“Are you ready, Jenna?” Andrew said quietly. “Better to change now before the moon forces it. Less painful for you and the baby.”
Jenna gulped. Yes, he was right. The others would be out soon: Jordan and Devon, Mandy and Josh. They would run and play with the wolf pack tonight, but Jenna didn’t feel like joining the party and Andrew had promised that they could go off hunting on their own.
She nodded at Andrew and together they began changing. Silently, she talked to her son as she transformed. “It’s okay Ryan, nothing to worry about. You’ll be alright. I’ll never let anything harm you.”
She wished he could answer. Apart from that original vision when he first came into existence, she had not seen him again. She wished the golden-haired boy would visit her dreams. She wanted to get to know him. When she’d first come to P.A.W.S., both Mandy and Mrs. Bumsqueak had tried to get her to have an abortion. Mrs. Bumsqueak reassured her it would be quick and painless, and that the baby was no more than a sliver at that age, not even a fetus yet, but she remembered the golden-haired boy laughing with the chestnut-haired girl. She felt sure that that was her son’s future, and she couldn’t take it away from him.
Miri had seen it too, when she entered Jenna’s mind, but something in the image had worried Miri. She’d tried to hide it from her, but she could see the fear in Miri’s eyes when she touched Ryan’s consciousness.
Now, fully wolf, Jenna raced through the park with Andrew. The full moon was rising and the pack by the zoo started to howl. Maybe they could visit Ethan before he went off with the pack. Jenna liked him, and wished he’d chosen to stay in P.A.W.S. rather than making his home with the zoo pack, but apparently he’d made friends there and was even dating that hyena from the zoo. It was interesting, she thought, how easily the wolves interacted with other canines, even those without magic.
Jenna tried to imagine what it might be like to live your life entirely in an animal form as many of the werewolves in the zoo wolf pack chose. She’d been introduced to the chimp animagus, Ian, who, as far as she understood, spent nearly all of his life in ape form and was as happy hanging out with the other members of the primate house as he was with the human members of P.A.W.S.
Everyone appeared to have their own special role at P.A.W.S., and Jenna sometimes wondered what hers might be, but then she would remember Ryan, her baby boy growing inside her, and realized that this was her role. Jessamyn believed her son to be important and Jenna knew instinctively that this was true.
She gazed up at the now full moon. It seemed low and large tonight, as if she could reach up and touch it. “Ryan,” she said to her son, “can you feel the moon? She’s beautiful, you know, and in not so many months you will meet her.”
Jenna felt her baby shift just slightly inside her and a warm glow filled her body despite the chill of the night.
“Are you ready to hunt?” Andrew asked.
Chapter 19
Cynthia was a little tipsy when she left the clock shop. She decided she probably shouldn’t drive just yet. She fed the meter a few more quarters and walked down the street, letting the moist April air sober her up. Inside her pocket she held the small square box; a jewelry box, she had decided. She was sure she hadn’t seen it before, but yet it felt familiar. What had David been doing with it, and why were its contents so valuable to him?
She wondered why she even cared. Maybe she should stop all this foolishness, file for divorce. There were no children to worry about; maybe if she got a good lawyer she might even be able to keep the house. Maybe . . .
She finished her walk around the block and came back to her red sports car. Might as well go home now. Perhaps she’d find something good to watch on television, something she could escape into.
In the car, she flipped on the radio but the music was too loud and jarring. It intruded on her thoughts, so she quickly turned it off. She drove home, expecting an empty house.
Success. David sat on the bed looking at the familiar silver charm in his hand. Months of scouting around Forest Park had finally paid off. He should put the amulet back in the safe. He removed the picture of the wolf from the wall and dialed the combination. Then he searched inside and found the original small silk pouch that the charm had been in when he first stole it from his father so many years before. He dropped the charm inside and placed the pouch at the very back of the safe underneath a pile of papers. It had been stolen once before, but that was while Alistair was still around. David believed it was safe now. He doubted that Miri would want it back, or that she would have the ability to acquire it even if she wanted it. Just to be safe though, he changed the combination on the lock. There, now he could go and get something to eat, maybe catch up on some paperwork.
