I sit back in my chair and soften my gaze.
How could I possibly be one of the most powerful necromancers in the area, when I feel anything but powerful?
Flipping open the next book, I stare down at a set of old newspaper clippings spanning from super old—up until about a decade ago, by the looks of it.
I skim various clippings about stranger-than-normal goings-on in this town, supernatural news coming out of the academy, and I’m about to close the book when a picture catches my eye. It’s the scenery more than anything, because it’s almost the same view I was just enjoying a few days ago from my bedroom window.
POSSIBLE DROWNING AT BLACKWOOD MANOR
WINDHAVEN—October 10th, 2009
Authorities were called out to the residence of Mr. Lyle Blackwood after an urgent 911 call was made from someone inside the home claiming a seven-year old girl had fallen into the pond on the property.
No body was recovered at the scene, though divers were sent in and the pond was later dredged.
Mr. Blackwood was at the home, and reportedly retrieving lifejackets from the family boathouse when she went missing. Based on evidence collected, he is not a suspect at this time. The investigation is ongoing.
Surprised, I sit back, staring into the sea of books and shelves in front of me.
I never drowned. I never died or went missing. What on earth is going on here?
Could I have a…twin sister?
My memory of the girl in the photograph resurfaces. She looked like I did, but slightly different. And I know for a fact I never had clothing like whatever she was wearing.
Would my parents have hidden a sister from me? Is that why they separated when I was so young?
Raking my fingertips over my forehead, I turn the page to the next set of stories.
BLACKWOOD PLEADS FOR LEADS
WINDHAVEN—October 20th, 2009
It has been ten days since the disappearance of Mr. Lyle Blackwood’s seven-year-old daughter. The mystery upon her disappearance and who made the 911 call the day of her disappearance continues to swirl. While the 911 call from the home was that of a woman’s voice, new evidence was uncovered that Mrs. Blackwood was visiting family in Mistwood Point at the time of the incident.
Mr. Blackwood is urging anyone with any information to contact him directly or speak with the authorities.
I scrunch my face, trying to make sense of what I’m reading.
Someone called from the house, but Dad was out in the boathouse… How is that possible?
Continuing, I search the next page.
NEW EVIDENCE EMERGES ON MISSING BLACKWOOD GIRL
WINDHAVEN—October 23rd, 2009
New evidence suggests a possible supernatural explanation for missing Blackwood girl. Windhaven Academy experts were brought in to survey the scene of the Blackwood pond and energetic psychics found traces of a possible Vodník attack. After thirteen days missing, positive outcomes in the case are not looking good.
Mr. and Mrs. Blackwood are appealing to any and all supernatural beings and witches to aid them in the search and to find their daughter and bring the Vodník to justice.
I cover my mouth with my hand, unable to move my eyes from the word: Vodník.
Trembling, I flip the page to one last entry.
MISSING BLACKWOOD GIRL FOUND, WET & CONFUSED
WINDHAVEN—October 31st, 2009
Authorities were called out to Blackwood Manor after Lyle Blackwood’s missing daughter was found on the property’s dock, soaking-wet and confused. The frigid October air had nearly frozen the water to her frail body, but she is in otherwise good health. She is being treated at Windhaven General Hospital for hypothermia.
She has no recollection of her missing time, nor any details on the Vodník. A public search is ongoing to capture the creature.
My heart feels like it’s about to burst from my chest, and I can’t seem to settle it down. The twins had mentioned this had happened before—the missing girls, the Vodník—but everyone failed to mention the one it happened to looked like me.
Chapter 23
Surprise
Cat and Colt pick me up at the library, and for some reason, I can’t seem to shake the intense feeling that I’m on the precipice of something big—monumental, even. I have the overwhelming urge to call my Mom, but I know she’ll tell me I’m nuts. Or worse…want me to come back to Mistwood because I don’t belong here.
“Do I have a twin sister?” I blurt out, unable to restrain myself any longer.
