Kanti

by J. R. Erickson

  "I'm okay," she whispered. "I thought I saw..." But as she looked around the clearing, she saw only darkness.

  The others continued to sway and chant.

  Only Julian had paused. He moved closer to Becky. He held his palms above her body and the fire rose toward his palms.

  "No," Abby screamed and scrambled to her feet. She ran toward him. Her mother would burn alive.

  "Stop," he commanded her, and the force of his energy drove her back. She gasped for breath as if he'd physically pushed her.

  "She's nearly there," he bellowed. "If you enter her space, you will disrupt the connection."

  "What connection?" Abby shrieked, sure that her mother was burning within the flames.

  Julian gestured to the sky and as Abby's gaze trailed up from her mother's body, she saw thousands of tiny luminescent filaments entering her mother's body.

  "I saw a shadow leave her," Julian exclaimed. "It is working."

  Abby started to move closer to her mother. She had an overwhelming desire to reach her hand into the silvery threads, but as her fingers reached out, a sharp spasm cut through her stomach. She clutched her belly and doubled over.

  On hands and knees, she watched the muddy ground swim and tilt beneath her.

  She sensed Sebastian touching her, talking to her, but his voice sounded far away.

  "There's something wrong," he called to the others and the alarm in his voice should have spurred her to action, but her hands and knees felt cemented in the mud. If she moved, she would get sick again.

  "What hurts?" Ezra asked, squatting in front of Abby and holding a bitter-smelling satchel.

  Abby jerked her head to the side and shook her head.

  Ezra took the satchel away. She touched Abby's face.

  "She's feverish," Ezra announced.

  "Sebastian, take her back to the room, we're not finished here," Julian commanded.

  Abby heard Sebastian stand.

  "No, she needs medical help. Ezra, can you come with us?"

  "No," Julian snapped. "We're nearly there. We need the collective energy to maintain it."

  "Julian," Helena said, an acid tone in her voice. "Let them go, the spell is nearly complete."

  Abby sensed Helena close to her, but she closed her eyes and tried to breathe.

  "What's happening?" Oliver murmured as if he'd only just woken from the reverie of the spell.

  "Can I pick you up, honey?" Sebastian asked, resting his hand on her back.

  She watched spots of light dance at the backs of her eyes. Could he? She wanted to say yes and get far away from the muddy, smoky field, but the thought of shifting, even an inch, terrified her. She pushed her attention to the baby and tried to connect. She felt life, a stirring perhaps, but nothing to convince her that their baby girl was okay. What if she moved and the baby died?

  Abby's arms shook as tears ran down her face.

  Sebastian pressed his hand into her chest and eased her up. She cried harder as spasms snaked through her body. She reached a hand again toward the silvery light, but then Sebastian had lifted her into his arms and begun walking across the field. She could no longer see the altar that contained her mother. She watched the twinkling stars and tried to feel the child inside of her.

  ****

  "Are you sure she's okay?" Sebastian asked again. He hovered over Ezra's shoulder as she removed the blood pressure cuff from Abby's arm.

  Ezra squeezed his hand and smiled.

  "She is, Sebastian. Blood pressure is down, fever is down. I think that level of spell casting, it pulls in such a huge amount of energy, and just caused a nasty attack of pregnancy sickness. It's normal, you know? I'm not a midwife, but I've worked with a lot of pregnant women. Abby's body gets fatigued easier, simple as that."

  "Which is why she should be taking it easy," he muttered.

  Ezra nodded.

  "True enough, but consider things from her perspective. She's a brand-new witch with all these powers and energy in the midst of a major crisis. Even if she wanted to lie around all day, she probably couldn't."

  "At what point should she start doing that?"

  "I don't know. It's going to depend on her body. I would recommend this: get one of the witches of Ula on board as a midwife or ask them to connect you to a witch midwife. This is her first baby, both of yours, and you're going to have questions and need the support."

  "That's a good idea," he confessed. "Funny that we hadn't even thought about it."

