Making Magic: Books of the Kindling, Book 3

by Donna June Cooper

  “Dammit,” Jake growled, surging through the door with Thea and Aaron on his heels.

  Aaron ran over to Emmy. The poor girl was cowering in a corner, pieces of a colorful glazed platter scattered at her feet, one elongated piece held menacingly in her shaking hand. Thea picked her way across the shards to the girl and glared at the two women who stood on the other side of the workroom. Sarah had changed a great deal since Thea had seen her last. She really looked the part of the old mountain crone she had been playing for so long.

  “Be careful, Thea,” Jake said.

  “Emmy’s not going to hurt me, are you Emmy?”

  Emmy shook her head, refusing to take her eyes off of Sarah. She knew exactly who her real enemies were.

  Marilyn walked toward Jake. “You don’t understa—”

  “No, mom, you don’t understand,” Jake took her arm and pulled her away from Sarah, putting himself between them. “You and your sidekick here are going to get yourselves arrested if you keep this up.”

  His voice was deceptively calm, but Thea heard the steel under his words.

  “But they’ve been taking the babies!” Marilyn exclaimed.

  It took Thea a second to register what had been said.

  Jake gave Aaron a questioning look and the boy turn beet red.

  Emmy shook her head emphatically. “My-my b-babies—”

  “See?” Sarah said. “She admits it.”

  Emmy clenched her fists and made a frustrated cry of denial, then of pain when the pottery in her hand cut into her palm.

  “Sshh, sweetheart. Let me see,” Thea said, reaching for her.

  The pottery shard dropped to the floor as Thea examined her hand. The cut wasn’t deep, but blood was welling up in it.

  “Do you have a first aid kit?” she asked Aaron.

  He nodded, his eyes shifting between Jake and Thea.

  “Go get it,” Jake said in a firm voice.

  “Don’t let him leave again,” Sarah said. “He’s got the power. If he—”

  “Shut up,” Jake said, nodding to Aaron, who skittered out of the room.

  “Jake, he’s not normal. He can do things—” Marilyn protested.

  “Mom,” he said, his voice a warning.

  Thea held Emmy’s hand and slid her other arm around the girl. Emmy shook uncontrollably, her tics and twitches worsening. “Ssshhh, Emmy. Calm down. It’s all right. Jake will take care of everything.”

  Emmy managed to shake her head, although it might have been a nod. “No. My b-baby’s coming.”

  Thea frowned. “Your babies are coming?”

  Emmy’s entire body went stiff with effort. “My. Baby. Is. Coming.”

  Thea’s gaze slid down to Emmy’s stomach. But that was a ridiculous thought. Emmy was a baby herself and Thea had seen her yesterday. The girl’s stomach was flat beneath the stained work smock. Then she noticed something on the floor at Emmy’s feet.

  It was a large flat shard of pottery with a bright handprint in the middle surrounded by a colorful swirl—a close twin to the one Thea had purchased.

  “It’s a room at the heart of the mountain with a wall covered in ancient carvings. In the center of all those carvings is a handprint.”

  Something icy slid down Thea’s spine and she looked up at Jake. His expression gave nothing away, but his mouth was a flat line and his eyes shifted to follow Aaron’s return.

  “Here it is.” Aaron held out a plastic box with a red cross on the side.

  “Open it up for me.” Thea peered in as he did so. “I need that tube of antibiotic and the biggest bandage in that container there. That should work.”

  “There is something weird going on here, Jake. Don’t you see it?” Marilyn’s voice shook. She seemed to be trying to tug Jake out of the room.

  “Yes. I agree with you. Coming in here and scaring these kids half to death is pretty darn strange in my book.”

  Thea jumped. Her cell phone was ringing again. She tried to keep her hands steady as she held out Emmy’s hand to Aaron. “Open the bandage and put the antibiotic on the pad.”

  Aaron did as he was told, but kept glancing over his shoulder to where Sarah lurked.

