“Oh, madam, are you ready?”
“Yes.” We snaked our way through the halls.
“There is nothing to be nervous about. The seer will help you find your natural talents,” Alex said as we boarded the elevator.
Thinking fast, I decided to appear squeamish. “As long as it doesn’t involve blood.”
“Well, I won’t promise that,” Alex told us.
“Wonderful, now she’s going to faint.” Jude rolled his eyes.
“A lot of people don’t like the sight of blood.” I crossed my arms over my chest.
The library was one level down from the main floor. After going between the central wing and our rooms, I thought I might be able to find that route myself but wondered how long it would take to learn where everything was.
“Do they have a map of this place?” I asked as we made turn after turn.
Carmen shrugged. “Someone does. Mine is in my head.”
We stopped at a large set of wooden doors, and Alex put his finger on a panel and then stood in front of a retina scanner. I guessed the compound had as much security as the tightest government agency. Inside, the walls were lined with bookshelves reaching at least twelve feet up. A staircase led to a second level with rows of texts.
“We will leave you in Miguel’s care.” Carmen motioned to where Dr. Antos sat with a white-haired woman.
Miguel stood as we approached. “Camille, Jude, this is Anastasia.”
“Hi.” I forced a smile, and my hand shook as I slid it in her soft palm.
“There’s no need for fear, child.” She folded her other hand over mine. “If we know your lineage, we can better direct your training.”
I just hoped my lineage was the only thing she was after. Could she read minds too?
We sat in tufted chairs around a round wood table. A shallow bowl of water and a knife occupied the center.
“Who would like to be first?” Anastasia’s voice was barely a whisper, and her words seemed to evaporate as soon as she muttered them.
“You may need some smelling salts for her.” Jude pointed to me and moved to the edge of his chair, offering his hand to her.
“Give me your arm. Hands take so long to heal.”
He tugged his sleeve up, revealing the two previous cuts from camp.
“What happened there?” Miguel asked.
“It was wilderness. I don’t remember.”
“Let us proceed.” Anastasia’s shoulders curled over her body so her head barely summited the table, and her hand shook as she reached for Jude. I feared his arm would be shredded, but as soon as she took his wrist, she sliced Jude’s arm in one clean motion. She held it over the bowl and let forty drops of blood plop into the bowl. I knew this because I counted them, thinking I might be sick. It wasn’t the blood that bothered me as much as thinking our true intentions could be discovered.
With trembling hands, Anastasia picked up the bowl and swallowed all the contents. Setting it down, she reclined in her chair and closed her eyes.
Without moving she spoke. “You are half witch, although the line is strong in you. You were born on the spring equinox to a man of the line of Gabriel.”
A messenger, I thought. It would make sense that he felt drawn to me. If his act wasn’t a ruse, and I was ninety percent assured of that, her assessment confirmed his role as herald and protector of the trinity.
Miguel leaned forward in his seat. “Is that all you see?”
She sat there for longer than I was comfortable with. My palms started to sweat, and I rubbed them on my pants.
“That is all I am given today. Halflings are harder to see.” Anastasia opened her eyes, and her gaze landed on me. “Now for you, dear.”
She pulled another bowl from a bag beside her chair and poured water from a flask.
“This is holy water from the river Jordan. Jesus was baptized in the river, and the water was made divine,” Miguel explained.
“Was Jesus a witch?” Jude asked.
“No, he was purely of God, as the Bible writes. Jesus, like his father, did not recognize our kind.”
Anastasia laid her hands on the table. “Jesus and witches are the only beings who have performed miracles on Earth.”
“What about the Saints?” I questioned.
“God grants them powers temporarily.”
“What of angels? Can they interact with humans?” I asked.
“When they wish,” Miguel answered. “Are you ready?”
“Yes.” I nodded, hoping Anastasia hadn’t discovered Jude’s vampire line.
