by Allie Burke
Christian kept his distance, intentionally leaving space between him and Jane’s terror. He leaned against the trunk of his favorite tree for a while, and then made his way to the lake. He found Jane sitting on one of the white rocks, her head between her knees. He joined her.
“Surprised you didn’t go in,” he said.
She looked up at him with a reddened face. Anger, sadness, confusion, but no tears. Yet.
“I don’t feel like being an Enchanter right now.”
“You don’t get to choose who you are, Jane.”
“Yeah,” she laughed lamely, “wouldn’t that be nice.”
Christian removed a carelessly wrapped joint from his pocket, and handed it to her. It was a miracle it was still intact. It looked like a five year old had rolled it.
“You still can’t roll a joint? Why don’t you just use a pipe?”
“What, some bright glass thing like a stoner teenager? No, thanks.”
Jane shook her head, crumpling it and dropping the remains on the ground. She held out her hand, folded her fingers into her palm. He reached into his pocket again, and handed her a plastic baggie stuffed with homegrown marijuana and a packet of papers. She opened the seal, and Christian inhaled the scent, basking in its earth.
Jane couldn’t help but roll with two hands. She tried to hide what was on her finger by pushing it to the side, but the red jewel still gleamed up at him from her left hand.
“Have you told him?”
She wouldn’t look at him. “No.”
“So you’re pissed at him because he’s an Enchanter, not really something he can control, but it’s okay for you to keep from him the truth about the death of his grandmother?”
He watched her glide her tongue slowly across the paper. He inhaled quiet, deep breaths. He swore she did that on purpose.
“Give me a lighter,” she said.
He eased a green one out of his pocket and handed it to her. She lit the joint, inhaling a long drag. The tip of the white paper glowed in the darkness, brightening her beautiful face. She held the joint in front of him, passing it, but it took him a moment to look away from her. She glared at him with an attitude that he didn’t remember. Bitchy.
“What’s the matter with you?” he asked.
“Let me see. My destiny man is Fire, out of nowhere. Fifty Enchanters are on their way to kill me. You hate me. Do I really need to go on?”
“Shut up.” She knew what he meant.
As her features finally softened, he stiffened, fighting the urge to touch her cheek, to hold her, to kiss her.
“I’m pregnant,” she said.
Christian hit the joint, avoiding her words. He closed his eyes, calming his inner turmoil. She needed him, even if was just for right now, even if she would never need him again.
“What a coincidence,” he said.
“You’re pregnant too?”
He rolled his eyes at her corny humor. “My girlfriend just gave birth to my son.”
“You’re girlfriend?” She didn’t seem jealous, just curious.
“Some dumb blonde who thinks I love her.”
Jane laughed. That perfect melody of a laugh that made his toes tingle. “You’re such an asshole.”
“You say it like you didn’t know that already.”
“What’s his name?” she asked.
“Evan.”
“Is he—”
“Yes. He’s a Reed.”
Jane closed her eyes. They flickered sporadically. She was thinking about something.
“Here,” he handed her the joint.
She shifted to grab it, but her hands started shaking, her mouth opened wide. Her forehead glistened. She was sweating. He held her hand.
“If he won’t save himself,” he said, “you’re the only one who can.”
“Elias,” she breathed.
Jane stepped out of the trees with Christian at her side. Elias sat on the top step of her porch, his aura flickering like a bloody sun. It was strong; it stuck with him. He stood up, but stumbled. She ran to him.
She reached her porch, and jumped into his arms. She ignored his feverish, sweaty skin, his violent trembles, and she kissed him. As he passionately held her against him, the whole world disappeared. It was just him. It had always been him.
“Jane,” Christian’s unnaturally calm voice beckoned to her from some distant place. “Do it. Now.”
Jane grasped Elias’s arms tight, and pushed him away from her. His skin turned ghastly pale as his muscles weakened under her fingertips.
“Jane.” Christian again.
“I love you,” she whispered, and she set him on fire. Christian pulled her back. Elias’s expression was a hurtful accusation as he gazed into her eyes through the flames burning his entire body.
“Don’t fight it, baby,” she cried, “you have to let it take you—”
Elias’s face twisted. His head fell back, he writhed and screamed in pain. Christian’s hold on her was not strong enough. She fell to her knees. She was no human at all. How could she leave him, a brand new Enchanter, the love of her life, to bathe in his own uncontrollable emotions? She watched him trip on the top ledge, watched him collapse and roll to the ground in front of her. She screamed. Tears clouded everything but the bright red flames. Her sobs pierced her ears. She was still aware of Christian holding her, but she couldn’t feel him. Blackness consumed her very existence.
“I’m sorry,” she said, and the whole world disappeared again.
Chapter 22
Elias’s pinky twitched, and he was suddenly aware of himself. Everything came pouring down on him like a bad dream. It wasn’t, though. Much too vivid, much too real.
He opened his eyes. The first thing he saw was a round, burly man, sitting in a chair directly in front of him. He had a bald head, and a full beard.
“Hello. I’m Cameron.”
