Bitter Demons (15 page)

My knees gave out and we slid to the ground,
my head against his chest. He held me tight, rocking me back and
forth. I sobbed into his t-shirt and cradled my injured arm close
to my body.

"Are you okay?" he said. He pulled back so he
could study my injuries.

"Caroline," I sobbed, swiping at my eyes so I
could see her. I tried to stand and walk to her, but my weak legs
wouldn't hold me.

"She'll be okay," he said, trying to pull me
back to him. "You're both going to be alright."

I crawled toward Caroline, shards of black
glass cutting through my jeans and into my knees. Her breathing was
labored and her eyes were closed tight. I laid my head down near
her shoulder, completely exhausted. Thank god she was alive!

"Caroline," a voice behind me said. I felt
the rush of fabric against my skin.

I sat up. Caroline's mother kneeled beside
her. She was wearing a long black skirt that spread out across the
grass around her. She took Caroline's hand in her own and held it
up to her face. Her eyes filled with tears and she looked at me
with wonder.

"How did you..." Her body broke down into
choking sobs as she lifted her child into her arms and began to
rock her back and forth.

People rushed out of the woods. Zara, her
mother, the sheriff and others.

Mrs. Ashworth walked into the circle and
grabbed my arm. "What did you do to her?" she hissed into my
ear.

"I tried to... I mean I wanted to reach in
and grab her from..."

I couldn't form the right words to explain
what had happened. My brain was fried from all the tension of the
last moments.

"Harper saved her life," Jackson said. He
stepped forward and stood so close behind me, I could feel the
warmth of his body against my back. I wanted to lean back against
him, but resisted. I didn't like the way Mrs. Ashworth was looking
at him. There was hatred in her gaze.

Eloise Sullivan stood, her black skirt
billowing in the breeze. Her shoulders tensed as she glared at Mrs.
Ashworth. "She's your future Prima," she said, her face stained
with tears. "You need to learn to treat her with respect. She just
saved my daughter's life."

"Then why is this demon here?" Mrs. Ashworth
said. "If you have something to do with this girl's
disappearance-"

"If it wasn't for Jackson, I would have died
too," I said. Jackson tugged on my hand, as if to pull me from the
fight.

"Enough." A tall, slender woman stepped
toward us. She looked like an ice queen with her white-silver hair
and clear blue eyes. This had to be Zara's mother. She commanded
the attention of everyone in the clearing. "Now is not the time for
accusations. All that matters is taking care of Caroline."

Mrs. King burst through the trees, gasping
for breath. She must have been running as fast as she could. She
rushed to Caroline's side.

"Can you help her?" I asked.

"I can try," she said. She placed her hands
on Caroline's face, then moved them down to her chest. "Dear God,
what did they do to her?"

"What is it?" Eloise said, bending down.
"She's going to be alright, isn't she?"

"I don't know," Mrs. King said, shaking her
head. "She's alive, but barely. Harper, what happened? I thought
Zara said there were black roses?"

"There was a circle of black roses around
Caroline," I said. "And this stone was hovering above her
chest."

I held out my hand and opened my palm. The
black stone was glimmering, as if I were holding a tiny star in my
hand. I gasped and nearly dropped it. Eloise carefully took the
stone from my hand.

"Who would do such a thing to my daughter?"
she said, her voice trembling. "This kind of dark magic was banned
from the Order more than sixty years ago. Who even still knows how
to do those old rituals?"

"I can assure you that no one in Peachville's
coven has access to those spells. There is no one in this town who
would practice dark magic behind my back," Mrs. Ashworth said,
stepping forward.

"Someone in this town did this," Eloise said.
"This is a soul stone. My daughter's power has been sucked from her
body as if she were a traitor. How can you explain this?"

"I can't," Mrs. Ashworth said. "But a member
of our Order wouldn't have done this."

"We'll discuss this later," Zara's mother
said. "I have my trackers searching the woods for any sign of the
kidnapper. For now, let Mrs. King do what she can from here, then
we'll transport Caroline to the local hospital."

