Chapter 44
“You think he’s gone for good?” Julia asked, still peering into the branches.
“He can’t be,” Gideon said. “Sabrina’s got the gear he’s anchored to.” He hadn’t said anything to her, but he’d wondered if the sprite might not make a break for it when he had a chance.
“Um …” Sabrina pursed her lips.
“What is it?” Gideon asked.
“I don’t have the gear.” She grimaced. “I gave it to Korrin. I figured he’d need to be as free as possible when we got here so he could search in whatever way he needed to.”
Gideon sighed.
“Well,” Julia said. “We may have seen the last of him.”
Sabrina put her hands on her hips. “You two have no faith. Korrie wouldn’t ghost us. He likes us. And he loves Trip. Maybe even more than he loves ice cream.”
Gideon couldn’t argue that, but freedom didn’t hold a candle to ice cream.
He put his hand on Sabrina’s arm, wanting very much to hug her instead, but not in front of Julia.
“It’s okay. There’s still three of us. We can do a grid search.
Arm’s length from each other, the way police search a field when they’re looking for evidence.
We’ll take the forest in sections and work our way through. ”
They’d be unsuccessful, just as he’d been the last three times he’d been out here, but he wasn’t going to say that. He could see she felt bad enough already.
“He’ll be back,” Sabrina insisted.
Julia leaned against her car. “So what do we do? Wait? Or go search? Because I’m voting for searching. I really want to get rid of my curse. Do you have any idea what it’s like to be a witch with no magic? I might as well be a regular old human.” She rolled her eyes. “I’m over that.”
“I don’t know what to do,” Sabrina said.
Julia pushed off the car. “I know you like him, and you don’t want to think he ditched us, but we’re burning daylight. This time of year, dusk falls fast. It’s early, but we need all the time we can get. If you want to wait here, Sabrina, I’m cool with that. And I get it. Gideon and I can go look.”
Gideon shook his head. “We stay together. That’s the plan.”
Julia tipped her head at him. “Did Korrin know that?”
A whistling sound filled the air, getting louder by the second as it seemed to descend toward them. Then suddenly Korrin was in the midst of them. He looked about as happy as Gideon had ever seen him. “I have a pretty good idea about which way to go. You people ready?”
A wide grin stretched across Sabrina’s face, and she lifted her chin slightly before giving Julia and Gideon I-told-you-so glances. “I am absolutely ready. Would you like to lead the way?”
“I can try,” Korrin said.
“Try?” Gideon asked. “I thought you knew how to find this book. You just said you had a pretty good idea about which way to go.”
“I do. Sort of.”
Gideon narrowed his eyes. “Where were you?”
“Over the treetops,” the sprite answered. “I wanted to get a bird’s-eye view so I could look for patterns in the forest. Magic makes patterns in nature a lot. Fairy rings are just one example.”
Gideon couldn’t fault the idea. “Did you find any?”
Korrin nodded, some of the enthusiasm leaving him. “I did. They were a little hard to work out at first, but then I could see them clear as day.” He took a breath, looking pensive. “But as soon as I figured them out, they changed. While I was watching.”
“That’s okay,” Sabrina said. “Could you figure out the new pattern?”
“Yes. But it changed, too.” Korrin stared into the trees. “This forest is something else. It’s got layers of magic like I’ve never seen before.”
Gideon rubbed the back of his neck. “Do you think you can help us find the book or not?”
“Yes. But I think I need to look for patterns within the forest. And I just have to be quicker to read them. Which I should be able to do. And if we run into a forest creature, I can try asking them. The only trouble is …”
“Out with it,” Gideon said. He was tired of standing still, doing nothing. He wanted to search. To put an end to his wretched curse once and for all.
“Just because I find a pattern doesn’t mean it’s going to lead to the book,” Korrin said. “There’s so much magic here. And magic doesn’t always work the way you think it should.”
“You can say that again,” Julia muttered under her breath, adjusting the straps of her backpack.
With a nod, Gideon began studying the trees, wondering if he could see the patterns if he looked hard enough. “What do you see now, Korrin? We need a direction.”
The sprite flew next to him. After a moment, he pointed. “There. Follow me.”