After the Summerland (The Witches of Spring Hill Book 1)

by Patricia Proctor

  “Damn cat,” she thinks as she starts off in the direction the cat went. Assuming the cat is the Alexanders’, she expects it will eventually lead her to the house.

  Chapter 29

  As dusk falls, Xavier stands in the window looking out over the treetops to the entire town spread out below. The lights from town sparkle while the last of the daylight recedes into night. He can’t help but wonder if his Aunt Selene is out there somewhere nearby.

  He shivers at the thought and starts to turn away from the window when he sees movement out in the yard. His heart pounds in his chest and he skims the yard again, refocusing his eyes, searching for any sign of movement. As far as he can see everything is still, until again, he starts to turn away and sees a sudden movement on the perimeter of the yard. Just as he is about to think his eyes are playing tricks on him, he sees a black cat, dark as night, except for its bright white tail, moving swiftly through the yard, chasing after some unsuspecting prey. No doubt playing cat and mouse with it, he thinks to himself. For the first time since coming up to the house from the clearing, he laughs, even if it was at his own little joke.

  Chloe calls everyone to dinner, and although Liam offered to pick up a pizza, Chloe insisted on cooking. Besides wanting to flex her newfound skills in the kitchen, she’s learned that she draws power from preparing food, especially when the food comes from their garden. Cian helped her in the kitchen and together they prepared pasta primavera, loaded with vegetables from the garden. Cian baked an apple pie made fresh from apples picked from their trees in the yard.

  They decided to wait until dinner to tell Liam, Grandpa Marcus, and GG Peter what happened in the clearing. Besides Liam being more understanding with a full stomach, she cast a purification spell over the food to remove negative energy from everyone who consumes the meal.

  Chloe can’t predict how Liam will react since he is already on edge about Selene, but she guesses he’ll put them on lock down. That’s fine with her since next week is the last week of school, finals are over, grades are in and nothing exciting ever happens that last week. She wouldn’t mind missing the last week of her junior year, but the following week is their 17th birthday. She can’t help but hope that whatever is going to happen will be over before then so she can spend her birthday with Cian.

  Chloe can tell the spell she cast is working because everyone is relaxed, talking, laughing, and enjoying dinner together. Making small talk, Xavier says, “I saw your cat outside.”

  “We don’t have a cat,” Rowan replies, confused.

  Peter shakes his head and between bites, asks, “Was it a black cat with a white tail?” When Xavier nods, Peter says nonchalantly, “Yeah, that cat has lived here longer than any of us.”

  “What do you mean?” Brianna asks. “That’s impossible. I think the longest living cat in the world is, like, 38 years old and sorry, Mr. Alexander, but you are way older than that.”

  Peter looks up at Brianna, smiling at the blunt honesty of teenagers and says, “Well, I’ve seen that cat a lot over the last 50 years or so; and I know, for sure, it’s the same damn cat hanging around.”

  “Maybe the cat comes from the same litter — you know, like another generation of the same looking cat?” Cian adds.

  “I don’t think so,” Liam says. “I’ve never seen any other cats on the property, but I did see the same exact cat you’re describing the day I found you three,” Liam tells Chloe, Kaiden, and Rowan.

  “I read in one of my books that cats are a witch’s familiar, so maybe the cat is a spirit guide and is protecting us,” Chloe says.

  “Can’t help but wonder what that old cat’s protecting us from right now,” Marcus says, eyeing the Silvans as he finishes his last bite of dinner.

  With that everyone gets quiet and finishes their dinner. Once the table is cleared and the dishes done, everyone sits back around the table with pie and coffee.

  “We need to tell you what happened at the clearing today, Dad,” Chloe starts, but before she can say anything further Xavier says, “We finally realized why our aunt is so obsessed with your property.”

