“Like Ophelia’s?”
“No, this is different. As a death watcher, we can get a glimpse of the future, but not for ourselves. I want you to look into my future while I look into yours,” he hesitated, “because I have to tell you something.”
“What?” She looked worried.
“I’ve seen this vision. You were the only one in it. I’ve only just figured out who was there with you because of how I’ve come to feel about you. I believe I am with you in that vision.”
“The, vision. The one I saw when we met in the cave. The fire.”
Silas could see the terror in her eyes. “Yes. There’s more that you did not see. You said you were able to grab it because I’d seen it repeatedly.”
“Yes.” She looked at me questioningly. “So, that means you knew how you felt about me, since when?”
“My father has made me study you for a very long time.”
“Oh,” was all she said and she adverted her eyes to the ground.
Silas lifted her eyes back to his by way of a hand under her chin. He slowly coaxed her to look at him. “I’ve cared for you for a very long time.” His hand shook. He was nervous for the first time in his life. She made his knees waver at the sight of her eyes on his. If she would reject him because of his father’s scheming, surely, she would have done so long before then.
“So, there is a part of the vision that I didn’t see?”
“Yes, and if you’ll let me, I’d like to show you now.”
She seemed to think about it for a long time. Long enough that Chester had wandered back into the clearing. She looked at him. His face was stark white, his brow wet with sweat. She moved from Silas and went to her protector.
“What is it?” She put a hand on his shoulder and Silas’ heart dropped.
Chester gave Silas a long look around Gwen, and he thought he’d seen the yellow eyes of the black bear. Then his eyes softened and he looked back at Gwen. A part of Silas felt threatened. Until she gave him her answer, she would be free to choose another. Silas watched as Chester’s hand came up to meet Gwen’s arm.
“I think you should perform the rite as soon as possible.”
Silas couldn’t believe his ears. Chester was giving him his blessing. Not outright, but he’d heard enough of their conversation to know how to choose his words. With the hearing of any animal at his disposal, Silas wasn’t impervious to the fact Chester could have heard it all.
“The sooner the better. I’ll call for Daniel and Marshal. The rest will want to come as well.”
Chester looked around her again and nodded to Silas, then his hand dropped and he went to the house. Gwen turned to Silas.
“I guess you’d better show me this vision. I want to know what else happens. Unless you’re about to show me…that I die in that fire.”
“No. Nothing like that.”
Chapter XI
The smoke furled around them. The flames not quite in the small house yet. Silas hadn’t put two and two together until he’d come back into the vision with Gwen. He was there, in the house he’d just purchased in Springfield. The furniture looked different. Nothing he owned yet. Gwen clung to him. Her arms wrapped around his shoulders as he tried to keep her from breathing in the smoke. It snaked into the house, but its movement was wrong somehow. Alien. It moved as if it searched for them. Beckoning them to move into it.
Gwen pulled hard around his shoulders. She pulled at him as if the movement allowed her to crawl away from the smoke. He placed a damp cloth in her hand and moved the hand up to her face to cover her mouth and nose.
“Breathe through this,” he heard himself say. “You can’t breathe in the smoke.” His eyes bore into hers and she nodded breathing deeply. Long steady breaths.
The smoke moved slowly, effortlessly through the house filling every corner from floor to ceiling. It was going to fill the house until no more would fit. The flames licked the outside. Silas could see them clawing at the bottom of the windows. Moving upward, knocking then scraping at the glass. It met with the wood frame of the panes and singed the wood. Unable to penetrate it, it moved still upward.
Silas looked around, willing himself to take it all in. There were boxes stacked in the corner of the room. A carpet he hadn’t yet purchased on the floor, and delicate curtains covered the windows. Silas looked toward the front door and a fist sized hole in the wall next to it. All things he would need to remember. He looked at Gwen and studied her hair, the lines of worry on her face, and the way she felt pressed against him.
