Totally Spellbound

by Kristine Grayson

  She didn’t answer him. She wasn’t going to let him distract her from the girls, who had come to her for help.

  (Not that she was really in a position to give it, given that she had just been kidnapped herself. But no matter, Zeus had brought her here for a reason, and she would figure out what that reason was.)

  “I was in Las Vegas,” Megan said to the girls.

  “Isn’t this Las Vegas?” Brittany said.

  “It’s Las something-or-other,” Crystal said.

  “It’s Los Angeles,” Megan said gently.

  “You guys screwed up again!” Tiffany snapped. “You said you could handle this one. You said it was a simple spell. I trusted you.”

  The infighting was coming from the fear and the stress. The levels in the room had risen to unbearable. Megan walked in farther and went to her chair. She realized now that she had protected it, made it slightly walled so that she could feel emotions when she sat in it but they didn’t become part of her.

  Sitting in the chair felt like coming home.

  “What spell did you cast?” she asked the first two Interim Fates gently.

  “I did it.” Brittany’s voice was filled with tears.

  “She said to come to you so you could help us,” Crystal said.

  And this was where Megan helped people. So that made sense. These poor girls. They were so out of their element.

  “And it didn’t work!” Tiffany snapped.

  “Actually, it did,” Megan said, keeping her voice level. It was Zeus that made her nervous, still standing by the door. “I’m here now.”

  “And you’re going to help me,” Zeus said. “These girls have to get back to work. It took me forever to find them.”

  Megan raised her head and looked at him. She couldn’t think of him as the head of the Powers That Be. She couldn’t think of him as the man with the power to destroy true love forever.

  She had to think of him as an abusive, out-of-control father, who had no idea what he was doing to his daughters.

  “Thank you for bringing me to them,” she said. “You can wait outside.”

  Zeus drew himself to his full height—or maybe more than his full height—and yelled, “I DO NOT WAIT OUTSIDE. WE SHALL RESOLVE THIS HERE.”

  That wasn’t really a yell. It was more like a decree from on high. The girls cowered on the couch. But Megan didn’t move. She could feel the impotent anger behind Zeus’ shout.

  “‘We’ won’t do anything if you raise your voice at me again. Either speak to me civilly,” Megan said, “or leave.”

  The girls gaped at her. Zeus stared at her, clearly stunned.

  “I could blind you,” he said in a civil tone.

  “Yet, if you do, I’ll continue right along, doing what I do.” Megan hoped her own bravado didn’t show. She told herself that her calm counselor demeanor had gotten her through worse, although she wasn’t sure if that was true.

  “Then I’ll turn you into a wolf,” he said.

  Megan rolled her eyes. “Are you so old and out of ideas that you’re repeating yourself? First you act as if I’m Lycurgus, and then you treat me like Lycaon. For the record, I would never serve you human flesh for dinner.”

  The girls’ eyes were wide. Zeus’ were wider.

  Megan smiled serenely. “I had a classical education. If you want to threaten me, come up with something new.”

  Zeus opened his mouth, but nothing came out.

  She had unnerved him after all.

  “All right then,” she said. “You brought me here. You must know that this situation is out of control, and that I can help you.”

  “I want you to take back everything you said to my girls.” Finally Zeus found his voice.

  “And lie to them? I would never do that. Nor would I manipulate them or use them to my own ends. Like you have. Which, I must say, is disgraceful in a father.”

  The girls ducked. Zeus’ cheeks reddened, and Megan did wonder if she was going to end up as a statue or a bear or pushing a rock uphill for all of eternity.

  But he didn’t do anything — at least not yet.

  “Here are my rules,” Megan said. “I assume you want this dispute with your daughters settled—”

  “They ran away,” he said, sounding like a child.

  “We escaped,” Brittany said.

  “We’re no good at Fating,” Crystal said.

  “We’re never going back,” Tiffany said.

