by D L Blade
Caleb wrapped his arms around my waist from behind, pulling my back into his chest. I froze but didn’t pull away. He lowered his head toward my ear.
“She’s under a spell, Mercy. She’d been possessed. There’s nothing we can do but find the witch who did this to her.”
I turned around, facing him and he released his grasp. “Another witch did this?”
He nodded.
I was frozen, realizing what this meant. They weren’t just stalking me, they were hurting the ones I love to get to me.
“I will find out who did this, and I won’t stop until they’re dead,” I warned, my voice steady and firm like the ground beneath my feet.
My own words scared me. Was I willing to kill someone to protect the ones I love? In that moment, there was no doubt in my mind I would.
The scene at the hospital was a nightmare. Everyone was crying and Cami’s mom, Laurie, was barely functioning while waiting for updates about her daughter. She had been drowning herself in the vodka she always kept disguised inside her water bottle. She only fooled the ones who didn’t know her.
The doctors had told us Cami was in a coma and they weren’t sure when she’d wake up. But we knew she had been put under a spell. The only ones who knew the truth were the ones who knew our secrets.
Caleb and I were back in my room and he waited for me to shower and get ready for bed. I sat next to him on my mattress, curling my feet under my legs to get comfortable.
For the next hour, we tried to make sense of what had happened. Caleb was convinced that she had been possessed for several days now, which would explain her aggressive behavior toward me, and the fact that she hadn’t returned my call after hearing of my mom’s death. He felt dark energy surrounding her that he was able to detect after years of being around the supernatural.
Caleb suggested that whoever did this was doing it to get to me. They were trying to use Cami to hurt me, to destroy me. But who? And why? Aside from my mom, who would hate me enough to want me dead?
“So that wasn’t you I saw watching me from the window? You haven’t been following me before the day you approached me at the park?” I asked.
He shook his head, and the unsettling feeling of being watched again twisted in my stomach.
“What kind of person was I back then?” I asked.
Caleb looked down and fiddled with his ring, which bore his family crest. After a long pause, he looked up and brushed my hair behind my ear. He was holding back again. He wanted to tell me something, but he couldn’t. Or wouldn’t. Again, what was he hiding?
“What happened to Cami could have happened to you. This is why I fight so hard to help you with your powers. If you don’t know how to defend yourself against the supernatural, you’ll lose.”
“I didn’t ask for this,” I said sharply.
“Neither did I.” Caleb looked over at my window and sighed. “I have a few leads I’m going to follow up on.” He tilted my chin up so I was looking at him. “I love you, Mercy.” He leaned in and kissed my forehead. “I’ll call you once I know more. Don’t do anything reckless. Stay close to Lily. She’ll protect you until I return.”
He loves me?
My mind drifted off after I heard him say those three little words. Did he really love me? He may have loved the Mercy in the seventeenth century, but I’m not that person anymore. And years had passed. He didn’t even know the real me. Did he?
“I was serious when I said you were special. There are enemies out there that fear you and will use everything they can to come after you. They know you have your powers again and they know you are about to go through an Awakening. Please let me train you.”
“I know I need to train. Give me a few days and I’ll be ready.”
He looked down and closed his eyes tightly, as if he were in pain, and then looked back up. “Sorry I kissed you. I was trying to force you to use your powers the way you used to, by instinct; usually driven by fear or anger.”
I placed my hand on his cheek. “You could have just asked me, Caleb.”
“You act like you hate me.”
“Well, then, stop being so arrogant.” I gave him a slight smile, and stepped in his direction, closing the gap between us. “You will know when I want you to kiss me.” He brushed my hair away from my face again. “Things are going to be very different tomorrow, Caleb. I am still mourning my mother’s death and now Cami is under a spell she can’t wake up from. These next two days alone will be good for me. Let me know what you find out.”
He nodded.
“Caleb?” He stopped just before he got to the door and turned around. “What powers do you have, aside from creating sound proof auras around a room?”
“I can control fire.” He opened his palm and flames instantly radiated from his hand. I looked at his face and his eyes looked more amber and vibrant.
The flame disappeared, and he grabbed my hand. He turned my hand over, palm facing up. He turned his hands over and held them next to mine. The lines on our palms were identical. My heart pounded in my chest.
How is that possible?
“The Chosen Ones may be from different families, but we’re all connected. We all have different powers, but our most prominent one is the element we represent. I represent Fire, so I can control it.” He closed his hand.
“Ah, yes. Your tattoo,” I said. “And Leah? I felt a connection with her. She was part of the coven.”
He smiled. “She can control Water.”
He held up his hand outward now, pointing his fingers up.
“We each came from a different bloodline but formed our own coven. Each of us represents an element that other witches harness their powers from.”
“Lily told me about the elements when explaining the pentagram to me, but not this detailed.”
He pointed at his thumb. “You are different than the rest of us. I control Fire. Leah is Water.” He skipped over the middle finger. “Ezra represents Earth and Simon represents Air.” He dropped his hand.
