“Wait…what?” Chad yelled as he drove, following behind my parents' car, from which Michelle kept turning in her seat to look out the window. “What do you mean she wants to come with us?”
“Just what I said.”
“You told her she couldn’t…right?”
“No, I told her we needed a sixth in our coven and to bring a pointy hat and broom!” I screamed at him with as much sarcasm as I could muster. “Of course, I told her she couldn’t come.”
“She doesn’t look like she’s very accepting of that answer.” He pointed over the steering wheel to the minivan in front of us.
Michelle was mouthing something similar to ‘I’m coming with you,’ and turned back around in her seat. She still looked backwards as the car turned the corner and came to a stop in front of the entrance of the school’s auditorium. Chad got out of the car and ran around to open my door. When he was closing it, I grabbed his shirtsleeve to tug him closer to me.
“She said she saw me use my hands, or my mind, to save mom from the pavement,” I rushed to tell him.
He turned his head to glare at me but couldn’t say anything since Michelle had just made her way back to us.
“Hi Michelle.” He gave her his best fake smile and turned back to me. He leaned in like he was going to kiss me by my ear and whispered so only I could hear him. “Handle her.”
When he stepped back, he looked from me to my sister. “I can see you two need to talk for a minute, so I’m going to go find Matt. He has my cap and gown.” Then he was gone, and I was being stared down by my very stubborn sister.
“I can’t take you. End of story.” I pushed by her and a small spark of electricity buzzed as my arm touched hers.
“What was that?” she yelled so everyone around us could hear.
“Static electricity. Gee, what’s with you?” I turned from her and hurried for the auditorium, where the group was the thickest.
I knew I wouldn’t be able to get very far from her. We lived in a small town, so where the alphabet was concerned, the only one sitting between us during the ceremony would be Clara. Being her best friend, Michelle would feel fine about discussing this in front of her.
“I won’t say anything, but I don’t want to be left out anymore,” she said as she sat down, and then stopped as Clara came to sit. To my surprise, she didn’t say anything in front of Clara or for the rest of the ceremony, for that matter. When Clara turned to me and said we were having the party that night and leaving after the party, I shot Michelle a look of warning.
“What’s going on with you two?” she asked as we walked out the side entrance of the auditorium. We had a few minutes to ourselves before the rents would be able to leave the large room.
“What are you talking about?” I could hear Michelle say to her best friend, but nothing about her suspicion of my magic use.
“You two are just acting weird.” Clara squinted her eyes, as if the motion allowed her to read minds.
I looked at Michelle and said, “She wants to go on our camping trip with us.”
Michelle looked wide-eyed at me as if I had just confessed a big secret between us to an outsider.
“Wait, Clara’s going on the camping trip?” Michelle asked.
“I told you I was. My parents are making me.” She rolled her eyes as if she couldn’t be bothered with the whole sleeping outdoors thing.
“What? Why?” Michelle’s voice rose an octave.
“Because my mother has volunteered to chaperone. Don’t these people realize we are all adults?” She gave another good eye roll and looked at Michelle. “If I thought you would have wanted to go, I would have said something, but it’s my understanding there are no spots open.”
“See, I couldn’t take you if I wanted to.” I looked on at her and Clara, forgetting all about her accusations. “Now, why are we leaving early?”
Clara turned to me as if she were completely bored about the entire conversation. “My mother’s idea…something about lower rates if we check in before seven o'clock tomorrow. I don’t know. Go ask her.” She waved her hand around like she needed to get Michelle alone to speak with her about something private.
I took my hint from her and went in search of Adelle Blackwood. It was obvious Adelle had the answers, but I wasn’t entirely sure she’d be tagging along. It was never part of the plan to have her there. I found Adelle completely surrounded by faculty and staff members of the hospital who were watching a senior of their own graduate. Some had children there simply to play in the band and orchestra for the ceremony. Others were staff members who had been sent to look out for their prospective students; next year’s medical school applicants. When she saw me coming, I noticed a dissimulated laugh, and she waved me with a hand to come nearer. Moving as close as I dared to the group, I crossed my hands in front of me as I noticed Helen and Michael emerge from the main doors in front of the school, where they started to scan the crowd for Michelle and me.
I cleared my throat and tried to sound confident. “Mrs. Blackwood, Clara said you wished to speak to me.”
The woman tossed her long black hair and said her apologies to the group she had been speaking to. Mr. Blackwood walked up to us at that exact moment, as if he were also waiting to get Adelle alone.
“Ah, Marshal, you’ve found me at the right moment, my dear.” She ignored my presence as she leaned into her husband and kissed him. I felt like I was eavesdropping when I realized I hadn’t averted my eyes from them at all, even when it looked like they might remain that way for some time. I saw the love in her eyes and his as they broke apart and I’ll admit, I was envious of it.
“I don’t mean to interrupt, but I have parents who are looking for me,” I blurted.
“No, you don’t.” Adele’s look changed in an instant as she turned sharply to look at me.
“Here, at graduation, I do. It’s not their fault what happened to Gwen and Silas. So…” I had to give it to myself, suddenly sounding like a priestess instead of a young teenager.
