Fable linked their hands together and concentrated hard on wanting to make Soră feel better, telling a little bit of the green magic to go to her. It zipped from her tummy to their connection.
Soră jumped and squeezed Fable's fingers. “That tickles! Is that what my magic feels like?”
“Sometimes.” Fable nodded. “Do you think it worked?”
“I feel... Something. Let's try more. What else do you have?”
“You can read in my notebook. Zax wrote them down for me.” She flipped through the pages. “Here.”
One silver finger slid down the list of colors and what they did. “You have all these magics?”
“Yes. Do you want them?” Bestest friends were supposed to share everything.
“Just little bits of them. The green made me feel better. Let's see what the rest are like. Maybe if I learn to be new kinds of magic, we can wake up Musette.” She laughed. “Because Idris is a bad kisser. It might be up to us.”
Fable bit her lip. Maybe she shouldn't have said that.
“It's all right. He’s not mad.” Soră wiggled their hands. “Share some more with me.”
All Fable’s magics stayed calm in her tummy. One at a time, she sent a little of each one to Soră. Her silver shape looked like a real girl, and a tiny line of each color appeared in Soră's long black hair. Fable gasped. “Your hair is like a rainbow now.”
Soră reached up and touched the streaks with her free hand. “Oh, I can feel the different kinds of magic.” She hugged Fable. “You are the bestest friend. Thank you for sharing with me.”
“You're welcome.” Fable leaned back against her pillow. She'd never be able to sleep now. Her colors felt a little bigger, but still calm.
“Do you want to play?” Soră bounced to her feet and jumped on the bed.
“Play what?”
“We can play whatever we want.”
“Do you know where Nantli is?”
Soră laughed. “I know where everyone in the house is and what they are doing.”
“Where's my mom? What's she doing?”
“She is in the next room with Norrix. They are adulting.”
“Oh.” Adults always did boring things.
“Do you want to have some fun?”
Fable nodded.
“Get dressed. I'll show you some fun things!”
“Are you like me, now?” Fable slid out of her bed and opened her closet. It was so big. The room for her clothes was bigger than her cell in Aztlan. Auntie Viktoria had bought her so many different skirts and dresses and pants and shoes Fable didn’t know what to wear. She wrinkled her nose at all the dresses.
Skipping all the bright clothes, she picked some black pants with a big pocket for her notebook and a black shirt with long sleeves and a hood. Auntie Viktoria made her shadow animals black. Maybe black would help Fable be a shadow too.
“Sometimes. But one day you're going to be like me.” Soră skipped over and held out some boots.
Fable liked the black boots. Auntie Ember had some, too, but why did shoelaces have to be so long? Pulling one boot onto her foot, she propped it on the edge of the chair to focus on tying the laces. “I'm going to be a magic house?”
Soră laughed. “No. You will be strygoi.”
Fable managed a bow and pulled her other boot on. “Can we get something to eat?” Sharing magic made her hungry
“Of course we can.”
“Where are we going?” Fable stood up and tucked her notebook into her pocket.
The bedroom door opened, and Soră disappeared. “Let's race! Catch me!”
Fable giggled as her shadow animals all tried to go out at the same time and crashed together. She ran as fast as she could into the hallway. Norrix had some rooms in a different part of the house, but the walls and floor were all white, so he traded with someone to stay here. The gold and red colors reminded Fable of fire. Black marks that smelled like smoke decorated the walls, floor, and even the ceiling. Norrix said those were because of Plan D.
Maybe she could make a Plan D. When she thought that, her orange and red colors spun in excited circles and her insides grew hot. Where had Soră gone? Maybe Fable should use her Seeking magic. She turned a corner and crashed into someone's legs.
“Ooof!” She rebounded and tripped over her feet, but hands caught her and lifted her into the air before she fell down. Pushing her hair out of her face, her eyes widened, and she clapped her hands over her mouth to stop any sound coming out.
