Betrayal (19 page)

T
he storm was over. The women of the coven had gone, melted into the hills, and the spirits of the Gypsy riders had returned to their resting place. We hugged and wept and held one another through the darkest part of the night, trying to let it all sink in, trying to comfort Helen. Then I stood close to Sebastian, and Sarah leaned her head against Cal’s shoulder, while Miss Scratton and Helen knelt by Mrs. Hartle’s body and mourned. We didn’t move or speak for a long time.

“And so…so, is she dead?” said Helen at last, as the first gleam of dawn crept over the hills.

Miss Scratton sighed. “Her mortal body is dead, but her soul is chained to the evil places her new master inhabits. I am sorry, Helen.”

Helen’s eyes were red with crying. “Is there any hope for her?”

“There is always hope.” Miss Scratton stood lost in thought for a while; then she beckoned the three of us to follow her down the hill a little way, leaving Cal and Sebastian to embrace as brothers and talk quietly together. We stood and looked over the valley to where the Abbey lay beneath us in the morning mist. “The night is over,” Miss Scratton said, “and although the way ahead is still unclear, a darkness has left us. My hope for you now, Helen, is that this will not make you bitter. You have already had a lot to bear.”

“I just wanted…I just hoped…that she would love me,” Helen said fiercely. “There’s no one left now who ever will.”

Miss Scratton took Helen’s hands in her own. “Your sisters love you, Helen. And you have a father, and one day he will find you. After that, there will come another, neither mother nor father nor sister nor brother, and he will love you beyond the confines of this world. This I can promise you. It is your destiny.”

“How do you know all this?” asked Helen. “Who are you?”

“I saw you,” I interrupted. “I saw you long ago, Miss Scratton—singing and healing and praying—”

“Yes, you saw me, Evie. You have the gift of divining the past, through the river of time.”

“So you were there, all those years ago….”

“I was there. And I am here.”

“But I still don’t really understand,” Helen said.

“Some things we can never truly understand,” Miss Scratton replied. “Who can understand the miracle of creation? Who can understand the depths of the oceans and the life of the stars? And the human heart, which one of us really understands that?”

“But how can you have lived at different times?” I asked. “After all that has happened with Sebastian, we know it is wrong for humans to seek immortal life; it’s not possible—”

“Not for humans, I agree.” She smiled, and as I frowned up at her thin, plain face, I saw that she was no longer plain, but filled with radiant inner light, like a picture in a church, like an angel….

“I am a Guardian, Evie, sent by the Great Power to wherever I am needed. This valley is both sacred and cursed. The story of Agnes and Sebastian and Evie is only one of many in its long history. You know that the hills beneath our feet are scored with tunnels and caverns. In one of them is a crack between this world and the shadows.
The valley has seen great marvels because of it, both good and bad. And I have been here to see some of them, to play what part I can. I have known failure and success, but the battle between the light and the darkness never ends. It is enough for you to know that much.”

“But what are you going to do now?” asked Sarah. “Will you stay here?”

“For a while, at least. The coven is scattered, angry and afraid, and that may make them dangerous. I hope that they will not suspect me, but I cannot be sure. Celia Hartle never entirely trusted me, and she managed to send me on a wild errand the night that Laura died.” She paused and looked away, then added softly, “That was indeed a failure. After that I had to pretend to be the High Mistress’s most fervent supporter. It was useful to act as one of the Dark Sisters, both to help guard the other students, and for other purposes.” Then she looked at the three of us and laughed warmly. It was the first time I had seen her laugh. “But you do not need a guard. If you stay true to one another, you will be strong enough for anything that life will send you.”

“And what about poor Harriet?” I said anxiously. “Will she be all right?”

“Harriet will recover from this,” replied Miss Scratton,
“if that’s what you mean. She sleeps now by Agnes’s grave, which, if Celia Hartle had but known it, gives her a kind of protection. I will ensure that she will wake with no knowledge of this night and nothing worse than a chill from being outside. But she has been possessed by a mind stronger than her own, and that takes longer to heal. We must tend to her.” She looked down at Mrs. Hartle’s body and covered it with her cloak, then gave a high, clear call. The next moment her magnificent white horse galloped out of the gloom and halted by her side, restlessly shaking its head and pawing the ground. Miss Scratton bent down and lifted up Mrs. Hartle’s body with surprising strength, then gently laid it on the horse’s back. “We must tend to this matter, too. But not you, Evie.”

