Love Charms (51 page)

We turned to him. "What is it,
Hallow?" I asked.

"Lover boy needs to get back."

Caleb pulled away. "What's
happening?"

"Your match is making a move on your
doppelgänger." He sniffed at the bowl.

Sure enough, the image showed another
Caleb, backing into a corner. A statuesque girl in a blue silk dress moved
toward him.

"Shit." Caleb moved toward the
bowl. "I have to get in there." He turned back to me. "I'll come
back tomorrow. Look at the spell." He mumbled a nursery rhyme again and
disappeared into the bowl.

I peered into the fog. I could see bits
of the scene still, the girl's sapphire dress, Caleb, diving into himself.

The girl stepped back and turned for a
moment to where I could see her clearly. Her turquoise eyes were a mirror of
mine, although her skin was dark and her hair sleek and black. She shook her
head, then moved back to Caleb as though nothing had happened.

"Fooled her," Hallow said. He
licked a paw. "She can't be too useful an enchantress if she didn't
realize he performed a stun spell on her."

"Looks like she's recovered."
The girl draped her arms around Caleb's neck, trying to pull him in. He glanced
up at us and waved his hands. Fog covered the bowl.

"Peep show's over." Hallow sat
back on his haunches. "That was a very risky thing he did, coming
here."

"I don't see why a nix is such a
curse. Just because Mom married Dad?"

"It's a code with a reason,"
Hallow said. "Children outside of bloodlines have a high incidence of
becoming Dark Enchanters. It's a way to control the bad guys."

"Like Dei Lucrii?"

Hallow shivered. "Beastly man. Your
mother should never have had anything to do with him."

I sat in her chair. "Why did
she?"

Hallow shrugged. "Bad judgment apparently
runs in your bloodlines."

I sighed and turned back a few pages in
the Book of Shadows, but every page was Caleb, his face, his lips, his hands.
It had to be a spell. Only fairy tales talked about a connection like this.

I shook my head, trying to force myself
to focus. Time to study these ingredients, alkaline and acid, flash points,
combinations that could go rogue. Mom was brilliant, but surely she had made a
mistake. Her flunky girl-child would have to figure it out.

9:
Potion

In my dream, giant vials in every color
spread out before me like a city of glass. I walked along streets paved with
crystals, orange, blue, red, and green. Each doorway was pewter, and white fog
rolled out of the cracks.

At the top of a blue jar, my mother sat,
gripping the ledge.

"You're going to fall!" I
shouted.

She waved at me, and I cringed, expecting
her to tumble down. "Did you fix the potion?" she called.

"I can't do it!" I yelled up.
"I flunked out of school!"

"You know enough!" she shouted
down.

Tears streamed down my face. I hated
crying, even in dreams. I couldn't make it stop. "You have to help
me!" I reached the base of the jar and tried to scale the side, but the
slippery surface made it impossible.

"You can do it!" she called
again, then raised both arms in the air. "Just don't cry!"

She fell backward in slow motion. I could
see her body, turning in somersaults, tinted by the glass. I pressed my hands
against the jar, not wanting to look but unable to turn away. "Mom!"
I screamed.

I popped awake, cheek pressed against the
Book of Shadows. Something made a tapping sound.

I jumped out of Mom's chair, still upset
by the dream. Her headband was rattling on the desk.

My heart thumped so hard I could scarcely
breathe. I wasn't up for this. Everything new, most of it scary. The silver
circlet continued to shake, and finally I placed my hand on it to make it go
still.

The converted garage had no windows, so I
had no idea of the hour. Hallow was gone, his bed empty. I actually missed the
little rat, sarcastic bugger that he was. At least I could talk to him without
fear.

I fumbled in my pocket for my phone to
check the time. 3 a.m. I wondered where Caleb was, if he slept easily. The
circlet began to shimmy again, so I picked it up and slipped it back on my
head.

The Book of Shadows was not as I had left
it, but on a blank page. I think I understood what to do. Across the top, I
wrote:

Jet's Dream

I drew the city, the vials and doorways,
the glass jar, and Mom at the top. Then I wrote the things Mom had said.

You can do it.

Just don't cry.

I set the pen down. Mom had never told me
not to cry before. In fact, she was a big proponent of gettin' your emotion on.
"Don't bottle it up," she always said. "Let it all hang
out."

I picked up the vial of newborn tears.
Only a few drops remained. I set it down next to the mushrooms. In the bowl
with the pestle, I had crushed a fair amount of the glasswort before falling
asleep. I hadn't mixed anything yet, although I'd discovered a cast-iron pot
that looked especially witchy. I didn't know if you had to say the words while
you did it, or immediately after, and I had no idea when Caleb might come.

