Swiftly Rafe gathered me closer to him and sloughed through the water onto the beach. I heard him debating about whether or not to set me down.
“I’m all right,” I insisted. “P-put me down, please.”
He obeyed reluctantly, but my feet weren’t quite ready to hold me up. I swayed unsteadily, and he pulled me against him again.
“Whoa.” Carefully, Rafe lowered me so that I was sitting on the rocky ground. “Is that better?”
I nodded and hugged my legs to my chest, trying to stop the shivering. I looked back out at the lake. Cara still stood in the water, pleading with her father.
“Are you okay for now? I’m going back out there. He’s crazy. I don’t want Cara--” He didn’t finish the sentence, but I was already shaking my head.
“Go. Get them out of there.”
I watched Rafe run awkwardly through the water. He took Cara’s arm, but she shook him off impatiently. I could hear her mind clearly, and my heart broke for her.
Daddy, please. Stop this. My father is insane. He tried to kill one of my friends. What am I going to do? How will I save him?
“Reverend Pryce,” Rafe called. “Come on now. Come out of the water. You’re upsetting Cara.”
“EVIL CANNOT BE ALLOWED TO SPREAD!” Rev. Pryce’s voice carried across the lake. “You cannot see it. It’s my duty—my obligation—to stop this here. It has to end here.” His eyes darted toward me, and I could hear him thinking wildly about how he could get to me again.
Just as I was considering whether or not my legs would support me yet, I heard the rumble of a car engine from the woods behind us. Doors slammed, and a rush of wonderfully familiar thoughts flowed into my head. Marly and Luke.
A moment later they were there on the beach. Marly spotted me right away and was at my side in an instant.
“Luke! Grab a blanket from the car!” she yelled back over her shoulder. She pulled me into a tight hug.
“Sweetie, are you all right? You’re dripping. What happened? Michael called, said he was sure you were in trouble—something about the phone and Reverend Pryce.” The person in question chose that minute to yell once again. I saw that Rafe had reached Cara and had one protective arm around her shoulder.
“Reverend Pryce—he took me. And he said--” My teeth were still chattering, and I was having a hard time talking around them. “I-I needed redemption or repentance. He kept putting me under the w-water... ”
Marly held me tighter, and I heard her swear softly under her breath. “Are you hurt anywhere? Should I call for an ambulance?”
“No!” I almost shouted. “No ambulance. I’m just wet and cold.”
Marly was looking out at trio still in the lake. “Who’s that with Cara and Pryce?”
“His name is Rafe. He’s a friend of ours. He pulled me out of the water—got me away from Reverend Pryce.”
Luke ran down the beach to us and wrapped a thick blanket around me. Marly pulled it tight and leaned toward Luke to fill him in on what was going on.
“Should I go out there?” Luke wondered. “Are they in danger?”
I shook my head. “I don’t think so. Not Cara and Rafe, anyway. There’s a part of Reverend Pryce that still wants to come out here to me and put me under the water for good.” I could hear his mind very clearly now. “But there’s also a big part of him that realizes what he’s done—and is horrified. Cara... “ I listened silently for a moment. “Cara is getting through to him. She used Jonas... it’s working.”
“Who’s Jonas?” Luke asked.
“I’ll tell you all about it later,” I murmured. “I think they’re coming now.”
And they were. Rafe and Cara were on either side of her father, leading him slowly out of the water and onto the shore. Neither of the Pryces would meet my eye, but Rafe cast me a meaningful glance, and I heard what he was thinking.
They’re in so much pain, Tas. Both of them. I could help them. I could make it so they know they have to leave you alone but can’t remember... what happened out here.
I didn’t have to consider for too long. The anguish pouring out of father and daughter hurt my heart. I gave Rafe a small nod.
Okay. You need to get out of here. If I’m limiting the adjustment to a few people, it’s easier if there’s no one else around. Tell me where you’re going and I’ll meet you there.
I turned to Marly. “Could we leave? Take me home to Sawood, please. I just want to be away from here.”
