Crest (Book #2,Swift Series) (22 page)

I closed them.

“Okay, with the apple you were able to visualize it, but now, since you are transferring the energy from yourself to another form of yourself; it’s more difficult because you have to focus on you.” He laughed at his confusing words and probably the face I was making. “Focus and pull the energy from every inch of your body and bring it to your core. Visualize it and put it into a make believe compartment so you can see it.” He paused. “Let’s say a ball. When you’ve pulled your energy and placed it into the ball, split the ball into two halves.” His voice faded away as I concentrated and forced all my energy into one section of my body... and I saw it there, an orange ball of energy. Slowly, without breaking my focus, I visualized the ball splitting in half.

When I opened my eyes, I realized that I had done it. I saw the back of Collin, still holding onto the shoulders of my other form. I took a couple steps forward and tapped Collin on the shoulder. He whipped around and his eyes grew large when he saw me.

“You’ve done it!” he shouted.

“This is so cool,” I said, looking forward to my form that was as still as a statue and then back to Collin.

“Meredith, it’s so much better than cool. This is... this is freaking amazing! It took me weeks to do what you just did. I had faith in you, but I’ve got to say that I wasn’t sure you’d be able to pull this one off.”

“Hey.” I punched him in the arm. “I thought you believed in me.”

He shrugged. “I did, but I still can’t believe you did it so quick.”

I smiled and felt proud. By the way Collin was reacting; I was convinced that what I had just done was pretty awesome. “Okay,” I said, trying to keep focused on our goal. “How do I join back with my other form? I want to practice this over and over until I can do it without thinking about it too much.”

“Simple. Just break the connection and don’t focus on keeping that energy divided and your forms will join again.”

I dropped the image of the split ball I had in my mind and just like that, my two forms were back to one.

Within a few more hours of practice, I was able to transfer my energy and create my two forms with no problems at all, but it didn’t come without a price.

“Okay,” I breathed heavy. “I think I’ve got it down. My body feels like it has been hit by a truck—actually make that about a hundred trucks... all filled with concrete.”

Collin frowned. “Yeah, unfortunately, transferring your energy into two forms will drain you a lot quicker than just practicing regular magic. Oh, and there’s one more thing you should know. If something happens to one form, say like an injury or something, then the exact same thing will happen to the second form.”

“Great, thanks.” My tone was mocking.

By the time we returned to the clock tower; it was well after dark. I was looking forward to seeing Blake and allowing my body to rest and recover from the day.

The second we entered the large room, I knew something was wrong. Blake was holding Abby in his arms and the look on his face sent a bolt of terror through me.

“Blake, what’s wrong?” I asked, running and falling to my knees beside them.

“I’m not sure exactly. This morning she was fine, but shortly after you left, she began to shake and her breathing became shallow. It has slowly gotten worse. Now, I can hardly tell if she’s breathing at all.”

“But she’s still breathing?” I asked, my voice breaking on the last word.

“Barely... but she’s getting worse by the second,” he answered, never taking his eyes off her.

“Collin.” I turned to look up at him. “Do you have any idea what’s happening?”

He nodded his head. “I think so.”

“Well?” I asked, my tone impatient.

“He’s—he’s killing her. The spell he has her under... he must have a link to her physical form somehow.”

I looked back to Blake and saw the color drain from his face. My heart hammered against my chest and I tried to think of something to do, but deep down I knew there was only one thing to do. I had to fight Jude. Now. Tonight. If we waited another day or two, Abby may not make it.

“Collin,” I said, swallowing hard. “We need to find Jude. Can you perform a tracer spell on him to see where he is?” I had never actually performed a tracer spell before, but had seen Abby do it once, just to show me how it worked. Blake met my gaze, but I immediately looked away and back towards Collin.

Collin sat down and pulled out a map, a needle and a piece of string from his bag. “I’ll try. He could block his location if he wanted to, but on the other hand, he may be doing this to Abby on purpose. He may be forcing you to come to him.” It wasn’t long before the needle moved towards a familiar area. Collin looked down at the map and then over to me. “He’s at the old hardware building.”

I nodded once and glanced back to Blake. It killed me to see the struggle in his eyes. Even though he and his sister fought and argued more than any two people I had ever met, I knew they loved each other dearly. Now, as Blake held his sister in his arms, I knew that he would do whatever he could to save her. I just don’t think he ever imagined that doing so would be putting my life in danger.

“We should get going.” I glanced over at Collin.

“Meredith, I think you should rest for just a little while,” Collin said. “You preformed some intense magic today and I think your body needs to recover.”

I shook my head. “There’s no time.”

I scooted over to Abby and placed a soft kiss on her forehead before meeting Blake’s gaze. “Don’t worry,” I said, trying to keep my voice even. “I’m coming back. I’m going to beat him for Abby, Jackie, Daniel, and whoever else he has under his spell.”

