Walking Through Shadows

by Sheri Lewis Wohl

  With a hard yank he felt into his shoulders, he tightened the noose around the witch’s neck. She stumbled on her feet, which helped to tighten it even more. Usually by the time he got them to the fire, all the fight had been knocked out of them. Not true with this one. Though she stumbled, she righted herself immediately and used her hands to claw at the rope cutting off her breath. She could try all she wanted. It would do her no good. His rope always did its job.

  He did not look back at the native. She was of no importance and certainly no threat to him. The shot might not have killed her right away. It would most assuredly stop her. That was all he needed. Once the blood began to flow, it was only a matter of time before her life likewise drifted away. He would like to watch for the sheer amusement. He could not, for he had to deal with the one trying to get the rope from around her throat. She was his true prey in any event.

  His swift ability to tie off the rope and get to her side came from years and years of practice. She never had a chance. In a matter of seconds, he had her hands behind her back and secured with a leather thong. Touching her skin without gloves to protect his own hands made his stomach lurch. It was yet another sign that she was the one. No mortal woman would fill him with such revulsion at the mere touch of flesh against flesh. He pulled the leather tight, and her squeal of pain was satisfying.

  “You feel the agony of your victims, Witch?”

  “Fuck you.”

  He came around in front of her and slapped her cheek with his large hand open. It left a beautiful red image of his palm and fingers on her pale flesh. He liked that. “I do not tolerate coarse language.”

  “I’ll say it again then. Fuck you.”

  And again he slapped her, satisfied to see tears form in her eyes. They did not spill down her cheeks. She was a strong one, and excitement raced through him. The strong, defiant ones were always the most satisfying to break. “You are finished, witch, so do not waste your last words on vulgarity.”

  She spat on him. He used the cloth of his coat sleeve to wipe it away. He kept his eyes on hers the whole time. He would not give her the satisfaction of believing it had disturbed him. Once this was all done, he would be certain to wash away any trace of her on his skin.

  He had her hands tied and the noose around her neck. Her little native friend was on the ground bleeding to death and the man in the cabin undoubtedly dead. No need to hurry, for there was nothing, no one, for him to worry about. He moved away from her and to the end of the rope he had tied around the tree. He loosened it enough that he could pull the noose tighter and lift her from her the ground. Only enough that she could still stand on her toes. He did not want her to die. Not quite yet for he wanted her to see and understand what came next.

  She was balanced on her toes when he walked back to where he stood in front of her. It felt good, and every time he did this, righteous glory filled him. “Just a little longer, wicked one. You need not worry about the rope, for it will be the flames that take you home.”

  He was shocked when she smiled at him. “Oh, I’m not worried, but I think you better be.” Her gaze went over his shoulder, and he spun, thinking that the native woman had managed to rise to her feet. Like she was going to be a threat even if she did. His shot had hit her, and if she had any life left in her, it would be thin and powerless. Besides, she was a tiny woman, and he could smash her beneath his boot like a bug. That he would be happy to do.

  “Yes,” she said softly to his back, her voice hoarse from the noose that was tight against her throat. “I’m the witch you’ve been searching for, but it isn’t me the flames will take home. Hell’s coming for you.”

  It was not the native woman, for she still lay where she had fallen. His gaze moved from the body on the ground, and he stared. For the first time ever, he felt fear.

  Chapter Thirty-three

  Yes, her legs were screaming as she balanced on her toes to keep the noose from cutting off all the air to her lungs. It took supreme effort to keep steady. Her throat burned from the noose that seemed to grow tighter by the second. Still she used every ounce of core strength she possessed to keep still and upright. In her mind she was thanking her friend Heidi for insisting on core training. Never imagined she’d end up needing it like this. Her toes screamed as she balanced on them. Still, she was willing to go for it because she was not going to give that bastard the satisfaction of killing her. All she had to do was give karma a minute or two.

