T*Witches: Kindred Spirits (12 page)

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

BETRAYED

Alex was on a quest. Guided by the message in her dream, warmed by Miranda’s quilt, she roamed the island waiting for the jigsaw puzzle pieces to come together. Then she’d know what she had to do and when she’d have to do it.

She wandered randomly — Alex in Wonderland, she thought — absorbing the vivid colors and vibrant fragrances of the woods. Passing through a barrier of thick vines and bramble, she found herself at the water’s edge. Today, the great lake mirrored the calm sky, sparkling with morning sunshine.

Coventry was not so far from the mainland, even if it seemed to exist in its own universe, floating without
anchor. Alex knelt to examine the shells and pebbles delivered to shore by gentle waves. When a shimmering pink stone washed up, she examined it closely, turning it between her forefinger and thumb. It seemed to heat up in her hand. Or maybe she was flushed with feelings. It was a crystal of rose quartz. Karsh had given her one just like it.

Tenderly brushing sand from the multifaceted stone, she tucked it into her pocket and climbed aimlessly up a tall dune hairy with sea grass. At the top of the sandy hill, hidden by the grass, was a large boulder. Alex climbed it and looked down at the island. From this peak she could see practically everything, from the gleaming glass of the Unity Dome all the way to the cliffs of Crailmore.

She scrambled down the far side of the boulder and followed a rough, forested path to the village. There, she was struck again by the brilliant hues of houses, shops, and flowers cascading from baskets hung on every spiraled street lamp. The cobblestone avenues and sunny square, now at midmorning, began to fill with people in colorful capes, robes, or casual mainland clothing. They frequented spice, mineral, and herb shops, candle-making galleries and pottery barns, and breakfasted at the outdoor cafés around the village square. Every time Alex turned a corner, she felt as if she’d turned a page in a fairy tale picture book.

By the time she reached the far side of town, she knew without consciously thinking about it where her search would lead.

She arrived at LunaSoleil just before noon. The leaves and twigs hiding the cellar door had been brushed aside. Had she and Cam left it like that? There were two sets of footprints on the dusty steps leading down to the basement. Without Cam’s super-vision, Alex couldn’t tell if they were new or left over from her first visit. She stood completely still and listened hard.

Silence.

Reassured, Alex took the stairs two at a time and made for the loft.
Understanding will come to you, Artemis
, she’d been promised. Would she find it here in Aron and Miranda’s peaceful space?

Everything she’d heard at dinner, about a curse, about family secrets, had rocked her. As if something had gently turned her head, her gaze fell on the cedar chest. Were there missing puzzle pieces inside? Would unlocking the old trunk also unlock old secrets?

The fragrant aromas of the herbs sprinkled on the linens filled her nostrils. Fishing beneath the soft pile, she pulled her father’s hammer out of the trunk. She could picture his strong hand wrapped around it, his face lined in concentration as he shaped their amulets. Automatically, she reached for her moon charm and pictured Cam’s sun.

Cam. The thought of her sister jolted her. Was Cam here? She stopped, listened, and heard nothing.

She found the strands of gold chain rolled up like a ball of yarn. Her dad had probably planned to lengthen their necklaces as they got older. How cruelly ironic that a man as gifted and powerful as Aron DuBaer had not known he wouldn’t live to see his daughters grow up. She pocketed the remaining chain. It had been meant for her and Cam, and so it would be theirs.

Out of the corner of her eye, Alex caught something glowing and pushed everything away to uncover the source of the amber light. It was coming from the inside pocket of a lush burgundy velvet cape. Her curiosity on high-beam, she reached inside. Like the crystal she’d found, the small jewelry box began to radiate warmth.

Anxiously but gently, she opened it and recognized at once the large, coin-shaped amulet she’d seen in one of the portraits at Crailmore. She traced the dancing bear with her finger. The DuBaer family crest, she remembered, the one their grandfather, Nathaniel DuBaer, had been holding. He must have given it to Aron.

Now that she’d found it, she could return it to Miranda. Or, even better, she’d give it to Ileana. Her first DuBaer family talisman.

Alex snapped to attention, her keen hearing drawn to a noise outside. Footsteps? Someone was coming … someone
was … skipping? … closer to the house. How cool would it be if it were Cam?

Only, Cam walked purposefully, or she ran like the wind. She did not skip. Nor would she make that swishing sound, like a long cape brushing against old and brittle fallen leaves. And that … what? … soft singing? Camryn-the-unmusical? Nuh-uh.

