by Meg Bonney
“Lacy, it’s locked, it’s always…”
Lacy closed her eyes and said something so softly that I couldn’t quite make it out. Then the door popped open.
She moved with determination into the room, still ignoring me. I stayed in the hallway, my mouth hanging open as I tried to rationalize what was happening around me.
“What are you doing?” I pressed.
Lacy knelt down on the floor and pulled the rug back.
“Lacy, answer me!” I demanded.
She ripped up a floorboard and tossed it on the floor beside her. I watched as she reached down beneath the floor, pulled out a small box, and lifted the lid. In it was a small piece of paper that she appeared to be reading. She set that aside too and reached in to grab something long and slender from beneath the floor. She carefully put the little box back and put the plank back in the floor, stood, and turned to face me.
In her hand was a sword. And not one of the wooden swords from the gym or the sparring foils. A real, actual, legit sword.
“Lacy?”
Lacy walked toward me. “Take it.”
I stepped back and hit the wall behind me.
“Jason?” I turned my head toward the stairs and called out.
“Take it. It is yours.” Lacy looked firmly at me, turning the hilt of the sword toward me. “I know what to do now, but we have to hurry.”
“Lacy, put that thing away!” I blurted. My skin prickled and sweat beaded on my forehead. “Crap.” I wiped my forehead. The hot flash was happening again.
My skin tingled, then felt like it was on fire. My vision went black for a moment as my heart beat rapidly, faster than it ever had. My limbs shook and I felt almost weightless for a moment, like that feeling you get right before the elevator stops on your floor.
I blinked a few times as the hot spell began to fade.
“Are you finished?” I heard Lacy ask behind me.
“Huh? What’s happening to me? What’s wrong with me?” I asked as I clasped my trembling hands together and bowed my head. “I keep getting this really weird th—”
“I know,” Lacy interrupted. “Just breathe.”
“Lacy? What is this? What is all of this? And what do you mean, you know?” My words came out more like a whimper.
“I know what you are feeling,” Lacy said sympathetically.
“No, you don’t understand. I keep getting this thing where my skin is burning and…” I paused and took a deep breath.
“It feels like you are going to explode, and your skin tingles and feels like tiny needles are darting at it, right?” Lacy said, looking bored.
“How did you know that?” I started to feel angry with her. It was almost as if she was toying with me or something, and I didn’t like not being in the know. I sank to the floor of the hallway.
Lacy sighed and joined me on the wooden floor. “I just know, dear girl. That is the protection spell wearing off. You are completely yourself now.”
Lacy placed the sword on the ground and took my hand.
“There are so many things that they should have told you. But right now, there is no time. I am going to need you to do as I say and keep your mouth shut, or I will shut it for you.”
I squinted at her in the dim light of the hall. The outside light was nearly gone now, casting very little light through the windows of the house.
“Why are you acting like this?”
Lacy didn’t answer.
“Jason?” I called down the hall again.
“They took my mother,” Lacy said.
“Who did?” I stared at her. “What in the hell are you talking about?” I was breathing loudly now.
She held up her hand to silence me and turned her ear toward the stairs. A shudder of unease hit my chest and radiated throughout my entire body. I rose to my feet. My knees felt shaky and my whole body was trembling.
There was movement downstairs. “It’s Jason,” I said.
I could not stop shivering.
Another clamor, only this time it sounded like it was coming from farther away. Outside, maybe? Then we heard a woman scream.
“That is not Jason.” Lacy stood.
My stomach was twisting in a giant knot. I was nauseous, faint, and obnoxiously hot again. Beads of sweat gathered between the goosebumps on my skin. Terror. What I was feeling was sheer, unadulterated terror.
“Take the sword,” Lacy urged me, gesturing to the weapon lying on the floor.
My thoughts immediately went to Jason. What if he was in trouble?
I stared down at the sword. The grip was covered with a dark swirled pattern. The rounded cross guard was a dark metal. This was the real deal, and it was making me a little hesitant.
