These Lying Eyes (31 page)

Without the security of one of the sprites to bring him to the ground safely.

Even as she fell, even with her terror pounding in her ears, she heard his shout of terror, and her own cry echoed his.

“Max,” she screamed, “Max!”

* * *

Hitch dropped Mina, without a word, and disappeared to the river.

“Max,” Hitch shouted, his deep buzz a hoard of angry bees.

“Max,” Mina repeated, “Max!”

She wrapped her arms around her waist, calling his name again, and rushing forward, into the water, hoping for some sight of him.

“Max.” Hitch said, darting back and forth across the angry rapids. Mina threw him fire, lighting the river, but there was no sign of him.

“I have got him.” Poppy huffed, dragging Max from further up the river, through the current, and to the shoreline. Her dark arms were wrapped around his wrist; her wings beat furiously, and Mina fell to her knees at the sight of them.

Moments later, Poppy pulled him, and Mina scrambled through the water, still on her hands and knees to him. She dragged him up on to her lap, wrapped her arms around him, and whispered his name.

“I got him before he hit the water, slowed him up, but he was going to fast to stop a dunking.” Mina looked up and saw Poppy was sopping wet. “We went into the water, but the river is deep, so we were all right.”

“Poppy,” Mina said, and found she didn’t have the word.
Thank you for saving him
just wasn’t enough.

“Max,” Mina said again, softly. “Max.” She rubbed her face against his chest like a kitten. “You’re alive.”

He coughed, but even around his hacking breaths, he tried to smile at her. She pushed his hair back, and helped him to sit up.

“I’m all right,” he said. “

“Mina, Max?” Hailey asked from the shadows.

Mina followed her voice and saw Charlie curled onto his side shaking. The moon was bright and full and showed deep scratches on his chest and ragged bites on his side, his leg, his arm.

“We’re alive,” Charlie said, dazed. But he was bleeding pretty profusely.

“Barely.” Hailey said as she pressed her hands against the deepest of the bites, on his thigh.

Mina stood, looked around. The light bobbed at the edge of trees so tall, they’d have dwarfed the ancient ones that grew in the National Forest. The sky was clear here, and the moon lit the water enough to show it was dark and wild.

Mina knelt next to Charlie, pulled the flame onto her arms, and fed it into Charlie, drying him. He curled into the heat.

Hailey touched his face. “It’s bad.”

Mina touched Charlie’s face.

“What are we going to do?” Hailey whispered.

They were at the bottom of a cliff. Their phones didn’t work, and they could barely use magic. Oh, and no one knew they were there except, maybe, whoever laid the spell that drew Sarah here. Zizi landed in the dirt next to Charlie and carefully pushed his hair back, feeling his forehead, and whispering to him. He quieted.

Mina’s gaze slid back and forth between Charlie and the flame.

“I can help.” Zizi said as Poppy and Hitch returned. “I can tell Hailey what to do. I have learned a few things. Enough to help. You two will find Sarah with Poppy and Hitch.”

Mina wrapped her arms around her cousin and whispered, “Hailey, I…”

“Go, Mina.” Hailey nearly growled. “You get Sarah, take down whoever did this to us, and get back here.”

Mina stared at Hailey, finally saying, “I love you.”

“Don’t say that.” Hailey whispered. “Tell me when you get back and you’re a hero. Not now.”

With a sad smile, Mina nodded. She paused long enough to dry everyone’s clothes and start a fire for Hailey.

“When I get back.” Mina promised, pulling off her coat and giving it to Charlie.

She pulled off her t-shirt, leaving behind only a camisole. With Max’s pocket knife, she made strips binding all the places Charlie, she, and Max were bleeding.

* * *

The moon rays reached out to Mina. There was a reason, she told herself, a reason that she’d found out what she was before Sarah was stolen. There was a reason Sarah’s name echoed in Mina’s head.

There was hope.

But, her arm and leg burned. They were already limping, already injured. And they hadn’t even found Sarah yet. Mina followed the water’s edge and the ball of light. Max limped behind her. She knew that Hitch and Poppy rode on his shoulder.

Poppy left the boys, landing on Mina’s shoulder. Mina tromped on, silently. And Poppy let Mina have the quiet, giving her the comfort of a small hand pressing into her neck and asking nothing else.

