Mark of the Witch (Boston Witches) (18 page)

“What is it you want from us, Sabine?” William asked in a voice full of malice.

Sabine shrugged and held up her hands. “There is someone who wishes an audience with your young witch here, and I am merely the facilitator of the meeting.” Her thick French accent grated on Jilly’s nerves.

Jilly spoke up now. “What makes you think I’m going to go anywhere with you? William obviously doesn’t trust you, and I’m inclined to agree with him.” Her voice was full of hate. Caroline squeezed Jilly’s hand in support.

Sabine smiled evilly at her. “Oh, I’m not worried about that. I think you’ll be coming with me, and you’ll not make a fuss about it either.” She jerked her head toward Liam, and he raised a phone to his ear and spoke softly into it.

Several minutes later, two figures emerged from the forest. Jilly’s eyes widened in shock. She didn’t recognize the man, but the woman she knew; it was Emily.

She tried to run toward her, but William held her back. Emily was blindfolded and her hands were tied with rope. Her pregnant belly very obvious with her hands tied in front of it. Jilly could see the tears running down her face, and struggled against William.

“I have to help her,” she hissed at him, her eyes flashing bright green.

“I know,” he whispered back, “but they hold all the cards right now. They won’t hurt her until after we do whatever it is they want. They won’t want to risk you not doing it out of anger.”

She sagged against him. She could see that fighting was useless; William had a point, they wouldn’t hurt any of them until after. They had plenty of time to figure out a way to get Emily out of harm’s way.

Sabine laughed a horrible sounding laugh. “You’d be surprised how easy it was to get this one out of the house. All I had to do was make her see a vision of you in trouble and calling out to her, and she left all on her own. After that it was quite easy for Maxwell here to snatch her up.”

“Ok,” Jilly said calmly. “I’ll go with you. Just let her go and I’ll do what you want.”

“Uh, no, my darling, she’ll be coming along with us; she provides quite an incentive for you to be compliant.”

Maxwell shoved Emily roughly and she fell down on her knees, unable to brace herself for the fall. Jilly broke free of William and ran to her friend.

“I’m so sorry, Jilly. I thought it was you sending me the vision. I never should have left,” Emily sobbed.

Jilly brushed the dirt off of her friend’s face “Don’t worry, Em, we’ll get out of this, and you can’t blame yourself; Sabine is very powerful. Just do what they say right now. William and I will figure out something.” She helped her friend to her feet and Maxwell grabbed Emily’s arm and jerked her away.

“Hurting her isn’t going to make me want to help you,” Jilly said angrily.

Sabine shot a look at Maxwell and he released his hold on Emily. “Now that we’re all here, I think we should get going. We have a car parked about a mile from here.”

They all walked slowly since Emily had a hard time walking blindfolded. Finally they reached the black SUV Sabine had been talking about. Shoving Emily in the back with Maxwell, Sabine motioned for Jilly, William, and Caroline to sit in the middle seat, and she hopped into the passenger seat, Liam was the driver. Once they were on their way, Sabine told Maxwell to untie Emily’s hands and take the blindfold off.

It took a little over an hour for them to reach their destination. They stopped in front of a small wooded area about half a mile from the water. Once they were all out of the car, Sabine motioned for them to follow her, and Maxwell and Liam took up the rear. Caroline held Emily’s hand, both of them feeling better with the contact.

They came to a small cave nestled into the rocks by the beach. Sabine tapped something on her phone and a few seconds later someone emerged from the cave followed by a trio of strangers. Jilly gasped in surprise and William sank to his knees.

“Hello, William. Long time no see,” the woman said.

Recovering a bit from the shock, William got up. “Mary? How is this possible?”

“Isn’t it obvious? I’m an amaranthine, just as you and Sabine are. You didn’t think that you and Patrick were the only ones in our small town with that gift, did you?” There was a wicked glint in her eye.

“Why have I never seen you or even heard your name spoken in all these hundreds of years?”

“Simply because I didn’t wish you to know, but I have been kept updated on your whereabouts all these years and I knew it was only a matter of time before you ended up here to find her.” The last word was spoken with such hatred that Jilly took a step back. Mary turned to face Jilly now. “I knew I just had to wait for you. Patrick showed me a vision of you long ago. You, who would be the strongest of my family line, it was you who I’ve waited all this time for.” She took a few steps toward them and William shoved Jilly behind him.

