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

by K. R. Thompson

  I glanced down quickly, hoping that somehow Swift Foot had come back to life.

  “No, that’s not what I mean,” he said. “Really look at him.”

  I squeezed my eyes tight to clear the tears and opened them to study Swift Foot’s face.

  It looked serene, not at all like the face of someone you’d expect had just suffered a tragic death. If anything he looked calm and at peace.

  “He’s free now, Nikki. He’s with her,” Adam explained. “I don’t think he would have changed any of this. This is the ending he wished for. This is what he wanted for a very long time. They are together now.”

  I nodded. However I felt, Adam was right. The motion set one of my tears free. It left my cheek in an arc and landed in the center of the blue amulet.

  The light that had been pulsing, shimmered, and then went dark. A sudden jolt pitched me forward, as something magical rose up inside of me quickly. My wolf.

  I had been accustomed to seeing white fog surround me as I turned to my wolf, but this time it was seeping from my skin—as if she was seeking to escape. The mist dissipated as soon as it became visible, fading almost instantly.

  Adam’s face was a mixture of shock and wonder. “What’s happening?”

  I remembered Ella’s wish. Swift Foot had given her magic to me, had kept it alive until I came, and now that it was no longer needed…

  “My wolf. She’s gone.”

  Chapter 13

  TORI SCOWLED. “NO boys, no television, no phone calls, no shopping. You’d never have guessed that we saved the world. Talk about ungrateful.”

  I grinned and concentrated on driving. She was right. For all intents and purposes, our adventure the week before had gone completely unnoticed by both of our mothers with the exception that once again, they knew we were with Adam and Brian, when we had been forbidden to go out at all. Where normally one mother would have been tough, as a team they had devised all sorts of punishment and the list had continued to grow every day. I didn’t see us being forgiven for a very long time.

  “At least I still have you,” she added with a mischievous smile. “And here we go again. They’ll definitely know we are gone again with your Jeep missing.”

  “Maybe if we’re lucky we’ll beat them home,” I said hopefully.

  “I don’t know about that. How much farther does this…” she paused, turning to look at the book lying on the backseat. “…Effle-butt live?”

  “If it is still in the same place, we should be getting close to the place we can park. Then, it’s not far. And his name is pronounced Ee-flur. Whatever you do, don’t mispronounce it if we find him. We need him in a good mood if we’re going to get him to help us.”

  “Are you sure that he’ll be willing to help us? He did make that crazy book after all.”

  “I don’t know,” I said truthfully. “But I don’t have anyone else to ask. All I know is that I can’t keep going the way that I am. I can’t keep it and I can’t entrust it to anyone else—it has to be destroyed. There’s no other way around it. It holds too much power. It’s only a matter of time before someone would try to steal it.”

  “At least there isn’t anyone else’s magic that you need to neutralize,” she smiled. “I agree with you. Now is the prime time to get rid of it, before something else happens.”

  “Don’t say that,” I groaned.

  Lucky for us, every Deadland that we could find had been deactivated and we hadn’t had to use the book. Adam seemed to think that they had all been products of Crow Woman’s dark magic, and when she had died—so had that darkness that created and sustained the Deadlands.

  The forest was safer than it had ever been—and it was indeed the perfect time to rid myself of the book before some other tragedy struck.

  “Okay, this is as close as we can get with the Jeep.” I pulled into a wide spot at the side of the road and parked. “We have to follow that trail to the waterfalls. It isn’t too far, I promise.”

  “The guys aren’t going to be happy that we’re leaving them out of this adventure,” Tori said, zipping up her coat. She hopped out of the Jeep and looked at the snow-covered path. “Are you sure we’re going to be okay without them? You did say this Eee-flurt had some really strong magic. Plus, you don’t have your wolf anymore, so if this guy gets testy, we’re in deep trouble.”

  “We’re going to be okay,” I nodded. “Adam will probably be mad at me, but I have the feeling that this is something that we’re supposed to do alone.”

  “You’re the boss,” she grinned. “But if Brian fusses at me, this was your idea and I had nothing to do with it.”

