When it came right down to it, Mother had tried to trap me so I couldn’t survive on my own. She’d tried to imprison me as her slave the same way she’d imprisoned Olga, only my prison bars were of the invisible sort. She wanted me to live the rest of my life in a cottage in Tacoma, drawing a stipend from the coven—essentially still pulling on her apron strings. The cottage was just another glorified prison. That’s all it would ever be.

  Franz was dead right when he’d called her a bad witch. She was worse than that in my books. Mother was calculating, vindictive, sadistic, and ruthless. She was everything the Crescent Circle Coven claimed to stand against. The coven’s charter called for its member witches to dedicate themselves to truth, fairness, and the spirit of universal advancement. What a joke.

  This latest scheme was exactly the opposite of everything she and they supposedly stood for. She couldn’t even claim she was doing it for my benefit, either. Bringing me down wasn’t for my benefit, it was for hers. Nothing she ever did was for my benefit.

  She wanted to crush me. She wanted to control me. She wanted to rob me of my independence. She wanted to stop me from living a free and autonomous life. And she wanted to do all of this in the name of control—nothing mattered more to her than maintaining her pathetic grip on the coven reins. She’d banished Olga for exactly the same reason. For two hundred years…

  What possible reason could Mother have to care if Olga fell in love with a man, mundane or otherwise? If Olga loved a man, why should it matter? But it did matter to Mother and it mattered very much because it weakened Mother’s hold over a powerful witch and in weakening Mother’s hold, it made her look bad in front of all the other witches. And that couldn’t happen. Mother couldn’t just let Olga live her life and be happy. Oh, no. That would be the fair and decent thing to do, just like allowing me to make my own way in the world would be the fair and decent thing to do.

  My mind was set and the more I thought about it, the more determined I became—I would free Olga and I’d do it this weekend. And I’d find a safe place for her—a place far away from Mother and Mother’s influence. Then I’d open up my store bright and early Monday morning and I’d act like nothing was the matter—like all those horrible reviews were a thing of the past and business was back to usual. Now that I knew Franz was the one behind the chaos, it would eventually die down. It would be a thing of the past.

  And that meant Mother hadn’t won.

  Yes, I’d damn well get back on the horse. I’d start selling my enchanted clothing again, Mother be damned. In fact, I’d contact everyone who’d given me a negative review and I’d offer to put right what Franz had done wrong. It might not work, but no one would be able to claim I hadn’t tried.

  One thing I knew for certain: I’d never call on Mother again—not for help, not for understanding, not for anything. As of this moment, she was dead to me. I was washing my hands of her. Now, I was riding solo, truly solo, for the first time in my life and somehow that didn’t feel so bad. Nor so scary as I thought it might.

  I locked up the store and drove back to the duplex, arriving just as the early morning sun peeked over the treetops. I tried to sneak into the house quietly, only to find Astrid sitting at the kitchen table. She scooped a spoonful of breakfast cereal into her mouth and almost spat milk through her nostrils when she saw me.

  “Hey!” I greeted her. “You’re up early.”

  “I woke up a few hours ago and I couldn’t get back to sleep. How did it go? Did you find what you were looking for?”

  I sat down across from her and heaved an almighty sigh. “I have to tell you something—something important.”

  She put down her spoon. “Okay.”

  “The intruder was a raccoon, just like we figured, but it wasn’t any raccoon.”

  “Right, it was a familiar,” Astrid finished.

  I nodded. “The familiar’s name is Franz, and he’s Olga Fischer’s familiar.”

  “As in the witch who my mom said was missing?”

  “Yep, only Olga isn’t missing. She was kidnapped. By Mother.”

  Astrid’s eyes went wide. “So Poppy was right in thinking Celestine was behind everything all this time?”

  “Yes. She tried to ruin me so I’d have no choice but to go running back to her… so we would go running back to her.”

  “Whoa!” she breathed, still shaking her head. “I never thought in a million years she would have done something so…”

  “Evil?” She nodded. “Yeah, me neither.”

