“That’s not… I mean, that’s a little weird, but I meant more…” I stopped and sighed. What was the point? Ask and have him shut me out too? I could only handle so much in one day.
“Alice, is there a reason you’re asking this?” His thin fingers picked at the off-white blanket covering his legs.
“I just heard a story or two and wanted to ask, but we can talk later, Grandpa.” I moved closer and squeezed his hand, taking comfort in the small bit of contact.
I was ready to let it go, but then he took a deep breath and spoke. “Your grandma Maggie… she was always the light of my life, and I never thought that I’d be able to catch her eye. There was these two real good-lookin’ fellas that buzzed around her, but one of them… I don’t quite remember his name, he was the one that encouraged me to go after her. Real nice, tall, had that dark and handsome thing goin’ on. One day, though, he just up and disappeared. I think he took a piece of Maggie with him. Part of her glow was just gone…”
That had to be Atohi. He was the reason Grandpa and Grandma got together.
“I need to go talk to someone.” I pressed a kiss to his forehead.
He gripped my wrist before I could pull away. “In my closet on the top shelf, there's a box of hers. I never went through it, even after she passed. But maybe there's something in there that can give you the answer you're looking for.”
“Thank you, Grandpa.”
~~~
After a trip to the house where I tried my best to avoid contact with the construction workers because I had no desire for human contact until I could talk to Atohi, I returned to the inn with a shoebox that had a pretty floral design. It didn't look anything out of the ordinary, but it was coated in a large amount of dust. Grandpa hadn't been kidding when he said he'd left it alone all these years. I could have sculpted with the dust, it was so thick. Inside the box among the various letters and pictures was a heavily aged, thick, leather journal. Almost afraid to even touch it, I grabbed it gingerly. The lock was in the shape of a daisy, made of a shiny metal. My fingers glowed eerily as I traced my finger on it, the same tingling sensation I got when Johannes had me channel my magic. I focused as best I could, putting more energy into it. The lock clicked, popping open.
“That's not a little creepy...”
I sat crossed-legged on the bed as I opened to the first page that was dated January 13, 1934.
“Dear Journal, another girl at this boarding school gave you to me. She said that writing your feelings makes you feel less lonely here at Hecate Academy for the Study and Growth of Magical Abilities. But… I’m terrified. A group of men in eerie black coats stole me from my family. I screamed and screamed for Mama and Papa, but they stared at me as if they didn’t know who I was. I should have never showed them what I can do. I should’ve just stayed in my room. This is my fault. I want to go home. My name is Zella Maggie Johansen… and I want to go home.”
My heart was breaking. She couldn’t have been much older than eight at the time. My hands shook slightly as I flipped through and headed towards the back of the book.
The entry was dated May 9, 1945. “Dear Journal, I moved to a new town today. It was a long journey here, but I'm so glad to be away from that wretched school. I'm with my two best friends, so I know it will only be better from here. Benjamin said this town was founded by magical beings hoping to have a normal life. A life where we can all pretend we are regular humans and have regular friends and regular families... A small part of me wants to seek out the family that abandoned me, but I don't think I have it in me to forgive them yet. Not after everything I had to suffer through. Hopefully my next entry will be more lighthearted.”
I couldn't believe this item even existed with all the tales it could tell. I turned to another random page, stopping on August 15 of the same year.
“I received a letter back from my family. My uncle wrote me to say a pox had befallen my parents and that it was the Lord's way of punishing them for having such a dirty child. It made me wonder what sort of lie they concocted about why they sold me off. But, it gave me the closure I'd wanted. Him and his unforgiving lord can piss right off. Atohi and Benjamin are with me. They are all I need right now. Dear sweet Atohi with his mystical creations. And Benjamin with his eyes as cool as ice and sharp tongue. I'm happier here than I ever was with my sorry lot of a family.”
I closed the book and set it to the side. So many questions were swimming in my mind, so many things I wanted answered. One of the most prominent was this school. I had heard Atohi and Johannes mention being sent there. Did all of their families abandon them, or were they stolen away?
