Bound In Blue: Book One Of The Sword Of Elements (18 page)

CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE

Halloween
and
trapped
were the first thoughts to penetrate my soggy brain.
Headache
,
hungry
, and
morning
followed. Pushing myself up on my forearms, I scraped back the tangled hair from my face to see why I couldn’t move.

Seolan was lying across my legs. I’d heard him howl a few times and knew he was close by, but hadn’t seen him since the night of the dance.

The dog moved off when I shifted. Giving him a tentative pat on the head, I kicked away my blankets and got out of bed. How he got inside was obvious when I went into the living room. I always left the kitchen window open a little, even when the weather got cold. It was wide open now and the screen was on the floor. Muddy paw prints dotted the kitchen counter, but I couldn’t be mad; they blended in with the dirty dishes and empty takeout containers. I pulled the window almost closed but left the screen out.

The movement intensified the pain in my head. Bottles of pills were stashed in every room now—I’d tried everything legal looking for relief. The drug of choice in the kitchen was aspirin. Popping two in my mouth, I swallowed them without water, then decided to take two more. I wasn’t going to let a headache spoil the day.

It was October thirty-first— Samhain—and I was finally going to get rid of Melusine.

Since the dance, the ghost had grown bolder. She roamed the mansion freely and I’d endured a number of increasingly solid pushes and slaps when I wasn’t expecting it. After she raked my arm with a luminous claw during dinner and I had to pretend I’d somehow cut myself with my own knife, I lied about having a cold and stayed away from the mansion for a couple of days.

I still needed to pick up the items for the spell. Scrawled across the bottom of the page of instructions Lacey gave me was a note that elements collected as close as possible to Samhain had more inherent power, so it was a good excuse to skip school. After a half-hearted attempt to tidy up, I pulled my hair into a loose bun and left the house. Seolan slipped out with me and bounded off down the laneway into the trees, but not before nuzzling my hand with his nose. I had a feeling he’d be back.

It was nice to have someone to come home to.

I spent the day gathering everything and then grabbed some food from the only roadside taco truck in Oshawa. It meant a trip to the edge of town, but the extra fortification was worth it. I had just enough time to wolf down two soft tacos before the dimming sky told me it was time to go. I arrived home to find Seolan sleeping on the couch and the wind whistling through the open kitchen window. I turned up the heat and closed the window just enough to keep the worst of the cold out in case the hound wanted to leave the house while I was gone.

By the time I was showered and dressed, it was almost dark. Gathering my purchases, I was just putting them into one bag when Peter opened the front door and stuck his head in.

“Hey, I have Mom’s van so I thought I’d pick you up.”

“Thanks.” I followed him outside. Pulling the door closed firmly, I checked on the sprig of holly above it. It was still green.

As we walked to the van, I could feel Peter worrying about seeing Miko. The last few days had been difficult. She’d called and texted, but he hadn’t answered. When she started texting me, I ended up as the go between relaying messages.

I wasn’t sure what he was more afraid of: getting mad at her again or forgiving her. I knew what I would do, but for Peter, who was raised with a strict moral code, forgiveness was the only option. Except he’d confided in me that he wasn’t sure he could.

Climbing into the van, I put the plastic bag on the floor and Peter started the engine. Turning on to the main road, he had to be careful not to hit any of the trick or treaters who were beginning to filter through the gates. Mr. Larsen gave out full-size chocolate bars on Halloween and that info had spread like wildfire through the new subdivision behind us. Most kids were willing to walk a fair bit—or to get their parents to drive them and drop them off—to trick or treat at a full-size house.

“What’s in the bag?” Peter asked.

“Two dozen birthday candles, a can of cream soda, a bag of glass marbles, gingerbread man cookies, and a picture of an oak leaf. It was supposed to be an actual leaf, but I couldn’t find one so Lacey said a picture would be fine. I had to go to the library and pull one out of a book.” I felt rather bad about it.

