by Elle Casey
I sensed The Green coming as it approached from a distance that seemed way too great. When it finally arrived, it hit me like a long lost child greeting a parent and happy to be home. It was the first time I ever imagined this element being almost human-like.
“Okee dokee, Earth and Water, let’s put this spell to bed.” I swirled my arms around my head and raised my voice, hoping this would be all I needed to finish the job. “Out you go, back into the world, leave the potty place dry and same with the girl!” One last flourish from my hands and that was all it took. The water flew back to the toilets from whence it came, and the humidity in the room was sucked down to nothing as Water claimed all its parts as instructed. I felt the skin of my legs going dry, and only then realized my mistake.
Chapter Three
MY SHOES MADE SQUISHY, FARTY noises as I left the now dry public restroom, every footstep leaving a wet print behind. I had asked Water to leave the girl dry, but had failed to mention the need to take the water from her clothing. Dammit. Foiled again. I comforted myself with the idea of how I would soon be torturing Sam.
“Are you okay?” Scrum asked, looking at me funny.
I looked down at my watch. The friggin thing was working again. I shook my head in frustration. “I will be in just a minute or two.”
“Are you sure you’re okay? Because I got this weird feeling for like a second and then it went away.” He paused as I walked by him. “Why are your shoes wet? Did you put them in the sink? They don’t look that dirty to me.”
I stopped short, causing him to almost crash into me. He danced off to the side to avoid taking me down. “Scrum, what on earth makes you think I’d walk into a public restroom and fully submerge my shoes and socks into a sink full of water?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe you really like clean shoes. But you’re right, the sink would have been hard being so high up. Did you use the toilet?”
I couldn’t just walk away. Sometimes I felt like I had to make an investment in him growing some common sense somewhere in that brain of his. Not that it ever worked, but I still felt like I should try.
“So, if I liked clean shoes, wouldn’t I wait until we arrived at our destination before cleaning them? Or wait until I had a second pair handy to put on, so my feet wouldn’t get wet?”
He blinked several times in quick succession. “I don’t know.”
I shook my head and continued on my way. “Hopeless.”
“I washed my shoes with my feet in them once,” he said, jogging to catch up to me and walk by my side.
“Oh yeah? Sounds like a poorly executed plan to me.”
“I was young. At the time it made sense. My shoes were muddy, and I knew my grandma would get really mad at me, and there was this lake near my house, so I just went in.”
“So, I’m like a young Scrum to you, is that it? That’s the brain power I’m functioning with these days?” And I thought my day couldn’t get any worse.
“No, it’s just that…”
I paused my journey back to the car, but he expected it this time, stopping right along with me. “It’s just that what?” I narrowed my eyes at him.
He glanced nervously over at the car. “Everyone’s waiting for us.”
“Let ‘em wait. You were saying…?”
He shrugged and looked at the ground. “It’s just that, you know … you sometimes do stuff that doesn’t make sense to me.”
I crossed my arms over my chest, getting cranky and maybe a little bit defensive. Scrum was a great guy, don’t get me wrong, but no one would ever accuse him of being the brightest star in the sky. So why was he able to make me feel like an idiot so easily? “Oh, yeah? Like what?”
“Well, like when you tell Samantha to drop spells on you, when you know she could really mess you up. And when you, you know, sleep with Spike even when he’s ready to eat you alive. And stuff like that. You take risks that seem like … not good ideas to me.”
I slapped him on the shoulder, glad to know that was all that was bothering him. “That’s your daemon brain talking, Scrum. You know I work with Samantha to get better at fighting off the bad guys. And Spike is my boyfriend. What do you expect me to do? Kick him out of my room every time his eyes go goofy red? He’d spend six out of seven days out in the forest if I did that.”
“You guys have sex six times a week?” Scrum asked, his eyes bugging out of his head.
I put my hand on my dagger and pulled it halfway out, the weird, charmed steel of the blade making a sound like some kind of otherworldly snake coming out to sink some fangs into someone. “Are you friggin kidding me? You’re speculating on my sex life now, Scrum? Since when did that become part of your job description?”
“No! No, no, no! That wasn’t what I was doing!” He had his hands up and he was backing away with something in his eye that looked a lot like fear. But I didn’t care. How dare he? My business was my business, protector or not.
“Sounded like it to me.” I walked closer and leaned in, fixing him with a stare. “Dude, you might be my daemon, but that does not give you the right to comment on my love life, you got it?”
“Yeah, I got it. I got it.” He was almost whispering and very possibly peeing his pants.
People walking up to the rest stop store were staring, so I backed up and let the knife slide back into its tiny, shrink-rayed scabbard. “Good. Then we understand each other.”
As I walked away, Scrum’s voice hit me in the back of the head. “You never used to get mad at me like that, Jayne. I’m sorry I said anything.”
That tone of his was like a blade in my heart. Scrum had come a long way since finding his fae family, but not so far that I didn’t remember where he used to be — neglected and abused by his grandmother, living out in the middle of nowheresville, dropped on his head probably one too many times. Washing his shoes in a lake, for shit’s sake. All he wanted was for someone to love him, and there I’d gone and shoved him away again. When was I going to learn?
