by Katie Low
She turned back away from him and he continued to stroke her hair. Before long, sleep consumed her. She dreamed of flying through the night’s sky, looking up to view the stars in a way that she never could from the ground.
Chapter Six
A few days after their punishment of showing the new teachers around, Thad and Liliana were in town buying supplies for school with their closest friends, Hannah and Jeremy. Unfortunately, they lived on opposite ends of the reservation, and their mother worked even more obscure shifts than Thad’s dad, so days like this were rare.
The two were also fraternal twins, which was what had initially driven them together when they were five years old. What had kept them together over the past nine years was how well their personalities seemed to complement each other.
While they had a lot of similarities between them, there were also a number of differences, which Thad thought made their quartet work out all the more. Liliana was outgoing, outspoken, and sometimes even outlandish, Hannah was quiet, reserved, and always thought through everything before she spoke. It was as if words held value for her, and she wanted to make sure that she made each one count.
Usually when the two were together, Hannah became a calming presence for Lil. She was the voice of reason to Liliana’s impulsiveness. Even now, Liliana was animatedly discussing her desire get as far away from Fabled as she could the minute that she turned eighteen, and Hannah was trying to convince her to start small and stay nearby. It was a recurring discussion between the two.
“Hannah, I can’t stay here,” Liliana was saying. “My dad and uncles will hover worse than any helicopter-mom you’ve ever seen. If I went to college nearby, they would be there every single day to check up on me. No, I need to go somewhere outside of flying distance.”
Hannah considered his sister’s argument, before speaking her rebuttal. “But what if something bad happens and you need them to be there quickly?” She didn’t give any speculations on a specific scenario, that wasn’t her style. She left those types of off-the-wall commentaries for his sister.
“And what if absolutely nothing goes wrong, and I am harassed for every minute of every day for the rest of my life because I was playing it safe? You don’t understand. I am the only girl, surrounded by seven males. I’m fairly certain that if there were a tower in this town, I’d already be locked in it with every accessible entry point bricked over.”
Jeremy snickered at Liliana’s fairy tale reference before leaning in to ask Thad a question, effectively blocking out their sisters’ conversation.
“Do you think that this assignment tracker is big enough for the extra classes I’m taking, or should I get a second one?”
“Definitely a second one. Even if you don’t need it, I’m sure you’ll find a use for it.”
“Good thinking.”
As Jeremy grabbed another, Thad couldn’t help but smile.
Jeremy was one of the smartest people that he had ever known—besides his uncles. He even put Liliana to shame with the amount of knowledge that he craved. More than once it had been suggested that he had an eidetic memory, and Thad was inclined to agree. The boy could recall what he had for dinner the day that they had met one another. It was amazing. He was the only person that Thad knew of that took additional classes each year just to keep himself from getting bored.
As they stood in the check-out line, Thad noticed Ms. Salem on the other side of the store struggling with an arm-full of supplies while a few males stood around her leering. He passed his supplies to Jeremy and went to aid the struggling witch. Just as she was about to drop some of her items, Thad was there to catch them before they hit the ground.
“Oh my goodness, thank you so much,” she said, beaming at him. He remembered her being beautiful from their brief meeting, but he didn’t recall the brilliant light that seemed to radiate out through her skin when she smiled.
“No problem,” he muttered, casting his gaze downward before she caught him staring at her. She seemed to be getting enough of that from others, and he didn’t want to offend her.
“You’re Thaddeus, right?”
He was surprised that she knew his name, even if she had remembered him from her arrival into town.
“Yes, that’s right.”
She nodded her head in the direction that Thad had just come from. “Your sister spoke a lot about you. I feel like I know you already.”
He grinned at that. “I hope it wasn’t all bad. She sometimes tends to exaggerate my involvement in her schemes.”
She laughed, and the tinkling sound echoed in the cavernous space of the store. “Actually, she said just about the same thing.”
With a smile in place, he waved his hand toward the front of the store. “Can I give you a hand up to the check-out?”
“I would appreciate that greatly!”
He helped her place all of her items at the register, and once they were bagged and paid for, he helped her carry them out of the store where they met his sister and their friends.
“Thank you again for your help, Thaddeus.”
“Please, call me Thad.”
She nodded. “Thad. Say, what are you lot up to now? Can I give you a ride as a ‘thank you’ for your help?”
Jeremy was the first to respond. “Actually, Hannah and I have to meet our mom across the street. Her shift is almost over at the diner.”
Liliana shrugged. “Thad and I were just going to sit at the police station until our dad finished working, but if you wouldn’t mind the company we could come back and help you unload your things at the cabin. We could walk home when our dad is finished and meet him there.”
“I would love the company! Are you sure that you wouldn’t mind? I don’t want to take you away from your friends.”
“Not at all,” Thad assured her. “We were already going our separate ways after this.”
“Well then,” she beamed at them, “I’m parked right over there.”
