“I know, I know,” he said, putting his arm around me. He pulled my head into his chest and wrapped his big arms around me. “It’s all going to be ok.”
I burst into tears. I heard Joanna run past him, her shoes clicking on the wooden floor. The twins had fallen silent and almost immediately, a wave of guilt hit me. Luke shut the door behind us and just held me.
After a few minutes I pulled back and said, “I feel so bad. I should apologise to her, shouldn’t I?”
“Don’t do anything whilst your emotions are running wild. Emotional decisions are never good ones.”
I sighed and looked at the pouring rain. “Doesn’t look like we’ll be going riding after all.”
“How about we sit and watch some Midsummer Murders until your mum gets here?”
“Sure, ok.” As I looked at Dad’s bed, the sheets half off thanks to Joanna, I remembered our last conversation. “Wait.” I ran over to the bookcase. “Dad said there’s a safe behind here. There’s something in it that I need.”
“Cat, I put those bookcases there. There is no safe there.”
“He told me there was a safe behind here with all his family journals in. I need them, Luke. I need my magic, it’s the only way I’m going to beat those witches.”
I went to one end of the huge bookcase and motioned with my head for him to go to the other. “Please, Luke. Will you just help me move this?”
He came over and told me to move. As quick as I opened my mouth to protest, I shut it again. In the blink of an eye, he’d moved the entire thing with minimal effort, like he was moving nothing but a chair at most.
I scanned my eyes over the flowery wallpaper, looking for anything out of the ordinary. In the very bottom left corner, where one wall met with the other, I spotted something that didn’t look quite right.
“Can you move this a little further out please?” I said, squeezing myself between the bookcase and the wall.
Luke obliged, creating enough room for him to follow me down.
“There,” I said, pointing at the bottom corner. “The wallpaper is sticking out.”
He peered over my shoulder. “Looks flat to me.”
“Do you need your eyes testing?”
“I can see nearly two miles away in the dark, Caitlyn. No.”
I shrugged my shoulders. “Just because they work in the dark, doesn’t mean they do in daylight.”
He said nothing, making me smirk. I could just picture the frown on his face however I didn’t want to take my eyes off the wallpaper mound. I knelt down and brushed my hand over it, feeling something solid underneath.
“Bingo,” I said, ripping at the wallpaper. “He’s papered over the safe.”
“What are you doing?”
“Getting to the safe.”
“No, Cat, you’re ripping wallpaper. Are you ok? When did you last eat or drink?”
I ignored him and carried on, eventually ripping my way through the paper to a small black safe. I became totally confused then as it had no visible way of opening it. No keypad for numbers, no dial either, not even a handle. I pressed my palm against it, wondering if it was a door you had to push in to get it to pop open. Nothing.
“Cat, I’m starting to get a bit worried now. I think I need to get you out of here.”
“It’s here, Luke, how can you not see it?”
“Ok,” he said. “I’m calling time. Enough.” He put his hand on my shoulder and then froze. “Oh.”
“Do you see it now?”
“Yes, sorry, Cat.”
“You can grovel later. First I need to get into the damn thing.”
“Let me have a look,” he said, bending down next to me. He moved his hand from me to support himself. “It’s gone.”
I frowned. “No, it’s right there.”
He put his hand back on my shoulder. “Yes. Huh. Seems I can only see it if I’m touching you.”
“That makes me think it’s linked to the family somehow. Maybe through blood?”
“If there’s one thing I know about witches, it’s that their gut instinct is half their power.”
I didn’t have time to ponder over that thought too much but the mention of blood did make me think twice about how to open it. I carefully pressed all my fingertips against every inch of the front of it. As I neared the right-hand edge, a sharp prick on my index finger made me jump back. I looked at my finger to see a drop of rose red blood sat on my fingertip.
