Cia shouted, “Fear, pull something out of that fancy bag and tie off its tail. It’s getting free.”
“I don’t do magic,” Sally said. “I do hair and fashion and terror. And Fear of Death.”
“Well, the fashion is seriously out of date,” Cia said. “Big hair hasn’t been around since the eighties and Peg Bundy. If you can’t help, then get the hell out of my way.”
“Witches. So snarky,” Sally said. But her eyes hinted at her ire and dread. They coiled together on the night wind like asps, stinging. She was attacking us all. I fought the fear she caused and breathed my way through it.
“Liz, can you pull from the rocks beneath the earth?” Cia asked.
“I can try, but I’m limited when I’m not touching them.”
I poured water over tea leaves. The aroma of tea rose, soothing. I stirred the leaves with the silver spoon, the stored working moving from spoonto the tea. “You can draw from the boulders in the rock garden, Liz. They will help some, as they trail underground where their magic is untouched by air and rain.”
Softly, Evan said, “Mol? You need to see this.”
I set the oversized teapot on the tray with mugs, linens, silver, sugar, and cream, and carried it to the front. I felt better having done something, even something so simple as tea. I placed the tray on the table near the door and took Evan’s hand. The ward on the house zinged through me, and I realized he had it looping through his own body. It was a dangerous tactic, but it also gave him total control over the energies and the maths of the ward, allowing me in and out more easily than I had feared. It wasn’t something I could do while pregnant without harming my child. I squeezed his hand.
His voice rumbled in his barrel chest. “You know I’d never let you out of this house if I could do it myself,” he said. “I’m good but I can’t protect the kids, hold the wards, and dispose of a demon that wants your blood.”
“I know. Of the two jobs, the one you left for me is safer for the kicker.” I patted my belly. “And Cia and Liz and I can work a triangle inside the existing outer circle. What did you want me to see?”
“Their lasso working.”
With myseeingworking, I focused on the magics my sisters were using to bind the demon. “Ohhh,” I breathed. “It’s tinted with the same shade of energies as the stuff on Sam’s boots.”
“Yeah. They’ve been messing with something dark. Not enough to coat their souls or tint their auras, but enough to bring them more power than they ever had before. You be careful.” He paused before adding, “I love you to the moon and back.”
“I love you most of all,” I said. It was a way of saying good-bye. I laid my head on his arm for a moment, took a deep breath, and stood away. Giving him a mug, I picked up the tray, took a steadying breath, and pushed through the ward. The magics coated my body and hair and pulled through me like electric taffy. The energies were attuned to me, and usually walking through wasn’t a problem, but there was so much energy coiling through it now, far more than it was designed to hold. And it all looped through Big Evan, which was the only reason I could get through. Dangerous for my husband, but we’d deal with any repercussions later.
I opened the back hatch of the Subaru and set the tray down inside. Poured tea into mugs. Carried mugs to each of my sisters, then to Death of Magic, who looked like he needed the entire pot. Sam was shaking with exertion and drained the mug in a single gulp. I studied the shape and form of hissnareworking, the incantation holding the demon. It was vastly different from a witchlassoworking, but there were enough similarities for me to harness my workings to it. “Stabilize your working and then get out of the way,” I said. “And I’ll need your Tony Lamas.”
“I’m not giving you my boots,” Death said.
“I’ll buy you another pair, Sammy-pie,” Sally said. She was standing at the back of the Subaru, drinking a cup of tea, one I hadn’t offered her. I gave her a sunny smile, which seemed to startle her. “Just give the little witch what she wants,” she said. “I have to be back across the veil by dawn. I’m doing one of the Waters’ hair at ten, and I need at least some beauty sleep.”
“Hope you don’t give her broccoli hair like yours,” Liz snarked.
Sally snarled and stared daggers at my sister, but nothing happened. A look of surprise and then horror crossed Sally’s face. My lips twitched as she looked down into the mug she had drained. Looked back at my sisters. She snapped her fingers. Neither witch sister showed the slightest bit of fear. I felt my own lingering terror lift too, and my smile took on a measure of satisfaction. The scarlet-haired sidekick’s power had been neutered. Well, that’s what you get when you take a mug that was never offered to you. The quick littlehappinessworking from the silver spoon had been for me, Evan, my sisters, and Death, to negate our fears. That same working had stopped it at the source. Sally wasn’t used to feeling fortunate.
Fear-Fettered slammed her expensive bag on the back of the Subaru and pulled out a makeup kit, a brush, and a mirror that was way too large to actually fit within the confines of the bag, and started to make herself presentable after all the wind. I got a good look inside and there were also three knives with crosshatched hilts and two semiautomatic handguns. The brush was spelled and the mirror was a scrying surface. Sally, the Fear of Death, was a fashionista killer. I hadn’t forgotten they were here after my children. I gave Evan a significant look, mimed putting a purse over my shoulder and mouthed,Her bag. He nodded.
“Boots,” I said to Sam, holding out a hand.
Death of Magic sat on the ground and pulled off his boots, the smell of the sweat of Death strong on the air. As he was yanking off the expensive footwear, I took over hislassoworking and wove the threads of my own earth magics into it, and into my sisters’ power, securing thelasso. Death’s magics felt warm, slippery, unstable in my hands. Foreign. The power in the magics skidded up my hands and wrists to my arms, enveloping my own cursed gift. It was a yearning, a wooing, a siren song of desire to join my gift with his magics. To... to become a Death myself.
Not Death of Magic. But Death of All. All humans. All plants. All animals. To do to the entire world what I had done to the hillside nearby. My mouth went dry with horror. If I lost control... if I let it ride me... I’d kill. I’d be a Death and my own fear would have won.
Sally looked at me and then at Death. “Oh, Sam. It wasn’t the kids. It was her.”
I understood. This was what Sam had wanted. Death magics. Not my children. They had thought the kids were the carriers. They had intended to trick us into helping them trap the demon, allowing them in close, so they could get at the death magics.
But my daughter’s guardian angel had said I could trick Death. I shook my head, trying to force my earth magics to the forefront of my mind, to satisfy my magical needs. I accepted Death’s boots, the brimstone and darkness on his sole shining bright. Brighter than the moon. The brimstone picked up my own curse. Pulled on my curse. The boots glowed.
“Mol?” Cia asked. “What’s happening?”
“Nothing,” I lied, jerking my attention away from the evidence of darkness. I had to end this quickly. “Binding?”
“Blood of angels,” Liz said, naming the working. “Places, everyone.”
