Fire Spell (17 page)

Charleston, 1949

T
HE QUESTION
wasn’t whether Finn and I were meant to perform the
Fire Spell;
it was when we would perform it. What if we missed this mystical window that only opened every sixty-five years? What if Ian couldn’t find him in Savannah? What if he refused to leave with my brother? The past nine months I had struggled with how to categorize Finn. Was he my past, the great love of my life that wasn’t meant to be, or was he my future and we had a journey to make get back to each other? What if during all the time away from me he discovered something better, or even worse—someone better? All of that was unfair. We were free to see other people. Wasn’t that what I told him in New Orleans?

Then there was Jack. My stomach flipped thinking about the line he wanted to cross. He steadied me when I was frantic and unsure. He stilled the doubts in my mind. He brought me back to center when I knew I was drifting farther away.

I folded my hands around my shoulders. It was surprisingly chilly in May 1949. I had taken a detour from my grandmother’s townhouse. I walked until I ended up in front of one of the marinas on the harbor.

From the railing, I could see the island in the distance, where the Sognare Ladri were gathered. I hadn’t visited the council enough, or followed Leo and Lily to discover all the ins and outs of the hooded men. There was no doubt they were evil, but why did they gather? What was so special about that little island and the crumbling fort planted on it? I shook my head, annoyed that I always seemed to have more questions than answers in these situations.

I wanted to have a solution, but I was looking to Ian for that. It was an impossible scenario to place him in. He hadn’t seen the hooded man, the council, or the island. All he had to go on was my storytelling.

It wasn’t completely out of the question to call our parents. They were well-known, respected, and powerful witches. Something was holding us back. Ian hadn’t suggested it, and until he did, I wasn’t going to mention it. Violet and Richard Grace could continue to live in blissful ignorance while their children took on the world’s evil.

I peered into the horizon as a sailboat glided by. It was blurry. The tears welled in my eyes until they bubbled over my lower lids, making everything a hazy mess. I stood, my face in the wind, and let the tears roll along my cheeks. There was no point in trying to wipe them away; more would appear where those came from.

“Oh dear, it can’t be that bad, can it?” the voice called from over my shoulder.

There must have been someone close by, but I could have sworn the boardwalk was empty when I arrived. Surely, no one was talking to me. I checked my arms to see if the extra
Fade Spell
was holding. They were completely white. The spell was in full force. I pivoted on my heels.

“Hi, Ivy.” My grandmother smiled. She was sitting on a bench.

“Gigi?” I stepped toward her as she stood.

“Ah, look at you.” She pulled me into a hug.

She smelled like lavender and sunshine. All the things that made her house warm. I pulled back and looked at her.

“Wait, are you dead? Am I talking to a ghost?” I looked at her skin. She was covered in the same white glow that covered me from a
Double
Fade Spell
.

She giggled. “Not quite. Well, hopefully not for a few years. But don’t tell me. Don’t need to know.” She put her finger to her lips. I had never seen another witch in a double
Fade
before, but it made sense we would be able to see each other, since we were on the same level of invisibility.

None of this made sense. “How are you here?”

She grinned. “I’m in the middle of a
Time Spell
, and I guess you are too. Funny we bumped into each other.”

I shook my head. This was exactly the reason I didn’t use my spell to visit people or myself. It was a head trip.

“What day is it in your present?” I asked.

She patted the bench. “Come sit. Let’s talk.”

I did as she ordered. I was still in shock she was here. Her white hair was pulled tightly in a bun, and her favorite necklace draped around her neck. She looked just as I always remembered.

“Let’s see. Tomorrow is your sixteenth birthday, so I thought I’d travel one more time before I gave it up completely.” She clasped my hands. “What about you? What brings you to Charleston 1949?” How was she so calm? She acted as if this scenario was as normal as us sitting at her kitchen table drinking sweet tea. Although, she didn’t know where my present was, so maybe it wasn’t so unusual for her. She was clearly a much more seasoned Traveler than I was.

“Oh, I’m here to follow you.” I smiled. “But it’s not going well.” I faced her. “Why didn’t you ever mention Leo, or tell me I was a Laurel?” I was hurt, but this was exactly the opportunity I had prayed for.

“So you know about Leo?” Her eyes wandered to the seagulls hovering over the boardwalk. I wondered if she was thinking about him.

“Yes, and about the
Fire Spell
, the Sognare Ladri, all of it. I’m here to try to figure out what to do. They are threatening to kill people I love. Can you help me?”

“Good heavens, Ivy. That is a lot to take in.” She looked at my hair and my boots. “But you aren’t sixteen, are you? You’re a grown woman. This is a little strange.”

“Gigi, anything you can tell me. Anything that will help. Please. I’m drowning.”

She patted my leg. “What have I always told you? There is always a way out of every dilemma, right?”

I shook my head. “I know you and Leo didn’t defeat the Sognare Ladri, so please don’t pretend for my sake that everything is sunshine and rainbows. It’s not. It’s the opposite. Spells aren’t holding anymore. People are going to die.”

She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply. As she opened them, she blew air through her mouth. “What a coincidence. That’s why I’m here. I wanted to visit this day again to see if there was anything I could have done differently. I’ve replayed it all these years, but never once have I actually seen it. It felt like it was time. Maybe I’ll be able to tell you how to succeed in wiping out the Ladri. I certainly didn’t expect to do it like this. My plan was to give you the answers when you were old enough to handle it.”

I must have looked confused.

“Remember, right now I know a soon-to-be sixteen-year-old Ivy, who doesn’t even realize yet she’s a Traveler. She is nowhere near ready to face this.”

I nodded. “Right. It’s 2002 in your present.” This was insanely baffling. “Tell me, who are the Ladri?”

