I had no way of determining the truth behind those assumptions. “But...” Once again, I couldn’t follow up with more than one word.
“Zephora was not an ordinary witch like my mother,” Delphine said. “Your sweet Grams was far from a competent witch. That’s probably the main reason she didn’t train you. She felt inadequate. And what if you had more power than her? How could she discipline you?”
It reminded me of the abuse Delphine had inflicted upon Celestina, which set a fuse of anger rushing through me.
“I’m going to find the grimoire,” Delphine said. “And one way or another, I’m going to unlock its mysteries.”
With no way to help my friends, and no way to stop Delphine and Alexis, I realized that my body had gone numb, and I no longer felt chilled. Hypothermia had probably set in. I focused all of my energy and fury on igniting a furnace of heat that might warm me. A ball of fire appeared in my palm, but I had no idea how to internalize it in order to provide enough warmth to stop me from shivering. In trying to press the ball of heat toward me, nothing happened, so I pushed it toward Alexis, but I accidentally sent it in an arc and because the chill made it difficult for me to control my movements, the fireball hit the wall opposite me, setting the wall ablaze.
Only Alexis could put out the flames, but she glanced back at the flames licking the wall, regarded it as a mere nuisance, and grinned. She continued freezing me.
Without hope of stopping the fire from burning down the building, along with my friends and me in it, I felt darkness descend over me. I fought to keep my eyes open, but I didn’t have enough strength to make it happen. Within seconds, my world went black.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
“There it is!” Delphine shouted with excitement.
I cracked open my eyes. I took in a heavy breath, as if I’d been under water for far too long, only to now come up for air. The frigidity that surrounded my body still made me shiver, but even though my limbs felt stiff, I managed to move them. I figured that the heat from the flames also warmed my skin.
Celestina kneeled by my side, a radiant smile on her face, making it known that I’d died and she’d somehow revived me. The color had drained from her face, and she swayed from side-to-side, woozy and unable to control her movements. She slipped to the ground, exhausted.
It seemed that reviving me had robbed my niece of her energy. I turned around and saw Delphine inside the chamber. She reached out and grabbed the small, empty wooden box. Alexis stood at her side, staring at the box with rapt attention.
Dread shot through my system. It kept me from moving forward. What could Delphine accomplish with an empty box? I didn’t need my niece’s prophetic mind to realize that whatever purpose the box had, it had more power than mere spells.
My mother held the object over her head as though she possessed the tablet inscribed with the Ten Commandments.
“Go,” Celestina shouted at me, taking a strained breath. “Don’t let her use it.”
I wanted to stay at her side, but she appeared tired, not injured. Urged onward by the rationale that if I didn’t move now, I’d be stuck in place like Darius, only fear would have stricken me motionless, not cement. I tightened my muscles and got to my feet.
My gaze fell upon Darius, who watched in horror as the liquefied cement crawled up past his knees. He scanned the room, searching for something that would let him halt its progression, but not finding anything useful, he grinded his teeth in silent agony.
Delphine opened the lid of the box, and as the box began to levitate above her hands, it emitted a scarlet glow. Its intensity had quadrupled, splashing its rays through the shop. My mother lowered her arms, tilted her head back, and opened her eyes wide.
The unidentified glow sank…into her eyes. Delphine turned to face us, her eyelids closed, as the reddish gleam spread down through her chest until the light vanished. She sucked in a deep breath as though breathing was a new concept for her, and she’d only just put the idea into action. Her eyes snapped open.
A vibrant, cunning smile split Delphine’s lips as her gaze fell upon mine. Then she stepped through the chamber and into the shop.
What was the object that sparkled red? How and why had it entered Delphine’s body?
Sniffing the air and looking around the room, eyes growing wide as she took in the flames that stretched across the entire shop, Delphine said to Alexis, “Let’s go.”
Kendall, who no longer looked brainwashed now that Delphine had set her concentration elsewhere, rushed my sister, who raised her hand, no doubt prepared to freeze Kendall. But my friend bashed into Alexis, knocking them both to the floor before my sister had a chance to use her abilities.
