“Technically, yes, but she was born here at the Coven. Her parents were both witches, and they lived here for a few years because a Vepar had discovered their home. Prior to that, they avoided covens, but they knew Faustine and wanted to be safe. So they came here and Lydie was born and we all loved her, but then they grew tired of being part of the coven and the castle. They wanted their life back, so they left and found a new home. The same Vepar tracked them down. They were powerful, but he had his entire clan and they murdered them.”
Abby’s chest tightened painfully and she gripped Oliver’s hand too hard. He pulled it gently from her fingers.
“Luckily, they had enchanted a crawl space for Lydie, who was too young to be detected by the Vepars anyway. Faustine found her a few days later when he hadn’t heard anything from her parents. She’s been with us ever since.”
“How did Faustine know that she would be a witch?”
“He didn’t know for sure. But it didn’t take long. She started exhibiting powers when she was three. She lit her own birthday candles without a match. It was brilliant, I still remember it.”
Abby smiled and looked at Lydie, who seemed tiny beneath the fuzzy pink blanket someone had thrown over her. A small bubble rose from her lips and popped.
“I just want you to know,” Oliver said, pulling her hand back into his own. “That I’m here for you, no matter what. Okay?”
* * * *
The cold stone seeped into Sebastian’s pants, and he stared down at the small spider webs that cracked the surface. There were a million tiny paths, each flowing a different direction, a minute change with completely different results. He wondered what would have happened if he had not gone to Sydney’s house. Would Abby still have found her way there, discovered the body and been subsequently murdered? Or would everything have been different? Maybe she would have arrived at Sydney’s, gotten lonely and returned home to her boyfriend. He did not have the answers, and trying to meditate, to visit his spirit pool, proved unproductive in the castle. He couldn’t concentrate. It was like the walls constantly hummed.
He kicked a pebble and watched it skid down the stone steps and disappear into a tangle of bushes, raspberry or blackberry, he wasn’t sure which. Abby had gone to visit Oliver - Oliver who had nearly died. Would he have survived if Sebastian had spoken of Detective Alva, explained his suspicions that Alva was a Vepar?
He hadn’t liked Oliver, and, if he was honest, he still didn’t want to chum around with the guy, but the guilt had settled in the back of his mind like a stone dropping to the bottom of the sea. It might get kicked around, shift on the currents, but it would still lie there – solid and heavy on his thoughts.
“I’m guessing that you’re not thinking about clouds right now,” Helena said, startling him.
She looked happy, relieved that Oliver was well, and her smile was contagious. Sebastian smiled back.
She settled next to him on the step, lifting her heavy skirt, so colorful that it was hard to look at.
“Sparkles,” he said, lifting a piece of the fabric. Sparkles rubbed off on his fingers, and he held them up to the light. They glittered in the sun.
“That would be Lydie’s doing. She’s learned to make them by crushing stones. My entire wardrobe is sprinkled with the stuff. I kind of like it, though.”
Helena wiped some of the sparkles off and painted them on her cheeks.
“What happened to Oliver?” Sebastian asked.
Helena plucked a wilted pink rose and pulled the petals off one by one. “He loves me, he loves me not,” she said, letting the flower fall. “Oliver was ambushed.”
“By Alva?”
“By their clan. He picked up Tobias’s scent in the woods and began to track him, but the Vepars knew when he appeared at the ritual that he would be back. They created a false trail to Abby’s Aunt Sydney’s house.”
“Sydney’s?”
“Yes, he walked right into a trap. You see, Oliver didn’t even know of Alva. None of us did except Faustine, who didn't realize he traveled with Tobias.”
“I saw him when Claire died.”
Really?” Helena looked surprised. “I wish you would have mentioned that to Elda.”
“Yeah, I know.” Sebastian was crestfallen. Helena had verified his fear, that he could have prevented the attack.
