Once Upon a Charmed Time

by Rose Pressey

Stephanie hadn’t lived in Enchantment Pointe long, but we’d become pretty close friends in a short amount of time. She was an excellent witch and great with her witchcraft skills. Just when I thought she wasn’t going to answer either, she picked up.

  “Stephanie, it’s Halloween LaVeau.”

  “Oh, how are you? How’s the trip?” she asked.

  “Not so good actually. Annabelle is missing.”

  “Oh my goodness. What do you mean missing?”

  “We haven’t seen her and we believe that someone took her. Well, actually we know they did since they told us they did.”

  “That’s awful. Is there anything I can do to help?”

  “Actually, there is something you can do to help. Would you be willing to go by the manor and check on it for me? I tried to call, but the woman who’s working there didn’t answer and I’m beginning to be nervous. I’m sure you can understand why.”

  “Absolutely,” she said. “I’ll go right away and then give you a call back and let me know what’s going on there.”

  “That would be wonderful. Thank you. I really appreciate it.”

  “No problem. I’ll talk to you soon,” she said. “She's going to go check it out,” I said when I hung up.

  “I’m sure she’ll find her,” Nicolas said.

  Liam gave me a half smile. I wondered if he was thinking something bad had happened to Addie like I was thinking. A short time went by when Stephanie returned my call.

  “Did you find her?” I asked. ‘No,” Stephanie said.

  My stomach sank. “Did you see anything out of the ordinary?”

  “The door was unlocked and open.”

  “Oh, that’s not a good sign.”

  “There was something else,” she said.

  I didn’t like the tone of her voice. I knew this was going to be bad news. I might as well hear it now.

  “What is it?” I asked.

  “Actually, I found a note,” Stephanie said.

  “I knew it. I knew that she wouldn’t stick around.”

  She probably took off right after I left. Why did she act like she was going to stay when she just wanted to run away when I needed her the most.

  “What did the note say?” I asked.

  “I can read it now.”

  “Yes, please, go ahead,” I said.

  “We have her too, along with your friend. If you want them back you know what to do.”

  “Oh no, they have her too,” I said.

  “Did you find Pluto?”

  “The cat is safe and with me,” Stephanie said.

  “Thank goodness. I appreciate you taking care of her for me. We’re heading back to Enchantment Pointe now.”

  “Pluto will be fine with me until you return. I’ll get him some of those tuna treats she likes.”

  We were leaving LA without Annabelle. That seemed like a recipe to never see her again. I hoped I was wrong.

  “Are you still there at LaVeau Manor?” I asked.

  “Yes, I’m still here.”

  “I think you should get out of there right away,” I said.

  “Am I in some kind of danger?” she asked.

  “Quite possibly, yes.”

  “I’m leaving right now,” she said.

  “Keep me on the line until you get out of there,” I said.

  I didn’t want to hang up until I knew for sure she was safe.

  “What’s going on?” my mother asked.

  “Addie has been taken by the same people.”

  “Okay, I’m in the car now,” Stephanie said.

  “I’ll talk to you until you get out of the driveway.”

  Actually, maybe I should talk to her until she got home, but I didn’t want to scare her. She’d probably be fine. Probably. If she got away from the manor things would be fine.

  “All right, I’m pulling out onto the road now,” she said.

  “Thank you for helping,” I said.

  “Call me when you get here and good luck,” she said.

  At least I got her out of there before something happened to her, but now I had to decide what to do next. Where were they keeping them? Were they at different locations? Or in the same location?

  “I’ve been thinking of something we can do.” I said.

  “It scares me when you get that gleam in your eyes. What do you have in mind?” Liam asked.

  “Nothing to be afraid of,” I said.

  “It’s really just a little magic.”

  “It’s never just a little magic, Halloween.” My mother waved her hand. “Am I right or am I right, Nicolas?”

  He just shrugged and said, “Absolutely.”

  He knew to keep on my mother’s good side and that he should agree with her. She was already crazy about him anyway, although she loved when he agreed with her.

  “Well, my idea was we should try scrying. I know I haven’t done it before, but I really think that I can do it now, and that it would be perfect for the situation. We can possibly get a vision of where Annabelle and Addie are being held.”

  “Actually, I think that’s a brilliant idea," Nicolas said.

  He smiled widely and that made my heart happy.

  Liam said, “So what’s the plan?”

  “We have a little bit of time before we have to leave. We can do the scrying now. I know I’ve never tried it before, but this will be the perfect time to give it a shot. I don’t think anything can go wrong. We can use the mirror from the room.” I pushed my food. “All right then, it sounds like we’re all on the same page here. Let’s get going.”

  We took the mirror from the wall and placed it on the table. I was acting as if I knew exactly what I was doing. By the looks on everyone’s faces they were surprised. We sat around the table and held hands while reciting the words that would allow me see the things that I needed. Magic was heavy in the air.

  I needed to call to the elements. At least they had faith in my abilities to cast spells, even when a lot of the time they shouldn’t have.

  “Hear me call to the element of air.”

  The wind stirred around us, making a whizzing sound as it grew stronger and stronger.

