Swift

by Heather London

  “Okay, all done,” Abby said after just a few minutes. “That went better than I could have expected.”

  With some hesitation, I opened up my eyes and was shocked at what I saw. Nothing had changed. Absolutely nothing. “That’s it?” I asked, curiously.

  “That’s it? Is that your way of saying thank you?” she teased. “I will have you know that that was one of the easiest summoning spells I have ever done. It was like the power was about to erupt out of you any second. All it needed was a little guidance.”

  “Sorry, I was not trying to insult your work … It’s just that I was expecting something a little different.”

  “Like what? Sparks? Or maybe puffs of smoke?” She laughed. “Just be patient. We will be here every step of the way, but it will take some time.”

  After a few hours of training, we were finally finished for the day. She was not kidding, either. I felt like I had had a crash course in magic, and I was definitely worn out by the time we were finished. My whole body ached, and we had not even done anything that strenuous—not physically, anyway. The most exciting spell I had learned was how to move a leaf and rock with my mind. I admit that it was awesome the first, second, and third time, but by the fiftieth time I had done it, I was so over it. I wanted to move on to something I could protect myself with.

  We began our walk home, and for once I wished she would just fly us there. It would be so much faster, and I could get home and change quicker.

  “So, Blake told me he explained the whole Isaac situation to you,” Abby said out of the blue.

  It shocked me. Firstly, I hadn’t thought Blake would tell her that I knew. And secondly, I hadn’t thought that Abby would actually bring it up.

  “I just wanted to explain it from my side. I can’t imagine what you must think of me. You must think I’m crazy for loving someone who is now so troubled,” she said.

  “Crazy? I think the exact opposite; you’re one of the strongest people I know. It’s amazing to me that you can fight against someone you once loved. It must be ... difficult.” I struggled for the right the word.

  She glanced in my direction with a curious expression on her face. “I’m not fighting against him, Meredith. I’m fighting for him. I truly believe I can bring him back to me. It’s the only thing that gets me up each morning.”

  “Oh, Abby, I’m sorry. I just thought …”

  “Really, there’s no need to explain. I can see where you would think the other way.”

  I sighed.

  “What is it?” she asked.

  “It’s just that, before I thought you were the strongest person I ever knew, and now I can add bravest to that as well. I just don’t know how you do it.”

  “You should give yourself some credit, too, you know. You lost your family at such a young age, and yet here you are, still functioning, strong, and about to be the most amazing witch. It takes more courage and strength to do what you are doing than what I am,” she said.

  No pressure, I thought to myself.

  “Abby.” I paused for a moment. “How does it all work? Contacting the Council and the other witches that have crossed over?” I hadn’t forgotten what Blake had said about witches in tune with their powers being connected to other witches. The thought of being able to contact my mother excited me.

  “I think I know where you are headed with this and I’m afraid it’s not that easy. The council has to have good reason to contact the witches still living. There has to be an immediate danger to the craft or something similar to that. But you may find comfort in knowing that we are all connected and even though you may not be able to see or hear them, they are with us always.” She smiled looking over at me.

  Chapter Eighteen

  As we arrived back at my house, Blake was sitting under the tree in my front yard, engrossed in a book. My heart soared when I saw him. The moment he realized our presence, he glanced up, smiling at me.

  “Can I steal her away now?” he asked as we approached, not taking his eyes off of me.

  “Sure, but don’t keep her up too late.”

  Blake was already at my side, and he scooped me up into his arms.

  “She will be at this again first thing in the—” Abby called after us, but her voice faded away before I heard her finish.

  We must have been flying again, because my world was spinning again. But that time it was a little different. Blake was either being a little more careful or maybe I was finally starting to get used to it.

  Blake took me back to the lighthouse in Fraser Bay. He carried the same backpack as he did the night he rescued me from Isaac. He had packed us a few sandwiches and some fruit for dinner. We ate on the purple velvet blanket and talked about my day of training.

  As hard as I tried, I couldn’t stop myself from yawning.

  “I think it would be best if you got some sleep. Abby would kill me if I brought you to class tomorrow with bags under your eyes.” He smiled as he reached for the candle and blew it out.

  “We are sleeping here tonight?” I asked.

  “Is that okay?”

  “Sure,” I guessed. “But is there a reason why we keep coming here? Don’t get me wrong, I love this place. I’m just curious is all.”

  “Yes, there is a reason. When we first arrived in your time, my family and I searched for a safe house so to speak. A place where I could take you and no evil, no matter how strong, could get to you. It takes a lot of magic to create such a place so it couldn’t be too big. When I saw the lighthouse, I thought it was perfect.”

  “Oh … that makes sense.” It seemed so strange that the Harpers’ went to all this trouble for me. It was something I couldn’t get over. I had spent so much of my life not feeling that important, always flying under the radar. But now I had these amazing people looking out for me and willing to put everything on the line to protect me. The feeling was overwhelming.

  As much as I wanted to stay up and talk all night, I knew that I needed my rest so I could learn as much as possible the next day. No one knew when Isaac, Alex, or any other dark magic would come for me, and I had to be prepared. I had to be able to protect myself.

