by Kali Harper
“Manipulating time is risky for any witch,” she said, walking back into the living room where Lance sat on the floor, the concern in his eyes matching what I’d seen on Ida.
“Are you sure that’s what happened?” I took my place in the recliner on the other side of the room, smiling at Izzy as Darby braided her hair. “French braid?”
“Mmm-hmm,” was Darby’s reply, her eyes fixed on Izzy’s hair as she weaved the strands together. “I do it all the time. I dyed Mom’s hair last week,” she went on when no one said anything. “I could touch yours up if you like. Your roots are showing.”
“Is that what you’re going to school for?” I asked, completely forgetting the fact humans and witches had very different forms of schooling.
“I’d like to, but Uncle Mark thinks I should come here and stay in Emberdale.” The last part came out in a growl. Considering her passion for working on Izzy’s braid, I couldn’t blame her. “I thought if I showed Izzy around and got her accepted, then maybe she could come, too.”
Ida’s smile was contagious. “Applying for your first broomstick isn’t the same as applying to college, I’m afraid.”
“It should be. So what if we’re a little different?”
“Ow!” Izzy cried out, wrapping a hand around the top of her braid as Darby pulled on it. “Maybe we should have this conversation after you’re done.”
“Forget it.” Darby left the braid unfinished, glaring at it as the strands slowly came apart. “It’s not like it matters, anyway. I can’t do my best work when I’m stressed.”
“That makes two of us,” Ida said, placing a hand on Darby’s shoulder. “No one in this room is out to get you. We’re just trying to find Morpheus.”
“Like Izzy said, we didn’t even get the whole way through the door before we got stuck in this whole mess.”
“How long were you frozen before you ended up inside the Canundrum?” I asked, keeping my voice as gentle as possible.
Darby shook her head. “I don’t know. When you told us we’d been gone since the other night, it didn’t feel like it. Every time you talked to us, it felt like an ongoing conversation. Inside those books, time didn’t exist.”
“So why did you pick me?” When Darby met my gaze, I continued. “Lance said a Canundrum only appears when an opportunity arises. Aunt Lucy was there with me, so why not pick her?”
“Lucy’s nice and all, but…”
“You were worried about your uncle.”
Darby nodded. “Yes. You also would’ve sat right on top of us if we didn’t say anything. Or on top of the book, anyway.”
Lance laughed, then waved his hand in apology. “Sorry. Go on.”
“I realize you couldn’t actually hurt us,” Darby said, staring at Lance, “but it felt strange. It was almost like we were being suffocated.”
“That still doesn’t tell us why you pretended to be Morpheus,” I said.
“What would’ve happened to us if we didn’t?” Darby dropped her gaze and set both hands in her lap.
“I already knew,” Lance told them. “Once you name a Canundrum, it should reverse itself. When that didn’t happen, I knew something was off.”
“You knew,” I said, my voice harder than I intended, “ and you didn’t think to warn me?”
“It was bound to you,” Lance reminded me. “All I knew was that whoever was inside the Canundrum may have seen something. Calling them out on a lie would’ve done more harm than good.”
“Which means you expected this to happen.” Why was I not surprised? So much for honesty.
“Eventually.” He shrugged. “You weren’t in any danger, Astrid. I made sure of it.”
“You told Sammy.” It wasn’t a question.
“I had to.”
Funny, I didn’t pick up on it. Apparently, I wasn’t as good at reading Sammy’s mind as I thought.
“Can we get back on topic, please?” Lance asked. “Morpheus is still missing and we have no idea where he’s gone.”
“We also don’t have any leads,” I said.
He shot me a glare, then looked back at Izzy and Darby. “Please, if there’s anything you can remember, anything you saw or overheard, tell us. You aren’t in any trouble. This is a serious issue, one that could get far worse if it isn’t resolved. Aside from Astrid and her aunt, was there anyone else you saw inside the shop between the time you walked in and when Astrid carried you out?”
“We couldn’t see anything,” Darby said.
“Shadows, mostly,” Izzy explained. “Blurred shapes. There was a strange whooshing noise, you know, like those heart monitors for babies. I hate that sound.”
“You couldn’t talk to each other?” I asked, knowing the sound all too well as it happened whenever I got too much water in my ears.
“We could, but it was too loud,” Izzy said.
“It echoed,” Darby added, wincing as she did. “It was pitch dark aside from this strange window we could see out of.”
“Did anything seem strange outside the store before you walked in?” Lance asked. “Did you see anyone else?”
“Darien was a few doors down in his big trench coat,” Darby said.
“Wait, I saw him, too,” I said, thinking back to when I was standing outside of The Magician’s Closet. “He’s a skinny fellow with an odd limp, right?”
“Yup, but he’s always like that.”
“Resident vampire,” Lance told me.
“In daylight?”
“The wards cast around Fairmount Square and Emberdale protect all beings, including the vampires from whatever would cause them harm.”
“Then why does he need a trench coat?” It may have been the ensemble in almost every vampire movie I’d ever seen, but surely he didn’t need it.
“It’s how he carries his products,” Darby said with a huge smile on her face. “Wands, Astrid.”
