Everyone was standing in a large circle like they were in my dream. Eric was at the head and Marie was standing beside him. The two men from the house were on one Marie's left side looking at a figure in the center of the circle. Instead of a fire, like what was in my dream there, tied to a large tree stump, was Conner. He was beat up and bleeding, but he was alive.
I forgot where I was and started to move from my hiding spot, but my dad grabbed my arm.
“What are you doing?” He whispered to me not letting go of my arm.
“I have to get to him.” I said in a little louder tone turning to look at him. “Get over here and be quite. They'll hear you.” He said pulling me back down to where he was hiding with me. I didn't care if they heard me and came after me. I just wanted Conner to be alright and right now it wasn't looking so good.
Just then someone grabbed me from behind and pulled me from my hiding spot. I fought at the arms that were around me, but couldn't get away. I looked at my dad and another man was standing with him, his hand on my dad’s arm. I couldn't see the man that had me wrapped up, but he had to be big as he was carrying me like I was nothing. Suddenly Eric was in front of me.
“I had a feeling that you would end up here. My best guess is that you were looking for him.” He looked over his shoulder towards Conner. I was still trying to fight my way free. “Jack, take her to the circle.”
“Let me go you bastard.” I snarled at him. He just kind of smiled a half smile and turned his back to me. The moon was nearly all the way up now. When we got closer to the circle that they were all standing in, I could see the people that they had there better. One was of course Marie and there were a few others that I recognized. Jes was standing farther down the way she was dressed in a very formal gown that was dark red and black in color. When I looked a little bit closer at them, I realized that they were all dressed in formal clothing. The women in long dresses and the men in robes of dark red.
Eric looked from the others to Jack. “You can let her go now. She can't get to far with all of us here. Besides, she is important too.”
Jack let me go and I thrashed back at him. I was infuriated that they had taken Conner. Conner was watching from where he was at the tree stump and trying to get his hands free from the ties that kept him there. I could see the desperation in his eyes. He wanted to get me out of there as much as I wanted to get him out of here.
I calmed myself and thought for a minute. I still had a few of those binding potions in my pocket. If I could bind some of them, then that would be a start. I started feeling around in my jacket where they used to be, but there was nothing there to find. I felt the panic start to rise up into my chest.
“Are you looking for these?” Eric held out his hand showing the bottles that I had been looking for. He dropped them to the ground and stepped on them, making them worthless. “You should know better than to underestimate a man of my caliber.” He said to me in one of the snottiest voices that I had ever heard. I felt the rage of what was going on lunge into my chest and I pulled back my arm and balled up my hand.
I punched him right in the face, hard. He stumbled back and put his hands up to his face. Everyone was coming to see that he was alright. This might be my only chance to get away. I ran as fast as my feet could go to Conner and started fumbling with the ties. Conner looked up at me with his bruised face.
“Just run!” he yelled at me. “You will never get it undone in time.” I looked at him and all of the mean things that he had said just slipped away. I wanted to be at his house together with none of this worry on our minds. Just us and all the time in the world.
Just then, Jack slipped his hands around my waist and pulled me back from the task that I was doing. He carried me all the way back to where Eric was waiting. When we got to him, he grabbed my arm, gripping it hard.
“You little bitch.” He yelled at me. “I tried to give you the world and you punch ME in the face! What do you think you’re doing? You can't stop what we are doing and you will get killed if you deny it! This is the future!”
His nose was bleeding and starting to swell. I'd done a good job. Eric let go of my arm and looked at Jack behind me.
“If she tries anything stupid, kill her. There is another witch we can use.” He had pure hate in his voice. This was not a man that was good at being a father and he had no qualms about killing his own child. “It's time!” He yelled to the others that were gathered around.
They all formed a circle in the clearing and started chanting something that I could not understand. I realized that I was in the circle as well and Jack was chanting in my ear behind me.
The chanting got louder as Eric pulled a small dagger from his side and started to the next person in the circle. It was Marie that was first. He held her hand and cut it making the blood drip from her and the dagger. Then he moved on to the next one and kept going until he got to Jack and me.
He grabbed my hand first and cut into it. The pain was startling and the blood trickled down my hand and fingers like water. Then he grabbed for Jacks hand.
I had one last chance to escape as he pulled his hand off me; I kicked Jack as hard as I could with my heel. He let go and I started to run again.
No one followed this time. No one cared about the stupid girl running into the center of the circle. They were still chanting.
I looked back at Eric who was still carrying the dagger. He had started to walk to the center of the circle, where I was trying to get Conner Untied. His pace was as fast as the chant was. I was panicking again because I didn't know if I was going to get him lose in time, but just as Eric got to us, the rope untied and I pulled Conner back from the stump. Eric dug the dagger into the wood as hard as he could. The blood ran down the end into the dead tree and it started to turn red.
I pulled myself up and then pulled Conner to his feet and we backed away from the stump as it started turning a blood red color. I looked to the moon that had been so bright and realized that it too was turning as red as blood.
