Chapter Nine

 “Protect me?” she read further, “Well, okay, why is it that they’re not here?”

“Here?” Frank asked.

“In this dimension?” Thomas asked, “They were across the road from the place, sitting and waiting for Mary, and when we came here, they didn’t follow.”

Her uncle closed the book, replacing it on the shelf again, “Well, let’s see, I think it’s because they either trusted you or feared you.” he shrugged, “Either way, you’re both not out of the woods with this.”

Thomas sighed, “Look it’s getting late, we all need some sleep. And I’d like it very much if the furniture around this place didn’t take another swipe at my life.”

Mary gave Frank an expectant look, “Yes, I don’t want to wake up with him dead.”

“Oh jeez, I’ve broken your trust, haven’t I?” the older man groaned, “I’m so sorry, sweetpea, I really didn’t mean to do that. But your mother did tell me to protect you when you got here.”

“Okay, I get it, but I’m classed as an adult.” she said, “Oh, another thing: why wasn’t I told about my powers? Was this thing going to be a huge secret until I blew up a city block?”

“I told her to tell you, but she was terrified at how you’d respond. And keeping it from you was the wrong thing to do as well.” Frank shook his head, “You should have been told when you were sixteen, but by then, you had met Thomas and you were both supposed to click as partners in the witch and warlock worlds.”

“Hey, I remember that day!” Thomas said, “It was really weird. We kept running into each other. Bolts of lightning kept coming out nowhere on a hot sunny day… and nobody could explain it.”

Mary nodded, “Yeah. It was us and our powers?”

Frank sighed, “You two were supposed to … well… be.”

“Be?”

“Matched up by the Fates.” Thomas said, “But seeing we missed out on each other then, we met in university. And your mother went to extremes by - oh hell - going missing, to get you away from me.”

Mary looked at Frank, “Okay, she was scared of something going buggy, so why was she keeping us apart?”

As the two stared at Frank, he motioned them toward the dining room table, “Okay, you’ll have to push your Dad about this Thomas, but there’s a big Fate story coming your way.”

 

The sun was coming up, glinting through the lower branches of the trees when Frank finished talking. He had pulled out some of the Family History books from his shelves and showed the two how Fated they were supposed to be.

“And just as there’s a King Arthur in every dimension and time on Earth, you two are like Merlin and his love.” Frank said, “I have no idea why your mother kept you separate from Thomas, but she did. You would have both kept the Balthazar’s of every world and dimension in their own prisons for a millennia - or more.”

The sound of a car pulling up sounded outside, and Mary and Thomas looked up from the book, “Who’s that?” Mary asked.

“That would be your mother.”

“Or Balthazar - in case he’s figured out a way to get here.”

“Doubt that.” Frank rose from his chair and walked out along the wrap-around verandah, “Diane! You’ve been gone for longer than expected.”

“Frank, what happened to your illusion?”

“It bummed out… and you’ve got a visitor, well, two really.” his voice said.

Mary turned in her seat quickly, “Mother?”

“I don’t recognise that Kombi next to mine. So, who could… hang on there’s a force field around it. Camouflage?” there was silence, “Oh, this is great! Where is he!”

“Now, Diane, don’t get one your soapbox, they’re here for a good reason. And really you should have told Mary.” Frank’s voice got closer as her mother’s marching footfalls almost ran along the verandah and came to a sudden halt at the door, “You knew they were Fated to be together, so why did you try to stop it?”

Mary ran to her mother hugging her, “Oh mother! It’s so good to see you!”

Her mother held her close, “I knew you’d find me. But why are you with a demon? Why did you bring Thomas Benson here? He works for Balthazar… they communicate all the time.”

“Actually, I haven’t spoken to him for over three days.” he said, “But if you bothered to ask me about that, instead of your daughter, you’d get the real answers.” he turned in his chair, leaning his arm across the back of the chair next to him, “And besides, your brother tried to kill me last night - kudos to him - with Mary defending me.”

Diane stared at her daughter, “Why did you stop Thomas’ death?”

“Mother, we’ve had all kinds of things after us over the past few days, and I’ve tried to contact you - and you’ve been hiding here like a child! And Thomas has been the only person who has kept me safe. He’s used all his leads, people I’ve never met, weird-looking creatures who got us that camouflage unit for the Kingswood, and then we met the only person - I could only guess was an Angel - and he helped us when he didn’t have to, because he knew you as well.”

“Did you get the book?”

“Yes.”

“I can’t feel it. Its magicks are strong.”

“It’s in a led-lined box.”

Frank pointed to Mary, “And this is why you mis-judged your daughter, Diane.”

“And without realising it, I summoned the three gargoyles as well to help me.” she said.

Her mother took a step back, “Oh… wow! I couldn’t do that without destroying something. And you did that - when?”

“When I was in the city visiting the lawyers. They were on the building.” she said.

“A-and they didn’t crush the building?” her mother asked.

“No… just watched me walk in, and walk past.” she frowned, “I thought they were something I was imagining, until Thomas told me he could see them too.”

Her mother smiled, “And you two are more powerful, um, together?”

Thomas looked at Mary, “We’re not sure yet. We haven’t tried out our powers together.”