“Oh, no, you don’t.” She poked Sebastian in the side. “Don’t be taking this on yourself. Oliver is a big boy; he knows he’s walking into danger when he goes after those Vepars. We all live with that knowledge every day. You, Sebastian, have to liberate yourself from all the guilt swirling around in there.” She tapped the side of his head with her finger.
It felt good to joke with someone. It reminded him of his mother. It had been a long time since someone told him that he wasn’t responsible for all the bad befalling the people in his life.
“Do you think I brought this on Abby?”
“Ha! Abby’s a witch, you fool. Whether she met you or not, that’s what she is. We just thank Mother Earth that you got her here safely.”
“Thanks to Oliver.”
“Sebastian, you played a part in saving her and you know it. Your worst enemies are those thoughts. You’d be smart to check them at the door.”
“Yeah, that was Claire’s advice too, a lot of good it did her.”
“People die, Sebastian, we all do eventually. Stop believing it’s so final.”
They both stared at their feet for several minutes, and neither spoke.
“Does that mean you know what comes after this?” he asked, hopeful.
“Nah, not really. But I’ve chatted with enough of the dead to know there’s something.”
“Really?”
“Yep, but don’t start badgering me about that just now. I’m starving.”
She got up and turned back to him. “You coming?”
He grinned, hopped to his feet and followed her back into the castle.
* * * *
Faustine stepped onto the stone slab, his black robes swaying, and Abby sensed his enormous strength. It was not only the dark rising sky, nor even the air of power that drifted like a tailwind behind him. He was a sorcerer, and everyone in the group silenced at the sight of him.
Behind him, the full moon climbed. It was a gleaming red ball that would grow orange and then yellow as the night wore on.
All of the witches and Sebastian stood on the beach, surrounding the second lagoon. They wore black robes, their pockets heavy. Abby did not know what each witch carried. The drooping pockets of her own robe held amber - for physical protection, bloodstone – to protect against the evil eye, dried elderberries – for banishing negative energy, and dried raspberries – for protection of the home. Helena had provided her the stones and herbs with descriptions of each. Sebastian’s robe sagged especially low.
Faustine stood on the raised stone slab and faced the group. He held an enormous tattered book in his arms, the pages blowing in the wind. Only Oliver was missing, still in the infirmary where he would stay for several more days.
“I have nightmares about that book getting snatched by a turkey buzzard out here,” Helena whispered to Abby from the corner of her mouth.
Abby looked overhead, but the violet sky held only the faintest flicker of stars.
Sebastian stood on Abby’s other side, his arms swinging, his fingers occasionally clinging to hers and then releasing.
Elda and Bridget carried several brooms, which they passed to the group.
“It is time to prepare our circle. We must sweep the negative energy away.” She looked pointedly at Abby and Sebastian. “Follow my lead.”
All of the witches began to vigorously sweep sand and grass outward, creating a wide circular space of raked beach.
“Out, out negative. I sweep you away,” Elda murmured and everyone followed. They repeated the line until Faustine raised a hand.
Elda then walked around the circle’s perimeter three times. First she carried a bowl of water,
next a bowl of salt and finally a small stick of burning incense.
“She is consecrating our circle with representations of the four elements,” Helena whispered to Abby and Sebastian.
“Separate,” Faustine said. His eyes were closed and his hands hovered above the book, which floated on air, lifting and settling like gentle waves drifted beneath it.
“Earth faces north, air east, fire south and water west,” Elda called, but she sounded far away, like she’d already vacated the beach.
Abby followed Elda, who stood facing west, toward the castle. Faustine turned west from the slab. Helena and Max walked to the other side of the circle and stood looking east. Bridget had taken Sebastian’s hand and led him to the northern end of the circle; they faced the lake, though the island’s high dunes blocked the water. Lydie and Dafne faced the lagoon, their arms entwined.
Faustine began, “I call to the Watchtower of the west, my ancestor. Protect us with your blue spirit, the flow of your positive energy that surrounds our island. Lift up that water to cleanse us of negative spirits and to provide a barrier between us and the evil that wants to come in.”