  Peter looks up at Xavier in shock. They can’t have figured it out, he thinks. His scalp tingles in fear and he feels sweat form at his brow. This is not how I wanted this to happen, he thinks. As Peter is preparing his defense, Xavier says, “The land is so powerful here that it not only made our abilities stronger, but it also took down our guards that we use to protect ourselves from black magic.”

  Peter sighs audibly in relief and when everyone looks at him questioningly, he says, “I’m just relieved we finally know.”

  Liam looks at his grandfather curiously, but rather than respond to Peter’s strange reaction, he says, “What does that mean to her?”

  Cian explains that his aunt learned and practiced black magic back in Massachusetts. A witch can practice black magic anywhere, but if the land he or she practices on has the ability to drop the witch’s guards, like this land does, she is exposed to darker energies. This makes her power stronger, her reach further, and allows her to manipulate the elements so completely that she becomes simply unstoppable. She could take over the whole town making everyone within it her minion to do her bidding. She could kill people in cold blood, without ever leaving the property.

  Cian continues, “Our aunt is power hungry. For as long as we have known her, she has wanted to be stronger and more powerful. Somehow she must have learned about this property and knows exactly what it will do for her abilities. The only thing that I’m not sure of is how she would have learned about this prop--”

  Peter impatiently interrupts Cian and asks, “What happened out at the clearing?”

  Chloe, somewhat surprised at her GG’s rudeness, explains that when they were all together in the clearing, Cian immediately went into a vision. When Brianna and Xavier joined together so they could read his vision, an electricity pulsed through the clearing and lightning streaked across the sky. She adds that she has never felt energy like that before and could sense something ominous so she quickly cast a protective shield around them in the circle. Once the shield was in place, Cian came out of his vision and Brianna explained what she saw.

  “What did you see, Brianna?” Liam asks her gently.

  “I saw my Aunt Selene,” Brianna says, shivering. “Her aura was dark, and there was so much pain and suffering. She was cloaked in death, which she is planning to unleash on us — all of us,” she says, looking around at everyone sitting at the table.

  Peter, Marcus, and Liam look around the table and realize that instead of having to protect three kids, they now have six to protect. Liam finally says, “Dad, Granddad, I think you should plan on staying up here for a while. Tomorrow go back to town, check out Selene’s house for anything suspicious — just a drive by, and then get the things you need to stay here for a while. Let’s hunker down. We have to be prepared for anything, at any time.”

  To Xavier, Cian, and Brianna, Liam says, “I’m not sure what to do with you three. Obviously we can’t keep you here under our protection when Selene gets back to town, but I do want you to stay until Sunday morning in case she has something planned this weekend. It’s just too convenient that she is “out of town.” I think that story stinks of lies. Cian, in your vision, could you see when something was going to happen?”

  Cian shakes his head, “I didn’t see anything that would tell me when, but I can tell you that I don’t feel her energy nearby.”

  Xavier explains to Liam, “Our connection with her has been severed, either by distance or by a spell.”

  To Cian he says, “We can’t assume she hasn’t cast a spell on us… she could have used magic to either make her energy disappear, or she is blocking us from seeing her.”

  “So she may or may not be nearby… is that what you’re telling me?” Liam asks, and by the looks on their faces, he knows the answer. “Well, if Selene is still in town, let’s hope she was far enough away not to see the lightning over the clearing.”
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  ∗ ∗ ∗

  Selene is feeling very lucky since she came upon the silly cat that keeps darting in and out of view. It disappears for some time and then comes back, as if it is beckoning her to follow him. It is a strange looking cat, all black except for a long, bushy white tail. Each time it comes into view, she changes her course and follows the direction the cat has gone.

  It has gotten so dark that she has to keep her flashlight pointed toward the ground to watch her steps, looking up only when she hears the telltale rustling of leaves indicating that the cat is nearby. When she points her flashlight toward the sound she sees the flicking of the white tail, like a beacon in the dark night. After a couple of hours of following the cat, she thinks she has to be getting close.

