I've updated pretty quickly for once! I was going to wait until the weekend but I finished a little early so here you are! I have a lot of concepts up in my profile, cars and OCs and stuff like that. Thanks for those who reviewed the last chapter, it means a lot.

The song for this chapter is In My Place, by Coldplay. There's a link in my profile.

Chapter 18

Over the Line

"What was so important that you needed to talk to me about it on a Saturday night?" Reid asked as I arrived at his house a half-hour late.

"It's only 8:30, and this won't take long," I assured. "It's not like you're doing anything important anyway." Reid rolled his eyes.

"I have to tell you about this dream I had," I continued.

"Seriously?" he asked. "Just because we're working together doesn't mean I want to hear about your hopes and dreams."

"It was about the Book of Ascension."

"So?" he interrupted.

"Can you shut up for just one minute so I can tell you?" I was ready to slap him. I needed to tell him about the dream before I forgot it.

Reid dropped back on the couch and crossed his arms over his chest. He looked annoyed, but gave me his full attention.

I paced back and forth in front of him, trying to figure out how to begin.

"So, I had a dream about John Putnam and he said a few very interesting things to me. He wanted Tyler to die. But what was weird was what he said right before I woke up." I stopped pacing and and sat in the wing-backed chair facing Reid.

"He said, 'Maybe you should have asked Chase, before you tried to kill him.'" Reid's eyebrows rose.

"How do you know..." Reid started, but I answered his question before he could finish asking it.

"Because I don't have vivid dreams, Reid. The one time I did, it was about Chase and that ended up being, more or less, true."

"So he was implying that we only 'tried' to kill Chase, not that we actually did?" Reid asked, scooting to the edge of the couch, putting his elbows on his knees.

"Yes, and whether it's true or not, it brings up a few points. We need to find out if Chase is really dead, and we need to find the Book of Ascension."

"I think it's time we tell the others what we've been up to," Reid said. He was right, but I wasn't looking forward to telling Tyler that I was lying to him after I said that we needed to be totally open with each other.

"They're going to be really mad," I stated.

"Yeah, but if even I'm saying that something's important, you bet your ass it's important."

"Are you saying that you think my dream was really sent from John Putnam?"

"No, of course not," he laughed. "I just agree that it brings up some stuff that we should share with the class."

"Tyler's going to be pissed," I pointed out. It took a lot to get Tyler mad, but when he was, it was icy. Mostly because he only ever got mad for the right reasons.

"He'll get over it," Reid assured. "He'll know we're doing this because we love him." I nodded.

"Look, I'm really tired, so do you think we could do this tomorrow?" I asked. I wasn't about to confront my parents and piss Tyler off in the same day.

"Fine, I have to meet Allison anyway." Reid grabbed his keys and followed me out of the house. I paused on the front porch and turned to face him. He saw my scared face, and put his hands on my shoulders.

"It will be fine," Reid said in a rare moment of compassion. I leaned into him and he pulled me closer into a comforting hug.

"That's not really true though, is it?" We didn't like to get ourselves down, but sometimes the weight of it all made me feel so heavy. If we didn't succeed, Tyler would die, and Reid and I, we would never be whole again.

"No, but we can pretend for a while," he said, letting go of me. I gave him a small smile and walked over to my car.

"I'll text you tomorrow," he promised as he got into his own car.

XXX

When I finally got back into my dorm room, all I wanted to do was flop down on my bed and sleep for a hundred years. Then it hit me. We were graduating in a week, and I hadn't even begun to pack my things. I let out a sigh and stood up surveying my messy room. There was an untold amount of laundry to do. I lifted myself up off my bed and turned on my stereo as loud as it would go while I started to pack.

XXX

My phone buzzed at five the next afternoon. It was a text from Reid and my stomach dropped. I didn't want to tell Tyler that we were going behind his back, but it needed to be done. Pogue, Caleb and Tyler needed to know what we found.

Meet at my house at 9:30.

I pulled up at 9:30 on the dot and was surprised to see that I was the first person there. Reid greeted me when I walked in the door.

"I thought that you should get here a little early just so we're on the same page," Reid said.

"What do you mean?" I asked. We both knew the truth so I assumed we were just going to tell it like is.

"I just wanted to make sure that there weren't any details you wanted to leave out."

"Are you talking about the dream?" I asked. I was sick of him making a big deal out of the stupid dream. "Does it matter? Regardless, we decided that we needed to tell. Whether the dream is real or not doesn't really matter at this point. For someone who has magical powers, you sure are skeptical of stupid things."

Before Reid could answer the door opened and Caleb, Pogue, and Tyler walked in.

"Murphy?" Tyler asked, confused. "I thought this was a Covenant meeting, what are you doing here?" His expression was skeptical, and I could see him putting the pieces together. Before he could say anything, I cut him off.

"Before you get mad, this was my idea and I dragged Reid into it." Reid looked genuinely surprised and was opening his mouth to say something, but I spoke first.

"We wouldn't have called all of you here if it wasn't really important, but we found something," I said, looking from Tyler to Caleb. I knew Caleb would at least back us up; this was serious.

"I think she means to say that, what we didn't find concerns us," Reid countered. We made eye contact and I nodded; it was best if he took the reins on explaining this one because there were still so many things that I didn't understand.

"So we were looking through the books the other day looking for, a... you know," Reid stumbled over what to call our objective.

"A cure, Reid?" Tyler asked coldly. "Were you looking for a cure?"

