Elda and Faustine were a single unit. They moved as a powerful entity and they talked incessantly about Ula's rebirth. Galla, Demetrius and the other Sorciére witches vowed to help in the rebuilding of their coven. Helena too was exhilarated at the thought of Ula's revival. However, her injuries left her weak and plagued by bouts of dizziness. Sorciére's healing witch, Yia, insisted that Helena would recover when her coven was whole again and that gave everyone additional motivation to see Ula rise from the ashes.
In the end, Abby and Sebastian decided that they would not return to Ula. Neither Abby or Sebastian could stomach the thought of living again within the repressive stone walls. Instead they would return monthly to discuss the curse. A time that would also allow Abby to continue her studies and training.
The witches of Ula gathered together in Sorciére's Chambre des Reves, or Room of Dreams, on their last night at the coven. The room's ceiling was enchanted into a twilight sky. One half of the dome ceiling revealed a glowing red sun disappearing into the horizon, but as their eyes drifted up, the sky merged into pinks and purples and finally blue with a tiny sliver of moon on the other half of the dome. The floor appeared to be a forest. However, the leaves and grass were thick soft carpeting and the stumps and giant flowers were pillows and bean bags. Holographic trees rose up in the center of the room, releasing vibrant lavender-colored flowers. Hummingbirds darted into imaginary rose bushes.
Oliver settled on an enormous daffodil and Lydie folded into his lap. Sebastian and Abby opted for a mushroom that squished as they sank into it and they laughed, almost toppling out. Faustine, Helena and Elda all chose the carpeting beneath the falling leaves. Bridget stretched out on a long pillow log and watched the shooting stars overhead.
"We will meet four weeks from today?" Faustine asked, though it had already been decided. "And we will share all of the information that we have discovered about the curse and about this Kanti woman."
"And we will celebrate a new Ula as well. With a feast!" Bridget chirped. "We must not forget about the food."
"Never forget the food," Helena added, laughing.
"We need one of these rooms at Ula," Lydie sighed and Helena agreed.
"You can have anything you want," Elda said seriously. "We're creating a whole new world..."
Sebastian kissed the top of Abby's head and hugged her close. After all of the tragedy in his life, he suddenly felt hopeful again.
"Yes, four weeks from today," Abby chimed in. "But first we're going to buy a house."
Elda smiled and held her hand out for a darting hummingbird.
"Do you already have something in mind, Abby?" she asked.
None of the Ula witches argued when Abby and Sebastian insisted that they wanted to create a life beyond the coven. Oliver, however, looked crestfallen at the news.
"Yes and no," Abby replied. "We both love the Sleeping Bear Lake shore and we want to be near the water and the forests, so..."
"And Trager too," Helena added darkly. "Are you sure that you want to be near that city?"
"Yes," both Abby and Sebastian answered together.
"It's not the city that's evil, Helena," Oliver added in their defense. "It's the Vepars and I think they're pretty well cleared out for now."
All of them hung on the 'for now' because they knew that both Alva and Tobias had escaped the lair. Not only did they escape, but their new ability to transform into flying creatures of the night meant they were far more lethal than before.
"Do you think they have Dafne and Indra?" Lydie asked, reading their minds.
"If they do," Faustine told her, "we will rescue them. That is our first priority, dear, I promise." He placed his hand on his heart, but Lydie did not look convinced.
Chapter 37
"I don't think we won," Lydie murmured, pulling Baboon into her lap and stroking his ears. He purred and nuzzled her fingertips.
"Why do you say that, Lyd Pie?" Oliver asked her. He was still sorting journals into dates and fighting the urge to eavesdrop on Sebastian and Abby in the kitchen.
Oliver and Lydie were staying with Abby and Sebastian in their new house for several weeks while Faustine, Elda and the witches of Sorciére cast new spells to protect Ula.
"Because I think Kanti, the spirit, won. I think she wanted some of us to die and some of us to live, maybe just to let us believe that we'd survived something."
Oliver paused and looked at Lydie, whose tiny body was nearly lost in the silver throw that she snuggled in. She looked old—not simply older, but old. Small lines flecked her mouth and the crease between her eyes held thoughts that he didn't want to consider in her young mind. Worse still, her words revealed some of his fears.
He considered reassuring her. He almost felt obligated to do so, but he knew that he would lose her if he followed the lead of the elder witches and continued to treat her like a child. He sat on the floor in front of her.
"I know what you mean, Lyds. I wish I didn't, but I do."
"So does Abby," she said. "I saw it in her eyes at Sorciére. It's not over and she knows it."
Again, Oliver marveled at how adult Lydie seemed, terrifyingly so.
"I know, but we have knowledge on our side now. Before, we were all in the dark and that gave her an advantage. This time..." he pointed at the boxes of journals, "...we're going to do our research and we'll be ready, not to mention Victor and his crew will join us for our monthly meetings at Ula."
"The Chicago witches?"
"Yes, and you're going to love them, I promise. They're pretty unconventional and that's exactly what Ula needs."
Lydie glanced at the windows facing the lake. The blue sky was marred by distant dark clouds moving in.
