Duplicity (Spellbound #2) (9 page)

Lee found her voice. “Nooooo!” she screeched. She lurched forward, fingers extended like claws, only to fall backwards when she hit an unseen force field separating her from Adrian.

“Memories from this afternoon shall disappear,” he continued. “Sunk into a forgotten bay.”

“Stop! Don’t do this, Adrian.” Lee pounded the invisible wall with her fists. “You’ll be sorry. I’ll find out! I’ll find out somehow and when I do I’ll make sure you regret it!”

“As this paper is consumed in flame, memories of me shall burn away.” Adrian paused over the final candle. His eyes landed on Lee briefly.

She ran for the front door, yanking a display table off the ground as she went. Trinkets and gag gifts showered the floor. Lee hurled the table at the window, and glass shattered into the street.

Lee took one last look back in time to catch Adrian’s bemused smile. His final words followed her out into the crisp air as she found herself fleeing through a window for the second time in a year.

“All encounters and words gone from today.”

Glass cracked under Lee’s feet. The damage was done. Once those candles burned out, her memory of meeting Adrian at the graveyard and of visiting his shop would be wiped from her mind. The witches and warlocks of Kent would continue to flail around, wondering who or what was causing their magical mishaps.

But she still had time to find paper and pen.

Lee hurried toward Mr. Morehouse’s car. How had it become dark so quickly? She was alone on the street, save for the lamp posts lighting her way like torches along a corridor. Lee had nearly made it to the vehicle when an arm looped under hers and crushed her against his chest. The weakened state Adrian had appeared in at the cemetery must have been an illusion. He was all compact muscle mass and unyielding force.

Adrian chuckled. “Same old Gray, won’t go without a fight.”

Lee fought Adrian’s grasp. His grip tightened.

“How could you do that? I got your powers back for you!”

Adrian shrugged. “You left me no other choice.”

Lee ceased struggling momentarily to snort. “Right, I’m the one to blame.”

“Come on.” Adrian pulled her with him.

Lee made her body go slack like a dead weight. “I’m not going back to your shop.”

“I’m taking you home. Is this your car?”

Lee pressed her lips together. Adrian merely chuckled and opened the passenger door with his free hand. “Have a seat.” Lee tried to twist out of his arms. Adrian tightened his hold on her. “You can get in yourself or I can put you in.” The lamplight overhead caught the whites of Adrian’s teeth when he grinned. “It would be my pleasure to give you a hand.”

That settled it. Lee pulled out of his grasp and plopped into the passenger’s seat. She glowered through the windshield. Adrian, however, did not walk around the front of the car. He disappeared, then reappeared an instant later in the driver’s seat.

Lee’s eyelashes fluttered. “You can teleport?”

Adrian grinned, this time with pride. “One of the many talents the council took away from me.” The car started up without the key.

Lee turned toward Adrian. “How far can you teleport?” she asked before she could stop herself. “Can you go anywhere in the world?”

Adrian pulled into the deserted street. “Wouldn’t that be something? No, I have an extremely small radius. I’m limited to one mile.”

“Oh.” Lee faced forward and stared out the windshield.

Adrian shifted in his seat. “You might not be impressed, but the audience loved the disappearing magician trick in my performing days.” The wistful tone of the words made Lee look at him again.

When Lee first met Adrian, he’d made a living as Hedrick the Healer, but it was rumored he’d once been known as Montez the Magician.

“Why did you stop performing?”

Adrian flexed his fingers over the top of the steering wheel. “Where do you live?”

“Why are you changing the subject?”

“Do I take a right here or left?”

“Why did you stop performing?” Why did Lee care? The scoundrel had held her hostage and was wiping out her memory. To be fair, he was making sure she got home. That wouldn’t earn him points when she found out he’d cast a spell on her. She had to find a way to leave herself some sort of clue.

Adrian took a right when Lee didn’t answer, which was the wrong turn. It was the correct route if they were going to her old home. Maybe Adrian would settle on that if she didn’t speak.

At the next intersection, Lee tried to turn the streetlight red, but without the nazar all three colors ended up lighting at once: red, yellow, green.

Adrian slowed, then sped up when he saw oncoming traffic halt on either side of the intersection. Laughter erupted from his lips. “See how much fun there is to be had in this town?”

“I doubt you’d find it amusing if your powers backfired every time you tried to use them.”

Adrian stopped laughing and nodded. “True.” Then he smiled again. “What sport?”

“You suck.”

Adrian laughed again.

“I want my nazar back.”

“You’ll get it back once I get you home.”

“If you give it to me now I can turn all the lights green and we can get there faster.”

The look Adrian shot her was far too intimate. “Is that what you were doing back there? Trying to make the light green?”

No, the exact opposite, and they both knew it.

Lee swallowed. It was time to put Adrian back in the hot seat. “What happened to Montez the Magician?”

Adrian reached for the knob on the radio and started humming. He could have turned the music on using his powers, but he didn’t. Lee turned it off.

“I don’t know why you won’t tell me, it’s not like I’m going to remember, anyway.”

Adrian tapped his fingers lightly against the steering wheel. “I really am going to need that address.”

“Adrian, you bloody creep. Tell me!”

Adrian’s fingers tightened around the steering wheel. He slammed his foot on the gas pedal and screeched around a corner. Lee’s shoulder slammed against the door. The car accelerated down a dark road before diving into an alleyway. Lee’s arms flailed as she tried to grip a handlebar—anything to steady herself. She jolted forward when Adrian slammed on the brake.

Concrete walls boxed them in on either side. Lee’s seatbelt clicked open at the same time as Adrian’s. She met his stare and shuddered. Anger and lust twisted what remained of his composure.

