The Gathering Darkness (37 page)

“I hear it,” Robyn said. “Over there, Brooke.” Robyn pointed into the dark. We took a couple steps forward, and then I heard the familiar throaty rattle of what I now knew was a raven and not a crow.

“How can you trust that thing?”

“It led me to you.”

“Yeah, because Maggie wanted it to.”

“I don’t think so. I can’t explain it, but for some reason, I don’t feel threatened by it, and I think it’s waiting to show us the way out of here. C’mon.” He grabbed my hand, and Robyn’s too. “This time we’re not spending the night in the woods.”

We wasted no time in moving away from the well. Although it was difficult to see, we followed the sounds the raven made. The flapping of wings as it flew from tree to tree, the gurgles and cackles that were surprisingly low, as if it didn’t want anyone else but us to hear.

As we trudged along, Robyn and I explained to Marcus that she was a real witch and that the others were Maggie’s minions. We told him about the wards of protection I’d placed over his window and door to his hospital room. Then I thought of the amulet and asked Marcus if he had it.

“What? Don’t you have it?” I heard the dread in his voice.

“No, I took it off and put it under your pillow, so I could dream of you. And it worked.”

He swore under his breath. “It must still be in the hospital,” he said. “We’ll call first thing in the morning to see if anyone’s found it.”

“Yeah,” I said hopeless.

I knew that once it was taken from the protection of the hospital room, it would be easy for Maggie to find, but kept my thoughts to myself.

“I tried so hard to keep you out of my mind,” I said as we hurried along.

“You can’t keep me from your heart.” He squeezed my hand. “I know what we have to do now. I remember everything. I remember every minute of my lives as Kalan and Christian. And you will, too.”

He didn’t say any more on the subject. Maybe he didn’t want to reveal secrets in front of Robyn.

“Are you sure you’re not sick or anything?” I asked Marcus for the tenth time as we pounded through the damp forest like a herd of elephants.

“Positive. Stop worrying.”

“Where are we going to go when we get out? We can’t go to our homes,” I said.

“We’ll take the boat to Uncle Edmund’s.”

“Oh, I like your Uncle Edmund,” Robyn said excitedly.

I gave her a sarcastic look that I knew she couldn’t see in the dark. “It’s not like we’re going on a vacation, Robyn.”

“I know, sorry.”

The rain had stopped soon after Marcus had found us, but dampness hung heavily in the air and started to seep through the robe to my clothes underneath. I was tired and hungry and grew edgy.

“We should be at the beach by now,” I complained.

A stick snapped behind us and a tiny squeal flew from me.

“Just keep walking. We’re almost out,” Marcus said. “Don’t look back.”

A few minutes later, we stepped past the last of the trees and into the tall grass that edged the sandy beach. Wisps of dark clouds drifted across the sky, allowing stars to peek through now and then. The sound of the surf rolling quickened our pace to a slow run.

Without another sound, except for the whoosh of its flapping wings, the raven flew over our heads and headed toward the mainland.

Everything seemed to be in our favor, until Marcus stopped in his tracks, sucked in a sharp breath, and called Robyn’s name out with a question mark ending.

“What?” I asked panicked.

“Robyn!” he yelled this time. His hand tightened around mine as he spun in the sand, taking me with him.

“Where is she?” I said, barely breathing.

“She just disappeared.”

Marcus yanked me to him. We stood in the middle of the beach, between the woods and the ocean, and Robyn was nowhere in sight. Neither was anyone else.

“How could she just disappear? Someone must have taken her,” I said in a panic.

“No. Her hand just dissolved inside mine. It was the strangest feeling. She wasn’t pulled away.” His arms tightened around me.

I felt sick.

“You’re soaked,” he said, suddenly. “Let’s get to the boat.”

“What about Robyn?” I asked.

“I’ll go back and look for her.”

“No! Not unless I go with you.”

“You’re not going back into the woods. I’ll take you home and come back in the morning,” he said firmly.

“The plan is to go to your Uncle’s. Let’s just stick to the plan,” I said and jumped when I heard Marcus swear loudly. “What now?”

