The Keeper Saga: Wynter's War, Charmed, and The One (The Boxed Set Book 2)

by K. R. Thompson

  “You have no idea,” I grumbled, before I realized that Adam, Erik, Ed, and Michael were making their way toward us from the edge of the forest. My heart sank when I saw the grim expressions on their face, and the dread that had left only a moment earlier came back even worse than before.

  “One of us is missing,” Adam said, as they made it to the bottom of the porch steps.

  “I’m beginning to think that my arrival is a catalyst for destruction,” Tori said, blowing a lock of blue hair out of her eyes. “Every time I show up, someone goes missing.”

  “He’s not missing.” Michael’s eyes had filled with tears. Now, two of them trekked down his cheeks. “He’s dead.”

  I expected someone to explain what had happened, or at least who we were talking about, when I saw the shadowy figure of a wolf sitting at Michael’s side, attempting to nuzzle his hand. Its head missed Michael’s fingers, passing through them as easily as a ghost.

  “Tommy,” I said softly, knowing now who the body in my dream belonged to. It wasn’t Adam’s fate I had witnessed this time. It was Tommy’s.

  “Is he really dead? Are you sure?” Tori asked, which only made the tears run faster down Michael’s cheeks.

  He nodded in answer to her question, and then knelt down beside of the shadow, as if listening to him. “He says that he doesn’t know what happened. He remembers walking through the woods and then…nothing.”

  “You can hear him?” Erik asked, astonished. “You didn’t say anything about it before.”

  “He didn’t say anything until just now,” Michael shrugged.

  “Does he remember where he was in the woods?” I asked. I wasn’t sure what we would do once we found his body. There was only one person that I knew could bring someone back to life—Wynter. The only problem was that no one knew where she was.

  “He said he was near the caverns, the last he remembers,” Michael said, cocking his head to one side as he listened intently. “He says you need to check on Kayleigh. She was with him. They were on their way to the creek…” he broke off, and then frowned, before giving Tommy’s shadow a look that would have killed, had his cousin not already been dead. “You took her on a date. Seriously? I thought I was going to ask her out.”

  I rolled my eyes. Even in this current state, the two cousins were managing to squabble.

  “So what are you going to do?” Emily asked from behind me. I had totally forgotten she was there.

  “Okay, first, everyone inside,” I ordered the three guys and the ghost wolf. “We can plan this out better if everyone is out of the cold.

  Once we were in the living room, I caught Adam looking at the blanket on the floor. “Where is Swift Foot? Isn’t he here with you?”

  “Nope. He was gone this morning when we woke up.”

  “That’s odd,” Adam said, frowning so that the familiar crease dented the space between his brows. “I didn’t think he would leave you until someone else came. Something must have happened.”

  “Something did happen,” Michael reminded us. “What are we going to do about Tommy? We can’t just leave him like this. He wants us to find him.”

  Emily was hopping from one foot to the other, looking from one person to the next.

  “Whatever it is we’re doing, you have to stay here,” I told her. “I have to make sure you’re okay.”

  “But I can help,” she objected.

  “You are going to help,” Tori patted Emily’s shoulder as she gave me a quick, conspiratorial wink. “I just got here and I need help getting used to this place. Can you show me where I’m going to be staying? I want to get a jump on my new room before my mom shows up and takes over the best one.”

  Emily frowned, and then nodded, before she turned to me and said, “I’ll stay with Tori. But just so you know, you have to tell me everything whenever you get back.”

  “You guys will be safe plotting here for about another half hour. I had my mom drop me off at Brian’s. She went to pick up your mom from work, something happened to her car and it wouldn’t start,” Tori warned me as she took Emily’s hand and they started upstairs.

  Even with the two of them gone, the living room was full. “Okay, so we know we need to search for Tommy near the caverns, and we also know that we need to figure out where this girl named Kayleigh lives and check on her, and we need someone to stay and watch over Tori, Emily, and Nikki,” Adam said, looking at each of the people in the room. “We’ll have to split up.”

  “I’ll stay and guard the girls,” Brian spoke up.

