“Justin didn’t run away, Beck. Someone took him.”
The blood drained from his face and his jaw fell slack. “How do you know someone took him?”
“Not just someone, Beck. A MAUC. There’s been magic in his room.”
I could see him wavering a little so I guided him around the two frozen cops and to the couch where Jilly was seated. She crawled over to him and put her tiny arms around his neck.
“What does that mean, Lynlee? I know I’m stupid about all this magic crap, so what the hell do I do now to find my boy?”
I tried to ignore the rancor in his voice when he said the word magic. “I need you to keep calm. I want to get rid of these cops and then we’re going to go find him.”
“You know who has him?”
I’d be lying if I told Beck I was certain about who had his son, but he needed some assurance so I touched his cheek. “I think I do. I won’t stop until I find him though. I promise you that. Okay?”
It was almost a certainty in my mind that Susan Abernathy had taken Justin. He fit all the characteristics, or at least I thought he did. His mother was a nymph, and Jilly had inherited the full nymphette powers. Justin very likely had some underlying magic in him too.
“She can find him, Daddy. Don’t worry. Lynlee can do it.”
The little girl’s unequivocal belief in me was startling, but I didn’t have time to think on it. “I’m going to wake them up,” I said as I pointed at the cops, “and the phone will ring. Answer it and tell them it’s a friend, that Justin’s there and that he’s safe. Get rid of them fast, Beck. We don’t have a lot of time.”
~oOo~
When we all three orbed back to my house, Tig was waiting for us outside the grotto. He looked every bit as much the panicked and broken man as Beck did, only shorter.
From my pocket I pulled out a tiny white stone, the pair to the tracer stone I’d thrown at Susan. “Now, Beck, I want you to take Jilly in the house and wait for us. Tig and I will check out the location of the dark witch. If she’s got Justin, we’ll get him back. If she doesn’t…” I drifted off. I wasn’t sure what we’d do if my hunch was wrong and the dark witch didn’t actually have Justin.
“I’m going with you. If my boy’s in danger, I’m going to be there.”
“Beck.” I touched his arm and tried not to notice the way he looked at my hand like it was a spider. “You have to think of Jilly. If there’s danger, she shouldn’t be there.”
“I have to go, Lynlee. I have to.”
Taking a deep breath, I pondered this a moment. With a nod, I pulled my phone from my pocket and dialed Rhiannon.
I skipped the pleasantries when she answered. “Are you nearby? I need you ASAP.”
“Uhm, at least fifteen away from there. Turning the car around now.”
“What about Sandy? Is he well enough to get here now?” She hesitated a split second too long and I realized my friend was playing the nervous-nelly girlfriend again. “Rhia, I need a babysitter. It’s nothing dangerous. Beck’s son Justin has been kidnapped, I think by the dark witch. He and I need to go after him and someone needs to stay with Jilly.”
“Oh…” she murmured even as a pile of sand began pouring out of thin air into the spot directly in front of us. As the sand continued to empty out, the mound started shaping into two feet, then legs, then a torso, arms, and a head. Sandy’s body was fully formed within about 30 seconds.
“Hey kiddo.” He grinned and held his hand out for Jilly. The red-haired girl giggled and released her father’s hand to take the Sandman’s instead.
“Make yourself at home, Sandy. We’ll be back before you know it.”
I hope…
I used the little white stone to program the coordinates into my grotto’s map. Then the three of us got inside. We stood in a sort of triangle, our backs to each other, facing in all directions. I worried about Beck, as he would certainly be at a disadvantage if there were a fight. Still, he stood rigid and on the ready, his expression ferocious.
We appeared inside a house, within a kitchen to be exact. Just as we arrived there was a flash of black gauzy material passing through the doorway and into a hall, I figured it must be Susan Abernathy leaving the room. How lucky could we get?
There was a huge pot simmering on the stove and yellow smoke was erupting from under the lid. A ladle was resting beside it, an ooey-gooey material leaking off it and making a puddle on the counter.
