Imagineer (The Imagineer Series Book 1) Read online

  Table of Contents

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  Author

  Published by Raconteur House

  Murfreesboro, TN

  IMAGINEER

  Imagineer Series: Grimoire 1

  A Raconteur House book/ published by arrangement with the author

  Copyright © 2019 by Honor Raconteur

  Cover by Katie Griffin

  Engineering technology vector wallpaper made with circles and lines by Sylverarts Vectors/Shutterstock; Eye glasses icon by Anatolir/Shutterstock

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, or events, is entirely coincidental. Pop culture references belong to their respective TM owners and are used just for fun.

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights.

  Purchase only authorized editions.

  For information address: www.raconteurhouse.com

  Tags:

  Magic is REAL, like really real, intellectual competency, if that even is a thing, I made it a thing, terrible parenting, friendship 101, awesome sidekicks, Reagan being BAMF, because she’s awesome that way, wendigos, and other scary creatures, cool grandmothers, road trip!, Brazil, a little India, complex magic, imagination has no limit, Mongolian metal music, fluff, all the feels, bizarre roommates, modern with magic, magic engineering, sort of based on reality, I don’t even know, I tried, a bit of kidnapping, featuring special guest star: kobold, no pookas were harmed in the making of this story

  He said, “And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it.”

  -Roald Dahl

  It was the perfect night for a murder.

  Or at least, it felt that way to me at this very moment.

  I knelt on the gravelly side of the road, lug wrench in hand, and one eye over my shoulder as I tried to change the flat tire. It was late—much later than I preferred to be out—the deserted road wrapped in inky darkness. The sounds of insects, the leaves rustling in the light wind, and not much else accompanied me. I felt remarkably like a heroine in a bad horror movie. The one who had her back turned to the monster stealthily creeping up behind her, and would pounce any second.

  I’d been on this road many, many times in the past three years. My grandmother was at a nursing home farther out of town, and I went to see her at least once a week. I wasn’t a stranger to this part of Oregon and yet…and yet. There was something creepy-crawly, shivers-up-the-spine wrong right now and I couldn’t put my finger on it. I did my best to keep an eye out, my phone face-down on the ground and within reach. It doubled as a flashlight at the moment, because without it I wouldn’t have a prayer of changing the tire.

  Assuming I had any prayer of changing the tire. I didn’t know who’d put these lug nuts on but they were tight. I’d put a foot on the wrench and bounced on it with nearly my full weight and it wasn’t budging. The resistance just ratcheted my panic. Now was not the time for me to be stranded on a deserted road. My hind brain seemed convinced I was going to become a strange smell in a trunk at this rate.

  “Come on, Reagan,” I muttered to myself. “Just change the tire. Get the lug nuts free, change the tire, go home. Worry about fixing the tire properly tomorrow, ’kay? Man, I wish I had someone to call in situations like this.”

  Instinct made me freeze. I looked carefully around and realized belatedly all animal noise had died. The birds that had been flying about, and the insects that had been singing to each other, all were deathly quiet now. Only the leaves shifting in the breeze still dared to make any sound. It felt like a ball of spikes wedged itself into my throat. I swallowed hard.

  You know what? Sitting in the car with the doors locked sounded like a really good idea right now.

  I reached down for my phone, but my hand never connected. Something warm and hard wrapped around my waist, bodily lifting me up so my toes didn’t even graze the ground. I yelped in surprise, arms flailing, not that it did any good. Before I could even get my head turned, the back door opened and I was unceremoniously shoved inside. I went sprawling along the backseat, an inelegant jumble of limbs and grunts. My feet were thrown up, out of the way, the locks engaged with an audible click before the door was slammed shut again.

  Locking me inside.

  What…just happened?

  Quickly righting myself, I squirmed about in the small confines of my Civic’s backseat. I pushed the many books, bags, and coats I had back here impatiently out of the way as I moved. I regretted using my backseat as a catchall right now, and I regretted even more that I hadn’t kept a hand on my phone. It was still outside, the single beam shining straight toward the sky.

  Of the person who’d shoved me inside the car, there was no sign.

  I knew it had been a person. I’d felt their arm, their chest against my side. I’d heard their breathing, the crunch of their shoes against the pavement. But how could anyone disappear in the three seconds it'd taken for me to get upright again? Were they a ninja?

  Part of me wanted to unlock the doors, grab my phone, and call for a tow truck. Some instinct stilled my hand, made me take a second look at my surroundings. Something strange was going on here. Even though my surroundings looked perfectly serene, I didn’t trust it.

  A howl split the air. I’d never seen a real wolf in my life, but I’d heard them on television often enough that I recognized it instantly. Holy mother of—that sounded close. Really close. On the heels of that howl came a chorus of other howls, then snarls, angry and snapping. I couldn’t see anything beyond the beam of my phone’s flashlight, but they had to be close if I could hear them so clearly.

