14. The Battle for the Porch #2
On the porch, Nine let out a war cry that would have made his pirate ancestors proud and leaped—actually leaped, this frail-looking old man—off the porch. Ten and Eleven followed, weapons raised, faces fierce.
It was magnificent. It was also a bit like a trio of kittens attacking a freight train. Sweet but futile.
The lead magician barely lifted his staff and Nine’s pistol shot deflected harmlessly into the air.
Ten’s cutlass stopped mid-swing as though it had hit an invisible wall.
Eleven’s harpoon thrust went wide, guided by some unseen force.
The old men kept trying, bless them, but every attack got parried, redirected, nullified.
The magicians didn’t even look particularly bothered.
“Mama sees us,” Delilah murmured.
Luna’s gaze snapped to the porch. Sure enough, Kelly was looking directly at them over the magicians’ shoulders. Then Kelly’s head tilted ever so slightly—barely a nod, more like a suggestion of a nod.
But Luna understood, and so did her sisters. That nod meant: Get ready. Follow my lead. And for the love of all that is holy, don’t screw this up.
“Closer,” Delilah breathed.
The three sisters moved forward, quiet as possible, staying behind the magicians who were entirely focused on the retired pirates’ defense of their little porch.
Kelly raised both hands. The air shimmered.
Three portals opened in the ground—perfect circles of swirling darkness, positioned right between the magicians and the still-fighting Earls. One portal for each magician, neat as surgical incisions.
The lead magician let out a villainous, bwah-ha-ha sort of laugh. “Portals? That’s your plan, lady?” His voice dripped with condescension. “You think we’re stupid enough to just fall into clearly visible portals? We’ve been doing this for centuries. We’re not some amateur—”
Luna didn’t wait for him to finish monologuing. She conjured a hawk the size of a small car, with talons like butcher knives. Its wings spread wide enough to cast a shadow over the street.
And then it fell over.
Not dramatically. Not with a cry. It simply pitched forward and hit the pavement with a dull, undignified thump, lying there like a winter coat heaped on the ground.
Glowing letters shimmered into the air, hovering at an awkward angle: BAD REQUEST—MAGIC ANOMALY DETECTED—PLEASE STAND BY
“Oh come on,” Luna groaned, “for fuck’s sake, seriously?!”
Scarlett swore under her breath but forged ahead anyway. She raised both hands, jaw clenched, and focused her energies to summon a deadly cobra.
Which dutifully appeared. And was the size of a teacup.
The tiny serpent coiled itself neatly on the cobblestones, lifted its minuscule head, and emitted an aggravated squeak.
Suddenly a new message blinked into existence, overlapping the first: CASTR BETA ERROR—UNSTABLE OUTPUT
The magicians stared, then laughed. Not sinister villain-style laughter this time. No, they emitted great, genuine guffaws. The lead magician had to wipe away a tear. “Is this a joke?”
Luna glanced at the porch. She saw Elias go white and take an involuntary step backward. Don’t be afraid, she wanted to cry out, I won’t let them take you.
But the magicians composed themselves and advanced on the porch, their boots crunching over stone. Meanwhile, the in-air error messages multiplied, drifting lazily through the air like confetti no one had asked for.
PLEASE STAND BY
MAGIC ANOMALY DETECTED
PLEASE STAND BY
Kelly’s hands trembled as she tried to stabilize the portals, the edges of them shuddering, refusing to hold.
Then Delilah stepped forward. She didn’t rush, and unlike her younger sisters she didn’t swear. She simply raised one finger, precise as punctuation.
The air went still as something vast and wet tore its way into existence. A giant octopus reared up behind the magicians, its slick bulk reaching the height of the Williams Hardware sign, its thick tentacles slapping against the pavement.
On the porch, the Earls erupted.
“Well I’ll be damned,” Eleven crowed. “That’s a beauty.”
“Now that’s a proper monster,” Ten agreed.
The right-most magician shrieked and fell over, landing directly into a portal Kelly wrenched open beneath him at the last possible second.
Two tentacles lashed out, wrapping the other two magicians around the torso with terrifying efficiency. The men barely had time to shout before the creature flung them bodily into the same waiting portal.
Kelly snapped her fingers and the portal sealed shut with a final, satisfied thump. The error messages winked out of existence, and the street fell abruptly silent.
