Songs of the Wind (Love Lines Series Book 2)

by Diana Nixon

  Next time watch your language, Eileen, I urged myself.

  Half an hour later Evan and I were coming down to Ethan’s car. Finally, we were free! Thank God, Catherine was too busy trying to find out the reason of our unexpected leaving to notice us sneaking away from her.

  The moment we went out into the street, we realized that the upcoming trip would be anything but enjoyable. It was raining cats and dogs and all the surroundings, including cars and people, were melting into one big gray cloud.

  “So, where shall we go now?” Evan asked, trying to see something through the pitch-dark wall of rain.

  “I have no idea,” I said, watching the rain. “I was in such a hurry that I didn’t even think to ask what kind of a car they had.”

  “Then we have to wait here.” Evan sat on the top step of the porch and I sat next to him. “Your mom was very upset when she found out about our leaving.”

  “Yeah, she actually planned some big shopping tour and other things for this weekend. But I think Chris was more than happy to get rid of us.”

  “I noticed that too." Evan nodded, smiling. "Actually, I didn’t like him much. He's too sweet, too gallant, and... I don’t know.” He shrugged. “But I wouldn’t call myself his number one fan.”

  "Were not you the one, accusing me of being jealous just a few hours ago?” I asked, surprised. “Don’t you think that every man in love should be sweet and gallant with his lady?”

  “I think Chris and I interpret being sweet in different ways,” Evan said.

  The door behind us opened.

  “Ça alors![1]" exclaimed Jaclyn. “Quel satané temps![2] We’d better get home before the night comes.”

  “We should hurry up,” Ethan said. “Come on guys, follow me.”

  Unfortunately, we didn’t take any umbrellas, so we had to run in the rain. Despite the fact that Evan and I were used to such unholy weather, we both breathed a sigh of relief getting into the car.

  “Don’t worry, we will warm up soon,” Jaclyn said, turning on the heater. “I can’t remember the last time we had such a rain here! It brings so much power!”

  “What do mean?” I asked curiously, taking off my sopping wet jacket.

  “The rain fills you with magical power, dear,” she replied. “Even if you are not a hereditary Wizardy, it fills you with energy. We should take them to the spring lake, Ethan,” she said, turning to her husband.

  “What’s a spring lake?”

  “We live in Fontainebleau,” Ethan said. “You have heard about this place, haven’t you?”

  “Of course, we have,” Evan replied warily, surprising me with the ice in his voice.

  “So, what place is that?” I asked him. “I’ve never heard about it before.”

  “Because you don’t have time to attend classes,” he snapped. I grimaced in response.

  “Fontainebleau is noted for its spring waters, Eileen,” Jaclyn explained. “And they mean a lot to us. The waters are full of life energy. People say that if you ever put your hands in these waters you will never be out of your energy.”

  “Well, people say many things, but not all of them are true,” Ethan added. “However, we go to the waters every morning and we never feel the lack of energy. It’s good to have something able to recharge your batteries,” he said, smiling. “You never know how much energy you will have to spend tomorrow.”

  While I was listening to the stories about Fontainebleau, Evan was looking out the window. He was tensed and quiet.

  “Hey, you okay?” I whispered.

  “I’m fine,” he replied, without turning around. However, I was more than sure that he was far from being fine.

  My father showed me how to distinguish truth from falsehood and though I wasn’t very successful, now I saw all the signs of a lie. First of all I saw them in Evan’s aura – it was vibrating and changing color, instantly becoming muddy-green. And even if Evan knew about my suspicions, he didn’t pay any attention to me. Sudden mood swings were unlike him, though our last 24 hours proved otherwise. Evan didn’t want to share his worries and I didn’t like it. At all. Of course, I wasn’t his best friend, but taking into consideration the reasons of our coming to France, his silence was simply killing me. I wasn’t sure if it was caused by our secret business here, but his constant thoughtfulness was haunting my mind. It seemed like he was keeping something back.

