The Uprising (Moonlight Wolves Book 3)

by Jasmine B. Waters

  Beneath my feet, the ground began to rumble and shake. Terrified, I looked around. The trees were whipping and waving in the breeze, and a sudden gust blew the flames out. The sky darkened to an inky hue, but there was no sight of the moon or stars.

  “I command you to leave!” Monica shouted, straining to make her voice heard above the wind. “I command you to be free, to leave! You are done here, Prudence Arrowsmith!”

  A loud rumbling sound filled the air and I trembled as the ground beneath me shook harder than before. Andrea’s eyes rolled back in her head and she passed out as a wisp of silvery smoke emerged from her chest and floated high into the air.

  Monica threw the athame down on the ground and I watched as it bounced over the grass. In the sky above us, thunder rumbled and bellowed.

  And then, just like that, it was over. The sky returned to a normal blue shade, the grass stopped shaking and waving, the ground stopped shaking and moving beneath my feet. Andrea sat up and opened her eyes.

  “It’s gone,” she said softly, looking down at the superficial wound on her chest. “It’s really gone!”

  “I told you,” Monica said.

  A rush of pure energy zoomed through me and I let out a wild whoop before wrapping my arms around Monica and holding her.

  “I can’t believe it!” I exclaimed loudly. “I can’t believe we did it!”

  Andrea climbed to her feet, grinning broadly. She threw her arms around Monica and me, hugging us tightly and dancing from side to side.

  “It’s really over,” Andrea said. Her eyes were glistening with tears, but she was still smiling.

  I closed my eyes and sighed, pulling away from my friends. “It’s done.” I shook my head and looked down at the grass. For once, it didn’t look like a magical place – it looked like a perfectly normal patch of grass, just like the back yard at my parents’ house.

  “Monica?” Andrea asked softly. “Why aren’t you happy?”

  “I am happy,” Monica said slowly. But when I looked into her eyes, I saw nothing but sadness and regret.

  “Don’t tell me you’re regretting this,” I said, putting my hand on her shoulder and squeezing. “After all this?”

  Monica held my gaze for a long time before turning to Andrea. “Andrea, I really am sorry about everything that’s happened to you,” she said. “It’s all my fault. It never should’ve happened.”

  Andrea looked perplexed. “It’s okay,” she said. “I mean, I get it. Kind of,” she added, wrinkling her nose.

  My heart lurched to the side and I stared at Monica. “Monica, what’s going on? What’s wrong?”

  Monica hugged me tightly.

  “Goodbye,” she whispered.

  “What?” I pulled away, holding her at arm’s length. “No, this isn’t goodbye,” I said. “Don’t you get it? This is the beginning!”

  Monica sighed softly. “Andrea, would you mind giving us a moment, please?”

  Andrea looked confused, but she nodded and walked to the edge of the woods before lowering herself down and facing away.

  “What’s going on?” My heart was thudding in my chest and I felt a stab of fear – real fear. My whole body was trembling from all of the stress and tension that we’d just undergone, and I couldn’t believe that now there was going to be something else to deal with, something new, something unexpected.

  “I have to leave you now,” Monica said. She sighed. “I can’t leave this place. I’m bound here, Elizabeth.”

  “That’s ridiculous,” I countered. “Of course you can leave! You’re not stuck here for the rest of your life! Henrik and Ligeia are gone!”

  “I know. That’s why I have to stay.”

  “I don’t get it,” I said, shaking my head. “Don’t you want to come back? What about…what about David?” I asked timidly. “Don’t you want to live in the real world?”

  Monica sighed. “What I want and what I have to do are two very different things,” she said quietly. “The coven needs a new leader. They need a witch who isn’t hungry for power, who doesn’t want to control the world. They need someone who espouses all the values we were originally taught.”

  “That doesn’t make any sense,” I said. “And besides, how do you know that you’ll stay like that?” I shook my head like a dog shaking itself dry. “Monica, please!”

  “I don’t know that I’ll stay the way I am now,” Monica said softly. “But I have to try. I have to make sure nothing like this ever happens again.”

