Witching Hour: A Wild Hunt Novel, Book 7 Read online

  Chapter Ten

  Traffic sucked and I was running late, so I decided to hold off visiting the Sun & Moon Apothecary until I had met with Lana. I eased into the parking lot of Jona’s Sugar Shack, hoping everything would go all right. Grabbing my purse, I slid out of the car and locked it, then strode into the coffee shop.

  Lana was there, so that was a good start, at least. She already had her coffee and food, so I stopped at the counter and ordered another triple-shot mocha and a turkey sandwich. After paying for my food and getting my order number, I approached the table.

  Lana looked up at me, eyeing me calmly. She seemed eerily calm, in fact. There was something odd to her look, but I couldn’t pinpoint what it was. I sat down opposite her, smiling.

  “Hey, how’s it going?” I set my purse on the chair next to me and fiddled with the paper that had my order number on it. I saw she had her lunch—it looked like a protein plate, with an egg, some cheese, crackers, grapes, and sliced turkey on it, as well as a doughnut. She had eaten half the egg already.

  “Fine, everything’s just wonderful.” Lana paused, her eyes looking faintly glazed. “What have you been up to? Oh—and please forgive me. I was just being melodramatic about that whole ghost thing. Tag showed me that I was all wrought up over nothing.”

  I stared at her. I had suspected something was off, but now that I was here, I knew it. Lana was friendly, but she wasn’t a Stepford wife, and she wasn’t cookie-cutter. The way she was acting, nothing at all had happened. I decided to hold off on pointing out that she had been with me in the basement when the ghost had attacked me. I took a deep breath, and was about to broach the subject of Tag when they called my number at the counter.

  “Be right back,” I said, heading over to get my food and mocha. When I returned, I settled into the chair. I took a sip of my mocha. “Lana, how much do you know about Tag’s background?”

  She frowned. “What do you mean? I know he majored in business technology before getting the job he has now. Why?”

  “How old is he?” I took a bite of my sandwich, trying to sound casual.

  “Tag? He’s thirty-four, a couple years older than me.” Lana looked genuinely perplexed. “What’s going on?”

  I debated just plunging in, but we weren’t going to get anywhere the way she was acting.

  “Lana, the fact is, Tag’s far older than you think, and he’s one of the magic-born. He’s not human. And he was married to a woman named Alicia, who vanished in 1979.” Taking a deep breath, I leaned back. “I thought you should know.”

  Lana squinted at me. Instead of sounding surprised, she laughed. “Raven, you’re always trying to scare up a mystery of some sort. You must have him confused with someone else.”

  I leaned forward, worried. She wasn’t herself at all. “Just tell me you knew all that and I’ll shut up and never mention it again.”

  Lana gave me a flippant smile. “I’m sorry you did all that work for nothing, but it’s not true. Any of it. You’re mistaken.” She pointed to my sandwich. “That looks really good, but have you tried Harv’s Subwiches? They’re so delicious. He makes his own mayo! Or do they call it aioli?”

  I set down my cup. “You can’t be serious. I drop a bombshell on you and you’re acting like it’s nothing? Lana, I assure you. Tag was married and his wife vanished. He’s not human, he’s one of the magic-born, and he never told you any of this, did he? Did he tell you he owns the house you’re living in? There’s no landlord, no ‘good deal’ on rent. The house is paid off.” I was starting to get irritated. She couldn’t be that dense. There had to be something clouding her judgment.

  “I can see that you’re not going to let this go. I wish I’d never mentioned anything about the ghost to you. You just hate Tag. You can’t stand him and you’re using all of this to try to convince me he’s bad news. I’m sorry, Raven, I can’t stay here and listen to you slander him.” She started to reach for her purse.

  I paused. The Lana I knew would never have tried to brush away the truth. What was going on? Deciding that I needed to be discreet until I learned what the hell was afoot, I held up my hands.

  “All right. I’m sorry. I’m just worried about you. I overreacted. Please, stay. No more talk about Tag or ghosts. I promise.”

