Chapter Sixteen

I awoke―if you can call tossing and turning in a pile of hay sleeping―to loud, repetitive banging. I was dismayed Kellan neither cared where I spent the night nor dared to speak up against Blythe’s decision. I was stuck in a room used to store farm equipment.

All casts aside, the place was really a farm, or used to be before the witches took it over. No illusions would have covered up the smell, either―cow dung and old, musty grain.

Before I surrendered to sleep, I briefly pondered taking a shovel and knocking heads off until someone gave my powers back. If I made it that far in the idiotic plan, I still wouldn’t have a way back into town. The farm was in the middle of nowhere.

I was also sure what Kellan told me the night before about Kai keeping me there for my safety was a load of crap. He hadn’t checked in on me once. There was not even so much as a visit from Sara—not that I would have welcomed her visit, but it would have been a sign.

I would have been pissed off if I hadn’t been so busy feeling bad for myself. If nothing else, my stay at the Barnyard Inn gave me time to think about everything and helped me figure out my next step. I needed to talk to Jade face-to-face. I felt the information I had held value, and I needed to get out of there. At that point, I would have taken my exit with or without my powers. The banging on the door became louder. The door finally jerked open with a noisy squeal. Blythe stood before me in the same clothing she wore the night before and a haggard look in her eye. It looked like being the big, bad one took its toll. She was also the last person I expected to see.

“Make a deal with me,” she said, suddenly breaking the awkward silence. I haphazardly plucked a piece of straw out of my hair and eyed her warily.

“What kind of deal?” I asked, not intending to make any deals with her.

“I’ll give back your magic and let you go free.”

There was a deal I’d be willing to make. “What’s the catch? My soul? I don’t think so.” I squinted my eyes and gave her a feral look. She smiled widely.

“Oh, come on. I hardly expected someone such as you to embrace dark magic,” she scoffed. “You’re far too weak and immature.” She put her hands on her hips and looked me up and down. I could only imagine what she saw. I must have looked like a bedraggled farmhand who smelled more than ripe. She met my gaze. “Although, you may be useful in a few years.”

“Never,” I spat out. “Just get to the point. What do you want from me?”

“I wouldn’t be so hasty to make such decisions. Much can change in the blink of an eye. I want the curse grimoire.” Of course, she wanted the grimoire. With her magic and that grimoire, she could destroy the planet ten times over and dub herself Queen of Earth. No Bruxa on the face of the planet would give a grimoire to a dark witch. I assumed a Bruxa as desperate as me just might.

“Fine. I’ll have to find it, but it’s yours as soon as I do. I’ll give it to Kellan to give to you.” I hatched the plan as I spoke.

“No. You must keep this between us. Kellan cannot be involved in any way.” Her eyes gleamed full of evil. There would be some serious consequences for lying to her, but I didn’t have options. I nodded my understanding.

“If you fail to locate the grimoire or don’t deliver it to me in a timely manner, I will find you and destroy your life. Destroy it even more than it is, now.” She cackled. “No deceiving me, Samantha Scott.” I knew she could have detected if I was lying if she wanted.

“Fine. You get the curse grimoire, and I get all my powers back and get to walk out of this place unharmed...now,” I said, reaffirming our deal.

She dealt in dark. If I got a word wrong, I could end up worse off than when I started. She wasted no time in spelling my powers back to me. My tattoo was gleaming bright and welcoming in a matter of seconds. I touched it and sighed as I felt by body welcoming my gift back. I felt whole and strong again, as if I could take on the world, or even Jade.

Blythe watched me with an odd look in her eye as I tested out my magic’s strength. It was a mix between sadness and jealousy. It was then I realized that deep down, she was still half-Bruxa. She may have had a dark gray moon on her wrist, but she still had her golden diamond on the other. She was jealous of my simplistic, pure magic. I had what she was unable to keep. If I had anything to do with it, it would stay that way. I whispered a spell I’d been dying to use since I arrived at the farm. “Solid is my body form, take it away, I need to transform.” Invisibility started to take me over immediately.

