Tiddly Jinx (20 page)

I LEANED AGAINST THE door when Cheney left and hit my head against it twice, knocking the tears away from my eyes. There wasn’t time to feel sorry for myself. Emotional displays were hard on Cheney—elves played things a little closer to the chest than humans—but at least it got rid of him. I wiped my hand under my nose and went to find the rest of the coven. Jessica was our family, and it was up to us to get her out.

Leslie and Devin were at the table with the wedding planner, Alana, looking at various flowers and Katrina was sitting cross-legged on the couch reading.

“I’m glad you’re here. What do you think of these for a bouquet?” Devin asked.

“I don’t care,” I snapped. Mentally counting to ten, I closed my eyes. “Sorry. Could we have a minute, Alanna?”

The pretty elf nodded and excused herself from the room.

“What’s wrong? What happened?” Leslie asked.

I bit my lip, trying to think of how to explain what Jessica did.

“Have you seen Jess?” Katrina asked. “She should really be here for this, but I haven’t been able to find her.”

My throat constricted. “She’s in the dungeon.”

“Why?” Devin asked, her hazel eyes large and innocent, so mothering to all of us—really to everyone around her.

“This morning, she attacked some people in the town.”

Time seemed to pass in slow motion. No one spoke or so much as moved a muscle.

“What do you mean attacked?” Katrina asked.

“What did they do to her? Why is she in the dungeon?” Leslie asked, her voice rising in distress.

“Are you sure it was her?” Devin pursed her lips. “That doesn’t sound like her. Unless by ‘attack the town’ you mean she did a pub crawl.”

I shook my head. “I’m completely serious. I witnessed it with my own eyes. Her eyes were rolled back in her head, she levitated, and…” I fought against my own emotions. “She set people on fire.”

They collectively gasped, and all traces of humor vanished from their faces.

“Have you talked to her?” Katrina asked.

“She doesn’t remember anything.”

“How badly hurt were they?” Leslie asked.

“Dead. She—she killed six people.”

After a moment of stunned silence, Devin spoke up. “But they don’t have laws here, right? I mean, not that it’s okay she killed people, but…” She twisted her hands. “I mean, we could just take her home. It’s not like she’ll have a trial.”

Katrina closed her eyes. She had lived among the fae longer than the others. Devin and Leslie still had the habit of treating them like fairytale creatures—slightly less than real. I rocketed in between being offended and wishing that were true.

“Technically the Abyss doesn’t have laws, but there is still a system of justice. The people she killed were fae. The very people Cheney and I have sworn to protect. It is our responsibility to see that justice is served.”

“What are you saying?” Leslie asked, lip quivering.

“She’s saying she can’t let Jessica go,” Katrina said, her dark eyes locking on mine. “What’s going to happen to her?”

“Nothing yet. Cheney can’t let her go because she killed people, but he’s giving us time to figure out what happened before he passes judgment.”

Devin nodded vigorously, then hopped up and went to a stack of books, throwing them left then right until she found what she was looking for. “That’s because it wasn’t her,” she said as she flipped through the pages, eyes scanning. She slapped the book. “Here it is. She was possessed.” She thrust the book out toward me.

I took it and scanned the page, but it didn’t help. The text Devin had turned to said that when a witch was possessed by evil they could levitate, change weather, create fire, shape-shift, and that their eyes would turn white—basically a checklist of what happened today minus a few details. “This doesn’t help her case.”

“Of course it does!” Devin pulled the book from my hands and read it out loud. “See? She was possessed.”

“She’s been exposed to dark magic,” I said. “All this really says is that she might have succumbed to it.”

Katrina ran her hands through her long dark hair. “She only did it to help you.”

“I know. I’m sorry. I am so sorry I got all of you involved in this.” I shook my head and clenched my fists. “We’ll find a way to prove she was possessed by something other than dark magic, but we can’t stop there. We need to find the person who cast the spell on her and give them the real culprit.”

“I’m sorry, too. I didn’t mean to point the finger at you.” Katrina blew out a breath and hugged me. “We’ll fix it.”

“Definitely,” Leslie agreed, joining in, and Devin wasn’t far behind.

“We need to see her,” Devin said. “Can you take us down?”

