It was late and the house was quiet, so when I got a text beep, I jumped in the chair. Hesitantly, I walked over to the night table. Who would be messaging me this time of night? I grabbed my cell phone off the table and read the words that brought me to my knees.
“You’re amazing and I love you. See you tomorrow fairy princess.”
With moist eyes, I stared at Marcus’ message, reading it again and again. He was awake. Once I was able to gain control of my emotions, I sent him a text back, keeping it simple. He didn’t message me back.
My heart soared. All I had to do now was stay awake until morning.
I dressed in jeans and T-shirt and went down to the kitchen to make tea—something I’d drank every day since I’d had the first cup at Uncle Edmund’s more than a week ago. I lost count of my yawns as I watched TV in the living room. As hard as I tried, I couldn’t keep sleep from claiming my conscious mind.
It was much later, I didn’t know how long, but it was still dark when Aunt Rachel helped me up off the sofa. She took my hand, and I followed her, unable to open my heavy lids.
It wasn’t until I felt the brisk night air on my face that I realized something wasn’t right. But I couldn’t think past the fog in my head. Suddenly, my body felt weightless. Was Uncle Jim carrying me to bed? I was definitely being transported somewhere.
A mixture of voices surrounded me. As I concentrated, I was able to pick out every one. Although I knew I should be scared, the semi-comatose state I was in kept me from caring.
After a while, I felt myself being lowered onto something soft, a mattress perhaps. Something was being draped over me. For a moment I felt as if I was suffocating, then cool air washed over my face again, bringing with it briny sea air. The soft hum of a motor drowned out my moans.
Feeling weightless again, my body jarred with every step of its carrier. The scent of damp earth and moss permeated my nasal cavity and I felt nauseous. I heard sticks snap beneath feet and the ghostly hoot of an owl from somewhere up above. After a while, I was able to open my eyes into slits. Through a blur, it looked as though I was draped backwards over someone’s arms. The dark world was upside down. I could just make out the shapes of treetops against the darkened sky.
An unbearable metallic ring vibrated inside my head until I thought I would go insane. My body felt as though it had been filled with lead. I tried to lift an arm, but it wouldn’t budge.
Now that most of my senses had returned, I knew I was under some sort of spell, and I grew as afraid as I should have been all along. The ringing in my head subsided, along with the nausea as I became more aware.
“Where am I?” I whispered through dry lips. No one answered.
A strong arm lifted my upper body. My head fell heavily against someone’s hard chest. The musty scent of the earth was replaced with the scent of fresh laundry, and images of Marcus flooded my head.
With great effort, I tilted my head, opened my eyes, and looked up to see Evan’s face framed by shadowed tree branches. Through the brain-fog, I blinked and tried to focus on my surroundings. Megan was to Evan’s left, Sammy to his right. Robyn wasn’t with them.
“Evan,” I moaned.
He looked down at me, and for an instant, I thought I saw a flash of pity in his eyes, and then he looked away. My head hurt. I closed my eyes and relaxed my body against him.
Sleep seized me again. The next time I woke up, I was hanging limply over someone’s shoulder. I had the feeling of descending. Once the motion ended, I was dumped forcibly on rough ground. All was quiet. The musty scent of the earth reminded me of something past. I flitted in and out of consciousness. And as I did, I heard a soothing whisper.
“Brooke. Brooke, can you hear me?”
I moaned and lifted my eyelids to see Robyn. Her face was surrounded by a familiar circle of dim light.
“Where are we?” My voice was accompanied by a ghostly echo—another reminder of something past, and I was pretty sure I knew where I was now.
“We’re in the well on Skull Island,” Robyn said grimly, confirming my fears.
“Marcus is awake.” I groaned the words out and pushed myself into a sitting position. My head, still groggy, dropped to my knees.
“That’s great, about Marcus,” she said.
