The Candle (Haunted Series Book 23)

by Alexie Aaron

  “Only a council member can charge the deer-woman with such a task,” Ameen said thoughtfully. “Why did you leave this out of your story, Judge?”

  “I didn’t want to embarrass the council further in front of the full assembly. But I did include it in my written statement that I will leave for your deliberation.”

  “Mia, we realize that these actions were taken in an alternate timeline, but the nature of a deer-woman would give her the ability to remember this incident if it had happened. I just spoke with Lorna Grainger today, and she didn’t reveal any such…”

  “It wasn’t Lorna Grainger. It was a Ute woman named Sage Fire.”

  Ameen, although angry at being interrupted, stopped and thought. “Tonya Toh, come forward.”

  Tonya did so.

  “Who was the deer-woman before Lorna?”

  “Sage Fire of the Ute tribe.”

  “Fetch her spirit.”

  Tonya nodded and left the assembly.

  “While we wait, we will hear the testimony of the witnesses. Mia, you may sit, but I may call upon you to elaborate on any missed points.”

  “Yes, Ameen.”

  Burt told his story, and when he had finished, he was addressed by Ameen.

  “Mr. Hicks, we at the council have watched your paranormal investigations with great interest. You have done the universe a great service. You have worked with difficult people,” she stopped and eyed Mia and then continued, “and produced many a happy ending for the humans who were tormented by the earthbound spirits, and also for the trapped spirits, making it possible to send them into the light.”

  “Yes, but I had help. I couldn’t do it without the difficult people.”

  “Why did you make such a wish?” Ameen asked.

  “As I explained, I didn’t believe in wishes. I was grateful for being part of the group around me and wished I had them with me so I could have investigated the asylum twenty years ago, when the candles were blown out. When I found myself in the past and twenty years younger, I knew something fantastic had happened, but I didn’t know why.”

  “You’re the only living human who carries the memory of this alternate timeline. Why is that?”

  “I don’t know.”

  Mia stood up and raised her hand.

  “You may speak, Mia.”

  “It’s part of the caveat of the candle. I can get a copy of the spell if it pleases the council.”

  “Not needed. We have researched this. Sit down.”

  Mia sat.

  “Mr. Hicks, in the first timeline - the one before Cid Garrett wished the change – you died.”

  “Yes.”

  “But you didn’t remember that when you were in the second timeline?”

  “No. Not until we were brought back into this line. I wrote down my experiences. I know Mia was searching for why this had happened and who may have been behind it, so I took the time to carefully document my time. I have a copy with me if you wish to have one.”

  “I do. Hand it to the torchbearer.”

  Burt pulled the sheets of paper bound by a staple out from his suit pocket, unfolded it, and handed it to the torchbearer. She took it to the dais and handed it to Ameen.

  She read the document before passing it on to the woman on her left.

  “What is your relationship with Mia Cooper Martin?”

  “I’m her boss, renter, and friend.”

  “When you met Mia, she wasn’t married.”

  “She was not married.”

  “What was your immediate thoughts after first meeting her?”

  “She was a beautiful damaged soul.”

  “Damaged how?”

  “She didn’t trust, she was shunned by her peers, and her parents were absent. She had a lonely traumatic childhood. I mean, who supports emancipating a fourteen-year-old? She was damaged, but she was resourceful and kind.”

  “May I ask why you asked that question?” Roumain inquired.

  “I wanted to find someone to support your accusation that she was nurtured negatively by this council. It just looks like she had crap parents to me.”

  Mia raised her hand.

  “Yes.”

  “It would take books to explain how I was tortured in my youth. I can give you the broad strokes and let you decide if it was just because I had crap parents or not.”

  “I don’t appreciate that tone,” Ameen said. “Go ahead and tell us all how your life was supposedly managed to make you into a bitter, manipulating assassin.”

  Mia told her story. She talked about Lobo, Billy, and Yann and Neil and her unborn daughter. “Fredericka encouraged me to internalize the pain.”

