by Cate Martin
Then Mina was gone, and the ball fell, bouncing heavily on the filthy carpet before lying still.
I found the scrap of velvet and gently wrapped it around the ball, my fingers shaking as I tried to knot the ends together to form a bag.
That spell, or whatever I had just done, had taken everything out of me. I focused again and again, forcing my trembling fingers to fumble their way through the knots. Finally, it was done, and I fell to my knees in exhausted relief.
The sun was pouring in through the front window. The west-facing window. How many hours had passed? When had I lost track of time? In the other world? How long had Mina hovered over me, watching my last breaths?
I picked up the bundle of velvet and crystal and tried to get back to my feet, but it wasn't happening.
I wasn't afraid this time. It didn't feel like it was even really happening. I just accepted that walking was out of the question and started to crawl towards the front door. I had some vague idea if I could just get to that door, that everything would be okay.
Which was ridiculous. No one was there.
But there was. I heard a knock. I struggled with my too-thick tongue to answer, fumbled at crawling with a wand and a velvet-wrapped crystal ball in my hands. Then there was a second more insistent knock.
Mina had no family or friends. So who was at the door? Lawyers? Police following up on something?
My hand slipped out from under me, and I landed hard on my shoulder. I heard the thud but didn't feel myself hit the floor. My whole body was numb. I tried to call out but could only manage a slight burble of noise.
There was a ringing in my ears, ever louder, but I was sure that the third knock at the door was excessively violent. Then something was lifting me, shaking me. I couldn't seem to open my eyes, but the jostling shook them loose like a doll's eyes.
Someone's face was right in front of mine. Not Mina's.
"Edward?" I said or tried to.
But those weren't brown eyes. They were green. Dark green with little gold flecks like sunlight through summer leaves.
I was shaking again, shivering and being shook both at once. I heard someone yelling. I caught the word "hospital."
"No," I said, clutching someone's sleeve and finally managing to drag myself back into the waking world. I dug my fingers in deep until Nick was looking at me. I only had the energy to form a single word. I had to make it count.
"School," I said.
Then I guess my eyes just rolled back because I knew no more.
Chapter 23
I slowly became aware that I was awake, but I was super reluctant to open my eyes. What if I had only pushed back the poison again? Was I still just moments away from dying?
I let my eyes stayed closed as I focused on my breathing, then moved my awareness around my body. Just like Sophie had taught me. It had never put me in contact with my magic, but this was the second time I'd used it to just really assess how I was feeling.
I was feeling better, so much better. I was a little sore, but nothing like I expected. More like I'd been lying in this bed for days and days and needed to get up and move around a little. Only I also felt too weak to try that. I caught a bad flu once in junior high that kept me out of school for an entire week. I felt like I did then, the day after the fever finally broke.
But all sense of the poison in my body was gone. No headache, no numbness or muscle aches.
I thought I was going to be okay.
I opened my eyes to find warm sun spilling across my bed. My window faced east, so I guessed it was mid-morning, and the long spell of cold, gray weather had finally broken.
I tried sitting up, but that was too drastic a movement, and quickly settled for just hiking myself up a little higher on my pillow. I didn't realize until there was a long intake of breath that I wasn't alone, and my movement had woken someone sitting in the chair by the window, shaded by the tall winged chair back.
"Amanda?" It was Nick. He sounded like he was at some indefinite point between sleep and wakefulness.
"You brought me home," I said, pushing a matted mass of hair out of my eyes.
"Yeah," he said, still somewhat sleepy but coming out of it. He slid out of the chair to sit on the edge of my bed. "You told me to. Up until this minute I was sure that had been a mistake. How are you feeling?"
"Better," I said. "Where are Brianna and Sophie?"
"Sleeping," he said. "It was a long night. I don't think they were sure they could save you. It took everything they had. I promised I would stay up with you so they could rest, but I guess it was a long night for me too."
"Thank you," I said, reaching out to touch his hand. He took it and gave it a squeeze. With the sun behind him, it was hard to see his face, to read his expression.
"I'm glad you brought me home," I said. "I know you wanted to take me to a hospital, but I'm not sure they could've helped me."
"Yeah," he said. His hand around mine was so warm.
"Can I ask, why did you? Why did you listen to me?"
"Well," he said and gave a humorless laugh. "Well, I found you there on the floor. And there was what could only be a magic wand by your right hand, and this crystal ball half-rolled out of a velvet bag by your left hand. And it wasn't like any crystal ball I've ever seen at the Renaissance Festival or whatever. This was like real, dense glass with a dark heart."
"A very dark heart," I agreed. "You didn't touch it?"
"No," he said. "You don't touch the evidence at a crime scene."
"Crime scene?" I repeated, and this time I managed to sit up. "The police have it? And my wand?"
"No," Nick said. "Sit back, now. You're supposed to be resting."
"Where is it?" I said, not letting him push me back into the mound of pillows.
"Your wand is there," he said, pointing with his chin to the nightstand where my wand sat on a square of linen edged with lace.
