Chapter 26
Everyone headed toward the door, senses heightened. Belladonna wound between their legs before slipping out the open door into the night.
They crossed the lawn in tense silence. At the edge of the woods, Morgan halted and peered into the shadowy forest. The trees were hunched and gnarled, branches clawing at the starry sky. Dark spaces yawned between their twisted trunks. The air vibrated with a strange energy.
”Be vigilant,” Luke murmured. ”I don”t like this.” His hand rested on Morgan”s shoulder.
Morgan steeled herself. ”Let”s go. But stay close.”
They moved into the woods, boots scuffing on leaf litter. Jake unclipped a flashlight from his belt, casting a pale cone of light ahead. Celeste held the celestrolabe up to her eyes with one hand and the lumiscope with the other, fiddling with the gears to tune in the ley lines. The woods pressed close, filled with odd sounds.
”I don”t remember the trees being so twisted,” Fiona whispered.
Morgan nodded. ”The alignment is affecting everything.”
They crept deeper, guided by Celeste. ”The lines are easier to see. Sofie must be distracted. But the lines feel... agitated.”
Indeed, the very air thrummed with nervous energy. Belladonna”s eyes glowed as she slipped between shadows.
Jolene gasped. ”Look!”
Just ahead, the earth gaped open, a swirling portal rimmed in violet light. They crossed it warily. More portals dotted the woods, gaping like hungry mouths.
”This is worse than before,” Mateo muttered.
”But the agrimony is working.” Morgan gestured to where Belladonna sat calmly atop a portal. ”As long as we have that, we”ll be okay.”
Nevertheless, they quickened their pace.
”Sofie and Maynard can”t be far ahead now,” Morgan breathed.
Fiona nodded. ”But what will we do when we catch them? We can”t force them to cooperate.”
”Let”s just hope they realize how crucial it is to work together,” Luke said. ”Neither wants the alignment to cause chaos.”
They crept onward, boots crunching softly on twigs. The trees seemed to lean in closer as their branches twisted overhead. Morgan peered into the gloom. She caught a glimpse of emerald green—Sofie”s cape—flapping between the trees up ahead.
Her breath caught. ”There she is.”
Seconds later, a high-pitched scream split the air. ”You! You’re causing more harm than good!”
”Looks like Sofie ran into Maynard,” Jolene said as they all rushed forward.
The group crept closer, the air growing dense with energy. Morgan”s hair stood on end, the charged atmosphere sending shivers down her spine.
Up ahead, Maynard and Sofie faced each other, a barrier of crackling energy between them. Their faces were twisted in concentration, eyes blazing with defiance and fury.
”Maynard! Sofie!” Morgan shouted, raising her voice over the sound of hissing energy.
”Stay out of this, Blackmoores!” Maynard barked without turning his head. ”This is a family matter.”
The ground beneath them vibrated with the force of their power. It felt as though the very earth was shaking in response to their feud. Morgan glanced at her sisters, whose faces reflected her own worry.
Beyond Maynard and Sofie, a large rock sat at the center of the forest. Suspended above it were clusters of yellow crystals spinning furiously like a whirlwind caught in amber light. They pulsed with a blinding radiance that lit up the forest around them. Clearly, this was the epicenter.
Celeste, armed with the celestrolabe and lumiscope, looked horrified as she peered through the ancient instruments. ”The ley lines are contorting,” she warned, her voice strained with urgency. ”They”re reacting to Maynard and Sofie”s feud. If this keeps up... we may only have minutes before everything erupts!”
Suddenly, Belladonna leapt into the air, batting at the energy patterns with an almost playful determination.
”Belladonna is trying to bat them away from converging!” Celeste said. ”But it”s too much. We need to do something else.”
Morgan tried to reason with Sofie and Maynard, but her pleas fell on deaf ears as the Doves continued their magical standoff. Each attempt to approach was thwarted by an invisible wall of energy that sent the Blackmoores stumbling backward.
”I can intervene,” Jolene proposed, her gaze fixed on the intense clash between Maynard and Sofie. ”I can use my energy to push the ley lines apart.”
Celeste shook her head, the light from the spinning crystals casting eerie shadows on her face. ”It”s too unpredictable, Jolene. You can”t see them like Belladonna and I can. It”s too dangerous.”
”The energy around them is too volatile! I can”t get to the epicenter.” Fiona held up the burlap bag containing the stones they hoped would mitigate the power of the alignment.
”It”s a shame we can”t just make them see how much they care for each other,” Jolene said, ”Like Mom said she used to do for us.”
Jolene”s words sparked an idea in Morgan”s mind. ”Cover me,” she instructed, already moving toward the forest”s edge.
