by C. M. Cevis
Luna had done some more digging into magical locks before heading to bed the night before but hadn’t been able to find anything that would do what she needed it to. Nothing that she could manage on her own, at least. For now, the wooden door and dead bolt would have to do.
After Asher had left, Luna and Liza had talked more about the coma dream as well. Liza hadn’t been able to see any of it, so in the days since Luna had awoken, she had spent quite a bit of time explaining everything that had happened inside her head, and then answering questions. The current theory was that whoever had orchestrated the dream was probably in it as well. They just had to figure out how to tell which person it was in there, then who they were in the waking world.
The other concern had been about their family. There had been a few attempts to find Luna once she’d been placed in Calidity, but none of them had succeeded. What Luna hadn’t been able to outmaneuver, Graham had. But the dead body in her dream had been so real that it concerned her. Liza had suggested yesterday that Luna ask Graham to double check a current status on her father and brother, and Luna had agreed. She planned to call him later in the day, when she had a better chance of catching him not doing something pressing.
For now, she sat in the kitchen with her cup of coffee, listening as new holes were drilled into the doors for the second set of deadbolts. She tilted her head as another sound joined the drill buzz—footsteps.
“This is what I get for my doors being open. That’ll teach me,” Luna murmured.
“What was that?” Wesley asked as he strode into the kitchen, his hand behind one ear for emphasis.
“I said, what do you need, Sheriff?” Luna replied. Maybe he was there for a legitimate reason.
“I can’t just stop by and see why you’re putting new locks on your doors? You afraid of something in our peaceful, sleepy town?” Wesley asked, coming farther into the kitchen but stopping short of taking an uninvited seat.
“No,” Luna replied.
“No?”
“No.” Was it his slow morning? Why was he repeating her?
“Then why the new locks?”
“Because I want new locks.”
“That doesn’t really tell me why.”
Luna sighed. “Sheriff, I hate to break it to you, but my decision on what locks and how many I have on the house that I own are not something I have to explain.”
Wesley shrugged. “You are right, Ms. Luna, you don’t have to tell me. But not telling me sure does make you look suspicious.”
She shot Wesley a look over her raised coffee mug. “No, it doesn’t.”
“You argue a lot.”
She breathed in the steam of her coffee and didn’t answer. Wesley had rubbed her wrong too many times to count since they’d met, and she was reasonably sure that meant she approached every situation with him like it was a fight. Today, he wasn’t being sexist or pushy about his desire to see her naked, he was just being really nosy. Nosy was annoying, but the lesser of his normal offences. So maybe she needed to be nicer.
She exhaled. “The coma situation made me a bit paranoid, okay? The locks will make me feel better. More secure.”
“The coma made you paranoid?” he repeated. That was going to get annoying.
“The dream I had while in the coma.”
Wesley nodded, the look on his face saying that he understood. “So it’s not something someone here did.”
Luna shook her head.
“Good to know.”
Silence descended, which was unusual for the sheriff. He started to fidget.
“Was there something else you needed, Sheriff?” Luna asked, hoping to spur this visit along before he got out of pocket.
“No, no, I just stopped because your front door was open and I heard the drill. I didn’t see Eddie at first.”
Luna nodded in response. “All is well.”
Wesley smiled in return, his as fake as hers. “Good to know.”
He didn’t move.
She stood. “I’ve got a check-in to get ready for and workmen in my house, so unless there’s something else you need?” Maybe he’d take the hint.
“So then I shouldn’t come past again later?”
Luna almost rolled her eyes. “I know how to dial 911 if I need another visit, Sheriff.”
Wesley looked like he had something else to say, but changed his mind, tipped his hat, and left the kitchen. She didn’t have the strength to make sure that he’d left the house, but she was pretty sure neither Eddie nor Gerald would let him wander around without engaging him.
“We’re almost done with the drilling, Ms. Luna,” Eddie called from the front of the house.
“Oh thank God,” Luna mumbled. She called back so he could hear, “Sounds like it’s time for a break and some coffee.”
“I like the way you think” came the laughing response.
~*~
“So,” Liza started, settling herself down on the couch. “Who do you think it was?”
Luna stared at the couch pattern as it showed through Liza’s transparent body and tried not to snicker. She’d always found that funny.
“We’ve decided that this wasn’t just some supernatural weirdness that has to do with me being a witch. It was weirdness that someone clearly took advantage of, going by the threat just before I woke up.”
Liza nodded, frowning as if still mulling things over. “The more I think about it, the more I am sure that I was kept out by something that wasn’t you. It didn’t remotely feel like you—it was foreign. I don’t think that was some magical weirdness that was randomly thrust on you.”
Luna sighed. She’d thought the same thing but had hoped her sister wouldn’t come to the same conclusion.
“You thought so too,” Liza said.
Luna made a face. “No point in keeping that thought from you, is there?”
“Sorry. I was hoping I’d come up with something else too. So who can cause magical comas?”
