Spellbound: The Awakening of Aislin Collins (37 page)

“Becky we have to think,” I ran up next to
her when the thick forest would allow it. We were beginning to
descend on the Leeds' property and did not have too much time left
to formulate a plan.

“Aislin. He has my son. I cannot wait! I have
to get to him!”

“Ok,” I agreed, “You go to Isaac . . . I'll
distract Lamont,” I said breathlessly.

She stopped in her tracks and leaned on an
old tree, panting and clutching her sides.

“What do you mean?”

“We have to split up. I will distract him and
you get Isaac . . . and Becky? Run. Do not look back for me. Do not
even think of helping me. Just take Isaac and flee.”

“I cannot leave you,” she protested.

“I have Greer for help . . . just get Isaac
to safety,” I huffed. Every time I inhaled, I felt pain shooting
across my rib cage.

We gave each other one last look—a look of
goodbye, and then lunged into a gallop again.

We had reached the Leeds' home. I stood in
the thicket on the periphery of the property and surveyed it. The
house was a dingy grey color. It looked dilapidated and haunted.
The front yard was cleared of trees and covered in snow. There was
no cover to be found if we took the straight route towards the
shed.

Suddenly, I could hear a woman screaming. I
stopped in my tracks, holding my breath so I would not be heard. I
listened, praying that Lamont was not killing again.

I watched Becky back away from where I stood
and she retreated into the forest. She was going around to the
backside of the house to reach the shed.

All but one of the windows in the Leeds' home
was sealed shut. The bedroom window on the second floor was wide
open. I could see people moving around and someone dumped a bucket
of water out the window as another woman yelled, “Push Lucy! You
must push.”

Mrs. Leeds must have been giving birth to her
next child. The thirteenth, if I remembered correctly. I looked
back to where Becky had been, but she now had disappeared into the
heavy undergrowth that bordered the unkempt property.

The shed was only about one hundred yards
away from where I stood. Becky was making her way to the back of
it. I was not sure if I should just knock on the front door, or
look around to see if he was walking about. I decided to circle
around in the tree line opposite to Becky, but new noises caught my
attention and I froze.

I could hear men talking in the distance and
the whinnying of horses. The Governor's soldiers were moving ever
closer. Perhaps they heard Mrs. Leeds' screams or maybe this was
just their usual rounds, but either way, I was going to be caught
and I had no explanation for being this far from town so late in
the day.

I pressed my back against a large dead tree
that was close to where I stood and tried to soften my silhouette
against the blanket of white snow.

“Aislin,” Greer whispered, as he reached for
me and pulled me into a thicket.

He looked incredibly anxious. He crouched
down and spoke quickly in between listening to the soldiers
footsteps.

“We are surrounded. There must be fifty
soldiers patrolling out here,” his voice was so quiet that I had to
press my ear to his lips to hear him.

“Did Becky find Isaac?” I asked.

He shook his head, “I have no idea. I have
been surveying the area. I saw her move around to the back of the
shed and that was the last I saw of her.”

“Did you see Lamont?” I asked.

“He's on horseback . . . I think we need to
leave right now,” his eyes were now surveying me and he reached to
pull me to him so he could carry me.

I blocked his hand as it came near my
waist.

“No. I have to make sure that Becky and Isaac
get to safety,” I said sternly.

“This is a trap Aislin. He knows you are here
. . . if we stay, you will be walking straight into an ambush,” his
tone was becoming frantic.

“They are my family. I have no choice,” I
replied as I stood.

Greer pushed me against a tree, “We are too
late to change our course . . . they are coming.”

I started to hear rustling through the trees
and the sound of plodding hoofs on the soft snow.

“I will handle them . . . run,” he said, as
he pushed me toward the shed.

I glanced back and saw him turn in the
opposite direction, straight into the clearing where the soldiers
were approaching.

I was sprinting to where I hoped to find
Isaac and Becky. I heard the galloping of horses and demands for
Greer to identify himself.