“What do you want with us?”

“Oh, I think you of all people should know what it is that I desire, William.”

“Patrick,” William said quietly.

“Of course Patrick. How can I not free my beloved when I now possess the one who can free him?” Mary paced in front of them, getting angrier with each word she spoke. “You, who so easily cast aside your own brother for the love of my pathetic sister. It’s ironic that she wasn’t even your match after all you did. I hope that you have lived with the pain of loneliness as I have. The thought of that has been my only solace all these years.” She laughed; it was an awful mirthless sound.

She turned to Jilly now and walked toward her. “You will release my Patrick from his tomb so we can finally be together as we should have been all these years.”

Jilly stuck her chin out in defiance. “I will not help you, Mary. You can do what you want to me, but I’m not releasing Patrick.”

Mary howled in rage and slapped Jilly so hard she drew blood. William rushed forward, but one of the people that had come with Mary stopped him. William was frozen in place, unable to move anything but his eyes.

Jilly smiled through narrowed eyes and laughed. “If that’s all you’ve got, then you may as well let us go now.”

With rage in her eyes, Mary whirled on Caroline and grabbed her by the hair.

“Don’t worry about me, Jill. I don’t care what she does to me; don’t do what she wants!”

Jilly could see the determination on Caroline’s face, and she felt a surge of pride for her sister.

Mary shoved Caroline down roughly and kicked her in the side. They heard the sickening crack of her ribs as Mary continued to kick her. Jilly flinched involuntarily.

William struggled internally, trying to break the spell. Finally, after a few minutes he broke free and ran to Mary, pushing her away from Caroline. “Leave them out of this, Mary. It’s me you’re angry with.” His face was pulled tight with barely concealed rage. “Let’s settle this between us and be done with it. We will never release him, so you can just get that out of your head right now,” he said as he circled her, eyes narrowed in anger.

“I have every intention of settling this with you,” she said as she pulled out a long knife. She smiled at him. “But it’s not you I wish to harm, William, my dear.” With a flash of skirts, she had Jilly in her arms, the knife tightly against her throat. “Do you still wish to deny me my Patrick?” she asked harshly.

Jilly swallowed, her mind strangely at peace. “Do what you must. I’m not afraid to die if it means keeping you away from Patrick forever. Your family should have sealed you up in a tomb too.”

With a shriek of anger, Mary sliced the knife down and plunged it in Jilly’s chest. Jilly sank to her knees, blood pouring out. Both Caroline and William screamed and ran to her as Mary walked back into her cave, laughing.

“Now you know what it’s like, William,” she screamed.

William sank to his knees and cradled Jilly’s head in his lap, tears streaming down his face. Jilly tried to speak, but she only managed a weak gurgling sound. She coughed twice and spat out blood.

“Don’t cry, William. I’m not afraid to die. I can finally be with Liza and my mom.”

Caroline rushed over and clutched Jilly’s hand. “No, Jilly, you can’t leave yet; not now when we’re finally sisters again,” she sobbed.

“Its ok, Caroline. You know who you are now. You’ll be fine without me. You should move back here and live in the house; it needs a Proctor warming its halls.” Jilly coughed some more and laid her head back on William.

Emily sat down and grabbed Jilly’s free hand. “I’m not ready to lose you,” she said through her tears.

“Em, I’m sorry. I’m sorry you got dragged into this mess,” Jilly said softly. “I love you, and that little girl you’re growing. Take care of her, and look in on Caroline for me.”

“Don’t say that. Don’t leave me. I love you so much,” Emily said, her tears flowing freely.

“Em,” Jilly said softly, trying to squeeze her friend’s hand.

Emily sat down beside William, pulling Caroline into a hug.

William leaned down and kissed Jilly’s lips gently, his tears mixing with hers. “I love you. All of my life it’s always been you,” he whispered.

She smiled at him and reached for his hand. “I love you too. Take care of Caroline; she’s going to need you now.”

With that, she closed her eyes, and her hand went limp in his. William cradled her lifeless body to his chest, sobbing; Caroline and Emily put their arms around him and sobbed just as loud, their bodies convulsed in hysterics.

