“Our jobs as Twilight Officers are to protect everyone,” Nico said.
“And you can’t do that inside a protective fairy dusting. I’m the most logical choice. Besides, I’m the historian. I know more than any of you.” She held her hand up before they could argue. “I do tell you everything I find, but I know how to put the puzzles of the past together. It’s my gift to this family. I’m going to do it.”
“I hate to say it, but she’s right.” Chaz put an arm around her and squeezed her shoulder.
“Perfect. We’ll do it tonight.” Her pulse pounded between her ears. Excitement tickled her senses. In that instant, she came to terms with what Gerri Wilder had told her about her lack of a mate. It didn’t matter anymore. This was her role, and she welcomed it.
2
“Why do you need all this crap?” Drew asked as he dumped a stack of books on a dusty table.
Cheryl waved her hand across her face, trying not to swallow the thick particles. “Some are different languages, including dialect from some ancient creatures from King Lear’s time.” Carefully, she picked up the long cylinder and placed it on the table. “These are paintings that show the end of King Lear’s kingdom and all the legends that came from that time period.” The images showed her brothers, their mates, and the Wolfairies.
But not her.
Chaz stepped into the cabin carrying the vase. “I don’t like leaving this in here with you.” A rainbow of purple, yellow, and orange circled the vase as it continued to shake.
“Coral said she saw it in here with me and the wolf, so it stays.” Cheryl stared at the vase as the fairy dust rose into a point like a finger taunting her, ready to engulf her and suck the life from her limbs. She feared Norse right now more than the wolf rattled her nerves. She could handle her own kind.
She nearly choked on the thought. That wolf had no human form, so he wasn’t a werewolf. But he wasn’t a normal wolf either. He stood nearly six feet tall on all fours.
“What do you want or need?” she projected to the half fairy spirit bottled inside the vase like a prisoner. It broke her heart that Norse had developed some powers, but the second Apep had been taken out, and the farm was safe once again, Norse stopped communicating, and weirder things started happening to the vessel that held him.
“Are we still trying to communicate with Norse?” Cheryl asked.
“All the time.” Chaz took two steps back and planted his hands on his hips. “Ralph thought his spirit was fading. He was never cast into a human soul, not like Coral, Isadore, and Daphne were.”
“It’s too bad we couldn’t have figured out how to cast him into something.” Cheryl had read every book she could find on King Lear and his legacy, and nothing explained how Norse managed to keep his spirit when having to share the host with his sister.
“You know he has to be a whole spirit,” Chaz said. “Besides, weren’t you the one who told me that he couldn’t become that unless he’d been born?”
“Makes me wonder if we cast him into a baby still growing in the womb, then maybe he’d have a chance.” Cheryl stretched her arm out toward the vase. The hot dust shot around her arm. Her flesh turned red, and she groaned from the pain.
Drew rushed between her and Norse. “Why must you piss him off?”
She shrugged, rubbing her arm. “Why doesn’t he like me? I’ve done nothing but try to help him.”
“No idea and that’s why I’d rather not leave him with you. Who knows what he’ll do. Maybe he can get out and he’s playing us.”
Cheryl laughed. “Why would he help us with Coral if that were the case? Apep wanted Norse for a reason. He has to fit into this legend somewhere past defeating Apep.” She glanced at her pink flesh. That time, the dust actually did damage. She was going to have to make sure she kept a safe distance.
“You have to accept that his only purpose might have been to keep Coral safe. She’s our visionary. An all-powerful oracle. Without her, the Wolfairies die.”
“Where is Coral, anyway?” Cheryl asked. She didn’t need a lecture from her baby brother, but she couldn’t just let Norse die. There had to be something else about him in the legend.
“Outside, waiting.” Drew pointed to the door. “Once we get the beast in here, we’ll step out and she’ll put the wrap around you. You won’t be able to communicate with anyone on the outside, not even with the two-way radio.”
“How long will it last?” She knew the answer, but it calmed her nerves to go over the details of the plan once again.
“Bare minimum will be four hours. But it could last up to eight,” Drew said.
“Guess fairy dusting isn’t an exact science,” she mused.
“Good to have a sense of humor.” Chaz made his way out the door.
“All right. Let’s get this party started.” She breezed past Drew with a confident stride and her head held high, ignoring the vase violently shaking on the table. Damn fairy didn’t hate anyone else but her. Cheryl couldn’t help but wonder if that was the past visionary’s deception. If King Lear knew his unborn son would be trapped in a jar for the rest of his spirit life, he might not have agreed to the visionary’s special magic.
The nice thing about the protective wrap around the farm was those on the inside could see out, but it was like cutting through thick fog to see inside. That left her with the question of how did Ralph’s body end up inside the property lines if the wrap kept creatures out? The witch
