Page 22 of Poltergeists & Change of Life

"Right," I sighed. "To the attic then. But if anyone suggests I should let Aidon push me up that rock slide, I will end you. Slowly. With a spoon."

I tried several times to turn the rock back into stairs to no avail. With a grimace and resignation, I turned to my mate. Aidon’s lips were twitching as he tried not to smile. “I’ve got you. It’ll be fun.”

“We’re going to make a train so you can push us both up, so don’t think about getting fresh,” Nana interjected.

Aidon lost all mirth, and his face drained of color. “I would never,” he told Nana.

Sitting down on the end of the slope took an act of God, Aidon, to be precise. With Nana in place behind me, Aidon pushed us up the slope. Nina crawled up behind us. Layla, Mom, and Selene weren't far behind her.

As we reached the top, I flopped onto the attic floor like a beached whale. I was panting dramatically. "That's it," I declaredbetween breaths. "I'm never letting anyone push me up a slide again in my life. I don't care if there's a million dollars and a lifetime supply of chocolate at the top. My ass was not made for this kind of abuse."

Nana snorted as she sat beside me. "Oh please, you should be thankful. Back in my day, we had to climb uphill both ways, in the snow, just to get to the attic."

"Nana," I groaned, "we live in Maine. That's an average day for us."

Aidon laughed, some of the tension leaving his shoulders. "What would I do without you?"

"Probably live a much quieter, less apocalyptic life," I quipped. "But where's the fun in that?"

With a deep breath, we pushed open the attic door and stepped into... a monsoon. A very localized, very intense monsoon. "Well," I said, blinking rain out of my eyes, "at least we don't have to worry about watering the plants for a while."

The attic was a chaos of wind and water. Rain lashed down from a swirling vortex in the center of the ceiling. Gusts of wind sent papers and small objects flying around the room. In the eye of the storm, I could see a small, innocent-looking box. Which, given our luck, probably contained either the secrets of the universe or a really angry genie. Maybe both.

As we approached, I noticed something odd. There were symbols etched into the box, symbols that looked vaguely familiar. "Hey," I called out, squinting through the rain. "Doesn't this look like Hattie's handwriting?"

Nana peered at the box, her eyes lighting up with recognition. "Well, I'll be damned. She definitely wrote this. Looks like we've got ourselves a good old-fashioned riddle box."

What this day really needed was a linguistics puzzle. In the middle of a magical monsoon. While heavily pregnant. "Alright,"I sighed, resigning myself to yet another bizarre challenge. "Hit me with it, Nana. What's it say?"

What followed was a clusterfuck of epic proportions. It was a game show from hell that would've made even the most sadistic TV producer cringe. We had a very pregnant woman waddling around like a constipated penguin. A grumpy god with the social skills of a caffeinated squirrel. A shifter who looked like she'd rather be anywhere else. A tribred trying to control her baser urges. Plus, a seventeen-year-old who was one eye-roll away from spraining an ocular muscle.

Oh, and did I mention we were all soaking wet? Nothing says ‘let's solve ancient riddles’ like looking like we'd just participated in the world's saddest wet T-shirt contest. And the cherry on top of this disaster sundae? We were trying to decipher a language that made Klingon sound like Shakespeare. Every guess was met with either blank stares or hysterical laughter. Sometimes both. At one point, I'm pretty sure I accidentally summoned a demon or ordered a pizza. Honestly, either one would've been welcome at that point. It was like playing Pictionary with a drunk octopus while riding a unicycle through a hurricane. In other words, nothing out of the ordinary for us.

Nana squinted at the top of the box with a furrowed brow. "I think it says something like... 'I speak without a mouth and hear without ears. I have no body, but I come alive with the wind. What am I?'"

I blinked rainwater out of my eyes. "Seriously? We're solving riddles now?"

Aidon was already thinking. "Without a mouth... comes alive with the wind... It's an echo." The moment he said it, one side of the box clicked open, revealing another riddle.

"Nice job, pretty boy," Nana cackled. "Maybe you're not just a pretty face after all."

The next puzzle was even more confusing. "Okay," Nana said, "This one's a doozy. 'I have cities, but no houses. I have mountains, but no trees. I have water, but no fish. What am I?'"

"A very boring place to live?" I suggested, earning me an eye roll from Nana.

Aidon snapped his fingers. "A map! It's a map." Another side of the box sprang open. Damn, he was good at this. I gave him an appreciative once-over.

Deciding he could handle the hard part, I tried to focus on the babies and get them to stop with the storm. We continued like this with the others solving riddle after riddle, while I tried to stop our indoor weather problems. Some were straightforward, others had them scratching their heads. I tried to connect to my babies’ magic for what felt like hours.

I understood their impromptu storm was keeping the worst of the Dark magic at bay at the same time they reached the last riddle. I stopped trying to make them stop. Their intervention was likely the only reason we hadn’t been attacked or electrocuted or poisoned by darkness. Of course, by that point, we were all shivering. Our teeth chattered as we huddled around the box.

"Last one, kiddos," Nana said. "Make it count. 'I am not alive, but I grow; I don't have lungs, but I need air; I don't have a mouth, but water kills me. What am I?'"

I joined in this time, ready to solve the puzzle. Instead, we all stared at each other, stumped. The rain seemed to pour down even harder as if mocking our confusion.

"Not alive but grows... needs air... water kills it..." I muttered, wracking my brain. Suddenly, it hit me. "Fire! It's fire!"

The final side of the box clicked open, and the storm around us began to die down. As the rain lessened to a drizzle and then stopped entirely, we all leaned in to see what was inside the box. There, nestled on a velvet cushion, was a locket. It was beautiful,ornate, and radiated a warmth that seemed to chase away the chill of our impromptu shower.

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