Shadow Realms

by M K Mancos

  An acrid scent of spent time filled my nostrils. “There was a well here, but it’s gone.”

  I held my hand out and let the charged particles of what had once been an open portal sift through my hands like so much sand through the neck of an hourglass.

  Colvin made a face and stepped back, holding his hand over his nose. “It reeks. Has the stink of the shadow realms on it.”

  I gave him a glance from the corner of my eyes. How in the hell did he know that from the smell? Time wells had only one scent—ozone. That was it, unless the scent of something on the other side of it had leaked through. Again, I got the feeling he wasn’t as he seemed.

  Across the street, the door to Kara’s shop opened and Maddie came out to stand on the sidewalk out front. She watched me and Colvin with her arms crossed.

  I knew that look. She was anxious to put questions to me that I had no intention of answering. Not that I was in a position to say anything about my employers. That minor detail wouldn’t stop Maddie from asking.

  She’d always been curious that way. Unfortunately, that’s why the shadow realms had attached to her. Curiosity made for an easy target.

  Anger roiled in my gut. I damn well knew the shadow realms had been watching her, and I never told her. That was bad on me. As I watched Maddie start to pace while waiting for me to cross the street, I tried to find any justification for how I’d square telling Kara and her anything of the shadow realms without revealing my work for the Convention.

  “Your sis looks pissed,” Colvin observed, as astute as Captain Obvious.

  “More like impatient. She hates to be kept waiting. Now that she knows I’m only across the street, she’s not going to be happy until I go over there and tell her what the hell is going on.” I sneaked a look at her and kind of wished I hadn’t. Kara had joined her. She lifted a hand and shielded her eyes from the sun, blocking my view of her expression. However, the set of her shoulders and straightness of her spine told me more than I needed to know. I knew that body language well. She wasn’t at all happy about the situation.

  Colvin slicked his hair back from his forehead with a nervous hand. “They’re hot.”

  I gave him a look to shut him up. “Man, you just don’t say that to a guy about his sisters and live to keep your teeth in place.”

  His eyes widened. “I didn’t mean anything by it. It’s just a fact.”

  “Yes, and they’re both witches, so tread with care.” I gave him a sly smile as I looked both ways for traffic and then crossed to where they stood in all their anxious glory.

  Colvin was correct. My sisters were beautiful. What’s more, they were both intelligent, caring, and strong women. Not many men could handle that combination. As a result, I’d had to run interference on more than one deadbeat over the years. However, they’d both settled into solid relationships, and I could rest easier knowing they had both fallen in love with good men.

  How did I know they were good men? I just did. I could see light surrounding them like a golden aura. It helped.

  “She was right, wasn’t she?” Maddie had never been one to mince words or hold back.

  “I’m afraid so, but I don’t want to get into it out here.” I ushered them both into the shop and back to the kitchen. When we were all in and seated, I did the necessary introductions, leaving out that Colvin was my assistant in more than a toy manufacturing venture.

  The room smelled rich with the scent of fresh-brewed coffee. I poured myself and Colvin a cup and then came back to the table. “Do me a favor. If you two see or hear anything odd—of a metaphysical nature—do me a favor and call me immediately. I’ll be here in a matter of minutes. I promise.”

  Kara frowned and leaned forward, elbows resting on the table. “What kind of metaphysical oddness are we talking about?”

  “The time wells aren’t the first phenomenon of its kind.” I took a deep breath and glanced at the slightly worried expression on Colvin’s face. “The Cooper’s Mill mine collapse wasn’t a freak of nature or failure of bad engineering—though the engineering played a part in the success of the venture.”

  Kara raised a brow. Anger filled her usually serene face. “Venture?” The one word question had a definite bite to it.

  I put up my hands in a gesture to keep her calm. Her boyfriend came from Cooper’s Mill, as did the bulk of our family tree. The mine collapse had taken out an entire street, along with the mine and the Cooper’s Mill Inn. So many people left homeless. One death. Many injured. Kara had felt the loss deeply, and I didn’t want her to get the mistaken impression that I took that lightly or made fun of the situation. At least, I hoped she knew me well enough to know I’d never do something so low.

