“Francis!” I repeated, disgusted that that stupid mage had lied to me yet again. “I should’ve guessed.”
Harold Woodpecker was a mage, not a wood nymph. Francis had done something to him, though, either cast a spell or put a curse on him, assuming those existed, and now he was something different than the rest of us mages. At least, he had been. Now that I’d transformed him back into his human form, perhaps he could recover and become a regular mage again.
The color was coming back into his face, and he wasn’t breathing so heavily anymore. I waited a few minutes before I asked him anything else. I needed to know, though, exactly what had happened, so that I could deal with Francis. She really was becoming a pain in my ass.
Once Harold was sitting up, looki
“No, I don’t want to be next,” I told Harold as he continued to use his powers on Francis Flamingo, keeping her from moving or getting out of his grip. “I also don’t want to have to hurt you, Harold. I just saved you, for crying out loud. But I can’t let you kill Francis. She’s my friend’s mom.”“I don’t care who she is to you!” Harold snarled. “She ruined my life! She locked me up for years. She deserves to die!”“Why don’t you do the same thing to her that she did to you?” I asked him. “Can’t you send her into the other realm, the way she did you? You said you were going to seal them up, right?”I could tell that he was considering doing what I’d suggested, that the wheels in his head were
“How did she take it?” I’d caught up to Ben outside in the woods near our house later that night, after he’d spoken to Fionna. He looked sad, sitting out there, under a tree, his elbows resting on his knees. I didn’t sit because I didn’t think I’d be welcomed to do so. Instead, I stood off a ways, between the trees. “She wasn’t happy,” he said. “But she said she understood that the reason you didn’t stop Harold from doing it was because he said either he put her into the other realm or kill her. She said she’d rather know that she is out there somewhere than have her dead.” I nodded. “Did she really say all that?” It seemed like a lot of words for Fionna. “She ddi,” Ben said with a nod. “She seemed a lot more… lucid than normal. At first, I wasn’t even sure I was tal
It was weird not having anything to worry about except for school. Graduation was coming up in just a few short weeks. The year had flown by in a way. In other ways, it had seemed to drag on and on.I had been accepted into the online college program of my choice, which was exciting. Most of the rest of my packmates that would be graduating at the end of May had also made their selections and gotten accepted. Ben was going to a different college than me, but Joshua was in the same freshmen online program as I was in. Starla had decided to take the year off. She wanted to spend some time with her parents and explore the country a little bit before she started college. I didn’t care what she did, as long as it meant she wasn’t going to be in my way anymore. I was hopeful that she’d find a new pack to join. There really wasn’t anyone left in my pack who wanted her to be there anyway.
A few days before high school graduation, I got a call from Kayla. We’d been talking quite a bit for the last couple of months, trying to sort out what was going to happen when the rest of my pack joined us. I had plans to add on to the house again. We’d need it with six more people coming to live with us. I had plans in my head, but I hadn’t done any of it yet. I figured I’d had enough experience with architecture now that there was no need to hire any contractors. It would probably make me really tired, though, so I planned to do it after school was over with.“How are things in France?” I asked her.“They’re good,” Kayle replied. I had her on video conferencing so that I could see her face. “But there’s something I need to tell you about.”
