Chapter Twenty-Nine #2
“It’s starting again. Johanna’s.” Trey watched each ring sparkle in turn. “From the last bride to the first. The last ring to the first ring.”
In silence they watched as the pattern continued. Then stopped.
“Seven times. It happened seven times.” Sonya pressed a hand to her lips. “Not exactly bright flashing lights, but close enough.”
“And nothing from Dobbs,” Owen pointed out.
“I’m going to guess she’s either still recovering, recharging, or…” Trey liked his second option more. “She can’t do a damn thing about this, about them.”
“Because they’re together now,” Sonya agreed. “And they want their rings back. That’s as clear as it gets. Just not how.”
“You know the order you need to go to get them back,” Trey pointed out.
She frowned a moment, then pressed her hands to her head. “Last to first. Of course! I was just caught up in the moment, and didn’t think through it. Message also clear, and received.”
“You’re thinking it through now.” Trey could see it on her face. “And you know what you have to do to get them.”
Sonya gave herself a moment to just breathe. “I have to go through the mirror. I have to go through the mirror seven times, in that order, and, somehow, take the rings from the brides before Dobbs does.”
“You won’t go through alone. She won’t be alone,” Owen repeated. “I’m ready whenever you are.”
“Not tonight. I mean that,” Cleo insisted. “This is the answer. I feel that, too. Take the rings before Dobbs can, bring them back through so you can give them back. But there’s a lot more to get ready for, and I still believe, absolutely, it needs to be on Samhain.”
“We can wait, and we should,” Trey agreed. “No rushing in. Plan first. Looks like instead of a movie, we’re going to sit down and figure out what to do, and how to do it.”
They chose the dining room, and Sonya brought in the kitchen tablet to take notes.
“Silly, maybe, but I see things better if I write them down.”
“Not silly,” Trey disagreed. “Sensible. And let’s be sensible on this aspect. Clover, if you know, is it safe for us to talk strategy here, tonight?”
When he heard Harry Styles and “Late Night Talking,” Owen lifted his shoulders. “I’d take that as a yes.”
“Okay then.” Because she wanted to stay sharp, Sonya had traded the idea of wine for a Coke.
“We know, obviously, getting the rings back is, well, the mission. Now we know the order—we know it’s one at a time, from Johanna back to Astrid.
So, it’s not a matter of going after Dobbs in the Gold Room—yay—but for me to go back through the mirror to each day each bride died, in turn. ”
“For us to go back,” Owen corrected.
“Actually, I think it’s best if I go—”
“No.” His interruption was flat and final.
She tried again. “The reason for that is—”
Now all three at the table said, “No.”
She looked hard at Trey. “I should be allowed to state my case.”
“You’re outvoted, Son.”
“Let her lay it out,” Trey suggested.
“In four of the cases, I’ll be going into a bedroom, and two of those while women are in labor, giving birth, or have just had twins. It’s going to be shocking enough to see me, another woman.”
“If they see you.”
“Okay.” She nodded at Trey. “If they do see me. Marianne and Clover did, I know they did while they were dying. How would those women react with Owen popping in?”
“There’s a reason I can go through.”
“Agreed,” Cleo said. “Who was there to smash the evil spider before it took a chunk out of you?”
“That was the first time I knowingly went through. I’m more prepared.”
“More prepared, but,” Trey qualified. “The facts are, you have to go through, get the ring, get out before Dobbs can stop you. You might need help with that. Seven times,” he said before Sonya could object.
“And each time saps you. If you miss any one of those times? Well, we don’t know what could happen. ”
“We don’t know what’s going to happen if I don’t miss either. You think I’m being stubborn.”
He smiled. “Do I?”
“Look, Sonya, I’m going whether you like it or not. Might as well get on board with it.”
Clover chimed in with “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.”
“Listen to Mick,” Owen added.
“Step one,” Trey began.
“I call the mirror. Or I want or wish to go somewhere, see something. Which I am actively not doing now, because not now. Johanna first. She ran in the house and upstairs to change her shoes because they were killing her. Dobbs waited until she came out, and they were at the head of the stairs when…”
And it twisted in her belly.
“I know I can’t change what happened to her, or any of them. I know I have to accept that. I know after I take the ring, she’ll die. They’ll all die.”
