The 13th Witch Complete Trilogy (7 page)

I found it and held it up to me. I could get out of here and be safe again. How stupid I'd been for coming here. Conner was right and I didn't listen. I felt sad and knew that he would probably be looking for me if I didn't get back tonight.

I gathered up my coat and slid on my bloody shoes and looked at the bottle one last time.
Should I try to hide that I'd left?
I decided that what I'd dreamt about was enough to let me know that I had to get out of here, even if it wasn't true.

I closed my eyes and threw the bottle to the ground. It smoked around me and I thought about Conner. When I opened my eyes, I was still in the bedroom with the purple smoke floating around me.
It didn't work. Why didn't it?

I started to panic a little. Now I had to get out of the house the traditional way and that was going to be hard to do.

I slipped on my shoes and tried to sweep the smoke away with my hands.

I opened my door slowly, sticking my head out and looking both directions. The hall was empty and I stepped out into the hallway.

It was still dark and it made me think about the odd dream that I'd had. The only thing was that the next full moon was in a couple days and not tonight.

When I got to the balcony, I peered over the edge to the living room. It was empty and I breathed a sigh of relief.

I turned to the stairs and started down them towards the door. It wasn't far at all and I figured that I would be out into the grass in just a minute.

“Where are you going?” A voice rang in my ear and I realized it was Eric just behind me. I closed my eyes and help my breath for a moment and then turned to face him.

“I was just going to grab a little air. I couldn't sleep,” I lied and forced a slight smile.

He looked at me for a minute and then moved forward towards me. “Hmm... I thought it might be from the travel potion that you must have accidentally broke in your room.” He kept his eyes on me and I know that I had a stunned look on my face. Was he testing me?

I tried to recover my composure, but knew that it was too late to save it now, so I turned back to the door to get out. He reached from behind me and shut it hard. I was scared, but didn't want to show it to him and give him that power.

“You should have been a good little girl and listened to what we were saying to you.” He pulled me around to face him. “Now you won't find us so nice.” I was so screwed.

Nine

I opened my eyes, but really couldn't see anything. It was dark and I was confused about how I'd gotten to where ever the hell I was.

I reached up to my face with my hand and felt my head. It hurt as though someone had smacked me over the head with a two by four. My eyes finally adjusted to the lack of light and I could see that I was in a basement. There were stairs not far from me and I stood up to check and see if I could get out of this room that way. Of course they were locked.
I can't get that lucky.

Even if I managed to get out of the basement, I wasn't going to be able to get out of the house without someone knowing. I rested on the fact that my fate had already been figured out. I was going to be forced into something or they would just keep me here out of the way for a while.

I hoped for the latter.

My mind started to flutter to a bunch of different things. I wondered what time it was and if the sun was up yet. It had to be morning by now. I wondered if Conner had figured out that I was gone and started a search party of witches out to look for me. Did he even know where this place was? Even if he did, there would be no way to get me out of here without a lot of help.

How many witches did he really know?

I started to think about my adoptive parents and how they would be disappointed in the stupid choice that I had made to come here in the first place. Why was it so important that I know what they were and why I had been taken from them. I now realized that if Animara had not done what she did, I would be just as evil as they were.

What now?

I noticed in my self-pity that one of the covered windows in the basement was broken. I stared at it for a minute wondering if it was real or just a picture in my head.

It didn't change so I got up from the stair that I'd been sitting on and walked to it with hope in my eyes. It was real.

I reached up to it and started to work the glass out into the yard. If I was quite, I might be able to get out and try to get back to Conner or maybe he would find me with his pendulum. I'd seen him use it a few times to check on where his sister was at.

I finally got the glass worked out a bit and could wiggle my body through it.

 

I was free.

My feet couldn't carry me fast enough and I ran in the direction that I thought was towards the nearest town. There was no way for me to know where I was and no one to ask, so I just ran. I finally got tired and couldn't run anymore and fell in a heap on the dried up old ground.

The bluffs hadn't been getting the rain that they normally do and the ground was dusty and hot from the sun.

I wanted to cry, but plead with myself not to. What was I going to do? I looked up at the ground around me and thought back to when I was younger and would go on long walks in the bluffs with my dad. Something had to look familiar.

There was nothing that I saw, but there was a beat up path that lead down the bluff that I was on. Something in me said to follow it. After all, it couldn't be as bad as I was running from, could it?

The path was long and winding, but seemed to be going somewhere that was flat and a little out of the way. I wondered when it would end and when I'd be where ever it was that I was going.

The bluffs always looked like tiny mountains to me. They were very tall in places, but were also very hilly in others. My dad liked to hunt here on occasion and when the deer were far more than the state liked to have.

Finally I got to the end of the path. There was nothing that I could see except empty space. I made a face at the discovery.
What was I going to do now?
That seemed to be the big question of the day.

I sat down on the ground and started to fiddle with some of the brown burnt soil that was under me and something caught my eye. I looked at the clearing and it was starting to change. Instead of it being an empty clearing, a small shack appeared slowly. I wondered if my eyes were showing me odd things again, but they weren't. There was also a man standing by the door of the shack. I knew him and a smile drew up on my face.

It was my dad. He was standing with his arms crossed as though he was about to give me a huge lecture on why I should have listened to him or my gut. It didn't matter to me. I was just glad to see him.

I stood and started to walk fast toward him. When I got to where he was standing, he started to say something, but instead gave me a big hug. I closed my eyes and took in the old spice aftershave that he wore and smiled.

He opened the door to the house and I eagerly went in. Where ever dad was mom probably was too, but she wasn't there. I looked all through the small house looking for some sign that she was around and or alright. The problem is that I couldn't find anything of her, only my dad.

