Love Charms (53 page)

12:
Black Holes

The acrid air stung my eyes, and I could
scarcely breathe. Dad!

I had been thrown against the garage door
and now felt my way along its metal frame, searching for the handle.

It hadn't been opened in years, and the
latch was reluctant to turn. I yanked on it, hard, and finally it screeched and
started to move. The door rolled up partway before getting stuck again. I
breathed in a gulp of fresh air and dove back into the room, feeling around the
desk and floor for Dad.

He was nowhere.

I ducked under the door again, gasping.
The smoke that had seemed so thick inside the lair dissipated almost instantly
outdoors. A neighbor across the street got her mail from her box, waved, and
turned back toward her house as though nothing was wrong.

I leaned against the brick wall. Where
had Dad gone? He couldn't have evaporated.

From inside, I heard a voice, tinny and
far away. "Jet? Are you there? Jet?"

I stumbled back into the room. The smoke
had lifted, and I stooped low, able to breathe in shallow gulps. From the
silver portal, Caleb's concerned face filled the bowl, dirty and black, his
hair blown back. "Jet? Please, Jet!"

"I'm here!" I coughed and
hacked. "I'm okay."

"I have your dad." Caleb
stepped aside and showed my father sitting on his bed, smoky and red-eyed but
otherwise all right.

"I'm coming!" I said. I could
remember the lullaby, surely. "Into the colors, a bountiful whirl," I
began.

"Don't forget to aim where you want
to go!"

I nodded, remembering the silver circle
from last time. "Holding our breath as the world starts to swirl."
Yes, I had it. "Passing the darkness —" Wait, I didn't remember
the darkness. Was there a portal of darkness? I finished out the rhyme, still
trying to remember. Had there been another choice when I left Caleb's,
someplace dark? Is that what the rhyme was about?

The colors came again, the kaleidoscope
just like before. When my lungs felt collapsed, instead of sucking in air, I
held my breath. No throwing up in front of Caleb!

But this time, I did see the darkness, a
black patch in the swirl of color. I stared at it, wondering if that was what
the spell referred to, when I realized I was aiming for it.

Crap! I tried to turn my head and look
back toward the silver ring, but it was too late. I burst through a portal and
landed on hands and knees in a pile of pine needles.

I jumped to my feet. It had been midday
at home, but here it was night. I had either traveled to the other side of the
earth, or I was in some different place altogether.

My headband hummed, and I pressed my
hands against it. Thank goodness I had put it back on. I held on to a tree,
hoping to blend into the shadows until I got my bearings. The moon overhead was
full, but when I looked at it, I realized it wasn't the right size, or the
right color, and the craters were different. I felt like I was looking at a
painting of a moon, some stylized version. Or maybe it wasn't my moon at all.

Something skittered in the bramble, and I
stifled a squeal. In the distance, I could hear a rumble and footfalls, almost
like hooves. Horses? Wheels? A carriage? Was I in the past?

I looked up at the tree. Just above my
head was a branch that forked out, but I didn't think I could reach it. I
turned around, assessing the others. Another one had a lower branch, and a
second and third within climbing distance. I hoisted myself up, grateful for
jeans and practical shoes, rapidly climbing until I was well above the eye line
of anyone who might be looking.

The sound of running horses grew closer,
and I squinted to make out anything. From here I could still see only the
outline of trees, empty of leaves, and now as I settled in, a chill came over
me. I was going to get cold fast. When the contraption passed, I would have to
search for the portal that got me here and go back through.

Unfortunately, as the hoofbeats grew
closer, they also slowed.

"Where's the portal?" a deep
male voice asked.

"Right here, sir. Very close."
Another man, higher pitched.

The shadow of the carriage came into
sight about forty yards away. I could make out a rough road there, but they
couldn't drive into the denseness of the forest itself. The sense that I had
jumped into the 1800s washed over me, but when a tall man stepped down from the
front seat of the vehicle, he looked as modern as a movie star — fair
hair pulled back in a ponytail, suit jacket, and white collarless shirt. His
pants were just a dark shadow, but his dress shoes gleamed. When he turned, a
pair of sunglasses perched on his head caught the meager light. He must have
just come from somewhere bright.

I couldn't make out his face, but
naturally I wouldn't know him anyway. I stared hard at his forehead as he
approached, looking for a telltale sparkle of his enchanter marking. Yes, I was
sure I saw something, but the light was way too low to make it out.

