After the Summerland (The Witches of Spring Hill Book 1) (28 page)

“I think you’re wrong
about what this is,” Peter says and pulls out some papers and photographs from
the envelope. “This is a request for a re-evaluation of the autopsies done on
both your sister-in-law and brother. Evidence has become available that makes
it clear that foul play was involved. It appears someone requested another test
on their tissue and would you believe, they found the same poison in both
tissues?” Selene looks appalled at Peter, wondering how he found out.

“Now, I have kept this
a secret for the kid’s sake. I have not yet submitted this report to the
California PD, but I promise you, that if you try anything, I will make sure the
kids know that you killed their mother and father and I will make sure that the
California Police Department reopens the case… which, according to my
sources, they already suspected foul play and were suspicious of you before you
hightailed it out of there.”

“How did you find out?”
she asks, completely surprised with all that he knows. Before he can answer, it
dawns on her that if he knows about this than both Liam and Marcus know too. There
is no way they will ignore it, especially
self righteous
Liam.

“Damn you!!” she
screams. As she summons a spell, she remembers how powerful magic is here. She
slams her energy into his chest, and without physically touching him, she
knocks him to the ground. He falls, clutching the envelope and papers in one
hand and his chest in the other.

“GG!! NO!” Chloe screams. Selene turns to find
Chloe and Cian standing at the side door. Cian heard everything; his face says
it all. He knows that she killed his mother and father. He hears a scream from
inside and knows that Brianna read his mind and knows what happened, too.
Although usually not frightened of Brianna, she has seen first-hand how
powerful magic is here. She looks down at Peter, back at Cian and bolts for her
car.

Chloe runs up to her
great grandfather, “GG Peter! Oh God…
please don’t die
,
please don’t die
! Rowan! Call 911!!” She tries to
remember a healing spell, but no matter how hard she tries to think of one, she
can’t. She knows she does not have enough power or experience to reverse the
damage done to her great grandfather by an older, more powerful witch.

Rowan runs out of the
house and screams and Marcus and Liam come running from the back. Before anyone
can react, Selene jumps in her car and peels out of the driveway. “GG!” Chloe
sobs as she holds onto her great grandfather’s hand.

Marcus runs to his
father’s side, “Pops! What happened? What did she do to you? What can we do?”

Peter replies faintly,
“I’m sorry. I kept it a secret to protect the family.”

“What secret, Pops?”
Marcus asks.

“Everything in this
envelope… you must know that she won’t stop coming after you. She has to
die. It’s the only way. Find the book… the journal. I put it in the
ceiling at the police station. The tile that needs replacing… you must get
the book… to understand…” and with that, his grip loosens and he
exhales his last breath of this lifetime.

Silent tears pour down Chloe’s
face. Even though Cian has just heard the worst possible news about his mother
and father, and he overheard something that he doesn’t quite understand, he
forgets it all. He wraps his arms around Chloe, pouring calming, soothing
energy into her, since he knows this is her first time experiencing the death
of someone she loves.

“Oh, Cian!” she cries,
“It hurts so much. Please, make it stop!” she leans into him, letting go of the
pain she is holding back, and sobs into his shoulder.

Liam is about to go
after Selene when Xavier comes out from behind Rowan. “Don’t,” he says. “She
wants you to follow her. Please trust me. I know you still don’t quite trust me,
Liam, but you have to believe me. She knows their magic will be weaker if they
are off the hill. She’s desperate. She will fight you with what she has and if
she can’t do it with magic she will do it in any way she can. Even though her
power is stronger here on this land, she has discovered something that makes
her more powerful everywhere. Please just listen… I know what she wants —
what she has always wanted. The only way to stop her is to bring her here.”

Liam and Marcus look at
Peter, Chloe, Cian, and Rowan and know that they have to trust Xavier.

“Where are Kaiden and
Brianna?” Liam asks.

“Oh my God!” Chloe says
pulling away from Cian. “They were going to get some of Brianna’s things from their
house. They figured it would be a good time to do it when she was at the school
waiting to pick them up. We have to get a hold of them and make sure they leave
before Selene gets back to the house.”

