4. Cress
Next morning, Bianca was sworn in as the seventh member of A Little Wicked Coven with the rest of us bearing witness over a cold breakfast. Wren hadn’t had it in her to argue when Roe and I had presented her strengths as a talented assassin who knew one of our main enemies, the vampire Garroway, with more familiarity than even Ben.
That didn’t mean she liked it. Not that I ever got the feeling she ever particularly liked any of us, anyway. She stared off into the middle distance in the hospital’s cramped cafeteria and ate her ration of food without relish. If someone had told me I’d feel this much sympathy for Wren even a week ago, I’d have cackled like it was a bad joke. Yet here we were.
The meeting Hana had invited me to started right after breakfast, in a conference room on the hospital’s first floor. I attended with Ben, Geo, Roe, and Bianca and wondered why we were invited at all when I saw the faces that ringed the other half of the long table. Madigan and Orthus represented Ashbough Protective Services. Hana sat with the remnants of the Crown Coven, Kwan Graygazer and Daire Grimsbane. A few fae and verdant witch doctors, all carrying a tired, fearful gleam in their eyes, were here too as hospital leadership.
And sitting in one of the only unoccupied seats was a ghost only I could see, of my deceased birth mother, Eris Darkmore. Ever since Phaeron had called her spirit back on Samhain to talk to me, she’d remained on the mortal plane to haunt me on and off under the guise of helping.
She could be helpful, but it was awkward at the same time. We barely knew each other. She was endlessly judgmental about my decision to become a librarian witch, and I was sure there was an unpleasant day ahead when she popped in while I was having private time with my boyfriends. Just the thought gave me a full-body cringe.
“We’re gathered today to discuss what to do next,” Madigan said. She’d claimed the head of the table, fingers steepled as the room quieted down and faces turned her way. “The goddess that destroyed Soiluire is now here, locked inside the Cerris City pocket dimension with us. The majority of the city’s population received the emergency alert about the lockdown and fled, including many medical professionals. Thank you for staying to support and heal the sick and injured.” She nodded toward the doctors present.
I smiled their way briefly. I hadn’t realized the crew keeping the hospital running had had to make the conscious decision to stay. No wonder they’d thrown scrubs at my mom so readily when she’d volunteered to help.
“Unfortunately, there are many civilians still stranded here, and many of them are kids or young families. We have to act fast to bring them to safety and gather supplies,” Madigan continued.
Hana interjected, “Myuna will not sit idle for long. She has one loyal servant right now, but that will change as time passes. As a goddess, she is used to being served by a legion.”
Bianca raised her fingers as Hana spoke. Madigan gestured for her to speak. “The ‘loyal servant’ you mentioned is the vampire Garroway, who won’t be able to take anyone to her while it’s daylight outside,” she said, punching into her palm. “We should hunt him when the sun sets, to cripple her further.”
“She will then turn her attention to Phaeron to break his will early. This is a future we do not want,” Hana replied.
“Early?” I echoed in a pained whisper.
“Right now, she wants him aware and in pain. Last night, she sent Garroway out to hunt you,” Hana said, her gaze flashing to me. My ghostly mother gasped in surprise. “We might have one more night where he tries again. One thing is for certain…Myuna will remain in place and expect her every desire to come to her. That makes her predictable, and thus something we can outwit and kill.”
“So, she can be killed?” asked Crown Grimsbane. He was a tough-looking black man and the only blood witch in the Crown Coven. He still wore a bandolier lined with daggers but had replaced whatever expensive clothing he had been wearing for a plain t-shirt and jeans. It was probably the miraculous healing powers of his affinity that’d ensured his survival of yesterday’s attack.
“She can be,” Hana confirmed.
“Hell, why don’t we go do that now? We’ve been patched up. We know where she is and who her allies are. All of us versus the three of them,” he commented.
Hana drew breath to reply, but it was Crown Graygazer who spoke up next. “We would lose and feed ourselves to Myuna. And afterward, there would be no one to stop her from taking over the pocket dimension until it has to be collapsed.”
I wasn’t the only one paling at the implication of collapsing Cerris City. I’d only heard of it being done once, when the Fall Court’s Mother Tree was burned, but a collapsed pocket dimension simply ceased to exist, as did any living things within it at the time.
If that meant Myuna died, great. Except I wanted to live…as did the hundreds, perhaps thousands, of other supernaturals still trapped here with us.
The elder Graygazer continued talking while we reeled from this revelation, “There are a few paths to victory we can take…but they must be selected with care. Hana and I will guide us in the right direction.”
I nodded to myself. Hana had gotten us into this mess with the idea that we were the right ones to fix it.
Geo cleared his throat, drawing attention even though it wasn’t the sound of clashing rocks like it would be in his gargoyle form. “I have a suggestion,” he stated, voice still flat with how recently he’d been in his stone form.
“Let’s hear it,” Madigan said with some of her usual enthusiasm.