“I’m sorry, Elyse. My wife forgets sometimes.” Marshal Blackwood pulled Adelle back to where she was before she moved in on me, something I hadn’t even noticed. Apparently, whatever was inside me had noticed. So, was the priestess part of me on autopilot?
“Not a problem, Marshal.” I used his given name. As the new high priestess, I had officially taken over the role of leader on all other local witches, and not just my coven. I looked to these people as my elders and felt my nerves on edge because of it. Yet, they had to look at me as their priestess, and they too were on edge. It was never my intention to assert my authority over those who had come before me. As my elders, they deserved my respect, not dominion.
“Why are we having the party this evening?” I asked Adelle in my normal teenager voice.
“It’s Elle, I’m afraid.” She looked back at her husband, who looked just as curious as I was. “She’s the one who’s been working with Sabina. I have it on good authority.”
“Elle?” I heard Marshal exclaim. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“You were in the office when I found out this morning. I will leave the rest up to Elyse, but I need to get close to her tonight to-”
“Fama spell,” I said, not knowing where the words had come from. I looked around, but in the light of the morning, I couldn’t see a shimmer or apparition. I doubted they would be able to leave the cabin, but was it possible they came to see me graduate? No…my insides were telling me that wasn’t the answer.
“How did you know that?” Adelle looked at me, confused.
“I don’t know.” I shook my head and backed away from them. “Something tells me I’ll find out more in Dublin, from my parents. I need to call Chester. We will leave tonight after the party is concluded. We’ll have to do the spell before anyone tells her when we are leaving.”
“Yes, she can’t be allowed to contact Sabina with the new information.” Marshal nodded in agreement.
I went to find Chad. I found
my feet moving back into the school. I was afraid I was going mad. I walked to the library. The room was empty but for one person. Peter Walters sat at a table near the windows. The sun shone through and made the blond of his hair look like he wore a halo around his head, and then it was gone. For the second time that morning, I felt like I was observing something I should not have been. He was speaking to himself, but I couldn’t make sense of it from the distance. He seemed to be in a trance. His head was bent in a way suggesting he was deep in thought. He didn’t seem to realize I was in the room.
“Hey.”
He jumped, obviously startled by the intrusion. When he turned around, I could see the lines in his face begin to soften. He smiled as he closed the book he had been hunched over and stood from his chair. As he took a few steps towards me, his smile widened. “Hey yourself.”
“I see you managed to put clothes on before I startled you this time.” I laughed a little and he looked down, almost embarrassed at the memory. When he looked back up, there was a flush of color on his face.
“Yes, my lady.” He dipped his head into a full bow at the waist, complete with a sweep of his hand, which still held on to the book. I was glad nobody was in the library to witness our exchange.
I began to laugh before I realized it and quickly clasped my hands together. “Very funny, Peaty.” I moved to him and tapped his shoulder, so he would rise, using the childhood nickname I had for him. “I see you’ve finally been told.”
He swept up to stand in much the same posture and held himself straight. The book and his hand rested across his waist at his back and the other was held out to me. I placed my hand in his and he lifted it to lightly kiss my knuckles. “Congratulations are in order,” he said, still holding my hand close to his mouth so I could feel the heat of his breath as he spoke, “on two accounts.” He kissed it again, released it, and stood.
My blood started beating too fast in my head and chest, and the breath in my lungs had gone. I knew an anxiety attack when I felt one. I ignored it and only responded with words and a faint smile. “Thank you. You are too kind.” I mimicked his use of formality that would have been used in the time of kings and queens. I felt more at ease once he relaxed and erupted into a light montage of giggling. “What are you doing in here?” I asked, surprised at my sudden abruptness.
“I was already witness to one graduation here. I could see the class cross the stage from right here,” he said, pointing to the window at his right, “and not have to listen to a boring Hospital Rep give an hour-long speech.”
I ducked down to look out of the window and noticed it gave a clear view of the auditorium stage with the doors open.
“They didn’t close the doors?”
“Something tells me they thought they did.” He laughed again, and I couldn’t help but notice the dimple in his left cheek. “So, what brings you here? Don’t you have pictures to take part in?”
The noise from outside became more noticeable at his words. Helen and Michael were probably dragging Michelle around by a noose trying to find me before they lost her. I nodded in response to his question and spun on my heel to go back to the congregation of people outside when a thought occurred to me.
“Do you know what your mother’s doing?” I asked without thinking.
“What do you mean?” His smile faded and was replaced by notable curiosity.
“I have it on good authority she’s working against me.”
“That wouldn’t surprise me.” His callousness unnerved me. Would he really dismiss his mother’s actions so easily?
“Why not?”
“Because, my mother wants everyone to believe she wants nothing to do with magic anymore.”
“But you know something different?”
“Of course. I wasn’t as naive as Crystal growing up. Elle Walters wants power more than anyone knows. Because with power comes the ability to get whatever else you want in life.” He crossed his arms against his chest and looked down at his feet as he spoke. “I only left to get away from her greed. An east coast school seemed like the best idea. At the time.” He looked up then, and the playfulness he had earlier was completely gone from his face.
