3. Borrowing Trouble
Borrowing Trouble
Oak Haven witches threw parties the way toddlers threw tantrums: frequently, enthusiastically, and with zero regard for consequences. It was opening day of the Summer Festival, and the park in Oak Haven’s downtown looked like the love child of Disney World and Burning Man.
As Luna wandered through the chaos, children ran here and there, armed with water balloons that burst into clouds of glitter instead of water.
Every few minutes, the trees spontaneously bloomed with botanically incorrect flowers, then shed them on the heads of passersby.
A flock of origami cranes, folded from sheet music, swooped between the trees, playing fragments of half-remembered childhood songs.
Papa would have loved this, she thought with a familiar pang. He’d be chasing those cranes around, trying to correct the lyrics.
Continuing her circuit of the park, Luna passed the magical arts and crafts stalls where children could paint pictures that leaped off their canvases.
At a face-painting booth, the Melrose sisters’ dear friend Aphra was working her way through a line of excited children, transforming their faces with quick, precise spells rather than brushes and paint.
“Hey, Luna!” Aphra called out cheerfully while turning a little girl’s face into a monarch butterfly. “How’s every little thing? You should stop by the yarn shop sometime when things calm down. I just got in the most gorgeous alpaca wool from Peru. You’d love it.”
“Sounds wonderful,” she replied. “Assuming I ever get a day off from the inn, maybe I’ll have time for hobbies again.”
Aphra chuckled. “Ah, not to worry. Alpaca is a very patient wool.”
With a weak smile, Luna mentally added learn to knit to her ever-growing list of things she’d rather do than hotel management. It was a long list, containing essentially every activity in the world.
The food area was a festival-goer’s dream, featuring Oak Haven’s famous color-changing ices. They shifted through an entire spectrum of flavors, ranging from strawberry and lemon to exotic options like “the feeling of finding money in the laundry.”
The lobster queue moved slowly, giving everyone time to admire the cooking process, which involved enchanted grills that adjusted their heat automatically to make every bite perfect, every time.
“Luna, dear!”
She turned to find Belinda Chatterjee directly behind her, wearing a bright yellow sundress and looking absolutely delighted with life in general.
“Belinda! How are you enjoying the festival?”
“Oh, it’s absolutely wonderful! Though I have to say, the ices are quite adventurous this year. Mine started as lime and somehow ended up tasting like pickled herring.” But Belinda wasn’t put out by this development. “Such an unexpected journey!”
As they shuffled forward in line, Belinda launched into a detailed review of every food stall she’d visited so far.
Luna found herself only half listening, distracted by the enchanted band in the gazebo.
The Beach Boys had just finished “California Girls” and were shapeshifting into Bob Marley and the Wailers.
“—someone who’d been in the Void as well!”
Luna’s attention snapped back to Belinda. “I’m sorry, what was that about a void?”
“The Void, dear! Where those dreadful magicians held us prisoner. Don’t tell me your mother didn’t tell you every gory detail?”
“We knew she was taken prisoner, obviously, but . . . Well, she won’t discuss the details.”
“Poor Kelly never did like discussing unpleasant experiences.” Belinda’s eyes gleamed like someone with a terrible fondness for discussing unpleasant experiences. “I found the whole thing absolutely fascinating!”
They reached the front of the line, and Belinda ordered a lobster roll with a side of the magical coleslaw that sang sea shanties while you ate it. Luna ordered her own lobster roll with slaw, and followed Belinda to a nearby picnic table.
“So you see—” Belinda settled onto the bench “—it all started at the Christmas market. One minute I was buying fudge, the next minute I was falling through absolute darkness.”
“Falling into what?”
“Oh, that’s the best part! You’re not falling into anything. You’re just . . . falling. Forever.” She took a bite of her lobster roll and sighed contentedly. “Absolutely extraordinary sensation, once you get used to it.”
Luna tried to wrap her head around the concept of infinite falling. “Sounds horrible. But you weren’t falling the whole time, were you? Mama mentioned that somebody pulled you out?”
“Oh yes! We were rescued by the most charming rogue you could imagine. Handsome as anything, and lovely manners despite being a convicted criminal.” Belinda’s expression grew dreamy.
“His name was Mr. Elias Shaw, and he’d been sentenced to the Void for crimes against magicians.
I don’t know what he did exactly, but any enemy of the magicians is a friend of mine, know what I mean? ”
“He was imprisoned there?”
