Chapter 18
Felix stood at the Witchery’s third story windows, really, really trying not to freak out. Okay, Felix. Just the facts.
Fact one: the dragon had very obviously cornered something.
Fact two: it had left, carrying whatever that was away.
Fact three: one of those things had borne a striking resemblance to a certain small, doggy-scented child wearing what looked like Sway’s obnoxious backpack, and the other was wolf-shaped.
Did he know that’d been Liam and Axle? No. But was he pretty positive that it had been?
Abso-fucking-lutley.
And Felix was freaking out again.
Don’t panic, don’t panic…He rubbed his arms, his racing breath fogging the glass, and his head growing light. He slapped a hand against the window frame, feeling like his heart had been ripped from his chest. His knees buckled, and he staggered backward.
Oh yeah. He was panicking.
“You know, losing your shit’s not gonna help anyone, right?” Aggie’s acerbic voice echoed through the empty room behind him.
Felix turned to see her standing at the top of the stairway and laughed as she drew a glyph in the air.
It flared purple, and an unnatural sense of calm came over him.
God, she’d hit him with a tranquility spell.
He should be annoyed by that and still freaking out, but everything was abruptly remote.
For now, at least. That spell’s life span wasn’t particularly long.
“Yes, I am aware, and thank you so much for noticing, but neither is sitting downstairs, pretending to drink tea,” he grumbled.
“Actually, I was gonna offer you a quaalude.” She shook a bottle and raised her brow.
And now she had his attention.
“I’m not saying no, but didn’t they pull those off the market like forty years ago?” he asked, not that it was a deal breaker.
“Let’s just say I know a guy.” She tipped two pills into her palm. “You gonna come downstairs and take ’em with some tea, or crunch into them up here like a heathen?”
“God no, who does that?” Felix asked, running a trembling hand over his face. Yeah, that spell wasn’t going to last.
Steady Felix, you can do this.
Aggie shrugged. “Personally, I like to let them dissolve under my tongue, but to each their own. They’ll be in the kitchen waiting for you. I warmed up the lasagna you were supposed to take. Come down and eat something.”
Felix sighed, not hungry in the slightest, but also able to think again.
Aggie’s spell had alleviated his full-on panic to a gnawing anxiety.
He supposed she was right. They needed a plan, not for him to crumple into a sobbing heap.
He glanced out the window one last time at the point on the horizon where the dragon had disappeared.
At least Jena and Chase were okay. She’d texted that they hadn’t even made it a quarter mile into the swamp before the dragon had burst into the sky, making a beeline for town.
They’d gone to ground at the Westsiders’ compound.
God only knew if the beast leaving meant it was safe for them to come back, but when they did, Jena would have a plan.
She always did, right? Right. He pulled out his phone, sending her a text with trembling fingers and giving her a rundown of the situation.
Felix closed his eyes. I swear by everything that’s holy, we’ll get you back alive and well, he thought as hard as he could at the universe, setting his intention.
He blew out another breath, attempting to center himself as he padded through the superstructure of scaffolding holding up the Witchery’s sagging ceiling.
Water dripped into several strategically placed barrels.
Thank God the dragon hadn’t decided to roost on the roof.
Despite all the wards protecting the building, it would’ve collapsed.
He shuffled down the steps and shouldered the crappy composite door at the bottom closed, scrabbling for his phone as it pinged.
OMFG!!!
on our way.
Jena. His stomach roiled and he sent out a quick prayer that they’d make it back safe. Felix re-pocketed his phone and trudged down the hall to the other side of the apartment, focusing on not hyperventilating.
Myx had claimed one of the loveseats, and by default the rest of the living room. Sarah, Sway, and Cruze sat at the kitchen table, silent, while Aggie bustled around behind the stove. The kids looked at him expectantly, and he jammed his trembling hands into his pockets.
“So, good news and bad news,” he began, not about to lie to them. “I think the dragon left, so there’s that.”
“Where did it come from?” Sway asked.
“Swamp,” Aggie said, plating the reheated pasta.
“Put these on the table, and those are for you.” She nodded at a cup of tea with two pills on the saucer.
Felix eyed her, wondering how much of this she’d seen in one of her stupid visions.
He downed one pill, then pocketed the other, positive this day wasn’t going to improve.
“Enjoy.” She smirked as he washed it down with a mouthful of tea. “That’ll give you an entirely new outlook.”
Which begged the question why she was so miserable.
