King 02 - Breathless (28 page)

“It’s not fine. Didn’t I tell you to stay away from her? Didn’t I warn you that she’s dangerous?” He reached into the car and grabbed Cara’s arm. “I said, get out of there. I was just about to leave. I heard your message, and I called the school. No one could find you. I didn’t know where you were or what you had done—and then you come here with
her
. Haven’t I told you what she is?”

Cara stumbled out. I could see tears of mortification mixing with the rain on her face. She stifled a sob as she righted herself and looked at her father defiantly. “I need my books.” She leaned into the backseat and gathered her things. As soon as she straightened, he steered her away from the car.

“Inside!” he hissed, and with just one tremendously worried look thrown my way, Cara ran to the front door and disappeared through it.

Reverend Pryce leaned down into the car through the empty front seat. “You.” He shot a finger into my face. “Stay away from my daughter. I know what you are. I know what you do. We don’t want your kind near our family.”

“I just—Cara asked for a ride, and I gave her one. Would you have preferred that she walk home in this storm?” I had been raised to be respectful to all adults, and I had never spoken so forcefully to anyone outside my own family. But despite my best efforts, I could hear what was going on in his head, and it both frightened and angered me. How dare he continue to judge me?

“A little rain would be much healthier than what she’s exposed to with you. I know what you are.” He ground out the words from between his teeth. “
You are a witch
.”

Coming as it did on the heels of the revelation from Ms. Lacusta, this was even more devastating. What if he was right? What if I really was what both of them insisted—evil, power hungry, manipulative? The derision shot out of Reverend Pryce’s mind like buckshot.

The dismay must have been clearly visible on my face, because Reverend Pryce seemed taken aback. He moved away from the car, and I thought he was about to close the door. Then he leaned in once more. This time the fanatical glow I’d seen there before had replaced the rage.

“It’s not too late,” he said. “Redemption is still possible. See the evil of your ways, and repent—”

My own fury returned in a blast. “Reverend Pryce, you know nothing. I have no need to repent. Now get away from my car before I call the police.” I groped in my pocket for my cell phone to give weight to my threat. I wasn’t sure it would mean anything to him, but he did in fact move back and slam the door.

I didn’t waste any time in pulling out and speeding through the parking lot. Only once I was out on the road, heading toward the nursery, did I draw a steady breath.

The rain had slackened but not stopped. I could still hear the vague thunder in the distance. It seemed this storm wasn’t quite over yet.

I tossed and turned that night, unable to fall into a deep sleep. Whenever I began to doze, I heard either Ms. Lacusta’s excited voice or Reverend Pryce’s accusing tones. Both made me shudder.

Shortly after midnight, I gave up and crept out into the kitchen. I was looking for warm milk or anything else that might give me some relief.

I was standing at the refrigerator with the door open when I heard my mother behind me.

“Tas, what’s wrong?” she whispered. “Are you sick?”

I shook my head. “Can’t sleep. I don’t know why. I guess the thing with Reverend Pryce is bothering me more than I thought.” I had told both my parents and the Sawyers about my latest run-in with the good pastor, knowing it would go a long way in explaining why I was so shaken.

My mother made a face. “Don’t let him get to you. He doesn’t know anything.” She gave me a long hug before turning away to rummage in a cupboard.

“Here.” She handed me a small brown bottle. “It’s my melatonin. Completely harmless, but it’ll help you sleep and won’t make you drowsy in the morning. I take it when my mind won’t shut down.” With a kiss on my cheek, she slipped back out of the kitchen.

I downed the small white tablet with a glass of water and climbed back into bed, convinced that it wasn’t going to make any difference. But within twenty minutes I was sound asleep.

I don’t think I was at all surprised when I came to awareness again in the dark of the forest. I could hear the steady chirping of the frogs nearby and the rising buzz of the cicadas. The trees towered over me, their pine scent heady and intoxicating. Of course I would have a bad dream tonight. It was pretty much a given.

I’d returned to this spot in the woods many times in my nightmares since last fall. They almost always began with a tightening of panic gripping my throat as I struggled to get to Michael before Nell could kill him. Each time I could hear his thoughts, screaming in panic as she came at him with the knife.

But tonight, all was peaceful within this place. I couldn’t hear anything, and I didn’t feel the dread or terror that normally accompanied my nocturnal visits here.

I moved slowly along the path, my feet barely feeling the soft pine needles beneath them. I almost expected it when I came into the clearing and saw Nell standing in the middle.

She was dressed in the same long white gown from our last dream encounter, and dark hair almost obliterated her face. Her hands were hidden beneath the sleeves of the gown, and I winced slightly, remember the ugly scars on her wrists.

“So here we are again, Tasmyn! Are you happy to see me? Glad to be back in our old stomping grounds?” She laughed almost maniacally, but the madness I remembered from the last time we’d been here in the clearing wasn’t quite there.

“Hello, Nell,” I answered her quietly. “How are you?”

She blinked, and I could see her swallow. “I’m about as well as can be expected, all things considered. But we’re not here to talk about me. As usual, I’m here to see what the hell you think you’re doing. To see if you’ve finally learned the truth.”

I drew a deep breath. “Nell, I understand so much more than I did before. I know what she did to you, how she used you. I’m so sorry.”

