by Rachael Wade
The three of us sat on the dusty bunker floor surrounded by our low-lit lanterns. I felt calmer knowing that Ava was snuggled safely behind the nearby boxes. Her soft breathing whispered to me from just around the corner, putting me even more at ease.
I tucked my legs underneath me and was beginning to feel that I could rest easy for a while when Anastasia thrust her hand forward to grab me. I could feel her thumping pulse beat through her palm, and saw a matching flicker of alarm in her eyes. They focused distantly over Gavin’s shoulder.
“What is it?” I asked, flinching as her fingers pinched my skin.
“It’s happening.”
Gavin bristled, then froze on the spot. “What’s happening?”
“I don’t know how…there’s no crescent moon.”
“Anastasia,” I pressed, placing my hand over hers. “Tell us what’s happening.”
“Samira. Your friends.” She finally blinked, turning to me with a dazed look. “They’re here.”
Red-hot adrenaline zipped up my arms and straight to my head, the blood pounding deafeningly in my neck and chest. Gavin was on his feet, and then so was I, turning for Ava to lift her from her slumber. “You’re sure,” I said to Anastasia.
“Positive.” She nodded quickly, her expression shifting between joy and sadness, as if it couldn’t settle on an emotion.
“Well, let’s move,” Gavin said, a blinding smile spreading across his lips. “Come on!”
Hastily concealed in our black cloaks, we ran off into the night. Ava clung tightly to me and Anastasia kept a protective arm around us as we headed straight for the place I’d never thought I’d visit again.
The portal entry.
***
Our trip down into the village’s valley and up the hill to the castle had never felt longer than it did right then. I didn’t have time to worry about the villagers who’d attacked us earlier, if they’d see us or what they’d do if they did, because all my brain could process was what we were running toward and what it would mean for my life and Gavin’s. For Ava’s, and for the Amaranthians we’d lived with, who hadn’t been lucky enough to escape the realm before I drove that dagger into Gérard’s heart.
Passing the castle, our feet pounded the grass. The dirt kicked up around us as we hightailed it over the verdant green grounds. Ava was wide awake and giggling, amused by our joyful marathon and the bouncy ride she was receiving in my arms. She laughed harder, hearing how out of breath I was from the sprint. I plucked her nose playfully and kept chugging on.
We darted through the space that once harbored the mind-bending English maze and reached the old portal door, which was now covered with overgrown weeds and long, wild green and brown grasses. We all slowed to a halt, our panting loud in the cool night air. I let Ava slowly slide down my body, planting her feet firmly on the ground, and then I doubled over, bracing my hands on my knees.
Gavin did the same, wiping his sweaty brow and face with his shirt. Once he managed to gain control of his breath, he straightened and took Ava’s hand. “I guess this is it,” he said, locking eyes with me. The deep brown of his irises swirled and melted like luscious chocolate, overflowing with intensity. “You ready for this, Cam?”
“No,” I answered honestly, my breath skipping along with my heart. I’d resigned to the reality that I’d never see my friends again long ago.
A heavy thud sounded from the other side of the portal door, at first loud and sharp, then suddenly urgent—harder and more relentless. One more loud pound caused us all to take a tentative step forward, freezing when the door cracked open. A plume of dirt billowed like a ring of smoke around the edges, as the door pushed against the strings of weeds and rebellious grass covering.
And then I saw a face. A familiar, yet different, handsome face.
“Damn, who’s been doing the landscaping around here?” Gabe said, giving the door one final shove. The portal’s low lighting illuminated his freshly-shaven face as he stepped out and went stone still, his gaze dancing over us and landing on Gavin.
“Gav…” His throat choked with emotion, his voice splintering as he said his best friend’s name.
I wanted to rush forward, wanted to collide with him, but my feet were cemented to the ground.
More voices came from behind him. First Josh—my God, he was just as sweet and good and pure as I remembered him to be—then Arianna, her full, golden waves rustling with the wind, her classic beauty stealing my breath. Next came Samira, almost unrecognizable in modern, earthly clothes—a pair of black, tight jeans and a matching long-sleeved sweatshirt, soaked, just like the rest of our friends’ clothes. Still chilling, still fierce.
