Perigee Moon (36 page)

“Marion,” I whispered under my breath, feeling the horror sink in. Nathaniel jerked the horses to a halt and climbed down to face her.

“Nice work Nathaniel. Your services will not be forgotten,” she said, and he gave her a curt nod. My heart sank. Nathaniel was not our friend. He’d brought us all this way only to toss us into the spider’s web. I wanted to punch him. I wanted to scream. I wanted–

“Surely you didn’t think that I believed that you’d come back so easily.” Marion interrupted my thoughts and laughed as I slid off of the horse to face her. I eased Alex onto the ground, my eyes stealing a glimpse of the giant hemlock that she was blocking. The symbol glimmered against the firelight, the door that held the promise of home on the other side. God we were so close, and she was going to crush us. I felt so weak, so defeated. Angry tears sprouted behind my eyes but I forced them back with a vengeance. No. I would not let her see me cry.

“Why can’t you just let us go? You don’t need us,” I pleaded, my legs feeling like jello as I walked across the clearing to meet her. Anything to keep her focus on me and away from Alex.

“Now Rowan you know better than that. And we had a bargain.” She leaned over and cast an amused glance to Alex’s lifeless body behind the horse. “Though I had expected you to bring my nephew back in a better condition than this. I really don’t know what good he’ll be to me now.”

She frowned, then shifted her attention to me and her lips curled up into a smile. “You on the other hand my dear. I’ve seen nothing like you since I had my poor sister killed.” She began to circle me and I gagged on the fear lodged in my throat. “Yes you will be of great use. And easy to dispose of afterwards. You know nothing of what you hold inside. And your stupidity will of course be my greatest ally,” she mused, toying with me.

“What do you want from me?”

Her crow-like face shimmered with excitement above the firelight, transforming into something otherworldly, and grotesque.

“Your power,” she said simply as if it were obvious. “Tonight under the full moon we will conjure a spell that will wipe the whole lot of persecutors out.”

“How? What will happen to them?” I asked, trying to prolong the inevitable. I inched away racking my brain for an answer. Some way to defeat her. Nothing.

“I’ve called upon darkness many times before and it has always been faithful to my needs.” She laughed to herself. “Tonight I shall repay those favors by offering up their souls. While they sleep sound in their beds a mighty fire shall sweep through their village and the darkness will reap the rewards.”

She stopped, her eyes reflecting the fire, making her look demon-like. “And you, child, will be the key to it all. And to think I almost killed you. It really is too bad that your mother had to pay the price for your stupidity. But traveling through time can be quite disorienting and you and your poor mother really were quite similar.”

I froze, anger and pain flaring through me, almost bringing me to my knees.

“You did it? You caused the fire. You killed my mother?” I said. I could barely speak. My mother burned to death because of her. I stared at her pale hands and ground my teeth together. Those hands sparked the flame that killed my mother. Something was happening inside me, breaking me in half. I couldn’t take it. I’d never wanted to kill someone before, but now, I wanted Marion dead like I’d never wanted anything in my life.

“Yes.” She laughed. “In my defense I thought it was you. She looked just like those silly sketches of you that Alex drew. Honest mistake, really. And now you’ll help me unless you want to endure the same fate that your mother did. Believe me, it won’t be pleasant or quick. I promise you that, child.”

“I won’t!” I snapped. “I won’t help you kill innocent people. I’d rather die!”

She laughed again, amused. “You think I need your will? Like poor Annabel I shall take what I need from you as well. I will admit it would be easier if you were willing, but not at all necessary. You will be mine tonight!” she shouted and the flames leapt into the air with a vengeance, licking the treetops.

“Like hell she will,” Alex croaked as he limped to my side. I gasped. Here in the light he looked like death. His face was pale and ashen, his body marked with the lacerations of a whip.

“Nonsense. We won’t delay this any further.” She flicked her wrist, mumbling a spell under her breath and my legs crumbled beneath me.

