The moon was already full and yellow against an indigo sky when I arrived at Abby’s house. The nights were warmer now, and signs of summer chased away some of the damp cold.
Abby led me to her room and shut the door, then perched next to me on her bed.
She stared at me wordlessly for a while.
“Well?” I shrugged. “You called and insisted I come over. So what’s up?” This was a lot of drama, even for her.
She wrung her hands together and then took a huge breath as though about to dive into a lake in winter.
“Okay. You know how I’ve always had a feeling I could make things happen? And make psychic predictions?” she asked.
I stared blankly. “Not really.”
“Well I can. Like when I made Todd Smith fall and bang his knee after he insulted us that time.”
I frowned. ”Wasn’t his shoelace untied?”
“Who do you think united it?”
“You?” I asked with a shrug.
“Of course it was me. It had to be. There have been hundreds of incidents just like that one. Anyway, the other day, I found this.”
I glanced at the book in her hands. “What’s that?” Somehow I knew exactly what her answer would be. A similar book was hidden in the back of my closet.
“It’s a grimoire. A Book of Shadows.”
I nodded. My stomach tightened. What was Abby, my normal human friend, doing with one of these?
She continued to explain what a Book of Shadows was, unaware I already knew all too well. I also knew what finding one in your family’s name meant.
“I don’t get half the stuff written in here, but I’ve got this incredible urge to try.”
My mouth fell open a little as she handed me the tome. It weighed as much as my family’s Book of Shadows, and was just as ancient. Magical energy pulsated through my fingertips.
“Wow,” I opened it hesitantly. “This is....wow...” I skimmed a few pages. “Summoning and Banishing Spells. Wormswort, Cauldrens, Full Moon Rituals, Dragon’s Blood.... Wow.” It was all I could come up with to say. I shut the book and handed it back to her, searching her eyes for how much of it she believed. Part of me wanted to bolt and get as far away from that book as possible. But a much larger part wanted her to know the truth. To believe in the possibility of magic, because that would make sharing who and what I was with her a lot easier. My whole life I’ve hated that I couldn't talk about my secrets. My closest friendships were all filled with half-truths. Having someone close to discuss all of the craziness with would be such a relief. Of course I could always talk to Adrius, but there were times when I just needed to talk about Adrius… and Venus and Zanthiel… about all of it.
“So what are you saying, Abby?”
“That I’m a witch.” She said it with her straight, super-serious, I’m-not-kidding-around face.
Again I nodded.
She paused, clearly waiting for some response from me.
Say something. Anything. My brain scrambled to come up with the right words.
Finally her shoulders collapsed a little. “You think it’s crazy. That I’m crazy. Never mind.” She shoved the massive book into her backpack. “Forget I said anything.”
“No, wait. Just give me a second here, I’m processing.” I put my hand on her arm. “You know, if you’d shown me this a few months ago, I might have thought that,” I said slowly. “But now..... Let’s just say I’ve seen enough to realize there is more to the world than meets the eye.” I smiled.
“I’m so glad you said that.” Her eagerness returned. “Because I have something else to show you. You’ll love this.”
I almost held my breath while she fished in what was becoming a little surprise-bag of horrors for her next shocking revelation.
When she handed it to me, I almost choked on my own air. The surprise-bag of horrors didn’t disappoint.
Dangling from her fingers was a thick bangle, just large enough to clamp around a wrist, lined with iron spikes.
“I’m not sure what it is exactly,” she said, “but it looks like some kind of ancient torture device. Something they might have used on witches back in the day.”
I took a step away from her. My hands wilted, my wrists too weak to support them. I remembered the contraption well. And it wasn’t just any torture device. It was one devised to control a witch’s magic. For someone of mixed faerie and witch blood, worn long enough it was lethal.
“Where did you find that?” I managed to ask though my throat had gone sanding-block dry.
“It found me actually. It’s like I was meant to have it.” She turned it over in her hands, examining the rusty spikes that I remembered penetrating my flesh with such vividness I could feel it.
Rubbing my arm, I asked. “Found you how?”
“Well, technically, it was a gift. From the new girl. Venus.”
The blood drained from my face, and my legs wobbled. I don’t know which was worse. The fact that Venus had spent time alone with Abby, or the fact that she was offering her torture devices that could seriously wound her.
