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Chapter 5

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"Puck," she mutters to herself. Where had he gone? The bathroom? No, no. Jake had given them more potion for that. So where?

Sabrina slips out of bed and pads to the door. The handle is still warm; heated by a hand that had pondered whether to turn it or not. She steps out of the room, looking around carefully before leaving. She stalks up the hallway the same way they had come earlier, muffling her footsteps as much as possible. It's difficult, considering she weighs more than she's used to and her feet are just so bumbly.

She makes it to the end of the hall and out of the corner of her eye she spots the flash of a shadow. She sighs in irritation. He's good, she'd give him that-at least while using her body's innate sneakiness. What was he up to?

She creeps forward, hugging the wall. These passages aren't familiar to her; they hadn't gone down them earlier in the evening. As she nears the end of the corridor, the sound of hushed voices barely reaches her.

"...One last thing...guests are taken care of."

"How do you want me to do it?"

Sabrina recognizes the first voice, all smooth and lilting and self-important. Aspen for sure. The second voice is a deep and gruff baritone, but definitely not someone she'd met.

"Closer to morning." Aspen's voice grows even more trace, and Sabrina begins to walk forward, tilting her head and straining to hear more information. Then, on her fourth step, she trips. Flailing, she manages to catch her shoulder on the wall and slide down, unable to hold in a grunt of pain.

The voices go silent, then the lower voice whispers harshly, "What was that?"

Immediately, the sharp crack of a slap. "Shut up, you idiot! That could be Raken. Move it!"

Shuffling footsteps scramble across tile followed by rustling, then nothing.

"What are you doing?" hisses someone much closer.

It takes a heart stopping second to locate the person on the ground. Placing the voice isn't hard since she would know it anywhere. Two bright blue eyes glare up at her.

"Puck?"

"Duh!"

"Why are you on the floor?"

He rolls his eyes. "Same as you, eavesdropping on that loathsome fairy and hobgoblin."

Sabrina rubs her aching shoulder, glaring at him. "I wasn't eavesdropping, I was following you."

"I don't need a babysitter!"

Exasperated, she counters, "You ran off without saying anything, what was I supposed to do?"

"Stay in bed, suck your thumb, I don't know."

She wants to rip into him about being responsible and not going off alone, but just then, she picks up a tinge of a sound. She puts a finger to her lips to signal silence.

Puck quickly lifts himself from the floor into a crouch, but it's too late. Someone much larger than him snatches him up in their arms from around the corner and holds up his struggling form.

Sabrina's mouth flaps open-she recognizes the hobgoblin build, but she'd never seen one with a hairy pig snout complete with a beard. From around the creature comes his opposite, Aspen, all sleek and handsome and smug.

Sabrina instantly holds up her fists, wondering how hard she'd have to smack that smug mouth to wipe that smirk off his face.

"Interlopers," he chuckles, not intimidated by her in the slightest, "I should've guessed it was you two." He pulls out a small, sharp looking knife and tucks it under Puck's chin, ending his wriggling abruptly, hardly daring to to breathe.

Sabrina instantly puts her hands up, unwilling to cause any potential harm to her body or Puck.

"Ah, there's a good obedient prince. Now, any weapons?"

She grits her teeth and shakes her head.

"Out loud, if you will," he drawls, slitting a neat, bright red line onto Puck's throat. He squeaks, the sound much more pitiful coming from Sabrina's body.

Panic and rage swirl in Sabrina's gut, a sort of protective urge demanding that she reach forward and wrap her arms around his throat for hurting-

Woah, there, that's dramatic. Sabrina sucks in a breath and manages a low growl. "No, nothing."

Aspen nods at the hobgoblin who steps away from Puck and tromps toward her, pulling a length of rope from behind its back.

"Wrists," it grunts.

Angrily, she complies, holding her hands out, flexing her them into tight fists. The brute ties her hands together, pulling the scratchy rope tight enough to bruise. All the while, she watches Aspen like a hawk. Seeing her tied up, he lowers the knife and goes to bind Puck's wrists.

Sabrina turns and yells her uncle's name at the top of her lungs. The hobgoblin moves forward and punches her solidly in the gut. She wheezes, coughing, eyes watering.

"Hey!" Puck snarls, attempting to elbow Aspen in the face but he misses, clumsily attempting to grab him in a headlock. The dark haired fairy easily dodges and snatches him by the arm and slams him into the wall, dazing him. It's not hard to finish tying Puck's hands after that.

Some resistance we put up, Sabrina thinks. It was like neither of them had fought a day in their lives.

