The Witch and the Huntsman (6 page)

Literally.

Still, finding this evidence of her existence was kind of a shock. And not a good one—it meant that she almost definitely had never come back to her room after whatever had happened to her up on the mountain. Even worse, I found her black North Face jacket in the closet. I realized that when she was out there being chased and hunted, she must have been without it; the poor thing could have frozen to death in these temperatures, even if
nobody
had been after her.

But in one way, finding her coat was almost like a sign. I felt like I had to do
something
to find her. Anything! I got dressed again and slipped the coat on over my street clothes. I had maybe four hours until first light to find the place I’d seen when Marisa had called me.

The last place where she’d definitely been alive.

Sleep? I would do that later...

Chapter Seven

One of the cool things about being a witch is that you can screw with electronic gadgets. Let’s say you’re stuck in an airport lounge or doctor’s waiting room, and you get really sick of CNN blasting away at you—you can focus your energies enough to change the channel. Or even fry the damn thing, which happened one time when I got seriously annoyed during a long flight delay.

Sometimes it’s unintentional, like when I’m walking down a sidewalk late at night, and the streetlights dim or go out as I pass by. This happens to me all the time, and it’s totally not the same as going over to the dark side, no matter what Millicent says. Sometimes it can even be embarrassing; when I’m seeing a new guy, for example, and the lights or the music go out before we’ve even opened the wine.

But tonight, when I slipped back out of the Annex, it came in pretty handy. Because there were security cameras everywhere at La Chasse, glittering from the ceiling like tiny spying eyes, and because I didn’t want to be seen, each of them would blink out as I approached, then back on again after I was gone. If all else fails in my life, I guess I could always start robbing ATM machines...

“
Good thinking
,” said the voice in my head the moment that thought popped into it. Millicent’s voice.

Somewhere in the firs ahead of me on the hill, I saw a glowing form almost dancing in the eerie stillness of the night.

“
Is that you, Millicent?”

“
Hurry! There isn’t much time
!
”

I followed her into the timberline, and we crossed the Bottega run. We were climbing slowly up the mountain; I was out of breath and I had a stitch in my side. I like to think I stay in pretty good shape—hell, I am a personal trainer, after all—but obviously my body wasn’t ready for the cold. Or the altitude.

“
Where are we going?”

“
After the one you seek. Now hurry
!
”

“
Slow down!” I said aloud. “I can’t keep up.” From off in the distance, I heard a plaintive howl echoing between the snow-covered rocks. “Seriously—
wolves
? In Oregon?”

“
They have returned
...
”

I stopped and looked around in every direction. Aside from the ghostly flickering ahead of me, I couldn’t see a single light, except for the stars overhead. I realized I was now seriously lost. Great.

The sky was also clouding up and getting even darker. The silhouettes of the trees were the deepest, darkest shade of sable imaginable, and I could no longer even make out my footprints in the snow. Incidentally, I’d also decided this was totally the last time I was ever going to wear New Balance to a ski resort; my feet were like blocks of sodden ice.

“
Quickly, child...follow me...
”

I took a few dozen more steps into the darkness—and then my sixth sense screamed a warning. I stopped in my tracks.

“
Hurry
...
” Her voice was the faintest whisper, and the glow had disappeared.

But I didn’t hurry. Instead, I pulled out my iPhone and used it as a flashlight. There was a sheer drop ahead of me—two or three more steps, and I would have pitched over the edge of a crevasse and down to my death below. Witch or no witch, no way in hell I was surviving that drop.

I think it was right about then that I realized it wasn’t Millicent’s voice I was hearing in my head. It was someone else’s. Someone—or some
thing—
with the power to impersonate a ghost! But how was that even possible? Then I remembered that the spirit of Millicent’s dead son had managed to fool me into thinking he was alive, even in broad daylight.

Which was when I panicked. Suddenly, I felt like I was in way over my head. I turned around and stumbled back through the snow, following my own tracks as best I could in the darkness, swiping my cell phone screen whenever it went dark. I hoped the battery wouldn’t die on me.

