“I honestly don’t know.”
“Surely they would have kept him imprisoned, in that case? Then his powers would be in their control.”
Lillith didn’t know how Brody’s powers worked, so she wasn’t sure if that would be the best thing.
“Maybe finding this out does explain everything and give Brody a defence, after all.” Tristan continued.
“Maybe.”
“You don’t sound convinced.”
Lillith shrugged.
Tristan squeezed her and kissed the top of her head. That was when Lillith heard the front door open, and felt the icy chill from outside.
She heard Uma call out, “Hello!”
Lillith sat up. “In here,” she called back.
Uma, followed by Cassandra and Angela, walked into the sitting room, looking cold. They had pale faces and bluish lips. All three looked grateful for the fire, and sat down close to it.
Lillith sat forward expectantly. “Well?” she said after several moments of silence.
Uma looked at her daughter. It was a thoughtful look. Lillith wasn’t sure how to read it.
She sat back on the sofa and folded her arms. “I made a massive mistake didn’t I?” she said, holding Uma’s gaze.
“We’ve all made massive mistakes,” Uma said. Her cheeks were rosy from the cold and her black hair skimmed her shoulders.
Lillith looked down. “Does them knowing that Brody’s an Assan put him in danger?” she asked.
Uma shook her head. “No.” She sighed. “They want him in the coven, though. His power mixed with ours will make us…” Uma glanced upwards, seemingly struggling to choose the right words. “…almost invincible,” she said.
Tristan leaned forwards. “Why do you need to be?”
“We’re expecting trouble from Arthur and his followers. Maybe during or after his trial. Having Brody and Lillith would mean we’re better equipped to deal with the trouble. It might even prevent it.”
Lillith narrowed her eyes. “Is that the reason they set him free?”
Uma breathed in. “Partly, but also because him being an Assan explains things.”
“Things?” Lillith asked. “To do with mine and Brody’s birthday? Something you haven’t told me about?”
Uma’s eyes glistened and she looked like she didn’t want to have this conversation. She hung her head. “Something I’d prefer not to tell you about.”
Lillith wasn’t satisfied with that. “Tell me,” she insisted.
Uma looked up. Her eyes pleaded with Lillith not to pursue this. “If you trust me, you won’t need to know.”
“If I become part of your coven, I’ll find out all the secrets anyway. So I’m going to find out, sooner or later.”
Uma looked down. “Maybe you will,” she mumbled to herself.
“Is it to do with my birth mam?” Lillith asked.
Uma looked up, frowning. “Birth mam?” she repeated.
“The woman we lived with back then. The evil witch that your coven was after. I know you said it might not have been our birth mam, but…” Lillith was recalling what Uma had told her once, but Uma didn’t look like she remembered.
Uma shook her head. “No, it’s not about some other witch. It’s about you,” she said, breathing out. She looked nervous.
Chapter 3: The Regression Spell
Lillith sat up straight, and glared at her mam. What she’d just said didn’t make any sense. Eighteen years ago, she’d only just been born, so how could any of it relate to her?
“Do you mean about the premonitions of me being an evil witch?” she guessed. Those premonitions were why her powers had been bound, and why Arthur had tried to kill her when they returned.
Uma shook her head. “They weren’t premonitions,” she said quietly.
Lillith sat forward, confused.
Uma sighed and looked at everyone’s faces around the room.
Tristan reached out his hand, and curled his fingers around Lillith’s. She squeezed back, gratefully.
Uma’s eyes rested on Lillith. Her face was determined. “The truth?” she said, more to herself than to Lillith. “Okay.” Uma closed her eyes for a second, and took a deep breath. When she opened her eyes again, Lillith saw fear in them. “The truth is that you are the evil witch that we went to stop.”
Lillith shook her head, confused.
Uma continued to talk. “You and Brody weren’t babies, you were adults, and you weren’t nice witches.”
Lillith felt Tristan squeeze her hand again. It was all she did feel, other than the beating of her heart. None of what her mam was saying was making any sense.
