Morrigan laughed as she gave Brietta’s chin a wiggle. “I do believe I’d play the family card in that situation.” She turned to Layla, taking her cheeks in both hands. “Hi, sweetie. Green hair looks beautiful on you.”
“Thanks,” Layla returned. “Do you want Sky to give you the same look?”
Morrigan laughed as she wrapped an emerald curl around her finger. “Maybe I’ll join the band next time. I’m far too busy to go on tour right now.” Her aura pulsed as she hesitantly paused. “Where’s the tour bus headed?”
“The north stream,” Brietta answered, and Morrigan relaxed.
“That sounds fun. Do you mind if Hypnos tags along? He needs the exercise.”
The dog bellowed, and Morrigan propped her hands on her hips as she raised her eyebrows at him. “You know what I’m talking about. You’re all droopy.”
The dog yowled while shaking several layers of saggy skin, and Morrigan laughed as she knelt and rubbed his floppy face.
Layla had no problem letting the adorable dog tag along, so she knelt next to Morrigan and gave him a pat. “Of course he can go. But you better keep up,” she warned, pointing at the canine, and she could have sworn he moaned the words I will.
“Thanks for putting up with him,” Morrigan said, straightening from the ground. “You’ll barely know he’s there.”
“Sure,” Layla replied, rising to give her a hug. “I’ll bring him home when we get back.”
“Take your time,” Morrigan insisted. Then she gave Brietta and Skyla a wave. “You girls have fun.”
“We will,” they assured.
Morrigan floated away, and Brietta waited for her to enter the house before laughing and shaking her head. “She’s funny. Why does she bother?”
“What do you mean?” Layla asked.
“They’re really worried about you,” Brietta answered. “So much so they’ve given you a guard when you’re not even leaving the community.”
Layla furrowed her eyebrows as she tried to figure out who Brietta was talking about. Then her confusion increased as she looked down. “Hypnos?”
“Yeah,” Brietta answered. “He’s not a fighter, but he’s the most intelligent dog on the property, and his sense of smell is incredible.”
“Oh. That’s good I guess. It’s not like he’s an inconvenience.”
“He won’t be a problem. I just think it’s funny Aunt Morrigan tried to be sly about it. She’s too good-natured to be sneaky, but she always tries to soften the blow. Sweet as sugar, that’s what they say about her. That must be where you get it from.”
“That’s a nice compliment, Bri. Thanks.”
“Anytime. Shall we be on our way?”
“I’m ready,” Skyla answered, and Blue and LaLa tweeted from her shoulders.
Layla smiled at the birds, then looked at her own familiar. “You ready, Hypnos?”
He answered with a moan as he got to his feet, and Layla smiled at Brietta. “Guess that’s a yes.”
Chapter 27
CLOSELY FOLLOWED BY THEIR ANIMAL entourage, the three witches headed for the north stream, entertained by Skyla’s hyper renditions of eighties songs and dance crazes.
Layla listened and laughed until Skyla ran out of clichés. Then a more serious subject captivated her attention. She cautiously eyed her company then nervously cleared her throat. “I have a question for you guys.”
“Okay,” they agreed.
Layla hesitated then charged on. “Has anyone ever tried to kill Agro?”
Brietta and Skyla halted, flipping their gazes to Layla’s face, and she flinched, as if the looks they’d thrown actually hit her.
She quickly diverted her stare and continued forward. “Never mind.”
“I know why you ask,” Brietta said, catching up, “and while I don’t condone what you’re thinking, I see no reason why I shouldn’t answer. Yes, many individuals and a few groups have attempted to kill Agro. Obviously they failed.”
“How big were the groups?” Layla pressed, pleased she was getting answers.
“I don’t know the exact numbers,” Brietta answered. “I think the biggest I’ve heard about had around fifty or so, but that’s nothing compared to what he has, so there’s never been a large movement against him. In fact, there hasn’t been any movement against him in a long time, not in my lifetime anyway. After the first several attempts failed, people gave up on trying to get rid of him and just started hiding from him.”
