There were three rules to fixing curses:
1. Don’t feed the magic.
2. Fix the broken spell.
3. Don’t become part of the curse.
Should be simple, right? Clear, easy to follow instructions, no risk of death or any other pesky problems.
“Fix the shattered magic? I don’t follow,” Montoya said.
“All curses are bound to a physical object. That object was under the influence of magic before the magic went wrong.” There were a lot of way for curses to form, which didn’t matter for Montoya but could make a big difference in a few minutes. “To fix the curse, I need to put the magic back to the way it was.”
My main worry was the type of curse. Some simply needed to be returned to a location or person, some needed a specific ritual to remove the magic, but others were more complex. Complex could mean anything from needing a multi-stage ritual with seven or thirteen witches to the broken magic literally stretching back in time.
“Sounds tricky,” Montoya said. “What are we going to be doing?”
I gave him my best polite but blank face. “Getting the hostages out, of course. I will manage the curse.”
He shifted his weight away from the building.
Kent’s hand landed on his shoulder and squeezed. “We will do our part.”
“Great.” I summoned my wand, wrapped my hand in two layers of shields, and grabbed the door. The handle buzzed faintly but didn’t hurt me. I tugged the door open.
Bright florescent light poured out. The glass door hadn’t been dark from the curse but from black paper.
The store was quiet. Only swirls of magic moved. Every surface was covered with Halloween-themed items, from masks and costumes, to inflatable zombies, to cobweb-wrapped candelabras. One of the registers was covered in black cloth, and fake spiders hung from the ceiling.
Kent took the door from me as I stepped inside. Montoya followed me, with Kent bringing up the rear. If that’s what it took to get Montoya in the building, I’d rather have left him outside.
The door swung shut with an audible click.
The magic brightened until I had to raise my shields to block it out. When I could see again, a full-sized skeletal horse was trotting toward us. A herd of smaller skeletal horses and unicorns flanked it.
Mixing magic with a curse wasn’t the best idea, but I didn’t have a better one. I cast a shield wall in front of me and hoped it would hold.
A thump had me glancing back.
“It won’t open!” Montoya yanked at the front door and yanked again.
Kent kept his eyes focused on the horses.
“Not the current problem.” I turned back in time to see the full-sized skeleton horse slide to a stop, its nose only inches from the barrier.
It nudged the barrier, and the magic flexed. The horse backed up, pivoted, and kicked out with its hind legs. The wall absorbed the blow, but the magic weakened.
“Stop!” I didn’t want to pit my power against an unknown curse. “We mean you no harm! I will help you.”
The horse swung around, head high and skeptical.
“You can trample me later if I’m lying.” I held my breath, hoping it would accept the offer. I didn’t have a better one.
The horse reared, came down on all four hooves, bobbed its head and galloped back the way it had come. The herd of ankle- and knee-high unicorn and horse skeletons followed it.
Following an element of the curse wasn’t the best idea. It could lead us to the hostages, or it could be a trap. Given the choice, I’d leave all the curse aspects alone until everyone else was out of the building.
“What in Narzel’s name do you think you’re doing?” Montoya loomed over me. “Offering our lives to that thing? This is how you solve magical problems?”
Kent yanked him back. “Stand down!”
Montoya shook him off. “How dare you treat us as if we’re expendable. Because we’re not witches, we don’t matter? I’ll report you.”
“Shut up,” I snarled. “To get everyone out, I had to give the curse something. It wasn’t going to let us in if we weren’t of use to it, and—”
“I’m not dying for you,” Montoya yelled.
I stared up at him and saw fear. Me, the curse, magic in general, it didn’t matter. He was afraid. “I would never ask that.”
Montoya opened his mouth.
Kent talked over him. “That’s enough.”
Montoya clamped his mouth shut and glared at both of us.
“I don’t make promises I can’t keep.” I locked eyes with Montoya, hoping he would see the truth in my words. He didn’t know what I would sacrifice to keep a promise. “I have every intention of doing everything in my power to fix this.”
