The Promise (The Coven Series) (24 page)

“Yeah,
you’re right, Dad,” I mumbled through a yawn.
 
“I just need to sleep.”

He
helped me up and half carried me to my room.

“Sleep,
sweetheart.”
 
He kissed my forehead and
pulled my old, worn out throw around me.
 
He left, pulling the door closed behind him.

My
eyes fell closed and I drifted on a warm lulling breeze of darkness.
 
Sleep.

The
blare of my phone woke me.

“Hello?”
I slurred.

“CJ,
thank the Fates,” Billy sounded frantic.
 

Kay
screamed.

Chapter Nineteen

“What’s
wrong?!” I shouted into the phone, wide awake.
 

“I
don’t know!
 
She was asleep and she just
woke up screaming.
 
I can’t get near her,
CJ.
 
I don’t know what to do.”

The dream.
 
She’d told
me it was getting worse and that she was having it every day.
 
I could hear her screaming and sobbing in the
background.
 
This was very bad.
 
“Where are you?”

“We’re
on the boat.”
 
His voice shook.
 
“CJ, please.
 
What can I do to help her?”

“Just
talk to her.
 
Bring the boat back to the
dock and I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

“I
can’t!
 
The damn thing stalled.
 
I’ve been trying to get it to start.
 
It’s why we’re still out here instead of
home.”

“I’m
coming, Billy.
 
Just do what you can.”

I
jumped
up,
surprised to see my shoes were still
on.
 
The clock told me I’d been asleep
for hours.
 
It was almost midnight.
 
My parents weren’t home either.
 
Crap.
 
Where were they at this time of night?
 
I needed a car.
 
Double crap.
 
I needed
a boat and we didn’t own one.
 
Where
could I get a boat at this hour?
 

Jeff.

I
found his number in my phone and prayed he’d answer.
 
If his battery ran low, he never answered the
damn thing.
 

“CJ?”
His voice sounded sleepy.
 
I must have woken him up.

“Jeff,
I need your boat.”

“My boat?
 
CJ, you
don’t even know how to drive a boat.”

“It’s
Kay.
 
Billy called.
 
Something’s wrong.
 
I have to get to the lake and then out to
where they are.”
 
The longer I thought
about her screams, the more scared I got.
 
I needed to get to her.
 
I’d seen
firsthand how bad they’d gotten.
 
An
overwhelming sense of dread settled in my stomach.
 
It cramped up in agreement.
 
She needed me.
 
“Please, Jeff.”

“Okay,
okay, just calm down, hon.
 
I’ll be there
in five minutes and then we’ll go find them.”

I
grabbed my coat and met him halfway.
 
The
boy was quick.
 
He still wore his green
flannel pajama bottoms and I could see his tee shirt on backwards.
 
The tag waved at me from under his bomber
jacket.

“Thank
you,” I told him as I slid into his old Jeep Wrangler.
 

“What
happened?” He put the car in gear and pulled out, headed in the direction of
the lake.
 

“Billy
called.
 
Kay woke up from her nightmare
screaming and he can’t get her to calm down.”
 
I twisted my fingers in agitation.
 
“Hurry, Jeff.
 
Something’s really
wrong.
 
I can feel it.”

“Does
she have nightmares a lot?” He pushed the gas pedal and we hit eighty.
 
The speed didn’t even bother me tonight.
 
Normally if anyone got above fifty I started
to freak out.
 
Emily’s accident had made
me leery of riding shotgun with anyone.
 
Tonight I was glad for the speed.

I
nodded.
 
“Yeah, but they’re getting
worse.”

We
pulled up to the dock and I jumped out before he’d put the jeep into park.
 
I ran ahead, pulling lines and doing what I
could to get the boat ready to launch.
 
Not that I knew much.
 
We didn’t
have a boat so I’d never learned the ins and outs of boating.
 

“Where
are they?” Jeff finished stowing the lines.

“On the lake.”

“Where
on the lake?” he asked patiently.
 
“It’s
a big lake, hon.”

“I…”
Damn.
 
I didn’t know.
 
“Billy didn’t say.”

He
nodded and pulled out his phone.
 
“Hey, Billy.
 
I’m
bringing CJ out.
 
Where are you?”
 
He listened for a moment and then told me to
sit down and started the engine, pulling out into the peaceful waters.
 
Twenty minutes later we pulled up alongside
Billy’s dad’s boat, Lady Chance.
 
It was
a big boat, having compartments under the deck.
 
Billy tossed a rope ladder down and we climbed up.

“Where
is she?”

“Below.”
 
He turned and ran, Jeff and
I
hot on his heels.

Kay
sat hunched in a corner.
 
Her eyes were
wide with terror and fear and her breathing came in short, gasping bursts.
 
She looked wretched.
 
Scared to death.

“Is
she awake?” I asked softly, not wanting to upset her anymore than she was.

“I
don’t know,” Billy whispered.
 
“She
crawled into the corner while I was on the phone with you.
 
I tried to touch her, but she flinched
away.
 
She stopped screaming about five
minutes ago.”

“Kay?”
 
I took careful, easy steps to reach her and
hunkered down.
 
“Kay, are you okay?”

She
stared into the distance, her eyes focused on something I couldn’t see.
 
She was still asleep, trapped in her
nightmare.
 