“Why not?”

Mary blushed as she looked at her shoes, “Well…”

He put his arm around her shoulders gently, “Mary gets nervous and blows up things in a huge way. And last night, she blew all the light bulbs in the house, imploded all the potion bottles and made a battle ax fly through the air - aiming it at Frank’s head.”

“Mary!” her mother shouted.

Frank shushed his sister, “In all fairness, I was trying to kill Thomas without actually getting the full story about him. I did think he was just a demon - but he’s just working for the wrong team.”

Diane was still not impressed by her daughter’s actions: “Frank, she still could have done that a little differently.”

Her brother shook his head, “No… what she did was right. I was enjoying my torture of Thomas way too much; and she had a right to make everything explode like that.” he took a deep breath, “Diane, your daughter has some really big juice… you have to train her, and do it properly.” he looked around outside, “This means you can do it here without worrying about destroying parts of Earth.”

“Mother I can feel my gargoyles missing me… can I conjure them her?” Mary asked.

“Not while Balthazar is looking for us both.” her mother said, “And we need to start on your magickal education today. Both of you will need to work on pairing up with your magicks together. Frank’s right. I shouldn’t have gone against the Fates in this. You’re both very powerful; and with your powers working together, you can get rid of Balthazar.”

Mary smiled, “When do we start?”

“Well, have you eaten anything for breakfast?”

“Actually, Uncle Frank has been teaching us about our history.” Mary said.

Diane smiled, “Well, let’s eat first and we’ll see what you can do outside - well away from the house.”

 

All four of them spent the day away from the house, working on their herb-gathering, identifying trees, mushrooms and other items Mary had to learn about within a few months - which she should have learned over her whole life, but didn’t.

Thomas and Frank picked up some kindling and chopped wood for the fireplace that night.

“How long have you been using your powers?” Frank turned from the block with the ax in his hand.

“Well, since I was about five years old.” Thomas said, “When I accidentally killed my goldfish by feeding it.”

“Shit man, what did you do?”

“I sprinkled the flakes in and - as I rubbed my fingers together - a bolt of lightning from my fingertips electrocuted my fish; and blew up the fishbowl.” he pulled together a pile of sticks and tied them with some twine, “I was a mess as kid. I didn’t want to pat or be near any animals because I thought I was going to kill them.”

Frank wiped sweat from his face with a handkerchief, “I can see where you’d think that.”

“When Dad found out, he decided to take me to one side and teach me about my powers, and showed me how to work it so I didn’t blow things up like I did with the fish. It took a long time to get it right, but I’ve been working my powers in my own way for a long time.” he looked over at Mary and her mother, “But for Diane to not say anything to Mary is, I don’t know, like being a bad parent.”

Frank rested the ax against the pile of timber to be chopped, “Yeah, well, I can see where you may think that. But I think Diane didn’t want her daughter to be feared.”

Thomas sniffed, “Yeah, now I think back, I didn’t have that many friends. But Mary doesn’t either. You have to think of it: we’ve been gone from uni for - what? - over three days, and nobody has reported us missing. That’s how many friends we have back there.”

The older man sighed, “I guess.”

“And the only person - or thing - coming after us is my boss, Balthazar, who is after not only Diane’s soul, but will rake me over the coals if he ever catches me.” he shuddered at the thought of that demon ever catching up with him, seeing he had gone against the CEO of Billy, Bob & Sons, “And what kind of business calls themselves that? And how can I ever go back to just being me, after all the foul deals I’ve made, my soul is so manky it’s not worth saving.”

Frank felt truly sorry for the kid. Thomas had finally fallen in love with the sweetest, most lovely young lady - his niece - only to find he was dealing with the demons at his workplace. And those demons were his bosses, “You know, this place doesn’t want to spit you out.”

Thomas turned from looking at Mary and Diane, “It doesn’t?”

“Nah, I said that to get on your nerves.” he smiled, “And you’ve got service on your phone… I did that to you too. Just please don’t make any phone calls - or Balthazar will find you. He’s like a bad penny.”

“Yeah, he is.” he looked at his phone, “Why is it that my phone says I’m in New York?”

Frank grinned, “Well, you don’t want him finding you in Australia, do ya?”

He glanced at the screen again, “No. We do need a plan though.”

“We need more wood for the fireplace.” Frank said, “And getting the ax to chop it for us? Not a good idea. I’ve tried that.”

“A bit like Mickey Mouse in Fantasia?”

“Ha! Yeah!”

They both turned as they heard the voices of the women coming towards them, “Now,” Diane said, “You’re coming along well. I’ll get you a book from inside the house and you can start your own Book of Shadows and you can begin creating your spells as well.” she looked at Frank, “Tomorrow, I’d like you to teach her about harnessing lightning.”

“Woah! That’s advanced!” his eyes widened.

“No, not really.” Thomas said, “We nearly did it on the road outside of here, but Mary got apprehensive about doing it - even with me around. She was scared she’d hurt me, blow up the road, or the fence or the letter box… you have to get her confidence up.”

“Right.” Frank nodded, sniffing, “So, I’m the old fart being sacrificed then?”

Diane, smirked: “I suppose you are - at least for now.”