Sacrifice for a Wish

Chapter 27

We drove in tense silence. We arrived at my biological mother's cabin within in minutes. An overwhelming cloud of dread settled over all of us. I grabbed Saint's hand on my left and Stone's hand on the right and clung to them tightly.

"Do you feel that?" I asked softly.

They all nodded. I saw the apprehension in all of them.

Rose's cottage looked like something out of a fairytale, a haunted one. The once charming cottage had the shutters closed, spiderwebs hung from the eaves, and an imminent storm made the shadows look like ghouls and ghosts.

"We need to be quick about this. That storm does not look good," Saint shouted above the wind.

"Are we the only ones who feel like they'd rather dig their eyeballs out with a rusty spoon then go into that place?" Luck asked the group. His eyes kept darting suspiciously away from the house.

"I think there might be a spell on it to stop people from going in, like a glamour." I closed my eyes and reached out with my magic, which was starting to get easier and easier.

"Can you remove it?" Phoenix called out. He wiggled the handle but when it wouldn't budge, he stopped.

"I think so, but we'll need to find a way to get in." I pulled the glamour song from the building's song. Since the two had been connected for a while it took a delicate hand to extract one from the other.

"I hate to rush you, Little Bird, but this storm is bigger than we thought it was. You need to hurry," Stone yelled. There was terror in his voice, which scared me because he was always so calm even under pressure.

"I almost have it!" I yelled back. I worked faster and faster, pulling each note away one at a time until the cottage was just a cottage. "There!"

"You're up!" Phoenix called to Saint.

Saint removed a small black leather pouch from his back pocket and crouched in front of the door. He opened the pouch and pulled out a pick and tension tool and calmly but carefully picked the lock.

When the lock clicked opened, Saint stood and pushed his way in through the front door. Stone pushed through after, while Phoenix held me back from going. "Just wait, we want to make sure that there are no more surprises."

"It's safe!" Saint shouted out to us, and we walked into the cold house.

"Luck and Legend get a fire started. We can't go out in this again tonight. We'll stay here," Phoenix ordered. A crack of thunder and burst of lightening shook the house. "Saint, see if there is anything that Wren can change into. She just got over being sick."

"I'm fine," I told Phoenix, but they ignored me and continued to move around the house. I wandered around the cottage, exploring each room. Phoenix followed. "I felt her here, she has to be here!"

I thought about the storm raging outside. What would we do if it were more than just a storm, like a tornado or a hurricane?

"Does the cottage have a cellar or a basement?" I asked Phoenix. His eyes grew large.

"Yes, I think so," he said as he dragged me downstairs to the kitchen to a small door next to the wood stove.

The door was a dark forest green with a wreath of small flowers hung in the middle. I turned the doorknob and pushed the door open. I jumped when it squeaked loudly. I reached my hand in to find a light switch but there was nothing there.

"Is there a candle or lantern somewhere?" Phoenix called out. The twins came running with a lit gas camping lantern and two lit candles in iron candle holders.

"Did you find something?" Saint peered over my shoulder.

"Not yet, but we haven't gone down yet," I explained, eager to see if Dahlia was down there.

Saint went first with a candle, followed by Phoenix with the lantern. Stone carried a second candle and the twins and me brought up the rear. We relied on the light of the guys in front of us.

When we reached the bottom of the stairs, I finally saw her for the first time. There was a wooden table and floating about six inches off the table with her long dark hair floating around her was my aunt. Dahlia seemed peacefully floating in a stream and had accidently fallen asleep.

I walked to her side and placed my hand on her arm, closing my eyes I tried to feel what was going on magically. Her strength slammed into me, and I could feel Dahlia on the other side of it bang against the magical wall that kept her trapped inside her own body like a prison. I pulled back suddenly in surprise.

"What is it?" Phoenix demanded.

"She's in there. She knows she's trapped, and she wants out," tears streamed down my face. This woman's father had used her own body to trap her. But he hadn't put her to soul to sleep. She could think, and feel, and remember but she couldn't move. It was torture.

I closed my eyes tightly and practiced my breathing the way Fala had shown me. Slowly but surely, just like I had done for the house but on a more complex level I started to unravel the multiple layers. Each layer was so delicate, that they felt like bubbles. If I got snagged on a level it would repair itself all the way to the start and I would have to begin all over again.

The Lost Boys brought me water and wiped the sweat from my hairline. They coaxed me to take small bites of what I thought was a protein bar. It tasted like dusty cardboard, but I couldn't open my eyes to look because I was so involved in the spell.

When I thought I couldn't take anymore and that I was going to pass out, I pulled the last strand of notes from her body.

I prayed there was someone behind me who would catch me because my legs got all wobbly and went out from under me. I kept my eyes on Dahlia's face though for any sign of life. I was about to give up and just head upstairs for a nap and try again later when I saw her eyes flutter.

"Your majesty?" Phoenix addressed her. "Queen Dahlia?"

Finally, her eyes popped opened, and her head turned to us. A big breath of air left my lungs in a woosh.

"Where is he?" she asked us. I could hear the terror in her voice.

"The Jabberwocky?" I questioned the woman who was now sitting up on the table.

"Yes, where is he?" Queen Dahlia looked frantic.

"He's in Avalon," I told her sadly from Stone's arms.

"No," Dahlia cried out. Her voice was full of anguish, pain, fear, and horror. "It's too late."

To be continued.... Maybe. Probably.