Spell or High Water

by ReGina Welling

  I’d been a bit of a fool.

  I sighed. “So what do you want to do?”

  “I’m going to take care of him.”

  I couldn’t even begin to argue the problematic logistics of that. Chilled, I sat down on the couch beside the wood fireplace, glad that it was blazing merrily. The fire called to me to come closer, but I ignored it. An elemental witch always had to remember that the element served her and not the other way around. That way led to madness.

  But embracing just a little bit of madness, I came to a decision. “I may have an idea, but it can wait until morning. Tonight, we should just let him sleep.”

  Josh’s face softened. “We?”

  I tossed my ponytail. “It’s my dad’s house, but he’s not here, so that makes it my problem. Besides, I know a good lawyer who has a way of working around the system. I think he can help.”

  There was a soft sound, almost like the mew of a kitten. I turned to discover the little boy had wandered in while we were talking. He was dressed in one of Josh’s t-shirts, and it hung down to his feet. He rubbed his eyes sleepily.

  “Hey, little buddy, you shouldn’t be up,” Josh said gently.

  “Cold,” the child whispered. Without another word, he ran across the room to fling his arms around my waist.

  “Josh! He’s freezing!” I was shocked. The child’s arms were as hard and cold as ice. I could feel them leeching the warmth out of me.

  Josh bundled the child up, holding him close. “It does get a bit drafty in the bedroom. He probably just kicked the covers off, but he seems to be warmed up now. I’ll take him back to bed.”

  While I waited for Josh to return, I stood as close as was safe to the fire to warm myself back up. I was now convinced that helping him was the right thing to do after seeing how tender he was with the child. Before I could stop myself, I found myself wondering what it must be like to fall asleep safe and warm in Josh’s arms.

  By the time Josh returned, I’d made a decision. “I’m going to go now. I’ll get you the number for that lawyer in the morning.”

  “Why don’t you stay for a bit? I can make us some dinner. We could put a movie on or something to ride out the storm.”

  But I was already at the door. Staying would be a mistake. The way I was feeling right now, one thing would lead to another, and then…

  I’d already started down some sort of a path with Mac; it would be wrong to complicate things. Besides, despite what my traitorous body might be telling me at the moment, I had no interest in Mundanes.

  “Maybe another time,” I lied as I slipped out the door. I knew Josh was watching through the window, so I made myself walk and not run across the snow to the main house.

  Once inside, I heated up one of the premade gourmet meals which filled Dad’s freezer and then spent the next couple of hours drinking cup after cup of hot chocolate, trying to stay warm while I flipped back and forth between several weather disaster movies on TV. LA stations either had a good sense of irony or almost prescient content scheduling. I finally fell asleep to Dennis Quaid risking his life to reach his son in a frozen New York City.

  The buzzing of my phone as it vibrated along the glass top of the coffee table woke me up. I threw off the blanket I’d snuggled into and immediately regretted it. Dad’s heat must have turned off because I could see my breath in the frigid air.

  I picked up the phone. “Hey, Melissa, it’s 11:00. What time is it there? It’s got to be super late.” In my grogginess, I’d forgotten what I’d asked her to do for me.

  “You’ve got to do something!”

  “What?”

  “The Heart of the World! It’s dying!” She sounded frantic.

  I was wide awake now. “What did you find out?”

  “Elizabeth was grumpy about it, but I got the book. It was fascinating. Terrifying too.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “The elves know so much which they don’t tell. This book only hinted at things, but still…There are hidden places in the world where alternate realities almost touch. The tension between them creates an energy, a power which the strongest elves once accessed to fuel their greatest magics. They called it the Heart of the World, only there’s more than one.”

  “Yes, I met someone with elven blood. That’s what he said too.”

  “The elves were only ever to risk accessing a tiny part of that magic. Eventually, some overreached and it was forbidden.”

  “Why?”

  Melissa’s tight little laugh was more than a bit hysterical. “It’s almost science. There are all these different realities branching out from what they call the Tree of Life, separate, yet connected. If the tension between them is disturbed, one reality can fall into the other, bleeding into it until one or both of them are destroyed.”

  Cold worms slithered up my spine. “Have you seen the reports about the weather in LA?”

  “That’s why I’m calling you! Truly just ordered an emergency meeting of the Circle. Merrow told her that one thing which could cause such a swift and catastrophic change was if a Heart of the World was dying. He felt it through the oceans, and it’s spreading.” Merrow—Truly’s water fae father—was the leader of most of the fae on the East Coast.

  “But how can something like that die?”

  “That’s what the elves were afraid of when they made it forbidden! The magic between realities isn’t infinite. If too much is taken, it can fail.”

  And who had taken the magic? Had I been deceived by a man with magic who assured me he wasn’t a bat-crap crazy warlock? Was I really that naïve?

  I took a breath to try to still the panic rising in my chest. “If this is what’s causing the weather, LA and everything in it is going to be locked in a deep freeze soon. I need to get out of here!”

  There was a pause. “You can’t. You have to do something. You have to stop it. There’s only you.”

  “But Melissa, I can’t…” I was a fire witch. The wet and the cold filled me with a visceral fear which was paralyzing. “There has to be someone else.”

