AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Sadie moved backward, and Charlie barreled into Skyler, squeezing him. “What are you doing out here?” Charlie asked.
“I was trying to find a way back to you, regardless that I couldn’t cast a damn spell.”
A thought struck Sadie, hard and fast—maybe, just maybe, River would walk out from behind the trees too.
She bolted toward the old oak where she’d spread his ashes, carved their names into its trunk, but when she stood before it, he wasn’t there. So she went further, darting toward their underground home, where she’d found him night after night beneath the veil. But of course it wasn’t there, and neither was he.
Sadie dropped to her knees, pleading. “River, show me a sign you’re all right.” She waited and waited. However, he didn’t answer—no shadowy silhouettes appeared. All that was there was a hollowness inside her, a feeling that would eventually break her.
She closed her eyes, silently chanting, and the barrier that had prevented her magic from working before broke, no longer trapping her spells. A spark, cracking like a whip, slipped out of deep hibernation, then rose. As she opened her lids, the sky darkened, the trees rustled, and she stopped, knowing she would do something horrific that she couldn’t take back.
Heavy footsteps sounded from behind her, and Sadie glanced over her shoulder to find Charlie rushing toward her, her chestnut hair bouncing, her hazel eyes wild with worry.
“I didn’t do anything,” Sadie whispered, lifting a handful of dirt and letting it slide through her fingers back to the ground. “I stopped myself.”
For now, I shattered the darkness.
Epilogue
“When you believe our story is over, it is only the beginning.”
Sadie finished reading over her screenplay for the last time. It was complete and true to her heart. To her and River, to Skyler and Charlie. To Harlow and Jasper, to Ada and Eben. To Titus. To the victims of Salem.
She left the screenplay on the coffee table, along with a sealed envelope to Charlie.
Sadie took a breath and walked outside into the dark night, trekking through the woods until she came to the familiar oak tree. She ran her fingertips across the engraved letters of her and River’s names, thinking about how she’d never lived a full life, but with all her lives combined, it was as though she had.
With the spells humming in Sadie’s veins, aching to break free, she’d cast a few in the woods, placed protection on any living thing that needed it while here. But that urge was still there, to use a dark spell, to find a way to draw River’s soul back down here. Even though she wouldn’t harm anyone at that moment, who was to say she wouldn’t tomorrow? She didn’t truly trust herself, and she owed this world that much, owed the victims in Salem where she should’ve been punished for her crimes.
The noose she’d hung earlier was already waiting for her, dangling from the branch with a chair beneath it. Sadie stepped onto the chair and placed the noose around her neck. She believed in redemption, and this was her final step in achieving that.
Titus had been born, and she’d gotten to hold him once, to see that he’d survived. He was the most perfect baby as she knew he would be. Chubby cheeks and a button of a nose. A part of her wanted to take him from Charlie, run away with him, and she knew that would never change. So to protect her sister’s beautiful new family, she needed to do this.
Sadie stepped from the chair, the noose digging into her throat, her breaths being cut off. As her body struggled for air, Sadie’s mind was at peace. Her eyes fell shut, her essence lifting from its shell.
It wasn’t the darkness reaching for her, but a silhouette inside a bright light. Sandalwood and honey caressed her nose as it drew closer. River. When his hand clasped hers, she thought about the last line she’d written in her screenplay, one that was no longer haunting to her but the beginning of a new chapter, whether beautiful or wicked.
And then there was silence.
***
