Witch in the Wind (Bandit Creek Books) (15 page)

Pelles seemed to age in the space of a moment. His shoulders drooped and fatigue hollowed out the creases on his face. “My failure, I’m afraid. I thought I had a watchful eye on the situation. I didn’t imagine someone turning my nephew against us.”

Marcus could see the depth of his pain and tried to ease it for his old friend. “Pelles, I’ve grown up with Blake and spent all these years working beside him. I didn’t see it either. I’m sorry I had to bring him back to you like this.”

Pelles looked directly at Blake’s prison, and shook his head. “At least you brought him to me alive. I will do what I can now to keep him that way.”

Neither of them explained to Avy how difficult that would be. The penalty for killing a fellow witch was severe but the rules for guardians were harsher still. Killing a guardian was an automatic death penalty. Blake Ferran had killed two.

She reached for Marcus’s hand before turning to Pelles. “What did you mean when you said you were watching the situation? You mean the power struggle?” she asked.

“It’s more than that, I’m afraid. It’s a deterioration of epic proportions.”

Pelles Ferran had a much kinder face than the others on the Witches
Council. His nose, his mouth, even his eyes, each feature on its own was quite ordinary. Yet studying his face as a whole was like looking into a pool of water and seeing just a hint of treasure hidden under the waves. Avy thought she might have liked him
under different circumstances.

“So much like your parents, yet so much more.” His voice was soft, almost melodic.

Marcus tensed as Pelles reached towards her. Busby seemed unconcerned so she didn’t pull away. Magic sizzled through her scalp as the elderly witch stroked her hair.

“When your parents came to me, I warned them Council would not be flexible,” he said.

“My parents talked to you first?” She felt her eyes watering and blinked to keep from crying. Was she finally going to know the truth about her parents’ past?

“Oh yes. I was their trainer and mentor, just as I have been for Marcus.”

“I would have gone to you with any of my problems,” Marcus said, studying his mentor intently.

Avy suspected from
what Blake had said, that Pelles was a father figure to Marcus. Having met his real parent, she could see why. This whole thing must be hard on them both.

“You helped them escape?” Marcus spoke the words calmly. Avy’s heart slammed into her ribs.

Pelles shrugged. “As best I could. It was evident the Goddess intended them to be together.”

Avy had so many questions, but there was one that overshadowed all others. “Why didn’t my parents leave their amulets behind when they left?”

“I wish I could give you a simple answer. I would have helped your parents, but in this instance, perhaps I was wrong to ask for their help in return. Especially when there was no time to fully explain.”

“What did you ask them to do?” She couldn’t wait for him to tell it in his own time. Not when he was about to give her the key to a door that had been locked her whole life.

“I asked them to take their amulets with them. I owe them a great debt that they did so, trusting that I would not lie to them, even though it involved their parents.”

She didn’t know what to ask first so she summed it up with one word, “Why?”

“They were truly in love, Devlin and Eavan. However, they told me it was their parents who encouraged them to be together in the beginning. Council was already losing its ability to govern fairly. Devlin and Eavan believed their parents were joining their two families, the Kemena and Gwynn families, to build their own power on Council.”

“So you sent them through the portal together?” Marcus sounded as appalled as she felt.

“Of course not.” His mentor’s voice rang with conviction. “I would never endanger the mortals. I just didn’t have time to warn them to go through one at a time.” Regret slid over his face like a black veil. “I forgot what it is like to be in love. Neither of them would go through the portal without the other. They had no idea what would happen.”

“Everyone thought they died that day,” Marcus said.

“They survived but were both badly hurt. I went after them as quickly as I could without raising suspicion and found them at the edge of town.”

“Why didn’t they just keep going?” Avy asked.

When he looked at Avy this time, she could see more affection in his face then either of her grandparents had shown towards her earlier. “I tried to convince them but they refused. There had already been an explosion up on
the
mountain and they were devastated knowing they had caused the rock slide passing through the portal. Flood waters were rising in Old Town. They wouldn’t leave the townspeople to survive on their own.”

