Chapter 26
Tuesday Night, January 11th
Jerry and Harper broke through the trees at the same time, both heading for the ring of stones where they had seen Billie standing next to Tim Matheson. Jerry heard the others moving behind him, and as he looked to his left, he saw the pack streak past him and toward the gathered demons. Jerry and the others had decided to rush their enemies as one, hoping that the element of surprise would play into their favor and give them the chance to quickly get Louis and Billie before falling back to the trees. It wasn’t exactly a foolproof plan, but it was all they had.
Jerry was relieved to see by the reaction of the demons that their attack had been a surprise, though the creatures were able to recover before he and the others could even reach them. He remembered how powerful these larger demons were, and wondered if he and the others were rushing to their doom. Tim shouted something at the creatures in a growling language and they turned to meet the attack. Two of the creatures headed straight for him and Harper and his brother-in-law quickened his pace and headed straight for them. His spear was held at the ready and Jerry looked over briefly to see a look of absolute determination on his face. Harper was glowing nearly as brightly as his spear, and his feet flew over the snow. He quickly passed Jerry, who lumbered along slowly by comparison in his snow shoes.
Jerry stopped and raised his gun, taking aim at one of the approaching demons. He wanted to help Harper, but he wasn’t sure that he could fire at either of the demons without hitting him. Movement to his right grabbed his attention, and Jerry looked to see another demon running toward Harper, its jaws open and its tongue lolling from its mouth. Jerry knew that Harper would already have a hard time fighting two of the huge demons at once. Facing three of the creatures would have made the odds against him impossible. Jerry raised his gun, stopped where he was and fired at the third demon several times, emptying his entire clip into it. It staggered backward several steps as the bullets tore into its body, and it fell to one knee. But before Jerry could reload another clip into his gun, the creature stood up and charged for him. Jerry snapped the second clip into the handle, but didn’t feel it snap into place. He realized in horror that his gun was jamming again, as it had when Louis and Billie were taken in the woods. He had survived the gun jamming the first time, but this time it would mean his death.
Jerry looked up as the demon was nearly upon him and braced his feet to meet the creature’s charge, hoping to dodge aside at the last moment, though he doubted that he could move quickly enough. Just before the demon reached him, four streaks of fur brushed past him and leapt at the demon. Jerry realized that the wolves had sprung to his defense and he recognized the larger black form of Cole as they landed on his attacker. They quickly brought it to the ground in spite of its thrashing.
“Daddy!” he heard Billie’s voice scream suddenly.
He looked up and at where the sound had come from, and saw Tim Matheson running around the circle of stones and toward the woods on the other side. Louis and Billie were in his arms, and his daughter was reaching out to him with fear on her face as the man carried her and her brother away. That look spurred Jerry to move. He had to get to his children before they were taken away from him again. He moved to follow them, stepping around the demon that the wolves had nearly finished. He continued to run as quickly as he could toward the stones and finally managed to slam the new clip into his gun.
A demon stepped in front of him as he neared the circle of stones, blocking his path. Jerry raised his gun, but before he could even pull the trigger the sound of gunfire ripped through the night. He didn’t have to look around to realize where it had come from. Larry had joined the fight.
A hail of bullets tore into the creature - throwing it to the side and making it stumble and fall in the snow. Jerry didn’t wait for it to recover. Instead, he quickly ran past the creature, ignoring the hail of bullets that tore through the air. He wasn’t afraid that Larry would hit him by accident. Larry never missed.
Jerry ran in the direction in which he had seen Tim escape, trying to move as quickly as he could in the cumbersome snowshoes. Several demons tried to block his path along the way, but Larry was always there to push them away with a steady stream of gunfire. Jerry just kept moving, hoping that he could catch up with Tim before he got too far.
Cole felt the difference in these creatures immediately. As he fought the one that had tried to attack his father, he realized that these creatures were stronger and faster. And the sense of wrongness that flowed from them was so much stronger than the other demons that it was nearly overpowering. But it also caused an even stronger reaction of rage in him. He wanted to tear the life from their bodies and watch them disappear into dust.
He felt his body changing as he fought with the second creature that had stepped into his father’s path. Three of the wolves fought beside him, dashing in and biting at the creature’s legs whenever they could and then quickly darting away. He was by far the largest of them, and they let him take the lead against the demon. As his rage against the creatures built, his body continued to change. He grew taller, and his arms and legs grew longer. The proportions of his body changed until it was a hybrid between wolf and human, merging the best characteristics of both forms into a single body.
