by Suzi Davis
Hard, black eyes stared back at me and the pieces of my heart fell apart. Was it true? Was Aed really all that was left of Sebastian now? I had sworn before that I loved Sebastian, that I loved every piece of him, flaws included. Now that all that was left were his darkest most primal qualities, could I love him still? It wouldn’t be as hard as it should, I realized. And it certainly might be easier than living without him.
“Leave me now. You may tell David what we have discussed, if you like, but no one else. And it would be wise to maintain your disguise until sundown. Jeremy still thirsts for your blood.” Aed smiled his chilling, twisted smile. He hesitated, the first hint of uncertainty I’d seen from him so far, and then he cupped my face with both his hands, a gesture that Sebastian had done so many times. My heart pounded miserably and hopefully all at once. He spoke slowly and precisely, each word weighed heavily with magic.
“I want you to come back to me at sundown,” he told me softly. I could feel his words being bound to me with magic, tying me to him irrevocably. Each word he spoke was like a barbed thorn, cutting and clinging beneath my skin and I was powerless to stop him. “You will wait for me there,” he gestured to the massive bed behind the swaying silks at the back of the cabin, “and you will join me and my cause. I will not be disobeyed. I will have you, tonight and forever or until I tire of you,” he declared, a crazed, possessive quality to his voice. I nodded mutely. “Now go, summon David for me; we have much to discuss and plan. I will see you at sundown.”
I slowly walked out of the cabin, aware of his fiery gaze on my back. No one noticed me as I stepped outside. I took a deep breath of the cold, damp air, trying to clear my head. What was I going to do?
“Keira!” David called as he hurried towards me. Jeremy followed closely behind him. I quickly pulled up my hood and dropped my eyes to the ground. “Keira… did Aed approve of you then? You were in there for quite some time,” he added, sounding almost suspicious.
“He approved,” I answered softly. I continued on in a hushed whisper. “David, he knows. He’s asked me to join him. He’s left me little choice,” I added speaking quickly and quietly as Jeremy had almost reached us.
“I see.”
And from David’s angry, clipped tone and thunderous expression, I could tell that he did.
“He wants to see you now,” I continued.
“Who, Aed?” Jeremy asked as he came up behind David. “Did he summon me as well?”
“No. I need to speak with Aed alone,” David answered for me. His face was expressionless but his words were sharp with anger.
“David… don’t…”
“Don’t tell me what to do,” he snapped at me coldly. “Stay out of trouble until I return,” he added and with that he quickly walked into Aed’s cabin.
Jeremy and I were left standing there in awkward silence. I stared down at my hiking boots and the muddy grass beneath my feet, praying that my disguise would hold and that I could stay safe until sundown when I would… when I would what? What was I going to do?
“Come. Let me introduce you to my woman, Tessa. She’ll make you something to eat and show you around,” Jeremy offered in a surprisingly kind voice. It made me wonder, if I had met him under different circumstances or if I had not turned him away so coldly the first time we had met, if things might be very different for us all.
“Thanks,” I answered quietly and followed him across the field.
Tessa turned out to be a kind and friendly woman, if a little rough around the edges. She made me a sandwich and a cup of tea; Aed’s camp was amazingly well set up and supplied for having only been there a day longer than we had. When I asked Tessa about this she smiled mysteriously and simply replied, “We get what we want.”
After eating she walked me around the camp, introducing me to the others who were there and pointing out the areas that had been set up: where the tents were erected at night time, the designated latrine-areas, the cooking area and communal fire, and where they all gathered each day, twice a day, for lessons in using the Lost Magic, taught by Aed himself.
The final stop on the tour was the small cabin that was positioned slightly back and apart from the other two, closer to the edge of the field. The daylight was starting to fade as we approached the old, log cabin, the sun steadily sinking behind the trees. I didn’t have much time left before I had to return to Aed’s cabin I realized, half an hour at most. And David still hadn’t emerged.
