Maddox shrugged out of the leather jacket, then pulled his t-shirt over his head to unfurl his wings. “My brother, Sinclair, tells me Mist is always here after dark.”
“Sin. Is he all right?” Mist was in front of him before Mad could blink, and her cool fingers gripped his upper arms. “The darkness is coming. Something so vile, it could destroy the entire world.”
“Sin’s fine. Out in San Francisco and working for a human-paranormal investigative firm.” Maddox drew his wings back against his body, extricated himself from Mist’s grip, and pulled his t-shirt back on before he gestured to the table Mist had been sitting at. “I need your help.”
“Anything. Sin saved my life ten years ago. I would have met the sun without him.” The vampire brushed her blond hair away from her face, revealing three long scars down her right cheek.
“What do you know about a witch named Jezebel?”
KILLIAN
He wouldn’t go to Magnolia House. That would be suicide. Instead, he asked the cab driver to take him to Lafayette Cemetery No 1. This time of night, well after dark, the sacred burial grounds would be closed, and the only beings that he could hurt with his magic would be the ghosts. At least they couldn’t die a second time.
Once he arrived, he pulled out the box of salt he’d picked up at a local convenience store a few blocks from the row house. Drawing a large circle in a patch of grass in the center of the grounds, Killian breathed deeply three times. Standing at the center, he closed his eyes. “I summon a circle of protection. May only love reside within.”
With his right index finger, he pointed east. “I call the Air and the Guardian of the East to protect this sacred circle.” Bowing to the air elemental he knew would be hiding in the mists, he then turned south. “May the element of Fire and the Guardian of the South protect this sacred circle.” Water in the west and earth to the north followed, and when he finished drawing the perimeter, Killian turned his gaze to the sky. “May the Divine watch over this sacred space, fill it with love, peace, and protection.”
A beam of light shone down upon him, spreading through his entire body, and sinking into the earth under his feet. The protective bubble carried the scent of his magic, and for the first time in a decade, it didn’t smell like blood, fear, and burnt flesh. Instead, the scent of the sea, fresh and clean, surrounded him.
Holding out his left hand, Killian drummed the fingers of his right hand over his palm. “Light meets dark, wrong meets right. I will atone for all my sins this night. Find the witches I seek, call them to me, so this curse shall break and all be free.”
A spark formed, growing steadily brighter, until it grew to the size of a marble. Picturing Jezebel and Delphine in his mind, he sent his charm to seek them out and bring them to him.
KILLIAN SAT in the center of the circle for an hour. Jezebel and Delphine obviously didn’t care about punctuality. Or, he was a pitiful witch and couldn’t cast a spell worth shite.
For what felt like the fiftieth time, he checked his phone. No messages. Nothing from Maddox, Jezebel, Delphine, or Beatrix. Though, it’s not like Maddox had a phone of his own.
“Shut it,” he muttered to himself. “He’s gone. Back in the celestial realm where he belongs. He’ll be safe there. And you...you’ll move on. Someday.”
“Killian Wade!” Jezebel shouted from beyond a row of gravestones to the east. The fog was so thick he couldn’t see shite. “You will pay for your crimes!”
“Show yourself, Jeze. I have committed no crime save being young and reckless,” Killian said as he pushed to his feet.
“And what about stealing the celestial sand?” This from Delphine, and Killian spun around to the west, where a heavy rain had started to fall, a curtain that shielded the High Priestess from view.
“Are the two of you proper cowards?” Killian called out. “Face me. Just outside the circle. Let us talk like civilized people.”
The two witches approached, though Killian could see nothing but the rain and the mists. Still, he felt them. Their magic pulsed with every step, pressing in on him, almost crushing him.
The circle held, barely, and Killian struggled to breathe, to stand tall as the two most powerful witches in New Orleans stalked closer.
A spell bounced off the circle, sending sparks raining down onto the wet grass. The salt would soon wash away, but the circle would remain as long as his own magic held.
“What happened to a proper discussion?” Killian asked as he clenched his fists, the magic sparking all along the tips of his fingers. “Jezebel, I was a sodding idiot when I was twenty-three, scared out of my mind, and half in love with your brother. I tried to save him.”
“And yet you staked him and set his heart to flame. That isn’t love, Killian.” Jezebel started a low chant, and the ground under him started to rumble. A crack in the earth opened a few feet beyond the circle, widening slowly and heading right for him.
“You will pay for your crimes, witch,” Delphine said from right behind him. Killian whirled around to find her flanked by a trio of her coven royalty and two of the burly guards who’d bound him in iron only this morning.
“I offer up only the truth.” Killian stepped to the very edge of the circle. “You know of the blood oath, yes?”
“Of course.” The rain slowed to a trickle as Delphine inclined her head, her black curls falling over one shoulder. “You willingly take the oath?”
“I will. If you call off your hell-cat.”
Delphine snapped her fingers, and Jezebel swore under her breath. “You promised me revenge,” she growled.
“And you will have it. After Killian takes the oath.”
