Walking Through Shadows

by Sheri Lewis Wohl

  Angus also stood, his smile big. “Never leave home without it,” he announced as he pulled a bag of trail mix from an interior coat pocket.

  “Oh, my dear man, I have never loved you as much as I do right this minute. The only thing that would make me love you more is if you pulled a cup of coffee out of that jacket. Come on. Dazzle me. Please!”

  He shook his head. “Afraid I’ll have to do with superficial love. The trail mix is the extent of my magical skills this morning. No dazzle today.”

  She honestly wasn’t so sure about that. Yes, it was true that Molly was a real witch. That didn’t mean Angus didn’t have magic too. Honestly, she’d been feeling it since they found themselves in this strange world. He seemed to have an aura of power that engulfed them both. It made her feel protected, safe.

  Off and on since this whole thing began, she’d find herself flooded with the fear they would end up stuck in this alternate world and never see home again. Not that this wasn’t home in a skewed way. She just wanted the home that had highways, electricity, running water, and indoor plumbing. Oh, and the coffee shops that were on just about every corner in town wouldn’t be so bad either. First thing she’d do was take a hot shower and then go grab a nice, big mocha.

  After actually being able to catch a little sleep overnight, she felt different today, calmer and more confident. Talking with Angus and knowing they were on the same page emotionally had made a huge impact. Beyond that, though, the more she rolled it over in her mind, the more she had a hunch they were here for a reason. Didn’t things always happen for a reason? She liked to believe that anyway.

  She’d already been treated to at least one of those: Angus had made clear his intention to build a life with her. They might have eventually reached this point back in their own time. Probably much further down the road. For whatever reason, being here brought everything to the forefront. Emotions were deeper, connections tighter, and words seemed compelled to come out into the open. In a lot of ways that was good. Odd but good.

  It was more than their coming together, though. Regardless of how she came at it, she felt safer in Angus’s arms than anywhere else. His strength and power filled her, and together they were stronger.

  For her and Angus, it was all good and positive. Not so for Molly. Something dangerous existed outside the cabin’s door, and it was gunning for her. At least that was the conclusion she’d come to. She doubted anyone out there gave a hoot about her and Angus, but Molly? Danger seemed to echo in the silence, and that scared her a lot. It was entirely possible the two of them were here by sheer accident. It was also possible they were not. Maybe they followed her through the wormhole to keep her safe, and she sure didn’t want to let her friend down. Perhaps it was that touch of magic she glimpsed in Angus that would be the one thing that made a difference.

  Taking a handful of the trail mix, Winnie picked at the nuts and dried fruit. She was hungry yet couldn’t shake the tumultuous feeling in the pit of her stomach. The mixture of hunger and terror made her feel as though acid were swirling inside her. “We have to find Molly.”

  Angus was moving around the embers in the fireplace, working, it appeared to her, to try to put out the last of the fire. Not much was left, and the job wouldn’t take long. It meant he planned to leave the cabin that had provided them shelter overnight. He still wasn’t looking at her as he said, “Agreed, and I had a thought on what might help.”

  “She’ll come back here, don’t you think?” She didn’t know what he was pondering. She really believed Molly would find her way back to the cabin. Staying here doing nothing might be counterproductive. Leaving might also be a mistake. Talk about being between a rock and a hard place.

  He nodded as he dropped the stick he was using to move the embers and put an arm around her shoulders, planting a kiss on the top of her head. “Yes, I do, but I want to hike to higher ground. We’ll have a good view of the surrounding area from the cliffs. Once we’re up there, we’ll be able to see for miles. I doubt she and her new friend will have gotten too far on foot last night. If they were smart, they’d have found shelter to ride out the storm just as we did. Hopefully, we’ll be able to spot them heading back this way.” He left her side to bound out the door. Obviously a little sleep had done wonders for his energy level.

  Winnie followed him outside and turned to look in the direction he was pointing. Her first thought was: not happening. “You want us to go up there?” Did he not know her at all? She was not a nimble mountain climber in any universe. No, indeed, not even close. Waddle was more her style. “No way on God’s green earth you’re going to get my big butt up there. Not in this lifetime anyway. You do know who you’re with, right?”

  His laughter was like silver bells on the morning air. Reaching over, he pulled her close and hugged her. “You always underestimate yourself. You’ve really never paid attention to how you move, have you?”

  His question sounded sincere, but for the life of her she didn’t know where he was going with this. Yes, she knew how she moved. Kind of like a Clydesdale. “What do you mean?”

  “Honey, you’re like a tornado when you’re in chef mode in the kitchen.”

  “Yes, but that’s a kitchen with a nice, flat, tiled floor, and that’s a far cry from mountain-goat status. I was lucky enough just to make that run yesterday without killing myself. I do not climb mountains or rock cliffs.” She didn’t want to either. It was way too far out of her comfort zone, not to mention her legs were sore from yesterday’s exertion.

  “That’s where you’re missing the point. You have the strength and the stamina to do all sorts of amazing things. I can help you with the rest. You’ll be on top of that ridge before you know it.”

