Before The Dawn

Toby felt oddly numb, sitting in the parlor of Grace’s home as Van told her what she’d overheard, and what she was hoping they could do about it.

He didn’t even feel the intense, angry drive that had fueled him since Kevin had been taken. He was exhausted, wrung out, making him wonder what Diana had actually done to him. He knew magic was nothing you should fuck around with, especially if you didn’t know what you were doing, but he didn’t know what else to do. He’d never felt so helpless in his life and he hated it. It got to the point where he didn’t think he could take it for one more minute, and those vivid nightmares he kept having about Kevin and Ambrosius made things worse. The nightmares varied, but followed one of two general scripts: Ambrosius hurting Kevin, torturing him, killing him, in agonizing, vivid detail that would have made the makers of Saw seethe with jealously; or Kevin coming on to Ambrosius, fucking him, declaring his undying love for him. Certainly the first was the worst one, but the second felt just as agonizing to him.

Van suggested that the nightmares were deliberately inflicted upon him, by Ambrosius or Diana (but probably Ambrosius), and while he wasn’t sure how he could have done it, it was easy to believe now. He felt like he was going crazy, and he was an easy target for the seemingly sympathetic Diana.

He didn’t know Grace at all, he only knew her through Van, but he knew enough to honestly dislike her, which he hid as best he could. At least being a bartender taught you to hide your loathing very well.

What didn’t he like about her? It was hard to pinpoint, but her obvious arrogance, which Van overlooked with an enviable ease, rubbed him the wrong way. Also she looked at him like he was little more than a piece of meat, an object that would have been worthy of contempt if it had an ounce of value. He didn’t know if she didn’t like him in particular, or just disliked men in general.

“Describe this necklace,” Grace said to Van, the first thing she’d asked since Van had launched into her story.

Van did the best she could, but the necklace was rather vague in design. It was mildly ornate and pseudo-Victorian, with a small oval pendant - locket? - that Van forgot to mention. He interrupted and added it in, as he had seen what she had seen that night, and could at least back her up. Although Grace gave him a briefly evil look, she seemed to acquiesce as soon as he described the locket. “Hmm, I wonder …” she said, thinking aloud, looking across the room at one of her many odd curios.

“What?” Van prompted.

Grace seemed to decide on what to tell them, but Toby couldn’t tell if it was the truth or not. “That sounds like a resurrection amulet. It can be used in a ceremony to bring someone back from the dead, and keep them under your control.”

Van’s eyes briefly bugged out. “Are you talking about zombies?”

Grace smirked smugly. “Hardly. They’re not brain dead flesh eaters, simply deathless servants to their master. They could think to a degree, even talk, but only the removal of the amulet would genuinely kill them. You could shoot them in the head all you wanted, but all you’d have would be a mess to clean up as long as they still had the amulet.”

“How would he use that against you?” Toby asked, genuinely curious.

Grace’s smile was disarmingly cheerful. “I have no idea. But planning isn’t poor Ambrosius’s strong suit. He acts impulsively, and usually lives to regret it.”

“What were they doing to Toby?” Van asked. “How and why do they want to take his soul?”

Grace settled back in her floral armchair, clearly relishing her role as a teacher. “My guess is they wanted to make your friend there a kind of supernatural time bomb. There are many ways to steal or imprison a soul, child, so I’m afraid I can’t tell you the how.”

Toby really didn’t like the sound of this. “What do you mean a supernatural time bomb?”

“Magic has a price. I assume Ambrosius wished to have lots of power to take me on - or perhaps Diana is worried about what I’m going to do to her - but there’s only so much power they can take on before it damages them. So you can use vessels as a kind of storage unit, to accumulate and hold power, until you wish to use it. The vessel has to be soulless to hold the power and have it without being able to use it. Then, when you wish to attack, you release the power within the vessel.”

Great - he was being hollowed out like a gourd. “What happens to the vessel after that?” Van asked.

Grace’s smile was small and very cold. “They die.” At Van’s horrified look, she simply said, “I told you magic always has a price. It’s why no one person has the full powers of Tresum at their beck and call. It’s too much power for a single person to survive. We do not create the energy, we simply channel it, bend it to our will.”

“And like electricity, you can overload a circuit and fry it,” Toby sighed, running a hand through his hair.

