Spellbound Magic: An Urban Fantasy Action Adventure (The Witches of Pressler Street Book 3)

by Martha Carr

  “Really weird stuff,” John muttered.

  “What does that have to do with me?” The only thing Emily wanted to do was bolt out of the restaurant and run all the way home. It’s like ten blocks. Maybe. I can do it.

  “Nothing.” John shook his head and grabbed her hand again. “Let’s get outta here, huh?”

  Just before they made it to the front doors, someone gasped. Emily peered back to see their server standing in front of the mess at the six-top, and the poor woman looked like she was about to cry. This is not the night I needed it to be. Emily followed John out of the restaurant and hoped that would take all the flying food and overreacting centerpieces out of the equation for everyone else.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  “This keeps getting easier every time.” Nickie watched the last few shards of the energy core rain onto the chamber floor after most of it had already crashed to the ground. The metal cradle where the glass column connected to the floor sparked with electric-green light, hissing every few seconds.

  “Or maybe it has something to do with the fact that you just unleashed all your pent-up rage on part of an ancient escape pod.” Laura shrugged.

  “Yeah, maybe.” Nickie hefted the massive Velikan socket wrench and offered it to her sister. “Thanks for letting me take a few swings.”

  Laura took the wrench, and her sister dusted off her hands. “No problem. You looked like you could use it.”

  “Guess I did.”

  Laura stared at Nickie under the soft glow of the glowing orb floating in the air beside them. “You wanna talk about it?”

  Nickie laughed. “Here?”

  “It’s not like anyone’s gonna barge in on us, right?”

  “True. Okay.” Nickie took a deep breath. “I hate that I feel so relieved now that Chuck knows about everything. I’ve been lying to him for years, and I guess I just never realized how much it was affecting me until I didn’t have to lie anymore. But, I can tell he’s pissed.”

  Laura folded her arms. “I’d call it more of a mind-explosion.”

  “Come on.” Nickie shook her head. “He’s pissed I lied to him. He’s pissed he had to find out about it by being attacked by his Gorafrex-possessed best friend. He’s pissed that he didn’t even see it coming.”

  “He’ll forgive you.”

  “He already has. That’s the thing. He forgave me, and he’s pissed, and he won’t be later, and I should’ve just told him everything from the beginning.”

  Laura shifted her weight onto one foot. “That’ve been worse. You’re the one breaking the rules if you openly tell a human about magic and this ship and everything they let themselves forget. It’s not your fault if the Gorafrex attacked him. Or even that you did what you had to do to protect him, right?”

  “It feels like my fault.”

  “Well.” The oldest Hadstrom sister shrugged. “If you wanna beat yourself up about it, that’s up to you. But I think you made the right calls all around.”

  “Seriously?”

  “Yeah. It’s what I would’ve done.”

  Nickie rolled her eyes. “Yeah, but you don’t have to lie to your boyfriend about anything. He’s already in the magic club.”

  “And he’s not my boyfriend.”

  “Might as well be.”

  Laura pointed at her sister. “Okay, we’re not talking about Nathan right now, so don’t do that. Deflecting is my thing.” They laughed. “Besides, Chuck’s a really smart guy. You two are good for each other. What’s the worst that can happen now that he knows everything? He makes really bad jokes for a while, and Emily’ll join in, and we have to just deal with that until it gets old.”

  “Huh.” Nickie blinked and smiled at the image of her boyfriend and her little sister going back and forth with puns about magic. “That’s exactly what they’d do.”

  “I know.” Laura swung the giant wrench up and set it on her shoulder. “And when you look at it that way, Nickie, it’s really not—”

  The ground shuddered beneath their feet, rocking them sideways. Both witches stumbled against the wall, and the wrench slipped from Laura’s hand before hitting the floor with a loud clang. Seconds later, a roaring echo filled the chamber, drowning Nickie out as she shouted, “What’s going on?”

  Laura still understood the question and shook her head. “No idea.”

  A rain of pebbles and loose earth fell from the chamber ceiling. The ground trembled again, and Laura bent to pick up the wrench before she and her sister ran out into the corridor. It was a little quieter, but not by much.

