Magic Awakened: A Paranormal Romance Boxed Set

by K.N. Lee

  Anais knew she was talking about the bar hopping and cringed. She felt so awful about that period of her life, and now, she was mortified that her deterioration had been spied upon.

  “We decided to step in about six months ago.”

  “Six months ago I moved in with Winnie.”

  “Yes, My mother. Remember, I told you she’d changed her name from Astrid back to her original name? Her real name is Winifred.”

  “Winnie? Winnie is one of you?”

  “One of us, yes, my mother. She is a member of the Custor Lux. She is with my father at the moment.”

  Anais had heard a lot of information this morning. She’d just got over the fact that her father had been six hundred years old, but somehow, this seemed even more unbelievable. Sweet, little Winnie—Winnie, who had saved her, who had looked after her and yes, had protected her, but she’d made it seem as though it was she that needed protecting.

  Anais thought back to the first day they had met. She had just walked down the little side street, on which Winnie’s Antique Book Emporium was located, on a whim. The antique books had reminded her of her father, and so, she had decided to go into the shop.

  “I went into the shop of my own volition.”

  “Sorry?” asked Aethelu.

  “It was my decision, the day I met Winnie. You couldn’t have known that I’d go in that shop.”

  “We watched you spiral out of control after your parents died. We took turns following you, going from bar to bar. Eventually, we decided that your behaviour was too risky; besides, it was exhausting and taking up too much of our time. Andrew came up with a plan. He noticed you walked the same streets every day. We rented a shop and apartment, and knowing you liked antique books, we made it an antique book shop. Mother volunteered to look after you. She moved into the apartment and we waited. A week later, you still hadn’t walked down the side street, so Alexander gave you a nudge in the right direction . . . literally.”

  “The skateboarder!”

  Anais thought back to that day. She had been walking down the street, when a skateboarder had accidentally crashed into her, knocking her into the side street. Angrily, she had sworn at the skater, who had sheepishly apologised and skated away. Rubbing her arm, which the skater had bumped into, she glanced down the side street and saw a shop she’d not seen before. The Antique Book Emporium.

  “That was Alex.”

  “Ok, so you’ve been looking after me for ages. How come I only just found out about you?”

  “My father will back from his travels next week, hopefully. Actually he’s kind of AWOL at the moment. He disappeared the night we brought you here. I thought he’d be back the next day but he’s not quite made it back yet.”

  “So you are telling me that your Father abducted me then vanished?”

  “Not vanished as such. Something came up at the last minute, he didn’t say what. I assumed he would be back soon. Obviously I was wrong.

  “You don’t know where he is?”

  “He’s not answering his phone. I’m sure he’ll be back soon.” She didn’t seem convinced by her own words. “I shouldn’t be talking to you about this. He’s going to be pissed that I told you anything at all. He wanted me to keep you in the room on the second floor and not even talk to you. I think it’s best if you wait for him to get back and tell you himself.”

  This was all so much to take in. Anais was reeling from all the information she had just learnt. Her father being over six centuries old and Winnie too. It felt like her whole life had been a lie, and the worst news of all, her parents had been murdered. Her father, almost indestructible, brought down by a car of all things, and her mother, a normal human being, hadn’t stood a chance against the power of a car ploughing straight into her.

  Thoughts of escaping had now left Anais completely. Her only home was with Winnie at the shop. If Winnie was moving back here and shutting the shop up, she had nowhere else to go. She resigned herself to the fact that she’d have to stay here at the manor. At least, until her parents money and the contents of their will finally came through.

  A thought occurred to her.

  “Can I see my father’s grave?”

  “I think that’s the least we can do,” Aethelu said, “August, are the paths clear enough?”

  “Yeah, the snow’s not that thick in the woods. Just put some wellies on. I’ve put a pair for Anais by the back door. A coat, hat and gloves are in a bag on the kitchen table.”

  Chapter 7

  Anais followed Aethelu out into the main hall and down the spiral staircase to the kitchen.

  Aethelu put her own boots and coat on, as Anais pulled out hers from another supermarket carrier. It seemed August had thought of everything. Unlike the rest of the clothes, the coat and wellies fit her perfectly. She followed Aethelu through the big oak kitchen door, through which August had entered earlier. It had a large holly wreath nailed to the outside. She found herself in a large courtyard, with some outbuildings on the opposite side of the house. Aethelu led the way through a gate and into the woods. The air was crisp. Anais took great lungful’s and watched her breath, as she breathed out. Snowflakes fell silently around her.

  Despite how she was feeling at the moment, being outside in the snow was bringing her joy. Having grown up in Los Angeles, she’d not seen much snow in her life, and it was magical to her. It was also a relief to be outside after nearly a week of being locked in a room. She marvelled at how silent everything was; the animals hibernating for the winter, and the snow dampening the sounds they were making as they walked through the woods.

