Page 39 of Warmongers and Wands
“But your family talents don’t involve summoning. That seems like a whole lot of work to go to just to get back at a boyfriend.”
“Speaking as a man who probably has never been dumped,” she commented wryly. “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, my friend.”
“Understood. But looking back, I don’t think Adelaide summoned me. Yes, she was right there by the circle, but she seemed a bit alarmed to see me. And she never returned.”
“Maybe she was alarmed because the ritual actually worked,” Bronwyn countered. “Adelaide wasn’t a powerful witch. She could have been doing the magical equivalent of a Hail Mary and been astounded when you actually showed up. Then faced with you, she might have decided she didn’t hate her ex-boyfriend all that much and changed her mind.”
“And didn’t bother to send me back to hell?” I asked.
Bronwyn shrugged. “Maybe she couldn’t figure that ritual out. Maybe she tried and never got it to work. Like I said, she wasn’t all that powerful.”
“Okay, we’ll add Adelaide to the list, but I still don’t think it was her.”
“If I was a betting woman, my money would be on Matilda.” Bronwyn picked up a book bound in red leather. “Which is my next read. If I can find out who summoned you, then I don’t have to look through hundreds of spell books to find the ritual and the research notes. But honestly, these journals are annoying the crap out of me, so if I can’t find out by the time I read Matilda’s, then I’m diving into the spell books.”
I held out a hand. “Let me help. I’ll take one, you take the other. Then we can both read spell books.”
She hesitated. “These are the journals of my witch ancestors. I don’t think non-family should be reading them. I mean, you might find out that incredibly secret apple jelly recipe, or that my great-great-great grandmother cheated on her husband with a satyr.”
“Give me that.” I snatched the book from her hands and got to work.
Three hours later, I wished I could go back in time and drag this Matilda down to hell. I’m pretty sure she was there already. I’d need to ask Lucien to check for her and maybe give her a little extra punishment because she certainly deserved it. The woman was horribly cruel to her sons. I was pretty sure she’d killed her husband. And I had a suspicion that she’d been involved in the illness that had eventually taken Marina’s life.
Her daughter’s death had driven Larkspur into a deep depression. She’d withdrawn from town affairs. She refused to do all but the most basic magic. From Matilda’s gleeful entries, her sister had become practically a hermit—and no threat at all to her rule. Matilda didn’t see Adelaide as a threat and was only slightly wary about Celesta. Her youngest sister barely registered on her radar. Her final diaries were mainly about her ongoing issues with the fairies and her determination to have a daughter and her suspicions that she’d been somehow cursed. Three husbands after her first and she still only had the four sons. From the vaguely worded entries, I realized pregnancy wasn’t an issue. She most likely was doing away with any child that wasn’t the gender she wanted.
I summarized what I’d read to Bronwyn, telling her that I thought Matilda might have been the summoner. She certainly had the power. But if I was here to smash any attempt by her sister or her niece to take over, then why hadn’t I been released? If I was meant to handle the issue with the fairies, why continue to struggle and not use me? Why just leave me here?
“Nope.” Bronwyn held a leather-bound book aloft. “It was Celesta. She doesn’t come right out and say it, but I’m pretty sure she was the one who summoned you.”
“To take out Matilda? Then why not release me and give me my task?” I asked.
“For one, because Adelaide saw you. Celesta adored her younger sister. I think Adelaide told her about the demon in the woods, and Celesta felt ashamed, like summoning a demon to murder her aunt was something that would tarnish her in Adelaide’s eyes forever. I’m really reading between the lines here, but I think she told Adelaide she’d take care of the situation. That’s why Adelaide never came back or worked to free you. In her mind, she’d done what she promised—she went to her more powerful older sister and Celesta promised to handle it.”
“Then what? She couldn’t figure out how to banish me and just left me here?”
Bronwyn paged through the book. “I think originally she meant to keep you as a sort of contingency plan in case Matilda went after her. I mean, Marina was dead. Larkspur was consumed by grief. Year after year, Matilda wasn’t having any daughters. Celesta always downplayed her abilities and power, but judging from her diary, she never really felt safe.”
I looked down at the genealogy chart. “She lived and ran Accident for thirty years after Matilda’s death. That’s thirty years she could have freed me or returned me to hell. Instead she died, and any knowledge of my existence here died with her.”
“Except for the werewolves, who obviously didn’t realize what you were or the circumstances of your entrapment here,” Bronwyn commented.
“Did Celesta just forget about me?” I’ll admit I snarled a bit with those words. I was bitter. I had good reason to be bitter.
“I think she might have. We’re not skilled in demonology. Maybe she thought you just went back after a certain amount of time. Maybe she couldn’t figure out how to return you.” Bronwyn looked up at me, her eyes soft and full of sympathy. “Maybe she did forget about you.”
I swallowed hard and turned away. Was that how it would be with us? Would Bronwyn leave once her leg healed and never return? Would her promises to free me fade in her memory as time went on and she found herself unable to find the correct ritual?
Would I ever see her again?
A hand touched my arm. I hadn’t even heard her get up or heard the noise of her crutches on the floor.
“I won’t forget about you, Hadur. I won’t fail you, and I won’t forget about you. Ever.”
I turned to face her, pulling her gently into my arms. “But what if you can’t find the ritual to release me, Bronwyn? What if I’m trapped here forever?”
She put her hand on my cheek, sliding her fingers down to tangle in my beard. “Then I’ll be trapped here with you. Forever. Until my dying day.”
That…that would be the one thing that would truly make me feel free while trapped in this summoning circle.
“I’m yours, my witch,” I whispered to her.
“And I’m yours, my demon,” she replied.
