Flames in the Midst (The Jade Hale Series) (36 page)

I walked back in stunned silence with Cameron and Evan.  Evan managed to stop Cameron’s bleeding with a spell, but his wounds would have to heal on their own.  A gift for healing was among the rare gifts I had yet to see.  Cameron stumbled a few times on the way back, and I found myself wondering and worrying about whether or not he may have a concussion.  I focused on getting Stefanie back and pushed my thoughts for Cameron out of my head.

I didn’t want to go back to the cabin with them, but I didn’t know where else to go.  When we entered the cabin, Evan retreated to the library room.  Cameron collapsed on a couch just inside the front door.  I began to head back to the room I had been sleeping in earlier in the evening when I heard Cameron call my name.  My desire to respond pulled against my desire to make believe I’d heard nothing.  In the end, my curiosity won out.  I turned and walked back towards Cameron.

“Thank you,” he told me.  “I’ll get Stefanie for you in the morning.  I need to rest first.”

“You’re welcome, but I didn’t do it for you,” I lied.  He lay on the couch with his eyes closed.

“It will be nice to get out of here finally,” he said.

“What will happen to all of the people in Salem?” I thought about Sarah. 

“It will take a while for the effects of William’s spell to wear off.  There will probably be more hangings before the effects are
fully dissipated.”

I sighed.  I hadn’t saved everyone, but it was the best
I could do.  Cameron did not speak again.  After a few minutes, I assumed he was asleep and retreated to my own space.  I didn’t sleep, but went outside to look at the night sky free of ambient light.  The stars, even as the night wore on into early morning, looked more amazing than anything I had ever seen.  They shone brightly and crowded the sky with more stars than I had been able to see in my lifetime in the modern world. 

I tried to stay focused on light and darkness, but my thoughts wandered to Cameron—the man I shouldn’t be thinking about—and Chase—the man I was giving up so I could live a normal
life.  There were no clear answers for either situation, and sitting alone under the stars, I could be honest with myself for a few moments and recognize I had feelings for both of them. 

By the time the sun peeked its way between the trunks of the trees, I was ready to go home.  I walked inside expecting to find Cameron and Evan, but found Stefanie instead.  She was alone in the cabin, looking for me.  The library was empty.  There would be no burning additional contracts.  Evan and Cameron had left.  They had gotten away, for now.  I found a note on the countertop.

Jade,

Thank you again.  I hope to see you, soon.

Cameron

I assumed he meant this to let me know he would still be invading my lagoon.  The note made me want to smile, and that made me distraught.  I couldn’t think about Cameron, Chase, or anyone else.  I had to get Stefanie and I back to the right place and time.  We had been gone for two days, so we would be arriving two days later at the house.  Whatever the outcome had been with Garrett, we would be returning to it.  Whatever effect our presence here had, we would find the result when we got back.  We didn’t know what would be waiting for us, so we decided to go back at the correct time, but a different place.  I put us on the outskirts of the coven’s property, and Stefanie and I began our slow and quiet walk back towards the house and whatever awaited us.
             

We walked in silence. 
Darkness crept over the remaining light of day, as it had when we left.  This walk through the trees and the night sky felt very different from the one I had taken only hours before in Salem.  My body felt as if every inch of me was made up of a bundle of tangled nerves.  When I walked through the forests of Salem looking for William, I was on edge, but I knew I was the key to the situation.  I had confidence we would succeed, at least until I actually met William.  Now, I knew the control did not belong to me.  Whatever had happened had already happened, and we walked towards a hazy future. 

Time travel, as I had learned over the past few months, had many restrictions.  It ranked high on the list of rare gifts, but it was also among the most complicated of the rare gifts.  It was the most difficult to change something in the time traveler’s own timeline.  You were limited to interfering in your own life only once and that was reserved for your first journey through time, when you would be the least prepared.  Additionally, whenever you traveled through time, you continued to age at your normal rate.  When you returned, you had to return after the same length of time had passed.  There were no exceptions.  So even though we had only been gone two days and no one would likely notice I had aged an additional two days, we were still bound to return two days after we left.

