The group continued on their way. They all made it through the wet corridor without being accosted by anymore wendigos. Evidently the gunfire had scared them off for now.

Cat’s toes got wet, but she didn’t complain. It was better than it could have been and she was just happy to be on the other side and on her feet the moment the ground was dry again.

The sunlight outside the house was bright.

Amanda shielded her eyes from the harsh rays, but was forced to look up a moment later as Indi gave a joyful shout and encased everyone within reach in a tight hug, before they’d barely stepped free from the house’s premises.

Indi finally released them a took a step back. “And Coal?”

“Coal?” Falco asked.

“I don’t know,” Amanda strained her head to the side, trying to see the tiny window that must lead to the basement, but the house was big and it was difficult to tell from the outside how far along they had been.

Before she could get a glimpse of it, or even work out approximately where it was, an almighty crash sounded from within the house. Dust clouds billowed out from the basement windows, followed by crawling vines.

“Oh, bloody hell!” Falco remarked. “Indi, where’d you put the weed killer?”

Indi pointed toward the front of Zephyr’s car, some distance from them.

“I got it,” Zeph remarked. He kicked into top gear before anyone could say, “Zeph, no magic!” which several people did all at once.

Zephyr skidded to a halt right next to the weed killer less than 0.1 of a second after leaving his last position. “Oops!” he remarked as the words of the others finally caught up to him and the size of the vines reaching out of the house expanded 10-fold. He grabbed the backpack of weed killer and ran at a normal pace back towards the house.

The others backed away while Zephyr sprayed the vines. He almost got hit by one large flailing one. He managed to just dodge it, when another hit him over the head from behind. It sent him down in a daze.

He heard several footsteps pounding the gravel around him and arms pulled him away. By the time he had his wits about him again he looked up to watch the marines battle the last of the vines back into the house.

He heard Indi’s voice behind him say, “The weed killer didn’t seem to work as well on it that time.”

“Mmm,” Amanda agreed from beside her.

Zephyr turned around from where he sat on the ground to try and face the others.

Wolf was also there in the car, a grumpy look on his face. He didn’t like being left out of the fighting. He watched with envy as Cat and the marines hacked at the plants.

Amanda and Indi stayed back, their magic, was no use here, and the marines seemed to be handling things well. Amanda shot worried glances to the far basement window, and Zephyr figured he knew what she was worried about.

Behind Amanda, Zephyr could see a drowsy Kass and Sirius, upright and awake, but not completely with it yet. They obviously had some plant juices in their eyes. In front of them crouched someone else Zephyr recognised. Her name was Tanya, a doctor and healer, someone whom they had met on one of their recent adventures.

As Zephyr watched, she finished her inspection of Sirius and Kass, and made her way over to him. She crouched down next to him.

“How are you doing Zeph? That was some fight you were giving there. I saw you get clobbered.”

“Nah, I had it right where I wanted it,” Zephyr replied. Truth was, his head was aching.

Tanya smiled at him. It was a sweet smile. If Zephyr had been in a better condition, he might have been quite taken by it.

She reached a hand up toward his temple. “May I?”

He nodded, and then winced as what felt like lightening blared through his skull. But the moment Tanya touched him the feeling faded.

“Better?” she asked, not removing her hand quite yet.

“Yeah,” Zephyr replied, not nodding this time in case the pain returned.

Once the plant had been chased back into the house it seemed to stay there. Falco and the others approached the car where the group sat.

“You looking for something?” Falco asked, noting Amanda’s worried glances further along the house.

She shook her head a little too quickly and then asked, “How did you get here so fast?”

“We took the heli.” Falco jerked his finger towards the iron gates. Just on this side of them was a helicopter.

“You flew a heli into Little Rock?!” Amanda remarked, surprised.

“It lives on the boat, and we’re still a reasonable distance from dragon territory,” Falco explained. Helicopters, and planes in general weren’t typically flown near Little Rock. It’s proximity to the mountains made it a little too inviting to the dragons, and no one wanted a dragon to get close to the town. Once near civilisation they could be difficult to get rid of, and very deadly. There was enough regular car traffic in Little Rock to exacerbate the problem significantly. Enough that discussions about curbing the number of cars had recently been had by some local politicians. As it were, helicopters were allowed only in exceptional circumstances and with pre-approval.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

“I’m not sure the local council will agree, but I’m glad you did it anyway.” Amanda gave him a nod of thanks.

As Falco had been talking to her she’d shifted away from the house, to keep the lowering sun out of her eyes. She didn’t see what Indi saw but she felt the other woman shift suddenly beside her in a way that got her attention. She turned to look.

There around the side of the house, walked Coal. He was wearing a suit jacket again, obviously having taken a moment to summon one once outside the house. Amanda noted it and made a mental reminder to berate him for the excessive magic use later. Bloody hypocrite, and for such a silly thing.

Beside her, Indi watched him in awe. He had the child with him, draped across his shoulders. Despite the added weight he walked with a comfortable stride, like he knew exactly where he was going and he’d get there precisely when he meant to. Indi marvelled at the fact that, despite everything they had just been through, he looked like he’d just walked out a fancy dinner party where he was the guest of honor.

Tanya met him at the edge of the driveway, Cat followed close behind.

“She needs some medical attention,” Coal remarked as he placed the girl gently on the ground at their feet. He continued on his way past them, striding toward where Amanda and Indi stood.

