Chapter 12
Only in Elderfell
Zayne
Ashiver runs through me as I watch her disappear into the snow.
“Stubborn witch,” Grimlet mutters.
“It’s not her fault.” Josh defends Holly, and he’s right. It’s not her fault. I know how messed up magic can get.
Holly’s a witch—and a mirror mage. How fucking cool is that?
I should have known. I’ve always recognized the similarities between Amber and Holly.
It’s why I was drawn to Amber from the moment I met her.
Certainly not in looks: Amber is small and dark-haired, while Holly’s tall and her hair is almost silver.
But there’s a vibe about both of them, a presence, a tingle in the air—pure magic.
Of course, before I left here at fifteen, I didn’t believe in magic, so I wouldn’t have recognized that tingle. Even if somebody had turned me into a toad, I probably would have argued.
Now it’s hard to miss.
Something occurs to me.
“Do you think Holly’s mother brought her here to keep her from Khronus?” Khronus was king of Astrali, and he murdered most of the mirror mages; drained their magic and used it himself. He’s dead now—Amber killed him—so at least Holly doesn’t have to worry about the “bad” man.
“I think so. It’s funny, isn’t it, how everything is connected?”
“Fucking hilarious.” I rub my forehead. “Only in Elderfell.”
“Selene told me that there are places in all the worlds where magic is strongest, like her temple on Valandria. Mostly they’re good places, but something bad happened here.”
“Believe me, lots of bad things happened here.”
“But they all started with one bad person: Khazim.”
The light is fading. Time is running out. I take one last look at the spot Josh assures me is where the mirror should be. We’ve tried every spell we can think of to call it up, but none of them worked.
Of course, it’s not going to be that easy.
“Don’t give up, Zayne,” Josh says. “We’ll find a way.”
“Of course we will.” I ruffle his hair.
“Maybe there’s something else in the library that we missed. Milo is still looking.”
“Then we’d better go check in with him.” And make sure Holly is safe. Then we need to get back here. Because if anything happens, it will happen here. “Should we fly?” I ask.
Josh nods.
I shift, feeling the familiar tingle running through me. Raze throws back his head and roars. He’s glad to be free; Raze loves the snow.
I spread my wings and launch into the air. Then I head toward the house. I spot Holly within seconds. She’s slower than me. She must sense me because she stops and looks up. She stares, her eyes wide.
I dive down toward her, circle her, and blow out just a little bit of fire. Yeah, I’m magnificent—at least Raze is.
I leave her behind. She needs time alone to get her head around everything.
I fly to the house and land. Josh jumps down, and I shift back. The worry immediately returns. How many hours do we have? What are those children going through? What’s happening to Tansy?
Josh tugs on my sleeve, pulling me out of my thoughts. “Yeah?”
“I had an idea,” he says. “I remembered something.” He sounds excited.
“What?”
He drags me toward the steps. “You remember when we were escaping the palace on Astrali?”
“How could I forget?”
“Amber made us all invisible, but then she gave us a spell to use in case we got separated, so we wouldn’t have to be invisible forever.”
I do remember. That was amazing. It was the first time I’d actually seen her use her powers for something exciting—it made me realize how cool witches are.
I search my mind, trying to remember the spell, but only vague words come to mind.
“Can you remember it?” I ask. Josh is cleverer than me. Maybe he has it memorized.
“No,” he answers.
“Well, that sucks big time.”
“But,” he goes on, “I wrote it down in my journal.”
“You have a journal?”
“Duh, yeah. I write everything important in there. It’s secret. But I think I have the spell. Come on, let’s go look.”
I follow him up the stairs to the room we’re sharing—Grimlet’s sitting on his shoulder but hops onto the pillow. Josh pulls his backpack from beneath the bed and rifles through it.
“Here it is.” He sits on the bed, his legs dangling, Grimlet crouched beside him, and flicks through the battered blue notebook.
“I found it.” He hands the book to me. “I mean, it might not work,” he says. “Maybe it was just specific to being invisible, but Amber said it was a spell to stop spells. So maybe it’s worth a try, right?”
“Hell, yeah, it’s worth a try. Anything’s worth a try at this moment. I’m going to go find Holly and try it out. You go talk to Milo, see if he found out anything else in the library.”
“Okay.” He jumps off the bed and scampers out of the room, Grimlet close behind.
I sit for a moment, trying not to get my hopes up. Magic is such a tricky thing. Who knows whether it will work or not? But as I said, anything’s worth a try right now.
Getting to my feet, I shove the journal in my pocket and cross the room to look out the window.
Holly’s just climbing the steps to the front door.
I give her a few more minutes, and then I open the door and step out into the hallway just as she hits the top of the stairs.
She stops in front of me and looks up into my face. I can’t tell what she’s thinking.
“That’s a very useful trick you have,” she says. “And the fire—it must come in handy.”
An image flashes in my mind: bodies burning, screams filling the air. “Yeah, sometimes useful. Sometimes not. Depends on whether you like your enemies crispy.”
She frowns at that. She probably thinks I’m joking.
Suddenly, I need to touch her. Just to connect. To somehow let her know that she’s not alone in all this. That I love her even if she is a witch. Hell, my only two real relationships have been with a witch and a werewolf. I’m not fussy. But maybe I shouldn’t tell her that.
“Look,” I say, “there’s something I want to talk about. Something I want to try.”
Suspicion flashes across her face. “I don’t suppose it’s some sort of kinky sex thing?” She sounds hopeful, and I hate to disappoint her, but…
I shake my head.
“Damn.” She sighs. “Okay, come to my room. I suspect I need my slippers and my favorite dressing gown for this conversation.”
I follow her down the hallway to her room. I used to spend a lot of time in this room that last year in Elderfell when we’d just discovered kissing. I go instantly hard at the thought and push it away. Now is not the time. No kissing until we solve this problem.
She pulls on her fluffy slippers and the pink dressing gown she’s had since she was about twelve and sits on the bed. Then jumps up again.
I can see the sadness in her face, the fear of failure. I know because I feel it myself.
“One thing first, before we get to the serious stuff,” she says. “Will you kiss me?”
Okay, maybe just a little kissing before we solve this problem.
I step closer and cup her cheek, then I lower my head, and our lips touch. I breathe in her scent: snow and roses, sweet and cold. Then I wrap my arms around her and hug her close. For a second, she melts against me, resting her cheek against my chest, and we stand that way for a long moment.
I feel her stiffen against me, her palms press to my chest, and she pushes away. Then she straightens her shoulders. “Okay, I’m ready. What is it you want to try?”
I hesitate. I don’t want to get my hopes up then—
“Come on, Zayne, or it will be Christmas before you even tell me what’s on your mind.”
“Okay, so here’s the thing. Amber taught me and Josh this spell. It’s a sort of spell that dissolves spells. Makes them go away. And I want to try it on you.”
“To break the compulsion spell?”
I search her face. “Are you okay with that?”
She presses her lips together. I can see the fear flash in her eyes. But then she nods.
I pull Josh’s journal from my pocket. The words blur for a second because I don’t want to get this wrong. If this doesn’t work, there’s no backup plan. We’re screwed, and Tansy’s screwed with us.
I look at Holly. Her eyes are wide, scared, but steady. She nods once.
Will it work? I just don’t know. I can feel the panic tightening my gut. The air thickens, metallic on my tongue, like a storm about to break. I take a deep breath and read the words of the spell:
“Twist and tether, veil and bind—
Undo the spell and free the mind.”