A giant man with white hair! She wasn't where she was supposed to be. She was talking and making noise! Sometimes the boys with white hair let her out of her cell so they could scare her and chase her back in. If she didn't follow the rules, they would hurt her mom. Fable kicked and flailed, but he was too strong and just held her in the air. Her lungs felt too small and she couldn't breathe. Her heart beat so fast she thought it would pop like her balloon.
Magics swirled wildly, trying to escape from her stomach.
Soră, help me! Fable’s eyes filled with tears. She didn't want to talk in her head anymore. She liked saying words, but she couldn't talk in front of this man. He would make her mom hurt, and it would be all her fault. Where were her shadow animals? They were supposed to protect her. Were they scared of the giant man, too?
Her friend reappeared, sitting on the white-haired man's shoulder. “It's okay! Melchior won't hurt you. Don't be scared.” Soră stood and held her arms out to balance as she walked from Melchior's shoulder down his arm, still extended to hold Fable up in front of him. “Melchior looks scary, but he's only just big. He can reach the really high snacks in the kitchen. The ones Ciaran tries to hide from Alaric.”
Melchior stared at his wrist, where Soră posed on one foot, her other leg extended like a dancer. “I can't see you, but I can feel you walking all over me, you scamp.”
“He really likes it when I walk all over him.” Soră returned to her perch on his shoulder and settled against him.
Fable tried to calm down. Told her colors to be small again. But now her lungs felt too big and she couldn't fill them up because magic was there instead. Her body stopped fighting, and she went limp.
Melchior hugged her and rocked her as he walked. He talked in a soft voice. “It's all right. No one here is going to hurt you.”
Hands over her mouth to keep her words and magic in, Fable stared at the giant. He wasn’t saying mean things, or mad at Soră. His hands didn’t hurt.
“I’ve known Melchior since he was a baby, younger than you. He will be your friend. I won't let anyone hurt you, Fable.”
“It's okay if you want to talk.” The giant’s voice sounded a little growly, but not mean.
She lowered her hands. “You... You won't hurt Nantli?”
Melchior laughed. “No, little one. If I even thought about hurting you or your mom, Norrix would kick my a — uh, ankle.”
He was making fun of her. Fable scowled.
Melchior winked. “I'm much taller than him, and he's a lot older than me. It's hard for old people to kick higher than that.”
Fable giggled. Maybe Soră was right.
Soră lifted her chin and sniffed. “I’m right.”
“And,” Melchior's voice rumbled, “if anyone tried to hurt you, I would hurt them first. You are safe here, and welcome to talk and explore. Where are your mom and Norrix?”
“Soră said they are adulting.”
Melchior made a face like he smelled something bad. “I see. So you decided to explore this huge place on your own?”
“No. Soră is with me. We were racing, but I crashed into you.”
“And where were you racing to?”
“The kitchen. I’m hungry. Soră said there's lots of kinds of food in there and you can reach the high snacks Ciaran hides from Alaric.”
He nodded and turned his lips in a smile. “That is true. Alaric can't eat food, but he is always stealing things from the kitchen. It drives Ciaran crazy.”
“Then I
want to play with the shadow animals outside. They want to be big for a little while.”
“I was going to visit Selene, but I think she’d let me see her a bit later so I can show you around.”
“Why were you going to see her?”
“Selene is my mom. I visit her a lot.”
Fable lifted her head to stare at Melchior. “Are you Uncle Stryx's brother? But you aren't scowly-growly. And you don’t...”
“Look like him? No. I was abandoned when I was a baby, probably because of my white hair. But that was a long time ago. Selene and Riordan found me when I was a baby and took care of me, so I think of them as my parents. Often, stronger bonds are with the people we choose. The vampires and strygoi are my family.”
“Can I be family now too?” She had lots of relatives now, but Melchior didn’t make her colors crazy.
“You are family now too.” He nodded. “It would be nice to know what happened to my birth family. I wonder about it, but it’s been too long, and no one kept records back then. I wouldn’t know where to start looking for them.”
Her magic the same color as Nantli's ached to help him. Seeking. Fable hugged his neck and kissed his cheek, leaving a light pink-purple mark on his skin. “Once upon a time, you will find your family.”
