Chapter 1:
Taken
Summer stood with her younger brother, Linc, in the middle of the circle, practicing their latest spell, Enlarge. Sitting on the floor was an old stuffed bear. Summer tried to be supportive but couldn’t hide a pleased smile. She had already cast a successful spell that made the bear grow four inches.
Linc, disgusted after several failed attempts, glared at the stuffed bear as if it was purposely thwarting him. He held out the wand in his hand, a strawberry licorice stick. According to Jules, their gray-haired neighbor and magick teacher, they weren’t old enough to wield a real wand. That was fine with Linc since the licorice wand worked well and when he was done for the day, he could eat it – an added bonus.
Thin trails of smoke from frankincense and bistort root incense made his nose twitch, their sweet and pungent odors making him hungry. One more try and then he could go downstairs and help Jules bake his favorite chocolate cake. There were only two things that made him really smile these days – basketball and chocolate cake.
Summer tapped her bare toes against the wood floor impatiently. “Try what Jules suggested. Pretend you’re playing basketball and shoot the spell right at the bear.”
Linc nodded, circling the bear three times with his wand while reciting, “Make this larger, make it grow until I give the command to slow.”
Slowly, he began to dribble an imaginary ball, gathering the energy necessary for the spell. He dribbled back and forth and then side to side, seeing the spell and the imaginary basketball as one and the same.
Heat ran up his arms and Linc consciously brought it back down into the shape of a ball which had begun to pulse and beat as if it was alive. He felt it grow larger in his hands, the energy warm and buzzing beneath his fingers. A voice inside his head cried, “Now!” and with practiced laser focus he tossed the ball directly onto the head of the bear.
Nothing happened and Linc was about to give up. Then, with a loud whoosh, the bear exploded in size. Summer screamed and Linc thought he might have too. Its glassy button eyes seemed to be glowing, and the gigantic bear began to bounce so high, its head bashed against the rafters in the attic ceiling. Linc darted to the opposite side of the circle, waiting to see if the bear would bounce right out, but it hit the boundary of the circle like an invisible wall and leapt back toward him.
Grabbing his wand, Linc dove to the ground. To stop the spell, he needed to tap the wand three times on the floor and say “Return” (to its former size) or “Stop” (if it’s just the right size) or “Dispel” to end the spell. Hurriedly, he pounded the red licorice stick three times on the ground yelling “Return!” but nothing happened. The bear kept hitting the ceiling and bouncing around the circle with mindless energy.
“It tipped over the incense burner,” cried Summer.
“I can’t get it back to its original size!”
“Try a different command.”
So Linc went through all of them, shouting at different times, “Return! Stop! Dispel!” but his cries had no impact on the bouncing bear.
Summer just barely missed being trampled as she jumped out of the way. “It’s not supposed to move!”
“I know that. I don’t know what happened!”
Jules was downstairs reading when her head popped up and she gasped for air. She didn’t hear their cries, but she sensed some energy was awry so she ran up the stairs, two at a time. Dashing into the large open attic, she stopped, dumbfounded at what she saw. The tiny teddy bear had ballooned to at least 15 feet high and four feet wide. Why was it moving? Oh dear, Linc. Your focus is fearful!
“Use your wand!” she commanded
“It’s not working.” Linc tried it once to show her then jumped to get out of the bear’s way.
“Can we close the circle?” yelled Summer.
“No, no!” cautioned Jules. “Do not, I repeat do not, break the circle! If that happened, you’d have no control over the bear whatsoever! Linc, did you use the basketball metaphor?”
“Yes,” he cried, getting breathless.
“You’ll have to try to end the spell the same way you cast it. Only this time, think Return, not Enlarge. Do it the same way as before.”
Linc stuck the licorice wand in his pocket. “I can’t concentrate. It keeps coming at me.”
“Keep dribbling. Build the spell!” Jules voice, always so in control, helped them calm down a bit, though they were exhausted from dodging the bulk of the bear.
Slowly, Linc started again, dribbling back and forth, then side to side. He felt his concentration slide and looked pleadingly over to Jules. “I don’t think I can do this!”
“Visualize. Imagine you’re near the end of the game. Are you tired?”
“Yeah.”
“Let all your energy flow to the ball. Remember, the team is counting on you.”