Aspen slicks his hair back, glaring at Sabrina. "I highly doubt your human valet heard you, but," his gaze goes to the hobgoblin, "make sure his door stays locked until morning."

The hobgoblin obeys, trudging down the hall with heavy footfalls.

Aspen rolls his eyes as if he can't believe how incompetent his ally is. Pulling his knife once more, he grabs Puck's upper arm.

Puck glares at Aspen, looking like he wants to burn a hole through the dark haired fairy.

"Oh," Aspen mocks, "this one has fire. Come off it." He looks to Sabrina. "You'll be good won't you?" he slides the blade comfortably against Puck's shoulder and neck.

Sabrina grimaces, but nods.

"Good, now come along." Aspen turns and leads them around the corner to another elaborate hallway. This one is covered in beautifully crafted tapestries, lining each wall in countless colors and scenes. The one nearest Sabrina depicts a figure in green holding up a sword, the sun shining bright in a fabricated sky.

Aspen leads them down to the halfway point and runs his hand along the edge of a tapestry covered in gold roses and flicks it part way back, revealing a slim door centered behind it. Sabrina swallows. A secret entrance.

Aspen opens the door softly and gestures for them both to step inside a dark room beyond. Puck resists, but is ultimately shoved in. Sabrina, clinging to some kind of pride follows, letting the fairy close the door behind them. With a snap of his fingers, little crystals flare to life, brightening the tiny space. Sabrina instantly goes to memorizing it, taking in the high ceiling and bare concrete walls. There's a few crates in the corner, a single goblin poised next to them. It hisses at the light, squinty eyes narrowing even further.

"Aspen," it rasps-sending a small jolt of recognition through Sabrina, it was the male goblin from earlier-"Why have you brought them here? I thought the plan was to-"

"There's been a change in plans," Aspen announces. "Since these two insisted on being nosy, I figured I would give them the grand tour." He turns to the teenagers, pointing to the crates with a sneer. "Go on, sit, make yourselves comfortable."

Puck glowers at their captor and plops himself down, back against a crate. Sabrina joins him, and for a second, they share a look, a quick brush of warmth and comfort.

The goblin above them jeers, cackling. "Little weasels caught in the trap."

"Be quiet, Horg."

Horg falls silent, hissing at the captors. Puck hisses back, making Horg look appropriately disturbed. Sabrina nudges her companion and looks back up at Aspen.

"Why capture us? Why are you doing this?" She demands, trying to configure her face into that defiantly haughty expression Puck wore whenever they were in trouble.

Aspen, who seems far too happy to be looking down his nose at them, takes his sweet answering, examining his nails.

Puck grows fed up with the pompiety and kicks out, hitting the fairy's shin. He yowls, hopping around on one foot. Horg and Puck laugh in hardly restrained tones, but Sabrina feels dread pooling in her stomach. Doesn't he realize how much trouble he's going to cause? The danger he's putting them in?

Once he's finished hopping, Aspen glares at Horg who shrinks. He gets to one knee and grasps Puck's chin between his fingers. "If I was much into hitting women you'd have a black eye and split lip by now," he gripes before releasing him and rising.

"Sexist much?" Puck grumbles under his breath making Sabrina elbow him in the ribs.

"To answer your question," Aspen drawls regaining his composure, curling his lip. "It's nothing personal. I've been trying to usurp this place from Raken for weeks now. All I needed was a good distraction-customers to give him a long enough job to keep him occupied. Honestly," he sighs, as if their very existence is an irritation, "I wasn't planning on bothering you two and that human you were with until tomorrow. But then you had to go meddling and snooping, and I can't have loose ends."

Sabrina raises an eyebrow at him, subtly flexing her wrists to test the amount of wiggle room she'd made in the bristly cuffs. "Why fight against Raken?" The cuffs barely budge.

Aspen rolls his eyes. "I'm not much one for taking orders. But when I got this job, I saw opportunity." His eyes sparkle with greed and he rubs his hands together. "There's hordes of magical objects, artifacts, books-you name it-stored here and Raken wishes only to use it to study and hold on to forever."

"What a waste," Puck says dryly.

"Exactly," the fairy says, stuck in his own world. "With one fell swoop, I'll remove Raken and have everything to myself. I'll be positively drowning in riches."

"So you're doing this for money?" Sabrina asks, disgusted. It's not that it's an unbelievable motive, just that it's so feeble.

"Y'know," Puck says, "that is one of the stupidest villain plans I've heard in a while."

Aspen ignores the jab and snaps his fingers, causing Horg to jump to attention.

"It's nearly time for Raken to present his findings. Send that hobgoblin back over and wait for the appointed time to lead the other human back."

