by Emma Mills
‘Why aren’t the rest of the angels fighting?’ I asked, as Sebastian leapt in front of me and knocked an angel out of our way.
‘Watch,’ he said, as a whole wall of angels suddenly threw back their hoods and put their hands in the air. Leo stood at the end of the line, tears pouring down his cheeks, eyes fixed on the broken body of the woman at my feet.
‘We will not fight,’ they chanted as one.
‘You will fight or you will die,’ Ariel screamed across the room, fatally turning her back on Mac. ‘I will rule this council and anyone who does not obey me will…’
I gasped and looked away as Mac’s jaw clamped down on her neck, dragging her screaming to the floor, out of sight behind the desk. Seconds later her scream stopped short, as did the two guards who were mid-run, when Mac stood tall, a man again and totally naked. He leaned down and grabbed a cloak that was tossed his way.
‘I propose a new council,’ he said. ‘And this time I want to be in on it.’
‘I too!’ Seth said, calmly walking into the room, his eyes searching until he found me.
‘And I,’ said Adaryn who followed with Noah, holding a battered, limping Brittany between them. As they stopped Brittany smiled at me before her eyes were guided back to Noah, who gently kissed her on the forehead.
I knew who would appear next, even before his dark floppy curls were in sight. I pulled away from Sebastian and set off at a run, my heart forgetting it was dead and beating so hard I thought it would break. I launched myself across a broken desk between a group of angels who scattered, dazed, past a grinning Brittany and straight into his arms. I breathed in his scent and I was home.
‘Jess,’ Daniel murmured.
Behind him Eva and Caoimhe grinned, and behind them my entire coven poured into the room, flanked by more angel allies.
‘It was all a trick,’ Daniel whispered, as he pulled me close. ‘Ariel only wanted you dead. We were taken to another holding cell. Adaryn told me to give Ariel my locket. She said it would comfort you… Oh Jess, you’re shaking!’
‘I’m fine… I’ve been better, but I’m okay… we’re okay.’ I smiled.
We were all alive, that was the main thing. We had survived. We had been saved by a witch with the power to turn back time. I looked back across the room to where Leo was cradling Brooke’s body in his arms. I bit my lip and let a blood red tear slide down my cheek.
Brooke’s Chapter
Brooke sat next to Saffy and stared at the TV screen. They all knew something bad had happened ever since the night Jess and Brittany had left, but it wasn’t for another three days that they knew what it was. In that time Brooke had made some decisions. Life was not life unless you could be free, and currently she was holed up in a very lovely American house where, with every passing day, she was putting its occupants in danger. She could leave, but she had nowhere to go. She had asked Sarah and Susannah if they could strip her of her magic, but only the Council knew how. She was fed up of running. She was fed up of the world in general, but she refused to give in. She would not let the Council get its hands on her. Leo would get over her and the Council would forgive him. She watched Ariel’s announcement and let the words sink in. Sarah began crying and Susannah immediately stormed to the phone, but nothing could be done. Adaryn had gone missing and all their contacts in the NY Headquarters remained tight-lipped. No one dared go up against Ariel, not with their representative missing. She went to bed and for the first time in months she had a plan.
Step one was to break every rule she knew and go back in time to the day before Exodus was torched. She knew the location. She knew the time and she had a spell which Veronica had taught her to help control the magic. She closed her eyes and welcomed the energy. It fizzed through her veins like popping candy and a hot breeze whistled round her, lifting her hair. The bedroom flickered and disappeared and she was flying, a maelstrom of heat and wind whipping her back in time. She landed exactly where she wanted to be and at exactly the right time. She only hoped that Sebastian was alone when she arrived.
‘Oh my god!’ he exclaimed, as she materialised at three o clock in the morning - approximately seven hours before the attack.
‘Do you know who I am?’ Brooke whispered, checking the door was closed.
Sebastian tilted his head to one side.
‘I don’t believe we have had the pleasure, but I am presuming you are the girl everyone is searching for?’ he said.
She nodded her head.
‘I have some bad news for you, but I have a plan,’ she said. ‘We don’t have long because time is fluid and I think it keeps on going, even when I travel back.’ She paused and Sebastian raised an eyebrow.
‘Well I think I could presume that, seeing as you have appeared in my bedroom at three a.m. What’s happened?’
‘Among other things… you are dead and the Council is about to execute Jess… and possibly Daniel, Eva and Brittany too.’
