Chapter 23
I’d stared at Amelia’s text for too long feeling the curtness of it in my soul.
Amelia
pick you up in an hour
K
Something was different between us. She was different. It felt as if she’d armored herself with a persona I wasn’t particularly fond of. It made it difficult to change the subject or tell her about my newly acquired spellbook, which had dominated my thoughts until her text arrived.
In her car, I could still feel it, the space heavy with thick, uncompanionable silence after she told me that we were visiting Vina.
She gave me what I was convinced was a sanitized version of why.
There were enough holes in the story to drive a semi through, and her evasiveness to further questions made me question if I should be hurt or concerned.
She needed me for the visit, so I’d accompany her.
“I love you,” she whispered. The finality in her words and the set of her clenched jaw pricked at my protective instinct.
“That sounds like final words. You don’t feel safe around your mother, do you?”
She kept her eyes ahead, not even risking a single glance in my direction. “When you choose the pursuit of magic and the acquisition of more power, no one is ever safe around you. Because nothing else matters.” She quickly batted away a tear.
I was seconds from making her turn the car around and return to my house when she pulled into the driveway of a dilapidated farmhouse. Amelia’s eyes followed mine as we scanned the encroaching cornfields, unkempt lawn, and a barn several feet away that looked like a strong wind would collapse it.
She backed her Jetta into the space next to an unfamiliar compact SUV.
I assumed the small SUV was Vina’s, and it wasn’t a good sign that she’d parked for an easy escape.
Before I could ask any questions, Amelia exited the car.
We exchanged looks, our fear heavy in the air.
Vina asking Amelia to meet her this far from the city was a clear sign that she had malign intent.
“She likes this place,” Amelia admitted, her frown deepening as she looked over the area again.
“This is where she urged me to level up my power at the expense of one of her witches.” Amelia shook her head.
“She wanted me to practice on one of her acolytes who worshipped her like a god. She poisoned them and watched as they slowly died, offering me the opportunity to take their magic. When I wouldn’t, she did.
How did she become this person?” Amelia whispered in a tone as though she didn’t expect an answer, but she looked at me, wanting something.
“You’ll never be like her,” I assured her. The thirst for power and magic seemed to deplete one’s ethics. “You don’t think she’ll expect anything?”
The only other thing Amelia told me, apart from the abridged version of the purpose of the visit, was the impression Vina gave that she was letting me meet with her to answer any questions Vina may have had. We both knew she wanted more than just answers from me.
Amelia’s face scrunched in the way that usually accompanied a quirky comment, but she was a maelstrom of emotions.
“Why would she? I’ve been a fool this long.”
“It’s not foolish to give a person a chance to be a better person,” I said, turning to face her.
Shrugging, she said, “I’m foolish for the sheer number of opportunities I gave her.” She brushed the tears streaming down her face away as quickly as they fell. She seemed to have given up any lingering hope that her mother could be redeemed and was mourning as fully as I did years ago.
“If she dies, balance will be restored. Her magic will be released and so will the others’.”
A gasp stuck in my throat. Respecting the delicate situation, I didn’t probe about her plan to restrict Vina’s magic.
The only thing I was certain of was that there wasn’t a reversal or one that could be used on me.
“Your magic isn’t anything like ours,” Amelia admitted, “which is why Vina wants it.”
I didn’t miss her referring to her mother as Vina. Her face was a blank landscape, discarding her emotions about doing the unthinkable: killing her mother.
We started softly padding toward the house. The weathered wood porch creaked in the wind, a thinly veiled dare to approach it.
The eldritch hush was interrupted by the crackle of wind through the cornfield.
Vina appeared from our left, striding toward us, her face settled in a coy expression that didn’t match her eyes, which were glacial with the stratagem of a chess player who’d placed their opponent in a zugzwang.
“Thank you for bringing her.” Vina’s voice was soft with maternal comfort.
The reason Amelia couldn’t truly give up on her mother.
A sullen disposition replaced Amelia’s crisp determination.
With her hair pulled back into a curly ponytail, short curls framing her face, and her face absent of any makeup, dark lashes framing her large round eyes, she looked nearly ten years younger.
A teenager. I recalled all the nights we spent together, her tears at Vina’s absence, at choosing magic over her.
