Turning the Stone (The Blood Rites Trilogy Book 2)

by S. L. Perrine

  The note sat on the desk still. The one that told a story of a young girl lost because of the death of her love. Next to it, the ring she was given by Daniel’s parents after they’d discovered it. She could go on no more, but her family swore she would never have done such a thing.

  Marcus entered the room as Gwen closed the book and stood to leave.

  “And?”

  “If I told you there was no magic performed in this room, what would you say?”

  “I’d say Crystal lost faith in the ways of our world when she lost Dan. She stopped being a witch. I wouldn’t doubt it at all. She was so depressed.” Marcus kept his eyes averted from his sister. He side-stepped the doorway letting Silas and Gwen leave the room behind.

  “Then you wouldn’t be surprised to know she did this to herself?”

  “No, I wouldn’t. Mom swears her baby would never do it. I say she couldn’t handle it anymore.”

  “Handle what?” Silas and Gwen asked in unison at the top of the stairs.

  Marcus looked down to make sure his parents weren’t in the house. Alistair stood in front of the door, holding back anyone who tried to gain access.

  “She said she was hearing voices. Some told her to kill you, for Daniel’s death. Other’s told her to take her life to be with him. She said it didn’t matter the message. Every time, it was Dan’s voice,” he spoke to Silas. The voices wanted her to kill him. To take a life for a life, or end it.

  In the end, she did the only thing she was willing to. There were no traces of magic in the room or the entire house for that matter. The spell Gwen enacted looked for traces of magic in and around the home. None was found. They walked, hand in hand for a mile. They still found none. If someone was manipulating her, their reach was far.

  “Why not shift, and leave?” he asked after a while.

  “The voices? I don’t know. I don’t know if the thoughts of a person are the same when they shift.”

  “That would be interesting to know.” Silas looked behind them for Chester. He’d shifted and followed the car on all four. Being in the middle of town meant he wouldn’t be able to shift back if need be. As an animal, he could attack at will. The tawny mountain lion was well hidden by the trees that surrounded the town. Silas could still make him out by the feel of his heart beat. It was heavy and irregular. His breaths labored. Silas could feel his heart beats in his head as his blood pressure rose. “Did you find someone?” He spoke low, but knew the animal would be able to hear him.

  “Raoow,” the mountain lion yelled.

  “What was that?” Gwen noticed Silas concentrating.

  He saw her look to her father, who caught her eye and started yelling obscenities at the crowd. The police had arrived and the coroner was retrieving the body. Causing a scene would allow Gwen to close her eyes, link hands with Silas and reach into the gifts of her family.

  “I found Chester,” she said, eyes still closed.

  Silas looked for Finis and Hex. They would be in the wood as well. Then he looked over at the only other shifter not accounted for. Marcus saw them and ran. He ducked into the woods and shifted mid run. The coat of a gray wolf ran after the white one and the red fox stayed close to the town. He’d be the look out around the people.

  Silas, with the extension of the coven’s powers, given by the rite could feel the animals chasing after three men. He closed his eyes once he was satisfied nobody was looking their way. The men wore all black. Their faces covered by black masks pulled over their heads. Chester caught one by grabbing onto the man’s arm with his muzzle. Silas should have been able to smell the coppery fragrance of blood with Chester’s bite, but there was nothing. The men had no scent. Chester tried to smell it, tried to taste him, but there was nothing still. The man ripped free of the cat’s muzzle and kept running.

  “It’s like they’re not human,” Gwen said first.

  “You mean they are witches, or not people at all?” Barnaby had snuck up next to them.

  “Neither, witch nor man. They don’t bleed.” She opened her eyes looking confused.

  Silas looked at Alistair as he joined them. The red and blue lights of the police car were disappearing around a corner as they followed the coroner away.

  “They have no scent. I piggy-backed Chester. They were not real men,” he said to his father-in-law.

  “Golems. Who would need to use Golems?” Alistair asked rubbing the short hairs on his chin.

  Chapter XV

  “Who attacked them?” Sigmis pounded the top of his desk. “I said I was giving Silas a chance to redeem himself. He knows what the cost of his mission is. He will not fail me. Do you doubt me?” he yelled at the men and women in the room.

  Together they all shook their heads. None willing to speak for fear of retribution.

  “My insider says he is right where we want him. Now the covens will start blaming him again for the death of one of their own. He won’t have their trust. He needs to have it, right to the very end.

  “Oh, get out. What do any of you know? I know my son. He will not fail me.” He waved a hand at his audience.

  Sigmis paced the fifteen feet of the study. He knew his son. He told him the importance of their mission. He knew what he had to do, and had no reason to believe he had betrayed him. Silas had spent the last few months gaining the trust of all the covens. As a high priest of the Silver Shadows, he was in the position to take over when Sigmis’ partner took Gwen out. Then Silas would have control of them all.

  Sigmis knew his son would willingly hand over that position to his father. In the end, the curse on their family would be broken. Future generations would never have the worries of what the rest of their lines had dealt with.

  All he had to do was wait until the girl gave birth to a boy. Giving that child the Sigmis name, and the powers of both the Crawford and Sigmis lines, the child would be able to open the ring and give Sigmis the immortality he rightfully deserved.