The room was dingy and dirty. Nothing like our house had been when I had been living at home. It was very small and couldn't have been much more than the one bedroom that I had walked into looking for my mom.

“We were so worried about you.” My Dad said, his voice trembling. I knew that he was and that he would be worried. It had been almost a month since my birthday and I hadn't spoken to them at all.

I looked over my father and realized that his arm was bandaged from a severe cut and I wondered what had happened to him.

“What happened to your arm?” I asked this but I already thought that I knew the answer to the question.

“It was hurt when Eric and Marie and some of their coven came calling for you.” He looked down at his arm and then back at me. “I'm fine. They attacked to fast.” He stopped and his tone became chilling to me. “Your mom.... She didn't get out.”

I wanted to cry, but knew if I started to, then my dad would too. I wouldn't meet his eyes for fear that the tears would really start to come. My father seemed to sense what I was feeling and put his arms around me again. All of this was my fault. My mom, turning my parents’ lives upside down, everything. I felt bad for all of the things that had happened this last month and wished that it was all a bad dream, but it wasn't. “How did it happen?” I asked through his grasp.

“We were in the living room and they just came in. We had no time to get away. We always split up when we are being attacked that way we can get away faster, but she didn't make it out of the living room.”

I took that in for a minute. “Did you go back for her?” I wanted to know if she had a gravestone, but was too scared to know the real answer.

“Yes. She's just out back here in our private cemetery.” He pulled me to him, like he had done when I was a child. “I’ll go out with you”

“I was at the house not too long ago and she wasn't there.”

 

“Eric has the gift of illusion. He can make you see what he wants you to see.”

I wanted to run out the door and see the grave for myself, but I didn’t. Could I even handle it? Knowing that she was really gone and it was my fault.

“You were just lucky that you know how to get out of a jam. Otherwise you might not have gotten away from Eric and Marie. They are not good people, you know.” He let me go and looked into my eyes. “And it’s not your fault. We knew what we were getting into when we took you in.” He let me go and walked to the other side of the room. “Conner will be here soon. He can take you back to a safe place.”

Sure enough, a couple of minutes later, Conner walked through the door with Anna in tow. He was furious, I could tell that much. I felt him look at me as mad as hell, but I was not going to look at him in the eyes. That would be admitting I was wrong and we had come too far for that now.

“What were you doing?” He said with a slight bit of caring in his voice, but mostly the sound of being completely mad.

“I screwed up. Live with it.” I said finally matching eyes with him. He was not my keeper and I was a grown woman. I was glad to see him, but his cutting words made me bitter with him.

“We have to get somewhere else. Somewhere safe.” Conner said to my dad as he reached for my arm. “No, not until I’ve seen my mom.” I snapped. He looked at the ground and then nodded.

I turned from him and started for the back door. With every step my breathing became more and more hollow. I didn’t want to face the truth of it and know that she was gone, but I had too.

Before I knew it, my dad was there with me, holding onto my hand. We both walked out the door into the hot air. The cemetery was only a few feet away and I could already see the fresh mound.
My mom is under that.

I stood in front of the grave thinking about what I was doing. Why had this happened and why did they take me in?

“It’s not your fault and your mom loved you more than you could ever imagine.”

 

“Why did you take me in if I was such a danger?”

“We wanted to give you a chance. Love is the most pure form of good magic and we knew that you wouldn’t feel that with your true parents. You have the ability to make the right choices and to see the world as it should be. This is more than they would ever be able to show you”

“You guys were and always will be my true parents.” He pulled me to him and I melted into my dad. I closed my eyes and wished I had stayed normal.

“We have to get you out of here.” He said walking me into the house.

“You could have killed us all.” Anna said bluntly and with a slight edge in her voice. She was right behind him in the doorway. Her hair was in a ponytail and her face carried a scowl. She didn’t seem to notice I had just been in front of my mom’s grave.

“I'm sorry. You have no clue what it's like not knowing where you come from.” I snapped at her. She pursed her lips and walked off to the other side of the room.

 

Conner looked at me then at my dad.

Something was wrong. I could feel it and so could they. It was the heavy feeling that magic left when it was used. The air was so heavy that it let us all know that there was more than one person that we needed to worry about.

“Do you think they tracked her?” My dad said shooting for the window.

“This place is magically protected. They shouldn't be able to find us.” Conner answered back to him grabbing my arm. I assumed there would have to be a quick escape if it was Eric and Marie and the other witches that they knew.

“They have been getting stronger with the moon and the full moon is only a few days away. Anything is possible.” My dad said this with a matter of fact tone. “You have to get her out of here.”

Conner nodded to my dad and pulled a bottle from his pocket. I knew what it was for and tried to pull away. I didn't want to leave my dad again, not now after losing my mother. His grip was to strong and he yanked me back into him. He threw the bottle onto the wood floor. The same purple smoke consumed us. I looked back at my father and knew that this was the last time that I would see him.

Ten

When I opened my eyes again, I felt the tears starting. I knew that they would probably not be able to get away and if they did, they would probably would be hurt or better off dead. Did they even have a place to go if they got away?

I looked through the tears that were trying to start and found that I was back at Conner's house. We were standing in front of that house and the sun was still high in the sky. I pulled away from Conner and looked at him.

“How could you just leave them there?” I screamed at him. My heart was pounding and I was very angry at the idea of just leaving my dad and his sister there.

“You aren't ready to face them yet.” Conner said as calm as could be.

“Then why didn't they follow us or come first?” “Their trying to keep you safe.”

“What's it matter if all the good people are dead?” I was so mad and felt so helpless at the same time. My mom was dead and I feared that my dad would soon be too. That thought scared me more than anything that I could ever dream of.