It couldn’t have been more than a mile, and Mina saw light flickering ahead.

“Poppy,” Mina asked, and the sprite flew ahead.

They waited a mere minute or two before she said from the trail in front of them, “Sarah’s there Mina.”

“Is she ok?”

“Yes, but she’z tied up.”

Mina nodded. She swallowed. And then she stopped, leaned against a tree, and closed her eyes. Max and Hitch stood nearby. Just not being alone was a miracle. What would she do without them?

“Is she alone?” Mina asked.

“There’z someone. I couldn’t see who.” Poppy landed on Mina’s shoulder. Her tone told Mina there was more. And it was bad.

Mina nodded without opening her eyes. She wished, for a moment, that this was a dream. That this was all fake.

She rubbed her eyes and whispered, “Tell us the rest.”

“She’z got spritez in cagez, a Small One, a bunch of animalz.” Mina heard the fury in Poppy’s tone. “They look really bad.”

Mina bit her lip.

“I think they’ve been tortured.”

Hitch cursed, and Max echoed him. Mina just nodded. It was, after all, what she’d expected. But hearing it sent a new kind of fury burning through her. It fueled her magic as if the previous anger had been mere wisps of the wind.

Whoever was behind this spell was torturing people. People like her sprite family. Like Jocelyn.

And they thought they were going to do that to Sarah?

No.

The memory of Sarah. Her laugh. Her manipulating ways. Her precise, careful voice. Mina grabbed hold of those things, and when she pushed away from the tree, she no longer noticed the chill in the air, the pain in her shoulders and leg.

There was nothing but Sarah.

Max grabbed her hand, stopping her.

“We need a plan,” he said.

“Kill everyone.” Hitch answered.

“A real plan.” Max said, squeezing her hand, making Mina face him.

She waited.

“You and Poppy free the others. Mina you get Sarah. I’ll distract the witch.”

Mina shook her head.

“Yes.” Max said.

But she shook her head again, “That won’t work.”

“What,” he growled.

She was going to say that she had to be the one who confronted the witch. That it had been her who’d heard the voice, that it was
her
sister. But none of that mattered.

“I can’t carry Sarah, Max. I know she’s hurt. I can feel it. Her leg is broken, and she can’t run. You have to get her.”

“No.” Max said.

“It’s the only way.” Mina looked at him. She lifted her hand, pressed it against his face knowing she’d never have had the courage to without her impending death. His face was warm, and the heat of it warmed her to her soul.

“I don’t know why you chose me the first day of school Max. I’m sorry that I got you into this, but I need you. I couldn’t have done any of it without you.”

“No.” Max said. “We’re not saying goodbye. We were going to learn magic together. We were going to visit other Havens. I was…I was going to kiss you.”

With those words, Mina stretched up on her toes and pressed her lips against his. The moonlight twined around them. He pressed against her. His lips were soft. His breath set her alight. She shivered; her fire flared within her, higher and higher.

But then, she felt him pass her his magic through their pressed lips. His magic was a rush of earthy energy, steady and calm while hers roared. And, he fed it to her until she was brimming.

The wave of his magic stopped, but they stayed pressed together, neither wanting the moment to end.

Sarah.
She heard again, and she pulled back, smiling softly at him, and kissed him again on the forehead, each cheek, and a final quick kiss to his lips.

“Thank you,” she whispered. She turned from him and limped towards her doom.

Max grabbed Mina’s hand, leaned closed, and whispered, “Don’t die.”

And then he followed the sprites into the shadows.

She waited until he was gone.

Then she knocked.

Chapter 29

The windows shone a merry light, and the roof was cute wood shingles. There was a bench on the porch, and a hammock in the trees, and it all felt evil.

The door creaked open and a beautiful woman with long black hair stood in the doorway. Her eyes were piercing, intense and brilliantly blue. Mina wasn’t used to seeing her hair down.

“Doctor Seal?” Mina gasped, and the witch narrowed her eyes. “Are you kidding me?”

“So it was you? I told them it was you.” The doctor scowled at Mina, blocking the view of the interior of the cabin.

Mina heard a muffled cry from her sister. A haze of fury blinded Mina. She balled her fist and decked the witch with every ounce of rage rushing through her. As her fist swung, Mina smiled. Sure, she was no match for the woman as a witch.