  “Somehow I figured that,” Adam said, smiling.

  “Better idea. Why don’t Brian, Tori, Emily, and I go check on Kayleigh? That way, there are more of you guys to search for Tommy,” I offered.

  Adam looked thoughtful for a second. “It’s as good a plan as anything I can come up with. Okay, let’s head out,” he said, gesturing to the door. Ed, Erik, Michael, and the shadow walked back out on the porch.

  “Wait a minute,” I whispered, catching Adam by the arm as he walked past.

  He stopped, catching my hand in his, and waited for me to speak.

  “I had a dream—the same nightmare as before. Crow Woman is behind whatever happened to Tommy,” I explained in hushed tones. “I didn’t want to say anything in front of Michael—or Tommy for that matter.”

  “You think that she’s killed him to activate her amulet?”

  “Yes. Promise me you’ll be careful.”

  “I will,” he said, leaning in to kiss me. “You have my word. You be careful, too.” His lips brushed mine and the air warmed and sparked around us. Then, he gave me a quick hug and started for the door. “Keep them safe,” he instructed Brian before he left.

  Brian nodded. “You got it.”

  As the door closed behind Adam, Brian gave me a grin. “So, are we going to search now, or are you going to get some clothes on?”

  I looked down at my blue flannel pajamas with the words I don’t do mornings in bright yellow letters. “Oops. I’ll be right back.”

  I zipped back up the stairs to my room and pulled off my pajamas, and then shoved my legs into a pair of jeans. When I pulled a sweatshirt over my head, I felt something crunch. I leaned down to look in the mirror on my dresser and found the noisy culprit. A dried, dead leaf—a leftover reminder from my dream—was stuck in my hair. I tugged it loose and threw it in the trash, the feeling of dread back stronger than ever. I bent over and pulled the book out from its hiding place under my bed. Something told me that today of all days was the day that I needed to keep it close. Instinct, or whatever it was, said today was the day I would need it.

  I met Tori and Emily as I came out of my bedroom.

  “What are you still doing here?” Tori asked. “I thought you had gone with the others.”

  “We have our own mission. The guys are searching for Tommy. We’re going to look for his girlfriend,” I said, shoving the book in my backpack.

  “And we’re going to have to take that smelly thing with us to look for her, I take it,” Tori said wryly.

  “I don’t go anywhere without it. A few things have changed since you’ve been gone,” I said, and then went on to fill her in on the latest adventures with the book.

  “Well, at least it doesn’t stink anymore. And you have my word that I won’t touch it,” Tori replied. “I have no desire to turn into a human crisp.”

  “Me either,” Emily piped up. “So where are we going to look for this Kayleigh girl?”

  “I don’t know, really. I don’t think I’ve ever even seen her before,” I admitted, as we walked back down the stairs.

  “There is where you are in luck,” Brian said. “I’ve seen her. She’s about fourteen…maybe fifteen years old. And if we see her, you’ll know her.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked. The only reference to Kayleigh Hart that I had gotten from the cousins while they rode in the back of my Jeep was that she had nice legs. I seriously doubted that I was going to be able to point this gi
rl out of a crowd unless she happened to have a wooden leg.

  “She’s got some wild hair,” Brian said, grinning, “It’s blue and pink. And it’s pretty long, nearly to her waist.”

  “Wild hair, huh?” Tori retorted, tossing her own blue and black hair over her shoulder.]

  “Hers is wild. Yours is beautiful,” Brian smiled. “And when I say wild, I do mean wild. It’s kinda chaotic looking.”

  I groaned. While Brian’s description of hair was unique, it also left quite a bit to be desired. “Okay, she’s a teenager with wild hair. Any ideas on where she lives?”

  “That I don’t know.” Brian shook his head. “I’ve only seen her at school.”

  “Then I guess we go to school.”

  “But there isn’t any school today!” Emily objected. “Snow day, remember?”

  “I know. And trust me…that’s a good thing.”

  I LEFT A note on the kitchen counter for both our mothers, and then we all piled into my Jeep.

  “So what’s our alibi? I need to know what you wrote so we’re on the same page,” Tori said.

