Love Magic

4

With some reluctance, Sophie's mother agreed to leave her at the lab. Sophie told her she feared a horrible germ might be circulating in there and didn't want her mother to risk infection. Besides, she worked best alone and it would take hours to search all of her files for a possible cure. Surely one of them could help her recover from this illness.

Just as she booted up her computer, a harried knock on the door gave her a start. Until now, she hadn't considered Morgana might come back. But what if she did? Sophie could do nothing—not even hide beneath her workstation.

Panicked, she rolled backward in her wheelchair, knocking into a pan on the workstation behind hers and crying out when it clattered to the floor.

William rushed in. "Sophie! Thank goodness you're here. I was so worried."

"William?" Who else could it be in a hat and matching blue velvet suit? She wasn't sure what to make of his presence.

He took one look at her wheelchair, and his once-cheerful eyes became serious. "So, it's as I expected—you have the numbness."

"You know what this is?"

"It," he said with sadness, "is Morgana at her worst."

"Is she your ..." her throat went suddenly dry, "grandmother?"

"More like my ..." Something seemed to stop him from speaking. "Tormenter," he coughed out the word. "I'd do anything to get that witch out of my life." He gave in to a violent hack that overtook his entire body.

When he could speak again, he said, "Don't worry, we'll find a cure."

For the first time that day, Sophie's heaviness lifted, and her body vibrated with the possibility of recovery. "Are you a doctor? Have you seen this before?"

"Let's just say I know my way around homeopathic therapies." He came around the back of her chair. "No ordinary doc can fix what you have, I assure you."

"I thought maybe the trees?" she said, gesturing to the lab.

He gripped her wheelchair and pushed her toward the exit. "Now you're thinking."

"So, wait, why are we leaving? I need to search my files. Where are you taking me?"

"Two days ago, you turned a dead frog into a living butterfly. The power to cure yourself isn't in the lab. We need to get outdoors."

Somehow his words made complete sense.