  He’d studied the black and silver book of moons from front to back. Nowhere in the book, was the spell that Seth had coveted. His journals said it was in there. In a code of some sort. He’d found it once, but had been driven mad before he could put it to use.

  When Seth had given the book back to Seraphina it had ended his curse, but not the one that stayed with the family. Each Sigmis born lost a little bit of their magic as the line went on. Eventually, Sigmis would suffer the fate he had watched his father and grandfather before him endure. No power at all. Dementia. The rest of his life lived with the aid of nurses and caregivers. He would not end that way.

  With the immortal curse, he would not end at all.

  He just had to believe his son would pull it all off. Sigmis would play his part when it became time. Until then, he had ordered all of his people to stay away from Springfield. He would figure out who had disobeyed him, and he would put a stake through his eye.

  Chapter XVI

  Silas couldn’t believe it. They’d found themselves on the cusp of the vision. No matter how hard they tried not to make it come, it was happening. The rug was set in the middle of the foyer. The trap door to the underneath of the house was finished and the path below completed as well.

  Gwen saw the curtains in a store and admired them before she remembered where she’d seen them, then walked out of the store empty handed. Her mother showed up three days later with them in a bag. A home welcoming gift, she said. Gwen refused to tell her about the baby when she found out she was pregnant. Silas wondered how they were supposed to celebrate the child when his wife was so stressed. With the growth of her belly the closer they were to the fire.

  They told no one the details of the vision. Only Chester had ever seen it. Even he wouldn’t comment. He knew he wasn’t in it, probably struggled with the reason why. Silas told him it was best if he weren’t there, so they could make it through with their plan, and he’d reluctantly agreed.

  Silas watched on as Gwen cried herself to sleep each night while she rubbed her growing belly.
The plan was in motion. It was all mapped out, and still, she worried something would go wrong.

  “Remember the vision of us with our daughter at her wedding?” he simply said each night. Telling her the future could not be altered so much that the vision of that day would change. Still, she cried. Be it hormones or fear he didn’t know. She’d kept her walls up since the day they found out they were expecting. She spent less and less time in the house. Only going home at night to sleep. Some nights she’d spent the night in her old room at her parents’ house.

  Silas couldn’t fault her that since her mother had fallen ill again. She spent most days by her side. Reluctantly allowing the woman to fight the cancer again on her own.

  That was a conversation he usually walked in on when he’d found his wife at the farm.

  “But why? I can heal you,” Gwen yelled at her mother.

  “Gwen, sweetie. We have been through this. More times than I care to. I don’t want anything to do with being a witch. I gave it up years ago, and for good reason,” Isabelle spoke low and coughed between words.

  “I know, but you’re hard headed.”

  “Gwen, your mother said no. Can’t you just leave it at that?” her father pleaded.

  They had gone to the farm together for an invitation to dinner. Neither of the Crawford’s could figure out where the invite had come from, but they dinned regardless.

  “You can’t expect magic to heal her when she’s spent so many years turning her back on it anyway.”

  “Sabina. That’s enough,” Alistair scolded his daughter.

  “Why would you speak like that of the woman that gave you life?” Gwen jabbed.

  “She was just a conduit. My soul would have been born regardless. Grandma Peggy told me so.”

  “Margaret. You know my mother never went by Peggy.” Isabella coughed again, making Gwen resume her earlier fit.

  “Mother, please. Let me at least ease your suffering.”

  “Oh, fine. As long as it’s only temporary, and only the cough,” Isabella gave in.

  Gwen, seeing a small victory stood to go to her mother’s side. She placed her hands on the backs of her shoulders and let her magic fill her chest, lungs, and throat. She waited for a beat then moved gingerly back to her chair.

  “When’s the baby coming? Will it be soon?” Cinnabar rubbed her protruding stomach as she passed him to take her seat. Silas watched his bride cringe and saw the look on her family as she did.

  “Oh, yeah. Should be late October,” he finally answered when she was seated next to him. She found his hand under the table and Silas tangled their fingers together giving her a slight tug.

  “Something I said?” Cinnabar asked looking around the table.

  “No, I’m just a bit nervous.”

  “Any chance you two have picked out names?” Isabella asked, the excitement of having a grandchild plastered across her face.

  “Yes,” Gwen said then stuffed a large bite of lasagna in her mouth.

  “Well?” her father asked.

  Silas saw how this was going to go. So, without prompting he answered for Gwen who was trying to avoid the conversation; willing it to go away.

  “Her name will be Elyse Margaret Crawford.”

  “After Gran?” Sabina sat up a bit straighter at the mention of the baby’s name.

  “Yes,” Gwen put her fork down, “and before you ask, we both decided on her having Crawford as the last name in honor of my lineage. If we ever have a boy, he will be a Sigmis.”

  Silas could see the eyes growing in confusion over the comment. He was ready for a plethora of questions and wondered how she wanted to answer them. He’d tried to ask her before they left the house. It was, of course, a common thing for people to start inquiring about the child once it became more apparent of its existence. The farther along Gwen became, the more withdrawn about the child she’d become. However, Gwen had not wanted to discuss it then either.