“I’m the middle finger?” I snickered. “How am I so different?”
Anxiety filled my body, waiting for the answer he had so far withheld from me—the answer to who I was.
“Though your bloodline represents the element of Spirit, you Mercy, can control all the elements at once. None of us are able to do that.”
“I control all the elements? Why? What does that even mean?” I asked.
“You were the leader of our coven. You were brought here to bring balance. By you getting your powers back and going through your Awakening, you will restore the balance that has been lost for centuries. Without Spirit and without the power to bring all five elements together, we can’t win this fight.”
“What’s going to happen to me on my eighteenth birthday?” This was the question I really feared, but I needed to know before it happened. I needed to be prepared.
“You’ll go through your Awakening. The moment the hour strikes at the time you were born, you will feel all your powers come to you, stronger than they were when you took them from your mom. The only difference between your Awakening and other witches, is that I need to draw blood from you to bind you to the coven when it happens. It won’t hurt, though. Also …”
“Also?”
“You’ll perform the immortal spell like the rest of our coven did. I can perform the ritual myself, and—”
“No.”
His hands balled into fists. “You have to,” he argued like a stubborn child.
“No, I don’t.”
I’d thought about this a lot since he had told me what they had done. I knew this was coming, and I wasn’t going to be a part of that.
He huffed and shook his head. “You understand why it’s so important, right?”
“Yes, I know. You don’t want to lose me again.”
I did get it. I knew why he wanted this, and a part of me agreed with him. My coven needed me, and they couldn’t risk losing me again, but being immortal and living forever,
I wasn’t so sure I could do that. I couldn’t watch every single person I loved die while I continued to live.
He placed his hands on my cheeks, caressing them gently. His eyes seemed to pierce right through to my soul, drawing me in; however, I knew I had all the power. I slowly put my hands on each side of his face.
“Caleb?”
“Yes?”
“I want you to kiss—”
His lips were on mine before I could finish my sentence. The kiss was fierce, but gentle. He delicately grabbed the back of my neck and kissed me deeper. Goose pimples covered my skin as he gently caressed my neckline.
Suddenly, flashes entered my mind while we kissed. I saw his face, but we weren’t here in my room. We were in the middle of a small village and Caleb was holding a wooden weapon in his hand while sharpening the edges. The images were as clear as if I were there. I could smell the haystacks against a barn next to us and the fire pit burning behind me.
I snapped back to the present and quickly pulled myself from our embrace. “Caleb, I just saw something,” I said, excitement rising in my voice.
“When we kissed?” He looked surprised.
“Kiss me again.” I grabbed the back of his neck and brought him in for another kiss.
My mind traveled back to the village. I recognized one of the old buildings from Salem but there were many shops that should have been there but weren’t. Suddenly, I realized what I was seeing. This was a memory from my previous life.
“Behind you!” Caleb tossed me the weapon he had been sharpening. I turned around and plunged it into a man’s chest.
The vision disappeared again, and I pushed Caleb off me. “What was that?”
“Mercy, relax. It’s okay.” He tried to pull me in, but I pushed him away again.
“What did I do? I just watched myself kill a man!” I was now in full panic mode.
He was breathing heavily. “Relax, please. I can explain.”
“Get away from me. You helped me kill someone. Oh my God, Caleb.” I turned and ran toward the door, but he pressed his hand against it so I couldn’t pull it open.
“It’s okay, Mercy. You’re not a murderer. What you saw yourself killing wasn’t human.”
“Get out!” I could hear Lily running down the hallway. She burst in the room.
“Mercy, are you okay?” she asked, panic in her voice.
I nodded.
She looked over at Caleb. “You need to go. Now.” I had never seen Lily this upset before. She moved to stand between us and turned back to face Caleb. “I said get out!”
He held up his hands in defeat. “All right.” He turned back to me. “I’ll call you tomorrow.”
As he walked out my bedroom, he scowled at Lily.
She hugged me tightly after we heard the door slam shut downstairs. She quickly ran through the house shutting every window and locking them.
Lily went back into her room after she was confident the house was as secure as she could make it, not that it would stop Caleb from using his magic to get inside. I didn’t tell her about my visions because that would only make her more nervous, and I needed her calm.
After Lily finally left me alone in my room, I laid back down on my pillow, trying to get to sleep. I tossed and turned for several hours, but eventually drifted off around three in the morning.
My dream was darker than usual. So dark, it was hard to see the objects around me. I was walking down the stairs of our house. The wallpaper was black, and the furniture was gray, unlike Lily’s bright yellow couch and turquoise wallpaper. When I walked outside, I looked around at Lily’s garden and the vegetables were rotting.
A strong wind picked up and knocked me to the ground. The breeze caused my hair to dance around in the wind and my eyes to water. I wiped my eyes and when I opened them, I saw color again. I felt the twigs under my knees pierce my skin and the wetness of the grass between my fingers. I stood up and turned around in a full circle. I gasped. My mind was no longer in my dreams. I had sleepwalked out of my room and outside into Lily’s front yard garden.