“Why doesn’t the house catch fire?” Gwen asked moving the cloth from in front of her face.
Silas reached down and replaced the cloth; her hand with it. “Talk through it. Don’t remove it.” He looked down. She still hadn’t seen yet. Had not remembered yet that they were in a vision, or had she? Then as if his own magic were speaking to him, he slipped back. He felt as if he were in his body, yet watching from above.
“Wards were put in place. It’s not real fire. It’s witch-fire. My father’s specialty.”
Her eyes found his and she mumbled behind the wet cloth. She pulled it away from her mouth, but only slightly. “Will we die?”
“No.” He moved his hand to the back of her head guiding her to lean her forehead against his shoulder. “No. We can’t. He doesn’t want us to. If he had, we’d be gone already.” He looked around as the flames scratched at the glass again. “No, he’s just toying with us. He has a plan. I just wish I knew what it was.”
They moved back away from the window, making sure to keep far from the walls and the tendrils of smoke that threatened to take them. Silas held her closer just as someone outside banged against the front door. Screams sounded from outside. Looking up, Silas could see the flames covering the window at the top of the staircase that led to the second story of the house.
He looked around. Think, he yelled at himself, but it was Gwen who spied a way out. She pulled on his sleeve. He looked down to where she pointed at the round rainbow rug in the middle of the dining room floor.
Gwen flung his arm from around her and pushed him to the rug. He pulled it back as another bang sounded against the front door. Silas looked up, ready for the vision to end as it had in the past. He wanted to get her out of there, but nothing happened. The smoke came in the room faster and she moved the cloth to yell at him. “Silas!”
He looked up as she placed the cloth back over her mouth and nose. He could see the front of her clearer that he had in the vision before. That snapped him into gear. He flung the carpet backward and revealed a square trap door. He grabbed the ringed handle from within the wood, lifted it and turned. The floor groaned as he lifted it. A wash of cold air flew up through the open hole in the floor and he motioned for Gwen to go first.
Gwen looked down at herself as she sat on the edge of the floor. Her eyes wide with shock started to fill with tears.
“I know. Just go. It’ll be over soon,” he told her as her tears fell hard and fast.
She used the cloth to wipe them away so she could see, shielded her belly with her arm and made her way down the ladder. Silas followed closing the door above their heads.
When the wood door settled back in place, Silas realized he was standing with Gwen outside. Her hands in his, his eyes closed. The sun beat on them in the clearing in the yard in Dublin. They were nowhere near that house. The vision ended. Silas looked up and Gwen’s face was streaked with fresh tears. Not from the vision, but real salty tears ran freely.
“I can tell you…” she said between sobs, “how to open the ring.”
Chapter XII
With the circle cast, the rite began when the sun dropped behind the trees. Marshal and Daniel arrived with Crystal and Elle in tow. Gwen refused to allow anyone in her family to know she’d be doing the rite early. She didn’t have the heart to tell them. She wanted the solstice to have special meaning for them. Her father at least was looking forward to her taking the rite. Her mother was another story. Although, if
her brothers found out what she was planning for the winter solstice before the night itself, she didn’t doubt the both of them would be clawing at the chance to wring Silas’ neck.
As they stood in the circle and she called the elements to her she looked at Silas outside of her coven. When the earth lifted from the ground she saw the awe in his eyes. The rest of his coven stood around the circle as a buffer of protection in case anyone were to attack. Gwen found it hard to concentrate as the wind whipped around her, pulling her long dark hair from its resting place at her waist to flow out behind her. Her mind kept reliving the vision and the ramifications of her actions of performing her rites early. The act would start the events that will lead to that future. Their future. They were the only two there. None else was present. Not Hex or Chester, nor the rest of the coven. She had an idea why that was.
Neither she nor Silas would allow anyone else to be there. To have to live through that. Sigmis was after them both now, not just her. The winter solstice would ensure that as well. Even though Sigmis had wanted Silas to join with her. He would, but he would be doing so on his own terms. On their terms.
