If the Broom Fits (18 page)

She gave me a sad smile. “Come talk with me.”

She went out the red door and Selene nodded encouragingly for me to follow. I trailed behind her to the kitchen where she sat at the table, waiting for me. I sat down beside her and a shot glass appeared in front of me. I looked at it, not touching it.

Olivia laughed, sending ripples across my skin and making me shiver. Not that it wasn't a beautiful sound, but sitting this close to the living embodiment of death was freaky. “This isn't the sort of conversation to have over coffee. I thought tequila was called for.”

I touched my fingers to the shot glass. I didn't drink, not normally. Control was way too important to give it up to a substance. “What do you want to talk about?”

“Anything you do,” she said easily.

“Will you be there when I die?”

She studied me. “I don't know that your death is written in stone, but when it happens, I will be there, yes. You won't be alone.”

I nodded, clenching my teeth together and fighting against the emotions that wanted to come forward. “They won't understand.” I glanced back toward the room.

Olivia nodded. “The people left behind seldom do.”

I took a deep breath and flattened my hands against the table. “Can you find Ornias?”

“Is that what you want me to do?” she asked.

I looked without seeing. My heart beat faster. “That's what I want,” I whispered, not at all sure it was true.

T
his was impossible
. Without the Book of Shadows we were never going to find the answer. Winter could have written the spell herself. She could have taken one of about fifty spells and changed it in about a billion different ways. Short of finding the book, our only other choice would be for Frost to resurrect her and literally ask what she did.

I slammed another useless book shut.

“I give up,” Angel said, echoing my thoughts.

“There's an answer,” Terrick said, running his fingers through his hair, which stayed stuck up in parts. “Every puzzle has an answer.”

“The book has to be here,” Leslie said. “Are you sure we have checked everywhere?”

“Well, if it has to be here and we don't have it, then obviously we haven't checked everywhere,” I said and Leslie made a face at me.

“I can help,” a new voice said from the doorway.

I turned around. A woman with long fiery red hair stood in the doorway, holding a deep purple cloth bag with a pentagram on the front.

“Who the hell are you supposed to be?” I asked at the same time Terrick and Angel broke into smiles.

“Alexis! You came,” Angel said. “I knew you would.”

“I still don't like her,” her chin went up, “but I love you guys and if you're going to help her, then I guess I have to.”

I glanced at Leslie.

She leaned over. “Frost was a little Frost-like when she met them.”

“Ah.” I nodded. “What's in the bag?”

Alexis turned her reddish-brown eyes to me. “And who are you?”

I stood up. “Jessica. Frost is in our coven. You've met Leslie. That's Katrina, and that's Selene,” I said, pointing out the others.

“And how did you get here in a snow storm?”

“Elves are a great way to travel if you don't mind puking on route,” I said. “But we have a pissed off fallen angel looking for us and zero time to prepare, so why don't you stop wasting time? Do you actually have something that will help or do you just want to be the center of attention?”

“What's the deal with this coven?” She turned back to her friends. “Are they all rude?”

Angel laughed, but Terrick shook his head. “No, she's right. What did you bring?”

With a sigh, Alexis reached into the bag and pulled out a Book of Shadows. “This is Winter Darkmore's Book of Shadows. After my mother died, Aunt Rosemary kept it.”

“I'm sorry you lost your mother,” Leslie said. “How did she die?”

Alexis pursed her lips. “I thought we were in a rush.” She held out the book.

I took it while Leslie continued to talk to Alexis. “Thanks.” Sitting crossed legged on the floor, I opened it to page one. This wasn't my first dark Book of Shadows, so I was prepared for the allure of it, but it didn't hit me. It actually felt like any other spell book.

Terrick plopped down next to me. “So how do we find what we're looking for?”

I looked at him. “Are you a dark witch?”

If he thought the question was strange, he didn't show it. He shrugged. “I don't know that any of us consider ourselves dark or light. We never had any reason to define ourselves like that. Why?”

“Because Winter was.”

He nodded. “Everyone knows that. I mean her daughter is a necromancer.”

I looked back at the book. “Right. But the book isn't dark magic.”

“She only went dark at the end. The Kilkenny coven has never been a dark coven.”

Then it was possible she had two books. “Was she dark or light when she opened the door?”

He shrugged.

