Jaden (St. Sebastians Quartet #1) (13 page)

"Not hours," said Sydney. "Just an hour or so. And it's ten miles back to town." She pulled her cell phone out of her pocket. "We'd better call for help and get someone up here to tow the car. Unless one of you princesses knows how to change a tire?"

"Yeah right?" Hayley said. "Don't even look in my direction."

"What about you?" Sydney asked Jaden.

"No," Jaden said. "I wouldn't even want to try. I wouldn't trust myself to do it right."

They all looked at Bria, who shook her head, then continued to look out at the trees. "I don't like this. I've got a really bad feeling about this. We shouldn't be here. Anything could be in those trees, hiding."

Jaden went to Bria and put an arm around her. She'd had problems in her life, but an abusive ex wasn't one of them. "There are four of us. Nothing is coming out of those trees to hurt any of us."

Bria shivered, but nodded. "I guess."

"Would you want to face down Sydney?"

That got a smile from Bria. Then she laughed. "No way. I'm glad she's on our side."

"Me too."

"What about you?" Hayley was asking. "You know how to change a tire, Sydney?"

"Damn!" Instead of answering, Sydney held her phone out to them. "No signal. What about you?"

Jaden pulled her cell phone out of her purse, then swore under her breath.

"What do we do now?" Bria asked after they'd determined nobody had a signal.

"Let's get Hayley's car off the road then go for help," Jaden said.

"Help? Where?"

"Where else? Beryl Chambers' house. It's the only thing nearby."

As one, they looked at Sydney.

Sydney rolled her eyes. "This is not kismet or cosmic woo woo, or anything like that, so I don't wanna hear it."

Hayley got back in the driver's seat while Jaden and the others got behind the car and pushed until the car was in the dirt at the side of the road. After that unpleasantness was over, Jaden looked down at her sandals and frowned. They were covered in mud. "How much farther to the house?"

"It's right around that curve," Sydney said, pointing ahead of them.

And it was. They didn't have to go very far at all before the roof line of the house came into view. Then, gradually, Jaden could make out the top floor of the house through the trees. Though, to say this was a house wasn't right. This was a mansion.

The mansion was surrounded by trees. Even when they got to the driveway, the driveway was lined with trees. They were old trees that loomed high above them. As they walked, Jaden couldn't help but marvel at their age. They were so old, they seemed almost magical.

As in awe as she was of the ancient trees, Bria looked as though she might bolt at any minute. Jaden was pretty sure the only thing keeping Bria there was the fact that she didn't want to be alone out in the middle of nowhere. Jaden hated to think what Nico would say once he found out where they had her today.

The house was made of stone and wood, and looked as old as the forest it had been built in. It was beautiful, and a little scary.

"Incredible," Hayley said. "I've never been this close before. I've only ever seen it from town."

"It gets better," Sydney promised.

And it did. The entrance was nearly hidden under a series of wooden beams set across the walkway like a dozen small bridges. The front door was wide open.

Jaden stopped in her tracks. "Hey." She pointed ahead at the door.

"Would you look at that," Hayley said, grinning at Sydney. "It's almost like she knew we were coming."

"What should we do?"

A figure appeared in the open doorway. Jaden did a double take, then blinked several times.

"What the..." Hayley said, seeing the woman, too.

Bria's hand slipped into Jaden's and Jaden gave it a squeeze. She couldn't say why, but the woman of the house scared the crap out of her. On the surface that didn't make sense. She was small. Jaden could see that much even from a distance. She had long, jet black hair that came to her waist, and eyes the color of a stormy night. She looked like an exquisite Latina doll. Fine boned and unnaturally beautiful. Jaden had never seen a woman like her before.

"What should you do?" the woman parroted Jaden. "Come in, of course. I've been waiting for you."

CHAPTER TWELVE

Jaden looked at her new friends, but made no effort to move. Neither did her new friends, for that matter. If Jaden hadn't been so scared she would have laughed at the look of confusion on Sydney's face. She wasn't making any jokes now.

"I knew once Jaden arrived it would only be a matter of time before you came," the woman was saying. Then she snapped her fingers. "Well don't just stand there, staring. Come in."

Jaden swallowed. It felt a bit like a Shaggy gulp, but she couldn't help it. Things had gone from slightly weird to Twilight Zone weird in a matter of seconds.

Hayley was the first to start forward. When Sydney grabbed her arm, she shook it off. "This is why we're here," she stage whispered.

She was right, of course. But that didn't make it any easier for Jaden to start walking herself. Especially since she had to drag Bria along behind her.

"There are four of us and one of her," she reminded Bria. "She can't try anything on us. We outnumber her. And we have Sydney."

"I don't think she's like us," Bria said.

Jaden had an inkling that Bria was right, but she didn't tell Bria that.

They crossed the threshold into the house and Jaden's eyes goggled. She'd thought her aunt's house was impressive. It was nothing compared to this.

They walked along a furry rug into a large room with a fireplace that was bigger than Jaden's first apartment. The interior was dark, with shades of maroon and forest green, but beautiful. It was like walking into a Guillermo del Toro movie set.

"At last," the woman was saying. "You have no idea how long I've waited for this day."

Jaden was finding it hard to speak. Even Sydney was speechless at first.

"You never said anything about this when I was here before," Sydney finally managed. "After you moved in."

"How could I? We were missing two very important ingredients." She walked to Jaden and ran a finger gently over Jaden's cheek, then Bria's. "But they're here now."

Bria tried to bolt, a sentiment Jaden could relate to. But she held Bria firm.

The woman, this Beryl Chambers, looked completely normal. But she wasn't. There was something off about her. Something Jaden couldn't put her finger on it. But it scared her. In fact, the entire mansion scared her.

