Sky Mothers (Born of Shadows Book 4)

by J. R. Erickson

  "He walked across the bridge on his own. I didn't shove him. He wanted to go," she told them, angrily.

  "He would never have found this place if you hadn't led him here," Julian reminded her. "You had no right to do that."

  "This is my coven," she hissed at Julian. "I don't take orders from you."

  "You do, however, take orders from me if you want to continue as a part of the Sky Mothers. You are one of us Hannah, and I cherish you, but there are rules that we abide by, rules that when broken create ruin in the covens. Do you want that for the Sky Mothers?"

  "Of course, I don't, Matilda, but...you understand. I know that you do. You must have thought of the dream wood when you realized he was a hybrid."

  Matilda sighed.

  "I thought of it, of course. I cannot control every thought, but I knew my intentions the moment the thought arose. To keep him as far away from the dream wood as possible. He is part of another story, Hannah. He is going to be a father soon. You've put his family in danger."

  Abby had stopped listening. As she drew closer to the ancient looking bridge, she felt a subtle shift in the air. It seemed to grow thicker. Her stomach lurched as she tried to step onto the bridge. She could not set her foot down. It hovered in midair, but would not lower. She took a few steps away and ran at the bridge, jumping at the last minute, believing that the enchantment would not reach high enough to stop her. It did. She didn't hit a wall, but her jump failed to propel her forward, she landed at the start of the bridge, no closer to the dream wood.

  "You can't get across," Hannah called to her. "I promise that I have tried a thousand times. I've slept here and tried with the new moon and the full moon, during lightning storms and dry spells. I've used every bit of magic I've ever learned to get onto that bridge and I've never made it."

  "It's true, Abby," Matilda told her, walking closer. "Every Sky Mother has tried to penetrate the barrier around the dream wood. I do not believe that it can be done by a witch."

  "Who created it? How does it exist?" Oliver asked, joining Abby and trying to step onto the bridge. He frowned, whispered an incantation and tried again.

  "Her name was Meghan and she was an original Sky Mother, one of our founding Mothers. Her child, Clyde, was a hybrid. She created the dream wood to protect him."

  "A Sky Mother with a child?" Oliver asked, surprised.

  Matilda offered him a sad smile.

  "Meghan is part of the reason we decided that the Sky Mothers should not have children. They can, of course," Matilda quickly added at the looks of dismay on Abby and Oliver's faces. "But they must leave the coven and build their life elsewhere if they choose that path. You see, Meghan already had a son when she and Binda created the Sky Mothers. He was not a child, but a seventeen-year-old man when she came to Australia. She created the dream wood to protect him and then she created the Sky Mothers to protect herself. Only Meghan could enter the dream wood. Unfortunately, both she and Clyde disappeared into it more than two hundred years ago."

  "Have other witches tried to get in? Other than Sky Mothers?"

  "No," Hannah interrupted. "It's a secret and we intend to keep it that way."

  "Good job doing that," Oliver told her sarcastically.

  Hannah ignored him.

  Matilda placed a hand on her arm.

  "We don't know if a witch were to destroy the enchantment, if the worlds created within the dream wood would vanish. What might happen to Liam and to others..."

  "Others?" Abby fumed, trying not to act on her anger a second time.

  "Clyde was the first. Then Meghan went in after him and never emerged. Two more hybrids went in and never came out. A young man visited us here, more than fifty years ago now. He came with two witches from a coven in South America. We did not know he was a hybrid. He disappeared on his last night. Only after he vanished did one of the witches mention that he had been exhibiting interesting powers, but did not appear to be a witch. They actually brought him here to see if we might detect it as well."

  "How do you know he went into the dream wood?" Julian asked.

  Matilda looked him in the eye.

  "The same way that I knew Abby was pregnant the moment I met her. The same way that we know when something dark is approaching or that our sister who lives on the other side of the world is sick."

  They all nodded. Even Abby found herself nodding though she had less experience with her powers of intuition. Still, they popped up again and again, just as they had an hour earlier when she sensed something had happened to Sebastian.

