Sister Seeker

by Shelby Hailstone Law

  When I turned to look at Andrew, I almost laughed. I’d never seen him so off his guard. But he somehow managed to pull himself together, at least enough to nod, clear his throat, and say, “Elaine, I promise you: every day I have left is a day for you. I give you my heart and my loyalty. That’s all I have, but it means everything I can’t say.”

  By this point, even though I still felt awkward and nervous and like I was more or less winging it, I couldn’t stop smiling. My friends were such dramatic, romantic dorks. And I loved them for it.

  “Well then,” I said and cleared my throat. “I guess all that’s left to do is my part. So. . . .” I turned to Andrew. “Do you, Andrew, take Elaine to be your lawfully wedded wife, to cherish and love her until death do you part?” I asked.

  This part I could do. I’d been to enough family weddings to remember this part.

  “I do,” Andrew said.

  “And do you, Elaine, take Andrew to be your lawfully wedded husband, to cherish and love him until death do you part?”

  “I do,” Elaine said.

  I took a step back to give them space. “Then, I now pronounce you husband and wife. Andrew, please kiss your bride.”

  They really didn’t need the prompting, for the record. They were already kissing before I’d even finished my sentence.

  Chapter 19: I’m Trying Very Hard to Cheer Ivan up

  After the impromptu wedding, we passed a few congratulatory hugs all around. Even Ivan wished the newlyweds luck with such sad warmth in his smile that I couldn’t stop myself from hugging him as tightly as I could while Elaine and Andrew shared another long kiss.

  I had so much I wanted to say to Ivan. I was so impressed with his goodness, with how wonderful he was to be so supportive even when I could see his heart breaking right there in front of me. But I couldn’t put words to any of it fast enough before Elaine tapped me on the shoulder, and I released Ivan to turn and face her.

  And the next thing I knew, Elaine had grabbed me and pulled me into an even stronger hug than the one I’d given her for congratulations. I knew, instinctively, that this was a goodbye hug, so I held on tightly. Neither of us said anything, but I don’t think we could have come up with anything to say anyway.

  Saying goodbye to family was always hard.

  Finally, Elaine released me and took a step back. “I know you’re going to be amazing, Michelle,” she said. “Even if you don’t know it yet.”

  I smiled and shook my head. “I’m just the placeholder for you.”

  “Maybe,” Elaine said. “But even if that’s the case, you’re going to blow them all away.”

  I smiled at that. “Have fun chasing down mercenaries for your honeymoon,” I teased.

  “That is fun,” Elaine teased right back.

  She was almost back to Andrew before an idea occurred to me, and I scrambled to reach into my pocket for the phone Theresa had given me before I pulled it out and called out, “Hey, Elaine, wait!” When she turned back to me, an expectant expression on her face, I tossed her the cell phone. “Don’t lose that. I’ll find out the number from Theresa, and I’ll get a new one for myself.”

  “You can always write to me, Michelle,” Elaine pointed out.

  “Yeah, but this gives me a way to find you if you’re in trouble without you having to get out a paper and tell me as much,” I said. “Please, check in as often as you can. If I don’t hear from you, I’ll go looking for you.” I smiled tightly. “You both need some backup, you know. You’re constantly getting into trouble.”

  “Like you can talk,” Elaine said with an affectionate smile.

  “It’s a family trait,” I shot right back. “Like the urge to protect the people I love. So take the cell phone, would you?”

  “Alright,” Elaine said.

  “And ask Izzy to show you how to use it before you go,” I said, knowing that Elaine didn’t know the first thing about how to work human technology. “It’s pretty useless as a check-in tool if you can’t do that much.”

  Elaine stuck her tongue out at me, but she did, in fact, pull Izzy aside. And I have to say: the look of pure entertainment on Izzy’s face when Elaine explained to Izzy what she wanted to do was absolutely everything I could have asked for.

  “It is good to see that you take such good care of her,” Ivan said softly behind me, and I spun around to see a sad sort of smile touch his eyes. “I have never seen anyone change Elaine’s mind before.”