Luna crossed her arms and slouched in her seat. “Another witch? One who wasn’t able to sense that you were there.”
“Or one that was able to sense that I was there and is powerful enough to keep only the part of you that is me out.”
Luna grunted. “I prefer the former.”
“Same,” Liza sighed.
“I wonder if there’s a way to back trace the magic used,” Luna wondered out loud.
“Maybe. But I thought that had to be used on ongoing magic, not magic that had already been disrupted.”
Luna glanced over at the bookshelf she’d put in the living room a few months back to hold her magic research books. Any non-magical person who flipped through one would see jokes from a joke book, but for her they were essential in her quest to get her magic working without blowing something up.
“There’s got to be something left behind, right? Magic always has some sort of cost or price, and it leaves a mark.”
“On the one who casts the spell, sure. But on the target?” Liza asked.
Luna shrugged. “Do you have any other ideas we can look into?”
“Not really. Short of trying to find all the witches in town and narrowing it down the mundane way.”
“We can try that too, though I’m not sure either of us would make good detectives.”
Liza laughed. “We would make terrible detectives. But I bet we could get some spying done, like we used to. Me inside with you close enough outside…”
Luna thought about it. It wasn’t a bad idea. She and Liza had done similar when they were kids to eavesdrop on arguments and such. They’d never tried it on something like this, but then again, they weren’t the police. They didn’t need physical proof. They just needed to know who was a witch and who wasn’t.
“That’s not a bad idea, sis.” Luna grinned.
“Occasionally I do have them.”
“Now we need to figure out where to start with this. We can poke around at night and research tracing back old magic during the day.”
Liza nodded. “Here’s hoping one of those pans out. I feel like we’re sitting ducks right now, and I don’t like that.”
“Yeah,” Luna breathed. “Me either.”
9
The office was dark. He kept it that way when he was alone for several reasons, one being the headache pounding against his temples. The other was the dark figure occupying the far corner of the room. That was probably the cause of the headache as well.
“Have you found them?” the figure hissed.
“I didn’t lose them. It’s not like the girl just woke up from a coma and skipped town. She can’t—she’s here for a reason.”
“A reason that you saw and can now use against her, yes?”
He sighed. “Yes.”
“And when is that going to begin?” the figure asked, impatience dripping from its words.
“When I have a way in. She is not someone I was acquainted with before this situation arose. And I don’t have the ability to visit her dreams.”
“There are other witches in town. Can’t one of them give you a way in?”
He hadn’t thought of that, mainly because keeping more people from being a part of this mess was better than having loose ends when it was all finally taken care of. “I’ll see what I can get done.”
“Today,” the figure hissed.
“Today,” he repeated, pulling a large bottle of aspirin from his desk and dumping four of them into his palm.
“I will not allow you to rest. Until I am satisfied, neither are you.”
The man grimaced but didn’t respond. Instead, he downed the aspirin dry and got up to leave.
~*~
The dreams weren’t getting any better. The good news was that she was aware she was dreaming, which kept her from being absolutely terrified. But since she knew she was dreaming and could approach the dream rationally, Liza didn’t get the kick of adrenalin and know that Luna needed help waking up.
Either way, the dreams were a new problem. Luna wasn’t sure if they were something medical left over from the coma or something psychological. Her doctor had been skeptical that she was having nightmares based on her dream coma—apparently brain activity was so low during a coma that dreams were medically unlikely—but when nothing turned up in the brain scans, therapy had been the next course of action.
Liza seemed relieved when Luna had an appointment set up.
Luna hung up from talking with the therapist’s receptionist, Violet. “Okay Liza, you can calm down now. The day after tomorrow.” She turned on the vanity’s bench to face the bed, where Liza had settled while she was on the phone.
“Good. I guess it’s a plus that you don’t panic while you’re having these dreams, but I wish there was a way for me to know when you are.”
“Can’t you just monitor my dreams?” Luna asked as she moved to where she laid her clothes out the night before. She needed to start getting ready for the day before she was out of time.
Liza made a face. “All night? I mean, I could, but that is a really long time to just be sitting there, watching and waiting.”
Luna snickered. Yeah, Liza would hate that, and she wouldn’t ask her to do it because she knew that Liza would if she genuinely asked. But she’d hate it. Liza wasn’t a TV watcher, and this would be practically like TV for eight straight. That sounded like torture.
“Here’s hoping Dr. Hise can figure out what’s up. The dreams are starting to get to me.”
“I think we should be careful about figuring out the who and how of the coma while you’re in therapy,” Liza said, spinning around in her seat as Luna headed for the bathroom.
Luna paused halfway through the door. “You don’t want to go hot and heavy on that one? We have a lot of questions that need answered.”
“Yeah I do, that’s important. But therapy done right means opening up, and that means you’ll be vulnerable. Do you really want to chance going up against someone as powerful as we’re assuming he or she is when you’re not best able to defend yourself?”
