Lily looked doubtful, but she didn’t have a better idea so she nodded in agreement. “I guess we don’t have a choice.”
“Don’t you worry your pretty little head, Lil. Stay out of sight until the sheriff is gone and then talk some sense into that idiot. If it doesn’t work, I’ll meet you in the usual place. If it does, well, I guess we’ll both have to see what happens next.”
Annoyed at his continued misuse of her name, Lily pursed her lips but didn’t protest, knowing now was not the time.
“Okay,” she replied. “But what do you mean by ‘meet you’? Where are you going?”
Instead of answering, Sebastian simply winked before sauntering off down the street toward Rob’s house.
Throwing up her hands in resignation, Lily started off after him. She dodged from house to house and bush to bush to keep out of sight until she was across the street and one house down from Rob’s.
She watched apprehensively as Sebastian approached the pair in that casual yet confident way of his, moving as if he owned the very ground he walked upon. She’d seen him use this move to get into all sorts of places and wished she had such casual grace.
As he engaged the two men in conversation, Lily strained to hear their words but could only make out Rob’s angry and the sheriff’s placating tones. Sebastian spoke again and his words made the sheriff stiffen. The officer’s demeanor changed from laid-back to official and he spoke harshly.
Whatever the sheriff said must have seemed funny to Sebastian, because he threw back his head and laughed with gusto. Predictably, it was not well received by either Rob or the sheriff. Rob’s frown deepened and he started yelling, while the sheriff’s face turned beet red. The officer gestured angrily and, by his body language, was obviously demanding Sebastian get lost and never show his face in Pitts again. But Sebastian kept talking, his tone mocking and brimming with insult. To Lily’s astonishment, he even stepped closer and poked the man’s ample stomach, probably making some joke about cops and donuts.
That, apparently, was the last straw. With a fierce scowl and barking command, the sheriff grabbed the offending limb prodding his person. Using his advantage in weight and bulk along with some impressive joint manipulation, he spun Sebastian around and cuffed him, speaking authoritatively. The sheriff then frog-marched her friend down the porch steps and to the cruiser, unceremoniously loading him into the partitioned back seat and slamming the door. He spoke a few words to Rob still up on the porch, then heaved himself into the cab and drove off toward town.
The silence following the vehicle’s departure was broken only by the sound of a door shutting as Rob went back into his house.
For a while, Lily just stood there, thinking. Sebastian had said he would distract the sheriff, not get himself arrested. Now she had to worry about finding the lugal-nam and getting her friend out of jail. Great, just great.
With a sigh, she steeled herself and headed toward Rob’s house. She was no good at this game, and she knew it. Her domain was the quiet, orderly walls of a library, not parties and strangers’ porches. Have a stack of periodicals to file or a complicated spell to research? She was your woman. But arguing and conflict management were not her cup of tea. Besides her politely professional co-workers and an occasional misbehaving student, she rarely had contact with other adults, preferring to keep her own company, surrounded by books. She talked more to her cat, Sir Kipling, than she did to any human, except perhaps Sebastian, who didn’t seem to mind her awkward, sarcastic, and sometimes cold behavior.
But reality didn’t care that she hated confrontation with strangers. With Sebastian keeping the sheriff busy, it was up to her to save the day. Her situation was complicated by her reluctance to use magic, lest it backfire. She’d only been spell-casting for seven years, yet in that time it had become an integral part of her, and she felt naked without it.
To bolster her confidence, she adopted her “death stare,” reserved for anyone caught mistreating her library books. Despite her relative youth, she was regarded with a healthy respect and not a little bit of fear by the student body. Her strict rules, fierce scowls, and uncanny ability to know when students were misbehaving—thanks to some well-placed detection spells—had earned her nicknames such as “Book Nazi,” “Madam Killjoy,” and “Ye Old Bat.” She suspected the last two were holdovers from when her predecessor, Madam Barrington, had been archives manager.
Well, if she could cow a library full of unruly students, she could manage one stubborn man. It couldn’t be that hard, could it?
