by Baker, Apryl
Panic rose up. I tramped it down. I needed to make sure my parents were safe.
“Ah, Matthew, I see you got her here with no problems.” Mr. Martin stepped forward, a smile of pleasure on his face. “Good, good.”
“Where are my parents?” I demanded. So Ethan was Matthew.
“Roger is tied up nice and tight. We couldn’t have him interfering tonight any more than we could the night of Emily’s…accident. He’s there by that log. See, perfectly safe and your mother is standing right next to Joanne,” he waved to his left.
Sure enough my mother stood just a few feet away. I could see her clearly in the firelight. Her eyes glowed with excitement. Another stab of pain struck me. My mother? She was in on it? How much more could I take?
“Yes, your mother is very proud to have given birth to the thirteenth bearer of life,” Mr. Martin smiled at her from across the fire. She smiled back. It was the same smile she used to give my dad. Nausea almost doubled me over as the truth of it struck. She and Mr. Martin had hooked up. Why hadn’t I realized it sooner? They were so chummy at Meg’s induction. How had I missed so many details? I wasn’t even surprised. It’s not like she cared about her family. She was willing to let them kill me and had probably known what they were going to do to Emily. Anger gave me courage. I knew something they didn’t.
“How does this make you any better than those who betrayed us? You’d betray one of your own just as our people were betrayed?”
“This is different,” Mr. Martin told me. “We knew going into it what the price would be and we agreed. All of us. No one has been betrayed.”
“I didn’t agree to it!” I shouted. “Hell no, I didn’t agree to any of this!”
“Had you not been so stubborn about joining, you’d have been taught the same as everyone else, CJ. You’d consider it your duty and a great honor.”
“Honor? You’re planning on burning me alive!”
“The souls of our ancestors need a beacon to find their path back to us in the here and now. The last memory their souls will have will be of being burned alive. You will be their guide, CJ.” He walked over to an old urn and began pouring the ashes it contained into a circle around the pyre and fire. “These ashes were brought with us to New Salem. They are the remains of our fallen brethren. Your blood will give them a corporeal shape and a way to seek their vengeance.”
I laughed. It was either laugh or cry and I couldn’t afford to lose it.
“You think this is funny?” Mr. Martin paused.
“Hilarious, laugh your ass off funny,” I grinned.
“Why?”
“Because I found my Book.”
“Your book?” he frowned.
“The Book that was stolen. It’s mine. There was a spell cast upon it so that only the next true Coven leader would be able to learn all its secrets. It showed me what it didn’t show anyone else. You’re screwed. Nothing you do will work. You can spill my blood, even burn me at the stake, and it still won’t work. My death will not invoke your curse. You don’t know what Sara Bishop did with her dying words. I do.”
Rage flooded his face. Ohh, must have struck a nerve. “What did she do?” he snarled.
“I’ll never tell you.”
“Oh, yes, you will little girl.”
There was a loud explosion and fog enveloped us, then a velvety blackness coated the night. I couldn’t see.
Hands grabbed mine.
“Run.”
Chapter Twenty Seven
I stumbled. Strong hands pulled me up and we barreled through the inky blackness. It was like trying to walk through a wall of jello—wet and thick. It had to be some kind of spell. I just didn’t know how long it would last. My sides started to burn and my lungs struggled to take in air when we broke free of the mire. It seemed like we’d been running forever, but it was only about ten minutes or so. I recognized where we were. Just north of the clearing. They had to be right behind us.
“Dammit!” Jeff growled. “It was supposed to last longer than that. We have to leave, CJ, now.”
“Give me…a second. I need to…catch…my breath.”
He growled and glared at my shoes. “Take those heels off. You’ll run faster.”
“Not a chance. I run faster in heels than you can in your track shoes.”
“Fine, but let’s go!”
I stared at him. He’d saved me. I thought he’d lied to me, betrayed me. “Thank you,” I whispered.
He glanced behind us, the worry plain on his face. “I told you I’d do what it took to keep you safe, CJ, even if that meant pretending to go along with the rest of them.”
