Sacrifice

by Heather McCollum

  Matilda stopped before William, and as much as Anna wanted to escape, she owed it to the doctor to help save him from the insanity that blossomed so prevalently within these walls. What could possibly be so wrong with him that Matilda couldn’t take care of it? She was a magical healer. Perhaps she didn’t want to expose herself to someone who didn’t know of her skills. It surely would cause problems for Winston to know.

  “Was trying out one of the smithy’s daggers,” Winston said, his cheeks growing red. “Was sharper than I thought. No worries, though.”

  Matilda lifted a bloodied rag. Patricia gasped and sat down away from the scene while Anna took a look at the slice across the doctor’s thumb. “Good thing it isn’t your dominant hand,” Anna noted. “It will likely require a stitch and some cleaning. We will watch for fever. I’m sure there are local herbs like Feverfew that can aid us.” Anna looked at William’s wide-eyed niece where she wrung her hands. “All will be well.”

  “No, no, no,” Matilda said, shaking her head and sending curls in wild disarray around her shoulders. “Ye don’t understand. I can’t help him. I tried, but…” She took Winston’s hand in hers and closed her eyes. “Nothing,” she said, her gaze snapping to her uncle. “I hadn’t touched him before. I didn’t know until now. I can’t detect anything about him, can’t tell how he is physically. And I can’t heal him.”

  Winston looked to Anna. “Do the Scots talk about people as if they aren’t present in the room on a regular basis? It could be construed as rude.”

  Anna opened her mouth but had no idea what to say. She just shook her head.

  “Are ye saying ye can’t heal him?” William asked, his brows lowering over grim eyes.

  “That’s what I said,” Matilda all but screamed, her cheeks growing pink as she let her gaze roam over the doctor.

  Patricia leapt up, her hand at her mouth. “Doctor Murdock is your soul mate?”

  “Pardon?” Winston said, his gaze bouncing around the small, silent group. It landed on Anna. “What are they talking about, Anna?”

  Patricia slapped her palms together in a happy prayer position. “Oh Matilda, Winston Murdock is a wonderful man. I always thought he and Anna would make a comfortable couple, both handsome, both doctors, but that can’t happen now. And I do think he and you will be perfect together.”

  “Anna, the rudeness is spreading to your sister,” Winston mumbled, his easy smile turning into a pensive pout.

  “Feel free to be rude, too,” Anna advised, her own cheeks flushed at her sister’s commentary. “The situation warrants it.”

  Winston’s face flushed scarlet as if he were a swelling boil. “What the bloody hell is everyone talking about?” he yelled then cleared his throat, bringing his voice down. “It obviously involves me.”

  Matilda took her hand down from the side of her head and reached for Winston’s good hand. “It seems, Doctor Murdock, that we are destined to be wed.”

  Winston’s eyes couldn’t get much wider. He stared at Matilda. She was still young and quite beautiful, but surely he was reeling from the pronouncement. Anna remembered how annoyed and then panicked she’d been when the same was proclaimed to her about Drustan.

  Winston kept his eyes on Matilda, shifting his gaze only slightly to Anna and then back. “What is she talking about Anna?”

  Anna sighed. “I’ve been told that if you just accept it and kiss her, everything will work out fine.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Drustan watched in silence, barely remembering to breathe. Through the small window, thatching filtered down to coat his family’s cottage interior with dust. Death-infused wind shrieked about the ten standing stones encircling the tormented house. Wolves snapped along a line in the back while Semiazaz and his band of demons battered the house from the front.

  “Drakkina!” his mother cried while cradling a baby against her shoulder. A one-week-old baby boy, full of power and just trying to make out the workings of the world. He watched himself staring at a face at the back window, his grown sister, Kailin. The scene unfolded along its temporal thread as he stood as judge.

  “I can’t help,” the Silver Witch intoned with barely an ounce of emotion.

  “Aye, ye can send the bairn like I sent the girls,” Gilla said, and smoothed her palm over his tiny head.

  Drakkina shook her head. She wouldn’t interfere. She’d already decided he was evil because of his power, because of the prophecies she’d seen in her damn scrying bowl. Gilla begged the witch to save him, and Drustan’s heart beat hard as he witnessed, not the indifference Semiazaz had insinuated, but a real outpouring of desperation to save him. Realization hit Drustan hard, and he leaned his hand against the house.