  When she had finished, Ameen scratched her head. She wrote some things down. “Sit. I’ll hear the testimony of Stephen Murphy now. Assembly, Stephen is a spirit supported by Mother Nature. He helps Burt Hicks with the paranormal investigations. He also has accompanied Mia on assignments outside of the group.”

  Stephen walked in with his hat in his hand. He set his axe down at his feet and waited.

  “Tell us about the first time you met Mia Cooper.”

  “The first time or the alternate time?”

  “The real time.”

  “She was being bullied by the kids who had come to my farm to make mischief. I appeared and scared them off. She came back from time to time after that to visit me.”

  “What was she like?”

  “Frightened, cowed, lonely, sad, and kind.”

  Ameen wrote something down and then said, “Stephen, you’ve heard the testimony of Judge Roumain, Burt Hicks, and Mia. Is there something they missed or an observation you have to share with us?”

  “Yes. During the time created by the candle, Mia was put back into a body that still had a demon residing in it, which she had exorcised out of her in the real timeline. I could see that she constantly fought the natural instincts of the demon.”

  “Natural instincts.”

  “Demons can be volatile. Here was a thirty-two-year-old mind in the body of a twelve-year-old. She fought it to keep on course. Her mission was to have Burt break the candle and bring things back to normal because she knew that in order to get to Kansas, she had deviated too far from the original timeline. Because of this, if she stayed in this timeline, certain things were no longer possible.”

  “Elaborate.”

  “Her children, who were conceived under special circumstances, wouldn’t exist. PEEPs may not form. If they did, the timing would be wrong, and because of this, another special child would not be conceived. All the good Mia had done would not happen. The friendships and alliances that were formed wouldn’t happen organically. She also knew that if she was going to try to relive history, she would have to let Lobo, Billy, Yann, and Neil die, and she couldn’t bear to do that. The last straw was when she realized that Ted and Cid wouldn’t be around to help to save a child who was prophesized to become an angel hunter. Because of meeting the Martins, he now helps the angels. I watched the horror of what had happened and would happen seize her. It broke her heart and she died.”

  “But she is here alive.”

  “Ted and I saved her.”

  Ameen nodded. “You walk on thin ice, my friend. You’re a ghost and you interfere with the living.”

  “I’m an agent of Mother Nature. I work within her laws. I only interfere if it is for the good of the individual or to send evil packing.”

  “Mia protects you from the clergy.”

  “She has also promised me that if I go ghost crazy, like her Misty Mother did, she will end me herself.”

  “Mia, is this true?”

  “Yes. He is my best friend, but I will end his existence if I feel he has lost his nut. I promised him that. I always keep my promises.”

  “I bet you do,” Ameen said. “Where are we? Oh yes, waiting on Sage Fire. Judge Roumain, your assertions and evidence that Mia was programed to be an assassin are strong. I think I can speak for the others that we find it valid. We also see one
thing that comes up in the testimony of Burt and Stephen that is probably why the experiment went wrong. Mia is kind. We will investigate who was involved in this project. I suspect there were outsiders involved. I promise that we will sort this out. And I, like Mia, keep my promises.”

  “Thank you.”

  “Mia, what compensation do you want from this governing body for the heartbreak you have gone through?”

  “I don’t want compensation. I want to make sure that this horrid practice stops, that the perpetrators are disciplined according to your rules. I know the membership is vast, and I really don’t have much faith in this process, but… it is a process I must go through. I’m a product and not a person. Just stop a moment and take that in. If not for Shane Quivers, I may have been blind-sided by the candle and not seen what really was going on.”

  “What do you feel was going on?” Ameen asked.

  “I feel that I was once again manipulated. But this time not to work on behalf of this council. I was being manipulated to wipe you all from the face of the heavens and Earth. And I wouldn’t have been kind.”