“She will kill them,”
Xavier says. “She hates Kaiden and was planning to kill Brianna anyway. She set
up the circle during the school day and was going to kidnap Brianna and Cian,
in order to sacrifice them for their magic. She’ll use Kaiden in Cian’s place,
without hesitation. She’s desperate now.”

“I’ll call Brianna’s
cell,” Cian says, as he quickly dials her number. “Straight to voicemail.”

Chloe calls Kaiden’s
cell and is overcome with relief when he answers on the first ring, “Kaiden, thank
God. You have to get out of there now! Selene is on her way back…” Liam
grabs the phone from Chloe, “Son, listen to me. You have to leave the house
right now…”

“Good, they’re not at
the house,” Liam says to everyone after Kaiden replies he’s not at the house.

“Brianna’s not with me,
Dad,” Kaiden replies. “She said she needed to do something alone and she didn’t
want me to stay. She told me to drive around the block and then pick her up in
ten minutes.”

“What? Why did she
stay? Forget it, I can’t explain now but you have to go back and get Brianna and
you both need to get back up the hill, now. Take back roads; avoid the main road
in case she sees you. Do not stop anywhere… just get back home now! Keep
the phone on you, and keep the line open.”

Kaiden turns around and
heads back to the Silvans hoping that Brianna was done with whatever it was she
needed to do.

As Brianna walks
through the house she feels the dark energy throbbing around her. She told
Kaiden she wanted to pick up more clothes, but really she wanted to pick up a
book that her dad gave to her when he was dying. The book has a lock on it and
Brianna has always suspected that Selene has the key. This is her one chance to
search the back room Selene keeps locked.

She didn’t want Kaiden with her
because she didn’t know what she would find. Prepared to break down the door,
she discovers the room open and the altar set up along with other ritual tools.
She makes her way slowly into the room and the energy throbs deep in her chest.
She can tell that the circle is active and a door has already been opened. She
realizes that Selene was just waiting to make her offering.

Knowing she can’t step
into the circle, Brianna looks around the room for something she can use to
move the altar box currently sitting in the center of the circle, to the edge where
she can reach it. The key you are looking for is in the altar box, a voice
tells her. It is so clear and so familiar that her knees weaken and she almost
falls to the ground. The voice was as clear to her as if her dad were standing
in the room with her. She knows that his spirit is here with her now and though
she can’t understand how or why, she listens for his guidance. Her dad’s voice
directs her to go to the shed in the backyard and bring a plastic rake. It must
be plastic, Brianna, no wood and no metal.

Brianna walks out the
back door and opens the shed, surprised to find it unlocked. She grabs the
plastic rake and goes back into the room with the altar. Use the rack to move
the box toward the eastern wall, Brianna, and do not cross the circle. Brianna
attempts to reach the altar without crossing any part of her body over the
salt. She is inches away from the box, but those inches may as well be miles.
Her dad says, help is coming… you are no longer alone. “Brianna?” she
hears Kaiden ask and is surprised to see him standing behind her.

“We have to go,
Brianna. Now! Your aunt is on her way back down here. Something happened and we’ve
got to go now…”

“I can’t leave without
the key,” Brianna says panicking, afraid that he’ll force her to leave. She
feels tears fill her eyes, “Please, Kaiden. I have to have the key that is
inside that altar box, but I can’t reach it. Please help me get it and then
we’ll leave, I promise.”

Kaiden wouldn’t say no
to her right now no matter what she asked. “Can I step into the circle?” he
asks.

When she shakes her
head no, he grabs the plastic rake and slides the wooden box over to where they
are standing. Brianna reaches for the altar box, not noticing that the line of
salt never broke, simply sliding with the box, keeping the circle intact. As
she grabs the box, her hands and arms start burning and blisters form
immediately.

Brianna screams and
drops the box in surprise. The contents spill out, with most of the objects
falling back within the circle and burning up immediately. Brianna falls to her
knees, holding her arms while writhing in pain.

