Chapter 36

36

I woke with a start, skin prickling with the sense of something coming. Lifting my head from Jack’s shoulder, I nudged him awake and nodded toward the cell door. The distinct sound of a boat moving through water filled the dank space.

It’s time.

“Danny.” I ducked my head, whispering in the boy’s ear. “Wake up. The giants are coming back.” He stirred sleepily in my lap before shooting up, eyes wide with alarm. I shushed him before the impending shout could pass his lips. “It’s going to be okay. Just stay behind us, all right?”

He nodded, and Jack and I staggered to our feet, standing shoulder-to-shoulder as the boat’s bow glided into view. I tensed, waiting for the giants to appear, but the figures that did were closer to my size than the mountainous guards we’d dealt with earlier. Their faces were shrouded by dark, hooded cloaks, and the one in front turned slowly in our direction, his arms spreading out in front of him as he sang in a deep, haunting voice,

“The Phaaaaannnnntom of the Opera is there….”

My jaw dropped. “No fucking way.”

The figure threw his hood back with a dramatic flourish, his grin dazzlingly bright in the dim light. “Tell me you haven’t been thinking the same thing all night. I mean, an underground canal? Dark, gloomy atmosphere? How amazing is this?”

A borderline-manic laugh bubbled up in my throat. “Tenebris?” I squinted at the other figure standing in the back holding the pole, and my heart leaped with hope. “Please tell me that’s Calum back there.”

Calum pushed back his hood with a sheepish grin. “In the flesh. Sorry. Tenebris wanted a theatrical entrance, and I couldn’t say no.”

“And why should you?” Tenebris countered. “Our entrance was perfect.”

“If your grand entrance came with a key to this cell,” Jack interjected, “I’ll high-five you myself.”

Tenebris smacked his forehead. “I knew I was forgetting something.”

“If that’s a joke, it’s so not funny,” I warned.

“Not a joke,” Tenebris replied. “But also—not a problem.”

“What do you—” Before I could finish my question, Tenebris snapped his fingers and disappeared into thin air. A second later he reappeared, standing directly beside me, his arm hitched atop my shoulder.

“Nice little place you got here.” He looked around the cell with feigned interest. “Although a bit too plain for my taste. Needs more color, maybe a couple of throw pillows? Cozy it up a bit.”

“You… you just…” I gawked at him, the words so impossible they stuck to my tongue.

“Teleported?” A smug grin crept onto his face. “Sure did.”

I frowned. “Please tell me you’re not giving off evil vibes again, because a castle full of angry giants is bad enough. They do not need to be influenced into even darker moods.”

“He’s clean,” Calum assured me, placing a foot on the narrow ledge outside the cell and grabbing one of the bars as he held the boat steady.

“Well, maybe not that clean.” Tenebris smirked. “He’s leaving out the bit where he accidentally knocked over an entire shelf of potions while I was”—he waggled his eyebrows—“nursing him back to health.”

“Potions? Teleporting?” Jack looked back and forth between us, his face creased in exasperation. “Can someone please tell me what the hell is going on?”

“Tenebris was born a witch with exceptional powers, including the ability to teleport, glamor, and brew various potions,” I explained. “Unfortunately, he was also giving off an aura that influenced several people in the forest to act on their darker urges, myself included. It wasn’t something he could control, and when another witch eventually absorbed his powers, the aura disappeared. Thus my concern that it might come back given his renewed ability to teleport.”

“Okay,” Jack said slowly, still looking somewhat confused. “And he got his power back from a potion here in the castle?”

“Maybe?” Tenebris shrugged. “I’m honestly not sure myself. While I did get hit with a fair amount of potion splashback, it wasn’t until a shock wave knocked us both on our asses and a cloaked giant appeared out of thin air that I felt the first tendrils of power creeping back in. So far it’s just teleportation, though, and only over short distances. Whether or not it’s a permanent return remains to be seen.”

“The room we escaped to ended up being some kind of magic workshop,” Calum added. “Complete with a giant cauldron, enough herbs to set up an apothecary’s shop, and several finished elixirs.”

“Don’t forget the entrails,” Tenebris added. “Jars full of briny bits.”

Calum grimaced. “I’ll never look at pickles the same way again.”

“I think I’m going to be sick,” Danny croaked.

Tenebris craned his neck to get a better look at the boy hiding behind me. “And who’s this little guy?”

“This is Danny, Harp’s little brother.” I gently bumped the boy’s side. “He brought the curse into the castle after the giants turned his sister into an enchanted instrument.”

“Like you do,” Tenebris murmured.

“Speaking of which,” Jack interjected. “Shouldn’t we be formulating a plan to rescue her and get the fuck out of this place?”

“A hundred percent,” I confirmed. “Tenebris, can you teleport us back to the beanstalk? And pick up Harp and bring her too.”

“I could.” Tenebris grimaced. “Only one little problem—the beanstalk’s gone.”

My stomach took a deep dive down to my toes. “What?”