"And the crystal ball?"
"Brianna has it somewhere, I don't know," he said, but knowing Brianna had it was enough for me.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to alarm you," he said. "I should be more specific. I knew I was in a crime scene, that was obvious. But with the wand and the crystal ball and other little things I've been wondering about since I met you, I guess I figured there was more going on than I was supposed to understand. You asked me to bring you here. So I gathered up the wand and the ball and you and brought you all here."
"Thank you," I said.
"You came close to dying a couple of times," he said.
"I came close to dying a few times before you even got there," I said, closing my eyes in weariness at just the memory.
"Brianna didn't say so, but I could tell she thought I'd brought you here too late. But she never gave up, and neither did Sophie." The weariness was building, and I could feel myself drifting in and out, but I held on to the sound of his voice and to the feel of his hand on mine. "I might need you to explain some things to me. Later, when you're stronger."
"We're witches," I said, eyes still closed.
"That much I got," he said.
"Not so much me as Brianna and Sophie," I said. "They're the ones that have real power. Not me."
I started to doze a little but woke with a jolt, certain I was alone and feeling bereft. But Nick was still there.
"How did you find me?" I asked. "No one knew where I was going."
"You were gone a long time," he said. "Brianna and Sophie got worried. All they knew was that you told Brianna you were looking for me. So they found me, and the three of us figured out there were only a couple of places you could have gone. They sent me to Mina's house while they went to check some other places."
I touched the amulet under the cloth of my nightshirt, my 1928 Yankees jersey. I knew where they would have gone to check, where Nick couldn't go.
"Hey," I said as more memories surfaced. "Did you break into Mina Fox's house without cause?"
Even with the sun behind him, I could see his cheeks flush.
"I don't think so," I said. "I wanted to. I mean, I didn't know it was you, but someone was there. And I tried to yell, but I couldn't do it." Nick tried to pull away, but I caught his hand with both of mine. "You broke into an old woman's house without cause."
"I had cause," Nick said.
"Sure you did," I said, but teasing him was exhausting, so I let it go.
I was nearly off to sleep again when Nick called softly, "Amanda?"
"Hmm?" I said.
"Mina is gone. Isn't she?"
"Far, far away," I said.
"She killed Mrs. Olson. Didn't she?"
"Yes, she did," I said.
"Sophie found a hat pin in your yard, she said. She turned it over to the police yesterday before they even noticed you were missing."
"Hmm."
"It was the murder weapon?"
"Yes."
He was quiet then for a moment before asking, "Justice was done?"
I opened my eyes and tried to look into his, but that sun was just too bright. "Justice was done. I'm not an eye for an eye kind of person. I didn’t execute her or anything. But Mina Fox will never hurt anyone again."
"Okay," he said, but he didn't sound quite satisfied with my answer. I had a feeling he had just filed that under the heading of things he'd ask me more about later when I was back on my feet.
"What happens with the house and the will and everything?" I asked.
"I don't know," he said. "She hadn't technically inherited anything yet. The will was in review. But she, like Linda Olson, had no next of kin. I think the state will probably get it."
"Good," I said. My eyes were still closed, and he probably thought I had gone back to sleep, but my mind was racing.
The thing in the crystal ball and Mina had been conspiring to get that house; I was sure because it was next to the school. The time portal. It was possible there would be others who wanted to be close to us, maybe allies, but more likely foes. Sophie, Brianna and I would have to be on our guard.
Always on our guard, never resting. And I was going to have to start being a little smarter. I couldn't let them down again.
Chapter 24
The next time I woke up I was alone and definitely ready to get out of bed. I untangled myself from blankets and bedsheets and made my way to the window.
The sun was rising over the ridge on the opposite side of the river I couldn't quite see through all the trees. So I had slept all day and all night. No wonder my muscles were so achy and desperate to move around.
I dressed, pulled my tangles of hair back into a scrunchie, and jammed my bare feet into my sneakers then made my way down the back stairs and out into the yard.
I don't think I was necessarily expecting to see anyone or do anything in particular, but when I slipped out the back door and saw Sophie and Brianna sitting on mats in the center of the orchard with another spare mat forming a circle with theirs, I wasn't surprised. I sat down on the extra mat and closed my eyes, joining them in silent meditation until I felt the sun shining over our back wall.
All three of us opened our eyes at once.
"How's the portal?" I asked.
"Still can't sense it?" Sophie asked.
"I think I could, but it's overwhelming," I said. "I can't see it from here; I have to go to this other place."
"Interesting," Brianna said and took out her notebook to scribble some notes.
"It's looking good now," Sophie said, her fingertips lightly resting on her crossed ankles as she gazed up into the middle distance between her and the sky.
"Now? Not before?" I asked.
"Things were weird when you were gone," Sophie said. "I was dealing with that, is why I didn't notice you weren't here."
"I was in the library," Brianna said with heartbreaking glumness.
"Guys, I'm not blaming you for a thing," I said. "I had to go, and I had to go alone. It was that compulsion thing. It had to be that way."
