Distraction (4 page)

His deep laughed bounced off the solid walls. “Did
you truly set the boy’s pants on fire?”

“Perhaps.”
“You can imagine the stories swirling around that village of fools.
You used your witchcraft in front of mortals, my sweet. And now
only magic will free you from this rather hopeless situation and
from the gallows. Even if that old hag uses magic to free you, you
will have to leave Salem for good.”

I fought back tears. He stepped closer and I was
trapped between him and the wall. He reached forward and wrapped a
thick strand of my long hair around his fingers. There was a look
of hunger in his eyes that frightened me more than the darkness.
“Like gold silk,” he muttered. He dropped the hair and his cold
fingers trailed down my throat and stopped at the tie on my cloak.
“This neck was made for jewels not rope.”

I sidled past him. “Go away, you monster. You are the
last person I needed to see tonight.”

“Shame,” he said, “you are the first, last, and only
person I needed to see tonight . . . and every night.” He looked
down and pushed the filthy floor litter around with his black boot
for a moment. “It seems we have a situation here that will work
well for both of us.”

“How so?” I asked hesitantly.

“Simple, my sweet. My standing in the village will
make it easy for me to secure your freedom. You will be out by
morning.”

“Oh, would you please, Angus? I would be forever
grateful.”

“Yes, you would.” He paused and his gaze drifted over
my face. “It is done— as long as you consent to be my wife.”

My heart sank as quickly as it had risen. “No thank
you. I will take my chances with the gallows.”

His blue eyes froze with rage and frigid air swirled
around him. I scooted to the farthest corner. Puffs of steam shot
from his mouth as he spoke. “Then you will rot in this cell until
they drag you to your execution.” The light he’d brought with him
grew dim and when the blackness had nearly returned he stopped and
glared back at me. “And since your sister accompanied you in your
villainous crime, I will see that she hangs next to you.”

“No!” I screamed. Only a flicker of light remained. I
could no longer see him. Tears flowed freely now. “I will marry
you,” I cried into the darkness. “Please leave Mari alone.” My
shoulders shook with sobs, and I buried my face in my hands.

“I must have your word,” Angus’s deep voice filled
the chamber.

I lifted my face. The light had returned. The bitter
taste of anguish burned my throat. “You have my word.”

He stared down at me and it felt as if the thick,
moldy walls were closing in on me. There was not nearly enough
breathing air in the cell.

Without warning, Angus grabbed hold of my wrist and
before I could protest a small blade sliced my palm open. I gasped
in pain and tried to pull my wrist from his grasp, but he held it
so tightly my fingers tingled. He lifted his free hand. A drop of
blood rolled down his long white palm. He pressed my palm against
his and spoke words that were foreign to me. Then with a gentleness
that was in extreme contrast to the way he’d sliced my palm, he
wrapped my hand with a handkerchief and kissed my knuckles. The
knife blade had been more pleasing than his vile mouth on my
skin.

He lifted his gaze and a sickening smile crossed his
face. “Now we have a blood pact. Only death can break it.” His
smile grew. “And since I have no mortal blood, we know whose death
that would be.” His evil sneer was the last thing I saw before the
light shrank to a tiny speck and he vanished.

Now the atmosphere in the tiny cell matched my mood
perfectly, grim and desolate. Nonni rarely talked about the rules
of the magic world, and I had no idea what a blood pact meant but
it sounded severe. Hopefully Nonni knew how to break one without
death. She knew everything and she would do anything to stop a
marriage with Angus.

And then, as if I’d conjured her just by thinking
about her, my grandmother appeared in the cell. There was a glowing
ball of light on her hand. It took me a moment to gather my courage
to tell her the terrible news.

She glanced around and seemed to sense something was
amiss. Her gray eyes rounded. “Angus has been here?”

“Yes.” It was only one word but my voice wavered
around it.

“What has happened?”

I ran to Nonni and threw my arms around her. She
tossed the glowing orb into the air and it ricocheted back and
forth between the thick walls. Her hand pressed my head against her
shoulder. “What is it, Poppy?”

I straightened and took a deep, bracing breath. “He
threatened to have Mari arrested too, Nonni. There was nothing I
could do. I had to accept.”