****
"I love this house so much," Abby told Sebastian for the hundredth time, standing on tiptoe to kiss him. They had signed the contract the week before and Abby could barely contain her excitement.
They walked from the kitchen onto the sunlit porch, heavy with the morning's fresh snowfall. The snow caught the sun and dazzled her eyes in a wave of sparkling grandeur. She lifted a hand to shield her face and looked out at the iron gray waters of Lake Michigan. The lake never froze completely, but along the shoreline sheaths of ice formed and created outcroppings of twisted glassy structures that reached into the lake.
The vast house behind them towered over Lake Michigan and sat at the tip of a long wooded peninsula. The Gothic Revival structure boasted a single turret, an elaborate widow's walk and a porch that wrapped around the entire base of the house.
Sebastian and Abby bought the entire peninsula along with the house, which included more than two hundred acres of dense northern Michigan forest. The color, Japanese Indigo, according to the real estate agent, reminded Abby of the dark blue waters of the lake. The intricate wood work along the gabled roof and widow's walk was a lighter shade of green. Fireplaces warmed every bedroom, the sitting room, the library and even the kitchen. Sebastian loved the kitchen with glistening marble counter tops and a commercial-sized gas stove. His eyes glittered when he talked of Christmas dinner at their home. It invited you, this house.
They both embraced the dawning of a new day. The home held an air of possibility that Abby had never genuinely experienced. She turned and gazed back at the house. She could see rose-colored silk curtains hanging in the tower window just above the porch. She loved that room most of all. The circular shape and soft edges made it the perfect space for a nursery.
As if the child sensed her thoughts, she felt the tiniest shift deep in her womb. She smiled up at Sebastian and wondered again why she had not told him about the new life growing inside her.
The End
Of this Book anyway - continue Abby's adventure
in Kanti: Born of Shadows Book 3
J.R. Erickson
www.jrericksonauthor.com
.
Kanti
Born of Shadows Book 3
by J.R. Erickson
Chapter 1
&
nbsp; Abby watched the fire grow and then ebb away. It spoke to her. In the flames, she saw Kanti's dark eyes observing her and the girl, more like a woman, whispered things that Abby could not hear, but the life inside her stirred in response. She shook her head to banish the strange images that often came unbidden to her mind.
"How's my beautiful goddess?" Sebastian asked, startling her as he approached from behind. He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her neck.
Abby sat, with her legs tucked beneath her, on their living room floor. Outside snow fell in gusts.
"I got you a present," he whispered and moved around and knelt before her on the lush burgundy carpet.
He wore a heavy wool sweater and torn blue jeans and his hair, now shoulder length, fell into his eyes. Abby brushed the hair away from his face and leaned into him. She pressed her face into his chest and felt a bit of the pressure inside her subside. She had been lying to everyone. No one knew of the child within her and in two days, they would go to the Coven of Ula, and she feared that the elder witches would immediately sense the baby.
Sebastian reached into a small purple bag and pulled out a tiny, intricately carved wooden jewelry box. He lifted the lid to reveal a glowing moonstone ring embedded in red velvet.
Abby's eyes grew wide and she looked at Sebastian, who watched her intently.
"I asked Helena before the ball to find it for me. I needed a little magic for the perfect ring."
Abby reached out and ran her index finger along the shining stone. It felt cold to the touch, and the coolness rose through her arm and into her body.
"I had a dream at Sydney's house, before all of this really began," he continued. "I dreamed of giving you this ring and asking you to marry me. In my dream, I knew that the moonstone was a source of power for you and that it would protect us."
Abby's breath caught in her throat and a flood of emotion rose from her diaphragm. Tears filled her eyes and spilled over and Sebastian shuddered, hard, as her energy coursed through him.
"Will you marry me?"
Abby wanted to blurt out the truth or run from the room. More than all of that, she wanted to say yes, but she could not open her mouth. She pressed her lips together and nodded.
Sebastian laughed and pulled out the ring.
"Whew, you scared me for a minute there."
He slid the gothic silver band onto her finger. The delicate twists and ridges fit her finger perfectly, and she threw her arms around him and cried into his shoulder.
He rubbed her back and then pulled away, looking into her face. He wiped the streaks of tears from her cheeks.
"What is it, Abby?" He looked unsure.
Finally, her lips obeyed her, and she spoke.
"I'm happy and it scares me. I just love you so much and I believed I had lost you and now..." She gestured to the room, but meant to encapsulate everything, the new house and the new life they had been given.
"It's okay to be happy, but I understand, I do. Sometimes feeling happy has seemed a bit like tempting fate. The gods will seek to balance the universe by destroying our happiness, but that's superstitious, right?"
"Elda would say that the universe finds balance through love and more love raises the consciousness of the world. You deserve to be happy, Sebastian. I want that for you."
"You deserve that too, Abby. You realize that, right?"
"Of course." Abby kissed him. It felt like a little white lie, the kind that everyone tells. Did she deserve to be happy when so many people in the world suffered?
Sebastian pulled her into him and Abby wrapped her legs around him, hugging him with every piece of her body.
"Marriage, huh?" She laughed, settling back into the sofa and admiring the beautiful ring. "You know we only met a few months ago. You sure you want to sign up for a whole lifetime with me?"
