Crest (Book #2,Swift Series) (19 page)

I thought I heard a frustrated moan come out of him, but I couldn’t be sure.

“Meredith, you are not leaving this clock tower so you may as well give up now,” Blake’s voice floated down to me.

I shut his words out of my mind and continued to keep my focus, hoping I could make it just a few more steps and out the door. As I ran around and around the spiral staircase, I tried to concentrate on each step, not wanting to trip. When I made it to the end of the staircase, I saw the door on my left. My lungs were on fire and my legs ached, but all I could think about was getting through that door, flying across the square, and down the road where I knew the store I saw in my dream was located.

I reached for the handle and tugged... but it wouldn’t budge. Was the door stuck?! This couldn’t be happening right now! I pulled harder, but it still wouldn’t budge. I closed my eyes tight, envisioning the door flying open, but it still wouldn’t move. Then, I felt a hand lightly touch mine and my heart dropped, realizing I had broken my focus on keeping Blake in place. When I opened my eyes, Blake was staring at me with a torn expression. He mostly looked hurt, but I could also see a little pity in his eyes as well.

“Are you doing this? Keeping me trapped in here? Let me out of here!” I screamed, suddenly feeling suffocated as the reality hit me.

“My job is not only to protect you from dark magic, but also from yourself.” His voice was firm. “I told you that, remember?”

“So I’m a prisoner?” My voice rose with each word.

He sighed in frustration. “Don’t be ridiculous, Meredith. Of course, you’re not a prisoner. I’m just protecting you from making a stupid decision.”

My heart hammered against my chest. The fact that he would hold me against my will and then call me stupid had just about sent me over the edge.

“Let me out of here!” I screamed at him, then turned around and tugged on the door once more.

 “Why must you be so difficult and stubborn?” he asked.

I took a step back from the door, knowing that no matter how hard I tried, it would never budge. “Difficult? This is your sister we’re talking about!” I took a deep breath in and out, trying to calm myself. I would have done anything in my power to save my sister if it were possible and I just couldn’t understand why he wouldn’t do the same. “Why are you so against me trying to save her?”

“You want to know why I’m being like this? Because I know how much Abby cares about you. If this isn’t some sort of trap and we go find out that she’s in there, she will personally strangle me for letting you anywhere near that place.” He turned around and raked his hands through his hair.

“Then, why did she come to me in my dream? Why would she do that if it was just going to put me in harm’s way?”

He let out a long sigh and turned around to face me again. “Have you not been listening to me? A trap... this could all be a trap. What if this is dark magic; putting that dream in your head, putting that building in your head—making you feel like you know where it is. If that’s what’s happening and they’re trying to lure you there, we’re giving them exactly what they want. The protection spell I placed on the tower will protect you physically from dark magic, but mentally, you have to be able to protect yourself. Your mind is overloaded right now with everything that is going on and it will be easy for dark magic to penetrate it. You need to stay focused and think about that.”

Of course I knew that was a possibility, Abby had just trained me on how to keep dark magic from penetrating my thoughts. It was the last lesson I learned with her that day back in Steer Swamp, but it was only one day of training and I was far from mastering it. Even if this was just dark magic inside my head, I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t at least try. If Jude did take Abby in order to find out more about me or if he was using her to lure me there, I wanted to confront him about it. “I’ll never forgive you if this was our one chance to save her and something happens to her,” I blurted out. His forehead creased and his mouth opened just slightly; like he wanted to say something, but couldn’t find the words. That was the meanest thing I’d ever said to him and it was clear to see that my words hurt him.

A few seconds passed without a word spoken between us. Before saying anything, he looked towards the ceiling, the ground, and then finally to me. He held my gaze and I could see in his eyes that he was having an internal struggle. How could he not be? His sister had most likely been kidnapped or hurt, possibly both, trying to save the woman he loved; and now the woman he loved was willing to risk herself in order to save his sister. It was hard not to have pity for him. He was fighting a losing battle here. It was either allow me to risk my life in order to save his sister, or have me despise him for the rest of mine if he didn’t.

“I don’t want to lose you, Meredith, but I can’t spend the rest of my life having you resent me, either. You leave me no choice, but just know that
I
will never forgive
you
if you let anything happen to yourself.”

He turned away from me and opened the door effortlessly. Every bone in my body was telling me to go to him, to put my arms around him, hug him and never let him go. But if I got that close to him right now, at this sensitive moment, I wasn’t sure if I would go through with what I was about to do.

It wasn’t long before we were standing across the street from the building I had seen in my dream. I could now see that the building was actually an old hardware store. Since it was still in the middle of the night, it looked just like my dream, with street lights flickering in the distance and an alley just a hundred or so feet in front of me.

Blake and I hadn’t spoken a word on the way over. My insides were a mess knowing that we were possibly walking into an ambush that could get us both killed and I would be the person responsible if that happened. Even though he didn’t agree with me and was probably not very happy with me, I knew that he would still die trying to save me. Not only because that was his job as my protector, but because deep down he cared for me.

I shook my head, trying to drown out those thoughts, knowing it wasn’t healthy to think about things like that right now. At a time like this, my mind needed to be focused on getting in there, seeing if Abby was actually there, and then getting out. Without thinking too much more about it, I put one foot in front of the other and began to walk towards the dark store.

“Meredith, wait,” Blake whispered, grabbing my hand and pulling me back towards him. “I just want to say I’m sorry for what happened earlier. In case…” He couldn’t finish what he wanted to say and I could see that he was struggling for the words. “In case something should happen in there and I don’t get to tell you. I won’t resent you if things don’t go as planned. I could never resent someone who is willing to risk their life to save my sister. It’s just that I don’t know what I would do if something happened to you.” He paused as he slowly grazed the side of my cheek with his hand. “I just wanted you to know that.”

