Chapter 27

During the time it took for my new wand to be assembled and properly charged, I fought the urge to return to the streets and simply take Diana out once and for all. I’d started to wonder if killing her would also neutralize the twins, or maybe somehow weaken them enough to minimize the threat they posed to me and the rest of the remaining Fate Weavers.

Salem deigned to speak to me long enough to tell me that was a stupid idea, and remind me that he was on his ninth and final life, and if I happened to die during the battle he’d also be headed straight for kitty heaven. Or, wherever it was familiars go to meet their maker. I’d heard his diatribe before, and I let him know in no uncertain terms that it was beginning to lose its effectiveness. After all, if I were dead, and he as well, there wasn’t much either of us could do to retaliate against the other.

Not that I had any intention of dying, mind you, but I did heed Salem’s advice and decided to wait until I had all possible weapons at my disposal. And that meant I had to endure long enough for my mother to complete the ritual for my Fate Weaver wand.

With two rituals to complete including the one for Kaine’s balancing, the sanctum was packed with witches and faeries. Evian stood by Serena’s side while she completed the relatively simple task of charming the jar full of buttons that she’d later sew into all his clothes. As she spoke the words, I remembered my last experience with the same spell.

Serena held Kaine in her arms, stroking his cheeks while she chanted,

 

You have Seen

And now you know

Where the Balefire burns

Your powers grow

 

You listened well

And braved the flame

But still must work

To earn your name

 

When at last

You know your way

This spell you cast

Shall fade away

 

If balance be

Your heart’s desire

Then speak your wish

Unto the fire

 

Kaine couldn’t speak his own wish, but after mouthing along to the words I murmured my own into the flame. I’d found balance, finally, and no longer needed the assistance of a spell to dull my powers. With a silent whoosh, I felt the vestiges of it trickle away, leaving me feeling fresh and clean and completely in control. Just the way I liked it.

Serena spoke for her son, and for a moment the buttons glowed with magic before returning to their former appearance. Whatever Fritzroy and Garrick had done to alter the spell seemed to work, and the overwhelming charisma Kaine possessed lowered a few notches until he felt more like a regular baby. An inordinately adorable, and still quite compelling baby, for sure, but I doubted he’d be able to affect anyone like he’d affected Katie in the coffeehouse.

“Will he still be able to weave fates in this state?” I asked. It seemed unfair to take away all of his abilities without giving him a choice in the matter, even if it was the right decision for his and Serena’s safety.

Garrick’s smiling face turned from Kaine to me, “He still possesses power, yes. Just to a lesser degree. It should take the edge off and allow Serena to live a relatively normal life until he’s old enough to make informed decisions. And I promise we won’t disappear again. We’ll assist you both to the best of our abilities.” Garrick turned to his brother, who nodded in agreement.

“Now, for your wand.” Fritzroy announced. “We’ll need everyone except Lexi and Sylvana to clear out for this one.”

My entourage filed out of the sanctum, leaving the four of us to complete the process of making me an official Fate Weaver wand of my very own.

“Lexi, the bowstring?”

Garrick held out a hand, and I pulled the bow from my flesh and into its solid form. “If I give you the string, I won’t be able to shoot.” The thought hadn’t occurred to me before that very second.

“No worries,” He replied, “Just give it a tug, you’ll see.”

I did as instructed, and pulled on one end of the string. A low keening noise assaulted my ears, but the string turned all glowy and grew to an appropriate length before snapping in half and reattaching itself to the bow. The piece I held in my hand was dull and nicked in a few places, evidence of the work I’d done since acquiring it.

“This will work, right? It’s not bright and shiny anymore.”

Garrick nodded, “There’s powerful magic in that piece of string now, and it’s only going to make your wand that much stronger. Sylvana, it’s your job to bind the citrine. Your godmother fetched us the perfect length of a willow branch from the backyard. Willow signifies intuition and femininity, and of course citrine is—”

“An element of power.” Sylvana cut in impatiently, “We are all witches here, and we do know the basic properties. It’s the perfect combination, and the bowstring will act as a conduit. Let’s not waste any more time.”

With that, she ran a fingernail down the middle of her right palm, drawing a line of glistening blood to bind the spell. A few chanted phrases later, and the wand fused together with a somewhat anticlimactic click. My mother’s face paled, and for a moment she looked shaky on her feet, but in typical Balefire fashion she composed herself almost immediately.

I hadn’t been lying when I said we were powerful witches, and I think even Garrick and Fritzroy were surprised by her hardy constitution.

Sylvana handed the wand to me, and I gave it a little wiggle just to make sure it worked. Sparks flew from the end of it, erupting into a shower of fireworks, and that’s when the climax came.

Raw power surged from within me, making my teeth chatter and my bones vibrate. The undulating wave arced outward, and then reverberated off itself as a pulse of dark magic pushed back against my light. I recognized Diana’s essence, and felt certain she’d been touched by my own.

I was also certain that she was furious, and that it wouldn’t be long before she’d send the Balmorrigan to retaliate.

 

Call me Kreskin, because in under an hour my prediction came to pass.

Imagine you’re standing in the middle of several concerts at once—orchestra, heavy metal, show tunes, rock, and country—all playing different songs at top volume. I swear I heard the shark is coming tune from Jaws in there somewhere, too.

Now, imagine the concerts are in your head.

I was polishing my arrows—which if I were a man might have been a euphemism, but I’m not—when a wall of sound radiated from the bow and took me to my knees.

“Something’s wrong,” I heard someone say, but the cacophony in my head distorted and nearly drowned out the words, so I wasn’t sure who picked up on my distress. Slapping my hands over my ears did nothing to reduce the thunder between them.

If I ever managed to get in a room with my father, the man was going to get a piece of my mind. Well, if the bow left me any pieces to give away.

