A Familiar Problem Read online

  I started to argue but Deg grabbed my arm, giving it a gentle tug. They’re not going to tell us anything. We’ll need to figure out what’s going on for ourselves.

  He was right. Besides, I knew from experience that we couldn’t trust what the council members told us anyway. More than half the time they told us what they thought we expected to hear, instead of the truth.

  I followed Deg out of the room, suddenly eager to get out of that place and back to my own little sanctuary.

  A cat rescue might not be exciting or adventurous, but I loved my work and all the critters I was able to help.

  It was a good life.

  I had a momentary spurt of happiness that carried me outside to the street.

  Then I remembered that Axismundi, the afterlife dimension, was hovering around Illusory Park.

  And I couldn’t help wondering if the afterlife had come to pick up anybody I knew and loved.

  Chapter Two

  Mandy shook her head, her caramel-colored gaze narrowed in thought. “I’ve never heard of that. Are you sure they said it was a dimension?”

  I nodded but she wasn’t looking at me. She had her attention fixed firmly on her ex, and Deg was returning the favor. I suddenly felt like the third wheel I no doubt was. “Not just another dimension he responded. But an afterlife dimension. What exactly does that mean? Have you heard anything that would suggest an emergence of Axismundi in the middle of a human dimension?”

  “Technically, it wasn’t a human dimension though, was it?” Mandy said as if thinking it through. “It was inside the Illusory Park barrier.”

  I shook my head. “I’m sorry, I’m having trouble picturing Hades as something that just floats around like a fiery dirigible, puking underworld creatures out on unsuspecting worlds without reason or notice.”

  Mandy finally favored me with a snotty glance. “It’s not like that. Axismundi is everywhere. It sits inside and around all dimensions. Which is why the critter you fought was something we’ve never seen before. It probably came from a totally other dimension.”

  “Wait,” Deg frowned “I’m starting to remember something we learned in school…”

  “Hogwarts?” I asked, grinning.

  The two Witches didn’t even acknowledge me or my little joke.

  “Isn’t Axismundi sort of a massive Illusory Park?”

  “Pretty? With a pond?” I asked.

  “No.” Mandy responded, giving me a withering look. “It’s a portal, just as the park is here. We can reach any part of Illusion City through the barrier in the park, right?”

  Deg nodded. “Okay, I get it.”

  “Well I don’t,” I objected. “What is Axismundi a portal to?”

  Mandy cocked a hip, her dark brows lowering. “To your life, clearly.” She glared around at my messy kitchen, where I’d been cooking up some spells before they so rudely interrupted me. Admittedly, it did look like a level five tornado had come through. But I’d been very productive and I was sure we were going to need the spells I’d made very soon.

  Deg scowled Mandy’s way. “Axismundi leads to all the other dimensions.”

  My eyes went wide. “So, if we wanted to get to another dimension…”

  He nodded. “Theoretically, we could cut through the afterworld to do it.”

  “Cool,” I said in a voice filled with awe.

  “You wouldn’t think so if you’d ever been inside the place,” Mandy said. She rubbed a perfectly manicured finger over the counter in front of her and grimaced, examining the fingertip as if she’d accidentally touched cat poop.

  I frowned. Had I used cat poop in that last concoction?

  “All that is moot,” Deg said on a sigh. “We wouldn’t know what, or who, we were looking for anyway. Unless the council comes clean about what’s going on, we’re stuck.”

  “They’re not going to tell us anything,” I told him. “I know my mother. When she gets that stubborn look on her face you couldn’t pull a secret out of her with a dredging spell.”

  My doorbell rang and the door immediately slammed back against the wall. In a flash, Mandy, Deg and I all had magic spitting from our fingertips.

  “Hello?”

  Hearing the well-known voice, I relaxed slightly. My visitor wasn’t a threat. I didn’t think. But we stayed in defense mode just in case.

  Though, in our defense, we did let the magic slide away as my mother glided into the room.

  She stopped just inside the door and scoured the room with a horrified gaze. “LeeAnn? What’s going on here?”

