Walking Through Shadows

by Sheri Lewis Wohl

  “What happened?” Molly was kneeling beside Winnie, who had Angus’s head in her lap and was pressing a damp cloth to his forehead.

  “A rattlesnake bite. We climbed the ridge to try to find you, and he was bitten. By the time I got him back here, he was out. He has a horrible fever, and I can’t get him to wake up. I think he’s dead.” The sorrow in her voice was clear.

  “He is still alive.” Aquene had seen this before, and she wanted to put hope back into the other woman’s heart. Gently she too kneeled beside him. For a moment she closed her eyes as the pain in her side threatened to make her vision go black. When the pain passed, she opened her eyes again. She took the cloth binding his arm from his body and unwrapped his hand. It was puffy and red, also hot to her touch. This too she had seen before.

  Slowly she stood and searched until she found a cup. Her pouch still hung at her side, only now it was covered with her blood and sticky to the touch. From it she took dried herbs and crushed them into the cup. With a bit of water from the kettle Winnie had brought back from the river, she made a paste. It had a pungent aroma she was pleased to smell. The herbs still held their power. Carefully, she patted the paste onto his hand and then took the cloth and wrapped it once more around the wound.

  Expelling a long breath, Aquene sat on the floor and met Molly’s eyes. “You must take him home now. My medicine may not be strong enough to save him. I believe that in your time, his life can be saved. Is it not so?”

  Molly nodded. “We have medicine that will heal him quickly.”

  All that could be done here was complete. “It is time for you all to go.”

  “I don’t know how to go home.” Molly’s face was pale. Sadness tugged at Aquene for what Molly did not say: that she did not want to go home.

  Aquene sensed that the danger her friend now faced was causing her distress. She understood, for if Alumpum lay on the floor fighting to stay alive, she would feel great fear. It was only right that Molly think first of her long-time friend and not of the woman she had just come to know.

  She now shared what she believed to be the right path. The only path. “It must be the same as when you came. We will do it together.” Aquene believed that their touch had brought Molly and her friends here, and it would send them home. Each of them in their own way possessed a piece of the magic that opened the door between their worlds. Together they came, and together they would leave.

  “I don’t want to leave you.” Molly’s words were filled with anguish.

  She heard what she longed to, and it made her feel happy. “You will not leave me.”

  Storm clouds gathered in Molly’s eyes. “I don’t understand. I can’t stay, and you can’t go.”

  “Guys…” They turned to Winnie, who was rocking Angus while tears streamed down her face. “We have to leave now. I’m afraid we’re losing him.”

  Aquene stared at Molly and nodded. “She speaks true. He must go and find that which will save him. It is not in this time. I have done all I can to help. We must join again and use our magic to get you all home.”

  “I can’t. I can’t leave you.” Tears spilled from Molly’s eyes.

  “You will not leave me,” she repeated once again. This too she knew to be a truth, for as Aquene had lain on the ground, her blood flowing out of her, the Great Spirit had come to her one last time and shown her another vision. Her work was not yet done. Sending the evil man to the dark beyond was only the beginning. She now understood her full destiny. “You will not leave me, for I am going with you.”

  Epilogue

  Spokane, Washington

  Three months later (present day)

  Molly stood in the middle of her newly remodeled bakery kitchen and smiled. It was beautiful, absolutely beautiful. She might very well have to change the name of her bakery to the Phoenix, because it had literally risen from the ashes. Once the investigation had been completed and the source of the fire ruled one hundred percent accidental, everything had moved quickly. It had been amazing to watch it turn from a blackened shell to a shining, functioning kitchen once again.

  More than just the bakery was remarkable. Just thinking back on what had happened in that cabin still boggled her mind. Having Angus dying on the floor, Aquene shot, and Winnie in crisis had literally been the bleakest moment in her life. Talk about feeling helpless. Except Aquene had turned it into magic. She’d been right when she’d suggested that they recreate the moment that had transported them to the nineteenth century.

  Of course, in the midst of an attempted lynching, she’d dropped the grimoire outside. Thank the stars for the little flashlight still in her pocket, because while they’d been inside, it had grown pitch-black. After she’d located the book, she’d raced back inside. Huddled together on the spot where Hannah had hidden it, she and Aquene had touched it as one. To this day, she was convinced Hannah had put a spell on that spot, because nothing else explained how they had moved through time. She and Aquene might each possess a bit of magic, but enough to move them all through time? She would never believe it to be so simple. Nothing would ever convince her that it wasn’t Hannah’s spirit guiding them every step of the way.

