“We’ve got to do something soon,” Erik hissed as soon as the door closed. “You heard the doc, Tommy’s not going to make it if we don’t find her.”
“You’re right. We aren’t helping Tommy by sitting here. We’ve got to test out that theory with the book,” Adam said. “And to do that, we need a willing party who won’t mind if Nikki steals their magic—permanently.”
“Who in their right mind is going to let us do that?” I asked, incredulous.
Adam grinned. “Someone who didn’t want their magic to begin with.”
“ARE YOU SURE this is going to work?” Ronnie asked cautiously as she opened her front door and Adam and I walked in. “I’d hate to end up as something worse than I already am.”
“You?” I spluttered. “You have magic?” I resisted the urge to close my eyes and open them again to see if I was dreaming for like two seconds, and then I gave in and shut them as tight as I could and opened them. The captain of the cheerleading squad was still standing there, though now she was looking at me as if I had lost my marbles.
“You have magic, Ronnie?” I repeated, knowing that I was beginning to sound insane, but I couldn’t help it.
She rolled her eyes. “Why else would Adam have called me for this experiment?”
“Good point. So what exactly are you?”
“She is a Chickcharney, like her dad.” Adam was the one who answered, nodding toward a family picture hanging on the wall where Ronnie stood with a woman I presumed to be her mother, and a familiar man that I had very recently met.
“Dr. Oswald is your father?” I asked, my mouth dropping open in astonishment. “But your last name is Stevenson!”
“Yeah, he likes to go by his first name,” she shrugged. “To each their own.” She waited as I absorbed this last bit of information before she added, “I’m not trying to rush you, but Adam said it was an emergency. That you guys really needed to know how long it would take for the book to work.”
“Oh…yeah.” I shook my head to clear it and took the book out of my bag.
“That’s it? It looks really gross.” She scrunched up her nose as she saw the thick black claw that held the book shut. “I’m not going to have to touch it, am I?” The look of distaste that completely transformed her face made me laugh and I forgot for a moment that she had magic and remembered that she was still my friend.
“Nope, you can’t touch it. It’s spelled against everyone, not meant to have it,” I explained. “So tell me, what’s a Chickcharney?”
“I’ll just show you, it’ll be easier…”
“No, wait!” Adam said, “You can’t show her until we’re ready. We won’t be able to see how long it takes the book to react.”
“He’s right,” I told her, “We need to make sure you’re not in it first, and then we’ll go from there.” I laid the book down on the coffee table in the living room and stroked the claw to get the book opened.
Ronnie’s eyes went round as the clasp turned loose and the book opened wide. “So, you’re telling me that most magical creatures are in there? That it’s basically like a magic dictionary?”
“Yeah, most are in there,” Adam said, “Though from what I can tell it is mostly the ones originating in North America…and Scotland.” At Ronnie’s questioning look, he added, “The Bog Elf who wrote it has a pretty thick accent. I think he was from Scotland.”
As if this made total sense, she nodded and waited for me to keep flipping the pages. “I doubt you’ll find the Chickcharneys in there. My dad’s family is originally from the Bahamas.”
“That would explain why I don’t see anything at all about Chickcharneys,” I said, making it to the last page of the book.
“So now what do we do?” Ronnie asked.
“You’ve got to find some way of threatening me, I think. Every time something has happened to write a new part in the book, it’s been because I believed someone was attacking me. Mr. Giles wasn’t, but I didn’t know it at the time, and it wrote a page on the Woodsburls. Then, the Spriteblood was definitely after us. And this last time it was because a Deadland really was attacking.”
“Okay, so before I go all magical on you, I need to know what is going to happen to me. I’m not going to become something weird with tentacles or something, am I?”
“As far as I know…no. Both times it just took the magic away, though I was able to give it back to Mr. Giles afterward,” I said, hoping that I sounded optimistic. Still, Ronnie was my friend and I wanted her to know everything. “There’s a chance that I won’t be able to give you your magic back. I don’t know if I can or not. You need to know that. If you’re not certain that you can live without being a Chickcharney…whatever that is…then you don’t need to do this.”
