Force of Nature

by Shawna Logue

  “Theft at Ross Bay.”

  I read.

  “Yesterday, authorities were alerted to the disappearance of a missing statue at the Ross Bay Cemetery. The Weeping Angel, a five-foot tall marble statue, appears to be missing. The statue weighs approximately 400 pounds, and has been in the historic graveyard for nearly 85 years. Officials are uncertain how thieves were able to remove the statue without drawing attention to themselves. Furthermore, the tool marks left in the pedestal are unlike anything on record, leaving the police with no leads. It is uncertain how long the statue has been missing.”

  The small, black and white picture above the article looked strangely familiar to me, nagging slightly at my memory. I didn’t recognize the strange tool marks either. Unsatisfied, I tore the article out of the paper anyway. I figured the thought would come to me later.

  “So, ready to go back to the madness?” Maria asked sarcastically.

  “No, but I guess we have to, don’t we?”

  “Yeah. I’m not even really supposed to be out in public.”

  I looked at her, confused.

  “Someone tried to kill me, remember? I’m just tired of being a prisoner while they try to figure it out.”

  “I know that feeling,” I sighed, getting up. “Let’s go before they send out a search party.”

  “They don’t know I’m gone,” she giggled. “Justin and Jack are out looking for their sister.”

  “Oh! I forgot!” I said, hitting my forehead with my palm. “Lahela’s fine. She was going to find Fallon and tell him everyone was okay.”

  “What?”

  “Lahela. Connor and I saw her about an hour before Zarek showed up at the apartment. She’s fine.”

  “No, you said she was going to see Fallon?”

  “Yeah. Why?”

  “Justin spoke to his father this morning, and he hadn’t heard from her. Where did you see her?”

  “The cem-” I didn’t finish my sentence. Everything was suddenly clear. “We have to get back. Now.”

  “But what about-”

  “Let’s go. I’ll tell you when we get back.”

  Considering my wounds, I moved pretty quick. We made it back to Mobius in record time. I practically sprinted off the elevator to my temporary bedroom. Maria was too confused to try to keep up, so she walked hesitantly behind me.

  I pulled out the folded newspaper clipping from my pocket and held it up to Dermot’s creepy souvenir.

  “Alex, are you going to tell me what’s going on?” Maria called from the doorway.

  I turned and looked at her, feeling overly tense.

  “I know who’s trying to kill you.”

  Chapter Twenty

  I didn’t give her time to question me, taking her hand and dragging her back to the elevator. She was still in shock as I pulled her past Phoebe, who looked equally surprised at my fierce expression, but luckily the confused receptionist did not try to stop us as I burst through Connor’s door. He was on the phone, but once he saw us his calm expression quickly turned to worry and he hastily ended his call. I sat Maria down in a chair; she was ghostly pale, and I worried she would faint any second. Connor closed the door behind me with a wave of his hand, and it slammed loudly. He could sense both from Maria’s frightened expression and my ferocity, that something was wrong.

  Without speaking, I flattened the article onto his desk.

  “What’s this?” he asked, confused.

  I propped Zarek’s hand up beside the article. “Look at the marks.”

  He glanced from the small photo, to the hand, then back to the photo. After a moment of contemplation, he traced the border of the photo with his index finger, and I saw his lips move as he recited something silently. He traced a large box in the air, and when his finger returned to its starting point, a 3-D rendering of the photo appeared before him, now actual size. He held up the stony hand, and as I had already known, the claws fit exactly into the marks in the pedestal, as though Zarek had perched there.

  From my angle, I could see why the picture had felt so familiar, though it didn’t change my conclusions. The image was no longer a photo, it was a real representation of the graveyard, and I was looking at it from what was the background of the shot. In front of me was the headstone of Grace Gallagher. This was the angle from where I had seen Lahela.

  “He was there,” Connor said quietly. “She was talking to him.”

  “And I told her exactly where to find Maria. I led them right to us.”

  “What are you talking about?” Maria said weakly from her chair. “I still don’t know what’s going on.”