“Tig,” I whispered. “Is that the potion?”
He shrugged his shoulders, his furry eyebrows pulled close together in a frown. “Looks like it.”
“Can we just throw it down the drain? It won’t explode or anything, will it?”
“Nah, it’s inert without the spell.” He headed for the stove and picked up the pot with his bare hands, tipping it into the sink. The goop made a gurgling, bubbling noise as it went down and I figured we were probably going to get caught any minute.
I shook my hand and clasped my wand tight as I reached my other arm out and pushed Beck behind me. “I need you to trust me here, Beck. Please, trust me. Don’t do anything without my cue, okay?”
He looked at me with a twisted expression of worry and angst. I waited for an answer, but he just stared into my eyes as if searching for something.
“Beck?”
“Yes.” He closed his eyes and he took a deep breath. “Let’s find Justin.”
There was a racket from the end of the hallway so I headed in that direction. I could feel Beck close behind me. There was a room with a door cracked open at the far end of the hall. Several other doors flanked us as we crept along, but each of them was closed and I didn’t hear or sense any movement from within those rooms. My gut told me to go with the one in front of me.
Just as we got to the open room, there was a crashing noise behind us. I turned quickly and saw shadows moving in the kitchen area. Tig was a tough old goblin and I figured he could handle himself so I pivoted back to the door.
“Travis!” a voice cried out, and I recognized Susan Abernathy. “Don’t toss the rest of that potion yet, Travis. I’m not sure if this will be enough.”
Crap! I’d hoped when Tig threw the contents of that pot down the sink that it would be the end of the changeling potion. I put my finger to my lips and gave Beck a look to keep quiet before I placed my palm flat against the door and pushed it open inch by inch.
Susan Abernathy looked different than the first time I met her, but just as arresting. Instead of a dark witch she might have been a dark queen with a flowing black gown that shimmered silver with the light. Fairy-silk. It was a type of material made from the silk of spiders found only in the Innerworld. It had no special powers but was exceedingly beautiful and sought after by those not of that realm.
She didn’t catch sight of us right away. Standing at the foot of a rectangular table, she had her back to us and appeared to be fiddling with the white tablecloth. When she took a step to her right, the entire table came into view and Beck shouted an expletive before I could remind him to be quiet.
Susan sprang to attention immediately, attempting to shield the table again with her body, but it was too late. We’d already seen Justin there wrapped up like a mummy with only his little face showing. He looked to be sound asleep—at least I hoped it was sleep.
“You witch! That’s my boy!” Beck shouted, trying to get around me. I made a move to push him back but Susan struck first. One of her red eye lasers struck him in the chest and Beck went flying back. I cringed when I heard the thud his body made as he hit the wall, but I didn’t have the luxury of worrying about him now.
I had promised to save Justin and that was my priority.
While Susan was still looking at Beck, I pointed my wand at the bottle on the table beside her and tried to knock the potion to the ground. Her steely eyes flared in my direction and she deflected my magic, grabbing up the bottle before I could try again.
“Tsk, tsk, Ms. Lincoln. I have paid dearly over almost as many years as you
’ve been alive to acquire the contents of this potion.”
The sounds of struggling could still be heard down the hall, and I hoped Tig would finish with this Travis person and get in here soon. “Give it up, Susan. We’re not going to let you complete the changeling spell. Let the boy go.”
She chortled, an ominous sound. “And you think you can stop me? Think again, Ms. Lincoln. I have spent decades perfecting my powers. You’re just a novice by comparison.”
I tried to convince myself she was wrong. It was true my methods weren’t the ones my granny would have used, but I was a perfectly acceptable witch. Just because Susan Abernathy was older didn’t mean I couldn’t stop her.
The memory of those burning rays from her eyes was still fresh in my mind. I refused to give in to the doubt. I couldn’t afford to squander my strength on worry. When I saw her eyes changing again, I leapt to the side, rolling my body along the floor. I shot my wand out in her direction again and landed a blow to her hand, but she held firm to the potion bottle.
