04 Shadow Blood - Witch Fairy (21 page)

“You have not told her everything,” Tabitha says.  She’s now leaning over Dagda’s shoulder reading the scroll.  She looks up at me now.  Here comes the catch.  “This is a black magic spell.  Because practitioners of black magic do not like all of their secrets to be shared, written records of their spells are not always accurate.”

“You mean, I could do this spell and nothing may happen?”

“Or, you could do this spell and send everyone to hell.”

Seriously?  “You guys really want me to do a spell that could possibly kill everyone in this realm?”

Dagda doesn’t look sure any more, but he looks at me and says, “I have confidence in you.”

That’s great, but how will I know if something is going wrong?  I guess if bodies start dropping around me because they don’t have a soul to steer them, I can safely assume the spell took a turn for the worse.  “Okay, I guess.”

The kitchen door opens again, and Isla comes in.  “Is that the spell?” she asks, not bothering with pleasantries.

Dagda pushes it down the counter so she can read it.  After a moment, Kallen says to her, “We will need to change a couple of details, but it seems to be the best way.”

“Agreed.”  Turning to me, she says, “It will take some time to gather the necessary items and create a safe place for the magic to be performed.  Perhaps you and Kallen can take a walk on the beach to mentally prepare yourself.  This spell is going to require a great deal of strength and magic.”

Great.  Good thing I’ve gotten so much sleep lately.  I’ll be at my mental best.  “Okay.”  Not really much to say other than that.

“How long do you believe it will take?” Kallen asks.

“Perhaps an hour.”

“I should let me parents know,” I say.

Isla shakes her head.  “I will discuss this with them before we proceed.”  I don’t know if I’m liking that idea or not.  Why can’t I tell them?

Kallen takes my hand in his, and says, “We will return in an hour.”  Then he leads me through the house and out to the beach before I have a chance to argue.

Chapter 24

We walk along the shore in silence for several minutes before I turn to Kallen and say, “Why are none of you telling me what I have to do?”  Oh, look.  There’s his poker face again.  I hate his poker face.

“I believe Isla will explain it the best when we return.”

Right, because I’m going to let it go at that.  I’m sure he knows me better than that.  “Kallen, tell me or I’m going back to the house right now to make Dagda tell me.”  He would because he wants to stay in my good graces.

Kallen runs his hand through his hair like he always does when he’s stalling.  “Using that much magic in such a short period of time is dangerous for the practitioner.”

He’s being awfully calm about this.  “Are you telling me I could die?” 

He chuckles and pulls me into his arms.  “Do you really believe that I would willing let you perform magic that could kill you?”

I can’t help but smile. “No, I guess not.”

His eyebrows climb up his forehead.  “You guess not?  I appreciate your overwhelming faith in my love.”

I manage a small laugh.  “Fine.  No, I do not believe you would do that.”

He nods.  “Much better.”

“Then what did you mean by dangerous?”

“You may lose your magic.”

“Excuse me?”  I just got it; I’m not ready to let it go yet.  Even if it is uncooperative most of the time.

“I am unsure if you will be affected as any other Fairy would be, but a Fairy who performs magic that black would be purified of magic.  It may be temporary, or it may be forever.”

Purified of magic?  What kind of euphemism is that?  “And Isla was going to tell me this right before I did the spell?”  What a great surprise that would have been.  ‘Here, Xandra, read this and do that, and by the way, I’ll be rooting for you to still have magic when you’re done.’

Kallen pushes a strand of hair from my cheek and caresses my skin with his thumb.  “Are you willing to risk your magic to save your aunt’s life?”

Well, when he puts it that way, I guess I don’t have a choice.  That sucks.  I take a deep, deep breath before I answer him.  No.  “Yes.”  Good thing my tongue often has a mind of its own so the right answer came out of my mouth.

A wide smile makes him look even more gorgeous than normal.  “I knew you would.”  He leans down and kisses me.  I don’t care about anything else at the moment, I love his kisses.

When we finally come up for air, he says, “I want to show you something.  Something Kegan and I made when we were young.”

I smile because I know he’s trying to keep my mind occupied with nice things, instead of what’s to come.  “Okay.”

Taking my hand again, he leads us away from the shore to the thick patch of trees we were walking past.  “Kegan and I knew every inch of this forest when we were young.  Isla and Kegan’s parents rarely saw us when we were not attending our lessons.”

I can imagine them as boys playing in the woods.  I wish I had had someone my age to play with.  I spent most of my childhood playing by myself.  I’m about to say that when Kallen pulls me to a stop.  “Wha…”

He puts his finger to his lips to keep me from finishing my thought.  When I stop to listen, I can hear why.  Apparently, we aren’t the only ones in the woods.  Not too far from us is what can only be called a fort.  I’m surprised by its size; my tree house at home could fit into it three times.  And voices are coming from the open windows.

“Alita, you know how much I care for you,” we hear Kegan say.  Frustration is oozing through his words.

