Faustine (14 page)

“What’s she doing in New York? It’s just a matter of time before Suman’s going to wonder where her daughter is, if she isn’t already.”

Alexandra nodded. “The two of them are very close; so yes, I’m sure Suman is going crazy with worry. Especially now, knowing about Peter’s death. I’m sure the London faction has been notified about Suman’s concerns. I’m expecting a call sometime soon, but I hope to have Kismet back before then.”

“So Dorian probably knows, but he hasn’t called me....”

“Probably because you put him in charge of London, and he’s trying to find out what’s going on.”

“Yeah, Kismet’s in New York, though. So she’s kinda my responsibility,” I said.

“No. Not even after you are sworn in. This is New York business now.”

“What was she doing here in New York, anyway?”

“Having her sabbatical exchange years. She does two years of high school here, then goes back to London. Because she is so special, her educational curriculum was developed by a joint global council of paranormals. She is getting a broader human/ paranormal education than most.”

“All right. We’d better track her then,” I said, standing up.

Alexandra got Taylor out of bed, and we drove over to Edith’s with Taylor still half in snoozeland. Alexandra’s phone rang just before we entered the building in the west village.

“That was Suman,” Alexandra said, coming back to where we were waiting for her. “She’s worried sick because Kismet hasn’t called. She received permission to engage the New York faction to find out why, and since I live closest to Kismet and our daughters are in school together, she called me.”

“Oh,” I said, slightly disappointed that Suman had gone over my head and not informed me first. I guess permission from Dorian was adequate.

“I reassured her that I would talk to Taylor and also go by the apartment. I have to call her back in a few hours. She is planning to fly over,” Alexandra stated.

“Okay, we better get this show on the road then,” I said. “Let’s go up to Edith’s apartment.”

A
lair
is an apt description of where we ended up. The building itself was typically west village, but Edith’s apartment was a caricature of what you would expect a witch sovereign’s apartment to look like. And it didn't help that Edith was a bit of a caricature herself. She obviously took her role as sovereign witch very literally, and looking the part was evidently important to her. Her long gypsy skirt swirled as she walked us into the living room.

The walls were painted a deep, burnt orange color, darker than a typical Halloween-orange. The floors were covered with a large assortment of colorful cushions and beanbag chairs. There was not a traditional sofa in sight. The walls were lined with dark wooden shelves, which were covered in odd knick-knacks. There was even a large glass–or maybe crystal–ball on a side table. To complete the effect, there were a bunch of black cats roaming around the apartment.

Edith was much taller than I had expected–and quite beautiful. For whatever reason, I had expected her to look like Pauline, but Edith looked more like a movie star from the 1940s or ‘50s–like Lauren Bacall–very glamorous in an old-fashioned way.

“Fernando, out! And take the others with you!” Edith ordered, clapping her hands at a sleepy-looking black cat.

Although I had been warned, I practically collapsed when she spoke. That voice! That strange accent! I clenched my jaw firmly to stifle my giggles.

“Snicker away, Faustine. I’m used to it,” Edith laughed.

So I guffawed, mainly nervous giggles, until I got it out of my system, with Neave and Alexandra looking at me in wide-eyed horror. Taylor was chuckling right along with me. She was obviously as tense as I was, and we both needed the relief.  Once we were silent again, Edith smiled, but soon after, the smile turned into a frown.

“Who are
you
?” she asked Neave, like she hadn’t noticed her until now.  “I didn’t notice you come in, you must have been walking behind Alexandra. I was only expecting the three of you.”

“I’m sorry, Edith. I should have called ahead to let you know. This is Neave, a school friend of Taylor’s and Faustine’s. She is here to support Taylor.”

If Edith sensed anything about Neave, she certainly didn’t show it. She smiled at her. “Well, welcome to my home, Neave.”

“Thanks for having me,” Neave returned.

“Taylor,” Edith said, redirecting her attention. “Has your mom explained what’s about to happen?”

