After the Summerland (The Witches of Spring Hill Book 1) (12 page)

Xavier looks over
Selene’s head to his brother and sister and mouths “I’ve got this,” but neither
Brianna nor Cian can make it out. Selene notices them looking past her and she quickly
spins around to see what they are looking at.

Xavier quickly looks away and
starts climbing the hill again, putting more distance between himself and his
Aunt Selene. He hopes Brianna and Cian can see the difference and will know
that he’s got their back, or at least, that he’s trying.

He is getting tired of
dealing with his aunt and all her bullshit, but he just doesn’t know what will
happen to the three of them if she is out of the picture. They have no
alternative. They have no other family to take care of them and at 17 years old
they would be sent to foster care. Their trust funds aren’t available to them
until they turn 18, and then they will be free from her grasp. Two more years,
he thinks, only two more years to deal with her until we are free.

Since he has been in
town, and even more clearly since he has been climbing this hill, he feels the
strong desire to get away from his aunt. She has always told him that his magic
and gifts are dark and that he has the ability to manipulate people’s minds,
but for the first time he is wondering if she has just been telling him this to
get what she wants from him. He wonders if
she
has been manipulating
him
. He feels a
kernel of hope inside as he realizes that he doesn’t want to and doesn’t have
to practice black magic. He has a choice. This is his life, his gift, and he
must do what he knows is right — not follow the path that his aunt has chosen
for him.

Thinking clearly for
the first time in a long while, Xavier decides to change their direction a bit
so that they won’t climb any higher up this hill. Since he is leading the way,
and everything looks the same, it won’t be hard to appear to be climbing, but
really only stay in the same area. Honestly, if it weren’t for the occasional
rock outcroppings, it would be impossible to get anywhere on this hill.

Suspicious of Xavier, whom
she always thought was the one she could count on, Selene thinks if even he is
challenging her now, I am going to have to rethink my strategy. Threats and
fear don’t seem to be working as well here as they did in California. These
kids seemed much more pliable back home, she thinks, but then again they were
mourning their mother and then their father. Such a tragedy they died within
five years of each other.

She can’t help but
smile as she thinks how easy it has been to eliminate the obstacles that have
stood between her and her goals. Only three, well four, more obstacles to
overcome and then she will have the life she has always wanted. Before moving
here she was certain she could continue to manipulate the kids into doing
whatever she wanted, but suddenly something has changed in them and in herself.
Since they moved here she is constantly wavering between self-doubt and
suspicion.

Bringing herself back
to the present, she looks around and sees only trees with the occasional
outcropping of rocks. Although they have climbed higher, it feels as if the
woods are closing in around them, becoming denser the higher they go. From
Google Earth it looked like the trees would thin out a bit closer to the top, making
it easier to climb.

All of a sudden, she looks around and it seems much darker
than she thought it would be. She realizes maybe she did rush into this
hike. Not one to admit her mistake out loud, she decides to wait until one of
the kids starts to complain again. It will probably be Brianna, she thinks to
herself. She smiles as she looks forward to Brianna complaining.
Then I’ll use that as my excuse to turn around.

Brianna stares at the
back of her aunt’s head. Without noticing, Brianna has somehow started hearing
her aunt’s thoughts. It must be this land, she thinks to herself. Her aunt says
it’s special and very important to them, but until this moment, Brianna didn’t
really believe her. She can’t help but wonder how her aunt knows about this
place.

Brianna has always been
very intuitive about other people, and even has some psychic abilities, but
this is the first time she has heard someone else’s thoughts so clearly. It
seems as if her aunt has no idea that she has developed this ability, which is
surprising, since Selene seems to be aware of everything. So, the bitch assumes
I’ll be the first to cave, she thinks, smiling to herself. Well, we’ll see who
caves first. She trudges along next to Cian who seems to be enjoying himself as
he thinks about Chloe Alexander. I wonder if I’ll be able to hear everyone’s
thoughts all the time now or if it will only happen on this land, Brianna considers,
feeling empowered by her new ability.