Her expression was puzzled at first and then the
truth must have dawned on her. “You promised him your hand in
marriage.” Her mouth twisted into a knot as she thought about it.
“Well, I will speak to him about that. He has no right to make
threats and demands. I will take it to The Council if need
be.”
“But Angus is right. If I escape from here tonight, they will look
for me. We’ll have to leave Salem and our wonderful home for
good.”

“Dearest, my plan was not for your escape.” She
reached inside her cloak and pulled out a small blue crystal. Aside
from the extraordinary shade of blue, it appeared as any other
rock. “This is what I was working on earlier this evening. I can
change time with this crystal. I plan to send time back one full
day so we can change yesterday’s events. You’ll stay with me at
Widow Brook’s, and we will walk home together.”

“But what will happen to the boy that I helped?”

She averted her eyes from mine. “Everything else will
go on as it should.”

“But Nonni—”

“It can’t be helped, Poppy,” she said in a tone that
wasn’t open to argument. “Now give me your hand.”

I drew my hand out from my cloak, and she stared down
at the bloody handkerchief with more fear than I’d ever seen in her
face before.

“It’s just a small cut, Nonni,” I said quickly. “It
looks worse than it is.”

She took hold of my fingers and stared at them in
silence for a long, torturous moment. “Poppy, did you sign a pact
with Angus . . . with your blood?” The tone of her question brought
me to tears.
“He grabbed my hand and cut it,” I cried. “I had no idea what was
happening, Nonni.”

She unwrapped the handkerchief and touched the wound
lightly with her fingertip. I felt a tingling sensation across my
palm and the cut was gone.

“But we needn’t worry, Nonni. If you take us back to
yesterday, none of this will have happened. I will no longer be
bound to Angus.”

Nonni shook her head. “Mortals will have no
recollection of the repeated day, but Angus will know full well
what has transpired. And this,” she looked pointedly at my hand,
“he will not forget.”

Looking as grave as a woman about to be executed,
Nonni paced the small room for several minutes tossing the crystal
up and down on her palm. I held my breath as I waited for her to
speak. Finally she stood still with a sigh. Sadness washed over her
face. “There is no other way. It will have to be done.”

“You mean I will have to marry him?”

She walked over and stood in front of me. “Now have
courage, my child, for this will work out in the long run. I’m
fairly certain.” The sound of her voice conveyed anything but
certainty. “The blood pact with Angus is unbreakable. Your only
escape will be to hide from him. And with his powers that won’t be
easy.”

I glanced around. “But where will I hide? There are
only four corners.”

“You won’t be hiding in here, Poppy.”

“Then where?”

“Not where— but when, dearest. I’m sending you two
hundred years into the future.”

My knees weakened and I reached for the wall behind
me to keep from slipping to the ground.

“It will be far enough into the future to keep Angus
away . . . for awhile. Perhaps, if we are lucky, he’ll grow weary
of searching for you and focus his attention on some other
unfortunate girl.”

“But what will I do alone in the future? Will you
come too?”

Nonni rolled the crystal around on her palm. “The
spell is not strong enough to transport all of us. I will send you
at once and then return home to create another stronger crystal.
Keep the crystal with you. It will help me find you. You will be in
Salem Town or whatever becomes of Salem Town in the year 1892. Mari
and I will find you. Do you know the large, granite boulder that
sits where the road forks on the way to Great Pond?”

“Yes.”

“Once you have,” she cleared her throat, “arrived,
find your way to the rock and dig beneath it. I will hide a red
satchel with gold coins there. Then you’ll have money. I can only
assume money is as important in the future as it is now.”

My stomach churned with nerves and I trembled at the
thought of being transported to a strange place and time. Nonni
didn’t have to be a witch to sense my overwhelming
apprehension.

She placed her hand on my arm. “You are a smart,
strong girl, Poppy. You will be fine.”
I nodded reluctantly. “I guess I can always use my powers, weak as
they—”

Nonni squeezed the arm she touched. “No,” she said
loudly enough it bounced off the brick wall. “You must not. Do not
use your powers unless absolutely necessary. Magic will draw Angus
to you.”

“All right. I won’t use them, but I think I shall
truly hate this. Maybe I should just marry him and get the torture
over with.”

