Fate Changer (The Lost Witch Trilogy #3) (23 page)

Zane groaned and turned so he was on his side staring down into her face. “Fine, I’ll get a limo.”

Sarah laughed and shook her head. “No, my condition is that we double date with Lash and Jenny. It’ll be fun.”

Zane winced. “Fine, but there went half the fun. Now we’ll have to sit there all night watching Jenny flirt with Lash and then Lash pretending he doesn’t love every second of it. Wouldn’t you rather it was just you and me?” he said, looking deeply into her eyes.

Sarah tweaked his nose. “Stop smoldering at me. Jenny’s never been asked to a dance either. And she’s my cousin. It’ll be fun. Now come on, we better get up and get dressed. Today is going to be an interesting day to say the very least,” she said, moving to sit up.

Zane pushed her back down. “But I’m not done smoldering at you. I’ve got to wipe out all thoughts of attractive tall red headed witches from your mind.”

Sarah laughed and ran her fingers through Zane’s wavy blond hair. “And how exactly do you plan to do that?” she asked, loving the way his silver eyes looked like they were melting when they looked at her.

“There’s only one way,” he said softly and leaned down and kissed her. Softly at first, but then quickly becoming more intense.

Sarah wrapped her arms around Zane’s neck, holding him close and loving every second of it, but squeaked when a picture fell off the wall, the glass shattering all over the carpet. They both sat up and stared at the picture and then at each other.

“
Francis
,” they both said at the same time and grinned.

“She might be dead, but she doesn’t forget the rules,” Sarah said, kicking her legs over the side of the bed and jumping up quickly.

Zane stared at the glass fragments and shook his head. “If your grandmother’s ghost comes with us on our honeymoon, I will not be happy,” he said, standing up and making the bed half-heartedly.

Sarah laughed and hurried to take a shower. She got ready quickly and met everyone down in the kitchen. Zane joined her fifteen minutes later, his hair gleaming and wet. She grinned at him and blew him a kiss since he still looked irritated. He smiled back at her and sent words to her mind,
I love you Sarah. Never forget it.

Sarah shook her head.
Never
.

They all ate a big breakfast of eggs, pancakes and bacon and then talked strategy. Zane stood up and took charge, as everyone started throwing out ideas. Finally, Zane held his hand up for quiet.

“These are all good ideas, but none of it will work if he thinks it’s a trap. We need to drag him in so completely, that he’s caught and doesn’t even know it.”

Sarah raised her hand to get everyone’s attention. “I’ve been thinking about this and I think I should use myself as bait. I’m the one he wants anyways. I’ll take down my lines and then he’ll move in. When he does, we’ll surround him and go from there,” she said in a calm, cool, practical voice.

Zane raised his eyebrow at her and shook his head. “I don’t like that plan.”

Jericho stood up and raised his hand. “My turn now. I agree with Zane. You’re the queen in this chess match. We don’t use you until we need to. Is there anyone else here that has a pull for Charles? An emotional pull would be best,” he said, glancing around the room and looking at all the faces. He paused on Teresa and frowned, looking down at his feet and then towards Jenny.

“
Jenny?”
he asked softly.

Jenny looked at her mom and shook her head. “She’s been through too much Jericho. It’s asking too much of her. Would you really ask her to face the man who took eighteen years of her life and everyone she loved?”

Zane frowned darkly but kept silent. Sarah felt sick and shook her head at Teresa. Teresa looked around the table and at the people standing in the kitchen and sitting at the bar. “I would be happy to help,” she said simply.

Jenny banged her palm against the table, her pale face turning red with outrage. “
Absolutely not Mom
! I won’t have it. I’ll take you and leave now rather than have you be in the same room with that man, let alone confront him.”

Lash, who was sitting next to Jenny, put his hand on her clenched fist. “Jenny, sometimes it’s healing for victims to stand up to their abusers. It was for me,” he said softly.

“Yeah? Well, sometimes it’s pretty traumatic too. And what if he takes her mind again? What if I lose her again?” she yelled, staring around the table, her gaze coming to land on Sarah.

Sarah nodded her head. “I agree with you Jenny. Teresa shouldn’t have to be the bait. I’m sure there’s another solution.”

