Chasing the Witch (Boston Witches) (24 page)

She paced around in the living room for a while, too nervous to sit. All she wanted was for Caroline to come home. She finally sat down on the couch and turned on the TV. Halfway through the show she was watching, she nodded off to sleep. Patrick was standing in front of her in the forest.

“Why do you always pick the forest for us to talk?”

He smiled. “I didn’t ask you to come last time, remember? I also didn’t bring you here to talk about foliage.” His expression softened. “I just want to talk, Jillian. I’m not the monster you think I am. If you gave me a chance, you might actually like me.”

Jilly made a derisive sound. “Just tell me what you want.”

“Sabine. I need to know where Sabine is.”

“I don’t know where she is. They never told me.”

“Didn’t trust you with that information, huh?” Patrick sneered.

“I didn’t care to know,” Jilly spat back.

He took a few steps toward her. “Don’t be rude, Jillian. It’s not attractive.”

“Why do you want her so badly? She’s not so special.”

“She has information I require, plus we work well together.”

“How is it that you know you work well together if you just got out of your prison?” Jilly asked, genuinely curious. “Did she talk to you or something?”

Patrick laughed. “Do you really think I’ve never gotten out before now?”

Jilly’s blood went cold. “What?”

He smiled at her. “Tell William I’ll be seeing him very soon.”

Everything went black and Jilly woke up on the couch. She took a moment to clear her head before sitting up.

Hannah was walking down the stairs when she sat up. She smiled brightly at Jilly. “Nice nap?”

Jilly shook her head. “Not really. I had a visitor in my dream, an unwelcome one.”

“Kat says they may be onto something with the shadow wraiths. Alex thinks if they can find out specifically which ones were called forth, we may be able to break the contract with them.”

“How do they plan on doing that?”

Hannah shrugged. “I’m not really sure. You’d have to ask Kat.”

“Well, that’s at least some good news. How are you settling in? Is your room okay?”

“Everything’s so nice! This house is like a castle compared to where I lived with my parents. Our house was small, but it was home.” Hannah smiled wistfully, remembering where she grew up.

“Tell me about your parents. What were they like?” Jilly asked.

Hannah settled herself into the pillows on the couch. “My dad was so amazing; he always had time for me, no matter how busy he was. He worked in construction; so I remember him smelling like dirt and metal. My mom was a teacher; she worked at the same school I went to. It was a smaller private school and she taught third grade. She was so patient with me, especially when my power started to manifest. I know it must have freaked her out, but she never let it show. She always understood that I was different than other kids. She never pushed me to be normal; she just let me be me. They did everything they could for me. They protected me until the end.”

Jilly smiled and squeezed Hannah’s hand. “They sound like great parents.”

“They really were,” Hannah said softly.

“What are we going to do about school for you? You’ll need to catch up, right?”

“I’m like a year behind, now. I guess I could do home school for a while, until I can catch up.”

“Do you want to go to go back to public school, eventually?”

“I think so. I just want to live a normal life, you know? Go to school, do homework, have friends, those sorts of things.”

Jilly nodded. “Yeah, I can understand that.” They heard the kitchen door close and Jilly bolted out of her seat. “We’ll talk more later, ok?” she said to Hannah as she ran to the kitchen.

Jilly found Caroline taking off her coat by the back door. She froze like a deer in headlights when she saw Jilly. “Did Will come home already?”

Jilly nodded. “He’s upstairs sleeping.”

“Did he say anything?” Caroline asked cautiously.

“No, not really. Caroline, what’s going on?” Jilly asked

“Sit down. We should talk,” Caroline said hesitantly. Jilly was nervous. She almost didn’t want to hear what her sister had to say.

Caroline looked down at her hands as she began speaking. “I never wanted this to happen, Jill. I can’t help it anymore than you can.”

“Just say it, Caroline. Don’t dance around it.”

“He’s my match,” Caroline whispered.

Jilly felt as though she had been slapped. Her head jerked back. “How can you know that?” she asked.

“I just know, Jill. The same way you know with Will.” Both girls were silent for a while.

“What are you going to do about this, Car?”

“I’m leaving today. I can’t stay here anymore with the way things stand.”

“How can you love a monster, Caroline? Look me in the eye and tell me that,” Jilly shouted.

“He’s not what you think he is, Jilly,” Caroline yelled back. “Why can’t you just trust me that I know this is right?”

“Don’t give me that crap, Caroline; he’s exactly what I said. Open your eyes and see him for what he is,” Jilly was crying as she spoke.

“I can’t stay away from him, Jill! I’ve known from the second I met him. I tried to deny it, but I can’t.”

“How can you love someone who hurts people?”

“Who has he hurt?”

“Hannah, William, Liza, shall I go on?”

“You don’t know him, Jill. I don’t want to fight with you about this. I’m going to pack. I’ll be gone by tonight.” She whirled around and fled up the stairs.

