Chapter 30
Chapter
Thirty
“ H awk!” Abby cried out, a sob in her throat. She picked herself up off the floor and ran to where he lay on the stairs.
She lifted his shoulders and laid his head in her lap, then looked up at Stella with a pained and plaintive expression. “What do I do?”
Stella and Ethan joined her at the stairs and knelt on the floor by Hawk’s feet.
“The Collector’s magic knocked him out,” Ethan said. “Now that he’s dead, the magic will disintegrate—just like our bindings—and Hawk will come to.”
Abby bent forward and pressed her forehead to Hawk’s chest.
“It’ll be all right,” Stella said, unwilling to acknowledge another possibility: that the magic had merely thrown Hawk across the room, and it was something in the impact that had truly injured him.
“Hawk,” Abby said, shaking him. “It’s over.”
Hawk didn’t open his eyes, but to everyone’s relief, he groaned.
“Hawk!” Abby said, her eyes shining with tears. “Can you hear me? Open your eyes.”
“What happened?” Hawk asked. He kept his eyes squeezed tight.
“The Collector’s gone. He’s dead. It’s over,” Abby said.
Cool night air filled the roofless room, evaporating the sweat off Stella’s forehead and arms. It might have brought with it a sense of relief if not for the sudden movement she caught out of the corner of her eye.
She jumped to her feet and put her hands out, ready to defend. Magic crackled between her fingers. Ethan stood just as quickly beside her.
“White flag! White flag!” called a familiar male voice, and a thin figure emerged from a cupboard hidden by the wainscoting.
“Jun?” Abby asked.
Hawk slowly pushed himself up.
“The one and only,” Jun said. “What a surprise finding you three here!”
Jun stepped into a patch of moonlight, and Stella was startled to see that he looked ten years younger than when they’d summoned her mother’s specter back at Broomstix.
“What’s going on?” she asked.
“Don’t you remember?” he asked with a wide smile.
“Remember what?” Abby asked.
“You know,” he said, sounding surprised that his presence in Medfield didn’t make perfect sense. “You told me the Collector abducted me from 1995 because in 2015 I would nearly capture him.”
He held out his arms at his sides to suggest, and here I am .
Stella and Ethan exchanged an incredulous look, then Ethan replied with the thought that was on both of their minds. “ ‘Nearly capture’ doesn’t suggest success, Jun. You took a huge risk coming here.”
Jun merely shrugged. “But not trying meant a for-sure failure, and I had some inside intel.”
“Inside intel?” Stella asked.
“A prophetic witch,” Jun said with a smug smile. “I never know whether to take them seriously, but this time it paid off.”
“By any chance was this witch named Joan?” Ethan asked.
Jun’s eyes widened. “How did you know?”
Ethan bowed his head and shook it slowly. “Well, I guess now we know why Future Jun wasn’t answering our calls. He already knew he’d be here.”
“You’re the reason the aether got so big!” Abby suddenly exclaimed. “You magnified their magic!”
Stella sucked in a breath as she realized that was exactly what had happened.
“I dodged into the cupboard when I heard people coming,” Jun said. “I almost gave myself away when I realized it was you, but then the Collector came in, and then you were talking about aether. I figured you’d need as big of a boom as you could get.”
“We couldn’t have done it without you,” Ethan said.
Hawk leaned forward and rested his forehead in the palms of his hands, and groaned again. Apparently, he’d really done a number on his head. Stella hoped he didn’t have a concussion.
The front doors to the hospital ward wrenched open on their bent hinges. Stryker, Dylan, Jade, and Izzy rushed in, then came to a lurching halt.
“You’re alive,” Jade said, sounding surprised.
“Oh, thank God,” Izzy said, and she slumped against Jade.
“We were in the middle of an epic zombie battle,” Dylan said. His eyes were still bright and alert from the fight, and his cheeks were streaked in green ooze. “Then all of a sudden, they fell dead at our feet. Every single one of them. It was like a switch had gone off.”
“The Collector’s dead,” Ethan said. “All his spells left with him.”
“Are you sure?” Jade asked, glancing up the wide staircase. “Do you think maybe we should search this place for any hangers-on?”
“I’ll go with you,” Dylan said, tightening his stubby blond ponytail. “My adrenaline’s still buzzing.”
They took off, heading up the stairs, and Izzy joined them, taking two steps at a time.
Stryker held back, and his eyes narrowed on Jun. “Why are you looking so… young ?”
“Wow,” Jun deadpanned. “I hope that doesn’t mean I turn into the Crypt Keeper in my old age.”
“He’s 2015 Jun,” Abby explained.
“Uh-huh,” Stryker said, still sounding confused.
“Speaking of which,” Jun said. “I better go. Now, that I’ve helped save the future of all witchkind…” His dark eyes twinkled as if he considered the night’s exploits to be just one, big awesome adventure. “I should get back to my wife. We’ve got a new baby at home.”