“The boat’s gone!”

We ran to the end of the wharf. I looked as far as I could see across the dark water. The boat was nowhere in sight. Marcus stood still and quiet for a moment. A breeze blew over us, and I shivered from the dampness of my soggy clothes. Marcus looked at me, took his jacket off, and began to unbutton his shirt.

“What are you doing? You’re not going to swim are you?” I grabbed his arm, determined not to let go.

“No.” When he had his shirt and T-shirt in his hand, he handed them to me. “Take that wet thing off.” He said it as if it repulsed him to see me wearing it.

Gladly, I flung the black garment over my head. It dropped heavily to the wharf. I took my wet T-shirt off, too, and stood shivering in my bra and jeans. Once I had his T-shirt on, he covered me with his flannel shirt. The clothes, warmed by his body, warmed me quickly.

“I have to sit,” I said and dropped to the wharf on the second plank from the end. Marcus sat close and put an arm around me. With his free hand, he pulled out his cell phone and punched in a number.

“We need your help.” There was a pause. “Brooke and I are stranded on Skull Island.” Another pause. “Okay, hurry.”

I hated the seriousness in Marcus’ tone. It added to my fear.

“Uncle Edmund will be here within the hour,” he said.

I laid my head against his chest, and in return, felt the comforting pressure of his head resting on top of mine as he spoke into my hair.

“I’m sorry I left you for all those days.”

“I didn’t think you would ever come back to me, and then when you texted me from the hospital, I tried to stay awake all night, but I couldn’t … and they got me.”

His other arm came across the front of me, and I breathed in the comforting scent of his leather jacket. I sighed, almost completely content, and then I thought of something I was reluctant to bring up, but needed to. I lifted my head and looked at him.

“Marcus, remember at the soccer game? When you saw me on the bleachers just before the fight?” I cringed and looked down at the weathered wharf planks.

“That was Luke, I presume.”

“Yeah.” I drew the word out. “He really picked the wrong time for a visit, but he’s kind of unpredictable like that, and Aunt Rachel told him where I was and … .”

His hand smoothed down the length of my tangled hair. “It’s okay, you don’t have to explain.”

The clouds parted briefly and the slender moon accented his features. And when a gust of wind blew his hair away from his forehead, I saw the hint of a scar above his right eyebrow.

“You weren’t jealous, were you? I feel like the whole fight was my fault.”

He picked my hand up off the wharf and held it between his. “I wasn’t jealous. Well maybe a little, but that wasn’t what started the fight.” He looked into my eyes. “That fight was inevitable. Evan provoked me for the last time.”

“Promise?”

“I swear it wasn’t because of you and Luke.”

“Good, because there never was a ‘me and Luke.’ We’re just friends.”

With one hand on the back of my head, he pulled my face closer and kissed my forehead.

“Are you ready to remember everything?” His eyes, newly re-kindled, smiled down on me.

“How?”

“By combining my witch blood with your fairy blood.” His eyes searched mine.

“Our binding,” I said, remembering. “I’d read about it in the grimoire, but wasn’t sure what it meant.”

“You can read the grimoire?” he asked, surprised.

I nodded. “Yeah, but I’ll explain later.”

He reached into the front pocket of his jeans and pulled out a pocket knife. My eyes widened.

“It’s the only way,” he said softly.

He brought my hand to his lips and kissed my palm.

“If we were normal human beings, I wouldn’t do this to you. But the fact is, we’re not normal in any sense. We had planned to share our blood a thousand years ago. I remember now. It was the only way to bind our souls and make our magic stronger, but we were torn apart. As Claire and Christian, we didn’t have a chance after the binding. And now, our third lifetime together might soon be over.”

“Don’t say that.”

“It’s true.”

“What do I have to do?”

He let go of my hand and flicked the small blade open. To my horror, he pressed the knife point into the middle of his palm. I made a face, but didn’t look away.

As if the trickle of blood that leaked around the point of the blade wasn’t enough, he glided the knife along his skin until a thin crimson line appeared down the length of his palm.