  “Lahela,” I said quietly. “She’s the one who sent Zarek.”

  She laughed. “What? Oh, don’t be ridiculous. She has been nothing but nice to me. She’s one of my bridesmaids, you know. Why would she want me dead? That’s preposterous.”

  Connor and I exchanged a loaded glance. “I think it’s because you are human,” I told her. “If you marry Justin, she can’t leave the forest. She’ll still be bound to the land.”

  Maria didn’t speak for a moment as she thought about this. Finally, she managed a weak “But-” before she cut herself off.

  The photograph disappeared, and Connor walked to her. “Maria, where is Justin?”

  “He’s looking for her,” she squeaked.

  Connor stiffened. “Do you have a way to get a hold of him?”

  She shook her head, and I could see fear in her eyes. One lone tear trickled silently down her face.

  “Dermot?” Connor said quietly, to no one in particular.

  Half a second later, the air shimmered rainbows and Dermot appeared.

  “You rang?”

  “Go to Cathedral Grove and find the elves. Lahela is not to be trusted. Get them out of there.”

  “Got it,” he said, shimmering again and disappearing. Black polka dots speckled my vision for a moment as I recovered from the bright lights.

  “Maria,” Connor said, putting his hands on her shoulders, “you don’t need to worry. You’re safe here.”

  I nodded in agreement, hoping to placate her. “Why don’t I take you downstairs, and you can have a bath? It will soothe you.”

  She nodded and rose like a zombie. Connor looked at me with worried eyes, and flashed him an equally worried expression back.

  I ran Maria a bath, happy that the floor had provided her with a choice of bubbles. I chose a lightly scented lavender one, and after laying out a towel for her, ushered her into her bathroom.

  “Are you going to be okay?” I asked. “You really don’t need to worry. It’s safe here.”

  She nodded. “I’ll be okay. I’m just a little, shocked, is all.”

  “I’ll be just down the hall if you need me, okay?”

  She nodded, shutting the door slowly behind her.

  I nearly knocked Connor over as I left her room. His arms caught my elbows before I could lose my balance.

  “Are you okay?” he asked, and I knew he wasn’t referring to my stumble.

  “No,” I answered honestly. I could tell he hadn’t expected that answer, and his face washed over with worry. I turned to walk to my room, but he caught my hand in his. I didn’t shake it loose, too worried to care. I looked up at him, and felt myself lock in his gaze. We stayed that way for a long time, an unspoken conversation happening between us. I was aware of tears stinging my cheeks, but neither of us moved to wipe them away. He seemed to be aware of the wall between us.

  I briefly caught his expression change, and he dropped my hand.

  “What is it?” I said reflexively.

  “They’re back,” he replied, turning to look to the elevator.

  I saw Jack’s face watching us from inside the glass elevator as it slowly came to a stop. Dermot and Justin were both oblivious to his pained expression. I felt irrationally guilty.

  Dermot’s sunken face brought me back to reality. It took a lot for the happy leprechaun to show any form of negative emotion, and I could
tell that something was big.

  “I wasn’t fast enough,” Dermot said shamefully as he approached us.

  “Hey,” Connor said, “what do you mean?”

  “He means we had already told her where we were. We didn’t know,” Justin sighed. “She had us fooled even then. We were already coming back here when Dermot found us”

  “It’s only a matter of time before she sends someone else,” Jack said, defeated. Though he was talking to Connor, his eyes never left mine. They were glassy and sunken. He looked exhausted.

  “You’d think she’d come ‘erself,” Dermot said under her breath.

  “She won’t risk it,” Justin said definitively. “It’s physically draining for her to be away from the forest. She can’t break that link for an extended period of time. Not only would she be powerless, it would only take a few hours for the devastation to hit the forest.”

  “So we’re just goin’ to sit here like duckies?” Dermot interjected.

  Everyone was silent. I couldn’t take it.

  “No,” I gritted, angry now. “We need to go to her.”

  They all noticeably tensed at my words.