  “I’m working. The bigger question is, why are you here?”

  She closed her mouth and frowned. “Can’t I come visit my daughter?”

  “Yes. But usually I know you’re coming.”

  Mother shrugged. “Fair point.” She smiled at Deg and Mandy. “Hello.”

  Mandy had paled when my mother walked into the room. For the first time since I’d met her, the cocky Witch seemed at a loss for words.

  Deg smiled. “Hey, Queen Katherine.”

  “Just Katherine will do. My mother’s the queen. I’m just filling in for her until she gets back on her feet.”

  A dark wave of worry swept through me. My Grandmama, Celeste, was the most powerful Familiar in the magic world. Some believed she was as powerful as Serena, which might explain the sour Witch’s antipathy toward the Mapes family. Celeste had taken quite a hit, both magically and physically as it turned out, when a rogue Familiar had nearly managed to gain control of the powerful common web that tied us all together.

  It had taken every bit of magic Celeste, my mother, Deg, Mandy, I and even Brock had been able to cobble together to stop the rogue.

  Six months later, Celeste still hadn’t recovered.

  I suddenly realized we were all just standing there staring at each other and gave myself a mental nudge. “Would you like some tea or…something? I have cookies.”

  A smile transformed my mother’s beautiful face, like the sun coming out from behind a thick bank of clouds. “I’d like that, Peaches. Thank you.”

  As I turned, I caught Mandy’s gaze and she mouthed, Peaches? Humor lighting her gaze.

  “Shut up,” I told her softly.

  Deg brought the pitcher of sweet iced tea from the fridge and poured four glasses as I filled a plate with homemade chocolate chip cookies. My mother walked around the room, checking out my messy kitchen. I expected a lecture on tidiness from the woman who never had a hair out of place. But instead she stopped in front of the double row of bottles containing my cooling spells. “You’ve been busy.”

  I placed the cookies in the center of my little round kitchen table and Deg placed a small tray with the pitcher and glasses next to it. “After dealing with that thing in the park I thought I’d better get more prepared.”

  Mother turned, smiling. “That’s my girl.” She pointed to a tiny jar filled with black air. “Is this…?”

  “Invisibilia,” I nodded. “Flavored with an aura cleanse.”

  Her eyes went wide. “Smart. How long will it last?”

  “Twenty minutes,” Mandy said, grabbing a cookie and dropping into a chair. “She used my recipe.”

  Mother redirected her gaze to the Witch. “I’d like a copy if I might?”

  “Of course.” Mandy’s smile was genuine, one of the few I’d ever seen from her. “I also make a mean growth spell. It transforms to twice normal size within thirty seconds and lasts almost an hour.”

  “Ingenious.” Mother nodded thoughtfully. “If you’d like, come down to Familiar, Inc. next week and let’s talk. I’d like the Witches in my lab to look at them. Maybe we can manufacture some of your spells in large quantities for sale to the larger magic population. I’d reimburse you of course.”

  Mandy hid her smile behind the cookie. “We can talk.”

  I handed mother a small plate with a cookie and a glass of tea. She took it gratefully, drinking a third of the tea down immediately. She followed that with a bite of c
ookie. “This is perfect, LA. I didn’t have time for breakfast or lunch today. The council has been in non-stop meeting mode trying to figure out what to do about the mess in the park.”

  Deg and I shared a look. Apparently, even though they weren’t surprised about the existence of the Axismundi dimension in Illusory Park, the council members were concerned about its recent activities. “Mom, I know you don’t want to tell us what’s going on…”

  She shook her head before I could even complete the sentence and I bit back frustration with a tinge of anger. The lack of trust from the magic world was one of the big reasons I’d kept to myself until recently. When Deg had come into my life.

  If I thought finally bonding with a Witch was going to make them accept me, I’d clearly been wrong.

  “On the contrary, I want the four of you to go on a secret mission for me.”

  I blinked several times, shocked. “Secret mission?”

