The lake was in turmoil now, water splashing out, thunder and lightening pounding in the sky, the rain was still falling hard. Lilly was on her hands and knees, her dress now ruined, searching through shurbs in the mud looking for a hex bag.
Lincoln was muttering words, playing with something in his pocket but whatever he was doing wasn't working, he swore under his breath, turned and tried again. Lilly shook her head and looked around, maybe it was in a tree?
She stood up and ran over to the closest tree, she use to climb them when she was a kid, how hard could it be now? She reached for a branch when her foot snagged on a bush. Falling forward Lilly landed in a puddle of mud.
She swore at the top of her lungs. It was almost midnight, they were out of time. She rolled over and was about to get up when Lincoln grabbed her hand and pulled Lilly to her feet. "This is pointless." She sighed, "We're never going to find it-"
"Lilly."
"Why the hell make this so hard to find-"
"Lilly!"
"-it's like, yeah save the world, but I'm not going to give you any help-"
"Lilly!"
She groaned, "What? Seriously? What is so important right now? We're all about to die or something."
"You're standing in a sage bush."
She looked down at the plant around her feet. Sure, it was sage, she didn't know any different, it's not like she was a gardener or something. She frowned and looked back up to Lincoln, "Great so we have the leaves of the plant we need for the hex bag, but not the actual hex bag."
"There's no better place to hide the bag then where you need it." Was the man's soft reply. For a split second Lilly was staring at him wide eyed, then she was back in the mud dragging her finer through the bush hoping to find what she was looking for.
There was nothing on the branches, nothing in the leaves. She dragged her fingers through the mud searching for the bag. Across the beach she could hear yells. She couldn't help herself, her head whipped around to see Jake being dragged into the water, Hailey and Sage holding on to him for dear life.
Ace and Mason were still looking, maybe? Something had Mason's attention he was staring at the lake holding out his arm as though trying to reach for someone. Lilly saw a ghost from her past, maybe Mason could see a ghost from his.
Her hands were still dragging through the mud as she watched her friends, her fingers caught on something. Excitedly she dug whatever it was out of the mud. It was a small burlap bag, pulled tight. Carefully she opened the bag, somehow the sage was withered and the blood was dry. It was the hex bag.
Quickly Lilly pulled leaves off the bush and tossed them into the bag, next she ran her finger across bark on a tress, cutting the skin, blood rolling down her wet skin. She put her finger into the bag and let the blood drop. One drop, two drops, three.
She closed the bag and buried it again. Whipping around she saw there was no change in the lake. The vortex was still there, the waves were still crashing and there was a dark shadow in the middle of the water. Jake's body was halfway into the water, Hailey was screaming for him.
What had she done wrong? She found the bag, she put in sage, she put in her blood, the blood of an Essex, why the hell was it not working?
Lincoln was beside her again, he grabbed her and moved her out of the way. "It's not working." He muttered. He was on his knees digging through the mud. He pulled out the bag and dumped out the contents.
"What are you doing?" She screamed, lunging for him. "You're going to kill us all!" Or something...she wasn't sure what would happen if the creature came out.
Lincoln raised his arm and she fell on her bum, she tried to get back up be he was using powers to hold her down. She watched as he reached out and took a hand full of leaves and dropped them into the bag. Next he pulled out a knife and quickly cut his hand dripping the blood into the bag.
Lilly watched in shock as he placed the bag back in the mud. There was a blast of energy and a high wind. Lilly looked back to the lake, there was a moaning noise as the waters splashed high into the air, crashing down with a tremendous force.
Water sprayed over her, washing away any sign of mud. The rain stopped, the lightening stopped and the thunder stopped. Lilly looked back across the lake, Jake was lying in the water but he was no longer being dragged in. Hailey and Sage were on their knees beside him.
Ace was looking around, unsure why everything had stopped. Lilly turned to Mason last, he was on his knees by the lake with his arm slowly lowering. She wondered if he saw his parents, if they said anything to him.
Lincoln cleared his throat, she turned to him, he was smiling. "It's all done. For another year."
She nodded and tried to stand up but a whooshing noise flew past her ears. Lilly stumbled and tried to reach out to grab onto something but there was nothing to grab. Her eyes blurred over, and she felt her body grow heavy. Someone called her name, Lincoln reached out for her but Lilly felt her body smack into the ground before her eyes went dark.
