Spellbound Murder Complete Trilogy (Spellbound Murder Box Set Book 1) Page 21

  Gabriel gave her a half grin. “Honestly, you were talking so fast that I started to panic. I’m pretty sure I couldn’t make heads or tails of what you said even if I tried.”

  Glaring at him, she couldn’t tell if he was telling the truth or not. The stupid half grin wasn’t helping any.

  “What’s all this?” he asked, changing the subject.

  She wanted to yell or rant a bit more, but figured it was best if they just moved forward. Gabriel slid over a stool for each of them. They sat while Mira sorted through what they had. Some of the labels she could read clearly. The symbol for Relief, for instance, was almost universal. Some she uncorked and sniffed to try to figure out what they might be. One bottle gave her an uneasy feeling, and she capped it quickly and left it alone.

  “Looks like we have some typical potions. Some of these will come in handy. We’ve got some Relief, Comfort, and Honesty,” she said, naming the bottles that she could read. “This looks like Foresight, but it doesn’t quite smell right. This could be Luck, but I’m not really sure.”

  “Honesty? In a bottle? You know, I could use some of that,” Gabriel said.

  “Really, I would have thought you’d have heard enough honesty for one day,” Mira snapped.

  Gabriel’s cheeks turned pink and he started poking around the secret compartment. “What’s the rest of this?” he asked.

  Slapping Gabriel’s hand away, she pulled out the rest of the stuff. “Looks like the rest are ingredients.”

  “Ingredients for potions? What exactly do you do with the potions?” Gabriel asked.

  “You do whatever you want with them. You drink them, or sell them, or share them with others.”

  “And these potions here—Relief, for instance. What does it do?” Gabriel asked.

  “Relief helps alleviate pain, at least that’s mostly how it’s put together. Giving someone Honesty ensures the person is being truthful. You already know if they’re truthful, but this makes them tell the truth, more or less. Comfort does just what it says.”

  “Sounds like drugs,” said Gabriel.

  “Some people take it like drugs,” Mira said. “Drugs can heal or hurt, just depends on how you use them.” As an afterthought she added, “Or abuse them.”

  “Anything here we can use to help us get out?” Gabriel asked.

  “The fact that it’s here at all tells us something. These are things from the real world that are reflected here.”

  A thud made them jump—something had crashed into the side of the house. They looked at each other and then around the room.

  Another thud. Gabriel reached out, and his sword and shield materialized in his hands.

  “Anything we can use now?” Gabriel asked.

  Reviewing her ingredients, she tried to think through all the spells she knew. Protection would be most useful, but it wasn’t an option. Maggie was missing way too many ingredients. Mira snagged a few items, just in case. “Nothing we can use now, but maybe when we get to my store.”

  “What about the Relief? Can you take that?” Gabriel asked. “For your head and leg?”

  Surprised, Mira rubbed her head. “That might be a good idea.”

  Gabriel seemed to notice her injuries more than she had.

  Without thinking it through, Mira drew the familiar symbols around the edge of the bottle. Each symbol flared and gleamed without dissipating. She glanced at Gabriel, but he seemed to be taking it in stride. She hesitated a few moments, but not wanting to show her unease, she closed her eyes and drank the potion.

  The flavors burst in her mouth. The warmth of the potion slid down her throat. When it reached her stomach, it gathered and then jumped into the energy of her body and flowed to every corner, filling her. The areas where she had felt pain tingled and the discomfort evaporated.

  Gabriel looked at her with concern.

  She was gripping the counter and breathing heavily. Not wanting to let go of the feeling, she closed her eyes again and immersed herself in it. This was better than Bliss, better than any other potion she’d ever had. Mira was already making plans to track Maggie down and compare potion notes.

  Something pounded on the roof and rolled off.

  “I think we’ll need to move quickly,” Gabriel said. “How’s your head?”

  Mira nodded, forcing herself to stop thinking about the potion. “It’s good. I’m good.”