“I want to help,” she said, giving me a solemn, definite nod. “Whether or not I’m a Chickcharney doesn’t matter to me.”
“Okay,” I nodded. “So would you like to tell me exactly what you are, so I know what to expect?”
She grinned. “Nope. That’ll take away from the surprise. Are you ready now?”
“Yes, but whatever you do, don’t approach the book whenever you do…whatever it is that you’re going to do. You may end up a little crispy if you do,” I warned.
“Got it,” she said, taking a safe step back.
The air around her distorted and twisted, speeding up with every second as it wrapped around her—as if she were caught in a mini cyclone. I was busy watching the air, so when it suddenly vanished and the enormous bird-like creature lunged at me, letting out a high-pierced, shrilling squawk that had me falling backwards on the sofa, letting out a piercing cry of my own that sounded suspiciously like a wolf’s yip.
The book came alive, magically writing a new description on an empty page, as well as drawing a near replica of the creature that Ronnie had transformed into.
My heart was hammering a mile a minute as my attention shifted from the book, back to Ronnie. After taking a moment to calm down, I realized that she was actually beautiful—an enormous white owl flecked with black. Two large golden eyes watched me, and then blinked a couple of times as if to say, “Now what?”
“Well, that answers our question, I think. It only took the book seconds to write that description. I think if we can get close enough to Crow Woman that you feel threatened, the book will take care of things from there,” Adam said.
The enormous owl ruffled her feathers and turned her head at an odd angle.
“I don’t need to take your magic, Ronnie. It worked without it. It’s safe to shift back,” I said, giving her a grin.
The air swirled around her again and a second later, the Ronnie that I knew reappeared.
“Well, that was easy. At least I won’t have to worry about my dad wanting to kill me when he got home,” she said, frowning. “I still had kinda hoped you’d take it, though. It would make life a lot easier.”
“Easier how?” I asked.
“Did you actually read the description in that book of yours?”
I hadn’t. I looked back down at the freshly written page and began reading aloud, “The Chickcharney is a symbol of luck. If this creature is treated well, it is said that good fortune will be bestowed upon the well-wisher. A likewise manner will follow for those who treat the Chickcharney poorly…”
“I’m a good luck charm,” Ronnie cut in, folding her arms over her chest.
“Well, there could be worse things to be, Ronnie. Honestly,” I said, not sure what the problem was.
“The people that know I have magic and know who I am, are always going out of their way to be nice, hoping that’ll I’ll grant them wishes or something,” she said. “It’s like I’m a genie, only I’m not. It gets old fast. No one is nice because they like me. They are nice because of what they think I can do for them.”
“I understand,” I said, nodding.
“It really isn’t that bad…really.” She sounded as if she was trying to convince herself instead of us. “There aren’t
that many people who know what we are. There are so many people in this town that have magic that we get overlooked, which is good.”
“You know, I could try to take your magic for a while if you think it would help,” I offered.
“Would you really do that for me?”
“Yes, but I can’t guarantee that I can give it back. I can try, but I don’t know what will happen.”
Ronnie chewed on her bottom lip, weighing the pros and the cons of her decision. Then, after a few seconds, she smiled. “I’ll stay like I am for now. If it gets to be too much, I can ask you to help me, can’t I?”
“Absolutely,” I smiled. “That’s what friends are for.”
“And now I’ll try to help you,” she said. At my confused look, she explained, “I’ve gathered that this Crow Woman is powerful and that you have to stop her or else we’re basically all in trouble.”
“Yep, that about sums it up,” I said, unsure of where this was going.
“From the looks of Adam’s face and the fact that none of the others came with him, I’m going to guess that your last encounter with her didn’t go so well. You’re going to need some backup before you go after her again.”
