Utterly Charming

by Kristine Grayson

  In the distance, sirens wailed.

  She let the curtain drop. Steeling herself, she grabbed the snake, and it slithered up her sleeve, like it used to do with Blackstone. Its scaly skin wasn’t as sharp as she thought it would be. It was rather oily instead. Even so, she shuddered.

  One of the frogs started jumping in its little aquarium. Leaping up against the mesh top, then landing on the pile of rocks, then leaping up against the mesh top, then landing. Nora frowned at it. The gerbil was peering against its glass cage, watching her.

  The frog started leaping harder and harder, bashing its little head against the mesh.

  With a simple flick of my finger, I could turn you into a toad.

  Ealhswith had said that to her in Nora’s apartment.

  Aren’t you being a bit clichéd? Blackstone had asked.

  Nora’s breath caught in her throat. The room was beginning to smell like smoke, but that wasn’t what was bothering her. What bothered her was the idea she had just had, the idea that these weren’t trapped animals. These were trapped people.

  The frog was denting the wire mesh.

  Nora leaned toward it. “Emma?”

  The frog landed on its rock and nodded. Nora had never seen a frog nod. Only it wasn’t a frog. It was too bumpy and small to be a frog.

  It was a toad.

  Nora turned to the other animals. “Are any of you Emma?”

  The dogs stopped yapping and sat in their cages, their mouths hanging open and their tongues sticking out. The cats ignored her, continuing to try to grasp the locks. The fish were still staring at her, all lined up in front like computerized fish or photographs of fish. And the gerbil had its tiny paws against the glass.

  “None of them are, but you are?” Nora said, turning to the toad.

  It nodded again.

  “My God,” she said, pulling aside the mesh and grabbing the toad. It felt soft and rubbery beneath her fingers.

  The snake slid out of her sleeve, hissing and snapping. The toad squirmed even more.

  Nora shook that arm and let the snake drop. Then she put the toad in her shirt pocket, bent over, and grabbed the snake beside its little eyes. She raised it to her face.

  “If you ever want to see Blackstone again,” she said, “you’ll do as I say. Leave that toad alone.”

  The toad was watching out of her pocket. Nora let the snake climb up her sleeve again. Then she crept through the hall, down the stairs, and into the garage.

  The snake had wrapped itself around her upper bicep. The toad kept its head out of her pocket but didn’t move much beyond that. It was trembling. Nora touched it lightly with her finger.

  “Hang on,” she whispered. “This could get rough.”

  The toad nodded again.

  Nora walked around the Saab. Big waves of inky black smoke were roiling down the street. The house next door was gone, and so was the house beyond that. The houses across the street were cindered remains. Ash was falling from the air. She couldn’t see her mother or Jeffrey.

  She stepped on the slight incline that separated the garage from the driveway. Blackstone was in the center of the lawn, lobbing fireballs at the roof. Apparently Ealhswith hadn’t gotten down.

  The sound of the sirens had grown.

  Nora waved. Blackstone looked toward her, then instantly looked away. He lobbed another fireball, then another, and another. They flew toward the roof, but obviously didn’t land because the house wasn’t burning. Something exploded behind the house. Ealhswith was as good at diverting his spells as he was at diverting hers.

  After lobbing the last he ran toward Nora. He reached her, put his arms around her waist, and helped her into the garage.

  “I think this is Emma,” she said, pointing at the toad. Blackstone squinted.

  “By God,” he said. “It is. Get her out of here, Nora.”

  “Where do I take her?” Nora asked.

  Blackstone looked over his shoulder at the ruined neighborhood and winced. “Good question.”

  “Are you hiding, Aethelstan?” Ealhswith’s voice floated down from the roof.

  “Just stay put,” he said, and as he started to leave, the snake shot out of Nora’s sleeve and made a dive for Blackstone’s arm. Nora had to catch it with her right hand.

  “Malcolm?” Blackstone asked. The snake wrapped itself around his arm and peered into his face. “Malcolm?” He sounded thrilled.

  “You have a snake named Malcolm?” Nora said.