  Love made people do stupid things, and this situation was no exception. She loved this man with all her heart, and if he wanted her to crawl up that blasted basalt rock, well, then, by golly, that’s exactly what she would do. Disappointing him wasn’t an option. Her comfort zone was going to have to expand. Besides, what else did they have to do in this familiar yet totally foreign place? Might as well get a really good look at their altered reality. Had to admit, despite her hesitation about climbing, his plan was a good one. It would be interesting to see if she felt the same way once she made it to the top.

  “Okay, team leader, show me the way.”

  His smile was broad. “That’s the woman I love.” He held out his hand and she took it. “Let’s go climb a mountain.”

  The warmth she felt when her hand touched his was so lovely. She studied the long, flat apex in the distance, where soon enough they’d stand side by side searching for Molly. Despite its imposing height, the basalt rock was beautiful. It was hard not to appreciate what Mother Nature had created thousands of years before. Embarking on yet another adventure with Angus should make her feel like she was in heaven. Instead, the feeling in the pit of her stomach seemed to warn her that, on the top of that ridge, hell was waiting.

  Chapter Twenty-two

  Aquene returned to her body and, for the first time in her life, understood her full destiny. At the same time, she wanted to fall to the earth and sob. She wished to believe that what she had just witnessed was a dream and nothing more, that perhaps it foreshadowed what might be rather than what was to come.

  Her soul told her the truth. Molly told her the truth. Her people, her proud, fierce people, would be all but wiped from their lands. As they had stood in that field and surveyed what should have been familiar to her, her heart had ached, and tears had come to her eyes. Gone were the wide-open spaces, the animals that roamed without threat along the banks of the river, the women of her childhood working as the men trapped and hunted. Instead, she had seen buildings and land marred with ribbons of blackness. Roads, Molly had explained to her, though they were roads like no others she had seen. Things—she did not know what they were—moved across the black roads as though they were wagons that could travel without horses. Everything was foreign and frightening, but worst o
f all were the people. Not one single face looked like hers. Not one single face. Rather, it was a sea of the same people who lived in the outposts. Where once they were few in the vision, they had spread across the land as far as she could see.

  Molly told her that her language was gone, and she was not surprised, for so too were her people. How could a language survive slaughter when no one was there to save it? The tears falling from her eyes were too strong to stop. For just a breath she thought that she should end her life, for what was the point of going forward? All that they believed in, all that she held dear, would one day be gone. How could this happen?

  And then she looked up into Molly’s face and knew that she could not stop. She did not understand any of what she had seen. But she did understand that she had been sent on this journey for a reason. When she had started out all those days ago, she had believed she was to find this woman and stop the man who carried darkness in his soul. What she had just witnessed showed her that her journey was far bigger than the one evil man. Yes, she and Molly still had to stop him, but once they did that, her true work would begin.

  “I’m so, so sorry,” Molly was saying as she cradled Aquene in her arms.

  Aquene felt safe with Molly’s arms wrapped around her. It would be nice if she could stay here until the sun fell behind the mountains. She could not, for they must travel on. The man was near; she could feel his presence on the wind. Molly must too, for Aquene knew that she carried true magic inside her. It was in her eyes and the way the light seemed to circle her like a cloud. She was special, and not just because Aquene felt an intense kinship for her.

  She could not deny how she felt, even though she knew she had to. In less than a full day, she felt Molly’s touch on her heart as if they had known each other for a lifetime. It was as strong as her connection to Alumpum. No, that was not right. She felt closer to Molly than to Alumpum, and she knew why. It was the kind of closeness that came between two who shared a lifetime together.

  She left behind the thoughts of lifelong partnership and gazed into Molly’s face. Though she did not feel joy, she smiled. “It is not for you to be sorry.”

  “But I am.” Molly’s arms tightened around Aquene. “My heart broke when you saw what this place had become. It’s so beautiful here, and it all changes in ways that are shattering to see.”

  Freeing herself, Aquene pushed to her feet and shook out the grass from her hair. Then she extended a hand to Molly, who took it without hesitation. The connection they had been sharing all along was still there, although no sparks sent them into another place this time.

  “Did you send my people away?”

  “Well, no, but—”

  “Our actions belong to each of us and no one else. You did not do this to my people, and I do not put the fault onto your shoulders.”

  “It’s just that it’s so wrong and many of us feel bad.”

  “And that is good, for it means that we can work together to change what is wrong.”

  Molly looked sad. “So many years have passed, and it’s never been made right.”

  “Have others tried?”

  This time she nodded. “Yes, but the damage was too great.”

  “Change takes time. Healing takes time. What has taken many years to destroy will take many years to rebuild.”

  Molly reached out a hand and touched her cheek. “You amaze me. If I’d seen what you did, I would have flipped out. You see the good in everything.”

  Aquene did not understand. Again. “I do not know flipped out.”

  Molly laughed. “It means I would have been very, very angry.”

  That she understood, and at first, anger had tried to cloud her vision. Thanks to many good teachers, she had kept it at bay. “It makes me sad, but it gives me purpose. We all do what we can to make this earth better. I will try to do what I can.”