I rose from the bed to slide back the glass doors in my room that led to the backyard of Granny’s inn. I needed some fresh air, and with the trees nearby, it was crisp, almost sweet here. A wide hammock caught my attention. Maybe just a quick nap before I found Atohi would be okay… I was out as soon as I settled in.
I woke with a jolt, nearly screaming as a black mass of fur hovered over me, almost dumping me from the hammock. Quickly realizing it was Atohi trying to get up, I helped him with a grunt before he flopped on top of me.
“Oh my God, Atohi. You’re so heavy.” I wheezed playfully and stroked a hand down the back of his head.
He made a grumbling noise, leaning back and pressing his face to mine. His cold, wet snoot sent a zap through me that made my whole body tense.
“Your nose is so cold!” I screeched.
He licked me, huffing happily.
“Thanks, your spit definitely makes everything better…”
I closed my eyes and with one foot on the ground gently rocked us. With his added heat, I could just fall right back asleep. That was if he wasn’t trying to press his freezing nose against me again. The cold was permeating from his snoot, and his whiskers tickled my chin.
Without looking, I said, “Atohi, you better not.”
He paused his slow movements. I don’t think he was even breathing. I peeked an eye open at him. He pounced.
Atohi rolled around on me, rubbing my neck and face with his, getting wolf hair in my mouth, and his slobber on my cheeks. I finally managed to wiggle my arms under him to push at his shoulders and hold him at arm's length. His tail wagged happily behind him.
“You are so going to get it when we get back to your house. Just you wait.” I narrowed my eyes, though he seemed completely unperturbed. “Also, you are going to give me a bruise in the shape of your paw…” I looked down to where said front paws were placed on my chest and stomach.
My phone started vibrating loudly in my pocket. I reached down for it, finally releasing Atohi, who settled down.
Sue’s name and photo flashed across my screen. I was quick to answer it.
“Sue! I’m so glad you called. I need your help.”
“Well, hello to you too, gorgeous.” Sue laughed. “I was calling to see how things went today. You zipped out of school before I could even catch you.”
“Sorry… I got called down to the principal’s office.”
“Ooh, you got in trouble,” she taunted in a sing-song voice. “Anyway, naughty girl, what do you need help with?”
“We’re going to free Atohi.”
~~~
The next day, we set our plan in motion. Suzanne, who oddly enough didn’t take much in the way of convincing, was going to meet me at Johannes’s home to help find the stone after the end of the school day. She said something about being like secret agents and squealed before I could really tell her that it surely wouldn’t be quite that exciting…
As I made my way up the steps to Johannes’s home, I could feel Atohi’s eyes on me, watching from the shadows to make sure I made it okay.
Deep breath. In and out. I could do this. Suzanne should be here any moment, and—
“Oh, hey, young miss! If you're here for Johannes, he's not here right now.” I nearly jumped out of my skin as a man rounded the corner with a weed whacker in hand and smiled at me.
“Oh
, I just had something to drop off.” I waved my hand as if it were no big deal.
“What did you bring? I can take it around back for you and leave a note for him. Johannes locked up the house when he left.”
Oh, my God. I was so stupid. How could I have forgotten to bring anything? I could feel sweat start to accumulate on my palms as my mouth opened and closed. What was I supposed to say?
A car pulled up in front of the house, momentarily distracting us. I could’ve cried in relief at seeing the plume of Sue’s red hair.
“Hey, Sue! Do you have that thing? The thing that I needed you to bring?” I gave her a look. A look that hopefully said “HELP!”.
“Of course! What sort of best friend would I be if I forgot this special box!” Thank everything that was wonderful in the world for Sue. She grabbed a package out of her trunk and headed up to meet me.
“I can take that for you.”
As the man moved towards the porch to reach for the box, Sue pulled it away, practically hiding it behind her.
