“Bettina,” I whispered. “Bettina! Oh my God, we made it. We’re here. Aren’t you happy you came now?”
“Wow,” Bettina whispered back.
I took a deep breath as the weight on my chest lifted. Bettina stood beside me with wide eyes, but now they sparkled with interest instead of terror. I knew she’d be okay once we got here. She was fine, except for the mud clumped in her dirty blonde bob.
I spun in a circle, surveying the crowd around us. We couldn’t stand here gaping all night. We needed to get in the action. I just wasn’t sure where to start. My heart raced and my head felt light and woozy. Maybe I needed to start slow.
I turned back to my little group and smiled. “You guys wanna go over there and join the group by the big bonfire?”
“You mean the one with the crazy people linking arms and dancing around in a circle like lunatics?” Tiffany asked, eyebrows arched as she pointed one French-manicured finger across the clearing. Her red hair looked like fire atop her judgmental head.
“Yeah, and?” I crossed my arms over my chest.
“I don’t think so. They look weird.” Tiffany wrinkled her nose in distaste.
“Yeah, let’s just stay over here with these normal-looking people,” Mia said. Her short black hair swayed as she nodded in agreement.
Just like that, the two girls turned and walked back to the bonfire behind them, all without saying any form of good-bye. They didn’t even acknowledge Bettina standing in their path. They simply walked around her.
Manners anyone? I did just lead you here. Unbelievable.
“Guys, really? Are you kidding me right now?” Emersyn shouted after her friends. She turned back to me. “Tegan, Bettina, I’m so sorry. I don’t know what just happened. I think they’re just freaked out.”
“Or maybe those people are just weird.” Bettina curled her fingers in a quotation gesture.
“You know…” I chuckled, bringing Emersyn’s gaze back to me. “If there’s anything I’ve learned from books, it’s the normal ones you’ve gotta keep your eyes on.”
“I’m sorry.” Emersyn’s cheeks flushed bright pink as she stepped away from us.
I shrugged. “It’s okay, go ahead. Have fun!”
There was no way in hell I was going to let anyone ruin this night for me. It was my birthday. My sixteenth birthday, and I was at an infamous ghost party in the mountains based on the real Salem witches. This couldn’t have been more my vibe if I tried. Rain or shine, this parade was marching on in all its glory.
I waved then turned away from Emersyn to let her leave without feeling worse about her crappy friends. I had Bettina. I was set.
Bettina elbowed my softly. “Why aren’t we in there dancing?”
I grinned so wide my jaw popped. “Best damn question you’ve asked all night.” I grabbed her arm and pulled her into the ring of people dancing in a circle around the bonfire.
Somewhere around the fifteenth lap, I moved out of the dancing circle and peeled my long hair off my face, but I still moved in rhythm with the crowd. Bettina’s laugh a few feet away made me look over. She was smiling and linking arms with the stranger in front of her. I danced a few more feet out of the way to tie my hair up and slammed into something huge and solid. I cursed and threw my arms out to try and catch my fall when someone gripped my elbows and pulled.
I looked up…and gasped.
If the guy hadn’t been holding me up by my elbows, I would’ve melted into a puddle at his feet. The heat coming off his palms seared through my hoodie into my skin. My knees buckled, but his grip kept me upright. He was tall and lean, with chiseled biceps stretching the sleeves of his black V-neck T-shirt. His hair was black as night, falling in loose waves to his jaw. My fingers itched with the need to push it back out of his face. Tan skin glowed in the firelight like a jar of honey.
When I looked up to meet his eyes, my heart fluttered. He had the most spectacular eyes I’d ever seen. One was a brilliant green, like fresh grass in the spring. The other was a blue only the ocean could mimic. They shimmered like starlight. Goose bumps spread across my skin, and a shiver ran down my spine. My chest was so tight it burned. Was I even breathing? I didn’t know. I didn’t care.
He licked his lips, and I almost whined out loud, or maybe I did. I wasn’t sure. I blinked, completely dazzled. Overwhelmingly so. I struggled to remember my own name. The world around me got a little hazy, my head floating atop my neck like a balloon on a string.
