Beyond The Veil: A Paranormal & Magical Romance Boxed Set

by Multiple Authors

  She wasn’t sure what to think about her cousins. They were nice people, but she still struggled with the idea that they were now family. Daphne was a lovely woman, and would make a wonderful mother if she found someone who could balance her strength and temper aside from her brother. William was an interesting man, and a gentle soul. Even so, he would be a valuable aid on her journey to the coast. Persephone hadn’t been overly concerned about running into trouble until the large man had told them of the message from Malachi. Although it hurt that they had known of her true identity and relationship with Daniel before she had, she felt relief that he had managed to speak with them and convince them that the message was a rouse.

  So the man she had been betrothed to in Mythosandria turned out to be a fraud. That much should have been obvious. He had acted so shifty. She became curious about this magick man he had been traveling with. The entire time he’d been courting her, he had never shown a single hint of knowing about magick. Being greatly feared, Persephone thought it only natural that he would hide such magickal knowledge, especially since he had done so much damage to this village.

  Her thoughts were scrambled as she tried to sort out all this new information. Bruce wasn’t her father, Daniel was. Priscilla, aunt to William and Daphne, gave birth to her but wasn’t her real mother due to some magick, she supposed. Daniel had yet to tell her. Malachi was an enigma; an evil man fooling a village to gain power after a failed attempt to rule another by force. These events alone would be enough to send her into a daze. Her entire life had been turned upside down in a matter of days. If she hadn’t come across Adrian in the forest that day, none of this would have happened. He would still be alive. But they would both be miserable, set to marry into lives of desolation and unhappiness. While this path had ended Adrian’s life, she wondered if this truly was the worst way for events to have turned. They’d only shared a brief moment, but it had been so wonderful, and she had finally found her real father. She could thank her winged savior for the discovery of her real life.

  A tear ran down her cheek as she remembered the man she had fallen for after such a short time. They were supposed to run away and start a life together. Now, she was on the run, her life completely upheaved and he was… She couldn’t think about him, how beautiful he looked even as he bled to death in her arms. Her heart ached, and she hung her head.

  Clattering hooves brought her out of her sad reverie, and she looked up to see William reining in his cream-colored charger, Skylla. She smiled at her newfound cousin, and they rode side by side for a few minutes.

  “So, you know my aunt, Priscilla?” he inquired.

  Persephone nodded. “Yes, she raised me. Well, she raised me until I was old enough to look after myself and my fath… Bruce. Then she went to work trying to sell her poor quality clothing to put food on the table because that man stayed too drunk to work.” Her voice filled with contempt for both of her parents.

  William didn’t reply for a few moments, and she feared her scathing response had offended him.

  “Priscilla always was a bit of a hard bitch,” he replied, and when she glanced at him, she noticed a grin on his face. Persephone couldn’t help but smile as well, and they were soon both laughing out loud.

  She sighed, still smiling. It felt like years since she had last laughed, and she enjoyed the feeling. Thoughts started to swim through her head, and she sobered up again fairly quickly. “Did…did you never know you had cousins?”

  “Oh we knew. She was just always too busy to tell us much about any of you. Any messages from her were always brief and curt. But we haven’t had any messages from her for a few years now, so to tell you the truth, we weren’t even sure she was still alive. We’d heard rumors from trade wagons that her oldest daughter wasn’t really sired by the man she claimed, but you know what gossip-mongers villagers and tradesfolk can be. We held no stock in the rumors, especially not when she had another two children by that drunkard.”

  “Another two? Try another five!” she exclaimed.

  “Five children?” William responded, his eyes bulging in disbelief. “Seems the ale didn’t affect Bruce’s ability to sire children, yet it dimmed his mind.”

  “Nor did it lessen his swinging fist,” Persephone mumbled, not realizing she had spoken out loud.

  “If that brute lifted a finger against my cousin—”

  “It’s fine, William, he can’t touch me anymore.” William’s rage on her behalf warmed her heart. “So this is what it’s like to have family who cares.”

