Page 51 of Charmed

CHAPTER16

ALDEN

My frantic footsteps echoed through the emptiness crowding each room as I searched the magical chamber for my apprentice, holding my guiding spell aloft like a lantern. The flame flickered as if about to go out, evidence of my strained powers’ loose hold that barely kept the spell together. My magic had been weakening ever since I’d exerted so much of it for my failed potions, and had only further drained with my portal spell, as if whatever ominous force siphoning my powers had followed me to prey on my magic even away from the competition.

I gritted my teeth and forced the dark memories away to better focus on the matter at hand: Maeve was missing after vanishing while under my charge. Her name echoed through each empty room as I searched, but no matter where I looked there was no sign of her.

I knew the effort was futile when her absence had prompted the letter that alerted me to her disappearance, yet desperation compelled me to dosomething, as if acting would ease some of my guilt for having left her in the first place.

Her room still contained her trunk and possessions, with no evidence she’d departed in a hurry. The only clues were the leftover potion ingredients still scattered on the counter in the prep room, the cauldron and tools also haphazardly left out despite my apprentice’s tidy nature, the recipe book open to the recipe for another healing tonic, all leading me to wonder if she’d left in haste to return to her ill brother after making a healing potion. Yet that didn’t explain why she’d left all her possessions, including her traveling cloak.

When the chamber bore no results, I next searched the surrounding forest, but that too yielded nothing. I cast the tracking spell cupped within my palm an almost accusatory glance before extinguishing it. Useless charm; it should have acted as a guiding light to wherever Maeve had gone. Had my weakening powers affected my spell, or was there another reason it hadn’t worked?

When I’d exhausted every possibility of where I’d last seen my apprentice, I deliberated on whether or not I should next go to her home and inform her family she’d gone missing. Surely that would only concern them…yet if I did nothing, wouldn’t Maeve’s lack of response to their letter only escalate their worry?

I mulled the matter over, and might have made the decision based on my own judgement if I hadn’t remembered my frog’s advice about seeking help from others. On such a delicate matter, I realized I would benefit from his insight.

I took a portal back to the clearing…only to find it abandoned. I looked frantically around, using my conjured light to better search the undergrowth, but there was no sign of the frog I’d left behind. My stomach lurched. “Mae?”

No answer, save for the symphony of crickets magnified in the darkness. I wandered the clearing again before stepping deeper into the forest, keeping my light aloft.

“Mae?Mae!”

Silence, not even aribbit. My panic rose, far more acute than before. I was naturally worried about my apprentice, but she was a feisty, determined woman with magic…albeit untrained, but enough to defend herself. Mae was a helpless frog prone to predators.

This worry compelled me to draw from my draining reserves to summon another tracking spell, this one for my frog. Whereas my first one back at the magical chamber had been too dormant to prove useful, this one immediately emanated a twisting trail of golden light that led into the forest.

Halfway down the path, I encountered my spellbook, aflutter with panic. “Where’s Mae?” I demanded.

It gestured its pages all around before giving a helpless shrug. I sighed.

“He’s wandered into the forest? What could he be thinking?”

I wanted to scold my spellbook for allowing Mae to escape while under its charge, but that could come after I found my lost frog. I continued following the magical lure, which grew warmer as I drew closer to my target.

I heard Mae’s franticribbitand hops against the undergrowth long before I saw him, but eventually my frog came into view, illuminated by the spell now surrounding it in a hallow of light.

“Mae!” I hurried forward. Upon hearing my approach the frog turned to me, his dark brown eyes rounded in relief.

“Alden! I’m so happy to see you.” Emotion choked his voice, as if he was on the brink of tears.

“I’m so glad I found you.” I knelt on the ground so Mae could hop onto my palm. “Were you lost?”

The frog nodded. “But you found me. Thank you.” In his relief, he snuggled deeper against my hand. My fingers naturally cradled his body, hoping to provide security and solace within my hold.

“Thank goodness you’re safe.”

I stared at the frog resting on my palm, marveling that someone who had started off as a simple companion had now become one of my dearest friends…fitting for a wizard with my eccentrics who had become so withdrawn in my magic I could only forge friendships with enchanted objects. Yet that didn’t make our relationship any less precious, even as there was an added element that I didn’t experience with Kai nor anyone else—a sense of protectiveness and affection.

The worry that had accompanied my frantic search cumulated into fierce relief. Completely forgetting that Mae was a human man, I bent my head and kissed the top of my frog’s warty head, an affectionate gesture such as I might bestow on a pet. The moment my lips made contact with its skin, they grew warm and tingly, and the frog became enveloped in magical light.

“Mae? What—”

The frog’s dark brown eyes widened at the pulsating energy, making it difficult to maintain my grip. At the risk of dropping him, I set him gently on the ground and stepped back. The light expanded as the frog lifted into the air…and began to change.

First its legs lengthened, growing towards the ground, followed by human arms, and then a torso emerged, wearing a plum purple dress. The skin transformed from green and warty to smooth and brown, followed by fluffy black hair that formed a halo around her head. My breath caught the moment I recognized the woman.

It was my apprentice.

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