Page 29

Chapter 29

Spirited Away

VANESSA

“U mmm… hello?”

Startled, I spin around, my cookie dough encrusted fingers held up defensively. “Who are you and what are you doing in my house?” I shriek as I edge toward my cell phone. “How did you get in here?”

The blond woman standing next to my breakfast table holds her hands up. “My name is Magdalene Rage Witch Wolven-North, but you can call me Mags. I’m here to take you to the Shadow Realm.” She frowns. “You asked another question? Oh yes, I got here through teleportation. Are you ready to go, or do you need to wash whatever that is off your fingers?”

I look blankly at my hands. “Magdalene? As in Sarina’s Magdalene?”

She tilts her head, thinking. “I would say I’m more Rush’s Magdalene, but I suspect we’re talking about the same person. Sarina talks about me?” She looks flattered at the idea.

I rinse my hands, deciding she probably won’t attack me while I’m doing it. “She talked about you incessantly before Pinky came along. I think you might be her best friend.”

“Aww, that’s so sweet! She growled at me the first time I met her, but relations seem to have thawed.” She gestures toward the back wall of my kitchen. “Are you ready to go?”

“Uh, so you want to take me to the Shadow Realm?” I wipe my wet hands down the front of my apron. “I think I should check with Keenan first. He’s out back learning about zinnias from our gardener.”

“Oh, zinnias are great for conjuring grave spirits,” Mags says brightly.

“Good to know,” I say, trying not to offend the witch who talks about conjuring grave spirits like she’s making coffee. Where the heck is Keenan? I glance out the window but can’t see him from this angle. “Is he about to conjure a spirit? Should I be worried?”

“Only if you parked your house on a graveyard.” She glances at the wall again. “We really should go. Every minute spent here is a minute too long. The sand is running out.”

“Is this about the reincarnation thing?”

Her face lights up. “Oh good, you know about that. I was worried I’d have to find a delicate way to tell you you’re definitely going to die if we don’t get to the bottom of this curse.”

A nervous laugh escapes my lips at her blunt assessment. “Yeah, I know about it, but I figured humans die anyway, so…”

She raises an eyebrow. “So you want to just let it happen?” She sounds so incredulous I feel a little ridiculous for not worrying more about my mortality.

“Well, no, I definitely prefer to live, but – ”

“Good.” She takes hold of my arm and drags me toward the wall, waving her arm at it. “We need to go.”

“Wait… holy mother of…” A whirling ball of light ignites in the palm of her hand before exploding into a rotating black pit with a glowing green circle around it. “Do you seriously expect me to get in there with you?”

“Of course! Teleportation is the only way of reaching the Shadow Realm. C’mon, it’s easy.”

“Wait! I need to tell Keenan.” I try to yank my arm from her grip, but she’s stronger than she looks.

“There’s no time, we have to go.” She steps closer to the portal, the green glow giving her an eerie look. “Your life depends on it.”

I snatch my cell phone off the counter as she drags me past it. “I’ll text him, it’ll just take a sec – ” She yanks me through the black hole in my kitchen wall before I can finish the sentence.

A blast of cold air hits me and the sensation of being squeezed through a tube has me gasping, but I can’t breathe because there’s no air so my gasp turns into a squeak. Before panic can set in, my feet land on solid ground and I’m able to fill my lungs with air.

“See, easy!” Mags says.

I pull my arm from her grip and rub it. “You could have at least let me text Keenan. He’s going to be frantic.”

“There was no time.”

“It takes five seconds to type out ‘Mags kidnapping me to Shadow Realm, won’t be home for supper.’ Now he’s going to freak out when he finds out I’ve gone missing.” I pace away from her, holding my phone up. No cell service.

I try to reach out to Keenan through our bond, but there’s nothing there. Not sensing him feels like a gut punch and I glare at my witch of a sister-in-law.

“He’ll be fine,” she assures me. “I left him a message. Besides, time works different here. If I want, I can have you back before he even notices.” Grinning, she waves her arm. “Welcome to the Citadel, Vanessa Bedalia. You’re one of only a handful of humans to come here.”

