Soothsayer: Magic Is All Around Us (Soothsayer Series Book 1)

by Allison Sipe

  “Of course, more Magic.” I huffed under my breath.

  “Magic is a part of who you are now. It won’t go away just because you wish it to.” Her voice quivered with anger.

  “So what happened to the real memory? You just ripped it out of my head and threw it away?” I fumed. How could she tell me my whole life wasn’t a lie when I couldn’t even be sure of what was and wasn’t a real memory anymore?

  “You can never really erase a memory. The brain is far too complex. All you can do is learn how to disguise it as something else.”

  “And you can do this to anybody?”

  “It’s not like that. You have to learn someone’s mind first, all the little pathways and dark corners, so to speak. It takes a considerable amount of time to alter a memory. It was easier with you because you were so young but still, it took a lot of power and concentration.”

  “And how do you learn someone’s mind?”

  “There’s a spell you can cast that allows you to navigate through their mind while the person is unconscious.”

  “Does it hurt?”

  “No of course not!” she said, taken aback. “The person has no idea you’ve been inside their head.”

  “Did you change any more of my memories?” I asked.

  “No.” She pursed her lips and took a deep breath. “But your mother did.”

  “She did?” I felt like someone had sucker punched me. Never in a million years would I have thought that my parents were Magical people, but to find out my own mother had used Magic on me hurt more than I would have ever thought possible. “Why… why would she do that?”

  “Your parents wanted you to have a normal life, but their Magic would slip every once in a while. It goes against our instincts to abstain from using Magic. It’s nearly impossible to turn that part of ourselves off.”

  I sat, quiet, not knowing what to say. Their memory was the only thing I had left of my parents and now she was telling me those memories might not even be real? My whole life, everything I ever believed to be true, was completely and utterly false. The anxiety festering inside me finally broke free. The sheer force of it sent a shiver through my entire body.

  “How many times did she alter my memory?” I asked as a tear fell from my eye.

  “Only a couple times that I know of. I can release those memories if you’d like,” Aunt Beth suggested, though she blinked with hesitation.

  “Can you?” I sniffled.

  “It’s hard to alter the mind but once you’ve changed it you are always connected.”

  “Okay,” I said, overwhelmed with emotions. I wanted the truth. I was so sick of all the secrecy and lies.

  “Come here,” she said, once more motioning for me to follow her back to the swing. I sat down and she knelt in front of me. She reached up and placed her hands on the side of my head and closed her eyes.

  “Mm, this is a good one to start with,” she said releasing me. I felt a little strange, like a fog had been lifted, but I couldn’t quite see what was on the other side yet.

  “I don’t…”

  “Give it a minute,” she interrupted.

  As the fog slowly cleared I saw my mom standing at the kitchen sink, washing dishes in the house we lived in when I was a child. The six year old version of me sat at the table coloring. Without warning a baseball came through the window in front of my mother. I looked up, scared by the noise and in an instant everything froze. The broken glass and the baseball hung suspended in the air, frozen in front of my mother. She plucked the baseball hovering in front of her and tossed it back out the broken window. Then she raised her hands to the shards of glass and the window reformed itself as if nothing had happened. The young version of me watched her in amazement. I remembered feeling like my mom was a real-life superhero. She walked over to me and asked if I was okay. I shook my head, yes, and then she placed her hands on the sides of my head just like my aunt had done a moment before.

  “It’s so real,” I gasped. “But how am I supposed to know which memory is real?”

  “Didn’t you ever feel like something was off when you were younger? Like something was missing but you couldn’t put your finger on it?” Aunt Beth asked.

  “Yeah.” I shrugged.

  “You were missing your memories, your real memories.”

  “What else is there?” I asked. My anger faded the second I saw my mother just the way I remembered her.

  My aunt placed her hands on the sides of my face again. She let go after a few seconds and looked up at me.

