Shattered Souls

  Flames of Time™: Book 3

  Red Adept Publishing, LLC

  104 Bugenfield Court

  Garner, NC 27529

  https://RedAdeptPublishing.com/

  Copyright © 2021 by Erica Lucke Dean. All rights reserved.

  Cover Art by Streetlight Graphics

  No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to locales, events, business establishments, or actual persons—living or dead—is entirely coincidental.

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Dedication

  The Red Adept Publishing App

  THE SACRIFICE | 1660

  CHAPTER ONE | 2014

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE | 1763

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  THE SOUL BOND

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

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  Further Reading: Midnight Burning

  Also By Erica Lucke Dean

  About the Author

  About the Publisher

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  “The rocky ledge runs far into the sea,

  And on its outer point, some miles away,

  The Lighthouse lifts its massive masonry,

  A pillar of fire by night, of cloud by day.”

  —Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

  “The soul comes from without into the human body, as into a temporary abode, and it goes out of it anew... it passes into other habitations, for the soul is immortal.”

  —Ralph Waldo Emerson

  THE SACRIFICE

  1660

  Laith tucked his small body into a tight ball in the back of the stable, clutching the remains of his carved wooden pony. He ran a finger over the jagged edge, where the head had been before Maddox snapped it off in a fit of rage. His stupid brother ruined everything. Fighting back tears, Laith continued to stroke the smooth white body, paying particular attention to each of the black spots. The pony was all he had of his father, and soon, he would be expected to leave his mother too.

  His tiny frame shook as cold rain dripped from his dark curls, down the sides of his pale face. It hadn’t stopped pouring since his aunt—his mother’s only sister—had arrived the night before, almost as if she’d brought the bleak weather with her. He hadn’t even known his mother had a sister until the plump woman climbed out of the shabby carriage, squealing like one of Mr. Danforth’s spring pigs. After wrapping his mother in a fierce embrace, his aunt had turned to face Laith and Maddox.

  “As I live and breathe!” she’d shrieked. Smiling so wide her pink cheeks threatened to burst from the effort, she’d greeted each of them with sweaty hugs and sloppy kisses while their mother stood to the side, shedding silent tears. “So grown-up! I can scarcely believe you boys are only five.”

  “Laith!” His name echoed through the storm as Mary called out to him again, dragging him from his memory. His mother’s lady-in-waiting came closer to his hiding spot with every passing moment.

  Laith shuddered, wiping away tears of his own along with the rain. He didn’t want to go, but Mary would surely find him. He’d be forced to leave his home with the stranger who called herself family. Lady Margaret. His mother called her Meg, giving the only hint the two actually knew each other. She bore little more than a passing resemblance to his mother. They had the same gold glints in their hair, though his mother’s was much finer, like spun silk. Worn in a long braid that coiled around itself like a snake in a thicket, Aunt Meg’s hair didn’t shine in the light like Mother’s. Her blue eyes sparkled, though, and she smiled a lot. He didn’t know what to make of that. Who smiled so much? Mother rarely smiled anymore, and her eyes certainly didn’t sparkle.

  Sparkling eyes or not, Laith wanted nothing to do with his aunt. He had no desire to leave with her like a market hog.

  “There you are!” The door swung wide, and there stood Mary, relief in her eyes and her dark hair dancing loose around her temples, where it had broken free from her coif. “You’ve sent us on a merry chase, child. Come now. Your aunt needs to get going if you’re to reach the next town before nightfall.”

  Laith lifted his head from his straw pillow. “I don’t want to go.”

  “I know.” Mary spread her lips in a sad smile. “You’re much too young to understand this, but it’s for your own good.”

  “No, it’s not. Maddox gets to stay. Why can’t I? I don’t want to leave my lady mother. With Father gone, she’ll need me.”

  “Your mother needs far more than one little boy can provide.” Mary blinked several times then reached for Laith’s dirty hand. A chuffing sound erupted from her throat. “Look what you’ve gone and done, wretched child. Now I’ll have to clean you up again.”

  This time when she tugged on his hand, Laith followed wordlessly.

  Mary led him to the house, where she dipped a cake of soap into icy water and used a clean rag to mop his face and hands. “Lady Margaret is a kind woman. You’ll see. She’ll take fine care of you. She’s always wanted children.”

  Laith struggled to no avail to free himself from Mary’s grip. “Why can’t she get her own child? Why must she take me?”

  “Because your mother has two, and two is one too many for her to care for.”

  Laith widened his eyes, and fat tears rolled down his cheeks. “I’ll be good. If you let me stay, I won’t make a sound. She won’t even know I’m here.”

  Mary’s expression softened for an instant, and she cleared her throat. “None of that now. Chin up. Accept your fate like a man.”

