Scattered Ashes

  "I do trust you," I say, realizing how true my words are. I trust him with my life, with everything.

  I slip off the ring and set it in the palm of his hand.

  "Thank you." He kisses me quickly on the cheek, and I hear him gasp.

  "Are you sure you're okay?" I ask, leaning back to catch his gaze.

  He nods, slipping the ring on his pinkie finger. "I'm more than okay."

  I'm not sure I believe him, but I don't have time to pry the truth out of him.

  After Aislin drops Laylen and Alex off at my house, we transport to The Evil Side, which is the closest black magic store Aislin can find.

  It's late by the time we arrive; the stars and moon are out, and the air has a nip to it. The store looks as dark as the sky, but that might be because the windows are covered with grim.

  "Ready for this?" Aislin asks me as we hike across the parking lot for the store.

  "I guess so"--I wrap my arms around myself--"but I think we should have a game plan just in case something goes wrong."

  "We already have one--you. Black magic witches worship you. You're like their god or goddess."

  "Still, I'd feel better if we had an escape plan. I can already sense the praesidium inside, so my Foreseer power is a no go."

  She brushes her bangs out of her face. "Well, if all else fails, I'll transport us out of there." She grins. "Because I can now do that, no assistance needed."

  My heels crunch against the gravel as we approach the front steps. "Yeah, how did that happen?"

  She shrugs. "My magic's just getting stronger. It happens."

  We trot up the steps, and a bell dings as we enter. The air reeks of burnt herbs, cigarette smoke, and weed. Around the room, there are rows and rows of jars filled with a gooey, yellow liquid and what looks like animal parts.

  "So gross," I mutter under my breath.

  Aislin puts her fingers to her lips and mouths, They're listening.

  I cringe and mouth, Sorry.

  "Can I help you?" A woman with golden eyes and hair as pale as snow ducks through a curtain of beads at the back of the store. She gives me a once over, quickly notes my wings, and then bows her head. "We're so honored to have a Black Angel in our store. How can I assist you?"

  Aislin hands her a piece of paper with the items she needs. "We need everything on this list."

  The witch ignores her. "Is that why you've come here? To collect the items from this list?" she asks me.

  I nod, trying to convey more confidence than I have. "Yes."

  She bows her head again, snatches the list from Aislin, and ducks back through the curtains. Another woman enters moments later, her hair as orange as fire.

  "It's a pleasure to have you in my store." She curtsies at me, and it looks so awkward I have to stifle a laugh. "I'm Catalina, and if you need anything at all, just let me know."

  "Thanks," I say, carrying my shoulders high.

  She frowns, her expression turning icy. "She hasn't even transitioned yet." She storms for the curtains right as the other witch steps back out. "That's not a Black Angel, only a mere human with wings."

  "Watch it. You know they're still powerful, even when they haven't transitioned," the woman with pale hair warns then begins collecting items off the shelf

  As they argue some more, Aislin and I wander around the store, crossing our fingers that this will go smoothly.

  "I wonder what this is for," Aislin mutters, reaching for a glimmering rainbow candle on the shelf.

  I smack her hand away. "Don't touch it if you don't know what it is. Trust me. The last time I did that, I ended up falling into a Foreseer ball."

  "That's just the Power of Entrapment candle." The paled-haired witch appears behind me, startling Aislin and me. She picks up the candle and turns it in her hands. "It traps the power of a witch inside their own body, at least while the wick burns."

  "What about other kinds of power?" I ask, my voice a little uneven. "Or is it solely for Wicca power?"

  "That depends on what other power you're talking about." She waits for me to explain.

  I shrug, not even positive why I asked.

  Because you think you love Alex and want to tell him. And if you have the candle, it might protect you from the star's power killing you.

  I shake the thought from my head.

  "How much is it?" Aislin asks, reaching to unzip her purse.

  "Oh, it's not for sale," she replies, tightening her hold on the candle. "Catalina only makes trades for things as powerful as this, and it has to be a very enticing trade."

  "And you two have nothing I want," Catalina grumbles from across the room.