  “If it’s because you feel guilty, don’t,” I said. “Don’t even start, okay? You have no reason to feel bad. We fixed everything.”

  “Yes,” Monica said. “I do feel guilt. I feel guilt for involving you, and Andrea, and for allowing myself to be misled and treated like a child by Henrik and Ligeia for so long.”

  “But that’s no reason to isolate yourself forever.” By now, I couldn’t stop my chin from trembling. My eyes filled with tears and I glanced to the sky, trying to blink them away as quickly as I could.

  “Elizabeth, you don’t understand.” Monica looked sadly into my eyes. “This isn’t something I’m doing to punish myself. I’m doing it because I have to, you understand?”

  I bit my lip as hot tears began to fall down my face. “I can’t do it without you,” I said, wiping my eyes. “The seven years you were gone…I could barely get up in the morning! I missed you so much it hurt! And David…David knows he won’t ever get over you,” I said, sniffling and shaking my head. “He told me, years ago.”

  “David will be fine,” Monica said. “The spells are gone. I have no power in the real world now, Elizabeth, I can’t do anything now that would affect you, David, or anyone else.”

  I couldn’t stop myself from throwing my arms around Monica and holding her tightly.

  “You can’t go,” I whimpered into her neck. By now, I was full-on ugly crying. Tears and snot were leaking down my face and I knew I was soaking Monica’s sweater. But I didn’t care. I held her tightly and sobbed into her neck. Monica put an arm around me and awkwardly patted my back, but she didn’t speak.

  “Elizabeth,” Monica said gently after I’d been sobbing for about ten minutes. “You have to go back. You have to take Andrea home.”

  “I’m not leaving you,” I growled, pulling away and wiping my face on my own sweater. By now, the blood was starting to dry but I felt like someone had reached inside my chest and cut my heart out, thrown my body on the flames to turn to ash.

  “You’ll always be my best friend,” Monica said. “Besides, you think I won’t miss you?”

  I buried my face in my hands, unable to believe this was really happening.

  “Elizabeth, I’m sorry,” Monica said. “But you have to understand where I’m coming from, you know? You have to know how important this is.” She shook her head defiantly. “We can’t let anything happen to Jaffrey like that, not ever again.” She shuddered. “I’ll die before I let that happen.”

  “I just…” I trailed off. “You realize this makes all of what we did pointless, right? All I did was want you to come back,” I said, a sob slipping into my speech. “I missed you so much.”

  “And you were fine without me,” Monica said. She sighed heavily. “And I need to apologize to you, too.”

  “You don’t,” I said, wiping my eyes and refusing to look at her. “You have nothing to be sorry for.”

  Monica laughed dryly. “Yes, I do,” she said. “I’m sorry for ever interfering in your life. I thought…” She trailed off, biting her lip. “I thought I knew better, I thought I could figure out what you wanted and give it to you, and that way you wouldn’t mind my being gone. And I’m sorry for all of that. And I’m sorry about Andrea,” she added, lowering her voice so there was no chance of Andrea overhearing.

  “She’ll be fine,” I said, shaking my head. “You know her.”

  “No, I’m apologizing to you,” Monica said firmly. “I’m sorry that I….you know, made you do that, years ago,” Monica said.
“And I’m sorry you had to watch me do what I did.”

  I shuddered. “God, I’d almost forgotten about that.”

  Monica smiled sadly. “I hope there comes a day where you really do forget about that,” she said. “But not me. I’ll remember it forever, for the rest of my life.”

  I knew that Monica was right – that I should be taking Andrea home, making sure she wasn’t cut too deeply. But I couldn’t stomach the thought of leaving my best friend in the woods forever.

  “It’s okay, Elizabeth,” Monica said, as if reading my mind. “I’ll be fine.”

  With a heavy heart I hugged her one last time. “I love you,” I said. “You’ll always be my best friend.”

  Monica nodded. “I know,” she said. She smiled sadly. “I love you, too.”

  Then she snapped her fingers and disappeared in a burst of smoke.

