But she didn’t let him finish, repeating her shock. “Your eyes!”
She looked over to Emma’s, only seemed a little relieved when she didn’t see the same in Natalie or Benjamin. When he started to calm her again, she broke away from him, really pounding on his chest this time.
“You don’t understand! They’re like Livy’s!”
He could feel Emma and Natalie’s shock over this, matching his own. Already, they knew that Hester and her cronies were trying to breed for magic—but that they had succeeded so thoroughly with an infant? Emma’s fingers nearly crushed his own. Now, that was a terrifying wild conversion, indeed.
Pressing on, he knew they had to learn more. “Tell me about Livy, Jenny. When did her conversion begin?”
Waiting, even he heard that he sounded like a doctor diagnosing but continued to calmly watch his sister.
However, she did not immediately answer the question, looking at him curiously. “How do you know about conversions, Frederick?”
A new thought seemed to occur to her, as she looked around.
“How are you even here?”
Emma’s question came through to him so softly he more felt it at a subconscious level than heard it. Are we breaking through Hester’s compulsion?
If they were, how were they doing it? The woman had been a fully-converted sorcerer for much longer than any of them had been alive, and she had a blood-bond to Jenny which had clearly aided her in enslaving the girl up till today. He looked into his sister, wondering, running his hand along her face. If only he understood how to free both she and her daughter now.
There was a small part of him which was still amazed that he was an uncle, which wanted to picture a future where he helped his beloved younger sister raise his niece—but there was no time for such musings at present.
Trying to lead her past her questions toward what they needed to know, he glossed over quite a bit. “A lot has happened to me today.”
When he squeezed Emma’s hand and felt her comfort, Jenny seemed to understand, looking over to her with a curious, assessing gaze.
“I understand much more than I did yesterday, including what I hope to become.”
This made the girl refocus on his eyes, in a sort of wary wonder.
“But I need to know about Olivia now.”
Taking his hand, Jenny sighed, sitting back. She seemed calmer than she had been for sometime, which comforted him—although, if they were breaking through Hester’s spell, it also opened up the rather terrifying possibility of another attack.
Pushing this idea aside, he listened.
“William explained some things to me in about our third month of marriage. We hadn’t gone out of the house too often, so I only had a feeling that our new environment was strange.”
She blushed a little, and Frederick had to wrestle with the odd set of feelings most fathers did when they realized their adult daughters were now fully autonomous sexual beings. It was only made more difficult by the era in which he had lived up until today, but he allowed that he was happy she had somehow found companionship in her enforced marriage and not the abuse he had feared.
“He told me about the magic in our family and the fact that our grandfather, Hester, and everyone else were all from another time.”
Blushing a little more, she seemed to be remembering.
“He told me about Salem and some of the families here.”
Thinking it might be of use, Frederick wanted to press her on this point but decided that it was better to return to later.
She was staring at the bed, now bright red. “He also told me that it was likely our daughter would be a sorcerer.”
This brought up myriad questions, many of which he could hear Emma and Natalie discussing silently, but only focused on one. “How did he know that?”
Shrugging a little, she would not meet his eyes. Always, she had hated discussing her feelings in front of strangers—which included everyone in the room besides him.
“He said Grandfather can see these things in people, who will ‘breed power.’”
Gazing up to him, her eyes were honest and a little sad.
“He said that was why Hester had chosen us to marry.”
This was getting a little closer to the point—and also explained a good deal of his grandfather’s part in all this. Apparently, Hester used him as a sort of augur to predict which couples could be made of use to her.
For one of the first times, Frederick started to wonder whether that man were actually a willing part of her plans. His intense distraction this morning could well have been because of yet another of Hester’s compulsion spells, made all the stronger for how long she had been controlling him.
It also brought up the question of why the woman had forced Penelope away, breaking up her pairing with Benjamin. Had it been the simple jealousy—or fear—of a twin who could find the will to oppose her? Or had his grandfather told her about something he had seen in the two of them together, some hint that they could create a child who might stand against her?
Speculatively, his eyes went to his beloved. Maybe it was for these very same reasons that his great-aunt had dismissed Emma, hoping that not being raised around Randolph and Hester’s stronger magical forces might dampen her own power enough to keep her from being a threat.
Certainly, it was possible. He gazed back to his sister. Yet there was so much more they needed to learn.
Knowing Emma understood some of his thoughts, he still didn’t want to discuss the details in front of his sister. Even if William had not treated her as badly as he had feared, she had been through enough.
“Why is William going along with Hester’s plans?” It made sense if he were the monster he and Emma believed him to be but not if he were the gentle man Jenny did.
Her mouth opened a little but nothing emerged, as though she were lost. He became more specific.
“Did he tell you what part he was playing in them or how you fit in?”
It was odd. Before, Jenny had seemed fully willing to speak. Now, she looked a little like a fish trying to live in the open air, lips moving to nothing.
Starting to worry, he took her by the shoulder.