Elda started to repeat it and Abby hurried along with her, tripping over words, but getting the gist.
Faustine turned and faced the lagoon. “I call to the Watchtower of the South, my ancestor. Protect us with your fiery red spirit. Spark our powers within and let those fires burn so brightly that no evil dares venture here.”
Lydie and Dafne repeated his words.
He continued with each direction, calling upon Watchtowers to the east and north. As he spoke, his book shook violently, pages whipped back and forth. The sky overhead grew darker and then brighter and when rain started to fall, Abby did not get wet. The circle that Elda had created was a dome, a bubble that the water fell onto and slid off, pooling on the sand.
Soon Faustine faced west again, and this time everyone chanted with him. Their voices rose, and Abby felt her robes lift as if gusts of wind blew from below. She tilted her face up and let the power wash through her. The chant tickled each vertebrae of her spine and small portals opened for energy to flow through her to every muscle and fiber. She shook with delight and noticed that the others did as well. Even Sebastian and Dafne held similar smiles of ecstasy. Their energy built within the circle and Abby felt the pressure. She stared as the bubble pressed out, the rain pinging against the invisible surface.
“I release you!” Faustine bellowed, and the bubble burst, the energy rushing into the rain and momentarily driving it back.
Abby felt the storm descend then. A deluge of water spilled over them and she laughed, choking on a mouthful, but swallowing it and gulping more. The moon continued to shine; no clouds hid its dusty face. Helena and Bridget started to dance, slowly at first, turning in circles and swaying down so that their bodies became like pendulums, swinging closer together with each rotation. Dafne, Lydie and Elda joined, their bodies wet and heavy beneath their robes, but they moved gracefully. Abby did not look to Max or Faustine, not even to Sebastian. She closed her eyes and tilted her neck and let the wind and rain dictate her dance.
Thunder clapped overhead, and behind the sheer veil of her eyelids, Abby saw white streaks of lightning. She felt her feet sink into the mushy sand of the lagoon’s edge, but she continued into the lagoon. The water rose up to her knees and then her waist. She fell backwards, allowing her body to let go, and felt the water wrap her in, enfold her. It covered her face and when her shoulders hit the sandy bottom, she willed herself up. She did not push her feet beneath her or scramble back to the surface. She simply put all of her attention into the image of coming back up above the water and then she did. The water rushed by and she burst out of the lagoon and into the night, her body flying for several seconds above the water.
The others turned to watch, but she could only feel their stares, not see them through the sheets of rain. She hovered for a second and then crashed back into the water, feeling it explode away from her and then close back in as she sank down. She did it again and then again. She flew out of the water with only her thoughts. She felt the fingers in the water gathering beneath her and then flinging her out, a geyser that she created.
* * * *
When Abby awoke to Devin beside her, it was nearly 2:30 am and she'd been asleep for only two hours. No tremor of fear stole over her this time, only a perplexing calm, as though she had expected Devin in the dead of night. She should have been exhausted, but the ritual on the beach had awakened something within her. She had known Devin would come that night, had felt it the moment that her head hit the pillow.
Devin did not speak, but cold seeped from her like condensation and settled on Abby’s skin.
"Hi," Abby said, not afraid, not even surprised anymore.
"You understand now?" Devin whispered, her red hair flickering and disappearing for a moment, leaving only her pale face and large green eyes above her purple robe.
"I read about relics. Is the lighter a relic?" Abby asked.
Devin smiled and moved her head up and down. It was a gesture consumed by effort and Devin flickered out briefly.
Abby wanted to sign up for the task, but her heart had moved into her throat. She had seen Vesta with the lighter, and the fear coiled around her thoughts. She wanted to help Devin, but she wasn’t ready.
“You must get the lighter.”
“Yes, and I will. Tomorrow I will tell Elda, and we will find a way.”
Devin shook her head violently and vanished. Abby waited several seconds, and when she reappeared, her eyes looked empty, but her mouth was twisted in warning.
