“But the blood,” Brune rasped.
Gerdie snickered. “Boy, you’re real rusty with the magics. I didn’t need to stick a pin in you, Brune. For the first time in my life bein’ your sister worked in my favor. We come from the same blood, you and me, so I just used mine. Then all I had to do was tweak the recipe with a strand of your hair. And before you go askin’ where I got it, I’ll just remind you of Oma’s locket. Remember how she kept snips from all us grandkids?”
Grief and anger replaced Gerdie’s smug expression. “Guess you thought the locket burned with Oma, but she ripped it off and dropped it on the ground before they tied her to that stake. I saw it all. I stayed hidden, coverin’ my ears to her screams, closin’ my eyes to the flames that turned her into a twisted lump of coal.”
Fate was familiar with how Gerdie, Brune and their grandmother, had been trapped inside the Book of Fables long before Fate had entered the book. After making it through five of the eight fables, Brune had betrayed her own grandmother in the sixth fable by telling the villagers she was to blame for their missing children, when in fact, Old Mother Grim had stolen them. Until now, Gerdie had always left out the heartbreaking details.
Gerdie’s voice hit a sharp pitch. “I hid behind that thicket all night, not wantin’ to leave her there like that. But what could a little kid do? Nothin’. That’s what. I was too puny to dig a hole and bury her in the ground.”
Brune held very still. Then she dropped the chain, letting the Orb hang motionless from her neck.
Free of the Orb’s control, Fate muscles loosened like a rope unraveling and she crumpled to the floor before scrambling backwards to escape the foul air she’d been forced to share. “Finish her off, Gerdie.”
Gerdie walked over to Fate. “I can’t,” she whispered.
Fate rose shakily to her feet. “You have to, for your own good. She can’t be trusted.”
“It’s not for lack of wantin’ to. But as long as she’s got the Orb, she can control you.”
“But you’ve got that wax thingy. Use it to make her give it to us.”
“Imperio Evocati charms are only made to work with the destruction curse. But since you can’t make dead any deader, at this point, it’s only good for protection. If she tries anything on me, it’ll be like hurtin’ herself.”
“What about the Rod? Can’t I do some swinging of my own? You know, like make her dance to Thriller out on the interstate until she becomes road kill?”
“No, the Rod’s not like the Orb. It pretty much just unlocks the full power of the Orb and makes it work a whole lot better.”
“Great. How’d I end up with the short end of the stick?”
Gerdie shrugged. “Let’s just be glad you’ve got the Rod and not her.”
“Yeah. Now if I can just get my hands on the Orb.” Fate glanced at Brune. “So now what? We’re pretty much at a stalemate.”
“We’ve gotta work out some sort of deal with her.”
Fate paused to think, but only for a second. “I hate it.”
“Hate it all you want, but that’s the facts. Stay here, I’ll handle this.”
Fate stared at her in surprise. Gerdie had always been tough and independent, but now that the little girl was finally facing the sister who’d betrayed her, the furious old soul dwelling inside the six-year-old was all she could see.
Happy to leave Gerdie to nailing down the terms, Fate grabbed a few books off a nearby shelf to add to the dying fire. As paper dust spilled from between the books’ moldering covers, she remembered questioning why all the books were falling apart. She dropped them into the wastebasket, realizing she was no closer to figuring out the reason than she was before her unwelcome departure.
There was no logical explanation for such rapid decay. It was not like the doors of Fables Bookstore had been closed a thousand years. Yes, they’d been shut since the day of her grandmother’s death, but that was only seven years ago. The contents remained exactly as Gran had left them, waiting for the day when Fate was old enough to carry on the tradition of the historic bookstore. A legacy she’d promised her Gran she’d continue.
She wished she’d never made such a promise. Too much had changed since then and she had only one goal in mind at the moment. Finding a way back to Finn. She had no idea what that way was, only that she would never ever find it by going back into the Book of Fables.
Fate prayed Gerdie was right about returning to the bookstore to face Brune and gain access into the Keep. She’d described it as some sort of giant storehouse filled with portals and vaults holding powerful objects of magic, and Gerdie was certain there’d be a portal leading back into Oldwilde, the hidden realm inside the Book of Fables.