  “Yes.” She put the half-eaten cookie on the table, wiping her fingers on a clean paper napkin. “Into Axismundi. There’s someone there I need you to speak to. And…this is important…” she told us, capturing the gaze of each of us in turn. “No one else can know about this.”

  Don’t hit me with a feather, Deg mumbled in my mind. I’ll probably fall over.

  Right? I responded breathlessly. I narrowed my gaze on mother. “Let me get this straight. You’re sending us into the Axismundi dimension without the other council members’ knowledge?”

  “Yes. No one except for King Al. He agrees with me that we need to be proactive in this.”

  “Not that I want to talk you out of it but…why?”

  “Because you four are the only ones I can really trust.”

  Okay, I was clearly an ass. But I was a touched ass. Wait…that didn’t sound right. I was touched by my mother’s trust. And I was an ass for thinking the worst of her a moment earlier.

  “Wait,” Mandy said. “Four of us? Who’s the fourth?”

  “I’m guessing that would be me.”

  We all turned to the tall, dark figure in the doorway. “Demon. How’d you get into my house?”

  “Um…I walked through the unlocked and slightly ajar door.”

  I glared over at my mother.

  “Sorry. I didn’t know you wanted it locked.” She shrugged, grabbing her cookie and taking another dainty bite. She chewed and swallowed as Brock joined us at the table, grabbing three cookies without being invited.

  That seemed to be a theme with him.

  “So, what’s going on?” He asked the room at large.

  We all looked at mother and she swallowed, swiping a napkin across her lips. She held my gaze and hesitated, clearly reluctant to tell me who we were going into Axismundi to see.

  “Mother?”

  “Trudy Hawthorne Mapes.”

  I blinked. The name sounded vaguely recognizable but I couldn’t place it for a moment. Then my eyes went wide. “Aunt Trudy?”

  Mother nodded, her expression carefully neutral. “Good. You remember her. I wasn’t sure you would.”

  I really remembered mostly impressions. A wide smile, pretty gray-blue eyes that always glinted with something that looked like madness. Pinching… I frowned. “Why do I remember pinching?”

  Mother grimaced. “Trudy was fond of pinching.”

  “As punishment?” the demon asked, grinning.

  “No.” Mother shook her head. “She just liked to pinch.”

  “Alrighty then,” Mandy said, sneering. “I can’t wait to meet her.”

  Always the practical one, Deg got right to the point. “Why are we meeting Trudy?”

  Mother eased herself wearily into a chair. She reached out and ran a blood-red tipped nail over the condensation in her glass of sweet tea. It was another long moment before she spoke. “This is a very sensitive subject for the council. They’ve tried to ignore it for years but of course it isn’t going away.” A fly buzzed past and, frowning, mother drew a bug repelling hex on the table with the liquid from the tea. The fly shot sideways and out the door, probably through my front door, which I had no doubt the demon had left open.

  Thus, the fly in the first place.

  “Mother?” I tried again.

  She sighed. “Trudy has some strange ideas about the hierarchy between the different houses in the magical world. She was devoted to recreating the interrelationships throughout her entire life and…well…her time in the afterlife doesn’t seem to have changed that.”

  “What do you mean recreating interrelationships?” I asked.

  “Trudy believes in a flat magical society. She doesn’t recognize dark or light, good or bad. But it goes even deeper than that. Trudy believes the lowliest gargoyle should have the same influence into the decisions and actions of the magical world as do the highest magic houses. She recognizes no pecking order between Witches and Familiars.” She glanced at Brock. “She wants to obliterate the demonic hierarchy too.”

  He frowned. “But that would create…”

  “Chaos,” mother nodded. “And worse. Our ability to protect humankind will be destroyed.”

  I was starting to understand why Mother was desperate enough to send us into Axismundi. “But she has no real control, right? The council regulates those types of decisions.”

  “Based on a millennia of practice and process,” Deg added.

  “Traditionally, that is correct. But Trudy’s been in Axismundi for a decade now. She’s been working behind the scenes to create the world she wants. And I fear she’s going to move soon to force it on the rest of us.”

