house.
“We’ve got to get you inside,” Sarah said quietly.
“Charlotte….” He moaned again and tried to roll onto his side. His eyes scoured the streets for her, praying to a God he struggled to believe in, he could have made some mistake. But he could not find her amongst the storm.
Francis pushed through the crowd to the front. He silently approached Sarah and Valek on the street, the rain straightening his perfect, white curls. “Go inside, dear. We must get ready to leave now. They will be here any moment.”
Sarah looked up at her master then got up and made her way quickly back into the house.
Francis turned to the rest of them. “Well? Why are you all standing there? We must prepare to leave! We have a job to do.” He turned back to Valek. He bent, the knees of his slacks pressed into the mud. “Now,” he comforted, an awkward hand on Valek’s shoulder, “let us not give up just yet. It is time to be strong for her. Keep your end of the deal.”
Valek only responded by shutting his eyes, more blood tears pooling on the ground by his head.
“I know, too, what it is like to lose a…child. That child came back to me. We will get her back.” Francis stood and extended a hand to Valek. “So you can give up, or you can rise from the ashes. What will it be?”
Valek did not look at Francis. He did not take his hand. But he did stand up. He did not think of how scared she must be. Instead he closed his eyes and begged her to smile, knowing he would be there soon. He turned and walked back inside.
The house was already bare. It looked as though no one had ever lived there. The Vampires shot one by one out from the basement tunnel. They marched after each other toward the front door where Valek stood behind Francis. The large spider-man and the scarecrow, too, were eager with the rest of them. Sarah emerged from a darkly lit room that had once been her study. The only thing she carried was her sewing needle, and her spell book.
She pulled something from the pouch at her side. A small glass bottle with swirling fog Valek recognized to be a transportation spell.
“Where will that take us?” Francis asked.
“Just to Old Town. We need to get away from the area. Now!” She smashed the decanter to the ground and at once, the smoke swallowed the entire group.
When the Regime guards stormed up the stairs of the modest, lavender home, they found it completely empty. With their fists ablaze, they tracked thick mud from the storm outside through the various winding hallways and bedrooms. But that was it. The door to the hidden basement had been sealed forever by magic.
The head officer turned to a freshly bandaged Evangeline. “Well?”
“No.” She began to back away. “I swear they were here. I swear!”
The officer looked around at the forsaken place and all its cobwebs. And then back at Evangeline. “Fire Elves!”
They all came storming back into the foyer from the upper levels of the home, flames swirling from their bodies like a massive dissention into Hell. They landed beside him, staring fiercely at the Witch.
“As instructed by the master,” the officer began.
Tears flooded from the doomed enchantress’ eyes as she held her arms out silently. She opened her mouth to plead with them.
The guards approached the Witch at once, fear etched on her face. The only evidence of her grim death was the smell of burning hair and herbs, and after they were finished, ashes floated away on the wind.
The forest where the coven landed seemed a different world entirely. Frost was quickly approaching, turning the warm autumn leaves to stony ice. Valek’s boots crunched solemnly across them as they walked between the shadows of the trees.
“I thought you said this would bring us to Old Town?” Sasha questioned.
“Shoot.” Sarah was the one to answer. She tilted her head up at the night sky. The moon looked almost full, but it wasn’t. “A minor miscalculation.”
Francis fumed, waving his hand through his hair. “Perfect! Just perfect, Sarah. The sun will be up in a few, short hours and we don’t even know where we are.”
“Just hold on a minute. The spell wasn’t that strong. We are probably right on the outskirts of the city,” Sarah concluded.
“We could not have invaded the castle tonight, anyhow,” Lusian explained. “They will be waking up soon. We want to do this tomorrow, in the dead of night.”
“Charlotte’s birthday,” Valek mused aloud. Francis glanced at him.
“No,” Sarah continued as they started to walk. “The wedding will be at sunset. We have to go as soon as you all wake up.”
“Why?” Sasha asked.
“A mortal can only marry an Elf under a harvest moon. It signifies the end of Summer and the beginning of Winter. Or the ‘in between’ of life and death.” She stumbled once on an unseen tree branch in the dark as they marched. Mr. Trinozka effortlessly pulled her up with one of his appendages onto his back. “Thank you.” She sighed. “We have to get to her before the ceremony is over. The moon is full tomorrow night.”
Andela toyed with something around her neck. It glinted in the moonlight, catching Valek’s attention. “Excuse me. What is that?”
Andela stopped and held up a small, wedding band strung on a pewter chain. “It was my husband’s. I’ve kept it all these years. He was killed on our wedding night. A Vampire wanted to claim me for his own. And so he did, though he was destroyed also.” Something evil glinted in her eyes.
“I’m sorry,” Valek whispered.
“How do you know where we are going, little Witch?” Dusana asked.
“I don’t,” she chirped cheerfully from atop the spider’s back.
“I do,” Mr. Trinozka grumbled. “Can’t you smell the mortals from this distance? Prague is North.”
“How long?” inquired Jorge.
“I’d say about four hours this way,” the spider replied. “There is approximately two hours until daylight. It will take us only one to get to the nearest graveyard,” he instructed. “I kin smell that, too.”
“We would find it much faster if we were running,” Sasha said.
“Well, you could run, but sooner or later you’ll run right into a guard. They’re hiding all over these woods,” Mr. Trinozka said. “But I know where they’re hidin’.”
“You’re awfully relaxed, my dear.” Francis smiled at Sarah, who seemed to be napping atop the Spider.
“It is better to stay calm in a situation like this. I really do believe we are going to get to her in time,” she offered, mostly for Valek’s sake.
“We
Chapter Twenty-Five
Charlotte lay there, in the smallest, crumpled ball she could possibly form, under the thick bedclothes. Her eyes stung from crying so much, but she couldn’t stop. The tears continued to freefall. There wasn’t enough energy to sob. She’d barely made a noise in the last few hours. All she could focus on was how many ways she could give up.
Valek was surely dead, because the guards had caught up to them by now. And no matter how many times the moon took its place in the sky, he was never going to wake up again. She hugged her knees even tighter to her chest. Helpless, she thought of Valek’s wife then. All she could do was pray.
It was completely foreign and unfamiliar, yet she folded her hands together in front of her face. “This prayer
