Pickup Styx (Easy Bake Coven) Read online

  I looked at Sebastian and he shook his head. I turned back to the women. “I’ll do it.” Ten minutes later, I was prepped and ready to enter their circle.

  “You have a responsibility to the kingdom,” Sebastian said.

  “And I’m fulfilling that by keeping them safe,” I told him as patiently as I could.

  “You’re doing this for Selene.”

  I flashed a smile. “She’s part of the kingdom.” Part of me was doing this for Selene. Another part of me was doing this for my father. While it made sense that he was tied up in all of this, I still had hope that he wasn’t. That I would find him and everything would be explained. “Let’s do this.”

  The women cast the spell and I cleared my mind, ready to focus on whatever I saw. It felt like needles were being jabbed into my eyes. I flinched and flashes of images filled my mind: a forest, a city street, a casino, a stone room, and darkness.

  I opened my eyes and everyone stared at me. “Give me paper.” Sebastian handed me a paper and pen and I wrote everything I saw from each location.

  Forest: cedar trees, bryidae, moderately dense canopy, and unique triangular shaped tree cluster.

  City street: narrow, cobbled stone, broken tobacco sign on left, and door with single light bulb on right.

  Casino: gold carpet, red chairs and curtains, chandeliers, and oak paneling.

  Stone room: gray stones, bare wooden table, and no windows.

  Darkness.

  “That’s not much to go on,” Sebastian said.

  I nodded, reading over the list. “I think the forest is Southbend.”

  “What makes you think so?”

  “It was the same spot you took me to today. I recognized it.”

  “So he was there?”

  “Possibly.” A new idea filled my mind. “Or something related to me was there.” It made me dread the truth. “Did you release the bodies?”

  “Not yet.”

  “Don’t.” I looked at the girls. “Can you tell if someone specifically is related to me?”

  Katrina nodded. “That spell wouldn’t be too hard.”

  “Great. I need you to come with me,” I said.

  Sebastian folded his arms behind his back. “You think we’ve found siblings.”

  I nodded. “Obviously, my father isn’t in five locations.”

  “Let’s figure out the rest of the locations and then we’ll split up. Each of us can take one of the witches to verify the relation. We’ll do this in half the time,” Sebastian said.

  I shook my head. If my father was on some murder spree, I had to be the one to go to all the locations because he might be at one of them. He was old, but powerful. He wouldn’t hesitate to kill Sebastian or a human witch. I couldn’t be positive that he wouldn’t try to kill me, but I assumed he’d at least have a moment’s pause. “No. I’ll do it.”

  “Cheney—”

  I held up my hand. “This isn’t up for discussion. I know my father better than anyone. I have to be the one to confront him. I can’t risk sending any of you to him.”

  “I’ll go with you,” Katrina volunteered.

  Sebastian’s face hardened, making me wonder exactly how much he cared about her. Not that I would ever object, but if he loved her, there were problems to consider. “No,” he said stiffly.

  Katrina’s eyes flashed and her jaw tightened. “Why not?”

  Sebastian didn’t answer, but Jessica did. “That’s okay, Kat. I’ll go. It should be me anyway.”

  “No. I’m more familiar with this world than you. I’ve been here longer.” Kat looked back and forth between the two of them.

  “We’re all willing to go,” Devin said. “But I think Jess has a point.”

  “What point?”

  “My gifts are better suited for this type of task. I can tell if someone is lying, so I’ll know if whoever we meet is being honest.”

  Devin looked at me. “And what can we do in the meantime?”

  “See what you can find out about the Pole of Charon. We need to know what Selene’s bringing back so we can prepare for whatever backlash it will cause.”

  “Research. That’s my specialty.” Leslie smiled.

  “Do you want us to try to find the places on your list?” Devin asked, reaching for the paper.

  I folded the paper and slid it into my pocket. “It’s too vague to work with. I need to think about it more.” It was also too dangerous to assume her friends wouldn’t take matters into their own hands.

  “Katrina, you’ve already researched the Underworld, and you know your way around the archives,” Sebastian said, looking relieved. “It’s logical for you to stay.”

