Morning was about to push through the night. It was time to go. I drew the blankets on Adrius’ bed up under my chin. Our plan seemed to be working. For seven days following Camilla’s funeral, Adrius and I remained apart, with the exception of our epic staged arguments which left one of us storming off in a rage. Usually me. Word had spread and we’d done a fairly good job of staying away from one another. And Venus hadn’t hurt anyone in just as many days. Neither one of us had seen her, but it seemed like things were working.
Stolen visits in the night were the only way to keep up the pretense of our breakup. It made the time we spent apart… time he spent with her… bearable. Almost.
I don't know how long I’d been on my side watching him, but it was dawn before he finally stirred. “You're awake, aren't you?” His eyes were still sealed.
“Yep.” My gaze shifted to the window. The sun was rising, filtering a warm lemon glow through the window. He opened his eyes to look at me.
“You're far away. What's on your mind?”
“Just thinking.”
“About Peterson and his offer?” he guessed, propping himself up on his elbow. He searched my face for confirmation and when he found it, rolled onto his back with a groan. “Lorelei, I wish you'd let this go. I've never asked you to be fully mortal. I've never asked you to be anything but who you are.”
“I know. But that's because of who you are, Adrius. You're kind and loving and generous to a fault. It doesn’t mean you don't wish I was something different.”
“Yes. That is exactly what it means. You're not thinking clearly. How long has it been since you’ve had a decent night’s sleep?”
I didn't answer. “I want it to be that way, but we both know it's not. I saw it behind your eyes when you looked at my arm. I'm not healing as quickly anymore, and we both know why.”
“We both have ideas on why. We don't know anything for certain yet. It’s too soon to jump to the worst case scenario.”
I sighed. “Maybe. But...”
“No buts.” He turned on his side and kissed me. “We will wait. There is still time. No hasty decisions. Right?” I gave a small nod. Even as he watched me, his face bathed in the fragile morning light, there was something in his expression I couldn’t read. With a half-smile, he removed the clip holding my ponytail in place, letting my hair spill down my back. Then he pulled me to him and like the residual darkness of night, I let go of all words and thoughts when his lips touched mine.
I snuck out of his house and back to mine before the sun had fully risen. The senior bonfire party was happening tonight. We decided it was the perfect time to use the spell to suppress her powers. We’d do the spell, Venus would be powerless. We’d get her back into the Nevermore, and Zanthiel would finish her off, if Adrius couldn’t. Venus gone. Binding cure broken. Two of my twelve problems solved.
Sigh.
I missed Adrius terribly and even just pretending to fight with him felt awful. It was a necessary evil, but it would all be over soon.
Abby and I spent the day collecting the herbs we needed from Gran’s garden. Nothing that would kill Venus, but poisonous plants had many uses.
The senior pre-prom bonfire bash began in an hour. By then it would be dark, with both the band and beer kegs fully loaded.
On any other occasion, I would have been all over a night like this, spent hanging out with Adrius in the woods by firelight. It sucked that we had to pretend to be enemies.
Jacket in hand, I wandered down to the kitchen for another cup of tea and found my mother about to brew more coffee. I raised an eyebrow. “You know, you should drink tea. It’s better for you,” I said, taking the sack of beans from her hands.
“Since when?” she scoffed.
“Didn’t you learn anything from Gran?” I pulled out a canister with dried chamomile and rosemary leaves. “Here. Try this one.” I plugged in the kettle and gave her a determined look as she sighed dramatically and went on reading her magazine.
The phone rang and I leaned across the counter to reach it. Any day now Peterson would call to discuss his offer.
The caller ID name said Goddess. My stomach tightened. She was calling my house now? No one had heard anything from her in days. I’d half hoped she’d given up and returned to the Nevermore, where she belonged. Not likely. On the fourth ring I steadied my breath and answered.
“Do you know how easy it was to figure out what you two were up to, Lorelei? You can’t fool me. But it was nervy of you to try.”
I swallowed and slowly made my way into the hall, out of earshot from the kitchen. Mom glanced curiously at me, before returning to her magazine.
