Beneath the Black Moon (Root Sisters) (19 page)

Cam
pictured the last thing she had seen before she had surrendered to the waves.
She remembered the glassy surface of the creek, and how she had struggled to
reach it. She summoned all of her energy, and then, finally, she fought her way
to the surface.

***

The
world exploded around her. Cam could suddenly feel everything, hear everything.
She didn’t know where she was or how she had gotten out of the creek. Someone
was hurting her, pressing on her, and she didn’t know whose arms she was in, or
who was touching her.

Someone
had hurt her terribly. Someone had tried to kill her. Cam’s eyes opened, and
though she was desperately weak she lashed out at the dark figure that leaned
over her. Before she could make contact she choked, felt water filling her
throat and bubbling into her mouth. Instead of scratching her attacker, she
leaned over and coughed. Half-choked sobs wracked her frame as she spat up more
water. It streamed from her nose and her mouth. She choked until she was
shaking and sick, but at last she could breathe in sweet air.

She
was only able to gasp in a few mouthfuls of oxygen before she was once again choking.
She gagged and vomited more liquid. If she had eaten any meals that day they
would have come up too, but as it was there was only water. More and more of
that horrible water.

As
Cam was sick she became aware of a large hand on her back, a heavy hand which
given her weakness was nearly enough to make her collapse. Whoever it was
seemed to sense that, because after pulling her hair out of her face he looped
the other arm around her middle, supporting her and keeping her from falling
flat on her face.

Finally,
the gasping stopped and Cam was able to turn around and meet the gaze of
whoever was there with her.

It
was Brent.

Brent
as she had never seen him before. His clothes were soaked and moisture
glistened on his cheeks. There was something fierce in his expression, but the
arms that secured her almost seemed to be shaking as he stared at her.

“What…”
Cam’s voice was too low to be heard, so she tried again. “What are you doing
here?” This time her voice was louder, but the words scratched her inflamed
throat painfully.

“I
was walking through the woods,” he told her, and he spoke in monotone, as
though he was in shock. “I heard you scream… You’re shaking,” he told her, and
leaned forward as if to draw her into his chest, but Cam leaned back.

She
was terrified, weak, disoriented. She remembered drowning, but everything was
patchy and the patches didn’t quite go in order. Most of all, she couldn’t stop
thinking about that moment before she drowned, when she had smelled the herbs.
Even in her current, half-dead state, she knew what that meant. Conjure.
Someone had used evil conjure to turn the waves against her.

“Oh
my God.” The words escaped from Cam involuntarily as she stared at Brent. Had
it been him? Was he the one who had tried to turn the creek into her grave? It
could have been. There was bad conjure at his house. He had been watching her
lately.

Then
Cam blinked, focusing on Brent, on the relief in his eyes, on the way that he
held her as though she was some precious object.

Not
Brent.
It was unthinkable. It was— and then Cam couldn’t
help herself. She started to cry. The sobs were weak and gasping, and Cam was
fortunate that Brent was supporting her, because she could barely stay upright.

“Don’t
cry,” he told her, pulling her against his chest as he had tried to do earlier.
“Don’t cry sweetheart, it’s alright.” He repositioned her so that she was in
his lap, and he rocked her as if she were a child. “Everything’s fine. You’re
going to be fine.”

Cam
wanted to stop crying, but it was involuntary. She couldn’t halt her own tears
any more than she had been able to free herself from the conjure that gripped
her and pulled her under the water.

“What
happened?” Brent asked as he soothed her.

“I
was gathering herbs. I—” Cam broke off, gasping.

“W-why
didn’t it work?” The words burst from her in between her sobs. “Why didn’t it
work?” She was thinking of the coin in her dress, which was meant to protect
her.

“What?”
Brent asked as she pushed away from him with what little strength she had and
reached to retrieve the coin.

“I
don’t understand,” her hands were shaking and her teeth were chattering and the
tips of her fingers were almost blue as she pulled out the coin and stared at
it. “It’s supposed to protect me.”

