Then I saw Jones.
He was sitting, leaning against the wall, the life gone from his eyes. His hand lay over his gut, blood blooming across his white shirt, his legs splayed in front of him. Lady Veronica now crouched next to him, a bloody knife dripping with the vitality of Jones in her hand. Her lips were red, her teeth a perfect white as she smiled, knowing she had killed our aid and that we had gotten to see it.
This place was too hard even for him.
That woman killed everyone decent and good.
Anna Belle noticed the body of Jones, and her face screwed up in what looked like pain and disbelief. A long, low cry rose out of her, and she got busy mustering more flame. She didn’t try to send friendly fire now. She formed the largest ball of light and flame I had ever seen. It was the size of a basketball and burned hot, almost like a small living replica of the sun.
“Do it, girl,” Laura said.
Anna Belle tossed the ball over to Lady Veronica with ease and zero effort, as if she were tossing an apple core onto the ground. Lady Veronica’s smile wiped off and down into a frown as the small sun drifted to her spot. A scream began to let go from her lungs but was cut off as the ball met its mark. Lady Veronica didn’t perish there; she went off running, setting fire to everything in the way as she ran. Tapestries blew up, hungry flames licked the ceilings, and walls peeled and began to buckle. Finally Lady Veronica could run no more, and she collapsed at the far end of the hall. The flames closed a curtain to signify her act was complete.
The flames from the multitude of fireballs Anna Belle had released were now becoming a problem—a hot mess if ever there was one. The temperature had risen substantially, and it grew harder to breathe.
Shadow Hills would burn to the ground.
“What about all the patients?” I cried, scared for them lying tied to their beds with no hope of escape.
“We let them all out before we even got to you, silly.” Anna Belle laughed. “We had a bit of an idea where this would lead.” She reminded me of Piper again then, able to laugh in a dire situation. I exhaled with relief.
“That was the deterrence Jones told us about. Many of the guards are busy trying to catch the escaped patients, but we have reinforcements beyond the tree line.” Laura winked at her granddaughter. After verifying no one else was on our tails, she shot her attention forward.
Katerina held onto me, guiding us forward and away from the harm of the fires. I looked ahead and realized in dismay that there was a wall in our path. A cement wall, with an outer layer of stone. I tried to warn them, but now this scene was rushing back to full-speed ahead, as it was only moments before that I had slowed it down, somehow.
“Now, Nicole!” Katerina yelled to me. What did she want from me? I looked back ahead at the impending wall, impenetrable and strong. We were headed right for it at lightning speed. We were about to crash right into it.
Without even a second to think, I closed my eyes and held my hand out in front of me.
Chapter Fourteen
When I woke, I jumped and fell out of the bed, panting with a racing heart. Dreams kept me at Shadow Hills. I looked around me, and then I knew instantly I was safe. I was wearing clean night clothes, a vintage-type white linen gown with embroidered forget-me-not flowers on the collar. I had slept in a soft bed covered up entirely in quilts and furs. I was out and away from everything that was Shadow Hills—from Simon, the Needle Twins, and Lady Veronica.
None of them could hurt me or anyone else ever again. I cringed when their faces came into my mind’s eye as I jumped back under the covers. I wanted them banished from my mind and from my life forever.
The one face I would keep and treasure always from that place was my sweet Beth. I remembered her dancing along the halls, her small bare feet soundless on the cold linoleum as if she were an angel prancing, light as air. Her bright eyes would flash as she twirled, as if she were seeing something other than the dismal institution.
I looked to the window. The sun was just beginning to rise, which meant it was still morning. I lay there, slowly waking and calming my heart’s timid beat, watching the colours in the room changing slowly from dark to light. A new day had come. I thought quietly, trying to grasp what I remembered last. I didn’t remember coming to this place, changing my clothes, or making the conscious choice to go to bed.