“Meredith,” Blake began, but then he looked away from me and down at his sister. “I want to come with you. I don’t think I can let you fight him without protection. Abby would want me to be with you.”

“No, you need to stay here and take care of Abby. She needs you more than I do right now. I’ll have Collin with me.”

He closed his eyes and exhaled slowly before opening them again; his gaze was tortured. “Please be careful and take care of yourself.”

His eyes met mine as I leaned in and pressed my lips softly to his, trying to remember how they felt against mine; hoping that this wasn’t the last time I would feel them. Pulling back, I looked at him once more before standing up to leave.

We flew and it was only a matter of seconds before we were standing just a few feet from the store’s entrance. My body was shaking and the more I tried to calm myself down, the more the panic filled me. I knew that it wasn’t the time for panic—that too many people were relying on me—but I just couldn’t get the thought of knowing that if I failed, Abby would die and Jackie and Daniel may never break free from Jude. There was also the fear of knowing that if this didn’t end well, that Blake would be all alone in this time and even if he did find a way back to 1905, he would be returning to tell Annette and Samuel about Abby and me.

“Meredith.” I blinked away my thoughts and turned to Collin. “C’mon, you need to pull yourself together. This is it.”

I nodded slowly.

“Listen to me.” He grabbed my shoulders and turned me to face him. “You need to stay focused and remember three things. One, you’re stronger than him. He’s going to try and intimidate you, but you’re stronger—you have to remember that. Two, remember that he has a lot of spells under his belt. He may try and throw all he has at you right up front, hoping to end this fight early. And three, this is the most important, so listen up… kick his ass and save the day.” He grinned timidly and pulled me in for a hug.

As much as I wanted to, I couldn’t return his smile. “Thank you, Collin. Thank you for everything.” I hugged him tight. “I’m so glad that you were able to save Abby and that I had you as a friend—”

“Don’t,” he said, cutting me off. “Don’t you even begin to say goodbye to me. Now, get yourself together. Abby’s in that clock tower and we don’t know how much time she has left. If you even think about giving up, just think of her.”

My stomach clenched when I pictured her fragile body lying in Blake’s arms. I closed my eyes, took a deep breath in and focused on the task ahead of me. Pulling back from him, I pushed all the negative thoughts from my mind and began to walk towards the door. “Let’s do this.”

Collin and I didn’t know what to expect when we entered the store, but one thing was for sure, we had expected something. So when we walked in and didn’t find a single soul in the large open space, we knew something wasn’t right. A light flickered in the left corner, but other than that, the room was dark.

“I found Abby in the back room.” Collin pointed towards the open doorway in the back. “But there were two people who I had never seen before standing guard.” His voice was barely above a whisper.

I swallowed hard as my eyes swept over the empty room, trying to see movement or sense any type of energy, but there was nothing. “Do you think they left?” I asked, feeling my anxiety build, knowing we were running out of time for Abby.

“It’s possible, I guess. Maybe I was wrong. Maybe he wasn’t trying to lure you—”

Before Collin could finish his sentence I saw his body rise in the air and fly across the room. He hit the back wall with a loud thud before his body fell to the ground and he didn’t move again.

“Collin!” I screamed.

Then, I heard a sound. It was coming from somewhere behind me.

“Ahh, that’s better,” a deep voice called from somewhere in the darkness. “You’ll have to forgive me for what I just did, but I wanted us to be alone.”

I spun around; feeling a strong sensation come over me, similar to what I had felt the day Abby and I were walking home from Steer Swamp. Then I saw a figure coming towards me slowly.

“The energy you have is powerful,” Jude said, coming out of the darkness, his grey eyes finding mine. “You can feel it, can’t you?” he asked, eyeing me carefully. “Or maybe you don’t. Maybe you don’t even know what you’re doing right now. I know Jackie said that you were young in your powers, but to not have any idea what you’re capable of, that’s a pity.” He smiled softly and stopped just a few feet from me. “That sensation your feeling, that’s you blocking my dark magic. I tried to get into your mind that day when you had your little teacher friend with you, but you just wouldn’t budge. It stunned me that you had the power to repel me, and that’s when I knew you were special. That’s when I knew I had to have your powers.” He walked a circle around me, eyeing me up and down, probably planning out how to kill me.

I tried to ignore his words, remembering what Collin had said about how he would try to intimidate me. Instead, I focused on the image of Abby lying in Blake’s arms and Collin’s motionless body in the corner. Those thoughts gave me an overpowering sense of anger. I funneled it like Collin had taught me today during training and I felt a surge of power run through my veins. Before he made his first move, I wanted to do some damage first.

 I took a couple steps away from Jude and focused my energy, sending him flying through the air and towards the front window. He crashed into it and the glass shattered around him as he fell to the ground.
That was for Abby.