  “You are the most amazing woman I’ve ever met.”

  Aquene thought the same thing about Molly.

  * * *

  Matthew was sitting tall in the saddle, feeling the strength of his righteousness fill him with pride. Everything this morning seemed and felt divine. Now that God had shown him the direction to follow, he was riding with purpose.

  Something flickered to the right, catching his attention. He turned his head to see what it was. At first he thought his eyes were playing tricks on him. Pulling up on the reins, he brought his horse to a stop. Something about the woman standing in the tall grass felt familiar, although he could not quite determine what it was. She was pitifully thin, as though she was starving, and dirty to the point of pure filth. Her dress hung in tatters, and from beneath her bonnet that was as grimy as the rest of her clothing, her hair lay limp on her shoulders. Even from this distance he could swear her putrid stench was thick on the air.

  Yet again, as he sat aloft and looked at her, something about her made him continue to stare. Then it struck him why. This woman was the exact image of the first witch he sentenced to death. In his hometown, he had overheard her and three friends speaking of their meetings with the devil. He had used her own words to convict her. Unlike most of his cases, she had not been hanged. Rather, she had been imprisoned, and there she had died. Though he would have been much happier had he been given the opportunity to hang her or, as he later determined to be more effective, burn her, the fact that she had died demonstrated that God had approved of his righteous accusations against her.

  Except right at this moment he wondered why that same woman was standing out here. He wanted to believe she was someone who simply looked like the witch. He could not convince himself of that. His heart told him this was her, despite the improbability of that being the case.

  It was impossible for her to be here. The thought almost made him laugh out loud. It was about as impossible for her to be standing in this field as himself. Dead men do not crawl out of their caskets. Yet here he was, in the living and breathing flesh. Impossibility had nothing to do with anything.

  As he had done with each witch he sentenced to death, he had seen her lifeless body and had witnessed her burial in the pit behind the prison. She had been destroyed in that prison, utterly and completely. That he believed he could see her now was a trick of his mind brought on by the quest to stop yet another witch. Most likely, the one he sought now was casting another of her spells, to which he was immune. There was no end to the tricks they would employ in their struggle to stop him. They all failed.

  He started to turn away, intent on continuing his tracking of the witch while ignoring the harmless apparition that appeared to him now, and then stopped. In his town, the custom of ringing bells and lighting candles protected them from returning spirits. Around his grave, his brothers had brought candles and, once lit, rang bells to protect him, just as he would have done for them had they gone before him.

  As his mind turned back to the day they had carried her shriveled body from the dark, dank corridors below the prison-keeper’s quarters, he remembered every little detail. His memory was as clear as if her death had occurred yesterday. There had been no mourners, no bells, and no candles. She had been poor and wicked, and no one had seen fit to waste time or effort on her burial. It had been a miscalculation, he realized in this moment, for in doing nothing, he had failed to banish the witch, and now, all these years later, she had returned to show him how foolishly arrogant he had been at the time.

  Well, not again. He had been new to his profession at the time of her death and perhaps not always as thorough as he should have been. Because he had not put basic protections in place, she had taken advantage of his inexperience. In the intervening years, he had learned much and improved his hunting skills to the point of becoming an expert with no equal anywhere in the world. Slipping from the back of his horse, Matthew unhooked the rope from his saddle and began to walk toward the woman. It would be easier to simply ride away and continue his current task. But he was never one to choose uncomplicated. He found no fun or satisfaction in easy.

&
nbsp; He expected her to cringe as she had done all those years ago. She, like all others, was afraid of the power he wielded, as well they should be. Unlike the last time they were face-to-face, she did not cower or lower her gaze. Her back straightened, her stringy dark hair hanging on either side of her pale face like streaks of grease. Her dark eyes were huge in her face, but they showed no fear. This was not quite like the woman he had faced all those years ago. When she smiled, her rotted teeth gave him chills. “We all await ye, Witch-Finder. We have been waiting for ye a long, long time.”

  “Silence, witch!” His roar was loud in the still morning air. He was surprised when she remained erect and smiling, though he did not allow it to show. His voice normally put even the toughest onto their knees.

  “Nay. I will be silent no more. Ye have made a blunder of this world, and judgment of ye crimes awaits.”

  Her display of bravado did not sway him. He laughed as he made a show of the rope, one end tied in a noose. “It is you who have blundered. And it is I who will send you back to hell.”

  Her dark eyes seemed to sparkle in the sunlight. “A long time I have waited, and this day ’tis judgment day. Be wary, Witch-Finder. We come for ye. We all come for ye.”

  No more, he thought silently, and began to run. As he did, she disappeared.

  Chapter Twenty-three

  It was the absolute last thing that should be happening, yet there it was. Molly was falling hard for the woman who was staring into her eyes. It didn’t make sense, given they’d known each other for, what? Twenty-four hours…maybe? People didn’t fall in love after a single day. She’d dated women for months and never felt a flicker of anything remotely similar to love. Attraction and like, sure, but love, not even close. To feel this intense rush of emotion was, well, ridiculous, and that wasn’t her. She didn’t do ridiculous.