I saw Michelle’s shoulders relax and felt her nerves calm. She had really been afraid she had hurt my aunt’s feelings. That wasn’t something I would easily get used to. The old Michelle wouldn’t have stopped herself.
Once introductions were done, and Michelle looked like she was completely overwhelmed, I continued with the explanations. I started with everything that had happened on my eighteenth birthday. I checked on her emotions once in a while to make sure I wasn’t making her go crazy or anything. I was so scared she was going to jump up at any minute and say we were a bunch of liars. However, the last time I checked on how she was feeling, I saw that she was replaying the early morning scene over and over, reminding herself she had seen the evidence already.
When we started discussing the Immortal One, Michelle was effectively caught up. Since the stuff regarding Seraphina Crawford was new to me and the rest of us as well, she didn’t feel as out of the loop as she had been.
“So, what were you saying about the preternaturals,” Clara demanded and then thought better of it. “Mr. Crawford. Sir.” She seemed to stumble as she spoke. I’d never seen Clara speak with anything less than complete confidence. It was humbling.
“Oh, right.” Alistair turned in his chair to look at her, not bothered in the least by her outburst. “They were made by the Council to kill witches. So, yes, I suppose the fact that they do, indeed, kill witches is fitting.”
“Made? Out of what?” Michelle piped up before any of the rest of us could ask.
Alistair looked around the room as if he were considering his next words. “Humans. Non magic users. One bite from a preternatural would kill a witch. It another instance, however, our shifter-witches were made.”
“The Council made shifter-witches too?” Matt seemed irritated at the idea.
“No, my boy. A shifter-witch, such as yourself, had given us witches an advantage. You could fight, and be bitten by their beasts with no repercussions. You are our way to fight against them.” He withdrew a small pipe from within the front pocket of his jean overalls. “No, you were the result of moon magic. The most powerful type of magic known to witches. Only one person was powerful enough to enact the moon magic and save those that had been bitten. Thus, making shifter-witches. A trait that carried through the blood, from generation to generation.”
I thought I’d heard the story before, but like everything else I had learned of the past, I couldn’t tell if it was a story, or a memory.
“Wait. Elyse, look!” Crystal came to me with the book that had been a part of my father’s family. When she got close enough, she stopped quick. We hadn’t been able to resolve our confrontation from earlier.
I put my hand on her shoulder and spoke so only she could hear me. “It’s okay. You didn’t know what they would do, and I shouldn’t have reacted that way. I‘m sorry.”
“It’s okay. I should have told you the whole truth when we talked last night.” She pushed the book between us then. “Look here.”
“What has she found?” Alistair asked, turning the whole room’s attention to Crystal and the black leather-bound book.
“Preternaturals were created by the Council to hunt those that would choose to go against them,” I read from the book. Then to Chester and Alistair, I asked, “What’s the Council?”
“A longer discussion. Think of them as the police of the magical community. Only they gave everyone the same sentence. Death.”
I shuddered, but Crystal continued to read. “Seraphina defied the Council. When the preternaturals found us, we were not altogether. She and I had gone to their mountain to find the immortal book. When we returned to our friends, waiting for us atop the mountain, they struck. Only four were bitten, but Seraphina would not lose even one. She used the spell of the moon to heal them,” Crystal finished and looked up.
“Is that all it says?” Chad walked over to peer at the book.
“No, there’s more,” Bellatrix answered.
“So, you’ve read this?” I asked her.
“Yes, but I didn’t know it would be useful here. How does this help us with getting Gwen and Silas back? Knowing of the preternaturals?”
“Well, Xoras said I should use the magic of the immortal. So, we need to know who that is and what the magic is,” I told her.
Peter stepped forward to help his sister with the weight of the book. “Preternaturals are a part of her history. So, it only seems right that we learn about them as well. It could lead us to what motivated her.” He took the majority of the weight so Crystal could flip through the pages.