  “No,” Jack said quietly.

  “No,” Connor echoed.

  “She’s right,” Justin whispered. “It’s the only way. Maria can’t live her life in hiding.”

  After a moment of silent contemplation, they all nodded in reluctant agreement.

  “Justin, you need to stay behind with Maria. You’re no good to us with a broken arm.” He looked slightly offended, but shook his head when he realized I was right.

  “You too,” Jack said, turning to me.

  My mouth fell open in shock. I had expected that response from Connor, not Jack. I was even more surprised when Connor defended me.

  “We need her,” he told Jack, though it was clearly hurting him to say it.

  “It’s too dangerous. Lahela is more powerful than Justin and I together, and she will have the entire power of the forest at her disposal.”

  “All the more reason to bring Alex. If you want my help, I’ll need access to your magic,” he grimaced at the thought before continuing. “She’s the most efficient way for me to access it.”

  I didn’t like how they talked about me as though I wasn’t there, but before I could cut in, Justin put his hand on Jack’s arm.

  “He’s right, Jack. Without Alex, he’s pretty useless once his power is gone. Please.” He wasn’t asking, he was pleading.

  “When?” I asked, finally able to get a word in.

  “Tomorrow,” they all said in perfect unison, as though they had been planning this for weeks and not just decided.

  “Will anyone here help?” I asked Connor hopefully. “Hester? The Amazons?”

  He shook his head. “This will be a magical fight. They are physical fighters. They’ll only get hurt. I’m not sure any of my spellcasters are capable of using Elven magic either, and I’d hesitate to put them in the thick of it before I knew if they could handle it.” He sighed. “I wish I knew where Morgan was.”

  “Oh,” I said quietly, remembering the ferry trip that now seemed like a distant memory. “She’s not coming back.”

  He shot me a look, so quickly explained about the curse, and how she had gone searching for a way to remove it.

  “Stupid, stupid,” he muttered to himself. “She shouldn’t have gone alone.”

  “Maybe she saw that she’d be fine, and she didn’t want anyone else to get hurt?” I hedged.

  This seemed to relax him slightly. “Maybe, though usually her future is never clear to her. But still,” he said, “I wish she was here. Not only could she be able tell us if it was a suicide mission, no one can take down an elf like Morgan can.” Dermot chuckled at some vague reference, but the others winced. “Sorry,” Connor added sheepishly.

  Something clicked in my mind as Connor spoke. “Is my apartment stable? Do you think one of you could take me back so I could pick up a few things?”

  Connor shot me a fierce glance, but softened it quickly. “I’m not sure that’s such a good idea.”

  “Why? I’ll be in and out so fast no one will see me,” I argued.

  “What do you need?” Jack asked.

  “Um,” I paused. I didn’t want to get their hopes up if my theory ended up being wrong. “Some different shoes?” I hadn’t meant it as a question, but my voice cracked at the end making it come out as one. Luckily, my slip on Hush Puppies looked clunky enough to help support my side. “I mean, these are hardly the right kind of shoes for a fight.”

  All three of them shared several loaded glances. I was quite sure Justin’s eye roll was in response my girly request. He confirmed my suspicions when he shook his head and muttered, “Women and their shoes” under his breath. It appeared he would be the one to take me.

  “Okay, we don’t have much time to strategize,” Connor’s authoritative voice called out. It was louder than it needed to be, and I got the impression he was imitating a bravado he didn’t quite believe in. “Jack, you and I should go downstairs and plan our attack. Justin, tell Maria where you are going, and Dermot, you can stay and keep an eye on her.” He turned to me with a worried expression. “Once you get back, you should get as much rest as you can, okay?” I nodded silently.

  Justin practically sprinted into his room, while the other two headed downstairs. Dermot followed behind, clearly wanting to jump into their conversation. Watching Jack and Connor walk back to the elevator was uncomfortably weird. The two were discussing which spells would and wouldn’t be effective against Lahela. They were so animated I would have thought they were best friends. Weren’t these the same two people who had spent the past few days fighting to win me over? Now they were excited? As I waited for Justin to return, I couldn’t help but stare at the descending elevator in shock. I hadn’t seen either of them so relaxed around each other before. Maybe we stood a decent chance.

