Golden Girl: The Missing Piece (2)

25- We Find Refuge with Gladys

"Addy lives in Texas," Wes said the next morning.

 They sat where they'd slept for a surprising nine hours and ate a winning breakfast of stale granola bars and grape-flavored gatorade. They soon discovered that none of them would have been able to down the granola (it was that dry) if it weren't for well-timed gulps of the gatorade (which wasn't the flavor that any of them preferred). 

Ember frowned, "What's that have to do with anything?"

"Our train doesn't leave until Wednesday, and you need to rest somewhere for a couple days to get your strength back," was all he said between tossing back bites with a little wincing. 

"We can't afford to waste time-"

"This quest doesn't have a deadline," Garrett interrupted before she could finish her sentence, "Hades isn't expecting us tomorrow. We need to be at full power when we do go, uh, down to his house. And sleeping out here in the open isn't going to help anyone."

Ember weighed his words. It was true, the part about the deadline. The only thing that would cut this quest off was that she had to be back at school come January fifth. Currently, it was December twentieth. Plus, even if she wasn't back at Ilvermorny by the fifth, she got the feeling that Headmistress Archibald would be forgiving. So really, they had quite a lot of time on their hands. 

And Garrett was right. If they could be rested and fed, and if she could heal a little more, their trip to the underworld would be a lot easier. Though she doubted it would ever, in any world, truly go well.

She sighed and took another swallow of her purple beverage.

Wesley laughed and jerked his chin at her, "I knew you'd cave."

"Shut up."

"So after we eat, we'll find a main highway to follow further into town. Do you know Addy's address?" Garrett asked, already packing away the few things he'd gotten out of his bag. 

She reached for her own backpack, feeling her muscles ache and her head pound unpleasantly. There were many side effects to blood loss, as it turned out. 

"Well, no," she admitted, "but I kept the letter she sent me this summer. Accio journal!"

The familiar leather bound journal flew into her palm from the depths of that bag. She flipped it open and pulled out the folds of parchment that she'd tucked inside the back cover. Familiar black penned handwriting was scrawled messily across the page. 

106 Gladys St. 

Beaumont, Texas

"Ugh, who names a street 'Gladys?'" Wes curled his lip in disgust.

Honestly, she was a little curious about it, too. 

"We can grab a map from the tourist center, I passed by and they were handing them out for free," her brother continued, standing up and walking towards her. 

He crouched a little to grab under her shoulders, looked her in the eye and warned, "Brace yourself."

She grabbed his forearms firmly, trying to keep her muscles as locked as possible when he hoisted her to her feet in one fell swoop. She squeezed her eyes shut from the pain, forced a breath to enter her lungs, then reached down to collect her backpack. 

"I got it, Sunshine." Garrett swiped the bag off the ground before she could, tossing it back and forth between his hands curiously. "I still don't understand how magic works, how you fit everything you own into this backpack."

"I told you, it's an undetectable extension charm."

"It's detectable if you brag about it all the time," he groused, pulling both of their backpacks over his shoulders.