4 Tiddly Jinx Read online

  We walked to the gardens rather than back inside. Magic didn’t have to be performed outside, but I liked it better like that. I instructed her to sit cross-legged on the ground and to meditate, focusing on her internal energy. I took the book back inside to the safe in Cheney’s office. It was still hard to let it go though I didn’t carry it as long this time. Next I headed to my bathroom and rifled through the closet until I found what I was looking for, then I collected a small bag of magical paraphernalia. As I was headed back out, one of the castle guards kept looking at me out of the side of his eye like he wanted to say something, but didn’t think it was the right time. Cheney and I were different. He knew everyone’s name, but he was also very aware of their position and the difference between him and them. Not that he was uppity with anyone, more that everyone had their role to play and he didn’t question those roles. I went back to the man. Though I couldn’t remember his name, I didn’t feel there was any difference between him and me.

  “I’m Selene,” I said and offered him my hand. His eyes widened and he looked from my face to my hand. I was breaking protocol, but I didn’t care.

  He finally shook my hand. “Heinrich.”

  “It’s nice to meet you, Heinrich. Was there something you wanted to say?”

  One corner of his mouth rose. “It may not make a difference to you, but if I were you, I would want to know that you and the Erlking have the full support of the household staff in the election.”

  I smiled back. “Of course it matters. Thank you.”

  “Some people resist change, but I suspect everything changes whether or not we want it to.”

  “I think so, too.”

  “Have a good day, Your Highness. If you need anything, let me know.”

  I patted his shoulder. “Please call me Selene. You have a good day, too.” I waved as I went back toward the garden.

  When I reached Frost, I gasped. The grass beneath her was black and withered, and the blackness was spreading like a plague over the ground.

  She opened one eye. “Can I stop getting in touch with my feelings? Just tell me what to do.”

  I nodded and tossed her the ointment that would help her heal. She opened it and sniffed, wrinkling her nose. “It will help your arms.”

  She dabbed it on the left arm, and her face relaxed almost immediately. She took a much larger scoop and smeared it all over both wounds, then stood up. The dead grass finally caught her eye and her face blanched, her small hand moving to cover her mouth. “Did I do that?”

  I didn’t know what to say. Obviously she had done it, but she looked so frightened at the notion that I didn’t want to make her feel worse. “Has that not happened before?”

  “No…I normally don’t leave a trail of death behind me.”

  “Could it be because you were injured? Maybe you were drawing life from the ground to heal yourself.”

  “Maybe,” she said, sounding doubtful and glancing back at the grass. After a moment she looked back up with new determination in her eyes. “So, how do I do this?”

  I offered her the bag in my hand. She took it, careful not to touch me.

  “Get out the chalk dust.” I sat on the bench, instructing her on making a circle of protection and explaining each step as she went. When the circle was complete and the four corners were represented, it was time for the actual magic. “Stand in the center. Now, you have to take the energy you feel inside of you and transfer it to the circle. You are like the battery that powers the circle.”

  “Why exactly am I doing this? Is it part of the other spell?”

  I motioned for her to continue. “Just like you did while meditating.”

  She frowned, glancing back to the grass.

  “Don’t worry about that. This is all just energy. Picture it like a column rising up around you from the chalk that nothing can cross through. Like this.” I stood, focusing my energy around me as I slowly lifted my hands from my sides up over my head, stretching toward the sky and arching my back. The air gathered into a tight circle around me, sparkling and glittering as it shot up into the air.

  Frost raised a doubtful eyebrow, but her face settled into concentration as she mimicked my movement. The dust swirled up about six inches, then dropped back to the ground with a puff.

  “More energy. Everything you feel inside of you. All of the anger, resentment, sadness—use it all. Put everything into the circle.”

  Frost dropped her arms but kept her eyes closed and took a couple of deep breaths. This time when she lifted her arms, the white dust lifted and swirled around the circle so fast it was hard to see through it. Piece by piece it turned black, but continued to rise towards the sky. I watched in amazement as the glittering black dust shot toward the heavens. The thought that I shouldn’t be teaching someone magic for the sole purpose of doing dark magic crossed my mind.

