“Oh, so ye think ye can just walk up and catch the flame, do ye?” Aunt Nellie asks with a titter.
“Nae, Gram,” Krista says. “I figured ye could help us craft an item tae catch the flame in.”
“Aye, I could,” Aunt Nellie says. “But ye could just take it in yer hands. Why do ye need a fancy contraption?”
“We’re going to let Madison craft the potion,” Jaxon says so quickly that it comes across like he’s anxious to add something to the conversation.
Aunt Nellie looks at me up and down. “Oh? Special girl, are ye to have such generous friends?”
I shrug. “Actually, we haven’t had time to talk about it. I thought we were going to pressure Ms. Brewster into tutoring all of us. She’s already tutoring Ivy anyway.”
“No, we talked about it,” Ivy says, motioning between herself, Krista, and Jaxon. “And we’re okay with you winning the contest. You need the tutoring more than any of us. It will help you get caught up so you can come back next year.”
My eyes water. “You guys…” I have to stop to keep from crying.
“Well, if that be the case,” Aunt Nellie says, getting up and going into another room. She comes back and hands me an amulet on a long chain. “Ye can hold the fire in this. It will glow red when it holds the flame.”
I take the amulet from her and cradle it in my hands. “Thank ye,” I say, and then I catch myself. “I mean you!”
Everyone bursts out laughing.
“It’s contagious!” Krista says, and we laugh again.
“Well, I suppose ye should be on yer way soon,” Aunt Nellie says. “It’s a bit of a walk to the cave. Ye’ll be getting back to yer school late.”
“Aye, Gram,” Krista says, leaning over to give her grandmother a kiss on the cheek.
“Would ye like me tae read your tea leaves before ye go?” Aunt Nellie asks.
Everyone downs the last of their tea and nods. I hesitate, not sure I want to know what my future holds.
Ivy places her hand reassuringly on the back of mine. “There’s no one better in all of witch-kind who can read leaves like Aunt Nellie,” she says, as though she read my hesitation right off my face.
“Dinna fash, love,” Aunt Nellie says to me. ‘I will nae tell ye anything bad.”
I nod and finish my tea, but I let the others go first.
“Swirl three times,” Aunt Nellie says. “Then, turn the cup over, and then right-side up.”
We all follow her directions. When I look into my cup, I see some of the leaves have stuck to the inside of the cup, but they don’t look like anything to me.
Krista hands her cup over eagerly. Aunt Nelly takes the cup and examines it carefully.
“Ye see the wavy line at the bottom?” she asks, leaning the cup toward Krista. “Someone from over the seas or some connection tae water is going tae play a very important part in yer life very soon. Probably yer next lady love.”
Krista’s face immediately turns as red as her hair. “Thanks, Gran,” she mumbles, taking her cup back and not looking at any of us.
“I’ll go next,” Jaxon says, offering his cup.
Again, Aunt Nellie looks at the cup seriously before giving her verdict. “Ye have a...very interesting past. Ye came very close to death once, did ye? Be careful, my dear, lest ye face the reaper again afore yer time.”
Jaxon shifts uncomfortably, and I don’t blame him. So much for not receiving bad news. Once again, I’m not sure I want her to read my cup. Thankfully, she reaches for Ivy’s.
“Ye have an important decision tae make coming up,” Aunt Nellie tells her. “A dividing of yer loyalties. Be sure of who yer true friends are.”
Ivy nods appreciatively, then smiles at the rest of us, as though she doesn’t seem concerned by Aunt Nellie’s words in the slightest.
Then it comes to me. I hand over my cup. Aunt Nellie clears her throat as she hems and haws, as though she finds it far more interesting and confounding than the ones before.
“There is a lot here, my dear,” she says. “But it seems ye are on a journey of sorts. Which makes sense since ye ended up at my doorstep. But a personal journey as well. One that will lead ye to yer true fate.”
“I’m not sure I believe in fate,” I say. “I’d rather make my own future.”
“Oh aye,” Aunt Nellie says. “Think of it as yer true path. The life ye are meant to lead. It willnae always be easy. And there will be heartache...worse than ye’ve already had.”
