Winter's Spell, page 27
Something prickled at the ends of her fingers, like an itch she’d forgotten to scratch. Of course. That’s what Mo was trying to tell her: Use your powers.
But how?
The wind in her face, the sand flying, Mo writhing in pain, three shadow figures on the sand—three of them! How could she even get close enough to them to do anything?
Roxy looked over at Madame Clerval and the figures on either side of her, one, slightly shorter, and oddly familiar…They were raising their hands, palms clasped together, and Roxy felt something like a shiver in the air. An immense amount of power was surrounding their small group of five on the sand. Roxy felt as though the wind had removed her voice; she was speechless, whether actually from the wind or from magic or base fear she had no idea.
If only she knew what to do…how to help…she felt helpless…Instead, her head was filled with the chanting of evil spells from the three figures holding her and Mo hostage. She couldn’t understand the words, but she could feel the intent behind them, and she felt weak with fear.
A shout from behind the figures distracted her from her thoughts.
“STOP!”
Roxy squinted into the darkness and saw two people running toward them at top speed. Madame Clerval and her accomplices turned around, likewise distracted from their spellwork. Their hoods fell back, and in the light of the moon, Roxy saw the three sorcerers and their attackers clearly.
Madame Clerval, Barb, and a tall blond woman reached out their hands toward the two running figures and Roxy finally found her voice.
“Tessa! No! Run away!”
Chapter Twenty-six—Tessa
For once, Tessa’s powers were ready to go as she needed them—even as she knew, deep down, they were not at full capacity. Her spellwork in the theater had drained her, she knew that. She had no emergency herbal draughts for renewing her power; she hoped adrenaline and luck were on her side.
She ran toward Roxy and the other figure on the beach. Her eyes barely understood what she was looking at, but she recognized evil at work.
Her legs and arms pumped to get her within range. With her powers so depleted, she would have to get dangerously close to them to have any chance of saving Roxy and…Mo? Mo was a mermaid!? The blue-green tail glowed on the shadowy beach like sunshine through a piece of sea glass.
Tessa’s mind had no time to process the new piece of information, though.
She had the element of surprise on her side—for now. She had to make the best of it.
Joy seemed to be taking a cue from her and was running full tilt by her side. If the sight of Roxy and a mermaid on the beach surprised her, she wasn’t showing it. But that was Joy—always ready for whatever came her way. Tessa was grateful for her all over again.
Once they were in earshot, Tessa started to yell stop as loud as she could; Joy joined her after a moment.
Their cries did exactly what Tessa hoped. The figures turned around, arms faltering, spells pausing momentarily as their hands broke apart.
As they turned around, the hoods of all three figures flew back and there, in the light of the moon, wearing black cloaks, were Barb, Madame Clerval, and Isidora.
Recognition blazed through Tessa. She should have known it was those three, she thought as she plowed into Madame Clerval with all her might. Joy was hot on her heels before launching herself at Barb.
“Ha! I’ve been wanting to do that ever since we met,” said Joy through uneven breaths.
“Tessa! No! Run away!” Roxy’s voice was weak and small, even though she was only a few yards away.
Tessa didn’t have time to respond. She needed to focus her powers on Madame Clerval. She was clearly the ringleader of the three. Her powers at the ready, she thrust her hands to Madame Clerval’s chest and used all her magic to siphon off Madame Clerval’s magic. Ideally, this would have the double advantage of effectively disarming Madame Clerval, while giving Tessa more power to fight all three sorcerers.
A sharp crack like a whip hit Tessa full in the torso, and a power indescribably strong wrapped itself around her even as her entire body shuddered with an influx of foreign magic. It felt like ice water in her veins, immobilizing her momentarily and squeezing the breath out of her lungs.
For a second, she lay back on the sand, uncertain whether her spell had worked. After a moment, though, she felt the strange sensation of someone else’s magic coursing through her, alternating hot and cold. An image flickered through her head—Mo, bleeding, as someone or something removed scales from her tail.