  That was the essence of the spell she’d cast earlier, and by God, it had worked.

  Even though a casual observer might think it was her end, they couldn’t see the whole picture like she could. It almost made her smile. Her family had always told her that one day she would come into her true power, and when that day came she would know. Well, guess what, Mom? The day had come, and damn straight, she knew it. Granted, it was a couple hundred years in the past, but damned if it didn’t happen just as they told her it would. It was quite the feeling, and the power of it filled her all the way to her fingertips.

  Unfortunately, her new-found skill didn’t extend to anything physical, like getting free of the leather thong that was cutting off the circulation in her wrists or blowing off the noose around her neck. Now, that would be an incredible power to have at the moment, because without it, she was stuck with pretending she was a ballerina using toe shoes. Dancing never was her thing, and the way her toes screamed in pain, not something she would ever be inclined to pursue.

  On the other hand, she had an unobscured view of what her magic had achieved, and it was awesome. The look on the guy’s face was worth a million bucks. Aquene and Hannah, as well as the visions that had come to her, all attested to the evil at his core. Even with those testaments, the cruelty she saw now was so much worse than she’d imagined. This guy was a real shit, and he had what was coming to him. If this was the last thing she ever saw, at least it was something magnificent.

  At the touch of hands on her wrists, she jumped and nearly lost her ballerina footing. The noose tightened a bit, and panic shot through her until she heard Winnie’s quiet voice at her back. “Hold on a sec.”

  It seemed more like an hour, when in fact it was maybe fifteen seconds before her hands were free. Immediately, she raised them to the noose around her neck. It was hard to get purchase as her fingers had gone numb and now felt as though thousands of needles were shooting through them. Working through the pain, she managed to dig at the rope with impressive energy.

  “Hang on,” Winnie told her, though it was hard to hear through her momentary panicked response. She had to free herself. Get as far away from the rope as possible. “Molly! Stop.”

  She did, as soon as she realized what Winnie was trying to do. Her arms were around her waist, and her beautiful, loving friend was lifting her from her feet. It was enough to put slack in the rope, and it gave her exactly what she needed to loosen the noose and slip it from her neck. The relief was immediate and immense. Winnie then dropped her back to her feet. The whole thing took maybe a minute, probably less, and during the entire time, the man paid them no attention as he was still staring into the woods beyond the cabin. Molly knew why.

  “Do you see them?” she asked in a hushed voice.

  “See who? Aquene? Come on. You need to help her. She’s hurt. And I need to get to Angus.”

  “He shot Aquene. I know. But no, I don’t mean her. I mean do you see them?”

  Winnie was reaching down to pick up what looked like a kettle. Molly didn’t understand. Who cared about a damned kettle at the moment? They needed to stop this guy. Nobody needed water. “They’ve come to help,” she tried to explain. “It’s amazing. There’s so many of them.”

  Winnie stood holding the kettle in both hands. Her eyes swept over the clearing. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I don’t see anyone else.”

  “You really don’t?” Molly was shocked. They were so solid. So alive. So pissed off.

  “No. I’ve got to help Angus. You take dow
n butthead and help Aquene.”

  “Go away!”

  Both of them stared at the man who was backing toward them.

  “You!” He had spun and was now glaring at them, his eyes black with fury. His whole body trembled visibly.

  Molly couldn’t help it. She smiled. “I told you I wasn’t here alone.” By all rights, she should be afraid of the gun he held pointed toward her, and if it wasn’t shaking, she might have been. Also, if it hadn’t been for the mass of figures closing in behind him, she might have been. This was a new spin on the I’ve-got-your-back concept. She liked it. Oh yeah, she liked it a lot.

  His eyes burned as he stared at her. He fired a shot, and she felt the whoosh of air as Winnie went down behind her. If she hadn’t seen the shot go wide, she’d have turned to check on her friend. She was pretty confident it was fear that had Winnie dropping to the ground.

