“What did it look like, what you saw?” Lily pressed.
I groaned and tried to fight back the crushing disappointment that was creeping into my heart. Why did it even matter what I saw? Me seeing her didn’t tell me where she was, so what was the point?
“She was in front of a normal looking house with a small yard and trees. Could be anywhere—”
I was interrupted as the French doors suddenly swung open, and Ana, Cleopatra, Lily’s dad Jackson, and Arianna Van Arken walked in.
Ana looked positively alarmed when she saw me. She stared and brought a delicate hand to her mouth.
“Hi, Ana,” I said with a small smile.
“What happened? I thought you’d been Healed!”
“I was… I am. I just wanted to lie down for a sec. The cuts are all healed, and the blood will wash off. I’m fine.”
Now that I better understood my ‘episode’, I was feeling much more sympathetic toward her. I didn’t know how she’d managed to live with so much pain for so long and still be the loving and cheerful woman she normally was. Even what she nearly did to Nicholas… I certainly didn’t forgive it, but I felt like I could almost understand it. Because I’d been in her shoes.
Her face softened as she walked over to me. Her eyes were sad, but although I could feel some of her distress, it was nothing like before. Her energy was muted. While it was a welcome relief to be spared her internal anguish, I realized I also missed the warm, loving feelings that usually flowed so freely from her heart. I’d become so accustomed to them, I may have taken them for granted.
“My dear, Calista… I am so sorry about what happened to you!” She threw her arms around me, and I gingerly hugged her back. I needed to make nice, and I understood her pain, but I wasn’t so sure I was totally ready to forgive and forget and act like everything was back to normal between us.
“It wasn’t your fault,” I murmured as I pulled away. She stood there, searching my eyes, until Lily’s father, Jackson, finally cleared his throat.
“Excuse me, but we really should prepare the amulet in case she has another episode,” he said.
I turned to them and raised my eyebrows.
“You’re coming into one of your powers much stronger than anyone could have anticipated,” Ana began. “And while this is a good thing when you are ready, you’re not quite able yet to harness your great strength. That will come in time, but until then we need to protect you from yourself. We don’t want a repeat of this morning.” She gave me a wan smile.
I narrowed my eyes and studied her. “But I don’t really feel you right now.”
She nodded, and flashed me a jeweled hand revealing her magical Rings.
“Jackson, Cleopatra, and Arianna infused a protective enchantment that will temporarily guard you from my intense emotions, latent or otherwise.” Then she grimaced. “Since you and I are so close and related through blood, the connection is the strongest. So I pose the biggest threat at the moment. But we do need to insulate you from others as well. Clearly my home remedy isn’t strong enough for you anymore.” She glanced down at the flower bracelet encircling my wrist.
“What exactly are you going to do?” I asked, mildly uncomfortable with the thought of more magic being done to me that morning.
Cleopatra stepped forward. She looked so similar to her sister, Sophie’s mom. Both had that pleasant, matronly look that made you want to trust them.
“It’s a safe spell, sweetheart. No need to worry. We will charm your amulet so as to shield you from absorbing others’ emotions as your own. It is very strong, but perfectly safe. And it’s only temporary until you can learn to harness your power better.”
I felt a surge of elation, and I smiled at Ana broadly. Finally!
“Why haven’t we done this before? You know I hate being an Empath. We shoulda shut it down long ago!”
“This is not a spell to be taken lightly,” Jackson replied sternly. “We only do it now because your health, even your life, may be at risk if we don’t.”
I fumbled with my necklace and quickly unhooked its clasp. “Here you go,” I said. “De-Empath me already.”
But the second I reached out my hand to turn over my amulet, I felt a wave of doubt. I jerked it away again before Jackson had a chance to take it.
“Wait,” I said, stepping back.
They all looked at me. “What’s wrong?” Lily’s voice whispered in my head.
“Nothing, I’m just not so sure…”
“Calista?” I could feel Ana’s confusion.
“I—I just need a minute to think it over.” I tightened my grasp and brought the amulet back to my chest.
“What’s there to think over? You need a protection charm, and they’re here to do that for you. It’s no different than the spell for concealing your identity from Witch Hunters. We want you safe. We need you safe. This is a good thing we are doing for you.” Ana’s voice was patient, but I sensed a bit of irritation.
I tried to understand the source of my hesitation. Even though I’d always disliked my Empath ability, and absorbing others’ emotions had made my life downright miserable at times, it was a part of who I was. But more than just that, at least according to Nicholas, it was a big part of where I got my powers from. Didn’t he say something about if an Empath ‘tuned’ into something, there was nothing she couldn’t do? Was I willing to risk giving that up now, when I needed all the help I could get?
And Ana had just said that my emotional ties to her were the strongest because we were related by blood. So wouldn’t that make my connection with my mom even stronger? How could I ever hope to find her if I was an emotional zombie?
“Calista, give them your amulet. They haven’t got all day,” Ana chided. It was definitely muted, but I still felt her growing impatience.
