Born of Shadows- Complete Series

by J. R. Erickson

  She shook the amulet from the pouch around her waist and slipped it over head. Abby felt the immediate pulse of the heart close to hers. The heat seeped into her clammy skin, and she wanted to pull it away, break the connection. Fighting the urge to rip the necklace off, she turned back toward the trees. She saw him first. Sebastian walked among the snakes. They parted for him, slithering away, some of them rubbing affectionately around his ankles. His face looked drawn, his eyes were hollow pools of blue in his gaunt face. In only a day, the magnetic life force had waned. He appeared sallow and lost.

  Within the necklace, Abby felt a jolt and the edges of consciousness grew blurry. Sebastian turned as if sensing her watching him. An instant of agony stole over his face. Abby saw him as he truly was, a man trapped in the heart of darkness, desperate to run to her, but rooted in place.

  As her own grasp on reality faded, she watched a change in Sebastian. His features shifted, growing narrower, his eyes black holes against yellowing whites. Abby felt she too had transformed. She now watched from behind another set of eyes Kanti's.

  Kanti released a cry that seemed to shake the ground beneath them. The agony of her journey erupted through that sound, and then she turned to the house in the distance and began to sing.

  ****

  Oliver swam beneath the water, taking short sips when he surfaced, following the trail of energy that Abby had left behind. The turbulent waves thrashed above him. When he came up for air, he swallowed water instead. When he finally reached the rocky shore, he rushed forward, fighting against a tide trying to draw him back into the lake.

  As he found dry ground, he spotted Abby and Sebastian. He watched their transformations in muted terror. He saw Abby stumbling from the beach, Sebastian moving through the woods, and then the two of them locked in a stare that seemed to stop time. And then, more horrifying than each moment before, they began to look different. As he stood, jaw slack, he understood that Clyde and Kanti watched each other across that stony beach. Clyde's mouth stretched wide. His grin held no humor, only a malicious satisfaction. Kanti faced the house, her lips moving, her arms raised to the sky.

  Oliver shifted his gaze to the old house, recoiling as fire exploded through one of the upstairs windows.

  Clyde, in Sebastian's body, howled as if he felt the fire.

  Kanti bared her teeth and broke into a run, sprinting across the beach with her arms outstretched as if she intended to claw the eyes from his head.

  A glimmer of Abby appeared in Kanti's face. Oliver stared as Abby reached up and ripped the amulet from her chest, flinging it away. At the same moment, Clyde's features melted away and Sebastian reappeared. He fell to his knees and held his arms out for Abby. She barreled into him, tears streaming down her face.

  Oliver saw Sebastian's lips moving. He turned and pointed at the house.

  "Oliver, watch out," Julian's voice barely reached him in the wind ripping across the lake.

  Oliver dove to the sand, rolling to the side. He followed Julian's gaze to Alva who stood on the beach. A dozen or more skin-walkers took flight from the trees. Alva opened his arms wide and a black cavity appeared in the center of his chest. Somehow the skin-walkers flew into him, disappeared into the black abyss. Alva's human body twisted and warped. A huge skin-walker, as large as the house, stretched its leathery wings. Its wolfish face turned to face them.

  Oliver looked back toward Sebastian and Abby.

  Sebastian screamed, "Go," at Abby and shoved her toward the house that had started to burn.

  It was all happening so fast. Oliver watched Julian's mouth fall open in horror at the sight of the enormous skin-walker taking shape. Julian did not flee, but charged full-speed at the creature, pulling a black dagger from his waist.

  ****

  The moon seemed to fall out of the sky into the yawning mouth of the giant skin-walker. Its black eyes reflected the witches as they stood on the shore of the island watching the beast seem to consume the world.

  Abby looked at the cloth in her hand, heavy. Sebastian had told her not to open it, to take it beneath the house and put it in the hand of Clyde.

  "Go," he screamed, and she turned back to him. Time seemed to slow as Sebastian stood and pulled the knife that Oliver had given him from a sheath against his leg.

  He ran at the monster, launching himself into the sky, plunging the dagger down.

