The long piece of polished wood stood about six feet tall, it’s top adorned with several large gems that twinkled in the morning light as it filtered through the trees. Sapphires, diamonds, an emerald or two, all of the stones were beautiful, but in the very center of the staff, there was a large opening which I didn’t quite understand. I would have to sort that out later. For now, I took the polished wood in my hand and marveled at how beautiful it was. It fit so nicely in my palm, as if the forest had taken into consideration just how long my fingers were, just how strong my grip would be.
“You know what this is?” I asked Grandma, holding the staff in one hand and Sam’s hand in the other.“Of course I do,” Grandma said before taking a sip from her steaming hot mug of coffee like it was no big deal at all that she knew what the magical weapon I’d just found in the forest was capable of. “I’ve never seen it befor
I sat in my room alone for a few minutes after Sam had left, not sure what to do. I felt as if I had done something wrong, but I didn’t know what it was, and I didn’t know who to ask. The idea of calling Sam and asking him why he ran out the door seemed ridiculous. Likewise, I could hardly call Ben and ask him.After a few moments, I took the box and hid it und
“That is possibly the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen,” Joshua said as he stepped over. He was talking about the staff, of course. It did look impressive, especially the way that it was glowing now in the darkness of the forest. All of the gems were lit up, and the ruby in the middle was so beautiful as it sparkled there in the dim light.“Thank y
“How was your trip?” I asked my mom, not sitting down at the table with her and Grandma. I was actually starving since I’d been out in the forest all day long and hadn’t eaten anything, but I knew Joshua was waiting on me, too, so I set about making myself a sandwich, hoping I could just take that and some chips up to my room without having to talk too long.
I slid my bedroom window open as quietly as I could and leaned out of it. “Toss it up!” I whisper-shouted to Joshua.Ordinarily, I would not trust myself to catch a sponge ball under these circumstances. I’ve never been the most athletic person and have never played any sports, other than the ones I was forced to play in PE at school. But when Joshua toss
I went to the door and threw it open to find my sister standing there with her arms folded. “What?” I asked her, exhausted, hungry, and ready to be done with my whole family, which was sad since they were leaving the next day. I didn’t want to feel so grumpy, but I did want some privacy.“Who were you talking to?” she demanded, coming into my
My family has gotten very good at packing. Since a lot of the stuff they’d be needing was still in boxes in the garage, when Max got back to the house with the rental moving truck he’d found a few towns over just before noon, Mom and us girls had a lot of it moved out of the garage and positioned near the back porch so we could start loading it in. Max would need to get the bigger stuff himself. I’d asked Sam to come over and help with that, even though we still hadn’t talked about what had happened. He’d agreed to help out. Ben was at work, and Joshua was finishing up those few lawns he had needed to work on.
It took several trips to bring Gray’s boxes downstairs. We made a pile by the truck. By the time we were done, Max and Sam had everything else loaded up and were able to put the boxes right into the truck. Only the suitcases they’d left for the minivan so that they’d know exactly where their toothbrushes and other necessities were when they got to Great Falls remained to be loaded up.
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