by Jen Stevens
“What are they doing here?” Rhyse pointed at the Grangers, his face twisted in a nasty scowl and the flame in the fireplace grew and licked at the top of the hearth.
Tabitha growled at him—actually growled—and dropped her bags onto the floor. “Watchtower is falling. They've got Storie and they're hunting anyone else who will get in their way.”
“Why would they hunt one of our Counters? They think eliminating them will make us stronger. Don't they want to keep us weak?” Enzo propped himself onto the arm of the couch.
“The darkness has taken over the town. Everyone is feeling violent and restless. Rayner has convinced them that she's the final piece of the revolution.” Tabitha surprised me with her candid answers. She was usually so selective of the information she shared.
“Where did they take Storie?” I called from the kitchen. I was already reaching for my jacket when Tabitha's words stopped me.
“Rayner took her to the woods on the south end of town. He knows that killing her will make you weaker.”
Enzo let out a string of curse words and Rhyse paced in front of the fireplace. His family owned the woods on the south side. Was it possible his father had crossed us once again?
“What did you find about locating your Counters?” Tabitha asked, her eyes bouncing between us fervently. We each exchanged confused glances until we directed our attention to Lux, who had been studying the book for days.
“You mean to tell me you stole the Book of Shadows and didn't bother finding the most critical piece of information?” she asked incredulously, huffing out a sigh of frustration when no one had any defense.
“You knew we took it?” I asked her, daring to take a step closer with my stomach twisted into knots. We were wasting precious time. I could feel Storie's fear growing in my chest.
Tabitha's eyes briefly closed as she took a few deep calming breaths. “Of course, I knew. Why do you think I allowed her into that room in the first place?”
“What were you doing with the Quarters’ Book of Shadows?” Lux's eyes narrowed. He crossed his arms over his puffed-out chest.
Blaire took a defensive step toward Tabitha, but the old woman still appeared unfazed. In fact, she rolled her head from side to side and stared at the ceiling as if she couldn't believe she had to deal with any of this.
“There's not enough time for this.” She let out another frustrated growl and balled her fists, scanning the room for the aforementioned book. “I should have known better than to rely on a group of children,” she grumbled, walking right past Enzo on the armrest of the couch to lift the cushions.
Lux rolled his eyes. “The book is useless. None of it makes sense.”
“It's written in Quarter code. Didn't your fathers teach it to you?”
Standing from her assault on the couch, she moved to rifle through the bookshelf that Lux filled with books he thought might help us.
“Where is it?!” she shouted, amplifying the panic that was growing in my chest. I wasn't sure if it was Storie's or my own, but we needed to stop wasting time on nonsense and get to her.
I climbed the ladder to the loft and swiped the book from the floor where Lux had left it, ignoring their betrayed scowls as I walked across the cabin and shoved it into her hands unapologetically.
“Here. I can feel her anxiety growing stronger. I think we can use it to find her. We need to get to her soon.”
“You can feel her?” Blaire ran up before me, her eyes widened in alarm.
I nodded, fear gripping my throat. It was growing stronger by the second.
Tabitha sat down at the table and began flipping through the Book of Shadows. Enzo and Rhyse were having a quiet argument off to the side when Lux gave in and pulled up a chair beside her and attempted to decipher the coded text on the pages.
It happened in a blink. The terror was all-consuming, locking me into one spot with no choice but to stand there and allow myself to feel it. If I was so overcome with these feelings, she must have been going out of her mind. I figured that as long as I was feeling something, I could assume she was alive.
Then, everything stopped.
Panic surged through my veins. Somehow, the lack of emotions was worse than anything else and as soon as I opened my mouth to warn the others, her translucent form appeared before me.
Blaire gasped from somewhere behind me, then Lux and Tabitha finally looked up from their impossible task, and Enzo and Rhyse’s arguing ceased.
“They’re going to burn me,” Storie breathlessly rushed out. Her violet eyes remained on me, ignoring the rest of the room.
“Who? Where are you?”
“Rayner took me somewhere in the woods with a huge clearing for their bonfire. Silas is here. Remy, practically the whole town is here and they’re going to kill me to weaken you and prove a point.” Her voice quivered as she rattled on, her eyes slowly moving around the room as if she were just now noticing everyone else.
I looked to Tabitha for advice, my throat clogging with raw fear like I’ve never known before. They were going to kill her because of me.
“How are they planning to kill you?” Tabitha calmly asked.
It seemed like such an odd question. Who gave a fuck how they were doing it? The point was we needed to get there and stop them.
“They’ve got me tied to a cross and surrounded by firewood. They keep pouring gasoline on me while Rayner talks about sacrifice. I don’t know, I can’t listen to him. I need your help!”
Her words were igniting a storm inside of me that shook my entire being. My physical body was here, but my spirit was off somewhere, searching for its other half before it disappeared forever.
“We’re not going to make it to you in time. Storie, you need to listen to me. You have to save yourself,” Tabitha was explaining while Storie shook her head in denial. Tears were falling down her cheeks as she begged for us to come find her.
