Vesta was a tiny Italian Greyhound, close in size to Gwen’s cat Socks, who was undoubtedly hiding somewhere safe from dangerous doorbells and sticky, grabby fingers. Fabio was a full-sized Afghan Hound with a floating blond coat like the cover model he was named after. The children were immediately enthralled with both of them, and the boy holding his elbow looked like he wanted to stay and play.
“I’m Gwen,” she offered, herding the hurt superhero into the kitchen. “What’s your name?”
“Lawson,” the little boy said sullenly. Gwen passed him a piece of candy behind her back and he brightened considerably.
“Looks like you got a little scrape,” Gwen said casually as he unwrapped the treat. “Let’s clean it out and I’ll find a bandaid.”
Lawson was inclined to snivel over the hydrogen peroxide that Gwen used, but she easily distracted him. “Did you know that I used to teach martial arts to kids just your age?” she said.
“You know karate?” he asked skeptically.
“I’m a black belt in Tang Soo Do,” Gwen said, adding, “Fifth degree,” even though it probably wouldn’t mean anything to him.
He looked duly impressed. “That’s cool!”
She found a tube of antibiotic and squeezed out a tiny bit to rub over the scratch, which had already stopped bleeding.
“Feeling better?” Gwen asked.
Lawson shrugged, like he’d forgotten that there had been any injury at all. “My mom has one of those!” he said, pointing suddenly at the window.
“She has the same curtains?” Gwen asked, not looking. She screwed the top back onto the antibiotic.
“The shiny glass ornaments,” the small Batman explained. “But ours is yellow. And a kitty-bird.”
Gwen felt her breath catch in her throat, and she nearly dropped the tube she was holding. He was pointing at the two glass ornaments hanging from the curtain rod, up out of the reach of two rambunctious dogs and an occasionally destructive cat. One was a green dragon in a ring of white, and one was a blue unicorn.
Those glass ornaments had once held Trey and Rez, imprisoned by magic.
“Like those?” Gwen said, choked. “Made of glass, with a white ring around it, and...it has wings?”
“Yeah! It’s in the Christmas box. I’m not allowed to touch it. Do I get a bandaid?”
Gwen stared at Lawson for a long moment.
Henrik.
He had Henrik’s ornament. Gwen felt a wave of surprise and near-panic break over her.
This was it. She really was going to get her knight…
...and everything that came with him. She was equal parts thrilled and afraid. She’d looked forward to this for so long.
“Are you okay? I want a bandaid.”
Gwen shook herself. “Yeah, sure.” Numbly, she fumbled the bandage box open and pulled one out. “We don’t have anything cool,” she apologized. “Just, er, beige.”
It was pale on his mahogany-brown elbow, but Lawson looked pleased by the badge of honor anyway. “Thanks!”
When he would have sprung to his feet and rejoined his friends playing with the dogs in the front room, Gwen stopped him. “That ornament, it was part of a set, can I...uh...call your mom about it?”
“Sure!” Lawson said cheerfully and he would have left it at that if Gwen hadn’t prodded him for a phone number, which he rattled off at full speed.
“Say it again,” Gwen said desperately, reaching for pen and paper. “Slower.”
Releasing him back into the room with his friends and the two self-declared love-starved dogs, Gwen stared at the number on the page.
Henrik.
Her...destiny?
Before she could lose her nerve, she picked up the house phone and dialed the number.
Only when the woman picked up did she realize that she hadn’t asked for any names. “Is this Lawson’s mom?” she asked hesitantly to the very young voice that answered.
“Hang on!”
After some garbled background conversation, someone crossly asked, “What?”
“Er, is this Lawson’s mother?”
“What did he do?” she demanded.
“Nothing!” Gwen assured her quickly. “Nothing at all! Well, he fell down on our front step. I gave him a bandaid.”
“He’s okay?” the voice at the other end of the phone asked suspiciously.
“Fine,” Gwen promised. “He screamed like a banshee, but forgot about it five minutes later.”
She was rewarded with a chuckle. “Yeah, he does that. What’s the problem? I need to come get him?”
Gwen paused. I need your Christmas ornament to free a fae knight from another world didn’t seem like a successful way to start. You have my destined fairy knight trapped in glass and I’d like him back, please seemed, if anything, even crazier.
“I...ah...have a set of glass ornaments and it sounds like you have one of the pieces I’m missing. A golden gryphon in a white ring. A Christmas ornament. A...uh...kitty-bird.” She wasn’t doing a good job of not sounding weird.
Heather came swirling into the kitchen in her swishy Renaissance dress just then, oblivious to the fact that Gwen was on the phone. Vesta was tucked under her elbow and Fabio was romping at her feet. “Hey Gwen—!” She lowered her voice considerably. “Sorry!”
At the other end of the line, Lawson’s mother said off-handedly, “Yeah, I think we got that. Amberlynn, you leave your little sister alone right this moment!”
“Can I buy it from you?” Gwen blurted. “I’ll pay whatever you want. It’s...it’s kind of important. Part of a set, you know.” Should she say it was a family heirloom? Explain more?
Heather stared at her, mouthing a question, and Gwen had to turn away and listen closely over the poor connection and the sound of her own pounding heart. Fabio, unhelpfully, came prancing to greet her and lick her hand hopefully, his nails loud on the kitchen floor.
“I’m sorry, what was that?” she asked, when she couldn’t make sense of the voice.
“Yeah, sure, I could part with it. I think I paid twenty for it.”
“I could come get it right now!” Gwen said desperately, before she could stop herself.
“It’s in storage,” the woman said.
“Tomorrow?” Gwen said, trying to keep from sounding too eager. “Let me know your address, and I can swing by whenever it’s convenient.”
After a pause so long that Gwen had a stab of worry that she’d hung up, Lawson’s mother gave her the address of a house just a few blocks over.
“I’ll bring you thirty tomorrow. Forty! Tomorrow afternoon,” Gwen said, then she added, “I’ll call first.” That made her sound less creepy, right?
“Amberlynn, you let go of that child! You do not want me to…!”
This time, Gwen was sure she had hung up.
Her own hand was trembling as she returned the phone to its cradle, and she turned to find Heather gazing at her with round eyes.
“Was that…?”
“I found Henrik,” Gwen said, her voice quavering like her hand had. She cleared her throat. “I found him.”
“You found Henrik?” Daniella stood in the entrance of the kitchen. There was a lull in the trick-or-treaters, and her words caught the attention of the knights, who were swiftly there, demanding answers.