Shadows At Dawn: Chapter 4
Revelations
If you haven’t already, check out the previous chapters of Shadows At Dawn:
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Days later, Rueben arrived on the borders of the Evernight Marsh. The setting sun cast shadows over waterways that spread like veins over the surface of the world. A dampness clung in the air, a bone-deep chill that could be felt all year round. Rueben adjusted his coat and guided his mare around a ditch clogged with reeds.
He palmed the enchanted coin as he went deeper into the marsh, listening to the churring of nightjars hidden among the foliage. Light flared in his hand and he opened it to see the coin glowing. A woman strode through the trees, honey-blonde hair fluttering around her, pale and beautiful as the moon. She wore a linen gown sewn with a leaf-styled motif and she walked barefooted.
Rueben almost tripped over his feet as he ran to her. The mud squelched and popped beneath him but he didn’t fall or make too much of an ass of himself. Maddie smiled as he reached her and then she punched him in the face.
Rueben rubbed his cheek and before he could say anything she’d already dragged him into a kiss. His arms wrapped around her waist and he lived with her inside the moment until he she leaned into his chest.
“You had me worried sick you great fool of a man!” Maddie cried, all righteous indignation.
“A fool you chose to marry, so I have to question which one of us got the worse side of the deal.” Rueben joked reflexively. He squeezed her hand and all the pain of the last few weeks faded away as he gazed into her cornflower-blue eyes.
“Aye, we’re as damned as each other,” Maddie said. “I told you to run faster.”
Rueben thought about his dream in the barn. “A lot’s happened, Maddie. We need -”
“I know,” she cut him off. “They’ll be time to explain later.”
“How’s our boy?” Panic rose up inside Rueben.
“Safe and growing stronger by the day.” Maddie let go of his hand and got onto the horse.
Rueben took the reins and listened to her directions. They stopped on the edge of a patch of wetland full of rocks. Maddie swept her fingers as a painter might over a canvas and removed the glamour to reveal a small cottage with a moss-covered roof.
Rueben tied up his mare and not for the first time was he impressed by the power of the illusion as it crackled around him. He went inside, passing by a shelf stocked with healing poultices that marked the home of a benevolent witch.
Rueben found Maddie holding Charlie in her arms. He was wrapped in a white blanket and Rueben felt his heart lift to see his family together. Maddie held him out and Rueben cradled his son carefully. In the three months since he’d last seen him, Charlie had grown significantly. His brown eyes were big and bright and he gurgled sleepily as Rueben stroked his hair.
“Hey, little man,” Rueben whispered.
Charlie gurgled again and Rueben kissed his forehead. In that instance he understood that this was his true duty, his calling, to make sure his son grew up hearty and hale without hatred. The urge to share what’d been through was too strong and so he put Charlie down in his wooden crib.
He told Maddie about the witch he’d trapped, about Pa, about the duel and Renee and everything he wanted to leave behind. When he’d finished Rueben was shaking and Maddie held him against her.
“I didn’t mean to kill him,” Rueben insisted. “I swear I was aiming for his shoulder.”
Maddie looked pensive. “A sudden storm forcing you into a barn with two people you don’t like sounds like more than a coincidence.”
Rueben raised his eyebrows. When she got one of her intuitive hunches he’d learned it was best not to interrupt.
“I know it might be hard for you but can you remember exactly what was going on when you pulled the trigger.”
Rueben nodded. He closed his eyes and remembered the sleet in his face, the smoothness of his gun and the mist swirling around him. “Sometimes it felt...like the air was alive.”
He expected Maddie to look at him like he was crazy, but her expression was deadly serious. She didn’t say anything for a little while and then spoke. “A few days ago I sensed a large supernatural disturbance to the north. The kind a magical storm can cause.”
In all the chaos it’d never occurred to Rueben that a supernatural force had brought him to the barn. But there was something nagging at him. “What aren’t you telling me?”
She glanced over her shoulder at the crib and then back to him. “My auntie knows, Rueben. Knows about Charlie. She’s had her wolves scouring the marsh for weeks looking for us and it’s possible she caused the storm to get you out of the way.”
The thought of Agnus Cartwright getting her hands on Charlie made Rueben grind his teeth. “If it is her then why not kill me on the road? She could have done it at any time if she’s that powerful.”
“It’d serve her best to have the Questers fighting among themselves. Better they focus on one of their own, especially the son of The Hammer of The Witches.” Maddie spoke gravely.
Rueben pinched the bridge of his nose. It was all starting to make sense. The Cartwrights would do anything to hurt Pa and he’d given them the power to do it through his own anger and impatience.
“I have to go back and warn him of what’s happening,” Rueben said. “If your fucking family is planning an ambush then I need to stop it!”
He couldn’t keep the harshness out of his voice and he immediately regretted it. He’d believed he was past seeing Maddie in the same light as her kin, but he wondered if that would always be between them.
Maddie showed no signs of being offended. She touched his cheek. “You don’t need me to tell you what will happen if you return to the Questers. Why return when you know the outcome?”
Rueben put his hand over hers. “For the same reason you’ve spent all these years in the marsh when you should have left a long time ago.”
Maddie opened her mouth, closed it and then spoke softly. “You’re a fool, Rueben McNab. As prideful and stubborn as I am and if this is the path you walk then you won’t go alone.”
“Maddie...”
“No. You don’t get to have the excuse of running off and making what you feel is some noble, heroic sacrifice. It’s time the world saw us for what we are. As soon as I know Charlie is safe I’ll join you and we’ll face whatever comes together.” Maddie’s tone was iron-clad and Rueben didn’t dare argue.
He kissed her, drowning himself in her scent, her warmth. He took her to bed, slipping beneath the covers into a world of their own creation. Nothing else existed, nothing but the taste of her lips and the sound of her breathing.
In the pale glow of dawn, Rueben awoke. He found Charlie snug in his crib and brushed a hand across his head. Maddie slept peacefully, hair tangled into knots.
Rueben smiled to himself and whispered, “I love you both.”
He left the cottage, feeling the cool air on his skin. Rueben twirled the enchanted coin for what could be the last time.