  “The movie theatre has marathons on snow days. That’s where we are.” I started up the car and carefully began down the snow-covered driveway.

  “What are we seeing at this marathon? What’s playing?”

  “It’s the Shrek marathon!” Emily said triumphantly. “I know it’s playing this week. My best friend, Cora, told me.”

  “Shrek,” Tori sighed. “Honestly? Our alibi is hours upon hours watching a green ogre and a talking donkey?”

  “Yep. You had pity on Nikki because I was being a brat and so you all took me to see Shrek,” Emily replied. I looked in the rearview mirror and caught the devious grin on her face.

  “Not bad, kid,” I laughed. “Not bad at all.”

  “She gets it from you, you know,” Tori joked. “You used to keep us in trouble all the time when we were kids.”

  “You did your fair share, too,” I said, tensing as the Jeep dropped into a snow-filled pothole that I hadn’t seen. Luckily, it lurched and popped back out and we kept moving. A moment later, we had made it to the main road.

  “Whew,” Brian huffed from his spot in the backseat. “I was beginning to think we weren’t going to make it to see Shrek.” He caught the look I shot him in the rearview mirror and grinned. “I suggest we go the slow way through town. The roads tend to be clearer that direction.”

  “Sounds like a plan.” I made a left, where I normally would have made a right and drove toward the school, following the road that followed alongside the train tracks. We didn’t pass any other cars or see anyone else outside for several minutes.

  “We’re the only idiots out in this mess,” Tori grumbled. “Why do…”

  “Stop the car!” Brian cut her off. “I saw her. I saw Kayleigh. Stop the car, Nikki!”

  I tapped on the brakes, and the Jeep promptly slid into a ditch on the side of the road.

  “Well, this ain’t good,” Brian said a moment later once the car stopped, and we managed to get out. My Jeep was cocked sideways, it’s passenger side wheels completely lost from view in the ditch. “There’s no way the four wheel drive will get you out of that. We’ll have to go back and get my truck and pull you out.”

  “How are we going to walk back home?” Emily asked. “It’s too far and there’s too much snow.” At that last word, her bravado broke along with her voice and she teared up.

  “No worries, I can make it to the truck and back in no time.” Brian gave her a wink, which brought a small smile. “The forest is right here. I’ll shift to wolf and be back in just a few minutes.”

  “It’s too bad cell phones don’t work in this place. We could just call a tow truck,” Tori said, staring at the Jeep.

  “I’ll still be quicker than the tow truck, I’m sure. I’ll be back soon,” Brian promised, and then looked across the tracks. “I saw Kayleigh over there. If you guys want, you could go check in on her while I’m gone. You might be able to find something out from her about Tommy that could help the guys find where his body is.”

  As Brian headed toward the other side of the road and the forest, I scrambled into the back of the Jeep and dug out my book bag. We hadn’t even seen a vehicle since we had left the house, but I wasn’t going to take a chance that someone would appear and steal the book, even if we were only going to be a short distance away.

  I swung the bag over my shoulder and looked at Tori and Emily. Neither of them looked ecstatic about standing in the snow. “You guys ready?”

  “As ready as we’ll ever get,” Tori said grimly, reaching down to take Emily’s hand. “Let’s go find this wild-haired girl.”

  The snow was deeper than I had thought once we stepped off the scraped road. There was at least six inches of the white stuff all the way to the tracks, but it tapered off once we made it across them.

  “Thank goodness,” Tori huffed, looking down at Emily’s red cheeks. “I was beginning to think we were going to have to tell your sister to shift into her own wolf, and catch a ride!”

  Emily’s eyes went round. “You can actually do that?”

  Tori grinned as I groaned. “Don’t give her any more ideas, please.”

  “Well, what are best friends for, anyway?” Tori laughed.

  “Hey, I think I see Kayleigh over there. She’s walking around the spot where that house burnt down.” Emily pointed to the charred ruins of a small shack a short distance away.

  My heart did a weird flip-flop when I realized where we were. I wasn’t sure whether to be happy or scared to death. My book bag took this moment to decide to come to life, whacking me solidly on the back.