  “You know we don’t have any agreements in place with the West Coast witches. If there are any nearby who could help, we don’t even know who they are. And they don’t know what I just told you. They’ll think it’s just a freak storm until it’s too late. You’re going to have to take care of this yourself!”

  I was surprised by the steel in the normally timid woman’s voice, but it pushed back some of the fear. “What do I do?”

  “I don’t know,” she admitted, “but in the lore, the Heart of the World at World’s End—the essence of the magic there—is described as an entity which guards our realities and the Tree of Life which supports them. There were two illustrations in the book. One was of a dragon curled around the tree, and the other was of a little child playing in the branches. Whatever it is, it’s dying, and you need to save it!”

  A little child.

  The phone dropped from my cold, numb fingers.

  I flung myself across the room and out the glass doors at the back of the house. I ran barefoot through ankle-deep snow to the guest house. The front door was open. I knew what I would find, but I went in anyway.

  Josh and the child were gone.

  Chapter Seven

  The streets were almost deserted, except for a few vehicles abandoned where they’d slid into ditches and a handful of other cars creeping along at a snail’s pace. I sped by them. Maine born and bred, it would take more than a foot of snow to slow me down. Dad had the Mercedes, so I was driving Josh’s Camry. I’d found the keys in the pocket of his jacket by the door. I didn’t want to think about how, but I knew where Josh and the child would be.

  Santa Monica Pier. The closest spot on dry earth to Los Angeles’ local World’s End.

  I drove directly onto the pier and into the small lot behind the amusement park. Even under a couple of inches of snow, I recognized the one other car parked there. It was Mac’s rental.

  Rage flared through me
at the thought of how easily he’d played me. I’d so desperately wanted to believe I’d found a man who gave me the witch blood feels, but who was also good and kind, that I’d made it easy for him! Instead, he was just another psycho warlock who was either deliberately trying to end the world, or who was accidentally doing it by trying to steal the Heart’s magic.

  I channeled my anger into a small ball of flame which rolled across the snow in front of me, clearing the way and warming the air in my path. I had on the heaviest things I’d packed for my trip—leather bomber jacket, ankle boots, jeans—but they weren’t enough to keep out the cold. I hated wasting energy this way, but it would be more ironic than tragic if a fire witch were to die from hypothermia!

  Of course, if that happened, our reality would be destroyed, so at least I would be saved the humiliation.

  I ran along the walkway which bounded the amusement park until it joined up with the pier. The wood of the pier was slippery with snow and puddles of icy water from the waves crashing against the sides, threatening to spill over the top and wash me away. The spray put out my ball of fire. I didn’t stop to call it back. As I approached the end of the pier, the blocky building which housed a couple of restaurants and the Harbor Office obscured my view of it.

  “Josh!” I yelled as I pushed against the wind.

  The Harbor Office had given me some shelter, but now I was past it and out in the open again, at the end of the pier, at the end of the world.

  But I wasn’t alone. Mac turned in surprise. I was equally surprised to see he was wearing nothing but swim trunks. “Theresa? Good! You’re here!” he shouted. “Get these two somewhere safe. I don’t know how they even got here!”

  I looked to where he was pointing. Josh and the child huddled against the side of the building. Toppled tables and umbrellas from the patio restaurant gave them some cover from the elements.

  “Mac, stop! You don’t know what you’re doing!”

  Maybe I was naïve, and maybe it was the pure childish glee on Mac’s face, but looking at him, I couldn’t believe he was trying to destroy our reality. It was all a big mistake. I just needed to explain things to him and he would stop. I tried to get closer, but the wind had become a living thing full of malice, holding me back.

  The water witch spread his arms wide. “It’s everything my Gran told me it would be! The space between dimensions has opened! The water will take me to a power there that will change the world!” He dropped his arms as his smile turned sweet. “I can make the world a better place.”

  “Oh, Mac, no! She was wrong! She didn’t understand…”

  But he wasn’t listening. As I watched in horror, Mac mounted the railing in one smooth bound and leaped off the end of the pier, disappearing into the churning water.

  For a moment, the waves went as still as if they had flash-frozen in place. I held my breath for an eternity of maybe six seconds. Then the water came to life again and MacAdam Ward was flung from the sea into the air where he held no power. He fell like a shooting star onto the pier and was still.

  “Mac!” I screamed. I ran to him and fell to my knees by his side.

  Those of us who are born with abilities are difficult to kill, but we can die. We might heal more quickly than Mundanes do, but a crushed skull or pierced heart will only kill us a little slower. When Mac groaned, I was amazed he wasn’t dead. Then I saw the water underneath him, suspending him above the wood deck. It had shielded him as he fell and his body never hit the pier.

  Opening his eyes, he pushed himself gingerly into a sitting position. He smiled ruefully. “Well, that was a bust. I can’t believe you stayed in this weather! How long was I gone?”

  “Only seconds.”

  “Really? For me, it had to have been closer to an hour.”

  Curiosity got the better of me. “What did you find?”