“We went there that night to stop you, Lillith,” Uma continued. “Not some other witch, but you.”
Lillith shook her head. She should probably ask a question right about now, but she couldn’t. She didn’t know what to ask.
“We’d tried to stop you, but each time you won, and one of us got hurt. You were too strong, even for an entire coven. Witches died, Lillith. Good witches.”
Lillith glanced at Tristan. He appeared to be as stunned as her. Lillith turned to Cassandra and Angela. They were watching her with sympathetic expressions, but they didn’t look surprised.
Uma continued talking. “We came up with an idea. Instead of trying to stop you, we would take your powers away. I’m not sure who came up with it, but we decided on the Regression spell. It was supposed to regress your powers back to what they were when you were young. Not take them away completely, just make you less powerful than us. Then we could…” Uma faltered. “Stop you.” She mumbled, lowering her eyes.
Lillith knew what she meant by stop. She meant kill.
Uma looked up. Her blue eyes glistened, and pleaded for forgiveness. “The spell didn’t work as we expected it to. It didn’t regress your powers, it regressed you. You both turned into babies before our eyes.” Uma shook her head. “You have to understand; this was impossible magic. No witch has ever been able to reverse time, yet here you were. Babies once again.”
Lillith felt numb. Her breathing was short and sharp. She didn’t quite know what to make of all this.
“Now we know why,” Uma said. “Brody’s Assan powers. His power can break the rules, go beyond what we know is possible. That’s why it’s such a special gift. Until we knew that Brody was an Assan, we all just thought that it was our collective power that had done it. Finding out that he’s an Assan means it all makes sense. It explains everything.”
Lillith breathed out. “So we’ve lived before, and we were evil?”
Uma nodded.
“And that’s why the coven hate us. That’s why they think we’re going to turn dark, because we’ve done it before?” Lillith shook her head. “The photo of me and Brody, the one that Arthur was looking at in my spirit walk. Is that real?”
“I assume it is.”
Lillith heard a buzzing noise in her ears. She breathed deeply, but it didn’t go away. Her heart was beating so hard that she thought it might beat out of her chest. Of all the things she’d found out over the past few weeks, this was the hardest to take. The picture of her and Brody wasn’t the only thing that made more sense, now that she knew. Arthur had told her that she had killed his wife. She wasn’t sure how she could have, since she was a baby at the time. Now, she knew that he was probably right, and she had killed his wife, which explained his hatred of her.
“Why don’t I have any memory of it?” Lillith asked.
Uma shook her head. “I don’t know. This is not familiar magic, so none of us know how it works. If I were to guess, I’d say it’s part of the spell; that both your mind and body were, sort of, reset.”
Lillith turned to Cassandra. “Are the coven right? Do I have darkness in me? Now that my powers have returned, will I become evil again?”
Cassandra shook her head. “We all have the potential to be dark. You have just as much chance of turning evil as Angela.”
That wasn’t a no. “You saw the devil in
my tarot card reading, once. Was that the darkness in me?”
Cassandra shook her head. “No. It was your powers returning, that’s all. I promise you that.”
Lillith struggled to breathe, and tears formed in her eyes. She turned to Angela. “You knew?” She watched Angela squirm and knew the answer to that. Lillith turned to Uma, next. Her mam. Her protector. “You’ve known all this time that I was an evil witch, capable of killing people?” The tears began to roll down her cheeks. “I don’t know who I am, any more,” she sobbed. “Or who I’m supposed to be.”
Lillith felt her hand being squeezed, and turned to Tristan. His dark eyes were filled with sympathy. She gazed into them, almost forgetting for a moment, but how could he love her now? How could he feel the same way about her? She was a bad witch. A killer. Lillith pulled her hand out of Tristan’s grip, and stood up. She couldn’t see through the blur of tears, and couldn’t breathe through the pain of it all.
Uma stood up and walked towards her with her arms out. Lillith knew that she wanted to hug and comfort her, but that wasn’t going to work. Lillith shook her head, and ran out of the room. It was cold outside, but she needed some air. She threw on a thick coat, a hat, some gloves and a scarf, and left the house, slamming the door behind her.