  Sebastian moved to Abby's bed. He smoothed the tangled curls away from her face. She looked pale and drawn. Her cheekbones seemed more pronounced and her lips small and colorless in her face.

  He knew if Ezra put the blood pressure cuff on him, it'd be through the roof. He could feel blood pounding in his ears and pumping through his veins. The death of his family, the murder of Claire in particular, should have made him stronger, more capable of dealing with illness, but it had the opposite effect. He grew anxious, scared and then finally angry. He wanted to make Abby better. He wanted to punch Julian in the face.

  "Here." Ezra held out a handful of heart-shaped candy.

  "What is it?" he asked, examining the tiny red and yellow candy.

  "Tranquilizing treats, or Kendra calls them sugary sedatives. Many names, same impact."

  Sebastian shook his head.

  "I don't want to sleep."

  "They won't make you sleep, just relax a bit. They're mostly herbs, a bit of honey and drop of magic. They can really soothe the senses. I promise you'll be fully present, just a little less..."

  "Nuts?"

  "I was going to say anxious."

  "How's she doing?' Oliver asked, creeping into the room and edging the door closed.

  He had returned an hour earlier with Julian and Helena. They had a special room set up for Becky on the first floor, and Helena would stay with her through the night to observe and ensure that nothing strange occurred.

  Sebastian took the candy and threw them into his mouth. They tasted sweet and flowery.

  "She's doing better," Sebastian told Oliver, though he said it more for himself. He touched her face, relieved to feel her skin cool to the touch. Her temperature had been down for a while, but he couldn't help checking every few minutes.

  "You're like a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs," Oliver joked.

  Sebastian glared at him, but bit back the retort on his lips. He could easily direct his anger at Oliver. The guy just rubbed him the wrong way. If he dug deep, he knew his feelings arose from envy. He felt envious that Oliver was a witch, of his easy friendship with Abby, of his carefree attitude with life.

  "Don't you take anything seriously?" Sebastian asked, trying to temper his outrage.

  Ezra looked back and forth between them, cocking an eyebrow.

  "I see," she said finally.

  "You see what?" Oliver asked, ignoring Sebastian's question and stare.

  "Like two sides of the same coin, you guys are so alike that you magnetize apart."

  "Hardly," Sebastian scoffed.

  "Maybe if I were an angry, brooding goat," Oliver countered.

  Ezra laughed and shook her head.

  "It's true. I'm a witch, remember? I know these things."

  ****

  "I don't feel the heaviness," Helena admitted, rubbing her hands along Becky's temples.

  "It's gone, the shadow. I watched it slip out of her. I think Abby saw it too," Julian said triumphantly.

  Helena narrowed her eyes at him.

  "You were out of line out there, Julian. You do know that, right?"

  Julian's face darkened.

  "This isn't high school, Helena. You know that if we broke that spell, all of our efforts would have been wasted."

  "You said yourself that the shadow had already left."

  "And may have been lurking nearby, tethered to Becky's energy body. As long as that light was coming in, we needed to hold the space."

  Helena sighed and looked awa
y. There had been a time when she felt so close to Julian. Miranda had been her best friend. She had loved them both without condition, but after Miranda's death, Julian delved further into the extremes. He lost some critical piece of his humanity. Helena had secretly hoped that the years had restored it, but could see they had not.

  Julian moved along Becky's body, letting his hands drift just above her.

  "Nothing dense," he said finally.

  "I'm going to make a cup of coffee and then you can head to bed," Helena told him.

  ****

  "So, what now?" Abby asked Helena after they had returned to Abby and Sebastian's house in Trager. Abby's mother had checked out of the spa with a smile and taken a cab to the train station to return to Lansing. Becky was in the dark about the true intentions of the weekend and did not realize her daughter had been watching her from an upstairs window. Abby couldn't help but feel hopeful.

  "Now we wait. I know that's the last thing you want to hear."

  "Actually, I don't mind hearing that. I'm exhausted."

  Helena took her hands and squeezed.

  "You're living for two. One life is tiring, two, well...you're getting a glimpse of that experience."

