“We need a place to go.” The street was clear as I did a U-turn, the entire place looked like a damn ghost town and it made me itchy.
“My place.” Milo replied and I shot him a disbelieving look. He gave me a laconic look in return. “I’m not going to hurt you. You know that. We both have secrets, and maybe it’s time we started sharing them. Sharing is caring after all.”
I couldn’t really argue the point. We all did seem to have secrets, and glancing in the rearview mirror I saw a tired old man sitting there. My instincts told me neither would hurt me, and maybe it was time for me to start trusting others. I’d made a decision to trust Milo, and glancing over at his profile I knew I hadn’t had a choice. Our lives were linked whether I liked it or not.
“Fine,” I sighed. “Where to?”
He gave me directions before lapsing into silence. No one spoke as I drove us to his house, and I considered the things I’d learned. Evan was my grandfather, he possibly was attempting to have me kidnapped by my dad, and Milo knew my grandfather and had ‘allowed’ him to live, indicating he knew more about me than he’d let on.
As I pulled up to the small house tucked into a hill, it felt familiar, homey almost. We weren’t in the nicest neighborhood, and the place needed paint, but it was clean and more importantly it felt safe. We exited the car, looking at one another warily.
“Come on, there’s beer in the fridge.”
“Best offer I’ve had all day,” Evan muttered, following him slowly. I stood there, knowing if I went inside I’d have to accept them and whatever they told me. Secrets and running had always been my default. The only reason I’d stayed where I was for so long was because I knew my sister would find me here. I wasn’t sure what would draw her to this town, but I couldn’t leave until then. If I did, we might never find one another.
The fact was I hadn’t really bargained on a grandfather or some fated mate, and my first inclination was to leave, run away once again and ignore their presence in my life. But curiosity compelled me to stay, and as Milo’s eyes flickered back to mine I admitted to myself, so did he.
“Who wants to go first?” We were settled in his living room, each of us with a beer and a few sidelong glances.
“Age before beauty, I guess.” Evan attempted a smile as my gaze switched to him. “I’m your paternal grandfather and the last time I saw you, you were two years old.” His smile was reminiscent. “You and Sinclair were such smart, happy children. Beautiful girls that lit up any room you were in. I thought your father would finally be satisfied. Content with his life, but…” He shook his head. “He was not. I found that out the hard way.” He leaned back in the chair and studied me. “My magical gifts aren’t strong, some slight mind reading, a fair hand with simple spells, and the ability to help things grow. They are nothing compared to you and your sisters. Truthfully, no one on Earth can compare to what you three girls can do. A fact my son is well aware of.”
“How did you know?” My gaze bored into him. “How did you know he wasn’t content?”
“I read his mind, a rarity I assure you. He’d learned to block me years before when he’d begun to dabble in the dark magic - blood magic. His mother died when he was sixteen, and it changed him. Turned him down a dark path. One I could never pull him from.” Milo cleared his throat, drawing our attention. He dodged our gazes, gesturing for Evan to continue.
“He spoke of a third child, seemed almost giddy about the idea. I can only reason that was why he slipped and I saw what he didn’t want me to see. One word. Trinity.” He winced, rubbing a hand over his face as if he could erase the memory. “I’d heard the stories, hell, I’d told him the stories when he was a boy. Passed down from my own mother.” He gave me a faint smile. “She’s the one you inherited those golden curls from by the way.”
I fingered the curls he mentioned, and spared a brief thought for a woman I’d never met, family long gone from me, but a part of me nonetheless.
“It had never occurred to me that he would try to create the trinity himself. Two children are rare in magical families, three almost unheard of. We’re not a fertile bunch. I confronted him. Demanded to know what he thought he was doing.” He shook his head, a pained disappointment reflected on his face. “It’s difficult when you realize the lengths your own child will go for power. The crimes they’ll commit, the people they’ll hurt. We argued. I told him he was on a foolish path, one that would see his family destroyed. I had no idea just how far he’d already gone down that path. He refused to listen.”
“I attempted to go to your mother, but Mitchell worked a dark magic, one I could never break.” He pointed at me. “In fact I believe you broke it.”
“Me?”
He nodded. “When your power came to you, I imagine it broke any spell worked upon you, including the one that banned me from ever seeing you. That was the spell he cast, one that prevented me from seeing you and your sisters, of being around you in any way. He was afraid of what I knew, my influence. I deeply regret what your mother had to go through to protect you. I wish, you have no idea how I wish she could have come to me for help. But the same spell that banned me from your presence did the same to her. I never even saw your sister, Quinn.”
“Your mom came to my grandmother and father for help.” Milo’s low words picked up as Evan trailed off. “But she refused to help her. A decision my father did not agree with, but your father had a reputation already. One of power and dark magic. He had to have knowledgeable friends on the Council.” He caught my questioning glance. “A group of our elders who preserve and keep our history. My grandmother was on it and eventually my father would have been too. Except your father killed my grandmother and my mother.”
“Why?” I stared at him in horror, having been unaware of the lengths my father would go to or of our connected past.
