“I don’t mean to point out the obvious, but there is a dead guy on the floor. The heat is going to cause a smell the neighbors are going to notice. Maybe we should get out of here before anyone finds him,” Clay interjected.
“He is a creature of the sun. When night falls, he will turn to dust. The only thing anyone will find is a set of oddly placed clothes,” Eleanor explained.
Clay reached up and gave the roller shade a quick jerk. It flew up with a flapping noise. He took Sabrina’s hand and pulled her toward the exit. She shuffled after him. They waited when they noticed not everyone was walking.
Eleanor had stopped moving. She lifted one hand up to the shop area and shut her eyes. The other hand remained tight around her bow. She began whispering under her breath. A breeze stirred and swirled in from the outside. It whipped around her knees for a few moments and proceeded to move to the front room. All the broken glass reassembled and returned to the shelves. The cracked display case sealed itself. Incense and crystals rolled back to their original positions. Once the cleanup was complete, the wind left the way it had come. Eleanor whispered her gratitude before lowering her hand and opening her eyes.
“Okay, children, get in the car. I’ll drive,” she ordered.
A sleek, black-sapphire metallic late-model BMW M5 sedan sat ready in the back alley. The windows were tinted in a heavy polarizing black, making it almost impossible to see inside the car. It was not a legal tint, but witches were never pulled over anyway.
Sabrina felt the wards around the car as she passed through them. Clay put her in the passenger side front before sliding into the back. Eleanor flopped down in the driver’s seat after she warded the shop.
“No one is getting in there until tomorrow night. By then, the evidence will be gone.” Eleanor smirked. She floored the gas and did not let up until they were home.
The long driveway emptied onto a mountain meadow. Along the back tree line sat a white modest one-and-a-half-story clapboard house. A few mature oak trees stood in what could be called the front yard. The drive ringed the trees and circled back to the meadow entrance.
Sabrina felt the tension in her stomach release. Home always made her feel safe. The white and yellow summer flowers filled the meadow in front of the house beyond the shade trees. The heat from the sun combined with their sweetness filled the car when she opened the door. There was no place she would rather have been.
“Get inside and stay there,” Eleanor demanded. “Clay and I will get the backpacks and load the car. We’re leaving today.”
“Where are we going? Why can’t we stay here?” Sabrina was perplexed. They were witches with a full coven at their backs. Until recent years, they had lived in the sleepy backwoods uninterrupted by the outside world. No one moved in and very few left.
“We have to make a connection in Asheville and then meet our next contact at nightfall. Please, don’t play twenty questions with me. Speed is of the essence right now.” Eleanor ushered her into the house.
She watched out the window as Eleanor added wards to the house. Clay ran back and forth between the detached garage and the car. Preloaded backpacks were tossed into the trunk. He lifted a small antique chest and added it to the pile of goods, closed the trunk, and took up position on the front porch as if guarding the door.
When Eleanor finished, she came in and brought Clay with her. Sabrina started to ask questions but was ignored. Instead, Eleanor went to the phone and placed a call.
“This is Eleanor Beckett. I need to speak to your mistress. Yes, I’ll hold.”
Sabrina wanted to ask questions again. “Who are you—?” She was cut off by Clay placing a finger to her lips. He then laid one against his own.
He turned to Eleanor and mouthed, “To the car?” She nodded in reply.
“Let’s go,” he whispered to Sabrina and opened the door for her.
“What is going on? How did you know what to put in the car? You’ve been in on this, haven’t you?” She was getting angrier by the minute. Everyone else seemed to know what was going on except her.
“Don’t get sore at me, Sabrina Rivers. All I was ever told was that the day may come when we needed to get you out in a hurry. I figured it out a long time ago. Whatever the reason you’re different is, it makes you somehow important to a greater cause. Your magic is a mixture of light and dark. That’s why it doesn’t work right. The spells are all wrong for you.”
“That is enough, Clay.” Eleanor came out, locking the door behind her. “I didn’t realize you understood so much. Congratulations. You will be making the trip with us. I can’t leave this much information behind. Get in the car, now.” Her voice was icy.
