by R. J. Ladon
“Megan’s with you. You’re covered.” Johnny left the house and went to his car.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Kevin looked at Megan, frowning. “Who are you? Who is Nikolai?”
Ruby laughed. “She’s Megan.” She ruffled Kevin’s hair. “Rapscallion likes her. That’s all I need to know. Come on, let’s check on the girls.” She headed to the back of the house.
Megan watched Kevin and Ruby but remained. If her father left Avalon and she stayed here, with this family, would she be safe? Would they be safe?
“Come on, don’t you want to meet them?” Kevin asked.
Megan sighed, then followed them through the kitchen and out the back door. The old oak in the backyard was beautiful. Why hadn’t she noticed the tree the other night? Megan touched the thick bark, feeling tension release from her neck and shoulders. She moved closer. The smell of earth and moss filled her nose. The tree’s age and ambrosia reminded her of Kragnor. He would protect her and Kevin’s family.
“Megan?” Kevin looked at her, his head cocked to one side.
“Leave her be,” Ruby said. “That oak is special. It calls to her.”
Megan looked at the woman standing at the gate and the young man beside her. She blinked and looked again, really looked, taking in sights, smells, feelings, the slight taste on her tongue. These two, this place, this tree, Kragnor, it all felt more like home than Artem ever did. She shuddered, stepping away from the tree.
What was wrong with her?
Chapter 47
T hey walked through the gate and entered the back door of the neighboring house. “Hello?” Kevin called out. “It’s us.” He continued into the house.
Sounds of cheering and whistles filled the living room. Jerry lounged in a recliner, filling out a roster form with numbers and comments. A football game filled the big screen. He leaned forward as play resumed, shouting at the players and coaches.
“Hi, Dad,” Kevin said. “What game are you watching?”
Jerry paused the game. “Monday night two weeks ago, Steelers versus Browns. Looking at replacing my fantasy running back with number forty-three there. What do you think?”
“I’m not going to make that decision. You yelled at me last time I picked a quarterback for you.”
Jerry nodded. “I forgot about that. Probably best I go with my gut.” He hit play, and the game resumed.
“What’s wrong with your dad?” Megan asked.
“Fantasy football, he gets obsessed.” Kevin walked into the dining room.
The three girls sat on one side of the table. “Hello, we’ve been expecting you,” they said in unison.
Megan looked at Kevin. “Are your sisters always this creepy?”
“No, it’s new.” His brows knitted with worry.
“How did this happen?” Megan looked from the girls to Kevin and Ruby.
“The blame lies with me.” Ruby sat at the head of the table. “I knew they were special when they were in the womb. Your grandfather and I cast spells and wards to hide them from those who would do them harm. After Joseph died, I hid the information from myself with a spell. Recently, I asked Kevin to cast a spell of protection for me.” Ruby looked at Kevin as if apologizing. “That spell released Kragnor.”
Kevin stepped to Ruby’s side, placing a hand on her shoulder. “You couldn’t know what would happen.”
“Didn’t I? I picked the spell for you as if subconsciously I knew.” Ruby’s hand went to her mouth. “I set all this into motion.” She looked at Megan and sighed.
“What does Kragnor have to do with all this?” Megan asked.
“Gargoyles are the oldest purest source of magic. Their very presence can break spells, curses, and wards.” Ruby looked into Megan’s eyes then quickly looked away. “The spell I put on the girls is gone. The spell on myself holds on by a thread. Benny’s glamor is gone and…” She licked her lips, then looked at Megan. “And your spell is broken too.”
“My spell?” Megan put her hand on her chest. “What do you mean?”
“The wolf awakens.” The triplets giggled.
“What does that mean?” Megan looked at the three girls.
“Your father has many secrets,” they said.
Ruby narrowed her eyes. “Girls, you understand why this behavior can’t continue?”
The triplets looked down at their hands. “Yes.”
