by Amy Boyles
Axel leaned on a column and stroked one of Jenny’s buds that had dipped down. “What about them?”
I leaned on a column opposite him. The wood was cool under my flesh, making goose bumps crawl up my arms. “Well, when I mentioned the dream catcher, they looked like they had no idea what I was talking about.”
He shot me a pointed look. “These are your aunts we’re discussing. I doubt they remember what they ate for breakfast.”
I wanted to roll my eyes, but Axel was right. Flighty was their middle names. They were kind and generous, but definitely flighty.
“They are forgetful,” I agreed, “but it seems to me that they would remember giving me the dream catcher.”
Axel pushed off the column and wrapped me in a hug. “I’m sure they do remember. There’s a lot of information in those brains of theirs. It’s hard to keep everything straight.”
I smirked. “Can’t be that hard.”
He chuckled. “Just because you have a super brain doesn’t mean everyone else does.”
I playfully punched his side. “I’m not saying I have a super brain.”
“I know.” He released me and kissed my forehead. “Get some sleep. Tomorrow’s going to be a big day. If everything goes as planned, by this time tomorrow the nightmares will be over. At the very least we should have some answers.”
“Let’s hope so.”
We said our good nights and I went inside, praying that everything would be settled within a day. But even though we had a brilliant plan, one that hopefully wouldn’t backfire on us, I had the distinct feeling that this wasn’t going to be as easy as we thought.
The next morning, the sun rose golden and bright. Fall colors were at peak, and the very air seemed electric. That could have just been my nerves, of course.
Today we had big plans.
We had decided not to meet at Betty’s house, in case the crow was watching us. Instead we each went about our regular routines—readying ourselves for work and eating breakfast.
Only most everyone’s route was a tiny bit different. My cousins were to start out heading in the right direction, but they would eventually veer off and wind around the neighborhoods until they reached their destination—out of sight off Bubbling Cauldron.
They had each shrunk their cast-iron riding skillets to the size of bricks. They would easily open up, but for the sake of walking around town, Amelia and Cordelia wanted to look as inconspicuous as possible.
“You girls ready?” Betty said.
We nodded. “We are.”
“Pepper, is Hugo in position?”
I shouldered my purse. “He should be. He waits for me every day.”
“And the bird usually waits for you outside the store?”
I nodded. “Has been.”
Betty lit her pipe and sucked on it. A thin line of smoke rose from the bowl. “We’ll wait for your signal. If there comes a time when you think the crow isn’t going to show, let us know. Otherwise we’ll be waiting.”
“Got it.”
With that, we left. My cousins and I walked down the porch together, but after that we split up. I said good morning to Grumpy, making sure to remind him that Betty had breakfast waiting for him.
There was no point getting Grumpy involved in the crow fiasco. Grumpy couldn’t fly, and to be honest, I didn’t know how he’d react to flying. What if I placed him behind me on Hugo and he freaked out?
That could be bad for both of us.
I walked the long way to Familiar Place, giving Betty time to feed Grumpy and clean up. I wound around town, saying good morning to folks, waving and nodding.
The whole time my heart raced, drumming hard against my rib cage. As I approached the shop, I didn’t want to look but I wanted to look.
You know how that is—when the thing in front of you is so important you just want to peek and see if it’s there, but at the same time you don’t want to look because what if that makes something go wrong?
Yeah. That’s exactly where I was.
But I had to. Just as I was passing Castin’ Iron, where my skillet was being repaired by the wonderful Theodora and Harry, I sneaked a peek at the post where I’d seen the crow.
It was empty.
I sucked air. It was okay. That was fine. The bird would show up eventually. I had to keep my eyes open, that was all. Stay alert.
I fished the golden key to my shop from my purse and glanced around. Garrick sat on a bench across the road. He was pretending to scroll on his cell phone. Axel was nowhere to be seen, and neither were my cousins.
I did happen to see Rufus Mayes coming down the street. He waved and stopped.
