The Sisters of Salem

by Tish Thawer

  “Whoa, I didn’t even notice that. Way to work things out.” Kennedy leaned down for a closer inspection.

  Caris rose from the floor. “I get that it could still be so many different things, but if whatever was here is truly what we’re looking for, at least now we know its approximate size and what it’s made from … kind of.” She shrugged.

  “It’s definitely a direction to go in.” Kennedy slung an arm around her sister’s shoulders. “Now, we just need to turn this place upside down and find the damn thing.”

  Looking back to the items on the bed, Caris sighed. “I think we should say something, or perform a spell to keep all of Mama’s trinkets safe before we do.”

  Kennedy met her sister’s thoughtful gaze. “I agree. Let me grab a couple of things. I’ll be right back.” Disappearing back into the store room for a few moments, Kennedy returned with a long piece of twine and a thin candle in her hand.

  Caris took the candle and held it above the board, while Kennedy tied a knot at the bottom of the twine, wrapping it up and around the candle with each verse of her spell.

  “Gathered and stored with loving hands, bound by magic to our ancestral land. Protected and shielded by sisters three, as we will it, so mote it be.”

  Kennedy tied the final piece of twine and lit the candle, placing it in a holder on the nearby dresser. It was simple, yet perfect, and the most fitting memorial for Mama’s special things.

  Sliding the memory box back under the bed, the girls shared a hug and a renewed energy to continue their search. Caris perused the bedroom, while Kennedy returned to the kitchen, inspecting any piece of metal she could find. With each passing hour, though, the joy of their small discovery and the vague idea of what they were looking for waned, leaving them to return to Jason’s cabin distraught and empty handed.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  “How is she?” Caris asked as she stared down at her still sleeping sister.

  “No change.” Jason’s chest rose and fell with a deep sigh before he looked up, meeting the girls’ concerned gazes. “Did you find anything at your house?”

  Kennedy shook her head and silently made her way to the chair in the corner.

  “No, but we do have a better idea of what we’re looking for now … sort of.” Joining Jason on the floor next to the couch, Caris folded her legs beneath her. “Whatever it is, we think it’s made of some sort of metal and is about this long …” She spread her finger and thumb apart to a span of about four inches.

  “That’s it? Only an idea of the size and material? Nothing else?” Jason struggled to keep his tone even, hoping to keep the tinge of accusation from coming through. He knew they were trying their best—they all were—but with Trin lying comatose beside him, their best needed to be better.

  “I think we should still head to Salem and see if we can find Ann there.” Kennedy shifted in the chair, crossing her arms over her chest. “I know Mama’s clue said we need to find this thing in order for our fight to be done, but honestly, if we locate Ann and rescue Mama, she can simply tell us what we’re looking for, and we’ll be that much closer to putting all this to an end.” She rose from her chair and nodded to Jason. “If you want to stay here with Trin, Caris and I can go and be back within a day. It’s only an hour’s ride by horse or carriage.”

  Caris and Jason looked to each other, contemplating Kennedy’s plan.

  It was a good one.

  “Where do you want to look for the horses?” Jason asked. “Ours are gone with my family, and you never had any in this time, so what do you have in mind?”

  Caris lifted her chin. “I think it’s time to pay Lionel a visit.”

  “Are you sure?” Kennedy asked.

  “Yes. Since we didn’t find him in town, I still want to confirm he’s not working for Ann. And what better way to do that, than to let us borrow some horses or to help us find Mama?”

  “Okay.” Kennedy nodded, then turned back to Jason. “We’ll leave first thing in the morning and be back before nightfall, hopefully with Mama, too.”

  “Hopefully,” Jason and Caris intoned together.

  ***

  Morning came, and fog crept silently across the land. Dew blanketed the grass and leaves, pulling with it the memory of rain showers and early morning hours of work in the surrounding forest and fields.

