Altered Souls (21 page)

“I don’t know what more you want me to do,” my father snapped, running his fingers through his hair.

“If we’re going to get this to market in time, you must speed up production. This whole thing with your daughter is holding us up. Either get rid of her or I will. She’s of no use to us.”

“But she holds powers from her mother that I know we can tap into,” my father retorted.

“You haven’t done well at choosing so far. Think about that Logan kid. That was a waste. He’s not still around I hope. I don’t have time for your screw-ups. I’m getting older, and I want to see everything the way the masters have planned for centuries.”

I could see my father clearly and was sure if he took his eyes off the elder, he would see me too.

“I’ll step up production, and my daughter will not cause any disruptions. Let me deal with her.” His eyes flickered to mine and I remained frozen.

“Now let’s get you back to the house before we head to the production facility.” My father placed his hand on the elder’s back and directed him toward the house.

I held my breath until I hovered on the verge of passing out. Was my father trying to protect me or did he only believe that I was of some use to him? I knew he saw me, but he probably didn’t give my presence away more for his self-preservation than mine.

The birds began their songs again, and all I wanted to do was hop the fence and never come back.

“Triss,” a voice whispered.

Was that Logan?

“Triss, over here,” Logan commanded.

It wasn’t in my head or was it? Without moving my head, my eyes scanned the forest, and I saw no one.

Feeling the warmth from the
nectunt
, I placed my hand over it.

“Are you here?”

“No, Triss. I’m not. Why? What’s going on? Did you hear something?”

“Nothing. I’m fine.”
I returned.
“Just wishful thinking.”

The limbs to my left snapped back, but I saw no one, nothing to cause the motion. My eyes traced the branches, hoping to see a squirrel or bird hopping around, but I found nothing except leaves rustling. I leaned my head back and frowned. Could the mushroom dust from the lavender be causing this?

“What aren’t you telling me?”
he asked.

“Nothing. I’ve got to go give some items to your mom. She asked about you. She’s proud of you.”

I felt the pain as he thought of his mother. I wanted to ease his suffering, but there was nothing I could do until we got her out of here.

“I’ll talk to you tonight. Love you.”

“I love you too, Triss.”

Standing up, I heard the voice directly behind me.

“Why are you fighting your father’s wishes?” he commanded.

I looked to see Logan standing by the birch, but it wasn’t really Logan. I rubbed my eyes, and tried to refocus on the being. What was going on?

“Who are you?” I yelled.

A pixelled retransformation began as Logan’s features began vanishing. I wanted to scream, but no one would care even if they heard me. As I stood motionless watching the imposter transform into his true character, I began doubting everything, but most of all my abilities. I needed to get out of here.

My hand slowly reached around to my back pocket, gripping my wand.

“Don’t bother.” The impersonator replied as he stepped toward me. It was the old man my father had been talking to. His face was marked with battle scars, and he looked older than humanly possible. “How’d you know I wasn’t Logan?”

“My father will come looking for me,” I replied, lying to myself and ignoring his question.

“No he won’t. I’m still with him. I have the uncanny ability to be more than one place at a time.” His laughter bounced off the trees. “And you know as well as I do he wouldn’t come for you anyway.”

“Who are you?” I asked, hoping to buy myself time.

“I’m the future.” He lowered his voice.

I remained silent.

Licking his lips he began again. “I will not let you disrupt the process.”

“I don’t think you have a choice.” My laughter dripped with rejection as he leapt toward me.

His hand came down on my shoulder, and the anger of eighteen years without a father ran through me. This was the man who turned my father against his family. I turned my head and bit his hand. My teeth entered his flesh and a wave of hatred followed.

“That’s what I thought,” he snarled. “You’re not special. You hate like the rest of us.”

He shoved me to the ground, and I wiped my mouth. The sickness began spreading through me. What had I done?

“Who said I didn’t?” My eyes flashed to his, then to his bloodied hand.

“Your father,” he snarled. “But you do. You do hate.”

“You’re wrong,” I replied, looking away from the man.

“I’m seldom wrong.”

“What did you promise my father eighteen years ago?” I asked. “What did you tell him to steal him away from his family.”

Remembering Logan’s words I kept pushing down the disgust and hostility, trying desperately to disallow hatred to seep back in to my blood. I was not going to prove this person right, whoever he was.

My fingers started tingling with the desire to destroy this old man. I had to stop myself.

“Children are supposed to listen to their parents,” he replied, twitching. “I only showed my
son
the possibilities of a world he attempted to abandon.”

“You’re my grandfather?”

Chapter 22

“Eben,” he responded. “Grandpa Eben. Hmm. Never heard that before.”

He paused and looked down at me. “Not sure I like it.”

I glared at him, saying nothing.

“I’ll allow you one pardon since you’re my granddaughter. Give me your allegiance, and I will forget this ever happened.”

“Why do you need my allegiance if I’m like everyone else? Why not destroy me?” I smiled, springing to my feet.

