by S. E. Akers
I bounced my stare between the rattled supernatural and the swiftly approaching wave. It had to be well over a hundred yards in the air and didn’t look like it was stopping anytime soon. I ripped off the gauntlets, shoving them into the haversack along with the kukri, and then started climbing the chimney. Lorelei was obviously too mad to put the breaks on her unexpected metamorphosis, and I knew my ass needed to get out of here while I still had the chance.
I was about to slip inside the chimney to safety when the winds came to a screeching halt. I turned to see Lorelei diving back into the ocean with her trident and the ferocious wave dropping back down into the water along with her. Even the dark clouds that were shadowing the skies only a moment ago had all cleared away. The rising sun was now shining as bright as it ever did around this time of morning. A weighty breath exploded from my lungs, forced out by a triumphant feeling exploding inside me. She couldn’t come back on land once she’d gone back into the water. The smile I was radiating felt electric. This was my first real accomplishment all summer, and I couldn’t have been any prouder of myself.
I soon spotted Lorelei bobbing in the water, her face boasting all its perfect and gorgeous features once again. She dipped into the current further while her rabid eyes held their fervent glare. I felt my ears burning, knowing her thoughts were emitting evil cosmic wishes for my head to find its way onto the barbed tine resting in the center of her trident, staked there for her personal viewing pleasure. I was about to head down the chimney when a violent waterspout exploded out of the depths and soared into the air with breakneck speed — and the damn thing had me in its sights. I’d no sooner slid feet-first down inside the chimney when the water caught up with me and helped give my plummet a smacking wet-handed shove. Luckily its force torpedoed me slick through the damper without smacking my hips or even getting stuck the least bit. The raging current dropped me on the floor of the hearth with a harsh “thump” and then careened me through the study on a wet & wild ride that slammed me straight into the closed mahogany double-doors like I’d hit a brick wall.
I realized the spectacles had washed off my face when I was searching the receding waters for the missing haversack. My head whipped up when the two panels flew open with a “bang”. Tanner and Silas were standing in the doorway, my mentor looking painfully more stunned and slack-jawed than the house steward and his peevishly shaking head.
I skidded a slippery path up to my feet before the first curse or question could erupt. “I was trying to shut the damper and then the next thing I knew, all this water came bursting down the chimney and into the room,” I lied. That was all I got out before Tanner handed the jewelry box to Silas and rushed towards the fireplace.
Silas quickly opened the side compartment like he’d done it a million times before and tossed me the sunstone. I hurried over to Tanner just as he’d finished closing the damper. I held up the stone with my most innocent doe-eyes engaged. “Did you need this?”
Tanner stopped shy of collecting it in mid-reach. Instead, the Amethyst Talisman panned the soggy room suspiciously and then routed a course to the nearest window where he began inspecting the grounds vehemently.
Silas sidled beside me. “So?” he posed telepathically. “Leg or arm?”
I lowered my head and issued him a discreet shake and then casually swiped my finger across the top of my head while I rolled a looping mental replay through my brain.
Silas’ only response was to straighten his vest with a firm tug. “I would seriously consider giving that shaman’s stone another rub in a little over five months if I were you.” And honestly, I’d already thought the same thing, twice. Then he prompted me with a nudge to go over and start treading the water elemental’s questionable current.
I looked out the window. “Do you see her?”
Tanner’s eyes kept scanning the grounds relentlessly. “No.”
“So where is she?” I posed.
“That’s what I want to know,” Tanner muttered.
Silas placed the jewelry box down on one of the tables and joined us. “I’m not picking up anything outside, Professor,” he chimed in. “In fact, all I’m sensing is sunny skies on the day’s horizon.”
“So am I,” Tanner replied and turned around. “And why is that? It doesn’t make any sense.” He stared at the both of us, eyes flaring. Our silence sent him straight to the other window for a different view. Silas shot me a testy glare when he noticed I was no longer in possession of my bag, to which I replied with a heated hand gesture that clearly signaled I didn’t know where the heck it had landed after my splashdown. With Tanner distracted, the two of us scanned the room, aiming for inconspicuous. I soon spotted the spectacles lying on the floor near his foot, which sent me rushing beside him in a frenzy to scoop them up before he noticed them there, or worse, happened to step on them.
I’d no sooner popped back up with a jerk when Tanner turned to me and inquired, “Why am I sensing that you’re rattled for some reason?”
I discreetly slipped the spectacles inside my back pocket, trying to think of something. For the room to be as wet as it was, I felt like the Sahara Desert of lies — a total dustbowl.
“Well the water was kind of scary,” I finally replied and threw in a quiver.
Tanner’s head fell into a doubtful slant. “Scary?”
My mind blanked even further when Silas mentally relayed a foul grunt. “Meryl Streep has no fear of you stealing any of her gold,” he scoffed. “I would shore up that pathetic planting with a little more manure, if I were you.”
