Scary Cool (The Spellspinners) (13 page)

I found my voice. “Why not stay forty-eight? If you’re stronger that way. Why not skip the whole mating thing? I mean, wow,
imagine
how
strong you’d be if there were only ten of you. Or seven, since you seem to have a ‘thing’ about sevens.”

“Well, think about it, Zara.” Her voice dripped contempt. “
W
hen
our
numbers drop below forty-nine,
spellspinners
are not only stronger, they’re
fertile
.
So when the call goes out, we have to stop having sex.
What if we mated with sticks and started reproducing all over the place?
Why, in a year or two there’d probably be no
spellspinners
at all—
the Power would get diluted and diluted until there was
nothing left!
N
o
,
it’s
better that the Council choose a couple—based on bloodline
s, you know—and make it happen by decree
. They choose way in advance. Lance and I have known
for years that we would
be next.”

But now I was genuinely puzzled. “What do you mean, stop having sex? Can you do whatever you want, the rest of the time?”

Her laughter was high and childish, like tinkling bells. “Just one of the many advantages we have over the sticks, sugar.”

Her laughter, her pacing, her
antagonism
,
even the gusts of wind,
were distracting me. There was something important tu
gging at the edges of my brain—some nugget buried in what she’d just told me—
but I’d have to
pull it out
later.
When Amber was gone. And after I’d managed t
o stop picturing Lance with her, because frankly, the
mental
image was making me
nauseous
.

She suddenly stopped in her tracks, facing me dead-on. “So now you know,” she said, “if you didn’t before, why you have to go.”

“Go?”

“It’s a euphemism, honey.” Her voice was silky. “I hear Lance tried to take the Power from you and couldn’t do it. You wouldn’t let him.” She shook her head, feigning regret. “Too bad. Something tells me you’re going to wish you had trusted him, back when you had the chance.”

All this time, I had been lounging on the gazebo steps. Suddenly that didn’t seem like the best defensive position. I got slowly to my feet, absently dusting the back of my jeans with my hand. “Well,” I said. “I think I see your point. Fifty
spellspinners
is one too many, huh?”

“That’s right, sugar. You not only put us in danger with
the sticks
—you make us all weaker. And
that
—“ she stepped a little closer. “Just won’t do.”

The air thickened with menace. Before I could move or think, Amber vanished. And almost immediately I felt a hard shove between my shoulder blades. I stumbled forward, nearly falling onto the cement path.
As I turned to face my enemy, I saw her out of the corner of my eye on the top step of the gazebo—where she had
skatched
in order to attack me from behind—but she vanished again.
Skatching
may be Amber’s only power, but
she’d
turned
it into an art form
. She reappeared on the grass to my left, running toward me.

Her movements were so
quick
and unexpected,
my brain
couldn’t process them
. I froze like a de
er in the headlights while she
rushed and tackled
me. My feet actually left the ground and
I
flew backwards, landing
on my back on the lawn with Amber on top
of me. Most of the air
whuffed
out of me on impact, but she wasted no time in making matters worse. Her long, strong fingers closed around my throat.

I had a glimpse of Amber’s furious face above me, her teeth bared in a snarl, her golden eyes narrowed. Then instinct took over.

I don’t know
how to describe what happened…
I
flicked
her. Power normally enters my body through the soles of my feet, but lying on the ground like that, it seemed to shoot up into every inch of my back
side
—my spine, the backs of my thighs, the back of my head, everywhere I was touching the planet. And Amber
flew
off and away from me
like
a spat watermelon seed.

I didn’t flick her hard—at least, it didn’t seem so to me. But she slammed into the gazebo with so much force that a shower of dead leaves and sticks slid off the roof and pattered down around her like rain.

I sat up, sucking in air like I’d been drowning. Amber looked stunned. Well, she probably was, quite literally. I dimly realized that her feet were dangling in the air above the ground; somehow I had pinned her to the post. I let her go—again, with my mind, so it’s hard to describe. She immediately slid down to the ground, still with her back against the gazebo. Her knees buckled. She reached behind her and grabbed part of the latticed w
all for support, breathing hard and staring at me. Her face was filled with hate, but her eyes weren’t glowing anymore.

“Keep your distance,” I said quietly. There was no need to shout. I was quite certain she’d take my warning to heart.
“From now on.”

“It’s not…
up to yo
u,” she panted. “Do you think…
you can keep us
all
away?
By yourself?
You can’t.”

A voice came out of the shadows behind me. “She won’t be by herself.” Lance stepped into the circle of moonlit lawn surrounding the gazebo. His anger seemed to fill the entire space, making the air around us pulse and turn red, swirling with dark images. I was amazed that Amber could stand upright against the onslaught of Lance’s anger—until I remembered that she couldn’t pick it up the way I could.

Amber’s eyes
shifted
from my face to his. “You can’t choose her over me.” Her voice, despite sounding winded, sounded perfectly certain. “You can’t.”

“Amber.” Lance’s soft voice sounded almost regretful. “I already have.”

I stared at him. A chill ran down my spine—or was it a thrill? I don’t know
what my reaction was, apart from
surprise.

