“So I’m dreaming you,” she said.
“You summoned me.”
Annie frowned. “Not on purpose.”
“So, what powers do you have?” Jason asked.
Annie shrugged. “All I know is, I’m terribly itchy and a little nauseated.” As much as she wished she could remove the powers, the thought of the Fraternitatem made her realize the extra magical boost would help. She clenched her fist and looked at her hand. Golden magic pulsed from her fist.
“You’ll learn what you have and you’ll master them. That’s your way.” The Jason-shaped mist stood beside her. “Did he hurt you badly?” He reached for Annie but, as an apparition, he couldn’t touch her. He was close, and she could feel the ghost chill as his hand tried to touch her cheek.
She glanced down at the dirt floor and kicked a leaf with the toe of her boot. She glanced outside and wrung her hands before sighing.
“What do you want to ask me?” Jason asked.
Annie shook from the chill, from the momentous task before her. She didn’t know if she really wanted to know. She sighed deeply. “Is Mom still alive?”
“You found the file.” He smiled proudly.
“Sami’s good,” Annie said.
“I do know this. And yes, Mom is alive. She traded her life for yours.”
“I know. She shouldn’t have done that.”
Jason looked out the window. “I wish I could touch that rain,” he said.
Annie opened the window without her magic, letting the rain fall against the window sill. Jason put his hand out into the night air, but the rain fell through his mist.
Annie moved instinctively and waved her hand across his back. He shimmered away and she groaned lightly; it wasn’t what she expected or wanted. She enjoyed talking to him even though he wasn’t really there.
But within seconds, he began to reappear, fully corporeal. Annie jumped at the sight of the fully human man beside her.
He glanced at his arm, flexed his fist and stuck it out the window. He sniffed the wet earth. “Could you have done that prior to receiving the powers?” he asked. When his arm was good and drenched, he brought it inside and shook off the water. Fully dry, he placed his arm around Annie.
“I never tried before. I don’t know.” Annie leaned into her father and took a deep breath, taking in his scent to always remember long after she returned home.
“She’ll be coming for you,” Jason began. “Just remember she’s not the mom who left. She’s different.”
Annie wrapped her arms around her father’s waist and lay her head on his chest, like she used to do when she was younger.
“I’ll be careful.” She held her breath to keep the tears from falling.
“No. You’ll hit them first. As soon as you return. If it comes to it, kill her. Protect yourself.” Jason Pearce held his daughter tightly.
She nodded against his chest and let the tears fall. He rubbed her back and kissed her forehead.
When the tears stopped, she wiped them from her cheeks and pulled away. “I’ll deal with it when I have to. For now, I want to pretend that you’re real and not going away.”
“I’m always with you.” Jason kissed the top of her head, and together they stared out the window and watched the rain fall until the sun came up.
*
Annie entered the cottage just as Brite and Zola finished packing all three backpacks. Gibbs’s bag looked lonely on the table.
“You were out all night. Did you clear your head?” Brite asked.
Annie nodded and absently scratched her arm. Magic billowed from her hand.
“Did it ease any when you shot the spell?” Zola pointed at the shutters that lay in splinters.
“I don’t know.” She looked at her palms and tossed a spell into the firebox. Magic burst from her hands and ignited the remaining wood inside. She made note of the itching. The magic was still there, still coursing through her. “Maybe a little.”
Shaky, Annie sat on the bed, pulled her legs to her chest, and wrapped her arms around them. Laying her head on her knees, she watched them finish clearing the table and tossing the remains in the roaring fire.
“They’re ready. We’ll join them when you’re ready.” Brite told her.
Still hugging her legs, she said, “I found myself in a cottage. My dad appeared to me. First, he was ghostlike. I could speak to him and he spoke to me.” Annie stopped for a moment.
“A dream?” Brite asked.
“No, I was awake. I felt the chill off of him.”
Brite sat beside her. “What did he say?”