“You can’t be serious!” Melanie squealed the second I brought up the topic of all of us moving to Europe as soon as graduation was over. “I wanted to spend the summer back home with my family.” Real, actual tears sprang to her eyes. I was stunned. I’d just thrown it out there for us to talk about, I hadn’t committed to anything yet. I certainly wasn’t expecting anyone to cry about it.“Mel,” I said, trying to stay calm and not escalate the situation even further. “I’m just asking. It doesn’t mean that we have to do it.”“I wanna do it!” Brice said, his voice full of enthusiasm. “Running around all over Europe, fighting evil mages, storming castles…. All of that sounds really amazing to me.”Most of the
“He’s lying?” I asked Sam. “How do you know?” He seemed so certain that Alec was lying when he said that he was scared. “Maybe he is legitimately scared that something is going to happen to him, you know? It can get dangerous out there.”Sam was shaking his head. “No, that’s definitely not it. He’s just a mooch. A giant mooch who just wants to be part of our pack so that he can take advantage of all of the stuff you can make for us for free.”I shrugged. “Maybe you’re right, but I honestly don’t care if he goes with us or not, as long as Brice does. I want them to stay together if he still makes Brice happy, but I don’t think it’s gonna work out between them. I think they’re just too different.”“You&rsq
After Joshua made his statement--that he didn’t love Melanie, and he had feelings for someone else, someone that was in a relationship already--he didn’t stick around. He took off, out the door, and I figured it was to go for a run.I turned around and looked at Sam, my eyes wide. “What the hell just happened?” I asked him.He was shaking his head. “I don’t know. I’m really not sure. But… I don’t think it’s you, if that’s what you’re concerned about.”I wanted to ask him why he was so sure and be offended that he didn’t think that Joshua was in love with me, but then I realized that was a good thing. I didn’t want Joshua to be in love with me. We’d tried that a bit last year and discovered we were much better off a
That night, I laid awake on my back in my bed, alone, staring up at the ceiling, wondering why I’d said that to Sam and what I was going to do about it. Outside of my window, I heard familiar howls and knew that a large part of my pack was out there roaming around, doing whatever it was they do at night.A thousand thoughts ran through my head, but mostly, I just kept thinking about what I had said to Sam and what it meant. I’d told him I loved him. I’d said it in a joking way. But I knew in my heart that I meant it.Did that mean I didn’t love Ben anymore?I couldn’t say for sure. But I felt like the more space Ben tried to give me, the more I found myself learning to live without him. That also scared me. I didn’t want to have to live in a world without Ben in it, and I di
There’s a comfy chair right next to the fireplace in the main living area of Brookstone. It has become my favorite place to sit. I can sit there for hours and do absolutely nothing but stare out the window at the beautiful forest and sparkling lake. It’s amazing to me to think how far I’ve come in just a year and a few months. I don’t just sit around and do nothing, though. I haven’t had to use my magic to fight off any other mages or shifters since we destroyed Grimly Grouse and his evil minions, but I do use my magic sometimes for other things, like producing presents for my friends or making mythical creatures to entertain us. Brookstone is as beautiful on the inside as it is on the outside. Part of that is the fact that we modernized it and redecorated a lot of the rooms. We wanted all of the modern conveniences we were used to, but we didn’t ruin the amb
My plan had been pretty simple. I’d bust into Brookstone, make the other mages and any shifters that were there think that the house was on fire, and I’d run them out to where my pack mates were waiting to take them down.I had no idea one of my pack members had her own idea of what should happen then. I guess I should have. It isn’t as if she hasn’t shocked me enough times in the past for me to expect Fionna to do something… unexpected.The mages in Grimley’s pack came streaming out of the house. Most of them went out the front door because I’d started the alleged fire in the kitchen, which was in the back of the house, on the east side. Fionna, being the tricky mage that she is, had opened a portal right on the other side of the front door so that every single one of the mages who ran out that exit sprinted right int
I didn’t bother to get a ride back to Brookstone the next day. It was clear that no one wanted to drive out there anyway, and it wasn’t as if it was a necessity. We had other ways of getting there, after all.I volunteered to change my wolves into birds so they could fly with us, but all of them passed on that. They said they weren’t used to flying and were afraid they’d fall out of the sky or something. Like I’d let that happen. I’d rolled my eyes, but since most of the area around where we’d stayed the night before was woodsy and rural, we decided it would be okay for them to walk out into the woods and shift there. The rest of us would fly over.My wolves weren’t going to be entering the property until after I knew the situation in the house. Once I knew whether we were on the defensive or the offensive, I woul
