Everyone stopped what they were doing to watch as I gathered energy from the river, the plants and the trees around me. All eyes on you, Merc. No pressure, I thought. With one mighty thrust of energy, I proudly managed to get Sweets several feet off the ground. She wobbled in the air for a moment.
“You sure about this, Mercy?” she asked.
“Shhh,” I hissed. “Don’t talk to me. I need to concentrate.”
“You have to be able to do it even with distractions, Red.”
“Shhh!” My powers felt like they were wavering. Sweets was heavier than I’d thought she was. It felt as if I hadn’t collected enough energy before launching her into the air. Maybe I’d rushed the lift, but I’d felt under pressure with all those eyes on me. If I did that during a final, I’d surely fail. One of the first rules of thumb before lifting a human or an animal was to make sure you had enough energy to see the lift through. I was trying to simultaneously gather more energy while holding Sweets up, but the girls’ voices were a distraction. I couldn’t concentrate. Sweets dipped. I was sure I was going to drop her.
“Ahhh!” Sweets screamed as she dropped.
My heart lurched as I realized I didn’t have the lift under control. Crap. There was no way I was going to get her over the river, let alone set her down gently. Prepare for a bumpy landing, Sweets.
And then, she was out of my control. Sweets floated up into the air and landed gently on the other side of the river. I stared at my fingers and then turned to stare at Alba.
“Alba! What’d you do that for? I had her!” It was a lie, but I felt like I had to save face. It would have been embarrassing to admit that I would’ve dropped her without Alba’s help.
Alba shook her head. “I didn’t do that.”
“But…”
“Sorry, sis,” said Reign, dusting off his hands. “It looked like you got in over your head a little.”
18
“You did that?!” I stared at him in disbelief. I couldn’t recall a time that I’d seen my brother lift a single magical finger since I’d met him. I’d begun to think that he hadn’t really been born with powers after all!
“Thank you, Reign!” said Sweets, shooting me the evil eye as she straightened her top and dusted off her pants. “She scared me there for a second.”
“Reign! I had it under control!”
He patted the top of my head as if I were a cute little puppy. “Sure ya did, kid.”
I ducked out of his reach and frowned at him. “I did! And don’t call me kid.”
“Uh-huh.”
Steaming mad that Reign had felt the need to step in, I felt the need to prove myself to everyone. I wiggled my fingers in Holly’s direction.
“Oh, no, you don’t!” she shouted before I could even lift her an inch off the ground. “I really don’t trust you now. I think I’ll let Reign lift me over if you don’t mind.”
“I do mind!”
Holly gave a nod to Reign and I watched in shock as my brother telekinetically lifted her across the river like she was light as a feather.
“Impressive,” said Alba with a smirk.
When Holly was safely on the other side of the river, he wiped his hands on his pants. “You’re not the only one with talent around here.”
“Apparently not.”
I fumed at him. “I could have done it, Reign. I needed the practice.”
“I know you could have if you had a little more time to collect energy. You’ll get faster the more often you do it. I just didn’t think now was the best time to practice.”
Alba didn’t give me any time to respond to him. She shouted across the river. “Now make the same size circle over there.”
Sweets nodded and poured some of the contents in the bag into Holly’s hand. “I’ll step off the measurements. Holly, you do the sprinkling.”
As the two of them worked, Libby and Cinder rejoined us. “We finished our circle, now what?”
“Now comes the tricky part. We need to set a bonfire under the river and between the two circles.”
My jaw dropped. “A bonfire under the river? Alba, are you crazy?”
“No. I know it sounds crazy, but it’s how you make the portal.”
We all stared at the river. I wasn’t sure how she thought we were going to get a fire started beneath it.
Cinder shook her head. “There is no way to set a fire under the water, Alba. It is not possible.”