He jerked his head in a nod.
I smiled sharply. “Great. To recap the plan. Find the people in here. Get them out. Get both of you out. I deal with the curse. Got it?”
He nodded again.
“Delightful.” I looked past him through the shop. It was packed to the gills with stuff, but that wouldn’t stop the sound of traveling. “We were loud enough to be heard through most of the store. So why haven’t we heard a hostage?”
The curse could be blocking the sound from going between us and them, or the hostages couldn’t hear us for some reason. Both options scared me. If the curse was blocking sounds, it would be harder to find people and negotiate for their freedom. If they couldn’t answer, carrying unconscious people out wasn’t easy either.
Kent cleared his throat. “We split up, search the store.”
At least he said it, not me. I added, “Keep talking as you go. If we don’t hear from each other for a few seconds, we can go help.”
Montoya’s lips pressed into a thin line, but he nodded.
“I’ll take the four aisles on the left.” That put me the furthest from the door. Even if the door wouldn’t open, Montoya could have the comfort of being near it.
“Middle,” Kent said.
“That leaves me with the left.” He gave the door a hard look. “What do we do if we find hostages?”
I blinked. That was the question?
“Get them to the door,” Kent said before walking off.
Eager to get away from Montoya, I followed him.
Kent turned down his first aisle.
I went all the way to the aisle against the wall. The store was so packed that costumes bulged off their hooks on the walls. Pet costumes lined the first set of shelves, then quickly gave way to random Halloween trinkets. Rows of skulls, from hyper-realistic to velvet, took up the shelves to my left. On my right, wreaths featuring crows, bones, and bio-hazard signs reached well above my head.
What I didn’t see were any people or even signs of people.
The shelves ended. I glanced to my right. The endcap held pre-decorated pumpkins. Down the line, they held candy, pumpkin carving kits, and wigs. Kent and Montoya emerged from their aisles. Kent went down the next one quickly. Montoya hesitated but did his job. A unicorn dog costume floated after him.
I looked behind me. Nothing. As I turned, a unicorn pumpkin stared back at me. I blinked and focused on the display. The unicorn pumpkins had all been painted with their eyes closed.
The curse was watching us.
I continued down the rest of the aisle. Plenty of costumes. No people.
An adult-sized unicorn onesie turned to peer after me. A shiver ran up my spine. The pumpkin was one thing, but the onesie didn’t even have eyes.
The rest of my aisles went the same way. As soon as I finished, I met up with Kent and Montoya in the front of the store. I didn’t have to ask to know they hadn’t found anything either.
“Did you see a door for a storeroom?” I asked.
Kent nodded. “It was covered in false eyelashes. Dead center in the back.”
“That’s the only other place they could be.” I led the way.
“Or it was a hoax,” Montoya said, lagging behind.
“Nope. There’s a curse here. They couldn’t fake that.” They could’ve created the curse, unintentionally or on purpose. Even then, they wouldn’t be able to control it.
Montoya grumbled, but I ignored him.
Again, I noticed the dog costume peering at us from the end of an aisle. Since it wasn’t causing a problem, I let it be. The curse watching us so obviously could be a good sign. It was interactive and aware. While those features made it dangerous, they’d made our previous negotiation possible. With a little luck, they’d make future negotiations easier.
The door was exactly where Kent had said, and just as creepy. With all the magic around, it was impossible to tell if this door would cause burns. I wrapped two shields around my hand again and turned the knob.
Well, I tried to. It turned a little and wouldn’t budge. “If this is you, I would like to go through the door. I only want to help, and I need to see the building to help.”
Nothing happened.
“The hostages could’ve barricaded themselves in the back,” Kent spoke quietly. “Try knocking.”
I knocked. “Hello? I’m with the police, we’re here to help.”
“Narzel,” Montoya swore.
Wand up, I spun around. An opalescent skeleton of a unicorn walked toward us, horn glowing.