“Well, this says she found the immortal book. Is that the same thing?" Ophelia handed cups to everyone who looked overly tired. Grateful for the large cup of coffee, I thanked her as she handed me a mug.
“Keep reading,” Matt urged his girlfriend.
“The moon magic healed their wounds, but eventually, they each shifted to animal. In Tanner and Lavar’s case, into animal or person.” She looked up at Matt. “Your grandfather is mentioned here too.”
“I doubt that very much. My grandfather could only shift into animal.” He looked stumped.
“Eleanor Tanner,” Clara stated. She sat on the couch holding the brown leather book. “There’s a list of people that traveled with Seraphina. From their home village, apparently. The Tanner person that one is talking about is an Eleanor.”
“Eleanor must have been your great-grandmother, since Seraphina was my great-grandmother.” I moved over to see the names in the Crawford’s book. “Who else is on that list?”
Her eyes were wide in surprise as she read through the names. “Each of us have a great-grandparent on this list. There’s a Blackwood...or rather, a Sonsdadar,” she said with a giggle, and Marshal sneered at her. It was the first time I’d seen him be cross with her. “Then there is a Tanner, Walters, and Crain,” she continued, returning to her serious self again. “Oh, and of course, Crawford.” She moved her hand around a bit and Bellatrix sat with her to look at the names.
“I recognize those names. Ophelia, look. There’s Lavar, Sigmis, Necos and Knotley.” She looked at the small woman who was still handing out mugs of hot coffee, even though the temperature had crawled into the low nineties.
“Yes, but that leaves one out, doesn’t it?” Ophelia slightly glanced at the book. She would not be among the first list of those who traveled. Her family came from somewhere else.
“Ophelia.” I looked at the woman who seemed to know so much regarding my parents yet did not seem to want anything to do with Seraphina’s story. She dismissed our conversation and headed to the kitchen without answering me.
I excused myself and handed Chad my mug. Following Ophelia, she actually led me to the yard and not the kitchen after all. She wasn’t there, either. Then I remembered the little room in the back of my parents' store. It had been transformed from storage room to bedroom for their friend while she looked over the place in their absence.
I knocked when I made it to the door. She didn’t answer, but I turned the knob anyway and found her sitting on her bed, a small leather-bound book in her hand. She wouldn’t look up at me, so I tested my ability, even though I guessed she could feel my intrusion. She was full of sadness.
“Ophelia, what’s the matter?” I took only one step into the small space.
“I suppose I should have just told you. In the beginning.” She looked up then as tears fell from her chin to the book in her lap.
“Is everything okay?” Chester walked up behind me.
“Yes, Chester. Thank you,” Ophelia spoke to him in a gentle voice.
“Ophelia, you don’t have to,” Chester told the woman.
“Yes, I do,” she said.
I was beginning to feel like a third wheel. “Will somebody tell me something?” I didn’t raise my voice, but the power of my position flowed through with my words.
“I will tell you. Out there. With everyone else.” She got off her bed and slipped past me.
Chester stopped me as
I attempted to pass him and head to the rest of the group. “Don’t be upset with her.”
“If she’s withheld something that will help me get them back, I will be super pissed,” I said in almost a whisper.
I walked into the room as Ophelia started to tell everyone she had something that could help them. “I didn’t realize this had anything to do with the Crawford girl.” She handed me the small leather book. “This has the spell of the immortal. My family says a girl, a small girl, had stolen their book with the original spells in it. She killed mercilessly to gain powers, and then when the Covenant was sent to sentence her with a life of immortality, stripped of all magic…well, she deceived them. She let them cast the spell of immortality on her.” She stopped and sipped her own coffee, then looked at me.
“The spell, you see, should have stripped her of her powers and made her immortal. That was the punishment for a witch who went against the Council. Immortal life for a witch without their magic makes them go mad.” She stopped again. “It’s ultimately a lifelong death sentence. They became dead inside.”
