AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He didn’t.
“Let me try something.” Sadie lifted her phone, hoping it would work, but the signal was still down. She’d wanted to search the names of Skyler and Charlie’s other possible past lives, to see when they’d died and how. Based on calculations, they would’ve had to die young, yet she couldn’t pinpoint why they would want to do that if it was manipulation. “I suppose we’ll just have to wait for Charlie to arrive.”
Around four o’clock, a rapid knock came at the door, startling Sadie from the theories she’d been writing down in her notebook. River had lingered inside with her, only leaving a few times to check the woods. She’d watched his form slide across the ground, inspecting tree after tree.
Charlie stood on the porch with two plastic bags in one hand, and Sadie’s jaw unintentionally tightened as she recalled Ada’s magic affecting her in Salem, her child dying inside of her.
“I asked Skyler if he wanted to watch a movie tonight after he got off work, and he was okay with it,” Sadie said after letting her sister inside. “You’re still off tomorrow, right?”
“That’s fine. What horror movie is it, though?” Charlie smiled and brushed past Sadie. She stepped on River’s shadow while crossing the room to set the bags on the table. “And yes, I’m off tomorrow. We’re going to the beach if you want to come.”
“I’m in the mood for something witchy.” It came out more bitter than Sadie intended as she studied Charlie. “I suppose I’ll go, but you know how I feel about the sun.” If her plan didn’t work at midnight, then tomorrow, when they came to pick her up, she would see if the woods would let her and River’s shadow go with them. But deep down, she knew they wouldn’t be able to leave.
“I don’t know why you hate the sun.” Charlie shrugged.
“I’m a vampire in secret,” Sadie drawled. Or a witch… She clenched her teeth so hard as she continued to watch her sister that she thought they would crack. River’s shadow slid beside her feet, seeming to try and calm her.
Charlie started on the pasta in the kitchen, all while Sadie barely spoke a word. After dinner, Charlie dusted around the cabin, telling Sadie how she needed to keep up with things while an old witch movie played.
As night fell, Sadie couldn’t hold her emotions in any longer, not as she thought about how her baby had started to kick inside of her, the way her hands had held her stomach, feeling each movement. Sadie never would’ve hurt Ada before, no matter how strained their relationship had become the last few weeks in Salem. And especially never Charlie, but if this was her toying with Sadie and River? Then she would force a blade to her throat, and if she wouldn’t break the spell, she would kill her to undo it.
“She was warned not to touch a Ouija board and did so anyway, so she sort of gets what’s coming to her.” Charlie rolled her eyes, placing a piece of popcorn in her mouth.
“It makes perfect sense,” Sadie said coolly, her gaze shifting between Charlie and River’s shadow. “She’s trying to save her family.”
“It will only make things worse.”
The blood in Sadie’s veins boiled, and she ripped the bowl of popcorn from her sister. “I’m done playing games, Charlie,” she snapped. “Are you Ada? Did you cast a spell on me?”
“Who’s Ada?” Charlie’s brows rose up her forehead, her eyes wide, looking at Sadie as if she were losing her mind. “What are you talking about? You’re not making a whole lot of sense. Ever since you’ve moved in here, saying you’ve been experiencing paranormal things, having lifelike dreams about River, you’ve been acting different. I told you I would let you make your own choices, but this isn’t going to help you, Sadie.”
“I don’t know. I don’t know.” Sadie took a breath, her chest heaving. Maybe she was wrong. This didn’t feel like a game Ada would play—she hadn’t been like Harlow. The only times Ada had ever been sneaky was when she’d helped Harlow hide things from her father and bury his body. “Sometimes I feel as if I’ve lived multiple lives. That maybe this hasn’t been my only one.”
“Are you having nightmares like before again?” Charlie leaned back and draped a blanket over Sadie as she used to when they were younger.
Sadie’s gaze fell to River, who was now sitting on the edge of the coffee table, his silhouette whole, and he shook his head before sinking back to the floor in shadow form. She agreed—she needed to stop for now and wait until after midnight to see if her suspicions played out first. To see if Charlie and Skyler could follow her within the veil. “No, I had a new one. Of other possible lives.”
“Even if we did, this is the life we are in now, and it is what it is,” Charlie said. “But they’re just dreams. You’re awake now.”
Throughout her lives, Sadie had always written dark tales, had let her fear control her in Salem. She wouldn’t let fear do that again. “We’ll find out.”
“Find out what?” Charlie asked just as the sound of Skyler’s car purred outside the cabin.
“It’s a secret.” Sadie grinned, placing her index finger over her lips.
Chapter Twenty-Two
“Do they know what we’ve done?”
“You still can’t stream out here?” Skyler asked, flipping through the DVDs Sadie had set on the table.
“I usually can on my phone. If the signal is working.” She shrugged, staring at River, who was now in his whole silhouette form, seated on the floor, his back against the wall, one knee to his chest with his arm propped on it.
“What are you looking at?” Charlie scrunched up her face as she studied where Sadie’s gaze was trained.
“Just wondering if I should add more framed insects over there.” Sadie smiled.
“Mmm, let’s go with this one,” Skyler said, handing the folk horror DVD to Sadie. He then sank down beside Charlie on the futon, wrapping his arm around her waist and nuzzling his face into the crook of her neck. Charlie pressed a piece of popcorn into his mouth, so easily, so in love. Her sister and Skyler were Ada and Eben—she knew it like she knew her own heart. Their body language confessed it all, just as it had in every other lifetime. The way Charlie scooted closer to him, resting her hand on his thigh, how he would constantly sneak glances beneath his thick lashes at her.
