The 13th Witch Complete Trilogy (8 page)

“It matters a lot. Before long there will be a full moon and we'll both have to stop them.” He started walking to the house and I followed him unsure of what he meant by that.

When we got into the house he pulled a book from the drawer in the living room. I was not the same book that we had used when we were making the potions and spells that we had been working on the last time I was here. It looked a bit older and had a lot of writing in it. Not like the normal spell book that we had used in the past for our other spells.

He opened it and started flipping through pages. I watched as he finally settled on a page with a lot of different drawings on it as well as the writing. It was sloppy but could be read if you knew who it was that had written it.

“This was my mothers.” Conner said plainly as he read the page to himself. “She wrote all the dreams in it that she had so that she would remember them and so that others could as well if it was too far into the future.”

He stopped looking and started to read out loud to me.

“On a full moon after there has been a big war between the good witches and the bad, there will be a time that black magic can take control and shift the balance.” Conner stopped and looked at me. “This is the right year and I think that's what Eric and Marie are trying to do. There are only a few left that can stop them.” He was calm, but there was something in his voice that read fear. He was afraid.

So was I.

He looked over at me and saw the look on my face. He reached out to me and pulled me to him. I settled into him and finally felt as though I was safe. He bent his face down so it was close to mine and met my lips. He kissed me hard and passionately. I let go of all of the things that had been going on and wrapped my arms around his neck. He picked me up and carried me up the stairs to a room that I'd never been in.

It was Connor's room.

 

He laid me down gently and kissed my lips again as he swung the door shut behind him.
Eleven

I opened my eyes and looked to the right of my bare body to see Conner sleeping peacefully next to me. His muscular chest rising and falling with each breath. I thought about what Eric had said and wondered if what I was fighting was real or if it was his gift controlling my actions. I thought about the first day that I'd seen him and the feelings that I'd had right away and realized it had to be real and I was just trying to find a reason to make myself crazy.

I got up from the large bed as quietly as I could to put my clothes on. The last thing that I wanted was for his sister to catch on to what had just happened. Even though it was a private matter, I still wanted to keep a good relationship with her as well as with Conner.

I couldn't help but look back one more time at him before I opened the door and a smile crept to my face. In all of this stuff that had been happening, something good had come from it and I might be able to hold onto that for once in my life.

I closed the door to his room behind me and started down the hall to the room that I had been staying in. I still assumed that it was mine to use while I needed to. When I got to my room, I opened the door and sat on my bed. There was no way that I was tired now. It was late at night now, but my mind was still thinking of what had just happened. The way that he touched me and the complete feeling of being safe and in love. Conner was not just a fling that I was having to forget what I'd been going through; he was one of only a couple to ever see me totally.

I couldn't help but to smile to myself as I thought about it. I just wanted to talk to a girlfriend and tell her all about Conner and who he was, but I couldn't. There was no one that I could trust, but Conner and myself.

This magic fight was coming all too fast and I knew that I had to be ready. I knew how to protect myself and how to travel around. I also knew how to defend myself if I had to, but I had no idea what my gift was and how far I could take it.

I had been having odd dreams lately. Maybe that was what it really was.

 

If that's all it is, then I'm screwed.

 

I laid down on the bed to try and get some sleep, but my mind was still full of thoughts and fear. When I finally got myself to relax I was waken in a start.

There was a lot of noise coming from the front room of the house. It was not sounds that made a person feel safe at all and I debated for a moment about staying under the covers and closing my eyes.

I rose from the bed that I'd been trying to sleep in and started towards my door. It was down the hall a little from the stairs that lead to the front room below. The noise got louder and I realized it was people talking in the room below. I listened harder as I made my way to the bottom of the stairs.

The voices belonged to two people that I knew, Conner and my father. They were talking louder now. “You can't go there on your own.” My dad yelled at Conner

“I have to. She was my sister.” Conner yelled back at my dad. He was pacing the short distance between the stairs and the front door as he spoke.

“She's already gone. There is nothing left for you to do.”

“I'm going to end this right now. I can stop them before they hurt anyone else and keep them from turning magic like you know they are planning”

I rushed down the remainder of stairs to the front room and stood right in between them. My dad looked at me with frustration and sadness in his eyes. I looked over to Conner and he met my gaze with anger and rage.

“What are you planning?” I said to him, my voice was almost a whisper.

 

He looked at me and then back at my dad.

“Anna was killed at the shack yesterday.” My dad answered instead of Conner. “Now he's planning on getting revenge.”

“It's not anyone’s business what I'm going to do.” He said coldly.

“I care about what you’re going to do. If you go there..... You’ll die.” I almost was yelling this now. I didn't want him to go there. Not now.

“What do you know about anything? You’re just a naive little girl that thinks the world should revolve around you!” He yelled at me coldly. I almost burst into tears right then. It cut through me all the way to the edge. I felt the rage come after that and pulled the tears back.

“Fine, do it. What do I care?” I yelled and then stomped up the stairs. I heard the door slam shut to the house from halfway up the stairs and stopped. As mad as I was at what had just happened, I didn't want him to go. I loved him and now I really knew it.

Twelve

I heard footsteps starting up the stairs after me and turned really hoping that it was Conner, but the face that I saw was that of my dad’s. His face was still angry about the display downstairs, but he looked at me with love and fear all at the same time. Maybe he thought that I planned to follow him and get myself killed too. I knew better than that after my last run in with Eric and Marie. I didn't know what to do about Conner, but there was really nothing that I could do.

Except stop this whole thing.

 

“I have an idea.” I said to my dad who was looking straight at me.

 

“What's the idea?” He said as we walked down the stairs with me.

“Remember the binding spell that Anamara put on me when I was a child.” He nodded as I spoke. “Could we bind their magic for good?”

