by Megan Curd
Crashing to the floor in front of Mom, I extended my arms, trying to reach her. As our fingertips grazed one another, someone pulled me away. Crying out in frustration, I rolled onto my back to face Ankou. Instead, I stared into the half-crazed eyes of Chris.
THIRTY-TWO
A fanatical gleam in his eye, he grinned widely as though he had just won the lottery. “Jamie! I caught the disgusting thing!”
“Very good, baby! Now finish her off. That’s the only way you’ll get your real sister back,” Jamie said behind me.
Memaw roared behind Chris, sprinting forward to attack Jamie. She was a complete blur. I didn’t turn to look to see the outcome of the fight, because Chris diverted my attention with the worm blade he pulled out of his pocket. There was no way I would be able to be repaired like Memaw had been. Out of self-defense I kicked him in the face with a sharp thrust he hadn’t been expecting.
There was a loud crack and a fountain of blood began to pour from his nose. Bellowing in pain, he lunged forward, grabbing my forearm. I twisted out of his grasp and landed a kick in his chest, sending him flying against the wall I had been imprisoned on. He hit between two studs, cracking through the wall. Pulling himself out of the crater he had created, he looked at me savagely and started toward me again. This time he seemed a bit more reserved.
Memaw connected with someone behind me. Jamie yelped in pain. It was nice to know that Memaw was knocking her around a bit. Side-stepping to parry Chris, I wondered where Ankou had gotten to when his wheezing sounded not inches from my ear. “You’ll lose everyone you love today, Ashlyn. I’ll leave you stripped to nothing. You’ll have no choice but to be mine. You’ll beg me for death. If you’re lucky, your wish will come true quickly.”
Whipping around, there was nothing but air. I made myself an easy target while distracted. Chris attacked me from behind, head locking me and putting a knife to my throat. He growled, putting the knife so close it began to cut my skin. The blade began to squirm in his hand, searching for an entry point on my body. “You’re going to give my sister back, you sick changeling.”
On top of being about to lose my life, I was being given a front row seat to watching Memaw fight one-on-two just as I had feared. Memaw had an arm extended out to either side of her, a beam of orange light expanding from both. She had managed to completely encase Jamie in what looked like a bubble. From the fight she was making to escape, it seemed to be made of something impenetrable. Jamie’s own brand of magic was ricocheting off of every surface it touched. She had morphed into her ugly pixie self, her hair flying in all directions like Medusa’s snakes. On the other side, Ankou was holding up a better fight.
Sparks flying off everywhere, flashes of green and orange collided around them. Memaw was pushing Ankou back toward the fireplace. With a quick nod of her head, a fire erupted in the hearth as though it had been sparked by gasoline. The fire licked every edge of the fireplace and extended out like claws. The hem of Ankou’s long black robes began to smoke as the fire crept closer.
Memaw grunted; the exertion it was taking for her to extend so much was taking a toll on her. “Today is not your day, Ankou. You won’t take any more of my family.”
“I’ll take at least one. I never leave empty handed,” he said, grinning.
Chris seemed engrossed in this battle as well. I coughed, my jugular still dangerously close to his knife. “You know they’re lying to you, don’t you?”
“Shut up, Changeling,” he blurted a little too quickly. “Jamie would never lie to me.”
The knife was stripping the first layer of flesh off my throat each time I spoke. A small trickle of blood had begun to run down into the collar of my shirt. The blade seemed to grow more impatient to seed itself with each passing moment. “You know she tried to kill Memaw and I, right? She killed Dad. Why don’t you believe what I’m telling you? You’ve seen her true side. How can you swallow her lies?”
Unconsciously loosening his grip, he recoiled from the information I was giving him. “How do you know?”
“Weren’t you the one who always said it was like something was pulling dad under the water when you were trying to pull him out? That was Jamie. Ankou had sent her. She thought it was me on the ice with you. She was doing Ankou’s dirty work. She’s only loyal to him, Chris. She doesn’t love you.”
