Mark of the Witch

by Maggie Shayne

  * * *

  It was getting dark. I was antsy and wanted only to slip away from the two lunatics and try to find a way out of here. All day I’d been reading and rereading the words I’d written so long ago, the words of the tragic story of Demetrius, the man who’d made the mistake of falling in love with the king’s favorite harem slave. And who’d paid a price far more dear than his life for his crime. He’d paid with his soul.

  A piece of that soul lived inside me now, in the amulet I had absorbed into my body in order to protect it from the two priests. I felt it there. I felt his pain when I read about what had been done to him. I felt his torment, and his rage.

  I didn’t blame him for it.

  Rayne still slept. There had been no more convulsions. I’d flushed the pills, all but one of each variety, which I held on to for the E.R. staff. Those were in my pocket. No more foaming at the mouth, either. Maybe once was enough with that particular special effect. But she was still unconscious. I didn’t know if Dom had more pills on him and was keeping her drugged or not. I tried to be in her room every time he looked in, but I had to go to the bathroom every now and then.

  Mostly they’d left me alone with her. And I’d read from the scrolls mostly in private, though they kept watching me, and I noticed Dom was trying real hard not to leave Tomas alone with me even for a minute.

  I wondered if Tomas had told him about the scrolls. And if not, why not? I didn’t suppose there was any hurry. I’d be dead soon, according to their plan.

  I’d found that if I focused on the story and on Demetrius, holding his name in the forefront of my mind, I could feel him so clearly that I could almost talk to him. And I thought maybe if I kept trying, I’d manage to actually do so.

  He was not a nice guy. Not even human anymore. All I sensed of him was pain, confusion, rage, fury.

  And grief, though it was buried way down deep.

  Maybe returning the piece of his soul I now held would assuage that, restore a little bit of humanity to him. I hoped so. Because right now there wasn’t anything human about Demetrius. Maybe releasing him from his Underworld prison truly would be a mistake. But it was the only right and just thing to do. And it was, I knew now, my mission. My reason for being. My calling. It was more important than anything else. More important than Tomas, and more important than my own life.

  And it was time. I was sitting on the sofa in the living room, where I’d been for the past hour, pretending to read a book while they hovered over me like vultures. Tomas was wearing his collar again, his all-black clothes. They even looked like vultures, I thought.

  They were watching me. I knew they were. I’d managed, though, to set every clock in the house ahead by an hour. It was a quarter to midnight now, at least as far as they knew. Fifteen more minutes and they would believe my opportunity was gone. Even now they undoubtedly thought it was too late. Fifteen minutes wasn’t even enough time for me to make it down the path to the cave—especially in the dark—much less perform the ritual.

  I lowered my eyes. “Are you happy now? You’ve won. You’ve sentenced an innocent being to God only knows how many more years in an unbearable prison. Your God must be so proud of you.” I sent them hateful looks. “I’m going to bed.”

  Tomas nodded. “All right.” His eyes held mine for a long moment, and I could have sworn I saw something in them. Longing? No. It couldn’t be. He believed I was the enemy, had let himself be brainwashed by the old priest.

  I couldn’t afford to trust him. He wanted me dead. That would end only when I returned the amulet to Demetrius. And I still had a little over an hour to make that happen. I went upstairs and looked in on Rayne, who was sleeping soundly. Still no more thrashing or foaming. Thank Goddess.

  Dom doesn’t have to torture her anymore. He thinks he’s won. That he’s convinced Tomas to kill me. As long as Tomas doesn’t balk, he’ll leave her alone. I hope.

  Could I even blame Tomas all that much for doing whatever it took to save his sister?

  Yeah. Because there has to be a better way than murder. My murder. Not that I’m biased or anything.

  I went into my room, closed and locked the door, opened my bedroom window and climbed out into the rain. The wind had let up. The rain still fell steadily, but it wasn’t pouring like it had been before. Dangling from my fingertips, I whispered a spell, and then let go.

  I hit the ground hard, driving a grunt from my chest and creating a splat when I landed that I was sure must have been audible inside.

