Family Magic, Chloe Price [christmas read aloud .txt] 📗

hadn’t been for the spell of protection, I would have stayed behind to fight. But the compulsion to protect my sister was so powerful I had to get away, get us away, and consider our options later.

We made it six blocks before I even thought about slowing. I glanced back over my shoulder but there was no one there, no panting Dominic Moromond with his bloody knife chasing us down the street, no thread of snake-like magic pursuing us.

Still, I ran some more. And some more. I ran until my lungs ached, my breath came in short, heavy panting gasps, until Meira’s weight threatened to drive me to my knees.

I finally ground to a halt in an unfamiliar part of town, collapsing on a bench with my sister still clinging to me. I tried to get my breath as I listened to her cry.

“We have to go back!” Her little arms unwound from around my neck so she could pound on my chest with her delicate fists.

I didn’t even have the strength to stop her. “Meems, we can’t,” I said, speaking an effort. “We can’t.”

“We have to!” She struggled with me. I let her go. She hit her feet and grabbed my hand, trying with her whole body weight to pull me up from the bench.

I let her struggle as I caught my breath and wondered what the hell I was going to do.

I briefly considered going to Alison’s, but dropped that idea pretty quick. There was no way I could involve normals in our mess. I was at a total loss. Batsheva still controlled the coven. Now that she trapped my mother, there was no one left to fight her. I was pretty sure the missing Celeste and Erica already fell victim to her themselves. I had a brief pang as I admitted I abandoned Gram to the Moromonds but knew the spell wouldn’t have let me stop for her.

I pulled against Meira who grunted with the effort to make me get up. I manhandled her back into my lap and hugged her until she fell still.

“Meems,” I whispered into her hair. “We can’t go back.”

“I know,” she whispered back, face buried in my shirt. “What are we going to do?”

I had no idea what to say.

The screeching of tires saved me from having to come up with an answer. A shiny silver Volvo rocked to a halt as Jared roared up and jumped out of the car. I leapt to my feet, ready to run, Meira clinging to me.

“Syd!” He stopped on the edge of the sidewalk, hands up, expression distressed. “It’s okay, Syd. It’s just me.”

“So what,” I snapped. “It’s you, Jared. And we’re supposed to trust you just like that?”

He backed off. “Okay, yeah, right. Sorry. You have no reason to trust any of us right now, do you?”

“Not really, no,” I told him.

“I know,” he held out his hands again, eyes pleading. “But, please, Syd. You have to come with me.”

“Why?” I was ready to run all night if I had to. But something about the way he asked made me pause.

“Because,” he said. “There is no one else.”

I reached out to him, felt around his edges, but he was clean, or at least as clean as Jared ever felt.

“Where do you want to go?” I asked.

“For help,” he said. “There’s another coven near here, a couple of towns over. They aren’t as powerful as ours, but…” he trailed off. “Maybe they can do something.”

I didn’t point out our family wasn’t exactly as strong as it used to be either. Instead, I debated.

“Syd,” he said. “Please.”

I wavered. I couldn’t run forever. I had to find somewhere safe for Meira. For both of us. His idea sounded like a good one. If we could get word to the High Council about the Moromonds, maybe they could send some Enforcers to help. The thought of having those steely, hardened warrior witches sweep in and take out Batsheva and Dominic gave me a shiver of pleasure. Besides, this was Jared. I knew him, liked him. I could trust him. Couldn’t I?

“Have you contacted them yet?” I asked him.

“No,” he said. “I wasn’t sure if calling was a good idea. I figured it would be best to see them in person.”

He was right. There was no way they would believe the Hayle coven was so completely torn apart. We were too powerful for that.

I stood there with the weight of my little sister in my arms, torn. The problem was, as much as I wanted to do it, the spell made it harder to choose. It wasn’t just my own welfare I was worried about. I had Meira’s to guard too. Finally, I made my mind up and hoped my decision was the right one.

“All right,” I said to him, feeling calmer now that I had a plan. “Let’s go.”

Jared’s face shone with relief. He went to the passenger door and opened it for me. I climbed in with Meira still in my arms and pulled the seatbelt over both of us. Jared climbed in the driver’s side and started the engine.

“It won’t take long,” he said. “I’ll drive fast.”

I tipped my head back against the seat, feeling the tension drain from me as he hit the gas. This was Jared, our Jared, Erica’s Jared, trusted, loved and my friend. We were safe with him. I rubbed Meira’s back over and over as the streetlights flashed by, emptying my mind, trying to rest.

I felt her body tense. She was still pressed to me, her face over my shoulder. What I saw in her eyes made me afraid.