Saying nothing more, I let this sink in. I was done for if he didn’t pause to contemplate their possible double crossing. Memaw had Ankou right over the fireplace and Jamie close behind. Both her hands were extended forward as she walked the devils to the fire. “You take no one today. No one,” she said. “You have gone too far, Ankou. Your existence ends now.”
Suddenly Chris became stiff once more. He whispered his decision in my ear. “Jamie said you were a good liar. I’m going to cut your throat and bring back my Ashlyn.”
Panicking, I acted solely on instinct. Grabbing Chris’s wrist, I dropped to my knees and lifted up and forward, hurtling Chris into the air and sending him crashing to the floor in front of me. Grabbing the blade from his hand while he was in mid-air, I brought it down between his eyes, my knee on this throat. “I am Ashlyn.”
“Don’t,” Chris choked out.
I couldn’t figure out what had come over me. Eyes beyond reason, I didn’t see Chris any more. All that remained was a threat needing to be taken out. I raised the blade high, taking aim. “You had your chance, Chris.”
I brought the blade down swiftly, stopping right before piercing his skin. Smiling hatefully, his horrified eyes bore into mine. The very point of the blade sat perfectly between his eyes. I hissed at him, my words cutting him more than the blade could have. “The next time I do that, it’s not going to be practice if you insist on saying that I’m a Changeling. If you hang out with them so much, you need to learn to identify one.”
Comprehension crossed Chris’s face, the hate turning into fear. “Don’t let them take me, Ashlyn.”
Memaw saw this transaction in the corner of her eye but missed the last part. Losing her focus on Ankou and Jamie, she dropped her hands and instead reached one out toward us. “Ashlyn, not Chris!”
Without the magic to keep him at bay, Ankou rushed forward, blazing past Memaw and coming for me. His hands extended, I back flipped away from him. I came off my knees so quickly there hadn’t even been time to contemplate the move. Instincts that hadn’t been there for the entirety of my life were taking over now. I grabbed Chris’s hands and began to drag him back to get him out of harm’s way.
Instead of coming after me, Ankou grabbed Chris by the collar of his shirt and yanked him back toward Jamie, taking her by the hand. Jamie grabbed Mom, tugging her along her by her hair. “I’ll break your entire family, Emily. I’ll break you!” He screeched as he let go of Chris and Jamie for a split-second to clap his hands together. A black cloud that smelled of sulfur and death clouded them from our vision. When the smoke had cleared, there was nothing but a burnt, black spot where they had been standing.
THIRTY-THREE
There was a crash and a tinkering of glass.
“The back door!” Memaw screamed, pulling her bow from her back and sprinting through the already broken glass door.
It was merely seconds before I passed her in our sprint to chase down Ankou and our family. We were less than blurs. Within leaping distance of Jamie, I took the chance and launched into the air.
I connected with her, tackling her to the ground and tripping Ankou up in the process. Memaw was on Ankou in an instant. Pulling Jamie’s hair was all that came to me in the moment, so I did the best with what was available in the idea department.
Yanking on her mossy hair, a portion came out by the roots. She screamed, rolling me over, letting go of Mom in the process. For the split second that my vision wasn’t filled with a very unhappy Jamie, I saw Mom running back to the house. Jamie was on me the next instant. “I’m going to kill you right now, in front of everyone. Let’s go for a swim.”
Dragging me to
the pond, I kicked and punched at any bit of her possible. There was no way to break her hold. Memaw was trading magic with Ankou, Chris still in Ankou’s possession.
My back hit the cold water. The next moment, I was submerged. Jamie was in her element. This was not good. She punched my chest, knocking the only air I had out as she pulled me to the bottom of the pond.
My lungs were burning from lack of oxygen. Racking my brain for anything to out of the situation, I attempted to create my own magic.
It worked. Kind of.
A small purple light emerged from the palm of my hand. Not knowing what it was, I simply shoved it in Jamie’s face. She screamed, letting go of me in her pain as an eruption of bubbles concealed her view.
I swam for my life. Hitting the surface, my lungs seared with pain as they sucked in the clean air. Jamie wasn’t down for long, though. She had my ankle, and almost as soon as I’d resurfaced, we were underwater again.