There was a time when Fate would’ve given anything to explore such a place. She’d spent her whole life reading fantastical stories and writing her own wishful tales. Before her nightmarish trek through the Book of Fables, she’d even spent a month on a major book signing tour for her first published novel, Magic Brew, which had been gathering a rapidly growing fan base of fellow fantasy geeks. Some of whom were overly zealous cosplayers. Not that she minded much. Back then she’d lived by her motto: Reality sucks. Make-believe rocks. But she’d since learned make-believe could be even suckier than reality when forced to live within it.
And a whole lot deadlier.
As the fire in the wastebasket blazed brighter, Fate caught sight of her purse lying on the floor. She scooped it up and dug inside for her phone. There was still no cell service, but she was shocked the date hadn’t changed and only four hours had passed from the time she’d left the book signing in Seattle.
She sucked in a tense breath. “Eustace,” she whispered. Her father would be upset by how she’d taken off to the family bookstore sixty miles north of Seattle instead of going to meet her best friend Jessie. Unless he didn’t know yet.
Gerdie appeared next to her. “The deal’s done.”
Fate jumped, so deep in thought, she hadn’t been paying attention to the negotiations. “I hope you didn’t have to spit and shake on it.” She glanced back at Brune with a grimace.
“Worse. One of us, meaning you, has to become the new Keep Guardian. I’d do it, but the Key won’t respond to me cuz I’m not big enough to even lift it. And it’s not workin’ for Brune, for obvious reasons.”
“Sorry, you’ve lost me.”
Gerdie pointed at the huge bronze key lying near the Book of Fables. “That’s the Key to the Keep.”
“No it’s not. That key opens the Book of Fables.” Fate’s throat constricted. Finn had been the one who’d tested the key to see if it unlocked the book. She could almost see him lifting the huge key to the intricate wrought iron lock secured on the front of the enormous carved wooden book.
“It does that too. But the Lock to the Keep is hidden inside the lock on the book. Don’t ask me why but the two are connected to each other,” Gerdie explained. “Once the new guardian locks the Book of Fables–hopefully forever this time–the hiding place’ll open and we’ll be able to get at the Keep Lock. After that’s done, the Key’ll shrink down to a more normal size and fit into the Lock.”
“Oh that doesn’t sound complicated at all.” Fate bent to pick up the Key. The weight of it pulled her off balance and required a huge effort to lift it. She was glad for the muscle she’d gained during her three-month stint in the seventh fable, where she’d undergone intensive training in hand-to-hand combat, archery and sword fighting. Unfortunately, the supernatural strength she’d enjoyed after being knighted by the war goddess was gone.
She was an ordinary person again.
Fate hoisted the Key to the book’s lock, which was level with her head, and shoved it into the keyhole. She started to turn the Key, when Gerdie yanked on her arm.
“Wait. You have to say the oath first.”
“Like what? I, Fate Floyd, do solemnly swear that I will be a good guardian and remember to lock up before I leave?”
“No.” Gerdie handed h
er a large, aged envelope. Her apologetic expression filled Fate with apprehension. “I’m real sorry. I wish it was me instead of you havin’ to read this.”
Fate pulled out a letter-sized piece of thin parchment with a few lines of script that looked as if they’d been penned with a quill. “Where’d this come from?”
“Brune. She came prepared.”
As Fate glanced over the words, all the blood in her head rushed to her feet. She swayed with dizziness. “No way, I’m not saying this. Reading ancient writing out loud is what got me into all this trouble in the first place!”
“If you don’t, none of us are gettin’ into the Keep.”
“But I don’t want to sacrifice all my worldly ties and dedicate the remaining years of my life protecting the Keep until the day of my death or 90th birthday, whichever comes first. I have places to be, people to see. And oh yeah, I have to save Finn from the hell I left him in!”
Gerdie threw an anxious look at Brune before turning back to Fate. “Brune said she’ll show you how to break the oath, but only if we promise to get her into the Keep and restore her back to life.”
