by J L Collins
“Same as you. Interrogation. Because they obviously don’t have anything better to do with their time,” he deadpanned.
I glanced back over my shoulder. The receptionist wasn’t paying us any mind.
“No kidding. Wait… How come you didn’t tell me you were coming here too? My feet are still popsicles in these stupid boots. It would have been nice to ride shotgun, you know?”
Did he really just roll his eyes at me? I guess chivalry is dead after all.
“Sorry. I hadn’t realized I was now your chauffeur.”
“Forget I even said anything. Good luck with your interrogation. Maybe they won’t insinuate that you killed that woman. You’d be miles ahead of me, anyway.”
“They said you…?”
But I was already pushing through the front doors of the station.
The interrogation had gone about as ridiculously as I’d expected, even though I’d done my best to stay quiet. And I couldn’t even stomp my way back to the library to vent some of my frustration. I trudged through the stupid snow, irritated with Chief Putnam, Ash, and my inability to go for a good run to help mellow me out. But for now, my hotheadedness would just have to simmer.
I scanned the sky, somewhat hopeful. She was too hyperactive for my taste usually, but at least Goldie didn’t think I killed Beatrice Wimberly. At least, I didn’t think she did.
She was nowhere to be seen so I made my way back to the library with only my thoughts to keep me company.
The library was locked but Ash had left me the key this morning. I slid the old-fashioned thing into the lock and jingled it a bit, twisting until the tell-tale click and the shudder of the heavy door.
The lights were all on still, but you could feel the stillness and quiet. It wasn’t a huge place, but it wasn’t exactly cozy, either. Charming Springs seemed like a town with more nosy nuisances than devious darkness, but all of it was new to me and it was hard to let my guard down, even inside the library.
I shrugged off my heavy winter clothes and hung them by the fireplace in the guest room, scooting close enough to warm my feet. If I didn’t hurry up and find a better pair of boots, I was going to lose a few toes to frostbite alone.
The flames danced higher as I added a couple more smaller logs, and sat back and watched, letting my thoughts tangle with them.
I could play cocky and like I was just rolling with the punches all I wanted, but the truth I kept burying down was the hopelessness I’d been fighting. The anger at being hoodwinked into getting stuck in here… It made no sense to dwell on any of it, not when I needed to focus on the most important thing. But I was still human, despite whatever anyone else here thought.
Was anyone here even human? There was so much I didn’t know, and it wasn’t like Ash was very forthcoming about any of it.
I stuck the poker into the fire, stoking the bottom of the logs. Ash… what was that guy’s deal, anyway?
I had my theories, but they felt so silly that I felt ridiculous by even entertaining them.
He was secretive. He showed up wherever he wanted without a single sound. His fashion sense could be applauded by not only the cosplay community, but by any upstanding gentleman circa 1915.
I half-expected him to come out as a vampire any day now, except I’d met a real vampire at the Special Council Meeting. And there was definitely a difference between Natalia and Ash.
A thought crept into my head. He was the only one awake during the frozen in time spell, and he’d been looking for a way to break it for eleven years.
What if he figured the only way to break it was by somehow luring me here? If, like everyone else wanted to claim, I was the key to breaking that spell, then maybe Ash was the one to figure out.
It still didn’t explain how he could’ve influenced me inside the blocked-off barrier spell, but there could’ve been a workaround that only he knew about.
I frowned. And he’s been keeping here right under his nose, but why? That was what bothered me the most.
Over the next day, I kept a closer eye on him than before. I took notice of his routine, which luckily for me, almost never involved teleporting from one place to the next. I even took notes on my laptop.
No going and checking on secret rooms with prisoners held inside. No keeping himself chained up while he turned into a grisly monster. No late-night exchanges in the dark with shady people.
The only real thing I noticed was just how boring Ash was. Okay, so maybe he wasn’t boring per se, but from what I could tell he wasn’t exactly a criminal mastermind, either.