“Congratulations,” Hawk said groggily, as if this were new news and he hadn’t already seen several photos of Future Jun’s three little girls.
Jun gave Hawk a chin lift, then shot another big smile at Abby. “See you in the future, Dudette! And all the rest of you, too!”
He drew the two runes in the air. The shapes sparked with fine lines of fire, and the portal opened. Jun hopped through and disappeared.
“Maybe that’s our cue to go home, too,” Ethan said. “I’ve had about enough of this place.”
“Fuck!” Hawk shouted, and he was on his feet, his eyes sharp and focused on the hospital ward’s doors.
Everyone turned to see what had his attention just as Marietta, George, Catherine, and Antoinette raced onto the crumbling porch and into the foyer. George held a shotgun angled across his chest.
“How did you get here?” Stella asked.
“Jade gave me a swatch of her Harley Quinn costume,” Marietta explained. “Just in case.”
“She wanted us to be able to time hop to Medfield,” George added, “if Catherine got any hint that you needed additional fire power.”
“Mom?” Ethan asked.
Catherine straightened her cardigan like it was no big deal. “I got a vision you needed more fire power.”
“So you came packing heat?” Ethan asked George, indicating the shotgun.
“That’s not the kind of fire power we needed,” Stella said, “but thanks.”
She resisted the urge to laugh because there wasn’t anything funny about the situation. It was just that she was so exhausted. Right now, she could probably dissolve into hysterics at the slightest provocation.
“What else were we going to bring?” Catherine asked. “My son needed help, and we couldn’t poison the Collector from afar or prophesy him to death.”
“I don’t know,” Ethan muttered. “It might’ve worked. Your prophecies certainly do my head in.”
“Guys,” Jade said from the top of the stairs, and they all turned to look. “Zombies weren’t the Collector’s only hoard.”
“What do you mean?” Stella asked, dread filling her heart.
Jade’s gaze swept across the new arrivals, and her expression turned a little self-congratulatory. “I think you all better come see.”
Stella took Ethan’s hand, and they ran up the stairs with everyone else behind them. At the top, Jade led them down a short hallway which ended at a double door. Izzy and Dylan stood like sentries on either side.
“Who’s in there?” Ethan asked.
“Not who,” Izzy said.
“Then what’s in there?” Stella asked, a million possibilities swirling through her head. Zombies? More cylindrical holding tanks with dead witches? Fire-wielding demons? The bones of dead ancestors? Bridget Bishop? Her mother’s specter?
Dylan opened the door for them, but he didn’t go in. Neither did Izzy.
“Go ahead,” Jade prompted.
Stella looked up at Ethan. His face was hard, and he pressed his lips into a thin line.
She took a deep breath and stepped into the room. Just like the foyer, it was missing its roof. Moonlight glinted off something shiny.
Stella snapped her fingers, and a flame appeared at the point of her index finger. She staggered back, and Ethan caught her by the elbow.
“What the hell?” she whispered. The room was filled with stacks and stacks of shiny yellow bricks. Hundreds if not thousands of them.
“It’s gold,” Ethan said. “Gold bars.”
“The Collector’s own private bank,” Dylan said. “Makes sense. It’s a perfect currency when you’re hopping back and forth through the centuries. Gold is gold, no matter what the year.”
“What do we do with all of this?” Stella was barely able to believe it.
She wandered deeper into the room, weaving among the gold, letting her hand slide over the stacks of cool, smooth bricks. They glinted in the mixture of moonlight and firelight, sparkling and glowing.
“What do you mean?” Jade retorted. “ Stella , this will save the store. You’ve saved Mom’s legacy.”
“And not just the store,” Marietta said. “You finished what she started. You saved us all.”
“Not me,” Stella said, the words catching in her throat. “We did it together.”
“Well, duh,” Jade said. “Whoever said you had to go it alone?”
Stella sniffled, and picked up one of the gold bars. “There’s more here than I need to save the store from foreclosure. There’s more than any of us need.”
“I’m sure you’ll figure out what to do,” Jade said. “My big sister always does what’s right. Even when it’s not easy.”
Heat rose into Stella’s face, and the salty sting of tears burned her eyes. She took her sister’s hand and squeezed it tight before releasing her.
Then she reached out for Ethan.
“You’re looking at your future, Red.” He lifted her hand to his lips and kissed it. “Make of it what you will.”
Love flooded Stella’s chest, making her heart squeeze. “You’re wrong.”
“What?” He lowered her hand, and his eyes filled with confusion and concern.
Stella rose up on her toes, and her lips brushed against his as she said, “I’ve been looking at my future for months, and I’ve got a centuries-old curse to thank for it.”
“Cursed descendants,” Ethan whispered.
“Hardly,” she said, and they kissed beneath the starry sky.