Flames in the Midst (The Jade Hale Series) (19 page)

“No.  I told you.  I’m something different.”  Her laugh echoed her beauty.  It was like talking to a wood nymph or a fairy.

“Who are you?  How do you know me?”

“My name is Anastasia.”

“Like Anastasia Island?” I asked. 

“Exactly,” she smiled wryly, and I had the distinct feeling there was some connection between Anastasia and the island itself.

“And how do you know Jade?” Chase asked before I could pry further about the island and her name.

“As I said, we’ve been friends for a long time.”

“How long?” I asked.  Being new to time travel, it amazed me that anyone could know me before I knew them, but that was the way with Amy and Madilyn as well.

“Centuries, actually,” she admitted quietly.

“You’re not a vampire?” Chase asked, his voice thick with either fear or doubt, I wasn’t sure which.

“Of course not,” she smiled and showed us her perfectly straight and perfectly normal teeth.  “I don’t think vampires exist, but you never know.  I exist and you exist, so maybe.  But no, I am not a vampire.  Nor am I a wood nymph or a fairy.”  She must have seen the look of surprise on my face because she immediately explained.

“You told me what you thought of me when we first met and you were trying to figure me out.  I’m just putting that guess to rest early.”

“If you’ve known Jade for centuries, how long have you been here?”

“I was born here in 1524.  My mother was a slave who Ponce de Leon brought with him from Puerto Rico.”

“But if you were born in 1524, how are you here now?” Chase leaned forward.  His eagerness to learn new things probably played a part in his quest to be a Guardian. 

“My mother was very young, and somehow she escaped.  She found a group of Native Americans living at the city of Soloy, which is where the supposed Fountain of Youth is now.  Because she was so young and so beautiful, they took her in, and Ponce de Leon could not find her.  It was in his search for her that he was mortally wounded and went back to Puerto Rico to die, leaving my mother here. 

“She was eventually paired with my father.  Their union was arranged, but she tells me she loved him.  Together, they had three children—me, my sister, and my brother.  My brother is the oldest, my sister the youngest.  My brother took a wife.  I was expected to be next, but my sister and I found a small pocket of water in the woods just days before I was to leave my family.  It was the most unusual thing we had ever seen.  It seemed to bubble up from the center of a tree.  We tasted it, and it was sweet from the sap of the tree.

“We brought my mother and brother to show them, and they tasted it, too.  That night was the second full moon of the month, a blue moon, and the second blue moon of the year.  My father was out hunting, so he did not come with us.  My brother’s wife stayed behind because she had just given birth.  We changed after drinking from this water.  We looked different.  I felt more beautiful, like every part of me was perfect.”  She paused in her story and sighed.

“You found the fountain of youth?” I asked calmly.  She shook her head in affirmation.

“Many think it is a gift.  They fear death, and when people believed in the fountain, we had to guard ourselves with extreme caution.  We could not have led them to it anyway.  It was only there the day preceding the second blue moon of the year.  The tree had been destroyed by a fire by the time that happened again.  We had to watch my father grow old and die.  My brother had to abandon his wife and child.  He loved them, but they could not have kept our secret.  We broke from Soloy and lived on our own for many years.  We buried my father.  We have always lived in or near St. Augustine, but we try to keep a low profile. 

“I think of those people who spent so much time searching for the fountain—those who fear death.  Just because you are afraid of something does not mean that you should avoid it.”  Anastasia stopped talking, and the three of us sat listening to the silence of the night.  The punctuations made by the occasional fireworks came further and further apart.  After several minutes, I broke the silence.

“So, at some point, I will go back in time, and you will meet me for the first time?”

“Yes, but I cannot tell you when.  You asked me not to.  You said something about not being able to change things when you already know the outcome.  I’m not sure if that actually works, but I won’t be the one to ruin it for you, even if it turns out the control you think you have is just an illusion.”

