Chapter 27

TWENTY-SEVEN

COLLINS

“So . . .” Stellan cleared his throat. “Are we going to talk about what just happened?”

The rest of us shuddered.

“I’ll take that as a no.” He nodded and hit the hidden button for the secret elevator—the only elevator to open on this floor. “Cool. But for the record, I am scarred.”

Bash chuckled and draped his arm around my shoulders. Just the effortless comfort in him now that Venus’s spell was gone sent butterflies dancing through me. “I will cherish the memory for the rest of my days.”

I played with Bash’s fingers. “That says a lot about our experience with trauma.”

“Oh, one other thing for the French speaker in the group.” Stellan turned to Bash. “What did he call Sandra? Little what?”

“Rebel,” Bash said with a smirk.

Mom closed her eyes and shook her head. “It is not a compliment.”

I groaned. “I keep forgetting they took them. It’s like my mind just keeps thinking they’re with Phil and Vic?—"

“They’re safe.” Mom let out a sigh that sounded painful. “Araqiel is not violent. Zuriel only is when required. That’s why they are in charge. And that’s why they made sure to let us know they were taking them. I have to have faith they are safer with them than with us.”

“And that they’ll give them back.”

She squeezed her eyes shut and nodded.

Savina wrapped her arm around her. “We will tell you the same thing you told Riven. Your boys paid our price, and we will not let that go.”

Mom’s aura was on the edge of breaking.

“Want to focus on the mission to distract yourself?”

She gave me a wobbly smile as the elevator door opened and we all crammed inside. “Please.”

I pushed the button that led to the infirmary. This secret elevator only had a few stop options anyway. “Then let’s start with checking on Nickel. You just hang on to that vial.”

Bash rested his hand on my back, at the base of my neck. “My love, would you like me to hold that paper?”

It was only in that moment I realized I still clutched the paper Riven gave me to my chest. I lifted it up over my head and craned my neck back to look up at him. “Yes, please.”

He grinned and carefully took it from between my fingers, then kissed my forehead. “It’s in my pocket when you’re ready for it.”

I sighed and leaned back against his chest. “I cannot believe we didn’t realize someone else was making us hate each other.”

He chuckled and it vibrated against my back. “Venus was always particularly gifted in her tricks.”

Ellie turned to face us and grinned. “ Was being the keyword.”

We all laughed but I knew the exact moment we all remembered what we’d just witnessed Riven do because all of our chuckles faded off.

Which made us crack up.

The elevator stopped and the door slid open. Savina stepped out first, then turned to walk backwards. “We are such a fucked-up group.”

Stellan followed her. “What’s more fucked up is how much Weston and Shylock are gonna be bummed they missed it.”

We were all still laughing about that when we walked through the infirmary doors but stopped when we found Lex still standing over Nickel, right where we’d left him. I knew it hadn’t been that long, technically, despite how much had happened for us since, but it still was a blow to the heart to see no improvement.

Because there was change . . . for the worse.

Lex had his button-down shirt sleeves rolled up past his elbows and unbuttoned halfway down his chest. His hair was disheveled and sticking out in every direction and was giving early 2000’s pop punk vibes. Beads of sweat rolled down his temples and the sides of his neck. His chest and forearms had a sheen to them like perhaps they were also sweating. Potion bottles and vials were scattered all around him on the floor, side table, and on the bed with Nickel. All of them tipped over and empty. A weird pale-yellow smoke billowed from something near her body.

“I think it’s time you bring her through the portal to us, Lex,” Nash Vauntero’s voice was low and strained from the foot of Nickel’s bed where an iPhone sat with PEGGY written on the screen. “We might be into modern medicine and magic territory, and I mean no offense to you by that?—”

“I know, I know, I'm not worried about my precious ego right now.” He pinched the bridge of his nose and cursed. “Nothing is working. Nothing.”

Ellie whimpered and staggered back, crashing into Stellan’s chest.

Lex’s gaze snapped up to us, then widened when he found all of us standing in the doorway. “She’s alive?—”

“But?” Savina snapped and rushed to her bed. She pressed her fingers to Nickel’s throat and shook her head. “Her pulse is weird.”

"I had her stable right afterwards. I thought the potions were working.” He gestured to all the empty bottles around him. “But then all of a sudden she crashed. Peggy, Nash, Maren, and Duvall have been on the phone with me while they treat Jada over there.”

“She is stable right now,” Nash said in a rush through the speakerphone. “But Nickel is going to crash again soon if we don’t figure out what the problem is.”

Ellie raced over and took Nickel’s hand in hers, blinking through tears.

A cold chill slid down my spine. “What do you mean?”

Lex threw his hands up in the air. “Something is trying to kill her, and we don’t know what. She’s unconscious and her heart keeps stopping, but there isn’t a single wound visible. And we see no signs of internal bleeding either.”

“Could this be magic?” Savina knelt down like she was sniffing for the answer. “Something First Realm may not be aware of?—”

“OH.” Bash’s eyes widened but his face paled. “ Vraetyne. ”

“What?”