“I assume it was Diana’s plan. In one fell swoop, Ambrosius gets rid of you, and Diana has enough power to take me on. Ambrosius could never be that clever.” Grace almost sounded impressed. Toby felt like mentioning the power was supposed to “neutralize” Van, not her, but didn’t see the point in bursting her bubble. He had a sneaking suspicion Grace had a nasty temper.

“What can we do?” Van asked her. “Is there a way we can get them to think this is still happening when it isn’t?”

Grace gave her a brilliant, toothy smile that made Toby feel a chill slither down his spine. He had no idea why, but Grace looking that self-satisfied put him on edge. “Of course there is. Dear Diana isn’t as clever as she thinks, and Ambrosius is too blinded by his own lascivious urges to be much of a threat. Speaking of which, who is that whelp Kevin related to? I have no memory of a coven going by Archer.”

“Whelp?” Toby repeated.

Van threw him a “don’t freak out” look, and then stepped between him and Grace, so he was out of her direct line of sight. “We don’t know. Kevin never had much contact with one side of his family, so he probably doesn’t know either.”

“Which side - mother or father?”

“Father.”

“Ah.”

Grace had said that like it was significant, so much so that Van couldn’t let it go. “Do you think that means something?”

Grace paused before she replied. “Being a warlock is … difficult. We women are more in tune with the powers of Tresum, and are generally more cooperative; power flows better among our lines. Warlocks have a tendency to compete with each other and destroy each other. Which is just like a man, isn’t it?”

Toby ignored the androgyny and concentrated on what she’d said. Could Kevin’s father have actually been a warlock? The idea was so absurd it was laughable, and yet it was no more absurd than anything else. Maybe he didn’t commit suicide at all; maybe that was just a story that was told to cover up an even uglier truth.

“It would also help explain Ambrosius’s hopeless obsession with such a -”

“No more insults, please,” Toby interrupted, sure he was about to hear one. What did she have against Kevin? Had they ever even met?

Van got things back on topic. “Is there anything we can do to save Toby and get Kevin back?”

There was the longest of pauses, and since Grace had stood up, Toby could now see her expression. She gave him a wide, almost predatory smile, and he felt his blood turn to liquid nitrogen. “Oh, I’m sure there’s a way to help your little friends. And make Diana and Ambrosius pay.”

He had a feeling the latter was the most important thing to her.


****

Marco was surprised that Toby actually bothered to turn up for work after so long an absence, but he looked so rough that he didn’t bother to chide him about his suddenly slackening work ethic. In fact, Marco picked up the smallest hint of magic on him, and wondered if he was being targeted by a witch. Ambrosius? Most likely. He’d taken his boyfriend, hadn’t he? He’d have to gloat, as well as make sure he kept Toby out of the picture as far as Kevin was concerned - Ambrosius had become more sadistic with age. You’d think after all that had happened to him he’d be more compassionate, but oh no. It proved he and Grace had been a perfect couple, sexual issues aside - they were both utterly arrogant and convinced of their innate superiority over other people.

It was a shame Toby got caught up in this. He liked the guy. He was a good employee, good with customers, and cute as hell. If there was any way he could help him without exposing the nature of who he actually was, he would, but the problem was - and he had learned this from very hard experience - that once you told someone about who and what you really were, you exposed them to danger. The vindictive witches had absolutely no problem in killing off your friends and family if they couldn’t get to you. That was why he was a perfect candidate for the cabal: he had nothing. His family had been wiped out in some kind of insane witch war, and his brother was even turned into a vampire, although he honestly expected no one to believe that. He hardly did himself, and he’d not only ventured into the lair of some vampires, but he had killed them. If he didn’t quite believe it, what chance did a civilian who never knowingly encountered one have? He had a feeling Kai would have believed him, if only because Kai had apparently encountered every single kind of perversion that existed on this earth. He wouldn’t distinguish between people who liked to pretend they were vampires and the actual things.

He almost jumped when the cell phone in his pocket vibrated.

It was his special one, the one with the number known only to the cabal. Were they responding to his request? He ducked behind the nearest vacant cabana before pulling the phone out and answering it.

But it wasn’t a vacant cabana. Grace stood inside, almost laughing at the poor little witch hunter. This pretty boy was the witchfinder general? Undercover as a bar owner - that was actually kind of clever, as she’d never have guessed to look for him here. But after what Kai had said about him, she grew suspicious. He seemed far too smart for his position, and the curious things he said - warning Kai to stay away from Ambrosius, for example - just gave him away. At the very least, he was a man who knew far more than he should have about what was really going on.

