“Where are you?” I asked, having totally lost my bearings. From here, I couldn’t see anything but the sparkles.
“I’m here,” she said from behind me, and I spun.
I sucked in a breath.
“You’re not Kylie,” I growled at the old lady standing in front of me.
She wore a tattered silver dress, the jagged ends floated across her bare toes. Her hair, gray and reaching to her elbows, flowed around her head like bands of thin, living snakes. I expected one to snap out and nip me. Around her neck, she wore a chain with a round pendant—a sun? The light wasn’t good enough for me to tell.
“I’m Kylie, but I’m not,” she said.
“Here we go again,” I mumbled. “Let me guess, you’re Kylie’s ghost of the Christmas yet to be. I just missed out on the past and present ladies.”
The woman turned on her bare heel and started walking away. “Come. We don’t have much time.”
My shoulders slumped. I didn’t have enough energy for games like this.
Games.
Was this it? I thought we’d complete each test together, but what if I had to do this one on my own? Or…with an older Kylie. Assuming this was her and not a mirage sent to lead me astray. Should I turn and run back to the main path? I might find my friends there waiting.
“If you can’t keep up, you lose,” the wannabe Kylie said over her shoulder. Her laughter trilled out, and I wanted to smack her, tell her to shut up before she drew…something to us. The vines or whoever was controlling them. Bixby or Duvoe or both, most likely.
Grumbling, I took off after. I’d see this through, but that didn’t mean I wouldn’t remain on guard.
She emerged from the woods and onto a narrow, silvery path that appeared to be bathed in moonlight. As in, the light hit the path, not the surrounding trees or the vegetation lining the sides. A silver band wound through the woods.
Kylie hurried along the strip. “Come on.”
I was right behind her. Did she think I’d lose her that easily?
Something in the woods to our left barked, a shrill, kay-yay sound that grated across my skin like sandpaper. My heart flipped, and my skin crawled with terror. Spooked, I leaped forward, almost running old-lady Kylie over.
She chuckled but didn’t look in that direction, half-skipping along the trail while whatever had yipped followed us, crashing and grunting through the brush like a herd of wild elk.
Approaching an enormous tree, I expected her to go around it, but she stopped in front and placed both hands on the rough bark. A soft hum, and the surface of the tree shimmered.
She stepped into the tree, and I followed, refusing to be left behind.
For a moment, light spilled in through the curtain-like opening but then it was sealed off, as if the panel Kylie had created reformed into bark.
My lungs froze, and I came to a stop, worried one misstep would send me plunging into the black pit surrounding me.
“Tria,” the old woman said from ahead of me. “Come on. Not much farther.”
“I can’t see,” I said, hating the fear grinding through my voice.
“You don’t need to. One foot in front of the other will do it. Hurry.”
Girding myself, I stepped toward her, finding solid ground and then more, following where I heard her voice.
A soft light bloomed ahead, and I rounded a corner—how deep was this tree?—and found myself in a tiny, windowless room.
Two chairs. A tiny table between them. And a small cook stove with a kettle whistling steam into the air. A glance upward showed the room steepled as if the tree was hollow in the bottom but resumed growth above.
“Sit,” Kylie said with a wave of her wrinkly hand.
“I’m okay standing.”
She rolled her eyes. “You think I’m going to bite you?”
“Why not? Everything else around here does.”
“I stole you from the test. I’ll return you to the exact same place you were when I removed you. If you sit, I’ll explain.”
“And if I don’t want to sit?” Leaning against the tree wall, I watched her smooth face for any hint of her intentions.
She rolled her eyes. “If you don’t sit, I’ll tell you anyway, but you’ll take this better if you’re not on your feet.”
I wasn’t sure why that would matter, but I also didn’t see any reason why I couldn’t sit. There were no vines under the chair poised to snap up and trap me. No pit of flames nearby for me to fall into.
This appeared to be a simple house built inside a tree, not a trap poised to snap closed around me.
“I’m not drinking anything,” I said, edging forward, my gaze falling on the kettle.
“Jeez, I wouldn’t expect you to. After what happened in the castle…”
“You remember that.”
“Why wouldn’t I?”
“Because…”
She grunted. “Because I’m older than I was then?” She tapped her forehead. “Age has no meaning as long as the mind’s still there.”
“Sounds like something an old lady would say.”
Her smile rose but only briefly before falling. “Because I am an old lady.”
“How is this possible? Are we in the future?”
“Don’t I wish. But, sadly, no. We’re in an alternative time.”
Curious, I inched toward the chair and dropped down onto the edge.
At the stove, she poured herself a big mug of something that smelled minty and sweet. She crossed over to the other her chair and dropped her mug onto the table between them. “I need to let that cool a bit, don’t you think?”
I shrugged.
“So, here’s the thing,” she said. “In this time, I’m old. In the other time, I’m myself as I was years ago.”
“Someone who did a horrible thing.”
“We all do horrible things, don’t we?”
To some extent, but I wouldn’t admit it. “Tell me. Do we free the dragons?”
“I don’t know. Do you?”
I growled. “You’re being evasive.”
