by Rainy Kaye
No Fiona.
“I wish the map would show us how close or far we are from the source of the magic, and not just narrow it down to a building or property.”
“That would take out, like, all of the fun,” Randall said, reaching for my hand. He entwined his fingers with mine. “When we find Fiona, where are we going to bring her?”
As much as my heart swelled at his optimism of when we found her, instead of if, it deflated just as quickly. We still had no real plan of where we were going. Green River didn’t sound promising, and we didn’t have more than three family members between us. Jada and I had been late-in-life children. Mom had passed early, shortly after Jada had left, and a few years ago, Dad had moved into a retirement center in Omaha before joining Mom.
Randall only claimed one family member from his sharply pruned family tree, and that had been his aunt. The one I hadn’t realized had died, which, if I had to think about, made me wonder how much I had been paying attention to him all these years. Fiona had been born in Nebraska, but most of her relatives lived in England.
Either way, as it stood now, we didn’t have a lot of back up plans. We’d had a wider social circle in school—if it could be called that; neither Fiona and I had spent much time with the other kids—but as we had moved on to college and careers and, for some, starting families, we had drifted farther apart. Green River wasn’t known for its wild nightlife, so we had all been pretty quick to move on with our lives without each other.
Not to mention, everyone who had remained in Green River would be dealing with nearly the same issue of locating a safe, solid home base.
“Let’s just find her first,” I said, as we turned and headed down another long hallway of doors. “I really don’t have any idea where she could be."
I stopped at the next door and tried the doorknob. Magic pulsed under my fingertips, searing heat straight through me. With a yelp, I recoiled from the door.
“What did you find?” Randall asked as he opened the room across from me and peered inside.
“It’s hot, and full of pain,” I said, but I reached out tentatively and touched the door with a finger. The door pulsed liked an entity. “If this thing has eyes, I’m just fuckin’ done.”
“Any idea how this is going to try to kill us?” Randall asked, closing the room he had been investigating.
I retracted my hand from the door, but didn’t dare to look away from it.
“I bet it’s another one of those things we can cross through,” I said as the thought formed. “Like that one that was in the tunnel.”
The only problem was, there was no way to cross through this one. The door remained firmly in place, no black abyss to step through.
I wasn’t sure what this all meant yet. Sasmita would know more, but she was off battling the mage for reasons yet to be determined.
I grabbed the knob again, this time not releasing as it warmed up, and tried to push the door open. The door started to budge but sucked right back into place. Gritting my teeth, I bore all my weight into the door, but it didn’t move farther.
I let go before my hand started to smolder.
“Can you try to overload it, like you did with Winston?” Randall asked, coming up to stand behind me but keeping his hands to himself.
“That collapsed the whole damn hotel,” I said, releasing my hold, “though that’s really Winston’s fault. Anyway, I’m not sure I’m comfortable doing that, but…”
If the door was magicked, what kept someone from going through the wall with brute force? Tentatively, I reached over next to the door and knocked twice with my knuckle.
Nothing happened, but not like I had a way to bust down the wall.
“This has to be the dot on the map, and no one is putting up a barricade like this to guard their Christmas décor.” I tried to keep calm, but I could feel the wild excitement on my face. “What if this is where they are keeping Fiona?”
Randall nodded, already on board, but scanned the door and the walls on either side of it. “How do we get in?”
Tensing, I leaned toward the door and said in a measured voice, “Fiona? Are you in there?”
No reply.
Maybe the barricade kept out sound too. Or maybe she was asleep. Or worse.
We needed to get inside. I couldn’t burn away the barricade, and I wasn’t sure overloading another enchantment was a good idea, even if this wasn’t a sentient manifestation.
“It needs unlocked,” I said, thinking aloud. “How do you unlock a magical door?”
Silence fell like we were pondering the winning question on a game show.
“Is there a difference between a door and a gate?” Randall asked, and I turned to him, eyes narrowed.
“What are you, the sphynx?”
“I’m just saying, if the talisman—medallion—can open the voodoo afterlife, can’t it open a door to the next room?”
I frowned as I considered his words, and then shrugged. “Not a damn clue.”
He sucked in a breath and let it out in a huff, staring down at me.
“Yep.” I said. “We’ll give it a try. It’s what we do.”
25
That map didn’t lead us back to Olivier and Edolie’s house because there was, apparently, no constant source of magic happening there and we wouldn’t have been able to easily pick out occasional use among all the other dots. It didn’t matter, though, because Randall had memorized the way.
“Are you sure?” I asked as he pointed for me to turn the car at a side street. “How can you possibly remember all this?”
“It’s pretty significant when a man who shapeshifts into an alligator and the daughter of the Voodoo Queen invites you to their home,” he said, like we were talking about current affairs. “The bigger question is how you don’t remember.”
“I get turned around,” I said with a sheepish grin, but it was meant for levity. “If we’re lucky, they won’t be home and we can just break in and steal the medallion.”
“It’s like we’re Bonnie and Clyde,” he said, pressing back in his seat.
