Chase Tinker & The House of Magic

by Malia Ann Haberman

  Grandfather was right where Chase had left him. Doctor Dan dropped to the floor and felt the inside of Grandfather's wrist. "His pulse is weak, but it's there. I believe it's his heart, but I have to get him to my clinic to run some tests."

  "We need to take him to Thomas's bathroom to teleport him," said Clair. She grabbed a blanket off the bed to wrap Grandfather in to help them carry him through the house.

  "What happened in here?" whispered Janie to Chase as she gaped at the crushed closet doors and the bashed dresser.

  "Some dark, shadowy thing attacked Grandfather. It ended up being James. I'm stumped as to how he did it, though." His head snapped around at Janie's sharp intake of breath. "What?" he asked.

  "That's the power of the room," she whispered. "The ability to turn into a solid shadow. But why would he hurt Grandfather with it?"

  Chase hesitated, not sure if he should tell her everything that had happened with James. He knew Janie wasn't close to her brother, but he didn't know how she would react if he told her the truth about him.

  Janie and Chase followed the others from the room as they carried Grandfather between them.

  Chase waited until they were out of earshot then said quietly, "James wants to be Keeper of the House." His face was grim. "And it looks like he won't stop until he gets it."

  "Are you saying that's why he supposedly hurt Grandfather?"

  "There's no supposing about it," answered Chase. "James attacked him."

  "No way!" she cried, shaking her head. "That's crazy! James wouldn't do that on purpose."

  "I'm not making it up. And it was no mistake when he tried to drown me either," said Chase.

  "Drown you? When?"

  "When we were out fishing this afternoon, of course," he said impatiently.

  "Maybe…maybe you said something to get him really mad. You do that, you know. You can be pretty heartless sometimes."

  Chase glared at her for bringing up the time she attacked him because he wanted to leave Maxwell behind after he thought the animal had drowned in the river. "I'm not heartless," he said between gritted teeth.

  "And you probably misunderstood his intentions. That has to be it," she said with a nod.

  "Misunderstood? He tried to drown me!"

  "Well I don't believe you. You're lying because you decided you don't like him!" snapped Janie. She looked like she wanted to punch Chase in the nose. "I know he gets a little carried away sometimes…but he's—he wouldn't, that's all."

  "I have no reason to lie to you, Janie!" growled Chase, his face flaming. "Quit making up excuses for him. You saw how he acted with the fighting powers."

  "Yes, but he wouldn't try to—to kill anyone."

  "I don't think you know what he would or wouldn't do. You two aren't that close and you haven't spent much time together, either. You have no idea what he's capable of. He's a sick freak! Do you have to see it to believe it?"

  Janie clamped her lips together. Chase sighed and looked exasperated with her. Turning away, he ran to catch up with everyone else, leaving Janie to trail alone.

  When they reached the teleporting room, Clair wanted the kids to stay behind.

  "I'm going," said Chase, pushing his way into the bathroom.

  "You're not going without me!" cried Andy. He jumped onto the toilet seat. "Grandfather might need us."

  Janie and Persephone crowded into the bathroom after the boys. They crossed their arms and refused to leave.

  "We can't all go!" said Clair. "Dan? Miranda?"

  Doctor Dan shrugged. "It's fine with me. But we need to go now!"

  "I'll stay here and keep an eye on things," said Mrs. Periwinkle from out in the hall. "Take good care of him, Doctor."

  "Fine!" said Clair. "Everyone hang on." They each hastened to grab an elbow or a hand of the person next to them. "Doctor Daniel Brown's office."

  Whoosh! They left the bathroom in a powerful whirl of blackness and a rush of wind. Moments later, they hit the floor with a loud thud.

  "I don't know if I'll ever get used to that," said Doctor Dan, climbing unsteadily to his feet.

  Chase reached out a helping hand to Persephone who had also tumbled to floor and looked rather ruffled. "Yeah, took us a while too," he said.

  With his usually tidy hair standing on end, Doctor Dan wobbled away. He returned pushing a tall, narrow bed on wheels. "Quick, let's get him onto this bed." They lifted Grandfather and settled him as comfortably as possible on the thin mattress. "Please have a seat and I'll let you know how he's doing when I know something."