  Again I felt the fog lift. I closed my eyes and let the memory take me. This was different though. It wasn’t a memory I knew. My mom cradled me in her arms. I was just a baby. Both of my parents looked down at me, smiling. My dad pulled my mother closer to him with one arm and caressed my head with the other.

  “She’s perfect,” my mother said, looking up at my father.

  “Just like you,” he said and smiled. “I love you. And I love you, Violet.” My father gently placed his fingers on the side of my head.

  “What was that?” I asked my aunt as the memory faded.

  “Just like we can alter a memory, we can also mark a memory so that we can recall it at any time. That’s a memory from the day you were born. They both loved you very much, Violet.”

  “I miss them so much.” Tears fell down my face, leaving salty streaks in their wake.

  Aunt Beth pulled herself up and sat down next to me, pulling me close to her. “I miss them too,” she said.

  I let the tears fall freely from my eyes as I felt the pain of losing them. Fear and frustration bubbled inside me like a pot of hot water about to spill over.

  “Will you show me what happened to them?” I asked, sniffling.

  “Are you sure? We can always do it another time.”

  “No, I want to know. I’m sick of being kept in the dark. I want to know the truth.”

  “Okay, but this isn't going to be pretty,” she said and placed her hands against my temples again.

  I thought for a moment about the car crash that had killed my parents, and then as the fog lifted it all changed. It was like a scene from a horror movie. There was so much blood, and my parents, my poor parents, lay still on the floor. I could barely stomach the image but as I glanced at my parents prone bodies, I saw the faint outline of a symbol carved into their skin. I wanted to inspect further, something about it was familiar, but the memory went dark as I closed my eyes and fell to my knees next to them.

  “Who would do something like that?” I asked, my voice barely above a whisper.

  “His name is Aiden Patridge. The same man who keeps sending people to kill you,” Aunt Beth answered. Her voice held a cold, dark edge to it I’d never heard before.

  “But couldn’t you see what was going to happen and warn them?”

  Aunt Beth closed her eyes and her bottom lip quivered. “I did know. I had always known they would die before seeing you grow into a beautiful young woman, but I was never able to pinpoint when. Your mother knew her fate though. I didn’t keep it from her. But she didn’t want to live in fear, so she asked me not to look ahead for her anymore.”

  “But you were there that day, before the police showed up. How did you know something had happened?”

  She placed her hand on mine. “I knew because for the first time in my life, I had a vision of what had happened without having to use touch as a medium. It hit me with such force, I rushed right over.” She looked down at her hands.

  “Is it unusual for someone… like you to see something without the use of touch?” I asked.

  “Yes,” she said, taking her hand off mine and placing it in her lap. “You need touch to make the connection, but sometimes visions reach out to you and if you’re strong enough you can see their message.”

  We sat, looking over the water for a quiet moment. Bright streaks of orange and red flew across the sky with the slowly setting sun. I thought about the past as I sifted through my new memories, remember
ing all the little slips my parents had in front of me. I felt like I knew them better now.

  “Aunt Beth?” I asked.

  “Hmm?” she replied.

  “How come you never told me any of this after they died?”

  “It was their wish that if anything ever happened to them that you would remain in the dark about Magic. They just wanted you to have a normal life.”

  “So much for that,” I chuckled, shaking my head at the irony.

  “I knew we could never keep you from the Magical world forever. It’s your destiny. It’s been your destiny for hundreds of years.”

  We stood up and the swing rocked back and forth.

  As we walked side by side back to the house I asked, “So I never had a choice then?”

  “Of course you do. You can choose to walk away from all of this,” my aunt clarified as we reached the French doors.

  “But I won’t, will I?”

  “No, you won’t.” She smiled.

  Before we went back inside, where Robert and his family were undoubtedly waiting for us, I wanted to ask her one more thing.

  “Aunt Beth?”

  “Yes, sweetie?”

  “Thank you, for everything.” I hugged her tight.

  “You’re very welcome,” she said, kissing the top of my head.

