Queen of The Hill (Knight Games) (25 page)

“Six months,” she answered my unasked question. “I am Polina, the Smugglers’ Notch Witch, and I am pleased to make your acquaintance, Grateful Knight. You have saved me. I will not forget it.”

I surveyed the room. The roses still bloomed and crawled across the drywall. “Is Tabetha dead? The plants in here are still pacing like hungry leopards.”

“I’ve always been particularly disturbed by the manifestation of Tabetha’s power,” Polina said. “I am a metal witch, but you don’t see a stream of mercury following me everywhere. I think people who have to flaunt their power are compensating for something, don’t you? If she were a man, I’d assume she had small genitalia—”

“Polina,” I interrupted because it occurred to me she might not stop if I didn’t. “Is Tabetha still alive?”

“Sorry, I’m rambling, aren’t I? It’s a bad habit caused by being alone for too long. Isolation can make you this way. I never had company in Smugglers’ Notch, besides Hildegard, my familiar.” She raised her eyebrows. “And then to be trapped under that tree day after day—”

I squeezed her hand. “Tabetha?”

She blushed. “She is immortal, so technically still alive, although permanently incapacitated,” she said firmly. “She’s like Humpty Dumpty, really had a great fall. Well,
I
thought it was great.” She laughed. “I suppose all the king’s men could put her back together. If you stitched her up like Frankenstein’s monster, she would probably heal eventually. But who would do that? Everyone hates her. Once they ripped her apart, all of her lovers and prisoners just took off. I mean, I totally get the prisoners, but the
lovers.
Men who she’d been with tore her limb from limb. Maybe she was bad in bed—”

“Help me get Rick out of here,” I interrupted.

Polina nodded. “Okay.”

I rolled Rick to the edge of the bed and tried to lift him by throwing his arm over my shoulder. I was too weak.

“Let me,” Polina said. She muttered an incantation under her breath and held up one hand, fingers spread like an upside-down spider. Limp as a rag doll, Rick stood and walked zombie-like toward her as she pulled invisible strings with her upturned fingers.

“That’s convenient,” I said.

“I promise I won’t hurt him. It’s just easier than trying to carry him.”

“I’ve got to learn how to do that.”

“I’ll teach you,” she said, concentrating on navigating Rick down the stairs. He teetered a few times but didn’t fall. “I was friends with the old you, when you were called Samantha. We met in the early eighties. Do you remember?”

I shook my head. “I’m sorry. Very few things have come back to me.”

“I’m sure death is a curious and confusing journey.” She stopped Rick at the door and pointed a hand toward the dining room. “Do you want to see Tabetha’s remains? I would want to see, if I’d killed her. Technically, it was you who brought her down. She would have just kept pulling herself together if it wasn’t for your blessing to kill her—or dismember her permanently as the case may be. I was so surprised when your implement of magic turned black. Mother’s signature—”

Apprehensively, I wandered down the hall. Polina’s rambling voice faded as I entered the dining room. Among smashed furniture, Tabetha’s parts littered the floor in a puddle of purple jelly. Her mouth opened and closed on her disembodied head, although no sound came out, detached as it was from her torso. A few feet away, her hands pulled helplessly against the stone, anchored by the remainder of her arms, and her legs were left in heaps on opposite sides of the room. She was helpless and pitiful, and I wasn’t the least bit sorry for making her that way. When I thought of what she’d done to Rick, I wanted to do it all over again.

“I hope you spend eternity regretting the day you messed with me, you fucking bitch.” I kicked, and her head rolled under a chair.

Satisfied, I retreated from the room and returned to Polina in the foyer.

“I need to get out of here,” I said. On the floor near my toe, I noticed a bow tie. “What happened to the man who was here?”

“Killed by the mob,” she explained.

I cringed. She led Rick through the door and I followed. At the bottom of the stone steps, Poe landed on my shoulder.

“Thank the goddess you are all right,” my familiar said.

“Where were you, Poe?” I snapped. “Could have used some help in there when I was dangling by my neck.”

Poe ruffled his feathers. “I’ll have you know, I was trying to deal with a problem Julius dug up.”

I frowned. “What kind of problem?”