“Hey, Les,” I interrupted her as she was catching Alexis up on what had happened. “Did Winter open the door, light or dark?”

“It's my understanding she was light.”

I went back to the book. “Okay, you said you guys have been around for generations, right?”

Terrick nodded. “But the size of our coven varies with each generation. Winter's era was the last time they were at full strength.”

“But Frost's family has been around a while.” He nodded. “So it's reasonable to assume that the beginning of the book wasn't written by her. It was probably Frost's other relatives, so we'll skip forward.”

“Why?” Terrick asked. “It could have been an old spell.”

I ran my hand over the soft handmade paper. “It's a feeling I have. This spell would be personal to her. Orion was her first magical experiment, which says to me she was reaching out beyond the book for the first time and you always remember that moment. That's probably why she wanted to help him. I have to assume she would've wanted the first spell she added to the book to be the one that set him free.”

Terrick raised an eyebrow. “Let's find out.” He leafed through the book, stopping at each new form of handwriting until he didn't find anymore. “This is it.” He flipped the section back to the beginning.

I was wrong. It was titled Orion, but a quick glance showed it wasn't anything more than basically calling his spirit into a mirror to answer questions. I flipped the page. Bingo.

“Orion's Door.” Terrick drummed his hands on the page. “You are a genius.”

“I know,” I said, but I was smiling because holy hell we'd done it. “You're not so bad yourself.”

“How do we know this is the right spell though?”

I looked at it. It was clear what she intended the spell to be, but somewhere in casting it, things went wrong. “We figure out if the spell was bad or if she did something wrong in the set up,” I said.

The spell was far from simple. It was more math than magic.

“Did you find something?” Angel asked.

“Just the spell, yeah buddy.” He fist bumped her. “Can you grab the astrological charts from the wall?” Terrick leaned back and snatched the physics and mathematics books from the low shelf closest to us. “This is my kind of magic,” he said.

I laughed. “Better you than me then. You got this?”

He nodded, waving me away.

I stood up, stretching out the kinks in my legs and arms. As soon as Alexis was settled into sorting each item in the room and accessing it for magical value (the new task Selene assigned her group when Frost left with Olivia), I caught my coven's attention. One by one, each of them came over.

“I'm worried about Frost,” I whispered when we were all together.

“Me too,” Leslie said immediately. “I can't get a read on her at all.”

“Ever since she walked through the door, she has looked resigned. I've seen that look before,” I said.

“Where?” Selene asked.

“On you,” Katrina said, her face as worried as I felt. “She's going to sacrifice herself.”

I nodded and Leslie looked more hurt than surprised.

“Why?” Selene asked. “There are other options. We have Olivia. I know, I know, I'm one to talk, but I had my reasons. I had to fix all the things that went wrong because of
me
. It totally snowballed and there was nothing I could do about it. Frost isn't the cause of this.”

Leslie shook her head. “I doubt she feels like that. You guys haven't been here. The family stuff hits her deep. When she talks about it, I can feel how her wounds never healed. She may not have caused it, but her mother did and she might be doing this for her. Orion might've even brought her here for this reason. Everything has kind of led to this point.”

“Who is this Orion person? I'm still confused as to how he is involved in everything,” Katrina said.

“He was her spirit guide in the meditation and he left her the presents. He's also sort of hot and totally into Frost—or would be if she'd stop pushing him away. But none of that is important right now. The important part is, if he is pushing her to make amends for what her mother did, I don't think she would fight it.”

Selene's chin went to a stubborn angle. “Okay, so if we know her plan, then all we need to do is come up with our own plan to counter hers.”

“Should we tell the others?” Katrina asked. “I mean they are here and they are working on all of this too.”

We all nodded. “I'll check on Frost and Olivia. You guys fill them in,” I said.

I stepped out of the room and walked quietly toward the kitchen, listening for voices. I didn't hear anything at all. When I poked my head into the kitchen, two sets of eyes were waiting for me.

“Hey, Jessica. How have you been?” Olivia asked, raising her eyebrow in a way that reminded me of her significant other, Holden.

“Hey.” I waved. “Just came out for a drink. Pretend like I'm not here.”

Neither of them spoke while I was in earshot—and probably wouldn't, so I devised a new strategy. From everything Leslie had said about Orion, he was the creator of this ridiculous winter storm. . . . I went out on the porch with my bottle of water.

