Chapter Twenty Two
“Kill him?” My words come out meekly.
“It’s the only way,” Al says.
“Whoa, hold on now,” Cindy says. “We have magic now. I mean, not a lot and she’s still getting used to it, granted, but couldn’t there be another way?”
“A spell can be broken.” His warning sends a chill down my spine. “He would come after you stronger than ever.”
“We’re talking about murder.” I almost think Cindy is going to be reasonable for a minute. I should have known better. “How would we manage it? It’s not like he’s going to hand us a gun and say, ‘go to ‘er.’”
“Are you seriously saying you could?” I ask, horrified at the thought. I’m not sure who I’m asking, though I suppose it doesn’t matter since I can’t picture either of them as murderers. “If you had the chance, could you really kill someone?”
“It’s him or you,” Al says.
“There has to be another way,” Cindy says. “Something not involving jail time.”
“Yes, or murder,” I say. “If you tell me what to do, I’m sure I can manage it. I’m starting to get the hang of this magic thing.”
Not exactly true, but I’m desperate to steer things away from killing. Every time they mention it, all I can see is blood and horror and I can’t open my eyes to make the images go away.
Cindy snaps her fingers. “The rock in the barn. Everyone froze stiff as long as they were looking at it. There has to be something more permanent we can use.”
“Maybe,” Al says. “I know a place where you might find a way.”
Cindy’s interest is piqued. “Is it close?”
“It’s your grandmother’s house.” Al doesn’t sound pleased to say as much.
“Can’t,” Cindy says. “Stewart’s waiting for us there. We need a plan before we go anywhere near the place.”
“He’s waiting in your world,” Al reminds us. “I’m talking about the version of the house here.”
I can practically feel Cindy’s excitement as she realizes he’s right, but I’m not convinced.
“How do we know he hasn’t found the portal already?” I ask. “He could be in this world right now. And do we know for sure there’s anything helpful there that’s worth risking it?”
“Maybe not,” Al says. “But I used to visit the house a lot as a child. There were items there, as if stored to keep them safe.”
“Not so safe if kids were getting into them,” Cindy says.
“That’s the thing, we never touched them.” He grows thoughtful. “It was as if there was something preventing us from getting too close. I didn’t understand it then, but I’m sure it was some sort of magic barrier.”
“And now we’ve got our very own sorceress to break the barrier.” Cindy claps me on the shoulder.
I think the tension might be getting to me because as soon as her hand touches me, I grab it and twist her arm enough she whimpers a little. I’m sure I scared her more than hurt her. Well, pretty sure. But she should have known better.
“Sorry,” I mumble and drop her hand.
“It’s good,” Al says when Cindy grumbles something about blind ninjas under her breath. “You need to be ready for anything. This isn’t going to be easy.”
“We don’t have much time,” Cindy says. “Let’s go see what’s being protected at Gran’s house.”
The walk is excruciating, with Cindy attempting to lead me at a pace I would have a hard time keeping up with even if I wasn’t blind. I catch my toes on what seems like every single rock and branch and the uneven ground does a number on my ankles. I end up falling and scraping the skin on the palms of my hands. Three times. I’m glad I’m wearing jeans or else the damage to my legs would be worse. As it is, every time the rough material scrapes my knees the skin rubs a little rawer.
When Cindy starts to slow down, I can only assume it’s because we’re almost at the house. Since no one’s spoken since we left Al’s, I can’t know for certain.
“It’s been a long time since I’ve been here,” Al breaks the silence. “There’s a chance things aren’t exactly as I remember. Or someone’s come and already taken everything.”
“Got it,” Cindy says. “Expectations have been lowered. Now how about a way in?”
“Use the front door.”
Something jangles from Al’s direction.
“You have the keys from our world,” Cindy says.
“I do.” He shakes them again, and this time I recognize the sound.
“Are you going to give them to me?”
“No.” As Cindy starts to protest, he stops her and continues. “There’s another set around back. Same place as these were. If we’re going to do this right, we’re going to need both sets.”
“Why?” I ask, as Cindy starts to complain some more.
“Because like I said before, even if we find something in here we can use, the best advantage we have is the fact he thinks Sin will go alone. This means we can’t all go through the portal to your world as one clumsy group.”
