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We continued our way through the forest. On the other side there was another city. A different kingdom where humans lived with other species that didn’t live in our city.

    I was relieved to finally reach it. Christian scried and found out which house Mom was in. The crystal ball told him where it was. We walked for half an hour through the city to get to Mom’s house. I was relieved we were so close. I wanted to see Mom. My heart was beating quickly. I wasn’t nervous because this was Mom, but I was excited. I couldn’t believe I was about to see her after all these weeks. I couldn’t wait. 

    We reached the house and I knocked on the door. Mom answered. She gasped. Her eyes widened. I stared at her for a second because I couldn’t take in her presence right away. She hugged me. I felt safer. Things were much better because I could see that Mom was okay. I’d missed her. Now, I was soothed and there was no screaming inside me.

    “I missed you,” I said.

    “I’m so glad to see you.”

    She kissed me.

    I hugged her again.

    Mom held me for a few seconds.

    Mom hugged Christian.

    We all wanted to talk and I was sure Mom wanted to know how we had found her, but she told us to sit down in the living room first. Christian explained that we found Mom through scrying. The dwarves helped. I explained what happened since the spell teleported her here.

    “A wizard found me when I got here,” Mom shared. “I explained to him that I got here through a spell. I figured that out when I disappeared from one place to another. The wizard explained that to the police. The government agreed to give me a house as long as I got a job to pay for it.”

    “Why didn’t you come back?” I asked.“There was a force field that stopped me from entering the forest. I tried to go home by several means and none of them worked. The wizard who found me couldn’t reverse the spell that caused the force field because no wizard can cast every spell.”

    “There is one of the dwarves who could reverse this spell,” Christian said.

    “Call him,” I said.

    “He has to be in the same kingdom to reverse the spell. I will call the dwarves and tell the one who can reverse the spell to come here and reverse it.”

    I told Mom everything about Eileen. Eileen had cast a spell for months during the ghoul war to make my parents fight and split them up. I knew that Eileen could have been responsible, but Christian told me there was a spell that could make people fight. Mom hadn’t known that I had a stepmother or that Dad had been seeing someone. She didn’t care, since they were divorced. I knew she would care, once she found out that the only reason they fought and their relationship ended was a spell. She had no way of knowing that I’d been in danger.