He grabbed my hand and pulled me back into a dead run.
“I thought…” I gasped, trying to catch my breath.
“I know what you thought,” he cut in. “It killed me to see your face when I said what I did. I swear to the Fates, I didn’t mean it. I love you, CJ. I have since that first day of kindergarten when I stole your toy and Kay kicked the shit out of me.”
He really loved me. Why had I never seen that before?
“CJ, move!” he yelled when I slowed down. “They can use their tracking spells now. We don’t have much time. My jeep is just up ahead at the end of the trail. Hurry!”
I hadn’t thought about tracking spells. “Won’t they be able to find us anyway?”
“It’ll be harder once we’re in the air.”
“In the air?”
He growled. I knew it was hard to talk while running, but I needed the distraction so I could focus on anything except the building panic.
“I purchased two tickets for us. The plane leaves in about an hour. It’ll take us almost that long to get to Charlotte. It’s going to be okay, CJ, I promise.”
“I wouldn’t make promises I couldn’t keep, Jeffrey,” Ethan’s voice lashed at the already raw wounds on my soul. “She’s mine.”
He stood there leaning against the Jeep. He really did look like some dark angel.
“No, she’s not.” Jeff pushed me behind him. “You want to kill her.”
“You have no idea what I want, Jeff.” He held out his hand to me. “Cassie, come here.”
I wanted so much to take that hand. I wanted to believe him.
“Trust me,” he whispered. “Please.”
But how could I trust him? He’d lied to me about everything. He’d brought me here. I wanted so badly to believe him. I loved him.
I looked up into Jeff’s eyes. They glowed with anger and a fierce protectiveness. He was the one person who’d stood beside me, the one person who’d stood up to them and helped me. I took Jeff’s hand instead.
“No, Ethan.”
His eyes flashed with hurt. I faltered. Then I saw the hunting party behind him.
“You found them.” Mr. Martin stopped beside him.
“Why?” I whispered. “Why, Ethan?”
“He has more reason than the rest of us to see this through.” Mr. Martin told me. “Didn’t your book tell you who he is?”
“Matthew.” Ethan flinched when I said the name.
Mr. Martin’s eyes narrowed. “Yes, but do you know exactly who he is and why he’s determined to see you burn?”
“No.”
“His name is Matthew Ethan Warren. His fiancé was Sara Bishop. He died trying to save her, CJ. He laid there on the ground, bleeding to death from a sword through the gut and watched her burn until she died.”
“Then how are you here?” I asked. I’d seen him in my dream. I’d only caught a vague glimpse of a man through a haze of smoke, but I remembered the look of rage and pain on Sara’s face. She’d seen them strike down the man she’d loved. She’d seen them kill him. What had she done?
“Pain and anger can do many things, Cassie Jayne,” he said. “I was determined to see my own vengeance. The strength of my need for vengeance was strong enough that I became a part of the curse as they cast it. I have kept watch over the Coven since, waiting for the birth of the thirteenth daughter.”
“Are you a…ghost?”
“That’s as good an explanation as any,” he shrugged. “But I am flesh and blood as well. I was given a corporeal body when I came back to see to it that what needs to be done is done. Jonas is right about why I’m here. I’m here because of what they did to Sara that night. I crawled as close as I could get to her. No one stopped me. Why would they? I was dying. I heard her screams, watched her skin blacken and swell. The smoke killed her first, but I saw her turn to ash,” he said softly.
His eyes were full of remembered pain and horror. They held the same emotion I’d seen in them that first day in the cemetery. I never asked him how he’d understood my pain so completely. Now I knew. He watched the woman he loved die the most horrible death imaginable. And he hadn’t been able to save her.
“And you’re going to let them do that to me?” I asked, the tears falling down my face. “You said you loved me, Ethan. Do you want revenge so much, you’ll let them burn me the same way they did Sara? You couldn’t save her, but you can help me, Ethan. Please.”
Ethan flinched with each word I fired at him.
“Enough, CJ,” Mr. Martin snapped. “You won’t change his mind. This is why he’s here.” He jerked me away from Jeff. “I’m done playing games.”