  “—and,” Megan said to Zeus as if she hadn’t been interrupted, “and I will help you resolve this if and only if you do not interrupt me again, yell at me again, or threaten me again. You will take the spell off your daughters so that they can speak like individuals—”

  “If I do that, they won’t be Interim Fates,” Zeus said.

  “That’s an interruption,” Megan said. “It’s your last warning.”

  “Or what, puny Empath?”

  “Or I will throw you out of here,” Megan said, not sure how she’d accomplish that. “And you’ll lose any chance you might have to work with your daughters.”

  He closed his mouth. He glared. Lightning bolts actually appeared in his eyes, but didn’t shoot out of them (even though the girls did duck again).

  Then the bolts faded, and he nodded, once, as if it hurt.

  Megan took a deep breath. “You will take the spell off your daughters, who will then be able to speak like normal people. Each girl will get the floor to express her grievances. No one may interrupt her. You must listen, no eye-rolling, no faces, and no lightning bolts. Can you follow these rules?”

  Zeus’ lower lip came out. He looked petulant. “I guess.”

  “Yes or no,” Megan said. “You cannot act like a child here, I won’t allow it. You’re an adult, and have been—well, a lot longer than the rest of us here. You will act like it. Can you follow these rules?”

  Zeus’ lip went back in. His eyes narrowed. “Yeah.”

  “All right then,” Megan said, her stomach in knots. She made herself look at the girls. “Who wants to go first?”

  Forty-four

  The second Faerie King leapt up from his chair, holding a foil.

  He pointed the tip at Rob, and said with a grin, “En garde!”

  Robin’s sword should have been able to snap a foil, but he had a hunch it wasn’t going to work that way. So he used the first Faerie King like a shield and responded to the second Faerie King’s en garde with a thrust of his own.

  Suddenly he was in an old-fashioned sword fight, the kind that he had privately missed for centuries. The third Faerie King leapt off the platform and engaged John. Travers stood back, looking at his blade as if it could bite him.

  “Remember Marian?” Rob yelled at John.

  “What?” John yelled back.

  The first Faerie King struggled, but Rob had him around the throat. This wasn’t going to last long, especially if the guy used magic on him.

  “Remember the rescue?” Rob slapped his blade at the foil. They clanged, but the foil didn’t collapse. “The first one?”

  “What?” John yelled back.

  “He said remember the first rescue of Marian,” Travers yelled.

  John’s Faerie King had him backed against the platform.

  “Are you nuts?” John asked.

  “No, dammit,” Rob yelled. His breath was coming in large gasps. “I’m trying to tell you something.”

  About how he had created a diversion while John and the Merry Men rescued Marian from the clutches of the sheriff—the first time. Other times, the situation had been reversed.

  That woman had had a gift for getting herself captured.

  John flipped the third Faerie King around, and slapped him on the back with the flat of his blade. The Faerie King gasped as if he had lost air.

  “Oh,” John said. “Right.”

  The second Faerie King thrust at Rob. Rob parried and turned at the same time, so the point of the foil nearly stabbed the first Faerie King.

  “D
o that!” Rob said.

  “There’s only two of us,” John said, as the third Faerie King turned around again, his blade now a broadsword. Travers still hadn’t done anything. “Make that one and a half.”

  The first Faerie King was still struggling. Sweat was running down Robin’s face. He was lucky that the second king was more interested in traditional fencing than in an actual sword fight.

  “So?” Robin said. “Just do it.”

  “Now he’s quoting Nike slogans at me,” John muttered, but he shoved the third Faerie King at the second, and both Faeries went tumbling. “Get up here, Travers!”

  Travers didn’t have to be told twice. He jumped on the platform.

  The first Faerie King shook loose of Robin. The other two started to get up.

  “And throw me your blade!” Robin yelled at Travers.

  “Okay.” Travers looked terrified. His throw was awful, but Robin managed to catch it.

  Now he stood in the center of the Faerie Circle, two swords in hand, one Faerie King facing him, and two more about to join the fray. He needed more help. He needed extra power. He needed—

  He looked at the wheel. Travers had said it could boost his magic. It was worth a try.

