I opened my mouth, but no words came out. All I could do was stare.
“She’s breathing.” Trey smiled but it vanished almost instantly. His brown eyes widened. He scanned the three of us then looked around expectantly. “Where’s Warner?”
My heart sank. “We lost him…but we’re retracing our steps to find him.”
“What? No.” Trey shook his head and got to his feet, with Erin still in his arms. “She’s not going to make it much longer. We gotta get her back to Eden now.”
Gen squeezed her eyes shut. “Erin can’t wait while we search for Warner. You can feel that, can’t you?”
“Yes.” Jackson groaned and hung his head. His face was pale. “Okay. Damn it. We bring Erin home then we come back for Warner. I will not give up on him.”
“We’ll come back,” Gen and I said at the same time.
Jackson moved away, walking to the edge of the pathway where it snaked around another corner. He pointed with his sword. “I can see about a dozen of those flowers, so let’s keep going before something else finds us.”
This time, I let Jackson lead us. My nerves were shot, my body zapped. I just wanted to curl up in my bed and sleep for a few hours, then come back and save Warner. I was going to find him, one way or another. He’d been alive, so we’d search for him until we had a reason not to. Once Erin was in the infirmary, we’d ask The Coven for help then return.
After what felt like an eternity, we followed the path around a tree and wound up right in front of a wall of fog. We stopped and stared at it. I squinted and tried to see through it, but it was no use. I couldn’t see a damn thing. There was no knowing if this was the fog that would lead us to the gate back to Eden or if this was just some random weather condition, or a trap to lure us in.
Jackson sighed then held his left hand out to me. “Let’s hang on to each other, just in case.”
Oh, right. He wasn’t just trying to hold my hand. I knew that. I did. But my heart sank all the same. I took a deep breath then put my hand in his. Be cool, be cool. My pulse fluttered then kicked into hyerspeed.
Gen hooked her arms around mine and Trey’s. Jackson took a deep breath and raised his sword…then walked into the fog.
I squeezed my eyes shut and concentrated on the heat coming off of Jackson’s hand, and the way he tangled his fingers with mine. The fog was cold and thick, and it was hard to breathe while inside it. But the second clear air hit my nose, I opened my eyes…and almost cried.
Standing right there in front of us was that black wrought iron gate. The one with silver and gold runes etched into the metal. I sagged with relief and leaned into Jackson’s arm. He squeezed my hand tighter.
“Thank you, Goddess,” Gen whispered.
I cleared my throat and nudged Jackson’s arm. “Let’s get out of here.”
Jackson pulled us all along toward the gate. It swung open on its own. The second my feet stepped onto Eden’s side of the world, I felt some of the tension leave my body. Not all of it, but some. I was still terrified for Erin and Warner.
Cold air swept over us. I shivered and huddled closer to Jackson then looked around. The grass was darker. The trees were a little barer, but the leaves were vibrant with color. Twinkling stars dusted the jet-black sky. I frowned. It hadn’t felt this cold before we left. Could autumn have hit that hard that fast?
“Where is everyone?” Genevieve said in a low voice.
The school seemed empty. The night was quiet, the silence deafening. My pulse bounced all over the place. How long were we gone? Can the Old Lands skip years at once? Oh Goddess, what if it’s after Samhain? What if The Coven lost and this is the new world? I shivered at the thought.
But then we walked around the building and I gasped.
The entire student body was huddled close together in the school’s courtyard. They all donned their school cloaks. No one spoke. Everyone just stared up at the sky like they were waiting for something. Thanks to the location of the gate, we’d walked out in front of the entire courtyard. Hundreds of eyes snapped to us and widened. People gasped and pointed.
“Oh my Goddess! ERIN?” a girl yelled, and it wasn’t until she was right up on us that I recognized her as Marcia Landry, the Cups Major. She placed her hand on Erin’s forehead and grimaced. “What happened?”
“She got hurt in the Old Lands—”
“We’ve got to get her to Mona!” Marcia moved some students out of the way. “Come on. Carry her over here!”
