The Reverence of One: Book Three of the Shadow Series (22 page)

“It was an accident. I had a nightmare,” replied Test. The consequences of the incident began to quickly unfold in his mind and his heart began to race. “If you felt my outburst, wouldn’t Isaac have felt it too?” A frightening thought entered his mind as he glanced back and forth between the two strangers. “How do we know that you aren’t
a…
.
” He paused, hesitating to say the word.

“A Reaper?” answered Jenz.

Test swallowed hard. “Yeah.”

The room fell silent
once more; a
ll eyes on the albino woman, waiting for her reaction. Suddenly, from behind Lauren, a new voice entered the conversation.

“They’re tellin
’
the truth, son.”

Test spun as Cliff’s voice echoed in the room. Though he was glad to see his friend, he needed answers first. “How do you know?”

Cliff huffed. “My grandson—he’s seen the woman teachin
’
Test,” he replied motioning to Jenz. “
Besides, y
ou’d already be dead by now if Isaac had sent them for you.”

“Thank you,” said Jenz
smoothly
.
She turned to Test.
“
This is true. Though you are powerful, I could have ended your life when we met.” She stared at him intently. “You have yet to realize the potential of your gifts, Test, and I don’t think anyone realizes how close your time is, not even Isaac.
With that said, if Isaac were to enter the room right now, you would not survive.
”

Test sat speechless, and before he could grasp Jenz’
s words
,
she turned to Cliff and continued to speak.

“
I assume your grandson has the gift of sight, Mr
. …,
”
she asked
, fishing for the old man’
s name
.

“
Johnston
, ma’am,” replied Cliff as he
bowed
his head. “
Clifford T. Johnston. And yes, he can see things before they happen.
” The old man turned his attention back to Test. “Thad had another vision last night. He saw a tall man with black hair walking in a suit.
Said he ain’t never seen him before, and said the man wasn’t doin’ anythin’ but walkin’.
”

Lauren’s heart sank. “That’s Isaac,” she blurted out.

“How certain are your grandson’s visions?” asked Jenz, her voice now filled with concern.

“The future can always change, ma’am. Nothin’s for sure until it happens.”

Jenz stood and looked to Prim. “You should go. Lead them as far away as you can.”

Prim stood and nodded.

Lauren erupted from her chair.
“I’ll go with him.”

With the first genuine smile he’d shown since his arrival, Prim replied. “That’s very kind of you, but I don’t think it would be wise
; t
he more Shadows that stay here the better.”

“He’s right,” replied Maggie. “I’ll go.”

Lauren folded her arms across her chest. She knew he was right, but that didn’t help her to feel better.

Again Prim smiled, only this time it was because he found humor in Maggie’s suggestion.

“No offense, but what could you possibly do to help?” he asked.

Maggie grimaced at the thought of her response. “Someone will have to come back here to warn the others if you fail.”

Prim’s smile quickly faded. “By fail, I assume that you mean I die?”

Maggie nodded her head slowly. “God forbid, yes.”

Prim’s smile returned, though with less grace than before. “Very well then,” he replied. “I accept your proposal.”

Maggie clasped her hands in front of her. “Good,” she replied
nervously
. “It’s settled then. Prim and I will go.”

Cliff’s head snapped to Prim as the mention of his name sparked a memory from long ago. He stared at the Shadow for a moment, and when the two of them made eye contact, it all became clear.

“You’re the boy,” began Cliff, stammering slightly. “
You…y
ou’re the boy who showed up in the barn when I was a little one. You warned me about…
.
” He stopped with his mouth open, amazed that their paths had crossed once more.

Prim’s eyes narrowed for a moment, his mind searching for the same memory that the old man was speaking of. As his eyes widened, he began to nod his head. “Yes, I do remember you. It seems as if our fates are tied.”

Cliff chuckled with amusement and awe. “I’m pr
etty sure my fates
done
been decided,” he replied, raising his hand in the air and allowing it to become transparent. “Just the same, it does in fact seem that our paths were meant to cross.”

“I’m sorry to interrupt this miraculous reunion,” spoke Jenz, “but I’m afraid that the time has come for Prim and—Maggie, was it?” she asked motioning to Maggie. Getting an affirming nod from the spirit, Jenz continued. “I don’t think it’s safe for us to stay here any longer. There has been too much happen for it to be considered safe.
I suggest that we
all return together to our home in
Salem
.
”

Lauren, still stewing, was quick with a reply. “We can’t,” she said forcefully. “Thad and Nicole aren’t here yet.”

Maggie looked
at
Lauren proudly
as
Cliff replied.

“I can go back to them,” he
replied
to Lauren.
Turning to Jenz, he continued.
“You all just tell me where it is that you’re goin’, and I’ll make sure we get there.”

Jenz stood from her seat and looked to Lauren with a more thoughtful expression than she’d offered to her before. “I certainly don’t want to leave your friends in harm’s way, but I do feel that it is important for us to leave.”

