I continue along the winding path, walls of trellised flowers and vines making me feel like I’m in a labyrinth, until the space opens up to what I was hoping to find. The castle from Damien’s dream rises beside a garden of strange foliage and purple flowers. I will never forget this place. I smile at the bench where we made love, the place where he showed me the moon. Just as he promised, it looms large and dark yellow on the horizon and lights up the garden like a muted sun.
“Phantom?” I reach out with my power, and the fox appears in front of me, my connection to it snapping into place like a dull buzz.
“Darling, what can we help you with?”
“Is there anyone who knows a spell to find an object?”
The fox stares off into the distance for a moment, emerald eyes glowing. “Yes, but you’ll need a pendulum.”
A pendulum… I need a string and a weight. I quickly search the garden, but can’t find anything of use. I turn my attention to what I’m wearing. My boots have laces, but I’m not sure how long I’ll need to walk to find the earring. I’ll need well-fitting shoes. I might be able to use my hair. I draw one of my daggers, fully prepared to cut a chunk of my red locks out to braid into rope, but as I do, my fingers brush a decorative orange zipper pull on one of my pockets. I grab it and inspect it more closely. “Thank you, Cassius.”
Cassius chose these pants for me. I’ve never worn tactical gear before, but the many pockets and the ability for the fabric to dry quickly seemed like a wise choice. Now I appreciate them on a whole new level. I unclasp the end of the pull and unbraid the cord. When I’m done, I’m left with three feet of line. I snatch a stone from the walkway and tie it to the end.
“Ready,” I say to Phantom.
“Hold it out in front of you, darling, and picture the earring clearly in your mind. Pour some energy into it,” Phantom says in my grandmother’s stop-messing-around voice. “Aunt Sara is going to help you.”
Red haze filters through the darkness, bringing with it a light shower of ash and the scent of smoke. I feel a tug on the bond. All at once, I regret not practicing my magic the past few weeks. Our connection feels heavy, like I’m bench-pressing my own weight. I grunt as a woman I’ve never met before emerges from Phantom’s body in all her translucent, black-and-white glory. Her dress has lace-tied sleeves and an apron, reminiscent of a renaissance fair. I can only imagine how far back our blood ties go. There are definitely no pictures of Aunt Sara on our gallery wall. Pins and needles strike through my hand as she merges into me from the elbow down, but the effect is immediate. The stone tugs me left. I take off across a dark field as Sara sinks back into Phantom.
The grass here is strange. It feels like I’m running on kitchen sponges. My boots squelch and spring off the strange mounds of green. With my Aunt Sara back inside Phantom, the heaviness I experienced before is gone, and I’m able to pick up speed, my energy returning. The stone guides me to the edge of a lake, pulling toward the water. It’s too dark to see anything beneath the surface even at the edge. For all I can tell, this could be water or an oil slick.
“Um, what now?” I glance toward Phantom. “Do we have a spell to summon it from the bottom?”
Phantom paces again and then shakes his head. “Not without a drawn sigil. We don’t think you’ll have time for that, darling. Valeska is fast and doesn’t have to breathe. She doesn’t have the magic you have to find the earring, but she can cover more ground and has unparalleled senses.”
Anxiety shoots through me again, and I toe off my shoes and socks. When my bare feet hit the curled grass, I shudder at the feeling. “I’ll just have to wade in. If it’s on the bottom, maybe I’ll feel it with my toes.”
“That’s the spirit,” Phantom says encouragingly.
The last thing I want to do is plod into the mysterious depths in front of me, but Phantom is right, I have to assume Valeska is moving faster. I can’t stall. I dip my toe under the surface of the water, expecting it to be cold. “It’s warm as a bath but more viscous than water, almost like soup.” I step forward. “The bottom is smooth but striated, kind of like I’m walking on fallen branches. It’s not bad.”
“Follow the stone,” Phantom reminds me.
I watch the pendulum and move in the direction the stone points. The bank angles deeper, the water coming to my knees and then my waist and then my chest. The slick black fluid is more buoyant than regular water. I guess it has a higher salt content based on the scent, like standing next to the ocean.
When the water comes up to my chin, I regret not having stripped out of my clothes. I’m going to have to swim. A few experimental positions and I figure out that the easiest way to follow the stone’s direction is if I float on my back. I kick in the direction it pulls me. A few minutes later, the pendulum goes lax, the stone hanging straight down toward my chest. A smile spreads across my face. The earring is directly under me.
I allow my feet to sink under the water and am surprised that although I’m in the center of the small lake, I touch the bottom. I start searching with my toes again. It’s smooth here, almost slimy. I tuck the pendulum into one of my pockets so that I can use my arms to guide me as I feel around with my toes for the earring. My foot hits a stony outcropping. I feel my way around it to another section, similarly slimy. This part dips when I put my weight on it. Then the entire bottom shifts beneath my feet.
“What the hell?” I look down but see nothing but black.
I glance back at Phantom. Maybe we can illuminate the water. But before I can speak, something clamps around my middle. I have a half second to gulp air before whatever it is pulls me under.
Eyes closed under the inky water, I twist and turn, reaching for my dagger. I’m tossed about like a rag doll. Water streams over my skin, growing colder, heavier around me.
We’re moving quickly, diving deeper.
I give in and open my eyes but can’t see anything in the dark depths. I can feel it though. I’m held by a creature with the flesh of a fish and a mouth big enough to span from my bottom rib to mid-thigh. My lungs burn for air as I place my hand on top of what I assume is its head and start punching. My fist lands in something soft—an eye, I hope. It releases me. I grab for my dagger and have just enough time for my fingers to graze the hilt before I’m captured again.
I bend, impaling the back of my thigh on what I assume is a tooth, but I get hold of the knife and drive it home. Am I stabbing its neck? Its ear? Its head? I have no idea, but I stab again and again and again.
It releases me and I swim to the surface, drawing a loud, gasping breath into my lungs. Water rushes by me and then curls, a ripple bending along the surface as the creature turns and heads straight for me. I raise my dagger and plunge it into the ripple. Resistance as the blade sinks deep. I try to pull it out for another stab, but it’s stuck in the creature’s leathery hide. The thing passes me, pulls me along behind it at a frightening speed. I tug and tug again.
“Fuck!” Another quick breath. It dives. I refuse to lose my dagger. I need it. This is only the first trial! I hold the hilt in a death grip—one I hope won’t be my literal death—as I slide the second dagger from its holster. Bracing my feet on the creature, I stab and rip. Stab and rip. Stab and rip. The creature thrashes and then slows. We’re sinking but not as quickly. The thing twitches erratically, swimming in a circle.
I look up toward the surface, seeing the moon’s glow. I need to breathe, but I can’t let whatever this thing is out of my reach. The stone pointed toward it. What if the earring is in its stomach?
I reach for my bond with Phantom and feel a familiar buzz start. It’s heavy—so, so heavy—but the water moves, pushing me, lifting me and the beast toward the surface. I cough and sputter as my face breaks free of the water, my hands holding the hilts of my daggers with everything I have left. My magic moves the water, pushing me and the creature toward shore. A yard, two yards. This is nothing like making a wave lap in a bowl. This feels like I’m dragging the entire lake. I fix my eyes on Phantom’s glowing green stare, my mother’s witchy energy buzzing down my side.
