Distraction

by Tess Oliver

  Captain Smitherton halted the horses and they snorted in exhaustion. I peered out. We had stopped in front of a plain brick building with tiny windows set high in the walls. The captain seemed to have a hard time looking at me as he ushered me out of the carriage and into the dark building.

  He removed a set of keys from his pocket and the jangling sound echoed through the long, empty hallway. We reached a small door with a barred window. He struggled with the lock and then the heavy door swung open. The smell of urine and mold assaulted me the moment we stepped into the small chamber.

  “I’m sorry it is cold and foul smelling inside, but I am required to lock you in.” His regretful tone was genuine. “We don’t usually have young women inside.”

  “Captain Smitherton, you have nothing to reproach yourself for. You are only doing your job.”

  “Yes, Miss. Someone will be ’round in the morning with breakfast.” He paused. “I’m afraid it will only be cold oats.”

  I forced a weak smile. “So I shan’t expect eggs and ham?”

  “Good night, Miss.”

  The door swung shut and the key rattled in the lock a moment. His footsteps echoed back down the hallway. I hugged myself against the cold darkness. The sliver of a window up high in the wall let in no light. The blackness surrounding me was suffocating.

  I shuffled over what moved and smelled like damp straw. I had no way of knowing for certain. I might as well have been blindfolded. I placed my hands out in front of me and took small steps across the floor until my fingers bent back painfully on a wall of bricks. The wall was damp and slick with what I hoped was mold. A shudder ran through me as I considered what else it might be.

  With the wall behind me, I turned and crouched down to my feet and then exhausted and terrified, I collapsed to my bottom. My eyes had had time to adjust to the lack of light and yet all I could see was blackness. Even shadows seemed to have escaped this wretched place. I hugged my knees to my chest trying to make myself as small as possible and trying to keep my imagination in check. I feared that if I let the darkness seep into my mind, I would surely crumble into hysteria. I had no idea how large the room was or if I was completely alone. I closed my eyes searching for light of some kind but even my mind’s images had vanished in the black hole.

  I was bone tired and yearned for the relief of sleep but it wouldn’t come. The silence was nearly as suffocating as the darkness. I hummed a tune, the same tune Nonni used to hum to me when I had trouble sleeping. I hummed for several minutes and concluded that it only worked as a lullaby when someone hummed it to you. I decided to move my thoughts to Nonni and my eventual release. No doubt I would be free by morning, perhaps even before the bowl of oats was tossed my way. Images of Nonni, Mari, and our cozy cabin helped me from being overwhelmed by melancholy.

  I snuggled deeply into my wool cloak and pulled the hood down over my face. I’d begun to relax some in my self-made cocoon when I had the sudden and alarming feeling that someone was standing in the cell with me. There was no light or sound and I’d heard no keys or door, but I could sense a presence. I scooted back and my head smacked the brick wall behind me. My heart pounded and a scream caught deep in my throat.

  A tiny light no larger than a firefly flickered in the blackness. The light brightened and a tall figure stood in the center of the narrow room.

  Angus stared down at me with his glacial gaze. He looked no more than twenty-five years old but his harsh glare resembled that of a man much older. “I had to come see for myself it the rumors were true. I shall set this entire town ablaze for daring to put you in this squalid cell.”

  I stood and brushed the litter from the back of my skirt and cloak. “Do not trouble yourself, Angus. My grandmother will see to my release.”

  His deep laughed bounced off the solid walls. “Did you truly set the boy’s pants on fire?”

  “Perhaps.”

  “You can imagine the stories swirling around that village of fools. You used your witchcraft in front of mortals, my sweet. And now only magic will free you from this rather hopeless situation and from the gallows. Even if that old hag uses magic to free you, you will have to leave Salem for good.”

  I fought back tears. He stepped closer and I was trapped between him and the wall. He reached forward and wrapped a thick strand of my long hair around his fingers. There was a look of hunger in his eyes that frightened me more than the darkness. “Like gold silk,” he muttered. He dropped the hair and his cold fingers trailed down my throat and stopped at the tie on my cloak. “This neck was made for jewels not rope.”