After helping Cardi put all of her things away in the cabin, the three of them sat around her table in the kitchen as they ate her freshly baked sugar cookies. Over the laughter that permeated through the small cabin, Liliana heard a knock at the back door.
Cardi stood to answer it, and Liliana was surprised to see Orla step into the kitchen.
“Good evening, Cardi. I hope it’s okay that I stopped by,” the elf was saying, before she noticed the twins sitting at the table.
“Of course, it’s okay. I have company, but more is always welcome, right kids?”
Liliana gave her brother a skeptical look before agreeing with the witch. “Absolutely.”
The elf scoffed as if she knew full well that Liliana would have loved to get up and run for the back door in that very moment.
“Help yourself to some cookies, Orla. The twins and I were just talking about magic. Liliana had seen me conjure my own items into the cabin a few days ago, and they were just wondering why I couldn’t magic myself the items that I purchased at the general store today.”
“Thank you, Cardi. Please, don’t let me stop you from finishing your explanation.”
At that, she smiled at the surly elf and resumed where she had left off before the knock sounded at the door. “So, as I was saying, the spell that I used moves objects from one place to another. There is no spell to create these items out of thin air. Items can only be moved or transformed. For instance, if I had a ruler but needed a pencil, I could transform the ruler into a pencil.”
“That sounds awesome!” Thad exclaimed. “Could you transform something for us?”
“If it’s not too much trouble,” Liliana added.
“No trouble at all.”
Cardi opened a kitchen drawer and withdrew a meat tenderizer. She held the mallet in her open palm so that everyone could see it. With a few whispered words, the utensil transformed into a spatula, which she then used to transfer cookies from the baking sheet that had just come out of the oven, to the cooling rack on the counter.
Thad and Liliana c
lapped and whistled, while Cardi giggled and bowed for her audience.
She returned to her cookies, and as she moved them from the sheet to the rack, her gaze drifted out the open window, and landed on the adjoining property.
“Your roses are looking lovely this afternoon, Orla. Are there more of them today?”
The elf frowned before nodding her head. The almost-smile that had graced her features before was now gone, replaced by a solemn expression.
Liliana didn’t want to ask. She tried so hard to keep her lips locked together. It had been the first time in all the time she had known the woman that the two had been able to be around each other without arguing.
She tried, she really did, but before she could stop herself, the words leaked from her mouth like air from a deflated balloon. “Why does that make you sad? I thought you loved your roses?”
At Liliana’s words, the elf turned defensive. “I do love my roses. Loving something doesn’t prevent it from causing sadness, however.”
“I don’t understand,” she said, genuinely curious. “I mean no offense, but how could something bring both joy and sadness?”
Orla studied Liliana’s face for a while, presumably gauging her sincerity in her line of questioning. Just when she thought that the older woman wouldn’t answer, Orla surprised her by saying, “I find joy in the act of planting and tending to the roses. However, the sadness comes in what each plant represents.”
“And, if you don’t mind me asking, what do they represent?”
As Liliana watched, the old elf’s eyes grew haunted. A deep anguish contorted the woman’s features, and Liliana wished that she could have taken the question back.
“Each rose represents a member of my family who is no longer with us,” she whispered.
Liliana glanced out the window at the flowers in question, wondering just how many there were. There had to be over a hundred.
In that moment, her chest tightened, and she felt the sting of tears in her eyes. A profound shame washed over her as she remembered what Thad and she had risked in uprooting those flowers, all because they had felt that she had wronged them by being protective of them.
She realized then that all along she had misjudged the woman. Orla wasn’t ornery because she was stuck in this town with no way out. She was suffering an immense loss.
Liliana looked at her brother then, knowing that if anything ever happened to him, she would find it hard to go on living her life without him in it. She reached across the table, giving the older woman’s hand a squeeze. Their eyes met, and it was as if Liliana was seeing her for the first time. Understanding shone in the other woman’s eyes, and Liliana knew that their relationship had been forever altered that afternoon.
Chapter Seven
The start of school the following week had been even better than Liliana had been expecting it to be. Not only were she and Thad back with Hannah and Jeremy, but their homeroom teacher for the year ended up being Ms. Salem. Even better than that? Cardi was their teacher for both Math and Social Studies, which meant that they got to see her four times throughout the day.
When Liliana had walked into her classroom first thing in the morning on the first day, Ms. Salem had given her the brightest smile that she had seen from the woman so far.
While Liliana and Thad were thrilled by their assigned teacher, their dad was less so. In fact, he seemed to have completely changed his attitude toward Ms. Salem from the day that he first met her. Liliana could have sworn that her father had had an instant attraction to the woman. Since that initial meeting however, anytime her name came up, Faolan’s face would flame red in anger and he would either rant and rave about her or, even worse, he would turn silent and let his anger boil beneath the surface. Liliana and Thad had no idea what had happened between their father and their new teacher after Liliana had left her that day, but based on his reactions, she knew it had been bad.
