Chapter Thirty Four
The walk to Bitter Root takes longer than I remember but maybe it’s just my nerves. We will stop the end of the world. We will stop the World Eater. We have to.
There’s no option for failure.
I run through every possible scenario of what might happen when we arrive at Bitter Root while every step I take feels like it’s a mile.
“Isn’t us rolling up with weapons a total giveaway that we are there to kill the head mage?” Charlie asks.
I look down at the swords I’m holding. They’re short swords, twin blades that made more sense when it came to me fighting than something big like Jaak has. Next to me, Jaak has a double-sided battle axe strapped to his back.
I stop and look between the three of us and twirl my swords. “You’re right, but don’t worry. I’ve got us covered.”
“Uh, how?” Charlie asks while Jaak shushes him.
“Let my witchling work her magic. She will know what to do.”
Jaak’s right. I know exactly what to do.
I close my eyes and think about the Halloween catalogues I saw on the counter at the bakery.
They were Ms. Donna’s costume catalogues that she got, saying we were going to need options for this holiday to go off without a hitch.
There had been so many different costumes in there.
In my browsing, I’d been the most interested in the knights and princesses, anything fairytale, like fairies and dragons, were high on my interest list as well.
I raise my hands up and think about those costumes.
I think about what would work best to make our weapons seem like nothing more than props, accessories to a well put together costume and not the demise of that damn head mage.
I bring my hands down and release magic in every direction and when I open my eyes, it’s not Charlie and Jaak that stare back at me.
It’s a knight and a rogue. Charlie is outfitted in close fitting leather and a dark green cloak.
Jaak is naturally the knight, leather armor and metal pauldrons make him cut a fine image of a hero.
The battle axe at his back looks natural on him and I smile at my handiwork.
“You’re handsome,” I tell him.
“Thank you, my heart. You are, as always, a vision.”
I don’t know if vision is the right word for how I look but I’ll take it. I’m dressed a lot like Charlie with the addition of a metal breastplate.
I move and tap it experimentally with the side of one of my swords. “Neat.”
“We look amazing. This is just, oh my gods, where’s my phone? My party is never going to believe me when I tell them about this.’
I sheath my swords with a frown. “Charlie, no selfies. Come on. We have a job to do.”
“Who made you the fun police, Frowny Mcgee?”
The urge to spin kick Charlie’s phone into the open field next to us overcomes me but as soon as it does, it vanishes again. “What did you call me?” I whisper. I raise a hand to my face and touch my lips, my cheeks, then back to my lips.
“Oh my gods…I-I’m…frowning!” I laugh and point to my face with both hands.
“Look! Do you see this? I-I was annoyed at you and I didn’t smile.
I frowned. I broke my smile!!” Excitement and adrenaline roll through me and even though I want to take my new expression out for a spin, I can’t.
The only thing I can do is smile. I’m just so happy about frowning.
“You did” Jaak tells me with a warm smile. “I’m proud of you.”
“How long have I been doing this? Was this my first frown? Why didn’t you take a picture?!”
“You’ve been doing it for a while. I just thought it was a thing now,” Charlie says, turning his phone in my direction. “Okay, do it again. Really put your back into it.” I frown as hard as I can and Charlie takes a few photos for me. “That’s a pretty serious frown. Good job, Meadow.”
“Thank you, thank you,” I throw my arms around him and hug him. I’m careful not to squeeze too hard. “This is the best day and this, this is a sign.”
“A sign of what?” Jaak asks.
“That we’re going to win. I’ve never been able to do this. Not ever, not once, not even when I tried as hard as I could but I did it today and you said,” I point at Charlie, “that I’ve been doing it for a while?”
“Yeah, first one I saw was in the basement. I didn’t say anything because it’s not polite to comment on that sort of thing. Big ‘you should smile more’ energy. No thanks.”
I press my hands to my cheeks and giggle. “Oh my gods. My face, my expressions. They’re mine. All mine.”
Jaak rubs his thumb against my cheek. “And each of them is beautiful. I am honored I get to spend an entire lifetime seeing them all.”
I blush and Charlie makes gagging sounds behind us. I smile and take a deep breath, refocus and look us over again. It won’t do for me to be over the moon about frowning if I never get to do it again because the world gets served up for dinner.
“Okay, okay. I’m ready and we’re set to blend right in. It’s Halloween. They’ll never guess that any of this stuff really works,” I tell them. “The plan is we go in like we talked about and go straight for the Chamber of Commerce. If anything is going down, it’s going to be there.”
