The Four Horsemen(35)
She shakes her head. He grabs for it but she pulls the trigger. I wince as the nearly-silent arrow lodges in my stomach. My wings rip out of my shirt. She drops the bow, “Oh shit.” She looks at me, “Oh snap, sorry.”
I look down at the arrow. Wyatt grabs me, kisses me, and pulls the arrow at the exact same time. I almost suck from him, but he does the wind tunnel thing. I’m getting hungry. He gives me a look, “We need to get you to some bad people.” I look at his little brat sister and nod.
She shakes her head, ”There is no way. You’re actually good?”
I sigh, “Who was the witch who cast the soul separation spell on me and Wyatt when we were young?”
Her eyes bug out. Wyatt shakes his head, not looking at her guilty face. “She wouldn’t know that. Mom wouldn’t have told her.”
She swallows. I fold my arms, “Spill or I eat you.”
She jumps, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
I glance behind her, seeing something that just can’t be. I narrow my gaze, shaking my head. But it is. Fitz comes towards me, “Rayne, she knows. Ask her again and tell her that her dearly-departed uncle also knows who ratted him out for being with the witch.”
I glare at the evil face of the ten-year old, “Your Uncle Fitz is standing behind you. He says he knows it was you who sold him down the river for being with Willow, and he says you know who the witch was.”
She takes a quick look behind her. She doesn’t see him, but I do. He reaches for her, making her shudder as his hands reach her. She looks at me, “The name of the which was Glory. She was an earth witch.”
I look at Fitz, “I can’t talk about it. Part of the spell was that it couldn’t be talked about. Gretel must have found a away around it and told her.”
I scowl, “Constantine talked about it.” I get a crazy look from Wyatt and Maggie. The same crazy look with their similar dark hair and blue eyes.
Fitz nods, “He’s a soulless devil. Of course he could talk about it. It was never him they were worried about.”
“They thought you might spill the beans?”
He nods.
Wyatt looks around, “You can see Fitz, now?”
I point, “He’s there.” I look at Wyatt, “The beautiful earth witch who was friends with Willow, Glory. The redhead who loved you…”
He nods.
“She is the one who cast the spell.”
His jaw sets, “Nasty bitch. Guess we’re going for a boat ride.”
We walk down the stairs in the secret passage and to the far side of the room. The weapon walls are empty. “What happened here?”
He looks, “They must have been fighting things, and gone to war against the darkness of the world.”
We get into the elevator. He rolls his eyes when he sees my face, “It takes nothing to impress you, you realize that, right? I could show you a sparkler and you’d moan in delight.”
I stick my tongue out at him.
He leans forward and kisses me, “I love that about you.”
I wrap my arms around him, “Is it wrong that I want to go upstairs and let the dead take me and have a long sleep with you wrapped around me?”
He shakes his head against mine, “No. I feel the same. I’m beat. This is insane. I can’t believe we are gong in circles. Glory should have told us when she saw us together.”
I sigh, “I know. All their shocked faces and weird behavior is making sense now though.”
He looks at me, “I know, right? Everyone. I can’t believe my own family lied.”
I feel the hurt look on my face, “Try the guy you thought loved you and you loved back.”
He sneers, “Well, I’m not sorry that happened. I like you having reasons not to love Basarab.”
“My heart broke still, it hurt.”
He gets into the boat and helps me in. I look at him, “Can you drive slowly?”
He shakes his head. I wince, “Fine, but please try. I don’t want to barf again. I’m clean for the first time in weeks.”
He laughs as he backs the boat up.
When we get part way across the bay, the mist comes again. Such a creepy place. He docks the boat, and I stare up at the house of the witches. It’s still dark and creepy. I crawl from the boat to the dock and lay there for a minute.
He lifts me up but I shake my head, pushing him away. “No.” I heave and gag over the edge of the dock. I feel worse than last time I think. “I hate boats. Why didn’t he horsemen destroy boats?”
“Come on, marshmallow.” He wraps an arm around me as I dry heave again and stagger up to the door. He knocks hard. Glory answers after a second. She gives me a look, “You’re still with us?”
