Witchling (Curse of Kin)

by Ari Harper

  “Let me put the kettle on, and you can tell me what you’ve been up to.”

  I took a seat at the table while Jasper filled the kettle. Sully jumped up on the bench by the window, and grinned at me as Brie hovered around Jasper. I often wondered how we ended up with Sully in our little group. I mean, Brie and I have been together since we were born—both on the same day in the same hospital, but I won the race by six minutes. It gives me the physiological edge which I use to my advantage when it suits me. Sully, on the other hand, comes from Dublin. His folks moved to our little town of Kilmuckridge a few years back, and being rich and cultured, the kids were all over him on the first day of school. Somehow he ended up with Brie and me, and we’ve been inseparable ever since.

  Jasper collected the loaded tea tray and headed out of the kitchen, Brie by his side. “Let’s take this to the library, fellow sleuths, and you can fill me in on the reason for your visit today. I can show you my new project while we are there if you like.” He grinned at us before making his way down the passage.

  “Oh, always, Jasper,” Brie whispered, hanging onto his arm. “Everything you do is so fascinating.”

  “Down, Brie,” Sully mumbled under his breath.

  I giggled behind my hand and followed Jasper to the library. The huge room was warm and cozy with high ceilings and a massive fireplace on one wall. Books lined the rest of the walls, and antiques he had collected over the years were on every available surface. Several tables were arranged around the large room, handy to the overstuffed couches and chairs that randomly filled the space. Most of them were covered with Jasper’s ‘”projects,”’ as he called them: antique telescopes in various stages of being restored and remodeled. He pointed with his chin to the table by the fireplace.

  “Look at this, kids, my latest project. It’s a genuine Ramsden refracting telescope. I bought it last month through Sotheby’s. Just look at the condition it’s in. Hardly needs much more than a good clean. I probably paid too much for it, but they are so hard to come by.” A huge smile lit up his face. “It’s the first one I have heard of for sale for ages.”

  He put the tea tray down and picked up a long brass tube. “Look through here, Sully. And here, this signature proves it’s authentic.” Making sure we all gave it the attention it deserved, Jasper put it back on the soft white cloth on his work table among the collection of repair tools.

  Sully and Brie walked over to the sofa, but I stood with my hands tucked into my back pockets. Now that I had made the decision to come clean I was unable to sit still.

  “Okay, I’ll play mother,” he said as he started to pour the tea. “Here you are, Nera.” He passed me a mug and stared at me, his gaze pinned on my face. “Let’s have it, girl dear. What is bothering you?”

  Oh God, where do I start without making an ass of myself? My face must have reflected more than I thought. So much for bringing this up casual-like. He knew me so well.

  “Come on, kiddo, you know I’ll listen without judging you. Have I ever let you down in the past? No. And I won’t tell your folks unless I feel that your life is in danger, or you are being bloody stupid. So, let’s have it.”

  I tried to buy myself some time while I sorted through my thoughts. I dropped down onto another couch and put my mug on the side table. I dragged my fingers through my hair and struggled to work out where to start.

  “Okay, Dad knows what happened yesterday at school, but that’s all he knows. Sully and Brie don’t really know all of this either, apart from what I told them yesterday, so I’m relying on you all to keep this quiet and don’t laugh at me till I’m finished.” I hesitated, raising my eyebrow as I gazed at them all for a moment to make sure they understood that I was serious.

  “A few years ago, I started having these really weird dreams. Actually, I’d probably call them bloody nightmares. Two of the dreams reoccur more than the others. In one of them, I go all clammy, and get chills down my spine that freaks me out. I can smell smoke and hear flames crackling around, but I can’t breathe because the smoke gets so thick it chokes me. I know someone is there with me, but as much as I try, I can’t find them. And the scariest part”— I paused and took a deep breath while twisting my hands in my lap—”I know who it is, but I just can’t place them. I know there is someone there waiting, just out of reach, but why and for what? I can’t see who they are, and it’s really frustrating me. With each dream, more strange things happen and it gets scarier. When I wake up now, I can smell the smoke in my hair. It’s like it really happened.”

