Chapter 10: 1693
Salem, Massachusetts
"Okay, let's take a break," I said, barely out of breath while Alexander belt himself over, resting his hands on his knees as he tried to catch his own.
One year had passed since the attack, and his curse burn was almost completely gone. The first few months had been the hardest, especially since I had to do almost everything for Alex, but when we got word that his wife had been contacted about what happened and sent well-wishes, Alex was much more cooperative and eager to do whatever he could to get back to her. He was so young, but he knew what it meant to be a father and a husband. He felt pain being away from them, knowing that he was not there to take care of them, that he was so far away if something were to happen. I promised him that, if it was the last thing I did on this earth, he would make it back to his family. He would see his wife and son again.
"Thank the Heavens," he huffed. "If I had known your training would be this hard, I wouldn't have agreed so willingly." I laughed and shook my head.
"You will thank me in the end," I rebuffed, walking over and patting him softly on the shoulders. He stood with a deep exhale and wrapped his arm around my shoulders, tucking me into his side as we made our way back to the house. He was a good head taller than me, but he bent to kiss my cheek anyway.
"I know I will. You'll just have to hear me complain until that day comes," he said lightly, waving his hand as though it would take forever. I shook my head again and slapped his chest lightly.
We had grown very close over the past year, and when we had dared voice the fact, I had sarcastically mentioned that cleaning up after someone who couldn't do anything for themselves probably had something to do with it. He just laughed it off, but the conversation leading up to that point had me both smiling and tearing up as I thought about it.
We had been talking about the training I wanted to start him on once he was able to move around more on his own, and I was preparing breakfast as he sat at the table. This was four months after the attack, and Alex had only been getting up and walking the few steps from the guest room to the kitchen alone for a week. As I set down a plate of eggs with a fresh loaf of bread, he thanked me.
He called me . . . mom.
I felt a tear fall down my face as I remembered how surprised and caught off guard I was by that little word. Alex had taken one look at me and thought he had offended me in some way, almost ripping open his newly healed skin in order to comfort me and apologize. I waved off his rambling when I moved to his side, keeping him in his seat so that he didn't hurt himself, and hugged his head to my chest. He broke down as soon as I had him in my grasp, grabbing a hold of one of my arms and squeezing as his other arm snaked around my waist, not allowing me to move away. I felt his tears as they soaked into my blouse and fell on my arm, and my own quickly followed. He cried for the family he was forced to be separated from, and I cried for both the family I lost and the family I would never have.
"Hey," Alex said, his voice full of concern as he stopped us just outside the back door. "What are you thinking about that would bring tears to your eyes?" I gave him a reassuring smile and shook my head softly.
"Just thinking is all," I responded, but he was not going to give in. He raised an eyebrow in question, and when I did not elaborate, he sighed.
"What were you thinking about?" he asked, and I gave him a look. "You know I'm not going to stop until you tell me."
"Fine," I sighed. "I was thinking about when you . . . when you called me mom," I said softly, and he hugged me again.
"You were acting just like her when I was young. It . . . slipped out, but I wouldn't take it back. My parents tried to get me a girl to marry as soon as I turned twelve years old. That was the time I lost my mom and only had my mother. You acted like my mom," he explained into my hair. I gave a half laugh.
"You don't know what it means to me to hear that, Alex," I whispered, grabbing the back of his shirt. He just chuckled.
"We give each other what the other is missing. I think we both have benefitted," he responded, and I nodded with a small smile. We continued into the house and I went directly to the kitchen to begin lunch. Alex sat at the table and watched as I went from ice box to counter to sink and back again, grabbing ingredients from everywhere, doing whatever I had to with them, and tossing them in a pot over a small fire. A meat and vegetable stew was slowly forming as I continued, and when I was finished, I grabbed glasses of water for both of us and joined him at the table. Alex was holding his side, something he often did after a training session, and I gave him a sympathetic smile.
"Did I work you too hard?" I asked, and he glared.
"You spent the better part of an hour beating me with a wooden pole and called it training," he whined, sounding exasperated.
