by Gina LaManna
“I thought we were going to the Magic Teapot,” Primrose said, glancing around. “Why park so far away? We’ll have to haul everything with us.”
“Oh, we’re headed to the Magic Teapot,” I assured her. “But I want one more crack at Angela before we get the diary from Evelyn.”
“Are we sure that’s a smart idea?”
I glanced at Primrose. “I don’t know what ‘we’ think, but ‘I’ think it’s a great idea.”
“I thought Evelyn didn’t want her mom to know she was helping us.”
“Oh, I’m not spilling any beans about Evelyn. This is a completely separate visit. I have some information about the White family that I acquired without Evelyn’s help, and I am just dropping in to discuss it. They can turn us away, but why would they if they want to help solve their son’s murder?”
“No offense, Detective, but I think you’re stretching it. It sounded like Evelyn made it clear that her mom’s been weird since Mason’s death.”
“Which is the exact reason I need to press on a few more buttons,” I said. “Something’s not adding up.”
“You want a look at that door.”
“That, too.”
“What will Evelyn think?”
“That we’re doing our jobs? You don’t have to do anything, Primrose. In fact, it’s best if you stay here with Woofie. I doubt this will take long. I just want to put a bug in Mrs. White’s ear. The rest of it is just sitting back and waiting for her to react.”
“If you think I’m going to follow your commands and sit here like a dog after all this, then you are wrong!” Primrose flew to her feet. “I’m going with you. I was just expressing my opinion.”
“Primrose—”
“I’m sorry if you’re not happy with my decision, but someone is after you, and I want to be by your side until this case is over. Even if it means—”
“Primrose,” I interrupted, clearing my throat. “I didn’t give you an order to stay, I gave you the option.”
“Oh.”
“But speaking of commands to sit or stay, I don’t think Woofie has them down.” I nodded at Woofie’s carrier. Primrose had knocked the lock open when she’d stood, and the dog had sniffed his way out. “Do you mind putting him back in that thing for now?”
“Oh, right. Yes, of course.”
With a blush, she bent over, but as she moved, Woofie squirmed his little body with his big poufy hair out of her grasp. For a fluffball, he was a wiry thing and quite quick. His yips carried across the street, along with Primrose’s grunt as she swiped again and missed.
“Woofie,” she called. “Come back! Harry! You little rascal, I thought we were friends!”
Without a glance behind her, Primrose chased after the dog. I stayed behind just long enough to shove the carpet out of the way and into the bushes. Then I followed behind Primrose at a walk—until I saw where our brilliant little dog was headed.
I picked up the pace and fell into a jog when I caught sight of the White’s front door sitting somewhat ajar. There was nobody in the yard that I could see, nobody standing in the foyer, peeking a head out to see what the commotion was all about.
At a closer look, I caught sight of a scorch mark around the door’s front handle. Breaking into a full run, I joined Primrose’s side as she hurtled after Woofie, who was also headed straight toward the somewhat open front door.
“I guess he knows his home,” Primrose said. “Either that, or they’re cooking dinner. This dog might be little, but he sure can eat.”
We slowed as we reached the steps of the White house. Woofie wiggled his way straight through into the entryway, staring at us from the other side of the door with what I swore was a smug little smirk on his face.
“Primrose.” I hissed, nodding forward and holding a finger over my mouth. “I think they’re in trouble. We’ve got to check it out.”
“Are you just saying that so we can go inside without getting in trouble? You know, making up a fake cry for help so you can get inside the house without a warrant?”
I directed Primrose’s gaze to the knob. The exterior of my finger brushed against the charred remains, turning the entire doorknob to dust at the lightest touch. Bits of ashes blew down, swirled around our feet.
“There are Lock Lifter Residuals,” I said. “When that must not have worked, they went for some sort of fireball to incinerate the doorknob.”
Primrose’s face paled, then she nodded. She glanced down. “Woofie,” she whispered. “Please, come wait outside.”
