by E J Elwin
“I’ve already stayed here longer than most people ever do,” he said. “I got to hear about your new life. We got to have a real goodbye. We got to dance together.” I coughed out a sob, and he squeezed my hands tightly. “No one stays here forever. The fact is I’m dead, and it’s time for me to move on to where the dead go.”
“Where?”
“I’m not sure,” he said, “but I hear it’s nice. And it’s nothing to be afraid of.” He looked at something over my shoulder. I turned to look and then jumped in shock.
A colossal wooden ship had appeared next to the building, just beyond the purple and white lanterns. It was a sailing ship, with great white sails stretched over three towering masts. Like the quill, I had only ever seen ships like this in movies and history books. There was no one visibly operating it, no captain or crew, and I knew unquestionably that it was captaining itself. It was perfectly still, its deck level with our feet, ready to accept a new passenger.
I looked back at Connor, who was gazing at the ship as though he’d been expecting it all this time, and the reality of what was happening hit me like an anvil to the face. I still wasn’t ready. I still couldn’t say goodbye. Connor stood up.
“You can’t!” I choked, gasping for air.
“My love, I have to,” he said, his voice shaking. “It’s time.”
At that moment, the bright ball of violet light, the color of the Crossing Crystals, appeared just to the left of the ship, above the place where the street and the giant party had been on Earth. My heart contracted in resistance, in complete refusal of what was unfolding, as the ball of light hovered slowly toward us. Connor spread his arms wide. A final embrace.
I couldn’t. Wouldn’t.
I turned, not toward Connor, but to the violet light. It crept toward us like a wraith, and then I stuck my palm out, the way a crossing guard might signal traffic to stop. I summoned the full force of my will and commanded the light to stop— and incredibly, it did. It hovered a few feet away from us like a violet sun, frozen in midair by every power I had to offer.
“What are you doing?” Connor asked, his voice spiked with fear.
“I’m going with you,” I said.
“Arthur—” he breathed, and there was real panic in his voice, “you can’t—”
“Yes, I can.”
“What about Harriet?! Your sister witches?! You’re just going to leave them—?”
“We beat the Brotherhood,” I said robotically. “We killed the Patriarch. We killed the person who made their rampage possible. We fulfilled our destiny. The vile villain is gone. I did my part.”
“Arthur—”
But before he could say anything else, I reared my arm back like I was throwing a baseball, then launched the ball of violet light away from us as hard as I could. It soared over the lanterns and brick parapets in a violet blur, like another shooting star, flying a good distance away from the building before falling toward the glimmering ocean waves. As soon as it touched the water, there was a sound like a candle being snuffed out, and then the light vanished.
I wasn’t going back. I was staying with Connor.
CHAPTER 23
Forever
Do you hate me?”
“Look at me,” he said. I looked into his eyes. “I could never hate you. No matter what you do.”
He stepped forward and hugged me, running his hands over my back and shoulders, as though savoring what he now knew he wouldn’t have to part with. I did the same, gripping his arms, his waist, taking in the sweet smell of his neck.
Maybe it had been fate after all, I thought, remembering what Harriet had said. She told me that she and I had been fated to meet in Wineville and then end up in Seaside with my sister witches. She believed both of Connor’s deaths happened to lead me to my destiny. I saw now how right she was. It had been fate for him to die, and for me to stay behind for a short while to take down Deidre and the Brotherhood. Now, it was fate for me to end up with him just like I’d always hoped, witch destiny fulfilled, and a cosmic voyage to the land of the dead ahead of us.
“So it’s you and me,” said Connor.
“Forever,” I said, taking his hand.
We turned toward the great ship, its massive white sails billowing softly in the breeze, and began to walk toward it. It felt like a procession; a funeral march, a graduation, and a wedding all in one. The candy stars flickered and twinkled as if in celebration.
