Witchy Tales: A Wicked Witches of the Midwest Fairy Tale (3 page)

This had to be a dream. There was no other explanation. What else could be going on here?

I was halfway down the gravel walkway in front of the cabin when I heard the sound of heavy feet in the trees next to me. I jumped when a figure bolted through the underbrush, relief washing over me when I recognized a familiar silhouette. “Landon?”

He swiveled quickly, his gaze landing on me. “Bay?”

I threw myself into his arms, not caring in the least that I was dreaming. All I cared was that he hadn’t slipped out of bed and left me alone after all. He hadn’t abandoned me. “I’ve never been so happy to see someone in my entire life.”

The road less traveled may be more exciting, but it’s also probably not paved. If it’s not paved, that means there are snakes. If there are snakes, they’re going to bite you. If you get bitten, you’re going to cry. If you cry, don’t come running to me. I can’t stand it when you cry. It gives me a headache.

–
Aunt Tillie’s Wonderful World of Stories to Make Little Girls Shut Up

“What is going on here?”

Landon moved to separate from me but I fought the effort and pulled him closer. “Not yet.”

“Not yet what?” He wrapped his arms around me again, pulling me close and rubbing my back for a moment. “What’s wrong?”

“I just … I had the strangest thing happen to me,” I murmured, burying my face in the hollow between Landon’s shoulder and neck.

Landon ran his hand down the back of my head one more time and gave me a quick kiss on the forehead before forcing me far enough away that he could see my face. “You don’t know about weird.”

“Really? I woke up in bed alone. I thought you’d left me there and gone to the inn to face off with Aunt Tillie on your own. I was really angry, by the way. Don’t ever do that.”

Landon rolled his eyes. “First, I said I was going to wake you up,” he said. “I do what I say. I had every intention of waking you up. But I didn’t wake up in your bed either, in case you hadn’t noticed.”

I worried my bottom lip with my teeth. “I know. It’s just that you’re always there when I wake up. You never leave without saying goodbye, even when you have to leave early for work. I thought … I don’t know what I thought.”

“Really, you’re going to pick now to go all … girl … on me?” Landon’s face was unreadable.

“I … .”

“Good grief, Bay.” He cupped the back of my head and forced my blue eyes up to his. “I would never abandon you like that. Get some perspective. We’re in a very … freaky … place.”

“I know you would never abandon me,” I said. Except he had once, I added, internally. He had walked away once.

Landon narrowed his eyes, as if reading my mind. “I’ll never do it again. I was confused when you told me the truth about being a witch. I’d never even imagined anything like what I saw that day. I regretted it the second I did it.”

“I know,” I said. “I didn’t say anything.”

“I saw it in your face,” he said. “I can’t keep apologizing for what I did.”

“I didn’t mean to bring that up now,” I said. “I have no idea why I did it. It just popped in my head. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry,” Landon said. “We can talk about this if you want to. We just can’t talk about it now.”

I knew he was right. “Okay.”

“Okay,” Landon said, leaning forward so he could give me another kiss. “Tell me what happened after you woke up.”

“Well, I walked out of what I thought was my bedroom and found myself in a cabin,” I said. “It was really cute. Rustic. It had this wooden furniture that would be really adorable with cushions.”

“Thanks for the interior decorating commentary, sweetie,” Landon said. “Then what happened?”

“Well, the door opened, and three … bears … walked into the cabin.”

Landon’s eyebrows shot up. “Bears?”

“Bears,” I confirmed. “Oh, and they could talk.”

“Talk?”

“Their names were Craig, Sheila and Sebastian,” I said. “They claimed I walked into their cabin last night and tried to sleep in all of their beds.”

“You tried to … have sex with the bears?” Landon looked appalled.

“No! You have a filthy mind. They had three beds. They said I tried them all out, claiming one was too hard, one was too soft, and one was … just right.”

“Like the fairy tale,” Landon mused, rubbing his hands over my shoulders absent-mindedly.

“Yes. This is a dream, right?”

“I don’t know,” Landon said. “Can two people share the same dream?”