The previous evening came back to me in a rush. I remembered the horror of the doctors preparing to perform surgery on me. I remembered the strong and determined faces of the trio of witches that had come to my aid. I remembered Laura and her ghostly soldiers, Katerina flying us away, Anna Belle throwing fire at our pursuers, and Jones lying there, not moving, eyes unseeing.
Lady Veronica.
Her reign of terror was over at last. I felt a pang in my heart when I tried to imagine all of the lives lost to her torturous institution. What creates such evil in a person? How could everyone have stood by, and worse, done her bidding? Then I remembered that I had once been on my way to becoming an evil witch too.
It was easier done than understood.
I remembered that we’d flown through the air as we escaped yet another war, only to meet up with a barrier of stone. How had we flown? How had we made it through that wall?
I racked my brain for the answer.
I did it! I remembered my hand at the very last moment rising up. I felt the cold stone only for a split second before it was pulverized, and we flew through the flying debris and out into the night air. I felt the stones hear me when I asked them to move, and I felt them yield and do as I asked. I was confused now. Stones were a part of the element of Earth, but I had lost Earth with the three trials of Lou. First he had hypnotized me in the garden, then he had stepped inside me by the river, and then, when he’d had me confined for that year, he took the last of it as I offered myself up for the sake of Theo and Duke. So how had I been able to do what I did with the stone wall?
I remembered that we’d landed unharmed with a soft thud on the snow after getting through the wall. No sooner had we landed than we’d been on our way again, flying across the landscape faster than anyone could dream, the forest that hid the institution swallowing us up into the winter night and all of its cover.
We’d reached a small cottage that was warm and bright inside but surrounded by a protection spell to make it look abandoned and desolate from far away. I had remnants of a memory of the trio washing me with warm, soapy water, kissing my tears that fell from my eyes as I quietly cried in gratitude of this loving treatment. How wonderful it had felt to be touched with tenderness, happy chills bumping up my skin, tingles running up my head. They’d clothed me and gently laid me to rest in one of their fine beds. Katerina had sprinkled herbs and traced the perimeter of the room with a smoking wrap of some herbs that eased my mind, and my eyes had grown heavy as she smudged the room. She’d quietly sung words I didn’t understand. She then had laid her hands on my head and chest with closed eyes and a calm concentration written on her face. I could have sworn I’d seen angels floating everywhere, looking upon me with sad faces, glowing with a light I had never known until that moment. I’d felt peace.
For the first time in so long, I had felt peace.
Anna Belle had stayed with me until I’d fallen asleep, which was quickly, I’m sure.
I had been able to move rock, I had used Fire in the hospital, and I had also used Wind and Water when I had fought Lou last. Was everything still available to me? It seemed sporadic and only worked for me when I was in dire circumstances—when either magic could come to my aid, or I would die.
I was stewing in all of these memories, but no matter how hard I racked my brain to find an explanation for my magical contributions, I could find none.
I jumped out of bed then, pausing as a severe dizzy spell rolled through me, but I was soon able to make my way out into the common room, where everyone was seated at a gigantic wooden table.
They all turned to me in unison—Anna Belle and Katerina with matchi
ng smiles, Laura with a staring eye. I had so many questions and so much to talk about with these women. I couldn’t wait another second, but manners were of more importance now, as I would have died in Shadow Hills had my newfound heroes not arrived in the nick of time.
I sat in one of the wooden chairs, and it creaked with my weight. There was porridge and steaming coffee, hard-boiled quail eggs, and mandarin oranges, which I always called “Christmas oranges.” No matter what time of year, whenever I opened one and breathed in its citrus fragrance, it reminded me of December 25. My mother had always put one in my stocking growing up.
“How did you sleep, hon?” Katerina smiled up at me, both of her hands wrapped around her steaming mug.
“Better than I have in a very long time.” I smiled back. It was absolutely amazing what a good night’s sleep could do for your spirit and mental capabilities. I could think clearly even before a cup of coffee, which Anna Belle lovingly poured and set before me. I silently apologized to Hayden, who would not approve of my caffeine intake, but I figured a treat was appropriate after my 3 months of deprivation at Shadow Hills. Anna Belle kissed my cheek then and went back to her chair.
