by Martha Carr
“Hi, Professor.”
17
Laura pulled the phone away from her ear to double-check the number, then brought it back up. “Um…who’s calling?”
“It’s me, Laura. Your less-than-completely human neighbor from down the hall.”
She blinked, and the pause obviously got to him.
“O-on campus, I mean.” Nathan chuckled on the other end of the line. “I have no idea where you live. Promise.”
“Nathan…” Laura caught herself, remembering Nickie and Chuck in the other room. “How did you get my personal number?”
“You answer your personal phone with Dr. Laura Hadstrom?”
“You know what I mean.”
“Yeah.” He chuckled. “Yeah, I do. There’s a staff contact list in the main office. No snooping, I swear. Okay, a little snooping. It was in the main office in the director’s office.”
Unbelievable. Laura shook her head and leaned back in the chair. “And why are you calling me at three o’clock in the afternoon on a Saturday?”
“Well…” This time, his laugh sounded less confident. “I wanted to invite you to a party, actually.”
“A what?”
“A party. You know, where people get together outside working hours? Have a few drinks, Some friendly conversation—”
“I know what a party is.” She forced herself to lower her voice. “I just don’t know why you’re asking me to go with you.”
“You don’t?”
“No. I don’t.” Especially because he’s part Kashgar, and that is more trouble for me than I can handle.
“Huh. You don’t know why I…” Nathan cleared his throat. “Well, if I’m being honest, I enjoyed meeting you yesterday. I think you’re fun, and I’m into the fact that you’re an archaeologist. I don’t know any archaeologists, technically speaking, so I was hoping you’d say, ‘Screw it. Why not? I’ll give it a shot.’”
“You what?”
“Okay…” He exhaled into the phone, a much smaller laugh coming through. “Is this a thing you do, where you ask someone to repeat everything they say? Or is your plan to make me feel like a rambling idiot until I just give up? ‘Cause it could go either way at this point. I’m, uh, fine with whatever happens, but I just…can’t tell.”
Despite her reservations, a smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. That was refreshingly honest. I actually think he’s embarrassed.
“Are…you still there?”
“What?” She blinked. “I mean, yes. Yeah, I’m still here.”
“Well that’s a relief. So…would you like to come to this party with me?”
Laura confused herself by not saying no right off the bat. “When is it?”
“Tomorrow. I know. Why have a party on a Sunday night, right? It’s sort of a ‘Welcome to Austin’ kind of party.”
“For whom?”
“Uh…for me?” He puffed out a clipped, hesitant laugh. “I mean, it’s summer break, right? Good news for us. We don’t have class on Monday. Yay…”
Laura laughed. “True.”
“I gotta say I’m really glad you didn’t ask me to repeat that part.”
“Yeah, that’s just…” A way of hiding my cluelessness. She shook her head. “I’ll think about it, Nathan. Okay?”
“Yeah. Sure. Sounds great. Just lemme know before, say, four o’clock tomorrow? At least then I can scrub off my disappointed face before I arrive at my own party.”
“Are you playing the guilt-trip card with someone you just met?”
He snorted. “Is it working?”
Laura’s smile grew, and she rolled her eyes. “I’ll think about it. And I’ll let you know before four o’clock tomorrow.”
“Perfect. Is that your final answer?”
“Goodbye, Nathan.”
“Yep. Bye.”
He ended the call first, and an image popped into her head of him stabbing at the phone, tossing it aside, and falling over somewhere. “That conversation couldn’t have gone the way either one of us wanted it to.” Laura stared at her phone. “I’m actually considering going to a party with a Kashgar?”
She spent the next half hour split between wondering how much damage another ‘earthquake’ caused by them destroying another energy core would mess with essential functions at the airport, and also what in the world she was going to decide about Nathan’s party. The only thing that drew her out of both unsolved mysteries was Chuck peeking his head around the corner and into the dining room.
“Bye, Laura.” He stretched his hand out and wiggled his fingers at her.
