by T. A. Foster
Maya picked up the chemistry book and we waited in the hall. “Do you think she can figure out what’s wrong with her?”
“I don’t know, but I had to ask. She’s a witch with some wicked memory skills. It’s probably our best chance.”
A few minutes later, Holly appeared. “I think we need to talk, Dare.”
“I’ll sit with Abi,” Maya offered.
We waited until we were alone.
Holly sighed. “I’m afraid I’m going to have to do some research and get back to you.”
“What does that mean? You can’t fix her?” I felt panic.
“I know she isn’t like you remember her, or if she could remember her, but I don’t feel anything broken or disconnected in her memories. They didn’t take the memories from her. They changed something else.”
“Something else? I don’t get it.”
“When I erase someone’s memory, it’s as if I cut and paste from their personal timeline. You can see the cuts, but with Abi, there is none. Her memory line looks normal. I’ll talk to my aunt and my mother. They might have seen this before. In the meantime, just keep doing what you’re doing. Watch her. Show her glimpses of her old life, but don’t overwhelm her. She seems fragile.”
“We won’t. We’ll keep things light until we can figure out what to do. Thank you for talking with her.”
“I wish I had better news for you. Whatever the magic is, it’s elusive. I can’t pick up on it.”
I wanted more answers than Holly could give me. It made me wonder whom Case had joined forces with, and what kind of power he or she had.
We walked along the tunnel hallway.
“I’m going to head out unless there’s something else.”
“No, I think I can take it from here. Thanks, Holly.”
“No problem. Good luck. I’ll call you as soon as I know what to do about Abi.”
I stopped in front of the exit. She disappeared into the brush. I had never felt so much magic in the lair before. Ian and his cousin were a powerful duo.
I walked into my room. Zac stood next to the bed. He looked completely fine, as if we hadn’t spent the last two days keeping him alive.
“Hey.” I walked closer to the bed.
“Hey.”
“Everything ok?” I asked.
“Yeah. I think it is.” He was taking in the surroundings.
“Maybe I can find a shirt for you then I can take you home.” I had rushed him here when he collapsed after our workout, and he was only wearing athletic shorts.
“I don’t want to go home just yet.”
“You can’t stay here.” I think I startled him. My words were too quick.
“I’m not leaving you if there is someone who wants to hurt you.” He slid an arm around my waist, positioning me against him.
“I can handle it. This isn’t a place you can stay.”
“Where are we?” He looked over my shoulder.
“It’s safe. But I can’t tell you.”
His eyes narrowed. “Secret location? Are we in Sullen’s Grove?”
“Yes.”
I could feel his heart thumping against his chest. His body was still pulsing from the elixir he had taken to fight off the poison. The energy around him hummed with witch magic.
“Is this where the witches live?” he asked.
“Do you remember them?” I started to worry Holly’s spell hadn’t worked.
“No, I haven’t met them, but you told me they helped.”
I breathed in. “Right. They did. And no this isn’t where they live.”
“Are you one of the witches?” His eyes locked on mine. “It-it would explain some things.”
I realized how a yes would simplify things, but I couldn’t lie to him. I had never envied other magic until this moment. “No, I’m not a witch. I can’t talk to you about them.”
“And you’re not going to tell me anything else?”
I shook my head. “No, I’m not. I can’t.” I looked into his eyes. “Can this be enough for you?”
“Enough? I don’t even know how to answer that. Are you asking if I changed my mind about you, about us in the last twenty minutes?” He brushed the hair from my face.
I nodded. “Because this is it. I’m going to put a blindfold on you, and I’m going to take you home. We aren’t ever going to talk about the magic, or this cave. We aren’t going to discuss witches or Sullen’s Grove legends. I need you to tell me you accept that we’ll never talk about this again. It never happened. None of this happened.”
“And if I can’t?” His thumb trailed over my bottom lip.
“You’ll never see me again.”
I dumped the rest of my coffee in the sink. It was 9:15 and I was already late for a staff meeting at the museum. I grabbed my keys and jogged down the steps to the driveway.
“Hey, boss.” Lacey greeted me as soon as the elevator doors opened.
“Good morning.”
“They’re waiting for you. I tried to stall.” She shrugged. Today’s shirt was a low cut tank top, showing off the tops of her breasts. Hell.
“Thanks, I can take care of it.” I hurried to the conference room across from the suite of offices.
The board was assembled, along with the director.
“Zac, come in. Come in. We were just getting started.”
I slid into the only empty chair. I hated being late. I hated the attention it drew.
“We’re mapping out the dates for next year’s festival. After the numbers we pulled in, we’re extending it an extra day to Sunday,” Director Rofton explained. “And we’re bringing back the Ghost of the Forest festival.”
I sat forward. “Has it been approved by the town council?”
“We have six out of seven yeses. It’s not going to be a problem. Our private funding has reached an all-time high. This is the time to push our real agenda. I’m going to need you to lead the committee to get started.”
“I’d like to help, but I’m not an event planner, sir.” The coffee churned in my stomach.