“What’s that?”

“It’s a flower my mother has, like she has one plant she grows them on. She cannot create them on her own because they’re not from First or Third Realm—no idea where they’re from. But they’re crazy poisonous.” He held his hands up like he was trying to draw a picture of it in the air. “It opens up and spits this liquid out that paralyzes the internal organs or something.”

Ellie’s eyes widened. She swayed on her feet. “Like the dilophosaurus,” she whispered.

Bash scowled.

“Another Jurassic Park reference. It’s a dinosaur that spits venom, or so the movie claims.” I squeezed Bash’s arm. “If she has this flower, why hasn’t she used it on any of us before?”

“Before Ellie and Stellan ventured into Third, the plant only had one flower left. It couldn’t handle the frigid temperatures and hadn’t bloomed in ages. She’d been savoring it.” I must’ve made a face because he shook his head. “The petals carry the venom on them, in a smaller dose, so when she uses it, she gets a burn that causes her to lose mobility in the hand. Takes weeks to heal, even for us.”

“But we saw her?—”

“This your mother’s?” Stellan asked from across the room. He used a wand on the counter to lift a white glove off the floor.

Bash cursed. “ Yes. That means she intended to use it but I suspect Nickel was not her intended target, which might indicate why she’s still alive.”

For a moment we all just stared at him in horror.

“Do you . . . do you know how to fix it?”

Bash grimaced and shook his head. “It wasn’t from our world, and Mother used it as a one-way ticket, if you know what I mean.”

Savina flew around to Lex’s phone and shouted through it, “MAREN!”

“She’s coming,” Nash whispered. “She went to get something for Jada.”

We waited in tense silence, all of us staring at the phone.

“Yes, sorry, I’m here?—”

“Bash says Tephine used a venomous flower called vraetyne ?—”

“GET HER HERE NOW!” Maren screamed, her voice shooting up several octaves. “NOW! brING LEX! COVER HER MOUTH!”

The line went dead.

In a panic, I held my breath and threw my hands out. Big green leaves covered Nickel and Lex’s mouths. “If it’s that dangerous, then Lex is exposed. LET’S MOVE! ”

Lex scooped her up and bolted with the vampire speed of his. The rest of us sprinted after him. No one spoke as we raced for the portal, I doubted any of us were breathing. Peggy’s front door was wide open with Peggy standing just inside the foyer.

Her eyes widened when she saw us. She turned into the house and yelled, “They’re here!”

Lex leapt through the door and disappeared.

Bash was carrying me, so we managed to get inside just in time to hear Maren scream, “ In the bathtub! ”

We all crammed into the narrow doorframe of the downstairs bathroom just as Lex lowered Nickel into the already full bathtub. There were all kinds of crystals and flower petals floating in the water and steam billowed from the surface. Maren stood on one side with fabric coiled around the bottom half of her face to block her mouth and nose. She flicked her wand at Lex and ripped the leaf off of him.

“Drink!” She poured three potions into his open mouth at the same time. “Put your hands in the water—oh my God, you’re already sweating! Get in the tub. Get in, get in, get in! ”

“Maren—”

“GET OUT!” She flicked her wand and the bathroom door slammed shut in our faces.

“IN THE KITCHEN, KIDS!”

There was something in the tone of Peggy’s voice that had us all scrambling to get to her side. When we did, she stood over a cauldron on the stove scooping green liquid into glasses.

“Is Maren in danger?”

Peggy blanched. “I don’t know. I’ve never heard of this flower. She said to have you all drink this. I suspect it tastes horribly. Down you go!”

None of us hesitated. We each grabbed a glass and tossed the potion back like shots at a bar . . . and coughed.

Mom cleared her throat. “How’s Jada?”

Peggy pressed her hand to her stomach and sighed. “Healing. She’s doing quite well given the circumstances.”

“She should be back on her feet in no time,” Duvall added as he strolled back into the kitchen. “Though her vocal chords appear to have been damaged. We can’t yet know if it’s permanent.”

“But she’s recovering for now.” Nash joined us. “You fae heal almost as fast as we do. Thankfully.”

Then we just stood there. All of us staring in the direction of the bathroom.

After what felt like an hour, but was definitely only a matter of minutes, Maren came rushing back into the kitchen. “Anyone sweating? Anyone feel faint? Do you taste strawberries?” Her voice was slightly muffled by the material wrapped around her mouth.

We all scowled and shook our heads.

She sighed and yanked her wrap off. “I did not see that coming.”

“You knew the flower, the one my mother had?”

Maren nodded. “It’s from Second Realm. It is lethal.”

Savina narrowed her eyes on her soulmate. “How do you know what it is? I have never heard of it.”

“Me either,” Stellan grumbled and pulled Ellie close to his chest.

Maren’s face fell. “Ladarious’s family had stolen every last living root of it a century ago. Healers like me . . . we learned about it, kind of a legendary thing. Then when . . . when Savina died—or when I thought she died—I became a little . . . unhinged.” Her face flushed.