  “Call them off or I’ll kill you.” The gun was still shaking in his hand.

  She shrugged. “You were going to kill me anyway, so no, I won’t call them off.”

  “Who?” Winnie had risen back to her feet.

  “Them!” He waved his arms. “Every damned witch I ever destroyed. They’re all here. All of them.”

  “This dude is really losing it, isn’t he? He’s definitely a brick short.” Winnie was shaking her head and didn’t seem intimated by the shaking gun either.

  He didn’t give Molly a chance to answer. He did it for her. “I am Matthew Hopkins, Witch-Finder, and you are both going to die. No one defeats me. No one humiliates me.”

  Molly gave him credit for guts. He ran at her then, the gun still pointed in her direction. She intended to meet him head-on, but Winnie had a different idea.

  “Oh, for heaven’s sake. I don’t have time for this shit.” He dropped like a hot rock when the cast-iron kettle Winnie swung smacked him in the head with a satisfying thud.

  * * *

  “I don’t know what’s going on here, but I don’t have time for this arrogant bastard.” Winnie let the kettle drop, though she made sure not to let it spill too much water. No way in bloody hell she was going back to the river to fill it again.

  “Nice,” Molly said at the same time she kicked the gun away from his hand. Winnie was glad Molly wasn’t foolish. The kettle might have knocked him silly but no sense taking chances by leaving the gun near enough for him to grab. This one was sneaky enough to play possum.

  The man who called himself Matthew Hopkins was facedown on the ground and groaning. Didn’t look like such a tough guy right now. “Take that, you piece of garbage.” That’s what happened when someone got between her and her man. She didn’t need magic or a weapon. She was a chef, after all, and her best weapon was something from the kitchen. Worked in the twenty-first century. Worked in this one too.

  Molly was still smiling as she looked toward the trees again. Her expression was filled with what? Gratitude? Winnie blinked and then squinted. Still a big fat nothing.

  “What are you looking at?”

  “You really don’t see them?”

  Winnie didn’t see anything except Aquene and the guy she’d hit with the kettle. “I don’t see anyone except the four of us, a noose, and a whole lotta trees. That’s plenty in my book.”

  “Well, let’s just say I called in a few reinforcements.”

  “As in?” The state patrol? The RCMP? Who? She was relatively certain that kind of reinforcement was at least a hundred years in the future. All they had was each other, because the other two were both in bad shape.

  “As in every person this piece of shit ever destroyed, and they all showed up for the party. No RSVP required.”

  Ah, now she got it. Molly had finally whipped up the magic they all knew she had inside her, and it worked. Good deal. “You worked up a little mojo to shut this guy down.”

  “I did indeed.”

  “Nice work. I always knew you had it in you to kick some serious ass.” Now, Winnie figured at this point, Molly could take care of whatever needed to happen with the guy. She had something far more important to take care of. “I’ve got to get to Angus.”

  Molly put a restraining hand on her arm. “Give me a second. I need your help.”

  “Angus…” She shook off Molly’s hand. She’d wasted too much time already.

  “Please. I need you both.”

  There was a note in Molly’s voice that made her pause. It was only then that she noticed Aquene had joined them, and she was bloody and unsteady on her feet. It was pretty impressive that she was actually upright. She had an iron will, that was pretty clear. Winnie also realized she was going to need the precious water for more than just Angus.

  As much as she wanted to race in and check on him, the plea from Molly was compelling enough that she stayed with a single caveat. She held up her index finger. “One minute, and then I’m in with my man. That’s it. One minute.”

  “It’s all I need.” This was a new Molly, with something powerful and firm in her voice and her eyes filled with determination. “We’re sending Mr. Witch-Finder to the hades that’s been waiting a long time for him.”

  Winnie wasn’t quite sure how she could help with that one. Another smack in the head with her kettle? When Molly held out her hand, she figured she might as well play this out. She took her hand. “I need you to let go of that for just a minute.”

