Phantom Quartz: A Stacy Justice Witch Mystery Book 6 (Stacy Justice Magical Mysteries) (21 page)

Chapter 43

I charged at her, intending to take her down with a flat swing from my blade, but she sensed me. She spun around, sword in hand.

She came at me without saying a word, and I dodged a thrust of her sword that nearly skewered me. She took a fighter’s stance, the lines on her face deepening into a determination I’d never seen on anyone before. She stabbed at me again with power I wouldn’t have expected from a woman her age. Tisiphone’s voice rang in my ears.
Never underestimate your opponent.
I parried the blade with my own, our swords striking, sparking, the crush of metal against metal masking the sound of the water lapping below.

The candles flickered as the baby’s cries intensified. Evelyn jumped in the air, whirled around, and roundhouse-kicked me in the gut. The impact sent me scurrying backwards, and I landed on my ass, almost to the edge of the drop-off. I tried to scramble to my feet as she surged at me again, but I wasn’t fast enough, so I switched tactics. I fanned my sword out, attempting to slice her feet out from under her, but she leapt above it, then stomped on the blade, wrenching it from my hands. She kicked it backwards, and it sailed into a rock, bent like a boomerang.

I yanked the athame from my boot and plunged it into her foot. She screamed as blood pooled beneath her boot and I vaulted to my feet, rushing to retrieve my bent sword. Her energy flashed behind me and I spun around, blocking her blow. I caught the gleam of my dagger in her hand.

There was a crazed look in her eyes as she advanced on me, her injured foot dragging behind her. She wielded both weapons while we sparred. Our swords matched each other swing for swing, blade for blade, slice for slice, despite her bloody foot. Until I noticed that the baby’s cries had subsided and I cut my eyes to her.

That’s when Evelyn stabbed me with my own freaking knife. It ripped through my left thigh, cutting me to what felt like the bone. I screamed and in one mighty swoop, our ritual swords connected and held. She was a force, to be sure, and while we were both injured, I was stronger and fresh off a practice from a pro. I angled the crook of my bent sword to hers and yanked as hard as I could.

Evelyn’s sword somersaulted in the air, as if in slow motion. I put my hand out, charged with the power of generations of Geraghtys, and the grip of her sword crashed into my palm.

Then she went for the baby.

I dropped my own damaged sword, yanked the athame from my leg, and charged.

But I was too late. Evelyn scooped her up before I could reach them and ran to the edge of the drop-off. A chunk of earth cracked off the edge and spilled over the side, tiny pebbles chasing after it. For a moment, I was terrified she’d lose her footing and they would tumble together into the abyss.

I held both weapons and edged closer to her. “Evelyn, I don’t know why you’re doing this, and I don’t care. Just give me the baby and I’ll let you walk out of here alive.”

She sneered at me. “How about a trade, Seeker. Give me the amulet and I’ll release the child.”

I swallowed hard. How did she know about the locket? About me as the Seeker? And if she was the shifter, didn’t
she
have it?

“Don’t hesitate too long. I’m feeling faint, and my arms are tired.” She bounced the baby in the air.

“I don’t have it.”

She cocked her head, disbelieving. “Oh
really
?”

The baby kicked her tiny feet, squirming.

“I swear to you, it was stolen.”

She considered this for a moment. “So that’s why you didn’t have it last night. How very unfortunate.”

So
she
was the one who accosted me. But who else? There had been two of them, I was certain. One taller than Evelyn. I recalled a husky voice. “That was you?”

“Yes it was me. A mother does desperate things when she’s trying to save the life of her son.” She held the baby up, peered into her eyes.

The other assailant was tall, strong. “So it was your son who helped you then.” I inched forward and she jerked.

“Stay back!”

I halted. “Evelyn, please, you don’t want to do this.” My palms were growing clammy. Fear I’d never known was crawling under my skin, crackling along my nerves like an electric shock.

“Of course I do. Your family has stolen enough from mine over the years, Stacy Justice. Now it’s time to steal something from yours. It’s the only way to stop them.”

A breeze blew through the space then, crisp and cool as a fall moon. A drum beat drifted from one of the passageways.

I stepped back, hoping the move would draw her forward. If I could get her away from the edge, I might have a chance to strike. “Whatever you think my family stole from you doesn’t concern her.”

She balked. “It most certainly does. This goes back farther than any of us. And it concerns all the future generations.”

I had no idea what the hell she was talking about. I dug into the earth with her sword, hoping to distract her. “Evelyn, please, just give her to me. We can work this out. Nothing is written in stone.”

