by Ruby Raine
No words. This was too much.
All this magic and supernatural stuff was just too much. He wanted to be done with it. Every time he came close to accepting it into his life, it threw another punch at him and changed the rules all over again.
“It’s okay if you never forgive me,” Mathew said softly. “I did leave without any valid reason. And quite suddenly. I understand your anger. You deserve to be angry. Please don’t take it out on the wrong people. Or magic. And my leaving wasn’t only because of the choice you were about to make.”
“Then why else?” squeezed out Lucas.
“Because my bosses saw what I naively pretended not to see. My feelings for you were getting in the way of my judgement. I might have messed things up for you.” And there’s too much at stake, he left off.
“You call coming here to the Isle, not messed up?” Lucas returned hotly. “I often wish I’d never stepped foot on the Isle, and often think I need to leave. And you will leave again too, won’t you? Will you even tell me this time? Or just disappear again and leave me another two-word note? I can save you the trouble. Don’t bother. I got the message.” Being, I thought you were falling in love with me, and instead, I got a two-word shitty excuse, that explained, nothing.
Mathew went silent for a moment.
“I won’t have a choice about when I leave, Lucas. I don’t mean that in any bitter sense, I love my afterlife. I love being a Guardian. It’s a perfect fit for me when in life, I did not fit in anywhere. You, Lucas, were not supposed to happen. Not that you were a mistake.” His tone held personal disappointment and sadness over the loss. Pained, by the hurt he’d caused. The love he’d found after hundreds of years believing he never would. And most likely, had now lost, forever.
Lucas turned to leave but spun around.
“I did happen, Mathew. We happened. We can’t pretend it didn’t. And you can’t make me forget it. And I don’t want to forget it,” his voice got tight. And wasn’t that the hardest thing he’d ever admitted. “We were talking about a future together. How do you do that when you don’t even have that option? Can you just quit being a Guardian?”
“No. Which is another reason why I had to leave.” But if you live the right life, you will be a Guardian, too. It took every ounce of strength he could find not to blurt that out. They could have a future. If Lucas chose the right path.
“I need to get away from here. From you. From all of them.” Lucas shook his head and stepped away. “Magic hasn’t changed. It’s still a curse. I am still cursed. It’s never going to change.”
“That could not be less true.” Mathew had to stop himself from saying more. If he messed this up there’d be serious hell to pay, and he’d never see Lucas again. At least while he was still alive and human. He’d sworn he was up to this task, and would not let the other Guardians down. The Howards had to deal with this Charlotte issue and he had the most knowledge about how.
“I’ve been living in the shadow of dark magic all my life, Mathew. Living with the fear that no matter what I do, I’m cursed no matter what. Always afraid of the consequence of every action.”
“A life I am all too familiar with, Lucas. My advice is, to stop. You will never truly live the life you’re meant to, if you fight it, and fear it, every step of the way.”
“You started to make me believe I could. And then you left. And I came here. And now, you are here too, with an agenda. Everyone here, has an agenda. All somehow, wanting me to choose a life I don’t want. You all want things for me that I do not want. I can’t believe anything you say to me, because everything you say, is meant to force me to accept this fate, and all for reasons you will not explain.”
“Cannot explain,” Mathew corrected dismally.
Trust, was so much harder to regain, once lost. Mathew feared it was too late, that he’d failed. That he’d end up being Lucas’ demise, not his salvation.
“I never meant to trick you, Lucas. That was never, is never, what I’m trying to do. My job as a Guardian is to guide. And yes, nudge you in the direction that seems best for you. I’m sorry it’s not the life you want, Lucas. I will never ask you to do anything you truly do not want to do, but, I would beg you to stay on the Isle. It is important. Whether you see it as an agenda, or me, or them, pushing you in a direction you don’t want to go, this is the right place for you to be.”
“Why?”
Lucas’ gaze cast downward.
“You can’t tell me, can you? It’s only my life, my future. Everyone seems to have their ideas about what’s best for me. But no one can tell me why.”