“Deal,” I said to Blythe right before my face disappeared into the background.

I headed for the doorway and into the bright, blazing sun. Even without form, I could feel the light bouncing off me in happy waves. I was so delighted that I didn’t have to break out of there. I had my powers back. It didn’t matter if I had to walk back to town. I would take it as a fair if not an even trade. I’d have time later to worry about the other unfair trade I made regarding the grimoire.

To remind me, she shouted out after me into the large, open field. “You have two weeks.” Then, Blythe disappeared in a cloud of swirling smoke.

She would be waiting a long two weeks. There was no way I would hand over the curse grimoire, even if I knew where it was. My only hope was that I’d be able to get far enough away that she wouldn’t be able to find me. Wishful thinking I was sure. What I needed was to compartmentalize the past two days and focus on the immediate issue.

I needed to find Jade and figure out what happened to Xander. I dropped my invisibility cast as soon as I put enough distance between myself and the other witches. I shook my head, not believing what I witnessed the night before. The information swirling in my head threatened an anxiety attack.

That’s when I saw her. A girl who looked around my age sat on an old stump with her knees pulled tightly to her chest. She looked harmless enough, but if I’d learned anything lately, it was that looks were mutinously deceiving. I approached her slowly, grabbing my tattoo as a precaution as I went.

“Don’t bother with that,” the girl shouted out in a snarky voice before I reached her. “I’ll drop you like a fly in two seconds flat.” Her voice was calm, but for some reason, I believed every word coming out of her mouth. She turned her head to glance my way and propped her chin back on her knees to stare off into the distance, neither worried nor undeterred by my presence.

“Hi...” I finally sputtered out. “You wouldn’t know the quickest way out of here, would you?” The girl could have made my life a lot easier if she wanted to. I think it was the fact that she looked my age that made her approachable in the first place. Her dirty blonde hair looked so similar to Madison’s that it was almost an automatic impulse to talk to her.

I walked to stand in front of her direct line of vision and leaned toward her. “I’m Sam, by the way.” She only moved her eyes to meet mine. “I know who you are,” she said sullenly. She stood up and brushed off the back of her jeans.

“I’m Lucy,” she said slinging her hands to perch on her slight hips. I caught a brief glimpse of her crescent-moon tattoo as she moved. She was much shorter than me, with plain features but for her large, almond-shaped, brown eyes. She noted me studying her and was quick to give me a solid once over.

“You’re the light Bruxa who has everyone bending over backward.” Sarcasm dripped from her voice, but she didn’t seem unkind. She obviously liked to joke.

“Trust me. I wish everyone would do nothing for me―except maybe leave me the hell alone.” I felt the need to defend myself. I watched a smile break across her face and knew immediately I was in the best company I’d encountered in days.

“I like to be left alone, too.” She nodded to the wide, open farm and her stump of a seat. “It gets a little crowded around here, believe it or not.”

She looked wistfully into the distance, almost as if she was as much a captive here as I had been. “You shake things up, throw Blythe off her game...I like that.” Lucy turned to look at me as she stuffed her hands into her jacket pockets. “Why is Blythe so shaken around you?” I hadn’t known she was―it was news to me.

“I can get something she wants,” I said simply. It was the only plausible answer I could think of. Blythe didn’t know it, but I wasn’t going to let that book come within a twenty-mile radius of her. Lucy shrugged as if she didn’t think that was sound reasoning but didn’t say anything to object.

“It seems you have a lot of people around you who are bad news,” Lucy said as she walked back over to her stump to sit down. I remembered what Kellan said about not trusting anyone. Lucy was a new, friendly face, reinforcing that sentiment. She spoke again before I could reply.