“Don’t ever say that, Poppy. I’ve known Angus his
entire life, and while he has several tolerable attributes, his
innate penchant for cruelty overshadows all else. A life bound to
Angus Wolfe would be no life at all.”

“Calm yourself, Nonni. I was only blathering on to
take my mind off the case of nerves that is consuming me.”

My grandmother looked up at my face as if she were
trying to memorize it, which only served to heighten my worry. We
hugged long and hard. Once she released me, she held out the
crystal. “Take it. We must hurry. It is nearly dawn. We will meet
again soon, my child.”

I wrapped the crystal in my shaking fingers and
closed my eyes. The journey frightened me as much as the arrival.
Nonni lowered her voice and began her incantation. It went on so
long, I was certain I would lose my nerve. Then just when it felt
as if something was pulling at me, I heard Nonni cry out. My eyes
flew open but the images before me were wavering. The entire scene
broke apart, but through the cracking sound I heard a deep voice
roar, “No!”

As Nonni faded from my view, I caught a glimpse of a
tall figure standing next to her. Angus’s face was filled with
rage, and a wild spray of sparks flew from his fingertips as I was
yanked from the cold, damp cell. My limbs were being pulled in
every direction, and I writhed in agony against the forces holding
me. The cloak and hood were ripped from my shoulders. My screams
were muffled by the thick air surrounding me. My body was hurtled
violently around in an angry twist of wind and the crystal flew
from my grasp. Something sliced into my side and blood seemed to
spray from it. Then the brutal motion stopped when I landed on a
rock hard surface. The breath was knocked from my chest and I
gasped for air. I reached for the pain in my side and warm blood
trickled between my fingers. Hot, horrid breath was blown across my
face. Bleary eyed, I peered up and a scream lodged in my throat.
The monster hovering over me was covered in matted fur. Spittle
dripped from its mouthful of treacherous teeth. A loud explosion
rang out and the monster lumbered away.

Moments later, through the haze, a face appeared over
me. My mind was a jumble of strange visions, but I recognized it as
the face in my sketch. His pale eyes shimmered with worry as he
stared down at me.

“It’s you.” They were the last words I could utter
before darkness drew me in.

Chunks of dry earth flew off of River’s hooves as I
pushed my spurs into his sides. I glanced back at the road. It was
empty.

“You see him anymore?” Jackson called from ahead.

“Nah, we’ve lost him.” I slowed my horse to a trot
and Jackson did the same. I rode up next to him. “Damn, I didn’t
see that comin’. Who knew Carson would get that mad. Didn’t even
think he had it in him.”

Jackson glared sideways at me from beneath the shadow
of his hat. “Just tell me how the hell is it that we always end up
leaving town with a loaded gun chasing us?”

“Don’t know why that is, Jackson.”

He tamped his hat down tighter on his head. “I’ll
tell you why.”

“I thought you might.”

“Because, Cade Tanner, you never leave town without
some girl jumping all over you first. But today, kissing Deputy
Carson’s girl not two feet from where the man stood . . . with his
loyal Remington at his side no less, well that really topped
anything you’ve ever done.”

“First of all, Candy walked over and kissed me. I was
just an innocent bystander. Not much I can do if she finds me so
irresistible she has to throw those plumps lips at me. Who am I to
deny her? And Carson couldn’t shoot the trunk of a tree if he was
sitting in the damn thing. Besides, he wouldn’t really have shot
us.”

“Oh yeah? Then how come I felt a couple of those
bullets buzz right past me while I was hunkered down over Winslow’s
neck?”

“Probably just flies hovering around that bear grease
in your hair.” Just as I glanced to the road up ahead something
flashed through the air. “Hey, did you see that? Something just
fell from the sky.”

Jackson laughed. “I think one of those bullets lodged
in your brain after all. I don’t see anything but a blue Montana
skyline and a—”

I kicked River into a gallop before Jackson stopped
talking. He followed. We headed in the direction I thought I’d seen
the object fall. We slowed our pace. Dried pine needles crunched
beneath hooves as we trotted through a maze of evergreens. Our
unexpected presence sent a Great Horned owl from its daytime roost.
I ducked as it whirred past my head and flew out of the trees.
River’s nostrils flared and his ears perked forward at something up
ahead.