Ralin continued to find her antics amusing, watching from his chair and laughing or giggling every time she bumped into the wall. “Mommy bump” became his favorite saying. Leesa didn’t mind—she was just glad he hadn’t tried to copy her again.

  After the first few failed attempts, Rave didn’t find it quite so amusing. He hated seeing Leesa crash face first into the wall over and over again. If she really wanted to get through the wall, he would be happy to break through it for her.

  “Are you sure you need to learn this trick?” he asked after watching her bump into the wall for the fifth time today. “I know it took time to master some of your other magic, but I didn’t have to watch you hurting yourself learning any of those.”

  Leesa smiled as she rubbed her nose again. “Believe me, I’ve been asking myself that same question. My book showed this to me—it must have a reason.”

  “I hope so. Because I’m getting close to smashing through that wall for you, just so you don’t have to bump into it anymore.”

  Leesa crossed over to where Rave was sitting and kissed him on the forehead.

  “That’s very gallant of you…but I think it misses the point.”

  “Ralin want kiss, too,” Ralin said from his chair.

  Leesa sidestepped over to Ralin and gave him a much longer kiss on the forehead.

  “Mmmmm,” she said. “I’m glad you do. Mommy loves you. You can have all the kisses from Mommy you want.” She turned her head toward Rave. “That goes for you, too, handsome.”

  Rave grinned.

  “Right now, though,” Leesa continued, “I want to try this one more time.”

  She backed away from her two handsome men and stared at the recalcitrant wall, trying to figure out what she was doing wrong. Each day before she made her first attempt to pass through it, she read the relevant pages in her book. She was certain she understood every word, every nuance, yet something was keeping her from succeeding.

  She headed back toward the wall, stopping one step away. Staring hard at the painted surface, she imagined it being mostly air, with tiny particles buzzing around giving it the look and feel of being solid. So why couldn’t she pass through all that space? What was stopping her?

  She thought back to the explanation in the book, going over every sentence in her mind. Something about the part that warned about testing the obstacle with her hand gave her pause. She hadn’t done that even once, but she wondered if stopping close to wall and then moving forward slowly was a similar behavior in some way. Didn’t her caution display a lack of confidence in her ability to succeed? She thought the answer was probably yes. The time to change that was now.

  She turned and walked away from the wall.

  “This is the one,” she said to Rave confidently. “I’m going to walk through that wall right now. Just watch me.”

  Saying the words so definitely felt good. More importantly, it felt right. She knew she was going to need more than confident words though. She was going to have to put her money where her mouth was. Or, more accurately, she was going to have to put her nose and face there.

  Rave noticed the change in Leesa’s attitude immediately. He resisted saying, “Be careful.”

  “Good luck,” he said instead.

  “Luck’s got nothing to do with it,” Leesa replied, smiling.

  She turned and strode determinedly across the room. Her pace didn’t slow one bit as she approached the wall. If she failed, it was going to hurt, but she wasn’t going to fail. Not this time. She was ready now. She had thought she was ready before, but realized she hadn’t been fully committed to the task. This time there would not be the slightest speck of hesitancy.

  When she reached the spot where she should have contacted the wall, her vision went momentarily blank and she felt a brief instant of lightheadedness. She blinked, and found herself in the bedroom. Turning, she looked behind her. The bedroom wall appeared the same as it always did. She had done it!

  She didn’t waste any time in self-congratulations. Wanting to strike while the iron was hot, she spun around and walked toward the wall again. The same lightheadedness and momentary blank vision hit her, and then she was back in the living room. The brief loss of vision and dizziness were obviously the effects of passing through what seemed to be solid matter.

  “Wow,” Rave said, his expression filled with admiration and wonder. “You did it. Congratulations.”

  Ralin looked less pleased. “Mommy no bump,” he complained.

  Leesa smiled and picked her son up from his chair. “Nope. Mommy no bump.” She kissed him on the cheek.

  “What did it look like from where you were sitting?” she asked Rave. “Did I disappear when I dematerialized?”

