We passed the pond where Florian had recently spent time as a frog and I noticed him give the place a longing look as we continued forward. Apparently, you could take the boy out of the frog, but you couldn’t take the frog out of the boy.
“Where are we going?” I asked.
“The far end of town,” he replied. “It’s chaos over there.”
Through the thickness of the trees, I spotted a footbridge over one of several local streams that led to the ocean. A flash of color caught my attention.
“Florian, someone’s running onto the bridge,” I said. I steered Candle closer for a better look. I recognized the figure. He stopped running when he saw us.
“Don’t come any closer,” he yelled.
“Cephas?” I nudged the horse and she lowered me to the ground.
“It must be coming this way,” Florian said.
“What’s coming this way?” Whatever it was, it couldn’t be good. The druid healer looked absolutely terrified.
“I’m going to see if I can stop it,” Florian said. Without waiting for me to respond, he galloped further into the woods.
“Stay here,” I told Candle and turned back to Cephas.
“You need to go back,” the druid yelled. “Don’t come this way.” He glanced over his shoulder, petrified.
I walked slowly toward him on the bridge. The wooden planks beneath my feet began to tremble and I looked around quizzically. What was happening? I looked at the stream below and noticed a slight ripple in the water. Something felt wrong. The hair on the back of my neck stood on end.
"By the gods," Cephas whispered. “It’s following me.” His face paled and I was afraid he was about to throw himself off the bridge into the water.
“Cephas, what's wrong?"
He was frozen in place. I looked past him just as a giant oblong object trailed through the sky toward us. It landed on the bridge with a splatter, shaking the entire structure. We jumped back, clutching each other.
"Is that what I think it is?” Scattered on the bridge were fragments of a decorated shell. Pastel pink, yellow, and green.
"Duck,” Cephas yelled, yanking me down with him.
“Are you sure?” I queried. “The egg looks way too big…”
Another colorful egg flew over our heads and exploded on the ground beyond the bridge.
"Easter egg grenades?" I queried.
The bridge shook again. Popcorn balls. We were under attack with nowhere to hide.
“Cephas, have you been cursed?” I asked. That would explain why it was following him into the woods.
The druid nodded. “I tried to lead it away from busy areas, so I ran into the woods. Now I don’t know what to do.”
That made two of us. “What’s your worst nightmare, Cephas? Broken eggs?”
We huddled on the bridge together and Cephas spoke to me in a state of panic. "When I was a child, I begged my parents to adopt some of the human customs. One of them was Easter. I wanted to dye eggs and have the Easter Bunny hide them for me to find the next day."
That sounded innocent enough. What was so frightening about it? "So what happened?"
"My parents decided to go the extra mile. They had a friend dress in an Easter bunny costume and sneak into the house to hide the eggs while I was asleep. What they didn't know was that I had awoken in the night to find a huge six-foot bunny at the foot of my bed. I screamed, scaring the bunny, and the basket of eggs flew everywhere. One hit me in the head and cracked. I was so traumatized afterward, I had nightmares for years about being attacked by the Easter Bunny."
Oh boy.
The bridge shook harder this time and I realized what was coming. Another egg sailed over our heads and landed at the foot of the bridge. Pieces of shell flew in all directions. Polka dots and stripes flashed before my eyes.
"Incoming," Cephas yelled. Another egg plummeted to the ground. This one narrowly missed us.
"Let me think of a spell," I said, squeezing my eyes closed. I tried to force myself to concentrate. The eggs were too big to control with telekinesis. I wasn’t advanced enough to handle giant Easter eggs. Hell, I couldn’t even move scissors back at the art gallery. I racked my brain for what other skills I had. I thought of the protective bubble that Wren had created when the branch threatened to pummel us.
I clasped the druid’s hands and said, “Vesica.”
I felt the energy of the invisible wall as it stretched around us. The barrier formed just in time as another Easter egg careened toward us. It slammed into the protective bubble and bounced off, splashing into the water below. Its pastel stripes were visible from the bridge as the egg floated downstream.