  “We’re not under an airport this time.” Nickie glanced at the dark ceiling.

  “I don’t think those were planes. I really hope they’re not planes.” Laura lifted her hand, and the silver ring on her thumb sputtered out a weak silver light. “No way.”

  “What?”

  “Something’s wrong. My ring’s acting like it’s got a few loose wires.” Laura cleared her throat and tried again, focusing on her ring while, all around them, the cavern and corridor trembled with more aftershocks. The small translucent transport bubble bloomed slowly on her ring before being sucked back into it. “Come on.”

  “Lemme try.” Nickie cast the spell with her black legacy ring, which glowed with an oddly shimmering brown color. But the transport bubble did what it was supposed to do, growing on her ring before detaching and swelling to its full size.

  “There’s no way that’s me.” Laura frowned and stepped into the bubble.

  “Nope. That’s magic turning sideways.” Just before the bubble disappeared and took the Hadstrom witches with it, a section of the stone corridor cracked, and the ceiling caved in with a blast of dirt and cold air.

  The minute the bubble burst in their living room, Chuck jumped on the couch with a shout of surprise. “Jeeze! How did you—” He blinked the sleep out of his eyes and sighed. “Oh. Right.”

  Nickie went to him with a sympathetic smile. “Did you fall asleep?”

  “You know that’s how I process stuff. And I had a lot of processing to do.” He ran a hand through his blond hair and sat back against the couch again. “You guys accomplish your mission?” Both sisters shot him skeptical glances. “Or whatever you call it.”

  “Not mission, babe.” Nickie dropped onto the couch beside him and kissed his cheek. “But yeah. It went the way we wanted.” She and Laura glanced at each other. “Mostly.”

  “Okay…that Hadstrom look means you guys are leaving something out.” Chuck folded his arms. “Holy crap.”

  “What?”

  “That look!” He pointed at each of them and grinned like a maniac. “I used to think the three of you just had more inside jokes than anyone else on the planet. But that’s the look you give each other when you’re trying not to talk about magic stuff, huh?”

  Laura tried to pull it off like she had no idea what he was talking about, but she and Nickie both knew it wasn’t going to work with him. “Wow.” She nodded at her sister. “He’s good.”

  “Yeah, well, five years with the Hadstrom girls, you learn a thing or too.” Chuck frowned when he realized the missing pieces of what he’d just said. “Except for the fact that you’re all witches from a different planet.”

  “Babe, we are not from a different planet. We were born here. Our ancestors stepped off Arenya V thousands of years ago, and that’s a completely different thing.”

  “Okay, okay. So, what aren’t you guys saying?”

  “Well…”

  “Might as well tell him.”

  Laura folded her arms and sat in the armchair. “Magic’s going a little crazy in Austin. At least we hope it’s just Austin and not everywhere else.”

  “What do you mean by crazy?”

  “I know all of this is still crazy-sounding to you, babe.” Nickie leaned back and offered a thin smile. “But what we’re talking about is magic not working the way it’s supposed to.”

  “Huh.” Chuck scratched his head. “I mean, I don’t really k
now anything, but that doesn’t sound very good.”

  Laura scoffed. “It’s not. And we need to figure out how to stop it from getting worse.”

  “Can you do that?”

  Nickie nodded. “Yeah. We’re working on it—” Those fast, desperate, urgent drumbeats rose up in her head without warning, sudden and intense. Nickie’s temples exploded with pain, and she clenched her eyes shut.

  “Uh-oh.” Chuck leaned toward her and rubbed her back. “Is it another migraine?”

  Nickie couldn’t help it. She laughed and could only hear the echo of her own voice over the constant, primal rhythm in her brain. Still, she thought she was laughing like a maniac.

  “Woah, okay. What’s going on?” Chuck glanced at Laura. “You guys found her migraine meds the other night, right? Shouldn’t she still have some?”

  Laura wrinkled her nose, then got up and stepped toward the couch. “It’s not really that kind of migraine, Chuck. Sorry.” She knelt in front of her sister, and he stared at them.

