by Diana Nixon
His eyes were as gold as the very first time I saw him. He didn’t move and didn’t say a word. Touching the bracelet that Evan gave me on my birthday, I took one small golden key and put in into the fire, whispering, "Now you are free."
I didn’t have to see the boy’s eyes to know that he was happy. The same feeling I had in my heart, though I wasn’t sure if the spirits could transfer their feelings to the living creatures.
The next moment the air around me vibrated and the lost soul exploded in front of my eyes with millions of multicolored sparkles that were turning into crystal water drops. Now I was sure that that soul had finally found its peace.
Looking at my watch, I realized that I had to hurry as I was running out of time and I still had to pack up my things.
I broke the magic circle and rushed to Madam Blanche’s.
The wind was following my steps and suddenly I heard its quiet song, swaying in my mind and making my heart flutter:
“Every time I close my eyes, I see you in my dream,
I don’t remember you, I don’t know who you are,
But you always come and break my darkness with your gleam.
I like the way your image warms my heart,
It makes me feel alive,
I want to be your lost and loving part,
I want to be the one to strive
Against the pain and lonely nights,
Against the evil and the dark,
Because you turn my life into happiness and light,
Because you make everything so pure and so bright.”
Chapter 11. Long Way Home
Evan
I was shivering with fever. My whole body was trembling, though I was sure I wasn’t sick. It started after Marion had cast a spell, binding me by the eternal love ties. She said I would feel a slight malady, but she never mentioned the fact that I would be barely able to stand on my feet. The night was coming inexorably and that meant that the moon was growing in strength. And that, in turn, meant that the bond I was a part of now, was becoming stronger.
We were half way to Paris, when I suddenly remembered that I wanted to visit one more place before going back to Britain.
“Eileen, Marion, do you mind if we stop somewhere for a while?”
“No problem,” Eileen said. “Catherine has canceled our meeting, so we still have enough time before the flight. Why would she suddenly want to come back to Norfield?”
“You know her,” I said, smiling. “Probably she couldn’t wait any longer to see her new house. Where did you say it was?”
“Somewhere not far from Norfield.” Eileen shrugged indifferently. “At least this is what Chris says. But their leaving still seems suspicious. Mom didn’t tell me anything about going back home and she was so busy last time I called her, she wouldn’t even answer the call!”
“Don’t be upset, Eileen.” Marion squeezed her hand gently. “I think Evan is right, she was probably too excited to explore her new house. You said it was Chris’ present, right? So she hadn’t seen it yet and that’s why she forgot to call you, because she had so many other things to think about.”
“Maybe.” Eileen sighed, her eyes full of disappointment and worry. “She has never done this before. There wasn’t a day I didn’t hear from her.”
Marion and I exchanged troubled glances. Now when Eileen had explained the reason of her worries, the situation seemed really suspicious.
“I will ask Patrick to call her,” I said. “Well, just in case…” I couldn’t find the right words to explain my own anxiety.
“It’s a good idea, Evan,” Marion agreed. “Maybe she will answer his call.”
I sent a text message to Patrick, asking him to make sure that Catherine was all right.
Seeing the lights of the city, I gave our driver the address of the place I wanted to stop by. It was my parents’ house. I didn’t think I would ever want to cross its threshold again, but after hearing all those horrible things about my father and my Mom, I changed my mind.
When our car stopped at the gates, Eileen immediately recognized the place. "It's your parents' house, isn't it?" she said, looking at the massive building in front of us.
“Rose Helebore,” Marion replied.
“How do you know it was called A Christmas rose?” I wondered, looking at her in surprise. “Have you ever been here?”
“Just once,” she said, touching the wrought-iron fence with her fingers. “Your mother was taken home from the hospital where she had been for a few months and Dominic asked me come and see if I would be able to help her somehow. But her disease was incurable.”
I was watching her silently, still refusing to believe all the stories she had told me before. My heart sank, but I walked to the gate, wordlessly casting the spell the house was locked by. No one knew about that spell, as I was the one to cast it the day my parents died. According to their will I was the new owner of the house. Kevin didn’t like that place and he never wanted to stay and live there. The house has been empty for ages.
“Why was it called A Christmas rose?” Eileen asked, following me to the entrance.
“My father bought it on a Christmas Eve and the first thing he and mom brought here was a flower with the same name.” Now recalling that day, I was filled with mixed emotions. I didn’t want to believe that my own father used to be such a heartless monster, but knowing the truth I could explain a lot of wrong things about my own life. No matter how hard I tried to deny the obvious, the fact remained that I was the son of the fallen Dragons' leader.
The inside of the house seemed to be even colder than the day I was there the last time. And despite the fact that all the furniture still remained untouched, the feeling of that searing cold was simply unbearable. My fever wasn’t helping matters. The scenery seemed even creepier. I swallowed hard, took a deep breath and came into the living room.
There was a question only that house could answer. I walked over to the fireplace and looked at the golden letter M painted above. It was a part of our family emblem, framed into something I used to think were angel’s wings. But now I saw the difference. There were two huge dragon’s wings, spread on the wall.