  Caris tied a ribbon around her waist, cinching the borrowed dress to fit her form. The idea of confronting Lionel set her nerves on edge, but she knew it needed to be done, especially if there was a chance to rekindle things back in the present day.

  Kennedy eased from the closet, pulling her bonnet in place. “It feels so weird to dress like this again, especially knowing people see me as a kid.”

  “Yes, but like you said, maybe that will play to our advantage. It’s not unusual for girls to ride into town alone to gather supplies, so hopefully we won’t raise any suspicions, and get there and back without issue.”

  “Yeah. Hopefully.” Kennedy eyed her sister. “Are you ready to face Lionel? I know you don’t really want to march straight up to his house.”

  Caris shrugged, her head listing to the side. “I don’t know. I still feel a pull to find him. I need to know what role he’s playing in all this, but at the same time, I’m not sure it matters.”

  “Why do say that?” Kennedy sank down onto the small, wooden bench and pulled on her boots.

  “Even if we find him, who’s to say the Lionel in this time has any idea what’s going on? You said it yourself … he could be completely clueless if it’s the future Lionel that’s somehow tied to all this instead.”

  Kennedy nodded. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. We still need his help now, so I guess we should get going. Do you have anything you want to take to act as a reason for showing up at his home?”

  “Dang it. Yes. I should have grabbed some of Mama’s pain-relieving cream. He mentioned in our original lifetime he and his father used it often.”

  “It’s okay, we can swing by and grab some on the way to his estate.” Kennedy clasped her wool cloak in place and headed for the door with Caris at her heels.

  Together, they tiptoed through the kitchen and out onto the back lawn. Jason had spent all night up and down, returning from the bedroom to Trin’s side in the living room, until he finally collapsed onto a pallet of blankets he’d gathered next to the couch. It was their hope not to wake him, seeing as they’d already gone over the plan—Head to Castle Hill, find Lionel, either borrow some horses or have him take them to Salem in the carriage, search for and hopefully locate and rescue Mama, then return home. Easy peasy. Hopefully.

  The sting of their shared wariness weighed on Caris’s thoughts as they neared the back door of their childhood home again.

  “Car, wait. Look …” Kennedy pointed to the backdoor and the flickering light within. Their attention snapped to the bedroom window to the right of the door—Mama’s window. Candles had been lit, but a chill remained, crawling up their spines. Kennedy moved toward the door, poised and ready to cast her protection spell. Something or someone was definitely here.

  “You can come in … it’s only me.” The back door flung open, and future Karina stepped outside. Fear eased from the girls’ chests, but tension still coiled in their stomachs at her presence here again.

  “I came to tell you not to waste your time in Salem. Mama isn’t there.”

  “How do you know?” Kennedy snapped.

  “Because, as things change and play out here, more and more becomes clearer to me in the future.”

  “Fine, then why don’t you just tell us where Ann is keeping her?”

  Karina smiled. “Nowhere. Mama has escaped.”

  “What?” Caris rushed forward. “Where is she? Is she coming back here? Does she need our help? Is she hurt?”

  Caris’s questions hung in the air as they waited for Karina’s reply. Oddly enough, it never came as she moved back into the house. “It’s so strange being here again. After all the lifetimes we�
��ve spent searching for one another, to know it would all start and end here. It’s just so … perfect.”

  “You know, future you is really beginning to irritate me,” Kennedy quipped.

  Caris looked to Kennedy, then stared back at the future version of their big sister as she moved throughout the space.

  “What do you mean, it’s perfect? Everything that has happened to us is so far from perfect, it’s not even funny,” Caris snapped, unable to hold back her mounting rage. “All we’ve ever done is get tossed through time, struggling to find each other as we fought to survive, then after everything, we still find ourselves back here, fighting the bitch who’s partially responsible for our entire curse … Yeah, nothing about that seems perfect to me.”

  “Oh, but it is … you’ll see.” Without another word, future Karina disappeared with her hand holding something against her chest.