“In part, because of this,” Mathew waved his hand, aiming at Grayson and Lizzy. “This is not finished. And they will need your help.” His words warned, it’s about to get bad. So much worse than it had already been.
“What is happening?” Lucas sounded like he needed an answer to that question that was far more reaching than just the immediate danger.
“I’m sorry, Lucas. I know that’s not nearly enough. But I am so very sorry. Regardless of your current anger at me, please stay. You do care for these people, and they are going to need your help.” He watched Lucas look away to the exit, and back to the others. “I know how much magic frightens you. I have seen what it has cost you. But this isn’t just about magic, or you and me, and you do have to make a choice, Lucas.” Please make the right one, Mathew pleaded silently. Both our futures depend on your choices. But he wasn’t allowed to share this with the one man he wanted so desperately to share everything with.
Lucas closed his eyes and shook his head. “You already know I would never abandon someone who needed my help, Mathew. I just...”
He didn’t let the Guardian speak, and instead hardened his heart, flattened his gaze, and retook the crouched position he’d been in when time had been frozen.
“This is where you want me, right?” he guessed, his hollow gaze lifting upward.
Mathew accepted the slight. Lucas wasn’t wrong about where he needed to be when time started moving again, but they’d both spent plenty of time on their knees and Lucas’ bitterness was warranted. He didn’t believe in the value of what they’d shared. Or that he’d meant enough for Mathew to stick around, or explain why he had to leave. And now, again, his world was thrown upside down. They were a lot alike in that regard. Preferring stability, over chaos. And Lucas’s life wasn’t going to get any less chaotic anytime soon.
“Whatever hell is about to happen, can we just get it over with?” Lucas pleaded.
Yes, thought Mathew in silent gloom. This was not going to be fun. But there was no stopping it. His temporary freezing of this moment, merely a blip of a delay.
He made his way back to where he’d been before he’d frozen everyone else. Took a cleansing breath and put a smile on his face. Although still heartbroken over Lucas, his smile was genuine when it landed on Lizzy. His one true friend while he was human.
He unfroze them, Lizzy in mid-sentence.
“Wait, you’re telling me the Guardians know about this Charlotte business?”
He nodded. “We have been aware since her plan’s inception.” He reached out and touched her cheek gingerly. “I’m so sorry for everything you suffered through, Lizzy. And Grayson,” he tossed a fleeting glance at the vampire. “Unfortunately, by the time Charlotte’s plan was fully understood, the chance to undo it has passed.”
Charlie glowered. Tiredness and exhaustion catching up to him. Fear itching its way through his blood. Lizzy was alive, and healthy again. That’s all he’d wanted. But all of this was pulling her back into her old life, away from him.
Melinda and Michael wondered if their brother might collapse. They were about to order him home straight away and right into bed when Mathew started talking again.
“The only way to break the curse Charlotte created was that Lizzy had to die. And while all that is now done, I’m afraid it’s not over yet.”
Lizzy stared into his eyes, the gloom swimming there tightening her
chest. “Just spit it out, Mathew.” He was trying to tell her something he did not want to. He hadn’t changed any. Not really. Still always had to pull the bad news or uncomfortable subjects out of him.
“There was no way to stop what Charlotte created,” he continued. “She was going to come back.” He cleared his throat. “She is not... done with you yet.”
Lizzy staggered a little, her eyes fluttering. Mathew steadied her. She insisted she was fine.
“What do you mean?” Grayson asked on Lizzy’s behalf.
“We had hoped when Charlotte returned, we’d be able to interfere a little.”
“I thought Guardians could not do that?” badgered Charlie. “Free will, and all.”
“Sorry, wrong word choice. Think of it more like, giving someone a second chance. Charlotte was going to come back no matter what we did. But we were hoping to change how she came back. We wanted to strip her memories and give her a second chance to make a better choice. To choose, differently.”
“There’s obviously a but here,” Michael finished frustratingly.
