Chapter 19 #2
She climbed on the broom and flew down toward the base of the cliffs… where the two bodies lay.
Malcolm and the hunter.
Hades had returned to his master’s side, his body slowly turning to silver and glimmering like stardust. Hades was dying. They both were.
“No, please no.” Her voice cracked as she put her palm against Malcolm’s cheek. The faintest glow of heat, of life, met her cold, numb fingers.
Shimmering light appeared all around her as thirteen portals opened, and thirteen figures entered the clearing at the base of the cliffs.
“Malcolm!” One of the people raced over, falling to his knees next to Calli as he grasped Malcolm’s face, turning it toward him.
Reginald Wellesley threw back his head and made a sound that no one should ever have to hear, the anguished cry of a parent losing a child, a sound of raw, animalistic pain.
Malcolm wasn’t gone yet. A faint glimmer of life was yet within him, Calli could sense it. She just had to find a way to draw him back to the land of the living.
A witch Calli remembered from before, Lady Batsford, approached her and stared at Malcolm with a gleam of ancient knowledge in her eyes.
“We can restore the wards around the town, hedge witch. And, if you are brave enough, we can do what must be done to save him. A witch-locked warlock won’t die… if he’s tied to his healthy mate. Not if she can heal him in time.”
Calli didn’t hesitate. “Tell me what to do.”
“Only hedge magic can save him… only you will know how.” Lady Batsford grasped Reginald’s shoulder turning to him. “Let her save your son, Reggie. We need a thirteenth warlock to invoke the guardian spell around the town.”
Reginald struggled, pulling free of her hand as he grasped Calli’s arm, his eyes so green like Malcolm’s.
“Save my boy… save him. You have great power… use it to save him.”
Calli could only nod as she saw the apology in his eyes.
I can save him. Only I know how.
It was then she noticed the kitten tucked up against the fading figure of Malcolm’s familiar. Persephone trembled with the chill and mewled softly, mournfully.
“I need you, Persephone. You can help me focus my magic. Are you brave enough?”
The cat crawled toward her, leaping up onto her shoulder as Calli placed her hands on Malcolm’s chest. She covered the bullet wound with her hands, her blood mixing with his.
The vine tattoos on her arms suddenly crawled out from her skin, wrapping around Malcolm’s body like a shield, connecting him to the earth, and to her.
In that moment she knew she could forgive the past and move on and move forward with Malcolm.
It was her choice. No prophecy, no fate, no destiny. Only her and her love choosing him.
The incantation she needed came to her unbidden. It was as if she’d been born knowing such a spell… the life-saving spell of a true hedge witch.
“Strength of the trees,
Come to me.
Root and thorn,
Bee and flower,
Heed my call for your power.
To mend what has been broken,
I offer my life as a token.”
I accept Malcolm as the mate of my heart. I take his soul into mine, and he takes me… bind us together.
The demand she made of the earth and the sky came together in a burst of stunning clarity as the entire universe flashed across her vision in a kaleidoscope of light.
The locking of her soul and Malcolm’s was beginning…
The earth answered her call for power. Every single drop of rain was suspended in the storm clouds above.
Every single leaf still clinging to the tree limbs.
Every fox crying in the woods, every owl flying on silent wings, every squirrel curled up in the knotted holes of hollow trees and fish in the streams.
Every living being connected with Calli in a blinding rush of pure, potent power.
All of life itself was within her, ready to help. To save him.
Her silent plea shot liquid fire through her veins. She threw her head back, her eyes glowing white as natural magic flooded through her into Malcolm’s body.
Broken ribs were mended, ruptured blood vessels were restored, air pushed into collapsed lungs, and a small lump of metal lifted up from the wound and rolled onto the grass.
“Blood freely given in love…” The voices of thirteen witches surrounding her echoed off the Black Cliffs. “Will guard this land so long as love reigns.”
Calli felt the power of the blood magic around her, and her own natural magic rushed to meet it in perfect harmony as the most powerful wards ever created were once again shielding Moonstone Falls and the land around it.
The body of the hunter suddenly turned to ash upon the ground and moonflowers grew in the pattern of where he’d lain.
“We have saved the son of Salem…” A whisper so deep, so ancient that it could only have come from the earth itself tolled like a bell on the hilltop on a clear winter’s morning.
Then Calli’s magic departed and the withdrawing tide took nearly everything out of her.
The vines shrank back beneath her skin, leaving the tattoos behind.
She crumpled to the ground beside Malcolm, weak as a newborn kitten.
She turned her head toward Malcolm. His dark lashes were still closed, then…
then they gave the slightest twitch. Then a flutter, and then…
oh she saw those green eyes that had ensnared her heart. They were open and shining.
His lips parted. “Death can’t be bad… if I can dream about you in the dark.”
She wanted to say something clever, something that would make him laugh. But she could only express the gravity of her feelings for him with three words.
“I love you.”
In his eyes, she saw the future swell before her in a vision clearer than any prophecy locked in ice or crystal.
Malcolm waiting as she came toward him in a shower of fallen leaves.
She held a bouquet of lilies and wore a wedding gown.
Watching a meteor shower together in the backyard as her grandmother’s archway glowed like a lantern.
Holding hands as they stepped through the archway on a spring day.
Then again, only this time each holding the hand of a little girl between them.