  Chapter Thirty-six

  Sage Fire walked in. The woman was beautiful. She wore the ceremonial dress of the Ute people. Her long hair was traditionally contained. Sage Fire, although spirit, walked with soft feet. The viewers higher up thought the woman had floated in. She faced the dais.

  “Sage Fire, thank you for coming. We won’t keep you long. Turn and look at the woman behind you.

  Sage Fire did so.

  “Who do you see?”

  “I see the elder version of the child who killed the deer-woman and freed me of the horrible yoke of that tenure.”

  “In an alternate timeline,” Ameen clarified.

  “I was aware later I had two memories of that time of my life,” Sage Fire said.

  “Tell us, who ordered you to kill Mia Cooper?”

  “Her grandmother, Fredericka Cooper.”

  There were loud exclamations of surprise around the room.

  “Were you given a reason?”

  “She said the child was a failed experiment of the council, she must be killed, and her soul confined to the Dark World where she couldn’t do any harm.”

  “This didn’t happen.”

  “No, Mia Cooper bested the deer-woman in battle. I remember telling her I could not stop the reapers. You know how they are. Once you call them, that’s it. On the bright side, they cleared that horrible place of those tormented spirits while I battled with Mia. It’s hard fighting a child, even one with an adult mind.”

  “Why didn’t you report what had happened. Why wait twenty years?”

  “I only remembered the alternate timeline a few days ago.”

  “Thank you.”

  Sage Fire nodded and turned back to Mia. “You were a challenge. I’ve never been bested before. You killed me, yet you were kind and released me from the deer-woman. You could have left me to decompose in her shattered body. Thank you, Mia.”

  Mia nodded.

  Ameen waited until Sage Fire left before speaking to Roumain. “There appears to be a conspiracy in our midst,” Ameen said. “We have one clear suspect, the others, not so clear. We will act upon this, I promise you, Judge Roumain.”

  He nodded and stepped aside.

  She looked over at Mia and said, “Mia, you aren’t the product of your genetic engineering. You are the result of letting trust and love into your life. I see we had restricted you from having children at one point. Why was that?”

  “Fredericka said it was a council decision. You would have to ask her.”

  “I see it was lifted, and you have two children,” Ameen read off. “Oh!” She looked out and spoke, “Because we aren’t going to abuse the privacy of children, I’ll just say that your children are worth fighting for.”

  “Any child is worth fighting for,” Mia said.

  “Here, here,” Angelo responded.

  “Will the emissary from the Brotherhood of the Wing kindly abide by the rules,” Tonya Toh requested.

  “Mia, it says here that we owe you a favor,” Ameen said. “Do you wish to collect on it now?”

  “May I request that the Council of Women leave me, my friends, and my family alone. If you have a problem with me, summon me, and I will come. Do not steal my children, harm my husband, or play with the people in my life. You were given direction to manage the paranormal entities who interact with the living human population, yet you have interfered in my life. I am a living person. The fact that you have engineered my lineage does not make me less. Do me a favor and abide by my request.”

  “And…”

  “And?”

  “Aren’t you going to add a threat?” Ameen asked.

  “No. I’m simply collecting on a favor owed.”

  “Fine. I would like for all the members here to spread the word. You mess with Mia Cooper Martin, her family, or her friends, you will be in violation of our rules and will be punished accordingly.”

  Mia sat down.

  “We will take a break. Next up, Orion Stavros,” Ameen said.

  The governing council disappeared.

  Roumain walked over and sat down beside Mia. “You did well. You didn’t threaten them publicly, but the council felt the weight of your words.”

  “What happens now?”

  “I’m going to leave. Orion will have their attention now. He asks that you stay as a witness. I’ll take Murphy and Burt back to the farm.”

  “Thank you, I don’t know how I will ever repay you.”

  “Mia, I didn’t just do this for you. I don’t want you beholden to me. That’s not what our relationship is.”

  Mia angled her head and smiled. “You’ll have to tell me what exactly our relationship is, but I don’t think this is the place.”