Lacy’s face didn’t echo what I was feeling at all. No apprehension, no worry, no panic. She just looked calm and maybe even a little annoyed.
I curled my hand around the grip, and blue light burst from it as my fingers tightened around it. Startled, I dropped the sword with a gasp.
Lacy didn’t look fazed at all by the sword’s touch-activated light. “It is all right. Just pick it up.”
I reached out and gripped the handle again, and again the grip lit up in a brilliant blue under my hand, but this time, I held on. Tiny beams of blue light escaped between my uneasy fingers, and a prickling sensation shot up my arm like it had fallen asleep, but only for a moment. It was like an electric shock that caused no pain. Then the glow dimmed.
“Why is it doing that?” I asked her.
“It is okay. It is meant to,” Lacy answered.
I pushed past her and headed down the hall. I hurried down the stairs, the light of the sword’s grip casting a blue glow around me.
I held up the sword to light the kitchen. The house was completely dark now.
“Maddy?” I heard Jason’s voice call out. I turned to see him just as the back door slammed behind him.
“Who’s there?” Lacy asked as she came down the stairs behind me.
“It’s Jason.” I looked at her out of the corner of my eye. Why was she acting so strange?
“Looks like that energy crisis rally was pretty legit, Lacy,” Jason said.
Lacy didn’t respond. Instead, she grabbed my arm and pulled me out into the backyard. Jason followed. I flinched as the ringing sound erupted from the same cluster of trees in the backyard.
“That noise. It has something to do with all of this, doesn’t it?” I asked.
“What’s going on?” Jason asked, following closely behind me.
“Wait!” Lacy ducked behind a row of trash cans. Jason and I followed her lead.
“What’s going on? Did you hear that scream?” Jason looked distraught. His face was covered in sweat, and so was his gray T-shirt. I held the sword up higher to see him better.
He jumped back, knocking into one of the metal garbage cans. “Whoa! Why do you have a sword?”
Before I could answer him, Lacy clamped her hand over his mouth. “Quiet!”
He looked back at her, confused. Lacy lowered her hand and traced her finger along Jason’s chin before she turned her focus back to me.
Jason looked at me inquisitively and pointed at Lacy when she was no longer focused on him. He looked just as bewildered as I felt.
“What do you feel now?” Lacy asked me.
“Huh? I feel the same,” I whispered to her.
Lacy shook her head and scrunched her face up, like she did when she was thinking hard. “That cannot be right,” she said.
Then I saw something move in the backyard. I shifted over to get a better look. I squinted hard into the dark. It looked like a campfire—no, like a torch.
“Do you see that?” Jason whispered to me. We were both leaning over, looking out around the garbage cans.
I nodded.
There was a small group of people walking toward the trees at the edge of Ruth’s yard.
What were they doing?
<
br /> I focused on the torch and gasped as it lit up one of the people in the group, bound and being carried.
Jason patted my arm. “Is that—”
“It’s Aunt Ruth.”
CHAPTER 8
“Aunt Ruth!” I called out, but before I could stand and run to her, Lacy grabbed my wrists with both of her hands.
“You cannot go over there,” she said, her eyes wide. “You are not ready. Just let them go.”
“What? Let them go?” I shook my head, baffled. “Are you out of your frickin’ mind?”
I looked to Jason for some backup. He was biting his fingernail and not speaking, hunched over as he peered around the silver garbage can. No help there.
“Lacy, go get help,” I pleaded. Maybe she was in shock, but her behavior was beyond frustrating.
I took off toward my aunt and her captors, leaving Lacy and Jason by the cans. They seemed to be in the same spot that I had wandered into earlier today. This all felt like a really screwed-up dream.
The sun had completely set now. The moon gave me some light, but not enough. With the power out and the street lights dark, the only real light that I had to guide me was the blue light coming from my sword’s grip.