Tessa cried out. The image shuddered and faded, and Tessa was thankful for that. That had been the ultimately purpose of the plan, to capture Mo and maim her precious mermaid’s tail. Roxy was an innocent bystander in all this, but Mo—they had to save her.
The scene in front of her was utter chaos.
Madame Clerval was lying on the sand, knocked out, though Tessa knew it wouldn’t last long. Joy was sitting astride Barb and punching her—or slapping her? It was hard to tell—as Isidora grabbed at Joy and tried to pull her off. Roxy was holding Mo in her arms, but Mo appeared unconscious.
“Tessa!” Roxy’s voice was all anguish, and Tessa could not ignore it, even as her instincts were shouting at her that Madame Clerval was not defeated and their time to strike was limited. But maybe, just maybe, they could get Mo back into the water and out to sea before Madame Clerval attacked her again?
Tessa ran to Roxy, her legs shaking beneath her. Deep down she knew that even with the magic she’d stolen from Madame Clerval, there wasn’t much else left to work with. Her magic was at an ebb.
She ignored the warnings. Roxy needed her. Mo needed her.
“Keep at it, Joy,” she shouted as she ran over.
“With pleasure,” said Joy, who was now throwing salt at Barb and Isidora. Where did she get that from?
Tessa didn’t have time to consider how Joy knew to bring salt with her. She kneeled next to Roxy and put an arm around her.
“Is she okay?”
Roxy’s eyes were streaming with tears as she cradled Mo’s head in her arms. “I don’t know, I don’t know. When you arrived and they turned around, the glass that was between us—I mean, whatever spell was guarding her—just disappeared. She was still thrashing around, but I guess the spell was keeping her alive? I touched her and she lost consciousness. Or…or…” Or maybe she was dead, Tessa finished in her mind. She didn’t want to say those words either.
She put her fingers to Mo’s throat, but she wasn’t even sure that there would be a pulse there even if Mo was alive. After all, she was in her mermaid form. Who knows what that means?
Still, she had to try, and after a moment, Tessa detected a very slight pulse.
“We have to take her to the water,” said Tessa. That was the only solution. As long as Mo was in her mermaid form, life on land was impossible, or at least that was what her hedge witch instincts were telling her. Always go with your natural instincts, her mentor Freya had told her, and her advice had always been spot-on.
They stood and heaved Mo toward the surf. The water was freezing, but between adrenaline and fear, neither of them thought to stop or complain. In fact, something odd was happening once Mo’s body was in the water—she became warm.
On the shore, her body had been freezing cold and clammy, but here in the winter waters of the Bay, Mo was warm, and the warmth from her radiated outward, encompassing Tessa and Roxy like an embrace.
“I think it’s working,” said Roxy. She looked at Tessa, tears of joy now in her eyes. “She’s alive.”
Tessa nodded. “Let’s push her farther out. Maybe we can get her beyond the power of the Three.” Something in her mind automatically capitalized the phrase “the Three.” They had no way of knowing what these women called themselves, so the Three was as good as anything.
As they held onto Mo and pulled her farther into the waters, Tessa was thankful for the warmth of Mo’s body. Mermaids had their own magic, she guessed, and this had to be some element of that power. It was keeping her and Roxy from freezing, and that was the important thing.
Once the water was up to their hips, Tessa squeezed Roxy’s arm to stop.
“This is far enough.”
“She’s not awake yet,” said Roxy. “She’ll drift back to shore. We’re not far enough.”
“We can’t go any farther,” said Tessa as gently as she could over the crash of waves and wind. She felt Mo’s pulse again. It was stronger, more regular. “Her pulse is better now. She’s going to be okay.”
Just as Mo opened her eyes and took a big gulp of air, all three of them were smashed together by an unseen force.
“No!” shouted Roxy.
Before Tessa could say anything in response, before any of them could do anything, they were being pulled back to shore, like a big hook in an old-fashioned theater that pulled an act off the stage when it was over.
