Chapter 28 A Timely Tea Talk #2
Shooting a dubious look over his shoulder, Hamil didn’t press that particular topic. “I do need to know where you got that crystal.”
Penelope fidgeted a little. “It’s fine. The person I… I took it from they—they won’t be… too mad.”
Hamil narrowed his eyes but resumed reassembling the watch.
Penelope drifted toward his elbow but didn’t say another word as she watched him work. At one point, Hamil glanced out of the corner of his eye at her and noted the way her brows knit together in interest.
He continued his work until at last the watch was whole once more in his hand, then he popped open the back and stared at the empty compartment. His heartbeat fluttered.
“Give me the crystal.”
“I’ll do it.” Penelope’s voice was quiet.
When Hamil turned around in his seat, he fixed her with the most serious look he could muster. “No. This is dangerous, remember, and—”
She snatched it out of his hands and bolted across the room.
“EY!”
Hamil rushed over to where Penelope had managed to wedge herself between two ale barrels.
He tried to follow after her, but the size difference proved detrimental.
This meant he had no choice but to watch as she pulled the crystal out of her pocket, pressed it into the back compartment, and, with shaking hands, turned it back around.
Sweat trickled down Hamil’s forehead as he waited for something to go horribly wrong.
But nothing happened.
He let out a breath of relief.
That is, until Penelope reached up and twisted the pin at the top. She stumbled backward until she thumped against the wall.
“Penelope! Get back here! Now! You need to—”
Hamil’s words were cut off as Penelope lifted her eyes, and he discovered they were filled with pure white light.
“Wh—”
A swell of light gathered over the glass watch face, then formed an orb and drifted upward. Two more followed shortly after.
Hamil’s entire body tingled with a sense of power he had never encountered before.
The orbs of light proceeded to shoot out in separate directions, but all stopped when they had reached equal distance from Penelope. Then they stretched wide and tall.
Hamil gaped, at a complete loss for words, when images slowly appeared within the orbs.
In one orb, Penelope sat curled up in a cage in what looked like a ship’s cabin.
Hamil barely managed to tear his eyes away from it, but he forced himself to look at the next image to find the duchess sitting in a sun-filled window with Penelope in front of her as she spoke with a warm smile while she pinned Penelope’s hair back.
It looked like a scene that could have taken place earlier that day.
On shaking legs, he stepped back from the barrels.
Then the third image was of Penelope, Luca, two red-haired boys, and a blond boy standing on a grassy slope at night. Each of them screamed soundlessly. Luca suddenly bolted away from the line of children, though the image moved slowly.
Hamil’s eyes widened as the scene pulled away from the line of children and revealed a battle—one filled with knights, witches, and ancient beasts. Four figures were gathered away from the battle, all facing something Hamil could not see…
His heart felt as though it had ceased beating as he witnessed the dark, terrifying vision; then the scenes flickered and were replaced with white light. The lightened shapes collapsed back into orbs and whizzed back to the watch still held in Penelope’s hand.
And just as quickly as it had happened, the watch ceased to look special in any kind of way.
Hamil tried to swallow away the uncomfortable feeling in his throat, but it remained parched with awe.
A soft rustling snapped his attention back to Penelope, who had sunk to her knees.
There were no words that could come to Hamil as he tried to form some semblance of a logical explanation for what had happened.
Regardless, he crouched. “Penelope… Please come out now.”
The child nodded; she was visibly trembling. She stowed the watch, with its crystal, in the pocket of her dress and crawled out from between the barrels.
“Are you alright?” Hamil asked gently.
She remained slumped on the ground for a moment. But when she lifted her face, she revealed a flood of tears pouring from her eyes. She let loose a heartrending sob, and the words: “I w-want Tam and Eli! Dad!”
Hamil was caught between wanting to get her parents and staying with her to make sure she didn’t do anything else dangerous.
A cloud of black-and-silver vapor whooshed out from behind Hamil, and by the time he had blinked, there stood Tamlin Ashowan, the wisps of magic already dissipating.
Tam dropped to his knees and gathered Penelope into his arms as she cried. He gently laid his hand over the back of her head, making soothing shushes as he managed to stand back up with the child in his arms.
When he turned back around to lock eyes with Hamil, the expression on Tamlin Ashowan’s face had the Lobahlan feeling a mite faint.
“What the hell happened?” Tam growled.
Hamil felt his own unsteady hand come up to rest atop his head. “Uh. I don’t… know. But I think Penelope might have a better idea than she lets on.”
Tam did not look in any way placated by this answer.
And Hamil had the disappointing premonition that he wasn’t going to be enjoying a glass of wine anytime soon.