"Well so did we," Faustine answered. "But it's not as though we have an accurate history book somewhere. These stories are word-of-mouth, they're passed through generations and like all things, they get distorted."
"Yes," Julian said thoughtfully. "Look at any of the great religions or histories for that matter. What story isn't rewritten to serve some other agenda-be it money or power or control? I doubt anyone got much of the story from the Lourdes herself anyway. She'd clearly gone mad by the time she knew the truth about her love, whatever that truth might have been."
"We also don't know that two witches can't be involved in this curse. We assume that it is a human man and a witch based on Dafne and Tobias, but perhaps not," Faustine finished.
"Who will go see her?" Oliver asked, eager to volunteer.
"I will," Faustine said shortly. "It has been many years, but I have had dealings with the afflicted witch before and she cannot deceive me. I can sense her lies."
Oliver didn't argue. He had far less experience than the elder witches and virtually no practice dealing with witches who had turned toward darkness.
"We feel sure that Dafne and Indra were not in the cavern with the other bodies," Julian continued, returning to their original discussion. "Partially because Galla from Sorciére can still sense that they are both alive. She cannot track them or even get any inklings to their state of being, but she knows that they live. We have all taken turns visiting the caves astrally, and none of us have been pulled to the Pool of Truth. We're confident that Dafne's death would trigger an unveiling for one of us."
"Maybe I should go too," Oliver said quickly, desperate to be of use. In the previous weeks with Abby, he had felt so involved, so alive, and back at Ula, he felt isolated and, honestly, useless.
"That is a wise choice," Faustine said. "I believe that Helena is guiding Lydie toward that very end this afternoon if you want to join them."
"Lydie, is that a good idea? What about Max?" Oliver asked.
"Lydie witnessed Max's death. The Pool only reveals that which is unknown."
"How did they do it? Indra and Dafne? How did they manipulate The Pool of Truth?"
"It's been done," Julian answered. "It's old magic and the kind with heavy repercussions. When you manipulate the energy of such a powerful entity, you repay threefold and it was not borrowed, but stolen for ill intent, regardless of what they believed when they did it. I fear for both of them having dabbled in such dark magic."
"As do I," Faustine agreed.
"But how they did it," Julian continued, "I couldn't say. I'm sure they exhausted a lot of texts to discover that kind of magic, and not likely the stuff on Ula's library shelves."
"Where would they get those books?"
"We think they likely visited the L'Obscurite."
"In New Orleans?" Oliver asked.
He knew little of the witch community in New Orleans, though he'd heard talk of them over the years. Mostly complaints by Helena, who loved the city, but several run-ins with witches of the L'Obscurite had scared her away. She referred to them as lost souls and rarely offered more detail than that.
"Why would they go to them?"
"Their books," replied Julian. "They're collectors of the macabre and they're fascinated with dark magic."
"Is it only a fascination?"
"Not likely," Faustine answered simply.
"How do you know that Dafne went there?"
"Elda found Dafne's personal articles disturbed at the warehouse. While she was picking through, she stumbled across a little notebook that Dafne left behind. Most of the pages had been ripped out, but the L'Obscurite quarters were written down. We're sure that it's recent. Bridget recognized the notebook from the room of elixirs."
Oliver considered the warehouse and suddenly felt tempted to dig around there as well.
"Did she find anything else?"
"Not much. When we found Dafne, one hundred years ago, she had no possessions. Later, she did go to retrieve her things, though we realize now that is when she disappeared to have the baby," Faustine continued.
"And no one had a clue?"
"No, Oliver. I know it seems hard to believe, but Dafne was very secretive and clearly traumatized. We treaded carefully around her. We wanted her to feel welcome at Ula, so we didn't examine her too closely. You also must realize that we experienced an enormous tragedy during that period of time. When she disappeared for several months, it nearly went unnoticed in our state of grief."
"She just took off?"
