15. Whispering Leaf
15
WHISPERING LEAF
DOM
M y mind is a swirling rush of emotions and energy, thoughts and musings, fear and excitement violently compounding against each other, ruining and restoring me simultaneously. As my car escalates down Sayah’s street and away from her, I think back on everything that went awry.
The date itself was excellent. I find myself much more attracted to Sayah than I ever thought possible. Getting to know her personally makes all those feelings that were stuttering me at the bar magnified with her up close.
Typically, we can take emotions and flick them off like a switch, steeling ourselves to any mortal sentiments or obligations of social constructs. But with her, my ability to flip it off is not only disabled; it’s intensified. I feel her in my bones and nestling into my skin; the sharp wit of hers is piercing through my own resolve.
She is something else entirely.
The dizziness in my brain is making me feel like I’m buzzing, like I’d drunk a hundred shots of whiskey that were laced with Feyfire crystals. Being in her presence is like getting out of the shower. That million-dollar, fresh skin, clean feeling that only comes after being cleansed in hot water. She douses me with something tangible on my skin; a layer of her still rests all over me even after I’ve left her.
Having to veilweave her to forget we saw those grims is grating on me. I don’t like that I’m already lying to her, and now I had to take away some of her memories. The look on her face when I told her she had fainted was enough to wrench my heart free from my chest and toss it into a garbage disposal.
Seeing those grims in the alley of a smaller town like Fort Collins tells me they are getting worse everywhere though, not just in the major cities.
Oh. And the other thing.
As I was kissing her, I could smell her sweat and perfume and shampoo mixed with the agonizing scent of her blood, and I got caught up. When the kiss turned into that heated rush, I couldn’t help myself. My fangs almost came out, and I about bit her before I even knew what I was doing. Luckily, I’d been able to turn around and gain my composure.
I’m more worried than ever about my family wanting her dead. I don’t know how, but I have to try to keep them from killing her. I have to help her find her magick.
“Siri, call mom,” I say to my car as I merge onto the highway, pressing the pedal to the metal, and the car roars in response.
The line rings three times.
“Hello?” comes my mom’s steely voice over the car speakers.
“Mom.”
“Hi, Dom!” Scarlett echoes from the background.
“I have you on speaker phone,” Mom says, even though I deduced that myself.
“Yeah, mom. Got it.”
“So, what did you find out?”
“Just mostly about her life up until this point. She’s been through a lot. Also, I went to Never again earlier and talked to a shaman. He found something about phoenixes in an old grimoire—I guess the last known one happened to be around the witch trial era. He mentioned a coven in Vegas that may know more about the warlocks and grimspawn, so I’m thinking of going there soon.” I’m intentionally alluding to my severe attraction to this woman.
“And what of her powers did you discover?” Even over the phone, my mom is hard as stone.
“Nothing yet. I’m the one who brought up that she’s a witch. She was almost embarrassed about it. But then I could tell her guard came down, and she opened up more.”
“So essentially, she’s a new witch.” My mom’s tone skates on the edge of boredom, telling me she is unenthused.
“Yes. Learning her power. Her main teacher just died, and her aunts aren’t local, so she’s having to teach herself.”
“And you think the prophecy has something to do with her powers?”
“I do.”
“What if I send you that bracelet, Dominic?” Scarlet asks, which is surprising because usually Scarlet would be all about the murder.
“What bracelet?”
“You know, the moonstone one Mom gave me when I came into my power? It will enhance Sayah’s powers.”
“Yeah, that may work. But how will you get it to me?”
“You brought your mirror with you, right?”
“Of course.”
“I’ll send it through the mirror.”
“And once she has the bracelet and has had a chance to harness her power, what then?”
“I gave you two weeks to figure this out, Dominic,” my mom chides. “If it isn’t resolved in that time, we’ll take matters into our own hands.”
“I’m going to need more time.”
“Dominic,” mom starts.
“Mom, just give me ’til the end of the month. It will take some time for me to help her with her powers and go to Vegas to talk to that coven.”
“What is that going to do, Dominic? What do you think the coven in Vegas will really help with? ”
“I don’t know, Mom, maybe coming up with another way to get to the bottom of the grimspawn problem or help us find the warlocks or learn the meaning behind this phoenix prophecy without killing an innocent woman.” I can’t help the heat in my voice.