  Abby felt the baby shift and she placed a hand on her stomach. When she looked up, she saw Hannah watching her. The witch had tears in her eyes and she abruptly broke Abby's gaze.

  "I might be sick," Abby blurted and walked behind a tree. She felt suddenly hot everywhere and saliva filled her throat and mouth. A hand touched her back, gently and then more firmly. In an instant, the nausea passed.

  Abby glanced behind her to see Hannah.

  "One of my many talents," Hannah told her, beginning to look ashamed. "When I'm not destroying other people's lives, that is."

  Abby nodded and stood up. She had not forgiven Hannah, not even close, but she did feel grateful that the witch kept her from retching. Morning sickness had been minimal with the pregnancy, and usually she had one of Helena's tinctures handy if it did come on. But when it hit her, it was a tidal wave of discomfort.

  "I'm sorry about Liam. You obviously loved him a lot."

  "Love him. I love him, a lot. He's alive, Abby. I would never have done this otherwise. I know it in my heart, in my bones, that he's alive and he's in there."

  "Did he ever come back out? Or just go in one day and disappear forever?"

  "He came back. He went in several times. He told me stories, amazing stories. They were so vivid that I dream of them sometimes. He could choose the world or create the world any way he wanted to. He could fly." Hannah smiled, remembering. "He loved it, of course. But he never would have stayed. It was the best of both worlds, we thought, at first. He had the dream wood and I had the Sky Mothers. Together, we have a house on the beach about twenty miles from here. That's where we were building our life together."

  "You were leaving the Sky Mothers?" Abby asked, realizing that Hannah had been doing exactly that.

  "Maybe, eventually, yes. Liam wanted children. I did too, I just struggled to say it out loud because I knew that would take me away from the Sky Mothers once and for all."

  Though Matilda had heard everything Hannah said, she did not comment. Obviously, Matilda too had perceived that Hannah intended to leave the coven. Perhaps she supported the choice.

  ****

  Sebastian felt an unbearable cold descend over his body. It bit his skin and then sank deeper. The cold reach his muscles and they spasmed and grew taught. It traveled to his bones and blood. It moved into his organs. He felt the blood slowing and thickening in his veins. It hurt to breathe, to exist. He wondered if the cold would kill him. He had a momentary suspicion of Claire and the whole world he'd been so entranced by. Had she merely lured him to his death?

  Gradually, painstakingly, the cold transformed into a vibration. Every cell of his being shook until he felt lighter than air. He no longer felt his body at all, just a sense of himself as nothing and everything. He relaxed into the sensation as the boundaries of the physical world vanished. He realized that he could direct his energy. Around him, endless silvery light reached into eternity. He had no concept of time or space. How could he choose where to go?

  "With your thoughts, silly." Sebastian heard Claire's voice in his head.

  "How do I have a thought about a future that hasn't happened?"

  He thought he heard her giggle and then sigh.

  "Will we destroy the amulet?" he asked. The question came to him from nowhere, and as a vision materialized before him, he realized that it had been concerning him ever since they had taken the necklace. So much of his and Abby's happiness rested on destroying th
e amulet and ridding themselves of Kanti forever.

  He saw the towering castle of Ula slide into view. The turrets cut into the perfectly blue sky. The image moved closer. He saw the stone slab at the second lagoon. He stood on the slab, Abby clutching his hand. Oliver, Julian, Faustine, and Elda stood in a circle. The amulet lay on the stone. The golden snake glinted in the sunlight. The red jewel lacked the vibrancy that he remembered from the night Kanti placed it around his neck. In fact, the whole amulet looked less, somehow. Less what, he didn't exactly know.

  Overhead the full moon shone bright and eerie, wisps of cloud drifting over its surface. Faustine swung the bronze-handled ax high and brought it down. The amulet shattered. Bits of stone flew in every direction. The gold snake lay severed. They all stared and waited. Shouldn't there have been an explosion? A blast of dark energy leaving the amulet? Something.

  Sebastian looked up at the faces of the other witches.

  "There's something wrong," Julian said.