Hands lifted me from the floor while I shrieked into the booming void. “Tone it down a notch.” The bow listened, barely, and took the sound down from brain-melting to a volume still loud enough to set all my bones vibrating, but not enough to actually pop my eyeballs. Thank the goddess for small mercies.

“Enough.” Yanking the bow out from its more nebulous form to its solid one, I watched the faces in the room go from worried to pained when they got a taste of what it felt like to be a Fate Weaver. Not so glamorous a job as one might think. “Message received.” Singing bow. Who ever thought that was a good idea, I ask you?

The sudden silence seemed to hum. Sylvana sounded like she was talking from the bottom of a well when she said, “What the hell was that?” She shook her head and poked her little finger in her ear as if to clear out the last of the sound.

“That was my father’s legacy.” It wasn’t the aftermath that flattened my tone. Proud as I was to carry on the work, the tools of the trade came with a learning curve and no instructions. When my mother only stared at me, I felt like I was missing something important.

“What?”

“Nothing. I just never heard it do that before.”

Of course not, because the bow saved its most annoying aspects for me. I felt so special. All warm and fuzzy inside.

Or maybe that was just the aftermath of being hollowed out by sound. “Didn’t the bow communicate with…um…him at all?” Having never met the man, I still wasn’t sure what to call my father. Dad seemed a little informal. Cupid? Eros? Daddy? Um, no.

“You’ll have to ask him when you get the chance.”

I’d add that to my list of questions, sure. It was only about as long as Santa’s naughty list at this point anyway. In the meantime, I assumed the attention-getting volume had been meant to warn me of something. Probably impending doom, since that tended to be the go-to problem in my life.

The living gold weapon quivered in my hands as if gearing up for another blast of chaotic noise. “Don’t even think about it.” There’s no need to point out the absurdity of my talking to what should have been an inanimate object. I’m already aware. “If Timmy fell down the well, giving me a headache isn’t the most useful way to help. Do better.”

After a blast of frustrated instrumentation, the bow settled in and told its story through music. Sort of.

First, it hit me again with the Jaws da-dump da-dump sound. Simple enough to interpret. Danger headed my way. Next up was a song I didn’t recognize.

“Anyone know what that is?” I looked around the room for willing participants in musical charades since my gut wasn’t pinging anything to do with impending matches, but all I saw were blank faces until Aunt Mag walked into the room with my grandmother in tow.

“Hey, that’s classic Floyd,” she started to hum along.

I had a moment of stupidity. “Floyd who?” I racked my brains for anyone we knew named Floyd and came up dry.

Mag, whose musical and wardrobe tastes ran to the 60s and 70s but preferred Victorian decor, tilted her head and gave me a pitying look. “Pink.”

For crying out loud, was the old bat going senile?

“Floyd Pink? I don’t know anyone by that name.” Sometimes it takes me a minute.

She looked at Gran and then back at me. “The song is Shine on You Crazy Diamond, by Pink Floyd.” Then she shocked me even more by breaking into a nicely resonant contralto and singing along for a few bars with the bow.

Crazy diamond, and danger. I had to hand it to the bow for choosing topical references, even if one of them was well before my time. As far as codes went, this one was easy enough to break. Diana Diamond was up to something dangerous.

So, basically, it was Tuesday.

Except, the bow had another song or two to play, and when it launched into a lullaby that sounded like it came from a child’s music box, my blood froze. Then it shot up to boiling.

Kaine.

Evian figured it out about a half second behind me, and when I turned to warn her, it was to see the twinkling motes she left behind as she shifted directly to Serena’s with Soleil right behind her. Fire and water normally don’t mix, but when those particular elemental faeries decided to work together, watch out.

Before the sparkle died out, they were back. Evian with the baby carrier, and Soleil with a hand wrapped around Serena’s arm.

“What is wrong with you?” Indignant, a towel-draped Serena still had shampoo in her hair. “Dragging me out of the shower like that. I barely had time to grab a towel.”

“We got word Diana might be headed to your place.”

Soleil’s hair lifted in the heat of her emotion. “She wasn’t there, but I can promise she’d have been in for a surprise.”

But then, so was I. The next tune from the bow of destiny was Riders on the Storm. An oldie even I recognized. Riders had to refer to the Balmorrigan, and what with the spate of reunions, I hadn’t given enough thought to what we should do with them. Carl and the Fate Weavers had good information, but even knowing the supernatural predators could be killed wasn’t enough. I needed to know how to get the jump on them.

“Salem, is Delta still around? Can you check the sanctum?” He was finally speaking to me without rolling his eyes every time, but if there was a championship for grudge carrying, Salem would be the poster boy. We hadn’t had time for kitty cuddles or ear scratches yet, and I knew from past experience he wouldn’t fully forgive me until I dragged his favorite bed out of storage.

In all fairness, he wasn’t the only one who deserved some extra attention from me. I’d been quite short with the godmothers during my little break from dignity, and while they’d already forgiven me, I’d probably have to offer up penance and a few faerie game nights before they’d forget. All of which I was happy to do. If we all survived whatever was coming next.

“Don’t bother, I’m right here.” My hearing was returning, but even so, Delta’s voice startled me from behind.

Heart racing, I turned to her. “Must you sneak around like that?”

She shot me a cocked eyebrow and a sarcastic answer. “Hello, my name is Delta. I track down supernatural beings for a living. I tend to be stealthy.”

Flapping a hand at her because we didn’t have time for a bout of verbal sparring, I cut her off.

“I think the Balmorrigan felt that burst of magic from creating my wand.” At the time, I was too busy to ask what put the frown on her face as she glanced at the bow and then back at me. Later, I’d wish for a do-over.