  Abby couldn't save them both. She turned and fled into the old house, holding up her hand to block the smoke and fire that lapped at her skin. She whispered an incantation and a bubble of water surrounded her head, allowing her several deep breaths before it burst. She created another bubble, diving to the side as a wall crashed down. Where basement stairs should have stood, she found a gaping black hole. She descended into the hole, trying to hold the floor above her, but it crumbled and broke beneath her weight. She dropped into the small space, the earth cool beneath her feet.

  Darkness met her eyes as she searched the far corners, but then she saw it, a pulsing red light tucked in the far end, down a path she had to crawl through. She felt the tightness of the space, the dirt walls pressing in overhead and against her belly. A small cavern opened and on a marble slab she saw the emaciated body of Clyde. Skeletal, with skin stretched over his bones, she recoiled at the sight of him. She saw the bones of his teeth through his pale lips, practically gone. And next to him, nestled in a cardboard box, her pale eyelids quivering, lay Vidya. Abby surged toward her, crying out and wanting to rip the tiny filaments that ran from her beautiful child into the nearly dead thing lying next to her. As her fingers clutched the tubes, she stopped. She needed to do it right otherwise she might hurt her child, split her soul and allow some of it to travel with Clyde.

  Carefully, she removed the patches stuck to Vidya's head and slid the needles from the veins in her arms and legs. She had to bite her lip to keep from beating the monster next to her in an absolute rage. She wanted to kill him, remove him from the world, but if he were not ended properly, he would travel into those he'd cursed. He might live in her Vidya forever.

  Abby pulled the amulet from her pouch.

  "Goodbye Kanti," she whispered placing it around his neck.

  ****

  Oliver watched Julian attack the skin-walker. He stabbed at the giant beast, but it easily flung him aside. Julian landed on the beach where snakes slithered from the forest towards him. Oliver ran to his aid, sending blasts of energy into the earth around the snakes. They flung into the air. Oliver bent close to Julian, offering him his hand. As Julian stood they both paused watching the rocky shore near the house. A figure stood there, a dark cloak concealing his face. A pentagram, seemingly made of light, pulsed on his chest.

  Before they could consider him, the skin-walker brought a huge leathery wing down on the beach. The ground shook and Oliver jumped aside as the beast's jaws snapped toward him.

  Sebastian screamed and sunk his blade into the skin-walker's back. His scream tore across the island. The land shook and trees groaned as their roots pulled from the earth. One tree crashed into the burning house. The leaves erupted in flames and soon more of the forest burned. Snakes appeared in droves on the rocky shore.

  "Into the water," Julian screamed as they scrambled away from the fleeing snakes.

  Oliver dove beneath the surf as the waves crashed over them. The skin-walker too had backed into the lake. It shifted from side to side snapping at Sebastian who still clung to its back. Oliver pulled a dagger from the sheath at his ankle and swam down, hacking at the beast's leg.

  ****

  As the amulet touched his skin, Clyde's eyes flickered open. Black chasms stared at her. His mouth opened, and Abby stopped, transfixed by the black churning hole within him. A spiral of darkness that seemed to descend forever stared back at her and somewhere within it, a sound emanated, called for her. She stepped closer, reaching a hand toward the darkness.

  A figure appeared near Abby's elbow, pushing her gently aside. Glancing up, breaking her momenta
ry stupor, Abby looked into light-filled blue eyes. The man, thousands of years old surely, looked at her from the folds of his crinkled skin. He nodded toward Vidya and Abby understood - she needed to take her baby and run. She lifted Vidya into her arms, leaving the backpack and moving from the crawl space, watching the figure. He lifted the cloth wrapped item Sebastian had handed Abby. She had forgotten all about it. Clyde's mouth opened wider. An ear-splitting scream erupted and Vidya started to wail. The old man opened the cloth and Abby saw a purplish stone glowing bright. The stranger placed the stone on Clyde's chest.

  Abby shielded Vidya as the stone seemed to explode with light. Dark shadows swept passed Abby into the blazing vortex. It pulled and yawned, and though she felt the tug, it did not try to take her. As the light blinked out, Abby stared into the empty crawl space. She stood for a second watching the vacant slab where Clyde's body had likely lain for hundreds of years.

