4 Tiddly Jinx Page 6

  “But we’re not sure yet?” Jessica said. “Shouldn’t we prepare for the worst? Like, you can give us the book and we can start looking for the spell?”

  Selene leaned away from Jessica. “If we don’t have to open this book, we’re not going to. According to Grandma, just reading these spells is enough to let the darkness in. This,” she held up the white bundle, “needs to be treated with extreme caution. It’s not leaving my sight until the crisis has been averted and I can find a better hiding place for it. And if the time comes, I’m the only one setting eyes on the contents.”

  “Do you really think your grandmother is the most reliable source when it comes to this stuff?” Katrina raised an eyebrow. “I mean, this wouldn’t be the first time she misled you where magic was concerned. And let’s face it, there are a significant number of moments when she is bat-shit crazy.”

  Selene shook her head. “Even if Gram is wrong, it doesn’t hurt to play this safe.” She sat on the arm of my chair and tapped her foot. “If Frost is back, then we should be able to do a pretty simple tracking spell on her. Did she leave anything of hers here?”

  I scanned my memory trying to remember if I saw her with anything the day before. “She had a book. Did she take it with her when the two of you left?”

  Selene smiled. “No. She didn’t take anything with her. I’ll go check the room.” She kissed my cheek and all but skipped out the door.

  Everything in the room lightened and seemed less dire when she was happy. I glanced around. Was I the only one who thought that? Jessica and Katrina still had worried lines across their foreheads and Sebastian was still staring at his hands.

  “How’s Selene going to get the Pole back to the underworld?” Katrina blurted out. “I understand why she needs to find it, but once she has it then what? She can’t go back there. It was a damn miracle she made it out the first time.”

  “I’ll go,” Jessica said. “If Selene can do it, so can I. And I probably have less ammunition for them to use against me.”

  “You can’t go,” Katrina snapped. “You’re alive.”

  “So was Selene. We’ll use Frost again.”

  “No—”

  “Neither of you or Selene will be going again,” I told them, cutting Katrina off. “If he’s willing, we will entrust this task to the vampire. He can come and go from purgatory easier than any of us, and he owes Selene.”

  “You’re going to trust a vampire?” Sebastian asked.

  “I’m going to trust Selene’s friend,” I said. I didn’t like vampires any more than Sebastian, but Selene had gone through something profound with Corbin. If he was willing to help, this was where we needed it most. “The more important problem to consider, and it is something we have to do while Selene isn’t here, is how will we contain her if she does end up evil.”

  “Why would you contain her?” Jessica asked. “She already arranged to have herself whacked.”

  “We’re going to save the child.”

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa. Holy shit balls, what child?” Katrina was standing now. “I think maybe Selene left out an important detail. There’s no way in hell she is doing this now. One of us will do it or we’ll find another way.”

  As much as I would have loved to agree to what she was saying and sacrifice one of the humans rather than Selene, I couldn’t betray her like that. I gave Katrina a small smile, but shook my head. “Selene is stronger than the rest of you. She has a better chance of casting a spell powerful enough and coming through this unharmed. We are just making precautions. I’m sure everything will be fine. I wouldn’t let her do it otherwise.”

  Jessica snorted. “Excuse us if we don’t have a huge amount of faith in that. Just yesterday you let her literally kill herself to get this stupid Pole and now she is going to potentially turn herself evil to take it back. I don’t understand why we went through any of this in the first place.”

  “She got it because she made a deal when she was trying to break the curse. The spirits would have claimed her soul had she failed to follow through on her end. We didn’t get to her in time to tell her not to give the Pole to them. This isn’t Cheney’s fault and it isn’t Selene’s fault either, but they’re setting things right,” Sebastian explained.

  Jessica sighed. “I know that. That’s not what I meant. It just sucks.”

  Katrina straightened her shoulders and closed her eyes for a moment before she opened them with more determination. “What about the dungeon for containing her?”

  “It would prevent her from transporting, but that’s all. It isn’t warded for magic.”