“Because he believed my grandmother knew something of your whereabouts. My mother was nothing more than a casualty of war. It’s been suspected he killed your maternal grandfather as well.” There was a note of pain in his voice when he spoke of his mother, but he pushed on, keeping his voice even. “My father changed after that. Made it his mission to prevent your father from ever being able to us the power of the trinity.”
“That’s why you allowed Evan to live?” I was trying to piece together Milo’s role in this, what his father’s end goal was.
“Yes, he didn’t know where you were and he didn’t agree with your father’s choices. We let him live, hoping he might be able to provide us with information one day.” His eyes cut toward Evan, who just shook his head.
“You left your father’s cause, and if you think for one second I’d tell your father where any one of my granddaughters are, you’re stupid.”
A grudging nod from Milo had me glancing between them exasperatedly.
“Clue me in.”
Milo examined me, propping his elbows on his knees as he leaned forward, his dark hair slipping over his forehead. He licked his lower lip, the smooth dart of his tongue mesmerizing me. I focused on him as he spoke.
“I’m not proud of my father’s intentions. I can only be grateful he never found a Davis girl.” I frowned not liking where this was going. “He took an extreme approach to how the trinity problem should be taken care of. He believed only if one of the girls were killed would that stop Mitchell from being able to control the trinity.”
“What? He wanted us dead? Your father? And what about you?” I leaped from my seat, magic crackling around me as I paced. The idea of Milo’s father, of Milo, hunting for me with the intention of killing me or my sisters was horrifying.
He held his hands up placating.
“I never agreed with him. I have a sister, younger than you. There was no way I would ever let anything happen to her, and I felt the same way about you and your sisters. My father was lost after my mother’s death. He made emotional decisions. I think he had good intentions, but he wanted to go about them the wrong way. Your father lost any chance of co
ntrolling the trinity when your mother separated you. I figured that out and I think my father has always known it. When I was eighteen I left my father, went to school, and I found you.”
I was stunned by his admission and paused in my pacing to stare at him. He gave me a rueful grin.
“I saw your picture. I actually had no idea who you were. At least not until I saw you, specifically your eyes. Those eyes of yours are a dead giveaway.” I sat down with a plop, my eyes never leaving his. “It was ironic. I’d spent better than half my life hunting for you and when I stopped, there you were. As soon as I saw you I knew.”
“Knew what?” My voice was barely above a whisper, but he heard me.
“That your life would always be placed above my own. The connection we shared, it was one of life not death. I would do anything to keep you safe. Give up everything for you.” Sincerity shown from his eyes, and I could feel the truth in his words. “I’ve watched over you since then, keeping you safe.”
“Why didn’t you come to me then?”
“I was afraid you’d run away, disappear, that somehow my father would find out about you, use me against you. It wasn’t the right time. Can you understand that?”
I nodded slowly, wondering why now?
“Why now?” My words echoed my thoughts as the question slipped out.
“Fate. I didn’t intend to seek you out. You were there at the gas station, standing two feet from me and muttering to yourself. And I was done.” He waved a hand toward Evan, who had been silent during our conversation. “Why did he show up in your life now? The only thing I can believe is that the prophecy is finally unfolding.”
“I would second that.” Evan glanced between us. “I didn’t look for you, as much as it pains me to admit that. After your father’s spell, I became depressed, hopeless. I threw myself into work in an attempt to forget I had a family once. Seeing you was the equivalent of seeing a ghost. You look very much like my mother, but it was your eyes that told me the truth. Eyes are the windows to the soul and yours are filled with magic. When you warned me about the Declan group, there was no doubt. I left that day trying to figure out a way to get close to you. To somehow explain who I was. You turned me down, but I was determined to stay close to you, to protect you now, the way I hadn’t when you were a child.” His smile was sad. “The hopes of foolish old men.”
“You went to see my father.”
“Damn it, Evan, you know better.”
“Yes, but until you have a son of your own, you do not know what it is like to desperately want to see your child redeem himself. Instead I led him straight to you. Trust me when I tell you I had no involvement with his plot. I did not reveal anything about you, even I’m not as foolish as that. But he was always a cunning boy.”
“Kincaid, you said something earlier about the story of the three sisters. What did you mean?” Milo’s question caught me off guard and I gave him a startled glance.
“It’s a fairytale. One I’ve always known.”
“Someone told it to you?”
“No, at least I don’t remember anyone telling me the story.”
“Can you tell us the story?”
I nodded, clearing my throat as I gathered my thoughts. I suspected what they did – that the story of the three sisters was another version of the prophecy.
Once upon a time…
In a time, not so different from our own, two daughters were born. Their family celebrated, overjoyed to have two daughters when magical children were rare. However, not all were content, and one lusted after the power a third daughter would bring. Years went by though without another, and the two sisters basked in the joy they brought to their mother.