We went down the winding stone steps to the dungeon in a single-file line with me in the lead. Sebastian was still sitting outside Jessica’s cell, talking with her.

“How do you know these people?” he asked her.

Jessica’s laugh carried from inside the cell. “I don’t know them. They’re on television.”

He nodded. “I have seen a television.” His eyes flicked over to us. “She’s telling me about zombies.”

I smiled at him. “Can we talk to Jess?”

He stood, moving back against the opposite wall to make room for us. I let the other girls go to the bars and I stood back with him. “I thought you were getting a guard to stay with her.”

His clear, gray eyes met mine. “I have time.”

I took his hand and squeezed it, mouthing a thank-you. “How is she?” I asked under my breath—too low for human ears, but loud enough for Sebastian to hear.

“It’s hard to say,” he responded, making my stomach twist with worry. “She sounds normal, but she stays out of sight.”

“Jess,” Katrina said. “Not sure your new room is an upgrade.”

She was met with silence on the other side. The three of them looked back at us and I shrugged.

“We just want to talk,” Devin said.

Her face popped up on the other side of the bars, making them jump back in unison. “I didn’t do it,” Jessica said. “You believe me, right?”

“Of course,” Devin replied softly, taking her hand through the bars. “We’re going to help you get out of here.”

“You need to walk us through everything you can remember that happened.” Leslie said.

Jessica sighed. “After I helped Frost cast the spell I had a headache and I was tired. I slept most of the day yesterday. Then I got up and went to the gym with Katrina and Selene. Selene gave me the tea that she said would help, and the next thing I know I’m in here being told I attacked people.” Her eyes shifted to mine. “What did you put in that tea?”

“Nothing that would do…that. It makes you sleep and helps you heal. That’s all.”

“Did you give the tea to anyone else?” Leslie asked.

“Frost. I gave it to her, too.”

“Did she drink it?” Leslie rapidly tapped her foot.

“Did you make the tea yourself?” Devin asked.

I felt a little on trial, but I let it go. They were just trying to help. “I don’t know if she drank it. It makes you very tired and you pretty much have to drink the tea standing over the bed. I didn’t make the tea myself—we keep it on hand and people drink it all the time. It wasn’t the tea.”

Sebastian cleared his throat. “Selene’s right. It’s a common remedy. It wouldn’t have harmed her.”

Katrina nodded. “I’ve had it before. We all have when we were training.”

“What about the necromancer?” Devin asked, her brows furrowing. “Maybe she’s using Jessica to distract you while she steals the book or plots to take the Pole. I mean we don’t know her at all and…”

And she was a necromancer. I pushed aside my own feelings and looked at what I’d encountered from as impartial of a position as I could. “I thought of her, too, but I don’t think she did it. She seemed legitimately confused when I spoke with her.”

“Anyone could pretend to be confused,” Jessica said. “
I’m
confused.”

“Did you encounter anything else? Anyone else that could help us?”

“No.” She frowned and edged back into the darkness of her cell. “I’m tired,” she said.

We decided to leave her in peace for the time being. The five of us left, and Sebastian asked one of the guards to sit outside her cell in case she needed something.

“Take us to where you found her,” Devin said.

“No,” Sebastian said. “It isn’t safe.” He gave me a meaningful look.

The angry faces and questions of the crowd, the creatures, and the tear between worlds all came to mind. He was probably right. “I’ll go. You guys stay here,” I told them. “Search Jessica’s room and see what you can find.”

Katrina frowned. “Why can’t we come with you?”

“The people in the town just witnessed a human witch killing their friends and family. It’s too soon,” I told her as gently as possible.

She shook her head. “They’re scared of us.” She let out a breath. “Maybe it would be good for them to see they don’t need to be afraid?” Her eyes were large and pleading.

Sebastian shook his head, but I softened slightly. We wanted tolerance. We wanted the fae to be more open-minded, but now wasn’t the right time to push. But would keeping the humans away from them now only make it harder to introduce them later, regardless of the outcome? Katrina wanted to make the Abyss her home. She would have to find a way to be accepted, one way or another.

“Okay,” I said, knowing I would probably regret this. “Just you, though.”

The other two objected, but I held firm. Just Katrina and me. We could possibly blend in and not make the spectacle all of us would make marching into the town square together.

