A Catastrophic Theft

by P. D. Workman

  “Come on, Sarah. You can get better. This is what you’ve been waiting for. Fight for it. Don’t give up.”

  Sarah’s mouth formed a single word. “No.”

  ⋆ Chapter Twenty-Four ⋆

  R

  eg sat with Sarah, waiting, watching for any change or improvement. Marian entered with a tea tray, but she put it on a dresser when she saw that no one was ready for it.

  Jessup returned in a few minutes. “Reg…?”

  “You couldn’t get anyone?”

  “No… I did… I just wanted to warn you.”

  Reg blinked and looked at her, trying to make out her expression in the dimness. Jessup was clearly anxious.

  “What is it? What did she say?”

  “I tried Letticia, but I couldn’t get her.”

  “But you got someone? Who?”

  “Hunter. He’s on his way over now.”

  “You called Corvin? Why?”

  “He’s good at what he does. He’ll know what to do, if there’s anything that can be done.”

  Reg pressed her lips together, not happy with this development. “You’d better go wait at the door and let him in, then.”

  Jessup nodded and left without another word. Reg sat watching Sarah breathe. At least she was breathing. The rise and fall of her chest was more pronounced than it had been. Marian stood by, watching and saying nothing.

  “Do you want some tea?” she asked, after some minutes had ticked by.

  Reg shook her head. “No. Thanks.”

  “There just wasn’t time,” Marian said. “You did your best, she just didn’t have enough time.”

  “Don’t say that. I got her the emerald.” Reg still had it clasped between her hand and Sarah’s, held over Sarah’s heart. “It’s not over.”

  Marian shrugged and looked down at her feet.

  Reg felt Corvin arrive. She felt his presence before she heard the quick rap at the door. Jessup let him in, the two of them murmuring quietly as they walked to the bedroom. Reg looked up at him as he walked in the door, then back at Sarah. Sarah had a little more color. She wasn’t quite as ivory white as she had been when Reg and Jessup got there.

  Or maybe it was just wishful thinking.

  “Regina,” Corvin’s greeting was barely a whisper. Out of respect for the woman who lay there on the edge of death? Or because he was embarrassed about what had happened at the hearing?

  He walked around to the opposite side of the bed and held his hands out over Sarah. He closed his eyes. No one in the room breathed but Sarah.

  Corvin opened his eyes. He looked at Reg’s hand, the long gold chain extending from it in a loop. How he must have coveted that precious artifact.

  “What can I do?” Reg asked, breaking the silence.

  Corvin sighed. When he spoke, his voice was strong and calm. “Focus your energy on the stone. Don’t have anxious feelings about Sarah, stay positive and strong. I’m going to build up her strength while you do that.”

  It could all just be nonsense. It could just be words designed to make her think there was hope and something she could actually do to help Sarah. But Reg had to believe he was telling her the truth and that he thought there might be hope for Sarah. Reg focused on the emerald pressed between their hands. It was Sarah’s emerald. The one that had kept her alive for however long she had survived. The precious family heirloom. It felt warm and alive. Just like Sarah. She was still alive, so there was hope.

  Reg watched Corvin hold his hands just over Sarah’s face, not quite touching her. Reg remembered how he had done the same for her when she had been depleted and faint. She remembered the warm surge of energy and vitality that had flowed from him. That’s what he was doing for Sarah now.

  Sarah’s head turned to the side. Corvin held steady, not moving. Time crept by. Reg wondered if he was still strengthening her, or just waiting to see if there was a response. She refocused her thoughts on the emerald. She had a job to do too; she wasn’t there to analyze Corvin’s actions.

  Sarah moved. Reg blinked and looked at the woman’s face. It had a definite pink hue that hadn’t been there before. Sarah opened her eyes and smiled. Reg was sure that Sarah was seeing her this time. She smiled back, trying to look reassuring.

  “Hey. Did you have a nice nap?”