  John was behind the wheel trying to pry it loose. Travers was standing next to him, looking as helpless as a regular mortal.

  Robin pointed his blade at the thing, and summoned power to him.

  A beam of light crackled against the black casino ceiling, then floated down, hit the sword, jumped to the other sword, and sent power through him like an out-of-control electrical current.

  His teeth chattered and his head rattled and he couldn’t see a damn thing. He smelled smoke, and heard a ka-pow before something blasted him across the room.

  When he opened his eyes, he was at the far end of the Faerie Circle, the swords glued to his hands. He couldn’t see the wheel anymore, but all three Faerie Kings were advancing on him—

  And he wasn’t even sure he could stand up.

  Forty-five

  The light was a great distraction, but John wasn’t about to touch that spinning wheel when power was flowing off it like a river. Still, he got behind the thing, figured out how to lift it, and beckoned Travers.

  Travers came around, his skin so white he looked translucent. “Shouldn’t we help Rob?”

  “Rob’s been in worse situations,” John said, not sure if that was true. “We’re carrying this puppy outta here.”

  “Carrying?” Travers asked.

  “Shut up and help,” John said.

  Something ka-boomed, and the entire Faerie Circle went dark for an instant. John lifted the wheel—it was lighter than he imagined—and glanced up.

  “Is that out of the hole it was in?”

  “Yeah,” Travers said.

  “Well, get us out of here.”

  Travers flung his arms around the wheel and John, and suddenly they were floating upward. John did not want to be floating. He wanted to disappear and appear, but that wasn’t possible from Faerie, so he preferred to be zooming. He added some of his own power—or maybe some of the wheel’s power—and headed toward the surface.

  They shot through the ground like a rocket, coming up through a sewer grate on Las Vegas boulevard, startling dozens of drivers and causing a near-pileup.

  John saw no reason to stop zooming, and headed immediately to the hotel. Travers was protesting, but John couldn’t hear him.

  Or maybe John didn’t want to hear him.

  They zoomed through the front doors—Travers remembered to open them, somehow and up the stairs and through (whoops! No one opened that) the door of the suite and into the room with the kid and the Fates and Zoe Sinclair.

  Everyone turned to greet them.

  John landed beside the kid’s chair, and bowed, then handed the giant (but light) spinning wheel to the Fates.

  And as he stood, he realized they looked disappointed.

  Forty-six

  Rob wasn’t sure how long he was going to hold out. Two swords—stuck to his hands no less—against three Faerie Kings were not good odds, no matter how much the stupid wheel had enhanced his powers.

  All three kings had foils. They were using them the way the Fates talked—the first Faerie King thrust first, followed by the second, followed by the third. Which made fighting them easier than it should have been, but Robin expected a group of Faeries to run into this part of the casino at any moment.

  So far they hadn’t.

  So far, Megan had held them off.

  He hoped she was all right.

  Yeouch!

  The first Faerie King had made contact. Rob looked down at his arm, saw a scratch with blood starting to leak out of it, and every single fairy tale he’d ever read came back to him. Something in the blade would weaken him, take his magic—hurt him somehow.

  The kings had stopped, too, staring at the blood as if they were surprised.

  Then the second Faerie King stepped forward, thrusting with his blade, and Robin parried with his left hand. He should have parried with his right because the third Faerie King came from the far left side, and was about to hit Rob’s skin when—

  Rob blanked out.

  Actually, he suddenly went to a complete white environment and then landed, as if he’d been dropped from a great height, on the floor of the suite.

  The landing knocked the air out of him, but he probably would have lost the air anyway. The Fates stood above him, looking taller than he remembered. Taller, and prettier, and bigger somehow.

  The spinning wheel, set on its legs properly, stood behind them, and even farther behind them, a television screen showed hundreds (thousands?) of Faeries pressing against each other in the casino parking lot.

  Poor Megan.