Jilly crumpled to the floor in a heap, sobbing. Hannah peeked in and saw Jilly. She ran upstairs to get William. William rushed downstairs and found Jilly where Hannah had seen her, still on the floor sobbing.

“Jill, why don’t we get you up off the floor?” he said as he pulled her to her feet and walked her to one of the big chairs by the fireplace. “What happened?”

Jilly looked up at him. “You know what happened! Why didn’t you tell me?”

He sighed. “It’s not an easy situation, Jill. She asked me to let her tell you herself. She honestly didn’t expect to see me there, this morning. I’m guessing she snuck out after we went to sleep. I wanted to tell you, but it wasn’t my tale to tell. It was hers. I owed her that much. I may not agree with the choice that she’s making, but she’s an adult; so there isn’t much we can do.”

Jilly wiped away some of her tears. “I can’t understand it. It doesn’t make sense that she can love him. He’s not a good person. She deserves someone amazing.”

“I’m sorry you’re upset. I think it’s partly my fault that she’s leaving, though; I told her she can’t play both sides forever.” Jilly glared at him. “I was upset too, Jill. I’m sorry.”

She put her head in her hands for a moment. “I know. I’m not mad at you. I just hate this. I just got her back, Will. Now I’ve lost her all over again. She’s clearly choosing sides; I just don’t understand how she can choose him over us. There is always a choice, whether you’re marked or not. I understand the compulsion to be with your match, but you have a choice. It’s not written in stone. That reminds me, I spoke with him a few minutes ago. He came to me in a dream. He wants Sabine. He won’t stop until he gets her. Oh, and he said something very disturbing. He said this isn’t the first time he’s gotten out of his tomb in all these years.”

William went pale. “That can’t be true. Why would he ever go back in if he could get out?”

“I don’t know, but it’s a very disturbing thought. I hope he was lying.”

William was visibly shaken but he tried to dismiss it.

“I’m going to go talk to Kat. Are you okay here?”

Jilly nodded. “I’ll be fine. I’m past the freak out portion of emotions, now.”

He gave her a quick kiss and went to find Kat and Alex. They were in the study with books and laptops opened all around them. “Any progress?” he asked as he came in.

“I think we may have something, but it’s going to be really risky,” Alex replied. “We’re going to have to try and figure out which wraiths were called and break the contract. Sometimes if something else is offered to them, they will cease their hunt. The risky part is summoning them. They’re so unstable. You never know what they will do in a given situation.”

“How can we know which ones were called?” William asked.

“We need to do a tracer spell. Any wraith that has been near Hannah will be immediately visible to us as soon as the spell is complete.”

William nodded. “I’ll ask Jilly to help. She’ll want something to do right now.”

Caroline was packing. She haphazardly threw clothes into suitcases without bothering to fold them. Tears were blurring her eyes, but she refused to let them fall. The room she had always loved suddenly seemed alien to her. She felt like a stranger in her own home.

Closing up the bags, she made her first trip down to her car; silently praying that she didn’t run into Jilly. She couldn’t bear another argument. Luckily, she made it out to her car without seeing anyone and quickly shoved the first bag into the trunk. She ran back up to her room and grabbed the remaining two suitcases before fleeing down the back stairs into the kitchen.

William was standing at the sink and he turned to face her when she came in. “I see you’ve made your choice then.” His voice was flat and emotionless.

“I didn’t want it to be this way. I didn’t want to choose. You made me do this.” The tears that had been threatening to fall finally had their way. “I can’t help how I feel, Will.” She searched his face for understanding, but found anger and sadness instead.

“I love you as my own sister, Caroline, and it hurts me to see you making the wrong choice. But I cannot have you playing both sides. I will not allow you to hurt your sister and I will not let you bring us down with you. If this is your choice, then go and live it.” He didn’t wait for a response. He turned and left Caroline standing alone with her bags.

She wiped her eyes with her sleeves, picked up her bags and went down to the car. She threw her bags in the car and shut the trunk. She felt drained.

Caroline jumped when she saw Jilly standing behind her. She had walked up while Caroline was putting her stuff away.

“Please don’t go,” Jilly pleaded, tears streaming down her face. “I just got you back, Caroline. I can’t lose you, again.”

“I can’t stay, Jill, you know I can’t. William’s right. I can’t play both sides and I can’t hurt you anymore. Seeing me every day won’t help either of us.” She pulled her sister close to her. “I love you, Jill.” She let go abruptly, ran around to the driver’s side door and jumped in. She waved goodbye and sped off.

Caroline watched Jilly in the rear view mirror until she disappeared. She drove on autopilot to the cabin in the woods and when she pulled up, Patrick was waiting outside for her. She leapt out of the car and ran into his waiting arms.

“It’s okay, love. Everything will be better from now on, I promise,” he whispered into her ear.

William was so angry, he was practically seeing red. He calmly changed into shorts and a t-shirt and slipped out the back door to go for a run. He took off at a full sprint, not going anywhere in particular. He felt himself start to calm down as he moved through the trees in the quiet morning air. He started thinking about the events that had led him to his present state.