“Hi…” His gravelly voice was low and deep.
It was the most amazing sound I’d ever heard.
I watched his lips, waiting for him to say something else. Speak, Tegan. He’s waiting for you to say something! “Hi…”
That wasn’t good enough. Communicate. Full sentences! I licked my lips, then swallowed, trying to relieve the dryness in my mouth. For the first time in my sixteen years of life, I was completely and utterly speechless. What’s happening to me? I didn’t recognize my own body and the way it reacted to him. This kind of thing had never happened before. I stared into his perfect, mismatched eyes, praying he had the answer. Or at least the same confusion.
His lips parted. Maybe he, too, struggled to breathe. His eyes glowed and his gaze stayed latched onto mine like I was a source of energy. Heat swarmed from within my chest. My limbs tingled with awareness. His palms slid from my elbows up the backs of my arms and I shivered.
What is he doing to me? I reached forward with my hands to…to…I didn’t know what. But I wanted to touch him, to hold on to him. His lips curved, pulling up in one corner as a sideways grin slowly formed. My heart fluttered to a stop, or maybe it was trying to restart?
I took a step forward, wanting to close the distance between us. The burn searing through my chest suggested I hadn’t been breathing. His gaze scanned over my body once, like he needed to make sure I was okay. Heat flushed to my face. My cheeks burned almost as hot as my chest. I smiled up at him. I opened my mouth to say something when an ear-splitting scream ripped through the clearing.
Chapter Two
Tegan
The screech was so high-pitched it pierced my ears. I covered them with my hands. I squeezed my eyes shut until the haunted echo faded out. When silence filled the clearing, I spun in circles trying to place where the sound had come from and why.
Shocked faces surrounded me. No one seemed to know where it had come from. But everyone had definitely heard it. No one moved. No one spoke. Then I remembered why we were there in the first place. The spirits.
Bright light flashed from the corner of my eye. I turned toward it and froze. Three bolts of lightning struck the ground in front of me. All around the perimeter of the clearing, lightning collided with dirt. It trapped us in like an electric fence.
There was no making a run for it. The fog had gotten so thick it blocked out the trees. I wasn’t even sure which way to go, or where we’d come in from. The wall of fog rose from the ground all the way up to the sky, connecting with the clouds. The bonfires blazed and expanded so wide I stumbled backward. I threw my arm up to protect my face from the heat as the encroaching flames shot straight up to the sky at least a hundred feet.
A man shouted from my right. I spun to find him frantically trying to get his long robe off before the flames burned through the material to his skin.
“Noooooo!”
I looked to my left just in time to watch a girl run between the bonfires, scrambling to dodge the flames as they stretched out to touch each other. She screamed as she ran toward the edge of the clearing.
“Slow down,” I mumbled as the woman kept running full speed toward the trees.
The lightning. She’s not stopping.
“Hey! Stop!” I moved toward the woman like I could catch her in time.
A bolt of lightning ripped through her. She jerked and dropped to the ground with a thud.
“No!” My heart raced so fast I was dizzy. Black spots swarmed my vision. I held my arms out to try and steady myself.
>
Another person sprinted by me.
“No! Stop!”
But they didn’t stop. I didn’t want to see this. Not again. I spun, throwing my arms over my head to cover my ears so I wouldn’t hear their screams. It didn’t matter. I still heard the strikes…and the thuds as they hit the ground.
What is happening?
Goose bumps spread over my body. The temperature in the clearing plummeted. White puffs of smoke escaped through my clenched teeth with each deep breath I took. I wrapped my arms around my waist. Is this really happening right now? My mind screamed for me to move, but the paralyzing fear held me in place. Captive in my own body.
Little embers of fire floated up into my peripheral vision. My mind raced, spinning, trying to figure a way out or at least put a name on what was happening.
“Bettina! Where are you?” I screamed, reaching blindly behind me.
A cold hand seized mine and squeezed tight enough to break bones. Tears of relief stung my eyes. I wasn’t alone.
“Tegan,” Bettina cried. “What’s happening?”
