Of Enemies and Endings (3 page)

One of the witches guessed what I was thinking. “It wouldn't matter if your message got through anyway. The warding hex we've cast blocks
all
enemy enchantments. None of your allies can travel here by magical means.”

No wonder the triplets were almost half an hour late. Their temporary-transport spell probably hadn't worked. My friends couldn't rescue us if they couldn't
get
here.

“Hush,” said the gray-haired witch in charge. “We aren't supposed to speak of the hex.”

“They're captured by their own combs!” protested her ally. “It doesn't matter what we tell them now.”

“Does that mean the ring of return didn't work?” Amy asked. “Did your mom get through?”

I stopped breathing. I didn't know. I'd never heard of a warding hex. I had no idea what they did. Lena wasn't here to explain.

But Mom
had
disappeared. If she hadn't gotten through, where had she gone?

I'd been so sure I was keeping her safe.

“Call the archers,” said the gray-haired leader. “Tell them to bring their flaming arrows.”

The door creaked open. Oh no. The archers' aim didn't have to be good anymore. All they needed to do was light the kitchen on fire. The smoke would kill us if the flames didn't.

“That's right, Aurora Landon,” said the witch who liked taunting me. “We will flush you out as we would a Dapplegrim from its herd. We have brought your death with us.”

I wished they would stop saying that. It was starting to sound true.

“And the death of the woman you seek to protect,” said the gray-haired witch.

I looked at Amy. She held a can in each hand, and her scowl clearly said,
Well, I'm going down fighting.

“But it doesn't have to be that way,” said the gray-haired witch. “Release the combs, and surrender to us. We will let the woman go free. It is your death we seek, after all.”

It was a trick. It had to be.

But maybe it wasn't.

My Tale had begun two years ago. The beginning lines hadn't changed that much:
Once upon a time, there was a girl named Rory Landon. Though she did not know it, the fate of magic would fall into her hands during the month she turned fourteen. With it, she would meet winter, death, and despair.

Maybe the hail counted as winter. Maybe despair was finding myself down to two choices: my death by surrender or my death
and
Amy's by fire.

No. I could ask them for a Binding Oath. I could make them swear on their lives that Amy would go free, and it would all be over.

My expression must have given me away, because Amy began shaking her head. “No. Rory, don't you dare—”

The door creaked open again. More feet thundered in. The witches' archers had arrived.

We were trapped. Help wasn't coming. I knew my choice.

hen a new voice said, “The EASers are here.”

My heart leapt. I hadn't even needed to
ask
for help. My friends had come anyway, warding hex or no warding hex.

“Then we must do our work quickly!” said the gray-haired witch. The witches launched their weapons. The air filled with silver snowflakes, their sharp barbs sparkling.

Amy screamed again. I yanked up the shield, over our heads. Two throwing stars clattered against the lid. Half a dozen more fell on the floor inches from our feet.

Too many more assaults like that, and something was going to hit us.

“This isn't how it works,” Amy muttered. “I'm the adult. I'm supposed to protect
you
.”

“What are you waiting for, archers?” said the gray-haired witch. Oh great. I couldn't see the new arrivals, but I bet they all had bows. They were probably trained to fight, just like Istalina. I braced myself.

Then the glass window above the kitchen table shattered. I half stood, risking a peek over the island to see what was going on. Two arrows sailed in, tiny little packets tied to their shafts. They landed, releasing great puffs of a green-and-gold powder. It glittered and stank of sulfur.

The witches coughed and choked. “Powdered dragon scales?” croaked the gray-haired one. “Why?”

Another arrow flew in. I stood on my tiptoes to get a better look. The arrow had landed right in the middle of all the witches. Someone had tied some sticks to it. The string they'd used looked weird, like a braid of brown hair with a blue bead at the end.

Lena's
hair.

I knew what it was. I'd seen Lena experimenting on long-range spells like this one, modeled after the transmitter General Searcaster had fashioned in the city of the Living Stone Dwarves. The powdered scales in the air made it impossible to dodge the enchantment.

She
had
them.

Then my friend's clear, high voice rang out, shouting in Fey. I didn't have my gumdrop translator in, so I only understand one word: “beep.”

“Did it work?” It sounded like Lena was at the bottom of the porch stairs.

The witches stared at each other in horror, waiting to turn to stone or sea foam, waiting to writhe in agony.

“What was it supposed to do?” I called back.

“Lena, you forgot the buzzer,” said someone else outside. Kyle.

“We will not be defeated by a bunch of Character children.” The gray-haired witch took a step toward the bars, toward
us
.

“Oh, yeah,” Lena said. An alarm beeped, almost identical to a kitchen timer.

All at once, the witches' eyes rolled back in their heads. Then they dropped, collapsing all over each other. Weapons scattered across the wooden floor. I hoped none of them had fallen on their blade. Then I immediately felt stupid for worrying. They'd just tried to kill me. They'd tried to kill Mom and Amy.

Lena burst through the back door. Glass crunched under her feet. She half tripped over one of the witches' bows.
“RORY?”

I leapt out from behind the island. “Here, Lena.” Behind me, Amy stood more slowly.