Nevertheless, she would move forward. She would not deviate from that future. Deviating from an inevitable future had damned Seth Sigmis and his entire line. Gwen hadn’t told Silas that she’d found the answer to his questions about Seth and the reason for his condition, but she didn’t have to. She knew Ophelia would have the information to give to him. Gwen couldn’t be the one to hand him that blow.
She moved forward, calling water to her circle and watched as those around her gasped from outside with the addition of the dew from the ground beneath them lifted and swirled with the earth, wind, and fire around her and her friends.
“I ask of you, the spirits of my ancestors, to entrust me with the power to protect this circle, as I do your will.”
Silas watched her intently as she called the spirits of her ancestors. He knew she could see the look in his eyes. Something that looked like fear flickered from within her.
Before she could cement the circle around her, a loud bang echoed through the woods. Another and another until it was so close, Silas and Gwen could feel the minds of the witches that forced themselves through the wards.
“Finish it, Gwen,” Silas yelled as they ran off to contend with the unwelcome guests.
Gwen looked around at her circle and her friends outside. “What should we do?” She was panicking. Her pulse quickened in her chest and head and she felt strange.
Chester looked at her, saw the panic ensuing and grabbed her hands. “Gwen, do it. Finish the rite.”
So, she did. She would need the power of her great-grandmother to fight those against her, and she knew that. She held the athame to Daniel first, then went in a circle. Each sliced their palm and ended with her. All hands went over the silver bowl together. They would use the solstice for the traditional ceremony.
Gwen asked as they let the blood flow into the cup, and the flame above the candle ignited. “What say you, do you pledge yourself to the Silver Shadows?”
In unison, they all replied, “Yes.”
“Then I give you the newly reformed Coven of the Silver Shadows. Let no witch, nor shifter, nor man stand against us without feeling our wrath.” She let the flame fall into the cup and the explosion within boomed in unison with one off in the distance.
Gwen excused the elements one by one. It was tedious, as she had to do it one at a time, releasing them in the order in which she called them. At last, when earth had gone she was done, and the circle had gone.
The coven of the Black Willow was being pushed back into the clearing. Their power was no match against whatever force had come for them. Gwen reached into her power. All of those she’d trained on her own and the ones newly found with Silas’ help. It was time to see what Seraphina had given her.
A man clad in all black pushed against the power of Hex in his human form. Before he could shift, Gwen watched the man move Silas’ friend and protector through the air. Gwen latched on to her power. Using the full force of the rite she now had at her disposal. She lifted a hand from her side and plunged her gift to the man’s chest. He went flying much like he’d done to Hex. Another man came running from the forest. He held Ophelia by the shoulder.
Chester howled once and shifted in front of Gwen. The large black bear took no time at all to emerge. Once he was done he pounced on the man, who in turn had no choice to release his grip on the girl. Her short cropped mousy brown hair covered her face as she lay still on the ground. Gwen moved to her, her hand outstretched to lay them on the girl. Her knees landing a bit too hard into the dried leaves and twigs.
“No, I’m fine,” she said as Gwen started to heal her. “Go. They’ll need your help.”
Gwen shook her head and left the girl on the forest floor with one last fleeting look as Ophelia began to get up. Her arm crossing her torso.
“Over here!” Gwen heard Marshal yell out. She spotted white and red wolves along with the big black bear. They were going up against a mountain lion and three tigers. The fourth animal came running from behind the enemy, the largest hyena Gwen had ever seen rammed into the side of one of the tigers. The bear and wolves attacked while their enemies were momentarily dazed.
Then Marshal shouted again, “NO!”
Gwen spun on her heel as Daniel landed on a fallen tree, a resounding crack heard throughout the forest. Her heart raced. Her power pulled her to him. The part of her that could feel the life leave his body, begging for her to put it back, but she knew better. She knew she couldn’t go to him, even before Silas yelled to her.
