The Witches of BlackBrook (9 page)

IPSWICH, MASSACHUSETTS

1693

Karina fell to the floor and wept, knowing she’d never see her beloved Jeremiah again. Soft sobs continue to drift from her as day turned to night, with only the sounds of rodents skittering across the stone floor disrupting her mournful cries.

The metal door rattled, shocking her awake. “On your feet, witch,” spat the officer looming just beyond her cage. “It’s time for you to burn.”

Karina stood, smoothing her dress and gathering her wits. “I thought the proper way to dispatch a witch was by hanging her on Gallows Hill? Is that not our destination?”

“After what Danforth saw, you’re headed straight to the flame.”

Karina knew the answer before she asked the question, but any delay would give her more time to finalize a plan. Kara and Kenna had both spoken to her using their minds, pleading that she let them come save her, but she’d refused. She would not have them face the same fate and would use every ounce of her magic to ensure it. She just wasn’t sure how yet.

Bound once again, Karina was drug through the prison and into the courtyard. The waiting crowd hissed and cursed hatefulness upon her as she was led to the stake.

Once tied in place, the pomp and circumstance began.

“Hear ye, hear ye. We gather this night to present evidence of solid conviction upon this witch, Karina Howe. Her use of dark magic was witnessed by our own Governor Danforth, and the accusing Ann Putnam.”

Karina found Mrs. Putnam clinging to her baby at the front of the crowd. She quickly scoured the other faces, looking for her friend, Sarah Bishop, to no avail. The fact that she was nowhere to be seen, did not bode well.

“The devil’s mark has been identified upon her and as the Court declares, ‘Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.’” 

With no further words, the torch was cast at her feet. Karina was out of time. The crowd roared liked zealots, cheering and excited for her death, but fell quiet when she smiled and opened herself up to the full well of magic she carried within.

Flames licked the hem of her dress as she worked to free her hands from the ropes. Somber faces, etched with malice or fear, looked on as she squirmed against the stake. She refused to close her eyes or scream. She wouldn’t give them that. No. She would prove to be as defiant and wild as they deemed her while dragging her from her home.

Kara and Kenna stood hidden at the back of the crowd, silently pleading for her to use her magic to escape. She wanted to, oh how she wanted to, just to see these
purists
running for the hills. But staring into her sister’s eyes as her legs started to burn, she knew she had to do whatever it took to keep them safe.

She closed her eyes, the chant beginning simple as always, words from the Goddess flowing into her mind. “
Come to me, death that be, flames surrounds, peace abounds; flesh to earth, spirit to soar, transport our souls, alive forever more.”

Bursting free of her mortal flesh, Karina’s soul flew into the cosmos. Encased in fire and wind her energy signature spun wildly into the night sky. She could feel traces of magic sparking against her own and knew her spell had worked. Though divided by space and time, she and her sisters had escaped that horrible life and would return to the world, safe and sound when the time was right.

“You aren’t still holding onto the notion that Caris is the one we’re looking for, are you?” Kit asked.

“No. You were right. If it was her then Jason wouldn’t even be part of her life, and after all the time I’ve spent with her, there would have been some kind of revelation I would think, like when I always find you.”

Kit smiled. “Yes, there’s never been any doubt for me either.”

Trin placed the dish of chicken parmesan pasta on the island and thought back to the first time she and Kenna met in their new lives.

It was 1785, almost a full century in the future, though it felt as if no time had passed at all. Karina’s energy was fused into a nurse who was at the bedside of John Hancock when he resigned as Governor of Massachusetts due to his failing health. She had full memory of her previous life, as well as the one she’d just inherited. Her name was now Caroline Hughey, and though her magic was weakened, she could still feel it coursing through her veins.

Caroline wasn’t married and lived a modest life, one that Karina slipped into with comfortable ease. Every night she would use her magic to scry for her sisters, knowing her powers wouldn’t fully return until they were reunited.

Three months into her new life, Caroline was treating a young woman and received a massive shock upon touching her skin. A bright red energy burst forth, surrounding the girls. It was the young woman who spoke first.

“It’s you. I’ve finally found you.”

Karina cast a silencing spell upon the room so the two of them could speak freely. Karina recognized the magic within the woman and from that day forward, they lived together, searching for their sibling until their time to pass was upon them.

The same cycle had now repeated for nearly four centuries. Always finding one another, but never the third. Trin, however, was convinced and determined their curse was coming to an end this time around.

“Dinner was delicious,” Kit complimented, snapping Trin from her thoughts.

“Thank you. Now why don’t you head to bed. I’ll clean up here.”

Kit smiled and retreated up the stairs, leaving Trin to fantasize about how wonderful it would be to once again have both her sisters under her wing.