“You’re certainly naively determined.” His eyes darkened, and I knew I’d struck a chord. I backed up until I felt the tree trunk behind me for support.

“I call the wind to my side. I sing to the creatures above and below,” I whispered. The breeze picked up with a certainty that didn’t exist before. “Be by my side in this world and the other.”

Eben’s rage grew with every second that passed. What was he going to do to me?

I heard a snap coming from behind, and Eben took his eyes off of me long enough for me to start running. My heart raced with fear at the realization that I had nowhere to go, but I kept running.

“Come back here, girl,” he hollered.

The first flame whipped by me, lighting the ground on fire. He may have dark magic on his side, but I
had
youth and speed on mine.

My lungs began feeling heavy as I darted through the trees, fire bouncing in every direction. And then it hit. I’d been struck. Collapsing to the forest floor, I rolled on my back to get the flames extinguished but nothing worked. I heard footsteps coming near me, and I struggled to get up, to run again, but my body collapsed once more. My mind drifted to blackness.

A buzzing and throbbing woke me up, but I was too afraid to open my eyes.

“We have to get you out of here,” Trevor whispered, shocking me to my senses.

“No,” I shot up. “I can’t leave.”

“Whatever you think you came here for isn’t going to happen,” Trevor replied softly. “You need to leave and never come back. Never be connected to the Wiccan world again. It’s the only way for your survival.”

“Where am I?” I asked, seeing nothing I recognized.

“My room, but it’s only a matter of time before they find you.”

“Why are you helping me?” I asked.

“Because I love you.”

“If you love me, you’ll help me get my mom and Logan’s mom out of here safely.”

“He’s too powerful, Triss. It can’t be done.”

“He’s not any more powerful than you or me.”

Trevor shook his head, and extended his arm to touch my cheek.

“Get me to Ellsy
at least
. I need to give her some items.”

I saw fear lodged behind Trevor’s eyes, and I wasn’t sure he could get past it.

“Please.”

He shook his head and helped me off the bed.

“I’ll take the items for you, but I won’t let you go there.”

I was getting somewhere. I sat back down on the bed and raised my legs up, lifting my pants up to reveal the bottled waters.

“You’re willing to risk your life to give her water?” he asked, narrowing his eyes.

I nodded.

“Why?”

“My father doesn’t have power so much as he’s been poisoning everyone’s mind with the food you eat and the water you drink.”

Trevor’s jaw dropped open. “That can’t be.”

“Well it is.”

“That meeting my father was having today?”

He nodded.

“I think it was to go over distributing it beyond our community. And that man he was meeting with was my grandfather.”

Trevor’s expression turned to horror, and his skin paled to a ghostly shade.

“I know. It’s pretty horrible.” I replied. This
was
what Trevor used to be like. I could talk to him. He seemed normal before—

“I destroyed him,” he muttered.

“Wait. What?”

My world was spinning.

“I didn’t know,” he replied. “I was trying to save you. He wouldn’t listen to reason. He wouldn’t stop throwing fire. I heard him begin the chant for the Golems, and I knew I had to stop him. I banished him to the underworld.”

“You can do that?” I asked.

“It’s a pretty common spell in black sorcery.”

My body began to overheat with worry as I remembered my grandfather’s words.

“When he met me in the woods, he implied he could be two places at once. That he was also with my father.”

“Oh no.” Trevor raised his hand to his temple. “Triss, you don’t understand what we’re dealing with. You have to leave. Your grandfather is very much alive. I’ve only made him angry.”

“What about you?” I asked. I began emptying my pockets of the granola bars and tossed them on the water bottles for Ellsy.

“I’ll be fine,” his replied solemnly.

“Please make sure she gets these.”

“Triss, she’s not there anymore,” he replied.

My soul felt like a bottomless pit of despair. I was too late. We were too late.

“She went missing.” He slid everything under his pillow and grabbed my hand, pulling me to the door.

Missing? She didn’t go missing. This was the surprise Logan had told me about, but that meant he had been on the property. Oh no. Please no.

The hallway was deathly silent as we snuck along the wall, hiding in the shadows. My heart was pounding so fast I wasn’t sure I’d hear anyone coming.

“We’re going to go out the back entrance,” he whispered.

I followed him down the stairs and knew this was far too easy. It was only a matter of time. My hands were wet with anticipation, and my mind was impossible to calm, but we made it outside. How could this be?

“This way,” Trevor said, pulling me to the land behind the house. The darkness provided cover, but also the realization that I didn’t know this part of the property. But I didn’t care. All I could think of was Logan.

“Stay here,” he whispered, pointing to a very tiny area.

The only way I could fit under the boulder was to curl into a ball.

“Triss, I’m sorry but this is as far as I can take you. Wait a little while and then do your best to run. Run as fast as you can and don’t stop until you reach the wall.”

I nodded, and he took off in the direction we came from.

I placed my hand on the
nectunt
to reach Logan. I needed to make sure he was all right — that Ellsy was okay — but there was nothing. I felt nothing.