The green bottle of Aphrodite's sea foam
was too close to the edge of the table for my klutzy self. I couldn't imagine
how anyone knew it was foam from Aphrodite. It seemed impossible to collect
something from a mythical moment. But maybe it was just a name, not an actual
recovery from her oceanic birth. It should have evaporated into sea salt
millennia ago.

Actually, that was a lot of salt. The
tears. The foam. And wasn't glasswort a chloromethane producer? And wouldn't
the foam also have methane? What happened when you released thousands of years
of built-up methane?

I backed away from the desk. Introducing
water — if you were crying — with the chloromethane trapped in the
vial of ancient sea foam would create a vapor. When she added more methyl
chloride in the glasswort —

Yes, yes. The most volatile of all the
chemicals. The balance of the potion had to be just right, or —

A chill ran through me. Mom hadn't gotten
the potion wrong. She'd added something that made an already unstable mix of
chemicals even more volatile.

She'd cried into the mix.

My circlet hummed and buzzed against my
head. I longed for Caleb, needed him with more intensity than I'd ever felt.

I tapped the pewter bowl. It fogged over,
then showed me exactly what I wanted, Caleb, sitting on the edge of his bed,
his head in his hands. He'd changed from the party clothes into a pair of Yale
sweats. His chain bracelet shone on his wrist.

"Caleb!" I whispered.

He didn't look up.

I wanted to dive into the bowl, but I
didn't know how to aim. "Caleb!"

He obviously couldn't hear me. I sat back
in Mom's chair, watching him. He didn't move for a long time, then fell back on
the bed, staring at the ceiling. His lips moved, but I couldn't hear his words.
Where was the volume on this thing?

His arm went up, his hand swirling
through the air. He was enchanting. I leaned in closer, wishing I could zoom in
somehow. A mist formed above him. He waved it toward the window. It seeped
through the cracks and disappeared into the night.

That was odd.

Now his arm crossed his face. Longing
shot through me, heavy and hot. I'd never felt such a pull toward anyone.

I touched my lips. I didn't particularly
like the idea of magically assisted attraction, but it was so powerful.
Everything with Caleb felt so new.

A movement by the garage door caught my
eye. Dad had never actually altered the front, so the metal sections still
stood as though this were a functioning garage. It hadn't been opened in years.

A cloud was forming, seeping in through
the edges of the door. I looked down into the bowl. Caleb was pulling back his
covers to slip into bed. The mist thickened, but I wasn't afraid. This was his
enchantment. He'd sent it to me, but not through the portal, through regular
air.

Once the cloud was complete, it drifted
toward me. I let it come and breathed it in. I could smell Caleb, woodsy and
crisp, a hint of party still caught up in it, exotic food and Christmas
candles. I didn't know I could already recognize his smell.

He had never looked into his portal.
Maybe it was clouded over like mine so often was. Maybe if he saw me, he
wouldn't be able to stay away.

I breathed and breathed until the vapors
dissipated. Calm came over me, and the urgency to see him eased. Caleb became
another boy, just a moment, like all the other ones I had dated in the past few
years.

He knew what to do. He'd been trained in
handling matches. Clearly he was sending a spell to push me away, maybe to help
him pick a proper girl, maybe to help me focus on the spell. Possibly both.

My heart rebelled against this, even as
my practical side told me it was for the best. Still, I braced my hand on my
chin and watched until he pulled the cord on the light by his bed and darkness
snuffed out the image in the bowl. I had done what he had asked and uncovered
the problem with the spell. Mom had found me somehow and told me how to find
her mistake, or maybe I had known all along.

Perhaps I didn't need Caleb. I didn't
have long to wait. Christmas was in two days, and two days later I would meet
Dei Lucrii and present the potion. I'd get it done, with or without the help of
an enchanter.

10:
Uncertainty

I slept fitfully, waking as soon as the
winter sun seeped through my Hello Kitty curtains. I dreaded the day, unsure
how to move forward now that Caleb hadn't worked out.

My hands still smelled of the
scent-cloud. Crazy stuff, magic, making me feel so strongly then calming me
back down like an emotional sedative. If I'd had a blow-off cloud at Boston
College, getting rid of random stalkers would have been much easier.

My phone buzzed. Unread message. Right,
that had come through from Dad when I was making googly eyes at match-boy. I
clicked through to read it. "Mavis called. Said to come by."

Sweet. If the magic crystals meant Mavis
was an enchanter, I didn't even need Caleb. And I could get some backstory on
Mom's involvement with the Big Bad Dude and why she was making a passion potion
to begin with.

I hopped out of bed, feeling way more
optimistic that this would work out.

It seemed too early to call, so I
showered, scrubbing my hands extra hard to get rid of Caleb's scent. The water
streaming down my cheeks felt like tears, a strange sensation for someone who
had taken fifty thousand showers, until I realized I was actually crying.

