A Time to Die (Elemental Rage Book 2) (20 page)

“Will I see you
again?” Jade asked.  She knew the answer, at least she thought she did.

“Tomorrow or the
day after,” Mindy promised. Jade felt the touch of a hand on her cheek, small
fingers, just Mindy’s size and then she was gone.  “But you can’t tell anyone. 
Shhh…to the world, I am lost.”  

The Earth quaked and
the ground vomited Jade out of the way, pushing up up up. Jade fell down the
steep embankment, caused by Earth’s lift.  It knocked the wind out of her body.
Earth didn’t stop churning until Matt and Claire were lying in the dirt. They
weren’t alone. A dog thumped its tail and whined, with too many injuries to
lift its head.

A police car was
the first to speed out of the forest. Jade recognized the deputy and knew his
name even though they’d never had occasion to interact before.  That’s often
how it was in a small town.  People knew each other.

Jade was at
Claire’s side.  Claire was unconscious, but still alive.  Mindy was gone. 
Nothing felt real.  Emergency vehicles filled the gravel driveway surrounding
the huge disturbed soil where the house used to be.

It was impossible
to explain.  They asked.  They all asked.  Jade made up a story about a sink
hole.  Mindy was nowhere to be found.

Chapter 17

~~ Amy ~~

Losing Mindy eclipsed
anything Amy had ever felt. Wandering from room to room, somehow she felt as if
Mindy were just around the corner, holding her teddy bear and waiting. 
Everything passed by in one big numb blur.  She identified Aunt Bertha’s body
and answered dozens of questions from the police. She put the dozens of
casseroles from townsfolk into the refrigerator and hunkered down, waiting for
the next attack.  The wolf stayed away.

Then it all
stopped.

Aunt Bertha’s
memorial service was over. That was hard enough, but Mindy’s service broke her
heart.  Jade told her Mom that she had heard Mindy’s voice.  She promised Raven
and Claire that their sister was okay somewhere.  But it wasn’t the same.  Amy
needed to hear her daughter’s voice for herself. 

Guilt pressed her
heart to her backbone and she wondered how she could still walk, eat, talk,
live.  When Time nudged Amy to release her to Mindy while still in the womb,
Amy agreed, never expecting that the Element’s presence would short circuit her
daughter’s growth. Amy feared for her little girl, feared that in truth
Petrodus had dragged her away and even now had taken Time and left Mindy dead.

She sobbed for
hours, inconsolable.

“Mom, I promise
she’s alive.” Jade looked miserable, but Amy couldn’t stop crying.  She
couldn’t believe it.

“I need to see her
for myself,” Amy said, a box of Kleenex at her side, her eyes red and swollen.

“I don’t think she
can.  She says she’s lost to the world.” Jade’s explanation just sent Amy into
another fit of sobbing.  Even with Mindy’s problems, Amy loved her dearly.  She
missed her with every beat of her heart.

~~ Mindy ~~

Her mind was
intact. Time pulled her out of Earth’s embrace rather forcefully, but Jade’s
energy gave Time just what the Element needed to save the youngest of the Gray
family…in a manner of speaking.

The dimensional
plane had been broken and now Mindy was untethered.  She saw the whole
tapestry, the threads of her life and her sisters, her family and her father,
all outside of time and yet they were still trapped in that strange restriction
of the Universe, life lived in one direction.

In Time’s embrace
Mindy healed, but she was more than she had been before.  The missing part of
herself slipped inside, connecting and complete, and she understood. Mindy told
Time, “I have to go back.”

Time agreed.
Only
to your sisters and only for a short time. The Death Keepers and the Void felt
me for the first time in centuries. They will be on the hunt. Come. See your
new home.

The house was
nestled in a timeless valley of trees and rivers, secluded and in a place
untouched by thinking creatures. It was a cozy little house with a kitchen and
dining room, a bedroom already decorated to Mindy’s tastes and a living room
with a sofa just like the one at home. The lights turned on and off, even if
the technology was impossible without an electrical current.

Mindy said, “I
don’t understand.  I can’t stay here. This isn’t home.”

You must. No
one will find you here. All of the Time Elementals stay here in the place
outside Time.  I will help you visit your family, but we will live here.

Mindy
frowned.  Earth never told Mindy what to do.  Never.  She crossed her arms, “No,
I won’t. You’re more bossy than Earth. Take me home. Now.”

She thought there
would be an argument, that Time would ignore her and force her to stay in this
strange little house, pleasant though it was. Her family never let her choose. 
Never. Time did. Time picked her up and the Universe shifted.

Mindy
and Time appeared in the living room while Amy, Jade, Raven, and Claire sat at
the dinner table and picked at dinner.  Mindy felt so out of place.  Her
thoughts were whole and complete, grown up for a seven year old, but when Amy
rose from the table and ran to hug her, she was seeing her lost little
seven-year old daughter who couldn’t form complete sentences. Mindy was more
than that, more than a child.

“Mindy!”

The
family all cried and hugged her, everyone talking at once. 

Jade said, “It’s
been two months.  Where have you been?  The whole town thinks you’re dead.”

Time whispered to
Mindy.  Mindy understood now. As Time flashed images of Mindy’s past and
future, of where she had traveled and where she would travel, of the thousands
of lives she would affect and influence, Mindy knew she had been chosen. If she
chose to stay, all of their lives would be cut short.

She had been selected
for a different path, a different life. Mindy agreed.  She knew her purpose in
life, her place. She told Jade, “They will always think me dead. They must. I
thought I could stay here.  I thought we could be a family again, but I can’t. 
I have to go.”

Jade still spoke
to her as if she were the ‘old’ Mindy.  She said, “No, you have to stay with
us. They’re still digging at Zach’s house,” Jade said, “We’ll say you wandered
off.”

Time whispered
again.

“No. Jade.  I’m
sorry. We will change that. Don’t be distressed when they find a body.  It must
happen this way. The Elements will come together to help me.  You must move
on.  I will visit when I can, but you must move on.”

Mindy hugged her
family once more.  She said goodbye in the midst of tears and relieved joy that
she was indeed alive.

Time carried her
away, teaching her history and language, showing her the truth of all things,
scientific discoveries that wouldn’t be found for a thousand years.  She grew
in wisdom.  Her body lived, despite the grave stone in the cemetery on the
hill.

Mindy lived.

~~The Gray Family~~

Nothing felt the
same without Mindy.  When the search and rescue team found a body, the search for
Mindy stopped.  The family buried Mindy in the town cemetery, but it wasn’t her
real self.  Fire assured Jade that the body was only a doppelganger, a double created
to throw the Death Keepers and the Void into confusion. Water promised Claire
that she would see Mindy again.  Air reminded Raven that Mindy had a purpose
and belonged to Diana. 

The Gray sisters
dressed in black and cried.  The tears were real, for there was a real hole in
their lives where Mindy had been, but at least they had hope.

Zach and his family
rebuilt with money provided by the Death Keepers for ‘services rendered’ until
the Home Owner’s insurance agreed to pay.

All was quiet for
a time. Petrodus had gone into hiding, presumably to heal or to hunt for Time. 
The Gray sisters returned to school, returned to life, even though they were
missing one of their own, but the joy at having their mother back was
bittersweet, for in saving her life, they had lost their dearest. 

~~ The End ~~

In the next book
in the series,
A Time to Rend
, the Gray sisters go on the hunt for
Petrodus.