“What’s the bad news?” Cruze asked, her voice full of apprehension.
Felix attempted to steady his own as he doled out the plates Aggie shoved at him. “Um…I’m like, ninety, ninety-five percent sure it took Liam and Axle with it.”
The kids stared at him, aghast.
“The dragon has my dad?” Sarah asked, her face ashen.
Sway started crying, and Cruze’s eyes went wide. “H-how are we going to get them back?”
Shit. Don’t freak out. If you freak out, they’ll freak out and everything will just be that much worse. He took a deep breath. God, he hated adulting.
“It does, and I’m not sure yet,” Felix said, answering the two girls and putting his hand on Sway’s shoulder. “But Jena’s on her way, and she’ll have a plan.” Please, please, please, dear God in heaven, let her have a plan.
“Probably won’t be a good one,” Aggie said, blowing on a forkful of pasta.
Felix glowered at her. “You’re not helpful.”
“I prefer accuracy to blowing sunshine up people’s asses.”
Oh, he knew. “Still, I don’t understand how you can be so nonchalant about it,” he muttered, his anxiety seeping back in. He was all too aware of the girls marking his every move. He blew out another breath. He could be strong for them. For Liam and Axle. He would get them back, damn it.
“When you’ve lived as long as I have, it takes more than an overgrown lizard to ruffle your feathers. Besides, dragons are easy. Guaranteed, someone screwed with its horde. Put whatever they took back—problem solved,” she said, handing him a plate.
Felix rolled his eyes. “Oh, well, if it’s just that simple…you didn’t happen to ‘see’ any of this happening, by chance, did you?”
She raised a smug brow at him, answering that question. “Now, that would be telling, and I don’t expect you to have any firstborn children to name after me.”
“And thank you, sweet baby Jesus, for that, but you could just answer the question and take Cruze,” he said, trying to make light of the situation.
“Hey!” the tween protested, glaring at Sway’s sniffling giggle.
“Careful, you’re next on the list,” Felix said, putting a plate in front of her.
He supposed he shouldn’t be freaked out if Aggie wasn’t, but— “I don’t understand why everything has to be a state secret with you,” he said to her.
“It’s cruel and inhumane to keep things to yourself while the rest of us are working on full-blown panic attacks—”
Footsteps stomped up the steps.
“You’re gonna want to get that,” Aggie said, plating up more lasagna. “Chase has got his hands full.”
Felix rubbed his temples as he went to the door, resisting the urge to wring her neck. Stupid visions. He opened it just as Chase reached the landing, carrying Jena. Felix sucked in a breath.
“Oh my God, are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” Jena scowled around a document tube. “I rolled my stupid ankle again when that frickin’ dragon burst up out of the swamp right in front of us. How are you guys?” she asked, her brows drawing together.
“Shitty.”
“You know we’re getting them back,” she said, without a hint of doubt in her voice.
Felix nodded, struggling not to break down. “I do.”
“Good, ’cause we will, and the dragon was like a half mile away when it came up from wherever it was,” Chase said, stepping into the apartment. “Is that lasagna I smell?”
“It is,” Felix said, wiping his eyes as he closed the door after them. “Apparently, Aggie knew all about the impending dragon invasion and prepped extra the other day specifically for sheltering in place.”
The big were frowned, shaking his head. “Of course she did.”
“I knew you were up to something!” Jena yelled at the kitchen as Chase set her down on one of the loveseats and left the room, mumbling about being starving.
“Your point?” Aggie asked. She sashayed into the room with a portion and held it just out of Jena’s reach.
She rolled her eyes. “Whatever, just give me the fucking plate.”
“And that’s what I thought.” Aggie smirked.
“Wait, you didn’t even get near the dark altar?” Felix asked, his eyes on the darkening sky over Jena’s shoulder. Please be okay, please be okay. “I don’t get it. I thought you guys headed out way before noon.”
“Two birds, one stone,” Chase called from the other room. “We wanted to check out the border.”
“This morning, we stopped at the library and pulled a bunch of records. There’s a copy of the last survey map the town commissioned in there,” she said, nodding at the document tube.
“There was supposed to be an old stone wall that ran a good portion of our border with Fayet—what is Myx doing here?” she asked as Felix took a seat on the couch opposite her, giving his familiar a wide berth.
Felix shrugged. “No idea. We were at the apartment when all hell broke loose, and he decided to come along for the ride.”