“Stop it.” Jeff tried to get to me, but he was pulled backwards. Mr. Corey and Deputy Sims held him at bay.
“You will tell me, CJ,” Mr. Martin promised in a tone full of menace. “If you don’t, you’ll cost your father his life. I’ll make you watch him die.”
“You wouldn’t.”
“Oh, yes, I would.”
“Did you kill Emily?” He’d alluded to it before, but I wanted to hear him say it.
“She was going to take you and Makayla away. I couldn’t let her do that.”
“How did you do it?”
“She ran from the house and drove away in her mother’s car. The brakes weren’t very good. I simply forced her to speed up to a point she couldn’t stop. When she hit the brakes going down the hill, they gave out. She went over the mountainside.”
“Bastard,” I snarled and swung my fist straight into his nose. I heard the break. Blood spurted and I smiled.
“You little bitch,” he ground out and slammed his fist into my face. I would have fallen if he hadn’t had a death grip on my arm. My head spun for a second. My stomach heaved. I heard a scuffle and blinked. Jeff had broken free and was wrestling with Deputy Sims.
“Tom, deal with that boy!” Mr. Martin barked.
I saw the flash of metal, heard the shot ring out, smelled the acrid scent of gunfire, but still couldn’t believe it. Even when I saw the red blossom across Jeff’s chest, saw the surprised look on his face, I refused to believe it. It wasn’t until I heard his gurgle of pain and saw him crumple to the ground that it hit me.
They’d shot him.
“NO!” I cried and tried to yank my arm away from Mr. Martin.
Mr. Martin’s hands inadvertently touched my dress and I heard the sizzle of burning flesh. He cursed and threw me at Ethan, holding his hand to his chest. I saw the smoke rising from it.
“Let’s go.” Mr. Martin turned and headed back towards the clearing.
Ethan didn’t say a word. He simply hauled me up, gripped my forearm in one hand and pulled me along the path. He didn’t look back, but I did.
They left Jeff there, lying on the cold ground.
Bleeding to death.
Or already dead.
Chapter Twenty Eight
Numb. I felt nothing as I walked, not even the bruising grip Ethan had on my arm. I had nothing left. My friends, hell even my own mother, had betrayed me. They were willing to sacrifice me for their precious revenge. It didn’t matter to them that it was wrong, that I hadn’t agreed to any of this. All they saw was their need for vengeance.
The clearing came into view. Ethan’s grip tightened. I wanted to laugh, but couldn’t even manage that. Was he afraid I was going to make a run for it? Where would I go? Jeff had been my last hope. He was probably dead. Because of me. He’d died trying to save me. A single tear slipped free, its salty wetness burned an icy path down my cheek as we came to a stop beside the circle of ashes.
Mr. Martin dragged my father to where I stood. Deputy Sims pulled out his gun and pointed it at my dad’s head. I had no doubts they’d kill him. His life mattered nothing to either of them, to anyone in the Coven. All that mattered was their stupid curse.
“Now, CJ, what did Sara do?”
My father’s eyes begged me to stay quiet, not to give in to their demands. He was all I had left. I had to save him even if it cost me everything. He should understand that better than anyone. He’d taught me the true meaning of family and love. He was my Daddy. I couldn’t let them kill him.
I searched the crowd until I found Kay. Billy had her pulled tight. She’d been crying. I saw the pain and anguish on her face. She hadn’t known what they were planning to do to me, but she had chosen the Coven over me in the end. If Billy hadn’t shut me up, I think maybe I could have gotten through to her, made her change her mind. I believed deep down that I meant more to her than the Coven, but I couldn’t be sure. I stared down into my father’s face. I had to save him even if meant betraying Kay and myself.
“I’m not the thirteenth daughter.”
“It has to be you, CJ,” Mr. Martin scoffed. “It’s not Makayla.”
“No, it’s not Kay,” I agreed.
His lips thinned to a seamless line. “Don’t play games with me..”
“I’m not,” I smiled. “The thirteenth daughter is both of us.”