“As you’ve said, once she gets her bearings, one of Myuna’s first goals will be to recruit allies. There is a library here?” He looked around, asking the room at large.
“Cerris City Library, yes,” one of the doctors confirmed.
“We need to secure it before she realizes it exists. Most of the unnatural creatures and artifacts stored by librarian witches can trace their corrupted origins back to Myuna,” Geo said.
“That’s true. She could gain a lot of dangerous servants, depending on what’s at the library,” I pitched in.
“Civilians can shelter in the lower levels,” Geo rumbled. “And I will activate the library’s gargoyle units to defend them.”
Madigan dropped her voice to whisper with Orthus for a brief conversation. “We can split our people up into three groups. One to rescue survivors; one to secure food, water, and other supplies; and one to head to Cerris City Library,” she said finally.
“Let’s talk locations,” Orthus added. Like the crystals that originated from his home court, his voice was resonant with power, soft but deep. His crystal armor blended in seamlessly with his granite-colored skin and the sharp emerald crystals that grew from his shoulders and formed points at his elbows and fingertips. “It would become an extra challenge to hold both the hospital and the library should they be too far from each other.”
A few of us dug out our phones to take a look at the digital map of the city. The hospital was at the corner of a block, occupying a lot of space considering its conjoined parking garage. Unfortunately, the library was two miles away and a close landmark to the Crown Coven’s complex and Myuna’s new seat of power.
We noted a supermarket between the library and the hospital, and the planning began from there. Several vehicles had been abandoned in the hospital’s garage, and it was Bianca who suggested some grand theft auto to speed up the process of gathering supplies and people. Roe, who’d been quietly absorbing the information around her, made a disapproving hum.
“A Little Wicked Coven will go to Cerris City Library. Cress and Geo can help us convince anyone remaining there to work with us,” Roe said.
A flash of protectiveness passed over Madigan’s expression. “I will send a few friends to help you,” she said.
Roe shook her head. “We can do this, Mom. More of our people should be securing food and survivors before things get really dangerous.”
Though hesitant, Madigan agreed and began divvying up the people who were healthy enough to undertake these tasks. While she was occupied, Eris turned her ghostly head toward me. “Just don’t go out after dark. If that vampire is hunting you, he had better not realize you’re in the library,” she said.
“Right,” I whispered.
If Myuna wanted me, she must know I meant something to Phaeron. Maybe that’s what she’d done to him when her light magic had blinded the camera. Reading his mind…or making him admit things against his will. If she aimed to break him, consuming friends and family in front of him would be an evil first step.
As I tuned out of the meeting, my worries for him flooded back in. He’d been wounded when we were separated. We’d checked the hacker’s stream this morning to see that he and Myuna had still not moved overnight. He would catch an infection or collapse from blood loss or fatigue.
His absence was a loss for this meeting. I had no doubt he would know what to do to take Myuna down quicker than our plan to gather survivors and entrench ourselves. Maybe we’d even put him at the head of the table, as the only ally who’d fought Myuna and her creatures before.
I knew we had to protect ourselves first before helping others, but I wanted to do more for him than this. And, on that note, for Carly. I swiped over to my texts and tapped her name, worried when I saw she still hadn’t read any of the messages I’d sent her. Hopefully she’d just lost her phone fleeing with the crowd and had either been pulled out of the pocket dimension by another supernatural or was hunkered down somewhere safe.
A message popped up on my screen from Mom—her telling me to come find her after the meeting was over. It wasn’t much longer before we were done, and Roe set off with Geo to get our group together. Mom told me she was working on the second floor.
I waited for her at the nurse’s station and texted her back, waiting a good few minutes before she emerged from one of the occupied rooms red-faced and fuming. Mom, angry? She was a nurse with nerves of steel, but her usual kindly air was frazzled.
“Did something happen?” I blurted.
Her blue eyes flashed before she took a deep breath, putting on a smile for me. “I’m just finding Crystal fae to be more difficult patients than I’m used to,” she told me in a low voice.
I glanced over my shoulder to make sure we were alone. Even ghostly Eris was faded out for the time being, and the other nurses were hustling to keep the hospital functioning.
“I’m sure they can be as stubborn as rocks. Fae take on some of the qualities of their court, after all,” I answered.
“As amazing as it is to live in a world where fae exist, you’re probably wondering why I wanted to see you. I want you to sit down with one of the doctors for a few minutes.”
I agreed warily since she said the doctor was already waiting to see me next in a room being cleaned and prepped for the next patient. Mom made herself scarce, then the steel-haired verdant witch doctor started asking the general questions I would answer for an annual physical.
Then she inquired if I was sexually active, and it all clicked into place. My ultra-perceptive Mom had made sure I was leaving with my friends for Cerris City Library with a new prescription of birth control pills in my pocket. Sure, it was a little embarrassing, but I couldn’t wait to tell Geo and Ben.