“I don’t know how we can convince them to let us have it,” I said, the seriousness of the situation settling back over the mood. “They have tasked themselves with protecting it or some such, and I doubt they’re going to just hand it over for us to flitter off with it.”
“Maybe the fortune telling machine will grant us one,” he said absently. “Continue going forward. It’ll be a few more intersections.”
“I’m still not sure that map panned out in our favor,” I grumbled, keeping an eye on the road. “There’s still plenty of ways for finding Fiona to go wrong.”
A long silence filled the car as I continued to drive.
Finally, Randall said, “Next turn, then it will be farther down the street.”
I nodded, following his directions. As their house came into view, I picked out Olivier-as-a-human sitting on a chair on the porch. His eyes tracked us not at all unlike an alligator’s gaze as we pulled up to the curb, and a small shiver settled between my shoulder blades.
I cut the engine and opened the door, stepping out. I came around to join him as Olivier stood, rubbing his hands on his thighs.
“Wasn’t expecting to see you two again,” he said, but he sounded pleasant enough, especially considering he was practically a relic from the dinosaur age on the inside, or however that worked out. “What brings you?”
“We need to borrow the medallion,” Randall said, right to the point.
Well, why not?
Olivier chuckled, shaking his head. “It’s not sugar, and we ain’t neighbors.”
I opened my mouth to plead our case when Edolie stepped out through the front door, screen slamming shut behind her.
“What’s this about the medallion?” she asked, and though her tone carried southern hospitality, I knew she could lay us flat if we got mouthy.
“We think we’ve found where they are keeping my friend hostage.” My words burst out with the
pressure built up behind them. “There’s some kind of barrier over the door, and I can’t break it, but I think the medallion might unlock it. I mean, it’s worth a try, right? I don’t know what else could unlock a magical doorway, and if it can unlock the Gates of Guinee then it must—”
Edolie held up her hand to shut me up, and I snapped my mouth closed.
“Okay,” she said, evenly. “First, deep breath. Second, if there’s a barricade, then there’s a witch or mage around. Probably one of those new nasty ones with the tentacles. If there’s one of those around, then they are probably going to recognize what the medallion is and try to take it for themselves.”
“We won’t let them,” I said, stepping forward as I put out my hand. “We’ll protect it with our lives.”
“Honorable as that is,” Olivier said, emphasizing his drawl, “that’s not much when some of these groups out there would happily let you pay the price without a second thought, and the medallion is worth quite a bit more.”
Edolie swiveled her head around to frown at him, but then looked back to us. “What he means is, while we know you have good intentions, there aren’t many people who can sufficiently protect the medallion. We can’t let it be used for any sort of questionable motives. I’m sorry, but it needs to stay with us.”
“But my friend,” I said, and my entire body seemed to shatter. “We don’t know why they took her, but it couldn’t have been for a good reason. How could it? No one is doing anything good, and there was no reason—none at all—for anyone to have interest in Fiona. She always looks after anything or anyone that needs her—she even once rescued a pair of axolotls that had been dumped in an alley. She’s a good person, and I can’t let this happen to her. If we can’t use the medallion, I’m going to have to try to overload the barricade and if it discharges like the last time I did anything close to that, it could bring down the entire house around us and maybe worse. Please, let us try the medallion.”
Edolie smiled, but it brimmed with remorse. “The medallion cannot leave our possession.”
“Then come with us,” I said in a surge of brilliance. “You can protect the medallion, and I won’t even touch it. Just see if it unlocks the door and then take it back. That’s all I need it for.”
Olivier started to shake his head, but Edolie turned to him with a look that said she had already thought it over and settled the matter in the course of a second.
He seemed to notice, because he rolled his shoulders back as he tipped his head from side to side.
“Alright,” he said with a groan. “I know we can’t leave that girl hostage. Let’s do this in and out, quick like. We’ll bring our own vehicle and follow you.”
“I’ll get the medallion,” Edolie said and then strolled into the house with grace and style as if she were on the catwalk.
When the door closed behind her, I turned to Olivier as he began to shift down onto all fours, his thick reptilian tail sliding into existence and his face elongating into a predatory jaw. As an alligator, he ambled off the porch and, dragging his belly in the grass, headed for their truck parked in the driveway.
Edolie returned, the medallion nowhere in sight but she had probably hidden it somewhere. No point roaming around town with it out for all to see.
She crossed the yard and came up to the back of the truck where Olivier-the-alligator waited. As she pulled down the tailgate, the ramp unfolded and slid to the ground. Olivier waddled to the ramp and moseyed his way up until he slid into the truck bed, and then paddled his feet around until he was facing back out from the open tailgate.
“Does he really have to be an alligator?” I asked with a huff, surprised at my own annoyance, but it seemed like we would already be on the road if he had chosen a more practical form.
Randall shot me a look, but Edolie smiled as she reached under the hem of her shirt and retrieved the medallion. Without her saying a word, Olivier sprung his jaw and she gently reached past the row of man-killing teeth and placed the medallion on his tongue. His jaw snapped shut.