  Frost smiled inside the circle, her eyes open now. Her features looked eerily distorted through the black sandstorm, and each strand of her white hair lifted and danced around her head like Medusa’s snakes. I took the flask of distilled water from the bag and threw it at the column of black. The water slowed when it hit the swirling dust but it still went through, catching her flat in the chest. All the chalk drifted back to the ground, black and unholy now.

  “You stop concentrating and you die,” I told her. “Try again.”

  We went through the simple spell a few more times before she mastered it.

  “Now what?” Frost asked.

  Now that she could manipulate energy, I didn’t see why we couldn’t start on the spell book. All magic was basically a variation of the circle of protection. The ceremony and components might be different, but it was still fed by the person or coven running it. I glanced up—the moon was out now. Time had slipped away from me. “Now we take a break and get something to eat. We’ll start working on spells tonight.”

  She nodded and started back into the castle. I began to follow her when a hand reached out of the darkness, catching my arm.

  “Do you think it’s a good idea to teach her this, pet?”

  “How long have you been here?” I asked Corbin.

  “Long enough to know what she’s doing isn’t like what you or your coven does. Never train your future enemies.”

  I nodded and pulled away. “Maybe it won’t come to that.” I turned to face him, though he was still mostly obscured by the patch of darkness he had found. “There were wendigos today on the Cedar Ridge. Six of them.”

  “Did you find the tear?” he asked, his face too hard to read in the darkness.

  “No. Nothing obvious stood out. I take it tears aren’t obvious though, are they?”

  His smile made me feel like dinner. His dinner. “Not if the person doing it is smart. Leave the tears small and nearly untraceable and no one can fix them. That way, even if they lose the Pole, they still have a way back and forth.”

  “Could you recognize one?”

  “Perhaps.”

  I held back the sigh at his answer. “Will you help find it?”

  He lifted two dark eyebrows and leaned a little further into the light. “What will I get if I do?”

  I was tired of all these people wanting something for helping save the world. We all had to live here. Why was I the only one who seemed to care? “My eternal gratitude.”

  His lips brushed against my cheek, but I didn’t feel the pull of him feeding so I didn’t push him away. “I might need something slightly more enticing, pet.”

  THE FIRE CRACKLED, AND the warm glow spread around us though none of us were looking at it. We were focused on the perimeter, waiting for the wendigo to show up. We’d heard the scream less than ten minutes before, despite having checked the mountain three more times at different elevations and finding nothing. Sy suggested building a fire and drawing the creature to us rather than running off to look for it, but it still hadn’t shown itself.

  The trees to my right rustled. My head snapped toward the noise, as did Sy’s,
whose weapon was already in his hand. Sebastian came around but kept watch behind us. Sy inched toward the forest, but I held up a hand to stop him. He was taller and more thickly muscled than me, but I was faster and quieter, and thus better suited for this particular enemy.

  I took a step forward, but before my foot could reach the ground, a body dropped in front of me. The snarling mouth and gray skin were unmistakable. It was the wendigo.

  “Corbin,” Sy said, his tone implying that he would have rather seen ten wendigos in front of us than the vampire.

  “Bartender,” Corbin replied, leaning against a tree and smirking at us. “Decide to have a cookout? Some male bonding?”

  “Was that the only one?” Sebastian asked, ignoring Corbin’s attempts at humor.

  Corbin nodded. “For now.”

  “How’s Selene coming along with Frost?” I asked him. Obviously, if the vampire had come here, he had first gone to see her, because none of us had gone to find him.

  He tilted his head in acknowledgement. “Too well. Teaching a necromancer to cast is risky.”

  “There’s no other choice,” Sebastian said. “Allowing Selene to cast the spell would mean losing her. Frost is an acceptable loss. Selene isn’t.”