  Blackstone nodded. “He’s my familiar. And I haven’t needed him more than I need him right now.”

  “Aethelstan, are you afraid of me?” Ealhswith sounded as if she were pleased.

  “Not on your life, Ealhswith,” he shouted. Then he patted Emma on the head. “You don’t know how much easier you’ve just made this,” he said, and ran back to the front yard.

  Nora stepped out farther. The smoke was hurting her lungs. The air had gotten so hot that she could barely breathe.

  “This time you won’t find a glass coffin in my garage,” Ealhswith said.

  “I know,” Blackstone said. He whirled, going faster and faster until he was just a blur.

  A fire truck pulled up on the street, and the men on the truck stared at Blackstone. Nora did too. The toad was still trembling in her pocket.

  Then black lines shot out of the whirling dervish that was Blackstone. They went toward the roof, and above her, Nora heard a thud.

  “You can’t do this! You can’t!” Ealhswith shouted. “If you hurt me, you’ll hurt Emma!”

  The toad cringed in Nora’s pocket.

  A black-wrapped Ealhswith fell off the roof like a charred bowling ball. It hit the eave above the front door, bounced, and landed in the lawn.

  Blackstone stopped whirling and stood over her. “I can do anything I want,” he said. “Because I know where Emma is, and I know how to save her this time.”

  He nudged the black-wrapped ball with his foot. It whimpered.

  “Can’t cast a spell now, can you?” he asked. “It’s rather scary when you can’t move your arms.”

  Nora stayed in the garage. She didn’t trust this. Not yet.

  “I think a thousand-year sleep might be a good punishment. Or maybe I should kill you so that you can’t inflict yourself on anyone else.” He peered at Ealhswith through the black wrapping. Nora couldn’t see anything except small bits of flesh.

  Then he shook his head. “But that would make me as bad as you. Your future belongs to the Fates. They’ll figure out what to do with you.”

  He waved an arm over Ealhswith, and the entire black ball disappeared.

  Several more fire trucks pulled up, and the fireman started spraying water on the other houses. Blackstone walked toward the garage.

  “If you could do that all along,” Nora said, “why did you let this go on?”

  “I couldn’t do that all along,” he said. “It takes centuries of training to do that one spell, and sometimes the mage you attack doesn’t survive it. I didn’t dare risk it, not while Emma was in her coma.”

  “But she’s a toad now,” Nora said. “And Ealhswith did that. There are a dozen more animals upstairs.”

  Blackstone nodded. “As I said, I’ve learned a little during this last millennium.”

  The toad poked its head out of Nora’s pocket and watched everything with its large eyes. Blackstone’s snake peeked out of his collar and hissed.

  “Pleasant familiar,” Nora said.

  More and more fire trucks were showing up. The sky was black, the sun gone. Smoke covered everything. The ashfall covered Nora, the car, the yard. Particles floated in the air.

  “But first,” Blackstone said, his smile for Nora, “we take care of the neighborhood.”

  “Kind of you,” she said.

  “I remember your complaints the last time. Besides,” he said, “if I don’t, we’ll be inundated with more and more people.”

  “Not to mention the loss of air.” Nora coughed, and it wasn
’t for effect. Her throat was raw.

  Blackstone turned. He seemed to be bracing himself, drawing strength, as if he had just finished a marathon and was then told he had to run for five more miles. He spread out his arms, mumbled something in that archaic Danish, and everything disappeared.

  Whiteness, opaqueness.

  Nora felt dizzy.

  Then the buildings were back as they were. The fire was gone. The smoke was gone. The air was clean and fresh. The flowers still bloomed, and the pine tree across the street stood tall and proud. There were no fire trucks on the street, only a handful of cars that had been parked there.

  The curtains moved in the radio personality’s house, and Nora thought she saw a face in the window.

  “Thanks,” she said.

  “My pleasure,” Blackstone said, bowing again. It touched her every time he did that. He seemed elegant and courtly and somehow right. On any other man that action would seem like an affectation. “Now let’s take care of Emma. Please take her out of your pocket and place her on the driveway.”