  Overhead the house groaned, collapsing beneath the fire. Abby ran.

  Chapter 29

  Oliver poked his head above the surface, took a gulp of air, and then dove again. He pulled his arm back, blinded by the streaming black blood of the skin-walker, ready to chop again at his leg. In the murky water, he could not find the beast. He rose to the surface, fighting to see, but the skin-walker no longer towered above him. Oliver spotted Julian as he too lifted from the water.

  "Where did it go?" Oliver yelled.

  "It disappeared," Julian called back. "I was holding its wing and it vanished from my hand."

  Oliver shook his head, incredulous. He dove beneath the surface. The black blood of the beast still streamed in rivulets, but already the turbulent water had begun to disperse it. Oliver searched for Sebastian, and then remembering Abby pushed back toward the shore. As he struggled from the surf, he started to blast the ground to remove the snakes, but they too had vanished.

  ****

  For days they searched the lake for Sebastian. Abby plunged in and out for hours. The witches of Ula gathered on the shore of Snake Island.

  With the combined stories of Abby, Oliver and Julian, they knew that a strange man with a pentacle on his chest had placed a glowing stone in Clyde's hand and moments later the evil had ended.

  Julian and Oliver had told Abby they saw Sebastian pulled into the lake as he fought the skin-walker. That was the last anyone had seen of him.

  Abby crawled onto the shore, panting and sat down hard on the rocks. Lydie came to her and paused. She lifted her arms overhead and a wave of heat descended over Abby, drying her instantly. Despite all of their magic, none of the witches of Ula had found a trace of Sebastian and Abby knew what they were all thinking. He had vanished with Clyde and the skin-walker.

  They drove back and forth in Faustine's whaler, but found nothing. Had the skin-walker consumed him? Had he drowned?

  Abby searched for a sense of him, but exhaustion muted every emotion. She could sense nothing except the trickle of cold fear that snaked down her spine. Torn between holding her child and searching for her lost love, she felt she might split in two.

  Helena sat with Vidya in another boat. Vidya watched the witches traipse in and out of the tide. Seagulls swooped overhead and several settled on the boats bow to be near her.

  "Abby," Faustine said, pausing beside her. "Elda has just contacted me." He tapped a finger to his temple and Abby understood that Elda had reached out to him telepathically. "The Sky Mothers called her to the cave of Elders. They have news of Sebastian."

  Abby wrinkled her brow.

  "But they're in Australia," Abby argued, not understanding, and then something dawned on her. The moment the old man had placed the stone in Clyde's hand, Clyde had vanished. Had the stone been the portal that Clyde and Meghan used to escape to Australia three centuries before?

  "It's best if we go to Ula," Faustine told her.

  ****

  Abby watched impassive as Kit, Liam, and Hannah stepped from the Boston whaler onto the dock at Ula. Kit whistled and nodded toward the castle.

  "It's imposing, that's for sure," she said.

  Oliver greeted them and he gave Kit a stiff peck on the cheek before leading them to the castle where Abby stood with Helena by her side.

  Elda had Vidya in the Healing Room. She had offered to give her a bath in the giant tub.

  "Hey'ya mate," Liam told Oliver slapping him on the back. Hannah smiled sadly at Abby and took her hands.

  "I'm so sorry, Abby. I know how you feel."

  Abby forced a smile and nodded. Of anyone, Hannah probably was the closet to knowing how she felt, but that didn't make her feel any closer to the beautiful witch. Even in moments of sincerity, Hannah's warmth never extended to her eyes. Sharp little chips of blue with no true empathy watched her curiously.

  Kit, on the other hand, said nothing, but squeezed her shoulder and Abby felt a rush of kindness pour through her.

  "I wish we were here under better circumstances," Liam told her, taking her hands. "I owe Sebastian my life and I want you to know that's why I did what I did. I hope you can forgive me."

  Abby narrowed her eyes at him, but had no interest in offering forgiveness until she had the whole story.

  They settled in the library and Liam began to talk.

  "Sebastian came to me three weeks ago," Liam said.