Anastasia’s gaze speared her twin sister and Samira stumbled, reaching out and holding on to Josh’s shoulder for support. She couldn’t look away, just stared back at her sister with haunted, teary eyes. My mind wouldn’t allow my attention to rest on their tense exchange for long, though. I scanned the line of people emerging from the portal for Audrey, my hands clutching my chest.
And there she was.
Appearing behind Samira, her wide, beautiful eyes finding me and holding me there, rooting me to the ground. A ragged breath moved in and out of my lungs, my hands dropping to my sides. I studied her, fascinated by the way she hadn’t changed. Not one bit. With the exception of her hair being shorter than I’d ever seen it, she was a preserved, precious memory. Untouched by time, standing there, staring back at me in equal wonder.
The first tear to fall from the corner of her eye gave me the push I needed to rush forward and wrap her in my arms. That tear was so small, nearly invisible in the dim light of the night, but it was everything.
“Camille,” she cried, dropping to her knees with me, letting our weight sink us. “I never thought…”
“I know,” I sobbed, the sound of her wails causing me to cry harder. I touched her wet hair, her back, her shoulders, feeling to make sure she was real. It felt like hours passed before we both found the strength to stand. Josh and Arianna smothered me with hugs, Arianna holding my chin and looking long and hard at me, shaking her head in disbelief. Our quiet, teary-eyed exchanges were wrought with unspeakable feeling.
I spun to find Gavin and Gabe stunned, just staring at one another, their hands on each other’s shoulders, holding one another at a distance as if to convince themselves that they were real, too.
“Where’s my mom?” Gavin finally managed to ask, turning to face the group.
“She’s home, safe and sound,” Gabe said, clapping him on the back. “She would’ve come—she was dying to come, Gav—but we didn’t have anyone to watch our little munchkin.” He turned and winked at Audrey, and she beamed while my heart swelled at the news.
“Tanner,” Audrey said. “He’s hell on wheels. Two years old.”
“Mommy?” Ava’s small voice came from behind me, and I felt her tug on my shirt. “Who are these people?”
I laughed and bent down to take her hand, guiding her in front of me, into Audrey’s line of sight. “We have a little munchkin, too. Ava, meet Audrey. Mommy’s best friend in the whole world. I’ve told you lots about her, remember?”
Audrey gasped and crouched down, holding out her hand. “Ava,” she said quietly, so softly I almost couldn’t hear her. “Nice to meet you, beautiful girl.” Ava gave her a cheeky grin and stepped forward to shake her hand.
I proceeded to introduce her to the rest of our friends, noticing that the tension between Samira and Anastasia wasn’t going anywhere. They both remained silent and still, feet away from one another.
Gavin took notice, too. He cleared his throat and moved to stand between them. “Samira, we can’t thank you enough for awakening Anastasia. For coming back for us, like this. We weren’t sure what to think first, when we found her. Couldn’t believe you never told us you had a sis—” Gavin went silent for a moment. He snuck a glance at Anastasia and redirected that line of thought.
Thank God.
“Anyway, how were
you all able to travel here, with no crescent moon?”
“I have reversed Gérard’s spell entirely.” Samira shrugged smugly. “In doing so, I have written a few new rules of my own. It was the least I could do,” she said, her accent still as cold and biting as ever. “Do accept my apologies for not having told you about my sister. It was something I kept from Gérard—as you can imagine, the punishment would have been severe had he discovered the secret passage and what I’d hidden inside. Surely, you can understand my need for secrecy. Have you informed the people of our arrival yet?”
“Uh, about that…”
“There are some villagers who aren’t very happy with us right now,” I said. “A lot has happened since you’ve awakened your sister.”
“Is that so?” Her piercing blue eyes flicked to Anastasia.