Kendall landed on top of Alexis. Hovering over her, she reared back a fist, while steadying her balance by clutching Alexis’s throat. Kendall fired off a right hook, but my sister veered to the side before impact, flinging Kendall off her.
Alexis recovered quickly and scrambled to her feet. She waved a hand toward Kendall, probably ready to push thoughts into her mind. But a second later, she lowered her hand a bit…and winced, looking confused. She flicked a hand at Kendall again, but nothing happened. She locked her eyes on Kendall. “You…stole my telepathy?”
Incredulous, Kendall just glared at her. “What are you talking about?”
Alexis turned to Brandon. “You?”
Brandon furrowed his brow in contemplation. He looked just as unsettled as my sister. Then doubt crossed his face. “Yeah, right!” He hit my sister with a heavy glare and appeared to concentrate.
A second later, Alexis placed both hands to her temples, unable to keep from cringing. “Get out of my head!” she growled, shrinking down a bit from her inability to stop Brandon from accessing her mind.
What the hell was happening?
Delphine rushed over to Alexis and grabbed her arm. “The building is burning down.” She attempted to drag her toward the exit. “Let’s go.” She yanked again, but Alexis remained locked in place.
Shaking her head in frustration, Alexis now grabbed our mother’s hands. The empty box fell to the ground with a crack and trickled like a die from a board game until it lay still. Kendall hurried over and scooped it up.
“Release me,” Delphine shouted, trying to wrench her hands free from my sister.”
“It’s not my fault,” Alexis cried. “He’s making me.”
Frost appeared across my mother’s body. It became difficult for Delphine to move her face. “Stop it. Immediately!” Quivering, she faced Alexis as ice appeared on her face. “S-t-o-p.”
Alexis swung her attention to Brandon. “You’re hurting her!”
It appeared that Brandon had somehow stolen my sister’s telepathic abilities and now forced Alexis to freeze my mother. At that moment, I recalled Darius’s bizarre expression as he glanced at Brandon the other day, as though suspecting him of…something he couldn’t quite understand. It seemed that Brandon had the capability to strip abilities from their paranormal hosts…or at least one.
Which reminded me of Darius’s earlier comments that those with supernatural skills are connected to each other like magnets…the same way I’d been drawn to Brandon. Perhaps, even, the way I’d found an unconquerable interest in Nolan!
Seeing the confusion on my face, Darius cocked his head toward Brandon. “He’s a carrier. He can borrow any ability from those with supernatural powers if he stands within a six-foot or so radius from them. He can even temporarily give those powers to a witch or another carrier, if he wanted to.”
I presumed that Alexis couldn’t deflect Brandon’s telepathic link because she was near hysterical and was incapable of rational thought.
“Stop it!” Alexis screamed. “Please!”
“Six feet?” Brandon asked, ignoring her. “Why six feet?”
“Since you aren’t a witch, your ability stretches only as far as your height. However, once transferred, your gift only works for three hours, and it is only one-third the strength o
f the weakest witch.” He looked at me.
Seeing Brandon about to inquire about this charm, I said, “Zephora called it ‘The Rule of Three.’ I’ll fill you in later.”
“Cool!” Brandon said. He revealed a bizarre smirk as he set treacherous eyes on Alexis. “Hey, back to work!”
“Please,” Alexis repeated. “I’ll do whatever you want. Just make me stop.”
Now that I felt merely chilled, rather than frozen, I straightened my back. “Brandon?” I asked, shocked that my friend had magical abilities. “You should stop.” But I spoke out of guilt. After all, my mother had abused Celestina. She also hadn’t done a thing to stop Alexis from ending my life. Still, it felt wrong, and I couldn’t avoid my morals, no matter how much I wanted to.
Brandon glared at me. “Did your mom try stopping your sister from killing you? No! So don’t try to stop me.” Then he turned an even more menacing stare onto my sister, as though he enjoyed watching Alexis torment my mother.