My gut tells me I’m right even if I know jack about businesses, I know my intuition has rarely led me astray. Even when I was brainwashed and couldn’t even frown, I knew things weren’t right.
By the time we get to the Bitter Root welcome sign, it’s mid morning and the Halloween festivities are in full swing.
I can hear the sound of a parade and band, along with the cheers of a crowd.
I’m grateful to see that my decision to dress us up in costumes to hide our weapons worked.
Everyone we pass is dressed in something.
There’s goblins, princesses and dinosaurs, even a few random aliens.
Every single storefront and street corner looks like Halloween threw up on it.
There’s pumpkins and bats, witches and banners with ghosts.
People stand out front of buildings holding giant bowls of candy.
A group of kids runs by laughing and screaming and they’re dressed like mini versions of us.
We’re going to blend right in just like I wanted. Perfect.
“This place is cute,” Charlie says, looking around but then holds up a finger. “Where are all the cars, though?”
“They’re not allowed in town,” I tell him and hold up my hands when he gets a confused look on his face. “I don’t know why. You know how cult towns are and this is definitely a cult town.”
He nods. “Yeah, okay. Every cult has its thing. No cars and capitalism, and the end of the world here, an interesting mix. Which way is the Chamber of Commerce?”
“That way,” I say, pointing to the right. “We never actually got there because it was closed last time but it’s not far.” I turn to Jaak and touch his arm. “Come on, we better swing by Mort’s and see if he has any leads on the head mage.”
Jaak nods and leads us down the street. The crowds are thicker here with more people and it sounds like we're getting closer to the parade. “It will be good to see how the young Oculus is faring now that he knows the truth of this place.”
“An Ocu-what? Octopus?” Charlie asks.
I start to explain about Mort but I stop. In front of us is Pancakes and More and the windows are all busted out. The window Jaak and I sat in front of with the painted pancakes is in broken shards on the sidewalk and inside too.
“We have to check on Dina!” I jog across the street with Jaak and Charlie a step behind me. We shoulder through the crowd and when we get inside of the restaurant my stomach drops.
“What happened in here?” I whisper.
The quaint and cheery diner is destroyed. Tables are overturned, chairs are broken and someone put the stools through the other windows around the restaurant. Condiments and menus are strewn across the floor and in the middle of it all sits Dina. She’s on the floor, head in her hands and crying.
“Dina?”
She looks up when I say her name. She looks confused to see me and then slowly gets to her feet. “Morning. Sorry, we can’t make you any breakfast today. Things are a bit of a mess.”
A bit is an understatement.
“What happened?” I ask.
She bites her lip and looks around the restaurant before she bursts into tears again. “T-they destroyed it!”
“Who are they?” I don’t have time for a side quest right now, I really freaking don’t but Dina’s husband, whether he was bad or not, is probably cremated in a clearing and it’s because of me.
I might seem like a lunatic prying into her business the way I am when she really doesn’t know me, but I know enough about her to care.
I have to try and help her. I walk up to her and put a hand on her shoulder.
“You can tell me. It’s going to be okay. ”
“It’s not. They ruined everything. I have nothing now!”
I weigh the pros and cons of using my magic to set Dina’s restaurant back to rights. I could do it but…the crowd. I look over my shoulder and frown. There’s too many people just a few feet away. I think they would notice if the restaurant suddenly poofed itself back into one piece.
“That’s not true. Listen, I can help you. I’ll fix this.”
“You can’t fix this. No one can!” Dina wails.
“I know it looks bad but you give us till night when this parade is over and we can fix this place,” I say.
Night would be good. Whatever we have to do will be done by then and we’ll be free.
If not, the world will be gone and eaten so it’s not like I’m breaking a promise to help her.
We’ll just all be eaten so I won’t be able to.
“Nightfall? That will be too late to save him. I told him not to go with them, not even when they threatened me, but he didn't listen.” Dina covers her head with her hands and shakes it. “My beautiful Clyde, whyyyy?” she sobs.
That stops me short. “Clyde?”
She stops mid-wail and looks at me. “Of course, Clyde. The man that I love and am finally free to be with after my husband is d-” she stops short and clears her throat before she continues on like she didn’t just almost say her husband is dead.
Holy hells. She knows. How does she know?
If he were dead there’s not enough of him to identify.
“After my husband ran off, and left everything to me, I thought I could start over, finally be free. That was until they came in here for Clyde.”
“Who’s they?” I ask.
“The cult trying to end the world.”