“It will take your magic away too, but yes we could” He walked into the kitchen “That's what I was taught. That anyone in the line will lose the magic that they have. Do you really want to do that?”

“I can't hurt them. They may not be good people, but they are my parents.”

 

“I know.” He almost whispered this to me and he stopped looking through the pots in the kitchen.

“Will you help me make the potion that I need?” I asked him this hoping that he would give me the help I needed. A binding spell is complicated and hard to do for a beginner, plus I really didn't know what I was doing.

“Of course, but when it's time, I'm coming to get you.” He was completely calm in the way that he said this and I knew that he would.

“One other thing that you should know. I had a dream about tomorrow. They hold the ritual in a clearing in the woods. It can't be too far from here.”

“I think I know of the spot. There is a sacred circle clearing not far from here. Before the witches war, it was used for good magic. It has a special spot on the earth that helps to boost the magic that's done in it.”

“That's probably where it will happen at.” I was not certain if my dream was real or not, but I trusted my dad and what he felt was right.

“Let's get started on that potion. We will need a few.” He said pulling the pots that we would need from the cupboard that he had been looking at.

He had already decided that we would need to have at least enough to stop each person in the coven. That was an easy number to remember for us. 13.

I worked on my half of the potion bottles, adding herbs and oils and corking the tops of them. I thought about the type of people that would work for Eric and Marie and wondered if they were all really that bad. Maybe they were just scared of him. After all, from what Conner had told me, Eric was the most powerful of any of them right now. I wondered if I was going to be enough to stop him.

I was a nobody. Just some girl who happened to be born into a family that was able to control magic and that had, what I was told as, gifts. I had never learned any of it though the normal channels and I was a complete amateur compared to, Conner who was the same age as me, but far ahead when it came to magic and potions and that. I felt silly making this advanced potion that I didn't even know was going to work for sure.

“I think we have enough now.” my dad said snapping me out of my trance. “You can take half and I'll take the other half. That way we both will have some to stop them with”

“What if they find the potions?” I looked at the tiny bottles. It didn't take much to get the job done when it came to magic.

“You will have to make sure that they don't” He turned to me and put his hands on my arms kind of holding me there. He was smiling that smile that he did when he was worried about the same thing that I was saying, but trying to make me feel better about it.

He pulled me into him and held me close, just like he did when I was a young child. He could tell that I was scared of what could happen and he wanted to comfort me and keep me save just like he did when I would fall and scrap my knees.

“You'll do fine. When we get to the clearing, we will let them have it and then... it will all be over.” He sounded as unsure as I felt about the whole thing, but I trusted him. He was my father in every sense of the word.

“I have to go after him, you know.” I stated out of the blue. “He might still be alive.”

“I know.” He said looking at the floor. We were both sitting on the couch now looking at each other. Tonight was the night that we would do this and hopefully all of this would be over. We both knew that we could die doing this, but couldn't let Conner die like all the others had and for nothing. We had to fight this dark turning that was coming.

Thirteen

The sun started to set in the distance and the sky was turning an odd orange yellow color as it was going. The wind was quiet and the birds were still. It was getting to be dark and time to go.

My dad and I were starting out of the house and into the distance towards the forest that was not too far from where Conner lived. It would be a short walk to the clearing that my dad had talked about. To my surprise, it looked just like the way that it had in my dream.

We hid behind a close enough tree to see what was going on. The tree was big enough for both of us to not be seen if we stayed low to the ground.

Everyone was standing in a large circle like they were in my dream. Eric was at the head and Marie was standing beside him. The two men from the house were on one Marie's left side looking at a figure in the center of the circle. Instead of a fire, like what was in my dream there, tied to a large tree stump, was Conner. He was beat up and bleeding, but he was alive.

I forgot where I was and started to move from my hiding spot, but my dad grabbed my arm.

 

“What are you doing?” He whispered to me not letting go of my arm.

 

“I have to get to him.” I said in a little louder tone turning to look at him.

“Get over here and be quite. They'll hear you.” He said pulling me back down to where he was hiding with me. I didn't care if they heard me and came after me. I just wanted Conner to be alright and right now it wasn't looking so good.

Just then someone grabbed me from behind and pulled me from my hiding spot. I fought at the arms that were around me, but couldn't get away. I looked at my dad and another man was standing with him, his hand on my dad’s arm. I couldn't see the man that had me wrapped up, but he had to be big as he was carrying me like I was nothing. Suddenly Eric was in front of me.

“I had a feeling that you would end up here. My best guess is that you were looking for him.” He looked over his shoulder towards Conner. I was still trying to fight my way free. “Jack, take her to the circle.”

“Let me go you bastard.” I snarled at him. He just kind of smiled a half smile and turned his back to me.

The moon was nearly all the way up now. When we got closer to the circle that they were all standing in, I could see the people that they had there better. One was of course Marie and there were a few others that I recognized. Jes was standing farther down the way she was dressed in a very formal gown that was dark red and black in color. When I looked a little bit closer at them, I realized that they were all dressed in formal clothing. The women in long dresses and the men in robes of dark red.

Eric looked from the others to Jack. “You can let her go now. She can't get to far with all of us here. Besides, she is important too.”

Jack let me go and I thrashed back at him. I was infuriated that they had taken Conner.

Conner was watching from where he was at the tree stump and trying to get his hands free from the ties that kept him there. I could see the desperation in his eyes. He wanted to get me out of there as much as I wanted to get him out of here.

I calmed myself and thought for a minute. I still had a few of those binding potions in my pocket. If I could bind some of them, then that would be a start. I started feeling around in my jacket where they used to be, but there was nothing there to find. I felt the panic start to rise up into my chest.