The Promise (Book 1, The Coven Series)

Chapter Nineteen

"What's wrong?!" I shouted into the phone, wide awake.

"I don't know! She was asleep and she just woke up screaming. I can't get near her, CJ. I don't know what to do."

The dream. She'd told me it was getting worse and that she was having it every day. I could hear her screaming and sobbing in the background. This was very bad. "Where are you?"

"We're on the boat." His voice shook. "CJ, please. What can I do to help her?"

"Just talk to her. Bring the boat back to the dock and I'll be there as soon as I can."

"I can't! The damn thing stalled. I've been trying to get it to start. It's why we're still out here instead of home."

"I'm coming, Billy. Just do what you can."

I jumped up, surprised to see my shoes were still on. The clock told me I'd been asleep for hours. It was almost midnight. My parents weren't home either. Crap. Where were they at this time of night? I needed a car. Double crap. I needed a boat and we didn't own one. Where could I get a boat at this hour?

Jeff.

I found his number in my phone and prayed he'd answer. If his battery ran low, he never answered the damn thing.

"CJ?" His voice sounded sleepy. I must have woken him up.

"Jeff, I need your boat."

"My boat? CJ, you don't even know how to drive a boat."

"It's Kay. Billy called. Something's wrong. I have to get to the lake and then out to where they are." The longer I thought about her screams, the more scared I got. I needed to get to her. I'd seen firsthand how bad they'd gotten. An overwhelming sense of dread settled in my stomach. It cramped up in agreement. She needed me. "Please, Jeff."

"Okay, okay, just calm down, hon. I'll be there in five minutes and then we'll go find them."

I grabbed my coat and met him halfway. The boy was quick. He still wore his green flannel pajama bottoms and I could see his tee shirt on backwards. The tag waved at me from under his bomber jacket.

"Thank you," I told him as I slid into his old Jeep Wrangler.

"What happened?" He put the car in gear and pulled out, headed in the direction of the lake.

"Billy called. Kay woke up from her nightmare screaming and he can't get her to calm down." I twisted my fingers in agitation. "Hurry, Jeff. Something's really wrong. I can feel it."

"Does she have nightmares a lot?" He pushed the gas pedal and we hit eighty. The speed didn't even bother me tonight. Normally if anyone got above fifty I started to freak out. Emily's accident had made me leery of riding shotgun with anyone. Tonight I was glad for the speed.

I nodded. "Yeah, but they're getting worse."

We pulled up to the dock and I jumped out before he'd put the jeep into park. I ran ahead, pulling lines and doing what I could to get the boat ready to launch. Not that I knew much. We didn't have a boat so I'd never learned the ins and outs of boating.

"Where are they?" Jeff finished stowing the lines.

"On the lake."

"Where on the lake?" he asked patiently. "It's a big lake, hon."

"I..." Damn. I didn't know. "Billy didn't say."

He nodded and pulled out his phone. "Hey, Billy. I'm bringing CJ out. Where are you?" He listened for a moment and then told me to sit down and started the engine, pulling out into the peaceful waters. Twenty minutes later we pulled up alongside Billy's dad's boat, Lady Chance. It was a big boat, having compartments under the deck. Billy tossed a rope ladder down and we climbed up.

"Where is she?"

"Below." He turned and ran, Jeff and I hot on his heels.

Kay sat hunched in a corner. Her eyes were wide with terror and fear and her breathing came in short, gasping bursts. She looked wretched. Scared to death.

"Is she awake?" I asked softly, not wanting to upset her anymore than she was.

"I don't know," Billy whispered. "She crawled into the corner while I was on the phone with you. I tried to touch her, but she flinched away. She stopped screaming about five minutes ago."

"Kay?" I took careful, easy steps to reach her and hunkered down. "Kay, are you okay?"

She stared into the distance, her eyes focused on something I couldn't see. She was still asleep, trapped in her nightmare. I took her hand and she screamed. Over and over, she let out an ear-piercing wail that would scare all the ghosts back into their graves. Bone chilling screams. She needed to wake up.

I grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her as hard as I could. When that didn't work, I slapped her hard across the face. "Wake up!" I yelled into her face. Jeff handed me a glass of water which I poured over her head, but it had no effect. I shook her again. She just continued to scream.

"What the hell is wrong with her?" Jeff asked hoarsely.

"She's dreaming," I told him. "She dreaming about being burned alive, but something's wrong. I don't know...she has to wake up. If she doesn't..."

"...if she doesn't, what?" Billy demanded. "What?"

"I don't know," I shook my head. "I can't explain it, Billy. Something really bad is going to happen. I can feel it. She has to wake up."

"How can you know that, CJ?" Billy asked, his voice as confused as I felt.

"I just do." My heart pounded in concerto with Kay's. Her fear and pain echoed in me. I...felt...everything she did. In that moment, we were connected in a way I couldn't begin to define. I could feel her dying. "NOW! We have to wake her up NOW!"

Words whispered in my mind and I repeated them blindly.

"Spirit, I ask thee to free her from this burden,

In this time, in this place, I call it into me.

Show me now what she sees and forever let it be."

"CJ, NO!" I heard Jeff shout as I fell forward into an oblivion of darkness.