“You can hand off the details to someone else. You’re a resident expert. You’ll know what to focus on. I want everyone in the state to know about it. It needs to be bigger than the Watermelon Festival, bigger than the Collard Festival. This is how we put this museum on the map. Our grant funding for special projects will go through the roof.”
I nodded. It always came back to money.
“You can meet with the special events coordinator and give us a report in two weeks on where we are.” He moved on to the next topic and I stared out of the window.
I had promised her. Swore to her that I would drop everything. The legend. The witches. All of it. Silver was mad I didn’t want to go along with his panther trap, claimed I was a coward. But he hadn’t met Dare. She said no more magic, and I agreed.
It didn’t mean I didn’t think about it. I had sketched the cave, the dark details I could remember. Written down everything we talked about. Taken walks in the woods outside of the park during the day looking for it. I stared at the scar on my leg before I fell asleep. I knew there were parts of my memory missing. I had overhead a witch say she was going to erase things. I guess she did.
I didn’t know how long I was going to be able to keep up my end of the deal. The magic was gnawing at me the same way my dreams did.
It had been a week since I had seen the cave. Dare had come by every day to train. But at the end of the session, when I tried to hold on to her a little longer, she would make up an excuse to leave. Exams. A project meeting. Her friend, Vix, needed something.
I had told her how I felt. That I was falling for her, and it either scared the shit out of her, or she hadn’t made up her mind.
Instead of pressuring her. Instead of pushing her against the wall and kissing her. Instead of carrying her down the hall to my room, I let her walk away. Every night, I let her walk out of my door.
I glanced around the living room again. It looked neat enough. We we
ren’t going to be spending time in here anyway. I checked the AC in the garage to make sure it was at full blast. I wanted them to be comfortable. Dare said her friends were coming to train. I didn’t know how many. I only knew it was important to me that they got something out of the session.
My phone said seven thirty. They should be here.
I heard a knock on the door and pulled it open. Standing on my front porch was Dare, surrounded by three other girls. I remembered Vix from our first date. The other two looked more out of place.
“Hey, come on in.” I moved to the side to let them in the house.
“Thanks for doing this.” Dare smiled. “You remember Vix. And this is Maya and Abi.”
I shook their hands. “Nice to meet you.”
Maya wrapped me in a hug. “Thank you. Thank you so much for this.”
Maya’s hair was streaked with orange highlights. Abi didn’t say anything. She kept her eyes on her shoes.
“Umm. You’re welcome. It’s going to be fun. I’m glad you want to train.” I walked toward the kitchen. “Let’s get started.”
I led them down the steps into the garage. Dare and I had worked out many times, but this felt different. These weren’t parents. These were friends, and I knew that their approval would matter to her.
Vix stepped over to the bag and threw a punch in the center. “Whoa. Slow down there, tiger.” I walked up behind her.
“Tiger?” Her eyes widened.
I coughed. “Sorry, just an expression. This bag doesn’t stand a chance against you right now, but you’re going to wear yourself out in two punches if you do it like that.”
Her eyes were slivers of intensity. She slugged the bag a second time.
“Vix, just wait,” Dare called over the whirling AC.
There was a tenseness in the room. I could feel friction and hostility, but it wasn’t between them. Something was going on.
“Can I talk to you for a second?” I motioned to Dare.
“Sure. We’ll be right back.” She nodded at the others.
Maya was observing my salmon ladder, while Abi just sat in the center on the bamboo mat. I wondered if everything was ok with her.
I closed the kitchen door behind us.
“I know I said I would help train your friends, but something feels wrong. Why don’t you tell me what’s going on?” I sat in the chair closest to me. I wanted her to know we weren’t leaving until I had some idea what was happening.
“I don’t know what you mean. They’ve heard about our sessions. That’s all. They just want to learn. I told them you are an amazing teacher.”
“Those girls in there just want to learn self-defense? I don’t buy it. Vix looks like she could kill someone. Maya is studying everything like it’s a chemistry set, and Abi, well hell, I know she’s your friend, but I’m not sure she’s all there.”
I surprised her. I know I did, but we kept skating around things that were right in front of us.
“If you don’t have the time to train them, it’s fine. We’ll leave.”
I reached for her wrist. “No, that’s not what I’m saying.” I sighed. “I want to help. I do want to help. Isn’t there more I can do than this?” I put it out there, hoping she would finally tell me what it was that we couldn’t talk about.
She shook her head. “The girls and I just want a little self-defense training. That’s it.”
I stood from the table. It didn’t make sense. They were days away from graduation. Why were they focused on kickboxing?
I tried to smile. “Then, let’s get started.”
Her eyes widened and her mouth opened slightly as if she was going to say something, but she didn’t. I didn’t know what was going on with Dare or her friends, but they had come to me for help. If she wasn’t going to tell me the whole story, I’d have to take what I could get.
I observed Vix’s punches and walked up behind her. “Here. Try attacking this way.”
I pulled her arm back, using her elbow as a guide and forced it forward. “Now, add in the hips.” I was hesitant to touch her the way I did Dare, but I gripped her waist and rotated her while extending her arm.
“See? You’ve got the full force of your body with the proper alignment.”
