So, that might have also been the underlying reasons for their grudge.
“The parking situation has just gotten so heinous over the last few years,” Mom complained.
“You’ve been saying that for the last twenty years,” I pointed out with a laugh. As a matter of fact, I distinctly remembered the first time Mom had uttered those words. I’d been back home on a break from school and we’d had to park in a garage and walk over a block to get to dinner. That was the exact moment Mom and Grams had decided that the new people moving to Portland were their mortal enemies for life.
Of course, those new people also happened to bring in the majority of the store’s revenue, but I didn’t dare mention that for fear that someone might actually wring my neck.
“Yes, well, I’ve been correct for the last twenty years,” she replied.
But I barely heard her response because the shadow world had started to appear once again. This time, unlike the last two times, I made a conscious effort to remain half in and half out, so I could see my world and this new world all at the same time.
The reward for my efforts was a very strange amalgamation of the shadow world and dark, shadowy figures of the people walking down Portland’s streets. I could vaguely hear my mom calling my name, trying to figure out what was going on, but I didn’t let myself get distracted.
The curtain was there, hanging in the center of the sidewalk and bobbing up and down. The tinkle of chimes and the warm breeze had become familiar now and didn’t disturb me in the slightest as I stepped forward and attempted to see what view the portal would show me this time.
It was outside once again, and I couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed that I wasn’t catching another glimpse of the prison. I’d hoped I might be able to see if it was really the one Laslow had been caged in when I’d had my vision or something else entirely.
It crossed my mind that I had no idea why this portal kept showing me all of these different views, instead of simply choosing one and sticking with it. I assumed that meant its placement in the fae world was also changing, but I couldn’t tell if that was of my doing, or if it was the fault of some outside force that I wasn’t yet aware of.
Either way, I knew with a sudden, intense sureness that I needed to walk through that portal. The world that it was showing me might have been terrifying and foreign, but it was also my world. A part of me was linked to that world in ways that I still didn’t quite understand. I wasn’t the most religious woman- in fact, I hadn’t gone to church more than a handful of times in my entire life- but something about the continued appearance of this portal felt like a sign from a god far away from me. Like someone was out there pushing me towards answers they knew I craved.
So I stepped closer, carefully. I only traveled about an inch or so at a time, hesitant to charge straight at the veil. For all I knew, it had some sort of magical vacuum power and would suck me right in, and then I’d have absolutely no way to get home.
That was probably the last thing I needed at the moment.
A split second later, though, I saw a flash of dark blonde hair and a familiar face, and all thoughts of being careful and cautious flew out of my mind.
“Magda!” I gasped, watching her as if through a T.V. screen. She was coming down a hillside, twisting her head to glance behind her every few steps, heaving with the breath of someone who was more terrified than they were exhausted from the exertion.
I had no idea who was behind her, and I couldn’t see them for the life of me, no matter how much closer I got to the veil. But I could tell she was running from something.
And she was terrified.
“Magda!” I screeched again, hoping that somehow she’d be able to hear. If she would just turn her head a little bit and look toward me, maybe she’d see the veil and be able to run straight through it. Maybe she could save herself from whatever was behind her.
Before I knew it, though, my own feet were picking up speed, and I was sprinting straight toward the opening, with only one goal in mind: to save Magda. The fear in her face twisted my heart with pity, and I wanted to dash through the opening and grab her.
I recognized the expression all too well. She looked like she’d been thrown into a world she didn’t know.
It was how I’d felt when I’d learned I was a witch.
“Magda, can you hear me?” I hollered out.
I was a few feet away from the opening now. Just a couple more steps and I could launch myself right through. I wasn’t thinking about what I’d do once I got to the other side. I wasn’t even thinking about how scared my family would be when I left them behind and disappeared completely.
In fact, I wasn’t even thinking about Magda anymore.
This was my opportunity. Laslow was somewhere on the other side of this portal, locked up in some cell for doing nothing worse than falling in love with my grandmother.
The old elf’s warning rang in my ears as I watched the bright green grass of the hillside grow closer and closer, and saw the bright yellow rays of the impossibly warm sun reaching out to stretch across the field.
This world was on the brink of civil war. Someone needed to help it.
I was so close. I could be the one to help them. I could have all the answers I wanted about my mysterious fae half. Everything was within my reach. The air of the fae world was so close I could taste it- it was like warm honeysuckle on a hot summer’s day. Sweet and smooth, ready to welcome me into a world of bliss.
With absolutely no warning, a massive lightning bolt cracked down out of the sky, slamming against the portal. The bright white of the lightning flashed so brightly I was blinded for a split second, consumed by pure white energy. By the time I could see again, the portal and the shadow world were gone, replaced by the comparatively drab streets of Portland and a rainstorm that rivaled the greatest of monsoons.
“What the heck?” I demanded, spinning around to see Grams standing about a foot away from me, rain pouring down over her curls and her arms crossed over her chest. All around us, people ran from the street, dashing toward cars and restaurants to get out of the way of the unexpected rain. “Grams?”
I knew with sudden, absolute certainty that the old witch had somehow closed the portal.