I hoped
I
wouldn’t die on me.

Because I was pretty sure I was being followed. From time to time, I sensed a dark shape flitting through the trees, and once I clearly saw the shape of a man against the sky—a man with some kind of hat and a crossbow. A
hunter
. Was he out here in the middle of the night hunting me?

I broke into a run. Okay, it was more like a fast slipping, sliding series of lurches, I guess, and I fell down in the snow a couple times, but hey, at least I kept moving. And it was a lot faster going downhill than up. Plus there was that little thing about maybe being shot by an arrow if I slowed down. Was that what had happened to Marisa? I started running even faster—it’s amazing how fast you can forget a stitch in your side with the right incentive!

But now my breath was coming in ragged gasps. I knew I couldn’t run much longer—especially because I had no idea where I was going. I’d long since lost sight of my own footprints in my panic.

“
This way, Allison
!
”

“
Millicent?”

“
Yes, it’s me—make for the black lines over the trees. That’s the liftline. The way you came
.”

“
But you’re the real Millicent this time, right? Not the fake?” Okay, dumb question, but it was really late at night, and I was totally wiped. It had been a long day. And somebody was stalking me—maybe even trying to kill me.

“
Of course I am—what are you talking about?
”
 

And this time I felt the full connection. The voice in my thoughts really was Millicent’s now. My heart lifted, and I stumbled on toward the trees. I’d come to a line of wooden service sheds when I realized I couldn’t run any more. One of the sheds had crumbled into a ruin, and I crouched inside it to get my breath back while I tried to spot the shape of the hunter against the dim gray snowfield I’d just dashed across.

“
That’s why I’m out here. Someone pretended to be you—the same voice in my head, the same physical manifestation—and told me to follow them. That’s why I climbed halfway up Mt. Hood!”

“
That wasn’t me. And to deceive you at that level, bonded as our spirits are, would require an almost unearthly power
...”
 

“
A demon?”

“
A demoness—no male spirit could impersonate me. Either that or a very powerful witch, even stronger than us. What they used to call in the Old Country a
strega
or a
veshtitsa
...
this is
worse than I imagined, Allison. Even at the height of my moon-drawn strength, I’m not sure I could help you ward off that kind of evil. And now without Ivy...”
 

My heart sank. I’d caught sight of something emerging from the trees, a dark outline, a glimpse of motion. And something else. I suddenly realized that this was the same view I’d ‘far seen’ in my moments of clairvoyance during Marisa’s phone call. This was where she’d been hiding, terrified and alone, when she’d been hunted down by whoever or whatever had cut our conversation off.
This was the last sight she’d seen
. And she’d only had me to witness it—just as I only had Millicent in my head right now if something went tragically wrong...

A light sprang to life behind me, flooding my little shelter and exposing me to the night. It was only an LED Maglite, but it seemed as bright as a searchlight in that moment. I was so surprised—and terrified—I tried to scream.

But the sound only came out as a loud, strangled squeak.

The light changed, its source moving around to the open side of the lean-to, where I’d come in. “I can see somebody in there. Come on out very slowly with your arms empty and spread wide. I’m holding a gun—don’t make me use it.”

A gun? I’d seen a crossbow. Kev had told me earlier that hunting with guns was banned at the lodge because of the fear of starting avalanches; that’s why all the guests and their guides used bows.

“
Out where I can see you.” A man’s voice, very twangy and Western-sounding, like a cowboy’s. I peeked my head out and saw the shape of a hat with a wide brim.

“
State police, ma’am.” Even as I felt a flood of relief, I was still pissed off at the
ma’am
! Jesus, did I really look like a ma’am?

What happened next was like a minor miracle. The officer lowered the beam of his Maglite, and I wasn’t blinded any more. Even better, his next words were, “You wouldn’t happen to be Ms. Allison Lopez, by any chance, would you?”