"He's coming," Cephas said, and swallowed a sob.
I turned my head to see the giant bunny emerge from the shadows. He was not the six-foot bunny of the druid’s nightmares. This bunny was the size of a five-story building. He was brown and fluffy, wearing a pale blue bow tie and carrying a wicker basket full of eggs. His buckteeth were more menacing than adorable. Ice traveled up my spine as I realized that this bunny could easily crush the bubble and us. It was one thing to deflect eggs, but quite another to withstand the pressure of a giant foot. Lucky rabbit's foot, my ass.
I had to think of another spell. The protective bubble wouldn't be enough.
“I can change the color of the eggs,” I blurted.
Cephas inclined his head. “What good will that do?”
“I have no idea,” I said, my voice shaking. “My magical skills are limited.” Where was Florian? He needed to get back here and deal with this giant fluffy menace.
“I feel sick,” Cephas said, and promptly vomited through a gap in the planks. Lovely.
As the Easter bunny advanced, the bridge began to sway. I quickly ran through every bit of magic I’d encountered since the night I met my cousins.
“I know what to do,” I said. I reversed the bubble spell and stretched my wand toward the bunny.
“No, we need the barrier,” Cephas said in a panic.
He grabbed my wand as I said, “Glaciare.”
“Cephas, no!”
The druid turned blue and iced over, the same as the branch had done. I pictured the branch breaking apart and falling to the ground.
“Please don’t crack,” I told Cephas.
He said nothing, frozen in position. I squeezed my wand and turned to face the giant bunny, ready for battle.
The bunny was gone.
“What the…?” I whipped around in a circle. There was no sign of the monstrous Easter bunny.
Florian emerged from the woods and rode toward us. “I tracked it here. Where did it go?”
I breathed a sigh of relief. “It’s gone. I don’t know what happened. I was going to use magic to freeze it, but I accidentally froze Cephas instead. The next thing I knew, the bunny was gone.”
“Can you unfreeze him?” I asked. I was too nervous to try. Accidentally freezing him was bad enough. What if I managed to hurt the town healer?
Florian touched Cephas lightly on his frozen shoulder and said, “Tabescere.”
The druid returned to his natural color, albeit a bit paler. He slumped to the ground. “Is it gone?”
“It is,” I said. “It’s okay, Cephas.”
“I’m very thirsty,” he said. “Does anyone have water?”
The mention of his thirst triggered a memory. I ran back through all the victims. I was fairly certain they’d all expressed the need for a drink at some point during the curse.
Florian snapped his fingers and produced a bottle of water for the druid. Cephas gulped it down greedily.
“Sick baby Elvis,” I said. “It isn’t me. I’m not the cause.”
Cephas sat on the ground beside me, breathing heavily. “I never believed you were, Ember.”
“I didn’t want to believe it,” I said, “but the evidence was becoming too much to ignore.”
Florian lifted the druid off the ground and placed him in the saddle. “I’ll take Ceph
as to his office. Help thaw him out the rest of the way.”
“Yes, my assistant will be there,” the druid said. “She can help.”
“Perfect,” Florian said with a wink. “I’d love an excuse to see Lyssa McTavish again.”
“She’s not interested in you,” I said. “She thinks you’re lazy.”
“You don’t bother with sugarcoating, do you?” Florian asked in his usual good-natured way. His laidback attitude was one thing I really liked about him.
“Life’s too short.” As I said the words, I realized how late it was. “Florian, can you ask Simon to collect Marley from school? I won’t have enough time to make my stops and get back to Bailiwick Road for the final bell.”
“Why? Where are you going?” my cousin asked.
“To see Milo Jarvis,” I said. “I think he has the information we need to end this once and for all.”
Chapter 18
It didn’t take me long to track down the person I wanted to see on Potions Lane. As I was about to enter the apartment building, a familiar voice called my name.
I whipped around. “Sheriff?”
“You should have called me, Rose,” he said. “You’re dealing with things you don’t understand.”