Elias’s voice cracked like a puberty ridden thirteen year old. “Jane.”
“Christian’s got her. She’s asleep in the back.”
The back of where? Elias looked around. Purple. He was on Jane’s couch. The back. The bedroom. With Christian. Elias felt his eyes bulge.
“Take it easy,” Cameron said. “She can kill him too easily.” A gurthy, southern chuckle filled the space between them.
Elias ignored him.
“How ya feelin’?”
Elias took a moment to think about it, and felt something soft covering him. He looked down. A blanket. He had a blanket on, and he wasn’t hot.
He held out his arm to Cameron. “Do I feel hot?”
Cameron sandwiched Elias’s arm between his hands. “Yes. But you shouldn’t feel it. Your energy will protect you from the fire.”
“Well, shit. That’s the best news I’ve heard all night.”
Cameron laughed again. “Can you sit up?”
“Yeah,” he leaned up against the arm of the couch.
Cameron reached into his pocket. He handed Elias a folded piece of paper. A letter, discolored with age, wrinkled every which way. It had been read more than once.
Cameron cleared his throat. “Read it. And then burn it. If Jane ever finds out it still exists, I’m a dead man.” Cameron got up, and took his chair with him out of the room.
Elias opened the note, and read.
Dearest Jane,
If you have received this letter, my soul has passed on and I have left you. I am sorry. I know I will miss you.
Janie, I don’t know that I have made the right choices in life, for you. I have done my very best, I can assure you. You are so special, I hope you realize that. Someday, you will be the most powerful, beautiful person on this earth and it makes me sad that I shall not see the day. Someone will be there, Janie, to love you and to hold you forever in his arms. You will know the true destiny that will shape your life. I promise.
Janie, I am leaving you everything I have. You shall never have to work one day in your life. I hate to do this to you, but I must ask that you do
me one last favor. If you feel that you cannot bear the responsibility, I will understand, but I hope you can be strong for me, because this much I owe to my dearest friend.
I need you to pass a message to Jeanine. Please do not show her this letter, I shall be mortified if she sees it in my own hand, even while I lie in my grave. Jeanine’s mother, Eve, did not drown. She did die, but it was not an accident as Jeanine has thought all these years. Eve Hadley was murdered. I killed her.
Elias gasped, his eyes circling around the room. He was alone. He had forgotten where he was as he read, completely lost in this person’s words.
His mother knew about this, he knew his mother knew. She spoke about Annabelle, she spoke about Eve, she got that glisten in her eyes when she knew something no one else did. Kate knew, and somehow, Jeanine did not. He looked back down at the letter, continued reading.
I know what you must be thinking. But please look deep down into your heart, and remember who I am.
Eve Hadley was an Enchanter. Jeanine and her sister were aware of their family history, of what their mother was. Eve was Fire and she had an aura as bright as your hair. She was out of control. She cared for no Enchanter’s well being, their secret, or their lives. She would have killed, even humans, if given the chance. She used her gifts in public. We tried to help her, but she would not be reasoned with. She was endangering her kind. She had to be silenced. I caught her at a weak point, and drowned her with Jasmyn at my side. She never forgave me for what I did, Jasmyn. She didn’t agree with my choice.
Jane, I am truly sorry, for this must come as a shock. I hope you can forgive me, but most of all, I hope that Jeanine can. I know that the loss of her mother caused a great heartache and changed her life forever.
The red necklace I have left you belonged to Eve. Please return it to Jeanine. Please tell her I love her, and tell her I am sorry. I cannot wait to see her one day when it is her time. She has a beautiful soul.
Jane, I love you. Please take care of yourself, and whoever may stand at your side in the future.
Always, your grandmother,
Annabelle
P.S. Cameron, I know you’re reading this, you nosey fool. Take care of my granddaughter. And be good. I want to see you again someday.
Elias folded the note. The initial shock that the information had seeped in was gone. He didn’t concern himself with the obvious. He had no right to be upset about the death of a woman he never met. He only worried himself with what was hidden in the context. This letter revealed everything about Jane, and Elias believed that Cameron knew as much. That was why he gave him the letter.
Jane spent her entire life alone, secluded from everything normal. She didn’t know how to communicate; she never had anyone to communicate with. For a grandmother she had never known to show up on her doorstep out of the blue, walk into her life, and then shortly pass away, would be enough. Add the reality that her grandmother killed her friend’s mother, and left her with task of revealing the secret, that was too much for even the toughest men to bear.
Family could be the strongest force, if one believed it to be. For Enchanters, it seemed, family was everything. They relied on their ancestors to provide them with the power to survive, to show them the way. If Annabelle was a killer, then Jane was a killer.
Elias let out a long breath. He regretted every second of his self pity for the last year. He would not know real pain until he lived in Jane’s shoes for five minutes.
Elias got up, throwing the blanket off of him, and walked down the hallway to Jane’s bedroom.
Jane lied under the covers, propped up on the bed frame with a million pillows. Her body ached all over. Her heartache had spread to every limb, making it impossible to move. Christian lied next to her, and Cameron sat in a chair next to the bed. They were deep in discussion about something. She kept her eyes closed. They burned too much to keep them open.