Tessa could still feel Madame Clerval’s power within her, and she tried to sense a place where she could direct that power to free them, but it was impossible in that moment to concentrate enough to find a place to latch onto, caught in a magical net, water in her face, Mo’s arms and tail, and Roxy’s arms and legs all flailing and intertwining with hers.
Mere moments later, they were all lying on the beach again, wet, covered in sand and seaweed, freezing cold. Tessa had to work not to let her entire body start shivering uncontrollably. She called up some of the power within her to warm herself, and it worked for now.
There was still some magic left over. How much, she wasn’t certain.
Looming over them were the Three. Where was Joy? Tessa couldn’t see beyond them, but she hoped desperately Joy was all right. They wouldn’t dare kill any of them, would they?
Before anyone could react, Tessa funneled her remaining power into a shield protection spell—one of the only spells she’d consistently practiced since her days learning with Freya. Despite that practice, she could feel the power leaching out of her. It was too much to keep up.
It occurred to Tessa belatedly that she should have tried to attack them again rather than use her remaining power for a spell of protection. It would run out and then what?
The brash laughter of Faustina Clerval reached her, somewhat distorted, through the pulse of magic between them.
“You dare to use my own powers to fight off my powers?” Madame Clerval shook her head with another cackle of amused derision. “You silly girl.”
The Three began to chant again, directing their spell at Tessa’s, and Tessa felt it begin to weaken and melt away, like snow in the spring. As her spell weakened, it siphoned off all the remaining power within her. A heaviness entered her limbs, and she could only watch helplessly as her spell faded away and Madame Clerval took hold of her hand.
Her hand was frigid: cold and powerful. She gripped Tessa’s wrist and, with one simple motion, aided by magic, threw Tessa into the air, far up the beach. It happened so fast, Tessa had no time to think or react or even scream.
Tessa landed with a thump, and everything went black.
Chapter Twenty-seven—Roxy
Roxy watched with horror as Tessa’s limp body flew through the air. Roxy’s mouth went dry and pain ripped at her heart like claws. Tears were streaming down her face, mingling with the salt water, and she wanted to scream but she couldn’t.
She couldn’t see where Tessa was, but Mo was still lying next to her, her eyes fluttering a bit, but she was not completely conscious. Roxy was desperate to find out if Tessa was okay—could anyone survive such a thrashing? Roxy didn’t want to contemplate it, but she also needed to protect Mo.
Protection! Of course. Everything had happened so quickly, so horribly, she hadn’t tried to use whatever power it was within her that Mo had awoken.
But how to summon it? Roxy wasn’t a magician or witch, a wizard or sorcerer. She had no practice in these arts. She barely knew she had it in her, and yet that crackling of energy was back in her palms and the tip of her fingers. Deep within her, she felt a warmth growing, reaching out through her arms, rising and rising, and yet—how to use it?
“Isidora! Tie her up.” Madame Clerval’s commanding voice broke through Roxy’s hurried thoughts.
Roxy looked up just in time to see the tall blond woman approaching her, arms extended as she chanted in high tones and a magical rope materialized between her hands.
Instinctively, as soon as Isidora was within reach, Roxy put her left hand out and willed the power there to leap out toward her. She screamed with all her might and felt a strange sensation, as if her hand had fallen asleep, a thrill or buzz across her palm, and then a great outpouring of lightning energy in her fingertips.
The magical rope disappeared and Isidora flew back several feet away from Roxy, landing on her butt at Barb’s feet.
Roxy’s eyes widened and she stared at her own hand. Had she really done that? Had she really just used magic to stun a foe?
She didn’t have time to consider the implications. Barb was advancing on her now, even as Roxy saw, to her horror, that Madame Clerval was slowly approaching behind her holding a strange tool that was both beautiful and terrifying at the same time. It looked like a wrench or pliers made out of mother-of-pearl, and Roxy had no desire to know how Madame Clerval planned to use this torture device on Mo.
