T*Witches: Kindred Spirits (13 page)

As if to confirm her insight, Alex began to feel dizzy. Holding onto the railing of the cellar stairs, she started to shake. And then the whooshing in her ears quieted and she heard a voice, muffled, terrified, but as recognizable as her own. Grabbing Michaelina’s narrow shoulders, she demanded, “What have you done to my sister?”

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

THE CAVES

She’d been ambushed.

Jason had been the bait. He hadn’t left Coventry after all. Instead, he’d been lured back, used to lead Cam smack into a trap.

She had not seen it coming. She should have. Jason’s glazed eyes, the bizarro things he was saying? Hello! Witchcraft 101, anyone? The boy was under a spell, cast by the cold, cruel toad-tormenter herself. At Sersee’s say-so, he’d come to capture Cam.

Mission accomplished. She was deep in the heart of Sersee-land.

Epie tied Cam’s hands behind her back and pushed her down onto a benchlike rock formation. She was a
prisoner. But she would
not
go to pity-city right now. She would deal.

Calmly, Cam took stock of her situation.
Then
she went to pity-city.

She was alone and outnumbered. This was not the training ground Shane had told her about. It was Sersee’s lair, in a section of the caves that had probably gone unexplored for decades — beneath LunaSoleil.

“Who said you were the slow one?” Sersee taunted her. “So far, you’ve aced it. Not many even know this part of the caves exists. Except for certain members of your own family. What sweet irony that you’re here. Princess Apolla, meant to live in luxury above us, literally. Poor little sun queen, all in the dark now. The only DuBaer for miles around — and deep underground.”

Resolutely, Cam refused to be baited. She would figure a way out of this. Taking a deep breath, she shoved all the how’s and why’s out of her head and concentrated on the what now. She’d have to fight for herself — and for Jason. Like an innocent bystander in a drive-by, he’d been caught in the cross-fire. He was standing zombielike now in the shadows behind Sersee, waiting, Cam suspected, for his next instructions.

“So true, so true,” the tall witch mocked her, reading her mind. “The disadvantages just keep piling up, don’t
they? Okay, I’ll do one: Your telepathic powers, pitiful to start with, are all ‘No Service,’ down here.”

With Sersee intercepting her thoughts, Cam forced herself not to think about her game plan — and then invent one. Only one idea, one word, escaped —
Soccer
.

“Sock me?” Sersee laughed. “With what? Your hands are tied.”

Curlylocks hadn’t gotten it. She didn’t have a clue that Cam was ace forward for Marble Bay High’s first-rate soccer team and that she could think, run, and score like a champ. To Cam, the single thought, Soccer, meant pulling a mental fake-out. Think one thing and do another. It was worth a try.

She concentrated on looking around and looking desperate, as if she were scoping out the cave, scanning for escape routes.

She watched Sersee watching her. Good.

Without warning, Cam leaped up and made a run for it. Faking to the left, then dashing to the right, she grabbed Jason’s clammy hand and raced toward the tunnel.

But Jason was dead weight. Dragging him gave slick Sersee and lumpy Epie all the time they needed to make a Cam sandwich. Block complete. Game over.

“That’s the best you can do?” Sersee sniped. “Run
away? Your ancestors would be appalled. You,” she told Jason, pointing to where he’d been standing before. “Over there, pussycat.”

Okay,
now
Cam felt panic rising. She squashed it. A freak-out or misstep like the one she’d just attempted and she’d be landfill. She’d have to outwit — or out-witch — her enemies, who knew every inch of this cave and island.

Epie pushed her down again and, this time, Cam studied her surroundings more closely.

Sersee, Epie, and Michaelina had staked out this cold, dank turf as their own. Tools of the trade were laid out on a natural stone shelf at the far end of the cavern: mortar and pestles to grind herbs and spices, to make potions and cast spells. But where were the herbs themselves, and the crystals? Clearly, stashed away so that no visitor or captive could use them.

There were crevasses in the cave walls, archways that led into separate spaces, dark igloos furnished with sleeping bags and oil lamps. There were four such “rooms.” Four for three witches. With a sickening feeling, Cam realized this was the damp, dark place Shane had described as his home. He lived here. Where was he now? Lurking in his lair, waiting for Sersee’s orders?

And were there still demented outcasts — present company aside — living in the underground passageways?
Or spirits of the dead? She almost wished there were. They might divert Sersee’s attention.

Which was again riveted on Cam. Without shifting her eyes, the glowering witch snapped her fingers at Epie. “Take her amulet,” she commanded. “She won’t be needing it anymore.”

