Toil And Trouble

by H. P. Mallory

  “There now,” she crooned in my ear. “We will find a way to send you home.”

  I pulled away from her and dried my tears, needing to understand how much she knew and more so, how she knew it. “How do you…how did you…what did you mean when you said you were expecting me?”

  She sat on my bed, patting the coverlet beside her to indicate I should also sit. I did so as she took a deep breath. “You are Jolie Wilkins and you were in the midst of battle before I found you in the snow. Prior to being thrust into 1878, you were in the process of being stabbed by Gwynn. You had just defeated the vampire, Ryder, and before you could blink, you ended up here, freezing in the snow.”

  I just gawked at her, wide eyed. “How can you know that? I mean, your aura is human.”

  She smiled, a wise and knowing smile. “I am a witch, as you are a witch, Jolie. And as to my aura, I shield it so as not to expend energy uselessly.” To prove her point, she ran her hands over her head and down to her waist. As if unzipping her aura, it blasted out of her in a rainbow of colors. I gasped as the colors vacillated this way and that, a glow that lit the entire room. Holy freaking crap. She was like the mother of all witches, a mega witch.

  “Oh my God,” I said in awe.

  Mercedes just laughed and ran her hands back up her waist and head and her aura disappeared as if it had never revealed itself to begin with.

  “Unbelievable,” I said, my mouth still hanging open. Trying to shake myself out of my stupor, I focused on her stunning green eyes, a gold ring circling the irises, like cat’s eyes.

  “Thank you,” she said proudly. With an aura like that, I would’ve been proud too. I shook my head and tried to focus on the facts before me—that Mercedes was a witch, well, more fittingly, an uber witch. “You must be powerful enough to send me back?” My voice was hopeful.

  She lost her smile, her lips twitching slightly as if she wasn’t sure what to say. “Yes and no. My magic is very powerful, yes, though there are laws of nature which I am unable to alter alone.”

  “Maybe we could do it together?” I asked desperately. I couldn’t stay here—I just didn’t think I could ever get used to calf’s heads, no cell phones, 1878 Rand or corsets.

  Mercedes laughed again and patted my hand. “Do not fret, Jolie, I have a plan where you are concerned. Let us start from the beginning. Do you know how you arrived here?”

  I nodded. “Rand’s magic.” As soon as I said the words, I wondered how familiar Mercedes was with Rand. “Wait, you do know Rand is a warlock, right?”

  “Yes, though he is barely into his apprenticeship with the fairies.”

  So, she knew about the fairies too which meant they existed in 1878 as well. Thank God because I was beginning to feel like a mental patient. “Yeah, so at the moment Gwynn stabbed me, Rand yelled and the next thing I knew, I was here. So, I just figured he sent me.”

  She shook her head. “I brought you.”

  “How?”

  Mercedes was silent for a moment, as if deciding how to explain. “I had been attempting to bring you back multiple times previous to the battle but your subconscious barriers were too high, too strong. Your magic is incredibly powerful, Jolie, though you do not realize it.”

  I was trying to grasp what she was saying, trying to understand what she meant but finding it difficult. “So, I like kept you out?” Ergh, I hadn’t meant to sound so…valley girl.

  “Yes, I could not break down your inhibitions. But, everything changed once I had a vision of the battle. I knew at the point that Gwynn stabbed you, your barriers would be down long enough for me to pull you back, so I did.”

  Then it was Mercedes who’d saved me? That was twice now. If I hadn’t liked her before, I loved her now. But, warm and fuzzies didn’t explain why she’d brought me back. “Why did you relocate me here, to this time?”

  Mercedes stood up and sighed deeply, walking to my window as she took in the view. “As with the laws governing nature, there is a path we must take in the present to create an intended outcome in the future.”

  “What does that mean?” I demanded. “Why was it so important for you to pull me back to this time?”

  She faced me. “Your fate and my own require us both to return to the battle.”

  “Your fate?” Why did it suddenly feel like there was more to this story than I’d previously imagined?

  “Yes, I am coming with you.”

