I guess I won’t know if I don’t try,” I said, pressing my eyes shut and tugging on my magic. It gleefully raced out again, spinning a blue web of light around us before flashing and disappearing. “Do you think that worked?”

“You’re the mage,” Rafael answered. “How are we supposed to know?”

“I forget how much fun you are when I haven’t been around you for some time,” I muttered. “You really are an old woman.”

“I heard that.”

“You were meant to.”

We ceased talking for the remainder of the trek, Aric pushing Paris to the spot between Rafael and me and remaining close as we closed the distance to the clearing. At one point I heard noise and pointed to my left. Billy Ray, the mullet-loving wolf from the ice cream shop, stood beneath a tree and scanned the field. He looked in our direction, but he didn’t pause, instead staring right through us. He obviously didn’t see us.

Paris shot me an enthusiastic thumbs-up while Aric shook his head. He seemed relatively relaxed given what we were about to do.

I led everyone to the clearing, small and quiet steps hiding our approach. The witches stood in the rain, evil looks on their faces as they decided what to do.

“This has to be the mage’s work,” the brunette witch with the round face said. “She’s the one doing this. She’s coming. You know it and I know it, too.”

“She can’t control the weather,” the blonde scoffed. “It’s just a … coincidence.”

“Do you really believe that?” one of the other witches asked. “I don’t. I think she’s close. I think she’s going to kill us.”

I glanced at Aric and gestured to where Kelsey cowered. She had a mark on her cheek, as if someone struck her, and that only fueled my rage. I pointed so he knew what I wanted, causing him to sigh and nod.

He leaned over and kissed my cheek before whispering “I love you” and moving to help Paris and Rafael as they closed in on Kelsey. It was time.

I dropped the cloak, smirking at the horrified faces as they focused on me. “Hello, ladies. You’ve been very bad girls. Someone needs to break me off a switch, because there’s about to be a whooping.”

“Omigod!” One of the witches screamed, but I was focused on the blonde. She was the leader. I didn’t know how I knew it, but I did.

I flicked my hands as the witches scattered for the woods, burning two of them as their feet continued moving and causing their ashes to hit the ground before the rain washed them away.