When the door swung open, I quickly forgot about my bleeding finger and looked inside the safe. I expected it to be small; the door couldn’t have been much bigger than a standard sized book, but as I peered in, it seemed to be nothing short of a tardis. Photos, newspaper clippings, a pair of shoes, a necklace, cufflinks, money, and at the back, a stack of brown leather journals.
“Hey,” I said, looking back at Luke. “You should check this out.”
He knelt down alongside me and looked inside. “Wow. That’s pretty cool.”
“Do you think you can reach the journals at the back?”
“I’m not sure but I’ll give it a go.” He stuck his hand inside, then brought it back out, cursing.
“What’s wrong?”
“That is searing hot in there. Like an incinerator.”
“Are you ok?” I said, turning his hand over. Angry red blisters covered his hand, the skin seared off most of them. “Let me get some ice.”
“It’s ok,” he said, wiggling his fingers. “I’m healing.”
I watched in amazement as his burned skin quickly disappeared under cover of new skin, leaving no trace of any injury whatsoever. “Now that’s cool.”
He grinned. “I’ll agree with you there.”
I eyed up the safe with suspicion, wondering if there was some sort of booby trap.
“Don’t,” he said. “You won’t heal like me.”
I shook my head. “I think it’s blood specific. Only one way to find out.” I thrust my hand inside and squeezed my eyes shut. After a couple of seconds, I let out the breath I didn’t realise I’d been holding. “I’m ok.”
“You are seriously going to give me a heart attack one day.”
I grinned and silently wished I had a longer arm so I could reach the damn journals. Literally, as I thought that, my open hand filled with the smooth leather of the journal covers.
“I’ve got them,” I said, pulling them out as fast as I could.
All five of them fell onto the floor, together with a cloud of dust. The brown leather had faded and cracked in places, making them look like they belonged in some sort of museum. I picked up the one on top and undid the leather string keeping the covers closed.
The pages crinkled and rustled as I flicked through them, sending a shiver down my spine. I stopped close to the front and decided to read something. The page I chose showed how to release someone’s memories. It depicted an ingredients list for a potion, but also a spell that could be cast over a sleeping person.
I looked up at Luke and grinned. “This is where the fun starts.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
We didn’t watch any Midsummer Murders. We sat at Dad’s desk and scoured through the journals. I knew exactly what I was looking for—the spell to unbind my magic. After scrutinising two of them, I still hadn’t found what I wanted.
“Hey, look at this,” I said, nudging Luke and pointing to the current open page.
He took one look at it and widened his eyes in fright. “I actually thought you were joking.”
“I kind of was,” I said, giggling. “I made that up about Joanna, but it looks like someone has actually turned male genitals green.”
“Someone in your bloodline,” he said, moving his chair away from me.
I laughed. “Calm down. You’ve not upset me that much. Yet.”
He gave me a nervous look from the corner of his eye and continued looking through the journal in front of him. “As fascinating as it is looking through old witch diaries, it would be helpful if you told me
what you were looking for.”
I sighed. “You have to promise not to get mad.”
He narrowed his eyes. “That means it’s stupid and you know it.”
I cleared my throat and pushed my journal towards him, still open on the page for green genitals.
“Alright, fine. I won’t get mad.”
I shook my head. “Say ‘I promise’.”
He sighed and rolled his eyes. “I promise I won’t get mad,” he said, his tone nothing but sarcastic.
“I’m looking for a spell to unbind my magic.”
He opened his mouth then immediately closed it. His whiskey brown eyes filled with nothing but worry.
“I have to, Luke. I need to release my mum’s memories. And considering what I’m up against, I can’t afford to have a disadvantage.”
Letting out a long breath, he said, “Maybe you should release your mum’s memories first. Then you’ll have a better idea of what it is you’re up against.”
“I can’t do that without magic.”
“I’ll shut up then,” he said, chuckling.
“The witches, one in particular, wants my power. If I don’t comply with her, she’ll kill me and take it anyway.”
He snorted. “Like hell she’ll even get close enough to kill you.”