It was difficult to get rooms with enough beds for all of us, but my wolves decided they could always shift into their wolf forms and sleep on the floor, and since most of them didn’t sleep much anyway, we went with that. I was definitely going to be sleeping that night, though. I was so tired, I could barely keep my eyes open to discuss the plan for the next day. Fighting mages is hard work--apparently.“So what is our plan for tomorrow?” Kaylee asked. We were gathered in the room she and I were sharing, all of us sitting on the beds, the floor, and the small sitting area. “I take it we’re going right back there since you wanted to stay so close, Harlow.”“Yeah, we need to go right back over there and take care of things once and for all,” I said. “We just need a plan that will get rid of Grimly Grouse as s
With the ground shaking beneath our feet, the mages lifted themselves up into the air. I pulled up my wolves, too, but that didn’t help save my house. The thought of Grimly Grouse destroying my family home was enough to make me want to set his hair on fire.The ground was cracking beneath us now, some of them were at least a foot across. The idea of one of my people dropping inside of one of them was enough to make me want to fly everyone out of there and back to our rental right away.“Kaylee,” I shouted, wanting to try to fix the problem beneath us and keep my wolves out of danger. “Can you take over for me?”“You mean… float them?” she asked. “All of them?”“We can all help,” Liam said from the o
Looking around at my mages, I tried to determine who I needed to help and who was okay on their own. Liam was taking on a large male mage with a nose ring and the appearance of horns coming out of his bald head. I assumed those were placed there by magic, and he didn’t really have horns growing out of his head, but it was difficult to know for sure. “Give it up, Harlow!” I heard Grimly shout from far behind the line of advance. “I have more reserves. You cannot win.” It was difficult for me to keep my eye on this brute that was about to knock Liam out and respond to the maniac in the back. I decided to ignore Grouse and concentrate on Liam’s predicament. I was fairly far away from the fight, and there were other engagements going on between me and Liam, but I couldn’t let that stop me. The devil guy with the horn
The mages from Brookstone were slowly walking toward us, their long cloaks in a rainbow of colors not even moving from the wind they made, their steps were so even and slow. I stared at them for a long moment, trying to determine what the best thing to do was. A quick estimate told me that there were probably about thirty of them, which meant my team was outnumbered about five to one as mages went. The wolves would be able to help a little, but not much. They were mostly there to fight off any wolves that came our way, and Grimly Grouse had stopped using those, pulling out the big guns instead.We really only had two choices. We could stand there and fight and probably get annihilated because we were outnumbered so badly, or we could run away, regroup, and figure out when and how we should come back. I was really starting to lean toward Plan B, but when I looked at the faces of my packmates, I could tell t
I took advantage of the fearful flicker I’d seen in Grimley Grouse’s eyes and hit him with a bolt of power before he had much time to expect it. He got his hands up, but it wasn’t enough to completely deflect it. I ended up hitting him hard enough to knock him backward almost to the edge of the stream. The other mages around him took a few seconds to stare in shock before they remembered they had powers and could possibly do something to help him.They weren’t going to be able to help him, though. My mages were all ready, so before any of the red cloaked mages could hit me with their powers, mine had their hands up, shooting rays of light to counteract the ones directed at me. I watched the magic around me bend and shift, redirecting back the way it was coming. A few of the red mages were knocked off balance, but none of them went flying the way that Grouse did, probably because mos
I heard the first sounds of battle coming from my left, to the southwest of the house, but I couldn’t tell who it was that was caught up first by the wolves coming from Brookstone. I thought that Raven and Tony had been the furthest to the south, but I wasn’t certain. I decided I should fly over there and have a look. Of course, by the time I got over there, there was a good chance the rest of my wolves would be under attack as well since we’d seen the wolves shooting through the forest at an incredible rate spread out in a line. As I landed, I heard the sounds of battle echoing across the forest as Grimly Grouse’s wolves collided with mine. This wasn’t going to be pretty. I changed back into my mage form as soon as my feet touched the ground and immediately fired a