  “Do we have a plan?” Gabriel asked.

  “Yeah.” Mira started to grin. “They think you’ve lost your voice. Let’s prove them wrong.”

  “I don’t want to screw this up,” Gabriel said.

  “We’ll think it through first.”

  They spent a few minutes hashing out ways to make the creatures go away without causing her or Gabriel to be affected. Just in case, they decided to bind themselves together again with Mira’s thread. The silk was still glowing, although it seemed a bit dimmer than before. Mira tried not to think about Ether sucking the magic away. Putting her hand to the pentagram, she inspected it. It still glowed brightly, so she settled it back around her neck, making sure it touched skin.

  “I’ll open the door,” Gabriel said. “Stand behind me and hold on tight around my waist.”

  They both moved to the door, pockets bulging with what they had pilfered from Maggie’s place. Wrapping herself tightly against Gabriel’s back, she could feel the muscles rippling. If she hadn’t been scared out of mind, she mused, her body would be having quite the reaction.

  Gabriel breathed deeply and shuddered. “Let’s do this.”

  He opened the door.

  From her vantage point, Mira couldn’t see much. Her head was mostly buried in Gabriel’s wing. There were glimpses of dark creatures stirring in the haze, their eyes flashing oddly in the low glow Gabriel radiated. Sometimes, far too many eyes grouped together.

  Gabriel’s wings spread out, blocking Mira’s vision and throwing her off balance. She clung to him, refusing to fall.

  “Creatures before us, fall back. Be gone and do not hinder our progress through this world.”

  Mira gripped tightly to Gabriel, fearing that she would be forced back by his words. Instead, screams and hisses broke out all around them, even to Mira’s horror, from above. Inhuman sounds mixed with curses and words in other languages assaulted them from all sides.

  Something streaked forward.

  Gabriel repeated his words with more confidence and everything fell back. When the noise died, Mira peeled herself off Gabriel. Stuck to her sweat on her hand were a few of Gabriel’s feathers. Even detached they glowed in the haze.

  “That worked well,” Gabriel said, sounding pleased with himself. “It looks like a few of them are still in the shadows, but we’ll keep an eye out. We may just make it through this.”

  “That was amazing,” Mira said. “Um, I held on a little enthusiastically, though.”

  He looked at the feathers she held out and shrugged. “I didn’t even notice.”

  “We shouldn’t leave them in this place.” Mira shoved them in her pocket. “And we shouldn’t stick around here. Let’s go.”

  They reached the street and the world lurched. An earthquake tore through town. Gabriel and Mira clung to each other’s arm and rode the wave out. They stared at each other. Nothing like that had ever hit their city. Some silent decision was made and they ignored it. Gabriel kept his sword and shield together in one hand and held Mira’s hand in the other.

  Their short break had rejuvenated them some, but it was wearing off fast. Since nothing stood in their way, they were moving much more quickly than before.

  Taunts came from the shadows through the haze. The ridicule reminded them that there was nowhere to hide. They scolded Mira for helping Emmit and for shifting the balance in the Harker’s favor. Threats were made, and the creatures seem to take great relish in telling the pair how they would be tortured once the creatures got hold of them.

  Through it all, Gabriel and Mira gripped each other’s hand. Mira could fe
el a cold sweat coming from him as much as it came from herself, but she didn’t dare take her eyes off her surroundings to look at Gabriel.

  The trip to Mira’s store was long, dark, and filled with hidden terrors.

  It was a shock to see the buildings starting to tower up around them. The exteriors looked as though they were covered in soot and strange brown vegetation sprouted in odd places.

  They saw that the windows were gone, replaced with brick, like all the others they had seen. It seemed as though windows and mirrors really didn’t exist in this world. Instinctively, Mira patted her pockets for her key, not letting go of Gabriel to do so. Then she remembered that nothing non-magical had entered the world with her, unless one of them had been touching it.