“Why not? I…I want to help.”

“The new day is beginning. This is your day—for you and Sebastian. Go to him, Evie. Use your day well. And if you should chance to pass by the grounds of Fairfax Hall at sunset tonight, your sisters will be there to greet you.”

I kissed Helen and Sarah, then walked up the hill to where a boy with dark hair and blue eyes was waiting for me.

Sebastian James Fairfax. My first, my only love.

T
his is the day. This is now.

It is the perfect morning. The storm has passed and everything is beginning again. Although it is not yet March, the air is gentle, the sky is a soft, sweet blue, and the earth is warm in the sun. Under the trees, the rain-dashed buds of snow drops and crocuses are raising their heads again, determined to live.

Sebastian smiles at me and folds me in his arms.

“You gave me one day. So I want to give you this day in return. One perfect day that will last forever. And then…then I will receive your final gift.”

It is a day when all things meet and make sense. A day to treasure, like a precious jewel. A day I can look back on: when Sebastian and I were together, and happy, and
blessed. My heart goes out in gratitude to Agnes, to Sarah and Helen, who helped to make this happen.

I love…I am loved…just for one day.

We walk and walk over the high hills, as close to heaven as we can get. The sun shines, and the earth turns beneath our feet, and life flows on in an endless stream around us. All that we have is here and now, and it is enough. Each minute. Each second. A lifetime of love and laughter crammed into a few hours.

It is the only time that Sebastian and I have ever met in the sunlight, out in the open, away from the darkness and the shadows. We don’t need to hide anymore. I see the clear blue sky reflected in Sebastian’s eyes; I see the whole world in his smile. We walk far over the moors, talking of everything, asking questions, making confessions, searching for explanations.

“I couldn’t leave this life with you thinking that I was your enemy. That was a greater torment than anything else I was facing. You don’t know how much I love you, Evie.”

“I loved you the first time I saw you,” I reply.

“Liar!” He laughs. “You couldn’t have. I was awful to you.”

“Well, maybe the second time.” I smile, taking his hand
and pulling him close. “I’ll always love you, Sebastian; you know that.”

“I know.”

He leans down and kisses me, and our souls touch. Then we cling to each other and try to memorize each other’s faces, trying to make it last forever, trying to hide from what is to come.

Memories.

Do you remember when we first walked up here on the moors…do you remember the moon…and the night we rowed across the lake…do you remember?

I remember everything. I’ll always remember. I’ll spend my whole life remembering.

A cloud covers the sun. “Let’s not think about the past anymore,” I say. “The past is done. I want to think about the future. Our future.”

Oh, we plan it all. We talk about the places we will visit together: Paris, Italy, India…so many places. We’ll see temples and museums and rivers and wide oceans. We’ll lie in the sun, lazy from food and wine and happiness. We’ll climb mountains and find new places, and study and write books and make discoveries, and give something back to the world. We’ll do it all together, day after day, step by step, and all the time our love will be wrapped
around us, like a blanket of stars. And our children—how lovely they will be, I tell him. I see them playing around the gray stones at Uppercliffe: a sweet, solemn girl and a little boy with bronze curls. They laugh and tumble and rush over to Sebastian and cling to him, as though they will never let him go. We see everything, rolling along on the river of time….

Time.

We are running out of time.

The hours are slipping past. The sun begins to sink in the west and the air bites coldly. The bright day is fading into a dim haze of evening light. We pass the trees and gardens of Fairfax Hall and walk up the slope to the granite monument that Sebastian’s parents left in memory of their son who could never die.

In memory of a beloved son…in memory of my beloved…beloved memories.

So many memories. Our golden day is nearly done.

Helen is there, and Sarah, waiting by the memorial stone, and I am glad they are with me, now that the end has come.

“Are you really going to do this for me, Evie?” Sebastian asks.

I nod slowly. It is all I can give him now, the meaning
of everything I saw in the Talisman. But it hurts. It hurts so much.