“Jenny, you know that Hester is dangerous. She means us all harm.”
His fingers tightened, until he forced himself to loosen them.
“We need to know what else William told you.”
Becoming truly concerned, he saw that his sister was now ashen, eyes glazed. He was about to ask her if she were ill, to ask Emma to check for signs of Hester’s intrusion, when a sound emerged from her—but it was only the merest whisper through a large breath. “Will . . . iam . . .”
To his terror, a gasp emerged, her body falling back toward the bed. One of her arms moved to prop her from collapsing, but it was almost as though it moved on its own. She seemed entirely insensible to it—or anything else.
Heart clenching in terror, he let go of Emma’s hand to grab the girl. “Jenny!”
As he stared at his sister, Emma clutched his shoulder to keep the connection—but there was nothing he could see of her anymore in her eyes.
Instead, Jenny’s lips moved without any obvious awareness on her part. “You cannot talk to her of things you do not understand. She has made promises.”
The voice which emerged was that of the man he had allowed the poor thing to be married off to, and it sounded supremely calm.
Frederick’s rage spiked, and some part of him feared that the feeling would always be part of his magic.
He was going to interrupt—to scream or storm or possibly just aim deadly magic at the man, although his fear for his sister, who would be the conduit, checked him. He felt Emma’s grip tighten and was thankful, knew it was the only lifeline to sanity he had.
The voice still sounded stern and entirely unconcerned. “If you wish to speak to me, Goodwinter Distaff is well aware of where I live. Come and see me.”
Jenny’s body started to sag, only Frederick�
��s grip keeping it from an utter dead fall.
“Until you do, I’ll look after Jenny.”
The girl’s collapse was only shielded by her brother carefully lowering her to the bed. Her lips continued to move, although her eyes stared at nothing.
“And bring the little luck witch with you. She could prove useful.”
Then, Jenny’s lips and eyes closed.
The terror and fury roiling through him, Frederick’s instincts won out first, checking what he could of his sister’s vital signs. He stood back up, his face grim.
“She’s alive but unconscious.”
At least, he hoped that was the worst of it—but with a husband such as the one she had been wedded to, there was no telling anymore.
Chapter 15
Emma
To say the astral visit from one of their enemies had thrown the whole house into chaos would have been a wild understatement. Emma’s own fury at Philbert was roiling, but she knew that it was nothing at all compared to Frederick’s.
Pulling to get him to leave his sister—not that she didn’t understand his concern—she tried to reason. “Frederick, come with me.”
He was solid as a boulder.
“We shouldn’t talk here.”
It was only too obvious that several someones might be listening.
Despite their precautions, she now wondered whether everything Jenny had said had been monitored. While she had noticed nothing, Hester’s compulsions spells were dangerously subtle, as she and her grandfather were sure signs of.
They might also just have triggered some sort of warning in a compulsion Philbert Spear had put on the girl. Sadly, she didn’t believe for an instant that “William,” as Jenny had known him, had been anything like a kind, loving partner. Such spells could cover a multitude of sins.
Despite her efforts, though, she was getting nowhere in moving Frederick, the man’s look steely. To her terror, she saw some sort of dark gray color mixing with the bright, rainbow flashes through his eyes and glanced back to her grandfather, pleading silently for his help.
One of the man’s cats scampered toward her, bounding up to spring off the bed onto the bedside table. It then stared fixedly at the girl, her chosen sentinel.
Emma was grateful, as her gaze dug powerfully back into the man she worried for. “Frederick, come with me now!”
Something about her command made him blink, at least, and he glanced around at Natalie, Benjamin, the cat, and, finally, at his sister.
Emma’s nails dug into his shoulders, demanding he not fall back entirely into that dark place, and he seemed to understand her message. After staring at the girl for another long few moments, he looked back to Emma, nodded tersely, and then was the first to move out the door.
Still, for all he gave in, he wasn’t really with them.
A thousand, horrible stories of malformed conversions came back to her—and those had been the more normal ones, not a wild one like his.
Therefore, she stopped him, although there was an automatic, dark nature to his agreement she didn’t like at all. Nodding the others toward his bedroom again, she let the last of the non-sentinel cats out of the room to follow Benjamin, sent a small ball of protection magic toward the feline who stayed, and then closed the door. Sealing it against anyone with either ill or unknowing intentions, she then turned back to the man she was much too aware she was falling in love with.
But her heart broke at what she saw.
There was a cold, solid emptiness to him now—a look which said that he would do whatever it took to protect those he loved, even if it meant sacrificing his own sanity and soul. In the middle of a completely-unexpected conversion, that intention could be far too easily fulfilled, if she took no action. Just the gray lines pulsing through his irises caught her heart. If she didn’t help him now . . .
In many ways, she was much too aware that her ever-growing affection for him made no sense. It had only been this morning she had met him, but she knew her feelings were not going to dim.