“As you are sometimes wrong in your conclusions, so are we.” And this wrong conclusion was obviously killing the Guardian. “Lisbeth...” Mathew whispered her name so painfully she almost withered away to nothing right there. “Charlotte’s body was old and decrepit when she died. It was only a vessel for her soul, and her soul was resurrected. Not her body. She tethered her life to you and Grayson, but she needs a living host.”
“No,” snarled out Grayson. He was wind, in his movements. Lizzy in his arms before anyone knew what had happened. “I’ll take her far away. Hide.”
“There is nowhere you can hide,” Mathew warned the vampire. With a power no one expected, Grayson was on his knees and forced to drop Lizzy. “Taking her off the Isle is not an option. She is safest here. And I promise you, I will do all within my power to fix this.”
“Fix what?” Charlie demanded. None of this was sinking in. He felt a soft hand on his arm and looked downward to catch Melinda gazing miserably up at him. What was he missing?
“I’m the host,” Lizzy breathed out. “Charlotte is tethered to me.”
“There has to be a way to stop this,” Charlie exclaimed. He rushed forward. “I’m with the vampire on this one. Let him take her, and hide.” Everyone gasped at that. He’d lose her forever versus see this happen.
“I’m sorry,” said Mathew. “There is no place on this earth she can hide. You have no idea how badly I wish she could.”
That hum in Lizzy’s chest reached upward, like it was trying to shake something loose in her mind. This wasn’t supposed to frighten her. She’d been given something. A gift, to fight this darkness. It hit her all at once, everything that had happened to her when she’d died.
She spun around and narrowed her determined gaze on Charlie. “It’s okay. This has to happen.”
He saw something in her eyes, something sure, a secret certainty that said, trust me. He nodded. He’d not interfere, even though he’d die a little more, staying by the sidelines.
Lizzy spun back to Mathew, who was gazing intently at her. He stepped closer.
“You came back different.” He was sensing the change, some new power surfacing. And this was not expected, and he had no idea what it meant. He sucked in and looked overhead. “Charlotte is coming. I can sense her spirit is close. There isn’t much time.” His eyes fixed on Lizzy, who was grinning, and ready. Mathew didn’t have time to search for what had changed, but whatever this was, it lifted the heaviness off his chest. The confidence in Lizzy’s eyes assured him.
Grayson attempted to get to his feet and snag Lizzy. Mathew flicked his wrist and the vampire went flying, landing unconscious some twenty feet away while overhead an electric hum whizzed closer.
“She’s here,” warned Mathew.
Lizzy twisted around and around, waiting for Charlotte’s soul to find her.
Charlie didn’t like this calm acceptance he was witnessing in Lizzy. Watching this was like knowing death was about to steal away the thing you loved, and just letting it happen without putting up any kind of fight.
Her eyes found his and promised him it was going to be okay. A flurry of fiery particles came flying downward out of the darkness. A churning inferno that carried the soul of Charlotte Howard to her waiting host. It slammed down over Lizzy, and she sank to her knees. A streak of raven black hair streamed down Lizzy’s blondish-brown locks, and her head fell backwards.
This was happening. No way to stop it.
Charlie raced forward and fell to his knees in front of her. There had to be some way to stop this. Something he could do.
Lizzy’s head fell forward, her eyes, stark white, and staring directly at Charlie, and yet straight through him into nothing.
“Lizzy?” he called out softly.
No reply.
He was sadly getting used to that, and it sickened him to think he was losing her again.
Everyone got closer, waiting, breathlessly, for whatever was about to happen. Their biggest worry, they might have to hurt or kill Lizzy in the process of taking out Charlotte.
LIZZY SUDDENLY FOUND herself in a rocking chair. Outside, on a porch, in front of her friend, Charlotte Howard’s old home. But there were no trees, or ground, only clouds and a grayish blue sky surrounded the home, on all sides. Lizzy leaned forward in her chair to peer over the edge of the porch. A few inches of earth reached out just past the edge of the building, but after that, it plummeted straight down into a bright abyss. Even more nerve-wracking was that the small patch of earth holding up the house, was eroding, little by little.
