Chapter 36 #2
But instead of falling to our death the way that Lotte did, we descend slowly, as if being lowered on an invisible hand, until both our feet are gently placed on the ground.
“What on earth was that?” I ask Paul, relieved and terribly impressed.
“I can control gravity,” he says with a shrug, shaking out his hands. “I’ve never done it with an object as tall as you, but I’m happy to say that it worked.”
I pat him on the arm, then wince as my shoulder explodes in pain.
“We’ve got him,” Josephine yells, coming out of the cathedral with a couple of students, an unconscious, soot-covered Brom in their arms, his nudity covered by one of their coats.
“Oh thank God, Brom,” I say, and Kat and I run over to him as he’s lowered to the ground.
“Brom, wake up, Brom,” I say, dropping to my knees beside him, tapping his cheeks, checking for a pulse and not finding one. He has some burns on his arms and the side of his handsome face, but otherwise he looks unharmed.
Kat goes to the other side of him, holding on to his hand and squeezing it, tears rolling over her cheeks. “Come on, Brom, please,” she whimpers.
Brom, I say inside his head. I know you did a brave and noble thing back there, I know sacrifice was always on your mind, but this isn’t where your story ends. You story begins here. It begins with a life with us.
I slap him again lightly on the cheek but he doesn’t stir.
Then I do something I swore I would never do.
I put my hands on him and close my eyes and I push all the energy I have left into him. He can’t be dead, he can’t be that far past the veil, he—
Suddenly he gasps, his eyes going wide. They turn to look at me and for a moment I think I’ve made that same horrible mistake again, brought someone back from the dead, broken a cardinal rule.
But then his eyes soften and he smiles at me, chest rising as he gasps.
“I saw inside your mind for a moment,” he manages to say through a cough, his voice hoarse. “I must say, you are even more complicated than I thought. And you think about sex far more often than any man should.”
I laugh at that, pure joy spreading through me.
“Yes, well, it’s hard not to with the two of you around,” I tell him, smiling at Kat, who is grinning ear-to-ear.
Paul clears his throat from beside me and I look up at him.
“Yes, Paul?”
He just shakes his head, biting back a knowing smile.
“Professor Crane.” Martha comes over to me. “I can help too. I’ve learned how to heal. I can fix your shoulder and I can fix Brom’s burns. I can at least try.”
I nod at her, feeling even more proud of my students. If she can at least heal me enough, then I can heal Brom. “I have a healing poultice in my room,” I tell her. “It’s in my bag on the desk. Third door on the left, men’s wing.”
She nods determinedly and then runs off.
“And I helped take down the rest of the wards,” Mark speaks up. “I sent a raven into town to tell them what happened. I’m sure the police will be here soon.”
“They’re already here,” Brom says with a cough.
I follow his gaze to see Famke, Kat’s friend Mary, and several constables on horseback riding toward us across the courtyard.
“How the hell?” I mutter to myself.
“Famke, Mary!” Kat yells, getting to her feet and sprinting toward them.
I get up and reach down and help Brom up to his feet, quickly adjusting the coat around him so that he’s not being indecent in front of the authorities.
They stop a few yards away, in front of Kat.
“Oh, thank goodness we got here in time,” Famke says on top of Sarah’s chestnut horse.
“I had come here twice over the last week. I knew something had gone wrong, I could just feel it. Each time the wards wouldn’t let me in, but they’d done so before.
Then Sarah said she was coming here for the full moon, and I knew, I just knew you were in danger, Katrina. ”
Mary nods from on top of her horse. “Famke came to my house last night and told me what she feared. I told my parents, thinking they would laugh and ignore me, but they said we had to at least tell the police what was going on.”
“We rode into town and talked to the new constable,” Famke says, jerking her head toward the three officers behind her.
“Interrupted my supper,” one of them says, a man with muttonchops and a mustache, who I assume is the new constable.
“But I can see now that this might have been worth it. We’ve been outside those damn gates for the past few hours, we’ve been all along the property trying to find our way in to no avail. ”
The police continue to describe their efforts, but my attention is stolen by Brom, who leans into me.
“So now what?” Brom says in a low voice.
“What do you mean, now what?” And then I realize the price he must have paid to still be here, talking to me. “Don’t you have some bargain to uphold with the horseman?”
He gives me a small smile, shakes his head. “The Hessian is dead now. That’s all he wanted in the end.”
I blink at him. “How can he die if he was already dead?”
“There is more than one death, Crane. You should know that. He’s been used and abused by the coven for decades now.
He’s never known peace, only vengeance, usually on behalf of someone else.
He’s been made to kill, made to retrieve, a puppet on a string.
A soldier with no escape. All he truly wanted was to die a real death on his own terms, and with sacrifice, and never be used for anything ever again. ”
“It sounds like you knew him on a personal level,” I comment.
He shrugs. “I do. And by the end, I think he knew me.”
I grin at him, the elated feeling in my chest slowly expanding. “So you’re free now?”
“I’m absolutely free,” he says, leaning his head against my shoulder briefly, and I have to fight the strong urge to reach down and kiss him.
“But I’ll tell you what, the minute we get out of here, we’re going straight to Manhattan and we’re getting the biggest fucking bed we’ve ever seen.
And you’re not going to care if I get crumbs all over it. Got it?”
“Sir, yes, sir,” I tell him, biting back a smile. “Of course, those things cost money.”
He raises his head and his lips twist into a sly smile.
“What?” I ask.
“Well, you know all those gemstones inside the glass cases of the cathedral are worth a pretty penny,” he says. “Would be a shame if they were to all disappear with the fire. Never to be seen again.”
For a moment I’m not sure what he’s getting at.
But then I know.
“Brom, you sneaky bastard,” I say to him.
The both of us turn and run back into the building, everyone yelling at us in shock as we go, wondering why we’re running back into the flames.
Luckily the fire hasn’t spread far yet, and the glass cases that display crystals, gemstones, and other esoteric relics are untouched. I take my gun from my back pocket, happy that it’s finally useful for something other than shooting Brom, and start smashing the glass.
Then we pocket as much of the stuff as we can before running back outside.
Naturally, everyone is staring at us.
“You fellas all right?” one of the officers asks us.
“Never been better,” we both say in unison, patting our pockets and making sure the gems are hidden.
“Are you sure?” he asks with a squint. “Because you seem to be burned, and I think your shoulder is about to fall off, and you both just ran back into a burning building, so I’m thinking mentally you aren’t very sound either.”
Brom and I look at each other, quickly remembering we’re dealing with the world outside witchcraft.
“You’re right, we should go get this all checked out,” I tell him with a firm nod. “Where’s our school nurse? Josephine? Might as well have them check you over too, Kat.”
Kat comes over and I put my good arm around her as Josephine leads us away from the cathedral and around the corner and out of the prying eyes of the police, just as I see Martha running toward us with the healing poultice.
“I’ll tell you what, I’ll be glad to leave this place,” Josephine says under her breath, then looks to us. “Are the three of you going to stick around Sleepy Hollow?”
I laugh. “After we’re healed, we’re going to get on our horses and ride out of here and never ever return.”
“Farewell to Sleepy Hollow,” Kat says. “May you never look back.”
And isn’t that a fact.