“That's all right, Fred. These are some unmentionables she'd really rather not have someone else handle.” She leaned in to whisper. “You know, special night planned and all.”
My face flushed as Fred laughed loudly. “Oh, to be young again. You might wanna wait 'til he's home, otherwise you'll have to leave it on the porch. If you do, though, I can promise I won’t go digging,” he said with a friendly wink. “See you ladies later.” He headed toward the back of the house.
“Really, Sue?” I asked in a harsh whisper. “Unmentionables?”
“Hey, at least I thought of something. It looks like you didn’t even bring anything with you.” She quirked an eyebrow at me, watching me squirm under her gaze. “You’re lucky I think of everything. I also figured you've also probably never broken into a place before. Plus, talking about things like sex makes people uncomfortable, so they won't ask follow-up questions.”
“Wait, does that mean you have broken in somewhere?” She definitely hadn’t mentioned that before. How much did I not know about this woman?
“Look, when you have a kid who keeps trying to lock you out when you’re taking out the trash, a girl’s gotta learn how to pick a lock.” She paused to adjust the box she was holding. “Plus I totally broke into the school with a bunch of friends when I was in tenth grade.”
I sputtered. “We are so talking about that later. And what is even actually in that box?”
“Stuff I was taking to donate. It's only been in my car since, oh, Jason was born.”
“Isn't he six?” I put my hands on my hips.
“Don't judge me, lady with a magical wolf man,” she challenged.
I narrowed my eyes at her, frowning. “Touché. Anyway, I'm not sure how we're going to get in. That guy said everything is locked up.”
“Did you check the windows?”
“Well, no, he caught me as soon as I got here.”
Suzanne rolled her eyes, moved to one of the windows, and tugged on it. After a couple good pulls, it opened.
“Please, hold your applause,” she said, giving herself a small bow.
I stared at her. “There's just so much I don't know about you.”
“Buy me a drink, and maybe I'll let you know more.” She winked.
With a laugh, I said, “If we get out of this, I will buy you all the $4.99 wine you want… As long as it’s on payday.”
We clambered through the window and shut it behind us. My heart was racing in my chest. This could be it. Atohi could finally be free of that house. Perhaps I'd be able to find and help the little boy too.
The house was eerily quiet. Maybe Benjamin wasn’t here. I looked around the living room, trying to remember the layout from the times I had been here. If I were a Ghoul Magus, where in my ostentatious, million-dollar mansion would I keep a cursed totem?
I motioned to a long hallway to the left lined with several doors I’d never been through. “Maybe we should start this way?”
Hopefully we'd find more than just spare bedrooms. Sue grabbed the knob of the nearest door and twisted it, only to find it was locked. I grabbed the next and found the same issue.
“Who the hell locks all the doors in their own house?” Sue asked, exasperated, as we hit the end of the hall, having tried every door and found them all locked tight.
“Someone who has a lot of secrets to keep.” I sighed and pushed my hair from my face. “Well, where would you put a set of keys? I don't think he carries them on him.”
“I put random keys in the kitchen junk drawer.” She shrugged.
“Well, then let's check the kitchen.”
Sue grabbed an apple from a large bowl on a kitchen island when we walked in, inspecting it thoroughly. “Ugh, wax. You can't trust someone with high-quality fake fruit.” She tutted and put it back.
Each drawer and cabinet revealed nothing but boxes of food and sets of utensils that sparkled in the light. Everything was perfectly in its place. It was a little unnerving. Back at my old apartment, our kitchen cupboards had never looked this nice, and we hadn’t had half this much stuff—but then again, maybe that was because Chelsea, my old roommate, and I had just been two girls fresh out of college when we’d started rooming together.
But… something kept pulling my attention to the bowl of fruit. Sue followed my eyes.
“Earth to Alice. Hellooo? Are you hungry? I told you those are fake.”
I rolled my eyes. “I know that, but it would make a perfect hiding spot. Why would you ever need to empty the bowl?”