  “I need you to promise me something though.” I released her.

  “What is it?" Her brow furrowed with concern.

  “Promise me you’ll never take my memories from me again.”

  “I promise.” She patted my hand and nodded reassuringly.

  Chapter 13

  My Aunt left shortly after our talk, but promised me she would be in touch to teach me how to control my visions. Robert had been by my side since the moment my aunt and I came back in the house. I could tell he was anxious to hear about what she had told me, but he had enough common sense not to ask me in front of his entire family.

  I wanted to go home, crawl into bed and enjoy my new memories, but Robert’s mother, Aniela, had insisted we stay for dinner. I couldn’t begrudge her a meal with the son she never got to see and I knew Robert wasn’t going to let me go home without him. And honestly, after last night I’d rather not spend the night alone in my house.

  I didn’t say much over the next couple of hours. No one paid much attention to me anyway, which I was grateful for. As the evening went on, my mood rapidly decreased. I was emotionally drained and just wanted some time to myself to process everything my aunt had told me.

  “Violet?” Aniela called as Robert said goodbye to his brother.

  “Yes, Mrs. Maxwell?” I replied.

  “Please, call me Aniela,” she said with a warm smile.

  “Okay, Aniela. Thank you again for a wonderful dinner.” I smiled but my heart wasn’t in it.

  “Of course, any time, dear.” She waved her hand dismissively. “I want you to know that if you ever need anything, anything at all, you always have people to come to.” She glanced in the direction of her family.

  “Thank you.”

  “I mean it.” She spoke to me with a motherly tone of voice, authoritative and loving.

  “I appreciate it, thank you very much.”

  She looked over her shoulder again and then back at me. “And be good to my son. He cares about you a great deal.”

  I opened my mouth to say something but she raised her hand in protest.

  “No need to make excuses,” she said with finality.

  Aniela smiled and walked over to her husband, wrapping her arm around him. She was such a regal woman. It was nice to know she had a compassionate side too.

  Annabel kept glancing in my direction and every time she took a step toward me Jake would pull her a little tighter to his side. I felt bad that I wasn’t being a very social guest but my mind was fried and I didn’t have it in me to play the nice house guest.

  After another round of goodbyes, Robert and I headed off toward the garage. He didn’t say anything as we walked through the house. I knew he was still dying to know what had transpired between Aunt Beth and I, but being with his family had eased his curiosity some and lightened his mood. We reached the car and he opened my door for me. His gentlemanly ways never ceased to surprise me.

  “You okay?” he asked sliding into the driver’s seat.

  “Yeah, just out of it.” I sighed and stared out the window.

  “Do you want to talk about it?”

  “Not right now.” I let out a grunting exhalation. I knew I was going to have to face him sooner or later, but I just wasn’t ready yet.

  “I’m here for you when you’re ready.”

  “Thank you.”

  We spent the rest of the ride in silence. When we got back to my place, I went straight to my room, changed into sweats and a cotton t-shirt and went to brush my teeth. I’d been so preoccupied with everything I had learned about my parents that I hadn’t given much thought to what Aunt Beth had said about mine and Robert’s souls. Could he really be a part of me? I rinsed my mouth and couldn’t help going back into the living room.

  Robert flapped a clean sheet in the air, making up his bed on the couch with his back to me, and didn’t notice me enter the room. I watched him unfold the blankets and fluff his pillow. Not only had he saved my life but he had become my friend. Granted it was a tense friendship most of the time, but I felt like the pieces inside of me were finally falling into place.

  “I’m gonna head to bed now. Do you need anything?” I asked.

  “I can fend for myself,” he said and smiled. “Get some sleep. It’s been a long day.”

  “Alright, night.”

  “Goodnight,” he said softly.

  I checked the front door out of habit and dragged myself to bed.