"You were supposed to avoid or block the wooden pole I beat you with. The pain means you did not," I said, raising my nose and turning my face from him. He scoffed in reply as I stood to stir the stew.
"I'm still injured. I can't move like I did before, and you know it," he replied.
"So now my training sessions are too hard for you, Alex? I thought a strong young man like you could handle them. I guess I was wrong," I sighed disappointedly. I kept myself facing the pot so that he would not see the smile I was fighting a losing battle against. "I will make them easier for you."
"That's not what I'm saying," he huffed, audibly trying to sound more tough and manly in response to my taunt. "I'm just saying I am not at the level I was right now because of this stupid burn."
"So you want me to take it easy until you are? Make the training easier because you can't handle it?" I asked, and he groaned loudly.
"No, that's not it, either."
"I know," I said, giving up the charade and walking over to him. I placed a hand on his head and hugged my other arm around him. "I'm only teasing. We will get you back to where you were, and then on your way back to that family waiting for you. It's only a matter of time." He sighed and nodded.
"I know, but the wait is frustrating. I am used to healing almost automatically, and this is taking forever."
"I cannot tell what kind of curse that black witch used, but it was powerful, and the witch was powerful enough to direct something of its magnitude. You will heal, especially now that we have gotten you past the worst of it," I said softly, running a hand through his hair before going back to the stew.
I removed the pot from over the fire and set it on the counter, blowing out the cooking flame. Grabbing two ceramic bowls from the cabinet, I served both of us and carried them to the table, where Alex took his from me so that I could sit. We ate in silence, but I could see him trying not to flinch as he bent forward to eat. I needed to put more salve on the burn or he would have a second heartbeat pounding in his side by the end of the day. Even with the wound wrapped up to support the healing muscle and skin, anything beyond minimal movement hurt him, the pain increasing with the degree of movement.
As soon as he finished, I took his bowl, along with my own, and set them on the counter before ushering him back into his room while ignoring his objections. He removed his shirt slowly in protest, but I pulled it off of him once he got it up to his head. I removed the bandages slowly, not wanting to pull on or agitate anything underneath, but it came away without a problem. The skin underneath was changing from an angry, deep pink to the softer shade of new skin, but it was still sensitive to the touch. Alex flinched as I examined the wound, telling me that is was, in fact, still sensitive.
"This is healing nicely," I said, bringing my hands away and grabbing for the jar of salve.
"Good," Alex responded. "I do not take well to being catered to, especially when it is only because I am not being allowed to do things for myself." I just patted his knee and spread the healing ointment over the burn, focusing more on the center where the skin was still red. When I was finished, Alex raised his arms up and I wrapped the large cloth bandage around him again.
"We will just keep doing what we have been. It is working, so we have no reason to change it. I'll just redraw your healing rune, and then you can rest for a little while," I explained, putting a hand on his shoulder. He just nodded again, and I pulled my stele from my skirts.
Many things happened at that exact moment, and only looking back on them did I manage to catch them all. I pulled my stele from my skirts and placed the tip to Alex's bicep just as the front door burst open from Joan running right through it. I only managed to identify her, and not the frantic look on her face, before I was pulled into the same vision of the two soldiers. She screamed as both of my eyes turned completely white and the precognition rune drew itself where my pupil had been only moments before. Alex pushed my hand away after the stele fell to the floor, the stele landing with a clink I heard only as an echo in my vision as Alex caught my shoulders in his hands to keep me from falling out of my chair. My momentum from spinning around towards the door combined with being hit by the vision had me tumbling towards the unforgiving planks beneath me, but he managed to catch me. Another set of footsteps entered the house through the door seconds after Joan, but I did not see the owner. I did hear Joan as she ran back out of the house, as well as Alex as he tried to break me from my vision, but it did not stop until I saw the dead face of the grey soldier once again.
"Isabella," Alex whispered frantically. "Mom, you must wake up. We need to leave." I came out of my vision and blinked repeatedly, my eyes no longer showing me the dead man's face but Alex's living and quite scared one. He seemed slightly relieved when I looked up at him, but he was still looking towards the door and back to me.