  “Yeah, logical,” Jessica said with a smirk.

  “I’m not staying here.” Katrina crossed her arms over her chest. “You all wouldn’t let me go to the Underworld with Selene, but I am damn well doing this.”

  “If anyone should go, it is me,” Edith said.

  I held up a hand before they all started to fight again. “Edith, I need you to stay at the castle so you are close to Selene.” I gave her a meaningful look and she nodded. I turned to Jessica and Katrina. “You both can come. We need to get started.”

  Sebastian moved next to me. “May I speak with you?” I went with him to the kitchen. “Katrina shouldn’t come with us.”

  I sighed. “If you don’t want her to go, then you tell her why. I’ll take all the help I can get.”

  “You don’t need both of them.”

  “Sebastian, I don’t have time for this.”

  He clenched his jaw. “I know you’re angry with me, but please,” he said through gritted teeth.

  I ran my fingers through my hair. “This has nothing to do with my being angry. I don’t want to be in the middle of whatever is happening between the two of you. Katrina is one of Selene’s best friends. If she wants to help, I can’t say no.”

  He sighed noisily and looked like he’d rather cut off his hand than tell her not to come again.

  “What are you doing, Sebastian? Do you have feelings for her?”

  He crossed his hands behind his back. “I just don’t want her to get hurt.”

  “Yeah, I get that, but you aren’t worried about the rest of them.” This was the last thing I wanted to talk about with him. “You know humans don’t live as long as us.” He looked at me. “And those in relationships with our kind—”

  “Have even shorter lives,” he said. “Do you think I haven’t considered that?”

  “I honestly don’t know what you’ve considered. You haven’t said anything to me, so I stayed out of it, but it would kill Selene if anything happened to one of them.” I glanced back toward the coven. “And I don’t want to see any of them hurt either.”

  He nodded slowly and watched me intently, waiting for a reaction. “Katrina and I shouldn’t …”

  I shrugged. “Selene’s not against it.”

  “What do you think?”

  Selene’s comment about needing to support what we were trying to establish came back to me, but I also wanted to protect Sebastian and Katrina. “Just know what you’re getting into and prepare yourself for the outcome.” I started back toward the witches.

  “Because that’s what you did with Selene?” he said.

  My feet stopped. I turned back to him. “Selene’s always been beyond reason for me. If you find that, Sebastian, don’t let it go.”

  I meant my words, but I had a hard time believing anyone would ever be beyond reason for Sebastian. He had been stoic and collected for as long as I had known him. It would be better for everyone if he ended this now, before feelings were too badly hurt. “So they’re both coming with us?”

  Sebastian gave a single curt nod. It was settled. Devin, Leslie, and Edith were taken to the castle, and the four of us headed to Southbend.

  All three bodies lay side by side as we stood over them. The sheets were folded back, revealing their heads. Three pairs of lifeless gold eyes stared up at me. I didn’t
need a spell. I knew.

  “What do you need to do?” Sebastian asked.

  Jessica handed me a crystal. “We need your blood.”

  I cut my hand again and coated the crystal before handing it back. Katrina and Jessica held it and chanted their spell. When they finished, the crystal glowed purple. “When it touches a member of your family, it will turn black.”

  “So the two of you can go back after this?” I said.

  Katrina narrowed her eyes. “No. It will stay black. We need to do this each time.”

  “Couldn’t you cast several spells on different crystals now and return to help the others? “ Sebastian asked.

  “They wear off. We aren’t going home. Get over it.” Jessica dangled the crystal over the water nymph. The crystal faded to black.

  They cast the spell twice more to the same effect. I knelt in front of the bodies. How many half-siblings did I have, and who would know about them besides my father? I memorized their faces. The water nymph was a beautiful woman with blue, teal, and green hair that flowed around her dramatically. She looked at peace, and I couldn’t help but wonder what she would have been like in life. Would she have reminded me of my sister? Would we have gotten along? The Gemini twins were fraternal. They both had reddish-gold hair and long, thin, iridescent wings. They looked noble and stately.