Peter’s pale eyebrows disappeared into the light fringe of his hair. “Really? Lacey and that teacher are going to conjure up some major mumbo jumbo and that’s what they need?”

“Yup.” I didn’t want to admit it, but I’d been wondering if Lacey had given me the list to waste my time out of spite. I couldn’t even imagine how any of it would be useful in banishing a ghost.

“What’s our cover story then?”

“Miko’s worked it out. She’s telling Tynan and Daley we’re having a sort of magic intervention for Lacey at Cailleach’s.”

“We’re going to her place?”

I shook my head. “Lacey said it was a neutral location that wouldn’t make Melusine suspicious.”

“Nice.” Peter grinned and I could feel his renewed tension through our bond. He was so tightly sprung now that he always seemed ready to explode into action. That terrible anger was gone, but I couldn’t lie to myself anymore that a Protector was a glorified bodyguard. A Protector was a warrior.

When we arrived at the mansion, I grabbed the bag and climbed into the middle row after a look from Peter. Miko slipped into the seat I’d vacated, but after a murmured greeting, they were silent.

I was surprised when Tynan got in the van and sat in the very back. Daley eased in beside me. Melusine floated into the empty spot beside Tynan with an acid look in my direction.

“So,” Peter said, “where are we going again?”

I checked the map on my phone. “Go north on Holt Road. Right before you get to Conlin, turn at King Lane.”

He nodded. “That’s not too far, maybe 5 minutes.”

I checked the clock on the dash: 5:45. By the time we turned on to Holt at 5:52, my stomach was wound tight around a knot of marigold and I was having serious second thoughts about the whole thing. The sun hadn’t fully set, but there were no streetlights and it was dark and eerie—particularly with a ghost in your car on All Hallow’s Eve.

Peter stopped the car and put it in park.

“What’s wrong?”

“What was the address again?”

“King Lane, corner of King and Holt.”

“That can’t be right. Holt ends here.”

I took off my seat belt to look over the dash. Peter was right—the road had come to an end and the headlights showed an overgrown path in front of us. I checked my phone again. “Holt’s supposed to go all the way to Conlin Road.”

“Well, it doesn’t.” He grabbed the phone. “Wait a sec while I check something.”

I glanced over at Daley. Melusine had her arms wrapped around his shoulders from behind and her claws had become translucent fingers again. The helpless longing of her pose and Daley’s constant caress of the necklace made me feel guilty, but also seriously creeped out.

And then Melusine’s eyes opened and there was so much menace in them that I couldn’t wait to exorcise her pretty little behind.

“Cool.” Peter said as he passed the phone back to me.

“What?”

“It’s a trap street.”

“What?” Tynan repeated from the back.

“A trap street.” Peter twisted around. “You’re kidding me, right? Do you guys seriously not know? A trap street is a street that doesn’t exist. Map makers put them in so if somebody copies their map, they can tell. I read about them online, but I never thought I’d find one.”

Peter was in geek heaven, but I wondered if this was another element of the spell. Names were important. Maybe magic flowed freer in a place that didn’t have a real name to bind it.

Daley was impatient. “We must have the wrong address. Somebody call Lacey.”

I checked the clock: 5:59. “There’s no service,” I lied as I put the phone in my pocket.

Tynan leaned forward. “There’s probably something up ahead we can’t see, maybe a private road. If Lacey’s got as deep into witchcraft as Rhi says, then we should at least try.”

“Ty’s right.” Miko pointed. Easy to miss in the darkness, Lacey’s car was parked just off the path.

Daley shrugged and the ghost hopped on his knee and nestled into him.

Peter pulled forward a few more feet and then put the van back into park. “I think we’re walking from here.”

As I got out, Miko linked her arm through mine and pulled me ahead of the others. Her skin was cold and clammy and I suppressed a shudder of revulsion as I shook her off.

Her face went blank. “He knows,” she hissed and I shivered again at the new sibilance in her voice.

“Daley?”

