Authors: Kimberly Kinrade
OCEAN PULLED OFF
my blankets, and cold air assaulted my
underdressed body. "Go away."
I drew my
pillow over my head and scrambled to find a corner of the blanket to reclaim,
but she'd removed it from my bed entirely.
"I will
not go away. You need to get your ass out of bed and take a proper shower
before I bring a bucket of cold water and bathe you in your sheets."
I peeked
around my pillow.
My best friend
stood with arms crossed, her wild red hair tumbling around her shoulders and
down her back like half-awake snakes, her green eyes squinting in
determination. She raised an eyebrow. "I'm serious, Rose. You can't keep
this up. We have work to do."
In the last
several weeks I'd fallen in love, only to discover that Derek's family was our
coven's sworn enemy, and I'd inadvertently destroyed his brother's soul with my
dark gift. I'd lost my best furry friend, Sandy, to a fire. Her puppies had
been slaughtered in the most gruesome way, and I'd discovered them. My coven
now hated me and Mother and Jasmine weren't speaking to me. I'd used power
borrowed from Derek to defeat Mother and trap her in her own magical prison—which
hadn't won me any points with anyone here but Ocean.
After that
battle, Derek's power had lingered in me, like a lover's scent on a pillow.
When it had faded, I'd been left empty, alone and without hope.
I really didn't
see the value in getting out of bed. Ever.
Obviously,
Ocean had different ideas.
She left my
bedroom and came back with a large glass of water so cold it had already
frosted the glass. "Get up, Rose. Last warning. You smell, you look like
shit, and if you stand any chance of getting Derek back, then we have a few
mysteries to solve."
I stood no
chance of getting Derek back. I wouldn't forgive me if I were him, but she was
right. We did have some mysteries to solve. Like what was Derek's brother,
Dean, doing at our house the night I'd used my power on him, and what was
Mother's relationship to their father, and what else was Mother hiding?
With a sigh, I
swung my legs over the side of the bed and held my hands up in surrender. "Fine.
Fine. Just back away with the water. I'd prefer my shower warm and not in my
bed."
With a
gloating smile plastered on her beautiful face, she sauntered out of the room.
As tempted as
I was to flop back into my warm cocoon, I knew she'd be back with the water if
I didn't emerge from my room soon.
Even the
simple act of taking a shower broke off more slivers of my already damaged
heart. The warm water brought back memories of Derek's eyes on me as I'd
pleasured myself in the hot tub while he'd stroked himself. I rubbed my body
down with soap, craving his touch, his arms, his body against mine, and the pain
of losing him rushed in to fill the empty spaces of my soul.
The shower
washed my tears down the drain, and I dried my eyes, put on clean clothes, and
did my best to face the world as I joined Ocean.
She shoved a
sandwich at me as soon as I stepped foot in our small kitchen. "You need
to eat. You've lost too much weight while nursing your depression."
"It's
only been a few days," I argued. "I hardly think this warrants an
intervention." But I picked up the sandwich and took a bite, and with that
one act my appetite resurfaced with a vengeance.
"A few
days of you texting and calling Derek every fifteen seconds, while sobbing into
your pillow. Yeah, that gets old fast. Now it's time to take action."
Between
mouthfuls of turkey and cheese I asked, "What kind of action?"
She smiled in
that way that always got us in trouble as kids. "The kind that gets us
answers. We need to break into your mom's closet and ferret out her secrets."
She watched my expression. "Right now."
I choked on my
food and sipped some tea to dislodge the blockage in my throat. "Why now?"
Mother's space was sacred. She had magical wards up and would kill us if she
caught us anywhere near her closet. She pretended that nothing had happened
after our duel, that I was just in dark place and needed to collect myself, but
I knew she'd snap if I crossed her again. And if I had to go up against Mother
without Derek's powers as backup, I'd either lose in a very bad way, or be
forced to use my dark gift against her. Neither scenario pleased me.
"Because
your parents are in Seattle for the day and won't be back until late tonight.
Most of the other coven members are running errands or at work. It's our chance
to sneak in unnoticed."
"And the
wards?"
"I have a
plan. Just get ready."
I wanted to
argue, but really what more did I have to lose? And I needed to know how this
whole mess came to be. This did seem to be our best bet.
Ocean winked
and pulled out black outfits.
I groaned. "Seriously?"
She tossed me
mine. "They're our spy gear. Come on, have a sense of fun, will ya?"
Thirty minutes
later found us stomping through the woods, in the middle of the afternoon,
dressed like wannabe ninjas straight out of a Bruce Lee movie. I felt
ridiculous.
Ocean, on the
other hand, was loving this. She twirled around, hair splashing out like waves.
"I wonder what we're going to find. Something epic, no doubt."
I laughed for
the first time since Derek shifted from wolf to man in front of me, confirming
my darkest fears.
My laughter
died when we neared the kennel. Memories of mutilated puppies and my last moments
with Derek before he shifted and disappeared from my life lay heavy on my
heart.
I refused to
look at the empty space where the puppies had once been. Refused to think of
Sandy, my beautiful Husky who had been a faithful companion for several years,
before her untimely death trying to save Derek's life. Refused to think of
Derek, standing naked and glorious in this kennel, wounded eyes accusing me of
unspeakable crimes.
Not
surprisingly, the door to Mother's private dwelling was locked. Ocean pulled a
bobby pin out of her hair and wriggled it around in the lock.
"Do you
actually know what you're doing, or are you just trying to imitate the movies?"
The lock
clicked, and she pushed the door open. "Both!"
Unbelievable. Ocean
never ceased to amaze me.
