Wait.
Hold up.
“The Witch House,” Tennessee whispered. “Jonathan Corwin’s house.”
The front door of the house closest to us opened and slammed against the wooden panels. A girl stepped out holding a chicken. She had on a long-sleeved gown that looked like linen and far, far too warm to be wearing in this heat. The chicken in her hands clucked and pulled on the bottom of her white bonnet. She turned back toward the door, yanked her bonnet off, then tossed it inside. Fiery red hair spilled out over her petite shoulders.
When she spun around, she gasped and dropped the chicken. Her lavender eyes widened.
“Saffie?”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
tegan
The girl gasped and jumped back. She slammed into the wooden panels of her house. “How do you know that name?”
What? How? This…this doesn’t make sense. How? My heart pounded. My fingers trembled. It couldn’t be. She couldn’t be Saffie. It made no sense. Saffie was a fairy with pink wings. She was trapped inside Hidden Kingdom. Wherever we were, it most certainly wasn’t a theme park.
“Saffie?”
“Whatever do you know of that name? Who are you?” If possible, her lavender eyes widened even farther, and her face paled. “Pray tell me now, please.”
“Saffie, you know us.” My sister stepped forward. “I’m Emersyn Bishop.”
“Bishop?” Saffie shook her head violently. “You lie. I know every Bishop, and you are not one. Where do you come from? Who is your family? What do you want of the Bishops? What are these clothes you wear?”
Royce moved to stand beside Emersyn. “Saffie, you don’t remember us?”
“I have never laid eyes on any of you before this day.”
I opened my mouth to speak when her words registered. I know every Bishop. My stomach tightened into knots. What are these clothes you’re wearing? I looked around us again at the wooden buildings and dirt road. The horses. The wooden fences. The empty fields. The silence. The lack of lights. No cell phone reception. The Bishop family. Before this day.
The Witch House. Jonathan Corwin’s house.
My stomach turned. I knew where we were. There was only one place we could be. I had asked Tennessee if we’d gotten away with that deal with the Seelies, and now I knew we hadn’t. That look on Prince Thorne’s face. The anticipation in Princess Sage’s eyes. I realized our error a few moments far too late.
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, bracing myself to ask the question I didn’t want the answer to. I opened my eyes and looked at the frightened girl in front of me. “Saffie…Saffie, what day is today? The year.”
Saffie frowned. “It is the eighteenth of July, 1692.”
Oh God. My heart sank. My breath left me in a rush. The world rocked under my feet, or maybe it was me doing it. Oh God. My body turned to ice. No, no, no. No, this can’t be happening. I swayed and leaned into Tennessee’s arm.
There was a beat of silence.
“Nooo…” Cooper whispered. “No, no, don’t say that. Please, no.”
Deacon cursed and pulled at his sandy blond hair. “I knew I didn’t like this. I knew it.”
“That can’t be right,” Royce groaned. He bent over and put his hands on his knees like he was going to be sick. “This can’t be right.”
Emersyn whimpered and stepped away from Saffie. She turned to the rest of us with tears in her golden eyes. “Is that possible? H-how…how can it be…be… Oh God…”
“Next roll the Court’s twisted dice.” Henley turned toward me with heavy eyes. “For the Earth’s Stone comes with a price.”
“Court’s dice? Earth Stone?” Saffie narrowed her lavender eyes. “Who are you?”
“You know us,” I heard myself whisper.
“I do not!” Saffie yelled.
“You haven’t met us yet,” Tennessee whispered. He hadn’t spoken since she came out of the house. His body was cold and frozen like a statue. “Saffie, is this… Are we in Salem?”
“This is Salem, yes, but how do you know my name? Only my friends call me Saffie.”
This is Salem.
Oh, for the love of all that is holy.
Those damn fairies.
“Fairies?” Saffie squealed. “You deal with fairies? The Fae Court?”
The door of the house flew open, and an older woman with long black hair stepped out. “Saraphina, whatever are you—” She gasped. Her silver eyes widened.
“Myrtle?” Tennessee half whimpered, like the sight of her hurt him.
