by Jamie Davis
“I was honest with her. She’s a pleasant girl, and she deserved that much.”
“Good for you. Okay, I’m out, too. I need to rest. I feel like I’ve been casting spells all day, and my mind is mush.”
Quinn nodded. “Me, too. Get some rest. I’m going to lie down, too.”
Taylor left for her apartment, and Quinn shut off the living room light before heading to her bedroom. Sylvie followed her. The image of a toothbrush and toothpaste appeared in her mind, followed by a closeup picture of a pillow.
Quinn laughed. “Yes, I’m going to brush my teeth and get ready for bed. I think we could both use some sleep after that session with Ariel.”
Ariel’s face floated through her mind.
“Yes, I like her too. But Avery’s my number one. Understood?”
The dragon’s little head bobbed, and she flew to the bedroom. Quinn finished brushing her teeth. By the time she got to her room, Sylvie had already curled up on the second pillow and gone to sleep.
Quinn smiled. “Beat me to it. Good for you.”
She climbed into bed and settled in next to the sleeping dragon. She fell asleep almost before she’d closed her eyes.
Chapter Fifteen
Quinn shouted for Avery to duck. The other Huntress was locked in a fierce fight with a tall woman. The opponent’s short-cropped pink hair was a sharp contrast to Avery’s long strawberry-blonde hair, which was pulled back in its usual ponytail. Swords clashed again, and magical sparks flew from the two weapons.
Despite her shouts of encouragement and warning, Quinn’s cries went unheeded, and Avery took a vicious slash across her shoulder.
Fresh cries of alarm in the corner drew Quinn’s attention away from the fighting. Six girls huddled on the far side of the compact motel room. They crouched behind the second bed. There was nowhere for them to go. The pink-haired attacker blocked the door to freedom.
As Quinn watched the girls, they all turned her way, saying in one communal voice, “Huntress, you must help us. She cannot fight them all.”
Quinn looked back at Avery. The opponent had changed. This time she fought a woman with long dreadlocks and ebony skin. The newcomer wielded a broad-bladed weapon shaped like a spade with sword grip. There was no sign of the pink-haired woman, not even a body on the floor.
That was when Quinn noticed the line. There were other women behind the fresh attacker. Each lined up behind the others, waiting for their turn at Quinn’s girlfriend.
“Avery, I don’t know if you can hear me, but I’m coming. Hang on. I’ll be there soon.” She turned to the six girls. “Tell her I’m on my way. Hang on and keep fighting. It won’t be long.”
Without responding, the girls looked back at the fight. Avery had a new opponent, and the line was even longer now.
Quinn kept repeating, “I’m coming,” as the scene faded into mist. Screaming in anger and frustration, she clawed at the mist in a vain attempt to get back to Avery. Nothing she did worked, though. At last, exhausted, Quinn collapsed in tears on the hard ground.
She woke with a gasp.
Quinn lay on her back in bed. Sylvie sat on her chest, staring down at her. Sunlight streamed through the bedroom window around the edges of the blinds.
“Eeeep.”
“Was that you? Did you send me that message from Avery and the girls?”
The head bobbed once.
“Have you seen them before?”
Sylvie bobbed again.
“Do you know where they are? Can you take me to them?”
Another bob of the tiny head, slower this time, followed by a tentative, “Eeeep?”
“Okay, I get it. You’re not sure, but I’ll take that over not having any way to get to her. Come on, let’s get up and go tell Taylor. She needs to figure out how to get their location out of your head. We need to get me there in VR before it’s too late.”
Quinn raced through her morning routine and was down in the pub, heading back to Taylor’s workshop in a half hour. The tech witch wasn’t there, though.
Pulling out her phone, Quinn tapped a text.
Where r u?
Still in bed. Why?
Sylvie found Avery. We r down in the workshop. Meet us there.
Let’s get breakfast first. I need coffee.
I’ll get the table and coffee.
Be right down.
