Spring Rain (26 page)

“You should’ve left,” she grumbled at
him.

Noah’s arm went around her, and he pulled
her against his body. A thrill went through her at the feel of his
hard frame behind her. “I’m not leaving you, Biji. We’re stronger
together anyway,” he said.

She turned her face to the sky and let the
rain hit her features. He was right in a sense, but the Dark
witchlings with them would be able to counter any magick they
tried. In theory, air and water magick combined could unleash a
storm with the power of a category five hurricane or major tornado,
enough to blow the town away in seconds. The Laws of Light,
however, dictated that they couldn’t hurt others in self defense or
for any reason, which meant doing so risked the lives of everyone
in town.

But escaping … at least with Noah, they now
had the option of manipulating water magick to assist them in
escaping.

Noah’s gaze was on Dawn, and Biji saw the
sorrow in his face. It was hard to stay angry with him when she
knew how much he was hurting. She had never liked Dawn a day in her
life, but neither did she want to see Noah in pain.

Rather than approach the sixteen passenger
van in the parking lot, one of the Dark witchlings led them around
the strip mall towards the forest. There were several trails
visible, some running towards the mobile home park nestled in the
trees half a mile away, another in the direction of the witchlings
school and a third whose destination wasn’t known to Biji.

They took the third. The path was too narrow
for them to walk side by side, so Noah released her. Biji shivered
in the cold rain, eyes on the trees and world around them. Three
witchlings were ahead of them, two behind Noah, Dawn, and another
two behind her.

“Why do you want us?” Biji asked loudly.

“Your Beck’s little friend,” said
Bartholomew. “He’ll come for you.”

“Ah. Bait. Great.”

There was a strange sound, followed by
someone smashing through brush. Everyone stopped walking to
look.

Dawn was braced against a tree, holding her
stomach with a grimace. She hissed, her eyes flashing from black to
normal to black again, and straightened. “We don’t have much time,”
Bartholomew said. “Walk faster!”

“Dawn,” Noah said in a hushed tone. “You
need to go to the hospital.”

“Nothing they can do for me there. Shut up
and walk.”

Come on, Beck. You have to
know something bad is going down,
Biji
thought.

“We need to get help,” Noah whispered.

Biji nodded, uncertain if he meant for them
or for his sister, but hoping he was aware of what she was. They
weren’t getting out of there alive, if Dawn-Bartholomew had
anything to do with it.

“Where are we going?” she voiced.

“Miner’s Drop,” another witchling
answered.

“Figures. I hate that place.” Too much bad
had gone down in the area of Miner’s Drop and around it.

“We’ll be okay, Biji,” Noah said softly.
“I’ll figure it out.”

“We’ll figure it out, and if you think
there’s anything left of your sister that’s going to save you at
the last minute, you’re batshit crazy!”

“I know, but – ”

“No
but
Noah. She means to kill
us.”

Noah sank into silence.

A deeper, colder chill worked its way
through Biji. What if Noah wasn’t ready to move on? What if she was
refusing to fly away to stay with him, and he ended up betraying
her? She hugged herself.

Noah draped his jacket over her shoulders.
Biji hesitated to take it, not wanting to accept any sort of
kindness from the man about to betray her. All the pretty
sentiments and words in the world about walking through fire to get
to her wasn’t going to matter if he stood aside to let his sister
torture her.

“We have to save her baby,” Noah voiced
quietly enough for only her to hear. “I do know she’s lost, Biji.
It’s very hard for me to admit. I swear, I won’t let anything
happen to you if I can help it, but I want to save her baby.”

Biji’s fear and anger faded. “I want that,
too, Noah. Beck couldn’t take it if something happened to his
child. We need to work together, though.”

“I don’t think anything we do is going to be
enough to take out Bartholomew.”

“No, but we can always help distract him
while Beck and Decker handle him.”

Noah’s silence made her glance over her
shoulder. His features were pale, and rain ran down his bald head
and neck. She sensed his thoughts were on the baby again.

She didn’t have an answer for him about what
happened once Decker showed up. Hopefully, Beck came with him,
because he wouldn’t let the Master of Dark unleash hell.