  “Oh, no. This was all her.”

  Ivan shook his head at that. “You say that because you didn’t know her before she met you,” he explained, putting a hand on my shoulder. His smile turned warmer as he looked me in the eyes. “You have an incredible ability to be blind to the good you do.”

  I shrugged, though I couldn’t hide my blush of pleasure at the compliment all the same. “Not that I’m trying to dodge a compliment, but I don’t see how I was behind Elaine being reckless and rushing into danger for Andrew. That’s been going on since before I met them.”

  “That much is true,” Ivan agreed, glancing beyond me to where Andrew was already laughing as he watched Elaine argue with the phone about its inelegance. “But ever since I have known Elaine, she has always done what she thinks is expected of her. Not, perhaps, in the smaller decisions, like rescuing her bodyguard, but in the larger decisions. She tries to lead like her father does, and she. . . .” He faltered. “We had always assumed our marriage would be a political one.”

  “I’m sorry,” I said, reaching out to put my hand on his arm. “I know that can’t have been easy for you. I don’t think she was even thinking about the fact that you were there.”

  “That’s exactly why she needed to marry him,” Ivan said, looking past me once more. “Love should be passionate.”

  I nodded my agreement—since he was right—but still kept my hand on his arm. “Will you be okay?”

  “Of course,” Ivan said softly. When I raised my eyebrow at him, he cleared his throat. “I will be,” he clarified. “I always knew that she cared for Andrew, but I had hoped. . . .” He shook his head. “I cannot even be angry. She deserves happiness, and I truly am grateful that her friendship with you allowed her the strength to choose it.”

  “I still don’t see how I—”

  Ivan smiled and shook his head. “Michelle, you do not let convention dictate your actions. You lead by your heart’s example, and you encourage others to do the same—by your words and your actions. Elaine has been surrounded her whole life by those telling her how she must live for the throne, and then she meets a Halfsie who lives for what she believes. Do you really think you had no impact?”

  “I don’t know what to say to that,” I admitted, brushing my hair behind my ear. “When you put it like that, it sounds like I did a lot more than I actually did.”

  Ivan smiled at that and then straightened up suddenly, shaking his head and taking my hand in both of his. “Now then, this is a wedding, and we should not be sad,” he said. “This is a time to look to the future, so look to the future we shall.”

  I couldn’t help but laugh, especially because Ivan was so sincere. “And what do you see in the future?”

  Ivan smiled quietly. “I do not know,” he admitted. “But my heart tells me that I should continue to be of service in any way I can.”

  “Well, my heart is in my stomach trying to figure out how I’m going to get the Rendezvous to listen to me, let alone try to do what Elaine does,” I told him.

  Ivan snapped his fingers and then pointed at me with a smile. “There!” he said. “That is my service!”

  “What are you—”

  “You need someone who can advise you on how to behave like royalty, yes?” Ivan said. “You are so used to running around on missions and living with the other side of your heritage, you are worried about this position thrust upon you. So I will help you.”

  Again, I couldn’t stop my smile. Ivan sounded so sure of his decision that the smile came up all on its own. And b
esides, I was more than happy to give him something to do, some direction while he was recovering from heartbreak. “That would be nice,” I agreed.

  Ivan was already nodding to himself as he thought it over. “Of course, I would be completely useless to you as a bodyguard,” he said thoughtfully. “You are the more formidable fighter. I can only offer to be an advisor.”

  “That’s really all I need,” I told him. “I don’t know the first thing about battle planning or—I don’t even know what Elaine does when she’s not on daring missions with me.”

  “You will need to learn how to speak to the members of the ruling families,” Ivan warned. He paused, and his eyes twinkled. “And I leave it entirely up to you to explain to your uncle why you allowed his daughter to elope in the middle of a forest with only three witnesses—one of whom is enveloped in a tree!”

  “Bad first wedding officiation?” I asked with a wince.