  As I walked back to collect Andrea, I couldn’t stop the sobs from coming harder than ever before.

  Chapter Ten

  Elizabeth

  “Where’s Monica?” Andrea frowned. “Isn’t she coming?”

  “No,” I said. “She’s not.”

  “Why not?” Andrea wrapped her arms around herself and shivered. “This place gives me the creeps. I want to go home.”

  “That’s what we’re doing,” I said. I led Andrea out of the magical land of the coven, out of the clearing, until we were in the thick, cold woods. Monica’s backpack had a strange weight on my shoulders, and when I slung it down and unzipped it, I was shocked to see a huge canteen full of water, six more sandwiches, and some odd-looking brown bread.

  “How did we get that?” Andrea frowned. “That’s not from her house.”

  I had to resist the urge to roll my eyes. She’s still exactly the same naïve kid she used to be, I thought.

  “You forget we just left an enchanted place,” I said. “But you’re right, I don’t know why she gave us so much.”

  Andrea’s frown deepened. “So that was…real?”

  “Yeah,” I said softly. “That was real.”

  “I’m thirsty,” Andrea said. “Can I have the canteen?” When I passed it over, she unscrewed the top and peered inside. “Is this safe to drink?”

  I shuddered, thinking of all the potions and horrors that Ligeia had fed me over the years. She’s gone, I thought. It still didn’t feel real to acknowledge.

  “Yeah,” I said after a pause. “It’s safe.”

  We walked on in silence, for hours. Darkness fell and I built a fire. We ate some of the sandwiches and curled up on the hard ground, close together for warmth. The night passed slowly – I slept in fitful stretches, awakened at the slightest sound or chirp. Andrea snoozed like a child – she even snored.

  In the morning, I was tired and dehydrated and exhausted, but I made us push on. We trudged through the woods, searching for any sign of home.

  “I think we’re lost,” Andrea kept saying, about once every fifteen minutes. “Why haven’t we gotten home yet? It didn’t take this long before.”

  “I think Monica is showing us how far the coven truly is from home,” I said slowly. “I never thought about it before.”

  “You mean, we only found it by…magic before?”

  I nodded. “Yeah,” I said. I shivered. “And I have a feeling we won’t ever be able to find it again.”

  “Good,” Andrea said. “Not like I’d ever want to go back.” She stretched and yawned.

  Another night began to fall. Like the previous night, I built a fire. But this night, I was so tired that I collapsed and slept like a rock all night long. In the morning, my body was stiff and achy. I groaned when I ran a hand through my greasy hair, knotting it into a bun at the back of my neck.

  We walked for hours in silence. Occasionally, Andrea would ask about what happened to Monica, and I found myself unable to answer without starting to cry. Now that we’d left, I felt the absence of her presence so strongly that it was like a physical pain. Maybe it didn’t matter what guys we wanted when we were younger, I thought as I trudged on through the woods. Maybe Monica and I were soulmates. After all, we’re the ones who went through all of that stuff together.

  I shuddered.

  “What’s wrong?” Andrea asked.

  For a moment, I debated telling her. But as much as Andrea had grown on me over the past few days, I found myself unable to put how I was feeling into words.

  “Nothing,” I lied. “Look, the woods are thinning. We’re almost home.”

  By the time we stumbled out of the woods and into Monica’s parents’ backyard, I was so tired that I could barely stand. But Andrea’s shriek brought me crashing down into the real world.

  “Oh my god, the house!”

  When I looked up, I gasped and covered my mouth with both hands. Monica’s parents’ house looked like it had been abandoned for hundreds of years. The white paint was flaking off the wood in giant chunks and the back porch was sagging and swaying as if giants had sat upon it. Some of the windows were broken, and the intact ones were missing their screens.

  “What happened?” Andrea asked as we stepped forward in surprise. “Elizabeth, what happened?!” Her voice was tinged with panic and shock.

  “I don’t know,” I said, running my hand over the old wood. “I…I really don’t.”

  Andrea peered up at me, her round face split with a frown. “How long have we been gone?”