  Adrenaline and excitement course through her veins as she continues following, until the cat disappears and reappears close by. When she turns to follow him, she sees it is leading her back down the hill! Suddenly, she realizes that she has been following some random cat for the past four hours; and now has no effin idea where she is on this damn hill. Damn cat! She screeches, causing an owl to take flight overhead.

  She pulls out her phone to look at the GPS, only to discover that she is in a dead zone and her 4G won’t work. No! NO! Not now, she thinks. Frustrated and exhausted from walking through the woods all this time, she finds a rock, sits down, and takes a sip of water from her bottle. She points her flashlight in all directions around her; as far as she can see, there are only trees and rocks. Nothing else as far as the eye can see — not even the damn cat.

  Running through the options in her head and not coming up with another plan, she sets up her pup tent for the night and decides to start her search again in the morning. Just as she settles in under her tent she hears thunder rumble overhead and watches as the first drops of rain fall.

  Chapter 30

  After dinner, Liam, Peter, and Marcus disappear to talk about what they’ve learned, leaving the kids to themselves.

  “Your dad is pretty cool about all this,” Cian says to Chloe.

  “Yeah, I mean, I think it’s cool he’s letting us stay here this weekend and all, but I’m also impressed that he is trying to protect us, too,” Brianna adds.

  “Well, he has his reasons for wanting you to stay this weekend,” Rowan says, still not over the fact that her abilities aren’t manifesting.

  “Oh? What do you mean by that?” Xavier asks, thinking to himself that things are too good to be true with Liam’s offer of protection.

  “Well, it’s really our reasons for wanting to spend more time with you,” Chloe says, surprising Xavier. “I learned that witches who practice or even just spend time together become stronger. Abilities manifest, spells become stronger, and overall the witch becomes more powerful. A witch practicing with a group will always be more powerful than a witch acting alone. So, the more time I spend with Cian, the more my abilities are manifesting and getting stronger.”

  “And, since spending time with you, Brianna, you know one of mine manifested,” Kaiden says. He focuses his attention on the candles on the counter, reminding them of his ability when he lights them with his eyes. The candles flare once, then burn brightly, filling the air with the sweet scent of honey.

  “So, um, Kaiden’s abilities are manifesting, mine are getting stronger and…”

  “Everyone is hoping that being around you guys will make my abilities manifest, okay?” Rowan adds snottily.

  Brianna reaches out to Rowan and pats her on the arm. “It’s okay, Rowan. Yours will manifest soon. Don’t worry,” she adds with a smile.

  Cian sits quietly for a moment and says, “Well, it all makes sense now.”

  “What makes sense?” Brianna asks.

  “Why Aunt Selene pushed us so hard to practice witchcraft, to develop our abilities, and everything…” Xavier answers.

  “All that stuff about teaching us to use our gifts, it would enhance our lives, we would have a happier life here, blah, blah… it was all bullshit. She wanted us to hone our own abilities so that we would make her a stronger witch. She has been using and manipulating all of us since the very beginning.” Cian says, with full understanding dawning on him. “Brianna, she recognized your psychic ability and knew eventually you would be able to read minds; she probably suspected I would see into the future, and Xavier?” he looks at his brother questioningly.

  “She wanted me for clarity. She was going to use me as a go-between between her and the Dark God and Goddess. She has been teaching me dark magic for the past year and now, I see why,” Xavier says, finally admitting the truth to his siblings. “She has been preparing me for what to do when we got here, on this land, without telling me her real plans.” He suddenly realizes how close he actually was to becoming her pawn.

  “Well, at least she was going to keep you around. She was probably going to absorb our powers and kill us after she got what she wanted,” Brianna says.

  “In the end, I would have preferred to die with you rather than be her sorcerer,” Xavier says honestly. “She would have had me do awful things to people.”

  Xavier gets up abruptly and walks out the side door.