She was right. I glanced at Adam’s cheek where three bright pink scars ran from high on his cheek to his jaw. Normally, they should have been completely healed by now.
“Chickcharneys do have a few friends in the magic world. I can put out the word that you need help if you’ll let me know when and where you will need it,” she explained.
“We’ll take all the help we can get,” Adam said with a firm nod. “Thank you.”
Chapter 11
TORI GRINNED. “WHEN our mothers realize we’re gone again, you know we’re going to be grounded for eternity, don’t you? I haven’t even been here a whole day yet and you’re getting me into trouble.”
I knew she was right. The lie we had concocted hadn’t gone over well once we had gotten back home from our supposed Shrek movie marathon. Tori’s fractured hand had sort of nixed the fact that we hadn’t gone to watch hours of green ogre-dom. We still tried to tell them that we had and that Tori had fallen on ice and messed up that hand—but they hadn’t bought it. Only the fact that Emily had staunchly supported us, quoting key elements from each film, had saved us from being immediately grounded.
Once they discovered that we had snuck out and were gone again, we would definitely be in hot water.
“Yeah, I know. But you always stay in trouble,” I grinned at Tori. “I can’t be blamed for that.”
“You’ve got a point. I can’t argue with that.” She blew a blue strand of hair from her eyes and began tapping her fingers against the table impatiently. “So when is everyone supposed to be here?”
We were sitting in the kitchen at Adam’s house, waiting on the arrival of anyone willing to join our forces and engage the enemy. That enemy, of course, being Crow Woman.
Adam passed each of us a coke from the refrigerator, and then handed one to Brian, who was sitting on the opposite side of Tori. “They should be here any minute. Hopefully Ronnie got the word out to everyone she knew.”
“This feels like we are enlisting an army, waiting and hoping that people will show up, willing to fight.” Irony was thick in Brian’s voice as he popped the top on his coke, and then reached over and popped Tori’s, too.
“What do you expect? It is war, after all.” Mr. Giles appeared in the doorway, looking every bit the disgruntled, angry principal that I was accustomed to. Five other men filed in behind him. “Ronnie said you needed our help,” one said, taking off his baseball cap as he stepped around Giles. The look on his face was skeptical, as if he wasn’t really sure he wanted to be there.
“We do,” Adam said. “We need all of you, every Woodsburl willing to help us.”
All six of them are Woodsburls, I thought, trying not to look too obvious as I craned my neck to see them better. A couple were still standing in the hallway and I was only seeing bits of them, but from what I could tell, they all looked like ordinary people—but I knew too well that looks were deceiving. If all of them looked anything like Mr. Giles when he had morphed into that scaly, tusk-toothed monster on my front porch, we were going to have a pretty good army, indeed.
“I don’t see why we should help you. You are the guardians of the forest, not us,” the one with the cap said, nervously turning it in his hands. “I’m not trying to sound callous, honestly. You just won’t understand. When there is a group of Woodsburls together, we tend to get a bit…” he paused, as if searching for the right answer.
“Irritable?” I put in helpfully, remembering a bit of the book’s description.
“That is putting it mildly,” Giles said, rolling his eyes. “What precisely do you need from us?”
This part I knew. I reached into my bag and pulled out the book, setting it on the table. “We need a diversion.”
While I hadn’t been able to see any of them before, now everyone crowded into the kitchen and six sets of eyes went round as they stared at the Book of Skin, lying on the table in plain view.
“This is what is going to defeat Crow Woman,” I explained. “I have to get close enough to her that I can use the book to neutralize her magic. Otherwise, the Deadlands are going to keep spreading to the point that the forest is going to be completely void of life. There won’t be anything for the Keepers to protect—it’ll be gone—and she’ll keep getting stronger until she is able to destroy us all. This isn’t just our fight. This involves everyone—including you.” I made it a point to level my gaze at the man with the baseball cap at the very end. Out of all of them, he had seemed the most unsure.