Eileen didn’t know anything about the murder committed in Norfield, or about the tattoo on the stranger’s back. Now, the more I looked at my family’s emblem the more I was sure that its part was also a part of the mysterious tattoo. I would have never paid any attention to the resemblance if it wasn’t for Marion’s story about my father. Now, I knew that the wings couldn’t belong to an angel, as even their glow was dark and evil. I supposed that people who Patrick and Amelia couldn’t talk about were members of the Dragons brotherhood.
Marion was standing next to me, watching the emblem thoughtfully. “Dominic never forgot about his family,” she said quietly. “He always took the picture of this emblem with him.”
“What do you mean?” I asked, puzzled.
“He had a ring, an old ring with an oval sapphire, covering the emblem. He never took it off. Do you remember it?”
“Of course, I do. It belongs to my brother now.”
“What?” The waves of shock and fear in Marion's aura were so strong that I looked at her in surprise, wondering what could be the cause of her unexpected reaction.
“What I’m saying is that the ring you are talking about belongs to my brother now,” I said. “After our father’s death, he took it. What is it all about, anyway?”
“The ring is a symbol of Dominic’s power. I charmed it for him. When I wasn’t there to protect him, the ring was his amulet. But it also contained a part of his powers and the next person, wearing it, was supposed to become his follower and head the brotherhood.”
“Oh, God! It can’t be possible,” I whispered in horror. The beating of my heart was so fast, as if it was about to jump out of my chest. The shock was boiling my blood and for a moment I thought I would faint.
“Where’s Kevin now?” Marion asked quietly so only I could hear her.
&n
bsp; “In Dever,” I said dryly.
“But… he can’t be there.” She frowned. “I don’t understand anything. There was a time when Frederick, knowing about your father’s powers put a spell on Dever’s borders so he couldn’t get in. And the ring, if it really belongs to Kevin now, wouldn’t let him cross the border.”
“Are you saying that the ring doesn’t work anymore?”
“No, Evan, it still works and I know it for sure, but.…”
“But?” I could feel that my fear was growing into a whole sea of anger. I looked around impatiently to make sure that Eileen hadn’t heard our conversation. She was standing near the window, looking at some old photographs.
"The ring's power doesn't work only if a person wearing it isn’t its true owner,” Marion explained.
“What do you mean? If it doesn’t belong to Kevin, then who is its true owner?” I asked with that strange feeling inside of me that usually meant I was about to face something so damn bad.
“Well, we both know that it’s not your mom, and the power of the ring doesn’t work for Kevin, then you are the last option, Evan. The ring belongs to you.”
No, no, no! I screamed in my head. She couldn’t be serious, could she?! I wasn’t my father and I was damn sure I didn’t want to become him.
“Don’t tell Eileen,” I whispered, looking desperately for something to punch. I was so mad I could barely restrain myself from crashing everything around me. “We need to warn the others.” I took my cell phone and started typing messages for Patrick and Frederick. I could easily set up a new record in typing speed, as even Marion raised her eyebrows in surprise seeing the way my fingers were running over my phone’s keyboard. Pressing the send button, I saw that I had missed some words making the sentences look a little incoherent. But the meaning of my messages was crystal-clear and the number of exclamation marks at the end of every sentence was making everything even more urgent.
“Why is Kevin in Dever, anyway?” Marion asked.
“Patrick asked him to help us in Christian’s search.”
“So was his help useful?” she asked with a hint of doubt in her voice.
“The only thing he was doing was…” I paused, recalling Kevin's conversation with Darcy. “Does the name Camilla Steward ring a bell?”
“Of course, it does! Camilla knew your father, though she didn’t know who he really was. He never let her read his palm, but sometimes he asked for other favors. She and I both knew a lot about various herbs. She could do amazing things with their help. Why did you ask about her?”
“Her granddaughter is our friend and she said that Kevin asked her some questions about Camilla. We didn’t know why would he do that, but now I think I know the reason. He was looking for her diaries.”
"What does he need them for?”
“Their pages keep a lot of useful information. I think he wanted to know if Camilla knew the way how to make the objects obey his will,” I said, sending one more message to Frederick. I really hoped that my warning would turn up just at the right moment, because there was one more person in Dever I wanted to protect from Kevin. Tara. There was no doubt that if anything happened she would become his cover. Somehow I thought that in this case his love would go on the back burner.
“Evan!” Eileen called. “Is this Darcy’s grandmother with your father?” she asked, coming and showing me one of the photos she had found.
Damn! And that part was supposed to be a secret, I thought irritably to myself. I was surprised to see that photo in my house. I had never seen it before. But I wasn’t ready to show my cards, so I said, “Well, well! I didn’t know they knew each other!” Thank God, I knew how to hide my emotions and change the colors of my aura. Yet, I didn’t know anything about my father’s business with Camilla, so not all my words were false.
“Weird, huh?” Eileen mused, taking the photo back to the window sill.
Marion looked at me, shaking her head, saying wordlessly that it was better to keep our mouths shut. “It’s time to go,” she said aloud. “The plane won’t wait."
