by Schulte, Liz
Panic seized me.
Chapter 8
“We’ll keep trying to make a connection, though I don’t think we can reopen the passage until the moon realigns. You see, it was theorized that the ley lines aligned with sunrise and sunset, but I disagreed. Hence, my experiments. I found I connected better in certain phases of the moon’s cycle. But maybe you could get word to someone you know during the other phases. Do you know other people like you? You might have better luck than I did.”
This was just perfect. I didn’t know anything about ley lines or moon cycles. Izzy was the only one who would be in the shop, but she wouldn’t be able to see me or hear me. Maybe I could catch one of the witches there. “We need to make a connection again now, especially if I need to talk to someone like me. I can’t swear he’ll be there later.”
She blinked. “We don’t have much time. It’s almost sunrise.”
“I don’t care.” If I couldn’t get to Phoenix before he left, then there wasn’t much hope for any of this.
Josephine pulled out a small black bag and fumbled through it until she produced a couple glass vials. She handed one to me. “Put this under your nose and behind your ears. It will help open your mind.”
I did as she said. It smelled like cedar and clove and other things I couldn’t identify. All in all, it seemed an awful lot like magic to me. Maybe she was a witch and didn’t know it. She rubbed the liquid in the other glass tube over her hands, then smoothed her fingers around the rim of the mirror, with her eyes closed and her breathing steady. Her lips moved, but no sound came out. When she completed the entire frame, she picked up a tuning fork and hit it three times. The mirror fogged and she positioned me in front of it. Slowly the cloudiness gave way to the path to my bakery. Phoenix and Holden stood on the other side.
“Hey,” I said, leaning in closer and waving my hand.
“They can’t hear you,” she said. “Try going through.”
I touched the mirror. It felt soft and warm, but also strange and not nearly as painful as before. I glanced over my shoulder and Josephine gave me an encouraging nod. What did I have to lose? I climbed onto the table beneath the mirror and went through feet first. I sprinted through the gray room and back to the mirror on my side and climbed through.
Everything was still gray, but I was in my shop, standing right in front of the two jinn. White noise rang in my ears, but I could hear their muffled voices.
“I’m telling you, she was pulled into the mirror. I saw it happen,” Phoenix said, looking right through me.
“I’m not disagreeing with you, but what do you expect me to do about it?” Holden said, not actually looking concerned.
“Shouldn’t we help her? Where did she go? Why isn’t she back yet? She said she had to warn someone that they would be killed. Who was she warning? Has she told you anything?” Phoenix was all but yelling at him.
“Hey, I’m right here.” I waved my hands in their faces. Not even a blink. What the hell?
“She did speak with me earlier tonight,” Holden said. “If I had to guess, she’s in 1923 and there isn’t anything either of us can do for her now. She has to find her own way out.” He turned directly toward me. “If she’s smart, she’ll find Baker. That’s who she was with in her vision. Maybe he can get her back home.”
Phoenix’s jaw clenched. “Well, that’s just fantastic.”
Holden stared at him with his patented stony expression. “Why are you even here? Don’t you have a job to do?”
Phoenix gave him a wary look and crossed his arms. “Maggie asked me to be here.”
Holden took a deep breath, a hint of a smile on his lips. “Are you…baking?” The word was filled with so much disgust I laughed. “Are you in love with my niece?”
Shifting his feet, Phoenix finally met Holden’s eyes. “Looks that way.”
My heart thudded in my chest. He loved me. He admitted it to Holden of all people. Why didn’t he tell me? What did that even mean? Did it change anything?
“And she’s feels the same way?”
“Fuck if I know.” Phoenix pushed his hands through his hair. “She talks a lot, but doesn’t make much sense. I think there’s something in her past holding her back. Something more than Baker.” He looked through me and into the mirror again. “There has to be something we can do.”
Holden shook his head. “Olivia will come by later to see if she can sense anything. You might want to bring the psychic in. He might be the best person to help with this.”
