by Molly Fitz
“Most would use that bond only to protect themselves, but the Haberdashes…” Parker shook his head. “They’ve never been keen on following the rules.”
“We have to find and stop them,” I cried, my hesitation receding in light of this new information. “How can I help?”
“You can’t,” Fluffikins said with a deep frown that pulled his whiskers toward his chest. “But the rest of us can ward the town as a protective measure just in case Melony’s grandfather hasn’t joined her yet. Do you still remember the power points?” he asked the rest of the board.
They all nodded solemnly. I took it they weren’t talking about a computer program.
“I want to help, too,” I insisted. “I still have magic. It may not be much, but maybe it will be enough to make a difference in whatever happens next.”
“No, Tawny,” Greta said in a cool, disconnected voice as she turned toward me. The fire had returned to her eyes, but it was only a dull flicker. I wouldn’t have noticed it at all if she hadn’t already been sitting so close.
She put a hand on my shoulder and pressed her forehead to mine. “It’s very noble that you want to help, but this isn’t your battle to fight. We’ve been protecting the magical interests in this region for years. Sometimes that includes stopping dangerous transfers of power. We’re all trained for this…”
She grabbed both of my hands and pulled me to my feet with her.
I took a deep breath and waited.
Greta’s eyes flashed, then returned to their normal blue color.
“We’re all trained for this,” she repeated. “But you’re not.”
With that last sentiment, she raised her other hand to my chest and ripped the magic brooch from my shirt.
My knees buckled, but I didn’t fall despite feeling as if all the strength had been zapped from my muscles.
The pink glittery magic snapped out of sight as whatever power I’d briefly held within me fizzled and died. The silver brooch that held my borrowed magic glowed in Greta’s hand. Taunting me. Practically daring me to take it back.
But I saw what power did. It turned answers into questions, loved ones into enemies, and safety into danger. Terrible things happened each and every day, and the board allowed them to happen as part of maintaining some kind of sacred balance.
But why did we need a balance at all? If I had magic, I’d use it to make a better world, not uphold a flawed and broken one.
Magic or not, I could still help.
Maybe because of my lack, I could help more. I could offer a human perspective.
“I’m not going anywhere,” I said, standing firm.
But Greta shouted and gave me a mighty shove. “Go! Return to your life and stop interfering with ours.”
24
Of course, I now had a million questions flying through my brain, but before I could ask a single one, Greta shoved me again. And hard.
I struggled to see past her, hoping someone else would step in or speak up.
Parker studiously avoided my gaze.
Meanwhile Mr. Fluffikins summoned a blast of air so strong, it pushed me out into the empty hallway and slammed the conference room door behind me.
I landed on my rear with a heavy thump, just like I had last night when the bossy black cat had tested my magic by launching a sneak attack.
He’d said that if I’d had powers, I wouldn’t be able to stop the impulse to protect myself. If Greta ripping off my brooch hadn’t been proof enough that my magic was gone, my failure to counter the attack certainly was.
The pain radiating from my backside added injury to insult.
I struggled to my feet and tried the doorknob, but it didn’t so much as budge within my clammy grip. Stepping to the side, I pressed myself up against the glass-block column that looked into the room. “Let me in!”
I could hardly see more than shapes and movement past the 80s-tastic design feature, but even that was taken away when someone conjured a dark barrier to block my view
I stopped and listened.
Silence.
Had they also put up a sound barrier? Or had they all exited through that glass ceiling already?
Parker had mentioned power points, something about protecting the town from outside attacks. My guess was that wherever these points were, it wasn’t inside the dingy office complex.
They were on the move—or at least they would be soon. I was out of options here, so I ran outside, wondering if I had any chance of following on foot. Provided I was even able to spot them in the first place. I doubted both possibilities, given that my morning’s journey on the magic broom had taken me well above civilian speed limits.
They needed my help. I knew that deep within my bones, even if they didn’t. One way or another, I would find a way to—what was it Fluffikins had said?—to tip the balance.
Think, Tawny, think!
I knew Melony was either dead or in danger.
That her grandfather may also be involved, and if he was, that would be way worse than facing her by herself.
As the current holder of the town magic, Parker was at risk, too.
The board had discussed venturing to the power points to protect the town… And that’s where my definite knowledge ended. Everything I knew about power points had more to do with making slide presentations than warding off dark magic. I had no car, and Greta had taken my magic away, both of which left me stranded in this mostly abandoned modern office complex.
So what now?
In the absence of a plan, I chose to head home. After all, there was only one place I thought might have the answers I needed, and that was Mrs. Haberdash’s house. I went there now, not because I was giving up, but because I knew that eventually the board and their foes would make their way back to where it all began.
And when they did, they would need me.
The house knew that, even if they didn’t.
Why else would its magic have embraced me right away?