  Winnie still had the kettle in her other hand, and she held on tight. She had fought too hard to get the water here. “I don’t know…”

  “Please. It will only take a little while. Set it down and take Aquene’s hand. Please,”

  It seemed as though a little voice whispered in her ear. Trust her. No-brainer. She trusted Molly with her life. Carefully she set the precious kettle on the ground and took Aquene’s hand. The three of them formed a circle around the fallen man with the goose egg on his forehead. Pretty good whack with her kettle, if she did say so. As soon as the three of them held hands and the circle was complete, she felt a rush through her entire body.

  Not just a rush, but suddenly everything changed and they weren’t alone anymore. Now she understood what Molly had been asking her because now she could see. Forming an outer circle around Molly, Aquene, and her were hundreds of mostly women. One of the few men in the crowd was a man dressed in a priest’s collar. Holy crap, she thought. Holy. Crap.

  As they continued to hold hands, Molly started to speak. “By and by all things shall pass, season unto season, year unto year. We have come again, hidden children of time, to harness the mystery of the magic circle that is placed between the worlds of the living and of the gods. We seek justice for those betrayed and those unfairly taken. We seek justice to right the sins of the man at our feet and for the lives he stole. For this, Matthew Hopkins, you shall descend into the Realm of Shadows, where you shall remain for all eternity.”

  “What the…?” It was like something out of a bad horror movie, and just like in a horror movie, it all seemed to be happening in slow motion. The ground beneath his body opened, revealing what appeared to be a roaring fire. He tumbled in, and as quickly as the hole appeared, it was gone. Gave the devil’s flames a whole new meaning.

  It took her only a second after the chasm closed for her to let go of Molly and Aquene. Molly had gotten her minute. Winnie wasn’t waiting any longer. Since the moment she’d heard the scream earlier, all she could think about was getting to Angus. If something happened to him, she wasn’t sure she could go on. She would have to drop down beside him and die in that stupid cabin.

  She reached down, grabbed the kettle, and raced into the cabin. What she saw as she charged through the door made her heart stop and a scream pour from her lips.

  Chapter Thirty-four

  The moment Aquene took Molly’s hand, she knew they had the power to end this. It was as the Great Spirit had shown her what now seemed very long ago. The pain in her side was strong, yet she found the courage to find her feet and join with Molly and Winnie. She was not wrong.

>   The man who had brought such madness and misery to the earth was gone quickly, and it was as if he had never walked the land. The spirits Molly had called upon to join them faded away as well. What had taken so long to come together was over in mere moments. When Winnie raced to the cabin, Aquene’s knees gave way, and once more she sank to the ground. Her body ached and discomfort laced her side as hot as a fire on a winter snow-filled night.

  Molly crouched next to her. “Let me see.” Her touch was tender, though it still sent pain coursing down her side. The man’s weapon had been a harbinger of agony. She thought of the owl’s hoot and wondered now if it had been meant for her. Was death coming to greet her?

  “It’s not bad. He was apparently a poor shot, because the bullet left a deep groove in your side but didn’t pierce anything. That’s good. Come on.” Molly stood and helped Aquene to her feet. “We need to get you inside and cleaned up. I’m confident it will heal well before you know it.”

  “There is much pain.”

  “Not surprised. It gouged your side pretty good. We can fix you up, and as long as it doesn’t get infected, you’ll be ready to go in no time.”

  That was a good thought, as Aquene also wanted to believe she was not mortally wounded. The pain was strong, but it did not steal her breath any longer and she realized the bleeding had stopped. She glanced down at the ground where the man had been. It was not her the owl came for. “We must help the others.” She had seen the desperation in Winnie’s eyes and instinctively understood her man was in danger. She did not know why, only that they must help.

  They had sent the evil one to the beyond that he deserved, but her work was not yet complete. Inside the cabin, it became even clearer that she must use the gifts bestowed upon her to assist these warriors in returning home.