  “What on earth did you put in there?” Tori asked, “Jumping beans?”

  “No, it’s the book,” I said, stopping in the middle of the track to pull it free of the bag. “The last time it did this, there was magic nearby. I think it tries to warn me anytime there is danger.”

  “That isn’t something that I wanted to hear,” Tori hissed. “Of all the times for Brian to be gone, too. Maybe we should go back to the Jeep and wait for him.”

  “But if there’s something bad, we need to help Kayleigh,” Emily insisted. “She won’t know what to do. We have to help her.”

  I sighed. “She’s right, Tori. We’ve got to make sure she is all right. Besides, maybe whoever it is, is one of the good guys. We’ll just have to keep our fingers crossed.” Please, let it be Wynter, I thought as we made our way closer to the very little that remained of her home.

  “Where did you see Kayleigh go?” I asked Emily.

  She pointed to the far side of the lot. “She was walking toward those bushes the last I saw her.”

  The book in my hands was going nuts now, jumping and jolting, as if it were trying to get free. I loosened my grip just enough that the claw sprung free, scoring the flesh of my palm. “Dang it,” I frowned as the pages began flipping in earnest. Finally, the book found what it wanted me to see.

  “Spriteblood,” Tori read over my shoulder. “Does this mean Wynter is back?”

  “If she were, I would have found her by now.” The unfamiliar voice startled me and I looked up and found myself staring into a pair of wide, blue eyes. “Do you know where she is?”

  “You’re Kayleigh Hart, right?” I asked, though I knew this had to be the girl we were looking for. Her hair was bright, neon blue until it reached the middle of her back. Then, the tips went to pink. I could definitely see why Brian had called it wild hair.

  “She looks like a mermaid,” I heard Emily tell Tori. “I wish I had hair like that.”

  The girl across from us was ignoring my question—and Emily, who was envying her long locks. “Do you know where Wynter is?” she repeated, a scowl darkening her face.

  The book jolted in my hands. Kayleigh’s eyes narrowed before she took a step toward us. “I heard she had a magical book crafted, but she’s always kept it hidden from me.”

  “Um…don’t come any
closer, Kayleigh,” I stammered. Something about this was all wrong. The book jerked again as she ignored me and came closer.

  The image of the young girl flickered as if it was only a mirage—a trick of light that hid who truly lay beneath the surface. Her eyes changed first, the blue human eyes fizzed out, leaving dark black voids in their place, and then came the razor-sharp teeth.

  “I am Spriteblood,” she said in a familiar tone that reminded me of Wynter’s voice. “I am called Frollock.”

  I fisted my injured hand and flattened it on the book’s open page, hoping like crazy that it would work as well on a Spriteblood as it had on a Woodsburl. I tensed as the fairy immediately returned to looking like a teenage girl with bright, wild hair. The atmosphere changed with her, as if the book had zapped every bit of magic out of the air.

  “What have you done to me?” Frollock screamed, reaching out for the book. Flames leapt from the cover to scorch her fingers. Obviously thinking that I was the one who ordered the book to attack her, she turned on me. Before I knew it, Tori stepped in front of me and punched her, full and hard in the face. The former fairy dropped like a load of bricks.

  “Congratulations,” Tori told the prone figure at our feet. “We turned you into a teenager.”

  Chapter 10

  BRIAN SHOOK HIS head as he stared at the girl lying on the ground. Her hair was fanned out around her, giving a burst of color to the stark, white snow. “I told you to check on her, not kill her.”

  “She’s not dead. Nikki just de-magicked her,” Tori retorted. “And if she hadn’t come at us, I wouldn’t have clocked her pretty little face.”

  “She is…or rather was a Spriteblood,” I explained at Brian’s dumbfounded expression. “One of Wynter’s sisters, as far as I can tell, since the book says there is only four in existence.” I patted the cover of the book that had just saved our lives and slipped it back into my book bag. Brian had shown up seconds after it was over, conveniently missing all the action. I was happy beyond words that I had taken the book with us.