“What? Why would you think that?” Cat asks, chancing a quick glance over to me before turning her gaze back to the road.
“Well, I found something weird. Like, something that’s unusual even for my world.” I snicker. “I found this picture, and it’s got a girl who looks like me, but I swear it’s not me. She’s wearing clothes I don’t remember, and something is, I don’t know, off about her smile.”
Colt clears his throat and leans back in his seat.
“Oh, turn here,” I say, pointing to our driveway.
“Yeah, I know,” she chuckles, tapping her blinker and turning right.
“Where did you find the picture?” Colt asks.
I weigh my options on just how much I want to tell them. Ultimately, though, I realize that I can’t do this alone.
As Cat comes to a stop in the front circle of our driveway, I unbuckle my seatbelt and twist around. “You know, it might be easier to show you both. Come on.”
The three of us exit the vehicle and head up to the front door. As I reach for the doorknob, Cat leans in, whispering something in Colt’s ear, but I can’t make it out. All I catch is, “should we?”
Pulling my eyebrows in, I shake my head and swing the door open.
“Dad, I’m home,” I call out. “I have the Gilberts with me if you’d like to stop and say hello.”
Cat and Colt take their shoes off at the door just as dad descends the stairs.
He feigns a smile that I’m sure looks genuine to Cat and Colt but looks forced to me.
“Nice to have you home, but I have errands to run, sweetie,” he says, refusing to acknowledge Cat and Colt as he continues through to the kitchen.
I shuffle awkwardly, hoping the twins don’t take offense. I make a mental note to dig more into the frigid air around the Gilberts.
“Okay, well, I guess we should keep going,” I mutter, trying to change the subject.
Cat and Colt exchange an odd look.
“So, there’s more than the picture I need to show you,” I start, “but please, don’t tell anyone else. At least, not until I figure out what the hell it all means. Deal?”
The twins both nod, but neither of them say a word.
Nodding to myself, I tilt my head. “All right, follow me.”
As we walk down the hallway toward my room, Cat’s eyes are everywhere. The walls, ceilings, floors.
“This place, it hasn’t… I mean, it’s amazing,” she whispers.
“Right? It’s like living in a museum sometimes, though,” I say, opening my bedroom door.
Colt is the first to step inside as I hold the door open for them. Cat follows afterward, tipping her head in thanks.
I drop my backpack on the floor beside my desk, and step into the middle of the room.
“All right, so I really need your help in sorting all of this out. There’s been a lot of weird coming at me and after the conversation with Dominic, and the stuff I read at the library, I don’t know what to believe anymore. But this—this has really freaked me out,” I say, walking over to my dresser and giving it a shove.
The twins gasp audibly, as I twist the handle to the hidden door. When I turn to look back to Colt and Cat, both of them carry the same expression—eyes wide and mouth dropped open.
“How? Was that always here?” Cat says, not removing her eyes from the doorway.
I shake my head. “No, it was hidden behind wallpaper. Then, when I uncovered it, the door handle was missing. Bu
t…” My voice trails off as I try to figure out how to explain it just showed up.
“But?” Colt urges.
“But then one day, I was led to it.”
“What?” Cat mutters, her eyebrows flying up to her hairline.
“Come on, I’ll show you the rest and you can decide for yourself if I’m nuts or what,” I say, bending down and entering the stairwell.
Soft light filters through the little window, but we only have another hour or so before it really gets dark. Pulling out my cell phone for more light, I shudder away the draft and lead the way.
Their footsteps behind me echo down the staircase as we creak our way to the bottom. A gnawing sense of guilt washes over me because Wade would be so upset that he wasn’t the first I brought down here. He was with me when I found the doorway, after all.
“Whoa, this is creepy,” Cat whispers.
As we turn the corner at the bottom of the stairs, she pulls up short and gawks.
“Did you light those?” Colt asks, ever the pragmatic one. He raises his hand and points to the candles on the little table.
I shake my head.