“When are you planning to attack?” Giles asked.
The screen door to the back porch slammed shut. Thinking it was Adam’s dad, I didn’t look to see who was joining us.
“As soon as possible, once we learn where she is,” Adam replied.
“I know where she is,” a voice said softly from behind me.
I turned and found myself looking up at an Indian warrior, clad in only a pair of buckskin pants. War paint obliterated every square inch of his face, leaving his eyes to sparkle like two bits of gold in the darkness.
Swift Foot looked down at me, his eyes locking onto mine. “And I will show you the way.”
“And who exactly is he?” one of the Woodsburls asked.
“Someone who knows the forest better than anyone,” Adam grinned. “He’s the Wolf.”
SWIFT FOOT’S ARRIVAL seemed to concrete the Woodsburls’ participation in our attack, which was set to commence the following morning at daybreak. As the first streaks of the morning sun lit the sky, Tori and I made our way to the Res to rendezvous with everyone willing to fight.
“We’re way past grounded now, I think,” she said, grinning, as she got out of the Jeep and shut the door.
“You sound happy about it, Tori,” I said, grabbing my book bag from the backseat.
“Nah, I’ve just decided to take an optimistic approach. Once we have defeated evil, our mothers will recognize us for the heroines we are and shall gracefully remove all of the punishments they laid out for us last night.”
“Somehow, I doubt that’s going to happen.” I shook my head. On that particular list of grounding was no boys, which Tori was now promptly ignoring as she said hello to Brian and leaned in for a kiss. He, in turn, wrapped his arms around her as if he would never see her again.
It truly is a war, I thought, looking around me. Erik stood with Penny near his house, tenderly stroking a piece of hair away from her cheek. Ed stood on the opposite side of the road with…Hannah? I looked twice to make sure that I wasn’t imagining things. I couldn’t keep from smiling when I saw her leap up and wrap her arms around his neck. It seemed that Eats Dirt Young Eagle truly had found his match in the one person that I had never guessed would fall for him.
They’re all saying goodbye, I realized. My smile left and tears filled my eyes. Some of us might not make
it out of this. This might be the end.
I searched for the other Keepers, realizing that only Michael, Tommy’s shadowy wolf, and Adam were the ones that I didn’t see.
“Michael is staying at the hospital with Tommy,” Adam appeared at my side, seemingly reading my mind. “Tommy keeps losing blood, so he is on standby if they need more.”
“We’ve got to find her. She has to be the one who is siphoning off his magic,” I said, tightening up the straps on my book bag, refusing to look at Adam. I was going with him, and I refused to say goodbye like everyone else. I’d lost him once, I had no intention of losing him again.
He seemed to realize what I was doing and purposefully shoved his hands in his back pockets. “We’re just waiting on the Woodsburls and Swift Foot, and then we’ll go.”
“I am here,” Swift Foot said, coming from the woods behind us. He wore exactly the same thing as he had the night earlier—which wasn’t much. The war paint had changed slightly. While his face was still blackened out, he now sported a black crescent shape over his heart. I had the impression it was his own goodbye of sorts.
“How far away is she?” Adam asked.
“Just above that ridge,” Swift Foot pointed to a spot on the mountain that stood in the distance. It stuck out like a small cliff.
“You’re sure she is still there?”
“Yes, I kept guard over it the whole night,” Swift Foot said, and then turned to me. “She will be stronger there than she is anywhere else,” he warned. Then, he paused as his eyes took on a faraway look. “On that ridge is where her heart turned black.”
“And there is where her heart will stop,” I reassured him. “Today, it ends.”
A blue mini-van rolled up and parked next to the Jeep. I bit my lip to keep from laughing. As Giles hopped out of the driver’s seat and the side door opened with the other five men getting out of the back, a snort still managed to escape me.
Giles’ face turned red. “Might I ask what is so funny?”
“You just didn’t seem like the mini-van type,” I said, watching as Giles scowled.
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