There wasn’t much time. And yet, she felt in no hurry.
There was a creak across the porch, and she looked up to see another rocking chair.
“Hello, old friend.” Charlotte Howard rocked in the other chair. Her hands neatly folded in her lap, a soft smile on her face.
“It is you.” Her friend, the actual Charlotte she once knew, before she’d let dark magic into her heart. “You’ve been stuck here a long time.”
“An age. And yet, a blink. I missed you. I’m so sorry for what I let myself become.” She shook her head, letting it hang in shame. “There is no apology worthy of what I did. Not just to you, or Grayson, or anyone else.”
“Dark magic is like a disease. And once it takes hold...”
“It does not like to let go.”
Another little piece of the earth fell off the front side of the porch.
“I’m almost out of time,” whispered Charlotte. “All these days I have waited here, in all that is left of the light. I’ve never been able to break through the darkness. And it’s coming, fast. Soon, there will be nothing of me, left. Only darkness.”
As if on cue, a patch of inky black splotched into some of the light surrounding the small house. Followed by another.
Lizzy got to her feet, bringing Charlotte with her. “I’ve come to bring you back into the light.”
“I do not deserve it.”
“Perhaps not. It’s not my place to judge. However, if you allow the dark to consume you, and give in, the consequences will be your fault. And you’re right, there will be no apology worthy enough for what is bred out of that darkness.”
Lizzy held out her hand, offering it to her once dear friend.
Another smattering of inky blackness blocked out more light. Another pile of earth broke off, making the foundation they stood on, tilt just a little.
“Make your choice, Charlotte. You were a good witch. A good person. Take my hand and redeem your soul. Or let dark magic consume you, and everything you touch on this earth.”
A hideous cry came out of the inky splotches of darkness consuming the light around them.
It was trying to take over. It was so close.
Charlotte reached out her hand, nervously. She fixed her gaze on Lizzy. “Thank you.” She took hold of the hand offered her, and the ground beneath their feet fell away like a crack rent into b
oth the light and dark. They fell. And fell. And fell. Until Lizzy was suddenly staring into the blurry gaze of Charlie Howard. The white in her eyes, gone. The raven streak of color, gone. And lifting from her, a slow spiral of fiery lights which began to lighten into beacons of bright white as they lifted upward.
The mass of light began to take form, landing next to Lizzy. She looked up and saw Mathew approaching, as befuddled as the rest of them.
“Charlotte?” whispered the Guardian. The spirit turned to him, and reached out a ghostly arm. This was not the Charlotte they’d all come to fear. This was Charlotte as he remembered her, the woman who’d existed years before he’d died. Slowly, it was all sinking into Mathew’s mind, all that had just happened. What had happened to Lizzy and what gift she’d been offered.
This had not been predicted or expected. But was so welcomed, he thought he might die out of the pure joy of it. Although, seeing he was already dead, that wouldn’t actually happen.
Charlotte’s caress spoke the things she was unable to. “I’m sorry. Forgive my mistakes.” She cast her gazes upon the others, including Charlie, Michael, and Melinda, the Howard descendants who’d just been saved from her dark magic. “Thank you,” she mouthed to them. None of them were quite sure what had just happened, and stared in awe.
Lizzy got to her feet, so did Charlie. She reached out as if to say goodbye to the spirit. “Go now. Rest in the light.” Charlotte’s spirit danced across the air until it reached her gravesite. With a motion of her billowing arms, the earth that contained her dusted bones returned to its rightful place. She then held out her arms and fell into herself, finally, where she should be.
There was a long moment of silence. The moment surreal, no one but Lizzy and Mathew, aware of what exactly had just happened, but hoping against hope it meant what they thought it did; that Lizzy was free of this curse, for good.
Mathew approached her, curiously.
“It’s gone now. Whatever gift was given to you, it’s not there anymore. You are, you again.”
Lizzy grinned back, though a little tiredly so. “I am. And I was given a gift. The best gift anyone could ever be given.”