But she was fourteen, strong, and, maybe, capable of giving the Doc a beating until Max got her sister to safety.

She was, after all, so very, very angry.

Her fist landed, pain rushed through Mina’s fingers, and she grinned as the doctor fell back into the house.

Mina didn’t wait. She kicked the witch in the stomach. Doctor Seal groaned, rolling onto her hands and knees. Mina kicked her again.

Again.

The witch grunted. She gagged. Her hair swung around her face, and her blue eyes promised pain.

Mina grabbed the long black hair and slammed the witch’s face into the ground. And then, Doctor Seal grabbed Mina’s already bloody calf, digging fingernails in.

Mina screamed. The witch yanked. Mina fell.

Her body crashed onto the wood floor, and air rushed from her lungs. As she looked up, dazed, a sprite flew past carrying another in his arms.

Those two, bloody, sprites imprinted on Mina’s memory, and she kicked out.

And missed.

A cat landed on her stomach before streaking through the open door. It had a bloody, oozing nub where its tail had been.

Doctor Seal, blood dripping from her nose and lip, crawled towards Mina.

Mina kicked. Missed again. She turned, sat up, and the doctor slapped her full across the face.

“I knew it was you. I said it was you stopping her.”

Mina tasted blood in her mouth, and Doctor Seal grabbed Mina by the mop of her hair.

But, Mina’s hair didn’t matter; her calf didn’t matter; her bruises didn’t matter. All that mattered was that this stupid cow plotted against her sister. Mina didn’t even register the scream in her scalp. The witch balled her fist and hit Mina again and again in the stomach.

Mina tightened her abs. Her hand flopped out, fingers spread, trying to find something. Anything.

She came up empty. A bird flew past Mina’s face.

She flinched, clawed her fingers and went for the other woman. A second bird flew by, but this one dove at the witch’s eyes. It pecked, and blood spewed. And the doctor wailed, letting Mina go to clutch at the blood spewing from the gouge.

Mina scrambled back into a chair. Using it, she pulled herself to her feet, found a fooc, and swung the book at the witch’s face.

The witch flew back with the force of the blow, into the wall, and slid back to the ground.

Doctor Seal opened her eyes through the blood, pushed back her hair, and said softly, “Naughty, naughty.”

She chuckled, and the noise made the hair on Mina’s arms rise. Fear crawled up Mina’s spine as the doctor began to laugh.

Mina threw the book. It banged into the witch’s face, against her wound, but she brushed it off. She rose, snarling, “Do you think you can come in here and ruin all our plans?”

Mina grabbed a glass ball and threw it at the witch. Doctor Seal batted it to the side, and it fell, breaking. A gray smoke clouded the room.

“Do you think you have a chance?” The words were a weapon as they’d never been a help. They were an attempt at distraction.

It didn’t matter. Mina didn’t expect to win. She had only wanted to stall.

The witch lifted her hands over her head, and a wind wailed through the cabin.

It passed Mina, swirled around her, lifted her, and slammed her against the wall.

Mina’s head slammed; black edged at her vision, and she struggled but couldn’t move. The wind pushed her along the wall, released her, and knocked her back again. This time Mina hit the brick fireplace.

The room became a blur of shapes.

The doctor pummeled Mina with the wind. She felt her ribs crack. She tried to cry out, but she couldn’t breathe.

Hopefully she’d given Max enough time.

Mina cracked her eyes, searched the corner for Sarah. She was gone, so Mina let her eyes drift shut.

Sarah was gone.

Max would take care of her. The sprites would protect them both. That was all that mattered.

Mina was done now.

“No!” Poppy yelled.

The witch struck out again. The wind sending objects flying at Mina. One hit her stomach, and she lost what little air she had left. Something heavy and sharp hit Mina’s arm. And with a loud crack, it snapped. Mina didn’t have the breath to scream like she needed to.

Mina cracked her eyes to see the end. To face it. She barely registered what she was seeing. Poppy swinging a broom at the doctor’s head.

The wind stopped; Mina slid to her knees next to the cage of a tiny black puppy. The witch’s howl filled the room. The puppy cowered at the back of the cage. Mina fumbled at the latch, arm useless, body numb.