Page 16 of Fallen Angel

Hannah smiled and continued to feed Callan grapes. Though Landon was there, watching in silence, it felt as if Hannah and Callan were alone—no one else existed. After a few more grapes, Hannah broke off a piece of the baguette sticking out of the picnic basket and offered it to him. He sat up, leaned his back against the cave wall, and clasped his fingers around it. He devoured the bread and opened his palm for some more.

“Did you bring the change of clothes?” Hannah asked Landon.

He opened his backpack, pulled out a pair of jeans and a Red Sox sweatshirt, and passed them to her. “I wasn’t sure what you were looking for. I nearly brought pajamas.”

Hannah gave him an incredulous look, but ignored what she thought was the suggestion of them spending the night together. She took the clothes and unfolded them. She eyed Landon, then Callan, then the clothes again. Callan was taller and broader than Landon. It would be a tight squeeze. “These should be fine. Thank you.”

She directed her attention back to Callan. “Here. Once you gather your strength, you can change into these.”

Callan chewed on the bread and looked bemused as he poked his finger through a tear in the jeans. He glanced between Hannah and Landon, and she wondered if he recognized him as well.

“Who is this?” he whispered to Hannah. Landon could clearly hear Callan; he only stood a couple feet away.

“Do you know this guy?” Landon asked Hannah.

“It’s complicated,” is all she could think to say. Shefeltlike she knew him.

“Well, I really think he should be brought to the hospital. Even just to be checked out.”

Maybe Landon was right. If Callan had been sealed in rock for over three hundred years, then a medical workup probably wasn’t a bad idea. The fact that he was alive, however, told Hannah that they were beyond modern medicine. Beyond science or logic. This was something else. Something powerful. Something enchanting.

“Do you think you need to go to the hospital?” she asked him. “You might be sick.”

“No,” he whispered and leaned forward. “I will be all right.” His eyes glimmered to hers. He smelled of incense and the earth after rainfall.

“If you’re not going to call an ambulance, at least let me take a look,” Landon said. “I know I’m no doctor, but I did take a summer prep course.”

Hannah nodded to appease Landon. She knew Callan would be all right.

Landon knelt beside Callan. “Could you shine your phone light here,” he asked Hannah, motioning just above Callan’s head.

Hannah followed his instruction.

“His pupils look okay, normal dilation.” He helda finger in front of Callan’s eyes. “Follow my finger back and forth.”

Callan obeyed. But when Landon’s finger came too close to his face, he swatted it away.

Landon jolted back. “This is insane,” he said. “Hannah, I know we don’t actually know each other that well, but you called me to come down here, and I gotta tell ya—I’m really confused.”

“Landon,” she started.

Callan cut her off. “Turn away. Return from whence you came. Forget this hour past, and all will be the same.”

Landon’s eyes glazed over. He stood up straight and left the cave without another word.

When Landon was out of sight, Hannah turned to Callan, amazed and bewildered. “What did you do to him? Will he be okay?”

“He was not one of us. He shan’t remember this.”

“One of us?”

He looked at her, mystified. “You do not remember?”

Hannah slowly shook her head, waiting for him to continue—awaiting the first answer of many more she hoped to come.

“We are witches.”

Chapter Five

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