AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I’ve got a counterspell for that,” Sam said. He perched on the sofa arm near Owen’s head, raised his wings as though to wrap Owen up in them, gave them one good flap, then stepped back. Another of the shining threads disappeared, and the web looked a lot less complex.
“Okay, okay,” Rod muttered to himself. “That’s good. Which one next?”
“That one on top, the red one, should be easy to get,” Sam said, pointing.
Rod reached out to touch it, but jerked his hand back. “Ow! It’s got a protective spell on it.”
“Maybe I could try,” I said. “Does it take magic to undo?”
“It’s hard to say. This visualization is magic, but that particular thread seems to be energy,” Rod said. “Let’s see what happens.”
I moved closer and grabbed for what looked like the end of the red thread. I couldn’t feel anything to know if I had it, but when I moved my hand, the red thread moved. It was wound around several of the other threads, and I gently worked it through the tangle, like I was unsnarling a hank of yarn. When I’d separated it from the other spells, I held the red thread in my hands and asked, “Now what?”
“Throw it in the air,” Sam instructed. I did so, and he hit it with a blast that made it disintegrate. “Good work, doll. It should be easier from here.”
Working together, Sam and Rod managed to either physically remove or do counterspells on the remaining spells. A couple of times, Owen stirred, as though what they were doing was painful to him, even when he was unconscious. “Yeah, he’d have been forced to fight us on that one,” Sam muttered when that happened.
“You’re not hurting him, are y
ou?” I asked. “I mean, there’s no chance that any of these are in tight enough to do actual harm, is there?”
“I don’t think so,” Rod said.
“We’d have noticed by now if they were,” Sam added. That wasn’t reassuring.
Finally, there was no sign of spells left. Rod and Sam did a few more bits of magic, trying to uncover any other spells they might have missed. “I think that’s it,” Rod said. “But we’ll need to figure out what to do now. They’ll notice that all their spells are gone next time Matilda sees him, so they’ll know we’re on to them.”
“Should she see him again?” I asked. “He was only insisting on that because of the spells.”
“They’ll also know we’re on to them if he doesn’t see her again,” Sam said.
“Unless we move fast. As busy as he is, it can be hard to schedule the next get-together. There’s the bachelor party this weekend, and we’re on the final stretch to the wedding. We can buy time that way,” I said. “I’d just as soon he stayed well away from her. I doubt he’d learn anything useful, and he might get into huge trouble.” Now that we knew what she’d done to him, I figured I had every right to suggest that he avoid her, and insecurity had nothing to do with it.
“Him being busy might be a clue that the whammy’s gone,” Sam pointed out. “Some of those spells might have made him drop everything to do her bidding.”
“I think we’d have known something was up if he’d skipped his own bachelor party or wedding,” I said. “I doubt she’d take it that far.” But I was really glad we’d eliminated the surveillance spell before the wedding.
“What to do next is a decision for him to make,” Rod said, “and he can make it for himself now that he can think straight again. Well, when he’s conscious.”
“How long’s he going to be out?” I asked. He looked peaceful sleeping now, and I was sure he was exhausted, but I was a little worried by the fact that he hadn’t stirred since we’d cleared the spells. “Is there some way to undo the sleeping potion?”
“True Love’s Kiss is fairly traditional,” Rod said.
“Oh, like in Sleeping Beauty?” I asked, sitting on the edge of the sofa next to Owen. “I guess I could try it.” I took his hand in mine and leaned forward.
“Sorry, I was just joking,” Rod said. “As far as I know, True Love’s Kiss doesn’t do anything magical. ‘True Love’ is hard to quantify well enough to use it as a factor in magic. It’s all in the eye of the beholder.”
I straightened and turned to glare at him. “It worked when we were stuck in the elven realm. That was what broke the spell that made us forget who we were. But Owen said something about that having to do with cognitive dissonance and the brain not being able to hold contradictory truths simultaneously, or something like that.”
“Well, it doesn’t counteract a potion, so we might as well get some dinner. He’ll wake up hungry.”
Sam hopped up onto the table in front of the window. “I’d better go report to the boss. He may have something to say about our next steps.”
When Sam was gone, Rod said, “Normally, I’d be tempted to just zap us some dinner, but I don’t have the magic left in me. We’ll have to order takeout. I think I could inhale an entire pizza by myself. You?”
“Sounds good,” I said. I was hungry, but I didn’t really have much appetite. While Rod called the neighborhood pizza place, I picked up Owen’s limp hand and held it. I still felt some magical residue around him, but I suspected that had something to do with the magic used to remove the magic. It wasn’t at all like what I’d felt before. I couldn’t hold back a smile at the thought that Abigail had actually taught me something useful. While I’d known for a while how to detect the use of magic around me, I’d never thought to try to sense magic that had been used on a person. Little did Abigail know, but that talent wasn’t restricted to magical immunes. Anyone could feel magic if they knew what they were looking for. Most people dismissed that feeling as merely a shiver up the spine or a funny vibe. Anyone in that group could have learned to tell whether or not magic was being used on them.
I brushed a strand of dark hair off Owen’s forehead. His skin was a little clammy, probably because of all the sweating he’d done when they were working on him. I imagined that knocking him out had been a good call, or we might have had something that looked like The Exorcist.