Just like the visions of my future with
Caleb had popped into my head without warning, I now saw a dark future without
him, totally weird stuff — a menacing forest, a mob with — what?
Torches? Good grief. This wasn't Beauty and the Beast. Unless Caleb was the
beauty.

I opened my eyes, focusing on the white
tiles and my assorted bottles. The headband was in the other room, so the
vision wasn't its fault. Somehow, just having worn it seemed to have made some
permanent change in me. Nix or not, I could feel things. Or maybe I was just
paying attention now, like a fortune-teller who discovers she can actually make
accurate predictions.

When I shut off the water, a rattle from
my bedroom made me sigh. Mom's token was commanding my attention again. No
telling what it might do this time.

I shrugged on a terry robe and crossed
into my room. The silver circlet looked anxious, vibrating on the dresser. I
pressed my hands on it to make it lie still. With my wet hair, it might very
well electrocute me or something. I lifted my hand. The headband started
shaking again.

Fine. I picked it up.

It hummed against my scalp. "What
are you DOING up there?" I asked. It went still.

I hadn't had time to unpack, so I
snatched a sweater and jeans from a suitcase. Hopefully Mavis was up by now. I
had to get back to work. Christmas Eve had arrived, and I would be meeting with
Dei Lucrii in three days.

Dad had left the phone number for Mavis
in the message. I highlighted it, copied it to the dialer, and waited through
the rings. I hoped neither of the hellspawn answered.

"Hello?" The voice was a
whisper, like cattails in a breeze. Mavis, no doubt.

"Hi! This is Jet. Tess was my
mother."

"Oh, poor little Jet. You came to
see me?"

I hated pity, but never mind. I needed
her. "Yes, should I come over?"

"I have some of your mother's
things."

Perfect. I gripped the phone. "I'll
come for them." Might as well go for broke. "If I brought a spell,
could you tell me how to pronounce the words?"

The silence was so complete, I thought
the call had dropped. "Mavis?"

"Jet, you can't talk about these
things." Her voice was tight.

"Why not? You know and I know about
the enchanters."

Mavis was breathing heavily. "You're
a nix. I can't help you." The line clicked, and I had to pull the phone
away at the ear-crunching busy signal.

Bollocks. I should have gone over there
before talking about the spell. Why did I have to be a freaking nix? And why
was that so dang bad?

The house was freakishly silent. I hadn't
talked to Dad about his work schedule, assuming he'd be off Christmas Eve. I
passed his bedroom door, listening. No sounds.

The living room was empty, and the
kitchen. He'd left a note on the table.

Half day today, Sweetpea. See you at
noon.

The microwave display read nine o'clock.
Three hours to figure out how to get my car back and return to work on the
potion. I should make Caleb drive it over. Then walk back in the snow. Teach
him to send me a blow-off cloud.

The lair was silent and cold. Hallow
slept in his bed, a tight ball of white fur. I wanted to wake him up and enlist
his help, but instead I bumped the bowl, making the fog cross the surface. Once
again, Caleb's room replaced the silver surface. I began to wonder if he was
the only channel.

His bed was empty. Fine. I'd get back to
the potion. Now that I knew Mom's tears were the problem, I would just mix it
up. Maybe I was a nix, but I could still give it the ol' college try.

I grimaced at the thought of my actual
college try. Calculus, F. Chemistry, D–.

I'd have to do better than try.

The Book of Shadows was still turned to
my dream page. I flipped it back until I got to the latest version of the
passion-potion spell. Beneath the ingredients was the incantation. Since I hadn't
mixed it yet, I figured I had nothing to lose by reading the foreign words. If
everyone was right, saying them aloud wouldn't do anything anyway.

I ran my finger along the lines. The
first part was easy.

Powers to the east, rise to the chant.

Powers to the west, grant the spell I
encant.

Then came the gibberish.

Edel aye benevel arun

Constalent aye mal

Nothing happened, of course, but I had to
admit the words felt powerful as I said them. I almost expected a gust of wind
or a crack of lightning.

Instead, the pewter bowl began to rock
and turn. The silver became a flash of light, and Caleb shot out like a
cannonball.

I'd barely realized it was him when he
gripped my arms. "What are you doing?" he yelled, mere inches from my
face.

"Take it down a notch," I told
him. I tried to back away, but he had me in a vise. "And no magical
matchmaking. That's so yesterday."

He let go of me and snatched at his hair.
No robe today, or sweats, or freshly pressed khakis. Just jeans and a rugby
shirt that made him look athletically collegiate. I hated that our attraction
had been magical fakery. And that he'd ended it.

"Don't do any enchantments," he
said. "It's forbidden."

I turned away and flipped through the
book. "Whatever. You all say I'm powerless, so what does it matter?"

Caleb slammed the cover closed. "You
are exposing yourself. Do you not know how dangerous it can be as a nix?"

I wanted to slug him. "Of course I
don't. I don't know anything!"