  Blake and I melded together into one as we lay in the darkness. I laid my head on his chest and got comfortable. Just as I was about to drift off into a deep slumber, I heard a whisper in my ear that made my heart skip a beat and my eyes shoot wide open. I could’ve sworn that I had just heard Blake whisper “I love you.”

  I lay there too scared to move, thinking that Blake had said it thinking that I had already fallen asleep, not wanting me to hear him. After a few seconds, I decided to be brave and look up to face him. But I found his eyes were closed, and he looked to be in deep and peaceful sleep. The innocent look on his face made my heart melt, and I whispered back, “I love you, too.”

  The next morning, Blake and I arrived at the beach late.

  Abby was already waiting for us, tapping her foot. “Seriously, I’m going to have to start keeping tighter tabs on you two.” She gave us both a pointed look.

  “Sorry, won’t happen again—promise,” Blake said. He kissed me on my cheek then whispered in my ear, “See you this evening.”

  I swallowed hard and tried my hardest not to blush in front of Abby.

  “Okay, lovebirds. It’s class time now.”

  Today would be flying lessons. Great! I mean, how cool would it be to fly? I had never owned a car, never wanted one, and here I was about to learn free and fast transportation. We started the lesson back in Steer Swamp. Abby had set up a few different stations, and they all involved a ladder and a ledge. The first station was the smallest and only looked to be about ten feet high. It didn’t look so bad when I stared up at it from the ground, but as I stood on top of it, I was nervous.

  “Come on. You can do this,” Abby encouraged.

  Easy for you to say, I thought. But I tried to push everything out of my mind and concentrate on what Abby had told me: “Think of a feather floating through the air. Slowly.
Gracefully. Feel the energy running through your body, and let it all go.” I pictured it. I could see the feather gliding through the air and then the energy came over me and I released it, feeling total freedom come over me. That’s it, I’ve got it! I stepped off the ledge, and for a moment, I felt like I was floating. Then a second later, the feather disappeared from my mind, and I felt myself falling. It was not long before I landed on the hard ground beneath me.

  “Ow. Are you okay?” Abby was beside me, helping me up.

  “Damn, I had it.” I groaned, looking down at my scraped knees and hands.

  “That was excellent! You levitated for an entire six seconds.”

  “Excellent?” I questioned.

  “Don’t be too hard on yourself, it takes most people days to get to that point.”

  Days? I was not going to have any skin left on my knees and hands if I kept this up for days.

  “Let’s do it again. This time hold your concentration and focus.”

  It took all of my concentration and focus not to glare at her. What did she think I was doing? But I withheld; she was just trying to help me, after all.

  Again. And again. I tried it for two hours straight, but could not improve past thirty seconds of levitation. Finally, Abby called it quits for the day. I wanted to keep going, determined to get it right, but she couldn’t stand to look at my knees and hands anymore. She was kind enough to fly me back to the lighthouse, seeing as I was a wounded student.

  When we arrived, I saw that Blake was holding a small white box in his left hand. As I got closer, I realized that it was a first aid kit. How had he known?

  “It happens to the best of us,” he whispered to me, and I melted into his embrace.

  Abby looked at us for a moment, and I couldn’t help but see the agony in her expression. I wondered if she was thinking of Isaac.

  Abby turned to head home, but not before telling me that I would have to report for class again after my shift at the library. Work. Ugh. It was just a few days ago that I had been looking forward to going back to work. But that was before I knew my destiny and before I knew that evil was after me. Now all I wanted to do was practice, practice, practice, and learn, learn, learn.

  As soon as she was out of sight, Blake lifted me up and sat me on a rock near the water’s edge. He knelt down and opened up the first aid kit, taking out some rubbing alcohol, ointment, and a few bandages. Very lightly, he cleaned my wounds, bandaged them up, and kissed each one lightly before pulling me back up into a standing position.

  “Better?” he asked.

  “A little,” I teased.

  He narrowed his eyes on me, trying to survey the situation and figure out what it would take for me to feel better. Then he held my face in his hands and kissed me until I felt my knees go weak.

  “How about now?”

  “Much better,” I breathed.

  Back in the lighthouse, things were peaceful. I stood on my tiptoes, trying to see the sun setting over the water, the day’s events running through my mind. I tried to recite the things Abby had said to me over in my head, trying to engrave them there so I wouldn’t forget anything for my next lesson. But the sunset and my thoughts quickly became second place to the person standing behind me.

  Blake reached his arm around my waist and pulled me against his chest. Our bodies melded together, and the warmth of his presence set off the butterflies in my stomach. He then used his other hand to move the hair away from the nape of my neck so his warm lips could find a place to land. My heart pounded so hard that it ricocheted down into my ribs.

  “How is everything going with the training?” he whispered into my ear as I felt his hand gently raking through my hair.

  “Fine,” I breathed. “A little frustrating.”

  “Abby says you are doing wonderfully. She says that you are the quickest study she’s ever worked with, and that’s saying a lot coming from her.”

