Garden of Evil, page 14
Phoebe rolled her eyes at Piper as she held Paige next to them. “Okay,” she said. “Go for it.”
Holding her breath, Piper raised her hands and unfroze Micah, then clutched hands with Phoebe. Micah looked around, obviously confused that Paige was no longer in his arms, then turned on the sisters. “I’m done playing now,” he said, narrowing his eyes as he stalked toward Paige.
“Now!” Piper shouted. Then she and Phoebe recited the revelation spell together:
“Mirror of life, mirror so sure,
In your reflection all is pure.
Behind your glass let nothing hide.
Reveal the truth that lurks inside!”
Paige’s heart seemed to be jumping rope inside her chest as Micah approached her, his magical, deep blue eyes full of pure adoration. Her skin tingled as he touched her, her mind swam as he pulled her to him. She tilted her head back, and her eyes started to close. She couldn’t wait for his kiss. It seemed like forever since she’d felt it.
Then, suddenly, Micah let out a painful groan, and Paige’s eyes flew open in fear. He was in pain. She had to help him
But the moment she saw Micah, she fell back, horrified. Something was happening to him. His hands clutched at his face as his head shook so violently, it seemed as if at any second it would explode. Then, as she watched, it was as if his skin had melted away, leaving behind a face so demonic, she could barely stand to look. There were a million fangs where its mouth should be, its skin was as wrinkled as a prune past its prime, and its eyes were blacker than coal.
His blue eyes. What happened to his mesmerizing blue eyes?
Suddenly, Paige felt as if she’d been shaken out of a dream. She reached out to steady herself, and her hands hit something soft. She looked left and saw Piper holding her up, then she felt Phoebe’s arms wrap around her back to support her.
“You okay?” Phoebe asked, her voice hopeful.
“I think so,” Paige said. Her mind was a mess of mushy, muddled, confusing thoughts, and her heart was pounding like she’d just run a 10K. But one thing was clear: There was some kind of awful demon standing where Micah had just been, and it was not happy. “What is that thing?” Paige asked, grimacing.
“She’s back, ladies and gentlemen!” Piper said.
“Uh . . . spell time,” Phoebe called out, pulling a wrinkled piece of paper out of her back pocket.
The Micah thing was barreling toward Paige and her sisters. She was still confused and foggy, but she knew she didn’t want the demon to get hold of them. When Phoebe held out the spell in front of her, she recited it without giving it a second thought.
“By the Power of Three, his spells be
done,
His evil through, his mask unspun,
Take this monster away from us.
Let our words vanquish Vandalus!”
• • •
Paige clung to her sisters as Vandalus’s head suddenly snapped back and his arms flew up into the air. A blinding beam of red light blasted forth from each of his wrists into the night sky, and he screamed out in unearthly pain. The beams slowly widened until they met and shrouded him, and then in a blink, they were gone and Vandalus was gone with them.
“I need to sit,” Paige said as her knees went out from under her.
Piper and Phoebe helped her over to a bench, and as she lowered herself down, the events of the past few days came rushing back to her in a frenzy of images. Her first night in the garden, her first starved, petrified day. But the more recent moments were the hardest to recall. She looked down at her lap and the velvet dress she’d so happily donned just a little while ago. Why had she been so happy? What had possessed her to put these things on? “Omigod, you guys,” Paige said. “He was going to use the kids . . . all the kids from his orphanages and the halfway house. He said they were going to be his army.”
Piper looked at Phoebe, her skin pale. “We were right. He was probably brainwashing them all along—preparing them so he’d have followers when he was finally set free in demon form.”
“Brainwashing?” Paige repeated, looking up at her sisters.
“That’s what he was doing to you,” Phoebe explained gently. “He had you under some kind of spell.”
Slowly, Paige looked around the garden. The candles were still twinkling all around her and the flowers were as beautiful as ever. She and Micah had taken such a lovely walk here just that morning and she’d felt so . . . content. And it was all a lie. A spell. Or was it? Micah’s love for her had felt so real.
Suddenly, Leo materialized in front of her, and Cole stepped up behind Phoebe. Seeing them here in Micah’s garden seemed so very wrong. This place belonged to her and Micah. But Micah was gone. Micah was evil.
“The force field is down,” Leo said, crouching to the ground at Paige’s feet and looking up into her face. “Are you all right? Is everyone all right?” he added, looking around at Piper, Phoebe, and Cole.
“We’re fine—right, Paige?” Piper said, reaching out and running her hand down Paige’s cheek.
“I don’t know,” Paige said, her eyes suddenly welling up with tears. “I don’t know what happened or where I’ve been . . .” She looked up at her sisters sorrowfully. “Was that demon really Micah?” she asked, a single tear spilling over onto her cheek. “Did we just kill him?”
Piper and Phoebe exchanged a wary look before Phoebe answered. “We did, but there really was no Micah, sweetie,” she said. “It was just a disguise Vandalus made up for himself.”
