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“Well, I guess we can sell off my ring. It’s worth quite a bit, don’t you think?” He nodded, thinking the cash they could get for it would be more than enough for them to have a nice dinner out before leaving this place. “You have that look in your eyes, Juniper. I’ll take it to the pawn shop myself. That way, I can be assured that we have enough to get us back home and in style. I haven’t any idea what you’re thinking but don’t. Whatever it is, don’t do it or say it. We have enough going on without you going to the racetrack or whatever you were imagining doing with the cash.”
“You’re right. But I was thinking of a nice dinner. Not the tracks this time.” But he would have, given the time. He loved watching the horses race around the tracks, and with his little bit of magic, he’d been able to win more than he had lost. “Besides, I’m banned from there now. They didn’t know what I was doing, but they thought I was winning much too much for me to be new at the game. I don’t understand that. If I can make some money, that’s what they’re there for, correct? Humans are so mean at times.”
He wanted to go into the house once more, just to be sure it was still the same, but his fear of it taking him was very high. There were things going on right now that he didn’t know much about, and that was what made him leery of going home too. But if Basil was dead, then he?
??d have to—
“Shouldn’t one of the staff have notified us if Basil were dead? I mean, we were paying them well to continue on with the iron in his food. You’d think that—” Juniper had to stop and lean over to breathe. “She’s killed them all. Killed the others in the house and healed my brother. Holy shit, Rose, we’re in deep shit if that’s what has happened.”
“Maybe going home would be a mistake.” He wanted to snap at her but decided he’d like to keep his teeth in his head for now. “I don’t know what to do, Juniper. If we stay, we’ve nothing to fall back on. If we go and Basil is still alive—nay, even healed—we’re going to face a lot of time in prison. You and I both know he has to know we’re alive. I wonder too if he knows about—that’s it. I’ll appeal to his better nature and tell him I hid away our son, his and mine, so it would be safe when he started getting ill. Do you think that will work in my—I mean our favor?”
“I wondered how I was going to fit into your little plan. What do you think he’s going to say when Sorrel calls me Dad? Or what am I supposed to say to him when he asks me why I was here with you all this time? That is not a good plan, Rose.” There were bits of it that he could use to his advantage, but he wasn’t going to tell her that. If he could get to his brother before Rose, he might be able to convince him that it was all her idea. That he was led around by his nose rather than his dick. “We have to come up with a plan to make sure we’re neither one brought to justice. I have a feeling he’d have one of the birds kill us if it came to that. And that is not a way I’d like to be ended.”
She was staring at him again. Rose had been doing that a great deal lately, and it got on his nerves. Everything seemed to get on his nerves of late, but the way she looked at him as if she were looking for a place to stab him made his temper flare-up. He asked her, as calmly as he could, what she was looking at.
“You’re aging. I am as well, but I’ve been seeing it on you more and more. We’re graying too as if we’re losing some of our magic.” He didn’t have a mirror, but he could look at her. There were wrinkles where they’d not been before. Small spots on her skin like he’d seen on old humans. “What do you suppose that means? And before you say it’s the queen’s birds, I think I was noticing it before she came here.”
They continued to walk to find their son when he thought of something else. “I fell the other day. And I have to admit, it did hurt a great deal more than I thought it should have. Also, believe it or not, I got a mark on my leg from it. Bruise. I’ve never had one of those in my entire life. Now I have two of them from the bump that I took when that bird changed and scared us both.” He waited for her to tell him she’d not been scared, but she wisely said nothing. He decided to come clean. “I’ve been a bit harsher lately as well. Like my temper is just on the edge all the time. I’m sure you’ve noticed it as well.”
“I have. But I’ve had the same sort of emotional upset. I want to sob all the time now. Not just about the things you say to me, but every little thing. The other day I saw a faded rose. You know how much I love those flowers, and I cried for an hour. What is wrong with us? Why is this happening?” He said he didn’t know but was glad to know she’d been having the same issues. “That wasn’t nice, Juniper. However, I do understand what you’re saying. What do you suppose it is? Something to do with Basil? I think you should contact the people at the castle. Perhaps they have some information we can rely on. I don’t trust that woman to be telling us the truth.”
“I don’t either, but she seemed to know about things we didn’t. I just hope Sorrel hasn’t blown all the money. We’re going to need that if we’re going to go and see what’s happening to us.” He had a feeling they both knew what it was. So long as Basil was dying, they were getting his magic. If he was alive and well, they would be depleted, a little at a time at first, until they were nothing more than dust. It was, he’d heard, a very painful death. Every deed done to one’s body came to pass as they died. “There he is now.”
Sorrel was talking to a young man. He didn’t know him but didn’t care. It was good that they didn’t have to run him down to find him. As soon as he saw them, he turned his back to them. This wasn’t a good sign. Sorrel had been acting strangely too. Not just mean, but savagely so. When the man disappeared, simply vanished, they hurried across the street to talk to their son.