  I laughed and clicked the locks on the Jeep. “Okay, I’ll take the heat for this excursion. Let’s go.”

  The path was easy to walk and within moments I heard the whispering sounds of the waterfalls.

  “Are you sure he’ll let us in?” Tori asked.

  “Yes, I was invited. He’ll let us in.” This was actually one of the things that I was certain of. As I sat looking at the book the night before, I had another vision. Once again, I had hovered near the ceiling of Efflehurt’s hut. The Bog Elf hadn’t wasted any time acknowledging my presence and informed me in no uncertain terms that if I were coming to see him again, I’d better be leaving the wolves at home. Knowing that it would be unwise not to have someone with me, I had opted to let Tori in on my plan. Naturally, she was ready for it.

  “It’s beautiful here,” she said in a hushed voice as she took in the long icicles that draped over the top of the falls. As the afternoon sun hit them, they sparkled. “It looks like something in a fairy tale.”

  “Well, an elf does live here,” I said with a grin. I pointed at the small alcove behind the tiniest fall. “That’s where we’re heading.”

  “So how do we get over there?”

  “This way,” I led the way to the nearly hidden, narrow path that led behind the fall.

  “This has got to be the most awesome place to hide your front door that I’ve ever seen in my entire life,” Tori murmured, watching as I lifted my hand to place it against the cool stone wall.

  My hand passed through the mirage. “Be careful when you walk through it,” I warned, remembering the last time when my skin had crawled with the tiny currents of magic. “It’s a bit of a shock at first.”

  Deciding to try to go quicker this time, I hopped through the illusion and heard an audible crack as the magic sizzled across my body.

  Tori appeared beside of me in the next second, looking shocked.

  “You okay?” I asked.

  She nodded and grinned. “That was cool!” She looked at the green meadow of wildflowers with the enthusiasm of a kid in a candy store. “Look at this!”

  I grinned. “I’ve seen this before. It’s just a mirage, Tori. It’s just magic.”

  “Just, she says.” She shook her head. “You forget. My experiences in magic so far haven’t been this pretty. Most of the time I’m getting thrown into some weird situation that boggles the mind. Fake flowers are a nice alternative for once.”

  “Well, we aren’t finished yet. Don’t get too comfortable,” I cautioned. “Who knows what Efflehurt will have up his sleeve.”

  “I heed your warning,” she said with a sigh. “Where do we go now? I don’t suppose he’ll show up in this nice, pretty meadow and let me continue to enjoy this fake summer.”

  “Not likely. The hut is right over there, hidden in that grove of trees.”

  “Of course it is,” she grumbled. “Anything hidden doesn’t tend to be friendly. So much for my nice magical experience.”

  I bit my lip to keep from laughing and we walked to the hut.

  “Nobody’s here,” she said, peeking through a dusty pane of glass on the window near the door.

  “No, he’s here.” As I knocked on the door, it opened. Instead of walking inside like I had before, I waited.

  “Well, are ye going to make me stand and wait on ye all day?” a cross voice harrumphed from inside
. “Best ye come in and tell me what it is ye be wanting this time.”

  There’s the invite, I thought, stepping through the door. I felt Tori come in behind me and heard her sharp intake of breath as the room changed, filled with books from floor to ceiling.

  “I tell ye no wolves, so ye bring a human instead. What is she for? A gift…an exchange for my help?”

  “No!” I said quickly. “She’s just a friend.” A towering pile of books teetered in the middle of the room, and the Bog Elf appeared. He hobbled to them and straightened them just enough to keep them from falling. “And I will be taking her with me when I leave here,” I added, just to clear up any future misunderstanding. If there was one thing that I had learned with anyone who had strong magic, it was that you had to be really specific. Otherwise, they tended to bend things in their favor.

  He skewered me with his big, bulging eyes, and then he did something that I hadn’t expected. He laughed, showing lots of ancient, yellowed teeth. “Just as well,” he cackled. “I’ve never had a human make a decent book. Ye’ve grown a good bit smarter than last I saw ye.” He lifted his head an inch or two, as if he were gauging the atmosphere. “And ye’ve lost something, too. I sense no wolf’s soul.”