“Yes, he was arrested back in the 1920s, can you imagine? Poor man seemed quite lonely. So handsome, though. Sharp suit, vest, tie, the whole thing.” Belinda paused to try the singing coleslaw, which immediately launched into a particularly bawdy version of “Show Me the Way to Go Home.” “He lived in this little waiting room. Looked like a doctor’s office, or perhaps a lawyer’s. ”
Luna leaned forward. “And he helped you survive until you were rescued?”
“Pulled us right into his little sanctuary, and we waited there until you kids were able to defeat the magicians. I taught him how to play bridge. It was great fun. When the rescue finally came, we wanted to bring him with us, but he said it was impossible. The way in and out of the Void is terribly complicated, you see.”
“Complicated how?”
“I wouldn’t know, dear. That’s magic far beyond anything I understand. But Mr. Shaw mentioned something about needing very particular magic to navigate.”
Luna absorbed this information, her mind already spinning with possibilities. A handsome rogue, trapped in an interdimensional prison since the Roaring Twenties. Like Han Solo written by F. Scott Fitzgerald. “Belinda . . . this Shaw person. He’s still in the Void?”
“I can’t say, but he told us he’d been given a life sentence, so one assumes yes.
Poor soul.” Belinda finished her lobster roll and stood up, brushing crumbs from her crab-printed dress.
“I do hope someone finds a way to help him eventually, but I’m afraid it’s quite beyond anything I could manage.
” She wandered off toward the arts and crafts stalls, leaving Luna alone with her thoughts.
The hero who saved our mother’s life is trapped in an interdimensional void. He’ll spend eternity alone in a waiting room.
Well, that simply won’t do. Absolutely not.
Luna had spent more than ten years studying magic systems across every continent.
She’d portal-hopped through dimensions most witches didn’t even know existed.
If anyone could get into the Void and out again, it would be her.
And if that required a bit of a sabbatical from the inn, well .
. . some things just couldn’t be helped.
She finished her lobster and set off to find Scarlett and Nate. If she was going to mount a rescue mission, she’d need someone to cover for her at work.
* * *
Luna found the lovebirds at the lazy river.
Nate stood waist-deep in the water, helping smaller children and older folks climb aboard the more docile unicorns and griffins.
Scarlett sat on the edge of the waterway, feet dangling in the current, as she worked her way through a funnel cake the size of a medium pizza.
“How’s the ride going, Nate?” Luna asked, settling down beside her sister.
“Surprisingly well,” Nate called back. He boosted a little girl onto a friendly-looking mermaid. “Though one of the griffins got a bit too enthusiastic and tried to actually fly. Had to talk it back down while its rider held on for dear life, hovering six feet above the water.”
“And you?” asked Scarlett. “Had any adventures at the festival so far?”
Luna took a deep breath and launched into her announcement. “Guys, listen up. I have just learned that the man who saved our mother’s life in the Void is still trapped there. Still imprisoned. Still alone, after decades of helping other victims while sacrificing his own freedom.”
Scarlett paused mid-bite of funnel cake. “And?”
“Annnd . . . this gallant knight, this selfless hero, who pulled Mama and the others to safety while the Void eels circled and the darkness pressed in from all sides? He’s still there!
Still waiting! And we—” she pressed a hand to her chest dramatically “—we owe him a debt that can never be repaid.”
“Luna—” Scarlett started.
“Someone must go to him!” Her voice rose with passionate conviction. “Someone must brave the infinite darkness. Navigate the treacherous space between portals. Someone powerful, someone with extensive knowledge of arcane magicks. Someone—”
“Someone who’d do anything for a couple days off work?” Scarlett raised an eyebrow.
Luna paused, mouth open, caught between continuing her crusade speech and . . . well, the truth. For a moment she considered doubling down on the heroic rhetoric, but then she thought better of it. Her sister was not fool-able, never had been.
“You guys,” she said, abandoning all pretense, “I’ve gotta get out of there! I’m dying behind that desk! My soul is crushed by reservation books and complaints about thread counts!”
“There we go,” Scarlett said fondly. “Much more believable than the whole ‘noble quest’ routine.”
“Though I have to say,” Nate added, “it was entertaining. Bold speech, dramatic gestures, very Royal Shakespeare Company.”
“I meant every word about the debt we owe. But also, yeah, I will literally explode into a million pieces if I have to spend another week tracking down missing towels.”
