House of Ivy & Sorrow

THIRTY-ONE





My knees give out, but Kat keeps me standing. “She’s alive, Jo. I should have realized you thought she might be . . . she’s not dead.”

Hearing that gives me enough strength to pull it together. I take a deep breath, shoving the grief over Nana and my mom into a little box for later. Gwen comes first. “How bad is it? What happened? Is her family safe?”

“I don’t know exactly.” Kat goes to my armoire and riffles through my clothes. “Mrs. Lee called me from the hospital. I guess her parents and siblings escaped once they smelled the smoke, but then they realized Gwen wasn’t there. Her dad grabbed a fire extinguisher and went back in for her. She wouldn’t wake up even when he shook her, so he carried her out.”

I grab my phone, feeling like the most selfish person in the world for turning it off. Sure enough, when I listen to the messages, half of them are from Mrs. Lee, telling me they’re at the hospital in Denison. “She’s in a coma?”

Kat tosses me a pair of jeans and a shirt. “Yeah, but I have a feeling she would have been dead if it weren’t for . . .” She touches her charms.

“The spell must have been really bad if it still put her in a coma.”

She heads for the door. “Get ready. I’ll ask Dorothea what we should bring to fix it.”

Once I’m dressed, I rush down the stairs. My dad and Kat stand in the entryway. Their hushed tones obviously mean they’re talking about me, and the accompanying guilty looks don’t help their case.

Kat holds up a bag. “She said you’d know what to do with this.”

I take it and peer in. This stuff should definitely help fix whatever has happened. Too bad I don’t know the exact curse—it would make it easier to decide on the antidote. “So we have transportation?”

She gnaws on her lip. “I called Winn. He should be here soon.”

“Oh.” My stomach does all kinds of flips. I’m not sure if they’re good or bad ones. I haven’t talked to him in a few days—not since I found out he’s living in my great-great-great-aunt’s house.

“Be safe,” my dad says when Winn’s lights shine outside.

I don’t answer, but instead give him a long, pained look. What am I supposed to say? Sure, we’ll be safe trying to save Gwen from a botched murder attempt. Nothing will go wrong. I’m never assuming I’m safe again. Not even among my own kind.

Winn is headed down the path as we leave the house, and an unexpected wave of relief crashes over me when I once again see no magic in him. I hold on to that fact like my life depends on it. When we meet, he scoops me off the ground; I’m too exhausted to resist. He whispers into my ear, “Where have you been? I missed you.”

How can he still make me want to smile? “It’s been kind of hectic around here, getting my dad settled and all.”


“I guess I can accept that.” He puts me on the ground, and his beautiful mouth turns down. “So, how are you doing with all this?”

I know he means Gwen, but it feels like it applies to everything. Searching his eyes, all I can see is concern. No blackness or cunning like Levi. It can’t be fake—he can’t be trying to trick me. Or have I already been tricked? I lean on his chest, the comfort of his arms too strong to ignore. If it is a lie, I fell for it a long time ago. “I’m so tired.”

“You can sleep on the way there,” Kat says. “We should get going.”

“Right.” Winn guides me to the car, and we head for Denison. As I doze off on his shoulder, I decide I’ll deal with his part in this whenever it comes. For now, I need him too much to let go. He’s the one thing in my life that hasn’t gone totally wrong yet.

Gwen’s family looks ragged, half of them passed out in the hospital’s waiting room. My heart aches for them even more when I realize they don’t have a home to stay in. Mrs. Lee, who Gwen takes after almost completely, hugs us. “Thank goodness you came. We’re hoping that having friends here might . . .”

She chokes on a sob, and I put my hand on her shoulder. “I’m so sorry I didn’t hear sooner. I feel horrible.”

“No. It’s only been two days. . . .” She puts a hand to her chest. “My, it feels like so much longer than that.”

“I know exactly what you mean.”

It’s silent for a moment, as if we’re all too tired to make polite conversation.

“Do you need anything?” Winn shuffles back and forth, seeming antsy. “You guys must be hungry, and hospital food is awful. I could run out and get you supplies. Maybe some blankets and pillows?”