  The store had a soft glow and looked less dingy than others around it. Whatever magic that had fused into Mira’s store was working to burn away the diseased effects of the Ether.

  Mira almost cried out with relief when they reached the storefront. They looked around carefully for any shapes in the darkness.

  There was hesitation when Gabriel reached for the doorknob. Mira let out a breath she’d been holding when the door swung open.

  “I need my hand,” Gabriel said, his voice low.

  Reluctantly, Mira let go, missing the support almost as soon as it was gone.

  Gabriel went room by room, checking under tables and in corners, trying to ensure they were alone. Mira trailed along behind, unwilling to take off the string that connected them until she was certain they wouldn’t be forced to run away.

  After making sure the back door was locked, Mira untied the silk. They silently sat in the kitchen, catching their breath while keeping their thoughts to themselves.

  Mira was afraid to make the next move. The fear of finding out she could do nothing kept her frozen in her thoughts. Gabriel seemed to be going through something similar, but he was the one who finally broke the silence.

  “What’s next?” he asked. “The thought of sleeping in this place makes my skin crawl.”

  Chapter 25

  Mira dragged herself to her feet and began to move around the kitchen before stopping, suddenly shy about her secret hiding places. She was being hypocritical, she knew. Mira hadn’t been reluctant about opening up Maggie’s stash in front of Gabriel.

  “Here’s the thing,” Mira said, “no one knows where I keep my supplies outside of my family. Even my best friends don’t know. I need you to swear that you will not tell anyone my secrets.”

  “Sure, I promise.”

  She could tell by his tone of voice that he didn’t care one way or the other. “Gabriel, this is important. There are spouses in our community that don’t know where their partners keep everything. In the past, people have died and others have killed for a witch’s secrets.” That got Gabriel’s attention. “Do you swear?”

  He seemed to think over what she said before agreeing. “I swear that I won’t tell anyone about your witchy secrets.”

  It was so subtle that she almost missed it. The silver cord that wrapped itself around them at Maggie’s house briefly shimmered before fading away once more.

  Gabriel paled, his eyes focused on where the connection between them had disappeared. “We really need to get out of here. Whatever that is, it’s only here, right? Not in the real world?”

  Mira took a few deep breaths and tried to sound sincere. “Sure. Have you ever seen a silvery cord between two people in our world?”

  “I don’t know why you bother lying,” Gabriel snapped.

  “The truth is, I don’t know.” She tried to take a steadying breath before going on. “I don’t know what it is. For now, why don’t we just agree not to make promises to each other?”

  Gabriel nodded.

  Confident that Gabriel wouldn’t let her secret compartment become public knowledge, at least not before she had time to make another, Mira opened the hidden latch and started pulling items out onto the counter.

  “What’s this?” Gabriel asked.

  She glanced at the floor where he was kicking at a piece of glowing tile.

  “That’s one of my circles. I guess it’s glowing because I put a lot of magic into it over and over again. Well, my partner and me. She’s a witch as well. There are several other hiding places throughout the store.”

  Gabriel sat his sword and shield aside, and left Mira sorting through items while he stalked around the store, checking out the imprint of magic.

  “I just can’t wrap my head around all of this,” Gabriel said when he returned.

  “You just got sucked into the Ether with a witch that you thought was a murderer. You found out you’re an angel ready for battle and you’re not sure if you can get home. I can’t imagine what’s tripping you up.”

  Gabriel burst out laughing and Mira joined him a beat later. It felt good to laugh. The atmosphere seemed to be momentarily lifted.

  The ground turned again, shaking everything. Their laughter died quickly, and they held onto whatever was close until the earthquake was over.

  “Right,” Gabriel said. “I’ll contemplate my newfound knowledge when I’m safe in my own bed. In my own world.” He came over and poked through Mira’s supplies. When that bored him, he leafed through one of her spell books. “How come all your stuff is here?”

  “Not all of it. Not by half.” Mira sighed. “It’s only the stuff that I’ve had for a long time or that has been magicked in some way.”

