Chapter Thirty-Four
BLISS
I hammer my fist on the door, three townhomes over. It takes a while for anyone to answer, but finally Simon comes to the door, a scared, wild look in his eyes. “Bliss?” Surprise coats his voice.
I push my way in. “I need to speak with Evan, please. We need a healer, fast.”
“About that,” Simon says, turning to look into the living room.
I follow his gaze and gasp in shock. Evan is sitting on the floor, slumped against the couch, sweat coating his skin, and blood dripping down his chin, just like Tubbs.
Lily—the blonde fae that grabbed me some clothes the other day—kneels next to him, and I can feel the hum of magic as she heals him.
Except that it’s not working.
He doesn’t seem to be getting any better.
My wide eyes meet Pisces’ as he looks over at me.
He mirrors Simon’s scared expression.
“What the hell is happening?” I ask.
“No idea. One minute he was fine, the next, blood everywhere,” Simon informs me.
“Tubbs, our drummer, he’s—” I motion at Evan, “—he’s in the same condition.” I swallow, trying to calm myself. “Are you going to be able to heal him?” I ask Lily.
She looks just as scared and concerned as everyone else. “I’m not sure, he’s not responding to my magic.”
I hear a groan and notice Niamh sitting upright on the other couch, also coughing up blood. Shaun is trying to get her to lie down, but she’s fighting him. “I’m fine,” she growls out in between spitting up more blood.
“Two of them?” I ask. Fuck.
Pisces comes over and stands next to me. “What type of fae is Tubbs?”
“An earth nymph,” I say, and Pisces frowns.
“What?” I ask. I can see his thoughts swirling.
Shaun comes over to us as well, his hand rubbing at his temples. “This is something beyond just an illness.”
“I’m completely useless here,” Lily announces, standing up. She goes to Gwen, murmuring something soft into her hair. Gwen curls inward on herself, eyes traveling back and forth between Evan and Niamh.
“I think they’ve been hexed.” Shaun rubs a hand over his face. His hair looks like he’s run his hands through it multiple times. “They don’t have much time. We need to figure out some sort of anti-spell.”
Aunt Liz.
She could help us. I fish out my phone and call her. She answers immediately.
“Bliss! How are you? It’s actually funny you just called—”
“Liz, I need your help,” I say, interrupting her.
“What’s going on?” Immediately her tone is serious.
“Tubbs, and a couple other friends, it’s like they’ve been hexed. They’re coughing up blood and we’ve tried healing them, but it’s not working.”
“They haven’t improved at all?”
“No, in fact, they seem worse.” I look back to Evan and Niamh. “Can you tell us about a spell, or—”
She cuts me off. “I’ll be there in about five minutes.”
“What?”
“I came to the festival! I wasn’t gonna miss all of Amelia’s shows, especially not your first gig back as their band manager. I just got here.”
My mind spins with the synchronicity. Maybe the stars are looking out for us after all. I give Liz directions to the townhomes, instructing her to come here.
“My aunt, she’s good with this type of thing.
She’s already on her way.” I look at Pisces.
“Can you go get the others? Have them bring Tubbs here? Better to move him than both of them.” Evan and Niamh are coughing up even more blood now, barely any breaks between fits.
Benny crouches down between them with damp towels, trying to comfort them as much as possible.
Pisces nods and without a word he’s gone, racing down the street to the others. I told them I’d be right back, but I wasn’t expecting to stumble in on this.
Aunt Liz arrives first. I let her in, sweeping the door wide open, and glance down the street to see Pisces and Taser helping Tubbs walk. He stumbles and they switch to carrying him between them.
Amelia, Reese, and the rest of the band is behind them.
Liz has immediately gone to her patients. “Bliss!” she calls. “Get my bag.”
I take her duffle bag she’s brought with her.
She takes out a leather case and sets it down on the coffee table, unrolling the straps that bind it closed.
“Thank the stars I didn’t leave this at home.
” She glances at me and then at all the other faces watching her.
“Give them all some room, everyone, okay?”
She takes Evan’s wrist, checking his pulse, doing the same for Niamh. “Bliss, mix me up some bloodroot.” I immediately sit down to do as asked.
“What’s bloodroot?” Simon asks, curiously watching, though remaining a good distance away as per Liz’s orders.
“It’ll slow whatever it is that’s attacking them. Help replenish the blood they’ve lost.”
I run to the kitchen, mix the ground bloodroot powder with water, and separate it out into two glasses. Liz gives one to Evan. I give one to Niamh.
Finally, Pisces and Taser get Tubbs into one of the armchairs, though they have to support him so he doesn’t topple forward. I go back and mix up one other glass of the tonic for Tubbs. I catch Amelia’s eyes. They’ve gone straight to Evan. She looks terrified.