“Sorry, don’t know what you’re talking about and don’t really care. You got what you wanted. I have nothing left to give.”
She laughed. “If only that were true. The lying game seems to be your new source of entertainment.”
“What do you want, Venus?” I was almost whispering into the phone, and holding it so tightly my knuckles burned.
“I do hope you and Adrius had a nice time together the other night. It’s going to be your last— because if it isn’t you’ll be punishing the people you claim to care about. Like your mother.”
I glanced down the hall. Through the opening, I could see her still reading her magazine. The kettle boiled, filling the hall with the faint echo of whistling. Mom slid from her stool and from view, as she went to retrieve it, her favorite tea cup in hand. She’d been through so much, I wouldn’t let Venus put her through anything more. “I promise you Adrius and I aren't together. And it’s your fault. I’m so done with all of this. With both of you. If you want to continue hurting the people I care about, I will stop you.” The words flooded out in a torrent of frustration.
Venus laughed softly, like a breeze through wind chimes. “I wish I believed you.” She sighed. “But you can’t be trusted. Must be the Shadow fey in you. Liars, all of them.”
Mom returned to her stool, cup in hand. Wisps of steam curled from the rim. She motioned to me that she’d poured me a cup and I answered with a quick wave.
“Don’t you just love tea?” Venus asked, as though this was a casual chat between friends. “Your grandmother certainly has some interesting plants growing in her garden,” she said.
I froze, as her random pleasantries started to take meaning.
“You know which garden I’m talking about… the one growing behind the secret gate?”
“How did you know about Gran’s garden?”
She chuckled. “So cute how your mother shares your fondness for tea. Mine did too. Before you killed her.”
I dropped the phone and raced back to the kitchen, sliding into the room just as my mother swallowed a mouthful of tea. I whacked the cup out of her hands. It flew across the room, barely missing the window before shattering against the wall. A spray of hot liquid splattered in a wide radius as pieces of porcelain rained onto the ceramic tiled floor.
Wide-eyed and stunned my mother stared at me, her mouth gaping open.
“Are you out of your mind? What is wrong with—”
Her words strangled, and she coughed. Her hands flew to her throat. She sputtered, gasping for air. It sounded like she was drowning.
I grabbed on to her shoulder. “Mom. Mom.” But as my hands touched her, something happened. I could feel the energy of it travel from my fingertips into her body. Immediately I let go. But not before her eyes rolled back in her head and her body slipped to the floor in convulsions.
“Oh no. No no no. Don’t die. Please don’t die.” I sprinted for the phone and dialed 911. Nothing. No dial tone. The line was dead. I ran back to the kitchen and grabbed my purse. Cell phone. Where was it?
Throwing handfuls of useless contents onto the floor I finally found it. Tears stung my eyes as I tried to hit 911 but hit speed dial for Adrius. No answer. The front door burst open and I jumped. Whirling around I grabbed the biggest knife from the butcher block, then backed up to the wall. What a knife would do against a supernatural witch with dark magic, I had no idea, but I wasn’t giving up without a fight.
I stole a glance at my mom. She’d stopped convulsing. Was she still breathing? I slid my back down the wall onto the floor. If I could drag her body away from the middle of the room, I could put myself between her and...
A long dark shadow stretched in front of me as I crawled to my mother’s side. The air caught in my throat. I looked up, the butcher knife white-knuckled in hand… and exhaled.
“Zanthiel.” My heart began beating again, faster this time and with such force I was sure he could hear it. Without a word he scooped up my mother and carried her to the couch. I followed, breathless and terrified. Had I made things worse? I knew the answer to that. I’d felt it. There was a charge of energy from me into her. Like pouring battery acid on a flower, she’d wilted.
“What’s wrong with her?” My voice quivered.
Zanthiel covered her face with his hands for a moment. Then he extracted a small vile. Holding her head up, he poured it into her mouth. For a few seconds there was only stillness and silence. Seconds that felt like hours. I couldn’t even find my voice to ask what he was doing.
She coughed. Once. Twice.
I scrubbed my hands over my face. “Thank you thank you thank you.”
Her eyes fluttered open and she blinked up at. She looked from me back to Zanthiel. “What’s going on?”
