Chapter 25
Prax
Penny looked up at the underbelly of the sand tiger shark as it swam over our heads and waved. “Bye-bye, Fin Diesel. It was so nice hanging out with you!”
Since she loved sharks so much, I’d decided to take her to Royal Reef Adventure, Darlington’s aquarium. The place was rumored to be owned by a kraken, though I’d never looked into it and couldn’t confirm that one way or another.
Penny had been to the New England Aquarium in Boston, and while that aquarium had a giant Caribbean coral reef exhibit, it didn’t offer private Swimming with Sharks sessions like the one we had just finished. Her childlike joy at being up close and personal with the underwater predators was a delight, and I spent more time watching her than the sharks.
Her hair was still damp as we walked into the gift shop, and she headed straight for the Fin Diesel plushies. She picked up the biggest one, which was just a bit smaller than the shark himself, and hugged it fiercely. Fin was still a juvenile shark, but the plushie was nearly as long as Penny was tall.
“I wanted to hug him in the tank. But I thought chasing one of the sharks around would get me kicked out, so I restrained myself.”
“Want to bring him home as a little spoon?” I asked.
“I thought I was the little spoon.”
“You’re my little spoon. He can be yours.”
Her face lit up. “Yes!”
We walked out of the gift shop with the nearly life-sized Fin Diesel plushy and matching t-shirts with a cartoon of Fin eating sushi.
“Speaking of sushi, how about we grab some now?”
She laughed. “That’s perfect.”
The stench hit me first as we stepped out the double doors of the aquarium and onto the street.
Troll!
“Prax?” Her happy smile faded, and she went white.
She peered around nervously, looking for the source of the smell. The troll showed itself moments later, stomping into view from an alleyway across the street. His eyes landed on Penny immediately.
“Mine!” he roared.
The troll tromped across the street with no regard for traffic. Cars screeched to a halt, and the creature easily shoved a vehicle aside as he made his way toward us.
“Oh no! The concealment spell. I fell asleep last night and forgot to cast it.”
“I can fight it,” I said. I didn’t have a handicap this time.
“No! There are people around. Someone might get injured. And I don’t want to alert the EA. You know a fight in broad daylight is going to end up all over the news.”
She had a point.
Her magical bindings were still around me, and while they weren’t particularly visible unless you really looked, I didn’t want her to get in trouble if the EA found out. Also, they might blame her if they knew she was the one who cast the spell that brought the troll to this dimension to look for her in the first place.
“Then we run.”
I handed her the bag with the souvenir t-shirts, then picked her up and started down the street, moving much faster than she could on her own. She clung to me with one arm and squashed the stuffed Fin Diesel to her side with the other.
“Can you cast the concealment spell once we lose him?”
“I don’t have it memorized. The book is on the coffee table at home. I haven’t returned it to Griselda yet.”
“We can’t lead the troll back to our home.” I looked behind me. The troll was on the other side of the street now, solemnly trudging toward us.
“I have my clutch with me,” Penny said. “It’s in my backpack, front pocket. Leave me somewhere hard for the troll to get to, pop home, and put the spell book in the bedside table, top drawer. Then pop back.”
That would work. The book was small, like a travel guidebook. It would fit through the clutch opening no problem.
“Got it.” I scanned the urban landscape, trying to find somewhere to put her that the troll couldn’t reach.
My first thought was somewhere up high. I started to climb with Penny clinging on to me but then realized that the troll could climb just as well as I could. I could float Penny a few feet off the ground but not all the way up the side of a building.
“New plan,” I said. “We’re going to drive out of here.”
I looped around the building to where I’d parked Penny’s BMW. The garage had found a location tag attached to the underside of the chassis, and they’d sent it to the police. The car was now officially bug-free. Since Penny didn’t particularly enjoy driving, and I loved it, she let me drive whenever we went out.
We quickly got inside, and I silently prayed for good traffic as I turned onto the street, away from our stinky tail.
We had a good headstart until we were stopped by a red light. Unable to move over to the right lane so I could make a turn and keep moving, we were sitting ducks as the troll came closer and closer. He was right behind us when the lights turned green.
“Come on! Come on! Go! Go! Go!” she urged the cars in front of us.
Some of the drivers, noticing the troll behind them, sped out of the way, and I slammed on the gas. Too late. A giant hand landed on the car, holding us in place. The tires spun in place and squealed.
“Take the wheel,” I said. “Just for a few seconds.”
Penny looked unsure but did as I asked. I popped out of the car, formed myself into a giant hammer, and smashed the hand holding us back. The troll roared in pain and released the car. The car lurched forward into the intersection. I popped back into the driver’s seat and took control.
