Bridget scans the surroundings. ‘We have to go.’ The wards are crumbling. The force of the elements messed everything up.
‘We can’t leave her like that.’ Says Maeve in horror.
‘Of course, we can,’ replies Gwen. ‘This is our chance to escape. Come on.’
They all look at Tara. Tara mouths ‘I’m sorry’ to Lucy before she urges everybody to get moving.
‘Let’s go!’
Lucy looks frightened when she finally disappears underground. Tara didn’t move despite her words, it’s still her sister. She can break free, right?! Bridget grabs her Grandmother’s arm and pulls her towards the other end of the square. Tara was supposed to take a broom with Gwen, and the others would scatter, to make it more difficult for Lucy to follow. They weren’t sure whether that was still necessary. This was not how they planned it…
A ripple goes through the square. This is not good. ‘Go. Go. Go.’
Tara hops on her broom and takes off, followed by Gwen. The others run to Bridget’s car.
Lucy finally manages to shake off the spirits. Once Luna left, they lost their purpose and Lucy swiftly pushed them back to the other side. It cost her quite a bit of energy to dig herself out of the ground.
Tara knows she doesn’t have much time and stops on top of one of the high rises. The Dagger needs to be safe as soon as possible. Gwen stops next to her. ‘Something wrong?’
‘We don’t have much time. We need to hide the Dagger.’ Tara looks around.
‘Up here? We need to stick to the plan. Or better, give it to me. Our family will take care of it. It’s ours.’
‘It won’t take Lucy long to escape. We messed up.’
‘More reason to give it to me and keep moving.’
Tara takes Gwen’s face in both her hands. ‘Please don’t argue and listen.’ Gwen opens her mouth. ‘Please.’ Her mouth snaps shut.
‘Lucy will be coming. I need to hide the Dagger in another realm. I need you to guard my back. Can you do that?’ For a moment, Tara drops her guard and Gwen sees Tara’s desperate plea.
‘Of course, I can. Anything to keep it safe.’
‘Thank you.’ Says Tara simply and before she lets go of her face, she plants a quick kiss on her cheek.
Resolutely, Gwen scouts the roof while Tara quickly feels through her pockets. Shit, she had taken it, didn’t she? Damnit, her brain is mush these days. Where did she put it? Relieved she feels the familiar bump of the Tarot deck.
‘Whatever you hear, don’t mind me. Just make sure to keep us hidden.’
Gwen is already busy with perimeter spells. Tara moves in between the air conditioning out of Gwen’s immediate view. Quickly, she flips through the deck. Who should she give the Dagger to? Ceri? No, that won’t work if she’s in Fairy, too much power close to Mab. Ron? He’s too straight-laced. Maeve? She would love to, but she’s too compassionate. Again, she holds Bridget’s card. It seems to always come back to her. Tara concentrates intently on the card.
Bridget drives the car through a light Sunday morning traffic as quickly and responsibly as possible. It’s quiet in the car. Luna sits in the back, staring straight ahead, looking white as a sheet and Maeve stares out of the window. They’re all shaken from the encounter with Lucy. It didn’t go as planned at all. The spirits that dragged Lucy down were harrowing. They were to take public transportation in different directions, but without further discussion, they had all jumped in the car, not willing to stay another second close to the site. Bridget feels queasy, who wouldn’t after what they had done? She looks at her hands, and it seems like they stretch. Shit. This has happened before. Quickly she moves to the side of the road, nearly grazing a blue beetle.
‘Hey!’ Snaps Maeve. When she looks at Bridget, she dissolves.
‘No, no, no, NO!’
‘Grandma! I was driving!’ is the first thing that comes out of Bridget’s mouth when she appears in her hunter’s tunic on the rooftop. The lion by her side roars.
‘Everything okay there?’ inquires Gwen.
‘Yes. Yes. Stay focused.’ Shouts Tara at her.
In the meantime, Lucy struggles out through the seal. She looks horrible. It sucks getting old. That devious sister of hers! If she wasn’t so furious, she could probably appreciate her trap. Without hesitation, she throws out her will to find the Dagger.
The Dagger resonates in Tara’s hands. It’s hard for her to keep a hold on it. Tara and Bridget stare at it. ‘Lucy is back.’ Bridget looks around.
‘Take it!’
‘What am I going to do with it? I’m not strong enough.’
‘It will go back in the card with you, and it will be out of this world.’
A scream travels up the building. The lion answers with another roar.
‘She’s almost here. We have no choice,’ urges Tara.
Gwen is chanting a cover spell.