The mention of coffee reminded Quinn she’d skipped her morning cup. She’d been so energized by her excitement at having a way to locate Avery, she’d raced out with no coffee of her own.
“Eeeep?”
“Use your mind. You have to practice. I’ll talk aloud to get you used to going back and forth with other people.”
A pause, then Taylor’s face floated in Quinn’s mind.
“Good. Yes, Taylor’s on her way. We’re going to eat first. You’re probably hungry, too. How about a big plate of maple bacon sausage?”
A plate of steaming sausages appeared in her mind, followed by a small pitcher. The pitcher flashed with a light of its own several times.
It took Quinn a second to realize what the thing with the pitcher meant. Then she smiled. “Yes, you can have a little syrup on them. They already have maple syrup in them, you sugar fiend. Come on, Taylor will be on her way down.”
Taylor soon met them in O’Malley’s, and they ate breakfast with the regular morning pub crowd. Clark and Naomi showed up and joined them, along with Miranda. Tadpole wandered in last and pulled a stout barrel over to sit beside Quinn.
With everyone gathered around, Quinn repeated what she’d told Taylor about the dream and what she hoped to do.
Naomi looked at Miranda and Taylor. “Is that even possible?”
Miranda shrugged. “It would be risky, although it is theoretically possible.”
Taylor smiled. “I’m pretty sure I can do it. We’ve already used Quinn to localize a target site. I think we can modify the magic in the VR system for our little dragon. After working with Sylvie last night, I have a few ideas that could work. It’ll depend on how well I can interface the magic for the targeting system with Sylvie’s thoughts. I think if you hold her and she sends you an image of the location, I can use the VR headset rig to draw off the GPS coordinates.”
“How long, T? It’s urgent. Avery’s in trouble, I can feel it.”
“I’ll go as fast as I can. Come down later this afternoon. If Miranda and I get it figured out sooner, we’ll contact you. This is a big ask, though. It will probably take a while.”
“I know you’ll do the best you can. If you need us to come down and test anything, let me know.”
Taylor got up. “I will.”
Miranda floated over to her. “I have some ideas about guided visualization of magical energy that might translate into this adaptation of the spell.”
The two of them headed back to the workshop, deep in conversation about the magical theory involved in what Taylor wanted to do.
Tadpole said, “Will it be dangerous, Quinn? Maybe I should come with you.”
“I wish you could, buddy. You’d be a welcome addition to this fight. I think there will be a lot more fighting later, though. We’ll need you then. For now, you can help by making sure the armory is ready to go. We might all need to arm up, and maybe get others to take up the fight. I get the feeling this will come to a head faster than we expected.”
Clark asked, “You think Gemma’s got what she needs to put Filippa’s and Aurora’s plans into action?”
“I do. Why else would she spend so much energy chasing Avery and a few little girls? There’s something about them or what they know that’s important. If we can figure it out, it might give us the advantage.”
“You think they’ll even come here?” Naomi asked. “They have to know how strong the clan has become.”
“I think they were always coming here. This is where the Crystal Well is located. This was where they kicked off the purges. And this is where I am.”
“You?” Clark asked.
“I don’t think any of this is accidental. I think I’m here in Baltimore for a reason. I think that’s true for each of us. We’ll need all of us for the fight that’s coming. Bet on it.”
“I’ve learned not to bet against you, Quinn,” Clark said. “You’ve managed to get out of every situation I’ve ever seen you encounter. If you say there’s a fight coming, we’ll get ourselves ready for it.” Clark looked around O’Malley’s. “I need to find Paddy and have a chat about what protections he’s got around this place.”
Naomi said, “Is it a good idea to let him in on what we’re doing like that?”
“I won’t tell him everything, but leprechauns have tricks up their sleeves others don’t know about. How else would they have been able to protect their gold all these years? I think giving him a heads up that trouble is coming that could affect him might get him to tip his hand. I’ll tell him we could supplement his existing wards and cover any gaps or weaknesses in his perimeter.”