“You don’t think so any longer, do you?”
“No, not anymore.”
We stood there for a minute, not speaking. Then hearing Helen calling my name, I jumped. “I have to go,” I said and turned to leave.
“I’m thinking of going on the camping trip,” he told me, and left through an alternate door so he could avoid the growing crowd.
Chapter Nine
“What in the world could you have to do in the library? You’ve graduated!” Helen shrieked at me as she moved Michelle and I around like poseable dolls. With one last repositioning of our hair, she stepped back so Michael could snap the picture.
After a few more acceptable shots of us together, she insisted on a few alone. Then more with her and Michael. When it came to getting shots of all four of us, Helen grabbed Mr. Kenston, my History teacher, and jabbed him in the ribs with the camera as she asked him to snap the shot. When she was finally happy with the three hundred shots she had gotten, she started asking our friends in for group shots. Clara and Michelle hugged and held up their hats as if they were about to throw them in the air. Then Chad grabbed and lifted me, cradling me in his arms. I heard the shutter of the camera go off as my arm went flying in the air to try and steady myself in his grasp. Crystal and Matt ran into us, and another click of the shutter. The last picture Helen took was of the five of us sprawled out on the ground, having fallen over in the midst of ‘goofing off’ as she called it.
After a few more snaps of the camera, we all piled up in our cars. Somebody had written on our rear windows with white chalk window paint: Graduate on Board! They also tied balloons to our windshield wipers, which flew up and over the car as we drove away.
I had to admit, I was having a good time. I was even feeling like a normal teenager graduating from high school, heading off to a party, and then a class trip. Of course, the trip was so much more. The only ones who thought of it as a trip were the Andrews. The fact that it was a rescue mission would have been too hard to explain. As it was, I still had to contend with what would happen after I finally reunited with my parents trapped in Dublin. Then figure out what, if anything, to tell the Andrews of Gwen and Silas’s miraculous return from the dead. Then there was the explanation of where they’d been my whole life.
I looked over at Chad as he drove my car back to his house. We had all of our altar tools, minus my families’ books, at his house to pack up in the car before heading over to Clara’s. As far as my parents knew, I would be staying at Clara’s for the night and would be leaving with her and her parents in the morning. Michael and Helen would be meeting us at the Blackwood house for the party. I was determined it would be as uneventful, magically speaking, as possible. My goal was to have as much fun as I could, wait for the guests to leave, and then head out right away for Dublin. We would all "camp out" there until Gwen and Silas could be returned.
I remembered the first time I was told that Spirit was the actual house my parents had lived in before their entrapment. I was told they had died in a car crash. That wasn’t true. When I found out who I was, my friends told me the story they, and everyone else, had been told. My parents lived in a farmhouse somewhere west. They had been hiding from their two families and were found by one of them. My friends and their parents had always thought my parents died horribly in a house fire. They didn’t find out the truth until I did. My parents lived in a small cabin in Dublin, Cincinnati. They used the front of the house as a storefront and sold all things Wiccan. The name of the shop was Spirit. Chad had taken me there after our first lesson with Chester, on how to cast a circle. We had gone there looking for our own altar tools.
Chad thought it was weird when the woman manning the store, Ophelia, had spoken to me as if she knew me. When I went back a second time with Clara, Ophelia put me on a vision quest. That
was when I found out my parents were attacked by my mother’s own sister, Sabina. She cut me from the womb and cast a spell, entrapping them there to relive the same day, over and over. The only reason why people thought they were dead was they were no longer on this plain of existence. They were in a parallel world to ours.
If Ophelia hadn’t found them shortly after, they would have had to relive that horrible moment forever. Ophelia didn’t have the power to free them. She did have the ability to remove the time loop. Still, when I saw and spoke to my mother, she appeared before me as if she were still nine months pregnant. I think it was her way of keeping me close to her. When she saw me in the vision, her belly flattened. I’d imagine it would be hard to imagine your child in your stomach after seeing the eighteen-year-old version in person.
Chad pulled the car up to the front of his house and got out. I struggled for a moment with my seat belt and then gave up. I leaned back against the headrest and closed my eyes. The fun of the occasion was pretty much concluded. The expected happy mood was lost to me. My head was fuzzy, and I couldn’t stop thinking about the events to come. It was difficult to imagine myself enjoying an evening of fun while my mind kept going back to what was to come. Like my mind was in a loop of its own. I suddenly felt much older than eighteen. The prospects of happier times were becoming elusive. Before I could start questioning when I would be happy again, Chad knocked on my window, talking to me through the glass, so I reached over and hit the button to lower it.
“What?” I asked a little too sharply.
“E, you okay?”
“Yeah, sorry. Just having a moment.”
“Okay, well I said I’m gonna go grab the stuff. If you want, you can stay here. Close your eyes. Have a moment. Whatever you need.” He tipped his head sideways, leaned into the car, and planted a kiss on my lips. “Mm, you taste like apples.”
Power Surge (The Crawford Witch Chronicles Book 2) Page 8