Horg grunts, scuttling from the crates and dashing out the door.

"I still don't see the logic in your plan," Sabrina says, wondering if there's any way to talk him out of hurting them or their unsuspecting uncle.

He gives her a cold look. "What is there for you to see? You have no idea how much is here and how much you can garner from the right people with the right bribe. There's more wealth stored here than you could imagine." He snickers. "But of course Faerie wouldn't know of financial problems would it?"

This irks Puck, Sabrina can feel it before he speaks.

"I'll have you know Faerie's treasury is doing just fine," he bristles.

Aspen gives him a curious look before letting out a bark of laughter. "Oh, and I suppose you've been there?" He's overcome with more mirth, wiping an imaginary tear from his eye. "Excuse me, but I'm still having a good laugh about all of," he waves his hand between them, "this. I'd heard rumors about some human wriggling her way into the royal family, but until now I thought they were just fools tales to stir up mischief."

Sabrina feels her cheeks heat up, and can see Puck's doing the same. She hates the way it feels to blush in this body, making the tips of her ears burn and chest all tight.

"I don't know what you're talking about," they say at nearly the same time.

Aspen chuckles. "How thrilled Queen Titania must be at your..." he snorts, "liaisons."

Further embarrassment of the teenagers is cut off as the door opens, revealing the hobgoblin from earlier who has to squeeze awkwardly to the side to come in.

"All in place," he huffs.

"Good, good," Aspen thanks with the attitude one might use to praise a barely noticed pet. "Any minute now, and we're on our way to riches."

The hobgoblin stares unfeelingly at Aspen before nodding.

It's not hard for Sabrina to imagine the traitorous staff eventually backstabbing Aspen when they see fit. He's just too full of himself to see it. Currently, he turns to chattering on to the hobgoblin about how great the plan will turn out, not bothering to ask him to speak.

Sabrina stretches her wrists, growing frustrated with the bindings. She'd always hated cuffs of any kind. Her endless stream of foster parents had used many forms of entrapment, but with them there'd always been a loose bobby pin to trick locks or the rusty edge of an old radiator to split through the tough fibers of rope. She pauses, tilting her head. There's some kind of sound coming from outside their secluded room. The group falls into a hush, realizing the same thing as voices lilt closer and closer.

Sabrina's eyes widen. That's Jake's voice!

Aspen lurches forward, covering their mouths with his hands before she or Puck can yell for help.

Sabrina desperately wants to bite the hand, to make him yowl and give them away, but he's got them in a near suffocating grip.

"I'm surprised they got up so early, to be honest," Sabrina hears the unmistakable tone of her uncle. "They're usually pretty heavy sleepers."

Another voice, the male goblin Horg, purrs. "They seemed anxious to see the master's handiwork."

Sabrina curses in her mind-that half wit's lie was extremely believable given the circumstances.

"Oh, right..."

The voices fade away, and Aspen finally releases his hold on them, wiping his hands on his pants as if disgusted by touching them. "That's my cue," he says superiorly, rising delicately, as if he is some high lord instead of a traitor. He looks back at them. "I'll see to you when all of this is over and dealt with." He smiles with half of his mouth. "I wonder how much the heir to Faerie will fetch me?"

Puck spits on one of his shoes, making the northern fairy glower at him. He doesn't even grace the supposed 'human girl' with a response and instead turns to bark orders at the hobgoblin to guard them until he returns. Then he strides from the secret room, leaving the three in solitude.

The two teenagers sit in silence for a minute, listening to Aspen's retreating footsteps in a gloomy fog.

Sabrina tugs at the bindings around her wrists, but they hardly even budge. She curses under her breath. "Oh, come on!" She leans over to Puck and hisses, "How do I turn into an animal or something?"

"I dunno," he growls, gnawing at the rope, "it's just something I kinda do-besides, you have to be able to stand and spin on your heel to do it."

"Ugh, this stinks," she admits, sitting back against the crate hard. Her stomach rumbles a bit, and she belches, which is somehow much grosser being in Puck's body.

"Talk about stink," Puck complains, inching away from her. "What's the last thing you ate?"

"Jellied tomato with pickle-fried sauerkraut." Her nose wrinkles. "Y'know, now that I say that out loud, even I'm grossed out by how much I liked it."

"Whatever, just don't burp on me again. Although, I do need to remember that combo for when I get my body back." He holds one of his unbound fingers up. "Oh! Probably with some pepsi. That sounds good."

Sabrina rolls her eyes. "No, that sounds-" she stops talking abruptly, an idea suddenly forming in her mind-his comment brings up a memory.

