A Curse in Darkness by Sherilee Gray

Chapter 18

Willow

The house wasquiet when I walked in.

I knew it would be. Iris was out with Brody, and Mom, Arthur, and Else had taken Rose for a drive to pick up supplies for the shop. I wasn’t sure where Mags was, with Bram somewhere, no doubt.

Kicking off my heels, I turned on the kettle. The funeral was rough. Rebecca had no family to speak of, and Jane apparently had only a few friends. I’d held Rebecca’s hand the whole time, her pain like a bleak gray cloud around her, the horror she still felt over the way she believed her daughter died, rolling off her in waves.

I’d slipped some calming herbs in her tea, but it’d barely made a difference. Twice I’d nearly taken her aside and told her the truth. Jane’s death was horrific and heartbreaking, but at least it’d been quick, not the gruesome, drawn-out murder Rebecca believed it was. Knowing her child hadn’t suffered would ease her pain.

And then I’d seen Maddox. He’d been on the other side of the cemetery, watching from a distance as Jane’s coffin was slowly lowered into the ground, the small stuffed bear Rebecca had placed on the top going with it.

He’d seen me and walked away before I could go to him, his howl echoing from a distance several minutes later, so mournful and broken it brought tears to my eyes.

I’d texted Warrick, told him where I’d seen his brother, then left. The urge to run to Warrick, to seek comfort from him, had been strong, so much so, it kind of frightened me. And after what we’d done that morning, it would’ve been easy to go to him, but I couldn’t allow myself to get emotionally involved.

There was no point catching feelings for a guy who couldn’t return them. That was just asking for a flying kick to the heart, and I wasn’t that much of a masochist.

But resisting the physical attraction between us was something I couldn’t do anymore. Maybe that made me weak? Probably. But I wanted him like I’d never wanted another male. And I’d been having no-strings relationships my whole adult life, why would this be any different? What could possibly go wrong?

My brain flashed up one disastrous scenario after another. I shoved those images back, and all thoughts of Warrick from my mind, and instantly guilt worked its way back in.

Maybe I should have stayed with Jane longer? Her neighbor had been at the funeral and had offered to drive her home. I’d hugged her goodbye, and she’d been so broken. I drew in a steadying breath. It was selfish, but it’d been a struggle being around that kind of pain, that kind of loss.

I took down a mug, my eyes sliding to the herbs and tonics, the oils and elixirs that Else had prescribed Rose.

They weren’t helping.

Nothing was helping.

If I lost her—

I squeezed my eyes closed as tightly as I could, praying to the mother to give me the power of healing—though Cora was a healer and nothing she’d tried had helped—or the power to stop time then, anything to make sure we never lost our Rose.

A scream came from upstairs, followed by a bellow.

My blade was in my hand a moment later, and I sprinted up the stairs. The scream came again, filled with panic, with pain.

Magnolia.

I rushed into her room.

Mags was on the floor, Bram clutching her to him, terror in his eyes. She was covered in blood.

“What the hell happened, what’s…” My voice trailed off as a wicked slice appeared out of thin air across her thigh, like an invisible blade slashing her flesh. Oh goddess, she was covered in them.

She screamed again, while Bram watched on, eyes wild, clutching her tighter, trying to staunch the blood.

“A hex doll,” I rasped—the stabbing pains I’d felt in the woods, the reason Ren left the safety of the salt circle. I hadn’t thought about it again, but someone had attacked me, it was the only explanation, and now they were attacking Magnolia, only this was so much worse.

“Downstairs,” I yelled at Bram and ran down ahead and into Else’s work room.

I was searching for what we needed when Bram ran in carrying Mags. She screamed again, another slice appearing, this time across her shoulder. Bram roared. Whoever was doing this, they weren’t just doing it to scare her. All it would take was a slice across her throat and we’d lose her.

Iris ran in, Nia barking at her side. “What the hell is going on…Magnolia!”

“Hex doll,” I said, trying desperately to keep it together.