"She was calling for the police, mom. We need to leave," he repeated, just as more shouting could be heard from the streets. I stood up abruptly, grabbing my stele from the floor, and hastily drew the healing rune onto Alex's arm while looking for another to help him later on. We could normally only teleport after creating a portal with authorization from the local council, but I needed to go around that. Even if I did want to make a portal, I had no time to do so. I finally found an older rune, one that had been forgotten about centuries ago, and drew it over Alex's heart before tossing him his shirt. He put it on to hide the marks, and I hid my stele away in my skirts before my house was flooded with police and both of us were bound and dragged out.
"Irene Swan and Alexander McCarthy, you both have been charged with practicing the dark arts and have been labeled witches. By order of the Salem town council, Irene Swan is hereby sentenced to death by hanging, and Alex McCarthy to a test of water. He will be submerged in the lake and weighed down by the ankle. If he survives, may the title of witch be etched into his gravestone for eternity. If he shall not, he shall be cleared of any and all wrongdoing."
How generous, I thought to myself as we listened to the leader of the council. If you kill him, then he is innocent. If you do not, then he is guilty and you sentence him to death anyway.
"He is innocent of what you charge him. I am the only one you will execute, or do you want the blood of an innocent on your hands?" I growled, letting my eyes flash white as I tried to see what was going to happen. It had the appropriate effect, causing gasps from every person who saw them change.
"He will only be found innocent, witch, if he fails the trial. Anyone spending time with something like you cannot be trusted," the head councilman sneered. I took a step forward and one of the men standing around us grabbed my arm, moving me so that he was holding both of them behind me.
"Tie her wrists and bring her to the shore. She will watch the trial with us," he continued, his dark brown beard curling with his smile. Another man grabbed one of Alex's arms, roughly steering him towards the small dock next to the pond.
"You cannot do this, you fool! You would kill one of your own because your citizens brought him to me for care? He is not at fault! He is innocent!" I cried, trying to get them to understand.
My breathing was picking up with every step I took, and I fought against my captors the entire walk to the shoreline. I had a perfect view of the dock's edge . . . where they would push Alex into the water with a rock tied to his ankle and drown him in their attempt to kill beings they couldn't distinguish from their own kind. Alex kept looking back at me and I gave him a small smile, letting him know I had a plan. He did not look any more reassured for it, but I could see his trust for me. That was all he needed.
I was positioned right on the edge of the bank and Alex on the edge of the dock. The councilman stood next to me, knowing I could not harm him physically because I was tied up, and used his position to taunt me while they strapped the large stone onto Alex.
"You grew close to the boy, didn't you?" he asked with a smirk, but I did not respond. "I know you did, so you may as well admit it."
"You enjoy putting your own people to death, don't you?" I mimicked. "I know you do, so you may as well admit it." He just chuckled.
"Childish games will save neither of you, witch. You will die with a noose around your neck, and Alex will die with water in his lungs or fire eating away at his flesh as he screams because of what you did to him. This is all because of you and no one else. Feel proud of your work, witch." Just as he turned back and gave the nod that would condemn Alex to a watery grave, I focused everything in me towards him and the rune I hastily drew before we were pulled away. His body crashed into the water as the mark glowed brightly, but the wakes he left behind only closed over water.
He was gone.
The townspeople scrambled around the dock and the shoreline, trying to find where he went. I only smiled as I felt my power return to me, or what was left of it. Instead of floating under the surface of the pond water, Alex was right outside his home with his young wife finding him, soaking wet but healthy. The councilman saw my face and grabbed me by the neck, squeezing my throat and screaming in my face.
"What have you done? Where is he, witch? Where is the boy?" he bellowed, and I kept smiling.
"Somewhere you cannot touch him," was all I could manage with his grip on my throat.
He roared in anger and forcibly dragged me through town and to the hanging post. Shoving my head through the noose, the head councilman spit in my face.
"Savor your last few seconds, you demon," he roared. "Your kind have no place on this earth, and by the power of God's own will, I will remove you from it."
He pulled the lever, releasing the floor from beneath my feet.
I pulled against my restraints, kicking my feet as I tried to find footing.
He laughed as I struggled to save myself.
I smiled as I blacked out.