  “You will get better,” he promised, sweeping my hand up to kiss it. He seemed to be back to himself with grandiose gestures like that, but I knew it had to hurt to lose Elaine, and I had a feeling he was putting on a show to keep from losing his composure. So, yeah, I definitely had an ulterior motive for letting him volunteer himself for my advisor position. So what? I liked having all of my friends happy.

  “Well, it looks like I’m leaving the Rendezvous in good hands if two of my best friends in the world are working together,” Elaine said, breaking into the conversation with her arm around Andrew’s waist. I don’t think either of them were going to stop smiling anytime soon; they both still looked dazed, like they couldn’t believe they’d done what they just did.

  To be honest, I don’t think any of us could believe they’d done what they just did. It all happened so fast.

  Still, I gave Elaine and Andrew both a warm smile and nodded. “Ivan will help translate me from Halfsie-speak to witch-speak,” I teased.

  “Somehow, I doubt that,” Andrew said with a smirk. “He’ll spend most of his time telling you the way things are usually done, and then you’ll ignore him entirely.” He looked toward Ivan, his expression warmer than usual—but then, I don’t think he had room for any emotions except pure joy at the moment—and grinned outright. “Fair warning, mate.”

  “I’ll take that into consideration,” Ivan said, though he’d lost much of the warmth in the tone he’d been using with me, and I could see him starting to slip into deflate now that he was facing Elaine’s husband.

  “I promise to take it easy on you,” I said, reaching out to touch Ivan’s arm, trying to keep him anchored and focused. He looked like he was vacillating wildly between pretending to be his usual charming self and falling straight into a pit of depression, and I wanted to keep his feet on the path that didn’t lead to a breakdown at a wedding.

  Elaine kissed Andrew’s cheek before she turned back to us. “Izzy showed me how to contact you. If you need anything, you can find us.”

  “Be careful,” I said.

  Elaine smiled widely at me. “Michelle, you act like I’m not a pinnacle of self-restraint,” she teased.

  I shook my head before I darted in for one more hug. “Seriously,” I told her. “Be safe.”

  “Love you too, Michelle,” Elaine said before she took a step back. She and Andrew both undid their belts and laid them out to fly, and Elaine waved over her shoulder. “Don’t have too much fun without me!” she called out before the newlyweds took off.

  I shook my head at their antics before I turned back to Ivan and let out a sigh. “Alright,” I said. “We need to get Wendy safely locked away somewhere, and then I guess you can explain to me how exactly I’m supposed to do things.” I looked up at Ivan with a wry smile. “I’ve really just been along for the ride this whole time.”

  “I’m sure you’ll learn quickly enough,” Ivan assured me, though his gaze was on the newlyweds in the sky instead of on me. I could see how tightly locked his jaw was and knew that he was doing everything he could to keep from showing how broken down he felt.

  I wished I could fix his heartbreak, but the only thing I could do was give him a job at my side, something to keep his mind occupied and away from thoughts of Elaine and her new husband.

  “We’ll see,” I said. I looked toward Wendy, who was still watching our interactions and looking too smug for my tastes, and strode forward, placing my hand on Wendy’s shoulder before I let a sedation spell move through her. “She’ll be easier to move that way.”

  Ivan nodded wordlessly, still obviously wrestling with his emotions, before he reached into the tree to pull Wendy out of it and simply draped her over his shoulders. Once she was more or less balanced, he reached into his pocket and handed me a worn piece of paper. “Will you please write to Sarah and ask her permission to come?”

  “I’ve never used one of these before,” I admitted, though I took the paper all the same.

  Ivan smiled and snapped his fingers, and a pen appeared out of the air, which he then handed to me. “Write her name and then tell her that you are writing for me. Tell her we would like to come to the Rendezvous the fast way.”

  “Alright.” I laid the paper out on my knee so I had a solid surface to write on and then quickly scribbled the note:

  Sarah, this is Michelle. I’m with Ivan, and we have a Family member with us that we’ve managed to take prisoner. We’d really like to not deal with her on a long flight. Can we do whatever paper magic portal thingy is in this spell and come to you?

  Ivan looked over my shoulder and let out a soft laugh when he saw my letter. “Paper magic portal thingy?”

