by Martha Carr
“Yeah, it’s a little hard to forget when the grackles are as useful as turtles right now for delivering messages.” Emily pointed at the marble head that had been giving their family attitude for generations. “There might be a little more room for creative problem solving when we can laugh a few times, right?”
Laura closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Are the grackles the only things affected by those activated energy cores?”
Gilroy smacked his lips. “Obviously not.”
Emily jerked her head up in surprise. “Wait, how is that obvious?”
“We’re about to find out.” The oldest Hadstrom sister folded her arms. “Gilroy, what else have the energy cores been messing with?”
“Seriously?” The bust raised a stone eyebrow. “Never end a sentence in a preposition, Laura. I’ve told you this at least seven hundred and twenty-two times.”
“That’s it.” Laura lifted her arms and let them fall to her sides with a smack. “If I keep asking the questions, I’m gonna push him over.”
“All right, all right.” Chuckling, Nickie lifted a hand to bring her sister back down to Earth. “Em and I can handle the questions. Should I try that one again?”
“Without the preposition at the end?” Laura scowled at the talking bust. “Sure.”
“Gilroy, besides the grackles, what else specifically is being affected by the activated energy cores?”
“Everything.”
“Okay.” Emily nodded, then frowned in confusion. “Straight answer, but that doesn’t actually help us very much. Does it?”
“Not really.” Nickie ran her hand through her hair again and tapped her foot on the tiled floor. “Can we reverse whatever magical problem is affecting everything and, specifically, the grackles?”
Gilroy pursed his lips. “It’s like a can of Pringles.”
“What?” Laura shook her head in agitation. “That’s not an answer.”
The talking bust blew a raspberry at her. “Once you pop…”
“The fun don’t stop!” Emily raised a fist in the air, just a little too excited about having understood anther cryptic version of Gilroy’s ‘help.’ “Wait, Gilroy, powered energy cores messing with all things magical in Austin is not fun. You know better than that.”
“So that would be a no, then.” Nickie glanced at her sisters and stuck her thumb out toward the talking head on a pedestal. “I think he’s saying there’s no way to fix whatever’s screwing with the grackles until we destroy all the energy cores. Then we’ll just have to figure out the rest of it.”
“Yeah, Rutilda did say it would get worse the more energy cores the Gorafrex gets its borrowed hands on.” Laura tapped her finger against her lips and frowned. “Great. So we go tackle all the energy cores first, and the downside of that leaving the Gorafrex out there, running around in some human’s body and making serious trouble by trying to murder a few witches and wizards.”
“Or we hunt the Gorafrex first and risk it wreaking havoc on all the magical pillars of the city before we can find it.” Nickie wrinkled her nose. “Both options are pretty crappy.”
Emily shrugged. “I mean, we almost caught it, right? After that party for Nathan. I still have one of those orbs left, and that pinned the thing down for at least thirty seconds.”
“We really need to figure out how to get the Gorafrex out of a host before we go up against it again,” Laura said. “There’s no way to stop it, otherwise, and we don’t have the time to fight over and over when we haven’t figured out how to win.”
“So we go crush some energy cores.” Nickie pointed through the glass panels lining the greenhouse, which none of their neighbors had or would ever see. “And we figure out how to get the Gorafrex out of its stolen body. Then we finish this.”
Emily nodded vigorously. “Sounds like a plan.”
“Or as much of a plan as we can have.” Laura cocked her head in acknowledgement. “If those are the only answers we’re gonna find, we need to get on it.” She turned and headed the way they’d come.
“Thanks for your tiny bit of help, Gil.” Emily grinned at the bust. “Somehow, we can always count on you.”
Chuckling, Nickie waved at the stone head as she followed her sisters through the thick growth of the plants they hadn’t tended since moving into the house. “See ya later, Gil.”
“Don’t let the bushes eat your flesh off on the way out,” Gilroy called after them. Then he turned around on his pedestal again, stone rumbling against stone, and stared out at the Hadstrom sisters’ empty backyard.