Cole looked into the eyes of the creature as he stood nearly as tall as it did, and he was surprised at what he saw there. The creature was afraid of him, and that fear only enraged him further. He thought of everything that these creatures had done to him, his family and their friends. He thought of his two youngest siblings, stolen from their family and carried off in fear into the mountains. And he thought of Mr. McCallister, the brave man who had made the ultimate sacrifice to save his life and the lives of the others. And it was all because these creatures had decided to invade his world and attack his family. And as long as they continued to do so, Cole would do everything he could to stop them.
He grappled with the creature and saw the three wolves with him break off their attack and move on to another of the creatures. As his arms locked with those of the creature in front of him, he was surprised by the strength it possessed. But he was stronger.
Cole pushed against the demon, moving it closer to the ring of stones as he tried to gain enough of an advantage to get his arms around its neck. But it was strong enough that even his slightly greater strength wasn’t enough to allow him to gain any kind of hold. He continued to push against it, slowly backing it up until it stood no more than a few feet in front of the stones. The demon looked behind it, and Cole saw a look of panic cross the creature’s face as it looked back at the stones. Cole didn’t understand why the stones caused such a reaction, but he didn’t care. He wanted this creature dead.
The demon tried to twist its body away from Cole’s grasp, managing to briefly break his grip. But Cole was quicker than the creature, and he used the momentary break in their struggle to grab it and lift it from the ground before slamming it against the stone. It screamed in pain as its skin touched the stone and its entire body convulsed with agony. Its reaction was much stronger than the pain of merely hitting the stone should have been, though at first Cole couldn’t guess why. He held it against the stone and saw smoke rising from its back as it continued to scream. He felt the heat of its body grow as he held it. It was as if the creature was burning from the inside. He made the connection that the creature was reacting to its contact with the stone as the heat within it built to the point that Cole’s skin couldn’t stand its contact with the creature any longer.
He released his hold on the creature, and it tried to writhe away from the stone, but it was held fast to it and couldn’t move away. Its screams built until it became a high-pitched keening that made Cole cover his ears with his hands. He watched as the smoke began to rise from the creature’s entire body and then it finally burst into flames. Within seconds, it was no more than a pile of ash at the base
of the stone.
Cole looked around him in surprise, wondering if any of the others had seen what had happened. In his hybrid form, he couldn’t shout out his newly-discovered way of destroying the creatures. His eyes locked with Dinah, who stood a few yards away. She snapped the neck of the creature she had been fighting and it fell to the ground. He could tell from her open-mouthed stare that she had seen what happened.
She gave him a huge smile and then looked around her. Her eyes locked on another of the creatures. She sprinted over to it, picked it up from behind and then lifted it over her head as it struggled uselessly. She threw the creature at the circle of stones, aiming between two of the upright ones. The creature screamed as it passed between the stones and burst into flames. A trail of ash flew into the clearing between the stones, but quickly blew away in the slight breeze. Dinah gave him another huge smile and then ran off to find her next target.
Cole looked around him at the many small battles unfolding around the clearing, looking for anyone who needed help. Dinah was already grappling with another of the creatures, and he could see that its strength was no match for hers. He couldn’t see his father anywhere in the clearing, and there was no sign of Tim Matheson, either. A breeze blew past him, and his sense of smell picked up the fading scent of his father. From the direction of the wind, he guessed where his father had been heading. From the same direction, he picked up the even fainter scent of Louis and Billie, along with the oily and foul-smelling scent of Tim. But the presence of another scent from the same direction surprised him. It was the smell of a dog that he recognized instantly as Aidan. At first he wondered why the little dog would have gone off by herself, but then remembered the way she followed Billie around constantly, and he understood. She wanted to get Billie back as badly as her family did. He wanted to go after his father, but he didn’t want to leave his family and friends outnumbered. He looked around the clearing again, as the sound of gunfire continued to tear through the winter air.
Larry was kneeling in the snow, firing his gun at some of the creatures, aiding any of the others he could. His shots never missed, and though the bullets couldn’t stop the creatures completely, he was able to slow them down. Tina was crouched next to him, a gun in her hand, scanning the area around Larry but not firing it. Cole wondered where she had gotten a gun or if she even knew how to fire it. Larry was red-faced and breathing hard, but both of them otherwise seemed okay.
Jason stood next to the stones, which glowed slightly behind him. His lips were moving, and Cole guessed that he was about to perform some kind of magic. Cody and the wolves had broken up into two groups and were running throughout the clearing, darting in and engaging the demons before dashing away again. There was no sign of Vaughan anywhere, but Cole guessed that he was stalking around the clearing, looking for the best opportunities to do the most damage he could.