Mina looked up. “The one who was after us is gone. Others forced her to find us, to befriend us, but her heart wasn’t in it. She runs from her keepers.”
“You must understand that there will be others who want to find you and use you.”
“Yes.”
Ruby stood and touched the girls on the head, leaning in and hugging them. “Girls, time for games is over. Your lives, your parent’s lives, the lives of those around you are in danger.”
“But…” Inez started to say.
“Enough! I am not asking you to behave.” Ruby’s eyes flashed. The house darkened and creaked as if under the pressure of a giant hand. “Your insolence will come to heel.”
Chapter 48
“G ood news!” Megan rushed toward him.
Kragnor blinked and focused. It seemed being born every night gave him a moment of clouded thought. “You sound excited. Please, tell me your news, young one.”
“Kevin and I are going to drive down to the museum and spend the day there.”
“Day?” Kragnor frowned. “All day?”
“Yes, it’ll be fun. I’ll show Kevin all the displays.” She touched his arm. “Especially the Halloween one, where the stones are.”
“What time would you come back?” Kragnor waited to see if she would see any problems with her plans.
She halted then tapped her lip. “The museum closes at five. With drive time and dinner.” She bounced on her toes more. “about seven or eight.”
The gargoyle looked at the clock on Kevin’s dresser. He flicked his eyes between the clock and Megan until she took the hint and looked at the time.
Her brow creased in concentration. “Oh, crap. I’m sorry. You need to see the stones, and you don’t arrive until past six.”
Kragnor smiled his approval. She figured it out. “Is there an alternate solution?”
“There is, but I don’t like it. My father will have to meet you.” Megan fidgeted where she stood, then paced, like a caged animal.
“Your father?”
“He works at the museum. We could stay late because he has keys and access to everything. Then you could touch the stones.” Megan chewed her fingernails.
Kragnor watched as her pacing became frantic. “Clearly, bringing your father into this bothers you. Is there another way?”
“No.” She stopped then stared into his eyes. “The woman who allowed the museum to borrow the stones is picking them up. I’m afraid if we don’t go soon, the stones will be lost to us forever.”
“Bring your father tomorrow night. We can work together. I am sure of it. If not, I have another way.”
“If you have another way that won’t involve my father, we ought to explore it.”
Her sweet, upturned face made Kragnor smile. “I will try, but I make no promises.”
“You can’t just say that and not tell me what the other way is.” Megan protruded her bottom lip and pouted. “Please,” she begged.
“Most museums have vast marble columns and walls, correct?”
“Yes.” She tilted her head as if trying to figure out where his line of thought was going.
“I can use stone to travel.”
Megan looked down, thinking. “I don’t understand. What do you mean?
“See those bookends? Bring them to me.”
Megan stood on a chair to get the bookends. She looked at them, turning them over and poking their surface. She placed them into his open palms.
“These are just stone, right?”
Sensing a trick but not seeing one, Megan narrowed her eyes at the bookends then slowly nodded
.
Kragnor arranged the stones as they would have been cut from the quarry face to face. “These stones were cut from the same parent stone, like this.”
“How do you know?”
“Through a series of deductions. See how this crack is the same here?”
“Sure, and those two.” Megan indicated the bottom section of both stones.
“Right. I also know the stones are siblings because they told me.”
Megan held up her finger. “If anyone else told me they talk to rocks, I would call them a liar. You, however, are a rock.” She waved her arm around. “More or less.”
“More or less,” Kragnor agreed. He handed her one of the stones. “Hold it in the palm of your hand, like that. Don’t drop it. It has enough fractures. What I am about to show you might make you jump. Compose yourself.”
Megan nodded, and she seemed to age before his eyes, becoming more stoic.
“Watch this stone.” Kragnor pressed his hand into the bookend. It was too small to accept his entire hand; his fingers disappeared. His fingers should have gone through the rock, but instead, they seemed to be cut short.
“Whoa,” Megan said.
“Now, look at the stone in your hand.”