I took another step back and glanced around at the six pairs of questioning eyes. Another thought struck me as I locked gazes with Lily and Sophie. Even if it was only a temporary spell to block out the bad feelings, it would also block out the good. And I didn’t think I wanted to lose the intense love I felt when Nicholas looked at me, or when my dad hugged me, or when I was hanging out with Sophie and Lily, and even Ana. It was too amazing to feel their affection for me. There was no way I wanted to shut that down, despite the risks.
“I just don’t think I need the spell… not yet anyways.”
“Of course you do,” Ana interjected. “You almost died earlier—”
“But I didn’t exactly know what was going on, did I? Now I do. And if my biggest threat is from you, what you did seems to have worked well enough. I barely feel you at all anymore.”
Ana frowned, obviously concerned. “Just because I’m your biggest threat doesn’t mean I’m your only threat. You could pick up on anyone you’re close to, and it could be too much for you to take.” Her eyes flicked to Sophie and Lily.
I gave a small nod. “I understand that, but I think I can handle it. If something bad starts to happen, like earlier with you, I’ll get away somehow. I’ll run away if I have to. And I won’t wish for my own death. I didn’t know better before, but now I do. And I haven’t had any problems before.”
I hoped her empathy-blocking charm worked both ways, and she couldn’t tell that I was being less than honest with her. The fact that I’d been so intensely distraught over the falling out with Lily and Sophie, as brief as it was, still concerned me. If I’d felt them that strongly, and from that far away, who knows what could happen to me if something really serious went down?
But I had no choice… we’d all just have to keep our feelings under wraps for a while. It wouldn’t be the worst thing to happen to us.
Ana was guarded. I knew she wanted to argue some more, but she surprised me by allowing a slight nod. “Very well. I can’t force you to do something against your will, even if it is in your best interest. This spell was designed to help you, but we can’t make you use it.”
“Thank you. I do appreciate it, and if it turns out
to be too much for me to bear, or something does happen, I’ll definitely keep my mind open to it. I’m not saying ‘no’ forever. Let’s just give it some time first… see how your spell works on you.” I gave Ana a small smile, hoping there were no hard feelings on her end about this. I needed to move forward with her, not backwards, and I didn’t need another thing for her to be upset with me about.
She nodded again, and scanned the room. Her gaze fell on the Looking Stone and her expression froze—but only for an instant. She quickly recovered and turned back to the others.
“I’m sorry to have dragged you over here for nothing—”
“Oh, nonsense,” Cleo replied jovially. “You know I love any excuse to walk around your gardens. I love that new birdhouse I saw out there.”
“And I know Delilah’s got some of her famous cheesy-cornbread muffins in the oven waiting for me to take home,” Jackson said with a rare grin.
“Oooh, I love those. Save some for me.” Lily smiled at her handsome father.
The three adults bustled their way out of the room, and Ana glanced at me over her shoulder. “Come along, girls. You don’t need to stay cooped up in here all day. Calista, after you’ve cleaned yourself up, would you like to come back over for dinner?”
“What about Dad?” The others walked on ahead as Ana and I trailed them down the long set of winding stairs.
“Oh, I think it should just be the two of us. It will be easy enough to arrange for him to have plans if need be.”
I nodded, even though I had no idea how I’d ever manage to eat anything. “Okay. Sounds good.”
“Are you all right?” Sophie asked when I rejoined her and Lily.
I nodded. “I feel fine now, really I do.”
“M’kay, cause my mom wants me to go home with her now, but I won’t leave you if you need us.”
“My dad wants me to go home, too,” Lily added.
“I’m fine, go ahead,” I assured them. “I need to go get cleaned up and ready for dinner with Ana. We’re going to try our little pow-wow again.” My mouth twisted into a grimace. As much as I dreaded another confrontation with Ana, I knew it had to happen. There was no getting around it.
They both leaned in and gave me a hug. As I felt their love flow through me and wrap my heart in a warm, protective embrace, I knew I’d made the right choice. There was no way I could live without feeling this, even for a day.
Even if it killed me.
Chapter 11. Guilt
Ana made sure my father was nowhere in sight as I stealthily made my way back to my room. I couldn’t even imagine his reaction if he caught me looking like this, like something straight out of a bad slasher flick.
After I had showered and scrubbed away any evidence of my earlier trauma, I put on fresh jeans and an emerald-colored cashmere sweater that reminded me of Nicholas’s eyes. I still had a few hours before I’d be expected for dinner, and for a moment I found myself at a bit of a loss as to what to do with my unexpected downtime.
It was a typical gorgeous day, even if it was a tad cool, and I wanted to do something that felt normal for a change—something to take my mind off the heavy drama. I made myself some fresh coffee, poured tons of caramel flavored creamer in it, grabbed a novel from my nightstand, and parked myself in a lounge chair on the patio outside my bedroom.
I put on my sunglasses to block out the sun’s glare as it set over the ocean, and started reading. I hadn’t finished one chapter when I heard it.
“Calista…”
I glanced up.
“Calista…”
I set my book down and stood up. “Nicholas?” I looked around, half expecting to see him. But that was stupid. There was no way he’d risk coming here now.
