Swift

by Heather London

  “That’s enough for tonight. No more,” Blake ordered.

  “Excuse me,” I said in a quiet, but firm voice. “I have spent my entire life wondering why I felt so different from everyone, why I felt so lost. If all of what you say is true and this is who I am and who I was born to be, then I want to know all about it. There is someone or something out there trying to hurt me. And the past few weeks they’ve been winning, because I’m defenseless against them. The visions, the nightmares, the headaches ... they must all be linked to this magic or the people trying to get to me. I need to know what to do in order to protect myself. I don’t want to be the helpless one and just stand by and watch you all get hurt—or even worse.” I gulped as I finished talking, not knowing where all of my newfound courage was coming from. I sat there and waited for their reactions.

  “Meredith, you don’t know what you are asking for here,” Blake said sternly.

  “Blake, this was a part of my mother. If she sent you to me, then I can only see this as being a good thing. I want to help. I want to be able to protect myself.”

  Annette spoke up next. “Like I said before, we tell her everything, and then we let her choose. It sounds like she has made her choice,” she finished, and a small smile crossed her face.

  Everyone’s eyes were upon me.

  “So where do we begin?” I asked.

  “We will start with a summoning spell to link you with your powers bright and early tomorrow morning, once you’ve had a bit more time to recover and allow some of this to sink in,” Abby said. “Once the summoning spell has been cast, then we can begin with the basics. It will be a long process, but I will be with you every step of the way. I’m hoping over the next few months, we will make it to the intermediate stages.”

  I gasped. “Few months?” My heart began to pound as I realized this was going to mess up my plans for leaving town. Not that I minded; if that was the price for finding all this out, then it was definitely worth it. It was just that I was not sure how to tell Aunt Rose about my change of plans. Aunt Rose knew deep down that I wanted nothing more than to get out of Marblehead as soon as I had enough money saved up. Now I would have to make up a really good excuse for why I would not be leaving.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Later that evening Blake walked me home, and we spoke very little. I was hoping he understood my silence, as I was still trying to process the information I had learned that day. I wondered what was going on in his head.

  “Blake.” I finally broke the silence.

  “Yes?”

  “What are you thinking about?”

  He was quiet for a moment, and it was killing me each second he didn’t respond.

  “I was hoping that we have done the right thing by you. You had your whole life ahead of you and knew no concept of magic or evil. Now that is what your life will become. You welcome it now, but I don’t know if you always will.” He stopped and turned toward me before continuing. “When I was thirteen and received my powers, I was scared and I didn’t want them, but I had no other choice. That was my destiny. You have lived this life outside of magic, and you don’t know how much you will miss your old life, once it’s gone.”

  “Isn’t this my destiny, too? And don’t you think if you would never have come, Isaac or Alex would have gotten to me eventually?” I asked.

  “Possibly, but maybe we could have found another way. A way to protect you without bringing you into this world, this life. I fear that this will just bring you even more danger than before.”

  “But this is why you came here, right?”

  “It was different then.” He paused. “My feelings toward you have changed.”

  “Consequences. That is what you were talking about that night, isn’t it?”

  He nodded. “I knew the closer I got to you, the more it would get in the way of me doing my job. But I soon realized that I couldn’t stop thinking about you, and I didn’t want to fight my feelings any longer.”

  I swallowed hard. “Listen to me, Blake. I have lived my entire life wondering why I never fit in, why I always felt so different from everyone and everything, and why I never felt whole. I feel whole now after what you all told me tonight. I feel whole when I am with you.”

  He took my hand and delicately kissed it before he spoke. “I just want to keep you safe. I don’t want anything bad to happen to you. When we came here, it was my job to protect you, and that was it. But now it’s much more than that. Keeping you safe means everything to me.”

  “Blake, I appreciate you and your family coming here and trying to keep me safe. I don’t know what would’ve happen if you hadn’t. But one day you are going to have to trust that I can take care of myself. I mean, part of why you all came here was to teach me how to protect myself, right?”

  “Yes. And once you begin your training I may let up a bit … but not until then,” he said firmly.

  We arrived at my house, and I could feel my anxiety as we approached, scared that he would soon disappear.

  “I can stay if you’d like. If it would make you feel safer. Of course, either way I will be keeping a closer watch from now on.”

  I looked into his eyes and saw his love for me and his desire to protect me. And even though I hoped one day soon I would be able to protect myself, the sweetness of his intention overwhelmed me. Without hesitation, I reached up and pulled his head down to mine. Our lips pressed together, and it was clear that he had wanted the kiss as much or maybe even more than me. He pulled me closer toward him and crushed my body against his. The kiss held so much passion and desire that it was almost painful. As we pulled apart, he smiled gently as he tucked my hair behind my ears and then cradled my face between his hands.

  “Do you think you can sleep?” he asked, his eyes staring into mine with so much intensity that I felt like I would burst.

  “Not a chance,” I whispered.

  “Let’s get you a jacket, and then I would like to show you something.”