Even Ms. Salem showed signs of frustration when it came to their dad. The times that he had been able to pick them up from school, Cardi’s eyes would dull from their mirth-filled brilliance to a sharpness that Liliana had never seen directed at anyone other than her father. While the words she used to address him were pleasant, the tone was clipped and disinterested. When Liliana had suggested an intervention to Thad, her brother had flat-out refused to get involved. Little did he know that she had a plan for forcing the two adults to spend time in each other’s company. After all, their birthday was just around the corner.
As they sat in Ms. Salem’s classroom at the end of the school day, waiting for their dad to arrive, Liliana began plotting. A few times, between glances at the clock, Thad would shoot her questioning looks, but she pretended not to notice. She doubted that he would approve.
One by one, students had filed out of the classroom, either toward the transportation provided by the school, or with their parents. Faolan had been the last to arrive.
“Sorry,” their dad muttered in Ms. Salem’s general direction. “There’s a crisis in town. I was lucky to get away.”
She smiled at him. One of her true smiles rather than the forced baring of teeth that she normally reserved for him. “It’s no problem. If it’s an emergency, I can always take them home with me, and you could pick them up from my cabin on your way home.”
The scathing look that he gave her had her grin faltering. “Listen, I know that I can’t do anything about you being their teacher, but I don’t need a babysitter. If I did, you would literally be the last person that I would ask.”
Hurt flashed in her violet eyes before she hid the pain and allowed her features to contort into an angry mask. “Officer Sparks, I understand that you have some belief that you know a single thing about me, but let me assure you that you know nothing. In fact, having taught these two over the past few weeks, it’s a wonder that they’re related to you at all. They’re both amazing and brilliant, and, well, I can only assume that they got those traits from their mother. Allow me to enlighten you, and I’ll try to speak slowly so that you don’t get confused: I would never do anything to jeopardize these children. Do you honestly think that your brother would let me anywhere near his kin if he believed for a moment that I was as horrible as you seem to think that I am? If that weren’t enough to sway your opinion of me, then at the very least I ask that you keep your condescension to yourself while you are in my classroom. Good day, sir.”
With those parting words, she reached down and retrieved her bags from the bottom drawer of her desk before storming out of the room, leaving the three of them staring after her.
Liliana was the first to break the silence. “Jeez Dad. Did you have to be so mean? She was just trying to be nice and you threw it back in her face.”
Several emotions flitted across his face. She recognized anger, frustration, and finally guilt before he schooled his features and followed the path that Ms. Salem had taken. “Let’s go, we have to get to your uncle’s right away. He’s called a meeting, and I need to attend.”
The twins glanced at each other, surprised that their dad didn’t mention dropping them off with Orla on the way, but neither of them felt the need to remind him of that fact. Instead, they followed him out to his truck, and hopped into the cab without another word.
Chapter Eight
Thad knew that listening in on the meeting that was in progress wasn’t the smartest choice that the two of them had ever made. However, with the uproar that had greeted them as they entered their uncle’s house, they decided that the risk was worth it.
He and Liliana sat on the sofas in the great room, waiting for the council members to file into their uncle’s study before running to their post at the vent in the kitchen. Thad half-expected the vent to be blocked off from the other side but was pleasantly surprised to find that it hadn’t been. Uncle Ruarc must have been expecting them to not be present for this meeting, or Thad doubted that the man would have allowed such an oversight.
“What’s the meaning of this, Ruarc?” Magn
us, the werewolf alpha asked.
“This afternoon my brother, Faolan, came across strangers while he was patrolling in town. Tell them what you observed, Faolan.”
Thad’s dad cleared his throat before speaking. “Other than the new teachers, I hadn’t received word from any other reservations that we would have visitors to Fabled, so when I saw them, I followed them. It seems to be a family. A man, woman, and two children. As they walked through the park, they witnessed one of the bears shifting to play with their cubs. The family freaked out, as if they had never seen anything like it before. When I approached them, they tried to report the incident to me. I asked them to come down to the station to file a report. I didn’t know what to do, so I put them in the holding cell. They’re still waiting there for my return.”
“Humans?” Magnus asked. “In Fabled? How did they get through the barrier?”
Tailynn, the leader of the witches spoke up next. “There is no way for a human to get past the barrier. My witches check on the efficacy of the border every day, and it is in perfect working order.”
At that, a commotion broke out. Everyone tried speaking over one another, arguing over who these outsiders were, and what they wanted in Fabled.
“Silence!” Uncle Ruarc’s command rose over the din. “I do not doubt that the barrier is still in working order. The only logical explanation that I can give is that these humans are not human at all. Perhaps they have Mystic blood. Fearghus, have the triplets meet Faolan and me at the police station. Have them bring the med kit and one of their computers. I want to know what these strangers are. As for why they’re here, Faolan, I would like to use your interrogation room.”
“I’ll get it ready.”
As soon as Thad realized that the meeting was at its end, he grabbed his sister and pulled her to the sofa in the great room. They both pulled their phones out and had an app opened before their father emerged from the study.