"No, no," Julian corrected. "She offered an elaborate story about tying up loose ends at home and saying goodbye to her family. Some of us thought that she would not be back. The fear at Ula was palpable and it was easy to see why she would want to run away. I wanted to run away. The last thing on my mind during that time was where she had gone and why." Julian's tone had grown bitter.
"But then she returned," Faustine finished, trying to steer the conversation back to a less emotional space. "A little over two months and she was back with a few boxes of stuff and a new hardness. She was no longer weak; she was strong and fierce and wanted to be a hunter of Vepars."
****
"I have a question for you," Sebastian said.
Abby looked up. Sebastian was making their morning French press of coffee. Their first morning French press, anyway; sometimes they drank two or three. He stared at her curiously.
"What's up?" she asked.
"Why didn't you want to tell the witches at Ula about the baby?"
Sebastian added milk to his coffee and set hers down, black and steaming hot. She watched the pattern of oils on the surface of the dark liquid, searching for any images, a form of divination that Helena had briefly taught her. She saw nothing curious.
"I'm just not ready for all of the excitement. With everything that's been happening, I thought it'd be nice to keep it between us at first."
"Doesn't it seem strange that they couldn't tell though?" Sebastian continued. "Several of them can read minds."
Abby sensed this was the real question that he wanted to ask.
"I've been performing magic to hide the baby," she told him calmly, fighting the urge to lie.
"For how long?"
"Sebastian." Abby stood and walked around the counter. She wrapped her arms around his waist and looked into his questioning blue eyes. "I love you so much and when I realized that I was pregnant, I sort of freaked. I got scared because the Vepar that attacked me tore open my stomach and honestly, because it's scary as hell just to think of pregnancy and motherhood and then being a witch on top of that. I wanted time to think and come to terms with everything."
He continued to look at her, waiting for an answer to his question.
"I knew I was pregnant the day of the attack in the Vepar's Lair. I felt the child inside of me."
"How is that possible? To know the day after we made love?"
Abby shrugged.
"A witch thing, I guess."
Sebastian unwrapped her arms and sat on one of the stools at the counter. He looked troubled, but seemed to come to a conclusion.
"Okay, it concerns me that you didn't tell me, but I trust you and I know that you had your reasons. What kind of magic conceals a pregnancy?"
Abby sighed, relieved that he didn't probe further.
"Nothing too complex. Herbs, a few rituals. I've been drinking some pretty bitter-tasting tonics for the last couple of weeks, but don't worry, they're actually good for the baby. They cloud the body so that once the nutrients are dispersed through the blood and across the placenta, the baby is basically undetectable. Some witches use it if they get a terminal illness. It's healthy for the body to consume, but it also hides what's going on inside."
"So that's the fungi-smelling stuff in the jar at the back of the refrigerator?"
Abby laughed. "Yes, it's pretty wicked."
"I'd say so. I nearly passed out when I opened it the other day."
"I'm sorry I didn't tell you, S
ebastian. I should have."
He stood and pulled her into a rough hug and then loosened immediately, looking at her belly.
"Sorry, I didn't...?"
"Nope, the baby's pretty well protected in there."
He kissed her and smoothed a curl away from her face.
"I love you, Abby. You've given me life again."
****
Sebastian rolled over and reached for Abby. His hand struck something hard and cold and he grunted in pain. Blinking in the darkness, he realized that he was not in his bed. He felt blindly. Concrete beneath him and his hands closed on something sharp. A screwdriver, he thought.
He shifted onto hands and knees and then struggled to standing. He stood in the garden shed. He could see the vague outline of a lawn mower and the wall of power tools. He touched his head, but felt no lump or blood. If he had fallen, he hadn't struck anything.
He realized that something must have attacked them. He ran out of the shed, leaving the door wide, and raced across snowy drifts to the porch. Inside the house, silence and more darkness greeted him. He ran up the stairs, three at a time, and burst into their bedroom.
Abby sat up, startled. She held the comforter bunched in her fists and blinked across the room at him.