Trey jumped into action and raced after Marcia to what I assumed was the infirmary or healing building. Then it was just Jackson and Gen…and the rest of the school. Though none of them seemed to be paying much attention to us, if any at all. The courtyard was tense. I counted at least a few dozen chewing on their fingernails. Cold, panicked energy bounced around from person to person.
Genevieve frowned and scratched her head. “What’s going on here?”
“Happy Halloween,” a deep, smoky male voice said.
I jumped and spun around, then my eyes widened and I grinned. “Lonan!”
Lonan nodded. “Man, I was starting to worry about you guys. Glad you made it.”
Jackson scowled so hard his eyebrows hung low over his eyes. “Did you say Halloween?”
“OH MY GOD, THE GAP!” I turned to the crowd. “Did they close it?!”
Lonan pointed to the front of the courtyard, in front of all the students.
My heart sank. Butterflies bounced around inside me. He didn’t need to say it out loud. Floating in the sky were glowing white numbers that read: 11:59:04.
Chapter Forty-Seven
JACKSON
This is it. Over three hundred years of waiting.
And there was less than a minute left. My heart pounded, sending adrenaline rushing through my body. I shifted my weight around, unable to stand still but not wanting to move away from that timer. The only thing keeping me from a full-out nervous breakdown was Bettina’s hand in mine. I’d grabbed it before we went through the fog and hadn’t let go. She hadn’t, either, and I knew I was in trouble. Something had happened between us. Something had shifted inside me. Maybe it was stress and the realization of just how short life was, but I couldn’t push her aside anymore. That was just as big of a distraction.
“Oh god, longest minute ever,” Bettina groaned and leaned into my arm. She squeezed my hand between both of hers and bounced on her feet.
The timer read 11:59:36.
The deadline was upon us. We had no idea what was happening in Salem or how The Coven was doing. All we could do was wait, and it was torturous. Like nails down a chalkboard. I cringed and stared at the timer as the seconds ticked by. Time seemed to slow down. Every second sent a tremor through my body. The whole world seemed frozen, like it knew its fate was on the line. No breezes, no animal sounds, even the stars were fainter.
11:59:52
The world rumbled around us. Little chunks of dirt and grass rose off the ground then swirled, hovering in the air. The moon and stars sank lower in the sky. The trees around the courtyard swayed then leaned toward us.
My stomach sank. I turned my gaze back to the timer.
11:59:58
The whole courtyard full of witches gasped. I reached out with my other hand and grabbed onto whoever was next to me.. The energy around us grew tight and weighed down on us.
Lightning flashed across the sky like a giant spiderweb. A force of energy stronger than I’d ever experienced slammed into the ground like a bomb, and then the world exploded. Bright white and golden light erupted above us, blanketing the sky like the biggest, most insane fireworks display I’d ever seen. A cool gust of wind ripped through the courtyard, and then the sky flashed and shimmered a neon blue.
“IT’S CLOSED!!” Headmaster Daniel screamed and threw his fists up in the air. “THEY DID IT!”
Oh my Goddess, they did it! The Gap is closed!
The courtyard exploded with cheers. There were victorious screams all around. People thr
ew their hats in the air. Wands rose up in the air, bright-colored lights poured from the tips, and then little blasts of magic burst in the air.
I turned and wrapped Bettina in a tight hug. Her arms went around my neck in an instant. I laughed and spun her around in a circle. Then before I could stop myself, I cupped her face and dragged her mouth to mine. It didn’t matter that the whole school was standing next to us. It didn’t matter that I was probably going to have questions to answer later. It didn’t matter that she was the biggest distraction I couldn’t afford. All I knew was the world was not ending, and her lips felt like Heaven against mine.
Chapter Forty-Eight
JACKSON
I couldn’t have said how much time had passed while we all celebrated and cheered together. The world blurred, and for those moments, I felt light and stress-free, for the first time since I was a little boy.
I smiled and turned. “Man, Warner—” I gasped.
Warner wasn’t there.
