Entangled (29 page)

“I’ll simply need to take it up with the missus.” The second syringe still hovered over Adrian’s arm, yellow liquid inside. “I need to know what day she died.”

“Why?”

“For this spell is why. We don’t have time for twenty questions, McKenna.”

This was a bad idea, a very bad idea—Adrian attempting a spell that had never been done before. Sure, that’d turn out well. Raj had to make sure the transfer worked. For now he’d answer Adrian’s questions. It wasn’t like it was secret information or anything. “February ninth.”

“Well, isn’t that tragic.” Adrian stuck the needle through his skin. “So what’d she die of?”

“She was poisoned.”

“Poisoned! How?”

“By her sister—unintentionally. Death by chocolate.” Raj’s lips curved up at the absurdity of it.

“If the sister killed her we should definitely purge her.”

“Let’s focus on the transfer. You say this girl is going to pass on any day. How can you be sure?”

“The doc was practically reading her last rights…” Adrian looked at Raj and grinned. “But then, you’re the expert. By tomorrow she could be in the morgue, which still works for us so long as the body’s preserved, though good luck explaining that one to the coroner when she rises from the dead.” The remainder of Adrian’s chemistry set vanished following the wave of his hand. “The rest will have to wait or I won’t be of any use.”

“You do realize that if you double-cross Gray she’ll bury you,” Raj said. “I once did a spell on her and she nearly killed me for it.”

The warning, unfortunately, had the opposite effect on Adrian. His smile widened. “Got something of the sinister in her, does she? Sure you can handle a witch like that?”

Instead of taking the bait Raj sighed and said, “Just do what you gotta do.”

Raj waited for Gray in the parking lot at McKinley on Wednesday morning, but she never showed. Once the warning bell rang, he got inside his car and drove to her house.

“Gray.” Raj pounded on the front door. “Gray!”

They’d cut it close the last time he’d seen her. Hopefully, she hadn’t run into any trouble with Charlene; not that Charlene could really do anything—like keep her hostage. Could she?

Raj beat on the door. Suddenly it flew open and he fell forward as he put his weight into his fist.

Gray stood at the top of the stairs in a black turtleneck and jeans. She’d cut her hair; it hit just above her shoulders. Her eyes were heavily outlined in dark liner. It wasn’t just the top or eyeliner that surrounded Gray in black. Clouds of it hovered around her.

Raj gently closed the door. “What happened?”

Gray descended the stairs and stopped at the edge of the banister. “What do you mean?”

“Something’s wrong.”

“I’m trapped inside my sister’s body. No shit something’s wrong.”

Raj reached inside his pack and pulled out the three pendants. They dangled from his fingers. Gray’s eyes lit up and she smiled, but her aura didn’t change. “It got pretty hairy in the end, but we did it.” Raj held Gray’s gaze and willed away whatever malice troubled her. She appeared as focused on him as he was on her.

Gray reached out and wrapped her fingers around the chains dangling from Raj’s fingers. “Thank you. You did good work the other night, which is more than I can say for myself. I choked.”

“Did not.”

“Raj, I choked.” Tears glossed over her eyes and were quickly blinked away. “If you hadn’t been there…”

Raj cleared his throat. “Mr. Holloway was a bit intense.”

When Gray looked at him he grinned and suddenly she was chuckling softly. “God, he freaked me out. He always seemed so unassuming at the podium during lecture—not like something from a children’s horror story.”

“I’ll never forget the way he rushed out of the house,” Raj said.

“Or the evil grin.” Gray shuddered. “You know he’s gotta be demonic.”

Raj laughed. “I’m sure he’s thinking the same thing about his attackers—probably wanted to leave an impression.”

“He did that.” Gray turned with the pendants and Raj followed her into the kitchen. Gray pulled the stoppers and caps off the pendants. “They’re empty.”

“I emptied them.”

Gray turned toward Raj. “Adrian has his powers back?”

“I wanted him to be ready to perform the transfer.”

Gray nodded and turned away.

“Have you heard from your mom?”

Gray couldn’t stop her shoulders from sagging. “No, and I’ve left her a dozen messages. She may have gotten the call, but it’s still going to be too late.”

The kitchen countertops were polished and empty. Not even a fruit bowl was placed out. When Raj’s eyes found Gray again she had a kitchen knife poised over her wrist. Before he could speak she sliced herself open and held the first vial to her wrist. Raj hurried over and took it from her, replacing the stopper and lid as she filled the next vial. They worked in silence. When each vial was filled and sealed, Gray rinsed them once more in the sink then dried them off on a kitchen towel.

Gray handed Raj a pendant. “You’ll take one?”

He nodded and clasped it around his neck then tucked it beneath his shirt.

“Thank you. Is Adrian ready?”

“He’s located a lost soul in Seattle.”

Gray let out a breath. “Good.” Her aura morphed into a dull, heavy gray.

“Are you okay?” Raj tried asking again.

Gray looked around the kitchen. “It’s weird being inside Charlene’s body, you know?” She looked at Raj.

He didn’t answer. He had the feeling she didn’t expect one.

“I know it looks similar to my own, but it’s not and I feel it’s not. As strange as that’s been I can’t imagine being inside someone entirely unfamiliar to me.”

Raj took Gray’s hands in his. “It’ll still be you.”

Her hands trembled briefly and then she pulled away. “I know. Anyway, I’m done with this bod. Onward and upward, right?”

Raj tapped a finger against the outline of his Zippo inside his pocket. “Yeah. Shall we?”

“Can we stop by the hospital first?”

Gray wanted Stacey to have one of the pendants. It was only fitting that she should be one of the individuals blocking the powers of the person who’d stolen her consciousness. Gray made the pendant invisible.

Adrian clapped his hands together and rubbed them when Gray entered his barren workshop. “All right. Who’s in the mood for a body transfer?”

