by E. M. Moore
“Holy hell,” Liam said.
When I opened my eyes, I agreed with his sentiment. I was burning purple white. Purple as bright as could be closer to my skin, but as it moved away, it turned into white streaks. I focused on the feelings and spread them far and wide. The demon fed off hate. I understood that now. I’d always understood it, but he’d made it apparent right at this moment.
The demon still spoke, but I was drowning it out. He called out to those who held so much hate inside them. He called out, asking for them to join him. He said there was still so much to do here That it wouldn’t stop at church fires and madness. He said the people of Salem deserved it. That they’d persecuted those like us all those years ago and now they made a mockery of what witches really were.
I didn’t think anyone believed in that bullshit, but it was easier for a negative person to fall down the rabbit hole than someone who thrived on good when someone spewed hate.
Jax walked onto the sidewalk. The crowd parted for him. Some backed away as if he was a red-hot poker they didn’t want to get burned with. Others moved as if to gawk, as if they were drawn to his hate.
“You haven’t won,” Jax said.
Travis moved in front of me. Jax looked up at him, his head cocking to the side as he took him in.
“How can you live with yourself?” Jax/not Jax said. He looked like Jax and spoke like Jax, but his voice was amplified by darkness, as if hatred itself lived inside his words.
“Come back to us, Jax,” Travis said.
I touched him. I saw the tension in his muscles and the curling of his fingers. He was at war with himself. He fought against the negative inside him, and if I could give him any sort of boost, I would.
“You should talk,” Randy spat at Jax. His chest heaved. He stood there like a baby Hulk, getting ready to pounce. “Do you see what you’ve done?”
“Do you see what you’ve done?”
“J-jax?” a female voice said.
My heart fell into my stomach so fast I thought I’d almost stopped remembering how to breathe.
I’d forgotten about Jennie. I’d lost track of her in the chaos.
She moved to Travis’s side.
Jax shook his head. For a moment, emotion flickered on his face that was something other than hate, but in the next instant, his eyes glazed over into the onyx black.
Jennie screamed in frustration. She reached up, tearing at her hair. “No!”
“They did this to us,” Jax said. “Both of us.”
She threw her hands to her side and screamed, her face twisting in hatred.
Travis reached out to touch her, but I lunged forward, grabbing his arm before he could. In my head, she was a pulsing red warning sign. Touch, and you wish you hadn’t.
“Come here, Jenn,” Jax said.
She stalked toward him. Travis fought against me, but Liam and Gabe came to help, grabbing onto him. He wriggled out of our grasp, pushing Liam to the ground, and walked forward. “Jennie, don’t!”
She turned on him, her eyes ablaze. “Why would I listen to you, brother? Jax is right. Do you see what you’ve done? Have you seen all the hurt you caused? The death?”
He shook his head. “Death?”
“Of me,” she sneered. “Me. I’m not the same. I haven’t been since you took my Natural magic from me. When you took my magic, you took the real me.”
She walked back, getting dangerously close to Jax. “Stay away from him,” Travis warned.
“He was the only one who ever got me,” Jennie said.
“It’s not her,” I said, walking up to Travis. The world had stopped. Everyone stopped and stared at the spectacle going on ahead of us. It was pure light versus dark scenario. Each trying to gather one more team member for their side and Jennie was caught in the crossfire. I understood her hatred, her pain, I really did. It was festering inside her still, even after all these months. Even after she’d recouped some of her powers by practicing Wicca.
Grudges rotted inside our bodies and fed off us like maggots to our soul. Forgiveness, in theory, was easy. But often, it was the most difficult step forward to take.
“It is,” Travis said.
He pushed away from me and lunged for her again. His fingers slipped over her arm, but at the same time, Jax reached out and they both disappeared right before our eyes. One second, they were standing there like shadow deacons for hate, and the next, they were gone.
An instant rush of peacefulness descended over everyone. It was easy to feel relieved when you didn’t have hatred stomping at your doorstep. But in the next moment, it was hard to imagine feeling relieved when Jax had just taken Jennie.
Travis was on his knees, his head in his hands right where they’d stood. His back was hunched over. All around us, witches started apologizing to one another. They started making plans for how to make this right. Some of them openly gawked at me again as I moved for Travis. Randy came up too. He put his hand on Travis’s shoulder and squeezed. “I’m sorry, man. I didn’t mean any of that stuff I said.”
But had he? Everything I’d felt inside me when Jax was around were all fleeting thoughts I had before. Just because I didn’t act on them or let them be anything more than just a passing thought didn’t mean I really didn’t feel that way, did it?
I looked around. Liam stood and spoke with the superiors. Gabe had his hand on Dean Reid’s sister’s shoulder, calming her down since she’d practically fainted into him. I didn’t have any more thoughts about killing her, which was a good thing. Luckily. I’d never had murderous tendencies unless we were talking about people who threatened my guys.
“He took her,” Travis said. His muscles bulged as he unfolded into a standing position. His fists were clenched, and he turned, his eyes filled with anger. They were laced in panic, but the other emotion was far greater than that one. “He took Jennie.”