“Evil. Pure evil. Their name translates to ‘dream thieves’.” Her eyes narrowed. “They wear cloaks and hoods and scurry about in the dark. They originate all the darkness in the world. And I’m afraid they are responsible for most of our darkest thoughts and nightmares.”

A pit formed in my stomach. I had encountered evil before, but nothing on this level.

“They control witches through fear. They create confusion and chaos. They take over dreams and force witches to make heartbreaking choices.”

“But how have they been able to be in control for so long? Why have I never heard of them? My parents have never once mentioned them.”

“Only witch council members know who they are. It’s safer for our people that way. Once the Ladri know they’ve been discovered, they can torment a witch in the worst way. The fewer who know, the less pain is caused.” She sighed. “I never shared this with your father. It’s best he not know.”

“Ok.” I could understand she would want to protect her son. “But where is the council now? Why aren’t they doing something?”

My grandmother’s face filled with sorrow. “They’re all dead, my dear. There’s no one left on the council. The only way for me to avoid the Ladri plague was to de-commit from the cause, and put as much distance between my life as a Laurel and my life as a regular girl in Sullen’s Grove.”

I thought for a moment. “Can they be killed individually, or is it only with the
Fire Spell
?”

“Individually would be almost impossible. There are one hundred of them. They scatter around the world, staking their claim to magical territories. They move constantly within their regions. A witch could spend a lifetime trying to track them, and that doesn’t even guarantee he or she could find them all.”

I pointed to the island. “They gather every sixty-five years all together, in one place?”

She nodded. “They do. It’s the only time all one hundred are in the same place. It makes them incredibly vulnerable. They use the island to draw out power that will serve them until they gather again.”

“Hmm, and a
Fire Spell
for sure will kill them all?”

She nodded. “Yes, but Leo and I missed our opportunity.”

“What happened? I just left your townhouse, and you two seemed to have everything under control.”

“He couldn’t do it.” Her words were flat.

“What do you mean?” Leo was the one who had just convinced my grandmother they would bring light to the world.

“He wanted me to cut him first so that I wouldn’t be scared of the pain or the blood. But when it was his turn, he hesitated with the knife, and by the time I coaxed him into it, the clouds covered the moon and the window closed. We left defeated.”

I couldn’t believe it. Leo froze in the middle of the
Fire Spell
? Holy shit. He was confident and cocky. I never would have believed it if she hadn’t told me that was how the spell failed.

“Gigi, I don’t know what to say. I-I— That’s terrible.”

“Life is unpredictable, my dear. Unpredictable. Although we all should have known that this type of spell is contrarian to the Guardians. For them to hurt a good person with physical violence is almost impossible. There is nothing easy about the spell. I don’t blame Leo for not being able to be stronger than his Guardian roots.” She paused. “Am I to assume you are attempting to perform the
Fire Spell
?” She eyed me. “You have a Guardian?”

Did I have a Guardian? I wasn’t sure how to answer. “Yes, we need to perform the spell, and I happen to know a Guardian. Ian is on his way to get him right now.”

She smiled. “Ivy, do you love him?”

“Oh, that’s a big question. Do I have to love him for the spell?” She was handling all of this information particularly well.

She pressed me to answer with a stern look.

“Yes, I do. But we’re not together anymore.” I paused. “He left on a Shadow Quest.” I lowered my eyes, not sure if my words would bring her painful memories.

“Aah, I see. Well, he is a Guardian. They are predestined for quests, you know.”

“They are? I didn’t know that.” That would have been helpful when I first met him. I wondered if Finn knew Guardians were bound to make life-altering quests.

“Yes, it’s one of the things that makes them so attractive. The unattainable becomes attainable for a short while. It’s intoxicating, isn’t it?” Her eyes had that faraway look again. I imagined Leo was a part of her thoughts.

“There’s something else about my Guardian. I mean, he’s not mine, but Finn. There’s something else I need to ask you about him. For him. He needs to know.”

“What is that?”

“I think he’s Leo’s grandson.”

The statement drew her back to the conversation. Her head whipped toward me. “Now I’m the one who’s speechless.” She chuckled. “All of this makes perfect sense though.”

“It does? How?” I questioned.

“Don’t you see? You and your Finn are meant to finish what Leo and I could not.” She paused. “Tell me, though, what makes you think he’s Leo’s grandson?”

I didn’t have much to go on, but she was one person who had always understood my witchy tingle. “At first it was the long eyelashes.”

I saw her smile.

“And then when I found out he was a Guardian, the resemblance between them seemed obvious.” I giggled. “They also do a lot of the same things.”

She raised her eyebrows. “Really? Such as?”

I blushed. I didn’t want her to think I had been spying on her intimate moments. “Well, for one, Leo traces your collarbone and he tucks your hair behind your ear and—”

“Alrighty, alrighty, I think that sounds more than coincidental.” Her pale complexion looked flushed. Girl talk was one thing; this was entirely different. She glanced at her watch. “I think you need to get back, Ivy. We’ve been talking for a while. You have work to do. And I don’t want to miss what I came here to see.”

I wasn’t ready to leave. I had a million more questions to ask and things I wanted to tell her. “I can’t go yet.”

She patted my knee. “We’ll see each other soon. As a matter of fact, you’re having birthday dinner at my house tomorrow.” She smiled.

I didn’t want to tell her where I was going that could never happen. She was gone from my world.

“Wait, Gigi. Did Leo come back from his quest?”

She shook her head. “No, I never saw him again.” I thought her eyes might be welling with tears. “But it’s nice to know he might have had a grandson. That means he met someone. I hope his life was a happy one, but I have no idea where he went or if he ever returned.”