“Well, I’ll be damned,” Nine said, lowering his pistol. “Kelly, that was beautiful.”
She exhaled, long and shaky. “Let’s never do that again.”
Delilah made a gentle shooing motion at her monster. “Thank you,” she murmured, and the octopus dissolved gently into mist, tentacles slipping away like a receding tide.
Eleven was grinning so hard his weathered face looked like it might crack. “Hey, girls,” he called out to the sisters. “Nicely done over there!”
“Now hang on a minute.” Scarlett folded her arms across her chest and stared at the empty space where the octopus had been. “Why did your spell work when Luna’s just keeled over and mine squeaked?”
Delilah shrugged. “Maybe because I practice, unlike you ding-dongs.”
“Hey now! Luna, are you going to let Big Sis talk to us like that?!”
But Luna was already running for the porch.
She’d meant to be cool about it. Casual. A quick “glad you’re okay” squeeze, perhaps, and then back to important business.
Instead, she found herself grabbing Elias’s shoulders with both hands, checking him for injuries, her heart hammering. “Are you okay? Did they hurt you? I saw them with those staffs and I thought—”
His hands covered hers. Calm, steady. “I’m fine, Melrose.”
She was still holding him. Too long. Too obvious. Goddamn it.
She let go and stepped back, hoping to salvage some dignity. “Right. Good. That’s . . . that’s good.”
Behind her, she could practically feel her sisters’ smirks, like they’d jumped off their faces and taken on lives of their own.
“That was a very nice little trap, ladies,” Elias called to them. “Just curious, Kelly—where did those portals go?”
“Magic containment cell in the Stargazer’s basement,” Mama replied. “They’re trapped but unharmed. And they aren’t going anywhere. We’ll need to figure out what to do with them, of course. Can’t keep them there forever.”
“Actually,” Elias said slowly, “Myrna the God said we needed to talk to magicians about CastR. About getting them to work with witches to stop it.” He gestured toward where the portals had been. “I guess we’ve got our chance.”
The sisters joined the others on the porch, filling their mother in on everything they’d discovered. Kelly’s expression grew progressively darker. “This Vex character was staying at my inn while plotting this?”
“Apparently,” Scarlett said weakly. “I thought he was just a curious nerd!”
Kelly sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Right. Okay. We need a plan. We have three magicians in our basement and . . .” She looked at Elias. “You. Who they very much want back.”
“I’m popular,” Elias said dryly.
“He’s the Elvis of the Void,” Luna added. “Gone but not forgotten.”
Elias frowned. “Elvis who?”
“Mama,” Delilah said carefully, “we need to talk to the magicians. Try to convince them that CastR is a threat to everyone—witches and magicians alike.”
“Agreed.” Kelly straightened her shoulders, slipping into general mode. “But we do this carefully. We need them as allies, not enemies.”
“Good luck with that,” Elias muttered. “Your kind and mine have been enemies for centuries.”
“Well,” Kelly said, “perhaps it’s time that changed.”
They started back toward the Stargazer, the group moving as one. Nine, Ten, and Eleven were already telling and retelling the story of the battle, each version slightly more embellished than the last.
Luna found herself walking beside Elias, hyper-aware of how close he was. How much the thought of losing him had terrified her.
“You know,” he said quietly, just for her, “that’s the second time you’ve saved me.”
“Third, if you count the mugging.”
“Oh, that’s right. I definitely count the mugging.” He was looking at her with that expression again, the one she could feel down to her toes. “Starting to seem like you’ve got a real hero complex, Melrose.”
“Yeah, well.” She tried to shrug it off. “Someone’s got to keep you out of trouble.”
Ahead, Scarlett caught Luna’s eye. Her grin was absolutely evil. Luna knew then she’d never hear the end of it.
But she was smiling, and so was Elias, and when their hands accidentally brushed as they walked, neither pulled away.
* * *
Much later, as the sun dipped below the horizon, the street outside Williams Hardware lay silent and empty. Empty of people, at least.
But on the cobblestones, Scarlett’s fallen hawk twitched.
One eye opened.
With an offended squawk, the hawk righted itself, flapped once, and lunged forward. It snatched up the tiny cobra in a single gulp before taking to the air, disappearing forever into the cloudless Oak Haven sky.