That was how Stefanie and I ended up standing among the orange trees staring at the house on a dark and cold January night.  We were both afraid of what we might find.  The lights in the house were on, and they cast a glow on the ground I would have called inviting under any other circumstances.  We couldn’t see anyone moving around, but smoke drifted from the chimney, so we had to assume everyone would be in the living room.  We were still dressed in the clothes Sarah had given me.  Our breath materialized on the cool air as we huddled by the trees attempting to gain courage.

Stefanie gained her
resolution before me.  She took off with long, determined strides towards the house.  Once she started walking, I hurried to catch up.  I couldn’t let her face whatever waited for us alone.  So many possibilities raced through my mind, each one pressing for my full attention.

When we left, Chase and Kendra had been wrestling with a knife wielding Garrett. 
Had they won out?  Someone had been cut.  Was it Chase?  Did he survive?  Maybe it was Garrett.  Who else was Garrett working with?  Did they come to back him up or did they leave him alone to fight off an entire coven of witches? 
I couldn’t calm my mind, so I kept moving my feet to keep up with Stefanie.

When we reached the back door, Stefanie regained her senses and entered the house with as much caution as possible.  We snuck through the kitchen and down the hall to where we could peek out to see who sat around the fire.  It was our coven gathered in the room.  Chase sat with Caylin, Alex, and Mercy on one side of the room.  Madilyn and Paul were closest to us.

Stefanie began to sob at the sight of her parents.  She ran to them, and they both embraced her, crying all the while.  I felt a small stabbing pain at the sight of their family reunion and took it in stride.  I felt this way around Stefanie and her parents from time to time, but tonight brought the feelings on much more sharply.  I had no parents to embrace me the way hers were.

As if she knew what I was thinking, Amy walked over to me and wrapped her arm around my shoulder, steering me towards the fire.  It felt good to have someone care I made it back, but only for a moment.  As Amy sat me down by the fire, I felt Chase glaring at me from across the
room.  He had obviously read the letter.  I pushed back any regret I might feel.  Maybe it was a cowardly way to say goodbye, but I had done it, so I would have to stand behind it. 

“Welcome home,” Amy was saying.  “We figured you had reached some partial success when the death count in Salem decreased.  We didn’t know when to expect you.  So many still died.  We figured you found success in September, so we thought it might be as much as three months before you returned.  We’re so glad we didn’t have to wait that long.”

Amy was all business.  She was proud we had completed the mission even though the plan did not quite work out as designed.

“Are you okay?” Caylin asked me.

“Yes, we’re both okay,” I answered.  “There was another Shadow Ruler causing the problems in Salem.  We stopped him, but Evan and Cameron got away.”  I didn’t add I had to let them get away in order to get Stefanie back.

“What we really want to know is what happened here and just how many people died back in Salem.  Did Sarah Hale die?  How much of a difference did we make?”  I asked.

Caylin did not answer any of my questions.  She looked to Amy instead.  I couldn’t read Amy’s face.  She looked serious and grave, but also grateful and relieved.  I scanned the room.  Garrett, of course, was not among the faces staring back at me, but neither was Kendra.  Had it been her blood on the knife?

“You were more successful in Salem than we could have hoped for, under the circumstances,” Amy began.  “Nineteen innocent people were hanged and Giles Corey was still pressed to death, but after the hangings in September, the court was shut down and the remaining accused were released.  Your ancestor, Sarah, was accused, but her being accused is said to be the cause of her husband’s change of heart.  She was never tried, convicted nor
hanged.”

“Thank God,” I said, not realizing how much I had been worried for her.  I guess it comes from losing my family.  Any family member, no matter how distant, becomes a vital link for me.

“What about here?  What happened here?” Stefanie asked when she was able to break away from her parents.