  “What the hell was that about?” Kennedy threw her arms in the air, then stomped toward Mama’s bedroom, aiming to put out the candles Karina had obviously lit. “Caris!” Her shout cracked through the house.

  Racing into the room, Caris skidded to a halt as she stared down at Mama, peacefully asleep atop her bed.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  The girls spent the rest of the morning stoking the fire and brewing Trin’s healing tea as they waited for Mama to wake.

  “Should we enter her mind like we did Trin’s to see what’s going on?” Kennedy asked.

  “I don’t think so. With all the warnings, and back and forth memories being shared between our past and present, I don’t want to risk it. I think we should wait it out.” Caris adjusted the blanket around Mama, tucking it in as though she was the parent taking care of a child.

  Sinking into the chair she’d pulled into the room, Caris let her mind wander back to a few of the painful memories she forced herself to keep locked away—the feel of Ruby’s cheeks under her soft kisses as she and Robert tucked their baby girl in at night; the sound of Ruby’s sweet laugh filling the room as the puppy they bought her for Christmas one year raced into the room, plowing her over and licking her face; the tears she soothed away as she healed a cut on Ruby’s knee after an accident on her red tricycle …

  There was so much heartache to wade through when it came to their past lives, but losing her daughter to their soul journeys was the hardest of them all.

  “Car, you okay?” Kennedy gently touched her shoulder as she handed her a cup of fresh water.

  “Yes. I was thinking about Ruby.” She wiped a tear from her cheek.

  Kennedy eased into a chair on the opposite side of the bed. “I’m sorry all this has drudged up such painful memories for you.”

  “It’s okay. It couldn’t be helped, and it’s not like I haven’t accepted what happened. I have. Ruby has lived a full, wonderful life and is exactly where she needed to be.”

  “Yes. But you haven’t. None of us have.”

  Kennedy’s words struck hard—a truth like a slap to the face. “You’re right, and it’s about damn time we did. Let’s make a deal. When we get back home, we both stop making excuses and really start to live. I’ll find Lionel and you tell Nielson how you really feel. Deal?”

  Kennedy smiled. “Deal.”

  Staring back down at Mama, the tension in Caris’s chest eased ever so slightly. Even if they didn’t know what was going on or how she got here, at least she wasn’t being held captive by Ann and her father. Instead, she was safe and sound within her own home, albeit unconscious. Looking up, she met Kennedy’s gaze. “Maybe you should go back to Jason’s and check on Trin, and let him know what’s happened here.”

  “Are you sure? I don’t really want to leave you alone.”

  “I’ll be fine. If Mama wakes while you’re gone, I’ll send word.” Caris tapped a finger to her temple.

  “Okay, but what if the other versions of ourselves come back while you’re here? I wouldn’t want them to see Mama like this and get the wrong idea.” Kennedy stood up and walked to the end of the bed, her concern made clear by the tone of her voice.

  “I’ll be fine.” Caris took Mama’s hand in her own. “Besides, if they … or we, do show up, I’ll explain that I’m from the future, sent back here to help, like Karina did to us.”

  Kennedy bit her bottom lip while she mulled over all the scenarios playing out in her head. After calculating the timing of how long it would take her to get there and back, she agreed to go and promised to return before dark. “Call to me if anything changes.” She waited for Caris to agree, then hugged her big sister and eased out of the back door.

  Running wasn’t necessary, but she felt pressed to return as soon as possible and launched into a sprint. Edging around the trees and ferns as the path bent through the forest, Kennedy ran with purpose while still appreciating the beauty around her. The dappled sun peeked through the leaves, while blue violas and yellow trout lilies hid among the dead foliage, and the deep burgundy trilliums remained hidden in the shadows of the surrounding beech trees that littered the forest of her youth.

