I stumbled out of the portal, catching myself with the staff Suon had gifted me with a gasp. Feeling very tired and drained, despite how ready I'd felt on the other side, I tried not to collapse. John fell to the grass next to me with a soft thud and a groan. We'd come through in one of the pastures, just as Poe and I had pictured it in my mind. The sun was bright overhead and the early summer heat was already building.
In the distance I could see people running towards us, and one of them was Avery. Her excitement and anxiety filtering through the connection made her hard to miss.
We need to close the portal. Poe's voice sounded strained in my mind. I turned my attention to the portal as John picked himself up. The task of closing the link between the two worlds was much easier than it was to create. The summoning circles closed in on themselves, folding over and over in their intricate patterns until there was nothing left.
"Ezra!"
I turned as Avery sla
"Sit, I'll fix you something," Avery said."We could fix it ourselves," I said, moving to grab a plate.Avery glared at me and pointed at the table. "Sit. You look like you're about to fall over."I took a seat at the kitchen table as Avery opened the fridge. John sat next to me."What happened that night after you got away from the warehouse?" I asked her.She paused her search in the fridge and glanced back at me. "I wanted to go back, and find you but Poe had already created a portal and Liam pulled me through before I got to say two words."I sighed, relief and release of tension that I didn't know I'd been holding on to left. "I'm just glad you made it out of there."She came over and wrapped her arms around me. "I'm the one who should be saying that." Avery kissed the top of my head."Perhaps I should leave the two of you alone to catch up." John said and started to rise from his seat.Avery straighten. "Oh no, don
Poe called out weakly from his perch on the stable's roof as we made our way out the door. We didn't make it far before I spotted Liam in the courtyard talking with Collen. They glared at John as we passed by and broke off their conversation. Liam followed us into the stable."Ezra!"I turned and John paused beside me."Dad told me you'd returned. I didn't believe him when he said you were friends with a witch." Liam's hostility caught me off-guard, though I shouldn't have been surprised. He'd hated witches ever since he learned what they'd done to the Families."John saved my life, multiple times, and I've no doubt that he'd do it again. I don't care what side he's from."Liam pointed violently at John. "But you brought him here! He could be a spy! "I wouldn't put it past a witch to double cross us." Liam spat on the ground."I don't even know where 'here' is," John mumbled as he shifted behind me."Liam
Dad and Lyssa turned to leave, disappearing through the trees. Avery paused only a moment to squeeze my hand. "I'll find Thea. Meet you back here?"I kissed her. "Sure."Following her to the tree line of the grove, I stood next to John as she left."Who's Thea?" he asked."Avery's younger sister. She'll be Head of the Manser Family one day, once she's old enough. She has the strongest gift of Sight that any Necromancer has had in centuries." I smiled, remembering what she'd said only a few months ago. Finding my power and being betrothed to Avery, it was all her doing. "I owe her quite a lot."John looked back over my shoulder. "Is he going to be ok?"I turned to follow his gaze. Poe had sat back on the ground again, resting against the altar with his eyes shut, his breathing labored. He even looked a little pale in the growing darkness.
John helped me down the hall to the kitchen, where we had to play guess which door was the basement. We found the large walk in pantry and the garage before finding the stairs leading down into darkness. The waves were coming faster, stronger. I could barely stand as John guided me down the stairs.The basement was nearly bare. Flickering candlelight revealed a concrete floor, exposed wooden framework, and unfinished drywall. A cluttered table was pushed into the far corner, next to a old mantle and a large old mirror, covered with a drape so that only the bottom left corner reflected in the light.A large design was painted in white on the floor. The circles and sigils looked familiar, like the ones from my summoning spell. When we got to the bottom of the stairs, I knelt down and held a hand out over the painted lines. Power pulsed from them, sending the waves out and through me like a tidal wave. I looked out across the designs on the floored.They weren't li
Doubling over, pain - that had nothing to do with the physical kind - ripped at my heart. I set Poe down carefully, ignoring the dampness on my cheeks."I should have realized it sooner," Nathan said. "You never did look like a Stanwood." He gave a halfhearted laugh and wiped the blood from his mouth with the back of his hand.I struggled to breathe. Poe was gone. My great-grandfather.Rage flooded through me. Standing, I turned towards Natham as the smirk wilted from his face. He took a step back, and another, trying to keep the distance between us as I walked towards him. Throwing my hand out before me, Kastem appeared with a mere thought. I didn't have to say the incantation, or struggle for control. He just materialized."You think a demon is going to stop me?" Nathan forced a laugh, but I could see the fear in his eyes. He knelt, slapping his blood covered hand covered hand on the painted circle. His expression hardened. "Two can play at that game. "
I swallowed past the pain my throat before glancing around the basement. Panic gripped my chest. "Where's Poe?"Kastem padded over to a small amount of concrete rubble."I didn't think you would want him to get hurt more," John said and made a flicking motion with his fingers.A small flash of relief flared through me as the pile of rubble moved to show Poe, untouched by the fight with Louca. I struggled to stand, my body nearly refusing outright.Picking him up was difficult as I tried to use my injured hand. The burn had already blistered and broken, the wound weeping."What about your necklace?" John asked, standing over where it still lay smoking on the floor.What was I supposed to do with it now?After getting Poe settled in the crook of my arm, I walked back over to where John stood. Bending down carefully I held my good hand out over the ruined chain, trying to see if it was still as hot as the pendant. It was warm but not unb
I slept for a day and a half after we returned. Mom didn't take the news about Liam well. Who would? I still have trouble believing it myself.Avery, John, and I drove to the Reinhardt house once I was feeling better, but they wouldn't let me take a turn driving. I didn't argue.We arrived late in the afternoon, the sun highlighted the white columns on the front of the Plantation house."This is it?" Avery asked as we pulled up the long drive. "It's huge!""Nearly a hundred and fifty acres," I said.Avery parked the car and cut the engine. It didn't seem like anyone had been here since Dad and I had left, but I couldn't be sure."Ezra?"I looked down at the fresh pine box I held in my lap, pain as fresh as the wood gripped my chest. "Follow me," I said and climbed out of the car.I led the others around the house and
EZRAI stared out the window, taking in the pre-dawn light as the smell of coffee brewing grew stronger. There was a slight chill in the air, just enough to remind me that fall wasn't too far away. Hopefully, it wouldn't get too cold this winter. I wasn't so sure the heat would work without burning down the house.Taking in the dark aroma of coffee, I fought to keep it from turning into a sigh. John was already out in the garden, his thin frame hunched over working with the plants.After what happened in the warehouse with his father, and Nathan at the Ackland manor, he and I agreed that going back to his family was a bad idea. The Witches didn't handle betrayal well, and I didn't want to see what they'd do to John. But in the past few months that he had been staying with Avery and me, I'd noticed a change in him that certainly wasn't for the better.He was quieter and spent most of his time alone working outside around the house. The most s