“Where is Kendra?” I added.  She had tried to stop Garrett from hurting anyone or taking me.  My opinion of her had changed considerably since I last saw her.

“Kendra is fine,” Amy said.  “She’s upstairs resting.  Garrett sliced her arm open, but we stitched her up.  He would’ve gotten me otherwise, and he might have gotten to you.”

Amy grew very quiet.  She didn’t explain where Garrett was or say anything else.  She simply sat down and closed her eyes.  I reached out for her, but Chase got to me first
, pulling me up to my feet. 

“Let’s go outside and talk,” he said in a tone that told me not to ask about Amy quite yet.

I looked back to find Stefanie.  She and her parents were also heading out of the room, overjoyed at their reunion.  Gia and Mercy were moving to sit near Amy.  Alex and Caylin brushed quietly past us on their way to the kitchen.  Chase steered me to the front door and out onto the porch.

“What’s going on?  What’s the matter with Amy?” I asked Chase, purposely avoiding any conversation about our relationship—or rather, our breakup.

“She trusted Garrett.  Amy invited him into the coven years ago.  She really believed he was an amazing Guardian.  He lived a much longer life than most Guardians.  She saw him as more than a friend and a member of the coven.  He represented hope for her that the good guys could prevail, that being a Guardian did not mean sacrificing your entire existence.  It looks like Garrett’s luck wasn’t luck at all.  He’s been playing on both sides this whole time—a Guardian when it suits him, a Shadow Ruler when the better deal is there.”

That
explained the weak quality I saw in his aura.  He wasn’t tired and worn out from fighting the good fight; he was a weak person at his core.  Like Evan, no matter how many good things Garrett had done when he was playing the role of a Guardian, it could not make up for the evil he allowed into his heart when he gave in to the temptations of working with Shadow Rulers.

“Worse than all of that, she had to kill him,” Chase continued.

“What?” I knew I was standing with my mouth hanging open, but I didn’t expect Amy to kill anyone.  She didn’t have a gift like mine.  It would have to be done close up. 

“How?” I asked as the shock began to ebb.  I sat on the porch swing.  I knew things were bad when we left, and I had assumed we would come back to find someone dead, I just didn’t expect for Amy to have been the one doing the killing.

“Kendra and I were trying to control him,” Chase explained, “but we couldn’t manage it.  He had the knife held like it was an extension of himself, and even while he fought us, he was casting spells and directing them at everyone else in the room.  We suspect he was also calling for help, but no one ever came.  Amy and Madilyn were trying to slow him down with spells, but he was stronger than any of us gave him credit for—both physically and mentally.”

I sat still in the swing, feeling helpless.  I knew I couldn’t change what had happened, and I did what I had to do in Salem, but it was difficult to know what the coven faced while we were gone.

“Kendra lost a lot of blood,” Chase continued with more details.   “Amy makes it sound like it was a little scratch, but truthfully, she came close to dying.  She finally couldn’t fight anymore, and as she went down, Garrett threw me off.  Amy must have known what it would come to.  When he came rushing at her, she moved so fast.  She skewered him with the fireplace poker.”

I cringed.  I had liked Garrett, before I knew he was out to get me, anyway.  I didn’t like thinking of so much death.  Like Amy, I only did what had to be done, but I had killed two Shadow Rulers myself in the past year.  Of course, I could simply set them ablaze.  I didn’t have to get close or deal with a dead body afterwards.  I wondered what they did with Garrett’s body.

“There’s more,” Chase interrupted my thoughts. 

“Oh, no,” I breathed.

“Amy doesn’t want to do it, but she needs to ask you to burn the body.  We’ve buried him out in the woods, but we’ll have to dig him up for you to burn.”  There was the answer to my unspoken question.

“What? No!  Why can’t you jus
t leave him where he is?” I didn’t have any desire to dig up and burn a rotting corpse.  Garrett didn’t have any family.  No one should come looking for him.  Except of course for the Shadow Rulers he was working with.  They might look for him.  Still, I didn’t want anything to do with this.