Rushing water. That was the only thing she could hear. No birds, no bugs, no voice, only the sound of waves flowing, waves crashing. Light rain was falling from the sky landing in the water and on her face. It was the rain that woke her up, groggy at first but the grey sky never got any clearer from when she opened her eyes.
Lilly looked around, she could see the tops of the trees a stunning green against the light grey sky with patches where the sun was trying to come through. Feeling around the wooden raft she would always wake up on she felt cold metal between her fingers, her chain. She picked up the metal link with her ring on it and placed it around her neck.
The bend was coming up, she could hear the rhythmic beating. She looked around the grey skies and tall trees, where was that noise coming from? She was going around the bend, the beating was louder, the first clearing was coming, was she going to see someone?
Lilly's eyes fluttered open, she was breathing heavily. Looking around she was in a while room, flowers everywhere, the beeping was coming from the machines all around her. What the hell happened?
She looked around some more, there was a dark figure sitting beside her. His eyes were closed he was leaning on his hand. His hair, which was getting on the long side was falling over half his face.
She felt something warm on her hand, Mason was holding onto his so strongly it almost felt numb. She smiled and rolled over so she could reach out to him. She stroked his cheek, he smirked. His eyes opened and when he saw her his smile grew. "Hey." He whispered, his thumb rubbing her hand softly.
"Hi." At that moment she felt tears forming in her eyes. Before she could stop them they were rolling down her cheek, "I thought you would have left."
He laughed and pulled his chair closer, "Why would I leave?"
"Because that's what I did to you."
"You really have to get over that. I did."
She buried her face in her pillows, ashamed that she was crying. Ashamed that she probably looked like a ghoul lying in the bed. She tried not to sob but it was making her body convulse. Mason's arms picked her up and moved her over in the bed, he slid in beside her.
"I'm sorry." She sobbed, "I don't know why I am crying. Maybe I am just really happy to see you."
He smiled and wiped the tears off her cheek, "I am really happy to see you. Your parents will be too."
She snuggled in closer to him, "What do they think happened?"
"Car accident. They think we were taking a joy ride through the woods when I crashed the car. You apparently weren't wearing your seatbelt, broke your ribs, concussion, bruised tailbone."
She sniffed, "You crashed the car? Why did you have to crash the car?"
"Because my injuries were consistent with driving the car." He laughed though Lilly could tell it was forced, "I lost my licence."
And she wondered if her dad had anything to say to him after, apparently, landing her in the hospital. "Has Lincoln said anything to you guys? What happened? Why was he able to stop it?"
Mason rolled over on her back, keeping his arm around her holding her close. Lilly felt her eyes becoming heavy with the comfort, warmth and drugs running through her system but she wanted to know what happened.
After she was brought into the hospital, by Link and only Link, the man took the others aside to give them their official Authority statement. They were in a crash due to careless driving. Lilly wasn't in her seatbelt and got the worst of the impact.
Once they were all checked out and questioned he pulled them aside again.
He had told them right off the bat he had no idea what was in the lake. No one did except for the original Coven that put whatever was down there, down there. He then told them after they left the ball he went searching for whatever it was Lilly found. He didn't know anything about Raiden until he made some phone calls, and put everything together quickly.
He found the wrecked car, Mason and Hailey and they pointed him towards the lake. When he got there Lilly was lying dead on the beach and he revived her. As for the hex bag, that was just a guess. It was a binding hex, a strong one too.
"Why did my blood not work?" Lilly asked softly.
Mason, moving awkwardly shrugged, "Um, well, you weren't the next Essex in line."
Uh, yeah she was the last one seeing as Sean wasn't one at all. "That doesn't make sense, as much as I don't want to admit it I am an Essex, my blood should have worked. There's no one else but me."
Mason shook his head, "There's one more...it's Link. He's Norah's brother, changed his name to his mother's maiden name when he joined the authority at eighteen, cut off all contact. He didn't know you existed until he came back here to find the Book of Souls, when he saw you he knew who you were."
Nothing made sense, why didn't Lincoln tell her sooner? Tell her he was her maternal uncle? Is that why he said at the ball he cared for her well being? Because they were technically family? She shuddered at the thought.
Mason kissed the top of her head, "Is this too much to take right now?"
She shook her head, "No, no I was going to hear it eventually."
He nodded his head, "There's more." Oh Jesus, what could be worse than finding out about a long lost relative, another one, "Our Coven is going on trial for being part of Norah's plans and everything that happened at the school. We could lose our right to use our powers."