“Maybe I don’t know.”
“Why wouldn’t you, alternative-time Kylie?”
“I don’t remember.”
My lips thinned. “Here we go with the lies. You remember. You’re playing vague because you don’t want to tell me.”
“Maybe I’m not supposed to say anything about the dragons.”
“Is that true?” I settled back in the chair. If she was going to return me to the moment I’d left, I might as well relax for a second.
Lifting her tea, she stared down at the brew. “There are rules about what I can tell you and what I can’t.”
“Of course there are.” I grumbled, shaking my head. Nothing new about that. “Let me guess, you’re only allowed to tell me a few things, and they’re very specific. I could quiz you, try to trick you, or even pin you to the floor and torture you, but you’re limited to what you can say and that’s it.”
She gave me a satisfied smirk. “Exactly.”
“Then get to it. Spit it out. I want to get back to my friends.”
Her lips thinned. “Your friends? Not me.”
“Odd how you remember that part of the past but not the details that really matter.”
She took a careful sip of her tea before lowering the mug onto the table again. “Perhaps you’re wrong about that.”
“In what way? Don’t you get it? We had our problems. At one time you hated me, but it was all a lie, probably even your hatred. The thing is, I trusted you.” My words came out croaky, revealing my pain. It hurt that she betrayed me—us.
“I cannot speak about that time.”
“Rules again?”
“Self-preservation.”
Huh. A sour taste filled my mouth. I wanted to get out of here. I sure as hell didn’t want to hear anything else she had to say. But I followed her here, and I’d see it through.
“Just…take care of your actions,” she said. “Your words.”
One of my shoulders twitched. “You can’t control my thoughts.”
“I wouldn’t want to. But things are not as they seem, and you should trust in that, even if you don’t trust in her—me.”
“Tell me what I need to know.” Time to get this over with. My anger still charged through me, as fresh as it was when I discovered she tricked us. That wasn’t going away soon, even if the only one I had to direct my anger to was old-lady Kylie.
She extended her hand, and a thin golden chain dangled from her fingers, winking in the candlelight as it spun. A tiny, clear tube was secured to the chain, and a colorful liquid shimmered inside it. “Take it.”
I kept my hands secured beneath my thighs. “What if I don’t want it?”
“No?” She drew it back close to her chest, acting coy. “It’s what you came to Darkwater for. The one thing you’ve been searching for all your life.”
My heart stopped. No. “My core magical essence?”
She nodded, and her wrinkly lips quirked up for only a moment. Her rheumy hand extended again, and the pendant spun, the liquid inside glistening. “Take it.”
“My father stole it from me. How did you get it?”
“He bartered with me for something he desperately needed.”
“There are too many games here, all using wizards who have little or no say in the outcome.”
Irony filled her face. “And you expect life at Darkwater to be any different?”
“I guess not.” I started to reach for it but snatched my hand back. “What’s the trick?”
“None yet.”
“The yet in this is what makes me hesitate,” I said. “Tell me everything before I touch it.”
“Ignore its call. And you must hold off breaking the vial and sucking it inside until the right moment.”
“Why?”
“If you waste it, you won’t have it when you most need it.”
Another vague statement. “How, actually, do I return the essence to myself, whenever that time appears?”
“You drink it.”
“And my belly acid won’t burn it?” Maybe this was stupid thing to worry about, but after the Master Seeker, Bixby, my father, my uncle…hell, just about every powerful person in my life had caused me harm, I’ve grown wary. I wouldn’t be lulled or taken advantage of again if I could help it.
“That’s not how magic works,” she said.
“What happens if I don’t drink it?” Why was I questioning this? She was right. I’ve been seeking this missing part of me all my life. This quest was why I’d been drawn to the Seeker trade itself.
“If you don’t, it will be destroyed, and its value lost forever.”
“I imagine it only has value to me.”
“You’d be surprised.”
“How will I know when the moment is right?”
She placed her fist—with my magical essence—against her chest. “You’ll know here.”
I growled. Damn this for being vague. And damn life for putting me in a situation where I didn’t have a true choice. No, damn my father for stealing it and leaving me no choice but to bargain for something that should be mine already.
My lips curled, and everything inside me shouted beware, but again, I was on this path to see where it would take me. Time was running out. By not acting, I acted.
I snatched the chain from her hands and secured it around my neck. As I stared down at the liquid, it called… Take me.
To muffle its lure, I tucked the pendant beneath my shirt. That helped. Somewhat.
“Don’t be lulled into wasting it,” she said. “If you only trust me in this, know that it is yours, it longs to merge with you again, but when you drink it, you’ll have one chance and one chance only.”
“To do what?”
“To alter the future.”
Chapter Fourteen
I ground my teeth together.
“Alter the future, huh? Exactly what does that mean?” I asked.
“Take it how you will,” old lady Kylie said. “That is all I’m allowed to say.” She lifted her mug and blew across the top of the cup. The essence of mint, honey, and magic floated through the room. After sipping, she continued to hold the cup and stare at the liquid. “You will leave now.”
“Wouldn’t want to overstay my welcome.” I stood. “Take me back.”