  Sarah’s hand tightened around the emerald. She closed her fingers, enclosing it so that it was no longer touching Reg’s hand. Reg felt unaccountably disappointed and resentful. She had brought the emerald back to Sarah. Had protected it and her. Didn’t that give Reg some rights over it too? Make it partly hers?

  “It’s back.” Sarah took a deep breath and let it out again. “How did you find it?”

  “Do you remember the woman you let in the other day?” Reg asked. “You brought her to the cottage when she showed up at your door looking for me?”

  Sarah shook her head, but Reg thought she detected some memory in her eyes.

  “Did you bring her through your house?”

  “I don’t know. I don’t remember that.”

  “You wouldn’t have gone outside with her, would you? If you brought her back to the cottage instead of just sending her around by the sidewalk, you wouldn’t have walked her all the way around the house, would you? You would have walked her through the house from the front door to the back.”

  Sarah nodded. “Of course.”

  “She was a pixie, and I guess she sensed the emerald when she walked into the house. She left something here, so that she could come back for it later and get past your wards.”

  “Oh…” Sarah’s eyes showed understanding. “Tricksie pixie. They are so cunning sometimes.”

  “Yes. I’m still worried that she might have left something else in the house and they might come back looking for it.” Reg looked at Corvin. “Is there any way to check for that? To see if a pixie left something here?”

  “I’ll try a reveal spell. You might try looking around yourself… you might be able to sense something pixie-ish.”

  Sarah’s eyes went to Corvin. “Oh. Hello, Corvin.”

  “Oh, hello,” Corvin echoed, smiling sardonically. “That’s all I get when I bring you back from the brink of death?”

  “Was that you?”

  “Who else?”

  Sarah made experimental movements, pushing her hands down to sit herself up. Reg and Corvin both moved in as if choreographed to help her to sit up and get comfortable with a few pillows supporting her.

  “I’m feeling much better,” Sarah said.

  “That’s good.” Reg forced a smile. Sarah was more energetic and talking to them, but her face was still deeply wrinkled and her body shrunken. The emerald might have been able to arrest the effects of age, but what about rewinding them? Was there any way for her to go back to the sixty-year-old body she’d had just a week before?

  “Would you like some tea?” Marian offered. She didn’t wait for an answer, but began to prepare a cup for Sarah immediately.

  “Oh, Marian. You’ve been so good to me through all of this. Thank you for being there.”

  She hadn’t thanked either Reg or Corvin, only Marian, who hadn’t actually done anything but to sit with her throughout her illness. Reg suppressed a grunt of disgust. She looked at Corvin.

  “I need to get back to my cottage. Starlight will be hungry and it’s been a long day. Maybe we should check for any pixie leftovers and leave Sarah and Marian alone.”

  Corvin eyed the necklace, the jewel hidden in Sarah’s grip. He was clearly reluctant to leave such a great treasure behind.

  “Let’s go, Hunter,” Jessup agreed, her voice stern. She always seemed to be stern with him, like a parent who knew she couldn’t give her child an inch or he’d take a mile. Which, knowing Corvin, was perfectly apt.

  Corvin swept the room with a look, then nodded. “Okay. Get me out of here.”

  Jessup motioned Corvin ahead of her. Reg trailed behind, leaving Sarah and Marian with their tea. They took their time, wandering in
to the various bedrooms and other rooms to check for anything that was out of place or might have resonated of pixies. Eventually, they were at the front door.

  “I don’t think there’s anything else here,” Corvin said. “I’m not sensing anything. You?”

  “No.”

  “You did a good thing, Reg.”

  Reg looked at him, feeling as sulky as a teenager. “I didn’t do it for the thanks… but it would have been nice.”

  “I’m sure she’ll tell you thank you a hundred times over the next few weeks,” Jessup said. “She’s still finding her feet right now. She was right on the brink of death, don’t expect her to bounce right back to normal.”

  “I suppose. But she’s not going to go back to the way she was, is she?”

  Jessup looked at Corvin, raising her eyebrows in a question. He gave a wide shrug. “Hard to tell where she’ll end up after a few days. All we can do is wait and see.”

