Page 30 of An Enchanted Knight

Tammie twisted around giving them a confused look. “What am I missing? What happened?”

“Shh,” Sabrina replied patting Gwen’s back. “Gwen’s in love with McRainey.”

“Oh,” Tammie replied. “Oh, I’m sorry, honey, maybe he’s not that much of a playboy. Maybe you’ll be the one to settle him down.”

“Not that McRainey,” Sabrina hissed.

“Oh. My. God.” Tammie shrieked, “She’s in love with the dead guy?”

Back at their large townhouse in Buckhead, Gwen sat on a stool in the kitchen drinking a glass of wine, while her sisters pretended to keep busy. Interesting that both of them found so much to do in the same room as her.

Sabrina tossed a salad, Tammie whipped up salad dressing, while talking on her cell phone. She was in the process of canceling her plans for the evening. Her evening plans must have been complicated, because she made a third phone call.

“You don’t have to stay home,” Gwen told her youngest sister again. “There is really nothing to tell.”

“Oh no, you’re so sharing, and we are going to help you free that man,” Tammie told her, her bangs bouncing with every word. “You’re in love, for the first time ever. We can’t waste any time.”

“She’s right,” Sabrina piped in, carrying the salad to the table. “We’ll discuss the facts over dinner. As soon as we eat, we’re going to begin going through the spell book and find the right spell to break the enchantment. If that doesn’t work, we’ll call in the big gun.” She referred to their mother, Iona.

Gwen didn’t argue. One thing about the Lockhart sisters, as different as they were in appearance, they were identical when it came to their stubborn streaks.

As Tammie began to set the table, she paused, her brow pinched. “Gwen, did Tristan say what you had to do, after chanting the spell, to break the enchantment?”

“He said something about a sacrifice. Giving up something dear, something hard to part with. I asked him who had to do that part. He said, it would be clear once the time came. I think it’s him, but I’m not so sure.” Gwen dug her journal out of her large satchel. “I’ve already written a spell. It seems right, but something is missing.”

“Come sit down,” Sabrina told her, pushing a bright-red tendril behind her ear before lifting a platter of steaming risotto and peas and putting it on the table.

“What do you think?” Gwen asked, after reading her spell to her sisters.

“It sounds right. I sense emotion has to be put into it,” Sabrina said, sitting back, her wine glass in hand. “Add a sentence, like Mom always says, like “Be now evermore.”

“I can’t believe I forgot that.” Gwen exclaimed, scribbling it into the spell, she began to chant it, but Tammie jumped up and stopped her.

“Don’t! If it works, you’re too far away to do whatever comes next.”

The sisters stayed up late into the night, going over every piece of Gwen’s notes. She didn’t share her time with Tristan in bed with as much detail, but told them enough that they understood how compatible they were in lovemaking.

Tired, but not wanting to give up, Gwen flipped through the pages of the spell book, then stopped abruptly when reaching a passage that referred to Meliot. Her eyes widened seeing a depiction of the wizard. “This is him.”

Both sisters peered over her shoulders.

“He’s evil-looking,” Tammie whispered. “Beady eyes.”

“I think he looks like a grumpy old man,” Sabrina said, her voice low.

“Well, he is evil, and has trapped Tristan and the other four knights for almost four hundred years. And he does have beady eyes,” Gwen agreed, shuddering.

“According to the book, he’s a powerful bugger, but needs to procreate in order to stay powerful. It is a rare occasion that the window opens for him to trap women through which he hopes to father boys who would help him take more power.” Gwen shuddered,

“Ewwww!” Tammie put her hand over her mouth. “That’s gross.”

“He almost did it, until Tristan and the others rescued the young women when they defended that village.”

“I wonder why he didn’t just go back to get them later?” Tammie asked.

“Tristan said the timing had to be just right, and I think the wizard needed some sort of preparation. Knowing how magic works, he probably had to perform some type of ceremony or ritual. After the rescue it was too late to do his evil deed.”

“Oh God,” Sabrina paled, “I think I know what the sacrifice is going to be.”