Radley's Labyrinth for Horny Monsters by Annabelle Hawthorne (highly recommended books .txt) 📕

“No.” Mike shook his head. “That can’t be something we do. It would make me no better than the people outside, and then where—”

A crack of thunder, louder than an approaching train, shook the house, causing everybody to cover their ears. The earth shook, and dust scattered off the roof, settling around them like tiny clouds.

“What the fuck was that?” Mike called, his ears ringing.

Naia stared incredulously at the sky, her mouth open.

Cecilia burst through the rear wall of the house, energy crackling around her body. “The geas! It’s cracked!”

“How can you tell?” Mike asked.

Cecilia shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. What matters now is that we need to get that crazy woman out of our front yard. The geas is a powerful spell, but it can be dismantled, given enough time.”

“Well, I can’t go get Tink with Beth like this,” Mike said. “And I don’t want to use her body without her permission. It’s super fucked up that she’s even involved in the first place.”

“Are you going to go stab that woman out front with the dagger then?” Naia asked him. “Because if you don’t, eventually she will break the spell keeping her out of the house, and they will come in and raid this place.”

Mike thought about it. Even if he could get close, could he kill another human? It was the same doubt he had about the Minotaur, about violence in general. Maybe to save his own life or to protect someone. Then again, it was the kind of question that could only be answered in the heat of such a moment.

“I’ve got it!” Mike said. “Lily could knock her out cold for a few hours with her stinger, buy us some time.”

“That won’t work,” Lily replied, her eyes on the surface of the fountain. “The woman with the snake is Kali, the Vodou Queen.”

“Don’t you mean voodoo?”

“I said what I meant. Kali is super old school, pins in dolls, talking to snakes, dancing naked in the moonlight, that kind of thing. She’s made so many deals with so many spirits that even if I could get close enough to sting her, it likely wouldn’t affect her.” Lily crossed her arms. “She got pissed once because she thought that someone had broken into one of her warehouses to take a bunch of rare spell ingredients. Ended up tracking the wannabe witch doctor to their shop in New Orleans.”

“What did she do?” Mike asked.

“Hurricane Katrina.” Lily arched an eyebrow. “Witch doctor’s home wasn’t far from where the levee broke.”

“She broke the levee?” Mike asked in awe.

“After she summoned the hurricane. Figured it wasn’t enough to drown the thief and killed off anyone who had gone to see her. Made her stand perfectly still in her own house as the water rose, then kept her alive the entire time the fish were feeding on her. I think it got the point across.”

“Holy shit,” Zel whispered, then covered her mouth. “I’m sorry, that slipped out!”

“Don’t worry about it.” Mike stared at Beth’s sleeping form, then looked at the doll. “Does anybody here have any idea how to activate the house defenses? Naia, you can see all Emily’s memories. Can you tell me how to do it?”

They all looked at each other. Zel kept her eyes on Beth, her slim fingers brushing the hair away from her face.

“It’s something only the Caretaker can do,” Naia told him, her eyes now shut. “I see…none of it makes any sense. There are gaps because someone else taught her how to do it and those memories are still locked by the geas.” Her eyes popped open, and she shook her head. “I’m sorry, Mike. All I know is that Tink knows for sure. She was supposed to teach you, but the tumultuous nature of your first few days here likely caused her to overlook the defenses. The house has never seen a siege of this scale before.”

“Cecilia? You’re always out front. What did you see?”

“I could only see the souls and magic of those involved. The Caretaker links the magic of the home to the defenses and then activates them from the middle of the yard. By what process, I do not know.” She hung her head in shame.

“Shit, so we don’t know. Any other ideas for stalling the wicked witch out there?” Mike looked at each of them, hoping for an answer. The silence between them opened a void in his stomach, and his gaze eventually circled back to Beth lying on the cold stone of the fountain. His fingers tightened on the hilt of the dagger in his belt, and he could feel the weight of his own decision crushing him. Tink and the others were likely in danger, and even if he could stall Kali, they likely weren’t coming back without his help.

Trying to kill the woman on the front lawn was beyond him. Simply waiting for her to crack the geas and come into the house, potentially hurting his family, was also not an option. He was being forced to choose, and the damnation of such a decision was something he would have to come to terms with later. He looked to the women who stood around him, all waiting on his decision. His eyes found the cold, porcelain gaze of the doll standing next to him.

It was a hard decision. He would have to beg for forgiveness later.

“Do it, Jenny.” He looked at the others. Naia looked resigned to the idea, and he couldn’t tell what Cecilia was thinking. Lily, however, turned her back on him.

The air filled with static, and the doll climbed onto Beth’s chest, her cloth hands on Beth’s lips. A white mist emerged from Beth’s lips, and with a sudden blast of light, Beth sat up, clutching the doll.

“Beth?” Mike asked.

Her eyes opened, revealing that they were now completely black.

“Beth is sleepy,” Jenny whispered, holding one finger to her lips. “When she is ready to come outside and play,