“We can never be, Kegan.  It is pointless to discuss this further.”  It’s Alita who’s keeping them from becoming involved?  “I was hoping your interest in Xandra meant that you have finally moved on.”

“Damn it, Alita, you know my ‘interest,’ as you say, in Xandra is no more than foolish rivalry with my cousin.”  That’s good to hear.  “It is you that I love.”

“Kegan, please stop.” 

It sounds like she’s crying now.  I want to go to her, but Kallen holds me back.  “Let them be,” he whispers.  “This is their problem to solve.”

“Please stop what?  Please stop the feelings that I’ve had since I was a child?  Please stop telling you I love you and want to be hand-fasted with you?  Please stop begging you to run away with me?”

“All of the above,” Alita says so quietly we can barely hear it.  We shouldn’t be listening to their private conversation, but I have to admit, I want to know how it turns out.  Does that make me a terrible friend?  “Kegan, if we ran off together, you would never be able to return to your family.  You would always be an outcast.  I can’t do that to you.”

“Then we will leave this realm, return to the Cowan realm with Xandra and Kallen.  There, no one would care about our blood lines.”

“As appealing as that sounds, you would eventually grow to resent me for taking you away from everything you know.  I will not hand-fasted with you unless your father gives his blessing, and you know that will never come to pass.  You have to stop this foolishness and find someone else to love.”

I’m assuming the loud smacking sound is Kegan hitting the walls of the fort, not Alita.  Half a second later, Kegan storms out of the fort only to stop short when he sees us.  I know I look like a deer caught in headlights.  Kallen, too.  But Kegan doesn’t say anything, he simply walks past with a murderous, and very hurt, expression on his face.

“I should talk to Alita,” I say quietly to Kallen.

He nods.  “I will talk to Kegan.  I was not aware that his feelings were still that of our childhood.  He has done an excellent job of hiding them.”  He gives me a small kiss and walks back towards the shore after Kegan.

I walk over to the fort and poke my head through the door that Kegan had just exited through.  “Alita,” I say softly, “are you alright?”

Stupid question, I know.  She’s just told the guy she loves that she won’t ever be with him, and now she’s crying her eyes out.  Of course she’s not alright.  I cringe inwardly when I think of all the times that I’ve teased her about her crush on Kegan.

Instead of answering me, she hugs me and cries harder.  It’s several minutes before she can talk through her tears.  “I want him so badly,” she cries.  “If it were only possible.”

“There has to be a way,” I say, as I continue to hug her.  “I’ll help you both find it.”

Alita pulls away and steps back, wiping at her eyes.   They’re red and puffy, and she has tears covering her cheeks.  “I have accepted that we will never be together.”

Right.  “Liar,” I say gently.

After a moment, she nods, and admits, “I am a liar.  I will never accept it.  Even when he is hand-fasted to another, I will always love him.”

“Let’s go back to Isla’s and we can talk some more, okay?”

“Okay.” 

She follows me out of the fort and back to the shore.  Kallen and Kegan are about a hundred feet down the beach having what looks like a heated conversation.  When Kegan spots us, he turns and stalks off, leaving Kallen standing alone.

Kallen waits for us to catch up with him, and then takes my hand again.  I can see both frustration and sadness for his cousin lurking in his eyes.  I’m sure mine mirror his.  This is a ridiculous situation. 

We walk back to the house in silence.  So much for mental relaxation.

Chapter 25

The house has gone through a transformation in the short time we’ve been away.  The large living room has been cleared of furniture, except for a wooden chair inside of a large circle of what looks like salt.  White and black candles are placed in the salt alternately, and they are evenly spaced around the circle.  Next to the chair, there is a bowl of something green that smells minty.  Much better than the cat medicine.  I wonder if it’s the truth serum.

Mom and Dad float into the room right after we arrive.  “Xandra,” Mom says as she comes nearer.  “Honey, are you sure that you want to do this?  Giving up your magic to save your aunt is a huge sacrifice.  No one would blame you if you did not want to go through with this.”

First of all, I think Dad might blame me.  He doesn’t look happy about what Mom just said.  And secondly, I wonder if she’d be saying this if Aunt Barb hadn’t said what she said yesterday.  Yet another question I don’t really want answered.  I prefer to believe that she would have.

Tabitha bustles into the room, her arms laden with odd things.  Kallen goes to help her but she pulls back.  “I have iron in here; I do not want you to get hurt.”  Kallen nods and steps back as we watch her set down various things.  She has a fire poker which looks to be made of iron, a silver tray, and a piece of red cloth.

The cloth she spreads out in front of the chair.  Next, she places the iron poker on the cloth parallel to the chair.  Then, she lays the silver tray behind the poker.  Isla followed her into the room and she has a silver goblet and some matches.  She places these on the silver tray.

“Are you ready for her?” Dagda asks, coming from the direction of the staircase.

“Yes,” Isla says, stepping back out of the circle.  She’s careful not to disturb the salt.  Tabitha also steps out.