"Sebastian?" she asked sleepily.
He stood in the doorway. His breath came in ragged gulps and his eyes swam with spots of light and dark. Too relieved to speak, he watched her for another moment.
"What is it?" she asked. She stepped out of bed, her nightgown ghostly pale in the moonlight.
She looked like an apparition with wild curls flying and her milky skin aglow.
He swallowed hard and moved into the room. Taking her in his arms, he lifted her and buried his face in her neck.
"You're so cold," she murmured, her voice thick.
"I went outside, and I thought I heard something. I came running back."
He told the lie easily and did not consider offering her the truth.
"Come to bed," she urged as he laid her down. He tucked her into the covers and kissed her mouth.
"I will soon," he promised.
Downstairs, he found a flashlight and returned to the shed. He scanned the floor and walls, but could find nothing amiss. How had he gotten there? Had he sleepwalked?
Outside, he found a set of his footprints that led from the house into the woods. He had not taken a walk in the woods in days, and any prints should have been long buried by the heavy snowfall. He followed them.
The trees groaned and whispered in the eerie night. They made a human sound, like mournful cries, and he wondered how many legends of forest creatures originated from the calling of the trees. He shivered and wondered why he had not thought to put on his heavy winter coat and scarf. He considered turning back, but knew if he returned to the house a second time, the call of Abby's warm body beneath the blankets would be too tempting to ignore.
He followed the path further into largely unexplored forest. Though he and Abby had walked the woods before they bought the property, they had mostly traveled the shoreline without probing too deeply into the dense forest.
He came to a crumbling rock wall, only a few feet high. Shining his light along the rocks, he searched for anything out of the ordinary. He scanned the snow around the wall and a spot of color caught his eye. It barely registered and had it not lay on a bed of stark white, he never would have noticed it. He bent down and plucked a long black hair from the snowy ground.
Chapter 5
Elda found Oliver in Lydie's dream room. He was draped across a fluffy mushroom-shaped pillow, a book open in his lap.
"No Lydie?" Elda asked, scanning the room.
"She went to raid the kitchen," Oliver told her. "She heard Bridget talking about making cupcakes earlier. It's a good sign, she's getting her appetite back."
"Yes," Elda agreed. "She does seem to be improving."
Oliver set the book aside, sensing that Elda wanted to talk.
"What's up?"
"Well Faustine and I were speaking with Julian and we wonder if you shouldn't go back to Abby and Sebastian's house, after all."
Oliver stared at her, surprised. He had wanted to return to Abby's house, but feared that Elda and the other witches would be upset by the choice.
"Why?"
"Because we don't know how this curse works. I trust Abby, we all do, but she is a new witch and Sebastian is a new love. If something began to change, get weird, she might be too close to realize it was happening."
"So, you want me to spy on them?" Oliver asked, not liking the idea at all.
"Of course not," Elda replied, exasperated. "Oliver, I'm afraid for Abby. There is dormant power in Sebastian. Power that appeared in the cavern. It was..."
"Insane," Oliver finished. "And you think it came from the Vepars?"
Elda sighed and held up her palms.
"I have no idea. None of us do, but it wasn't there before they got him underground. Julian agrees. It's possible that they did something down there. Why wasn't he tied up like the rest of you? Why weren't they siphoning from him? In some regard, why did any of you escape at all?"
Oliver hated how much sense she made, but in truth, he'd had the same thoughts. Why would the Vepars have left them unprotected to escape? It had all been too easy.
"Okay," he said, resigned. "But I don't want to hone in on their alone time. They just got engaged and bought their new house."
"That's why you'll take Lydie."
"What? How can you think that's a good idea?"
"Because Lydie got kidnapped from here, she's still scared, and the truth is, she's pretending to be fine, but that's it, an act. She's miserable. I see it every time I look in her eyes. At Abby's house, she felt normal, safe."
"But you want to send Lydie into a home where a Vepar may be rising?"