Lights sprouted in front of my eyes from not being able to breathe. Jamie grabbed the front of the jacket Rebecca had given me, attempting to unbutton it. Why did she want the coat?
As soon as the thought hit struck my mind, my eyes cleared. My brain was thinking in lines again. I could see. I could breathe. Wait, breathe? Weren’t we still underwater?
Looking down, my hands had become webbed. Looking at Jamie, her eyes were as wide as saucers. A grin took over my face. This was awesome.
Trying to create the purple stuff again, I cupped my hands together as I kicked away from Jamie. It appeared before I even willed it to happen. What was this? No time to think. Shoving the light toward Jamie, she screeched under the water and dove deep. How deep was this pond?
I took off after her like a shark, the fight changing favors now. As I neared the bottom, a crack appeared. Heat emanating from the emerging crack, Jamie continued in, the magnetic pull attempting to take everything within its reach. Fighting to get away, I felt the crack close on my webbed right foot. One strong pull and I would be free. The only problem was Jamie had grabbed onto my ankle.
I fought her grasp, her maniacal grin revealing her mossy teeth. I could feel the pull yanking me deeper. Her face was getting closer. “You’re mine now, Ashlyn.”
I flailed in search of anything to grab onto. Nothing was there. I sunk even faster. This was the end.
Out of nowhere a hand grabbed mine and pulled me away. Jamie bared her teeth, staring past me hatefully. “You can’t win this, mortal. I’m stronger than you!”
I looked up to see Liam. Where had he come from? Wasn’t he passed out in the living room? The bloody halo surrounding his head gave proof that he was still in bad shape. His eyes were closed, a small stream of bubbles escaping his nostrils. He fought to swim upward, struggling to pull me with him.
Shocked and encouraged by his appearance, I kicked harder. The crack was closing, causing Jamie to make a decision. She chose flight. Screeching as she let go, she cursed us. “This isn’t over, Ashlyn! Liam, you’re going to regret getting involved with this!”
Liam couldn’t respond, but he made his response clear by flipping her the bird. She growled, the crack sucking her deeper before she could respond.
As the crack sealed, I swam up to Liam. The bubbles from his nose were becoming to appear less and less. I wrapped my arm around his waist, pulling him to the surface.
We hit the surface, which brought him back. Gasping for air, his eyes opened wide. “Ash…you’re okay.
“Of course I’m okay. You shouldn’t have done that!”
He was still sucking air. “I did it because I’m your Protector. You needed it.”
His eyes closed. Blood was pouring from his head. I started to pull us back to the shore.
The minute we touched the grass, there were no webby things anywhere on my body. No clue what had happened, I was still thankful it occurred. Where was Memaw?
Looking toward the house, Memaw was in a crumpled heap by the deck. “Liam, we’ve got to move. We need to get Memaw.”
His noncommittal moan reminded me that he wasn’t fit to be moving. I grabbed his waist and helped him back to the house at a frenzied pace, laying him down beside Memaw.
“Memaw! What’s wrong?”
She sobbed into my shoulder the minute I crashed beside her. “Chris is gone. Ankou took him. I couldn’t save him. I failed.”
Mom was sitting on the steps of the deck behind us, eyes far off and by the looks of it, completely in shock. Ankou had managed to take another McVean.
It was in the following moments three things became undeniably clear. The first was that we were on a hit list that no one, not even the committee, could save us from. Secondly, I possessed more abilities than anyone had imagined, which made me the most sought after of all. Third and probably most importantly, the longer that Memaw and I were in the same place in the human realm, the more danger we put whomever we were around in. Together, it we were just a ticking time bomb.
While it was obvious we could take care of ourselves, the area surrounding us was full of carnage. It bore evidence that the people we loved were not quite as capable when up against the magic that was part of our lives. Chris was scared and being held hostage with Ankou and Jamie. Mom was catatonic by the looks of it. Liam lay still beside us, blood pooled around him. I looked at Memaw, trying to find sense in the mess.
