by Tish Thawer
Originally, Richard Hunniwell was killed in an Indian raid at the river behind his home. But, since Ann had altered the timeline, she put Trin and all the Indian women she’d helped in serious danger, which Caris was sure was her full intention. Not to mention the danger of how his continued influence could affect the outcome of the war. When they got there, she’d have to tell Jason the truth and hope to hell he’d follow through or else all would be lost.
“Car, it’s this way.” Kennedy interrupted her internal dialogue, ticking a thumb in the direction of the path she’d ventured off.
“Yeah, sorry.”
Kennedy eyed Jason who just shrugged and trudged on. Moments later, they arrived at the trees. They were just as Kennedy remembered and hoped Caris had a plan to access the magic they’d need to activate the portals. Kennedy gasped. “What if the portals have moved?”
“What do you mean?” Caris asked.
“I mean, before the center tree is the one that led Trin to the time she’s currently trapped in, but what if for some reason, that’s no longer the case. What if we go through that same portal and end up somewhere else entirely?”
Jason’s head dropped back with a huff. “Yeah, this is helping my confidence,” he stated sarcastically.
“I’m sorry. I just don’t want us to be caught off guard. I think we should test the portals,” Kennedy suggested.
“How?” Caris asked.
Kennedy looked around, then asked, “I don’t suppose either of you brought your phones?”
Jason nodded and reached into the skin pouch slung around his waist. “I did.”
Kennedy grabbed the cell and opened the camera, sliding the setting to video. “Car, pull a string from the hem of your dress.”
Caris did as her sister asked then handed her the thread. Kennedy quickly tied it around the phone and held it up in the air. “Once you activate the portal, we’ll send this through and pull it right back to see what’s been recorded.”
“That’s a good idea if it works, but I’m not sure it will, considering the energy involved,” Caris replied.
“Only one way to find out.” Kennedy wagged her eyebrows.
“Do you know how Trin activated the portals last time?” Caris asked.
“I think she did a scanning spell, but maybe it was her magic that triggered the trees. I’m not really sure.” Kennedy shrugged.
“Okay, no more guessing. Let’s do this!” Jason clapped his hand in a wide arc.
Kennedy pressed play on the video recording as Caris stepped towards the center tree and transformed her mother’s recent words to meet their current needs. “Time is mine, fluid and true; take me back to this land once new. Please reunite my sisters and me, as I will it, So Mote It Be.”
The center tree sparked to life, sending its bright green light surging from deep within its split center. “Throw it now,” Caris yelled.
Kennedy tossed the phone into the crack, waited fifteen seconds, then yanked it back.
Rushing to see the recording, all three gathered around the tiny device. Kennedy pulled up the video and hit the play arrow.
“Oh no!” Caris’s eyes bulged as the screen filled with Indian women running from the Hunniwell house in the distance. “We have to go now!” Grabbing their hands, she didn’t wait for a reply, but simply yanked them into the pulsing portal.
SCARBOROUGH, MAINE
1703
Jason, Kennedy, and Caris––dressed in their native attire, crouched in the tall grass surrounding Trin’s house from her former life.
“What do we do now?” Jason asked.
Taking a deep breath, Caris turned to face him. “Jason, I have to tell you something.” She swallowed hard. “You have to kill Richard Hunniwell to set the timeline straight again,” Caris explained in a rush.
Jason sank further onto the ground. “What? I don’t understand.”
Caris laid a hand on his shoulder. “If you want to save Trin and our entire future, you’re going to have to come to peace with this, Jason. There is no other way.”
Dropping his head between his knees, he mumbled. “I’m not sure I can do that.”
Kennedy and Caris sat quietly while he contemplated this devastating news. Lifting his head, he met their concerned gazes. “I’m an officer of the law for goodness sakes. How am I willingly supposed to commit murder?”
“I know, and I’m sorry. But Mr. Hunniwell will kill Trin and all the women she helped if you don’t do this. You have to dispatch him in order to save Trin and keep history as it should be.”