“Calista…”
I stepped inside my room and grabbed the small silver phone from its hiding place in my drawer. I shoved it in my pocket and hurried back outside, across the grass and toward the cliff, then down the slope to the shore. I searched the beach below, but didn’t see anyone. Not on Ana’s stretch, at least. Of course. If Nicholas had crossed the invisible barrier, I probably would’ve heard something.
I was keenly aware that I was being watched from above. So? I wasn’t doing anything wrong. No one ever told me I couldn’t come down here and sit on the rocks and watch the waves if I wanted to…
The eyes of the monstrous house remained on me as I made my way onto the pristine white sand. I climbed atop my favorite boulder, the one I liked to rest on sometimes after my daily runs to the pier. When I saw the tiny figure off in the distance, my heart swelled with love.
I made sure my back was facing the mansion and covered the phone with my sleeve. I pressed the buttons and held it to my ear, buried beneath my hair.
Nicholas picked up in half a ring. “I was worried about you,” he said as a greeting. “Something was wrong with you… I was about thirty seconds away from teleporting over there, ravenous gargoyles or not.”
I couldn’t help but smile at the sound of his voice. I’d spoken to him just the night before, but it seemed like so much longer than that. I lowered my head so as to hide my mouth in the crook of my arm. “I’m fine now. How did you know something was wrong?”
He paused for a moment. “I don’t know, exactly. Suddenly I just knew that something bad was happening to you…that you weren’t okay. I was out of my mind, but before I could figure out a way to get to you without making things worse, it seemed to go away. Like whatever had been wrong suddenly wasn’t anymore.”
“Are you telling me you’re an Empath, too?”
He chuckled. “I don’t think so…it wasn’t so much a feeling as it was a knowing. I just knew you were suffering and in pain. What happened?” I could tell he was trying to sound casual, but his voice was tense.
“You don’t want to know. It’s actually kind of embarrassing now that I think about it—”
“Now I’m really curious.”
I snuck a glance over my shoulder and rolled my eyes. “I guess I Empathed-out on Ana earlier, and it was really crazy. It’s no big deal, really. I just felt a bunch of her pain all at once, so it was kind of tough to take for a minute. But I’m fine now.”
He was quiet for a moment. “Are you saying that you felt her so strongly that it caused you great physical pain?”
“Yeah…”
Even from a distance I could see his posture stiffen. I couldn’t make out his features, but I knew he was staring at me, and I could picture the concerned look in his eyes.
“I don’t like this. I want you to come stay with me.”
“It’ll be fine, I promise,” I assured him. “Ana put some sort of emotion blocking charm on herself, and it won’t be a problem anymore.”
“What about other people? Ana’s not the only person who has feelings.”
“I’ll be fine.”
“How can you be so sure? I mean, look how you were at the cabin over Lily and Sophie, how upset—”
“Yes, but that’s because I was picking up on their feelings—”
“My point exactly.”
I shook my head, then stopped and casually fluffed up my hair as if that was what I’d meant to do. “I mean, yeah, okay, there’s a tiny risk, but now I know what’s going on. I didn’t before. I’ll be okay. I promise,” I repeated. I could feel his silent frustration at not being here to protect me. But even he couldn’t save me from myself.
I didn’t know how much longer I could sit out here and not look suspicious. Maybe I was being overly paranoid, but I didn’t care. I just didn’t want Ana to think that I might be up to something. But I still had to tell Nicholas the most important thing of all—
“I saw my mother,” I whispered.
“You what? Where?”
“The Looking Stone. Like how I found Justin that day. I wanted to find her and there she was.”
“Wow, it was that easy huh?”
I chuckled under my breath. “I wouldn’t classify it as being ‘easy’, and I didn’t see
where she actually was, so I don’t know how much good it’ll do me.”
“But she’s alive. You saw her with your own two eyes.”
I gulped as they suddenly welled up again. “Yup.”
“Wow.”
“Yeah…”
“You okay?” His voice was so intimate at that moment, I closed my eyes and pretended my head was resting against his chest as he stroked my hair.
“I’m okay,” I murmured.
He let out a loud breath. “Does Ana know?”
“No.”
“You going to tell her?”
I twisted a strand of my hair in a tight knot around my finger. “I’m not sure yet. Maybe. I’m having dinner with her tonight, and I think we’re going to talk about a lot of things.”
“Will I see you later?” he asked.
I watched as a lonely seagull circled above me. “I had hoped I could get Ana to see that she’s being unreasonable when it comes to us being together. But when I felt the pain that she’s been carrying around inside her all these years, I’m afraid it’s going to take more than just a nice conversation over supper to set things right with her.”
“I need to see you. I need to feel you. I miss you.”
His voice was a whisper in my ear. I could practically feel his warm breath caressing my check.
“I will find you,” I whispered. “Tonight, I will find you.”
“Promise?”
“Always.”
*****
I pulled my chair up to the table and smiled at Henri as he set down the silver plate laden with rosemary lamb chops, roasted new potatoes, and grilled asparagus. “Thank you, that looks amazing.”
“You can thank Miss Delilah for this. I’m just the messenger.” He gave me a playful wink as he placed a white ramekin next to my plate and filled it with fresh mint jelly.
The Complete Spellbound Trilogy Bundle Page 52