And the shame of what Vina did to obtain the magic.
Whereas others simply speculated that Vina may have killed the members of her coven, Amelia was confident that she had.
Amelia appeared to have discarded the hatred, contempt, and inability to understand Vina’s lust for power.
Carefully, she watched her mother. “You have to keep your promise to only question her. Nothing more,” she stated.
Some feelings of mistrust must have slipped in because she moved away from me as if preparing to use defensive magic against her mother and ensuring I wouldn’t get caught in the crossfire.
Vina split her attention between me and her daughter. “Of course,” she said.
Amelia kept a careful eye on her mother while I maintained the space between Vina and me. I saw through her saccharine smile and started to slide my hand into my pocket to palm my Taser.
Her eyes darted to me, a chill in them.
“None of that,” she scolded as her hand made quick rote movements, rooting my feet to the ground, my arms pinned to my sides.
“Release me,” I demanded through clenched teeth. The only movement I had, I assumed, to allow me to answer her questions. The importance of the shadow gods’ existence was on full display at this moment. No one should possess this level of power.
Amelia’s hand rose, her mouth moving fervently when her mother opened her hand, a blue cloud moving from it and suffusing over Amelia.
“You’re not needed.”
Amelia collapsed to the ground, asleep.
“You don’t have to worry about anyone knowing your secrets,” Vina said to me. “It’s just the two of us.”
While she closed the distance between us, I kept a careful eye on her and the set of her jaw.
Being pinned in place by her active magic made it unlikely that she could perform other magic and still keep me immobile.
But not knowing the extent of her magic left everything to speculation.
She wasn’t an ordinary witch and may not have the same restrictions.
“You’re not going to make sure she’s okay?” I asked. It was a hard collapse, and I didn’t like the sound of Amelia’s shuddering breaths.
“She’s fine. It’s a simple sleeping spell.” Annoyance slipped into her voice before her lips pressed into a hard rigid line.
“Ashinwa.” She whispered the word with accusation and suspicion. Like she believed there was more to me to discover.
She was studying me. Her hand reached out to touch me, but she clearly thought better of it. Perhaps she assumed another protective spell would take her out like it had the draveth.
“Why was there a protective spell on you?”
Seeing apprehension on her face, I smiled. “Why is my magic protected?”
Fear inched into her expression. Misdirection and lies were the only things I had.
“Liar,” she spat. Her eyes blazed with unfettered anger and frustration.
“Try to steal my magic and see,” I challenged.
“There’s nothing to fear if you can’t use it to your advantage,” she chided.
Point made. I found satisfaction in her frustration. Her brows inched together when she looked at her daughter on the ground and then returned a glare in my direction. “Why do the draveths want you dead?” she asked.
“Don’t know. Why don’t you find one and ask?”
Frustration flashed in her face, and I assumed she couldn’t find them or else they wouldn’t give her the time of day. “I’m not strong enough to use my magic against them.” It was apparent the admission bruised her ego. “And Diehle has disappeared.”
I couldn’t determine if she knew he was dead or believed he left.
“Now you can’t use a curse against me or your daughter.”
“It was never about Amelia. You nearly killed her,” she accused.
“Yeah, because I was the one who released the curse,” I shot back.
“The curse was for you!” she snapped. There was more to her anger than her daughter’s life being placed in jeopardy. I suspected that was the lowest of her priorities.
“More death attributed to your actions, but this time you have nothing to show for it,” I said.
Her averted gaze was the confirmation I needed. One or more of her poor followers had died in order for her to perform the curse. And I wondered what she’d bargained with Diehle for his involvement. Was he aware of it when I visited?
Her anger exploded. She grabbed me by the face but then yanked her hand away as if I were a hot stove.
Vina was deathly afraid of me because she didn’t know whether the protective spell was in place or not.
Her uncontained anger was making her reckless and she was relaxing her hold on the immobility spell.
But I didn’t have enough movement to get to my Taser.
“Where are the others?”
“Ashinwas?”
She nodded.
Fighting the urge to say something vulgar and unhelpful, I settled for, “I don’t know. Your resources have proven to be better than mine. I don’t have access to my magic because it’s locked.” That didn’t seem like new information to her.