Spells & Stitches

by Barbara Bretton

  I found another circular knitting needle deep in the bowels of my tote bag and Bunny cast on for the second sock. She gave me a grateful look that all knitters would understand. At that moment we were definitely process knitters. It didn’t matter what came off our needles. It only mattered that we were knitting to stave off the demons.

  “I can’t take this,” Luke erupted around five o’clock. “We’ve been here all day. Somebody’s gotta know something.”

  “Maybe they forgot you were waiting here,” Jack offered from the depths of the couch.

  “Did you give them your cell number?” I asked Luke.

  “They didn’t ask.”

  “They didn’t ask me, either.”

  “Both of you sit down and take a deep breath.” Bunny was exerting her full range of maternal power. “They know you’re here. When there’s something new they’ll tell you. Now try to relax.”

  “I think we’re all starving,” Meghan observed. “Why don’t James and I see what we can get at the cafeteria?”

  Not that we wanted cafeteria food, but the thought of losing James for another few minutes was too good to pass up.

  “What the hell is she doing with that loser?” Jack mumbled after they left. “That’s the worst one yet.”

  “Lower your voice,” Bunny said. “It’s none of our business.”

  “I’ve got a good mind to kick that guy’s ass.”

  Luke and I locked eyes and burst into laughter.

  “Okay,” I said to Luke. “Now I know where you get it from.”

  Bunny shook her head. “Push her and she’ll run straight into his arms. Leave her alone and it will be over this time next week.”

  I must have been staring at her in something like awe because she reached over and patted my hand.

  “Just wait until you have seven of your own, honey. You’ll have all the answers, too.”

  I tried to imagine a life that included a big, boisterous family, but my destiny had been set long ago. Laria would be my only child.

  It had been a long day. My emotions were bubbling over and I lowered my head and started to cry. Bunny wrapped her arms around me. “Let it out,” she said, patting me on the back in the way of mothers everywhere. “You’ll feel better if you just let it out.”

  So I did. I sobbed my heart out against her shoulder, gasping, blubbering, and thoroughly soaking her pretty red sweater.

  “Elsebeth Lavold,” I said between sobs. “Silky Wool. Hand-wash only.”

  Bunny laughed and hugged me tight. “I’ll make you one for your birthday.”

  Nobody ever knitted a sweater for a knitter. The gesture made me start crying all over again.

  And just when I thought I had finally run out of tears Dr. Albright walked into the room.

  29

  CHLOE

  Who knew your knees could actually knock? I stood and took Luke’s hand as the doctor walked toward us. Her smile should have been a pretty good indicator, but I was so icy cold with terror that I couldn’t even add up the clues.

  “How would you like to take your daughter home tonight?” she asked, her smile growing even wider.

  “She’s okay?” Luke asked, his voice thick with emotion.

  “So far everything looks good. Her only problem at the moment is she’s hungry.”

  I started crying all over again but this time in a good way.

  Bunny stepped up and introduced herself. She started asking the doctor all the right questions, taking notes, and generally doing all the things Luke and I should have done if we hadn’t been so emotionally wrecked.

  “Now, just because we haven’t found anything and she seems to be one hundred percent at the moment doesn’t mean there isn’t something to find.” Dr. Albright handed me a piece of letterhead stationery with names and phone numbers typed on it. “I’d like you to make an appointment with one of these neurologists and let him or her make an additional evaluation.”

  “Is Laria in danger?” I asked.

  “I wouldn’t be releasing her if I thought she was,” Dr. Albright said, “but I don’t like unsolved mysteries. I’ll sleep a lot better at night when we find out what was bothering that beautiful little girl.”

  And from there we went straight into hyperdrive. Jack went to find Meghan and her terrible boyfriend. Bunny and I went to bundle up Laria for the ride home while Luke took care of the paperwork surrounding her discharge.

  All of the tension and stress and worry lifted like clouds after the storm. My happiness was so pure, so intense, that it seemed to light the world. I felt like flying and might have given it a try if there weren’t so many humans around. Mostly, though, I wanted to hug my baby and keep on hugging her until she was old enough to vote.