  “The pit is,” Sebastian said softly.

  My heart clenched. When my father put Selene in the pit it almost killed her. The cruelty of throwing her back in there now was more than I could reconcile in my mind. I shook my head. “She’ll lose her mind.”

  “She’s going to die eventually anyway,” Jessica said. “I mean that’s the plan, right? Contain her until she has the child and then kill her.”

  “It’s cruel.” I wouldn’t do it. I couldn’t do it to her, no matter what happened. Letting her die quickly and painlessly was one thing. Making her suffer was another.

  “The whole plan is cruel,” Katrina countered. “What’s to keep her from hurting the baby even if we do contain her? She will know why we are doing it, so basically it’s like she has a hostage.”

  “What if she’s asleep?” Jessica said. “Like, in a coma?”

  “Elves metabolize too fast. Human medication wouldn’t work on her and we don’t have anything that could be used to the same effect.”

  “We’ll have to use magic,” Jessica said. “We just have to find a spell.”

  “Like the Sleeping Beauty spell,” Katrina said.

  Sebastian raised an eyebrow at me, but I had no clue what they were talking about either. “What’s the Sleeping Beauty spell?”

  “You know. Like the cartoon. She pricks her finger on the spinning wheel then she falls asleep.”

  “We could probably find a spinning wheel,” Sebastian said, still looking confused.

  Katrina scrunched her nose and narrowed her eyes. “What? Why? We don’t need a spinning wheel. That’s just what happens in the cartoon—you know what. Never mind. I just meant there is a spell that can put someone to sleep. We just have to find it.”

  “I don’t know that cartoons are the best source of information, Kat,” Jessica said.

  Katrina rolled her eyes. “It’s based on a fairy tale, which, if I am not mistaken, are based on true stories that happened in the Abyss. Somewhere around here an evil fairy cast a spell on a princess, and when her true love kissed her, it brought her back to life. We just need to figure out who it was and what spell was used.”

  My stomach sank. I knew exactly what she was talking about. “That wasn’t a spell,” I said.

  Katrina tilted her head to the side. “You know the story? Great! That will save us time looking it up to see what was done.”

  I shook my head again and glanced at Sebastian, who was white as an elverpige. “It was my sister, but she never awakened. She was cursed.”

  “Oh.” Katrina’s eyes widened before her whole face dissolved into sympathy. “I’m so sorry.” She pressed her lips together. “But if your sister died, then it probably isn’t the spell I am looking for.”

  My throat and my chest tightened just thinking about it. “She didn’t die. She laid there asleep waiting for the man she was going to run away with to kiss her and bring her back.”

  Both girls stared at me.

  “He was killed,” Sebastian said. “He couldn’t wake her because he was dead and we didn’t know about the curse to help her.”

  “Oh Cheney, I’m so sorry.” Katrina hugged me tight.

  “Not to be callus, but do you know the curse? It might be the best option to use for Selene. She wouldn’t suffer and she couldn’t hurt anyone.”

  “I have no idea.”

  “At least we know where to start
looking,” Jessica said as Selene came back into the room with a bag slung across her body and a novel in her hand.

  “Looking for what?”

  “Nothing,” Jessica and Katrina said in unison.

  Selene raised an eyebrow at me, but I shook my head. “We were discussing containment. You can’t be in on those conversations.”

  She nodded and held up Frost’s book with a smile. “We have a lead.”

  THIS WAS A SIMPLE enough spell to do on my own. I kneeled on the floor and sat back against my feet, taking a few deep cleansing breaths to wash away some of the stress. Finding Frost could solve so many of our problems.

  As effortlessly as breathing, the magic gathered beneath my skin. I didn’t have to use the words or even a casting circle anymore. The human magic and the elf magic were blending in such a way that my power seemed almost exponential in its growth. I was also having an easier time controlling my meltdowns—times when anger took over and destruction ensued. It was as if everything had finally clicked once I got rid of the curse. My body was in harmony with the world and the magic thrived.