“Yes, ma’am. Sabrina?” His voice was resigned, and he gestured toward the car.
“Can I at least ask where we are going?” Sabrina did not like the mystery. Eleanor was usually more forthcoming with information.
She sat down in the back. Clay got in with her. The front held Eleanor and a multitude of guns and ammo. A compound bow was propped against the seat on top of a quiver of arrows. A gladius was sheathed and stuck between the console and Eleanor’s seat. Some situations required more stealth than a gun allowed.
The doors hardly had time to shut when Eleanor hit the gas. The car lurched forward. She sped down the winding drive. Reaching the main road, she went even faster. The tranquil mountain scenery was a blur. They made the fifty-minute trip in twenty.
Outside of the Asheville city limits stood a dilapidated warehouse. The windows were covered in a thick layer of grime. The white paint was peeling off, exposing coats of blue, green, and gray applied long ago. Grasses and flowering weeds grew in the cracks of the crumbling parking lot. A rusted chain-link fence with equally rusty razor wire surrounded the entire building and parking area. Most of the security lights housed broken bulbs or were missing their lightbulbs altogether. A sign on the chained entry gate warned away trespassers from the condemned building.
Eleanor pulled up close to the gate. She pointed her index finger at the lock and made a downward sweeping motion. The lock opened. As it fell to the ground, the chain went with it. She motioned her hand as if brushing something aside. The gate creaked open enough for the car to pass.
Once through, Eleanor stared straight ahead, but Sabrina and Clay could not resist the temptation to look back. The gate closed on its own. The chain slithered back up the gate and coiled itself around the posts, catching the last link with the lock. A faint blue-white glow emanated from the chain and rippled out along the whole fence and up into a dome-shaped layer of air. It was only visible for a moment before disappearing.
When they turned back to face the warehouse, the entire exterior had changed. Instead of a building in danger of collapse, a well-maintained glass-walled office building stood in its place. A variety of creatures made their way in and out of the massive oak double doors. Sabrina and Clay sat with their mouths open in shock. Eleanor looked as if it were completely normal.
“Where are we?” Sabrina asked. The shock had worn off just enough to set her curiosity in motion. “What is this place? Who are all these people?”
“This is the regional office of Hilargi, Inc. Hilargi means moonlight in Basque. These are all creatures of the night and of moonlight, Diana’s charges and creations. It is a sanctuary for magical creatures and a generic face for nonhumanoids to earn a living. Besides, where do you think we get all the new IDs and corresponding papers when it is time to update ourselves? Glamour only goes so far, you know,” Eleanor explained. Her tone reminded Sabrina of the lessons Eleanor gave her as a child.
“Is this the hideout then?” Clay spoke up for the first time since leaving home. There was an air of uncertainty to his question. Sabrina felt a sudden sense of dread. An office building was surely not going to provide a comfortable bed.
“No. We are here to meet someone. Afterward, we are going to go…”
Eleanor did not get to finish her thought. A deafening boom rocked the car, setting off the alarm and leaving it in the center of a fire bubble. Red and orange flames engulfed the car, sweeping around the wards. Sabrina screamed. Clay covered her head with his arms and shoved her down to the floor. In a moment, it was over. Black smoke and falling debris were all that was left of the building. Eleanor cursed in several languages at once, mixing them into a single flow of profanity.
“Get us the hell out of here!” Clay shouted.
Eleanor whipped the car around and drove through the unopened gates. The magical wards were gone. It burst open like any other gate would have when a speeding car slammed into it.
Sirens wailed in the distance. Fire trucks and ambulance horns blared in an effort to clear traffic. Eleanor sped off in the opposite direction. Chances were slim they had gotten away without someone or something seeing them.
“What are we going to do now? Please tell me you have a plan B,” Clay asked Eleanor in a pleading tone. He was still looking back at the black column of smoke and stroking Sabrina’s hair. He pressed her tight into his shoulder and allowed her to cry.