I thought about that for a moment.  Time travel did tend to create a bit of a paradox.  When I took my first journey, I couldn’t save my mother because I didn’t save her.  It was like driving in a traffic loop that didn’t have any exit points.  Yet, when Cameron and Evan went back to Salem, Amy and Madilyn were positive something changed, as if they created an alternate possibility, and one that wasn’t very good if the death toll of the Salem Witch Trials grew the way Amy believed it had. 

“What about the book?” Chase asked.

“We’ve owned this house for a long time now.  Jade’s aunt rented it from us, and I knew right away who they were, but I also knew Jade didn’t meet me until I gave her the book,” she looked at me sheepishly. “Sorry, but now that this meeting has happened for both of us, there really isn’t any changing it.  Anyway, we made friends with Lynn and eventually explained what we were.  She felt safer leaving the book for me to hand deliver it than burying it in the yard, but we knew Jade would expect something in the yard, so she buried the letter instead.”

I had so many questions for Anastasia, but exhaustion was setting in, and I knew Zach would be sending out the cavalry if I didn’t get home soon.  I wanted to get home and read my letter.  I would need to ask Dan for a lighter work schedule.  I needed time to study the book and practice my skills.

It turned out Chase had his motorcycle parked in the parking garage by St. George Street.  I didn’t picture him as the type to ride a bike, but I guess there really was a lot about Chase I didn’t know.  He didn’t seem to despise me as much as I thought he did for one.  Anastasia gave us a ride in her pick-up truck.  She must have had the same truck for twenty or thirty years.  It was dated and a little beat-up, but otherwise non-descript.

Anastasia dropped Chase off first, but I could hear the sound of his bike behind us all the way to Zach’s house.  He rode by slowly when Anastasia stopped the truck, lifting his fingers to give a half wave and then driving past.  He still wasn’t certain about her.  He had to make sure she really did take me home.  I thanked Anastasia profusely for the book.  She jotted her cell phone number down on the back of an old receipt and told me to call her when I was ready.  She understood how much time I wanted to devote to studying and practicing.  I waited until Anastasia had driven off, then I let myself into Zach’s house.  He was actually asleep on the
couch, waiting for me.  I whispered to him that I was back, and he rolled his eyes at me before turning over and sinking back into his sleep.  I went up to my room and collapsed on the bed.  I didn’t even get the letter out of the envelope before I was asleep and resting in my lagoon.

The water of the lagoon felt as cool and refreshing as always.  Cameron sat on the flat rock, as he often did.  I did my best to ignore him.  I had enough of boys whom I despised.  However, like always, I couldn’t pull up my hatred for him while in the lagoon, so I swam through the water.  I dove down and felt the smooth stones on the bottom of the pool.  I felt small fish swim by, brushing past my arm and wondered if I could stay underwater forever, a tailless mermaid.  I rose to the surface when Cameron dove into the water.  If he was swimming, I would rest on the rock.  I did not want to deal with him tonight.  I wanted to relax after all of the turmoil I had been through.

I sat on the rock in a bathing suit.  When I found Cameron here, I could think about an article of clothing and find it on the rock.  This journey to my lagoon was different than most of my dreams.  Usually, the sun flooded my lagoon with warmth.  This time, we swam in the glow of a full moon, a Harvest moon.  I could still feel the warmth of summer.  The rock radiated the heat it had collected during the day.  Odd, since I imagined the rock had not existed during the day
, being a product of my dreams.

Cameron swam lazily in the pool of water beneath the rock, continuously glancing at me.  I grunted in exasperation and lay on the rock with my head turned away from the water.  I tried to pretend he was
n’t there, but after a few minutes, he pulled himself out of the water and sat very close to me.  He began to run his fingers through my hair, which I had spread out above my head to dry like it was not a part of me.  I knew I should want to stop him, but the feeling his motions produced relaxed me.  Maybe I could pretend he was someone else.  I tried to envision the most neutral person I could think of, but when I turned, Cameron sat next to me, not Zach.

