Fate Changer (The Lost Witch Trilogy #3) (11 page)

Lash looked surprised that Agnes would ask him his opinion, but regrouped immediately and smiled grimly. “We do the same thing. Charles is mad about the lines, true, but he still thinks he has us scared. He thinks we’re going to hide behind our walls, waiting for his next move. I say we take the initiative and get him first.”

Everyone sat up in surprise and conversations exploded around the table. Agnes held her hand up for silence and everyone quieted down immediately.

“It’s brilliant Lash. One problem though. It would be a suicide mission.”

Sarah nodded her head quickly. “I don’t want anyone risking their lives for me. What Lash and Zane did last night was enough. There has to be another way,” she said, and paused as she felt a little speed bump feeling inside her mind.

Sarah grinned suddenly. “I say we start trying to contact other witches from around the world. I say we call for back up. He’s such a monster, there has to be other witches who want him put out of commission too. I say we figure out how to take his power from him. Then maybe he can go to jail for killing my Grandmother,” she said, breathing fast and standing up in excitement.

Beatrice tapped her finger on her chin as she studied the tall redhead in front of her. “I like Sarah’s idea.
No
, I love it. It’s proactive and yet safe. We need reinforcements and we needed them last week. We’ll have to hurry, but it’s doable. I say Teresa and I leave tomorrow morning for the city. The rest of you little witches need to stay here to protect Sarah. Francis kept a list of some contacts she had from years back when she socialized with others of her kind. And I know where she kept it. We can do this.”

Gretchen and Agnes’s faces lit up hopefully and Sarah smiled in relief and sat down. Everyone looked happy with the plan she had come up with, except for Lash and Charlie. Teresa looked excited to go to the city, but Charlie looked upset about being separated from her mom.

Sarah smiled at Charlie. “Charlie, you can go too. You don’t have to stay here without your mom.”

Gretchen frowned and shook her head. “No Sarah. Charlie needs to stay. I don’t know why, but it’s very important that she does not leave.”

Sarah and Zane looked at each other quizzically. “Why?”

Agnes studied the pretty blond girl who looked warily back at them. “Gretchen is right. Charlie is an important part of this. Can you let your mom go for a little while if I promise that you’ll see her again soon?” Agnes asked kindly.

Charlie looked at her mother sadly, but nodded. “Of course. If I can do something to take out Charles, then I will. He stole my mother from me and he stole her life and the people she loved from her. I’ll do whatever it takes,” she swore, her voice sounding hard and sure.

Sarah nodded and sighed, suddenly weary of everything. Zane spoke into her mind,
Let’s go out to the beach and go for a walk. Let’s get out of here
.

Sarah smiled in gratitude and nodded. She and Zane stood up, as everyone continued to talk and no one said anything as they walked out of the room and down the hallway to the back door in the sun room. Zane opened the metal door with his mind as she grabbed two jackets for them off a coat tree and handed him one.

As soon as she felt the cold, salty breeze on her face she relaxed and smiled.

“This is much better,” she whispered as she closed her eyes for a moment in appreciation.

Zane laughed and slung an arm over her shoulders as they followed the stone pathway down to the shoreline.

“Things were a little tense back there. But I have to admit, you came up with a pretty good plan. I had no idea you were even thinking along those lines.”

Sarah laughed lightly. “I wasn’t. It was like the thoughts just popped into my head on their own,” Sarah stopped in mid stride and grinned at Zane’s questioning look. “Oh my word Zane. It was my Grandmother! Her spirit is still in that house and I think she was in that room, right with us. She gave me that idea!
Wow
,” she said, shaking her head in wonder.

Zane looked at her doubtfully but shrugged. “First it’s flying and now you’re communing with the dead. You’re starting to scare me.”

Sarah laughed and kicked a stick of washed up beach wood out of her way. “Believe it Gorgeous.”

Zane grinned over his shoulder at her as he grabbed her hand in his. “I wouldn’t put it past her. Her little way of controlling things from the other side, I guess.”

Sarah smiled and nodded. Zane came to a stop suddenly and held up his arm to stop her from going forward. “No Sarah, we can’t go any further. This is about where our lines stop. We made the circle around the house, but it’s not big enough go very far. We can sit over there and look at the ocean if you want though,” he said feeling her disappointment.