What would she do without Kai, her eyes and ears in the Cove? Not that he knew that - he was simply a gossipy little pervert whose only allegiance was to money. He was her mole and was too egotistical and self-impressed to even realize it. They, of course, were the best kind.

Her first impulse was to kill Marco, but she was glad she hadn’t, as she could use him far more efficiently. She listened to his side of the conversation, wondering if he’d ever realize that he was talking to her, not whoever he thought he was talking to.

“Her?” he replied in disbelief. “Why? Okay, I’ll get to it as soon as possible.”

She knew the little witch hunter was troubled by his orders, but he would follow them, as he was trained to do just that. And depending on how well he did, he might just live for another day.


****

Kevin wasn’t sure if it was a curse on the house or a curse on him, but he couldn’t leave.

He’d tried, but every time he got within arm’s reach of a door or a window leading outside, a pain augured through his brain like someone was trying to lobotomize him with a power drill. Painful really wasn’t the word; crippling was. It’d drop him to his knees, and he’d tried to force himself forward in spite of it, but the pain would only intensify tenfold. Once he even passed out, and woke up on the couch with Ambrosius standing over him, shaking his head. He reminded him that the avatar “owned” the aspirant, and he wasn’t going anywhere until he allowed it.

But Van was Grace’s aspirant, right? She seemed to live her life just fine. This was just Bro being a possessive, sick bastard, although what did he expect from him really? He didn’t even have a phone (just a cell phone that only seemed to work for him) or an internet connection, so he wasn’t communicating with the outside world at all. Kevin knew they were in a fairly remote spot, but he couldn’t imagine that the hotel was more than a few miles away. Talk about being so close yet so far.

But Ambrosius did leave. He also occasionally slept. And when he was outside his direct observation, Kevin had been working.

Bro had some books, not all of which he could read, but some that he could had spells in them, things like that. He’d been working on them, starting small, gaining confidence and, oddly enough, gaining more of an ability to read the damn books. Around Ambrosius he still pretended to be a really inept beginner, but he felt himself growing more powerful inside. It was weird - and a little scary - but he was starting to feel the magic around him. It was like a palpable force, an object he couldn’t quite see but could feel, almost wrapped around him like an invisible cloak. In a way it scared him, because the magic filled him, ran through his veins like blood, and he not only felt good, powerful, but he felt like he was home. It was opening up something up in him, a locked place he hadn’t realized existed, and it was frightening. There were dark things in him that felt overwhelming, and he had no idea where they were coming from, or if he could even totally control it.

He kept fucking up on purpose around Ambrosius, lowering his expectations of him, because this would only work if he took him completely by surprise. No matter how powerful he felt, Ambrosius was much stronger than him. For now.

Kevin usually slept when Ambroius was gone, because he had to sleep sometime, and Ambrosius was unlikely to invade his dreams. But he wasn’t sure about that anymore. Because the dreams he’d been having were disturbing, but in different ways.

There were two different kinds, ones that were fragments of disturbing visions that didn’t always make a lot of sense, and then there were ones about Toby. Such as tonight’s. He watched like a disembodied spirit as Toby entered his bedroom, clearly upset about something. If the fact that he slammed the door and stomped inside didn’t give it away, the fact that he turned and punched the wall did. He pulled his punch so he didn’t break his hand, but he still put an impressive amount of power into it. He then leaned his forehead against the wall and made a small noise of pained despair. It made Kevin’s heart hurt to hear it - he so badly wanted to go to him and hold him, tell him that it was going to be all right even if it was a total bald faced lie. But of course he couldn’t, he was just an observer.

Toby was struggling not to cry when someone knocked on his door. He didn’t answer, but Adam opened the door and came in anyways, already talking. “ - it can’t be true. This had got to be some fucking joke.”

“It doesn’t matter if it is or it isn’t, this man has ruined everything he’s touched,” Toby said, anger shining through the tears streaming down his face. Kevin knew somehow that he was talking about Ambrosius. “He just has to stick in the knife, he just has to -” Toby turned away, his voice dissolving into a tortured sob.

Adam did what Kevin wished he could, he put his arms around him, crushing himself against Toby’s back, telling him, “Don’t. It isn’t worth it.” What had Ambrosius done now? That fucking bastard - did he ever stop?