Savina squeezed her hand.

“Let’s just say I stumbled upon his stash of the plant, and I stole all of it. All of it. Then I used it to take out half the king’s army.”

Stellan gasped. “Wait, that was you? ”

Maren smirked. “Like I said, unhinged. But in using it I had to learn the anecdote—to treat myself and the rebellion who helped me. The plant no longer exists anywhere. We lost one of our own to it, so I used every last bit and then destroyed the rest so no one would have to suffer its venom.”

Savina’s face cringed in pain. She hauled her wife into her arms and held her.

Nash cleared his throat. “And Lexington?”

“He should be fine. The sweating is evidence of exposure, but he is a vampire of First Realm, so it won’t impact him the same way. It’s complicated, but he’ll be fine if he does what I say.”

“He will,” Nash said with a smile.

“Wait, Maren, are you not exposed? You were in there?—”

“Yes and no. I built an immunity to it that year, but I am taking precautions just in case.”

Savina nodded.

Ellie scrubbed her face with her hands. “This shit just keeps getting worse and worse every time we turn around.”

“We need to end this.”

Everyone jumped and spun to face me.

“Oh, I said that out loud.” I nodded. “Well, whatever, it’s true. We have our answer now. We know how to sever the bond between Tephine and Third Realm. Let’s do it and end this before she takes down one of us. ”

Everyone looked around the room at each other.

Nash held one hand up. “What happened to Venus?”

Bash grinned. “Riven ripped her to pieces. Literally. It was amazing.”

Nash’s jaw dropped. “Like . . . with his bare hands?”

We nodded and then shuddered.

“We’re not quite ready to talk about it,” Stellan grumbled. “Well, the twisted wanker of her womb might, but I don’t wanna hear it again. I’ll never unsee that, unhear that.”

Bash cocked his head to the side. “Twisted wanker of her womb?”

“I don’t know, mate, it just came out.”

Bash snorted. “I like it.”

“Well, I think I will call and update my family on the good news,” Nash said with a chuckle as he headed toward the front living room.

Duvall sighed. “Let me go check on Jada again.”

“So how do you sever it?” a soft, familiar voice said from behind me.

We all jumped and looked toward it to find Zita lingering by the doorway.

Peggy gnawed on her bottom lip. “I thought you went to get some sleep?”

Zita gave a humorless laugh. “Kinda hard to do that right now, knowing what I know. Being so close to home yet so far. So, if it’s all right with you guys, I’d love to just sit and listen to you plot out her death. I think it would be therapeutic for me.”

Everyone looked to me.

I jumped. “Right. Um, I don’t have a problem with it?”

Zita sagged with relief, then walked over to stand beside Peggy. We were all standing around the Island of her kitchen, stuck between exhaustion and fear. My mind was running a mile a minute, just bouncing around like a pinball. I wished Tallulah were here to help me ease my thoughts the way she always did, but thinking about my best friend wasn’t going to help anyone so I pushed those thoughts aside.

I still couldn’t believe I was the Stone Keeper. That I was the chosen one for this insane task. Actually, technically speaking, I wasn’t chosen to kill Tephine—or anyone. I was chosen to find the Chaos Stone and save the realm, so there was nothing that said I had to be the one to deliver the killing blow.

“You okay over there, Frodo?”

I jumped and looked up to find Ellie watching me from a few feet over, where she leaned against Stellan. Frodo. That made me chuckle. “This job description really sucks, Bilbo. ”

She snort-laughed.

Stellan scowled down at her.

She giggled. “Get it? ‘Cause Bilbo had the precious first, then he gave it to Frodo and that’s kind of what happened here?—”

“Are you okay?” Stellen pressed his hand to her forehead. “Do you need to lie down?”

“I need to help Collins kill Tephine.”

“I was actually just thinking that killing her might not be my job.”

“Do we know how to kill her yet?” Philip asked from suddenly right behind us.

Mom ran to him so I looked away to give them privacy. I knew they were both a wreck about my brothers. My gaze landed on Victoria, whose blood shot eyes were more stressed than I’d ever seen them. I wanted to assume it was about my brothers but I knew they’d been talking to someone about Tallulah.

“Vic?”

She looked up at me and then her face fell. “She’s okay.”

I shook my head. “You guys keep saying that. It’s starting to feel like a lie.”

“Tallulah may be clumsy enough to fall through a locked portal, but she won’t go down without swinging.” She gave me a soft smile. “She’s okay. Not great, but okay. There’s nothing you can do for her right now, not with Tephine still breathing, so let’s focus on changing that.”

My stomach tightened into knots. “That makes my nerves nervous, Vic. But okay.”

“So, where we at?” Phil asked as he walked up beside his mother, pulling my mom with him. “Riven killed Venus. Did he give any information?”

Maren looked to me. “We were just getting to that part.”

“Oh yeah, he gave us instructions on how to sever the bond. It was a whole story?—”

“What are the instructions?”