  He leaned against the doorframe, and for the first time Reg noticed how tired he looked. It had been a long day for him too. Maybe even longer than Reg’s. Her life and happiness didn’t rest in the hands of a tribunal.

  “Are you okay?”

  “I might have overdone it a bit on the strengthening.”

  Reg was alarmed. She hadn’t realized that giving others strength drained his own reserves. But of course it did, he couldn’t just create energy out of thin air. She’d only ever seen him transfer strength for a few seconds at a time before, and just that was enough to revive someone who couldn’t stand on their own. He’d given Sarah a lot of strength. She’d been perilously close to death. “Is there something we can do?”

  Corvin shrugged. He gave his head a little shake while leaning against the doorframe to recover his strength. “You could give me some of yours.”

  He’d done it for her previously, so it seemed only right to reciprocate. She couldn’t let him drive home on his own when he was so weak.

  “What do I do?” she asked, feeling a little awkward. She didn’t know whether she should hold her hands over his body, or whether he’d hold his over her.

  “No way, Reg,” Jessup said strongly. “After all you know, you’re going to put your power in his hands?”

  “Well, no… I just thought that if he needed physical strength, because he’s depleted himself giving to Sarah…”

  “You know how a bird pretends to have a broken wing to lead you away from its babies…?”

  “Yeah.” Reg looked at Corvin, staring hard. “Are you telling me he’s just faking?”

  “Not necessarily, but if you think you can give him physical strength without releasing your powers to him…”

  “Sort of a package deal, huh?” Reg asked.

  Corvin didn’t deny it.

  “Then no, you’re not getting anything from me.”

  He pushed himself away from the doorframe, standing without support. “Sometimes,” he said, looking at Jessup, “you really are a wet blanket.”

  “I brought you here; that doesn’t mean I have to let you do whatever you want. And whatever your issue is with Reg… you need to get over it. You’re not getting her powers.”

  “Seems like she’s got too much these days to be able to handle.” Corvin raised his eyebrows at Reg. “I could help with that.”

  She could feel the heat coming off of him.

  “I don’t have to take it all, you know. But I could… relieve a little of the pressure. So you’re not walking around blowing things up when you lose that red-headed temper of yours.”

  Reg stared at him. She took the heat he was sending her direction and imagined herself reflecting it back toward him, focusing it like a magnifying glass at the middle of his chest.

  Corvin swore and swiped at the spot on his chest she was staring at. “Cut that out!”

  “You know I just can’t control myself. It’s your own energy, I’m just returning it to you. If you want it to stop, then turn off the taps.”

  He opened the door and stalked off without looking back. Jessup laughed. “You’re learning.”

  “Maybe. But I would have fallen for the ‘fainting from overexertion’ thing.”

  “Don’t ever offer to give him anything. Whether it’s his idea or you think it’s yours. Don’t do it.”

  “Roger that,” Reg agreed. She sighed. “I need to get home and feed the cat.”

  “You can tell him he’s been cleared in the theft of Sarah’s emerald.”

  “And me?”

  “It’s looking that way, but we’ll have to see how it all plays out.”

  ⋆ Chapter Twenty-Five ⋆

  S

  tarlight was stalking back and forth when Reg finally made it back to the cottage and opened the door. He stopped and sat back on his haunches, staring at her, waiting for an explanation.

  “It was a pixie,” Reg explained. “That pixie that came here for a reading to look for her sister. She got into Sarah’s house and she’s the one who stole the necklace. I have returned it to its rightful owner, and Sarah… she’s okay, but I don’t know how much she will recover.”

  Starlight’s tail switched back and forth as he considered this news.

  “Sorry, it’s been a long day. Or I would have told you what was going on and been back sooner.”

  With a sigh, Reg went to the kitchen and made herself a sandwich. She put half a can of tuna into Starlight’s bowl. He conceded to eat, and afterward seemed a little warmer toward Reg. He jumped up on the windowsill in her bedroom and looked out as she got changed for bed.