"Hmm," Sophie said with the air of someone who was definitely prepared to argue the point at a later date.
"So when I was gone," I said, looking up at the sky. "Something was missing here, right?"
"Missing," Sophie said. "I don't know if I'd describe it that way. Nothing came through from 1927, that's for sure. But the portal itself was… not right."
"It almost collapsed," I guessed.
"But Miss Zenobia said that couldn't happen," Brianna said, but Sophie just frowned as she compared my words to her experience.
"She said she couldn't do it," I said. "She didn't say whether that was a lack of power or of will."
"Of will?" Brianna asked, her forehead wrinkling.
"I met her sister," I said. "Juno, her name is. She's been removed from the flow of time."
"What?" Sophie asked.
"She's the one who gave me the power when Helen attacked me," I said. "I thought at the time it was something in the house, but it wasn't."
"She moved you across time when we didn't," Brianna said.
"I think so," I said. "And somehow she helped Cora get the hat pin across to Mina. I think sending just that object through and back again; it would be too small for your devices to detect."
"Maybe," Brianna said. "I'll run some tests."
"You saw this Juno again the day before yesterday?" Sophie asked.
"Yes. She offered to save me again," I said. "I turned her down."
"You saved yourself," Sophie said with a twist of a smile.
"I think that was a team effort, don't you?" I said, looking from her to Brianna. They both avoided meeting my eyes. I knew Nick was right; they had nearly lost me several times. But they hadn't.
"So this thing with Cora and Mina and the hat pin and everything, she made that happen?" Sophie asked.
"I don't think so. I mean, I think she helped sneak the murder weapon around, but Mina and Cora were both taking orders from the crystal ball."
"That thing," Brianna said, wrinkling her nose up in disgust.
"Juno said that it was outside of time," I said. "It only exists for a fixed set of points, but the thing inside it experiences every moment of time simultaneously."
"The thing?" Brianna repeated. "Amanda, you know what it is."
"I don't," I said.
"But you put her there," Brianna said.
"No," I said. "I put Mina inside of it. I thought it was just to imprison her there with that thing she was conspiring with for all time. But I don't know a thing about what was in there in the first place."
"It was Mina," Brianna said. "It was always Mina."
"A Mina demented by…" Sophie broke off, scratching her head. "I was going to say demented by ages trapped in that sphere, but if what you said is true, would she have any perception of time at all?"
"No perception of time passing doesn't mean that it would seem short," Brianna said. "It could seem like she just got there, that she's always been there, and every state in between. All at once, every moment."
"No sense of progression of time," I said. "No story."
"Damn, that's cold," Sophie said.
"I didn't do it on purpose," I said. "I was trying to be humane. I was about to collapse from the poison again, and after I recovered the first time, she would surely find a way to finish the job the second time. I had to do something. I didn't want to kill her."
"So what do we do with it now?" Sophie asked. "Surely we can't destroy it. Can we get her back out?"
"I don't think that would be wise," Brianna said. "I have it sealed in one of Miss Zenobia's safe boxes. It's warded and protected."
"But she's still inside it," I said.
"I know," Brianna said sadly. "I'll do more research. There's probably a way to fix the time thing. To make her more quiescent. To at least stop the torment."
"It's my mistake," I said. "I should fix it."
"We're a team," Sophie said. "We play to each other's strengths. Let Bree do
the research thing."
"And Sophie can monitor the portal for changes," Brianna said. "In case the other day is just the start of some new sort of pattern."
"You say Juno came through the portal and disrupted things when she came to talk to you?" Sophie asked.
"No, that's not it," I said. "Juno is the time portal."
The two of them just stared at me, dumbfounded.
"She told you that?" Sophie asked at last.
"Not exactly, but I'm sure that's what's going on," I said.
"But, you said she was Miss Zenobia's sister," Brianna said.
"Juno has been removed from time," I said. "She doesn't interact with anything here. She can only see me when I'm in my altered state where I see all the silvery lines and webs and things, and she's not connected to anything when she's there. She's just… free-floating."
"But such a thing would take enormous amounts of magic," Brianna said, then shook her head. "I don't think it's even possible."
"But if it were," Sophie said slowly, "Miss Zenobia would have been the witch able to do it."
"And if she had," I went on, "she must have had a good reason. It saddened her, I could tell on that night she spoke to us. She had regret about her sister."
Sophie scrunched up her face, trying to remember the words I recalled.
"And that's why she stayed here until she died?" Brianna asked. "She was already an old witch when she came here. That's unusual. Most witches find their haunts when they're young and hunker down to watch the centuries roll by."
"Not always," Sophie said. "There are nomads as well."
"Exceptions," Brianna said. "Miss Zenobia wasn't one of them."
"We need to understand this better," I said. "We swore an oath to protect this place, but we weren't given all the facts."
We lapsed into separate thoughts again. I was starting to feel a bit cold sitting outside in October on a thin yoga mat. I got up and stretched my back, and a sudden pang of hunger struck me. "I'm going to get some breakfast," I said.