We secured the
door behind us and navigated through Mother's living room and into her bedroom.
I shivered as statues and paintings of goddesses stared down at me, eyes
judging. When we reached her closet, we both stopped.
"Okay,
this is going to be a bit trickier." Ocean pulled the bobby pin out again.
"I need you to feed me some of your magic while I work on the physical and
magical lock."
Doing that
required skin-to-skin contact and unleashing my dark gift. No freaking way.
She huffed in
annoyance. "Rose, trust me, okay? I know what I'm doing."
"What if
I hurt you?"
"You won't.
I promise. And if it gets too much, I'll pull away." She held up two
fingers. "Scouts honor."
"You were
never a Scout."
"Doesn't
matter."
My turn to huff.
"Fine, but I'm pulling away if I feel even the slightest hint that things
are getting dangerous."
I laid my hand
on her bare arm while she went to work on the lock. My dark gift blossomed like
a flower that only reveals itself at night. A deadly flower, full of poison.
I'd given
magic in coven circles before. In fact, I'd given Blake strength to defeat the
Druids, before I'd known who they were. But the power of so many witches
together at once had protected any single person from being harmed. With just
Ocean and me, the risks were much greater.
Thinking back
to that last fight, I wished I'd held my powers back. Feeding Blake energy had
never felt right. He'd always given me the creeps, and more so lately. When he
fought the black wolf, I'd hesitated, lost focus without knowing why.
Later, when
that wolf proved to be Derek, I'd understood, even as more mysteries presented
themselves to me.
Hopefully, our
cloak and dagger mission would put at least a few of those mysteries to rest.
I struggled to
keep a wall against the bulk of my dark gift, but, since the recent attacks, it
fought its way through with renewed tenacity. It had lain dormant for years,
but lately had been ready to leak through my defenses at the slightest
provocation. It grew hungry for souls, and that terrified me.
Ocean's skin
grew cold and clammy under my palm, and my heart rate escalated. "Hurry. I
can't keep it back much longer."
"Almost
there." Her voice sounded thin, worn out. Whatever she was doing had
tapped her energies.
Pain shot
through my bones as I continued to fight the force growing inside me. My
control waned, the blood lust of the power in me getting stronger.
"Ocean!"
Her voice came
out in a rasp. "Nearly there. Just one more second."
I counted to
three and then couldn't hold it in any longer. Pulling back, I collapsed to the
floor.
Ocean reached
for me, her face pale, dark circles under her eyes. "I did it. Come on."
I found a
second wind at the promise of seeing what Mother hid in her closet. No one had
ever been in here before, that I knew of.
At first, the
revelation was anticlimactic. A huge walk-in closet full of clothes, most of
which still had tags on them, wasn't exactly the big secret we were looking
for.
As impressive
as her clothing selection was, her wall of shoes held Ocean in awe. She picked
up a pair of Jimmy Choos and nearly wept. "I so want these. Do you think
she'd notice if I took them?"
I pulled them
from her hands and put them back. "Yeah, pretty sure she'd notice if a
pair of $800 shoes went missing. We need to focus. Being here sets my skin on
fire."
She rolled her
eyes. "You're such a worry-wart."
We searched
through every inch of the closet, but found nothing more remarkable than
handbags, jewelry, scarves and an alarming selection of lingerie that I really
didn't want to think about.
I slumped onto
the ground. "There's nothing here. It's a waste of time."
Ocean paced
the spacious room, finger on chin. "Not so fast. Why have such high
security for clothes and shoes?"
"I'm sure
you'd do the same if you had this collection."
She looked at
the coveted shoes. "True. I would. But still, there's got to be something."
Maybe she was
right. I got up and checked behind the clothes, tapping on the wall and kicking
at the baseboards.
"What are
you doing, Rose?"
"I'm
checking for hidden panels."
Ocean fist
pumped the air. "You're a freaking genius!"
She did the
same on the other wall.
Within a few
minutes, I heard a hollow sound emanate from behind a panel. "Ocean, come
here, I think I found something."
We tapped around,
looking for a way to open it, and pushed down at just the right angel to pop a
board out. Behind it was stowed a handcrafted wooden box.
Ocean helped
me pull it out, and, using her newfound lock picking skills, opened it.
I pulled out
letters bunched together with rubber bands and handed them to Ocean. "Go
through these while I see what else is in here."
She scanned
the letters, using her phone to take pictures of each one.
I pulled out a
pile of photos and took shots of them with my phone.
One picture
stopped me cold. "Ocean, look at this."
I held it up
to her, and she gasped. "Isn't that—"
"—I
think so. It's Mother and Derek's dad—with the rose bush behind them."
The
ramifications sunk in slowly for us both.
Ocean held the
picture closer. "So that means she's known about it this whole time? This
photo had to be taken before you were born. Before she moved to Oregon."
"Right."
Mother caught in another lie. It was a clue, but to what?
I dug through
more knickknacks and papers and found what appeared to be the deed to a house.
Ocean pointed
to the address on it. "That's this property, but look at the date."
I'd noticed
the same thing. We'd only moved to Washington a few years ago from Oregon, but
Mother had purchased this property over twenty-five years ago. "Why would
she lie about this?" I asked. "What's so bad about owning the
property this whole time?"
"Maybe
because of this." Ocean pointed to another line on the document.
"David O'Conner
bought her this property? And paid for it in cash?" Mother had taken money
from everyone in the coven to allegedly buy this land, and then she claimed we
were stuck here when the attacks on us started, because we were upside down on
our loan and couldn't afford to move. "She's not only lied to everyone,
but she stole from us all, too?"