There’s a hint of suspicion in Cindy’s voice when she asks, “You’re going to go in with Lou?”
“Is that a problem?” He reveals nothing of how he feels.
“I don’t know,” Cindy says, equally as emotionless. “Is it?”
“It’s fine,” I say. “It makes sense for us to go together. Will Cindy go in first and then we’ll wait and follow?”
“Not exactly,” Al says.
Instead of explaining what he means, he steps away while Cindy pulls me to a stop. A few minutes later, we’re inside the house. The magic I’ve been sensing since waking intensifies until it feels like actual hands running over my arms and head, putting pressure on my chest and lungs. I double over, gasping for air as I push back the magic to a point where the pressure is tolerable.
“What is it?” Cindy asks. “Are you okay?”
I manage to straighten. “There’s definitely magic here. It’s not too friendly either.”
“Do you think Gran left it here?” she asks.
“If she did, I’m glad I was never on her bad side.”
Once I’ve managed to shove the pressure back a bit, the only thing still affected is my head. Every minute we stay in the room, the pounding grows a little worse. I’m not sure if it’s from the magic or from my struggling attempt to control it with my own power.
“Any chance we can go a little faster?” I press my hand to my forehead. “I’m starting to understand what a migraine feels like.”
“Over here.” Al guides us through a door where my arm scrapes against the frame, and leads us into what I think must be Gran’s study. The pressure increases and I know whatever the magic is supposed to keep us from is close.
“Is that it?” Cindy asks.
I wish more than anything my head wasn’t pounding so much so I could do the magic to see through her eyes. Instead I’m forced to clamp my hand harder to my head and hope someone tells me what’s happening soon.
“Yes,” Al says.
“I can’t look directly at it,” Cindy says. “Think it’s the same sort of magic as what hid the door?”
Al doesn’t answer which drives me insane. Don’t they know I’m relying on them to tell me what’s happening?
“Lou?” he says. “Are you sure you’re all right?”
I ignore the stupid question and point toward where the magic feels strongest. “Are the items in that area?”
He hesitates. “Yes, but...”
“Perfect.”
I carefully step toward the source of the power and am instantly hit by a more localized soreness between my eyes. I push back at the magic even harder and continue to move forward. If there’s something to help defeat Stewart and save Mom, there’s no way a little bit of pain is going to stop me from finding it.
I take another step and nearly collapse as the pressure smashes against my stomach, nearly knocking the wind out of me.
“Is her n
ose bleeding?” Cindy’s voice only half registers in my screaming mind.
But it doesn’t matter. I can feel the source of the magic now, its image burned into my mind without ever needing to actually see it with my eyes. A wax seal pressed on a folded piece of paper. So simple, and yet pulsing with power. Layers of magic fold into the wax as though the sorceress who created the spell spent days building it up to make it so powerful.
I’m also sure I wasn’t feeling nearly the full effect of the magic. It’s meant to hide the objects from average people and warn sorceresses away. But for a full wizard, the magic would rip him apart.
My hand feels like it’s moving through ever hardening concrete as I reach for the paper and seal. When it’s in my hand, I do the only thing I can think of that might work. I turn it to ash.
The flames engulf my hand, but compared to the pain of the foreign magic, I don’t notice the heat.
With the pressure of the spell gone along with the seal, I collapse onto my knees, exhausted and empty.
“You’re not going to puke are you?” Cindy asks.
I ignore her since the alternative is to think about the word she used and...
Cool fingers run through my hair and rest on the back of my neck, doing wonders for both my stomach and headache.
“Thanks,” I say to Al, standing with his help.
“Nice work with the fire,” he says.
“Honestly, I have my doubts I could do it again.” I bite my lip, wishing I was just being modest.
“I’m not surprised. Going up against a full sorceress’s spell when you barely have control over your magic, well, let’s say things could have gone a lot worse.”
“We’ve got a winner!” Cindy says.
I hadn’t realized Cindy moved on to look at the items the magic protected. After the feeling of the guarding spell, the items barely have any magical qualities at all. It seems unlikely she could find something useful so fast.
“What is it?” I ask.
“This stuff,” she says. “All of it is described in the book I got from the box. Just a second while I try to figure out some of Gran’s short hand.”