He brought me breakfast while I worked on my story. He did poof away then, but I tracked him down easily enough back in the kitchen where he left his food.
From there, his room. I tried not to be a creep—I mean I do believe in privacy. He wasn’t in there very long before he left again, walking back into the main library with a stack of five books in his arms.
He placed them back in their proper places, grabbing five more to replace them, dropping them on a nearby table with the green banker’s lamp already on.
And for the next several hours this was where he sat. When he said he did research, he was not playing around. One thing I did notice was that he read just about as fast as I did, so no superpowers involved there.
When he flipped to the end of one book and cracked open the next, I yawned and slipped back into my room. Maybe I should write instead of playing spy.
I nearly jumped out of my skin when he knocked on the door. I glanced down at the screen. Only four paragraphs… at this rate I’d grow moss out of my ears before I’d finish.
“Come in,” I called out.
He pushed open the door, but I was surprised to see there was no plate of food in his hand. “Hey.”
“Hi.” I cleared my throat, embarrassed that I’d forgotten how to speak to another person for a second there. “Um, what’s up?”
Ash looked around the room. “I’m out of most of my food so I’m going to pick some up.”
“Oh. Okay.”
There was clearly more on his mind than just food. He met my eyes and raised a brow. “I also wanted to give you a chance to ask me.”
“Ask you what?” I pushed away from the small desk. “I don’t get what you mean.”
“You’ve been following me all day. There must be a reason.”
My cheeks flamed. “I was just…”
“Just what? Into playing detective?” he suggested.
“No!” I shot back.
“Then just ask me whatever it is you’re hunting answers for. Like I said, I’m busy.” He crossed his arms and leaned against the doorframe.
I glared at him. He may not have been the scheming type but that didn’t make him likable.
“Of course I have questions. I’m in a place I have no prior knowledge about, and no one seems to know how or why. Plus there’s the whole magic and monsters being real thing. How would you expect me to react? And I followed you around because you haven’t told me anything useful enough to satisfy any of my questions. Maybe if you did…” I said, shrugging, “it wouldn’t be necessary.”
“Fine.” He pulled away from the wall and stalked over toward me, the amber in his eyes shining. “Ask away. I can’t promise anything.”
Of course not. “Are you sure you don’t know how I broke through—”
“We’ve been over that. Next.”
I balled my fists at my sides. “Okay then… why am I here? Specifically at the library.”
At this Ash turned away. “I usually take it upon myself to check up on anomalies in town. It’s always been my job, even before all of this happened,” he said, gesturing around us.
“Ah. So not out of the kindness of your heart but because I’m some kind of science experiment?” The words tasted more bitter in my mouth than they sounded.
“Also because I needed to keep an eye on you. That part was true. You see, you’re not the only one taking notes.” He nodded to the laptop. “And maybe I have q
uestions for you.”
How had I not known? “You’ve been spying on me like some kind of double-agent.”
“You could look at like that. Or…” he said, turning back to me, “you could look at it like neither of us are very good at recon.”
I opened my mouth but snapped it shut. I hated it, but he was right. “Okay, fine. We both suck at being spies. That doesn’t help me very much though.”
I wasn’t sure was I expecting, but he sat on the edge of the desk and looked down at my computer, his eyes narrowing at the half-empty page on the screen. “You’re a writer. What do you write?”
I shook my head. “No, no. Me first.” I had to think of a good question to lead with… “Someone mentioned something about magical anchors. Are there others? Other magical towns like this one?”
“Yes. But I don’t know anything about them. Most towns have died out.”
“Oh. All right. What about the mini museum in the basement? What’s up with that?”
The corner of his mouth quirked up, rounding out the sharp angle of jaw. “I’m a collector. I thought that was pretty evident.”
“Just a collector? Plenty of guys your age are busy picking up women at bars.” It was just a test, just to see if he’d take the bait.
He rolled his eyes. “Ah yes, because all men are vile.”