“I should add,” Darius said, “that once carriers take on any given ability, the power often overwhelms their better judgment…if they haven’t practiced controlling the ability.”
A sheet of ice covered Delphine’s face and forehead, making her eyes pop out wide as she shook in place because ice prevented her from breathing, thereby suffocating her. Elsewhere, thick layers of ice quickly coated every inch of her skin and clothes.
All the while, the fire raged at the upper half of the walls, although flames shot sparks onto the rows of goods on the floor. Other than the flames, no other evidence of a fire existed: there were no plumes of black smoke, no charred scent whipping through the room, and the walls weren’t even scorched. Looking closer, I realized that a spot at the ceiling had evaporated, almost as if, rather than just burning, the wall had disintegrated, opening to the outside, where a couple stars twinkled in the night sky.
Meanwhile, the cement creeping up Darius’s body had stopped an inch from his shoulders. He stood in place, unable to move his arms or legs, as he glared at Delphine.
It seemed that once Brandon had forced Alexis to freeze my mother, Delphine had been unable to continue the cementation process. Nevertheless, I appreciated that he was out of commission, since I had no idea if he had ulterior motives for dropping by.
Delphine quaked inside her layer of ice, still suffocating.
Kendall approached Brandon and put a hand on her shoulder. “Come on, this isn’t you.”
“How would you know?” he asked, refusing to look her way.
Nonetheless, the mental link between him and Alexis ended: my sister lowered her arm, relieved that she’d somehow managed to stop shooting our mother with arctic temperatures.
“Hey,” Brandon said, irritated. He concentrated on Alexis with even more determination than before. “What’s going on? It’s not working anymore. What happened?”
Darius nodded at Kendall. “She broke your concentration.”
Brandon gave up trying to manipulate Alexis, who looked my way. “Hurry, melt the ice.”
I couldn’t believe my sister’s obliviousness. Had Alexis already forgotten that she had actually killed me only moments ago? Although I wanted to throw streaks of heat at the ice covering Delphine, I didn’t have enough power to do so within the next few seconds. If I had as much power as my sister, I would have given it a shot, even if it had risked burning Delphine to a crisp. But since I held only one-third the power my sister commanded, I’d need three times as long to blast rays of heat at the ice in order to melt it.
“If you don’t help her,” my sister said, “it’s the same as killing her.”
I scoffed. “Did you want my death on your hands? You killed me. Your daughter brought me back to life.”
“And still, your mother is dying.”
“Oh, the one that didn’t want me? The one that gave up on me? She’s not my mother. She’s your mother.” I was shaking now, not from the lingering effects of having almost frozen to death but from anger.
Still, as much as I disliked my mother, I didn’t think I could live with allowing her to die, knowing I could have saved her. The guilt would eat at me for the rest of my life. That’s when my gaze veered toward the secret chamber and fell upon the Soul Sword. It gave me an idea.
I ran across the room and retrieved the sword, feeling the familiar tingling sensation surge up my arm. I felt strong holding the sword, as though it had provided a jolt of adrenaline, increasing my strength. Then I hurried over to Delphine.
Inside the ice, her eyeballs glanced from Alexis and back to me frantically.
“You abandoned me,” I shouted at Delphine, feeling all of the hatred that had raged inside me as a child now returning to me. I plunged the blade into the ice, aiming for my mother’s chest. The sword barely carved into the heavy ice. A chip split and skittered across the floor. “You didn’t care.”
Unable to pierce the ice, I pulled back the sword and stabbed the ice again, gouging out another tiny slice of ice that hit the ground.
Delphine’s eyes were strewn together, making it known that she didn’t approve of my method to break through the ice.
“You still don’t care!” Knowing that my efforts did little to crack the ice, I delivered one brutal blow after another in quick succession, chipping away at the ice little by little, astonished that I hadn’t managed to remove more ice, but glad to release some of the frustration that had plagued me for two decades. A few moments later, gasping for air, I put all my weight behind another blow.