I opened my mouth, then shut it. “I don’t know. He told us not to read them until we were back here, he said Peggy had what we needed.”

Peggy stood up straight, her eyes sharpening. “I do? Oh boy. Okay. What do you need?”

“I don’t know yet. I need to read the paper.” When Bash held the folded note out to me, I started to take it and then stopped. “Ya know, my mind is . . . yeah, can you just read it and tell me what to do? I’m overcooked.”

Ellie nodded. “Yeah, cheat sheet please.”

“Of course.” He gave me a sweet smile, then unfolded the paper. His pale eyes scanned left to right and all the way to the bottom. “So we have to make six very specific staffs to serve as representations of the Origin Stones. Once we make them, we bring them to Crystal Henge and set them up in accordance with this diagram from Howard Prescott?—”

“ What? ”

We all jumped as Lex rushed to Bash’s side. He grabbed the paper out of Bash’s hands and began reading. “This is from my father’s journal?”

“Lex, should you be out here?”

“I set a timer on his phone for when he could get out. Peggy, can you dry him up?” Maren kissed Savina’s cheek, then walked across the kitchen. “I’m going to check on Nickel.”

Peggy pulled a wand out of her pocket and pointed it at Lexington. I was watching her dry his clothes but then he made a face that I’d seen on Howard in Augustine’s mind. The two were a lot alike.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

I flinched and then closed my eyes. “Sorry, I was . . . thinking about what I saw.”

“Where?”

“In . . . someone’s memories.”

He scowled and started to ask more questions but Ellie stepped in and saved me. In the back of my mind, I heard her telling him about what we saw, and I loved that she kept details of Augustine’s life to herself. She did fill him, Phil, and Vic in on the information we learned both in her memories and from Riven.

“So that’s why he wanted his journal.” Lex stared at the paper and shook his head. “Why didn’t he just tell me that?”

“Riven has reasons for his secrets,” I heard myself say. “And secrets for his reasons.”

Lex nodded and then cleared his throat as he handed the paper back to Bash. “I apologize. I heard my father’s name and stopped thinking clearly. Maren told me to drink some potion?—”

We all pointed to it.

“So we make the staffs, then bring them to Crystal Henge, what else?” Mom leaned over Bash’s arm to look at the paper. “What about the diagram?”

“There’s a certain way to align them once we get there, but I have it memorized. However, Sandra, perhaps you should take a picture with your phone just in case something happens to me before we complete this step?—”

I shuddered and my whole body turned cold. “Don’t say that.”

“Sorry, just trying to be realistic. She’ll want me dead?—”

“Not necessarily.” Savina tapped her chin with her finger. “Monsters like her want an audience. She’s gonna want you to watch her kill Collins and everything that follows. My guess is torture and torment are on her agenda for you.”

My stomach rolled.

Bash grimaced. “Thanks for the uplifting visual, Red Widow.”

She smirked. “Just saying.”

The clicking sound of a camera echoed off the kitchen cabinets. Mom shrugged and shoved her phone back into her pocket. “Still, doesn’t hurt to keep a copy for now.”

“Okay. So, we make the staffs, then bring them in and set ‘em up. Riven says them being near each other is going to do the trick.” I rubbed my hands together. “Tell us how to make these staffs.”

“According to Riven’s instructions, you’re to make six staffs out of clear quartz that are hollow inside.” He tapped on the paper. “These staffs will serve as the conduit. We fill each one with a different element of the Origin Stones.”

“Does he by chance tell us what these elements are?”

“Yes, Stellan, he does. Surprisingly.” Bash smirked and shook his head. “There’s a list.”

“Let’s hear it. We can divide and conquer. Everyone get something?” I glanced around to the others as they nodded. “Lay it on us.”

“Right, so we need six clear quartz stones for Collins to morph into the staffs. Then to fill each staff we need moldavite, wands, dirt, two feathers, and her blood.”

Phil scowled so hard.

“Okay, so Zita and I will run to my shop and grab the six quartz and a bag of moldavite.” Peggy hooked her arm through Zita’s and headed for the door. “And the wands.”

“I would like to select the wands for this.” Savina pursed her lips. “Let me check if Maren needs anything, then I shall meet you there.”

Stellan kissed Ellie’s temple and slid out from behind her. “I’m just going to see if I can help them. Feels like a lot to carry.”

Mom held up the vial. “We obviously have her blood.”

“We need something earthy, don’t we?” Ellie strolled over to Bash and tried to peek at the paper. “Wait, you said it?—”

“Dirt.” Bash held the paper out for her to read. “We need dirt.”

“ I’ve got a jar of dirt, ” Ellie sang. She cracked her knuckles. “I’m on it, Captain Jack Sparrow. Be right back.”

Captain Jack Sparrow. This girl and her pop culture references kill me.

“Okay, the last two items . . . a Nephilim feather. It says one will suffice, but if we can pull a feather from more than one Nephilim, that would be better.” Bash turned to Mom and Phil. “What do you say?”