“You make it sound so cut and dry. What if he fights back, what if there are others around who defend him?” Jason shook his head, expressing his concerns on a frustrated sigh.
“There won’t be anyone else around. And we’ll help you.” She nodded toward Kennedy who had froze at Caris’s announcement.
“You’ll just need to wait at the river and attack him once he enters the water. Use the machette and do it quickly.”
“How do you know he’ll go to the river now that the timeline has changed?” Kennedy asked, breaking her silence.
“Because, we’re going to lead him there.” Caris met her sister’s gaze and the unspoken seriousness of the situation passed between them. They would gain Mr. Hunniwell’s attention, marking themselves as targets, and lead him to the river to meet his fate.
Silence hung in the air for a beat until they all shifted and wordlessly accepted their roles. Reaching for each of their hands, Caris intoned another chant. “Lord and Lady watch over us all, and help us fulfill destiny’s call. Setting time back on its course, requires action without remorse. So Mote It Be.”
“So Mote It Be,” Jason and Kennedy repeated.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Jason gave the girls a clipped nod and headed towards the river, while Kennedy and Caris started towards the house.
“Do you have a plan for us?” Kennedy asked.
Caris shook her head. “I don’t think we really need one. As soon as he sees us he’ll want to kill us, so all we really have to do is run.”
“Wow. That’s comforting.” Kennedy huffed.
“It will be a comfort when everything is back to the way it should be and we’ve all returned home, safe and sound.”
“You’re right. I’m sorry. I know it must have been hard for you to keep what you knew from Jason. That was rough.”
“Yes, it was. But Mama foresaw it, and I knew there was no other way,” Caris whispered. “He’ll do what needs to be done.”
Kennedy bit her lip at the mention of their mother and continued to creep forward toward the quaint farmhouse. “Do you know if Trin’s inside?” she asked.
“I can’t be sure, but I think so. The last image Mama saw was Richard hitting her.”
“What? He’s already hurting her?” Kennedy’s voice rose with her anger, hardening her steps and her heart.
“Yes. Just like Ann had planned.”
“Screw this! We want him to chase us right? So let’s get on with it.” Kennedy squared her shoulders, and cupped her hands to her mouth. Sucking in a deep breath, she let out a loud warrior’s call, filling the twilight sky. “Iiiieyeyeye....”
Lights immediately flickered on in the Hunniwell home. “That did the trick. Get ready to run,” Caris stated.
The girls stood proud and strong in their deer skins and face paint as Richard Hunniwell burst out through the front door with his musket in hand. He spotted them immediately and took aim.
“Get down!” Kennedy grabbed Caris’s hand and yanked her to the ground.
Boom!
Peeking past the tips of the tall grass, the girls took off running towards the river as their enemy reloaded his musket. Glancing back every few seconds, Kennedy quickly realized Richard Hunniwell was a pro killer. It only took twenty seconds for him to reload––powder, ball, wadding, ramrod then another Boom sounded as a lead bullet whizzed past their heads.
“Come on, hurry, we’re almost the
re,” Caris cried.
Cresting the hill, Kennedy searched frantically to locate Jason. “There!” Spotting him, she waved her arms in the air, then pulled Caris to the other side of the river, standing ready for Richard’s arrival on the scene.
Mr. Hunniwell appeared moments later and stomped into the water, red-faced and out of breath. Their eyes met as he worked to finish his next reload. “You won’t escape me, savages!” he screamed. “My wife has led you to believe that you deserve more than you do, but just like her, I’ll quickly teach a lesson of what you deserve.”
That did it. Jason crept towards his target, regretting less with every step. Using the river’s gentle hum, he silently stalked around Richard’s back and with a soul-deep sigh, he struck, quick and true.
Thwack. Richard’s eyes grew wide as a small stream of blood seeped out the corner of his mouth. Dropping his gun, he fell face first into the river, exactly as history had planned.