Linc focused his mind until he saw himself on the school’s basketball court. The opposite team’s defenders were all around him, crowding him. It was hard to move. The space was confined. But he was dribbling again, avoiding the giant center who wanted to crush him. Sweat was pouring down his face. His shirt was drenched. It was supposed to be an easy win. He jumped to the side, still dribbling the ball. He had to get the ball in the basket.
Faintly, he saw Summer dodging and leaping but in his mind, she was his teammate, trying to keep the defenders away. She was succeeding. Now, only the center charged after him, a massive opponent with a huge hairy face.
Linc felt the spell building again with each step, each dribble. The energy seemed alive, pulsing beneath his fingers, warming his hands. How long had he been dribbling? The 30-second shot clock should have gone off, but Linc ignored any worry or doubt. Heated bubbles surrounded his arms, and he knew he was ready. Forming the energy into a ball, he felt it pulse at the same rhythm as his own heartbeat.
The center was driving hard toward him and Linc barely escaped from being thrown to the ground. Why hadn’t anyone called a foul? The bear of a man turned and seemed to pause lightly on his feet. The final push had come.
“Now!” his coach shouted. “You have to shoot now!”
The ball left his hand in a perfect arc. In slow motion, he watched as the center charged him. But the ball flew high and true, hitting nothing but net – or in actuality, the very head of the enormous teddy bear.
“Return!” Linc shouted, grabbing the red licorice wand and slamming it three times on the floor just before the bear crashed into him. But the contact he braced for never happened. There was a slight popping sound and the bear returned to its normal 8-inch size. It bounced once and bobbled slightly before coming to rest inside the circle, its furry head tilted to one side – the unfortunate result of hitting the wooden rafters too many times.
Linc couldn’t catch his breath. Gasping for air, he slowly sank onto the wood floor. Summer sat across from him, her hair damp from sweat and fear, gazing at him with wide eyes.
“What happened?” Summer looked to Jules, her mouth open.
“Have you heard the expression, ‘he doesn’t know his own strength?’ The power of the spell was overwhelming. It was too much energy for the body of the bear to withstand; that’s why the bear was bouncing. On a purely technical level, I must say it was quite a show of prowess, even if it was a little terrifying.”
She scratched her head and Summer noticed that although her voice was cool as ever, Jules’ thick gray hair was damp around her temples. Summer and Linc hadn’t been the only ones afraid. “What a great save, though, Linc,” Jules smiled. “Really terrific. We now know what you can do. But power without control can lead to mayhem as you just saw. You must learn control.”
Linc sat on the floor, his head drooping almost to his lap, nodding. Drips of sweat fell onto the floor beside him. He was so tired he didn’t think he could move.
“How about we all wash up and –” Jules stopped mid-sentence and looked anxiously around her. “Listen to me, children. Do NOT close the circle yet.” She stepped away from them, backing up toward the door. “Stay in the circle. No matter what happens!”
Just as she spoke three of the low windows near the attic floor exploded outward, large glass chunks falling to the grassy yard below. A heavy wind started blowing throughout the room and Summer grabbed Linc, pulling him to his feet and to the back of the circle.
A hole in the atmosphere was wrenched open in the center of the room like an enormous eye. Starting at shoulder height and spreading about three feet wide, the hole was filled with a blackness so deep and penetrating, it seemed to pull the entire room toward it.
Jules was shaking her head and reciting words they had never heard before, words that were not in the English language. Arms extended, her palms faced outward as if pushing someone or something away. Yet, regardless of her strength or skill, she was pulled inexorably toward the hole.
Linc tried to leave the circle to help, but Summer held onto him with all her strength. If he hadn’t been so exhausted from the spellcasting, he could have easily broken free, but Summer held him long enough to keep him within the circle boundaries. She was screaming at him, reminding him what Jules had said, but he wasn’t listening.
Despite her terror, Jules looked over, her gray eyes blazing. “Stay within that circle, Linc or both of you will be dragged in with me!” Then turning to Summer, she shouted, “Find Tuts! Tell him what happened. He’ll know what to do!” In that moment, the gray hair and wrinkles fell away like a discarded Halloween mask, revealing a young, beautiful woman in the grip of terror.
Long black curls hung limply around her face and twisted riotously over the gold band resting on her forehead. She was thinner and taller than the person they knew, but her face was the same. Although they cried out her name, she no longer looked their way.