“Really? Well in that case I feel so much better knowing Brune says she’ll get me out of this magically iron-clad oath.” Fate stared at Gerdie. “Are you nuts? She’s been playing us for suckers from day one.”
“I want what you don’t,” Brune croaked weakly from the other side of the room. “And you want what I don’t. If we wanted the same thing, we’d have a problem.”
“She’s got a point,” Gerdie agreed. “She wants to be Keep Guardian again more than anything else. You know what she did to take it from Oma, so there’s no need to go worrying about bein’ stuck with the job. You want out and she wants in. If you’re determined to keep going so we can save Finn, then I say we go for it.”
Fate leaned down, whispering to make sure Brune couldn’t overhear. “I’d never give up on Finn, but Brune’s always going to see you and me as a threat. And she’s wrong about her and I not wanting the same thing. She wants the Rod and I want the Orb.”
“Tell me somethin’ I don’t know.” Gerdie’s brow furrowed. “I saw what you did with the Words of Makin’, and we all know how that turned out. So I don’t think you can be trusted with that much power any more than Brune can.”
Fate’s stomach twisted with guilt. “Ouch. You really know how to hurt a girl.” But she couldn’t exactly disagree either. She hadn’t known how to wield that kind of power. What made her think she’d be any better at it now?
Gerdie patted her arm. “You really don’t have to do any of this, you know. You could go back to your old life. It’s not too late, like it is for me. There’s people waitin’ for you.”
“That’s just it, Gerdie. It is too late. As much as I miss my dad, I can’t go back to a normal life. I’d never be able to live with myself knowing I could’ve helped Finn and didn’t.”
A flicker of disappointment sparked in Gerdie’s brown eyes “Then you have to take the oath.”
“You don’t think I should, do you?”
Gerdie’s impish features, always so soft and playful, became stern. “Family’s somethin’ you should never take for granted. Ever.”
“I’m not.” Fate pushed away the indecision suddenly rising to the surface. “I love my dad as much as I love Finn. But my dad’s safe and happy. Other than worrying about where I disappeared to.”
“Which is torture for any parent.”
“I know but at least my dad’s got a life. Finn doesn’t. He’s trapped inside that tree, unable to move, tortured by his thoughts and all alone. I can’t leave him there to suffer like that.”
“It’s just two kinds of sufferin’, but it’s still sufferin’ all the same.”
Compounded guilt knifed into Fate. Frustrated, she punched a nearby bookcase. Pain stabbed her knuckles. Muffling a scream, she cradled her aching hand, once again reminded of her lost super powers. Less than an hour ago she would’ve splintered the wood without feeling it.
She loathed being weak and vulnerable. Especially when she knew what real strength felt like. She was finding it impossible to accept she’d gone from being a warrior of the most formidable army in Oldwilde to being her old, unexceptional self in one fell swoop. It was infuriating.
Her thoughts returned to her father. “As it stands, I’ve only been gone a few hours. Which means I’ll just have to make sure I find a way to turn back time so Eustace won’t have to worry about me any longer than he already has.”
Gerdie nodded sadly.
Unable to face Gerdie’s warning stare any longer, Fate turned her attention to the parchment in her hand. Fearing she’d lose courage if she delayed any further, Fate read the words of the oath out loud. With each word spoken, she felt a shift of energy, ties falling away, guilt dissipating and a feeling of detachment settling in. A sense of purpose slotted itself into the forefront of her mind, igniting a desire to get on with her new mission.
The moment she turned the Key, light blasted from inside the huge lock on the book and fire scorched the ornate wrought iron. She ducked as blue flames shot from the center of the oak tree carved into the book’s scarred, wooden cover. The lock’s inner workings glowed red-hot as tumblers inside the large mechanism clinked like well-oiled steel.
Fate pulled the cumbersome Key out. The metal was surprisingly cool and tingled against her skin as the Key vibrated. For a few brief seconds it seemed as if the whole world was being pulled inward, like the air was being sucked out of the room, but it was actually the Key compressing, shrinking before her very eyes. Within seconds, the Key was small enough to lie in the palm of her hand.