  The romance novel hovered off the floor and rose toward the ceiling as I trapped Frost’s lingering essence on it. Extracting it away from the book, I brought it down until the psychic imprint hovered in front of my face, about the size of a swirling marble. Usually the essence would go into a crystal that would then be used for scrying, but that would take forever. I wanted to try something new. All that transporting required was a location. If the energy in front of me could be used to scry that information then surely it could be used to transport there. If she was in another realm it wouldn’t work. If she was back, ideally I’d end up next to her. I let out a slow, even breath, reached out, and grabbed the energy while trying to transport at the same time. Instantly I felt the tug at my core, and I was gone.

  I opened my eyes and scanned the room. The lights were off and it was dark outside, but I could still see. My hand reached down to touch the cloth purse I wore across my body to make sure the spell book was still there. It hummed beneath my hand. The urge to open it and have a peek had been there since Gram’s house, and now it was even stronger. I pulled my fingers away.

  A beat-up chair, an old television, and a couch with mismatched flowered and plaid cushions were pretty much the only items filling the room. Just as I was about to turn, my eyes caught something else. In the darkest corner of the room a man stood as still as death and nearly obscured by the shadows. Definitely not Frost.

  “You shouldn’t have come here, pet.”

  I relaxed, the tension easing from my shoulders. “You nearly gave me a heart attack.”

  A glint of light flashed in the darkness when he smiled. “I know.”

  Stupid bond. I had a lot to discuss with Corbin, but at the moment I was on a mission. “Where’s Frost?”

  “That seems to be the question of the hour, doesn’t it?” His soft, alluring voice sent goosebumps down my spine.

  “Come out from that damn corner. You’re being creepy.”

  He stepped into the dim light offered by the window. He looked fine, exactly the same as he had looked yesterday: black eyes, bleach-blond hair, and sharp cheekbones. Only tonight there was something else in his eyes. Something I had only seen in purgatory: hunger. His tongue slowly traced the inside of his lips as his eyes drank me in.

  “You look lovely, pet.”

  My heart beat faster and magic collected under my skin as my survival instincts flared. Something was definitely off about Corbin. I took a step toward him, determined not to be frightened. “Why are you here?” Better yet, why did my spell bring me here if Frost wasn’t here?

  “Best to keep your distance or you might prove too tempting to resist. We would both regret that.”

  “Still feeling the pull?” When we bonded in purgatory a piece of my soul had blended with his, and part of him wanted to finish the job.

  “I’m just hungry,” he said quietly. “I’ve been here since last night.”

  “Why?”

  He looked off to the side, but his eyes kept twitching back to me as if he couldn’t bear not to look at me. “Why indeed.”

  Damn it, he was frustrating. “Corbin?”

  “When she comes back she will go home. It wasn’t hard to find her house. Why are you here?”

  “I did a tracking spell and followed her essence. I don’t know why it would bring me here if she weren’t here, as well. Unless…” I plopped down on her chair. Unless she wasn’t in this world and her home was the most concentrated collection of her essence.

  “Unless what?” Corbin sat as far away from me as he could.

  “Go eat.” I ignored the fact that he would probably select an unknowing and unwilling human to take the edge off, shortening her already short life to extend his. “We’ll talk when you get back. I’m not going to shout at you across the room.” Seeing him on edge like this plucked at my nerves.

  He stared at me longer than was comfortable before he slipped out of the house, so quiet I wouldn’t have believed he was gone if I hadn’t witnessed it. I stared at the door. Frost wasn’t here. My tiny bit of hope vanished. Not all witches went dark when they used black magic, but not all witches had my checkered past. My soul was hardly a beacon of light as it was. Part of me—the elf half—craved power, it always had. It drove me to do things and to follow people that I shouldn’t. Casting this spell scared the hell out of me, though I could never admit it to Cheney, the coven, or Sy. Shit, Sy. I still hadn’t told him anything that was happening. I leaned back in the chair, tension finally easing, one hand on the bag and the other massaging my temples. I let my thoughts run through all the different ways the current plan could go wrong.