“Morning, Pepper.”
I smiled. “Morning. How’re you?”
An amused smile curled his lips. “I’m well. It’s been strange the past few days, hasn’t it?”
“You mean with the dreams?”
“More like nightmares.” Knowledge burned bright in his dark eyes. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say there was a spell involved.”
“I’d say you were probably right.”
He folded his arms and shifted his weight to one leg. “And I’d also say, if I didn’t know any better, that you were probably somehow involved.”
I shrugged. “Whatever would give you that idea?”
He pressed a finger to his cheek. “Because of the nature of my nightmares. They involve you.”
“Oh?”
He frowned. A deep crease formed between his brows. “Be careful, Pepper. There’s something very real about these dreams.”
I shivered. “I know.”
Just then the crow lighted on the post. I froze, for a moment completely unsure as to what I was supposed to do. It was like I’d undergone a brain freeze and every bit of sense simply flew from my brain.
Rufus standing beside me didn’t help. He’d been an unexpected visitor.
I blinked and pulled myself together. I stared at the crow, afraid to move.
“Everything okay, Pepper?” Rufus asked.
I lifted my shaking fingers to my lips and whistled. As if he’d been waiting right behind me, Hugo appeared in a flurry of beating wings.
The dragon startled the crow, and it lifted into the air.
As soon as Hugo landed, I pulled myself onto his back and pointed at the crow.
“Follow that bird!”
And up we went.
Chapter 19
Hugo chased the crow. It only took seconds before everyone else—Axel, Betty, Cordelia, Amelia, Garrick, and Sherman—caught up. The crow flew quickly, darting around trees and over houses like nobody’s business.
Dang. That crow could fly.
We were just keeping up with it, but in order to capture it, we needed to get ahead of the bird.
“Hugo, you have to go faster, cut it off!”
Hugo roared. He shot up to the sky, passing the bird. At first I was confused and wanted to rein him in, but then I glanced down. The crow flew directly beneath us.
Hugo started to descend, but a copse of trees came at us fast.
“The trees,” I shouted in his ear, “you’ll hit them.”
I craned my neck, trying to find the nearest opening. We needed a wide space if we were going to be successful.
On looking down, I realized the crow had vanished in the trees. I could see Axel, who looked to be hotly pursuing the bird.
“There,” I cried. “Up ahead. That clearing. Aim for that!”
Hugo’s great wings flapped hard. We rocketed forward. The sudden jolt took me by surprise. My fingers slipped and I started to slide down Hugo’s back.
Panic scrambled up my throat. I clutched the dragon’s sides. My knees dug into his ribs, and slowly I crawled back up to his neck, where, with trembling hands, I grabbed hold of him.
I gulped down a few deep breaths of air as I tried to calm my beating heart.
Hugo reached the clearing.
There was no time for me to focus on my fear. I glanced ove
r his shoulder. We were ahead of the crow.
“Dive and turn,” I yelled. “We’ve almost got him.”
Hugo did as I said. The dragon darted into the clearing. His mammoth body shifted and turned, lumbering to a stop as the crow approached.
The crow skidded to a halt in the air, its wings fluttering. Some of the feathers molted off, floating to the ground.
As the bird started to bank left, Axel arrived, blocking him. The crow moved right and Betty boxed him in.
Amelia and Cordelia took the top and bottom while Garrick and Sherman closed in any gaps.
The bird hovered, glaring at me.
“You’re coming with us. We won’t hurt you. We need your help. I know that Misery sent you to spy on me. I also think you’re the reason we’re having nightmares. Help us stop them.”
The crow, in response, shrieked.
Betty pulled a golden lasso from her pocket and tossed it over the bird’s head. She pulled and the rope fit snug around its neck. The crow screeched and cawed.
At that point, everyone jumped in to catch it. The scene became chaotic. The crow cawed and flapped, desperate to get away.
My heart ached as I watched the creature struggle.
“I’ve got it.” Axel reached for the crow. “Give me just a second.”