Blinking, she looked at him before realizing he was talking to her. “Oh. Bye, Chuck. Good to see ya.”
“Yeah, you too.” He glanced at the iron orb still on the table and the lance. “Good luck with your project and all the…antiques.”
“Right. Thanks.” She waved and offered a quick smile.
Nickie went with Chuck to the foyer, kissed him goodbye, and waited until he’d gone down the steps on the hill before shutting the front door. She turned and thumped her back against it with a groan. “This keeps getting worse.”
“What does?” Laura lifted her empty glass and considered refilling it. Why am I considering it?
“Chuck. This whole Gorafrex thing. Ripping up energy cores.” Nickie dragged her hands down her cheeks, shook her head, and headed into the dining room. “I hate having to lie to him.”
“You’ve been doing it for a few years already. It’s bound to just keep getting worse.”
“Oh, that’s great, Laura. No, it’s not bound to do anything.” Nickie gripped the back of a chair and dropped her head with a sigh. “I can’t ever tell him about us. That I’m a witch. That magic is a thing or we’re all just floating around and around on a planet-shaped vessel that wasn’t supposed to be here in the first place. And that was fine. I could handle that. But now I literally have to lie to him about everything that doesn’t directly involve him, and it’s only been a week, and I think it’s killing me.”
Laura settled on not refilling her water and pushed the glass across the table. “I wish I had something to tell you to make you feel better.”
“I know.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I know that too.”
Closing her eyes, Laura stuck her cell phone into her back pocket. “But we can do this, Nickie. The three of us. We proved that today.” She headed into the dining room. “And maybe, when we get the Gorafrex—and we will—maybe you can go back to only lying to Chuck about the little things.”
Nickie snorted. “The little things, huh?”
“In comparison.” Laura smirked.
“Yeah. Small lies would be nice about now.”
They stood in silence for a few seconds, then Laura looked up from the glinting iron lance on the table. “So, you told him we were going out for a project today?”
Nickie puffed out a breath. “Yeah. I said you had something to do for work and wanted Emily and me to help you look for some kinda artifact. So good job, I guess, on explaining these things.” She gestured toward the two weapons. “Actually, he asked if he could come with us.”
“What did you tell him?”
“That you’d planned this whole thing for us, and it was supposed to just be a sister thing. To help you with your project.”
“That’s…incredibly accurate, actually.”
“Yeah, well, the best lies are hidden in the truth, I guess.”
The walls suddenly groaned and rumbled. Just off the dining room, the foyer morphed in its magically-induced rearrangement of walls, floors, and ceiling. A wall folded into existence where the entryway normally was, and the repetitive clack of wood hitting wood echoed through the house as the main staircase to the second floor folded in on itself. Just as quickly, the walls and corners blocking them from the foyer shifted back into place, disappearing into the floor and sliding in ten different ways.
The door that existed where the staircase usually was burst op
en. Emily darted out of the magical door from the basement, the iron orb clenched in both hands, and stumbled into the dining room with her sisters. “You guys. I think—”
The house rumbled, clacked, thumped, and shifted, drowning out every other sound. Emily rolled her eyes and waited, using the few seconds to catch her breath before she started over.
“I think I figured out what these weird metal spheres are for! Wait, Chuck left, right?”
“Just now, yeah.” Nickie raised an eyebrow.
“Okay, good. So, remember what happened with the bowling ball and—”
“Wait.” Laura frowned and glanced into the foyer. “I thought you took that thing up to your room.”
“I did. So the—”
“Then how did you just come from the basement?”
Emily grinned. “Transport bubbles are pretty freakin’ awesome, right? Any more questions before I try one more time to tell you something that’s actually important?”
Her sisters glanced at each other and shook their heads.
“Okay. Thanks. What I’ve been trying to say is that I’m pretty sure Laura forged me some flying traps for the Gorafrex.” Emily thrust the iron orb out with both hands and grinned.