The dog gave a full body shiver and made his way over to a rug full of shoes. He curled up there looking perfectly comfortable.
I took the lead, pulling out my Stunner as I pressed the door wide open. Because the signs of attack were so obvious, I thought it best not to call out in case the intruder was still inside. It would be easy enough to explain our presence if the Whites appeared intact and undisturbed. Nobody would mind if the whole thing was some giant misunderstanding.
A rustle sounded from the back hallway. I nodded toward it. Primrose had her Stunner pulled too, her hands shaking as she watched my back around the first corner.
“The secret door,” she muttered. “Is that what they’re after?”
I shook my head, raised my shoulders, and crept closer to the noise. We passed one bedroom adorned in light blues and yellows. I ducked inside while Primrose took the room across the hall. A quick glance around told me it belonged to Evelyn.
“Clear,” I muttered as I rejoined Primrose in the hallway.
She nodded to the room across from me and murmured, “Clear” at the same time. “Spare room.”
The White’s house looked like any other residential family home I’d been inside. Family portraits and photos of the couple’s children lined the walls. Christmas decorations spruced up the rest of the place with little lanterns lining the stairwell to the second floor and holly boughs twisting around the railings, sparkling with itsy bitsy white lights.
Primrose and I made quick work clearing the rest of the first floor. I nodded toward the lit stairwell as we reconvened at the bottom. A sharp creak sounded on the floorboards above us, sending both Primrose and I into a crouch on the landing.
I made my way up first, shielding Primrose behind me as I raced quickly up the stairs. There was no way I was letting my rookie get hurt on the job, especially when she hadn’t wanted to be on this particular mission in the first place.
I kept my Stunner sweeping the second-floor landing but saw nothing as I inched upward. The house was silent. There was a bend in the stairwell, and I rounded it quickly then paused, sweeping again before continuing my ascent to the top.
When I reached the landing, I saw it.
There, at the end of the short hallway, was the door. It was so obviously the locked room in question I let my attention lapse. A mistake that nearly killed me.
“Get down!” Primrose called in a hoarse shout. She leaped for my legs and pulled me to the floor just as a streak of orange Residuals shot over my head with laser-like precision.
It was a defensive spell in the Paralysis Potion family—one of the charms guarding the door that had been triggered by my presence. If Primrose hadn’t yanked me out of the way, it would have rendered me unconscious in an instant. I breathed in the scent of carpet as I dragged myself upward, pulled myself off to the side of the hall into a little nook that shielded us from any possible intruders. Primrose squeezed in next to me.
“Was that it?” she asked breathlessly. “What’d you see?”
I just shook my head. “I’m sorry, I just—”
“Come on, we’re partners. You’d have done the same for me,” she said. “Snap out of it, Detective. Is that the door?”
I nodded. “It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen before. No wonder the poor kid was confused. In all my years on the police force, I’ve never seen anything as heavily guarded as that door. Whatever’s behind it—”
“—is important,” Primrose sa
id. “And someone’s after it.”
“You could say that.” I inched around Primrose. “I need another look. I was so shocked by the layers and levels of Residuals I didn’t even see the Paralysis Potion.”
“Don’t be so hard on yourself,” Primrose said. “I didn’t see it either. I just reacted.”
I poked my head carefully around the corner and caught sight of the brilliant display at the end of the hallway. I imagined that if I had Mason’s nifty glasses to cut out the Residuals, it would look just like any other closet door in any other house. But without those glasses, it looked like a constant display of fireworks.
It was mesmerizing. Dangerous. I now understood why Mason claimed to be different. Why he could sit for hours in front of this door. Why he’d searched for a way to fit in normally with the rest of the magical population, and then finally, an unmagical world.
The doorway was a kaleidoscope of constantly changing colors and figures, patterns bursting with light. Small explosions with glittering Residuals told me the defenses were constantly in motion: charging, replenishing, strengthening. I imagined that it had taken a hundred years for all these enchantments and charms to weave so thickly over one another.