She ignored me, didn’t even look my way as she swayed the baby in her arms, staring at her face. The waves below crashed into rocks, the water growing angry, heated.

“Did you know that twenty years ago,
I
was the Seeker?” She finally said.

This floored me, and my balance faltered, my leg throbbing. I flicked my eyes to Evelyn’s foot, wondering if her injury was as severe as I thought. I hoped not. Not with her holding the baby so close to the edge. “No.” I wondered if Birdie knew this bit of information. But she hadn’t been a member of the Council then. She wouldn’t have been privy to that knowledge.

Evelyn’s long fingers tickled the baby’s chin, and my stomach hopped. She said in a sing-song voice, “Yes, I was. And my mother twenty years before that. Yes she was.”

So what was this? Revenge? This couldn’t be happening.
I
couldn’t be the reason Cinnamon’s child was in the arms of a maniac. My gut twisted into a knot of torturous despair.

“And do you know the price she paid for that title?” Evelyn looked at me. I shook my head.

“A sacrifice. Her only son, taken from her. My brother.” She glared at me. “Despite the fact that we were both stripped of the role. Imagine letting that old woman hang onto the title for all those years.”

“So what happened?” I moved a bit closer as she danced the baby toward solid ground. 

“We broke the rules. Tried to shake things up. But when you do that, they decide it never belonged to you in the first place.” She gave me a cold stare. “Can you believe that? Deemed unworthy by the very Council that my ancestor devoted his life to.”

I thought of what Gladys had written about the miner and the captain. Whispered, “Captain Gearson.”

She aimed her stare at me again and one of the candles flickered, then blinked out. “Very good, Seeker.” The baby yawned, and balled her little fists. “But he was stripped of his position too, thanks to your ancestor accusing him of pirating the very treasures he had sworn to protect.”

“He was a member of the Council too?”

She stared at me. “Of course not. They didn’t let in just any riff raff. His wife was a Seeker.” She cooed at the baby. “Back then they didn’t just toss you in that castle for a crime—they eliminated you. And every generation or so after that they take a child just to remind you of your sins.”

I shook my head. “No, Evelyn, your brother was not sacrificed. It was an accident. Your son is not in danger. This is all something you’ve cooked up in your mind.”

The sharp stench of gasoline passed over me then, the gentle hum of an old engine streamed by, the fluttery laughter of a teenage girl, and a familiar old tune whistled in my ear. “Strangers cruisin’ down the south strip / Cool cats, searchin’ for some hot lips.”

I thought of Tony’s assessment that they ran out of gas, that there wasn’t any damage to the car. Could Ponyboy and Vicky Fontaine have cruised down here, parked in a cavern like this one and left the engine running? If it had been December, as the legend goes, they would have been cold. Maybe they played a cassette tape in a boom box, started doing what teenagers in love will do, and didn’t realize they were slowly poisoning themselves.

Would that scene play out here too? Just as the miner and the captain scene had? Dear goddess, I hoped not. I couldn’t risk losing control over my limbs.

“You think I’m crazy? No, Seeker, that’s how they operate, trust me. I have my sources on the inside. Unless you can give those self-righteous bastards something in return. And since that old map your mother had didn’t lead to anything but an empty chest, it’s either the amulet—which naturally I would have said you lost, redeeming my standing—or the baby. Doesn’t matter that it’s not mine. They’re very medieval that way.”

“You’re completely mad.”

She laughed, shook her head. “Don’t you get it? We’re all bound to the Council. Forever. It’s been prophesized in every family’s book since the Druids first created the triads. We cannot escape it. No matter how powerful you think you are, Seeker, they are more so.”

Footsteps sounded off to my right.

I looked at Evelyn, but she was just as startled as I was at the thought of someone approaching.

Her eyes grew wild for a moment. She fluttered and shifted just as someone called my name.

I turned and called back, “In here!”

Leo poked his head through the farthest passage and sped toward me.

“Leo, thank god you’re here.”

He gave me the oddest look and I realized that two people had spoken those words. I spun around to see Evelyn cloaked in an exact likeness of me.

It clicked then. Her crime had been shifting. Birdie had said that the Council outlawed that brand of magic. So why risk it? What had she tried to accomplish? Had she put other lives in danger before this? Kidnapped other children?

I whirled back around to find Leo’s weapon drawn and aimed directly at me.