Toby seemed to resist a little at first, but then he relaxed against Adam’s embrace and put his hands over his arms, struggling not to cry. The pain on his face was raw and horrible, making Kevin furious. What had Ambrosius done?! He fucking had him as his aspirant now - why the hell didn’t he leave Toby alone?! He had to stop him, no matter what he had to do.

Toby struggled to get his emotions under control for a while, Adam just holding him, sometimes saying comforting things, his eyes closed and his forehead resting against the back of Toby’s head. Although he sympathized with Toby, Adam was also enjoying this contact with him, this closeness he’d been longing for. Kevin felt that old jealous twinge, but he let it go.

He shouldn’t have.

Adam softly kissed Toby’s neck, telling him it was going to be okay, and Toby turned. Kevin thought he was going to push him away gently, discourage him as kindly as possible, but Toby just looked at him for a moment, his eyes glittering like diamonds in the rain. Kevin actually gasped when Toby kissed Adam full on. Of course Adam responded in kind, and Kevin watched in horror as they kissed passionately, Adam pulling at Toby’s shirt and actually ripping it at the seams as he pulled it over Toby’s head, the two hardly stopping the kissing during it. Adam had no shirt to lose (of course - he hardly ever did), just loose linen pants.

They fell on the bed, Toby pinning Adam down with his body, which he clearly loved, their hands frantic on each other‘s bodies. As soon as Adam slid his hands inside Toby’s pants, cupping his ass, Kevin turned away in disgust, actually forcing himself awake, unable to believe that Toby would do this to him. But he didn’t put it past Adam at all. After being such a fucking jerk for so long, he finally decided he had to have Toby, and he wouldn’t stop at anything. It’d be just like him to take advantage of this situation and do this.

Except this scenario was just a little too perfect, wasn’t it? If he stopped and thought about it, putting his emotions aside, he could see that this seemed like something Ambrosius would cook up. He couldn’t seduce him as Toby, so now he’d turn around and make it look like Toby was cheating on him. It had Ambrosius’s fingerprints all over it.

Kevin pretended to be asleep when Ambrosius came home. If he checked, he would have found he was “sleeping” fully dressed, but from the noises in the front of the house, Bro was arguing with someone over the cell phone. Kevin snuck out, listening carefully, but Ambrosius seemed unaware he was anywhere near. “I don’t care what you have to do,” he was shouting. “Find it!” Kevin had no idea who he was talking to or about what, but he didn’t much care either.

He waited until Ambrosius slammed shut the phone and retrieved a glass of something, possibly scotch considering the amber color of the liquid. He gulped it down in one swallow, his shoulders tense. Something going wrong for Bro? Aww, what a shame.

And here was one more.

He’d been muttering the spell under his breath, feeling the power gather in his hands, and now they almost glowed with energy, a fiery red orange that ironically felt cool to him. Ambrosius must have sensed the shift in magical energy, because he turned around, startled, but Kevin didn’t give him a chance to react. “Be gone!” he shouted, aiming all that gathered energy at Ambrosius.

The energy hit like a bullet to the chest, and in the blink of an eye both the energy and Ambrosius were simply gone, the suddenly abandoned highball glass dropping out of the air and shattering on the floor. In a strange way it was almost anti-climactic. It wasn’t like he wanted to see him explode all over the room, his guts dripping from the ceiling, but … okay, yeah, he would have loved to have seen that. If there was a spell that guaranteed that, he so totally would have used it.

“Fuck,” Kevin whispered in the silence. Part of him hadn’t expected it to work, and now he was shaking from the exertion, the fear, and the thrill. That was almost as good as sex.

But was he totally gone? Was all his baggage gone with him? Kevin walked towards the door, braced for the pain that would drop him to his knees, his heart in his throat. But as he opened the door and walked outside for the first time in weeks, he started laughing. He did it - holy shit, he beat Ambrosius. He let out a victory cry at the evening sky, and took in a deep breath of fresh, clean air. God, air had never tasted so good.

Now, to finally go home.


****

The lights went out at midnight, but Marco continued to wait, as no one went to bed right away, or fell asleep the second their head hit the pillow.

He hated breaking into a house like a common thief, but it was rarely wise to confront a powerful witch openly, especially if you had some doubts about their power levels. Although he was sure in a straight fight he could probably win, you guaranteed victory by using the element of surprise. Most witches didn’t expect an attack on them 24/7, and everyone let their guard down when they were sleeping. It may have felt sneaky and cowardly, but it didn’t pay to get cocky, and these kind of sneak attacks guaranteed longevity.

