Witchy Sour (The Magic & Mixology Mystery Series Book 2) (24 page)

Fury flashed in his eyes. “And you think I’m the monster?”

I struggled to keep my face passive. “Just let Gus go. I’m not asking for anything unreasonable. Think about it, Thomas. Who’ll continue your work after you’re gone? Not Gus. Not Harpin. From what it sounds like, you don’t have anyone.”

Thomas bowed his head, as if my words were a surprise sucker punch to his gut. The wheels turned in his brain, and I could almost hear the gears clicking as the notion sunk into his skull. Then, without looking up, he raised the Comm Device to his lips and activated it with a breath as he spoke quietly. “Let Gus go.”

I licked my lips. “How do I know it’s done?”

In an answer, Thomas held up his wrist. A moment later, it crackled with a response. “Are you sure?”

“Let him go, and then get out of there. Vanish,” Thomas said, “and make sure I never see you again.”

A long pause followed. Then there was a blink of a red light, a crackle of static, and the voice came back. “It’s done.”

Thomas looked up. “Are you happy?”

My heart ached with hope. There was no way to be absolutely certain Gus was free, but I was a woman of my word, and I stepped forward and laid my hands on Thomas’s arm. The healing began immediately, and the relief in his sigh shook the leaves of the trees overhead. It took longer than normal due to the advanced stage of the infection.

Ten minutes later, sweating and breathing heavily, I stepped back. “It’s done. You’ll have that bruise for a week, but it should fade. You may experience a slightly numbed sensitivity in the nerves of your fingers, but with a bit of luck, that’ll return to normal as well. You’ll still need to take the antidote within twenty-four hours, or your symptoms will come right back. Come with me to the bungalow.”

“I’ll have to have someone else prepare it,” he said slowly, turning his arm over before his eyes. Light streaks of blue wove around his arm where his veins had swelled. He flexed his fingers. “It’s a shame about the sensitivity.”

I reached into my pocket for the ring of pepper spray around my keychain. Sometimes, non-magical weapons worked wonders on wizards. They didn’t expect it, and their counter-curses didn’t work against it. “The sensitivity should return shortly.”

“Not shortly enough.” He looked up, his smile twisted. “Because the time has come for you to die, and I only wish I could feel it.”

I raised the pepper spray and turned to run, but he was faster. Before I could move, he propelled himself off the log toward me, his hands clasped around my throat. He squeezed tight, so tight that my breath vanished and all I could do was lock eyes with him as his voice turned into a sing-song chant. “Good-bye, Lily.”

Chapter 26

The blackness came swiftly. My senses shut down, the last buzzes and scuffles from The Forest spiraling into a muted cacophony at the base of my skull. The lack of oxygen burned my lungs, and I thrashed like a drowning victim.

No amount of arm flailing and leg kicking spurred Thomas into letting go. If anything, he gripped tighter, pushed harder, and smiled brighter the more I struggled until…

Until I couldn’t struggle any longer.

The orchestra banging deep in my brain finished its song, the last notes of the melody faded to nothingness. As the curtain fell before my eyes, I sank deeper into the blackness, welcoming it, begging for it to come faster. I fought hard to remember what had brought me here in the first place, but even that pivotal information eluded me. As my body stilled, I had nothing.

“Lily…”

Through the blackness, my name sounded from a voice that was neither alive nor dead. The word wasn’t spoken aloud, but neither was it whispered or thought or dreamt. It merely was.

“Open your eyes.”

It was an uphill battle to peel my eyelids open, but I managed it after a few failed attempts. My thoughts were a confused mess, and I couldn’t say whether I was alive or dead or floating somewhere in between. “Where am I?”

I thought I spoke the words, but my lips didn’t move. None of my body moved. I stared straight upwards, but instead of seeing the face of the man who’d killed me, I saw only white.

White all around—the sort of white that made me feel walled in from all sides. Captive, but free, all at once. This new place was full of contradictions: it had no name, but it existed. I was awake, but not alive. I heard voices, but nobody was speaking.

“Look at me, please. I have limited time.”

The voice grew clearer. I tried to squint, but my eyes wouldn’t move. Anything I tried resulted in frustration. My limbs were frozen, all the way from my eyelids to my toes.