“Not really. She said you’d go through it. All she told me is that you’re going to track Kismet through me, since I’m the only one who seems to know her. How exactly will you do that, and what will I feel and see? And what am I expected to do?” Taylor whispered. “Will it hurt?”

Neave took her hand.

“Taylor, I know that you agreed to
track
Kismet. You need to understand, however, how important Kismet is to us. It’s not just a matter of tracking her, we need to retrieve her. It will mean going into the vision and bringing Kismet back from it.”

Taylor looked horrified. “How will I do that?”

“That will depend on the vision. It could be very dangerous. You’ll need to prepare yourself mentally by remembering that what you see is only an illusion; your body is not really there until the moment you make physical contact with Kismet. Then your body will be in a state of flux–both here and wherever Kismet is, yet not fully in either place. That will be your chance to pull her back to safety with you.”

“Could I be physically hurt if my body isn’t really there?” Taylor inquired nervously.

Edith nodded. “Unfortunately, yes. Although, the injuries won’t come from whatever you are visualizing, your brain will signal the scars to form where you think you are being harmed. And during the time your body is in flux, both you and Kismet can be harmed physically, even killed.”

“Look, I’m not really into this...” Taylor murmured. “I think you should find someone else. What about Kismet’s family? Can’t you get one of them?”

“We are trying to keep this from her family. Since it happened here in New York, it’s up to me and the New York faction to fix this,” Alexandra said firmly. “I don’t want to get involved in an international incident so early into my reign. I’m already on shaky ground.”

“What about Faustine? Why can’t she do it? They are half sisters! You told me that,” Taylor said, her eyes blazing.

“That would be ideal, but they’ve never met. Faustine doesn’t even know what Kismet looks like or feels like, so how would she track her?” Alexandra shrugged.

“Wait a minute,” I said. “Can’t I go with Taylor? She could lead me to Kismet, and I could take it from there. That would work, right?”

Edith and Alexandra looked at each other fixedly. Their shields must have been at least partially down. I could feel their intense energy, even though my own shield remained in place. I was so tempted to listen in, but I knew if I let my guard down, I might pass on information to them that I needed to keep safe–like the fact that Neave was a witch. Plus, I had an ulterior motive that I couldn’t share. We weren’t going in to rescue just Kismet. We had to bring back Luke as well.

After listening to Edith, I was fairly sure that Pauline’s spell had broken when Luke’s body was in a state of flux; otherwise, he wouldn’t have just disappeared. If I was right, then he must have made contact with Kismet and was perhaps trying to rescue her. When the spell was unexpectedly broken, he became trapped with her. So, Luke should be with Kismet. We had to bring them both back.

“Faustine, what you propose is an interesting idea,” Edith said, thoughtfully. “I have never done this before, and I’m not sure how it would work. The concept is interesting, though. Sending you both in would certainly increase our chances at success. And with Taylor feeling so unsure, this may be the only option.”

“Then let’s do it, and stop wasting time,” I suggested impatiently.

“I’ll need to call in more energy sources–witches. Even I don’t have the kind of energy needed to execute a plan like this on my own. Stay here, and I’ll go make the necessary arrangements.”

She returned a few minutes later with a cigar dangling from the side of her mouth. She was obviously stressed.

“I’ve called in the cavalry, they’ll be here shortly. In the meantime, let’s go through the plan.”

Alexandra nodded. “Edith, thank you.”

“No need to thank me. I want Kismet brought back just as much as you do. I can’t for the life of me understand who would have taken her. Who would be impervious enough to her undeniable goodness to actually harm her?”

“Maybe they didn’t take her to harm her?” Neave suggested. “Maybe they need her for something else?”

Edith shook her head. “The very act of taking her
against her will
is harming her.”

