T*Witches: The Power of Two

by Randi Reisfeld

  They heard the old policeman chuckle. "Do not fear. You'll soon be out of their company. Forever," he promised in an oddly grating voice.

  "Really, they make me weak... weak with yearning," the other man boomed. "Miranda would be so proud. Their gifts are quite extraordinary—"

  "Gifts you'll never corrupt!"

  He sounded different now, like someone from another time, Alex thought. Totally different than he'd sounded in front of Tonya's house.

  Cam recognized the voice. It belonged to... was it possible? The strange man from her dreams?

  "Excuse me. May I have your attention?" the policewoman demanded. She whipped off her dark glasses and glared at them. "You think you're pretty clever, don't you? Clever and oh-so-special. Well, let me tell you something—"

  Whatever it was she wanted to tell them was lost to the shock of seeing her eyes. Gray, they were, as distinctively sharp and silver-gray as their own eyes.

  "Am I getting through to you?" Ileana demanded, kneeling now to undo Marleigh's ropes. The singer was moving, but not yet fully conscious. "You put yourselves in grave peril. That man who was in here a minute ago, he's dangerous. Seriously dangerous."

  "And crazy, too," Alex added. "He said he could take us to our—"

  "Maybe he's not crazy," Cam broke in heatedly. "Maybe he really does know where she is—"

  "Yours, maybe. Not mine," Alex argued. "I only had one mom, and I know exactly where she is."

  "Enough!" the policewoman boomed. "Artemis is right. The man is mad. A dangerous maniac."

  Alex and Cam looked at each other. "Artemis?" Cam said.

  "I meant Alex. Of course," the officer quickly amended. "Stay away from him. Both of you," she admonished them. "If you ever see him again—run. Just run, fast and far. And don't think those paltry powers of yours are going to constantly get you out of scraps. You're young. You're vulnerable—"

  A loud noise, a sonic boom, ripped the air, stopping her midsentence. She ran outside and left them staring after her.

  Marleigh was coming to. In addition to removing the ropes, the policewoman had taken off her gag and blindfold.

  "Are you okay?" Cam asked her.

  The singer nodded and tried to stand up. She swayed and Alex caught her. "You're the girl form the soccer game, aren't you?"

  "It's a long story," Cam interrupted as Alex lowered Marleigh gently back into the chair.

  "Karsh?" they heard the policewoman call. "Where are you? This is no time for your tricks. Materialize!"

  Suddenly, they heard a distant peal of delighted laughter from beyond the door.

  "Just rest. You're safe. The police are here," Cam assured Marleigh.

  "Yeah, we'll be right back," Alex called over her shoulder as they ran outside.

  Night had fallen. There was a full moon overhead. It lit an odd scene.

  Kevin still lay where he had fallen, but he'd been tied up, trussed like a turkey, his skinny body wrapped around in vines.

  More vines bound Tonya to the trunk of a tree, which was swaying wildly, though there was hardly a breeze to stir it.

  Alone in the moonlight, Ileana stood before the tree laughing her silvered laugh.

  "Old sorcerer," she seemed to be talking to Tonya, tied there. "How could you let him do this to you? I've half a mind to let you stay as you are. Where is he? What have you done with him?"

  From the ground near Ileana's feet, there came a hiss and a whish and a rustle of plants, sounds of a feral creature slipping through the underbrush.

  Ileana leaped back. "A snake?" she scolded. "You turned him into a snake?! Why not a bird or a jet plane or a comet or something equally difficult to catch?"

  "I think she's losing it," Alex muttered to Cam.

  But Cam was staring transfixed at the swaying tree. "Alex," she said in a squeaky whisper, "there's a man in the tree."

  "No way," Alex said, squinting hard through the moonlit glom.

  "No, not up there, not on a branch. He's actually in the tree. He's... uh-oh... pasty-white and bony and ..."

  "Doc?" Alex thought she recognized a face.

  "The bleacher-creature," Camryn breathed.

  The man in the tree winked at them. Then Ileana whirled around. "Oh, for pity's sake," she said, staring at them reproachfully. In a flash, she whipped out a pouch from her pocket.

  The last thing Cam remembered was something that looked like green flakes being tossed in her eyes.

  The last thing Alex remembered was a familiar, fragrant smell. And the word skullcap.

  Distant sirens woke them some time later.

  Chapter 35 – What Are We?

  Camryn Barnes used to think her life was an open book, a story full of certainties and absolutes. With sentences that ended in periods.

  That was then.

  In the space of a few short summer weeks, her autobiography had flown open to a whole new chapter. One that was full of uncertainties, mysteries. With sentences that ended in question marks.

  Before Alex—the source of all those questions—had come into her life, Cam hadn't spent a whole lot of time by herself. There were always friends around or on the phone, family, activities, school—just stuff.

  On those rare occasions when she really did need to be alone, to think, scribble in her journal, listen to music, she would bike into the center of town, and then hike up a hill in Mariner's Park. She took the same trail every time to the same secluded spot.