What I found was another broken heap. She shook from the sobs wracking her entire body. She was beyond words; her desperation was evident. A mother’s love had overtaken her and reminded her of losses I would probably never understand, even if I did live forever.
Crouching down beside her, I gathered her up in my arms, her blonde hair covering her face. Putting the wild mess behind her ears, I pulled her chin up to look in her eyes. “Memaw, we’ll get Chris back.”
She was beyond encouraging. “We’ll never get him back. For three hundred years I’ve tried to find a way to get MaKenna. There’s no way. Chris is gone just like MaKenna and Aiden.”
She fell back into sobs and pushed me away. I didn’t push her. Instead, I crawled over on all fours to see how Mom was faring.
Mom was rocking back and forth and staring into space. She was repeating Chris’s name. I took her hands in mine, squeezing them in a feeble attempt to bring her back to earth. “Mom, listen. Mom, it’s okay.”
I squeezed a little harder, putting one hand on her shoulder. “Mom, you’ve got to listen.”
With a jolt as though she had been electrified, she focused, grabbing my shoulders. “Ashlyn, you have to get him back. You have to save your brother.”
Nodding, I tried to pry her hands away from my already sore shoulders. “I know, Mom. We’re going to get him back.”
She understood my abilities although she hadn’t seen the extent of them. “You can do more than Emily. You can go to him. You need to bring him back.”
Looking back at Memaw, I knew what needed to happen. Squeezing Mom’s hand once more, I looked at her once more. “How much cash do you have?”
She looked at me funny. “I don’t know, why?”
I looked at Liam who was out cold on the lawn resigned myself to doing the very thing he would hate me for. “Mom, I need to get to Ireland. Tess will know what to do.”
Mom nodded, not understanding but trusting I had a plan. As she stood shakily, I walked back to Memaw and placed my hands gently on her shoulders.
“We’re getting Chris back. MaKenna and Aiden, too. You won’t ever have to hurt again.”
Memaw looked up at me, shocked. “Ashlyn, you don’t know what you’re saying. You can’t do that.”
“Why not? I’m a Bridger, right? I can cross to Adaire and to Neamar. Don’t act like you don’t know this.”
Memaw looked down. “This isn’t your battle.”
“Are you serious? How is it not my battle?” I said, thrusting my arms to either side of me to display the damage around us. “Ankou took Chris, Liam’s little brother, and your daughter. You’re broken from this; adm
it it. Mom, Liam, Tess, and me, too. We all are. Ankou’s ripping us apart piece by piece and I’m the only one that can do anything about it. I’m not letting him do this to us.”
“I don’t want to lose you, too. There’s more to this than you know –”
I cut her off before she could even tell me anything more. “Look, I don’t want to hear it. It doesn’t matter. This is getting taken care of. I’m going to Tess. She knows something you haven’t explained and I know it. Quit acting like you don’t know what I’m talking about.”
Memaw looked slightly abashed, but started in another direction. “You can’t leave Liam. You need to be here with him. He’s not even conscious and you’re going to run off? You’re going to be the death of that boy.”
I hung my head. It was true that at some point I was going to be the reason Liam was dead. There was no way around it. It was just a matter of time. I had to find a way to avoid that as well. “Memaw, don’t remind me.”
Walking over to Liam, I moved his body ever so slightly to wrap a piece of my shirt around his bleeding head. He groaned, obviously in pain. Leaning down to rest my arm across his chest, I began to sob. Truth be told, the reason everyone was falling apart was me. All I did was leave a path of destruction in my wake. “Liam, I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry I can’t be normal for you. I’m sorry I’m hurting you. We’re going to find a way to fix this, I swear.”
There was a hand on my shoulder. It was Mom. “Ashlyn, you have school next week. How are you going to do this?”
Not breaking my gaze from Liam, I responded. “I don’t know, Mom. Maybe I’ll do correspondence school for the rest of the year. It’s only a couple months. Maybe I’ll be right back. I just don’t know.”
There was silence.
Lifting my head, I saw Mom had pulled herself together. She was an amazing woman. “Do what needs to be done. I don’t understand what’s going on, but I know you can handle it.”
