Broken Spells (Broken Realms, #6)

CHAPTER 1Cell phone signals. Mara could hear them, and they were driving her crazy. Since they had returned home from the realm of the robots—as Sam liked to call it—she was aware of the background noise of signals bouncing around her, a drone of conversations that was pervasive and constant. She couldn’t make out any single discussion unless she concentrated on it—like when you’re sitting in a crowded restaurant and you eavesdrop on the next table. It had taken her more than an hour to get to sleep the previous night, and now the electronic din greeted her as she rolled over in bed. Her gaze settled on a digital clock on the nightstand. She frowned. That’s not my clock. That’s not even my nightstand. Then she remembered, the dragon had burned down the house and everything in it. They now lived in a different house—a rental craftsman several blocks north of their old home in Oregon City, which was in the planning stages of being rebuilt. With that sorted out, she comprehended the numbers on the clock face. Nine o’clock. Late for work. No, nix that. Late for finding out who stole my dead body. She groaned and flung off the blankets. Before she could get out of bed, a scream rang out from downstairs. “Mara! Get down here!” It was her mother, and she didn’t sound like her usual laid-back New Age self. This wasn’t a motherly wake-up call. Grabbing her robe, Mara ran downstairs to find her mother and Sam sitting at a round dinette table in the kitchen, eating breakfast. Diana’s expression matched the tone of her yell. “What’s wrong?” Mara asked. “You not only disappear for a week without telling me where you’re going, but now I find out you took your little brother into a disease-riddled world and stuck him in some plastic tube for days?” she asked. Mara sighed. To her brother, she said, “You had to come down here and blurt everything out to her, didn’t you?” He spooned a glob of wet cereal into his mouth, then said something that sounded like, “You never told me not to tell Mom.” A large drop of milk dribbled from the corner of his mouth to his chin. Mara rolled her eyes and retrieved a cup from the cabinet above the counter. While pouring coffee, she said, “We didn’t know Cam’s world was infected with a deadly virus when we went there to help him. Remember Cam?” “Yes, the synthetic young man whose head you brought home,” Diana said. “He was very nice. But I thought that Aphotis-thing stole it and abandoned it in the void between realms.” “Turns out the Aphotis took it back to his realm.” Mara sat down at the table. “The realm of the robots,” Sam said. “You should stop saying that. They don’t like being called robots. Anyway, it turns out people there gave up their biological bodies because of this virus that’s pervasive in their realm. They store their bodies in tubes called receptacles after transferring their Consciousnesses into their synthetic bodies. Sam, Ping and Abby had to go into the tubes—the receptacles—to rid them of the virus and to prevent them from transporting it back to this realm.” “Abby? You mean the Aphotis, right?” Diana asked. Sam pointed with his spoon, using it to punctuate as he talked. “She was the Aphotis when she went into the tube, but she wasn’t when she came out. Mara forced her into the tube after the Aphotis killed her.” “The Aphotis killed Abby?” Diana asked. “No, the Aphotis killed Mara. Well, not actually killed Mara. She wasn’t in her own body at the time. You see, Mara got hurt during the explosion at the transceiver building—” Sam said. “Sam, please shut up. You weren’t even there by that point.” He nodded. “I know. I got sick, and you popped me into the tube without my permission. But you told me later.” “Just stop talking,” Mara said. Diana glared at her. Mara raised her hands. “All right. All right. Things got a little out of hand. Just let me explain.” She took a sip of coffee and tried to sort out the story in her head so she could tell it without causing her mother to have a meltdown. “I’m waiting.” “In a nutshell, the Aphotis tried to turn the synthetic people in Cam’s realm into beings of light who could serve as its army in its so-called battle to define existence. While trying to prevent this, I was in a little explosion—” “It destroyed a whole building,” Sam said. “Hush,” Mara said. “I got injured, but they had great medical facilities, so my injuries were treated. Also I was able to stop the people from being turned into human nightlights. To make a long story short, I knew we needed to get Abby, as the Aphotis, into one of the receptacles, or she would succumb to the virus—or worse, spread it to other realms. After a bit of a battle, I was able to do that.” Nodding to Sam, Diana said, “He said she wasn’t the Aphotis when she came out of the receptacle. What happened?” “In the dream realm, Mara trapped the Aphotis’s soul in a lightbulb and