“Logan
,” I tried pushing the communication through, but it went nowhere. It was an empty word rattling around in my own mind.

I clamped my eyes shut. What did this mean? Where could he be?

I heard a rustling in front of me and opened my eyes to reveal a large shadow towering over me.

“Aw, there you are,” my father replied, reaching down he grabbed my neck.

“What have you done with him?” I whimpered.

“Who?” He grinned so wide, his teeth glistened in the night’s sky.

“How did you turn so evil?” I asked, as he pushed me in front of him. He knew I wouldn’t run. There was nowhere and no one to run to.

“The embarrassment you caused me in front of my father, your grandfather, is unforgiveable. He left angrier than I’ve ever seen him. He’s an old man, Triss. Do you realize I might never see him again? And my ignorant daughter chased him off. I saved you from him,” he ranted.

“You’re making no sense.”

“I saw you in the woods, but I didn’t let on that you were there and this is how you repay me?”

I didn’t even know how to reply. My father was insane. Dragging me across the property we finally arrived at the destination he intended.

“Do you think I got to this place of power by being foolish?” My father accused, shoving me into the shed that once housed Ellsy.

I cl
e
nched my eyes shut as my body slid against the floor, greeting every stone with pain. The anger was doubling inside, but I had to follow the plan. I promised Logan I would no matter what. It wasn’t only my life in jeopardy.

My flesh burned and stung as air began to touch the open wounds, but I wouldn’t shed a tear, not over this.
Not over
my father
.

“Not at all,” I replied.

“Then why are you making me punish you like this?” he barked.

Images of my mother from the night before haunted me, and I vowed I wouldn’t become like her. I wouldn’t become an Altered Soul.

“I’m sorry. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong,” I said.

Opening my eyes, I stared at the back of the room. I quickly scanned the bottom of the wall and saw the shackle. Would he shackle his own daughter?

“You don’t, huh?” He began pacing behind me.

Shaking my head,
I kept my mouth shut
as I waited for his reply. I didn’t want to look at him. I swallowed my anger and steadied my voice. I’d come too far to lose control.

“Do you think I didn’t know you and your little boyfriend snuck up the lake to spy on me?” my father boomed. “I
allowed
you to leave unharmed.”

My heart quickened. He knew Logan was going to be here tonight. Oh, God. Please no.

“How naïve do you think I am,
daughter
?”

The grotesque recognition of our status began controlling me. I could no longer control myself. Not with Logan out there alone unknowingly planning his own demise.

“Daughter?” I snapped, turning to face the man I wanted to kill. “Don’t you dare call me that. You’re a sickening sight, pathetic, and I’m
nothing
like you.”

My rage was unstoppable. Logan had no idea that this was a trap. We had been in control of nothing this entire time.

“Oh, I don’t know about that.” He smiled. “By the way, haven’t you been worried why you can’t get a hold of him? Is your little communication spell not working any longer? The entire point of communicating silently is so you don’t utter the words goodbye for a fool like me to hear.”

“You’re worthless. You couldn’t stand on your own if you tried,” I yelled.

“At least you’re feeling the hate. That will be useful.” He turned around, sliding the lock in the door ensuring I went nowhere.

The
angry
tears began flooding down my face. There was nothing I could do to warn Logan. What was my father going to do to him? Or did he already have him? I slid down the wall slowly as fear began to paralyze me. The blood was trickling down my palms, pooling at the tips of my fingers and I didn’t care. I felt like time was leaving me behind.

I rested my head against the wall and stared at the ceiling hoping for some sign, but my lids began getting heavy with anguish.

“Triss.”

My eyes blinked open and I attempted to orient the voice when I saw her. Aunt Vieta was staring at me, only a foot away.

“How did you get in here?” I hissed, glaring at her.

She ignored my question and knelt down quickly, placing a note in my hand.

I didn’t understand her. I didn’t understand her actions, and I probably never would.

“Take care, Triss,” she whispered, turning around and exiting the shed without another word.

Quickly unrolling the piece of paper, the confusion began spreading through me once more. Was she helping me or nudging me to make the wrong decision again.

I held in my hand the image that both Logan and I shared, bonding us as one. How would my aunt know about this spell and what was it meant to tell me? My other hand shoved my waistband down an inch allowing me to see the ink on my skin, praying it would tell me something — anything. It did nothing of the sort. It was cold and lifeless. Had my father already hurt Logan?

I dropped the note on the floor and closed my eyes. Curling my legs into me, I braced myself for an outcome I never wanted to imagine.

A breeze from the open window began to pick up, and I tightened my legs into my body, gripping my knees even more. I looked up to see if I could even reach the window to close it, and it didn’t look promising. It was up too high. I wondered how many people my father housed in here? My stare dropped back to the floor when I noticed there was something else scrawled on the backside of the note.

It was Logan’s handwriting. My hands trembled as I reached for the piece of paper that now seemed like the most important document in the world.

I love you, Triss

I always have and always will

Stick to the plan

I’ll be all right

Whether it’s in this world or the next

We’ll be together