  I stood up, half in shock. “So, that’s why you brought me here? Not to save me but because you…needed me to give you a ride into the future?” I couldn’t think of how else to say what I was feeling and didn’t mean for the words to sound so…dumb.

  “I brought you here because providence dictated it. If you and I do not travel back together, I will be murdered in less than a fortnight and will not be able to end this foolish war between the Underworld creatures.”

  “Murdered?” I repeated. “Who…who kills you?”

  “Lurkers,” she said and there didn’t seem to be any emotion in her voice. It took my frazzled mind a moment or two to fully grasp her response. Lurkers…then I remembered. Lurkers were human half-breeds, caught between vampires and humans. They had been killing the otherworldly little by little for hundreds of years. But, since relocating to England and being so involved with the war with Bella, I’d pushed concerns about the Lurkers out of my mind.

  “They kill you?” I whispered. Mercedes just nodded. “So, how are you here now if they’ve already killed you in the past?”

  “I simply repeatedly relive the time before my death.”

  “You mean, like reliving the same day over and over?”

  Mercedes shrugged. “Something similar, yes. Though not just one day. I can relive any of my nine hundred years.”

  “Nine hundred?!” I gasped. Damn, she gave Sinjin a run for his money. He was just a baby at six hundred. I calmed myself down and tried to grasp the facts, tried to understand how what Mercedes was telling me was possible. “So, how do you really know you’ll die if you haven’t lived to that point yet?”

  “A vision,” Mercedes answered succinctly. “And I do not care to test it.” She smiled broadly and I smiled back. Touche.

  As if the proverbial lightbulb went off over my head, it suddenly dawned on me as to why Mercedes had first seemed so familiar. Her voice pulled at some latent recollection deep inside me. “Your voice,” I started, still in awe. “I knew I’d heard it before but couldn’t put my finger on how. Now I know. It was when I was battling Odran’s fairy, Dougal, and I was dying. I heard your voice, you saved me.”

  She faced me and shook her head, dropping her attention to her small hands. “I did not save you, Jolie, I merely gave you the positive reinforcement you needed to find your own magic.”

  I didn’t know what to make of that. All this time, I’d thought it was someone else’s magic that saved me. But, it had been my own all along. Maybe I was more powerful than I’d ever imagined. The thought pleased me, made me proud to be who I was, not to mention what I was.

  I glanced at Mercedes, and noticed she was just watching me patiently, allowing me time to come to terms with everything she’d said. And, man, was there a lot of it. But, somehow I couldn’t get past Mercedes and her powers. This was the first I’d ever seen a rainbow aura and I’d never heard of anyone being able to time travel. Suddenly, something occurred to me. “Are you the prophetess?”

  She laughed and her voice carried through the room like an echo. She walked back towards me and I sat down on my bed again, feeling like I needed to sit in order to let everything sink in. “I have been called many things throughout the ages. Prophetess seems to be the most recent.”

  “Oh my God,” I started, dumbfounded. “The prophetess is real.”

  “Quite so.”

  I shook my head, as if to clear any residual delirium. There was a prophetess and she just happened to be standing in front of me. Wow, Mercedes was the real deal. “So, all that time that Bella had me searching for you
to bring you back to life again, I couldn’t find you because you were never really dead.”

  “Yes.”

  “How did Bella know about you?”

  Mercedes’ eyes narrowed. “I do not know. Perhaps lore that had been passed down through the centuries.”

  I nodded, I guess it made sense. I mean, Bella really had no clue who she was searching for and had me trying to bring back some old bag twice who had nothing to do with the prophetess. It was sort of funny, actually. But, I didn’t have time to focus on Bella.

  “Okay, getting back to business, how are we going to send me, er, us back?”

  Mercedes’ lips formed a straight line. “Unfortunately it is not quite as easy as you make it sound. Sending us back will require the magic of more than just you and me.”

  “But, how were you able to bring me here?” I demanded, refusing to accept the fact that getting back to my own time was going to be difficult. Mercedes was the prophetess; how could her magic be limited?

