The Harder I Work, the Luckier I Get

by Amber Lynn

Nate stares down out her for a full minute, frozen, and more than likely not breathing. He finally looks up to the spot he saw her hanging in the air, and then back down at her. The sadness in his eyes was replaced with confusion, and little bit of hope.

  “Your Mama?” he asks in a small voice.

  The disbelief in his voice alerts me that things may not go as well as Aisling thought. Out of everyone, Nate is going to be hard to convince. The connection between us that he feels anytime I’m around is sure to be an issue.

  “Yes, you’d know her as many names, starting with Yara and most recently Avery. She showed up this morning and I was just explaining to her how things have changed since she’s been away,” Aisling answers. “She’s a little confused, but she’s been through similar situations before, so I’m sure she’ll get the hang of things. At least there won’t be any clowns to scare her this time.”

  She just had to mention those clowns. If there’s any question about whether she’s evil, she answered it with that statement.

  “Sweetheart, are you sure you’re feeling okay?” he asks, reaching out to check her forehead for a fever.

  Satisfied that she isn’t warm, he starts feeling around her head looking for bumps. I want to remind him that she’s a phoenix and doesn’t get sick, but it’s fun watching him act like a normal dad.

  “I’m fine, Daddy,” she says, giving another dramatic sigh. I have a feeling she often has an issue with getting people to believe her.

  “Honey, your mother is dead and I don’t see her in this bathroom,” Nate tries to assure her.

  With all the weird things that have happened to us over the months, I’m surprised he’s finding this hard to believe. I imagine when I do arrive back in the present, I’ll tell him what happened here.

  Well, at least some of it, so he would know this is a possibility. I’d probably break some time continuum thing, but at the same time, he clearly needed a reminder that I tend to be unpredictable.

  “Of course you don’t. She isn’t on the same plane that we are and I’m pretty sure she isn’t on the ghostly plane either. I’ve seen people on that plane, and they don’t usually look as nice as Mama does,” she tells him.

  I really hope she doesn’t see yucky dead people often. That can’t be any fun for a kid, any more than it’d be fun for an adult.

  “Do you know what she’s doing here?” he asks her skeptically.

  He looks back to where I’m standing, concentrating, trying to see what our daughter sees. I want to pipe in and say I can speak for myself, but it doesn’t really work in the situation.

  “I didn’t really ask. I was just happy to finally see her. I’ve been waiting for her forever, after all. I believe she’s actually from the past. I think one of the stinky warlocks is trying to trap her here.”

  Nate’s eyes didn’t leave my location. I can tell he’s trying to make me appear, but he’s never wielding the level of magic required for that trick.

  “That’s right. We were on our way to a hotel in Evanston to try to capture a warlock who’d tried to explode a building the day before,” I say.

  Dang it, for some reason the spell detectors we had must not have worked. Vinnie made some, and then I’d casted spells to see if they worked. In the trials, they were always accurate, but we hadn’t tried them against warlock magic.

  They’d trapped me in the past before. I guess I didn’t think that this was another one of their spells. I thought maybe it was my own powers doing something freaky, which wasn’t unheard of, or someone managed to kill me. With Aisling saying that I don’t look like a ghost, and recalling Eva’s voice saying she was on her way to help the guys bring me out, I have a better outlook on the situation. I just have to let things play out until I can get back to my own time.

  Aisling looks over at me and nods. “Yes, I remember now.”

  “Remember what?” Nate asks.

  “The situation that sent her here. You guys were going to confront a warlock while you were in Chicago doing a conference. When you drove up to the parking lot, you triggered a spell that zapped her here to the future,” she explains.

  Nate thinks for a second and then says, “I remember that day, she ...”

  “That’s enough, Daddy,” Aisling interrupts with a very strong, authoritative voice that doesn’t belong with her little body. The worst part was she sounded just like me. “She hasn’t lived that time yet and will probably end up back there. We don’t want to influence any of her actions. I’ve probably already messed up a little by mentioning how some of her friends’ lives turned out, but I wanted to make sure she understood no matter what choices she makes, eventually we’ll all be fine.”

  “Aisling, you can’t know that for sure,” Nate says to her.

  “I do know it, Daddy. Even you’ll be happy again. You’ll find your little butterfly eventually,” she says.

  The conviction that she says it with causes me to start crying. It’s hard not to believe her, but not knowing exactly what happened to me makes it difficult.

  “Don’t cry, Mama. Everything will be okay, just like I see, you’ll see,” she says as she runs over and grabs my hand.

  “What’s wrong?” Nate asks.

  “Nothing, Mama is just being overly emotional. It’s a girl thing, you wouldn’t understand,” she informs him.

  I want to laugh, but the scene is still depressing to me. When you see your child imitating you, when she’s never even met you, it’s a bit surreal.

  “Is there any way for me to talk to her directly?” Nate asks.

  “You’re one of a kind soulmates, Daddy, you can always talk to her, you shouldn’t let the different planes stand in your way,” she says. “I’m going to go play for a little bit and give you two some alone time to discuss things.” She runs over to the door, and then turns around to face me. “I love you, Mama. Trust me everything will work out.”