Lee grasped for the door handle. It wasn’t locked as she’d expected, but as she pushed the car door open, Adrian caught hold of her calf. The door shut and this time it remained firmly locked. His fingers slid up her boot until they touched bare skin. Goose bumps jumped over Lee’s flesh. She slapped at Adrian’s hand and he removed it, but not before flashing her the Cheshire grin.

“You’ve got two choices, Gray. I can take you home or we can get cozy in this alley. I’m hoping you’ll consider the alley. Just imagine the things we could do together. And you needn’t worry about going behind your boyfriend’s back. With your memory goes the guilt.” Adrian grinned. “Or did you make up the part about the boyfriend?”

“I do have a boyfriend,” Lee snapped. “You even know him. Raj McKenna. And he’s going to see to it you never cast another spell as long as you live. We helped you. And this is how you repay us. Big mistake, Adrian. Big, big mistake.”

But he was no longer listening to her. His lips curled back. “Raj.” Adrian threw the car into reverse and screeched out of the alley.

Lee was too stunned to do anything other than grasp the door handle. Her vision turned to haze as Adrian sped down the street. Speech was impossible. Her heart beat inside her throat. Lamp posts blurred past her. Lee tried to convince herself it wasn’t real, but unlike the hazy images Stacey had projected to her before departure, these were magnified. The tires spun over pavement. The car squealed around turns and accelerated down straightaways.

Lee knew how this scenario ended. And this time she wouldn’t wake up.

Well, she didn’t have to watch. Lee closed her eyes and tried to teleport. It was useless, of course; even with full rein over her powers she’d never managed teleportation. Trying to keep her eyes closed was useless. They were open so wide, her eye sockets ached.

They careened down a sloping road and entered farmland. The houses here were spread out, their windows lit from within like jack-o’-lanterns in the night.

The next turn was gentler. Then the vehicle lurched to a stop facing a field of cows. Lee focused on the pasture as she labored to breathe.

Adrian didn’t speak until Lee’s breath was under control. She couldn’t stand to look at him so she kept her eyes on the dark field. She no longer cared to know anything about Adrian or his past, but he told her anyway.

“I’ve had this body since I was eight years old,” Adrian began. “Ever since… the accident.”

If he expected her to feel sorry for him—for what had happened to him as a child—he could forget it. Any sympathy she might have entertained was wiped out, like her memory was about to be, by his erratic behavior.

How did one with newly regained powers and her sister’s credit card spend the afternoon?

Shopping at the mall.

At least now Gray had a cell phone and a pair of plaid shorts to snap into before Raj picked her up. She layered black tights and a spaghetti-strapped tank top beneath her new ensemble, pulling a mesh sweater over the tank. Her shopping efforts were instantly rewarded when Raj showed up five minutes early.

“I’ll get it!” Gray called out at the sound of the doorbell.

Raj’s head faced the driveway when she opened the door. When his gaze fell over hers, he flushed, which was something of a feat given his dark half-Indian complexion. “You look good, Gray.” Raj glanced at her legs.

“More like myself, right?”

Gray might not have Raj’s ability to read auras, but the moment she’d opened the door, an angelic glow outlined his entire body. The sun had decided to make a cameo appearance—right in time to cast a shimmer of light over Raj.

Gray stepped onto the porch. “To Gathering we go.”

“Right.”

“Do you think Holloway has any idea what’s going on?”

Raj dragged his eyes from her legs and blinked several times. “Not that he’s sharing, but he must know something.”

“Here’s hoping.” Gray walked ahead of Raj to his car, which was parked beside the Beetle in the driveway. She could feel his gaze on her rear. Gray smiled when she pulled open the passenger door. “Still not locking your doors, McKenna?”

Their eyes locked over the roof and they stood a moment, frozen in place. Then Raj looked away as though snapping out of a fog and climbed inside. They closed their doors in unison.

Gray cleared her throat once they’d reached the main road. “Maybe you can catch me up on the past ten months. How long have you lived with your mom and sister?”

Her question had the desired effect of causing Raj’s shoulders to relax.

“I moved in with them a couple days after your purge.”

“I don’t see your Zippo.”

Raj chuckled. “Mom confiscated it.”

“Good.” Gray waited for Raj to say more, but he didn’t. If he was going to be tightlipped, then far be it from her to spill her own guts.

Finally, the silence got the better of him. “So, you really woke up in France?”

It was Gray’s turn to chuckle. “Yep—came to in a cafeteria full of French students.”

“I can’t imagine.” Raj looked sideways at her. “And you managed to get yourself halfway around the world with no powers? I’m impressed.”

“Yeah, first trip abroad. It wasn’t quite how I imagined. Maybe next time I’ll get to see something other than the train station and airport: like the Louvre or Eiffel Tower.” Gray looked at the strip mall outside her window.

“Ahem.”

“What?”

Raj jutted his chin toward the red traffic light they were waiting on.

“Oh, right.” A car coming from the left braked suddenly when his light abruptly changed. Gray didn’t want to turn the light green. She wanted more time alone with Raj before they reached Gathering. Gray crossed her right leg over her left. “So, you’re a senior this year. Have you applied to college?”

“Lee and I applied and were accepted into Burlington College in Vermont.”

“Vermont!”
Lee and Raj attending university together!

Raj slammed on the brake when the next light abruptly turned red.

Gray’s cheeks heated and it had nothing to do with fantasizing about Raj’s lips on hers a moment earlier. “Vermont is so… far away,” she finished lamely.

Raj grinned at her. “It’s not that far. Much closer than, say, France.” Raj chuckled. “And it’s a beautiful little town. The college offers a unique hands-on experience and the school’s small: the way we like it.”

We?