  “You’re sure this is Emma?”

  “Aren’t you?” he asked.

  Nora bit her lower lip. How to say that the toad looked like a toad to her? Actually, it looked like a frog to her, or had from a distance.

  “Don’t worry,” he said. “It’s Emma. I recognize her eyes.”

  Nora looked. The bulging eyes looked like frog eyes. She took the toad out of her pocket and placed it on the driveway. Then she stepped back. The toad just sat there, watching Blackstone.

  He stepped toward the road. Then he raised his arms, muttered more in Danish, then repeated parts of the spell in English. It sounded vaguely like Shakespearean dialogue from Macbeth. No wonder the bard had gotten the witches scene from the Fates.

  Blackstone ended it with a shouted, “Reverse Ealhswith’s spells!” and then he clapped his hands. There was a loud boom, and Nora was knocked backward onto the ground.

  She landed beside the Saab, but there was no concrete beneath her. She had scraped her elbows and hands on grass. Frowning she looked up. Dozens of naked people littered what was now a vacant lot, along with furniture that had tumbled haphazardly into place. The couch and chairs were in the same spots they had been in that living room, but the bed had fallen on its side. Both big screen TVs were there as well as all the DVDs.

  The glass coffin had shattered.

  The naked people were sitting beside each other, holding their heads. They all looked toward Blackstone, and he cursed slightly.

  Nora looked at him too. Behind him, Emma sat on the grass. She was also naked. And perfect. Nora had never known another woman to look so perfect.

  Emma was staring at her own hands, then at the space where the house had been.

  “Good heavens, that child needs a coat!”

  The voice belonged to Amanda. Nora turned. Her mother was behind her, and Jeffrey was beside her, much in the same positions they had been in before they decided to scout the neighborhood.

  “Give her your shirt, Jeffrey,” Amanda said.

  Jeffrey started to unbutton his shirt. Blackstone took a step toward all the naked people and swore again.

  Then he held his arms up and said, “To the Fates!” and clapped his hands together again.

  The naked people—except for Emma—disappeared.

  “What’re you doing?” Nora asked.

  “Sending evidence,” he said.

  “They were people, not evidence.”

  “Too many for me to deal with.” He turned toward her. “It would have been a mess.”

  “You could have spelled them like you planned to spell Emma.”

  “It’s not that simple,” he said. “Didn’t you recognize Jimmy Hoffa in there? And the crew of the Marie Celeste? Obviously Ealhswith has been doing this for a long time. And keeping them as some sort of vendetta.”

  Jeffrey got up and wrapped his shirt around Emma. That seemed to break her spell. She patted his hands and stood slowly, her gaze still on Blackstone.

  “Aethelstan,” she said. “I misjudged you.”

  He shot Nora a quick glance, so quick that she wondered if she imagined that he was rolling his eyes. Then he turned toward Emma. “No,” he said. “I owe you an apology.”

  “No, you do not,” she said. “I owe you an apology. You saved my life.”

  Then she ran into his arms, Jeffrey’s shirt flapping around her. They spun slightly, and Blackstone looked at Nora over Emma’s shoulder.

  “You saved me,” Emma said again. Then she grabbed his head, brought it down, and kissed him.

  Nora held her breath. Blackstone looked alarmed. But Emma giggled. “See!” she said. “Even that spell has been reversed.”

  “I guess so,” he said, and for some reason he didn’t sound happy.

  Emma backed out of his grasp and wrapped the shirt around herself. She smiled at Nora. “Thank you,” she said. “You were great. As were you, Amanda. And you, Jeffrey. I owe you so much. I shall get you a new shirt.”

  He nodded, as if he were in shock. Nora was trembling. Things were moving too fast for her.

  Emma grabbed Blackstone’s hand. “Let us leave,” she said.

  He glanced at Nora. “Do you have objections, Counselor?”

  “Not if my client doesn’t,” she said, amazed that her voice could sound so calm.

  Blackstone frowned slightly and looked at Emma.