“Ooh, sounds like Domie has a crush!”
“Scarlet,” I say, exasperation coating her name like honey.
“You and your hopeless heart for humans is going to get you in trouble one day, Dom,” Mom says, though her tempered intonation tells her own hopeless heart is to blame for many things as well.
“Whatever, just. . . can I have the time?”
“You have a month, Dominic,” Mom says, and the tempered tone is again jagged. “If you don’t figure it out by then, we will come to kill her.”
A rriving back at the house I’m now renting in Windsor—where I fabricated that I lived because it was between the town she lives in and Denver—I park my Mercedes in the garage and close the door.
I was lucky enough to find an Air B her iridescent wings flutter behind her in a delicate rush.
“You must be Dominic,” she says, floating herself to the ground where the boundary of air and Earth collide.
“And you must be Tallyn,” I say, holding out my hand.
Her shrewd eyes lance down to my hand and then back up to my face, her brows drawn together in contempt.
Am I supposed to bow to her?
As I lower my hand, she says, “You’ve been poking around the Neverdusk Dominion looking for answers, so I hear.” Her winsome voice replicates the winding rush of rivers through a ravine and being struck by a summer typhoon.
“Yes, Your Majesty,” I say, and the terseness of her formal name in my mouth shocks me. “We have a problem. The grims are infecting our food supply. It’s getting dire. We need help to contain it.”
Her sensuous pink lips downturn into a frown and she crosses her arms over her chest, the silver bangles jangling. “That would be my brother Trystan’s domain. I cannot help you with that.”
“We think we found the answer, a phoenix, but we don’t know what that means or how to achieve it. Would you know anything about that?”
Shaking her head, her soft wings flutter on her back, picking her body up easily and gliding her toward the water. “I haven’t heard of a phoenix in this realm or any others in many years.”
“Well, we think we might have found one,” I say, following her to the lakeside, “but we just need her powers to come to light. Can you help with that?”
Her iridescent wings gleam in the moonlight as they set her down on the sandy soil of the beach. The wind lifts her raven hair ever so slightly as she turns to face me, her orange eyes tapering towards my mouth. “And who is the woman you believe has this power?”
I don’t know why, but I feel my body constrict with her question. Maybe it’s the way she’s asking it, or maybe it’s the suspicious nature of her energy. I get the feeling that she isn’t just asking to help us but has a darker agenda for what she wants the information for.
“A local witch. Lasayah Thorne,” I say carefully but still notice how her name softens on the tip of my tongue. “She comes from a long line of witches, and a prophecy has been spun that she is the next phoenix. But that also may have a double meaning or be just a metaphor for a power she comes into. We are just trying to figure out how to help her come into this power.”
“Bring her here, to this place,” Tallyn says as she kneels. Her long pointer finger, be-ringed with black and silver jewels, stirs the dirt, swirling it around in a small circle. As she stirs the Earth, a small tornado of dust kicks up and twirls around in the air. The wind gathers ever so slightly, grazing me with the smell of magick and fire. “Give her a gift to make her cry. I need a tear to fall to the ground. When it does, I will be below in Luminara and can use it to help push her powers forth.”
“What will the tear do?”
She appraises me with a coruscating gaze. “It will assure me that she is being led to her fate.”
That sounds subliminal. “I’m trying to keep her alive. My family wants her dead. I need assurance that this is all to keep her alive.”
“If her destiny is to be a fire wielder, we need to push her to that destiny,” she says, still stirring the wind. Flicking her finger, a tiny flame emerges from the tip of her fingernail, and she stirs it into the funnel. “Earth, air, and fire. All you need is water.”
After a flash of a little explosion from the miniature tornado, the dust settles back down in a circle of ash on the ground. “And this little spell will activate when her tear falls?”
“It shall. Bring her here tomorrow night,” she says, her stoic posture rigid and refined. Bending down once again, she palms the surface of the lake, and ripples expand outward, the water parting in two and folding over each way. Below the waterline is a dark staircase leading down to Luminara.
As she descends without even a goodbye, I call after her, “But how do I make her cry?”
Without turning around, she tells me, “Give her something that makes her think of her mom.” And then the water folds back over, erasing the fact that a staircase was ever there.
How does the Luminara Queen know about the death of Sayah’s mom?