“You seem different,” he said casually.

“I’ve had a long night.  I just want to relax,” I tried to be straightforward.

“Hmm.”  He continued running his fingers through my hair.  He leaned down very close to me and brushed his lips against my forehead.  I wished to feel the heat of anger rising in me, but instead I just felt comfortable, as if this intimate moment with one of the two witches I planned to kill was perfectly natural.

“I really wish you wouldn’t do that,” I told him, but I didn’t move, and he continued to run his fingers through my hair, straightening up from his almost kiss.  He looked down towards me, his dark eyes meeting mine as they had when we first met.  His dark brown hair flopped over his face landing just above his eyes.  His skin was almost as dark as Anastasia’s, minus the odd glowing aura that must have been caused by drinking from the infamous fountain of youth.

“What happened tonight?” he asked me languidly.  “Will it prevent you from coming after us?  Will it slow you down?”

I slowly sat up, but did not move away from him.  His hand, which had still been running through my hair, now came to rest at the side of my face.  I kept my eyes locked with his.  What game was he playing?  Was he trying to gauge my arrival?  Was this all a spell he had created?  I thought back to the first time I dreamed this place.  It was the first time I met Cameron.  He had given me an elixir, and when I passed out, I dreamed this place.  Maybe it wasn’t my lagoon after all.  Maybe it was his.

“I’m still coming after you,” I said resolutely.

He leaned in towards me and touched his forehead to mine, still staring into my eyes.

“Good.”  We sat like that, my heart racing in my chest, wondering if he might kiss me, wondering how it could feel this good to be near someone I hated.  Finally, I broke the silence formed between us.

“Is this real?”  I pulled back a little and searched his face for an answer or a clue that would tell me what this really was, a spell or a dream.

“What do you mean?” he asked very calmly.

“I mean, is this my dream or yours?  Is this a spell?  Do you really know about these conversations or are you simply a figment of REM?”

“You’ll figure it out,” he answered.  Then he smiled softly and stroked my cheek.

“Get ready.  Finish studying.  Come and get me.”  He leaned towards me, our lips almost touching, and then I woke up in a cold sweat.

****

I thought I would need to call in sick to work for a few days to give myself time with the book.  As it turned out, I did not need to fake being sick.  Zach’s mom took my temperature, and it appeared I would have to pay for my little adventure.  My fever loomed around 102 for nearly four days.

I could hardly keep my attention focused on anything other than sleep.  I lived off Campbell’s, crackers, and Ginger Ale.  In my more lucid moments, I read parts of the letter my aunt had left for me.

Dear Jade,

Where do I start?  I’ve been composing this letter in my head since I first discovered your ability to time travel.  First, don’t beat yourself up for not studying.  You had every reason to want to be a normal child, a normal teenager.  I tried to give you that as much as I could, but I also wanted to prepare you for what I knew you were going to face.

There has always been something different, special about you.  You have never wanted to look at your gift of firestarting as a gift, but now you know the truth.  You did not kill your mother.  I could not have told you all the truth about that night before you experienced it from another perspective.  For one, I did not want you to dread the day you would travel back to that moment.  I did not want you to grow up with hate in your heart.  Yes, your mother was murdered, but I did not want that to define you.  I did what I could to convince you her death was an accident that had nothing to do with the fire you remembered starting.  I hope you can forgive me for not being completely honest with you.  It could not have changed the outcome of that night.

Jade, I know you will want to find Evan and Cameron and set things right.  I’m not around to guide you, but I hope you will not let revenge for your mother’s death define you now either.  You must be more than that.  We’ve talked many times about good, evil, choices, and consequences.  It is not being a witch nor having rare gifts that defines who you are.  It is the choices you make with the materials in front of you that will define you.  No one is created evil, yet Shadow Rulers exist.  They made choices to lead them on this path, and not all of the choices that started them in their direction seemed like bad choices.  Many of them probably had no intention of becoming Shadow Rulers when they set out on their journeys.