  “It was never mine to keep,” I said levelly.

  He watched me for a moment, as if wondering if I was going to explain further. When I didn’t, he changed the subject. “So ye defeated the witch. What is it that ye need from old Efflehurt that I haven’t already given ye?”

  I reached behind me and took out the book. “I need to know how to destroy it.”

  Silence met me for what seemed forever. I heard Tori shuffle uneasily behind me. So far, she hadn’t spoken a single word.

  “Why would I tell ye such a thing? Me, being its maker,” he scowled and hobbled back to his desk. “It takes hours upon hours to craft such a book. Many spells…many ingredients. It can only be created by a single blade.”

  And destroyed by the same. I wasn’t sure if I had heard him add this or if it was a figment of my imagination, but his eyes wandered to a small table near us, where a small, plain knife lay.

  “Best ye go on now,” he said, standing. He picked up a book, and hobbled toward a shelf on the back wall. “I can be of no use to ye, I’m afraid.”

  I opened my mouth to object, when Tori grabbed my arm and jerked me back through the open door before I could so much as utter a peep. She didn’t stop dragging me until we reached the meadow.

  “What was that for? Now I have to go back in there!”

  “No, you don’t,” she said. “I’ve got what we came for.” She handed me the knife.

  “You stole it??”

  She rolled her eyes. “No, he pretty much told us to take it, or didn’t you understand?”

  When I didn’t answer her, she added, “We’ll return it as soon as you’ve hacked up that book, I promise.”

  “You could have been hurt touching anything in there, you know,” I said, not ready to quit fussing at her. “He spells his books. Odds are he spells the tools that make them, too.”

  “I promise that I won’t steal from another Bog Elf ever again,” she promised. “Okay?”

  “Okay,” I conceded. I took a better look at the knife. It was simple—a wooden handle with a sharp blade. “I have no idea what to do with this.”

  “Well, maybe you should start by explaining the situation to the book—just in case it decides to do its self-defense thing and shoot flames at you,” Tori suggested.

  The thought of addressing a book sounded ludicrous, but I couldn’t come up with a better idea.

  I set the book down in the middle of a patch of pretty purple flowers, and then plopped down beside it. I took a deep breath and began, “Okay, so I’d like to thank you for all of your help.” The book hadn’t moved an inch. I felt like an idiot.

  “Go on,” Tori urged.

  I rolled my eyes. “So now it’s best if we destroy you. If your magic falls into the wrong hands, we will lose everything we won.” I paused. “People will have died for nothing.”

  Still nothing? I shrugged. “I guess this is a good thing. Okay, here goes.”

  I stabbed the blade down into the middle of the book. Surprisingly, it passed through the claw as easily as if it had been air and sunk up to the hilt. The book shuddered and a second later, went still. Then it disintegrated so that nothing was left but a pile of gray ash lying on a bed of purple flowers.

  “Congrats,” Tori said, “I do believe it is dead now. Our work here is finished.” She bent over and picked up the knife between her thumb and forefinger. “All right, let’s go give this thing back to its owner.”

  “Be careful,” I warned.

  “Yeah, yeah,” she said, keeping it an arm’s length away. She shook it, trying to get the dust off as she walked back toward the hut.

  I jumped up from the ground and hurried to follow her. She had already made it back to the door of the hut before I caught up. She lifted her hand to knock, but then stopped, bent over, and laid the knife on the doorstep. “Let’s go!” she mouthed, and we took off to the meadow, ran through the flowers, and made it back to the portal within the space of half a minute.

  “Let’s get out of here,” she said, out of breath. “Let’s jump through the mirage at the same time. I don’t want to get left here by myself, and I don’t want to jump through and miss you on the other side in case our grouchy, short friend decides that he wanted to keep one of us.”

  Knowing exactly how she felt, I grabbed her hand in mine and held it tight. “Jump on three. One…two…three!”