“
Yes,” I said. My voice was still squeaky and my teeth were chattering from the cold.

“
I got a follow-up call from your friend Detective Smithy down in LA tonight. He told me to be on the lookout for you, and gave me your description. He also said you might be doing something hare-brained like wandering around out here all night, looking for that missing girl. I’m Sergeant Rob Doberman.”

I’d never been so glad to see a policeman in all my life.

Chapter Eight

Sergeant Doberman—and was there ever a cooler name for a cop?—was maybe not as hunky as Eric Jaeger, but he seemed like a really nice guy and walked me all the way back to the annex. He gave me his card and said to call if I needed him. I snuck inside just before the sun came up and grabbed about five hours’ sleep before I had to report back to the lodge for my first ‘training’ session at noon.

Which turned out to be conducted personally by the Wicked Witch of the East herself, Regina Jaeger. Only today she was suddenly acting like my BFF. First she took me on a guided tour of the whole place, then explained the ‘exciting new concept in resort hospitality’ I was joining. I was already a ‘valued member of the team’; she and Eric had been very impressed by the way I’d thrown myself into the work right away. She could tell I was a good candidate for promotion and had a bright future with them.

Oh yeah? Like Marisa?
I thought, but didn’t say aloud.

“
Today you will be participating in our Titanium Club corporate retreat program. We think your good looks and demeanor make you an excellent candidate to act as hostess.” Here she gave me a melting smile that I guess was intended to test my lesbian love-slave potential. “Eric will take over now and show you the ropes.”

Had I imagined it, or was there a subtle emphasis on the word ‘ropes’? Regina Jaeger spoke with a slight foreign accent, and up close I could see she was not only older, but taller than I’d thought last night, though the last part might have been due to her four-inch Manolo heels. And she was even prettier, damn her. I also noticed that even though she was Eric’s stepmother, she made it sound like the two of them were
married
or something—everything was ‘we’ this or ‘we’ that. Either they were having some kind of thing, or she thought she was some kind of royalty.

Or both, most likely.

I didn’t like the thought of her corrupting her stepson, which, okay, was a job I wouldn’t have minded doing myself, but what really bothered me most was her spooky lack of an aura. I mean, all living things have an aura, even if they’re only visible to those with my gift for seeing them. Hell, even my
Toyota
gives off a slight aura—I can always see at a glance when it’s decided not to start. Or if I’m going to have to take it in to the shop.

No, I’m not crazy.

But Regina Jaeger was different. Maybe she was some kind of zombie robot queen from outer space, like in an old B movie. But I was pretty sure she wasn’t a demon, as Millicent had thought. A demo
ness
, excuse me. After having met the demon that had taken over my former client Billy and his daughter face to face, I was pretty sure I could spot their kind. The evil emanations that surrounded them, their deep, altered voices, and glowing red eyes were kind of a giveaway.

“
I told you, dear—she is something different
,” said Millicent’s voice in my mind. “
But do not underestimate her powers, even in broad daylight
.
She will try to bend you to her will with seductive promises
...
”

We’d reached the point in my training interview when a normal person would have asked me if I had any questions. Regina didn’t. So, as she was dismissing me and turning away, I cleared my throat and said, “I was, um, kind of wondering...exactly what is my salary here? Mr. Schreich didn’t say.”

But she just kept on walking out the door. It wasn’t as if I was planning to stay there forever or anything. You know, like at a real job. It’s just always nice to know how much money you’re making while you’re busy busting your chops. If any money, in this case.

And then all thoughts of filthy lucre were driven from my head when Eric walked into the conference room. Like his stepmother, the guy was more attractive than I’d remembered. If that was actually even possible in his case, I mean. Have I mentioned his resemblance to Brad Pitt? Well, today it was even more pronounced. Except he was handsomer, taller, and more mountain man-looking in his jeans and embroidered country-western shirt. And he had the bluest eyes I’d ever seen in my life, the same color as the sky outside, in fact.