Abby must not have noticed because she continued in her enthusiastic tone. “She found me in the paranormal/witchcraft section of the library one day. Then a few days later she just came up and gave it to me, mentioned something about us being kindred spirits. Maybe she’s a witch too? Wouldn’t that be funny?” She laughed.
I swallowed back bile. “Yeah. Hilarious.”
“I think of it as a peace offering for stealing Davin out from under me. Okay, so he wasn’t technically mine, but I was supposed to be the one after he came to his senses and dumped Brianne.”
I leaned back against the wall, letting the cool ease the queasiness creeping into my stomach. If Abby didn’t get the whole story she was going to stroll right into Venus’ hands and end up dead. I needed to tell her everything. Starting with the truth about her boyfriend.
“My turn to tell you something you’re not going to believe,” I said, folding my legs under me. “You know how you said I act weird around Zanthiel? Well, the thing is he’s a Shadow faerie.” Like pulling off a bandage, or getting into a cold pool. You just had to do it.
She stared, speechless. Her words came out slowly. “When you say fairy…”
I could see the wheels turning inside her brain, attempting to make sense of it all.
Her brows furrowed in a puzzled frown. “You mean he’s—”
“No, he’s straight…I mean he’s an actual faerie.”
Abby blinked twice. Then she broke into a wide grin. “Ok, seriously, if you’re going to be drinking before noon you should invite me.” She laughed, waiting for me to join her.
I didn’t. This wasn’t a joke as much as I wished it was, and I had to make her understand that. It was a real fairytale complete with monsters and dragons and a wicked witch. She needed to be warned. I just hoped she’d be able to handle it.
I waited for her laughter to subside.
Her smile faded, replaced by another frown. “Lorelei, what does that even mean? Fairy, like Tinkerbell or something?”
This time I laughed. That had been my first thought as well. “Not exactly, more like Puck.”
She nodded her head. “Uh-huh. Right. Puck. Like in Shakespeare.” She narrowed her eyes. “Are you into him or something? Is that what this is about? You want me out of the way?”
I seized her shoulders. “Abby, please, you have to listen to me. Lives depend on it.”
I must have looked serious enough because she stopped shaking her head long enough to say, “Ok, I’m listening. Tell me what you’re talking about.”
And I did the one thing I never thought I’d do. I told her the entire story; about Adrius, the Nevermore, the Ice Witch, Zanthiel—all of it. Finishing off with Venus.
By the time I was done, there was no trace of laughter on her face. An hour later, she was still looking at me in shock.
“Part witch and part faerie. That’s wild. So what can you do with these superpowers?”
“Not much actually.” I reflected. “I can pretty much do what I’ve always been able to do. Heal people.” Although I wasn’t doing such a good job at it lately. “And sense things.”
Her dark eyes sparked. “Can you fly?”
“Only in a plane.”
“Maybe there’s a spell in here that can make you fly?” she said, handing me the Shaqua band with one hand and diving for the Book of Shadows with the other.
I glowered at it, as if giving an inanimate object the evil eye would change anything. The last thing I wanted was to hold the device that once held me captive while awaiting certain death at the hands of prince I loved. Fun times.
“Never mind, Abby. I’m afraid of heights anyway” I said, jamming my hands into my sleeves, feigning cold. The shiver that followed was real enough.
“Or what if there’s something that can protect us from Venus? Or even stop the veil from closing?”
“I’ve searched my grandmother’s Book of Shadows and didn’t come up with anything. Other than the fact that my father’s magic might be able to help, it hasn’t been of much use.”
“There has to be something.” She flipped furiously through page after dusty page. “Let’s try some spells. Tomorrow night? You game?”
“This isn’t a game, Abby. It’s real and it’s scary stuff. Are you sure you want to mess around with it?”
“It’s in me, Lorelei. Part of my roots. Yours too. You have to embrace who you are, right?”
I swallowed, then nodded.
“Okay then. We’ll practice together. And who knows, maybe together we’ll be strong enough to take her down.”
I sighed. Nothing in that book that could stop Venus. Her magic was from another world. It surpassed anything my ancestors or Abby’s could conjure with potions and herbs.
I pointed at the Shaqua band. “You should probably keep that thing somewhere safe. And out of sight,” I said, knowing the whole danger element was part of the charm of her findings. “Someone may come looking for it. And if it’s a device for torturing witches...and you’re a witch...”
She gasped. “Right. Someone might try to use it on me.”
“You never know.”