I found it especially strange that Greta had been the one to force me away. She’d seen the way the house opened up to me. She knew I was a part of this better than any of the rest of them did.
But they’d all been so quick to accept me into their group and even quicker to kick me to the curb. Why?
I slogged along the sidewalk, wishing I’d worn my running shoes so I could move a little faster to match the urgency of the situation.
I’d hardly made it around the block when a blast of burning light knocked me off balance and pushed me onto my poor sore bum once again.
Holding one hand over my eyes as a shield, I strained to see into the light. Was this a new enemy?
No, it was just Greta.
Okay, not just Greta.
It was Greta with enormous white wings stretched wide on each side. “Grab my hand,” she ordered, and I knew better than to argue.
As soon as our fingers made contact, she launched back into the sky, pulling me along with her. “What’s happening?” I managed to ask between frightened gasps for air.
“He’s lying,” she said with a quick glance my way. The flames had returned to her gaze, and she looked both beautiful and terrifying.
“What? Who’s lying? And wait, are you a… an…?”
“Yes, I’m an angel, and Parker was lying.”
Whoa. There was a lot to process there. I wanted to respond with something intelligent, but instead I just said, “Um, are you sure?” like some kind of mortal idiot… which I guess I was, considering the company.
“Almost everything he said was a lie, but I don’t know why.”
“So does that mean…?”
“Yes, Melony is fine. They never had a confrontation.”
Finally I found some helpful words. “Then why didn’t you stop everyone from going to ward the town?”
“Because something’s not right. I didn’t want to alert Parker to the fact I was on to him.”
“How did you know he wasn’t being honest?”
She p
ointed to herself and smiled. “Angel.”
“Right.”
“We need to act fast before he realizes that I haven’t joined the others. Do you still want to help?”
She probably should have asked that before she catapulted me into the sky, but whatever. I was in this to win it, even though I had no idea how victory might look or what it would ultimately entail.
“Yes. I’ll help. What do you need me to do?”
She flashed me a magnanimous smile that sent a shiver right through me. “You, my dear, are going to serve as our bait.”
Wonderful.
25
“Where are we going?” I shouted into the wind as the angel and I picked up speed. “And how will I be used as bait?”
“We’re going to the place where this whole thing started,” Greta said as we zipped toward our location.
Not even a minute later, we clunked down right in front of Mrs. Haberdash’s house, the place I’d been headed on my own, anyway.
“What’s the plan?” I asked as Greta made her wings disappear with a quick flick of both wrists.
“Haven’t really got much of one.” She reached into her pocket and pulled out my brooch. Even though I hadn’t been granted magic long enough to know what I was doing with it, I immediately felt relieved. If nothing else, my instinctual abilities could protect me—at least for a little while. I hated how much I wanted it, even though I was already beginning to suspect that magic did terrible things to a person’s mind. Even knowing it could corrupt me, I wanted it. Desperately.
“It’s a decoy,” Greta explained, dashing my hopes just as quickly as she’d lifted them. Oh, well. It was definitely for the best. “Wear it. Pretend you’re searching for something specific.”
I thought about this for a moment. I also thought about how unfortunate it was that my pajama pants had no pockets. I shoved the decoy into my bra to keep it safe, then asked, “What should I be looking for?”
“Doesn’t matter. Just tear around the house and generally make a nuisance of yourself. If one of the Haberdash heirs is around, they’ll come find you.” She stepped forward and I studied the back of her simple pastel pantsuit. There was no sign of the enormous wings that had delivered us to this location mere seconds ago. No tears from where they’d emerged through the fabric. No hint that she was anything other than an ordinary human being.
“What will you do?” I asked skeptically.
She glanced toward the horizon and frowned, which was not exactly comforting. “I’ll be watching from nearby, just as soon as I come back from informing Mr. Fluffikins of my observations.”
Horror flooded my chest. “So I’ll be alone in there?”
“Not for long, but I need to warn the others so they can be on the lookout. I know it’s a lot to ask, but I promise to keep you safe. That’s why I had to push you away. I couldn’t let Parker know that I suspect him.” She turned and stared off into the distance.
“You suspect Parker now? Of what?” Parker was the easiest for me to relate to on the board. I truly liked him, but I’d been wrong about people before.
Greta, for instance, had rubbed me wrong many times since I met her earlier that morning, but she also seemed the most genuinely concerned with what happened to me—and to Melony. Despite her warnings that magic always came to a violent end, it seemed she still yearned for a peaceful resolution here.
She worried her lip and brought her gaze back to meet mine. “I don’t know, but it’s not like him to lie. Back in the boardroom, didn’t you notice that he seemed a bit, well… off?”
Actually I had, but I thought it was just because of the trauma of potentially killing someone. I chose not to acknowledge that. I wanted to trust Greta, but I was still so confused about this brave new world of magic and danger. I mean, she was probably one of the good guys—being an angel and all—but how could I know for sure?