Penny’s hands still gripped the wheel, her knuckles white.
“It’s ok, baby. It’s all good.”
I had to peel her hands off the steering wheel, she was clutching it so tightly. We soon made it out of the city center, where the vehicle’s superior speed gave us an advantage. I continued driving out of the city until I was sure I’d have enough time to pop out, find the book, and pop back here. I pulled over to the shoulder and stopped the car.
“Be right back.”
I popped home, found the spell book, and put it in the top drawer. When I returned to the BMW, Penny was already flipping through the pages. I started the car again and continued driving, making a big loop around the city to give her some more time.
She cast the spell, and we stopped in the parking lot of a big box store and waited to make sure it was fully functional. Success! The troll stomped into view but continued right past us. Penny’s sigh of relief was audible.
“That was close.” She was clearly shaken up, and I noticed she scanned for the troll multiple times on the way home.
The incident disturbed me more than I would like to admit. The last two weeks together had been magical, but this was a dunk in ice-water reality. So long as the messed up love-finder spell was intact, she would be in danger. My refusal to let her nullify it because I didn’t want to forget her was pure selfishness on my part.
It truly wasn’t fair for me to expect her to always keep a concealment spell on. Plus, as we had seen at the auction, not all places would let her do that anyway. I couldn’t risk her being in danger because I didn’t want to let her go.
Once Penny was safe and back home again, I stepped outside to call a certain wizard. Seth answered on the fourth ring.
“I need your expertise, wizard.”
I explained to him our situation and how another witch had nullified the spell by modifying a forget spell to use on the original participants.
“Would that work? Is it safe? And will I forget her?” I asked.
“Technically, yes. That should work. But I thought you liked this girl.”
“I do, a lot. But she just got attacked again. Is there any way for me to keep my memories of her if she decides to go ahead with the forget spell?”
There was a long pause. “I don’t think so. Not with this. It’s ingenious the witch thought to hack a forget spell to work that way, but it has its limits. It would require quite a bit of energy, too: forget spells usually work on small things. It’s kind of like hammering a nail in with a brick. It gets the job done, but it won’t be too precise. It would affect everyone involved.”
I took a deep breath. “And my other memories? Will I forget anything else important?” As if forgetting Penny wasn’t important enough.
“You’ll forget any memories you made with her unless the memory is ingrained in your head from daily repetition. For example, if you lived with her for many years, you wouldn’t forget your home. But you might forget she was your roommate. Or maybe just her face. Or her name. Honestly, with modded spells like this, it’s a crapshoot.”
That wasn’t what I wanted to hear.
“Hmm, now that I think of it,” Seth said, “that might be one way to keep your memories of her. You might not forget her completely if she”d been a part of your life for a long time. But there’s no guarantee. You might forget her anyway.”
That would be worse. What if I stayed for years, then still lost all memory of her?
“Was the fight that broke out in front of that coffee shop over Penny, too?”
I hesitated, not wanting to get her into trouble.
“I won”t say anything to the EA. It’s not my case.”
I decided to come clean. “Yes, it was.”
“Thought as much. The EA has been keeping an eye on that troll; he still hasn’t returned to wherever he came from. Neither has anyone else. They’ve all been wandering the city aimlessly, except for the troll. He’s been staying on the outskirts of town. I guess I might be hearing about that traffic disruption soon. I bet they’re all still looking for her.”
Fuck. Danger was always lurking just around the corner. It was becoming clear to me that our solution of keeping her magically concealed wasn’t sustainable over the long term. Just because she was hidden didn’t mean they wouldn’t eventually find her. And if they stumbled on our home by accident—
No. She had to nullify the spell.
I must have sighed aloud because Seth asked, “You like this witch, don’t you?”
There was no point in lying. “Yes. Very much so. I’ve been living with her since I left Desmon’s estate. I don’t want to forget her, but I can’t continue to let her be in danger.”
“You know what? If it is really meant to be, you’ll find each other again. You two can make new memories. And if you don’t, it wasn’t actually meant to be.”
“Then I guess it’s best to have her do it soon before either of us gets too attached.” But in my heart, I knew the truth: I already was attached, and losing her would mean losing the happiest moments of my life. “Thanks, Seth. You’re not too bad for a wizard.”
“I get that a lot. No problem. If you need anything else, just holler.”
I knew what I had to do. No way would Penny nullify the spell if I was still around. She’d gotten attached to me just as I’d gotten attached to her. In order to keep her safe, I’d need to break both our hearts. The only consolation I had was that if I was successful, I wouldn’t remember any of it.
And Penny? She was smart, witty, and beautiful. She would find someone better—her real perfect man—in no time.