“Syd,” she whispered. Her gaze flickered into the back. I took a deep breath and braced myself. I looked quickly before I lost my nerve.

A heavy wool blanket covered most of the seat, but it was oddly shaped, almost lumpy. It took time for my brain to recognize there was something under the covering, something long and shaped like a person.

The next streetlight caught the gloss of Erica’s staring eyes. I couldn’t help myself. I started to scream. Chapter Thirty Five

I would have kept screaming, until my mind went, until I couldn’t breathe. It was too much, way too much. I went through hell and found myself right back in it. For the first time since the whole thing started I fell apart and let myself go.

I don’t know if I would have gotten myself stopped if Jared hadn’t snapped me out of it.

He jerked the wheel hard to the left, digging the seatbelt into me, throwing me into the car door.

“Syd!” He yelled. “Stop!”

I did. The final betrayer was Jared. It had been Jared all along. He had the good grace to look embarrassed.

“Hold it together,” he snapped.

I started to laugh, a choking sound torn from my sore lungs and throat.

“You’re kidding, right?” I said. “You’re really freaking kidding me.”

“I’m sorry, Syd. But, there are bigger things happening here than you know about. Darker things. And I haven’t had a choice from the moment it all started.”

“We always have a choice,” Meira whispered. I, for one, agreed with her.

“That’s right, Jared,” I said. “Only cowards use that excuse.”

His face twisted with something I didn’t recognize. His hands flexed on the wheel so hard his fingers went white. But when he spoke, his voice held steady.

“You can think what you want,” he said. “But it doesn’t change the fact I have to give you up to them. The decision’s been made. I’m sorry.”

He seemed to be saying that a lot. “Sure you are,” I said. How had I been so stupid, so blind?

“You have no idea,” he replied, so softly I almost missed it.

He slowed at a stop sign. I reached for the door handle. He sped up again, running it. He shot me a glare that said he knew what I was thinking.

“Don’t bother,” he said. “The doors are locked from my side.”

Crap. I hadn’t noticed when he did that. I gritted my teeth.

“Where are we really going?” I asked him.

“To the site,” he said.

Meira’s eyes were huge. “Is she dead?” Her voice was barely a whisper. She refused to look at the back seat.

Jared tried his charming routine. I would never trust a smile like that again for the rest of my life.

“Just asleep,” he said. “Honest.”

I reached out anyway and felt some relief at the steady da-dum of Erica’s heart.

I knew I had to do something to save us. Despite my usual reservations, I pulled in my demon as we approached a red light, knowing if I hit him while we were going slower I’d have a better chance of keeping Meira and I safe. I couldn’t care less about him. And I couldn’t worry about Erica.

As he hit the brakes, I lashed out with all the power I could muster, my demon leaping out to shred him to bits.

She slid over and off of him like oil on water.

I was so stunned my attack failed I almost missed the red glow in his eyes. He grinned.

In a rush of recovered memory, I recognized that grin, those eyes, that shaggy black hair, only it dawned on me the last time it was on something way more furry.

Jared was the black dog. I knew then he was the traitor all along. He was a member of our coven for well over a year, a young, eager witch fresh from another family, wanting a new start. Erica adored him. They started dating right away. He injected himself into our lives, our hearts, our power and used it against us ever since.

“You’ve been following me,” I said.

“You were the only one who was a wild card,” he answered. “They had no way of knowing if you could counteract me. Now we know you can’t.”

“What are you?” I asked. “You’re not human, I know that now.” The film of power I identified as Jared dissolved like a skim of water down the sides of a glass. His public mind was a carefully constructed mask. What emerged made my demon howl in frustration.

The green magic was his.

“No, not human,” he answered. “Does it really matter?”

“It does to me,” I said.

“I’m Fay.” His voice grated harsh.

No wonder he was able to hide from us. “A fairy? But, there’s no such thing anymore.” Fairy magic was rumored to be undetectable to human practitioners.

So why then could I feel it?

My demon shoved that faint question away, her unhappiness surging inside me.

Jared laughed, but it came out bitter.

“No, not Sidhe,” he said, “not a fairy. Fay. One of their slaves, a tool they use.”

“I don’t understand,” I said. My fairy history studies had fallen to the wayside with the rest of my training. Now I wished I paid more attention. If I embraced who I was in the first place none of this would have happened. The knowledge stabbed me in the heart as he answered.

“You aren’t meant to,” he said. “Syd, the Sidhe exist, the fairy high council exists. But this isn’t their doing.”

“The Moromonds,” I said.

“Yes,” he said. “The Moromonds. They supplied the power I needed to hide among you, to shield what I really am. You touched the edges of it a few times, enough I was forced to take steps.”

The wards