Chapter 2
“Arift?” I echo. I should be alarmed, based on Thomas’s wide eyes and Jacques’s reaction, but I can’t think about anything other than my mother.
“Are you sure?” Jacques echoes, standing. His fists are clenched and his shoulders tense.
“Yes. Gil is watching it now. It’s small and fading fast, but who knows how long it’s been there.”
“Where is it?” Jacques strides forward.
“In the back, behind the barn. We saw something flash and went to investigate.”
Jacques turns to me. “Get the salt and white candles.”
Blinking, I look from Jac to Thomas. “Sure, but why? What’s a rift?”
Pursing his lips and not trying to hide his annoyance, Jacques motions for me to follow him into the kitchen. His no-nonsense attitude used to piss me off, but now it’s one of the things I love about him. He’s direct and to the point, which is something I relate to myself.
“It’s an opening between worlds, but not one neatly done.”
“You can neatly open worlds?” Feeling like I’ve been thrust into a science fiction novel, I go to the pantry and grab two canisters of salt.
“Yes, if you know how to properly cast a circle and open a portal. A rift can happen for various reasons and most aren’t good.”
“Did anything get out?” Hasan asks, setting down the sandwich he was making for me.
“We didn’t see anything,” Thomas replies. “But that doesn’t mean much.”
The smell of lavender is gone and the feeling of my mother’s cold arms around me is replaced by Jacques’s warm hand landing on my shoulder.
Did anything get out?
Shit. A rift is open between two worlds…and I just saw my dead mother.
“How do I close it?” I ask, forcing myself into action.
“You can’t. Closing a rift requires advanced magic,” Jacques says with total honesty. “But we can put a barrier around it and keep anything else from coming out. If it’s small, it’ll heal on its own in time.”
“Take me to it,” I say, tucking one of the salt canisters under my arm. I open a drawer and sift through the junk I’ve accumulated in a short time until I find the lighter.
“You still need that, Hot Hands?” Thomas asks, a cocky grin on his face.
“Hot Hands, really?” I deadpan, raising an eyebrow.
Thomas wiggles his eyebrows and Jacques scowls, crossing the room to get the candles…
which aren’t in the cabinet because I took them upstairs when I tried that stupid—oh shit.
No, it’s not possible. Jacques just said it takes advanced magic to close a rift.
I’d assume it’d take even more advanced magic to open one in the first place.
I’m a novice and tried a fake spell from a bullshit book. There’s no way I opened the rift. Is there?
“Where are the candles?” Jac asks.
“Upstairs. I’ll get them.” I set the salt down and hurry up the back stairwell, wincing as I move.
I forgot how sore I was. I throw on a jacket and grab the candles, sticking them in my pockets.
I grab shoes, not bothering with socks, and go as fast as I can down the stairs, ignoring the pain that’s shooting across my ribcage.
The four of us leave the house through the back, stepping out of the kitchen and onto the back porch.
There are several outbuildings behind the house, and all are in equally bad shape.
The house was taken care of well enough over the years, housing renters while Aunt Mary was in the nursing home, but no one had any use for the barn or the chicken coop.
Eventually, I’ll have them all torn down before they fall over during a storm.
“Holy shit,” I mumble, holding out my hand.
“What is it?” Hasan asks.
“The air…it feels…static.”
Jacques looks at me curiously for a moment. “You’re feeling the magic in the air.”
“It’s a lot of magic,” I say back. “And it’s coming from behind the barn.
” Swallowing hard, I make a move to jump off the porch, but Jac scoops me up and takes flight.
I lock my arms around his neck, holding on tight, though I trust him with my life and know he’d die before letting me fall and splat on the ground.
We fly above the barn, and a faint yellow glow comes into view.
The rift looks like a tiny lightning bolt hanging in the air, crackling with electricity.
It can’t be more than a foot in length, and only a few inches wide.
Gilbert is on the ground, standing only feet from it, with his arms held out slightly at his sides as if he’s expecting something to jump out and fight him.
“Has it gotten any smaller?” Thomas asks, landing next to his identical twin. Gilbert doesn’t look away from the rift, and the pale golden glow lights up his handsome face.
“No,” he says. “But I heard something from inside.”
Hasan lands on his other side, eyes narrowed and fists clenched.
He’s probably hoping something will pop out so he can fight it.
That man was made for battle. Jacques lands a yard away, purposely keeping me at a distance.
His protectiveness is endearing and annoying, though he can say the same about me.