  It was dark outside when we left the hospital and very cold. Laria was warm and cozy in her Snugli, which was more than I could say about the rest of us. It had been a long day and we were all emotionally and physically drained.

  Jack was feeling a little under the weather so he and Bunny decided to spend the night in the motel near the hospital instead of driving back to Sugar Maple or going home.

  “I’m having a little trouble with these dark country roads,” Jack admitted. “My night vision isn’t what it used to be.” He asked if Luke would lead the way to the motel and we said of course.

  Unfortunately this meant we were stuck with Meghan and James for the night.

  I suggested they might be more comfortable staying at the motel, too, but Meghan said they had spent the previous night in a motel and now she only had enough room on her credit card to pay for car repairs.

  I wanted to ask why her so-called boyfriend couldn’t chip in but wisely kept my mouth shut. One night, I told myself, and they’ll be gone.

  “Maybe not,” Luke whispered to me as we got Laria into her car seat. “Archie found Meggie’s Toyota just where she said it was and towed it into his shop. I told him it was an emergency and that we’d pay double his going rate.”

  “Are you crazy? Archie charges three times more than he should as it is.”

  Luke inclined his head in James’s general direction. “There’s the alternative.”

  I shuddered. “Tell Archie he can have my Buick and the yarn shop if he can get the job done tonight.”

  The baby and her paraphernalia took up half the backseat. James was a big guy so he took the other half while Meghan squeezed herself into the rear storage compartment. I know it sounds ridiculous, but I couldn’t stand that guy being so close to my baby. When he reached out to touch her little hand I had to restrain myself from leaping into the backseat and clawing his eyes out.

  Was I overreacting? Of course I was, but believe me when I say postnatal hormones kick PMS ass.

  Laria, however, seemed to like him just fine and happily clutched his finger as we made the short drive to the motel.

  “She really likes you,” I heard Meghan say.

  “Babies usually do,” he said and I softened toward him.

  Just a little.

  We pulled into the parking lot of the Stardust Motor Court and seconds later Jack and Bunny pulled in right behind us.

  “Do you think they have a bathroom I could use?” Meghan asked. “I can’t make it back to your place if I don’t find one.”

  “Try the front desk,” Luke said without much enthusiasm. He glanced at James through the rearview mirror. “What about you?”

  “I’m cool.”

  We both tried not to roll our eyes.

  Meghan climbed out the back window and trotted toward the main office. Suddenly a bathroom stop didn’t seem like such a bad idea.

  “Wait,” I called out as she dashed away. “I’ll come with.”

  Bunny climbed out as I approached. “Jack can’t get his key out of the ignition. Can you believe that?”

  “After today I’d believe anything. Maybe Luke can help.”

  I walked back toward the Jeep and told him about his father’s dilemma.

  “Hard to
believe the old man was in construction,” he said as he slid out from behind the wheel and then jogged over to see what the problem was.

  I was maybe ten feet away from the truck, waiting for Meghan to come back or Luke to finish helping his father so I could use the ladies’ room. There was no way I would leave Laria alone with a stranger.

  James looked up and our eyes locked and I swear I could hear the puzzle pieces click into place. The glitter! I remembered brushing pale leaf-green glitter off Meghan’s shoulder at the party the afternoon before and assuming it belonged to one of the many Salem Fae in the room.

  I made a lunge for the car door, but I was too late. With a sickening squeal of tires the Jeep rocketed back onto the highway and out of sight.

  Jack was inside the motel front office registering. Meghan was talking to her mother on the front step. Luke was behind the wheel of his parents’ car fiddling with the key.

  I leaped into the passenger seat and slammed the door.

  “Follow him!” I screamed loud enough to be heard in another time zone. “He took the baby!”

  This was one of the million reasons you wanted a cop around in an emergency. It took Luke all of maybe three seconds to peel out. His family stared, openmouthed, as the tires spit snow and gravel everywhere, but there was no time to explain.