My breath hitches in my throat. I can’t imagine worse than I’ve already experienced. I’m not sure I could handle it.
“But there’s a reward at the end, ye’ll see,” Aunt Nellie finishes.
At that, all of us seem to exhale at once.
Krista hops to her feet. “Well, shall we go collect the fire now?”
I nearly jump out of my seat. As much as I appreciate Aunt Nellie’s hospitality, and I’m sure there is a lot she could teach me, I’m not sure I’m ready to face all of the truths she could force me to look at.
“Thanks fer everything, Gran,” Krista says, giving her grandmother a kiss again as we all head out the door.
“My pleasure, my own heart,” Aunt Nellie calls to us from the door. “Be safe. Good luck!”
We are all a bit quiet as we follow Krista through the green grass up a nearby hill. If the others are anything like me, they are thinking about Aunt Nellie’s words. The images she saw in the teacups.
Finding my path in life would be great. But if it’s on the other side of an even greater heartbreak...I shudder to imagine what that could be.
“So, ye had a near-death experience, Jaxon?” Krista pipes up. “What happened?”
“I don’t want to talk about it,” he mumbles.
I don’t blame him. But I can’t help but feel a bit closer to him. A kinship almost. We both have painful pasts we’d rather not share with others. I look over and give him a small smile of reassurance, and he nods back.
“How much farther?” I ask Krista, my breath huffing a bit as we continue up this hill that never seems to end.
“Just there,” she says, coming to a stop.
We all crest the hill behind her, and I’m awed at the sight. Below us is a crystal-clear pond being fed by a small layered waterfall. To one side of the waterfall is a cave.
“Inside the cave is the flame,” Krista says, and she leads the way down around the pond and up to the cave, the rocks leading to it slick with moisture and moss. Even from the cave entrance, I can see the fire burning inside.
“Does everyone know about this place?” I ask, glancing around. I don’t see any other signs of people.
“Aye,” Krista says. “All fire witches should know about it. But how many of the other students will be aware of it, I canna be sure.”
“Even if they know about it,” Ivy adds, “they might not equate it with the eternal fire in the potion.”
Krista nods. “True enough. Well, Madison, shall we?”
I take a deep breath and follow Krista into the cave. It’s a bit small with a low ceiling, so Ivy and Jaxon wait outside.
When we approach the fire, I can’t help but feel something implacable in the air. The fire makes the cave toasty warm and dry. But there is more to it than that. I feel...confident. Powerful. As I breathe in the smoke, my eyes don’t water and I don’t cough. The air is clean and the scent pleasant.
“Hold up the pendant,” Krista says. “I’ll direct the fire toward ye, and ye’ll catch it.”
I hold the pendant up by the chain. Krista walks right up to the fire and moves her hands around inside the flame as though she were forming a snowball. She steps away, a small fireball between her hands. The red-gold flame looks like molten lava as it wiggles and writhes. She walks toward me carefully, and I hold the pendant out farther from me. I don’t want to risk getting burned.
Krista aims her hands toward the pendant, and the fire seems to slide into the once-white crystal that is now a glowing orange. Krista
then blows gently on the pendant, and it darkens to a deep red.
“I’m just cooling it off a bit,” she explains. “It’s too dangerous to carry around at its full temperature. You can touch it now.”
I hesitate, tapping at it at first to make sure it’s no longer hot. I’m surprised to find that it’s warm, as though it has been sitting in direct sunlight, but it’s definitely not hot enough to burn me.
“That was amazing,” I tell the others as we step back outside.
“So you got it?” Jaxon asks.
I hold up the now-red pendant in triumph. Everyone claps in congratulations.
“So, now we need the orchid…?” I asked.
“Working on it,” Jaxon says. “Should be ready next week.”
“Then the smoke from a broken promise,” I add, and in spite of the fantastic day we’ve just had, I can’t help feeling a little despondent at that. I haven’t even thought about what the answer to that could be.