“He’ll be alright. Liz is helping them. They’ll all be okay,” I tell Amelia, giving her arm a squeeze. I go to Tubbs, helping him drink the bloodroot.
Liz straightens up. “Okay, so now we need to figure out exactly what this hex is. How the hell did someone get all three of them?”
“Could it be something they ate?” Simon asks. “Like food poisoning?”
Liz shakes her head. “No, this was deliberate, and targeted.” Her eyes zero in on the inside of the jacket Evan is wearing. Shaun helps Evan out of the bloodstained jacket.
Liz holds it inside out and points to something smudged on the inside. On closer inspection it looks like some sort of wax seal with a pentagram and some other symbol etched into it. “This is the culprit. It’s a blood-clotting hex.”
“How do we stop it?” I ask.
Liz sets about mixing up some powders and casts an enchantment over it.
The powder shifts as if moved by an invisible wind.
She sprinkles it over Evan and the little wax hex seal.
The seal breaks apart upon contact. She turns to Niamh.
“We need to find that wax seal. It’ll have been placed on her person. ”
Simon and Gwen start to inspect her clothes.
“Got it!” Gwen says, pointing to the collar of Niamh’s button-up shirt.
Liz shakes the powder over her too, making sure to get some of the wax seal.
Getting the picture, Taser and Pisces start inspecting Tubbs, getting more and more frantic as they can’t find it.
“It’s not here!” Taser yells, looking widely at Liz. “What do we do?”
“Remain calm. It has to be on his person. It wouldn’t have fallen off once attached.”
They continue to look but neither can seem to find it. Liz and Amelia take over, pushing the boys out of the way. They search Tubbs’ pockets, and Blake and Taser even lift Tubbs out of the chair so we can make sure it’s not stuck to his back somewhere, but we see nothing.
“Wait,” I say, my gaze landing on his shoes. “Hold up his feet!”
And sure enough, there on the bottom of his shoe is the wax seal. Liz sprinkles the concoction on it and over the rest of Tubbs.
We all look expectantly at her. “They’ll be fine now, but they’re going to have to sleep a lot. This hex takes a lot out of a fae.”
“How do you know so much about this?” Shaun asks, arching a brow at her.
She grins at him. “I used to work for the council. Specialized in hunting down fae who put hexes on people.”
Simon watches Liz with wide eyes. “Fuck, that’s cool.”
“Badass,” Benny agrees.
Shaun hauls Evan onto the couch and Amelia quietly moves Evan’s feet onto it.
She brings a blanket up over him and gazes down at his peaceful but still blood-covered face.
“We should probably get them cleaned up— Oh stars!” she exclaims. She whirls around and faces everyone.
“The shows! We’re both fucked,” she says, looking at Pisces.
He frowns, glancing at all three of the hexed musicians, his hand running along his jaw. I might notice how it’s freshly shaven. “We’re out a bassist and a backup vocalist.”
“And we’re out a fucking drummer,” Amelia laments, coming to me and throwing herself around me. “We’re gonna have to back out of tonight’s show. We can’t play without a drummer.”
I look over at Tubbs. Taser is cleaning off his face with a warm wash cloth. “I’ll let the festival know,” I say, my shoulders slouching. I start to look up the number for our contact at the festival on my phone.
“Hold on,” Pisces murmurs, taking my phone out of my hands.
“You’re down a drummer; we have a drummer,” Pisces continues, holding my phone out of reach as I stand on my tiptoes, trying to grab it back.
“Thanks for rubbing that in,” I huff out, rolling my eyes.
He stares at me, and even though his hair falls a bit into his eyes, I can see an arched brow.
“We’re down a backup vocalist and a bassist, you have a singer and a bassist.” He looks pointedly at the group gathered around listening.
“Let’s trade. Dericia fills in for Evan, Amelia fills in for Niamh, and Shaun will drum for Goddess’ Trance. ”
Everyone looks at him, and I swear all our mouths have dropped. “Are you insane?” Shaun finally says, laughing. “It would take me days to learn just a few of their songs, not to mention a whole set list.”
“Yeah, and like, I could definitely learn your whole set list in a day, because your bass lines aren’t super complicated—” Dericia says.
“Gee, thanks,” Pisces quips.
“—but no way will I have them down in the two hours we have left,” Dericia finishes.
“It was a good suggestion, Sces, but not everyone is as musically gifted as you that they can pick things up that quickly,” Benny says, swinging an arm around Pisces’ torso, not being tall enough to go around his shoulders.
Pisces looks down at the guitarist. “Remember that super dumb, ridiculous test that the fae council makes all adult kindreds take in order to register with them?”