When his eyes landed on Uncle Harper, he saw him facing two of the creatures in their human forms near the stones. Each of them had swords in their hands, and the three combatants were engaging each other in a fierce duel. They moved so quickly and gracefully that Cole thought it looked like some kind of dance number being played in fast-forward. But his uncle seemed to be holding his own against them, so Cole let his gaze move on.
It looked like things were going as well as they could in the clearing, and Cole knew that his father was going to need him. Tim had shown the ability to use powerful dark magic, and Jerry had no defense against such attacks. And Cole couldn’t leave him to face Tim alone with his only backup being a strange little dog.
He shifted his form to the large black wolf again, wanting to move as quickly as possible. The wolf form would allow him to quickly close the distance between him and his father. He ran in the direction in which he had smelled his father heading, hoping that the scent trail didn’t disappear before he could find him. As he ran, he wondered if even his strength and abilities would be enough to face Tim and his evil magic, but it didn’t matter if it wasn’t. The thought of his little brother and sister with the evil man caused an irrational feeling within him. He would do everything he could to save them, even if it killed him.
Dinah snapped the neck of the creature and threw it to the ground, feeling a small sense of triumph that another of the foul creatures was dead. She looked around and quickly counted around a dozen of the creatures remaining, and her sense of triumph grew. They had managed to defeat nearly half of the creatures, and as far as she knew none of their group had been seriously injured. There was no sign of her father, Cole or the man that had carried off her two youngest siblings. She was pretty sure that Cole and her father had gone after Tim Matheson, and she wanted to follow them. But she wouldn’t abandon the others to fight the creatures alone.
Her gaze fell on Larry, and her breath caught as she saw that he was collapsed in the snow. He was obviously in some kind of pain. Ms. Waverly was kneeling over him, a gun clutched in her hand as she waved it frantically back and forth, clearly guarding the somehow incapacitated Larry. Dinah started running in their direction, hoping that she could help in some way. But before she had taken more than a few steps, two demons stepped into her path. She heard movement behind her and turned to see two more of the creatures standing there. She was surrounded.
She realized that until that moment, the creatures hadn’t been able to use their superior numbers to their advantage. But now that had changed. She knew she didn’t stand a chance against four at one time, but she wouldn’t go down without a fight.
Vaughan pulled his sword from the body of the demon he had killed and stopped for a moment to catch his breath. He could feel that he had taken a few minor wounds in his fight with the creature, and looked down to see drops of his blood where they had fallen in the snow. But he knew the wounds weren’t serious and he was ready to take on the next one. He looked around the clearing, and the first thing he saw was his sister Dinah, surrounded by four of the demons. And he knew that even her great strength and speed wouldn’t be enough to even such odds. He ran in her direction to do what he could to help her, his sword at the ready.
The fight with the last creature had been difficult, and he wasn’t sure if he could be of much help to his sister, but he wouldn’t let her face the demons alone. She had saved his life in the woods when they had fled their house the night before, and he hoped that he could return the favor. He ran toward her, his feet barely touching the snow as he quickly closed the distance. His passage through the snow was silent and he was sure that he could catch at least one of the creatures by surprise and quickly take it out of the battle.
As he closed to within a few feet of the creatures, Dinah charged forward and engaged two of them at the same time. She attacked them with fury, raining blows on them with her hands and feet, and the two demons couldn’t move quickly enough to land any of their own. Vaughan raised his sword and prepared to take the head from one of the two demons behind his sister as they moved to engage her.
But as he moved to swing his sword across the back of the creature’s neck, it quickly turned to face him and easily dodged his attack. It swiped at him with one of its claws, and Vaughan barely managed to dodge out of the way. He frantically dodged two more of the creature’s swings, which were so fast that he didn’t have a chance to counterattack. There was something about the way the creature moved that seemed familiar to Vaughan. And when he saw the creature grin wickedly as it made another swipe at him, he realized why. This was the same creature that he had fought in the woods just hours before. It had nearly killed him then, and Vaughan knew that he didn’t stand much of a chance now. The creature was just too fast. Even his heightened senses and abilities would not be enough.
He managed a quick glance at Dinah and saw that she was now fighting all three of the creatures at once, and he could tell by the strained look on her face that she was hard pressed. But he couldn’t do anything more to help her. His main foc
us now was trying to stay alive.