"Not the hospital," Eloise said. "Please.
Can't she stay here at Shadowford?"

While the others discussed where to take
Caroline, I felt Jackson's hand stroking my hair. I leaned into him
for support, wishing more than anything that I could curl up beside
him in the grass and go to sleep for the next three days. My arm
still throbbed, but there was something else. Deep down in the core
of me, something was happening. Even though I was tired, I felt a
strange power flowing through me. It was foreign and
unsettling.

They finally decided that Caroline would be
moved to an empty bedroom on the second floor of Shadowford until
she was awake and able to go home to Cypress. I was glad to hear
that Caroline would be staying at Shadowford. That way I could look
in on her and help her get better.

Mrs. King worked on Caroline while all of the
other ladies separated into small clusters, whispering together. I
noticed that Sheriff Hollingsworth and Mrs. Ashworth looked
particularly upset. They kept throwing strange glances my way, but
when our eyes would meet, they looked away quickly as if I'd caught
them doing something bad.

Jackson kneeled down next to me. "Are you
alright?" he asked. "Do you want to leave?"

"I'm fine," I said. "Why do they keep staring
at me like I did something wrong?"

Jackson shifted uncomfortably. Was he hiding
something from me? "I think we should go home, leave them to figure
out what happened here on their own."

"I can't leave Caroline."

"She's got plenty of people here to take care
of her," he said.

He took my hand and helped me stand. I could
feel the strength returning to my legs, and I was grateful.

From the other side of the crowded circle, I
saw Zara look toward me, then whisper something in her mother's
ear. Her mother nodded, then walked toward us. I held on tight to
Jackson's hand.

"Harper," she said. "I'm Zara's mother,
Selene Winter."

I was lost for words. "Hi, nice to meet you"
didn't quite seem appropriate for the moment.

"How exactly did you get rid of the black
roses?" she asked. "Zara tells me they were surrounding the girl's
body on all sides."

"Yes ma'am," I said. "They were."

"Those roses are not easily destroyed," she
said. "Tell me what happened."

I explained how I reached through the flowers
to grab the stone, and how Jackson pulled me out when the circle
seemed to be pulling me in. On instinct, I left out the part where
Aerden stepped into Jackson's body. I didn't even completely
understand that myself. Instead, I simply said that Jackson pulled
me out and the flowers shattered. She watched my face very
carefully as I spoke. When I said Jackson's name, her gaze
flickered to him for a moment, then back to me.

"You should have Mrs. King take a look at
your arm," she said. "That must have been excruciatingly
painful."

"It's nothing compared to what Caroline's
been through," I said.

Her eyes traveled down to where Jackson and I
still clasped hands. "Jackson Hunt," she said. "After your behavior
when you first came into this world, I never would have thought it
possible for you to care for any human girl. How is that you came
upon Harper just as she was being pulled into the circle?"

"I heard her screaming," he said. "I ran as
fast as I could."

"Well, I suppose you do have an interest in
seeing this one alive," she said.

I cringed. She assumed he only wanted to save
me in order to keep his brother safe. Was that true? I studied
Jackson's face, but he betrayed no emotion.

"I'd like to know exactly what happened
here," Priestess Winter said. "Taking care of Caroline is our first
priority, but later this evening, I will call for you. We must get
to the bottom of this and see who is responsible for this dark
magic."

"No one in the Peachville coven would have
done something like this," Mrs. Ashworth said, stepping forward.
Her usually pretty face was creased with worry.

"When I want your opinion, I'll ask for it,"
Priestess Winter said.

Mrs. King stood and all eyes turned to her.
"I've done all I can for now," she said. "We should be able to
safely move her to a room in Shadowford."

The priestess nodded and with a gentle raise
of her wrist, lifted Caroline's body from the grass. Everyone
followed, but Jackson held me back. Up above, the sky grew darker,
leaving the trees full of shadows.

"Did you see anyone?" he asked. "Besides me
or Zara? Anyone in the woods?"

I shook my head. "I think Caroline's demon
was here, but he wouldn't talk to me."