His dark eyebrows tug in and he takes a step closer to inspect them. “This is an altar,” he says, running his fingertips over the pentacle.
“I figured,” I say.
Cat steps forward, picking up the frame. “Is this…this is the one you were talking about, right?”
I nod.
Cat passes it to Colton without saying a word. He holds onto it, his expression as stoic as a statue.
“You have to understand…” Colt says, setting the frame back down on the altar, “our families have been here a long time. All of us—the Gilberts and the Blackwoods, not to mention Dom’s family, we have a certain history.”
“I get that. But what about this?” I say, shaking my head and opening my arms wide to suggest the whole space.
Cat steps forward. “Who do you think left this behind? What are your guesses?”
I flit my gaze to her and shrug. “How should I know?”
“You should, because I’m pretty sure… Ugh, I’m pretty sure it was you,” she says, her eyes refusing to stray from mine.
I snort indignantly, “What?”
“This was your bedroom before, right?” she offers. “Upstairs?”
“Yeah, but so what?” I say, clearly not following her.
“And you also said you found the doorway—and that you’re seeing ghosts,” she whispers, looking at me from under her eyebrows.
It still sound so ludicrous when it’s said out loud.
“Yes, I’ve seen Abigail,” I nod, wishing she’d just spit out what she’s getting at. “She’s not super happy about being dead.”
Colt inhales sharply, and they share another significant glance.
“And…I take it you found out more in the library today,” she continues.
I roll my eyes, circling my right hand in the air to urge her to hurry up.
“What Cat’s trying to say is, we think it’s time to tell you more about the Blackwood curse,” Colton says, his eyes suddenly dark and serious. “At least, what we know of it. Maybe this time it will stick.”
My heart races. This isn’t the first time a family curse has been brought up. Walking away from them, I blow out a puff of air and run my hands over my face. I take a beat before twisting back around. I first look at Cat, then Colt. Splaying my arms out, I tilt my head to the side. “Okay, let’s do this. I’m ready.”
“Maybe we should go upstairs so you have a place to sit down?” Colton suggests.
I shake my head. “I’m a big girl. And I’ve waited long enough. So spit it out.”
“You know the Vodník? The last time this happened, a girl went missing,” Cat begins. She glances down, fiddling with the bracelet around her wrist. “A Blackwood girl.”
My heart races as my mind flips back to those pages at the library. This is it. This is exactly information I was looking for…
“You were the missing Blackwood girl, Autumn. You don’t have a long-lost sister or a twin, okay. We believe—well, we think the Vodník took you and somehow, you managed to get away,” Colt whispers.
“Okay, now I know you’ve lost your ever-loving minds,” I say, shaking my head and backing away. “If I were kidnapped and escaped, I’d remember. I’d remember something as monumental as that.”
“Your bloodline has a long history of pissing off the wrong supernatural beings—angels, demons, maybe even gods. But your ancestry is so powerful. Think about it. You see Abigail, you connect with spirits like they’re real people, maybe you even call them to you and don’t even realize… Whether you know it or not, you have the power of resurrection and spirit summoning. It’s your birthright. But you don’t know how to harness it because...” Cat’s voice trails off.
“Because your mom took you away from us,” Colton finishes for her.
I try to make sense of what they’re saying. Part of me wants to tell them they’re absolutely mad. The other part of me, a deeper, more innate part—is scared that they might be right.
“She what?” I finally whisper, narrowing my gaze.
“After your…accident, she wanted to protect you. Who knows what was really going on in her mind? No one really knows except maybe your dad. The point is, you should have had the tools you needed long before now so you could understand the powers you really possess. We were all in the process of training together before, but you don’t even remember,” Cat says, her voice trailing off. “You were learning how to summon spirits, while Colton and I were learning to manage our elemental magic. We’ve seen what you could do firsthand—”
Blinking wildly, I back away. “This doesn’t make any sense.”
“What do you remember from the last time you were here?” Colt asks.