“What do you mean? We can make it there; we just need to go now. Enzo can shift the streets to get us there faster,” I yelled out, though no one was listening.
Everyone had their attention focused on Storie, who was slowly fading in and out as she was being pulled back to her physical body. Each time she disappeared from sight, the anguish she was feeling sliced through my chest like a knife.
“You need to call Remy’s magic to you. Storie, can you hear me?” Tabitha was shouting at the flickering manifestation of the woman I loved. “Focus on Remy and draw the connection. You don’t have to be near each other for it to work. Call his gift to you and use the water from the earth to put the fire out…”
Tabitha’s words faded off when Storie disappeared for good.
“We need to get to her,” I said to no one in particular.
I wasn’t listening to anyone’s response as I reached for the handle on the door and stepped out. Lux grabbed my arm and tugged me back into the cabin, pointing to Tabitha.
He turned my body to face him and placed both hands on my shoulders, forcing my attention onto his icy blue eyes. “We’ll get you there. But you need to listen to her to figure out how to transfer your gifts to Storie and help her get out of this herself. Otherwise, there won’t be anything left to save.”
I considered him for a moment, my chest burning again with the same fear that had overtaken me before. He was right. There wasn’t time. With a stiff nod, I walked back into the kitchen and stood before the old woman, peering down at her expectantly.
“Tell me what to do.”
Chapter 37
Storie
Rayner was wrapping up his speech when my connection with Remy was severed. I was pulled back to consciousness by Beau and his partner carving into my skin with small pocketknives. They made cuts along my arms and legs that formed into odd, wicked looking symbols. The pain hardly phased me as my body had gone numb when I left it to visit Remy.
My head spun as thoughts swam around my mind, circling too fast for me to land on one. I tried to recall what Tabitha told me, but the gasoli
ne fumes were jumbling everything up. Remy’s face appeared before my eyes and the monster in my chest roared to life, reminding me what I was fighting for.
I couldn’t give up. I wouldn’t allow them to use me to hurt him.
Closing my eyes to block out the massive flames licking the sky beside me and the orange-tinted faces it danced across, I focused inward. I imagined myself pulling power from the ocean miles away.
From the damp ground below me that I’d stumbled on during my trek through the woods.
From the living trees in the forest surrounding us.
Even from the gas-soaked wood at my feet.
I pictured tiny drops of water evaporating from my surroundings and gathering into the air until they formed large splashes that fought the flames down into a tamed pile of embers glowing on the blackened forest floor. Those same splashes doused the wood pile at my feet, diluting the gasoline and clearing my senses enough to form a real, coherent thought. Next, my mind had the water lift my body and loosen the ties around my wrists and ankles, so I could slip out of them with ease.
All of this was an illusion. Something my mind chose to focus on as a survival tactic instead of giving my murderers the satisfaction of watching me writhe around in fear as my final moments approached. I’d managed to block out their chants and the deep rumble of Rayner’s voice while he droned on and on to his crowd, too conceited to give up their attention for a few minutes to watch me burn.
Instead, I went to a place in my mind where Remy and I were together without the complications of these supposed gifts that were bestowed upon us by the gods. We were regular people, living a regular life in our tiny bubble of love. Our families never lied to or betrayed us, and our friends were happy and accepting. Everything was perfect, and for a moment, I could breathe.
Those are the daydreams that carried me off into the sky and floated me away.
Up, up, up.
Gone.
Chapter 38
Remy
We were able to find them deep in the woods of the Forbes property based on the vague description Storie gave us. Even without them, I would have hunted her down. Our souls were intertwined and hers was practically screaming for me to come find it.
Rhyse sensed the fire before anyone else and he led the way through the last of our hike. Tabitha managed to walk through the tangled foliage on the forest floor as well as the rest of us, despite her wobbling and limping any other time. I was growing more suspicious of her, and Blaire and I sensed they were hiding something from us. There were just too many unexplained coincidences when it came to them, and it was time Tabitha shared everything she knew about Quarters and Counters.
After we got to Storie, though.
That throbbing fear I’d felt before had faded into a dull ache. I wouldn’t allow myself to consider what that meant for Storie. Instead, I used it as motivation to move forward and get to her as fast as possible.
“What the hell?” Rhyse whispered as we came up to a large clearing of trees.
Bonfire smoke was wafting all around us and people were mulling about across the charred earth. Large embers sat in the center of the blackened circle, providing the only source of light in the blackened abyss.
“Where’s the fire?” Blaire asked, tilting her head quizzically.
“She did it,” Tabitha breathed out. She hung her head and allowed herself a moment to feel the same silent relief that I had at that revelation.
She did it.
But where was she?
Enzo pointed to a large pile sitting off to the side. That must have been where they had her slung up. My feet were taking me there before any rational thought could stop me. I opted to take the heavily wooded area surrounding the clearing instead of exposing myself to whoever was lingering about. Halfway there, something reached out to my left shoulder and hissed.