“I hate hiding,” Layla grumbled.
“I bet you do,” Skyla sympathized. “We all feel horrible about what you’re going through.”
“It’s not about what I’m going through, Sky. It’s the fact that you guys are being pulled under with me. You’ve lived in peace for years. Then I came along and shattered it.” She felt like the weak member of the herd. If they would let her fend for herself and get picked off, they could move on to brighter pastures.
“I wish you wouldn’t feel that way,” Brietta countered. “This family has loved you since you were conceived, so your absence has been hard on everyone. We wouldn’t go back to the way it was before you got here for anything.”
Layla kept her eyes on the ground as she slowly shook her head. “I don’t understand how you guys can feel that way when your family’s in so much danger.” Instinct should be telling them to feed the feeble one to the wolves.
“You are our family,” Brietta insisted. “We’re as scared for you as we are for ourselves. If you hadn’t gotten here by the time the Unforgivables showed up looking for you, we would have taken immediate action to find you. Then we would have brought you here to keep you safe.”
“I know,” Layla whispered. “You guys are wonderful, and that’s exactly why this feels so awful. I hate being helpless.”
“We understand why you feel that way,” Brietta assured. “Every part of this situation feels awful, but there’s nothing any of us, including you, can do about it. We just have to hope Agro moves on soon. Then we can get back to normal around here and you’ll see just how wonderful this life can be.”
“What if he doesn’t move on?” Layla asked. “And if he does, do you really think he won’t come back? I don’t see how it’s ever going to end unless he dies.”
“That’s a possibility we’re willing to live with in order to keep you in our lives.”
Layla craned her head back, swallowing a lump while squinting at sparse shafts of cloudy light. “That’s sweet, Bri, but I don’t know if that’s something I can live with.”
“I’m not going to tell your grandparents you said that,” Brietta offered, “because it would freak them out.”
“I know,” Layla sighed.
“Hey,” Skyla chirped, “let’s quit talking about this. We’re almost to the stream, and I don’t want to think about Agro right now.”
“Agreed,” Brietta chimed.
Layla smiled, trying to make it genuine, and she actually succeeded. Recovering from sad subjects was much easier with someone there to give her a shove. “Agreed. Sorry I brought it up.”
“That’s okay,” they returned. Then the three of them stepped out of the trees and onto a squishy carpet of greenery.
Layla’s mouth fell open as she scanned her surroundings. A swift current swept down the center of a small stream, bubbling across moss covered stone, but the water’s edge was calm, displaying schools of tiny fish darting beneath blossoming lily pads. Ferns, shrubs and wildflowers dotted the banks, while butterflies, dragonflies and birds flitted here and there, adding to the scene’s richness with busy activity and living energy.
“What do you think?” Brietta asked.
“It’s beautiful,” Layla replied. “I can’t believe something so gorgeous is right here for us to experience anytime we feel like it.”
“Pretty lucky, huh?”
“Very lucky.”
The three witches sat and got comfortable; Hypnos ambled to the tree line and posed like a sentinel; and Blue and LaLa soared dow
n the river, quickly disappearing around a bend.
Skyla was full of fun ideas, and before long she had them playing a silly game to get to know one another. Brietta and Skyla had to guess stuff about Layla, and if they guessed wrong, as a pointless yet giggle provoking punishment, Layla got to spray them with water magic.
The subject matter remained fairly light and often funny, and not once did Layla feel pressured during the interrogation. As a courtesy, she went easy on the amount of water she sent their way.
“Your turn to guess,” Skyla announced, winking at Layla as she dried her hair.
“I don’t know how to warm myself,” Layla remembered.
“Quin hasn’t taught you?” Brietta asked.
Despite her effort not to, Layla smiled. “He refuses.”
Brietta loudly laughed. “He’s manipulating the situation to keep you dependent on him, and you like it.”
Layla blushed as her grin turned cheesy. “Maybe a little.”