I stopped and waited for him to catch up. “I’m sorry, Scrum. I’m an asshole sometimes.”
“It’s okay. You were right. I don’t have any business questioning your authority.”
I sighed heavily. “It’s not my authority to tell you what to do as a daemon or how to do it, okay? I get what you’re saying. I take risks I probably shouldn’t. But that’s who I am, and I’m probably not going to change, so you either have to learn to deal with that or find a new fae to protect.”
“But I don’t want to protect anyone else.”
I shrugged. “Then I guess you’re stuck with me being a pain in your ass.”
“You’re not a pain in the a-word, Jayne. You’re just challenging. But Jared says we always need to be challenged or we grow complacent, so I should thank you.”
I chuckled. “Feel free.” Of course I said that not expecting him to take me up on the offer, but this was Scrum after all; I should have known better.
He smiled. “Okay. Thank you, Jayne, for constantly putting your life at risk and making me work so hard to keep my job and not die.”
I had to bite my lip to keep from responding to that. The kid’s heart was in the right place, and I couldn’t fault him for that. Jesus, I hope he finds a girlfriend soon. He needs a distraction.
“What’s up?” Tim asked, flying up to meet us. “Why do you look like you just bit into a lemon?”
“I’ll tell you later. First, I have to talk to Sam.” The witch was standing off to the side of the van, trying to pretend she wasn’t staring at Jared as he was examining an unfolded map spread out on the windshield.
“Are you sure you want to do that right now?” Tim paused. “Why are your shoes making that sound?” He dropped down to fly next to my feet, and it was very tempting to punt him across the rest area, but I resisted the urge. Angry pixies shut up in enclosed areas were never a good idea, and that van was small.
“Your shoes are soaked through.”
“Tell me about it.”
“What happened?”
“Sam happened. And now I’m going to happen to Sam.” I lifted a hand, ready to give her a little zing.
“Wait!” Tim flew up into my face.
I had to stop suddenly or risk pixieman-parts to the nose. “What?!”
“Something’s wrong. Something’s … off.”
“It’s the smell of toilet water all over my feet. Now get out of the way.” I tried to lean to the side, but Tim was too fast for me, jigging left and keeping his junk right in front of my face. I had to close my eyes to keep them from crossing and giving me a headache.
“What’s going on?” Tony asked, walking over to join Tim in his harassment of me.
“Nothing yet,” I said, my rage simmering.
Tim left me to fly to Tony, gesticulating wildly to get his attention. “She’s possessed! Stop her!”
“What’s he saying?” Tony dodged a little to the side, trying to move around my roommate.
“Listen up, Gray boy! I’m talking right in your face, I know you can hear me! What are you, deaf?!” Tim ran to Tony’s ear and grabbed hold of it, swinging left and right as Tony tried to dislodge him. “She’s going after Sam! Stop her!”
I frowned at him, my hand still partway up in the air. “Stop being so dramatic. I’m just going to give her a little zap to show her how much I appreciate wet shoes and overflowing toilets.”
“What are you talking about?” Tony asked, finally dislodging Tim and sending him flying away with a swat of his hand.
Sam caught onto my mood and started walking over, and Felicia appeared at Tony’s side the second she realized she was being left out of the conversation. Foiled again. I narrowed my eyes at my cousin. I’ll get you later, Sam.
“What’s up?” Sam asked, looking from me to Tony.
I said nothing, just stared her down. She was doing a pretty damn good job of looking innocent, I had to give her that much. I leaned my weight onto my other foot, which had the unfortunate effect of letting out a squish of water and air. Everyone looked down at my shoes.
“What happened to you?” Sam asked.
I scoffed. “As if you didn’t know.”
She looked up at me with a dead serious expression on her face. “I don’t. Really. What happened?” When her hand moved to rest on the small wand I knew she kept in the folds of her shirt, I knew she wasn’t messing around. Sam did that when she sensed danger near, and she didn’t fear me in the least.
Jared’s head popped up and his map slipped off the windshield a little. “You guys all right?” He let the map fall the rest of the way down by his leg when he saw the expressions on our face.
“I think we should go,” Scrum said, putting his hand on my back and pushing me toward the van. “We can talk about it in the car.”
Sam nodded once and took up a position on the other side of me. That’s when I started to get a little freaked out. Looking back, I probably should have been freaked out long before that moment, but I have a tendency to miss the finer points of things sometimes.
“Everyone in the van,” Jared said, shoving the map in through the driver’s side window before opening the sliding door to the back seats.
Becky disappeared from off to my left and reappeared inside the van, her eyes as big as saucers.
“Becky!” I hissed. “No teleporting in public!”
“Oh, right! Sorry!” She slumped down in the seat until just the top of her head was visible. A quick look around didn’t reveal anyone standing there scratching their head at her, so I prayed that meant we hadn’t drawn any unwanted attention.
“Jayne in the middle,” Jared ordered. “Sam on her left, Scrum on her right.”