  The wood was thick with leafless trees and every step they took led them deeper in, the sunlight gradually fading, the deeper they got. The snow was actually much lighter here than it had been in the courtyard and barely covered the path. Someone had strung up fairy lights along the path, which was practically the only source of illumination, the sun being hidden by the thickness of the trees. They made the trees twinkle and caught flashes from the few falling snowflakes that had found a path through the branches. After a few minutes of following Aethelu, Anais turned around and looked for the house, but it was no longer visible through the trees. They kept walking and eventually they came to a clearing, which was illuminated with more of the diamond lights. In the centre of the clearing was a large stone tomb. Aethelu pulled out a big iron key and fitted it into a lock. The door opened, and Aethelu walked in, immediately being swallowed up by the darkness. Seconds later, she popped her head back out of the door. Anais hadn’t moved. She was scared.

  She’d been visiting what she thought were her parent’s graves regularly, but she’d never been into a tomb before. Aethelu sensed her nerves and came back out. She took Anais gloved hand in hers and led her into the tomb, flicking a light switch as she went. It was lit, not with candles, as Anais had expected, but with an electric light hanging in the middle. It was not the eerie place she had expected. It was dry and the one light bulb did a good job of lighting the place. She was expecting to see her father’s coffin, but she was surprised to find other pedestals in there. They had already planned ahead, it seemed. There were a number of stone pedestals evenly spaced around the tomb each engraved with names she recognised. Her father’s coffin was not on the central pedestal, which she could see had Aldrich’s name engraved on it. It was off to the right. She slowly walked towards it tentatively. She expected to feel something, but she realised she had already mourned, already cried a thousand tears. She put her hand on the coffin and looked down at what was engraved on his pedestal.

  Alistair James Hockley

  1321 – 2013

  It didn’t say anything else, but there was a symbol engraved underneath. It was an elongated star with a line across the bottom points. Anais recognised it immediately. It was the same symbol as a necklace her mother had always worn, and which she had inherited on her mother’s death. Without thinking she brought her hand to her chest, where the necklace usually hung, but it was not there. I
t was in a jewellery box in her room above the shop. Her mother’s silver coloured necklace had a black pearl on the cross bar. The symbol looked out of place here. It was a symbol she had always associated with her mother, not her father.

  “What is this symbol?”

  “When we made the pact to stay together, my father gave us all matching necklaces.”

  She pulled out her own necklace from under her coat. It was identical to the one worn by Anais’ mother, but in place of the black pearl was a sparkling ruby.

  Her father must have given his to Sarah. It all felt wrong to Anais. Here, her father was all on his own until one of the others died and her mother was buried next to a complete stranger. It made Anais feel strangely sad.

  “I understand why I’m here,” Anais began “but why did you feel the need to kidnap me? Why lock me in a room? If it’s true that my father was your best friend, if you cared about him as much as you say you do, why would you drug his only child and lock her up?”

  “I never wanted to do this to you. It was never my plan. My father asked me to look after you for one night. I was expecting him back before you woke up, but then he called and said he would be away for a while and asked me to look after you for a while longer.”

  “Look after me? You mean keep me locked up?”

  “If it’s worth anything at all, I am truly, truly sorry. I did love Alistair and I know if he was here he would be ashamed of me, but I know my father would not ask me to do it without good reason.”

  “Which is?” Anais hoped she’d finally have the answer, but she was to be disappointed.

  “Honestly? I don’t know yet. I’m still waiting for my mother and father to get back from wherever they are, and I’m hoping they’ll clue me in too. I’m just as in the dark as you are.”

  Anais was incredulous “You really don’t know where they are?”

  “No. They’ve taken trips before and not left word of where they were, so it’s not that unusual. I was hoping they would be back by now though. Neither of them are answering their phones. I really don’t know what I’m doing.” Tears began to roll down Aethelu’s face making her appear vulnerable. She also looked exhausted, her pallid complexion all the more apparent in the harsh light of the tomb’s light source.

  Anais put her arms around Aethelu and held her tight whilst she cried, her whole body shaking with the sobbing.

  Between the sobs and the sniffs Anais could make out Aethelu repeating the word ‘sorry’ over and over again. Anais believed she really was.

  Eventually the crying died down and Aethelu mopped up her tears, apologising once more, this time for crying.

  Anais accepted her apology and took one last look at her father’s casket.

  “Ok I’ve had enough.” She turned to leave. As she was leaving, she saw a plaque on the wall by the door.

  In Memory of our Beloved Daughter, Anna, whose light shone brighter than the closest star.

  In front of the plaque were a candle and a vase in which someone had placed fresh snowdrops.

  Aethelu took Anais’ hand once again and switched off the light as they left.

  They walked hand in hand down the woodland path, following the Christmas lights hanging from the trees.

  Anais was wrapped up in her own thoughts as she followed Aethelu along the snowy path. So much had happened over the course of the last 24 hours. There was so much for her mind to process that she barely noticed the path as she followed Aethelu down it.

  Eventually the lights of the house appeared through the trees. They had just arrived at the courtyard gate when Anais felt something sting her head followed by something cold and wet dribbling down her neck. Aethelu obviously figured it out quicker than Anais, because she was already on her hands and knees making snowballs. Anais felt another snowball rush past her ear and ducked.

  “Alex and Rafe!” Aethelu said by way of an explanation.

  Anais looked over her shoulder and saw a flash of colour running behind a tree. Seconds later a flurry of snowballs came at her from behind the same tree.