Lauren wanted to be angry, but she couldn’t argue with Jenz’s reasoning.
She unfolded her arms and let her hands drop to her side.
She looked to the woman with sad eyes as her bottom lip quivered.
“
But this is my home
,” she replied in a defeated tone.

“Everything will be fine,”
spoke Prim
with false
confidence
. “Soon this will be over and you can return home.”

Trying her best to remain strong, Lauren
dropped her head and stared at the floor
.
After a brief bout of silence, she replied.
“
I guess y
ou’d better get going
then
.”

Prim
watched her with a pained
expression
, and as she lifted her eyes to his, he
flashed
a
wide and genuine smile. Suddenly finding the thought of leaving more difficult by the moment, he turned to Maggie and spoke reluctantly.

“Ready?” he asked.

“I guess so,” she replied as she looked to her son.

Test stood, walked to his mother, and took her in his arms. “I love you, Mom
. Be careful,
”
he whispered into her ear.

Maggie pulled away, holding him by his shoulders, struggling to contain her emotions. “There isn’t anything that can happen to me,” she replied. She looked around him to Jenz. “Please take care of my son?” she asked. “He’s all that I have.”

Jenz bowed her head. “I promise you that I will try to keep him from harm in any way that I can.”

“Thank you,” replied Maggie as she reached up to kiss Test on the cheek. She
then turned to Lauren, quickly kissed her cheek, and walked to Prim’s side.
“I’m ready.”

Prim grinned with understanding of Maggie’s heartache. He
took a deep breath and, taking one last look around the room,
saw Lauren staring at him with the same tragic expression that Maggie’s face displayed.

“I’ll be back,” he said to her, the corners of his lips curling up just slightly.

Her eyes welling with tears, Lauren
nearly struggled to speak
. “You do that.”

With her eyes locked on his, the white flash of light burned in her memory as Prim and Maggie disappeared from the room.
She closed her ey
es to retain their
image
.

****

With the gift of sensing a Shadow
’
s presence stifled when phased,
Isaac
was forced to
walk calmly down the dirt road that led to Lauren’s home
as he intermittently
adjust
ed
his tie and shirt collar. His confidence never waning, he felt assured that what had become his greatest challenge would soon come to an end.
A
ccustomed to the finer things,
he
walked domineeringly in his
gray
three piece suit with every strand of his brown hair
slicked back and
remaining perfectly
in place
.
In the cool darkness
of the
night, he methodically paced his steps; remaining patient as the moment he’d been waiting for would soon present itself.

To his right, and in stark contrast
to himself
, walked Ikuhabe. The Native American’s black hair swayed
rhythmically
from left to right
across the back of his
plain white t-shirt with each step taken. To Isaac’s left walked the twin Reapers,
Casper
and Ashley
. A
nxious to
capture and
destroy the one Shadow they’d heard so much about
,
e
ach of them wore dark clothing, causing the
ir
already pale flesh to seem even more so against the backdrop of the night. Ashley, a strawberry blonde, wore dark make-up around her eyes and on her lips which made her face appear nearly as though it were a skull
floating
in the dark
ness.
Casper
, an awkward and spindly looking
red-head
,
lived up to the reputatio
n of red-heads having a temper. Though he lacked the outwardly shocking appearance of his sister, his lips nearly always held
a devilish grin.

Having sensed two distinctive energy spikes from the area
over
the last two days, Isaac chuckled to himself at how Test’s own power could not be overcome by his youthful lack of self-control. He was certain that he could play this weakness to his advantage.
Still, he was angered at the failure of his
F
aithful to
carry-out
his wishes on prior occasions
.
It had been well over a century since he had accompanied anyone on a hunt, and though he was unwilling to admit it to himself, his fear of what Test could become, as well of the
recent
defeat of Anil,
heightened his sense of urgency. The time had come to give the matter his personal attention.

As the group rounded a turn in the road, Isaac could feel the familiar pull of a Shadows presence
a short
distance
away
. He began to salivate at the thought of holding Test’s life in his hands. Though he had never seen him, he visualized looking into Test’s eyes as he ended his life, hoping that the young man would beg him for mercy
—something
he
would absolutely never receive. A cryptic smile painted
Isaac’s
lips.

Just as he was about to order the others to phase and attack, the energy coming from the Shadows disappeared. Stopping in his tracks, he closed his eyes and angled his head, searching for the lost signal.

“No,” he growled as he took two quick steps forward. Turning to Ikuhabe, he
mumbled inaudibly as he pushed him
backwards on his heels
.

Led by Isaac, they one by one ignited with color,
illuminating the darkness of the woods with brilliant blues and reds. The four of them pulsed into the air, like bottle rockets launched on the Fourth of July.

Hovering for
a brief
moment
,
Isaac
quickly saw a
clearing
in the trees just
ahead.
He forcefully l
ean
ed
forward and
,
throwing his hands back, released a pulse that nearly caught the others in its wake a
s he
raced to the roof of the home within the clearing. Only several feet before impact, he flung his feet beneath him and threw his hands forward releasing a massive pulse, sending the roof in his path collapsing in upon its self.