I hiked up my sleeve and held my arm out to her, presenting the uncut one so Miguel wouldn’t suspect Jude and I had shared our blood. Anastasia extracted a new blade from her bag and sliced my skin. The cut burned, and I bit my lip. After the drops fell into the water, I covered the wound with a dressing Miguel handed me.
Anastasia again drank the mixture and reclined to her seatback. “Although a halfling, Camille has a very strong aura. She was born on the day of light to a man of the house of Raphael.”
“No wonder she cares about people so much,” Jude said under his breath.
Miguel cleared his throat. “No wonder you two are at odds. Camille, don’t kill the messenger, no matter how much you want to.”
I looked at his upturned lips and realized he’d told a joke. Our psychiatrist, turned mentor, had a sense of humor after all.
He stood. “Well, we should get to work. Thank you, Anastasia. Can we be of any assistance with your things?”
“Yes, why don’t you have the younglings carry my bags back to my chambers? I could use a rest.”
When the ancient witch had packed all her things, Jude and I each took a bag. Step by step, we followed her and Miguel up three floors and then to the east side of the castle. Her pace barely rivaled that of a turtle, and I noticed Jude twitch beside me. When we entered the room, I realized we were in one of the towers. The walls ringed the room in a large arc. It was a much bigger space than mine, with a desk and what looked to be a lab table cut from dark wood. We set the bags beside a bench as she instructed. Miguel thanked her again and bid her well as we left.
“How old is she? Will she be okay? Her color looked off,” I said as we made our way to the elevator.
“She will be fine. Thank you for your patience with her.” His eyes cut to Jude, and I wondered if the teacher was trying to show me favor. He’d seemed so pro-Jude before, dismissing my visions as the dreams of an overly imaginative teen. Perhaps he wanted a reaction from Jude.
“We could’ve done that task in a fourth of the time.” Jude shook his head.
Miguel pushed the button for the lowest basement level four floors down.
“But how old is she? How long do witches live?” I repeated my questions.
“In general, about nine hundred years, but some, like her, are known to live into the thousands. Anastasia is some eleven hundred years old.” He held his finger up.” I will tell you my age but don’t ask about Maria’s. She is very sensitive. I am seven hundred and three.”
“You were born in the thirteen hundreds?” Jude asked.
“Yes, right here in Sardinia.”
“No wonder you’re smart.”
We exited the elevator and walked to the end of a long corridor. “Now for some stretching of your abilities.” Miguel opened one of a set of double doors.
Windows with a view of the ocean lined the south end of the room, and the sun shone through the glass, lighting the whole space. The other walls were lined with weapons of all types: blades, arrows, sticks, chains, and balls of various sizes. Large buckets filled with water and a pile of logs flanked a fireplace in the center of the north wall. A thick mat covered most of the wood floor.
“The first section of your preparation is largely academic, but your magic is under developed. If you hope to survive to join our coven, you must be stronger,” Miguel continued.
“What do you mean survive?” It was Jude’s turn to question. �
��You never said anything about deadly harm.”
“Don’t worry, you are strong. You are used to being a fighter. It is Camille that I have concern for.”
My mind raced. “I thought you simply lost your powers if you chose not to accept a coven.”
“Yes, if you renounce your heritage. If you accept the challenge, you are not guaranteed a position.”
“Anastasia said I was strong.” I straightened my spine, but cut my eyes around the room, not quite sure I meant the words. Yes, I would play the part of unsure trainee until it served me to show my strength. Of course, I had to have it first.
“Do you trust me to make you as strong as you need to be?” Miguel sauntered towards me, hands clasped behind his back.
I raised my chin to look him in the eyes. “Yes. I will become a full witch, and I will find my father.”
“Let us begin then.” He raised his hand, and a leather ball flew across the room, landing in his palm.
