“Your life isn’t going to be what you thought,” Fatiha said, turning the wheel hard and glancing over. “At this point, you have a choice to make.”

“Live or die?” I asked, glancing back over my shoulder.

“On a basic level, yes. But I mean that you need to commit, or likely die. The third choice is to go over to their side, but then I’d have to kill you, of course.”

I laughed, only to see she wasn’t smiling. Not a joke, apparently.

“You have nothing to worry about,” I said. “Maybe death, but not me switching sides. My aunt was committed. I’m even more so.”

“We’ll see about that.”

A screeching sounded and two cars appeared, closing in on us. Steph wasn’t giving up so easily. What I couldn’t have expected was how well Fatiha handled the drive through the city. She seemed to know every turn, every in and out of public parking lots, and was quick at the wheel.

In the parking lot of a church, the enemy cars drew close enough that they opened fire, seemingly aimed for our tires, but Fatiha drove right through a gate, came peeling out on a road where we almost flipped while a truck swerved to avoid us, and then we were going down a hill, turning again and again, and there was no sign of them.

We also didn’t seem to be headed for the house. “Where are we?”

“Taking you on a tour,” she replied, and winked.

I shifted in my seat to see the Capitol Building in the distance, a sign that said 14th Street, and then Dupont Circle.

“This is… I mean…”

“Yes, I’m taking you to see the White House.”

“I took a walk, saw some of the city.”

“Doesn’t matter,” she said, waving the comment off. “We need to be somewhere public. Right about now they’re going to look for you around the house, and as you might have figured by their use of guns, their magic is weak during the day.”

“Mine isn’t.”

She nodded. “Observant. That’s the problem with dark magic, even more so with shadow magic. During the day, they aren’t much better than common criminals, trying to shoot up the city. If we’re in a well-guarded, heavily populated area, our chances of survival rise drastically.”

That made sense. “But what about the car and the ward on it? Couldn’t we just hide in the car, or drive through whatever they throw at us?”

“Wards are temporary,” she replied. “The ones on the house are amplified by the same power that will allow your aunt’s Life Tree to work. Out here, not so much. A few good shots, and your ward breaks.”

“A public place it is, then.” I sat back, watching the tall buildings as we drove closer. D.C. was unlike anything I’d experienced back in Oregon. While Portland was a big city and had the most amazing bookstore, it was like apples and oranges to D.C. Soon, we were walking along the area next to the old war building. We took a tour of some apartment across the way that held significance but didn’t matter to me in the slightest at the moment, and then ate at the restaurant on top of the W, where we had a great view of the Treasury building and, past it, the White House.

She ordered meatloaf for herself and insisted I try the crab cakes. We sat back, taking it all in. A moment to relax.

“I’m going to miss her,” Fatiha said.

“Ah, yes. Me too.” I indicated her pocket. “But you have…”

“The tree?” She allowed a smile. “It’s something, sure. But imagine, if you will, having a favorite hamburger, and then one day being told you can hold a toy version of the hamburger, but never taste the real thing.”

“That’s got to be one of the worst—”

“I know, I know. But you get the picture. It’s not the same as having the real her.” Hand going to her pocket, she nodded in appreciation as the waiter brought us waters, then watched him walk off. “Ask me.”

“What?”

“Why here. Ask me why I brought you here.” She turned back to me, sipped her water, and waited.

“Wh—”

“Because it was the last place Gertrude and I went out to. We mostly didn’t go out anymore, at least not when it could be helped. But she had made a discovery, about the time when she told me you would be coming. So, we had to celebrate.”

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Was the discovery… me?”

“You?” Her smile faded. “I… actually hadn’t considered that. She kept a lot of her work private, only filling me in on what was necessary. And she did talk about your coming quite often, but I never put the two together.”

“You two—”

“Holy shit.”

I turned to her and frowned. “What?”

“I can’t believe I didn’t put the two together before. Here I was thinking we had a lead on another gargoyle or something, or finally anything to do with the actual location of the Liahona. But it was you.” She turned to me, looking me up and down, and then laughed. “You’re the piece of the puzzle. But sorry, you were going to say?”

“Just…” I ran a hand over my chin, massaging it, not sure how to take her burst of surprise and the way she was suddenly looking at me. “I was going to say that you two sounded very busy. Doing what, exactly?”

“Traveling. We found those gargoyles, Ebrill being one, apparently—”

“And the other is Kordelia.”

“You don’t… say.” She eyed me, took another sip, then nodded as the food arrived. When the waiter was gone again, she leaned in, lowering her voice. “Those names aren’t completely alien to me, you should know.”

“You’ve seen them before.”