Chapter Four
Laura stepped along the trail through the Barton Creek Greenbelt in the middle of Austin, heading right back for that willow growing out of the river. “Back to the source, I guess.” She hiked through the undergrowth down the steep slope, climbed easily down the boulders she’d been climbing over since she was a kid, and headed across the pebbly beach on the bank of the creek. “There’s gotta be something here I didn’t see before. I literally have no other ideas for how to put that monster back where it belongs.”
It was a lot less exciting to sit and remove her boots before peeling her socks off. “Last time I was here, I couldn’t wait to get past those wards.” She set her boots and socks in a neat pile on the pebbles, then stood. “This is the first time I’ve ever regretted going where other people don’t.”
The green-tinted water was still an excellent salve for the cloying heat in Austin, even before noon. Laura picked her way carefully across the slippery bottom of the creek and headed toward the willow’s overhanging branches that had protected the Gorafrex’s prison for millennia. The place remained as quiet and empty of people as the day she’d come before as an explorer, archaeologist, and unstoppably-curious witch. “Now here I am again, just trying to pick up the pieces. No. Not just trying. We’ll fix this. That’s what Hadstrom witches do, isn’t it?”
Feeling more confident, she swiped the curtain-like vines aside and stepped into the enclosure made by the willow’s branches. Right there, on the little berm built up out of the creek, was the bowl-shaped stone where she’d accidentally released the Gorafrex. “Nothing about this says, ‘Dangerous prisoner. Do not tamper.’ That might’ve been helpful.”
Laura knelt in front of the ancient white stone and studied it, searching for anything she missed the first time. “And that could be anything. Okay, it’s still cracked down the middle, so there’s that.” She slid her fingers along the edge of the bowl-shaped stone, feeling the time-smoothed surface for anything out of the ordinary. “Just a bunch of dust and vines and dead leaves. What am I missing—oh.” Her fingers brushed against a few deep grooves in the back of the stone. “What’s this?” She leaned over the stone, but it grew too close to the willow’s trunk for her to see much of anything. “Need a better angle.”
With both hands around the stone, she pulled it toward her, trying to pry it from the berm so she could study the grooves. Then, she froze. “Yeah, maybe breaking apart a piece of the prison we’re gonna use again isn’t such a good idea.” She sat back on her heels to think, yet it seemed her only option was to get up close and personal.
Her bare feet splashed in the cool water around the berm, as she got on her stomach over the lumpy, uncomfortable ground and brought her face as close as she could to the space between the bowl-shaped stone and the tree trunk. After feeling around again for those same grooves, she kept her fingers on them this time and shoved her thumb into the open space. “I don’t have a flashlight or a cell phone, so I need you to help me out here,” she told the silver legacy ring on her thumb. “Just a little—”
The ring flashed and almost blinded her with strong light, filling up the entire shaded area beneath the willow’s branches. “Close enough.” Laura focused on concentrating the light into something she could manage, and the ring responded. She bent her neck at an awkward angle to peer between the stone and the tree trunk for a good view.
“Gotcha. You were put here on purpose,
weren’t you?” She brushed cobwebs away from the perfectly preserved and deeply cut run in the back of the stone. “Now I just have to figure out what you mean.” She reached back for her phone in her back pocket, which she’d left in the car. Phones only distracted her. “But magicals could do all this stuff before cell phones were even a speck of imagination, couldn’t they?”
With a deep breath, Laura sifted through her memory for the spell she hadn’t used since cell phones came with cameras. “Capio,” she muttered. Another burst of light flared from her ring, and a copy of the rune—this one made of shimmering golden light—floating up from the space between the rock and the tree to hang in the air for a few seconds. “That’s it.” She smiled at the full view of the rune. “Now we’re getting somewhere.” The golden light started to twinkle out, then what was left of it coalesced into a fading streak that shot into her silver legacy ring before disappearing.