Alba waved a hand. “Yes, it is. This is how it’s going to work. We’re going to lift the river so you can start the fire below it. Then once the fire is going, it’ll heat the water. Once the water is boiling, it’ll create steam, which will rise into the air. Libby will cool down the steam, which will result in precipitation. We’ll have to blow the precipitation towards the two circles. The magnetic powder will act as a drawing agent, to pull the water down. The combination of the heat, the smoke, and the cooling will seal the water into a tunnel. Once we’ve created the tunnel, it’s up to us to use our powers to open the tunnel up to time travel. It’s really pretty simple.”
I glanced at the confused faces around me. “I don’t know, Alba. Sounds hard to me.”
Alba curled her lip. “How’s it hard? We make a tunnel and then do a spell on it to time travel.”
“How do we get back?”
“We return to the doorway in whatever time period we’ve gone back to. We do our tweaks and we come back to the present day. When we’re done, we extinguish the fire, lower the river, and close the portal. Easy peasy.”
When Sweets and Holly finished creating the circle on their side of the river, they walked back down to the bank. “A lift?” asked Holly.
With one finger, Alba lifted Holly over. “Sweets, I need you to stay on that side. Get in the circle you just made and take the knife.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Alba nodded. “I think we’re ready for the fire. Are you ready, Cin?”
Cinder held her hands at the ready, just waiting for a signal. “Ready.”
Alba looked around, ensuring that everybody was where she needed them to be before we began. “Wait. Cosmo, I need you to get in this circle and take the knife.” Then she pointed at my brother. “Slick, I’m gonna need you and Red to help me lift the river.”
Reign nodded. “No problem.”
“Libby, as soon as we get the water heated to boiling, I need you to cool it at the top. Don’t freeze it, alright? Just cool it down. Understand?”
Libby lifted a shoulder. “I think so.”
Then she looked at Reign and me again. “Now, once Libby’s cooling the water, I have to let go, so I’m gonna need you and Red to hold the river up as high as you can for me. You can’t let it extinguish the fire. Think you two can handle it?”
Reign lifted his brows. “Yeah, I assume I can. So let me get this straight. You thought you were going to do all of this without my help?”
“I would’ve figured out a way,” said Alba.
“What do you want Holly and me to do with our knives?” asked Sweets.
Alba held a hand out. “Just stay in the circle. Don’t move. Once we’ve got everything going, then I’ll give you instructions. Okay?”
Holly and Sweets looked at each other and nodded.
“I think we’re ready, then. We start by lifting the river. I’ll stand here. Red, you stand with me. Slick, you get over there.” She pointed upriver. “Just a couple yards oughta do it.”
When Reign was in his place, she looked at Cinder and Libby. They both gave a nod.
“Okay. Here we go!”
My heart pounded wildly in my chest as I closed my eyes and began to absorb the necessary energy from everything around me. The magnitude of the lift we were about to perform astounded me. I’d barely been able to lift a person into the air, but to think of lifting an entire section of the river?! The idea blew my mind.
With my eyes still closed, a deafening sound blasted my ears. That was when I knew Alba and Reign had already fir
ed their energies towards the river. I tried not to let that distract me. I had to gather enough energy. So I focused on the task at hand, and when I thought I was ready, I opened my eyes. Alba and Reign had already lifted a section of the river several feet into the air. It poured down like a mighty waterfall.
“It’s heavy,” Alba shouted at me over the pounding. “Red, save your energy for when I have to let go. Just absorb as much as you can now! Cinder, go!”
Cinder was stationed along the bank between Alba and Reign, her eyes glowing a fiery red. She threw her head back and held her arms out on either side of herself. Then, in one mighty burst, she threw a fire bolt at the riverbed. As soon as that one launched, she hurled a second bolt with her other arm. Bolt after bolt she threw until a fire raged beneath the water. The flames shot higher and higher, spewing clouds of smoky black air into the sky.
It took little time for the water to heat. Steam began to rise off the river.
“Now?” screamed Libby.
“Not until it boils!” Alba grunted through her gritted teeth. She strained to keep the water lifted.