“Besides making me promise to kill my mom when she comes after me?” Annie tried to smile, but her stomach flipped.
“The Fraternitatem are definitely coming, then?” Brite asked.
Annie nodded. “It was confirmation of something I pretty much could guess. I acted as if I knew what I was doing. I waved my hand across his back and I made him corporeal.”
Brite’s lips twisted in concern. “You sure it wasn’t a dream?”
“It was very vivid, if it was.” She still smelled her father’s scent on her clothing. “Smell this,” she said.
Brite frowned, and yet he did as she asked because he believed her no matter how odd it sounded. “I smell cologne. Could you always do that?” he asked.
Annie shrugged. “Never had a need to turn a ghost corporeal.” She turned to Zola.
“You aren’t meant for these powers. Be careful while they attempt to possess you.” Zola stood. “It’s time to send you home.”
Chapter 33
Annie stared at Gibbs. He was attached to a board, tied down to keep him from moving as they jumped through the portal. She pulled back the blanket and stared at his pockmarked face with its large scar across his cheek to his chin. She removed a piece of hair that kept falling across his face and tucked it behind his ear. His cold skin unnerved her.
“Kolgaar gave the coven the location where we fell through the portal. We’ll reverse the magic and go back to where we came.”
Annie raised an eyebrow.
“At least in theory,” Brite added.
“He has no family,” she murmured.
“He had you. He came here for you.”
Annie wiped tears away. “He was like that grumpy old uncle who’d slip you a vampire stake under the table and take you to a vampire fight behind your parent’s back.”
Brite chuckled. “Your dad must have loved that.”
Annie shrugged. “Dad… Dad did that kinda stuff too. It’s just, Gibbs did it after Dad died. It always pissed off Kathy, though. Ryan understood it and eventually Kathy backed down.” Annie straightened the blanket. “He wanted me to be safe. He wanted me to know stuff. You know?” She looked at Brite.
He nodded and put an arm around her. “Let’s go home.”
Annie placed the blanket over Gibbs’s face and let Brite lead her from the longhouse. Kolgaar and Svenson picked up the board and carried Gibbs after them.
Waiting for them at the entrance, they found Zola, Etheldreda, Bega, King Hrothgar, and Princess Gyda. Annie did not see Sturtagaard.
Am I really surprised?
“Where’s your brother?” Annie asked Kolgaar.
“I do not know. Astrid died last night. No one has seen him since.”
“I’m sorry for your loss,” Annie said as she scanned the village for anyone lurking behind a house, a cart, a barrel. She saw nothing of note, and yet her anxiety rose.
“Are you ready?” Brite asked.
“Sturtagaard’s gone,” she said.
Brite glanced through the streets, uneasy. “We need to go,” he said and held Annie’s upper arm as he led her to Gibbs. “We need to leave now.”
His tone startled Etheldreda. She nodded quickly.
Svenson reached for Annie. “Thank you,” he said and stepped back. Gyda ran at Annie and placed her arms around her neck. “You saved my life. Thank you.” The king stayed back and nodded with a sad smi
le, then led his daughter from the group and back into the longhouse.
Brite and Zola held Annie as Etheldreda, Bega, and Kolgaar held onto the board that carried Gibbs. Just before she was teleported away, Annie saw him. It was just a second, a small moment in time, when Sturtagaard peered around the nearest cottage. Because Annie was searching for him, only she saw him. He offered her that familiar jeer, cold with fury and anger towards her. She shuddered because it wouldn’t be long before he was turned, when he would become consumed by blood lust. For now, his skin was pink with life and his eyes hadn’t taken on that blackness she would come to know. There was no more time to worry about the future vampire as Brite and Zola teleported her away.
*
Kolgaar directed them to the magical energy of the portal that carried them to the past, down the narrow road that ran north and south through England. Annie recognized the location, the tall grasses, the landing spot where she had found Gibbs.
That was four days ago!