Chapter 4: Lightning
Lillith darted across the road, to the grassy section between the road and Whitley Bay beach known as The Links. It was darker here, away from the many street lights and Christmas trees in the windows. She kept running. The noise from the streets and houses disappeared, and was replaced by the angry crashing of waves against the shore. At the edge of the grass, Lillith ran down steps towards the promenade.
She stopped running and took a deep breath. The fresh, salty air filled her lungs. Tears were still streaming down her cheeks, and she was sobbing uncontrollably. Lillith walked to the barrier, and tried to make out the sea. There wasn’t much moonlight due to dark clouds, but there was just enough to see the odd twinkling movement amongst the vast blackness. It was enough to calm her sobbing. She rubbed the tears from her eyes, and began to breathe normally again. Her breaths were deep and sharp, but at least it felt like she was actually getting some air, now. She stared into the blackness, and focussed on the loud, rhythmic rolling of the waves. Her breath formed clouds of air in front of her.
After several minutes, she let go of the barrier and walked down the promenade. Now that she was calm, she felt the icy wind against her cheeks. She pulled her scarf over her mouth. Her breath filled the scarf and warmed her face.
Light snowflakes fluttered in front of Lillith. It was snowing. She held out a hand, and watched as a snowflake landed and melted on her glove. Another followed, then another. Lillith turned her head to the sky. It was an almost magical sight. Falling snow, like dancing fairy lights, appeared from the dark sky. Lillith pulled down her scarf, opened her mouth and stuck out her tongue. The snowflakes tickled. Lillith giggled. She didn’t feel evil.
Sadness overcame her. She tugged her scarf over her mouth again. A tear left a warm trail down her cheek. She lowered her head and continued to walk along the promenade until she came to the place where she’d performed magic with Angela for the first time. The shelters. Bricked up sides and an open front with an aluminium top offering some protection. The memory of Angela showing her how to move rubbish into a pile came back to her, and she smiled. She’d been so overwhelmed by the revelation that she was a witch, but it had been exciting to learn how to use her powers for the first time. That was before she knew about Arthur and the coven, and before she had any inkling of her past.
It’d only been two months, but already, Lillith’s powers were much stronger than they’d been then. When she was forced to drop her magic wand by Arthur, she’d assumed she’d need another one to be able to perform magic again, but that wasn’t the case. Lillith found that she could do magic without a conduit. She wondered if she could do what Angela had done then; create fire.
She looked around her. There was some rubbish on the ground – chip wrappers mainly – but most of it was wet. The pieces outside the shelter were covered in a layer of snow, already. The bits under the shelter looked more promising, although there weren’t that many. Lillith thought she might as well try. She moved some rubbish into a pile with her mind. She didn’t even need to use her hands any more. It was like she focused on being the wind, and simply blew the rubbish wherever she wanted it to go. Lillith gave a small chuckle.
Now she needed some sort of spark. Angela had used two stones, which she’d struck together, then added a sprinkling of magic to ensure it worked. Lillith would try the same. She found two stones, crouched by the pile of rubbish and struck the two stones together, willing them to create a spark. It didn’t work. She tried again. Still nothing. Anger welled in Lillith. This was easy magic.
“Light, you stupid thing!” Lillith cried. Suddenly, a bolt of lightning flashed from the sky, curled into the shelter and hit the pile of rubbish, creating an instant fire.
Lillith leapt back, and landed on her bottom on the cold ground, staring at the fire in disbelief. She’d done that. She’d summoned lightning. She sat, watching the fire, felt its warm glow and smelled the damp burning of the rubbish. Her heartbeat quickened. What was she actually capable of? Voices of concerned coven members rang in her ears, things like being consumed by power and wanting more, which could turn her dark. She could see how that might happen. Having power was intoxicating, and having power that could summon a bolt of lightning was dangerous and destructive. Her power was definitely a dark one.