  She sounds like a broken record, repeating that over and over. Evidently the fact that I’m a little dense has been passed along.

  “I love you too, my little devil,” I tell her as she heads out the door.

  “So, any idea how we do this?” Nate asks out loud.

  I tried talking to him earlier and it didn’t seem to work, so I open myself up to him with my mind to see if that makes any difference.

  “Can you hear me now, Mali?” I ask. His eyes light up, and he doesn’t need to say anything for me to know he heard my words. It would’ve been nice to know that’s all it took when we were in his bedroom.

  “It really is you,” he says smiling. “I’ve missed you so much.”

  “For me no time has passed at all. I blacked out, and then came to in our bedroom while you were sitting there holding our wedding photo.”

  “So you saw my pity party.”

  “Yeah, I know you told me it would probably be like this, but it’s really hard to watch. I understand Aisling makes it even harder sometimes, but please try to be strong for a little while longer. She seems to think everything will turn out okay and it’s hard not to believe the little devil,” I say.

  “That’s a good nickname for her. She reminds me so much of you. I know we’d stopped letting kids know what they were until they were grown, but it’s hard keeping it from kids who know everything.”

  “I guess I remembered just today why we put that rule into place. Mirari wasn’t a good child to test someone that young having the knowledge they weren’t human while trying to blend in with the human world,” I reply. “I just thought it would be better at the time if she knew she was different. Totally wrong idea, I’m not sure if that cat’s hair ever fully grew back.”

  “No, Mirari was definitely not a good child to let loose upon the world with extra abilities. She’s a pyro, like you, and letting an emotional child who can shoot fire when she’s upset out in any unrestricted environment is dangerous. I don’t know if keeping it from her would’ve made much of a difference, though. Your parents have told me the tales of you
r time as a humanoid child, so it seems the apples don’t fall far from the tree.”

  “Hey, I can’t take all the credit for our children. You aren’t exactly a saint yourself,” I tell him.

  He looks down at the ground in mock sheepishness, and then looks up smiling. “I wish I could see you.”

  “That would be nice. You might look funny walking around talking to yourself,” I tell him. “Or maybe not. Everyone’s always accepted you’re a little weird.”

  “I’m going to side with the statement that said it’d look funny. Do you know of any ways to fix that little issue?”

  “Well, I imagine I’m still a sorceress, even if I’m on another plane. Let’s see if we can do something using that skill set.”

  I grab one of the knives from my front pocket, and stab my finger enough to draw blood. I didn’t have them available during the spell that turned me back into a child, so I’m happy to see they carried over with me as an adult. As far as I know, there was no reason for my knives travelling to be any different, but I’m not in a position to question it.

  “What are you doing?” Nate asks.

  “Fixing the problem, like I said,” I say letting the blood drop to the ground. “With my blood as part of the deal; let me cross the planes so they can see me as real.”

  I wish when I was done saying a spell, some air would whoosh or sparks would happen. Without an indicator I really have no idea if I’m just speaking gibberish for the fun of it, or if I’m actually doing something. Other than my locator spells, magic hadn’t failed me, so I assume my quick words are enough.

  “You’re here,” Nate says, running to sweep me into his arms, immediately seeking my lips. We remain lip-locked for a couple minutes in a scene I’m sure would have Aisling making her little face. Moments when I almost feel like making a face myself.

  I start to tickle him because it’s getting a little hard to breathe. I know he’s been without me for years, but I still need oxygen. At least I think I do. As far as I know, I’m not really real because of the time travel, spell stuff.

  “Sorry,” he says, stepping back and grabbing my hand. “You look really good. I have pictures, but it’s been a while since I’ve seen you in three dimensions.”

  I don’t believe for a second he didn’t have my entire body memorized. His eyes were always glued to me, taking in every skin cell.

  “Three dimensional is my preferred way to be,” I say. “What should we do now? It’s kind of weird hanging out in the women’s bathroom. I do have my sense of smell, and there are a few places I can think of where I’d rather be.”

  “I’m sure we can come up with something fun. Do you want to go meet the rest of your children? I guess you’ve learned a little bit about them if you’ve been following along, but I’m sure they’d love to see you.”

  “I thought you’d never ask,” I say, following behind as he leads the way to the swings.

  I don’t know if Aisling has had a chance to tell the others I’m around, or if this is going to be the shock of their little lives. Either way, it’s pretty cool getting to meet children who are biologically yours, but you haven’t had a chance to birth yet. I’m fairly certain the situation is unique.

  I imagine a lot of women wish for their children to just appear like this, without the aches and pains that come along with giving birth. I’d personally like to get the opportunity to bond with them when they aren’t out, being moody, or peeing all over the place. I know from my past pregnancies that I can actually communicate telepathically with them when they’re in their little eggs.

  Sometimes that’s fun, other times you get a child like my firstborn who tells you not to eat certain things because it will make you fat. Thankfully there’s an off button at moments like that. Anyway, on to the swings and my mini family reunion. I expect it will be a good indicator about how things will go when I reunite with all of the other people from my life.

   

  CHAPTER 14

  Video cameras should be allowed to travel into the future