Chapter 11
CHAPTER ELEVEN
The wards had failed…
A nauseous feeling rolled through Malcolm’s gut as he saw the stricken look on Calli and Zelda’s faces. He’d caused this. Somehow, this was his fault.
A panicked shout from outside the shop caught his attention. He threw out a hand to stop Calli when she took a step forward.
“Stay here. I’ll be right back!” He opened the door and stepped into the street, ready to face whatever was there.
After the earthquake, he feared there might be damage to some of the buildings. Once outside, he saw that dozens of townsfolk had the same idea, hastily leaving their shops, eyes wide, trying to figure out what had happened.
“Mr. Wellesley!” Mayor Thornfield spotted him and crossed the street. “Are you all right?”
“I am! How about you?”
“Just a little shaken.” The mayor’s hands visibly shook as he tried to appear calm. “What was all that shaking? It couldn’t have been an earthquake, could it?”
With a pit of dread in his stomach, Malcolm broke the news to the mayor. “It’s the wards, sir. They’ve failed.”
“The protective wards? Now?” The man paled and tugged at the tie around his neck. “They’ve never weakened so soon before.”
Malcolm had to be honest with the mayor. “It’s worse than that. They aren’t just weakened. They’re gone.”
“Gone?” The man’s face paled. “Gone? We… We must…” He struggled to find the right words. “We must find a way to bring them back. The town is at risk.”
“We’ll find a way to get them back.” Malcolm promised, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that he couldn’t stop whatever was coming now that the wards were down… and he only had himself to blame. Everything was always his fault when it came to magic.
Jasper and Sage stood outside Mystic Mornings. “Mac!” Jasper waved to him with one arm, while the other held Sage protectively around the shoulders.
Malcolm waved back. “Jas! You guys okay?”
“Yeah, just a few broken cups.” Jasper called back. “You?”
“About the same.” Malcolm looked around, not sure what he expected to see.
Fortunately, there were no dramatic cracks in the cobblestones of the main street or smoke rising up from the bowels of the earth.
The extent of the damage seemed limited to the general disarray of shop shelves.
Witches and warlocks were already weaving spells to put their stores back to rights.
Jack Hollow, the werewolf, stood outside of Zombie Pies fixing an advertisement for two-topping pizzas which had fallen over. He waved at Malcolm to signal he was okay.
Malcolm took a deep breath and realized the sweet, inviting air of the town was still there, but a fresh cold wind had been added to it, bringing in the foreign smell of… outside.
Leaves scuttled along the cobblestones like colorful spiders, clustering in the corners of shop doorways, then swirled in eddies around the town square statue, which depicted a witch on a broom with a cat as they flew over a large moon.
Malcolm’s skin prickled with goosebumps as he studied the town. It still felt warm, cozy, and autumnal in all the right ways, but that sense of safety was gone. Every instinct in him screamed in warning.
A storm was coming. He was no weather warlock, but he could sense it. The wards must have been regulating the weather around the town too. Now that protection was gone as well. What had he done?
Zelda’s shop door chimed behind him. He turned to see Calli and Zelda step outside. A breath of relief escaped him to see that his little hedge witch was okay.
We’ll figure this out… somehow, he thought.
“Everyone seems to be safe,” he said. “But the wards are definitely down.” Calli and Zelda shared an odd look.
“What?” he asked.
“Nothing,” Calli said too quickly for him to believe her. He kept no secrets from her, but he wasn’t going to pressure her to do the same.
“We need to—” but Calli’s words died as her gaze moved to something behind Malcolm.
He turned around just in time to see a large tour bus barreling toward the center of the square.
It came to a wheezing halt right beside Zelda’s shop, brakes squealing shrilly.
The door creaked open, and a harried tour guide stumbled down the steps, followed by a gaggle of tourists, cameras out and selfie sticks in hand.
Their heads swiveled from side to side as they took in the Halloween festival preparations.
Several of the seniors pointed out various shops and twittered excitedly about the charm of the little town.
“Where the hell are we, Rick? This isn’t Boston…” the woman demanded as the driver scratched his head.
“Hell if I know, Steph. I took the same route I always take. Hang on, let me get the map.” The driver reached around to pull a map out of a pocket in the back of his seat.