Then the round lock rotated counterclockwise. Upon a full rotation, the starburst design surrounding the keyhole flapped open like flower petals, revealing another keyhole against a background of clockwork pieces. It matched the size of the newly shrunken Key.
With a growing sense of urgency, Fate slid the Key in, activating another series of clicks. Slidebars pushed aside, gears turned and flaps opened, before a much smaller lock pushed up and out of a fitted slot. As soon as Fate pulled it free, the starburst pieces snapped shut.
Fate turned the plain pewter lock over in her hand. “I’ve seen this before.”
Gerdie nodded. “On the janitor door.”
Fate looked at Gerdie in surprise. “Yeah. So this unimpressive old thing is the all-important Lock to the Keep?” She shook her head in disbelief.
“Mount it on the door,” Brune rasped. “We’re running out of time.”
Fate nodded in agreement. She didn’t know why, but she knew Brune was speaking the truth. Something was wrong. It was as if part of her soul had stretched across space to a place she needed to protect because serious trouble was brewing there.
The Lock jolted in her hand. Fate ran through the maze of bookcases to the back of the store, pushed through the green velvet curtains hiding the storage room and stopped in front of the door marked Janitor. The Lock flew from her grasp, banging against the door just above the door handle with a loud thud. The Lock’s starburst screws rotated swiftly, anchoring itself firmly in place.
Fate turned to Gerdie as she entered the storeroom. “That was easy enough.”
“Glad you enjoyed it, cuz it’s time for the hard part.”
“You mean the Keep?”
“No, a car just pulled in outside and a man got out. From the way you described him, I think it might be your dad.”
3
A Little Game Of Hide And Seek
THE DELIVERY DOOR OPENED to the sound of heavy rain and her father’s voice. “Hello? Fate? Are you in here?”
All the guilt, stress and tension she’d been holding at arm’s length for the last six months unraveled into a big sloppy mess. “Dad?” Fate called out from within the shadows of the dark room.
The door burst open and moonlight revealed Eustace’s tall silhouette filling the doorframe. His thick, silver-dusted hair dripped with rain and the shoul
ders of his cream-colored blazer were soaked through. “Fate,” he said, his voice cracking with relief.
She ran over to him, flinging her arms around his waist. Fate buried her face in the softness of his sweater, breathing in the comforting scent of the cigars he carried in the breast pocket of his blazer. She was suddenly ten-years-old again. Tears spilled down her face as his arms folded around her, safe and warm. Home. Pain and joy mixed together in a confusing jumble, until she shook with uncontrollable sobs.
Eustace remained quiet, holding her tight as she slowly calmed down.
“I’m so sorry I left. I’m so sorry,” she cried.
He gave her a squeeze. “It’s okay.” Stepping back to have a look at her, he brushed aside the strands of hair sticking to her wet face. “There was no real harm done. I just wish you would’ve told me where you were going.”
“I know I should’ve told you.”
“When Jessie called wanting to see you, I knew something was wrong.”
The ceiling light suddenly came on, startling them both.
Eustace frowned. “That’s odd. Did you call to have the electricity turned on?”
Gulping, Fate glanced around for Gerdie but didn’t see her. “No.”
He stared at her through his rain-spotted glasses. His troubled gaze landed on the leather armor she was wearing. “Why are you dressed like this?”
“I, uh…”
“She’s ready for her first Magic Brew convention of course,” someone interjected.
Fate leaned around Eustace in time to see her publicist, Lana, struggling to close her umbrella from within the doorframe. Giving up, she dropped it on the wet ground and closed the door behind her. The musty room filled with a suffocating cloud of perfume as she combed her manicured nails through her bobbed hair to put it back in place. “It’s a bit of a drive but I think it’s a stroke of genius on your part, Fate. Having the convention here in this atmospheric old building? So much better than the Paramount.”
Fate wiped her tears and glared at the woman. Time had not removed the irritation she felt toward Lana after sharing her with Eustace during the thirty-day book signing tour. The cougar had tried to get her claws into her father during the whole trip. It had been nauseating. She frowned at her father. “You brought her here?” He knew Gran’s bookstore was special to her.
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