“I…I…I don’t know!” My breath hitched. I was the strong one, the one who dragged us here. I needed to get us out of there. But how? Where?
A loud noise like a freight train rumbled across the sky. Wind ripped through the clearing. The pillars of fire stood indestructible. Heavy sustained winds swept people off of their feet and threw them fifteen feet away. A blast of wind caught me off balance and tossed me aside like I weighed no more than a feather.
“Tegan!” Bettina screamed. She reached down and yanked me back to my feet, using her height and strength to hold us both up through the hurricane.
I looked around and saw groups of people huddled together, trying to anchor themselves to the ground. Others sprinted for the woods, a mob trampling each other to get out. My body trembled from head to toe. I had to get out of here, but I couldn’t get my legs to move.
We were bumped from the left then clipped and thrown to the ground on the right. My back slammed into dirt. I groaned and shook my head to clear the fuzziness. I looked up to the sky and gasped. People, real living human beings, soared through the air above my head. I opened my mouth to scream, but nothing came out. What could I do for them? This had turned into an every-man-for-himself situation.
The sky roared and cracked open, pouring rain down onto us like a waterfall. It was ice cold, and felt like pieces of shattered glass embedding into my skin. The bonfires still snarled scorching heat despite the downpour.
I scrambled to my feet. When I bent down to pull Bettina up, I spotted a familiar cascade of platinum blonde hair. Emersyn. She stood solid like a statue, white and frozen. I shouted out to her, but the sound was lost to the chaos.
“We have to help her,” I whispered to myself. Emersyn wasn’t moving, wasn’t blinking…like shock had already set in. Where are her friends? Why is she alone?
Every man for themselves? Yeah, well, not if I could help it.
I glanced over my shoulder and shouted, “Bettina, come on!”
I didn’t wait for a response. I knew my friend would be right behind me. She’d know without me saying what we needed to do. I pumped my arms and sprinted across the grass to where Emersyn stood frozen. Just as I was about five feet from her, her feet became airborne in a surge of wind. Her golden eyes widened. The gust threw her right toward the pillar of fire. Any second she’d be done for. Someone had to get to her. Why wasn’t anyone trying to help her?
I cursed and pushed my legs as hard as I could and closed in. I only had one shot. Calling on my inner linebacker, I jumped and tackled Emersyn in the air. We crashed on the ground and rolled to a stop mere inches from the edge of the bonfire. The force of the wind was so strong it took all of my strength to lift myself up onto my elbows. I gritted my teeth, focused on breathing.
Emersyn gasped and grabbed my hoodie, pulling me toward her. Flames flickered out from the pillar and missed us by inches. The spot I’d just been in was torched to ashes. Oh my God. If Emersyn hadn’t moved me…
Hands grabbed the back of my hoodie and yanked me to my feet. When I looked back, I found Bettina helping Emersyn up too. Another hurricane-like gust of wind slammed into us head-on. We linked our arms together and squatted down to try and hold steady.
Bettina hiccupped and it brought my gaze to her face. Tears streamed down her cheeks. “Can we please get the hell out of here now?”
“But how?” Emersyn shouted. “Which way did we come in?”
I cursed. She had a point. Did we try and find our exact point of entrance or risk getting lost in the mountains just to get out of there? We were in the Smoky Mountains; getting lost could mean a world of trouble. I snapped my head left and right looking for a suitable exit, but there were too many people running around to see the edge. This was mass panic. “I don’t care which path we take. We just have to get out.”
Shrills of terror rang out from within the clearing, but there were too many for me to pinpoint where they came from. A surge of wind stronger than any of the others whipped through the crowed …and wiped the fires out. Like the snap of a finger, every bonfire extinguished simultaneously. There wasn’t even smoke. They just went out as if they’d never been lit.
Eerie silence filled the meadow.
The wind died. The rain disappeared. The fog lifted. The storm…vanished. Everything was absolutely calm. Complete and utter silence. No one made a sound. With the fires gone, there was no source of light other than the tease of moonlight from a distance. I looked down, but could barely see my own hands. Emersyn’s haggard breathing brushed against my cheek. She gripped my bicep so tight she might’ve broken skin through my sweater. Sweat dripped down my back.