“Oh . . .” She shakes her head. “That is so sweet, but I don’t have any cash and—”

“It’s on me.” Winn looks my way, his eyes full of understanding. “I’m sure Jo and Kat want to see her on their own, and I like to be useful. What do you want?”

Mrs. Lee seems hesitant to accept his offer, but she relents. “Anything would be great.”

“Say no more. I’ll make sure you’re fed.” He kisses me quick on the cheek. “I’ll be back in a few.”

I grab his arm, realizing how far we are from the safety of Nana’s spells. If anyone in the group is next on the list, it’s Winn, my last shred of happiness. I take my strongest protective charm and drape it over his neck. “Be quick. And careful.”

He smiles, and with one more kiss he’s gone.

“So how is she?” Kat asks.

Mrs. Lee’s eyes water. “She has some serious burns on her arms, and her hair . . . they had to cut so much of it off. The paramedics thought her passing out was smoke inhalation at first, that maybe the fire started in her room so she was the most exposed. But she won’t wake up. They’ve run a bunch of tests, and nothing.”

“Can we see her now? Or is it too late for visitors?” I ask.

“We’ll tell them you’re family,” Mrs. Lee says. “I’m sure they’ll let you in.”

They do, though the nurse explains that we can’t take too long. The moment I see Gwen, it’s exactly what I feared. Her aura is black—she’s under some kind of spell, but I don’t recognize it. If Levi did this, I don’t care what he knows anymore. He will pay.

I walk over, and the spell reacts to my presence with a hiss. It doesn’t come for me this time; it only works harder on its goal, which must be to murder Gwen. This spell isn’t for killing me—its sole purpose is to cause me pain, to break me, to terrify me.

To my own surprise, it only makes me want to fight back.

“Is it bad?” Kat asks.

“Really bad. This spell was supposed to kill her—it’s still trying to. It’s a good thing she didn’t take off the charms. The one place there isn’t darkness is around them, but it won’t last long.”

“What do you mean?”

“It means if I can’t get this thing reversed, she’ll be dead before daybreak.”

Kat gasps. “No.”

I pull the bag out of my purse. “Hurry, I need your help mixing this.”

“But I don’t—”

“I need to concentrate on the potion; all you have to do is hand me what I ask for when I ask for it.” I search for a makeshift cauldron. It’s between a pink barf bin or the bedpan. I hold them up to Kat. “Which is the lesser of two evils?”

She cringes. “Unless it’ll erode the plastic, I say the pink one.”

“Hmm, I didn’t think of that. Bedpan it is, just in case.” I set it on the counter and get to work. “The rose oil first.”

She rummages in the bag. “The clear water-looking one?”

“Yeah.” She hands it to me, and I pour it into the bedpan. Holding my hand over it, I infuse the floral liquid with a heavy helping of magic, straight from my heart. “The dove eyes next.”

It’s quiet as I go about creating the purification potion—only the occasional beeps from the machines Gwen’s attached to. Lizard tails for regeneration. A lion tooth for battle. Sunflower petals to purge the darkness. Before I know it, I’m almost finished, and the potion is a good one, full of power and love.

“And last but not least.” I hold my hand over it. “The blood of a loved one.”

“So that’s what the knife’s for.” Kat pulls it out, eyeing it. “Can I do it? Or does it have to be from a witch?”

I smile, knowing how much she wants to contribute. “You can, if you’d like.”

She cuts her finger without so much as a flinch, and the blood drips into the potion, making a stark crimson flower against the pearly white liquid. It spreads and spreads until I can feel the potion’s full power rise.

“That’s good,” I whisper, concentrating on sealing it all together. The magic tingles through my fingers, and I’m tempted to give it a little more than it needs. But I don’t. When I open my eyes, the potion is a bright red-and-white flower. I pluck it from the silver bedpan and bring it over to Gwen. Placing it on her heart, I wait for the spell to banish the darkness.

But instead, the shadows consume the flower until it’s nothing but blackened ash.