Before the men had a chance to call out and alert each other, I stunned them. The flashes darted from my palms with force and accuracy, knocking each man in the face. I watched as they each hit the rooftop with heavy thuds. Hmm…I wondered if that would have made Finn laugh. Those guys certainly weren’t smiling.
I collected their guns, and searched them for more weapons. I had never stunned anyone before, and wasn’t sure how long they would be asleep. Finn assured me we had at least an hour before they would come to. He had stunned more than his share of assailants and criminals. Using the
Fade Spell
for something other than anonymity was foreign to me, and I didn’t want to admit it was slightly thrilling to use it for something dangerous.
I chucked their weapons in a dumpster behind the building and flew toward Finn, who hovered atop the second building. He was waiting for me on the roof. A pile of guards lay at his feet.
“These guys won’t be bothering us soon. Any problems?”
“No, it was pretty easy. All good.” And it was. The fiery charge of the
Stun Spell
came easily to me. I was starting to catch glimpses of why Finn blurred some of the magical lines we lived within.
“Let’s go. We’ve got another group waiting for us.” He nodded in the direction of the warehouse entrance.
I saw a few men milling about under an exposed lightbulb. One was taking a drag of a cigarette, and the others were leaning against the broken windows of the building. Each one was loaded with a gun. I took a deep breath.
You can do this, Ivy.
It was hard to believe this is where the monstrous train station once stood. I surveyed the building now standing in its place. I didn’t see any more guards other than the three by the door. Luckily for us, the crew must have lightened up for the night. Something was going our way.
We walked to the ledge of the rooftop and leapt upward. We landed near the armed guards, careful not to alert them to their uninvited visitors. I was prepared to stun at least one, but before I could even muster the spell in my head, Finn had flattened all three. He was quick and skilled. I was impressed with my ex’s stunning talents.
With the outside security handled, we let ourselves into the building and examined the hideout of the infamous immortal consul. The building was dark and damp. The warehouse didn’t appear to be used anymore. There were broken pieces of glass, stacks of metal beams, and lots of trash littered throughout the building. I imagined rats and other creatures probably found it homey. I tried to avoid the shallow puddles on the floor. It had been a long time since this place had any roof repairs. I stayed close to Finn, shadowing his detective moves. I had never seen him on an actual case, and I had to admit he was somehow even hotter in action. How was
that
possible?
Our ears perked at the sound of a muffled conversation at the other end of the room.
Finn brought his finger to his lips, to signal we couldn’t talk, and pointed ahead to the light streaming through the underside of a closed door. The voices were louder now, and we strained to hear the conversation.
“But, I’ve told you, I’m not Josette. I’m just an actress.” We heard small sobs follow. “Please, please let me go.”
“No! Silence! You have disobeyed me long enough, Josette.”
I recognized the sound of Consul Henri’s voice, and knew we had found the city’s immortal evil. Little shivers ran along my arms. Poor Emmy. He really was insane.
“You will obey me. You will be a dutiful daughter. Now, tell me how sorry you are you ran away,” he barked.
“Do you want money? I can get you money. How much?” Emmy pleaded.
“How dare you insult me. I don’t need money.” I thought I heard the sound of a slap. “You are ungrateful. Even now. You’ve betrayed your own papa.”
We crept closer to get a peek through the opening of the door. It was hard to see, but Emmy’s hotel and talent trailer belongings were piled in stacks around the room. Her colorful costumes were strewn everywhere. She was sitting in a chair with her hands and feet bound with yellow rope. There were a few other guards in the room, but I couldn’t count them through the small sliver of vision I had. I leaned back.
All we could hear through the door were more sobs. Emmy wasn’t going to be able to take much more of the psychotic threats. We had to get in there and set her free.
“Finn, it’s time. We need to do the
Cover Spell
if I’m going to extinguish his power.” My voice was low and urgent. Even though I couldn’t see her, I couldn’t imagine leaving Emmy in there for one more second.
He reached for my hand and pulled me around the side of a metal staircase that was hanging on to the second floor by only a few screws. If the consul did emerge from the room, the stairs would shield us from his line of sight.
“You trust me, Ivy?” His crystal blue eyes stared right through me, and I had to catch my breath. His question was laden with so many other implications, but he needed only one answer.
“Of course, I do. We can do this.” I squeezed his hands.
During our spell practice, Finn was unusually attentive and focused. The way he posed the question made my little red flag start waving in the air. What was going on with him right now?
“Whatever happens tonight, I want you to know—”
“You are really starting to scare me.” I felt nervous bubbles dancing in my stomach. We were in the middle of a magical crisis, and he was launching into a speech. A speech that had the slightest resemblance to that night in Savannah before we
Time Spelled
.
“I…know…shit, never mind. Let’s do the spell.”
Before I could prod him further, he grabbed both of my hands, locked his fingers in mine, and shed each of our
Fade Spells
. The glitter layer that had sparkled around us and kept our presence hidden fell to our feet and disintegrated on the floor. I didn’t know he could do that. Finn was propelling us forward at lightning speed and checking off the list Madame Chantilly had given us.
The
Cover Spell
required intense concentration, and we couldn’t hold our
Fade Spells
while simultaneously channeling each other’s magic through the
Cover Spell
. One major spell at a time. We had to be united to form the spell, but it felt like he was completely in charge, especially how he stripped my
Fade Spell
away so easily.
With our palms locked, he pulled me toward him so the rest of my body was pressed against him. However, something didn’t feel right. This wasn’t how we practiced the spell in his room. My eyes were closed, and I tried to let my thoughts settle on giving him my cover, but it wasn’t working. I continued to project my likeness over him like an enveloping bubble, but each time I tried to extend it past my body, I felt it disintegrate. It broke into tiny pieces, and I had to start over again. With each try, I could feel his cover encasing my thoughts and my body.
