AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You shouldn’t have been there. You shouldn’t have seen any of it.”
“But I was. I did. And I don’t know how to deal with it. The reason I showed up at your house yesterday is that I wanted to talk everything over with your family. I hoped it would help me figure out if I wanted to carry on with Maisie.”
“You can’t decide that by talking to anyone other than Maisie,” I said, but Jackson just shook his head.
“No,” he said. “I had my answer as soon as I laid eyes on you, and when we went into the house—I can’t live with this weirdness in my life. As long as I’m with Maisie, it will be a part of my life, and I just can’t abide by that. It took me a while, but I’ve finally gotten it through my thick head what your family is all about. And this magic is not natural. I’ll never forget the things I saw yesterday. I’m sorry, but what I felt for Maisie is dead. I could never love her again.” His face softened, and his eyes bore into me. “But you aren’t like them. Not usually, at least. Mercy, I’ve got to say it. I wish to God that I’d met you first.”
“You don’t mean that,” I protested out of loyalty for Maisie. Or was it only Jilo’s spell that was keeping me from throwing my arms around him? In my secret and guilty dreams, I had heard him say these words to me thousands of times. But in my dreams there were never any consequences.
“I do mean it,” he said. “You’re real. You’re human. Quite frankly, I don’t know what Maisie is anymore, but I know I can’t love her. I can’t build a life with her. I sure as hell cannot make her the mother of my children.” He hesitated a moment and then said, “I’m leaving Savannah, and I’d like you to come with me.”
“I couldn’t—”
“No, don’t answer me now. Take some time and think it over. I know that you’ve made promises to Peter. I know you feel responsible for him and Maisie, but I think that deep down you know I’m right. We belong together, and the farther we get from this place, the clearer that truth is going to be to you. We could go anywhere, as long as it’s far from here. Seattle, Los Angeles, you name it.” His voice had been growing in intensity, but he stopped and ran his hand through his blond locks, taking a moment to compose himself.
I couldn’t process his words. Jilo’s magic made it impossible for me to consider leaving Peter, and my love for Maisie made the thought of breaking her heart even more impossible. But in my mind’s eye, if only for a fleeting moment, I could see us together on that other coast, holding hands by the beach. I pushed the image away.
“But even if you don’t choose to leave with me,” Jackson said, “you still need to get away. You cannot let their magic poison you. Leave that thing here.” He nodded toward my necklace on the ground. He stepped closer to me and took me into his arms. He didn’t try to kiss me; he just nuzzled my hair, breathing in deeply. Then he whispered into my ear, “Sleep on it tonight. I’m leaving tomorrow. If you want to go with me, and I hope and pray you do, meet me at dawn in front of Saint John’s. I won’t see another day in Savannah.” He turned away from me and hopped into his GTO, leaving behind a peel of rubber the length of a full good-bye.
I reached over and retrieved my necklace, putting it around my neck without even consciously thinking about it. As my eyes followed the trail of colors that Jackson had left in his wake, I felt a tug from Connor, the power of his pendulum seeking me out. Well, whatever he wanted could wait. I swatted his energy away like I would an annoying fly.
TWENTY-FOUR
I took a few steps toward the hospital, and the net of energy that surrounded it clung to me like a spider’s web. I could feel Jilo nearby, but the closer I got to the building, the farther away she felt. I found myself zigzagging back and forth in the parking lot. After a few minutes of wandering around, a glimmer caught my eye—a wave of aquamarine reflecting off the hospital’s exterior wall. I rushed over to it, hoping to find its source before it faded.
The glow intensified as I came closer, and I sensed that it was intended as a beacon to guide me to Jilo. I looked down and realized that the light was emanating from the entrance to a set of steps that led beneath the parking lot. The heavy sheet of metal that usually sealed the opening had been moved aside. I realized that Jilo must be hiding out in one of the yellow fever tunnels that had been dug under Savannah to hide the extent of the epidemic from the populace. As a child I had spent days exploring the hospital’s grounds and the cool tunnel that went under Drayton Street and into Forsyth Park. Somehow I had never noticed this entrance before. I took one last hungry look at the light of day and descended into Jilo’s magical gloaming.
