Boundless magic, p.1
Boundless Magic, page 1
Boundless Magic Copyright © 2024 T.M. Cromer
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-956941-26-5 (ebook)
ISBN: 978-1-956941-48-7 (paperback)
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
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Cover Design: Deranged Doctor Designs
Editor: Trusted Accomplice
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PARANORMAL ROMANCE
The Sentinels of Magic Series:
THE AETHER
THE DEATH DEALER
THE SEER
The Unlucky Charms Series:
PINTS & POTIONS
WHISKEY & WITCHES
BEER & BROOMSTICKS
COCKTAILS & CAULDRONS
WINE & WARLOCKS
HIGHBALLS & HEXES
The Thorne Witches Series:
SUMMER MAGIC
AUTUMN MAGIC
WINTER MAGIC
SPRING MAGIC
REKINDLED MAGIC
LONG LOST MAGIC
FOREVER MAGIC
ESSENTIAL MAGIC
MOONLIT MAGIC
ENCHANTED MAGIC
CELESTIAL MAGIC
EVERLASTING MAGIC
CAPTIVATING MAGIC
The Thorne Witches: Happily Ever Afters Series:
ENDURING MAGIC
BOUNDLESS MAGIC
The Angels of Legend Series:
LUCIFER
GABRIEL
CONTEMPORARY & ROMANTIC SUSPENSE
The Fiore Vineyard Series:
PICTURE THIS
RETURN HOME
ONE WISH
The Holt Family Series:
GOODBYE TO YOU
THIS TIME YOU
INCLUDING YOU
A LIFE WITH YOU
The Stonebrooke Series:
BURNING RESOLUTION
HIDDEN RESOLUTION
CONTENTS
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Epilogue
From the Author
BOOKS BY T.M. CROMER
Bio & Follow Links
1
“Chloe’s missing!”
Autumn froze in her tracks to stare at Keaton, and the door slammed shut behind her as if to emphasize her husband’s panic-stricken declaration. “What do you mean she’s missing? How long, and what about Jolly? She was supposed to be watching him.”
Keaton’s normally tanned face paled. The contrast was so dramatic, Autumn’s heart stalled before kicking into overdrive.
“Tell me you checked on Jolly.” There wasn’t exactly a threat in her tone, but a mere mortal would probably have wet their pants when they heard the outrage in her voice.
They both raced for the playroom, with Keaton beating her by a mere foot. After skidding to a halt just inside the door, her heart dropped through the floor as her adrenaline spiked.
It was empty.
“I’ll check his room. You call the rest of your family.”
“Jesus, Autumn. It was fifteen minutes. I’ll never forgive—”
“Recriminations later, babe. We have kids to find.”
After a thorough search of her son’s room turned up empty, Autumn ran to the ceremony chamber in the basement, and with a wave of her hand, the candles around the circle flared to life. Upstairs, she could hear Keaton thudding around, and it seemed he was everywhere at once, searching for the kids. His shouts grew faint, and she could only assume he’d run outside to check there.
With grim determination, she dragged a scrying mirror to the pentagram’s center and sat cross-legged on the floor. She removed the “Keaton for Mayor” election pin from her suit jacket and looked at it. Her husband’s handsome face, with his enchanting grin and dancing aquamarine eyes, stared back at her. As usual, his shaggy, dark hair had fallen over one brow prior to the picture being taken, making him appear like a rakish billionaire out to seduce innocents. Yet he had a trustworthy quality that shone through and made people instinctively gravitate toward him. He’d be the next mayor, without question.
Centering herself with a few deep, cleansing breaths, Autumn used the back of the pin to stab her index finger and squeeze exactly three drops of blood onto the mirror for a tried-and-true spell. If she could find Jolyon, chances were Chloe would be with him.
“Goddess, hear my plea.
Assist me in this time of need.
Use this blood and reveal to me,
blood of my blood, the child I seek.”
The purplish-red droplets merged into one and turned black, dissolving into a puff of smoke. When the haze lifted and Autumn could see into the glass, Jolly’s laughing face, almost identical to her husband’s, shone back at her. Tears blurred her vision before she hastily blinked them away.
“Where are you, my little man?” she whispered.
The image shifted, and Autumn could see Chloe tearing through the woods as if being chased by the demons of hell. Her cheeks were tear streaked, and her dark hair was a rat’s nest with twigs and leaves tangled throughout. Chloe was frantic, and if Autumn didn’t miss her guess, she was searching for her little brother.
“Show me Jolyon,” she commanded the mirror.
Again, he laughed, and this time, he was clapping his hands with joy.
“Who is he with?”