Her hands tied behind her back, Cam couldn’t shield her powerful sun charm. She could block Epie’s approach, though. Using every ounce of her kick-butt soccer strength, she booted the chunkster in the shins.

Epie’s legs gave way and she went down yelping, “She hurt me! She kicked me!”

“Get a grip,” Sersee retorted. “Get off your duff, go behind her, and yank the thing off.”

Whimpering, Epie obeyed. She slid the sun charm around the chain until it hung on the back of Cam’s neck. Then she yanked it. Her startled scream this time was not caused by Cam.

“Ow! Ouch! I got burned!” Epie shook the hand violently, as if she could shake off the searing pain, and dropped the sun charm on the ground. “Help! I need ice!”

Sersee iced her with a frigid stare.

Epie’s cries racheted up when she glimpsed her hand. “Aghhh! Look what she did!”

Even Cam was shocked. Burned into the young
witch’s palm was the outline of Cam’s amulet, as if the heat of the sun itself had branded her. Desperately, Epie pressed her hand against the cold cavern wall and wailed, “She’s … she’s got magick! She’s a —”

“Witch?” Sersee mocked. “Of course she’s a witch, you dunce.”

Cam had no idea how the charm had heated up to burning. Unless … Aron’s words came to her.
I’ll be with you. I’ve always been with you
. She was inspired. She focused her heat-bearing eyes on Sersee’s dark curls. Alex’s turban trick had been much too mild. The leader of the perv pack needed a really hot hairdresser.

Wispy at first, smoke soon began to billow from Sersee’s long, thick locks. Ooops. Cam had forgotten about Jason. He began to cough, tear, choke …

“Want to rethink that?” Sersee said, her eyes burning as much with contained fury as smoke. “Smoke inhalation’s a killer, and it doesn’t discriminate between wusses and winners.”

Cam glanced at Jason, then lowered her powerful eyes. She could turn them on Sersee again, of course, stun and stop the arrogant witch in her tracks. And then run for it. Epie was too freaked to stop her.

Again, there was Jason to consider. She couldn’t lug him along. Maybe he’d come out of the spell soon, able to help her? She snuck another peek at him. He slumped,
transfixed, against the wall, tears streaming from his stinging eyes, smoke wreathing his black hair. He couldn’t even help himself.

Sersee gloated, “Your prince isn’t going to rescue you. He’s just not himself these days.”

Cam growled, “You got what you wanted. Me. Let him go. Whatever you did to him, undo it.”

“Don’t you even want to know what I did? I’ll tell you anyway! It’s a little spell I’ve perfected. I like to call it Robot boyfriend. Composed of all-natural parts — this I assure you,” she said with a wink. “He walks, he talks, he chews gum, and best of all, he obeys completely and without question. It’s a handy tool, really.”

“What part of undo it didn’t you understand?” Cam growled.

Sersee put her finger to her chin, pretending to consider the demand. “Oh, what the heck. I’ll do it, if only to impress you.”

Cam almost exhaled. With Jason on her side, the real Jason, even for a few minutes …

“Oh, no, no, no,” Sersee scoffed. Taking a sparkling substance from the herb pouch inside her robe, she tossed it at Jason. “I didn’t say I’d give you back your boring old boyfriend. There’d be nothing exciting about that. I merely meant I’d return him to the form you saw him in last.” She glared at Cam, waiting for her words to
sink in. “Hint, hint,” she snapped impatiently, brushing the glitter from her hands. “He’ll be a real pussycat.”

Cam’s heart seized. Sersee
had
done the unthinkable.

Shimmering specks began to sink into Jason’s skin. Where they’d landed, dark spots appeared.

“Ooo, I love this part.” Epie momentarily forgot her own pain in favor of witnessing someone else’s.

At Sersee’s command, Jason fell to the floor, bellowing in anguish. Cam gasped in horror as his long arms and legs began to shorten, tighten into animal quarters, and the dark blotches on his skin spread, turning into sleek, black fur.

“No!” Cam shrieked.

Jason, writhing on his back, his legs jerking, his feet transforming into sharp-clawed paws, stretched his now thick and gleaming black neck to look at her. For a split second, his eyes locked with hers. “Run!” he roared. Then his cry became a terrified, searing animal scream.

Cam leaped to her feet and tried to lunge at Sersee, but Epie, boiling mad about her burned hand, and probably twice her weight, pushed her back and held her down. Cam felt the heat still coming off the angry girl’s palm.

And off Jason’s body. He was on the other side of the cavern but his glossy coat was foaming with sweat, his mouth frothing as he snarled and snapped at her.

