Hexed (The Gwen Sparks Series Book 4) (27 page)

“SO…WHY THE lemons and water?”

We all stood in a circle around Gwen, who was standing in a blow-up kiddie pool, dressed in a tank top and a pair of jeans. Her hair was still up in the messy bun, but a few pieces had escaped and now teased the curve of her shoulder.

“In order for the spell to work,” Fiona said, squeezing juice from the lemons into a bucket of water, we need to purify Gwen. The lemons and distilled water help with that.” Looking up, she said, “I’ll also burn sage around her.”

I shrugged out of my jacket. “I’m going with her, though. Shouldn’t I also be in there?” I nodded toward the pool. There was no way I was sending Gwen back in time by herself.

“The less people sent back, the better chance we have at not screwing with the future.”

I snorted. “The whole reason we’re doing this is to screw with the future.” I worked the strings on my boots loose and slipped them and my socks off. “She’s not going without me.”

Fiona and Ethan shared a look, Ethan cocking a smug brow. “Told you.”

“Yeah, yeah you were right,” Fiona deadpanned. “Good thing we got enough ingredients for two spells.”

I was actually surprised Ethan had called my actions before Fiona. She had to know when it came to Gwen’s safety, I’d be on the frontline. Stepping into the pool, I slipped my sunglasses off and handed them to Fiona. Gwen’s head lifted and our eyes met. She stared into the abyss of my sockets, her face relaxing the slightest bit. When she lifted a hand to my chest and rested her head against me, my arms automatically came around her back. I wanted so badly to look over to Aiden and show him the smugness I felt, but he wasn’t worth my attention.

“Ow,” Gwen moaned, leaning away from me and cradling her head in her hands. “Ow…son of a bitch.”

“What’s wrong?” I knelt down just enough to be eye level with her. Her entire face was creased in pain, her eyes squeezed shut.

“Gwen, what is going on?”

“Migraine,” she pushed through tight lips, “intense…migraine.”

“Fiona?” I asked, why I had no clue; they hadn’t started the spell yet. I had a feeling this wasn’t just a random headache.

“I don’t know,” Fiona said, her voice panicked. “Do you think the NAWC is doing something?” I assumed the question was directed at Ethan because I had no fucking clue what the NAWC was capable of.

“It’s possible,” Ethan replied. The calmness of his voice made me want to punch him in the face.

“How do we fix it?” Aiden stepped forward but I shot him a warning look to not touch her. A heartbreaking, painful moan traveled up Gwen’s throat and infected my bones. My fingers trembled against her body, my brain at a loss on what to do.
What should I do?

Gwen’s entire body crumpled in on itself. It was only my arms tightening around her frame that kept her from falling to the floor. Her head lolled back, and her jaw slackened. Moving quickly, I carried her out of the pool and lay her out onto the couch.

“Is she…” Fiona asked, a catch in her throat.

I shook my head, my chest tightening as my heart beat painfully. “No, just passed out.”

“If this is the NAWC’s doing,” Aiden said, coming around to stand behind the couch, “they’ll be here once they find out Gwen’s not at her place. They’ll search every person she’s associated with.”

“I’ll stand guard outside,” Lauren offered, her heels clacking against the floor as she headed toward the door.

“Only kill as a last resort,” Aiden called after her.

My eyes snapped up to him before falling back to Gwen. At that moment, I would kill anyone and anything that tried to touch her. Ice consumed the heat in my body and left my bones frozen. My breath came out in puffs of fog as I tried to gain control over my emotions. I bent Gwen’s arm up and rested it against her stomach, gripping her hand as I tried to think of something that could help her. I wasn’t used to feeling helpless.

“What do we do?” I asked, aggravated. “I don’t know what to do.” What good was having magic if it couldn’t be used in times of need? Surely Ethan or Fiona had a spell that would help Gwen, stop whatever it was that had taken ahold of her.

“We could try my blood,” Aiden offered.

My jaw cracked, along with what little hold I had on my patience. “Did you do something to her? Was this your plan all along?”

“What are you talking about?” Aiden said.

“She’s not injured,” I snapped. “Vampire blood only heals injuries, so why in hell do you think it would heal her? Lauren told me about your guys’ little plan. Not happening.”

Aiden’s eyes thinned. “That’s not your choice. If you would put aside your hatred of me, then maybe you’d see it’s a viable option. You guys don’t even know if traveling back in time will work. Do you have a plan B?”