Annie looked to the south, down a lonely, empty road that they had not been able to explore. She glanced north, where they had walked up the long hill and into the valley where the Cath Palug still roamed the earth, and toward the medieval home that kept them safe and sheltered for the night.
I won’t miss this.
“How’ll you get him through?” Annie asked Brite. She looked at Gibbs under the blanket with such sadness, she thought her heart would break.
“I’ll levitate him through,” Brite said. “You look nervous.”
As she watched Bega levitate in the air with a crystal to summon the portal’s magical energy, Annie thought back to the dream she’d had while in England, the one in which she couldn’t return through the portal because the power racing through her was too strong.
Annie knew the future coven hoped she would die here, or at the very least, be trapped in the past where the magic couldn’t harm them.
I’m not going to make it through the portal!
Bega siphoned the portal magic and levitated back down to the ground.
“I’m scared,” Annie whispered to Brite. Her limbs itched. She balled her hands in tight fists as she refrained from scratching her already raw skin. The magic billowed from her palms and circled around her fists, up her arms, and around her face. She tried to wave it off; it shimmered instead.
“Why?” Brite looked at her.
“I’m… I don’t think I’m going to make it through the portal,” she said.
“You don’t know that,” Brite said. “Let’s get it up and ready, and we’ll see. And we’ll figure it out.”
Annie sighed and slipped the talisman from her pocket. Kolgaar took out his and they handed the pair to Etheldreda. It would be the last time Annie could communicate with them. It left her feeling naked, vulnerable and very much alone. She watched expectantly as Etheldreda placed the talismans three feet apart, with the crystal at the center. Bega waved her palm over the crystal and chanted the spell, which they no longer understood.
The portal sprung forth. Wind blew strongly, like a tornado blowing around them. Lightning struck as the portal became active. As in Annie’s dream, she took a step closer to peer inside. She reached out as if she were going to touch it.
Just like in her dream, the portal sped up and vibrated wildly as she came closer. Lightning struck in quick succession, striking the ground at Annie’s feet. Scorch marks covered the dirt.
Kolgaar spoke, his words incomprehensible without the translation powers of the talismans. Annie shook her head and took several steps back. The portal slowed, the lightning shrunk in size and force, and the wind decelerated.
She looked at Zola. “I had a dream about this.”
“The power’s too strong. I feared this might happen,” Zola said.
“This is what the coven wanted. They must have known I’d be stuck here if they didn’t give me all of the information.” Annie glanced at Gibbs. “You have to take him home,” she said.
“No. Not yet. There has to be a way to get you back,” Brite said.
Kolgaar spoke rapidly to Etheldreda and Bega as they watched anxiously, unable to offer assistance.
Annie took a step forward to study the portal. Again, it grew unsteady. She stepped back again. Etheldreda spoke, but Annie had no idea what she said and shook her head again. The woman looked at Zola.
“I can’t translate for them,” Zola said.
Annie felt the necklace around her neck and thought of what Zola told her in the future about not sharing. “You were supposed to find a spell or potion to remove the magic without killing me. You couldn’t do it. But you did know what happened here and now. How would you tell yourself what you needed to know?” Annie asked.
“I… I’m not sure.”
“Zola, think. You gave her a protection charm to keep her safe and to find you. Figure it out!” Brite shouted.
Anxiously, Annie gave in to the itching and began scratch her torso, her legs, her arms. “I can’t take it anymore.”
Etheldreda and Kolgaar spoke, knowing they were not understood. Bega watched them, then returned to the portal, her tongue sticking out from her mouth while she thought.
“The charm. I had to leave a clue in the charm,” Zola said. Annie whipped it off of her neck and handed it to Zola.
Bega watched as if she understood what was happening. “Everard,” she said.
Zola, Annie, and Brite looked at her.
“Everard? What about him?” Annie asked Bega, but they had no way of fully communicating without the talismans.
Bega crossed her arms across her chest and held her own shoulders, making eye contact with Annie.