  Roumain stood up. “You’re my temptation to be resisted. But am I yours?” he asked before he walked away.

  Tonya approached Mia. “Come, I will seat you. I thought, since you’re part birdman, you could sit with Angelo.”

  Mia displayed her wings.

  Tonya studied the archangel wings. To be given a set of these was an honor. It was a statement to all that Mia Cooper Martin was trusted by Heaven.

  “Okay, maybe not. You never cease to amaze me, little sister,” Tonya said. “I’m sure Altair will welcome you.”

  “I would hope so.” She pulled in her wings as they climbed the stairs.

  Altair opened the door to his box and bowed.

  Mia curtsied.

  Tonya left them.

  “So, how are you enjoying the show?” Altair asked, pulling out the backless padded bench and helping Mia manage her wings as she sat.

  “Aside from being part of the sideshow, I’m intrigued by this place,” she admitted.

  “I know you’re putting on a brave face. Speaking of face, what happened to the wound Victor gave you?”

  “It’s still there. The mages camouflaged it so only I and the giver could see it.”

  “I could remove it.”

  “No, I want it to stay. It’s a reminder.”

  “I’m sure you’re aware it’s an affront to Michael. A message sent by Victor to him. I take it, he was angry that his wings were taken from you.”

  “That’s Victor’s problem. No one can see the scar but me, Victor, and Lazar. Why he can see it I haven’t figured out yet.”

  “Ah, the houseboy is more than he appears.”

  “Don’t be cruel.”

  “Speaking of cruel, you snubbed Angelo’s invitation.”

  “I wouldn’t sit with him if my ass grew out of the chair.”

  “Mia! Keep your voice down. There are four of them and only one of me.”

  “Then they are outnumbered.”

  Altair coughed to cover his laughter.

  Ted turned around when Burt entered the office. “You’re back already?”

  “My part is done. Murphy’s back too.”

  “Mia?”

  �
��She’s there as Orion’s witness. She did well. I’m going to sit down and write down everything I can before I forget, or they make me forget. You’re welcome to look over my shoulder…”

  “I’ll wait for Mia to tell me.”

  Burt looked over at Ted. “Are we okay?” Burt asked.

  “Yes. It’s hard waiting, that’s all.”

  “You could have come. She could have used the moral support.”

  “I didn’t trust that the moment I left, that we wouldn’t be overrun with Others.”

  “Did you tell Mia that?”

  “No. I didn’t want to add to her burden.”

  “Can you imagine turning your grandmother in to the council?”

  “My great-aunt Mildred in a pinch, but not my grandmother.”

  The meeting resumed. Ameen stood up and nodded to Tonya.

  “Council of Women, I invite Orion Stavros to the fire.”

  Orion walked in and stood, waiting to be addressed.

  “Welcome, Orion.”

  “Thank you for making time for me.”

  Ameen looked up and down the dais, and when the other women had settled, she said, “You may begin.”

  “Yesterday, an Other extermination squad approached my wife, Audrey McCarthy Stavros. They held a contract to kill my infant son, Luke.”

  There was an uproar in the assembly.

  Orion waited until the voices died down before continuing. “Fortunately, good friends stepped up, and I can report that my son is safe. I won’t elaborate why he was targeted, except to say that his living appears to be an affront to the Cynosura. This is the second attempt this week targeting Luke. The first attempt has to do with a candle,” Orion said, referring to Judge Roumain’s story. “We are lucky that Mia had the presence of mind and the help of the others affected to right time, or otherwise, my son would not exist. The witch trees would have already overrun our communities, feasting upon our young. This is more than targeting a single individual. This was a calculated assault perpetrated for the Cynosura by the gargoyle wizard Quazar.”

  “What proof do you have of this accusation?”

  “I have Quazar,” Orion said.

  Victor and Nicholai brought in the chained gargoyle. They secured him to the iron rings and stood by just in case he managed to use his natural abilities to escape.