  Apparently not in the rain. I got up onto my feet from the mud-slick ground and looked back at the house. If they were still in the living room, they wouldn’t see me, because my bedroom window was on the opposite side of the house. I didn’t see any faces peering out.

  Good.

  I headed into the woods and then kept just inside the tree line until I found the path down toward the lake.

  I felt eyes on me and, startled to hell and gone, spun around, half expecting to find those dark-suited hypocrites following me. But no. It was just the animals. A squirrel and a raccoon, standing in the rain and staring at me with huge, hypnotized eyes.

  And then I heard a deep tormented voice echoing inside my head. His voice.

  Hurry.

  I picked up my pace.

  * * *

  “It’s time,” Dom said softly, looking at his cell phone.

  Tomas lowered his head.

  “The time for hesitation is over, Tomas. If you needed proof she was on the Demon’s side, intending to help him, rather than us—rather than your sister, a fellow witch she claims to love—you have that proof now. She set all the clocks ahead to give herself time. We’re supposed to believe it’s midnight, but it’s only eleven. And she’s gone, right on schedule. While Samhain still holds open the Veil.”

  Tomas nodded. “I’d hoped she wouldn’t go.”

  “But she did. At your request, Tomas, we’ve given her every chance to redeem herself, but she has not. This is the moment when you must choose between good and evil. This is the moment when you, like Adam of Genesis, must decide whether to obey God Almighty or turn away from Him in favor of the forbidden fruit offered by the temptress. This is the deciding moment of your entire life, Tomas. And the only chance you will ever have to save your sister, not just from death, but from eternal damnation. From the very jaws of the mouth of hell. Go. Go down the mountain and do what must be done.”

  Nodding, Tomas rose from the sofa and, with a heavy sigh, went to the closet for his raincoat. “I’m sorry I doubted you, Dom. And I’m grateful you waited, that you gave her the chance to change her mind. I won’t let you down again.”

  Pulling on the slicker, he went to the back door, slid it open and stepped out onto the deck in the steadily falling rain.

  * * *

  The path was steep and slick with mud, and not even my heightened senses could make passage easy. My feet slipped and slid, and I fell on my ass more than once as I moved way faster than I should have. I didn’t know exactly what I was supposed to do when I got there. I didn’t have words or a spell to chant. It would just be me, my own will and my power as a witch. But those were things I had confidence in now. I’d been given the power of a long line of traditional witches, passed down through centuries of practice. From teacher to student, from old priestess to young, from woman to woman, from Rayne to me.

  It wasn’t my power alone. Not anymore. There were covens of witches behind me, living and dead, bound by spirit.

  I would never be alone again.

  I’d used that power to cast a spell of protection around Rayne before I’d left her room tonight, quietly, silently, unnoticed by the priests.

  I hoped it was enough.

  I slipped once more as the rain came down harder again and a gust of wind seemed to push my feet out from under me. My shoes were coated in a thin layer of brown that had spattered onto the legs of my jeans, and the seat of my pants was wet from my repeated stumbles. I gripped a low tree limb to pu
ll myself up and pressed on.

  It seemed to take forever. Like one of those dreams where you run and run, but can’t get anywhere. But finally—finally—I emerged from the woods and found myself staring at the waterfall and the pool that spread out below it. Rain hit the surface of the pool so hard that the drops appeared to be dancing. It was dark as hell outside, the sky blanketed in clouds, no light. And yet I saw everything clearly. I wondered why for a second, then I realized there was a glow, soft, but persistent, coming from behind the cascade. Coming from the cave.

  Coming, I realized, from the Portal.

  Come to me. Bring me that which is mine!

  “I’m coming,” I replied, speaking aloud, as if it—he—could hear me that way. Maybe he could. I started forward, then spun around when I heard footsteps behind me.

  Tomas emerged from the trees, appearing on the path where I’d been standing only seconds earlier. Our eyes met in that odd, spectral glow from the cave, raindrops like a curtain between us. A curtain neither of us could ever pass through again. We were on opposite sides.

  I shook my head. “You shouldn’t have left him alone with your sister, Tomas. He’s insane, you know.”

