Page 7 of After 5
The fire raged, and I wondered if Proctor’s tree would become the famous witch hanging tree after all.
The townspeople were in a chaotic frenzy trying to douse the fire. Men were shouting, teenage girls were falling on the ground like the young woman had bewitched them upon her escape.
The bible man preached the good word from his log.
“What are the chances Toches’s conscious got the best of him, and he saved that girl without any hidden agenda?” I asked Marco.
“Doubtful, but it’s safe for us to go,” Marco said. “Toches will be heading for his vessel. We can piece together the intel at base.”
I turned to walk toward the opposite end of town. There was an old homestead site in the middle of the woods we used for landing. The log home had fallen into disrepair but offered us a thick grove of trees that allowed us to safely call our vessels.
As we walked toward the woods, a frantic shout came from behind us.
“Run you idiots!”
Toches flew past us, followed by a mob of angry Puritans.
“There, those people were speaking with the witch!” A young girl, who couldn’t have been more than thirteen, pointed her finger at us. I recognized her from the tavern.
“Get them!” a voice from the mob shouted.
I stood mouth gaping, not believing what I was seeing.
Marco grabbed my hand and pulled me along, one hand on his key and the other dragging me beside him. He mumbled as he ran.
The landscape blurred around me, and a warped sensation passed through my body like I was running inside a bubble. His gift slowed time and the mob seemed to drift off into the background as I stumbled along behind him.
When the time warp returned to normal, Toches hightailed it into the woods and I lost sight of him. Marco released my hand.
The few minutes he was able to stall time allowed us to cut through the woods and double back toward our clearing. We ran hard, cutting through the thick underbrush.
Marco was steps in front of me. We were almost to the clearing when I tripped over something large and fell face down in the muck of the forest floor. I lifted my head and looked behind me to see Toches lying face up in a mangle of vines.
“What the hell?” Marco asked as he returned to help me. He leaned over Toches, panting hard, his hands on his knees.
I moved over the brigand’s lifeless body and felt for a pulse in his neck.
“He’s got a pulse.” I saw the slow rhythm of his chest. “And he’s breathing.”
A giant welt bloomed on the pale skin of his forehead.
Marco urged me on, the faint sound of people shouting in the distance alerted me.Hurry.
“Let’s go,” Marco commanded.
“We’ll have to take him with us.”
“Why?”
“We can’t leave him here. They’ll hang him.”
Marco huffed.
I untied the collar of Toches’s shirt.
“What are you doing? We need to get out of here!”
“I have to see if he’s wearing Caiyan’s key.”
