Barely Bewitched (16 page)

Chapter 25

“I think you’re going to have to give me all that poison back,” I said.

Bryn’s eyes were closed, and he didn’t bother to answer me. The dull ache in my shoulder was nothing compared to how worried I was about him falling asleep in the middle of our getaway. Turns out, maintaining consciousness is a basic skill I value in my partners in crime.

I zoomed down the road, with one eye on the rearview mirror. Mercutio, up ahead, turned and ran down the road he’d wanted me to take earlier.

“What? Is it some kind of cure for Bryn?” I mumbled. I swung the steering wheel, kicking up gravel and fishtailing, but managing to make the turn. Bryn’s head bounced off the passenger window and he groaned, opening his eyes.

He looked around, lids only halfway up. “Do I even want to know?”

“Um, slight detour. Mercutio insisted.”

Bryn’s body shook with chills as he looked in the side mirror. “This road is very narrow, Tamara.”

“So?”

“If this is a dead end and Perth pulls in behind us, we’ll be boxed in,” he said, his voice slow and slurry. He cleared his throat.

“Well, then Mercutio will have to bite him or something. We’ll manage.”

“I’ve seen the way you two manage things.”

“You know, if you don’t have anything helpful to say, you can just go on back to being quiet. Merc and I like to keep a positive attitude when we’re in the middle of getting chased.”

His lids drifted down. Even though I’d told him to hush, I didn’t really want him sleeping. That was too darn close to comatose for my taste.

“How come some wizards use wands and others don’t?” I asked, trying to engage him.

“A lot of children are trained using wands because wands help the user to concentrate power. In the beginning, you can do more powerful spells if you use one.”

“But you don’t use a wand.”

“No.”

“So what’s the downside?”

“Using a wand beyond Class Two becomes a habit that’s almost impossible to break. Like a spellbook, a wand will hold power that goes unused. They have some terrific properties, but in the company of human beings you wouldn’t want to have to pull out your wand to do a spell. It lacks a certain subtlety.” His voice trailed off for a moment, and he seemed to have to force his eyes open to look at me. “Also, if you use a wand, you never learn to concentrate power within yourself and to withstand the pain of doing that. So if someone gets your wand, your power is cut down to size. Once it was explained to me in those terms, it was an easy decision.”

I nodded.

“Where are we?” Bryn murmured, leaning his head against the passenger window and staring out at the ranch house we were fast approaching.

“Heck if I know,” I said before I realized he was talking more to himself than to me.

“This looks familiar.” He licked his lips. “I’ve been here before.”

“Was it a long time ago? This place looks deserted.” I glanced at the overgrown grass and weeds and the rusted gate that was almost falling off its hinges. I stopped and jumped out to open the gate. I drove through, glancing several times in the rearview mirror. No sign of Jordan yet.

“I don’t remember exactly when it was,” Bryn said. “Must have been when we first moved to Texas. The woman who owned the place was a witch, but she died.” Bryn nodded. “Lennox took me to her funeral about a decade ago. Your mother was there, too. She smelled like confederate jasmine,” he said wistfully.

“My momma or the dead woman?” I asked sharply.

“Never mind.”

I narrowed my eyes, looking around as I rolled to a stop behind the large red-brick ranch house. Momma’s pretty as a picture and does always smell like flowers. “Did you flirt with her?” I asked, frowning.

The edge of his mouth turned up. “Not successfully.”

“Well, that’s too bad,” I said, though I didn’t think it was.

“Not really. All things considered.”

“What things?”

“This inevitable . . . love affair between you and me.”

“It’s not a love affair,” I said, shoving my door open. “It was a one-night stand, and a mistake.”

He opened his eyes to slits and frowned at me.

“Not that it wasn’t a nice mistake. From what I remember of it, it was real nice.”

He rolled his eyes before closing them. “Tell your cat to hurry at whatever he’s doing. I want to get back to my bed.”

“I’ll be back in a minute.” I walked around the corner of the house and crossed through some tall wildflowers. As the breeze picked up, I got a whiff of something nasty. It smelled like spoiled meat.

“Merc?” I called. I slapped my way through some overgrown grass and weeds, moving toward an old red-and-white barn that could’ve used a couple coats of paint. I heard water and when I stumbled into a clearing, I saw what must have been the Amanos River on my left.

Merc’s soft yowl from the barn made me run toward it. I pushed the door open wide as I rushed in. I froze at the rancid smell and at the sight of Mercutio dodging Incendio’s attempts to grab him. My heart clenched.