Marco still didn’t understand why the cabal wanted him to neutralize Diana, but he had no reason to really question it. She was a wild card, a rogue element they didn’t need. And after all, his was not to ask why.

His was simply to do or die.


****

Grace had made him do a couple of weird things, but this was probably the weirdest.

Toby finished burying the shard of glass with his blood on it underneath a tree on the south side of the hotel. According to Grace it was a protective ward against losing your soul - it “bound him to the earth“. Supposedly, somehow. He felt as much like an idiot as he had when they did that ritual at her house. Van took part in it, said it was okay, but Toby didn’t trust Grace. He knew he should; he knew if Van trusted her, that should have been good enough for him. So why wasn’t it?

Maybe because he had felt magic, felt how powerful it could be in your hands, how intoxicating. He always knew it was dangerous, but now he honestly understood he had never grasped the true magnitude of the danger. He still thought he was an idiot to get involved in this. Did he really think he had a shot at getting Kevin back? Against Ambrosius? What a laugh.

He was walking around to the front when he saw a shadow and froze. “Who’s there?” he asked, hands balling into fists. After being set up by Ambrosius and used by Grace, he had no faith that his luck would suddenly turn good.

“Toby?” Kevin asked, cutting across the back garden.

Toby just stood there for a moment, frozen in shock, half convinced this was a hallucination. But a knife blade of light from the kitchen window was thrown across his face, and he could see clearly that it was him. If this was a hallucination, it was an extremely vivid one. “Kevin?” he gasped, finally making himself move.

They met half way, embracing like drowning men making one last grab for life. “Oh god, I thought I’d never see you again,” Kevin told him, fighting back tears. Toby himself felt a sob coming on, but did his best to hold it back. Yes, this was Kevin in the flesh. This was too real for any hallucination or nightmare.

They kissed hungrily, desperately, negating the need for words. This was what Ambrosius could never genuinely recreate, the feel of Toby’s body, the smell of him, the taste of him, his touch, the warmth and texture of his skin, the softness of his hair, the scrape of stubble against his cheek. He would know Toby if he was blind. Holding back tears was starting to be painful, and Kevin wasn’t sure why he even wanted to cry. Maybe because he was afraid he’d never see Toby again before he tried to undo his own existence. He wanted to say goodbye, tell him that he would be the only thing he’d really miss, but he also knew this was dangerous, because being here with Toby made him want to stay.

Kevin slipped his hand under Toby’s shirt just to touch his skin again, to feel the taut muscles in his back, and when they broke away from the kiss Toby leaned his head on his shoulder and sighed in a way that suggested he was trying very hard to rein in his own emotions. “How did you get away?”

“I surprised Ambrosius. I used a spell on him that sent him away.”

Toby raised his head and looked at him warily. A couple of tear tracks glinted wetly on his face, and Kevin had the urge to kiss them away, feel the salt of his tears sting his lips. “Away where?”

Okay, that little detail was a pisser. “I don’t know. I just aimed for as far as I possibly could. I’m hoping Taiwan, but I’m still new at this.”

“You don’t know?”

Kevin was forced to grimace in embarrassment. “To specifically target a location, you need a lot more power and control than I have. But I know he went far, Toby. I felt it. I mean, I felt the power leave me … it’s kind of hard to explain. It was a rush.”

Toby frowned in concern. “How much magic have you been using?” He then shook his head impatiently at his own question. “Come on, we need to get you inside. Maybe Van will know where we can hide out.”

Although Toby had grabbed his arm and started to steer him towards the hotel, he stopped and pulled on Toby’s arm to stop him. “Hide out? Why do we need to do that? I can kick his fucking ass.”

Suddenly there was the sound of slow clapping that sounded somehow sarcastic, and they both looked sharply at the trees, where the sound was coming from.

Standing there, partially hidden by midnight shadows cast by the cold crescent moon, was Ambrosius.

No - no! He couldn’t be here! Instinctively, Kevin stepped in front of Toby to protect him, and raised his hand, calling up the power he still had left. “No fucking way. You can’t be here!”

“Ask Van. You can send me anywhere - I can send myself right back. You passed your first test, Kevin. You should be proud.”

“Test?” he repeated in disbelief. “That wasn’t a test. I beat you!”

“You needed to learn how to target spells before we could continue. You succeeded beyond my wildest expectations. So my suspicion was right - you have been playing dumb. Did you really think you could deceive me? I know you better than Toby ever could.” He held up his hand towards him and made a fist. “Come with me, Kevin.”