“What, Bega?” Annie asked.
“Everard,” Bega said again, repeating the gesture.
Annie glanced at Brite. “Brite?”
“We bound his powers,” Brite said.
Annie looked at Zola.
“No. That leaves you vulnerable,” Zola said.
“But that will get me home?”
Zola looked at the charm close up. She found a latch on the back of the charm, so small, it wasn’t surprising they had missed it. She popped it open. Inside was a vial so small, she had to levitate it from the hiding spot. It fell to her palm.
Bega placed a hand on Annie’s arm. It was cool to the touch, comforting. She nodded toward the vial.
Zola handed Annie the vial. She summoned the stopper and drank down several small drops of clear liquid.
The effect was immediate. The itching stopped as warmth spread across her limbs and torso. Zola placed the protection amulet around Annie’s neck.
“I will be there when you arrive to unbind the powers. Take care, my brave girl.” Zola kissed her cheek.
Annie walked to the portal and reached for it once again. This time, she didn’t appear to cause any ill effect. “I guess we’re good,” she said.
Bega came to Annie, placed her arms around her. “Anaise,” she began, but that was the only thing Annie understood.
Annie pulled away and turned to Etheldreda, fully aware she was glad to be rid of her. Etheldreda placed a gnarled hand on Annie’s cheek. “Anaise,” she said before stepping back again.
Annie met Zola’s glance. Her eyes were moist and grayish green filled with sadness. Annie ran to her.
“I love you. No matter when or where.” Zola kissed her cheek. “Be safe, my dear girl.”
Annie wiped away a tear. Her last goodbye was the reluctant Kolgaar. She gave him a hug and offered a smile. He returned one with his own.
Brite levitated Gibbs, and he and Annie each grabbed an end of the board he was attached to. As Brite stepped through the portal, the force of it dragged Annie and Gibbs after him. Annie held on tightly as the portal took them back to the future.
*
Annie lay with her face in the grass. She moved her hands and wiggled her feet. When she opened her eyes, she saw that it was night. The moon was full, the air warm and dry.
“Are we
home?” Brite asked.
She pulled herself up and scanned their location; they were not in the forest beside the house in Evanston. Annie glanced across the location. It was a desolate landscape, with dried grass at their feet and a sparse clump of trees beside them.
“I’m not sure where we are,” Annie admitted.
“I wonder if we’re even in the correct year,” Brite said. He pulled himself up and wandered away from their landing spot.
Annie stood gingerly and found Gibbs several feet from her. While he was still strapped to the board, face up, the blanket had been lost in the trip through the portal. “We need to find the blanket. It’s from the ninth century,” she said.
Brite ran his flashlight across the bushes and found the single tree beside them where the blanket had been caught. He summoned it. “It looks like we’re in the bird sanctuary,” he said.
Annie scanned the desolate landscape. Tartarus Prison had been built on a magical island and was surrounded by a bird sanctuary. With the help of strong magic, nonmagicals rarely ever ventured to the tiny island, and if they did, the magic around the borders always seemed to make them leave immediately.
Annie twirled to look around. “I’ve never been to this side of the island,” she said. She summoned her phone. She was aware how useless it had been to bring it with her, but it had comforted her knowing she had it. She switched the phone on and waited for it to load.
“Why would I expect we’d land where we started?” Brite asked rhetorically. He found a trail and stood on the narrow path. Sure enough, Tartarus Prison and its depressing surroundings sprawled across the landscape.
Annie’s phone booted up. The screen from the carrier lit the small clearing.
“How do you feel?” Brite asked as her phone finally beeped.
“Like I need a shower.” She glanced at her phone. “Damn. We left this morning,” Annie said and handed him her phone.
“No shit? I could never get used to that. Tartarus is that way,” he chuckled, pointing.
“Let’s get Gibbs to the hospital.” She wiped sweat from her forehead with shaky hands.
Wizard Hall Chronicles Box Set Page 135
