The chief witch looked like he was ready to smack someone. He strode into the room. “You aren’t a strong enough witch to stay without agreeing to be useful. Get up.”
“I agree!” Dan stood, looking at his unwanted guests.
Sondre smiled at him, easing a little of Dan’s worries. “Daniel tries very hard. He’s had no doubts and—”
“Great. If Monahan does as he’s told, he can stay permanently.” The chief witch eyed him. “Understood? Help them with this, and do as you’re told whenever I give you a job, and you are an asset. Refuse, and you are useless to Crenshaw. Clear?”
“No…?” Dan looked between Sondre and the chief witch. “I mean, I understand the whole obedience thing. Classic villain sidekick… orminion, really. Maybe Renfield? Basically, be a lackey. That part makes sense, but—”
“Get it done.” The chief witch left without another word.
Dan backed up until his knees hit his mattress. Mutely, he sat and stared up at Sondre. Whatever was going on had to be a big deal if Sondre was here with the chief witch.
“We need to go,” Lady Prospero said, looking at Sondre instead of Dan. “Bring the amplifier.”
Then she vanished.
“Where do we get an amplifier?” Dan asked Sondre.
But Sondre held out a hand. “Youarethe amplifier in this case. Just don’t argue with her or ask questions. The less you know, the better it is.”
Dan nodded, thinking yet again that he wasn’t on the white hat side. If the chief witch and Lady Prospero—who was supposedly Sondre’s nemesis—were also on Sondre’s side, Dan wasn’t sure there evenwasa white hat side, after all.
Doesn’t someone need to be the good guy?
Oh shit! I hope that’s not what I need to do!
He shoved that thought down, way down, like to his kneecaps down, and took Sondre’s hand. Suddenly, everything felt woozy, like after too much mead and not enough sleep, so he scrunched his eyes closed to avoid throwing up.
When he opened them, he was in a field outside a nice house. There were no other houses in sight, and it felt like a giant crochet hook had caught his bottom rib. There was a tug there, and Dan was fairly sure that if he gave in, he’d vanish somewhere else.
“Crochet hook in my rib,” he squeezed out.
“Ignore it. Sondre, hold on to him until I tell him to grab my shoulder.” Prospero’s words appeared before she did, like a creepy Wonderland cat, and weirder still, she now had a teen boy at her side.
“Craig?” Sondre asked.
“Do I know you?” He jerked away from Prospero. “I’m really sickof people trying to kidnap me. First the weird woman talking about my dead mom and now—”
“She’s not dead,” Sondre told him. He shot a look at Prospero. “Fix him.”
Without a word, she stared at the teen, and he crumpled to the ground. When she looked back at Sondre, she said, “He had the sudden urge to nap longer.”
“I’m really confused.” Dan looked around at them. He understood that she’d magicked the boy to sleep. “Where are we?”
“Ellie’s place.” Prospero strode into the big white farmhouse. “Come on.”
Sondre settled the boy with a remarkable degree of care. Perversely, it reminded Dan of how people arranged corpses for a wake. He looked away and then scurried after Prospero.
“It’ll be okay,” Sondre said quietly as he caught up and stood at Dan’s side. “Trust me.”
For a flicker of a moment, Dan wondered if Sondre was actually the good guy after all. Either that, or Prospero had erased his mind so often that he had no idea what was what anymore.
Then again, the three of them were about to break into Ellie Brandeau’s house, and all Dan could think was that iftheywere the good guys now, that made Ellie the villain. That didn’t sound like a great plan.
What if there are no villains?
What if there are no heroes?