No sooner had I come to that conclusion, though, than the three of them were yanking me off the street and into the nearest alleyway, where we could hide from prying eyes.
“What on earth were you thinking?” Mom hissed.
“Why’d you close the portal?” I demanded, ignoring her question and whirling on my grandmother instead. “I was just about to get through it! Why would you do something like that?”
“What, make sure you didn’t disappear in the middle of a crowded city street?” Grams hissed back, her anger just as voracious as my own. “You weren’t thinking, Shannon!”
She smacked the back of my head hard enough that I was pretty sure I actually felt my brain rattle inside of my skull.
“Ow!” I complained, rubbing the sore spot. “No need to get violent. I didn’t think about that.”
“No, you didn’t,” Mom hissed. “You can’t just walk through portals willy nilly.”
I was pretty sure that was the moment I completely lost my temper. Would I have preferred to stay calm? Absolutely.
Was that my strong suit? Well, also absolutely, but only when it came to situations that didn’t involve my family.
“Look, those portals are appearing to me, and only me,” I told them, keeping my voice low in an effort to trick myself into believing that I was perfectly calm. “No one else can see them- probably not even other halflings. We all know that if Tanya suddenly saw a portal to another world appear out of thin air, we would get a scarily calm and yet still completely frantic phone call. And we’ve got none of those. So, I have to wonder why I’m the only one able to see these portals. I’m guessing there’s a reason for that, and it probably means I’m supposed to go through them. And, since none of you could actually s
ee what I could, you should probably know that I saw Magda on the other side.”
“The woman Hunter’s been searching for?” Marcella queried. Of the four of us, she was definitely the calmest, doing nothing but taking the situation in and analyzing it.
“Yes,” I nodded. “She was on the other side, looking scared out of her mind, running from something. I was attempting to help her before you so rudely closed the portal.”
I glared down at my grandmother before realizing that was probably not the best strategy. Even my temper was no rival for the of Adora McCarthy.
“Shannon, I didn’t just close it for you,” she said, managing to contain her anger just enough to get her words out. “Can you imagine how many questions the three of us would have had to face if you’d disappeared? You’d be in another world, but we’d still be stuck here, dealing with a swarm of regular old humans wondering where you’d just gone. I don’t even want to think of how many memory potions we’d have to concoct.”
She made a good point, I had to admit. I’d been so caught up in Magda and her utter fear that it hadn’t crossed my mind to think of all of the people around us, who would probably be just as scared when someone disappeared right in front of them.
“You make a good point,” I finally told Grams. “I’m sorry. I should have thought more.”
“Thank you.” She reached over to grab my hand tightly. “How about we get some dinner- to go- and then we can spend the rest of the night trying to see if we can figure out how to find the veil ourselves and help Magda?”
“That sounds like a plan.”
And just like that, all of our anger had dissipated. Even so, though, I couldn’t shake my worry off. Magda’s face had been so terrified of whatever was behind her. I didn’t even want to think about what that was.
I just had to hope that it didn’t catch her. Despite the fact that I didn’t quite know what or who Magda was, I was almost one hundred percent certain that she was one of the good guys. Which meant that I wanted to protect her.
I was tired of the good guy bad guy nonsense that had taken over our worlds. Fae or not, the woman seemed to have a good heart.
Now I just had to make sure that my heart continued to beat for as long as possible.
11
“Are you absolutely positive that she’s not a human?” Marcella asked through a mouthful of sushi.
As Grams had promised, we still picked up sushi from my favorite spot and took it home. She even decided to be a little bit brave and order tuna nigiri. She’d taken one bit and promptly spit it out, but I still chose to see that as progress.
So now we were all curled up in the living room, with Grams and Marcella on the couch while Mom and I had decided to sit on the floor with our legs crossed in our own little homage to the Japanese tradition.
The rainstorm that Grams had conjured was still pounding down over the roof. She’d tried to put a stop to it, but sometimes, Grams forgot that she wasn’t fifty-two anymore. She didn’t have quite the same energy she once ad and that went for normal, day to day activities as well as magical ones. When she’d attempted to stop the rain, she’d only accomplished turning it from monsoon to a fairly bad rainstorm.
I didn’t mind. I actually liked the sound of the rain. It was such a normal thing to hear in Portland that it had a way of always making me feel comforted, even in the most uncomfortable of situations.
But it was a little chilly.
“I’m lighting a fire,” I announced, walking over to the pile of wood in the fireplace. I shooed Herman off the top of the mantle so he didn’t burn his fur off and then knelt next to the kindling.
“Ignis,” I murmured, laying my hands over the wood. Instantly, flames roared up, engulfing the logs in their hot orange tendrils.
“You’ve gotten pretty good at that spell,” Mom grinned when I sat back down.
“What can I say, I’m just that talented,” I shrugged, hiding a grin.
My inflated ego earned me a shove from Mom.
“Brat,” she chuckled as I righted myself.
“Nobody answered my question,” Marcella pointed out, shoving her chopsticks down into a container of plain sushi rice and coming back up with a total of three little kernels clutched between them. “Drat.”