“I had hoped to avoid plan B, but it appears we have no choice. If the Army of Light is going to target Diana’s earthbound holdings and her children, we will have to turn to the last people they would suspect,” she thought aloud. Sabrina could hear the confidence in her voice waver. It was unlike steadfast Eleanor to be at a loss for words or a plan of action. She was the most powerful witch Sabrina knew. If these people scared her, what chance did a magical misfit such as her have? Compared to Eleanor, she and Clay were children.
“What army are you talking about? Who would send an army after us?” Sabrina’s tears had slowed enough she could speak through the sniffles. Clay’s shirt was soaked, but he did not seem to notice.
“Apollo is the sun god, but Lucifer is the god of light. He created an army many millennia ago in an effort to overthrow Diana’s rule of the Moon and darkness. She tricked him into having sex with her. From their union came Aradia, who was sent by Diana to Earth to teach humans with natural magical talent the art of witchcraft. The ancient gods and goddesses were expelled from Earth long ago. As they draw energy from their worshippers, the more devotees one has the stronger one is. Diana sent her daughter to gather a new flock. Lucifer never forgave Diana for her deception and for keeping Aradia from him. He wants her throne. If he can rule both the light and the dark, he stands a better chance at returning the Earth. The Army of Light professes to do things in the name of Apollo, but they really belong to Lucifer,” she confessed.
“Why us? You didn’t answer that part of my question,” Sabrina reiterated. She had the feeling Eleanor was ducking the question. It was Eleanor’s MO to explain some things in detail while the important bit was swept away. Most of the time, Sabrina let the evasiveness stand. This time she would not. Her life might rely on the answer to that one question.
“There is one item in the universe that holds the hope of their return. This item holds very little power of its own but can spindle both light and dark magic. By channeling off their excesses, it has the ability to keep the gods and goddesses in balance. If Lucifer can get his hands on it, he will be able to tap into the powers of other celestial beings. He was thrown out of the heavenly ranks for good reason. Remember, light does not always equate to good. Darkness does not always mean something is evil. Good and bad occurs on both sides of the line. We do not want him to have that much access to power. The universe would face a cataclysmic destruction,” Eleanor added, shaking her head at the prospect. The thin press of her lips told Sabrina there was more, but it would be hard to get every wanted detail.
“Do we have this item? We do, don’t we?” Clay asked.
He looked down at Sabrina’s necklace. She followed his gaze and thought back to the man in the shop. He had tried to take her necklace more than once. Camo Guy had even threatened to take off her head to get it. She gasped and clutched at her throat. He had demanded she give him a jewel. What was it he had called it? A midnight jewel? No. Midnight’s Jewel. He was not looking for a jewel. He was looking for
the
jewel.
The dark stone with its dancing rainbows must be the universal spindle. She had had it since she was a baby. It was an unfair burden to place on an infant, especially one who would grow to have almost no ability to protect it. Clay could do more magic than she could, and he was a woodland fairy limited to the element of earth.
“Aunt Eleanor, can’t we just give Midnight’s Jewel to someone else to keep? It doesn’t have to belong to us, does it?” Sabrina’s tone reminded her of being a small child trying to get out of an unwanted task.
“I’m afraid it isn’t that easy. Until the spindle is no longer able to be used one way or the other, it is a liability. However, the universal law of free will comes into play. It must choose the path of good or to give up its power all together. If it chooses evil, it is my job to destroy it,” Eleanor said with a heavy, sober tone. She was visibly saddened by the thought of her appointed task.
The occupants of the car fell silent. Sabrina watch the countryside slip past the window as they sped down I-26 into South Carolina. Darkness covered the sky just as they picked up I-85 and headed into Georgia. Homesickness tugged at Sabrina’s heart. She had spent almost her entire life nestled away in the Plott Balsam Mountains of North Carolina. The low rolling hills of Georgia that threatened to flatten out into open coastal plains felt alien and lonesome. She reached over and squeezed Clay’s hand. He returned the gesture with a halfhearted smile. The tugging subsided. A little bit of home was sitting beside her.