Louis knew that he had to do something before they reached wherever it was that Tim was taking them, but he didn’t know what to do. He thought of the magic again, and wondered if it could be of any use. He knew that his magic was more powerful than the dark magic of Tim, but again he worried that he wouldn’t be able to use it quickly enough to save Billie. He had no illusions that Billie would still be used as a bargaining chip to ensure his cooperation. After it had become obvious that he was not the Solas, they had both become expendable. He wasn’t sure what purpose Tim had in mind for him and his sister, but he was sure it wasn’t good. And if Tim felt threatened in any way, Louis knew that he and Billie were dead.
Louis looked over at Billie and saw her staring wide-eyed back at him. He could see that she was as terrified as he was, but he also saw the determination in her eyes. His father and the others had arrived, but Louis doubted that they would reach him and Billie before Tim managed to get them to his destination. If they were going to be saved, they would have to save themselves.
Tim stopped suddenly and looked around in confusion, clearly looking for something but unable to find it. Louis felt a surge of hope as he realized that Tim was lost. It was the lucky break that they needed. He looked over at Billie and saw her eyes widen momentarily as she looked behind them. He frowned in confusion, until she motioned with her eyes for him to look in the same direction. Louis looked back and didn’t see anything at first. But then he saw something that completely surprised him.
Aidan was crouched behind a tree not far behind them, only her head visible as she watched them intently. Louis knew that she must have been following them since they left the circle of stones, stealthily creeping behind them the entire way. His eyes met hers and she stared back at him, unblinking. He suddenly got the distinct impression that he should wait to do anything. He couldn’t explain where the feeling came from, but as he looked at Aidan, he wondered if she had something to do with it. He quickly brushed aside the thought, but couldn’t help but continue to stare at the strange dog as she continued to watch him.
Do nothing until my signal, Louis heard a voice in his head.
His eyes widened in surprise as he stared at the dog in shock. This time he knew he wasn’t imagining things. Aidan was telling him to wait. After a few seconds, he nodded at her, and was only slightly surprised to see her nod back.
Tim seemed to figure out where he was and started walking again, and this time he seemed much more certain of where he was going. Louis hoped that he hadn’t made a mistake by letting his chance to do something slip away. But something told him that he should trust Aidan and wait for her signal.
Billie had also heard what Aidan had said, though she guessed that it was more directed at Louis than her. She knew that Louis had been planning on doing something, and she had thought it was a bad idea, but she hadn’t said anything. She had a nagging feeling that they were supposed to go with Tim to wherever it was he was taking them. Billie had heard him scream something about a gate, and thought she remembered someone mentioning a gate in one of the many conversations her family had had about the demons. And the way she remembered it, she was pretty sure that it was something important. It was like when her Daddy had made her memorize his and Uncle Harper’s cell phone numbers. It had stuck in her mind the same way. Something was going to happen at the gate that Tim was taking them to, and she and Louis were supposed to be there.
Billie remembered what her mother had said to her in the dream that she had shared with Louis, and thought that maybe this was the place where she was supposed to do what she had asked. She looked behind them as Tim continued deeper into the woods. They were moving up a slight incline, and she could hear his labored breathing as he climbed it. But she had no illusions that Tim would tire before they reached their destination. Something was driving him forward, and simple fatigue couldn’t stop him.
As she looked behind, she saw Aidan sneaking from tree to tree, never visible for more than a few seconds. Billie was very careful not to smile or motion in any way to the dog, worried that she would reveal the fact that she was following them. Billie felt a shiver pass through her body, and realized suddenly that she was not feeling well. She felt nauseous and there was a strange pressure in her chest. She wondered if it was from the way that Tim was holding her, but he really wasn’t holding her very tightly. Then she wondered if it was from the bitter cold, but realized that she hadn’t felt cold since they had left the circle of stones. She knew the cold was there, but it didn’t bother her for some reason.
But the feeling remained. It reminded her of the feeling she had gotten on her first day of kindergarten. Her father had said she was nervous. The way she felt now was like that feeling – the strange feeling in her stomach and the pressure in her chest, only much more powerful. And as they moved deeper into the woods, the feeling grew stronger.
Billie tried to push the feeling away as she looked behind them again. She saw Aidan ducking behind a tree and then couldn’t see her anymore. The dog was still following them and was even closer now than she had been before. Billie saw Tim look briefly behind them and realized something that only made the feeling in her body worse. Tim knew they were being followed.
