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Charlie shook her head and stepped out of the tub, wrapping her arms around Sadie. “I believe in redemption. I believe in it fully. Now, let me see your hand.”
Sadie placed her hand in Charlie’s, and her sister guided it to her stomach. Charlie closed her eyes, softly chanting. A heartbeat sounded in the room as if the walls themselves were beating. Charlie’s heart. But then another thumped, softer, faster. Sadie blinked back the tears she’d been holding in, remembering how, in several lives, she’d gotten to hear the child’s heart, but not like this. And it was strong, fierce.
“I think this was what he needed after Salem.” Sadie paused. “You.”
“And you.” Charlie sighed. “I heard you discussing the wards with River. I’ll perform a stronger spell now that the spirits are gone, but even then, it won’t last forever. Just collect the bones we saw in the woods. Surround the cabin with them, then we’ll sprinkle salt to strengthen the wards with our blood. The wards here are already fading, and if the spirits return, they won’t hold. Before that, though, I need to see Skyler…” Charlie’s voice trailed off, but she didn’t curl back into herself.
“I’ll walk with you.” Even though his body wouldn’t be there, Sadie needed to go too, needed to say goodbye, needed to thank him for all he’d done for her. “Come on then.” She led her sister into the living room, where River sat on the edge of the futon, the large bag of salt resting on the coffee table in front of him.
“We’re going to do a quick stop, and then you and I will collect the fiends’ bones for Charlie to perform a protection spell on the cabin,” Sadie said.
“Whatever you need.” He nodded to Charlie. “The both of you.”
Outside, the sun was bright, the barrier still folded around them. Even if they could leave, there wouldn’t be a purpose, not until the spell was broken.
Sadie froze as her gaze fell on a form near one of the pine trees. Skyler shouldn’t have been there… But as they inched closer, he most certainly still was. His skin was a silvery hue, lines marred his flesh as if he were a cracked doll, and then there were his eyes that were now the shade of blood, not a speck of any other color in their depths. He stared blankly toward the sky, his essence remaining here...
Charlie cupped her mouth as she knelt beside him and rested her head against his still chest. “How is he still here?”
The moths couldn’t come back as malevolent spirits because they hadn’t ever been human—only someone like Skyler could’ve become one. But what if… “Charlie,” Sadie whispered. “I think we may have been wrong about him being dead.”
Charlie lifted her head and furrowed her brow. “Look at him… He’s not alive, Sadie. His heart is dead.”
“I know what it looks like. Yet his essence is still here.” Sadie itched to use a spell, to chant what she wanted to do as magic pulsed within her. “Hide him for now.”
Hope shone in Charlie’s eyes as she rested her palm directly over Skyler’s heart. With her other hand, she lifted a small amount of dirt and sprinkled it over his chest. She repeated a spell for the ground to hide his body while moving her hand in circular motions. Cracking snapped throughout Skyler as his body broke further. The lines across his flesh deepened, his mouth widening. His flesh turned into silver flakes, collapsing to the earth in what looked to be a pile of ash. The ground swallowed it up, piece by piece, protecting him from harm.
“I’ll leave you with your thoughts while River and I gather the bones,” Sadie said as Charlie pressed her hand to the dirt once he was gone, knowing her sister needed to be alone.
Charlie nodded. “I’ll try to figure out a spell to break the current one.”
Sadie got River from the cabin, and she told him what happened as they went deeper into the woods to where the broken bones had been.
“I think you’re right about Skyler.” River pushed back a tree branch for her to duck under.
“Unless he wouldn’t turn into a spirit until the following midnight, but that wouldn’t make sense.” Sadie’s chest tightened when they stumbled upon the skeletal remains. Bones scattered across the woods as if the spirits had taken them apart and thrown their pieces everywhere.
She lifted the goat skull and chewed the inside of her cheek to hold back her mixed emotions—it had been the first fiend she’d ever created, the one who’d protected them the most. With a sigh, she held the skull close while gathering as many as she could carry.
They went back and forth to the cabin, resting the bones around the perimeter until there was enough. River then sprinkled the salt over the bones while Sadie grabbed a bundle of sage. She lit it and handed it to Charlie. Her sister performed the spell using her blood, and deep symbols etched into the wood, a pale blue light flickering.
Charlie sat on the porch steps, continuing to write spells in a notebook to try. She had attempted some earlier while Sadie and River were collecting bones, but the woods still held them prisoner, and no one had woken.
As night pulled down its blanket, Charlie had fallen asleep in the chair, passed out over her notes. Sadie studied her sister, the urge to protect her still there.
“What are you going to do if the hex is broken and our baby survives?” River asked.
“He’s ours, isn’t he?”
“He’s part us, part them, and part his own. You’ll have to decide what you want to do.”
“We, River. We.” He wasn’t going to leave them.
“Let’s get her inside for now.” River gently lifted Charlie, and she let out a small sigh, but her eyes remained shut.
As River lay Charlie on the futon and went into the bedroom, Sadie sat on the coffee table across from her sister. Biting her lip, she scanned over the hundreds of failed spells while trying to think of another way to unlock their magic, just as she’d done for most of the day. She’d gone in and out of the cabin, brewing concoctions with leaves and other things from the woods, but her spells hadn’t come to fruition.
There had to be another way to break it free, to snap the thread into place. There was always a way to undo something, and she wouldn’t consider slaughtering her sister to achieve it. She only needed to find the right key for the lock inside her. The magic thrummed within her heart, but a new fear arose—if she could wield it, would she give into the darkness again? Her fears? A new one had come about—the fear that her child wouldn’t be born, and then, what if something happened to him after?