‘Oh! So… er… how long do I have?’
‘Approximately seven hours, but if you go along with my plan, who knows…’
‘I’m listening,’ he said.
Brooke spent the next five minutes updating Sebastian on the events that would take place over the next few weeks, and then she divulged her plan. He nodded.
‘I’m in,’ he said. ‘But I don’t understand why you can’t just prepare for attack and stop it before it starts.’
‘Because it has been too long. If we do that it will change events irrevocably and I cannot be responsible for such a massive rip in time. Too many peoples’ lives will change, so it would be more than risky. No, the only way is to lessen the effect on time as much as we can. We have to let the attack happen. We have to lose those that died. Jess has to grieve. She has to come to America and the Council have to think you’re dead. By saving you I will have to replace one death; i I save all those other deaths another thirty people will die somewhere else. If we get to Headquarters before Jess and the others are killed then their deaths won’t need to be traded. This is the only way, so if you don’t agree I shall leave.’
Sebastian sat back in his chair and contemplated her words.
‘You are asking me to agree to a deal where you save me but leave my comrades to die,’ he said quietly.
‘Why are you saving me? Why do you need me?’
‘Because the vampires listen to you and because we need strong leaders to stand up to the Council and represent their species. You are needed and you know it,’ she said.
Sebastian’s lips twitched as he looked into her eyes.
‘You remind me of Jess,’ he said. ‘You’re stronger than you know.’
‘I have to trust that if I leave you now you will stick to the plan.’
‘But I don’t know what I did before. I cannot promise that my actions will not be altered through knowledge, of course they will.’
Brooke sighed and handed him a mesh vest.
‘Here, put this on,’ she said. ‘It will stop the stake hitting its mark, and it will look realistic.’
He shrugged and pulled off his cashmere sweater. His chest was smooth and toned. Brooke flushed and looked at the floor as he pulled it on.
‘I am going to bewitch you, Sebastian. It will make you forget everything I have just told you. As you said you cannot be expected to watch your comrades die.’
He frowned.
‘I don’t think this is going to work,’ he said.
‘I’m sorry, but you have no choice,’ she said, snapping her fingers.
Time froze. She looked around her, bemused. Veronica had only let her freeze time once before. She said it was a spell that only needed practising once, and was only to be used under terrible circumstances. She looked at Sebastian and walked across the room towards him. His face was furious, his eyes black holes. Being a leader he was not used to losing control. She touched his chest and whispered a memory spell. He would forget her visit; he wouldn’t even notice the vest. Life would go on… until it didn’t. C
onfident in her work she stepped back and closed her eyes, welcoming the rush of heat and knowing that time would resume as soon as she disappeared.
Step Two was notifying the werewolves, and finding Mac was easy, seeing as Jess had left the business card on the nightstand by her bed after copying the details into her phone. Mac too was furious, but it didn’t take long to convince him of the future events. Again she flew back in time, to save a couple of days and give the pack time to fly to the UK. Another three years, more grey hairs.
Step Three was the hardest. She went to find Leo. She waited for him outside Daniel’s house on the night of the Exodus attack. He had left the building just after Caoimhe and Luke, trailing behind them, his face dark with worry.
‘Leo,’ she whispered.
He swung his head round and spotted her hiding in the shadows. She brought her finger to her lips and he nodded. Once he had said goodnight to Luke and Caoimhe he returned to her. They flew to a deserted shepherds hut, high in the Derbyshire hills, and curled up under some blankets.
‘Where have you been?’ he asked.
‘Away. I have a lot to tell you,’ she replied, and so their night began.
She told him everything. She told him about the ageing, which was easy to believe because she already looked twenty years older than him. He fumed and told her he would stop the Council from blackmailing her. He cried when she told him it wouldn’t work. He held her tight when she told him what the future held for them all and went quiet when she told him what she needed from him.
‘I can’t do it,’ he whispered. ‘How can I?’
‘You have to,’ she said, kissing his lips.
They spoke no more and spent the night rejoicing in every minute they had left. It was agreed that he would disappear until the execution. She wanted him to stay away, but he refused.
‘You can’t watch,’ she said. ‘You won’t be able to stand there without trying to stop the inevitable.’
He stuck out his chin.
‘I am not going to miss my last chance to see you,’ he said. ‘I will be there. Know that when you die I will be with you. My heart will be yours forever.’