“Oh,” Paige said, looking down at her hands. She knew that. She did. But if she knew Micah was bad, then why was she so upset? Was this all part of the spell he’d cast on her?
Was she ever going to be able to discern reality from the spell again?
Exhausted and confused, Paige bent at the waist and started to cry. She barely even felt it when Leo wrapped his arms around her and orbed her out of the garden and back into her bedroom.
“Try to get some sleep,” Leo said as she lay back on her soft pillows. “It’s going to be okay.”
Paige turned onto her side and pulled the cozy blankets up to her chin. But as relieved as she was to be in her own bed again, she couldn’t seem to make herself believe Leo’s words. Paige had lost her chance at love. She felt as if nothing was ever going to be okay again.
Chapter
15
Piper opened her eyes the following morning to find Leo wide awake and lying next to her, studying her face. He smiled when he saw her and she rolled over to face him, trying to hang on to the pleasant, groggy sensation left over from the small amount of sleep she’d had. “How long have you been watching me?” she asked, stretching her arm above her head and resting her cheek on her bicep.
“Since you fell asleep,” he replied, his blue eyes serious.
“And when was that?” Piper asked, her brow furrowing.
“About an hour ago,” he replied. “I guess everything that happened yesterday didn’t make for the greatest sleep.”
Piper turned her head and looked up at the ceiling, which was dimly lit by the early morning sun. She’d lain awake for hours the night before, going over everything that had been said and done the past few days. Of all the horrifying things that had occurred, one theme clung to her mind more fiercely than any other: Paige saying that Piper and Phoebe didn’t care about her. It had come up more than once. And not always when Paige was completely high on Micah.
“I have to see if she’s okay,” Piper said, flinging aside the blankets and swinging her legs over the side of the bed.
She pushed her feet into her slippers and padded out into the hallway, followed closely by her husband. The moment she looked down the hall, she paused. Phoebe and Cole were already hovering outside Paige’s bedroom door.
“I don’t think she’s awake yet,” Phoebe whispered as Piper and Leo approached. She tilted her ear to the door and looked at Piper, shaking her head. “Nothing.”
Piper sighed and looked at the closed door, wishing the ability to look through walls were one of her powers. Had Paige lain awake all night as well? Was she in there at this very moment, sitting on her bed, mentally cursing her sisters for having made her kill the guy she’d loved?
“Do you think she meant it?” Piper asked, glancing at Phoebe.
“That stuff about us not caring about her?” Phoebe asked, scrunching her face up. “About not letting her do anything . . . ?”
“Yeah. So you’ve been thinking about it, too, huh?” Piper asked, actually feeling a bit better that she wasn’t the only one obsessing.
“Don’t do that to yourselves,” Leo said, wrapping his arms around Piper from behind and resting his chin on her shoulder. “You know Paige loves you, and she knows you love her.”
“She was under Vandalus’s spell,” Cole put in. “It wasn’t her talking.”
Piper caught Phoebe’s eyes and read the truth there—saw her own thoughts reflected in her sister. They both knew that Paige had been feeling slighted long before she’d ever met Micah. She’d hated their ribbing about her sugar habit; she was upset over not being allowed to use the SUV; and then there was the thing at the picnic, and the newspaper fiasco. Small incidents, but they added up. Add all that to the fact that Paige had only recently entered their lives, and Piper knew that her sister had to be feeling less than sure of her place in the family.
“I have an idea,” Phoebe said suddenly.
Her face lit up with a mischievous grin, and Piper felt a little sizzle of excitement skitter through her. When Phoebe smiled like that, it usually meant she had something seriously fun up her sleeve.
“Do tell,” Piper said. She linked her arm with Phoebe’s and pulled her off down the hallway, leaving their men behind them, shaking their heads.
Paige pulled her brush through her hair absently, standing in front of the mirror but gazing past her reflection. Her body felt as if it had been knocked around by a world-class fighter, and her brain hadn’t faired much better. Although matters were much more clear this morning, she still couldn’t help feeling depressed over everything that had happened.
A few days ago, she’d been supremely happy, thinking she’d found an amazing guy. And now it had all been ripped away from her in the most horrifying way possible.
She heaved a sigh and placed her brush down on top of her dresser. As she turned toward the door, the black velvet dress she’d woken up in caught her eye. It was strewn on her wicker chair in the corner, rumpled and ruined—the last vestige of her fairy-tale life.
Paige shook her head at herself, reached out her hand, and said, “Dress.” The gown orbed into her palm, and she rolled it up in a ball and stuffed it into her garbage can. “So much for dreams coming true,” she said morosely. Then she picked up the small garbage can and hugged it to her chest as she walked out of her room and down the stairs.
When she reached the first floor, she started for the door, intending to get rid of the dress right away, but her hand froze on the doorknob.
That smell . . . could it be?