She shook her head. “Tynan. He was getting suspicious so I had to tell him everything.” She glanced over her shoulder to make sure no one was close enough to hear. “He wasn’t surprised.”

“He remembers seeing Melusine?”

“I don’t know. He’s not happy though. The only thing that convinced him was telling him Melusine wants to hurt you and is getting strong enough to do it.” She wasn’t wrong. The long scratch on my forearm was proof.

The fairy looked scared. “And there’s something else. I heard Binnorie singing yesterday when I was in the hallway outside my room. I’ve never heard her sing on her own like that.” She hesitated. “I don’t want to tell you . . .”

“Miko . . .”

She sighed. “She was singing that the dragon was going to peel your skin off like a banana.”

My heart thumped in my chest and yellow alarm pulsed with it, but I ignored them both.  I checked my phone again: 6:02. The path ended at a small clearing with a picnic table off to one side. Lacey and Cailleach were waiting for us.

“Give me the bag,” Lacey demanded and I handed to her.

The others arrived and Peter put the camping lantern he was carrying on the table. The light illuminated a lit cigarette balancing on the edge and Melusine flitted over to it, gazing at it longingly.

“Melusine used to smoke in her room when Daley wasn’t home,” Miko said with wonder in her voice. “She knew he wouldn’t like it if he ever found out.”

“You can see her?” 

Miko nodded. Melusine was getting stronger.

Cailleach’s eyes were black pits in her face. “Belief begets reality. The god of thunder’s belief in his love for the dragon girl has tethered her to this world, but it is your belief and desire for her which has brought her back to the brink of life.” The woman wasn’t looking at me or Daley with her unblinking, round eyes.

She was looking at Tynan.

“What’s she talking about?” Daley asked.

Tynan’s eyes were fixed on the ghost. “Melusine is with us. I can’t always see her, but I can feel her. She misses you. She misses me too. Sometimes I talk to her so she won’t be lonely.”

Daley tried to put his hands on his brother’s shoulders, but Tynan shook him off. “Ty, I know you cared for her—maybe more than you should have, but that’s OK. I wish it wasn’t true, but she’s gone. We have to accept it.”

Tynan’s face changed and his voice became darker. “Try telling that to Rhi.”

Daley frowned and looked at me. I pointed to where Melusine hovered around the cigarette. “Melusine is here. Her spirit is tied to her necklace, but she needs to move on. You can’t see her, but I can. You don’t know that she’s changing, becoming something more than just a ghost. Lacey and Cailleach offered to help us, but we were afraid that if we told you, you wouldn’t come.”

Sparks began to flicker around Daley’s head and thunder boomed in the distance. “You know what you should do, Rhiannon? You should mind your own damn business.”

Miko rushed forward. “It’s true. I can see her now too.”

A gasp to my left. “Holy crap!” Peter said, “So can I.”

“Me too,” Lacey said calmly.

Daley clenched his fists. “Why can’t I see her then?”

That’s a good question.

Cailleach advanced and Melusine moved away until she hovered between Tynan and Daley. “The collective power of our belief in the girl, aided by the Path close by, is making her more solid by the minute. What we have come to do, we must do quickly or we will have no control over her at all.”

I checked my phone again: 6:04.

I closed my eyes. Maybe the bond between Melusine and the necklace was keeping Daley from seeing her. Extending my senses, I found the spot of blazing aquamarine centered over Daley’s heart. Wisps crept from it and connected to his colors.

It was worth a shot. I opened my eyes and put out my hand. “If you want to see her, give me the necklace.” Thunder boomed, closer now, but after a brief hesitation, he slipped the necklace off and gave it to me. The wheel charm had been threaded onto the chain as well. I removed the jewel and then passed the chain and charm back to Daley.

What I’d once thought was a precious blue stone in silver was just white glass surrounded by silver-plated wire. Placing it on the picnic table, I smashed it with the base of the lantern, shattering the glass and twisting the metal.