Her hand stroking through his hair, she felt all his multiple attractions for her. He was so strong—not merely a superficial physical strength, which any fool could gain, but a strength of mind and soul, a desire to help and understand. Happily, he had a fully-formed sense of self and his own desires and needs without any corresponding intention to force any of them on others.
Despite the era he had been born and lived in until today, he was the most egalitarian man she had ever met, as her insights into his mind made all the more obvious. It was quite apparent that he judged others on their character, not for simple accidents of birth—and he not only was willing to be partnered with her, in the truest senses of the word, but seemed to yearn to both freely give and take in all the ways he should.
Yet the damage Philbert Spear was causing his sister was wounding him, damaging his magic and his self.
A righteous rage burned through her.
But she wouldn’t allow this to happen to him now.
She made her move, then, eyes glowing, as she took his face in her hands, forcing him to focus on her. “I claim you, Frederick Everly.”
A little of the gray in his eyes seemed to fizzle, like a lightbulb starting to short out, and his look began to really see her. Her touch was gentle but certain.
“I claim you as mine to love for all time.”
Clearly feeling the bond take hold, as did she, he gasped.
Good.
She drew him to her and kissed him, thoroughly—and it was only a moment later that he returned it in full.
In some part of her mind, she knew that Natalie and Benjamin were watching, knew she had startled her friend. While sorry for that, she wouldn’t turn back.
Even if Natalie was still terrified of what Frederick might become, Emma had realized the truth. The one way to dismiss the fear was to actively work with him to prevent it—and only as a full partner could she hope to see that done.
The kiss went on for several long moments—subtle, searing, captivating—but there had been another motive for it, as well. Remembering, she forced herself away. When she did, her head turned to remove an intense square of gray light from her mouth, having wilfully drained away his wrath and pain. As his eyes widened, she could clearly see that they had returned to the proper shade, the flashes of rainbow colors bright.
Holding that damaging square out to the side, one arm was still around him. “I’ll need your help.”
When he smiled, the love in his look just bound her to him all the further.
That adoring gaze caught at her, made her wish very strongly that they weren’t in the middle of a fight for the lives and souls of the entire town. She would very much have liked to seal their partnership—intimately and at length.
Nodding, taking her hand carefully, so as not to touch the gray light, he pulled her closer. “I know just the place.”
What he showed her a moment later made her gasp, very grateful for the fact that she still had a window to his thoughts. Somehow, with the bond, she could do more than just hear and thoughts his words in her mind. With him willing it, she could see those other realms, felt the two of them speed across a million worlds and finally into an endless, searingly-beautiful valley of light and shadow.
The beauty was almost too much for her. Her knees buckling, she couldn’t even take all that perfection in, had no idea how he found it all so normal. Still, she realized she must have been about to fall when she heard Nat’s “Emma!” felt her hands on her shoulders helping, along with Frederick, to hold her up.
But she was lost now down in that valley of light and shadow, was watching her beloved place that small gray square among its depths and knew it was safe there, nestled among its fellows. It had belonged there from the first.
Still, that was also all she knew for a moment, the images much too intense. Humiliatingly, despite the sense of Natalie behind her, she fainted. Her last thought was a simple astonishment that her beloved could see all of those
places with only a sense of pleasant wonder and a smile.
Coming to, Emma heard the sounds of an argument—both inside and out of her mind, although the internal one was more feelings than words.
Her head was on Natalie’s lap, although Frederick still held her hand, her best friend nearly hissing at him. “What in the hell did you do to her?”
Also clear were visions of the last time Natalie had seen Emma overwhelmed, which had been at around age twelve. A simple removal shouldn’t have had such an effect.
Her beloved seemed to know this, as well, but he was far calmer about what had happened, mostly sad that he couldn’t share all those realms with her as completely as he understood them, his mind a welter of emotion. “I showed her a place where the universe is created. She’s so strong.”
His touch over her hand, and the sound of his voice, were comforting, but she still couldn’t raise her head.
“I didn’t realize it would be too much for her.”
Needing to intervene, Emma only managed to open one eye—and, surprisingly, saw her grandfather grinning at the three of them. Still, he said nothing, the argument raging above her. When he saw her tired look, he just winked and went back to watching.
Natalie clearly would have exploded if she hadn’t been so worried about her friend. “This is exactly the problem with having you here! You don’t understand anything, don’t even know the seven branches of magic! Kids learn that alongside their milk magic! There are children’s books about it—and you don’t even know that! And now you’re converting! Holy Melius!” she wailed. “You don’t even understand our curse words!”
It was rare that Emma saw her friend so worked up, but she could feel through their bond that she was frightened to death.
Her real fear came out in a whisper at last. “And now that she’s claimed you as her partner, if you’re pulled into madness or death . . .”
The terrible notion lay there, Emma sensing it roiling through both her friend and her partner—even if the latter didn’t fully understand.
Frederick’s voice was rough and worried, but it was nothing to the fears she felt through their bond. “What will happen to her?”
A Wild Conversion Page 17