  “But... but I’m not a man. I’m just a boy.” It nearly gutted him to admit such a thing, but if it swayed her decision, he’d be willing to say anything.

  “You will be. Sooner than you think.” Mary grasped his clean hand, flipping it over to inspect both sides. “Much better. Come now. Lady Margaret is waiting.”

  Laith drew in a breath, clutching his pony until the jagged edge bit into his skin as Mary led him through the manor. When they reached the front of the house where the carriage awaited, Laith craned his neck, searching for his mother.

  “She’s not coming.” Mary crouched beside him. “I’m afraid she doesn’t feel well, but she asked me to give you this.” The maid pulled him into a brief hug—his only parting gift—releasing him almost immediately to whisper in his ear. “Now, don’t be a nuisance. Mind your manners. And make yourself useful. Everything will work out as it should. You’ll see.”

  Choking back a sob, Laith nodded. He didn’t believe Mary, but his hope for a reprieve had run out. His time at Wixley Manor had ended.

  Lady Margaret smiled down at him before firmly taking his trembling hand and squeezing it. If she’d noticed how frightened he was, she didn’t mention it. “Come, Laith. We have a long journey ahead of us.”

  Laith saw Maddox off to the side, watching with undisguised glee from behind a stone pillar as their bubbly aunt said her goodbyes to Mary and the rest of the servants. She walked Laith to the carriage and helped him climb inside.

  As the horses pulled away, Laith watched the manor disappear from view, and with it, the only life he’d ever known.

  CHAPTER ONE

  2014

  A cloud slid from the face of the moon like whipped cream melting into a slice of hot pie. The last remnants of phantom flames seared my skin, reminding me this wasn’t simply an overwhelming case of déjà vu. I actually had been here before. And not just here as in my grandmother’s dusty attic with its drab beige walls and polished wood floor, but here as in this exact moment—staring down from my bedroom window to where Maddox had been leaning against the lamppost mere minutes ago. I’d already lived this moment—down to the very last millisecond. My arm had wiped the clean circle in the grimy window.

  I inspected my dirty Hoya sweatshirt. Even if I didn’t remember doing it in another life, I wore the evidence, along with my heart, on my sleeve. Everything—and yet nothing—was the same. My room was
n’t my room anymore. My life wasn’t my life anymore. Even though I’d been transported back in time—literally reborn in fire, thanks to Jane’s spell—too much time had passed to ever really go back. I wasn’t the same Ava Elizabeth Flynn who’d stood at this window my first night in Port Michael. But according to Jane, only I knew I’d traveled back to relive this moment. To everyone else, my past was their present. The truth was enough to give me a migraine.

  I had no idea how long I’d been standing there waiting—For Maddox to reappear? For the whole scene to fade away into ash again?—certainly long enough for the two men to finish unloading what was left of our lives from their truck.

  With one last glance at the lamppost, I turned my back on the window and flopped onto the old quilt covering the plush bed. As exhausted as I was, I couldn’t begin to think about sleep, not with my head so full of... everything. Thoughts of Maddox down there somewhere, stalking me—right below my window, most likely—played on a constant loop, while my heart ached for Laith.

  Where is he? Is he even in Maine yet? I wished I knew.

  Why didn’t I ask him more questions when I had the chance? If I had, I could meet up with him somewhere before Will Clark’s party and find a way to end the curse. As it was, I’d have to wait. I couldn’t risk changing something that would put us on a different path. I wrapped an arm around my middle, holding myself together. I knew I’d find him again—I knew exactly when it would happen—but even that moment would be completely different from the last time. I didn’t love him then. No, you fell in love with his brother first. None of that mattered. I loved him now. What will he think when I tell him everything? Will he even believe me when I barely believe it myself? Will changing the future change how he’ll ultimately feel about me? I shook off the thought and curled into my pillow to keep from crying.

  This time everything had to be different—didn’t it? Otherwise, we’d end up right back where we were, at the edge of that cliff with Josh sinking to the bottom of the briny depths. A chill cut through me as my brother’s dead eyes stared up at me from inside my head. Saving Josh was worth every second of torment I’d gone through. My thoughts swirled until the image of the witch who’d sent me back filled my head. Can she sense that I made it?

  Turning my face toward the ceiling, I huffed out an exasperated breath. “Okay, Jane. What am I supposed to do now?”

  “Jane?”

  “Mom?” I whipped my head toward her voice and gaped at her. She wasn’t supposed to be up here, and yet there she was, standing in shadows outside my door. Have I already changed the past somehow? “Shouldn’t you be in bed?”

  “You sound like me.” She chuckled and brought what looked like a jelly jar of red wine to her lips. “I couldn’t sleep.”

  I jerked into a sitting position. “You cracked open the wine?” What other ripples have I caused?