There was no hope of untangling these spells—not in the amount of time we had. And I imagined the same went for anyone else after the contents behind that door. Whatever was hidden there was more heavily guarded than most jail cells.
“Okay, it looks like the defenses were activated,” I said. “The Paralysis Potion wouldn’t have gone off without a trigger. I don’t think we activated it—I think we came after.”
“Whoever came after the contents of that room hasn’t gotten inside yet?”
“Not a chance,” I said. “But they might still be here. And if they are, they might have the Whites captive in one of these rooms. We’ve got to clear this level before we head out.”
“If the door shoots defensive spells at us, how are we supposed to get down the hallway?”
I hesitated, got an idea, albeit a farfetched one. A second later, I had Evelyn on the Comm.
“I can’t explain everything now, but I think your parents might be in danger. I’m at their house with Officer Primrose trying to help them,” I said. “I’ll go into details later, but for now, I need to know the answer to one question: If the defenses around the closet are activated, is there any way past them? Not through the door, just on the second level landing.”
“My parents are in trouble?” Evelyn’s voice rose an octave. She muttered aloud to herself, obviously in an attempt to calm down. “I-I’ll be right there. Um, yeah. My mom said if something ever happened, the knob on the banister at the top of the staircase turns. There’s a single potion inside of it that’ll shield a user from... I don’t know, whatever’s up there. Help them, will you? I can’t lose them too. I’m coming home now—I’ll be there in a few minutes.”
I reached up, turned the knob and, sure enough, the spherical bobble covering the post opened with a hiss to reveal one tiny vial of potion. I pulled it out, handed it to Primrose.
“What do you want me to do with it?” she asked. “You need to take it.”
“I can see the Residuals; you can’t. And I’m not letting anything happen to you on my watch.”
“But—”
“Take it, Primrose. That’s an order.”
She took the bottle of clear liquid, raised it to her lips. She took half of it, then handed it back to me. “That’s all I’m taking. You drink the rest. With any luck, it’ll save us both.”
Because I couldn’t force Primrose to dump the rest of the potion down her throat, and because she had a good theory, I agreed. A hint of the protection spell was better than nothing. Maybe we wouldn’t walk away unscathed, but it might help get both of us out alive.
Holding my hands out before me, I muttered the words to a spell under my breath that would give us a hint of a shield. It wouldn’t hold against incredibly powerful magic, but it might be enough to help us dip and dodge between the rooms to clear the floor.
“A guard against all pain and harm,
Give me a resilient Deflector Charm.”
A flash of light beamed between my hands then bloomed into a clear half-sphere that extended before me like a shield.
“Wait here,” I said. “I can see the Residuals. That’s an order, Primrose.”
“It’s better if we stick together.”
“Wait here.”
I stepped into the hallway, keeping to a crouch and moving slowly, my gaze not leaving the doorway laced with Residuals. When nothing happened, I inched further into the hallway, preparing to dive into the room across the hall at the first sign I’d triggered a spell.
As I watched, the glimmer of poison green Residuals—sickeningly familiar by now—began to line the edges of the door. Smoke poured from behind the wooden frame, easing into the hallway. My Deflector Charm was useless against a Strangler Spell.
“Dani!” shouted Primrose. “Move!”
I hadn’t realized I’d frozen in place. The smoke curled around my ankles. My legs tingled with the touch of toxic Residuals. At Primrose’s cry, I leaped across the hallway and rolled into the first room at the top of the stairs. As my concentration lapsed, so did my Deflector Charm.
“Clear!” Primrose called breathlessly a second later. “The smoke has receded. It must only attack when someone triggers the defenses in the hallway. You should be good as long as you move quickly and the potion from the banister doesn’t wear off.”
