Learn from the past, look to the future.

Chapter 26

The earth started shaking again. Damnation.

McHenry and Roderick abandoned the herbs on the table and ran out of the cabin.

McHenry tried to balance himself while the earth pitched. A flash of light burst across the meadow, and he covered his eyes against the intensity.

A few seconds later the light disappeared and the shaking stopped. He blinked to clear the spots in his vision and frowned.

What was lying in the meadow? He squinted and could just manage to see bits of purple and red. Darcinda! His heart stuttered as he raced across the meadow. What the hells is she doing here?

His knees slammed to the earth as he landed next to her. No no no. He hesitated before touching her.

“Is she breathing?” Roderick asked, jarring McHenry out of his paralysis. He hadn’t realized Roderick had followed him.

McHenry turned her over slowly and blew out a sigh of relief as he watched the rise and fall of her chest. “She’s alive.” He pushed her hair off her face. “Darcinda, lass, wake up.”

Her eyelids fluttered slightly but she didn’t open them. He ran his hands over her arms and legs, checking for injuries. She seemed fine, so he scooped her up and carried her back to the cabin.

Roderick opened the door for him, and he carried her over to the bed and laid her down gently.

“Can you get some fresh water?” he asked.

Roderick nodded before going outside to the well. McHenry patted her cheek lightly. “It’s time to wake up, faerie girl.”

McHenry grabbed a cloth as Roderick brought the pail of water inside. He dunked the cloth in the water and ran it over her face.

After a minute her eyelids fluttered again and she opened them slowly, looking up at him with an unfocused gaze.

“There you are.”

She blinked and stared at him for a moment. “McHenry?”

“Aye. You gave us a scare. How are you feeling?”

“Okay.” She looked over at Roderick. “Good. You’re both here. How long was I unconscious?”

“Just a couple minutes.” His stomach twisted. “I’m sorry, lass, that the curse sucked you in too.”

Darcinda levered up on her elbow, and he helped her rest against the pillow. “It wasn’t the curse. We did a spell to send me here.”

He couldn’t have heard her right. “You did what?”

“We’ve been trying to find you both. After you declared you were cursed and you both got sucked into the ground, we started looking for details about the curse.”

He stared at her, and she plowed on.

“Since it’s a faerie curse, it made sense for me to be the one to come here.”

He looked up at Roderick, who spoke since McHenry apparently didn’t have anything to say. “How do you know a faerie cursed us?”

She gestured at McHenry. “We found your grandfather’s journal. It seemed logical that a faerie had cursed both of your grandfathers.”

“Logical,” he said.

“Yes.” She continued. “First we tried to extract you, and when that didn’t work, I was sent in to help get you out.”

“Sent back in time?” Roderick asked.

“No. Sent into the journal. The curse is tied to it.”

“The journal,” McHenry mumbled.

“Yes. The journal,” she said. “Why do you keep repeating what I’m saying? Are you okay?”

He stood up from his kneeling position by the bed. “Am I okay? You came here with no idea of what you would face in terms of this curse. You could have died. And what if we can’t get out? What if you’ve trapped yourself here forever!” he finished on a growl.

The corner of her mouth quirked up. “Glad to see your sparkling personality is still intact.”

Roderick had the audacity to laugh. McHenry stomped over to the hearth before turning back to her.

“If I get out of here, I’m goin’ to kick every arse on that team for lettin’ you come on this insane trip.”

Darcinda sat up. “They didn’t let me do anything. You do know that I am way more of a threat than most of the team.”

His shoulders slumped. “You shouldn’t have risked yourself.”

Her eyes softened. “Everyone else would have done the same. It just made more sense for me to do it.”

“But you don’t have your powers.”

“Actually, I do.”

“How?” he and Roderick asked at the same time.

“JT restored them.”

“You’re kiddin’,” McHenry blurted.

“Who’s JT?” Roderick asked.

“Alex and Devin’s six-month-old son.”

Roderick’s mouth fell open.