Phoenix nodded.
Holden looked directly at me again, or at least that was how it felt. I couldn’t tell if he knew I was there or not. “Tell her what you feel. Make sure she understands because someday in the not so distant future, Maggie’s going to realize she doesn’t need you and you’re going to wish like hell that you let her love you while she still thought you were worth her time.” Holden puffed into a cloud of smoke, vanishing from the room.
Blue flames danced in Phoenix’s eyes as he stared in my general direction. “You need to come back,” he said softly, reaching over my shoulder and touching the edge of the frame.
I reached out and touched his cheek, closing my eyes. At least they weren’t giving up.
“Maggie,” he said, hands feeling around the area where I stood. “You’re here, aren’t you?”
An instant later, a tug I couldn’t fight against yanked me back through the mirror and across the gray room, and spit me back into 1923.
“Did you get him?” Josephine asked eagerly, standing over me as I lay on the floor where the mirror had deposited me.
I shook my head, pushing myself back to my feet. My mind was still replaying the conversation I’d heard between Holden and Phoenix, and the room was spinning around me. My equilibrium was totally off, but after a few moments, I returned to normal.
Josephine gave me a sympathetic look. “We’ll try again.”
I wasn’t going to freak out. Okay, so I was stuck in 1923. I’d just make the most of it. How many people actually got to experience the past like this? It couldn’t be all bad. And Holden was absolutely right. All I had to do was find Baker. He’d know what to do.
“At least there is a silver lining,” Josephine said with forced optimism. Or maybe it was only forced to my ears.
“What’s that?”
“We can get to know each other better, and you can tell me all about the future.” She held up her hands, as if to stave off my objections in advance. “No details, and I will tell you all about my time. Also you can help me solve the mystery of who is going to double-cross me. Of course, we will have to find you some more appropriate attire—my, the future is…casual, isn’t it?” Her nose wrinkled at my clothing. “And of course we’ll do something with your hair. It’s like you’ve given up trying altogether. But don’t worry, I shall set you right again.”
I snuck a glance at my hair. It wasn’t that bad. Maybe it could use a brushing, but I certainly didn’t look like I had given up on life. I smoothed my hand over it a couple times. “We have to keep trying. My friends back home could help if we could get in touch with them.” In fact, maybe Olivia could help now. Surely angels weren’t bound to the laws of time and space, which meant I could tell her what happened. She could help, maybe even take me home.
“Of course, we will keep trying, but I am afraid there is nothing else we can do tonight. I recommend we both get a couple hours of sleep, and then we’ll discuss things further over breakfast. My sister always takes breakfast in her room at ten, so we will not be disturbed in the dining room. Perhaps we could meet at nine? Would that be sufficient?”
“Works for me.” It wasn’t like I was going to sleep anyway.
“Wonderful. Then may I show you to a room? Surely, you must be exhausted.”
“Thank you.” I followed her up the grand staircase.
“It’s the least I can do,” she said softly. “You came all this way just to help me, a complete stranger.”
She o
pened a door to the right of the staircase and led me inside. It was a lovely, somewhat ornate, bedroom with a massive window facing the backyard. “This is my room,” Josephine whispered. “My sister Jeanette is sleeping just in the other room, so we must be quiet as mice.” She went to her wardrobe and opened the doors. “Let me have a look at you.” She scanned my figure again, then pulled out a few dresses, brought them over to me and held them up under my chin. “No.” She tossed a blue sailor type dress onto the bed and I breathed a sigh of relief. No way would I have worn that. “No.” A tan print dress went the same way. “Absolutely not.” She grimaced and threw a yellow one onto the pile on her bed. “Either of these will do nicely and give us time to find you some clothing of your own.”
I looked at the two dresses she had put in my hand. One was a blue tweed suit with a long skirt and a jacket with a fur collar. The other was a beaded, drop waist, blue and silver dress that was absolutely stunning. “I can’t take these.”