I lost sight of the people, but the light of the torch they carried was unmistakable, even through the trees. Getting to them would be no problem, but then what? I knew how to fight and I was good at it, so that part didn’t worry me, but the intensity of the situation was growing with every step I took. What did they want with Aunt Ruth? I didn’t even want to think about why they were taking her into the woods. I would stop them before they hurt her.
As I entered the wooded area, I could see them. The group had stopped. I ducked behind the tree trunks. My cheek scraped against the bark as I peeked around the side of the oak. I saw three people with Aunt Ruth, and they were all wearing long hooded cloaks. One held a torch, and the other two each held one of her arms.
By the light of their torch, I could see a gag covering Aunt Ruth’s mouth. Her hands and feet were tied together, but she kept thrashing back and forth until we locked eyes. For just a moment, we both were perfectly still. She looked relieved.
If she saw me, it would be seconds before the cloak-wearing jerks noticed too, as they were all facing in my direction. I stepped out from behind the tree and called out, “Let her go!”
Ruth yelled something from under her gag, but it was muffled and I couldn’t understand.
Within seconds, the two men holding Ruth’s arms threw her to the ground and charged at me. They hadn’t even reached me before she started working at her ropes. They clearly had no idea who they were messing with. There was no way that these idiots would beat Ruth and me together. No way.
I tossed the sword to the ground and did a somersault to my left as the blue light vanished. Aunt Ruth always said the darkness could be a weapon if you used it right.
The two goons stopped, looking for me, as I jumped to my feet. The first guy got my foot in his manly parts and buckled over. I grabbed the other one’s shoulders and threw my head into his face with all the force I could muster.
I spun and grabbed my sword from the base of the tree where I had tossed it. The man holding the torch was fixated on me, too busy to notice that Ruth had successfully gotten out of her foot bindings. She was working on her hands now.
There you go, Aunt Ruth. I smiled at her, knowing that this would be over soon. Nobody could take down Aunt Ruth—not even me. Everything was going to be okay now.
I lifted my sword to see the downed guys in cloaks still writhing in pain. One was holding his junk, the other holding his blood-soaked face.
“You broke my nose!” he said, his speech muffled by his hands cupped over his face.
“And not the first one of the day, either!” I shot back. I turned back to the guy with the torch and held my sword out in front of me. His eyes weren’t on me; they were focused on the blue glow of its grip.
“Well, well, well. You are a Witch, too,” the hooded man holding the torch started. “You must be the daughter of this betrayer. You can die right next to your mother, you filthy snake.”
“I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about. I called the cops,” I lied. “So let her go right now.”
I looked back at my aunt. “Don’t worry, Aunt Ruth, help is on the way.”
“Your aunt?” He looked utterly shocked, then squinted at me. “No, it cannot be.”
He shook his head. “You? Is she that brazen to keep you here, right next to the portal?” He shook his head again in disbelief. Then he dropped to one knee and bowed his head.
“Huh?” I squinted at him.
“More of you?” The man raised his head and leaned over to look behind me. I turned to see Jason standing there.
“What are you doing here?” I waved him away. “Run!”
And in that moment of distraction, the man with the broken nose knocked me down and rolled on top of me.
“Jason, help Ruth!” I yelled, just as the bloody-faced man wrapped his hands around my neck. I struggled to breathe and my sword slipped out of my hand.
Things went hazy as I heard yelling, scuffling. The man’s fingers squeezed tighter and I couldn’t distinguish the voices. I only heard random words. Leaves crunched and sticks snapped as feet shuffled around me.
“Stop!”
“No!”
“Help her!”
Someone fell on top of the bloody-faced man. He let go of my throat and left me there, coughing and trying to take in air.
A huge roar, a gust of wind, and then it was quiet.
“Jason? Ruth?” I sat up and looked around. I was alone.
My entire body tensed as my stomach churned.
What just happened?
“Aunt Ruth!” I screamed, but the trees stayed silent.