"Hold on," Sydney was saying. "You can't seriously be trying to tell me you believe any of this stuff about the king of Chimera and his daughters being reincarnated in the three of them."

"No, actually, I don't. Please, sit," Beryl said, motioned to the leather sofa near the fireplace.

Jaden walked over to the sofa and sat. Bria sat on her right while Hayley then Sydney were to her left. Beryl didn't sit at once. She went to a cart where bottles of sherry, whiskey, and vodka sat. She poured some sherry into five glasses, put them on a tray, then came over.

Hayley took her glass without preamble and swallowed half the contents.

"Are you crazy!" Sydney elbowed her. "It could be—"

"I assure you, it's not poisoned," Beryl said. "Killing you would defeat the purpose of you being here, and keep me trapped in this world forever. She shuddered. "And I don't want that. But where were we. Oh yes, I was telling you that I don't believe Jaden, Bria, and Hayley are the reincarnated daughters of Maliki Bakari Adelaja."

Jaden shivered when she heard Beryl say the name she'd only discovered today. Did this mean she had been on the right path?

"Thank God," Sydney said.

"The daughters weren't reincarnated. Their spirits rest within you." She looked at Sydney. "The four of you."

Sydney began to rise, but Beryl held her hand up. "Just because you've medicated yourself nearly into oblivion and no longer dream doesn't mean you've erased who you are, Sydney."

Jaden looked at Sydney, wide-eyed. "You have dreams, too?"

"Had," Beryl clarified. "She's on medication that keeps the dreams at bay. But make no mistake, she's as much a part of this as the three of you. Why do you think she's been sticking so close?"

"But you said you never dreamed about him. You acted like you didn't know who he was." Jaden slipped free of Bria to lean forward so she could look at Sydney.

"But she was right there when Bria fainted," Hayley said. "And she's been with us since."

"Yeah, because she said she wanted to help."

"Yeah," Hayley snorted. "Help herself."

"It's not like that." Sydney reclined in the sofa till her head was resting against the tall sofa back. "This can't be real." She swallowed the contents of her drink in two large gulps. "This can't be real," she said again.

"Oh, but it is." Beryl said. "And if you're done making a production out of this, I'll tell you the story." She looked at each of the women before beginning. "First, my name isn't Beryl, it's Zuri."

"You're the witch," Bria said. "The one who worked for Maliki Bakari."

Zuri inclined her head. "I am. And I see you already know part of the story. You know I was charged with saving the princesses. I was to send them away. On the day it was to be done, the ritual was nearly complete when Prodigy broke into the palace. Somehow, he'd learned of my plan to save Chimera through the princesses, so he came to the palace, planning to kill them. But I was so close to sending them away. I was going with them, to see to their protection, but Prodigy attacked. I only had time to send the four of them. Without my guidance, the princesses entered your world as spirits. Their bodies are somewhere in Midworld, a dimension that exists between worlds. But their souls came here to the four of you."

Sydney began to rise again, but Zuri motioned for her to sit. "You have nothing to worry about. The princesses sleep. They don't know where they are right now."

"The dreams," Jaden began. "Is that why we dream of Chimera and what happened there? Because their spirits are in us?"

"Yes. What you're seeing is their memories and the memories of their people. But you must understand that as long as the sisters are within you, you are at risk. Prodigy doesn't want them to return to Chimera. If they do, they'll be able to free the people of Chimera."

"So how do we get them out of us and into Chimera?" Hayley asked.

"Before I left Chimera to find the princesses, I sent their four guardians ahead of me. In Chimera, they were the guardsmen of the princesses, charged with assuring their safety. But somehow they were separated from their bodies, too, and haven't been able to find the princesses. I'm afraid it's all one big mess. I sometimes wonder if it would have been better to leave the guardians behind in Chimera. Now, the princesses cannot return home until they are reunited with their guardians."

"Well that's just great," Sydney said.

"But who are their guardians?" Jaden asked.

"I don't know," Zuri said. "I'm not even sure they know."

"But will they be like us, having nightmares and haunted by Prodigy?"

"I don't know, Jaden. I wish I could tell you more."

"But why won't the princesses just return?"

"My world is different from your world," Zuri said. "In my world, people are bound together. When I was selected as sorceress to Bakari, I was bound to him and his family for life. I can serve only them. So too were the guardians bound to the princesses. Guardians are bound for life."

"And if one dies?"

"A new guardian would be chosen. Do you see the trouble here? The guardians are not dead, they're just lost. So they cannot be replaced."

Hayley, hands fisted in her lap, spoke bitterly. "So basically, we're screwed."

"I didn't say that," said Zuri. "When the princesses have their guardians, they will recognize them. When all of the princesses have found their guardians, they will return to Chimera."

"Until then?" Sydney asked.

"Until then, we wait. And we keep you safe." Zuri stood. Her dress fluttered around her, making her look even more ethereal than she had when they'd arrived. "Come with me."

She didn't wait to see if they followed, but walked from the room, down a hall, and into a bright sun room. The sun room led out onto what had once been a garden. Jaden couldn't see any flowers, but she could see the remains of flower beds and long dead blooms. It looked as though some of the flowers had tried to return, but the effort was too great.

Zuri led them beyond the old flower garden, down a sloping hill. But Jaden didn't walk down the hill immediately. She stopped at the top and took in the view.

"This is breathtaking," Hayley said. "You can see everything from here. The town, the ocean, the forest. Can you imagine living here?"

"Not by myself," Jaden admitted. "It's amazing up here, but I actually prefer my aunt's house. This is intimidating. Look at that." She pointed out to the left where rows of hedges twisted and turned at sharp angles. "It's a maze. An actual maze. I've never seen one in real life."