My trust in the curse not killing us only went so far. I tapped the door with my wand. “Purisaz.”
This time, the door swung open. I scrambled in before my brain processed that it was pitch back.
Someone knocked into me from behind. My shin hit something, and I toppled over, losing my grip on my wand.
The concrete was just as cold and hard as it looked. Air whooshed out of my lungs, and all of me ached.
The room swam around me. Two unicorns appeared in the door, floating in and out of one another.
I twisted my wrist to dismiss my wand and then summoned it. It settled into my hand. A quick check reassured me it was unbroken.
The unicorn leaned into the room and lowered its horn.
A black cat appeared in the doorway's light, fur puffed up, back arched, hissing.
The unicorn edged forward.
The cat swatted at it, its paw going through the unicorn’s nose.
The unicorn scrambled back and raced away.
I pushed myself to my feet. My vision was back to seeing the normal amount of everything, but my head was still fuzzy. “Wunho.”
A glowing sphere of light appeared, showing pallets stacked high with boxes as well as loose boxes, like the one I’d tripped over. Kent and Montoya got to their feet. The cat sat in front of the door, calmly licking a paw. Not my problem.
I added a second light, the magic taking less effort this time. Interesting.
I adjusted my shields so I could see magic. A few black swirls drifted around the room, but the curse had little power here.
My head still felt fuzzy, and I swayed a bit as I rounded a pallet. “Found them!”
Five people were sprawled out in a big puppy pile. I checked one person for a pulse, then another. They were alive, just unconscious. I shook a young man’s shoulder. “Wake up. Time to wake up.”
“Muuh.” He rolled over.
Kent shook a woman.
She blinked. “Pretty eyes.”
“They’re drunk.” He said.
Not the first group of drunks I’d come across lately, but the most likely bunch to have gotten into some alcohol. “We still have to get them out of here. Montoya, see if either back door opens.”
“No, ma’am. I tried one of those from the outside. I’m not burning myself again.”
I didn’t try to hide my sigh. “Fine. Help them. I’ll get the door.”
At least he didn’t argue.
The cat came over and joined me by the back door. “You aren’t the first helpful black cat I’ve seen lately. I do appreciate the help.”
It rubbed my ankles.
I gave it a quick scratch behind the ears before shielding my hand. A swirl of opalescent black clung to the doorknob. I tried the handle. It didn’t budge, but it didn’t burn me either. “Let me get the police and other people out. I’ll stay and fix this.”
The curse didn’t move.
“I know you can hear me. I promise, I’ll stay if you let everyone else out.”
The cat yowled.
The curse drifted away from the door.
I turned the handle, and it opened. “Get everyone out, quickly. Assume that if you cross the threshold, you can’t come back.”
The cat planted itself by the open door like a living doorstop. “Good kitty.”
Montoya didn’t waste any time in hauling the boy up and out the door. Kent followed, but called Montoya back to the door to pass the person out.
I got a young woman upright and half-carried her over.
Now that he was outside, Montoya was more than willing to do his part. He took the people from us and guided them away from the door.
Kent and I got the last two people to the exit. “See if any of them are awake enough to tell you if anyone else is in the building.”
Kent hesitated by the door. “Are you sure you want to do this alone?”
“Either I can fix the magic, or I can’t. Without magic, there isn’t much you can do.” I gave a cheeky grin. “If I’m not out in an hour, send help.”
Montoya came back. “It sounds like only the five of them were in the building, which matches what they said before.”
“Good enough.”
Kent squeezed my shoulder. “Be careful. I don’t want to explain to Rodriguez that you got hurt on our watch.” He walked through the door.
The cat trotted after him.
A swirl of cursed magic slammed the door shut.
“It’s me and you now, but this isn’t a battle.” I pivoted and looked through the door and into the main part of the store. “I meant what I said. I want to help.”
The skeletal horse didn’t show up, nor did the phantom unicorn.