“Rowan! No!” Alex’s voice was warm and muffled in my ears and the world around me now had a filmy glow. It was as if someone had wrapped me in a thin veil of plastic, and no matter how hard I fought I couldn’t break free. The barrier wound tighter and tighter until I could barley breathe. It was a binding spell. Is this what Annabel had felt? It must be. A wave of sympathy washed over me for the girl. I was bound, my magic just a useless tool swirling within me. My life just a flower waiting to be plucked and crushed by Marion. I would die here tonight. I thought about my dad. God how I’d hated him these last couple of months, and Cam. But now, facing the end I was drowned in love for them. What would my death do to them? Would it drive Dad over the edge? Would Cam ever recover? And Bev. God, Bev was waiting for me at this very moment. What would she think? Then I thought of my mom. Would I see her again once I was gone? It was the only light in the darkness so I dwelled on that, letting myself hope. And Alex…my Alex. What would happen to him now? Tears stung my eyes as I grabbed on to that last lingering image of him that blazed through the fog of memories.
I love you Alex.
I prayed that he’d heard it, though I knew my lips hadn’t moved, or at the very least felt it.

Eventually even the image of Alex faded, and I found myself floating in an ash-grey cloud. Was this death? Was I still bound? Whatever it was, I hated it.

“Rowan.”
The icy whisper sent shivers racing down my spine. The chill brought me back the slightest bit and I grasped for it, refusing to be sucked back in.

“Rowan, believe,”
she whispered again. My heart fluttered in my chest as a jolt of hope seared through me without warning. Rebecca. I could feel her icy fingers now working inside me as if undoing a knot. With each passing second the hold was loosening. I wiggled my fingers triumphantly and the warm glow of the fire burned away the last bit of fuzziness that clouded my vision. The air around me was like ice, silvery and crystalline. I opened myself to it, feeling the energy in my chest pop and burst with electricity. It was Rebecca. Working through me.

“Foolish boy! You can’t stop fate! Don’t make me kill you nephew!” I heard Marion’s shouts break through just as the last of the binding spell was dismantled. I whispered a silent thank you and stood up to join Alex, who had Marion backed against a tree.

“Impossible,” she whispered in horror, her eyes raking over me like I was an alien. Alex let his gaze wander over me and his eyes went wide. I could only imagine what I looked like. I was burning up with energy like a ball of fire and had no idea what to do with it.

“Rowan…you’re…you’re.” He stopped when his hand instinctively reached out and touched me and I could see the hair on his arm stand up on end. I could also see the silvery light reflecting in his eyes. The same light that was surrounding me. I shivered and a sense of urgency took over. “It’s Rebecca Alex. She’s here. It’s been her all along.”

He nodded and his face turned to a lighter shade of white.

“What do we do now? Do we run?” I said.

“No. I have a spell, I just don’t have the power. I’m too weak Rowan.” He looked hopeless and I could see his defenses breaking down. He had been holding Marion here with everything he had left to keep her away from me. I grabbed his hand and pressed my forehead to his.

“Take it Alex. Take it all!” I remembered him transferring his energy to me the night I was attacked, how intimate and most of all how invigorating it had been. This was the answer. With Rebecca inside me we had enough energy to fuel him for a lifetime. Or at the very least, long enough for him to do away with Marion. The pop of a gunshot in the distance and a burst of shouts shattered the bubble we’d formed. Alex and I both turned, breaking our connection, our fear escalating as the faint echo of a mob rallied somewhere in the night.

“No!” Marion screamed and with Alex’s attention drawn away from her she broke free. It all happened quickly then. Marion’s hand jutted out into the air and an awful crackling sound exploded from her fingertips.
My God. Fire
. A burst of blue fire was streaming from her fingers. Before I could react it skimmed my face. Seared the nerve endings just below my eye. Alex grabbed me as my knees buckled from the pain. The skin on my cheek was flayed, charred, blood streaming down my chin. Alex dragged me behind a tree for cover and ran his hands over me.