“Isn’t the pub neutral ground? I received sanctuary here.”
Naomi shook her head. “I don’t think they will honor it this time. They honored it before, thinking they had the advantage by having you fight Tadpole. This time, I think the old rules are off the table.”
Clark asked, “What will you do this afternoon while you wait for Taylor to get ready?”
“I’m going to work with Sylvie some more. I have to get her to communicate more than just images. She understands words, but she doesn’t think in them. If I can change that before we track Avery down, I might have a better idea of what’s waiting for us when we get there.”
Clark stood. “I’ll see if Taylor and Miranda need anything.”
“I’ll join you,” Naomi said.
After the others left, Quinn sat alone with Sylvie for a while, nibbling on the scraps on her plate. Sylvie was curled up on the table beside her. The little dragon’s belly bulged after finishing an entire plate full of sausage. She stared up at Quinn through glazed eyes.
A picture of flame engulfing a pile of sausage links until they charred to ash floated across Quinn’s mind. It kept repeating like a GIF. Sylvie let out a soft groan as the image replayed.
“Of course you have heartburn. Serves you right, stinker. You should have thought about how stuffed you’d feel after eating all that food. Are you going to be okay?”
The little head lifted and bobbed once before descending to rest on her tail again.
“Come on,” she said. “Let’s take you upstairs and work on the lessons from last night some. It’ll get your mind off your stomach.”
Quinn picked up the bloated dragon and carried her in her arms rather than on her shoulder as usual. The two of them headed up to her room to work on improving their communications.
By the time late afternoon rolled around, Quinn believed Sylvie would never get the hang of transmitting words. All the dragon could do was send images and brief video sequences. The only good news was that Quinn was better at understanding what Sylvie wanted. That was a plus, but it wasn’t the same as having a proper conversation.
Quinn glanced at her phone and sighed. It would have to do. They were out of time. It was after four, and Taylor still hadn’t reached out to them. She didn’t want to put too much pressure on her best friend, but the thought of Avery being in danger drove her.
Gathering Sylvie up, Quinn headed down to check on their progress. When she entered, Taylor was bent over the wooden worktable, wisps of smoke rising in curled tendrils past her head. Miranda hovered beside her, intent on the tech witch’s progress.
“What’s that you’re working on, T?”
Without looking up or turning around, Taylor said, “I’m soldering the last few connections. It’s the new VR interface for Sylvie.”
“Cool! You got it working?”
Miranda said, “We won’t know for sure until we try to use it. Now shush and let her work.”
Quinn stopped and waited until Taylor straightened and set the soldering iron down on its holder.
“That will not hurt Sylvie if it doesn’t work, will it?”
“Not any worse than it hurts you,” Taylor said. “I think that’s it, Miranda. I can’t think of anything else that doesn’t require spellwork and magic. Honestly, Quinn, I don’t know what it’ll do, but the worst case should be that it won’t work. I don’t know enough about the way a dragon thinks to know if the parameters are even right. I made way too many educated guesses based on what Miranda and I came up with.”
Miranda smiled. “It’s an amazing piece of hybrid magical technology. If it wasn’t such a secret that we can do this, I’d want her to publish it in one of the magic journals. It’s huge what she’s done to learn and adapt existing tech the way she has.”
“I’ve had a lot of help,” Taylor said. “If this ever gets published, I will give you top billing on the author list.”
“As long as it works,” Quinn said, “I don’t care what you do with the ideas. We need to help Avery before it’s too late.”
Taylor started clearing up the work table, unplugging her soldering iron and gathering bits of wire and insulation she’d snipped off to put the rig together. Quinn wandered over with Sylvie perched on her shoulder and looked at what Taylor had devised.
It looked like she’d taken one of the spare headset rigs and turned it upside-down to form a bowl. Then she’d attached another wiring harness around the perimeter to match the wires running across the top.
“So, how will this work?” Quinn asked.