  It was no big deal, really. Just a patch of grass under an ancient elm tree that offered an amazing view of the harbor below. It was usually really quiet, and there was little chance of running into anyone she knew.

  Cam didn't think of it as her sanctuary exactly, just a place that felt familiar and comforting.

  No one in her family, none of her friends—not even Beth—knew about the site.

  At twilight on the day after they'd rescued Marleigh Cooper, she took Alex there.

  Under the sheltering branches of that elm, the two girls sat, so strangely alike yet very different, hugging their knees, staring off with their amazing black-rimmed gray eyes toward the harbor below. For the longest time neither spoke.

  "It's pretty cool that your dad's going to take Tonya's case," Alex finally offered.

  When Cam didn't respond, Alex continued, "Probably her parents could've speed-dialed some high-powered superlawyer to represent her and make the whole mess go away. At least Dave will make sure Tonya gets the help she needs. He's a really nice guy."

  "A nice guy," Cam repeated, lost in thought. "If only he'd been nice enough to tell me the truth, before I accidentally bumped into it myself."

  "The stealth-adoption thing rears its ugly head," Alex commented.

  "I know you went through a lot," Cam said, her voice breaking, trying to get past the lump in her throat. "And my own stuff can't really compare to it. I just never believed they'd lie to me like that. Especially not him."

  Alex shrugged, and plucked a blade of grass. "You, of course, have never lied to them."

  "No," Cam said defensively.

  "Oh, then I guess you've told them about knowing things before they happen, and having visions, and um, melting bolts—"

  "Point taken," Cam interrupted. "And don't bother reading my mind. I'm not going to tell them. Ever fill your mom in on how you can hear thoughts, and make things move just by thinking about them?"

  At the mention of Sara, Alex mellowed abruptly. "No," she whispered. "But in a strange way, I always had this feeling that my mom knew. Look," she added, "probably neither of us should say anything yet. To anyone. I don't know."

  "I don't know," Cam repeated the words slowly. "That defines my whole life right now."

  "And mine," Alex reminded her.

  "Als? What do you think that guy meant when he said—"

  "...She lives? And only I can take you to her?" Alex finished the sentence, then unclasped her arms and stretched out on her back. The bristly grass, still warm from the day's heat, prickled aga
inst her spine as she thought about the creep with the thick-soled boots. He'd said a lot of things—told them to wear necklaces, which was too strange, as though he was into accessories. Plus he knew the blond officer by name—as well as the man Alex knew as Doc, who'd shown up in the bleachers of Cam's soccer game.

  But it was the hulking man's fiery rant about a woman he insisted was their mother that haunted both of them. Something Alex adamantly refused to consider.

  "I have no clue," she answered Cam, "about him or about that policewoman. What's her deal? She had..."

  "Our eyes," Cam finished. "I know."

  "And how'd she know my name?"

  "She called you Artemis. That's not your name," Cam reminded her.

  "Actually, she corrected herself. She called me Alex. Which neither of us told her."

  "No. In fact, we gave the old cop phony names, remember? E.C. and Effie, to get through Tonya's gates."

  "The white-haired cop," Alex mused, "who transformed black-beard—"

  "...who looked a lot like that guy whose place we stayed at in Montana, into a snake."

  "Before turning himself in to a tree." Alex stopped herself. "Know what we sound like? Candidates for the insanity defense, right behind Tonya."

  Cam leaned back next to her. "Okay, I plead mental and emotional overload. But eyes on the prize, I guess. Marleigh's safe, Tonya's going to get help—"

  "And all's well in your world. And that, ladies and gentlemen, concludes our special episode for the night."

  "My world," Cam responded, ignoring Alex's sarcasm. "It could be your world, too."

  "No way," Alex said, thinking about the call she'd gotten earlier. The one she'd been hoping for.

  Lucinda and Evan had heard her name on the news, they said. And so had Andy Yatz and Ina Barrow and everyone in Crow Creek. And they were all so proud of her. They were calling from the library where Mrs. Bass had let them use the phone.

  Alex fought back tears talking to them, thinking of Mrs. Bass and the musty old library where Sara had taken her for story time when she was little. She promised to write home soon. Or e-mail them at the library, which Mrs. Bass had said would be okay with her.

  She'd already said good-bye for the third time, when it hit her. "How'd you get this number?" she asked Lucinda.

  "This big guy who owns a ranch about twenty miles from Big Sky—he came to the park. We were all talking about you, you know. And how we wished we could reach you. He said, try information. Ask for the David Barnes residence over in Marble Bay, Massachusetts. So we did."

  "What big guy?" Alex asked, but Evan had taken the phone from 'Cinda and hollered, "So long, Alex. We'll be e-ing ya!" and hung up.

  "If you give them a chance?" Cam broke into Alex's reverie. "I'm not saying the people in my world, my friends, can replace your friends, but there's a lot to like about them," she was saying. "Beth already likes you."