“I’m not sure,” I finally sighed. “Her husband was absolutely positive she didn’t know a thing about the magical world, but after what Aaron was saying about her sleep talking, and now that I know she’s on the other side of the veil, it all just seems a little hard to believe.”
“Maybe she was lying to everyone she knew,” Mom shrugged.
“That wouldn’t be the first time someone did that,” I pointed out. It wasn’t meant to be accusing, but it did sort of come out that way, and I felt a little guilty when Mom slumped her shoulders and turned to pick at her food.
“She probably had a good reason,” Marcella said diplomatically. “If she was even lying to anyone, that is. Maybe she’s a halfling, and only just found out.”
I nodded, absorbing Marcella’s hypothesis, but I was still hesitant to fully believe anything. For the first time since I’d become a witch- or at least learned I was one- I felt as if we were all on equal ground.
None of us had a single freaking clue what the answers to our questions were. Even Hunter hadn’t managed to come up with any good hypotheses, and it used to be his job to figure things like this out.
We were sitting smack in the middle of square freaking one, and it felt like square two was on an entirely different continent. But we couldn’t even take a plane to get to it. Nope. We had to travel by boat, and then our boat would probably hit a giant iceberg, forcing us to either swim or wait for help on a deserted island if we ever hoped to get to square two.
Okay, that may have been slightly overly dramatic, but that was how I felt at that moment. In all actuality, all I wanted was to cross over to the fae world. But the portal didn’t seem to want to present itself to me unless I was smack in the middle of the sidewalk and surrounded by a hundred people, so that seemed out of the question at the moment.
Far, far out of the question.
“It seems we’ve all come to the same conclusion,” Marcella sighed, dumping her empty rice container on the coffee table and switching it out for a plate of steamed gyoza. “There is no conclusion.”
Most of the time, I adored the way Marcella made everything so dramatic because it made me feel as if I was less crazy. But right then, I wasn’t feeling any admiration at all. Instead, I just felt annoyed.
Not at her, though. Just at the situation. How I managed to always stick myself in a place where I had absolutely no answers was completely beyond me at this point. Sometimes, I wanted to flee this life and go straight back to Boston.
But then I reminded myself of all of the other wonderful things that had come along with the witch-hood. I felt like I had my family back, and I had met some fairly cool people, and I had Hunter.
Magda had all of that, too. She had a life, friends, a husband, a boyfriend. And, even though I despised cheating with every ounce of my being, I couldn’t help but feel sorry for Aaron, too. He loved Magda. That was clear to me from the very beginning.
Suddenly, I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that Magda wasn’t some secretly evil fae. Maybe she knew what she was and had hidden it from people, and maybe she didn’t. But so what? That wasn’t a crime.
My Mom and Grams proved that.
Without any warning whatsoever, my mom suddenly leaned over and yanked a hair from my head with such force it was like she was pulling a piece of glass from my skin.
“Ouch!” I cried out. “What is with people’s need to damage my head today?”
She’d pulled that hair out of the exact same spot Grams had smacked earlier, and my poor scalp was starting to feel as if it may never recover.
“Sorry,” she chuckled, examining the hair she’d yanked from my head. “But it’s gray.”
“What?” I gasped, crawling along t
he floor in a flash and snatching the tiny piece of curly hair from her fingers.
It was gray. It glimmered in the light like it was all happy and proud of itself, and all I wanted to do was toss it straight into the fire and watch it burn. Luckily for me, I had easy access to a fire, so that was exactly what I did. I even watched the fire sizzle and flicker for a second as it burned the hair, and the satisfaction I got from that was honestly better than sex.
“Well, that was aggressive,” Grams chuckled.
“Yeah,” I nodded vigorously, confused as to why they both found this situation so darn funny. “You’re damn right it was aggressive. I don’t need to go gray on top of everything else going on in my life! That’s… that’s… premature!”
“Sweetie, you’re forty,” Marcella pointed out.
“Easy for you to say,” I grumbled. “You’re over a hundred and your hair color is still perfectly intact.”
Marcella rubbed a curl between her fingers and shrugged. “I dye it. All-natural, of course. A combination of bat skin oil and fig juice. Works wonders.”
My mouth dropped open, shocked at the fact that she dyed her hair and the strangely disgusting ingredients she used. I could not, for the life of me, ever have fathomed using such things on my head.
“Great,” I sighed. “So even having magical immortal blood in my veins can’t negate the usual signs of human aging.”
“That’s why they made boxed dye, kiddo.” Mom shrugged, patting my leg gently.
Upset at the gray hair, I shoved my nose into my food, shoveling sashimi roll after sashimi roll into my mouth in an attempt to eat the woes away.
Not surprisingly, it didn’t help in the slightest. Though, that was probably due to the fact that my woes weren’t solely caused by the gray hair.
I couldn’t get Magda off my mind.
“I need to figure out how to open up a portal,” I said suddenly, surprising even myself.
“What?” Grams demanded. “You can’t do that!”
“Mama, hold on,” Mom replied calmly. “What do you mean, Shannon?”
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