  Okay, excuse you very much, why were there wolves?! I lived in Oregon! THERE SHOULD BE NO WOLVES.

  I was so taking this up with Nana. It’d been her idea to move here in the first place. She could have mentioned the wolves.

  Had whoever stuffed me in the car known about the wolves? Stuck me in here so I didn’t get eaten? Although why he/she had locked the doors was a mystery to me. As far as I knew, wolves couldn’t open doors. So why—

  Another wave of snarls and howls, and then, far along the edge of the road, near the line of forest and trees, something clashed. I caught nothing more than a glimpse, something pale flitting through the trees, and the impact of two bodies slamming together echoed through the night air. I winced in reaction because that had sounded brutal.

  That set something off in a chain reaction and several other thuds could be heard, followed by yips of pain or screams. Screams that sounded human and yet…not. I swallowed hard, listening and watching intently, trying to figure out who was being attacked. Was a person out there battling with the wolves? Surely not. And yet, what other explanation was there? The wolves were attacking something.

  Someth
ing the size of a prop-plane darted across the road, followed by a roar, like that of a lion, and it rattled my nerves so bad it felt like my stomach crawled up my throat.

  Okay, just sitting out here was not a good idea. Someone was potentially in trouble. Me. I was potentially in trouble and I was a sitting duck. I unlocked the doors and leaned forward just enough to snag my phone. I quickly retreated, closing the door again, although I didn’t lock it. I didn’t see the point.

  The locks re-engaged with a click.

  I eyed the door handle with misgiving. I didn’t have the type of car that automatically locked the doors. That couldn’t be an electrical failure, right? Ummm.

  You know what, let’s leave that mystery for later. Right now, I needed to call 911.

  Fingers shaking a little, I unlocked my phone and sat there, staring at the top of the screen with a sense of misgiving. No bars. Of course I was in a freaking deadzone.

  “Don’t panic,” I ordered myself firmly, even as my nerves started the shimmy-shake. “No panicking. Not helpful. Crappity crap crap. Of course I’m stuck inside a car while there’s a wolf battle outside the car and—” I cut myself off with a yip of surprise as something visibly crossed the road.

  Something that…okay, no. Even thinking someone was flying on a broom sounded crazy. Crazy and incredible.

  I sat carefully up, watching again along the edge of the trees. Something flashed, a bright spark of light, but it was deep within the tree line and I didn’t see anything but light. It wasn’t the kind of light from a flashlight—more like a firework, multi-colored sparks against a black backdrop.

  Seriously, what was going on?!

  From the sounds alone, I could tell the battle drew closer. Thuds of something meaty hitting hard ground, and the splinter of trees as something forcefully went through the trunks played like a discordant symphony behind me. It scared the willies out of me, especially since I couldn’t really pinpoint what was happening. Was I even safe in the car?

  “Oookay,” I breathed to myself. “Not sure if it’s safe to go out yet, but I can’t sit here the rest of the night, either. Can I drive on a flat tire? Crap, where’s Google-sensei when you need him?”

  The rear end of my car suddenly jacked a little higher. The side with the flat, specifically. I craned my neck and smashed my face up against the glass to see, but still saw nothing out there. Inspired, I instead looked at the side-view mirror, and that gave me a better angle. Under my incredulous eyes, the tire slowly filled.

  OMG. WHY? HOW? I spluttered, nearly choked on my own spit, and had to beat a hand against my breastbone to get my lungs restarted. How was it doing that?!

  My attention was yanked from the self-filling tire as something happened behind me along the road. Another lion-like roar sounded out, and it was close—hair-raisingly close. Out of nowhere, that prop-plane-sized creature rolled along the blacktop with giant scraping thuds. My visual of it flickered in and out, like a video cutting out—one second there, the next gone. But I caught glimpses of a lion-like body with a—was that a scorpion tail?!—rising to its feet. I saw three large bodies—and by large I meant the size of a pony—tear into it, and holy Toledo, what were those supposed to be?! Surely wolves didn’t get that big! Howls and yips and roars all mingled together as the wolves forced the weird creature back into the tree line and out of sight.

  I had to get out of here. As curious as I was about what type of creatures were involved in that battle, it was not worth my life. I frantically looked at the tire again, judging my ability to drive on it.

  During my preoccupation, the tire had gone from flatter than roadkill to full and seemingly perfect. I stared at it with a split second of disbelief and felt my jaw drop. I hadn’t hallucinated the tire going flat, right?

  The car lowered and the tools I’d gathered lifted in the air, floating. The trunk opened with a snick, and I could hear and feel it when everything was tossed back in, including the spare tire. The trunk shut with a soft wham.

  Had someone just…magically fixed my tire?

  Seriously?!

  I had no good explanation for what I’d just seen. I had a lot of fantastical explanations, but I was a fantasy lover; of course my brain automatically went there.