  Everyone watched the doctor wheel Grandfather away, down the hall and through a pair of blue, swinging doors.

  "What happened here?" asked Clair. She straightened two chairs and righted a table. "It looks like some kind of fight happened."

  Shoulders drooping, Chase gazed at the jumbled room. "I dunno," he mumbled.

  He knew he should probably help to clean up, except his whole body felt as though it were made of concrete. He glanced at Andy, willing him not to say anything about their afternoon scuffle. He really didn't want to talk about it. But Andy had already pulled a chair into the far corner and was buried in a sports magazine, ignoring everyone.

  Persephone curled up in another chair and stared off into space. Janie collapsed into the chair next to Persephone's and closed her eyes. Chase studied her out of the corner of his eye. Was she thinking about what he'd told her about James? Was she going over and over it in her mind, trying to make sense of it? Maybe believing?

  The minutes ticked by. Clair moved around the room clicking on lights as twilight turned to night. Chase trudged back and forth across the room. His stomach rumbled with hunger, but he ignored it. He was bone-tired, but his mind wouldn't stop spinning. He was mad at James; mad at himself. Maybe this whole thing might have been avoided if he hadn't been in such a big hurry to rat on his cousin. Maybe Grandfather wouldn't be in that room hovering somewhere between life and death. And they wouldn't be here…waiting…

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  Lies

  Chase wasn't sure how much time had passed when he noticed it. Something in the room felt different. His nose twitched and tingled as the air tickled his senses with some sort of thick, powerful magic. It drifted around him like the rich, cinnamony scent of a hot apple pie. He remembered feeling this way the first time he'd walked into Grandfather's house.

  He stopped pacing and glanced around the room. Did anyone else feel it? His eyes flitted from face to face. They looked the same as they had a moment before—except Aunt Clair.

  She had her eyes pressed shut and her arms wrapped across her waist, and looked as though she was going through some sort of inner struggle. She tumbled to the floor. "No, no," she moaned, curling into a tight ball. "Please, I don't want it."

  For a split second, Clair's form changed—or maybe, like a shimmering mirage, it had only been an illusion. Chase blinked and shook his head. He really wasn't sure of anything right now. The heavy, magic-laden air made it hard for him to think. But for an instant, he thought he had seen his dad.

  He stepped toward Clair, but Janie pushed him aside. "Mom! What's wrong?"

  Clair's eyes popped open. Chase stared straight into them. She gestured at him to come closer. Frowning, he crouched next to her. "Something is—happening—to your grandfather," she whispered into his ear. "He's dying!"

  Chase didn't ask how she knew this. He just jumped up and bolted from the waiting room, his sneakers squeaking on the shiny linoleum floor. He crashed through the swinging doors. The scene that met his eyes was one he had seen on television, never in real life. Whirring monitors and equipment surrounded the narrow bed, while the doctor stood over his patient and held two paddles to the patient's chest. A long, ear-splitting sound pierced the air.

  Chase watched Grandfather's body jerk as Doctor Dan shocked him with the paddles; once, twice, three times. The long note broke up into shorter ones: Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!

  "Wh—what's going on?" Ch
ase stuttered over the loud noise.

  "Go wait outside!" snapped Doctor Dan, without looking up. "Please!"

  Chase backed clumsily from the room, his heart pounding, a huge lump in his throat. He was barely aware of the sharp pain that shot through his arm as he smacked his elbow on one of the swinging doors. The strange feeling of magic in the air was fading as he staggered back to the waiting room and into another unbelievable scene.

  "No! No! No! You're supposed to be dead!"

  Janie stood in the middle of the floor, fists clenched, tears flowing down her face. Persephone, her mouth opening and closing like a large fish, was beside Janie. While Andy, looking like a ghostly-white statue, sat in his corner and goggled at the person across the room. It was the one person the boys thought they might never see again—Benjamin Tinker.

  Chase took a wobbly step forward. "What's going on?" he panted. "Dad? How did you get here? Where's Aunt Clair?"