I pointed to the fireplace. “You go and stand over there and have a flash flood come from out of nowhere and smack you across the room — then tell me how you feel?” I added and then averted my stare with an offended shake. My eyes twitched as soon as they fell on the missing haversack. Silas tracked my subtle spasm over to the right of the doorway. The house steward made a casual stroll towards the evidence that ended with him giving the bag a stout kick, sending it scooting behind the desk. The noise angled Tanner straight towards the door where Silas was in the midst of playing off the racket with a choppy throat clearing.
“Shall we venture a look outside, Professor?” Silas posed, now that it was safe to motion him towards the door. “Ms. Wallace can relax in here for a spell, what with that dreadful fright she experienced.”
My expression flattened. My cover story may have been crappy, but his over-acting didn’t score any high marks either.
Tanner’s suspicious eyes shifted between me and the fireplace before returning to the house steward. He shook his head, still rapt in a stringent haze of confusion. “Come along,” he waved and then marched towards the door like a soldier on a truth-seeking mission. “I’m curious to find out why Lorelei was so hell-bent on tearing down the wards with Darklands magic, only for her to turn tail so unexpectedly. Something’s at the bottom of this,” he vowed.
Silas shrugged his shoulders as he breezed past him and then shot me a sly wink. “Maybe it just wasn’t her time of the month?”
Then he strolled out of the study right behind him, leaving me all alone to celebrate my sweet yet silent take-it-to-the-grave victory. My lips ripped into a smile as I plopped down onto the leather sofa for a quick breather. It may have only been a quick wink, but I treasured it as much as seeing a shiny gold star at the top of my paper, issued by the hands of my strictest of teachers.
Though the silence stagnating in the dungeon hall was already grating the limits of my restraint, the persistence of the echoing “drips” blaring from the damp spots on the stone walls had me wanting to bore out my eardrums. I stood in front of the cell door, my frame painfully rigid, while my foot tapped out a repetitive rhythm. I had to do something to fight off my irritation. Tanner was right beside me, less than a foot away. We were actually waiting for Silas to round up some layria bark. My mentor had moved the barrel as a precaution a few days ago, hidden it really, anticipating that I would do the same. And he’d guessed right on that o
ne. I knew I shouldn’t have put it off when the thought first crossed my mind — proving that procrastination will getcha every time!
“Still mad, I see,” Tanner commented, eyes ahead.
My brow shot into the air as I turned to the Emotion Whisperer. “Don’t you mean ‘feel’ mad?” I corrected. Yeah… I may have been lookin’ to lash out a wee bit.
Tanner swept my frame, starting with the pitch of my cocked head and then straight down to the tips of my perturbed little tapping toes. “My powers aren’t necessary,” he assured. “Your body language screams it just fine.”
I had to force myself into letting his smirk slide off my back. Oh, I had every right to be ticked. I was now at the halfway mark of Week Nine and he was still cutting my bouts short. Even standing here right outside the three-headed beast’s lair seemed pointless because I already knew how it was going to play out. Call it woman’s intuition or whatever, but this round was going to come quicker than a fistful of dreaded Monday mornings, guaranteed. I was sick and tired of it, right along with the “keeper of the reasons why” who was presently standing a good elbow jab to my right. Emotions aside, the overcautious Amethyst Talisman was still my biggest hurdle and time was seriously running out!
And the irony of that mess was just plain ole sad.
“At least you’re speaking to me now,” he teased with a grin.
His remark coupled with his expression made my head whip away from him that much further. Ugh… My daggone neck bones even snapped a few noisy “cracks”, wanting their protest on record as well.
Suddenly I sensed a whiff of amusement stirring inside me. It was faint but steadily blossoming nonetheless — and its familiar vibe ruled out any endorphin-fueled rushes that would normally result from one of his cutesy-cracks. I jumped away from him, my eyes looking just as shocked as they burned white-hot over his latest attempt to sneak me some of his bliss.
“Don’t!” I snapped. “I want to feel like this.”
He immediately dismissed my objection with a war-weary gaze. “No one wants to feel that way.”
My arms locked into a taught cross as I pointedly looked away. “Well, what do you know? There’s something we both finally agree on.”
Tanner spun me towards him. “Then why punish yourself?”
“Because I want to know that my emotions are one hundred percent my own,” I argued. “Right down to my confidence.”
“Confidence?” he questioned. “Recklessness is more like it.”
My mouth clenched into a tight pucker as I broke out of his hold. Luckily the clamp on my teeth prevented me from sucking my lips clear down my throat. “Maybe if you would stop dropping monsters and let me actually finish a fight I could banish one of these things!”
“You’re blaming me?” Tanner charged.
My head tipped like the heavy side of a scale. “Don’t stand there playing innocent. You know exactly what I’m talking about — Quick Draw.”
“Oh yes,” he scoffed. “How could I forget? I’m the impetuous one.”
“No, but ‘controlling’ sure puts the lid on it.”
“Cautious,” he corrected tersely.