Neave shrugged. “Yeah, but we don’t know that for sure, do we? That she was taken against her will. All we know is that she
may
have disappeared from the restroom at school. The only indication we have of an abduction is that piece from her necklace that Luke found. For goodness sake, she could have dropped it anytime! How do we know that she was taken against her will, or that she was taken at all?”

“I agree,” I conceded. “We don’t know that she was taken against her will. There were no signs of struggle in the restroom. However, I think we can be fairly certain that she is missing. No one, including her mother, has heard from her. I did get that text from Kismet’s phone to meet her in the restroom, but that could have been a hoax.”

Alexandra shook her head and sighed. “So, now what? Do we still attempt to rescue her? Or shall we track her first to find out if she needs rescuing?”

“I guess it would be less complicated to do them separately. The problem I foresee is that I will have no way of stopping the tracking from turning into something else,” Edith said.

Like what had happened with Luke, I thought to myself. He had been sent in to track only, but something went awry. “Let’s stick with the plan,” I suggested. “Taylor and I will both go in. She will track Kismet and lead me to her. I will do the rescuing,
if
needed.”

Taylor nodded. “Yeah. I’m not doing this on my own.”

“Okay,” Edith and Alexandra agreed.

“Once I bring Faustine to Kismet, can I leave her behind to deal with whatever and come back by myself?” Taylor asked.

Edith shook her head. “The only way I can do this is to send you into the vision together as a single entity. I can’t run separate spells for each of you; I don’t even think that’s possible. You’ll have to wait for Faustine and come back together.”

“How will you know when to break the spell and bring us back?” I asked.

“You will signal me,” Edith replied. “
Chanel
will be the password.”

Good. I’d have no trouble remembering that, and I was unlikely to inadvertently use that word during a struggle, which I sincerely hoped there wouldn’t be. Taylor would freak.

There was a knock on the door, and Edith rose from her red cushion to answer it. She returned with two ladies and a man. She introduced me first. I was presented as the Demon Queen of London. Queen. Wow, that sounded a bit too grown-up for me to carry off. Being a demon princess hadn’t in any way prepared me for this. I needed a quick stint in some sort of prep school for demon queens. Interestingly, Taylor was introduced as a witch. Neave was introduced, as an afterthought, as Taylor’s and my friend from school.

The first to be introduced to us was Petunia. Petunia was, despite her name, far from flowery. She wore her dark hair tied back in a sleek bun. The harshness of the bun matched her dark pantsuit, which would have been oh-so-boring without the pink flash of her satin blouse from underneath the fastened jacket.

The second witch, Cormel, was dressed just like Petunia. They must have been yanked off their stockbroker or banker day-jobs in the city for this. They both smiled at us as they were introduced, stepped out of their Manolos, and made themselves comfortable on the floor cushions.

The last to be introduced was the only male in the room. Morten–a wizard. I sure wouldn’t have guessed that looking at him, though. There really was no
look
for paranormals. Morten, despite his name, was a redneck. Thankfully, his trucker cap hid most of his blond mullet. He was dressed in light blue Wrangler jeans and a white tank top with the words
Coors Light
across it. I wished I had asked Tessa and Neave about wizards. I knew next to nothing about them. All I really knew about them was that they were the male counterparts to witches–as were warlocks, but they were the dark forces. I found it strange that the males were called different names depending on whether they were good or bad, but the females were witches, no matter what.

Morten took off his high-tops–phew, those socks must have been worn several days–and sat down on a cushion as well.

I peeked out the window to catch the glimpse of a gorgeous red sky as the sun was setting while Edith walked around the room lighting the dozens of candles scattered all over the place. The room soon filled with the calming scent of lavender combined with a hint of ginger. We took our positions. Edith, Petunia, Cormel and Morten moved to the center of the room and joined hands to form a circle around Taylor and me. Edith placed Kismet’s white scale between us. Alexandra and Neave were asked to leave, so they quietly left to wait it out in the kitchen. Taylor and I joined hands and closed our eyes tight.