Caris and Kennedy raced forward, hugging Jason as they all shed unabashed tears. “Let’s go save Trin,” Jason said, sniffling and wiping his eyes.
Hand-in-hand, they trudged out of the water and walked down the hill, easing up to the back door of Trin’s past home.
Jason twisted the knob and stepped inside.
Trin’s soft sobs sounded from the back room. The girls raced forward, not caring if anyone else was here and alerted to their presence. Kennedy called out, “Trin, it’s us. We’re all here.”
Footsteps raced across the wooden floor and the bedroom door flew open. Trin wiped her eyes and threw herself into her sister’s waiting arms. “Oh, thank the Goddess. I thought he was going to kill me.”
“It’s okay, baby. He can’t hurt you anymore.” Jason moved past the sisters and gathered Trin in his arms. He kissed the top of her head and held her tight as she let the stress of the situation leak out from her soul.
“Trin, is there anyone else in the house?” Kennedy asked.
“No. He killed two of the women upon his return; Nadie barely escaped.”
“Where is the other you––the Katherine from this time?” Caris asked.
“The Nadie you know was brought here through the portal tree too; she and I snuck in after Richard left to hunt for the others. She took Katherine and hid her in the forest while I assumed the role and tried to work out a plan. Neither the true Nadie or Katherine are aware of our presence here.”
“Good. Then let’s find and flag our Nadie, because it’s time to go. We’ve taken care of Richard,” Caris stated with a grimace.
Trin nodded and hugged Jason tight, not needing any further explanation.
“Have you encountered Ann through any of this?” Kennedy asked as they walked out the back door.
“No. Have any of you?” Trin looked between her sisters and Jason, their collective nods tainting the mood even further. “Well, I have no doubt that since this little scheme of hers didn’t work, we’ll be seeing her soon enough. She won’t give up.”
“Good! I don’t know about you, but I’m ready to get this over with and get the hell out of here,” Kennedy spat.
Agreeable mumblings filled the space between them as they all padded quietly toward Nadie’s hiding place in the woods. Trin’s hands lightly skimmed the tops of the dried stalks that swayed at their passing, while rabbits and squirrels scattered at their approach. Stopping short of a tight cluster of low-hanging evergreens, Trin cupped her hands to her mouth. “Coo-coo” she softly mocked, watching the horizon for Nadie’s signal that all was well.
A raised hand and a responding “coo-coo” confirmed Nadie would return Katherine to her home and inform her of her husband’s death, setting history back on its proper course. Trin and Nadie had pre-planned all this, of course, and the next step was to wait for Nadie at the portal-trees. Together, they would all return to the current time and their lives within the tribe. After that, Trin, Caris, Kennedy, and Jason would solely focus on locating Ann and returning home.
If only things were that easy, Trin thought.
Chapter Twenty-Three
“Stop!” Nadie warned as she joined them on their approach to the portal trees. Dropping to the ground and crouching low, she listened to the wind and scented the breeze. “We’re being surrounded.”
Trin, Caris, Jason, and Kennedy pulled tightly together, back-to-back and readied their defense. Grasping hands, Caris muttered a protection spell under her breath. “Goddess of old, Goddess of new, protect our souls, through and through. Be with us on this day, so that we may return unharmed in any way.”
A pack of seven Iroquois women crept from the forest, their axes and knives held high above their heads. Trin, however, was less concerned with them and more distraught at the vision of Ann Putnum in all black, slinking towards them from behind the trees.
“Figured we’d be seeing you soon,” Trin spat.
“Yes, well, I didn’t put much hope in that buffoon, Richard, to get the job done,” her snarl morphed into a sickening smile, “that’s why I brought reinforcements.”
The cluster of female warriors took a step forward in unison, tightening the circle surrounding the group.
“Typical. Can’t win the fight on your own so you cheat and align yourself with others,” Kennedy’s nostrils flared as she huffed and squared her shoulders.