  “I’m sorry, Wanda,” Astrid offered, giving me a sad expression.

  I shook my head—there was no room for sorrow where Mother was concerned any longer. Now, there was only setting right everything she’d attempted to destroy.

  “Well, now we know.” I took a deep breath. “And that’s not all,” I continued on a sigh. “Mother kidnapped Olga and she’s holding Olga prisoner in the Blue Shadow Hills outside Haven Hollow.”

  “So… what are you going to do?”

  “First off, I think it’s important that you know… where Mother is concerned, she’s dead to me as of this moment. I won’t have anything more to do with her, which means I won’t have anything to do with anyone else in the coven, either—including Tabitha.”

  Astrid blinked at me. “You mean….”

  “I mean that, if you keep living with me and I continue to act as your legal guardian, then that will mean the end of your relationship with your mother and mine. As dead as they’ll be to us, I’m sure we’ll be dead to them too. That means we won’t be able to contact them or the coven for anything… not help, not information, not anything.”

  “What if… what if we get into trouble?”

  I set my jaw in a firm hold. “We’ll rely on ourselves. We’ll be completely on our own.”

  She nodded and looked down at her cereal, seemingly no longer hungry.

  “You can still go back, Astrid. I know they’d accept you if you groveled enough and you know I wouldn’t hold it against you.” I took a big breath. “In fact, it might be the best thing for you if you went back. At least then you’d be financially set forever.”

  She looked up at me then and her eyes hardened. “I’m not going back.”

  “I want you to think about it.”

  “I don’t have to think about it. Celestine kicked me out and my mom didn’t argue with her. She didn’t even try to stand up for me. She let Celestine force me out. My own blood…” She took a deep breath. “The only person who has been there for me, the only person who gave me a place to live and a family to belong to… is you.”

  “Well, you know you always have a place with me. My door will always be open to you, no matter what.” I took a breath. “Even if you went back to the coven… I would always be here for you, Astrid.”

  She nodded and seemed to be blinking tears away. I reached over and took her hand as she looked up at me again.

  “Can I stay here with you for good?”

  “Of course you can.”

  Then, without warning, she launched out of her chair, whipped around the table, and threw her arms around me, crushing me in an awkward embrace. “Thank you, Wanda!”

  “You don’t have to thank me, silly,” I said as she pulled away and dabbed at her eyes. “We’re family, Astrid, and family sticks together, no matter what.”

  She sniffed and her shoulders quaked for a minute as she nodded. She finally straightened, wiped her nose on the back of her wrist, and shuffled back to her seat.

  I then took another deep breath. “Now I need you to do me a favor.”

  “What is it?”

  “I need you to go stay at Poppy’s while Lorcan and I go after Olga. Hopefully, it won’t take us more than the weekend. Once she’s free, I’m hoping she might be able to help me solve Betanya’s formula.”

  Astrid rolled her eyes. “I don’t need Poppy babysitting me. I’m old enough to stay home by myself. How many times do I have to tell you that?”

  I had to smile at her. “Poppy won’t be babysitting you, because… I’m hoping she’ll agree to come with Lorcan and me to help with freeing Olga. I was hoping you would be willing to babysit Finn. You guys get along so well…”

  “And?”

  “And I don’t want you staying here by yourself. Mother might try some other heinous trick to mess with us.”

  I was waiting for her to further argue, but she didn’t. “Sure, I can babysit Finn.”

  ***

  After another twenty minutes, Astrid returned to her room to get ready for school, but it was still barely six o’clock in the morning. We had two hours before I had to drop her off.

  I sauntered to the hall, heading for my bedroom when something caught my ears. It sounded like tires crunching the gravel of the driveway. Turning on my heels, I started for the front door and when I opened it, I spotted Lorcan standing in front of Marty’s hearse.