  A hand brushed my hair, making me snap back upright.

  Corbin smiled down at me. “Miss me?”

  “That was really fast.” There was no way he found a willing donor that fast, especially not among humans. The contents of Frost’s apartment made it clear we weren’t in the Abyss anymore—there was a television here. Corbin didn’t respond, but this time he sat close enough his knee nearly brushed mine.

  “What’s bothering you, pet?”

  Corbin and I had no pretense, no expectations of one another. He simply saw me, which was frightening and comforting. “Every time I try to fix a problem, I make it so much worse.”

  He nodded. “So stop trying to fix them and accept things how they are.”

  “The Pole can do so much damage to the Abyss.”

  He shrugged. “That can be someone else’s problem.”

  I shook my head, but smiled. “Says the guy who has spent the last twenty-four hours in a necromancer’s house waiting for her to come home. Why are you here if you weren’t looking for the Pole?”

  He let his knee press against mine—protected by the layers of material between us, I didn’t feel the need to pull away. “Do you wish to hear the words again?”

  Air evacuated my lungs. No, I didn’t need to hear him say he loved me again. Not ever again. “I love Cheney.”

  “That doesn’t change matters. You carry my essence as I carry yours. You are as much mine as this hand.” He held out his right hand in front of me and wiggled his long, elegant, pale fingers. “Even if this hand were to decide it doesn’t love me, it’s still part of me.”

  “I’m going to marry Cheney.”

  He leaned in close, his lips nearly brushing my ear. “It won’t change anything.”

  I glanced at him out of the corner of my eyes. “If I were evil, would that change anything?”

  “Don’t tease me, love. You know perfectly well that would change everything.”

  And I did know it. The same part of me that craved power and excitement and danger was also the same part of me that was attracted to Corbin despite being in love with another man. In my heart, I only wanted Cheney, but Corbin was a walking temptation that promised nonstop fun and excitement. No homes or families or babies or saving the world. It woul
d be just the two of us bringing the world to its knees instead. That was why I couldn’t tell him about dark magic. Corbin wouldn’t help contain me. He would only help me escape.

  His eyes flashed. “I have tasted your soul. You’re not evil.”

  I nodded. “But there’s darkness.”

  “That’s what makes you interesting,” he replied, winking. “What else are you upset about?”

  “I’m having a baby.”

  Corbin blinked and leaned back. “No shit.”

  “Frost held on to her while…yesterday.”

  His mouth gaped.

  “You see, that’s why I have to find her, Corbin. I have to make everything right.”

  He nodded slowly. “I’ll help you however I can.” He reached around me and tapped the bag underneath my hand. “Now what’s this? You’ve been clutching it since you got here.”

  “My purse.” I bit my lip. “Where do we go from here?” It wasn’t just redirection. He loved me and I couldn’t love him. I didn’t see a clear path to friendship or wherever this was leading.

  “Everything doesn’t have to be defined or tied up with a bow. We’ll go where we need to go.”

  I so very much wanted to believe him, but I also expected that this whole conversation, save the part about the baby, had already played through his mind before I even arrived here. He had an enigmatic answer for every question I asked. “Why did you say I shouldn’t be here?”

  “Necromancers are dangerous. With one touch she could kill you permanently.”

  “She could have killed me yesterday.”

  He laughed. “Yesterday she was paid to keep you alive, and she got the Pole for her trouble.”

  Before I could answer, the lock on the door behind us clicked and Corbin pulled me away, careful not to touch my skin to his, into the shadows.

  “Shhhhh,” he breathed into my ear, and a shudder tore through my body.

  Slowly the door opened and Frost came through. She sighed loudly and dropped a bag to the floor before flipping the light switch. Corbin held me tight against him so I couldn’t move at all, but she never glanced our way. She made her way to the kitchen and stood in front of the open refrigerator door, not taking anything out. Corbin’s grip eased and he pressed a finger to his lips as he came around me. He moved like the moon through the night sky, silent and purposeful.