  Chapter 7

  The vision of Ula slowly vanished and Sebastian felt the cold return. The space around him grew firm and with a loud thwack pushed him out of the cylinder. He stumbled into the stone room, watching the dazzling lights, and trying to make sense of the vision.

  "The amulet broke apart," he told Claire as if she knew completely what he referred to. "But it seemed so easy. It was too easy."

  Claire nodded.

  "I need to leave," he told her.

  Sebastian had mixed feelings about leaving the dream wood, mostly because he might never return and see Claire again. But on the other side of the bridge, Abby waited. She might have noticed him missing and grown anxious and upset. He wanted to stay with Claire. He wanted to investigate the dream wood. But most of all, he wanted to hug Abby and tell her about the vision of the amulet.

  "Sure, you do," Claire agreed. "And she knows you're missing, and she's very upset."

  "How do you know?"

  Claire gave him a funny look that he remembered from childhood. It seemed to ask, "are you serious?"

  "Okay, yeah, I guess you're probably all-knowing now, huh?"

  "Not exactly, but I have a few tricks up my sleeve."

  "Why did you go with Tobias, Claire? I'm not blaming you," he said quickly, ashamed at his question. "I've just always wondered, what made you trust him?"

  Claire tucked a piece of dark hair behind her ear and looked at him with such innocent blue eyes that his heart sagged in his chest.

  "I was fifteen, Sebastian. He was beautiful and funny and clever. He could do magic. I thought it was destiny. I never saw him coming. I wish I could have known better. Not for me," she added. "I kind of like life on the other side. But for your sake. My death shifted the course of your life. I'm happy it did because you found Abby, but I'm not happy for the shadow it has cast over your heart."

  Sebastian stepped forward and wrapped Claire in his arms. She felt so familiar, it hurt. In that hug, Sebastian could be her big brother again. They could have a single moment where he protected her and she allowed it. She did not vanish. She stayed solid in his arms and sighed.

  "I sure have missed arguing with you over who's going to pump the gas," she told him.

  "I miss your eight million colors of toenail polish lined up on the bathroom sink," He laughed.

  She pulled away.

  "Since you brought it up," she looked at him slyly. "I know you threw away my Cat Scratch Fever Orange Polish."

  He grimaced and looked sheepishly at the floor.

  "No use denying it?" he asked.

  "You said yourself, I'm all knowing."

  "In my defense," he protested. "It was on the floor and I stepped on it. I didn't just toss it in the trash out of spite. There was orange polish everywhere. I felt like a murderer cleaning it up and hiding the paper towels."

  She laughed.

  "I don't blame you. I was pretty serious about my nail polish."

  Sebastian turned for the stairs, but Claire stopped him.

  "Let's take a different way."

  He followed her across the room, beyond the cylinder of light, and they came to a series of doorways.

  "Which one?" he asked.

  "Your world, your choice."

  "This doesn't feel like my world," he grumbled. "And I really need to get back to Abby. Which one?"

  Claire shrugged.

  "I can't choose for you. It's part of the deal if I come to a place like this. I can come, I can even have a body again, but every choice is yours."

  Sebastian sighed and stepped toward the center door.

  It opened into a forest. The shrubs and trees looked black and gnarled. The ground released a coppery smelling mist when they stepped out of the building.

  "Can we choose a different door?" he asked sarcastically.

  "Sure," Claire said, following him out.

  Sebastian thought if he turned back, the other doors would be gone.

  "We can get back this way?"

  "Yes, you can get back any way. It's your world."

  Ahead of them, Sebastian saw beyond the forest, the face of a cliff that he recognized. The bridge was up there. As they walked, Sebastian studied the plants, mostly dead, or dying. He wanted to water them. Or pull them from the ground and replant them in a place that didn't seem toxic. He knelt down at a tiny patch of blue flowers, but when he reached toward them, they shriveled away.

  A splash drew his attention and he looked up to see a dark pond. The surface glistened in oily swirls. Huge black lotus flowers sat on the surface of the water.