  Jasper leaned forward, his gaze intent. He opened his mouth as if to speak when I took a sip of my tea, holding the cup tight between my tense hands.

  “No, don’t say anything yet. Let me finish.” I got up and placed my mug on the table. I tucked my hands into my back pockets again as I stood there and tried not to fidget or show my nervousness. “It happened at school yesterday. It’s the first time it has happened during the day. I felt like a fool. I made a real idiot of myself.”

  “No, Nera, you didn’t,” Brie said as she rushed to my defense. “No one really knew what was happening to you. I thought you were having a panic attack or something.”

  “I did, Brie! I made a complete ass of myself. That old biddy Mrs.White told Dad I had a hysteria attack because of exams, but we all know I can slam math anytime. Now he wants to know what’s going on, and I was lucky he never saw my hands…” I trailed off, looking at them now again. The burn marks were still visible even though the angry red blisters had gone down.

  “What happened to your hands, girl dear?” Jasper reached for my hands.

  I held them out to him. He touched them gently as he studied the slowly fading blisters on my palms. “Oh my,” he whispered.

  “I burned them on the door handle when I tried to get out of the room,” I told him. “If Mom finds out, she’ll have a fit, Jasper. How do we explain this?”

  Jasper gently ran his fingers over the marks. “Oh my, it is true. I thought it could be you. I hoped against hope it would be so, but, oh my…”

  “What?” I snatched my hands back, looking at his troubled face. “What are you talking about?” I started to shake, and a cold chill ran down my back. “No, not now, not again,” I moaned, a loud thud started to pound in my ears.

  “Nera, calm down,” Jasper whispered in my ear. He pulled me close and cradled my head against his chest. “Just listen to my voice and relax. Go with the dream, try not to fight it.”

  My head felt tight, and I fought for control of my emotions, the panic rising in my throat. Still, I struggled through the fog. Jasper’s quiet voice encouraged me to relax, until finally I slipped into the dark hole where it could no longer touch me.

  When I woke, I was lying down on one of the overstuffed couches in the library with Brie hovered over me. Jasper was sitting opposite, Sully beside him, both watching me intently. I glanced around the room and took in all the things I had grown up with while my mind tried to settle. Huge stuffed animal heads gazed down at me with glassy eyes, looking more threatening than before. Everything seemed to have changed for me. I no longer felt innocent and carefree. Something sinister had encroached into my life and changed everything forever.

  I sat up and brushed off the nausea that threatened. Shaking my head, I struggled to control my thoughts before I turned to Jasper. “Are you going to tell me, or is it a secret?” I hugged my hands around my stomach and willed my body to do what I wanted it to.

  “No, girl dear, I will tell you.” His gaze dropped to his hands that were twisted together on his lap. “I just need to find the right words, but before I do, you must realize, all of you, that your life will never be the same.”

  Jasper stood and paced the room in front of the fire while we grouped together on the couch, confused by his words. I stared at him blankly while Brie grabbed onto Sully for support. We waited for him to continue.

  “You talk in riddles, Jasper. Get to the point.” I lifted my chin, terrified that his a
nswer would be my undoing and I was going to fall apart in front of him. I held my breath while I waited for his answer.

  “This is a truly dangerous situation, Nera. I think that I’ll make another pot of tea while I gather my wits about me. Won’t be a minute,” he said, he hurried out of the room before we could say anything to him.

  “Nera, what on earth is going on? I’m scared.” Brie tucked herself under Sully’s arm and looked at me with wide blue eyes.

  “I don’t know. I’m so confused and pissed off! I don’t know what to think. Too many things have happened lately. I can’t seem to get my head around it all. I think if he doesn’t give us a decent explanation, we are out of here. Sully, look at me. Do you want to stay?”

  “If you think I’m going to go now things have started to get interesting, you are sillier than I thought,” he replied and grinned with excitement.