  Rave shook his head. “Not exactly, if you mean what I think you mean. You just walked into the wall like you were heading into a thick bank of fog or something. For a moment I could see just your back while the rest of you was swallowed up. The last thing to go was your heel. Coming back was just the opposite. I saw your face and foot at about the same time, and then the rest of you came through.”

  Leesa smiled. It sounded just like when Harry Potter walked into his brick wall, only this time it wasn’t done with special effects. It was done with real magic.

  “What did it feel like?” Rave asked. “Did it hurt at all?”

  Leesa put Ralin down. He promptly hurried across the room to the spot where his mother had vanished and then reappeared. He ran his hands slowly over the surface, as if checking to be sure the wall was solid and real.

  “There was a brief instant where my vision went blank and I got a bit dizzy for a moment, but that was it. It felt a little strange, for sure, but there was no pain at all. ”

  Rave smiled. “I’m no expert on that kind of magic, but I imagine walking through a wall like that would have to feel at least a little bit strange.”

  Ralin let out a sudden, loud yelp. His parents’ heads whipped around in unison.

  Ralin looked fine. As Leesa processed the sound he had made, she realized the yell was one of surprise, not pain. Still, she hurried across the room to him. Rave was right behind her.

  She recognized the cause of Ralin’s outburst immediately—his left arm was buried in the wall up past his wrist. The wallboard around it was undamaged.

  Leesa groaned as her brain put the unexpected pieces together. It seemed that Ralin’s magic had somehow inadvertently mimicked her own, allowing him to stick his hand through the wall in a partial dematerialization.

  While she stared at her son’s arm, Rave raced through the doorway into the bedroom. He was back almost before Leesa realized he was gone.

  “His hand is okay,” he reported. “It’s sticking out into the bedroom, but it looks normal. The wall isn’t damaged either, just like out here.”

  Ralin looked up at Leesa with a playful smile. “Ralin stuck,” he said, and then he giggled.

  Leesa forced herself to smile back. She was glad he was taking it so well—much better than his mother was, for sure—but she wondered how long that would last. Eventually, he would get tired of being stuck.

  “Any ideas?” she asked Rave.

  Rave looked down at Ralin’s arm, thinking. “One, maybe. But I’ll defer to you. This is wizard magic.”

  “I know. I guess we could wait and see if his magic gets him out of this the way it got him into it, but I don’t think I want to count on that.”

  “Ralin stuck,” Ralin said again. This time, he didn’t giggle. His expression was becoming one of frustration at not being able to get unstuck.

  Leesa rubbed the top of her son’s head. “We know, sweetheart. Be patient.” She looked up at Rave. “I don’t think waiting is going to be an option much longer. Let’s hear your idea.”

  “I can use my fire to cut him out.” Rave reached out and traced a circle on the wall an inch or so wider than Ralin’s forearm, showing Leesa what he meant to do.

  “Is it safe to burn so close to his skin? Maybe you should cut a bigger hole, to start.”

  “It’s perfectly safe. I can focus my fire just like Kaila did when she cut into you.”

  “Ralin stuck.” The frustration had now reached Ralin’s voice. Leesa didn’t want him pulling hard on his arm, unsure of what might happen if he did.

  “We know, sweetheart. Daddy’s going to get you out. Just hold still for another minute.” Leesa looked up at Rave. “Go ahead. Hurry up… but be careful.”

  Rave smiled. “Always.”

  Leesa put her hand on Ralin’s shoulder. “Hold still, honey.” Her maternal instincts compelled her to repeat the caution, even though she doubted Ralin could move his arm if he tried.

  Rave called up his fire on his right index finger only, forming the blue flame into a tightly focused point that reminded Leesa of an acetylene torch. The wall sizzled as he cut a slow, precise circle around Ralin’s arm. The smell of burning wallboard filled the room.

  When the circle was complete, Leesa gently eased Ralin’s arm away from the wall. His hand came out easily, leaving his lower forearm encircled by a thick band of white plaster that looked a bit like a sweatband. Ralin looked down at it curiously.

