Born of Shadows- Complete Series

by J. R. Erickson

  It is obvious that the Asemaa believed the curse originated with the Native American girl Kanti. We must consider that Sydney was only human." He looked apologetically at Abby. "And thus, her theories are more fallible than a witch who knows and understands our world. Still, she makes a compelling argument for this woman Kanti somehow cursing her own bloodline."

  "How do you create a curse?" Sebastian asked.

  "It's not easy," Elda answered him. "I've been doing a bit of research into curses. It is obviously dark magic. Though I doubt this girl had access to any such information. It seems obvious to me that it was born of anger, pain and intention."

  "So, she was a witch?" Sebastian asked. "Because a human intention is not going to curse people for hundreds of years."

  "Something powerful, yes," Faustine answered, looking pointedly at Sebastian, who himself had recently exhibited powers beyond the scope of a regular human. "In a tribe, she may have become a medicine woman, a seer perhaps. We don't know."

  "Maybe that's why they kidnapped her," Lydie piped in. "To steal her power."

  Faustine nodded.

  "I tend to lean toward that idea. She was special, and that made her a target for the man who took her. Victor, did you want to get us started on the findings?" Faustine asked.

  Victor stood and took Faustine's place in front of the fireplace. Victor and the other Chicago witches had been researching the origins of the curse at Abby's request.

  "After Abby filled us in on Dafne and Tobias and the issue of the bloodline, we started digging into genealogy. Finding Dafne's maiden name was easy enough. The problem arose when we tried to find evidence of a child. The only way our theory of a cursed bloodline works is if Dafne gave birth at some point. We searched for adoptions and abandonments within one hundred miles of your Lake Superior mainland, primarily because we felt confident that she waited until close to labor. She knew it would look suspicious if she disappeared for a long time and probably did not feel safe venturing too far away. We also found it hard to believe that she wouldn't have traced her own bloodline, but since we didn't have access to Dafne, we couldn't exactly ask her."

  Abby noticed a subtle shift in all the Ula witches at the mention of Dafne's name. Helena looked ready to cry. Dafne had been an integral part of life at Ula. She had been discovered by Faustine and Elda more than a century before. When she disappeared after the All Hallow's Ball, they were forced to accept that Dafne had betrayed her own coven in an attempt to stop the curse.

  "We traced hospital adoptions, but didn't discover any promising leads, so we started to search for midwives. This was complicated, but we got lucky. A group of northern Michigan midwives had created an online scrapbook of births in Michigan dating as far back as 1878. We tracked every single midwife in the upper peninsula. They're all dead at this point, but midwifery is interesting. Many daughters follow their mothers into the field, and their work is the storytelling kind. Kendra found information on a midwife named Agatha Brinson. She spoke to Agatha's daughter, Julia, who is now seventy-two, but remembered her mom telling of an especially mysterious birth by a woman with long black hair whose eyes seemed to light on fire when her child was born. What's interesting is that a centuries-old oak tree outside the midwife's home burst into flames during the birth, and there was no lightning storm or strange activity except the young woman in labor."

  "I can't believe Dafne had a baby," Helena whispered sadly. "Why didn't she tell us?"

  Abby felt the emotion of the witches in the room. Without warning, a rush of hot tears fell over her cheeks.

  "That's something we cannot possibly fathom," Faustine quipped, encouraging Victor to continue.

  Abby knew that Dafne's deceitfulness had wounded Faustine deeply.

  "Fortunately for us, Agatha kept a very detailed record of her births. Dates, times, names and adoptive parents. This woman with the fiery eyes demanded that her birth be anonymous, but the midwife refused and I'm sure Dafne, in her exhaustion, just let it go, assuming her false name would be enough."

  "What name did she use?" Elda asked.

  "Aubrey Blake."

  "Wait, Aubrey Blake?" Abby interrupted. "As in Devin's cousin Aubrey?"

  "Yes."

  "Why would she do that?" Helena asked. "If she wanted the baby to be a secret?"