Taylor picked up the inverted rig. “She likes to sleep curled up, which was what gave me this idea. We’ll let her curl up in here next to you, then we’ll use a modified version of the software’s magic interface to interpret her mind signals in a way that tells us which direction and how far away her visions of Avery are. That should give us good coordinates. I’ve also made this little collar with a GPS transceiver from a cellphone on it. We’ll have a lock on her location, just like we would with your comm unit. The rest is cake. We immerse you both in the system and send you down to help Avery.”
“Cake, huh?” Quinn said. “Why don’t I think it’ll be that easy?”
Miranda said, “From your end, it should be. Taylor will have to do all the heavy lifting magically. It should be seamless as far as you’re concerned.”
“Okay, when do we go?” Quinn asked.
“As soon as I get something to eat. I’m going to burn a lot of magical energy on this one, so I need to top off with food first. Then we can get going.”
Quinn nodded, and the four of them, plus Sylvie, headed back to O’Malley’s for food and some last-minute planning.
Chapter Sixteen
Quinn lay back on the table after settling the VR headgear in place. She turned her head to the side and saw Sylvie curled up inside the rig Taylor had made for her.
Holding up a thumb, Quinn said, “I’m ready when you are, T. Are you getting coordinates from Sylvie?”
“Something’s coming through. Sylvie, keep thinking about Avery and her charges. I have to fine-tune things.”
Taylor tapped a few keys, then began a chant coupled with elaborate motions of her hands as she cast a magical spell of some sort.
Thirty long seconds later, Taylor said, “Got it! You two ready?”
Quinn nodded and reached up to drop the goggles into place. Taylor began chanting again, weaving her spell into the complex VR computer code. Quinn took a breath as the magic took hold. An instant of disorientation set in, then Quinn felt herself tumbling backward into darkness. The last thing she remembered was seeing Sylvie tumbling beside her into the VR matrix.
Quinn woke up staring at the nighttime stars. She lay outside a small, run-down shack standing amidst a grove of tall pines. A blue minivan with Texas plates was parked a few yards away.
“Eeeep?” the dragon said as she spread her wings and launched into the night sky. Sylvie disappeared into the darkness of the surrounding forest.
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Quinn muttered, “Dammit, I need to see.” Instantly, the entire area brightened as her night vision ability kicked in. She stood, searching for signs of Avery and the girls.
A crash of cracking wood preceded the shack’s door splintering outward. A body flew through the opening, landing on the ground outside.
A woman with long dirty-blonde hair stood. Her face was bruised, her nose bleeding, and her eyes glowed red in the darkness when she turned to look Quinn’s way.
“Come back here, demon,” Avery shouted as she stumbled into view.
The other woman looked from Avery to Quinn and bolted into the trees.
“Damn!” Avery took two stumbling steps in pursuit and fell to the ground. Even from several feet away, her many wounds were clear.
“Avery!” Quinn yelled, running to the woman collapsed on the ground.
“Quinn? How did you get here?”
“Just a little VR magic wizardry from our tech witch.”
Avery started to rise. Quinn pushed her back down.
“You stay put. You’re bleeding from several places, and I can’t stop them all at once.”
“We have to follow her. The others took the girls just now. That one and another stayed behind to keep me from going after them. She’s the key to finding out where they took them. I killed one of them, but I needed the other alive.”
A quick glance around told Quinn the escaped demon-kinder wasn’t skulking nearby. “The woman’s gone. Maybe Sylvie can find her.”
She whistled. Sylvie swooped out of the trees and landed on Quinn’s shoulder.
Pointing into the woods, Quinn said, “Follow that woman who ran away. See where she goes. Hurry.”
The dragonling jumped into the air and flew into the forest, disappearing into the darkness. Quinn turned her attention back to her injured girlfriend.
“Avery, I need to do something. I’m going to draw in energy and try to heal the worst of your wounds.”
“There’s no time. Save them.”
“I’ll find them. Sylvie will track them down. She found you here. Now lie still so I can concentrate.”