  "Right. Like Beth even knows me. I'm just the hick who invaded your clique."

  "She doesn't think that, and neither will the others."

  Alex sighed again. "Look, your friend is majorly weirded out by me, but what is she gonna say? Flip it over for a sec and think about if Beth suddenly came home from vacation with a look-alike sister. What would you do?"

  Cam considered. "I'd be polite. And welcoming. But in my heart, of course I'd want her... twin person... to stay. I mean, now that they'd finally found each other. Not that they knew they were looking. Come on, you know what I mean. She should stay. You should stay."

  There, she'd said it.

  But Alex shook her head. "No. This isn't my park. This isn't my tree. Or my town. And the words 'Seven Pack' don't exactly roll off the tongue. This isn't my life. No matter what the dippy DNA thing says."

  Cam sat up and hovered over Alex. "Even if it turns out, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that we are identical twins? Born of the same parents? Whoever they are—or were?"

  Alex set her jaw and looked out over the harbor. "It doesn't matter."

  "It's all that matters." Cam came right back at her. And then she added, because suddenly it was clear to her, as if by magic, she knew exactly what she wanted to say and what Alex wanted to hear, "Alexandra Nicole Fielding, please stay. I want you to live with us. I want you to be with me and my family and my friends. I want them to be your family and friends. I want that more than I've ever wanted anything in my entire life."

  Alex shook her head, but when she looked at Cam, her eyes were sparkling mischievously. "So, Camryn Alicia Barnes. You want me to stay. More than anything in your entire life. More than a shopping spree? More than a convertible when you turn sixteen? More than a whip-fast laptop? The hottest new iPad? More than—oh, I don't know—an amazingly versatile new iPhone?

  Cam's eyes glittered right back. "Not more than the iPhone."

  And then they burst out laughing. Peals of laughter echoed around the park, seemed to bounce off bushes and trees, rocks and hills. Their laughter tickled blades of grass and drifted over the harbor, all the way out to the bay where, like mist, it floated toward the sky.

  That night, by the light of the moon, the face, the man, came to her again as he had when she was a child. It was the same face she'd seen at the soccer game, pale and wrinkled, but it no longer frightened her.

  In her dream, Cam welcomed him. When he spoke to her, she answered.

  "Free them from blame, Apolla. It's time to forgive. And to trust," he said.

  "Trust?" she'd responded angrily, knowing that he'd meant Dave and Emily Barnes. "How can I? Why should I? They never told me the truth."

  "Truth?" The face seemed to soften, and now looked almost kindly. "There are many kinds of truth. These good people have sheltered you, and cared for you, and loved you unconditionally. They have kept you safe and would do anything to make you happy. That also is the truth."

  Cam had no response to that.

  "These people, Apolla, have enough love in their hearts for all of you. For their son, for you—and for Artemis."

  Cam knew he meant Alex. Suddenly, in her dream, she asked, "Why are you calling us those names? Apolla—the name you called me when I was little. I don't know who I am."

  "But you will, I promise you. Honor your parents. Put on your necklace. Do not forget."

  Alex was visited, too. By the man who'd transported her two thousand miles in a single day. Doc. That he would come to her in her dreams didn't surprise her. He seemed to know exactly what was on her mind, and he spoke gently to her.

  "I know you miss her. You will always miss her."

  Sara.

  "Remember that she loved you, she was your protector. And you gave her the greatest happiness of her life. But you couldn't have saved her. It was her time. Free yourself from blame. Take her love with you, and start a new life. Artemis, precious child, your real life has just begun."

  Then he winked. "And, trust me," he said, laughing suddenly. "It's gonna be interesting. Catchya later, Als."

  Artemis. He'd called her that before—it still puzzled her.

  But when he called her Als, it tickled her. She smiled in her sleep.

  That morning, at exactly the same moment, Camryn and Alexandra awakened. If they'd stolen a glance at the night table between their beds, they would have seen things that had not been there when they'd gone to sleep.

  On Cam's side, next to a tiny bouquet of sweet-smelling green leaves with gay purple heads, was her half-sun necklace. The chain she'd angrily torn had been replaced by a new one of shimmering gold.

  On Alex's side, in the silk-covered box that Doc had given her, was the half-moon necklace.

  Had the girls tried to put them together, they'd have seen how perfectly the two shapes fit, how they matched to form a complete circle.

  There was a note, too, written in beautiful calligraphy, lying between the necklaces. It read, HE MADE THEM, WITH HIS OWN HANDS, SHE BLESSED THEM WITH HER BLOOD. THEY WANTED YOU TO WEAR THEM ALWAYS.

  They would find and wonder about thes
e gifts later. But for the moment, as the first rays of sunlight streaked through the blinds, something else was on their minds.

  Cam was first to speak. "What do you think we are?"

  "What do you mean?" Alex replied.

  "You know. We're identical. We can do all this stuff that no one else can. We can help people. We can make magical things happen—and see things and hear things and make things and people move. Als, do you think we might be witches?"