They smiled and pushed their wings out, plucked a feather without hesitation, then set them on the island. Mom’s was turquoise-tipped while Phil’s was green-tipped.

Phil rubbed Mom’s back. “I’ll get one from Jada. She won’t care.”

“And the last thing—” Bash frowned and shook his head. “This is oddly specific, but he says a Pegasus feather from Victoria.”

Vic sighed. “There it is. I knew I’d be the representation for the Creation Stone.”

I yawned and stretched my arms out. “I’m going to sit on her floor like I did before.” Without waiting for a response, I turned and walked my happy, stressed-out self over and sat down. I leaned back against the couch. Bash dropped down, then wrapped his arm around me. We sat in silence. I closed my eyes and leaned into him, just enjoying that vanilla scent of him and the warmth radiating off his skin.

“Are you feeling okay?”

“Yes, why?” He ran his fingers over my braids.

“Your body has been warmer than usual, like your skin.” I nestled in closer. “Are you sick?”

“Hmm . . . I haven’t been as cold as usual in the last couple days. I’ve never been sick, but I wonder if I am? I don’t know.”

“Do you feel okay otherwise?”

“I think so?”

I nodded. “Well, let me know if you notice anything off, okay?”

“I will.” He kissed my forehead. “Oh, before I forget . . . I have something for you.”

I sat up straight so he could dig into his pants pocket and waited. He pulled out a tiger’s eye stone that I recognized instantly.

"Oh shit. I forgot about his.” I took it from his palm and cringed at how cold it felt against my skin. The crystal almost seemed to be shivering, so I covered it with both hands and blew hot air from my mouth onto it. “And Venus’s?”

He smiled and held it up. “Got hers too. I can hold onto them, but I felt you’re the one who should have these.”

I took hers from his hand and held it next to Bregan’s. “So we just need your mother’s. And Helena’s.”

His face fell. “I didn’t realize at that time you’d want to return them. I should have.”

“You got us out of there. That’s all that matters. We just probably need to find hers.”

“Yeah, question is where is it? Mother would have taken it from her body because she’s greedy, but I haven’t seen it on her at all.” He cursed. “We’re looking for a snowflake in a blizzard.”

I grinned. “I don’t think that’s how the saying goes.”

He smiled down at me, then tugged one of my braids playfully. It was so nice to feel like us again. To know it wasn’t our fault. And it was nice to know even when we wanted to strangle each other we still loved each other and had the other’s back.

The front door opened, letting Ellie and a rush of snow in. She slammed the door closed behind her, then stomped snow off her boots. Betty the Broom leapt into the foyer and started smacking Ellie, who immediately squealed and scrambled to get out of the way. Bash and I laughed.

“There’s a no-violence law, Betty,” Ellie hissed at the broom.

Then I lost it. I just laughed until I couldn’t breathe and tears were streaming down my face. When I could speak again, I wiped my eyes and said between giggles, “Oh God, I needed that. She can take down monsters and summon lightning to her fingers but she gets beat by a broom.”

Ellie snorted and sat down across from me on the carpet with the wooden coffee table between us. “I also get taken down by doorknobs and single steps. I like to keep people on their toes.”

I pressed my hand to my chest and felt my pulse racing. “Tallulah would love you.”

“Well, I can’t wait to meet her then.” She smiled and then sat a massive bowl filled to the brim with dark gray dirt on the table. “It’s a bit cold but it’s dirt.”

“Perfect.” I leaned forward and held my palm up, showing the two stones in my hand. “Can a girl get a pocket?”

Purple magic shot like a laser right at my left thigh.

“My bad. Next time, don’t hesitate to tell me you don’t have one.”

“Thank you.” I unzipped my new pocket and slid the two stones inside. “Ya know, I heard once that in the old days dudes used to think women carried around items in their pockets for witchcraft and that’s why they stopped giving women pockets.”

“When I first got into Second Realm last month, none of the women wore pants. They all wore dresses and skirts. It was some bullshit, let me tell you.” Ellie shook her head. “When I gave them pants with pockets? Like Christmas morning. You should’ve seen it. It was glorious.”

“I cannot imagine not having pockets,” Bash said softly.

The front door flew open again and slammed into the wall, making the framed photos rattle. A silvery gust of wind swept through the room, carrying six-inch-long wooden sticks followed by little green crystals that looked like a swarm of bees. Six white stones the size of cantaloupes floated in behind them.

Zita slid through the front door giggling. “Wands won!”

“Stellan, do not break anything in Peggy’s house!” Savina yelled from the front lawn out of sight.

Peggy walked inside with a shrug. “You’ll answer to Betty if you do.”

Stellan cursed. “Not the broom—oh, hey,” he said with a cheeky grin when he spotted us watching.

“Oh, hey?” Ellie shook her head. “What did you do?”

“Nothing! Zita asked if certain objects flew faster than others, so naturally we had to test it.”

“Naturally,” Zita said with a shit-eating grin.