I felt so blessed—so content and safe.
I wondered about my family and how they were faring. I prayed they were fine and unharmed. I also knew they would love to hear from me, as I hadn’t been able to contact them at all. Then I remembered my dream with Jasper. Had he had the same dream?
I had been unable to grab any of my belongings that Lady Veronica had locked away upon my arrival at the mansion, so I was still without my cell phone.
“I wonder, do any of you have a phone I could borrow quickly? Just to let my husband know I am okay?”
“We certainly do not keep the evils of the modern world here!” Laura scoffed.
“Oh.” My heart sank. With my newfound freedom, I couldn’t wait to hear his voice and be assured that everyone back home was safe. I was desperate, and it killed me to think it would have to wait.
“You know, Nicole, there are other ways one can send a message.” Anna Belle brightened.
I looked up. “Really? Like how? A fax machine?”
Well, that bought me a round of laughter. Great. What an impression I was making. They must’ve thought I was soft in the head.
“What Anna Belle means is that we can send a message the way witches send messages,” Katerina explained. “We can whisper it to a bird, send it on a butterfly wing, or even visit someone in a dream. You just have to find your resource and utilize it.”
“Are you serious?” I felt like I was being yanked. I felt a small hand of hope about the dream part.
Anna Belle nodded vigorously. “Of course we can!” She jumped up and danced around, her skirt pleating and waving in the air. “We can do anything! We are witches!”
I remembered that just before I slipped into a coma after I fought Lou, I had contacted Tracey in a similar way. And again, at Shadow Hills, I had somehow been in a dream with Jasper, but I hadn’t thought he had been witness. At the time I’d thought it was a dream.
But again, I didn’t know how, and I didn’t know how to do it again either. It felt like I had lost an arm that still itched. I’d been in a bad car accident more than a decade earlier. I’d had pelvic surgery, and I’d ended up losing feeling in my right leg and foot for a period of time. I would lie in bed and stare at my toes, willing them to move. I hadn’t been able to remember how to make my toes move because the nerves were not connected; therefore, my brain couldn’t direct their function. Now it reminded me of how I felt about not feeling my element. Like I had forgotten how to connect with it.
I let my head down. I felt out of place and useless. The women all looked to me in concern. I knew I had to be honest with them.
“It’s just that I seem to have lost my element. I can sometimes use other elements under great stress, but Earth is gone from me. It was stolen.” I felt like I could cry with that admission. I had never truly said those words out loud. My lip quivered.
To my surprise they all laughed at me again. I looked at them with bewilderment. What could possibly be so funny about that?
“Darling,” Katerina cooed, “you can never lose your element. You can share it, you can hide it, and you can even misplace it for a time, but we are born with these elements as if they were genes in the pool of what makes us who we are. They never, ever leave us. It would be easier for us to lose an eyeball into thin air.”
I felt a flutter in my heart, a giggle rising in my throat, and even a twinkle in my eye as tears of joy threatened to spill. Now it was my turn to jump up. But I regretted it instantly, as I felt too woozy and weak in the knees. I sank back down in my chair. Katerina worried her face and touched my hand.
“Really? After all of this time?” I was so confused and rubbed my eyes. “But it was stolen, you see, by a very bad man—an evil, evil man. He is why I sought refuge at that institution. That, and he has made me very ill. I am trying to find a cure for my disease. I was looking for help at Shadow Hills.” My eyes dropped. “He stole everything from me and left me hollow and ill. I can’t hear the trees anymore; I can’t affect plants or even move the earth.” I looked at them all again. “My element is gone. There must be some other explanation.”
“Then how do you suppose you moved the wall at the institution? Or did you have a grenade none of us happened to see?” Laura spit out the words as she gruffly choked on a laugh.
I thought about that. She did have a point. It would explain how I was able to get us out.
“How was I able to do that? I had no idea what I was doing.”