Luna sighed. Liza had a point. “No, actually. That seems like a recipe to get my butt kicked.”
Liza smiled and nodded, sympathy written all over her face as she moved to join Luna in the bathroom. Luna could tell this had been difficult for her to bring up. They both wanted answers.
“Let’s concentrate on trying to replace those magical locks in the basement for now. Once we know what’s going on with your noggin, then we can go look for the big bad witch who put you under.”
Luna laughed, palming a bit of gel in one hand with her spray bottle in the other so she could get started on her hair. “Alright. We’ve got other stuff to do anyway. Plus a guest checking in.”
“Right! I love when we have guests. The people that come through here are always so interesting.” Liza clapped her hands.
“In person? Or psychically?”
“Both, most of the time. No one has ever been malicious, thankfully, but they always have the most interesting stories and experiences.”
Luna had noticed that nearly every booking turned into a very interesting guest. Was it the house attracting these people somehow? She had no idea, but considering the basement, it wasn’t something that she was willing to rule out.
But if that was the case, why there? And why to her? Better yet, what the heck was she supposed to do about it?
The doorbell echoed through the house, interrupting the end of Luna’s hair and what would have been the beginning of her eyeliner, if she’d had more time. Instead, she trotted back into the bedroom, gave herself a quick once over in the mirror of her vanity and headed for the stairs.
She put on her best welcome smile, opened the door…
And froze.
“Lu!” Liza whispered frantically into her head. “What are you doing, don’t just stare at her. What’s wrong?
Luna closed her mouth and swallowed nothing. Then she got herself together enough to answer mentally.
“Her name is Zelda. She was in my coma dream.”
10
“What?!” Liza hissed.
Luna didn’t have time. Zelda was already looking at her like perhaps she’d lost her mind. She looked exactly like she had in the coma dream: The same salt and pepper shoulder-length curls, skin that looked like it had seen more sun than rain, blue green eyes that shifted color depending on what angle you were looking at her from… Things Luna could not have known about this woman before this very moment. The only difference was the aura. In the dream, it had been feisty and strong. Now, it seemed smaller, a bit defeated. As if something very fresh and recent had hurt her badly.
When she’d seen the name on the reservation, she hadn’t bothered connecting the dots. Zelda was a common enough, right? Why would she think—
“I apologize. Hi there, and welcome to Luna & Liza’s. I hope you didn’t have too much trouble finding the place,” Luna said, her heart going a mile a minute.
“Thankfully I didn’t, though I don’t think I would have minded if I did. This is a beautiful place.”
“It is, and very peaceful. It’s a good place to unwind.” Luna motioned for Zelda to step further into the house and closed the door behind her. “I’m Luna.”
“The same Luna that this place is named for?” Zelda asked with a cautious smile that Luna returned.
“Yes ma’am.”
“Where’s Liza, then? Twins?”
Luna nodded. “Liza is my twin sister. But she passed a few hours after we were born.”
Zelda’s face fell. “Oh. I am so sorry to hear that.”
“It’s okay, I’m right here either way,” Liza said as if Zelda could hear her.
“It’s quite alright. I feel like she’s with me even now. That’s why both of our names are on this place.”
Liza snickered, and Luna managed to swallow her laugh before it spilled out. This was serious. What in the world was going on?
“It’s wonderful to meet you, Luna. I’m Zelda, but you knew that from the reservation, I a
ssume.”
Luna nodded, leading Zelda down the hallway so that she could see where things were before she showed her to her room. “That I do. You are the only guest here this week, so you’ve got the place to yourself. Well, except for me of course.” Luna laughed.
“That sounds wonderful. I could really use some quiet.” The end of the sentence was stained with sadness.
“Yeah, I heard it too,” Liza whispered.
“Then I will give you all the peace I can muster while you’re here. And if you want to talk about anything, I’m a good listener.”
Zelda smiled and nodded. Luna had no intention of pressing the issue further.
The two women took a quick tour of the first floor, and Luna made sure that Zelda knew where everything that she might need for a cup of coffee or a glass of wine was kept. She asked her for dinner and breakfast preferences, and if she wanted anything from the store.
“Whiskey.”
Liza had thought that was funny and sad at the same time.
The room Luna had readied for Zelda turned out to be the perfect one, or rather the one Luna would have picked had she known that Zelda was coming with a heavy heart. It got the most sun throughout the day without getting too warm, and was decorated with cheery shades of yellows and oranges. The bed was settled in the middle of the room with just enough space for the armchair and the small shelf that Luna had added and stocked with books and a few cozy blankets, just in case.
It was the room Luna slept in when she needed some happiness and no one was staying in the house.
“I hope this will do for you,” Luna said, opening the door and allowing Zelda to step through. “The bathroom is across the hall and has both a soaking tub and a shower. There’s some bath salts and a few different scents of bubbles in there as well.”
“You really do know how to take care of a girl, don’t you?” Zelda asked, setting her bags beside the bed and turning to face Luna with a smile.