“I insist. I have far too many clothes as it is. Now let me think. What else will you need?” She rummaged through her drawers, pulling out slips and garters and silk stockings, gloves and hats, until I held a pile of clothing in my arms and she seemed content that I had what I needed, even if I didn’t know how half of it worked.
I followed her up another flight of stairs into the guest room, which was just as prettily furnished. She helped me put away my clothes, then instructed me to sit at the dressing table. She began brushing my hair and pinning it into curls.
“What do you do in your time?” she asked as her hands carefully worked my hair into submission.
“I own a bakery,” I said.
Her reflection smiled down at me. “That is simply wonderful. Such independence.”
“What do you do?”
“I am a scientist, though I am quite fascinated with the spiritual arts—as you may have gathered. I have spent years trying to blend the two and advance both subjects. This, what we have done, is quite revolutionary. That’s how I know Floyd Clifford. He was a professor of mine. I love learning. I’m afraid I am a bit of a bluestocking, much to my sister’s dismay. She still wishes to marry, though I cannot imagine why. We have more money than we could possibly use, a beautiful house, and no oppressive relatives to interfere with our choices. She could take a lover if she chooses, but why surrender her independence?”
I nearly choked at her words. I hadn’t expected the conversation to take that sort of turn.
“Have I shocked you?” She sounded more contrite than she looked.
I laughed. “No…well, yes, but only because I didn’t think of this time as being like that. Not because of my beliefs. You go girl!”
She raised a thin eyebrow. “What does that mean?”
“Um, it means I support your decision to do whatever you want.”
She smiled widely. “I think I like you, Maggie Edwards.” She continued to question me about the future, but everything was innocent enough. We stayed away from big events and too specific details until all of my hair was pinned just the way she wanted it. “Now that should set by morning and you will be ready to present as a proper lady. I will stop by to help you dress. Also let me do the talking.” She let herself out of my room and I dressed for bed in my borrowed silk pajamas. I knelt beside the bed and prayed for Olivia to come rescue me. As the seconds ticked away into minutes that gave way to hours, panic started to take hold. I couldn’t stay here for a month. Holden and Olivia at least had guessed where I was and Phoenix was working from the other end to get me back. Maybe Boone would be able to sense me better than the others. Somehow, I had to reach them. I just had to.
Sitting cross-legged in the center of the bed, I gave up completely on panicking. It wasn’t going to get me anywhere; instead I focused on what I could control. Josephine and I would keep trying to reach into the past, but we needed help. Someone with more knowledge of the Abyss than I had and there was only one person to help with that.
Baker. Holden had been completely right. He was alive and in Chicago and I was willing to bet Baker had always been a good person—unlike Holden, who from what I understood of his past, was the last person I should ever hope to run into. Also, if anyone would believe a crazy story like this it was Baker. He’d love the newness of this problem, if it even was a new problem. Maybe loads of people from the future accidentally got stuck in the past and he’d have an easy solution, one that would result in my getting home before Izzy had a chance to file a missing person report.
So all I had to do was find Baker. Relief washed over me. He shouldn’t be that hard to track down. I knew the places he liked in the city and that he’d been hanging around the North Side Gang at this point. After he finally told me about the Abyss and what he was, he loved to share stories of the good ol’ days when he ran with O’Banion. So long as his 1923 self wasn’t that different from the way he was when I knew him, he’d help me in a heartbeat.
My stomach fluttered at the knowledge that I would get to see him again. But it also brought Phoenix back to mind. He loved me. The butterflies in my stomach fell dead, replaced with dread and fear. I had a month to figure out how I felt about him and whether or not I would have to break his heart.
Chapter 9
I got up, mostly satisfied with my plan, while consciously ignoring the Phoenix issue. I laid out everything I needed to wear and eyed it with wary respect. Women today got off so much easier than women back then. I was just putting on Josephine’s too small shoes when there was a soft knock at the door. Josephine was on the other side, looking just as refreshed as she had the night before.