Bridget takes a long look at the Dagger. There doesn’t seem to be another option. She grabs the Dagger and snaps it on her belt. As if it has always belonged there. The power of the Dagger feels like a comforting blanket, even though it’s not attuned to her. Once it’s on her belt, she immediately starts to dissolve.
Before she completely disappears, she sees the frazzled Lucy fly up to the top of the building.
Tara deftly puts the card back, and it’s back in her pocket before Lucy lands.
Lucy screams as if she’s in agonizing pain. She could feel the Dagger’s power being cut off from her. Something in the air shimmered and disappeared. Tara must have sent it into a magical realm. Away from her. She still has some of the power of Air, but her connection is weakened.
‘Where is it?’ she demands. Gwen comes running, but a flick of Lucy’s wrist throws a stun spell at her and Gwen falls backward.
‘It’s out of your reach,’ states Tara, calmly.
‘You’ll pay for this! Where is it? The Astral Plane?’
Tara looks at her stoically, even though she’s a total mess inside.
‘That would be too easy.’ Lucy thinks, and slowly something dawns on her.
‘You didn’t?!’
Tara looks down as if she’s guilty. Best let her draw her own conclusion. She doesn’t know the cards exist.
‘FAIRY?!’ Lucy’s face is turning purple.
‘You left me no choice.’ Tara even manages to show a tear.
‘You will be sorry.’ Lucy says while she makes a whirlwind and opens a gate into Fairy in the air next to her. Without looking she steps through it. ‘Once I have the Dagger back…’ The gate snaps shut.
Tara lets out a big breath and rushes over to Gwen. who’s slowly regaining feeling in her limbs.
Bridget is back in the car, and Luna and Maeve are bombarding her with questions. Bridget doesn’t say anything, but just rests her head on her arms on the steering wheel. Damn Tara, this is all becoming too much.
Mara is busy disabling the burning spell. Tom has been debating if he should pull his gun on her. He has a feeling she’s aware of him. Now that she’s preoccupied, he grabs his chance to secure her. Slowly he inches closer. Her eyes look like burning coals, very scary this lady is. From his pocket, he fishes his tie wraps, the quickest and easiest ways to tie her hands. Her chanting intensifies, it’s now or never. He grabs her arm and screams! It’s like he’s grabbing hot coals. The pain takes over everything. He’s unable to let her go. Mara is pulling the burning spell into herself, and unintentionally, he has given her an outlet. The burning spell runs through him and grounds itself in the floor. The only thing that keeps him alive is the protection spell. Otherwise, it would have literally burned him up. Tom is paralyzed, and Mara quickly grabs the book, turns to Tom and blows him a kiss. ‘Thank you.’ And she runs up the stairs, her Grandma’s book safely in her pocket.
Bridget finally looks at Maeve. ‘I’m sorry, Tara pul
led me out through the magical Tarot Deck.’
‘The what?!’
‘Let’s go to the station and see how it went over there. Then we’ll go home and Tara can explain it all to all of you at the same time.’
‘No Bridget. You need to tell us.’ Maeve is fed up.
Luna seems to have snapped out of her trance. ‘Please, we need to go to the station. Something went wrong. I can feel it.’
‘Shit.’ Bridget has the car going and doesn’t waste any more time.
Luna and her daughters run into the police station, but it all seems totally normal.
‘Tom!’ shouts Luna, heads are turning their way. Bridget rushes to the police officer behind the desk. He recognizes her.
‘Detective Madigan. What’s wrong?’
‘We’re looking for Detective Walsh. Have you seen him?’
‘I think he went down to evidence.’
‘Thanks.’
Bridget waves Luna and Maeve to follow her, and she runs down the hall.
‘Wait! You can’t take them down there!’
They’re already out of view. The door to the evidence room is open, and Sergeant Blake looks dazed. Bridget points at him. ‘Maeve?’ and moves on. Maeve stops and runs her witch sense over the officer. He has been enchanted. She goes to work.
Bridget sees Tom curled up on the floor, she rushes over when Luna pushes passed her and is on her knees next to Tom in record time. Luna holds Tom’s head between her hands. His face is in agony. Her witch sense is already homing in on the problem. In his core, there is a heat radiating. A spell flows from her lips and Tom is visibly relaxing. A water spell subtracts heat from Tom. His muscles spasm, and he makes unnatural noises. His color returns back to normal, and he finally registers Luna presence. Completely exhausted, he collapses in her arms.
‘She got the book.’ He rasps and passes out.
