C2 TWO

Your Bitter Foe

ROSE

Oh why rebuke you him that loves you so?

Lay breath so bitter on your bitter foe.

—William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream

Dear Diary,

Visions of soulless eyes haunt me while I sleep. Memories of the same haunt me while awake. I cannot escape the evil I have done, albeit unintentional. Whether intended or not, the results are the same; I've destroyed the lives of others, and in so doing destroyed my one chance at love.

If a heart can fall in love, what does it fall into when that love is lost? Does it fall into grief, or something darker, perhaps? I fear I'll never climb out of this pit in which my heart now lives.

The simple comfort of hope has been denied me, and I weep for the days yet to come.

OCEAN PULLED OFF my blankets, and cold air assaulted my underdressed body. "Go away."

I drew my pillow over my head and scrambled to find a corner of the blanket to reclaim, but she'd removed it from my bed entirely.

"I will not go away. You need to get your ass out of bed and take a proper shower before I bring a bucket of cold water and bathe you in your sheets."

I peeked around my pillow.

My best friend stood with arms crossed, her wild red hair tumbling around her shoulders and down her back like half-awake snakes, her green eyes squinted in determination. She raised an eyebrow. "I'm serious, Rose. You can't keep this up. We have work to do."

In the last several weeks I'd fallen in love, only to discover that Derek's family was our coven's sworn enemy, and I'd inadvertently destroyed his brother's soul with my dark gift. I'd lost my best furry friend, Sandy, to a fire. Her puppies had been slaughtered in the most gruesome way, and I'd discovered them. My coven now hated me, and Mother and Jasmine weren't speaking to me. I'd used power borrowed from Derek to defeat Mother and trap her in her own magical prison—which hadn't won me any points with anyone here but Ocean.

After that battle, Derek's power had lingered in me, like a lover's scent on a pillow. When it had faded, I'd been left empty, alone and without hope.

I really didn't see the value in getting out of bed. Ever.

Obviously, Ocean had different ideas.

She left my bedroom and came back with a large glass of water so cold it had already frosted the glass. "Get up, Rose. Last warning. You smell, you look like shit, and if you stand any chance of getting Derek back, then we have a few mysteries to solve."

I stood no chance of getting Derek back. I wouldn't forgive me if I were him, but she was right. We did have some mysteries to solve. Like what was Derek's brother, Dean, doing at our house the night I'd used my power on him, and what was Mother's relationship to their father, and what else was Mother hiding?

With a sigh, I swung my legs over the side of the bed and held my hands up in surrender. "Fine. Fine. Just back away with the water. I'd prefer my shower warm and not in my bed."

With a gloating smile plastered on her beautiful face, Ocean sauntered out of the room.

As tempted as I was to flop back into my warm cocoon, I knew she'd be back with the water if I didn't emerge from my room soon.

Even the simple act of taking a shower broke off more slivers of my already damaged heart. The warm water brought back memories of Derek's eyes on me as I'd pleasured myself in the hot tub while he'd stroked himself. I rubbed my body down with soap, craving his touch, his arms, his body against mine, and the pain of losing him rushed in to fill the empty spaces of my soul.

The shower washed my tears down the drain, and I dried my eyes, put on clean clothes, and did my best to face the world as I joined Ocean.

She shoved a sandwich at me as soon as I stepped foot in our small kitchen. "You need to eat. You've lost too much weight while nursing your depression."

"It's only been a few days," I argued. "I hardly think this warrants an intervention." But I picked up the sandwich and took a bite, and with that one act my appetite resurfaced with a vengeance.

"A few days of you texting and calling Derek every fifteen seconds, while sobbing into your pillow. Yeah, that gets old fast. Now it's time to take action."

Between mouthfuls of turkey and cheese I asked, "What kind of action?"

She smiled in that way that always got us in trouble as kids. "The kind that gets us answers. We need to break into your mom's closet and ferret out her secrets." She watched my expression. "Right now."

I choked on my food and sipped some tea to dislodge the blockage in my throat. "Why now?" Mother's space was sacred. She had magical wards up and would kill us if she caught us anywhere near her closet. She pretended that nothing had happened after our duel, that I was just in dark place and needed to collect myself, but I knew she'd snap if I crossed her again. And if I had to go up against Mother without Derek's powers as backup, I'd either lose in a very bad way, or be forced to use my dark gift against her. Neither scenario pleased me.

"Because your parents are in Seattle for the day and won't be back until late tonight. Most of the other coven members are running errands or at work. It's our chance to sneak in unnoticed."

"And the wards?"