  “Arm white,” he said with a puzzled expression on his young face.

  “It’s okay, sweetheart,” Leesa soothed. “Mommy will get it off.”

  She began carefully breaking pieces of the band off from Ralin’s arm. The soft wallboard crumbled easily, but she kept her pace slow. There was no need to hurry, and she didn’t want to risk injuring her son.

  Finally, she was done. The last solid piece had crumbled to the floor. She rubbed Ralin’s skin, removing the remaining splotches of plaster dust. Not all of it would come off, however. She wet her fingers with her tongue and rubbed harder. She couldn’t feel them, but the white speckles remained stubbornly in place.

  “Uh, oh,” she mumbled.

  Rave looked at her questioningly. “What is it?”

  Leesa rubbed at a white spots one more time, demonstrating their stubborn refusal to disappear.

  “I think pieces of the wall are still intermingled with Ralin’s arm.”

  “Is that a problem?” Rave looked down at Ralin’s face. The boy appeared unfazed. “Ralin doesn’t seem bothered.”

  Leesa drew in a deep breath. “I don’t know if it’s a problem or not. But I don’t think it can be a good thing.”

  It didn’t take long for them to find out it was definitely not a good thing.

  35. “HURTS”

  “I’M STILL WORRIED ABOUT RALIN,” Leesa said from where she lay in the darkness on her side of the bed.

  “How so?” Rave asked from close beside her. “Is that thing with his arm still bothering you?”

  They lay cuddled together talking, the way they did every night before Leesa allowed herself to fall asleep, usually in Rave’s arms. Ralin was already fast asleep in his crib on the far side of the room. Leesa could hear his soft breathing. The rhythm of his breaths was smooth and regular, belying her concerns.

  They no longer bothered putting the sides of Ralin’s crib up—their son seldom moved in his sleep and so was in no danger of rolling off the bed. And if for some reason he wanted out, the two-foot high bars certainly weren’t going to stop him or even slow him down. Since Rave usually remained awake for most of the night, they weren’t worried about Ralin wandering away from his crib.

  Ralin had gone to bed without complaint and had fallen asleep easily, the way he did most every night. None of that completely eased Leesa’s concern, however. Incomplete magic could be dangerous, she knew, and Ralin’s accidental passing of his arm through the wall was as incomplete as magic got. She found it difficult to persuade herself there wouldn’t be repercussions from this afternoon’s misfortune.

  She pushed herself up onto her elbow. She could barely make out Rave’s silhouette in the dimness, but knew he could see her as clear as day.

  “Yeah, it’s about his arm,” she replied. “I know he fell asleep easily enough, but while he was still awake, did he seem a bit more subdued than usual to you this evening? You know, like he was not quite his normal self? Or was I just reading something into it that wasn’t there?”

  Rave thought for just a moment. “Now that you mention it, I guess he was a little less rambunctious than normal. It was a nice change.”

  “I know, but that’s what I mean. It’s like something was bothering him, but not quite enough for him to complain about it. Maybe it was his arm, or maybe it was something else. Either way, it has me worried.”

  Rave sat up. “I think I can bring him over without waking him. I’ll go get him, and you can use your bond to check if anything is wrong.”

  Leesa sat up beside Rave and swung her legs over the side of the bed. She leaned over and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

  “Thank you. I know I’ll sleep better after I check.”

  Before Rave could stand up, Ralin’s voice sounded from out of the darkness.

  “Ralin hurt.”

  Those two words were all Leesa needed to hear. She was on her feet in an instant and quickly cast an extra bright illumination sphere to light up the bedroom. Before she could even take one step, Rave had already flashed across the room and lifted Ralin out of his crib, cradling him in his arms the same way he did when he carried Leesa. He brought their son over to her.

  “Ralin hurt,” Ralin repeated, looking up into his mother’s face with a pleading look.

  Leesa’s eyes immediately went to his arm. She didn’t need to focus on her magical bond with Ralin to know what was wrong. While he slept, his wrist and hand had turned blue. Not a beautiful, glowing volkaane blue—no, this was an angry blue, a dark, purplish blue like the color of a bad bruise.