  I sidled past him. “Go away, you monster. You are the last person I needed to see tonight.”

  “Shame,” he said, “you are the first, last, and only person I needed to see tonight . . . and every night.” He looked down and pushed the filthy floor litter around with his black boot for a moment. “It seems we have a situation here that will work well for both of us.”

  “How so?” I asked hesitantly.

  “Simple, my sweet. My standing in the village will make it easy for me to secure your freedom. You will be out by morning.”

  “Oh, would you please, Angus? I would be forever grateful.”

  “Yes, you would.” He paused and his gaze drifted over my face. “It is done— as long as you consent to be my wife.”

  My heart sank as quickly as it had risen. “No thank you. I will take my chances with the gallows.”

  His blue eyes froze with rage and frigid air swirled around him. I scooted to the farthest corner. Puffs of steam shot from his mouth as he spoke. “Then you will rot in this cell until they drag you to your execution.” The light he’d brought with him grew dim and when the blackness had nearly returned he stopped and glared back at me. “And since your sister accompanied you in your villainous crime, I will see that she hangs next to you.”

  “No!” I screamed. Only a flicker of light remained. I could no longer see him. Tears flowed freely now. “I will marry you,” I cried into the darkness. “Please leave Mari alone.” My shoulders shook with sobs, and I buried my face in my hands.

  “I must have your word,” Angus’s deep voice filled the chamber.

  I lifted my face. The light had returned. The bitter taste of anguish burned my throat. “You have my word.”

  He stared down at me and it felt as if the thick, moldy walls were closing in on me. There was not nearly enough breathing air in the cell.

  Without warning, Angus grabbed hold of my wrist and before I could protest a small blade sliced my palm open. I gasped in pain and tried to pull my wrist from his grasp, but he held it so tightly my fingers tingled. He lifted his free hand. A drop of blood rolled down his long white palm. He pressed my palm against his and spoke words that were foreign to me. Then with a gentleness that was in extreme contrast to the way he’d sliced my palm, he wrapped my hand with a handkerchief and kissed my knuckles. The knife blade had been more pleasing than his vile mouth on my skin.

  He lifted his gaze and a sickening smile crossed his face. “Now we have a blood pact. Only death can break it.” His smile grew. “And since I have no mortal blood, we know whose death that would be.” His evil sneer was the last thing I saw before the light shrank to a tiny speck and he vanished.

  Now the atmosphere in the tiny cell matched my mood perfectly, grim and desolate. Nonni rarely talked about the rules of the magic world, and I had no idea what a blood pact meant but it sounded severe. Hopefully Nonni knew how to break one without death. She knew everything and she would do anything to stop a marriage with Angus.

  And then, as if I’d conjured her just by thinking about her, my grandmother appeared in the cell. There was a glowing ball of light on her hand. It took me a moment to gather my courage to tell her the terrible news.

  She glanced around and seemed to sense something was amiss. Her gray eyes rounded. “Angus has been here?”

  “Yes.” It was only one word but my voice wavered around it.

  “What has
happened?”

  I ran to Nonni and threw my arms around her. She tossed the glowing orb into the air and it ricocheted back and forth between the thick walls. Her hand pressed my head against her shoulder. “What is it, Poppy?”

  I straightened and took a deep, bracing breath. “He threatened to have Mari arrested too, Nonni. There was nothing I could do. I had to accept.”

  Her expression was puzzled at first and then the truth must have dawned on her. “You promised him your hand in marriage.” Her mouth twisted into a knot as she thought about it. “Well, I will speak to him about that. He has no right to make threats and demands. I will take it to The Council if need be.”

  “But Angus is right. If I escape from here tonight, they will look for me. We’ll have to leave Salem and our wonderful home for good.”