“Yeeeah,” Tenebris drawled. “I took Calum there first, thinking I’d leave him and come back for you all one at a time. We overheard some of the giants saying you’d been brought down here—they’re crazy mad, by the way. Like, foaming at the mouth level mad. Anyway, when we got to the place where the beanstalk had been, it was gone. I might be able to teleport through the clouds, but I doubt I could make it all the way to the ground safely. And if I didn’t break all my bones, it’d be a one-way trip for two, at best.”

“So, you’re saying we’re stuck up here?” Jack groaned.

Tenebris shrugged. “Unless you know another way back down to the forest?”

His question was met with silence, and I stared bleakly at the cell bars. The beanstalk was gone. The only way in or out of the Sky Castle…

I frowned.

Or was it?

“Danny.” I turned, looking down at the little boy. “When you brought the cursed egg into the castle, how did you manage to get past the guards outside? Or climb the beanstalk unnoticed, for that matter?”

He cocked his head. “I didn’t.”

“What do you mean, you didn’t?” I pressed. “How did you get inside the castle?”

“I used the magic bean that old man gave me. He traded me the egg and a bean for my mother’s cow and told me to throw the bean down the wishing well just south of Cursed Creek. Said it would open a portal to the one here in the castle, and all I’d have to do was climb through.”

“That was you I saw,” I murmured, thinking of the strange vision I’d been pulled into after breaking the curse. “The well outside Jack’s shelter—it must be the other end of the portal. All we need is to teleport there, throw in a magic bean, and voila! We’ll be on our way home.”

“Ah yes, easy peasy,” Tenebris said. “One teensy problem, Mari.”

I gave him a knowing smile. “We need a magic bean?”

“Exactly. And where are we suppose—ooooh, shit! Abuela’s bean! You’re a genius,” he cackled, grabbing my arm. The world folded in on itself as a whirlwind of purple and gold swirled around us before spitting us back out onto the grass. Birds twittered excitedly in the trees as I grasped the edge of the moss-covered well, my head reeling from the sudden change.

“A little warning next time would be nice,” I moaned, but Tenebris only grinned as he snapped his fingers and disappeared. He returned a moment later with a pale-faced Danny, who doubled over in the grass and hurled while Tenebris blinked out of sight. Jack appeared next, stumbling drunkenly towards me on wobbly legs.

“Nope,” he grunted. “Not a fan of that.”

Tenebris appeared again with Calum in tow, and I noticed this time they breezed in with far more grace. Calum grinned from ear-to-ear. “Amazing.”

Tenebris clapped his hands together. “All right! Why don’t you open the portal while I pop up and grab Danny’s sister. I’m assuming she’s the only talking harp? Shouldn’t be too hard to find.”

I squeezed my eyes shut, willing the world to stop tilting around me. “Maybe you haven’t noticed, Ten-Ten, but Jack’s and my hands are bound. Kind of hard to do much of anything at the moment. Secondly, the giants took all of our belongings when they apprehended us. Including the bag with Abuela’s bean.”

“He could still get Annabelle and bring her here, couldn’t he?” Danny pleaded, wiping his mouth with the back of his sleeve as he staggered to his feet. “She’s been stuck here as long as anyone. Please .”

“If he grabs her now, we risk bringing the entire castle down on our heads before we’re ready,” Jack explained, giving Danny a sympathetic look. “They’ll be sure to notice her disappearance, no matter how stealthily done.”

I bent down until we were eye-to-eye, forcing the remaining dizziness away. “We won’t leave her behind, Danny. I promise.”

He nodded, lip quivering, and I cursed the binding on my wrists holding me back from giving him a proper hug. Which, in itself, was a strange feeling. Wanting to hug someone? For comfort ? As hard as I’d tried to be better these past two years since Tenebris’s influence disappeared, even I wouldn’t have believed myself capable of these kind of feelings. And yet, here I was, getting all teary-eyed and maternal. I blamed Jack.

And loved him for it.

“Ten-Ten, you go scout out where they’re keeping our things. Preferably without being seen. While you’re gone, I’ll work on freeing Jack and myself from these shackles.”

Tenebris looked dubiously at my bound wrists. “How? Without magic, I don’t see how you’ll manage it sans cutting off your hands or breaking all the bones in them until you can slide them through.” His eyes flared wide. “Oh my gods, you’re totally going to do that, aren’t you? Shit, I can’t watch, but I can’t look away either! Aaaah, okay. Everyone just breathe and stay calm. Calum, grab a hammer from Jack’s cabin. They’re going to need our help.”

“Dude, no.” I delivered a swift kick to Calum’s butt when he turned a little too eagerly toward the cabin. “That is so not the plan.”

“It’s not?” Tenebris cocked his head. “Huh. I really thought that was it. So… what then? Do you have some kind of super lube I’m unaware of? And if so, can I borrow some? And by borrow, I mean keep, ’cause gross. Friends don’t reuse other friends’ lube.”

Dear lord, to think I’d actually been intimate with this guy once upon a time. Darker times. “I’m going to use magic, ” I sighed. “Obviously.”

“Seriously?” The levity finally disappeared from Tenebris’s voice as he stared back at me in surprise. “But… you can’t work magic without your tools.”

I rolled my shoulders. “Watch me.”