Jude followed suit, and within seconds he had several spheres dancing around his head. Looking at the baskets filled with balls, I concentrated my energy. One after another, the rest of the balls floated to me, and I directed them to the floor in front of me. My head ached from the strain, and I stretched my arms up, taking deep breaths.
“You need speed,” Miguel instructed.
“What for?”
Miguel lifted larger and larger items, hurling them to his hand and back to their places. “Our people are always threatened. We lost a handful of our witches to a pack of vampires just weeks ago.”
“Vampires?” Jude interrupted.
“Yes, vampires.” Miguel’s eyes cut to me.
I swallowed hard, grateful Jude had played his part. “So, vampires are real? My visions weren’t just fictitious. Are they magical beings like us?”
Miguel faced me. “Our bible teaches they were formed from the union of Eve and Lilith with a serpent. Technology being what it is, there is now evidence they are just evolved humans.”
“So, a serpent, like in the devil?” I asked.
“If you believe in such things. But we only have this room for a couple of hours. We should return to the intended lesson.”
He continued to levitate each of the items hanging from the walls, performing different tricks with the various weapons. I wondered if he’d mistakenly mentioned the slaughter of the coven members by the vampires. The scene from the clearing in the woods flitted through my brain.
Jude followed Miguel’s lead, testing his magic on different items. He aimed arrows at targets and commanded bows to shoot the arrows at them. He already seemed strong and confident, and I reassured myself, knowing Jude had been practicing a week longer than me. Summoning my will, I focused on the balls at my feet. It’s like a muscle, I told myself. Use it, and it will get stronger.
I pushed through the haze in my brain and started moving the balls, successively pushing more and more power to each of them.
“Who is that? How did you do that?” Jude’s voice brought me out of the trance.
I opened my eyes to see a portrait of my father’s face.
“How long have we been here?” I spun to see Miguel’s and Jude’s eyes glued to my creation.
“Who is it?” Miguel asked.
“My father.”
Exhausted, I slid to the floor, crossing one leg over the other in a yoga pose. Taking in a lung full breath of air and then expelling it, the ache in my brain eased.
Something hit me on the head. I opened my eyes to see dozens of balls flying at me. They pelted my skin, and I looked up to see Miguel directing them.
“What are you doing? She’s going to be black and blue,” Jude yelled, but the balls didn’t stop.
“So, you do care about her?”
“Just out of human decency.” Jude shrugged and walked away.
“She’s got to think like a fighter. She’s too emotional. Her magic is out of control. She’s got to rein in her feelings, or the magic will overwhelm her.”
All the while the leather spheres hit my skin. No matter how I moved, jumped, or ran, they continued to land their mark. I froze and concentrated on forming a barrier around myself. The next ball hit an imaginary wall and fell to the floor.
“Direct me then. You put us in a room and said practice. Give us a goal.” I yelled at Miguel.
“Well, that seemed to work very well. You just achieved a barrier spell.” Miguel smirked.
“It could have been less painful.” I examined my arm, where welts already appeared on my skin.
“I don’t have time to coddle you. If you want to join the family of Michael, you must be a leader.” He walked to the exit. “Fight among yourselves, I’ll be back.”
The doors slammed behind him leaving a silent void.
My eyes cut to Jude.
It’s not safe. We should keep up our ruse. There are cameras. He used his magic to push the words to me.
I know. I saw them. I fought looking to the ceiling.
I’m going to say something offensive, and you throw something at me.
Seriously?
Yes. “I can’t believe you created a picture of your dad. You miss him that much? Didn’t he abandon you?”
Even though he’d warned me, anger welled up inside me. Eyeing the largest ball, I sent it flying over his head.
“Was that a warning shot? Miguel told us to fight.”
“Fine.” I hurled a smaller ball at his chest. I saw his brow crease in focus, and the ball hit an invisible plane and dropped to the floor.
“Hey, it worked,” Jude exclaimed, and a sphere came hurling towards my face. Remembering how Alena seemed to be able to repel items, I sent energy to the ball, reversing its direction.