He heard the door open downstairs; Cynthia home from wherever it was she went these days. Probably some Ladies Guild meeting. Maybe they could go out for dinner. They hadn’t done that for a long while and, well, he had something to celebrate.
Hastily he replaced the picture of the wolf and went downstairs to Cynthia.
Chapter 20
Miri woke up and stretched. She felt so relaxed; she halfway thought she was in her cat form. Must have been the nice evening she’d spent with Danny, just the two of them. Danny had taken his guitar and they had sat out on the edge of the lake. They’d brought a picnic—food stolen from Hugo Hogsworth’s kitchen. Forbidden fruit was so much tastier! They ate and laughed, and Danny had played her songs on his guitar. Miri loved listening to his music.
She sampled his emotions as he sang. That night there was only peace, and she drank in the calmness and reflected it back to him. He smiled.
“You’re getting very good at that, Miri,” he said, and looked into her blue eyes.
His kisses tasted like chocolate, and Miri continued taking in and returning his emotions as she lost herself in his arms. They had arrived back at the Jewel Box very late, and then Miri lay in bed for a long time, reliving the evening, before she finally succumbed to sleep.
Restful sleep. For once her dreams were free of Alistair. A happy kaleidoscope of colors and memories all blended into one. She awoke refreshed and ready for breakfast and classes. As she got ready, she hummed to herself one of the songs Danny had sung to her the previous night. Even her roommate Lilith was leaving her alone this morning. She’d finally accepted Miri’s relationship with Danny, now that she was seeing Zamir. Only problem was that, as an exchange student, Zamir would eventually go back to his family in Egypt, though Lilith was hoping to convince him otherwise.
Miri sat with Sandy and Joey at breakfast. Hugo had made a stack of pancakes, but for some reason there were no chocolate chip ones this morning. Miri giggled to herself when she saw that. It was possible, she thought, that she and Danny had finished off the chocolate chips last night!
After breakfast, they wandered off to class where Professor Ainsworth was waiting for them with a stack of papers. The professor worked hard to make sure that each student in his class had an individualized lesson plan to keep up with his studies. Miri looked at the first worksheet on her pile. It was a science sheet. She was supposed to fill in the names of the various chemical elements next to their abbreviations on the periodic table. Most of the elements would have been familiar to any science student, but at the bottom of the table were a few ancient elements, only known to those who study the magical arts.
There was EK for ectoplasm; ML for Merlinium, a rare element only found in the long-white beards of magicians; PH for Phlogiston, more commonly known as pixie dust; and OZ for Ozmanium, an element which, when encountered, gives one the intense desire to follow a path.
Miri worked through the list until she reached the abbreviation AG—silver. Silver, or as magicians prefer to call it, Argentum, is a very important element for all those who practice magic. It is the best magical conductor, and most magical artifacts were fashioned from the metal, including wands and scrying bowls—and charms.
Miri instinctively reached around her neck a
s she filled in the word “silver.” Yes, it was there, as always, her comfort, her soul. When she was without it briefly last fall, when her mother Nora took it, she’d felt lost, like part of her was missing.
But today, she felt complete and more content than she had for a long while. She’d not felt this way ever since the night she destroyed Alistair.
Wait a second, silver! There was something missing—Alistair. He had not infiltrated her dreams last night. Ever since she’d taken in his emotions, she had felt the residue of his evil deep inside her, but today it was simply gone. Suddenly, she understood what that must mean. In the middle of class, she jumped up from her seat and ran from the room.
The professor rapidly transformed into owl form and followed her out, flying after her as she ran to her room. She paid him no attention, but ran instead to her bedside table and opened the drawer. She saw immediately that it was gone. She sat on the edge of her bed and stared. How—how was this possible? The only people who knew about the existence of this charm were she and Danny.