As I walked back toward the house, I heard the cracking of the leaves behind me.
Oh God!
I felt their presence and I could hear them breathing heavily. The hairs on my arms stood straight up and I clenched my fist, ready to throw a punch at whoever it was. I slowly turned around, expecting to face my attacker, but no one was there.
A low growl echoed in my ears and that’s when I saw him. His yellow eyes opened, and his body was crouched low. He had four legs, sharp fangs, and course hair, dark as midnight. This wasn’t a human, but a large and angry wolf.
He crept toward me, never taking his eyes off mine, and stalked around me, shadowing my movements.
I screamed for help in my mind, but I realized it was pointless. I couldn’t scream out loud. The sound of my voice might freak the wolf out and then he would attack. The wolf crept ten feet from me and I shivered. His eyes were still fixed on mine. I tried to assess my situation and determine if there were any move I could make to escape this beast, but all roads led to me being attacked. There was nowhere I could run. I scanned the ground for a weapon.
Help! Someone! Help!
I held up my hands, prepared to use my powers to fend him off, but I was shaking so much that I couldn’t focus enough for anything to happen. I had the power to stop him, but I had frozen. I couldn’t think straight and my hands became numb and shook violently.
The wolf howled louder, then slowly backed up and moved to my right, allowing me to now have access to run toward the front door. Was he letting me go?
The wolf stopped moving now and glared into my eyes, no longer showing me his teeth. He looked up and took position again. Suddenly, I heard noises coming from the trees around me. They sounded like someone or something large was running in my direction.
Oh, please tell me he didn’t call his buddies to help him out.
The sounds grew louder and faster. It sounded like more than one person or thing was running in my direction.
The wolf backed away again but kept his eyes on mine. The sound of running on the twigs and leaves stopped behind me. I turned around to see who had come to my rescue, or to kill me, but my fear only increased as I saw a pack of fisher cats standing behind me in the attack position. Fisher cats weren’t exactly the kindest wild animal in Rhode Island. I now didn’t know which I was more scared of, as I was surrounded by several animals that could rip me up within seconds.
The fisher cats growled so loudly, it caused me to back up in fear, tripping over a large rock, and fall to the ground. I braced myself for the fall and slowly scooted back toward a tree, staring at these creatures that were now facing each other, ready for battle.
The wolf glared at the fisher cats, showing his teeth. The fisher cats were no longer looking at me but approached the wolf instead. They formed a barricade around me, protecting me, while letting out loud, aggressive growls.
“We heard your call,” I heard in my head.
I looked around. “Who’s there?”
I’ve lost my mind.
It wasn’t a human voice and no words were being spoken out loud, but for some weird reason, I understood it perfectly. Did I just hear one of the cats talking to me telepathically?
I decided that at this point, anything was possible, so I looked at them intently and focused my mind, trying to force my thoughts in their direction. I wasn’t sure if they could hear me back, but it was worth a try.
“Help me.”
“Run,” I heard another voice say, in my mind.
I didn’t have time to question my sanity right now. I did as the cats commanded, ran toward the front door, and slammed it behind me. After locking the door, I ran to the window and looked out at the side yard. The cats were attacking the wolf and he was barely able to defend himself. The cats then backed off and the wolf ran back into the forest, limping from the attack. One of the cats looked up at me and the pack took off running.
&nbs
p; My heart was pounding inside my chest. I took a seat on the bench next to the window.
This night is never going to end.
I looked up at the clock and it was six in the morning. Lily would be waking up any minute.
I heard footsteps coming down the stairs.
“You’re up early,” Lily called out as she made her way down the stairs, tightening her robe around her.
“I couldn’t sleep.” I walked over to the coffee maker and brewed our morning pick-me-up.
“Coffee?” I asked her, though I already knew the answer.
“Please.” She looked at me skeptically. “Mercy, what happened?” Unable to hide anything from her, I told her about Cami’s accident and about the sleepwalking that had led me to the animals. Lily tried her best not to show how scared she was, but I could tell. I probably shouldn’t have told her all of it, but she couldn’t help me while being left in the dark.
Lily had to head to the café to open it up, so I splashed some water on my face and got dressed. A knock at the door startled me. Before I reached the door, I looked at my phone and saw two text messages.
Shannon: We’re coming over.
Caleb: I’m not going to text this. Let me explain what you saw. Call me, please.
I was not going to call him back.
When I opened the door, Riley and Shannon were standing on my porch.
“Come on in.”
“You look like hell,” Shannon said bluntly as they came through the doorway.
“Um, thanks?” She didn’t have much of a filter.
“I called the hospital this morning.” Shannon’s voice was shaky. “There’s been no change with Cami. The doctors are still telling us they don’t know when she’ll wake up.” She threw her hands up in the air. “It doesn’t make any sense. There’s a railing all the way up the cliff. For Cami to fall, she had to be climbing on the cliff railing and dangling over. She wasn’t drunk and she hates heights. Someone threw her. I know it.”