And it finally cracked the ice near her heart.
“Not so hard!” Alexis yelled.
Sure enough, Delphine’s eyes began to close with fright.
But rather than continue hating my mother, I wondered if my mother would regard me differently if I saved her life. Eager to find out, I planned to bash the ice again, but I didn’t expect to have much luck using the same maneuver I’d used until now.
Since Delphine hadn’t much time left before death claimed her, I decided to work on the crack in the ice and approach that slight crevice by using a different tactic. I angled the blade toward that crack and plunged the sword straight for it.
The blade tore through the ice and, because I’d lunged forward with so much weight and force behind the blow, the sword pushed deep into my mother’s chest. The chunk of ice split from her chest, ripped open a wide swath of ice from her head to her abdomen, and skittered across the floor.
Finally able to catch a breath, Delphine’s mouth shot open. But rather than inhaling, she exhaled the last breath of air in her lungs.
“What did you do?” Alexis threw an arm around Delphine’s shoulder, holding her steady. She looked into my eyes. “What did you do?”
“I didn’t mean to—”
“Get the sword out!”
I just stared at Delphine’s petrified stare.
“Get the fucking sword out!” Alexis screamed. She extended a hand, motioning toward the blade.
I extracted it slowly at first, fearing that I might hurt her even more if I went any quicker.
“Faster!” Alexis shouted. “Hurry!”
I retracted the sword and held the blood-streaked blade.
“Celestina,” Alexis called out. “Get over here. Help your grandmother.”
Staring in shock at Delphine, no longer pale but still looking fatigued, Celestina didn’t budge.
“Celestina! Get over here. Now!”
Alexis’s command upended Celestina’s paralysis, and she bolted over to her mother and grandmother. She extended her right hand toward her grandmother’s heart, but the bloody patch must have dissuaded her from actually touching it because her hand settled an inch above it.
Alexis leaned forward, laid her hand across her daughter’s, and pressed them both against Delphine’s wound. Celestina jerked, grunting as her body shuddered in all directions, reminding me of a doll that a child might shake from left to right.
Alexis pointed at Brandon. “Stand back. Give us som
e room.”
Brandon must have regained his wits and probably regretted his actions a few moments ago because he looked guilty for taking up the space he inhabited. He backed up a few feet.
I stared at my niece as she probably utilized the same magical technique she’d used on me. Sensing a presence beside me, I found Kendall flanking me. We watched in awe as, a few seconds later, Delphine inhaled, hunched over, and started coughing.
Alexis turned back and glared at me. Then she got to her feet and helped Delphine up. Although her blouse was still slick with blood, the spot where the sword pierced skin looked untouched.
Celestina had managed to not only reincarnate Delphine but also heal her wound. And because, like me, my mother hadn’t been dead for more than ten seconds, at most, she probably hadn’t lost any brain functionality. Nevertheless, Celestina sat on the ground, her head sagging to the side as though she didn’t have enough energy to straighten it.
I went over to her, but Alexis raised an open hand my way. “Don’t you dare touch my child!”
“She’s weak. She needs—”
“I know exactly what she needs. Don’t you think you’ve done enough damage today?”
“I didn’t hurt anyone.”
“Really? Stabbing our mother to death? Look at my daughter. Go ahead, look! Does she look fine to you? If you had just given the grimoire to us, none of this would have happened.”
“But it didn’t belong to you.”
“So what? Do you know how to use it? No! So it doesn’t matter, now does it?”
“Well you can’t use it either. So why did you want it?”
“I don’t know. Mother wanted it.” She set her eyes on Brandon. “I don’t know how you swiped my powers. But I’ll even things up with you!”
I suspected that Alexis didn’t use her other abilities to hurt him now because she feared that Brandon would once again take control of her mind…and turn those efforts upon herself.
Nightwish (An Echoes of Eternity Novel Book 1) Page 26