“Don’t worry,” Ivy says, coming up beside me and rubbing my back. “We have time. I’m sure the answer will come to you. And all the other ingredients will be waiting for you when it does.”
“Thanks, guys. I couldn’t have even come this far without you.”
“It’s been fun,” Krista says. “A way to flex our magical muscles.”
We head back to the cottage and use one of Aunt Nellie’s mirrors to transport back to my room. When we get there, it’s dark outside, and I have to flip on the light to the room to see.
“We were gone longer than I thought.”
Krista shrugs. “That’s the problem with transporting around the globe,” she says, her accent having mysteriously returned to normal. “Jumping from time zone to time zone can really jack up your natural rhythms.”
Ivy heads toward my door leading out to the hall. “I’m going to see if I can scrounge something up from the kitchen,” she says. “I’m famished.”
“I’ll come with you,” Krista says.
“Hungry?” Jaxon asks when it’s just the two of us.
“Not really. Still too excited I guess. I need to find somewhere safe to hide these.” I reach into my bag and pull out the treasures from the day. As I do, some of my notes from translating the runes fall out to the ground. “Shoot!”
“I got it,” Jaxon says, slowing down as he reaches for the pages. “Oh, still working on that weird writing?”
I shrug and quickly take the papers from him. I don’t need him judging me. “Well, I haven’t made any progress. The letter combinations make no sense at all.”
“Really?” he asks. “They made perfect sense to me.”
Chapter 20
Jaxon could read the runes?
I put the clamshell and amulet on my desk and take my papers from him. “You can understand this? But it’s just a bunch of random letters.”
“Sure,” he says, “much the same way LOL or TTYL are random letters too. They still mean something.”
“It’s a form of shorthand?”
Jaxon shrugs. “I mean, it might not be that at all. But that’s what I thought when I first saw it.”
“Well, what do you think it says?” I ask, prodding him to get to the point.
“Umm…” He takes the paper from me and looks at it. “You remember the names of the covens, right?”
“I don’t need a pop quiz right now.” I cross my arms, and he rolls his eyes.
“CW,” he says. “Craig Witch. A fire witch.”
My heart skips a beat. “So...someone like Krista?”
He huffs a sigh that makes his annoyance clear. “A quarter of all witches are Craig. I’m sure it’s not talking about Krista.”
“Oh, right,” I say. Duh. I look at the paper again myself. “CE. Craig…”
“...elder,” Jaxson finishes for me.
“Mr. Stewart?” I say.
“Well, he’s the Craig elder here at the school,” Jaxon says. “But there are dozens of elders. It’s a status for witches of a certain level. So, Mr. Stewart and Aunt Nellie would be the only Craig elders you know.”
“But it can’t be talking about Aunt Nellie,” I say. “She didn’t come anywhere near Giselle.”
“How do you know?” he asks.
My mouth drops open. He did not just ask me that.
Jaxon spreads his hands. “Who knows that you saw Aunt Nellie today other than the three of us?”
I have to admit that he’s right. With the way witches can just whip around the world, Giselle could have met with any Craig elder at any time.
“So, we’ve narrowed down a list of suspects, but it’s still a lot of people, most of whom I don’t know.”
“Exactly,” Jaxon says.
“Well, what about this last one?” I point back to the paper. “SW. There are no covens with the initial S.”
He grimaces as he scratches the back of his neck. “Yeah, that one is a bit lost on me.”
I pace the room, muttering to myself, trying to rack my brain to find the answer, but it’s totally lost on me.
“Should you really be looking into this anyway?” Jaxon asks. “I mean, what about the potion? And your classes?”
“Believe me, I wish I could let this go. I know there are a lot more things that should be taking priority.”
“Then why do you keep coming back to this?” he asks. “I mean…” He motions around the room. “She’s gone. She didn’t even like you and wasn’t very nice to you, and it’s not your job to figure out what happened to her. Just let it go.”
I shake my head with a sigh. “Yeah, I know. You’re right. Forget it.”
“Why do I have a feeling you’re just telling me what I want to hear?” Jaxon crosses his arms. “What is it about Giselle’s death that has you so wrapped up in it?”