Tim stopped suddenly and even before Billie turned back around, she knew that whatever lay ahead of them was the cause of the awful feeling. They had arrived at their destination. She slowly turned her head, afraid of what she was going to see but refusing to let her fear overcome her. An evil smile crossed Tim’s face, and she knew that he had found what he was looking for.
She looked ahead and her gaze fell on a hill that stood at the end of a small clearing in the trees. It was covered with large stones that jutted from it in countless angles, creating a small cliff that was slightly taller than a fully grown man. Within the center of the hill was the opening of a small cave. It was from this cave that Billie felt the wrongness flowing that was causing the awful feeling within her. It made the opening seem larger than it was, like a maw opening into the dark places of the earth. It was the kind of place that would have caused the birth of superstitions in primitive men. But with this cave, superstition and fear would have been justified. It was a portal to someplace else – a gate. Billie could feel this for certain, and guessed that it was the gate she had heard about. And the place that it led to was a place of death.
Billie looked over and saw Louis squirm and the look on his face told her that he was feeling it too. She knew that if Tim took her and her brother in or near the cave, they were both doomed. Even if neither of them was the Solas, Tim had brought them here for a reason. And she was sure that the reason wasn’t a good one.
She looked again at the cave, though it made her feel sick when she did. She noticed for the first time that the trees around it were different than the others in the woods. The trees that were further away from the cave seemed to be growing away from it, as if they were trying to escape its presence, but were trapped in their places by their roots. Nearer to the cave, the trees seemed to have a strange vitality, with thick trunks and boughs so full of needles that barely any of the bark was visible. But the vitality was not normal. The trees were growing into each other and sometimes through each other, covering the area immediately around the cave with strangely-shaped branches that had none of the normal order of nature. It was as if the trees were trying to strangle each other, and their chaotic vitality gave them the appearance of madness.
Billie was terrified by the sight of the cave, and wanted to look away. But it also made her angry. She hated it, and hated what its presence had done to the forest. Something about it awoke a memory in her, the kind of feeling that she was too young to recognize as déjà vu. But she had never been to this place in the woods, had never seen the loathsome cave. She was sure that she would have remembered such a place. And yet the sense of familiarity remained.
She look
ed over at Louis and saw him staring wide-eyed at the cave, and his body was shaking, though Billie knew that it wasn’t from the cold. She couldn’t blame her brother for being afraid. She was terrified.
She looked behind them, searching for signs of Aidan, but couldn’t see her anywhere. She wondered if the little dog had abandoned them, and for some reason that caused a wave of despair, though she wasn’t sure what help Aidan could have provided if she had been there.
I’m here, Billie.
Billie heard her mother’s voice in her head, and her fear diminished. She knew that her mother couldn’t physically be there with her, but it didn’t matter. Billie felt the same presence that she felt when she was with her mother in her dreams. And it was comforting. She felt confident that she could face whatever she had to, overcome whatever obstacles Tim and the demons placed in her way. Her mother was there with her and wouldn’t let her face those obstacles alone.
Billie’s vision of the cave and its surroundings began to fade suddenly and she felt a moment of panic, as she realized that she was falling asleep. But then she felt the reassuring presence of her mother again, and let her consciousness drift away.
Dinah threw the last of the demons that had faced her directly at the stones and watched in satisfaction as it burst into flames with a howl. She looked around her quickly, but saw no sign of Vaughan, though she knew it had been her younger brother who had intervened. He had engaged one of the demons surrounding her, and it had been enough to even the odds, though it had been close. She had barely managed to escape serious injury, and had multiple minor wounds across her body, though they were no longer bleeding as freely as they had been just moments before. She was healing much faster than she ever had before, and she was grateful for it.
“Dinah!” Tina Waverly screamed suddenly. “Come help me, please!”
Dinah’s head whipped around and when her eyes found the source of the scream, she remembered what she had seen earlier. Larry was still lying in the snow, gasping for air. He looked even worse than he had before, and she felt her heart sink in her chest as she ran over to where he laid and kneeled next to him. The man was like a second father to her and her siblings. He had been a part of her life since before she could remember and as she looked down at him she felt panic well up within her. He stared up at her with fear in his eyes, and she reminded herself to stay calm. She couldn’t help him if she lost her senses. But as she looked at the splotchy skin on his face and the blue tint of his lips, she knew the awful truth at that moment – Larry was dying.
“He just collapsed all of a sudden,” Tina said with a sob, as she held one of his hands. “I think he’s having a heart attack. What do we do?”