Lillith stared at the fire. When her powers returned, she’d controlled fire during a Chemistry test. She wondered if she could do that again. Lillith concentrated on the fire. She imagined being the hot, orange blaze, and imagined intensifying. It worked. The fire grew so tall that it licked the top of the shelter. Good job it was aluminium and not wood. Wind caught the blaze and caused it to blow uncontrollably, so that it reached outside and melted a patch of snow.
A single flame stretched towards Lillith. It flickered in front of her face, as if it was looking at her, or waiting for her command. Lillith thought she saw her own face reflected in it’s amber glow. She held out her hand to touch it and it burned her glove, but didn’t scorch her skin. Somehow she knew it wouldn’t hurt and took off her glove, holding her naked hand out out towards the fire, allowing it to engulf her. It didn’t touch her skin. It was like there was a magical barrier between her and it.
Lillith cupped her hand, as if she was picking up water. She drew it out and watched as some separated from the main flame, which twirled back to re-join the main inferno. The small ball flickered in her hand. Lillith was holding fire. She swallowed, mesmerised by it. It still wasn’t touching her skin, more like hovering above it. Lillith walked out of the shelter with the fire in her hand, back towards the barrier, and looked out towards the sea. She drew her hand back, then threw the fire towards the sea, as if it was a ball. She watched as the fire flew through the air, lighting the sand as it passed overhead. It landed in the surf and fizzled out, leaving nothing but darkness again.
Lillith turned towards the fire, and summoned a great gust of wind to put it out. Black smoke filled the shelter. Lillith coughed at the smell of it, but she smiled. Excitement surged inside of her. She turned her attention to the snow, next. If she could control fire, and summon lightning, surely she could control snow as well. She focussed, and became the flurry of snowflakes. She came down harder and faster, so as to stop being blown about by the wind. Then she directed them into the shelter, smothering the ashes from the fire in a deep covering of white, fluffy, snow.
Lillith looked out to sea again. She felt powerful, and it was a nice feeling. She felt the rhythm and rumbling of the waves inside her, like the beat of a song. Closing her eyes, she imagined being out to sea and becoming the salty spray that covered the rocks after hurtling against them. She was the undercurrent that rushed away from the shore and raced back to
the deep, and was the rolling, crashing waves. She felt the pull of the moon, and the fluidity of the water.
A screeching sound pulled her back to body. A flock of seagulls flew overhead, squawking to each other. Lillith watched them disappear into the darkness.
They’re out late, Lillith mused, as their cries faded and silence returned. She turned away from the sea. The heat from the fire was long gone, and a coating of snow had fallen on her. She was shivering. It was time to go home and face it all. She needed to know more about who she was and what she was capable of, and knowing about her past self would help with that. Maybe if she understood her power, she’d be able to control it, and stop herself from turning evil.
Lillith threw her coat, hat, scarf and gloves onto the bannister, and marched into the sitting room. “How did I kill people?” she demanded.
Uma looked at her. Everyone else was gone, including Tristan. Lillith felt a strong pang of sadness that he hadn’t stayed or tried to find her. He must be so appalled by what he’d heard. He was probably packing right now, getting ready to leave this place, and her. He’d only come to Whitley Bay for a visit and had stayed longer than expected. He had no reason to stay.
Uma shook her head. “You didn’t kill anyone,” she said, sternly. “Lilly did.”
“Lilly was me.”
“Lilly was killed that night, and you were born. You have the same DNA, but that’s where it ends. If I didn’t believe that, I wouldn’t have taken you in.”
“Fine. How did Lilly kill people?”
“Different ways, Lillith. Do you really want to torture yourself over this?”
Lillith looked down at her hands. “I want to know what I’m truly capable of,” she said. “I have an entire coven who’s so scared of what I could become that they’re prepared to kill me. Maybe you shouldn’t have taken me in. Maybe you should have let them kill me. Maybe I should do it for them.”
Uma breathed in, startled. “Kill yourself!” Uma cried. “Are you really at that point?” She ran over to Lillith, and wrapped her arms around her daughter.
Ashes: Witches of Whitley Bay Book 2 Page 3