Pain sliced through his brain, exploding behind his eyelids and making him see white. He didn’t realize he had dropped to his knees until dew from the grass began to soak into his jeans, and he was only dimly aware he was screaming as he tried to fight back the urge to crawl to Ambrosius’s side like a whipped dog. No, he didn’t want to go; he didn’t care if his brains exploded out his fucking ears, he wasn’t going.

The pain eased as Toby rushed Ambrosius, but before Kevin could utter a word of warning, Ambrosius simply held out his other hand palm out, and Toby froze as if he’d run into an invisible wall several feet in front of the warlock. Toby seemed to collapse in slow motion to his knees, trying to move arms that seemed held fast by invisible assailants, and it sounded like he was struggling to breathe.

“Don’t hurt him!” Kevin shouted, anger making the pain subside just a bit more. “I swear to god I’ll fucking murder you if you don’t let him go!”

Ambrosius just smirked, like the mere idea of it was funny. But only for a moment. Then his smirk collapsed and he looked off to the side, unpleasantly surprised. “What are you -”

He didn’t finish the question. His voice seemed to seize up his throat, and he went still in an unnatural manner as the pain in Kevin’s head suddenly disappeared along with the urge to return to him. He collapsed to his hands and knees, sucking in a couple of well needed breaths before scrambling over to Toby. He was coughing, but seemed otherwise okay. Kevin gathered him in his arms and murmured, “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.” And he was. It convinced him he really needed to do what he set his mind to do, otherwise Toby’s life would remain this hideous, painful mess, all because of him.

Finally he saw who had interrupted Ambrosius. It was Grace.

Although he felt a cold twinge in his gut at just seeing her - Ambrosius claimed she had killed him, although he had no memory of it - her focus was totally on Ambrosius, her lips curved into a wicked little smile. “Ambrosius, you’re so predictable. I knew you’d have to show Kevin just what you did to his little boyfriend. Too bad it didn’t work.”

What? What was she talking about? He’d have asked, but he knew he’d have been ignored.

“What … have … you … done?” Ambrosius asked, spitting out every word like he barely knew how to speak. Whatever Grace was doing to him, she had effectively shut him down. Could she teach him that?

Grace grinned savagely, showing her teeth like a wolf. “Destroyed everything you‘ve tried to do, my dear. Don’t expect Diana to save you this time - it seems she’s run afoul of a witch hunter.”

Ambrosius’s eyes widened in horror. “A … witch … hunter? … Here?”

“Right under your nose. He’s a clever one, I’ll give him that, but if you weren’t so fixated on your little puppy, you would have noticed you were being watched. But as usual, you were distracted by your … urges. I mean really darling, do you think this is a good way to treat your aspirant? You’re asking to be betrayed. I’m just sorry Kevin won’t be around to do it.”

“What?” Toby asked, glaring at her. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

She looked at him, that razor blade smile affixed to her face, and her eyes started to glow a faint yellow. “That’s not Kevin, Toby. It’s Ambrosius trying to fool you. He wants to kill you, Toby. First you, then Kevin.”

“What?” Kevin exclaimed. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

He felt Toby stiffen in his arms, and he looked to see that something had happened to Toby’s eyes. There was just the tiniest bit of silver, like a mirror, hidden within the darkness of his irises. He knew somehow that Toby had been “possessed” by Grace - she was throwing a major spell on him. “Stop it!” he demanded, jumping to his feet and facing Grace. “Let him go!”

Kevin took a step towards her, but stopped, as something seemed to be holding him back. Once again he tried to conjure up his powers, only to find them cut off. Grace had shut him down as easily as she had shut down Ambrosius. She smiled at him, and said, “No. Toby, you know what you have to do. What you’ve wanted to do for a very long time.”

Toby stood stiffly, his expression blank, his eyes glinting like glass. “Toby,” Kevin shouted, hoping to break through the trance, spell, whatever this was that she had on him. “Don’t listen to her! It’s me!”

But Toby didn’t seem to hear him; he didn’t react at all. The spell he was under was so powerful he was trapped in the world she had made for him. Anger burned inside him, almost making him feel powerful enough to move. “You bitch! What have you done to him?!”

She chuckled, finding his rage hilarious. “Just what Ambrosius would have done, only in reverse.”

“Kevin …” Ambrosius croaked. “… leave.”