“Yes. Exactly. My master taught me well.”
“Oh, are you talking about the master we obliterated? Heinrich? Quick reminder, he’s dead.” Jason hoped his words held true and this whole time-travel fiasco hadn’t resurrected that damn demon as well.
“Yes. That may be true, but the lessons I learned while in his service live on.” Ann casually glanced at her fingers, picking and plucking at her black nails that had become unnaturally long and sharp––an obvious sign of the dark magic she’d been attempting to use. Gathering her tattered dress, she moved towards the group, stirring up dark shadows that radiated from her body. Trin noticed and quickly warned the others.
“Did you see that? It’s as if she’s cloaked in darkness and that does not bode well,” she sent into their minds. “Keep her talking while I prepare.”
“I assume your reason for all this is to gain your powers back, but if that’s the case, why are we here? Hadn’t you already achieved your goal back in our present day?” Caris asked, hoping Ann would start monologuing like most bad-guys do.
Ann scoffed. “Tools, ingredients, and borrowed powers? No thank you. That’s all anyone can achieve in that time, but I will regain my true power, and in doing so, destroy you and yours.” She raised her hands to the sky, casting the dark shadows high into the air. A swirling cloud of ominous proportions began to form, appearing as vicious as the tribeswomen who started to push forward again. Trin took a moment to look around the circle, staring into each of their eyes and was shocked by her discovery.
While appearing to be Iroquois with shaved heads and decorated ponytails, their war-painted faces couldn’t hide the truth of their origin. These weren’t native women; they were Caucasian and struck a remarkable resemblance to Ann.
“You found them.” Trin focused her gaze back on Ann, pulling her attention from her current spell.
The storm died down and Ann’s eerie smiled confirmed Trin’s discovery. “Yes. My bloodwork, and all that testing and research paid off. And now, I only have two more to go, which is why I’ve brought you here.” She gestured to the portal trees looming behind her. “I need your help and you’re going to give it to me whether you want to or not.”
Ann’s sisters pressed their weapons in on Trin’s group, thrusting them forward and closer to the trees.
Ann began to pace in front of the three splits that contained the portals. “You see, my problem is, I’ve only been able to come and go between our time in the present and this one. I’m sure it’s thanks to your energy being the catalyst I needed to open the portal to begin with.” She nodded at Trin. “And it would seem that energy remains the tie between the two.” She shrugged nonchal
antly. “The small amount of power I’ve obtained isn’t enough to break that link. However, I know for a fact that you three can activate the other portals which will allow me to truly go home and save my two sisters who died before you cast your stupid spell in the first place.” Ann’s smile turned vicious as she chewed on the end of one of her tainted claws. “Then, once my family is reunited, I’ll be able to regain my full powers and stop you from ever ruining our lives.”
“And how do you know your plan will work? If finding your sisters is supposed to unlock your powers, then why aren’t you stronger already since you’re surrounded by seven of them in this very moment?” Caris taunted.
Ann’s arms flew wide then smashed together in front of her as she finished in a dramatic clap. The ground shook as a small split opened up just in front of their feet. “My powers have grown since I found my sisters. But just like you, they won’t be fully restored until our entire family is reunited,” Ann explained with a disgusted leer.
“I don’t remember your other sisters having power in our original lifetime. How is it that you’re changing that now?” Jason asked, genuinely curious.
“With help, of course.”
Trin’s magic had almost reached its peak when Ann’s words knocked them all for a loop. Suddenly Trin’s mind was bombarded with questions from her family.
“Is she talking about Heinrich?” Kennedy asked.
“Will the demon be alive again back then?” Caris questioned.
“Well, shit! What do we do now?” Jason inquired.
“I don’t know,” Trin spoke aloud, answering them all at once.
“Enough! Let’s get on with it, shall we?” Ann snarled and nodded fiercely at her sisters. Their blades nudged Trin and her family forward, edging them to the base of the trees.