It’s late in the day when Luna walks into Bridget’s kitchen. There is a tense silence hanging in the air. Gwen tries to contain her impatience. Maeve has taken over the kitchen and pulls something from the oven. The smell of baked goods always seems to have a positive effect on everybody. It’s one of Maeve’s gifts, to influence moods with her cooking. The kettle is boiling. Bridget jumps up. ‘How’s Tom?’
‘He’ll recover, without the protection spell, I don’t know if he would have made it.’
‘Does he remember what happened?’ asks Gwen.
‘Lucy’s Granddaughter charmed the precinct. Tom followed her, and he wanted to grab her while she was distracted. Which turned out to be a big mistake. The burning spell we put on it unloaded itself through him, and a human body is not made to withstand that.’
Tara winces. ‘I’m sorry. I’m glad he’s going to be fine.’
‘What happened to the Dagger?’ Demands Gwen, she needs to know.
Luna points at Tara ‘Yes. Where is it? You have some explaining to do. What happened to Bridget? Hell, what happened with Lucy?’
Tara scoots back and forth in her chair. She had hoped to avoid any need to explain anything. Things had gotten out of hand, and now she had to share at least something with the women in the room. ‘I will explain, but you all have to promise to keep it between us. Lucy will come back for it, and we need to keep it a secret. What the others don’t know, they can’t give away.’
‘Okay,’ agrees Maeve, always wanting to please Tara.
‘I don’t agree to anything until I know what it is,’ rejects Gwen.
‘I agree with Gwen. You can’t expect them to agree to something they don’t know. I think we all earned the right to have a say in this.’ Tara doesn’t look happy at all, after this coming from Bridget and she gives her a hostile look. ‘As you leave me no choice…’ Tara is pouring herself a cup of tea and looks pointedly at each of the witches. Luna has a hard time not to roll her eyes.
‘The last years before his death, Seamus worked on a magical Tarot Deck. Every family member is on it.’
‘Who’s Seamus?’ Asks Gwen.
‘Seamus is my husband and he was a gifted witch and artist.’ Explains Tara.
‘Even the children are on it?’ Luna steers the conversation back to the Deck.
‘Yes. Seamus and I, our children and spouses, and grandchildren. We made it to give you all a tool to use to ask advice for generations to come.’
‘Even when we’re dead?’ wonders Maeve.
Tara shrugs. ‘We didn’t really get a chance to try it out before Seamus died.’
‘You don’t know how it works?!’ Luna can’t believe the stupidity.
Gwen agrees with her, she follows this family’s exchange with wonder. Her family is small and they’re very open. This family however…
‘Well, I recently found out. As I played around with it,’ continues Tara.
This is taking too long, Bridget explains, ‘If you ask the card a question, the cards come to life. Show them the Deck, Grandma.’
‘Bridget!’ She pointedly looks at Gwen.
‘Gwen’s family is in this already. Show it! They need to know. It was probably a great idea. However, it’s freaky and even dangerous. But they all should know.’ Bridget’s stern look allows no opposition. Again, Tara weighs her options. Grumbling she gets the Deck out, and fans it, images up, on the table. Gwen, Maeve, Luna, and Bridget bend over it and study the images. Luna spreads them out further, so everybody is visible.
‘They look so lifelike,’ muses Maeve while she looks at her own image. ‘I’m Temperance?’ The Maeve on the card stands by a fountain and has two cups in her hands, water falling from one in the other. It’s as if you can see her hair flowing in the wind. ‘Is it moving? How does it work?’
‘Yes, it’s moving.’ Replies Bridget. ‘Actually, the image in the card becomes life-size, and you will be pulled from wherever you are. That’s what happened to me in the car.’
‘That was you on the roof?’ says Gwen. It’s hard to believe.
‘Yes and no. It’s weird, it’s me, and it’s the card me. A sort of blend. You’ll look exactly like the image on the card.’
‘Did Tara give you the Dagger?’ Luna, as always, focuses back on the heart of the matter. Tara closes her eyes. Luna has always been smart as a whip, and she quickly put two and two together. Bridget looks at Tara, now she lets her Grandmother handle it. ‘Not really to Bridget, but it’s hidden in her card. That way it’s in a magical realm. It somehow cuts Lucy off from part of her power.’
‘Do you have access to the Dagger’s powers now?’ Gwen wants to know. Bridget shakes her head. ‘I don’t feel any different.’ Bridget turns towards Tara. ‘What happened to Lucy?’
‘She felt the Dagger’s power disappear into a magical realm and she concluded I dropped it into Fairy. So, she followed it.’
‘We’re safe now?’ says Maeve hopeful.
This makes Tara smile. ‘At least for a while. I might have tipped off Mab that she would show up.’
The Dagger Page 26