If Ambrosius was actually telling him to escape, things must have been really terrible.

“Oh darling, he would if he could, but I’m afraid your puppy isn’t going anywhere.” She then fixed her gaze back on Toby. “Kill him. Kill Kevin.”

“No!” Ambrosius screamed.

Kevin was only able to move enough to face Toby as he advanced on him, a cold, murderous look in his silvered eyes. “Toby, don’t do this. It’s me! She’s doing this to you - fight her!”

But Toby didn’t react at all, he just continued coming towards him, and Grace laughed.

****

To Be Continued ….

(Not really - this thing is already too damn long! It’s just not Dante’s Cove if we can’t end on a cliffhanger.)


(But if you want to know what I had planned for the rest of the “season”, read below.)

What happens next: Van interrupts the party, as she is wont to do, and doesn’t quite understand what’s happening, but freezes Toby and throws up a defensive spell against Grace. This disrupts her hold on Kevin, who is furious that she tried to use Toby to hurt him, and turns a surprising force of magic on Grace, which actually stuns her. Van is afraid he might actually be hurting Grace, so briefly Van and Kevin find themselves facing off. But they both forgot about Ambrosius, who blindsides Van with a spell and grabs Kevin before he can react, teleporting them out of there. Van demands an explanation from Grace, who blames everything on Ambrosius, and Toby - thanks to Grace - has no recollection of what actually happened, and is more than happy to blame Ambrosius. But Van is suspicious.

Ambrosius is still not loved by Kevin - who, to his horror, is starting to feel drawn to him as his abilities increase - but Ambrosius finds it easy to convince him that they have a common enemy in Grace after what he’s done to Toby. But Ambrosius is soon distracted when he discovers that Diana is missing and the evidence points to the probability that she was killed by the witch hunter, making him redouble his efforts to find him. He’s also sure Grace is responsible for the death of her sister, but can’t prove it. Marco realizes he was set up, although he’s not sure if it was by Grace or Ambrosius, but he starts shadowing Kai after hours to see if he’s the one who sold him out. Van remains suspicious of Grace and what happened to Toby, and begins secretly working with Toby on some magic spells. Ambrosius, anxious to keep an eye on the competition, strikes up another relationship with the wary Adam, hoping to eventually use him against Toby, but Adam grows increasingly uncomfortable with what he wants him to and admits everything to Toby. Kevin’s ability with magic increases exponentionally, more than Ambrosius was expecting, and unknown to him Kevin starts meeting Toby in dreams. He tells Toby what Grace really did, and how Toby may still be under her control. Toby tells him about Ambrosius’s attempts to manipulate Adam, which Kevin was unaware of. Marco discovers that Kai is working for Grace, but decides to use him to set Grace up. Wanting to help Toby, Adam decides to approach Ambrosius on his own and see if he can find out where he’s stashed Kevin, but Ambrosius catches on, and decides to hold Adam hostage. His intention is to tell Toby to leave, get off the island and stay off, or Adam dies. Van and Toby decide on a plan of attack in an effort to save him, but know there’s very little chance it will work. Kevin learns of the plan and decides to help, but Ambrosius tells him that to move to the next level of his magical ability, to be strong enough to break Grace’s hold on Toby, he needs to sacrifice someone to Tresum - and he’s brought him Adam. Ambrosius has also used the mysterious necklace, but he’s used it against Van instead of Grace by bringing Cory back from the dead. At first she thinks Cory’s just an apparition of her guilty conscience, but then he attacks her on the stairs. She rips the necklace off and “kills” him, but not before falling down the stairs and being knocked unconscious. She’s taken to the hospital, and Toby decides to go after Adam himself. While leaving, he encounters Kai, who says that Marco wanted to give him something the next time he saw him, and gives Toby a small box that Kai says is a belated birthday present. Toby knows his birthday hasn’t passed, but accepts it and waits for Kai to leave before opening it. In the box is an odd kind of crystal, and a small slip of paper with the legend “Keep this with you always” on it and a mysterious phone number written on the back. Toby knows the stone’s mystical, but not how, nor why Marco would have it or give it to him. But he puts it in his pocket as he heads off to rescue Adam. In the meantime, Marco confronts Grace, who is not at all threatened by him and laughs him off, but when he uses an amulet against her she attacks him. Before he’s killed, Diana shows up again, pissed off and ready to kick her sister’s butt.

And there’s where the cliffhanger really ends.