Chapter 44

“No, Leo, don’t! It’s me. I’m Stacy.” His gaze fell to the sword in my hand. Not my own. I dropped it along with the dagger and kicked them both away. My bloody leg swelled with pain.

Evelyn said, “No, Leo.
I’m
Stacy. This whackjob stole Cinnamon’s baby.”

Oh hell, she even sounded like me. I couldn’t keep the desperation out of my voice. “Leo, listen to me—”

“No, listen to
me
, Leo,” Evelyn said carefully.

He swung his head from one to the other of us.

“Look, just ask me something, anything,” I said.

“Don’t believe her. She’s been studying me.” The baby cried in her arms. “She’s got a gun, Leo,” Evelyn shouted. “Shoot her!”

I put my hands up. “No, don’t. I don’t have a gun, I swear. You can’t shoot an unarmed woman.”

His forehead creased, and he stared at me, those hazel eyes searching for a hint of recognition.

Another song floated through the cavern and this time, even Evelyn and Leo heard it. A haunting melody called
Season in Hell
. “Darkest now before the dawn / Times we’ve known will soon be gone / Flames of freedom fill the air / I can hear them callin’”

Suddenly it all made sense. And I knew what to do. “Ponyboy, if you can hear me, I could use some backup.”

Leo stiffened and aimed his gun at my head. “Don’t. Move.” His voice was ice.

Leo’s arm suddenly jerked, and the gun flew from his hand and skidded across the dirt floor. Leo and Evelyn dove for it. When she realized he was going to reach it before she would, Evelyn ran back toward the hollow in the ground where the water ran.

“No!” I screamed, charging at her.

She looked at me, and a moment of clarity flashed in her eyes, then dashed away. She leaned over and dropped the baby into the void.

Chapter 45

I dove for the edge, my arms extended—reaching, aching to grab onto any part of her. Her head, a foot, an arm. But I was too late. Her cries grew fainter as the tiny infant drifted into the inky blackness.

My blood boiled and my eyes saw red instantly. The athame I had sunk into Evelyn’s foot lay on the dirt near the cliff. I didn’t know where Leo was, if his gun was trained on me or not, and I didn’t care. I grabbed the bloody dagger, determined to exact my own justice on this psychotic bitch.

With a warrior’s cry, I flew at Evelyn, faster than she could blink. I grabbed her skinny neck and slammed her head onto the rock altar. I leaned over and drew my arm back, the knife hot and bloody in my hand.

It would only take a second to slash her throat, but I wanted her to suffer as long as possible. I wanted her to
know
she was about to take her last breath. 

I gripped her windpipe so tight I thought it would shatter in my hand. But that wouldn’t have been good enough. This beast needed to feel pain, needed to watch her own reflection in my eyes as I wrenched her life from her. Just as Gearson had taken the lives of my ancestors. Just as she had taken the life of the baby.

Behind me, I heard Leo say, “Don’t, Stacy.”

Fury coursed through my veins as I held the dagger with one hand and Evelyn’s throat with the other. Her eyes held no fear. She wasn’t even fighting back.

I loosened my grip slightly. “Any last words before I rip your throat open?”

She gasped out, “Do it, Seeker. Prove you are as unworthy as I was.”

“Stacy, don’t,” Leo said again. A trail of worry drifted from his words like a kite tail he couldn’t hold onto.

The baby’s cries echoed in my mind, louder, more demanding. As if she was there, begging me not to make the same mistakes as those who had gone before me.

Then I heard, “Hey, Red Bull. I told you we make a great team.”

I swiveled my head to find Ponyboy holding my goddaughter. She was kicking and wailing, but she was dry. And she was
alive
.

I ran toward them, dropping Evelyn and the blade.

As our fingers touched, Ponyboy lit up like a Christmas tree, showering the damp cave with sparks.

He passed the baby to me and I collected her in my arms. She was cold, fussing and fighting, until I brought her to my chest, wrapping my coat tightly around her.

Evelyn shifted to her true form as Leo cuffed her. Her jaw dropped when she saw Ponyboy, glimmering like a firefly.

“Petey? Is that you?”

The look on Leo’s face told me he saw him too.

Evelyn gazed at him. “But, are you still...I mean, did it work?”

So that had been her plan all along. Not only to protect her own son, but to bring her brother back from the dead. I can only imagine that that too would violate Council law.

“Did what work?” Ponyboy asked.

“Are you here? Really here? Or are you still dead?” Evelyn asked.

Ponyboy cocked his head toward me. “Why does everyone keep saying that?”