“What did you hear?”
Gilbert shakes his head, brows pinching together. “I’m not sure, but it sounded like a woman crying.”
Shivering, I pull the canisters of salt from my jacket pockets and step forward. Jac catches my arm, worry in his eyes.
“Ace,” he starts, then lets out a breath. He was going to tell me to be careful, I’m sure of it.
Slowly, I move in front of the rift. It’s floating a few inches above my direct line of sight and I reach out apprehensively, feeling the air around it. The sounds of the night fade away, and I close my eyes, listening.
“I don’t hear anything,” I tell the guys.
Tipping my head, I look at the rift again, extending my fingers.
The closest thing I’ve felt to the energy coming from the rift is that feeling you get right before a static shock.
But the shock isn’t coming, and a sick part of me wants to keep inching my finger forward until I feel the painful zap of energy.
“I wouldn’t do that,” Hasan says, shifting his weight. “You could get sucked in.”
“Really?” I bring my hand back, though his words make me even more tempted. I’m as curious as I am scared. And then it hits me that getting sucked in would be easy, but getting out most certainly wouldn’t.
“Maybe.”
“It’s unlikely from one this size,” Jacques tells us. “But I still advise against touching it.”
Nodding, I step back and open one of the canisters of salt. I pour it out on the ground in a circle around the rift and then arrange the candles at the north, east, south, and west spots on the circle. I hold out my hand, trying to summon the fire, but feel depleted.
Jacques’s hand lands on my shoulder, and his confidence in me sends enough of a spark that the smallest flame ignites at the tip of my index finger.
Holding onto the magic that keeps the fire burning, I quickly light the candles and straighten up.
“Now what?”
“Cast a protection spell or something,” Thomas suggests.
“Yeah, I’ll get right on that.” I force a smile and turn back to the circle. I know protection spells…I just can’t remember one right now.
“The moon is almost full,” Gilbert adds, flicking his eyes from the rift to the sky. “You can draw from that, can’t you?”
“I can.” Inhaling and feeling a bit hokey, I raise my hands toward the moon, looking up at it until my vision blurs.
I close my eyes and feel the power of the moon in my fingertips.
Going on instinct, I bend down and touch the salt circle.
A ripple of blue energy flows from my fingers into the circle.
“That was badass,” I mumble, and step back.
“Hell yeah, that was.” Thomas wraps an arm around my waist and I wince. “Shit, sorry, Ace. I forgot you were injured. You don’t act like it.”
“I’m good at internalizing pain,” I joke. I lean back, resting my head against his firm chest. “Is this enough for the night? I can go inside and get a few more things and my book.”
“A rift this size shouldn’t pose much of a threat.” Jacques holds up his hand and feels the barrier. “If anything wanted to get out, it would have already.”
And took on the form of my mother. I swallow hard. But she knew things only my mother would know.
“What kinds of things can get out of a rift?” I ask carefully.
“That depends on where the rift takes you to.” Hasan crosses his arms and glares at the rift. He seems more annoyed he missed a chance to beat up a demon than anything else.
“Like the spirit world?”
Hasan looks at Jacques, who knows the most about the supernatural than all of us combined.
“It’s possible. The spirit world is probably one of the easier worlds to gain access to.”
I breathe in cool night air, trying to get a grip on everything. “All this talk about other worlds and rifts is making my head spin,” I confess.
“Mine too,” Thomas says, gently laying his hand on my abdomen. “It’s hard to believe, and I’m standing here with fucking wings stuck on my back.”
I chuckle. “It’s a lot to comprehend. I kind of want it explained, but I’m kind of too tired to think.”
“You should go back to bed.” Thomas brushes my hair back. “You had a shitty day.”
“Hah. You can say that again.”
“We’ll stay here and watch it,” Jacques tells me, picking up the canister of salt and shaking it to see how much is left. There’s not much, and I break out of Thomas’s embrace to give Jac the other canister of salt I brought out with me.
I grind my jaw, looking at the ornamental designs on Jacques’s wings. I need to come clean. In the off chance that stupid spell worked and I really brought my mother over the veil, I need to figure it out.
“If it’s not gone before sunrise, we’ll wake you.”
I nod at Jacques and quickly look at the others. I know they’re waiting to see who I ask to come inside with me, and while I’m not in the mood for sex, I’m always up for company. Having four boyfriends doesn’t feel weird to me anymore, but it’s still new and I’m still figuring things out.