As I continued to gather energy, I glanced over at my brother. His face was blood red and his hands and arms shook as he held them up in front of him. “Hurry! I can’t hold this forever.”
I swiveled my head up and trained my eyes on the steaming water. Boil. Come on, boil! I silently begged. Then I heard my mother’s voice in my head. A watched pot never boils, Mercy. I looked away. Libby stood behind Alba and me, just waiting for her signal to blow and cool the water. Sweets and Holly were each inside a circle, holding butcher knives and awaiting further instructions. Sweat poured down Alba’s face like she’d just finished a marathon as she struggled to keep the river up.
“It’s boiling!” shouted Holly, pointing to the water.
Sure enough, I saw bubbles at the very peak of the raised river. “Go, Libby!” I shouted.
Libby wasted no time in cooling the bubbling water. As soon as the frosty air hit the boiling water, waves of steam rolled off.
“You’re on, Red,” she shouted.
Immediately, I unleashed the energy I’d gathered and aimed it at the river. Surprisingly, the river didn’t feel that heavy.
“I’m letting go now, Red. You got it?”
I nodded. “Yeah. Let go.”
Alba stared at me as she slowly released her power. The weight of the water fell heavily onto me then. It was heavier than anything I’d ever tried to lift before. I struggled to keep it up high enough not to put out the water. “It’s heavy!”
“You can do it, Red. You only need to keep it up for a minute,” Alba shouted and then used her powers to separate the steam into two separate puffs of moisture, aiming one over Sweets’ head and the other over Holly’s. As soon as enough steam had accumulated, the magnetic powder took over. It sucked the steam down like a vacuum, hiding Sweets and Holly inside the steaming tunnel.
“I can’t see anything!” Holly shouted, her voice muffled by the pouring water, the fire, and Libby and Alba’s magic.
“It’s time!” Alba shouted. “Cosmo, Sweets, on my count, use your knife to pierce a doorway through the steam. Start up high, over your head, and pull it down to your feet. You have to do it at the exact same time. Understand?”
“I understand,” shouted Sweets.
“Got it, Cosmo?”
“I think so.” Holly didn’t sound very confident.
“On three. One, two, three!”
Knives punctured the outer ring of the steam tunnel. Holding my breath, I continued to hold the river but watched as the knives slid down to the ground.
“Now open up the doorway!” Alba shouted.
Sweets and Holly each pulled the steam apart as if they were separating a set of hanging curtains. Sweets stuck her head out. Her face was beet red. “Oh my gosh, it’s hot in there! Now what do you want me to do?”
“Now I need you on this side.” Alba pointed at me and then at my brother. “I think you can let go now. The tunnel should be suctioning the water up on its own.”
“Let go?” Reign called out over the roaring noise.
“Yeah, let go!”
Simultaneously, my brother and I let go of the river. I half-expected it to drop back down into the riverbed and extinguish the fire, but as Alba had predicted, it stayed up.
We all stood back and admired our handiwork. We’d done it! We’d created a time machine! If only Jax could see this! I felt guilty for leaving her behind, but I told myself it had to be done.
“Whoa!” hollered Sweets from the other side of the river. “This is so cool!”
“Very cool,” agreed Reign.
Alba smiled. I could tell by the look on her face she was just as excited as we were, but she was trying to play it cool. There was still a lot more to be done. We had to do a spell to connect our time machine to a time traveling wormhole, and then we had to figure out how to send ourselves to the right place back in time. “Sweets, we need you over here now. Bring the knife.”
Sweets nodded and closed her eyes as Alba lifted her back over and set her down next to me on the grass.
“Now, everyone inside Holly’s circle.”
Alba took the knife from Sweets and slipped it inside her backpack along with Davis Krasnikov’s autobiography. Tying the knapsack of magnetic powder shut, she added it and the rest of the ingredients Cinder and Libby had brought with them. Reign scooped up his own backpack of food and supplies, and one by one, the group all ducked through the doorway and into the twenty-foot circle of steam that Holly stood waiting for us in.