  “As I said before, your magic guard was down, otherwise I would not have been able to reach you at all.” She shrugged. “Incidentally, even with your magic defenses down, it took an inordinate amount of my own magic. It took me all night and well into the next day to recuperate. I simply cannot break through your barriers alone.”

  “Then, who can?” I asked immediately, half guessing what her response would be as my stomach started to sink.

  “We need Rand, Jolie. We require his assistance.”

  I shook my head. Yep, I figured Rand would enter into the equation. Dammit! “He hates me.”

  She smiled but the smile didn’t quite reach her eyes. “He distrusts you which is natural to his disposition. You must win him over, Jolie.”

  I sighed, thinking how futile her suggestion was. Rand had already demonstrated that he wanted nothing to do with me and worse, was probably devising ways to get rid of me. “I’ve tried and failed. I don’t know what else to do.”

  Mercedes sat next to me again and patted my knee, as if realizing I needed reassurance. But, what I really needed wasn’t reassurance, it was a time machine.

  “We require the assistance of two people who know you in this year and who knew you in your own time.”

  Great, I was going to be stuck here forever. It was hard enough to woo Rand to my side but now I needed one other person? Looked like it would be the loony ward for me. I felt tears welling up in my eyes and I dropped my head, trying to subdue them. “Rand is the only one who knows me from both times,” I whispered.

  “Are you certain?”

  Then it dawned on me. Rand wasn’t the only one who knew me. I glanced up at Mercedes, my eyes wide. “Pelham?”

  Mercedes shook her head, dashing my hopes into tiny shards of frustration. “I’m afraid both parties must be of the magical persuasion.”

  My shoulders slumped forward as the tears returned. This time I didn’t hold them back, letting them fall freely down my cheeks. “Then I’m going to be stuck here forever. There is no one else.”

  Mercedes stood up, giving me an expression I couldn’t read. “We must return to your own time, Jolie, and we must do so quickly.”

  “Look, I want to go back just as much as you do,” I snapped, wiping the tears from my face.

  “Then find the two people who knew you in your time and know you in this one.”

  I nodded dumbly, still feeling sorry for myself. Mercedes offered me a raised brow expression and I couldn’t help but find amusement in the fact that she was like the chief of all witches and dressed in the outfit of a scullery maid. “So, why are you a maid?”

  She laughed. “I am not truly a maid. I had to ensconce myself in Pelham Manor, Jolie, to ensure that I would be here to save you when you came through. This was the easiest persona to assume.”

  I nodded as Mercedes approached me and squeezed my shoulder reassuringly. “Tonight Rand will venture into the woods, it would behoove you to follow him.” Her tone let on to the fact that she wasn’t going to reveal any more than that. What was it with the magical that they felt the need to riddle like the sphinx?

  “Okay,” I didn’t know what else to say before thoughts of the forest led to thoughts of the fairies which, in turn, brought me to thoughts of Mathilda. I faced Mercedes in shock. “Mathilda! She’s the second person who knew me in my own time and could know me in this one.”

  Mercedes just smiled and I stood up, staring out my window and feeling as if the weight of the world was on my shoulders. And, really, it was.

  eighteen

  It was pitch black outside, the moon eclipsed by thick and unyielding clouds until its glow was no more than a haze. I’d have to use my magic to enable night vision. I closed my eyes, and concentrated on my pupils dilating, allowing my magic to penetrate them. I blinked and everything was tinted an eerie green. Okay, that part was done; now I had to turn to more important matters, such as finding out where the hell Rand was.

  I’d followed him outside into the freezing darkness after playing lookout from my window for forty five minutes. I finally caught sight of him stealing away from Pelham Manor and checking behind him more than once to ensure no one had followed. Then he disappeared into the forest. In my rush not to lose him, I’d nearly tripped over myself to get down the stairs and out the back door. Now here I was, with no Rand in sight, just the outline of a myriad of trees, their skeletal branches swaying in an icy breeze.