“That’s Harry,” Tessa introduced. The burly man guarding the cabin door looked up at the sound of his name and waved. “He’s on guard-duty right now. We all take turns, a six hour shift each. You’ll be expected to do the same. The cabin must be guarded 24/7, no one in or out, apart from Aed.”
“But why? What’s in there?” I asked curiously. “And if there’s something Aed wants kept safe… why should he need anything other than his magic to protect it?”
“I don’t know and I don’t ask. And if you’re smart, you won’t either,” Tessa warned. “Now I’ve got to start cooking the evening meal. Why don’t you come help out?”
“I’ve got to use the facilities,” I lied. “I’ll meet you over there in a minute.”
“Sure,” Tessa agreed and quickly began walking away.
I headed in the direction of where the latrines had been dug further into the woods but veered off the path just before reaching them and hid myself in the shadows. It was almost sundown, my time was nearly up. I needed to make a decision, whether I stayed and joined Aed or whether I attempted to run, and I needed to decide fast. But I knew I couldn’t decide anything until I found out what it was that Aed hid in that cabin.
I watched the few people walking about the camp. No one had noticed I was missing, but no one had even really noticed I was there today unless Tessa had drawn their attention to me. The beginnings of a plan were starting to form in my mind.
If I used enough of the Lost Magic, I could make it so that people didn’t just look over me but so that they wouldn’t even see me or notice anything I did, I could be invisible to them for a time. It would require a great deal of power: enough to influence another’s perceptions and to some extent their free will. It would be difficult to hide the amount of power being drawn from the rest of the camp. The weaker, less-skilled ones might not notice but Aed and David were sure to, and possibly even Jeremy. They would know with that much power being used, that I was up to something. Aed would be furious with me, he might even kill me and it would mean exposing my true identity to the rest of the camp… but I had to risk it.
The light was fading to a misty twilight. I had no time left to solidify my plan. If I was going to do this, it needed to be now. I squeezed my necklace tightly in my hand, the gently pulsating warmth so soothingly familiar it brought tears to my eyes. My heart ached so badly for Sebastian. I couldn’t afford to take the time to properly grieve yet, I had years and years of bleak mourning stretching ahead of me. Maybe one day, when this was all behind me, I could take the time to truly grieve his loss or maybe by then, the pain might have lessened in part. Maybe, just maybe, I could find a new happiness, a different life, with another who I might never have considered before, who would follow wherever I led him…
I pushed the thoughts aside and focused, letting a torrent of magic rush through me, filling me from my fingertips to my toes. My whole body vibrated with power and I directed it to fulfill my wants, disguising me from anyone who might look my way. I stepped forward from the shadows, marching quickly across the meadow, my head held high. The sun sank lower.
As I approached the cabin, the guard, Harry, didn’t so much as glance my way even though I made no attempt to sneak up on him. I marched straight forward and placed my hand on his arm, he didn’t even blink. With just the slightest amount of pressure, I gently guided him out of the way of the door. He moved easily, as if the decision to move were his own, completely unaware that he was being guided by another.
A large metal padlock held the cabin door shut. I didn’t have
a key but I didn’t want it to slow me down. I was racing against the sun now. I reached for the padlock and tugged. The lock opened smoothly with a faint ‘click’ and I quickly pulled it free. My heart was beating fast, my pulse loud in my ears. I knew I only had a few minutes left before I was discovered. With the Lost Magic still raging through my veins, I pulled open the old cabin door and quickly slipped inside, pushing the door closed behind me.
It was dark within the cabin walls and it took my eyes a second to adjust to the low light. A dark shape loomed before me, strung up from ropes that hung from the ceiling above. The floor was sticky and scattered with straw, a foul scent hung in the air, reminding me of decay and death. A strange rattling sound seemed to come from all around me. The voices of the spirits hissed in my ears, their voices angry and incoherent. Terror gripped my throat but I knew I needed to see this. I needed to expose Aed’s secrets to truly understand him, to know if this were really a man who I might join. I needed more light.
At that moment, a bright ray of golden light from the setting sun broke through the treetops at the horizon and shone down onto the field. The cabin glowed with a soft and eerie, dream-like haze. I gasped at what I saw.