What in the hell was he doing?
I pushed harder.
I stepped back and untangled my body and hands from him. The spell still didn’t feel right. I opened my eyes. I couldn’t believe what I saw. Finn was standing in front of me. Finn. He wasn’t in my cover at all. I looked down at my arms and hands, and realized what he had done. Before I could slap him with one of his look-alike muscular hands, the door concealing Emmy from the rest of the world flew open, and Consulate Henri was hurling clothes and suitcases into the empty hallway.
“You ungrateful, bitch! I’ve given you everything! And you can’t even tell your papa you’re sorry for what you’ve put me through?” he yelled.
A hairdryer flew through the air and smashed into bits on the concrete floor. His face was a bright pinkish red, and he stormed through the doorway to wreak more havoc on Emmy’s belongings. He grabbed her clothes, started tearing them in half, and kicked her suitcase.
Finn looked at me. “Let’s go. I think this is it. When it’s done, you go—get out of here. I’ll get Emmy. You get…him.”
Overwhelmed by anger for the stunt Finn pulled and by the despicable behavior of the consul, I marched toward the contemptible man. He was screaming in French, and barely noticed I was standing in front of him. Although, I wasn’t me. I looked like Finn. I was wearing his cover, and as much as I didn’t want to admit it, I felt a little stronger in his skin.
I wasn’t prepared for the consul to lunge at me. He looked so old and haggard, I expected him to be weaker, but he was strong and quick. Madame Chantilly’s shrill warnings echoed in my ears. She said he would be ruthless. I dodged his first pounce, but he landed on his feet and sprung at me a second time. The force of his full body knocked me flat on my back. I gasped for breath as his hands clutched at my throat. He banged my head against the floor and constricted my throat with his thumbs.
I panicked and flailed my arms and legs wildly, trying to escape the death grip he had on my neck. I grasped at the wet floor, searching for something to grab, but the only thing nearby was Emmy’s tattered clothes.
The voodoo queen’s words blazed like an apparition hovering over me.
“Because of her. I’ve been waiting for her.”
The cloud spun over me, and now I could see Helen, crumpled in a crying heap, while I used every bit of strength I had to smother her Proxyness. The vision kept spinning, and there were my parents.
“Ivy, you’re a special girl.”
It formed and dissipated in less time than it takes a grain of sand to hit the bottom of an hourglass, but the images worked their way into my deepest layers of witchy strength. I couldn’t let the consul strangle me here on this dirty warehouse floor, and I couldn’t let him continue to kidnap and torture any more Josettes.
I struggled under his small frame for only a second, realizing I could manipulate him onto the floor with a swift punch to the jaw. Only one of my hands was pinned underneath me, and if I relaxed enough, I could work the other one completely free. Equipped with bigger, stronger hands, I threw the punch and watched as he reeled back, then shook off the blow to his face. This evildoer was not going down easily. Madame Chantilly was more than right; he was strong, insanely strong. I had to find a way to put enough space between us to try the
Extinguish Spell
. I couldn’t do it in a fistfight like this. Plus, I had never been in a fistfight. Disadvantage, Ivy. If my mother could see me now, she would be appalled. I had a feeling he could fight all night and wouldn’t have the slightest scratch or bruise appear. I would never win. There had to be a way to untangle from this brawl.
The concrete under me was sticky and hard. My back was already sore, and my neck and head were throbbing. I looked around for Finn, but saw him wrestling with another one of the consul’s guards near Emmy. I was going to have to figure this out myself. I tried my newly acquired
Stun Spell
. The charging flashes darted from my palms, but fell lamely around the immortal evildoer. They didn’t even touch him. I was starting to panic. He had some sort of impenetrable field around him, and I certainly wasn’t skilled enough in hand-to-hand combat to defeat him. However, I did have something that could stop him in his tracks.
“Wait! Wait!” I held up a hand as I pushed myself up off the floor, wincing with each tinge of newfound pain. “I know where Josette is.”
The angry man dropped the chair he was getting ready to smash over my head. “You? You know where my Josette is?” He was quieter.
“Yes, yes. I saw her.”
That’s it, Ivy. Just keep calming him down.
“Impossible! I’ve been looking for her. How would you find her and not me? Do you know who I am? I have more resources and power than you could imagine.” He was starting to ramp up his level of intensity again. His fists balled up tightly.
I raised one palm, ignoring how strange it was to look at the back of Finn’s hand and not my own. “She ran away, right? With that sailor you don’t like. Luke?”
Keep him steady, Ivy.
“Oui. Oui. She did. He stole her from me. She never would have left if he didn’t fill her head with all of those ideas. Where is he? I will kill him for what he’s done.”
This was good. If I could keep him talking and keep adding distance between us, I could start the
Extinguish Spell
.
“That must have been really hard on you. I’m sorry to hear she left.”
Did I sound sympathetic enough?
I felt off balance hearing Finn’s voice coming from my mouth.
I pulled my other hand up and started to bring it equal distance from the floor as the one already in place. I took a step back.
“She was all I had left. Her mother died when she was young. It was my job to keep her safe and protect her.”
I thought I heard him choke back a sob. I didn’t feel sorry for him or even considered doling one ounce of pity.
My hands in place, I closed my eyes and forced all the strength I had left into smothering his power.
“Extinguish! Extinguish! Extinguish!” I called out the spell and focused on destroying the evil charge surging through his body. I visualized the curse separating from his essence. Dissolving from his bones, his muscles, his skin.