He paused, released a deep sigh as if he’d been holding it since the day of that disaster in 1911. Some of the weight he’d carried all these years must have lifted, because his voice was lighter when he continued the story. “I did everything I could to keep them hidden and they spent the rest of their lives making up for their one mistake.”

He smiled then at Marcus. “I’m afraid I’ve sent you and the other Guardians on some wild goose chases over the years, my boy. Whenever I got a report that might bring the search close to them, I would ‘get word’ their Goddess Amulets had been seen somewhere else and send someone off with great ceremony to investigate.”

Avy listened quietly. She could see the new version playing out in her mind’s eye with her parents acting in exactly the way she would have expected. They would have needed the protection of someone powerful like Pelles to help them stay so close to the portal without being discovered for all those years.

His soft voice drifted into her thoughts. “I was as pleased and amazed as they were when this little one was born. I’ve watched you grow into a lovely young woman. Your parents were so proud of you.”

A wave of tears sprang into her eyes and she coughed to keep from sobbing.

Marcus squeezed her hand, and asked Pelles, “So you knew about the binding spell.”

“I didn’t agree with it but couldn’t come up with a better idea. And it did work until last week.”

“That’s why you sent me right away to investigate.” Marcus raked his fingers through his hair. “Why didn’t you just tell me about Avy?”

“I’m afraid so many years of subterfuge made me overcautious.” The old man straightened and faced Marcus. “I had complete faith in you, Marcus. I never doubted but that you would do the right thing.”

Anger simmered around Marcus. “Even when you gave me the kill order?”

“Then most of all. And I knew she had another who would see to her safety.” He smiled down at Busby and got a nod and a grunt in return. “She has a devoted familiar as well.”

“Did you send Busby?” they asked in unison.

“T’wasn’t me, but Devlin and Eavan would not have left this plane with their daughter unprotected. Their dying wish would hold great power
with the Goddess
.”

The flood of tears rushed up again and Avy bent to stroke Busby’s head. “They didn’t leave me alone.”

“What will happen now?” she heard Marcus ask.

Pelles thought for a moment, and then asked, “I assume you have both amulets?”

Marcus opened his mouth to speak then stopped and looked at her. She chewed on her lower lip and gave herself a moment. Should she trust her gut, and her magic? She looked up at him and nodded her permission.

“We have one of them,” he told his mentor.

“About that—” She had to give him her trust completely, or not at all. “I think I know where the other one is,” she whispered.

His hand spasmed, crushing her fingers. He let go of her and stepped back to study her. “You don’t have to tell us where it is.” He shot a stern look at Pelles as if to ensure there would be no argument. “But you have to be sure it’s somewhere no one else can find it.”

He would help her even if she didn’t trust him with its location. “I’m pretty sure it’s in Seattle.”

“In your safety deposit box? That’d be the next place someone will look for it.”

“It’s not my box,” she said. “I found a receipt for one in my father’s desk dated 1911. Right after they arrived.”

They both turned to Pelles, but she let Marcus tell his friend of their suspicion. “We can’t return them to Council. Blake told us someone else convinced him to go after the Gwynns. Someone on Council is trying to take over and doesn’t care that Avy’s parents
and Blake
were destroyed along the way.”

The pale face showed little surprise, but the sadness was thick in his voice. “I suspected as much but have not been able to identify who.”

She barely heard Marcus when he spoke. “I know who it is.”

Both she and Pelles stared at him wide-eyed.

His face was
so serious, so wretched, she reached for his hands. “Marcus?”

He looked at their hands, avoiding her eyes. Her nerves started tingling as if they already sensed impending danger. Fear crawled through her. Marcus finally looked at her with fierce, fathomless eyes.

“It was the pin,” he said.

She looked at Pelles to see if he knew about a pin. He looked just as puzzled.

“Last winter
,
I saw a display commemorating the rockslide and flooding that destroyed Old Town in 1911. Mixed in with the relics that had survived the disaster was an old cloak pin.”

