Chapter Twenty
Grace felt like a kid on her first trip to Disney World. But instead of giant mice, dogs, princesses, and the like, she was surrounded by Shifters and Vampires, Daemons and Wizards and Fae. And instead of it being a mammoth amusement park, it was real. Saints and sinners, who would ever have dreamt that she would one day experience such a thing? She felt a bit like someone standing on the precipice of sanity, not sure if she was going to teeter and fall off into madness.
From the time the three dark SUV’s and the big RV that was equipped with everything needed to effect repairs to the shop, it took less than two hours before everything was back to normal.
Except Grace’s nerves. Those were pretty much shot.
Someone had been kind enough to bring clothing for Beau. He’d destroyed his own when he transformed into the gorilla. Now he was standing off to one side with Severin the Daemon and his father, John Legacy.
Everyone else had departed. Grace was sitting at the small table by the shuttered window, trying to convince herself not to start screaming. Panic was pressing in and she was afraid if she gave into it, she’d never escape.
All she could think about was the photo of her mother and children and of Ily, who had been taken away by Severin’s people and John Luke. They had to do something to save everyone.
But what?
“Oh!” Grace stiffened as she remembered. God, it seemed like a lifetime ago and in reality, it was only a few hours since she’d recalled seeing her father opening a secret panel behind the counter.
She rose and hurried behind the counter, feeling under each shelf and inside each drawer.
“What’re you doing?” Beau asked as he walked behind the counter to stand beside her.
“Before this nightmare started, I remembered my dad opening up a compartment here and putting something in it. I thought if I could find—“
Her hand passed over a depression in the counter just above the drawer. Grace worked her hand deeper into the drawer and pressed the depression. Sure enough, she felt something give, like a button being pushed.
A moment later, the back wall of the lower shelf unlatched and swung outward. Beau caught it in time to prevent it from knocking over bottles. He and Grace moved everything out of the way and opened the hidden door.
There was only one thing in the compartment. A small leather-covered notebook. Grace recognized it and tears rose in her eyes. She couldn’t count the number of times she’d watched her dad scribble in this notebook.
“It’s my dad’s.” She slid it from the compartment and showed it to Beau.
“Do you think the answers are in it?”
She looked up at him, fighting tears. “They have to be. If anything happens—“
Grace couldn’t get the rest of the words out. She was trying to be strong, trying to believe that everything would be all right, but the truth was, she was terrified. Some evil person had her mother and her children, willing to do them harm if he didn’t get what he wanted.
There it was again, that panic that threatened to take her over and turn her into a mindless screaming mess. “Beau.” It was the only word she could get out.
He gathered her into his arms. “We’re going to save them, baby, but I need you to stay strong. Can you try?”
She nodded and after a moment, pulled back from him. “The answer could be in here.” She clutched the notebook to her chest.
“Then you need to start reading. And while you do that, Severin has an idea that may help.”
“What?”
“Put the town to sleep.”
Grace blinked, frowned, and blinked again. “Pardon?”
“Put the town to sleep.”
“How would that help? And is it even possible?”
Beau looked over at Severin. “Would you explain the plan to Grace?”
Severin walked over to the counter. “We propose to cast a wide-area sleep spell. It’s night, so most people will be either sleeping or soon fall asleep. Our spell will reinforce their need to sleep and will encourage those awake to fall asleep. Everyone but your mother and children.”
“Okay, saying that’s possible, how will it help?”
“That’s where you come in, Grace. You’ll need to connect with your mother and your children and that connection will be like a beacon that will lead you and us to them.”
“Are you insane?” Grace blurted. “I don’t know how to do that!”
“But your mother does.” Severin’s tone was gentle.
Grace looked from him to Beau, then back to Severin. “How do you know?”
“It’s in your father’s journal.” He pointed to the leather notebook on the counter. “You should read that, Grace. And quickly. We have only a matter of hours until dawn and the spell is best cast at night.”
Grace looked at the journal, reached out and put her hand on it, then looked at Beau. “I’m a little afraid.”
“Don’t be. He was your father and loved you more than anything. And if reading it will save your family, you have to do it. We have to do it. I’ll be right here with you. In fact, let’s take it back to the break room where it’s quiet.”
“Yes.” She agreed and for some strange reason looked to Severin for permission. What was it about this man that made her feel she needed to do that?
He smiled and gestured toward the door. “We will be working on the spell. May we utilize your workshop?”
“Of course.”
He nodded and Beau took her hand to escort her to the break room. Once they were seated on the loveseat, he patted the notebook she’d placed in her lap. “Okay, let’s do this.”
Grace opened the notebook. The first page read, For my daughter, Grace.
She trailed her finger over the words, then turned the page.
Even today, after all the years I have been here, I can close my eyes and see her as she was the day we met. I’d never seen a woman so lovely. She glowed with life and her smile put the sun to shame with its light.