Professor Ainsworth fluttered down into the room and changed back into human form.
“Whatever are you doing, Miri? Why did you run out of my class? Surely you could have raised your hand if you needed to be excused. This is unacceptable. I’ll have to report this to Jessamyn.”
Miri stared at him blankly. “Jessamyn, yes, I suppose I do have to tell Jessamyn.”
“Well then . . . um, come along then. Let’s get back to class.”
But Miri didn’t move. Instead she closed her eyes and concentrated. Piece by piece she let down her mental shield. First, as he was closest, she felt Ainsworth’s emotions. They were predominantly confusion. He was not used to his class being disrupted. She ranged further, searching for a certain signature—searching for a trace of Alistair. She found it only in one place in P.A.W.S., and that she already knew, deep within Jenna in the baby she was carrying. But nowhere else. Miri was sure of that, and certain that wherever the charm had gone, it was no longer within the boundaries of P.A.W.S.
Miri looked up and saw Professor Ainsworth reentering the room, this time with Jessamyn. Miri understood what must have happened; while she was scanning the P.A.W.S. residents she must have appeared sick or in some kind of trance, so Ainsworth searched out Jessamyn for help.
Miri supposed this was just as well. She couldn’t hide this theft from Jessamyn.
“Miri, what’s wrong here?” Jessamyn asked.
“There’s been a theft . . . someone inside P.A.W.S. took something out . . . or else someone from outside got in . . . I don’t know.”
“Miri, come with me. Cedric, you can go back to your class, and thank you for informing me.”
Miri followed Jessamyn to her chamber. She never quite knew what to expect when she came there. Jessamyn was a magician of illusion and the appearance of her room changed with the seasons. Today it appeared to be raining! Rainbow-colored droplets were falling from the ceiling and tiny green frogs were hopping around the room, which appeared today as a meadow with a large pond in the center filled with lily pads and dragonflies.
The rain, Miri quickly realized, was not wet, but wherever it fell, it left a little splash of color that slowly faded. Miri gazed around in wonder for a minute or two, momentarily forgetting the reason for her visit to this wondrous room.
Jessamyn smiled and led Miri forward to an island in the center of the pond where her desk and two chairs were floating. Miri sat down with difficulty, opposite Jessamyn, scared that somehow her chair would float away, but thankfully it appeared to be anchored to the floor.
“Now Miri, tell me what this is all about.”
Reluctantly, Miri told Jessamyn about the other charm—the one she’d picked up that night when she’d destroyed Alistair.
“Why didn’t you tell me about this before, Miriam?”
“I don’t know, exactly. Danny said I should, especially as I was having the bad dreams, but I wasn’t sure they were connected. I thought that Alistair’s bad feelings were inside me, you see. Kind of collateral damage from my attack. I didn’t really connect the dots until today.”
“And you’re sure this amulet is not inside P.A.W.S?”
“Pretty sure, I did a scan. I think I would have felt it, if it was anywhere close.”
“So in that case we must assume it has been taken out of P.A.W.S. Let us scry.”
Jessamyn withdrew her silver scepter from her robe and passed it over the pond. The silver scrying bowl rose from the water and positioned itself on Jessamyn’s desk between them.
“It is difficult for me to scry an object; I usually deal with people and illusions. Yet I will try. You say it was a cat charm similar to your own?”
“Yes, I believe it may have originally belonged to my opapa, Max. I have no idea how it ended up in the hands of Alistair. It doesn’t really make sense. When Nora stole my charm, she couldn’t use it, it burnt her. How was Alistair able to wear the charm, and why did it make him into a monster?”
“I suspect he had help,” said Jessamyn quietly.
Jessamyn muttered and gazed into the scrying bowl; the waters beneath just churned with tiny glimpses of silver, but nothing she could really focus on.
Jessamyn sighed. “We will keep trying, Miri, for now you can go back to your class.”