“Hey, beautiful,” she heard him say. She stayed still. She was imagining things. Elias may be breathing out there in the living room, but he would never love her as he once had, never call her by that name again. She had risked his life just because she let her temper control her. A person didn’t come back from that.
Suddenly the room got quiet. She could hear Christian breathing next to her, but he wasn’t speaking to Cameron anymore.
“Don’t ignore me, babe.”
She opened her eyes. Filling up the doorway was her fiancée, her child’s father, her whole world. He looked great. His color had returned, his aura gone. He was actually smiling.
Elias walked in the room, and slapped a piece of paper onto Cameron’s chest.
“Annabelle says hi,” he said.
Jane turned her head and glared at Cameron. He hadn’t kept it, and then gave it to Elias?! Jane pressed her lips together, trapping the fury inside. She should have known better. Cameron was too kind, he would have never had the heart to get rid of it.
“Traitor,” Cameron said to Elias.
“Cameron Myers,” Jane said, “if you don’t walk out of this room right now, I will kill you myself.”
“Yes, Ma’am,” he said, and walked out. Christian followed, but he looked back at her before he shut the door. The meaning of his expression was simple. Regret. Sorrow. Hate. She knew him too well.
“How far are they?” Elias asked lightly.
“Couple hours, at least.”
“Well, I can help. That’s good, right?”
“Depends on how you look at it.”
Elias’s features still basked in happiness, but Jane couldn’t manage a smile. It was too much. She felt so weak. She didn’t know if it was emotional or physical. It was all the same now.
Elias walked to the other side of the bed, and got in with her. He pulled her down so she was really lying with him, and he kissed her softly. She closed her eyes as his hands held her face, his touch melting her into him. His lips moved away, too soon, and he grabbed her left hand, twiddling his grandmother’s ring around her finger.
“You’re still wearing it,” he said.
“Why would I take it off?”
“Christian—”
“Christian knows me. It’s not what you think.”
“What? That you and Christian were together for a really long time?”
“That I’m leaving you for Christian.”
“So you and Christian were together for a really long time?”
Jane let out a shaky breath. “Eight years.”
“What happened?”
“I left him. I had to.”
“What does that mean?”
Another shaky breath. Why did she think she would never have to tell him this story?
“Destiny, fate, whatever. It’s—he asked me to marry him. My energy spread through my body so thick, I felt like I was choking. I got so angry at him, I screamed and hit him. I told him to never come back.” Jane felt her wet tears slide down her face, but she didn’t have the strength to wipe them away. “He didn’t deserve it.”
“He loves you,” Elias said.
“No. He hates me.”
“Then why is he here?”
Jane didn’t have an answer for that.
“When did this happen?” Elias asked.
“The day before Annabelle knocked on my door. Two years ago.” Her tears flowed freely. “I’m so sorry, Elias.”
He looked into her eyes. “Can you still love me, Jane? Forget about destiny. Forget about Enchanters. Do you love Elias?” He placed her hand over his heart.
Her lip quivered and she inhaled short, quick breaths. They were loud and violent, threatening her chest with a total shutdown. Her eyes filled with moisture again. She blinked them away. “I love you, I’m sorry, Elias, I love you so much—”
Elias pressed her face into his chest, held her to him. “Okay, I’m sorry. That wasn’t fair. I’m sorry. Breathe. Just breathe.”
She eventually calmed down. She was a mental case. How would she ever get through this night? Without
him, she wouldn’t.
He lifted her chin so she would look at him. He gripped her hair and kissed her fiercely. Not like she was fragile, not like they were fighting. He kissed her like she was his, like she would always be his.
Elias removed her left hand from under the covers, and took off the ring. He slipped his hand into his pocket and pulled out a white gold ring with a huge diamond bursting from the top. Flawless sparkling diamonds, one in the middle, and smaller ones trailing down the sides.
“Tiffany’s,” Elias said. “Compliments of my mom.”
“It was your mom’s?”
“No, it’s new. She bought it for you.”
Jane finally felt herself smile. “What will you do with Eve’s ring?”
“Return it to Jeanine. The necklace too. I’ll tell her the truth.”
“Elias, it’s not your responsibility.”
“It’s not yours either.”
“Elias—”
“Shhh,” he eased the ring onto her finger. “Tell me you’ll be with me forever.”
Jane nodded. “Yes.” More tears. “Yes.”
He brought her closer, wanting to kiss her again, but he paused. A deep engine roared outside.
“Not them,” Jane said. “They’re on foot.”
“Why?”
“Enchanters. We’re so dramatic. I wouldn’t be surprised if they show up with wooden torches.”
“Who, then?”
“Don’t worry. It’s just a few—Oh!” She smiled, excited to play teacher. “How many?”
Elias moved to get up and walk to the window, but she held onto him. “No cheating. How many?”
Elias just shook his head, perplexed.
Jane slid her hand over his eyes, closing them. “What does your energy feel like?”