The bus was filled with non-magical humans. They’d arrived far earlier than anyone was ready for them. He looked to Calli and his sense of dread deepened as he saw the color drain from her face. He had to fix this.
He stepped toward the crowd of tourists, trying to catch them before they wandered off, wondering how he could fix this.
“Hey there!” he called out to the driver, tourists, and the tour guide.
“Welcome to Moonstone Falls. We are a magical Halloween-themed town.” He waved toward the shops.
“Here you’ll find treats, spooky sights, and we have a fall festival in two weeks that will make for a magical autumn memory if you come back by this way around October 31st. You might even start believing in magic while you’re here.
” He added with a wink. Then he pointed toward the town hall.
“We have themed pamphlets in the lobby about what you can see and do while you’re here. ”
The tour guide squinted slightly, looking in the direction he was pointing.
“Thanks. Come on, Rick. Park that thing in a spot somewhere and grab some pamphlets.” The woman leaned in close to Malcolm.
“Thanks for that. You just saved our bacon. I’ve got no idea how we ended up here, but we’ll make the most of it. ”
“Anytime,” said Malcolm.
The driver pulled the massive bus to the side of the road so it wasn’t blocking the main part of the street. Then he and the guide headed into the town hall. Mayor Thornfield was ready for them at the door, and gave Malcolm a grateful look before ushering them inside.
“That was quick thinking,” Calli said as she joined him by the bus.
“Sage will spread the word about the barrier failing and tell all the witches and warlocks in town to hold back on their magic use. Finnigan will take his human form while outside and the lagoon monsters will stay home until we figure out how to get the wards back up.”
“How did they put the spells up in the first place?”
Calli bit her lip, thinking before she replied. “I really don’t know. Each year, the witches and warlocks in town gather to cast a strengthening spell on the wards. But how can that work if the wards are completely gone? There’s nothing to strengthen.”
“Is there anyone who would know how to cast the original spell again?”
“Maybe my grandmother? But she hasn’t been seen in her painting since she told you about the prophecy.” Calli’s shoulders fell. “I don’t know where else to look.”
Seeing her look so lost, so hurt, when she was usually such a positive energy in the world, was like a punch to Malcolm’s gut.
He remembered a name. “What about Ivy Greenlee? At the B&B? She’s an older witch.
Perhaps she has seen something or heard something at some point that might give us a lead?
If I remember what my father said, all witch communities pass down information through generations, especially important spells. ”
Calli glanced at her shop and nodded. “That’s a good idea, but…” She looked down the street toward Pages & Potions. “I should get back to the bookstore and assess the damage.”
“I’ll come with you,” said Malcolm. “We can try Ivy later.”
On the way, they passed by one of the non-magical tourist families, and a giant schnauzer who trotted alongside them. Their little boy rode the dog like a small pony, and in his arms he held a black kitten.
“Such an odd town…” the father mused.
“This place is awesome!” The little boy shouted.
Huh, that dog looks just like… Then Malcolm realized the dog was his.
“Hades?” His familiar was behaving like a miniature pony for the child, but he sensed his familiar’s amused reassurance that all was well and trotted on by without looking back.
Persephone turned her whiskered face up to look at Calli as they passed, purring loudly.
“Well, that was… interesting,” Calli replied as their familiars led the little boy and his parents to the Witch Better Have My Candy shop.
“I never knew Hades wanted to moonlight as a tour guide,” Malcolm chuckled.
The moment of levity faded, and the sense of doom began to grow again.
Malcolm took Calli’s hand in his own, feeling her cold fingers as he tried to warm them up.
He hadn’t forgotten the look she and Zelda had shared at the tarot shop.
She was keeping something from him. She didn’t even seem to notice he’d threaded their fingers together.
His chest ached. She was lost in thoughts so distant he couldn’t possibly follow.
Malcolm thought of something his mother had said when he was a boy when they’d talked about his parents’ unique relationship as a non-magic human and a warlock.
He’d asked her how she managed to be okay being an outsider, feeling like there were things in his father’s life she’d never fully understand.
She had taken Malcolm’s smaller hand in her own and said, “I am patient, and though there are sometimes places I cannot go and things I cannot understand, I stand here and I wait, because if I am patient, he will always come back.” He hadn’t understood that analogy then, and had wondered for a while if his father was leaving.
Later he understood she was referring to the parts of his life she could not fully share in.