Oh my Goddess. She’s the Crone. The Lead Crone. The last time I saw her, she lived on Crone Island in the Caribbean. She wore her hair in braids and had a silver diadem. Just like Princess Sage’s.
Myrtle stared at us for a long moment before she snapped herself out of it. Her face paled, but her gaze hardened. She yanked the door open. “Inside. All of you. Now. Hurry.”
Saffie spun and leapt through the open doorway. Tennessee hurried after her, pulling me along with him. I let him drag me. My brain was moving too fast. I was trying to process too much. A few seconds later, Tennessee stopped in the middle of a large room. To my right, there was a long wooden table with two benches. On my left was a fireplace that took up most of the wall.
The door slammed shut, and I jumped with my heart in my throat.
“Show me,” Myrtle said in a rush as she ran into the room. She stopped in front of the fireplace and gestured with her hands. “Show me.”
Tennessee slid his jacket sleeve up and held out his left forearm. The Mark of the Emperor was clearly visible on his tan skin. Myrtle glanced down, and her eyes widened. She looked back up at him, and I saw the questions in her eyes.
Saffie’s face paled, and her jaw dropped. She leaned forward and ran her fingers over his Mark, like she didn’t believe it was real.
Myrtle inspected the others’ Marks until she got to Emersyn and myself. My sister hadn’t held hers out. I didn’t want to either. But I knew…I knew there was no avoiding it.
I caught my sister’s gaze and nodded. Together. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. I waited for her to raise her arm before I held up mine. Together, we pushed up the sleeves of our jackets to reveal our Marks.
Myrtle grabbed both our wrists and yanked our arms up higher. When she lowered them, she looked at us with narrowed silver eyes. “What are your names?”
“I am Tegan Bishop…” I took a deep breath. “This is my twin sister, Emersyn Bishop.”
“Goddess almighty,” Myrtle whispered and dropped our hands. She fanned herself and began pacing the room in front of us. “Twins. The twins. From the prophecy?”
“You’re aware of the prophecy?” Cooper asked.
Myrtle froze in her tracks. She closed her eyes and shook her head. “Our Hierophant Elizabeth received the prophecy not too long ago. Tell me, children, what is the year from which you come?”
“2018,” Royce answered.
“Two thousand?” Saffie squealed and sat down on the stool beside the fireplace. “Two thousand. They come from the year two thousand, and yet they know my name? Mother, why do they know my name? Why do they know yours? That is so long from now, I do not understand.”
“Mother?” Tennessee’s eyebrows raised. He pushed his long hair back. “You’re her mother?”
Myrtle sighed and pressed her fingers to her temples. “I am her mother, yes. What do you know of my daughter?”
Tennessee looked to me with a frown then refocused on her. “Saffie is a dear friend of ours, where we come from. Though, she never mentioned she was a witch.”
“Hey.” Royce leaned against a wooden beam. “Where are your wings?”
Saffie’s face turned sheet white. She looked to her mother with fear in her eyes.
“Show them,” Myrtle whispered. “It is clear they care for you.”
She nodded. The air around her shimmered like glitter, and then two transparent, light-pink wings fluttered behind her back. “No
one here knows of my wings.”
“They are not from here, Saraphina.”
“The year two thousand eighteen,” Saffie whispered. She wiggled her fingers, and her wings disappeared again. “Mother, they spoke of the Earth Stone and the Court.”
Myrtle spun to face us. “The Seelies sent you here?”
I nodded. “Yes, we were—”
“Stop.” Myrtle fanned her face with one hand and gripped her stomach with the other. “I think I know how you know me all those years from now. I have— I have seen it in dreams, though I dare not speak the words. My Saffie, I cannot pray to know. But you mustn’t tell us. You mustn’t tell us no more than you have already, for anything you say can and will alter the future.”
I opened my mouth then shut it again. She was right. Even the smallest little thing could have huge ramifications for the future. I’d seen Back to the Future. All of them. We had to act like ghosts here. We had to hide in the shadows until we could figure out how to get home, or otherwise we might go home to a place we don’t recognize.