But the blood on the mirror fizzled to nothing, and the image disappeared from view. Terror tried to take hold and clog her throat.
Autumn jumped to her feet and bolted up the basement steps to the main floor, screaming Keaton’s name. At the top of the stairs, she was greeted by Spring and Knox.
“Keaton texted and asked if we could come right over. The kids are missing?” Spring’s jade-green eyes were filled with concern.
“Yes! Scrying only shows me Chloe’s location. Jolly’s comes up blank.” Autumn felt as if her skin was too tight, too itchy, too everything. She needed to find her children—like yesterday!
“I’m scared, sister,” she confessed. “I’ve never been so scared.”
Knox drew her into his comforting arms and kissed the top of her head. “Hold it together a little longer, and tell me where you saw Chloe. I’ll go.”
“Running through the woods, and if I had to guess, it would be the section dividing this property from Thorne Manor. Close to the glen.” As he turned to go, she gripped his arm. “She looked terrified, Knox.”
He nodded and shot a speaking glance at Spring. “Stay here, and find a way to locate Jolyon. If anyone can do it, it’s you.”
“I’m going with you, cousin,” Keaton said from behind them.
“I’ll find her faster alone. Help Autumn and Spring.”
“She’s my fucking daughter!”
“I love her, too, Keat. And you can be damned sure I’ll kill anyone who might even think to hurt her.” Knox gripped Keaton’s shoulder and shook it gently. “I’ve got this, and Autumn needs you.”
With blazing speed, Knox teleported away.
“Come on, Tums,” Spring said. “Show me what you’ve tried to locate Jolly.”
They jogged downstairs and entered the ceremony room with Keaton on their heels.
Autumn explained the spell and what she’d seen. “The image doesn’t show anything in the background. It’s impossible to tell where he is.”
“What if we added my blood and magic to the mix, along with Spring’s?” Keaton asked.
Having only recently come into his abilities, he didn’t have the vast knowledge of her Thorne sisters, but he was willing to try whatever they might suggest if it meant bringing his son home in one piece. For that alone, Autumn adored him.
“Tell me what to do, babe,” he said, gripping her hand.
“You should know, if he’s been taken, it depends on how powerful the witch is who holds him,” Spring said grimly. “I’m not saying that’s what happened, but it’s better to prepare yourself for action.”
“I agree it’s a possibility,” Autumn said. “I can’t see Chloe wandering off with Jolly in tow. She’s too responsible.”
“Where’s the Carlyle grimoire, sissy?”
Although she had a photographic memory, Spring always liked to double-check before performing a spell. Hands down, she was the most skilled of Autumn’s sisters, but it could be argued that Summer and Winnie were the most powerful.
“I’m still at a loss how anyone got past our wards. Only the Aether has the power to take them down.” Autumn doused the candles and paced the room, unable to remain still while Spring selected a spell. “I thought all our enemies were neutralized. How the fuck is this happening?”
“I’m sorry, babe,” Keaton said, his voice achingly sweet and full of regret. “I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have left Chloe to watch him.”
Although she was holding on to her sanity by a fraying thread, she couldn’t let her husband shoulder the blame. She wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her face against his throat, sighing when his arms tightened around her.
“It’s not your fault, Keaton. We both believed Chloe was up to the task of watching him for short bursts of time. You couldn’t predict you’d be needed in the barn—” She jerked away and stared. “Wait! What was wrong with the horse? Was it a sudden onset?”
Horror dawned on her husband’s already ragged face, but it quickly dissipated, and he shook his head. “No. I’m positive it was typical founder. Unless someone was watching us for months on end, there’s no way anyone could’ve staged this. They wouldn’t have had the opportunity before now.”
2
Keaton’s gut clenched at the initial conclusion Autumn had drawn. He’d had to really give it some thought to determine if the incident in the barn was connected. But no. It couldn’t have been. Their horse Lazy Jay was prone to founder, and nothing about his current condition led Keaton to believe it was anything but bad luck and bad timing. Yet his kids were missing, and it was his damned fault for not calling one of his or his wife’s family members to come babysit.
Chloe had seemed so confident that she could take care of her toddler brother for a short time, and Keaton hadn’t wanted to hurt her feelings by denying she could. She’d sworn she wanted the responsibility, and at age twelve, she should’ve been able to care for Jolyon for a few hours, much less fifteen minutes.
All Keaton knew was that he’d never forgive himself if harm came to either of them. Neither would Autumn, despite how understanding and self-contained she was at the moment.
His gaze met and held Spring’s, and behind her bright eyes, he could see the wheels turning in her clever mind. The woman’s IQ was off the charts, and there wasn’t a situation she couldn’t resolve, given enough time.