  Corbin stood still as a corpse posed against the tree, eyeing us. “Oh, I couldn’t agree more. Save Selene. I will sign the petition, wear the t-shirt, whatever.” He winked at me, making me very much want to hit him. “Now, if the spell doesn’t quite do the job, I take it you are willing to do what’s necessary to restore balance.”

  “What’s that?” Sy asked.

  “Kill her when the job is complete.” He folded his arms over his chest. “Speaking on behalf of the vampires, who are yet unaware of the situation, they will not appreciate the empowerment of a new necromancer. It took us years to rid ourselves of the others. They will take it quite personally, not to mention what she could do to you if she so chose.”

  “For example?” Sebastian asked.

  “For example, she could raise an army of undead, and there’s nothing we could do to stop her.”

  “Are you scared of one little necromancer, Corbin?” Sy asked. “I suppose vampires never have been able to fight their own battles.”

  Corbin looked bored. “Why fight for ourselves when so many others are willing to do it for us?” He tapped his foot. “Killing her is my price for helping you find the tear. I will find it, if you agree to rid us of the necromancer. Save Selene.” He gave a mock salute, then went deathly still again as he waited for an answer.

  I turned my back to him and faced Sebastian and Sy. “What do you think?”

  “I don’t now and I never will trust a vampire. They always turn on you in the end. We don’t even know that he can find the tear.” Sy’s jaw hardened and he slipped his hands into his pockets.

  Sebastian blinked a couple times. “Better to warily trust a vampire than to stand by and watch our next crisis walk away.”

  “I don’t pretend to know Frost well, but she’s a bounty hunter. She has not pursued dark magic or shown any inclination to learn it before now. Maybe she’s legitimately trying to help. That’s what she does. She helps people every day. What does he do?”

  “For money,” Sebastian said. “She helped us and we paid her. Now she wants the dark magic book Selene found as payment for doing this. If her intentions really are as good as you say, then why does she want the book? Even if she doesn’t plan on using it and sells it to the highest bidder, it would still be arming a potential enemy with a power we know nothing about. I don’t see how we can set her free with it.”

  “We never intended to,” I said. “Selene and I planned to fulfill our end of the bargain and give her the book, but then steal it back and destroy it.”

  “I stand by the fact that I would trust Frost before Corbin.”

  “I really can’t imagine what we have done to upset you, bartender,” said Corbin from directly behind him, “but as Selene’s cousin, I’ll allow the grudge to stand unchallenged.”

  Sy didn’t start—he simply rolled his silver eyes. “Anytime you want to fight, vampire, let me know.”

  “We’ll take the deal,” I said, offering him my hand, which he shook in his waxy grip.

  “Excellent choice. The lovely Selene will not look kindly upon this arrangement.” Corbin shrugged. “But it’s a gentleman’s agreement, and the ladies need not be involved.”

  I wouldn’t allow him to come between Selene and me. A game this clumsy designed to drive a wedge between us was almost insulting. The moment I didn’t tell her, he would, and reveal me as the party at fault.

  “Stay here. I’ll be back when I find the tear.” Corbin disappeared into the shadows, moving through them. His natural habitat, I thought.

  The night slipped away, and dawn approached faster and faster. We burned the wendigo bodies and the remains of the settlement. No one needed to know any of this had ever happened. Finally, less than an hour before sunrise, Corbin came back.

  “Found it.” He beckoned us forward. We followed him to a fallen tree and he pointed beneath it. “There.”

  Sy and Sebastian went to check it out. Sy lifted the tree trunk up a few inches and Sebastian stuck his hand in the hole. When his arm was up to his shoulder he paused, then pulled it back out and nodded. “It’s deep.”

  “It doesn’t feel unnatural,” I said. The space under the tree looked like nothing more than a hole.

  “That’s because it isn’t unnatural. The veil is the unnatural part of this world. The worlds were never meant to be separated. It was forced upon us,” Corbin said.