I’d had sixteen years on Earth to see just how much I didn’t belong there. Now it was in the past, and the vastness of the universe was laid out before me. The untold wonders of the beyond were like beautifully wrapped gifts, trailing infinitely into the heavens for me and Connor to discover.
The jukebox, which had been quiet during our encounter with the violet light, suddenly swelled with music. It was a heartrendingly beautiful song that was also very familiar. The inimitable voice of Judy Garland floated across the roof and over the sea, and for a moment, I was six years old again.
It was “Over the Rainbow”. I had spent countless hours of my childhood sitting in front of the television, wide-eyed and enchanted, watching Judy Garland sing this song in her most famous role as Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz. A year ago on Valentine’s Day, Connor and I had gone to see a screening of the film at our local movie theater. He now turned to me and smiled, a shining teardrop falling down his cheek as we approached the great ship.
“Ready?” he asked.
“Ready,” I said.
He reached for one of the glowing purple lanterns and unclasped something on the thin black wire from which it hung. A section of four hanging lanterns broke away from the many others, and Connor lowered it gently to the ground. There was now an opening in the row of lanterns wide enough for both of us to cross through onto the deck of the ship.
Connor stepped onto the brick parapet and then held his hand out to me. Just as I reached for it, the purple and white lanterns he’d just detached, along with all the others around the roof, suddenly flickered and went out. At the same time, “Over the Rainbow” was abruptly cut from the jukebox, the glowing yellow display suddenly dim, as if the machine had been unplugged.
My heart jolted as I remembered the lanterns going out in a very similar way over the giant party in Portland back on Earth. That had been Deidre’s doing. I looked around, expecting to see the dark swan flying toward us over the sea, but then remembered she was dead. I had killed her with my own flames. Also, this was Connor’s part of the Halfway Place.
What, then, was going on?
Connor and I looked at each other in bewilderment, and he glanced uncertainly at the ship as if it were responsible for the sudden power outage. The roof was much darker without the lanterns, even with the bright moon and starlight. The stars remained colorful but no longer flickered between colors, each remaining fixed on one, looking like tiny colored diamonds sewn into a black dress.
The silence was ominous, not just because the music had been cut. Something else had happened to produce the oppressive stillness around us. I then realized that the breeze was gone. The ocean waves continued to roll and crash against the building, but the salty sweet breeze no longer blew. The sails on the ship no longer billowed, and the air was fully and unnaturally still.
I wondered if this was normal procedure for the Halfway Place. Was this particular section of it shutting down now that we were leaving?
Then, Connor’s eyes went wide as he looked up at the sky behind me.
“Arthur!” he breathed, pointing up at it.
I turned and saw, to my incredible shock, something moving on the moon… I squinted up at the the silvery sphere, and Connor stepped off the brick parapet to stand beside me. The surface of the moon was changing, swirling like a ball of smoke… Suddenly, there was a person there. No. People.
My mouth fell open as the faces of Jessica, Sylvie, Lizzie, and Hortensia appeared on the surface of the moon as clearly as if I were watching them through a giant circular window in
the sky. They were talking together and laughing, and sipping from glasses garnished with limes and flickering flames. It was Huerta’s Restaurant. They were having their dinner that I hadn’t gone to.
“Are they…?” Connor began.
“My sisters,” I whispered, staring up at their faces.
Their smiles suddenly vanished as they all looked in shock at something in front of them. They scrambled up from their seats in one of the booths with the red table cloths, and then I got a glimpse of what they were looking at, as if a camera was panning away from them.
Four men in the black clothes and masks of the Brotherhood stomped into the restaurant from the back entrance, holding their guns out in front of them. A few of the patrons in the booths nearby looked around at them, and then the bullets began to fly.
I couldn’t hear a thing, but I knew the many people were screaming in terror as they dived for cover under the tables. Connor and I watched in horror as bright red bursts of blood bloomed across people’s chests and faces. Glasses and plates exploded into confetti as the four men advanced into the restaurant, shooting at everyone and everything in their path.