He closed his eyes, his hands in fists. I
had no idea why he was so upset. I'd gone my whole life this way, and I
couldn't see how today was any different from the past two decades.

After a couple deep breaths, he looked at
me again. "A nix is a danger. If an enchanter has a child with a nix, a
Dark Enchanter is born."

"And that's bad."

"It's very bad!" Caleb paced in
a circle, shoving his hands in his jean pockets. "A nix is always trained
to recognize enchanters to avoid getting caught by one."

"Someone like you." Ha. Had him
there.

He halted. "Exactly." He looked
stricken.

"What?"

"If you and I were to —"
Caleb halted.

"Get busy?"

He nodded. "Maybe someone's trying
to put a spell on us. Someone with an agenda." He snapped his fingers.
"That's got to be it. It explains why we've been so attracted. Someone
wants us to create a Dark Enchanter."

"Um, it's not like we're jumping
into bed."

Caleb smacked the table. "Mother
warned me about these things. It makes so much sense now!"

I sank into my chair. "Nothing makes
sense to me."

Caleb smiled. "Now that we know, we
can easily resist. I can go back to my regular matches."

I waved my hand at him. "Of course,
by all means, sow your enchanted oats."

Caleb frowned. "I don't mean to
upset you."

Yeah, whatever. "It's fine. You're
not my type anyway." And neither was Gordon, or any of the others. I
didn't know what made a match for me.

Caleb walked in a tight circle, really
wound up. "You don't understand. I can't be with you. It's not just
forbidden, but what could happen between us might ruin everything."

"Yes, I get it. Me plus you equals
evil incarnate." I shifted the bottle of newborn tears. "It doesn't
matter. Even if I WERE to jump you, no wee evil ones would result. I'm on the
Pill."

Caleb leaned against the desk by my
chair. My pulse jumped, and the familiar buzz filled my belly again.
"Human birth control has no effect on enchanters," he said.

"It's served me well." I stared
at him, daring him to judge me.

He winced. "It works on humans, of
course. But enchanted conceptions are not regulated by human medicine. It's
entirely different."

"Okay, fine. I don't know where
magic babies come from. Like you said, someone tried to put us together. It
didn't work. Your forget-me cloud did its job."

"What?"

I couldn't look at him, so he lifted my
chin so our matching eyes met.

"Your little spell last night. I saw
you send it. Well, it got here, and it worked. I'm over you."

His gaze never broke from mine, and where
his hand touched me, I felt fire. I was completely lying now. The attraction
coursed through me again, strong as ever.

"It was a soothing spell," he
said. "You had been working all night. I thought you needed sleep."

"You watched me?"

"For hours." He let go of my
chin. "I was worried."

Now, my whole body ached for him. I
needed to touch him, like I had before, but I gripped the armrests of my chair
instead. If he was right, we were just acting under a spell. We had to resist.
I changed the subject. "I figured out what Mom did wrong."

"Really?"

"It was basic chemistry. The sea
foam built up methane in the bottle. It would have been okay, but she was
crying."

He nodded. "The tears created the
gas. I get it. Jet, I'm sorry."

I shook my head. "I don't know why
she was crying."

"She wasn't a crier?"

"No, she was. But why would she cry
while she made the potion? I mean, she had to know the danger."

Caleb pulled me up from the chair and
held me so close I could feel his heart beating against my chest. Mine was
faster than his, thumping to a different rhythm, but as his hands weaved into
my still-damp hair, I slowed down until gradually we got in sync, until every
breath, every pulse, happened together.

"I didn't know you'd think my spell
was bad," he whispered.

"I'm sorry I'm so clueless."

"You just haven't been
trained." He pulled away and touched my forehead. "You probably don't
even know your mark is red and mine is green."

"What are you talking about?"

"Your sign."

"You see something on my head?"

He touched his own temple. "Mine is
here."

"I don't see it."

"The reveal spell is the very first
thing we learn as enchanters. Moms usually sing it as a lullaby, so by the time
we need to use it, we know it by heart."

"Mom never told me anything."

Caleb smoothed my hair away from my face
and sang the words in a low baritone.

Sleep within the gentle night as watchful
starlight shines

Wake up in the morning, as the day
reveals the signs

Smile upon the faces of all the ones you
see

A few for fear, hold gold ones dear, and
let the nixes be.

"I do know that song," I said.
"Mom sang it."

"It's one of only three spells a nix
can perform." Caleb squeezed my shoulders. "It's important for you to
recognize enchanters so you can avoid getting tricked by one."

"So, if I sing it, I will recognize
who you are?"

He nodded.

I took a deep breath, feeling sort of
silly, but I sang it.

Caleb's face shimmered as I finished. My
headband buzzed against my hair. He watched me, waiting, and then I saw it. A
marking on his forehead, sparkling in green. A beautifully calligraphed letter
"E" inside a circle.