She nodded. “In a book, one that Gertrude found. We can ask her about it sometime,” she tapped her pocket, “find out where the book is for the other names. But yes, Ebrill and Kordelia were two witches who are said to have been part of the magical war that actually ended much of magic on Earth.”

“How so?” I asked.

“That’s something we’ll have to ask Ebrill.”

“If she ever gets her memory back.” I took a bite of my crab cake and leaned back, enjoying it. Perfection.

“What—er, what’s going on with you two?” Fatiha glanced over, as if she knew this was a weird question to ask.

“Does it matter one way or another?”

She shook her head. “Curious, is all.”

“I think… we’re bonding?” Leaning forward and lowering my voice now, I added, “After seeing her in the dream… more so.”

“Good.” She nodded, took another bite of her meatloaf, chewed, and swallowed while we sat in silence, me wondering if this was really good in her mind. I finished my first and second crab cakes, letting my mind wander to memories of our time together and those strange dreams.

“Shouldn’t we be, I don’t know, trying to find other ways to wake Kordelia?” I asked, trying to get the focus off me.

“Want to get me back there, is that it? Just the…” She froze, licked her lips, then muttered, “Shit.”

“What?”

“It’s… I took one of my medications earlier. Has this added effect of making me say things.”

“Like just now.”

She cocked her head and nodded. Then eyed me closely, waiting for me to say something. Suddenly, she was up and motioning to the waiter. “Check, please.”

We left without another word about it. I wondered if the moment had been her hitting on me or something else. At her age, it felt off, but… kind of hot? The longer the silence continued, though, the more certain I was that it was exactly what happened. She wanted me, or at least her medication made her think she did.

I glanced over. Her eyes met mine, and we shared an awkward smile.

“So… what now?” I asked.

“When night falls, we try to wake the second, like you said.”

The elevator door dinged open and we exited, turning right to make our way over along Fifteenth Street. Of course, I had meant what would happen between the two of us, but I left it alone. If she wanted to pretend it hadn’t happened, I could do that.

“I’m getting an ice cream,” Fatiha said, indicating the ice cream cart on the corner. Considering the heat, it sounded perfect. “Then maybe a drink, in Gertrude’s memory. You?”

“I’ll go for the ice cream,” I said. Grieving didn’t come easy for me, considering I had barely known the woman. While Fatiha was doing a good job masking her emotions, her eyes showed that she was clearly distraught, so I added, “My treat.”

“Don’t you start.” She waved me away and pulled out a purse stuffed with cash and cards. “If there’s one area we won’t have to worry about, it’s money.”

I nodded, not sure if I had ever seen so much money in one place. Upon seeing the surprise on my face, she shrugged. “Your aunt has always been very generous. Now that she’s gone, maybe more so. Her remnant—let’s call it that—gave me instructions after you left. She wanted her fortune to go on for the two of us. To pursue what she started, but never managed to finish.”

“Meaning, I’m rich but can’t use it.”

She chuckled, nodding. “You can, but draw too much attention to yourself and you’ll likely be dead by the next morning. We need to focus on the objective—find the Liahona before the enemy, and ensure it can never be used by them.”

“Ensure how?”

She weighed me up with a penetrating look before turning back to the road, and replying, “Do what those of old never could do. Destroy it.”

“If it’s so powerful, couldn’t we use it to defeat the enemy?”

She shook her head. “It has a way of affecting its user. Making the best of us mad for power.”

“So, we get it, destroy them, then destroy it. Yeah? But how does it work, and how do we destroy it? Throw it into Mt. Doom, I’m guessing.”

The reference was lost on her, as she shook her head. “I don’t know of any such mountain, but no, and I don’t have the answer to that question.”

With a solemn nod, I cleared my throat and looked out at the many sweaty tourists, a statue of a man on a horse, and several protesters in front of the White House. All of those people thought what they were doing was important, and that this building they were looking at housed one of the most powerful men in the world. How little they knew. According to what I was hearing, the mission I was taking on was of more importance than anything any president had ever done and had the potential to give me more power than anyone.

An overwhelming thought, for sure.

“That should do,” Fatiha said, eyes lingering on my face longer than seemed natural. After a moment, she said, “You know, you have some of her in you.”

“My aunt?”

She nodded. “Maybe it’s the magic, the sense of adventure in what’s about to come. I don’t know. But, I see it.”

I smiled and turned back to watch the activists on the White House lawn.

“Come on,” she said, indicating the sun’s low position in the sky. “Best get back before dark.”

“They won’t be waiting anymore?”

“Oh, they might be. I’m hoping they’ve thinned out, but also, I’ve had time to come up with a plan.” She grinned, pushed herself up, and then offered me a hand. I nodded, pushed myself up on my own, and followed her back to the car.