I shrugged, lost. “Where did you wake up?”

Landon scowled. “I woke up on a beach,” he said. “I was convinced it was a dream, just like you. It was dark, and I could hear water lapping the shoreline, and it really made me have to go to the bathroom.

“So, I kind of rolled over,” he continued. “I reached for you. I expected to find you in the bed next to me. It was as though I was in that hazy spot between sleep and consciousness. You weren’t there, though.”

I slipped a little closer to him. “Did you think I left you in bed alone?”

“I thought you were in the bathroom or something,” Landon said. “When I felt for you, though, I realized it wasn’t a bed. I was on sand and, quite frankly, it was in my … underwear.”

I fought the urge to laugh. He was so serious. Just being reunited with him was enough to make me smile, though. “Is it still in your underwear?”

“Don’t try to distract me, Bay.”

“Sorry.”

“Then I heard something … splashing … in the water,” Landon said. “It took me a few minutes to realize I wasn’t dreaming. Or, to be more accurate, I still thought I was dreaming but I decided to go with the flow thinking I would eventually wake up.”

“That’s what I did, too.”

“Do you want me to high-five you?”

He was grumpy. I guess I couldn’t blame him. “Tell me what happened.”

“I kept hearing the splashing,” Landon said. “I rolled over, and do you know what I saw?”

“Water?”

“You’re cute, sweetie, but I can only take so much right now,” Landon warned.

“You asked a question. I answered it.” Now I was starting to feel crabby, too.

“I’m sorry,” Landon said, holding his hands up. “I just … we’re stuck in a dream together, Bay. We’re stuck in a dream together. You shared a cabin with bears and I … well … I woke up by an ocean.”

“You said you heard splashing,” I said. “What was it?”

“I … .” He was conflicted, as though he didn’t want to tell me what happened.

“Landon, you’re going to have to tell me if you want us to figure this out,” I said.

He pressed his lips together, averting his eyes.

“What did you see?”

“You’re going to think I’m crazy.”

“I just told you I saw three talking bears and you didn’t call me a liar once,” I said. “I think I’m ready to believe anything you have to tell me.”

“There was a … woman … in the water,” Landon said.

“A woman?”

He nodded.

“What kind of woman?”

“The naked kind.”

My heart dropped. “Did you … do something with the naked woman?”

“Of course not,” Landon snapped.

“It’s a dream,” I said. “Sometimes people do stuff in dreams that they wouldn’t do in real life.”

“Who are you hanging out with in your dreams?”

I balked. “No one.”

“We’re going to talk about this later,” he warned. “I didn’t do anything with her. She was naked … and she … um … had a tail.”

“A tail?”

“She was a mermaid,” Landon said, finally gritting the words out. “Does that make you happy? She was a mermaid.”

“Oh, man, are you kidding me?”

Landon shook his head, pinching the bridge of his nose as though trying to ward off the world’s biggest headache. “She kept splashing and singing in this … horrific … voice.”

“It’s like
The Little Mermaid
,” I said. “Another fairy tale.”

“I thought that mermaid was supposed to have a beautiful voice?”

“She is,” I said, thoughtful. “Did the mermaid have red hair?”

Landon nodded.

“Was she alone?”

“As far as I could tell.”

“No singing crustaceans or big sea hags hanging around, right?”

“No. Just the naked mermaid. And she was … um … making suggestive comments.”

I laughed. I couldn’t help myself. “Are you saying the naked mermaid was hitting on you?”

“Yes. I didn’t touch her, though! All I could think about was you.”

“This is just so … odd.”

“What was your first clue?” Landon asked, bewildered. “Was it the talking bears or the vulgar mermaid?”

“How did you end things with the mermaid?”

“She kept asking me whether I wanted to see her seashell,” Landon said, tilting his head to the side. “I didn’t, so I said my goodbyes and then I took off into the woods.”

“Then what happened?”

“I don’t know,” he said. “I just kept walking. I had no idea where I was going. There was no light. I just … for some reason I knew to come in this direction. It was as if I felt you.”