Turning in a circle, I take in the Shadow Realm’s Citadel. When Keenan mentioned where his sister-in-law was staying, I pictured a grey world filled with shadows and smoke, but this is something else, something wondrous.

“Wow,” I breathe.

We’re standing on a bridge of sorts, but the entire place is filled with bridges and walkways linking the buildings… or what looks like buildings. Some are skyscrapers, but others are shaped like mountains and towers.

The realm is dark, but not dark, a golden haze illuminating everything, but subtly. Each bridge, each building shimmers as if it’s a light source unto itself, but with stretching arms joining each other in a welcoming embrace.

Overhead, the sky is filled with stars, but they’re not regular stars like on Earth. Under my astonished gaze, they move and realign in different constellations.

I walk to the edge of the bridge and look over the railing, sucking in a breath when I realize there’s no ground. Only endless smoke.

“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” Mags comments as she joins me. “If I didn’t have Rush to go home to, I could live here forever.”

I look at her. “I’ve met your husband a few times, but you were always here in the Shadow Realm.”

She nods, her expression growing subdued. “It’s uncomfortable to be separated.” She rubs her chest over her heart. “It feels like missing half of yourself and you won’t be whole again until you’re together.”

It’s comforting to hear Mags talk about the mating bond in a way I can relate to. Keenan and I aren’t separated often, but when we are, the sensation is uncomfortable.

Her words remind me of the reason she was forced to separate from her husband. “I was told you came here to try to find a cure to my reincarnation problem. I’ve been wanting to thank you for months, but of course, you were here.”

“If there’s anything I can do to help, I have to try. It was my ancestor who put you in this position.” Her expression grows serious. “Unfortunately, despite all the research I’ve conducted, I haven’t found much. If we want to make any progress, we need you.”

“Me?” I can’t imagine how I can help. “I’m just an actor.”

“A brilliant one, from what I’ve heard,” Mags says, indicating the direction we should walk in. “According to Rush, you’re the talk of Wolf-Haven.”

“The movie hasn’t even released,” I protest.

“I think they’re raving about a toothpaste commercial,” she says, laughing. “You may be responsible for single-handedly improving the dental hygiene of shifters across the region. They’re so proud to claim someone famous as one of their own, it doesn’t matter what you’ve appeared in.”

She leads me to an austere building that looks like something one might find on a university campus or at a research facility, but it’s so tall, I can’t see the top. It’s intimidating.

“Why do you need me again?” I stare up and up, but there’s no end to the rows of windows.

“It’s your blood we’re after,” she says cheerfully, stepping into a revolving door and pushing.

I follow her because what else am I supposed to do? “I’m not kidding when I say this feels like a kidnapping, Mags.” The interior of the building is filled with rows of doors along each hallway. Our footsteps echo as we make our way to an elevator bank. Mags presses the button for the 55 th floor.

Examining the panel, I murmur, “Ninety-nine floors.”

“More than that.” She waves her hand at the control panel and it rotates revealing another set of buttons numbered 100-199. She waves her hand again and it rotates again, revealing floors 200-299. When she reveals a fourth panel, it only shows buttons numbered 300-372. As I watch, another button appears labelled 373. “This place is still under construction,” Mags explains. “The entire Shadow Realm is constantly changing.”

“Doesn’t that get confusing?” I try to wrap my mind around the idea of a constantly shifting world.

“It’s not any different than human construction, except ours happens magically, while yours takes manual labour.”

“Remind me to call you when I want an addition on the house.”

She grins and holds her hands up, wiggling her fingers. “I’m good at that. I had to add onto the tower for our expanding family.” Her hand drops to her flat stomach.

Gasping in delight, I exclaim, “You’re pregnant!”

She nods. “It’s our first. Rush doesn’t like the idea of me being here while I’m pregnant, but he accepts it because he knows I’m as safe as can be. He just can’t be here to watch over me.”

“Why can’t he come here?”

“Lots of reasons.” The elevator dings at our floor and we step out. “But the main one is that shifters aren’t allowed here except under extreme circumstances.”