“How? We’re protected…”

“The darkest kind of magic.” Terror slid through me, and I saw the same in Iris’s eyes. “Quick, I need unbleached linen, rosemary, and matches.” Iris jumped into action, and I finished grabbing the oils and one of Else’s special elixirs.

“Put her on the floor, Bram.”

He shook as he lowered her to the ground.

“You need to stand back.”

Bram did as we asked but stayed close, shifting in his big boots as he watched Iris sprinkle rosemary on the stone floor around Mags in a wide circle.

“We’ve got you, Mags,” she said. “Hold on.”

Magnolia jerked as another slice appeared high on her chest, close to her throat, too close. Whoever was doing this was having fun; they wanted her to know they were going to kill her, and they wanted us to know it too.

Iris handed me a wide strip of linen, her eyes meeting mine as we began tearing it into thinner strips. “Thread and needle, linen so fine, save our beloved, sever this bind,” we both chanted as we walked around her, tearing strip after strip, laying them end to end.

I handed Iris the blended oil, and I popped the cork from the elixir as we continued to chant, emptying our bottles on the linen, soaking it. When they were empty, I snatched up the matches. Lighting one, I crouched down and set fire to the fabric circling Mags. It ignited instantly, the flames rushing from one strip to the next.

Fear transformed Mags’s face, and her hand flew to her throat.

“No!” Iris screamed.

The final piece of linen caught, breaking the connection to whoever was in control of the hex doll, and Mags collapsed back. Bram rushed to her, jumping the circle, and hauled her into his arms as her hand fell away.

I grabbed for the shelf beside me, my legs shaking so hard, they were close to giving out. Blood leaked from a new slice at the side of her throat, but it was small, not life-threatening.

Thank the mother.

Iris dropped to the floor, covered her face with her hands, and sobbed.

I grabbed more rags from Else’s stash, handing some to Bram, the both of us holding them to the deeper of Magnolia’s cuts, to stop the bleeding. Though, I didn’t think any of them were life-threatening either.

I cupped Magnolia’s face. “Mags?”

“I-I’m okay,” she rasped.

I wasn’t, and I never would be again. Someone had just tried to kill my sister.

We’d been a split second from losing her.

“Who’d do this?” Iris said, looking up at me, her hand buried in Nia’s fur, seeking and giving comfort. “Why?”

“I don’t know.” I had no answers. Magnolia was no threat to anyone. “But we need to get her stitched up. Go get Cora, Iris.”

Iris did as I said, and I held the rags more firmly to the deep cut in Mags’s thigh. Cora was a decent healer, and she’d worked as a nurse in a human hospital for a lot of years. Taking Mags to a hospital would only send the police to us, though, and there was no explaining this. We had to take care of this at home.

My sister clung to Bram, who looked like he wanted to commit murder, his dark eyes going between Mags and searching the room, but there was no one to direct his rage at, not yet, and I felt that down to my soul.

“It’s going to be okay,” I said to Mags, but I had no idea if that was true. What the fuck was going on?

She nodded, trembling, probably going into shock.

I didn’t understand this. This wasn’t part of my task. It had nothing to do with the malevolent souls in Roxburgh. The mother didn’t mess with a Keeper’s family or their coven. I couldn’t see how this was connected at all.

A few minutes later, Cora rushed in, carrying a bag, and cried out in alarm. Brody was right behind her, his arm around Iris, who was still seriously shaken.

“Back up,” Cora said, all business, and got down on the floor. “I need to see the damage.”

She tried to shoo Bram away, but he wasn’t having it. In the end, I stood and got out of her way. I watched on as she cleaned and sewed up the worst of the cuts, using one of her healers’ spells to numb the pain, then Bram carried Mags to the kitchen and laid her down on the chaise by the window so Cora could treat the rest.

“Thank the goddess you were here,” Cora said.