  “Hey, I didn’t grow up in the magical community, remember? I have no idea what to call half of the stuff you guys do.”

  “It’s certainly descriptive—and I am sure she will know exactly what you mean when she reads it.”

  “It gets the job done,” I said with a shrug.

  Ivan smirked. “This is an older magic,” he explained. “The same kind of magic that Andrew’s father used to place their curse on him—though, obviously, this is not a curse. But it stems from a time when witches were more open with allowing their souls to be part of their spells in addition to their life forces.”

  “So this is soul magic?” I raised my eyebrows as I looked down at the paper in my hands. “I thought that was rare.”

  “No, it is not quite soul magic,” Ivan admitted. “But it does involve souls.” When I looked more confused than I was before, he shook his head and tried a different method of explanation. “You see, the paper recognizes the soul of its owner. So only I can use this—or someone acting in my stead with my explicit and freely-given permission. This way, messages can be sent without fear of impersonation.” He readjusted Wendy over his shoulders. “And an invitation sent on this kind of paper is the safest way to travel large distances. I always know who I am going to see when I travel through this connection. And what’s more, no one can invite themselves to my location without my permission, so it is secure—more so, I think, than your telephone.”

  My eyebrows shot up—and got higher the more I heard of that explanation. “So it’s like a lifeline to other people?”

  “In a way,” Ivan allowed. “It is not foolproof, of course. Captors can take it away, though they cannot use it. And I could still lie to you; the paper only prevents me from lying about my identity, not about anything else. And I could write to you under duress. There are still many different ways that this system is not perfect.”

  “Still,” I said, looking down at the now-blank paper where the words I’d written to Sarah used to be, “this is pretty cool.”

  “Then we will get you one of your own,” Ivan said. “I think everyone in the Rendezvous would feel better knowing that, while Elaine is gone, the last member of the royal family remaining who is not part of the tyranny King William has inflicted on the world has every safety measure available to her—including a way to call for help.”

  “Plus, it’s a way to find me if I decide I want
to go running off like my cousin,” I teased, though I immediately regretted it.

  A muscle in Ivan’s jaw was working as he pressed his lips together. “Yes. Well. That is a concern in your family.”

  “Only when it comes to the things that matter most to us.” I tipped my head to the side, watching Ivan as he struggled to keep up a brave face after Elaine’s sudden departure. “For the record—for me? That includes the Rendezvous. I wouldn’t still be here if I didn’t love the people I’d met.”

  “And you stay because you must stop your father before you can return to your old life.”

  “Okay, fair,” I admitted. “But I mean it. The more I’ve remembered of my old life, the more I know that I’m not the kind of person that can walk away from friends once I’m committed.” I stuck my finger in his face. “So you’re pretty much stuck with me. Ha!”

  Ivan laughed—a much better laugh than the chuckles or slight shoulder shakes from before. This was a lot more like the kind of laughs that I’d heard when I first met him, when he would joke around with Elaine or any one of my friends. “I think I will manage to suffer through our time together,” he teased.

  I grinned up at him. “Hey, I’m just glad to see you smiling again. You don’t seem like Ivan if you’re not smiling.”

  “Then I will have to remember that,” Ivan said. “I don’t feel much like myself when I stop smiling either.”

  My grin widened, and I was so focused on the fact that I’d managed to pull Ivan at least a little bit out of his depression that I almost didn’t notice when Sarah’s curly cursive handwriting appeared on the paper still laid out on my knee.

  Hi, Michelle. Sounds like you’ve got quite the story to tell. Come on over. Give me 5 minutes to prepare a cell—and some restraints that will actually hold a Family member. I’ll write to you again as soon as everything is ready.

  I glanced up at Ivan to see that he was reading over my shoulder again and quickly wrote a response:

  Thanks so much, Sarah. We’ve got things covered here. Our prisoner is unconscious. As long as you invite me, Ivan, Izzy, and Andrew’s sister Wendy over, we’ll be set. Sorry to spring this on you at the last minute!