  Usually, Lorcan slept in the coffin in the rear of the hearse while Marty drove him around during the daytime. Lorcan was fairly paranoid that someone might try to stake him during his repose (why he thought this, I had no idea) which was the reason why he’d hired Marty in the first place. Now there was no sign of Marty, but Lorcan bent over the coffin and fiddled with something.

  I watched, open-mouthed, as he pulled a 12-gauge shotgun from inside. He set it aside and took out the pieces of a small bazooka. He started fitting the pieces together like he did this kind of thing all the time.

  “What in the world are you doing?” I demanded, as I walked out to meet him. “Since when do you need weapons like that?”

  “Good morning to you, too, my dear,” he answered, not missing a beat. “So nice of you to join me for an early morning kiss before the sun comes up and I go to sleep for the day.”

  Before I could stop him, he took the steps that separated us, wrapped his arms around me, and kissed me. And… I didn’t stop him. When he released me, I half wished he hadn’t. Okay… more than half…

  He went back to unloading one weapon after another from the coffin, placing them on the carpet of the hearse. I glanced down and beheld an arsenal of high-powered firearms, pistols, rifles, bandoliers of huge bullets, and everything in between.

  “What are you doing with all this? You can’t plan to use this stuff to free Olga?”

  He looked at me and grinned. “I am not the one who is going to use them, darling,” he purred. “You are—and anyone else you bring along to help us…which will hopefully be the entire Council.”

  “What?” It was all I could manage. “Mundane weapons?”

  He nodded then shook his head. “Well, the weapons are mundane, but the ammunition is not. Or, at least, it won’t be.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean, I want Poppy to anoint each round with her potions.”

  “Which potions?”

  He shrugged. “Whichever she deems most helpful.”

  “I don’t even know what to say.” That was the truth because the number of weapons and bullets was confounding. Why did it appear like Lorcan was attempting to amass an army?

  He nodded. “The good news is that Olga is perfectly safe.”

  “And how would you know that?”

  He shrugged. “After I left you, I followed the raccoon and he led me right to Olga’s location which is perhaps a few miles into the Blue Shadow Hills and an hour outside Haven Hollow city limits.”

  “Right. I know where it is.”

  “Very good. Anyway, I was able to see Olga for myself… from afar, of course, owing to my perfect vampire night vision.”

  I frowned. “So what’s the bad news?”

  “The bad news is that the cabin is booby-trapped to the ends of the earth, thus the reason why I was not able to free Olga myself when I visited her locale.”

  “What do you mean by booby-trapped?” I asked. “Warded with spells or more mundane booby traps like pitfalls and flying darts?”

  “All of the above.” He nodded. “You name it, it’s there. The wards surround the house for at least two hundred yards. I couldn’t get anywhere near it, but Franz could come and go freely as he’s not suspected of anything untoward.”

  Hmm, I had to admit I was impressed he’d gone to check it out, though I didn’t tell him as much. Lorcan already had a big head, as it was, thus there was no use in making it even larger. “Is there anything else I should know?”

  He nodded as he cradled a semi-automatic rifle. “According to Franz, only Celestine’s most trusted witches come every day to strengthen the wards of Olga’s prison and to check the traps.”

  “Only her most trusted witches because she doesn’t want it getting out that she’s keeping one of their own prisoner,” I figured, anger sparking within me all over again. “Or that she kidnapped Olga from a banishment that was questionable from the get-go.”

  “I should assume that is the reason so, yes.”

  “The thing I can’t figure out is why Mother is going to such lengths to keep Olga prisoner. Seems like overkill if you ask me.”

  “Or why didn’t she just curse you herself, rather than going through all this rigmarole?”

  “That’s an easy one—A) she didn’t want me to find out she was behind this because she knew I’d never forgive her and I’d be even less likely to live under her thumb and B) if it ever did get out that she’d cursed me, the coven would look down on her. So she chose this route because the blame wouldn’t be put on her.”

  “Ah,” Lorcan said and nodded as he cocked his head to the side.

  “It just seems weird that she’s going to such lengths to keep Olga prisoner.”

  “Perhaps she wants to use Olga as an example as to why witches shouldn’t fall in love with men?”