“That’s not possible,” he spat.
“Sara Bishop couldn’t stop George Howe from casting the curse, but she did what she could to make it harder for them, for you, to see it through. She cast a spell that split the soul of the thirteenth daughter in two. Daughter of Shadow, Daughter of Light, born not as one, but as two. Kay and I were born in the same minute. Half went into me, half into Kay.”
Kay’s face blanched. A wave of fear rose up in me. It wasn’t mine. It was Kay’s. I faltered in my conviction. She was a part of me and I had just handed her over to the crazy people, but hadn’t she done the same to me?
Mr. Martin’s face paled, but he straightened his shoulders much as I had seen Kay do earlier. “Well, I didn’t expect that, but what must be done, will be done. Bring her here.”
“NO!” Kay screamed and kicked as Billy hauled over to stand in front of her father. I flinched at the blind terror on her face. Her screams beat at me, tore my soul to shreds.
“Daddy, please,” she begged.
“It is your duty, daughter,” he told her sternly. “You will do as you are told. Now, this works out nicely. Makayla, as you have dreamed of burning since you were a small child, you shall be the beacon that guides our ancestors home. CJ, your blood shall bind the ashes together and give them shape when they arrive. Yes, indeed. This works out better than I had originally planned.”
“You evil bastard,” I snarled, unable to stop the rage that washed over me. I could feel Kay’s terror the same as I had that night on the boat. Her soul was my soul. We were connected now as we had been on that night. “She’s your daughter!”
“And she has made me very proud,” Mr. Martin smiled. “Her sacrifice will be remembered by all.” He grabbed one of her arms and sliced from wrist to elbow. Her blood flowed down onto the ashes at her feet. When mine mixed with hers, the spell would be complete. There had to be a way to stop this. There had to be, but what?
Mr. Corey and Billy dragged her, fighting with every ounce of strength she had, to the pyre and bound her to it. I had taken the dream from her, but you can’t erase thirteen years of remembered pain from the body. It knew what was coming. She may not remember the details, but her body did. I did. I couldn’t let them do that to her, but how could I stop it?
“Light it,” Mr. Martin commanded.
Mr. Corey set the tinder to flame and it w
hooshed to life. Kay’s screams intensified.
Watching the fire slowly crawl up the branches towards her brought my dream back in vivid detail. I felt the flames lick my own skin, choked on the smoke. It was really happening. They were burning her. What had I done? How could I have let them do that to her? I felt her panic, her terror. It ate away at me. It wouldn’t be long before the flames reached her. Deputy Sims still held the gun to my father’s head. I had to find a way out of this. I had to save them both.
Mr. Martin turned his back on his daughter. “Bring her here, Matthew.”
Ethan pushed me towards him. I looked up at his face. Seeing Kay burn as they had burned Sara had to be affecting him. How could it not? But his face was impassive. There was no emotion there. He was as cold as the unyielding winter winds.
Mr. Martin closed the circle and began the chant once Ethan and I were inside.
“Earth, Air, Fire, and Water, fill our circle with your might,
Spirit, bind them together and close this circle.
Arwan and Agrona, I summon thee here this night
To fulfill a promise made unto our ancestors.
Aide us as we seek vengeance upon those who betrayed us!”
The ground shook and the sky darkened, blotting out the stars. A strong wind tore through the trees and the sound of galloping horses could be heard. They broke through the trees. The leader circled around us. His horse was as black as the night itself and he rode upon it like he was a part of the animal. They were seamless, one blending into the other. His hunting party pranced around him. Arwan, the King of Hell, had come to collect his souls.
A wail sounded, its haunting cry bellowing into the night. We all looked to the south. A woman approached us. She wore a simple gown of white with no adornments upon it. Her long, chestnut hair swayed as it moved with a life of its own. Her eyes were sad and full of pain. I recognized that pain. It was the pain of loss, of grief. She stopped a few feet outside the circle and opened her mouth, her arms outstretched to the heavens. The soul shattering wail emitted from her again. The goddess Agrona had joined us.