Conner whispered as we backed up further. “We're too late” I looked into her eyes and knew that he was telling the truth. “Then we need to run” I said to him in his ear, trying to stay as calm as possible.
I hadn't ran that fast in years. We jumped fallen trees and ran until our legs hurt. The forest was at least dense and it was dark, so we could hid easy.
Hide their coming. A voice said into my head. It had a hint of someone that I knew, but I couldn't tell who it was. Conner grabbed me suddenly and pulled me behind a large tree. He put a finger up to his mouth to tell me to be still.
We heard voices coming down through the trees where we had just been. They were looking for us, but kept going because they couldn't see us.
I'll be there in a minute. That same voice said in my head. It was my dad. I knew that he could tell what people were thinking, but I had no idea that he could talk to me in my head like this. That meant that he was still alive and he was coming here to help me.
There was a gust of air and one figure was standing not far from us. I looked at Conner and crept around the large tree that we were hiding behind to see who it was.
It was my dad. I smiled and rushed to him giving my dad a big hug. Conner came out from behind the tree shortly after me. I closed my eyes and took my dad in. He must have gotten away at the same time that I did. I just wanted to freeze this moment.
When I opened my eyes I saw the figures running through the woods to us. This was bad. I pulled my dad to the trees and pointed to the figures coming at us. The last thing that I wanted was for them to catch all the people that I loved in one place. Conner must have seen them too, because he had gotten to the tree line as well.
I thought about what was happening. This was something that was never going to stop as long as Eric had any kind of power.
I had to stop him. This much I knew for sure. “Do you still have the binding potions?” I whispered to my dad. He nodded back to me and pulled them out of his pocket. I reached across to his
hand and took them.
I slinked down to the tree closest to the men coming through the forest. One was the big man that had grabbed me named Jack and the other was Eric. They stopped as though they knew I was there and looked at the tree that I was hiding behind.
“Come out, come out where ever you are” Eric said in a snide tone. He felt bigger than life because he had done what he had intended. “You're too late to stop the change now. You are the minority in this world and dark magic will be more powerful than ever. There's only a few of you left and you will all die a painful death to serve the power.” I had lost track of Jack, but figured that he would end up coming up behind me soon. I held the potion close to me and then I heard him.
Jack reached for me from behind and knocked the potion out of my hand. I fumbled in my pocket for the other one and whirled around fast enough to catch him off guard. He toppled back a step or two and then I threw one of the potions at him. It hit him in the chest and exploded. The smoke made a trail for his nose and mouth and started to fill his body. He reached up to his throat like he was choking on the smoke and then he fell back to the ground.
I turned my attention to Eric who was standing in front of me looking shocked but was also very angry. Someone was ruining his plans and he had never thought that would happen. I could see that in the way that he carried himself.
He flung himself at me, but something kept him back. It was Conner. He was holding onto him to keep him from me.
Eric suddenly turned his attention to him and started punching at him. He pushed Conner back and Conner fell to his back with Eric standing over him.
He was going to kill him if I didn’t do something. I fiddled in my pocket, but there were no more potions. “Use the necklace. Make the choice to be who you are!” My dad screamed over my shoulder. Eric turned his attention back to me as I reached for the blue jewel. This was it; there would be no turning back.
I threw it at him hitting him in the chest. It exploded like the bottles had and smoke surrounded him. He fell forward and stayed still. At first I was afraid I had killed him, but he moved slightly to reassure me I hadn’t.
Conner looked up to me from where he was. I met his eyes and rushed to him. I was still shaking a bit from what I'd just done. My real father would no longer be a threat to me or Conner. He had no real power anymore and as far as I knew he couldn't get it back anytime soon.
My dad walked up and looked at Conner and me. “We need to get out of here.” He said to me. I nodded and helped Conner to his feet. He looked pretty good for a guy that had just been in a couple of fights that very night.
“I'll meet you at your house” He said looking at Conner and reached into his pocket for a travel potion. Conner nodded as he pulled me to him and caught that same travel potion from my dad and threw it to the ground. In an instant we were out of that horrible forest and in the front yard of Conner's house. My dad was already there waiting for us instead of just going into the house.
It looked scary and strange, not how I thought that it should look or how it looked to me as before. Everything that was related to magic now felt heavy and dark. It was never going to be the same for those that did any kind of magic, good or bad. I wondered if when the magic changed if it would be harder for good magic to find the power it needed to fight the dark magic that had taken over. The only thing that I knew for sure was that this battle was far from over and we would be fighting as long as it took to bring good magic back to the world.
“Things will be very different now.” Conner said as we all started to walk up the stairs. I looked at my father, who seemed to look very weathered and tired. He sat himself down on the stairs of the porch thinking about the things that had happened. We had lost two people that we cared about. My mom and Anna, Conner's sister. He knew that this was going to be a long hard road just as much as I did.
Conner held on to my arm as I thought about all of this. Things were going to change. That was a fact. The question was how and what were we going to be able to do about it.