  “What do you mean if? Are you not planning on having more children?” Her mother looked close to tears.

  “Mom, I don’t know if I am going to have this child.” With that, Gwen stood from the table and ran from the house.

  Silas was left alone to answer the questions she’d left them all with. Alistair looked at him first. He could never divert any story from the old man, but it was Sabina who asked the first question.

  “Is she having problems with the pregnancy? Is that why you know what it is already? Isn’t it too early for that?” Sabina asked question after question, not giving him time to answer. She looked like she was doing the calculations in her mind.

  “Alistair, remember when I told you I had a vision, and that was why I’d come here?”

  “Yes.”

  “Well, let’s just say the first one was of Gwen and I. In that vision, she was really pregnant. Snow was on the ground, and our house was on fire.”

  “What?” He got in unison from around the table.

  Only Sabina sat quiet waiting for him to finish. The rest were asking questions that Silas couldn’t keep up with.

  “Listen. The thing is we don’t know what happens, to us or the baby. However, in a future vision, we saw our daughter.”

  “How do you know she’s the first child? What if she’s a second or third?” Sabina asked him looking to where her sister disappeared. She rubbed her hand through the short pixie cut a top of her head, then stood.

  “We don’t. We’ve just assumed since we haven’t seen what is to become of us after the fire.” Silas stood, wiped his face on his napkin and dropped it on his plate. “I think I should take her home.”

  “What about precautions? How far along is she when the fire happens?” Sabina took a step toward the door then stopped. “Is it an attack?”

  Silas looked down at the rest of the family. Those he’d come to care for as his own. He didn’t know what to tell them. He had little to no information himself. Though he did leave out the bonding vision they had of Elyse. The fact that he and Gwen were there. He didn’t know why, but he felt that vision was private. Something for him and his wife to share among themselves.

  “I believe so. There are men outside of the house. I’ve tried to take precautions. You know about these things,” he spoke to Alistair. “I don’t know what would happen if we tried to change it. I know as of right now the baby will be fine. I just don’t know about us.” He looked toward the front door. “I have to go.”

  Silas found her sitting in the car. She was sitting cross-legged on the seat. Her hands cradling her face. When he got in and started the engine she looked at him.

  “How much did you tell them?”

  “All of it.”

  “How did they take it?”

  “I’m not sure. About as good as you’d expect I suppose.”

  “Take me home.”

  The next day Silas woke to Gwen at the kitchen table. She was drawing the route for their escape. There was a blue cloth sitting next to her, and a bucket full of water at her feet.

  “What’s that?” he asked tapping his toe on the bucket.

  “I’ve decided I’m not letting this thing defeat me. We’ve got to be prepared. Nobody but our coven knows about the house in Dublin. Whoever attacks us here must think we’ve been burned down with the house. They can’t know we’ve escaped. In the meantime, I need to make sure our daughter isn’t injured. Smoke inhalation could kill her. So, I’m going to have a bucket of water in every room of the house, each will have a cloth like this in it. Whenever we’re attacked, I can grab a wet cloth to breathe through. That’s what the fire safety brochures say.”

  “And the pink stencils?”

  “To put in the nursery in the cabin. I got a crib too. We need to bring it up there. I was thinking we could take a ride this weekend.”

  Silas bent down, resting one hand on the back of the chair and the other on the table. He nuzzled her cheek with his nose. “Well, if it’ll keep you happy about having a baby, I’ll take you anywhere you want to
go.”

  “Really?”

  “Yes, really.”

  “Take me to Indiana.”

  Silas stood straight, looking at her with the shock. He had to ask her to repeat herself, and when she did he shook his head. “No. Never. Not there.”

  He left the room, stomping his work boots across the hardwood.

  “Silas, please. We have to look him in the eye and ask if he’s responsible for the death of his son and granddaughter. I need to know. If it’s him we need more to protect us. If not we may be able to get outta here without any problems. If it’s someone in our coven coming after us because they really aren’t ok with you and I being together…I need to know.”

  “No, anything other than that. I’ll call him.”

  “I can’t read him through the phone. You know better than that. Besides he can’t hurt us if we show up there. He’ll know we’ve told others where we are. We’ll take Finis and Hex, Marcus and Chester, too. Others as well if you’d like. Please.

  “Tell me you believe a hundred percent, that it’s him. That we have nothing to fear from those closest to us here.”

  “I can’t.”

  He felt defeated. His head started to pound. His heart followed. The room was closing in on him, but he knew it had nothing to do with fear of being in closed spaces. He’d finally become free of that family. He’d left his sisters behind, but even Bellatrix knew he needed to. Knew why he had to get out. Sure, she’d sent him letters asking him to come for her, but he’d not returned one in truth. Just in case their father intercepted one of them in return. He’d sent only reports of his actions there in Springfield. One when he and Gwen were wed, and another when he’d found out she was with child. He sent them to his sister as a way to let her know how things were progressing. She knew of the visions. She also knew she had nothing to suffer by staying behind. Sigmis would do nothing to her, for fear he would have to take care of Aryana himself. The one daughter that reminded him too much of the wife he’d lost.