  Gilla had truly loved him. She’d sent the girls first to hide her magic with them. She’d thought the Orb of Life was still something she could use to save her son. A wry smile touched Drustan’s mouth as he watched Drakkina fly backward across the room, hit by his newborn power and self-protection instincts. He was much more than the old bat had anticipated. Then Kailin, all grown and back with her mate, confronted Drakkina and lifted him from the slab to return him into Gilla’s arms. Hovering as an oily smoke along the ceiling inside, Semiazaz continued to push the demons to surround them.

  “The babe is ours,” Semiazaz said, his voice vibrating through the cottage as two demons lunged for Gilla, seizing him from her. Kailin jumped before Gilla, shielding her and trying to use her magic to reclaim him as he hovered in the air. It’s a wonder his sister survived.

  Chaos and noise twisted about the cottage with a baby Drustan in the middle of it all. Finally Gilla raised her hands, bluffing since she hadn’t any power left. Semiazaz blasted her with enough magic to cripple a powerful witch, not a desperate human mother. Drustan closed his eyes as his mother scattered into ash. He blinked open to see Kailin crying over her dust as she picked up a wolf’s tooth out of Gilla’s dress pocket. Drustan’s infant form threaded away, followed by the oily black taint of the two demons.

  “You really should have killed the lad,” Semiazaz told Drakkina. “He’ll be a worthy member of our coven.” Semiazaz hadn’t tried to protect him as he’d led Drustan to believe all these years. Drustan stood quietly, taking in the last moments of the drama, too stunned to think of interfering.

  Semiazaz remained, trying to talk Kailin into joining him, but she thinned and slipped away on another thread of time. Drustan watched as Semiazaz’s gaze followed Kailin’s escape passively, his black eyes turning to an ethereal Drakkina. “Kina,” he said.

  “Don’t call me that,” she snapped.

  “Release us like you just did Elathan and Erubus.”

  “They are still bound to you.”

  Semiazaz nodded his head. “Release me, Kina. We can be together again.”

  Drakkina’s eyes were like glittering diamonds, sharp and lethal. “I can’t be any more literal when I say, go to Hell, Semiazaz.” With that, she flashed out of the clearing.

  “We will slaughter her essence,” Bechard roared.

  “Follow her,” Megaira insisted, the snakes hissing around her head.

  “In time,” Semiazaz said, his gaze still fastened on the place Drakkina had stood. “But now, we will find our new son.” A thin smile played about his lips above the white beard. “Let us meet the most powerful babe time has ever witnessed.”

  “It is just a pitiful infant.” Trill growled.

  Semiazaz shook his head knowingly. “Son of Gilla and Druce, their powers multiplied in their son.” The wizard met each set of glowing demonic eyes. “He will be our new lord and eventual savior.” He smiled, but the blackness of his eyes tainted the look, transforming it into something so vile it turned Drustan’s stomach.

  The demons and wizard twisted together into a dark funnel cloud and departed, leaving silence in the stones, an emptiness that pulled at Drustan’s chest. He walked into the beaten cottage. A cold loaf of fresh bread sat next to the stone oven. A clay vase of wildflo
wers lay tipped over on the granite slab that served as a table. The water darkened the gray stone, and Drustan touched his fingertips to it. Which of his sisters had brought the flowers in for their mother? He knelt beside the pile of ash that had been Gilla and felt pressure behind his eyes.

  “You loved me. I had forgotten.” Or had his infant perception been washed over by Semiazaz’s constant propaganda?

  Should he find a different thread, step back a little further in time and intercede? Stop the demons from taking him, shield Gilla? But what would that do? Even Semiazaz didn’t change past threads, only observed, except when he thought he could kill one of Gilla’s children. Consequences, the wizard warned, that were too unpredictable. The only way to safely change the future, a future where one still exists, was to snip a particular thread and remake it. And to do that they needed the orb, Drakkina’s dragonfly amulet and Gilla’s magic gathered back from his sisters. Semiazaz had spent his corporeal life finding the way to bind all the power together.