I heard another sound behind me, but this one was in the room with us. I looked just in time to see her flash her beams at Beck again, sending him sprawling. Refusing to waste the chance, I charged around behind her to try to get to Justin.
I made it to the table, but when I reached for him an invisible shield prevented me from touching him. Flipping my wand into the air, I clasped it again like a dagger and stabbed at the shield to try to dislodge it. The protection device must not have liked that because it retaliated, sending a spark of electricity through the wand and into my body.
My arm shot away from the table and I took a step back. Susan laughed again, new sparks from her eyes knocking me backwards and hard onto my rear.
“You are a stubborn chit, aren’t you?” she remarked, going around to the head of the table. “There is nothing you can do, Ms. Lincoln. I will have my changeling. As soon as he awakens from the Sandman’s dust, I will complete the spell and he will be mine.”
My muscles wouldn’t work and I assumed they were still reacting to the shock of electricity from the shield. I strained and struggled, groaning with the effort to move— to do anything— but nothing worked. Sweat was beading on my forehead, sliding along my hairline to my neck.
And that was when I heard him. His voice was tiny, quaking with terror. “Lynlee, she’s going to hurt me. Help me.”
My heart crumbled into a million pieces. I swallowed, blinking against the sting of tears in my eyes. Justin’s head was turned to me, his big brown eyes pleading with me to save him. I flicked my gaze to his father and watched Beck struggling to pick himself up off the floor. There was blood dripping down the corner of his mouth. He crawled to his knees before collapsing back to the floor.
I always made an effort to keep my emotions in check. I couldn’t afford to lose control. The one and only time that had happened was a horrifying experience. My parents were so traumatized by it that they disappeared for over a week. They knew I was a witch, but what happened that day upset them to such an extent that they could barely even look at me when they finally did come back.
I was eighteen then, so shortly after that episode I moved into my own apartment. I spent months as a hermit, training myself to stay within my walls.
But those walls were shattering. An earthquake of emotion began at the epicenter of my entire being. My chest constricted and released over and over as I gasped for breath. The waves of electric sensation inside pulsed outward until they reached my limbs and I felt my hands begin to shake and tremble. I slowly picked myself up off the floor, testing my legs with caution.
Susan was paying me no attention. Her fairy-silk-covered arms were held out on either side of her, and her eyes were closed as she chanted the words of the changeling spell. I noticed a little lump under the wrappings holding Justin tight. It was situated just at his heart and it began to grow and palpitate.
The unborn changeling.
“No!” I cried, and the sheer power behind my voice frightened even me. My body levitated, though I had no intent to do so nor any control over the action. The dark witch’s eyes opened wide and her mouth dropped into an “o” shape as she stared at me.
It took her a moment to overcome her surprise, but when I saw the red glow begin in her eyes, the last of my mental fortifications broke and the dam of energy and emotion I had kept carefully bottled for all of those years burst forth.
A blinding light flooded the room in all directions. It was a colorless light, not even white really. It washed out everything around me as if the colors of the rainbow were suddenly sucked into a black hole and there were only shades of gray. The room began to shift left and right then up and down, and somewhere in my mind I wondered what the hell was happening.
Then a pain began ripping through my body, like my chest was being torn open. I became palpably aware of my heart, and when I peered down, I could see it thumping wildly in my chest, the skin, muscle, sinew, and bone invisible to my eyes.
A cry ripped from my lips and it went on and on for what might have been hours…
And then it was over. When awareness returned to my mind, my palms were planted flat on the floor, my forehead pressed against the scratchy carpet. I opened my eyes, peered at the world between my kneeling legs, and saw a stubby pair of feet approaching. My stomach curdled with nausea and I swallowed a few times to keep from losing my lunch.
Tig’s fingers clasped me under my arms, helping me to stand. The world turned fuzzy. I shook my head and closed my eyes to clear them.
When I could focus again, I saw Beck and Justin approach me, the little boy’s smile wide and adoring as he ran at me and hugged me around the legs. His father held back, wiping at his bloody lip and cringing in pain.