As a self-described feminist, I hated the notion that men were vile as a whole. But I wasn’t wrong. “How old are you, exactly?” Guess I was going to have to go with the straight-forward approach.
“Ouch. Hitting with the personal questions, aren’t we?” He stood back up and walked away. “My turn. The book. What’s it about?”
“Why do you care? It’s just a book, and that’s me being generous. I don’t even know what it’s all about.”
He took this answer and mulled it over, somehow producing an apple from his coat and taking a bite of it. “Hm. Not what I was expecting.”
“Sorry I’m not spouting off perfectly timed sonnets here,” I mumbled.
“It’s weird. I thought maybe—”
I shot to my feet. “Weird? Wow, thanks. If you think I’m so weird then maybe I should be on my way to find a different place to lay low. I wouldn’t want to freak you out with my weirdness.” I turned to hunt down the bag I’d brought with me from the camper, hastily looking to stuff things back into it.
“Whoa, whoa. Who said anything about that? You’ve got to stop jumping to conclusions so fast. You’ll give yourself whiplash that way,” he said, throwing up his hands.
But I was already on the move. It was better to move and think than to sit around and stew in my thoughts. At least that’s how I always saw it. And in moving around the room, scanning the place to find where I’d placed all of my things, I paused.
Yes, things were out of whack. And I didn’t know how to take half of what Ash said, but that also didn’t mean I needed to throw a tantrum, either. I needed to cool down my hotheadedness and be truthful.
“How can I trust you if you aren’t straight with me?”
He let out a deep sigh, but I didn’t want to look up and see whatever expression was on his face. When it boiled down to it, trusting someone who lied to me was really how I got here in the first place.
“Listen, I don’t know what else to say other than you can trust me. There’s no reason not to. I’ve been helping you since you set foot here, in case you forgot… Maybe be a little more grateful for that.”
Instead of letting my emotions get the best of me, I straightened up and rolled my shoulders back, easing the tension in them. “You’re right. Thank you.”
But before he could say a word there was a squawk outside the room. In flew Goldie.
“Wow. I hope I’m not interrupting anything,” she said gleefully, dropping to the desk in front of me. “Though too bad if I am, because Fatima sent me to tell you she’s expecting you. Something about a test? Or a chest? I can’t really remember, come to think of it… Ooh, I didn’t actually interrupt something, did I?”
“No,” I said between my teeth. “Please let her know I’ll be there soon. Somehow.” Suddenly the fireplace was pumping out too much heat for my liking.
“Will do,” Goldie said, saluting me with her large wing before taking off again.
Ash followed after her but stopped at the door and looked down at the doorknob. “Just remember that the Special Council is breathing down both our necks. I’m not the bad guy, despite what you might think. We should probably stick together for the time being”
“Yeah. Yeah, I suppose you’re right.” Even I was surprised to hear that come out of my mouth. I wasn’t sure I believed it yet, but I didn’t have any friends here aside from Fatima. Maybe Goldie, and okay, Ash too. It was stupid to try and push any help away, as much as the stubborn in me wanted to fend for myself.
I wanted to ask him more questions, but I let him go without saying anything else. It wasn’t lost on me that Ash was hiding something. Now was not the time to worry about it, but I couldn’t help wondering what it could be.
For all I knew it could be something dangerous. But I watched him walk away from the door and vanish around the corner.
Nah. It’s probably just a secret affinity for writing terrible poetry. That I could definitely picture.
I closed my laptop with a sigh. Whatever the case was, if I was going to get the heck out of here, I was going to need someone on my side to help.
11
A Balance In Nature
Fatima’s home was much cozier than the library. Everything had a way of making you feel warm—from the reds and golds of the furniture to the smell of oolong tea brewing in her kitchen.
I sat down in a gold wing-backed chair covered in soft red velvet. She took a seat next to me in a chintz loveseat and smiled. “Thank you for coming. I wasn’t sure if you were ready to or not.”