  She hesitated, then sat back down. “All right. And don’t worry about me. I’m fine.” She played with her doughnut, crumbling a piece of it onto her plate. “So, how are you?”

  “Fine. Still having neighbor issues.” I made small talk, but all the while I was watching her. Her eyes still looked slightly glassy, and the eerie calmness continued. “How are you?”

  “Good…”

  The pause almost made me press in again, but I stopped myself.

  “Tag’s finally leaving on that trip. It was rescheduled and he’ll be there for a couple days.” She was fiddling with her drink, pausing for an uncomfortable silence.

  “I bet you’ll miss him. But sometimes it’s nice to have the house to yourself.”

  “Yeah, it is. The house is great, but it can feel pretty empty at times.” Again, I had the feeling she was trying to tell me something but couldn’t spit it out.

  “Yeah, well…that’s the way of big houses, isn’t it?”

  We continued the uncomfortable exchange, with me skirting over questions in order to keep her from bolting. By twelve-thirty, I was ready to go. I was feeling more and more uncomfortable the longer we talked, and I was already leery that I’d said too much.

  “I’ll talk to you later.” I left a five-dollar tip, and prepared to go.

  “Call me,” she said before hurrying off.

  As I stopped at the counter for a to-go cup for the rest of my mocha, I glanced back at the table. Of all the exchanges possible, I hadn’t expected for her to outright refuse to hear the truth, and to be so uninterested in it. Yeah, something was up, and I wanted to find out what.

  As I pushed through the doors of the Sun & Moon, Llew was ringing up a sale for a man wearing a long purple robe. He looked human, but there was definitely that spark of magic to him that told me he might either be magic-born or just born with a buttload of natural ability. While I waited, I sent out feelers. Any trace of the Underling seemed to be gone.

  I waited until the man carried his packages out the door before approaching the counter. “Yo, Llewellyn. You still mean it about spell components?”

  He turned, laughing. “You can’t get enough of this place, can you? And yes, I meant it and I still mean it. What do you need?”

  I frowned. “I’m not sure. That’s the problem.” I told him what had happened at lunch. “I want to search that house, but Lana needs to be out of there or unconscious, or something along those lines. And I need to block prying eyes, given Tag is one of the magic-born.” I paused. “You’re magic-born. Why would someone hide their abilities?”

  Llew shrugged. “Could be a lot of reasons. Maybe he doesn’t want anybody bothering him for magical help. Could be he’s not comfortable outing himself at work—there are some places that have a magic prohibition, and discrimination laws look the other way on it, usually. Could be that he was worried she wouldn’t be interested in him. Or he might be up to something underhanded.”

  “Yeah, well, given his first wife vanished without a trace in 1979, and he never even told Lana he was married, or still is married, I’d play odds on that last possibility.” I rubbed my head. “Do you have anything that can get me in and out of her house without being noticed?”

  “I have a knockout drug—X-fon. You blow it in the person’s face and it will knock them out for about three hours. Humans, about four hours.”

  I frowned. “Would blightwort cover my tracks magically?”

  “No, it will cover you if anybody’s trying to peek in psychically, but not just a blanket hide-your-tracks sort of thing. For that, you’ll want yohumabe. The herb will make it as though you’ve never been there. You carry it on you, and it dampens both your magical signature as well as any
residue left behind. Tag won’t know you were in his house unless Lana tells him.”

  “If only I didn’t have to be face-to-face with Lana in order to blow the X-fon at her. Is there any long-distance delivery method?” I knew that some witches and magic-born could work remote magic easily.

  Llewellyn fiddled with a package, weighing out a length of root. “This is the yohumabe. Just keep it in a pocket or down your bra or something like that. As for the X-fon…there is another way, but it’s sneaky and I don’t know if you want to do it. If you want, I can go with you and when she opens the door, I can blow it in her face. That will knock her out, and if I wear a mask, she won’t have a clue as to who was there. Then you can sneak in, look around, and sneak out before she wakes up.”