"Yeah," Reid answered looking at the ground.

"I told you not to!" Tyler was looking at me now.

"Is it so crazy that we wanted to see for ourselves?" Reid jumped to my defense. Tyler was furious, but said nothing.

"We were looking through the Books of Shadows, the really old ones," Reid continued. "And we kept finding references to The Book of Ascension, but I couldn't ever remember hearing anything about it. After looking into it more, we found out that the book went missing the same year that John Putnam was killed."

"So you think that Putnam took the book before he died?" asked Pogue.

"We think that he took it because it was important, we just don't know exactly why." Reid looked around to the others.

"It obviously wasn't that important if no one ever noticed it was gone," Tyler said. I could hear the anger in his voice.

"That's the thing though," Reid reasoned. "We looked through the Books of Shadows from around Putnam's time and they all mentioned the the Book of Ascension and how they constantly consulted it. We can show you if you want." Reid moved to the side table where I hadn't noticed a few tattered books sat.

"I believe you," said Caleb. "But I just can't think of why no one ever noticed this before."

"Do you think our father's know about it?" Pogue asked.

"I can't see how they could have," Caleb answered. "I don't think any of them ever read those books. I don't think anyone has really."

"Murphy and I think that the Book of Damnation was written as a replacement for the Book of Ascension." Caleb looked surprised, Pogue looked intrigued, but Tyler looked furious. His arms were crossed over his chest and he was grinding his teeth, something he only did when he was about to snap, but he kept quiet.

"It makes sense. Putnam stole the book in 1692, probably just before he died. The Book of Damnation was started in 1693, right after he died." Caleb offered. "But why wouldn't they write that in the Book of Damnation, it just doesn't make sense."

"They probably didn't because it doesn't matter," Tyler offered. He stepped forward. "It's obviously a book about nothing, if they thought they could just replace it and never mention it again. We all know that we can't mess with nature. It's the law of the Covenant and always has been. If our ancestors wrote another book, then they included everything that needed to be included and we don't need to look for it. Ever."

"But what if the Book of Ascension has the source of our power?" Pogue asked, countering Tyler. "There are holes in our history; there are things that we don't understand. I think that we need this book even if it won't save you."

"I agree," Caleb said. "Chase knew things, spells, that we didn't know. There's no way he could have known them if he didn't have a source. His father must have had it; they much have passed it down. Where do we start looking though?"

"That brings us to our next point," Reid said, looking at me. "As lame as I think this is Murphy had a dream that raised a very good point. Where is Chase?"

"I don't know." Caleb answered running his hands through his hair. "I think about it all the time, but I don't know where to start. I feel like if he wanted to come back for us, he would have done it by now. On the other hand, he might just not be able to."

"Do you think he's dead?" I asked.

"No. I don't." There was fear in Caleb's voice as if admitting that Chase was still around was like inviting him back. "As much as I hate to admit this, we might need him. There's always been a connection among us and to Ipswich that we can't really explain. We just never knew that the fifth line was out there. I can't imagine ever being far away from here and I know you all feel the same way. Our ancestors must have picked Ipswich for a reason, and if Chase has the same pull we do, he can't be far."

"I don't want to find it, and I don't want to find him," Tyler argued.

"I think you guys need the book, regardless," I offered, but Tyler cut me off before I could continue.

"Murphy, you don't understand!" He wasn't yelling exactly, but his voice was raised. He looked sad and angry and tired. I shrunk away from him. "I asked you not to do something and you went behind my back with my best friend and did it anyway. Do you know how that makes me feel?"

"I know and I'm sorry, but I felt like I had to. I just had to see for myself."

"You think I don't know that? I know you did it because you love me, but you can't be a part of the Covenant and you can never understand this. I wanted to protect you and you knew that too. I never hid anything from you. I told you about the Power and I told you that I wanted you to stay away from it. I even told you why."

My eyes welled up with tears. I didn't know what to say. He was right and all I could do was try to justify what I did, but that wouldn't make it right.

"I'm sorry, but I did what I thought I had to do," was all I could say.

"I just want you to stop. Stop trying to find a happy ending where there isn't one." There was silence. All I could do was stare at Tyler and silently beg for him to take it back. We needed hope; it was all any of us had.

Tyler looked around at all of us with fiery eyes, his jaw set tight, before turning and leaving. I made a move to go after him, but then thought better of it. He was so mad at me right now, chasing after him wouldn't help him calm down. His car door slammed and the engine roared before any of us spoke.

"Are you okay?" Caleb asked me. I held back my tears.

"I'm fine. I was expecting that." This wasn't about me. Reid and I had discovered something that was important and they needed to decide how to deal with the information, not me. "I just wanted you guys to know what we found," I offered weakly.

"It's okay," Reid said, putting his arm around me. "He'll get over it." I nodded. I knew he would forgive me eventually, we were getting married after all. But that didn't make me feel any better.

"Look, I'm going to head out," I said. "It told Sarah I would meet up with her later tonight, so I'm just gonna go." Tyler wouldn't want me to stay; he was right, I wasn't part of the Covenant and I never would be. Our child would be though, and I needed to know everything about the Power. But tonight wasn't the night.

"Drive safe," Caleb said as I walked out the front door. Once I was outside, I took out my phone and dialed Tyler's number, but it went straight to voice mail. The beep sounded, but I couldn't bring myself to say anything; I didn't have anything left to say. It was for the best. Talking to him tomorrow would be better.

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