  “Hear me call to the element of fire.”

  The heat grew within me, making the adrenaline course through my veins.

  “Hear me call to the element of water.”

  The energy hummed through the room like the sound of flowing water.

  “Hear me call to the element of earth.”

  The room rattled as if it was coming alive. That was a good sign that the spell might work.

  “We’re here to cast a spell and we call for your help with our powers.”

  I recited the words carefully and waved my arms through the air. Just because I’d called to the elements didn’t mean there was a guarantee that my spell would work. When I felt the time was right I opened my eyes and peered into the mirror. At first it was cloudy and I didn’t think it was going to work, then after few more seconds images started to appear. Of course at first they were dull as if seen through a dirty screen, but the longer I stared the clearer they became.

  “What are we looking at?” my mother whispered.

  I was trying to decipher the picture as well. I noticed buildings in the background.

  “It looks like the balconies in the French Quarter,” Liam said.

  “They sure do.”

  That was when I saw the image of one of the buildings zoomed in. It was as if taking us on a tour. When we were inside the building I saw her. Annabelle wasn’t alone. Addie was with her in the building. They were tied up to a couple of chairs.

  “Oh, my gosh. She’s not even here anyone. They’re in Louisiana. We have to get there now.”

  The image on the mirror disappeared, but I’d never forget the look of fear on Annabelle’s face.

  My mother paced across the floor. Now I knew where I got that from. We were more alike than I’d realized.

  Chapter 24

  We packed our bags as quickl
y as possible and headed to the airport.

  “I’m sure going to miss this little car,” Liam said.

  “You can’t be serious,” I said.

  “Of course I’m serious. It’s been really reliable.” He patted the steering wheel.

  “Oh, please, you can’t wait to get your BMW back,” I said.

  “All right, I miss it. I will admit. The leather seats are like butter,” he said with his voice full of longing as he daydreamed of the shiny black sports car.

  We got on the plane and I had to deal with this anxiety all over again, but now it was amplified because I was torn on whether I was making the right decision. Something in the back of my mind kept telling me not to leave California, but I had no evidence of Annabelle being here. All signs pointed to Annabelle being in the French Quarter. Should I trust my magic? If anyone should, I should. So why was I having such doubts? Maybe because my magic had been so bad in the past. It was time for me to move on and put that all behind me now. Think positive, I reminded myself.

  I calmed myself down as much as possible with deep breathing exercises. My mother and Liam had managed to doze off. There was no way I would relax enough for that. Luckily now it was time to put a seatbelt on and prepare for the landing.

  Nicolas squeezed my hand. “See, we made it just fine.”

  Just as we were approaching the runway, the pilot said, “We’re going to have to make a bit of a rocky landing.”

  Then the plane started to shake as we wobbled from side to side. My life flashed before my eyes. Actually, I closed my eyes because I couldn’t stand to see the crash as it happened. What was even stranger was I sensed magic. Was it magic? There was definitely a heaviness in the air that I always associated with magic. When screams filled the cabin, I could no longer avoid opening my eyes. I had to see what was happening. Orange flames danced skyward from the left wing of the plane, guiding us to death’s runway. Could I stop it with my witchcraft? Where was Liam? Cold terror had me in its icy embrace.

  “We’re all going to die,” I screamed.

  My mother leaned over the back of my seat and smacked me with her magazine. “Halloween, calm down.”

  I scowled at her. She stared for a second and then sat back in her seat behind me. Halloween LaVeau, leader of the Underworld had just been scolded by her mother.

  Nicolas gripped my hand tighter. “Hallie, don’t say that on a plane. They’ll arrest you. Remember to breath, Hallie. The plane is landing. It can do that with the engine on fire.”

  His words came in, but I refused to accept them. An overhead announcement gave instructions and the oxygen mask popped down in front of my face. We were going to be stuck in an inferno, charred unrecognizable by the intense heat that would make the skin melt right off our bodies.

  I suppose it happened a lot quicker than it seemed in my mind, but the plane’s wheels touched pavement. Finally we skidded to a stop. We had made it onto the ground and I released the breath I’d been holding. Passengers clapped and cheered. I was speechless and still in shock. I grabbed my bag and hurried for the exit. Luckily Liam and Nicolas were right behind me. Everyone seemed calm as we filed off the plane. This was much more urgent than I thought they realized.

  “I guess for someone who hates flying that was like your worst nightmare,” Liam said.

  “Um, yeah,” I said over my shoulder.

  My behavior was extremely unbecoming of a leader. I panicked, what could I say? The pilot had said we had experienced some weird anomalies on the landing. Weird? Yeah, I suppose you could call the fire coming from the engine a tad bit weird. His comments didn’t surprise me much. A lot of weird things happened around me. Did someone realize I was on the plane? Had they tried to sabotage the plane? Thank goodness we headed through the airport for the parking area where Liam had left his car.

  “Oh, there’s my baby,” Liam said.

  “We almost died in a fury crash and you’re worried about your car? We could have been nothing but a pile of ashes right now.” My voice had reached a screeching level.