Dinah looked at Ms. Waverly dumbly and couldn’t answer her question. She remembered CPR from a class she had taken over the summer, but Larry was still conscious. There was nothing she could do until he actually went into cardiac arrest, and that was the last thing she wanted to happen. The only thing she knew to do when someone was having a heart attack was to call the paramedics. In the middle of the mountains, with the nearest town at least an hour away, that wasn’t an option either. She looked around for her Uncle Harper, but couldn’t find him anywhere nearby. She remembered seeing him fighting near the strange circle of stones earlier. But when she looked in that direction, the only thing she could see was two piles of ash blackening the churned-up snow. Uncle Harper was nowhere to be found, and there was no one who could help her.
“She could still be the one,” Dinah heard a man’s voice say. The voice was flat and devoid of emotion, but still managed to hold a sinister quality to it.
She turned in surprise at the sound and saw the man that looked like her uncle standing with the blond woman and the uniformed man that she had seen when they had first arrived at the clearing. She remembered that Tina had said the woman’s name was Anna, though she didn’t know if the other two even had names. The man that looked like her uncle was a demon, of that she was certain. But the other two didn’t cause the same reaction in her that the demons did. Whether or not that made them human, she didn’t know. They were standing many yards away, but she could hear the demon-man’s voice clearly, as if he meant for her to hear.
“It has to be one of the children,” he said as he pointed at Dinah and then looked at the others with him. “We should take her with us.”
“You’re not taking her anywhere!” Tina said forcefully as she stood up and pointed the gun in her hand at the man. She had had enough of the demons and the hurt they caused. “Dinah, get behind me,” she added quietly with a trembling voice.
Dinah was very careful not to point out the fact that Ms. Waverly’s hand was shaking so badly that she wouldn’t have been able to hit anything if she tried. She was touched by the teacher’s protective gesture and didn’t want to diminish it in any way.
“How touching,” the demon-man said sarcastically. “Foolish, and completely pointless, but touching nonetheless,” he said as he chuckled. “Stay out of our way and we might let you live.”
But Tina couldn’t be deterred. She stepped over the prone form of Larry and his eyes followed her with concern. “I meant what I said,” Tina said as she stepped in front of Dinah. Her hand finally stopped shaking and Dinah thought that she looked strangely calm all of a sudden. “You’re not taking Dinah anywhere.”
The demon-man smiled but didn’t say anything else. He raised his hand, pointing it at Tina. Dinah quickly stood up and moved to stand next to the young teacher. She wouldn’t let her face the demon alone. But the enemy wasn’t attacking. As Dinah stared at the demon-man, Tina yelled suddenly in pain and dropped the gun. It fell to the snow and when Dinah looked down at it, she could see that it was glowing red, as if it had just been plucked from a raging fire. It quickly melted the snow around it, sinking into it and sending up a plume of steam. Dinah looked back at the demon-man and saw him grinning wickedly. Tina bent down and shoved her hand in the snow to soothe the burning the gun had caused, but Dinah had seen the large red welt that had already begun forming. She felt a surge of anger at the demon-man and took a step forward. A hand on her shoulder held her back with the barest of pressure, and Dinah looked down to see Tina’s hand restraining her. Tina’s bracelet was glowing brightly, but it had seemed to offer no protection against the magic that the man wielded. Dinah’s anger turned to fear as she realized that they had no protection against the dark magic of their enemies.
“You have changed nothing, human,” the man said as he raised his hand again with a wicked smile. “We will take the girl, and you will die.”
The darkness gathered around his outstretched hand and a bolt of blackness shot forth. It made a crackling sound as it flew through the air and toward the spot where Tina stood defiantly.
“Dinah!” Tina whispered as she tried to move in front of the eldest Ambrose daughter, hoping to shield her from the darkness.
But Dinah grabbed her and pulled her into an embrace and felt the teacher’s arms wrap around her waist. They both closed their eyes at the same time, neither of them wanting to see the death that was hurtling toward them. But instead of the pain they expected, they heard a dull thud that echoed a few times. They continued to wait for something to happen, but even after several seconds there was nothing.
Finally, Dinah opened her eyes and saw Ms. Waverly staring up at her in shock. When they both turned their heads to look at what had happened, they saw something that neither of them expected.
Jason stood in front of them with his hand raised, facing the demon-man. A slight glow emanated from his entire body and the air in front of him had coalesced into what looked like some kind of clear barrier. The bolt of darkness had become a stream, and it continued to surge from the hand of the demon-man, but it could not get past the wall that Jason had erected.