Marion was right – the longer we were staying in my house, the further we were from Dever, where personally I wanted to be right now more than anything else in the world.
I refused to believe that Kevin was a traitor too. We couldn’t be so different! We grew up together, we studied at the same places, we loved the same girl, for God’s sake! How could he do that to me? Even despite the fact that we had never been very close, I would have never betrayed him just to get more powers. Not that I was a saint, of course.
Our plane landed safely at Heathrow airport around half past nine in the evening. I should have been happy about coming back home, but happiness was the last thing on my list. Our plan said that the next stop would be Norfield, as no one knew about our arrival. We were going to stay at Eileen’s house which was empty at the moment. Her grandma was travelling again and we didn’t have to worry about being seen.
Marion tried really hard to distract Eileen from thinking about Camilla and my father, because she, of course, could piece together a puzzle in her head and get the same terrible result. Thank God, she didn’t know the whole truth, so I hoped that our little secret would stay between Marion and me.
To keep our arrival at Eileen's private, we had to use a spell of invisibility, so entering the house we all sighed with relief as we became visible to each other again.
“Next time we should use one spell for the three of us,” Marion said, “because I feel powerless when I don’t know where Eileen is.”
“Deal,” I agreed tiredly.
I had just reached out to turn on the lamp, when Eileen shouted, “Don’t do this! We don’t want anyone to know that we are here, right?”
“Oh, right!” I nodded, realizing my mistake.
“And keep the curtains shut,” Marion said. “Evan, when do you think it’s safe enough to go back to Dever?” she asked, taking a seat on the chair opposite me. All the way to Britain she had been very tense and nervous, but now she looked exhausted and a little absent-minded.
“Soon,” I said, rubbing my sleepy eyes. Marion wasn’t the only one tired, and Eileen and I both needed to take a good rest.
We didn’t want anyone to know that Eileen was back. According to Patrick, people who wanted to steal Frederick’s powers had found out about his daughter and her unusual talents and now switched their attention to her. And there was no doubt that people that Patrick was talking about were the members of the Dragons brotherhood. Marion shared my assumptions.
We managed to buy our plane tickets using fake names, so everything still went to plan. The main problem was to come to Dever unseen. We didn’t know whom we could trust except for our friends, of course, but we didn’t want them to be involved in our secret operation, so we had to find someone else.
And there was only one person I could think of – Elena Rosembry. She was responsible and trustworthy, and she helped us a lot in the past. Besides, Marion said that Elena’s father spent all his life fighting the Dragons. Unfortunately, his life was the forfeit of his struggles. That’s why I called her from France and now I was waiting for her to arrange our trespassing through Dever’s borders.
“Eileen, is there anything in the fridge I could….”
“Shush!” Marion whispered, cutting me off. “Did you hear that?” she asked, tiptoeing to the hall. “Someone is coming to the door.”
I jumped immediately from the couch, taking hers and Eileen's hands in mine and pronounced the spell of invisibility, hiding the three of us under the transparent air blanket. The lock clicked and the door opened.
“What the….”
“Chris!” Eileen exclaimed in surprise, recognizing her stepfather. He couldn’t hear us, of course.
“What is he doing here?” I asked, puzzled. “And where’s your mom?”
Eileen frowned and shrugged in confusion. We shared worried glances.
The only person who didn’t take part in our blind conversati
on was Marion. She was watching Chris silently. And he was looking around cautiously.
“What’s wrong?” I asked her, wondering what could be the cause of her anxiety, flooding her aura with sparkling dark-purple shades.
“How do you know this man?” she asked in response, ignoring my own question.
“This is Chris, Mom’s new husband,” Eileen said.
Marion stared at Eileen in surprise as if she had just slapped her.
“Look!” I said, turning their attention back to Chris. “He’s hiding something in a flower pot.”
Both of my companions turned to the door. Chris, as if feeling our presence, turned his head too, so if it wasn’t for the spell, he would see us standing a few steps away from him. Then he blinked twice, shook his head as if shaking off some vision and left, locking the door behind him.
“Let’s see what he has left there,” Eileen said, taking a step to the flower pot.
“Stop!” Marion commanded, taking her by the hand. “Don’t leave the invisible circle! I think I know what he has left there.”
Hearing the roar of Chris's car engine, we came closer to the table where the flower pot was.
“So I thought,” Marion snapped in disgust, looking inside. “The finding crystals,” she explained, nodding to a few stones, shining innocently among small pink violets. “They are widely used to track people.”
“But how did Chris know about them?” Eileen asked.
“Because your Chris is not what he pretends to be, sweetheart,” Marion replied. “The man you saw here just a few minutes ago was Walter Blake. And he used to be your father’s right hand, Evan.”
Surprise wasn’t a word for what I felt, hearing Marion’s words. I was standing there stunned, with mouth agape. Eileen was shocked too. We both stared at Marion in disbelief. A mixture of perplexity and fear was flying around us, making the air crinkle in our ears.
“I bet the crystals are sensitized to your energy, Eileen,” Marion said. “If you leave the invisible circle, they will find out about your presence here.”