“Whatever you say,” I grumbled and then threw my hands up in a facetious surrender. “It’s YOUR show.”
“Name one time when my intervention wasn’t needed,” he demanded.
My head shot up with a throaty gasp. “JUST ONE?” I posed. Tanner’s eyes shot into a glaring roll, which hit me like a stream of lighter fluid. I could have easily plucked about fifteen out of my head and listed them all in chronological order, but I opted for the most recent and absurdly unnecessary one to date. I pointed to the neighboring cell door with a stomp. “You knocked out the balegore just yesterday!” I fussed.
“And I would do it faster if given the same chance,” he piped back.
My lungs shot out a huffy gust. I had to look away again out of fear the white swirling in my eyes might actually form a bolt and light his ass up. “It wouldn’t have hurt me!” I remarked, nose high.
I could see that know-it-all grin creeping across his disbelieving face from out of the corner of my eye. “It’s not a pet, Shiloh,” he argued. “Pets aren’t in the habit of leaving their masters black and blue. You could barely get up.”
“It was letting me get to my feet, which is more than I can say for you.” I whipped back around. “I got in several good whacks. Why do think it came back at me so hard?” Granted, they were all done with the help of a few trees I uprooted and blew at it, not from my muscles by any means. But they still left its head lumpy and eyes seeing stars.
“Yes, and then it turned right around and used one of your makeshift bats on ME,” he groused.
I turned my stare back to the cell door so he couldn’t see the pleasure sparkling in my eyes. “It sure did,” I mumbled, trying to keep a straight face. “It knew what you were getting ready to do. I would’ve done the same thing.” In fact, if his past track record held true through my impending bout with the chimera, I might be forced into doing it to him too — harder to boot.
I angled my wrist directly below my eyes. “So tell me . . . How many minutes are you going to allow me this time?” I posed, pretending like I was setting a watch. “I’m thinking three from the time I draw my sword — and I’m being generous.”
“Are you implying that I go in looking to knock them out?”
“That’s precisely what I’m saying,” I breathed, my eyes stretching the diameter of dinner plates. “You’ve been doing it for weeks. It’s getting you to see it that’s the tricky part.”
“Believe me, I want these things back where they belong more than you’ll ever know,” he stressed, all grumbly. “And I always wait until the precise moment that I know things are about to go downhill.”
“So you’re clairvoyant now?” I scoffed. “Take my word — There has been plenty of ‘downhill’ you haven’t witnessed that I’ve managed to make it through,” I affirmed. “You weren’t there when I was getting poisoned by a lapis lazuli on a set of train tracks, or when I was being jabbed with barbs in an iron maiden like a pincushion . . . or when a monster was sucking my powers out of me like a daggone juice-box.”
The Amethyst Talisman’s steely violet eyes clouded like a billowing thunderstorm. “Don’t remind me.”
Hearing the regret in his tone just made me want to drive my point home that much further. I was tired of being physically stonewalled these creatures; I wasn’t about to let his need for me to “shut my mouth” muzzle me too, not with an emotional burr the size of grapefruit stuck to this filly’s rear.
I continued, “But here you can control everything. You only let me get so far before you start dinging that bell. I used to think it was all me, but now I’m pretty sure you go in there wired with a preset launch-time. And the only reason I can figure, is that you have absolutely no faith in me.”
“That’s not true,” he said.
“Then prove me wrong,” I taunted. “Don’t take the pouch in there.”
“I’m not doing that,” he vowed.
Silas came strolling down the hall within seconds. “I see our horns are still locked as firmly as ever,” he remarked and then handed Tanner the pouch of layria bark.
I turned to the house steward as Tanner opened the door. “Silas, if you were betting, how many minutes until he knocks out the chimera?”
Silas tapped his finger to his chin. “Hmmm. If we’re wagering, then put me down for two and a half minutes — from the time you cross the threshold,” he added, more than corroborating my case.
“See,” I sang, crinkling my nose as I breezed past him. “You’re the only one with blinders on.”
I turned invisible no sooner than I’d stepped inside, though it didn’t have a thing to do with the chimera. I’d already learned the hard way how fine-tuned its sense of smell proved a couple of weeks back. After all, three supernatural snouts were better than one.
“For someone claiming that they’re not
being foolish, you’re acting awfully childish,” Tanner remarked.
He was going to have to grab a different stick to stir this pot. I still wasn’t lowering my veil.
“This isn’t the time nor place for this discussion,” he added, panning around for my vibe. “But I will say your kamikaze attitude started rearing its head right after your trip to Boston, and I plan on finding out why that is.”
Perfect, I grumbled.
“I’ve had my limit of strange for the week,” he stated, sounding unquestionably authoritative. “And I still think there’s something you’re not telling me about Lorelei.”
Well that did it… I retracted my veil straightaway. “You’re right, this isn’t the time nor the place, especially to entertain your delusional theories.” I positioned the oculus in the center of my chest and looked at him, eyes devoted. “I’ve got a bigger fight to pick in here right now.”