Cian has given up on
complaining and now, rather than thinking about why they are climbing this hill,
he decides he will just enjoy being out in the fresh air. He hears the birds
singing, the cicadas chirping, and the leaves rustling overhead. He looks over
at his sister who is smiling and thinks maybe she is thinking the same thing.
Cian lets his mind wander to Chloe and his date with her on Saturday. As he
thinks of Chloe, he clearly pictures her in his mind. She is sitting outside
somewhere nearby… and is about to cast her first spell. He sees Kaiden and
Rowan with her and pictures them with their eyes closed, breathing deeply.

Although he has never
been able to see something so clearly, he knows that whatever he is seeing is
not happening right now, but rather will happen in the near future. He has
always had the ability to see a few moments into the future, but since they’ve
come to town his visions have stretched further, and this seems to be amplified
on this land. But instead of focusing on that now, he has to get Selene out of
here. If her abilities are getting stronger she will be able to zero in
directly on their location once they start practicing magic.

He jogs to catch up to
his aunt, “Aunt Selene, I think we should stop and head back to the car while we
still have some light,” he says. “It seems like it’s getting darker and we
haven’t seen anything yet. It’s all starting to look the same and if it looks
that way now, it’s only going to be worse when it gets dark — even with
flashlights. We can come back this weekend when we have more light…”
he suggests, hoping that she’ll see his point.

“Fine, Cian. We’ll turn
around because you are afraid of the dark,” she snaps. “Now go catch up to your
brother and let him know that we are heading back down. He looks lost anyway,”
she snarls as she abruptly turns on her heel and starts heading back down the
hill, giving Cian a
much needed
moment to talk with
his brother. Just as he is about to run to catch up with Xavier, he overhears
his aunt tell Brianna “And here I thought you would be the first to break. I
guess the more time Cian spends with you, the more he starts acting like you.”

Shaking his head and
feeling bad he has to leave Brianna with Selene, he runs ahead to Xavier. “Hey
Xav
, we’re turning around,” he says when he finally catches
up to him.

“Who couldn’t handle
it?” Xavier asks looking around for Selene.

“Me,” Cian answers, adding
in a whisper, “I don’t know about you, but I’m definitely feeling something on
this hill. My visions are getting stronger.”

“I am feeling it, too,”
Xavier replies. “Have you noticed that I’ve been leading us in a circle for the
past 10 minutes? Something is definitely going on, bro. I have so much clarity
and I know it has something to do with being on this land.”

“Me too,” Cian agrees.
“But we can’t talk about it now. I think something is going on with Brianna
too, but so far Selene hasn’t shown any sign of anything otherwise she wouldn’t
let us turn around so easily.”

“She’s showing
something, Cian. Don’t you see she is being a bigger bitch than usual?” Xavier asks.
“Whatever is happening to us is having a nasty effect on her and we need to get
her off this hill and keep her off or who knows what she’ll do to all of us.”

They don’t say anything
else to each other as they make their way down the hill. When they finally
reach where the car is supposed to be, they find Brianna sitting on a rock,
alone, and Selene and the car gone.

“Well, I guess we have
a chance to talk now,” Xavier starts then stops when the Mercedes comes out of
nowhere and pulls up next to them.

“Or not,” Brianna
responds as she opens the car door and climbs in.

The rest of the school week
goes by business as usual with little to no interactions between the Silvans
and Alexanders
;
other than Chloe and Cian, who
continue to get to know each other. After going back and forth all week, Rowan
held her ground and insisted that they wait until Friday to invite Xavier and
Brianna to meet at the library.

“It will give them less
time to plot something against us if they don’t know until the last minute,”
she kept saying, until Chloe and Kaiden finally gave in and agreed.

Finally on Friday,
things change when Rowan, running late, sees Xavier walking ahead of her in the
empty hall. “What are you doing out here, Jet,” Rowan asks as she sidles up
next to him.

