Page 27 of The Dark Rising
I freeze, memories of Solvier and my mom telling me it’s time to right the wrong. “Why would you say that?”
“It is the truth.” She grabs the bones hanging off the strap around her neck, murmuring softly and then she snaps the strap, taking a bone from it and handing it to me.
I take it tentatively. “I, um, why are you giving me this... bone?” I question, feeling its smoothness.
“Crow’s rib bone. It will be useful when I’m needed, put some of your blood on the bone and I’ll come, in some form or another. It can only be once.”
“I don’t understand, why give this to me now?” I turn over the small bone in my palm, running my finger over the ivory color and feeling the magic sleeping within it.
“He has found you, child.” I stumble back on my feet, panic flowing through me at the thought.
He’s going to take me. He’s going to take me and lock me in a room again, and then the pain will come again and again. Not stopping until my blood coats the floor, the walls, his face. An endless river, never stopping, always flowing, always—
Hands appear on my cheeks, and my eyes blink rapidly as Belldame tilts my face toward her. “Breathe, child, breathe.”
I do, breathing in from my nose and out through my mouth as slowly as I can, trying to catch my breath. “That’s it, keep going.” I do, my eyes stinging as my lungs burn with the need for air. She stays with me, and I copy her breathing until I can take a breath without struggling.
“Sorry,” I wheeze through my tight throat and I step back, her hands dropping from my face.
“There is no need, we all have fears that creep up on us. Our own wounds taunt us out of nowhere sometimes, so much so that it doesn’t give us time to have that control before you’re trapped in a whirlwind, spinning round and round. Sometimes you can ground yourself, sometimes it takes another to help. But there is no need to apologize.”
I clear my throat, nodding. “How did he find me?” I thought we were safe here. I can’t face him yet, I’m not strong enough.
“Darius is a resourceful wolf,” she hums, hands clasping in front of her.
“Darius?” I breathe a sigh of relief, even though that’s not what I feel with him being here, but it’s better than the alternative.
“Who did you think, child?” she asks curiously.
“Charles, or my family maybe. I don’t know, just someone not... good.”
She looks at me intently. “And Darius is good?”
I jolt, shifting on my feet. “He’s notgood, he… hurt me,“ I mumble. “I knew his reasons for doing it, so I… I understand why he thinks I’m a traitor, that I caused the rogures. He’s an asshole, but…” I trail off, trying to find the words to explain, but just can’t.
My feelings are confusing toward Darius. Anger, so much fucking anger and sadness, betrayal, disappointment, understanding, want, need and that stupid, small hope for a hopeless future. There is no coming back from what he did. None.
Belldame gives me a confusing, knowing smile. “It will all be as it should be. Wake the others, he’s huffing and puffing at my protection barrier around Witches Rest, and he will wake the other witches up. He needs to leave. Come, child. Let us go.”
“Can’t we just wait it out?” I don’t want to face him so soon, it was just three nights before I last saw him. “He can’t get in, can he?”
“He could if he really wanted to, and I would rather not risk the children within our home.”
I swallow roughly. I know she’s right, but it feels like she’s throwing me to the wolves, literally, even though it’s the right thing to do. I would never risk the children that live here, and if Darius can get inside here, he would do it to get to me, I have no doubt. How did he even know?
“He would get to you eventually,” Belldame tells me, squeezing my hand. “I am not sacrificing you for others, and I say that with kindness. This was always supposed to be. It is time.”
I nod, even though I don’t really understand, but rush upstairs anyway and wake everyone. I make sure to put the bone Belldame gave me on the table beside my bed.
I bang on everyone’s doors, hearing them grumble and moan about being woken up, but as soon as they see the panic on my face, they are up, dressed and following me downstairs.
“What’s going on?” Taylor asks, his eyes hard and alert.
“Darius is here,” I tell them, refusing to show them the panic I feel. “He’s outside the barrier Belldame has around Witches Rest.”
“What!” Seb says. “How is he here, how did he know?” The others all begin talking at once and I hold up a hand to stop them.
“I don’t know, but he is, and I can’t have the people living here be put in danger.” I look at their concerned faces, and lastly to Josh, who’s still ignoring me. He’s been ignoring me since we came back after failing to get Sarah, or if we do talk, his tone is harsh with me, full of anger. I would be lying if my already bloody and beaten heart didn’t hurt much more with how he now treats me. He treats me like someone he hates. “You don’t have to come with me,” I tell them all.