Screaming and musket shots filled the air.
Shot after shot rang out, but the screams continued. Greer was one
person standing against at least fifty men. I thought of his injury
from Zachariah, and I could not believe that Greer was immune from
death.

The thought of Greer facing such adversity on
his own was too much for me. I turned around and ran
back
.
Standing out of the soldiers’ line
of vision, I concentrated all my will on the trees that surrounded
where the battle was taking place. The trees started shaking
violently above the soldiers heads. Branches began to fall around
them, and a few large trees crashed to the ground. There was still
fighting going on. I could hear Greer growling, but I thought I had
at least thinned out his opponents.

“Keep going,” I heard him scream.

I bolted through the open
clearing of the Leeds’ front yard and straight to Lamont’s
shed.
It was only a few feet away now. The shed's small door
was nearly within my grasp.

Then, I looked into the tree line beyond the
shed and saw Becky. She was holding Isaac and running for her life.
Something caught my eye and I looked to the left of them and saw a
giant grey horse galloping through the forest, heading directly for
Becky and Isaac. On top of the horse was a rider dressed all in
black. He looked like an evil spirit with his coat bellowing behind
him, a pistol raised in his right outstretched hand reflected the
last rays of sunlight as he closed in on Becky.

I needed to do something fast, “Lamont!” I
screamed.

The rider pulled hard on the reins, causing
the horse to rear back and throw its front quarters high. Its
breath looked like smoke in the cold air. The rider did not falter
as his horse’s front hoofs landed on the forest floor. He turned
and faced me with a wicked smile spread across his horrible
face.

“You know, I had just come to the realization
that I would have to settle for feeding off weaker magic. I did not
think you were quite this foolish but yet, here you are. I should
have used this technique earlier . . . it could have saved me a lot
of time and aggravation.”

He turned his horse away from the woods and
started to move slowly toward where I stood. I did not move. As
long as he was focused on me, Becky and Isaac could run.

I was standing about ten feet in front of the
shed in a large clearing. I still could hear yells and gunshots
from the forest behind me, where Greer was fighting for his life. I
flinched at the thought of Greer's predicament and I looked again
towards the tree line . . . Becky and Isaac seemed to have
disappeared.

A sudden new awareness overcame me. I was
alone with Lamont.

I instinctually reached for my pocket and
then realized it was not there. In my rush to leave the house, I
had forgotten my charms and I had forgotten the book as well. I
felt my breath quicken and my hands start to shake. I was alone
with the Warlock and I was unarmed. Of all the times I had
envisioned our final battle, in all my great preparation, I had
never foreseen this. I felt defenseless.

“Did you really think you could escape me?”
he sneered, as our distance closed.

He raised both his arms out to the sides of
his body and muttered something under his breath, as he looked
skyward.

I did not have time to answer him. I felt a
sharp pain grip me. The same pain I always felt when his spell
sliced through my body, except this time it was much stronger. I
fell to my hands and knees and screamed. He did not have to split
his power as he did at the Ball. He did not have to bother
concealing himself as he did at the port. I was now experiencing
the full power of his curse and it sent me reeling in agony.

I stared down at my hands, snow was packed in
between my fingers and my skin was turning blue. Tears welled in my
eyes from the pain, but through my blurred vision, I saw something
colorful and soft land on my right hand. It was a butterfly.

I could hear him laughing cruelly as I cried
out in torment, but even as his spell ripped through my body, my
memories jolted. I stared at the butterfly and my walk with Martha
came back to me.
I was not alone and I was not defenseless. I
had memorized spells. I had my own magic.

I heard the horse's breath as though it was
on top of me, but I did not look up. Suddenly, everything that
Martha had ever taught me came to the forefront of my mind. I knew
I had to work fast.

“I am disappointed in you Aislin. I thought
that you would at least
try
to fight me,” he goaded from
where he sat on his horse.

