Enchantment Emporium

Then it was the feeling from outside the bar only ramped up so high it burned that memory away. If, at the bar, Allie’d wrapped herself around what it was to be Graham Buchanan, this time she didn’t go around so much as through. He could feel every cell of his body attempting to spin away from the overstimulation and his spine bowed as he fought to hold them both together, his heart slamming up against his ribs so violently he could feel it bruising. His face buried in her hair, he breathed her in, every sense filled with her.

So when she stopped for a moment, he stopped with her.

“Allie?”

She turned in his arms, her eyes a dark and stormy gray.

This, he realized, with a clarity that pushed the air from his lungs, this was the choice the Gale men made. To throw themselves into the storm and trust to love to bring them safely out the other side.

“This is where you need to know what you want to say.”

Turned out, it was easier than he’d thought it would be.

“Yes,” he said. And let go.

Allie could feel it all. Every blade of grass. Every drop of water. Every grain of sand. And everywhere she went, Graham, her anchor to the world.

Although, right now, the world was just a little more than she needed.

She pulled back until she touched the edges of the seven hundred and twenty-one square kilometers that made up the city of Calgary. Until she touched the one million, forty-two thousand, eight hundred and ninety-two souls. No, ninety-three as Jamal Badawi took her first breath. This was enough. This would be home.

She gathered it all, held it cupped in her hands, and…

One of the aunties fell.

The circle broke.

As fire began to blossom between the serrated rows of the Dragon Queen’s teeth, Allie wrapped the power around her and whispered, “There isn’t room for you here. Go home.”

Then she opened a gate.

The sky over the park lit up. Even before the afterimages faded, Jack’s mother was gone. As one of the Dragon Lords screamed, Allie reached out again, gathered up the rest of the family, and sent them home after her. She could sort them out on the other side. Twelve smaller stars crashed to earth.

When both sky and hill were empty, the power grounded out through the only safe path.

“What scares the old fools most about David, is that they have no idea of his limits.”

Allie knew. Here and now, she knew with painful clarity exactly what his limits were.

But all she could see was the blue of Graham’s eyes and all she could feel was the warmth of his mouth on hers and all she could hear was an auntie shrieking, “Look out!”

They hit the ground together, rolled, and came up onto their knees like they’d rehearsed the move. All around them, she could hear the soft thuds and mild profanity of the aunties landing.

“Don’t even try it!” About ninety degrees around the hill, Jonathon Samuel Gale came out of the trees holding a fistful of Jack’s hair and a gleaming knife at the boy’s throat. “Everyone just backs off, or he dies.”

“Well, that’s not much of a thre…” Auntie Jane began.

Allie absently reached out and shut her up.

“I could make the shot,” Graham muttered.

“Would this help?” Joe asked, fading in beside them. He held out the marked bullet.

“Clever, love,” Auntie Gwen murmured and the tips of Joe’s ears flushed scarlet.

Graham rolled the bullet between thumb and forefinger. “I don’t know where…”

“This went?”

Allie took the rifle from Charlie and handed it to him. Her city. Her decision. “Do it,” she said.

Graham’s blood to help the bullet fly true.

Jonathon Samuel Gale’s blood to kill a sorcerer.

The shot wasn’t as loud as Allie’d thought it would be.

They saw the sorcerer fall. Then Jack stepped back, wiping the blood from his face and roared.

“You were right.” Allie laced her fingers through Graham’s. “It was his father blocking the dragon shape.”

“He’s very… hungry,” Charlie observed as the gold dragon ripped another bite from his lunch.

Allie shrugged, moved closer to Graham, and smoothed out the disturbance in the center of the hill before moving her attention out and around the family.

Auntie Bea had a broken leg, easy enough to heal.

Auntie Ellen and Auntie Christie had been burned. Not as easy to heal but doable.

Auntie Meredith was waving a length of… tail. Not her problem.

Tucked up in the completely inadequate shelter of a rock outcropping, Michael had his hands wrapped around Brian’s face, their mouths locked together, their bodies so close it left no room for questions between them.

David was gone.

“What took you so long?”

Brian blushed, throwing the scattering of freckles across his nose and cheeks into sharp relief. “I was… I mean, because I’d… I don’t know why I did it, Allie, you have to believe me. I didn’t mean to do it. I didn’t even want to, but…”

“You did.”