“Come on,” Zane said and pulled her back towards the area directly behind the house. Sarah sighed but followed quietly. They stood together holding hands as they stared at the wild and beautiful ocean.

“I would give anything to be able to go running on the beach again. Or
flying
,” she added with a quick grin.

Zane picked up a rock and threw it out into the water as far as he could and shrugged. “You’ll fly again.”

Sarah smiled and knew she would. She picked up a few rocks and joined Zane in throwing them as far as she could.

“Okay, last one. If I beat your distance, I get to kiss you,” he said with a smile over his shoulder.

Sarah laughed and picked up a smooth round rock. “You don’t have to beat me to get a kiss.”

Zane shook his head. “It’s called having fun Sarah. Now, what do you want if you win?”

Sarah paused and crinkled up her nose as she thought about it. There was only one thing she wanted. “You have to promise to not get hurt anymore.”

Zane frowned and turned away to look out to the ocean. “You know I can’t promise that Sarah. Besides, even if I do get hurt, you’ll put me back together. You always do. Come up with something else.”

Sarah grimaced and pushed the cool wet sand around with her toe. “But that’s all I want.”

Zane shook his head. “I hate breaking promises. But fine. Let’s go for it.”

Sarah glanced at Zane and narrowed her eyes. She could feel a hum of energy begin to surround him. He was getting ready to cheat. Sarah smiled and called up her own energy. She didn’t want to lose this one.

“One, two, three!” Zane yelled and they threw their rocks as far as they could.

Sarah gasped at the exertion and the power she put into her throw and grinned as she watched it soar higher and higher. Zane shook his head at her and put his hands on his waist as they watched their rocks fly farther than was humanly possible.

“You are the biggest cheater Sarah,” Zane said sadly, looking at her with accusation in his eyes.

Sarah laughed and pushed him in the arm. “What a hypocrite!”

Zane grinned and continued to watch the rocks. Sarah smiled, thinking she had won, when her rock started to fall back towards the ocean. Zane’s rock continued to climb higher and higher though. She frowned and raised her hand to her eyes as she watched it disappear into the sky.

“
No way
. How did you do that?” she demanded looking at Zane with a frown.

Zane grinned happily. “Some rocks have traces of metal in them. Sorry Sarah. You lose. Time to pay up.”

Sarah laughed and grabbed Zane’s t-shirt in her hand, pulling him towards her. “You make it sound like it’s not exactly what I want.”

Zane’s power enveloped her in warmth as his arms surrounded her and his head tilted towards hers. Sarah sighed happily and wrapped her arms around his neck, kissing him with all the love she had for him in her heart. Her power immediately flowed out of her and joined his, cocooning them in emotion and energy. She felt safe, she felt loved and she felt whole.

Sarah reared back and screamed when a booming crash sounded right next to her head. She fell back into the sand, covering her ears with both hands. She turned on her stomach and noticed Zane had fallen back too and that he was also covering his ears with his hands just like her. The reverberations from the boom still echoed through her body and she felt like her head was going to burst open.

Zane crawled over to her, shaking his head to clear it and grabbed her hand, pulling her up.

Come on. That had to be Charles. Let’s get back to the house
, he spoke into her mind.

Sarah stood up, feeling wobbly and they rushed back to the house as everyone poured out of the back doors to surround them.

Agnes pulled Zane into her arms, looking stressed and scared. “Oh my. I thought he had you for sure.”

Sarah felt shaken and leaned heavily against Lash as they hurried back into the house. Lash guided her to the couch and forced her to sit down.

Gretchen came to stand next to her after making sure Zane was okay. “You’re bleeding!” she screeched and ran from the room.

Zane came to stand in front of her and bent down to look her over. She looked up, feeling weak and sick and noticed that Zane had a trickle of blood slowly oozing from his ears. She reached up and touched his ear lobe with her index finger and closed her eyes. She felt the popped ear drum come back together as if it were being mended by invisible spider webs. She touched his other ear briefly too before leaning back on the couch and closing her eyes.

