Paul’s eyes widened. “No,
you can’t. I was your mentor. Let me stay here with you. I won’t cause any
trouble I swear.”
“I would love to trust
you, even put in a good word on your behalf,” said Cage allowing Mayor Garver
to put the handcuffs on Paul, “but as my teacher taught me … trust no one,
especially a fool who plays with dark magic.”
Paul screamed again as
Cage pulled him to his feet and led him toward City Hall where they would meet
the sheriff.
“Want to try to sit up?”
asked Pammy. Elise nodded slightly.
“Okay, slowly now,” said
Pammy.
With Pammy’s help, Elise
pushed herself off the sidewalk and sat. She was surprised to see the
townspeople still surrounding her. She remember how they had shielded her when
she was fighting the mass and how they had stood with her when the battle
started. Tears formed in her eyes as Roark slowly crawled off Pammy’s hand and
onto Elise’s shoulder.
She looked at her friends
… her family.
“I can’t thank you
enough,” she said to them. “I’ve cursed you all these years. You knew and yet
you came to my side anyway. I don’t understand.”
Mr. King looked to her
fellow townsfolk before answering. “Our ancestors settled on your land, looking
for gold. Gold that could have scarred this place for ages. You kept them from
finding it, if any was here, which protected the way of life we know now. You
protected the apples, which have made us all very wealthy, since the
townspeople own the orchard and we all get a cut. You created a barrier that
made it hard for anyone wanting to do this town, and therefore us, harm. Which
is why it takes the sheriff’s department so long to get here, they don’t have
to often. You build a library and kept us educated, even though you declared
you didn’t like us much. You’ve been to every town hall meeting I can remember
and participated in every event the town has thrown.”
He shrugged. “So the
founding families decided long ago, we’d put up with curse and those that
couldn’t handle it would need to move. You are this town, Elise, and we can’t
thank you enough.”
Elise felt her tears fall
on her cheeks as she smiled. “I have seen
the love and light. I lift the curse and all the plights. I know now I’ve been
wrong. Let us celebrate for centuries long.”
Her fingers tingled as
the magic trickled from them and started to spread throughout the town. Pammy’s
hair turned back to its lovely shade of blonde. Elise heard Ms. Welch ask
someone for a sweater. The items broken on the streets due to the fight and the
storm Elise had caused before fixed themselves, the wind swept the streets
clear of debris, and the mums grew bigger and brighter than ever.
The townspeople oo’d and
awed as if they were watching fireworks and for the first time in 83 years, Elise
felt the world lift off her shoulders.
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