“Bathory,” Julius said from my left. “She’d revived before we realized who she was. I tried to stop her but she eluded me. Poe attempted to trace her whereabouts faster, as the bird flies.” He waved a hand in the air. “I told him I’d handle saving your pretty neck.”

“Bathory. All this time we thought she abducted you when Tabetha had taken you both.”

“You thought Bathory took
me
?” Julius asked, pointing at his chest. He chuckled. “Bathory wouldn’t stand a chance. Not even with that half-pint Naill backing her up.”

“At least she won’t have that to go back to. Naill’s been sentenced to the hellmouth,” I said.

Julius grinned. “Then she poses little risk.”

“Speak for yourself. She wants me dead.”

With a shrug, Julius stepped closer, his nostrils flaring as he drew in the scent of my spilled blood. “Do I need to protect you, little witch? My saving you seems to have become a habit.”

I gave him a look that made his shirt smoke, literally. He patted the spot with his hand and backed away, swearing.

“Seems like I have the same habit, and considering I gave you my blood, I win the contest for the most effort.”

“You gave a vampire your blood?” Polina lowered her voice and addressed me directly. She turned her back to the vampire. “You shouldn’t do that. Hasn’t anyone told you how dangerous it is? You could—”

Julius raised his voice. “Our new Hecate is clearly capable of taking care of herself.” He tipped his head toward Tabetha’s home.

Polina’s brow furrowed. She opened her mouth to say more, but before she could, a snowy white owl broke through the clouds and barreled into her. “Hildie! Oh, thank the goddess.” Polina buried her face into her familiar’s feathers.

“Hubba-hubba,” Poe whispered from my shoulder. I hushed him and turned back toward the house.

“Speaking of taking care of things, we need to finish what we started. I can’t take the chance of someone reviving Tabetha.” Both witch and vampire turned their attention on me. “Is everyone else out of the house?”

“Yes,” Polina said. “The other supernaturals did not stay once she was destroyed. You can’t blame them. Some have been buried beneath the trees for decades. There was only one servant working, and you saw his remains.”

My heart sank thinking about the man in the bow tie. That could have been Logan, used and left for dead. Even Rick would have sustained horrific injuries at the hands of the bloodthirsty mob. I stared at Rick, catatonic at the base of the steps. It was my responsibility to make sure this never happened to anyone ever again.

Resolved, I took a deep breath and blew it out toward the house. It gathered strength along the way, fueled by my magic. The plants in the pots on the veranda burst into flames. I blew again, and this time I directed the heat inside the open door. The plants inside the foyer ignited.

The vines carried the flames to the curtains on the windows. The inferno raged. Great billows of black smoke escaped the front door. The windows shattered, and the brick walls scorched from licks of flame that danced out the resulting openings. Before long, the fire had engulfed the entire building.

“Oh,” Polina said. “Would it be all right if I helped you contain this? I’m afraid for the trees.” She glanced toward the woods.

“Please,” I said, thinking of the wildlife that came here to feed.

Polina cast her hand as if rolling dice and gigantic rocks erupted around the house. They formed a barrier against the heat. “High iron content,” she said.

We stood shoulder to shoulder as the roof collapsed, and the fire left Tabetha’s residence looking more and more like a brick skeleton. I had an inappropriate vision of Tabetha’s purple fruit blood caramelizing on the stone before it burst into flames.

“If you will both excuse me, the sun rises,” Julius said.

I turned toward his voice, but he was already gone. I wondered what would happen when he got back to the Thames.

“I need to return to Smugglers’ Notch and reassert my rights over my territory,” Polina said. “Hildegard says Tabetha barely kept the trolls at bay. I suppose she didn’t have much experience with trolls living here.”

I smiled. “Thank you for helping me.”

She nodded. “I hope this is the beginning of a long and prosperous friendship. Not an allegiance, mind you. Although if you want an allegiance, you can have it. I’m not against alliances, per se. But friendship goes deeper. Friendship—”

“Polina?”

“Huh?”

“Can you help me get Rick into my Jeep?”

“Oh, sure. I was rambling again, wasn’t I?”

“It’s okay,” I said, smiling. “It’s sort of growing on me.”

Poe cleared his throat. “If you don’t mind, I’m going to do some hunting.” He eyed the forest as if it were a smorgasbord of exotic culinary delights. “Meet you back at the house?”