  Drustan picked up one of the blue cornflowers from the slab. It hadn’t even begun to wilt yet. He carefully contained his magic so as not to kill it. His jaw clenched. He should have come to witness this for himself years ago, but Semiazaz had always had a reason why he shouldn’t. It was time to confront the wizard.

  With barely a thought, Drustan thinned his essence into a thread and shot back to the year 1893, reemerging a mere second after he left. He stood once more before the hearth in the study of his tree house. He looked down at the cornflower, hunched and withered. He let it drop into the hearth ashes.

  His sister’s journals sat stacked on the floor by the leather couch where he’d been studying them for over a week. He’d taken a few of the Maclean’s old tomes as well, piecing together his family history. He spotted the sketching of Anna he’d been working on last evening, the view of her concerned face as he turned away from her at Kylkern eight days ago. Holding the paper gingerly, he followed the lovely lines of her face. A week away was too long. He needed to return to Kylkern and to Anna.

  Drustan set the sketch down and picked up Kailin’s journal from the polished oak table. Her description of his abduction matched what he’d just witnessed. The only embellishment being her interaction with a wiser Drakkina and Jackson Black. He also now understood why she’d had Tenebris living with her on the prarie, having taken the wolf’s tooth from Gilla’s pocket.

  Semiazaz hadn’t bothered to search his mother’s remains to find Drustan’s only friend. Had the wizard known Tenebris was meant for him? He certainly didn’t like the wolf. He preferred Drustan isolated and lonely, listening only to his voice. “Bastard,” Drustan cursed just under his breath.

  Drustan, I would have a word with you.

  “Talk of the devil…” Drustan murmured and headed toward his door. He would match Semiazaz’s word with several of his own.

  With a flick of his power, Drustan blew his door open in a rush of wind as he strode out onto the deck in the trees. Semiazaz hovered in the air just off the rail. The slight widening of eyes above the wizard’s long nose gave Drustan only a little satisfaction.

  “My family did not abandon me to you,” Drustan said, his voice low in contrast to the shaking limbs of the trees around him. “You abducted me and slaughtered my powerless mother, who, contrary to your version, very much loved me.”

  Semiazaz’s mouth pinched tightly. “You’ve been visiting other threads. Who taught you to do that?”

  “Not you. I’m sure there is much you’ve kept from me,” Drustan said, not bothering to tell the wizard that he’d figured it out on his own after reading Kailin’s journal. The sister, whom Semiazaz had warned him to stay away from, had immediately trusted Drustan with all the information she possessed. Unlike the wizard who had parceled out tidbits of magical instruction throughout the years.

  Semiazaz shrugged his shoulders. “I told you my perception of events. Gilla was a brilliant strategist. I was surprised she did not reserve any magic to save her son.” The other demons materialized one by one among the trees, level with Drustan. They watched silently, taking in every detail, most likely planning either defense or attack depending on their leader’s negotiation skills. They kept their faces neutral and their minds closed. Only Bast looked on longingly while Semiazaz continued.

  “You were only a week old, barely time for her to form an attachment,” he said. “She made certain to save her daughters and send off her magic with them in a pathetic attempt to save the temporal order. Apparently, every single person along every thread meant more to her than you.”

  Semiazaz’s words cut through Drustan. He hadn’t been able to read his mother’s mind with the wards set in the stones of the cottage. He could only infer her feelings from her actions, the tears, the desperation in her eyes. He shook his head. Drustan hadn’t needed to read Gilla’s mind to see her soul through her eyes. “She loved me,” he said simply.

  Semiazaz tilted his head. “You can ask her when you bring her back. You can remake the entire incident along that thread, Drustan. We will snip it carefully, precisely, once we have gained the power over time. You will create the family that should have been yours.”

  “You have always said that, yet you have warned me frequently not to change things in the past, that disrupting what has happened could change the future so that I don’t exist.”

  Semiazaz exhaled in a sigh as if Drustan was trying his patience. “We’ve discussed this. Only when we snip the thread exactly where we want it, after we investigate each ramification concerning us, will it be safe.”

  “If I change the past, make it so that my sisters and I grow up together with Gilla and Druce in their cottage surrounded by stones, they will not meet their soul mates. I will not find Anna.”