A man was tied up before me, hanging from the ceiling by his wrists with his bloody feet just barely touching the floor. His head sagged down against his chest which was struggling to rise with each ragged and wheezing breath he took. His clothes looked like they had once been expensive but the fine material was ripped and stained from his own blood. Dark, dried blood caked his wrists which were raw from the ropes that bound them. His dark brown hair was matted and he reeked of blood and sweat. I stared at him in disbelief.
“Hello?” I whispered, my voice sounding as small and terrified as I felt. “Can you hear me? My name’s Grace. I’m going to help you,” I promised, yet I wasn’t sure how.
The man stirred at the sound of my voice. He struggled to lift his head.
“Grace?” he mumbled. I froze at the sound. His voice was familiar. No… it couldn’t be. “Grace, is it really you?” he asked hoarsely. He finally managed to lift his head and I found myself staring into his bleary, brown eyes.
“It’s me,” I whispered. My own eyes filled with tears. “Clarke… what’s happened to you?” I gasped. “Why are you here?”
“Sebastian,” he moaned, his voice both angry and afraid. “He’s gone insane. We had just gotten back from Jamaica, he surprised us at the airport and offered us a ride. When we got into his car… I don’t know what happened. I was knocked out. When I woke, I was tied up and Tanya was gone. I don’t know what happened to her, Grace. Jeremy, the man who brought me here, says that Sebastian… he told me Sebastian killed her. He made me email my mother and say we were staying longer in Jamaica, Jeremy didn’t want anyone to know where I was. At first I was left alone, I thought he had left me in this cabin to die but then Sebastian arrived. He tied me up and he’s been… torturing me. It goes on for hours, I don’t even know how long I’ve been here for. Why won’t he just kill me, Grace? Why?”
It took me a second to fully process what Clarke had just said. My whole body went numb with fear and with the chilling realization of the truth. This is what Aed was capable of: this and worse. It was time that I face the truth, Sebastian was well and truly gone and if any parts of Sebastian still lived on inside Aed, it was his worst qualities: his anger, his jealousy, his possessiveness, the qualities that had belonged to Aed all along.
“It’s not really Sebastian,” I told Clarke as I began untying the ropes knotted around his wrists. They pulled apart like bows at my slightest touch. “Sebastian would never have done this to you or to anyone—ever. This was Aed.”
“That’s what he keeps calling himself,” Clarke agreed, a crazed light gleaming in his eyes. “Why? Why is this happening? Are you going to kill me now, Grace?”
He was delirious. He sagged against me as I freed his other wrist. The stench of him was so putrid, I had to breathe through my mouth. I wanted to throw up.
“No, I’m getting you out of here—now.”
“He’s going to kill us. Just like he killed Tanya. Just like he killed our baby.” Clarke began to sob, his whole body trembled violently. “You should run, Grace. Just run. Save yourself.”
“It’s going to be ok,” I told him firmly. I wished I could believe it was true. “Come on, we need to get out of here.”
Clarke didn’t argue, he seemed to have lost the ability to speak. He was moaning and mumbling incoherently. I half-dragged him over to the door, kicking it open as I had no free hands. I froze as my eyes fell upon the still body that lay on the ground before us.
Harry lay motionless, facedown in the mud just a few feet from the cabin door. The handle of a knife stuck out of his back. I had no time to question how or why. I could see figures moving across the camp, coming towards us through the steadily lengthening shadows. I had no idea if one of them was Aed or if he was still waiting in his cabin; it shouldn’t matter. I knew I’d been discovered by now, someone would have sensed the huge amount of magic that I had been channeling. Voices were crying out. It was time. A sob stuck in my throat.
“I want you to burn,” I whispered and the cabin behind me—along with Jeremy’s and Aed’s—erupted into a tower of flames that climbed up high towards the early evening sky.
Chaos broke out all around us.
Chapter Sixteen – Battle
The camp was filled with shouts of alarm as the cabins were consumed by flames. Someone must have known it was me, as a ball of fire about the size of a bowling bowl suddenly came shooting through the air towards us.