Her lips puckered and her eyes hardened. “Again. Show me again.”
“All right.” We walked through the motions until she seamlessly could move from a standing position into a full thrust punch.
I looked over my shoulder to see Dare showing Maya the breathing techniques we used to warm up. Abi was still sitting on the mat.
“Do you want to try some sparring?” I asked.
Vix nodded. “Definitely.”
“Ok, Dare and I will show you what we’ve been working on, and then maybe Vix and Maya can give it a try.”
I had been waiting for this part of the session all night. Finally, I’d be able to touch her skin, wrap my hands around her, and look into her eyes.
She met me on the mat, her eyes locked on mine. “Ready?” I asked her.
“Oh, I’m definitely ready.” The green sparked in her eyes right before she kicked forward, knocking my shoulder.
I loved watching her movements, the way she sliced through the air, taking her time to assess my next attempt to knock her to the floor. There was a level of grace in the way she approached our sparring that I hadn’t seen before. It was effortless.
I rolled to the side in time to grab her ankle, pulling her next to me on the mat. Her arm jabbed against my chest and she hopped to her feet.
I heard Maya gasp, but it didn’t distract Dare. Her eyes were on me. I stood to face her again, ready to take hold of her. I lunged forward as she swiped to the right. She caught my arm and I grabbed her wrist. I pulled until her back was against my chest. Her breaths evened and I knew she was plotting her next move. It was hard not to smile, knowing she was using everything I had taught her.
“Do you give up?” I whispered in her ear.
“Never.” She freed her captured arm, and then, with both hands, jerked against my forearm until I was on the ground.
Her feet straddled either side of my waist. “Do you give up?”
I looked up. “Yes.”
Vix chuckled next to us. “Ok, that is the hottest foreplay I have ever seen.”
Maya pinched her arm.
“What? It was hot.”
“You can’t say that, Vix.”
I took Dare’s hand as she helped me from the floor. “Ok, you girls want to go next?”
Vix swung her hips as she walked past me. “Are you sure you don’t want to show me how it’s done?”
I laughed. “I’ll watch your technique with Maya from over here.” I slid my arm around Dare’s waist, and brought her closer to me. I couldn’t help it. When she was near, I wanted her closer.
She smiled when my hand rested on her hip.
I watched Maya and Vix spar, and occasionally, I would step in to give them pointers. Maya was quick. It helped that she was so much shorter than Vix. It gave her an advantage. However, Vix’s long legs helped her change positions in more creative ways. She used the full range of her body to try to beat Maya’s speed.
Two hours later, we sat on the mat together, everyone soaked with sweat. I passed around water bottles.
“What did you think of your first session?” I chugged on the container.
“I could definitely do this every day,” Vix volunteered.
“We really appreciate your help. It was a good workout.” Maya pulled her streaky hair into a bun and fanned herself. “I didn’t know it was going to be this intense.”
“Yeah, I guess it is intense.” I looked at Dare.
“We should probably get going.” She was the first to stand. She helped Abi up.
“You sure you don’t want to stick around? We could watch a movie or something.” The girls had filed into my kitchen, leaving us alone in the garage.
“I can’t. I have to get them back and we all came in one
car.”
“I could drive you.”
She reached for my face, her hand sliding against my jaw. “I can’t, Zac. I have things I have to do tonight.” She turned to leave.
“Ok, so when?” I hated it every time she left.
“Tomorrow? Can we train tomorrow?”
I hung my head. “Sure. We can train again tomorrow.”
And I let her walk out of the garage, out of the house, and away from all the things I wanted to say and do.
He kept moving them. I don’t know how he did it, but Tegan and Eva were never in the place Ian told me to look. I’d call my new witch friend to tell him they were gone, but it sometimes took a few hours for Ian to get back to me. He was a detective on the police force; I couldn’t expect him to drop everything whenever I called. By then, he would give me a new location and Case moved them again. It was like musical chairs, only with my friends. I could tell Ian was as frustrated as I was.
We’d been playing the game for over a week. Vix and I would track them, only to find an empty warehouse or apartment.
The sun beat down on our shoulders as we walked across campus. “Last day of classes.”
“Finally.” I looked at the students hustling to class.
“I think I’m going to miss The Grove.” Vix adjusted her sunglasses.
“Me too. I guess there’s always grad school.”
“No way. I need a break after four years.”
“We all need a break.” Graduation was next week. I wasn’t entirely sure anymore I would be sitting with all the Nox. I hadn’t given up the dream yet.
I heard girls in my classes talking about the big trips they had planned before they started a new job. Cabo. Paris. L.A. It was enough to make me want to extend my claws. I was spending my summer avoiding an arranged marriage when what I wanted to do was get in a car with Zac and drive. Drive wherever he wanted to take me. Maybe get on a plane. Sip mai tais in Singapore. Hell, I’d be happy on a beach in Florida if he was lying next to me.
“I think we need one last post-class lunch at Cartwright’s. What do you think?” Vix asked.
“I completely agree. Something normal sounds good right now.” I yawned. It was late when we left Zac’s and it was after midnight before I started my patrol.