  The paled-haired witch sighs. "Sorry, she lacks people skills." She eyes us over before her fingers float toward my locket. "For this, I think she might be willing to make the trade."

  I step back, shaking my head. "I won't trade that."

  "Catalina, come look at this," she calls out, her eyes fixed on my locket. "This one's got sugilite on her."

  Catalina whisks over to us in the snap of a finger and puts her hand on my necklace without permission. "And it's coated in silver." She looks at the candle and then at me. "If you want the candle, give me the necklace."

  I clutch onto my heart-shaped locket, shaking my head.

  She snaps the chain from my neck and drops the candle at my feet. "It's not really a choice. I'm taking the necklace. You can have the candle if you want."

  I'm sorry, Aislin mouths, looking like she's a step away from bursting into tears.

  "It's okay." I scoop up the candle and hold it in my arms, trying to figure out if I'm really ready to use it, ready to open my heart like that.

  The silence of the prickle on the back makes me wonder if I'm not.

  ALEX

  I'm not sure if the ring will work, and I really don't want to fucking talk to him, but this isn't about me. This about saving Gemma, and if that means talking to Nicholas, I'll do it. I'm just hoping, since his fey blood connects with every breed of faerie in the world, he'll know a thing or two about Banshees.

  "So what exactly are we doing here?" Laylen asks, glancing around at the tan walls of Gemma's bedroom.

  I crack my knuckles. "Looking for Nicholas."

  "Come again?" Laylen does a double take.

  "He's fey." I shrug. "He might know something about my mother. Plus, Gemma said she saw him in her dream where she died, that he took her to the Afterlife."

  "Okay." Laylen clears his throat and shifts his weight, leaning against the doorway. "Is he here?"

  I shake my head, inching into the room. "I'm not even sure the ring will work on me."

  Minutes tick by and still no Nicholas. I sigh, about to give up, when I hear a soft thud from somewhere in the room.

  "Look at you," Nicholas's voice floats around the room. "Got you a fancy little ring, huh? Sure does look pretty."

  I roll my eyes. "Show yourself."

  "You first," he says with a laugh.

  I take a few calculated breaths, trying to keep my temper under control. "Where is she?"

  "You'll have to be more specific," Nicholas says. "Because the list of people you're looking for is endless. I mean, there's me, the lovely Jocelyn who might not be so lovely anymore . . . and of course, your dear old mom, Alana."

  "Tell me what you know." My eyes skim the ceiling and the walls as I draw out my knife.

  Laylen turns in a circle and accidently bumps into the desk, knocking a CD onto the floor. "He's not by me, is he?"

  I hold up a finger. "Not yet . . . but . . ."

  "I have nothing to say to you," Nicholas says. "Now go away and don't come back unless Gemma's with you. I miss our little talks and watching her undress."

  "Goddammit." I grunt in frustration, wishing I could beat the living shit out of him.

  "Keep it together, man," Laylen says, scooping up the CD off the floor. "He wants you to get pissed off. It's just like when we were kids, and he stole all our stuff just to watch us strug
gle to find it. He likes torturing people. It's his thing."

  Laylen's right. I need to get my shit together; otherwise, I won't get anything out of Nicholas.

  "I'll tell you what. Show yourself and I'll make a bargain with you," I try to entice him, knowing it's risky, but I'm desperate.

  "What kind of a bargain?" he asks, his curiosity piquing.

  "The kind where you can live again," I say, circling the room.

  Laylen shoots me a what-the-fuck-are-you-doing look, but I swiftly shake my head, warning him to keep quiet.

  Nicholas appears in front of the foot of the bed with his eyes narrowed and his arms folded. He looks the same as he always did except I can see through him.

  "This better be good," he says.

  "It is, but I want your info first." I toss and catch the knife before pointing the tip of the blade at him. "Starting with the location of Jocelyn and then move on to my mother."

  Nicholas eyes the knife. "You know that can't hurt me. I'm a ghost."

  "Then I guess you have nothing to worry about." I stop tormenting him with my knife and set it down on the dresser. "Answer my questions."