Jericho studied Teresa with his head tilted for a while and nodded. “Ladies, Teresa has decided to go for it. Jenny, I understand your fears, but please know that she would be protected. I will stand right next to her if you’d like me to,” he offered willingly.

Jenny turned to look at her mom with anguished eyes. “
Mom, please
. Please no,” she whispered.

Teresa smiled sadly at her daughter and pulled her into her arms as if she’d been doing it her whole life. Jenny rested her head against her mom’s shoulder and cried openly, not caring who saw or what she looked like. It was ripping Sarah’s heart out to watch. Zane sent out a soothing pulse of energy to soothe her emotions, but nothing could erase the raw emotion pouring out between daughter and mother.

Teresa ran her hand down her daughter’s pale shiny blond hair. “I need to do this sweetie. I need to do this for me, for Bryce and my parents, but mostly for you. He had no right Jenny. It’s time I had my say,” she said simply.

Jericho nodded his head and sat down, gesturing for Zane to continue. Zane frowned sadly, more affected by Jenny and Teresa then he was letting on, but Sarah could feel how torn he was. “We appreciate your willingness to help Teresa. And like Jericho said, we’ll protect you. We’ll plan on doing this at the beach house he’s staying at. I don’t think we need the whole town to be witnesses to a witch fight. If we keep things quiet then we should be fine. So we’ll have Teresa go in first and then we’ll move in to surround him,” he said, looking around the table for suggestions or thoughts.

Sarah raised her hand. “I’ve seen him disappear. That first day he came after me on the beach, he disappeared right in to thin air. What’s to stop him from doing the same thing when he realizes he’s surrounded, just to show up the next day and cause more chaos?”

Zane shrugged. “Any suggestions. Sarah has a valid point. We’re not dealing with a typical witch here. He’s the most powerful witch in the world.”

The two small witch sisters raised their hands. “We do a line in reverse, to keep him in the house. We can take care of that while Teresa is having her say,” Lavina offered with a smile.

Zane nodded in relief. “Excellent. So we get Charles, he’s surrounded, then what? Any thoughts on what to do with Charles once we have him? He can’t be held in a conventional prison and witches don’t have their own justice system. Any suggestions?” he asked, scanning the crowd.

Ethan, the tall elegant black man who was the first witch to arrive, stood up and everyone immediately fell silent. “We take his power. He has to be broken for this to work. We can’t just stop him from taking Sarah. We have to stop him from taking anyone ever again.”

Jericho stood up, practically jumping with excitement. “Brilliant! We’ll bind and break him just like he did my sister Zinnia. Justice. Thank you Ethan. I was thinking more of ripping his heart out, but this would be far more cruel.
Brilliant
,” he said again, grinning ear to ear.

Zane smiled at Jericho’s exuberance and held his hand up for quiet. “Let’s vote on it, since we’re all in this together. If you’re in favor of Ethan’s plan, raise your hand,” he said, noting with a smile that every single hand was raised.

“Excellent. That’s settled then. We’re going to separate into groups now. Lash is in charge of the witches surrounding the house. He’ll signal when to move in. Lash, you’re also our safety net. If Charles breaks through and runs for it, you’re the one who has to take him down, got it?” Zane said, raising an eyebrow in question.

Lash nodded his head with a small smile around his lips. “I got it,” he said, standing up and motioning for the witches who would be the outer circle. Lash knew the beach house the best and so he gathered everyone to the bar in the kitchen and immediately started drawing a map of the house and where he wanted everyone to be.

Zane looked at the remaining witches, Sarah, Agnes, Gretchen, Jericho, Ethan and the two sisters.

“You’re the first wave. Teresa will knock on the door, confront Charles, while me, Sarah, my mom and grandma come in from the back. Jericho, you and Ethan will be right with Teresa.”

Jenny shook her head. “And where am I in your plan Zane? Hiding in the bushes while my mom walks right into Charles’s house.”

Zane looked quietly at Jenny for a moment. “Where would you like to be Jenny? Would you feel better being with Lash?”

Jenny glanced over at Lash and he must have felt her gaze, because he paused mid-sentence and looked over his shoulder at her, smiling briefly before going back to what he was doing.

Jenny sighed and shook her head. “No, I’m going in with my mom or nothing. It will add to the emotional impact anyways. I can add in my two bits while I’m there I guess. It’ll save on therapy bills down the road at the very least,” she said wearily.