Ellie’s eyes shimmered and her cheeks flushed. She knew as well as I that Stellan had been goofing off to help Zita relax.

Stellan looked to us. “You lot waiting on us?”

I shrugged. “Patiently?”

Savina shut the front door behind her and stomped snow off her shoes. “Here ya go, Bets.”

Betty the broom zoomed right over to the Mage Queen and gently brushed snow off of her shoes.

“That’s not fair,” Ellie and Stellan said at the same time.

Savina winked. “Me and Bets are old friends.”

“That reminds me, where are your children, Peggy?" I pointed to the ceiling. “We are loud, and they haven’t come down.”

“Oh, we’re used to loud noises in this house.” Peggy plucked the clear quartz crystals out of the air, then knelt down beside me, sitting them on the table. “I imagine it’s like New Yorkers with police sirens as ambient sleep noise.”

Ellie laughed. “Facts.”

Stellan carefully set the pile of wands in a neat, orderly row, then formed a little pyramid out of the chunks of moldavite. With a satisfied nod, he sat down beside Ellie. “But really, it’s been loud .”

“Well . . .” Peggy blushed. “I may have put a small spell on the house so the noise down here didn’t travel up there.”

We all laughed.

Bash looked pointedly to Savina who just nodded.

“Everyone back already?” Mom asked as she walked into the living room with Philip and Vic behind her. When she counted us all, she came over and sat beside Peggy to my right. Then she sat the vial of Augustine’s blood on the table in front of me. "I just checked on Nickel. Maren says it’s too early to know if we caught the poison in time.”

Everyone groaned.

“I know. But she’s not going to leave her side until she knows.”

I frowned. “Wait, who is in charge in Second Realm right now if you’re all here ?”

Ellie beamed. “My parents. They were born there and only moved to First when I had to. Savina made them ambassadors.”

Savina nodded. “They’re actually much better at being caring, gentle rulers than we are. Go figure.”

“Lexington, shut your face right now,” Nash said with a groan from the kitchen. “Let’s go.”

The two vampires strolled inside the living room. Nash looked utterly exhausted while Lex looked irritated.

Nash shook his head. “Dude, you were just exposed to a lethally venomous flower and were sweating from it. Your choices are to either crash here where Duvall can watch you or come home with me. Don’t make me call your mother.”

Lex growled. “Fine. Let’s go.” He waved to us, then stormed out the front door.

Nash rolled his blue eyes. “I swear he was planning to swim back to Manhattan right now. Mom’s gonna pounce on him and smother him with worry, don’t you fret.”

Vic shook her head. “You gonna tell him you already called his mother?”

The twisted grin Nash gave her made me giggle. “And ruin my fun? Not a chance.”

“Thanks for all your help, Nash,” I said quickly before he got out the front door.

He gave us a salute and a smile. “Happy to be of service. Don’t hesitate to call if you need me. And . . . good luck.”

“Thanks,” we all grumbled.

Vic strolled over and sat six black Pegasus feathers on the table. “Don’t worry. They grow back fast.”

“Oh, right.” Phil leapt back into the kitchen, then raced back with six gold feathers, two with green tips and the others with turquoise. “I didn’t want to bother Nickel in her current state?—”

“No, definitely not.” Bash held up the paper. “According to Riven, this should be sufficient. We have two Nephilim.”

I sat up and rubbed my hands together. “Okay, is this everything?”

Bash reviewed the paper again. “Wands—check. Augustine’s blood—check. Clear quartz and moldavite—check, check. Nephilim and Pegasus feathers—check, check.”

“And a jar of dirt.” Ellie grinned. “Check.”

“That’s six fillers and one conduit.” He sat the paper down. “We are ready. The next step is all you, love.”

“Right. No big deal. So the staffs in the quartz made hollow so we can fill them, right? Like those plastic candy-canes at Christmas filled with M&M’s ?”

Ellie threw her head back and laughed. Peggy and Mom chuckled. Phil just shook his head. Victoria smiled and nodded.

Stellan frowned. “I need one.”

Ellie patted his head. “I’ll get you one on the way home.”

“You have a serious M&M addiction, my brother.”

“ They’re Heaven, Savina! ”

I picked up one of the huge chunks of raw clear quartz. “Damn, Peggy, you’ve got all the goods.”

She beamed and did a little proud wiggle. “Thank you.”

“Have you always been like this?” I asked as I pushed my magic into the crystal and slowly forced it to stretch left and right.

“Well, I didn’t have a lot of friends as a kid. I wasn’t born on the Island, so my human classmates just didn’t get me. Then we got here when I was like eight and was so obsessed with using magic for everything all the time that I think I annoyed everyone.” She sighed. “But in high school they all came running back to me.”

Savina snorted. “I’ve heard this story, and you’ll all want to when this whole war is over.”

“How long is a staff supposed to be?” Stellan’s eyes were wide as he watched me make the first one. “That’s bloody massive.”

I froze. “Oh, I don’t know? I was just making it like Gandalf’s?”