“Yeah,” Noah said. “We can distract
them.”

“But not hurt anyone,” she said, mind on
what he’d done in December.

“I’ll trade my soul for your life, Biji. No
questions asked.”

“I’ll be pissed if you do!”

“It’s not your choice now, is it?”

“Shut up!” one of the other’s snapped.

Brooding unhappily, Biji focused on walking
and shivering, unwilling to consider what she’d do if Noah went
Dark again, especially for her sake. She didn’t want that but she
did want him, and he’d more than proven he was interested in her as
well.

Figures as soon as I meet someone I really
like, I end up murdered.

They walked for half an hour, until she was
thoroughly soaked outside of the coat Noah had given her. The more
rain fell, the clearer it became it wasn’t natural. Black fog was
swirling and milling around their feet, clinging to the Dark
witchlings and repelled by her and Noah’s Light. Her toes were
numb, but her torso warm. The path through the forest grew hilly
and rocky before it exited into Miner’s Drop.

The center of the Drop was frozen solid, the
ice gleaming whenever the Dark shadows thinned enough for it to be
seen. Noah took her hand as they maneuvered around boulders and
pockets of ice along the base of the cliffs towards caves lining
the nearest wall.

“What is this?” Biji asked at last, bending
to run her hand through the Darkness. It shied away from her.

“Three months worth of planning,”
Bartholomew replied. “Decker almost destroyed it earlier this week,
but we had more.”

“More what?”

“Dark magick. We’ve been collecting it.”

Biji’s brow furrowed. “How is that
possible?”

“It’s simple. Light can be concentrated like
it is under the school. Concentrated Light is too powerful for
un-concentrated Dark. I happen to know how to grow and collect
Dark.”

“You want to destroy the Light, not just
Beck,” she said in a hushed voice.

Bartholomew didn’t answer; he didn’t have
to. Grimly, Biji began to wonder if anyone was meant to make it out
of this alive.

They ceased walking in front of three caves.
Dark poured out of two of them while it appeared to be trapped
behind an invisible wall blocking the entrance of the third. Dawn
passed them and went to the third cave. She tapped on the invisible
shield.

A scowling form all in black appeared behind
the wall and smashed his fists into it.

“Decker,” Biji breathed.

“A Master can be trapped only by his own
element. Takes some time and a great deal of knowledge to do it.”
Bartholomew sounded satisfied. “I know how to get out, but he
doesn’t.”

Decker was yelling words that didn’t make it
through the barrier.

Noah squeezed her hand. Biji couldn’t look
away from Decker. If a Master of Dark couldn’t escape Bartholomew,
what hope did she and Noah have?

Dawn gave a cry suddenly. Her knees buckled,
and she dropped to the ground, hugging her belly.

“Dawn?” Troy, one of those who held Biji
captive, approached her. “What is it?”

“Something’s wrong.” Dawn’s eyes were normal
once more. “I’m bleeding.”

Biji saw the streams of red running down
Dawn’s legs.

“She needs a doctor!” Noah said and started
forward.

Two of the Dark witchlings blocked his
path.

The moment Dawn looked their way, her eyes
flashed ebony once more. “It’s nothing! We move forward as
planned!”

“Dawn, you’ll risk the baby if you don’t get
help!” Noah shouted in frustration.

The woman struggled to stand with Troy’s
help.

Biji glanced at Decker, whose movement had
stilled. His eyes were on Dawn as well, fury and worry on his face.
A flicker of hope went through her that he wasn’t going to kill
Dawn’s baby to get to Bartholomew. With the others occupied, Biji
inched closer to Decker and waved to get his attention.

“How can I help?” she mouthed the words to
him.

He gazed at her for a
moment before responding. Finally, he shook his head and
replied.
I won’t risk you getting
hurt.

“Omigod!” Biji muttered. She planted her
hands on her hips. “Tell me now or I scream!”

Amusement flickered across Decker’s face. He
glanced towards Dawn and those trying to figure out what was wrong
before motioning Biji closer. She paused a foot away. He waved her
closer still. A little scared, Biji realized he was asking her to
step into the cave filled with Darkness. With a deep breath, she
did it.