  "In Australia?" Oliver interrupted, but Abby silenced him with a stare. She wanted the truth, uninterrupted. "Sorry," he told her.

  "Yes. I was at the house that Hannah and I share on the beach. He knocked on the door. You can imagine my surprise when I saw him standing there. I invited him in for a beer, thinking you guys were all visiting the Sky Mothers. Then he revealed to me that he had discovered the portal that Clyde and Meghan had used to flee Michigan three hundred years ago."

  Liam looked healthy. His scrawny body had filled out. His hair had grown back in and his eyes had lost their yellow.

  "He dug it out of ground near the foundation of Clyde's childhood home. Where you guys live, apparently. When he touched the rock, it transported him to Clyde's room in Australia."

  Abby thought of the times Sebastian had come into the house with dirt beneath his fingernails. Why hadn't she forced the truth from him then?

  "He found the portal back to Michigan in Clyde's room," Liam continued. "It was the same rock shoved deep into the cave wall. Insane to think I never touched that damn rock. A year in that hell and I had freedom at my fingertips."

  Hannah wrapped an arm behind his back and hugged him close. She kissed his neck, and Abby felt an irrational urge to stride across the room and slap her as hard as she could.

  "He told me about the curse, everything. He was there for two hours, filling me in on the bloodlines and the human who succumbed to the evil call every century. He told me that he couldn't stop it. It was in his blood, his bones, his brains; it was like cancer. The only way to save you was to sacrifice every last thread of the darkness. Sebastian was confident he had come closest to resisting the call, but it was taking him. The urge to allow Clyde had become a constant itch, a buzzing in his brain. He said he thought he understood what it felt like to be an addict. The problem was he'd never done the drug, but he knew it was only a matter of time. Nothing any of you did was going to change his fate, but he would not destroy you in the process. He would die first."

  Abby closed her eyes and braced her hands on the armrests of her chair, but of course that couldn't stop her world from spinning.

  Liam continued.

  "Sebastian had already spoken with Meghan. He promised her Clyde and in exchange she bewitched the portal so that it would pull all of Clyde's dark magic back with him. Sebastian told me that Clyde continued to draw power from Meghan. He said that he was going to give in, let the darkness take him. When he had found Clyde's whereabouts and had all the items that he drew power from, he would use the portal to force all of them back to Australia. In order to find Clyde and put the portal in his hand, he had to join him."

  "So, he took Vi
dya," Abby breathed, remembering the moment on the sand dune when Sebastian had begged to hold their daughter. Desperate to draw him back to her, Abby handed her over, and Sebastian had turned and ran, becoming a skin-walker with their baby tucked in a pouch beneath him.

  Abby gritted her teeth and tried not to speak.

  "I tried to talk him out of it. He cut me off and swore that he'd set Clyde upon us if I spoke a word of it to anyone. It hurt him to threaten me. I could tell, but he was desperate, Abby. He didn't believe he had any other choice. As long as he and Clyde both lived, you would be in danger, your daughter would be in danger. I agreed to help him."

  "What did you do?" Abby whispered, afraid to know.

  Liam looked away, the color draining from his face.

  "He left me a bag, made me swear not to open it. I had to go into the dream wood into the lowest layer, the Forest of Purgatory. He distracted Meghan while I put the bag in Clyde's old room and then made my escape."

  "What was in the bag?" Abby demanded.

  "I don't know," Liam admitted. "I thought it was something he would need when he came back, but then yesterday..." he paused.

  "Tell me!" Abby shrieked and the teacup in Hannah's hand exploded.

  Hannah recoiled, but Kit had thrown up her hands and the pieces stopped their trajectory. They hovered in the air.

  Liam shrank deeper into his seat.

  "The whole place went up in flames," he said. "The bridge, the forest beyond it. The dream wood is gone."

  Abby put her face into her hands and cried.

  "It pulled him back, didn't it? Sebastian had become part of the dark magic so it pulled him back as well?"

  Liam nodded.

  "I think so. I was sure he would escape. He implied that after they were all drawn back, he would get out. I never thought..." Liam didn't finish his statement.