“Dani!” Betty did something very much like a growl. “No magic.”
Trisha couldn’t turn to see her, but she felt the heat of Betty’s anger roil off her back a second before she planted a hand onto her still frozen shoulder.
“You promised to give us time,” Betty pleaded with someone; Trisha could only guess it to be Danika.
A long sigh was punctuated by a loud pop and then Trisha fell to the ground, scraping her hands and knees on the rough carpet and gasping for breath as Betty enveloped her in a tight hug.
“What just happened?” Trisha stuttered around a swollen and dry tongue.
Rubbing her back, Betty’s lips were grim. “Magic is real, Trisha. Everything I’ve told you, all real. Do you believe me now?”
Her big brown eyes were earnest and sincere and Trisha had no words. Like they had literally crawled out of her head, leaving her with a vast, blank canvas of nothing.
“She’s in shock,” Betty hissed.
Trisha couldn’t follow half of what was going on. What was going on exactly? A friend she’d known her entire life was telling her a place of fairytales existed, a smallish woman with freaking enormous dragonfly wings had just zapped her with some sort of super powered wand, and a man with a hook awaited her at the other side of the rainbow.
It was just too much.
She laughed. Grabbed her stomach, held on for dear life, and let it all out. She’d lost her mind.
Clearly.
“Oh dear,” the woman/bug/Danika thing tsked, tapping her chin with a star tipped wand.
“I told you to give me more time,” Betty grumbled, still rubbing Trisha’s back.
Looking up at Gerard, Trisha laughed harder. He had his arms crossed over his impressive chest and was looking at her with an I-told-you-so look.
Which was so terribly, ludicrous and funny. Not to mention Un-Freakin-Believable.
Shaking her head, trying to shake the incredulity loose with it, Trisha worked up to her feet and then walked toward Danibug (she refused to call her a fairy). There had to be a rational explanation for all this. They were in a theater, props were everywhere. That must be it.
Walking around Danika’s back, she leaned in close, peering through the veiny, translucent wings. Brushing her fingers over them, she gasped when they trembled.
Danika jerked and twisted around. “Do you mind?”
“Where’d you get those?”
Danika narrowed her eyes, nostrils flaring, her tiny rosebud mouth set into a tight, thin line. “I was born with them.”
“Right.” Trisha nodded.
Betty clamped onto her shoulders, pulling her behind her back. “Look, Dani, maybe she’s not ready. Give her more time. One more day at least.”
“To what?” Danika’s blondish-gray brows gathered into a vee. “To convince herself she’s deluded and needs to be in a mental ward?”
Whoa? Trisha narrowed her eyes. “That’s not what I was thinking.”
That’s exactly what she’d been thinking.
Bug lady’s only response was a large roll of the eyes. Then she turned to Betty. “I sent Gerard to you much the same way I intend to send her. There are certain souls who simply cannot accept until they witness it for themselves. Sometimes seeing really is the only way to believing.”
“Hello,” she said and waved, but failed to get them to stop discussing whether to send her now or later. “Hello!” she tried again and then smiled proudly when they broke apart startled.
“I’m right here, and don’t I get a say in this?” She touched her chest.
They started to shake their heads and she shook her finger.
“Okay, actually you misunderstood me. I wasn’t really asking permission here. Betty, I love you, but right now I’m seriously pissed. So hands off.” She jerked out of Betty’s reach. Eventually she’d forgive her, because that’s what friends did, but not right now. Right now she had to get away from them, all this, needed time to breathe and think and gather her scattered thoughts into something that made some sort of sense again. “As for you bug lady…”
Danika huffed and twin splotches of red crested her pale cheeks, but Trisha plowed on, not giving her a chance to retort.
“…the answer is a big, fat hell no. I’m not going anywhere, except maybe to bed. Today sucked, no thanks to the both of you. Betty, you can call me tomorrow, I’m sure by then I’ll be less moody. Tonight I have a date with Leonardo and Kate and better nobody interrupt my I’m-the-king-of-the-world moment, thank you!”
With a decisive nod, she turned on her heels and started sauntering proudly toward the door.
“Bloody hell, every time. Some days being a godmother is a pain in my bubbly ass,” Danika muttered and that was the last thing Trisha heard. The next thing she knew she was reaching for the door and instead of stepping out into the familiar sights and sounds of Lebanon, Missouri, she was now falling through a tunnel of stars.