  “So you’re in favor of the veil coming down?” Sebastian asked.

  “No. I’m in favor of nothing that upsets the good thing I have going here, but that doesn’t mean it’s unnatural.” Corbin looked toward the sky. “Don’t forget our deal, Erlking.” With that, he took off at a run back into the forest.

  “There’s no way he’ll make it out before the sun rises,” Sy said. “Maybe the sun will do us all a favor.” He shook his head and glanced at his watch. “I gotta get back to the office. Call me if you need anything.” He disappeared, leaving just me and Sebastian.

  “You get Selene, I’ll guard the entrance,” I told him. He nodded once and transported back to the castle. I sat across from the tumbled down tree and waited for them to come back. The wedding, the baby, the election; everything about my life was changing. But for once, I didn’t dread it. Everything I wanted was within my grasp. All I had to do was solve this and the rest of our lives would fall into place.

  Selene had dark circles under her eyes when she arrived, and Frost was dragging her feet. They both looked like they had been up all night. Selene stood next to me, half of her body leaning against mine. “How was last night?” I asked.

  “Good. We made some progress.” She stifled a yawn and handed Frost the backpack. “Remember, only read the spell we intend to cast. We need to patch the tear.”

  Frost nodded, opened the book, and began thumbing through the pages. “Summons Balthazar, resurrection, commune with the dead, retribution, love…love?” she looked up at Selene.

  “Love spells are very dangerous and even harder to undo. Best left to nature.”

  “Seeing glass, curses…” She skipped a few pages. “How about this: shutting a porthole?”

  Selene licked her lips. “It’s so hard to say without reading it. And this technically isn’t a porthole—it’s a tear. And wait, that spell is in there? That isn’t a dark spell...” She trailed off, brows drawn together in thought. Frost just shrugged in response. “Skip it,” Selene finally replied. “It’s not what we’re looking for, anyway.”

  Frost went on reading titles and Selene kept turning them down until she got to a spell titled “Sealed Forever in Blood” and Selene held up her hand. “Is it too much to hope there’s a description?” she asked.

  Frost looked up at her. “So I should read this one?” After a short pause, Selene gave he
r a curt nod.

  “Go ahead and read it.”

  Frost took a deep breath, then looked back to the book. She spoke out loud softly as she read the spell, trying to commit it to memory. The air changed around us. The morning felt cooler and the breeze picked up. Goosebumps trailed down my spine and the birds all went silent—even Selene’s eyes darkened as she listened.

  Frost stopped, pulling her hand back from the book. “The words. They’re disappearing as I read.”

  “It’s okay. I remember them,” Selene said. Frost frowned but finished reading the spell. “That should do it. Now we just need a sacrifice.”

  “What did you have in mind?” I asked.

  “Anything. Something small,” she replied, looking at me. “Maybe a rodent or a squirrel. Whatever you can find.”

  I blinked, but said nothing as I turned away from them both. Was she really going to kill an animal? I thought to myself as I wandered—about a hundred yards or so—until the air began to feel more normal and I could once again hear the scurry of the small woodland creatures. A few moments later I spotted a squirrel in a tree. I went to the tree and stretched my arm out in front of me, cooing softly to the animal all the while. The squirrel soon scurried down the tree and to my arm, and I scooped it up into my hands. I scratched the back of its head in what I hoped was a soothing manner as I made my way back to the campsite.

  When I returned, Selene glanced at the squirrel and sadness lit her eyes as she came over to us. “Hi, little fella.” She brushed the back of her finger over its cheek. “I’m so sorry I have to do this to you, but we can’t have wendigos running a rampage through the Abyss.”

  The squirrel, having no idea what she was saying, scurried over to her and allowed her to continue stoking its fluffy cheek. “The blood sacrifice has to be alive,” she said in the same mellow tone she used to speak to the squirrel on her arm.

  “How am I supposed to cut him if I can’t touch him?” Frost asked as she prepared symbols and drew on the ground.