  “But we didn’t die and life goes on.” He wrapped his arm around me and squeezed.

  “Yeah, life goes on,” I said as we got into the car.

  Maybe I overreacted, I wasn’t sure. My nerves had already been on edge before even getting on the plane. I guess I felt this way because I had left Annabelle behind. At least that was what it felt like. She wasn’t with us and not knowing where she was gave me a disoriented feeling. Not knowing which way to look, I just hoped that we had made the right decision.

  After the scrying spell had shown us the building where Annabelle was located, based on the façade, we had narrowed the location down to three buildings. They all looked similar, so we couldn’t really pick out exactly which one. That meant we would have to check all three. If we got lucky the first one would be the one. Worst-case scenario, none of the three would be the location. I didn’t really have a plan if that happened. I would have to go back to California. I didn’t want to think about never finding her again. I had to figure out why these people wanted Annabelle. There had to be another motive behind Annabelle and Addie’s kidnapping.

  Liam pointed the car in the direction of the first building.

  “Are you sure this is it? Does someone live here?” my mother asked.

  I peered at the building. “I guess there’s only one way to find out.”

  The building was old and broken up into different apartments.

  “We’ll just have to go door to door. Though I doubt they will open the door and invite us in.”

  We got out and broke up so we could cover more area quicker. I planned to knock on each door. If someone didn’t answer I’d have to find another way. I walked up to the first door and knocked. After a couple seconds a man answered. I peered over his shoulder, trying to get a look into his place. He didn’t look as if he appreciated my attempts. It was obvious this wasn’t the right place. I showed him her picture.

  He shook his head. “I’ve never seen her.”

  I moved on to the next apartment. A woman answered the door. She said no too. I went around the whole side of the building with no luck. I met everyone at the front of the building.

  “I don’t think this is the place,” I said.

  That was stating the obvious.

  “We’ll move on to the next,” Liam said.

  We hopped in the car and took off. It wasn’t a long drive to the other place.

  “I hope we’re not missing any other buildings,” my mother said.

  The thought had already crossed my mind.

  We drove to the next building, but it wasn’t looking hopeful. I stepped inside the courtyard. The noise from cars along the street outside was surprisingly muted. I stood in the middle of the space surrounded by plants and flowers. I felt as if I was making this harder than it had to be. If I cleared my mind perhaps something would come to me. Why didn’t I know which one?

  That was when I saw a black shadow dart by. Had it been real? Or just my imagination? I moved forward a few steps and the dark shadow appeared again. It was coming right at me. I jumped out of the way just in time. It disappeared in front of my eyes. What was it? It felt angry, as if it wanted to hurt me. I had to get away before it attacked again. I didn’t feel like battling with an evil entity right now. But did I ever? No way. I had more important things to do.

  I ran toward the door leading back to the street. Before I made it though I felt the cold air surrounding me and then I crashed to the ground. The thing had attacked me. Now I had no other options but to fight it off. I tried to get up from the ground, but the force was too strong.

  “Get off me,” I yelled, as if it would really listen.

  This thing wanted to hurt me and apparently would stop at nothing to achieve that goal. The more I tried to fight it the worse it got. I tried to calm myself. Clear thinking was the only way I’d get out of this situation. Maybe if I recited the words to a spell to help me out of here… I called to th
e elements. I needed the energy to break free from this spirit’s tight grip.

  I called to the elements. “Please hear me call to the element of air. Please hear me call to the element of fire. Please hear me call to the element of water. Please hear me call to the element of earth.”

  I recited the words for a spell carefully and waved my arms through the air. This time the lights encircled me with a glowing aura. I’d only had this happen once before. Sadly, that one other time the spell I’d been trying to cast hadn’t worked. I hoped this time would be different. The wind around me didn’t seem to be as strong. It was barely a breeze, just a hint of a touch of air along the skin. I wouldn’t get discouraged just yet though. It was too soon for that. I could continue. I closed my eyes and continued with the spell.

  Nothing was happening. Where was everyone?

  Lightning flashed above me. The shadow was gone. When I peered over my shoulder to see who had cast the magic, I could have sworn I spotted Dalton. I jumped up and ran in that direction. He was gone again.

  Chapter 25

  I’d just gotten into the car when my phone rang again. It was Annabelle’s number.

  I hurried to answer. I’d thought we were never going to find her, but was this simply the kidnapper calling again?

  “Annabelle?”

  “Got you,” the man’s voice said with laughter in his words.

  “Where is she?” I demanded. “And why are you doing this? Just tell me what you want. I don’t have time for your games.”

  “I will, but I like games. They are so much fun,” he said. “You didn’t think we were going to leave her there? You were looking for her, both of the women, in a place where she no longer is. Now you won’t be able to find them.”

  “Don’t be so sure about that. I will find them. Wait. What do you mean, both women?”

  “Don’t antagonize them, Hallie,” Liam said.

  It was hard not to when they were taunting to me that way.

  “We’re almost ready to release our demands to you, but in the meantime you’ll just have to be patient and wait until I call you back. Do you think you can do that?” the kidnapper asked with a smart-aleck tone.