  Something impacted the side of the passenger door in three sharp jabs. I jumped as it rocked the car—the force was that powerful—and stared down numbly as I realized something pointy had penetrated through the wall of the car, the plastic interior, and come within an inch of hitting my skin.

  Yeah, okay, no. I was not okay with being a pincushion. Time to go.

  I scrambled from the backseat and into the front with more energy than grace. Dropping in, I didn’t even bother with the seatbelt, just started up the engine and gunned it. I was so, so out of there.

  My headlights washed over the dark pavement as I took the roads at about twenty over the speed limit, determined to put as much distance between myself and that…whatever that had been. I’d heard of alien abductions, and conspiracy theories, but what could possibly explain what I’d just witnessed? It was like one of those mythical battles out of legends. I was equally torn between curiosity and relief. If not for…whatever had shoved me into the car, I might have been hit by those pointy spikes now embedded in my car.

  Although it still left the question of who’d done so.

  Whatever the case was, however this had been accomplished, I didn’t believe whoever—whatever—was out there wished me harm. They’d physically moved me to get me out of danger. They’d fixed my tire. Heck, they’d even cleaned up afterwards. I had no idea if it was magical or otherwise, but was grateful for their help either way.

  I kept my eyes peeled all the way home, not sure if trouble followed me. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary on the way back into town and I made it safely all the way to my empty driveway. I parked in my usual spot, under the motion security light near the door, and turned off the engine.

  And then I freaked out totally.

  I kept bouncing in my seat, my hands flexing on the steering wheel, my mind and pulse racing a million miles an hour. The whole battle with the wolves was strange in and of itself—I still wanted an explanation for that—but what about the rest of it? Me being forcefully picked up and moved, the tire fixing itself, the spiky things now embedded in the side of the car, all of it. It was one thing to convince yourself you’d imagined something, that your eyes played tricks on you. But when an experience included every sense but taste?

  That was either a full-blown hallucination or something magical had just happened to me. I didn’t believe for one second I’d hallucinated.

  I got out, still jittery, to get a better look at what now treated my car like a pincushion. Under the harsh white light, they stuck out like a sore thumb. They were long, maybe four feet, narrow and thin like a porcupine’s quills. If a porcupine’s quills could ever get that big. I bent nearer but didn’t touch, not yet. I wasn’t sure if they were venomous. They didn’t seem to be; they’d made a clean puncture and nothing else. They smelled weird, though. Like dirty fur and blood.

  Retreating to the shed near the house, I retrieved some gardening gloves and a bucket. I had no idea if could pull these things free by hand but was game to try. I didn’t want to drive around with them in my car, first of all. That would surely get some awkward questions.

  Putting both hands on a spike, I planted my foot against the side of the car and pulled steadily. It took some serious mojo, but I got it free. The other two came out the same way and I dropped them all into the bucket before staring down at them thoughtfully. Okay, they were free. Now what?

  I didn’t like the idea of something potentially biohazardous lurking around my house. I had no clue what to do with them, though. As nice as it was to have physical proof something crazy had gone down, I wasn’t sure if these things were safe to keep.

  I decided to take a picture and then try burning them. I had a firepit out back that should work for this. I laid them on the
pavement, with my foot beside one as a comparison, and took a few pictures. Considering the lighting, they turned out rather well. Then I scooped them all up in the bucket again and carted them toward the back.

  Since I really had no idea what I was dealing with, I chose to burn one to start with. I put it on the pile of kindling, doused it in a bit of lighter fluid to get it going, and lit it up.

  Almost immediately I realized I’d made a mistake.

  The stench, gag. Like rotten eggs and molding blood and mummified corpses. And it didn’t burn, but sort of melted into this horrible goo. Great. I had no idea how to clean that out…uh oh. Was that? Craaap. It was melting through the metal fire pit basin.

  “Not a good idea, self,” I observed to me. All sorts of resigned, I let it burn itself out, because the damage was done and I didn’t relish the idea of any further experimentation by dousing it with water at this stage. It not only ate through the metal basin but the concrete underneath it. Because that was how good my luck normally ran.

  I did not relish the idea of explaining all this damage away. Well, maybe my parents wouldn’t notice. They were overseas most of the time anyway. And even when they were here, the back patio was covered in snow.

  I stared at the quills with dismay. On the one hand, I didn’t know what to do with them. On the other, I was beyond excited. I’d always been told magic wasn’t real, that fantasy was just for entertainment. The only one in my life who semi-believed in magic was Nana, who had an imagination just as active as my own. I’d never fully believed this “normality” was the only option in life. I’d played along as people made their comments and opinions.

  Tonight had been eye-opening and mind-blowing in the same measure. I had no idea what had occurred—simply that something had—something logic and rationality couldn’t explain away. I felt like a door inside my mind had opened and beyond it was all the wonder, all the possibility, I had denied myself until this very moment. I felt inspired and rejuvenated in a sense I’d never experienced in all of my seventeen years.