Amber’s reaction was clear. She was livid.
“Why, you lying little
s.o.b
.—who do you think you are?”
She started toward him, but something in Lance’s face, or mine, stopped her in her tracks. She licked her lips, her eyes darting from Lance to me and back again. I sensed her uncertainty and realized she was afraid.

I got to my feet—wincing a little; she had really knocked me down hard. But I thought Lance and I should show her a united front.

She lowered her head like an animal at bay. “You’ll never get away with this,” she told Lance. “They’ll come for you, too. Is that what you want?”

He shrugged. “Maybe they will. Maybe they won’t.”

Amber’s laugh was breathless and disbelieving. “You think they won’t?
You think they’ll let you make any old choice you want?
You’re dreaming, lover.”

I shot Lance a mental message.
Can I send her away? I’m tired of this.

The corner of his mouth twitched, but his gaze remained leveled on Amber.
Best to let me deal with her
.

So
I crossed my arms and
waited, eyeing Amber sourly.
She was looking back and forth between the two of us again,
sizing up the situation. A
gust of that stran
ge September wind hit me, flappi
ng my jacket
. I felt my hair fly
out around my head
in
a halo
, writhing like Medusa’s snakes. Maybe I looked scary; I
dunno
. All I know is that Amber straightened and took a step back.

“All right,” she said, still speaking to Lance. “Protect her if you can. But
they’re taking her down. D
on’t blame me if they take you down, too.
” And she vanished.

I knew she was really gone this time. The negative energy lifted
like a lid popping off
.

I let my breath out in a whoosh. “Wow,” I said. “That was interesting.”

“I’ll bet,” said Lance
wryly
. Then he looked at me. “Are you okay?”

“Fine.” My tone may have been a tad frosty. “Where were you, by the way?”

“Walking.” He did not sound happy about it. “Did you know Cherry Glen has a noise ordinance? I can’t ride my bike here after ten p.m.”

“Well, that sucks. Did you forget how to
skatch
?”

I saw his jaw clench. “No, I didn’t forget how to
skatch
,” he snapped. “I couldn’t
skatch
.
Next time, cupcake, don’t arrive so
friggin
’ early.”

My confusion must have registered because he sighed and rubbed his forehead. “Can’t get through to her,” he muttered to himself. “Jeez.”

“What?”

“The banishment. Remember?” He jammed his hands in his pockets. “I can’t
skatch
to wherever you are.”

Realization dawned. “So
…because I was already here
, you couldn’t
skatch
to the park
?”

“You got it.”
Disgusted, he strolled off down the path toward the drinking fountain. I followed. “
When I tried, nothing happened.
By the time I figured out what was wrong and headed out
on foot, Amber was ahead of me
.”

I felt an urge to apologize. I quashed it.
“Oh.”
He drank, then turned back toward me, wiping his mouth with his hand. I was conscious of an urge to
reach up and
do
it
for him. Quashed that, too. “Why did you tell me Amber wasn’t powerful?”

“She isn’t.”

“She
acts like
she is.”

“She’s…well-connected.
Her grandfather and her great-grandmother are
on the
Council.”

“Her
great
-grandmother?” I was impressed in spite of myself.

Lance, predi
ctably, read my mind.
“She’s a hundred and two
.”

“Wow. I could tell she was older than you, but I didn’t think—“

“Not Amber.” Silent
laughter shook him
as he appreciated my little joke
. “Amber’s twenty-three
.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Still a tad old for you, Lance. Sorry.”

“Oh, I don’t know.” He started strolling back toward the gazebo. “Six years isn’t so much.
And you
gotta
admit, she’s a looker.
”

A low growl started in my throat. Lance grinned. He was enjoying this. “Jealousy is good for you,” he
said
.

“F
or people i
n general? Or me personally?”

“You personally.
”
He stopped and glanced around the park. “Is there somewhere else we could go?”

“Not yet.” I hated to admit it, but I was
starting to feel
a little shaky. It’s not every day that someone tries to kill you. At least not in my world.
A reaction was
setting
in
.

Lance looked me at sharply, frowning. “You need to sit down.”

I didn’t argue.

“The steps will be okay.” I weaved slightly as I headed back to the gazebo and plunked my
trembling
body down on the shallow wooden steps. Lance sat beside me, silent. And by silent, I mean I couldn’t hear his thoughts, either.
“Talk to me,” I said faintly. “I’ll listen.
It’s time you told me about her.”

He was still frowning. “There’s nothing to tell.”

Anger licked through me. “Nothing? How about the fact that you
’re
supposed
to have a
baby
with her?”

Now he looked uncomfortable. I’d never seen Lance Donovan look uncomfortable before. “Well, that’s not carved in stone.”

“Amber thinks it is.”

“Okay.” He sighed
and leaned forward, resting his arms on his knees so he didn’t have to look at me while he spoke.
“The Council chooses which
spellspinners
get to reproduce. There’s so few of us, we have to be careful about
pedigrees
. So there’s nothing personal about it. It’s just, you know, what’s best for the race. Amber and I make a good match. We’re not closely related, and…” His voice trailed off and then he shrugged. “Amber’s not so bad.
She just doesn’t like you.”