  “Isn’t that all you need?”

  “It doesn’t work like that. What you start out with, the base ingredients, they usually aren’t magical in nature.”

  “Anything in these books about this place?” Gabriel asked.

  “Only a few spells that affect what a person sees or feels from here. All other knowledge of the Ether was stripped away centuries ago.” While Mira looked over the contents of her hiding place, she explained to Gabriel about the disappearances of witches. “It’s forbidden for anyone to enter the Ether.”

  “So we have nothing in your books, and no one from our world could help us, even if we could somehow contact someone?” Gabriel asked.

  “Right,” she said.

  “Why did we come to your store?”

  “Just because it’s not written down doesn’t mean we can’t figure it out,” she said. “We’ve been here for a while. What do we know about this world?”

  Gabriel pulled out two stools, and they sat and contemplated what they’d seen.

  “The air isn’t clear here and the place is filled with monsters,” Gabriel said.

  “Well, they don’t like me, anyway,” Mira said. “They were more than willing to let you go in the beginning. They may not be complete monsters.”

  “Yeah, right,” Gabriel said with scorn.

  “Fine, it’s filled with strange mean creatures that eat their wounded.” Mira shivered. Picturing the beasts eating was too unsettling. She tried to steer the conversation away from monsters. “We know things line up, at least mostly, with our world. Same buildings and stuff.”

  “Buildings and streets, but no glass in the windows, no food, and no water,” Gabriel said.

  “Magic is strong here, or at least it has a physical presence. I mean, things don’t glow in our world just because they have magic.”

  “What does that tell us?” Gabriel asked.

  “No idea,” Mira said. Then she grinned. “It means you are an angel here. Does your sword or shield say anything?”

  Gabriel turned to where he had set them down, but they were gone. He rolled his head on his shoulders and held out his arms before closing his eyes and concentrating.

  Nothing happened.

  “Come on,” he muttered.

  “Maybe think about attacking something?” Mira suggested.

  Eyes still closed Gabriel tensed, and out of nowhere, appeared his sword and shield. Both gleamed of shiny silver. After taking a moment to marvel over their appearance, Gabriel passed over the shield while he inspected the sword.
After a while, they traded. Besides an inscription on the inside of the shield and along the hilt of the sword, the items gave no clues. The inscription was in another language, so they were both at a loss.

  “Maybe I can think of other things and have them appear.” Gabriel set the sword and shield aside.

  Neither one of them took their eyes off the weapon, which remained solid.

  “Maybe,” Mira said. “The only thing we’ve had a chance to do here is fight.”

  Watching Gabriel for a while was amusing. His face scrunched up in concentration, but nothing happened. Mira started flipping through her potion recipes for something that may help them out. Specifically, she reviewed the recipe made for seers to keep the Ether away and thought about the recipe that she had created for Emmit. Her mind worked furiously as she thought about each ingredient and its purpose.

  “Do we know anything else?” Gabriel asked. He seemed to give up on producing anything out of thin air.

  “No cars,” Mira said absently.

  Gabriel thought that over while Mira stared at the book.

  “No cars, no food. Maybe that means nothing temporary,” Gabriel suggested.

  Mira looked up at him, impressed.

  “Maybe it has to be in our world for a long time before it appears here. Unless it’s magic,” he said.

  “You’re right,” Mira said. “That might help us figure this mess out. Nothing temporary is in this world, except magic. That could be why there are no mirrors or glass?”

  “I don’t think so,” Gabriel said. “The glass in most of the shops and houses we passed has been there as long as the buildings.”

  “It has to be because of the reflections.”

  “You think a reflection could get us out of here?” Gabriel asked.

  She blinked at him, her tired mind grabbing hold of his idea. Her face split into a smile, and she hurried to her hiding place and dug everything out, setting each item on the counter. The last thing she pulled out was a black velvet bag a little wider than her hand.