Incendio looked at me, malice flaming in his dark eyes. His gaze flickered to a lump in the charred hay.

“What’s going on?” I said, edging around the barn’s perimeter toward the hay. Mercutio hadn’t come here for Incendio, so what had he wanted me to see?

“Get out of here, Red,” Incendio snarled.

“What are you doing here?” I asked, as I got close enough to realize what I was looking at.
Oh, no!
The partially charred and rotting body of a man. My belly lodged a big complaint as heaps of insects did their business on the corpse. I gagged, breaking into a sweat. I saw the unburned part of the man’s face. Tom Brick, the missing wizard.

“Just couldn’t leave it alone, huh?”

I backpedaled as Incendio raised his arm. I was about to become a lump of charcoal, and I screamed a protest. In that instant, Merc leapt forward and bit Incendio’s leg. The blast of fire went wide as Incendio staggered. He kicked outward, and Merc sailed through the air, but landed as he always does on the pads of his feet.

Merc ran from the barn, and I followed his lead as fast as I could. I darted back and forth as balls of fire exploded around me, then dove into the tall flowers, happy for the cover. I got to my feet, but ran hunched over so he wouldn’t see me. The flowers caught fire with the next burst of magic from Incendio, but I ran ahead of the blaze, coughing as the smoke swallowed me.

I tripped and skidded out of the tall grass and ran to the car. Merc was waiting for me at the driver’s door. I flung it open, and we both got in.

A huge wall of flame roared behind us as I threw the car in gear.

“Bryn!” I yelled, shoving his shoulder.

He murmured, but didn’t wake. I slammed my foot down on the gas pedal as flames licked the back of the car and danced on the trunk.

“Please don’t explode,” I begged the car. More balls of fire rained down from the sky, and I swerved, barreling toward the river.

“Hang on, Merc!” I yelled. I hit the power button to bring the windows down just as I launched the car off the bank. We slammed into the surface of the water, the impact jarring us. The current caught us and spun us around. Incendio continued hurling fire, but we were already halfway submerged, and the flaming car just sizzled.

Water poured in the windows, but Bryn never stirred.

Chapter 26

I slapped Bryn’s face, trying to get him up. The car’s weight dragged us down suddenly, and the air bubbled out the open windows in seconds.

Now completely underwater, I fought my panic. My watery vision was blurry, and I blinked several times as I fumbled to drag Bryn from his seat. I tried to get us both out the passenger window, but we got stuck.

C’mon!

My heart slammed against my chest as I thrashed, scraping my back and wounded shoulder.

I can’t! God, help!

I felt a sharp pain in my good shoulder and realized it was Mercutio’s claws pushing me. I arched backward out the window, kicking my legs hard and banging against the frame as I got loose.

I kept hold of Bryn, hoping he wasn’t drowned already. I broke the surface, gasping. I pulled Bryn’s head up, noticing his skin was a scary pale color.

“No!” I said, trying to jostle him awake.

Merc’s head bobbed above the water as the current dragged us downstream over rocks and past branches. I turned Bryn’s face and kissed his icy mouth. I felt nothing as I blew my breath into him.

“Help me, Merc,” I sobbed as we tumbled over some shallow rapids. “There,” I shouted, spotting a big tree branch hanging low over the water. Mercutio, with his teeth buried in Bryn’s arm, helped me swim to it. I caught the branch, and it nearly yanked my arm out of its socket to hold on.

Then my knee banged on the ground, and I realized it was shallow at the water’s edge. I stood, bracing myself against the fast-running water, and Merc and I yanked Bryn onto the shore. I dug my toes into the dirt and flung myself on top of his cold body.

“Think!” I hissed at myself, but fear had my mind as blank as freshly rolled dough.

“Okay. Okay. Okay!” I snapped, digging my nails into my palms to focus as I leaned over him and chanted:

You will not die before you wake,
I give you my power now to take.
Let poison and water flow to me,
Quick as the river by the tree.

I sealed the verse with a kiss and felt the power arc from my body into his. I choked and sputtered, falling back with the poison coursing through me, my skin tingling.

I heard Bryn gasp and felt his body shudder against mine.

Yes!

“Thank you, God,” I whispered. “But why does my magic only seem to work when I’m in a dead panic?” I mumbled as Mercutio licked the water from his fur.

“What happened?” Bryn rasped.

“You halfway drowned,” I said, staring at the sky.

