The videos?” I made a grab for her arm but she capered away.
“You mean the video camera you obviously planted?”
Billy dropped an arm around her shoulders. “I told you she’s got some sort of sick crush on me. She’s been following me around town for weeks.”
“You little bastard,” I lunged for him, sorry I hadn’t taken Robin up on enthralling the tool. Look what he did with free will. Lied to get his way.
“Get lost.” Young Joey said as she headed to the car. “You’re the shittiest faery godmother ever.”
“You don’t understand.” I couldn’t let her get in that car, no matter what. I knew how that would end. “Damn it, Josephine Louise Whitmore, you will ruin the rest of your life if you leave with him now.”
“It’s my life.” She yanked open the door with a huff and then shut and locked it behind herself. Billy scrambled to the driver’s side. Headlights cut through the darkness, blowing my night vision. I hissed like a cat, but circled around to the front of the car and put my hands on the hood. Billy just flung his arm over the back seat and shifted into reverse. Tires spat gravel at me as he did a broken K turn and then headed down the hill back to town.
“No,” I cried and took a few staggering steps down the hill after them. My wand was still in my hand but if I turned the car into a pumpkin now, what would happen to Joey and Billy? Would they become mice? Pumpkin seeds?
Robin was at my side in an instant. “Where does it happen?”
“Oak Summit Drive.” I glanced at my watch. 7:12. “In exactly six minutes.”
“We can still beat them there.” He held out a hand and I took it.
Again with the sideways lurching sensation. “I’d say I’m getting used to that but I’d be lying.” My stomach turned over and for a moment I was sure that apple pie would make a comeback.
Robin wasn’t paying attention. Instead, he was looking around at the sharp blind curve that led uphill. There were streetlights on the left side of the road, along the sidewalk. Oak Summit connected directly to the heart of town. “You said you struck a phone pole, right?”
I nodded. “After skidding on wet leaves.”
His gaze fell to the discarded yellow, red, orange, and brown detritus, littering the road. “Okay. Use your magic wand and get rid of them.”
“Like a leaf blower?” Maybe a gust of wind could whisk them all out of the path of fate.
“Put them back on the trees, brush them off to the side, incinerate them. Just do something,” Robin urged. “Quickly, lamb.”
I huffed out a breath and then extended the wand. My lids lowered as I tried to picture the scene. My pulse was hammering hard, thrumming in my ears. Each beat seemed to be thumping out a message in morse code. Out. Of. Time. Out. Of. Time. One chance to get this right. Magic curled around the wand clutched tightly in my fist as I thought no more leaves.
Robin swore. “What did you do?”
“What?” I opened my eyes and gasped in horror. The trees above had dropped all of the remaining leaves like they were hot.
“Oh no. I thought no more leaves, but the magic thought I meant on the trees.” Was that even possible? Was magic sentient? Bare branches stretched to the dark sky as though asking the cosmos why they were naked already.
“Try again,” the faery urged.
I had to get it right. Had to work a spell. Maybe I could move the phone pole?
“Headlights,” Robin pointed. His pallor had turned white as chalk and his eyes appeared haunted as they turned to me. “Joey, I think, I think this moment might be…fated. There’s no avoiding the crash.”
“No no no! It can’t be.” Frustration bubbled up and I stamped my foot. “Damn it, I’m no good at this magic thing. Can’t you do anything?”
Robin stared at me for a long minute, his expression unreadable. “No. But there’s one thing you can do. But I don’t think—”
“What?” I was not above begging. I had already driven my younger self directly into Billy Tucker’s clutches, revealed time travel and their stagnate futures to my parents, and potentially destroyed my relationship with Darcy. If I didn’t manage to avoid this accident…. I gripped him by the front of his shirt, ready to shake him silly. “Whatever it is, whatever the cost, I’ll pay it.”