  Pausing to catch her breath, she eased closer to a large patch of the ‘stinking benjamins’ and laughed out loud. The trilliums were either known by that name or that of ‘stinking willies’ because they had a god-awful smell reminiscent of a wet dog, or some say rotting flesh. Yet Mama had taught them she preferred their other nickname of ‘wake robins’ since they bloomed at about the same time the robins usually returned to the woods in the spring. Easing her head back to look for the telltale sign of the red-breasted bird, Kennedy didn’t notice the movement directly ahead.

  “Well, well, what do we have here?”

  “Looks like the youngest Howe witch has wandered into the forest all alone.”

  “How stupid she must be.”

  Cackling laughter filled the air as Kennedy faced off with three of the Putnam sisters. “What the hell are you doing here?” she demanded, even though she’d already assumed their answer—they were probably headed straight for her house, looking to kidnap Mama again since she’d escaped their wretched grasp.

  “We were wondering the same thing about you?” the closest girl snarled. Her dark hair and eyes confirmed she was using tainted magic, just like Ann.

  Kennedy squared her shoulders.

  Even though she looked eight years old to the girls in front of her, she had decades of experience, including her FBI training and the return of her full magic since reuniting with her sisters. These bitches didn’t stand a chance.

  “I asked you a question,” Kennedy snapped. “What the hell are you doing on our land?” She let her magic rise to the surface, ready to pull forth any protections she would need.

  “Show her, Mathilde.” The dark-eyed one grabbed her smaller sister and shoved her forward, causing the girl to trip over her own feet. This one appeared to be about fourteen years old and still had light brown hair, and from what Kennedy could make out, clear brown eyes that held a hint of fear, despite her snarky comment a few moments ago.

  Through fearful eyes, Mathilde looked back and forth over her shoulder as her sisters egged her on. Closing the distance between them, the girl seemed nervous to do whatever it was they expected of her, but continued to creep forward. Kennedy stood ready for anything; her feet spread to shoulder width and her hands splayed open at her sides.

  Tilting her head to the sky, Mathilde closed her eyes and began to whisper under her breath. With a spark of magic in the air, a portal opened up perpendicular to the ground, spinning between them in a vortex of pure energy. It looked exactly like the ones Ann and her other sisters had escaped through to get here, but oddly enough, Kennedy didn’t feel any dark magic radiating from within.

  Suddenly, Mathilde sidestepped the portal, and with a swipe of her hand, tossed it back upon her two sister who immediately disappeared. “Hurry … we don’t have much time.” She reached for Kennedy as the sparks of the portal dissipated into thin air.

  “What’s going on?” Kennedy’s eyes grew
in size as she sucked in a shocked breath. “What kind of trick are you playing?”

  “It’s no trick. Now, please, come with me, and I’ll explain everything.”

  Kennedy hesitated, but found herself wanting to go with the young witch, despite all her family had done. “Fine, but know this … if you cross me in any way, I will burn you where you stand.” Energy sparked along Kennedy’s fingertips.

  “Deal.” Mathilde lurked forward and grabbed Kennedy’s hand, and then everything went black.

  ***

  Blinking into the surrounding darkness, Kennedy tried to control her panicked breath, but was quickly failing. “Where am I?” she called out.

  A spark flickered to life a few feet away, and Mathilde’s young face came into view. “Everything is fine. You are safe.”

  Kennedy huffed. “Everything is definitely not fine. Now, tell me what the hell is going on, or things are going to get really hot in here.” She looked around, still trying to pinpoint exactly where here was.

  Unthreatened by Kennedy’s words, Mathilde moved slowly to take a seat on a large rock near the base of Kennedy’s feet. Smoothing down her peasant skirt, Mathilde crossed her hands in her lap. “My name is Mathilde Putnam, and I’m the one who released your mama.”

  Shocked into silence, Kennedy stared at the girl until she continued.

  “I received a vision from the Goddess that told me I had to let her go. So I did.” She smiled like there was nothing else to it.

  Regaining her voice, Kennedy pressed, “What else did the vision show you?”