“How can I look?” The words were accompanied by a slight echo. “Why don’t my lips move? I can’t look. I can’t move at all.”

“Listen to my voice. Listen to your name. Do you know who I am, Lily?”

The careful way he said my name shook life into my mind, and a flood of memories came rushing back. Ranger X’s lips hot on mine as we kissed under the moon. Gus’s careful precision as he guided me through The Elixir potion. The man with the black hood and black ribbon floating onto shore.

“You drank The Elixir,” I said with finality. The gravelly tone in the man’s voice had disappeared after his death, as if the only thing keeping it there had been the weight of the world on his shoulders. When he spoke now, it was with the lightness of a child and the experience of a grandfather. I found myself trusting him inherently. “Your name is Turin.”

As soon as I said his name, the outline of his body solidified. He appeared before me like a mirage, and I remembered Ranger X’s warning that names had power.

“Yes, it’s true,” Turin said. “Names are powerful things. They attach you to something—or someone—who is real. Listen, Lily.”

His use of my name jolted me awake again. My vision had begun to blur, the light flashing into a rainbow of disorientation.

I gasped for air, my lungs constricting. “Am I dead?”

“You are not alive,” he said carefully. “Listen to me. I took The Elixir to help you. I’d already been poisoned when I requested it—”

“By Thomas?” I asked. “Did Thomas kill you?”

“It doesn’t matter now. What matters is that I was already gone. By taking The Elixir, I exchanged a few minutes of life for a few minutes to help you, and that’s why I’m here now.”

“You shouldn’t have done—” My voice was raspy, and I couldn’t finish my thought.

“I wanted to. I needed to—I must give you one last thing.”

“I can’t move,” I whispered, the whiteness morphing into a blinding flash of light. “I can’t…”

“When you wake, clench your palm. I’ve set something in your fist, a piece of your past that will help with your future. I’m sorry, I wish that I could save you, but I don’t have that power. I’ll be gone as soon as you wake, and you’ll be left to save yourself. When I touch your forehead you will have three breaths to make your wish. One, two…”

“Wait!” I cried, just as he said the word three.

All at once the pain came crashing back, a wave as large as the one that’d welcomed me onto The Isle, but far more intense. Ice shot through my veins, slicing my insides, burning through my limbs. My breaths were stifled, but the hands around my neck had let go. As I forced my eyes open, I saw the back of Thomas. He was walking away, but at the sound of my desperate gulp of air, he whirled around. The shock on his face told me that he’d thought I was dead.

Breath number one. The count had begun.

I clenched my fist tight, the smoothness of the item jogging my memory to that moment on the beach. The salty air whipping across my face as Ranger X’s fingers twisted into my hair. The warmth of his kiss washed over me and desire filled my stomach, giving me the strength to concentrate.

Breath number two.

Thomas started toward me.

Angel’s Breath
. I tried not to breathe, floundering as I reached through blackness to remember his words that night. Angel’s Breath allows for one wish… It hit me, Turin’s instructions and Ranger X’s voice all at once.

Fury turned Thomas’s face into an ugly mask as he lunged for me, his arm outstretched. As his fingers clasped my wrist he looked down, his eyes locking on my clenched palm as he swiped at my clothes and tore at my limbs. He let out a howl as he realized what was in my palm, but not before I closed my eyes, made a wish, and took my last breath.

Chapter 27

The sounds of The Forest played quietly in the back of my skull. Unlike the harsh screech and dizzying swirls of sounds that’d ushered in unconsciousness, the chirps of birds and rustle of leaves tinkled a soothing background track as I regained awareness.

My eyelids lay heavily closed, my breathing even. Though I was aware of my consciousness, I had no desire to open my eyes. A part of me thought I was dead. I hoped against hope that wasn’t true, but another part of me was too scared to check.

Instead, I focused on the feel of my chest rising and falling. I noticed the air exhaling between my lips and the pounding of my heart against my ribcage. As I lay still and focused on the sounds and movements around me, another noise joined the mix.

Snoring.

When I’d been alive, I had never snored. I wasn’t about to start now, especially if I was dead.

More likely, someone was in the room with me.