  I hurried past the tree line, looking left and right, hoping to catch a glimpse of Rand. I faintly made out the image of a man in an overcoat as he disappeared behind a tree to my right. It was Rand, less than a hundred feet away. I paused behind a giant willow to allow him more of a lead and when it looked as if I might lose him again, I started forward. Why was he venturing so deep into the forest? Didn’t he know he could access Mathilda’s from any nearby tree?

  My footsteps made a sloshing sound as I moved through the snow. A twig snapped underneath me and two crows scattered from the tree overhead, squawking their displeasure over my intrusion. I dove behind a maple tree, holding my breath. Silence settled around me. After another few seconds, I dared to peek out from my hiding place. Rand was gone. Dammit! I surged forward, leaping over a fallen log, my heart pounding. I couldn’t lose him! Too much depended on me reaching him, to convince him that I was as much a witch as he was. I ran for maybe a minute or so, glancing frantically from left to right but found nothing. It was as if he’d disappeared into thin air. Then it occurred to me that he’d probably already found whatever tree he was searching for and was now inside Mathilda’s village. Dammit Dammit!

  Before I could further ponder that idea, I was suddenly crushed by an incredible weight that pushed into me and knocked me over. I landed on my ass and before I could get up to defend myself, someone thrust himself on me, pinning me to the ground.

  “Let me go!” I yelled.

  “What the bloody hell?” Rand demanded, once he recognized me. “I mistook you for a man.”

  It made sense considering I’d magicked myself into a pair of comfy jeans, a turtleneck and a sheepskin jacket. I probably looked like a lumberjack.

  I didn’t answer because I was trying to wiggle out from underneath him which proved impossible. Straddling me, he held my arms to the ground and appeared as though he wasn’t going to release me anytime soon.

  “Why are you following me?” he demanded.

  “I’ll explain if you get off me.”

  He narrowed his eyes. Then, apparently realizing I posed no threat, he let go of me and stood up, dusting the forest debris from his waistcoat and vest. He didn’t offer to help me up but I wasn’t expecting it. I stood up and took a deep breath.

  “I’m following you because I need your help.”

  “This again?” he grunted, running his fingers through his hair and freeing a few dead leaves in the process.

  “Yes, and since you still don’t believe I’m a witch, I’m going to prove it to you.”

  Boredom etc
hed his features. “Amaze me.”

  Okay, he’d asked for it. I braced myself, placing my feet a shoulder’s width apart and raised my hands up, palms facing skyward. Then I closed my eyes and envisioned a series of energy orbs of all colors emanating from my hands. When I opened my eyes, the orbs sailed up into the sky, in green, blue, red, pink and purple. They morphed into various ovoid shapes and circled Rand’s head, whose eyes narrowed.

  “You could be a master of guile,” he said with tight lips.

  Hmm, maybe he meant a magician. “You’ve got to be kidding.” But, his expression said he wasn’t. Not by a long shot. Crap and a half, he was stubborn.

  I frowned and the energy orbs dissipated into nothing, exploding with tiny pops. I placed my hands on my hips. “Okay, then what about this? You seek the council of Mathilda, one of the oldest fairies training you and you are on your way to her village right now.”

  He moved a few steps closer to me and grabbed the lapels of my jacket, pulling me to him until we were nose to nose. My breath caught in my throat as I inhaled the spicy scent that was uniquely his. He just glared down his nose at me, close enough to kiss me. “How do you know this?”

  My lust collapsed into irritation as I realized I’d already explained the whole witch deal to him more than twice. At what point would he believe me? I pushed him away and smoothed my lapels back into place. “How many times do I have to tell you? I’m a witch.”

  “And your connection to Mathilda?”

  “Mathilda was one of my fairy teachers along with Gor.”

  His eyebrows arched at the mention of Gor but he didn’t say anything. Maybe he hadn’t completely bought my story but at this point, I didn’t care. I was more interested in testing whether or not my open invitation to Mathilda’s village was still in effect. I approached the nearest tree, an oak, the trunk of which was easily the width of a car and placed my hand on it, closing my eyes as I envisioned Mathilda’s village.

  “What are you doing?” Rand demanded.

  I didn’t open my eyes. “If you won’t believe me, maybe Mathilda will.”