The 13th Witch Book Two Dark Moon Rising One
I thought the worst was over, but the sad truth is that it’s just begun. I opened my eyes and looked around the room. It seemed different to me, but was just as bright as the first day I saw it. I remembered it well.
It was the day I found out I was a Witch. I looked over to the other side of the bed to see that Conner was not next to me. I wasn’t even sure if he had made it to bed at all. He had been having a hard time since his sister had died. I wasn’t sure that I could help him, but I wanted too.
I rolled out of the bed and put my favorite jeans and cream colored top on. My hair was a horrid mess that seemed to tangle at the slightest movement. I pulled it back into a ponytail the best I could and headed down the stairs. The living room was still dark and looked the same as it had the night before. I knew where he was now, and what he was doing.
Ever since Anna had died, he had been trying to work on a spell to bring her back. My father had told him that there was nothing that could bring her back, but he just wouldn’t listen. He really was not the same man I had fallen in love with and that scared me more than anything else.
I walked out to the porch and looked through the glaring sun that shined so brightly. The grass had grown in the month that we had been back to the house and seemed to wave at me. I walked Across the front of the yard towards the shelter that we had once ate under. Before things changed, before he changed.
Connor was standing there looking at the caldron in front of him. He normally would be doing this kind of thing in the kitchen, but with me there, and what he was trying to do, he preferred the shelter for his work. He looked worse for wear, with sleep deprived eyes that seemed so sad at the same time.
“What are you doing out here?” I asked but already knew the answer.
“I have to get her back.” He answered simply. “She was the only family I had left.” “I’m here now.” I reached for him as I spoke. He just brushed me away. I had thought that things would be better in the month since we had first met, but things just seemed to be falling apart more and more.
“I would like to be alone, if you don’t mind.” He said turning from me. I just turned back to the house and walked away. How long was I going to be able to handle this kind of treatment? He was just getting worse and was nothing close to the guy, I’d fallen for and learned my magic from.
We had stopped my Eric from leading evil in the world, but in the process my magic had been bound. I was what I wanted to be again, normal. The problem was that I wasn’t sure I really wanted to be normal.
My pocket started to vibrate from the phone that I’d stuck in it on the way out the door. When I moved out of my dad’s house, he had insisted on a cell phone, especially since the trouble that had started with Eric and his group.
I looked at it and knew from the number who it was calling me.
It was my dad.
“Hey, what are you doing?” I asked, happy to be talking to someone that wanted to have me around. “Not much. I just wanted to see if you were going to be busy tonight?” He paused for a minute waiting to see what I would say.
“I’m not doing anything at all. You can come by.” I really wanted to talk to someone that would understand what I was dealing with. Even though he was a guy, he might still be able to help me figure out what to do. “When are you coming?”
“I thought around six. Does that sound good for you?” “Sure, we can have supper together. I’m going to make pasta.” Pasta was about the only thing I knew how to make on my own.
“Sounds good. I’ll see you then.” I hung up the phone and smiled for the first time in a couple weeks. Things had been rough, but maybe we could catch a break and have a few good days. Seeing my dad would bring something good back into my life. I just didn’t know if I could take Conner and his selfish behavior.
I waited by the door for a moment to see if Conner to come in and help me make the small dinner I wanted to ha
ve for me and my new family, but it didn’t matter to him. I was beginning to think it didn’t matter to me either.
I sighed once I realized I was on my own with him and began making the chicken I had bought for tonight. Things were still scary out there in the real world. People went about their business and never even thought about what they were doing or what could go wrong. They had no idea the world under their own had changed more than they will ever know.
A knock at the door snapped me out of my thoughts. I smiled as I walked to answer it. I knew well before it rang who it was and what he wanted.
My dad smiled at me as I opened the door for him. It was a great thing to have him there with me and helping me deal with my new life.
“You look good kid,” He said holding his arms out for me. “It’s only been a few weeks. Did you want me to fall apart?” I smiled as I smarted off to him in a sweet way.
“Lets get some food in us and then we’ll talk.” He lost the smile as fast as he had gotten it and pulled me to the kitchen. “Is Conner going to join us?”
I let out a breath and set out the food. “No, he’s not in the chatting mood much lately. He’s just too torn up over his sister.”
“It’s hard, but he has to learn to get through it or you will have to get off this train.” He picked up his piece of chicken and bit off a little. “You can’t live like this.” He changed his tone and put his food down. “I hate to add to your burden, but I have news.”
I froze, unsure of what he was going to tell me. Something deep down knew it was going to be about Eric, my biological father.
“Eric is up to something. He has people looking for a way to get his powers back and may be on to something.” He waited a minute before continuing. “I think he’s going to travel to the Other world for answers.”
“What is the Other world?” I picked at my food as we talked. I didn’t really feel like eating at the moment.
“It’s another realm on our own. The oracle is the only one that can send a soul over.”
The 13th Witch Complete Trilogy Page 7