“Thank you, little one. Now that you've said it, maybe I will.” Melchior reached the top of the stairs and went into the kitchen. He set her down next to a long table full of books. “Ciaran, we have a hungry girl here. What do we have for her to eat?”
A man with midnight skin closed a cabinet and turned to face them. He pulled his phone from his pocket and looked at the screen. “Hmmm. I'm not sure. It's after midnight. I'm pretty sure there's a rule about feeding strygoi after midnight.”
Soră jumped to the table and walked on all the books. “Ciaran is silly.”
“Soră says you're silly.”
Uncle Ciaran laughed, dark eyes and white teeth flashing. “Well, I suppose you're not strygoi yet, so let's see. Do you like grilled cheese?”
Fable shrugged. “I don't know. I never had grilled cheese.”
“Never had a grilled cheese!” Uncle Ciaran made his eyes big and put a hand on his heart. “Why don't you have a seat at the table and I'll make us some sandwiches.”
“Can I touch the books? Please? I promise I won’t hurt them.” Her fingers tingled to open all the books just because she could.
“Absolutely.” Melchior picked up a book and studied the cover. He flipped through some pages and put it back. “I'm not sure they'd be very interesting for you.”
“Oh.” Fable's shoulders drooped as her hopes crashed. “Are these books only for boys? In Aztlan they told me witches don't need to know how to read.”
“No, of course not.” Melchior pushed a pile of books to her. “These are boring books. I'm not sure why Ciaran needs to read so much about shifting.”
Ciaran snorted as he set a plate with a sandwich and glass of milk in front of her. “You wouldn't understand. You've never been stuck as only part of what you're meant to be.” He dug out a small book and pen from somewhere in the big stacks. “So we'll have to teach you to read.” Flipping the book open, he wrote on a page and turned it towards her. “Can you read that?”
“Will you write it in my notebook?” She took her notepad out of her pocket and turned it sideways to make a storybook.
“I think your book is better.” Uncle Ciaran used the magic pen to write on a black page and show it to her.
Fable took a bite of her grilled cheese and looked at the words. “That's my name. Tahtli had a sign at our new bookstore with my name and my mom's name.” Grilled cheese was her favorite food. She took a bigger bite.
Melchior held out his hand and wrote something when Ciaran passed him the notebook. “How about this?”
It started with M like her mom's name, but it was hard to read the rest. Fable squinted at the letters.
Soră walked on the back of Fable’s chair and read over her shoulder. “He wrote his name. Tell him his handwriting has not improved.”
Fable giggled. “Soră says your handwriting has not improved.”
Ciaran laughed and smacked Melchior's arm. “Weren't you a healer at some point?”
“Soră sounds an awful lot like Selene.” Melchior took the storybook again and wrote something else. “How about now? It's my name and where I'm from.” He moved his finger over the letters. “Mel-chi-or and Pat-a-gon. Patagon means Land of Giants.”
“You’re really a giant!” Moving her fingers over the letters, Fable practiced the sounds.
Ciaran took the notebook. “My name means little dark one. Selene called me that when I first met her. It's a little tricky because the 'c' sounds like a 'k'. Keer-awn and Ku-ru-fa-ba.”
Soră hopped on one foot across the tabletop to Fable. “Hurry! You can't be late or you'll miss it. Tell Melchior to take you to Zeke. Selene needs me right now, but I'll come to you if you need me. Don't be scared.”
I won't be anymore. “Uncle Melchior, Soră wants you to take me to Zeke. She says we can't be late.” Fable jumped down from her chair.
“Well, you’d better go then.” Ciaran picked up her plate and offered her the last half of her sandwich. “Take this with you. It’s portable.”
Fable turned her storybook into a notepad and hung it around her neck. “Thank you for the grilled cheese. It’s my favorite.”
Ciaran grinned. “Another sandwich convert.”
Melchior led the way to the front door.
This house was so big. How was she supposed to remember how to go anywhere?
Her shadow animals all crashed into each other again and rushed outside. The bear, snake, and crow grew big and took off, but the dragon stayed with her.