  "Don't you get it, Chase? He's Clair!" shrieked Janie, pointing at Benjamin. "All this time…all this time…WHERE'S MY MOTHER?"

  Chase felt as if the earth and moon had just smashed into each other. He hadn't been imagining things. He had seen his dad. For months he'd been living in the same house with the man and had known nothing about it. Why hadn't his father said anything?

  "Dad?" he said again, sounding as if his tongue were glued to the roof of his mouth. He took another shuffling step toward Ben, who was perched on the edge of his chair. His eyes were filled with regret and sadness. Even after weeks of living well, his face and body still showed the signs of all the terrible things he'd been through while he was kidnapped.

  "How long were you planning on lying?" croaked Janie. She swiped her sleeve across her streaming nose and eyes. "For the rest of your life? Didn't you care that you were hurting us?"

  Chase watched Benjamin run his hands through his dark hair. It was the same move Chase made whenever he was upset, or thinking, or just plain nervous. Which, come to think of it, he'd seen Clair do plenty of times, but hadn't thought anything of.

  Chase shoved his shaking hands deep into his pockets. Thoughts raced through his mind; all the clues he'd missed: Clair's yelling and wild hand-waving the night they'd been caught in the Bewitching Room, never showing the kids her ability to walk through walls, and shopping with Janie and Persephone—his dad hated shopping.

  "I don't understand. Why did you do this?" he demanded.

  "Your grandfather and I thought it was for the best," said Ben.

  "Grandfather knew?" Chase wanted to punch something. Instead, he grabbed Doctor Dan's check-in reminder sign and flung it across the room. It shattered against the wall. "This is unbelievable! How could you do this to us? And to Mom? She's been worried sick about you!"

  "I know. I know," murmured Benjamin, looking awfully sick himself. "When she was here visiting, I wanted so badly to tell her…"

  "Not bad enough or you would've!"

  "You have no idea how it's been eating me up inside."

  "Eating you up!" Chase snarled. He started to run his hands through his hair, but stopped as soon as he realized what he was doing. "What about Andy and me? You have no idea what we went through when we found out you were missing. We waited and waited for you to come home, and when you finally do..."

  "I'm sorry," said Ben.

  "You weren't there," continued Chase, his voice shaking, "seeing Mom's face when day after day you didn't come home. We were so worried, and confused, wondering what the heck happened to you. And I needed to talk to you so much—"

  "Let me explain," pleaded Benjamin, holding up his hands as if to stop the words flowing from Chase.

  "Explain what?" cried Janie. "Do you expect us to believe anything you have to say?"

  Persephone spoke up, her voice trembling. "It—it would be good to hear what he wants to tell us, wouldn't it?"

  "Why? So he can lie even more!" snapped Janie.

  "No!" squeaked Persephone. "I mean, he might have had his reasons. A lot of stories have two sides, don't they? I think we should hear his."

  "I don't want to hear anything he has to say!" yelled Janie. She crossed her arms and stared across the room, her chin in the air.

  "I do," piped in Andy. All heads whipped in his direction. He was sitting forward in his chair, staring at Benjamin. "I want to hear what he has to say," he said, his voice sounding small and meek.

  "What do you know, Andy?" snarled Janie. "You're just a kid!"

  "Calm down, Janie," said Persephone, looking at Chase for support. "There's no need to attack Andy."

  "But this is insane!" Janie looked as though she wanted to yank out all her hair and then do the same to everyone else.

  "They're right, Janie. We should probably at least hear what he has to say," said Chase, his voice ice-cold as his eyes raked over his father. "We have the right to know why he's been deceiving us this whole time."

  "Thank you, Chase," said Benjamin.

  "Don't think I'm even close to forgiving you!"

  "I don't deny that your anger is justified," said Ben quietly, "but you need to hear the whole story."

  "Why have you shown yourself now?" said Janie. "Why not continue the charade?"

  "It's because of your grandfather."

  "What about Grandfather?" asked Chase quickly.

  "He died—"

  "Mr. Hiram's dead!" cried Persephone. "That can't be."