  “No. That’s not it.” Marilyn shook her head. “They both have the flickering around them like I told you. They have some kind of power, like Sarah says. I saw him—”

  Sarah pointed at Aaron. “He can appear out of nowhere. Right out of thin air! He’s been taking those babies.” Her voice was rising as she pointed at Emmy. “For her. What’re they gonna do when they find the right ’un? I’m not imagin—”

  “Wait,” Marilyn began, her voice almost as loud. “Let me tell Jake what I’ve—”

  “Everyone stop shouting.” Thea realized she had used the voice and cleared her throat. “Please.” She reached out with shaky fingers to help Aaron unwrap the bandage.

  Sarah ignored her. “There’s something beyond our knowin’ up on that mountain.”

  And so did Marilyn. “You don’t understand, Jake.”

  “I think I do. Why don’t you sit down, right there for a minute.”

  Thea was gently pressing the bandage across Emmy’s palm when she heard Marilyn’s gasp. She looked back in time to see Sarah behind Jake swinging something black and lethal-looking in her hand.

  “Jake!” she screamed and pushed Emmy behind her as she grabbed at Aaron.

  The pistol struck him in the side of the head and he staggered sideways. Before Thea could think, Sarah hit him again and he went down like a felled tree, with Sarah riding him to the floor at his mother’s feet, the gun barrel pointing right at his temple.

  “You even make a sound, I will shoot him.” Sarah was panting. “I heard the power in your voice. Not. One. Sound.”

  “Jake.” Marilyn sank to the floor beside him and threw out her hands as if to protect him. “Oh, my Jake. You killed him.”

  Sarah glared at Thea. “She told me you radiated the power, just like the rest of them up there.”

  Damn. Why hadn’t she yelled “Stop”? But that might not have been enough. Thea pulled Aaron behind her. Aaron was quaking with fear while Emmy was mumbling in a panic.

  Could she say something to keep Sarah from pulling that trigger? Were words faster than bullets? No. Her gift was too unreliable to risk Jake’s life. He was breathing, wasn’t he?

  Marilyn was hunched over Jake, muttering anxious pleas for Jake’s well-being.

  “Shut up,” Sarah said to Marilyn. “He ain’t hurt bad. Wouldn’ta been hurt at all if he’d kept his nose out of things.” Sarah glared at Thea. “If this one stays quiet, he’ll be fine. They’ll all be fine.”

  Sarah wasn’t the old woman her costume and makeup portrayed, but she did seem to be ill. She was sallow-skinned, sweating and panting after very little effort.

  Thea swallowed and focused on Jake, watching his chest rise and fall. There was blood streaming from a cut somewhere in his hair, but he was breathing. Please keep breathing.

  “B-ba-by’s c-coming,” Emmy mumbled against Thea’s back.

  “Take this and go shut her up before she says anything else,” Sarah commanded, tugging the scarf off her head. “Put this in her mouth and tie it tight.” She held it out to Marilyn. “And there’s tape hanging up there on the wall. Get that and them scissors too.”

  “But you…you weren’t supposed to hurt him. You said you wouldn’t—”

  “She used the power on him.” Sarah lifted her chin in Thea’s direction. “When we destroy the source of it, that’ll break her hold on him. You said you wanted him free of it. You said you wanted to stop them from taking the babies.”

  Shit shit shit. Thea’s mouth went dry as Sarah pressed the gun barrel into Jake’s temple. The woman knew there was something unusual about the mountain and she had recognized that Thea’s voice had
power. But what did the babies have to do with it?

  Marilyn took the scarf with shaking hands. “But what will you do with him? While we—”

  “Tie him up and leave him here. They won’t find him until after the festival ends tonight. Maybe not even till tomorrow.”

  “But—”

  “Remember why we’re doin’ this.” Sarah’s voice seemed far too reasonable for someone who had a gun pressed to Jake’s temple. “Now, get the tape.”

  “Don’t hurt him,” Marilyn said, taking a roll of tape off of a pegboard.

  “He’s fine. Get that scarf in her mouth before she ruins everything.” Sarah said. “Wad it up good and use tape over it.”

  Emmy whimpered as Marilyn came at Thea with the scarf held taut in front of her.

  There were too many variables here to deal with and Sarah had a hair trigger. Hopefully that gun didn’t.

  Marilyn’s hands shook as she reached out with the scarf and stuffed it into Thea’s mouth.