  “I locked her door, took the key.”

  That took me off guard. “Then you know?”

  “I—”

  “It doesn’t matter. I know now what I have to do. And I won’t let you stop me.”

  “I’m not going to try.” He started toward me, but I backed away fast, holding up my hands like stop signs.

  “Don’t come any closer!”

  He stopped, and his brow furrowed. “Indy, you don’t have to be afraid of me.”

  “Don’t I?” I shook my head, took another step backward. I’d put the pond between us now, but it also stood between me and the cave. Behind me there was nothing but the sheer drop-off and the rocky lakeshore far below. And yet I didn’t look. I couldn’t look. “I heard what Dom told you to do, Tomas. And I didn’t hear you refuse.” I took a deep breath, released it. “Hell, you didn’t even argue.”

  His face was stricken and also confused, as he tried to figure out how I’d overheard them. And then he pushed that question aside as if it didn’t matter. “If I had told him I wouldn’t do it, he would have tried to do it himself. I never fell for any of it, Indy. Look, I knew the bridge was washed out. I knew he’d done something to Rayne. I was just trying to con him, to keep him from hurting her any more—or hurting you, for God’s sake—until I could get us all to safety.”

  I wanted to believe him. Maybe he saw that, because he went on.

  “I thought if I could con him for one more day—the rain’s letting up. The water should recede by dawn. We can get Rayne out of here.”

  I shook my head. “I’m the one you’re trying to con.”

  “No.” He sighed heavily. “I was never a priest, Indy. Dom was excommunicated sometime after I entered the seminary. He pulled me out, told me I had a calling, that he had special dispensation to ordain me himself. And I believed him.” He lowered his head. “I think he told us he was going to that memorial service and then went and killed Jonathon instead. I think that document Jonathon translated was the same story you found in those scrolls. Dom didn’t want us to know the truth.”

  It all made sense. I was weakening. My heart was swelling.

  “Indy, how can you be afraid of me? How can you believe I would…kill you?”

  “It wouldn’t be the first time, would it, Tomas?” I spat the words in pure self-defense. After all, he’d only killed me then at my own bidding. But even as I said them, there was a flash behind my eyes. Memory, the past, playing like rapid-fire snips from a movie. I was at the edge of the cliff with my sisters, facing the vast distance to the ground, and he was behind me. I feel his hands on my back.

  Do it, my love! You have to do it!

  I can’t. I can’t, Indira.

  They’ll know.

  I don’t care. I love you!

  “I love you, Indy.”

  I love you, too. And so I cannot let you die with me. Goodbye, my love.

  I was facing the cliff now, in real time, just as I had been in the past. I was leaning forward, as if I would throw myself over the side.

  Just as I had done before. To save my lover, because he couldn’t do it. He couldn’t push me then, even though I’d begged him to. Even though refusing would mean his own life. Tomas had never pushed me. I had thrown myself off that cliff so long ago.

  “Indy!”

  His harsh voice snapped me out of my trance and I spun around, my feet slipping in the slick brown mud. I started to teeter as he lunged toward me, my arms whirling in huge circles, my body rocking, almost going over. He would never reach me in time! Somehow, though, I rocked the other way and fell forward, facedown in the mud.

  I heard his relieved sigh as I pushed myself up on my elbows, smiling now, nearly laughing as I looked up at him. He hadn’t killed me then, and I knew, somehow knew, that he had no intention of killing me now.

  And then my smile died as I spotted a rain-soaked man in black emerging from the woods behind Tomas, and heard the action of the shotgun as he pumped a round into the chamber.

  “Get up, witch,” Father Dom commanded.

  Tomas’s face went lax with horror, and he turned, almost losing his footing in the mud. “Dom, listen to me—”

  “Shut up, Tomas. I’ve heard enough from you.” He wiggled the barrel at me. “Up.”

  I pushed myself up on trembling legs. Tomas was in front of me, but a couple of yards to the left. Dom stood dead ahead. I wondered what time it was, whether I could release the amulet from here, whether the demon who wasn’t a demon could be of any help to me—to us—now.

