We even spoke about the Salem witches.
He told me that they used to use the Forgotten potion all the time on humans that stumbled upon something they were not supposed to see but realized that their own kind would think that they got cursed or became a witch and were burn with the witches.
Those times were cruel.
My mother would love to have Sebastian help her with her research.
They continued with witching trials today. Their system was still harsh, and this family was lucky to only be banished and not killed, even with the planted evidence.
Luke was sure if he wasn’t a dear person to the king, they would’ve killed his entire family line.
It was something I never witnessed. Whether Marick never wanted me to see it or whether it was my own choice, but at these times, I was grateful for the potion that I was given—grateful that I wouldn’t be able to hear their screams.
But other times, I wish I could remember them. The only question was, why didn’t he call?
Chapter 6
MARICK
* * *
Flames lapping up at the sky. The smell of soot and ashes. The roar of the building burning down. Her screams calling my name. Begging for help. My cries as I when I couldn’t get to her.
I opened my eyes.
I was surrounded by tropical weather. My mother and I were docked in Cabo San Lucas. A new distraction as she called it.
This time of the year is usually the hardest time for me. In a few days, a decade would have gone by—a decade without her.
I was a shell of a man I used to be.
The flames, the smell of ash, her screams were all imprinted in my mind and a constant reminder of what I lost with the betrayal of a blood brother.
He swore he wasn’t behind it, but the evidence all pointed to him.
I’m Marick Young, formerly the crown prince of the witching race, but, since I married a human, lost the throne. I gave it up because a life without her would be this. I knew it then, and I’m living it now.
The past nine years on the date of her death, I spend it in a deep sleep. This year, my mother, the queen, refused. She simply said that it was time to deal with it.
She had no idea what she was saying.
She was certain that a family vacation among humans might be the trick, that it would force me to deal with Danielle’s death.
I didn’t even want to be here.
Seeing the twins, both with dark heads of hair like their mother, left an ache in my soul, a longing so strong that I want to kill myself. They don’t even less the pain.
I got up from the deck chair and went into the yacht to pour myself a drink. Shania followed me.
She was stunning, looked like a woman of twenty and not in her thirties. Her body glowed.
“You need to spend some time with Josh and Em, Marick. They are trying so hard to get your attention.”
“Stop! I’m dealing as best as I can, Shania. If you, all of you, think this vacation is the best way for me to deal with this, you are making a mistake.”
“It’s been ten years! They dealt with this too, Marick. It’s time that you did too.”
“They were three when she left. They don’t even remember her anymore. I told you before, stay out of this. If not, you know where the door is.”
I walked away with the brandy on the rocks and went to sit back on my deckchair.
She was going to ignore me again. I didn’t care. The only reason why I dated Shania, why she became my plus one, was to make the family looked at me as if I wasn’t a broken toy.
I was broken, and I doubt that I would ever work properly again.
The past ten years were proof that I would never get over Danielle and what happened to her that night.
I couldn’t stop thinking about it during the days that lead up to the anniversary of her death.
And that was the reason why I used to drink a potion to sleep through it all.
But this year was not going to be that way.
I swallowed the contents of the glass, took the bottle, and poured more.
I downed that glass too.
I would drink until I couldn’t anymore. I would make myself sleep if she wasn’t going to give me the potion.
But with Cabo’s humidity, I doubt that it would be possible.
It wasn’t always bad.
There was a time that our kind said they saw Danielle, that she wasn’t burned. A few even stepped forward.
It gave me hope, until I realized it was a shifter. The one time she did have all the markings, Minaut, our wisp, showed me that it wasn’t Danielle.
Wisps were rare to the witching race.
Only four families of witches have them in the entire race. They used to hunt down the wisps and still kill black cats because of them. Wisps were big, they could be invisible, and they were great tools for communicating between covens during in the Salem witch hunts.
It was also the time that we almost lost every one.
Minaut was the first wisp to connect with a human.
She loved Danny more than she did some of the witches, and she made that choice just before Danny died. She didn’t even know Danielle was home.
Danielle’s death was hard on her too. She disappeared for four years as none of us could handle her mourning. It would drive any witch insane.
But she came back and chose me. We needed each other, and she’d been a true companion since.
The shifters stopped pretending to be Danielle when Minaut sniffed out the truth.
See, she left something with Danielle that only a wisp could see. It never dies. It never fades. And she was a vicious wisp.
Nobody wants to die like that.
But I long for those days too. That hope that maybe she didn’t die that night.
That the body we found in my father’s burn down study wasn’t her. It was planted, just like Sebastian claimed their evidence was planted.
He was my blood brother, and he swore on his life that he didn’t do that. He loved Danielle like a sister. She was a great friend to him too. He simply didn’t know she was in there when they set the castle on fire.