She hung the dish towel and walked onto the back porch to gaze at the night sky. “Lord and Lady, blessed be. Let this be the time of three. Reunited in spirit and soul, bring about the end of our goal.”

A scream pierced the night. With panic rising in her chest, Trin raced inside and up the stairs to Kit’s room. Throwing open the door, Trin quickly took in the scene and found Kit’s injured hand surrounded by a thick twisting fog.

Trin blasted a spell into the room, striking the obscenity full on.

“Kit! My god, are you okay?”

Kit pulled her ravaged hand close to her chest, weeping as the wisps of fog disintegrated before her eyes.

“Talk to me. What happened?” Trin pleaded.

“I’m not sure.” Kit sobbed. “I pulled up the covers and a pain exploded through my hand. When I sat up, there was this...darkness swirling around my wound.” Kit threw herself into Trin’s arms.

Trin held Kit as she cried, scared and unsure of what their next step should be. After a few minutes of contemplation, Trin swallowed and broke the silence.

“Kit, I think we should talk to Caris and Jason.”

Kit leaned back and wiped her cheeks. “Do you really think they can help?”

“I do. I think that whatever this was, it’s the same thing that attacked him.” Trin opened the jar of salve on the nightstand and dabbed some ointment onto Kit’s hand. “I think together we’d have a better chance at figuring out what it is.”

Kit stared at her sister, unsure if opening their magic to outsiders was the best idea. Her concern wasn’t purely selfish, but based on years of cause and effect. Trin was always thrown off when another witch was around. She so desperately wanted everyone they’d stumbled across to be Kara, that she’d lost perspective over the years. Her magic was wilder and unfocused, and it never ended well.

“If you think it’s the right thing to do, then I’m okay with it.” Kit sighed. “But you know me, Trin. I’m a private person and it’s hard for me to open up to strangers. Especially about our magic. I think we’re always stronger together––without outside influences.”

Trin sat on the edge of the bed with her shoulders slumped.

“Okay, Kit. We’ll search on our own if that’s what you want. But if we come up blank, I’m asking for their help. Deal?”

Kit sniffled and brushed her nose with the back of her hand. “Deal.”

Trin surrounded Kit’s palm with her hands, concentrating on her wound and created a pulsing, healing light. “There. Now, does that feel better?”

“Yes, thanks to you. As always, you saved me.” Kit’s tears returned in earnest.

Trin took her sister in her arms, hugging her tightly and giving thanks to the gods that she was okay.

“Are you sure you should go to work?” Caris asked.

“I feel fine, and yes, if we’d like to eat this month, I have to go to work,” Jason teased.

“Please be careful, and promise you’ll call me if anything happens.”

“I will.”

Jason kissed Caris on the cheek and headed for the station. Calling his cousin was a given, but calling Trin was the thought currently needling his mind.

They were meant to have a date in just over two days, but after everything that had happened, he hadn’t heard hide nor hair from her.

After parking his squad car, he fiddled with his phone, debating whether it would be best to call early in the morning, or wait until late afternoon. “Stop acting like a girl, and just do it you pussy,” he scolded himself.

Punching the contacts button, he scrolled to Trin’s entry and hit CALL before he chickened out.

“Hello?” Her voice was thick and groggy. Sexy.

“Hi. It’s Jason. Did I wake you?”

“Hi. Um, yeah...we had a long night.”

Jason’s ears perked up. “Everything okay?”

The line went silent.

“Trin? Are you and Kit okay?”

After another brief hesitation Trin sighed. “Yes. We’re fine.”

He could sense her lie straight through the phone.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, I’m sure. How are you doing? Anything else going on over there?”

Even from this distance he could tell she was pushing him away. “No. Nothing else. I was just calling to see if we were still on for the weekend.”

“The weekend? I only thought we were having dinner Friday night.”

Jason closed his eyes. He could sense she was happy about their date, even though she was purposely trying to keep him at arm’s length. Something was up, and he needed to understand what.

Taking a deep breath, he cleared his mind and opened his third eye to focus on Trin. The vision came quick and sharp.

Trin was surrounded by the same black fog that had attacked him. The only difference, it wasn’t hurting her, but simply hovering around her aura, sucking and siphoning off bits and pieces.

“Well, I hoped we could start off with dinner Friday night, and thought maybe we’d try our hand at a road trip and venture to the falls on Saturday.”

He held his vision and hoped his words would elicit a change.

“Niagara Falls?”

“That’s the one.”

Trin’s aura spiked, a kaleidoscope of colors: pink, yellow, blue, and red, all mixed and pulsed with her magic, revealing her obvious excitement. Jason held his response for a split second while he watched the fog-ling sink multiple tendrils into Trin. Her colors diminished slowly as the cloud fed and pulsed.