Gray gave him a stony stare. She reached around her neck and unclasped the third pendant. Adrian’s eyes followed the chain as Gray pulled it out from under her turtleneck. She held it out. “A souvenir.”

Adrian snatched it. “And the other two?”

Gray inclined her head toward Raj. “Raj has one. Mine is in safe keeping. That’s my blood in there. Mine and Charlene’s. You can wear the pendant after the transfer or return it to Raj. Once you put it on, Charlene’s powers will be blocked. That means mine will be blocked as well.”

Adrian’s brow rose. “Not a good feeling.”

Gray took a deep breath. “No.”

“Let’s go then.”

Being powerless was a wretched feeling. Gray’d already felt her abilities weaken after she clasped the first pendant around Raj’s neck. He naturally was against entrusting one to Adrian, but Gray found it fitting that the three people involved in the transfer should be the three to block Charlene’s powers. Once the transfer was complete, Gray would get her pendant back from Stacey. Every day that she had to look in the mirror and see a stranger’s face, she’d at least take comfort from the vial of Charlene’s blood hanging at her chest and know that her sister would never practice magic again.

If Gray’s transfer was unsuccessful and Stacey should die, the pendant would go with her. The chances of Charlene regaining all three pendants would be next to nil with one hanging invisible around a corpse under the ground.

“I’ll drive,” Raj said.

They were the last words Gray heard. As she stepped toward the door she disappeared.

So this was what teleportation was like? It was quick. No whooshing portal or ethereal passageway leading from one place to the other. Or maybe that was because Gray wasn’t the one teleporting herself. She simply reappeared in her living room.

A shiver coursed through her body. All the windows were open. The draft prickled her skin as it had that morning. Terror gripped her by the throat. Nolan. Holloway. Her mind tripped over the two names, chanting them like a death mantra, but it was only Ryan.

“Hello, Graylee.”

The voice sounded different, smooth, but Ryan’s pear-shaped face was as familiar as ever. He stood in the living room

Oh, for goodness’ sake.

Gray’s hands landed on her hips. “What are you doing here, Ryan?”

“I’m here on Charlene’s behalf.”

“Are you now? And did you help put Stacey Morehouse in a coma on Charlene’s behalf?”

Ryan grinned. “Charlene didn’t need my help with Stacey. She’s a very powerful witch, you know.”

“You mean psychotic.”

Ryan squinted. “That’s not a nice thing to say.”

“Speaking of psychotic…” Gray said, walking toward the door. “Get out of my house.” She reached for the door handle, but the door didn’t budge when she pulled on it. She lifted a finger to make it fly open, but it remained firmly closed.

When she looked at Ryan he was grinning. The boy might be pear-faced and short, but at the moment he’d taken on an entirely morbid look. “I’m not going anywhere, Graylee, and neither are you.”

Normally Gray’s magic should have been stronger than Ryan’s, but she was practically without power, not to mention Ryan was juiced up on something and had props. He’d pulled out a glowing orb that kept her rooted in place, back flat against the living room floor. The front door, which Gray couldn’t open moments earlier, was now wide open, in addition to the windows.

Thin trails of smoke rose to the ceiling like pieces of white string. Ryan was burning white sage in porcelain bowls. After lighting incense in every room downstairs he’d gone upstairs, Gray could only guess, to do the same in all the rooms above her.

“You little sh…” The words had died on her tongue when she tried to speak.

Fight
, Gray told herself.
Break through the magic.

Gray didn’t know whether she wanted to laugh or wail. Of all the people to take her down she couldn’t believe it’d be Ryan Phillips.

An image of Gray’s mom entered her head—her mom lost in the mountains, searching for a contact who’d beckoned her to get her out of the way. ’Cause it all came down to the final battle of the twins, didn’t it?

Gray saw her mother coming home: Gray gone again, this time without a trace—not so much as a cold corpse for proof. Even with a second chance at life, she hadn’t gotten to tell her good-bye; to give her one last hug. Tears leaked out the sides of Gray’s eyes.

Gray managed to thrash slightly. Ryan’s eyes widened. He stood above her, reading aloud from an old text. He set it down and grabbed a porcelain bowl that wasn’t smoking. His fingers slipped inside then flicked above her, sending a rain of droplets over her face. They mingled with her tears. “With this holy water, spirit be gone.”

Gray would have laughed if she had the use of her vocal cords. Nice try, Pear Head.

Then something began pulling at her insides. She gasped aloud. It should have alarmed her that Ryan found that encouraging, but she was a little too distracted by the sensation of floating away from the floor like one of the smoke trails streaming from white porcelain.

Gray was floating. Except she wasn’t floating. Her body was still on the floor.

“Go to the light, Graylee Perez.”

Fuck you, Ryan Phillips.

There was a second gasp, only Gray hadn’t made it—the body on the floor had. The girl sat up suddenly, choking, then stopped. She looked at Ryan with teeth that gleamed like the Cheshire Cat. “You did it. You freaking did it!”

Oh, crap.

Raj wasn’t good at locator spells, but Adrian was. Any misgivings he’d had about returning Adrian’s powers were put to rest when the warlock went immediately to work arranging four candles around his spot on the floor. He set one north, south, east, and west.

“Gray wasn’t purged?” came Raj’s first terrified question the moment Gray disappeared from sight.  He’d considered she might have turned herself invisible, but only for a second. Her absence was tangible.

At first Adrian studied the last place she’d stood. “That wasn’t a purge. That was an abduction, and a cowardly one at that.” Adrian lit the candles and jasmine incense.

Raj set a goblet of water in front of Adrian.

“Let the water show the location of Graylee Perez,” Adrian said. “Let the water show the location of Graylee Perez.” He repeated this four times.