“And that can only be one place,” I said. All faces turned toward me expectantly.
“I know you’ve already searched there, but it has to be the cove.” Blondie frowned at my words, but I continued. “Think about it. My mother took me there as a child. She was drawn to it. All these years, Nell kept it glamoured. She said it was to keep out local kids, but why did she even care in the first place? She was obviously drawn to it.”
“I love it as much as Jane does,” Trill said in her oil-slick voice.
“See? We’re all drawn to it. Even Anyan hangs out there.” I felt a cold nose press against my foot from where doggie-Anyan lay under the table. “It’s gotta be the place.”
“But there’s nothing under it,” protested Blondie.
“So it’s not underneath. It’s somewhere else,” I insisted.
“But you’ve never seen anything, Jane. And you’re there all the time,” she pointed out.
“I was never looking. Take me back there. I promise you we’ll find the glyph.”
Blondie sighed. “C’mon then. It’s no skin off my back. And I do hope you’re right.”
I made sure to grab my cell phone and slip it into my back pocket at Blondie’s words. Then I felt the now-familiar gut-wrenching sensation of apparation, a second before I felt cold sand under my bare feet.
Caleb and Iris were scouring the north wall while Blondie and I scoured the south. We’d left Trill at home, as it was feeding time. As for Anyan, he was having a great time peeing on things, and then sniffing appreciatively at the wet spot.
I’m never kissing him again after this, I thought, and then fruitlessly tried not to wonder if my only opportunities to kiss Anyan again would forever be doggie kisses. We’ll find a way to change him back, I told myself. Even if it takes the rest of my life.
Not that he’ll live that long, my brain interjected. As a dog, he’s not using his magic. Without his magic, he’ll age. And a big dog like that will live, what, twelve years if he’s lucky?
I felt my anxieties settle into grim resolve. My life was littered with too many losses. There was no way I was losing Anyan.
Confident that Anyan’s cure was tied up in our victory, I searched the cove with new determination. We were all peering under rocks and into crevices. Iris sat on Caleb’s shoulders so she could look higher up the walls. We backed away from each surface to try to get a big-picture view, in case there was something we could have missed.
But we found bubkes.
Swearing, I flopped down in my sand. “I know it’s gotta be here,” I said and groaned. “It has to be.”
“Babydoll, I see nothing,” Iris said, squatting down next to me.
“Nor I,” said Caleb, taking a seat on the giant driftwood tree. Shaking her head to indicate her own lack of success, Iris perched next to the satyr. Anyan busied himself with peeing on the free end of the tree.
We nearly made out right there, I thought, in that exact spot. And now it’s your toilet.
I felt like that moment encapsulated all of my pent-up frustration, and I buried my head back in the sand to glare accusingly at the stars swirling above me.
But as soon as I did so, the cool sand sucked at all my previous get-up-and-go, and though my mind was still whirling, I felt my body relaxing. The cove always had that effect on me.
The others discussed where else to look while I stewed.
It has to be here, I thought. It has to be…
Sleep now, and dream, whispered the cove, as it had in the past. Sleep now, and dream.
I was back with my sisters and brothers again, their peace my peace—and together we played. [Wait, I have no sisters, no brothers…] I was so happy, and they were so happy. We dreamed together and then woke to the bright blaze of the stars [I see the stars, too, Jane thought through half-lidded eyes, before wondering who “Jane” was]. The stars danced into patterns that we followed with delight, until, entwined together, we fell into sleep.
[deep in her own mind, Jane stirred, recognizing that fall of limbs. She knew it meant comfort, a nightly ritual, but deep down she knew it wasn’t her comfort, nor her ritual. But still, looking up at the sky that mimicked what lay below, she knew that pattern…]
“Earth to Jane!” Blondie’s sharp voice broke through my reverie. She had stood and was looming over me menacingly.
“Hmmm?” was my sleepy response.
“What are you, a narcoleptic? We need your help, so sit up and fucking pay attention,” the Original snapped at me.