“Then we better not ruin it,” Brietta smirked. “I’ll warm you up when you get cold.”
“Okay.”
So the game got flipped around, and Layla had to start guessing things about Brietta and Skyla. She rarely guessed wrong, so she escaped getting soaked, and every time she started to shiver, Brietta promptly shared her magical warmth.
For all the good it did, as the game eventually turned ornery. When Layla correctly guessed that Brietta’s best element was water, Skyla thought it would be hilarious to shove the water child into the creek. Brietta clutched Skyla’s arm as she toppled sideways, and Skyla blindly reached for Layla, grasping the front of her dress.
“No,” Layla squealed, digging her heels into moss. But she might as well have been on a Slip ‘n Slide.
Brietta went under, Skyla splashed in beside her, and Layla fell face first across both of them.
Sinking her fingers into squishy silt, Layla pulled her legs off of Brietta and raised her head to the surface. “Damn that’s cold.”
Skyla wiggled out from beneath her and came up laughing, but then Brietta lunged over Layla and grabbed Skyla around the waist, taking her under again. Had they not been in one of the deepest parts of the creek, they would have broken a dozen bones.
Bracing herself on all fours, Layla watched them with wide eyes, shocked by the entire ordeal. Then she laughed as she got to her feet and turned toward the bank.
“Oh no you don’t,” Brietta objected, and Layla felt something hit the back of her knees as someone grabbed her shoulders and pulled.
She held her breath as icy water buried her. Then she came up sputtering and splashing her attackers. Magic quickly got involved, which warped the water fight into a chaotic mess of flying waves.
“Okay, okay,” Layla surrendered. “I’m freezing.”
The waves died down, and Brietta laughed as she waded closer. “I could show you the spell, you know?”
“No,” Layla objected, blushing again. “Just give me a dose. Are we done in the water?”
“Sure,” Skyla answered, flying to the bank.
Layla took Brietta’s hand and urged her from the stream. “Let me get dry before you warm me up, or you’ll have to do it twice.”
While the three witches dried off, Blue and LaLa returned to Skyla’s shoulders, and Hypnos moved to Layla’s ankles.
Layla smiled at him then scanned the thick forest across the water. “How far does the community’s property reach?”
“You could walk for another five minutes before stepping over the property line,” Skyla answered. “There’s a wide walking trail that runs right inside the border. If you go beyond that, you’re on the edge.”
“Do you guys know how to mind search?” Layla asked.
“We can receive messages just fine,” Brietta answered, “and we can send them okay, too, but only with family and close friends.”
“Why do you ask?” Skyla inquired.
“I was thinking it would put a fun twist on hide and seek,” Layla answered.
Skyla’s and Brietta’s eyes widened as they exclaimed in perfect harmony, “Ooh... that sounds fun.”
“Plus,” Brietta added, holding up a finger, “good practice.”
“Very true,” Skyla advocated. “How should we do it?”
“I’ll hide first,” Layla offered, “and you guys try to find me by searching for my mind. But I don’t think we should try to block, because I don’t know if I’m good enough to break in. We’ll just have to trust each other not to pry.”
“Agreed,” they said.
Layla smiled as her excitement spiked. She hadn’t played hide and seek in years, and she loved that she could be immature with her new friends. “I’ll get a head start, and I’ll stay on this side of the walking trail so I don’t accidentally cross the property line. Are you guys ready?”
“Yes,” they replied, and Layla laughed. The coven members often spoke the same words at the same time, and she figured it must be a result of their close connections and tight-knit living arrangement.
“Don’t look,” she stipulated, “and give me three to five minutes.”
They nodded and turned their backs on her, so she magically jumped the stream then waited for Hypnos to amble across a bridge of mossy stone. Once he was at her ankles, she headed northeast, keeping her mind open for mental messages.