  "To pay homage to her cousin," Elda said, understanding. "To atone for her guilt. I'm sure she believed that she caused Aubrey's death."

  "From what we've found," Victor continued, "Aubrey and Dafne were like sisters, very close. It was their grandmother who had the fiery red hair, which only Aubrey acquired. Devin, the witch whose body Abby found, ended up looking nearly identical to Aubrey, amazing really, when you think about it."

  "Yeah, I remember the newspaper article I found about the burning." Abby shuddered. The image of Devin's dead body returned, and she closed her eyes against the memory. Devin had looked nearly identical to the witch, Aubrey, burned one hundred years earlier.

  "Dafne's child's name was Sylvia. Dafne did not name her. She left the child with the midwife, who placed her with a family, and they named her. I do not believe that Sylvia was a witch. She gave birth to three children."

  "Sylvia was the name of my great-grandmother," Abby said.

  "Yes, and they are one and the same. Which makes Dafne your great-great-grandmother."

  Abby spit out the cider she'd been sipping. Sebastian grimaced and wiped his face.

  "Sorry," she said, using her sleeve to wipe his cheek.

  "Could it be true?" Helena asked. The dismay on her face mirrored every expression in the room.

  "Dafne obviously didn't know," Elda countered.

  Dafne had treated her cruelly from the first moment she arrived at Ula. She had been even nastier to Sebastian. She could not fathom the witch knowing that Abby was actually her great, great granddaughter.

  "Maybe not," Victor agreed. "Without speaking to her, we can't know for sure. She could have tracked the bloodlines herself, of course."

  "But she didn't," Julian argued. "I believe after Tobias murdered her friends, she cast the child away out of pain. I don't think she knew about the curse."

  "Then who told her? Why did she hate us?" Sebastian demanded. "She obviously started to investigate the curse at some point, and by the time we arrived..."

  "She was expecting us," Abby finished.

  Faustine held up his hand.

  "We don't know that. Before you arrived, she may have gotten wind of the curse, but didn't fully believe it. Perhaps your arrival brought the possibility back to reality."

  "Let's not speculate," Julian said, bringing the conversation back to Victor. "Tell us more about the genealogy."

  I'm trying to understand where Devin came from," Abby added. "My great-grandmother Sylvia had two daughters. One was my grandmother Arlene and the other was named Hannah, but I never knew her. I didn't think she had any children."

  "Well according to hospital records Sylvia had three children. However, she birthed the first child when she was only seventeen, and her parents forced her to give the baby up for adoption. That daughter's name was Denise, and she would die during childbirth with Devin. Devin's father put her up for adoption. When Devin started to search for her biological family, she must have stumbled upon the photos of Aubrey. Obviously, she saw the physical resemblance, so she chose to call herself Blake."

  "So, Devin was my second cousin?" Abby asked, incredulous. "And Sydney didn't know this? Despite her research with the Asemaa?"

  "From what I can gather, the Asemaa discovered the curse and knew it affected Dafne; however, I don't think they tracked down her baby."

  "Gwen thought Dafne died in the fire," Abby said suddenly. "She didn't realize that Dafne had survived."

  "Why didn't they assume the curse died out with Dafne then?" Helena asked.

  Abby shrugged.

  "I'll contact Gwen soon and try to find out. I got the feeling they didn't have a strong grasp on the curse. The journ
alist Stephen seemed to know more, but now he's..."

  "Dead," Sebastian said, frowning.

  "The connections get even funkier," Victor continued. "Sylvia's daughter Hannah did in fact have a child. His name is Louis, and he's my father."

  "I'm sorry, what?" Abby asked, wondering if he was joking.

  "No way," Lydie murmured, and she looked toward Elda and Faustine as if they might return the world to sense.

  Victor nodded. "I know. You can imagine my surprise when I realized the truth. My grandmother was a recluse. I only met her a few times and she died years ago. My dad didn't know her family. Apparently she suffered from a mental illness. I never probed beyond that."

  "A lot of secrets in your family tree," Galla mentioned, appraising Abby and Victor. Galla was a witch from the Coven of Sorciére.

