Crushed (19 page)

Zach stiffened with a grim expression on his face. “Okay.”

Grandma Noah gestured for them to join her at the kitchen table. She loved to play hostess, especially to a newcomer. After waving a hand over the pot, she poured fresh tea for them. It was hot and sweet, better than the store-bought stuff. Then, Grandma Noah waved a hand over an empty plate, and cookies appeared.

With a grin, she offered the treat to them, saying, “Chocolate chip. I made them myself. Try one.”

They each took a cookie and bit into them, making the appropriate ‘yum’ noises. Zach looked to Kristen as if to reassure himself that he was acting the right way and wasn’t going to be turned into an animal.

Once Grandma Noah was satisfied, she took a seat across from them and said, “I assume you have a good reason for popping in and scaring the life out of an old woman, so spit it out. What brings you both here?”

Kristen and Zach exchanged wary looks, not knowing where to begin. He gestured for her to do the talking, so she did. “Why is Brittany under Morgan’s spell when it was Zach who brewed the potion in the first place?”

“Easy.” Grandma Noah smiled. “If Morgan is a familiar, she is linked to Zach. They are almost the same person. Brittany would have followed his orders, too, if he had given her any. Next question.”

“How can you destroy a familiar?”

Grandma Noah made a face. “Now that’s a tough one.”

“I already told you,” Zach said. “I have to be accused, lose my powers, and then she’ll die.”

Ignoring him, Kristen turned desperate eyes back to her grandmother. “Is there another way? Any other way?”

“There is, but it will be difficult.”

“We’ll do anything.” Kristen reached across the table and rested a hand on top of Zach’s. “Won’t we?”

He shrugged. “I’m willing to give up my powers. That’s the fastest way to do it.”

“You need the locket from around her neck,” Grandma Noah said. “The locket is the source of her power. Get it, burn the hair inside, and destroy the locket using a spell that I happen to have.”

While her grandmother went to the desk and wrote the spell down, Kristen bent close to Zach and whispered in his ear, “Give this a chance. Please. We can get the locket.”

“Accusing me would be a lot simpler and a lot safer. I don’t want you to get hurt because of me.”

“Why are you so determined to get rid of your powers?”

“Why are you so determined to see me keep them? Are you afraid your feelings for me will change if I’m not powerful anymore?”

It was ridiculous for him to even suggest such a thing. Sure, she’d been shallow in the past, but she was a different person now. She loved him for him, not for his powers. Nothing was going to change. She was almost a hundred-percent positive. “I liked you before I knew you had powers. Remember?”

He shrugged. “Then what’s the problem? If you accuse me, Morgan will die, and we won’t have to risk injury by taking the locket from her. She sleeps and showers with that thing, you know. It isn’t going to be easy to take it.”

Brittany’s cell phone began to play a loud song from her favorite band. Zach pulled it out of his pocket and stared at the caller ID. With a scowl on his face, he said, “It’s her. It’s Morgan.” He stared at the phone as if it were a deadly cobra.

“Are you going to answer it?” Kristen asked.

“I want to,” he said. “This would be the first time I’ve ever spoken to my sister—to the real her, anyway. I want to hear what she has to say, but if we’re going to get a hand on that locket, we need to see her in person. If I answer, she’ll know we’re onto her.”

Zach pushed the phone at Kristen and said, “Pretend to be Brittany.”

“I can’t.”

“Try.”

“I can’t do a good Brittany impression. We need Cyndi.”

“There’s no time for that.”

Grandma Noah snatched the phone out of Zach’s hand. She waved a hand in front of her throat before answering it. Her voice changed. If Kristen closed her eyes, she would swear it was Brittany talking. “What do you want?”

It was Brittany’s usual way of answering a call.

Grandma Noah’s eyes grew wide. Pretending to be crushed, she laid it on thick. “Please let me do that for you. I can do it. I want to do something for you. I love you. Please let me do it.”

With a heavy sigh, Grandma Noah put the cell down on the table. “That girl is nuttier than my special peanut butter cookies. I’ve never heard such a crazy laugh.”

“What did she say?” Zach asked.

“She figured out Brittany failed to kill Kristen, and now she wants to do it herself.”

An icy finger touched Kristen’s spine. She shuddered. Having Brittany try to kill her was one thing, but Morgan wouldn’t hesitate.

“That’s it,” Zach said, turning to Kristen. “We aren’t going to try to get the locket and risk your life. You need to accuse me.”

Kristen and Zach were sitting on the hood of his car, his arms wrapped around her and his chin resting possessively on her shoulder as she reclined back against him. Instead of pulling away, she snuggled closer, not wanting the moment to end. For two days, Zach had given in and searched for his sister so they could destroy the locket, but Morgan had vanished without a trace. There was no other way to handle the situation. She was going to have to publicly accuse Zach.

They couldn’t keep Brittany from using her phone or from leaving the house for much longer. The girl was going stir-crazy. There was a party coming up, and no matter how bad Brittany felt about what she’d done, Kristen knew she would be at that party, regardless of the danger.

With a sigh, Zach released his tight hold on Kristen. “We’d better go inside and get it over with.”

