Last Witch Standing (Mountain Witch Saga) (12 page)

Jakob unlocked the sliding door and opened it. On the bench
opposite the opening sat several Upper Mountain Witches.
Rachel
looked for Trudy, but that witch was not among the three. Jakob nodded to them.
Two got up and met Queen Annalisse outside. The third moved to a back seat.

“My sisters tell me the sorceress has left Earth. Most
likely for Pangea,” Queen Annalisse said when they were underway.

“She will return for the girl,” Karen said. “The bond goes
both ways, I think.”

“It does give us a breather to set the ground before her
return,” Candice said.

“It is a stroke of luck,” Jakob said.

“I think she went to Pangea to collect her tools. She has
created hundreds of scientific devices. It wouldn’t surprise me if she could
track me with one even if I did not channel,” Rachel said.

“In any case, we should be ready by the end of the week.
Dan Edwards will arrive on Saturday, with his family,” Karen said.

“Why is his family coming?” Rachel asked.

“I believe it will balance him, add to his power over the
sorceress. Also, it would be kind of hard for him to just take off for Hawaii
on a personal vacation.”

Rachel sat back into her seat and closed her eyes. Most
would assume she was tired from her ordeal, and she was, but what she needed to
do now was think this through. Katie cornered, Eric coming to Hawaii with his
father, Rachel dead to Earth. Where was the endgame in all of this? Would Katie
be taken peacefully? What kind of friendship could Rachel have with Eric when
she wasn’t even alive?

The Present Day

Earth

Candice ordered in when she and Rachel returned to their
hotel room. “I cannot get enough of this Hawaiian food!” The scent of barbecue
pineapple filled the air.

“Like it? I wish I could enjoy food. On the Mountain Witch
world I did. In fact, I had a strong appetite. Here, food is nearly tasteless
and I can only take it in small portions,” Rachel said.

“That is because the mountain witch world is your natural
world. That and the Citadel planet are in the same universe. You no longer
belong to this one.”

“I know. I heard you talking with Karen and Jakob. Also,
Queen Annalisse has explained some of this. Still, I think they are not quite
telling me everything,” Rachel said.

“You must trust them.”

“I do. With my life. And, they
are
my only route
back to my Lower Mountain witch sisters.” “You will see them again. Soon.”

“I know, thanks. Do you mind if I go to bed early tonight?”

“Not at all. I have a stack of magazines to look at. Plus,
I have this new tablet Jakob brought me.” Candice gestured to the ten-inch Acer
Iconia computer tablet on the dresser.

Rachel examined the tablet. Katie would love one of those.
She could load it with science programs and magazines. Eventually, she would
want to make one of her own. Then she would lose herself in her cave for
several weeks or more as she designed a low power, super-sized one of her own.
Rachel would have to see if she could get her own tablet, maybe an iPad.
Surely, she had money. A single one of the many moissanite pieces collected in
her room in Eustice’s cottage would be more than enough to purchase one – or a
dozen.

Sleep came quickly. Karen and Jakob, along with Queen
Annalisse, had already departed to set up another stage in the trap. The light
of early dawn broke through the draperies. She must have slept nine hours or
more!

Rachel dressed and stood on the balcony, letting the morning
breeze ruffle her sundress. Somewhere, she knew, perhaps on the balcony,
perhaps in the yard below or on the roof, a lone Upper Mountain Witch kept
watch over the hotel room.
Upper Mountain Witches were so stealthy
that Katie probably sensed them only on Pangea after Annalisse ordered them to
break cover to herd Katie and Rachel back to Earth.

How did the queen know Katie would take Rachel
back to Earth?
Annalisse was always thinking several steps
ahead. Rachel would hate to have to play chess with that one.

What would happen here? She could not bear to be allied
against Katie. The sorceress had spent many painstaking hours instructing
Rachel in math and science and the Power. True, as a sorceress, her
explanations of the Power were not as helpful as they would be coming from another
witch – but Katie had made the attempt. And if she were only a child when she
died, how could she be expected to have a mature outlook and the wisdom of age?

Rachel heard a voice in the distance.

I have come to save the child’s life, not to
harm her. It is for that reason I entered into this affair – to restore her
humanity and bring her into my kingdom. She should have become an Upper Mountain
Witch and not a sorceress. Something happened to push her off the correct path.
Perhaps Katie’s great intelligence prevented her from moving by feel and
accepting the natural course after her earthly death. My task is to restore her
to the correct one and bring her into our world as an Upper Mountain Witch.
That is where she belongs; what she truly is.

Rachel turned around, looking for Annalisse. How could she
be on the balcony, the queen had left for the city early that morning, with
Jakob and Karen? Rachel was alone.
Into my mind. The witch queen spoke directly
into my mind – and from such a distance!

The weekdays passed quietly. Rachel forced herself to go
out sightseeing with Candice, who would not leave Rachel alone at the hotel.
Saturday morning arrived and Candice drove them to the airport to pick up Dan
Edwards and his son.

“The idea of a hiking trip was a good one. Their mother
will come at the end of next week, when school lets out. That gives us one less
civilian to worry about,” Candice said.

“How did you talk Mr. Edwards into bringing his son? After
all, Katie
is
dangerous,” Rachel asked.

“I convinced him that the danger to his son was greater
leaving him and that there ultimately was no possibility of the boy remaining
on the sidelines.”

“Was it difficult?”

“To put it, mildly, yes. He came close to throwing me out
of his office several times.”

Rachel laughed. “I am sure you were very persuasive.”