  “He’s Fae,” I said, heart pounding so hard it hurt.

  “You’re sure?”

  “Absolutely.”

  “Revenge?”

  “Maybe.” I was human enough to think so but magick enough to realize that, with the exception of Isadora and her vendetta against my family, Fae motives were usually more complex than simple revenge. Sometimes flat-out cruelty played a larger part than I wanted to acknowledge.

  “Elspeth,” he said, pounding the wheel with his hand. “That’s who’s behind this.”

  “I don’t believe that.”

  “You don’t want to believe it, but listen to me. She’s from Salem. The new contingent of Fae is from Salem. She hated being stuck in Sugar Maple as much as some of them do. A natural connection if you ask me.”

  “Trolls aren’t tacticians,” I said. “They’re more—”

  His cell phone went off and I recognized Bunny’s ringtone.

  “You’d better answer that,” I said. The last thing we needed was for them to bring in the authorities.

  “Ma, I can’t talk,” Luke said without preamble. “The bastard stole my car.”

  “The baby.” I could hear Bunny’s voice loud and clear.

  “Fine,” Luke lied. “Gotta go, Ma, I need both hands on the wheel.”

  We screeched to a sliding halt as a family of deer bounded across the narrow road.

  “Shit,” Luke said. “I still don’t see taillights.” He looked over at me. “Do you know which way they went?”

  “I lost them when they rounded the first curve.”

  “Best guess?”

  Tears flowed unchecked down my cheeks. “I don’t have one.”

  We reached an intersection. “Left?” he asked. “Right?” He sounded desperate. “Magic 8 Ball?”

  I tried to tap into something, anything, that would lead us to our baby, but there was no magick for this.

  Or was there?

  “Do you smell that?” I asked, sniffing the air.

  “It’s called fear.”

  “It’s called stale waffles.”

  “You mean that bitch—”

  “Say no more, human, or ye’ll be a sorry man of snow come morning.”

  Elspeth, in all her buttercup glory, appeared on the dashboard. Her bright yellow hair was practically standing straight up. Her usual outfit of black dress and white apron was hidden beneath an enormous hooded cloak that made her look downright demonic. Spirals of pale yellow smoke corkscrewed her round body.

  Luke’s right hand curled into a fist and I was afraid he was going to do something crazy like grab her by the throat and fling her against the windshield, which, considering the fact that she could probably wipe the floor with him, wasn’t a great idea.

  Besides, I was clinging to the possibility that maybe she was on our side after all.

  “Where’s Laria?” Luke demanded. “If you’ve done anything to her, so help me God, I’ll kill you.”

  She gave him a look that should have scared the crap out of him but didn’t.

  “Do ye be willing to put your faith in me?” she asked. “Because time is short and her hours are few.”

  “What the hell does that mean?” Luke exploded. “If you don’t quit talking that shit—”

  “Shut up, Luke, and let her talk.”

  I’d apologize later. After our daughter was safe in our arms.

  “From my heart and all I know, the wee one will not be harmed,” she said, “but she will leave this realm forever if you do not save her now.”

  Leave this realm? I heard her words, but they tumbled around inside my head like loose coins. After all the battles we’d fought over the past year, all the ground we’d claimed in order to make Sugar Maple the refuge Aerynn had envisioned, was I going to lose the most important battle of all?

  “Anything, Elspeth. We’ll do whatever we have to do. Just please help us find her before it’s too late.”

  “I can’t do it,” Luke said as we barreled down the road to nowhere. “This could be a trap.”

  “What choice do we have, Luke?” I repeated what I had said to him before. I refused to believe Elspeth had stayed by Samuel’s side for over three hundred years only to destroy his legacy now by taking Laria from Sugar Maple.

  The road ahead was pitch-black. Our headlights illuminated a narrow path. I was a sorceress. I had powers even I didn’t fully understand yet, but right now I was as helpless as Luke. Elspeth was our only hope.