I stuck my hands into the snow and quickly
drew a circle around me, as I muttered a protection spell under my
breath.

“What do you think you are doing?” he
bellowed, as he pulled on the reins and his horse bucked in
anger.

I did well. The pain from his spell stopped
instantaneously. I slowly rose to my feet, my little circle acting
as a barrier that his hexes could not penetrate.

I looked around. He was moving away from the
tree line, closer to the clearing where I stood, but there were
still large trees towering behind him and I was going to bring them
crashing down on top of him. I took a breath to concentrate. I had
to act swiftly before he could figure out what I was planning.

“I don't have time for this,” he hissed. He
reached into his jacket and pulled out his pistol.

The pistol glinted in the darkness and I
froze. It was happening again! I was staring down the barrel of his
gun. I felt time slow down as disbelief fogged my mind. I could not
believe that with all my magic, it would end this way once
more.

I stuttered and started to brace myself for
the bullet's impact, but then remembered that I could handle that
too. I willed his arm to swing to the left, the gun discharged in
his hand and the shot flew wide.

I watched him reach for another firearm that
was hidden beneath his coat. He raised it, but I used my magic to
jam the hammer of the pistol from striking the primer, and he could
not make the weapon fire.

“You are not the only one with power,
warlock,” I growled.

His head snapped up in response to my words,
“How dare you call me a traitor!” he said, as he threw his firearm
to the ground in disgust. “I am not the traitor here. I wasn't the
one who fell in love with the enemy Spaniard and left the
Coven.”

“What?” I stammered in surprise.

“Oh, do you not remember? How convenient for
you,” he smiled in delight, as though nothing would please him more
than to tell me this dark secret. “Well let me enlighten you.” He
circled me on his horse while I kept spinning around so my back was
never to him.

“You were once part of a great coven. Perhaps
the most powerful coven of witches ever assembled. I am one of the
high priests . . . along with your parents,” he saw me crease my
brow in disbelief and spat at me, “No. Not the weak, ridiculous,
people you call your parents now. These people are of a different
stock, strong and powerful. They used the dark Craft to gain wealth
and status, and to destroy their enemies. Your father was a high
priest and a shrewd businessman. You were one of the Coven's
apprentices, and I was charged with bringing you up in the
Craft.”

I looked at him incredulously and he read my
expression.

“Like it or not, this is your truth
Aislin
! I was your advisor and you were my star pupil.”

I shook my head, not willing to accept his
story… but deep down something resonated. To my unease, I knew he
was telling the truth. Lamont saw the spark of recognition in my
eyes.

“Oh yes, under my command you did many great
deeds in the name of the Coven and I praised you for it. Even so,
the others did not trust you. They thought you were weak when it
came to your sensibility. I decided to prove them wrong and when we
were hired by a rival family to take down the Ruthven's and steal
their wealth, I selected you for the task.”

“Greer's family?” I said more to myself them
to Lamont.

“So your memory is starting to return? Good.
Then you should remember that I sent you to pick up some soil from
their land so we could hex their property. Your cover was to pick
flowers in the fields by their castle. That is where you met your
beloved
and that was the very day when
you betrayed
us
. You made a fool out of me and you betrayed your people. If
that was not bad enough, you even went further in your insolence.
You stood in the way of the Coven's business by casting protection
spells on all the Ruthven's and their property. You divulged our
secrets and hid in the protection of their castle. Yet, with all
your talent, you were never smart enough to protect yourself. You
only placed a protection upon your Craft so your powers could never
be taken from you . . . apparently not even in death. I was sent to
destroy you by the request of your own father and after the way you
betrayed me, I was more than happy to be the one to crush you.”

“I don't believe you!” I screamed.

“Oh, I know. It's so sad to think that you
were once a dark witch isn't it?” he said mockingly.

Somewhere within me, as though another person
was speaking out, I responded to his comment, “I didn’t betray
anyone… I was never like any of you!” I screamed back.