  "Speaking of the baby," Abby added. "Sebastian and I talked this morning about a midwife. Ezra thought you or Elda might know of a witch midwife?"

  "You're looking at one," Helena beamed. "I haven't delivered a baby since Lydie, but I would love to care for you, Abby, if you'd have me."

  "Wow really?" Abby asked eagerly. "You delivered Lydie?"

  "With my own two hands."

  She held up her hands and looked at them.

  "Thanks to you they're good as new and now we're practically family."

  Helena referred to the blood that Abby had given Helena to heal her.

  "I'd love for you to be our midwife, Helena."

  "And I would be honored, honey. When can we get started?"

  "Started?"

  "Sure, go over all the fun changes that are happening in your body, make sure you're eating and doing all the right stuff."

  "Lamaze?"

  Helena laughed.

  "We will cover breathing, but at this point your meditation training will have taken care of a lot of that."

  "Sebastian's going to be so excited," Abby told her.

  He would be too. Sebastian loved Helena. She was by far his favorite witch at Ula, excluding Abby, of course.

  Abby hugged Helena goodbye and walked into her house. It smelled like home, and she inhaled deeply as she moved through the rooms. It also felt freezing cold. She shivered and wrapped her arms across her chest. She walked to the heater and checked the thermostat. Fifty-six degrees. She turned it up and waited to hear the furnace kick on. Silence.

  Gathering some newspaper from the recycling bin, she squatted in front of the fireplace and quickly made a fire. Adding two logs and lighting the kindling, the fire gradually came to life. She held her hands in front of the heat and rubbed them together.

  A floorboard creaked overhead and she paused, listening. She heard it again.

  Hating to abandon the warmth, she plucked a blanket from the couch and wrapped it around her shoulders. Oliver and Sebastian had gone to the woods to check out the area that they believed the map discovered in the Kanti Files depicted. As she walked up the stairs, Abby wondered if she shouldn't wait for them to return.

  "Don't be silly," she said. "You're a witch after all."

  Before she reached the door to the nursery, she sensed the energy inside. Abby touched the knob, ice-cold, and slowly turned the handle.

  Gathering her energy, she shoved the door open and lunged into the room, ready to confront the evil waiting for her. For an instant, she saw her. Kanti.

  Chapter 22

  The spirit dissolved just as she turned her black eyes on Abby. Abby stood rooted in place, frozen by the pure hatred that had shone from the eyes of the ghost. The tiny white birds above the bassinet swayed as if agitated by the presence.

  Downstairs she heard the door open and then slam closed.

  "Abby?" Sebastian called.

  She waited for another moment, finally allowing her breath to release. She fought the urge to race downstairs and tell Sebastian about the spirit. Abby didn't know why she preferred to keep the secret, but she feared revealing that Kanti had come into their home.

  ****

  Tall and thin with wiry dark curls, the woman moved through the terminal like she owned the place.

  "I think that's her," Abby whispered, elbowing Oliver and nodding her head.

  Abby and Oliver had driven to Michigan's Upper Peninsula to meet Lorna after Gwen had called Abby to inform her that she'd finally talked to the woman and set up a meeting.

  Sebastian had allowed Oliver to go in his place because he insisted that he needed to fix their furnace. Abby had almost argued with him, hating to leave him behind, but realized it would be an icy night if they didn't get it fixed. She also knew how important it was for Sebastian to take care of things around the house and she didn't want to strip him of that by insisting that he go.

  "How do you know?" Oliver asked from the corner of his mouth. He wore a long tan trench coat and a bowler hat cocked to partially cover his face.

  "You look ridiculous," she reminded him, yet again.

  "I look like a P.I.," he corrected her, still talking out of the corner of his mouth. "Think Sherlock Holmes, Inspector Gadget, you get the drift."

  He winked at her from the eye not covered by his hat and she sighed, exasperated.

  The woman stopped by the fountain in the center of the terminal and scanned the faces around her. When her gaze moved over Abby, she paused.

  Abby lifted her hand and smiled.