  "No! Not now. He's fine," said Ben, waving his hands at them. "Dan saved him. I can feel it. In the time he was—gone…his magical powers tried to transfer to the next Keeper of the House. I was fighting it because—well, because I don't want them. And focusing on that made me lose my grip on my shape-shifting ability."

  Chase collapsed into a chair, wondering if he might faint or puke, or maybe both. He now understood what he had seen in the medical room. Grandfather had been dead for a moment, but Doctor Dan had brought him back to life.

  "So where is she?" screamed Janie. "Where's my mom? She went to save you. Why are you here and not her?"

  These were the same questions Chase and Andy had been asking about their dad since the day Clair arrived, sick and alone.

  Benjamin slumped forward, arms resting on his legs, hands dangling between his knees. "She's dead," he whispered.

  It took a few seconds for the words to sink in.

  "No," murmured Janie, putting a hand to her head and sinking into the closest chair. "No. I would have known. I would have felt it! How—how did it happen?"

  They all stared wide-eyed at Ben. "We escaped from the building they were holding us in," he began cautiously, looking relieved when no one interrupted. "I felt weak, yet determined to get out of there."

  "Ready?" I asked.

  Clair squeezed my hand. "I always am," she said.

  We ran across this wide open field. It seemed to take forever to reach the cover of the trees.

  "Almost there!" I panted.

  We jumped into the bushes just as this short, yet lethal arrow slammed into the tree next to us and sent splinters flying. My heart felt like it was pounding out of my chest.

  Several more arrows came tearing toward us. One of them went straight through the upper part of Clair's arm. She fell to the ground.

  "Clair!" I exclaimed. "Oh my God!"

  I could tell she was in a lot of pain as I helped her up, but she just clamped her hand over the wound. "Don't worry, Ben," she gasped. "I—I'll be okay. We need to go! Now!"

  She grabbed my hand with her free one and pulled me along behind her. Knowing she was right about getting away from there, I didn't protest. As we zigzagged our way through the thick forest, I kept hoping she knew where she was going, because I sure didn't. Besides that, it was so dark, we could barely see anything in front of us.

  I knew she was trying to get to Blackshire, the fishing village that was close by. Clair had heard the Marlowes talking about it when they thought she was unconscious. It was a lucky break for us that she was familiar with the town. She
and Zane had spent some time there visiting his parents one summer when they were in college. When we reached the town, we hoped to find a car to drive ourselves to London.

  "I just thought of something," I said as I stumbled on a tree root, pressing my hand to the stitch in my side. "What if something happens and we get separated? We need to have a plan on where to meet."

  "That's not going to happen," she said.

  "Yeah, but if we do," I insisted. "Let's meet in front of Big Ben in London."

  Clair smiled. "Did you pick it because it's the one place your pea brain can remember?" she teased.

  "Hey! It's a great place, with a great name."

  After that, to conserve our strength, we didn't say much else. We just bumbled our way through the darkness. There weren't any sounds of pursuit, but I knew the Marlowes and their thugs were out there somewhere. By the time we made it to the edge of the woods, the wind was blowing hard and it had started to rain. Not too far off, we heard ocean waves beating against the shore. Clair's arm was bleeding worse than ever.

  "We need to get your arm wrapped," I said as we moved into the open and across the now rocky ground.

  "It'll have to wait! We don't have time."

  The sound of the pounding surf was getting louder. We were moving along the edge of a cliff. I glanced carefully over the side, hoping to see some lights from the village. I only saw large shadows of jagged rocks far below, and the white foam from the waves crashing against them.

  The rain poured down in sheets and the rocks were getting slipperier by the second. We were soaked to the skin.

  "Is this the right way?" I yelled over the howling wind and driving rain.

  "I'm pretty sure it is!" Clair answered. Her wet hair whipped across her face, which looked much too pale in the darkness. I knew she was growing weaker from her loss of blood.

  "Shouldn't we move away from the edge?" I shouted.

  "There's a path that leads down to the village! It's along here somewhere!" she shouted back. "It's shorter than going around to the road."

  I'm not sure what happened next, she tripped on a rock or—something. And before I had a chance to do anything to stop it, it was like a giant hand picked her up, as if she were a mere feather, and tossed her over the cliff.