After a few minutes, William got up and gently laid Jilly’s body on the ground. Removing the knife from her chest, he wiped the blood on his pants.

“What are you going to do?” Caroline asked in a voice that bordered on hysterical.

“I may not be able to really kill her, but I can do some damage.” His voice was full of rage. He ran into the cave after Mary.

Liam and Maxwell looked at each other and decided since Jilly was dead, they really didn’t need to be there anymore, and they left. Sabine yelled after them, but they ignored her. Caroline glared at her as she ran into the cave after William.

*

It was dark inside the cave, and it took William’s eyes a few minutes to adjust. The cave was surprisingly deep, and Mary could be anywhere inside. He found a large stick and lit the end on fire, and started walking deeper into the cave.

He heard a noise behind him and whirled around to find Sabine running behind him. “What do you want, Sabine?” He was all out of patience, the anger in his voice apparent.

“You can come with me now. She said I could have you if I brought the witch to her,” she said pleadingly, sounding like a petulant child.

He laughed dryly. “When will you learn, Sabine? I will never love you.” He shoved her away and started walking again. She clutched at his arm, but he brushed her off as though she were a bug on his shoulder.

“You just never gave us a chance, William,” she screamed. “We could be so great together, I know it!”

He ignored her pleading and continued deeper into the cave. Eventually her screaming ceased and he assumed she left.

“I know you’re in here, Mary,” he screamed. “We need to settle this now!”

“It’s already been settled, William. We’re even now. You took my match, so I took yours,” she yelled back. “I just have to wait longer. There will be another with her power in time; I just need to be patient.” Her voice was borderline maniacal.

“I will never allow that. There will be nowhere on earth you can hide from me.” He listened to see how far away her voice was, trying to gauge where she was in the cave.

Mary backed up slowly, trying to get as far away from William as she could.

*

Caroline was sitting beside her sister on the ground. Her ribs hurt, and her face was bruised. She felt numb; she couldn’t believe what had just happened. How was it possible her sister was dead? Things like this just didn’t happen to people normally. Tears streamed down her face, but she didn’t bother wiping them away anymore. She looked down at her sister and smoothed the hair out of her face. She just looked like she was sleeping, she looked so peaceful.

Hearing a noise by the cave, her head snapped up. Sabine was running out of the cave, tears streaming down her cheeks. Caroline hunched over Jilly’s body protectively as Sabine approached.

“All of this is her fault. If your stupid sister had just done what she was ordered to do, everything would have worked out perfectly. I’m glad she’s dead,” Sabine spat out as she kicked Jilly in the side.

Caroline jumped to her feet and punched Sabine in the face. She heard the sickening crunch of bone breaking as her fist made contact with Sabine’s nose. Blood immediately began pouring down Sabine’s face, and her hands flew to her nose, trying to stop the bleeding.

“You bitch!” she screamed as she backed away from Caroline.

“Get out of here, Sabine. William doesn’t want you,” Caroline taunted.

“This isn’t over!” Sabine screamed as she disappeared into the trees.

Emily laughed; it was a crazy sort of bubbly laugh. “That was kind of awesome, Caroline. Jilly would have been proud.”

Caroline smiled weakly as she sank to her knees, feeling drained from the events that had taken place in the last hour. She wanted to go in after William, but she felt like she couldn’t leave Jilly there by herself.

It was a silly notion, seeing as Jilly was dead. Nothing could hurt her now, but Caroline felt compelled to stay with her. Wiping her grimy hands on her jeans, she ran her hands through her hair. Out of the corner of her eye she thought she saw something move on the ground. She looked down quickly and found her sister looking back up at her. She screamed. “Jilly! How are you alive?”

“Jilly!” Emily screamed.

“Was I dead?” she asked as she tried to sit up.

Caroline helped her into a sitting position. “Yeah, you were for sure dead. Mary stabbed you through the heart; William and I watched you die.”

Jilly shook her head. “I don’t know what happened, but I know I’m not dead now. Where is William?”

“He went after Mary; they’re both in the cave now.”

Getting to her feet, Jilly looked at Emily and her sister. “I have to go in after them. Do you want to come or stay?”