  I shuddered, remembering how Zarek needed three spellcasters as well as me to take down. How would Lahela be any easier considering she had the power of the entire forest behind her?

  “Ready?” Justin asked, placing one hand on my shoulder and steering me to the elevator. I could see it was already headed back up to us. Dermot stepped out, and his sullen look did not make me hopeful.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked, certain I knew the answer.

  “Babysittin’ duty,” he sighed. “Again. I tried to get out of it.”

  I laughed. “It’s because you’re so good at it.”

  “He doesn’t think I need to be part of the strategizin’,” he mumbled.

  “Dermot,” I said, “Do you honestly think you would be able to follow any plan they set out? Don’t you just react instinctively? There’s no way you’d do what Connor wants you to do!”

  “True,” he said dejectedly, “But I still wanted to be a part of it.”

  “Good grief.” I reached up on my toes to kiss him on the cheek. “Take care of Maria,” I whispered. “She’s more important than all of this. Protect her.”

  He blushed, then smiled. “I got ‘er.”

  The doors closed on us and we started to descend to the parkade. “You’re not going to phase us there?” I asked, surprised.

  “I’ve got a broken wing, remember?” Justin laughed, lifting his sling slightly. “I’d need both hands to make sure I didn’t send us to Siberia or something.”

  “You can teleport all the way to Siberia?”

  He looked sheepish. “Well, no. But if I didn’t control the spell, we could end up inside a wall or something.”

  “Oh,” I shuddered. “You’ll be okay to drive?”

  He laughed again. “It’s not like I usually drive with both hands on the wheel anyway. I’ll manage.”

  We climbed into one of Mobius’ sleek black Audi sedans. I thought again about how many cars the company must have at their disposal, considering no one seemed to worry that I had destroyed two of them. Does auto insurance cover lightning damag
e? I guess when the founder of the company could transmute things into gold, money didn’t really concern them.

  It didn’t take long to get back to my apartment. I gasped audibly at the sight of the building as we approached. The photo in the newspaper was nothing compared to the detail I saw now. Though the plastic covered hole in the wall probably had no particular shape to the casual onlooker, I could clearly make out the rough outline of the large, winged gargoyle. Bent re-bar stuck out of the wall at awkward angles, and I wondered what the engineers must think of caused such havoc. Were they really that naive that they believed the wall caved in?

  “What a mess,” I muttered as Justin parked the car along the street.

  “You should have seen it before they cleaned up,” Justin chuckled. “You really did a number on that SUV. Luckily, we were able to get that out of the way before anyone noticed. I don’t think we could have explained that one.”

  I felt my face blush, embarrassed.

  “Connor said something about having to take out special insurance against you,” he laughed.

  “Yeah,” I muttered. “That was number two.”

  This sent him roaring into laughter, which only made me more embarrassed.

  “Can you be useful?” I interrupted as I patted my pockets. “I have no idea where my keys are.”

  He waved a hand at the door, never breaking his laughter. He quieted slightly, but was still giggling after opening the main door and ducking under the yellow tape blocking the door to my apartment. Even though it was my place, I still felt like I was breaking in. I was grateful that none of my neighbours seemed to be around.

  “I’ll just be a minute,” I said to him as I dashed into my room. This place felt eerie and uncomfortable to me now. I didn’t want to spend any more time here than I had to. I would get someone else to come back for more clothes once this was all over, but for now, I had a mission.

  The backpack I had taken to Vancouver was still on my floor, exactly where I had left it. I tore through it, dumping out all the clothes until I finally found it.

  I slipped the small, old-fashioned, iron key into my pocket. Then, in keeping with my cover story, I slipped on my running shoes, and at the last minute I grabbed a zippered hoodie. I wasn’t about to freeze tomorrow. I had too much other stuff to worry about.