  The rest of the journey Jaclyn and Ethan were telling us about their life, Fontainebleau’s surroundings and its residents. As it turned out, almost all of them were the Meridin’s descendants. For many centuries they have been enjoying the beauty and the forces of local nature that filled them with endless power and energy.

  “Sometimes I think this place was created especially for people with supernatural abilities,” Jaclyn continued. “Even the plants and flowers are filled with some incredible force and magic. I will show you my garden. It’s my crown jewel. I gathered so many different flowers there that every Embry would be jealous seeing them," she added, smiling. "I hope you will like staying with us.”

  But all the things Jaclyn was telling us paled into insignificance compared to the beauty we saw in reality. Everything was so much better. All the gardens, the flowers, the houses and even the air around us were magical. The colors were brighter, the fragrances were stronger and time seemed to stop to let us enjoy the beauty. It was a whole world of magic. Their own world.

  “It’s so beautiful here!” I said admiringly. “I’ve never seen anything like this before. It’s not surprising that you were telling us about this place with so much love.”

  “Merci beaucoup, chérie![3]” Jaclyn said.

  “Сomme dans les contes,[4]” Evan added quietly, speaking for the first time since our leaving Paris.

  “Do you speak French?” I asked, surprised.

  “Yeah, just a little. I told you my parents lived in Paris. Remember? I liked to spend my holidays with them.”

  “Will you ever tell me about them?” Sometimes I thought that Evan had more secrets than the whole Universe.

  “One day I will,” he replied, smiling sadly.

  He always avoided talking about his parents and I kept asking myself why. I didn’t know where they were now, or what they were doing, but seeing how upset my friend became every time I asked him any questions about them, I decided to leave that topic for later.

  While Ethan and Evan were taking our luggage to the rooms, Jaclyn started her promised excursion of the surroundings. Their house wasn’t big, but it was very beautiful and down-home. The facade and the walls of the inside were bright-yellow, creating an illusion of endless sunshine. The floors were covered with dark green carpets, as if we were walking through the park with soft green grass. The old staircase was dark-red and massive. It looked even bigger than the house itself. The place was filled with the warmth and hospitality of its owners, and the garden Jaclyn was talking about, was simply amazing. Its entrance was made of lilacs – a symbol of beauty and pride; all the benches were surrounded by yellow roses – a symbol of joy; and the street lights were decorated with king fern, symbolizing magic. I didn’t know what kind of magic Jaclyn used to make all those flowers blossom, but seeing the lilacs in their full beauty in the middle of fall was quite unexpected. There were many other flowers I saw for the first time in my life, but all of them complimented each other. It was if I was in the middle of something paradisiacal and sky-born.

  “And this is my favorite flower,” Jaclyn said, touching the soft petals. “It’s white heather, it’s a symbol of protection.”

  “Yes, I know,” I said. My father used to leave it on my bedside table, so that waking up in the morning I knew that last night he had been guarding my dreams again.

  “It’s gonna be all right,” Jaclyn said, noticing the sadness in my voice.

  “I hope so.” I nodded, thinking about the countless problems my life consisted of.

  “If it’s about Christian, then you don’t have to worry so much. We will he
lp you find him. And if our assumptions are correct, it will happen very soon,” she said, squeezing my hand.

  “Your assumptions?”

  “Well, yes. Lucas told us about your memory and I think we know what your vision means,” Jaclyn said, leading me to one of the benches under the apple tree.

  “You mean my vision about Christian’s disappearance?”

  “Yes. There is one spell that helps the wizards create the illusions. It’s called Fantom formus.”

  Hearing steps behind me, I turned and saw Ethan coming toward us.

  “It’s not just an illusion every Wizardy is able to create,” he added. “It’s a kind of a visual place, where people’s souls can be hidden.”

  “How exactly can our soul be hidden?” I asked, puzzled, watching them curiously.

  “By stealing our feelings,” Jaclyn replied. “That is to say that someone can make us lose ourselves in the darkness.”

