Love Croakies by Sam Cheever (the kiss of deception read online .txt) 📕

Wicked pounced. The mouse squeaked and flew into the air.

I threw myself at Wicked and hit the carpet hard, skidding along the rough surface on my elbow. Fire burned along my arm, the pain exquisite. “Ayee!” I yelled in pain and frustration.

The room exploded in a burst of yellow light. Sounds were muffled and everything turned weightless.

I floated above the floor in a formless bubble, even the pain in my elbow dulling beneath the magic that held me in thrall.

Wicked floated past, legs flailing in a useless attempt to control his movement. His mouth was open and he was giving the Universe a feline-shaped talking to. I’d have smiled at the sight, but I became distracted by the little mouse. It was floating past on its back looking completely relaxed. The rodent’s little button eyes fixed on me, and its nose twitched adorably.

I grinned.

An angry claw slashed toward the mouse, missing it by a mile.

Somewhere Sebille was talking, but she sounded far away. The noise of my cat yowling with temper and frustration came to me through a thick layer of cotton wool. My ears felt like they had the time I’d followed a fainting goat up a mountain looking for a demon’s lair. I moved my jaw around, but they refused to pop.

A gnarled, yellow hand with curved claws appeared and the tiny mouse floated into it, settling down with a twitch of its whiskers.

And then suddenly, the weightlessness stopped and I slammed to the ground.

Wicked managed to land on his feet, of course, but I landed on my back, the impact knocking the air out of my lungs.

Whom stood looking down at me, his beakish nose twitching like the mouse’s whiskers. “The poultice is not working, young lady,” he said. “You must collect the serum that has poisoned him. I will create an antidote from that. Be quick now. The lad is in dire straits. Call me when you have the serum.” He tucked the mouse into an invisible pocket in his feathery cloak and ambled toward his house.

Wicked spat at him as he waddled by. “Mind your Ps and Qs, young man. It is not copacetic to take someone else’s medicine.” With that odd statement, he disappeared into his birdhouse with his mouse. Golden light exploded into the room and, a blink later, the birdhouse and the good doctor were gone.

And I had one heck of a backache.

17

Into the Great Unknown Together

We stood in a flat area at the bottom of a tall, spiky peak. Around us, the sweet smell of pine needles softened the cloying stink of dark magic permeating The Enchanted Forest. I looked around the place, my skin crawling as I remembered the last time I’d been there. The area where we stood, surrounded by oversized trees of both the evergreen and deciduous varieties, reminded me too much of the spot where the two-headed snake had tried to make me its dinner.

I shuddered, drawing Sebille’s curious glance.

“According to my calculations, we should be just about on top of it,” Archie said. He was carrying the book on magical anomalies he’d gotten from Shakespeare’s desk in the artifact library. The author of the reference book was none other than Doctor Mortimus Osvald.

I glanced nervously at my phone. “Maybe I should check in with Lea again.”

Sebille shook her head. “You checked in two minutes ago and three minutes before that. The little runt is fine. We’re going to get the serum back to him in time.”

I frowned. “Who are you, and what have you done with Sebille?”

She rolled her eyes.

“Oh, there you are.” I sighed. “Don’t act like I’m the only one who’s worried about Hobs. I’ve seen you texting Lea like five times since we left.”

She shrugged. “I was just telling her where the brownie stash was. In case.”

“You old softie, you.”

“Shut it,” she snarled.

I chuckled.

Archie set the book down on the ground and pulled a contraption out of his pocket. It looked like a sundial, but I was pretty sure it wasn’t. Holding the metal dial flat in one palm, he carefully turned the pointy part on top. A yellow glow emerged from the triangular metal piece at the top of the dial, bathing the ground in light.

Archie stretched his arm out, and the dial floated away. It hovered over the ground, the light it emitted seeming to shift and lengthen as if searching for something. “There.” He shoved the sleeve of his robe back and glanced at his watch. “We should have a firm location in five minutes.” He glanced around, frowning slightly.

“Are you expecting someone?” I asked. He’d been doing that since we’d arrived in the forest several minutes earlier.

Skimming me a quick look, Archie slid his gaze back to the dial without responding.

We watched the dial move a few feet farther away, painting the ground beneath it in an ever-widening arc of light. The golden glow on the ground stretched and spread, moving in a slow, counter-clockwise arc.

The motion reminded me of the moon going rapidly through its phases ─ waxing crescent, first quarter, waxing gibbous, full, waning gibbous, last quarter, waning crescent. The cycle repeated itself several times as it moved slowly over the ground.

The leaves on the trees behind us rustled as two people moved into the clearing.

My eyes went wide, all the blood leaving my face. “You!”

Archie threw me a guilty look. “Yes, well, Naida, I did tell you I knew of someone who could help.”

I turned a glare on him. “A little warning would have been nice.”

Archie busied himself making a minute adjustment to the dial.

That left me to address the newcomers. I hadn’t expected to see them again. At least not so soon. I inclined my chin in greeting. “Narina. What a surprise.”

My mother’s smile faded at my cool greeting. Really though, I didn’t know what she expected. I barely knew the woman. And that was entirely her fault.

My gaze slid to the man with her. It was my brother. “Edric.” I