I presumed by now he was dead too. Nobody could survive the banishment. That world soaked up witches. They can never escape. Even with Sebastian’s abilities, I would’ve known, felt him if he were still alive.
His dad, Luke, was the head of our security, part of the royal council and one of the best influencers in my father’s decisions.
They should’ve died for what they did, but my father showed mercy when they pleaded not guilty.
So, he banished them.
His wife couldn’t part without their belongings and was burned alive with the house.
A life for a life.
I should’ve seen the signs, all the things that went wrong when Eric got cursed. It took him a long time to wangle his agenda, to let it play out.
I still don’t know what he wanted to do. Destroy our family line? What?
The signs were all there now that he played out his agenda carefully, that he was patient.
Luke took years, and I was too stupid to see it back then, but it all fell in place when Danielle burned that night.
What he planned all those times to get back at us for cursing his son. We didn’t curse him—I have no idea who cursed Eric.
But Luke and Abigail blamed us for it for a long time. They never did forgive us the way they said they did. He never trusted my father to get to the bottom of it, and he simply took my beloved’s life for the life his child should’ve had. I would always remember that day like it happened yesterday.
I didn’t want to. I wish I could forget, and I wanted to drink the Forgotten potion so many times, but I couldn’t get myself to do that either. I would rather spend a life without her, knowing her the time I did, than have a life where she didn’t exist at all.
I passed out. When I came to, I heard my father and mother’s speaking to one another.
“Just give him the p
otion.”
“He needs to deal with her death. It’s been ten years, Eli.”
“He loved her with all his heart, Magdel, like I do you. A love like that should’ve lasted him fifty years, not the pathetic five he got. Give him the potion—your way is not going to work.”
I heard his steps coming, and I pretend to be asleep.
The sun was setting. Everyone was probably getting ready for supper.
My sister, Mila, walked into the bar where I sat in front of my computer.
“It’s our vacation, Marick. The boys want to be with you. Please, join us for dinner.”
I looked up and our gazes found each other. We stared at each other a long time. Tears pooled into hers. She shook her head and walked out.
I wanted to be left alone, to deal with this time I always dealt with. Another day would pass soon and then after that, only three more days to go.
I can’t deal with any of it awake.
And my mother would soon realize it for herself.
I didn’t go to dinner. I took my dinner in the form of a glass with ice and a bottle of brandy.
We got a bit of reception closer to land, and I checked my email.
I got an email from Grace. She sent me the production figures. I opened the email to see that she asked me if I got it. She always double checked.
I checked my inbox again but there was no production figure email. I went in my spam folder and found the file in there.
I was about to open the email, marked it as not spam, when my eyes skidded over to another a few emails below it. The subject was, “Marick, Urgent.”
The sender name contained a lot of numbers. The sender was someone I didn’t know. I clicked on in.
The email only had a video, a phone number (looked like a European one), and a message with two words next to the number, “call me.”
I downloaded the video and hit the play button.
I froze as Luke, older by ten years from when I last saw him, appeared on the camera. Hate immediately filled my core. I haven’t heard from him in eight years. Sebastian tried for two years to reason with me. The last time we spoke, I told him, “If I find him, I will kill him, I wasn’t my father.”
“Marick, Eli, we didn’t do what they said we did.” My jaw clenched, and I was about to stop the video. “Don’t push the stop button because what I’m about to show you is evidence that we didn’t do it. You will regret it tremendously if you do.” It was as if he spoke directly to me. Magic? But they were stripped. They only had the magic they were born with.
“I have always told the truth. Give me the benefit of the doubt.” My finger hovered over the stop button as his words resonated with me. He spoke the truth at one time. I trusted him with my life as he proved once that he could be trusted, and so did my father.
“Sebastian found evidence in Paris a week ago, and I know whoever is behind this made sure that you would never find this, Marick.”
He addressed me this time, not my father. I squinted softly. What evidence?
His face disappeared and a newspaper dated two weeks back filled the screen.
“State your first and last name for me,” Luke said.
“My name is Danielle Laurent.”
I got goosebumps, and tears filled my eyes immediately. It was her voice the strong French accent. The camera zoomed out, and I lost my breathe. She was different. Scared. She looked older too, not like my Danielle, but her eyes, her eyes, said otherwise.
“Where are you from?”
“Paris,” she spoke softly.
“What happened ten years ago?”
Tears welled up in her eyes. She was still holding the newspaper, and it started to shake softly. “Please, don’t.” She begged. Her fear was real. She was never the afraid kind. She lived behind the veil for crying out loud. What was this?
“What happened ten years ago?!” Luke yelled. She flinched, and a tear rolled down her cheek. Her lower lip trembled. No, no, no. Not this again, please. She died. She died.
A tear fell down my own cheek.
“I was part of the Brolin case,” she said. Brolin case?
“The Brolin case?” Luke asked my silent question.