Ellie threw her head back and laughed. “YES. Shush, Stellan.”

“Perhaps stop there,” Bash said as he held his hand up to the end of my staff. “We do have to carry these into Third Realm with us while not letting Mother see?—”

“Jada’s pouch for her arrows!” Mom jumped up and ran out of the room.

We all watched her leave with frowns.

Except Bash who snapped his fingers excitedly. “Jada has a bow and arrow. I’ve seen her use it. If we make the staffs the size of the bows, then we can conceal them in that bag of hers and Mother will never know.”

I held my first staff up. “This size?”

“Little shorter?”

I nodded and concentrated on shrinking the stone back. “Better?”

“Perfect.”

“Cool. Now, let’s try the moldavite first.” I held the staff upright with the opening on top. “Before any of you get the idea to touch the no-no stone.”

Peggy snorted. “No-no stone. I like that.”

“Stellan, be a doll?—”

“I would make a pretty woman. It’s true.” But he flicked his hand and his silver magic scooped up the moldavite crystals and slowly dropped them into the staff. “That good?”

I watched as the last three stones filed in, then nodded. I wrapped my hand around the top and squeezed, forcing the staff to pinch in at the top. It was purely for aesthetic reasons, but Ellie nodded in approval.

“Got her bag.” Mom hurried back in with the bag that was half full of crystal arrows. “Oh, you’ve got one ready. Let’s try it?”

I floated it over to her. She grabbed it and slid it into the bag, then tested the top to make sure it would close. “Might need to change this to a zipper closure for safekeeping?”

Ellie threw her purple magic at it and the drawstring changed to a zipper. “Still fit?”

Mom smiled. “Still fits. Let’s keep going.”

Everyone watched in tense silence as I picked up the next clear quartz and stretched it to the length we needed and made it hollow inside. “Here, Ellie, mind filling with her blood? You’re less likely to spill.”

She leaned over the table and grabbed both the staff and the vial of blood. “On it.”

“Okay, Stellan?” I finished making the staff, then held it out toward him. “Mind doing the honors with the dirt?”

He was all business as he took the staff and focused on the bowl of dirt. “Oi, you really packed this in here, didn’t ya, love?”

Savina scooped up the six wands and ran her red lightning over them. Then she held her hand out. “I’ll do this one.”

Mom and Phil grabbed the feathers as I worked on making the last few staffs. In a matter of minutes, we had six crystal staffs filled with the elements as Riven directed. We laid them out on the coffee table and just stared. All of that stress over the last few days and this was all we had to do. It felt so simple and easy now. It made my stomach ball into knots at what danger Augustine was in if Riven made us go on the wild goose chase just to get here. Part of me wondered if there was any reason for the adventure if he just gave us the information in the end, but I couldn’t let myself think like that because if we hadn’t gone into her memories the way we had, we never would have seen that she drank the Blood Stone. While that may not be relevant to our war, I knew without a doubt it would be for hers .

Bash wrapped his arm around my shoulders and traced his thumb along my jaw. “What are you thinking about?”

“The Blood Stone.”

Ellie’s face fell. She wrung her hands. “I was, too. That’s gonna be . . .”

“I know.” I shuddered. “I know it’s not our problem and we may not even survive ours, but if and when we do, we need to start looking into this so we’re prepared to help. I wouldn’t be here right now if it wasn’t for all of your help, but especially another Stone Keeper’s. I want to be ready when Augustine needs us.”

Everyone nodded.

Stellan scratched his jaw. “Shylock is a wealth of knowledge, and if I give him a new puzzle to solve, he’ll be ecstatic.”

“And once Nickel is better— because she will get better— we can see what she can find out from her mother about the healing Augustine is gonna need.”

Mom sighed. “Once she’s moved into play, Gaston won’t be so closed off. Or should I say, we won’t have to care if he’s closed off. We’ll make ourselves known.”

I sighed and scrubbed my face with my hands. “Okay. Let’s focus back on our problem. We need a game plan for going in. Hesitating at all could break us before we start.”

“She’s all alone now. Sure, she may or may not know we killed Venus, but she’ll know when we return without her.” Bash folded Riven’s paper back up and shoved it in his pocket. “The thing she wants the most is the Chaos Stone, which means Collins is going to be watched heavily.”

A crazy idea formed in my head. I sat forward. “So let’s give her something to watch.”

Stellan shook his head. “I don’t like that face.”

“I do.” Savina grinned. “Let’s hear it.”

“It’s crazy and reckless, and did I mention hella dangerous for whoever is involved . . . but if she’s going to be looking for me, then let’s bait and switch.” I licked my lips. “Let’s Freaky Friday this bitch.”

“We’ve done that a lot already?—”

“And she’s fallen for it every time, Stellan. Look, we don’t need it to last a long time, just long enough to send Tephine in the opposite direction of Crystal Henge?—”

“So you can sever the bond without her interference.” Bash nodded. “I like this plan. I can be you?—”

“No.” I covered his mouth with my hand. “Firstly, I won’t be able to think straight if I'm worried about you. Secondly, I might need you to do this.”