“Yeah,” Gavin said, “we were just getting ready to tell everyone the news before you showed up. It seems a rebel group has stepped forward. They’ve been around since you all left the realm years ago, but they’re just now coming forward, threatening us. They blame us for trapping them here.”
Samira rolled her entrancing azure eyes. “Oh, what fools.”
“We’re hoping giving them the news that they’re free will help dispel the tension. But as a back up, Anastasia seems to know a lot about Gérard’s old hybrid spell, and we assume between that knowledge and having your original powers on our side, we can defend ourselves and placate them.”
Samira’s head snapped to her sister and Anastasia stiffened. “Hybrid spell?”
Anastasia began to stutter. She couldn’t look directly at her sister. “Yes, well, the spell—the spell that—”
“The spell that created me?” Samira demanded, stalking forward, forcing her sister to look her in the eye. “Since when do you have knowledge of this?”
Anastasia found her courage, finally making and holding eye contact with Samira. “Since the beginning.”
Samira’s expression seemed to soften. It was her turn to avert her eyes this time. But her voice was still hard. “I should have known. He gave you everything.”
We all fell silent. There was no more delaying this confrontation.
“That’s not true.”
“Is it not?” Samira huffed, lifting her gaze back to her sister.
“Oh, come now, Samira,” Anastasia quipped, crossing her arms, “you can’t seriously still think I wanted your throne. I knew what he was doing was dangerous, knew he was no good.” She dropped her arms and moved forward, positioning herself directly in front of Samira. “I only studied the spell to protect you.”
“To protect me?”
“Yes! To threaten him, to let him know his secret wasn’t safe. I considered everything, Samira. Creating a hybrid of my own to take him down, exposing the spell to the other originals...I wanted leverage, that was all.”
“You knew he was a bad man, yet you had an affair with him behind my back and allowed me to be with him as well? Why did you not stop him? Why did you allow this to happen?”
“Because you were happy! And stubborn. So, so stubborn. It wasn’t my place to disrupt that. It was all too dangerous.”
The air went cold, the fierceness crackling between them. “Well you did disrupt, did you not?”
“And you made certain I paid for that.”
“Yes.” Samira’s jaw moved back and forth, human tears pooling at her lids. “Yes, I did.”
“You can’t even say it, can you?” Anastasia’s eyes narrowed, her voice a raspy whisper. “You brought me back because you want my forgiveness, but you can’t event say you’re sorry.”
Arianna moved next to Samira. “Mother,” she gasped quietly. “For God’s sake, apologize!”
Samira lifted her chin and straightened her shoulders. “What matters right this moment is ensuring that spell never sees the light of day ever again, do you understand?” She looked around, fixing us all with her icy stare. “Frozen souls—and most certainly hybrids—must never be re-created. The idea is preposterous; after all we have done to put an end to Gérard’s horror. Are we clear?”
Arianna arched a brow and rolled her eyes, moving away from her mother. “Unbelievable,” she muttered. “After all this time, you still think you’re in charge.”
“Surely, there must be someone here who agrees with me,” she said, ignoring her daughter.
“I do,” I spoke up, not conflicted in the least. “From here on out, we should rely on the protection of the originals, of the witches’ magic, not vampiric curses created by men like Gérard. No matter how desperate we are to defend ourselves, to obtain protection or power, we can’t ever resurrect Gérard’s curses, or everything we’ve done—all the time we’ve spent apart all these years, all the bloodshed we’ve witnessed—it will all have been in vain.”
“Agreed,” Gabe said. Josh and Audrey nodded and Gavin hesitantly nodded his approval.
“Well, Anastasia?” Samira said.
“Mother,” Arianna hissed.
“You have my word,” Anastasia said. “The spell is safe with me. I would never do anything without your permission. You all brought me back to life.” Her eyes rested on her sister for a second, the exchange burning with contempt and something else, something broken hearted. “I am forever in your debt.”
“Now that that’s settled,” Gabe clapped, making me smile. He always knew how to tone things down a notch. “What do we do about these airheads causing trouble?”
“We’re all going back to Earth,” I said. “We tell them the news and let them be on their way. No more fighting, no more threats, no more war. Only peace.”