  “Yet, she doesn’t want anyone else in the coven to know she’s kidnapped Olga. So, that doesn’t make any sense.”

  Lorcan nodded, but I could tell his attention wasn’t on our conversation. “Moving away from this tangent for the time being,” he continued, pulling out a handgun that he placed beside three others. “After viewing the state of Olga’s imprisonment, we will need a serious plan. And in order to break into the cabin, we require a healthy dose of flying lead, thus this arsenal,” he finished, looking down at the display before us. “Quite unfortunately for us, your mother has done her homework and the protections in place would thwart the most powerful of supernatural creatures.”

  “Well, one thing’s for sure… I’m sure Mother didn’t expect me to try to break through Olga’s wards.”

  Lorcan faced me. “Or perhaps she did.”

  “Hence all the ramifications.”

  He nodded. “Hence all the ramifications.” He laid out all his guns and then turned away, facing the glow in the distance. “I must get some sleep, my dear. I’m afraid I won’t be able to help you until this evening at the earliest.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  After Lorcan left, I had to take a few deep breaths and inwardly comfort myself as I felt the pain and hollowness that now always accompanied our separation. As soon as we could free Olga from Mother, I planned to try Betanya’s spell again immediately. I had to figure out this blood bond between Lorcan and me because it was really starting to take a toll on both of us. The pain now felt like a hollow ache ricocheting through me as I walked back into my side of the duplex.

  As soon as I entered the house, I saw Astrid standing in the living room, wearing her school clothes and a concerned expression. Her hair was wet and freshly brushed. She was holding a peanut and butter jelly sandwich which I supposed was going to pass for her breakfast today.

  “Are you okay, Wanda?” she asked. “You look very… white.”

  I nodded, holding my stomach because I was now starting to feel sick. “It’s the blood bond with Lorcan,” I explained. “Whenever we’re separated, I start to feel… awful.”

  “Do you need to sit down?”

  “No,” I answered and shook my head. “The effects will fade after a couple of hours.”

  She nodded. “Okay, well… in other news, did you see that notice in the school newsletter about the science fair?” She asked the question over her shoulder, as she bent down to tie her shoe.

  “Yeah. I saw it.”

  “I was wondering if I could enter it?”

  “Astrid, you’re a witch… it’s not fair for you to enter because you’ll have a leg up on all the other students.”

  She nodded then shook her head. “I promise my experiment won’t have anything to do with potions or anything magic-related. I’ll pick a totally mundane project. I actually like the idea of trying to accomplish something without my magic.”

  “It won’t be easy not to rely on your abilities.”

  “I know, but I won’t.” She took a breath. “Finn is entering it, too. We wanted to work on something together, but his teacher said we could only work together if we were in the same grade. Don’t you think that’s stupid?”

  “So stupid,” I answered, not meaning to sound like a high school student, but there it was. “What’s Finn doing for his project?”

  “He’s doing something with Henner and RJ’s ghost detection equipment. He wants to prove the existence of supernatural spirits.”

  “I thought you said the project had to be completely mundane?”

  “It does.”

  “Well, that’s hardly mundane. If Finn succeeds, he might violate Council regulations against alerting humans in Haven Hollow to the existence of ghosts and the rest of the supernatural spectrum. And might I remind you, we are on said spectrum.”

  “I’m well aware, Aunty.”

  I made a face at her. “Ugh, don’t call me that. It makes me sound like some old biddy in granny panties, which I am most decidedly not.”

  Astrid laughed.

  “Anyway, I’m surprised Poppy is letting Finn do that project.”

  Astrid cracked a grin over her shoulder while she took a big bite of her sandwich. “I don’t think Poppy even knows about it…”

  “Hmm,” I answered, wondering if this was one of those instances where I was supposed to snitch on Finn so Poppy knew what he was up to? But, then I decided against it because I wasn’t a snitch. Just like I wasn’t an old biddy. And I definitely didn’t wear granny panties.