Sarah laughed and reached across the table to squeeze her cousin’s hand. “You’re amazing Jenny,” she said, smiling in admiration.

Jenny rolled her eyes, but turned and hugged her mom hard for a moment. Zane cleared his throat and nodded. “I think it’ll work. While you’re confronting Charles, we’ll move in from the back, take him down while Lavina and Lauren seal the house and then Lash and his crew move in. Does that sound good?”

Miranda talked to Beatrice about watching her little ones while she was off taking care of business. Lash finished quickly with his group and Zane, Agnes and Ethan discussed the best way to break Charles’s power. Sarah had a headache and slipped out and down the hallway to go out the back door and down to the beach. She zipped up the coat she had grabbed on her way out and collapsed on the sand in front of the waves. She sat cross legged and stared at the choppy waves, pounding the beach and closed her eyes as she tried to breathe. The panic attack she had been talking to Jericho about yesterday was closer than ever. Within an hour they would be on their way to Charles’s beach house. By tomorrow, her life would be completely different. She’d either be free of Charles or completely in his power.

“Oh, don’t be so grim little girl,” came a teasing voice from behind her.

Sarah sighed and looked over her shoulder to see Jericho looking at her with a playful look in his eye.

“Hi Jericho. You’re welcome to sit with me if you’d like,” she offered, pointing to the spot beside her.

Jericho sat down promptly, running his hands through his red hair and then leaning back on his elbows. “You know if you ever want to dump your boyfriend and run away with me, I’d be willing to take my chances. There’s a very real possibility that he would melt my body for fun if he ever caught us, but it could be an adventure,” he said with a flirtatious smile.

Sarah laughed and threw a rock lightly at his leg. “You’re such a tease. But yeah, Zane’s not really somebody you’d want to cross,” she said thinking of Mason.

Jericho’s eyes darkened and his face lost its teasing glint. “Yeah, we better not now that I think better of it. You up for all of this?”

Sarah shrugged and felt like heaving up her breakfast. “Oh yeah. I was born for this,” she muttered sickly.

Jericho laughed and ran his hand through the pale soft sand. “Actually, you were. Sometimes we have a purpose to our life that supersedes everything we want or need. You’re our little Joan of Arc.”

Sarah sighed. “I actually know how that ended for her. You’re not helping. Is there anyone from history you can compare me to that’s not a tragic martyr?”

Jericho laughed and leaned back in the sand, closing his eyes as he thought about it. “Princess Leia?”

Sarah grinned and shook her head. “I said history, not fantasy. Forget it. But um, do you have that one talent that some witches have, where you can tell the future kind of thing?” she asked softly, looking at him hopefully.

Ethan looked at her quickly before closing his eyes again. “Oh yeah. Didn’t I mention it yesterday? I do as a matter of fact. What would you like to know?” he asked lazily.

Sarah looked at him in irritation and felt like kicking him. “How everything’s going to turn out today. Will we all be safe? Will anyone get hurt?
Will anyone die?
Should I just hand myself over to Charles and forget it? That kind of thing,” she said miserably.

Jericho frowned and sat up, wiping the sand off his hands on his jeans. He turned to Sarah and grabbed both her hands in his. He leaned in close to her face and stared into her eyes. She felt his energy vibrating throughout his body and she felt his power extend in a haze around her. Sarah stared into Jericho’s eyes, losing herself in the bottomless green pools that seemed to be looking into her soul. Jericho finally blinked and slowly sat back and let go of her hands and then stared at her with a wince.

Sarah swallowed and cleared her throat nervously. “
Well
? Um, did you see anything that would happen later today?”

Jericho sighed and nodded. “It’s going to be amazing Sarah. Everyone’s going to be fine. It’s going to go just as planned. Charles is going to be taken and bound and broken. No one will ever have to suffer because of him ever again,” he said, and then looked away moodily at the ocean.

Sarah felt immediate relief at Jericho’s words and sighed happily. “Oh my word I feel so much better Jericho. Thank you so much!” she said and hopped up to run back into the house. She wanted to find Zane and tell him the good news.

Jericho sighed heavily and stared at the ocean another minute before lying back down in the sand as if a huge weight was now holding him down.

“So what’s the real story?” Lash asked as he walked over from behind a tree.