I had the disappearing powder in my fingers when I remembered that I couldn’t speak. A dab of spell-breaking powder first, and then my breath thundered in my ears as I sprinkled the invisibility powder on top of my head and murmured Crim’s spell with my regained voice, grateful for the familiar, melty feeling as I went invisible. The first time he’d used this powder on me, I’d been new to this world and helpless as a newborn kitten. Now I was a predator with a family to fight for, and even the puddle of blud now forming at Criminy’s feet couldn’t scare me into waiting a moment longer.
I paused only for a second to sprinkle a little spell-breaking powder over Ruby and Torno before turning to Merissa. Rage burned inside me, my vision went over red, and I snatched a knife from the tea cart and stabbed her in the neck. The blow knocked her sideways, and she staggered and tried to stand up. But I only had eyes for Criminy. The last bit of spell-breaking powder in the bag I poured directly on him, and the first thing he did was scream, a sound I’d never heard from him before. A sound that chilled my bones. My hands went to my mouth, and I realized I was no longer invisible—the powder had broken my spell, too.
In front of him now, I barely recognized my handsome husband. The tip of his nose had been cut off, along with most of one ear. She’d just started drawing a line from his forehead down through an eyebrow when I’d stopped her. I bent with trembling hands to help him get rid of the gold rope that bound his hands, and he was shaking, too—with fury.
“Get back,” he said. “All of you. She’s mine.”
I was no longer spelled, but I couldn’t move. Ruby and Torno stood in front of their sofa, hands linked, not budging. Criminy’s face was a sheen of red, his eyes on fire with rage, his teeth bared.
Merissa was unsteady on two feet as she pulled the knife out of her neck and put a hand to the ragged hole. Her Bludman’s flesh was already at work, healing with superhero speed as her fine lips pulled back over shiny fangs.
“Never was yours,” she hissed. “Never will be.”
They circled each other before the fire, somehow managing not to trip on the sleeping witch. Crim grabbed a knife off the cart, and it began to look like a fight from West Side Story, each of them going for a feint or a slice and accomplishing nothing. My eyes met my grandmother’s, and she nodded. Her mouth was turned down, a signal of disapproval. We might politely take tea with a witch, but Merissa wasn’t family, and she definitely wasn’t giving up. We were taking her out.
Ruby held up three fingers and counted down.
Three.
Two.
22
One.
When my grandmother’s last clawed finger went down, the room exploded in movement. I went for my old friend the teapot, pulling off the top and tossing the steaming-hot blood within at Merissa’s face. Ruby and Torno snatched her arms to pull her back, and Torno’s huge hands squeezed Merissa’s wrist until she dropped her scalpel. While they held her pinioned, Criminy drove his knife into her chest, aiming, I was sure, for her heart. If she even had one.
Merissa gasped, and Ruby and Torno let go as she staggered back. I snatched a tea towel from the cart and held it out to Criminy, who murmured, “Thanks, love,” and mopped away the blood pouring into his eyes from the eyebrow gash. I went up on tiptoe to see how bad it was, and that was when Merissa attacked.
The knife Criminy had put into her chest stuck fast, right in my side.
I looked down, confused. The bitch had somehow managed to slip the blade in between the steel bones of my corset. Before my nursing training could kick in, I pulled it out and dropped it. It seemed like more blood—blud?—should have gushed out, but it was such a small wound, just an inch wide, the same size as the one now pink and scabbed over on her neck.
A pain shook me, deep inside. Like cramps . . . but worse.
It was a long knife. Ah, but Merissa knew just how to hurt me and Criminy the most.
Ruby led me to the couch, pushed me down. “Stay still. Don’t move. Let it heal. You can get through this,” she said.
“It’s not me I’m worried about.” My eyes flashed from Criminy to my belly.
She nodded in understanding. “Getting up to fight won’t help anything. See? Torno’s there.”
Merissa was trapped between the two men like a feral cat, her bright green eyes hunting for another weapon, for a way out. Crim blocked her access to the knives on the tea cart, and Torno blocked the door. Finally, they made the decision for her. Torno caught her by the shoulders, and with one deft movement Criminy snapped her neck, a move I’d only ever seen in action movies. She let out a small sigh, and Torno dropped her body, looking nauseated and disgusted by such violence.