  I gave her a solemn nod. “In any of your studies with spells, magical systems, or incantations, have you ever come across the shadow realms?”

  Kara backed up until the rungs on her chair stopped her from going any farther. “You have to be joking.”

  “I’m afraid not. It’s real, and it’s bleeding over into our world. A little at a time. A collapse here, a time well there. Even beings from that world have come here, interacting with humans. Mortals.” I rubbed my hands together then looked to Maddie who’d gone decidedly pale. “You know who I mean.”

  “Rowena,” she whispered the name as if saying it out loud might bring the creature back.

  “She came through to harvest the emotions of humans after stressful stimuli. By gaging the reactions and altering their methods, they are able to improve their torture and feed greater numbers of their people.” I took a sip of coffee then put it down.

  Kara pushed back from the table and walked to the sink. She gripped the edge of the basin as she leaned in. Her shoulders rose and fell as she took in deep breaths. “You knew about this. You knew when Maddie was going through it, and you didn’t say a word.”

  “I’m really not supposed to be saying anything now, but with all these time wells, I’d be remiss as a brother if I didn’t speak up.” Nothing less than the truth there.

  Colvin looked as if he’d eaten a bug. “I’m going out into the store to look around. You talk to your sisters.”

  “Yeah, thanks for abandoning me, man. I appreciate it.” I gave him a pat on the arm as he walked by. Actually, I was glad he’d decided to leave me to it. I walked a tightrope as it was—I didn’t need an audience or a witness.

  Maddie fingered the necklace I’d given her to keep the timelines mostly in check. The gold locketwatch kept time in a number of ways, including helping to ground the wearer in time and place. “I had a feeling you knew more than you’d let on.”

  Regret soured my stomach. “Yes, but like I said at the time, I couldn’t say much.”

  She gave a huff that might have passed for a laugh. “You’re so full of shit I can smell you from here.” Tears filled her eyes. “I swear. I knew you had powers, and you’ve never wanted to admit it.”

  “Look, I’ve said more than I should already. But yes, I have powers. I just don’t care to advertise them. I like to keep a low profile on that. It makes me more effective when dealing with the shadow realms.” Not to mention, the Convention pretty much had a mandate against it. If I talked about my powers, I risked exposure, and that was unacceptable to my employers.

  Kara finally came back to the table and sat. Her face was pulled into a worried expression, and a hint of betrayal shuttered her eyes. “This family has been under attack, and you said nothing. I’m not sure I can forgive you for that. We could have banded together. Instead, you chose to keep us in the dark.” She flung out a hand, indicating Maddie. “And the hell you let her go through.”

  I stood slowly and pushed my chair up to the table. Her words were like a dagger to my heart. All I did, I did to protect them and the rest of the world. “I’m sorry you feel that way. I love you both, and I want nothing but to protect you. I did it the way I had to at the time. If you believe nothing else, believe that.”

  Without another word, I turned. I’d
already wasted enough time here and hadn’t discovered any information that would be useful in finding the woman who was destined to share my future.

  A horrible feeling had started in the base of my skull from the moment I’d stood near that collapsed well. I rubbed the back of my neck with a shaking hand. “Come on,” I tapped Colvin on the way by. “Let’s see if we can trace the origins of the wells.”

  Colvin put down the candle he’d been sniffing and followed me out of the shop. “How do you plan to do that?”

  We took off to the opposite corner where we’d stopped before. I took out a small brass box from my pack and placed it where I felt the greatest remaining concentration of energy left over from the well. A blue light came from the center of the box, emanating out from the tiny grooves and sigils cut out of the sides. An oculus on one end shot out a beam of light and showed beings moving through in an infinite number of overlapping realities. I shut the beam down. To anyone watching, we looked like surveyors. Most people glanced at us and moved on. That was one of the benefits of working for the Convention—observers not in the know usually saw what they wanted.