Coldness ripped through her, and she
gasped.

“You’re okay.” Decker rested a hand on her
forearm, and his fire flew through her to push the frigid cold
away.

The cave was silent, the Dark restless and
shifting around Decker.

“Leave her alone,” he growled to the shadows
reaching out to her. They obeyed and retreated, waiting.

Biji shuddered, horrified by the idea of
being sucked into the Dark even with Decker beside her.

“I came here looking for more patches of
Dark to dispel and walked straight into the trap. Obviously, I
can’t get out,” he started in a furious tone. “But at least they
can’t hurt you either.”

“Yeah, because this is better,” she said and
motioned to the Dark.

He flashed a smile. “Better to be standing
beside the devil than in the hands of his crazy minions.”

“You’re not the devil.”

“You know what I mean.” His focus was on
outside the cave. “Dawn’s hurting.”

“Yeah.” Biji followed his gaze. “She’s
bleeding. Bartholomew’s in control, though.”

“She can’t have that baby with him in
control.”

“There may not be much of a choice if you’re
trapped. How do we get you out?” Biji asked.

“I have a feeling Beck’s the only one who
can.”

“So you’re just waiting around for him?”

“Yep.”

Biji looked at Noah again. He was focused on
his sister. “I hope Beck comes soon.”

“He will.”

She wanted to tell Noah to join her, but
suspected he was going to stick by Dawn, for the baby if not
her.

“Noah’s a good guy,” Decker said and nudged
her.

“I don’t want him to get hurt.”

“We’ll be out of here soon.”

I really, really hope so.

“You’re air. Can you sense the magick behind
the barrier?”

Biji approached the invisible wall. She
placed a hand on it and closed her eyes. Familiar, cool, aloof
magick made her fingertips tingle. “It’s air. But there’s something
else mixed in with it.”

“Bartholomew and Dawn.”

Biji tested it without being able to break
through the barrier. She lowered her hands.

“We need some help then,” Decker said and
began to pace.

Biji nodded, her mind on Noah. She couldn’t
help thinking he was in more danger out there than she was
surrounded by Darkness.

Beck stopped at the edge of the Light, gaze
on the storm. It felt … wrong. He couldn’t explain the sense except
it was another of the Master of Light instincts. He hadn’t found
anything else when the Light whispered a warning and begrudgingly
wished it had waited another hour so he could make love to Morgan
again.

His body flared with heat just thinking
about her. He smelled her, tasted her, breathed her in even though
she hadn’t accompanied him. Any tease his brother had made about
fire in bed paled in comparison to what happened last night.
Morgan’s unfettered magick had torched him, pushed his passion and
need to heights he didn’t know existed. She had scorched her brand
into him from the inside out, and he’d claimed her with
possessiveness that bordered on feral.

He touched his goatee to bring his focus
once more out of his head. Light and magick glowed around him, and
he felt … charged. Energized to the point his earth magick couldn’t
quite dampen the effects of Morgan’s lingering fire magick and the
Light.

Something was wrong. He just didn’t know
what. Crouching, he touched the ground in the hopes that direct
contact could help him clarify what was going on. The earth
revealed nothing but its concern, and he checked his phone
next.

Decker hadn’t responded to his text.
“Summer, did you get him?” he asked, twisting to face the Master of
Dark’s counterbalance.

Her features were drawn, her gaze on a point
in the distance in the direction opposite the incoming storm. “No,”
she said so quietly he barely heard her. “I can’t feel him
either.”

Beck rose at the worried note in her voice
and sensed Decker’s other half was about to leave to look for him.
He took her arm and waited for her to meet his gaze. “Stay here,
Summer. No matter what.”

“As long as he’s not in danger,” she
replied, her stubborn streak subtler than Morgan’s sparks and fire,
but still a threat to her safety.

“Even then. He can take care of himself, and
he’ll kill me if something happens to you,” he replied and forced a
smile. “Whatever this is, it can’t hurt him but it can hurt
you.”

She nodded, intimately familiar with
Decker’s magick and abilities. “Biji left with Noah,” she said and
glanced at her phone.