Spun by Sorcery (26 page)

And so Aerynn reached for the talisman, the disk of Welsh gold that Samuel had placed in her care on the night she fled Salem, and imbued it with powers of its own that would far outlive her own stay in this dimension.

“I thought the talisman already had magick,” Luke said.

“You listen well,” Samuel said, nodding his leonine head. “But Aerynn had something else in mind.”

“The talisman would become an entity, a living thing with intellect and judgment and a strong sense of responsibility toward the future of Sugar Maple. No longer an inanimate object acquired to enhance an individual’s power. The choices it made would be with the village’s best interests at heart. Everything else would be secondary to that.

“If the talisman ever sensed that a Hobbs woman had lost control of the two factions and a coup was imminent, a fail-safe mechanism would be activated and Sugar Maple would be put in lockdown.”

“Lockdown?” I imagined a high-security prison with guards and iron bars.

“Isn’t that the modern terminology?” Samuel asked. “I heard it on
Law & Order.
”

Luke assured him his terminology was correct.

“The town would be relegated to an alternate dimension,” Samuel continued, “until if or when the problem resolved itself.”

I felt like I had been kicked in the gut. Losing the town in battle to Isadora would have been easier to accept than this. I had lost it the moment I fell in love and let it slip through my fingers.

“My mother turned her back on Sugar Maple when she joined my father in mortal death. Why didn’t that trigger a lockdown?”

“Despite the upheaval your mother’s passing created, the town still thought as one. Fae and magick lived peacefully together as Aerynn had hoped. Sorcha was there to guide you into adulthood and the villagers were willing to wait for your powers to finally bloom. Those were good years for Sugar Maple. Happy ones.”

“And then I grew up and blew it by falling in love with a mortal instead of a good-natured werebear from Ohio or a selkie from Maine.” Someone who would bring more magick into the Hobbs genetic equation.

Samuel held my gaze. “We don’t choose our destiny, child, not in this dimension or any other I have encountered. Our destiny chooses us.”

“So tell me what to do,” I demanded. “Don’t give me stories. Don’t show me home movies. Tell me what to do so I can get my home back.”

“Stake your claim,” he snapped, his temper obviously rising. “If you believe Sugar Maple is your destiny, then stand up and fight for what belongs to you.”

“All I’ve done these last few months is fight for Sugar Maple. I wasn’t raised to be a warrior!” The only thing I liked to fight was a balky cable crossing in an Aran sweater.

He rose to his feet. He towered over me. Anger radiated from him in waves of red and black that reared up and battled like cobras above his head. At least now I knew where my temper came from.

“You’re not a warrior yet,” he bellowed. “You don’t know the meaning of the word. You fought to save your mate. You fought to save his child. But not once have you ever fought to save your home.” He fixed me with a look that almost brought me to my knees. “Are you woman enough to do battle, Chloe, or will you be the Hobbs who loses everything?”

We were going home.

According to Samuel, the Salem Fae had been in our old neighborhood since Sugar Maple disappeared, which was how they had managed to take control of Penny the cat and manipulate her actions during our road trip from hell. He was reasonably sure they were planning to stake claim to the town as soon as they could find the talisman.

“Mortals believe they have long memories,” Samuel said as a pine table laden with steamed lobster, crabs, shrimp, ears of yellow corn, and snowy white potatoes appeared in the center of the room, “but the Fae will hold a grudge for millennia and beyond.”

“The talisman wouldn’t turn the town over to the Fae,” Chloe said. “Would it?”

“If the talisman deemed the Fae the best caretakers for Sugar Maple, then yes, it’s possible.”

“They tried to kill us,” Chloe said. “They sent us plunging off a cliff. They blinded Luke. If the talisman is half as smart as you say it is, how could it possibly hand Sugar Maple to creatures like that?”

“The Fae fight for what they believe in,” Samuel rebutted. “They are willing to risk all to achieve their goal.”

“So did the Nazis,” Chloe shot back. “So did Pol Pot. There has to be more to the equation than ferocity and focus.”

Samuel smiled as Elspeth and Janice materialized next to him. I had the feeling he was responsible for the timing.

“Sit down,” he said. “Enjoy the feast. We will all need nourishment for what lies ahead.”

Chloe did as told. High color splotched her cheeks and her eyes were unnaturally bright. She wasn’t finished with Samuel yet. Not by a long shot.

Me? I was scared shitless. I had battled the Fae twice before and I would have bought the farm both times if first Gunnar, then Chloe hadn’t come to the rescue. My odds weren’t looking too good.

Although Samuel had assured me that we were not living by the human clock in the lighthouse and only seconds had passed in the real world since our arrival, I felt the urgency to get back on the road.

“He is as jumpy as a bug on a skillet,” Elspeth observed, looking over at me. “It must be a human trait.”

Janice laughed and whispered something that made the old crone cackle as she cracked a lobster claw with her twisted fingers.

“You two are getting along,” Chloe observed. “So blood really is thicker than water.”

Janice ignored the edge in Chloe’s voice. “I’ve made a decision,” she said, neatly placing her empty crab shell in the waste bowl next to her. “You’re not going to like it, but I’ve decided to stay here with Elspeth and Samuel until Sugar Maple . . .” Her words trailed off.

“Stay here?” Chloe leaped to her feet. “Why in the world would you want to stay here?”

I placed a warning hand on Chloe’s arm but she jerked away. Janice’s family was gone and they might not be coming back. Elspeth was her blood. There was a place for her here. It was something even a human could understand.

Janice’s eyes flashed but somehow she maintained her cool. “Elspeth is the finest healer I’ve ever encountered. There’s a lot I can learn from her.”