“Magic cannot be stolen, Nicole Weston. It can be shared, it can move from one form to another, or it can even be shared or even copied by someone who already has extraordinary powers, which I imagine is what this demon did.” Katerina got up and came around the table and put an arm around me. “A witch is born with her element. It is in her blood, her spirit. Earth may be hiding herself from you since she was abused through out this ordeal it seems too.” I felt a sharp pang in my heart at that. What a horrible thought. I had abused Earth’s powers by letting Lou near it. Katerina went on, “but no one can ever take it away from you, dear; not without killing you. We just have to remind you in there,” she placed a finger over my heart, “how to bring it back out.”
“Well, it already seems to be trying to bring itself out all on its own!” Laura scoffed. I thought about that. That would explain why I had been able to assist in our flight through the wall, freeze Lou, and burn my bracelets off. Those were things I had never been able to do before, but I’d also never had a reason to be pushed to try.
I was still uneasy. I was afraid to believe them. Everything that had once been so simple to me was impossible—or at least it felt that way. I felt incompetent, out of my league with my magic. I looked down at my hands and turned them over. Was Katerina right? Did I still possess Earth after everything that had happened? My magic did peek out and aid me from time to time, but it felt as if it were only a remnant of what I once had owned, different powers unlike any I had ever felt before. Like a car running on only fumes from an empty tank. I felt like a stranger to myself. I wasn’t sure of anything anymore.
“But first things first, missy.” Katerina clapped her hands once. “We have to get you well and healthy. Your body and spirit are too weak and too fragile to handle any more magical outbursts for a while. Hayden told me the treatments she tried, but I have a few more tricks up my sleeve.” She winked. “It will take some time and a lot of power, but nothing can start without a good breakfast.”
I smiled up at her. She was right. Everything could wait—would have to wait. I was of no use to myself, my family, or anyone here unless I was healthy. I looked down to the heaping bowl of porridge in front of me and inhaled maple and apples steaming from the contents. It was amazing how one solid meal could give you an appetite for life again and the vitality to see that a brighter day was ahead.
&
nbsp; I thought about what Anna Belle had said about sending Jasper a message. Katerina had then said to find your resource. I suddenly knew how I could reach him. I concentrated. I found this hard. I was still so weak from my ordeal. But soon, with patience and trials, I found our heartstring, glowing like a beacon, calling me home. I lightly touched it, and the flickering light became still, accepting my call.
I’m here, Bubs. I’m okay. I need more time, but I am with good company now.
The light brightened substantially, and I smiled. I knew Jasper had heard my words. He must have been out of his mind not hearing from me.
All is good here, my love. Do what you must, get well, get home to us soon.
Tears crystallized in my eyes as I flicked the string playfully then let it be. It glittered like gold thread as we signed off. I looked up, and the trio were gawking at me. I smiled and felt my cheeks redden. “It worked,” I peeped.
“I’d say it did. And this one thinks she has no powers.” Laura spit and got busy in her breakfast, letting one finger absently rub an old scar near her left eye. I grinned widely. Had I managed to impress these emblems of our craft by one call to my husband?
I closed my eyes and said a small prayer of thanks for my meal and new friends and the health of my family. Then I picked up my spoon.
Chapter Fifteen
It had been a week since I was brought to the forest cottage belonging to the three witches.
I was in the process of healing and was also training more and more each day. I began to feel safe. I was reclaiming what was taken from me, trying to remember what Lou had made me forget.
I could look at my new companions closer now with clear eyes as I was healing and getting to know them. Anna Belle was the youngest and quite smart, with a spunk for life and the compassion of a saint. She danced everywhere she went and sang more often than spoke. She was such a mystery, a flamethrower that seemed to have no capacity for rage or temper. I wished Jasper was with me to learn from her about their shared element and how to capsize the emotion that accompanied such a strong power. I myself had learned how difficult that was when the power had come over me in The Chair. It felt good—a sick kind of good, but intoxicating nonetheless.
The Lightning Witch (Elements Book 2) Page 6