“If you walk down the end of the dirt road, I’ll have a friend pick you up. He’s on his way back to the city, today.” She cast her gaze in the direction of the city. I realized she wished she was going there as well. She turned back to me and said, “If you promise to come back and shake things up again, soon.” The girl was scandalous. I hoped Blythe wasn’t secretly listening, because Lucy would surely fry for this conversation. I laughed a real laugh that echoed in the wide, open sky.

“That’s awfully nice of you and all...but how can I trust you?” I asked her skeptically. It was probably a vehicle driven by a denizen of hell.

Lucy’s mouth quirked up in one corner before she said, “Trust me or don’t. As it stands, you only have eight minutes to make it to the main road before your ride passes you by. The dirt road is three miles long. You do the math.” Her smile was real and genuine, so unlike the evil stares I saw the night before at the party. I wondered how Lucy could be a dark Bruxa. Something didn’t add up.

“Thanks, Lucy,” I yelled back over my shoulder while bursting forward at a fast jog. She waved back at me fervently from her post on the stump. As I cast an air-spell to help push my run quicker in the right direction, I felt something trickle into my senses―trust. I trusted Lucy implicitly for no apparent reason. It was a trust I couldn’t even grant to people I counted as friends for years. I spared one more look behind me to watch her wistful face grow further in the distance. If this worked out, and she was telling the truth, I would find a way to repay her for her oddly placed kindness.

As soon as I saw the truck Lucy described heading in my direction, I slipped back into a shapeless, invisible form just to be on the safe side. I rode in the back of that dirty truck all the way to San Diego. Not sleeping soundly caught up with me, and for the first time in a long time, I passed out—blissfully unaware—and dreamed.

* * * *

I saw him from the back and immediately recognized him. It was Xander. He was running down an alleyway. He seemed more worried than scared as he looked both left and right, searching for something lost. The streets were familiar, and the alleyways looked exactly the same as when I left. He was by Griffin’s Books and Antiquities, and this was the present. He was there at that very moment. My heart winced with longing.

“Samantha?” His voice sounded full of worry. I felt bad. I wanted to tell him I was on my way and not to worry about me, but dream casting didn’t work like that. His pace picked up. He starting frantically kicking boxes and garbage out of his way as he went.

“Where are you?” He stopped, stooped down, and cradled his head in his hands. “Where are you, Sam?”

I heard a light sob escape the confines of his hands. “I need you.” This was a side of Xander I’d never seen before and could do without ever seeing, again. Seeing his pain was like feeling his pain. It was my pain. My stomach clenched. I was blind not to realize how much he cared for me. The right choice had been standing next to me the entire time. I watched him stand and brush his dark hair out of his shining, emerald eyes and felt the tightening creeping from my stomach up to my chest. My breathing became difficult.

“I’ll find you,” he whispered as the dream magic began descending, signaling the end of a dream.

The last thing I saw was Rebekah appearing a few feet in front of Xander and saying, “There you are, pretty boy. We’ve been looking for you.” Her beautiful face was full of malice. “We already have the other two. Jade’s team is complete, now.” She was beginning a spell to capture Xander when I woke up.

* * * *

Madison and Daniel were the other two. They didn’t get away. They’d been captured by Jade the second they showed up. They probably didn’t even get a chance to give up their powers for freedom. Jade jailed them upon their arrival; I was sure of it. Just for being my friend.

I knew I had to save them. I owed Xander, Daniel, and Mad my life. There was no way I could have repaid them, but this would be a start. I threw a quick, cathartic cast at the human man driving the truck as soon as it stopped at a red light. With him now sympathetic to my plight, he gladly handed over his keys and waved goodbye as I pulled out of view.

I bit my lip as I watched him in my rearview mirror. I felt guilty. I would have to return his truck to him when all was said and done. I equated my grand theft to that of a superhero on a supreme mission. No one ever cared about that, and it was basically the same thing. I grabbed his cell phone off the seat and dialed the only number I had committed to heart―Malakai’s. After several rings and the standard voicemail picking up, I left a quick message.