”Morgan, what are you doing?” Celeste called out in alarm.
”Just trust me,” Morgan replied, disappearing into the shadows of the undergrowth.
Her heart pounded as she maneuvered stealthily through the dense foliage. Every crackle of a twig underfoot felt like a gunshot in the tension of the woods.
Sofie was still locked in her power struggle with Maynard when Morgan reappeared behind her. The forest provided ample camouflage as Morgan picked up a hefty log lying nearby.
”Sofie!” Maynard yelled in warning as Morgan hurled the log with all her might.
It happened in slow motion. The log hit Sofie. She crumpled to the ground, her green cloak billowing around her like a leaf caught in a storm. Maynard”s shock quickly morphed into fear as he darted toward his fallen sister.
”Morgan!”Jolene shouted, rushing toward her. ”What have you done?”
”Maynard needed to see what he was risking,” Morgan explained, her voice shaky. ”He needed to understand what he stood to lose.”
”But you could have killed her!” Fiona cried, her face pale under the forest”s strange glow.
”I didn”t throw it that hard,” Morgan assured them.
The forest was eerily quiet, the only sound Maynard”s ragged breathing as he held his sister close. His eyes met Morgan”s across the clearing, and for a moment, there was a flicker of understanding between them.
It had been a desperate move, but it had achieved its purpose. The energy in the air had shifted palpably—it was no longer bristling with tension but trembling with hope.
”Sofie?” Maynard”s voice was barely a whisper as his sister”s eyes fluttered open. He cradled her in his arms, his face a mask of relief.
”I”m okay,” Sofie murmured, reaching up to touch his cheek. ”You... you were worried about me.”
Maynard”s lips twitched in a semblance of a smile. ”You”re my sister. What did you expect?”
Sofie blinked up at him, her eyes filling with tears. ”I thought you”d seize the opportunity to take control of the lines.”
”Well, I guess we both learned something today,” Maynard said softly.
A shadow fell over them, and they looked up to see Jolene standing there, her arms crossed over her chest. ”This is a real touching family reunion,” she said, ”but we have a problem.”
She pointed toward the spinning stones over the epicenter. The stones were still rotating wildly, casting eerie shadows on the surrounding trees.
Morgan stepped forward, her eyes flicking between Sofie and Maynard. ”Are you two ready to put your differences aside and help us control this?”
Maynard and Sofie exchanged a glance before nodding in unison.
”Good,” Morgan said. She turned to the others. ”Let”s get to work.”
They moved with newfound determination, working together to clear a path through the ley lines toward the epicenter. Fiona was at the front, using her magical abilities to guide them safely through.
When they reached the epicenter, Fiona pulled the stones from the burlap bag and placed them precisely, each one radiating a soothing energy that seemed to calm the frenzied ley lines and dim the glow of the yellow crystals.
The change was immediate and palpable. The air lightened around them, the oppressive weight of tension lifting as if a switch had been flipped. Birds began to chirp in the trees overhead, their melodies bright and cheerful.
”Did it work?” Morgan asked tentatively. After the chaos of the last few hours, she hardly dared believe they had succeeded.
Celeste nodded, lowering the celestrolabe. ”The ley lines have calmed significantly. Placing the stones disrupted their pattern enough to dampen the effects of the alignment.”
”For now, at least,” Luke added. He put a steadying hand on Morgan”s shoulder. ”We”ll have to wait and see if it holds through midnight, when the alignment peaks.”
”So what do we do until then?” Jolene asked.
”We should head back to the house and keep an eye on things,” she suggested. ”Make sure nothing changes between now and midnight.”
The others murmured agreement.
”I”ll come with you,” Maynard said gruffly. He was supporting Sofie with one arm. ”Just until we”re sure there”s no more trouble coming.”
Sofie gave a tired smile. ”I think we”ve caused enough trouble for one day.”
Jolene rolled her eyes but didn”t argue as they began making their way out of the forest. The journey back was far less fraught than their trip in had been. With the ley lines stabilized, the portals had disappeared, and the trees no longer clawed at them as they passed.
As they emerged from the forest, Calvin turned to Sofie and Maynard, who were walking side by side. ”So what was your feud about anyway?”
Sofie and Maynard stopped and looked at each other. Their brows furrowed in thought, and then they both shrugged.
”You know,” Sofie said, ”I can”t quite remember.”
Maynard chuckled. ”Neither can I.”
Morgan smiled at their exchange, feeling a sense of relief wash over her. They had done it. They had worked together to prevent a disaster, and in doing so, they had helped mend a centuries-old feud between Maynard and Sofie. For the first time in a long while, things were looking up.