“Sorry?” She spit the word out. “Sorry for me? Don’t waste your time. It’s Marica who underestimated me. What a fool she is! Simply because the dates weren’t exactly right, because she decided I wasn’t her precious daughter’s sacred twin, she missed the enormous power that was right under her nose. I could have been…” Her voice trailed off, and she closed her eyes. “That doesn’t matter now. I’m here to give you one final warning. You know now. You know what she wants from you. It’s time to get away from her, while you still can. It’s not too late, not yet.”

“Don’t you think I would if I could?” Passion filled my voice. “I don’t want to be her new favorite. I don’t want her interest in me. But she threatened—”

“What, Tasmyn? What did she threaten? Your life? Your parents’ lives? Michael? That’s always been your weak spot, your love for your family and now, for Michael and his family. But she didn’t really do that, did she? She only intimated that she would expose you for what you are. That’s a pretty lame reason for what you’ve let her do, for the lies she apparently forced you to tell.”

I shook my head. “You wouldn’t understand. Don’t you see? If she tells everyone, my life here will be over. I’ll have to move. It will ruin my parents, too. It would hurt them. And then there’s the danger of exploitation. I can’t do that.”

“That’s pathetic,” Nell snarled. “You’ve convinced yourself of it, though, haven’t you? If you won’t be honest with yourself in the daylight, Tasmyn, at least have the decency to level with me here in the dream world. It’s not fear that Marica’s using. It’s fascination.”

My heart began to pound. “What are you talking about?”

She laughed lightly. “Ah, see, I struck a bit close to home there, didn’t I? ‘Fess up here, Tasmyn. She might have given you the rationale you needed, but the truth is, you’re drawn to the story she’s telling. You’re intrigued by the power she described. There’s a part of you, perhaps small and quiet at first, but growing bigger and louder, a part that wants to know if she’s right. Could this really be you? Could this be your destiny?”

A small wave of guilt washed over me. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I don’t want to hear this. Let me go. I want to wake up now. You’ve said what you came to say. Let me leave.”

Nell smiled at me. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you? But I made quite an effort to come here, to be in this particular place tonight, and I’m not leaving until I’m finished. And maybe the shock value would be helpful.” She shook back her hair, reaching up to twist it back, and she raised her chin defiantly. “Take a good look here, Tasmyn.Is this familiar to you?”

I could clearly see Nell’s neck, and my head began to spin. Across her throat was the same criss-crossed pattern of cuts that I saw daily in the mirror. But where mine were scars, barely visible by now, Nell’s were recent and raw, still oozing and bloody.

“Yes, just like yours. Pretty, hmmm?” She dropped her hair so that it curtained about her again. “This is what I had to do be here tonight. Only I didn’t have a panicked boyfriend to get me to the hospital to stop the bleeding. I laid in my little circle in my cell—excuse me, my room, that’s what they call it—and let the blood fall, and fall, and fall. Even now they haven’t brought me around. They’re wondering if I’m going to make it, and they’re worried about how to explain all this to my father. He makes some healthy donations, you know, in the name of keeping me quiet and away.” Her face twisted in bitterness.

“Nell, why?” I cried out. “Why do you do this? You don’t like me. What does it matter to you at this point if I live or die? Or if I become a-a witch—” I faltered on that word, hearing the echo of Reverend Pryce in my head.

“You do know, don’t you, that he’s nearly as dangerous to you as she is? Yes, the preacher. He’s begun to suspect exactly what you can do. Things that his daughter let slip, innocently of course, since she has no idea. But he thinks he can still redeem you. I wonder if redemption would be as painful to you as acquiescence?”

“Acquiescence?” I echoed, questioningly.

“Yes. It’s only a matter of time. Only a short step from fascination to interest to acceptance. And to answer your question, that’s why I do it. Perhaps on some level I want to punish Marica, to take away from her the one thing—the one person—she desires above all else, since she did that to me. If I can convince you to turn away from her no matter what the cost, I will have my little bit of revenge. And in doing that...” Her face and tone both softened. “Maybe I’ll know a little redemption, too.” She smiled at me a bit ruefully. “So I guess redemption
is
painful, after all.”

“Nell.” I fought to steady my voice. “Nell, let me help you. Tell me where you are. I want to do something, anything, to make things better for you.”

I expected her to rage at me again, but she only shook her head. “No. It wouldn’t work. I appreciate the sentiment, surprisingly enough. Perhaps, as the doctors say, I am ‘progressing’. Doesn’t seem likely, given all the circumstances. But you know, Tasmyn, I think that maybe you and I aren’t as different as I once thought.”

I couldn’t speak, and in the silence, we heard only the frogs. Nell smiled again and pulled her hair around to cover her neck.

“Show me how different we are, Tasmyn. Stand up to Marica. Do what I couldn’t. Don’t let her destroy you.” Her voice broke on the last word, and I gazed at her in dismay. I had the distinct feeling that once again, I was failing Nell.

All around us the trees began to quiver and blur. I stepped back in alarm, and Nell extended one hand toward me.

“Tasmyn. I’m losing it. They’re pulling me—” The last word was garbled, as if the transmission were being interrupted. I moved cautiously closer again, straining to hear her.

Her mouth was moving, but like the rest of the forest, she was becoming more and more indistinct. As the blackness began to engulf us both, I heard a faint echo of her voice.

“Don’t forget this. Don’t forget me.”