His voice was flat with regret. “I thought it might be from The Otherland and I meant to go back to examine it, or at least shield it from sight, until I could be sure of its origin.”

“You didn’t mention it to Council.” Pelles sounded disappointed in him.

Marcus looked at his old friend, shook his head and dropped his gaze to the ground.

How could a stupid pin cause him this much pain?

He didn’t look at her, but his thumb massaged her hand as if it was a worry stone. “I told one Council member when I got back but was told to forget about
it
. Such pins were common before the Coven Wars, when witches could visit the mortal world as long as they didn’t draw attention to their magic.” Temper showed when he finally looked at her. “So I didn’t mention it to anyone else.”

Avy stepped closer to him. “I don’t understand why this pin matters so much.”

Marcus looked at Pelles then. “I recognized the pin—with the Gwynn family crest engraved on it. I’d seen it once before.” His remarkable eyes began their cascade of color, making it impossible for her to read them. He reached up and stroked her cheek as if in farewell. She caught his hand and held it in place.

“It was your father’s pin Avy.”

She slid her arm around his waist but he eased away from her.
She felt as if he was pulling away from her more than the physical space allowed. She hooked her fingers through the belt loop of his jeans to anchor him to her. “I still don’t understand, Marcus. Tell me what’s wrong.”

When Marcus didn’t speak, Pelles’s soft voice eased the tension.
“No one knew your parents had been anywhere near Bandit Creek the night they escaped. Even if they had survived the rockslide, there was no way to know where they exited the portal.”

“I thought there was only one tunnel.”

“O
h
dear, no. The portal isn’t like a tunnel, it’s more like a revolving door that leads to an unlimited number of streets. No one knew which street your parents chose.”

Avy didn’t get it, but Pelles nodded. “I see your point, Marcus. De
vlin wrapped Eavan in his cloak that night at the edge of town. I suspect that is when he misplaced his clock pin. If his pin was in Bandit Creek, Devlin had not only survived but left a trail. Whom did you tell about the pin, my boy? Who on the Witches Council is the traitor to us all?”

Marcus seemed to fade under the weight of his guilt.
The murky green of his aura told her the stress she was sensing was emotional and ran so deep he was feeling it physically as a sickness.

“My father.” The words hung in the air like smog. His voice was so hoarse with guilt she could barely recognize it. “What we’re saying, Avy, is that your parents managed to keep themselves, you and even their amulets hidden for a hundred years—until, I gave away their precious secret. I told my father. He’s the one who sent Blake to kill your parents and try to kill you.”

He looked at her then, and he was no longer hiding behind a mask. His father’s betrayal was carved into his face and was poisoning his soul.

She reached up with both hands and brought his face in line with hers.

“Don’t you dare think you caused this whole chain of events just by mentioning a pin to someone you should have been able to trust.”

Now that she had his full attention, she slid her hands down his arms and held both his hands tightly in hers. “Did you tell your father that he should go after my parents?”

“Of course, not,” he said without a second thought, his anger with himself and his father flashing in his eyes.

She looked at Pelles and accepted his nod of support. “Did you help your father manipulate Blake?”

“No.” As he accepted her point, fingers of green, orange, bronze, red crept into his aura. “Even if I hadn’t met you, I’d have stopped him. As soon as he started using Blake as his pawn, he broke our law.”

She wrapped her arms around his waist and closed her eyes with relief when h
is muscles tightened as his magic regained its strength. Her words had sunk in. Her Marcus was back in the game. Without releasing her hold, she
looked back at his mentor.
If her parents trusted his advice, she would too. “What should we do with the amulets?

“You must keep them safely hidden.”

“How does that help?” Marcus asked. “My father and Tobias are still a threat to the power balance.”

“Not as much as you think, Marcus. Who has the Egan family amulet?”

Marcus reached up to cover the shape just under his shirt.

Pelles smiled. “And you will keep it safe will you not? Even from your father.”

“Yes, of course. But what about Tobias?”