Chapter 23: Magic Beans

Seeking feedback on my work-in-process novel, Jack and the Beanstalk Cafe.

Start from the beginning: Chapter 1

Previous Chapter: Chapter 22

Where we left off: Gillian tells Vampire King Daddy there’s no reason to keep Jack captive because he doesn’t know any magic. Vampire King says it doesn’t matter because he has magic beans.

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Jack

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“Magic beans?” Gillian scoffed. “Are you serious? Please tell me you didn’t trade our family cow for that.”

The Count’s grin dropped and he took a step toward Gillian.

“You insolent child. I have no use for you anymore. Guards!” Instantly, several of his black-clad men rushed out from the corridor at Gillian’s back and surrounded her.

She only rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. “And what are you going to do with your little beans, father? Grow a scarecrow to help you find some brains?”

Jack laughed. He couldn’t help himself. It was a good joke.

“Hey Gill, I thought you said zombies weren’t allowed around here?”

The last thing he heard was Gillian’s scream as a hand as hard as ice slammed into his face.

***

When Jack came to, he was strapped into a hard wooden chair set in the center of the same cavernous room. Gillian was still on one side of the room, now held firmly by a half dozen of her father’s guards. Her sharp canines were out and he could see her muscles straining against her captors’ grips.

“Ah, see, my dear? He’s awake,” the Count said from behind Jack. “You had nothing to worry about.”

Jack tried to turn his head to get eyes on the Vampire King, but instead noticed the pages laid out on the ground in front of his chair. They were his own sketches of the three runes, only someone had laid them perfectly so the points of the three diamonds overlapped to create a triangle.

He glanced back up at Gillian, hoping he could read answers in her eyes, but instead found only anguish. What did the Count expect him to do?

“Now Mr. Kyteler,” the Count sauntered into Jack’s view with his hands clasped behind his back. “If I have my friends remove the bindings on your hands are you going to behave yourself? No more little outbursts?”

Jack glared, still feeling the sting of the vampire’s palm pulsing across his face.

The Count met his eyes and he said slowly, “you will remain calm and follow my every instruction.”

Jack found himself nodding and his heartbeat slowing in his chest. Someone behind him released his arm shackles and Jack pulled his hands to his lap, rubbing his raw wrists.

“Very good,” the Count said, as if praising a student for getting the correct answer in class. “Now, this is what we are going to do. You will take the magic beans in your hand— they will give you the power you cannot find yourself. Then, you will recite the spell at the center of the overlapping runes while focusing the magic on the runes.” He paused and smiled at Jack, his arms outstretched in a small shrug. “And that’s it. Your job is done. Easy, no?”

Jack’s mind raced. What had they learned about combining the runes? Three points together the incantation does break. Oh. Oh, no. If he did this, the Vampire King’s curse would be broken and he’d be free to wreak havoc on the world again. Jack wouldn’t do it. He’d rather die.

Glaring up at the Count, he started to say just that, but the words choked in this throat.

The Vampire tsked. “No, Jack. Remember we agreed that you would follow my every instruction?”

Jack turned to Gillian, his jaw slackened in horror. There was nothing he could do and the sadness in Gillian’s eyes confirmed that.

“Good boy. Now hold out your hand.”

Jack watched as his hand involuntarily rose to the Vampire King, who poured the magic beans into his palm. He immediately felt the rush of warmth and power radiating down from his hand through his entire body. His veins were on fire with light and power, his entire body tingling. It was like the feeling he had gotten from holding Gillian’s hand in the Beanstalk Cafe, but amplified a hundred times over.

“Good, good,” the Count said, leaning closer to Jack. “Now, recite the incantation to break the curse.”

Panic filled Jack as he waited for the compulsion to take over. But a funny thing happened— Jack didn’t feel anything.

His mind raced as he felt the magic coursing through him. Did the compulsion not work because he was physically unable to raise the proper spell? No, he decided. That didn’t make sense because the instructions had simply been to say the spell, and he could certainly do that much.

During the past day, while Gillian and Philomena had been on their journey here, he had made progress practicing his magic with Alban. But they hadn’t gotten to the point of reciting from the runes. And they hadn’t even come close to touching on a way to reverse engineer the runes like Philomena had planned.

Knowing he couldn’t just sit here in silence forever, Jack tried to think of a way out of this. If the Count realized the compulsion wasn’t working and Jack was useless, he would surely kill him. The only magic he knew how to do with any confidence was to create the ball of light. Could he blind the vampires and make a run for it? Even as the thought crossed his mind he knew it wasn’t worth considering. Who even knew if an ancient being like the Count would be affected by light?

Perhaps he could recite the runic spell incorrectly and feign ignorance. But, no, Jack decided again. He’d still be left with the vampires finding him only useful as a warm blood bag.

Jack’s eyes darted around as he frantically tried to come up with something. He brought his gaze back to the runes and thought back to the Count’s instructions. All he had to do, apparently, was focus his magic on the runes and say the incantation. He wasn’t willing to do that to break the spell, but what if he spoke one of the other spells built into the runes?

Two points together the incantation does make. The north point finds and the east point brings death, Jack recited in his head. All of the runes were together, so by default the north and east points were together. He scanned the runes, finding the right words. He could do it. He could kill all the vampires.

Jack lifted his gaze to Gillian. This would kill her, too, he realized with a jolt. She was watching him with a look of such sadness, but her brows knitted when his eyes met hers.

Before he could read into the look, the Count inched forward, his impatience radiating off him in palpable waves. Jack had to do something.

Taking a deep breath, he raised his hands and focused the magic pulsing from the magic beans into his other hand. With surprising ease, he pushed the magic out of his body and directly onto the runes. The two pieces of the triangle that he was focused on, lit up on the page. Much to Jack’s astonishment, the light lifted off of the page and came to float in the air in front of him, the runes perfectly drawn in golden radiance.

There it was, in clear glowing words, the spell he needed to end the vampire regime.

With a silent apology to Gillian, he took a deep breath and started the incantation.

Next Chapter: Chapter 24