I suspected I wouldn’t know anything for sure until it actually came to pass. Which meant my goal here was to find the truth and use it to guide my actions.
Oh, also to not die.
That was definitely important.
“You said you’d keep me safe. How can you guarantee that if you’re not here?” I mumbled nervously.
Greta scanned the horizon again and shifted her weight from foot to foot before speaking. “Step forward,” she instructed.
I did, and she grabbed my hand by the wrist, then placed it over my heart.
The blinding light shone again.
I blinked hard as I watched it pass from Greta’s chest into my hand, up my arm, and then eventually into my chest, where the light faded and disappeared.
“You have my armor of light. It will be enough to keep you safe for the time I am gone,” she said with a pained expression. Did it hurt her to lose this magic, the way losing mine had weakened me momentarily?
“What? I can’t accept this. What about you?” I couldn’t let her sacrifice herself like this. There had to be another way…
“I,” she said with a wistful grin as she let out her wings again, “will just have to do my best not to die.”
Before I could argue, she launched into the sky, leaving me to set my part of the non-plan into motion. And so I took a deep breath, rolled my shoulders like some kind of boxer prepping to go into the ring, and jogged up the porch steps to the empty house.
No, I didn’t have any magical offenses, but I could still help somehow.
Greta believed in me enough to trust me with her very life, and I refused to let her down.
26
Greta had readily admitted she didn’t really have a plan for us to follow. Neither of us knew for sure what was going on with Parker—or Melony for that matter.
Trouble was brewing, and we’d just have to deal with the resulting chaos as it came.
I couldn’t offer much beyond my willingness to help, but that still might be enough to bait the bad guys… Um, whoever they turned out to be.
I thought about this more as I made my way upstairs to the late Mrs. Haberdash’s bedroom. Greta had instructed me to pretend I was searching for something, and my performance would be far more convincing if I actually was trying to find something.
Melony had come for the old witch’s hat earlier. Might there be additional magical accessories just waiting to be discovered?
I thought of the decoy brooch nestled in my bra, and decided, yes. An accessory seemed a far better bet than trying to find some kind of revealing paper or book. Much more my style, too.
Maybe I’d get lucky and uncover something that could actually help. And if I didn’t, that was also fine.
After all, I wasn’t expected to actually find anything, just to create a distraction.
Greta hadn’t given me much to go on—I suspected that was because she didn’t know much herself—but she had revealed that Parker was lying to us. Could that mean Melony had already gotten to him and that he was now under her control? I remembered how helpless I felt when Parker and Fluffikins each took their turn manipulating my movements and emotions.
But how could Melony have overpowered someone like Parker? He was a much more experienced magic user, and he even had the town magic to bolster said powers even further. Not to mention, he had at least sixty pounds of muscle on her.
Granted, Melony had managed to hold both me and Greta when we had our confrontation earlier that morning, but maybe that was simply because she’d taken us by surprise.
Hmm. Now that I actually had more than a few fleeting seconds to think things over, I realized just how much wasn’t adding up here.
Melony had surprised Greta and me at the house earlier that day. And when she left us, I ran to my house and found Fluffikins waiting. He conjured a broom and flew me back to the PTA complex with him. He’d also said Melony wasn’t able to travel by magical means.
If that was the case, how could Melony have had the time to find Parker and follow him to the edge of town, have a talk, and then have a confrontation within
that space of time before Parker joined us at the conference room table?
Yes, he was the last to arrive, but still we were only talking a span of maybe ten minutes here. For the first time since moving to this little town, I wished I’d brought a car with me. The town was considered tiny because of its population, but it still boasted a fair amount of land.
I punched my address into the maps app. Mrs. Haberdash’s property—including my guest house—was centrally located, which made it easy to walk into town when I needed to. That had been a big selling point for me, actually.
Now that I was studying the map, I noticed we were dead center in the square-shaped area of the city’s boundaries. I used my index finger to tap the city border and added it as a destination point. My app informed me that the quickest route by car would take about twelve minutes.
I didn’t have exact timestamps for the events of this morning, but the accepted timeline seemed off.
Parker had either gotten confused or was purposefully lying to the board. Greta had already confirmed that.
But he’d also proudly told me he was a local, born and raised in Beech Grove. In fact, it was one of the first things he said to me—well, after accusing me of being a murderer, that is. I doubted he’d have made an error in calculating the time given his familiarity with the town, and I also doubted he’d tell a lie he knew could be easily disproved.
So why hadn’t the others noticed this inconsistency?
Or had they but chosen not to acknowledge it?
I was missing something big here, and I doubted I was the only one.
See, this was exactly the kind of thing that happened from making decisions too fast! Yet another reason it was so important for me to start my days with a slow, contemplative shower. Thanks to Fluffikins, I hadn’t even gotten a quick and cold shower that morning.