Megan swallowed, then looked; Kragnor’s fingers stuck out of the stone. She looked from one rock to the other. “That’s still you, right?” She poked the dark grey fingers protruding out of the honey-colored bookend. The alabaster rippled like water as Kragnor moved within the stone.
Kragnor wiggled his fingers. “Yes, it is still me.” He grinned. “Most people become scared when they first see this demonstrated.”
She pulled at his fingers as if trying to make more of him come through. “If it were big enough, could your body pass through?” Megan’s eyes closed in thought, then snapped open. “Do you plan on going through a big enough piece of marble and travel to the museum?” Megan’s finger touched, then penetrated the alabaster. She jerked her hand back, startled.
“Perfect, young one.” Kragnor pulled his hand out of the stone, setting the bookend aside. “Your thought is good in theory, but stone-travel is much more complicated.”
Megan kept the bookend and returned to sit on Kragnor’s knee. “I don’t understand.”
“I would be surprised if you did. I can only travel out of the stone that was next to the one I entered. They have to be born of the same parent and cut sequentially.” Kragnor indicated the bookends. “Those two are merely a doorway. In one, out the other.”
Megan picked up the other bookend. She placed it face to face with the one in her hand, the same way they were before. “Your hand went in through this face and out this face.” She touched the outside surfaces of the stones. “What if you entered through the other side? Wouldn’t you exit out a different stone?” She separated the bookends and touched the inner facing surfaces.
“Very good.” Kragnor ruffled her hair. People like Megan did not come along often. She was very bright and quick to understand. “If I put my hand in the other way, you would not have seen my fingers. Not a very dramatic demonstration.”
Megan nodded. “Can you find the marble that will lead you to the museum?”
“Yes,” Kragnor said confidently.
Megan blinked and raised an eyebrow. “In what time frame? Could you do it in hours?”
“Potentially, yes. I know the quarries the Romans and Greeks used.”
“Greeks? Romans?” Megan rolled her eyes and laughed. “Are you serious?”
Kragnor frowned. “I am always serious.”
Megan stood and patted the gargoyle’s cheek. “The world has changed while you slept.” She moved to Kevin’s desk and unplugged the laptop. She punched in a map program then gave the computer to Kragnor. On the display was an image of the earth. “This boot is Italy, where the Romans lived.” She pointed at another part of the map. “This is France. England. And waaaaay over here is where we are right now.” Megan rolled the earth under her finger until the Great Lakes of North America were in the center of the screen.
Kragnor touched the screen like Megan, but the computer didn’t respond.
“I have a gift for you.” She gave him a thin metal object with a soft rubberized end, a stylist. “Use this to move the image.”
The gargoyle used the rubber end and swirled the earth around. “Fascinating. We are currently in the land of the Chippewa, Miami, and Shawnee.”
“You know about Native Americans?”
“I am not familiar with the words: Native Americans. I know of the tribes that lived in this land hundreds of years ago.” Kragnor blinked. “Where is Mexico?”
“Mexico?”
“I traveled there my second or third night. Banco de Mexico.”
“Oh? Really? How?”
“Through the headstones in the cemetery.”
“You think you can do the same to enter the museum?”
“Yes. But…” Kragnor looked away from Megan, feeling embarrassed. “There were magics. I had to leave quickly.”
“Bank magics?” Megan smiled and nodded. “The museum has magics like the bank, with guards who wander the halls. And metal gates that could trap you.”
“Metal gates? Cages?” Kragnor grunted. He didn't like cages. “My idea doesn’t seem so appealing anymore. We must work with your father.”
Megan paced the room, thinking. “I hate to say it, we have no choice but to work with my father. If you were caught, Kevin would be caught too.”
Kragnor frowned. “Tell me about your father. What do I need to say to convince him of our need?”
“Where should I start?” Megan tapped her bottom lip. “Artem is a simple man…”
Chapter 49
A fter Megan got dressed, she unlocked her door and went to the kitchen. Her father and Nikolai were sitting at the table drinking coffee and talking. Nikolai hardly ever came over, preferring to spend time in his gym.