"I have a plan. Just get ready."

I wanted to argue, but really what more did I have to lose? And I needed to know how this whole mess came to be. This did seem to be our best bet.

Ocean winked and pulled out black outfits.

I groaned. "Seriously?"

She tossed me mine. "They're our spy gear. Come on, have a sense of fun, will ya?"

Thirty minutes later found us stomping through the woods, in the middle of the afternoon, dressed like wannabe ninjas straight out of a Bruce Lee movie. I felt ridiculous.

Ocean, on the other hand, was loving this. She twirled around, hair splashing out like waves. "I wonder what we're going to find. Something epic, no doubt."

I laughed for the first time since Derek shifted from wolf to man in front of me, confirming my darkest fears.

My laughter died when we neared the kennel. Memories of mutilated puppies and my last moments with Derek before he shifted and disappeared from my life lay heavy on my heart.

I refused to look at the empty space where the puppies had once been. Refused to think of Sandy, my beautiful Husky who had been a faithful companion for several years, before her untimely death trying to save Derek's life. Refused to think of Derek, standing naked and glorious in this kennel, wounded eyes accusing me of unspeakable crimes.

Not surprisingly, the door to Mother's private dwelling was locked. Ocean pulled a bobby pin out of her hair and wriggled it around in the lock.

"Do you actually know what you're doing, or are you just trying to imitate the movies?"

The lock clicked, and she pushed the door open. "Both!"

Unbelievable. Ocean never ceased to amaze me.

We secured the door behind us and navigated through Mother's living room and into her bedroom. I shivered as statues and paintings of goddesses stared down at me, eyes judging. When we reached her closet, we both stopped.

"Okay, this is going to be a bit trickier." Ocean pulled the bobby pin out again. "I need you to feed me some of your magic while I work on the physical and magical lock."

Doing that required skin-to-skin contact and unleashing my dark gift. No freaking way.

She huffed in annoyance. "Rose, trust me, okay? I know what I'm doing."

"What if I hurt you?"

"You won't. I promise. And if it gets too much, I'll pull away." She held up two fingers. "Scout’s honor."

"You were never a Scout."

"Doesn't matter."

My turn to huff. "Fine, but I'm pulling away if I feel even the slightest hint that things are getting dangerous."

I laid my hand on her bare arm while she went to work on the lock. My dark gift blossomed like a flower that only reveals itself at night. A deadly flower, full of poison.

I'd given magic in coven circles before. In fact, I'd given Blake strength to defeat the Druids, before I'd known who they were. But the power of so many witches together at once had protected any single person from being harmed. With just Ocean and me, the risks were much greater.

Thinking back to that last fight, I wished I'd held my powers back. Feeding Blake energy had never felt right. He'd always given me the creeps, and more so lately. When he fought the black wolf, I'd hesitated, lost focus without knowing why.

Later, when that wolf proved to be Derek, I'd understood, even as more mysteries presented themselves to me.

Hopefully, our cloak-and-dagger mission would put at least a few of those mysteries to rest.

I struggled to keep a wall against the bulk of my dark gift but, since the recent attacks, it fought its way through with renewed tenacity. It had lain dormant for years, but lately had been ready to leak through my defenses at the slightest provocation. It grew hungry for souls, and that terrified me.

Ocean's skin grew cold and clammy under my palm, and my heart rate escalated. "Hurry. I can't keep it back much longer."

"Almost there." Her voice sounded thin, worn out. Whatever she was doing had tapped her energies.

Pain shot through my bones as I continued to fight the force growing inside me. My control waned, the blood lust of the power in me getting stronger.

"Ocean!"

Her voice came out in a rasp. "Nearly there. Just one more second."

I counted to three and then couldn't hold it in any longer. Pulling back, I collapsed to the floor.

Ocean reached for me, her face pale, dark circles under her eyes. "I did it. Come on."

I found a second wind at the promise of seeing what Mother hid in her closet. No one had ever been in here before, that I knew of.

At first, the revelation was anticlimactic. A huge walk-in closet full of clothes, most of which still had tags on them, wasn't exactly the big secret we were looking for.

As impressive as her clothing selection was, her wall of shoes held Ocean in awe. She picked up a pair of Jimmy Choos and nearly wept. "I so want these. Do you think she'd notice if I took them?"

I pulled them from her hands and put them back. "Yeah, pretty sure she'd notice if a pair of $800 shoes went missing. We need to focus. Being here sets my skin on fire."

She rolled her eyes. "You're such a worry-wart."

We searched through every inch of the closet, but found nothing more remarkable than handbags, jewelry, scarves and an alarming selection of lingerie that I really didn't want to think about.

