My head hurt. That was the first thing I was aware of as I surfaced, a pulsating, electric agony flaring through the back of my skull. The second was that I was sitting upright, though my head was sagging forward on my sore neck. As I slowly lifted it, the memories of what had happened started gradually filtering back into my foggy brain.

The third thing I realized, as I jolted back to awareness with a bright flash of pain that nearly knocked me out again, was that I was tied up.

Whoever had done it had tied me to one of the support beams on our garden fence, so I was now sitting on the ground with my arms behind my back. I gave a tug, but they were solidly tied, and as I looked around, I saw the yard was filled with people. Two large men stood over me. They wore ski masks so I couldn’t see their features, but they both had burly builds and wore dark suits. Beyond them, an older man sat in one of the chairs at my patio table. Wealth oozed off of him, from the stylish suit on his trim frame to the way he looked down his nose at me. He smiled as I looked at him and I tried not to let my fear show.

“Oh, you’re awake!” he said, voice sickly-sweet like an over ripened fruit. “Excellent. I wasn’t happy my men had to resort to the measures they did, but we couldn’t have you leaving before we had a chance to talk.”

The man stood up and strolled over to where I sat on the cold concrete ground. The two larger men parted to let him through. He paused in front of me, looming and silhouetted against the floodlights that had just turned on.

“Where is it?” he asked.

Icy fear was already flowing through me, but I’d been so disoriented that it took me a few minutes to be properly scared of my situation. But here I was, alone in the garden, taken hostage by these men with no way to get help. And Gretel was going to be walking into this at any moment.

“If you want my money, just take it,” I said, trying to keep my voice from shaking as badly as it was. “I don’t have much, but you can have it.”

The man laughed, his voice almost kind as he looked from one goon to the other. Then he reached down and slapped me across the face. I gasped as searing heat scorched my skin. It was actually hot, like I’d been slapped with an iron.

And I knew it was magic and I was a fool for not realizing it earlier.

Joel. This was all because of Joel, wasn’t it? They were magic, and they were after his fucking box.

“My box,” the man said, leaning in so close I could smell the mint on his breath. “Your friend Joel has something that belongs to me and he refuses to give it back, which isn’t very nice of him. Do you think maybe you could tell me where it is?”

His voice was light again, but the malice simmering underneath it was spiky and terrifying. As much as I wanted to keep from showing weakness in front of these assholes, I was trembling as I looked up at him. “I-I don’t know,” I said, hating the shaking in my voice.

“Don’t protect him,” the man said, turning and sitting back down in the chair. It was the one I usually sat in while having dinner with Gretel. I would never be able to sit in it again, would I?

Gretel was coming home to this.

“Okay then,” the man said. “If you’re not going to tell me where the box is, how about Joel? Where might I find Joel? He managed to slip away from my men the other night, but it’s not going to happen again.”

“I have no idea,” I said truthfully. “He left. I don’t know where he was going from here.”

“Did he leave the box behind?”

“I don’t know!”

There were tears stinging my eyes now, and my body was beginning to ache from the shaking. “I never saw a box and I don’t know where it is!” I insisted.

The man looked levelly at me for a moment, then made a little clicking noise with his teeth. “I suppose you might be telling the truth,” he said.

He stood up again, and I braced myself for whatever he was about to do to hurt me. But instead, he pulled out a phone, dialed a number, and held it up as it rang on speaker. A moment later, it went to voicemail.

The man looked over at me with a pantomime of frustration as Joel’s voicemail message rang out.

“This is Joel. I can’t take your call, so leave a message and I’ll get back to you.”

There was a beep. “Joel,” the man said. “Corman. Your friend is here with me, the one with the cute little condo in Salem? Say hello, sweetie.”

He held the phone in my direction, and the large man beside me kicked me in the stomach. I cried out as I doubled over in pain, my arms stretched out behind me.

“Bring me the parcel,” Corman said. “If it’s not here in half an hour, I’ll kill her.”

He hung up the phone as my heart sped up again. “I’m sorry about all this,” Corman said, as though he was just postponing an appointment rather than threatening my life. “I really am. But that parcel is extremely important, and I had it on good information that Joel could be relied on to get it to me. When he took off with it, we had to find him. I need that box. And I’ll do whatever it takes to get it back. So I hope you don’t take this personally. Dar, is it?”

I didn’t answer, still hunched over the pain in my abdomen. One of the men yanked my head back by the hair so that I was facing Corman, who came closer again.

“Dar,” he said, his face so close to mine that I could feel his breath on my skin. “You seem like a good kid. So I’ll ask one more time. You’re sure you don’t know where Joel put my parcel?”

“No,” I wheezed out.

“Not even to save your life?”

My lip trembled as I shook my head, unable to speak. Corman looked at me for a long moment, then nodded to the other man, who dropped my hair.

“Sweetheart, you’d better hope Joel cares about you more than he cares about himself,” Corman said. “Otherwise we’ll be spreading your blood all over this beautiful garden you have here.”

***

About fifteen minutes later, Joel was still nowhere to be seen. My mind was racing. Maybe he hadn’t gotten the message. Or maybe he had, but he didn’t know to meet Corman here. After all, had Corman actually said he was at my house? Maybe there was another place where they would have met. What if Joel was desperately trying to reach me or Corman to find out where he should go? My phone was still inside where I’d set it down before coming out to the garden.

