Free Soul Cage by Phaedra Weldon

held up his hand.
She stopped.
    "We don't have time to
debate this, Rhonda. You've repeatedly gotten in other people's way
when they tried to help. And now Manuel and Dags are in need of
attention. Since you insist on preventing anyone from helping Dags
besides yourself—though it is obvious you're not a doctor—I believe
it's best you remain here. I'll have boggarts placed outside the
doors, Rhonda. In case you planned on running or using magic." She
turned to leave.
    "Will you tell me how he
is?" Rhonda said.
    "Of course," Nona said.
She opened the door and Joe closed it behind them. The door jerked
out of his hands as it sealed. The air around the door shimmied and
a strange looking and smelling vine grew out of the wall and
wrapped itself around the door and frame.
    Joe stepped back.
"Whoa…that is nasty."
    "It's a standard Boggart.
It wants to hold everything still. So I let it do what it wants. It
will obey us and not her."
    Joe reached out and
touched one of the leaves. A bright green glow flashed on the leaf
and traveled the length of the vine and spread out to every other
leaf.
    "What did you just do?"
she asked.
    "I just gave it a little
energy, that's all. And...sort of put a spell on it so that if she
tries to break out, I'll know?"
    She smiled at him and
turned to walk down the hall and he followed.
    "Nona…"
    "Mmm?"
    "Remember that thing you
had over your mantel? The statue?"
    She paused at the top of
the stairs leading down to the foyer. "Which one? The Willendorf or the Stone
Dragon?"
    "The Dragon. Where is
it?"
    "I suppose it's still on
my mantel. Why?"
    "Eh…mind if I head over to
the house and take a look?"
    She patted his hand. "If
you want to duck out for a while, it's okay by me."
    "Thanks, oh and Nona…" He
smiled at her. "It's all going to be okay."
    Joe saying this pressed a
weight down on her shoulders. He was a good witch, and he had so
much potential. And…he was so optimistic. She didn't have the heart
to tell him what the very near future would bring. Instead she
opened her arms wide and he hugged her. He smelled of musk and
sweat, and all things good. "Believe that for me. Just...keep
believing."

 
     
    -9-
     
    Halfway down interstate
75, a familiar shape faded into the passenger seat. Joe turned the
volume down on the radio. The sun moved behind a few dark clouds
and the temperature had dropped again since the morning. "What is
it, Phanty."
    Azrael sighed. "I really
wish you wouldn't call me that."
    "I know."
    "Why do you want to find
that stone dragon?"
    Joe glanced over at him.
Azrael looked intensely curious. "Let's just say…I have a
hunch."
    "How?"
    "Why are you grilling
me?"
    "Because," and this time
the Phantasm of the Abysmal Plane shifted in the passenger seat of
the pickup. "I don't like it that I didn't know you were that
powerful."
    Uh oh. Joe pursed his lips
and looked back at the road. "You were in the kitchen."
    "I'm
everywhere."
    "Oh don't give me that
bullshit," he frowned. "You were little more than a fading First
Born with an odd addiction to grapes and milk a few months ago. Now
you're the Phantasm. Either way, that doesn't make you
omniscient."
    "You like pissing me
off."
    "No, I like you people not
just showing up in my truck unannounced. So," he took the exit to
285. "Why are you in here grilling me."
    "I told you. I don't like
not knowing things. And I had no idea you were that powerful. I
don't think Nona knew either."
    "Well news flash. I'm
not." Joe signaled he was moving in between cars. "And back page
story—I didn't know I could do that till I did it."
    Azrael nodded slowly. "I
see…so do you often take our own life into your hands?"
    "Every day I'm alive," he
took the exit to 85 South. "Look, if you're just going to sit there
and annoy me—"
    "Why do you need the stone
dragon?"
    The dream came to mind—the
one he'd had last night. The one he'd had for three nights. And
when Tim said Rhonda had recently been in the shop in Little Five
Points taking