“You okay, Seph?” She kept her sword up, her eyes on the two wizards.
“Ellen, I am so glad to see you,” Seph said. He was appreciating the benefits of having a warrior on his side.
Seph sent a volley of immobilization charms raining down on the two remaining wizards. Ellen spiraled flames toward them, spinning off the tip of her sword and advancing on them with grim determination. Warren Barber staggered backward, feeling the effects of his wound. Now the alumni were the ones on the defensive.
Seph knew they'd better make the most of their temporary advantage. There might be more alumni waiting in the wings.
“Ellen!” He moved in close so he could speak quietly. “I'm going to make you invisible.” He lifted the dyrne sefa from around his neck and hung it around hers. Then he gripped her arm and spoke the unnoticeable charm. “Don't let me lose hold of you. Now let's move!” he hissed, pulling her down off the slope and across the water to the other side.
The two remaining wizards swiveled about, splattering flames at random, muttering curses, scanning the sides of the canyon and the underbrush at the river edge. Frustrated, they closed in on the spot where Seph was last seen, raking it with wizard fire. Smoke filled the gorge as grass and brush began to smolder. Barber sent another hail of stones swirling down the gorge and Ellen hissed in pain as several hit home.
“McCauley!” Barber shouted, his face purple with rage. “We know where you live! We've been on fricking Jefferson Street. We'll find Linda Downey and her sister, Rebecca. We'll find your girl. We'll find your warrior friend. And in the end, we'll find you.”
The alumni charged down the river at a dead run, convinced their quarry was getting away. Seph and Ellen splashed up the river in the opposite direction, toward the parking lot. They scrambled desperately through the gorge, slashed by briars and branches, water and mud sucking at Seph's flip-flops, Ellen's sword catching in the underbrush. He could hear no sounds of pursuit behind them, only their labored breathing and the racket they made as they forced their way through the trees.
They burst through the last of the brush into the parking lot. Madison was standing by the car, frantically punching numbers into a cell phone, when Seph and Ellen materialized out of the air, Ellen carrying her bloody sword.
Madison looked up and saw them. “You found him!” She shoved her cell phone into her purse. “Thank God! Are you okay?” She gripped Seph's elbows, peering anxiously into his face, touching his forehead where the rock had hit him. Then she looked over his shoulder at Ellen and said fiercely, “I hope you chopped them into little bits.”
“Do you two know each other?” Seph asked, looking from Madison to Ellen.
Ellen was in a ready stance, facing the trailhead, watching for signs of pursuit. “Let's get out of here. We can chitchat later.”
There were two more cars parked in the lot than when Seph and Madison had arrived. One was the old Jeep that Will and Ellen shared. The other one was unfamiliar, a black minivan with a rent-a-car sticker. It must belong to the alumni, Seph thought. At least he hoped so, because he melted all four tires.
Seph rode with Madison in the pickup. Ellen followed behind in the Jeep. Madison seemed accustomed to negotiating country roads; she drove fast, scarcely slowing for the curves and corners.
What a disaster. He'd been a fool to take a chance with Madison. If not for her odd resistance to wizards, she would have been killed, hurt, or kidnapped.
If Ellen hadn't shown up, he might be on his way back to the Havens by now. Which reminded him. “You didn't seem surprised to see Ellen. And her sword.”
Madison glanced at him, then back at the road. “Is that her name? I was on my way to the parking lot when she stepped out of the trees with that thing and demanded to know where you were. I thought she was standing watch for those creeps. She thought I'd led you into some kind of trap. It took us a while to sort it out. Then she went tearing down the trail after you and I went to the car to call 911. Only, I couldn't get my cell phone to work. It's like, fried.”
She swerved around a slow-moving van. “What the hell happened back there, anyway? Does this kind of thing happen to you all the time?”
Seph was scratched and scraped and bruised and his head was throbbing. He rested it back against the seat and closed his eyes. “Not too often. Let's just say I made a mistake.”
“Those men were all witches.”
“Wizards.”
“Whatever. So. Are you in some kind of magical gang war?”
He eyed her glumly, wishing she were susceptible to wizardry so he could just wipe her mind clean. “I used to go to school with them. Now they're after me. I don't know why.” He hoped they hadn't noticed anything special about Maddie. He hoped they wouldn't think about her at all.