“Sucks to be you,” Tim said, flying past me to take a position on the dashboard. “Gnome head, three o’clock.”
Normally I’d be right there with him and the gnome head insults, but not right now. The sense of danger grew with every passing second of my stupid, broken watch, and having my gnome-headed daemon there to squeeze the life out of anyone getting too close sounded fine to me.
Chapter Four
JARED SHOVED THE MAP INTO Finn’s lap and quickly reversed out of the space we’d taken. He was back on the highway in record time, looking at all of the van’s mirrors several times, as if he thought someone might be following us. I had a hard time not swiveling my head around every which way too; I half expected to see big, black SUVs with tinted windows closing in on us.
“What happened?” Sam asked.
Spike leaned forward and put his hand on my shoulder. “We’re here with you, babe. You’re okay.”
I nodded to let him know I appreciated the support. He always seemed to know when I needed his touch to calm me down.
“Don’t say nothing happened, Jayne, because I sensed something,” Scrum said.
I sighed, hating that I was about to make myself the butt of Tim’s jokes for at least the next week. But I wasn’t stupid or brave enough to keep this potty story to myself. After all the training I’d been through, it had become very easy to spot when I was out of my comfort zone where the magic was concerned, especially when it was the spooky kind.
“I was in the bathroom and someone flushed a toilet and then water started coming out everywhere.”
“Who was it?” Finn asked.
“I have no idea. Maybe it was nobody. When I left my stall, I was the only one in there.”
“I didn’t see anyone go in or come out while she was inside,” Scrum added. “I was at the entrance the entire time.”
“Is that it?” Tony asked from behind me. “Are you telling us everything?”
Tim’s singsong voice came from the back of Jared’s headrest where he was sitting with his legs crossed. “Myyy guess would beee noooo….”
“Well, not exactly. It happened twice.”
“What happened twice?” Becky asked from a hunched down position in the backseat in between Tony and Spike.
“The flooding. It was weird. I was … using the toilet or whatever, and the water started rising, so I got up and tried to get out of the bathroom, but the stall door was locked and wouldn’t open. But then my hand got hot and I looked down and there was this giant eyeball in the dragon scale there, so I kinda freaked out. But then all of a sudden I was sitting on the toilet again, and there was no water.”
“Ohhhh boy,” Tim said, floating up and then sailing into the front seat to sit on the dashboard facing Jared. “Did you hear that, big J? Time slip.”
“What’s he saying?” Jared asked, glancing at me in the rearview mirror.
“He said something like time slip.” Apparently the giant eyeball thing was no big deal compared to me back-tracking a little. Coulda fooled me.
“What happened next?” Jared asked. His knuckles were going white on the steering wheel with his crazy grip. That was the clincher for me, when the fear really took hold. Seeing Jared freaking out made my butthairs stand on end.
“The flush happened again and the water flooded again.”
“And your hand?”
“It got hot again, but this time I put it on the door lock, and it melted it off so I could go out.”
“And you said there was no one there waiting for you, right?” Tony asked.
“Nope. I was all alone. And then I busted out some rhymes to send the water back.” I paused, stepping back into the memory. “It was weird, though…”
“Yeah, no kidding,” Becky said, snorting.
“Not the flooding, I mean … The Green. It was cut off.”
Samantha turned her head to face me. “What do you mean, cut off?”
I shrugged. “Just like I said. I couldn’t call it to me. I had to get Water to help me make the connection. It’s like it was really far away, and just as frustrated as I was that we couldn’t link up.”
Sam looked up at Jared in the mirror. “Have you ever heard of that happening?”
“Maybe.” His eyes had gone dark and he was leaning toward the stee
ring wheel a little. “I just want to put some distance between us and that place for now.”
“You think it’s tied to the location and not her?” Sam asked.
That sent a chill through me. “Tied to me? Like how?” Now I had fluffy butthairs and goosebumps. Attractive.
She took my hand in hers and rested it between us. “Spells can be tied to a place and triggered when someone enters, or tied to a person, triggering at a particular time or when a particular set of circumstances align. Or just at the time that the witch sets the spell.”
I squeezed her fingers, letting her know much I appreciated her support. “Great. So, I’m toast is what you’re saying.”
“You have us,” Scrum said. “You’re not toast. You’re more like … eggs.”
I closed my eyes and sighed a little, knowing I wasn’t going to like his explanation but also knowing I had to hear it. “Eggs?”
“Fragile, breakable, but, you know. Tasty. Healthy. Good for us.”
I shook my head. “Why did I ask?”
“An excellent question,” Tim said. “Now tell Jared I said this time slip thing is nothing to mess around with.”
“I think he knows already.” Jared looked like he was about to punch someone in the face, and it took a lot to get him worked up.
“Just tell him. And then tell me if you’ve had any other time slips recently that you failed to mention to your roommate who you’re supposed to tell everything to before you tell anyone else.”
“Jared, Tim wants you to know that this time slip thing is nothing to mess around with.”
He nodded. “I know. Believe me, I know.”
“Tim also asked if I’ve had any other time slips before this one, and I think I have.”