Still hugging the garbage can, Paige walked into the kitchen, hearing the clanging and clanking of pots and pans well before she arrived. Piper was serving up chocolate-chip pancakes, eggs, and muffins while Phoebe was laying out a sheaf of newspapers on the table. Neither of them had noticed Paige’s entrance.
“What’re you guys doing?” Paige asked slowly as she placed the garbage can on the floor.
Her sisters both looked up and shouted in unison, “Surprise!” Paige felt a smile tug at the corners of her mouth. No small feat considering a few minutes ago she was thinking about never smiling again. “Is this all for me?” she asked, walking over to the table and taking in the spread.
Not only were the platters that covered the table heaped with all her favorite breakfast foods, but the entertainment sections from four newspapers were lying next to her plate. Phoebe leaned in to the back of one of the chairs, watching Paige’s reaction.
“You guys didn’t have to do this,” Paige said, her face nevertheless growing pink with pleasure.
“We know,” Piper said, walking up next to Phoebe. “But we wanted to apologize for being so scatterbrained lately.”
“The thing is, we’re always scatterbrained,” Phoebe said with a chuckle. “You have to try not to take it personally, because if we forget stuff, it doesn’t mean we don’t care about you.”
“But we are going to try not to forget so much,” Piper put in.
“And we are going to give you this,” Phoebe added. She walked over to the counter next to the sink and picked up a little red box, which she brought over to Paige, handing it to her ceremoniously.
“What is it?” Paige asked, eyeing her sisters.
“You won’t know unless you open it,” Piper said, crossing her arms over the front of her navy blue sweater.
Paige lifted the top off the box, expecting from its size to find some kind of jewelry. But what she saw inside made her heart skip a beat. She put one finger inside the box and lifted out the prettiest ring she’d ever seen.
A key ring. With actual keys on it.
“Are these what I think they are?” Paige asked, her eyebrows shooting up.
“Keys to the SUV,” Piper said with a nod. “Just . . . be careful.”
“Piper!” Phoebe protested.
“Sorry!” Piper said with a laugh. “We should have given them to you a long time ago,” she told Paige.
“Thanks, you guys,” Paige said, touched.
Piper wrapped her arms around her, and Paige hugged her back, squeezing her eyes shut. Then Phoebe joined in, circling her arms around both of them.
“We’re just glad to have you back,” Phoebe said.
“I’m glad to be back,” Paige said sincerely.
When she finally pulled away, Paige took a step back and leaned against the island in the center of the kitchen. She looked down at the key ring, twisting it around and around her finger. “I want you guys to know that I’m sorry,” Paige said slowly, keeping her eyes downcast. “I’m sorry I got myself captured and I’m sorry I was such an idiot last night.”
“It’s okay,” Piper said, reaching out to rub Paige’s arm comfortingly. “We know you weren’t yourself.”
“Yeah, but I have no excuse for not listening to you earlier in the week,” Paige said, finally managing to pull her eyes away from the keys to look at her sisters. She felt so dumb, so naive, so chagrined. How could they ever respect her after how irrational she’d been?
“But I want you guys to know this whole thing has taught me a few good lessons,” she said seriously. She took a deep breath. “First, I’m always going to listen to your warnings. I’m not saying I’m always going to follow them, because I have my own mind, but I’ll definitely consider them for a tad longer than zero seconds.”
Phoebe and Piper both laughed, and Paige couldn’t help smiling as well.
“Number two, I am not going to rush headfirst into a relationship just because I want one,” Paige continued, a lump forming in her throat as she thought of the pre-demon Micah. “Just call me Caution Girl from now on.”
“I thought you were Caution Girl,” Phoebe said to Piper with mock seriousness.
“She can borrow the moniker for a while,” Piper shot back.
Paige pushed herself away from the counter and pulled out her chair, ready to get down to the culinary task at hand.
“What’s number three?” Phoebe asked as she dropped into the chair to Paige’s left.
“Huh?” Paige asked.
“Number three? You said a few good lessons, and a few is more than two, so what’s number three?” Phoebe prompted.
“Oh,” Paige said, turning beet red as she lowered herself into her chair. “Number three is I definitely don’t want a demon boyfriend—no offense, Phoebe.”
Phoebe just looked at her for a second, and Paige was certain her sister was going to throw a fit, but then Phoebe burst out laughing. “None taken,” Phoebe said, grabbing a muffin out of the basket in the center of the table.
“Let’s eat!” Piper called out as she brought the orange juice pitcher over and sat down as well.
Paige smiled happily as she served herself a stack of pancakes and her sisters started to chat about the upcoming performers at P3. She knew she wasn’t going to be ready to date again for a long, long time. But eventually, Paige knew she was going to find her true love.
And in the meantime, she had the love of two Charmed sisters.
About the Author
Emma Harrison is an editor-turned-writer who has worked on many series, including Sweet Valley High Senior Year, Roswell High, and Fearless. She never misses an episode of Charmed.
Emma Harrison, Garden of Evil