“She’s right,” Tennessee said, confirming my own thoughts. “We’ve already changed things by speaking to them. We can’t speak to anyone else.”
“Myrtle…Emersyn and I have to close the Gap, but we have to get home in order to do that.” I ran my fingers through my hair and tried to hang on to the panic surging inside me. I had to keep it together. I had to hold on. “We need your help to get home.”
“I suppose you do.” Myrtle nodded. “Tell me, with as little details as you can, how you got here.”
“We received a prophecy saying we had to close the Gap in Salem by Samhain’s end, which is only a few days away for us, but to do so, we had to gather the Elemental Stones.” I bit my lip and looked to Tennessee. When he nodded, I took that as a sign that I hadn’t said too much. “That brought us to the Seelie Court, whom after we made a deal in exchange for the Earth Stone, promised to return us to the place we came from in Salem.”
“But you didn’t specify a year?”
Tears stung the backs of my eyes. This was my fault. I made the mistake. I knew better. I knew they’d try to trick us, yet I did nothing to make sure we were protected. “No, we messed up.”
Myrtle cupped my cheek. “That is what they do, child. Do not dwell on it when you have such a heavy task on your shoulders. Let us focus our minds on how to get you home.”
“Question,” Royce said with his hand raised in the air. “Has the Gap been opened here yet? I mean, maybe we can—”
“No, Royce,” Tennessee warned.
“It has,” Myrtle said at the same time. “The twins opened it. The Coven has hidden it. You are not supposed to be here. You cannot help. You cannot save the Sapiens, though I know in my heart you will want to. But you must refrain, or I fear our future is damned. Now, we must hide you. My brother lives on the edge of the village by the water. We shall bring you there. But first, we must change your clothes. Come with me.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
TENNESSEE
Of all the things I’d prepared for in my life, this was not one of them.
Time travel. Who knew? I sighed and buttoned up the pants Myrtle had given me. Breeches. They’re called breeches. I think. The four of us guys were in one room changing into Puritan-appropriate clothing so we would blend in. I’d only gotten the breeches on so far, and I was already miserable. They were thick and itchy. They’d been on maybe thirty seconds, and I already felt sweat dripping down my legs.
Myrtle had closed all the windows because she didn’t trust us to be able to keep silent. Not that I could blame her. Royce and Deacon weren’t known for their ability to keep their thoughts to themselves, especially when together. Except the problem was the heat. As someone who’d lived in Florida for a decade, I thought I was well equipped for heat. I was wrong. There wasn’t even a hint of a breeze.
I picked up the fancy-looking shirt off the bed and grimaced. It wasn’t even on, and I was already overheated. I slid the shirt on over my head. The sleeves went all the way down to my elbows. There was a growl-like groan that I pretended didn’t come from me. I glanced over my shoulder to where Deacon and Royce were tying their shoes and wondered if they had duct tape in the seventeenth century to seal their lips shut. Because there was no way in hell I was going to be stuck inside with the windows shut. All I needed was one open and I’d summon a damn tornado in the room just to get some oxygen.
Royce peeked up at me and frowned. “Why are you looking at me like— Oh shit.”
For a second I feared I’d spoken my plans out loud.
“Dude, you can’t wear that shirt.”
I sighed. “I don’t really have a choice, Royce.”
He shook his head and pointed to his right arm. “Nah, man, I meant your soulmate glyph. You can’t be showing that here.”
I frowned. My soulmate glyph only reached my elbow, and so did the shirt Myrtle gave me. I looked down to point this out, and my jaw dropped. I cursed. Sure enough, it had grown all the way down to my wrist.
“I told you stay away from my sister.”
“Cooper.” I groaned and turned toward him, expecting to defend myself, but stopped short when I found him holding out a shirt. “What’s this?”
Cooper rolled his eyes and smirked. “I think it’s called a long-sleeved shirt. Switch with me, lover boy.”