  "I guess so," Abby agreed, tempted to apologize for generations of people she never knew.

  "And that pretty much sums up what we know about the bloodlines. Unfortunately, information about Kanti is virtually nonexistent. However," Victor quickly added, "that only means her existence hasn't been uploaded to the Internet. Some Native American tribes are very protective of their history, and they did a much better job of sharing their stories verbally. We need only to connect with the right people to find her, I'm sure of it."

  "What about your dreams, Abby?" Elda asked. "Have there been more? It's as though she wants us to know her story and though I am surely one for research, if we can get it direct from the horse's mouth, well..."

  "Yes," Abby sighed, strangely reluctant to share. "I dreamed of a white man whom Kanti was delivered to by the giant. I'm sure that he raped her, and I believe that the child she gave birth to was his."

  Elda shook her head sadly, and Helena closed her eyes as if warding off the images. Abby did not want to look at Lydie. She found it difficult enough to look into those haunted eyes without adding to their despair.

  "Any inkling of who the man was? If she knew him?" Julian asked from a balcony high up in the books. He was sitting with his legs dangling over the edge.

  "No, they're both strangers to her."

  Sebastian stared at her, and she realized he was wondering why she hadn't shared the dream with him.

  "I had it just now," she whispered and squeezed his hand. He smiled and lifted her palm to his lips.

  "What about you, Julian? I know that you've amassed a pretty good history on this curse."

  "Yes, Adora and I both," he responded grimly. "She went to Abby's aunt and collected information. She didn't take anything, only asked them for the Asemaa's interpretation of the curse."

  "The Asemaa?" Bridget asked, still trying to get caught up on all that she had missed.

  "Yes, they're a secret society of sorts that began researching witches in the early 1800s. They spent a lot of time focusing on the curse because they were located right in its midst," Julian explained.

  "In Trager City?" Galla asked.

  "Exactly."

  Chapter 3

  "Tell us about the room beneath the earth, Sebastian. The one with all the tubes?" Julian asked, after he finished summing up what he knew of the curse.

  Sebastian stayed with Abby, not in the mood for standing in front of the fire, like he was giving a speech.

  "It felt like a morgue, for lack of a better comparison," he started. "Steel floor, gurneys with black sheets and bodies..." He realized that his hands had begun to shake, and Abby took them in her own, steadying him.

  "The people hanging from the walls were held by big black straps. Tubes went into their skin and electrodes into their heads. The tubes ran some kind of clear liquid out of their bodies and into this huge basin. It reminded me of those wishing wells that you drop a penny into and it circles around and around until disappearing into that little black hole."

  "A coin funnel?" Helena said.

  "Yes, exactly."

  Sebastian noticed that Lydie had begun to squirm uncomfortably, and he offered her an understanding smile.

  "The walls and the ceiling were drywalled, which seemed strange to me, but I think now they wanted to keep it sanitary."

  "Because they were extracting something...," Julian said, thinking out loud.

  "They were in my head," Oliver added. "The electrodes must have given them access to my mind."

  "The room was gone when we went back," Julian offered, knowing that the Chicago witches likely hadn't heard about Julian and Faustine's return to the lair. "Everything was destroyed. The fire that came at us in that cavern must have traveled through all their tunnels. I'm sure they set it up that way. It killed everyone, and everything, in its path."

  "Is anyone going to talk about the dead people?" Lydie suddenly asked, in a high-pitched voice that startled everyone in the room.

  Oliver smoothed her hair back and hugged her.

  "Yes, Lydie," Elda soothed her. "I promise we'll talk about them tonight too."

  In the weeks since the experience in the lair, the witches had all carefully avoided the topic of that day. Lydie's heartbreak over Max, and all their trauma, left them wanting a bit more time.

  ****

  "So we're all related then. It just seems unreal," Abby said later, as she and Victor sat in Lydie's dream room, sneaking a few moments alone to talk.

  "But that's just it, right? We're not part of ordinary reality at all. We never were, and in truth, neither is anyone else. We just buy into the notion that magic doesn't exist. At least until we can't anymore because fire is shooting out of our ass."