  As she and Aquene jointly held the grimoire, again they had experienced wind and sound and darkness. After it all passed, they were back in the twenty-first century, complete with Loba waiting patiently at the cabin door. She could say without hesitation she’d never been so happy to see her dog. The second thing to strike her was that Aquene hadn’t been lying when she said she was coming with them, for she was kneeling next to Molly, still clutching one end of the grimoire.

  Only after she called for emergency services—which she was able to do because her cell phone, still tucked in the pocket of her pack, now worked—and both Aquene and Angus were airlifted to a hospital in the Tri-cities did she learn why Aquene was able to come through time with them. She explained how the Great Spirit had sent her on her journey at first to help Molly defeat the Witch-Finder and end his reign of terror. After the vision they shared on the bluff in Umatilla, Aquene had begun to understand her journey entailed far more than simply stopping Hopkins. After she was shot and lay bleeding on the ground, the Great Spirit had then shown her what she must do, and it had nothing to do with evil.

  All along, Aquene had kept telling Molly that she was the savior of Aquene’s people. That wasn’t exactly the way it had worked out. Molly was only the conduit. In a world where her language had disappeared, Aquene had come to bring it back. Their hearts and magic joined together, it was Aquene who walked through the shadows to save her people.

  Surprisingly, Aquene adjusted fairly easily to the changes the centuries had brought. Each new discovery made Molly smile as she watched Aquene’s pleasure. More than that, she was thrilled to be a part of her adventure. Her heart had never felt so full, and the fact that Aquene shared that feeling was the most amazing thing ever.

  If anyone had told her a fire in her bakery would change her world like this, she would have called them insane. What a wonderful thing life had turned out to be, and never had she appreciated being from a family like hers more. She would always feel sad about the way Hannah had died, and at the same time she would always feel grateful that her many-times great-grandmother had foreseen her coming and used that knowledge to help Molly reach her full potential. Life was so mystical and marvelous.

  Aquene came into the kitchen and smiled. “It is quite beautiful.”

  So was Aquene, who was wearing white pants, a white blouse, and a beautifully colorful jacket. Molly too had dressed for the occasion in a sky-blue dress. “It is, isn’t it? I can’t believe how incredible it turned out.” The best part, though, was what she had done to christen the new kitchen: bake a wedding cake. Not just any wedding cake. No, she had baked her first cake in her new kitchen for Angus and Winnie.

  “We must be on our way. Let us get the cake and hurry, for we do not want to be late.”

  Angus had been in rough shape by the time they got him
to the hospital, and he still didn’t have full use of one hand. Time would tell if the nerve damage was permanent. But that hadn’t slowed him down a bit. He had recovered quickly and was back at it soon. After what she’d seen during their great adventure, Molly was pretty sure Angus possessed his own bit of magic, and she was betting he’d enjoy a full recovery. She loved that about the man. She loved even more that he was marrying her best friend today.

  Kissing Aquene, she went to the refrigerator and took out the cake. It wasn’t large, because the wedding was small: only about twenty in all, comprised of family and friends.

  An hour later she held Aquene’s hand as they watched their two precious friends join their lives. Aquene leaned close, kissed her ear, and whispered, “It is beautiful.”

  “Yes, it is.” And it was. She had never seen Winnie look so gorgeous. Angus, despite his wounded hand, was handsome and clearly in love with his bride. Her heart sang.

  “I believe ours will be too.”

  For a moment, she had to think about what Aquene just said. Slowly she turned her head and stared at her. A small smile played at the corners of her mouth. “Ours?”

  “Ours.”

  Molly laughed softly, squeezed Aquene’s hand, and began to think about the perfect place for a spring wedding.

  About the Author

  Sheri Lewis Wohl grew up in northeast Washington State and though she always thought she’d move away, never has. Despite traveling throughout the United States, Sheri always finds her way back home. And so she lives, plays, and writes amidst mountains, evergreens, and abundant wildlife. When not working her day job in federal finance, she writes stories that typically include a bit of the strange and unusual and always a touch of romance. She works to carve out time to run, swim, and bike so she can participate in local triathlons, her latest addiction.

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