With all the pieces removed, a singular shining key glittered at the bottom. It was long and ornate, nothing that looked like it could be used for a modern door handle.
Behind me, Sue sucked in a breath. “Um, not to be weird, but has that door always been there?”
I looked up and saw that, where the opposite kitchen wall had been blank, there was now a towering door unlike any of the others. Its frame was carved filigree and it looked like it had been plucked right out of times past. Just like everything in Atohi’s lonely house in the woods.
I held up the key. “Don’t worry. Somehow this isn’t even a higher level of weird for me anymore. Is this the same symbol?” I squinted, looking between the key and the top of the door. “It is. It’s the same symbol.”
A crest perhaps, with the way the edge was curved and centered with two gleaming red gems that looked like eyes. My hands shook as I inserted the key and turned it. The lock clicked, a loud metallic ringing, and the door opened inward. It creaked like we were in an old slasher film, which only made my heart beat faster, anxiety building as my hair stood on end.
“That was just the wind, right?” Sue asked as she stood behind me, peering over my shoulder. My arms were beginning to ache from her grip. I don't think she even realized she was doing it.
Light reflected off an object in the newly revealed room. It sat on a pedestal, cushioned, looking like the Queen’s jewels. It was orange, like a flaming sunset. It felt as if… it were whispering to me, calling me to gaze upon its beauty… to touch it. My heart was thundering in my chest. Was this what Atohi felt when he had seen it lying there on his bed, before it cursed him to remain in that house or no longer be human?
This was it. It had to be.
Chapter Twelve
As sure as I was that the jewel was exactly the object I needed, I was equally as sure Sue shouldn’t follow me into the room.
“Stay here,” I told her, and, considering she didn’t want to be left out of my breaking-and-entering experience, I added, “I need you to keep an eye out for Johannes in here in case he manages to slip past Atohi outside.”
She frowned into the room, but nodded. “Good luck, girly.”
The wooden stairs groaned as I descended them. This basement seemed disjointed from the rest of the house; nothing down here was nearly as picturesque as the classic contemporary furniture, the marble counters, the smooth cherry oak of Johannes’s coffee table. It smelled heavily
of earth.
I nearly ran face-first into a chain hanging from the ceiling in the middle of the room. When I tugged it, a dim bulb flickered on, only emanating enough light to reveal the floor and the walls were stone. It made the tiny room feel even more like a dungeon. It seemed somehow fitting that the item restraining Atohi would be in such a place.
But, this had to be a trap. The ease of it all had trap written all over it. And yet my fingers twitched with the urge to grab the shining jewel and run as fast as I could.
I finally gripped it, half anticipating a large stone would drop down and roll after me Indiana Jones-style. I was completely still for a moment, and that was when I heard it: a low rumble of a growl, just barely audible. A set of smoldering red eyes appeared in my peripheral vision, locked on to me. No, no, no. How was he here?
But the more I watched him out of the corner of my eye, the more I realized: this one seemed smaller. Magic, a swirl of blue, purple, and black, oozed from the little eye sockets before dissipating in the air just the same, but it definitely wasn’t Johannes.
I slowly turned, jewel in hand, purposefully not looking in the direction of the beast. I just needed to get back up the stairs. Praying to whatever higher power would listen, I made my way up the stairs, giving Sue a wide-eyed look of fright. Had the steps creaked this much on the way down? Every noise they made, I could just picture being the final straw for the creature before it pounced.
It made no move to attack, but I could feel its stare following my every move. When I got to the top step, I broke into a run, grabbing Suzanne's arm to pull her with me.
A black blur whizzed past us and disappeared around the corner. We skidded to a stop, startled by its sudden presence. I slipped the talisman into my jacket pocket, zipping it up to keep the stone in place.
“What is that?” Sue asked, pointing a shaking finger in the direction the creature had gone.
“It was in the basement. It has to be the same kind of Magus as Johannes.”
Eyes Like Autumn (Seasons of the Magi Book 1) Page 14