“When I need to be, I guess I can.”

Rachel watched the jet contrails as they stood by the
airport window looking out.

“That is them.” Rachel pointed to a speck in the distance.

“That is uncanny. This Power thing is something I will
never get used to.”

She will have to. Earth is lost to her. Unless
Queen Annalisse has a special plan for restoring the detective to her identity.

****

“It is great to be back here!” Eric moved his gaze back and
forth between the ocean and the mountains.
Eric looked at Rachel. His
mouth opened slightly and he did not blink. “I thought you were dead.”

“I was. I am. In the same way Katie is. After this affair
is over I will need to return to my world – The Kingdom of the Mountain
Witches.”

“I was worried about you…. when I saw your picture on the
news.”

“Thank you. Our lives are entangled in some way.”

“I would like to visit your world.”

“That may not be possible. It takes a lot of power for one
who is neither witch nor sorcerer to transit. Candice’s trip took the combined
power of the Citadel and the Upper Mountain Witches to open the gate,” Rachel
said.

“It is possible he could piggyback on you, Rachel. If
things go badly here tomorrow, we may have to make the attempt. I don’t think
Katie is vindictive, but the shock could render her irrational,” Karen said.

“I’d say she already is irrational,” Candice said.

“In her own way, she is rational. From her perspective, her
actions make sense,” Jakob said.

***

“It certainly is beautiful here,” Candice said.

“Any idea when my sister will be here?” Dan Edwards asked.

“She’s here now.” Rachel stood up.

“Now?” Candice bolted upright and reached for her
cellphone.

“No. On Earth, but not yet here. She is looking for me. If
the queen wasn’t blocking her, Katie would find me.”

“Then we don’t have much time. Annalisse can’t hold her
that long. Katie is too powerful. Why didn’t you tell us?”

“Just noticed it.” Rachel shuffled, avoiding looking directly
at Candice. “Katie’s occupied with something. She’s discovered something that’s
enchanted her. I feel the spike in her energy. It is similar to when she
discovered a new element in the space around Pangea.”

“What could it be?” Candice asked.

“Anything. Literally
anything
. Another witch she
could use, a book on physics that answers one of her questions – or provokes
new, interesting, ones. It could even be something as simple as a new iPad.”

“If she has a new girl, we must move quickly. I will
not
allow another child to die by her hands.”

“She didn’t kill them,” Rachel said.

Candice didn’t answer this but dialed her cellphone. Rachel
left to meet Eric at the hotel pool.

***

“Can you swim?” Eric asked, eyes wide.

“Of course. I could swim to the bottom of the ocean, if I
had to.” Rachel stripped off her shorts and flipped her sandals by the lawn
chair.

“Cool.”

Eric dived into the turquoise water and swam out about
fifteen feet. He turned to Rachel. She jumped in. Unconsciously, she began
drawing heat energy from it. The Power was a narcotic.

“It’s cold!” Eric shivered.

“Yes.” Rachel stopped drawing. What was she thinking? The
cold could kill these people if she accidentally took too much.

“So, what did you do in the mountains, if you don’t mind my
asking?” Eric looked at Rachel.

“I studied. Mathematics, physics, the Power, etc. Didn’t
get very far on my own.”

“It’s crazy. We must have been less than a mile away from
you the whole time.”

“I think I was already gone by then,” Rachel said.

Eric stopped his dogpaddling.

“Sorry. I do thank you and your father for finding me and
trying to help me.”

“This is just too strange. I find out that a girl I met at
Walmart is dead, but alive, and has been kidnapped by my four and a half-year
old aunt who died forty years ago.”

“I know. Imagine how I felt when I first discovered I had The
Gift? What it was like to have a two feet, seven inches tall woman show up at
my window?”

“Crazy. Yet, I believe it. That’s the strangest thing of
all. I believe it.”

Rachel dove under the water and grabbed his legs, toppling
him.

“What did you do that for?” Eric sputtered, water drops
falling from his face and hair, a grin on his face.

“I don’t know. I haven’t played in years. Katie is so
intellectual and my adoptive parents in Melville weren’t much fun. She does
like llamas, though.”

“Llamas?” Eric circled around her.

He’s distracting me for a toss himself.
That
was the thing about the Power. Humans could rarely take her by surprise. Well,
she would
pretend
–

Eric dove and Rachel felt his hands on her legs in a
tackle. Visions of him in junior high school wrestling class, years before,
came unbidden into her mind. How can you have a relationship with somebody
whose mind you can read? Relationship? She stopped herself. She was dead, he
was alive.

The two continued their swim, ending up in the spa. Here,
Rachel risked pulling a few more degrees of heat from the water. This was
becoming an addiction. On the other hand, this wasn’t her world – or even her
universe – any longer. Even keeping her body together probably took extra
energy. Hadn’t Karen implied as much?

From their perspective on the spa benches, they could see a
banner ad for the local symphony. A visiting virtuoso would perform Bach that
evening.

“I wonder if we could get tickets,” Eric said. I played the
viola in junior high school. Never got anywhere with it, but I do like
classical music.”

“Me too. So does Katie. In fact, she loves Bach.” Rachel
wondered what Power enhanced playing would be like. When this was over, there
would be plenty of time for her to learn – and master – the violin.

***

“You have some great connections, Rachel. They were sold
out weeks ago.” Eric walked her towards their seat in the concert hall. He was
dressed in a rented suit.

“It comes with being a witch.” She elbowed him. In a black
tie outfit, neatly combed dirty blond hair, he looked beautiful.