“Madison, Daniel, and Xander are in trouble. Jade has them. Please help.” I hung up as all the words I didn’t say came to mind. They were words I couldn’t say—how disgusted I was with his betrayal. How I didn’t care if I never saw him, again. How I never truly knew him in the first place, and how broken my heart was. The only hope was that he would feel some sort of allegiance to Mad and Dan.

The Bruxa Patrol was swarming Griffin’s when I drove by. Starting there was the only thing I could think to do. I wasn’t sure if Xander was smart enough to leave a clue for me, but I hoped he had enough common sense. I laughed as I watched the black-suited goons I once feared. They were about as harmful as Care Bears after what I’d recently witnessed. I pulled around to the back of the building and only saw a couple of Patrol. I’d have to take them out if I wanted to get inside, but I knew I could handle them. A fresh, new wave of anger and pride rushed through me. I had a job to do and failing wasn’t an option. I threw the big, blue truck into park and got out, anticipating a fight.

I reached down to touch my talisman. “I am standing here, but I was never there, away you go, no need to scare.” The Patrol turned around and left through the alley. The cathartic cast bought me a few minutes to scavenge some clues. I went directly to the back of the store and into the antique cabinet. I pushed on the back, but nothing happened. Someone locked or boarded it over.

I hit it hard with the back of my fist. “Open up, you piece of shit!”

I banged again uselessly and decided to look upstairs. My emotions were in check but bounding closer to frantic with each passing second. I realized someome removed all the grimoires from the store; there wasn’t one in sight. New, commercialized books lined the shelves. There was a huge display with glossy, high-fashion magazines and travel guides. I didn’t have a lot of time to think about it as the Patrol paced outside the store, glancing inside every few seconds. I pushed open the false wall and headed upstairs to the bedrooms.

All the rooms, including Malakai’s, were cleared of any personal items. Nothing but furniture was in the rooms we previously stayed in. It was as if no one ever lived there. I thought it might have meant something. I wondered if it was the clue I was looking for.

I didn’t understand why anyone would have changed everything around the store―unless Jade found out about Kellan and the dark witches. She would have wanted this place, filled with our most respected and revered spells, burned down before making it privy to evil’s eyes. If Jade had found out about Kellan, Malakai would be in some serious hot water―dead in hot water was more like it.

“I don’t care what happens to him,” I said aloud to reassure myself as I continued to look for anything that would help me. I rattled drawers and opened wardrobes until my time was up. Whoever cleared this place out did it thoroughly. I also thought the probability was high that Kai’s nightclub, Rapture, would be cleared in the same manner. Finding nothing, I left through the same back door I went in. A few dumpsters down, I saw faint, black smoke rising from the side. Something had been burning.

As I approached the ashes, I realized someone had burned a lot of something. I couldn’t recognize anything in the ashes, since someone already sifted through the pile. That much was obvious.

The Patrol was there for a reason, and this was probably it. I heard a faint meowing and followed it down an old, cobblestone walk to find the culprit. Theo sat in the middle of the lane, meowing his heart out, but stopped the second he saw me come into view. I walked toward him and bent down to pet him under the chin.

“Did you get thrown out with the trash, little guy?” I asked in the baby voice adults always use to talk to animals.

He looked up with his huge, green eyes and took off for a dark corner. If history proved correct, the furball would have something for me. I followed him.

He sat down next to a book, a grimoire. It was the moon grimoire Madison and I used to rescue Daniel and Xander from Rebekah’s bird spell. I sat down in the dark and opened the large, dusty, and ash-covered book. A bookmark on a random page held no significance for me, especially in Latin.

Then, I realized what was marking the page. It was a photo singed at the edges by fire. Someone thought twice about burning it and retrieved it.

It was a photo of Malakai and me. I was sitting on his lap, and he was staring at me with such a fondness that tears sprang to my eyes. I looked up to see Theo walk away, performing his best I know I’m good prance.

“Thank you,” I whispered to the cat. He was the only creature on the planet I knew I could truly trust without question.