4
Nothing Lasts Forever
“Lily. Lily! Can you hear me? Wake up!”
For the life of her, Lily couldn’t figure out why someone was yelling. She was just lying here, having a nice nap…
Lily sat bolt upright.
“What? Where am I? What’s going on?”
The small crowd of people around her backed up, expressions ranging from relieved to disturbed.
“Alright, show’s over, guys. She’s fine. Must have been heat stroke or something,” Sebastian said, waving dismissively at the crowd. Crouching by her elbow, he continued in a whisper. “Stand up and walk with me, but act weak like you just fainted.”
Leaning heavily on Sebastian’s strong arm—her weakness was no act—they made their way to a familiar bench down the street. Disoriented memories of what had happened were trickling back, and she didn’t like them one bit. Something was missing, but she couldn’t think what.
Sebastian made a show of helping her sit down and get comfortable. Then he produced a bottle of water.
“Drink, or you really will faint from heat stroke.”
Squinting up at the hot noonday sun, she accepted the bottle and drank.
“So…what did happen?” Sebastian asked as he sat down next to her.
Lily massaged her temple with her free hand, trying to think back. “What day is it?” she asked, then shook her head at her own silly question. “I mean, what day is it in relation to you getting arrested?”
“It’s the next loop. I came as soon as I could and found you lying on the sidewalk surrounded by a crowd of people. I don’t think you’d been there long.”
Sighing, Lily leaned back against the bench and held the still-cool bottle of water to her forehead, trying to remember.
That’s when she noticed her bare wrist. “Oh no!” she exclaimed, sitting up suddenly and looking around in distress.
“What?” Sebastian asked, startled.
“My ward bracelet, it’s gone!” Though the bracelet itself had been a gift from her mentor, the amulet on it was a family heirloom from her mother—the one thing her mother had forced her to take when she’d left home after their argument. She’d made Lily promise to always wear it. Not until Madam Barrington took her under her wing and opened her eyes to magic did she discover what it actually was. Lily supposed her mother had recognized she couldn’t keep Lily from her heritage forever and had wanted her to be prepared with the tools she needed.
Jumping up, or at least trying to and wobbling a bit on the way to vertical, Lily hurried back up the street to the lamppost, Sebastian close behind. After a bit of searching, she found her bracelet nestled next to the concrete curb. Picking it up, they both stared at it. The braided rope of the bracelet was still intact, and her power-anchor amulet looked only slightly scratched. But the metal clasp and ward beads were all cracked and blackened.
Lily’s shoulders slumped as the memories filtered back. “Mr. Smith wouldn’t talk to me or let me in, so I tried to do a spell. I knew it was dangerous, but nothing else was working. If the loop had been stable, it might have been fine. But with everything shifting around so much I lost control of my link to the Source. The backlash broke my ward and that must have sent me back here, to the time and place I last entered the loop.”
“Well, at least you’re still here,” Sebastian said, steering her back toward the bench. “You said before you were afraid if you took off the ward, you might disa
ppear into nowhere. Plus, the ward did its job and protected you from the backlash. That’s something, right?”
She nodded but still caressed the blackened beads sadly as she leaned back against the bench. Madam Barrington’s gift had been precious as well as powerful. But at least this gave her a reason to make her own. She would just have to be very cautious until then.
“Hey, chin up,” Sebastian said. “If you’re not careful, Officer Lardgut may arrest you for public gloominess.”
Looking up at his attempted joke, she saw a smile spread across his face.
“What are you grinning about?” she asked, perturbed. She’d failed to get the lugal-nam, been knocked unconscious by magic backlash, and lost her ward. Now here he was, grinning like a baboon.
“Oh nothing, nothing,” he said. “It’s just, you’re safe, so crisis past. And I’ve been wanting to do that for years.”
“Do what for years?”
Sebastian laughed. “Mouth off to a cop! Man, that was fun. I’ve had so many cop jokes bouncing around in my head for ages, that sheriff never stood a chance.”