“What are you thinking?” he asked.
“You said this wasn’t staged, and I tend to agree. But I can’t for the life of me figure out how they could simply disappear on their own. It makes no sense that Tums would see Chloe running from someone.” Spring flicked her thick chestnut hair over her shoulder in an absent gesture and strode over to the altar that contained the Carlyle grimoire and another, bigger book. She pointed to the one he’d never seen before. “Is this book always left out?”
Keaton met Autumn’s amber eyes and shared a confused look. “No. Didn’t you pull it out when you performed your scrying spell, babe?”
She shook her head, and her rich auburn hair tumbled from its updo. “Actually, no. I used a spell I remembered from the Thorne book.” His wife joined her sister by the altar. She paled when she read the selected page. “I don’t think anyone took our children, Keaton. I think they teleported themselves to another dimension.”
“What?” His heart stalled inside his chest, then kicked back in at double time. “Another dimension? Please tell me you’re joking.”
“She’s not,” Spring replied grimly. “There are traces of unrefined magic in the air. A novice performed this spell without a circle. Can you feel it too, Tums?”
Nodding, Autumn compressed her lips in a tight, white line. “Chloe should’ve known better. We’ve been teaching her how to practice since she was eight.”
“It’ll be all right, sissy. I promise,” Spring said with a quick, hard hug. “We need to call Knox back. I don’t think he’s going to find the children in the woods. Or at least not the ones on this plane. That could also be why Chloe was terrified in your vision, Tums.”
“Right. Because she couldn’t get back to the house!”
“Christ! What does that mean for them? Where the hell could she have taken Jolly?” Sweat broke out on Keaton’s lower back, and his hands grew clammy as his gut churned. “And why? Why would she take him there without permission?”
The sisters shared a worried glance, and it didn’t serve to make him any less stressed.
“What the fuck lives in the dimension they’re in?” he asked. “Is it possible our enemies exist there?”
“In answer to your first question, I don’t know. To the second, maybe. I’d like to say it’s a simple yes or no response,” Spring replied. “But I’m not going to play the candyman and sugarcoat my answers. I’m sorry, Keaton. This entire situation is a little more complicated than that.”
“How?”
“First, we need to see if we can communicate across the divide. Once we can get a better idea of what’s going on, we can find a way to get them back.”
As her sister spoke, Autumn returned to his side and placed a calming hand over his heart. Although he recognized she was as frightened as him, she also had more experience in a crisis and was holding onto her cool better than he ever could.
“Keaton, please go upstairs and find Knox, then your parents. We need to know whatever Keira and Phillip might about this spell. I’m going to assist Spring in locating a communication spell. If we can figure out what Chloe did and why, it might help us.”
“What if we can’t locate them or, Goddess forbid, get them back?” he demanded. “Can one of us be sent there?”
His wife’s expression hardened. “You can bet on it. I’m not leaving our children in an alternate dimension. But we’re not one hundred percent positive that happened yet.”
The longer he delayed, the more chance they had of failing, but Keaton couldn’t seem to make his feet walk up those steps. His need to be more proactive in retrieving his kids was causing a strange paralysis he couldn’t seem to overcome.
Meeting Autumn’s challenging stare, he nodded.
Trust.
It was an important factor in any marriage, and they shared that. Every now and again, he had to let go and allow his wife to do what she felt was necessary. Usually, her way was the right way, but old habits died hard, and his protectiveness of Chloe was the oldest habit he had.
“Babe?”
“I’m going,” he said gruffly. Hauling Autumn close, he absorbed the comfort he needed but could never request aloud. “Thank you for loving Chloe as much as you do.”
“She’s our daughter,” Autumn replied. To her, it was simple. Chloe was as much hers as Jolly, whether she was her natural parent or not. “Thornes don’t know how to fail, babe.”
Because she was right, Keaton grinned despite his overwhelming fear. “That’s what I’m counting on.”
3
As soon as her husband was gone, Autumn addressed her sister. “How bad is it if they jumped realities?”
“Scale of one to ten?”
Swallowing back her panic, she nodded.
Spring’s grimace screamed, “Fifteen.”
“Okay. No need to say it.” Pressing her palm to her forehead, Autumn sighed and looked down at the ancient tome. “How do we reverse engineer the spell the kids used so we can return home once we’ve found them?”
“That’s a bit trickier, I believe. Not only that, but we’re going to need permission from Isis to jump alternate planes. This isn’t a run-of-the-mill situation. I don’t know what happens when or if we meet our counterparts. It could create a cosmic shitstorm.”