“I don’t want to,” she groaned. “I just want to stay like this with you forever.”

“We’d starve to death.”

“You could pop in some cheeseburgers.” She laughed, only half-kidding.

He climbed off the car and held a hand out for her. She slid her palm across his skin, taking her time. The skin-to-skin contact made her flesh tingle. He pulled her off the hood, and her feet landed next to his on the tarmac. Cupping her face between both hands, his eyes became deadly serious. “We have to do this. I promise you it won’t be that bad.”

Her gaze drifted to the school. “I just wish there was another way.”

“I know. Me too.” With a sigh, he said, “I can ask Brittany to do it if it’s too hard for you. I’m sure she won’t mind.”

“No. If someone is going to publicly accuse you, it’s going to be me. I want to do this for you. I just hate it.”

He pulled her close again and kissed the side of her head. Together, they turned and walked to the brick building. They held onto each other the whole way. Kristen felt a little like a prisoner on death row taking a last walk, the one leading to the hangman’s noose. Letting him go, she entered the building a step ahead of Zach and took in familiar faces. These kids were going to think she’d lost her mind.

They went to Kristen’s locker first. She stalled, removing a notebook and a pencil with trembling fingers. The loud chatter behind her didn’t even register. Her mind was focused on Zach and the terrible thing she was about to do to him. She asked, hopeful, “Can we wait till lunch? Do it in the cafeteria?”

“No.” He grinned at her. “Treat it like a bandage and rip that sucker off.”

“How can you be so calm? You’re about to lose part of who you are. You won’t be the same guy anymore.”

The grin died. “Are you afraid you won’t want to be with me anymore?”

“Stop asking me that. You know I love you for you and not for what you can do. I’m just saying that you’ve lived one way, and now you’re going to have to learn how to live another way. It’s going to be hard. Don’t you get that?”

He bent close and talked low so no one would overhear him. “It’s okay. Really. I told you before. I don’t even use my powers except when I’m rescuing you from my sister, and after today, I won’t need to do that anymore. I’ve had to lay low for over a year now. I’m used to doing things the normal way. I’ll be fine.”

Kristen believed him, and she wished she could be as strong about it. The mere mention of losing powers scared her speechless. She didn’t think she could handle it. Taking a deep breath, she said, “Okay. Here we go.”

He nodded, a sober expression on his face.

She stepped into the center of the crowded hallway, turned, and pointed a finger at his chest. If it weren’t for the graveness of the situation, she wouldn’t be able to keep a straight face. She felt incredibly stupid. Loud and clear, she shouted over the chaotic noise. “Zach Bevian is a wizard!”

Zach fell back against the lockers, and the blood drained from his face.

A few of the kids laughed, but most of them stared as if they were waiting for the punchline, so she gave them one. “Zach Bevian is the wizard who enchanted me and stole my heart.”

Eye rolls met her statement. The other students returned to what they’d been doing before she’d interrupted them with her ‘show.’ She hurried over to Zach, asking in a low voice, “Are you okay?”

Bent over with hands on knees, he seemed to be trying to catch his breath. Slowly, he stood straight up and leaned against the lockers again. A smile stretched his lips. He reached out a hand and caressed her cheek. “I’m okay. I had the breath knocked out of me for a second. That’s all.”

Wrapping an arm around his lean waist, she led him back to the glass doors. “You aren’t in any shape to be in school today. We need to get you home.”

They went to his car at the rear of the parking lot. He rested against the driver-side door. Arm still around her, he held her close for a moment. His face pressed against her neck, seeking solace. “I don’t want you to take this the wrong way, but I have to go home alone.”

“Why?”

His eyes glistened, and he looked away. “This will be the first time I’ve gone home since Morgan… she’s gone, and I need to face it on my own. This is something that I have to do on my own.”

Kristen understood, but a new worry nibbled at the edges of her mind. Could Zach forgive her for killing his sister? Because that was exactly what she’d done when she’d accused him. She’d killed Morgan, and he wouldn’t have even had to get rid of his sister if it hadn’t been for her sister getting herself crushed by the girl.

“Will you call me later?” Her voice sounded weak to her own ears.

“If you don’t call me first,” he said.

Guilt weighed heavily on Kristen’s shoulders. She took a few steps away from the car as he got into the vehicle. She stood there alone, waving at him until the car vanished from view. Her heart sank. She wished there were something she could do for him, some way she could make him feel better, but he was going to have to grieve for his sister before he could move on.

It didn’t matter that Morgan had been a monster. He’d still loved her.

###

Zach stood in the foyer for several minutes, reluctant to travel further because each step would take him closer to the truth. Morgan was gone. Dead. He wouldn’t see his sister again. It didn’t seem real. A few days ago, she’d been living with him, pretending to be helpless, and now she was gone. For years, he’d taken care of her. Now what was he supposed to do?

He dropped his keys on the nearby table before going to the study. The fireplace was his first stop. He stared at the pictures on the mantel, especially the ones with Morgan in them. After taking one into his hands, he walked down the hallway to the family room. The first thing he saw was Morgan’s notebook on the coffee table where she’d left it. A deep sadness washed over him. It didn’t seem right that her belongings were still in the house when she wasn’t coming back. He wished her things had gone with her. A new wave of pain washed over him.