  “I’m sorry for what you had to go through,” he sadly stated. “If I’d known it was so bad for you and the other children, I would have come to get you all, give you all better lives.”

  Persephone reached across and laid a hand on his arm. “It is all right, dear cousin. I probably would have resisted anyway, because of…because of Daniel.”

  Silence fell between them as her mind stumbled over everything once more. It was some time before either of them spoke again.

  “He loves you, you know. He was just trying to protect you from his own past,” William gently prodded. His rumbling voice was a great comfort to her, for in it she felt the strength of mountains.

  “I know, I do, it’s justwhy couldn’t he have told me earlier?” she cried, turning to her cousin. She watched his eyebrows raise as his ice-blue eyes filled with concern. He reached over and held her hands in one of his own colossal ones.

  “Maybe you should ask him,” William beseeched, nodding towards Daniel who remained a distance behind them, looking lost and alone.

  Persephone’s heart hurt for the man she had always loved as a father, without knowing who he really was. Now that she knew her heart had known before her mind, could she really turn her back on him? She looked back at her cousin, who just smiled, nodded and urged Skylla to a trot. Persephone reined Gypsy in, waiting for Daniel to catch up. It was time she had a heart-to-heart with her real father and let him tell her why he had never told her the truth.

  Chapter Six

  A few hours later, William, who had been riding ahead as scout, came galloping back towards father and daughter. Panic raced through her and her heart began to pound once more. She thought for a moment that much more of these shocks and her heart would stop altogether.

  “Are you all right, lass?” Daniel asked, and it was then she realized that she had moaned in distress.

  “No, I’m fine, just fed up with the bad news.”

  Daniel just nodded before turning to greet William. “What be ahead?”

  “An old temple to the Sun God,” William panted. “There has been no news of lightning storms lately, yet the temple is a smoldering ruin, still warm with glowing embers. Someone traveled through recently and set it alight.”

  Persephone watched a frown mar Daniel’s face. “Did you see anyone?”

  “No, I saw no one. But the hoof prints are fresh, as is…” William glanced at her, and she wondered what it was he didn’t want to say in front of her.

  “Out with it, boy,” Daniel demanded.

  “Blood. Fresh blood and lots of it.”

  Persephone felt a cold chill rush through her. “Blood?” she whispered.

  William shifted from one foot to the other, his discomfort plain on his pale face as he looked her in the eye for a moment before turning his gaze to Daniel. “There were five monks living there, devoted to worshipping the Sun God, and giving sanctuary to all those who needed it. I didn’t see any bodies, but I believe the blood belongs to the monks. A group of marauders or Wild Men must have been through, though there haven’t been sightings of any down this way for years. They’ve all relocated to the caves near Northern Shores. Their presence this far south again can’t mean anything good.”

  They sat on their horses in silence, considering the repercussions for their journey as well as the nearby villages. “Is there a way to get a message back to Daphne, let the village know to keep a careful watch?” Persephone asked.

  Daniel s
poke first. “I can ride back and let her know, Chiron would make it quite a short delay. You two wait here, be careful, and I won’t be long.”

  “No!” Persephone argued. “I spend my whole life without knowing the love of a real father. I will not let you out of my sight now.”

  “Lass,” Daniel began, but she wouldn’t have any of it.

  “No. There has to be another way.”

  “All three of us riding back would take too long, I don’t want you near that village in case people from Mythosandria come looking.”

  Persephone clenched her jaw and raised her chin defiantly. “I don’t care.”

  The old man heaved a sigh, looking defeated. “There’s no changing your mind, I know. Alexandria was exactly the same when she set her mind to something.” He sighed again. “Alright, there is another way. I just thought you might like some space, that’s all.”

  She looked at his face, slackened with his remorse at how their relationship at taken a turn for the worse. “Of course not. I just need time to come to grips with everything that has happened, and the fact that so much of my life was, well, a lie.”