“I dunno. Mostly that I was stuck in here and couldn’t do anything. I was bored to tears and I hated it. Hated my dad. Hated everything. It was a relief to finally go away,” I say, shrugging.
“What if I can give you an alternative history on what happened?” Colt whispers, stepping closer and placing his hands alongside my upper arms.
His hands are warm and the contact sparks the same orange and blue flames, igniting them along my triceps. I stare down at them mesmerized by the swirling vortex.
“Dru—you did it. Are you down here?” a voice calls out from the top of the stairs.
My eyes widen and my heart suddenly feels far too big for my chest as it thumps awkwardly.
Only one person in the whole world calls me Dru.
“Wade?” I sputter, twisting away from Colt and Cat and racing to the bottom of the stairs.
Wade’s signature leather jacket, dark hair, and silver eyes come into view as he crouches in the doorway.
“Hey,” he says, his eyebrows tugging in, “is it as creepy as I imagine? Can I join you?”
I cast a gaze over my shoulder, widening my eyes and mouthing to Cat and Colton to stay put.
Racing up the stairs, I crouch to get out into my room.
“I was—” I stumble for words, “w-what are you doing here?”
His silver-gray eyes lock with me and he grins. “I couldn’t leave things the way they were after our last conversation. I scheduled an alternate PCA to come in so I could leave a day early. I wanted to surprise you.”
“Ha—well, you definitely accomplished that,” I snicker, trying to get my nerves under control.
“God, you look… I’ve missed you,” he says, his eyebrows tipping up in the middle as he pulls me in close. His heady scent of sandalwood and soap draw me in and the strange sense of safety only he brings wraps around me like a blanket.
“I’ve missed you, too,” I whisper, melting into him. For a moment, I almost forget about Cat and Colton in the sub-basement. After all the confusion and crazy, I’m so glad to have him here. He brings things back into focus, as well a sense of stability and normalcy.
“I saw another SUV parked in t
he driveway. Is your dad finally here so I can meet him?” Wade asks.
Behind me, someone clears their throat and I lift my head off Wade’s chest to stare into Colt’s wide eyes.
“Oh, I didn’t realize you had anyone else down there with you,” Wade says, suddenly serious as he glances from Cat to Colt. His eyes rest a beat longer with Colton and he straightens his shoulders. “I’m Wade, Autumn’s boyfriend.”
My insides constrict at the heavy layer of testosterone that’s managed to seep into the space around us.
Colt’s lips press tight, but he recovers quickly, nodding to himself. Shoving his hands in his pockets, he constricts back into himself, becoming the guy I met the first day of school and no longer the self-assured guy I was beginning to see.
Breaking away from Wade, I sweep my arm out. “Wade, this is Cat, er, Caitlyn, and her brother, Colton.”
Wade thrusts out a hand to Cat, who shakes it quickly. Her smile is authentic, but she shifts back awkwardly as soon as Wade releases her hand.
When he does the same to Colton, the best he gets is a glance at his outstretched limb. Wade arches an eyebrow, but as Colt meets my wide eyes, he sighs, nods, and extends his hand anyway.
“I’ve heard a lot about you both. I’m glad I finally get the chance to meet you,” Wade says. His natural, good-natured aura is more closed off than I’ve ever seen it before, but I can tell he’s trying hard not to be completely uptight.
“Yeah, same,” Cat agrees, nodding. She glances from Wade to Colt. “You know, Autumn, we really appreciate you showing us the…basement. But we really should get going.”
“Agreed,” Colt says, heading for the door.
“Thanks for the ride, guys—and the insights,” I say, trying to sound more centered than I feel.
“No problem. We can talk more about everything later,” Cat says, shooting me a look of apology.
I tip my head in agreement. “Good.”
Cat rushes after Colt and, after a few moments, Wade turns to me. “So, that was Colt, huh?”
The Windhaven Witches Omnibus Edition : Complete Paranormal Suspense Series, Books 1-4 Page 19