“Ah, the mighty Rowan has come down from her high perch to speak
to me,” Xavier responds, knowing it will piss her off.

She doesn’t disappoint
when her cheeks flush red and her eyes narrow at him, but before she can
respond, he says, “You need to lighten up, Red. I’m just playing.”

“
Don’t
call me Red,
and here,” she says pulling out the note she was going to pass him in class asking
him to meet her in the café at the library on Saturday afternoon.

Intrigued, he opens it
immediately. After he reads it, he smirks at her and says, “Really?
What are you up to, Re — Rowan?”

“Nothing at all,
Jet
. I just thought it would be nice to
get to know you, outside of school,” Rowan responds walking away. She can feel
him watching her so she puts a little extra twitch in her hips. She looks over
her shoulder at him and sees she accomplished what she set out to do. “You’ll
be there, right?” she asks flirtatiously.

Xavier smiles and only
slightly embarrassed to have gotten caught watching her walk away, replies,
“You know I will.”

Rowan nods and
continues on to class, feeling empowered by how easy it is to make a boy pay
attention to her. I don’t need to be a witch to get someone to do what I want,
she thinks grinning to herself.

In American Lit, Kaiden
sits next to Brianna and asks her if she would be interested in seeing him
outside of school sometime. When she agrees, he invites her to meet him at the
library on Saturday afternoon, around 1:00, in the study rooms. Brianna wonders
if her aunt will let her go, but then remembers Cian telling her that he is meeting
Chloe this weekend at the library. She realizes it will be a lot easier to get
out of the house if they both go. She agrees excitedly and looks forward to
telling Cian that she’ll be joining him at the library.

In Spanish class, Chloe
and Cian talk about their plans to meet at the library the next day. Chloe
feels a little bad about not telling him that her brother and sister are also asking
his sister and brother to meet at the library, but she knows her loyalty is to
them and not to Cian. She figures he’ll find out later and hopefully, he won’t
be too upset that she didn’t tell him ahead of time. She knows they will all
talk about it later just as the Alexanders have been doing all week.

At home, when they aren’t doing
homework or studying schoolwork, they’ve been studying the grimoires and
learning about their craft. When they aren’t doing any of that, they
talk about the Silvans. They all agree that the Silvans are even more intriguing
now that they have been observing them. The Silvans seem much less threatening
than they did on that first day, though they aren’t sure if it is the
protection spell or if something else has caused a change. Either way, the only
person who is putting off bad vibes is their aunt, who has been trying desperately
to get their dad’s attention all week.

Liam finally asked them
to just come to the police station after school so he wouldn’t have to have a
conversation with Selene Silvan while they waited for the kids to get out of
school. If they go out the back doors, he can watch them from the moment they
leave school until they are at the station. Usually Liam would not
intentionally avoid someone in town, but this woman makes him more
uncomfortable every time he sees her and it’s putting him on edge. Although he
believes in “keeping your friends close and your enemies closer,” he doesn’t yet
consider her an enemy as much as a nuisance. A nuisance that, for some strange reason,
makes him feel defensive and cautious every time he talks to her.

Other than Kaiden’s
basketball practice, the Alexanders have spent every evening together, which to
Liam is a damn miracle. Rowan has not been texting her friends, Chloe has been
teaching both Rowan and Kaiden about various herbs, and Kaiden has stopped
playing video games altogether. Learning about their history has clearly brought
them closer together and although Liam can tell they are keeping secrets from
him, he knows that his part as protector is not to interfere, but rather to
allow them the space they need to learn. As their guardian, watching them learn
to spread their wings is exhilarating but also difficult, especially because they
don’t seem to need him anymore. This is killing him, but he knows it’s all necessary
so that they can grow.

On Friday night when
they are all gathered around the kitchen table, Liam finally broaches the
subject, “So, what’s going on, guys?” he asks casually.

Chloe looks at Rowan
and Kaiden. Although they don’t want to involve their dad in what is going on,
they agree that they need to find out if he found any dirt on the
Silvans.