“Good, you are awake. I like an early riser. You must be like me. I function perfectly well on three hours of sleep a night, but if I miss it I am a veritable bear.” She grinned as she came into the room, carrying two bags. “I decided that we should put on a little show for the housekeeper to explain your arrival. You will pretend to have arrived early this morning and then have breakfast with me. Now I think you will be our cousin on Mother’s side. We hardly know them at all. Jeanette will have no idea whether or not you are.” She motioned toward the small bench in front of the vanity. “Sit.”
I sat at the dressing table again and she worked on my hair and makeup until I hardly recognized myself in the mirror. She pinned the ends of my hair underneath, giving me a mock bob, and positioned soft curls around my face and neck. Matte foundation, dramatic eyes, and ruby red lips completed the look. Looking at my reflection, even I almost believed that I belonged here.
Next, Josephine showed me how to wear a hat, then helped me pack everything we brought up last night, plus my original clothing, into the suitcase. She inspected the bed to make sure it was just as it had been and fluffed the unused pillows once more before we left. She left me in the hallway for a brief moment while she put her makeup back into her own room, then I followed her downstairs as quietly as I could. She handed me a purse that matched my shoes.
“I have put some pocket money in here for shopping just in case Jeanette decides to come with us.” She really had thought of everything. “Now go outside and ring the bell.”
I stepped outside, waited a moment or two, then pushed the doorbell.
“I’ll get it,” I heard Josephine call out. She flung the door open. “Maggie.” She embraced me, kissing the air on either side of my cheeks. “You’re early. I didn’t expect you for at least another week. Do come in.” A feeble looking older man in a perfectly pressed suit stood behind her. “Mr. Wentworth, my dear cousin Maggie has come to stay with us. Isn’t that wonderful? Please take her bag up to the blue room.”
“Yes, Madame.” He took the suitcase from me before I could object and teetered up the stairs.
I watched him, worried he’d fall. “I could do that. It’s really no problem.”
She nodded. “But it’s his job and he would be offended if you did it for him. Come, let me tell Cook there will be another for breakfast.”
I caught sight of my r
eflection in the mirror and shook my head. How the hell was I going to make it in this world?
The morning went by fast, and it was lunchtime when I met Jeanette, who looked breathtakingly similar to Josephine. The only real difference I could see was that they wore their hair in difference styles. Josephine’s was slightly shorter and she wore it in a slick wave. Jeanette’s hair was straight and cut at chin level with thick bangs.
“Jeanette, Maggie arrived early,” Josephine said as her sister came into the room.
Jeanette eyed me, then looked back to Josephine. “Were we expecting…Maggie, did you say?”
“Yes, silly.” A lively smile that matched the gleam in her eyes took over Josephine’s face. “I know I told you all about her. She is the granddaughter of Aunt Prudence. Remember, she wrote us ages ago and I have been conversing with her.” She looked back to me. “I swear my sister has the worst memory.”
“It’s very nice to meet you,” I said to Jeanette. “Though I feel like I already know you both so well after all of Josephine’s letters.”
Jeanette shook my hand. “She never mentioned a word about you, but you are very welcome. How is Aunt Prudence?”
“She’s…” Josephine shook her head ever so slightly as she sipped her coffee. “Well, I guess she’s in a better place now. Her funeral was hard on the family, but she would have loved the flowers,” I said, holding my breath that I had gotten Josephine’s meaning right.
Jeanette nodded. “We regretted that we couldn’t attend.” She poured herself a cup of coffee. “What brings you to Chicago?”
“Is Maggie to expect the inquisition at every meal?” Josephine said with an edge to her voice. “I invited her. We spend so little time with our relations I thought it was important that we formed a relationship with at least one of them. I thought she might like to stay through the party.”
Deep frown lines etched across Jeanette’s mouth as she glanced back at me. Finally, she forced a hard smile and nodded. “What are your plans for the day? More experiments?”