  “That’s not going to work.” I stuck the device back in my pocket. I’d hoped I could use that to trace the energy signature of the practitioner who had opened the wells. Under normal circumstances it might have done exactly as I’d wanted—but we were talking about the shadow realms here. Nothing about them were normal or even human. I wasn’t even sure what they were made of. Dead dreams, burnt inspirations, old frustrations. Could have been anything shucked off by the human experience.

  One thing I was positive of was they were beings of intelligence, cunning, and hunger.

  A bitter wind rolled down the street, bringing with it the unmistakable stink of rotten garbage. I tried not to let my imagination get away from me. We were in one of the biggest cities in the world, after all. The alleys were littered with any number of dumpsters within a few blocks of where we stood. It didn’t have to mean anything, but blood surged through my veins and made me wish for a hunt.

  I glanced down the street in the direction the wind had come as, one by one, the wells blinked out of existence as if they’d never been.

  I hit Colvin on the arm. “It appears whoever opened them got what they wanted.”

  Colvin raised a brow. “Question is: what or who did they get?”

  Eight

  Kells

  Come to find out, my new friends, Bea and Mathilda, ran an apothecary shop only a few blocks from where Kara St. Ives would later open her witch store. They sold every herb and tonic known to man and lesser beings. Both had been trained in compounding and mixing drugs and had the certificates on the wall to prove their profession. However, they were both a little bit more than that.

  That first day, I had walked around their sales floor with my mouth hanging open at all the dried and crushed leaves, seeds, and extracts. The remedies and compounds they made themselves then sold to the locals for cheaper than they could get medicines at the local pharmacy. As a matter of fact, most of those they catered to were poor or working class and couldn’t afford to seek care by a physician making a house call or going to the hospital. Instead, they came here looking for remedies.

  Mathilda wore her apron like a suit of armor, going into battle to fight for the sick and oppressed. I admired both of them for their service to both community and humanity. They both possessed large hearts and infinite compassion—though Mathilda’s brand was somewhat gruff at times.

  I’d been staying with them and working in the shop for about two weeks. I still didn’t have a clue as to how I was going to get back to my time, and I itched to have my computer, which was probably either confiscated or sold off from the hotel where I’d taken a room.

  So much information on it lost. Of course, anyone reading it would probably think my files were garbage, but they weren’t supposed to mean anything to anyone else. I hoped the hotel managers had a mediocre of integrity about them and returned my belongings to my family. Maybe they’d list me as a missing person.

  I stopped in front of one of the jars and tapped the glass. Belladonna.

  They had some really heavy-duty drugs in this place. Fortunately for them, regulations weren’t as strict back then, and they were professionals. Besides, the really interesting stuff was kept behind the counter, away from the customers. Another point in their favor.

  Not that I was being judgy; I only wanted them to be safe. Not for nothing, but in my time those drugs would put them at the top of the list for a break-in or on the local PD’s watchlist. Hell, the local police of the 1920s had their hands full taking bribes for the illegal speakeasy trade. The police were more concerned about people breaking the Volstead Act than a couple of middle-aged ladies selling herbs to poor people.

  Unfortunately, I hadn’t been able to locate a coven. The frustration was making me rather crazy. I didn’t care for the way women were treated in the 1920s, nor did I much care for the lack of hygiene in most cases. All right, so I was a product of my own time. That was the way I was made. I tried not to let it affect the experience of actually living in the past—something any anthropologist would probably pay a lot of money to do—but there was only so much I could do to curb a natural inclination.

  I also noticed myself wincing whenever someone coughed or sneezed near me. I used the hell out of the mini bottle of sanitizing hand gel I kept in my bag, and my supply had run seriously low.

  The bell over the door tinkled as a customer walked in. I didn’t pay much attention as I stuffed herbs into a jar on the shelf from a large cloth bag. Energy swirled and pitched. I sniffed in as a light floral perfume filled the room. The scent was familiar as well.