  “There’s something powerful on that mountain of yours.” She tied the scarf in a tight knot, forcing Thea’s mouth open around the horrid-tasting cloth. “Something that’s trying to take over—”

  “Stop talking,” Sarah said. “And wrap that tape around her head a bunch to make sure.”

  How did they know there was something powerful on the mountain?

  Thea’s stomach turned as Marilyn tugged her head forward to wrap the fiber-reinforced strapping tape over the scarf again and again. Thea reached up to stop her, afraid she might cover her nose.

  “Get those hands down!” Sarah barked. “Put ’em behind you.”

  Thea shoved her hands behind her as Marilyn awkwardly cut the tape and patted it against her hair. Aaron had his arms around Emmy and they both huddled against Thea as if trying to hide.

  “It’s okay, Emmy. I’ll make it okay,” Aaron said. “I’ll make them sorry.”

  “The b-bab-by.” Emmy grimaced and blinked.

  Aaron shushed her.

  “Put this on her wrists,” Sarah said. “Pull it good and tight.” Thea felt one of those zip-tie restraints go around her wrists. Her heart hammered wildly as it was pulled tight—too tight.

  “You stay with Miz Woodruff,” Aaron said. “I’ll make it all right.” Thea could barely hear him.

  She saw Sarah secure Jake’s wrists behind him with another zip tie then bind his ankles as well.

  Jake’s color was good and his chest moved steadily. He was going to be all right. He had to be all right. She took deep even breaths, trying not to panic. The Croates would come and find him and he would be all right.

  “Now move,” Sarah said, still holding the gun on Jake. “Marilyn’s car is right outside.”

  Had they planned all this? What were they going to do once they got up on the mountain?

  “Boy, you come here,” Sarah said.

  Aaron frowned at her as she reached out, grabbed his arm, and dragged him over. The gun was now aimed at his head.

  Emmy squealed and clung to his arm, but wouldn’t let go of Thea either. And so they dragged Thea along behind them in a chain as they headed for the door.

  Thea looked back to see Marilyn bend over her son’s still form, cupping his cheek before she hurried to catch up.

  She turned back just in time to see Aaron slip out of Sarah’s grasp and disappear into the floor. Thea blinked. Her mind couldn’t reconcile what her eyes had seen. It was as if the floor had swallowed him up. Emmy didn’t make a sound, but Marilyn shrieked.

  “The little freak,” Sarah growled.

  “What’ll we do? He’ll go get help. He’ll—”

  “It don’t matter.” Sarah grabbed at Emmy, but the girl ducked behind Thea. The gun barrel wavered in their direction. “All right, baby snatcher, don’t you give me any trouble.” She poked the gun into Thea’s temple for emphasis. “Do you understand?”

  Thea felt Emmy’s head nod against her shoulder.

  “Once we get to the power. It won’t matter,” Sarah said, as if reassuring herself. “We can make ’em forget. We can make ’em all forget.”

  Sarah jerked her forward and Thea stared down at her feet as she stumbled over the spot where Aaron had disappeared—where he had sunk through the wood as if it had been made of water.

  Jake felt seasick, the same way he had when he and his dad had gone out on that saltwater fishing cruise and discovered that Jake and the ocean didn’t mix. The deck underneath him had heaved and swayed and his stomach had been very unhappy about it all. And his head hurt like—

  “Sheriff? Sheriff Moser? Should I call 911? Are you gonna die?”

  The young voice, strident and terrified, only intensified the pain. Jake tried to reach out his hand to stop the yelling and found he was unable to move. He opened his eyes.

  Aaron Croate hovered over him, shaking and sweaty.

  There was only one Aaron and he remembered what had happened, so maybe he wasn’t concussed too badly. His mom and Sarah, Emmy and Aaron, and Thea…damn.

  “How long have I been out?”

  “Not long. I waited till I was sure they was gone for good and come back upstairs. You was coming to. A few minutes, I guess,” Aaron said. “We gotta go. I promised Emmy I would make things right. We need to go save her and Miz Woodruff.”

  “Yeah.” Jake tugged at his hands and looked down at the zip tie around his ankles. “You got something to cut these off? It’ll take bolt cutters or wire snips.”