With giant’s legs, Uncle Melchior only walked as she ran across the grass with her blue color to go fast, around the pond and waterfall, toward a big red building while the shadow animals chased her.
Her nose wrinkled. “This place smells funny.” Fable whispered, but her voice sounded loud.
Uncle Melchior laughed. “It's the stables. It always smells like this.”
The stables in Ashana didn't look or smell this way.
A man was talking inside. “It's almost time, girl. I know you've never done this before and it hurts, but it will be over soon.”
Melchior paused outside. “Zeke, is Bolt up for some visitors?”
“Come on in. She could lead use the distraction.”
Inside the barn, big wooden boxes along the walls made rooms for the animals to sleep in. Fable edged into the aisle down the middle and peered into one. A golden horse with black socks lay on her side.
Zeke looked worried. His blond hair stood up in little spikes, and he had dark circles under his eyes. He held a wet towel and wiped sweat from the horse.
“Oh no! Is she hurt?” Green magic spun in fast circles as Fable sank to her knees beside Zeke.
“Well, she’s not feeling her best, but she’s going to be okay. This is Lightning Bolt. She’s about to have some babies.”
A big black horse put his head over the next stall door and took Fable's forgotten grilled cheese out of her hand. “Hey!” She laughed when the dragon smacked his nose with her tail. The horse blew air from his nose at the dragon. He was huge, taller than Melchior, and ate her sandwich in two bites.
“That's Thunder. It's going to take a much bigger dragon than your little one to deter him. Ignore him. He's always trying to pick pockets for snacks. He's the father.”
“Where are you from, Uncle Zeke?”
He glanced up at her. “Albion.”
“Will you write it for me, Uncle Melchior?” She handed him her notebook and pen. “What kind of snacks do horses like?” Fable pet the soft skin on the Thunder's face.
“He likes apples. There are some in the room at the end of the aisle if you want to get one."
Fable retrieved an apple and Melchior pulled a knife from his boot to cut it into slices f
or her. She held a slice out to Thunder. He took the treat, but tossed his head, throwing the fruit towards Bolt, who rolled her eyes.
Zeke laughed. “It's natural for her to be irritated with you right now, my friend. You'll have to try harder to get back into her good graces later.”
She liked Uncle Zeke. He was nice to animals.
Another horse kicked its stall so hard Fable thought the stable would collapse. “That one sounds mad.”
“She's not mad, she's lonely.” Melchior said. “Only Drake can get close to her, and since he moved out, she hasn't had much company.”
Zeke tilted his head toward the other horse. “You can see if she'll let you get close, but if she starts acting up, its best to leave her alone.”
Soră talked in Fable’s head. She'll let us get close. I'm her friend.
Fable stepped closer to the last stall, trying to see inside. The horse quieted and a red glow lit up the stall, sending Fable's red magic in big swoops along her back. She peeked in between two slats. The red magic surrounded a silver horse and formed into two wings.
“Ooooh, she has wings!” Fable looked over her shoulder, half sure she would have wings too.
“She must really like you,” Uncle Melchior said. “She hasn't shown her wings to anyone new since we moved here.”
“What's her name? Will you write it in my notebook and where she's from?”
“Her name is Sigrun, and she's from Norden.” He wrote everything down.
“Here you are, Sigrun." Holding the last piece of apple, Fable pushed her hand through the slats. The horse accepted her offering, nibbling the treat from her palm.
“In Ashana I saw some reindeer and horses.”
“You went to the stables?” Zeke stood in the aisle. He wore all black clothes too, but he wasn’t as tall as Uncle Melchior. “You're a lucky girl. Hardly anyone gets to visit the stables.”
“Zax took me there. I saw four big red horses. One loved a reindeer and went to live with Santa.”
Zeke laughed so hard he doubled over and held his stomach. “One of Ares' horses? Oh, that is so perfect.”
Fable shrugged. “She didn't say who they belong to. One of them breathed fire on her, but she didn’t get mad.”
Myth's Legend: Norrix Page 38