  He followed me inside and waited patiently in the living room while I ran upstairs to get my jacket.

  My mind was flying in so many different directions. I had just found out the biggest secret of my life from the guy I was falling for, who had been sent from the past to protect me by my mother, who was supposedly a powerful witch! And as much as that put my head into a tailspin, I wanted nothing more than to go back downstairs and spend more time with Blake, despite the fact his family coming into my life was exactly what brought on all of this craziness.

  I threw on my jacket and stopped off in the bathroom to give myself a quick once-over. Although I didn’t particularly look terrible, I was not looking my best, either. Knowing there was nothing I could do at that point and not really caring too much about it, I raced downstairs and found Blake standing by the door, looking intently at me.

  “All ready?” he asked, his lips breaking into a gentle smile.

  “Ready,” I responded breathlessly.

  We began our walk in silence, like most of our walks in the past. But now we stood much closer to one another. Every few steps, our arms would swing and glide across one another, barely touching. But the touch was enough to make my heart flutter and the nerves in my stomach twist. The next time our hands brushed together, he grabbed my hand, interlocking his fingers with mine.

  He glanced toward me, his expression serious. It seemed as if he was having an internal battle, like he knew what he was doing was wrong, like he was breaking some rule.

  My hand fit so easily into his, and his grip was gentle but firm. It made me feel safe. I knew now that he was really my own personal protector. We continued our walk in silence until we came to the docks and stopped in front of a small white boat. It was not a motorboat or anything that could get us somewhere fast, but a rowboat with two paddles laying on the bottom of it.

  “Where are we going?” I asked, a little confused.

  “My favorite place. The place where I go to think when I can’t sleep.”

  �
�Oh,” I said, sounding surprised, but not really sure what else I had been expecting.

  Clutching my hand tighter, he guided me into the small boat. After I sat down, he climbed in without much effort, looking like he had done this so many times before. He picked up the two oars, and we paddled out into the dark night.

  “So, where exactly are we going?” I asked, the anticipation too much for me to bear. Also, I had had my share of wondering those past few weeks.

  “Tinkers Island,” he responded, not offering up any more details.

  I knew Tinkers Island. I had been there once on a school field trip. It was a small island about a mile from the mainland. I thought it was an odd place to go and think, since it was so far away. But then I remembered he could get from one place to the next as fast as he wanted. Then I wondered why he was not using that whooshing, whirling motion-thing now; we had done it together before.

  Even though I was eager to get to wherever we were going, I also enjoyed the peaceful noises of the night: the sound of the water crashing upon the bow of the boat as it was gliding through the water and the paddles as they cut through the blackness beneath us. I leaned back, propping my hands on either the side of the boat, and stretched my head upward to the star-filled sky.

  Then a thought popped into my head. The night at the Harpers when Blake took me outside on the bench—he was going to tell me about being a witch; it had nothing to do with his feelings. That explained the confused and mangled expression he had worn after my rant. Humiliation filled me. There was no way I could bring that up, not then and probably not ever.

  Besides, there were too many other burning questions I wanted to ask. I had to try and glue all the pieces of the puzzle together. “Blake?”

  “Yes?”

  “You said that you and your family live in Marblehead back in 1905. This is going to sound crazy, but do you all live in the same house … back in 1905, I mean?”

  He laughed. “Yes, that has been my home for the last couple years. My father built the house for my mother, and we had just finished putting the final touches on it before coming here to find you.”

  “What was it like coming here? To the future?” It felt weird asking that question out loud.

  “The unknown is always scary. You never know what you are going to get when you cross time. When we performed the time-crossing spell that night, we were fortunate that the house still existed and that no one lived there. We cast the spell on the outside of town, in hopes of not being seen by anyone. When we arrived at our house, my mother cried when she saw the condition of it and Abby screamed when she saw what had been done to her room.” He laughed, remembering the memory.

  I echoed his laugh, remembering what Abby had said about her pink room.

  He continued and went into more detail about the night they arrived. “That night, we stayed up and formulated a plan. We performed a tracer spell on you and were able to find out where you lived. Our plan was to confront you the next day, see what you knew, and go from there. It was dawn before we all retired for the night. But I couldn’t sleep, so I took a walk outside. That’s when I saw Abby sneaking out and walking toward the cemetery. I almost stopped her, but I figured she needed to be alone. She was having the toughest time out of all of us. It wasn’t until she came home in hysterics that I knew how bad it really was. She had told us that she went to the cemetery and saw our graves. It just didn’t make sense to her that we could have died yet been here, in the future. Then she told me she saw you and sensed the energy in you but she was certain that you had not had been linked to your powers. And that’s when I decided to follow you in town. It wasn’t until the crosswalk that I was able to test your powers—or should I say, lack of powers.”

  I gulped, remembering Mr. Griffin’s car coming to a startling stop just inches from me.

