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“Ugh, why is there so much preparation for this?” Kaia grumbled, searching through Claire’s weapon stash for a silver blade. Iron was easy, steel was even easier. Silver? Kaia had expected that one to be maybe not quite so easy, but not having to dig through every blade to find a silver one. Sure, silver was expensive and somewhat impractical, but it was also damn useful against a ton of supernatural critters so why wouldn’t Claire have as many as she could afford or steal?
She’d thought she’d found one – it was engraved with a werewolf on the handle and looked silver – but Patience wasn’t sure about it and made Kaia test it. There was silver, but not enough for its use in the ritual. Even though Kaia agreed with Patience that it was good to know that now instead of finding out during a time-sensitive part of the ritual, she couldn’t help grumbling as she went back to digging.
Alex wasn’t having it much easier. Claire at least had most of the herbs they needed, but it had taken Alex over an hour of digging through her unlabeled, unorganized stash and throwing away half of the bundles because they were no longer useful or identifiable even with the help of her plant app or a community of witches. “I swear, when we get Claire back, I am kicking her ass for this mess. She knows better. Look at this!” She tossed a bundle of leaves on the table. “I don’t know what this is. My app doesn’t know what this is. I even sent Rowena a picture, and Rowena has no idea what the fuck this is! When Rowena can’t help, you’re screwed, why the hell does Claire even have it?”
“Because Claire likes the action and needs a babysitter at home,” Kaia muttered. She flipped over a shelf, noticing a blade she hadn’t seen before sheathed in a pouch on the bottom. Right next to it was a small jar of silver polish. She held it up. “What do you want to bet Claire’s never even opened this?”
“I’ll take that bet.” Patience smirked over the table she was organizing. “She bought it because the knife was so tarnished it didn’t work, so she polished it immediately, promised herself she’d do it weekly, maybe did it again the next week, and hasn’t even thought of it since.”
“Um… if you guys hate Claire so much, how come you’re working so hard to get her back?” All three women turned to stare at the person currently inhabiting Claire’s body. That’s what this ritual was for, to send this person back to their life and get Claire back in her own body. Kaia didn’t think the question was worth answering. It should be obvious, shouldn’t it?
Alex agreed, and the two shared an eyeroll. Patience, on the other hand, put down the book and went over to give the person a sympathetic pat on the shoulder. “Claire and Alex are sisters, for one thing. Do you have siblings?” The person shook Claire’s head, getting a small smile from Patience. “This is normal for sisters, I promise. It weirded me out at first too, but now that Alex and Kaia and I have been together for a while… I get it. Claire’s adopted us as sisters, too, and that brought the good and the bad. But more importantly, if it were just Claire we might let her figure it out her own damn self, but you’re stuck here. We’re doing this to get you back to your life… hopefully, before Claire can screw it up too badly.”
“What if I don’t want to go back?” The defiance looked so much like Claire that Kaia almost believed that Claire had already solved the problem herself. Almost. If that were true, Claire would be complaining and calling them all useless. Still, that was a good question. Kaia grabbed the blade and the silver polish and came to sit beside the person, and Alex dropped her herbs and came over as well.
“We want our sister back in her proper body,” Alex said gently. “Why don’t you want to go back?”
“Because whatever she does with my body, I’ll be the one to pay the price for when my dad finds out!” That was definitely not Claire, as they burst into tears. “It’s bad enough when it’s something I actually did, but when he hits me for no reason or for something someone else did, I can’t take it. He’d hit me if he saw me crying, but I can’t help it.”
The three girls exchanged glances. “You said no siblings, but is there anyone else there? Or is it just you and your dad?”
“Revolving door of people who move in for three months or so and then leave when they realize what my dad’s like when he turns off the charm, but no one permanent. No one who bothers to get attached to me enough to try to protect me.” They wiped Claire’s eyes and forced a smile. “We’re currently between guests, as Dad likes to say.”
“Your dad doesn’t… you know…”
“No, he doesn’t. That much integrity he has. Lucky me, right?” The kid smirked, and again, it almost looked like Claire. “So yeah, I don’t wanna go home. Home sucks.”
“Where is home? As specific as possible?” Patience asked. “Because if Claire doesn’t kill your dad, we’ll come kidnap you. Get you out of there and somewhere safe.”
“And if Claire does kill your dad, we’ll come get you and take you somewhere safe,” Kaia added, shooting Patience a look. “Seriously, we know people who’ll get whatever paperwork it takes to get your father out of your life, through legal means if possible and shadow means if necessary.”
“My name is Kaison Richards, and I live in Paris, Missouri.” They gave them the address.
Alex immediately got her phone to call Jody for help, while Patience went back to get the ritual put together. That left Kaia there to be the one to see Claire’s face go blank, and then resharpen. “Claire?”
“Yeah?” Claire looked around. “Look, whatever you’re doing, drop it, I just killed a man in Missouri.”
“Not a surprise. Paris?” Claire nodded. “We’ve got Jody on it, will forensics back up self-defense?”
“They should, he hit me first and that body couldn’t have been more than sixteen. Only reason I won the fight is because I’m a hunter and know the tricks for fighting someone who’s got a foot and a hundred pounds on me and I don’t think he was expecting me to hit back. I didn’t mean to kill him, Kaia. I didn’t. I probably ruined that kid’s life, because can Jody get this covered up? He was a cop, too.”
“Shit. Kaison didn’t mention that,” Patience said. “It’s okay, Claire. We’ve got this. What did you do to switch back? Because all we came up with was this complicated ritual…”
“Not made any easier by your lack of organization!” Kaia interjected.
“That involved a ton of preparation,” Patience continued as though Kaia hadn’t interrupted. She waved a hand over the table. “We might have had you back two hours ago if we didn’t need highly specific things that we couldn’t find.”
“Alex was just about to go herb shopping,” Kaia interrupted again. “Seriously, Claire, how the fuck are you out of mint of all things?”
“Spearmint or peppermint? Because I know there’s peppermint in there.” Claire got up and went to her herb collection, shaking her head as she saw it. “And Alex moved everything, didn’t she. It’ll take me weeks to figure out where stuff is now.”
Alex tossed a jar to Kaia, who caught it and immediately cracked up. “Claire, when we’re talking herbs, I really don’t think crushing up Christmas candies counts as peppermint. You need the actual leaves.”
Claire crossed her arms and smirked. “Not what Rowena told me when we needed some for a field spell and didn’t have time to go shopping or run for one of our pantries.”
“That was an emergency, you…” Alex cut herself off. “Sorry, Jody, I was talking to Claire. You were saying?”
“You know, it’s probably just as well.” Everyone turned to stare at Kaia. “What? She switched right after we got Kaison to trust us enough to give us a name and address. Two hours ago, we wouldn’t have been able to go get them unless Claire came through on actually getting the information for us. Which if she was busy covering up a murder…”
“She’s got a point,” Claire had to agree. “I knew Missouri and I even remembered Paris because I didn’t even know there was a Paris in Missouri, I thought it was in Texas, but I’ve got no idea what the address is. It’s a small town, though, easy enough to ask around and find out where the dead guy is, but easier if we don’t have to call attention to ourselves.”
Alex hung up the phone. “Great news! Donna is going to discover her long-lost brother who was tragically killed in self-defense slash kid snapping after one too many abuse incidents, given custody since there’s no other parent in the picture, and ordered to get Kaison into therapy. Patience, Jody wants you to go with Donna to get them, since you’re the one that got them to open up a little. Kaia, you and I will stay here with Claire and get everything cleaned up – and I do mean everything, Claire. We’re getting you properly organized.”