  “Dearest, my plan was not for your escape.” She reached inside her cloak and pulled out a small blue crystal. Aside from the extraordinary shade of blue, it appeared as any other rock. “This is what I was working on earlier this evening. I can change time with this crystal. I plan to send time back one full day so we can change yesterday’s events. You’ll stay with me at Widow Brook’s, and we will walk home together.”

  “But what will happen to the boy that I helped?”

  She averted her eyes from mine. “Everything else will go on as it should.”

  “But Nonni—”

  “It can’t be helped, Poppy,” she said in a tone that wasn’t open to argument. “Now give me your hand.”

  I drew my hand out from my cloak, and she stared down at the bloody handkerchief with more fear than I’d ever seen in her face before.

  “It’s just a small cut, Nonni,” I said quickly. “It looks worse than it is.”

  She took hold of my fingers and stared at them in silence for a long, torturous moment. “Poppy, did you sign a pact with Angus . . . with your blood?” The tone of her question brought me to tears.

  “He grabbed my hand and cut it,” I cried. “I had no idea what was happening, Nonni.”

  She unwrapped the handkerchief and touched the wound lightly with her fingertip. I felt a tingling sensation across my palm and the cut was gone.

  “But we needn’t worry, Nonni. If you take us back to yesterday, none of this will have happened. I will no longer be bound to Angus.”

  Nonni shook her head. “Mortals will have no recollection of the repeated day, but Angus will know full well what has transpired. And this,” she looked pointedly at my hand, “he will not forget.”

  Looking as grave as a woman about to be executed, Nonni paced the small room for several minutes tossing the crystal up and down on her palm. I held my breath as I waited for her to speak. Finally she stood still with a sigh. Sadness washed over her face. “There is no other way. It will have to be done.”

  “You mean I will have to marry him?”

  She walked over and stood in front of me. “Now have courage, my child, for this will work out in the long run. I’m fairly certain.” The sound of her voice conveyed anything but certainty. “The blood pact with Angus is unbreakable. Your only escape will be to hide from him. And with his powers that won’t be easy.”

  I glanced around. “But where will I hide? There are only four corners.”

  “You won’t be hiding in here, Poppy.”

  “Then where?”

  “Not where— but when, dearest. I’m sending you two hundred years into the future.”

  My knees weakened and I reached for the wall behind me to keep from slipping to the ground.

  “It will be far enough into the future to keep Angus away . . . for awhile. Perhaps, if we are lucky, he’ll grow weary of searching for you and focus his attention on some other unfortunate girl.”

  “But what will I do alone in the future? Will you come too?”

  Nonni rolled the crystal around on her palm. “The spell is not strong enough to transport all of us. I will send you at once and then return home to create another stronger crystal. Keep the crystal with you. It will help me find you. You will be in Salem Town or whatever becomes of Salem Town in the year 1892. Mari and I will find you. Do you know the large, granite boulder that sits where the road forks on the way to Great Pond?”

  “Yes.”

  “Once you have,” she cleared her throat, “arrived, find your way to the rock and dig beneath it. I will hide a red satchel with gold coins there. Then you’ll have money. I can only assume money is as important in the future as it is now.”

  My stomach churned with nerves and I trembled at the thought of being transported to a strange place and time. Nonni didn’t have to be a witch to sense my overwhelming apprehension.

  She placed her hand on my arm. “You are a smart, strong girl, Poppy. You will be fine.”

  I nodded reluctantly. “I guess I can always use my powers, weak as they—”

  Nonni squeezed the arm she touched. “No,” she said loudly enough it bounced off the brick wall. “You must not. Do not use your powers unless absolutely necessary. Magic will draw Angus to you.”

  “All right. I won’t use them, but I think I shall truly hate this. Maybe I should just marry him and get the torture over with.”

  “Don’t ever say that, Poppy. I’ve known Angus his entire life, and while he has several tolerable attributes, his innate penchant for cruelty overshadows all else. A life bound to Angus Wolfe would be no life at all.”

  “Calm yourself, Nonni. I was only blathering on to take my mind off the case of nerves that is consuming me.”