  I turned then and locked eyes with a person I knew but didn’t. My heart almost stopped, and I swallowed down the want to rush her. It was my great-great-grandmother, Gemma.

  The pictures I’d seen of her in her youth hadn’t done her justice. Film and paper had failed to capture the magnetic essence of her energy.

  “May I help you?” The words came out low and nearly in a croak.

  Gemma looked up and smiled at me. A shiver started in my soul and made my eyes water. I hadn’t known her long in my time. But she’d been important to me when I’d first come to live with Aunt Rallie.

  “I came to see Mathilda.”

  It all made so much sense, why I was drawn here. Gemma was friends with the two women who had taken me in. Anchored by family, I’d come here where she’d been living and vital.

  Mathilda came from the back room and wiped her hands on her apron as she approached Gemma.

  They didn’t speak as Mathilda ushered Gemma into the back room where they conversed in low tones.

  As much as I wanted to eavesdrop, I went back to work stocking the shelves for the next day. It was almost closing time, and this little bit of work now made opening in the morning less of a hassle. Truthfully, I’d rather spend a few minutes doing this at the end of the shift than getting up earlier to stock the store in the morning.

  All manner of thoughts ran through my head as I worked. Did Gemma know me on sight? Had she foreseen my coming? Had it been happenstance that she lived in the same neighborhood and knew my saviors? I really wanted to know but was afraid the answers would only give me more questions.

  Ten minutes later, Gemma left with a little wave and wink on her way out the door.

  Mathilda walked over to the door and turned the lock, then put the closed sign in the window. The shop closed at seven every evening. Promptly. Not a minute later or before. She reached up and pulled down the blinds. I went outside and helped her place the shutters in front of the windows.

  “You should go out and have some fun tonight. No young woman should stay in all night every night with a couple of old coots.” Mathilda shoved her hands down into the pockets of her apron as she started back into the shop.

  “You aren’t old coots!” My protest came out rather louder than I’d intended and brought Bea
from the back room.

  “Whatever is the matter?” Her cheeks were rosy from being in the kitchen where she prepared dinner. She usually did that after the cooking and mixing for the shop was done for the day. She’d explained that it made more sense to use the oven down in the shop than to light a second one upstairs.

  I shook my head, too embarrassed to repeat what I thought as an epithet to two ladies who still had many years left ahead of them. Not to mention, I had the distinct feeling this might have been prompted by Gemma.

  Mathilda gave a shrug. “I told her to go out and meet some young people.”

  “Ah.” Bea made a noncommittal sound in the back of her throat then turned and went back into the kitchen.

  I threw out my hand to indicate her partner. “See? Even she doesn’t think I should go out.”

  “It’s not that…” Bea yelled from the kitchen.

  “Then what is it?” I followed her in. The scent of a roast with vegetables hit me. Fresh baked bread made the room a yeasty haven.

  Mathilda stood in the doorway. “Tell her, Bea. No sense in letting her stay here and fret.”

  I turned to first one then the other. For two weeks, I’d lived and worked with these ladies, feeling as if they hid something from me. I was only partially glad I wasn’t going crazy or paranoid. “Tell me what?”

  “Well, dear…” Bea began then looked at Mathilda for help. When there was none from that quarter, she moved to the small table and pulled out a chair. “Have a seat. This might go better sitting down.”

  A stubborn streak flared, and I crossed my arms. “Why don’t you quit coddling me and come out and say what it is. If you want me to leave, I can go. You only had to say so.”

  I put a brave face on it, but I’d gotten rather comfortable with them and leaving would hurt. Even if Gemma lived down the street, I didn’t know her in this time. Not well enough to beg room and board. I had no one else in this timeline. Even if I decided to travel to North Carolina where I knew I had other family. Actually, my other set of great-great-grandparents were a young married couple. I could probably go there and tell them I was a distant cousin and throw myself on their mercy.