I walked forward and grabbed his hands. “Hey, look at me.”
I squeezed his hands again when he didn’t listen at first. Finally, his alluring green eyes met mine.
“We’re going to get her back,” I said. And I meant every word. We could save Jennie. Jax, I still didn’t know about. He’d looked promising for a split second. Maybe he had the barest of amounts of goodness left in him, but I wasn’t sure it was enough to pull him back from how far he’d slipped.
After that, witch after witch approached us, asking what they could do. I couldn’t number how many times I’d given out Granny’s all-seeing-eye bracelet spell. I told them I’d open my shop as soon as possible. I’d give them everything they needed for free as long as they’d make the bracelets and hand them out. I wasn’t sure why I hadn’t thought of it before. I had the best stockpile and the knowledge to do this. But I didn’t have the time. Now I had volunteers. Volunteers who wanted to do nothing more than to help fight against the evil they’d just witnessed. It was worse than that too. They didn’t just see it with their eyes, they felt it into their very marrow.
Pure evil at its worst.
Granny was right. It was all our problems. And to conquer this, it would take all of us.
Travis stood at the edge of everyone, lost in himself. It reminded me of when I first came here. It had been so hard to breakthrough his walls, and it looked like that was happening again. He stood their stone-faced, body stiff yet alert. He held the aura of ‘Don’t even think about fucking talking to me right now’ which was odd considering how we’d started this trip into the Equinox. He’d stood in front of everyone like the leader he was. But now, it was as if he wanted nothing to do with it.
This wasn’t Travis.
After the talk of the demon started to die down, I whispered, “Wake”. I hoped it would work on everyone, not just the non-witches. Silently, I thought to myself, “Wake up, Travis. Snap out of it.” Sometimes it was worse being caught up in your own head. It could be a dark place when you didn’t let anyone else in there with you.
16
We were back to tiptoeing around T
ravis again. Not only that, but we were quiet. Like me, I guessed that we were all dealing with the thoughts that had popped into our heads. I could still feel the wish in my heart of seeing the breath leave Dean’s sister. It made me sick to my stomach to think about it. I simultaneously wanted to talk to someone about it and keep it quiet. Would they still love me if they knew that about me? If they knew I had such a black place.
The superiors were quiet. Walter barely made conversation for the rest of the day and they kept to themselves. It didn’t bother me. In fact, I liked it better. I was glad to have them around for more protection, but the fact that they were staying out of our hair was a good thing.
“We can do a locator spell,” Liam said.
Travis shook his head. “I think he’s gotten too powerful for that. There’s no way we’ll find her.”
“But Norah’s strong,” Gabe said. We were all grasping at straws. Again.
“I touched her,” Travis said. “I felt how cold she was, how angry. I think she might even block her being found. I knew she shouldn’t have come. I shouldn’t have called her.”
I wasn’t going to let him fall even further down the hole. “You did what you thought was right. Jennie’s strong. Anyone can see that. There’s still hope, Travis.” I looked around at all of them, remembering the feeling of pure love bursting from me. It felt like the only way to push back against the demon. It certainly drowned out his voice, and voices were one of the powerful tools we had. “Speaking of,” I ventured. “I wasn’t the only one who felt—”
“Like you wanted to murder someone?” Randy said. He glanced at Travis and a slight shiver racked his body.
“That,” I said, “but something more too. Didn’t you feel when he started to lose power?”
Gabe looked up. His blue eyes weren’t as troubled as the others. “I felt your warmth.”
“It was more than that,” Liam said. “It was like her love personified. I think you were able to use your Spirit element to calm everyone down.”
“I felt it,” Travis said. “I think we probably felt it more than most of the people there. Or, at least we were more affected by it.”
“Due to our personal relationships with her,” Liam mused.
Travis nodded. “We just need to harness that when we go up against that demon again.”
“While still being careful,” Randy said. “Walter said we can’t use too much or…”
He stopped midsentence. We all knew the implication that was there. If we used too much magic, it would not be good for us. Implosion. Death.
But this, this was where my determination sprung to action. That wasn’t going to happen to us. We could do this. “We’ll do what needs to be done,” I said, looking around at each of them. “We’re the Order in Salem, so we’ll handle the demon problem and send him back to hell.”
They all nodded right along with me.
“There’s still one problem,” Liam said. “We don’t know how to find them.”
Gabe scratched his chin. “We’ll have to draw them out.” We turned toward him, and he sat a little straighter. “Think about it, all the witches together like that made him come out. He wasn’t hiding behind the fires and the psychos anymore. He came out to talk to them, to get them to his side just as we were trying to get them to go against him. If we do something similar, we can draw him out. Then, we’ll try the spell.”
“We know the Akashic cell won’t work on him. It hadn’t even worked on Dupre.”
I remembered how it disintegrated in front of us and how shocked the coven had been. Since I was new to the whole thing, I wasn’t aware that the cell was their bread and butter move to lock people away until they could do the Akasha ceremony.
“We’ll figure something out,” Liam said. “If we get other witches to help us, we might just be able to come together to defeat him. I felt so…powerful out there with everyone.”