I bit my lower lip, trying to fight the tears that wanted to escape. This wasn’t the time for emotions or regrets. If either one of those got out, then I would be useless the very next second. Instead, I placed my hand on his cheek and tried to remember every inch of his face, just in case this was the last time I would see it. Deep down I knew this was, without a doubt, a stupid idea just like Blake had said earlier, but it still wasn’t enough for me to change my mind. If the roles were reversed, I knew that Abby would do everything in her power to help me.

After a long stare, Blake grabbed my hand and interlocked his fingers with mine, and then we turned and marched towards the store. We had just taken a few steps when I heard someone call my name. I looked around and then to Blake. From the look on his face, he had heard it, too.

“Meredith,” the voice was louder now. I knew that it came from somewhere on my left, but I couldn’t make out the exact location.

I turned and squinted into the darkness, finally seeing Collin kneeling near a dumpster in the alley. “Get over here.” He waved us over, a look of panic crossing his face.

Blake and I looked at each other quickly; torn with what to do, but eventually decided to head towards him. I wasn’t sure if we could trust Collin. It was clear that Jackie and Daniel couldn’t be trusted anymore, but Collin—the jury was still out on him.

“What the hell are you doing?!” Collin seethed when we were within a few feet of him.

“I think Abby may be in there,” I shot back and pointed at the store.

“The girl with long blond hair?” Collin asked.

My heart twisted. “Yes, that’s her. She’s really in there? You’ve seen her?”

Collin nodded. “Yeah, I saw her being carried in by a couple guys I’ve never seen before.”

“We have to go get her,” I said, turning back towards the store.

“You can’t go in there,” Collin’s tone was serious.

I turned back to look at him. He was looking at me like I’d completely lost my mind.

“But Abby’s in there,” I said, gritting my teeth.

“Yeah, well, so are about three witches who want your head on a stick. You’re the one they want, Meredith. Jude’s got everyone under some spell. He’s got them all competing against one another; ordering them to do whatever it takes to get you and bring you back to him.”

It felt like I had just been punched in the stomach. “What?”

Blake was beside me, pulling me closer to him. Oh God, that’s why Jackie and Daniel were after me. They were under a spell!

Collin shook his head in frustration. “Get over here and I’ll explain everything.”

Once Blake and I were hidden out of view, Collin filled us in on what happened at Jude’s house earlier that night.

“After you two lovebirds took off, I decided to go find out what was going on.” He glanced between the two of us. “I hid behind the bushes near the front window. My father, Jackie and Jude were all sitting at the table. Jude was talking about you.” He swallowed hard and nodded in my direction. “He was instructing my father and Jackie to do whatever it took in order to bring you back to him. It was crazy to me that they were just sitting there listening to his commands. They didn’t argue or run out of there. Once they got up and turned towards the door, I could see their eyes and that’s when I knew they were under a spell. Before they left, he told them to bring you to the old hardware store. I wasn’t sure what to do because I didn’t know where you and Romeo had run off to. So, I decided to come here and wait. If I saw that someone had found you, then I would try to do whatever I could to get you back.”

He glanced in my direction and my heart hammered against my chest. Just hearing that Collin would risk his life to save me threw my head in a tailspin. My whole body shivered and an eerie feeling passed through me. Flashbacks from a couple months ago drowned my thoughts and I found it hard to breath. When Alex and Isaac were after me, because of the power I possessed, the entire Harper family put their lives on the line to protect me. This is exactly what I didn’t want to happen. My family had paid the ultimate price ten years ago, and now that danger continued to follow me everywhere I went, there were still too many people putting themselves at risk for me.

“Hey,” Blake said, grabbing my shoulders and turning me towards him. “It’ll be fine. No one will hurt you.”

It wasn’t me that I was worried about. “It’s happening again. It’s happening all over again.” I took in a deep breath, trying to stop from shaking. “But this time it’s worse. Jude’s putting spells on innocent people. He kidnapped Abby and God knows what they’re doing to her... and it’s all because of me.”

“It will be okay. We’ll figure this out,” Blake said, talking around the lump in his throat.

It was easy to see the pain and worry his face held; it was a mirror to my own emotions.

“I have a plan, but you both are going to have to trust me,” Collin said, interrupting the trance Blake and I held on each other.

 “What kind of plan?” I asked, turning my attention back to him.

“All you need to know is that I’m going in there to save the girl, but I won’t tell you anything else. You’re just going to have to trust me,” he repeated.

I looked back towards Blake who was assessing Collin as he spoke.

“So, are you gonna trust me?” Collin asked, bringing my gaze back to him.

“How do you think you can just walk in there and not get hurt or killed?” I asked.

He rolled his eyes. “Because I know what’s going on. I can tell them that Jude sent me or something.” He waved my worries off. “Just tell me where we should meet?”

“Meet?” I questioned.

Collin sighed, looking frustrated. “Yes. Just let me know where to meet you when this is all over with.”

“The top of the clock tower... Big Ben,” I blurted out as my heart pounded. I wanted to look over at Blake and say I was sorry for giving up our hiding place, but I couldn’t. Right now, our only hope was Collin. It had become clear to me that Blake and I couldn’t enter that store and walk back out alive.

Before I could ask Collin any more questions, he was making his way towards the entrance. A part of me wanted to stop him, not wanting him to get wrapped up in all of this, but the other part of me wanted Abby back so badly that I couldn’t find it in myself to say anything.