  Semiazaz slowly shook his head. “Drustan, I’ve warned you already. You’ve seen for yourself that the woman harbors secrets. Anna Pemberlin is not for you. You will find another mate in your original time frame. I guarantee it.”

  “I only want Anna,” Drustan said. The wizard opened his mouth to argue, but Drustan overrode what he was about to suggest. “Just like you only want Drakkina.” Semiazaz’s mouth snapped shut as Bechard growled. Daria tittered, and Bast looked smug.

  “You presume much,” Semiazaz said. “But if you must have this Anna, bring her back with you. But I tell you, son, she is not what she seems.” Drustan stiffened at the family name. Semiazaz always called him “son” when trying to sway him. It wouldn’t work now, though. Drustan had witnessed the truth about his mother firsthand, had felt the respect and honesty in Anna’s touch despite her secret conversation with Drakkina.

  Semiazaz’s face tipped down, his eyes glancing away. “In fact, right now, she is planning to betray you with that doctor.”

  Doctor Winston Murdock. He’d left Anna at Kylkern with her old colleague. Drustan shook his head. “You lie,” Drustan said, his face shuttering against the words. “She would not betray me and did not betray me with Drakkina.”

  “She is dangerous,” Semiazaz said. “You cannot read Anna Pemberlin’s mind, her unspoken desires, but I can. She fell in love with the doctor before she met you. She respects his work, sees how he helps people. He is not a monster to her.” Semiazaz left the other half of his statement hang silently in obvious insinuation. “Even now she is planning to meet him to explore the carnal world that you opened up to her.”

  Drustan’s gut twisted tight, his magic churning throughout his core, heating his skin. He felt the crackle of power slide just under his skin, escaping his encapsulation. “Another lie, Semiazaz.”

  The dark wizard stared into Drustan’s gaze, his bulbous, obsidian eyes like polished rock. “Hardly, but perhaps you don’t mind sharing her.”

  Drustan reacted before conscious thought slowed his motions. Lightning struck out from his palms, splintering through the swirling demonic essence permeating the forest. He buffeted the ethereal bodies with leaves, acorns, branches, and dirt, a whirlwind of
destruction aimed at the particles that made up their visual bodies. Within seconds, the smell of death receded, and Drustan dragged in large gulps of untainted air.

  He stood rooted to the deck, fists clenched at his sides. The wizard lied. Perhaps he should have attacked Semiazaz’s true essence, the magic that made him exist. Could he kill the wizard and his coven? He’d never truly contemplated it before since they were his only contact with others. Steam rose from his skin and he breathed in the chilled air, re-erecting the walls to contain his magic. He didn’t want to incinerate his clothes again.

  “Lies,” he repeated. “The wizard lies.” Anna wouldn’t betray him. He’d been gone a mere week, perusing the journals, teaching himself to thread through time. Anna was faithful.

  Drustan looked eastward toward Kylkern, toward Anna. “I’m coming.”

  ****

  “We can’t broach the walls of the keep,” Bast pointed out. “Drakkina’s wards are imbedded in the stones themselves.”

  “Semiazaz knows that,” Daria retorted. “We all know that.”

  “Shut up and listen,” Gehenna said with a hiss through her pointed teeth. “He is a master of strategy.”

  “Does this strategy include these rabbits you had me skewer?” Trill asked with a glance toward the corpses behind a bush, flies buzzing haphazardly around them.

  “Yes, bring them,” Semiazaz said. “He will be going soon to Kylkern. I was able to touch his mind briefly and saw his need.” He frowned. Drustan felt he needed Anna Pemberlin more than he needed Semiazaz and the group of demons. As if on cue, Drustan’s door opened again. Now, Semiazaz whispered into the common mind the group used to communicate rapidly. In three seconds, they coalesced within the boundaries of Kylkern village. He smelled the decomposing rabbits and knew Trill had brought them.

  The doctor and the girl plan to meet in the stables, Semiazaz said as they floated invisibly through the darkening streets. “We planted that in Murdock’s head yesterday when he was out riding. He will have already asked Matilda to come to him. It will be as the sun goes completely down.” The group floated above the thatched stable roof.