Two old souls sitting together on a porch on Halloween’s night as trick-or-treaters flowed up and down the street…
And then, one final vision. Malcolm, lying next to her in bed. His lips brushing the crown of her white hair as she closed her tired eyes. She let out a sigh and saw the faint shimmer of the world beyond her own, telling her it was time to go.
And so she went. But she felt a hand slip through hers, and she did not go there alone.
The witch-locked bond snapped clearly and swiftly into place, joining them completely. Whispers of thoughts, his thoughts, his emotions, his magic, caressed hers along a bond that was now and forever unbreakable.
“Malcolm!” Someone shouted.
Calli felt herself being helped to sit up by Lady Batsford, while Reginald did the same with Malcolm, who was coming fully to his senses. He looked around the small clearing at the base of the Black Cliffs as though in a daze.
“Dad… what—” His words were muffled as Reginald clutched Malcolm in a massive bear hug.
“Dad… can’t… breathe…”
Something about the sight pinched Calli’s heart so hard she sucked in a pained breath. After a moment, Reginald pulled back from him and turned to Calli.
“You saved him… You saved my boy…”
He dragged her into his arms, squeezing until she almost passed out. He relented, and held her by the shoulders as he gazed into her eyes.
“Tonight you became my family, and I am proud to call you my daughter.”
The tears came from somewhere deep within Calli, tears that she had buried the night her own parents had died. Reginald’s words of love and acceptance had unlocked that old path to grief.
“That’s it my dear, dear girl,” Reginald murmured soothingly as he let her cry for a long moment on his shoulder.
“Let it out now.” He patted her back, letting her know she was safe.
She was accepted. She was loved. She was struck by the marvel of how easy love was…
how easy it was to open one’s heart to anyone and how much it was worth the risk of any pain.
No one said anything in the silence of the night. Nature had returned to itself. A fox cried out in the woods, trees murmured secrets to one another, and the wind sighed as the storm above them blew far to the east.
Finally Calli dried her eyes and Reginald helped her and Malcolm stand up. It was time to go. Malcolm pulled her into his embrace, his lips gently touching hers as that ardent fire burned bright between them. He brushed a thumb over her cheek and his lips curved into a grin.
“My little hedge witch.” In those words there was a universe of love and meaning. “You’ve had a hell of a day.”
Calli nodded. “So have you.”
“I won’t argue with you there.” He kissed her again, letting her feel his love through the witch-lock bond, like a burning flame.
“Let’s go home.” She reached down to pick-up Persephone. She looked to Lady Batsford. “You’re welcome to stay too, and the rest of the Council if they wish. I’m sure Mr. Wellesley could cast an extension spell on my house for a few hours.”
“We appreciate the offer, Miss Wynter, but you should be with your family tonight.” The Council witch gave her a welcoming smile.
“You should come to Boston this Christmas. I wish to speak with you about your future with the Council. Lady Bentley is ready to retire next year. We could use a witch with your strength and wisdom on the Council. Malcolm pointed out that the witching world might be ready for a change.”
* * *
Lady Batsford made her farewells to Malcolm, Calli, and his father.
Then she pulled out a small handheld mirror.
One by one, the others approached her, touched the mirror, and vanished.
Lastly, Lady Batsford, garbed in her green gown and a tall black hat, touched the mirror herself and disappeared.
The tiny mirror hovered in the air a moment before dropping to the ground.
Malcolm walked over to retrieve the mirror with a chuckle.
“What is that?” Calli asked.
“A tiny traveling mirror. Lady Batsford came prepared. She must have known they’d be replacing the wards and would need this to leave. Hitchhiking isn’t exactly their style.” He slipped the mirror into the inside pocket of his coat and bent beside Hades, ruffling the dog’s ears.
“I thought I’d lost you, old buddy.” He rasped as he buried his face in the dog’s neck. He wiped away tears when he lifted his head to gaze at his familiar. “Where have you been all this time?”
The dog gazed at him, and Malcolm saw the answer within his mind.
Hades had returned immediately to Whimsy Woods behind Calli’s home. Persephone had sensed his presence and come to see him every day, keeping him company.
“Ahh… So that’s it? You couldn’t bear to leave them, eh?” He understood that all too well.
“What did he say?” Calli asked as she kissed the top of Persephone’s head.
“Hades has been staying in the woods behind your house, and Sephie has been visiting him.”
“That’s why you kept running off?” Calli remarked to her own familiar. Her kitten purred loudly.
“We had better get back before your mother gets the entire town looking for us,” Reginald said gently, breaking the silence.
“Does anyone have a phone?” Malcolm said. “We should call her.”
Reginald and Calli both looked at Malcolm as though he was crazy. Neither of them used cell phones if they could help it, and he’d left his with his mother.
“Wait, let me try something. I saw my grandmother do this a few times.” Calli’s eyes brightened as she stepped forward to the nearest pair of trees. She spoke to them.
“Take me home… to the place I belong…”
There between the two oak trees a portal shimmered and glowed as the distant woods changed to a view of Calli’s backyard, with her house just off to the side.
It took Malcolm a moment to understand. “It’s Celestine’s archway!”
Calli grinned at him. “Follow me.” His adorable, brave little hedge witch marched through the two trees passing into the backyard on the other side. She turned to look at him over her shoulder. “Unless you want to walk home.”
“No, ma’am!” Malcolm chuckled and glanced at his father.
Reginald waved a hand towards the arch. “After you, son.” Malcolm passed through, and father followed an instant later. The trees whispered as the portal closed behind them, leaving the woods quiet once more.