“What you’ll do isn’t just breaking the curse, which is enough. It’s helping them.” Cleo reached out. “And everyone. Everyone who comes after us, too. That’s the focus, Son.”
“I’ll stay focused. I know I have to. I don’t know how I’m going to talk a new bride out of her wedding ring, if she sees me. If she doesn’t, it seems to me pulling off someone’s ring is going to give them a big-ass jolt.”
“Get it, get back,” Owen said. “No hesitation, no regrets.”
“Seven times, cutie. And we have to assume that’s one after the other. It’s a lot on both of you.”
“I don’t get spinny the same way Sonya does.”
“Seven times,” Trey reminded Owen.
“And it’s different this way, Owen, when I, sort of, pull out. It’s a little rocky. It didn’t last as long, but we’ll have to go right back through again.”
“Ever sailed in twelve-foot seas? I can handle rocky. Seven times. Lather, rinse, repeat. We’ve got that.”
“Will she know?” Sonya wondered. “When we bring back the first ring, will she know we have it?”
“How could she? For her it’s then,” Cleo pointed out. “Once you bring it back, it’s now.”
“Which is why it makes sense going last to first. Trickier,” Trey conceded. “We know the rings add to her power. She’ll still have six before you go through again.”
“So we can’t waste time. We won’t,” Sonya promised herself. “If they see me, I just take the ring. I’ll hate it, but I’ll do it. And you’re all right. I might need help with that. This has to be right, doesn’t it? This has to be the right way.”
“I’m listening to Mick, too. What I want?” Trey picked up his coffee. “I want to go in, take her down, yank the rings off her hands, and kick her ass. But.”
Cleo danced her fingertips on the table. “You might still get a chance to do that last part.”
“Don’t toy with us, Lafayette. I owe Dobbs a good ass-kicking.”
“Then I’m going to weigh in. We agree Sonya and Owen go through the mirror, seven times.
And yes, one after the other, as close together as they can manage.
We can’t know exactly what’s going to happen on the other side.
I trust they’ll get the rings because they’re meant to.
But we can’t know how that affects the now, not really.
Another reason it makes sense to go last to first.”
“If I started with Astrid, it could make changes down the line. I hadn’t thought of that.”
“And time runs different there than here,” Trey pointed out. “That’s another factor to consider.”
“So is the three o’clock loop.” Linking her hands, Cleo rested them on the table.
“It has to be done, all the way done, before three. If we start at midnight on Samhain, just one second after midnight, that’s three hours to do it, and to finish Dobbs.
Because breaking the curse, that’s a lot.
That’s monumental. But it doesn’t end her. It ends her curse, but not her.”
“And it’s not over, not done, until we end her. Got something for that?” Owen asked.
“Maybe. It’s something I’ve been thinking about. And I want to consult with my grand-mère. Another reason we wait until Samhain.”
“It’ll be the four of us. It’ll take the four of us.” Sonya looked around the table. “If I’m sure of anything, I’m sure of that.”
“We all wear protection. Don’t give me that look,” Cleo said when Owen rolled his eyes in her direction. “I’m coming down firm on that. I’m asking my grand-mère to send something for you and Trey.”
He may not have subscribed, but Trey shrugged. “It couldn’t hurt. We need to bait her. Assuming she doesn’t come hard that day or the day before? We need to bait her into blowing some of her power, energy.”
“Drain the battery some.” Owen nodded. “Good call.”
“And that’s for you and me.”
“Even better call.”
“Now, wait—”
“No. Sonya, how many times have you and Cleo, or just you, had to deal with her on your own? Let her come at Owen and me. It’ll distract her, put her on the defensive, and weaken her. That gives you and Owen a better chance, then the four of us a better chance.
“We’re ending this, and her.” He gripped both of Sonya’s hands. “Then we’re going to live our lives. You, me, Owen, Cleo. The brides? They go, they stay, who the hell knows. But they’re free.”
“What if she hurts one of you before we can do all this?”
“No risk,” Owen said. “No reward.”
“You just want to smack her.”
He shrugged at Cleo. “She’d be the first woman for that, but I don’t really think of her as a woman. So yeah, I’d like to smack her. I’ll settle for pushing her crazy buttons and taking her down some before we get the rest going.”