“I know it sounds crazy. If it hadn’t happened to me, I would struggle to believe it too. But I was holding him, and he put his hands on my face, and energy flowed through him into me, and my healing powers came back. So I can help.” She looked at them both before a grin appeared. “Close your mouths, gentlemen, and let me tell you the plan, since we don’t have much time to waste.”

And she did.

“So, in less than an hour they’ll try the extraction spell again,” McHenry said.

“Correct, and now I have my powers back, I will also be casting a spell from this side to boost the power.” She reached for the leather strap around her neck and untied it.

“These will help.” She handed a tiny canvas sack to each of them and kept one for herself. “Tim calls it a magical GPS.”

“Of course he does. How will we know when they cast the spell?”

“What happened when I appeared?”

“An earthquake,” McHenry said.

Her eyebrows shot up. “Seriously?”

Roderick nodded. “It was the second one.”

“That would make sense. The first quake was probably when we tried the extraction spell. Well, we don’t need to worry about missing the spell, then.”

Fates. Could this possibly work? McHenry hoped so, for all their sakes, but especially for Darcinda. He couldn’t believe she’d risked herself for them…for him.

Something warm surrounded his heart. He told himself it was indigestion because he couldn’t face what it might be. Not now, while he was still trapped in his grandfather’s journal.

The journal. He stood and walked over to the book, flipping it open again, and when he studied it, his breath caught. What the hells?

“What’s wrong?” Darcinda asked.

“There’s more writing in the journal. When we first got here, the last page of the journal talked about the planned trip to see the stable master in the Faerie Kingdom. Now there are more pages after that. Listen.”

We had a successful meeting with the stable master, or rather Roderick did. He is the true salesman. While they were talking, I wandered the stables, looking at the horseflesh and checking their shoes and tack. In one of the stalls a female wiped down a sable horse. A horse who whinnied at her while she sang to him in a lilting tone.

When she turned toward me, I know I gaped at her like a fool. How could I not? She was beautiful. Long brown hair and eyes the color of the sea. And an impish grin. I didn’t know what to say.

She looked me up and down, as if taking my measure, and then asked me if I was going to just stand there or help her brush the horse.

I helped her, and we worked in silence. When we were done, I asked her name. She grinned and told me if I came back to visit, she might tell me then.

He put down the book. “Why are these showing up now?”

“Good question,” Darcinda said. “I didn’t have time to read the whole book, but I don’t remember this being in the journal.”

McHenry shook his head. “I have read the journal front to back more times than I can count. It’s not in the journal at my house. It has to be one of the ripped-out pages.”

“Which still doesn’t explain why it’s appearing,” Roderick said.

“Maybe it’s finally time for you both to find out what happened,” Darcinda said.

“I know what happened. My grandfather told my father, who told me.” He pointed at McHenry. “His grandfather betrayed my grandfather by taking away the love of his life.”

McHenry crossed his arms. “That’s not what happened. This is obviously a description of when he first met Anna. She was stolen from him by Roderick.”

Darcinda held up her hands. “Okay, guys. Let’s not try to kill each other until after we escape the curse.”

“You’re right. What do you need us to help with?” McHenry said.

Darcinda pursed her lips for a moment, and McHenry ended up having to shake himself so he could look away from them. Had this curse done something to him?

“Where did I appear when I first arrived?”

“In the meadow,” Roderick said.

“What about both of you?” she asked.

“The same.”

“Okay, that must be where the energy convergence is. I think when the time comes, we should go stand in the meadow to cast the spell.”

She stood and McHenry grabbed her elbow. “Are you okay to be on your feet?”

“I’m fine.”

After a few minutes, they walked to the meadow and stood in a small circle facing each other. Darcinda held out her hand with the bag of herbs for the spell resting in her palm. McHenry and Roderick did the same before they each closed their hand around their bag.

Soon after, the earth trembled slightly.

“It’s showtime,” Darcinda said. She recited a spell while the ground shook under their feet.

Light flashed across the sky like summer lightning. Power surged up McHenry’s body, and he was lifted off the earth along with Roderick and Darcinda. They dangled above the ground like marionettes before dropping down with a resounding thud, hard enough to rattle his teeth. The ground stopped shaking.

The three of them stared at each other.

McHenry cursed.