I’d come to the same conclusion. Teeth gritted, I cleared the first room, which looked by all accounts to be a study. A desk was pushed against one wall and an overflowing bookcase against another. The windows were cracked open to let the slightest hint of a salty breeze seep through. It was jarring, the fresh air in the tense house.
“Room’s clear,” I said. “I’m going to the next.”
“I’m already headed there,” Primrose said, pulling up a Deflector Charm between her hands and stepping cautiously into the hallway. “We’re in this together, Detective. I’m not letting you go alone—the potion can probably only handle so much before it wears thin. It’s my turn.”
I reached the doorway just in time to see a lavender burst of Residuals shoot straight for Primrose’s shield. The first round bounced off, successfully deflected from killing Primrose with its laser-like burst of energy, but not without consequence.
Primrose let out a piercing scream, her arms shaking as her Deflector evaporated. The sheer energy of the attacking spell had sent high levels of electricity through Primrose’s arms, electrocution style. I caught sight of the doorway just as the lavender Residuals recharged and the spell intensified to blast a second round.
I lunged for Primrose’s legs. There was no time to get my Defender Charm up and running again, so I moved fast—hoping I’d beat the attacking spell. Unfortunately, I was a beat too late. The spell finished charging as I made contact with Primrose’s lower half.
I bit my lip against a scream as a jolt of electricity hit my right foot and sent a shock of pain through my body. Primrose and I went down in a jumble, rolling to safety in the room across the hall from the study. I stood on a shaky leg, quickly clearing what appeared to be a guest bedroom. When I determined we were alone, I spun to face Primrose.
“That’s why you listen to my damn commands!” I limped toward her, the feeling in my right leg still jittery. “It’s not time to be a freaking hero, Primrose. Got it?”
“I wasn’t trying to be a hero,” she said, trembling in a ball on the floor. “I just... I’m sorry.”
I ran a hand over my forehead. “I’m sorry—I didn’t mean that. I know you weren’t trying to be a hero, but...” I trailed off, cursed as I shook my leg out. I couldn’t get the jittery feeling to subside. “Orders are orders, Primrose.”
“But if the potion wears off...” The officer pulled herself to a sitting position, her lip trembling. “If you take enough hits, it might
weaken the potion. I just wanted to help.”
“Can you get up?” I extended a hand to the rookie.
She accepted, her face flushed. “I’m sorry.”
“That was stupid,” I told her. “But thank you.”
Primrose looked up, surprised. “Really?”
“I don’t doubt you’ve got my back, Primrose. But we’ve got to work together from here on out or it’s going to get one of us killed.”
“Fair,” Primrose said. “There’s one room left. How are we going to get there?”
“We’ve got to be wearing the protective potion down,” I said. “Here’s what we’re going to do. Can you project a Deflector Charm?”
“I’ve never tried to project one, but I’ve used them on my person a million times. I’m sure I can do it. I’ve projected other spells.”
“Project it as far as you can across the hall. I’ll add my own. I’m going to dive into the room, clear it.”
“What if it’s not clear?”
“Then I’ll let you know that, too,” I said dryly. “You stay here. Not because I don’t trust you, but because I’m going to need your help to get out of here. If that room is clear and we have to get back downstairs, it’s going to take both of our strongest Deflectors to get out in one piece.”
Primrose nodded. “You ready?”
“Let’s move.”
We both got our Deflectors set. The spells hovered before us, shielding our hands with spheres of light. At my nod, Primrose moved toward the doorway and tossed one of the energy spheres across the open space where it adhered to the other wall. Then she raised her other hand so the shield stretched clear across the hallway.
I caught a glimpse of sparkling white Residuals building at the door. I didn’t recognize the spell, which meant it was probably more dangerous than anything we’d seen so far.
“This is gonna sting,” I said, then held my Deflector out before me. “Hold on tight.”
With a count of three under my breath, I dove across the hallway, praying our Deflectors held against whatever spell the defenses on the door threw at us on this round.