“Why not?” I’m starting to think ‘why’ is going to be my go-to word while in the Shadow Realm.

“Shifters are children of the natural order and as such belong on Earth where the natural order is strongest.” The corridor seems endless, all the doors the same except for the number plaques, which are getting numerically higher as we walk.

“So Rush can’t visit you here, huh?” I ask sympathetically.

Her eyes dim. “I love it here, but sometimes I resent it too. Duty often draws me back to the Citadel, but my heart is with my mate.” She takes a breath, shaking off the sadness and announces, “We’re here.”

We stop in front of a door labelled with the number 55117. Mags knocks, then opens it, waving me inside.

I’m not sure what I expected, maybe a mystical witchy setup with cauldrons and swirling green lights, like the portal. Instead, I’m greeted by what looks like a well-used laboratory. Tables containing computers, lab equipment and books fill every corner. A large fridge labelled ‘specimens’ sits in one corner, and oh, there is a cauldron! A futuristic version though, with what looks like digital temperature settings.

A woman looks up from where she’s reading a huge book that dominates most of the table she’s reading at. I’m struck by her resemblance to Mags.

“Vanessa, I want you to meet my mother, Lilith.” She waves toward the blond woman before indicating another person standing behind the steaming cauldron. “And that’s Oracle.”

“Oracle?” I ask, staring at them. They resemble a small, unassuming older human, but I sense an attitude of power and mystery about them.

“Yes, one of some. All called Oracle. We’re very lucky to have their expertise. Oracle’s usually stay out of human concerns.” Mags joins her mother at the table. “Did you find anything while I was gone?”

Lilith gives her a narrow-eyed stare. “Not much, and you were gone longer than you were supposed to be.”

Mags avoids eye contact with her mother. “Time moves differently here, right?”

“Indeed it does,” Lilith agrees. “But as a 900-year-old Guardian Witch who frequently travels inter-dimensionally, I figured out the time exchange centuries ago. There’s no slipping one by me, daughter. Your mission was to go find the reincarnating human and bring her back, nothing else.” Lilith makes a show of pulling her sleeve back and checking her smart watch.

“But, Mom,” Mags argues, her hands going to her hips. “If Rush found out I visited Earth and didn’t check in with him, he’d never let me come back.”

Lilith stares at Mags, unimpressed. “Have you read the story of Persephone and Demeter?”

“Uh, do you mean Persephone and Hades?”

“No, I don’t,” Lilith replies, then startles me by taking my hand. “I must apologize for my wayward child, Vanessa. You were not meant to be left waiting on Earth.” Pulling me to the table, she addresses Mags. “When Persephone insisted on going off to meet her lover every year in the Underworld, her mother grew despondent, her despair plunging the planet into winter.”

Mags leans against the table, flipping idly through one of the books. “You can visit me and Rush any time you want. I’m not locked away in the Underworld.”

Lilith runs her finger down the page of the massive tomb spread out on the table, stopping on a bold subhead. Reincarnation curse . “Vanessa, read this.” Pinning her daughter with a stare, she says, “If you disappear on me again while chasing after that wolf, I will bring winter to your world, child.”

“So dramatic,” Mags mumbles while I attempt to pay attention to the book. The back and forth between mother and daughter reminds me of my own mother. We were close, but like Mags and Lilith, we sometimes drove each other crazy.

Focusing on the book, I scan the words.

The reincarnation curse is reserved exclusively for humans and is forbidden by mystical laws. A witch with great power must perform it. Those subjected to the spell undergo a profound metamorphosis, with their essence transmigrating upon death, devoid of memories from the previous life. This act is condemned by mystical jurisprudence, and practitioners may face up to ninety-nine years of exile in the Penal Realm. Unfortunately, there is no known remedy for those ensnared by the cyclical grip of the reincarnation curse.

I look at Lilith. “So that’s it? There’s nothing you can do?”

“I’ve looked through the entire archives, which is really saying something considering witches are excellent collectors of information and we’ve been around for many thousands of years.” She gazes at me with pity. “They all say the same. A reincarnation spell cannot be reversed.”