“Gwen, don’t.”
She held her hand up to him. Then took the man in her sights who’d taken her friend from her. She walked steadily and quickened her pace as the man set his sights on Marshal next. She let her mind rip into his and he screamed in terror. Marshal fell to the ground unscathed, but stayed there looking at Gwen.
“Go, Marshal. Now!”
“Gwen, think about what you’re doing. I know you think this is justification, but do you want to really be in with the Sigmis family? Do you want to go there?”
“That’s not why—” She couldn’t finish the sentence, she didn’t care what he had to say. “Just go.” Her eyes flamed red.
“Gwen.” Silas moved to her side. The fighting around them had stopped. Everyone, including those that had come to attack them, stopped to watch what she would do. “Do. No. Harm.”
“He killed him, Silas. He’s dead.” She kept her mind inside of the man’s. His blond hair fell over his eyes. Though she could see they were wide open. The veins in his forehead bulged with the pressure of her in his mind, with the strain. She could do it. She felt it. The power she’d gotten from the rite. One little snip of his mind and he’d be gone forever. Just as Seth Sigmis sat in a chair for the last of his life. Drooling, unable to speak, unable to hold his son. This man would be just like that. One little movement of her mind is all it would take.
“Gwen.” Silas grabbed her other hand. Held it to his heart. “You don’t want to do this.” He made her feel his heart beat. “This is what you will lose if you do this.”
“Seraphina did it. She was forgiven because she did it in defense of her friends, her family. Daniel was my family.”
“You are no more Seraphina than I am my father. Don’t do this. We can’t be…” He looked back at the rest of them. Only Chester knew what they were to each other. Chester and his own coven. “We can’t be together; our future will never be. This will alter it forever. The vision we had. It’ll be gone.”
She turned her head to look at his eyes. Her hand still pressed to his heart. Her features softened slightly. “What if this is the moment that makes that future come to pass. I don’t want to live through that, but—” She remembered her state in the vision. “How can I choose? What do I choose?”
Chester attempted to move to her, but Silas held out his hand for him to stop. “I too have to choos
e. A path of good with you or to continue to be who’ve I have always been. I’ve already chosen. You.”
With his words, Gwen felt the back of her head relax down to her jaw, her mind released from the man. She let his body drop to the ground. Silas pulled her to him and wrapped her in his arms and slowly fell to the ground. The shifters quietly moved toward the enemy group that was still standing in as much shock as any of Gwen’s and Silas’ friends. Then, they were gone.
Chapter XIII
Gwen’s heart was heavy, head ached as did her neck and shoulders. She felt a desperation in her that she’d never felt before. One, she realized, she had no idea how to deal with. Daniel’s body was taken back to the Crawford farm. Her father didn’t question what happened. Just asked that everyone else was ok.
Level-headed Elle contacted her parents on their way back to Springfield. She showed barely any emotion during the ride. Her brother's body lying behind her in the trunk of Marshal’s SUV. Crystal, Daniel’s girlfriend hadn’t been anywhere near the fight when the rest of them had gone after the intruders. She had found Ophelia on the ground by the house and stayed with the injured girl. She wasn’t out in those woods to see the love of her life broken over that tree.
When Chester stepped through the woods with Daniel in his arms, Crystal emitted a noise Gwen had never heard before. A guttural cry of an animal in pain. She flung herself at Chester, making him fall to the ground under the weight of his slain friend and her hysterical form. It had taken Marcus, Marshal and Ophelia to remove the girl so they could put the body in the car to take him to his family.
Crystal sobbed for half of the ride back and looked as if she could see or hear nothing after she quieted. She was a shell of herself. When the car stopped in front of the farm house she just sat there, eyes forward. Her father pulled open the back door and shook her to get her attention. Giving up, Wyatt picked her up and cradled her in his arms, kissing her forehead. Her mother came and draped the cloak she’d been wearing around her daughter’s frame.
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