  “What kind is it, then?”

  “The kind that means the Gorafrex is doing something we’re really not gonna like.” Laura squeezed her sister’s knee and held out her hand. “Nickie, your keys.”

  “That doesn’t make any sense.”

  “Babe.” Nickie grunted and clutched at his arm. She could barely hear herself think enough to form the words she wanted. “I have to go.” She pulled her keys from her back pocket.

  Laura didn’t even wait for her to fumble with them; she grabbed the keys out of Nickie’s hand and separated the silver Clubhouse coin from everything else. “Right here.” She grabbed Nickie’s fingers and guided them toward the thumbprint.

  “Wait a minute. Go where?” Chuck smoothed the hair away from Nickie’s forehead and frowned. “Hey, talk to me.”

  “I can’t…”

  “Chuck.” Laura shot him a stern glance that made him freeze. “I’ll explain it as soon as we get Nickie somewhere safe, okay?”

  “Where’s that?”

  “The only place the Gorafrex can’t get to her. Even in her head.”

  Nickie’s thumb slipped onto the thumbprint in the coin, and she disappeared with a little pop.

  “Hey!” Chuck nearly fell over when his girlfriend vanished from beneath his arm. “What did you do?”

  “She’s fine. I promise.” Laura tapped her fingers against her lips and rose from her knees to sit beside him on the couch. “We built this magical room together when we were kids. Called it the Clubhouse, and it just stuck.”

  “What?”

  “Come on, Chuck. I’m trying to fill you in, here.”

  “Yeah, yeah. Clubhouse.” He puffed out a sigh and closed his eyes. “I’m trying too.”

  “I know. This place is kind of in its own dimension. I think.” She shrugged. “Doesn’t really matter where, just that all three of us can get to it from wherever we are. With these.” She pulled her keyring from her pocket to show him. “And no one else can get in.”

  “What about me?” Chuck blinked, already knowing the answer but asking anyway.

  “No one else, Chuck. Sorry.”

  “Yeah…” He cleared his throat and stared at her keys. “What just happened?”

  Laura bit her lip and frowned at him. “Nickie can hear the Gorafrex’s magic in her head. Seeing as the last time she heard it was when…well, when it found Dave, this time means the thing’s either trying to lure another witch or wizard, or…”

  “Or what?” She shook her head, and Chuck slapped his thighs. “Laura. Or what?”

  “Or it’s using it’s magic to activate another energy core with that witch or wizard’s lifeforce magic.”

  “Okay, pretend I’m still learning what all that means.”

  “It means there’s another witch or wizard out there we couldn’t save. And it means things are about to get a lot weirder, magic-wise.” Nickie’s boyfriend rubbed his mouth and stared at her with wide eyes. “Yeah, I hope I’m wrong too.”

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  “If I didn’t already know what you do for a living, I would’ve pegged you as someone who seriously doesn’t enjoy fine dining.” John tossed his wrapper from their cheaper and far more successful dinner into the trashcan beside the food truck.

  Emily spread her arms and shrugged. “I’m obviously not feeling like myself.” And, apparently, I can’t keep my magic under control. First, I pour my emotions into food that other people eat and feel everything I do, and now I’ve got magical telekinesis issues when I’m nervous. Why am I nervous?

  John eyed her and tilted his head. “You’re trying to work something out right now.”

  “That obvious, huh?”

  He pointed at her temple and leaned forward. “I can see the gears turning.” With a sympathetic smile, he added, “Anything I can do to help?”

  Just tell us exactly how to get the Gorafrex out of human hosts so we can lock it up where it belongs and get back to normal life. “I don’t think so, honestly. But thanks.” She sucked down the rest of her blueberry lemonade in the paper cup and tossed it in the trash. “It means a lot that you wanna help, though.”

  “That’s what happens when you like somebody, right?” He stepped toward her and hooked his finger under her chin. “‘Cause I really like you, Em.”

  The only thing Emily could do was smile until she was kissing him back. When he pulled away, she wrinkled her nose a little. “Yeah, you’re not too bad, either.”