  He nodded, not meeting her gaze. “All right then, alternative way it is.” She watched him reach into his pocket, and when he pulled out an odd shaped whistle, Persephone frowned in puzzlement.

  “What is that?” William asked, taking the words out of her mouth.

  “Watch.” Daniel put it to his lips and blew softly, a rising melody that sounded like the chirruping call of a sparrow.

  Persephone watched in fascination as an actual sparrow flew down and landed on his left hand, which he had stretched out to give the small bird a roost. Daniel pulled a piece of parchment and a stick of coal out of one of his saddle bags, and, resting it on his leg, wrote a quick note, wrapped it around the bird’s leg, and held his finger to the note for a moment. He glanced up as Persephone and William stared at him.

  “Magick seal, only Daphne will be able to open it.” He drew his hand and the bird close to his mouth, whispered instructions and released it. The sparrow darted off, back the way they had traveled, chirping happily.

  Persephone leaned back a little in the saddle, crossed her arms and raised her eyebrows. “Earth magick?” she enquired.

  “Something like that. It was a piece of Magick of the Light that Alexandria taught to me when she was still alive. She had found the whistle in the hut that we lived in. It had been long abandoned, and there were a few magick items left behind. We assumed the previous owners had left in a hurry, because of how much was still there when we came across the cottage.

  “Anyway, she discovered the whistle, a pair of them, in fact, and found information on them in one of the Light magick tomes she had managed to hide from her parents. We began to use them to send messages when one of us was away from the house, a way to warn the other if something was wrong, since we knew her parents and the entire coven would be after us.

  “Once she died, I kept my whistle. I guess I hoped that she had magickally disappeared, making her coven believe she died until the incident was forgotten. I would pull the whistle out from time to time and try to send our usual love message, but the sparrows were always confused, they never knew where to go because there was nowhere to go. I finally gave up after a few months of trying, and keep the whistle as a reminder.”

  Persephone looked away, empathy for Daniel bringing her to tears. He held such love for Alexandria still, and spoke of her in such high regard that she wished that she could have met the lady.

  The trio sat on their horses, silent for a few moments before William softly broke the quiet. “Do we wait for the bird to return?”

  Persephone glanced at Daniel’s face, tears glistening on his leathery cheeks. His gaze flicked up and their eyes met as he wiped the tears away. “It shouldn’t take too long. They’re speedy fliers, so he should make a quick trip of it.”

  “Well then,” William spoke up a little louder, “why don’t we go into the shade over there and rest the horses?”

  Without waiting for a reply, the large man nudged Skylla into a trot towards the trees, so Persephone and Daniel urged their own mounts to follow. Once they reached the cool shade of the trees, they dismounted and sat on the slight rise that led into a small grove of maples. Persephone sat close to her father, unsure of what to say. Finally, she decided to ask more about Alexandria.

  “What was she like?” she asked gently.

  Daniel, sitting with his back hunched as though he were trying to curl in on himself and disappear, lifted his head and turned to her. “Alexandria?” The corners of his mouth tugged into a small smile. “She was beautiful, intelligent, and stubborn, much like you are.”

  Persephone ducked her head with an embarrassed grin. She felt Daniel shift, stretching his body as she encouraged him to talk.

  “It was her stunning green eyes framed by ebony hair that caught my attention first, and it was the same the first time you walked into my store. I thought you were a ghost of my beloved Alexandria.”

  Persephone smiled as she recalled that morning. She was only five years old, and had managed to slip by the non-too-careful eye of Priscilla. The store was brand new, and when she spotted Daniel through the window, her young mind had seen a kind old soul who might entertain her. When she had walked in and politely introduced herself, his eyes had grown large and his skin paled. His reaction had made her nervous, and she had almost bolted, but he had recovered quickly, kneeling down to ask her what her name was. She had proudly told him her name was Persephone, and she grew confused when sadness had passed over his face briefly.