Chapter 21
Jessamyn sighed as she watched Miri make her way back out of her chamber. There was one person who could probably locate the lost charm. She passed her silver scepter over the scrying bowl and uttered his name . . .
Quentin looked disheveled as she gazed at his image in the water. Was that a gray hair? No, that wasn’t possible. All she needed to do was call out, but she held back, scared of her attraction to this man, scared of his power. She saw his own charm around his neck—a glowing silver falcon. She had wanted one like that, but that was the one thing Quentin had never succeeded in accomplishing in all the time she’d been with him. It was the one secret that Merlin had taken with him to the grave. As far as she knew, only Merlin had ever been able to fashion the shapeshifters’ amulets. That was why there were so few in existence.
Instead, Quentin taught her how to change and she became an animagus. It took a long time, but her magic was strong and she remembered with a smile how proud she was the day she accomplished her first metamorphosis. She’d started small—a seagull, like so many that flew around the beach where they spent most of the time.
Quentin applauded her and then joined her in the sky for her first flight. Oh, how wonderful to fly, to soar with the wind, to let it take her wherever it wished. There would be time enough to perfect navigation. For now she simply let the air currents take over.
Quentin felt a prickling sensation in the back of his neck. He slowly walked to his scrying bowl and gazed inside. He was not surprised to see the image of Jessamyn, but he did not talk to her. He was ashamed—ashamed of how he had left her, ashamed of how he had tricked her, ashamed of so many things . . .
Today was the day they were to summon the Teg. He had planned it, so it could not fail. He would use Jessa to lure the fairy and then bind her with a spell. Then she would have to do his bidding, have to share her secret of immortality. What could possibly go wrong? Well, just about everything, actually. When Quentin thought back to that time, he wondered about his naiveté. Despite all the centuries he’d walked on this earth, he’d still believed that he could control such ancient magic.
But as the twelve-year-old Jessamyn started reciting the words, Quentin realized he’d made a terrible mistake. He tried to stop her completing the spell, but it was too late. He watched with horror as Jessamyn sank beneath the ground, and listened in terror to the cackling laughter of the Teg.
He waited, frozen in place, just outside the moss-covered stones of the ruined castle. It seemed like an eternity. A green, ghostly light covered the whole area. Quentin lost track of time, but he did not move from his vigil. Overhead, the sun set and he heard Cleona’s voice echoing o
ver the hills, calling her daughter home.
Finally, just as the first stars were peeking out from behind the clouds, the ground opened once more and Jessamyn’s body was discarded on the soil. No longer frozen, Quentin ran forward to Jessa. At first he thought she was dead, but then he noticed she was breathing, a slow, even rhythm, as if she was asleep. Quentin lifted her gently and, cradling her in his arms, walked toward Cleona’s cottage.
Cleona was not happy. Who was this strange man? And what had he done to her daughter? Quentin tried to invent a story. He was a tourist and had found this girl up among the ruins. He had brought her to Cleona because he had heard of her reputation as a healer.
Cleona was an imposing woman, much taller than Quentin, and she looked down at him with disdain in her emerald eyes. Quentin could tell that she didn’t believe a word of his story.
Cleona laid Jessamyn down on her bed. She could find nothing wrong with her other than a few scratches and bruises, but she wouldn’t wake up. For three days she remained in slumber. Cleona dribbled water and strengthening potions into her mouth and would sit and sing to her, her voice clear and strong.
Quentin stayed close by and visited often. Cleona tolerated his presence, but still did not trust him.
On the third day, Cleona left her post to go and gather new herbs for her potions. This was a task she would normally have delegated to Jessamyn. Quentin sat by Jessamyn’s side. He talked to her and told her he was sorry, but would she please wake up. He had so much more he wanted to show her, and he promised her that he would teach her how to fly.
On those words, a smile appeared on Jessamyn’s lips.
“Jessa,” said Quentin softly.
She opened her eyes and studied his face, so full of concern.
“You’ll really teach me how to fly?” she said.
Argentum (P.A.W.S. Book 2) Page 8