Barb looked nothing but delighted to be coming at Roxy to tie her up or otherwise incapacitate her. And Roxy, feeling the surge of power again within her, smiled. Barb had caused enough problems for her and Tessa and the theater.
This time, Roxy found the wherewithal to stand up as Barb approached, and she raised both arms above her before bringing them down onto Barb’s outstretched palms.
There was lighting, actual lightning, that discharged from Roxy’s hands, as though all her rage, and all her anger for those evil enough to want to harm Mo and Tessa were concentrated into a single packet of light and energy.
Barb screamed, immobilized, before a slight flick of Roxy’s wrists made her fly up and over Isidora, past Tessa even.
“Shit,” said Roxy under her breath. She had done that? She had done that.
She had no time to consider this either, as now Madame Clerval was nearly upon them. She set aside her terrifying pincers, but she looked no less terrifying than before.
Roxy felt her stomach drop into her shoes. Madame Clerval’s face was distorted with anger and disgust.
“You. Who are you that you even dare to attack the Three Sisters of Provincetown? You will pay for your stupidity.” She practically spat the words at Roxy before lifting an arm to throw a spell at Roxy.
Simultaneously, Roxy also lifted both hands, feeling the energy bubbling inside her, as though it was alive and eager to get out. She didn’t care about herself at this point; she didn’t matter. But Tessa and Mo—they needed saving. They were both alive, she just knew it, but how alive? Mo lying beside her was hanging on by a thread. How long could she survive on land in her mermaid form? Roxy didn’t want to know. She was responsible for Mo. She had to do what she could to save her.
And then there was Tessa. Beautiful, smart, caring, kind, and sexy as hell. Roxy didn’t want to think about life without Tessa. It was too much to consider for even a second.
Instead, she focused on her friendship with Mo, her feelings for Tessa, and she realized, with a jolt, that she loved both of them.
She loved Mo like the sister she’d never had—the sister who was her responsibility. Not like with Hazel, where she’d always felt like Hazel was in charge, the “smart one,” the capable one, the one with her life together. With Mo, Roxy had been the one who knew how the world worked and how to survive in it. She couldn’t let Mo down.
And she loved Tessa. She’d been scared to admit it to herself. Roxy had always been the kind to have strong feelings for other women quickly, and it had often come back to bite her. She’d fixated in the past on women who were not interested in her, the thrill of the chase being irresistible to Roxy. With Tessa, it’d been different. Tessa had wanted her, and that had made Roxy pause. In part, she wasn’t used to being pursued. In part, she’d been afraid it wasn’t real—Tessa was going to leave like everyone else, and Roxy had pushed down her feelings, telling herself she wasn’t going to be impulsive or get too far in too fast.
They were past that now. Tessa was lying somewhere in the dark on the sand, and Roxy loved her. She loved her, pure and simple.
There was a rush of wind in her ears and Roxy pushed all her energy at the sorceress just as she sent her own spell barreling at Roxy.
The air was filled with the smell of something burning, and Roxy watched with amazement as Madame Clerval stumbled back, her entire body stiff as a board, her eyes full of fear before they closed, and she fell back on the sand.
Roxy was still standing there, staring at Madame Clerval’s lifeless form, when she heard a voice.
“Stop! Stop whatever you’re doing.”
The figure was approaching faster than humanly possible. Within seconds, the woman was next to her.
It was Rhoda, from the museum.
She looked Roxy over and recognition dawned on her. She looked down at Mo before surveying the scene.
“Damn it,” she said under her breath. “Not those three. Again.”
“Again?” said Roxy.
Rhoda nodded grimly. “Never mind. We’ll deal with them in a minute. We have to get the mermaid back in the water. I have some spells that will help revive her, but only once she’s in the water. She’ll be too weak here on land.”
Roxy and Rhoda managed to get Mo into the waters of the Bay again. Once she was floating in a few feet of water, Rhoda lifted a hand over Mo’s body and began to recite an incantation.