Alex stuffed the DuBaer family crest into her back pocket alongside the gold chain. Someone was skipping around to the back of the house. Grasping Aron’s hammer, she hurried back down to the cellar and, staring up at the double doors, she waited.

Noisily, the old doors flapped open. A figure silhouetted by the glare of the midday sun was about to descend the basement steps.

Shane? No, the crasher was female. Ileana? Too perky. Miranda? Too small.

Michaelina? The pixie witch hadn’t even made the short list.

Alex gasped so loudly the littlest Fury lost her footing and tripped on the hem of her too-long cape. Yelping in shock, Mini-Mike bounced down the hard wooden steps on her butt. Shock turned to alarm when she saw Alex. “What are you doing here?”

“Right back atcha,” Alex barked.

Michaelina’s mind was racing.
She’s here! What
does she know? Did she go to the caves? Has she seen …? Sersee didn’t expect this —

“She didn’t?” Sick at the idea of the vicious skeletor trespassing in her parents’ home, Alex grabbed the frantic girl’s hand and yanked her up roughly to keep her off balance — before Michaelina could scramble her thoughts. “Let’s just see how your fearless leader deals with the unexpected.”

Michaelina tried to pull away. Her struggle revealed a barbed-wire tattoo circling her scrawny biceps, a matching bracelet for her neck-tat. “That pass for cutting-edge cool in Fury Land?” Alex taunted, tightening her grip.

Through gritted teeth, Michaelina exclaimed, “Let go! Or else!”

“Or else what?” Annoyed as she was, Alex almost laughed. “You’ll put a spell on me? Turn me into a frog? I don’t think so.”

Michaelina hung tough. “I could do some damage.”

“But you won’t,” Alex declared. “Not until you give it up, girl. Chill and spill. Dish the dirt, get down and fess up, unburden your soul — whatever the locals say.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” the thwarted witch growled.

“Yeah, you do. And you’ll tell all. Don’t mess with me, Michaelina. There’s magick in this house. And it’s all
advantage Alex.” Where had that come from? Alex had no clue. It had tumbled out of her mouth, totally bypassing her brain.

Whatever. It worked. Sort of. Michaelina stopped struggling to free her hand. “Can I sit down — somewhere soft?” she asked plaintively.

Suddenly, Alex had released the girl and found herself undoing the fragile, herb-filled baby quilt she’d tied around her neck. A familiar scent wafted from it. Not a confused potpourri of fragrances, but the spicy odor of a single distinct herb. “Here, sit on this,” Alex was about to offer, not knowing why. And then she snatched the quilt away and remembered: A spicy herb. A rose quartz crystal. An incantation. The truth inducer.

“What’s that smell?” Michaelina was rubbing her wrist. “Rosemary, marjoram? Nothing has ever grown down here but mushrooms. And I’ve cleaned them all. Can I go now?”

“So you’ve been here before?” Alex asked, fishing the crystal from her pocket.

“Everyone on the island’s been here at one time or another,” Mike said casually, but her thoughts were scrabbling like mice looking for cheese.

“Ever seen one of these?” Alex tossed her the crystal. Michaelina automatically reached out and caught it.

“Rose quartz. How unique. Not.” The little witch
pretended boredom, but Alex could see the crystal glowing and knew Mike was feeling the heat.

Which Alex was about to turn up.

She held the quilt under Michaelina’s nose.

“Excuse me?” The feisty Fury made a sour face and pulled back her head. “What’s that, your laundry?”

“No, I was … you know that spicy odor you smelled? I was hoping you could help me identify it.”

“Do I look like a gardener? I’m a witch, Al-pal, not a landscaping expert.” Still, she sniffed cautiously at the baby blanket. Her brow furrowed for a moment. Then she bent forward and sniffed again. And her face relaxed. She blinked for a bit, then asked sleepily this time, “Can I go?”

“One more question,” Alex said. “There’s this spell … I know most of it but I’m not sure of the ending —”

“Typical MAD: Mainland Attention Deficit,” Michaelina said. Alex could see warring expressions struggling across the woozy witch’s face. The Fury had tried to sneer but wound up smiling. “Don’t tell anyone, but I’m Sersee’s unofficial spell-check. That girl’s head is thicker than her curls.” Michaelina gasped, shocked by her own words. Then the silly grin returned and she shrugged. “Lay it on me,” she urged Alex.