  I grappled with my conscience. It really was underhanded, and I knew it would scare her—she wouldn’t know what happened or why. But given what was on the line, it seemed worth that risk. I held Llew’s gaze for a moment.

  “You’d be willing to do this for me?”

  “You saved Jordan. That doll would have eventually killed him—or me, because I was starting to get creeped out enough to consider ripping it apart. I’ll do whatever you need, Ravi.” He seldom called me by my nickname—mostly only Ulstair had used it—but it made me feel cared for.

  Taking a deep breath, I nodded. “All right. I’m going to take you up on it. Whatever’s going on with her isn’t good, and I’m worried spitless.”

  After Llew closed up shop for the day, we drove over to Lana’s. I waited in the car, with the yohumabe tucked inside my bra. I had a flashlight in my pocket, my phone tucked in my bra, and Venom strapped to my boot.

  Llew parked out of sight of the window so Lana wouldn’t see me if she looked out. He used a glamour to change his looks just enough to be unrecognizable, and then headed up to the door, the X-fon in hand. As he vanished around the hedge that divided the house from an empty corner lot, I took a deep breath and waited. Llew said he’d ping me when she was out.

  I popped a mint in my mouth. I was perpetually minty when I was nervous, carrying pillowy dinner mints on me like other people carried cigarettes.

  I had eaten my second handful of mints when he texted me: all good. she’s resting comfortably. come in.

  I slipped out of the car, locking it behind me, and darted up the pathway to the house. Tag’s car was missing, which gave me an extra modicum of relief, and Llew was waiting at the door.

  “Do you want me to search the house with you?”

  “If you have the time, but what about you? Won’t you leave a signature?”

  He shook his head, patting his pocket. “Yohumabe. I’m not new to this rodeo, Raven.”

  He ushered me into the house. In the living room, Lana was passed out on the sofa. She was breathing softly, and looked so comfortable that it made me want to cover her with a throw. I glanced at the clock. The yohumabe would give us a couple of hours.

  “I’m doubting if he’ll have left anything lying around, so my thought is to check the basement first and see if we can find anything. He forbids her to go down there, and is very pushy about it.” I motioned for him to follow me.

  Llew locked the front door, then we headed toward the basement, my nerves on edge given what had happened last time. He tried the knob.

  “Damn, it’s locked.”

  “That’s right. Tag keeps it locked, but I saw where she found the key. Hold on.” I ran to the desk in the living room and sure enough, in the first drawer was the key. I unlocked the door and we headed down the stairs. As we reached the bottom, Llewellyn whistled softly under his breath.

  “Bad, bad bad bad. This place has some nasty energy to it. No wonder she feels targeted.”

  I showed him where the ghost had launched me against the wall. “I can feel something around the edges, but it doesn’t seem to be noticing us.”

  “That’s because of the yohumabe. It dampens our magical signatures, and it blurs out our presence.” Llew arched his eyebrows, grinning.

  “How much of this stuff do you sell? I’m surprised it’s not the herb du jour.” I was also surprised I’d never heard of it, but then, I wasn’t a garden witch or a kitchen witch.

  “I don’t. It’s not legal to sell and as far as you know, I don’t have any on the premises. I just keep some in stock for a few select customers who might happen to make a ‘sizable donation’ to the store when they need some. It’s not legal with most magical guilds, either. Luckily, I don’t belong to a guild at the moment. Most store owners deliberately disassociate themselves from organizations so there isn’t a feeling of favoritism, unless the store is guild-owned.” He cast a quick look my way. “Yohumabe is worth about a thousand dollars an ounce.”

  I let out a gasp. “I have a good two hundred dollars’ worth stuck in my bra. You sure I can’t pay you for it?”

  “Nope. Now let’s have a look around so we can get out of this place. It gives me the creeps.” Llew began following the walls, knocking on the bricks every few feet. He paused at one, toward the back, and turned his light to the wall. There was the outline of a door there. He reached out to touch it. “Paint. The brick is a façade. I thought it sounded too hollow to be anything but drywall.”