The dark witch was on the floor beside the table in a pile of black fairy-silk. She looked to be unconscious as her chest rose and fell in slow cadence. My fingers dug into my front jeans pocket and removed a little cotton bag. When I handed it to Tig, he nodded and trudged to Susan Abernathy’s body.
From within the small bag he withdrew a tiny ball of rope which he flung at her. The Net popped open and expanded to cover her entire body. The dark witch was finally caught.
Beck, Justin, and I all orbed back to my house in silence. Tig used his own magic to take the two captives with him so they could be turned over to the authorities. According to Tig, Travis was just a young warlock who was at Susan’s bidding. I got the impression that Tig felt a little sorry for the kid, probably because Tig himself had once been in a similar position with her.
On top of all of their other crimes, Susan and Travis would be charged with killing Tig’s changeling. Once the process of the spell began, the changeling couldn’t survive if not born through to completion. Tig would never have a child of his own. I figured that would be a difficult pill for Tig to swallow, but for now he was all business. That wasn’t so unusual for him, and I promised myself I would get in touch with him in a day, just to check.
Jilly bounced out of my house, slamming the screen door open when we came from the storage shed. Giggling and singing, she hugged her brother and danced round and round with him. For all the sadness I felt for my mentor, the sight of these siblings reunited was the most fulfilling sight I could imagine in that moment. One glance at Beck said he felt the same.
I tried to smile, but I just didn’t have the energy or the will to do it. My mind recalled the way Beck had reacted to the news that a MAUC had taken his son. More than that, I thought of how I’d lost control. Of course it had saved Justin, but the event was likely the deal breaker for Beck and me. Shaking my head, I refused to cry.
Sandy and Rhia emerged from the house, both of them smiling. I gave them a quick recap of the events and assured them the dark witch and her accomplice were done. My werevamp friend looked so relieved I thought she might cry.
“You okay, though? You look… beaten down,” Rhiannon asked, looping her arm into mine as I walked them to her car.
“
I’m fine. Just tired. I think I used up all my strength in my episode.”
She leaned in close to my ear. “Were you really scary? Did you go freaky like an alien or something?”
Snorting, I slipped my arm from hers and shoved her away from me affectionately. “How would I know? It’s not like I could see it.”
I waved goodbye as she and Sandy drove off. Then I turned and approached Beck. He was watching the kids play in my yard under the floodlights. Justin was gesticulating with exuberance as he told his sister all about his kidnapping and rescue.
Beck and I stood there side by side in silence. I folded my arms across my chest, bumping elbows with him, and waited for him to speak. I was at a loss at that moment.
“It’s almost morning,” Beck said finally through a jaw-popping yawn. Then he flinched and touched his cheek where a bruise was beginning to form under his five-o’clock shadow. “I should get them to bed. It’s a good thing tomorrow’s Saturday.”
“Once they calm down, they should sleep well.”
More silence. I held my breath.
When he looked down at me, I wanted to look away, but I forced myself to meet his gaze. “I’d like you to come home with us.”
Whoosh! The air poured from my lungs. “Can I grab some things first?”
A hint of a smile touched his lips and he nodded. I hurried into the house to toss some clothes and personal items into a bag.
~oOo~
My words were almost prophetic about the kids sleeping well when they settled down. Beck didn’t push them too much to get into bed. Instead, we stood over both kids as they brushed their teeth before we settled onto the couch and let them wrestle and play for a bit.
At his sister’s behest, Justin retold the story of his rescue. I might have needed a cape after the way he painted me as the heroine of the story. How could he know that I had been in danger of defeat by the dark witch? My loss of self-control was a terrible reaction that had only accidentally saved him.
Jilly went down first. She curled onto the floor in the living room while Justin told his embellished tale. Within sixty seconds she was asleep. I glanced at Beck askance, but before he could say anything, Justin yawned loudly and we both looked at him.
A Bundle of Trouble (The Lynlee Lincoln Sets Book 1) Page 17