“What are you guys talking about?” Fiona questioned. Since Ethan was in the room there was no way in hell I was going to tell her about the hybrids. In our world they were still considered a myth, one that many feared. I wouldn’t put it past Ethan to run back to the NAWC and tell them.

“Nothing,” I answered, still keeping eye contact with Aiden. “It’s moot because it’s not happening.” Blackness seeped around the edges of the vampire’s eyes, and his fingers curled into fists at his side. If the leech wanted to go, we’d go. I’d been waiting months to kick his ass.

Gwen stirred, her hand coming up to her forehead. She groaned moments before her eyes opened. Kneeling, I brushed her hair away from her face.

“Gwen? Are you okay?” When she tried to sit up, I slipped an arm around her back and helped her. Leaning forward, she rested her elbows on her knees and hung her head into her hands.

“What happened?”

“You passed out,” I said, moving to sit beside her. “How are you feeling?”

Running her fingers through her head, she looked over at me. “Like someone took a wrecking ball to my skull.”

“I’ll get some aspirin,” Fiona said, rushing toward her purse. She came back in with a glass of water and held out two oval-shaped pills. Gwen popped them into her mouth and drank the entire glass of water in one breath.

“We should get back to the spell,” Gwen said, standing. She wavered and I reached out to steady her.

“We’ll worry about the spell later,” I told her. “Just take it easy. We still don’t know why you passed out.”

“Patrick’s in town, maybe he worked some of his mojo on me. We’re running out of time. If the NAWC is here, that means Holly’s here.” Her eyes were wide, her face pale.

I looked to Fiona and Aiden, confused. “Gwen, Holly’s dead.”

She stared up at me with those wide blue eyes, and slowly her face relaxed. “I know,” she said, her voice implying that she thought
I
was strange for telling her.

“Did you tell her about Holly?” Fiona asked, keeping her voice low so Gwen wouldn’t hear.

I’d been so worried about Gwen’s wellbeing that I hadn’t even realized that she mentioned someone from her past, someone no one had told her about.

“No.”

“Gwen,” Fiona said, taking a step toward her, “what do you remember?”

Gwen shrugged. “What do you mean?”

“Do you remember…us?” Fiona gestured around the room to signal herself, Aiden and me. We all stared at Gwen, waiting for her reply. She twisted at the waist and looked at Aiden as if just noticing he was there.

“Of course I remember you guys,” she said, turning back to face Fiona and me. “Why wouldn’t I?”

“Can you tell me how you and I met?” Fiona asked.

“At Hogwarts,” she said seriously.

I couldn’t help myself, I burst out laughing. The council members of the NAWC all resided in a castle in Moon, where Fiona and Gwen had met when they were sixteen.

Gwen’s brows furrowed. “What?”

Getting control over myself, I shook my head. “Hogwarts is a fictional town, Gwen. It’s from Harry Potter.”

A slight blush colored her cheeks, but she brushed it off. “Yeah, I know. I meant we met in the dark forest. There was a castle in the distance.”

“I met Gwen at the opening of Moon,” Fiona told me. “That’s what she’s thinking of.”

Moon was surrounded by a forest and the opening was a shimmer only other witches could see and enter. While her reference to Harry Potter was close, it still unnerved me that she was so discombobulated.

“I think this is Amara’s doing,” I said. “I asked her to restore Gwen’s memories. Maybe the confusion is a side effect and will wear off.”

“Who’s Amara?” Fiona asked.

“Old friend.”

“She’s the puppeteer of life,” Gwen replied, stretching her fingers out in front of her and moving them up and down as though controlling strings on a puppet. She was half-right, considering that Amara was a Fate.

“She knows the truth about things, but it’s like she can’t process her thoughts,” I said.

“Maybe your friend messed up,” Aiden chimed in, moving around the couch to stand beside Gwen. She swiveled her head and looked at him, but when she reached a hand out to touch his face, my chest tightened and squeezed the air out of my lungs.

“The trickster,” she whispered, dropping her arm. “Always playing tricks and wounding damsels with your lies.” She dropped her eyes and turned her back to Aiden. When her eyes met mine, they were glossy. Was she on the verge of crying? I wanted to comfort her, maybe even feel sorry for her, but I couldn’t. At the moment, the only emotion I felt was anger. Was she really still affected by Aiden, after everything he did to her? I thought after I admitted to myself how I felt about Gwen I would understand how emotions worked, but I was just as perplexed as before. I couldn’t understand her feelings toward the vampire. Or maybe I just didn’t want to.