Jason was a panther now. Completely altered, he paced back and forth before Sersee — waiting, Cam felt sure, for the heartless witch’s orders.

“You’re torturing him!” Cam tried rushing at Sersee again, but Epie had her pinned.
Don’t freak!
It was Alex’s voice — but not via T-mail.
Think!

“He never did anything to you. Why are you doing this?” Cam sounded desperate and she knew it.

Sersee gloated, “You’re good at quizzes, or so I hear. Try this one. It’s multiple choice: A) Because I can. B) Because I don’t like you. C) Because you need to learn a lesson. D) All of the above.”

She snapped her fingers and Epie retrieved a studded collar and fastened it around the panther’s neck. Shocked and sickened, Cam noticed something she’d missed before. The round orange tag hanging from the collar? Jason’s basketball charm.

The charm she’d given him. The sight of it turned Cam’s fear to fury. She spat. “Here’s my answer. E) None of the above. I don’t care why you did this. But you will pay for this.”

“How new,” Sersee snarled. “Like I haven’t heard that before!” The thin witch leaned over to stroke the panther’s head.

Cam narrowed her eyes and focused them hard on Epie.

Not fast enough. Sersee jerked up, grabbed Epie by the shoulders, and whirled her around so her back was to Cam. “Can’t stun her if she’s not looking at you,” Sersee reminded Cam. Averting her own violet eyes, she taunted, “You haven’t even heard my plan.” She licked her lips. “It’s just so … yummy, so tasty, so … romantic. In a twisted sort of way.”

“Undo the spell!” Cam tried to sound commanding.

“Too late to reverse the curse this time. Why, what’s wrong, Lady DuBaer? You fancy the boy, right?” She slipped a chain around the panther’s neck and yanked at it harshly. The animal crouched, its tail switching tensely. “I’ve found a way for you to be together forever.” Sersee reached into her herb pouch again. “Cam and Jason. Together forever. Part of each other, even.”

Cam saw bits of the sparkling confetti drifting from Sersee’s hand.

“What’s she going to be?” Epie wanted to know. “A frog? A snake? Something slimy and ugly, right?”

“Epie, you’ve let the cat out of the bag.” Sersee smirked. “Or, rather, the rat. Rodents,” she told Cam, “are tasty tidbits for hungry panthers. And your pet pal is starving.”

“Sersee wouldn’t let us feed him,” Epie explained.

Cam got it. Hit by another wave of nausea, she began to shiver.

“Perfect,” Sersee announced. “You’re already quivering and quaking like a rat in a trap, and I haven’t even recited the spell yet.”

“Why do you hate me so much?” Cam asked, frantically hoping to buy time.

“Let me count the ways … and whys,” Sersee snickered. “You’re a DuBaer, born rich and gifted to one of Coventry’s ruling families. While I, who will one day rule this island, will have to scheme and fight for it. Everything’s been handed to you. And yet you tried to take something away from me —”

Shane, Cam thought.

“Yes, Shane — who has taught me much of the forbidden magick your uncle taught him. Valuable information, to be sure. Why, the transmutation spell alone, the ability to transform a human being into … well, pretty much whatever I want it to be, has given me hours and hours of fun.”

The vile witch yanked on Jason’s collar, and the big cat groaned in pain.

“And just so we’re clear,” she continued, “know this before you cease to exist. Shane has been playing you. He’s not attracted to you, never was. It was all to gain your trust.”

“Oh, really?” Cam tore her eyes from the suffering panther. Sersee had accidentally wandered onto
her
turf.
Boys. Cam knew how to fight this battle. She took her shot. “I don’t think so. Maybe he taught you to read other people’s minds, but he hasn’t entrusted his own thoughts to you.”

“How would you know?” Sersee fumed. “You can’t read anyone’s mind!”

“Alex can. Which makes me privy to everything your boy-toy is thinking. Which is … he doesn’t care about you, Sersee. You’re the flavor of the month, a handy toy who helped him when he needed it. He won’t be around for long. You’re not his equal, you don’t have his gifts, and you never will.”

“Enough!” Enraged, Sersee flung a handful of glittering herbs at Cam. “Say
adiós
, Apolla,” she mocked.

Narrowing her violet eyes, focusing them on Cam, she began to recite:
“Dark magick that poisons the night —”

Cam tried to break in with the reverse:
“Good magick that sweetens the night —”
she murmured, desperately trying to halt the curse and reverse the spell.

Epie heard her and raced over to clamp a steamy hand over Cam’s mouth as Sersee hurried on:
“Dark clouds that cover the light, take this creature as I command. Turn her into a rat, at this hour —”