  “Object?” Emma said. “No. I finally understand what has happened. I am ready to face the future. It is time to get to know Aethelstan. This Aethelstan. He says we are soul mates, you know.” She smiled at all of them, and it was like a blessing from the gods. “I will make sure Aethelstan pays you for your services.”

  “Women don’t rely on men for money anymore, my dear,” Amanda said, a bit primly.

  But she was speaking to the air. Emma and Blackstone were gone.

  * * *

  Chapter 11

  Two weeks later, Nora still hadn’t closed the file. She didn’t know how.

  Should she put in her notes that she had witnessed a gigantic magic battle? That she had seen dozens of animals change into dozens of naked people, one of whom might have been Jimmy Hoffa, and then watched as the entire group vanished? Should she mention that her client had disappeared—literally into thin air?

  Every time she thought about recording any of her thoughts about the Emma Lost case, she realized how hopeless it was. How hopeless it all was.

  And it was over. That’s what she kept telling herself. Somehow she managed to get through the days, meeting new clients, doing new cases, going to court, talking to Ruthie. The nights were the hard part. Her apartment seemed empty, and it didn’t help that Darnell had started going into Emma’s room and howling until all hours, as if that would bring her back.

  He was probably insulted that Emma’s spinning wheel had disappeared the day after Emma had. If Blackstone was willing to come and get Emma’s prized possessions, the least he could do was take the cat whose heart Emma had stolen.

  But Emma clearly wasn’t thinking of anyone but Emma. She hadn’t been since the entire group rescued her from Ealhswith.

  To be fair, Nora hadn’t really been thinking of anyone but Nora either. After the first day’s shock had worn off, she had bought herself two large cartons of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream and eaten them both while she watched sappy movies. She hadn’t acted like this when she separated from Max; she couldn’t believe she was acting like this over a man who had done little more than smile at her.

  He had probably charmed her. Blackstone, not Max. Despite his promise. He had probably raised those long, beautiful arms of his, recited something in Danish, and made her melt every time she saw him.

  That had to be it. She wouldn’t have fallen in love with him on her own.

  Even though, in her heart, she knew she had.

  And she didn’t know how to talk about this. Ruthie was pretending that Blackstone didn’t exist. Nora�
��s mother was having difficulties of her own. She finally had to accept the existence of magic, after all that evidence.

  “I should have trusted your father,” she said to Nora. “But I thought he was foolish.”

  At least Amanda had Jeffrey. Nora had no one.

  One night, in a moment of weakness, she had called Max. He, at least, had been sympathetic. She told him everything, and for once, he didn’t pretend that she was talking about mobsters. He told her to treat herself, to be kind to herself, and he even promised to back off on the nasty parts of the divorce.

  He had kept that promise. His response had been the only good thing to come from this entire mess.

  Mostly she thought about Blackstone, and most of these thoughts went through her mind in the middle of the night, long after she had exhausted herself at work—and lately, at the health club, figuring if she couldn’t sleep naturally, and sleeping pills left her groggy, she would try good old-fashioned exercise. But that simply made her muscles sore and made her bed seem even more uncomfortable than it already did.

  Squidgy didn’t like her tossing and turning either. The cat had taken to sitting on her headboard, waiting until Nora had finally dropped off, and then jumping on the bed, waking her up. She was beginning to think sleep would be as elusive as Blackstone was.

  Although she knew how to reach him. All she had to do was go to his restaurant, but she didn’t really have a reason to. Their business was completed. The wicked stepmother had been vanquished. He was now living happily ever after with Emma.

  As much as she wished them both well, Nora really didn’t want to see what eternal happiness looked like. Especially when she had a hunch it would pass her by.

  It was 3:00 a.m. on a Thursday night, two weeks after Blackstone had defeated Ealhswith, that Nora’s doorbell rang. She knew because she looked. She also knew because it had been the first time that she had fallen asleep at anything like her normal time in weeks. So of course someone had to ruin it.

  As she got up, she slid her feet into her slippers and grabbed her robe. The doorbell rang again as she hurried down the stairs. When she reached the door, she peered through the peephole. And saw nothing.