Iris’s eyes grew huge. “We could have lost her.” Exactly what I’d been thinking. “I was out with Brody and you were at the funeral,” she said to me. “Else, Mom, and Roe are out for the day. None of us were supposed to be here, only Mags and Bram. Whoever did this must have known we’d all be away. They wanted her here without any of us to stop it.”

Iris was right.

And I didn’t know what to do. I was the one they looked to when things turned to shit, and I had no answers. I’d been so caught up in what happened to Ren, so deep in my own misery, then distracted by Warrick, I’d forgotten about the unexplainable pain I’d felt in that woods and I’d left them all vulnerable.

“We need to make sure no one else is at risk.” I gripped the back of a chair, watching Cora sew a slice down Magnolia’s arm. “I’m pretty sure I am. Something happened in the woods last night…well, a couple of things actually.”

“What? What happened?” Iris asked, pulling away from Brody.

“Ren was with me…he followed me out there. I had him in a salt circle, and he wasn’t supposed to leave it. Then Edric, the possessed hound, came at me, and before I could get in my own circle, I felt stabbing pains in my legs. I’m pretty sure Mags isn’t the only one who has a hex doll with her name on it. They were just a little subtler about it in my case.”

“Christ, Willow,” Cora said. “You could have been killed.”

“Is Iris safe?” Brody said, tugging her in closer to him again.

“I don’t know,” I said honestly. “We’ll do the same ritual we did on Mags to the rest of us, then Else can make something extra to protect us, to stop it from happening again.”

“And Ren?” Mags asked, trying to sit up. “What happened to Ren?”

I turned to her, my heart lodged in my throat. “He was possessed. He attacked me and ran away. Warrick and I searched for him most of the night. There was no trace of him.”

“No,” she whispered and gripped Bram’s arm when he immediately moved closer to her. Ren was their friend as well, their family. This hurt them too.

Bram aimed his dark eyes my way. “Can I help?” he said in his incredibly deep and rough voice. “I can search the woods?”

He could fly above the forest, covering ground faster. “Yeah, that’d be really good. Thanks, Bram.”

He dipped his chin.

“Why aren’t you still out there looking for him?” Mags said, voice filled with fear and accusation.

My heart had never felt so heavy. “We tried, there was no sign…”

“If something happened to Bram, nothing would stop me from searching for him. He’s your familiar, he’s supposed to be your best friend.”

“Mags,” Iris said.

“No,” Mags said, hands shaking. “Why are you like this, Wills? You’re so damn distant, so cold, you never let us in. You never let him in. Do you even care?”

“Magnolia,” Iris said more sharply.

She was hurting, in shock after what happened, I got that, but her words cut me down the middle. I was actively not thinking about what might be happening to Ren right then. My heart couldn’t take it. It felt like someone had torn it to shreds. “His scent changed when he was possessed, tracking him has been extremely hard, Mags. Warrick has some of his brothers looking for him, their tracking skills are unsurpassed. I assure you, I’m looking for him.”

And she was right, I did keep my family at a distance sometimes, but only to protect them. That had been my role in the family for as long as I could remember. It started with me trying to shield them from the men who’d come in and out of mom’s life. My mom would get so lost in her feelings, in the idea of love, she missed all the red flags, over and over again. I’d pushed my sisters closer together, while I held back, always watching, always alert, making myself the barrier, trying to deflect the pain from them.

I’d felt like I had the weight of the world on my shoulders, but I’d never meant to hurt them, or make them feel like I didn’t care. I’d only wanted to keep them safe.

Her face dropped, and I hated it. “Mags…”

My phone rang, and I bit back a curse, pulling it free. I checked the screen. An unknown number. A queasy feeling hit my stomach. “Hello?”

“Willow, I…oh god…”

“Clayton?” His voice was shaky, broken, barely recognizable.

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t be calling you, but I didn’t know who…who I could trust.”

“What’s going on?”

“It’s my mother, someone…someone killed her. She was, Christ, Willow, they cut her to ribbons. They slit her throat.”