Part of me bristled at her harsh tone, but the majority of me was still half asleep, almost hypnotized by my dream. I stretched in the sand, feeling my ocean call to me for a swim. And feeling an equally strong pull from the sky above.
“Jane, I said sit up,” Blondie repeated, her voice grown cold.
I stayed right where I was, peering up at the stars. “You seem to think I’m falling asleep on the job,” I said, putting one arm behind my head like a pillow. “But I’m not. In fact, I’ve solved our riddle.”
“You have?” she asked, skeptically. “Was the answer written on the inside of your eyelids?”
“Nope,” I replied, letting her stew.
“Then where?” she said, through gritted teeth.
“The answer,” I drawled, letting her steam, “is up there.” And with that, I pointed to the heavens.
“Up there?” she echoed, looking from the sky, down at me, and then back up at the sky as if to ask And what have you been smoking?
“Yep. We’ve been looking from the wrong angle,” I said, as I finally sat up. “Can you grow wings big enough for two?”
“Um… yes? But why?”
“Because, babydoll, we are going for a little flight. Now come on… pay attention… Do what you need to do to get us flying.”
I watched her strip off her long-sleeved shirt, only just managing not to wink back at her nipple rings reflecting the light from our mage lights. Around her, the air shimmered with power as a set of lustrous white wings sprouted from her tattooed back. They looked as comfy and clean as two big, soft duvets, making me crave a nap even more.
She’s like the love child of an angel and a drunken merchant marine, I thought, marveling at the sight. Anyan must have appreciated it too because he barked so hard at Blondie’s metamorphosis that I think he choked on his own tongue.
Distracted by doggie-Anyan’s shenanigans, it took me a moment, when I looked back at the Original, to realize that I was marveling at her boots as she launched herself up in the air. Without me.
Oooo she’s a bitch, said my brain.
I’m so in love, thought my libido. At this point, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to be Blondie or make out with her. Or both, I wondered, in what would be my philosophical conundrum of the decade.
We all watched her soar up into the heavens and then hover on a cloud of magic as her white wings scythed through the air in slow, powerful sweeps. She was up there for only a few minutes when she began flying hither and thither.
She’s opening the glyph, I thought, as she must have finished, only to hover above us, again.
But nothing happened. So she did it again. And then again.
Then she was landing beside me, swearing like a she-devil between hoarse pants.
“It’s not fucking working!” she cursed. “If those fucking harpies got here first, I am going to rip off their beaks and shove them up their—”
“Take me up,” I interrupted calmly. “Let me see.”
What I didn’t tell her was that every time she’d flown her complicated pattern, I’d felt a kick, but not from below us.
It came from the ocean.
For a second, it looked like she was going to turn her tongue on me—and not in the nice way. But at the last second she paused, and then held out her arms. While Anyan bounced around us barking, I walked over to where Blondie stood.
“Caleb, Iris, you need to take Anyan and get somewhere safe,” I said, turning to where the satyr and succubus stood watching us. “I’m not sure if this is going to work, or if we’ll just set off another trap like we did before. But I think this is going to be it, and if we lose—or if we get incapacitated in any way—it’s going to be up to you two to call in the Mounties.”
Caleb shuffled his hooves, and Iris looked at me, concerned. “Are you sure?” she asked, looking to Blondie as if hoping the Original would contradict me.
“Jane’s right. This is something we need to do alone.”
I frowned, looking at Blondie. That wasn’t what I said, at all, I thought, again feeling like Blondie was talking about something I wasn’t necessarily clued in to.
Iris was still frowning, but she’d taken Caleb’s hand and grabbed Anyan by the scruff of his neck. Blondie’s power flowed around us as she apparated my friends somewhere safe.
And then I finally experienced the stuff about which songs are written: Blondie Supermanned this ho.
Scooping me up underneath my armpits, she used a combination of her powerful wings and even stronger magics to lift us both into the night air. I resisted the urge to squeal and hide my face in her neck, à la Lois Lane. I also concentrated on not peeing myself in terror. Flying without a plane is very scary.