Ida Bloom. I fell in love with her before I even knew her name. She is the most remarkable person I’ve ever known, my one true love and I am blessed beyond compare to have been honored by her love.
People discount Ida because of her cheerful nature and pleasant manner. They think of her as dim of mind because of her sunny disposition when the opposite is true. A sharper mind I’ve never known. Not much escapes those beautiful green eyes.
She saw right through me and asked me straight out two weeks after our initial meeting just what I was because she was quite convinced there was something very different about me.
Like attracts like, I’ve heard, and it certainly was the case with us. The magic of the Fae I had inherited from my parents was strong, but so was hers. I didn’t realize humans could possess magic until I met Ida and she taught me how ignorant I was.
Ida is magic. She soothes and heals with voice and touch. Her laughter can lift the spirits of the most dismal of souls, or bring a doomed man light and solace in his final moments. She is a miracle, a being so filled with love and light that everyone who stands in the light of her smile is blessed.
I am, beyond all doubt, the most fortunate man to have ever drawn breath to have been loved by Ida Bloom. To have created a child with her.
Grace. My beautiful Grace. Child of Magic.
We did not want to label her human or Fae, or that label so many hybrid children are given. Kindred. Meaning related to or sharing kinship. It seems a diminishing term to me, as if those children are less than those who came before them. They are “kin” to but not “one with.”
Not so for our Grace. She is not less than. She is more. The sum of our parts—that’s our Grace. She got the best of both of us, and so is more.
I do wonder how long it will take our beautiful child to realize she is the embodiment of magic? Will she be five or fifteen or fifty when she awakens to the beauty and power of her magic? Will I be there to see it?
Because life is never certain and the future is not set in stone, I am writing this journal. There are many things I want to say to my child and with luck will say them in person. But should her awakening take place after I move to another existence, I will leave this in my stead.
Grace looked up at Beau. “This is crazy.”
“Is it your dad’s handwriting?”
“Yes.”
“Then don’t call it crazy until you’ve read it.”
“But I’m not magic, Beau. At all. If I was, I’d close my eyes, click my heels or wiggle my nose and wish my family here with me. But all I can do is worry and be afraid.”
“And read this.” He tapped the journal. “There could be something that will help, Grace. And Severin said the answer to how you connect with your mother is in here.”
Grace wanted to argue that this was a waste of time and they needed to be doing something to save her family, but she acquiesced and continued to read. The more she read, the faster her eyes moved across the pages.
“Is this it?” She looked at Beau and he nodded. “I think it might be. You have to try it.”
“I’d feel silly.”
“Even if it meant saving your family?”
That question changed her attitude entirely. It might be bunk, but if there was even a tiny chance that it could work, she had to try.
“Okay.” She read the page again, then handed Beau the notebook. “It says to have someone read it to me to make it easier.”
“All right, are you ready?”
“I think so.”
Beau scanned the first couple of paragraphs before he started reading and then cleared his throat. “Close your eyes. Okay, Grace, sit back and relax. I want you to think back to when you were a child, playing in the greenhouse while I worked with the plants.
“You are picking flowers, just one of each kind and adding it to your basket. Can you see the flowers? Look at each one you pick and smell it. Let yourself be there the way you were as a child. Relive the memory and make it real.”
Beau fell silent, since the instructions said to pause for two to five minutes before continuing. He used his phone timer and at the end of three minutes, started reading again. “Now, if you’re in the memory, think about your mother. Remember how you’d ask me where your mama was? Where’s Mama, Daddy? What would I tell you, Grace?
“Do you remember? Picture your mama in your mind and when she looks back at you, reach out for her. Call to her.”
“Mama?” Grace’s voice startled Beau, it was so unexpected. “Mama? Where are you? I need to find you.”
She fell silent and Beau remained quiet, unsure whether to continue or give her time. A minute passed.
Grace’s eyes popped open. “I know where they are! I know where they are!” She jumped up and ran into the other room. “I know where they are!”
Beau followed and she grabbed his hand and hung onto it. “She can see the old sawmill through wooden slats. She thinks they’re in some kind of toolshed The floor is dirt and their hands and feet are tied so she can’t get up but she can see through two of the slats.”
“Do you know where the sawmill is?” Severin asked Beau.
“Yes. Woodbine Road, about five miles out of town.”
“Take us there.”
“Don’t you want to call the—“ Beau didn’t bother to finish the question. Of course, they didn’t want to call the police. “I can show you how to get there.”
“I’m coming with you,” Grace insisted.
“Of course,” Severin agreed. “I need you to stay in touch with your mother and let her know we are on the way. Once we’re there, I’ll give you instructions for her.”
“I’ll do whatever you need. Can we go now?”
Beau could feel her eagerness. She was vibrating with raw nerves, fear, and the pressing need to get to her family. He prayed that what they were about to do was a success, because he knew without question that if Grace lost her mother or a child, it would destroy her.