She nodded. “Brolin Maartin and his wife, Camille, kidnapped more than thirty women who were between twenty-two and twenty-five years old.” Her voice carried so much fear. I had to admit, this was new information.
“They did awful things to them, and I was one of their victims.” She sniffled. Tears pooled in her eyes.
Her mannerisms, even the ones I forgot, all screamed at me that this, this, was her, but she looked so different, wary, worn out. “I was held captive for five years.” She wiped a tear away, just like Danielle would. “I can’t remember what happened—my mind doesn’t want me to remember the details. I won’t be able to give you any more information.”
Her jaw set like it always does when she refused to speak more about anything, and she looked straight at Luke behind the camera.
“How did you escape?” he asked.
She looked away, shook her head, and shrugged. “My mind only worked again when I was found in front of the police station in Paris where all the victims were. The officer asked me again what my name was. I had no idea what I was even doing there,” she said firmly.
“Paris?” Sebastian voice came from the background, shocked like I was.
“Shh,” Luke said.
I touched the screen. Was this really her? How? I found her body. She was wearing my ring.
“Why do you think you are here?” Luke asked.
She squinted. “You’re not part of the Brolin case?”
“No, we’re not.”
She knitted her eyebrows until they formed a “T,” just like Danielle would.
“Then I don’t know,” she finally said and swallowed hard.
The questions stopped but Luke still recorded her. She looked into the camera. I stared at her. It was as if she was looking straight at me, scolding me, asking me, “Where the hell are you, Marick?”
Her gaze shifted to Luke again, or I assumed it was him. “Please don’t kill me.” I grounded teeth. “I don’t know Eli or Marick.”
I gasped, and then it stopped.
Luke’s face appeared again. He had tears in his eyes.
“I’m sorry that you had to hear that, Marick, but we didn’t do it. Sebastian found her wandering in Paris. She didn’t know who he was either. She’s safe. I had to shackle her because you know what this world will do to her if she leaves the house. I swear to you, it’s Danielle. Someone gave her the Forgotten potion that night and planted a body wearing your ring in that study. We didn’t set your home on fire—we had no motive. The evidence at my house was planted. Come look for yourself if you don’t believe me.”
The image went dark, and I stared at the screen for a few minutes as my mind was processing what I saw.
It was different than the others. They somehow found a way to survive all these years in that wretched place. He said Sebastian found her in Paris, meaning that he found a loophole out of that hellhole.
He surely was a gifted warlock. But was this Danielle—my Danny, my lost love. Did she truly not die that night?
Then again, if there was someone that could pull off a fake Danielle, it was Sebastian. Still, my soul was screaming, like it always does. I couldn’t trust myself.
I stopped as Minaut jumped into my mind.
I didn’t have to trust myself. I would simply take the wisp with me, and if the truth comes out like always, I finally have a reason to destroy that wretched family line—even Eric.
Chapter 7
DANIELLE
* * *
We all sat in the living room. How long are they going to keep me here?
Noir transitioned better than I did.
He loved this place, loved the attention he was getting from all of them.
Witches apparently had a thing for cats. Cats were like one of their accessories. To them, cats we
re a medium they could use, but in a respectful way, not in the way that humans would by making sacrifices.
They didn’t worship the devil like I thought.
Sebastian told me they weren’t human at all, just looked like them. They were an advanced race of witches, filled with magic. The things they could do they were born with and not given like other witches who were a part of a cult.
Witches were classified into four categories. You had the elemental witches, meaning that they were born with abilities. Eric was an elemental witch. He could control water. Not anymore though as his mind was blocked from his ability.
Then there were alchemists and spellbinders. And last were the witches that could shift into animals.
Most of his family were either alchemists or spellbinders.
They had no idea what Louise was as she had been in this world for the past ten years. Her ability never materialized for her.
Sebastian told me that Marick was a rare warlock. His ability was to persuade people. He feels that whoever was behind the fire wanted him to believe I was dead, wanted him to be off guard, and they knew taking me out of the equation would do just that.
From what it sounded like, this Marick really loved me.
But still, he hasn’t phone yet.
Maybe he saw what I knew deep inside my heart—that I wasn’t who they thought I was, that I was a doppelganger like Darius said.
I was reading a book, sitting in the couch. Another headache was forming. I was getting them lately, and I guess it had to do with this place.
Luke’s phone rang out of the blue, and everyone stared at him.
I did too. Even he did.
Luke looked at Sebastian before answering the call. “Luke speaking.” He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “I told you, Sebastian found her wandering in the street a few weeks ago. It took you long enough to answer our call.” He sounded stern, but it was evident that it was either Eli or Marick on the line. “She didn’t die that night, Marick. What more proof do you want? You stripped us of our magic. And if you think Sebastian would do this to you, you are a fool.”
Playing With Fire Page 25