“Hold on there.” Garrick extended his hands. “I’m closer. I’ll get it.”
“No, I’m closest,” Betty argued.
Cordelia clapped her hands and the cage appeared. But everyone kept fighting over who would get the crow and put it in.
“I’ve got it,” Axel said.
“I do,” Garrick argued.
“Where’s the cage?” Betty called.
“Beside you,” Cordelia snapped.
The crow squawked, and the four of them blocked my view as they struggled. Next thing I knew the crow cawed loudly and the door slammed shut.
“Whew,” Betty said. “It’s safe.”
“We got it,” Axel said.
The bird stared through the gilded bars, glaring at us. It flapped its wings and screeched.
I reached toward the cage. “It’s okay.”
The bird, fast as lightning, pecked at my fingers.
I snatched my hand away. Clearly the crow had issues with being caged. I got that. I completely understood. I wouldn’t want to be caged, either.
“I’m sorry,” I said.
The bird didn’t respond.
“Come on,” Betty said. “Let’s get it home and see what we can come up with.”
We slowly made our way back to the cottage. Axel carried the cage with him. The bird stared at the sky, and I had the distinct feeling we wouldn’t be getting much information out of it, no matter how hard we tried.
“Polly want a cracker?” Betty said.
The bird turned in the opposite direction.
Garrick strode over to the bird, his cowboy boots hitting the floor with repeated thuds. “Crow, we only want Misery to call off the curse. Can you help us with that?”
The bird didn’t respond.
“Pepper,” Garrick said.
I closed my eyes and reached out, touching the crow with my power. We only want to talk to Misery. She isn’t letting us speak with her.
The bird didn’t reply.
I don’t know if you can hear me. Maybe you can’t, but she’s cursed our town. Bad things are happening.
I opened my eyes and pointed to Grumpy, who sat in an oversize recliner by the cottage.
See him? I said. He came from a dream. My dream. He’s not even real. I don’t know what’s going to happen to him when this all ends, but what’s being created in our nightmares becomes reality.
The bird ran its beak down its wing.
People could be hurt, I pleaded. Please, listen to me. Tell me a way to reach Misery. We need your help.
I exhaled a deep breath of air, but the bird continued to ignore me.
I shook my head. “It’s no use,” I directed to Garrick. “It’s not responding. I don’t know if the crow can hear and is choosing to ignore me or if it doesn’t understand.”
Garrick scratched his chin. “Betty, Axel, what do y’all think?”
Axel raked his fingers through his hair. Worry filled his eyes. “I can snip off a feather and see what sort of spell has been placed on it.”
“We can tote him on up to Misery’s mountain,” Betty offered. “See if she’ll listen to us since we’ve got her crow captive.”
“Sounds like a better plan than mine,” Axel said. “Let’s get going.”
Garrick plucked his fedora from a chair and settled it on his head. “Let’s not take a big party. Just Axel, Betty and myself.”
The rest of us nodded murmurs of agreement. Within a few minutes they had left with the crow. The heart fire’s heat warmed the cottage. From his spot on the recliner, Grumpy snored quietly.
“I wish y’all had called me earlier,” Sherman said as he kneaded Amelia’s shoulders. “I would have liked to have helped.”
“There wasn’t much to say,” Amelia countered. “We were having dreams and then very quickly they turned real.”
“Yeah,” Cordelia scoffed. “Pepper had even received a dream catcher, but that didn’t help. At least not us.”
Amelia wagged a finger at me. “Shame on you, Pepper,” she joked. “You should have shared your dream catcher with us. Then maybe I wouldn’t have ended up with an arrow pointing straight at my heart.”
Alarm filled Sherman’s face. I waved away his concern. “It’s okay. We saved her.”
Sherman exhaled. “So it already happened.”
“Yep, but there are plenty of other dreams that haven’t yet.” Cordelia plucked an orange from a fruit bowl and started peeling. The scent of orange filled the room as she revealed the flesh inside. “My dream has, Amelia’s has, and so has Pepper’s. But Betty’s hasn’t, and that one was the worst.”