The inside of the steam tunnel was hollow. The steam had only been sucked down around the perimeter of the circle where the magnetic powder had been applied, and aside from the doorway Holly had cut open, you couldn’t see any sunshine through the steam, making it dark, gray, and very humid. It felt like we were in the eye of a hurricane.
“This is super creepy,” hollered Libby over the roar of the water.
“I second that,” agreed Sweets.
Standing in the center of the circle, Alba took the knife from Holly. “Okay. I’m gonna cut open the portal door. Everyone get behind me, it’s gonna get a little windy in here!”
We all stood behind Alba and watched as she reached up as high as she could and pierced the air with her knife. It was as if she’d just punctured an oversized balloon as a gust of wind poured through the invisible cut. She tugged the knife down towards the ground and stopped when the blade of the knife was about a foot off the grass. By now, the air blowing on us was stronger, and it was cool, like an Arctic breeze. It sent our hair skittering around us in waves.
After she’d put the knife back in her backpack, Alba motioned to us. “Okay, so, here we go. Time to do the spell. Get around the portal opening, palm to palm. We have to connect our energies.”
The seven of us touched hands as Alba began to chant the spells she’d memorized.
Beyond this world, the current time and space,
Exist the past and a previous place.
Take us there to find the answers we all seek,
We must go back and have a peek.
We must right the wrongs and fix the crimes,
So open this portal and take us back in time.
The wind that poured out of the cut stopped blowing. Alba reached her hands in and pulled the sides apart. I was shocked to see that we’d actually opened a doorway.
“Wow, Alba!” gushed Sweets. “That’s amazing!”
I nodded and once again wished that Jax had been here to witness this amazing thing that we’d done. She would’ve loved to have seen it. “Yeah, Alba. I’m impressed. This is awesome!”
“Ditto, Alba,” agreed my brother. “Very nice. Now what do we do?”
“It’s time to decide where we wanna go first.”
We all exchanged nervous looks. No one knew where we should start. There were so many things on our list to do. We had to save Sorceress Stone. We had to reverse the c
urse on Jax. And we had to catch a murderer.
“As much as I don’t want to say this, I think reversing the curse and getting Jax’s powers are at the bottom of our priority list, don’t you think?” asked Reign. “I want my cousin to become a witch, but I think she’d rather have a mother that was alive.”
“Reign’s right,” said Alba. “Priority one is to catch the murderer in the act and if possible stop the murder from happening at all. Then we can try and figure out how to reverse the curse on Jax,” said Alba. “We all okay with that?”
All of our heads bobbed in agreement.
Alba nodded and began to chant.
SaraLynn Stone was the victim of a horrendous crime,
So take us back to that place and time.
We ask to see when she fell to her death,
We must see when SaraLynn Stone took her very last breath.
We all heard a whooshing noise from inside the doorway Alba had just opened. She pulled it open and stepped inside. “Everybody in! It’s time to go!”
19
Cautiously, each of us followed Alba through the opening that hung in the air. Inside, we found ourselves at the mouth of a long tunnel of spinning air. This new tunnel was cooler and brighter than the dismal sauna we’d just come through and smelled fresh like springtime. Standing in the tunnel felt as if we were standing outside amongst the vibrant outdoor colors. The green grass and trees, the blue-and-gray rocky river, the bright azure-blue sky, and the puffy white clouds all smeared together into a blurry Monet painting that spun around us in a burst of light.
Alba’s eyes were wide and her jaw hung slack. “This is…”
“Amazing,” I finished.
She nodded. “It’s beautiful.”
“Where do you think it leads?” asked Libby, looking ahead through the long tunnel.
“If the spell worked like Davis Krasnikov said it would, we just created a wormhole. We’re literally walking through the very fabric of time and into the past. I’m hoping that it’s gonna lead us back to yesterday so we can stop the murder from happening in the first place. Once that’s done, then we’ll get to work on reversing the curse.”
The Witch Within Page 13