To me, Isla says, “We will first attempt to extract the information that we need.  Then you will work the spell.  I have translated it from Latin.”  That’s good.  I prefer to do magic when I know exactly what I’m doing.

Dagda comes farther into the room, and trailing behind him eerily, is Aunt Barb.  She’s floating like Mom and Dad do, and her head is lolling to the side because she’s still sedated.  I don’t even want to think about how much she looks like a corpse.  I avert my eyes until Dagda has her in the chair.

Lifting the bowl of green stuff from the floor, Dagda holds it to her lips and pours some in her mouth.  Some of it sloshes back out, but I’m reasonably sure that a significant amount went down her throat.  At least, the stuttering cough that comes from her makes me think that.  Her eyes open and she tries spitting some of it out, but Dagda holds her jaws together until he’s sure she’s swallowed what was left in her mouth.  I hate seeing Aunt Barb treated this way, but it really is for the greater good.

“Get away from me, Fairy, before I kill you,” she growls when Dagda releases her jaw.  She’d be more threatening if she wasn’t bound at the hands and wrists, and then tied to the chair.

Dagda’s mouth turns up in what could be called a smile, somewhere, but not here.  He looks more frightening than happy.  “I am not interested in your empty threats, but I am interested in what you know.  I want to know which realm all of you hale from.”

“The Cowan realm, as I am a Cowan.”

Dagda walks around her chair, forcing her to turn her head to follow his movement.  I’m half expecting the scene form the The Exorcist where the girl turns her head completely around.  “The body you have taken hostage is from the Cowan realm.  I want to know where the rest of you hale from.”

“You may ask the question as many times as you like, the answer will remain the same.”

Dagda steps back in front of her.  “Are you telling me that each piece of soul within you originated in the Cowan realm?”

“There is only one soul in this body.”

Dagda looks confused for a second before he pulls his regal face back to impassive.  “Your ability to lie will last only a moment or so longer.  Then, you will tell me what I want to know.”

“You may ask whatever you like, I will answer you truthfully, regardless of what poison you have put in my system.”

“Then why do you lie about the number of souls in this body?”  He waves his hand from Aunt Barb’s head to her feet.

“I have not told a lie.  There is but one soul in this body,” she spits out angrily.

What’s going on?  Did Tabitha not make the truth serum correctly?  I think she’s thinking the same thing because she looks as confused as I feel.  Moving into the circle again, she says to Dagda, “Let me lay my hands on her.”  Dagda nods and steps back.

Tabitha moves behind Aunt Barb and puts her hands on both sides of her head.  Aunt Barb tries to move away, but either Tabitha or Dagda must be holding her still with their magic.  Tabitha closes her eyes and we all hold our breath in silence as she concentrates on Aunt Barb’s soul.  After a moment, her eyes fly open and she steps back.

It takes her a minute to find her voice through her shallow breaths.  “She speaks the truth.  There is only one soul in this body.”

No. Way.  That isn’t possible.  Because, if that’s the truth, that means that Aunt Barb has said and done the things she did on her own.  Without evil soul barnacles making her say or do them.

“Perhaps you need to dig deeper,” Isla says.  “Will you try again?”

Tabitha nods and steps towards Aunt Barb again.  Laying her hands on her head, she closes her eyes.  It takes longer for her eyes to open this time, but her expression is the same.  Complete and utter shock.  “I searched every part of her soul.  She did not lie.”

I watch as Dad’s translucent face crumbles in anguish.  “Barb, how could you have done the things you did?  You tried to kill Zac and you poisoned an innocent girl.”

An evil grin crawls onto her lips.  “If your little brat is gone, I can get back to my real life.”

Mom zooms forward and gets into Aunt Barb’s face.  “You evil bitch,” she says, “You will pay for hurting my son.”

“Julienne,” Dad says quietly, “there must be some mistake.”

Mom looks back to Dad, and she seems torn.  Her husband is in obvious pain and she has to decide if that takes precedence over her anger.  Apparently, it does, because she floats back to him and wraps her arms around him.

“Xandra.”  It’s Zac.  I don’t even know when he came in.  He really shouldn’t be here for this.  “What’s going on?  Why is Aunt Barb all tied up?”

I walk quickly over to him and kneel down.  Taking his hands in mine, I say, “Zac, something happened to Aunt Barb when you two were in the Shadow realm.  She isn’t herself right now, so we need to help her get better.  But you need to go back upstairs so we can do that, okay?”

He looks over my shoulder at Aunt Barb.  “Is that going to happen to me, too?”

I smile and shake my head.  “No, you’re fine.  You have nothing to worry about.”

“Can’t I stay and help her, too?”

I shake my head again.  “No, this is something only big people can do.”

“Will you come up with me?  This house is kind of scary when I’m alone.  It makes funny noises.”

I laugh.  “Yes, it does make funny noises sometimes.  It’s an old house.  Tell you what, I’ll bring you upstairs, but I have to come back down because I have to use my magic to help Aunt Barb, okay?”

He nods.  “Okay.”

I stand up and take his hand, leading him back to the stairs.