  Dom shouldered the gun and closed one eye as he pressed his cheek to the stock and peered down the barrel at me. His hand flexed as he tightened his finger on the trigger.

  I shouted “No!” and flung out my hand.

  A blast of energy hit Dom, but he pulled the trigger even as he was reeling from the impact, and Tomas dove in front of me just as I heard the explosion of the shotgun. I saw it all. Tomas, my beautiful love, threw himself into the path of the bullet. His body jerked in midair, and blood exploded from his back as the slug passed straight through him. I heard it zing past my ear before Tomas’s body smacked down on the muddy ground, hitting shoulder-first before he tipped onto his back. He lay still, eyes closed. I stared, stunned, first at him and then at Father Dom, who was jerking on the pump action to no avail. Jammed.

  He threw the shotgun aside and strode toward me. Murder blazed from his eyes. Murder and madness.

  “No.” I tried to harness my power to stop him, but it wouldn’t work. I was too focused on Tomas. He was dying! I couldn’t back away. There was nowhere to go. Nowhere but down.

  Just like before.

  “No, Father Dom, don’t.”

  Even if I had never believed in demons or devils in all my life, I would have believed in them then. Because what I saw in his eyes was evil. Pure evil.

  I tried to shuffle sideways, toward the cave, but the path between the pool and the cliff was only a foot wide, and uneven. Rocky. Slick now, even underwater in places, because the rainfall had raised the water level.

  “We have to help Tomas,” I pleaded with Dom. “And Rayne, we have to help Rayne.”

  “Rayne is fine. The effects of the drugs only last a day. As for Tomas, first I have to save the world. Then I’ll save him.” He kept coming, and I knew he would push me over the side. I didn’t want to die that way. Not again.

  “Dom, listen to me, it’s too late anyway. It’s past midnight.”

  “Liar.” He was close, way too close. And then he lunged. I tried to dodge, but one gnarled old hand caught my shoulder, and it was just enough to propel me off balance. I was going over this time, no help for it. “Goddess, protect me!” I shouted as my feet slid from mud into nothingness and my body followed them over the edge. I wasn’t airborne. My body was rak
ing over the cliff face, and I clutched with clawed fingers, caught hold of a rock outcropping and held on for dear life.

  “You murdering son of a bitch!”

  That was Tomas’s voice! He was alive!

  The rock beneath my fingers was wet and cold, and my face was pressed to the freezing stone. Water from the pond mixed with the rain and flowed over my hands and face, trickles now, but growing. I jammed my foot into the cliff face over and over, in search of a toehold. Finally I found one.

  Using all my strength, I managed to raise my head above the lip of the cliff, but all I saw was the evil priest looming over me, smiling maniacally down at me as he held a big rock above his head. He was going to bring it down, crush my skull and send me plummeting to my death.

  Then I heard the shotgun’s action work again and saw the old priest’s eyes widen momentarily before he smiled, and I read his thoughts. He was going to kill me anyway. He didn’t care if he died in the process.

  He met my eyes, and then suddenly something flew at him from off to one side—a huge wolf, leaping through the air like a monster out of a horror movie. It hit him, knocking him sideways to the ground. Dropping the rock, he rolled onto his back as the beast snarled and growled. He pushed himself backward through the mud as the animal came at him, and just like that, he was gone. Over the edge, falling past me as I hung there. He screamed as he fell, and I heard the horrible sound of his body hitting the rocky shore.

  My arms, trembling from the effort of holding me up, gave out, and I started to fall, too. But a strong hand closed around my left wrist. And then another hand grabbed the right. And as I pushed with my feet, Tomas pulled me slowly, inexorably, up the cliff face and—finally—into his arms.

  He held me so hard I could barely breathe. I couldn’t tell which of us was shaking more fiercely, or whose tears I tasted all mingled with mud and rainwater as we kissed there again and again.

  “I said I love you, Indy.”

  “You saved me. You saved me.” I was sobbing, nearly incoherent.

  “Karma. Full circle. Rule of Three. Whatever you want to call it. It’s what I should have done last time.”