Now he looked around the table. “Sounds like we’ve got most of a plan.”
“Needs some fine-tuning, some gaps filled, but yeah.” Trey polished off his coffee. “We’ve got most of a plan.”
They sat another hour doing that fine-tuning, filling what gaps they could. During the hour, Owen let the pets out, came back with the forgotten popcorn.
“Why waste it?”
“I’m with you.” Cleo took a handful. “This is better than a scary movie anyway.”
Before they went up for the night, they stopped at the music room.
“I need to tell my mother we found her, and that Dad and his brother painted her. I wonder, did they talk, did they laugh, did they tell each other things brothers tell each other?
“I like to think so.”
“Will you tell her the rest?”
She shook her head at Trey. “No. She’d worry, and she’d insist on coming here. I don’t want that. I’ll tell her everything when it’s done.”
When they went up, she walked to the window.
“One night soon we’ll look out here and we won’t see her jump. She’ll be gone.”
Trey wrapped around her, looked out over her shoulder. “It’s human to be nervous, Sonya.”
“I am. Nervous I won’t be fast enough or smart enough. Nervous I’ll let them down.”
“That’s the last thing you should be nervous about. You will be fast enough, smart enough. You won’t let anyone down.”
Words mattered, she thought. And his of faith and support meant everything.
“I thought, when we had real answers, I’d just plow ahead. But it’s not that simple. I know I have to take the rings. I know it’s what they want, what they need. It still breaks my heart.”
“You’ll give them back.”
“Do you think so?” She turned to him, held on. “Do you think I’ll be able to, somehow?”
“I do. They’re not yours.” He pressed her hands to his lips. “I’m going to give you yours. What do you say to June, when summer’s just coming on? Here at the manor. Small and simple, big and flashy, whatever you want. Just marry me, Sonya. Build a family with me. Build a life with me.”
“Yes, so much yes.” Framing his face, she pressed her lips to his. “I want the ring you’ll give me, and I want to give you yours. I say yes to June.”
She kissed him again as he swept her up to carry her to the bed. “And I want just big enough and simply beautiful. I want the manor filled with flowers and people and music. Most of all, I want you.”
She rolled over him, rained kisses over his face.
“And I’m not listening to Mick. I’m going to get just what I want. Nothing’s going to stop me.”
Later, she dreamed of walking on a moonlit night in air scented with flowers. The sea rolled, split by the beam of the fat white moon.
She heard music, soft and dreamy, and in her long white dress swayed to it, turned a circle. Lifting a hand, she watched the band on her finger sparkle in the moonlight.
She was a bride. She was a wife.
She loved, and was loved.
As her happiness soared, she turned another circle.
And saw Hester Dobbs.
“No.”
“Did you think you could take what’s mine? My home? My world?”
When she spread her hands, Sonya saw the seven rings glint and glimmer.
“You thought you could take these? See how they shine, see how they sparkle. For me! And you dare to become a bride? Like them?”
They lay on the grass, white gowns blood-soaked, faces gray, dead flowers around them. The Seven.
“And like them, I take the symbol from you.”
Unable to run, unable to loose the scream caught in her throat, Sonya stood paralyzed. But she felt the icy grip on her wrist as Dobbs wrenched the ring from her finger.
“You will join them now. Now there are eight. More will come, more will come, more will die. Only I am forever.”
Though she struggled, Sonya couldn’t stop herself from walking to the seawall, couldn’t stop climbing onto it to stand over the rocks and thrashing waves.
“You love the sound of it. You love the sight of it. So there be your death. Now leap, and leap every night for a thousand years.”
Against her will, against her heart, she jumped.
As she felt herself falling, saw the rocks waiting, she woke.
When she bolted up in bed, Trey woke beside her.
“Sonya.”
The scream in her throat turned into a gasp for breath.
She was here, whole, alive.
“A nightmare.” Gulping in air, she tried to slow her speeding heart. “What time is it? What time?”
“It’s nearly five.”
Not three, not Dobbs’s hour, she thought, grateful as she burrowed into him.
“Stress dream, that’s all.”
“Tell me.”
Because she didn’t want to revisit it, couldn’t bear to, she shook her head. “Gone now.”
She curled against him, closed her eyes.
Gone now, she thought again. And she wasn’t.