  "First, you're going to bring me back to life," he demands.

  I shake my head. "Nope. You first."

  We stare each other down, a challenge between the dead and the living. I remember the days when I used to beat the shit out of him to get him to talk. I really do miss those days.

  "Jocelyn's gone," he tells me, "but I'd like to point out that I warned her they don't like me down in the Afterlife because I'm a half-breed."

  I want to rip his head off. "What do you mean, 'gone'?"

  He shrugs, sitting down on the bed. "When we showed up in the Afterlife, Annabella collected her essence and forced her to cross over. She's moved on, past the ghost life."

  A lump forms in my throat, and I have to force it down before I speak. "So Gemma won't ever see her again?"

  "Jocelyn was never supposed to be here," he says with an eye roll. "I already told you this. She had a brief gap between her death and crossing over where she could roam free, but unlike me, it was her time to go, and Annabella made sure she went."

  God, how am I going to break the news to Gemma? She was so determined her mom was going to come find her again, and now she's never going to see her.

  As my worry for Gemma swells inside me, I feel my life fading away. It's the same thing that happened when I was kissing her in the hideout. I almost died, and I know why.

  Because I'm falling in love with her.

  "And what about my mom?" I ask cautiously, trying to keep my emotions intact. If I lose control, that might be it for me, and I can't die yet. I have to save her. "Do you know where she is?"

  "I thought she was dead, too."

  "Watch it," I warn, aiming the knife at him again. "It's your life at stake here. If you don't help me, then I don't help you."

  "Oh, I beg to differ." He laughs at me. "This is so funny--watching you stress out because I know where your mom is and you don't."

  Something snaps inside me, and I lunge for him, sailing right through him and landing on the bed, bouncing on the mattress and hitting my head against the headboard.

  "What the fuck are you doing?" Laylen asks, gaping at me like I've lost my damn mind

  "Trying to kill a ghost," I growl, springing from the bed.

  Nicholas laughs again as he dances around the room and spins circles around Laylen. "This is so much fun."

  I storm for the door. "Fuck you. I'm tired of this shit. Laylen, let's go."

  "Wait," Nicholas calls out in panic.

  I smile to myself because he took the bait. "What?" I snap as I turn around.

  "I might know where Alana is," he says, stepping away from Laylen. "She's trapped in a place where you yourself were once imprisoned."

  "What are you . . . ?" A revelation clicks, and it's brutally painful, like a knife to the heart. "The City of Crystal . . . She's trapped in that massive crystal. But how is that possible? She's a Banshee."

  "Banshees, fey, vampires, all kinds have been trapped there at one point or another. And otherworld creatures give out the best power." A shit-eating smirk comes across his face. "Amazing, isn't it? You were once trapped there with her, and you didn't even know it."

  "Take me there," I demand as guilt piles on my shoulders.

  She was there the whole time. How did I not know?

  "Not until you tell me how to bring myself back to life," he says, crossing his arms.

  I flip the knife closed and shove it into my pocket. "When I free the lost souls from the Afterlife, I'll make sure to include you."

  "You say it like you're the one going." He shakes his head and rolls his eyes. "That's never going to happen, no matter how much you want it to."

  I gesture around the room. "Gemma's not here, is she? And I have the ring, and as soon as I get my mother out of the City, I'll have my ticket to the Afterlife."

  He erupts in laughter, hunching over and gasping for air. "You still don't get it," he says as his laughter dies down. "It has to be Gemma. It always has been and always will be. All of this was planned out before she was even born."

  "Well, I'm going to change it," I say. "Like she changed her vision, I'll change her future by taking her place."

  Laylen throws his hands up in the air and walks out of the room, muttering, "This one-sided conversation is too much. It's giving me a fucking headache."

  "It'll never work," Nicholas says. "You can't change the future. You're not a Foreseer."

  "It sounds pretty possible to me. I go to the Afterlife; therefore, I change her future."