Finally, the demon-man lowered his hand as his mouth flattened into a thin line of frustration. Jason
lowered his hand in response, and Dinah could see that that hand was shaking as it returned to his side. She couldn’t believe that he had managed to stop what she guessed to be a powerful attack, but he had. His shoulders were rising and falling with each quickened breath, but he refused to move from his spot in front of her and Ms. Waverly.
He looked back at them briefly before returning his gaze to the three figures in front of him. “If it looks like they’re going to win, run for the woods,” he said over his shoulder. “I’ll stay with Larry.”
Before Dinah or Tina could say anything, the demon-man raised his hand again. But this time, instead of a bolt of darkness, a bolt of lightning shot from his hand and headed straight for Jason. It made a loud cracking noise as it passed through the air, reminding Dinah of the sounds of Colorado thunderstorms. At the last moment, Jason raised his own hand and the lightning struck the invisible barrier in front of him. The two humans with the demon raised their hands a moment later and twin bolts of lightning flew at the barrier at the same time. The bolts were unlike true lightning that struck once and then disappeared. Instead, these were streams of constant and obviously powerful electricity. Dinah felt the hair on her arms stand up as the air was filled with static.
“Go!” Jason shouted with obvious strain in his voice. “I don’t know how long I can hold off all three of them!”
“You should go, Dinah,” Tina said with fear on her face as she looked up at Dinah, who continued to cling to her. “I’m not leaving him.”
“Neither am I,” Dinah said resolutely as she watched the lightning continue to try to break through Mr. Holt’s barrier. She wasn’t about to abandon someone who had just saved her life. She could see from his posture that he was struggling to maintain the wall, but it continued to hold.
Jason seemed to think of something at that moment, for he raised his other hand and held it across from the one that was already raised, his palms facing each other. The shape of the barrier changed, moving from a wall into a curved shape and then finally a semicircle that seemed to gather the electricity being hurled at it. The lightning was slowly pushed into a ball as Jason struggled against it. He held it in that shape for a moment before hurling it back at his three attackers. All three sets of eyes widened in surprise as their attack was turned against them and all three streams of lighting ceased. The demon-man raised his other arm and grimaced in concentration a split-second before the ball of lightning struck an invisible barrier, shattering on impact and sending smaller bolts of lightning off in several directions before disappearing completely.
There were many small holes in the snow where the lightning had struck, and some of the pine trees at the edge of the clearing had small flames licking at their boughs, but Dinah and the others were unhurt. Jason looked back at them and smiled briefly before returning his attention to his attackers. That smile had held a mixture of triumph at having blocked their enemies’ attack, and fear that he wouldn’t be able to do it again.
The demon-man was furious and Anna and the other human stared at him warily, as if afraid that he would take out his anger on them. But they waited for him to make the next move. This time, he made no gesture to indicate that he was about to use his magic. The darkness began to gather around the demon-man, its black energy seeming to thicken until it was a cloud. The cloud of darkness was thick, though Jason and the others could still see the demon-man through it. It grew and then merged with the darkness that had begun to gather around Anna and the other man.
Jason looked back at them once, and Dinah could see the doubt in his eyes. Their enemies would attack again, and this time the magical assault would be much more powerful. And Jason didn’t know if he would be able to stop it.
Billie’s mind drifted through silence and blackness for what seemed like hours. It was a warm blackness that soothed her rather than causing fear. She felt safe and secure in its embrace, and knew in her mind that the darkness would take her to her mother. And she was certain that the darkness had been somehow sent by her mother to bring her daughter to her.
The darkness and silence was gradually disrupted, but with soothing sounds that Billie recognized instantly. There was the singing of birds, the gentle bubbling of a stream, and the sigh of leaves being rustled by the wind. Her sense of smell was next to note the change around her. She smelled the scents of trees, moss, and the moist air of the woods, and then the smell of flowers. The floral scent was familiar to her, though she couldn’t remember what kind of flower it came from. And then she recognized it and knew that it wasn’t from any one flower. It was the smell of her mother’s shampoo.
Billie’s eyes opened and she saw her mother’s beautiful blue eyes looking back at her. She was smiling as she reached out and stroked Billie’s cheek once with her hand before kissing it.
“You’ve done very well, Billie,” Arianna said to her daughter as she lifted her into her arms. “I’m very proud of you.”
Billie hugged her mother and breathed in the sweet scent of her hair and relished in the warmth of her body. She had been in the cold for so long that she had almost forgotten what the contentment of true warmth felt like.