Then I saw Hortensia running at the men. Their bullets flew through her, striking the wall behind her, then she appeared behind them. She struck with a knife she had taken from the table, stabbing one of the men in the neck. He jerked and recoiled but didn’t go down immediately. His comrades continued to shoot at Hortensia, and one of them lunged, but fell right through her onto a guitar left behind by one of the mariachi performers who had ran for cover.
Then Sylvie darted across the image, right across the face of the moon, flying through the air and kicking one of the men in the chest like she had done to the man in the woods. The man flew backward onto a table and his gun slipped out of his hand, and then one of his fellows was upon Sylvie. He raised his gun when suddenly an assortment of roses nearby shot out of their glass vase like lightning rods and flew at his face, their thorns digging into his eyes—
I saw Hortensia, Sylvie, and Jessica huddled together as two of the four men managed to find their footing and point their guns at all three of them— then the image was gone. The moon returned to its plain silvery white, glowing serenely as it always had. Connor and I gaped at it in shock.
“Is that happening right now?” he breathed.
“No,” I said. “It’s about to happen.”
“How do you know?” he asked.
“I’m not sure.”
It was like when Jessica and I saw Sylvie and Lizzie in the Purple Haze. I had known instantly that, not only were they witches, but they were both part of the Sacred Four. Just like then, a doubtless knowledge had dropped into my head. I was certain that I had just seen, not the present or past, but the future— the very near future. I had no idea how it had happened since I didn’t have the gift of Sight. I wondered if it was one of Jasper’s visions and I had just intercepted it, though I didn’t know how that was possible. One thing, however, was crystal clear.
“I have to help them,” I said.
I looked at Connor and, amazingly, he smiled. “Of course you do,” he said.
I glanced from him to the great ship, its sails still completely motionless in the stagnant air. I knew I could take a few steps, climb over the brick parapet, and live in freedom with Connor among the stars. But I was sure, more than I had ever been of anything in my life, of what I had to do. My choice and my future solidified before me with a thunderous finality, a resounding bang.
Then my heart plunged into my stomach. “It’s been more than an hour! I’m already dead! I can’t go back!” Monstrous, catastrophic guilt swept over me. I was the world’s biggest disgrace.
Then Connor said: “You’re not dead.”
“But it’s been over an hour!” I said. “The soul can only be apart from the body for an hour at most before it—”
“You’re not dead, I promise,” he said.
“How do you—?”
“I just do,” he said. “Party planning whispers, you know.”
I stared at him. I’d believed him when he said those voices only spoke the truth, but I didn’t understand how I could still be alive.
As though sensing my thoughts the way witches could, Connor answered my question. “Those new powers that Jasper told you about?” he said. “This is one of them. Your soul can be apart from your body for much longer than an hour. You’re definitely still alive.”
Hope burned inside me, but then—
“How am I supposed to get back?” I asked. “I destroyed the Crossing Crystal light!”
“The ocean,” said Connor simply. “It’s a portal. All you have to do is jump in.”
I watched him in amazement. He was calm, even cheerful. I looked around at the ocean rising and falling in the moonlight, then back at him. Finally, it was time to say goodbye.
“Connor,” I choked out, “love of my life—”
He leapt forward and threw his arms around me, squeezing me as if it was the last time, which of course it was. How could I say goodbye? What words could express all that I felt?
“I love you” was all I could say.
“I love you,” he said. “More than anything. Forever.”
We pulled back and looked into each other’s eyes one last time. I would always remember those ocean blue eyes. The eyes, the face, the heart, of the boy of my dreams.
“We’ll see each other again,” he said. “Someday.”
“Do you promise?”
“I promise, my love,” he said. “Now go. Save the world. My hero.”