She left him in the hut and returned to Malden, with more grey hairs, to arrange the final details of their plan.
Step Four was going to take the biggest toll. She knew it was possible to drag someone through time with you, Veronica had told her it was, but she had also warned how draining it would be. Neither of them knew how many years toll it would take, and it was possible that she wouldn’t have the energy for her last, most crucial trip. She shook away the fears, hugged the Malden witches goodbye and felt the fire take her.
She landed exactly where she wanted, in the corridor leading to Sebastian’s room in Exodus. She could already hear Daniel and Eva’s footsteps running through the room next to her. She snapped her fingers and the footsteps froze.
Brooke cautiously entered the room and took in the carnage. Jess was half-lying across Sebastian’s body, and a stake was sticking out of his chest. Pierre stood in the corner of the room, the vampire girl by his side. She was tempted to save the girl by moving her out of her boss’s reach, but she turned away. Everything had to happen as it should. She walked across to Sebastian and touched him lightly, whispering the words that would wake only him.
He opened his eyes and took in the scene around him, looked down at the stake lodged tight in the magical mesh vest. His eyes darkened as he looked at Brooke and remembered their conversation.
‘You forced me…’ he began.
‘I had no choice. I told you, everything has to happen exactly the same, so don’t make this harder for me than it already is.’
He clambered out from under Jess, tugging out the stake. He paused and looked intently at Jess’s face, taking in her utter despair.
‘She loved me,’ he said quietly.
‘She loves Daniel more,’ Brooke said.
Sebastian nodded.
‘As it should be.’
‘You died to save her and now you can save her again. Come on,’ she said, handing him a large jar of ash.
He sprinkled it on the ground underneath Jess and chucked the stake on top.
‘I could kill him and he wouldn’t even know,’ he said, staring at his maker, his eyes darkening. ‘I’m sorry, Brooke, I can’t let this chance…’
Brooke had already grounded and she could feel the fire within touching distance, so she knew she was becoming semi-transparent. One touch was all it would take. As Sebastian flexed his knees and prepared to spring she reached out. She clamped her fingers tight round his wrist and pulled.
A vampire was strong, but it was nothing against the power of time. They were pulled up, dissolving into a million atoms as they burned through the sky. Time rushed forward as Brooke concentrated on her destination. They landed with a crash exactly where she had agreed with Susannah. She had left it down to Jess’s cousins to arrange the details with Caoimhe and Luke. She just hoped they were on the right side and there would be the right people waiting to meet them.
An angel rushed forward and knelt down next to them.
‘Here,’ Caoimhe said, pushing an energy drink into Brooke’s hands. ‘Is he okay?’ she asked, looking at Sebastian.
‘Yes, I think so. I feel like someone ripped me apart and put me back together whilst I was fully conscious,’ he muttered. ‘That was worse than when I was turned. I need blood, be careful!’
Caoimhe dug in her bag and brought out a hospital blood pack, still in its plastic sachet.
‘Here,’ she said. ‘It was all I could get.’
‘Did you get the cloaks?’ Brooke asked.
‘Yes, don’t worry, everything’s under control. It’s you we’re worried about. Can’t we think of another way?’ she asked.
Brooke looked at the sky.
‘No,’ she whispered. ‘Someone has to die, and I chose to do this. It’s the best way and it feels right. I’m fed up of being me and I never wanted any of this. I don’t want to be a witch. I don’t want to have these powers, but I can’t get rid of them.’
‘But once we take over the Council we might be able to find a way,’ Caoimhe said.
‘I can’t take that risk and it doesn’t get away from the fact that someone will still need to die.’
‘To take my place… it’s not right. I won’t allow it,’ Sebastian grumbled.
‘You don’t have a choice. Now pull it together. I don’t want to die in vain, okay. You must pull this off. You have one hour before they start moving their prisoners out of the cells. You need to let the witches help disguise you. Caoimhe and her friends will smuggle you in. I have to go,’ Brooke said.
Caoimhe stepped forward and hugged Brooke.
‘You are amazing,’ she whispered. ‘We will never forget you.’
Brooke nodded and gulped down the remaining drink. She felt tired and she could see that the tendrils of hair blowing in the breeze were now completely white. She looked down at her hands and the skin was soft and velvety, like her grandmother’s had been when she was a little girl. She closed her eyes and let the fire consume her. Only another two hours forward in time. Her last stop.
‘Tell Leo I love him,’ she whispered.
The End.