"Yes, he was here," Jackson said. "His name
is Malinar. Whenever a person in the blood-line is that close to
death, the spirit of their demon will appear to comfort them and
guide them into the afterlife."

"And Aerden, he was here too wasn't he?" I
asked. "I could have sworn I saw him step into your body. Did I
just imagine that?"

Jackson avoided the question. "What about
anyone else? This is important," he said.

"No. I didn't see anyone else."

Jackson put his hand on my cheek. "Tonight,
when they question us, tell them the truth about everything you did
and saw. Except one thing," he said. His eyes were locked on mine
so intensely, I found it hard to breathe. "No matter what, don't
tell them that you saw my brother's shadow join with me."

"So I wasn't just imagining it," I said. "But
how is that even possible? I don't understand."

"Promise you won't tell anyone," he said.
"Please, Harper."

The sound of my name on his lips sent shivers
up my spine. How could I deny him anything?

"Of course I won't tell," I said. "But you've
got to promise that someday you're going to stop keeping so many
secrets from me."

He stroked his thumb across my cheek and
smiled.

"Someday," he said.

Caroline was put in a room three doors down
from my own, all the way at the far end of the hall. Her mother and
sister sat with her for the rest of the afternoon, but Caroline
still hadn't opened her eyes. Mrs. King had at least gotten her to
a state where she could breathe without pain, but now it was just a
waiting game.

I took my time getting ready for the
questioning session downstairs. I knew Priestess Winter wanted to
go through every detail of what happened, but I wasn't even
completely sure what had happened to me in that circle. Something
inside felt strange and new. I felt unusually awake and strong. My
arm still ached from the pain of the circle, but the injury was
only skin-deep. I was far more interested in what I felt stirring
underneath the surface.

Zara knocked on the door, then came in
without waiting for me to answer. "Mom's ready for us downstairs,"
she said.

"Is she angry, do you think?" I asked. "I
mean, at me?"

Zara gave me a small smile. "No," she said.
"She just wants to get to the bottom of this and figure out who
hurt Caroline."

"Fair enough," I said.

We made our way downstairs to the sitting
room. Everything about this room felt stuffy and dusty. Even the
couch was as uncomfortable to sit on as it looked. The priestess
sat in a mahogany high-backed chair with a red cushion across from
me.

"Tell me what happened," she said simply.

I cleared my throat. I desperately wanted a
tall glass of cool water at that moment. I started by telling her
about how Zara and I decided to go outside to practice magic
instead of sitting in my room being bored.

I told her about Zara shifting into the
butterfly and leading us toward the clearing. The priestess leaned
forward in her seat when I got to the part about finding Caroline's
body in the circle of black roses. I had a feeling she'd already
heard the first part of the story from her daughter, and now was
waiting to hear what I had to say about what happened once Zara
left to get help.

"I know Zara told me not to do anything, but
I couldn't just sit there and watch Caroline die," I said, already
feeling defensive. I was sure they would find some way to punish me
for disobeying Zara's instructions. Even if it ultimately did save
Caroline's life.

"And you are both quite sure they were black
roses?" she asked.

I nodded and she pulled out a leather-bound
book. She opened it to a page near the middle and held it out for
me to see. "Like this?"

"Yes," I said, looking at a drawing of a
circle of roses exactly like the ones we'd seen that afternoon.

Priestess Winter swallowed and closed the
book, her eyes wide. "What exactly did you do when Zara left?"

I told her how I'd tried the limb first, but
that the wood couldn't survive the magical barrier around Caroline.
"That's when I noticed the stone," I said.

The priestess nodded. "Yes, the soul
stone."

"Is that what it's called?" I looked to Zara
and she nodded. "I had never seen anything like it before, but I
could tell the stone was hurting her. I figured the flowers were
just there to keep people out, but the stone was the real source of
pain for Caroline."

"You were right to think that," Priestess
Winter said. "Soul stones haven't been used by the Order of Shadows
for a very long time. It's an ancient dark magic, used to trap the
soul of one witch's power and feed it to another."