With my wand gripped firmly, I headed into the shop. This was going to be tricky if the curse didn’t help me, and why would it? It didn’t know how to heal itself. Sure, it had a type of intelligence. It knew how to hold doors closed and why it should, but that didn’t make it sentient. It couldn’t tell me what was wrong.
Curses had to be true to themselves. Of all the things in the building, there was a reason horses and unicorns were its chosen vectors. Now the question became, what kind of connection? A hoof pick had a connection to horses; that didn’t make it easy to find in a store of this size.
I found the decoration aisles and started looking through the candle holders, statues, and other odds and ends, trying to find anything out of place. When I turned the corner, I noticed the full-sized skeletal horse, and his herd of miniatures, following me. “Are you going to help?”
The large horse tossed its head and charged.
“Narzel.” I scrambled around the corner, the turn too tight for the large horse. It did nothing to slow down the smaller ones.
Something moved above me. Casting a long shadow across the ground.
I ran faster.
A puffy inflatable unicorn with a bright blue mane and tail landed in front of me.
I tried to slow, but my feet slipped. As I fell, a white piece of cloth went up into the air and shaped itself into a unicorn dog costume. Not willing to take any chances, I cast a skin-tight shield around myself.
It did nothing to cushion the impact of the tile floor.
The dog costume and the small skeletal equines trotted around me, lining up with the inflatable unicorn.
My elbow ached, my butt hurt, and I’d lost my wand. I retrieved it from the dusty space under a shelf and got to my feet. Keeping an eye on the skeletons, I slowly backed away.
A quick glance back assured me I had an escape. I looked at the inflatable unicorn again, which hadn’t moved, and then back over my shoulder. The escape was still clear, and the skeletons weren’t follow me.
I glanced back again and froze. The large skeletal horse was standing in the divide between sets of aisles, looking at me. Two masks, one of a horse and one of a unicorn, hovered above small skeletal horses blocking the other side of the aisle.
Sweet bones of Narzel, I’d have to walk in front of them. Straight was the only direction they’d left.
“Nice horsey.” I carefully stepped out of my aisle. “Nice unicorns.”
Their heads turned to track my progress down the aisle and toward the front of the store.
I made it a good ten feet before the large skeletal horse blocked any retreat. Ahead of me was still clear, but that could change at any time. “I know your magic is broken. I want to mend it. Will you let me help?”
The skeleton behind me didn’t react.
It had been worth a try.
At the end of the aisle, I poked my head around the corner. The smaller horses and unicorns had taken up positions at the end of every single aisle. The large horse still blocked my retreat, leaving the front displays and checkout available. The phantom unicorn stood in front of the door.
Considering my lack of experience with curses, I didn’t know if this was normal behavior or not. My feeling was no, if only because I’d never heard of a curse animating this many things.
If—and it was a big if—I was willing to assume the curse was trying to show me something, it had to be in this part of the store. And it likely matched the unicorn and horse theme.
The display in front of me and to my right had small costume pieces. Gloves, hats, ties, and headbands. The latter featured a row of unicorn horn headbands. Technically, any of them could be cursed, but practically, I doubted it. They should have been fresh from a manufacturer and wouldn’t have been exposed to magic to begin with.
Nothing else caught my eyes until I got to the registers. Why would one be covered?
I stepped out of the aisle.
All the equines stared at me.
“Easy.” I kept a steady pace toward the register. Since there were a lot of animated equines but only one phantom unicorn, I watched it.
The opalescent skeleton paced in front of the doors, its head turned toward me.
I had to turn my back on it and dismiss my wand, and I lifted the black cloth off the register.
The first lump under the cloth turned out to be a pile of costumes. The next was a candelabra. The cloth snagged, and I tugged it free.
Cleaned bone, real, not like the cheap imitation stuff all over the store, peeked out from under the cloth. Another tug, and I could see a shimmering horn. How had a real unicorn skull gotten here?