Cat glanced sideways at the house. “Maybe do that a bit further back,” she told Tanya.

The plant hadn’t attacked when she’d briefly dreamwalked to wake Kass and Sirius, but that had been further from the house, over near the car, where the others waited.

Tanya nodded, then hesitated briefly as she wondered how to lift the girl.

Cat helped her out by picking up where Coal had left off, and carrying the girl to the car.

“You could have brought her the rest of the way,” Amanda remarked to Coal as he reached them.

Coal turned and glanced behind him. He frowned briefly as he turned back to Amanda. “The magic didn’t seem to have as much effect on the plant from outside the house. I tried a bit on the other side.” He ran his fingers down the front seam of his suit jacket, both straightening it and drawing attention to his meaning.

Amanda narrowed her eyes at him, displeased at his seemingly casual demeanour. “Well, Zeph used his speed before and it brought a bunch more vines out.”

They both took a moment to watch the remains of the fight going on near the edge of the house. Most of the vines had now receded back inside. The marines and Cat chased the few remaining stragglers.

“Interesting,” Coal remarked.

When Amanda turned to look back at him, he added, “It didn’t draw any plants out on the other side.”

She frowned. “Why’d you jump to the other side anyway?”

The look on Coal’s face darkened. “I didn’t. Slight mishap in the triangulation of the teleporter.” The tone of his voice suggested, that whomever had sold him the device, would be hearing from him later.

Amanda didn’t pursue it. Instead she turned once more to watch as the last of the vines were chased away. “What happened? Inside?” She asked finally, without turning.

“Hard to say. I think I was right though, there’s some sort of binding spell on the house walls, weak but it’s there. Nothing else followed me out.”

“That we’ve noticed.”

Indi, who had been listening to the whole conversation silently, gazed up the house. It looked back down at her, watching with many windows. And then in one, right up the very top, she could swear was the faint outline of an old woman. The woman shifted slightly. Then Indi blinked and she was gone.

She looked to the others to see if they had noticed it, but their attention was lower down.

Falco approached them, swinging the end of the weed killer nose, and wearing a huge grin. “We got em all. They’re back in the house for now.”

Somewhere in the distance, approaching sirens sounded.

Coal glanced at the helicopter then back at Falco. “You should get your crew and go. The local police aren’t going to like a chopper being here. The less they see of you the better.”

Falco nodded then rounded up the rest of the marines, signalling that they should head for the chopper.

Indi reached for Falco as he made a move to leave.

He paused a moment to give her a quick kiss. “I’ll see you at home.” He patted her arm and gave her reassuring look.

Indi hesitated, then nodded. She watched him jog with the rest of his crew toward the already starting heli. A moment later it was in the air. She watched it fade from view, only half listening to the snippets of conversation of those around her.

The sirens got louder.

Amanda met Coal’s eyes. Then she gave the scene a brief survey. Behind Coal, in the car, Wolf watched them with a wary eye. Sitting near him, Sirius and Kass chatted with one another as they recovered from their ordeal. Zephyr was helping Tanya with the newly awakened kid. And Cat, who had stopped a moment to check on those three, was now heading toward Amanda and Coal.

“You should head off too,” Coal remarked, once Amanda met his eyes again.

Before Amanda could object, Cat butted in. “Well that was one hell of a ... day?” She threw her hands skyward. “What bloody time is it? Is it even the same day.”

The question drew Indi back to Earth and she ran to retrieve her phone as Amanda and Coal compared timepieces.

“It’s not that long after we went in,” Amanda remarked.

“It’s still the same day,” Indi called from over by the car.

Amanda looked expectantly up at Coal but he simply shrugged.

Cat nodded toward the house, “So now what? What do we do with that thing?”

Still looking at Coal, Amanda replied, “Well we’re not letting the local authorities do anything with it, they’re about as competent as a pigeon among the larks.”

Coal raised his eyebrows at the comparison but started to nod.

Amanda continued, “This needs someone from Mercy.”

Coal stopped nodding. “I’ve got people who can handle it.”

“Or sorcerers.” Amanda paused, registering what he had just said. “Do you?” Her tone said she either didn’t believe him or had concerns regarding the type of people he might call.

“Yes. But for the meantime, the local police can keep the other locals out.”

That didn’t placate Amanda. She glanced toward the gates with a worried look as two cop cars pulled through.

“I did suggest you lot clear out but I suppose it’s a bit late for that now.”

Amanda shook her head. “They need to know what happened and they’ll want descriptions of the bodies we found.” She sighed. “They’re going to want to go in the house, you know that.”

Coal nodded. “I’ll make sure they’re warned, but really you know, it’s their choice.” He gave a nonchalant shrug.

Amanda’s expression darkened at that.

“I’ll cover for Falco with his chopper but it’ll cost you,” Coal added.

She clenched her fists but saved her words for later. For now, there was a child who needed to be reunited with her family, and a whole bunch of explaining that needed to be done. She needed to ensure no one else stepped foot in that house until there were prepared for what lay inside. She didn’t trust Coal with that.

It took some time to square things with the police. Eventually they agreed to meet with Kass and some of the house's descendants on Monday to talk about what should happen with it, and that in the meantime no one would venture inside the house. It was likely some local government bodies would need to be brought in on the conversation as well. The police took Agatha. Tanya went along with the child as well, promising not to leave her side until her parents arrived at the hospital. By the time it was all worked out, the night was late and the sun had set once more.