“Shouldn’t we be practicing on rats or monkeys?” Jude commented.
“How cruel.”
“Better than ending up looking like you.”
I turned my arm over, and a basketball-sized ball hit my calves, sending my feet into the air and my butt to the mat. “Hey.” Gathering all my energy, I flung all the balls in my sight at Jude. I looked up to see every ball frozen in position around him. “Nice. I’m exhausted.”
“Jude, one. Camille, zero,” Jude smiled.
Clapping sounds came from the doorway, and Miguel strode to us. “Nice work, younglings. Your animosity breeds great progress. I thought it was going to be a problem, but now I see your competitive spirits may serve you well.”
“I need a shower.” I stomped past him over being respectful after his assault.
“Lunch first.”
I didn’t wait for him, but Carmen and Alex were in the hall, and I stopped short.
“I have a meeting to attend, so Carmen and Alex will escort you to the meal. Maria will join you in the dining room.” Miguel whisked past.
“What happened to you?” Carmen asked as we got in the elevator.
“Miguel happened. He doesn’t have the gentlest of techniques.”
“Can’t have any princess-and-the-pea stories in this coven.”
“How large is the coven?”
“Only hundreds after the hunts in the middle ages and then in the new world.”
And the eleven lost in Los Angeles, I thought remembering the witches I’d seen descending from the sky in my vision. How far could they fly? I wished I could ask more questions, but I didn’t want to foster suspicion.
“Here you are.” Maria rose as we reached the table. “Oh, my goodness, what happened to you?” She lifted my arm.
“Target practice, I guess.”
“I will speak to Miguel.” She looked back to Carmen and Alex. “Go eat. We’ll be fine.”
This time I didn’t hesitate to pick up the healthy tea concoction sitting on the table. The waiter set plates with grilled chicken salads in front of me and Maria, offering one with raw tuna to Jude. After lunch, we were escorted to our chambers once again.
I miss you, came Jude’s voice in my head as we reached our doors. Open your window. M
aybe we can communicate if our windows are open.
Good thinking. I slipped into my room and locked the door.
Even though the air was cold and wet, I swung the pane open wide. I hoped they wouldn’t figure out Jude and I were trying to communicate. Looking down to the water swirling around the large boulders at the bottom of the cliff, I realized the window didn’t offer a viable escape route.
I may make it out this way, but you wouldn’t, Jude pushed to me.
Not without a rope and a boat. But at least one of us could. Miguel made this sound so great before we got here.
Yeah, to capture you.
I don’t want to think about it. I need a hot bath.
You’re going to be sore tomorrow.
Don’t remind me. I closed the window and started the hot water. The tub had a button for water jets, and I turned them on once I settled into the hot liquid. I laid my head on the porcelain, wondering what my next step should be. Again, all I could come up with was to bide my time. Between Jude and I, we would think of something.
“Any word on my dad?” I asked Miguel when he fetched us.
“I said I would tell you.”
Miguel turned to Jude. “I see what you mean by this one. A little OCD maybe.”
“You’re the one who said I was crazy, not me.” I shot him my most evil glare.
“A little respect, please.” Miguel motioned us into the elevator.
“Sorry, I’m frustrated.”
He led us to the training room. It looked similar to the prior one, but the shelves lining the walls held ordinary items like books, glasses, blankets, lamps, and mirrors.
“I don’t want anything broken,” Miguel instructed, and a vase came hurling at us.
Jude froze it and then levitated it back to its place. Suddenly, items flew from the shelves and circled the room as if in a wind tunnel. Jude focused on one and then another, moving them back to their spots. My mind searched for a way to stop them. Remembering the tornados produced by Alena, I called to the air, willing it to stop. Opening my eyes, I saw everything suspended.
“How did you do that?” Jude asked.
“Stopped the air.”
Kingdom of Darkness (Kingdom Journals Book 2) Page 18