“Thank you.” He clasps my hand tightly. “I wish I knew what to say. Do you remember that poem I tried to write for you? Words are useless, aren’t they? ‘I’m grateful.’ ‘I love you.’ It’s just not enough, is it?”

“It doesn’t matter. You don’t have to say anything. We’ve said it all.”

I am crying now. I can’t stop my tears. Sebastian reaches out and touches a strand of my hair, just like he did when we first met. “Don’t cry, Evie. It won’t always hurt. You have to trust me. I want you to do this. It’s the only way.”

I throw my arms around his neck as though I will never let him go. But I must, because I do trust him. I will always trust him. I will do this. I am strong enough.

“It’s okay. I’ll do it. Just for you.” I manage to smile. I want him to remember me smiling.

“There’s one more thing I want you to do for me,” he says.

“Of course. Anything.”

“Then live, Evie. Just live. Don’t spend your life grieving. I don’t want you to stop loving because I…because our story wasn’t as we once hoped.”

“I’ll never love anyone else,” I say passionately. Sebastian smiles, and there is only a trace of sadness in his bright eyes.

“Oh, yes, you will, Evie. You must. You must love and marry and have a daughter with hair like fire and eyes like the sea. And you will tell her that no life is wasted, however short, if it has been touched by love. Oh, Evie…”

One last embrace. The very last kiss.

“Good-bye, girl from the sea,” he whispers. “Every ending is also a beginning. We’ll meet again, I promise.”

Sebastian lets go of my hand and walks over to the monument that catches the last few rays of the sun. He lies down on the bright turf with the great stone at his head, closes his eyes, and folds his hands over his chest.

“Are you ready, Evie?” asks Sarah softly.

My heart is on fire, but yes, I am ready.

I unfasten the Talisman and place it on Sebastian’s breast, like a star, then hold out my hands. They fill with clear water, which I sprinkle in a circle around us on the grass. Sarah takes the silver dagger and scores the ground, following the circle I have made, cutting the damp, sweet earth. Then Helen summons a wind that races around us in an endless ring of power, hiding us from the world’s
eyes. Water, earth, and air. Three elements. Three sisters. We need one more.

The water of our veins…the earth of our bodies…the air of our breath…the fire of our desires…come to us now.

I reach out in my mind and see the sacred fire rising up like a wild, brilliant bird. I click my fingers and tiny flames dance along the edge of our circle. They look like flowers dancing in the grass. Now the fourth element, Agnes’s power, is present through me. Water, air, earth and fire—we are ready to follow the Mystic Way, the path of healing.

Helen passes me the Book. It is heavy in my hands as I find the page I need.

The Gift of Death.
That is the only thing I can give Sebastian now. Death, for so long feared and avoided, is now ready to save him, and only I can open the gateway. This is my final gift to Sebastian The pages that had refused before to reveal their secrets now fall open under my touch and I know their strange truths.

That death is not the end. That the Creator has given life everlasting to all who truly seek it, not in this life, but beyond the threshold of our final sleep…

We make the incantations. We scatter the offerings.
We do all that is required, secret and beautiful and sacred. And a fourth girl comes to join us, our sister Agnes, at the heart of the mystery. Her rich red hair hangs loose over her white dress; her arms are held out in gladness to me, her eyes full of love. “I have come for my brother,” she says. “It is time.”

I take the silver dagger and place it in Sebastian’s hand. He puts his other hand on top of mine, intertwining our fingers so that we hold it together.

“Receive our brother into your eternal rest…. Receive him into the light….” Helen and Sarah and Agnes speak the words of the mystery, but my heart is too full and I cannot speak. “Receive him into the light,” I beg silently.

As the knife slides into his heart, Sebastian opens his eyes and looks up to the sky and his face is bathed in radiant light, so blinding that we cannot watch. And when the light passes, he has gone. The earth in front of the stone memorial is raw and soft, like a freshly dug grave. Only the Talisman remains, a bright jewel on the ground. I reach to pick it up. It is all I have left to tell me that this really happened. Our story.

And now it is over.

If the demons of the Unconquered realms ever come seeking Sebastian Fairfax again, they will not find him.
He is far beyond them now. He has taken my gift, and crossed the threshold of death into a new beginning.

I stand up and look across the hills. The sun is setting, and my heart is breaking, but Sebastian is at peace.