Edolie closed the tailgate and turned to face me. “Yes.”
With that, she rounded to the driver side of the cab, pulling the keys from her pocket. “Lead the way.”
26
As I drove back to the property where Fiona was being held hostage—I was sure she was there—I kept glancing at the rearview mirror to peer through the shattered back window and verify we hadn’t lost Edolie and her medallion-transporting gator husband.
“It’s not a bad plan, if you think about it,” Randall said. “You basically can’t pry open an alligator’s mouth, right? I mean, someone could kill him, but with his magic and hers, there’s a few levels of protection to get to the medallion.”
“Yeah, they have a system, it seems. I just hope the medallion even works on the damn door.” My heart squirmed in my chest as the next words came out. “What do you think has happened to Fiona? What do you think we’ll find?”
Randall’s excitement about the alligator waned as darkness floated down on his features.
“I don’t know. If she doesn’t have any secret information—and I can’t imagine she does—then it’s not like they must have been trying to extract it from her. There’s a magic barrier on the door, so this can’t be a normal abduction, but I…” He shrugged, scowling. “I got nothing.”
“Me either,” I muttered as we pulled back up to the property.
I had lost count how many times we had visited here in the last few days, but it seemed to become less and less inviting. Hopefully, this would be our last return. Once we busted out Fiona, we would be hightailing out of this city and not looking back.
As we stepped out of the car, Edolie pulled in behind us and cut the engine. She stepped out and headed to the bed to lower the ramp.
I turned to Randall as he folded up the map and stuck it in his back pocket. “When we get out of town, let’s check major cities and see which ones aren’t reporting massive destruction. I don’t think it matters where we go, as long as we stay far away from the paintings.”
“I think we need to notify people what is going on,” he said. “There’s some pretty strong evidence that we’re dealing with a sizable threat. Maybe the military can handle this.”
I sorted out the options, and then shook my head slowly. “I’m not sure that’s going to help. Joseph Stone had said they were imprisoned in the first place because they could not be killed. Someone has to put them back into their cages. Shooting at them is likely to annoy them at best and they’ll eradicate us bothersome flies, or it’ll piss them off and god knows what happens then.”
He looked as if he was going to say more, but I put out my hand, wiggling my fingers.
“Let’s worry about this after we get Fiona.” I spun around as Edolie strolled toward us, Oliver-the-alligator waddling right beside her. “The door is on the second level. Is he going to be able to get up there?”
“Not a problem,” she said, and then flicked her hand in the air in front of her. “We’ll follow.”
Randall and I strode forward, and they trailed us around the back of the house and through the ajar door that opened into the French provincial dining room. I expected to hear crashes or thuds as Olivier made his way around the furniture, tail gliding back and forth, but he was oddly dexterous for a thousand pound killing machine.
In the living room, I headed straight for the stairs and plodded up them, footsteps pounding. I would have tried to use a little more stealth, but I didn’t have the energy for it. Randall strode beside me as I turned for the hallway, and Edolie and Olivier followed close behind, Olivier slow but certain on the stairs.
When we reached the door, I waited as our little group collected.
Edolie reached out and wiggled her fingers in front of the door, but didn’t make contact with it.
“I see what you mean,” she said. “This isn’t a barricade, so much as it’s a portal. I’m going to wager what is beyond this door isn’t a real room, but
more of a pocket. It takes a powerful witch or mage to pull this off.”
She pressed her lips together, as if rethinking their decision to help us.
“You mean that even if someone went through the wall, they wouldn’t reach what’s past this door?” I asked.
“If you went through the wall, you would reach the bedroom, but not the pocket where the portal leads. The portal has been fixed to the physical door for easy access, that’s all. Some witch or mage probably made it for weaker witches and mages to use.” Edolie rocked back on her heels, studying the door. “There’s an awful lot of big magic happening around here suddenly, and I don’t just mean that awful thing running the streets.”
“And some of them have my friend,” I pressed.
I thought she was going to leave us stranded, but she turned to her husband. “Let’s do it.”
His jaw remained firmly shut.
That must have meant no.
“It will only take a moment, and then we can get it safely back to its spot,” she said. “You know we can’t leave that poor girl in there, especially knowing they were strong enough to create a portal.”
Olivier’s jaw sprung open, revealing the medallion. I had no idea how he managed not to swallow it.
Edolie reached down and retrieved it, and then stepped forward and pressed the backside of the medallion to the door. Pale blue light developed behind the medallion, illuminating a halo around it. The blue deepened, and the halo grew until it was nearly the width of the door.
She stepped back, and I took Randall’s hand as a row of four squares, drawn in light, appeared above the medallion still fixed to the door. The halo glow evolved into two concentric circles, and in between them appeared pulsing symbols.
The symbols began to spin, as if someone had flicked the glowing wheel, and it picked up speed until it was only a blur of blue light.
The spinning stopped, and a symbol appeared in the first of the four boxes.