"Over here?" he asked.

The other man still held the reins of the
snorting, antsy horses. "Right about there, sir."

Perfect, let him show me the portal and
not look up!

"You sure she came through it?"
the man on the carriage asked.

"Absolutely. Right after the
explosion."

God, they were talking about me. Someone
had been watching me.

The tall man grew closer. "Good. We'll
make sure she stays a while."

"You sure you want to destroy a
portal? Aren't too many of them left in the spirit world."

"It's worth it this time. Once we
have her, we can force her to build more."

I stifled my gasp. He stood almost
directly below me. I couldn't let him remove my only way back! And why did they
think I could build one? I couldn't even do a basic spell! Maybe a nix had more
power than people were letting on. Oh, that ferret.

The horses stamped and whinnied, clearly
restless. I was grateful for the noise. My arms ached from clutching the tree
trunk, and I feared moving, as I might send bits of bark showering down.

"Ah, here it is." The tall man
bent over, pushing aside pine needles. I couldn't see anything next to him at
first, but as I stared I recognized the absence of anything, a black hole in
the ground.

"Not wise to close a portal,"
the other man muttered.

The tall one stood again, pulling
something from his coat pocket. A glass bottle glittered when it caught the
moonlight. He began an incantation, nothing I could understand, and poured
something fiery and red into the blackness. I bit my lip in misery. I should
stop him. Maybe he wasn't so bad; maybe he wouldn't do anything harmful to me.
Or maybe I could get through before he caught me.

My headband buzzed a warning. The black
hole burned with red smoke, then closed up, leaving a scorched circle in the
pine needles. The man kicked leaves and brambles over it until it disappeared
completely.

"She can't have gone far," the
tall man said. "And she doesn't know anything about this place; I'd stake
my name on it. Her arriving here was pure ignorance."

"She's a foolish one. Should be easy
to nab," the other man said. "Maybe get some kind-looking spirits to
lure her into a trap."

The tall man strode back to the carriage.
"Yes. Round up a few fairies. There should be some about. We'll convince
one to help her and take her to the white forest, where she'll feel stupidly
safe, all that nonsense in the human world about black and white."

"We're lucky she hasn't been trained
proper. She'd be a force then."

The tall man climbed back up on the seat.
"Oh, we'll train her. After she's fat-bellied with my next child."

The two men laughed, and the horses took
off down the lane.

I relaxed my grip on the tree. I had
never felt more lost or frightened. How could my mother have set me up for
this? This whole screwed-up world, straight out of some horror novel. And I
knew nothing!

Maybe she thought she was protecting me
from it forever. Dad, too.

I climbed down the branches and jumped to
the ground. The circle still glowed faintly red from where the portal had been
closed. I shoved aside the leaves. "Please work anyway," I whispered.
"Please let him suck at potions."

I started the incantation, but I knew
right away it wouldn't work. My headband buzzed, so I stopped. Maybe using
magic would attract attention.

I headed toward the road. If I went the
way they came from, surely I'd encounter another portal. Whatever I did,
though, I couldn't trust anyone, least of all fairies. Or white forests.

I started walking.

13:
Rat-Fink Ferrets

I sincerely regretted my dislike of
watches. As expected, my cell phone was useless. It wouldn't even turn on.

I tried counting as I took each step to
get some idea of the passing time, and when I might expect a sunrise, but
overhead the moon never moved, stuck in its position like a Chinese lantern.
Maybe this place had no cycles of light and dark. Only dark.

If other portals were as hard to find as
the last one, I really had no hope. I'd asked my headband to help me a million
times, but not even a buzz. I was actually missing Hallow, the little
mean-mouthed weasel. Where had he been when we made the potion? Dad must have
let him in the house while I slept.

Just as well. My stomach was growling, a
sure sign that hours had passed, although we had missed lunch. It might even be
Christmas Day. At this point, the meeting with Dei Lucrii was growing
increasingly unimportant. Take the house, creditors. We had bigger problems
now.

More small things scampered in the woods
along the road, but I was used to it by now. I had no fear of rabies, or
snakebite, or normal forest dangers. Apparently fairies were the real problem,
tricky little liars.