I took her hand and she
screamed.
 
Over and over, she let out an
ear-piercing wail that would scare all the ghosts back into their graves.
 
Bone chilling screams.
 
She needed to wake up.
   

I
grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her as hard as I could.
 
When that didn’t work, I slapped her hard
across the face.
 
“Wake up!” I yelled
into her face.
 
Jeff handed me a glass of
water which I poured over her head, but it had no effect.
 
I shook her again.
 
She just continued to scream.

“What
the hell is wrong with her?” Jeff asked hoarsely.

“She’s
dreaming,” I told him.
 
“ She’s
dreaming about being burned alive, but something’s
wrong.
 
I don’t know…she has to wake
up.
 
If she doesn’t…”

“…if
she doesn’t, what?” Billy demanded.
 
“What?”

“I
don’t know,” I shook my head.
 
“I can’t
explain it, Billy.
 
Something really bad
is going to happen.
 
I can feel it.
 
She has to wake up.”

“How
can you know that, CJ?” Billy asked, his voice as confused as I felt.
 

“I
just do.”
 
My heart pounded in concerto
with Kay’s.
 
Her fear and pain echoed in
me.
 
I…felt…everything she did.
 
In that moment, we were connected in a way I
couldn’t begin to define.
 
I could feel
her dying.
 
“NOW!
 
We have to wake her up NOW!”

Words
whispered in my mind and I repeated them blindly.

“Spirit,
I ask thee to free her from this burden,

In
this time, in this place, I call it into me.

Show
me now what she sees and forever let it be.”

“CJ,
NO!”
 
I heard Jeff shout as I fell
forward into
an oblivion
of darkness.

Chapter Twenty

The
first thing I became aware of was the stench.
 
It smelled like a Port-A-Potty had overturned in the summer sun and no
one bothered to clean it up.
 
I gagged at
the cloying odor.
 
Sounds filtered
through and I tried to focus.
 
I could
see everything, but it was a little hazy.
 
I heard someone crying and I turned my head to see who it was or at
least tried to.
 
Panic set in when I
found that I couldn’t move so much as a finger.
 
I tried to speak, but nothing came out.
 

A
hand came down on my shoulder and I looked up to see a man’s face staring down
at me with grim determination.
 
His eyes
held both sorrow and acceptance.
 

“Why
Papa, why do they do this?”

The
question came from me, but I hadn’t asked it.
 
What was going on?
 
Where was I?

“I
do not know, daughter.”
 
He pulled me to
him in a tight hug.
 
“We must be brave
this night, child.
 
It will be over and
done with soon enough.”

“I
am afraid, Papa.”
 
Fear knotted in my
stomach.
 

“As
am I, daughter, as am I.”
 
He stroked my
hair.
 
Understanding hit hard and
fast.
 
He wasn’t talking to me.
 
I was trapped in this girl’s body, his
daughter.
 
I couldn’t speak or move.
 
Kay’s dream.
 
I had taken it into myself.
 
This was her dream.
 
She had dreamed of being burnt at the
stake.
 
What had I done?
 
No, please no.
 
I screamed and struggled against the
invisible bonds that held me, but to no avail.
 
I was good and stuck.
   
Crap.
 
Crap.
 
Crap.

Someone
took my hand and I looked up into hazel eyes filled with warmth and
sadness.
 
Long, wheat blonde hair hung in
limp dirty waves around her face.
 
She
couldn’t have been
more than eighteen herself
.
 
The girl’s thoughts softened.
 
This woman was their mistress, their Coven
leader.
 
Crap.
 
I was staring into
into
the eyes of Sara Anne Bishop.
 

“Laura
Elizabeth, do not fear this.
 
Death is a
natural part of the circle.”
 
Her words,
gently spoken, did nothing to calm the fear rolling inside of the girl.
 
Or me.
 

“She
is only twelve, Mistress.”
 
This came
from Laura’s father.
 

“We
are to burn, Mistress,” I heard her cry.
 
“We did nothing!
 
Why?”

“Why?”
another man growled.
 
“Because we have
been betrayed by our own, that’s why!
 
Are we to sit here and do naught, Mistress?”

“Tis
naught we can do, Robert,” Sara told him softly.
 
“If we were to use our gifts then they would
not only condemn us, but what is left of our families as well.
 
Is that what you wish, for your wife and
infant son to suffer our fate as well?”

“No,
of course not, Mistress, but there must be something…”

“There
is.”
 
A burly man pushed his way
forward.
 
“We may not be able to stop
this, but we can…”

“No,
George.”
 
Sara interrupted him.
 
“We will not.”

The
man snarled and took a step forward.
 
Sara arched a brow.
 
He flew
backward and hit the wall.
 
She’d never
even moved or made a sound, but she’d managed to throw him several feet.
 
The girl had some serious skills.
 
Even I was impressed.

Footsteps
interrupted the conversation.
 
The
sheriff’s men had come for the prisoners.
 
Strong arms enfolded me.
 
Laura
began to cry hysterically and clung to her father.
 
I was crying myself.
 
I could feel her pain, her terror, her
helplessness.
 
It wasn’t fair.
 
It had never been fair.
 
How could they do this to these people?
 
I had never understood the horror of this
night.
 
Now I was about to witness it
first-hand.