I shrugged, matching her smile. “I don’t have much going on these days.” Blowing across the cup of steaming tea she offered me, I took the smallest sip, immediately regretting it. “Why did you invite me over, anyway? Not that I don’t appreciate it. It’s nice to actually hold a conversation with someone who might just talk back.”
I wasn’t still irritated. No, not at all.
Fatima saw right through me. “Hm. Is Ash not playing the part of the perfect host? He’s not singing his usual sea shanties and pouring rum down his gullet at all hours?”
My mouth dropped. “Uh, no. Should he? That is, should I… um, expect that?” I may have my theories but Ash secretly being a pirate was not among them. Though now that I thought about it, he could maybe pull off a young and ruggedly handsome Captain Hook. With guyliner even. If he removed the silver hook from out of his—
“I’m kidding, I promise,” Fatima chuckled. “If I know Ash then he’s probably nose deep in a book somewhere.”
I nodded, pretending I hadn’t just fallen for her joke. “No doubt. He went to get food, I think. Awkward bookworm aside, I think it’s easier to talk to someone who isn’t so, what’s the word...?”
“Guarded.” She nodded, already understanding what I meant. “I won’t say much on that other than he has good reason to be wary of others. He can choose to tell you more about himself if he wants, but he’s a tough nut to crack as I’m sure you’ve seen. But,” she said, leaning forward with her hands on her knees, “We aren’t talking about silly boys today.”
I relaxed further in the seat, enjoying the extra oomph of the cushion. “Good. Is this about the witchy power thing, then? Goldie did say something about a test. Or a chest.”
“That dodo bird,” Fatima laughed. “Yes, I mentioned a test but that’s for in a bit. First I wanted to chat.”
Sure, why not? Third interrogation’s the charm, I guess. I sipped some more of the tea, happily scalding my tongue in exchange for the deliciousness.
“What’s it like out there?”
I waited. And waited. “Out… where?” I really had no clue what she meant.
&
nbsp; But Fatima must have found my cluelessness hilarious because she chuckled so hard she nearly upended her teacup. “Whew, you are such a breath of fresh air, you know that? I apologize,” she said, shaking her head. “I don’t mean to be so cryptic. Out there—I mean outside of town. We’ve been out of the loop for a long time, so I’m naturally curious if we’ve missed anything of importance.”
Oh. Yeah, that made sense.
“Gotcha. Let me see. A lot can happen in eleven years, but I guess I could try and condense it down maybe. There’s been some new iPhones. Actually, I can show you mine in a minute.” I tapped my fingernails along the teacup. “Rainbow hair became a thing. Hence the blue in mine. Everyone shares way too much information about themselves on social media now. I’ve seen one too many post-breakup thirst traps and…” I trailed off and cleared my throat. “You know what? Never mind. Let’s just say social media has definitely changed. Instagram, Twitter, TikTok dances… yeah, I guess you didn’t miss much there. Although there are a lot of really cute animals that have their own Instagram—okay. Yeah, sorry I’m rambling. My brain doesn’t think so linearly,” I said, wincing. More like my thoughts are all trying to push each other through the closing gap in the metro train right before it takes off.
“Go on. This all sounds very odd and I want to know more.”
“You have no idea. On top of all of that, the world has both gone crazy and stayed the same all at once. But I guess there will always be death, taxes, and frustrating politics.”
She nodded. “This is true.”
“When was the last time you were out there?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.
“It feels like forever ago, but I suppose it was a couple of weeks before the curse was put on us. I visited with some friends. We went camping down in the Smokies.”
“Really?” Something about Fatima didn’t strike me as the camping kind of gal.
She must have picked up on it. “Yes, really. Being a witch or wizard can make you look at nature differently. Like more of a friend, someone you can be yourself around. Part of it is me tempting fate. Being a fire witch in the middle of nothing but trees and water for miles can feel like you’re living on the edge a bit. I’ve always been a bit of a rebel, or at least that’s what my mother said.” A shy smile spread across her mouth as she took a sip of her own tea.