Zach dropped to the sofa, set the picture on the cushion beside him, and picked up the notebook. Curious, he started at the beginning. His eyes scanned each entry. This was her dummy notebook, the one created to keep him from knowing what she was truly up to. He flipped through the pages slowly, but it was the last one that caught him off guard. Unlike the previous entries, this one was not neatly written. It had been scrawled in haste.

Look at the doorway
. Cold, wet fear, the kind that comes when you’re alone in a house at night and hear a strange noise, crept up his spine and seeped into his bones. He silently prayed he was dreaming as he turned to face the open doorway. Somehow, he knew what he would find—the stuff nightmares were made of.

Morgan stood just outside the doorway with arms folded and pinched facial features. He rose off the sofa, thinking he had to be imagining things. Or perhaps a familiar’s ghost hung around for a while after it died. He walked towards her with cautious steps, all the while reassuring himself it couldn’t be real, that Morgan was gone forever.

“What are you doing here?” His tongue felt three sizes too big for his mouth.

A new, intelligent light danced in her brown eyes. “At six this morning, a little bird told me something that blew me away. Did you have someone accuse you today? Did you give up your powers just to get rid of me?”

This wasn’t a ghost. His gaze dropped to the locket around her neck. All he had to do was reach out and snatch it. Kristen’s grandmother had insisted on giving them the spell to destroy it, just in case. He charged at Morgan. She didn’t try to avoid the inevitable collision. Instead, her laughter rang in his ears, growing louder as he hit an invisible wall. The unexpected impact knocked him backwards, and he landed on the floor with a loud grunt. Zach got up and tried again with the same result.

His gut burned with an uncontrollable fury. Waving a hand in her direction, he tried to hit her with a spell before remembering he’d given up his powers. The bewildered look on his face made her laugh harder. He wanted to kill Morgan with his own hands, strangle the life out of her, but he couldn’t get to her. He punched the invisible wall between them again and again. Nothing happened. It was no use. The spell was too strong.

Exhausted, Zach sat on the arm of the sofa and gasped for air. He needed a few minutes to regain his strength before finding a way to get his hands on her. Somehow, he was going to do it. He was going to get that locket and destroy it.

“How long were you faking your illness?” he asked.

“Since Mom and Dad died.”

“How can you be so cold about it?” Standing up, he shouted, “They were your parents! They loved you.”

“Who asked them to?” Morgan shrugged.

Zach wondered how much he actually knew about that night. What was fantasy, and what was reality? “Did the gardener actually give you the book of old spells, or did you lie about that, too? Did he encourage you to become a familiar, or was it your idea?”

She grinned. “I wasn’t faking my mental issues back then, idiot. How could I possibly know about familiars or power? You have no idea what it was like for me.”

“Tell me. You have my undivided attention.”

“It was frustrating as hell. I know you probably thought I was brain-dead or something, but I understood a lot more than you think I did. I heard people talk and comprehended a great deal of it, but I couldn’t communicate with them. I couldn’t say what I wanted to say.”

“Why did you use my hair instead of the gardener’s?”

Morgan paced in front of the doorway, clearly agitated. “Mom told me over and over how my brother was going to watch over me. That night, I put a piece of your hair in the locket because I thought I needed you. Then I blew the house up, and I learned the truth. It didn’t hurt, in case you care. I didn’t hear an explosion or anything. One second I was doing the spell, and the next I was standing outside with Ethan.”

“Wait a second.” Zach frowned. “Ethan died in that explosion. How could he be outside and inside at the same time?”

A sly smile stretched her lips. “He was standing next to me when I came back as a familiar. I could think straight for the first time. It was like someone had turned on a light. He knew I would be cured, but he figured I couldn’t kill him. He told me that if I did, I would die, too. That’s when I told him I was your familiar, not his.”

She fell back against the wall, laughing. A hand went to her stomach as tears came to her eyes. She couldn’t seem to stop laughing. After a few minutes, she managed to say, “Y-you should have seen the look on h-his face when I told him. It was the funniest thing ever. I wish you’d been there. Before he could even think, I used my brand-new powers to put him inside the house. So he
did
die there, but not in the explosion. I think the roof collapsing on his head did the job.

“Anyway, I was happy that night I made you my so-called master, but I’ve regretted it almost every day since. You are zero fun. You forbid me to use magic, forcing me to sneak around behind your back. I had to practice, you know. Then, to top all that off, you hook up with that hair-brained witch and decide to kill me just so you can be with her. What sort of brother are you?”

Mouth tight, he shook his head slowly. “I was not going to kill you to be with Kristen. I was going to kill you because you are a
psychopath!
”

Morgan placed her hands on the doorframe and leaned forward slightly, enough to drive him crazy, but not enough so he could grab her. She knew exactly what she was doing. She said, “I’ve been searching for another witch, someone fun to switch ownership to, and I finally found the perfect one. As of about seven this morning, I am no longer your familiar.”