  Aethelu pointed towards the back of the outhouses and mouthed “Alex”. Another man was hiding behind them. He caught them looking and grinned. Aethelu threw her first snowball, which sailed past him, missing him by a good few feet. He waved at them both and took off in a sprint to another hiding place. He ran faster than anyone Anais had ever seen before. He was just a blur of colour and then he was gone. Aethelu grabbed an armful of the snowballs she’d just made and took after him. Throwing them as she ran and hitting everything but her brother.

  Anais was left alone. She listened for Aethelu, but the falling snow was silencing everything. She knew her attacker was still behind the tree, and that if she stayed where she was she was an easy target. She could see Rafe peeking out from behind the tree and then throwing a second snowball at her. She dodged to the right and the snowball missed her by inches.

  ‘This is war!’ she thought to herself. She was in no mood for a snowball fight, and she still wasn’t sure how she felt about Rafe after his little stunt in the kitchen earlier, but her competitive side was once again rearing its head. She looked at the house. It was a huge manor, but she figured that if she ran right around the length of it she would come out right behind Rafe’s hiding place. She ran through the courtyard gate and for a second, thought she might gain some valuable seconds by running through the house. She didn’t think August would take kindly to her running mud through the newly cleaned kitchen, so instead, she ran round the side of the house, past the snow-covered gardens she had seen earlier, past the bird table and the carrot-nosed snowman. She slowed to a walk until she was right round at the back of the house. She peeked around the corner and spotted her quarry less than 20 feet away from her. He was obviously looking for her, but in completely the wrong direction. She waited a minute deciding what her next move would be. Rafe sneaked out from behind his tree and crept slowly towards the courtyard gate to where he obviously thought Anais was hiding. To Anais’ glee, he had left a big pile of snowballs by the tree. She waited a moment longer and then tiptoed to his previous hiding place. She had plenty of snowballs to choose from, but she only needed one. These guys might be almost immortal and could sprint like the wind, but she was a great thrower. She took aim and threw. Splat. It hit Rafe right in the back of the head, messing up his perfect hair. He spun round in shock, and that’s when she followed it up with a snowball to the face, payback for his little stunt earlier.

  After all that had happened in the past few hours, she was surprised to find she was beginning to enjoy herself, although that was probably because of the look of shock now showing on Rafe’s face. Perhaps a bit of harmless aggression in the form of a snowball fight would be just what she needed. Indeed, picking up the readymade snowballs and lobbing them at Rafe was proving to be quite cathartic. Splat. Another direct hit to his face. He looked for her, but she was too quick. Leaving the tree, she ran into the woods towards the path to her father’s tomb, the fairy lights lighting her way. She quickly ran into the crossfire of Aethelu and Alexander, neither of which seemed to be hitting their mark. Anais rolled another snowball and scored a direct hit on Alexander who immediately started throwing snowballs at her instead. She ran, using the trees for cover towards Aethelu. She was nowhere near as fast as the siblings, but their terrible aim meant that she got to Aethelu without being hit. Crouching behind a holly tree, the two girls discussed their next course of action. They decided to run back toward the courtyard where the snow was thickest, enabling them to make the most use of the snow.

  Alexander followed, hot on their heels. They ran through the courtyard gate, laughing, and hid behind the wall. Anais was beginning to enjoy herself, the sadness of earlier drifting away. Aethelu started rolling the snow up into large fluffy snowballs, tens of them, whilst Anais kept look out. She could see Alexander hiding behind a nearby tree, frantically trying to roll up the snow as quickly as he could, his coloured jacket bobbing out and then back again
under the cover of the tree’s thick trunk. She couldn’t see Rafe anywhere, though. She looked at the tree he was originally hiding behind, the one where she had sneaked up on him, but he was no longer there. She looked all around her, but the only person she spotted was August, who was watching them from the kitchen window. She smiled and waved. He pointed to the wall about 30 feet from where they were and held his finger to his lips. She realised he could see Rafe from where he was standing. She quickly formulated a plan. Rafe was very close to the out houses and she didn’t think he could see them from the particular bit of wall where he was hiding. She grabbed an armful of the freshly made snowballs and indicated for Aethelu to do the same. She beckoned for Aethelu to follow her, which Aethelu did without question. Anais had seen a bit of the wall that had partially collapsed which would be easy to climb. She put her snowballs into a nearby bucket, and then scrambling up the wall, she quickly pulled herself up onto the roof. Aethelu passed the snowballs up to her and then was pulled up herself. They tiptoed across the roof of the outhouses and came to a halt just over the place where Rafe was hiding. Anais looked over the edge and could see that Alexander had now joined him. They were trying to figure out where the girls had disappeared to, little knowing that they were 20 feet directly above them. Aethelu scraped up even more snow from the roof of the outhouses and filled the bucket to the brim. They silently counted to three and then with a war cry they tipped the bucket over the pair of boys. The girls collapsed into fits of giggles on the roof, neither caring that they were now just as wet lying in the snow as the boys below were.

  “Alright now, hot chocolates up,” came August’s voice through the night. “Come in and get dry. Arcadia’s just arrived.”