  "Creepy," he whispered to Claire as they passed by.

  He noticed more ripples in the water, farther out on the pond and studied the surface. It took a moment, but he realized that something was protruding from the water. A round shape that nearly blended into the darkness surrounded it. As he watched, he recognized two glowing red eyes. The rounded shape was the top of a woman's head and she was submerged from the lips down. He could see only her black hair fanning out on the water and her two glowing eyes watching him.

  Sebastian turned to Claire. She too watched the woman and Sebastian saw fear on her face.

  "Best to keep walking," Claire whispered.

  They turned back to toward the cliff and Sebastian glanced behind him several times, but as they drew farther away from the pond, he could no longer distinguish the woman from the water.

  "What was that?" Sebastian asked.

  "I don't know," Claire admitted. "Something not good, I can tell you that."

  When they reached the base of the cliff, Sebastian looked up. The rock wall was nearly flat with bits of vine snaking down the surface, though clearly not strong enough to hold him.

  "How do we get up?"

  "Your world," she grinned. "Climb, scale a tree and leap over. If it were me, I'd fly."

  "Fly?"

  Before Claire could answer, Sebastian took a running start and leaped into the air. He expected to flail and land back on the ground with a thud. Instead, he zoomed upward as if he wore a jetpack strapped to his back. He flew up and beyond the cliff. As he rose higher he saw the bridge, and he thought, beyond the bridge, he saw Hannah with several other witches. But already they grew tiny as he drove his body toward the sky.

  ****

  Abby nodded off against a tree.

  Kanti ran through tunnels lit with crude torches. Her bare feet, raw from scraping against rocks, bled openly. She spun and stared into the darkness behind her, hearing the beast that pursued her. He had turned into something inhuman, a monster with wings and fangs and grossly sharp fingernails. He would eat her. She would die before the baby could be born. She murmured and cried and tried to be silent, but fear made her call out to her mother, her father, her tribe. After a seeming eternity, she burst from the underground prison onto a grassy cliff. She ran to the edge and paused for only an instant at the dizzying drop to the choppy waters below. She jumped.

  "Sebastian!"

  Abby heard someone ca
ll his name and her eyes snapped open. She did not know who uttered it, but there he was.

  Sebastian walked across the bridge and when he saw Abby, he broke into a run. He kneeled at her side and gathered her into his arms.

  "Are you okay? Have you been hurt?"

  "No, no," she shook her head, still groggy and disturbed from her dream.

  "You made it out," she told him. Relieved, she buried her hands in his hair and kissed him.

  Beyond him, she saw Hannah continuing to watch the bridge as if she expected her lost love to come trailing out as well. No one arrived.

  Sebastian helped Abby to her feet.

  "What happened in there?" Julian asked before Abby had a chance to voice the very same question.

  Sebastian widened his eyes and looked back at the bridge, but mostly to the woods beyond.

  "I don't even know how to describe it."

  "Perhaps we should return to the compound before we hear Sebastian's story," Matilda interrupted. "I'm sure everyone is hungry, and tired too." She winked at Abby who leaned heavily against Sebastian.

  She pressed her hands into his back, clutching him, and thanking the divine for his safe return from the dream wood.

  "Sebastian?" Hannah asked, her voice small.

  Sebastian sighed and shook his head.

  "I'm sorry, Hannah. I didn't see him, but I think Matilda is right. Let's go sit and we can talk about this. I have a plan."

  ****

  They sat in the wind tunnel. Grace brought platters of fresh fruit and pitchers of tea.

  Sebastian described his experience in the dream wood, leaving out a few critical pieces: Claire and the vision of the amulet.

  "You could choose the world?" Oliver asked, popping a strawberry into his mouth and immediately reaching for a handful of nuts.

  Sebastian nodded.

  "The worlds appeared before me, just for an instant, and then disappeared. I chose in my mind and that world stayed."

  "Was this a place you've been before?" Julian asked. "This old, crumbling city?"

  "No, and honestly, I don't think it's a place that exists in the natural world. There was a river running through the buildings. The light was different."