“Jenson would say that isn’t possible.”

“What?” I asked, looking over at him.

“Nothing. What happened?” Bryn’s brow was creased with worry.

“We’re in so much trouble,” I mumbled.

Merc padded across the grass and tapped the water with his paw.

“What, Mercutio?” Bryn asked.

“He’s crazy. You’re crazy, Merc!” To Bryn, I said, “Your house will be downstream a few miles. He thinks we should swim home. Right, Merc?”

Merc purred.

“I think Incendio killed Tom Brick. I think Mercutio was there to see it and the river’s how Mercutio escaped. He must’ve jumped in the water and swam, found a raft, and ended up at your dock.”

“Incendio killed Tom Brick?”

I nodded. “I saw his body.” My teeth chattered. “It was partly charred, which I think means Incendio killed him. I don’t know what Incendio was doing there today. Maybe he decided to burn the place down to get rid of the evidence?”

“Why would Maldaron kill Brick?” Bryn wondered aloud. “Brick was a minor wizard. He’d only achieved Class Three status, despite being Lennox’s age. Definitely not a threat to anyone powerful enough to be in the Conclave.”

“Maybe he did something they didn’t like? I mean, they’re after me, and I’m not even Class One yet.”

“It’s so hard to concentrate,” he said and pulled me close to his body. “Why is your skin colder than mine? What have you done?”

“I took the poison back. I tried to get it all, but I don’t think I did. Your lips still look blueberry-stained.”

He scowled. “You shouldn’t be drawing the poison back into yourself. It took considerable effort on my part to get it out of you.”

“You were dying! Besides, I think I’m getting immune to the poison. Whenever I get some of it, my body’s cold and tingles for a while and then goes back to normal,” I said, shivering. “Anyway, I got us into all this. If one of us has to die, it should probably be me.”

Bryn clenched his jaw. “It’s not going to be one or the other of us. I’ll cast a spell that sees to that. I don’t care if it drains me dry of power for months. I’ll go underground afterward, if I have to. No elf magic is going to kill us.”

Bryn pulled me to my feet. I felt his arms quiver and knew the poison was still wearing him down.

“Let go. You have to save your strength.”

“C’mon. Mercutio’s right about letting the current do the work to get us home.” He stepped into the water.

“The water’s cold,” I pointed out, though the wind against my wet skin felt just as freezing at the moment.

“It’ll be all right. We don’t have far to go.”

We sunk into the streaming water, and it pulled us along. Mercutio didn’t get back in the water, but ran along the bank parallel to us, occasionally slowing down when we did, watching over us like a feline guardian angel.

“I love that cat,” I said.

“I know.” Bryn cast a glance at Mercutio. “Angus may have to live with my father.”

“Where is Lennox?”

“Out of touch. He’s trying to negotiate peace with the more reasonable of the wolf packs in the region. They’re angry about last week.”

“Oh.” I chewed on that thought, glad that someone else was handling putting things right with the shape-shifters. “And what does Mercutio have to do with your dog? You can keep Angus chained if we come to visit. Not that I think I’ll be coming over much once we get this stuff straightened out.”

“No?” Bryn asked skeptically, his arm tightening around my waist and pulling me close so we were pressed together like two slices of bread in a peanut butter sandwich. “Past experience suggests otherwise,” he said. “Besides, there’s that thing at my house that you want.”

His book collection?
“What?”

“Me.”

My jaw dropped. “Good grief,” I snapped.

“Don’t be angry. It works out well since I want you, too.”

“There are rules against us being together.”

“So you keep saying. Why don’t you give me the details? Don’t you know that lawyers are experts in loopholes?”

“Nobody gets what they want all the time, Bryn.”

“Who told you that?” he asked with a smile.

Considering how often we’d been having to save each other’s lives lately, he seemed downright overconfident. I frowned, pushing against him, trying to get some distance between us. He eased his grip, and I floated a few inches away. I was glad, though, with how strong his arms felt around me and that his lips had pinked up, too. Maybe I’d drawn enough poison out for his body to fight off the rest.

“The current’s slowed down. Should we swim a little?” I asked.

He pulled me to him for a second and brushed his lips over mine before I could escape. Then he let go of me and turned. His arms cleaved the water in smooth strokes. In moments, he was several feet in front of me and pulling away. Then he looked back, realizing he’d left me behind. He paused until I came up beside him.

“Stay close to me, Tamara.”

As if I ever have a choice,
I thought grumpily.