  The woman's eyes shifted to Oliver and she frowned.

  "She's going to freak out and run," Abby told him, reaching up to snatch the hat from his head.

  Oliver laughed and tried to grab it back.

  "Okay, you win, no hat," he told her, holding up his hands. "Let's go meet her."

  He grabbed Abby's hand and began to pull her towards the woman who watched them suspiciously. She did not run.

  "Lorna?" Abby asked, stopping in front of her and extending a hand.

  "I recognize you from Sydney's pictures," Lorna said.

  She shook her hand briskly.

  "But who are you?" She looked at Oliver distrustfully.

  "Oliver," he offered a hand and a huge smile. "Sorry for the outfit, Abby tried to tone it down, but I couldn't help myself."

  "You think this is a joke?" she hissed.

  "No, of course not," Abby insisted.

  "No," Oliver added. "I'm really sorry. I didn't mean to offend you. We've been under a lot of pressure. I was just trying to lighten the mood."

  Lorna studied him for another moment, her lips pursed in a thin line.

  "There's a cafeteria upstairs. I'm assuming you have some way to muffle our conversation?" Her words held an accusatory tone.

  Abby looked at Oliver questioning. She didn't know any magic to block their conversation.

  "Yeah, not a problem at all," he assured them both.

  They followed Lorna to an escalator. As they rose toward the second floor, the woman continued to scan the room. Occasionally her eyes narrowed on a person walking through a doorway or talking on the phone, but she didn't reveal her suspicions, if she had them.

  She chose a small table tucked into a corner and sat with her back to the wall.

  "Can I grab us a few coffees?" Oliver asked, gesturing toward the counter.

  "If you want an ulcer." Lorna replied coldly.

  "I'll take an ice tea, please," Abby told him, smiling.

  "Nothing for you?" Oliver tried again. "A soda?"

  She shook her head.

  "I don't drink from public places. Who knows what someone might slip into my cup."

  Oliver arched his eyebrows at Abby, but didn't say anymore.

  As he moved toward th
e counter, Lorna relaxed, leaning back in her chair.

  "Gwen said that you would bring Sebastian. I am familiar with him. This person," she flicked a hand toward Oliver, "is a stranger to me."

  "I'm sorry about that," Abby said. "But you're a stranger to me as well and Sebastian couldn't make it. Oliver is my friend and he's a good..."

  "Witch?"

  Abby nodded.

  "Are you in hiding?" Abby asked.

  "Yes."

  "Do you have any reason to believe that they're after you? The Vepars?"

  Lorna's eyes darted around the room.

  "The problem Abby is that I don't know what I'm looking for. I don't have the gifts you have. One of them could sell me a bus ticket and I'd be none the wiser."

  "Well I hardly think..."

  "Of course you think that's ridiculous. So do I, but the truth is that I am powerless against those creatures. Powerless!" Her voice began to rise and Abby looked desperately toward Oliver.

  He paid the cashier and returned to the table.

  "Now I see why we need to shield our voices," he joked, but Lorna gave him an acid look. "This will just take a minute."

  He walked in a circle around their table, pretending to look for something that he'd dropped, but actually whispering an incantation under his breath.

  He took the seat next to Abby.

  "We're all good," he told them.

  Abby sipped her tea and continued.

  "I can see that you're scared Lorna and I get it. I'm not going to lie and pretend that it's unjustified. The truth is that we don't know what the Vepars are up to either."

  "But they killed Stephen?"

  "Yes," Abby admitted. "Oliver saw his body."

  "You?" she narrowed her eyes on Oliver.

  "Yeah. I recognized him from his pictures."

  Lorna closed her eyes as if trying to regain her composure.

  "They were my family. The Asemaa. Sydney, Gwen, Stephen, Karl and Meghan, and of course, Ebony. Now they're gone. Dead or scattered. Our lives have been stolen. We can never go back."

  "I'm so sorry." Abby took her hand and Lorna started to pull away, but then stopped.

  "Can we help?" Oliver asked. "Help you find a safe place? Cast protection spells around your home?"