  “I don’t think it’s that,” I said softly. “I think Monica must have done something…I don’t know what, to make sure everyone forgets about her.”

  “I’m never going to forget her,” Andrea said.

  I almost laughed. Yeah, I wouldn’t forget someone who stabbed me in the chest, either, I thought. Guilt seared my brain.

  “I know,” I said, putting a hand on Andrea’s back. “I won’t forget her, either.”

  “Can I go home now?”

  “We both can.”

  Andrea sighed. “Elizabeth, can you take me to see Steven? I don’t care if he doesn’t know me. I just…I really want to see him, I have some things to say.”

  An image popped into my head of teenaged Andrea and Steven, flirting like lovers. It sent a lingering taste of disgust into my mouth, but I shook my head until it was gone. That’s all over, I thought, almost with a touch of sadness. Everything is different now.

  “Yeah,” I said. “I’ll drive you.”

  Andrea and I made plans to meet up later in the day. She wanted to go home and see her parents, and I was dying for a shower. When I let myself into my parents’ house, Mom was standing in the kitchen, just like old times.

  “You were gone for a week! I thought you’d gone back home, but your car was still here. We had to move it, honey, I’m sorry,” Mom said in an apologetic tone. “Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine.” I glanced down at my muddy, torn, and soiled clothes. “I went camping in the woods behind Monica’s house.”

  “Who?”

  “Um, never mind. Forget it, I’m going upstairs to shower.”

  “You want anything to eat?”

  My stomach rumbled and I nodded. “I can make it, though, it’s okay.”

  Mom nodded. “How much longer do you think you’re going to be staying?”

  “I don’t know. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you I’d be gone,” I said. “I just…I wanted some time alone.”

  Mom nodded. “Okay, honey,” she said. “You go clean up, I’ll be down here.”

  Taking a shower felt like a baptism. I stood under the spray for so long that the hot water turned icy and every inch of my skin was pruned. When I got out, I put on clean clothes and went downstairs with my wet hair hanging in my face. As strange as it sounded, I was almost nervous about seeing Steven again. What would it be like? I could hardly remember him before Monica’s spell.

  And would he remember? Or would I have to lie, and just make something up? I couldn’t bear to tell him everything: the unbearable clinginess, the way I’d stayed because I had no choice
.

  And then there was Andrea. Would Steven remember her? Or would I spend hours comforting her instead?

  “I’m going out for a while,” I told my mom as I made myself a sandwich. “I’ll probably be back before dinner, but don’t wait up for me.”

  Mom made a face. “That’s fine,” she said. “Honey, you know it’s fine if you stay, but a little more regularity might be nice.”

  “I know,” I said. “I’m sorry. I promise, it won’t happen again. I won’t just disappear for a week without letting you know.”

  “It’s okay if you do, honey, just call next time.”

  I forced a smile. “Trust me, there won’t be a next time.”

  I could tell Mom didn’t believe me, but it didn’t matter. I was never going back to the coven. I was never going into the woods, to a magical place where the time passes so much differently.

  Andrea showed up just as I was finished eating. We got in my car and she fumbled with the radio, changing the station every third seconds. She kept shaking her knee, and I knew she was nervous.

  “I’m moving out of this place,” I said.

  “Oh, Elizabeth, why?” Andrea made a face. “You and my brother should get back together. He always really liked you,” she added.

  I sighed. “I know. It’s not about that.”

  “Then, what?”

  “We’ve been together for almost seven years,” I said softly, steering the car onto the highway and speeding up. “We’ve never had a chance to really see ourselves without each other, you know? And I don’t really like that idea.”

  “Oh.”

  “Maybe we can be friends or something in the future,” I said. “I just don’t have romantic feelings for your brother anymore.”

  “Oh.”

  “Don’t worry about me, though,” I said, desperately hoping to change the subject. “Are you okay? Are you nervous?”

  Andrea shrugged. “Yeah,” she said. “My parents were happy to see me. But you told me Steven might not remember.”

  I sighed with relief. “If your parents remembered you, that means he will, too.”