  "You're still not getting it. You can't just change how it's supposed to be. That's what you mere humans don't get. Us Foreseers understand everything happens for a reason, even mistakes as great as Gemma's father committed. We are who we are. There's no changing it. It has to be Gemma. She is the one born with the Foreseer gift, the one destined to change the vision. And she's the one who has to make the bargain with Helena because she's responsible for the lost souls. Any other way won't work."

  "But she didn't trap the souls on purpose," I say. "She was only fixing her father's mistakes."

  He shrugs half-heartedly. "Doesn't matter. This--all of this--was what she was destined to do since the day she was born."

  "And what about my mother?" I snap, seething mad. Not at him, but at destiny. At my father for making all this happen. At myself, because no matter what I do, I can't seem to make anything right. "What does she have to do with this? Because I'm guessing she has some role to play in this stupid fucking destiny game."

  "You can ask her yourself." He retrieves a miniature crystal ball from his pocket. "In the City of Crystal."

  "What's going on?" Laylen asks, sticking his head into the room.

  I shake my head. "This is such bullshit. None of this is fair. Gemma . . . She's already been through enough."

  "We all have to endure difficulty in our life," Nicholas says, "some more than others."

  GEMMA

  "Stop picking at your feathers," Aislin scolds while mixing a bowl of green goo and leaves.

  "But they itch like crazy," I whine, continuing to scratch my wings and causing more to fall to my bedroom floor.

  After we left The Evil Side, we transported to my house. Since Laylen and Alex aren't back yet from their search for his mother, Aislin jumped straight into witch mode, mixing potions, while I sit on the floor, itching at the feathers and staring at the rainbow candle, trying to figure out if it's worth lighting, if I love Alex.

  I touch the back of my neck, willing the prickle to tell me, but then quickly panic, realizing without the use of the candle, my power might die with the revelation and take me along with it.

  "You're molting," Aislin observes while smashing the wooden spoon against the goo in the bowl.

  I glare at her. "I'm not a bird."

  "I know," she says, tucking her feet under her butt as she sets the bo
wl down on the carpet. "But you do have wings."

  I pluck another feather from my left wing and flick it to the floor. "How long is that going to take to make?"

  She peers into the bowl. "Not too much longer, but I still have to steal a witch's power, and that might take a little bit of time."

  I motion at the boarded window. "There's a ton out there. Just take the power from that creepy one that was hanging outside by the mailbox."

  "We can't steal the power from one nearby. When I take their power, whoever they are, they're going to try to kill me, so it needs to be someone who has no clue where I'm going to go."

  "Have anyone in mind?" I massage the tip of my wings as they start to cramp. "Because it kind of sounds like you do."

  "Yeah, I have an idea." She stares down at the palm of her hand.

  "Is this some kind of revenge plot or something?" I kneel up, wiggling my wings, trying to shake the cramps out of them.

  She shakes her head. "Why would I ever do that?" she says.

  I aim a finger at her. "This is a revenge plot."

  "She branded me, barring me from the witch world," she gripes. "She deserves it."

  "Fine, have your revenge, but just be careful." I lie down on the floor on my side. "I should go with you. It's too dangerous to go alone."

  "You draw a lot of attention. Plus, you need to rest, take a shower, and eat something. Take care of that little one growing inside you."

  I listen to the baby's heartbeat. "Why do you think I can hear her heart beating?"

  "I don't know." She stands up, picks up the bowl, and balances it on the computer desk. "Maybe it's because of the star or something, like how you can feel the electricity with Alex."

  "Do you think"--I drape my arm over my stomach--"she's normal?"

  She kneels down beside me, brushing my hair out of my eyes so I can see her face. "Gemma, of course she is. And do you want to know what else I know?"

  I nod.

  She smiles. "That she's going to grow up living a happy life, full of love and rainbows and all that fun stuff."

  "I hope so."

  "Well, I know so." She stands up, opening and closing her hands. "Now wish me luck."

  "Good luck," I say. "I'll just stay here and work on my nest until you get back."

  She snorts a laugh, and I laugh with her, sharing this weird, normal moment. Then she chants a spell, creating a cloud of vapor that carries her away, leaving me alone in an empty house.