“I’ll come, too,” Sebastian said.

“We can handle it,” Katrina told him without looking at him.

“I’m coming,” he said, and something in his tone decided the matter.

None of us spoke on the walk into the town. Sebastian and I flanked Katrina. People were skirting around where the incident took place, especially avoiding the scorched bits. I glanced at the guards still stationed in front of the dark spot. We stayed back to observe the area, trying not to draw attention. Everything looked exactly as it had before, though, which meant there was nothing to help us. Kat and I started to turn back toward the castle, dejected.

“What’s that?” Sebastian asked as he started toward the center.

I was too late to catch Katrina as she trailed after him. They went to the center of the area where Jessica had been hovering. Sebastian squatted down and brushed away some dirt with the tips of his fingers. He frowned and beckoned me over.

I crouched next to them. There was a dirty piece of bronze with a symbol carved into it. It could have been from anyone. Just because it was beneath Jessica didn’t mean it was hers.

“Do you sense magic on it?” he asked me.

I forced myself to concentrate. There were traces of magic, but too faint to identify. “I think so.”

“Let’s take it back to the castle,” Katrina said. Before she could stand from her crouch, she keeled over onto her front with a little
oofph
noise, as if she’d been pushed.

“We don’t want humans here,” an elf with furious eyes said from above us.

Sebastian stood almost instantly and pushed the man back with the heel of his hand. He didn’t utter a word; he didn’t need to. The fury in his eyes that promised swift and decisive retribution said all that was necessary. A crowd began to form around us. Instincts kicked in and I dodged a rock as it came hurtling toward me. The angry murmur grew to a roar around us. Sebastian and I stood back to back with Katrina between us as we circled, the crowd closing in. The guards started toward us, but I shook my head. I didn’t need this to escalate.

“Stand back,” I said as I pulled my sword from my holding, which was enough to stall at least some of them. “We’re only trying to figure out what happened today.”

“We know what happened. The human witch attacked us and you protected them,” someone shouted.

“Kill the witch,” someone else shouted, and then the whole group joined in on the chant. It was hard to say if they meant me, Katrina, or Jessica. I suspected at this moment they meant us all.

“Take her back,” I told Sebastian. “I’ll diffuse this.”

“I can’t leave you,” he objected.

“They’ll kill her,” I said, and Katrina let out a frightened little breath.

He took her wrist, and with worried eyes still trained on me, they vanished. The crowd erupted into more shouts. I took a deep breath and held my arms out, dropping the sword. If this didn’t work, they might actually succeed in killing me. “I am one of you.” I threw my elbow back, smashing into the nose of an elf who came too close behind me.

The crowd paused, but whether it was to build steam for a final outburst or to listen to me I didn’t know. I swallowed and continued.

“I am also one of them.”

The crowd groaned and hissed.

“What I am saying is that I, like my husband, do not want to see anyone treated unfairly. I know better than most what that is like. I was abandoned as a child because I was a half-breed. I have spent my whole life learning to rise above the actions of others and let my heart rather than my anger guide me.”

At the very least, I had their attention now. “Yes, the witch did something terrible today. But killing her will not undo that harm, and killing another witch who had nothing to do with it will only make you murderers. The fae are better than that. I know it in my heart. I know that you do not want your lives governed by archaic rules that don’t make sense. Is Cheney any less of an elf because he loves a half-elf? Will our child be any less perfect because she is three-quarters elf and not full?”

The anger in the air had all but evaporated while I was speaking. People’s hands fell to their sides and a few were even muttering their agreement. Maybe this was all it took, in the end—just a few truthful words and the space to say them aloud.

“All I am asking of you is to help me. We have the power right now to change the course of the fae race. We can make the sort of difference that only happens once in lifetime. A new beginning is before us. Will you walk by my side?”

I didn’t know how my speech to save Jessica managed to turn into a campaign speech, but that was exactly what had happened. The crowd was cheering now, and one by one people came up to shake my hand. I was relieved, grateful—but I also felt something else. There was something sinister staring at me. I scanned the crowd, but couldn’t find the culprit. When the last hand had been shaken, I headed for home, still clutching the emblem in my hand. I was exhausted, still scared for my friends, and a little bit proud.