  I looked Brie. “Brie, what about you?”

  “Like you even needed to ask.” She rolled her eyes, then sat up and patted her hair back into place.

  I jumped up from the couch and headed down the hall to the kitchen. The sound of Jasper’s voice slowed me before I walked into the kitchen. The urgency I heard made me hesitate, and I lay my forehead against the wall and listened.

  “She knows something is going on. I think we have to tell her now, but how much is up to you.”

  There was a pause before he continued. “I know we only have one shot at this, but I don’t want to frighten her away from it.” There was silence again. “Yes, I suppose we have to hope that her inquisitive nature will be tempted, will do.”

  My heart jolted when I heard the click of the receiver on the phone, and I hurried to the library. Jasper came back into the room carrying the tea tray. Cups rattled against each other and he rearranged them before pouring each of us a mug of tea.

  “Quit stalling, Jasper, and let’s get on with, and just the facts. No bullshit or fairy tales.”

  “Tsk, tsk, girl dear, if your mother could hear the way you talk.” Jasper frowned, pouring the tea.

  “Well, she can’t,” I retorted. I felt guilty for being so mean to him, but I was so close to having a stress attack over this. “Let’s have it.”

  He began as he passed the drinks to us. “Do you remember your father telling you about your ancestors, the O’Reilly’s?”

  “Wasn’t she the witchy one? I thought that was just folk legends.”

  “Yes and no.” He pulled on his chin. “Family history has it that Edrith, the family matriarch, had a feud with the neighboring landholders. Her husband had died in suspicious circumstances. Some even say it was Edrith herself that killed him, but it was never proven.

  “She had tried to make the bordering neighbors sell her their land for ages and reportedly killed off their stock and poisoned their wells to encourage them to move on. She slowly managed to buy up or steal all the surrounding holdings, making her one of the biggest land owners in the county. There was only one landholder that would not give in to her.” Jasper looked over our heads, a quick shadow passing over his face before he continued.

  “To make matters worse, Edrith’s youngest son fell in love with the landholder’s daughter, Pria Pembroke. Obviously it was not a match that made Edrith happy, and she forbade her son to marry the girl. You have seen her picture in the gallery upstairs.”

  “Have we? I don’t remember.” I looked at Brie and Sully and raised my eyebrows, hoping they could enlighten me.

  “The girl that looks a lot like you, painted when she was about seventeen years old. Anyway, Leona Pembroke, Pria’s mother, was helping them plan to elope, and Edrith got word of it.” Jasper paused for breath, his mouth tight. “One day when the men were out collecting rents the castle was relatively unguarded. That was the day Edrith decided to attack. She killed them both, first Pria and then tortured Lady Leona before hanging her in the garden to die a slow and painful death.”

  “That’s awful, Jasper, but what has that got to do with us here and now?” I shook my head, impatient to see why this had anything to do with me and my problems.

  “Let me finish, girl dear. Lady Leona was no ordinary lady. She was the youngest sister of Mari, Queen of the Witches, who was married to Maju, the God of Thunder.” He held his hands up to stop me from interrupting. “When they found out what had happened to Lady Leona, they let fly with their combined forces. They destroyed Edrith’s house and lands, sparing only the servants that lived there. Edrith was taken back to Mari’s home where the council decreed that even though she was a distant cousin to the queen, she was to die by their hand. She cursed them with her last breath.”

  “How could she curse them?” Brie’s face lit up. “Was she really a witch, Jasper?”

  “She was originally a god, Brie. She had been stripped of her god powers and banished to earth for betraying the trust of those in the high council. She relied on her beauty and sex to entice the wealthiest man she could to marry her and give her powers of a kind once again. But that wasn’t enough for her. She called upon demons for more. In exchange, she gave them life on earth to do her bidding, rather than be caught in the Otherworld.” Jasper stopped pacing and turned to face us.

  “As farfetched as it may sound to you, I know it happened,” Jasper informed us as he met my gaze.