  “Persephone,” he had repeated. “A beautiful name for a beautiful little girl.”

  Father and daughter sat still for a few moments, Persephone reevaluating everything he had ever told her, while Daniel, she assumed, was remembering watching her grow up at a distance, never able to tell her who he really was.

  “She wanted you to have that name, you know,” Daniel spoke. “Alexandria had made me promise that I would make sure you were named Persephone. It took a lot of my not unlimited skills to make Priscilla think of that name.”

  “Tell...” Persephone hesitated, not sure if she wanted to hear the answer. “Tell me everything about how…you know. Why did you and Alexandria never have a child yourselves? Why Priscilla? And how? How is Alexandria my mother when Priscilla gave me life?”

  Daniel sighed beside her, and she observed his face as he answered. “You don’t ask the simple questions, do you?” he smiled.

  “Of course not. What’s the fun in that?” she replied indignantly.

  “Just like your mother.” He chuckled. “It’s long past the right time to tell you; you should have been told years ago.” He turned to face her, and she watched his eyes darken as he grew serious. “Alexandria and I wanted children of our own, we just didn’t feel that it was safe, not with her family hunting us. They would have taken the child and raised it to be a Dark Witch. Neither of us could bear that, so we waited. In the last few weeks we had together, she gave me a small vial of clear liquid, curling my fingers over it as it rested in my palm. Alexandria made me promise that if anything happened to her, that I would still give our child life. She explained that the vial contained a potion and part of her essence, and that I would have to slip it into the drink of the lady I deemed suitable, and that I would have to lay with her. The potion would ensure that the woman would become pregnant, but that the child would not be of her flesh, but of mine and Alexandria’s.

  “I didn’t want to think about what she was saying, but she made me promise. How could I deny her?” Daniel looked down at his hands resting in his lap, but Persephone kept her focus on his face, or what she could see of it, anyway.

  “It took me years to get a hold on my grief and guilt at her death, but I finally told myself to get over it and fulfill my promise to her. So I gave myself a magickal disguise and went in search for the woman who would give life to the child that Alexandria and I n
ever got the chance to have. I passed myself off as a traveling performer, using my magick to perform tricks that entertained and thrilled. I saw many women who I thought would make fine mothers, but most of them were already married and with child themselves. I wouldn’t hijack an existing pregnancy because I didn’t want to rob the happy couples of their child. Besides, I didn’t think it would work like that.

  “So I came to Mythosandria, performed my show, and spotted Priscilla in the crowd. I didn’t see a commitment ring on her finger, nor a man nearby who might be courting her. I later learned that Bruce was courting another lady, but he had lain with Priscilla only a few nights earlier.

  “I approached her after the show and asked if she could show a weary traveler the best place to lay his head, grab a meal, and enjoy a few pints. She escorted me to the tavern and kept me company. When she slipped away to relieve herself, I slipped the potion, always carried in a breast pocket close to my heart, into her drink.” He paused. “I don’t think you want to know the rest of that bit of the story.”

  Persephone shook her head and wrinkled her nose. “No way do I want to know.”

  Daniel chuckled, dipping his head again. “So Priscilla became pregnant, and to avoid the scandal of having slept with a traveling performer who would not be able to provide for the child, she claimed that it was Bruce’s. Her claim ruined his chance of being with his love and drove him to the drink. When Priscilla realized that he had never wanted to be with her, she grew bitter.

  “I left the morning after I lay with her, but while she slept, I performed a sort of hypnosis on her, kept repeating the name Persephone. The potion, might I add, assured that the child would be a girl, so there was no concern there.

  “I traveled through the town a couple years later to see what had happened, this time with no disguise, and sure enough, you had been born. I didn’t see you, but I heard the gossip, for even then everyone whispered about the suspected scandal that had made this strange and beautiful baby girl. I decided that I would give the town a couple more years to forget about the traveling performer before I came back.” Daniel sighed heavily, and Persephone stared at the ground, taking in everything he had just told her.