Gretchen returned with a wet rag and began wiping the blood from her ears and neck and then turning to Zane to do the same.

She could tell Zane was trying to talk to her, but she couldn’t hear him very well. Thoughts came in to her mind very clearly though.
You just healed me. Now heal yourself. Please.

Sarah licked her lips and then pushed everything away with her mind and held her hands up to both sides of her head and closed her eyes. She knew her own body so well she was able to go immediately to the burst ear drums and heal them quickly. When she was done, she lowered her hands to hear everyone talking quickly and looking out the window fearfully. She looked at Zane who was still standing in front of her, looking worried.

“That boom that killed our ears, didn’t crack our lines, but it was ten times more powerful than what he tried at the cemetery,” Zane said.

Sarah nodded and pulled her legs up under her on the couch, taking the hot chocolate Agnes was holding out to her.

Beatrice came to stand in front of Sarah and shook her head. “What exactly were you doing out on the beach right before we heard the boom?”

Zane’s eyebrows went up at the question and Sarah blushed but answered for them. “Zane was kissing me,” she said evenly before sipping her chocolate.

Beatrice frowned and looked down at her feet. “It looks like someone’s in a jealous rage right about now. Zane honey, you just put a target on your back.”

Gretchen and Agnes looked at each other in horror as Sarah’s face turned pale. Zane looked expressionless as Lash walked up to him and slapped him on the back hard. “I still say my plan is the best. And right now buddy, you better hope you take him out before he takes you out. No one likes to have their girl stolen from them,” he said with a cutting smile.

Zane ignored Lash and looked at Sarah. “Our lines held. Even when he threw everything he had at it just now. They held. He’s going to have to think about that before he comes up with any plans for me.”

Sarah nodded but felt sick as everyone stared at Zane worriedly. Charles was not someone you wanted coming after you.

That night, Charlie and Teresa decided to stay with Beatrice so they could plan their trip the next day. Everyone else headed back to town. It occurred to Sarah as they drove up to the house, that legally, the house belonged to her father. He could have them kicked out anytime he wanted to, but for some reason, he was just letting it go. From what she knew of her father, he didn’t care very much about things, even a big thing like a house. No, strangely, he was more concerned about people. Even to the extent that he would kill his own daughter.

“Even good qualities taken too far can become twisted and bad,” Zane said, looking across the jeep at her as he turned the ignition off.

Sarah sighed. “I don’t even know why we bother to have conversations. You know everything I’m thinking without me having to say a word.”

Zane laughed and hopped out of the jeep, joining her at the front door. “You’re exaggerating Sarah. Talking to you is my greatest joy in life,” he said, his silver eyes gleaming down at her before leaning down to kiss her.

“No,” Sarah said, pushing against his chest. “I don’t want a repeat of what just happened on the beach. Maybe we should cool it,” she said looking up at the sky.

Zane glared up at the sky and then frowned at her. “There is no way I’m going to hide the fact that you and I are together and that we love each other just because some old evil freak wants you for himself,” he said and then pulled her into his arms and kissed her with enough passion that anyone watching would have no doubts as to their feelings for one another.

Sarah pulled away and looked at Zane in reproof. “That target on your back? It just doubled in size. There’s nothing wrong with being cautious.”

Zane growled something unintelligible before opening the door for her and ushering her inside. Lash and Gretchen were in the kitchen making fruit smoothies while Agnes sat at the table writing on a piece of paper.

Sarah and Zane decided to watch TV and then went to bed early. They opted for getting as much rest as possible. They both wanted to be prepared for whatever Charles tried next.

The next morning, a powerful rain storm blew into town. The howling winds shaking the windows and rattling the front door viciously. Agnes pulled her pale peach sweater closely around her as she stirred the pot of oatmeal she was making. Gretchen frowned as the rain started hitting the window like rocks. She poured the chopped apples into the oatmeal and wiped her hands on the white rag. “Something wicked this way comes,” she muttered to herself.

Sarah yawned and smiled at the two women. She actually liked wild and powerful storms. When she’d been back in Pennsylvania, one of her favorite things to do was to go running during rain storms. “What’s a little rain? Come on you two, we’ve got enough to frown about.
This
? This is cool,” she said with a grin.