“Sounds like you really do need the dream catcher,” Sherman joked. He stopped massaging Amelia and sat in a chair at the table. “But I guess it’s tucked safely away above your bed, huh, Pepper?”
I cringed. “Actually…it isn’t.”
Sherman snapped his fingers. “Wait a minute. Wait just a second.” He ran his fingers through his light-colored hair. “I seem to remember something about dream catchers.”
You mean how they don’t help? I almost blurted out.
Forgive me, y’all. I know it was a present, but the object hadn’t helped me at all. I felt horrible getting rid of it, but to be honest, it creeped me out that my dreams hadn’t gotten any better with the object in my presence.
I thought it was supposed to filter out the bad dreams. But instead it seemed to make them worse.
“What do you remember about dream catchers?” Amelia asked.
Sherman tapped a finger on the table. “I seem to remember reading in one of my books that a dream catcher can be used in reverse of what it was originally intended for. They can be used to cause nightmares.”
Amelia clucked. “Leave it to our moms to send you a present that makes your dreams bad.”
Puzzle pieces clicked together. They snapped and fit in a way that made me want to pull my hair out.
“Mint and Licky acted weird yesterday when I mentioned that they had gifted me the dream catcher.”
Amelia’s eyes narrowed. “They did?”
“As if they’d never done it. As if they hadn’t given it to me at all.”
Sherman’s gaze snapped on mine. “Call them. Right now. Confirm it.”
I grabbed my phone. “But what do you mean? Were they drugged or something?”
Sherman pointed to Grumpy. “You said he came from a dream.”
“My dream, yes,” I confirmed.
Sherman watched Grumpy closely. “And did he have any memories before that?”
“Not that I know of. The way he spoke, it sounded like he’d always been, but at the same time he only remembered a couple of sunrises.”
/> Sherman rose and paced. “Misery could have placed a spell on a piece of clay, something that would have had a human shape. She could have transformed herself into either Mint or Licky and then shaped something else into the other aunt.”
Sherman spoke quickly. The idea seemed to take hold of him and inspire where his next thoughts traveled to.
“Then the clay or whatever may have been left to become one of your nightmares, thus—Grumpy. That’s where he actually came from.”
Excitement filled Amelia’s eyes. “And the crow?”
Sherman shook his head. “Simply a tool to watch y’all. A sentinel to make sure that one, Misery knew when y’all would come looking for her, and two”—he held up two fingers—“to let her know when the nightmares were coming to life.”
I pointed to Grumpy. “What about him? He’s on our side now.”
Sherman shrugged. “Seems that way. Seems like a little hospitality turned him to our side, but I wouldn’t be too sure. You never can be when it comes to objects, or golems made from clay. Ultimately they are loyal to whoever made them. That person is Misery.”
My stomach folded over. We’d been so wrong. Possibly.
It was possible that Sherman wasn’t one hundred percent right about Grumpy. I’d hate to wake up turning on a spit and Grumpy being the creature doing the turning.
“So you’re saying to watch our backs.”
Sherman nodded hard. “Yes. And to call your aunts. Find out for sure about the dream catcher.”
I dialed Mint and Licky. It took about five minutes, but I finally pinned them down. They quickly admitted not remembering giving me the dream catcher.
“We didn’t make it,” Mint said.
“Wasn’t us,” Licky added. “Are you sure you’re feeling okay, Pepper?”
After I persuaded them that yes, I was fine, I hung up.
My stomach twisted hard as I faced my family and Sherman. “They said they didn’t know anything about it.”
“As I thought,” Sherman said.
“My man is so smart,” Amelia said proudly.
“What do we do now?” I threw my hands in the air. “Where do we go?”
“First things first,” Sherman said calmly. “We need to get our hands on that dream catcher. It’s the only way to stop the nightmares and the curse.”