CHAPTER#106

"I wish I could forget you, too." When she slammed the bedroom door behind her, it suddenly occurred to her how still the house was. Night had fallen and nearly all the lights were off, but the silence was the worst. This place was almost never quiet, yet now it wasn't much different than the tower had been.

Had she exchanged one prison for another? Descending the stairs, she flipped all of the lights on as she went. Out in the front yard, she looked at the statues of the others, then out at the street. A jogger went by, which she found odd for this time of night, but anybody who chose to run for fun was pretty weird to begin with.

It took Yuki only a few minutes to move the rats into the backyard, but Sofia took longer. She moved the cyclops carefully through the house using magic to levitate the statue, wary of chipping or cracking the stone. While she was still a statue, she could be uncursed with no harm done, but a crack could become a serious injury. Sofia got set next to Naia's fountain.

Abella couldn't be moved. A permanent frost had settled over the house, so Yuki shaved the ice block down to a reasonable size and then built a snowman on top of her to hide her in plain sight. She wasn't worried that it was almost eighty degrees outside of the front yard, the geas would take care of the details.

The jogger went by again. He only paid her a cursory glance, but she couldn't help but feel that he was actually seeing her and what she was doing. She didn't like that at all.

The sundial was slowly counting down. Yuki grabbed it and tried to give it a spin, but it didn't budge. Frustrated, she set up some wards of her own underneath the lions. If someone walked in, she would know and deal with them accordingly. Just to be safe, she spent some time creating giant ice blocks along the walls that she could smash together to crush an intruder from the sides.

Satisfied that the front yard was secure, she went back inside and to the wardrobe. Using the key to unlock it, she stepped through and waited a few minutes for Daisy to arrive. Puzzled that the fairy was missing, she checked to make sure the Jabberwock was still standing guard and then went back through the trees to the house, locking the wardrobe again and tucking the key away.

She couldn't bear to sleep in Emily's bed, so took up a spot on the couch downstairs, her ears turned toward the closet in case the others managed to thaw the pool. A pair of tarot cards were kept close at hand in case she needed to summon some magic at a moment's notice. Lying there, she yawned wide enough that her mouth elongated and her jaw cracked. Promising to close her eyes for just a few minutes, her mind, her head filled with images of a strange room in a house full of game pieces. She wandered from room to room, pursued by the shadow of a tall woman who kept holding up a shining gem.

Her wards went off.

Bolting upright, she squinted against the bright light streaming through the front windows. How long had she slept? Sliding off of the couch, she winced, rubbing her lower back. She had fallen asleep on one of her tails and her spine was now all out of whack. Stumbling up to the front door, she took a moment to compose herself, tucking the tarot cards out of sight. Silencing the blaring alarm in her head, she opened the door and walked outside, commanding her outfit to change into a set of white robes.

There were several of them, standing there in broad daylight, men wearing different outfits. Some were in regular clothes, but a few were in uniform. A pair of garbage men, a man carrying bibles, and even a police officer. They had spread across the yard, each one staring in her direction. Three of them stood between her and the sundial. She recognized the jogger, then realized that she recognized all of them. They had the exact same body and face, that of a blond man with a neatly trimmed mustache. One of them wore a white suit and carried a cane and he stepped forward from the group.

"I wouldn't even bother yourself." He smirked, leaning forward on the cane. "The others are already on their way."

"The others? What others?" Yuki yawned, revealing her teeth. "I'm sorry, but apparently I overslept. Are you the one who set off my wards? What time is it?"

The intruder shook his head and three of the men near her rushed forward. Now that they were close, she could smell his magic. These were golems made of sand, simple but effective, and they were nearly at the steps. She sent out a pulse of magic, and the ice spikes hidden beneath the snow burst forth, impaling them vertically in place.

The intruder seemed taken aback. "Surround her, take her out."

Yuki tossed a pair of tarot cards into the front yard, where they vanished into the snow. Thick, wooden roots swirled upward, forming into a pair of men, one distinctly shorter than the other. Long staves burst out of the ground, and the elementals armed themselves.

The Knight of Wands rushed forward, crashing into a police officer, while the Page of Wands speared the jogger with a staff, tossing him to the side. The front yard was essentially one big mana pool for Yuki to draw upon, now that it was covered in a foot of snow, so she summoned some snowmen as well. The men on spikes turned into sand and fell free, reforming at the bottom. She was able to freeze one in place, but not before another one pulled out a pistol and fired.

The Knight of Wands took the bullet for her, stumbling back before rushing forward and taking out her attacker. The golems were now becoming more fluid to avoid her attacks, so Yuki summoned the King and Queen of Wands. Atop their heads, they wore a crowns of wood, and they crashed into the invaders.