Page 51 of The Bairwick Witches
“Issac, no.” Schuyler’s stomach dropped.
It was already hard enough watching someone he cared about meltdown so violently. Sky waited for Issac to catch up to what he had said in anger, witnessing the moment the realization became evident in the young man’s face—his eyes losing the fiery anger and going blank, his mouth hanging open.
“I take it back,” he cried, fumbling over his words, trying to correct his mistake. He looked up at Schuyler, desperate. “How do I take it back?”
The spirit spectators disappeared quickly. A rumbling from deep within the ground could be felt by all. They were coming.
“No,” Schuyler sighed, defeated. “There’s no taking anything back, Issac. You said the words, and youmeantthem; what’s cast is cast and cannot be undone.” The disappointment Schuyler felt weighed him down. What a moment to be reminded of the immature streak which ran through Issac.
“I’d rather the Elders not see me,” Dev said to Schuyler. “It’ll be quick. Just don’t watch when it happens, babe.” He turned invisible, floating behind Schuyler, grabbing his hand, offering him comfort. “I didn’t mean for this to happen,” he whispered softly in Sky’s ear.
Schuyler approached Issac where he knelt on the ground. Sky looked at him, his eyes welling up.
“I’ve hated him for so long, for what he did to us. What he took. The demon promised me I’d win the duel, they promised I’d be a witch, a real one. I… lost my temper. I fucked up. Can’t you fix this? You can fix anything.”
“Yeah, you really did.” Schuyler felt his own tears starting to well up. “I’m sorry, but this is something I can’t fix.” There was nothing he could do. Dev squeezed his hand. Though arrogant and unhinged toward Issac, to Schuyler, he was the sweet, gooey-centered boyfriend who always grounded the emotional rollercoaster within.
They all felt the temperature around them drop ten degrees. The rumbling in the ground grew stronger, the gravestones around them began to rock.
“What’s going to happen to me?” Issac asked, frightened.
“I really don’t know,” Schuyler answered, both exasperated and sad. “No one has ever documented the experience. All I know is they arrive, and they do what they need too.” Schuylerwished there were better words of comfort he could offer, but he needed more time to think of them.
The moon became covered by the clouds moving in over them.
Issac smiled at Sky, his face for a moment soft and sweet as the day they met.
“Well now you’ll have something to write about.” He tried to make a joke, and Schuyler thought he was going to stand up, but Issac remained on the ground, sore from the incomplete binding spell. “Maybe they’ll just kill me.”
Schuyler’s chest hurt at the idea. “Why would you say that?”
“I don’t want to be erased. That’s the other option, isn’t it? You’d forget me. I don’t want that. Maybe forget this moment—not really my best one. I’d like to stay, even if it’s only in your memory.”
Issac stood up, stepped towards Schuyler and when he was about to take Sky’s hand, the ground opened around him.
Schuyler reached out with his free hand, but it was too late. Issac stood on a foot wide piece of earth separated from the rest. Three blinding streaks of purple energy rose from the openings around him.
“Don’t look,” Dev urged again.
Schuyler spun around after seeing Issac fall to his knees again, pleading to the three hooded figures who circled him now, screeching at him.
“I didn’t mean it! I promise I didn’t!” Issac screamed over the screeches, begging for mercy, for another chance.
Schuyler faced out into the cemetery, rows of headstones in front of him, trying to block the sounds out.
“I didn’t mea-”
Silence.
The temperature returned to normal, the clouds vacated and left the sky clear, and the earth gave one final murmur as it sealed closed.
Issac.
Schuyler remembered him, turning around to see only a small black burn mark where the young man had once been kneeling. Dev materialized next to Schuyler, who in turn rested his head on Dev’s shoulder. “He wasn’t the bad guy.”
“No, he wasn’t, Smudge.” Dev leaned his head on top of his love’s shoulder as Schuyler mourned, first silently, and then with some tears. “You dodged a bullet. Life with me would have meant a lot more of that kind of shit, dealing with my family.” He mimicked a high-pitched shrill, girlie scream. Schuyler laughed. “At least that little demon twink brought us back together, and I’m grateful I got to hold you again.”
“Me too.” Schuyler nuzzled against Dev a little closer. “Plus, that mid-air sex was pretty hot.”