“Of course, sweetie.” She helped me stand, venturing one glance back at the Pryces and Rafe.
“Are they okay?” she asked in a low tone.
“Rafe will take care of them,” I replied. “It’s all right. Let’s go.”
The ride to Sawood was mostly silent. I could hear Marly and Luke’s curiosity and concern, but they were giving me space. I loved them all the more for it.
All the afternoon’s events spun through my head. I flashed back to the clearing and the absolute headiness of connecting my energy—could I say my power?—with Marica’s. It was easier to remember that than what happened afterward.
I shuddered, and once more I heard Marly wondering how I had come to be at the lake with Reverend Pryce. It dawned on me that only three people knew that he had taken me from the clearing—Marica, Reverend Pryce and me. If Rafe did his job, Reverend Pryce wouldn’t be able to remember that, and I knew Marica wouldn’t say anything. I could avoid that complication, for now at least.
We were back in the cabin before anyone began asking questions. Marly had given me some of Lela’s sweats in exchange for my sopping wet clothes, and I was wrapped in my favorite worn quilt, huddled on the sofa with some of Marly’s cocoa.
“So... ” Luke began. “Do you think you can tell us what happened this afternoon?”
I bit my lip and squirmed a little. “He. . Reverend Pryce just. . he came and he was acting so strange... he forced me into the car, and that was when Michael called. I thought if he heard me talking, he might figure out I was in trouble. I guess it worked.” It dawned on me that I hadn’t called him since we left the lake. I looked from Marly to Luke in alarm. “Oh! I need to call Michael!”
“Don’t worry. I talked to him while you were changing. He said he’s been trying to call you and he was pretty frantic. It kept going right to voice mail.”
I frowned, trying to remember where my phone was. Had I left it Reverend Pryce’s car, or was it at the bottom of the lake?
“Why did he take you to the lake?” Luke wanted to know.
“He said that I needed to repent and find redemption. I think he was trying to... to drown the evil in me. He said something about sacrificing my life for eternity.” I recalled the madness in his mind and my chest tightened.
“Oh, Tas... ” Marly crossed the room and sat down next to me, pulling me into her arms. “I’m sorry, honey. I can’t believe this. He seemed--”
“So normal?” Luke finished wryly. He sighed heavily. “The truth is, we all knew what he thought about Tasmyn. We just didn’t realize he was going to act on it.”
There was the sound at the door, and I heard Rafe’s mind before he knocked. He was tense and brooding.
Luke opened the door and threw me a quick glance before ushering Rafe inside. I pulled myself together to make introductions.
“Marly, Luke, this is Rafe Brooks. You did that party for his grandparents, remember? Rafe, these are Michael’s parents.”
The three of them nodded to each other, an air of cautious acceptance flowing all around. Rafe turned to me.
“It’s all done. They’re back at home. I told Cara’s mom that Rev. Pryce went crazy on you at school, that he was accusing you of some pretty wild stuff. Cara said that it had gone too far. They were all very shaken.” He fished in his pocket and tossed me something. My cell phone landed in my lap, and I heard Rafe again clearly.
Found it in Pryce’s car. It’s been buzzing the whole time.
The Sawyers were looking from Rafe to me in bewilderment. I laid my
head on the back of the sofa and closed my eyes.
“Rafe, I have to explain to Luke and Marly,” I said. I heard the quick flare of rebellion in his mind before he grudgingly agreed. Without lifting my head, I opened my eyes and swiveled to look at Marly.
“Rafe can manipulate the perception of time. He. . adjusted Cara’s and Rev. Pryce’s memories of what happened today so that they don’t know how bad it was. With my full agreement,” I added quickly.
There was silence. Rafe, still standing near the door, shuffled his feet nervously. Marly finally spoke.
“You’re from one of King’s first families, aren’t you?” she mused. “I see. And I suppose he knows about your ability, too?” She turned to me with raised eyebrows.
“It all came out by accident,” I said by way of explanation. “Michael knows.”