My legs felt bound. Something was wrapped around them. It took me a few minutes to realize that a black robe had been draped over my clothing at some point, and had gotten twisted around my legs.
I turned my head to look at Robyn, who was kneeling beside me, also draped in a similar robe. It was then I realized the bottom of the well was illuminated by a bluish white glow, and that the tree Marcus had used last time to get us out was gone.
She answered my unspoken question.
“I made us a magical light.”
“Can you get us out of here?”
“No. My magic isn’t that strong.”
“Why are you down here?”
“Maggie found out that I helped you. She knows everything.”
“Crap. I’m sorry.”
I titled my head back and looked up through the dark tunneled walls to the dawn sky, realizing that I’d been here not once before, but twice.
“It’s over now. I can’t escape this time.”
Robyn twisted her upper body to face me. “You can save us, Brooke, but you have to find the will.”
“But I don’t have the amulet.” I’d never felt such hopelessness in all my life.
“You don’t need it.”
Frustrated, I threw my hands in the air. “Then how? I don’t think I’ve been gifted with magic in this life.”
“Think of Marcus. He has to know where you are.”
“No! He’s too sick. He can’t come here.”
“It’s our only hope. If you concentrate all your energy on him, he’ll know where you are.”
I wouldn’t allow myself the luxury of thinking about him and putting him in anymore danger.
“Why didn’t they just kill me last night when they had the chance?” I let my head fall back against the cold stone wall and drew my knees closer to my body, wrapping my robed arms around them.
“Maggie’s too dramatic for that. It would have been too easy for her. Don’t forget, she’s always won in the past. She has no fear of losing this time, either.”
“I hope she doesn’t know where the amulet is.”
“Where is it?” Robyn asked.
“I’d rather not say out loud. You never know who’s listening.”
“Oh, right.”
Robyn and I spent all of Friday in the bottom of the damp well, curled up next to each other to keep from shivering. At some point, it dawned on me that maybe we were being used as bait. Maggie wanted Marcus too. The thought sickened me.
“What must Marcus think of me now that I haven’t gone to see him all day?” I whined to Robyn. “He’ll think I don’t care about him.”
“I doubt that. He’s gotta know by now that something’s up.”
“But I don’t want him to suspect anything. He’ll just do something foolish, like confront Maggie, or Evan. I don’t even want to think about what he’ll do.”
Maybe Maggie would forget about him once I was dead, but he would never let her forget him. No. He would go after her. Maybe there would be another life for us somewhere in the future. It was the only hope I had left to cling to.
Morbid thoughts entered my mind throughout the day. I thought about my parents and how they would take the news of my disappearance. Then, a strange thought entered my mind. Twice before, I’d left parents behind to suffer the same tragedy that my new parents were about to suffer. Nothing had saved me then, why should I have any hope of being rescued from death this time?
Darkness crept in on us as day gave way to night, dissolving the circle of light above. Robyn used her powers to magic us a soft glow as she had the night before.
As if things couldn’t get worse, it started to rain. At first just a sprinkling and then after an hour, a s
teady shower dampened us. But not even the cold rain could darken my mood further. I was already in the deepest, darkest state of mind I could ever remember being in.
Robyn complained when her curls began to frizz. I didn’t even have the will to roll my eyes at her.
Sometime later, the echo of a pebble bouncing off the wall of the well woke me from a fitful sleep. I cringed with fright and shook Robyn awake.
“Listen. I thought I heard something,” I said in one breath.
Robyn and I jumped to our feet. We grabbed each other in the darkness. My heart pounded loudly. I strained my ears, but all I could hear was the pitter-patter of rain drops landing lightly on the forest floor above. And then, I heard a sound I didn’t expect to hear and thought I must be dreaming.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Brooke.”
For a second my heart stopped beating as if it was listening too.
“Brooke, it’s me. Can you hear me?”
“Robyn!” My voice was a sharp whisper.
“It’s Marcus,” she said grabbing hold of my arms.