When the oldest daughter turned six, they learned a third daughter would be born. Their mother rejoiced in the blessing of a third child and excitement filled their small home. The two daughters couldn’t wait to meet their newest sister, unbeknownst of the dark portents that would accompany her birth. As the birth of the third daughter grew near, the two sisters discovered they possessed magical gifts, one the gift of illusion and the other the gift of sight. Both rare and powerful magical abilities for ones so young.
Their mother grew concerned and hid her daughters’ gifts, knowing they would be coveted. On the cusp of the third daughter’s birth, their mother discovered the most horrifying of truths. These three daughters were conceived to be a prophesied trinity, their combined gifts powerful beyond measure, and a singular darkness stalked their home. She knew the danger they were in, and raced to make preparation. Her beautiful blue eyed daughters could never be allowed to fall into the cradle of darkness, their souls destroyed by one man’s lust for power.
Finally, the time came when she knew she must act. She disappeared into the night with her three daughters, fleeing the darkness that had invaded their home. Under the full moon’s light, she created a magical circle and within it bound their powers. She hid the magic inside of them, banishing the blue light reflecting from their eyes, placing a spell so only immense danger would allow their magic to come forth again.
Then, she separated them. Her pain was so great at this action it tore her heart into three pieces. Seeing the pieces of her destroyed heart she cast one last spell, binding the pieces to her three daughters and thereby giving them each a portion of her heart. It was the only gift she had left to give them.
She knew the darkness would attempt to find her hidden daughters, craving the power they possessed, so she committed one final act to keep them safe. Within the circle she’d used to bind them, she laid down - spilling her blood to empower the magic she’d wrought and taking her own knowledge with her.
Three little girls woke alone, separated from one another and the mother they adored, their destiny sealed with one fateful night.
Three sisters torn apart, scattered to the winds, and hidden from the power in their blood. The Earth rolled, sensing the power inside of them, and unhappy at its binding. Mother Nature soothed the Earth’s rumblings, promising the power would be unleashed in due time.
The girls learned to adapt, the memories of their abilities slipping away from them with each year. As they forgot their magic, so did the magic slip from those that knew how to wield it. It didn’t disappear, but became temperamental, unused to being restrained as it was. Magic was elemental, by its very nature a part of everything, but these three sisters formed a trinity and within each of them was the ability to command the very essence of magic. But their mother’s blood bound the magic, forcing it deep inside each one of them, her desire to protect her girls so strong it defied nature itself.
Magic was tricky though. Power such as theirs could only be restrained so long before destroying the very ones who held it. To counter this danger, Mother Nature gave each of the sisters a protector. A man born to be her perfect match, their magic a complement to one another. By doing so she safeguarded the sisters. Once the sister found her one, her own magic could not destroy her.
The years went by, the magic inside of them growing, impatient to be free. As danger came to each sister, the binding that held her magic broke, setting it loose, and as each sister’s magic unleashed, their combined power only grew.
The sisters had no idea how powerful they were, or that the one who coveted their power the greatest was of their own blood. He’d lost the opportunity to control them as the trinity. Their mother’s decision had protected them from his evil plan, but it didn’t stop him from plotting other methods. If he couldn’t have the trinity, perhaps he could still steal the magic imbued in their blood.
He couldn’t do it alone though. Finding others that sought power wasn’t difficult. Many had assisted him along the way as he worked to create the trinity, and were equally eager to possess the blood magic inside of the three sisters.
He used evil men to commit dark deeds and built a coven of dark magic. He searched constantly for his missing daughters, and the wife who’d taken them from him. Every one of his own blood rejected his path, w
arning him of what would come should he continue. He ignored them all, consumed by his quest for power.
He found his oldest child and a great battle was fought. Magic was forced to choose a side for the first time in millennia. As their father tried to use magic against his own blood, it resisted. It turned away from him, aiding his child instead. Magic had existed as a neutral power for centuries, but now it had been bound to the sisters. It couldn’t be used against them effectively, not while it was leashed. Until the last sister’s magic was released, magic would not harm the sisters.
“Wait,” Milo interrupted. “You’ve been protected by magic all these years? By what your mother did?”
I shrugged, the story I told seemed to imply that. He frowned, his brow furrowed in thought.
“You have your magic, so once Quinn comes into hers you won’t be protected anymore.”
“Yes and no,” I replied, and continued the story
The middle child possessed the sight, a rare and valuable gift to those of magic. Her father sought her most eagerly, desperate for knowledge of the future so he could increase his power. His attempts to take her failed, at least until magic was once again free.
After the last sister released her magic, they all became vulnerable. Magic was no longer bound, and able to be brandished by any with the ability, and it was felt. Magic surged through witches everywhere, no longer temperamental and sluggish, but a natural extension of the witch.
The greatest magic though belonged to the sisters. Magic sang in their blood as it shone from their eyes. They had the ability to determine how magic could be used, but only if they were united together. Dark or light, magic would obey their command for a thousand years.
This knowledge frightened many and they worked to keep the sisters from uniting, afraid of what the wrong choice would mean. Their father worked the hardest to prevent them from finding one another, knowing that only together could they destroy him and his dark magic forever.
Found (The Trinity Sisters Book 2) Page 8