“But she didn’t go mad, did she?” I asked.
“No, she never lost her magic. She was born with a rare power. Any witch born with such a power was killed. The Council said it was too powerful and couldn’t be controlled.” Ophelia shocked everyone in the room.
“When did they kill them? As kids? Or did they wait till they were adults?” Matt asked.
“What the hell does it matter? They killed their own kind because they weren’t controllable,” Clara snapped.
“Children, please. I know it’s hard to hear but let me explain.” Ophelia stopped the bickering in the room, but I could still feel the emotions from everyone. Their anger was starting to affect me, so I sat quiet.
“The power that the Immortal One was born with was rare. They only accounted for one out of every five hundred children born with it,” Ophelia started. “Those with the power earned the name "Watcher of Death." Not many people knew what it entailed, but they knew these special people could feel when someone dies.” She looked down at her hands, and they looked to me as if they were trembling. “What they didn’t know was that they could soothe pain and heal injuries.”
“How do you know?” I asked.
“Because my grandmother was born a death watcher. Her mother had encountered the Immortal One. She had told a very pregnant woman not to stay with her husband before fleeing with the immortal book,” she answered.
“Wow, why?” Crystal asked. The book she was searching in lay forgotten and at her feet. Peter sat on one side of her, the other book in his lap.
“Because the woman was married to a Council member. He wasn’t one of thirteen immortal men who passed judgement on witches. He was a magical relative to one though and hoped to be a part of the Covenant. The Covenant was a total of six. They had magic and used it to carry out the execution of the immortal spell,” Ophelia told her.
“Yeah, but that still doesn’t tell us how Seraphina knew the kid would be born a Death Watcher,” Matt added.
“Seraphina… the Immortal One.” Ophelia considered for a moment before adding, “The only powers that cannot be stripped from a witch are those of a Death Watcher.”
“She was one? A Death Watcher?” I asked. Everyone, even Alistair, looked shocked. “You didn’t know?” I asked him.
“No, I did not. Your grandmother guarded her family well. She would never let anyone speak against her mother.” Alistair rubbed the hair on his face.
I looked to Ophelia. A question burned in the back of my mind, but I couldn’t think to ask it. That’s when Alistair helped me.
“What are the powers of a Death Watcher? All of them. I have heard there are a wide range.” The old man sipped from the dark blue mug he held.
She turned to Alistair and answered him. “The powers are vast and ever-changing. Some are born with slight empathic abilities.” She looked at me. “Yours were brought on by the ritual, were they not?”
I thought about it for a moment, trying to recall the first time I had felt someone else’s emotions. “I don’t know. I think they may have been there before. However, faint.”
“Then they could have grown during the ritual,” Peter chimed in. “I’ve been doing some research on the subject.” His voice was low, as if he’d been ashamed to have been looking into such a thing.
“Well, that’s very possible,” Ophelia said to him and then turned to the entire group, which had wandered over to us. “Of course, the watcher can sense a death occurring, or about to occur. That is when someone is on the brink of death. They can heal, but not bring back the dead. Some were known to be able to stop aging when they hit puberty. In Seraphina’s case…well, let's just say the acceleration of her aging could have been a cause of the immortality spell.”
“What do you mean? Accelerated aging?” It was Michelle’s turn to have a question. I had almost forgotten she was with us. She came over to where I sat and curled in beside me. Chad smiled at her from my other side, and then looked back to the older woman who had captivated everyone’s attention.
“It’s written in here.” She caressed the front of the journal in her lap. “When she had first visited the village of the Council, she was a young child. She was rumored to be just thirteen years old. However, on her next visit, she had aged by a decade. It had only been a couple years later.”
“Wow.” Matt sighed. I hadn’t noticed, but with Peter so close to his sister, Matt had moved over to the opposite side of the room.
“So, Seraphina couldn’t have her powers stripped. So, she became immortal and had powers.” I squeezed my eyes shut and then opened them again. “How is this supposed to help me?”