“Black Market wands?”
“Oh no, these are the real deal,” Lance said. “In fact, many of them are centuries old from some of the most powerful individuals in history. Good luck affording one, though.”
“You don’t want a hand-me-down anyway, dear,” Ida said, having finished her cup of tea. “They can get rather unruly once they realize you aren’t their original master.”
“Okay, so Darien was there. What else?” I asked.
Darby gave my question some thought, then said, “I don’t know her by name, but she’s the lady who usually hands out flowers at the top of the hill.”
“Oh, you mean the one that looked like my nana?” Izzy asked.
“Laura,” Lance said with a nod.
“Lovely woman. Such a shame what happened to her,” Ida said. “She used to be a lot like Ronan with her flowers, but when a Static Storm stripped her of her powers, she had nothing left to give.”
“Static storms are temporary, though,” I said, remembering what Connie had told me. They were extremely rare and made most magic nonexistent much like the picture on a television set when the signal goes out.
“As long as you don’t try to use magic during one, they can be. Far as I understand, she tried to tend to her flowers as the storm would’ve wiped them out completely. By doing so, she lost the little power she had left.”
“So she sells flowers she’s grown magic-free to stay within the community,” Lance finished for her.
“That’s terrible.” Two months ago, I wouldn’t have wanted anything to do with magic, but now, I couldn’t imagine going without. It was second nature, like breathing. My heart ached for Laura, and I hadn’t even met her. “She sounds like someone I should sit and have tea with.”
“She’d love the company,” Ida agreed. “Perhaps tomorrow.”
Was she volunteering me for an interview? “No, not again. This is Lance’s case, not mine. We no longer have to worry about the Canundrum.”
“My mother’s right,” Lance said. “As much as I’d hate to admit it, folks open up to you. I need to head over there in the morning,
so you can go with me. I wanted to check in with Darien to see if maybe he overheard something, possibly a scream, and when.
We still don’t know when this all took place. Darby set her clock to four in the afternoon, the one in Morpheus’ office was twelve, and you and Lucy arrived a day later. We need to know what time everything happened, starting with the moment those girls walked through the door and when time slowed to a crawl.”
“What if it happened when we got there?” Darby asked, sitting up.
“I hadn’t considered that.” Lance rubbed the back of his neck.
“The outside of the shop was fine, but before we were put inside the Canundrum, all of the books inside the front room flew up to the ceiling and stayed there.”
“It was a trap,” Ida said, wringing her hands in her lap. “The girls must’ve triggered it.”
“What’re you saying?” I asked. “Did Morpheus know someone was coming for him?”
“It would seem so.” Ida was quiet for a long moment. “When a witch is threatened, what do we do?”
“I ask Sammy to double the wards.”
“Yes, and other witches do something similar. Morpheus knew something was going to happen. I may be wrong, and please forgive an old woman for her nonsense, but what if the slowed time was so Morpheus could trap his intruder inside the Canundrum?”
My heart sank once I realized where Ida was going with all of this. “The girls were early. They set off the trap, leaving whoever Morpheus was preparing for to walk right in without a challenge.” Still, there was one thing I didn’t understand. “Why didn’t time reset after Darby and Izzy set off the trap?”
“It’s a Turning spell,” Ida explained. “Time may have slowed in the shop, but it was contained to whatever was present at the time. It won’t lift until Morpheus returns. He was the one who cast it and he’s the only one who can safely disarm it without damaging the establishment or those around it.”
“Which means we have no idea where he is or who might’ve wanted to hurt him.”
“We do know one thing,” Lance said, his voice grim. “Whoever went after Morpheus saw the girls walk in.”
“He was casing the place?” Darby screamed, causing Izzy to jump.
“Or she. You two need to remain in Emberdale until this is all over. You’ll be safe here with Astrid and with the help of Sammy’s wards.”
“Where are you going?” I asked, getting to my feet when Lance did the same.
“I have the information I need for now. I suggest we all get some rest, then we can visit Fairmount Square in the morning.”
“So you really want me to tag along?” To be honest, I would’ve preferred staying at home with the girls. At least then, I knew we’d be safe.
“Yes. I know when I’m not wanted and this is one of those times. They’ll open up to you more than they will for me.”
“I thought you said you’d speak with Darien.”
“I will, but Laura might not be the only other person who was around at the time. In any case, I’ll meet you outside Harris’ in the morning. I’ll have coffee waiting for you.”
Seeing as I had no other choice, I nodded and let him out, helping Ida with her things as she chased after him.
“Don’t worry. Things will be back to normal before you know it,” she said, repositioning her hat before joining Lance outside his silver Station Wagon.
By the time I locked up for the night, both Izzy and Darby were fast asleep on the couch. Whenever something magically mysterious happened in our small town, sleep was the last thing on my mind. In fact, I was still thinking about the Canundrum and how Morpheus knew his attacker before any of this ever began.
If he’d known, why didn’t he go after the assailant himself instead of waiting for them to arrive? Working in a broom shop or whatever it was, he had to expect other visitors, so why did he wait?