Zanthiel glanced at me and slipped the empty vile into his coat pocket.
I inhaled a staggered breath. “You fell. Hit your head,” I said quickly. “And Zanthiel helped me get you to the couch.” Swallowing back the residual tears, I forced as close to a smile as I could and waited for her response.
She frowned, still unsure but then she rubbed her elbow where a bruise darkened her otherwise perfect skin. “Well. That’s what comes from drinking your grandmother’s tea,” she muttered, and put her head back on the couch. Her blue eyes shifted to Zanthiel. “When did you get here?”
“Just in time, you might say.” He shot me a side glance and I gave a thin smile.
“You need to take it easy. Think I’d better stay home with you tonight,” I added.
But my mother was shaking her head before I’d finished. “No can do, sugar. Have that important dinner meeting in the city for the arts council, remember? There’s no need for you to miss the bonfire because of my clumsiness. I’ll be fine.”
I sighed. It was useless to argue with her. “I’ll get you some water, Mom.”
Zanthiel followed me back to the kitchen.
“How did you know?” I stared up at him with damp eyes. The thumping in my chest slowed.
“Do you really want the answer to that question?”
I blinked, then turned to the cupboard to retrieve a glass. I already knew the answer. He was watching out for me. Always. And he knew Venus better than I ever wanted to.
“What did you give her?”
“The antidote to Belladonna.”
I bit down on my lip. She tried to poison my mother with a lethal plant from my grandmother’s garden.
Opening the faucet, I filled the glass with water. My hands shook and liquid sloshed onto the floor. Zanthiel came up from behind and reached an arm around me. With a steady grip he took the glass and turned me to face him.
“Are you all right?” His silver eyes squinted as he peered into mine, searching with that discomforting intensity.
Breathe. I inhaled a shaky breath and almost succumbed to another round of tears when his lean cool arms wrapped around me. “It’s going to be fine, Lorelei. I have no intention of letting her hurt you. Your mother is right, you should go to the bonfire. If you go, Adrius will follow, as will Venus. Which means she’ll be far away from your mother, and safely within eyesight.” He stroked my hair and I wilted into his chest, letting his chill spread through me and numb my fears.
When the cold become too comforting, I eased back. “She’s not going to stop, is she?” I whispered, pulling out of his embrace. Another question I knew the answer to. Venus would never stop until she had what she wanted: me and everyone I cared about in a body bag, and Adrius all to herself.
Zanthiel brushed a stand of hair from my face. The cold touch of his fingertips soothed my skin.
“We will destroy her once she’s in Mythlandria. Since you won’t let me kill her now,” he said, fixing me with a sarcastic smirk.
I frowned and shook my head. That wasn’t an option. Killing her in this world meant Adrius died as well. I wasn’t willing to pay that price. Not even to be rid of her forever.
“Maybe you’re right. There is a way,” I said it more to myself than to him. But he didn’t need to hear my words to know when I was up to something.
Zanthiel studied me harshly. “Please do not tell me you’re going to attempt to access your magic to use against her. I can see that having catastrophic and far-reaching after effects.”
I shook my head and gave him a small smile. “You’re telling me not to use magic now?” Funny coming from someone who insisted I tap into his magic every time I performed.
“My magic won’t get you killed. Yours might.”
“Always so worried about me. Thank you, Zanthiel. I’m not sure if I’ve told you this before, but... I appreciate what you’ve done for me.”
Zanthiel smiled and I felt the depth of his emotion spread through me before I forced it out. I needed a clear head right now, free from confusing and conflicting thoughts clouding my judgment.
The small spells I’d managed to successfully pull off while helping Abby practice were the extent of my magical repertoire. Most of the magic I seemed to conjure was the touch of death. Not something I was prepared to use. Twice now I’d seen signs of it. It was there, just below the surface, waiting for the right opportunity to unleash. One more reason I needed to find my father. He was a faerie king and it was partly his magic flowing through my veins. Having turned away from her powers, my mother wasn’t much help. But my father might be able to unravel what was happening to me, and with any luck, reverse it. Finding him meant staying alive long enough to get back to Faery.