  “How could you possibly know, Jasper?” Sully asked him.

  “I was there. I know what happened because it is I who has been cursed. The curse to remain alive and watch my family die around me, with no hope of moving on myself…until now.”

  “What do you mean ‘until now’?” The warning bells were going off in my brain as his story sunk in.

  He watched me process the information. “I was there, Nera. I am Lord Pembroke, Leona’s husband.”

  CHAPTER TWO

  “I don’t believe it. You cannot be nearly 800 years old. That isn’t possible.”

  “Come with me, girl dear.” Jasper sighed and reached out to take my hand. “You two come as well.” He motioned to Brie and Sully and pulled me from the library.

  Jasper held my hand tight in his on our way up the staircase to the gallery. He pushed me in front of him when we stopped in front of paintings that I rarely gave any thought to.”Pria, my daughter.” Jasper motioned to a face that I was vaguely familiar with.

  Big gray eyes looked back at me. We both had the same shaped face and a high forehead. The only difference was Pria’s hair, which was a much richer brown than mine and long as was the fashion then. Both of us were tall and slim, and I could deeply identify with the look on her face—I saw it in my mirror daily.

  “You can see yourself in your long deceased ancestor,” Jasper said after a few minutes, allowing me time to register what I saw before me.

  “So what? This means nothing except that we look alike and she’s dead.” I turned back for another look. Jasper would have to come up with more than this to convince me.

  “Come with me and look at another painting.” Jasper touched a panel to the left on the wall. A secret door slid open.

  “Oh my God,” exclaimed Sully as he jumped back. He peeked through the door before glancing at Jasper. “You never told us you had secret panels in this place. That is so cool!”

  “No, I didn’t. I have good reasons not to tell anyone, but we won’t go into that just now. Come this way. I want to show you something.” He stepped through the opening into another room. There was a heavy desk in the center. A collection of old maps rolled up on shelves against a wall and a large display of weapons adorned another. Jasper stopped in front of a big family portrait. “This is what I wanted to show you, Nera.”

  “No, no,” I moaned, “it can’t be you. It looks like you, but it can’t be, Jasper. It just can’t.”

  I sunk to the cold stone floor, my gaze riveted on the faces of Jasper, his wife Leona, two sons, and his daughter, Pria. Brie dropped to my side, and we clung to each other. My breath came in short gasps, and I struggled to remain calm. I counted quie
tly in my mind to slow my erratic heartbeat. The ringing in my ears seemed to be tangled with the sweeping rush of chills that raced over my back bone. The noise was loud and pounding; then it hushed to a barely noticeable vibration in my ears. I squeezed my eyes shut, willing myself not to faint before glancing up once more.

  I looked over at Brie and saw the horror I was feeling mirrored in her eyes. She was pale, and a film of sweat was covering her top lip. I wiped my hand over my face before I wrapped my arms around her.

  “It can’t be true. There is no way this can be happening!” I leaned my head on Brie’s shoulder and shuddered under the onslaught of information that seemed too out there to be true. “You are making this up—but why? What could you possibly gain from doing this to me, and what does it have to do with my dreams?” I closed my eyes and fought back the sudden onslaught of tears. When I opened them, Jasper was standing in front of me

  “Girl dear, let’s go back downstairs. I can explain it better down there.” Jasper held his hand out to me. “Let me help you up.”

  Jasper led us back downstairs to the library where we all sat together on a couch and faced him. I desperately wanted some sane remarks to come out of his mouth.

  “Everything I have told you is true. I know it may seem strange and unreal, but I really am 800 years old. Witches did and still do exist. You know that wherever there is good there must also be evil to balance it out.” He paused, took a deep breath, then continued. “That can take many forms, witches only being one of them. Not all witches are evil obviously, but Edrith O’Reilly was very evil. When Pria planned to elope with Edrith’s youngest son, she placed a curse on them. She cursed me, and she cursed her own son. I know this is a lot to take in, Nera, but what I have told you is true. That is exactly what happened.”