Page 52 of Signed in Incubus

Some of the drivers, noticing the troll behind them, sped out of the way, and I slammed on the gas. Too late. A giant hand landed on the car, holding us in place. The tires spun in place and squealed.

“Take the wheel,” I said. “Just for a few seconds.”

Penny looked unsure but did as I asked. I popped out of the car, formed myself into a giant hammer, and smashed the hand holding us back. The troll roared in pain and released the car.The car lurched forward into the intersection. I popped back into the driver’s seat and took control.

Penny’s hands still gripped the wheel, her knuckles white.

“It’s ok, baby. It’s all good.”

I had to peel her hands off the steering wheel, she was clutching it so tightly. We soon made it out of the city center, where the vehicle’s superior speed gave us an advantage. I continued driving out of the city until I was sure I’d have enough time to pop out, find the book, and pop back here. I pulled over to the shoulder and stopped the car.

“Be right back.”

I popped home, found the spell book, and put it in the top drawer. When I returned to the BMW, Penny was already flipping through the pages. I started the car again and continued driving, making a big loop around the city to give her some more time.

She cast the spell, and we stopped in the parking lot of a big box store and waited to make sure it was fully functional. Success! The troll stomped into view but continued right past us. Penny’s sigh of relief was audible.

“That was close.” She was clearly shaken up, and I noticed she scanned for the troll multiple times on the way home.

The incident disturbed me more than I would like to admit. The last two weeks together had been magical, but this was a dunk in ice-water reality. So long as the messed up love-finder spellwas intact, she would be in danger. My refusal to let her nullify it because I didn’t want to forget her was pure selfishness on my part.

It truly wasn’t fair for me to expect her to always keep a concealment spell on. Plus, as we had seen at the auction, not all places would let her do that anyway. I couldn’t risk her being in danger because I didn’t want to let her go.

Once Penny was safe and back home again, I stepped outside to call a certain wizard. Seth answered on the fourth ring.

“I need your expertise, wizard.”

I explained to him our situation and how another witch had nullified the spell by modifying a forget spell to use on the original participants.

“Would that work? Is it safe? And will I forget her?” I asked.

“Technically, yes. That should work. But I thought you liked this girl.”

“I do, a lot. But she just got attacked again. Is there any way for me to keep my memories of her if she decides to go ahead with the forget spell?”

There was a long pause. “I don’t think so. Not with this. It’s ingenious the witch thought to hack a forget spell to work that way, but it has its limits. It would require quite a bit of energy, too: forget spells usually work on small things. It’s kind of like hammering a nail in with a brick. It gets the job done, but it won’t be too precise. It would affect everyone involved.”

I took a deep breath. “And my other memories? Will I forget anything else important?” As if forgetting Penny wasn’t important enough.

“You’ll forget any memories you made with her unless the memory is ingrained in your head from daily repetition. For example, if you lived with her for many years, you wouldn’t forget your home. But you might forget she was your roommate. Or maybe just her face. Or her name. Honestly, with modded spells like this, it’s a crapshoot.”

That wasn’t what I wanted to hear.

“Hmm, now that I think of it,” Seth said, “that might be one way to keep your memories of her. You might not forget her completely if she'd been a part of your life for a long time. But there’s no guarantee. You might forget her anyway.”

That would be worse. What if I stayed for years, then still lost all memory of her?

“Was the fight that broke out in front of that coffee shop over Penny, too?”

I hesitated, not wanting to get her into trouble.

“I won't say anything to the EA. It’s not my case.”

I decided to come clean. “Yes, it was.”

“Thought as much. The EA has been keeping an eye on that troll; he still hasn’t returned to wherever he came from. Neither has anyone else. They’ve all been wandering the city aimlessly,except for the troll. He’s been staying on the outskirts of town. I guess I might be hearing about that traffic disruption soon. I bet they’re all still looking for her.”

Fuck. Danger was always lurking just around the corner. It was becoming clear to me that our solution of keeping her magically concealed wasn’t sustainable over the long term. Just because she was hidden didn’t mean they wouldn’t eventually find her. And if they stumbled on our home by accident—

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