I slumped onto the ground. "There's nothing here. It's a waste of time."

Ocean paced the spacious room, finger on chin. "Not so fast. Why have such high security for clothes and shoes?"

"I'm sure you'd do the same if you had this collection."

She looked at the coveted shoes. "True. I would. But still, there's got to be something."

Maybe she was right. I got up and checked behind the clothes, tapping on the wall and kicking at the baseboards.

"What are you doing, Rose?"

"I'm checking for hidden panels."

Ocean fist pumped the air. "You're a freaking genius!"

She did the same on the other wall.

Within a few minutes, I heard a hollow sound emanate from behind a panel. "Ocean, come here, I think I found something."

We tapped around, looking for a way to open it, and pushed down at just the right angle to pop a board out. Behind it was stowed a handcrafted wooden box.

Ocean helped me pull it out and, using her newfound lock-picking skills, opened it.

I pulled out letters bunched together with rubber bands and handed them to Ocean. "Go through these while I see what else is in here."

She scanned the letters, using her phone to take pictures of each one.

I pulled out a pile of photos and took shots of them with my phone.

One picture stopped me cold. "Ocean, look at this."

I held it up to her, and she gasped. "Isn't that—"

"—I think so. It's Mother and Derek's dad—with the rose bush behind them."

The ramifications sunk in slowly for us both.

Ocean held the picture closer. "So that means she's known about it this whole time? This photo had to be taken before you were born. Before she moved to Oregon."

"Right." Mother caught in another lie. It was a clue, but to what?

I dug through more knickknacks and papers and found what appeared to be the deed to a house.

Ocean pointed to the address on it. "That's this property, but look at the date."

I'd noticed the same thing. We'd only moved to Washington a few years ago from Oregon, but Mother had purchased this property over twenty-five years ago. "Why would she lie about this?" I asked. "What's so bad about owning the property this whole time?"

"Maybe because of this." Ocean pointed to another line on the document.

"David O'Conner bought her this property? And paid for it in cash?" Mother had taken money from everyone in the coven to allegedly buy this land, and then she claimed we were stuck here when the attacks on us started, because we were upside down on our loan and couldn't afford to move. "She's not only lied to everyone, but she stole from us all, too?"

Ocean snapped a picture of the document. "No wonder she can afford Jimmy Choos. When the coven finds out about this, they're going to be pissed. I think this gives me added justification for taking at least a pair or two of shoes."

"No."

Outside the dogs in the yard barked and howled. Somebody was coming.

My heart sped up as Ocean shoved everything back in the box and put it in the wall's secret compartment. We made sure everything looked the way it had before we slipped out of the closet and scurried across the house to the back door. As we closed the door behind us, Blake arrived.

I froze.

Blake held my gaze, and I expected to feel the same revulsion I usually did when he stared too long, but this time a slight tingle of heat filled my belly.

He laid a hand on my arm. "Rainbow's gotten back early from Seattle. I'll stall her while you two get out of here."

Ocean grabbed me and pulled me out through the kennel while Blake met Mother at the car and talked to her about one of the trees on the property that needed trimming.

We ran all the way back to our cottage and slammed the door shut behind us.

I closed the curtains and fell to the couch. "If Mother had found us—"

"Then we would have taken evidence of her thievery and lies to the coven and crucified her. She has no power over us, Rose. She never did. The only power she has is what you give her."

I shook my head. "How can you be so calm?"

She stood and walked to her laptop. "How can you be so scared? What's the worst she can do to you?"

I thought about it. "Kick me out."

"Okay, so why's that so bad?"

"Because I'd be homeless and broke with nowhere to go and I'd probably end up living in a cardboard box eating stale food from trashcans and begging for money on the sides of freeways."

She started her computer and connected her phone to the USB port. "You're so melodramatic. Hand me your phone."

I tossed it to her.

"Okay, so you're homeless and broke, but you have me, and you are a talented web designer. You can make money. We could get a place together. You would not end up living in a box eating trash."

I hadn't thought about life outside of the coven, but now that I did, it didn't seem so bad. A life-long fear of being kicked out of the coven, left to fend for myself, shook loose inside me, and I promised myself I'd study it more closely when I had some time alone. For now, we had to examine the pictures we'd found.

And I needed to talk to Derek.

I reached for my phone and checked my messages.

Nothing.

I texted him again. "Please call me. I never meant to hurt your family."

He was never going to talk to me again, but there was someone who might be able to help. I grabbed my own laptop and got my keys. "You work on that, I've got to run an errand."