  “This whole thing makes no sense,” Luke railed. “If he’s Fae, why is he driving? Why didn’t he just magick them wherever they’re going?”

  Elspeth started spinning madly across the dashboard. “Questions, questions. Ye should be seeking answers, not asking more questions.”

  I shot Elspeth what I hoped was a cautionary look, then turned to Luke. “Transition was hard on you and you’re a grown man,” I reminded him. “Imagine what it would do to a mostly human infant.”

  Which to my mind definitely proved Elspeth’s assertion that, at least for now, Laria wasn’t in physical danger. I shivered at the thought of what other dangers might lie ahead for her.

  Locals sometimes complained about the lack of new roads in our county, but right now that seemed like a blessing. The fewer choices Laria’s kidnapper had, the better our chances of finding him.

  “No!” Elspeth shrieked as Luke rounded a curve. “That way, human, that way!”

  She waved her hands and the next thing I knew the car veered to the right and headed straight for the dense woods that ringed Sugar Maple.

  Luke struggled to maintain control of the wheel, but it was literally out of his hands. “We’re going to hit the trees!”

  Trust Elspeth . . . trust Elspeth . . . trust Elspeth . . .

  We didn’t hit the trees. Not exactly. We went right through them like threading a needle, exploding through massive trunks but leaving no damage behind, and we kept on going, faster and faster, until I saw nothing but a tunnel of trees leading us deeper into the woods.

  “Holy shit!” Luke yelled.

  But I couldn’t yell. I couldn’t even breathe. The woods seemed unimaginably dense. We were plunged into primeval darkness, crashing blindly through trees but leaving them whole and untouched in our wake. Even more amazing, we were whole and untouched as well. Maples, poplars, white birch. Nothing could stop us. Not when our daughter’s future was at stake.

  My magick might have been in remission since Laria’s birth, but my maternal instincts were alive and well and telling me my baby girl was very close.

  30

  CHLOE

  We had just come out the other side of a towering pine when Luke’s mot
her called again.

  “Bunny will go crazy if it rolls into voice mail,” I said. “She’ll be dialing 911 so fast our heads will spin.”

  Elspeth leaped from the dashboard to the console and started jumping up and down on Luke’s cell, flipping it to speakerphone mode.

  “No!” she screeched. “No! No! No!”

  Which of course made Luke answer it.

  “Been a long time.” A familiar voice filled the car and an overwhelming sense of dread grabbed me by the throat.

  “Dane,” I whispered. “It’s Dane!”

  This time last year we had been engaged in a battle to the death with his mother, Isadora, a terrifyingly powerful Fae warrior queen. Only it wasn’t Isadora who had died in this dimension, it was her son Dane. Cruel, beautiful, bone-deep-evil Dane. Isadora had launched a death bolt at me and I’d conjured a glass shield to protect myself. The death bolt careened off the shield and went straight for Dane, slicing him in two and forever isolating him from Sugar Maple and the human realm where he had spent so much of his life.

  The end of his earthly existence had been an accident but one for which I felt no guilt and definitely no remorse. His only goal had been to do his mother’s bidding and she had wanted both Luke and me dead.

  And now Dane was back.

  Even Elspeth looked frightened.

  An unpleasant laugh made the phone vibrate. “Surprised? I thought you would be. I tried to leave a few clues, but pregnancy made you a little slow, Chloe.”

  Luke muttered something ugly under his breath and I motioned for him to be quiet. Elspeth was frozen in place on the console, one booted foot resting on Luke’s cell phone. I was a half step away from hysteria and struggling to hold it together for the sake of my baby.

  “So you’re behind it,” I said. “I saw the glitter. I should have pieced it together.”

  “It’s not too late for you, Chloe,” he said in his silkiest, most seductive voice. “Laria should have her mother with her.”

  Luke’s head snapped in my direction. I saw terror in his eyes.

  “Where are you taking her?”

  He blew past the question. “You’re wasted on humans, Hobbs. Remember that night by the lake? You were so young, so innocent. I—”