  “Are you okay?” Katrina touched my shoulder.

  I patted her hand and stood. “It seems my family is being targeted. What does that tell us?”

  “Your father is hiding his past. He’s most likely the culprit,” Sebastian said.

  “I was thinking that too. Who else would know where his children are?”

  “Well, anyone with magic could find that out. I mean, if they had his blood … Someone like Selene could have done this fairly easily,” Jessica said. “Not that I think Selene did this.”

  “Elves don’t typically have human magic. There aren’t many like her.”

  “But people do have access to human witches,” Sebastian said.

  “Could another sibling be behind it? Obviously your dad got around—no offense—there was Jaron, whatever this blue-haired chick is, and then the Abercrombie twins. Who knows who else he knocked up,” Katrina said.

  I fought to keep from glaring at her because I knew she was trying to help, and she wasn’t a part of this world. Although she had a point, she was also talking about my family.

  “Release the bodies to their families,” I told Sebastian.

  “Would you like to speak with them?” he asked.

  I shook my head. I had enough to deal with right now. Maybe someday I would find them again or maybe I wouldn’t. What would I say to the women my father abandoned all those years ago? What would they have to say to the son he’d kept? It wasn’t something I needed to find out. A new sympathy for Selene not wanting to reconnect with her father sparked in me. I understood now better than I ever had. Being left wasn’t something easily dealt with.

  “I wish Selene were here,” Jessica muttered, echoing my thoughts.

  “I need to see Adan,” I told Sebastian. “Can you take Katrina and Jessica back to the castle and try to figure out the next location.” I rattled off what was on my paper. “Look through my father’s things. Surely, he kept track of his women in some way. Maybe he gave them money?”

  Sebastian nodded, disappearing with the girls. I looked down at the bodies of my unknown siblings once more. The likelihood of having more relations out there seemed probable. A mixture of guilt and wariness filled me. Half of me wanted to meet them and half wanted to stay as far away from these people as possible. The happy, secure family I had known all of my life had somehow slipped between my fingertips over the years. My mother and sister were gone, my father had lost his mind, and even Selene was beyond reach. I was alone.

  “Excuse me,” a woman said behind me.

  I stepped out of the way. She looked down at the blue-haired girl, silent sea-water tears catching in her long eyelashes. She looked like her, but older. Her hair was a paler shade of the same blue-green, but it fell in soft curls down to her waist. Her eyes were glacier blue and heartbroken.

  “I’m sorry for your loss,” I told the woman.

  She looked at me for the first time. “Are you the guard?”

  Now was the moment of truth. I could officially meet one of my father’s lovers or sink into the shadows and avoid it for a moment longer.

  “Your daughter was very beautiful.”

  She looked back at her. “Does the Erlking know what happened?”

  “Yes. He is personally investigating. You have my word.”

  She nodded. “And his father, does he know?”

  My mouth went dry. “He’s heartbroken.”

  The tears fell faster now and she knelt beside the body. I swore if my father wasn’t affected over this girl’s death that I would make him so. No life was worth less because of what they were. His hate had destroyed too much and it couldn’t continue. I had to stop him.

  Blood streamed down my injured arm and I kept it clutched to my chest, pushing myself further and harder though my shoes sunk into the ground and bit into my feet. This forest had to end eventually. Barren branches grabbed at my dress, catching in the lace and tearing it to shreds. A root caught my foot, propelling me forward with all the momentum I had gained. I hit the ground, bounced, and slid. Smashing into a tree, I finally stopped.

  Groaning, I peeled my eyes open. Gray mist swirled around me. I kicked off my stupid, treacherous shoes, flattened my hands against the ground, gritted my teeth through the pain, and pushed myself back up. My vision waved and my knees wobbled. Blinking rapidly, my eyes began to refocus as I glanced around for the next threat, but all I saw were mirrors—three dimensional, human-shaped mirrors that were all my height and size for as far as I could see. I tried to step around the one in front of me and it matched my movement. I did it again and it blocked me again. I took a step back and all the mirrored people stepped in toward me.