“I’ll be Collins,” Mom whispered.

Phil squeezed his eyes shut and cringed, but he nodded, like he knew she was going to volunteer and hated it but wouldn’t deny her.

“She knows Collins better than anyone else here, and she knows Tephine and Third Realm. It’s the perfect choice,” Vic said softly, and I figured mostly for her son’s benefit.

Mom nodded. “That settles it. I’ll be Collins.”

“Not by yourself.” Phil held his hands up. “Imma put my foot down on that. You need backup, so if Bash needs to go with Collins, then someone do the swap with him.”

Stellan pointed to Phil. “Right. Because she won’t believe that the two of them separated anyways, so Someone has to be fake-Bash.”

The lights went out and the room went dark.

We all gasped and cursed—just as the lights went back on.

Jada stood at the light switch, leaning against the wall for support with a huge bandage wrapped around her throat.

“JADA!” we all shouted.

We started to get up but she pushed off the wall and hobbled over to the coffee table, then dropped to her knees. She pointed to Bash and then to herself.

“You want to be fake-Bash?” I asked softly, hoping I was wrong because she looked in rough shape.

Her hazel eyes were wild. She held my stare and nodded.

Duvall came sprinting in the room, then slid to a stop when he saw her. He let out a curse and put his hands on his knees. “Jada, don’t scare me like that.”

“Duey, does she have doctor’s permission?—”

Jada slammed her fist on the table. Peggy summoned a pen and paper, then slid it in front of her. Jada grabbed it and scribbled quickly, turning it around for us to read.

‘This is MY fight. Whether I go down or not, I’m going.’

“Then you’re going.” Bash nodded. “Peggy, can you make us two of your tricksy potions for the four of us?”

“Absolutely. And I’ll have Maren whip up the quick reversal potion for you to have on hand. That way you can swap back when you need to.”

“Perfect. Mom and I will swap. Bash and Jada will swap. We’ll take the potions before we enter Third so she doesn’t see us do it. We’ll each have the reversal in pocket.” I checked my pocket for the chest stones, then an idea came to me. I really quickly summoned a rose quartz that matched Venus’s and handed it to Mom. “When we go in, and you look like me, I want you to taunt her with this.”

Bash inhaled sharply. “That’ll get her attention. Can you make a decoy Chaos Stone?”

I grimaced. “What does it look like? She’s seen it, I haven’t.”

“She hasn’t seen it in a long time. But it’s turquoise, like your eyes.” He tapped my temple softly. “She doesn’t pay attention to details, you know that.”

“You saw the Astral Stone. It looks like that but the color of your eyes.” Ellie gave me a thumbs-up. “You can do this.”

I held my hands together and concentrated. Magic was cold against my skin and swirling like a tornado. When it stopped, I opened my hands and presented a pretty turquoise stone. “How’s this?”

Mom grabbed it. “Perfect?—”

“You need to summon it.”

They all scowled at me. I shrugged. “She’s going to catch you and demand you give it to her, so you need to fake like you’re summoning it the way I would.”

“How do I do that?”

“Stellan,” Bash said with a smirk. “Stellan goes with you and Jada but stays back and hidden. Give him the stone. When you pretend to summon it, he will use his power to throw it at you.”

Silver magic coiled around the stone in Mom’s hand, lifted it up, and carried it across the room to where Stellan sat. He smirked. “Good plan, mate. But does anyone have a way to make me hidden?”

“I can camouflage you once we get inside so you can follow them. She won’t see you.” Ellie looked like she hated the idea of parting from him, but I saw the determination in her eyes.

“Okay, so we have our plan.” I nodded and held my fingers up as I counted. “Step one, we go in and piss off Tephine and send the decoys out as bait. Step two, Bash and I set up staffs at Crystal Henge and sever the bond. Step three, we kill the bitch. Step four, we find the Chaos Stone. Step five, come home and stuff ourselves for Thanksgiving.”

Everyone nodded and let out heavy sighs. We knew my plan sounded easy on paper, but undoubtedly something would go wrong once we got inside. And there was the really, really good chance one or more of us wouldn’t be coming back. I glanced around the room and tried to imagine that, but I couldn’t. It hurt too much to even consider. There wasn’t a person in this room I was willing to lose . . . and that terrified me. The Chaos Stone was my problem, not theirs. And I knew they’d all lay down their lives to help me get there. I wanted to protect all of them. I need to make them little pouches of stones to wear on them. It’s the least I can do.

Zita cleared her throat. “I know this isn’t my place but . . . the sun is rising. You have quite a battle ahead of you. Maybe you should get some sleep before going in?”

“She’s right. Everyone find a bed or somewhere to lie down and sleep. If you can’t, ask Peggy for something. Tephine can’t get us here, and we can’t go into that war without proper rest.” Mom stood and stretched her neck. “We ride at sunset.”