“I appreciate the gesture, Luke, but she’s powerful. Dad called her a demon.”
Curiosity flooded his handsome face. “What’s her name?”
“Keres.”
He scrubbed his hands over his face. “That’s the one name I didn’t want you to say. Remember I said I knew who the crazy old lady was? That’s her.”
I shook my head. “It’s not. They look nothing alike.”
“You don’t think she could change her outward appearance?”
My heart skipped a beat. “Then I have even more reason to unbind my magic. Didn’t you say something about Gordon being hired by her?”
He nodded. “I would bet my last penny that she’s hired Gordon to follow you. If you don’t bend to her will, she’ll use him to get what she needs.”
“But he can’t hurt me, he’s related to Marcus.”
Luke smiled. “What he forgot to detail was that Gordon can hurt you, he just can’t kill you.”
My throat ran dry and my heart started pounding. “Wait, what?”
“He can take your blood without killing you.”
I started shaking. I hadn’t expected this. Knowing Gordon was out there, lurking in the shadows, watching my every move, it filled me with fear. A ball of nausea knotted together in my stomach.
“Hey,” Luke said, reaching across the desk and taking my hand. “It’s ok. He’ll have to get through me first and that is not going to happen.”
I smiled, trying to ignore the cloak of comfort soothing my soul. “I’d hate if you got hurt because of me, Luke. This isn’t your battle.”
His entire face changed, softening and filling with warmth and reassurance. The look in his eyes took my breath away. I’d heard that eyes were the window to the soul and right in that moment, I could see straight into Luke’s. The love and adoration pouring from them rooted me to the spot. No one had ever looked at me like that.
“You know how I feel about you, Caitlyn. You may not want this to be my battle, but it already is.”
I tried to think of something to say but all of a sudden my chest felt tight and no matter how much air I tried to breathe in, it became tighter and tighter, like someone had put a vice around me. My mind raced at a million miles an hour, trying to make sense of all this but I didn’t know what pieces went where. It was just too much.
“Hey,” Luke said, putting one of his hands on my back. “Calm down. Just take one deep breath in, hold it for a second, and then let it out.”
I did as he said, breathing in and breathing out when he prompted. After a few minutes, the tightness in my chest loosened. I felt absolutely exhausted and totally drained.
“What was that?” I breathed.
“A panic attack.”
I put my face in my hands and shook my head. “Great,” I said, moving my hands. “That’s all I need right now. Having a pathetic panic attack right when I need to be doing the exact opposite.”
“They’re not pathetic, Cat. It’s your body’s way of telling you it’s stressed. You’ve got so much on your shoulders right now it’s a wonder it’s not happened before.”
I stabbed a finger at the open page of the journal. “Which is exactly why I need to unbind my magic. It’ll give me strength when I think I don’t have any.”
Luke pressed his lips together and sighed. “Ok. I’m not going to fight you on it. I’ll help you find it.”
I reached over and grabbed his hand. “Thank you. I really don’t know where I’d be right now if you weren’t here.”
“No need to thank me,” he said. “It’s my pleasure.”
I gave him a warm smile and turned my attention back to the journals.
***
Just over an hour later, Luke found exactly what I needed in the very last journal.
“I think this is it,” he said, pushing the old diary over the desk towards me.
On the left-hand page was a spell detailing how to bind someone’s magic. On the right-hand page, the spell to unbind. The writing was old and faded in parts but written in a captivating italic scrawl I couldn’t stop staring at. I traced my fingers over the ink and as I did, flashes of a man with a quill, scribbling away under candlelight flooded my mind.
“Wow,” I said. “I think I just saw who wrote this.”
Luke’s eyes brightened with wonder. “Really?”
I chewed my lip as I thought of something. “Hey, let me try something. Give me your hand.”