My body turned to ice as I froze, and everything crashed around me. Warner. My best friend in the whole world had disappeared in the Old Lands. A strangled kind of groan escaped my lips. All of the emotions I’d pushed aside came back now with a vengeance.
I left him in there. Why did I do that? I knew why I did it. Erin was barely clinging to life, she didn’t have any time to spare. Searching for Warner then might’ve cost both their lives. I couldn’t regret my plan when it meant giving another friend a chance to survive. But my heart hurt, standing here now without him, I felt like the worst friend in the whole world. Everyone around me was grinning and laughing, dancing around little bonfires. The entire campus of Edenburg had turned into one giant party.
I swallowed through a hot lump in my throat. There was no time to wait. Erin was getting the help she needed, and I prayed she’d make it through, but right now I needed to concentrate on Warner. He needed me. I glanced over my shoulder and found Bettina and Genevieve eating something, but neither of them smiled. They had ghosted looks in their eyes, and I knew they were thinking the same thing I was—it was hard to celebrate when you’d left someone behind. We promised each other we’d go right back to find him, and that was what we were going to do.
I dug into my jeans pocket and pulled out my cell phone. My fingers trembled as I pulled up Timothy’s name in my contacts. He’ll know what to do. He’ll know. Just tell him.
The phone rang twice, and then the familiar deep, gruffy voice said, “Hello?”
“Timothy! Look, we just got back from the Old Lands a few minutes ago, but I need your help.” I knew I was speaking too fast, but I couldn’t slow myself down. My brain had snapped into panic mode, one I wasn’t familiar with. “I need your help. I know you’re busy —"
“Jackson? You all rig— Whoa, whoa, whoa, slow down. What happened?”
Students squealed with laughter beside me. I covered my ear and jogged away, over to the far edge of the courtyard where there were less people. “Warner got lost in the Old Lands. We have to go back! Can you come to Eden? We need help.”
“Can you portal me to Eden right now?” Timothy’s voice sounded farther away as he spoke to someone on his end.
Then I heard an unfamiliar female voice say, “Of course.”
“Jackson, listen I can barely hear you,” Timothy said in a rush. “Just hang tight. I’m coming.”
I groaned. “Okay, but we need to get back to the Old Lands now—"
“No, no. Stay at school. I’ll be there in a minute. Stay where you are.”
And then he hung up. I sighed and bounced on my feet. I wasn’t sure if he’d heard anything I said, but he was coming. That was all that mattered. Timothy was my mentor, more like a father to me than my own father. Granted, I’d seen Timothy almost every day for ten years, whereas I’d seen my family in England maybe a handful of times since they’d shipped me away.
I couldn’t believe I’d left Warner behind. The guilt was eating away at me.
Just breathe, Jackson. You didn’t have another choice. I really hadn’t. We’d looked for him where we fell, but he wasn’t there. It wasn’t like we knew how to get back to that dark place with the fire. I gnawed on my bottom lip and sank down onto the short, bricked wall. The last thing I needed was for other people to see me freaking out. My legs bounced. I wrung my hands together.
Then there was a flash of white light, and Timothy appeared right out of thin air. I leapt to my feet and jogged over to where he stood. When I got there, I found Constance right beside him. But in front of them was a girl I’d never seen before. She had long midnight-black hair and the palest green eyes I’d ever seen. She was strikingly beautiful yet overwhelmingly intimidating, like a jungle cat.
I took a step back.
The girl winked, then turned to say something to The Coven Leaders…and then she was gone.
I blinked and shook my head. “Bloody hell, what was—”
Timothy smiled and shrugged. “The High Priestess. She can portal.”
“Where’s Daniel?” Constance cried, her blue eyes wide as she scanned the courtyard. “Is he okay? Where is he?”
I pointed to the front. “Last I saw, he was up there with Lonan—”
She sprinted away and disappeared into the crowd.
Timothy gripped my shoulder, a comforting reminder that he was here. “Jackson, what’s going on? You sounded panicked.”
I am. I ran my hand through my hair and opened my mouth to speak.
