“How…?” Poppy began to ask but found she couldn’t quite form a sentence.
Drucilla’s eyebrow arched. “How do I know Avis?”
Poppy nodded, leaning against Rick for support, her feet unable to hold her up properly.
Drucilla smiled, dazzling and perfect. “He’s the reason I doubted who I really was. He’s the one who mocked me for one of the hardest choices I’ve ever made when I confessed why I was breaking up with him. He’s my ex, aren’t you, Simpleton?” she gave him another hard shake for emphasis.
The woman. She’d known it was about a woman. “So this was all for you, wasn’t it?”
She sighed, her slender shoulders moving up and down. “Regrettably, yes. Isn’t it just like a simpering idiot to want a bunch of power he wouldn’t know what to do with if you slapped him in his kisser with it, just to get revenge on his ex?”
Poppy snickered a laugh, holding her ribs, but Rick frowned in confusion. “What? Revenge for what?”
Drucilla flicked a finger at Avis as her eyes surveyed the damage. “This—this right here is why I’m glad I’m a lesbian. This whole big show, complete with demons and screeching winged things and a play for power, was all about how I allegedly broke poor baby Avis’s heart and called him a weakling warlock, just before I left him and his whiny self for my partner, Louisa. We could have ended our relationship peacefully. He could have been happy I’d finally figured out who I was and just let me go when I was honest enough to tell him I was in love with someone else. But nah. Instead, he openly ridiculed me, harassed me and when that didn’t make me change my mind and come back to him, I guess he set about planning his revenge.”
Avis struggled against her, his face red with rage, spittle at the corners of his mouth. “I hate you! You deserved every ugly word I spoke, you deceitful bitch!”
“And I guess you showed me, didn’t you?” she asked, her gaze sweeping over Avis’s face before she looked at the group. “I don’t know what he planned to do with all the power once he got hold of it. Wave it in my face? Show me his big, bad wand? Make me regret leaving him for the love of my life? What were you thinking you’d do if you were actually smart enough to get all the power?”
“Make you pay, you stupid cow!” he seethed at her, his face a mask of hatred. “You ruined me. You broke me! You humiliated me!”
Turning Avis to face everyone, Drucilla bobbed her head as she gripped the back of his neck and forced him to gaze at the havoc he’d wreaked. “Uh-huh, and just look at me pay, mate. Ugh! Would you look at the mess you made? Do you have any idea the spells I’ll have to cast to fix this? Now say goodbye to the nice people, you homophobic moron, you’re coming with me. We have a murder to address with the powers that be.”
“Rick!” he pleaded, grabbing at Drucilla’s wrists, twisting and arching his body to release her grip. “Don’t let her take me! You know what they’ll do to me! You’re my best mate, Rick!”
But Rick averted his gaze, his jaw tight, his strong body rigid and tense.
Drucilla eyed them all and smiled. “I have to go now—because, you know, this jackass summoned every demon from here to eternity and ruined a perfectly lovely blood moon. But I hope we all meet again under happier circumstances. Poppy? You’re one of the bravest souls I know. Welcome to the realm, sweet girl. Chat soon!” And with those words, she and Avis were gone.
Poppy blinked once more, still wrapping her head around the last hour. “Who was she again?”
January laughed at the shock on Poppy’s face. “Drucilla. Her name’s Drucilla, and she’s one of the most powerful witches in the realm, and all I can say is, thank Goddess she showed up.”
“Not a lie,” Nina quipped, taking Calamity from Wanda and scratching her ears as Carl hobbled toward her. “Fuck, I’m getting too old for this shit.”
“But you used the hell out of that wand, Chief! I’m so damn proud of you!”
Marty scanned the length of Poppy’s body, her eyes sympathetic. “Oh, honey. You took some beating. C’mon. We’ll take you home and patch you up.”
But Poppy grabbed her arm and pulled her close, soaking in the vanilla scent of her hair. “Thank you for coming for me tonight. I…all of you,” she whispered over Marty’s shoulder, her eyes meeting Nina’s.
Nina ran her knuckles over Poppy’s hair. “Nah, Tiny Dancer, thank you for saving my boy here. I’d be lost without him.”
Carl thumped her on the back with the hand not falling off his wrist. “Thaaank…you, Poppp-yy.”