“And she can help me with Himself,” Elspeth said, jerking her bright yellow head in Samuel’s direction. “He requires a lot, he does. An extra pair of hands would go nicely around here.”

I had the feeling there was nothing Elspeth couldn’t handle on her own. Her unexpected act of kindness toward Janice surprised the hell out of me. Then I caught the look of concern in her eyes as she looked at Samuel, who was drooping slightly in his captain’s chair, and remembered her words from before.

Samuel had commented that clan leadership would pass to Chloe when he pierced the veil and Elspeth, in high dudgeon, had said: “Which he would have done by now if not for you, missy!”

I suddenly realized she hadn’t been lying. Samuel was hanging on by sheer force of will. Only his determination to bring Chloe closer to her destiny was keeping him in this dimension.

I looked over at Chloe. Did she know how close Samuel was to leaving this dimension? I wasn’t sure. I also wasn’t sure how much she would care. Right now only Sugar Maple mattered.

We finished eating and Elspeth magicked the dishes away with a flick of her apron. She took up her post next to Samuel and practically dared any one of us to question her right to be there. None of us was that crazy.

“I’ll need your help finding my car,” Chloe said to Samuel. “I think it’s still in the parking garage near the visitor center.”

“You won’t need your car,” Samuel said. “I have arranged for other means of transportation.”

Her eyes widened. “I thought you lacked the power to effect a long-distance transport.”

“But I don’t lack the resources to patch together an alternative,” he said. “You will be safely and swiftly carried to your destination.”

“Both of us?” I asked, just wanting to make sure.

Chloe met my eyes. “You’re staying here.”

“The hell I am. I’m going with you.”

“That’s not happening.”

“Nonnegotiable,” I said. “We’re in this together.”

“Talk some sense into him,” she said to Samuel. “He’s mortal. He doesn’t stand a chance against an army of Fae.”

“Chloe is right,” Samuel said. “Entering the battle would be an act of suicide.”

I turned to Chloe. “Would you let me go into battle alone?”

Her expression softened. “That’s different.”

“How?”

“You know how.” She lowered her voice. “I’m magick, Luke. I understand what we’re facing. I have the tools to fight it. They would mow you down in the first ten seconds.”

“Then they mow me down,” I said. “We’re in this together.”

She looked at Janice for help. “Say something, Jan. You know what we’re going to be up against.” But Janice shook her head and said nothing. “Damn it, Luke! I don’t want to see you die.”

“Your courage is admirable,” Samuel said, “but foolhardy. Is there nothing we can do to sway you from your course?”

“You could kill me,” I said, “but I’m not sure that would stop me.”

Samuel considered me for a long moment. “You feel strong hatred toward the Fae?”

I held his gaze. “I feel strong love toward Chloe.”

“Then I will give you the tools to even the playing field.”

Even I knew this was no time for macho crap about not wanting any help. I needed all the help I could get.

“What kind of tools?” Chloe asked. She didn’t sound too thrilled.

“Magick,” said Samuel. “That’s the only thing that will save him.”

Holy shit. I was picturing a superhero costume like the guy wore in
Iron Man.

But the old man’s plans were bigger than that. He proposed to give me temporary powers that would enable me to not just survive the battle at hand but to help win it.

“Twenty-four hours at most,” he said. “That’s all you will have.”

“No problem,” I said. “That’s all the time we’ll need.”

The old man and I both knew the battle would never get that far.

“Do something,” I begged Janice. “Luke doesn’t know what he’s getting into.”

“He knows,” Janice said. “That’s why he took Samuel up on his offer.”

“Cast some type of spell on him. There has to be some way to keep him here where he’ll be safe.”

“He’s
your
human,” Janice said with a shake of her head. “Haven’t you learned anything about him? Even I know that nothing short of a bomb will keep him from you.”

“Then drop a bomb. He can’t go back with me, Janice. Something terrible will happen.”

Or maybe it was happening already. Samuel had warned me about this. I felt my focus shifting away from Sugar Maple and zeroing in on Luke, which was a surefire path to losing my hometown and everyone in it forever.

“He’s a grown man,” Janice said. “He knows what he wants. Let him make his own choices, Chloe. It’s his life.”

Samuel had bestowed twenty-four hours of magick on Luke and given him a crash course in how to use it. Luke was crouched next to Samuel’s chair, taking in everything the old man had to say as if his life depended on it.

Twenty-four hours of magick and maybe ten minutes to learn how to use it.

I didn’t like the odds.

Elspeth handed me a small pouch of herbs that she guaranteed would keep me focused on the job at hand.

I hugged Janice tight. “Watch Penny for me,” I said. “Don’t let her try to follow me.”

“With all the lobster around here, she won’t even notice you’re gone.”

“And take good care of the Buick.”

“I was thinking about letting high tide take it out to sea.” She grinned even though her eyes brimmed with tears. “After I saved your stash.”

It felt good to laugh. I had the feeling I wouldn’t be doing much of it in the near future.

Elspeth was watching me with a little less hostility. “You young ones know nothing about the old magick,” she said. “Beware the expected: that is where the true danger lies.”

“Elspeth speaks the truth,” Samuel said as we joined him and Luke. “Old magick relies on your most basic fears. They won’t hesitate to tap into your memories. Strive to empty your mind of all but the battle at hand. Don’t let them lead you astray or they will weaken and then destroy you.”

The room fell into silence. What more was there to say?

“So how do we get back to Sugar Maple?” Luke asked.

Okay. There was that.

“You have magick now,” Samuel said. “We’ll use astral transport.”

We were going to battle New England Fae for control of a magickal town. Taking a puddle jumper out of Logan just didn’t cut it. I wasn’t about to tell Luke but the thought of being beamed from Salem to northern Vermont made driving on ice sound like a walk in the park.