“Brianna!” Kaiden
yells.

“Just get the key,
please Kaiden. Just get the key!”

On the floor, just on the
outside of the circle is a small bronze key. “Is that it?” Kaiden asks. She
nods her head, and slips off into unconsciousness — the pain in her arms too
much to bear.

Kaiden sticks the key
in his pocket, lifts Brianna, cradling her gently so her burned arms won’t
touch anything. He carefully lays her down in the back of the Forester. Hating
to leave her alone for even a second, he runs back into the house and grabs her
backpack sitting by the door.

As he turns to walk out the door, he hears a
man’s voice say, take care of my baby girl. Caught off guard, he hesitates
before turning around. When he does he sees an orb of light bounce around the
room before disappearing in front of his eyes. He runs out the door, throws the
bag in the seat next to him, picks up the phone and tells his dad everything.
Everything except the part about hearing the voice of Brianna’s father.

Once they hear Kaiden
and Brianna are safe and on their way back to the house, Marcus pulls Liam aside
and tells him that he has to go to town. Marcus explains that he covered Peter
with a blanket and the county medical examiner is on his way. Marcus’s eyes fill
with tears as he realizes that he’s not sheriff anymore and this isn’t just a
dead body. It’s
his
dad and Liam’s
grandfather. “Oh, son,” Marcus says, letting the tears fall as he embraces Liam
and together they mourn the loss of a great man.

“Dad, why do you have
to go to town now? We don’t know what Selene is planning and we should all stay
together,” Liam insists.

“The last thing Pops
said in this lifetime is that we need to kill Selene. He also said he left some
kind of journal at the police station — in the stained ceiling tile. I have to
go get it, son. We need to know everything.”

Liam nods in understanding,
“Just keep your phone on and stay in touch. Call or text me as soon as you know
what’s in that journal… and Dad, please…
be
safe. Don’t do anything reckless.”

“I won’t, son; but we
have to stop her. Whatever Selene is after, she wants it bad enough that she
will kill her own niece and nephews. Think about that. This is bigger than
anything we have ever dealt with before and the stakes are much higher.” He
looks toward the house and sees Rowan looking out the window.

“Get back to the kids,
Liam. They’re devastated at the loss of GG Peter and they’re scared. They need
you to be strong.”

Liam looks back at
Rowan and knows he won’t feel comfortable until everyone is back on this
property, together.

“Hurry back, Dad.” Liam
says, as he walks toward the house.

After replacing the
ceiling tile, Marcus sits down at Liam’s desk and flips through the pages of
the journal, stopping when he finds his dad’s scratchy handwriting. His stomach
twists when he reads the first journal entry made by his father. Before
finishing it, he recalls a woman with two small children coming to speak to his
father at the police station.

The memory stuck
because Marcus had never seen Peter anger so quickly nor had he ever before or
after heard him speak to someone so rudely. The children were around five and
ten years old and initially Peter welcomed them inside, but after only a few moments,
he opened the door and physically pushed the woman out of the room. He
threatened her and insisted that she leave town immediately. He told her to
never come back or she would be thrown in jail and her children would be put in
protective custody. The little girl started to cry and the woman didn’t
hesitate before reaching out and slapping her, hard, across the face, making
the girl cry harder.

The last words she spoke to Peter before roughly grabbing
the kids and walking out the door were, “You will live to regret this.” After the woman left, Peter wouldn’t say
anything about it… other than that it was a personal matter, nothing for
Marcus to concern himself with.

Marcus thought about it
occasionally over the years, but figured it was some sort of lover’s quarrel
since Peter was a bit of a player back then. After reading the journal entry,
Marcus realizes how wrong he was. That woman was Michael and Selene Silvan’s
mother and the little girl who was slapped was Selene Silvan.

As Marcus flips through
the book he sees the most recent entry posted after Selene broke into his
house. Marcus thinks about the note Selene left at Peter’s house about wanting
something of hers back. He goes back to the beginning of the book and starts
from the beginning with his grandfather Aldo’s journal entries.