Opening my eyes, I saw white. Except this time, the white wasn’t an absence of darkness nor a flash of brilliance. It was just the ceiling.

I swept my gaze over the surroundings: I lay in a bed. A familiar bed, though it wasn’t mine. Logs lined the walls, the fresh, woodsy scent bringing me back to cabin days on the lake.

The bare kitchen to my right was unmistakable. My eyes dropped to the figure sprawled over an armchair in the corner of the room, a new addition since I’d last been hauled into Ranger X’s hut. Maybe someday I’d end up here for a reason other than trouble. One could dream.

I hardly noticed my own breath hitch as I took in Ranger X’s ragged appearance. He wore a suit fit for a wedding, which led me to believe he’d come straight from the office. The neckline was open, his tie swung loose over his shoulder. The dark, thick shock of hair on his head had been ruffled one too many times and stood up in boyish disarray.

Even in sleep, his expression gave off a concerned look, as if he were concentrating on something important that I could never understand. His chest rose and fell in regular motions, and I imagined it matched the strong beat of his heart, a beat I longed to hear again as I rested my head on his chest.

While analyzing Ranger X’s body, I hadn’t noticed his eyes open. He cleared his throat, and drew my attention away from where I’d been staring, at the open patch of shirt dipping just a bit too low to be professional.

My face warmed as I jerked my eyes off his chest and back to his face. I relaxed almost immediately under the soft glimmer of his expression, his dark eyes glistening with sleep. “Hi.”

“Hi,” I murmured. There was so much more to be said, but no good place to start.

Thankfully, Ranger X took over. Kicking his feet to the ground, he pulled himself into a standing position and crossed his arms over his chest. “How are you feeling?”

I raised a hand to my forehead. “I’m okay, I think. Very confused.”

Ranger X’s face went slack with surprise, and then he laughed. “I’d imagine so.”

“Why are you sleeping over there?” I offered a shy smile, patting the bed next to me. “I mean, we’ve already had a non-date. We might as well have a non-sleepover. You’ll crick your neck sleeping in the chair like that.”

“I didn’t want to leave, and I don’t make a habit of climbing into bed with unconscious ladies who prefer getting in trouble to asking for help.”

“Come here.” I patted the bed again. For some inexplicable reason, I wanted him close. I needed to touch someone solid. Feel something real. “Can you hold my hand?”

Two steps brought him across the room, his long legs carrying him with a grace I envied. Despite his mass, he moved without a trace of footsteps. With careful precision he seated himself on the bed next to me, cautious not to ruffle the mattress. He raised a tentative hand and combed it through the tips of my hair sprawled loosely across the pillow. “Is this better?”

I looked into his eyes, complex as multi-faceted diamonds, and I nodded. “Thank you.”

“Do you hurt anywhere?”

I shook my head quickly at his concerned gaze. “I’m fine. A little sore maybe.”

“You’ve got scratches on your arms.”

“Probably the branches from The Forest,” I said, my lies bringing forth the last images of Thomas clawing at my arms. “What happened?”

Ranger X’s expression hardened. He didn’t believe me. “I was wondering the same thing.”

Clearing my throat, I gathered up the last of my willpower and explained in great detail the events leading up to my foray into the dangerous wilderness. His eyebrows knitted in concern when I described Dust of the Devil, and he nodded in approval after I explained the trick to the Trappers. His eyes burned black when I mentioned Thomas, and a shade of sadness passed by at Turin’s parting words.

When I finished, his hand stilled, a thin lock of my hair twisted around his fingers. “Why didn’t you ask for my help?”

“There wasn’t time. I knew you wouldn’t let me go alone, and I needed to do this for Poppy. You were busy looking for Gus, and if it weren’t for Thomas, I would have succeeded just fine without you.”

“That wasn’t smart.”

“Sometimes risks are worth taking.”

His eyes scanned mine, but I didn’t relent. It was easy to meet him eye-to-eye when I had nothing to hide. So when he looked away, the hairs on the back of my neck rose.

“What aren’t you telling me?”

“There’s one piece of this puzzle that I’m missing,” he said. “What brought—”

He didn’t have time to finish his question because at that moment, Poppy threw the door open and burst into the room, followed closely by Zin.