“The
coin?” Brent ducked his head, staring into her eyes as though he thought her
brain was addled by the shock.

“Why
didn’t it work?” Still crying, Cam tried to struggle to a standing position,
but her knees gave out and Brent had to catch her before she hit the ground.
“It was supposed to work. I should have had a charm bag. Oh God, I should have
had a charm bag. It’s my fault. The coin must not have been strong enough. I
needed—” At that point Brent interrupted her by scooping her into his arms,
carrying her bridal style.

“You’re
like ice,” he told her. “You need to go home somewhere to dry off. The
McPherson plantation is closest.”

“No,”
Cam said, squirming in his hold. She brushed the tears from her cheeks and
tried to get a hold of herself. She needed to be rational. Whoever had cursed
her might still be out there and might try to harm her again. Since her coin
charm obviously wasn’t enough to protect her against their magic, she needed to
get back to where there were other rootworkers to strengthen her.

“Take
me home,” she told him. “Please take me home.” She gulped back her tears and
promised herself that she wouldn’t cry again until she was alone in her room.
Her body was weak enough; she didn’t need to make herself even more vulnerable
by losing her mind. “Please?” She asked Brent again when he wavered, torn
between taking her where she wanted to go and getting her to the closest warm
house. She wished that she could explain to him why it was important that she
went home, so he’d know she wasn’t just being difficult.

“Fine,”
he agreed eventually, giving in to the desperate fear in her eyes. There was a
concerned frown on his face as he stared at her drenched gown. “I’d give my
jacket,” he told her, “but everything I own is soaked through as well, from
when I pulled you out of the water.”

“I’m
sorry,”

“I’m
not.” He said as he carried her back into the forest, and away from the creek
that had nearly claimed her life.

It
was a twenty minute walk to her home, and Cam was chilled to the bone and
terrified for all of it.

At
first they walked in silence, but as they drew nearer to Cypress Hall, Cam
could hear panicked voices.

“Cam!”
That was her grandmother’s faint cry.

“Cammie!”
Helen.

“Cam!”
Caro’s voice was the most powerful, and Cam could hear her easily even at a
distance.

“Camilla!”
Aunt Beth.

“I
still don’t understand why we’re looking for her; she’s come home late before!”
That was her father, naturally.

“Cam!”
The last voice was so wild and frightened that Cam almost didn’t recognize it.
She realized, finally, that she had never heard Diana scream like that before.

“We’re
almost there,” Brent told her reassuringly, but his arms tightened around her
as though he didn’t want to let her go. 

Mary
found them first, though she was the only one who Cam hadn’t heard calling. She
appeared suddenly in front of them on the path, and in an instant was by
Brent’s side, touching Cam’s face.

The
warmth of her palm was a welcome relief. Cam felt as though there was ice in
her veins instead of blood, and she reached up to clutch Mary’s hand where it
lay against her cheek, hoping to steal more of its warmth.

“Cam,”
Mary’s voice was a guilty whisper. “I didn’t see it. I don’t why but I didn’t
see it.”

“It’s
alright. I’m fine.” Cam mumbled. She didn’t want explanations; she just wanted
Mary’s second hand on the other side of her face.

“She’s
not fine.” Brent said, and Cam was surprised at the fury in his voice. He
hadn’t sounded angry earlier. “She’s not fine at all. She nearly died . . .
gathering herbs. What kind of fool sends a young woman alone into a forest to
gather
herbs
?”

“No
one sent me,” Cam said, but she could barely manage above a whisper, and she
wasn’t certain that he heard her.

“Even
if you didn’t expect her to drown— I wouldn’t have in a creek that shallow— the
woods are still full of animals and crawling with vagrants. She could have had
her throat slit. She could have been bitten by a snake.” He was only getting
angrier and angrier, and Cam realized faintly that the silence she had mistaken
for calm had actually been him seething. “There wasn’t
anyone
who could
have gone with her?”

