Page 20 of Boundless Magic

“She did say her name was Chloe,” Gothic Spring said with a scrunched nose followed by an uncaring shrug. “I guess I should’ve questioned her before?—”

“Before what?” Tone lethal, Autumn was ready to tear the bitch a new asshole.

The look Gothica turned on her was regretful with a sprinkle of wariness mixed in.

Forgetting for a moment that an acid-drooling dog the size of a small house had the woman’s back, Autumn grabbed her by the collar of her drab black dress and hauled her close. Nose to nose, she snarled, “What the fuck did you do to my kids?”

13

This chapter has gone the way of all the Thorne Witches’ Chapter 13s. Take a break, stretch, then dig back in for the second half of this adventuresome story.

14

Keaton couldn’t comprehend everything happening. There were two Alastairs, two Springs, two daughters, and two behemoth Cerberuses. Two worlds had collided, and everything around him was unreal and unimaginable.

Autumn had taken a lover?

Okay, yeah, nothisAutumn, but still. She wasn’t the type to sneak around.

He stared at her. Hard.

Or maybe she was.

If she’d done it in that world, couldn’t she do it in his? Would she suddenly recall she’d once believed he deserved payback for what occurred during their breakup? It made his old firebombed truck seem like child’s play. She definitely could’ve done worse. Watching her now, as she shook her sister’s twin like a rag doll and demanded answers, he knew he’d gotten off lightly.

Christ, she was beautiful. An auburn-haired Amazon warrior who put Wonder Woman to shame.

Dismissing the unease caused by learning there was a cheating replica of his wife, Keaton focused on the situation at hand—the bubble encapsulating him.

He touched it from the inside and experienced a small jolt. Nothing shocking, more of a simple power surge. The surface was odd, as if it had a gritty, sand-like texture, and yet it was clear.

But the ocean could wash away sand.

As a water elemental, Keaton wasn’t able to draw forth the actual sea this far inland, but he could probably pull water up from the earth to erode enough of the wall and make good his escape. There was no time left to wonder if the darker version of Spring intended to release them to get to Chloe and Jolly, and it boiled down to his children’s safety first.

Squatting, Keaton placed his palms flat on the ground, and concentrating all his attention on the act itself, he called the moisture from the ground to him. It wouldn’t do to remove all the liquid from the soil at once, or he could potentially create a sinkhole for himself. As soon as he was sure he had enough to work with, he redirected the water toward the bottom of the textured barrier, creating a small pool and lapping it against the wall like waves on the beach.

He glanced up in time to see his wife’s fist connect with the woman from the alternate dimension, knocking her down and out. The Cerberus growled and loomed over Autumn as the sound fizzled out in Keaton’s bubble.

In an instant, his wife conjured a wooden canopy to protect herself from the monster’s saliva.

From his vantage point, he could tell it wouldn’t last long. Her mouth moved, but he couldn’t make out what she was saying. Frustration gripped him, and he redoubled his efforts with the water against the wall, raising it higher for a bigger opening. Was it working? It was too difficult to tell, but it did seem as if the colors on the other side of the wall weren’t as muted as the parts he’d left alone.

Wildly, he looked around to see what the others might be doing to escape. Alastair was using Keaton’s same process, and Spring was examining Preston’s enclosure as if to understand the magic her clone had used to create it in the first place.

A grin curled her mouth, and the next second, she pressed her palms to the exterior wall, causing it to disintegrate and sand to rain down on her father’s head.

With a sweep of her hand, she took down all the bubbles at once.

Keaton dove for Autumn right as her wooden shield developed its first hole. Dragging her to safety, he shouted over his shoulder to Alastair.

“Do what you did to the other one! Like yesterday, man!”

He hadn’t realized Autumn’s spell was also keeping the ferocious canine at bay until he could feel the thing breathing down his neck.

Autumn screamed her pain, and he turned in time to see her arch her back.

A shout echoed through the clearing, and the Cerberus thudded to a halt, swinging its heads in the direction of the others.

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