I felt along the ground and picked up my sword. All I could hear was my own heartbeat now as my eyes darted around the wooded area.
“Maddy?” Jason stumbled out from behind that tree, rubbing the side of his head.
“Oh, thank god.” I ran to him. “Where did they go? Where’s Ruth?”
Jason didn’t answer; instead, he motioned to the tree. He wrapped his hand around mine and pulled me to the other side of the giant oak.
The tree.
“Don’t touch it,” I warned Jason, but he laid his hand on the trunk of the familiar oak tree. I had stood in this spot earlier today. I looked up at the top of the motionless tree.
“No, Maddy. It’s like they went inside of it,” Jason whispered, not taking his eyes off the tree. “I think I got knocked out for a minute, but I swear that’s what I saw. I swear it.”
Before I could question the insanity of that sentence, something moved behind Jason. I pushed him behind me and held up my sword.
“Who’s there?” I called, and lifted my sword to cast light toward the shadowy trees.
Out of the dark stepped a young man dressed in all black. He stepped into the blue glow of my sword, casting a strange shadow on his strong jaw. His hair was short and sort of swept back away from his forehead. And then, even in the blue light, I saw them: the unmistakable green eyes. The same eyes that had looked down at me earlier today in the pool house at school.
“You. Who are you?” I asked, pointing my sword toward him.
He angled his face, casting soft shadows on his pronounced cheekbones.
“Ren Raker,” he replied, simply and seriously.
“Ren?” I asked. “Where is my aunt?”
Ren held his hand out. “You must come with me, princess. This is no place for you.”
“Princess?” Jason repeated, looking at me. I shrugged at Jason, just as confused as he was.
“Nicely done, Porter.” Jason and I jumped at the sound of another voice. It was Lacy.
She walked over to us and stopped next to Ren. She didn’t look scared or worried. Her face was relaxed, and
her pace was no longer rushed. I felt like I was on a prank show, but a really unfunny, annoying one. Nobody was giving me any answers and my aunt was gone.
“Where is Aunt Ruth?” I looked up at Ren. He and Lacy were staring at each other now, not speaking.
Jason wasn’t looking at the strange interaction of my cousin and this random dude. His stare was fixed on the oak tree. He ran his hand up the trunk, but it didn’t seem to affect him the same way it affected me.
“You will not find her here,” Lacy said calmly, raising her chin.
“Lacy, what is going on?” I demanded.
Lacy scoffed and her eyes narrowed. “You want the truth? Fine. You are from the realm of Everly, an adjacent dimension.”
I squinted. “Pardon?”
“Ruthana kept you here to protect you because the king decreed that all Magics must be destroyed.”
I blinked a few times and opened my mouth to speak.
“No!” Lacy shouted in my face, her nose an inch from mine. “There is no time! I am sorry that she did not tell you, but you can wallow in that later. I need you to go through that portal and get my mother.”
Ren crossed his arms.
Before Ren could reply, Lacy raised her hand at him. “Glacia.”
Ren froze.
I jumped. “How are you doing this? What is that you keep saying?”
She looked at me like I was an idiot. “He is frozen. I froze his muscles with magic.”
Confused, I shook my head. “What?”
“I just—I need him not to talk for a minute so I can get this out.” Lacy laid her finger on her lips for a moment. “Mother has been keeping your true identity a secret from you. Just through that portal is Everly. That is where you were born. You are the daughter of the leader of the Rosewood Coven. My mother, Ruthana, is her sister. To save you, my mother brought you here. That is the truth.”
I took a step back and didn’t speak. Holding the bridge of my nose with my eyes squeezed shut, I tried to comprehend what she was saying. “Everly? And my mother was the leader of the Rosewood Coven? My mother? Lacy, have you gone mental?”
“I realize this is a lot to process, but all will be explained, I promise. Right now, I am asking you to trust me. Can you trust me, your cousin, whom you have known your entire life? Please?” Lacy’s big blue eyes were earnest as she spoke.