“TIMOTHY!” Bettina screamed and rushed past me. She wrapped her arms around Timothy in a big bear hug then jumped back. Her cheeks flushed a bright pink. “Oh my Goddess, you’re back! Are you okay? Y’all did it!”
Gen popped up beside her and playfully smacked Timothy’s arm. “Timothy Scissorhands, you’re alive!”
“Of course he is.” Trey scoffed from suddenly right beside me. He gave Timothy a high five. “Congrats on a freaking awesome job. Well done, man.”
Timothy grinned. It was only then I realized he looked like shit. His clothes were torn and sliced up, burned in more than one place. He had fresh blood spilling from wounds and black demon blood caked on his clothes and boots. His skin was pale, and there were new wrinkles around his eyes.
“Thanks, guys. Just glad that’s over.”
“Is everyone okay?” Bettina asked softly.
Timothy’s smiled vanished, and his face fell. He closed his eyes and shook his head. “Larissa, the Tower Card, fell. We just—we just did her funeral ceremony.”
We all fell silent.
There was something in his eyes that made me ask, “Anyone else?”
He grimaced and nodded. “Kenneth…has succumbed to Witch’s Shock. He saved our young Hierophant in the process, but he went down. He’s still alive, though. Katherine is trying her best—”
“Katherine? As in—”
“Yeah, that Katherine.” Timothy sighed and looked around the courtyard. “Anyway, the Gap is closed. A lot of nasty demons got in in the process, but we’ll hunt them down. For now, The Coven has returned home to see their families. But what’s going on here? You called in a panic saying you needed my help. Something about going back to the Old Lands— Wait…where’s Warner and Erin?”
My heart sank. “Erin was injured by…well, I have no idea what.”
“I brought her to the infirmary.” Trey cleared his throat. “Marcia and Mona have her.”
Bettina’s eyes filled with tears.
“Warner is in the Old Lands. We lost him, and we need to go back and look for him—”
Timothy held his palms up. “Okay. We’ll look for him. Now tell me where you lost him?”
“The fire,” Bettina whispered. She closed her eyes and shuddered. “It was complete blackness there except for the fire. The flames made out shapes of runes and changed colors. There was a walkway in between them, but when we tried to go…they just disappeared.”
“One second I was standing there with her and Warner, then the next I was alone with
just the fire.” I scrubbed my face with my hand. “I kept hearing these voices, and Warner’s, screaming for help, but I couldn’t see anyone.”
“Between the balefire, the runes shall dance,” Timothy whispered.
My heart stopped. “What is that? What did you say?”
He shook his head. “That was a line in the prophecy that sent The Coven into the Old Lands back in August. Apparently the High Priestess and the Empress were almost lost there, like you. Your story matches theirs.” He cursed and pinched the bridge of his nose.
I glanced over to my friends, and they looked as stunned as I felt.
Timothy groaned. “Okay. We will go back in to try and get Warner out, and anyone else stuck in the balefire. But not tonight—”
“But Warner—”
“Not tonight.” Timothy sighed and pulled out his cell phone. “I’ve just been in one hell of a war. I need to recoup a few hours before we attempt this. Before we go, I need to talk to my Coven-mates and do some research. We won’t go in blind. Now go eat. Sleep. Tomorrow, we go.”
Chapter Forty-Nine
JACKSON
Two hours later, I was still wide awake and staring at the wall. I’d eaten, but I hadn’t tasted it. I’d showered, but it hadn’t been refreshing. So there I sat, on the edge of my bed, staring at Warner’s empty one.
He was my best friend, and he was stuck in that awful place, probably still screaming out for help. I wondered if he could tell how much time was passing or if it felt like seconds. Would he be mad at me when he found out that we didn’t go right back to save him? Or would he understand? I didn’t know what this balefire was or if it would break his mind if he was in there too long.
I was spiraling down a well of despair and worry.
There was a knock on my door, and then it swung open with a creak. I looked up and found Bettina standing in my doorway. Her long blonde hair fell in waves to her elbows. The golden light pouring in from the hallway behind her made her look like an angel with a golden halo. I sighed and drank in the sight of her.
The Coven - Academy Magic Complete Series Page 23