Remembering his misadventure of the previous loop, Lily rolled her eyes, not joining in his laughter.
“Aw, come on.” Sebastian gave her a playful shove. “I’m grateful for all that ‘to protect and serve,’ but they can be a pain sometimes, roughing you up and being a bully just because they can. Haven’t you ever wanted to mouth off to a cop? Not even a little?”
“I, unlike some people, have never found myself in a position to need to,” Lily said, expression arch. No need to mention her one disastrous attempt at partying during college, the first and last time she’d ever gotten drunk. Then it had been more about wanting to kiss the cop than mouth off to him. She’d avoided alcohol ever since.
Sebastian laughed again, amused by the implied insult. “You could use a good mouthing off, Lily. It might loosen you up a bit.”
“Humph,” she snorted. “I have no desire to be loose. Politeness and decorum are traits sadly lacking in our current time. I’ll have no part in any rabble-rousing.”
“Rabble-rousing, huh? So what do you call exploding magic and breaking into people’s houses? Tea-time frolics?”
Lily gave him a withering look but ignored the question. “What took you so long to get here, anyway?” she asked, still annoyed.
“The first time I entered the loop it was already mid- to late morning, so every time it resets, that’s when I go back to.”
“Well, we don’t have the luxury of try, fail, repeat anymore. It’s time we—”
“Oh no! What time is it?” Sebastian cried, looking at his watch and jumping up from the bench in almost the same moment.
“Wha—”
“Be right back!”
Lily watched him rush off, noticing for the first time that neither of them remembered the little girl in time to stop her from crossing the street in the first place. Sebastian always remembered just in time to save her from the car, and he always said the same thing. Maybe they were more influenced by the repetition of time than they thought, even though they were aware of it.
Then, out of nowhere, the memory of children playing in Rob’s backyard flashed before her eyes and she sat up straight, thoughts whirling. The last piece of the puzzle suddenly slid into place and Lily realized they’d been going about this wrong from the start, trying to force their way in when what they needed was someone on the inside…
“That’s it!” she yelled, jumping up and running to join Sebastian by the lamppost as he brushed off the little girl from their dive to safety.
Both her friend and the girl looked up in confusion.
Ignoring Sebastian, Lily crouched down to the girl’s eye level. “Hi there. Are you okay? You’re not hurt, are you?” she asked gently.
The little girl shook her head shyly. She looked to be eight or nine years old and had the softest, brownest eyes Lily had ever seen. Her pink tank top and blue shorts were a bit rumpled, but otherwise she seemed alright.
“I’m glad,” Lily said, giving her an encouraging smile. She was comfortable with children, having raised four younger siblings. Well, three stepsiblings and a half-sibling, technically. It was adults, especially those of the opposite sex, who threw her for a loop.
“My name is Lily. What’s yours?” she asked.
“Shanika,” the little girl replied, her expression solemn.
“Do you live close by, Shanika?”
“Uh-huh.” The girl nodded and pointed down the street at what looked like a two-story apartment building.
“Do your parents know where you are?”
“Uh-huh. Mama said quit makin’ a ruckus’n’ go play outside, an’ I was hungry, so I went to get me some ice cream.” Shanika smiled, warming up to Lily. She spoke with a strong southern twang, an accent Lily herself might have had but never developed due to her mother’s strict emphasis on “proper English” when she was growing up.
“And what were you going to do after that?” Lily asked.
“I’m goin’ to my friend’s birthday party.”
“Really? That sounds fun. But won’t there be ice cream at the party?”
“Uh-huh. But I ain’t at the party yet. Anyhow, it’s hotter’n a goat’s butt in a pepper patch. That’s what mama allus says when she’s wantin’ some ice cream.”
Lily laughed. “It is indeed hot. Why don’t you let me and my friend Sebastian buy you another ice cream, since your last one got smushed?”
Shanika’s eyes lit up and she nodded.