  Rob tried to sit up, but couldn’t. The dang swords were still fused to his hands, and they flopped around like solid shirt sleeves.

  “Can someone help me?”

  The kid reached down, saw the swords, and looked at the Fates. Clotho smiled, Lachesis pointed, and Atropos touched the top of his hand.

  The swords fell away.

  “Got your magic back, I see.” Rob looked at his hands. No damage, no danger. So far.

  “Thank you,” Clotho said, much more primly than he would have expected.

  “They’re annoyed at us,” John said.

  “Why?” Rob stood up. He was dizzy. Travers stood near an empty chair. Had Zoe gone for Megan? Rob hoped so. He would ask in a moment.

  “Apparently, we were supposed to bring the Faerie Kings along with the wheel,” John said.

  “Why?” Rob asked, putting a hand to his forehead. All that had taken a lot more energy than he expected.

  “Something about destiny,” Travers said.

  Rob looked at him, forced himself to focus, and asked, “Did Zoe go for Meg?”

  “Yep,” Travers glanced at the screen. There seemed to be even more Faeries than there had been before. “And I hope she gets back soon. It’s looking bad there.”

  Worse than Rob had expected. He wondered if he should go help. He rubbed his forehead. He hadn’t been this tired from magic use in—he had no idea how long. He probably should call Felix, his falcon, and use the strength of his familiar to make himself feel better before he went for Megan, but he wasn’t sure he had that kind of time.

  “You okay?” Kyle asked him. The boy was still sitting in that chair he’d insisted upon. He looked a little peaked too.

  “Yeah,” Rob said.

  And then Zoe popped into the room. Her hair was mussed and her shirt had a rip on one sleeve.

  “What happened?” Travers asked.

  But Zoe didn’t look at him. Her gaze met Rob’s and it was filled with panic.

  “Megan,” she said, “is gone.”

  Rob felt like he’d been punched in the stomach. He’d been afraid of this from the moment he met her. Losing her was worse than never meeting her at all.

  “Gone?” he repeated. Then he
looked at the screen. The Faeries still crowded the door of the casino as if they were trying to get in. “But what’s that?”

  “There’s a mannequin, a diversion. It’s chock full of emotion, and looks just like Megan. I can’t imagine who would have the power to do that, but whoever it was got in and out without anyone noticing.” Zoe tugged on that ripped shirt, ripping it further. She grabbed the tear, and absently repaired it with a tiny magic.

  “Let me see,” Lachesis said, and waved an arm at the screen.

  The view changed from the parking lot to the interior of the casino. In a dark and ratty seeming buffet, a woman sat at a table, looking cool and collected. Hundreds of Faeries pushed toward her, creating little eddies in the sea of bodies.

  Megan would never have been that calm in that place. She would have tried hard, but she wouldn’t have succeeded.

  The Fates crowded against the screen, peering at it.

  “I thought you were supposed to track her,” Travers said to Kyle.

  “I don’t track, Dad. She was supposed to contact me if she got in trouble.” And then he gasped on the last word.

  Rob whirled. The boy was pale.

  “She did contact you,” Rob said.

  The boy shook his head. “But there was a weird feeling, like scaredness or something and then everything went okay.”

  “Before she disappeared,” Zoe said.

  Kyle sniffled. “I didn’t mean to lose her. I was really trying…”

  And it was John who put a comforting hand on Kyle’s shoulder. “Of course you were, kid. They asked the impossible of you. We’ll find her.”

  “We can trace her,” Atropos said.

  “But we’re not going to like what we find,” Clotho added.

  Rob’s stomach flipped. His headache had gotten worse. “Why not?”

  “Because,” Lachesis said, her green gaze meeting his. “She was taken by Zeus.”

  Rob didn’t wait for the others. He zapped himself to the casino, not caring if his magic broadcast to every Faerie in receiving range. Besides, every Faerie in receiving range was here, trying to get near the tower of emotion that Zeus had left in place of Megan.