returned it to its own realm,” Sam said. “Dream realm?” Diana asked. “Yeah, that’s where I met Dad and Mara got pregnant,” Sam said. Mara gagged on her coffee. After wiping her mouth with a paper napkin, she said, “Why do you have to blurt out everything in the worse possible light?” She faced her mother. “It’s not as bad as it sounds.” “Do tell,” her mother said. “Turns out people in the receptacles share an alternate Reality in the form of a communal dream. That’s what Sam it talking about. The Mara in this dream realm was pregnant as part of an effort to perpetuate their Reality. Her womb, for lack of a better explanation, existed in a leather vest or the pants or the whole suit—I’m not really sure. Anyway, when I put them on, I became pregnant during the time I was in this dream realm.” “I’m not getting into the whole vest-womb thing. What I’m taking from this is that you were pregnant in the dream, but, when you woke up, you weren’t. Am I following this correctly?” “Yes.” Diana looked relieved. To Sam, she said, “And you got to meet your father?” “Yes,” he said. “He was very cool.” “And did you meet my counterpart there?” “No. Dad said you were too close-minded to cross over to the dream realm.” Diana looked surprised and mildly offended. “Imagine that man calling me closed-minded. He must have been different than your father in this realm.” Mara nodded. “He was definitely mellower, but it sounds like your counterpart was less of a free spirit.” “To each her own. What’s this about trapping the Aphotis in a lightbulb?” “In the dream realm, Abby and the Aphotis existed separately. That gave me the opportunity to trap the Aphotis and return it to its own realm. Remember? That’s how they inter their dead, in lightbulb-looking vessels they call luminaires.” “So Abby is ... what?” “At home in her bed, free of the Aphotis, but it will take a while for her to recover from the experience. I’m not sure she’ll ever get over it completely. It wouldn’t surprise me if she never talks to me again for exposing her to such a nightmare. To be honest, I wouldn’t blame her.” Diana stood with her empty coffee cup, reached for Sam’s empty cereal bowl and walked to the sink. She rinsed the bowl, placed it in the dishwasher and refilled her cup. When she returned to the table, she leaned back and took a sip. She stared at Mara over the rim of her cup. “What?” Mara said. “You’re leaving something out,” Diana said. “You’re doing your whole conflict-avoidance thing. I can spot it a mile away.” “I don’t know what you mean.” “Sam said the Aphotis killed you, but you weren’t in your body. Your little synopsis of your adventures failed to explain what he meant by that. What are you hiding?” “She’s a—” Sam said. Mara gritted her teeth. “Don’t you dare.” “You might as well tell her. She will find out eventually, especially when she learns you can send text messages without using a phone.” “What is he talking about?” Mara rubbed her face and flopped against the back of her chair, deflated. “I don’t even know how to go about saying it.” “Just say it,” Sam said. “She’s a robot.” Diana gave him a sidelong glance, then returned her gaze to Mara. “What?” “I might have soft-pedaled the injuries I got during the explosion at the transceiver building. They thought I would die, so they transferred me into a synthetic body. But it works mostly like the other one. I have all my senses. I still feel pain and pleasure and goose bumps. You see, when the Aphotis attacked my counterpart and—” Diana stood and grabbed the side of Mara’s face, staring into her eyes. She slowly rotated Mara’s head, examining her daughter’s features. After several tense moments, Diana released her—leaving red marks on Mara’s cheeks—and sat down. “I don’t believe it.” “It’s true,” Sam said. He pointed at Mara’s arm and added, “Do the hand thing. Be sure to do the left one, you always have trouble reattaching the right one without help. Show her.” “The hand thing?” Diana asked. “I don’t know if that’s such a good idea,” Mara said. “She will not believe you unless you show her.” “Why is it so important that she believe us? I’m the same person, so it doesn’t matter if I’m synthetic or not. She doesn’t need to see proof to know I’m her daughter.” Diana looked concerned. “You believe this? That you were placed into a synthetic body?” “It’s not a belief, Mom. It’s not like Ned Pastor feeling vibrations with crystals or Mrs. James thinking she can read someone’s aura. This isn’t a take-it-or-leave-it thing. It’s a fact.” “Okay. Show me.” “Are you sure?” Diana nodded. Mara pinched the sides of her left wrist with her right forefinger and thumb. After a soft click, she grasped her left hand and rotated it to the right, separating it from her arm. She held up her severed left hand with her right one. The fingers of her disconnected hand wiggled a little wave. Diana gasped and slumped onto the table.