  “I don’t understand a thing of what you’ve just said….”

  Ethan smiled. “It’s quite hard to understand how it works. But there’s no doubt Christian was kidnapped with the help of this spell. Fantom formus always leaves its traces. As well as magic in general. I guess that Eric used some special powder, steeling his vision, his hearing sense and his memory. As soon as a person loses his touch with reality, he’s affected by one more spell. It’s called Immersium parfaitum. It keeps a person out of his visual shape, as if melting it in the air.”

  “Well, it looks like something that happened in my memory,” I noted. “But if you know about the existence of this spell you should also know how to break it, right?”

  “Unfortunately, it’s not as easy as it seems, Eileen,” Jaclyn said. “First, we don’t possess magic, and second – the knowledge about this spell is handed down from generation to generation. Every wizard’s family has its own secrets of how to break this spell. And these secrets can be disclosed only by the members of the family, imposing the spell itself.”

  Oh, no, I groaned mentally. “There’s no way we can make it.”

  "There is one person who can help you," Ethan said.

  "And who is that?" Evan asked, joining us.

  “Where have you been?” I asked, realizing that I hadn’t seen him since the moment we arrived.

  “I was talking to Patrick on the phone.”

  “How is he?”

  “He’s fine. He and Amelia are still at the airport, waiting for their flight. I just wanted to let them know that we are here. So, what did I miss?”

  “Jaclyn and Ethan told me about the spell they think Eric used to kidnap Christian. And they know someone, who can break it.”

  “Really? And who is that?” Evan asked, his eyes full of wonder. I knew that look. It appeared every time he got closer to the answer he needed.

  “Her name is Marion Blanche,” Ethan replied.

  “Blanche?” Evan repeated thoughtfully. “One of Jillian Wizardy’s sons was married to the daughter of a French baron named Blanche.”

  “You are absolutely right, Evan. Marion belongs to his family.” Jaclyn nodded.

  “I don’t understand… the Blanche family has nothing to do with our world,” my friend pointed.

  “Not true.” Jaclyn shook her head. “The truth is that being a wife of one of the Wizardy’s descendants, Solen Blanche got the most extraordinary wedding present that ever existed. She was gifted with the power of magic. Nicolas Wizardy taught his wife to do all those things he was capable of himself. Her magic passed to all the future generations of her family. So one more clan possessing magical power was born. And its descendants are still alive. There are not many of them, but they do exist. And Marion is one of them. Do you understand what it means?”

  “It means that possessing magic transferred from the Wizardy clan she knows its family secrets, including the origin of Eric’s spell and the way to break it down,” I concluded, the excitement running in my veins.

  “Yes.”

  “But how did you find her?”

  “That was the easiest part. She lives here, in Fontainebleau,” Ethan replied. “Not many people know who she really is, but we grew up together and, of course, it was pretty hard to keep her origin secret for so many years. But we’ve never thought that one day we would need her help. She hasn’t been practicing magic for a long time, but as you know the power of magic doesn’t go away, so Marion is still capable of many things.”

  “Does she really want to help us? I mean, she will have to betray her family,” Evan said.

  “She wants to help you. Marion stopped using magic because her family was making her do some horrible things she didn’t want to. That’s why now she is trying to stop all the evil the members of the Blanche and the Wizardy have managed to breed. By the way, she always knew that Eric was a bit of a bastard. So when we asked her to help us in finding him, she said she would gladly teach that jerk a painful lesson,” Jaclyn quoted the words. “She’s still the most powerful living Blanche. But don’t think that it will be that easy. She didn’t say what to do to find Christian but she said you would have to work really hard. And the one who wants to obtain the looked-for result, would have to get through lots of suffering. Are you ready for this?” she asked, looking at Evan and me.

  “It’s our final option,” I said.

  “Okay then.” Jaclyn smiled uneasily. “We will let her know about your arrival and make arrangements for a meeting. Be prepared for the worst.”