“Marcus, is that you?” I whispered loudly.
“It’s me. Are you hurt?”
“No. Robyn’s here with me, but it’s okay. She’s not one of them. How did you know where I was?”
“It wasn’t hard to figure out. I just had to wait until my parents left the hospital before I could call Uncle Edmund to come and get me.”
Robyn was outwardly excited. I was anxious.
“Hang on,” he said. “I brought a rope from the boat. Watch out, I’ll throw it down.”
The rope slapped against the wet stone wall.
“I’m coming down.”
“No! Don’t come down, we’ll come up. Go,” I said, pushing Robyn toward the rope.
The rope had been knotted at intervals, making it easier to climb. So, with robes tangled around our legs, we climbed, taking more time than we should have. When I finally emerged, Marcus wasted no time in scooping me into his arms.
“How can you be alright?” I sobbed against his neck, too scared to let go.
“Once your blood was inside me, the spell broke. I’m absolutely fine, really. It’s like nothing ever happened. If anything, I’m better than I was.”
I lifted my head from his shoulder to look at him, although I could barely see him in the dark forest. “How did you find the well? It’s so dark.”
“I followed the raven.”
“What?” My head snapped upward. I could barely make out the outline of the trees against the night sky.
“It’s okay.” The backs of his fingers brushed the side of my face. “Listen.”
All I could hear was the leaves rustling in the breeze and an occasional drop of rain pinging off the forest floor. “I don’t hear anything,” I said.
“I hear it,” Robyn said. “Over there, Brooke.” Robyn pointed into the dark. We took a couple steps forward, and then I heard the familiar throaty rattle of what I now knew was a raven and not a crow.
“How can you trust that thing?”
“It led me to you.”
“Yeah, because Maggie wanted it to.”
“I don’t think so. I can’t explain it, but for some reason, I don’t feel threatened by it, and I think it’s waiting to show us the way out of here. C’mon.” He grabbed my hand, and Robyn’s too. “This time we’re not spending the night in the woods.”
We wasted no time in moving away from the well. Although it was difficult to see, we followed the sounds the raven made. The flapping of wings as it flew from tree to tree, the gurgles and cackles that were surprisingly low, as if it didn’t want anyone else but us to hear.
As we trudged along, Robyn and I explained to Marcus that she was a real witch and that the others were Maggie’s minions. We told him about the wards of protection I’d placed over his window and door to his hospital room. Then I thought of the amulet and asked Marcus if he had it.
“What? Don’t you have it?” I heard the dread in his voice.
“No, I took it off and put it under your pillow, so I could dream of you. And it worked.”
He swore under his breath. “It must still be in the hospital,” he said. “We’ll call first thing in the morning to see if anyone’s found it.”
“Yeah,” I said hopeless.
I knew that once it was taken from the protection of the hospital room, it would be easy for Maggie to find, but kept my thoughts to myself.
“I tried so hard to keep you out of my mind,” I said as we hurried along.
“You can’t keep me from your heart.” He squeezed my hand. “I know what we have to do now. I remember everything. I remember every minute of my lives as Kalan and Christian. And you will, too.”
He didn’t say any more on the subject. Maybe he didn’t want to reveal secrets in front of Robyn.
“Are you sure you’re not sick or anything?” I asked Marcus for the tenth time as we pounded through the damp forest like a herd of elephants.
“Positive. Stop worrying.”
“Where are we going to go when we get out? We can’t go to our homes,” I said.
“We’ll take the boat to Uncle Edmund’s.”
“Oh, I like your Uncle Edmund,” Robyn said excitedly.
I gave her a sarcastic look that I knew she couldn’t see in the dark. “It’s not like we’re going on a vacation, Robyn.”
“I know, sorry.”
The rain had stopped soon after Marcus had found us, but dampness hung heavily in the air and started to seep through the robe to my clothes underneath. I was tired and hungry and grew edgy.