“Gosh, I can’t have my baby sister exploding from hospitality-induced despair,” Scarlett said. “And I get it. Truth be told, I hated every minute of running that place, too. So yes. Of course we’ll cover for you.”
“Really?”
“Really. But Luna . . .” Scarlett’s expression grew more serious. “This Void sounds genuinely dangerous. How exactly are you planning to get in and out safely?”
From across the park came a sudden shriek, followed by the sound of Aphra’s voice raised in distressed apology. Luna looked over to see a small crowd gathered around the face-painting station.
“What’s going on over there?” Nate asked, standing up to get a better view.
“Probably just another satisfied customer,” she said, but Delilah’s distinctive posture—hands on hips, head arranged in her iconic this-is-a-problem tilt—was impossible to miss beside the face-painting booth.
The three of them jogged over to investigate, arriving just as Aphra was putting the finishing touches on what was clearly a corrective spell. A little boy who had been sporting a genuinely terrifying zombie face was now enjoying a more age-appropriate version.
“What happened?” Scarlett asked.
“Just a little hiccup,” Aphra explained cheerfully. “I was going for ‘cute zombie’ and got The Walking Dead. But it’s all fixed now!”
“That’s not the first spell that’s gone overboard today.” Delilah’s brow furrowed with concern.
“It’s probably just festival energy affecting everyone’s concentration,” Aphra suggested. “These big events always make magic a bit more . . . energetic.”
“Right, but—”
“Oh, Del,” Luna interrupted, “you worry too much. It’s a festival—c’mon!”
Delilah shot her a withering look. “Someone should go check on the magic wellspring, up at the oak grove. Something’s affecting the magical flow today.”
The sisters exchanged glances, each waiting for another to volunteer. Delilah blinked first. “I guess that means I should go check.”
“Or,” Scarlett suggested, “you could try chilling out and enjoying the festival like a normal person.”
Delilah just growled and stomped away.
The other two watched her go. Finally Luna said, “That is what Mama would call borrowing trouble.”
“You’re one to talk, Miss Vacation in the Void.”
“Seriously,” Nate agreed. “C’mon, I have to get back to my post at the lazy river.”
They walked toward the enchanted waterway, with Nate in the lead and the two sisters ambling behind. “So,” Luna said, sotto voce. “Any news on your wedding?”
Scarlett rolled her eyes. “Nada. Niente. Zippo. Nate doesn’t want to pull the trigger until we can go on a proper honeymoon afterwards. But we can’t go on a proper honeymoon if the forgetting spell means he turns into a total amnesiac somewhere over Niagara Falls.”
“Niagara Falls?!” Luna repeated disdainfully. “Please aim higher than that. Think Tuscany. Think Bora Bora. Or, how about this: I studied with an amazing coven in Bali that has the most gorgeous—”
“Shut up, would you?! Stop rubbing it in. You know the rules perfectly well. Non-witches like Nate can’t leave town for any significant length of time without risking their memories. And he vows that until he can travel, there won’t be any ‘news’ about any wedding.”
“Okay, jeez! I was just asking.”
Scarlett sighed, giving her sister an apologetic squeeze. “I know . . . sorry. You hit a sore spot. But sore as it is, it’s not going to help you avoid my question from earlier: How do you plan to even reach the Void, much less get a prisoner out?”
Luna’s confidence wavered slightly. “Well, yeah, that’s the next challenge.
I’ve been all over the world studying magic, and I’ve never heard anyone mention interdimensional magician prisons.
And if Mama didn’t know about the Void’s existence, it’s unlikely anybody else in Oak Haven would either.
” She paused, thinking through the problem out loud.
“I need someone who knows about the creepiest, most forbidden types of magic. Someone who has access to antediluvian knowledge that most witches won’t touch.
Hmm . . . I may have to call on an old friend in Nagaland, in northern India.
Or the Indonesian islands of Raja Ampat. Or maybe Slough.”
Scarlett and Nate exchanged a look.
“Luna,” Scarlett said slowly, “are you sure there’s nobody closer to home? Think about it—who do we know who’s an expert on the most unsettling things in Oak Haven?”
“Hell,” Nate added with a shudder, “who do we know who literally is the most unsettling thing in Oak Haven?”
The realization hit like a physical blow. “Oh damn.” Her voice was barely above a whisper. “I have to go see Louise.”