  “I turned the light from green to red, making the crosswalk read that it was safe for you to walk. It was a test to see if you could stop the car before it hit you. I wanted to know what we were dealing with. I had never been given a person to protect who knew nothing about who they were. It made me very suspicious of you, and I wasn’t sure if we could trust you,” he finished.

  I thought about what he had said for a moment. “But I didn’t stop the car. I saw it slow down and stop just inches from me, but I didn’t do it.”

  “It took just a second for me to realize that you didn’t have the power to stop it, so I did.”

  I swallowed hard, knowing that I could have been roadkill that day, and it would have been at Blake’s hand.

  “Have you protected many others like me?” I asked.

  “The Council has given me a few other assignments but no one quite like you.” He smiled.

  A few moments later, the boat hit the banks of Tinkers Island. He got off first, pulling the boat up onto the beach. Then he grabbed my hand and helped me out when we were clear of the water. He didn’t let go of my hand as he led me down the beach. We walked about a hundred yards until we reached a wall of rocks.

  Glancing up at the full moon, I saw there were no clouds in the sky to block its bright and crisp glow. It provided just enough light for us to see by. He climbed onto the rock formation, taking a few steps before turning around and holding out his hand for me. I grabbed hold, and he pulled me up to him. We both stood, balancing on a small rock, our bodies touching casually, making me struggle to keep my breathing under control. He turned to walk farther out onto the rocks and finally came to rest a few feet from where the ocean crashed upon them. I could see where it looked like someone had made a bench out of a few long, flat rocks. There was a long rectangular rock that was meant to be the seat and a matching one to be the backrest.

  “I couldn’t believe this was still here. A few nights after we arrived, I came out here looking for it. I was thankful to see that it still existed,” he said as he took a seat on the far end. He glanced up at me and patted the open spot next to him.

  “This is amazing,” I said, sitting down beside him.

  “I built it for myself shortly after I found out what I was. It was a place I could come to think and get away from it all, first by boat then by flying. I thought you could use it. You have a lot to think about after all that’s happened in the past twenty-four hours.” He shrugged.

  “So is it flying … that swooshing, tumbling feeling?” I had assumed it was, but had not been totally sure until then.

  “Yes, that’s flying. I remember what it felt like when my parents first took me. Taking deep breaths helps to calm the dizziness, and then you eventually get used to it.”

  There was something that got me thinking, and even though I was sure of the answer, I wanted to make sure. “You can fly and you have powers—does that make you a witch, too?”

  “Yes, but I’m different from you. See, when we come into our destiny and master our craft, we are then given roles by the Council. Each of us is appointed certain responsibilities as the Council sees fit. There are roles to protect future witches, not just from evil but also from themselves. Magic can be very dangerous without even adding evil into the mix. Abby was given the role of a teacher and my parents are guardians … which is really just to make sure we don’t mess up.”

  I nodded and stared at him in amazement. It was hard to get over that I was sitting next to a protector, my own personal one at that. He was sent to the future to keep me safe, enabled with powers that allowed him to fly through the air, stop speeding cars, fight off evil, and who knows what else. And even though there was a lot that I should have been thinking about, mainly that I was a witch too, for a minute, I couldn’t think about anything but him.

  Then before I knew it, all of the unanswered questions consumed me. Why didn’t I know anything? How I could have missed it growing up? Why had my parents never told Charlotte and me? The most difficult questions were: Why had my parents changed over the last few weeks of their lives? Were they running from the same thing I was when they had left with me and my sister that nig
ht? Did they die trying to protect us and something went wrong? But why would they just leave me to deal with it all on my own, totally unprepared and vulnerable? Blake had been right about the place: in the cool night air, listening to the waves crashing upon the rocks below, I was more able to open my mind and take everything in.

  “Blake.” I could see in my peripheral vision that he had turned his head in my direction, but I continued to look forward out into the black ocean as I spoke. “You said it was my mom that came to you and told you about me, right? Why did she come specifically to you and your family? Why not just directly to me?”

  “As much as she probably wanted to, it would have been impossible for her to contact you. Witches that have crossed to the other side can only contact other witches that are linked with their powers. It’s a portal, so to speak. We are all linked, connected in some way. Good, evil, dead, or alive. But why the Council chose me and my family specifically, I’m not sure.” He sighed before continuing his explanation. “It’s also more complicated than just that. There are rules that the Council has to abide by as well. They can’t just contact anyone they want. Imagine how you would have reacted if your mother just showed up one night. As witches, we all have to be careful and not allow the outer world to see us using our magic.”

  I nodded in agreement, although I was confused as ever. There were rules? This was information overload. It was just becoming clear to me that I was a witch, that there were people after me, and that I would soon have powers. But rules? How was I supposed to absorb all of this? I tried not to dwell too much on all of that. The most important thing was for me to learn who my enemies were and what I had to do in order to protect myself.

  “Isaac said that they had special plans for me. What did he mean by that?”

  “You don’t have to worry about that, he will never get that close to you again. That was my mistake. One that I don’t plan on making twice.”