18
“Uh…” Nickie wrinkled her nose. “Say that again.”
“Flying traps for the Gorafrex.” Emily raised her eyebrows. “I’m thinking something like one of those super-old slingshots they had to swing around in circles before letting the rock fly. Or whatever. Only this one has a string attached, right? An iron string. Not sure how that’s possible, but hey. It was made by a magical ring that’s been around since everyone boarded this ship, so—”
“Okay, Em. Slow down a minute.” Laura lifted her hands and closed her eyes. “Please.”
“Why?” Emily laughed. “This isn’t a super complicated thing. Think about it. What I did to the energy core with the bowling ball, right? Imagine the bowling ball with a little button on it and a weaponized bit of string that comes out.” She nodded slowly, glancing back and forth between Laura and Nickie with wide, excited eyes.
“Oh…” Nickie cocked her head. “Plus that little magical power boost you gave it.”
“Exactly. I mean, come on, I’m strong enough, but I can’t throw a bowling ball that hard. This thing isn’t nearly as big, but I’m pretty sure it’ll pack as much of a punch. Maybe more for the Gorafrex. Laura, what do you think?”
“I think…that’s a really strange weapon for my ring to have randomly chosen to make.”
Emily blinked. “Well, yeah. But at least I found some way to use it.”
Laura cocked her head. “It’s still super weird. Like, what are the odds any of us would’ve figured out the button or the string? Not to mention you think you can use it like a bowling ball to destroy energy cores and maybe the Gorafrex. And the part about that little iron string burning Nickie when she touched it. It’d probably burn me too.”
“The odds?” Nickie chuckled. “I’d say a-hundred-percent, Laura. We’re the only ones who can wear the rings now. Yours wouldn’t have made these weapons for any other witch, right?”
“True.” Laura shrugged, squinting at the orb in her sister’s hand. “Okay, so we know pure iron’s the only thing that’ll weaken the Gorafrex enough for us to get it back in the prison. Also made of iron. Just like these weapons…” She moved her gaze to the other orb on the table and the lance. “What if my ring also chose these weapons to help us dismantle the cores?”
“Hey, there’s an idea.” Emily tossed the iron sphere in her hands. “All-purpose magical weapons.”
“Wait, why did you call those things a net?” Nickie pointed at the orb.
Emily wiggled her eyebrows. “Wanna come see how it works?”
“Honestly, I’m both intrigued and terrified.” Nickie laughed. “Yeah, I wanna see.”
“Come on.” The youngest Hadstrom sister stalked into the foyer, then called over her shoulder, “Laura, I was inviting you too, you know. You just might be impressed. Or struck with inspiration! Who knows?”
Laura blinked at the two weapons left on the table, then took a deep breath. “Yeah, okay.” She stepped into the foyer just before the walls started shifting, sliding, folding, and dropping away everywhere but in the foyer itself.
The staircase squashed up like an accordion and disappeared into the floor. With a groan and a loud boom, the door to the Hadstrom sisters’ basement appeared where the staircase had been. Emily leapt toward the door, jerked it open, and bounded down the stairs two at a time. Nickie laughed, and Laura walked slowly down behind them, wondering how in the world that orb in Emily’s hand could be used as a weapon.
They went into the massive, sprawling basement, which could have been a concert hall if it had more auditorium seating than just six rows and less junk lining the walls. “Come on.” Emily waved them forward and skipped to the far end of the basement, right between the rows of reclining chairs. She dropped the iron sphere onto the stage and jumped up after it.
Nickie laughed when she saw the mini training arena Emily had set up for herself on the stage. Laura stopped just behind the auditorium chairs and folded her arms. “What in the world, Emily?”
“Wow, you’re really channeling Mom right now.” Grinning, Emily gestured toward the setup she’d been using for target practice. “This guy’s been a trooper.”
“He doesn’t really have a choice.” Nickie chuckled and shook her head.
“Well, no. But I didn’t want—”
“Where did you find a suit of armor, Em?” Laura raised an eyebrow.