“Remy,” her broken voice called out.
I turned and watched as she fell onto her knees. Despite the darkness surrounding us, I could see her clear as day. Her skin appeared to be glowing and I wasted no time kneeling before her and taking in her ragged appearance.
Officer Abbot was sitting on the ground behind her. He had been supporting her weight and attempting to wrap bandages from his first aid kit around her arms.
Dried, brown blood was caked all over her skin, concentrated in certain areas of her arms and legs where she appeared to have been cut. I couldn’t make out the symbols they formed before our touch began healing them. Officer Abbot's eyes widened, and he leaned backward, shifting his weight so he could stand before us.
“Thank gods you're here,” he breathed, bowing his head to Tabitha and Blaire.
“Where is Rayner?” Tabitha’s gravelly voice asked from somewhere behind me.
Storie’s heavy breathing filled the thick silence as we all waited for their answer.
“I only got here at the end of it,” Abbot began quietly. He looked out at the small crowd of people that lingered behind and dropped his voice even lower. “I heard about something going on in the woods and that he'd taken her. I couldn't stand by while another Graves was harmed by Rayner's agenda. By the time I got here, the fire was gone, and she was just getting out of her restraints. I brought her over here out of sight to tend to her wounds.”
I never looked away from Storie. My hands remained on her while he spoke, and she allowed my touch to heal her more before attempting to move or speak again.
Her legs pushed off the ground once they were strong enough to hold her and propelled her into me. Soft arms wrapped themselves around my neck as she buried her face into my chest, breathing me in. My own arms held her tight while I did the same.
Finally, she turned her head toward our audience and rasped, “He ran.”
Epilogue
Storie
The weeks following Rayner's bonfire were a frenzied blur. He managed to somehow disappear into the wind that night, and no one had heard from or seen him since.
His actions divided Beacon Grove into two separate sides, although most who followed the Movement had quickly shifted their loyalty back to the Quarters once news got out about the fateful events that happened. In the days after, the most loyal Movement members were taken in and questioned regarding everything they knew about the man who led them, including those who were confirmed to have been present for the bonfire. No one knew where he had gone, and if they did, they weren’t sharing. The police had no choice but to let everyone go and allow the town to come together and attempt to find some semblance of normalcy.
Remy and the other Quarters returned to their homes early that morning. They each confronted their fathers about the lies they’ve been fed about their gifts and bravely reclaimed their roles as Quarters of their coven. Some resisted, like Remy’s father, but even in their weakened state, they were no match to their sons. It was as Tabitha had said before; nature liked balance. It didn’t reward those who tried to manipulate their way around it. And the elders certainly made every attempt to manipulate the natural order of things.
Since I was able to personally identify Silas as an active part of the Movement and the bonfire was held on his property, he was immediately stripped of his title as Watchtower High Priest and placed on house arrest. In a town full of magic and angry witches, that was a little different than anything I'd seen in the past.
Rhyse had him thrown into the cellars below their house and imprisoned him there with various incantations that Tabitha guided him through until they could come up with a proper punishment. They found his Counter down in the cellars as well, and it turns out that Rayner's crazy ramblings that night were correct—his brother had been taken from his family and forced to spend his life as a prisoner, feeding Silas his powers any time he needed them.
I learned that my parents were correct when they insisted I was already a part of the Watchtower coven. Now that everyone knew I was a Counter, they had no choice but to allow me in without initiation, and I had no choice but to accept. It would ta
ke a while for me to heal from what some of them had done to me when they were following Rayner, but it was nice to be a part of a community after a lifetime of missing that.
Once I recovered, Remy and I were able to remove the black magic spell that Rayner allowed to fester and grow for nearly two months. It had taken us a few long hours and a lot of guidance from Tabitha—who was not the most patient teacher—but we managed to disassemble the dark cloud lingering over Beacon Grove and release its inhabitants from the control it had over their minds and moods. The shift was instantaneous for Rhyse, Enzo, and Lux, who were finally able to access their gifts again.
Tabitha, Blaire, and Callista were still battling the tarnished reputation their family had suffered from helping Counters all those years ago, though they were welcomed amongst the coven members more easily with the knowledge that they were friends of the Quarters. The others attempted to force Tabitha to identify their Counters, but she adamantly refused, explaining that it wasn’t her place as that wasn’t how nature intended for them to be reunited. The argument continued each time they were in the same room as the other, which happened more often as the coven attempted to right themselves after the fall of their High Priest, and the Quarters vowed to attend every meeting.
“Is this everything?” Remy asked, holding up the last of my belongings that were scattered around Blaire’s room.
I decided to make my stay in Beacon Grove indefinite now that I had managed to form my own little dysfunctional family here. There wasn't much for me in the real world anymore and being here made me feel closer to the people I missed the most. I also had this overwhelming feeling that I still had a lot to learn about the people and place I came from.
Beacon Grove wasn't going to share its secrets with me easily, though. This place doesn't follow the same rules as the rest of the world. That much was obvious.