He put his hand out on the desk, palm down, and I placed my right hand on top of it. With my left hand, I touched the ink once again, more images of the man unfolding in my mind. This time he scurried through narrow passageways of a castle, carrying one candle that barely had anything left to it. The journal was tucked underneath his arm and he kept looking behind him, his blue eyes full of fear.
“Do you see it?” I asked him.
Even before he answered, I knew his reply. His eyes, widened in shock, were also slightly glazed over, as if he were daydreaming and not really paying attention.
“Yes,” he breathed. “That’s fascinating.”
I nodded. “I wonder if I’ll get more once I unbind myself?”
“I don’t think there’s any question of that,” he said.
I broke our connection and looked at the two spells. I had expected the unbinding spell to be a reversal of the binding spell and it seemed my assumption had been correct.
The binding spell required a long list of ingredients including seven red ribbons tied into a bow, seven spiders plucked from their webs, seven live snakes, and worryingly, a cup of my blood.
I turned my left palm over and looked at the long white scar running diagonally from my index finger to the bottom of my hand. My understanding of that injury was that I’d tripped and fallen on a glass pane as a toddler. Now, I knew exactly where I’d acquired it from.
“Look at this,” Luke said, pointing to the list of ingredients for the unbinding spell.
All of the original potion used to bind the witch
I frowned. “What?”
Scouring down the steps of the binding spell, I found the answer in the very last step.
Place the potion into a glass vial. Seal with a cork kissed by a fire siren. Secure in a dark place never visited.
I sighed. “Where the hell is that?”
“Do you think it’s in the safe?”
“I doubt it, but I can look.”
I headed over to the safe. Of course, the door had shut itself which meant I needed to give up some more of my precious blood to reopen it. After being pricked in exactly the same place as before, I silently cursed the stupid thing as I peered inside.
What made this even harder was the fact th
at all I knew was to look for something in glass. I presumed it would be liquid considering it had to be brewed in salt water but with all the other weird ingredients, it could well have been something as peculiar as sand.
“I don’t think there’s anything in here,” I said, shutting the safe door and sighing.
“Witch spells are very specific in their wording,” Luke said. “It says ‘a dark place never visited’. That insinuates to me that you could go there, but no one does.”
I walked back to the desk and plonked myself down in the chair. “That could be a million and one places, Luke. Along with the dead snakes and spiders and all those herbs and things, it’s too complicated anyway.”
“Maybe your mum will know?”
I smiled. “You mean in the memories she doesn’t remember?”
Luke chuckled. “Yep, that’ll be the one. The memories she can’t remember until you unbind your magic.”
I sighed and leaned my head back on the chair, looking up at the ceiling. “I need a break.”
“That’s good,” he said. “Because your mum has just arrived.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
“Kitty Cat,” Mum said, throwing herself at me and encasing me in the worlds most painful hug. “I’m so sorry.”
Mum had always been slim but in the four months I’d not seen her, she’d lost weight. Her idea of a hug involved squeezing the life out of someone which wasn’t normally a problem, but I could feel her bones, even through her clothes.
“Are you ok?” I asked, peeling her off me. “You’ve lost a lot of weight.”
She batted her hand through the air and tutted. “I’m fine. I’ve been doing yoga twice a day.”
My mind had hurtled to the worst conclusion already—cancer. Was she possibly hiding something from me? “Mum, if you’re sick, you need to tell me.”
She grabbed me by the arms, her fingers digging into my flesh, and looked me square in the eye. “I’m as healthy as a horse.”
I said no more. Luke stood patiently behind me, so I said, “Mum, I’d like you to meet—”
“Marcus,” she said, rushing forwards and grabbing Luke’s hand. “I’ve heard so much about you, mostly from Hannah on the drive up here because Kitty Cat doesn’t like talking about boys to me.” She grinned and then her entire face flushed red. “But of course, you’re no boy, I can tell you’re all man.”
Love, Lies and Blood Ties: A young adult paranormal romance (Love, Lies and Ties Book 2) Page 18