“Don’t you see that I’m busy? I’m trying to cut some deals here, and the two of you hanging around me isn’t helping.” Rose explained to him what was going on. He was glad she’d left out the part about the house. Juniper didn’t think he’d believe them. “So? What does you having been locked out of the accounts have to do with me? I have money. I guess you’re going to have to find yourself a job or something. Isn’t that what you’ve been telling me for decades? It doesn’t feel good to be without, now does it?”
“Sorrel, you will hand that money over right now, or so help me I’m going to—” He didn’t know a single threat to hold over the boy. He supposed he was a man now, and it bothered him on so many levels that at some point, his son had gotten bigger than him. “Sorrel, we’re going home. The king might well be dead, and we’ll be able to live in a castle again.”
“What do I need with a castle when I have everything I want right here?” Rose pleaded with him to hand over the money. “No. I’m not going to do that. What is it you’re forever telling me when I have trouble? Oh yes. You’ve made your bed, now you must make it. I’ve found out too that you’ve been saying that wrong. It’s you’ve made your bed, now you must lie in it. I have to tell you, it pleases me to no end that I can make you—”
“You’re aging too.” Sorrel put his hand over the marks on his hands. Juniper hadn’t seen that until then. It was his hair—it was turning gray even as he watched him. “All of us are aging, and it won’t be long until we’re nothing but old people before we turn to nothingness. This is why we need to get back home. To see what is going on, so we don’t end up like a human does when they’ve reached the end of their life cycle. Don’t you see? It’s our magic, our birthright, that is being taken from us.”
Sorrel walked to a window and looked at himself. Juniper looked at his hands. They were worse than they’d been just an hour ago. Now they were nearly all dark brown with spots. Rose too. Her hair was nearly as white as the snow in the winter here in these parts. Whatever was going on, it was happening faster and faster now.
“Are you doing this to me? To prove some sort of point?” Rose told Sorrel she wasn’t doing anything but that it was happening to the three of them. “Christ, this is just what I need. My partner is missing, I’m hurting more and more daily, and this fucking shit with my hair is for the birds. When can we get there and kill whoever is doing this to us? The sooner, the better. I have two deals going down, and I don’t want to miss the action when it does.”
“We’ll need the money to buy plane tickets. After that, we’ll have to figure out a way to get out to New Town before this gets any worse.” Sorrel nodded, but he didn’t look any too happy about this. “Son, we can’t waste any time on this. We have to get there before it’s too late. Something is going on, and we’re going to die if we don’t get it figured out.”
“All right. But I’m pissed. Whoever is responsible for this is going to be hurting more than I am. And I do hurt. All the fucking time now.” Rose and he both told their son they did as well. “If you figure out who is doing this, I want to know. I’m going to make them suffer. I’ve gotten very good at making people suffer.”
Neither of them said anything as they made their way to the car. They realized, too late, that using magic for anything would drain them more. The moment that Rose “spruced” up her hair, making it look darker, she aged about ten more years. This was getting out of hand, and he, like his son, wanted someone to pay. He only hoped they could make it there before it was too late for them to figure things out.
~*~
Harlin
hadn’t been to see his grandmother in years. She’d been so out of touch with things it broke his heart that she didn’t know him. Grandma Taylor didn’t look any different than she had when he’d seen her. The only thing different was her room.
“We’ve put her in this nursing home so she’d be able to get the care she needed. The other place is going to be shut down in a few days so it can be assessed as to whether or not it is worth fixing up. Right now, I’m thinking it’s not.” Remi sat down beside him as his grandma puttered around the room. He kept an eye on her as she mumbled to herself about windows and dresses.
“Mercy said she might be able to understand us.” Remi looked at his grandma, then at him, winking at him. “I don’t know how that is possible since she’s been lost for so long. She didn’t even know me.”
“She knows you. Don’t you, Alma?” Grandma turned and looked at Remi when she spoke. “I remember you. You were one of the daughters of Donald, the mule man. You were put into the wrong home when you were first at New Town, but your father thought the six of you could stay in a one-bedroom home so as not to be a bother to the queen. How are your sisters?” Grandma sat down and stared at them both. “You’re not his grandma either, are you? But his mother. Isn’t that right?”
“He was safer not being my child. And for me to be in here. Why now? I’ve not bothered anyone.” Harlin stared at his grandmother as she continued speaking. “How are you, Harlin? It’s been a while. I’m not upset that you stopped coming. It was, as I said, safer for you not to be around me. Those people would have found us out.”
“What people? I don’t understand what’s going on. Grandma?” She told him it would be all right. “No, it’s not going to be all right. Why did you lie to me? What people are you talking about coming for us?”