It finally hits. I bend over and throw up into a potted plant next to the front door. She jumps back as Wyatt rubs my back. “It’s okay, baby. Get it out.”
I stand up and lean against the doorframe, “Fuck you, Glory.”
Willow is there behind her, “Rayne Willow Whynde Phillips, you watch your mouth, missy!”
I jump when I see Willow. She is next to Glory. I point, “Willow, it was Glory. She put the curse on me and Wyatt. She is the witch who separated our souls.”
I hear gasps from inside of the house. Glory’s face is beat red. She steps back, “How? They could never speak of it, that was the curse. How do you know?”
Willow’s ghost is gone instantly. I look at Glory but Wyatt steps into her face, “Break it now.”
She shakes her head, “I cannot.”
Willow is back again, “Glory, you break that curse. You now that was wrong. You interfered with human karma. How could you?”
Her red face gets brighter, “I didn’t know who they were at the time. She was a sick girl and he was a boy. How could I know who he was?”
I look at Wyatt. He scowls, “Who am I?”
She gulps, “I can try to break it. Don’t make me tell you anything else.”
Wyatt nods, “Fine.”
I scowl, “No. Who is he?”
Glory gives Wyatt a pleading look. I look past her at Willow. She shakes her head, “Trust me, Nene. You need to learn everything when it’s the right time. You can’t rush these things.”
I give her a look, “Rush what? You witches have been messing with us since day one. Giving us tiny tidbits of info. I’m done. I want the story.”
Glory lowers her head, “I can try to break the curse, that’s all.”
Wyatt grabs my hand, “She’s hangry, she gets like this. Just break the curse.”
I look at him, “Did you just call me hangry?”
He smiles, “Yeah, anger caused by hunger. You get it a lot. Impatient, mean, and bossy. Then you eat and you’re all lovey and sweet again.”
Glory gives me a sarcastic smile. I cock an eyebrow and sigh. Glory takes my hand and Wyatt’s and pulls us into the house. We walk down the hallway that we walked down last time. She opens a door I never went into before. We go down a flight of stairs, and as we get lower and lower, I start to shake. There is something in the basement that is making me shiver and vibrate. When we get to the bottom, she pulls us down a shimmering tunnel. It’s carved of rock and has torches every now and then, lighting the way.
She pulls us to a huge room, I can see the torch light from the hallway sparkling in the room. The vibration in my jaw is making my teeth rattle.
The witches form a circle around us. Glory is in the middle with us. She takes our hands and places something cold in them. I can’t see in the faint light, but it feels like glass or crystal. Like the kind of crystals Willow always had.
She holds our hands and starts to chant. Lights fill the room around us as the crystals start to glow bright red. The dark shapes of the witches around us chant louder the crystals’ light changes to pink, blue, and green. It’s like watching fireworks almost. The rock in my hand starts to heat up. I wince as it burns me. I feel something pulling in my arm, like someone is taking out one of my veins. I cry out but it is lost in the chanting and swaying of the witches. Wyatt makes a face; I can barely see it in the light show. I know something inside of my heart snaps. I scream as I feel a burning I have never felt before. I look down and hot, molten silver pours from my chest. It trails down my stomach, burning its path. It makes a puddle on the ground below. I am screaming and my knees are almost buckling. Tears have blinded me and made a kaleidoscope in my eyes with the colors.
I don’t know how long it takes, or if I even stay awake for it all. I know when it stops, it’s sudden. It’s a sudden, jolting stop. One minute my heart and soul are on fire and then the next I am fine. I am standing there with a pile of dust in my burnt hand. Glory takes it and blows the dust away. She does the same to Wyatt. She clasps our hands together and looks at me, “Forgive me.” She drops into an instant puddle of daisies. I start to cry.
Not just because another witch has died but that there is so much. My heart is bursting, and I can’t hear the cries or moans or feelings of my sisters. I look at Wyatt and he is all I see. He is bigger than any emotion or description.
He is everything.
He smiles at me. “I remember you.”
Fallen
His hand intertwines with mine as we walk through the garden gate. The earth witches look stunned.