The Hunt of the Grimalkin (Erresuma Book 1) by Dani Swanson (books to read romance TXT) 📗

were shot down by the witches outside. She could see Thalia and her friends through the windows. They had set up a fairly permanent looking camp outside. They had a fire going and were roasting a pig over the coals.

The next door that she opened had perfumes in fancy glass bottles in display cases across the room. She started to sneeze immediately.

She went on to the room at the end of the hall on the first floor. She and the fairies had an assembly line system working; she sat on the floor and different fairies would come and drop keys into her pile. She was on the eightieth key when it clicked into place.

She opened the door to find a room full of life-size dolls. All of the faces were perfectly painted and their clothes looked of royal cloth. This was one of the largest rooms that she had found. When she found the light, she switched it on and instantly gasped in surprise. The room wasn’t filled with dolls, as she had previously thought, but people posed like dolls.

“Charles! Agatha!” she cried. Fig came running at her yells, ready to pounce. Each person had a black bracelet stuck on their wrist, just as Charles had, however, there was also a large bag that covered the whole ceiling with IVs connected to the arms of each person. They were sedated. Thea walked over to someone that looked exactly like Agatha; it had to be Robin. She gazed in wonder at her porcelain skin and fiery hair. Robin’s eyes moved and Thea jumped.

“Can you move? You are Robin, right?” The girl could only blink her eyes, nothing else.

Charles and Agatha came jogging into the room stopping in surprise. Agatha ran over to Robin, with tears in her eyes. “I knew I’d find you. I told you I would get you,” she wrapped her arms around her motionless sister, and cried.

Charles ran over to a guy who had on a frilled shirt of a prince, with two rosy circles painted on his cheeks. “Dean. Wake up!” He shook his brother on the shoulder.

“What do you suppose the IVs are?” Thea asked.

Agatha replied, “It must be a potion to keep them like this.” The girls examined the IVs and looked at each other.

A little brownie woman they had freed yesterday came in and started to unceremoniously pull the needles out of their hands. “No more spell,” she said as she removed them.

Nothing happened. Everyone continued to stand motionless. Thea even tried to heal them without success. “They’re not sick, or injured.” Agatha pointed out to Thea. “They’re drugged! Hopefully it wears off soon.”

Dean looked like a darker version of Charles, with brown hair instead of blonde. Thea went over and started to wipe away the makeup that was on his face and realized that she had seen him before. She ripped off the shoulder of his shirt to show a small scar from an arrow wound. It was the man from the market.

“I have met your brother before,” Thea said to Charles.

“Really?” he questioned as they moved the people into sitting positions.

“He’s the guy with the arrow wound at the market,” Agatha said as she was cleaning her sister’s face.

“Arrow?” Charles asked as he walked over to his brother was standing. Thea pulled back the edge of his shirt and showed him the scar that was just below his collarbone.

There was nothing to do but wait for the potion to wear off. Sometime in the middle of the night they started to wake up. Dean slowly opened his eyes and immediately tried to monkey flip his brother, who was patiently waiting nearby.

“Whoa! Relax, Dean, it’s me,” he grabbed his brother’s face and forced him to look into his eyes. Charles wrapped his arms around his brother and they hugged for a moment, as if they had never thought they’d see each other again.

When Robin woke up and immediately started to cry when she saw Agatha sitting there. “She got you too? I told you to run!” Robin was sobbing at her sister.

“It’s okay, Robin. Everything is okay.” she hugged her sister. Robin saw Thea over Agatha’s shoulder.

“You too?!” she sobbed harder.

“No Robin, I brought her here to help me save you. Sorgin isn’t going to hurt anyone anymore.” Agatha was stroking Robin’s hair to calm her down.

The others in the room were witches and humans who were the best at their trades including a welder and a glass blower from a kingdom in the far corner of Erresuma. The stories of how everyone got to the chateau ranged from trading a few coins to get out of tax problems, to saving a member of their family and ending up not being able to repay Sorgin. There were four witches there, including Robin. One was a shapeshifter named Riley, she could mimic the shape of any person she touched. One was a botanist named Rose, who was a master at making hybrid plants to produce the best spells. The last was a man who could speak to animals and have them do his will. Robin, just like Thea, was a supreme in training and could control all of the elements.

All of the recently freed creatures, animals, humans, and witches gathered in the sitting room of the chateau to witness the severed head of Sorgin.

“She won’t be harming anyone, ever again.” Thea said to the group. “However, there is a new problem. There is a coven of witches who are camped out in the front of the house. They have been destroying anyone who has tried to leave.” The murmur from all the side conversations grew louder as the fear of still being trapped in the chateau was sounding more like a reality.

“I am protecting you from the outside world even after you turned against me,” Sorgin’s