“You want to go straight to the police station? Or we could look for a pay phone …”
He shook his head, staring straight ahead. “The police can't help.” She opened her mouth to speak, and he held up his hand. “What am I going to tell the cops? I was attacked by wizards who tried to snare me in a spider web? And then that nice Ellen Stephenson, who plays forward on the girls' soccer team, cut two of them to pieces with her magical sword?” He thought of Ross Childers and imagined his reaction. Not pretty. “Just take me home.”
“Do you think they'll give up, after today?”
“No.”
“Well, you can't just wait for them to try again.”
“I don't intend to.” He had no real choice. He'd known that all along. He could remain a prisoner in the Sanctuary, waiting for Leicester to target someone he cared about, or he could act.
She put her hand on his arm. “I'm worried about you.”
“You should be worried about yourself. People who get involved with me tend to get hurt.”
“Maybe I can help you.”
He couldn't believe it. They'd only just met, and they'd just had the date from hell, and she was still on his side. “It's not up to you.”
By now, they'd passed the city limits, the classy stone gateway for Trinity College and the sign that said trinity HIGH SCHOOL DIVISION III STATE SOCCER CHAMPIONS. Seph wondered if the soft barrier worked both ways, if the alumni knew he'd returned to the Sanctuary. Maybe they could track his movements all the time. The back of his neck prickled.
Madison swerved into Seph's driveway. Ellen pulled up behind them, but made no move to get out, giving them a moment of privacy.
Madison helped unload the picnic gear onto the sidewalk. “Here, I'll help you carry it inside.”
“That's all right. I'll get it.”
Madison leaned against her truck, twisting one of her tiny braids between her fingers. “I have to say, that was my most eventful picnic in a long time.”
Seph looked away and swallowed. “No doubt.”
She gripped his hands and looked up into his face. “But I had a good time before … ah … before the mayhem.”
Seph shook his head, bewildered. “I don't get it. I had to practically bribe you to get you to go out with me in the first place.”
“Who says we're going out?” She pulled back her hair, and the beads clattered softly together. “For one thing, my drawing's not done. I need you to sit some more.” She touched his face gently, as if mapping the bone structure underneath. “Plus, I think we could maybe be friends. You're not nearly as arrogant as I thought you were at first.” She grinned. “You better call me, Witch Boy, or I'll come find you, now that I know where you live.” She climbed up into the seat.
Seph stood watching until the pickup disappeared around the corner at the end of the street.
Ellen vaulted over the side of the Jeep. “Need some help?” She shouldered one of the coolers and stuffed the quilt under her arm. They managed to carry everything into the kitchen in one trip. No one was around, but based on the debris left behind, Jack and his friends had passed through. Ellen drained two bottles of water while Seph put the food away.
Ellen was a mess. She was muddy and her clothes were torn. She had a nasty cut over one eye and her cheekbone was turning purple from the rockfall. She also looked positively elated. Seph was beginning to realize that Ellen liked nothing better than a good fight, well concluded. He brought the first-aid kit from the downstairs bathroom, and they sat at the table, methodically treating each other's wounds.
“You were really good today,” Ellen said, lifting the dyrne sefa from around her neck and handing it to Seph. “I couldn't keep track of all the charms flying around. Those guys definitely got the worst of it. Too bad we had to split, because I think we could have taken them.”
“Yeah.” Seph swept back Ellen's chin-length brown hair and dabbed at her bloody ear. “Not that I'm not grateful, but … why were you at the park?” Seph asked.
“I was—you know—out hiking.”
“I don't believe you.”
Ellen opened the freezer, scooped up a handful of ice, dropped it into a plastic bag, and handed it to Seph. “Put that on your head,” she suggested.
He pressed it against the knot on his forehead. “So?”
Ellen licked her finger and rubbed at a splatter of blood on her arm. “It was my day to watch you, okay?”
“What?”
“We trade off. Jack and Nick and Linda and me. Today, Jack was playing soccer, Linda was out buying a house, Nick had just been on duty two days in a row and …” her voice trailed off.
“You're saying you've been following me around all summer?”
Ellen cleared her throat. “Linda was afraid something like this would happen, or they'd find a way to scare you enough to make you bolt. So …” She shrugged her shoulders.
“I don't believe this.”
“Believe me, it hasn't been the most exciting duty, up until today. Seph goes to church. Seph goes to the symphony. Seph gets hit on by girls at the beach!' Ellen nibbled at a broken nail. ”This afternoon, I felt like some kind of chaperone, following you and your girlfriend around. So I dropped way back. Guess I shouldn't have."