“But if you’re not feeling up to it, just let me know.” Jason closed his third eye, unable to watch any longer.

Trin held her tongue as she fought the tug-of-war between her heart and head.

“I’m sorry, Jason. But as wonderful as that sounds, I’m going to have to pass. Kit just got back in town and we have some things around the house that need attending to.”

Jason could feel her disappointment about canceling their date, and also her regret for lying to him.

“No problem, Trin. I’ll catch up with you later. Let me know if there’s anything around the house that I could help with. I’m pretty good with a hammer and would love to see you.”

“Thanks, Jason. I will.”

Jason ended the call and immediately threw the phone across the car and onto the floor, scrambling to retrieve it when it started ringing again.

“Hello. Trin?”

“Um, no. It’s me. What’s wrong?” Caris replied.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean...I could feel your anger and anxiety and want to know what’s going on?”

“I can’t talk about it now. I have to get on the clock. I’ll see you at home and we’ll discuss it then.”

Jason stowed his phone in the deep pocket on the front of his vest and entered the station. He hoped the day-to-day routine of protecting people would be a fulfilling distraction to the chaos in his private life.

“Bonds are torn, wounds are formed. Breaking trust, squashing lust. Separate will they ever be. This I swear, so mote it be.” He tossed the chard bone and rats tail into the fire as the words sizzled in his mouth. His last spell had worked, fulfilling his targeted purpose perfectly and strengthening him in the process, but this last hit had drained him more than he cared to admit. He was determined to be successful again in this century, just as he had in the past three, but he needed more power. Thankfully, he knew exactly how to get it.

Trin threw back the covers and stomped into the shower. Having to lie to Jason and miss out on a great weekend because of all this crap had not left her in a very good mood. She wanted to get to the bottom of this and move on with her life, and after she was showered, fed, and brought Kit up to speed, that was precisely what she was going to do.

Trin sat in the kitchen, enjoying her preferred cinnamon and spice oatmeal, and waited for Kit to wake. After last night’s drama, she needed as much sleep as possible.

Trin placed her bowl in the sink and felt the buzz of her cell going off in her pocket.

“Hello.”

“Hi Trin, it’s Mia. We need you to come in today. Say, in about an hour?”

Trin sighed. She’d placed herself on call after missing the couple of days she’d set aside for her trip to Ipswich. “Of course.”

Trin didn’t bother waking Kit. She knew she’d text her later, wondering where she was once she was up and about. Trin showered and dressed then headed straight for work. “If it’s not one thing delaying us it’s another,” she confessed to herself.

“Thanks for coming in, Trin. We’ve got a few extra bookings that we just couldn’t shift around,” Mia explained.

“It’s no problem.”

Trin resolved herself to an afternoon of work, happy to have a secure job in this unsecure economy. She’d answered Kit’s text about her whereabouts around noon, and was now greeting her next client of the day. As she struggled past the thought that she’d rather be working magic with her sister than kneading Mr. Clemens’ back folds, a wave of dizziness hit her, accompanied by a sudden case of nausea that sent her fleeing from the room.

“Trin...are you all right?” Mia asked from outside the bathroom stall.

“I’m sorry, Mia, but no, I’m not feeling well at all. Could you please give my apologies to Mr. Clemens and reschedule him for a free hour sometime next week.”

“Sure. No problem.”

Trin hovered over the toilet in fear of losing her lunch. She had no idea what was happening, but tried to take a few deep breaths to calm her stomach and nerves.

Once washed up, Trin gathered her things from the locker room and immediately returned home.

“You’re home early. What happened?” Kit asked from her perch at the dining room table. She had papers and sketch books spread across the entire area.

“I don’t know. One minute I was fine and the next I was on my knees in the bathroom feeling sicker than a dog.”

Kit jumped up from the table and laid a hand across Trin’s forehead and stomach. Closing her eyes, she drew upon her magic to weed out the cause of Trin’s state of ill-being, like her sister had done for her, so many times before.

A few seconds later Kit declared, “I don’t see anything magical going on. Do you think you could have eaten something that didn’t agree with you?”

Trin sagged into one of the dining room chairs. “I suppose so. But with everything that’s been happening around here, I just assumed it was due to whatever ‘evil’ is attacking us.” Trin dropped her head to the table while Kit set to making them both a cup of ginger tea.

“Here, drink this. It should help.”

Trin lifted her head and took a sip, thankful to be waited on for once. Kit continued to hover about as Trin took a few more swallows. Stressed and tired, Trin tried to relax but was sent into a full-blown panic when she began to cough up blood.