“You knew I was here?”

“No. I knew I had to come in this direction. Until I actually saw you I didn’t know you were here with me. I thought you were home. I thought you were safe in your bed. I thought we were both safe in your bed and we were going to wake up any moment.”

“Do you still think we’re dreaming?” I asked.

“Do you?”

I was starting to have my doubts. Still, there was no other rational explanation. “I don’t know how we could be sharing the same dream.”

“Could it be magic?”

“I’m not familiar with a lot of dream magic,” I said. “We don’t believe in using it.”

“What is dream magic, and why don’t you use it?”

I sighed. “Most people believe that your dreams are nothing more than your subconscious’ way of working out your day or the problems you’re grappling with while you’re awake,” I said. “There are some who believe your dreams are more.”

Landon waited, silent.

“Some people believe your dreams are wishes that can come true if you go after them,” I said. “Those people believe that … if you mess with someone’s dream and change the outcome … you’re tempting fate.”

“Are you saying that messing with someone’s dream could affect their life?”

“Some people believe that,” I said.

“You keep saying ‘some people.’ What do you believe?”

“I believe that dreams are just dreams,” I said. “I also believe that interrupting dreams can have a negative impact on people’s lives. I don’t think destroying a dream destroys a life, if that’s what you expect to me to say.

“I do think that destroying a dream can make someone sad, though,” I continued. “When I was a kid, all I had were dreams. I didn’t have a happy reality, so I always escaped into dreams. I would have hated for someone to ruin that for me.”

Landon’s face softened. “Come here.” He pulled me in for a hug. “You can’t say stuff like that and not expect me to hug you.”

I rested my face against his shoulder. “I’m not sure this is a dream.”

“If it’s not a dream, what is it?”

I shrugged. “I have no idea. The thing is, this could be a dream … as long as it’s just my dream. Maybe you’re a figment of my imagination. Maybe I conjured you into my dream because I needed you.”

“That doesn’t explain how I’m aware of what’s going on,” Landon pointed out.

“I know,” I said. “I just don’t think we could be sharing the same dream.”

Landon rubbed his hand over his chin, thoughtful. “Could it be a spell?”

That was a very good question. “If it’s not a dream, it has to be a spell.”

“Who would have cast it?”

“Well, my first guess is Aunt Tillie,” I said. “No one else has a reason to cast a spell on us.”

“Do you think this is a way for her to distract us so she can sell her wine without repercussions?”

“It’s possible. It’s just … .”

“What?”

“We’re not the only ones standing in her way,” I said. “She would have to curse Thistle, Clove, Mom, Marnie and Twila, too.”

“Do you think they’re all here?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know. She could have cursed us all into our own different fairy tale worlds. I just don’t know.”

“Go with your gut, sweetie,” Landon said. “If this is a spell, what do we have to do to break it?”

“It’s either going to run its course because Aunt Tillie put a time limit on it or we’re going to have to solve the puzzle to get out ourselves,” I said.

“What puzzle?”

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “There’s something so familiar about this. I can’t put my finger on it.”

“It’s fairy tales,” Landon said. “Your mother probably read them to you all the time when you were a kid.”

“She did. Marnie and Twila did, too. This is … different.”

“How?”

“I don’t know,” I said. “It’s just not … the same as I remember from when I was a kid.”

“What do you want to do?” Landon asked. “Do you want to find a spot to hunker down in and wait for this to end or do you want to go looking to see whether anyone else is here?”

I thought about it for a moment. “I think we should work our way through the story,” I said. “If we wait, and there is no time limit, we’re burning time. At least this way we’ll be doing something.”

“Okay,” Landon said, pressing another kiss to my forehead and linking his fingers with mine. “I’d rather be proactive, too. Which way?”

“Why are you asking me?”

“You’re magic, sweetie,” Landon said. “I mean that in more ways than one. You’re the one who is going to lead us out of this.”

I bit my lip, warmth washing over me. He always knew the best way to make me feel better. I glanced around, debating which direction to head in, and then pointed. “That way.”