  “Force?” Mandy asked, frowning. “How?”

  “You’ve already begun to see it happen,” Mother told us.

  “The strange monsters,” Deg said.

  “From other dimensions. Yes,” Mother agreed. “If she gets what she wants, there will no longer be separate dimensions. Trudy will intermingle them in one, uncontrolled blast. We’ll be overrun with creatures we can’t hope to understand or control.”

  “The humans will get caught in the crossfire,” I breathed, horrified. I met my mother’s fear-filled gaze. “We need to stop her.”

  “Exactly.”

  “But why not tell the council what we’re doing?” Deg asked. “Surely they don’t support her actions.”

  “Most don’t. But I’m sure you can understand that some of the houses which have been held to the lower rungs in the hierarchy might embrace this plan.”

  Unfortunately, I could see that. Very clearly.

  “What about the rest of Axismundi?” Mandy asked. “Are they all supportive of Trudy’s plan?”

  “No. Fortunately we do have allies there. Some of them have even begun slipping through the barrier between Axismundi and the human dimension, working quietly behind the scenes.”

  “Can we work directly with them to keep Trudy’s plan from bleeding into this dimension?” Brock asked.

  “That would be a fond dream,” mother said. “Unfortunately, they risk everything to help. Trudy’s amassed a huge amount of power in Axismundi. If she gets even a whiff of a rebellion…”

  “She’ll go postal on their derrieres,” Mandy said on a frown.

  “I’m certain they’ll reveal themselves in time. But, for now, we’re on our own.”

  “What exactly do you want us to do when we meet with Aunt Trudy,” I asked my mom.

  “Just talk to her. Find out what she’s planning if you can. But whatever you do, don’t take sides. Don’t do anything to make her think you’re on the side of the rebellion. Do what you have to do to make her believe you’re totally neutral. You’re not there to judge. Only to get information for me.” Mother reached out and clasped my hand. Her fingers were soft and cold as ice. “It will mean the difference between life and death, LA. I’m not exaggerating at all when I say that.”

  I nodded. “Got it. I’m Switzerland.”

  Mother didn’t share my smile. She stood up. “Good. You’ll leave in the morning, before first light
. I’ll meet you in the park and help you create a break between the barriers. From there it will be up to you.”

  Chapter Three

  “Maybe we should just let gargoyles rule,” Brock grumbled the next morning, his jaw cracking on a massive yawn.

  Mandy shoved an enormous coffee into his hand. “That’s the lack of caffeine talking. Drink.”

  Brock did drink, but then he shook his head. “No. It’s the lack of sleep talking. Why couldn’t this wait until a decent hour. Even the chickens aren’t up yet.”

  “Because we’re trying to fly under the radar,” I told the grumbly demon. I looked around, worry gnawing at me as the hour grew later and my mother still hadn’t arrived.

  “She’s fine, LA,” Deg told me. “I’m sure she just got waylaid by one of the council members. She doesn’t want to be seen coming here to meet us.”

  But I didn’t believe him. Something cold and slimy had moved into my bones, dread and…fear. “Something’s happened. I can feel it.”

  Mandy frowned. “Should we go to the tower?”

  “No.” I didn’t know what was going on, but my instincts were screaming at me that the only chance we had of helping my mother and…quite possibly…the rest of the world, was to move forward. “We stick to the plan.”

  “Okay,” Brock grumbled. “Do you know how to create a breach in the barriers, because I don’t.”

  We fell silent, all of us looking everywhere but at each other. Nobody knew how to do what we needed to do. And that was a problem.

  “Maybe we should try to reach her through the web,” Deg finally suggested. “Or your grandmother.”

  I shook my head. “No. It’s too dangerous.”

  “Then…?” Mandy said, lifting slender, dark brows in hostile question.

  Meow…

  A small form wound itself around my feet and ankles. I glanced down, expecting to see Mabel, one of three tiny kittens I’d recently rescued from an alley in Illusion City. To my surprise it was her brother. The tiger striped orange cat with startling yellow eyes. “Ralph?”