She flicked her hand toward the door. “Your way back is out there.”
“You brought me here with magic,” I growled. “You said you stole me from the others and that you’d return me to the exact spot and time when we were through. You have to do it.”
She sucked in a breath and chuffed it out. “Let me finish my tea while it’s hot.”
“No. I didn’t ask to come here. Bring me back.” I might sound like a petulant child, but I was tired. Done.
And I felt like crying. Because I was worried I wouldn’t get off Darkwater in time to save my sister, and she’d die. I worried Brodin would take on his father and he’d die. I worried Jacey and Rohnan would storm the fae castle and they’d die from their efforts.
I didn’t care about myself, but the burden of fear weighed me down as if I carried three of myself around on my shoulders.
“All right.” She slammed her mug on the table and her tea slopped over the brim. It sizzled when it hit the wood.
Nice stuff. Glad I didn’t drink any.
Rising, she stomped past me and to the door. “Don’t stand there. Let’s get going.”
“Why is your tea burning the wood?” I asked as I followed her, half of my attention on the smoke rising off her table.
“I put a little something extra in it.”
“I’ll say you did.”
We left the tree, and I followed her out onto the path. We stayed within the eerie moonlight, trooping for a few seconds until she disappeared in front of me.
“Kylie?” I whispered, knowing better than to shout her name. Damn her for taking off. Like always, she was ready to ditch me without a thought. Good thing I didn’t expect anything more of her.
Suppressing my growl, I walked in the general direction I came from when she stole me, thankfully, coming across no vines. But I also could not find a path.
My eyes stung, and I wanted to sit on the ground and rest. Sob? Maybe. Wrung out, I wasn’t sure I had much energy left in me to keep going.
Pulling the pendant from my shirt, I stared down at it.
Take me.
Yeah, sure. I knew the rules.
Unless she lied.
Which Kylie was had a reputation for doing.
You need me.
“Shut up,” I hissed. I tucked the pendant back into my shirt. I’d think about this before I acted. This could be another trick. Don’t use it, she said. You’ll know when you need it. Save it for a time of need.
Maybe I needed it now.
For once, I wouldn’t plunge into this until I was certain. I could decide after I weighed all the options. Kylie hadn’t warned me not to talk about it, and I was sure my friends—even not-old Kylie—would have opinions to share.
“What do you think, Tria?” Brodin asked somewhere ahead of me, showing me I was only steps away from the main trail.
Why had this gone easily? I should’ve fallen into a pit, been strung up by the vines. No, I should’ve been sent to some weird location where I had to run or solve a puzzle.
Don’t think you won’t, my mind insisted.
I only started down the main path.
“Here,” I shouted. I picked up my pace to a jog and emerged onto the trail behind my friends. “Glad I found you,” I said, puffing as I came to stop.
“Found us?” Jacey said with a laugh. She linked her arm through mine. “We’ve just begun. “Brodin asked you what you think we should do here.” Her hand swept toward where the path split into three directions. “Left, right, or middle?”
“I’m leery about making the decision for good reason.”
“You’re not under the infl
uence of anything like you were back in that test in the catacombs,” Brodin said, putting his arm around my shoulders. “I trust you.”
Did I trust myself?
I had to get over my fear of messing up again. We all make mistakes at one time or another.
My gaze met Kylie’s—back in her young body and watching me with what I took as a smirk. Did she enjoy my uncertainty? She couldn’t know who I recently talked with.
“Have any of you seen a clue telling us what direction to take?” I asked. “There are five of us, so it’s not as if there’s one path for each.”
“Let’s go see,” Brodin said, his hand sliding down my arm to clasp my fingers. He tugged me forward, toward the left path, with the others following.
The trail on the left looked like something I’d find in a forest back home, made up of tamped grass and smudged dirt. A fallen log lay across the path up ahead, and trees and pucker bushes rimmed the trail on either side.
“Path two, the middle?” I said, and we all trooped over there.
“Looks the same to me,” Rohnan said. “If there are clues guiding us to a particular path, I’m not seeing them.”
“Nope,” Jacey said. Her glance took in all of us, which was nice. She even included Kylie. But Jacey knew her from before; they’d been roommates. Did she see something in Kylie I wasn’t able to find? “Let’s check out the one on the right.”
It appeared the same.
We backed off, and I paced while the others conferred.
“I think we should go right,” Rohnan said.
“Why?” Jacey asked.
He snorted. “Because I’m right-handed.”
She grabbed his hands and crept up close to him. “I’m left-handed, but you don’t hear me saying we should take the left path.”
“How about you, Brodin?” I asked.
“I’ll be ornery and say we should take the middle.” He squinted at me. “You?”
“I…” No. Don’t do it! Shit. I couldn’t help it. “Let Kylie decide.”
“Then she can be responsible if it’s a mistake?” Jacey asked. She said it nicely, telling me that while she might still be willing to include the other girl, she wasn’t full-on Team Kylie.
“Nope,” I said. “I’m curious to hear which path she thinks we should take.”
Wicked Rebellion (Darkwater Reformatory Book 3) Page 10