CHAPTER#60

It was cold to the touch, much colder than the rest of the house. There was an energy within that demanded he come and find it.

Clenching his jaw in anticipation, he grabbed the handle and pulled.

-

She stood on the roof of the tower, surveying the land below. The sun was starting to set over the valley, its reflection rippling in the large river that cut a swathe through the land. From where she stood, she could see the edge of the world, the place where the land wrapped suddenly back to the east. She often wondered if she could build her tower even higher, maybe high enough that she could even see it far off in the distance.

She glared down at the woods below, the clouds above dropping a fresh blanket of snow around the tower. It would melt and feed the river, providing life-giving water to the creatures below. Sometimes she pretended that it was her anger that melted the ice of the mountain, tempering her hot rage. Other times, she debated burning the forest to the ground.

She was in a foul mood, the tarot cards spread in front of her. Every day she would do a reading, and every day was largely the same. The cards would fall and reveal that her future was unchanged, the safety of her keep unbreached.

Today had been different. Halfway through the reading, she had gotten the sense of being watched. Flipping over one of the cards, she had found herself once more in that wretched house, gazing across the table at a man who sat over the game board, his eyes glued to the pieces below.

She squeezed her fingers so hard into the cold stone that her claws emerged, scratching lines into the solid granite. She had no idea who he was, but he was in the house. Did this mean that Emily was dead? If so, what of this new Caretaker?

No, she couldn't suffer the potential consequences. If he could find his way here, then that meant she could find her way back and claim what was rightfully hers.

"Daisy." She called the fairy's name and waited.

The tiny yellow fairy appeared, signing that she was ready and eager to serve. Though she was deaf, she could hear through the vibrations of her delicate wings.

"We need to make preparations. We will have company soon."

Daisy nodded and zipped away, her light disappearing through the tower window.

"Emily." How many years had it been since she had left her here? She looked down at the cards once more, then picked one up. It was the Hanged Man. She set it down next to the Tower card, squinting to make out the patterns through the falling snow. The fact that she had drawn these two cards was not lost on her, but what could it mean? As was often the case with divination, she often couldn't tell if the cards were meant for her, or for the people she would meet.

Then again, maybe the meaning was clear after all.

A growl escaped her throat and she swept her arm across the stone, scattering the cards into the air. They fluttered like butterflies as they fell into the valley, scattering the dying rays of daylight.

…

The door of the wardrobe didn't move.

Puzzled, Mike grabbed the handle even tighter and pulled again, but it still wouldn't budge. The wardrobe felt like it had been anchored into the wall, the door completely immobile. Frustrated, he tried rattling the door when he realized that he had missed one very important detail. Right below the handle was a small keyhole.

"Ugh." He got ready to kick the wardrobe out of frustration when he remembered that he had a key sitting in his dresser. It was the one he had found last week in the downstairs front closet. Excited, he started running back to his bedroom, pausing immediately upon entering.

"What the fuck am I doing?"

He turned back and stared at the mysterious wardrobe. Even from here, he could feel its pull on him. What could be on the other side of those doors that entranced him so? It wasn't just curiosity or a need to feel like he was making progress with the house. Something magical was trying to lure him into the wardrobe, and he wondered if it had his best interest at heart.

He moved toward the wardrobe again, but turned at the stairs, running down them once he looked away. Already, the mystical pull was fading. Once at the bottom, he went out the back door to find Zel, Abella, and Naia sitting around the fountain.

"Hey, I need a favor." He sat on the water's edge. "There's a key in the top drawer of my dresser. Can somebody go get it and give it to Naia?" He briefly explained the magical compulsion of the wardrobe to all of them along with the memory of Emily using portals to travel. "I don't want to go wandering in without thinking things through first. I'm fairly certain that it goes somewhere, but don't know for certain, and I'm worried the key may have the same spell on it or something."

"I'm on it." Zel walked to the house, her hooves clomping on the wood once she was in the door.

"Someone's learning caution," Naia said, kissing Mike on the forehead. After waiting a minute, she vanished with a splash then reappeared, the small key in her hand.

His heart pumped frantically, and his hand shot out to grab it from her. At the last second, he closed his fingers and pulled his hand back. He knew he had made the correct decision.

"Hold onto it for me? Until I'm ready."

She grinned. "Yes, but only for a bit. Anything I take down there alters the flow of my spring, and I'm running out of good places to shove things."

"I'll deal with it soon." He let out a sigh of relief when Naia swallowed it and it vanished from sight. "I just thought it would be best if I didn't wander off to some other part of the planet with nobody knowing where I went."