  “I saw your friend earlier. Is he there now?”

  Starlight stared out into the gathering darkness.

  Reg slept heavily. It had been a long few days. It was the first time that she could really relax, knowing that Sarah was not going to die. Now that she had the emerald, she at least had a chance of a happy life, a few more years to enjoy herself and choose her own departure.

  When she awoke in the morning, Reg opened her eyes to find Starlight staring down at her, his green and brown eyes unblinking. When she didn’t say anything or get up, he tapped her on the nose with a soft paw. Reg wondered how many times he had done that already, waiting for her to wake up.

  “Okay, I’m awake,” she told him. “Just give me a few minutes and I’ll get up.”

  He continued to stare at her.

  “You’re kind of a pain, you know that?”

  Eventually, Reg rubbed her eyes and sat up.

  “Ugh. I told you, I’m up. Just a few more minutes.”

  She went through her usual morning oblations and wandered out to the kitchen to scavenge something for breakfast. She hadn’t had actual meals the day before and she was hungry even though it was early.

  She put on the kettle and started pulling anything that looked appetizing out of the fridge. As she placed them on the island, she startled and gave a little yell.

  “What are you doing here?”

  Karol Blackmoor was sitting on the living room couch, watching Reg’s preparations. She looked small and childish sitting there, with her knees drawn up to her chest and her feet on the couch in front of her. Not like a threat.

  “You have not called Alicorn,” Karol said, as if that should clear everything up.

  “No, I haven’t,” Reg agreed. “Why would I? You stole from my friend. You nearly killed her. I don’t have any reason to help you, and I’m not sure I could do anything, even if I wanted to.”

  Starlight had followed Reg into the kitchen and gave a little chirp of agreement.

  Karol’s ice blue eyes stared back at her. “You must call her.”

  “No. There’s no reason I should.”

  “I cannot find her.”

  Reg felt a little stab of sympathy. The pixie had, it appeared, been diligently looking for her sister, hoping to bring her home again. Or at least to make contact and know that she was okay. Reg knew what it was like to wonder what had happened to a family member, to wonder if they were okay.

&
nbsp; “I get that, but I can’t help you. How did you get in here?”

  Karol picked up a keychain pendant from the coffee table. Reg recognized the little crystal on a chain. She’d found it and assumed that it had been accidentally broken and left behind by one of her clients. She had set it to the side in case someone called looking for it later. But it had been a ruse. Karol had intentionally left it so that she could get past Sarah’s wards on the cottage and enter at will.

  “You broke into my home,” Reg said. “That’s not cool. You expect me to help you when you do something like that?”

  Karol looked at her blankly, not seeming to understand.

  Reg let out her breath. The kettle started to whistle, so she turned to grab it and pour the boiling water into her teacup. Karol watched her, eyes intent.

  “You want a cup?” Reg asked, angry at the girl but unable to ignore her hollow cheeks and dirty appearance. Reg had been on the streets. She knew what it was like to have nothing, not even hot water.

  “You show hospitality to pixies?” Karol seemed surprised by this idea. “I have nothing to pay you.”

  On her previous visit, she had produced a few crumpled bills to pay for her session. It had probably been the only money Karol had.

  “You don’t need to pay me for tea.” Reg prepared and poured a second cup, and took it over to Karol on a tray with sugar and creamer. “Look… I don’t know why you think I can help you, but I don’t think there’s anything I can do for you. Why don’t you go back to your family? Were you kicked out? Did you run away?”

  Karol mixed so much sugar into the hot tea that Reg was sure there’d be a thick sludge of undissolved sugar at the bottom when Karol was done. Maybe pixies had a sweet tooth. Or maybe Karol didn’t know where her next meal was coming from and would take her calories however she could get them.

  “I was… I need to find Alicorn.”

  “And she ran away?”

  Karol nodded. “After she was changed.”

  “Maybe she doesn’t want to be found.”