“Alex hurry,” I managed to choke out as I peeked around the tree, watched her raise her hand again. This couldn’t be real. Binding spells, sleeping spells, healing potions. The fact that I was a witch. Time travel! These were all things that were hard enough for me to comprehend. But she was shooting fire from her fingertips for crying out loud! This had to be a nightmare. Nothing in the world like this could possibly exist. But the searing pain on my face told me different.

Alex grabbed my face with one hand and pressed his forehead to mine. His gaze bore into my eyes and I couldn’t take the intensity. He was burning up with anger and it was seeping into me like a poison. I squeezed my eyes shut and whispered, “Focus Alex. Take it. This is why she’s here.”

He nodded, a pained expression crossing his face and then it began. Slowly at first, as if he were hesitant, only sipping from the pool of energy inside me. But I quickly thrust it forward and with a gasp he devoured each wave as if he were a man dying of thirst and I was offering him a cool drink of water. I relaxed, giving in, feeling first Rebecca’s energy leaving my body, then, with a painful ripping sensation, my own. I whimpered, wondering if this was what it had been like for Alex that night, when he’d given his to me. God I hoped not. With each draining pulse I felt weaker. I dared to let my eyes open when I felt it was almost over. It had to be. I had nothing left. Alex’s blue eyes burned with pain. I knew he could feel what I was feeling. That he hated being the one to do it to me. But it didn’t matter. Not if this would save our lives.

At that moment Alex tore away from me, and I collapsed to the ground. The earth was cool and damp and my fingers dug into the grainy texture, trying to ground myself. My chest heaved as though I’d just run a marathon and the pain throbbing in my face was more than I could stand. Bile rose into my throat where, by some miracle of God, I kept it at bay as my stomach churned. I gasped when I looked at Alex. He was still wounded badly, but his face was glowing with energy. He nodded to me and ducked as Marion shot another stream of fire at him, but a second too late. It grazed his arm and I could see the blue flame slice through the flesh on his shoulder. He didn’t seem affected, trudging on, his lips moving with lightning speed as he drew runes in the air, spouting a spell. Marion’s eyes grew wide and her screams cut through me like razor blades.

He had her. She was afraid. She panicked, her fingers blasting one ball of fire after another that Alex artfully deflected as if they were cotton balls.

“Alex think of what you are doing! I’m your family. Your blood!” she said, and it seemed to slow Alex. “I’m all you have left!”

His eyes looked sad, a bit of the anger deflated from his face. “No Marion. I’ve been without a family for a long time. And now you’re going to pay for taking that from me.”

With that he shouted something in Gaelic that I couldn’t decipher and a horrible ripping sound echoed through the trees. The temperature around us dropped and a wind picked up. Then behind Marion, a hole formed. Not in the earth, but in the air. An ethereal light radiated from the fissure that waited to claim Marion who was stumbling back from Alex, completely unaware of what was to come.

“I’m sorry.” Alex’s voice broke, scattering like shattered glass into the night. He dropped to his knees screaming out in pain as cool blue smoke coiled out from his mouth and lurched across the space. Its long willowy arms took shape, closing around Marion who was thrashing and wild, but still no match for the power. No match for Rebecca. You could see her face now, the soft curve of her cheek, the flow of her hair. She flashed one last smile to her son, who collapsed on the ground, then vanished into the gaping hole, taking Marion along with her. In an instant the hole closed, leaving no evidence of what had taken place besides the fact that Alex and I were crumpled and injured on the ground.

“Alex,” I called, my voice raspy, and not sounding at all like my own. “Alex talk to me.” I forced my legs to push me forward.

“Rowan are you alright, love?” he said through a choked sob.

“I’m fine.”

“It was my mother,” he whispered as if it were finally sinking in. “She’s gone. My family…they’re all gone now. I’m alone.” His eyes were empty, desolate.