“Rafe, I’m sorry. Won’t you sit down? We’re usually a little more hospitable. It’s been an upsetting afternoon.” Marly’s voice was tired.
Rafe perched on the edge of a chair, his unease obvious. I picked up some running thoughts from his head and frowned.
“Rafe, how did you and Cara end up at the lake?”
He shifted slightly. “We were walking out to the parking lot, and Cara thought she saw her dad’s car pulling out. She was worried he was looking for her, and we tried to follow him, but by the time we got to my car, he was gone. We drove around a little, just keeping our eyes open for him, and then Michael called Cara. He said he thought her father had you, and that you were in trouble.
“He told us what he’d overheard on the phone, so we took off toward Cara’s house. She remembered something her dad had been saying, about atonement through water, and she thought of the lake. I guess the church does its baptisms there. And then we saw his car... ” I could feel Cara’s pain and panic as Rafe remembered it, and I hurt along with them.
I leaned toward Rafe and laid a hand on his arm. “Thank you,” I said quietly. “If you hadn’t gotten there, I don’t think Marly and Luke would have found me alive. You and Cara saved my life.”
Rafe nodded, but he didn’t answer.
Luke patted my shoulder. “I’m sorry for Cara, and for all the Pryces, actually. But don’t you think we need to tell someone what he tried to do?”
No one responded right away. Finally Rafe said, “I know you just met me. You don’t have to listen to what I’m going to say. But I don’t think Rev. Pryce is a danger to anyone, not anymore. He was only confused and feeling very guilty when I left. My guess is that they won’t stay around here very long.”
I could hear everyone considering the situation. Marly and Luke were still leaning heavily toward calling the police or at least talking to someone from Rev. Pryce’s church. I knew mine would be the deciding opinion.
“We need to let it go,” I said softly. “There’s too much risk of exposure to both Rafe and me. Luke, Marly... ” I sagged into Marly’s arms. “I know you’re worried about me, and I understand. But this is the only way.”
“What are you going to tell your parents?” asked Marly.
I smiled wearily as I answered her.
“The truth.”
The truth, of course, is a relative thing. What I told my parents, what I told Michael and Amber, as I related the story again and again, was a version of the truth. Actually, none of what I shared with them was a lie. I simply omitted what they didn’t need to know.
Cara didn’t come back to school the next day, nor the next. Rafe pulled me aside before classes that Thursday.
“They’re gone,” he reported tersely. “Cara called me last night. She said her father resigned, and they’re on the way back to Pennsylvania.”
“I’m sorry, Rafe,” I said softly. “I’m sorry it worked out this way.”
He held up his hands, palms out to me. “Hey, I liked Cara. We were just starting to get to know each other. But it’s not like we were—you know, like a thing.”
“Still... I want you to know that I miss her, too. I wish it hadn’t ended like this. I wish Rev. Pryce... ” My voice trailed off. What did I wish about him? That he had understood about my abilities or didn’t care? That he hadn’t been on the scene last year to help save my life? There wasn’t a good answer.
Rafe was looking at me steadily. “I know,” he replied simply.
Michael had wanted to come home, to make sure I was all right, but Marly, Luke and I convinced him that there was nothing he could do. Still, I wished for his arms around me and the comfort of hearing his thoughts. All I could feel was stress and tension: my parents’ anxiety had ratcheted up another few notches in the past week, and there was no relief in school, where Amber and Rafe both emanated unhappiness and people were talking about Cara’s sudden disappearance.
I hadn’t seen Ms. Lacusta since I left her in the clearing. I heard some of the juniors grousing about the lame sub filling in for their chem. teacher, and I wondered with a pang if she’d given up on me. Would she have abandoned me, decided I wasn’t worth all the effort? And why wasn’t I relived by that idea?
When Monday came, I wasn’t certain if I should go to the chem. classroom or not. I meandered down the walkway, dawdling, until I saw Marica standing in her doorway.
“I wondered if I’d see you today,” she remarked quietly.
“I wondered the same thing. If-if you were going to be here. If you wanted me to come.”