"What, what are you thinking?"

The burly hobgoblin guard sniffs and glances back at them suspiciously. The two smile innocently at him until he turns back.

Sabrina lowers her voice. "I'm going to burp at the guard. Get ready to run."

Puck's face twists with disgust and confusion. "He's a hobgoblin, if anything the smell would...oh!"

Sabrina doesn't know how exactly this works, but she closes her eyes and focuses. C'mon, just a spark, a little-Her eyes begin to water, and when she opens her mouth, a blast of flame bursts out, engulfing the hobgoblin.

Unsurprisingly, the monster freaks out, screaming and roaring as he tries in vain to pat out the raging fire toasting his backside.

Sabrina and Puck leap to their feet. Sabrina launches herself at the hobgoblin, kicking it in the back. The motion is awkward and off balance, but the fire already has it so off-kilter that the monster falls with a huge 'umph'.

Puck struggles with the singed belt but pries a knife away from its sheath, frantically gesturing with his chin for Sabrina to come over to him. The moment she does, he saws off her binding ropes and she trades him, slicing through the material in one clean motion.

"C'mon, we need to go find Jake!"

Together, they run for the door and shove it open, tearing past the tapestry that conceals it. Navigating the halls isn't easy, but soon, Sabrina begins to recognize the pictures lining the walls. "This way!" she announces, turning down a corridor to their left. It almost doesn't matter that she recognizes the way because now she can hear shouting.

In no time, they reach the place where they'd met Raken. Sabrina and Puck burst into the room where Jake is fighting Aspen. The area is disconcerting at first because it's raining. Indoors-under three feet of concrete.

Jake is in the corner closest to them, holding up a pair of brass knuckles that cast a shimmering shield over him and an unconscious Raken, his thick wooden desk thrown in front of them.

Sabrina stares, looking from the growing puddle at her feet to the damp parchment flying around the room as if in a gale and finally to Aspen, who holds the scepter they'd taken from the quetzals. He swirls it around in an almost mindless way, but Sabrina realizes it must be the source of the storm. He's closing his eyes, muttering to himself. Lightning crackles overhead. He was going to blast them to dust!

Puck takes in the situation in a few fleeting moments, and lights go off in his eyes. He calls for Jake who does a double take, gaping at them. Puck gives him no time to be relieved by their presence. "The snow queen's wand," he shouts.

Jake must know what he's talking about because he immediately tosses him a silvery blue icicle from his coat.

Puck catches it easily, but the color soon drains from his face, leaving behind an eerie sort of need.

Sabrina snatches the wand from his clutches and shakes his shoulder with her other hand, knowing full well the strength of the addiction. "Puck!" she says, jolting him from his stupor. "What do you want me to do with this?"

He blinks at her and then nods slightly. He points to the swirling clouds above. "Freeze the storm, he's channeling directly from that staff."

Sabrina turns, gazing into the fake, swirling mist above them. She feels silly, realizing that she has no idea how this wand works. But it's magic, and even if she hadn't been able to handle magic very well for years, she understood the basics-magic came naturally, conjured from your mind and heart. She holds up the wand and breathes, imagining that she's in the middle of a freezing tundra.

Gimme some ice.

A stream of burning hot cold shoots through her arm and out of the magical instrument. She opens her eyes in time to see Puck tackling her, moving her away from the worst of the now falling ice chunks raining from the ceiling.

Aspen cries out, half his arm and the scepter encased in frigid icicles. The wind dies down immediately, sending wet papers everywhere. One slaps Jake in the face with a squelch.

As Aspen smacks the scepter against a wall, trying to break free, Puck turns to Sabrina and grabs her arm, sending a jolt through her. "Remember what we did in Germany to that centaur?"

Sabrina nods and then he's bounding off to the center of the room before she can ask which role she should play.

Puck puts his hands on his hips and begins to do what he's best at-slandering others with his words and sharp tongue.

"Ah, poor insect. The ice finally leech out of your soul?" he wags his finger at the reddening fae. "I suppose we should cover you in slime next-but maybe that'd be too good for you."

"How did you-" the fae shakes his head, realizing the question is stupid. "So much courage," spits Aspen, "for a child who was so easily bested with a knife and some rope."

As the two launch into a verbal duel, Sabrina creeps along the edge of the nigh destroyed room, taking a quick backward glance at where Jake is trying to bring Raken back to consciousness. It doesn't take her long to get into position near the northern fairy.