  “Xavier, wait!” Brianna calls. Before she can even get up, Rowan is out of her seat and runs out the door after him. Once outside, she looks around for a moment and finally sees Xavier lying on the ground near the garden. “Xavier!” she calls out, worried that something terrible has happened to him.

  “It’s okay, Rowan,” Xavier replies, touched by the concern he hears in her voice. Without sitting up or looking at her, he waves his arm over his head for her to find him and says, “I’m over here.”

  “Are you okay?” she asks, as she settles herself down next to him.

  Xavier looks at her for a moment and then back up toward the sky. He finds his constellations, which have been his constant for many years. He waits until she sits down next to him and says, “When we first learned my mom was sick, I knew she would die. I didn’t know I was a witch, but I knew she was going to die. No one could tell us what was wrong with her. They ran test after test, and everything came back negative. For a while, they called it a viral infection; but even that didn’t stick when her blood work came back clean.

  “We were twelve when our dad told us our mom was going to die within the week,” he chuckles sardonically. “At the time, I didn’t even question how he knew, especially when doctors couldn’t even tell us what was wrong with her, let alone pinpoint the day she was going to die. Of course, I now know that he was a witch and probably saw that it was going to happen.

  “Brianna and Cian started crying, and you want to know what I did? I started listing the constellations in my head. You see, when I was little, my mom read me a book called Our Stars. It was all about the stars and constellations, and I loved it so much that I asked her to read it to me every night for a whole year. And she did, every single night, without fail.

  “So when I found out she was going to die within the week, I pulled out my old worn book and read it to her, every single night, until she was gone. The last time I read it to her… the night she died, she opened her eyes and whispered, ‘Remember the constellations, Xavier. Always let them guide you home.’

  “Now, whenever I am faced with something that breaks me inside, I think about the stars and try to figure out what she meant.” He exhales slowly, and thankful for the clarity that has come to him, he says, “I finally figured it out… she was telling me that ‘home’ is my true, authentic, good self. Somehow she knew that I would always hold the memory of that night close to my heart and I would look to the stars whenever I felt bad, or when I was far from my true self. She wanted me to remember the goodness within me, and not let my Aunt Selene turn me into someone I’m not. Somehow she knew… and she wanted me to always remember who I am…”

  Rowan wipes the tears from her eyes, crying not only for the guy sitting in front of her discovering himself, but also for the little boy whose mom read him a story every s
ingle night, and for the little boy who lost his mom at twelve years old, which changed his life irrevocably. “I’m so sorry, Xavier,” is all that Rowan can think to say.

  He pats the ground next to him and says, “Lay back, Miss Alexander. Let me teach you a thing or two.” He points out constellations to her, including Ursa Major, Ursa Minor, Cassiopeia, and the three stars that make up Orion’s Belt. When two shooting stars fly through the sky, side-by-side, Rowan gasps in surprise. Xavier holds back from explaining that shooting stars aren’t actually stars, but rather meteors burning up in the atmosphere. The moment is too magical to ruin with science.

  Although there isn’t a cloud in the sky, thunder rumbles overhead. “We should probably go in,” Xavier says, sitting up. Rowan sits up at the same time and whether she was touched by his story, from seeing the shooting stars, or she was just letting her guard down to him, she grabs his face between her hands and kisses him with everything she’s got. He reacts quickly and wraps his strong arms around her lithe body. The passion flares immediately, and it’s deep and it’s strong.

  Like the meteors that burn up in the atmosphere, Xavier feels as if he is going to burn up from being this close to Rowan. He is the first to break away, catching his breath. He looks at this magnificent girl in front of him; and when she opens her eyes to look at him, her green eyes sparkle in the night. When he grabs her face to look closer, he sees that the sparkle in her eyes is actually a glowing light in her pupil, in the shape of a pentagram. He backs away, unable to hide his shock.

  “Xavier, what is it?” she asks, suddenly feeling insecure.

  “Rowan — your eyes! I saw… I saw…”

  “What? What did you see?” she asks impatiently, suddenly worried that something is wrong.