“She wasn’t simply powerful. She killed for powers. She slaughtered men, women, and children alike to get a collection of powers she coveted. She made it her mission to take down the corruption of the Council. She killed the Covenant. When she had the powers she needed, then she set things right. When the preternaturals attacked her friends, she used moon magic from that book to heal them, which is the same spell the Council used to make their own preternaturals.” Chester had picked up Ophelia’s book and read from the pages. He read further, and as he studied the book silently, Crystal started to read from the black book again.
“Seraphina and Seth used the elemental magic of the mother goddess to cast a protective circle and evoke the power of the moon to heal Magnus, Eleanor, Sydney, and Christian,” Crystal read aloud.
Chester’s head popped up from the book. “Magnus Crain was my grandfather. He never mentioned any of this. He remembered it as a bad time in his life. He’d lost his parents in the war, and then a preternatural killed his sister.” He looked back to the book in his hand.
“Well, we still don’t know what we’re looking for. What magic of Seraphina’s are you supposed to use?” Clara dropped the Crawford book on the table. The cover closed, and we were left staring at the back of the book.
“Crystal, can I have that book?” I held my hand out and she closed it, handing it to me, front cover up. I moved to the table and flipped the book over so the back cover was visible, then I placed it on the table. “Put the books' backs together.” I enunciated the 's' on both words. “Not back.”
“They didn’t form one book. The covers form a picture!” Clara shouted.
Alistair’s eyes grew wide and he looked at my hand where my amethyst ring sat on my middle finger. The etching of a white rose in the middle of the stone was the same rose that had been pressed into the leather of both books. One showed the top of it, while the other held the bottom.
“The power is in the ring. That’s how she was able to have babies and die. She put her immortality in that ring,” Clara stated in mostly a whisper, but loud enough for everyone to hear her.
“That’s what Sabina is after. The ring of immortality, not the books. The books just had the clue,” Chester said as he stared at the small brown leather book. “It’s right he
re. After she conquered and killed the Council, the new Council agreed her power would remain with her, since the ability to transfer the powers was given to her by the mother goddess, herself. When Seraphina found her humanity again, she earned the right to pass on her power to the next High Priestess. Seraphina shared her powers with six others. Seth Sigmis was one of them. It was his curse. There were three Priests and three Priestesses. Seraphina earned the title of High Born. She created our new race with her magic.” He looked up to see we all were listening intently at what he was saying. Then he added, “She and Seth were in love. She didn’t just lose Seth, he betrayed her. He stole the book.” Chester looked up at us. His eyes were dark and brooding, but sad. “She was given a choice when she remade the Council. Choose happiness for all witches or happiness for herself. Magnus made an oath to protect her in that life and the next. He loved her very much, even though she had chosen Seth. But when he was free to be with her, he couldn’t get over the loss of his sister. She saved his life the same night she lost Kristina.
“Holy,” Clara whispered on a sigh.
Chapter Seventeen
My head was ready to explode. I was so glad when Ophelia had made dinner early and then said she was catching up on sleep. I snuck upstairs to the comfort of my parent’s room and curled up in their bed. The baby crib was still under the bed in pieces, but I tried not to think about it.
I remembered how sad Ophelia was at the thought that her family was somehow responsible for the events that happened to Seraphina. She was never given a name. All she knew was the immortal witch had warned her great-grandmother to leave with her child. The good thing was, she hadn’t left. She stayed, having the gift of foresight; the gift Ophelia had inherited. She stayed and helped Seraphina once more when she returned. She was granted a new life when Seraphina won her battle with the Council. I wondered what she lost.
Just when I thought I would drift to sleep, there was a small tapping on the door. Chad peeked in, letting light from the living area into the room. I pulled the blanket over my eyes to shield them until he was in the room and closed the door.
Power Surge (The Crawford Witch Chronicles Book 2) Page 14