“Oh, thank gumdrops.” Lena ran forward, jumped over the motionless body of the gray-haired witch, grabbed the second-to-last bar of the comb cage, and muttered the counterspell. When the bars shrank down to a comb, she threw her arms around me, hugging so tight that her bony elbows pinched my ribs.

We both took a deep breath. As I exhaled, I let go of that awful trapped feeling of no escape and no choices.

It had been a close call, definitely, but it was almost business as usual. We had been through all of this before. Not here, specifically. Not at
my
house. But at other Characters' houses. Daisy's house, just a few weeks ago. Ben's house, just a few
days
ago.

“What did you
do
to them?” Amy said, staring at Lena like my friend could rain sulfur-smelling death down on us all.

“Long-range sleeping spell,” Lena said, clearly proud of herself. “I knew you had put up the comb cage. Magic can't get through the bars, so even if the powdered dragon scales reached you, the spell would only be able to activate outside the bars. I figured if the whole clan was in one room, we had better knock them all out at once.”

She always talked this fast when she was explaining an invention she was excited about. I found it supremely comforting. “How did you know to come?”

“The triplets couldn't get through,” Lena said. “They came to me, thinking the enchantment was broken, and when I was trying to sort out the temporary-transport spell, we ran into your mom.”

The rest of the panic ebbed out of my chest. So the ring of return
had
gotten her there safely. I tried not to think about how angry she was going to be.

Kyle walked in and smiled at Amy. “Good morning, Miss Stevens.” We could usually count on him to be polite.

Conner and Kevin crowded in behind him, knocking their spears against the doorway. “Backyard's clear,” said Kevin. Daisy stomped in from the entryway, her bow out but not drawn.

“Tina and Vicky are sweeping the street,” added Conner.

“Anyway, we realized that something was blocking the transport spell,” said Lena. “So we went through the Door Trek door to San Fran and took a cab over. We got here as fast as we could.”

“Thank you.” I wanted to tell her how much it meant to me, but a lump started to clog my throat. I couldn't risk it. “Any idea how long the sleeping spell lasts?” Forever would be fine with me.

She made a face, and Kyle answered, “When she tested it on me, I was out for a couple hours.”

“But you're a human. I don't know how witches react to the spell,” Lena said. “Could be longer. Could be shorter.”

“We better call in reinforcements,” Kyle said. “Ben's squadron can handle confiscating wands, putting them in manacles, and hauling them off to the dungeon.”

“Where's Chase? Is he with the stepsisters?” I knew he probably hadn't come, but my eyes strayed back to the door anyway.

Lena's face fell. “We couldn't find him.”

I'd expected it, but still the small bubble of hope died. Something closed up inside me, knotted and cold. I pressed my lips together, trying to keep myself from saying anything I might regret later.

“We didn't look very hard,” Kyle added. “We didn't have time.”

“Maybe he's
getting coffee
.” Daisy's voice dripped with sarcasm.

She was still angry. She had a right to be. She was the only other person in our grade whose home had been attacked. When the Director had announced the mission, the rest of us had taken a temporary-transport spell to her front door and held off the invading trolls long enough for Daisy's family to escape. Everyone came. Everyone
helped
 . . . except for Chase and Adelaide. Afterward, they came back to EAS carrying iced coffees. They said they'd gone to a café for a little peace and quiet. Daisy still hadn't forgiven them.

“Maybe they're getting ice cream,” said Kevin. He wasn't quite as sarcastic as Daisy, but he was pretty fed-up. We all were.

“You guys might have it all wrong,” said Conner. “It's a hot day at EAS. Maybe they're swimming.”

I pushed my anger aside. “The Director
might
have sent him somewhere. That's what happened last week when you were all ragging on him for missing our rescue of the Goose Girl.”

That shut them up. Chase
was
going on just as many missions as the rest of us. He was just going on them with Ben's grade, and George's, and Miriam's, and every once in a while, with his dad, Jack. He was working just as hard as we were to stop the Snow Queen. He just wasn't fighting with us.

That was enough for the triplets. Not Daisy.

“Whatever,” she said. I didn't blame her. A troll had speared her father in the belly. The Water of Life brought him back, but he would keep the scar forever. If anyone I'd cared about had gotten hurt like that, I would have a hard time even pretending to be nice.

Silence followed. It might have gotten awkward, but then Lena spotted the lid-shield in my hand. “Ooo, did you make this? Can I see? I can't believe I didn't think of this before.”

The stepsisters tramped in with four bundles of hazel sticks, dripping with mud. “Look what we found,” said Vicky, dumping an armful on the kitchen counter, her lip curling with disgust.

The source of the warding hex. It had to be.

“One in each corner of the yard.” Tina dropped her bundles too, and she went straight to the sink to wash her hands, completely ignoring the shattered dishes under the faucet.

“You dismantled it?” Lena said, horrified. “Oh no, I should have told you! I needed to examine it. If I can't look at their hex, I can't figure out how they blocked the temporary-transport spell!”

Vicky frowned at her. “What happened to us needing to call Ben right away? Didn't we need to break the enchantment to use our M3's?”

“Does that mean you don't need us?” Ben stumbled up the porch steps and yawned in the doorway. “Because before the M3 woke me up, this was supposed to be our morning off.” He got a good look at my kitchen, and all the green-skinned sleepers lying on the floor. “Oh. So,
which
task did you want us to perform?” Then he laughed.