It did seem like the color of the trees
had grown lighter over time. The moon still shone above, so there wasn't
additional light. But the bark itself had a luminous quality, a glow beneath
the top layer.

The path became easier to navigate, less
broken rock and fewer ruts. The landscape was definitely changing. As the world
brightened by degrees, I became more and more wary. If I was entering the
infamous white woods, I'd be better off turning back.

I spun around. Behind me lay the hours of
walking in the dark. There didn't seem to be any point in returning. I sat at
the base of a tree, ready to break down and bawl. By now, the tall man would
have a legion of spies ready to intercept me and try to be helpful and nice.

The woods rustled behind me, close this
time, and I struggled to my feet. Nothing had entered the road while I walked,
but then, I'd been moving.

An undulating wave of fur surrounded me,
white and gray and black. I lifted one knee, not sure what to do. None of the
trees were easy climbs.

I looked down. I felt like I was
surrounded by bandits, dozens of little masked faces peering up at me. Wait.
Ferrets? They were all ferrets?

I dropped my raised leg. Well, this was
worth a shot. "Do any of you know Hallow?"

"I'm Hallow," one said, coming
forward.

"Me too," said another.

One by my foot shook his head.
"Enchanters aren't too inventive with names for their familiars."

"My Hallow is all white."

"Ah," said the first Hallow.
"Now that IS unusual, for one of us. Risky, being all white in this
business. You can't hide."

"Is he here?"

An oversized ferret stood on his hind
legs. "Why would your familiar be in the spirit world? Did you kill
him?"

More of the ferrets shifted to standing.

"No! I mean, I'm lost. I thought he
might come find me."

"She's a nix. Nixes don't get
familiars," the big one said.

Great. Even the furry misfits played
favorites. "Well, he actually belongs to my mom. Or did."

"Did SHE kill him?" the big one
asked.

"No! He's alive. Or at least he was,
last time I saw him. But she's not."

The ferrets dropped back down.
"Sorry," the big one said. "Nobody likes to lose their
mother."

"I'm trying to find a portal back to
my lair. I didn't mean to come here."

"Nobody does," the ferret said.
"The spirit world is for the dead."

"Do all dead come here?" My
heart beat faster. Maybe Mom and Grandma Gem were here!

"Naw," the first Hallow said.
"Only the ones sentenced to live in eternal exile, and those they
trap."

I took a step back, pressing flat against
the tree. "So you are all exiled familiars?"

"Or abandoned." A mostly black
ferret huffed in disgust. "I got left here ten years ago by a noncompliant
nix."

"Why does anyone come here if they
might get trapped?"

"People have to harvest
ingredients," Hallow said. "Pea spiders. Fairy mushrooms. Those who
can't afford to buy topside. And the black-market agents."

Now things were making sense. "I
need a portal. Can you show me one?"

"Not on your life," the big
ferret said. "Word in the woods is that Dei Lucrii is looking for you.
Nobody's messing with Dei Lucrii."

"Really? That's great! I am supposed
to meet him in a few days. I'm fine with doing it now." I could buy some
time, maybe, or tell him the deal was off. And go home.

But wait. If he was the supreme bad
guy... "What does he look like?"

"Tall, blond, and handsome,"
Hallow said. "Ponytail, sharp dresser. Wears his sunglasses at
night."

That's what I figured. He was the one
looking for me. "So is there anyone in these woods I can trust?"

"Nope," the big one said.
"And you shouldn't have been talking to us."

I realized now that there were fewer
ferrets than at first. "Are they running off to tell Dei Lucrii where I
am?"

"You betcha," said Hallow.
"They still think it's good to curry favor. Me, I got no
predilections."

Shit, shit, shit. I started running up
the road, away from the furry horde. I had to put some distance between me and
the last place I'd been spotted, although if the woods were full of informants,
my cause was pretty lost.

After a few minutes, I stopped running,
sucking in air. I had to just accept the worst. I would die, or I guess, be
bred by some movie-star bad guy for an evil love child.

Things could be worse.

Something shimmered in the woods, gold
and sparkling. Probably a fairy, ready to lead me to my doom. It didn't matter
anymore. I couldn't beat what I couldn't even see. I knew nothing. Untrained,
stumbling in the dark, surrounded by spies.

Time to meet my fate. "Sorry,
Dad," I whispered. I wondered if I'd even see him again.

I walked toward the golden light.