  “Don’t look at me like that. I haven’t suddenly become an alcoholic, if that’s what you’re thinking. It’s barely half a glass after an incredibly long day.” She took a slow swallow and followed it with a long hum of satisfaction. “So who’s Jane?”

  “Oh, that...” I choked out a nervous laugh. “It’s stupid.” Where do I even begin? Discussing witches and time travel with my mother wouldn’t end well for me. And how would I explain Jane to my mom? She looks a lot like you, but she lived hundreds of years before you were born...? She’s the witch who sent me back to save Josh after my evil soul mate threw him over the side of a cliff...? No, thanks.

  I twisted my hair into a bun then let it fall loose again. Lying used to make me nervous, but over the past few months, I’d gotten all too used to it. That didn’t stop the flush spreading over my skin.

  “She’s kinda like my ...uh, I guess you’d call her... my imaginary friend? Or my conscience maybe? You know, like Jiminy Cricket.” I could only imagine Jane’s reaction to being compared to an animated insect.

  Mom covered up a laugh with another sip of wine as she crossed to the bed and pressed a cool kiss to my forehead. “Sorry, honey. I didn’t mean to interrupt your conversation with yourself.”

  “It’s okay. I just didn’t expect you to be standing there.”

  “It wouldn’t be the first time I’d stood in the shadows to watch one of you kids sleep. Looks like you caught me this time.”

  “You do that a lot?”

  “More than I’d like to admit.” Mom smiled, swirling the dark-red liquid in her jar. “Sometimes, I even do it with a glass of wine.”

  So maybe I hadn’t changed time at all. I just stumbled onto things I hadn’t known before. That was inevitable, I supposed. How many moments would I have to experience from a fresh angle before I caught up to where I’d left off? On the side of that damn cliff where Maddox banished Laith to the folds of time and shoved my brother onto the rocks below... I shook off the memory. I didn’t come back to recreate every moment leading up to disaster. I came back to save Josh. And find Laith.

  Mom cupped my cheek in her warm hand. “Get some sleep. We have a lot to do tomorrow.”

  I leaned into her touch and nodded. Understatement. “’Night, Mom.”

  “Goodnight, sweetheart.” She combed her fingers through my hair—something she hadn’t done in a long time—before walking away.

  As soon as her footsteps faded into the dark, I shifted my focus back to my window. Moonlight streamed in through the grimy streaks, dappling light across the dusty hardwood floor. That moon had seen a lot. I’d stood beneath it the first night Maddox took me to the lighthouse... and again with Laith the first time he’d kissed me against Will Clark’s house. I desperately longed to stand under the same sky with Laith again. I know you’re out there somewhere.

  INSTEAD OF OBSESSING over Maddox the way I had that first night in my new bed, I drifted off to sleep quickly and spent the entire night replaying my brother’s fall from the cliff in my dreams. His screams echoed in my brain, again and again, until the sound morphed into the raging fire Jane had conjured to send me back. The ghost of those flames still danced over my skin—like the constant ache of a recent sunburn that hadn’t quite healed. I woke up before dawn, silently screaming into my pillow. After that, even bone-deep exhaustion wasn’t enough to put me back to sleep, so when Josh’s gangly body crawled across my bed like a daddy longlegs, I was ready for him.

  “Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!” Another wave of déjà vu swept over me as he punctuated each command with a bounce, making the bed groan. I almost cried at the sound of his voice.

  With my brother in midbounce, I coiled my arm around his middle and dragged him down beside me, determined to soak up every second of his presence. “Good morning, peanut.”

  “Hey, get off!” He squirmed in my arms, but I refused to let go. I’d risked everything to save him. I needed a few minutes to prove to myself he was really here.

  “Come on, kid. You used to love snuggling with me, remember?” I sniffed his dark hair, humming at the familiar sour odor of unwashed eleven-year-old boy.

  He grunted, trying to pry himself from my clutches. “When I was five, maybe.”

  “Aww, come on, Joshy. You know you miss it.” I tucked his head under my chin and hooked a foot over his legs.

  “No, I don’t... freak. Lemme go!”

  “Nope!” I giggled, trying not to inhale as I squeezed him tighter.

  A huff of peppermint Colgate washed over my face as he gave up his struggle and settled in beside me. “Mom sent me to wake you up, but you’re already awake.”

  “Yup.” I let my arms go slack around him. “Couldn’t sleep.”

  He rested his head on my shoulder. “So, why aren’t you yelling at me to get out?”

  “I don’t know. I suppose that’s what I’d normally do, huh?”

  “Duh. You’re being totally weird.”

  I contemplated his reaction, wondering if all those subtle changes I’d made would make a mess of everything I needed to fix. I really wished Jane had given me some sort of time-travel manual when she’d sent me back. Ultimately, I decided I needed to be more careful. Rolling to my side, I knocked Josh to the floor with a resounding thud as I had the first time we’d been in that moment.