We needed to get going. Somewhere, anywhere. So long as it was out of there. But I was afraid to move even a fraction, in fear of triggering another attack.
Because it felt like an attack.
Not a single story in all the diaries and historical newspapers I’d read about this party had described such ferocity as we’d experienced. I couldn’t fathom what prompted it, and I definitely didn’t want to wait around and find out. Sure, I’d always wanted to see the spirits, but at that moment, I just wanted to see the highway leading me back home.
Something cold swept across my feet and I jumped. When I looked down, I found a thin layer of mist seeping up from the earth, oozing from the ground’s pores. I told myself the faint yellowish glow was merely a figment of my imagination. It hovered around my knees for a few seconds then shot straight up over my face and blanketed the sky.
The sound of drums erupted from all around us. It sounded tribal. The beats were steady and grew faster, like a death march. Each beat throbbed against my eardrums. I wanted to cover my head and block the sound, but I needed to pay attention. Our exit might only be a flash of a second, and I wasn’t going to miss it. The drums beat louder and faster. I wasn’t sure how much more I could take, and I knew something more was coming.
“Oh my God… It’s real.” Emersyn whimpered and tightened her grip on my arm.
I shivered under the cold chill slithering down my spine. I swallowed and nodded. “The spirits have risen.”
I grabbed onto Emersyn with one hand and Bettina with the other. I licked my dry lips and held on to my two friends tighter. Waiting. Frozen in place. Something was about to happen, something huge. A cold lump formed in my throat. I’d read one account of what happened next, and I hoped it was wrong. I no longer wanted to see it. I just prayed curiosity wasn’t about to kill this cat.
The chanting got louder and echoed in my ears. Each beat of the drum rumbled my feet and sent tremors up my spine. I gasped for air like I’d run a marathon. My heart raced so fast the beats overlapped each other. The fear emanating from Emersyn’s body rolled over me like an avalanche. Bettina trembled at my side.
A bright light shot out from inside the forest, casting the trees in shadow. It moved closer to the clearing, growing brighter with every inch
. My eyes burned from the intensity. I blinked back stinging tears and glanced around, but we were entirely surrounded. The light swarmed us. I buried my face into Bettina’s shoulder to block the glare. I counted to three then looked back to the forest…and gasped.
There, standing on the edge of the clearing, were the spirits of the slaughtered tribe. They were transparent like ghosts, yet they almost looked real. Except they seemed to be glowing a soft white.
The venom in their eyes was so powerful I could’ve choked on it.
Wait…are they…are they looking at me? No. No, they can’t be. Don’t freak out. I took a deep breath to calm the jackhammer in my chest. I’m just paranoid. But a quick glance around disagreed. Every spirit on that half of the clearing looked me right in the eye. I tightened my grip on my friends, needing them closer for comfort. A tingle ran down my spine. I took a shaky breath then peeked over my shoulder. A whimper slipped between my teeth. All of the spirits behind us glared at me too.
Why are they staring at me? Why me? Am I next?
A loud chirping noise ripped through the circle, and then the spirits sprinted forward. We ducked, looking over our linked arms as they flew over our heads toward the center of the clearing. People screamed from within the darkness, both men and women. My nerves tingled. My legs itched to get out of there. I had no idea what the spirits were doing, if anyone was actually being harmed, but judging by the terror in the shrieks, I had to assume they’d come to seek vengeance. Just like the stories all said they would.
The fog dropped down from the sky, so thick it was almost suffocating. My breath hitched. Evil, maniacal laughter bubbled from within the mist. The chanting picked back up with building urgency, like it was leading up to something massive. Something I didn’t want to be around to witness. I sucked in a large gulp of foggy air, along with every ounce of courage I had left, and dragged my friends toward the edge of the clearing. Before the spirits arrived, I wasn’t sure where the forest was or how close. But now I saw it clearly. This was our chance to make a run for it. The forest was twenty feet ahead of us. Something told me if we made it to the trees, we’d be safe from the haunting spirits behind us.
The Lost Witch Page 2