“There’s just something fishy about it.” I shrug. “According to Ivy and Krista—and everyone else for that matter—witches can’t kill, right?”
“Right,” he says. “It’s the law of Hecate.”
“Then how did Giselle die?” I tilt my chin up, challenging him. “There was a good luck sigil over the stairs.”
“She could have had really bad luck,” he says. “Bad juju.”
“Juju?”
He shrugs. “Dark magic exists. Maybe she was involved with something she shouldn’t have been.”
I hold up the paper with the sigils. “Does this look like dark magic to you?”
He looks at the paper and then presses his lips before shaking his head. “No...I don’t have a reason to think that. Dark magic has...an energy about it. You’d know dark energy if you ever felt it.”
“So, if there was dark energy here in my room,” I say. “Like...demonic energy, you’d sense it.”
“Heck yeah, I would,” Jaxon says. “I couldn’t stand to be within a hundred feet of dark energy.”
I want to clap with excitement. If what Jaxon says is true, the spirit in my room is Giselle and not a demon. Praise Goddess.
“I’m on the right track, then,” I say. “There was no dark magic around Giselle. But I still believe there was more to her death than an accident.”
“Why?” he asks.
“Because that’s what Ms. Brewster believes.”
That gives him pause, and it takes him a while to reply. “How do you know that?”
“Because she told me,” I say, and when his jaw drops, I continue, “but I don’t think she meant to. She said Giselle’s parents ‘want to know what happened to their daughter.’ Why would she say that if everyone was in agreement that Giselle’s death was an accident?”
“But...how could it be anything but an accident?” he asks, and I think he’s starting to flail the way I was when I started thinking about all this.
“I don’t know. Either she was killed by a mortal or a mundane, or some witch out there is more powerful than we ever want to imagine."
“But why are you involved in this?” he asks. “You were with me in the library when Giselle died.”
“Yes,” I agree, “but since I was Giselle’s roommate, and Giselle bullied me, Ms. Brewster seems to think I might have had something to do with her death.”
“That’s crazy.” Jaxon shakes his head. “I mean, no offense, but you wouldn’t be powerful enough to do anything to Giselle.”
“No offense taken. I’ll be the first to admit that Giselle was way out of my league. But that’s what got me involved in the first place. I was hoping to find the real killer so that Ms. Brewster would stop considering me as a possible threat. But now I have another reason…”
“Geez, Madison, do you really need another one?”
“This one wasn’t my choice. Giselle chose me to find her killer.”
“Did she like...leave a note?”
“Something like that.” I pull out my phone and show him the message in the condensation on the bathroom mirror I took a few days ago.
“Help them,” he reads. “What is this? Help who?”
“I don’t know. Giselle wrote that...after she died.”
He stares at me for a moment, then he lets out an uncomfortable chuckle. “What?”
“I saw Giselle in the mirror behind me. Then that message appeared. I’ve heard her whispering the same thing to me. And I’ve...sensed her presence.”
“You mean...you think Giselle’s ghost is here?” he asks, looking around. “And you can sense her? Talk to her even?”
“Not easily,” I say. “And not all the time. But yes. Whatever is waiting for us on the other side, Giselle hasn’t crossed over. She was murdered. And she needs my help. Not just for herself, but for whoever this ‘them’ is. She’s never said, ‘Help me.’ She’s always said, ‘Help them.’”
Jaxon crosses the room to sit on Giselle’s bed, his face in his hands. “Do you know what you’re talking about? Have Ivy and Krista or Ms. Brewster explained to you the seriousness of what you are saying?”
“Ms. Brewster doesn’t know anything,” I say. “And I don’t think she should. Not yet, not until I have more answers. She wouldn’t trust me if she knew. But yes, Ivy and Krista know some of what has happened. And they told me that there are no witches with, like, the ability to communicate with spirits. They said something about demons having the power to communicate with us, but you just said there is no dark energy here, so it can’t be a demon. It has to be Giselle.”
Curse of Stone (Academy of the Damned Book 1) Page 19