“Hey, Orion,” I said into the night, not knowing if that was how to call him or not, but I didn't really have magical choices these days.

The wind kicked up. “How can I be of service?” a man's voice came from the darkness.

“You can stop filling my friend's head with ideas about sacrificing herself for starters. Don't you think she has been through enough? When will you people leave her alone? She isn't a toy for you to play with.”

He stepped into view. “I have as much control over what Frost does or does not do as you do. I simply present her with information.”

“That's bullshit. You spoon fed her and then manipulated her emotions until you were sure she'd make the choice you wanted her to make. Aren't you supposed to be on her side? What do you get out of this?” I crossed my arms, glaring at him.

A stronger gale went right through me and then he was gone.

Of all the girls, Frost was the last one I expected to do something foolish over a man. I went back into the house. Frost and Olivia were still quietly talking, so I ducked back through the red door where all the witches were finally working together instead of bickering.

“Good, you're here. Are they still busy?” Selene asked.

I nodded. “Yeah. I can't hear what they're saying, but they're talking in the kitchen. Do you have a plan yet?”

“Maybe,” Leslie said, looking doubtful.

“We have one,” Alexis said.

My coven didn't look overly excited about whatever it was.

“So if Frost is planning to use herself as bait,” Aisha said. “I think we need to go along with it because that makes the most sense. The angel wants her, not any of the rest of us. So anyway, once he has her and starts to strangle her, Terrick will cause an explosion that will startle him and Selene,” she gave a questioning look as she said the name and Selene nodded, “will push him through the door with her telekinetic ability. Then the rest of us will seal the door.”

“How?” I asked. “We found the spell to open it, but is there anything on closing it other than Frost's blood?”

“No, but we'll have her blood because she will still be there,” Angel said.

“Unless an explosion isn't enough to startle an angel,” Katrina said. “There's not really a lot of room for error. Like Selene can't wait to see if he's startled. She'll have to assume it and act, or she'll miss the opportunity to knock him through. But if he isn't…”

“Both of them will go through,” Selene said, tugging on the ends of her hair.

“Does anyone have a better idea?” Dom asked, stretching his legs out straight in front of him. “Olivia is the angel of death. Why can't she just do her thing?” I asked. “I get it that Frost wants to do this herself, but we don't have to go along with that. Olivia can just transport him back to hell officially, and then he won't be able to return.”

“Actually we do,” Leslie said. “This is just one more bad guy for us, but that's not what he is to Frost. He represents much more. We can't take this away from her. I don't want her to die, but I do think she needs this. Her life has sort of been in limbo. This could change everything for her.”

“But she has to live for that to happen.” I threw up my arms. I was really tired of people dying.

“I'm sure she doesn't want to die. She thinks it's the only way. She also thinks no one will want to risk themselves to save her—so let her fight the angel and we can fight for her.”

I rubbed a hand over my face and searched my mind for anything that would be sure to distract a fallen angel, but it wasn't like we could wave something shiny in the air and he'd lose his shit. This was a being I couldn't even fully wrap my mind around. “For the record, I hate this plan.”

Even the other coven didn't look super excited about it, but any plan was better than no plan.

“How are you guys at casting without a circle? Silent casting? And ad libbing when everything goes wrong?” Selene asked. “Because I can tell you right now, it's going to. I've never been in a fight where anything goes as planned.”

“I can cast without a circle or speaking,” Alexis said. Terrick and Aisha nodded.

“I can only shapeshift like that and Angel can't do it either,” Dom said.

“Okay.” I leaned over the notebook in the center of the circle and Katrina tossed me a pen. I drew a picture of the room with my extremely questionable drawing skills. “Then you guys will be in the back with me. We'll make a protective circle that we cannot break no matter what happens out there.” I drew a circle against the wall opposite of the door and looked at them until they nodded.

“Frost will be in front with the angel,” Leslie said and I made an “X” for Frost and an “A” for the angel by the door.

We all stared at the paper as if it could show us our future, but it couldn't. Devin could have though. For about the millionth time since I killed her, I wished she was here. “Divination,” I said to myself then looked up at Aisha. “You can do that, right? That's what you said. Have you had any feelings or visions about this?”