“Your family is in danger.”
“What?” Though Abby had heard her clearly.
“You must get the lighter.”
“But I can’t, don’t you see that? I can’t take on Vesta alone.” Abby stood from the bed and paced the room, glancing back at Devin, who seemed to be moving towards her with great difficulty. She reached slowly towards Abby, her hand an iridescent vapor with little shape.
Abby understood and lifted her own to meet it, the cold quickly enveloping her.
* * * *
Again she peered through Devin's eyes. They had returned to the woods on the night of her death. Devin stared down as Vesta left the forest, Tane scurrying behind her.
"I will take the car," Vesta barked at Tane, who nodded, but did not speak. "You know where to meet me."
Devin watched Vesta slide behind the wheel of her Volkswagen, and the car grumbled to life. Vesta drove fast, faster than the car liked; it groaned and shook on the freeway, her hands vibrating beneath the gyrating steering wheel. While Vesta drove, she pulled out the goddess lighter and lifted it to her face. Staring at it closely, she rubbed her fingers over the surface, her long nails blocking the goddess’s tiny metallic features.
She took an exit, and Devin stared hard at the sign, 'Devil’s Bend', in white lettering against green metal. Vesta took the turns fast, laughing maliciously when the car squealed in protest. Jerking the wheel hard to the right, she turned down a dirt trail that wound through trees. The car bumped over exposed roots and deep grass, threatening to get stuck, but somehow forging on, an unwilling participant in Vesta’s joyride. The trail ended abruptly at a small bluff that overlooked a large, mossy pond. Cattails and weeds poked thickly from the grimy surface.
Vesta stepped from the car and walked to the dune edge. The drop was no more than fifteen feet, but it would be plenty to get the car moving. She pulled the lighter out again and this time flicked it on, watching the flame, mesmerized.
Suddenly the fire jumped from the goddess and snaked around Vesta’s wrist; she shrieked and threw it to the ground, shaking her arm in pain. A red ring surrounded the flesh, already blistering. Vesta cursed and kicked the lighter hard, sending it over the dune embankment into the water below, where it splashed once and disappeared.
Vesta returned to the car and began to push. With very little effort, the car wheeled over th
e edge. It smashed into the dune once with its nose, then flipped onto its back in the murky water and began to sink. Vesta waited until the wheels slipped below the water, then turned and trotted back to the woods and out of sight.
* * * *
In the castle, Abby moved away from Devin with an audible suck, as if she had pulled her hand from a bowl of gelatin.
The lighter was in the pond.
"I still don't understand," Abby whispered, scared. She was teetering on the edge of belief in herself and hated the small sound of her voice.
"You… your family is in danger." Devin's voice had begun as nothing more than a low raspy draft, but now it grew loud and urgent. "With the lighter…you can see her."
"No," Abby interjected. “Why would they want them? Not to get to me. No, I don’t believe it.”
But she did believe it, and her heart pounded in her head, and she had to sit on the edge of the bed, feet planted, to steady the blood pulsing in her ears.
"There’s no time," Devin breathed.
No time? How could there be no time? But her mind reeled back to Sydney, and she understood that if there was any time at all, she had to act now.
“Yes, now,” Devin breathed and then she was gone. A light mist lingered in the air, but before it faded completely, Abby had left the room.
Chapter 25
The castle slept. Abby crept down the hallway and slipped out the door without notice. She fought her brain’s cries to seek help. At the lagoon, she stopped. The rowboat that Abby and Sebastian had used sat motionless on the beach, its weather beaten bow hardly the trusty steed that she hoped for. Would it be fast enough?
She jumped into the boat, pushing hard with the oars and pointing herself towards the black hole that would take her out to the lake. The muscles of her arms did not burn and she exercised her power, pushing harder and faster with each stroke. Her forearms were a blur as she thrust and pulled, not needing to pause and find her way because her body did it for her. Muscle memory taking over her confused and frightened brain.
Ula (Born of Shadows Book 1) Page 24
