Page 37 of Summer Solstice
Lacey’s body stretched, and she suddenly wasn’t a woman my height, but one who was closer to six feet than five. She would have stood almost a head taller than me if we were standing closer to each other.
Her jacket moved oddly, squirming at the back, and a second later, the fabric melted away to reveal wings. Huge, leathery wings, like those of a bat suddenly flared wide to the sides, stretching like they’d been tucked away for too long before they mantled. I could see dark red veins against the shadowy membrane, and I took another step back, my heart in my throat.
Lacey smiled, and her mouth was full of fangs.
“My name is Alecto of the Furies, goddess of revenge. And I’m here for you.”
Chapter Fifteen
Alecto took another step forward, her wings fanning the air and blowing the hair back from my face.
I wanted to back up, to run, but it felt like my feet had been frozen to the ground. I couldn’t force them to move, or even unstick my throat enough to yell for help.
The fury’s head tilted to one side, her blood-streaked hair trailing over the shoulder of the stained white shift she was wearing. The pale cloth fluttered around her bare legs, and a heavy belt hung at her waist, with a sword, of all things, hanging off it.
“You were the one who’s been targeting me,” I said, my words an accusation, even as I intended to keep her talking so I could try to figure out my next actions. I didn’t know much about furies but I had a feeling, they weren’t easily dealt with.
“Yes!” she hissed in response. “And you deserved it all, Poppy.” Alecto’s voice was low and rich, almost a purr. “This is vengeance. This is your punishment. And I’m far from finished.”
I still couldn’t move. My body felt like I was being squeezed by a giant’s fist. I could barely move my chest enough to breathe. My heart pulsed in my skull, in my ears, the roar of it drowning out everything but Alecto’s voice. She came closer, close enough to touch me, and leaned in to give me a good look at her eyes, still leaking their bloody tears, and at the sharp white fangs that dented her lower lip.
“You’re here for vengeance, you say,” I continued, forcing myself to remain calm, because I needed to understand what that meant. “Vengeance in the name of which person?”
She laughed. “Isn’t that obvious?”
“No,” I shook my head. “Or I wouldn’t have asked.”
“Did you think you could break his heart and just walk away like it was nothing?”
I froze.
Marty? She was here for Marty? Had he summoned her? But as soon as the thought passed through my head, I knew such wasn’t the case. No matter how badly I might have hurt him, he never would have wished this on me. Marty just wasn’t like that. No, Alecto had to come after me of her own volition.
Alecto made a flicking motion with her hand, like she was strumming a harp. “Your magic is unstable, Poppy. It was so, so easy to just twist it a little, to make you hex the things around you, without you even realizing what you were doing. All of your own fears leeching into reality and ruining things for you. Isn’t that beautiful irony, Poppy? You’re the source of your own punishment.”
I could only stare at her, at those terrible, blood-soaked eyes. My magic was unstable. It had been ever since I’d joined the coven and my small, human power had been mixed with witch magic, and the death magic of a Blood Witch and warlock. Things had been a little off ever since. The idea that someone could take advantage of that, that someone could twist my own powers against me? Well, it had bile churning in my stomach.
Was that why Wanda couldn’t tell that I’d been cursed? Because it was my own power reaching out, causing problems for my suppliers, my customers, Finn. Oh my God, had I been the impetus that had caused Finn’s latest relapse?
Icy terror burned away in an instant as fury rolled up my spine. This woman, this creature, would not use me to hurt my own son. That was what finally let me tear some control back, and get my mouth free at least from whatever power was holding me in place.
“I didn’t want to hurt Marty,” I told her furiously, working my stiff jaw, trying to get some feeling back in it. “But I had to do what was best for both of us and so that’s what I did. I couldn’t give him what he wanted from me, so it wasn’t fair for me to continue to pretend.” I took a breath. “And I know Marty never would have summoned you.”
He wouldn’t, would he? A little kernel of doubt settled into my gut. I’d never seen him so hurt, and he hadn’t really talked to me since Christmas. But I just couldn’t believe it, I wouldn’t believe it. Marty was one of the kindest, sweetest people I’d ever met.
“Yourguilt is what called me, Poppy,” Alecto said, interrupting the spiral of my thoughts.
“I never called you. That’s a lie.”
“Your subconscious summoned me. Because deep down, you know you deserve to be punished for what you did.” She laughed, a nasty bark of sound. “Did you really think not meaning to cause hurt somehow lets you off the hook?”
I stared at her, my whole body straining back against the power holding me. I wanted to look away, to deny her accusations. But a small, shamed part of myself had to admit that what she was saying felt true. I’d hurt Marty, I knew I had. And I’d made it worse because I hadn’t been honest with him from the beginning. I’d hurt one of my favorite people in the world. Didn’t I deserve some kind of payback? I knew Marty would never wish to hurt me in return, but it might have been easier if he’d gotten angry or yelled at me, or something. But he’d just been so sad, so hurt. The memory of his face when I’d given him back his ring, it still haunted me.
“There we go,” Alecto purred. Her wings flexed, rising out to block out the small amount of moonlight filtering through the canopy. “You understand, now. You have to suffer for your actions, Poppy. Only then can you be cleansed of your guilt.”
Maybe she was right. Maybe if I suffered, then I could finally let go of that burning shame nestled up behind my ribs, the one that ached every time I took a breath.
Alecto’s eyes were bright, bright red. They almost glowed in the dark as she came closer. Those bloody tracks down her face were all I could see.