  My grandmother looked up at my face as if she were trying to memorize it, which only served to heighten my worry. We hugged long and hard. Once she released me, she held out the crystal. “Take it. We must hurry. It is nearly dawn. We will meet again soon, my child.”

  I wrapped the crystal in my shaking fingers and closed my eyes. The journey frightened me as much as the arrival. Nonni lowered her voice and began her incantation. It went on so long, I was certain I would lose my nerve. Then just when it felt as if something was pulling at me, I heard Nonni cry out. My eyes flew open but the images before me were wavering. The entire scene broke apart, but through the cracking sound I heard a deep voice roar, “No!”

  As Nonni faded from my view, I caught a glimpse of a tall figure standing next to her. Angus’s face was filled with rage, and a wild spray of sparks flew from his fingertips as I was yanked from the cold, damp cell. My limbs were being pulled in every direction, and I writhed in agony against the forces holding me. The cloak and hood were ripped from my shoulders. My screams were muffled by the thick air surrounding me. My body was hurtled violently around in an angry twist of wind and the crystal flew from my grasp. Something sliced into my side and blood seemed to spray from it. Then the brutal motion stopped when I landed on a rock hard surface. The breath was knocked from my chest and I gasped for air. I reached for the pain in my side and warm blood trickled between my fingers. Hot, horrid breath was blown across my face. Bleary eyed, I peered up and a scream lodged in my throat. The monster hovering over me was covered in matted fur. Spittle dripped from its mouthful of treacherous teeth. A loud explosion rang out and the monster lumbered away.

  Moments later, through the haze, a face appeared over me. My mind was a jumble of strange visions, but I recognized it as the face in my sketch. His pale eyes shimmered with worry as he stared down at me.

  “It’s you.” They were the last words I could utter before darkness drew me in.

  Chapter 5

  Cade

  Chunks of dry earth flew off of River’s hooves as I pushed my spurs into his sides. I glanced back at the road. It was empty.

  “You see him anymore?” Jackson called from ahead.

  “Nah, we’ve lost him.” I slowed my horse to a trot and Jackson did the same. I rode up next to him. “Damn, I didn’t see that comin’. Who knew Carson would get that mad. Didn’t even think he had it in him.”

  Jackson glared sideways at me from beneath the shadow of his
hat. “Just tell me how the hell is it that we always end up leaving town with a loaded gun chasing us?”

  “Don’t know why that is, Jackson.”

  He tamped his hat down tighter on his head. “I’ll tell you why.”

  “I thought you might.”

  “Because, Cade Tanner, you never leave town without some girl jumping all over you first. But today, kissing Deputy Carson’s girl not two feet from where the man stood . . . with his loyal Remington at his side no less, well that really topped anything you’ve ever done.”

  “First of all, Candy walked over and kissed me. I was just an innocent bystander. Not much I can do if she finds me so irresistible she has to throw those plumps lips at me. Who am I to deny her? And Carson couldn’t shoot the trunk of a tree if he was sitting in the damn thing. Besides, he wouldn’t really have shot us.”

  “Oh yeah? Then how come I felt a couple of those bullets buzz right past me while I was hunkered down over Winslow’s neck?”

  “Probably just flies hovering around that bear grease in your hair.” Just as I glanced to the road up ahead something flashed through the air. “Hey, did you see that? Something just fell from the sky.”

  Jackson laughed. “I think one of those bullets lodged in your brain after all. I don’t see anything but a blue Montana skyline and a—”

  I kicked River into a gallop before Jackson stopped talking. He followed. We headed in the direction I thought I’d seen the object fall. We slowed our pace. Dried pine needles crunched beneath hooves as we trotted through a maze of evergreens. Our unexpected presence sent a Great Horned owl from its daytime roost. I ducked as it whirred past my head and flew out of the trees. River’s nostrils flared and his ears perked forward at something up ahead.

  I looked back at Jackson just as he leaned over to spit a wad of tobacco at a squirrel racing past. “Just missed it,” he laughed.

  “My horse is sensing something,” I called back to him.