I glanced at Travis. “You were amazing, you know that?”
He didn’t even hear me at first.
Randy kicked the chair. “Dude, Norah’s talking to you.”
He shook his head, trying to force himself out of his own head again. “What?”
“At the park, they all listened to you. I said that you did amazing.”
He rolled his eyes. “Yeah, I’m a regular winner, aren’t I?”
“I told you already,” I said, sighing. “She doesn’t really feel that way.”
His gaze narrowed. “She does even if only a little, and for me, that’s just a bit too much. I’d rather my sister not hate me at all.”
I clenched down on my jaw. Now was not the time for pity parties. “You can’t undo what’s already done. You can only make it better from this point forward.”
He stared at me for what seemed like a full minute without commenting, then looked away. His green eyes were dark and flat. It was hard to tell where his emotions were at.
“So, we agree?” Liam asked. “We’ll draw him out. We’ll cast the demon out and save Jennie.”
Walter walked out of one of their rooms. He shuffled out to us, his face pinched in concern. “This is too much. We’ve never dealt with anything like this before, and now that I’ve seen all the power you hold…” he trailed off, just shaking his head.
“We talked about that already,” I said. “We’re going to do what needs to be done. Don’t worry about us, we’ll be fine. There will be no imploding here.”
Randy nodded first. He’d be the first to follow me into a bad situation that could only get worse. Not because he cared about me most, but because he was a risk taker. I’d already known that. Gabe was next, giving me a small half smile that melted my heart. Liam, too, eventually nodded. He’d always be on board after he thought things through in his own head. But still, it was Travis who was late to the party.
“Just help us do what we need to do,” I said, looking away from Travis to Walter.
He nodded once. Though his face still said he’d worry about us, I was hoping he wouldn’t bring it up again. We didn’t need to focus on negative thoughts right now. The demon would latch onto those with its claws and hold on, drawing out every little inch of bad thoughts with it.
“We’ll invite all the witches in Salem together again when we’re ready,” Walter said.
I looked at Travis, hoping he would speak up, but his head was down. I wasn’t even sure he was listening anymore. “When we give them a signal,” Liam said. “We’ll meet…”
“In the woods…next to headquarters?”
“It would be easier,” Gabe spoke up, “If we go somewhere where I would have access to water in case I need to draw on my element.”
“Gabe has a point,” Walter said. “We should go somewhere like Norah suggests, somewhere with power, but also have access to all the elements that you guys can use in case we need to fight.”
“By the ocean then,” Randy said. “Gabe can use the ocean. I can find ground anywhere. Liam can draw on fire, and Travis is good to go. There’s always wind around us.”
“The wharf then,” Travis said, finally speaking up. “We’ll meet by the wharf when the time comes.”
“Now we’ll just have to hope the demon comes out,” Liam said, the gears in his head already turning.
“He’ll come,” Travis said. “Jax never turned down a fight.”
I watched his silhouette, but I didn’t get the chance to study him for long. He turned to me. “I heard you tell people they could come by your shop, right?”
I stood after him. The rest of our coven stood too. Walter watched the rest of us stand and told us he’d wait back here with his coven to contact some other Orders for backup if we needed it.
We stepped outside, and Gabe chuckled to himself. “I sure hope we get our flat back when all this is over. My idea of a good time is not having five more roommates.”
“You forgot way older roommates,” I said. “They’re kind of duds, aren’t they?”
Liam snickered. “It’s just like
you guys to be thinking about that. I’m sure Walter and his coven have no intention of staying on with us. I doubt they like staying with us either.”
“I don’t know,” Gabe joked. “I think I’ve seen Walter checking out Norah’s ass.”
Randy held back a smile, and even Travis’s lips turned up. I knew he had to be feeling this more than the rest of us, but I also hoped he’d come out the other side okay.
We all jumped into the Jeep and drove downtown. For an evening, there weren’t a lot of people walking around. That was odd for one of the main shopping areas in town, especially right where the shop was. It was hardly ever deserted.
I unlocked the shop and then pulled the sign out of the window that said, ‘Temporary Hiatus’. I hadn’t known what else to call it when I knew I had to lie low from the shop a little while. I couldn’t very well say, ‘Doing the Enforcer thing. Peace out.’ Temporary hiatus seemed to sum it up nicely.
I went through and turned on all the lights. Like usual, I took a deep breath while standing in the middle of the floor, taking it all in. Liam squeezed my shoulder on the way through. This was our baby. We’d lived and breathed it while getting it off the ground. The others helped here and there, taking over watching the counter if I needed or just coming into visit during breaks from school, or in Randy’s case, work.
Travis came up behind me. His normal cinnamon scent wafting over me in a soft caress. Even now, I could tell that he was lighter than he had been since the park. He slid his arms over my hips and gripped me there. “I’m sorry.”
“For?”
“I’m trying not to retreat again,” he whispered.
I twisted in his arms to face him. I grabbed his shirt at his sides and pulled him close. “When you’re falling away, just keep your eyes here,” I said.
He locked gazes with me, his green eyes rolling in turmoil but at least he was seeing me now. “I will.”