“Okay.” Clutching her moon charm with one hand and, with the other, cupping Michaelina’s hands, which
still held the warm crystal, Alex began:
“Oh, moon that gives us light and cheer, shine through me now —”

“No, no, no. No way,” Michaelina interrupted. As Alex stiffened, the groggy witch said, “It’s sun. Oh,
sun
that gives us light and cheer —”

Alex sighed with relief. “Right.
Oh, sun,”
she said, resuming the spell.
“Shine through me now to banish fear. Free Michaelina from doubt and blame
—”

“Free who? Me?”

“Let me win her trust,”
Alex hurried on,
“and lift her shame.”

Michaelina’s lids began to flutter. “I thought,” she murmured, struggling to keep her eyes open, “you wanted my help.”

“Totally,” Alex affirmed. “I don’t just want it, I need it … desperately.” Though the girl had gone slack, her tension drained away. The young witch was a hard case. What she said stunned Alex.

“You what?” she repeated, “You
live
here?”

“Not here,” Michaelina mumbled, nodding in the direction of the cellar, “down … you know, there.”

A sickening wave washed over Alex. Down there. The caves. Like The Furies of legend, she lived underground with — duh-uh — her fellow cellar-dwellers Sersee and Epie. Self-proclaimed outcasts, who believed they were “unstoppable.”

“I know you helped us undo the spell Sersee used to transform the frog. Why did you betray her?” Alex prodded.

Michaelina, her hands in her lap, scoffed, “I didn’t betray her. I just messed with her.”

“Because she gets too big for her witchy-britches sometimes?” Alex guessed.

Michaelina narrowed her emerald eyes and lifted her delicate chin defiantly. “She thinks she knows everything.”

“But she doesn’t know you gave the spell to us, does she? She still thinks Cam and I figured it out by ourselves.”

Michaelina shrugged. “That’s what she thinks.”

“What do The Furies want?”

“To rule,” the thin witch recited mechanically. “We’re younger, brighter, and stronger than the soft, old fools of the Unity Council who have forgotten what real witches can be. We want to go back to the old ways, when we were pure and powerful. We don’t believe we’re meant to serve the weak and needy. Sersee says it’s the other way around.”

“Right,” Alex said, brushing the power-trip pep talk aside. “And where does Shane fit in?” She couldn’t picture him “serving” Sersee. He wasn’t exactly the basic obedient-follower type. The rebellious hunk had even disobeyed
Thantos when the mighty tracker had ordered him to kill.

“She needs him.” Even in her trance state, Michaelina could pick brain with the best of them. “Sersee needs him. I mean, a lot of people, young people, are dazzled by her. They think she’s smart and all powerful. Not even close. But Shane is. He’s brilliant, gifted, and chosen — everything she’s not. And he’s this incredible teacher. He’s taught her spells and stuff she’d never get on her own. Before you guys showed up, Shane was supposed to be the power behind Sersee’s throne.”

It clicked. Shane was the source of Sersee’s craft-cleverness. And it didn’t hurt that he was a graduate of the Thantos School of Underhanded Hotties. No way could the sly, violet-eyed temptress afford to lose him. “She’s jealous of Cam,” Alex said.

“Insanely, you could even say.”

“That’s why she hates us — all over a boy?” This was a concept Alex could never wrap her brain around.

“Not entirely,” Michaelina confirmed. “It’s about greed, too. You power princesses, that’s what she calls you,” Michaelina giggled, “stand to inherit a lot. DuBaer Industries, your parents’ talents. You could rule this island.”

“And Sersee couldn’t stand to see that happen.” Neither, it struck Alex, could Thantos.

“Can’t stand to see it?” Michaelina echoed. “She won’t let it happen. Together, you and sister sweetie-pie are more powerful than Sersee could ever hope to be. Her only chance is to separate you.”

Separate us?

Realization struck like a thunderbolt. It hit Alex so hard she almost keeled over, clutching her stomach. Now,
right now
they
were
separated. The voice that had instructed her to roam the island —
alone!
Oh, no. It hadn’t been Ileana or Miranda; it had been Sersee, sabotaging and separating them.

But why had she fallen for it? She knew the answer before putting the punctuation on —
because she was vulnerable
. Because she wanted to stay, to find answers. She followed it because it was telling her what she wanted to do, anyway. Her own desires had made her vulnerable. Just like now.