Bane

by Trish Milburn

  “But Fiona . . .”

  “You weren’t here, Jax. You can’t save someone if you’re not even here.”

  “I shouldn’t have left her alone.”

  “How were you supposed to know Barrow would go for her?”

  “I just should have.” I start crying hard again, and Keller pulls me tight against him. After a couple of moments, I hear him sniff, and I know that he is crying, too. In such a short time, Fiona had become like family, a grandmother to love and be loved by. And now she’s gone, gone forever.

  My grief gives way to anger, and I flee from the herb shop. I run up one street and down another, hoping Amos Barrow will find me. When all I get is some curious looks from the area residents, I race to Sarah’s house, using my superhuman speed and not caring if it attracts the covens. Let them come. Let them all come. I’ll take on them all, and I’ll destroy them.

  I’ll make Sarah give me whatever information she’s been holding back. I’ll force her to tell me how to access all of my white witch power so I can end the covens’ tyranny for good.

  So I can make Amos Barrow pay for what he did.

  When I stop in front of Sarah’s house only to find she’s not there, the darkness inside me roars to life. I reach out with my senses to find Sarah or anyone else with a similar signature. When I don’t sense anything, I increase the flow of magic.

  “Where are you?” I yell, not caring if the neighbors think I’m crazy. Maybe I am.

  Keller’s truck screeches to a halt at the curb. He, Toni and Egan hop out and head straight for me. I stare hard at them, not wanting them here.

  “Jax, what are you doing?” Keller asks as he draws near.

  “What I should have done long before now.”

  “Bring every damn coven down on our heads before we’re ready?” Egan asks. “Cut the power surge, will ya?”

  Keller tries to take my hand, but I back away. “No. I’m going to find the Bane, and they are going to tell me how to gain enough power to end this.”

  “You’re hurting. We all are. But we have to think things through.”

  “I’m tired of thinking things through! I’m tired of waiting. I’m tired of worrying about someone getting hurt. None of it does any good.”

  Toni steps forward. “Jax—”

  Egan moves fast and grabs my upper arm. “Stop it, right now, before you get us all killed! Unless that’s what you want.”

  I’ve never seen Egan look so fierce, so angry, so . . . adult and in charge. It’s enough to shake some sense into me. What am I doing? I cut the flow of my power, wondering if I’ve truly lost my mind. Hoping I haven’t let the darkness inside me sign our death warrants.

  Chapter Twelve

  When night falls, we all sit around the old dining room table in the farmhouse’s kitchen watching as Keller talks to his father on the phone. When he finally ends the call and turns toward us, he’s holding a sheet of paper.

  “Barrow’s contact number,” he says.

  It feels wrong to still assume the leader’s position after what I did earlier, putting us all at even more risk than we were already in, but it’s my responsibility. I put us in this mess, and I’ll get us out.

  “The old Pherson property,” I say. “I’ll set up a meeting there. The line of trees will provide cover. I will draw him out, and you two,” I say, pointing at Egan and Keller, “will come around him from behind. Toni, you will be armed and guarding the perimeter, letting us know if anyone else approaches.”

  “What about me?” Rule asks. He hasn’t said much since he and Adele arrived at the farm, unable to stay in their home tonight, not when Barrow could come back.

  “You stay here with your mom.”

  “No,” Adele says. She’s slipped out of the bedroom where she was resting. Her eyes are red and puffy, but there is a resolve in them that I recognize as her mother’s. “This man killed my mother. I’m not going to sit idly by and do nothing while I send children off to fight him. I know you’re all stronger than I am, but I can’t do nothing.”

  I nod, understanding her need to take action. “You two can help Toni guard the perimeter. That will give us more coverage in case Barrow has alerted other hunters or witches start showing up.”

  Once we have all the plans in place, I take out my phone and with shaky hands text Barrow’s number. When I hit the send button, I place the phone on the table in front of me and stare at it. “Well, that’s that.”

  We all sit in silence for several seconds before I make eye contact with Keller. “I need you to remember what you promised me.”

  Keller takes a deep breath and looks away. “It won’t come to that.”

  “You saw me earlier. You know it might.”

  “What is she talking about?” Toni asks, looking anxious at the tone of the conversation.

  “He promised that if I went totally over to the dark side and was in danger of hurting someone, he would kill me.”

  “Kill her?” Toni nearly shrieks her disbelief. “And you promised this?”

  “It’s only as a last resort,” he says.

  Toni shoots up from her chair and paces across the room, her palm pressed against her forehead. “Oh, my God. I can’t believe I’m hearing this.”

  Egan meets my eyes and holds them for a long time. “We need you to keep fighting the darkness. I need you.” He lets that sink in for a moment. “Barrow’s a piece of garbage, but we can take care of him without you caving.”

  I nod. “Let’s get everything ready.”

  When everyone stands and starts gathering coats, Egan pulls me aside. “I know it’s hard, but you have to keep fighting it,” he says so no one else can hear. “I’m afraid if you give in, I won’t be far behind.”

  It’s the first time he’s actually admitted out loud to being afraid of anything. More than anything else that’s been said, his words help beat back the rising darkness. I realize how much I care about him. He’s like the brother I’ve never had.

  We work side by side loading weapons and flashlights into the Jeep and truck. Our feet make a muffled crunching sound as we walk through a layer of newly fallen snow. The land as far as I can see is wearing a blanket of white. It really is beautiful in a lonely, frigid way.

  “If we find a way to defeat the covens, are you going back to Baker Gap?” Egan asks.

  I shake my head slowly. “I can’t think that far ahead. It takes more energy than I have at my disposal.”

  “Because I am. And after Toni graduates, I’m going to go wherever she wants to for as long as she’ll have me.”

  It feels foreign, like a language I once knew but have forgotten, but I smile. “Head over heels, huh?”

  “Yep.”

  “Never thought I’d see the day, but I’m glad.” I point at him. “You treat her right, or you’ll have to deal with me.”

  He just smiles, but I can tell by the emotions filling him to the brim that his parade of arm candy is over. Despite what I told him about not looking too far into the future, I allow myself to imagine a time when the covens are no longer a threat and I’m free to be who I want to be. Free to be with Keller and over-the-moon happy. I try not to let myself think about how tiny a chance there is of that happening.

  My phone buzzes in my pocket, a text coming through. When I see the message, the darkness surges upward like a tidal wave, flooding me with the potent desire for revenge.

  “What does it say?” Egan asks.

  “Barrow’s changing the game plan.” I read the text to everyone. “One hour, Wildwood Cemetery. Come prepared to die.”

  “We can insist on him coming to us,” Rule says.

  I shake my head. “He won’t show. We go now, or we won’t know where or when he might strike. I don’t want him to be a threat to you anymore.”

  We don’t drive all the way to the cemetery. Instead, we park the Jeep and Keller’s truck in the dark shadows next to an out-of-business convenience store. After assigning Adele and Rule to stand guard at th
e end of the lane that leads to the cemetery and to call if they see anything off, the rest of us walk toward the cemetery. We keep to the deeper shadows at the edges of the road. Our approach reminds me of when Egan and I headed for Shiprock to face my coven. I’m a much different witch now. I know the kind of damage I can do, and I’m burning with a need to avenge Fiona’s death.

  I scan the night for threats. But all I see are the dark shapes of trees amongst the falling snow. Flakes land on my nose and cheeks and melt, making my face even colder. Everything around us is still and quiet, too much so. We make it all the way to the cemetery, but I still don’t sense Barrow. He’s probably the type of guy who likes to put his prey on edge, make them wait until their nerves frazzle. Well, I’m not his normal prey.

  I sense Barrow’s presence a moment before I hear the approach of a bullet. “Get down!”

  Using my fastest speed, I jump out of its path as I push Keller to safety. Shards of stone fly when the bullet hits a gravestone behind me. I send a surge of my power in his direction, but I miss him. Instead, I de-bark half of a tree.

  “Come out, you evil bastard!” At the memory of Fiona’s crumpled body on the floor, the darkness within me rushes to the surface, but I force it back down. I will not give in.

  “I am not the evil one,” he says then takes another shot.

  I avoid it and send another blast his way. I can’t see him yet, but I can sense where he is.

  “Keep him talking,” Keller whispers and slips off into the night.

  My heart constricts in fear. Then I realize the best way to keep him safe is to divert Barrow’s attention and let Keller do what he’s trained to do.

  “I haven’t killed an innocent old woman,” I spit at Barrow.

  “She was far from innocent. She was a witch. Not as black-hearted as you and your kind, but an unnatural being nonetheless.”

  My magic crackles like lightning along my arms and dances at my fingertips. My body shakes with the effort to keep it in check. “Who are you to decide who is evil and who isn’t? You’re obviously not very good at it.” I send another bolt his way, staying clear of Keller and causing snow from the ground to shoot into the air.

  “There is no place in this world for evil beings, and some of us have answered the call to purge the world.” He sounds like a religious zealot, one so far gone that he can’t see that there wasn’t an evil bone in Fiona’s body. He’s no different than the people who started the covens’ reign of evil by persecuting innocents during the witch trials.

  “You’re worse than half the things you hunt,” I yell back at Barrow.

  “Says a witch so filled with poison that her eyes are black with it, that her body sizzles with the power of Satan.”

  I make a subtle motion for Toni to stay hidden but watch my back before I walk forward. I stalk through the snow toward his voice, sending blasts of power toward him. I’m not trying to kill him, just keep his attention on me until Keller and Egan can converge and capture him. For a moment, I imagine forcing the life from him, watching his face when the light goes out, the way he watched as Fiona’s dimmed then died. It’s so difficult to pull myself from those evil thoughts. I know hate fuels the darkness, but I can’t help it. I hate Amos Barrow with every fiber of my being.

  The momentary lapse of concentration on my part is all Barrow needs. He walks out of the trees, and he has his gun pressed to Rule’s temple, a gag in Rule’s mouth and his hands bound behind him.

  My heart starts beating frantically. How did Rule get here? Where is Adele? Is she still alive? Have I failed their family all over again? “Let him go.”

  “No.”

  “I could kill you where you stand,” I say with slow, deliberate words.

  “Before I pull the trigger and litter the snow with his brains?”

  I growl, and the dark magic within me roars to the surface.

  “Fight it, Jax,” Keller says from somewhere off to my right.

  Barrow doesn’t even flinch. He’s known where Keller and Egan are all along. “She can’t,” he says, sounding supremely confident and pompous. “It’s who she is. Evil. An abomination.”

  “Shut up!” My voice doesn’t sound like my own, and it doesn’t even scare me. Some part of me whispers to keep fighting the darkness, but it’s so much easier not to, to do what it wants. What I want.

  “Take the two of us,” Egan says. “Just let the others go.”

  “He won’t let any of us go,” I say. “He plans to kill us all.” Images of Fiona in that pool of blood assault me. And now the man who killed her holds the life of her grandson in his hands. Rule—my friend, the boy I’d promised to protect to the best of my abilities. I flex my fingers and walk slowly forward, stalking my prey. “Only he’s the one not leaving.”

  “Jax,” Toni says behind me, but I ignore her.

  “That’s it,” Barrow says. “You’re the one I really want.”

  When he presses the barrel of the gun harder against the side of Rule’s head, I sense Rule’s fear, see it in his eyes. It throws gasoline on the fire of my anger, and I catch Barrow unaware as I invade his mind.

  He winces with what must feel like a sudden headache. “What are you doing?”

  I sift my way through the layers of his mind until I find the right spot, and in the next instant he releases Rule. Keller races out of hiding to get Rule, who has fallen to his knees and is having difficulty getting back up.

  Barrow fights back unexpectedly. “Get out of my brain!” He raises the gun.

  I don’t give him any time to aim at Rule or Keller. I send a blast of magic into him that is so powerful he goes airborne before falling on his back into the snow.

  Hatred churns inside me, and I let more of the darkness take over as I blast him against. This time, it makes his coat smoke.

  Egan tries to run for me, but I use my greater power to toss him aside before he reaches me.

  “Jax, stop it!”

  I turn and see Keller aiming a gun at me from the lane.

  “Keller, no,” Toni says.

  Egan pulls himself to his feet, and I can tell he is struggling with his own inherent darkness coupled with my increased darkness pulsing through the connection between us. Still, there’s enough goodness in him that he crosses to Toni in time to keep her from approaching me.

  “Jax, please stop,” Toni yells at me. “Please don’t make Keller do this.”

  I can’t see them, but I know tears are streaking down her cheeks. Part of me is sorry about that, but a bigger part doesn’t care. I’m still self-aware enough to know that is not a good sign, that I’m losing the battle for myself.

  “Shoot her,” Barrow says from where he’s managed to prop his battered body on one arm.

  I spin back toward him and extend my hands.

  “Jax. Jax, look at me.” Keller walks closer, his boots crunching in the snow.

  Ignore him. He’s nothing. I’m tempted to obey the voice of the dark, but a sliver of the girl who loves Keller shifts my attention back to him. He’s a hunter, too. Kill him. Kill them both.

  “I don’t want to do this.” Keller’s voice is strained as he eyes me down the barrel of his shotgun. I know it’s not loaded with rock salt this time. I imagine I see the glint of tears in his eyes.

  I stare at him, saying nothing, as the darkness rages inside me. The energy pulsing inside me increases each moment, like a power plant about to overload.

  “You’re a disgrace,” Barrow says through his pain. He’s not talking about me. The disgust in his voice is for Keller, who is hesitating to do what Barrow has already tried.

  “Shut up,” I say when I turn my attention back to Barrow. “I’m sick of your voice.” My own voice deepens, the darkness speaking.

  “Then I hope you hear it for eternity as you burn in hell. You’ll burn right alongside all your friends.” He lifts the gun he’s managed to retrieve while I wasn’t looking.

  Knowing I can dodge the bullets, I give him a few little s
hocks, prolonging his agony. He grips the gun as if it’s glued to his hand.

  “Jax, that’s enough.” Keller’s voice barely makes it past the screaming darkness.

  I glance back at him for only a moment, but it’s long enough for Barrow to aim his gun. Only he’s not aiming at me. His sights are trained on Keller. He pulls the trigger at the same time as I hit him with the full force of my power. I shriek as my power lifts me off the ground, makes my hair fly wildly in all directions. Darkness blackens everything around me, even the pure white of the snow, as I drift toward Barrow’s body crumpled on the ground. He has to be dead now, but I don’t let up my barrage.

  As I stare down at him, my power goes out like a blown bulb, and I fall to the ground. My mind slows, slogs through every thought as if my synapses are caked in molasses. I’m vaguely aware of a pain in the back of my neck, but I can’t lift my arm to examine why. My sight blurs at the edges, but I blink enough that I realize I’m lying on my side in the snow facing Barrow. His corpse is smoking and burned beyond recognition. I think I hear someone call out my name, but then my hearing shuts down.

  Suddenly, something cold and metallic clamps over my left wrist. Then the worst burning sensation imaginable makes me scream and bow backward. It feels as if my skin is melting, like I’ve shoved my arm into an open flame. Maybe Barrow was right about me burning in hell. Maybe I’m already there.

  Tears leak out of my eyes and drip into the snow. The darkness inside me screams even louder than I do and shrinks away into nothingness. That’s when I really see Barrow and realize what I’ve done. My stomach churns at the horrific image. I did this. I killed a man. Oh my God, I’ve lost the battle. I wonder about my friends as my vision begins to fade. Movement around me makes me look up, past what is left of Amos Barrow. Red-cloaked figures, ones without faces, stare down at me. I am in hell, and the devil has come to greet me personally.

  (Continue reading for an excerpt of Trish’s next book and information about the author)