“How did you know I was here?”
“Florian texted me that you were going to see Milo. I just missed you there.”
I should have been annoyed, but, secretly, I was relieved to see the sheriff walking around in his human form again. That shiny star on his shirt never looked so good.
“I don’t know if my theory is right,” I said. “I wanted to confirm before I spoke to you.”
He gave me a lopsided grin. “Are you admitting you might be wrong?”
“What I’m admitting is that this is only a theory.”
“Well, I’ll admit it’s a decent one.”
We located number sixteen and I took a deep breath before knocking. I desperately wanted to be right about this. To end these nightmares before something far worse than a Godzilla-sized Easter bunny terrorized the town.
The door opened to reveal an older elf with large, round glasses and a pallid complexion.
“Mr. Gunnar?” I said.
He squinted. “Yes? Do I know you?”
Sheriff Nash muscled his way in front of me. “You know me, Bjorn. Could we have a word?”
“Of course, Sheriff.” Bjorn pulled open the door to let us pass. “What can I do for you?”
We walked straight into a living area. The simple layout reminded me of my apartment in Maple Shade, New Jersey and I felt a brief pang of nostalgia.
Two children sat on the sofa, their noses buried in comic books. They glanced up at us with interest.
“Are you a real sheriff?” the smaller boy asked.
“I am,” Sheriff Nash replied, tapping the star on his chest. “And what’s your name?”
“These are my sons,” Bjorn said. “Sven and Soren.” Bjorn settled on a nearby recliner, appearing worn out from his brief round-trip journey to the door.
“I heard you went on the vacation of a lifetime recently,” I said to the boys.
Their eyes lit up.
“Mistfall,” Sven said, hopping up and down on the sofa. “It was amazing.”
“It’s a mountain town surrounded by mist,” Soren added. “It’s the coolest place ever. I want to live there when I grow up.”
“I brought back this souvenir,” Sven said, lifting a wooden toy from the coffee table. It looked like a marionette with wings. “I used my own money.”
“Looks awesome,” I agreed. “An excellent choice.”
The sheriff sat adjacent to Bjorn. “Is Margot at work?”
Bjorn nodded. “A double shift today. She’ll be dead on her feet when she gets home.”
I sympathized. A sick husband and two young boys to care for. Margot Gunnar didn’t have an enviable life. The trip to Mistfall was one that would have to sustain them for a very long time.
“Mr. Gunnar, when you returned from Mistfall, did you happen to have any bad dreams that you remember?” I asked. “Or maybe something happened that seemed very real but wasn’t?”
Bjorn gave me a look of surprise. “I did, as a matter of fact.” He removed his glasses to rub his eyes. “My teeth…They’d fallen out.”
“They did,” Sven said excitedly. “We saw it.”
“But then later that day the teeth were back again.” Bjorn wore a bemused expression. “It was the strangest experience. I assumed it was the anxiety over my illness returning after our relaxing trip.”
“Did the teeth reappear after Milo Jarvis paid you a visit?” I asked.
“Yes, I believe so,” Bjorn replied. Each word seemed to drain him of energy. “Milo had come by to find out how we got on in Mistfall. Such a kind man. Why do you ask?”
Sheriff Nash and I exchanged glances.
“That toy wasn’t the only thing you brought back from Mistfall, I’m afraid,” Sheriff Nash said. “You also came back with a parasite.”
“A magical parasite,” I added.
Sheriff Nash elbowed me. “That’s like calling it Chinese food in China.”
I glared at him. “Whatever.”
The sheriff returned his focus to Bjorn. “It’s called parasitus tantibus.”
I shot him a quizzical look. “You know the name?”
The sheriff wiggled his phone. “My smart phone’s pretty smart.”
“When Milo left your house that day, Mr. Gunnar, the parasite went with him,” I explained.
“It’s made its way through town,” the sheriff said. “We’d like to make sure that no one else experienced any similar living nightmares.”