“Of course,” I said. He took flight toward the sunrise.

Polina held up her hand and guided Rick down the long driveway to my Jeep, while the acrid scent of burning plants filled the air around us. On the way, she rambled on about the persigranate trees. I was too worried about Rick to hear a word she said.

Still, I was thankful for Polina’s help, and I had a way to show it. I unlocked the glove compartment and produced the
Duck Dynasty
thermos filled with positivity potion. I’d locked it in there the day I offered it to Tabetha, waiting for the right moment to be rid of it. Frankly, I couldn’t use it myself, and it was dangerous driving around with it. “I want you to have this,” I said.

“What’s this?”

“Just my way of saying thank you for helping me today. I hope this is the beginning of a long and beautiful friendship.”

Eyebrows scrunched together, she unscrewed the cap and sniffed. Her eyes widened. “This is positivity potion. Very powerful. What are you doing with this in your glove compartment?”

“Long story. It should still work. I don’t think it expires. My gift to you; do with it what you will.”

Polina thanked me profusely, then launched into a long explanation of why the potion was so powerful. I strapped Rick into his seat.

She was still talking when I pulled away from the curb.

I
drove slowly back to Red Grove, taking the less traveled country roads at my own pace. Polina had said it was just a matter of time until Tabetha’s poison wore off and Rick returned to me. Time might heal all wounds, but could it reverse magic? I hoped so. I’d seen no change in Rick. His body was with me, staring out the window and offering me the hope of an occasional blink, but his mind and soul were somewhere else.

The rumble of my Jeep’s wheels on uneven pavement provided the kind of reflective environment where my thoughts could run wild. One thought came a-calling more than any other. I’d seen Rick in bed with Tabetha. Naked. There was no blissful uncertainty that came from finding out after the fact. I’d seen it with my own eyes.

My logical mind told me this act was not infidelity. Rick was used. Tabetha drugged him with an enchanted tart, abducted him, and used him. I couldn’t fault him for being the victim. My heart wasn’t a problem either. The love I felt for Rick trumped anything I’d seen. I was so thankful to have him back alive and was committed to nursing him to health, however long it took.

Beyond my logical mind and compassionate heart though, my emotional core was in turmoil. The amygdala of my brain, the part that controlled fight or flight, was telling me to fly, not because I blamed him but because my love for him was a gaping wound. Tabetha was the first to recognize that Rick was both my greatest strength and my ultimate weakness. He was my beginning and my end.

Love had everything to do with it. If Rick was simply a source of power, I could live without him. Power can be replaced. The sex was good, but I could find a number of men to have sex with. Even Rick acting as the vessel of my immortal soul didn’t seal the deal.

It was love that ripped my heart from my chest when I saw him with Tabetha. It was love that made it impossible for me not to walk back into Tabetha’s house and confront her to win Rick back. Most of all, it was love that made me vulnerable. As long as I loved Rick, and people knew that I loved him, he would be a target for anyone who wanted to hurt me.

My amygdala was telling me to run, not from Rick per se, but from love. I wanted to fight it, but as the miles passed, old walls came up again—walls I’d torn down months ago, protective walls. Didn’t I deserve some walls? I’d been relationship toxic for as long as I could remember. Always rushing head first into love only to head-butt the wall at full speed.

But Rick was my answer to that. A love that was finally returned. A love that was eternal. Alas, this love was just as dangerous, just as soul crushing.
Is love worth it?
was all I could think, mile after blessed mile.

By the time I turned into my driveway, I’d flipped that thought over in my head ad nauseam. Rick wasn’t any better, and I didn’t have any answers or comfort. The one thing I did have was my regained strength. With a little help from the air around me, I helped Rick from the Jeep and levitated him up the stairs and into my bedroom. Only it didn’t happen as smoothly as it sounds. I conked his head on the banister and dropped him half on, half off the bed. Anyway, he got there, all limbs intact. I thought that was pretty good, considering.

I crawled in next to him, pulled the covers over both of us, and curled into his side. His head rolled on the pillow toward the window. I toyed with the waves of his hair behind his ear.

“Rick? Are you in there?” I whispered.