Page 9 of A Cursed Noel
“Huh?”
She does a littledance. Odd, seeing she’s one bad levitation away from a broken hip.“The world needs her,” she insists. She stops dancing, appearingsad. “She just doesn’t know how much, yet.”
“What the hell areyou talking about?” I snap, shocking me and Mimi by managing totalk.
She pats my face a fewtimes, giddy and evidently impressed. “You are a strong one, AricConnor. Yes, you are.”
My voice slurs as Mimiadds another dose of mojo. “What are you talking about?” Irepeat.
“Not what,whom,”she replies. She frowns. “The dark ones like her.”
“Who?” I mumble.This hag is on my last nerve.
Mimi continues as ifuninterrupted. “Like her to hurt. Like her to suffer.” Shefrowns. “They torture her. Play with her until they can get hergood and dead.”
I don’t get a goodlook at Mimi as she turns away, but for the briefest second, I catchthe worry deepening the creases of her face.
She returns her emptyteacup back into her sleeve and reaches deep into her other sleeve.She sticks her tongue out as she fidgets through the interior, herface perking up when she seems to find what she’s looking for. Ittakes some finagling, but she yanks out a broken staff the length ofher body.
Mimi lifts the stafftriumphantly in the air. “This used to belong to Gandalf,” shesays.
“Really?” I ask.
“Of course not.Gandalf isn’t real.” She stabs the pointy end into the ground.“Asshole,” she mutters as an afterthought.
The slur isn’t enoughto make her lose her focus. She gets to work, dragging the stick intothe ground as she hovers back and forth.
It takes some doing,but I manage to wrench my head enough to see the scratch marks shemakes.
Four long lines runparallel in equal length. The first two, she connects with smalllines in between, similar to a train track, the exception being thelines are slanted and don’t extend past the borders.
She repeats the motion,her frown deepening when she reaches the end of the second set ofparallel lines. “Now, where are you?” Mimi asks. She stamps herlittle feet; her orthopedic shoes making small indentations into theground despite that she’s still levitating. “Don’t hide herfrom me. Not when she needs him. Not with how badly the world needsher.” Her voice softens and I almost don’t catch what Mimisays. “And not when he needs her more.”
I attempt to holler ather, but Mimi’s spell makes my words come out in slow motion. “Idon’t need anyone.”
Mimi ignores me, thespeed as she levitates increasing as she sweeps back and forth,inspecting her work. It’s then I realize she’s drawing ley lines.
Dad explained ley linesa long time ago. They’re magical networks that run along the earthin conjunction with fault lines. They’re what keep time and realitymoving forward. Witches and oracles often draw them out when they’reattempting to predict the future. It’s permitted, but exceptionallyhard spell work to master. What’s not permitted is to mess withtime, past or present. That’s dangerous, as in, End of Days,dangerous.
No worries. Only alunatic would….
Mimi scratches in a fewmore marks.
Oh, no.
“Are you nuts?” Islur.
“We prefer the termmentally unstable,” she replies.
And then she cackles,because she hasn’t proved she’s insane enough.
“Mimi,don’t.”She ignores me, feverishly sketching runes along either side. Thetips spark and sizzle, smoking and melting away the surrounding snowand singeing the ground.
Worms and bugs slitherthrough the blackened earth, crawling and skittering franticallyaway.
My eyes widen.“Whatever you’re doing, stop it now.”
Of course, she doesn’t.Why would she when I sound like a drooling idiot? I try harder,adding will to my voice to push through her hex. “I, Aric Connor,pureblood Leader and future alpha order you to—”