Arianna hugged her back and spoke into her daughter’s ear, “It’s nearly time for you to do what you came here for, honey.”
Billie reluctantly released her arms from around her mother and then looked into her eyes. She still had no idea what it was that she was expected to do, though she had felt a strange anticipation growing within her. It had started when she had left Mr. McCallister’s house to follow Louis, and had continued to grow during their car trip through the mountains. A part of her had known that nothing would happen when Louis went into the circle of stones, though she had no reason to doubt that Louis was the Solas. She had seen the magic that he had used against the demons, had seen how powerful it was. It made sense that he be the one they were looking for. And yet she had known that he wasn’t the Solas.
“What am I supposed to do, Mommy?” she asked, hoping to finally hear what her mother had planned.
“It’s time for you to become what you were always meant to be,” Arianna answered as she stared into Billie’s eyes. “You are the only one that can stand up to the demons that have been hurting our family.”
“Am I the Solas?” Billie asked, though she didn’t think she wanted to know the answer.
Arianna was silent for a moment before answering, “In many ways, all of my children are the Solas. Each of you has the ability to draw others to you, and to bring out the best in those who follow you.”
Arianna sat down on a moss-covered tree stump and gently placed Billie on her lap. “But your power is a special one, Billie,” she told her daughter. “And you alone possess it.”
Billie felt a great weight settle on her. It was the weight of responsibility, something that until that moment she had been too young to feel before. She wasn’t sure if she liked the feeling, and wondered if this was what it felt like to be a grown-up.
“But I can’t run back to the stones and stay with Louis at the same time,” Billie said to her mother. She remembered that only by going into the circle of stones could the Solas claim their power. “How can I become the Solas if I can’t get back there?”
“You’ve already been there, Billie,” Arianna said with a smile. “I took you there myself when you were a baby. I always knew that you were the one, though the thought of the danger you would eventually face because of it terrified me.”
Billie realized that it was why the stones had seemed so familiar to her. Some part of her had recognized them, even though she had only been a baby when she had first seen them.
Arianna stroked Billie’s hair and tears filled her eyes. “I wish it wasn’t you. I wish it was none of my children, but that choice was never mine to make. I made the choice to love your father, and for that I have been rewarded more than anyone could have asked. That love was returned and it changed my life.”
She hugged Billie close and whispered in her ear, “And our love produced five beautiful children who mean more to me than any of them will ever know.”
“But Mommy, what am I supposed to do to stop Tim?” Billie asked. She still had no idea how she was supposed to do anything against the man and his powerful dark magic.
“You must get to the cave, and destroy it,” Arianna said simply. She stared back at Billie, her blue eyes unblinking.
Billie couldn’t imagine how she was supposed to do such a thing, especially with Tim holding on to her and Louis. And it wasn’t like her mother was asking her to break something, like a plate or a glass. She was asking Billie to destroy an entire cave by herself.
“I will create a diversion,” Arianna told her. “When I do, you must run for the cave. Your power will react to the wrongness of it, and when it does, you must destroy it.”
“I don’t like the cave,” Billie whispered as tears filled her own eyes. “I’m afraid, Mommy.”
“I know you are, honey,” Arianna answered soothingly. “But I will be there with you.” She was quiet for a moment before she added with determination, “You can do this, Billie. You’re stronger than you know.”
“What about Louis?” Billie asked, thinking of her brother. She didn’t want to leave him with Tim.
“I will help him get away,” Arianna answered. She looked away for a moment, her eyes searching the trees around them, as if she had heard something. Her gaze returned to Billie and she smiled.
“It’s time, Billie,” Arianna said. “Are you ready?”
Billie was terrified. She wanted to stay in the woods with her mother, even though she knew it was just a dream. The thought of returning to the place that she had left, with the cold and the horrible feeling that the cave caused, made her want to cling to her mother and refuse to go. But she remembered what her mother had said. She was the only one who had the power to stop Tim and the demons. She was the only one who could save her family and their friends.
She hugged her mother one last time and then looked at her and nodded. Her mother’s face faded in Billie’s vision and was replaced by the blackness that had brought her to the woods. She knew that when she opened her eyes again, it would be to the sight of the terrible cave that only she could destroy. She hoped that her mother’s faith in her wasn’t misplaced and that she could do what her mother believed she could do. The thought of what would happen to her and her family if she couldn’t was too frightening for her to think about.
Billie allowed her consciousness to drift, and tried to ready herself for what she would face when she opened her eyes again.
The Ambrose Beacon Page 27
