Chapter Ten
Indigo
I had to report to Anthony.
As per my agreement with his mother, High Witch Lucretia Boline, as long as I lived under a suspended sentence, I had to make regular check-ins with her son. Now that I was officially among the living once more, the spell had taken full and nasty effect.
The itching began under my sleeves, where I could hide the marks if I chose to ignore it.
But I already knew I wouldn’t be able to last long.
Eventually, the need to scratch would become so severe that not even my enhanced healing could keep up with the compulsion.
Lydia’s presence had acted like a down pillow, shielding me from any spells that tried to take root.
Now that I was in control of the body, the tie to Anthony was back in full force.
My skin felt raw by the time I managed to find a spot with signal.
RJ’s cell phone plan didn’t cover the sticks, it seemed.
The phone rang, and my chest clenched tight.
The impulse to jam my finger onto the ‘end call’ button was strong.
I’d been dreading the moment since we parted in the Hollow.
There hadn’t been time for him to ask the questions burning in his eyes.
He and I knew that the best key to survival was to flee the curse, get behind a warded threshold, and sit tight until I could be escorted away by a cadre of his mother’s best witches.
“Hello?” Anthony asked, an edge to his voice.
“Hi,” I answered, unable to raise my voice above a whisper.
“Indigo?” he whispered.
It was the hope in the word that made my throat close. He was reacting exactly as I’d expected. He was too young, too inexperienced not to give his heart fully. He loved me. Which was why he should have never learned the truth.
“Right. I, uh, I had to borrow a phone.”
A beat of silence that I couldn’t really handle so I continued talking.
“Before you launch into a game of twenty questions, you should be aware we ran into a complication.”
“A complication?”
“Right. At least one of Murrain’s guard dogs found us.”
“Jesus. Is anyone hurt or dead?”
“No, which is a miracle in and of itself. The only thing that did suffer was the gas station.”
“Where is this gas station?”
I told him.
Anthony’s breath came out in a sharp gust, as though he hadn’t exhaled since I’d gone. I could sympathize. I’d been struggling to draw in breath since last night too.
“Murrain caught up with you that quickly? I thought you’d be able to reach a safe house in Tacoma before they even realized you were gone.”
I scuffed one of Lydia’s chunky boot heels into the dirt. This was the part I knew he wouldn’t like. Because it was the part I didn’t like.
“We’re not going to Tacoma.”
“Indigo.”
“It wasn’t my choice or my idea,” I defended myself.
“We uncovered a lead in Mother’s Book of Shadows that might be Poppy’s grandmother.
Needless to say, all of Scapegrace has voted to investigate that lead so we’re waiting in a motel not far from here.
It’s one of my safe houses so there’s that.
Then, once we can get ahold of the proper mirror, we’re going to use it to visit Poppy’s grandmother and hopefully she can crack the spells in my mother’s book that I haven’t been able to.
” I took a breath. “And then we’re headed to the safe house in Tacoma. ”
“You don’t have time for that.”
“I know!” I nearly yelled out my frustration. “But it’s not like I can force them to bend to my will. I’m one witch and not a well-liked witch at that.”
“You can’t be holed up in some motel,” Anthony said, real heat to the words now. “You’ll be sitting ducks. I know you’re good, Indigo, but you can’t fend off everything that’s coming… and you can’t do it by yourself. People will die.”
I could hear his feet slapping hardwood and wondered whose halls he was pacing.
I knew his mother’s tactics well enough that he would have contacted the Council and seen to it that every citizen of Haven Hollow was safely moved to a locale with maximum security.
I’d taken some of the strongest of the monsters with me, and the rest of the Hollow’s citizens were now in warded homes.
Or they were strong enough to fend for themselves.
“I’ll die again before I let Murrain hurt anyone.”
The venom in the words surprised me. The truth of them was more shocking still.
I might not be willing to lay down my life in defense of a coven or a hollow, but I would do it for Lydia—for the people she cared about.
She deserved to come back to her body, her family whole and intact, and her mate safe at home.
“Indigo...” he began.
I sighed. “No, Anthony. We aren’t having this conversation now. Because you’re right. We need to get to Poppy’s grandmothers asap, or we’re likely going to be overrun.” Then I paused. “That’s where you come in.”
“How?” he asked, not bothering to hide the skepticism in his voice. “How the hell am I supposed to help?”
“Your mother is holding Aurea Grimsbane, isn’t she?”
