49. Chapter Forty-Nine
Chapter Forty-Nine
Cody
Cody sat on the steps of the front porch with Morgan, waiting for Doug to drop off Gracie. Morgan had phoned her brother and convinced Doug to let them babysit. Cody was pretty sure Doug was happy to oblige, since Gracie was less likely to run away from Morgan than her regular babysitter.
Grey clouds were rolling across the sky, and the afternoon light was growing darker by the minute.
Wind blew through the branches and threw stray leaves around.
The cows in the field on the other side of the dirt road were mooing and gathering in a protective clump, clearly sensing the oncoming rain.
Cody felt an uneasy twist in his stomach, sensing it was more than just a summer storm blowing in.
They were right about not trusting Temica, and they were right about needing a plan to end her before she ended all of them.
But it didn’t make him any less tired. It didn’t make him hopeful.
It made him super fucking angry that he was still fighting for his life, and now several other lives were tied to his.
He looked across the road at the cows again, wondering how different his life would be today, if he hadn’t been isekai’d to Velasarin.
Before he could continue spiraling into despair, Doug’s truck rumbled up the drive.
Doug parked and lifted Gracie out. As soon as her feet touched the ground, she ran to Morgan for a hug.
“Thank you for playing with me today, Aunty Morgan!” Gracie said, which just made Cody’s heart sink.
They were going to play with Gracie in the workshop and encourage her to finish the last gem and the World Arch, but they’d already decided not to say anything to the kid about the impending doom if they failed.
“Be good,” Doug said to his daughter. “You stay with your Aunty Morgan, do you understand? No wandering off on your own.”
“Yes, daddy,” Gracie said.
Doug got back in his truck, and they waved goodbye as he pulled down the drive.
As soon as he was on the road, Morgan went straight into business mode: “Gracie, what items do you need for your last gemstone blueprint? We really want to finish this project today and we even have some friends with us to help, okay?”
On cue, Nyrah and Yana stepped out of the cottage in their human forms and waved to Gracie. Instead of waving, Gracie looked up at her aunt expectantly.
“This is Nyrah and Yana,” Morgan explained. “Our um…friends. They want to help.”
“Can we go swimming before doing the gemstone stuff?” Gracie asked.
Cody pointed at the sky. “It’s going to storm.
No swimming or fishing today, I’m afraid.
Perfect day to get stuff done in the workshop.
So, what materials do you need to craft your next gemstone?
Do we need to do some foraging first? Because we have to try and collect everything we need before the rain starts. ”
Gracie looked from one adult to the next, her brow furrowed. Great, thought Cody. She can tell the adults are on edge.
She pointed at Nyrah and Yana. “Do they know? About the stuff?”
Morgan nodded. “Yes, they know about the game stuff.”
“Okay then, gimme a sec and let me check what I need.” Gracie got that far off look in her eyes, as if she was looking at her game screen. “For my next gemstone I need…ten Extra Special Rocks, one hundred Maple Keys, and something called Queen Anne’s Lace?”
“That’s a wildflower.” Morgan walked over and plucked a lacy white flower from a clump growing nearby. “This. How many do you need?”
“Fifty,” Gracie said.
“How many of these items do you already have?” Cody asked.
Gracie’s eyes drifted from that far-off game screen gaze to look directly at Cody, her tiny mouth drooping into a frown. “Um…I don’t have any. I’m sorry.”
Morgan hugged her niece around the shoulders. “No, Gracie, don’t be sad. We’re here to help you, okay?” Morgan looked up to Nyrah, Yana, and Cody, who all nodded. “So, everyone knows what they’re looking for?”
Yana raised her hand. “What exactly makes a rock ‘special’?”
“Um…I dunno.” Gracie shrugged. “I think I’ll know it if I see it?”
“Maybe we can tackle that one together,” Morgan offered and Gracie smiled up at her aunt.
Cody eyed the darkening sky. “We need to be quick. The storm will be here soon. Nyrah, Yana: you’re on flowers and maple keys.”
This time Nyrah raised her hand. “I don’t know what a maple key is.”
Morgan found one of the green, winged seeds on the ground. “This. We need one hundred of these.”
“Got it!” Nyrah said. “White flowers and green thingies.”
“It’s okay if I stay with the two of you and help with rocks?” Cody asked Morgan. “I think that might be the trickier one.”
“Agreed,” Morgan said. “Okay, now let’s go people! Hustle!”
