Chapter Twenty-Nine #2
As I said the words, my chest burned bright and hot. The Sun Disk flared. The potion in my hand flared brighter—pink-blue light trapped in glass—until the vial was too hot to hold.
Overhead, the planets were beginning to align—though I couldn’t spare a glance.
I didn’t want to lift my hand from the Sun Disk, so I hooked the cork with my teeth, yanked it free, and spat it into the dirt.
“Crossroads, hear me—hold and heed,” I began. “Take my blood, but not my need.”
“NO!” Garrat shouted—and for the first time, real panic cracked through his voice.
The black ooze fizzed, like it recognized the words.
“Hickory root and Moonpetal flame, I bind this gate in Guardian’s name,” I continued.
“Stop, Piper!”
“Keep going,” Owen growled, his voice tight with strain. “Don’t you stop.”
“Shut the seam and still the roar—” My breath hitched as I tipped the vial. “One moon’s turn, and nothing more.”
The last drop splashed against the roots.
The Sun Disk pulsed—gold so bright it turned the clearing white.
A hiss split the air.
Garrat screamed as the ground beneath him fractured open, a blinding fissure yawning like a mouth. Shadow and ooze and magic dragged downward at once—hungry in reverse.
Garrat clawed for purchase, but the earth took him anyway.
The bubbling blackness slurped into the crack as if the wound itself was drinking it.
Then the fissure snapped shut. The light vanished.
And the clearing went still. The Sun Disk stopped glowing.
I knelt there with my hand on it and the empty vial clenched in the other, afraid to move—as if the spell might snap the moment I breathed wrong.
The air smelled… cleaner. Not good. But less dead.
Somewhere in the trees, a single cricket chirped—hesitant, like it was checking whether it was safe to exist again.
My mind tried to make sense of what happened and came up with one ridiculous thought.
Huh. That worked.
Then reality followed, as it always did. I still had two queens living in my house.
A groan—and I sucked in a sharp breath.
Owen.
He’d collapsed on the ground. I dropped the empty vial and rushed to him. He was on his side, blood dripping from his nose.
“Piper?”
“Oh, God, Owen. Are you all right?” I reached for his hand, held it in mine. “You’re bleeding.”
“I’m all right.” His voice was hoarse as he gripped my hand. “You did it.”
I glanced up at the place where Garrat stood, where he threatened me, where he tried to take me. Where he promised me answers to questions I had about Alice.
“For now.”
I helped him to a sitting position—though truthfully he didn’t need my help. He swiped the back of his hand across his nose. It came away smeared with blood.
“It's still not over,” I said.
“No, but now we have time to figure it out.”
We. I loved that he said we.
The Crossroads still wasn’t healed. Alice was still dead. The danger hadn’t vanished.
But Hickory Hollow was still standing.
And for the first time since I came back, staying didn’t feel like a sentence. It felt like a choice.
He reached for me, cupping my cheek. “The potion worked.”
“Thanks to your mother’s translations.”
He pulled me close, his mouth a breath from mine. “See? Team effort.”
Then his lips brushed mine.
We held onto each other as we both got to our feet. His arm went around my waist. My shoes were ruined. My knees were caked in that disgusting black ooze. And I smelled.
But Owen. He looked tired. Drained.
“That took a lot out of you,” I said.
“Yes.” He puffed out a breath as though he didn’t want to admit it. “But I couldn’t let him get his hands on you.”
My heart swelled. He’d protected me so I could complete the enchantment.
“Maybe I should drive you back to your place,” I said.
His arm tightened around me. “Maybe you should. And stay the night.”
Oh.
Hot pinpricks exploded all over my skin. “I didn’t pack an overnight bag.”
A feeble excuse. He knew it.
He grinned. “That’s ok. You won’t need clothes.”
Heat crawled up my neck and settled into my cheeks and I was profoundly grateful it was dark so he couldn’t see.
“Owen…”
“Stay with me tonight.” He pressed his forehead against mine. “The queens will be all right. They’re watching the Science Channel.”
And the thought of that made me snicker. Still, I had objections.
“But I… have the shop.”
“Take the day off.”
He was persistent. I swallowed hard.
How could I resist him?
“Okay but you take me home first thing in the morning.”
“Mm. You drive a hard bargain, lady.”
I smiled. “And you’re persistent.”
“It’s one of my better qualities,” he said.
He released me to retrieve the Sun Disk. I watched with relief flooding me. I may not have permanently closed the Crossroads—but I’d bought us time.
One thought kept circling back, quiet and persistent under all the relief.
There’s someone you need to meet.
Who? The question burrowed in despite everything else.
Garrat had dangled it like bait, which meant I probably shouldn’t want the answer.
But Alice had hidden me my whole life. From what, from whom—I still didn’t fully know.
My father was out there somewhere. And Garrat, apparently, knew exactly where.
That was either very useful or very dangerous.
Probably both.
As he took my hand and I followed him in the dark, I had only one thought. If I could survive the Crossroads, I could survive whatever came next.
Hickory Hollow. The magic. The fight still ahead of me.
And Owen McAllister.