“Yes,” he answered. “Why?”
“Get her on the phone. I need a mirror-walking teacher. Now.”
***
Angelo yanked me back down when I made another revolution across the room. We were technically squatting in some poor mundane’s barn, waiting for the call that would hopefully be our ticket out of this rural hell. I could hear sirens in the distance.
The gas station had gone up in a fireball not long after we’d fled.
Several members of Scapegrace had gone to smooth things over with the mundane police and the rattled but still living human clerk who’d been caught in the crossfire.
Betanya and Olga had left to procure a mirror that could be quickly and easily spelled.
And that had to be done with a silvered mirror.
You didn’t see the genuine article much these days.
It left me in a glorified petting zoo while the coven ran interference for me.
My ass ended up hitting a hay bale hard, and bits of straw poked through my clothes. I settled with a grimace, shooting Angelo a dirty look over one shoulder.
“What was that for?”
“You’re not doing anyone any favors by wearing a hole in the floor. Try a little inner peace, Indigo.”
“Indie,” I said without thinking.
“What?”
Heat flooded into my cheeks. Damn that gypsy. She’d gone and turned me soft.
“Lydia called me ‘Indie’. I hated it at first.” I shook my head and laughed as I thought about it. “I mean… do I look like I carry a whip and raid tombs?”
Angelo canted his head to one side, lips pursed. “I could picture the whip, maybe. You’ve got that vibe.”
“Keep your dominatrix fantasies to yourself, incubus,” I sniffed.
Though truthfully, I could have kissed him for the change of topic. He could be disgustingly perceptive at times. I hated that he could read my moods like an open book. All the intimacy of a relationship with none of the trust.
“Are you sure?” he asked, waggling his eyebrows in an outrageous fashion. “I could whip up a titillating erotica on that premise.”
“You talk a big game, but I doubt there’s anything behind that talk.”
He breathed out a sigh. “There isn’t. I just—you’re wearing Lydia’s body, so my stupid libido keeps thinking… you’re her.”
I nodded. “I get it.”
It was then that RJ’s phone rang, startling us both. I nearly fumbled it and was saved from cracking it on the floor by Angelo’s quick reflexes. He deftly caught it, swiped to accept the call, and held it out to me. I took it with a nod of thanks.
“Hello?”
“Indigo Hallewell?” a familiar, brisk voice asked from the other end of the line.
I sucked in a fortifying breath. I’d know that southern accent and bad attitude anywhere. Anthony had inherited more than just his mother’s good looks.
“Yes, Sheriff Boline,” I answered, the words coming out on a sigh. “It’s me. Though Goddess knows I wish it weren’t.”
“You want to tell me just what in hell is going on?”
She was one of those people who cut to the chase.
“Right. Well, the circumstances leading to this are difficult to explain... What’s more, I don’t really have the time to explain them.
So, I’m going to ask you if you can trust me that I need the expertise of your prisoner at the moment?
Any delay could cost lives. I’ll explain myself when we’re in a sanctum spelled house in Tacoma. ”
A sharp exhale on the other end of the line made me smile.
Anthony did that too, when he knew he’d lost an argument.
It was almost cute. Though I’d never tell Lucretia Boline that the thought had ever crossed my mind.
That was just begging for a nasty curse down the line.
It wasn’t a secret that she didn’t like me.
If I were her, I wouldn’t like me either.
In fact, most days I didn’t even like myself.
There was a rustle as the phone changed hands.
The voice that spoke next was cultured and slightly accented.
It was a marked contrast to Lucretia’s brusque manner.
I hadn’t heard it in years, and it immediately threw me back to a time when she’d been the scariest thing in my world.
Oh, to be a schoolgirl again, afraid of the headmistress.
“Indigo Hallewell,” Aurea Grimsbane said, voice stiff with disapproval. “Honestly, I would have never expected this type of behavior from you. I always found you to be a promising student.”
I bared my teeth at the empty air. It was fortunate for the arrogant woman that she was half a continent away from me. I was just dying to lay into someone, and she was a worthy target.
“Oh spare me the moralizing, Aurea. You have no claim of superiority here. I imagine some people might say what you did was worse than what I was involved in. At least none of my compatriots were turned into vampires right under my nose.”
“Aurea,” Lucretia interjected, real heat in her voice. “I need my star witness out of harm’s way. If she dies a preventable death, I’m holding you responsible.”