Nyrah and Yana went running off into the woods and Morgan, Gracie, and Cody headed down to the beach behind his cottage, where they were likely to find the most rocks.
He immediately started combing the sand, picking up anything that looked mildly interesting; grey rocks with stripes of quartz, flat rocks perfect for skipping, or anything that had a tiny white fossil ghosting the surface of the rock.
He presented them to Gracie, and she meticulously looked through them.
She squinted at the first rock, a flat one that would be an ideal skipping stone.
“Hmmm…no. Not special enough.” She looked through a few more before she found one with a bit of fossil.
“This one! This one is good!” But the very next one with a fossil wasn’t ‘special enough’.
It was a mystery to Cody and Morgan what they were looking for, but after the first thirty minutes had passed, they’d already gathered seven out of ten of the Special Rocks.
Cody was handing over a new set of rocks for Gracie’s inspection when a flash of lightning splintered across the sky on the opposite shoreline. Pink lightning.
Cody’s near-constant feeling of dread blossomed into full panic and his pulse quickened.
He exchanged a worried look with Morgan.
Thunder rolled and a smattering of raindrops began to fall.
He felt sure that this storm, that pink lightning, was a sign that Temica was making her final move.
And he didn’t feel ready. None of them were ready for this.
They needed to craft the gemstone, build the arch…
he wanted his Grandpa Sam to be here. Someone older and wiser to help them through this.
This wasn’t supposed to be happening now, so soon.
It especially wasn’t supposed to be happening anywhere near Gracie.
“Was that pink lightning?” Morgan asked.
“Yeah! It was pretty!” Gracie said.
Cody shook his head. “No, not pretty. Gracie, I don’t mean to freak you out, but we really need the last three Special Rocks, okay?”
Gracie swallowed nervously, looking from Cody to her aunt. “I’m trying.”
“We know you’re trying,” Morgan said soothingly. “Keep looking, okay? Are any of these special enough?” She dumped a handful of newly collected rocks into Gracie’s waiting palms and the little girl started sifting through them.
Another flash of pink lightning lit up the sky, followed shortly by a roll of thunder.
The waves on the dark blue lake were growing choppy as the wind whipped through tree branches.
Cody handed more stones to Gracie and noticed she was sniffling, tears running down her cheeks.
Shit. He looked over at Morgan, who looked equally distraught as she watched her niece search through the rocks and come up empty-handed.
“I’m s-sorry!” Gracie said. “None of them are right! They’re not special!”
“Mmmmmm, wonderful,” a woman’s voice said, sounding like she was getting a good look at an all-you-can-eat buffet.
Cody turned to see Temica walking down the path to the beach.
She was wearing one of her long, pink gowns that matched her hair.
Both her hair and dress were blowing in the wind, but in that too-perfect way you saw in a photoshoot.
Not a single loose strand of hair or errant leaf was smacking her in the face as she moved toward them, a predatory look in her eyes.
“You know, I was getting pissed off because you’re actually getting along with all the girls and you’re making headway through the game, but now you seem to be tormenting a little girl, and it is…delicious.” Temica licked her lips and grinned.
“We are not tormenting her.” Morgan quickly gathered Gracie in a hug at her hip, holding her tight. Gracie hugged Morgan back, burying her face in her aunt’s side.
One, Cody counted to himself. Temica got there pretty damn quickly after things started going sour with Gracie, so he was pretty certain that meant the witch-bitch used her relocation spell at least once.
The odds that she’d just been walking by his cottage at the exact right moment were slim to none.
If his theory was right, she could only use one more relocation spell before her cooldown period started.
But he had no idea how long her cooldown was.
Or if this ‘two-relocation-spells’ thing was even valid.
He also noticed there was no parrot perched on her shoulder. So, where was Henry?
And then the music began. It started low, with the persistent beat of war drums slowly building. String instruments joined in, creating a sweeping, haunting melody accompanied by a gothic-sounding choir.
“Control-Alt-Delete!” Cody shouted.
Temica laughed. “Nice try. I made sure Henry fixed that little bug. But don’t worry, this isn’t going to be a fight scene montage. This is my epic background music. I intend to take my time and enjoy myself as I kill each and every one of you, savoring every morsel of chaos.”
“You said we had a deal,” Cody reminded her. “We haven’t reached the end of the week yet.”
He looked at his Stamina Bar, where the countdown clock had been, and his heart sank—the timer was gone.