My cheeks warmed. I took the shirt from him and slipped it over my head before any of them could mock me for blushing. I wasn’t used to Cooper being nice about my relationship with Tegan. I never knew what to say about it in general, but I knew I didn’t want to piss him off again.
“Uh, Tenn?” Deacon raised his hand in the air and pointed to me. “I think—”
“Don’t help him.” Royce shook his head and laughed. He was watching me. “I don’t know how you’re so clothing-challenged, boss. Did they not teach you how to put clothes on when you were training to be a human?”
Deacon hung his head and laughed, his shoulders bouncing.
“It’s on backwards,” Cooper said between chuckles.
I sighed and yanked it off over my head. There were no tags or markings to indicate which side was the front so I didn’t know how I was supposed to know. I peeked up, and everyone else was fully clothed, shoes and all, and I was only in pants. Did I zone out during the conversation when Myrtle brought us up here? I thought I was listening. But how did they know what to put on?
“Look how cute he is when he doesn’t understand basic human things.” Royce laughed, his face red and his eyes watery. He was getting a real kick out of this. “He’s so confused.”
“Like a puppy.” Deacon covered his mouth with his hand, but it didn’t conceal his laughter. “Even cocks his head to the side.”
Royce jumped up and walked over to the bed beside me. He picked up a long dark piece of material that was open on one end and sloped at the other in the shape of a foot. He wiggled it in front of my face. “These are called stockings, but we call them socks. Put one on each foot then tuck it under your pants.”
I yanked the stocking out of his hand and whipped him with it. He chucked the other one at me then dashed across the room out of my immediate reach.
There was a soft knock on the door.
“Come in,” Cooper yelled as he buttoned up his coat.
The door swung open, and Tegan walked in. She had on a long, dark gray dress that buttoned all the way up to her collarbones. The sleeves went all the way down to her wrists. Her long black hair was tied up and tucked under one of those white hat things Saffie had been wearing.
She narrowed her eyes on Royce and Deacon, but her lips curved up on one side. “What are you two up to in here?”
Deacon grinned and made a circular motion above his head with his hand.
Royce shrugged. “I plead the Fifth. Did they have that in 1692?”
Tegan rolled her light-green eyes. “Listen, when you’re done dressing, bring your…your…um…” Her eyes widen
ed, and her gaze looked me up and down. She bit her bottom lip.
Cooper cleared his throat.
“Um…” She shook her head. Her cheeks turned bright red. “What was I saying?”
Royce turned toward me and snapped his fingers. “Dude, put your shirt on so the poor girl can think straight.”
Cooper groaned.
Tegan covered her face with her hand and cursed.
“It’s okay, girl. It’s the V. I get it.”
Cooper made a gagging noise. “Gross. Can we focus? Please.”
“Sorry. My bad.” Tegan chuckled. “When you’re done, bring your clothes down with you. I’m going to stash them so we don’t lose them. Oh, and Myrtle is ready to move us.” She spun and practically ran out of the room.
“I can’t,” Cooper groaned, then followed her out with his clothes draped over his arm. “Put your clothes on, Tenn.”
I ignored Deacon and Royce’s boisterous laughter and their mocking…and the fire burning my cheeks from how hard I blushed. It wasn’t my fault. I wasn’t used to her looking at me like that. I probably shouldn’t have liked it so much. My thoughts drifted to places it shouldn’t have, to things that weren’t even remotely helpful.
“Royce, grab his waistcoat over there.” Deacon walked up and yanked the shirt out of my hands. “Now he’s really not gonna be able to do this.”
“You two are so cute.” Royce chuckled as his cousin slid my shirt over my head. “I really have no idea how we all missed it for so long.”
“I’ve been asking myself that for weeks.” Deacon pushed me back onto the bed. He tossed the socks at me and snapped his fingers. “Socks. Tuck them under..”
“Right?” Royce strolled over holding a faded black coat with lots of buttons on the front. “I mean, in hindsight it was so blatantly obvious. The stares. The blushing. That breathy way they said each other’s names.”
The Eternal Witch (The Coven: Elemental Magic Book 5) Page 15