  “Corbin. Simon,” I called out. My voice echoed back at me.

  Fantastic.

  I spun around, trying to figure something out, and they advanced again. As I stepped directly in front of the mirror closest to me, they all stopped. My dress was tatters, my legs were covered in scrapes, and bone and muscle were exposed on my arm. At least my face was relatively unharmed, just a little dirty. The small things.

  My own eyes were reflected back at me. Maybe magic would work. Squeezing my hands into fists, I collected energy until my hands vibrated.

  “Here goes nothing,” I muttered as I pushed out the energy. The attack reflected back at me, knocking me into the row of mirrored people behind me. One shattered and burst outward, impaling my back, arms, and legs with shards of glass. From beneath the glass, a skinless human dropped to the ground. Blood poured out.

  I pulled out as much glass as I could reach, my breath hissing at each sting. So magic didn’t work, but brute force did. The mirror people advanced again. I glanced around for something to break them with, but there was nothing.

  “Corbin, if you’re around, I could use a little help,” I yelled, hoping rather than believing he was there.

  There was no reply. I was alone. No help was coming. I could do this on my own. What choice did I have? Corbin had said that the only way out was to repent, but repent what? I faced a mirror person again. My dress was ruined, and so was my arm, though the blood loss hadn’t affected me at all. Probably because you’re dead, I reminded myself. In fact, most of my exposed skin was bleeding, bruised, or filthy. I tried to recall the seven deadly sins. “Okay. I can do this.”

  The majority of my knowledge on the subject came from a movie with Brad Pitt, which didn’t inspire a lot of confidence, but what did I have to lose? Pride was my sin. It had to be, given my surroundings. Reaching behind me with my good arm, I unzipped my dress and let it fall to the ground. I wrapped the dress around my uninjured arm and smashed it into the mirror in front of me. It crac
ked. I did it again and again until it exploded, shooting glass-like bullets at me. One grazed my cheek. My eyes watered. Blood dribbled down to my jaw and then dripped to the floor. The damage to my person was worse with each mirror I broke, but I kept trudging forward. My eyes were never hurt, so I could see the tatters of my former self looking back at me. My formerly flawless skin hung in red, swollen shreds. There wasn’t enough plastic surgery in the world to put me back together as I had been.

  An ugly voice in my head said that no one would love me like this. I had nothing to go back for, so I should quit. I was ruined. Worthless without my looks.

  I pushed forward.

  The voice said that no one really liked me. They only tolerated me because I was pretty, but now that was gone. Cheney would leave me if I came home like this. Or worse, he would feel obligated to stay with me. I would be confined to the castle. I would make babies cry.

  My hands were heavy, and the pain was almost too much to bear. “Don’t give up, my love. Fight until you come back to me.” Cheney’s voice sounded far away and small in my head.

  I swallowed back my urge to cry and let his words fortify me. “I am more than my looks.” I broke the next mirror.

  I continued talking out loud because it made me feel less lonely. “I will not repent the fact that I am pretty, but I don’t need it to succeed.”

  Glass shattered around me. “I don’t care if I am one massive scar. I will never stop so long as my feet can carry me forward,”—I gritted my teeth as I broke another one—“and then I’ll crawl, but I will make it home.”

  “Selene.” Corbin’s voice was faint.

  Was I hallucinating? “Must keep going. Must keep going,” I repeated over and over again until my knees gave out and I fell to the ground. If I stopped, I would never leave this place. I knew that. I had to keep going.

  “Selene.” He sounded closer now.

  I climbed back to my feet and broke another mirror. It hit me with such a force I fell, but this time I never hit the ground. A pair of arms cradled me to his chest, and I lay limp, fluctuating between wishing I were dead and knowing I had to keep going. My eyes stayed squeezed shut. When I opened them, the next round would start and I needed a breather. “Selene, open your eyes.” It was Corbin’s voice. He eased me onto the ground. “You have to open your eyes. I don’t know how to help you.”