I was never putting my phone down again. Screw all of those tips about screen time. They were going to be what killed me in the end.

Corman was still sitting in the patio chair, occasionally looking at me with a smirk. “I have to hand it to him,” he said, leaning comfortably back with his legs crossed. “I knew Joel was selfish. But this… this is a whole new level. He uses you for cover, then leaves you to take the fall for him?”

He shook his head with a tut tut noise. “It’s a shame,” he said. “I mean it, you’re a nice kid. But he’s got five more minutes to get here before I blow your head off.”

My arms were numb behind my back, but I felt cold all over. Has Joel really ditched me? Was whatever was in the box valuable enough that he decided I was worth sacrificing for it?

I was never going to see Gretel again. I never should have left last night, I should have stayed and worked through it with her. All I wanted to do was be at home with her, a home that hadn’t been invaded by an evil wizard or my dipshit ex. I wanted to be beside her in bed, warm and safe. I wanted to know I’d see her again in the morning.

But no, I was going to die here because Joel had decided that Salem was the place to hide out.

“I’m here, Corman.”

Joel’s voice broke through my fear. Relief poured through me as I sagged helplessly against my bonds. This wasn’t over, not by a long shot, but I wasn’t going to die in two minutes. I looked up and saw Joel standing in the doorway to the garden. Gretel was with him. Her face dropped in horror as she saw me and I knew I must look like hell, tied up to the fence with a head injury. She moved to run toward me and I jerked my head just enough that she paused.

Good. At least she was slightly safer over there with Joel.

“Joel! My boy!”

Corman slapped his knee and stood up. He walked toward Joel as one goon watched me and the other followed behind him. Gretel stayed behind Joel, who was empty-handed.

Corman noticed it at the same second I did. “Joel,” he said, voice unsettlingly patient. “Where is my box?”

“Take me,” Joel said, with a glance over in my direction. “Dar didn’t do anything wrong. Let her go and take me instead.”

Corman looked from Joel to me, then back again. “I’m not looking for a hostage swap,” he said, rolling his eyes and patting Joel on the cheek. “I’m looking for the parcel you stole from me.”

I saw a small trail of steam come off Corman’s hand as Joel winced in pain, but didn’t move away. “Let her go and I’ll give it to you.”

Corman looked at me again, then waved a hand almost lazily. The rope around my wrist fell loose, and I moved my arms, blood rushing painfully back into them as I slowly stood up.

“She’s free,” Corman said. “Where is it?”

I hurried over to where Gretel was waiting, going straight into her arms. She gripped me so tightly that I couldn’t breathe for a moment. “Gretel, I’m so sorry,” I whispered into her chest, trying desperately not to cry right here in front of these monsters.

“You have nothing to be sorry for,” she said. “I’m sorry too.”

Behind me, I heard Joel stepping further into the garden. “So, that box,” he said. “The one you sent me to get. What’s the big deal with it?”

“Don’t act like you don’t know,” Corman said. “Joel, I know you’re not that bright. But you’re smart enough to know what you stole.”

“No, really,” Joel said, in a far too obvious attempt at a distraction. “What’s the big deal with it? Come on, I want to know. I like learning about power and how to get it.”

“And yet you thought stealing from me was the best approach,” Corman said. “Somehow I doubt that.”

Gretel started to steer me into the house, but we both froze in our tracks. I tried to move further, but it was like something was blocking the path and I couldn’t go any further in. Behind me, I heard Corman laugh.

“Cute, girls,” he said. “And Joel, very gallant of you to offer a diversion. But I’m done playing. Where is my box?”

“It’s gone,” Joel said, stepping away from us and closer to Corman.

“Gone?” Corman demanded, quickly turning purple. “Joel, that wasn’t our agreement, and it’s been more than thirty minutes.”

Before I could react, a searing blade of light was crackling toward me, too fast for me to get out of its way. But before it could go straight through my chest, another beam of light slammed into it from the side, interrupting its path. The first beam went off course and blasted into a box of flowers behind me. The hydrangeas I’d been babying for weeks now burst into flames.

Acrid smoke filled my nostrils as Joel hurried toward me. Gretel moved quickly, taking my arm and pulling me behind her, putting both of their bodies between me and Corman. I was pissed for a second, but as another bolt of energy crackled between Corman and Joel, I was grateful for it.

“Where’s the box?” I whispered to Gretel as Corman mentally lifted Joel off the ground and tossed him into my workbench. Joel landed painfully, then got up and sent his own beam of energy toward Corman.

The two goons started toward Joel, but this time he had the advantage. He waved an arm in their direction while not even looking at them, and the two men froze like extremely jacked statues.

Corman laughed. “You’ve been using it, haven’t you?” he said. “You’re playing the excited student, but we both know you’re craven enough to just take it. Did you mingle your power with that of the box, Joel? After all your talk about safety, you couldn’t resist linking your power to it before I could.”

“I haven’t used anything,” Joel said. “Unlike you, this is all me.”

He sent another bolt out, this one going directly toward Corman. But before the bolt could get anywhere near the older man, something slid out of Joel’s pocket and clattered to the floor. It was a small object, wrapped in a red bandanna, but it was still very obvious what it was.

Corman smiled. Then he waved a hand around the garden, freezing us all, including Joel, in place. And all I could do was watch as he walked over, picked up the bandanna, and unwrapped it to reveal a small, decoratively carved box.

---

Continue to Chapter 15