I openly wept as I watched him step over the brick parapet and onto the ship. He raised a hand in farewell, as though he were merely going off for a few hours, and then the ship began to move. I raised my own shaking hand, fighting every impulse to leap onto the ship as it glided slowly away from the roof. He smiled and said what I knew to be I love you, before the ship faded away into thin air, and I was left alone on the roof among the darkened lanterns.
I took a deep heaving breath, trying to steady myself. Suddenly, the jukebox came back to life, starting midway through “Over the Rainbow” as if nothing had happened. The song came at full volume, the display glowing yellow again even though the purple and white lanterns remained dark.
I stepped onto the brick parapet where Connor had just departed and looked down at the rocks that surrounded the building, the waves crashing against them in bursts of foam. I would have to take a good leap to clear them and make it into the water.
I looked up for a last glimpse at the candy-colored stars as Judy Garland’s honeysuckle-sweet voice hovered past me and over the parapets. The song was nearly over.
I bent my knees and threw myself as hard as I could away from the building and over the rocks. I flailed reflexively in the air as I fell toward the waves, bracing myself for an icy wet impact which never came. Instead, I fell through the water as smoothly as if it were air, and then my heels went over my head. I somersaulted through shimmering space, spinning and spinning, hurtling back to Earth.
**
I took the deepest gasping breath of my life as I blinked up at the living room ceiling. To my left and right, two figures jumped in alarm at my arrival.
“Arthur!” Harriet leapt toward me from one of the armchairs and pulled me into her arms. Something heavy flew from her lap and I saw over her shoulder that it was a thick book bound in black leather. The room was brightly lit by the antique lamps, the candles extinguished.
“We thought we’d lost you!” said Harriet. “What happened to you?!” She practically shouted the question as she pulled back to look at me. Her eyes were bloodshot and her face tearstained. I was instantly reminded of when she pulled me out of the bloody bathtub.
“There’s no time,” I said. “We have to get to Huerta’s. Now.”
“Huerta’s?” she asked in confusion. “The restaurant where the girls went—?”
“It’s about to be attacked. The Brotherhood, four of th
em at least, are on their way.” Her eyes widened in shock and then I looked up at Jasper to my left. “Didn’t you see it?” I asked him.
He looked at me blankly. I scrambled to my feet, noting vaguely that I was back in the jeans and black t-shirt with the blue rose from the Wardrobe Room.
“We have to go!” I said. “Now!”
They both looked completely lost, and for about half a second, I worried that we were going to be too late, but then they snapped to awareness and stood up. It was as if a detailed briefing of the situation had been suddenly dropped into their heads and they were now caught up to where I was.
“Brooms,” said Jasper.
“Arthur doesn’t know how to fly yet!” said Harriet.
“I’ll learn!” I said quickly. “Isn’t it instinct—?”
“Unfortunately no,” said Harriet, blinking rapidly.
“I’ll teleport!” I gasped. “I just have to turn to ash—” I turned to the crackling fireplace.
“No!” Harriet shouted. “We don’t know exactly how that works and we don’t have time to experiment!”
“My bike!” Jasper shouted. “Arthur and I will take my bike while you fly and meet us there!”
“Done!” Harriet shouted. Without another word, she dashed toward the winding staircase and hurried up the steps. I could only assume she was going to the Broom Room.
Jasper rushed to the tall oak cabinet where Jessica kept her spell supplies and wrenched it open. I caught a brief glimpse of the shimmering treasures inside before Jasper slammed the doors and emerged with Jessica’s sapphire knife and a pale blue crystal which I recognized as—
“The Cognition Crystal?” I asked. “What are you—?”
“Shh!” said Jasper. He shut his eyes and took a deep breath. He held the crystal in one hand and the knife in the other, and I knew he was about to cast another Sight Heightening Spell.
A bolt of fear shot through me. Something told me it wasn’t safe for a Seer to cast this spell on themselves twice in two days. But Jasper was much more experienced than I was, and I trusted that he knew what he was doing. He chanted quickly in his deep voice, clearly rushing to complete the spell:
