Flames in the Midst (The Jade Hale Series)

by Reckenwald, Sarah

  I hung around with Amy, Madilyn, Chase and Alex while everyone else left the room in a silent procession. The atmosphere around this place grew more ominous with every passing minute. Chase still gripped my hand; he had no idea I had almost chosen Gia over him, despite the fact he would be more useful for this particular mission. I would put my letter to him on his nightstand before we left tonight. When we got back, I would pack and leave.

  Amy handed out the period clothing Anastasia had picked out for us. The colors seemed dull and ordinary for such an extraordinary trip, but we needed to blend in with the Puritan society in the 1600s. Who better to pick out clothing for us than someone who had been alive then and who also had perfected the art of blending in ever since?

  “Dinner will be at five. Paul is barbequing. Make sure you are there on time. You’ll have some time to change afterwards. Then we will meet back here at seven,” Amy announced to the few of us who were gathered around her. As everyone took their clothing, one set to wear and one set to carry, Amy asked me to stay with her for a few minutes. Chase wrapped his arm around my shoulders and gave me a quick squeeze before leaving with Alex. Madilyn rushed off to spend a few moments with her family before we left.

  “Jade,” Amy said, “I know that your participating in this trip is not for exactly the same reasons as the rest of us.”

  I tried to cut her off, but she just held up her hand and kept talking. Amy had a way of commanding an audience, whether it be just one person or a room full of people.

  “I know you are still hurting. Even though Evan murdered your mother over a dozen years ago, to you, only a number of months have passed. I have every reason to want Evan dead, too. He murdered Justin just as heartlessly as he killed your mother, but I have to think about what is right and what is not. If we can stop Evan without killing him, we will bring him back here. He will pay for killing our loved ones, but we have to figure out what he is involved in before we can exact any justice. We also have to figure out how involved his son is. I don’t want to assume he is just as guilty as his father. We’d be no better than the chaos he is causing in Salem.”

  “I don’t agree. I’m sorry, Amy. I just don’t see how bringing Evan and Cameron back here will do any good.”

  “Madilyn and I have been cooking something up over the years. We decided capturing him was necessary because there is obviously more to this than just murdering a couple of people in a bar one night. However, once we get to the bottom of it, neither of us could murder someone who is captured and defenseless. We don’t want to go down that path. So we have another plan.” Amy stopped at this point. She was obviously not going to tell me about the other plan, so I focused on what I perceived to be a flaw in her initial plan.

  “Won’t he just escape? Can’t he just travel to some other time where we won’t be able to find him?”

  “That’s just it. I don’t think he is the one with the time traveling ability. I think his son has that gift. Otherwise, he may have just left him behind, but he couldn’t because he needed him in order to travel through time.”

  I had not thought about Cameron being a time traveler as a possibility. If Cameron was the one who could travel through time, then he had at least two rare gifts since I already knew he could see glimpses of the future. I couldn’t even think about the fact Cameron had anything else in common with me. Since I wasn’t in my dream lagoon, or whatever it was, the thought was repulsive to me. At least, I could will it to be repulsive.

  “Promise me you will not kill them unless it is the only option. I don’t want to see you go down that path either, Jade. Not if I can stop it from happening.”

  I stared at Amy. Asking me to help and to bring them along had been a big enough compromise, but it was still a compromise. They had trained me in return. I was still far from Guardian material, but my skills and my focus had changed enough to make me a competent witch. This seemed like too much to ask. It had been my intention from the beginning to destroy Evan and his son for what they had done to my mother, to my family.

  On the other hand, Amy didn’t out and out forbid me from killing them. I would just have to find a way to make sure I didn’t have another option. I took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

  “I promise I will not kill them unless I have no other options, but I have a strong feeling they won’t make it easy for us. I think it is going to come down to killing them in the end.”

  Amy looked right into my eyes when she answered. I could see the pain and weariness in her face, but she would still be a strong leader for this coven no matter what the personal expense was to her.

  “You may be right,” she said.

  I spent the few hours I had left lying on my bedroom floor leaning against Chase. Stefanie sat across from us, chattering away and obviously upset she would not be going even though she had known that was the case from the beginning. Chase kept running his fingers through my hair. We had to blend in when we got to Salem, so at first I had dyed my hair a dull shade of brown. Then we realized we didn’t know how long we would be there. If my red roots started showing, that might draw attention.

  I had thought about the spell to change the rusty car to look as if it were brand new, and I thought about a spell from those Harry Potter books the character Tonks had used to change her hair color. Of course, a spell to change my hair color would take more than a wave of a wand. For starters, we didn’t use wands. It took me all of October and November to perfect the spell, not having a natural knack for it. The first time I tried, I nearly burned my hair off. Apparently, you need to be careful with new spells when you are a firestarter. Now I had it down. I could change my hair to brown, black or indigo. The indigo came when I was going for blond. I’m not sure how I messed that one up, but now I could change my hair to indigo if I wanted to, not that it would be useful for this trip. I still couldn’t get the blond color without using the traditional box of hair coloring.

  Stefanie was still talking. Every now and then Chase affirmed we were listening by asking her a question or nodding in agreement. He kept running his fingers through my hair, and the soothing feel of it let me block Stefanie out and think. I had to concentrate to get a portal to open through time and allow five people, including myself, to enter. It was nothing like the parlor trick Garrett had taught me.

  Once we got there, we would have to find a secluded place to camp out. We had toyed with the idea of approaching the Hale family to seek solace, but it did not seem like a good idea in the end. I descended from the Hale family, but Reverend Hale never had any idea his second wife was truly a witch. Sarah was one of the few accused who were actually witches. She couldn’t flee the town of Beverly because of her husband’s involvement in the trials. She had assumed she would be safe because of her husband’s position. From what Madilyn and Amy remembered prior to the fire at the bar, Sarah had never been accused. The hysterics had died down long before she would be accused. The reality now stood that she was accused and hung at the gallows after giving birth to her fourth child, John, in December of 1692. We needed to set that right.

  The people of Salem believed being a witch meant you were in bed with the devil. In reality, witches are just people who have inherited a trait passed down through generations because of something our ancestors stumbled upon. Kind of like a superhero. I chuckled at the thought of Madilyn’s analogy to Clark Kent months ago. She thought I should use my skills and gifts to be some sort of hero. I chuckled at the thought. Unfortunately, Stefanie was back to complaining about not going. My laugh stopped her in mid-sentence.

  “You think it’s funny I want to go with you and my mom?” she asked me. She looked hurt more than angry. I sat up.

  “No, Stef. I’m sorry. My mind was just wandering. I’ve got a lot to think about right now.”

  “Oh.” Stefanie slumped back against the side of her bed. She was sitting on the floor with us.

  “For what it’s worth, I wish I could take all of you,” I lied to make her feel better. I
wanted to say I wished I could just go alone, but I didn’t want to break my word. I didn’t think telling the truth would diffuse the situation. My lie worked, and Stefanie smiled. She got up and put on some music. We sat in silence for what was left of our afternoon—content just to be in the same room with friends one last time.

  After dinner, I waited until Chase and Alex had gone downstairs before I snuck into their room down the hall. I left my letter under a book on Chase’s nightstand. I knew he wouldn’t read it until we got back, but I felt I had closure. I could now look forward to the task in front of me.

  In the living room, almost everyone was there. Kendra showed up last, her hazy aura worrying me more now than ever. Amy had no big speech prepared. She had given her speech already. The five of us who were traveling said our last farewells. I prepared to open the portal in front of the fireplace, and those who were not traveling stepped back. It took me only a moment to realize Garrett had not stepped back. I had the portal open, but I wasn’t concentrating on it enough. Garrett’s aura, which had always remained the pale yellow I attributed to his hard existence and survival, flicked to a misty black and then back again to the pale yellow. I wasn’t sure how to explain what I suddenly knew without giving away my secret gift. Luckily, I didn’t need to because Alex noticed it, too.

  “It’s Garrett,” was all he could get out before Garrett lunged at me. I was sure he was intent on dragging me through the portal with him. It would close behind me as soon as I went through. Chase intervened and wrapped himself around Garrett, but Garrett was a caged animal looking for an escape at this point. He threw Chase off him with surprising ease. As he did, I could see he had a knife, which he swung up wildly. Amy would have been hit in the gut, much like my mother, if Kendra hadn’t jumped on Garrett next. Chase gained his composure and plunged right back into the tussle. Even with both Kendra and Chase trying to subdue him physically, Garrett still appeared to have the upper hand. He still held tight to the knife, and I saw a streak of crimson on the blade as the three thrashed around. I had no idea which of them had been injured.

  Paul tried to reach Madilyn and move her out of the way, but she stood her ground next to Amy. In the commotion, I watched Stefanie, who was rushing towards her mother, fall right through the portal. I had no idea where or when she went. My concentration was not what it needed to be to maintain this. I couldn’t keep up the portal and use my firestarting gift, and now that Stefanie had fallen through the portal, I couldn’t let it close. Besides, if I were to try to set fire to Garrett, I would also be setting fire to Chase and Kendra and probably the whole house.

  I began to feel light headed and queasy before I noticed Garrett’s lips moving. He was casting a spell, and my concentration in the moment was beginning to fade. Chase and Kendra were working hard to subdue Garrett with physical force, but Garrett still had the presence of mind to cast a spell to make it more difficult for me to make my escape or Stefanie’s rescue. Madilyn and Amy began countering it, and my head cleared slightly. The three of them were intent on their spells, although Garrett perhaps did not have the same level of concentration as the women did. Chase and Kendra continued physically wrestling with the knife-wielding madman in our midst. My portal was closing, and I had no idea where Stefanie had gone to, so I did the only thing I could think to do. I jumped in after her, and the time portal closed behind me.

  Chapter 15

  Compared to the commotion of the house, the forest stood still. Stefanie sat bewildered in between two towering trees. We had no way of knowing where or when we were, based on our surroundings. If I got the place right, but the time wrong, I would look out of place in my Puritan clothing. Of course, if we were in the current century or even the last century, it probably would not be that big of a deal that I looked out of place. If I got the time even close to right, then Stefanie would not only look out of place in her blue jeans and her vintage Nirvana T-shirt, but she would most likely be immediately condemned as a witch. We could just leave and return to our current time to help our family and friends. However, if I had nailed the time correctly, this might be our only shot at Evan and Cameron. The rules on time travel stated I could only interact with the same event timeline once, but if we showed up and didn’t do anything, we might still be able to come back. I wasn’t clear on the specifics. We had never discussed this scenario as a possibility in my crash course training.

  Besides, Garrett’s interference had just about given me what I wanted in the first place. I had my training, and I could go after Evan and Cameron on my own. Well, sort of on my own. Stefanie couldn’t quite blend in, so I would have to leave her in the forest while I scoped out our surroundings. For a moment, I wished I had Chase with me. He would be able to track Stefanie for me in the event I couldn’t find my way back.

  As all of this raced through my head, I made my way over to Stefanie who looked decidedly panicked. Her brown eyes were wide as she scrambled toward me. She grabbed me around the shoulders and shouted.

  “We have to go back! We can’t be here!”

  For a moment, I thought she was afraid to be in Salem in the wrong attire without a Guardian witch. Then her characteristic babbling began.

  “I can’t believe it was Garrett. We have to go back and help. My mother! My dad! What are we going to do?”

  It was then I realized I was still holding on to the spare set of clothing that had been meant for me. I put the clothing down, grabbed Stefanie’s hands from my shoulders and brought them down. I looked her square in the eyes.

  “Shut up,” I instructed. She stopped talking.

  “Listen. We have to find out where we are and when. If we are in Salem in 1692, then we can’t go back until we complete the mission. Your mom and dad, Amy, the entire coven will be counting on us.” I exuded as much confidence as I could. I knew I wouldn’t mind carrying on without the others for the time being, but I was not as sure this was the decision they would have me make. However, since I wasn’t sure we could come back, I really didn’t have any other choice.

  “No, Jade, we need to go back. We shouldn’t be here alone. This was not the plan,” Stefanie said after a long pause.

  “I don’t know if we can come back now that we are here. We have to at least check things out and try. Besides, I’m not even sure we are in the right place or the right time. Let’s figure that out first, and then we can decide what to do. Okay?”

  “Okay,” Stefanie said, “Apparently I don’t have a choice in the matter. It’s not like I can just zap myself back.” I had never heard Stefanie sound so bitter. She had tears in her eyes. I always forgot most people have stronger ties to others than I do. Although the members of the coven were the closest thing I had to family, Madilyn and Paul were biologically Stefanie’s family. I thought about what I would do if I could to avoid losing my family again and again. I could send Stefanie back alone, to fight to save her parents. Unfortunately, I had no way of knowing what was happening in the time I would be sending her back to, and I couldn’t live with myself if I sent Stefanie back straight into Garrett’s knife or an ambush by Garrett’s cohorts. I decided quickly not to bring up the possibility of sending Stefanie back alone.

  “We’re about the same size. Get changed into my spare set of clothes and we’ll go find out if I hit the mark or not,” I instructed her. Stefanie wiped her eyes and walked a few feet away to compose herself and change. I knew she was angry with me, so I gave her some space and walked in the opposite direction. The weather was more cool and crisp than it should be for May. I may have overshot only slightly, or we may be way off.

  As I stepped into what appeared to be a clearing, I realized we were closer to civilization than I had first thought. I stood on a trail with horse prints and wagon tracks. We were definitely not in the 21st century. My first instinct was to yell out in triumph, but I immediately repressed the urge as I processed our situation. We were close enough someone might spot us or spot Stefanie changing in the woods; that alone was enough to get
a girl accused of witchcraft, never mind the blue jeans.

  I rushed back to Stefanie only to find her standing where I had left her, still dressed in her jeans and t-shirt.

  “What are you doing? Are you okay?” I asked.

  Evan appeared behind her. He placed his hands on her shoulders. I took a step back. I wanted to incinerate him on the spot. I could feel the heat burning within me, but I would kill my friend if I let loose with him so close to her.

  “She can’t answer you. I had a special spell ready just for this occasion. Imagine my surprise to find only the two of you here, and then to see you separate. Well, I couldn’t let the opportunity pass me by,” Evan said.

  “Let her go.”

  “Let’s see. If I let her go, I go up in flames, right? I think I’ll keep her for now. My insurance policy.” He smiled at me, and it made my desire to kill him flare.

  “What do you want? Why did you have Cameron lure me here?”

  “Now, you’ll have to forgive me, but for the moment I don’t think we are in a position for conversation. I also highly doubt you will believe me when I explain I am not as much of a bad person as you would think.”

  “I watched you kill my mother. That’s all I need to know.” I fought every urge in my body to simply kill him right there in the woods. I was not callous enough to consider Stefanie a casualty. She was a friend, and I had to protect her from both Evan and myself.

  “Well, you actually need to know more than that, but again, I don’t think now is the time.” Evan appeared to be sweating. Instead of advancing on me, he was backing up, but he was taking Stefanie with him inch by inch.

  “Let her go. Take me instead. You’re after me anyway, right?” I couldn’t just watch him leave with Stefanie. I imagined him propelling a knife into Stefanie the way he had my mother, and I felt desperate to stop him this time.