“Can you call your friend and see when this will wear off?” Fiona asked. “We really don’t have time to wait. Like Aiden said, it won’t be long before Patrick shows up here.”

“Yeah, I’ll try to get a hold of her.” Heading out of the living room, I pulled my cell phone out of my pocket and leaned against the wall in the hallway.

“He loves me. He loves me not. He loves me,” I heard Gwen say from the other room.

As I selected Amara’s name on my contact list, the front door swung open. Lauren shoved Bree and Reece through the door, her fangs extended as she snarled at the two.

Shit, what now?

“I’ve been waiting for your call,” Amara’s voice sounded over the phone. I hadn’t realized I even pressed the call button.

“Then you know what I’m calling about. How long before it wears off?” I eyed Bree and Reece as Lauren shoved them further into the foyer. Their eyes found me, calm considering a very pissed off vampire was at their backs. As spirit walkers, they could conjure the victims of murderers, and since vampires almost always leave a trail of blood, they had a lot of victims to call. Bree and Reece could have an army of ghosts here with a snap of their finger, and Lauren wouldn’t be able to fend them off. However, it wasn’t Lauren they needed to fear.

“Her mind was offline for awhile,” Amara said. “It’s slowly coming back online, processing all the memories that were deleted. It should wear off in an hour or so.”

“Why didn’t you warn me of this?”

“Would it have mattered? She’s got her mind back.”

“Still, a little warning would have been nice. She passed out, and it scared the shit out of me.

“Time is running out, Dorian,” Amara said, ignoring my comment. “A choice will have to be made, either by you or the powers that be.”

“I know.” Aggravated by the entire night, I ended the call and turned to deal with Bree and Reece.

“What are you two doing here?” They were smart enough to now look nervous. They glanced at each other and back to me. “Well?”

Reece was the first to speak. “You brought us here to move souls, and we’ve done that.” He paused, his eyes going to the right as Gwen and Fiona appeared in the doorway of the living room. Gwen cocked her head to the side, her eyes thinning the slightest bit as though she was trying to figure out a puzzle.

“And?” I prompted, bringing Reece’s attention back to me. I didn’t need him to tell me why they was here, I knew. I just wanted to see if he had the balls to admit it, to face me and tell me they had come for Gwen’s soul. I stared at him, challenging him to utter those words.

“She,” he started, his voice uneven, “she’s not right.”

A bitter snort fell through my lips. Ms. Willow had said the same thing, and now hearing it from Reece, all I could think was just how right she was—at least for me, but I knew that’s not what he meant.

“And what do you plan to do about it?” I asked, challenging him again.
Do it, Reece, tell me you’re going to extract her soul.
Every little piece of frustration, anger and helplessness I’d felt over the past few days seeped to the surface, looking for a way to break free. Right now, that channel was Reece.

“N—nothing,” he said, “we were…curious.”

“Curiosity didn’t work out too well for the cat,” I told him. I pointed to Gwen and said, “She’s my business, nobody else’s. Got it?”

“Tick, tick, tick,” Gwen said, motioning her head back and forth after each word. “Boom.”

Reece looked at me questioning, his eyes flicking between Gwen and me. Her bizarre words weren’t what bothered me so much, it was the normalcy in which she spoke them. Her voice was normal, her features were normal. She spoke as though everything she said made sense.

“What’s wrong with her?” Bree asked, taking a step forward. I mimicked her and took a step toward her. I liked Reece and Bree, but right now they were a threat toward Gwen, and I extinguished threats.

“She lost her memories and is now slowly regaining them,” Fiona replied. I hated that she told them that, that would only lead to more questions and the less they knew, the better.

“How did she get them back?” Bree asked.

I shook my head. I did not want to deal with this right now; I had more important things to deal with. “You two need to leave.”

“We want to help,” Reece and Bree said at the same time. “Despite how it looks, we didn’t come here to kill Gwen. We both noticed something wasn’t quite right with her the day we had lunch together. The others haven’t noticed, and we haven’t told them.” He took a step toward me, holding out his hand as though trying to calm a wild animal. “With so few spirit walkers in this world, the least we can do is help save her.”