  She gently squeezed his hand between her thumb and index finger. His flesh was cool and swollen.

  Ralin yanked his hand away. “Hurts,” he repeated.

  “What is it?” Rave asked Leesa, his growing concern clear in his voice.

  Leesa didn’t look up, unable to take her eyes off Ralin’s arm. “I can’t be positive, but I think the particles of wall still inside his arm might be cutting off some of the circulation to his hand.” Guessing wasn’t enough for Leesa, though—she needed to know for sure. It was time to see what her bond would tell her. “Hold on a minute.”

  She concentrated hard on her bond with her son. Everything seemed fine, except for his lower arm and hand. There, his vibrations were all askew, his aura brighter and hotter than normal. She fine-tuned her focus into the offending area even more.

  She sensed the problem immediately. Foreign particles that gave off no magical vibrations whatsoever were scattered throughout a narrow band of his forearm, in the exact place where his arm had been stuck in the wall. These were molecules from the wallboard, she knew, tiny pieces that remained inside him from his incomplete dematerialization. She could sense that some of them were clogging his arteries and veins, reducing the circulation to his hand and causing it to discolor and swell.

  While she had the offending particles in her magical sight, she searched for something to do, some way to use her magic to destroy or remove them. Nothing came to mind.

  Reluctantly, she brought her focus back to the room.

  “It’s what I thought,” she told Rave. “Tiny particles of the wall are stuck inside his arm. Some of them are interfering with his circulation.”

  Rave frowned. “Can’t you use your magic get them out?”

  “I don’t know. I didn’t see a way to do it while my mind was in there. I tried to find one, believe me.” Leesa thought of one other source she could try. “Let me look in my book. Maybe it will show me something I can do.”

  She hurried into the living room, where her magical book sat in its customary place atop the table. Rave followed with Ralin still cradled in his arms.

  Leesa sat down and quickly flipped the cover open to an arbitrary spot about a third of the way into the book, only to find blank pages staring back at her. Her heart sank as she looked down at the stark white pages. If the book held an answer for her, it wouldn’t matter where she opened it to. The book’s magic would have shown her what she needed. She pushed the cover closed. Her book was not going to be any help to them.

  She looked up at Rave. “Nothing,” she said despondently.

  “Ralin hurt,” her son repeated again. His voice was growing more upset each time he said it. The words tore at Leesa’s heart. She had to do something. If she didn’t act soon, Ralin was in grave danger of losing his hand, or worse.

  “Can you look again?” Rave asked. “Maybe if you concentrate really hard on what you need, the book will show you a way to do it.”

  Leesa hated the worried tone she heard in Rave’s voice, but he was no more anxious about all this than she was.

  “I don’t think I can concentrate any harder.” Even as Leesa voiced the words, she reached out toward the book. “But I guess it can’t hurt to try.”

  Concentrating as fully as she could on the need to fix her son’s arm, she rested her palm on the cover of the book for several seconds before opening it to another random spot. Once again, though, her eyes were met by nothing but empty white space. She stared down at the pages for several moments, almost as if willing words to appear. When nothing happened, she slammed the book closed.

  “Nothing,” she said, her voice tinged with a bitterness she knew was unfair. “Either there’s no magic the book can give me that will help, or whatever exists is beyond my current abilities so the book won’t show it to me. Either way, I’m afraid we’re on our own.”

  “We’ve got to do something,” Rave said. “And I think it needs to be soon.”

  “I know. Let me go back to my bond again. Maybe I’ll see something I missed last time.”

  Leesa turned her focus to her bond with Ralin one more time, concentrating entirely on the place where the tiny pieces of wall infected his arm. Once she was there, she narrowed her focus even tighter, fastening her concentration upon a single plaster particle partially obstructing the flow of blood in one of Ralin’s narrower veins. If she could just figure out a way to get rid of one single piece, then she could eventually get rid of all of them. She imagined the invading piece disintegrating and vanishing, hoping that somehow by visualizing its destruction she could make it happen.