“Because his attacker was expecting it,” Sammy purred, walking in through the cat door in the kitchen. “You really need to quiet your thoughts. I can tell you everything that happened tonight and I wasn’t even here.”
“Yeah, well at least you’re the only one who can hear me,” I said.
“For now, but my wards can only silence your concerns for so long. You need to focus on it.”
“Later. I have other things to worry about.”
“And what do you think might happen if Morpheus’ attacker can hear your every thought? What then?” He jumped onto the counter in front of me as I busied myself with the few dishes we hadn’t washed.
“Can’t you shield them?”
“I’m doing what I can, but the more you come into your powers, the more dangerous this will become. You must control them.”
“I’ll try.”
“Don’t try. Do.” He hopped down with a thud, then glanced over his shoulder at me as he stepped toward the living room. “The dishes can wait until tomorrow. The least those girls can do is clean up after themselves and help out. We are protecting them, after all.”
“Speaking of, I need you to ward—”
“Already done. Now, go to sleep. I need a few hours to myself without hearing your every thought.” He meant well and was a terrible tease, but right then, I wanted to hit him. It wasn’t like I was trying to project my thoughts. Thank goodness no one else could hear them. He was right, though. I had to stop—
“Bed. Now.”
“Okay. Okay. I’m going, but don’t act like you don’t care,” I said, scooping him in my arms as I turned off the living room light and headed up the steps. “I know you do.”
“You’re my charge, it’s my job—”
“Not at this level.” Smiling, I said, “I love you, too, and I promise to do whatever I can to keep my thoughts under control.”
Starting with sleep.
Chapter Ten
Fairmount Square looked identical to the day before, only now, I had Lance walking with me instead of Lucy. Sammy followed at my heels, sharing his distaste for the entire thing by constantly shouting in the back of my mind. He didn’t use words, mind you, but annoying cat meows and other such nonsense he’d never do if anyone else was around to hear it.
“I could’ve left you at home you know,” I told him. “I can feel your eyes burning into my skull.”
“I’m not a babysitter,” Sammy hissed, snapping his mouth shut when Lance glared at him.
“There’s no magic to protect them,” I told him, heading toward The Magician’s Closet as soon as I spotted it.
Lance refused to use the portal at Harris’ bakery. Instead, he opened one a few doors down to avoid being seen by whoever was behind Morpheus’ banishment. If he’s still around.
The likelihood of us finding whoever banished Morpehus was rather slim considering we didn’t have any leads. Whatever happened inside Morpheus’ shop, the suspect made sure he (or she) left without a trace.
“You’re my responsibility,” Sammy argued, sitting on his haunches once we reached The Magician’s Closet. “Not them. Call their parents and be done with this.”
“Not until we find Morpheus,” Lance cut in, his voice low. “If we send them home and this… whatever he is is still out there, what do you think he’ll do?”
“The girls didn’t see anything,” Sammy said.
“No, but does our suspect know this? Sending them away would be dangerous, even for you.”
Sammy huffed and looked everywhere but at Lance. “I don’t like this.”
“No one does, but until we find Morpheus, we have no other choice.”
“Can we find him?”
The only thing I knew about banishment was the little bit I’d learned from Maggie and Lucy. According to them, banishment was worse than death and a bit like limbo but without an end. If that were true, how did Lance hope to find a Keeper of Magic without getting banished himself?
“Can’t say I’d mind,” Sammy spoke to me mind-to-mind.
“Sammy!”
“What? If you aren’t thinking o
f those girls or this missing troll, you’re thinking of him. It’s disgusting.”
“You know you could always close off your mind so you can’t hear my thoughts, right?”
“What if it’s important?”
“Like what? Finding a sunspot you like?”
Sammy glared at me, but if he thought or said anything else, I couldn’t hear him. Beside me, Lance shifted his weight from one foot to the other, his eyes on me.
“What?” I asked when he didn’t say anything.
“Are you done warring with yourself, or should I give you more time?” He cocked an eyebrow, and it was then I realized Lance had heard every word. My side of it, anyway.
“Oh god. I am so sorry.”
He smiled and adjusted his glasses. “How long have you been projecting?”
Looking to Sammy, I waited for him to make his own calculations, then said, “A week? Possibly more? Sammy noticed it first.”
“Well, get it under control before it gets you in trouble. I can’t have you talking to folks in Fairmount if you’re planning to share your thoughts with them as well.” He was scolding me, actually scolding me. Soon, he’d ground me and send me to my room without dinner. “Understand?”
I nodded as I couldn’t trust my voice to say anything else.
The next time he spoke, his voice was calmer than before. “Try envisioning a bubble around your mind. You remember those migraines you had?”
How could I forget?
And he heard that as well.
“You know the throbbing, full sensation your head gets during a migraine or infection? Focus on that feeling and make your magic work for you, not against you. So far, you’ve used your magic through instinct alone, but it won’t be enough if you plan to pass Morpheus’ test.”
If that happens.
“It will, but keeping your mind open like this is dangerous for you and everyone you care about. We can muffle your projections for now until you can do it on your own, which means we need to make a quick stop, first.”
“Harris’ bakery?” Surely there was a charm for this.
“Better. Oswald’s Tokens and Treats.”