Call it avoidance, call it denial, call it whatever you’d like—I was all about diverting any and all conflict. I was all about going home, moving on, and pretending all of this was nothing but an old, distant dream. Samira and Anastasia had decades of issues to repair; years and years of hurt, shame, anger, jealousy, and heart-searing pain they’d both have to work through if they ever expected to rebuild any semblance of a relationship.
But it wasn’t our business, we couldn’t fix their brokenness, and it was time to return to Earth.
Gabe exchanged a skeptic glance with Gavin, and I swear, for a minute, I felt like no time had passed between our old friends and us at all. It was as if we hadn’t missed a moment together.
Gavin raised his hands. “I don’t feel comfortable with that plan, but I’ll support it if you all think it’s best.”
Samira stepped forward, her eyes frozen on something in the distance. “It seems the fools have something else in mind.”
Slowly, we all swiveled to follow her gaze, immediately reaching for our weapons when the Amaranthian rebels came into view. They were marching toward us on the horizon, a small but determined group.
Gavin looked to Anastasia and Samira. “Shall we?”
“It will be my pleasure,” Samira hissed, lips curling into a sleek smile.
“Lead the way, ladies.”
Samira and Anastasia came forward side by side, ready to confront the villagers. In minutes, they were standing before us, their grimaces slicing into us, armed and ready to strike.
“Well?” The man who’d grabbed me before said. He must have been their ring leader. With the exception of a bloody cheek and busted lip from Anastasia’s retaliation, he was in one piece. “Is this the news? Samira’s back? And your friends are, too? Where’d they come from, huh?”
Gavin squared his shoulders and widened his stance. “Looks like it. Now do you wanna hear our news or did you come to start more trouble? Because we’re done fighting.” He cocked his head. “Or maybe you missed that memo six years ago, when we ended Gérard’s reign.”
The man snickered with a seedy grin. “Fine. What’s going on?”
Gavin gestured over his shoulder to the portal door. “See for yourself.”
“They…they came from that door?” His glowering came to a halt, his expression lit with surprise.
“The old bayou
portal is open. You’re welcome to leave any time you want.”
The man panted a broken laugh, turning to look at his friends. “You’re messing with us.”
“You heard the man,” Audrey sighed with an exaggerated eye roll. “Where do you think we came from? Thin air?”
“Well, apparently she did,” he retorted, jutting his chin at Anastasia.
“We’re not messing with you,” Josh said, stepping forward. “You’re free to go. For good. We’re here to empty out Amaranth.”
“Yeah,” Gabe moved to Josh’s side, “how about we all get the hell out of here and never look back?”
Silence enveloped us for a moment, with only the slight whisper of the night wind whipping around us.
Gavin carefully slid his knives away, extending a hand to the man. The gesture took effort. His jaw was rigid and his shoulders tense. “This is over.” Gripping the man’s hand, he squeezed and pulled him forward, leaning in to fix him with a hard warning. The man stumbled, shaken by Gavin’s strength. “Let it be over.”
The man’s eyes glinted with something uncertain. He didn’t pull his gaze from Gavin, instead accepting the challenge and giving Gavin a warning of his own.
But he relented.
“Fine. We’ll be on our way, then.”
“Wise choice,” Samira said, making it a point to sear each and every villager with a poisonous glare.
Another villager hurried forward to grab the ring leader’s shoulder. “We’re leaving?” He laughed, beaming at the man. “Just like that? Don’t we need to pack up? Tell the others?”
“Nah, they’ll figure it out. Pack?” he scoffed, sliding his knife into his belt loop. “Pack what? I’m out of here!” Without another word, he pushed past us and moved for the portal door. A trail of villagers ran after him, shouting in celebration. Others raced away from the scene, back toward Amaranth, their excited chatter filling the air.
“Come on, guys,” Audrey sighed, watching them disappear in the distance. “Show us around one last time before we leave. For old time’s sake, ay? After tonight, I never want to see this place again for as long as I live.”