  Evan and I nodded in response.

  The next morning we were planning to walk to the old church that Lucas told us about. We decided to go there alone, so we tried to do our best not to awaken anyone.

  “Damn it!” Evan swore, hearing the stairs creaking. Despite the fact that it looked pretty strong, in reality it turned out to be a total disaster for someone willing to leave the house unseen. “I told you we had to go through the window!” he hissed.

  “Are you serious? Which window are you talking about? The one opposite Jaclyn’s bedroom or the one opening straight to the hedge roses?” I asked quietly.

  Evan made a face, taking another careful step. “I hope Jaclyn and Ethan won’t be too surprised, noticing our absence.”

  “Well, unlike you I thought about their reaction in advance and I left them a note saying that we went for a walk.”

  “What a brilliant idea it was, Eileen! I have only one question. Doesn’t it seem weird that we are going for a walk at half past four in the morning? Who goes for a walk at the damn crack of dawn?”

  “Those who want to recharge their energy with the first rays of the sun, for example,” I replied, meeting his stare.

  “Of course, how could I have forgotten about the energy!” He rolled his eyes. “But the thing is that we have just come here and we didn’t do anything super exhausting besides eating Jaclyn’s blueberry pie!”

  “What was I supposed to do, Evan?!”

  “Shush! You don’t want them to hear us, do you?”

  “Well, you seem to be the only one sounding off this morning. So just knock it off and come down here. Otherwise we will never make it out of here!”

  Getting over the last musical stair we both sighed with relief, having no fear of raising a storm of indignation and more cracking of the wood under our feet. Fortunately, the front door was more cooperative and opened almost noiselessly.

  “I hope you didn’t forget a compass,” Evan said. “’Cause I’m not going back for anything.”

  “Don’t worry, I didn’t. Here,” I said, giving him my compass.

  “Okay, so if we believe Lucas’ map… this is the way we should go,” Evan said, nodding to the right. “And try to keep up with me, please. I don’t want to spend the rest of the day running around the wood and shouting Eileen, where are you?’”

  “God! How on earth could I have agreed to give you my second ticket to France? Has anyone ever told you what a crashing bore you are, Evan Murray?”

  “Oh, yeah, sweetheart. Trust me,
I have heard it before. Like a hundred thousand times. But don’t worry, I’ve been called worse,” he replied, giving me one of those killing sexy smiles of his.

  At moments like that I was just another girl, losing myself in his attractiveness. It was just impossible to resist his charm. And I definitely couldn’t be mad at him any longer.

  The way to the old church ruins took no more than fifteen minutes. Coming to the edge of a huge grassy glade, we immediately knew that we were there. The traces of magic were everywhere and the air was filled with the vibrations of so many auras that it was almost impossible to see where one ended and the other one started.

  “Wow! I’ve never seen anything like this before!” Evan whispered breathlessly, coming to the center of the glade. “There are millions of spirits, flowing here!”

  “Do the spirits have aura?”

  “As you can see, they do. It’s different from the one people have, but its vibrations are very intense. This place looks just like another glade for humans, but people like me – Wizardy and, well, some Fairey, of course, are able to see its whole magnificence.”

  Evan was absolutely right about the beauty around us. The place was magical and the presence of spirits made it even more unnatural. The colors of the auras were sparking on the sunlight. All the shades of a rainbow were there. They were moving slowly around the glade, flowing with the air and melting in each other’s shimmer.

  The ruins of the old church took the north part of the glade. The rest of the space was very smooth and plain, as if someone had cleared it out intentionally. Even the grass was very low with no flowers or other plants on it. It looked like a soft green blanket.

  “It’s so mesmerizing!” I said. “But, Evan, how do we know when the boy’s spirit comes? We don’t have much time to stay here,” I added, looking at my watch.

  “Something tells me that if he really comes, he will do it very soon. Just imagine, if you were him and you had to wait a whole year for this very day. What time would you come here?”