Leaning back against the doorframe, Marica focused her eyes on a point somewhere above my head.
“I thought about leaving,” she admitted. “When I saw him take you away, when I saw you go... I thought, well, it’s all over. After all this time, the searching... to have been so close and then have you yanked away like that... I’ll grant you that I was shaken, and that is a rare thing for me.”
“I didn’t want to go with him. He tried to drown me.”
Her eyes widened briefly, and I felt her small flare of rage. “I’m sorry. I was afraid—but then I thought it might actually be worse if I tried to intervene. Worse with him, worse with whoever came to your aid. You understand that, don’t you?”
Somehow I did. I had been angry at first that she had abandoned me when I really needed help, but thinking about it more clearly now, I saw that she was right. Still, I wasn’t sure I should let her off the hook so easily.
“I guess now, from the living side of an attempted drowning, I see your point. At the time, it might have been nice to have someone there to rescue me. You didn’t even try.”
She was truly contrite, I could feel that, and she reached toward me earnestly. “I did try. If you had stepped toward me when I told you, I would have surrounded us both within the flames. Once you made the decision to go with him... well, I thought you’d made your choice.”
“I had to see,” I murmured. “I had to find out if he was right, about me being—wrong. Evil. But when he had me under that last time, I knew that I wasn’t. He saw me as cursed. I know that I’m not; what I can do is a gift. And I think it does come from God. Not from Rev. Pryce’s God, or his view of God. Actually, I don’t think he really knows God at all.”
Marica’s eye twitched slightly. “I agree that you have a gift. Where it came from... perhaps we can talk about that another time.” She glanced around us. The walkway was deserted now; the bell had rung, and all the classroom doors were closed.
“I’ve thought quite a bit about you over the past week,” she said quietly. “I realized that perhaps I forced your hand a bit more than I intended. I was certain that once you knew the truth, realized the depth and extent of your power, you would embrace it. I see now that I was really being very self-centered. For so long, you were my goal, the end of my journey. I was single-minded in my pursuit, and that has affected my actions toward you. I’m sorry, Tasmyn.”
My head was spinning. She was apologizing? Now? And I was supposed to do what—nod politely and walk away?
“What I’m saying,” she continued, “is that I am no longer going to force you to come
here. The threat of exposure is gone, at least from me. I will keep your secret no matter what you do. You may simply go to the library every day during school, and I’ll give you an A for your independent study.”
I stared at her in disbelief. “Really? You’re giving up, just like that?”
She laughed softly. “I don’t know that I see it as giving up. Believe me, I’ll be very sad if you decide to step away. But I won’t do anything. I won’t even say anything.
“On the other hand, if you choose to come back, to continue your education with me... well, I will be tremendously pleased. For you see, then it’s not simply me getting my own way again. It’s you making a decision to embrace your power and your heritage.”
This was the last thing I expected to hear. After our experience in the clearing, I had thought Marica would be even more insistent. Instead, she was giving me freedom, and a choice.
“I’ll be here, every Monday, every day, actually. Should you decide you want to learn more, I’ll be waiting.” She turned and walked into the classroom.
I collapsed against the wall. Thoughts swirled around my mind, and I couldn’t make sense of anything.
I could walk away. I never had to see her again, and I could wipe this whole episode from my mind. I could go back to my life as it been this summer, being completely honest with Michael and my parents, free from guilt.
But my feet didn’t move me away from her door. Instead I remembered the energy that had flowed between us, the power and how indestructible it had made me feel. I wanted to feel it again. I wanted to know more... to see how far I could go.
I pushed off the wall and moved swiftly into the classroom. Standing in front of her desk, I looked Marica in the eye.
“I’m ready.”
The gardens outside the ballroom were filled with thousands of twinkling white lights. Standing on the wide veranda, I looked out over the grounds and decided it resembled a fairyland.
There was just enough chill in the air that I was glad of the light wrap my mother had insisted I wear. The breeze made my curls stir and tickle the back of my neck. I shivered.
King Series Box Set Page 54