Elda shook her head no, hard.
"No, I want to send both of you and I want daily communication. I want reasons to drop by, any of us, at any time. I want eyes and ears on Sebastian and maybe on Abby too. There's something going on with her, and it scares me that she has access to this Kanti spirit. I'm afraid that both she and Sebastian are in the throes of something very powerful, and we need to be there to protect them if the need arises."
Oliver stood up, mobilized by Elda's theories, and suddenly concerned for Abby.
"I'll call her now and tell her Lydie is struggling to get adjusted. I'm sure that she'll welcome us back."
"So am I."
****
"Welcome," Sebastian called from the kitchen as Abby opened the front door and Victor and Kendra trudged through, kicking snow off their boots.
"Wow, it's a winter wonderland up here," Kendra breathed. "I feel like we should have driven up in a sleigh."
"We could have," Victor told her, winking at Abby and helping Kendra out of her heavy silver jacket.
"Well I'm happy you made it," Abby declared, hugging them briefly and leading them toward the kitchen where Sebastian was preparing a giant breakfast of omelets, potatoes and cinnamon rolls.
"Yum!" Kendra groaned. "It smells so good."
"Two minutes," Sebastian told her, taking a quick break to hug them.
Abby had already set the little table that occupied a light-filled alcove off the kitchen. It was surrounded by windows on three sides and looked out on the lake where snow continued to fall in heaps along the shoreline.
"This is beautiful," Kendra said, staring out the windows. "Does it get lonely though? All alone out on this peninsula?"
Kendra referred to the two hundred acres of woods that surrounded the huge house. Beyond their property, state forests stretched for miles. Their closest neighbor was located ten miles to the south. Kendra and Victor lived in a Chicago loft, surrounded twenty-four hours a day by hundreds of thousands of people; solitude was not their norm.
"Not lonely, really," Abby responded, considering. "Not yet anyway. It doesn't get much more isolated than Ula."
Sh
e wondered if Victor had told Kendra about her late-night scare, but the witch seemed merely curious.
"Yeah, but you have all the other witches at Ula."
"The good and the bad ones, apparently," Sebastian quipped, walking to the table with a huge tray of food. He slid the tray onto the table and returned for two French presses of coffee. Abby spooned food onto everyone's plates, feeling her own stomach growl with hunger.
Victor winked at her, but didn't say anything. He had promised to keep her secret about the baby.
"So, what are the guerrillas up to while you guys are gone?" Abby asked, referring to the other witches Victor and Kendra lived with in Chicago. They called themselves Guerrilla Witches due to their endless array of grassroots projects.
"Ezra is working on a pretty elaborate self-defense school for women. She's calling it Fierce Femmes, and Dante and Marcus have been installing greenhouses all over the city. They talk about plants like they're their children."
"Yeah," Kendra laughed. "Marcus refers to all of the sprouts as Herbie."
****
"Hello, my love," Abby whispered to Sebastian, coming up behind him in the shed where he stood organizing his tools. He'd gone a bit haywire at the hardware store and bought three snow shovels, a snow blower, ten bags of salt, two generators and five survival suits–just in case.
"Mmmm, nice surprise," he murmured when she kissed his neck. "But it's cold out here, you should be inside."
He turned toward her and started to rub her arms vigorously through her heavy jacket.
"I just got off the phone with Oliver," Abby told him. "He's coming back with Lydie."
Sebastian cocked an eyebrow, genuinely surprised.
"Really? Even after all the changes at Ula? That makes me feel bad for Helena."
"It's not permanent," Abby continued, though she really didn't know. "Lydie is still pretty upset and Oliver said he's afraid they haven't given her enough time to recuperate."
"She did seem happy here," Sebastian agreed. "Why Oliver, though? Shouldn't he be staying at Ula to help protect them?" He tried to hide his annoyance, but knew that Abby sensed it.
Kanti (Born of Shadows Book 3) Page 5