  “Secret door?”

  “Secret enough. If you just glanced at it, in the dim light, you wouldn’t see it.” He ran his hand along the edge. “Bingo. Secret catch.” With a soft click, the door sprang open. He peeked in, then motioned for me to follow him.

  Inside the room—which was substantial, for being in a basement—it looked like we had stumbled on Tag’s magical sanctuary. But unlike my ritual room, the energy here felt murky and thick, almost viscous. I blinked, wondering if I had gotten some sort of sand or grit in my eyes. It was hard to see anything, other than a mirror against the distant wall.

  “It almost hurts to look at anything.”

  “He’s got some powerful wards set up, and I’m not sure we should go any further. I don’t think we’ve triggered any alarms yet, but there’s no telling how strong the spells he’s cast here. The yohumabe works better than just about anything, but it can’t overcome a ward or an alarm set by a powerful-enough witch.”

  I nodded. I was getting the distinct feeling that we were close to losing our shields. “Back out, now. Slowly. Don’t rush.” It was that same feeling when watching a junkyard dog who was asleep, but at any moment he could wake up and go for your jugular.

  We slowly backed out of the room and shut the door, pausing for a moment. When nothing happened, we looked around the rest of the basement. There were a lot of old boxes and trunks, and several of them bore Tag’s surname on them.

  “Probably family items. We don’t have enough time to go through everything, but I’m telling you, Tag’s bad news. He’s dangerous. I’d swear he’s into chaos magic,” I said. “This reminds me a lot of the Underling’s energy, only sneakier and smarter.”

  “You think he worships Cythrawl?” Llew asked.

  “I don’t know. But you don’t have to worship the gods of chaos in order to invoke mayhem.” A shiver ran up my back, an inner alarm going off. We were on the edge of losing our magical protection. “We need to leave. Now.” I was starting to see the outline of shadows around the room—and I groaned. “Shadow people. They don’t know we’re here yet, but the yohumabe isn’t going to protect us from them much longer.”

  “Crap. It didn’t last nearly as long as it usually does. You see shadow people? Let’s go.”

  We hurried up the stairs, shutting the door firmly behind us and locking it again. I peeked in at Lana as I dropped the key into the desk. I didn’t want to leave her here, but if she woke up at my place, she’d know something was wrong.

  “I want her out of here. But what the hell would I tell her?”

  “You can lie, you know. Tell her she showed up at your place, sick. Tell her she came over in a taxi. The X-fon will leave her groggy, and she won’t remember anything except some blurry memory of so
meone showing up at her place in a mask. That sounds nuts enough that you might be able to convince her it was a hallucination.”

  I frowned. I hated gaslighting, but in this case, it was to save her life. I wrestled with my conscience, then finally agreed. “All right, we’ll do it. Help me get her out to the car. Let’s get her back to my place before the X-fon wears off.”

  We hurried out, half-carrying, half-dragging her to the car. As I glanced back at the house, a light appeared in the living room window. We had turned off the lights, and there were no other living souls in that house. As we watched, the light moved from one window to another, and then another light appeared in an upstairs window before flickering once, then vanishing.

  “Crap. We stirred up something, all right. Let’s get the hell out of here.” I fastened my seat belt, wanting to be a hundred miles away from this place. As I started the engine, Llew kept an uneasy eye on the house. We had eased out from the curb when a bright flash went off in the living room window, and then, the house went completely dark.

  “I don’t think we stirred it up, Ravi. I think whatever’s in that place is getting restless.”

  Feeling thoroughly unsettled, we drove back to my place, where we settled Lana into the guest bedroom. I brought a glass of water, a bottle of ibuprofen, and a bell and set them on the nightstand. Llew called a taxi, while I tried to calm down. I closed my eyes, trying to get a sense whether we’d brought anything back with us, but the house felt secure and warded, and I whispered a prayer to Cerridwen to strengthen the boundaries and warding. A quiet hush fell over me, and I began to breathe slower.