  I spent the next couple hours tossing and turning. The memory of my parents’ lifeless bodies covered in blood played in my mind every time I closed my eyes. My aunt was right to alter this memory when I was a child, I thought. If it was too much for me as an adult, there was no way I could have dealt with it when I was young. I'd always considered myself a strong person that could handle anything life threw at me, but lately life had been trying to bury me. Every time I broke through the surface another wave of information crashed on top of me, threatening to drown me entirely.

  Sitting up, I switched on the bedside lamp. I wanted to go to the kitchen and make some tea, but I didn’t want to wake Robert if he was sleeping. Sitting on the edge of the bed I picked at my cuticles, wrestling with myself to get up or try and go back to sleep. Chewing off half of my nails, I decided to get up and go to the kitchen.

  As I walked down the hall I noticed it wasn’t as dark as I expected. One of the lamps in the living room must still be on, I figured. Which meant Robert was probably still awake. I breathed a sigh of relief. If he was still awake then maybe he could help take my mind off things. I turned the corner and saw Robert lying on the couch with a book propped open.

  “You’re still awake,” I said, a little breathless. He wasn’t wearing a shirt and the sight of his bare chest completely took me off guard. The dim light grazed his skin, softening the hard lines of his body and showing a gentler, more vulnerable side to him.

  “And so are you I see. Is everything alright?” he asked, sitting up and putting the book on the coffee table.

  “Yeah, I umm… couldn’t sleep,” I said, tripping over my tongue. “I was going to make some tea, do you want some?”

  I did my best to ignore the primal hunger rumbling inside me. Though my hands shook with the desire to feel his body close to mine, this wasn’t the time or place to be having a clandestine affair. Becky’s voice popped into my head, “Hello, there couldn’t be a better time for a frisky midnight romp!”

  “Sure, let me help you,” Robert said, standing up and throwing on a cotton t-shirt. I pushed Becky out of my head and forced my feet to take me to the kitchen.

  I searched through the darkness and pulled out the tea kettle Harriet had given me as
a housewarming gift and filled it with enough water for two.

  “Can I help you with anything?” Robert asked as I placed the kettle on the stove and lit the burner.

  “I’m good. Making tea isn’t exactly rocket science,” I teased and turned to face him.

  Robert leaned against the sink opposite from me, his hands on the counter for support. His shirt clung to him and did very little to hide his well-muscled body. I looked up at the window above his head and focused my attention on the half-crescent moon shining brightly in the sky. Unconsciously, I reached for the pendant around my neck and traced the curve of one of the moons. Soon there would be a new moon and night would fall into a quiet darkness.

  “Violet, are you alright?” Robert finally said, breaking the silence.

  “I’m fine,” I replied, trying to make the words sound as convincing to myself as to him.

  “You’re not fine, you’ve barely said a word after talking to Bethany and now you can’t sleep.” A hard edge marred his voice and his eyes narrowed in apprehension.

  “You weren’t sleeping either,” I pointed out. “Does that mean there’s something bothering you?”

  “Don’t try and turn this around on me.” His voice turned pleading but his jaw maintained its hard edge. He wasn’t used to people not answering him.

  “It’s just…” I paused and turned my back on him to remove two mugs from the cabinet behind me.

  “Violet,” Robert said and put his hands on my shoulders. “Let me help you.” He turned me around to face him. The close proximity of his body to mine made my head spin.

  Resting my head against his chest I tried to regain control. “You can't help me.”

  “Won't you at least let me try?” He placed his hand under my chin and pulled my head up to look at him.

  I searched his eyes. I could feel every emotion I’d ever felt in my life boil to the surface. Any other time when I felt overwhelmed I always had Becky to talk to. She was the one person I could trust, the one person who knew all the deep dark corners of my heart. I trusted Robert with my life, but letting him into my heart was something I wasn’t sure I was ready for. I didn’t even know if I could let anyone in anymore. I’d spent my whole life building walls to protect myself, but lately my walls had been taking a lot of hit’s and they looked more like Swiss cheese than a fortress.