Bjorn glanced at the boys, who shook their heads. “Nor my wife,” he said. “When we told her about my teeth, she said we’d imagined the whole thing.”
“Where’s the parasite now?” Sven asked, with the eagerness I’d expect of a boy his age.
“Dead,” I replied. “I don’t think it can survive freezing temperatures.” When I accidentally froze Cephas, I killed the both parasites inside him. That was why the Easter bunny disappeared at the same time.
“It thrives in climates like Mistfall’s,” the sheriff added. “It isn’t native to Starry Hollow. We need to be sure there aren’t any more parasites wandering around from your vacation.”
“No,” Bjorn said, adjusting his glasses. “I was the only one with an issue. I hope I haven’t caused any trouble. It was such a lovely trip.”
I felt the sheriff place a hand on my arm in an attempt to silence me. He wanted Bjorn to keep his happy memories, and so did I.
“Not at all,” I said. “Thank you for your help, Mr. Gunnar.”
Sheriff Nash gently squeezed my arm in gratitude. That small, intimate gesture was well worth keeping my mouth shut—for once.
Since I’d been walking around town on foot all day, the sheriff was kind enough to drive me home from the Gunnars’ apartment.
“So what else did you learn about parasitus tantibus on your smartphone?” I asked.
“Quite a lot, actually. It explains why you were present each time but never infected.”
I lifted an eyebrow. “It does?”
“Witches and wizards are immune,” he said. “Something in your DNA. Fairies, too.”
I let the information sink in. “But I was a carrier, wasn’t I?” Not just a carrier. The carrier. The parasite had hitched a ride from Mistfall on Bjorn Gunnar, who passed it to Milo. From the board meeting on, though, I was the responsible party. I passed it to Bentley, Trupti, Alec, and the sheriff.
He gave me a sympathetic look. “It wasn’t your fault, Rose.”
“That’s why I seemed to be the common factor,” I said. “I basically gave the parasite a free ride around town.”
He smirked. “What can I say? It had good taste.”
“Very funny. If it was only one parasite, then why were you and Alec infected at the same time?”
“The cell
s can divide when they develop enough strength,” the sheriff said.
My brain was in overdrive. “So when Cephas thought he’d healed you both, he’d done nothing except leave with both parasites.” At least that one wasn’t attributable to me. Small favors.
“That’s why no one was infected while Alec and I were locked up,” the sheriff said.
Poor Cephas. No wonder the druid’s nightmare was so much larger in scope. If I hadn’t frozen Cephas, the parasites would have only gotten stronger and divided again. I shuddered at the thought of the damage they could have done. We were lucky to have gotten off as easily as we did.
“At least there isn’t an evil magic user on the loose,” I said. “Makes your job easier.” I moved to open the cottage door.
“So, Rose, I’ve been thinking…” The sheriff paused and stroked his chin.
“Not thinking! Did it cause you any pain? You might experience soreness after exercising a rarely used muscle.”
He narrowed his eyes. “Come on, I’m about to say something nice. Don’t ruin it.”
I hesitated. “Do I want you to say something nice?”
His brow furrowed. “Why wouldn’t you? Who doesn’t want to be told nice things?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe someone who feels like she doesn’t deserve it.”
He shoved his hands in his pockets. His jeans were so tight, I was surprised he could fit them.
“Rose, would you like to have dinner with me one night?”
“She would,” Marley called from behind the closed door.
Crap on a stick. I’d forgotten Marley was home. Then I heard PP3’s low growl. Apparently, he was not on board with the werewolf.
“Be quiet and stop eavesdropping,” I yelled back.
The sheriff chuckled. “Your little family is as nosy as mine.”
“I don’t think the pack qualifies as a little family,” I said.
“True,” he said. “So, are you gonna answer my question, or keep dodging it with stray observations?”
I chewed my lip. I did want to go out with him. I mean, who wouldn’t be drawn to the body behind those tight jeans? But the thought of dating someone—of letting someone into my life. Ugh. What if it didn’t work out? Marley and I had suffered so much loss already. And then there was Alec…
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