  We both leapt and found ourselves safely beneath the frozen waterfall within the next second, magic zipping between our clasped hands.

  “We made it!” Tori grinned.

  “You sound surprised,” I joked. “I thought you liked the wildflowers.”

  “I changed my mind.” She nodded toward the waterfall with its sparkling icicles. “These are so much prettier—and they’re real. And that, my friend, makes all the difference.”

  THANKFULLY, OUR TRIP to the waterfalls was kept secret from the grown-ups. But it didn’t make it any easier to tell Adam the next day at school where we had gone and what we had done.

  “You should have let us come with you,” he said, worry filling his silver eyes. “We could have kept you safe.”

  “It was something that I had to do alone…” I paused, and then clarified, “I couldn’t have any of the wolves with me. He had been very clear about that. I took Tori as my backup.”

  “Yeah, I know,” Adam said, looking over my shoulder. “Brian looks as happy as I feel.”

  “I promise I’ll never go without you again,” I assured him, hoping that I wouldn’t see anger and hurt replace the worry.

  He nodded reluctantly. “I understand why you did it. You were doing what had to be done.” A wry smile quirked on his lips. “But just so you know, the next time you place yourself in danger, I won’t be so easy to forgive.”

  “You have my word. I’ll never go anywhere like that without you again.” Deciding now would be the perfect time to change the subject, I asked. “How is Tommy?”

  Adam laughed. “You aren’t getting off that easy. You owe me a date—whenever your mom decides to let you out of the house again. But to answer your question, Tommy is nearly as good as new. They are supposed to release him from the hospital today. He’ll be back in school before the week is out. We saved him.”

  I shook my head. “No, Swift Foot saved him.” I glanced out the window, at the bright blue sky. The silhouette of the moon was barely visible. “Do you think he’s happy, Adam?”

  “Yes,” he said, leaning over to kiss my cheek. “I really think he is.”

  Chapter 14

  WYNTER APPROACHED THE front steps of the school with a feeling of impending dread. She hadn’t been gone for long, really. Only a few weeks. But even she knew how much could change in the matter of such a short amount of time. Entire races of peo
ple had been known to be wiped out in the matter of a single day—especially at times when her sisters were concerned.

  She waited at the base of the concrete stairway, knowing that the doors would soon open and her sibling would appear. It was always this way between them. Whenever one was close enough to the other, they both knew precisely where each was and curiosity would bring them out to see why they had been sought out. Wynter knew this particular sister would come soon. After all, Wynter herself had put her here in an effort to keep some semblance of order while she was gone. Whether or not it had worked, she wasn’t completely sure yet. She knew some of the things that had transpired in her absence, but she suspected she would find out more as time passed.

  The double doors swung open as if a breeze had burst from the inside of the school and was seeking escape outside. Puffs of snow lifted in the wind and cleared as a young woman with flowing dark hair appeared. When she saw Wynter, she lifted one perfectly arched brow. Then her appearance shifted to one of familiarity.

  Opal skin, like Wynter’s own flesh, glimmered in the afternoon sun and teeth, sharper than any blade, bared in a grimace instead of a smile of welcome. “It took you long enough to arrive. I felt the shift of magic in the air two days ago. What took you so long to get here?” Aeolith flipped her long black hair over one shoulder and arched an eyebrow, waiting for an answer.

  Wynter shrugged, unwilling to let her sister know that she had been close by earlier, but had one loose end to tie up before she made her presence known—that loose end being her other sister. It had taken her every second of those two days to spell the prison, perform a jailbreak, and take Frollock away to a safe, faraway place—a place where she wouldn’t forget that her magic was gone. A few centuries trapped as a human teenager might do her most rebellious sister some good. “I had a few things that I needed to attend to. Thank you for keeping watch in my absence.”

  Aeolith gave her a slight nod, as if she were trying to read the other words in Wynter’s mind that had not been spoken. “You are welcome…and I am happy you have returned, albeit later than I had expected or hoped. Is there anything else that you wish of me?”