“Cam!”
The shout was her Grandmother’s, and it was close by.

“She’s
here!” Mary cried piercingly.

There
was a great clamor in the darkness, as a number of people called out at once.
Cam could see a light nearby, perhaps from a lantern, and several deafening
barks split the night as her father’s hound joined the excitement.

“I
have her!” Brent finally called out over the din.

Silence
fell, except for the sound of the hound growling as he edged closer to Brent.

“Mr.
Anderson? Is that you?” Aunt Beth finally asked as Helen called off the dog.

“It’s
him,” Mary called. “He has Cam.”

“He
has my daughter?” Cam’s father sounded outraged. “Mr. Anderson, what are you
doing with my daughter?”

Oh
no
.
He was probably worried that this was a situation like Diana’s. Cam tried to
explain, but Brent talked over her, explaining how he had discovered her as
they crossed the lawn.

“Thank
you,” Cam’s father said finally. He sounded shaken, and Cam could hear him
hurrying ahead of them. “I’m going to send for the Doctor. Carry her up to the
house.”

“Oh,
I’ll carry her to the house. I’m going carry her right to the house, and then
we’re going to have words, you careless fool.” Brent muttered, a little too
loudly for Cam’s comfort.

“My
father didn’t know,” she said, and this time he did hear her. “He doesn’t
command me.”

“Perhaps
he should.” Brent said tightly.

That
was quite enough to pull Cam from her stupor, at least for a moment. “Perhaps
you should put me down right now,” she said warningly, and she was reassured by
how much like her old self she sounded.

Obviously
Brent was also encouraged, because she caught the flash of his teeth in the
moonlight as he smiled down at her.

He
didn’t put her down.

Cam’s
family met them at the door to Cypress Hall, and just as Brent was stepping
over the threshold Cam lifted her head to whisper into his ear, “don’t argue
with them. They didn’t know I was going out.”

He
looked ready to argue, but the fact that she sounded so weak probably helped
her case. “Very well,” Brent murmured back, his gaze caressing her face.

“Camilla!”
Aunt Beth said loudly. She looked shocked. At first Cam thought it had
something to do with the indecency of being in Brent’s arms, but her Aunt
didn’t even seem to notice Brent. She was staring at her niece’s face. “My
God,” she said, blinking rapidly. “My lord you look ill.” Her lips trembled,
and she pressed her hands to her mouth.

“Put
her down here,” Grandma said, leading Brent into the drawing room and gesturing
to the sofa. The rest of the family followed them, and Aunt Beth trailed
behind, visibly upset.

Helen,
Diana and Mary pushed the sofa closer to the hearth, and, almost reluctantly,
Brent set Cam down. His hand lingered a moment in hers, before he finally
cleared his throat and stepped back.

Grandma
took charge. “Mr. Anderson, we can’t thank you enough, but I’m afraid you’ll
have to wait in the sitting room. We need to get Cam into some warm clothes.”

“Of
course,” Brent said, and excused himself. Aunt Beth followed him out of the
room to fetch Cam some dry clothes. It a sign of how shaken she was that she
went herself rather than sending Caro or Mary for the clothes.

“What
happened?” Grandma asked as soon as they were gone. She unfolded a blanket and
wrapped it around Cam’s shoulders.

Cam
filled them in quickly while she warmed herself by the hearth, feeling the heat
of the flames on her face and wondering how long it would take her entire body
to warm up.

“I’m
sorry,” Mary said again. “I didn’t sense the conjure until it was too late.”

 “No
one is all-seeing, Mary,” Cam said, and Caro nodded her agreement.

“Your
gift is extraordinary, Mary, but you are human. It is not your fault. Daphne
and I should have seen this coming.”

“And
Cam should have been wearing one of the charm bags that she is always foisting
on other people,” Diana said, and her voice was dead, drained of all emotion
and feeling. She sounded numb.