Page 63 of Hex You

“Xena, you and Em stay back there for a sec. We’ll check things out at the tree,” said Mercy.

While Xena and Emily remained on the fringes, standing just within the long, shriveled boughs that used to be so thick and verdant that she and Hunter pretended they were stage curtains, Mercy strode to the tree with Khenti beside her.

“Will this tree make you sick as well?” Khenti asked her softly.

“It has before, but I’m ready for it.” She rubbed her hands together nervously. “Still, I think I should try to give it a ley line boost, and then see if I can get it to communicate with me like the banyan did. It’d be good to know if the Nure-Onna is in there”—she pointed at the gaping maw of a hole—“or out here.”

Khenti nodded. “I shall remain beside you just in case you need your hair held.”

“Thanks. I hope I don’t puke, but still—thanks. Okay, here goes.” Mercy pressed her palms against the rough bark of the tree. “Hello there. You feeling any better today?”

The tree’s response was sluggish. Yeah, Mercy felt nauseous, but she’d expected that and she shoved the sick feeling away from herand into the ground. What worried her more was the numbness that began to creep into her palms and crawl up her arms.

Mercy closed her eyes and reached down, down, down into the fertile earth to find the pulsing green ley line that flowed with emerald power deep below. She tapped into the familiar energy and pulled it up into her body. It answered willingly, chasing the numbness away from her hands and arms. Then Mercy imagined she was nothing but a conduit, a human garden hose that was attached to a massive source she directed through her body and into the sick tree.

And just like that—in the space of a single heartbeat—the hose kinked. The power fizzled down to a drip, drip, drip of almost nothing. But Mercy knew that even almost nothing could help the tree, so she pressed her palms more firmly against it, and with everything in her she willed the power to pour into the tree. It was only after her arms started to shake and she could feel sweat dampening her hair that she staggered back.

Khenti was there, taking her arm and steadying her. “Do you need water?”

She wiped her sweaty forehead with the back of her hand and leaned against Khenti, grateful for his solid presence. “No. I’m pretty good. The power from the ley line will barely move from me to the tree, which means I get to keep most of it. So, even though I’m sweaty and it’s really hard to keep trying to force it into the tree, I’m fine. Now I’m gonna try to see if she’ll communicate with me.”

Mercy drew a deep breath and then pressed her hands against the skin of the tree again. “Hi, old friend. I’m sorry you’re sick and I hope I helped—if just a little.” She waited and felt the tree’s sickness deep in her belly, but the numbness in her hands and arms did not return. Taking that as an excellent sign, Mercy continued. “I know something disgusting has come through you. I even know what it is.” She paused and in her mind she envisioned the most detailed picture of a Nure-Onna that she and Khenti had found on the internet. “It’s thisthing called a Nure-Onna. It doesn’t belong here, so we’re going to get rid of it. Can you tell me if it’s come through that hole recently?”

She waited with her hands firmly against the bark, but all she could sense was a vague feeling of discomfort radiating from the dank hole. What overshadowed everything was the sickness that lodged deeply within the tree, pulling all of its energy and attention inward. Mercy sighed and patted the tree. “Thank you for trying.”

“Kitten, could it not tell you anything?” Xena called from behind them.

Mercy and Khenti rejoined Xena and Emily as she explained. “No. It’s like if I was super sick and then I stubbed my toe. I’d mostly just feel super sick with an annoyingly sore toe. That’s what the hole feels like to the tree. It’s too distracted by feeling awful and struggling to stay alive. It’s really not registering much of anything else.”

“Shall we pour a salt circle around the tree for protection?” Xena asked.

“No, we can’t because we don’t know whether the Nure-Onna is inside there or outside here,” said Mercy.

Emily shivered. “Which isn’t creepy at all!”

“Em, are yousureyou don’t want to wait at the—”

“Mag? Xena? Hello?”

Mercy parted the ropelike branches, grimacing as dead leaves drifted to the ground around her. “In here, H!”

Hunter joined them and went to Xena, touching the shoulder of Abigail’s bathrobe gently. “Hey, are you okay? Shouldn’t you be in bed? Or at the vet clinic or something?”

Xena’s laughter was musical. “Vet clinic? Oh, kitten! No, no, no. I have all the healing I need in here.” She touched the place over her heart. “And I am just fine. Ask Mercy and Khenti kitten.”

Hunter’s gaze went to her twin. Mercy shrugged. “What looked like horrible gashes last night are almost completely gone today.” Then Mercy blinked in surprise at Kylie, who walked through the branches beside Jax and joined them, gazing around with open curiosity.

Before Mercy could ask WTF, Hunter said, “She knows we’re real witches.”

Kylie fisted her hands on her hips and frowned. “Mostly because your sister zapped Jax and me with a spell.”

“Huh?” Mercy looked from Kylie to her sister.

Hunter picked at her thumbnail. “I undid it. Yesterday.”

“Too little too late,” said Kylie. “Anyway, Jax said if I knew more about the witchy part of you two I’d be more understanding about your sister turning me into a defective Stepford.”

Xena narrowed her yellow eyes at Kylie. “Well, kitten, I could be wrong, but by the tone of your voice and your posture I would say that you are not actually here to be understanding.”