  “Uh, maybe.” Aaron went to one of the tables and started pulling out drawers.

  Dammit. Whoever had put them on had done it all wrong, but they still worked fine. They were the old style zip ties the county had used—his dad’s. She must have unlocked the gun safe to get these.

  Jake’s head throbbed. He remembered what Sarah had swung at him when he’d turned around. His mom had given that psycho his dad’s service pistol.

  He stared at the tie around his ankles as Aaron’s search grew more frantic. He thought about Thea as she had stood there protecting Emmy, chin up and defiant as ever. What were they planning to do to her? His mom would never agree to hurt anyone. Then again, his throbbing head suggested she must not have objected too much.

  He visualized the way the zip tie worked. A small mechanism, with a ratchet that kept the plastic teeth from slipping back. “What happened after Sarah knocked me out, Aaron?”

  The way he asked the question seemed to calm the boy a bit, but he still frantically pushed things around on tables and yanked out drawers.

  “They tied up Miz Woodruff, like you, and took her and Emmy with them. They was gonna take me too.” His voice was shaking.

  Jake focused on the zip tie. “Where did they go?” Don’t think big. Think small. Tiny ratchet. Tiny teeth.

  “Up to the Woodruffs. The crazy witch said they were getting back something the Woodruffs stole from Old Annie,” Aaron said.

  Jake smiled grimly as he felt the strip pull out of the ratchet. He spread his legs and the strip pulled all the way out. He couldn’t see his wrists, though. Could he affect something he couldn’t see?

  “Whoa. How did… Did you do that?” Aaron stared at him wide-eyed, a pair of wire cutters in his hand.

  “Yeah, but it would be faster if you cut the ones on my wrists,” Jake rolled and held out his hands.

  Aaron made quick work of them and Jake sat up, then grabbed onto the table leg beside him until the room steadied.

  “Okay. Slow and easy,” he said as he got to his feet. He rubbed at the side of his head and his hand came away sticky and red. It was the goose egg on top of his head that was more substantial and painful. “I owe you one, Sarah Rae.”

  There was a strange buzzing in the room. He thought it was his head until he remembered the sound. He scanned the room and found Thea’s tote sitting on the floor.


  “Get me that.” He pointed and Aaron raced over to grab the ringing bag. Jake wasn’t quite ready for moving around yet.

  He fished the phone out of the tote. It was Daniel. Yeah, that made sense.

  “This is Jake,” he answered.

  “Uh, hey. I’m trying to find Thea,” Daniel replied. His voice was shaking. “Or Grace, either one. No one at the house is answer—”

  “You saw something,” Jake said.

  “Jake, this is going to sound—”

  “Does it involve my mom and Sarah Rae Scott holding a gun on your sister?”

  There was a sharp inhale and a moment of silence. “And a few others, including Grace and Nick and my newborn niece.”

  “Well, they’re headed up the mountain to get something you guys supposedly stole from Old Annie. Ring any bells?” Jake recited.

  “Not the Old Annie part, but yes, the rest does,” Daniel’s voice was still unsteady. “We started home yesterday. I kept…seeing odd things about what was going on up there and… Well, we decided to come home.”

  “Things?”

  “It’s complicated. But just a while ago what I was seeing escalated. I was hearing about gunfire and—”

  “The gun they have is my Dad’s and I had the striker tip filed down. It won’t fire,” Jake interrupted. “Although that idiot Sarah can still bludgeon people with the damn thing.” He felt for the lump.

  There were sounds of relief in the background. Mel was listening in.

  “When I couldn’t get Nick, I tried Thea. I was going to call you next,” Daniel said, still sounding unconvinced. “I’m pretty sure the baby is coming in the middle of all this. What’re you going to do?”

  Jake remembered Emmy insisting, “My baby’s coming”.

  “I’m going up there to dissuade those two from causing any more trouble. You see anything else that would be of any help?” Jake asked.

  “Don’t call any law enforcement types in on this. I mean, besides you,” Daniel said in a rush. “I saw… I mean… Don’t call anyone who might bring a gun that actually works.”

  Jake nodded to himself. “I was leaning that way myself. Anything more specific than that?”