Laura stared at her ring, then shrugged. “Probably has better storage than the Cloud. And impossible to hack. Magic is so much better than technology.” Grinning, she pushed herself up from the ground, slipping a little on the slick, moss-covered stones of the creek bed before getting to her feet. “I hope this rune can help us.” She gazed at the tree trunk and all the willow branches blocking out almost all the daylight. “And then we’ll help each other. If I can use this, I’ll put that thing back where it came from. I promise.”
A breeze rushed over the Greenbelt, rustling the willow’s leaves and sending a few branches floating against the backs of her legs. “Okay. Sounds like a deal.” Laura blinked and snorted as she turned to leave the berm and the willow and the creek. “I’m talking to trees now. Not that they can’t talk back, but still. That’s a first. Now I just need to find someone who can tell me what part this rune had to play in keeping a witch-killing creature locked up since this ship was still on its way across the cosmos.”
Her first call when she got back in her car was to Carl Hopkins, who knew a lot about magical artifacts and their uses, seeing as he ran a magical antique store.
“Sorry to let you down, Laura.” Carl sounded like he was smiling, but his response to her question wasn’t quite smile-worthy. “I know a few symbols, but the most powerful runes are beyond me—and anything etched into that ancient prison is well beyond my knowledge.”
Laura sighed. “I’d still like to show it to you. Maybe you’ll recognize it.”
“I fear it’d be a waste of your time, but you’re always welcome to stop by.”
“Okay. Thanks, Carl.”
“Good luck.”
She stared at her phone, trying to come up with anyone who might be helpful. Her colleagues at the University of Texas had been marginally helpful with information about the Gorafrex. At least, those fellow professors who were also magicals. One of them was more helpful than the others…
“No.” Laura shouted the word so loud, she startled herself. “No. I am not going to ask Nathan for help on this. Especially after the way his welcome-to-Austin party ended last night.”
Almost as if she couldn’t control her own body, her fingers scrolled through her contacts list anyway and found Nathan’s number. She’d even pulled up the contact info before she realized what she was doing. “That’s such a bad idea. Isn’t it? After my sisters and I ran out on his party to fight a witch-killing monster. After the Gorafrex’s next victim was one of his friends. After I actually had fun dancing…” Despite herself, her cheeks grew hot with a blush she couldn’t control whenever she thought of Nathan, the half-Kashgar physics professor who happened to occupy the office across the hall from hers.
“Pull it together, Laura. He knows about the Gorafrex now. And the Kasghar helped to build and run this ship. If anyone might know more about runes almost as old as this place, it’s him.” Butterflies flapped around in the pit of her stomach. “And keeping Austin safe is a lot more important than your stupid schoolgirl jitters.” Before she could talk herself out of it, she pressed the call button and turned on the speakerphone. Her hands were too sweaty to risk holding the phone to her face for very long.
“Laura.” Nathan’s voice had an instant grin in it and made the young witch’s heart swell in her chest. “How you doin’?”
“I’m fine. How are you?” Jeeze. Small talk just isn’t your thing, is it?
He chuckled. “Well, I think I’m doing okay. Just a little confused about everything that happened last night at the party.”
“Yeah, about that…”
“Hey, I’m not upset, if that’s what you’re worried about. I mean, yeah, I’m upset that someone I knew almost got drained dry to fuel that asshole’s blood magic, but I don’t think I could ever be mad at you.”
Laura swallowed, trying to keep her voice even despite how much her racing heart made it feel like she was shaking. Get a grip. He’s cute and arrogant and half-Kashgar. And you’re a grown woman. “Nathan, do you…actually know what that asshole is?”
“I do now. Stopped by Vanessa’s house this morning, just to check in and see if she needed anything after almost…” He cleared his throat. “Anyway, she told me everything. Definitely wasn’t expecting that explanation.”
“I’m sorry you had to find out like that. I just…well, you understand why I couldn’t really say anything about it, right?”