“Duck!” I screamed, tackling Clarke to the ground. The fireball narrowly missed our heads, exploding on contact in a spray of steaming dirt and rock.
“Get up, quick!” I urged Clarke, tugging on his arm. He stumbled to his feet, looking dazed. I felt the tingle of magic in the air and prepared myself for another fireball shooting at my head but this time, a ball of solid air shot past us from somewhere behind us in the woods and fired directly into Aed’s camp. My friends were here still and they’d figured out how to fight back. Good.
“Let’s go! We’ve got to move.”
I half-dragged, half-carried Clarke away from the burning cabin toward the nearby trees. The sounds of battle were going on all around us, cries of rage, screams of pain, the earth exploding and trees bursting into flame. I was panting and sweating from the effort of moving Clarke and I was starting to panic. We were moving too slowly and with my head down like this and all my energy focused on getting Clarke to safety, we were vulnerable.
“Caoilinn!” Aed’s bloodcurdling scream of rage echoed through out the forest and field, his voice bouncing off the rocky ridge and booming back down upon me. “Stop her! Bring her to me!” he screamed. My whole body began to tremble with fear but I forced myself to go on. We had nearly reached the trees.
“Leave me,” Clarke wheezed as I dragged him along beside me. “You can’t save us both.”
“No,” I answered stubbornly through clenched teeth. And I was determined. I hadn’t been able to save Sebastian but I would save Clarke if it was the last thing I ever did.
Just then, the sun’s last rays started to disappear, winking out one by one as the sun sank below the horizon. The shadows deepened from gray to black. I took two more steps, then stopped.
“No, no, no,” I moaned, panic setting in.
“Grace?” Clarke gasped.
I let his arm slide from my shoulders and gently set him down. We were only just at the edge of the forest. He wasn’t very well concealed or protected here but it was going to have to do.
“My friends will find you here,” I promised him. “They’re close. They’ll help you.”
“Why? Where are you going?” Clarke sounded afraid. His face was ashen, his eyes large and imploring.
“I’m going back.”
And as I said the words, my body began moving of its own accord, turning back to
wards the field. I fought it as much as I could but my legs began to move, my feet taking slow, reluctant steps back the way I had just come. There was a crashing noise behind me as something came charging through the forest. I couldn’t even turn to see who or what it was.
“Grace! Grace! What are you doing?” Bridgette cried breathlessly from behind me. I could hear her footsteps thudding against the ground as she ran after me. She tried to catch my hand. “Grace, stop! You can’t go back there, it’s too dangerous.”
“I have to,” I tried to explain. “He’s making me.”
“No, you don’t. Just stop!”
She tried to jump in front of me, planting her feet and holding up her hands as if she were going to physically block me from continuing. I pushed past her easily, nearly knocking her down even though I wanted her to succeed. I didn’t want to go back.
“I’m sorry but I can’t stop. He’s too strong, Bridgette. I can’t fight him.”
“I won’t let you go back!” Bridgette declared, grabbing my arms and trying to hold me. Again, I shook her off, my body moving as if another were commanding my actions. “He’ll kill you, Grace. You’ll die if you go back there.”
“I know,” I answered sadly. We were nearly back at the blazing cabin where Clarke had been held. It had almost burned to the ground. The battle was slowing down, only the occasional ball of fire brightened the thickening darkness. Any minute, we’d be discovered.
“Then fight it! Fight him. You’re stronger than he is, Grace,” Bridgette encouraged as she scrambled along beside me. “Please. Don’t let him have this power over you.”
Tears shimmered in my eyes making the shadows and bright orange flames dance in my vision.
“He’s taken everything from me. I’m not strong enough to fight him,” I whispered. My legs continued to move, my steps jerky as I weakly attempted to resist.
“No, he hasn’t. You still have your friends, you still have your family back home and people who love you and need you. You still have me. Now stop!” Bridgette commanded firmly, a hint of magic adding strength to her words. My steps faltered then stopped but my muscles were coiled, burning as they fought to continue moving to take me back to Aed as he had commanded.