“Just lying on the ground under that huge trunk over there.” Emily pointed to the wall on Laura’s right, where a huge trunk was propped open, a bunch of Victorian-era costumes spilling over the sides. “I bet whoever used that sword last also wore this armor. That’d be cool, right?”
“Not if you’re using more family heirlooms and historical artifacts for target practice.”
“Relax. The armor is fine. I found padding.” Emily grinned.
Nickie cocked her head. “What are those? Rugs?”
“Curtains, actually. I think.” Emily took her place on the right side of the stage and turned to face the standing suit of armor bundled up in thick, awkward rolls of dusty, red-velvet curtains. “Okay, check it out.” She pressed the tiny circular button on the top of the orb, and a tiny compartment door swung open on the bottom. The thin, bright-silver string of iron dropped from the opening and dangled there. She took the string in her left hand, gripping it tight, and wound her arm back for a solid throw.
“You’re way too close,” Laura muttered.
Dropping into one of the chairs in the aisle, Nickie glared over her shoulder and shot Laura a warning glance. “Let her do her thing, huh?”
Laura rolled her eyes but settled for watching and waiting.
Emily threw the iron orb. The moment it left her hand, the copper ring on her finger flashed. With a loud crack, the orb lit up and barreled at lightning speed toward the bundled suit of armor. Emily tugged the string with both hands, and the orb curved around the armor’s left shoulder and back. In a matter of seconds, the ball had curved, lifted, and looped around the suit of armor in every direction, covering the shoulders, arms, hips, waist, back, and chest. The string drew taut, and when the orb completed a final swing, it knocked against the side of the helm with a hollow clang. The force of it sent the entire suit of armor off balance, almost in slow motion—the suit tipped backward and fell to the stage with a thump and a puff of dust.
“Woah!” Emily jerked forward across the stage, still holding the end of the string in both hands. When the dust settled, she turned toward her sisters in the audience and gave them an exaggerated bow.
Nickie burst into applause, the sound echoing in the giant basement. Laura’s pursed lips twitched to the side, and she squinted at what was supposed to represent the fallen Gorafrex. “Just like tetherball. I’d say that’s a good start.”
/>
“I know, right? See? Flying net!” Emily grinned and tugged on the iron string.
“You also just bashed the human host’s head in with that thing.”
“Laura…” Nickie shot her another exasperated glance.
“That’s something we have to think about, right?” Laura gestured toward the stage. “I mean, the next time we see the Gorafrex, it’s still gonna be inside a human. Sure, that human can’t get hurt while the creature has control of his or her body, but whatever damage they sustain is gonna hit all at once the second the Gorafrex shrugs out of them like an old sweater. Do we really wanna add a head injury—and who knows what else that orb might do—to the list?”
“Laura, we do have healing spells,” Nickie offered. “Remember when I burned my fingers on that string before? I’m pretty sure my ring tapped into the Peabrain magic I didn’t know I could access. I was blowing healing bubbles all over the place. And they worked. Fingers good as new.” She gestured toward the stage and the bundled-up suit of armor. “You don’t honestly believe that after however long the Gorafrex has been inside a human, there won’t already need a lot of healing anyway? If we’re careful, and we time it right, none of that will matter.”
“It’s still hurting an innocent person.”
“Okay.” Emily nodded, still catching her breath after all the effort and concentration she’d put into the demonstration. “Sure, I still hafta work out a few kinks—and I won’t stop practicing until I get it right—but I think this is one of the big things we were missing. Like, what if I’d known this was possible the other night when Nickie played at Tina’s laundromat, huh? Who knows? I might’ve been able to tie the Gorafrex up with this thing and keep it from kidnapping that witch.” She didn’t have to say what each of the Hadstrom sisters were thinking; if they’d stopped the Gorafrex that night, it wouldn’t have killed two people—one of them the witch—and using lifeforce magic to power one of the energy cores.