"Yep, not a doubt. My dad proposed to my mom after three weeks, so we're way behind the game." Sebastian smiled, his eyes dancing over her. "Plus, I want the whole world to know that I'm devoted beyond forever to you."
"Beyond forever? How long is that exactly?" She laughed and tugged at his curls. He kissed her again.
"We can't even fathom it," he whispered against her cheek, and then he scooped her up and carried her to their bedroom.
****
Lydie sat on the end of the dock and stared into the rivulets of slate-gray water. The cold had stopped having an impact. Enough time in any environment and the body adjusted. Max had taught her that, but she couldn't think about Max. Max made her cry. But, of course, it was too late, and she started to cry; her tears caused the cold to touch her face and she wiped them away angrily.
She and Oliver had been staying at Abby and Sebastian's new house. They had gone there after Sorciére, after the day in the Vepar's lair when the whole world flipped upside down and never got righted. The day that Lydie realized why her parents, both witches, chose life outside the coven. It wasn't their fault, the witches of Ula, but tragedy seemed to follow them. Now Max lay dead in the ground and an evil spirit haunted them all.
"Kanti," Lydie said the name angrily. Kanti had killed Max and the others. Lydie hadn't known Adora or Thomas or even Rod, the two witches and the human who'd died that day. But Max, she'd known Max, and she'd loved him. Max had treated her like a daughter, a granddaughter and his friend. He had loved her unconditionally.
Kanti hadn't killed them directly, of course. Evil spirits couldn't kill on their own, but she acted through the Vepars. She helped them create the walking dead who had attacked her and Oliver and Sebastian. The fire that burned the lair came at the request of Kanti. Lydie knew it did. She hated Kanti. She didn't care what had happened to her as a young woman that made her mean, that inspired her to curse generations of witches after her. She wanted to hurt the spirit, but how do you hurt someone who's already dead?
****
"Do you think she's going to be okay?" Abby asked, startling Oliver, who stood in the kitchen watching Lydie on the dock. He had watched her for more than an hour, second-guessing himself every time he considered going to her.
He shook his head and sighed, leaning into the one-armed hug that Abby offered him.
Since Sebastian's return, Oliver's time with Abby had grown less frequent, and he dared not admit that he missed the weeks while Sebastian was missing and they were solving the mystery of the curse. He had also started to entertain another vision of him and Abby, but that too had begun to disappear. When Lydie returned to Ula, Oliver would no longer be able to stay in Abby and Sebastian's new home. They would never cast him out, but it was common sense. Lovers wanted their privacy, and he abhorred the thought of playing third wheel.
"What are you thinking about?" Abby asked, hoisting herself onto the counter and sitting cross-legged.
"Ula," he sighed. "I can't seem to put myself back there. I keep trying to imagine waking up in that bedroom again." He shook his head and shrugged. "I really don't get it, but there it is."
Abby nodded her agreement.
"You can stay here with us, Oliver, I mean it. I know you think that you have to go back, but this house is huge."
He smiled and patted her knee.
"I'd love to stay wherever you are, but the truth is that you guys need your alone time right now. You know it as well as I do. I also can't leave Lydie behind."
They both turned their gazes back to the young witch who sat motionless on the dock beyond.
"I just can't believe we only have two days. These last few weeks have flown."
Abby too had noticed how quickly the previous several weeks had passed. Though busyness could do that. From searching for and then buying the new house, to assembling all the materials from the curse, and adjusting to the mostly sleepless nights where all four of them regularly woke from nightmares, the days passed in a blur.
In addition, Abby's fear surrounding the secret she harbored accelerated time all on its own. She felt like the universe was rushing her toward some big unveiling and she was helples
s to stop it.
"Are you scared?" Oliver asked, noticing her silence.
"Yes. I'm scared of this curse and I'm scared for all our recovery and I'm scared when I think about Tobias and Alva and where they are right now. I want to be strong and fierce and ready to fight, but most of me is just plain scared."
She laughed and rolled her eyes.
"Who knew this witch stuff would get so complicated."
"Not me," Oliver added. "But I know now that I was living in the dark. I think Faustine and Elda preferred it that way, maybe believed the old adage that what we don't know can't hurt us. Guess the joke's on them."
"Not a very funny joke."
"Nope." Oliver shook his head sadly and thought of Max. He still couldn't imagine sitting around the dinner table at Ula and not seeing Max's jovial face at the other end.
"Where's your partner in crime?" he asked, needing to change the subject.
"Buying a snowblower." Abby laughed. I'm sure there's some spell I could learn to wash the snow into the lake, but I'd rather let him do it. We need normal, and if blowing snow helps Sebastian feel human again, then so be it."
"Ha," Oliver chuckled, "well I don't blame him there. I had the most intense dream last night about changing a tire on my Jeep. Mind you I haven't had to change a tire in ten years, but in the dream, it felt like the most natural thing. I woke up wishing I had a flat tire."
****
"I want this space to reflect Lydie's dreams," Helena insisted. "This sand feels too gritty."
Born of Shadows- Complete Series Page 62