  “I just want to learn something useful.” I tried to focus on our conversation and not what his touch was doing to me.

  “Patience.” He kissed my neck again, and at that moment I forgot everything except for him.

  Patience. Fine I would have patience with the whole magic thing, but not with him.

  I twirled around and pressed my lips against his. The unforeseen force sent him stumbling backward and me along with him. We stumbled a few steps before he found his balance and used it to steady the both of us. My hands ran up his chest and wrapped themselves around his neck, pulling him closer to me. Just when I felt things were starting to get good, he stopped.

  Then he slowly pulled away from me and collapsed down onto the blanket beneath us. It took me a second to come to terms with the fact that he had stopped.

  “We can’t … I can’t do this, Meredith. It’s not right. I’m afraid that this might get in the way of my purpose for being here.”

  “What are you talking about?” I asked, my voice quivering.

  Rejection washed over me, and I knew that I was on the verge of tears.

  “My job is to protect you.”

  “I’m safe here with you, aren’t I?” I questioned as I sat down beside him.

  “Let’s just try and get through the next few days, okay?” He whispered softly as he looked into my eyes.

  I nodded, knowing his thoughts were rational. As much as I wanted him, I knew it wasn’t the smartest thing for me to be distracted like this either. My main priority was to learn my craft and keep the Harpers and myself safe.

  But it doesn’t mean that it didn’t hurt. I’d never wanted someone like I wanted him and the feeling of rejection crushed me. I fell back toward the blanket and rolled over on my side. He gently placed his arm around my waist. We lay there, and somewhere in the silence, I drifted off to sleep.

  When I woke, it was still dark in the lighthouse. I guessed that it was in the middle of the night or early morning. Blake’s warm arm—that I was expecting and wanting to be holding me so badly—was no longer around my waist. I panicked and then shot up into a sitting position, searching for him.

  My eyes found him, sitting across the circular room, staring at me. The few other times I had caught him staring; his eyes were filled with longing and desire. His eyes did not hold either of those two things this time. Those emotions seemed to have been replaced with fear and confusion.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked, hoping it was not still about how things almost went too far earlier.

  A small grin appeared on his face, creating the dimple that I loved so much. But there was something in his eyes that made me feel like something was very wrong. “For right now, it’s nothing. But I need to get home to my family so I can talk to them about it,” he spoke intently, not releasing the stare he held on me. “You have work this morning, right?”

  I nodded.

  Before I could question what was going on in his head, he began to gather up the candle and matches, shoving them in his backpack. “We better get going then. Don’t want you to be late for work.” He glanced back toward me again, still smiling. But the smile was not genuine; it was forced.

  “Is everything all right? You said that you would not keep anything from me. That you would answer any questions that I had, remember? I’m tired of being kept in the dark.” The distant look in his eyes was beginning to scare me. It was as if the last few days between us had not happened.

  He stopped packing and sat with his back against the wall, looking at me. “It’s just a theory now, but I have an idea of how Isaac and Alex got here to this time. When my family and I traveled here, we had the power of the Witch’s Council with us. So it leads me to question how Isaac and Alex could have crossed time to get here. Then last night when I was watching you sleep, I remembered something I had told you. That witches from the past, present, dead, or alive are all connected to one another. Maybe Isaac and Alex are using my family and me as a portal of some kind. Maybe they are channeling our powers somehow. I’m beginning to think that we brought them here. T
he last night that Isaac came to our house he was asking questions about you and talking of a sacrifice. The council must have heard what they were planning do. They knew you were the Astoria and had to be protected. Isaac and Alex knew the council would assemble a team to go to you. It was probably only a matter of hours before they figured out we left. I’m sure they began to plan immediately how to follow us and use our powers against us.” He stood, glancing out the window. “But like I said, it’s just a theory.”

  I didn’t respond. What could I possibly say? He was thinking that he and his family were the reason that Isaac got to me. The main reason Blake and his family were sent to my time was to protect me, but Blake believed that they could have possibly led the enemy right to me. No words worth responding came to me. I reached down to fold up the velvet blanket.

  On the walk back to my house, both of us considered what he had just said. Once we were there, Blake assured me that I would be safe that day at work. Abby and Annette had been working on a new protection spell the last couple days. It would deter Isaac and Alex from finding me again … at least for a few days. For the moment, neither of them would be able to step foot inside of Marblehead or anywhere within a hundred miles of it.

  The moment Blake told me that I would be safe, I believed him, which was new for me. After my parents, there had not been one person in the world that I trusted with my entire being, until Blake.

  I showered slowly, allowing my mind to open up and sift through what had happened the last few days. I knew that Aunt Rose would be home soon and that Jack would be moving in. It would be difficult to hide everything that was going on with me from them, but I had to; it was the only way to keep them safe.

  Fear suddenly gripped me. What if Isaac or Alex eventually broke through the new protection spell and got to me … or, worse, to Aunt Rose and Jack, too? That just couldn’t happen, not to them. The Harpers and I were going to have to think of a bulletproof plan to keep them safe.