“Good morning,” she said.
The men nodded and sipped the hot brew.
“What time did you get in? I went to bed around midnight.”
Artem looked over his coffee. “Would you believe, about an hour ago?” He smiled like he had gotten away with murder. He chuckled into his hand.
“Did you two go out drinking?”
Nikolai shook his head. “I don’t think he slept. He was worked up when he arrived.” The Weapons Master shrugged. “I gave him all the data he asked for then slept while he read. In the end, I think we have come to the same conclusion that you and I did recently.”
“What is that?”
“Moving or bugging out is no longer in our best interest,” Artem said with a lopsided smile.
“Oh,” Megan said in mock surprise. “What changed your mind?”
“Nikolai showed me the intelligence. There isn’t any movement from Russia.” He shrugged, looking sheepish. “At least no movement that has anything to do with us.” Artem took a sip of coffee. “But there’s more. Nikolai showed me your training videos, starting from when you were very young. Your skills have come a long way. You’re not defenseless anymore. We also have people and contacts from the gym who would help us. Not to mention the fortifications we’ve made over the years.” He flung his arm toward the pantry. “And we know the area. If someone wants to come, I say let them!” Artem smiled.
“That sounds like the bravado of a drunk man,” Megan said.
“A tired man,” Nikolai corrected.
Artem nodded. “Very tired.”
“While you were gone, I received some good news,” Megan said to her father.
Artem blinked at her, waiting.
“The boy from school, who has the stone. He found it and wants you to look at it to see if it’s real.”
“Let’s go.” Artem made to stand, but his legs were wobbly, and he flopped back into the wooden chair.
“He’s busy until tonight, around seven. Besides, you can’t even stand.” Megan placed her hand on her father’s. “The stone i
sn’t going anywhere. You could take a nap?”
“A nap sounds splendid,” Artem said, pushing the coffee aside and placing his head on the table.
“That’s dedication,” Nikolai said. “I would have found a bed.”
Megan laughed.
Megan followed Artem up the stairs and onto Kevin’s porch. Artem knocked. Ruby opened the door. She seemed surprised to see a tall blonde Russian on her porch. She spotted Megan then smiled. “You must be Megan’s father. So good to meet you. I’m Ruby.” Ruby encouraged them to enter her living room.
“Please, call me Artem.”
Kevin hovered behind Ruby. He shot a questioning look at Megan.
Artem saw Ruby’s cast and the purple crayon design. “That’s a fabulous design. Who wrote that for you?”
“Kragnor.”
“Fascinating. I’ve never seen Sanskrit in crayon before.”
“Sanskrit?” Megan maneuvered for a better look at Ruby’s cast. She studied it for a few minutes. “Strength, Straight, Heal.”
“Is that what it says?” Ruby asked. “I’ve been wondering. Kragnor didn’t seem to know what to write.” She tried to turn the cast to see the Sanskrit better. “What brings you by this evening?”
“Kevin is going to show us some of the witchy things you gave to him. Like the protection stone,” Megan said. She introduced Kevin to her father. Artem frowned at the sight of him. Megan understood. Artem didn’t like it when she had friends, especially of the male persuasion.
Rapscallion wandered from the kitchen to the couch. He paused, stopping to greet Megan. The white cat stiffened and hissed at Artem, batting at the man and jumping away.
“Oh, my. I’m sorry, Artem. Rap is normally a well-behaved cat.” Ruby picked up the tomcat and held him protectively.
Artem waved the cat’s disapproval off and said, “It doesn’t matter. We won’t be here long.”
“When you’re ready.” Kevin headed to the stairs.
“Why don’t you bring it down?” Ruby said to Kevin. “Can’t you see Artem is uncomfortable about this situation?” Ruby touched Artem’s arm. “But don’t you worry, I make sure to give them condoms every time Megan comes over.”
