A Little Night Magic Page 0,53

ideas on what we should do." She headed toward the door. The crane followed her automatically and I grabbed it gently by one wing.

"You want me to ... I don't know. Undo it?"

Davina watched me, interest in her eyes. "Think you can? You know that's an important part of your growth, learning to take the power back."

"I know," I said. "It just feels too much like..."

"Killing?" Davina nodded. "I know it does. But you know it's not, right? That thing lives on your power. It's no different from clipping your nails or cutting your hair. It's all just a part of you that you don't need anymore."

I glanced back toward the living room, where Gibson thunked around in his cardboard box. I held the crane's wing in my fingers, closed my eyes, and rallied my energy, feeling it flow through my arms, amazingly at my control. Then something occurred to me, and I looked to Davina.

"Hey, wait," I said. "It's night. Why is this working?"

"You generated the power during the daytime," Davina said. "You can take it back whenever. It's just a little bit of power in that thing. No big deal."

"Oh." I concentrated on the crane again, looking it in the ... well, I guess ... face. I stopped rallying my energy. "Go hang out with Gibson."

I released it, and the crane flew into the living room to hover over Gibson's padded box. I turned to see Davina staring at me, smiling.

"You're a softy, baby," she said, chuckling. "That's gonna hurt you someday."

"I know," I said, stepping out onto the porch and shutting the door after us. "Let's just go to CCB's and get this over with, then we can come back and drink the wine."

"That's fine," Davina said. "Let's go."

We stepped out into the night and made it about half a block when Davina grabbed my arm.

"What?" I said as she yanked me into the narrow driveway between two houses at the end of the street.

"Shh." She held her finger to her lips and seemed to be listening. I listened, too. Didn't hear anything. I waited a few more moments, and was about to ask her what was going on, when she looked at me, her eyes wide. "We need to get out of here." She pointed to the darkness behind the houses. "What's that way?"

"Um ... the woods," I said.

"Okay."

She grabbed me by my wrist and pulled me along behind her. We crossed through the backyard and into the woods. It was dark, the moon was only about half-full, and I stumbled along behind her as weeds and twigs crunched under feet.

"Davina, what - ?"

"Shh!" she said, and we broke into a run. She moved through the woods like she already knew them, and I had trouble keeping up with her. Finally, we came to a thick copse of trees, and she pulled me behind one.

"You stay here."

I didn't have time to argue. She left me there and walked into a clear space, turning around as if looking for someone.

"You can't have her!" she called. "She's under my protection!"

There was nothing. No response. No sound. Not even twigs crackling under anyone's feet.

It was then that it first occurred to me that just because Davina had told me the truth about a few things, that didn't mean she wasn't absolute batshit. I waited for a few moments, then started to move out from behind the tree, but Davina made a motion with her hands, telling me to get back. I sighed and retreated; if she was crazy, I could indulge her for a few minutes until she felt safe, and we could go to Betty's and then ... I don't know. Find a doctor, get a prescription, and -

It sounded a little like wind at first, the eerie whistling when air moves a little too fast. The air around me, however, was still and dead. I watched Davina's form in the moonlight, and had she not been wearing bright yellow, I might not have seen it. But, slowly, circling around her, there appeared to be something ... kinda smoky. My heartbeat ratcheted up; she wasn't crazy.

Crap.

And that's when things started to move. The smoke swirled around her, furious, fast enough to move her hair and send her skirt billowing around her. She turned in circles, too, her eyes wide with fear, but when she spoke, her voice was firm.

"You can't have her!"

The trees around us started to rustle as the smoke spread out. There was the crack