The tunnel was impossibly long and lit in a way that made it seem less like a tunnel and more like a bridge through an eternal darkness. But that darkness was not empty; it was woven from the animated shadows that I’d first witnessed in Jilo’s haint blue chamber. I could sense an endless number of them. They appeared to be seamlessly united, but each had a hunger all its own. Instinct told me that their realm fell outside the boundary of protection created by spell that had been engraved on the Candler Oak. It was somehow both deeper and farther away. The darkness watched me with its black and countless eyes as I carried on, putting one foot before the other, wondering if Jilo’s magic was the only thing protecting me from a quick death.
There was no sense of having crossed a boundary or stepped through a doorway, but I suddenly found myself in Jilo’s haint blue room. With one step, I was in the tunnel, with the next, I was standing before her. My rational, non-magical mind protested that this room couldn’t be anywhere near Forsyth Park. After all, Cook’s grandfather had driven me up dirt roads to get to this room when Jilo had influenced him to abduct me. My witch knowledge explained that the room was not only a room; it was a hub that could open up onto any number of places.
“Took you long enough,” Jilo’s voice carried from the center of the room—a space that was at once as large as a football field and as small as our walk-in linen closet. “I guess you too busy for Jilo. How is yo’ love life anyway?” She chuckled. She sat there on her aquamarine throne, dressed in a color I might have called crimson if it had been a tad less vibrant. “Come closer, little girl,” she commanded. I stepped forward, but not because I had been compelled. Despite her show of power, I could sense that that the force within me was greater. I would never have this advantage again, so until sunrise tomorrow, Mother Jilo would have to answer to me for a change. “Pretty necklace you wearing, girl. Any chance you could get Jilo one like it?” She laughed.
“I don’t think so,” I responded.
She reached out and took the amulet into her hand to examine it, but a surge of electricity shot through her, leaving her gasping. “Damn, girl, Jilo wasn’t gonna try and take it; she just wanted to see. Jilo ain’t no fool. She ain’t never stole no witch’s power, and she sure ain’t going to start by stealing from a Taylor. The penalty for stealing power is lot steeper than Jilo willing to pay for a half-day token.” I stayed silent because I didn’t want her to realize I was not completely in control of the power. After a moment, Jilo composed herself and leaned back on her throne. “So, they done made you queen for a day. Whose idea was that?”
“It’s a long story,” I said. “But the power is Oliver’s.”
Jilo smiled knowingly. “So he still with us then?”
“You did know about Grace,” I said. “Why didn’t you warn me?”
“Warn you? Warn you against my own blood? Jilo tried to protect you. She gave you what you needed to protect yourself. But Jilo ain’t doin’ a damn thing for the rest of yo’ family. That uncle of yours, my Grace’s blood is on his hands. Anything she done to him, he deserve. I wish to God she had killed that prissy little bastard,” she said and spat on the ground without a lick of self-consciousness. “And Grace just the beginning of what yo’ family done to Jilo’s. Our families got history, my girl. Real history. Jilo shouldn’t even waste her time on you. But you different from the rest of ’em, that why Jilo willing to help you. Fact is Jilo like you, more than she ever thought she could care for a Taylor. But don’t you never think Jilo loyalty don’t lie with her own blood.”
“Except when it’s to your own benefit to betray them. Oliver told me what happened after Grace died. I know you lied about your sister, and that Ginny gave you the source for the power you’ve been using. You took advantage of the situation with Grace to get something for yourself.”
Jilo’s face lit up with amusement. “You done caught Jilo, ain’t you,” she said, but then her smile flitted away. “ ’Sides, my Grace was gone. There nothing Jilo could do about it.”
“But you didn’t kill your sister. She isn’t buried at your crossroads.”
“Jilo got three sisters. Two alive and one who died in Detroit five years back. Jilo wouldn’t harm a hair on they heads.”
“But you encouraged me to kill my sister!”
“Jilo just wanted to see if you capable of it. And for a short spell, you considered it. That why you got all sick and stumbled away from Jilo.”