Puck's gaze catches on her, causing his adversary to begin to turn his head. Puck scrunches his brow for a moment then smirks, leaning forward. "Hey!" He cajoles, forcing Aspen's attention back to him. "Is it true a northern fae's wings are only as tall as his manhood?" Then Puck's mouth twists, feigning a sudden realization. "Oh, but northerners don't have wings do they?" He smiles and waves his hand dismissively. "Well, same difference."

Sabrina's jaw slacks open, right in time with the resounding crack of Aspen freeing his arm and magical scepter.

"Insolent whelp!" He shrieks, pointing the electrically crackling tip of his weapon towards Puck's chest.

Before things can escalate further, Sabrina jumps him, slamming her forearm into his throat in a chokehold. Aspen sputters and croaks, dropping the scepter to claw uselessly at her arm. He wrenches himself free, tumbling to the ground, wheezing.

Sabrina lunges forward, kicking the scepter towards Jake who ran to join Puck. After that, she crouches down and grabs the fae by his pretty pressed collar.

He looks like he wants to spit more insults and curses at her, furious and terrified that his plan failed.

"Oh, give it a rest," Sabrina growls, finding that no matter what body she inhabits, her left fist is as impressive as ever.

.-.-.-.

It takes a few hours to clear the place of defective body guards. Very few of the hired help were genuine, so by the time they're finished, all that Raken has left is Gerg and a handful of goblins. They meet once more in Raken's study, where everything is still a mess, books and bottles scattered across the floor. Raken ignores it for the time being, sitting elegantly at his scuffed desk to address his visitors. He stares at them for a while, elbows on the table, fingertips together, thinking through something. He'd come too relatively quickly, only knocked out by Aspen clocking him over the head with the staff. A conspicuous bump stands up next to one of his horns.

"I must thank you three," he says at last. "Much as I loathe you, Jacob, your help was...effective in exposing this flimsy ploy to take over."

"Flimsy?" Puck mutters, "pretty sure without us, you'd be doomed right now."

Raken either doesn't hear the comment, or chooses to ignore it. "Now," he says, sitting up, "despite the frustrations of the morning, I did finish examining your damaged item."

"Good," Jake says gratefully, ruffled and tired from the morning's events

"What do you want for the repairs?"

Raken sighs, rubbing one of his temples. "In light of recent events, I've elected to not have you pay your final dues." He looks like the decision caused him great pain. "I owe you one, so to speak." He leans down and opens one of the drawers of his desk and brings out the Y-shaped device. The bottom half is carefully wrapped in white cloth, but to Sabrina's disappointment, the top of the crack peeks out.

Puck sees this as well. "What gives! It's still busted."

Raken nods. "Unfortunately, it is beyond my resources to fully repair this device." He pauses, letting the news soak in.

Jake gives the teenagers a defeated look that mirrors their own. Stuck. That's the word that rattles around in Sabrina's head. This had been their most feasible chance to cleanly put things back to normal.

"However, if you're willing," Raken chimes in, "there is a spell you could put together that could fix it," he says, frowning thoughtfully.

The adventurers' mood lifts. "What is it?" Puck asks, excitedly wrapping his knuckles against the researchers desk.

"The spell requires three ingredients. You'll need blood from the heart of Djieien," he begins, and Jake cuts him off immediately.

"Blood of a Djieien?" he splutters, "but that's impossible."

"Not impossible. Othegwenhda found one of the hearts to kill it, as did Crazy Horse."

Jake looks like he wants to cry, but nods. Sabrina doesn't know what a Djieien is, but if it scares Jake, it can't be any good.

"Other than that, a phoenix feather and a measure of hydra venom should do the trick. After you gather the items, the last thing you need is a competent witch to seal the spell." He says it as if this should be a simple fetch mission.

Jake's mouth works for a second, like he wants to disagree, then he nods. "That's all we can do?"

Raken dips his head. "It's the most straightforward path. The blood is key to the hidden nature of the object, the phoenix feather has regenerative effects on things that are destroyed, and hydra venom carries many magical strengthening properties."

Sabrina sighs. "It'll have to do."

"Right then," Raken says, propping his book in front of himself, waving one of his arms in a shooing gesture, "if you're quite done here, please leave me in peace."

.-.-.-.

AN: I return! Who could've ever seen Aspen turning out to be a bad guy? *gasp* Anyways, this story is just pouring out of me again. It's nice to go back to and really enjoy the idea we've got rolling. Thank you all for your kind and thoughtful reviews and all of your well wishes after the crash. I really appreciate it and I hope you all drive safe this coming winter.

In other news-what quest intrigues you the most? Blood of a giant spider monster, a feather from a frightfully scare bird, or milking the venom of a beast with more heads than you know how to deal with?

-Pinklily8