“Absolutely. As far as I can tell, you’re handling it way better than I ever could. But now that the Gorafrex is out of the bag, so to speak…”
She blinked, waiting for him to finish his thought.
Nathan chuckled softly. “Too soon to joke about it like that?”
“What?”
“I said…nothing. I meant to say that I’m glad you called. Gives us a chance to talk a little bit more about what happened last night. If you’re open to filling me in on the details Vanessa didn’t quite have, I’d like to hear it. Plus, I just like talking to you.”
“Oh.” She winced at the one-word reaction that just fell out of her mouth. Yeah, you’re not really handling this very well. “Yeah. I guess I owe you an explanation after running out on you like that.”
“You don’t owe me anything, Laura. I just have one question, though.”
“Okay.”
“Before you and your sisters ran off down the street, did you at least have a good time?”
Laura froze at the memory of how much she enjoyed the party once Nickie and her boyfriend-slash-manager, Chuck, got the music going. “Well…yeah, Nathan. It was fun.”
He laughed over the phone. “You know, most of the time, that answer would be a dead giveaway for the complete opposite. But I’m gonna take it for what it’s worth. You don’t strike me as the kind of person who’d say that if you didn’t mean it. At least a little.”
Laura puffed out a laugh and realized how much better she felt about this conversation when she laughed—and remembered to breathe. “I mean, when we first started talking, I didn’t exactly let you down easy.”
“That’s what I’m saying. You would’ve just told me the party was awful and you never wanna see me again.”
The heat returned to her cheeks. “I didn’t say that at all—”
“I know. I know. I’m just messing with you. Sorry.”
“Okay.” She sighed. “So, can we meet somewhere to…talk? I might also want you to take a look at something for me.” I hope he isn’t trying to interpret any of that as inuendo.
“Yeah, no problem. Is it dangerous?”
“Is what dangerous?”
“Whatever you might want me to look at for you.” Nathan took a deep breath, and even through that, Laura heard him grinning. “I don’t think us getting together to talk fits that description. Unless that’s also part of something I should know…”
“No. No, it’s not dangerous.” Laura smirked. “Any of it.”
“Okay. Great. So, I’m still unpacking all those boxes in my office. Not sure when I’ll be done, but if you wanna meet me here, we can go get coffee from there or something
. Lunch. Whatever you want.”
“Yeah.” Is it coffee or lunch? Or a date? Laura scrunched up her nose and rolled her eyes at herself. “When can I come by?”
“Anytime. I, uh…have a lot to unpack, actually. Having you drop by is a great reason for me to take a break. Even better when I get to take a break with you.”
Stop, stop, stop. “All right. I’ll probably be there at twelve. Twelve-thirty?”
“Excellent. I can’t wait.”
“Okay. Bye.”
Nathan chuckled, and his voice receded like he was already pulling the phone away from his ear. “Bye, Laura.”
She touched the end button and tossed her phone on the passenger seat. “Why did that have to be the most painful thing I’ve done today?” With wide eyes, she stared through the windshield and caught her breath. “So I’m going to meet with the part-Kashgar professor again. For lunch. Or coffee. I guess it doesn’t really matter which one, because he obviously still likes me and—oh, jeeze.” She shook her head and started the engine. “You sound like a teenager. Just go do what you have to do.” Nodding, Laura backed out of the parking area at the trailhead and made her way to the northern side of Austin and the University of Texas campus.
Chapter Five
She’d always liked the short walk from the faculty parking lot to the Liberal Arts building on campus, where most of the professors and a few instructors in the Anthropology Department had their offices. Now, though, when Laura approached the front doors, she couldn’t believe how nervous she was.
It’s just a talk. I can do that. His connections to the Kashgar can only help, and we need all the help we can get.
With a reaffirming nod, Laura opened the door and headed to her office. Nathan’s was just across the hall—the closest open office the Physics Department could offer once he’d transferred to the university. And right where she’d be seeing him every day before and after and between classes once summer was over.