I try to move a little closer to her, though I’m not sure why. It’s not like I can read the book over her shoulder. “You got one of Gran’s books.”
“Shh,” she says. “Reading. There’s a bunch of stuff in here on protection and hiding.” She flips through a few of the noisy pages. “I’m sure this object held the spell Lou took care of for us.”
“What about the rest?” Al is clearly not as impressed by the book as Cindy. “Anything useful?”
Cindy doesn’t answer, I’m assuming because she’s too busy reading. Instead of waiting for her to explain what she’s found, I focus on the objects Al is checking out. I don’t have the strength yet to look through his eyes, but I can sense the magic held within each item. They each give a different feel depending on how big or small it is, or whether it’s natural or manmade. So much information can be sensed through the magic, I can picture each item perfectly in my mind.
One in particular catches my attention.
“Is that a telephone?” I point in the general direction of a particularly odd bit of magic.
The strange part is, much like when I attempted to put magic into the cell phone, there’s a strong feeling of technology acting as a barrier. Instead of keeping the magic out as it had with mine, it’s wrapped around a big slab of magic as though holding it inside. What it looks like is also the most clear in my mind. A fairly big base with a circular disk on the front and a hand held piece attached by a curling wire. I’d seen one at Gran’s house when I was younger, and I used to have fun putting my fingers into the holes of the disk and turning, then having it go back into place all on its own.
“Wait,” Cindy calls out. “Don’t touch anything.”
“What’s wrong?” Al asks, and I realize it’s him reaching for the phone.
“There’s a lot more to these items then protection and hiding. Dangerous stuff.”
“Such as what?” A few footsteps follow and I’m pretty sure Al’s gone to stand with Cindy.
“I don’t know yet.” She flaps the book, causing a slight breeze in the room. “Still reading. Just don’t touch for now, alright?”
I let them talk as I continue to concentrate on the rotary phone. There’s something else both familiar and completely foreign about how it feels. The magic inside is wrong but I can’t quite figure how.
Suddenly Cindy gasps and starts to get excited.
“Do you know the story of the genie in the lamp?” she asks. “Find a lamp, rub it three times and a genie will pop out to give you three wishes.”
It’s almost as though the magic in the phone is fragmented. As if it’s made up of a bunch of magic from a number of people. But even that isn’t exactly right. There’s something else.
There’s amusement in Cindy’s voice. “Well, either I know how the story was started, or Gran was inspired to try it out herself. Except instead of using a lamp, she’d use anything around her. And instead of a genie, she’d trap wizards.”
I feel sick as I realize exactly what I sense inside the phone. It’s not a spell by a bunch of people, but magic stolen and contaminated by a wizard.
“You’re saying there are wizards inside each of these objects?” Al asks while taking a step away from the table and bumping into me.
“I don’t know if they all have one,” Cindy says. “But I’d rather not check either. How about you?”
“And the result is permanent?” Al asks. “The protection spell Lou broke isn’t going to release them, is it?”
“I’m pretty sure it was only meant to keep people away. They should stay stuck so long as no one actively releases them, such as by opening a jar or wearing a necklace.”
“Or cutting the bag of toenails,” I say, though my attention is still focused on the phone.
“Exactly!” Cindy says, suddenly very excited. “That’s exactly what this spell is like, except it traps the entire person, not just a part of them.”
“But you need a part of the person to use for the spell,” Al reminds us. “Such as the toenails in Lou’s case.”
“Or the wizard’s voice for the phone,” I say aloud before I completely understand what I’m saying. I can feel the others staring at me, though I’m not sure if they think I’m being ridiculous or if they’ve come to the same conclusion I have. I’m hoping for the second as I continue. “It doesn’t need to be a physical part of someone. It can be something like a reflection or a photo or—“
“Photo,” Cindy gasps. “Our cells. We could take a picture and no one would know what’s happening.”
“And the technology will help make the trap even stronger,” I say. “Though, it will also make the magic necessary to set the trap more difficult.”
“Capturing someone’s image can be very powerful,” Al says. “But are you sure you can do this?”
“We have to,” Cindy says. “There’s no way any of us are capable of killing. Right?”
There’s something about the way Al agrees that makes me feel anxious, but I push it aside and focus on what needs to be done.
“How does the spell work?”