Jules was using every spell and charm she knew, but it wasn’t enough. An invisible power pulled her helplessly toward the hole. When she neared its edge, two arms covered in black robes reached out to grab her. Pale fingers gripped the tops of her arms and slowly dragged her into the darkness. No matter how hard Jules kicked and screamed, she could not get away, her bare feet kicking against a force much stronger than hers. A deep laughter filled the attic, echoing off the walls.
Linc shouted and tried to break away, but Summer tightened her grip. Helplessly, they watched as Jules disappeared, her screams muffled and then gone. The great eye blinked once and closed. Warm air drifted in from the broken windows and the hole vanished, leaving no sign it had ever existed.
The realization that Jules was gone, maybe forever, hit Summer like a punch in the gut. She collapsed onto the floor, remembering the first time that she met Jules and saw the dancing flowers in her yard.
Summer had been so young, just five years old, but she still remembered sitting in her car seat in the back of her parent’s van when they drove by the yard filled with wildflowers. As they passed, some of the tallest blooms lifted their leaves and waved to her and Summer waved back, her small hand held up to the window, her mouth wide open in surprise.
When her parents stopped to gab with the neighbors later that day, Summer slipped away. She toddled down the sidewalk, ignoring the tidy homes and manicured lawns. The house with the flowers was less than a block away and she gasped in delight when she reached the wild, open space and her toes curled in the cool dirt.
Trying not to step on the blooming bushes and wildflowers, she tiptoed through the yard until she reached the enormous oak tree with overhanging branches. In the shadows beneath the tree was a small dirt circle surrounded by flowering lily-of-the-valley, daffodils, bluebells, violets, hyacinths, tulips and snapdragons. The flowers raised their leaves and twirled and Summer mimicked their movements. She threw out her arms and spun in a circle, dancing until she grew dizzy and dropped to the ground.
A soft breeze swept through the yard and each flowering bell on the lilies-of-the-valley began to ring like fanciful wind chimes. The bluebells by her toes chimed in deeper, dulcet tones.
Snapdragons opened their flowered mouths, hissing tiny puffs of smoke before snapping closed. But the daffodils were her favorite. When she touched the stem, the big yellow petals twirled and swirled in the breeze like giant golden pinwheels.
The house was bigger than the other homes on the block, three stories high with a generous porch in front that sagged a little to the right. Rounded turrets bulged out from the corners of the second floor and soared past the third floor, ending in pointed peaks high above the rooftop.
All the other houses on the block faced the street. But this house was turned on its side so it faced the longest section of the yard. She heard her dad say it was almost as if the house had been picked up by giant hands and placed there at an odd angle. The other homes were all freshly painted, but this house’s paint had chipped off long ago, leaving only dried, weathered boards. It was an eyesore, her mother said.
The front door opened and an older woman walked slowly onto the porch, the aged boards making loud creaks and groans beneath her bare feet. Summer stopped ringing the flower bells. She felt like she was caught doing something wrong but wasn’t sure what it was.
The woman looked over at Summer for a long moment before coming down the porch steps and walking over to the tree. She was a little overweight with thick gray hair pulled into a tight bun at the back of her head. She had a long nose, wide-spaced gray eyes, and high arched brows. A flowered dress hung to her ankles revealing pink-painted toenails. She looked at Summer and nodded to herself, a small knowing smile slightly lifting one side of her mouth. She took Summer’s hand and said, “Your parents are looking for you.”
When Summer held the woman’s hand, an electric shock exploded from the tip of her little head down to her toes. The woman in front of her changed dramatically. Instead of the flowered dress, she wore an elegant, golden gown. Raven black hair was elaborately woven on top of her head, decorated with a thick gold band across the crown. No longer a gray-haired grandma, the slender young woman standing before her was beautiful.
Summer turned toward the house and clasped her hand over her mouth in astonishment. Weathered brown boards now appeared to be painted bright sapphire blue with canary yellow windowsills.
As she was gently marched back home, Summer didn’t say a word. But occasionally she looked up at the woman, frowning. Before they reached her home, the woman smiled in that knowing way again. “I’m glad to meet you Summer. My name is Juliana Blakely but everyone calls me Jules. We’ll talk again.”
In the ensuing years, Summer looked for some sign that Jules still lived in the old house but it always appeared deserted. Flowers blanketed the big yard but they no longer waved or danced, and Summer wondered if her memories were just a distant childhood fantasy.
It wasn’t until the autumn of her 15th birthday that Summer ran into Jules once again, a seemingly chance meeting that turned her entire world upside down.