My breathing changed, becoming louder. An unpleasant feeling settled in my stomach. His eyes flicked to mine.

“I sterilized the blade before I came,” he said—as if that could take the horror of it away.

My hands were curled into fists in my lap. I didn’t move them.

He held out his bleeding hand to me. The fresh line of blood widened.

“Does it have to be that long?” I asked with my face held in a grimace.

“It’s not as bad as it looks. Trust me.”

Reluctantly, I lifted my hand and uncurled my fingers. I held it, palm side up, between the two of us, not willing to give it to him completely. Marcus took my hand and held it firmly in his. When I felt the tip of the blade touch my skin, I closed my eyes.

“I’m sorry,” he said.

“Just do it, fast.”

I turned my head as far away from the site of operation as my neck would stretch. I bit down on my bottom lip and waited for the pain. In the same instant that the tip of the blade penetrated my skin, several things happened around us.

W
ithout warning, a violent wind reared up off the ocean, swirling around me, lifting my hair, whipping it against my face, taking my breath away. My eyes squinted shut. I heard grunts, Marcus swear loudly, and the knife drop to the planks, but not before the blade accidentally sliced down the length of my hand and into my wrist, making me shriek with the intensity of the sudden pain. Our hands were ripped from each other’s grasps.

“Brooke!” Marcus yelled.

I fought against the wind to speak, but couldn’t find my breath. Strong hands grabbed me and yanked me to my feet. The wind subsided as mysteriously as it had appeared. My eyes flew open. The first thing I saw was Marcus struggling to free himself from Evan’s grip. Evan held one of his arms securely behind his back in a submission hold, same as my captor held mine. I snapped my head around to see Megan standing behind me. Instinct made me struggle, but it was useless. She tightened her grip on my arm, digging her nails through the flannel fabric of Marcus’ shirt and into my flesh.

“Ow!” I screamed.

Pain shot up my arm and into my shoulder. My bleeding hand throbbed. I watched the blood, black in the hour before dawn, trickle down the length of my fingers and drip onto the wharf. As hard as I tried not to let it, an agonizing moan escaped me. Marcus stared in horror. The sudden jerking motion of Evan grabbing Marcus had made the blade cut more deeply into my flesh than I was sure he’d meant for it to.

This was it. We were going to die. We weren’t strong enough to fight them, and I was going to bleed to death anyway.

“Let her go,” Marcus yelled sharply, struggling against his captor. “You can have me. As long as one of us dies, the other is no threat to you.”

He was looking to the other end of the wharf as he spoke. I jerked my head in the same direction. Maggie had materialized out of nowhere. Sammy stood beside her. Maggie stepped closer. As always, when she spoke, her ancient voice chilled my insides, and I shivered.

“This game has gone on long enough. She would have been dead by now, if it weren’t for something else I had to take care of.”

“She? What do you mean, she?” Marcus’ tone was on the edge of hysterical.

What
did
she mean by singling me out as the one who would have been dead by now? Would she let Marcus live? Amid the turmoil, my heart soared at the thought, and I couldn’t hold my tongue.

“Wait! I’ll die. If it ends this curse and one of us can live, let it be me who ends it.” If there was a chance that he could live, I wouldn’t have it any other way.

“No! Don’t listen to her.” Marcus looked from me to Maggie.

“I’m bleeding anyway. It’s okay,” I said to Marcus.

A sharp laugh cut through the air. “And wouldn’t that be a twist of fate. If I let Brooke bleed to death, then Marcus would live with the knowledge that he killed his fairy princess.” Maggie didn’t toy with her words, they were sharp and to the point.

Marcus looked utterly shocked and pale.

As Maggie came nearer, she seemed to float instead of walk. The folds of her robe rustling softly in the breeze was the only sound she made. Near the horizon, a cloud swept across the sky, exposing the setting crescent moon, and in that instant, the glow of the moon glinted off something shiny set against the blackness of Maggie’s robe. My amulet hung around her wrinkled neck.