  Abby laughed and settled back into the beanbag chair. She watched stars darting across the ceiling and decided she liked the changes at Ula.

  "Tell me something, long-lost cousin..." Victor said, looking at her seriously.

  "Hmmm?"

  "Why doesn't anyone else at this party seem to know about the baby you're growing?"

  Abby gasped and sat up, wondering for a moment if she should lie.

  She could see in Victor's face that he knew the truth; there was no point avoiding it.

  "I honestly don't know," she sighed finally. "I've considered telling Sebastian a hundred times, but then the words just won't come out."

  "So even Sebastian doesn't know? He is the father, right?"

  "Of course," Abby snapped, but she knew why Victor asked. She had, after all, shown up in Chicago with Oliver.

  "No offense intended," he countered, holding up his hands. "And no judgment."

  "No, nothing like that ever happened between Oliver and me. I adore him, but Sebastian has my heart." As she spoke, she realized how terrible it was that she had not told him about the baby. "I have to tell him tonight."

  Victor nodded.

  "I think so too and, what's more, I think you're keeping this secret because Kanti wants you to."

  Abby pursed her lips and realized Victor knew way more than he let on. She hadn't even allowed the thought to fully penetrate her own mind.

  "That's even more reason to expose the truth, Abby. She does not have your best interest at heart. I haven't figured out where she is, but she does not rest peacefully."

  Almost in response to his words, a crack of thunder lit the magical sky overhead.

  "I'm happy they didn't bewitch this room to rain on us," Victor laughed.

  ****

  "Helena is calling it the Honeymoon Suite," Sebastian told Abby, leading her down a small stone corridor and across an open-air veranda that felt ice-cold in the mounting darkness. He opened a set of French doors.

  The circular room held an enormous round bed piled with a white, velvety comforter and sprinkled with yellow roses. The dome ceiling was glass and revealed the night sky. Carved into the curving stone wall stood an enormous fireplace, flames dancing in its hearth. Vases of white roses decorated the mantle. Two silk robes were draped over a velvet-lined bench, one cream and the other black.

  "Did she set this up tonight?" Abby asked, amazed.

  "Oh, to be a witch," Sebastian teased.
>
  Sebastian turned Abby to face him. He lifted her, carrying her to the bed, and kissed her hard on the mouth. She fell back into the feathery pillows and held out her arms. As he began to kiss her face and neck, she leaned close to his ear.

  "We're having a baby," she told him. She tried to stay soft in his arms, but the moment she uttered the words, her body tensed.

  He continued to kiss her and then he stopped, pulling away. He looked at her, bewildered. Slowly understanding dawned, but she saw more in his expression-fear.

  "A baby?" He touched her stomach. "But how, when?"

  "The night in the woods at the cabin."

  He frowned and she grabbed his arms, squeezing to reassure him.

  "I'm okay. The injury didn't hurt the baby or at least, didn't change the pregnancy. Don't ask me how I know. I haven't taken a test. I just know, okay?"

  Sebastian nodded, looking serious, but then the hint of a smile touched his lips.

  "A baby?"

  He grinned and picked her up, spinning her around the room. He kissed her and then set her, gently, back on the bed.

  "I don't want to tell the other witches yet. Our little secret, okay?" she asked.

  "Whatever you want," he told her, still coming to terms with the news.

  He pulled up her shirt and kissed her belly and then her breasts. He stripped her completely and between kisses, he marveled at her body as if seeing it for the first time.

  Abby lay back on the pillows and surrendered to the pleasure of his touch. She felt as if an enormous weight had been lifted.

  ****

  "Happy Birthday," Abby whispered, nuzzling into Sebastian's back.

  He stirred and rolled toward her. Sleepy eyed, he smiled.

  "How did you know it was my birthday?"

  "Helena told me. Remember when we first came to Ula? She said that you and she were both Scorpios. At Sorciére, she reminded me you had a birthday coming up, so I dug through your wallet to find the date."