“We should be at the beach by now,” I complained.
A stick snapped behind us and a tiny squeal flew from me.
“Just keep walking. We’re almost out,” Marcus said. “Don’t look back.”
A few minutes later, we stepped past the last of the trees and into the tall grass that edged the sandy beach. Wisps of dark clouds drifted across the sky, allowing stars to peek through now and then. The sound of the surf rolling quickened our pace to a slow run.
Without another sound, except for the whoosh of its flapping wings, the raven flew over our heads and headed toward the mainland.
Everything seemed to be in our favor, until Marcus stopped in his tracks, sucked in a sharp breath, and called Robyn’s name out with a question mark ending.
“What?” I asked panicked.
“Robyn!” he yelled this time. His hand tightened around mine as he spun in the sand, taking me with him.
“Where is she?” I said, barely breathing.
“She just disappeared.”
Marcus yanked me to him. We stood in the middle of the beach, between the woods and the ocean, and Robyn was nowhere in sight. Neither was anyone else.
“How could she just disappear? Someone must have taken her,” I said in a panic.
“No. Her hand just dissolved inside mine. It was the strangest feeling. She wasn’t pulled away.” His arms tightened around me.
I felt sick.
“You’re soaked,” he said, suddenly. “Let’s get to the boat.”
“What about Robyn?” I asked.
“I’ll go back and look for her.”
“No! Not unless I go with you.”
“You’re not going back into the woods. I’ll take you home and come back in the morning,” he said firmly.
“The plan is to go to your Uncle’s. Let’s just stick to the plan,” I said and jumped when I heard Marcus swear loudly. “What now?”
“The boat’s gone!”
We ran to the end of the wharf. I looked as far as I could see across the dark water. The boat was nowhere in sight. Marcus stood still and quiet for a moment. A breeze blew over us, and I shivered from the dampness of my soggy clothes. Marcus looked at me, took his jacket off, and began to unbutton his shirt.
“What are you doing? You’re not going to swim are you?” I grabbed his arm, determined not to let go.
“No.??
? When he had his shirt and T-shirt in his hand, he handed them to me. “Take that wet thing off.” He said it as if it repulsed him to see me wearing it.
Gladly, I flung the black garment over my head. It dropped heavily to the wharf. I took my wet T-shirt off, too, and stood shivering in my bra and jeans. Once I had his T-shirt on, he covered me with his flannel shirt. The clothes, warmed by his body, warmed me quickly.
“I have to sit,” I said and dropped to the wharf on the second plank from the end. Marcus sat close and put an arm around me. With his free hand, he pulled out his cell phone and punched in a number.
“We need your help.” There was a pause. “Brooke and I are stranded on Skull Island.” Another pause. “Okay, hurry.”
I hated the seriousness in Marcus’ tone. It added to my fear.
“Uncle Edmund will be here within the hour,” he said.
I laid my head against his chest, and in return, felt the comforting pressure of his head resting on top of mine as he spoke into my hair.
“I’m sorry I left you for all those days.”
“I didn’t think you would ever come back to me, and then when you texted me from the hospital, I tried to stay awake all night, but I couldn’t … and they got me.”
His other arm came across the front of me, and I breathed in the comforting scent of his leather jacket. I sighed, almost completely content, and then I thought of something I was reluctant to bring up, but needed to. I lifted my head and looked at him.
“Marcus, remember at the soccer game? When you saw me on the bleachers just before the fight?” I cringed and looked down at the weathered wharf planks.
“That was Luke, I presume.”
“Yeah.” I drew the word out. “He really picked the wrong time for a visit, but he’s kind of unpredictable like that, and Aunt Rachel told him where I was and … .”
His hand smoothed down the length of my tangled hair. “It’s okay, you don’t have to explain.”
The clouds parted briefly and the slender moon accented his features. And when a gust of wind blew his hair away from his forehead, I saw the hint of a scar above his right eyebrow.