  He stood. “The water took me right to it. I don’t think I can explain what it was like, but a person would go mad if they stayed there too long. Are you sure it was only seconds?”

  “Yes.”

  He shook his head. “Incredible. I looked around for a while, but whatever power was there before, it was gone. It was dead.”

  “Not dead. Not yet. But dying.”

  The wind had calmed a little, so I didn’t have to scream, but I feared it was only the calm before the final thrust of the storm. As I led Mac towards Josh and the child, I relayed as quickly as I could what Melissa had found.

  I left out the part about thinking he’d been trying to end the world.

  As I approached, the child looked up at me with innocent, helpless eyes. “I’m cold,” he whimpered.

  “I know.” He watched me intently as I kneeled down beside Josh. I checked his pulse. He was alive, but his skin was gray, and the hair on one side of his head was wet with blood. “What happened?”

  “I was carrying him, but I got tired. I dropped him once.”

  Mac hurried unsteadily around the side of the building and returned with a duffel bag. He pulled out a trench coat and draped it over Josh, flashing me a smile. “A Scotsman always comes prepared.”

  “What about you?”

  He waved my concern away. “I’m in my element. But we need to get them inside soon.”

  “I’m cold,” the child insisted.

  I stood and put out my hand. “I know, sweetheart, but there’s something we need to do first.”

  Mac frowned. “What are you doing? We need to go.”

  Ignoring him was easier than ignoring the fact that Josh was only clinging to life. When I touched his wrist, I could feel the fire of life going out of him. I’d never experienced my powers in that way before.

  I forced myself to focus on the child. Josh might die, but that wouldn’t matter if our entire reality was destroyed.

  The child looked at my hand uncertainly, as if he mistrusted my offer. I tried another tactic. “That was you earlier, wasn’t it? You went through me. I felt you.”

  The child nodded. “I’ve been trying to escape for a while. I was dying. I had to leave to find you. I have known you from the moment you were born.” Now his eyes were old and wise.

  “Me?”

  “After you found your power, you reached for me.” His smile was breathtaking. “I loved you. I gave you everything you asked for, but I was already old and weak. I gave too much.”

  I dropped my hand. “I never asked for anything. I’m a fire witch.”

  “Yes. Fire which doesn’t burn out, which never consumes itself, which springs from the ether alone.”

  I thought of all the times I’d brought fire into existence from no other visible source. Had I accidentally tapped into this ancient power?

  “Yes,” the child replied again to the thoughts I couldn’t speak out loud, “you understand now. I love you because we are alike. Because you are mine. We are both dragonssssss.” The word came out with a crackle of age and a hiss of flame. “But you have taken my fire and left me with none to warm myself. I put it into your mind to come, and come you did.”

  “That’s why I suddenly decided to come visit my dad, even though I haven’t been here in years. You put the thought there.”

  “Yesssss.”

  The cold washing over me had nothing to do with the weather. In my arrogance—in my wanton use of my powers—I was the one who had almost ended the world.

  I finally caught my breath, though my heart felt like it was being squeezed in a vise. “I’m sorry,” I whispered. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you. I didn’t mean to do any of this.”

  Old and young, dragon and child, the Heart of the World looked at me with compassion in its eyes. I felt rather than heard the intention in its mind, and I knew what I had to do. I put out my hand again. The child smiled sweetly as he took it. Then the blood in my veins turned to ice water as the creature took the heat out of me.

  I closed my eyes and opened myself to fire.

  Chapter Eight

  Truly Mason, the rightful Lady of
the Circle, and of all covens in North America once our kind is united—my friend—told me later that reports came in from witches all over the country that every fire, every pilot light, every open flame went out at precisely 11:35 Pacific Standard Time.

  All I knew was that I’d never channeled as much fire through the magic of my blood, and likely never would again. But I didn’t keep a single particle of it for myself. All of it went into the Heart of the World until its living flame was re-ignited. When it was finished, I opened my eyes.

  The child was gone. In its place hovered a golden dragon with eyes which roiled and swirled like lava. Flames danced along the length of its massive tail.

  “Thank you.” Though the creature’s mouth didn’t move, its voice was clear, and it had the sweetness of a child’s overlaid with the roar of a lion’s. “Once in every age, the Heart must be renewed, the bonds between realities fortified, and the Tree of Life strengthened. An avatar of fire is then born into the world, chosen for this task at its appointed time. I felt you when you were born and knew this was your destiny, and that you had the requisite power to fulfill it. Through our bond of fire, I watched you grow up, though you never knew it, and I aided you with my own fire when you needed it, though I was failing fast. I loved you too well and allowed you to take too much, too soon. I almost called you here too late. Thus, the fault was mine.”

  I felt deep shame at my ignorance. I’d never thought to question the ease with which I sometimes called flame to life. “I’ll never take from you again, I promise.”

  There was a strange rumbling sound, and it took me a moment to realize the dragon was chuckling. “Take what you like, little spark, for now, I am again STRONG!” The deck boards shook. “But remember the lesson. There is always a price to pay for magic.” He beat his wings once and the gust of wind nearly knocked me off my feet.

  I bowed my head humbly in the face of his fearsome majesty. “I will remember.”