After a few minutes, she experienced the same sensation she had the night Quin searched her out at the beach. Her head swarmed with three different point-of-views—her own, Skyla’s and Brietta’s. The foreign connections occasionally blurred or faded away—probably when Skyla and Brietta got distracted—which disoriented Layla until she figured out how to organize the links. If she concentrated, she could separate the point-of-views and shift her focus to each of them in turn or all at once.
She halted and searched for a walking trail, but it hadn’t come into view. “Come on, Hypnos,” she said, patting her thigh as she headed north.
Farriss smoothly landed and looked around, hesitant to lift his concealment spells. This was where the stranger instructed him to be, but no one was there.
The situation didn’t feel right. The location was too damn convenient, and it had his hair follicles charged. He stood still and silent, tensed for a possible ambush, his wide pupils scanning his surroundings.
“You’re right on time,” someone whispered.
Farriss flicked his gaze to the right and caught a shimmer of evidence. “Reveal yourself,” he demanded, squarely facing the area.
“Shut up,” the air hissed, “or you’ll ruin everything.”
The stranger’s tone pissed Farriss off, but he lowered his voice for self-preservation’s sake. “Ruin what?”
“You’ll see. If you’ll stay hidden and can manage a quiet trip through the woods, a surprise awaits you to the south.”
Farriss caught another shimmer then spared a short glance to the south. “I’m not turning my back on you. What’s this about?”
“Take a walk and you’ll see, but I’m not going to bear witness.”
“Enough with the cryptic crap,” Farriss seethed. “We were told you know the witch’s location. Is she with her family?”
He waited for the stranger’s reply, but it didn’t come. He watched closely, but saw nothing. The stranger was gone. He’d left without divulging one shred of useful information.
“Damn,” Farriss sighed. Agro wasn’t going to be happy with this outcome at all. What in the hell was the point of all this?
He looked to the south and peered though narrow gaps between tree trunks, trying to decide if the stranger’s advice would yield fruit. Going back to Agro empty-handed was never a pleasant experience, so Farriss strengthened his concealment spells and silently floated forward.
After traveling for several minutes with nothing of interest to see, he prepared himself to face Agro with the bad news. Then, like an angelic song, a woman’s laugh echoed through the timber. Definitely a witch.
He took a dee
p breath then hovered higher from the ground, stealthily moving forward like a phantom drifting on the wind.
‘This is going to be too easy,’ Brietta teased, speaking straight into Layla’s mind. ‘We already know you’re north. You’re not very good at this game.’
Layla laughed as she glanced in their direction. She could tell they were about three minutes away. ‘I could move, you know? We didn’t make any rules about that.’
‘That might make it more of a challenge,’ Skyla returned.
‘Let’s try it this way first,’ Layla suggested, ‘and see how long it takes. If we need to, we’ll make the next round more interesting.’
‘Okay,’ they agreed, harmonizing in Layla’s head.
She smiled and looked to the treetops, wondering if she should wait up there to make things more difficult. Then she decided the height probably wouldn’t make any difference when it came to mind searching, and when it came to magicians, standing in the trees was as easy as standing on the ground.
She looked back the way she came, straining her ears for an audible sign of them, but they were still too far away. Two minutes and twenty seconds away, she guessed, checking their mental links.
“What do you think, Hypnos?” she whispered. “Should we stay here or find another spot?”
The dog whined, and Layla looked down, immediately alarmed. Hypnos’ saggy layers were alert, and his droopy eyes were glued to the north. Layla looked north as well, but saw nothing save for nature. Not even the walking trail had come into view.
Hypnos’ whimpers rolled into growls, and the hair along his spine spiked, provoking the hair at the nape of Layla’s neck to do the same. She tried to keep her cool by telling herself it was just a small, woodland creature, and the encouragement did help, but she was beyond ready to get out of there.
She carefully walked backward, trying to remain calm as she tapped into Skyla’s and Brietta’s minds; she didn’t want them getting worked up over nothing. ‘Stop walking, guys. I’m coming back to you. I um... I don’t think it’s hard enough. We should do something else.’
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