Lily took the girl’s hand, ignoring Sebastian’s confused look. Shrugging, he followed her as, hand in hand, Lily walked her new friend across the street to the 5 and Dime. Soon Shanika was holding a new cone piled high with dripping sweetness that she lapped up with glee.
“So how old is your friend turning today?” Lily asked casually as they all sat down on a bench outside the 5 and Dime.
“He gonna be ten.”
“How long have you known him?”
“Oh, foreva,” Shanika said, putting the kind of theatrical emphasis on the word that only a cute little girl with flopping braids could do. “Our school’s real small, so we always inna same class.”
“That’s nice. So I bet you’re really good friends, right?”
“Uh-huh. We allus play together. But today he was gettin’ the party ready, so mama said I couldn’t go ’til later.”
“Well, do you think it’s time to join the party?” Lily asked.
Finishing her last bite of ice cream, Shanika nodded.
“Would it be alright if we came along? We’d love to meet your friend. He sounds wonderful.” Lily mentally crossed her fingers.
Shanika considered her request, face screwed up in thought. Then her expression cleared and she smiled brightly. “Okay! Will y’all stay an’ play games with us?”
“Sure sweetie, we’d love to play. Why don’t you show us how to get there?”
Shanika hopped off the bench and took Lily’s hand, pulling her down the street while chatting animatedly about her favorite party games. Lily and Sebastian shared a knowing look over her head. The first part of the plan had worked. Lily only hoped the rest of it would go as smoothly.
éééé
Their walk to Rob’s house was, thankfully, uneventful, though Lily started noticing the now-familiar distorted flickers at the edge of her vision. Reality inside the loop was starting to act like the in-between space. Worried, she knew they couldn’t afford to fail this time: there was no guarantee the magic would hold together for another loop.
They let Shanika ring the doorbell, which she did with enthusiasm. While they waited, Lily resisted the urge to glance behind her at the sheriff’s cruiser parked across the street. The man had stared at them as they’d walked past, but there was no spark of recognition in his eyes. With all the parents bringing children to the party, she supposed he’d been told to look out for two adults alone, not someone accompanying a child.
&nb
sp; She tensed when the doorknob turned, but to her surprise it was not Rob who opened it. It was a slender, sickly-looking boy who nonetheless had an excited light in his eyes and a festive party hat on his head.
“Hey, Shanika!”
“Hey, Bobby! I brought some friends with me. This here’s Lily and that’s Sebastian. They’re real nice ‘cause they saved me from this car that was gonna hit me! And they got me ice cream. Can they come to the party, too?”
“Sure,” Bobby said, smiling up at them. “Thanks for helpin’ Shanika. She’s my best friend.”
“We were happy to help,” Lily said. “And it’s nice to meet you, Bobby. Shanika was telling us all about what an amazing friend you are.”
Bobby blushed and grinned lopsidedly.
“Come on, y’all,” Shanika said, tugging on Lily and Sebastian’s hands. “Let’s go play.”
Lily looked around nervously as Bobby led them through the house. Sooner or later, Rob would notice them and then they would find out if her little plan to infiltrate the household had worked. It wouldn’t hurt to get on the kids’ good side before then.
But the man of the house didn’t appear, and soon they were outside, surrounded by shouting children about to play freeze tag. To Lily’s surprise, Sebastian fell right in with them, egging them on and growling ferociously whenever he was “it.” Noticing Bobby had trouble keeping up with the other children, he even joined forces with the boy and helped him dominate the game.
As for herself, she simply tried to keep up. Running was not a skill she needed or practiced in her duties as archives manager at Agnes Scott College.
Eventually, though, she got so involved she nearly jumped out of her skin when a hand grabbed her from behind, spinning her around to stare into Rob’s livid face.
“Why, you little—” he began, but cut himself off and smoothed his face into a smile as his son trotted up. Sebastian, having spotted the fast-approaching confrontation, headed over as well.
Love, Lies, and Hocus Pocus Beginnings Page 16