  John laughed and grabbed her hand. “Okay, so I was planning on taking you to this karaoke bar downtown…”

  She laughed. “I never pegged you as a karaoke guy.”

  “Well, I’m not Frank Sinatra or anything, but there’s nothing like entertainment via watching people sing their hearts out after a few too many drinks. Sometimes someone shows up with actual talent, and then it feels like waiting through all the screeching was worth it.”

  They walked away from the food truck, the sun barely hanging on above the western horizon. “Let me just say that Nickie’s the only one who’s got any musical talent whatsoever. You’ll be sorely disappointed by me.”

  “I bet you’re better than you think.”

  “Not when our lazy bulldog who doesn’t get up for anything but food and a soft bed leaves the room every time I sing.”

  John gave her a joking wince. “That bad, huh?”

  “Probably worse.”

  He chuckled. “All right. I made the right call then. No karaoke. How ‘bout a walk in the park?”

  Emily raised an eyebrow. “Goin’ old-fashioned, huh?”

  “You’ve never gone on a date and just walked around outside?”

  She shrugged. “The last guy I was with was into gourmet food and video games. So no. Not really.”

  “We’re gonna change that.”

  They’d stopped for street food next to the Emma Long Metropolitan Park on the north side of town, so walking to their new destination to just keep walking didn’t take long. The park was lit with a few streetlamps beside the road and the parking lot, giving plenty of light before the rest of daylight faded after sunset. John stopped at the edge of the first path and gestured to the grass and dogwood trees and well-kept open space in front of them. “Care for a stroll, madam?” He offered her his elbow and waited.

  Emily pulled her best snobby-aristocrat face and batted her eyelashes. “Such a gentleman.” She hooked her arm through his, and they fought the urge to crack up.

  The park was fairly empty on a Tuesday night, with just a few people finishing up their own outdoor adventures. A man in his late sixties jogged past and nodded. “Man, I hope I can still move like that at seventy.”

  Emily glanced back at the man and smiled. “Better start now, then, right? I bet the guy’s been running most of his life.”

  John frowned. “I’m not actually that into running.”

  “Oh, so this is the part where we share our totally unattainable goals and laugh about how we’ll ne
ver actually get there?”

  “Ha.” He gave her hand on his arm a quick little pat. “You really get me, Em.” The way she laughed at that part made him grin, and he took in a deep breath of the evening air that had slipped down beneath the steamy, warm-blanket temperatures. “My favorite park is actually Ladybird.”

  Emily blinked at him. “I’m just gonna give you the benefit of the doubt and say you had no idea where I lived until I texted you my address this morning.”

  That confused him a few seconds until he understood and snorted. “That is pretty close to you, isn’t it? I promise I haven’t been stalking you.”

  “Yeah, no big deal. We just work at the same restaurant and your favorite park happens to be super close to my house.” Emily grinned and liked that John didn’t take her sarcasm too seriously. So many people do.

  “This one’s pretty nice. Not much traffic on the paths.” He frowned and looked at the darkening sky. “It’s a little quiet, though. You notice that?”

  “Oh, yeah.” Emily bit her lip and followed his gaze. “I think there are usually more birds.” Like the grackles that fell outta the sky. That’s definitely what’s missing.

  “Yeah, maybe.”

  Ten minutes later, they stopped at one of the benches beside the path as John finished his childhood story. “I think we had fried turkey every day for at last three weeks after that.”

  Emily shook her head. “Was this before cell phones?”

  “Nope.” He laughed. “My parents just refuse to use theirs. They still have a landline.”

  When he sat on the bench, Emily lowered beside him and didn’t miss that his arm went over her shoulders across the back of the bench. She scooted closer and leaned into him. “I think I’ve taken the lead on every Thanksgiving dinner since I was a freshman in high school.”

  “Wow.”

  “Yeah, that’s how much I love what I do. One of my aunts wasn’t happy about it. But she can’t cook, and everyone knew it, so nobody said anything. She turned to what she calls ‘crafting’ instead.”

  “Crafting what?”