Born of Shadows- Complete Series

by J. R. Erickson

"And move," Victor added with a hoarse laugh.

  "Let's get out of here," Sebastian exclaimed. "This place is giving me the creeps."

  "I second that," Victor agreed, helping Kendra to her feet.

  They walked slowly, not unlike a funeral procession. It took several false starts before they found a path that led them out of the graveyard. Victor talked, all the while trying to determine how the L'Obscurite had hypnotized them.

  "And why a cemetery and roses? Is it a warning?" he demanded, searching Kendra and Sebastian's blank faces.

  "I'm curious too, I swear," Kendra told him, patting his arm. "But right now I want to get that cab over there and go get a glass of water. I feel like I've been eating dirt."

  ****

  "Dafne went to the Lourdes during her pregnancy. She sought her help," Faustine told Elda.

  Elda paused at the cauldron before her. Tendrils of steam drifted from the basin, and she closed her eyes and slipped momentarily into the sweet scent. A spell for Abby's child. She had confided the pregnancy to Helena and Faustine, but asked they keep it to themselves.

  "Why would she do that?"

  "Somehow she knew. She knew that the Lourdes had been the previous victim and went to her for guidance. The Lourdes told her to kill the child."

  "No." Elda gasped.

  "The Lourdes abandoned her own child, Elda. I don't know why I hadn't thought of it before, but now it all makes sense. She left her baby to die in the woods, beneath the red willow, before it was red, before it was deadly."

  Elda added a handful of hibiscus flowers and stepped away from the potion before her tears could fall and taint the mixture.

  Elda wiped her cheeks and shook her head.

  "Sometimes I want to escape from this, Faustine. The truth is so hard to bear. Have I grown weak? If we cannot sit with the horrors of the world, who can?"

  Faustine took Elda in his arms and rested his chin on her head.

  "It should hurt, my dear. It should feel unfathomable. That is where we find our strength to bring about change."

  "So who saved her child then?"

  "That I do not know, and perhaps it is not relevant, although I would be curious. It is clear that this spirit, Kanti, needs the continuation of the blood-line. Could she have influenced someone to save the child two hundred years ago? I have preferred to believe she's only recently come into her power, but this information confounds me."

  Elda sighed and waved her hand above the potion, which vanished. Her grief had ruined it. She had watched the oils move from intricate spirals to thick clumps. She would have to make it another time, when happiness felt more accessible.

  ****

  "I just don't want you to go," Sebastian insisted for the second time.

  Abby and Sebastian sat on a wooden porch swing in the backyard. White twinkle lights hung from the cypress trees, weaving through boughs of moss. Abby could see bits of stars through the opening in the trees, but the moon was covered by low drifting clouds.

  "I know you're looking out for me," Abby said. "And I appreciate it. You know that I do, but I'm in this. Maybe I'm the only one who can speak to this witch Ethel. Have you thought of that? This world is mysterious. Some of these witches wait for a sign or an energy or an aura. Maybe I'm the one who has it."

  Sebastian slid off the swing and got down on his knees, taking Abby's hands and looking into her face.

  "They were playing with us, Abby. They had no intention of giving us any information. They didn't care who we were or why. I'm telling you that they're dangerous. I haven't felt right since we woke up from our trance, or whatever they did to us. I'm not sure they didn't plant something in our heads."

  "Kendra and Oliver performed every revealing spell they could think of and nothing showed up."

  "I don't care if Elda and Faustine had performed every spell they know. These are not ordinary witches. They're dealing with a different kind of magic and they don't play by the rules." He squeezed her hands, exasperated, and she saw the fear in his eyes, for her.

  As she gazed at him, she suddenly understood the concern etched in the lines of his face. His parents and Claire, his entire family, had been ripped away from him far too soon. His grief still lived in his every cell, every thought, word and deed.

  Abby pulled his hands to her face and kissed them. She tugged him back up and then nestled into him when he sat on the bench.

  "I love you and, even though I want to have my way, I'm going to choose the path of least resistance right now. I will not go to the L'Obscurite. However"-she held up a hand when he started to kiss her-"If no one gets any information before it is time to leave, then I am going to try. We are not going home without finding out exactly what they told Dafne."

  Sebastian cocked his head and nodded.

  "I can live with that. If it does happen, then we'll all go together, and we'll lure them into the light of day where they can't play us like puppets."

  From the house, Abby heard the scratchy croon of Etta Jones.

  "There were birds in the sky, but I never saw them winging, no I never saw them at all, till there was you," Abby sang along, one hand on her belly and the other tight in Sebastian's own warmer, larger hand.

  Sebastian's stomach growled and he sighed.

  "You're hungry," she said.

  "No, not yet. I want to remember this moment. Keep singing." He kissed her temple.

  She continued to sing, not knowing all the words and making them up as she went along.

  ****

  Galla stepped through the mirror into the library at Ula. Her short white hair hung limp around her gaunt face. Julian held out his arm and she placed her weight heavily against him. She settled into a chair and looked at the witches of Ula. Faustine, Elda, Bridget and Helena sat around the room.

  "Indra is dead," she told them. She lifted a delicate silver locket as if it offered proof. "I've been handling it every day. Before the All Hallow's Ball, I never saw her take it off, so I knew it was my best chance for an impression of her. When I picked it up this morning, a horrible grief overtook me. She is dead."

  "Oh," Helena moaned and put her hand to her mouth.

  "I'm so sorry," Elda murmured, going to Galla and sitting close to her. She wrapped her in a hug and Galla laid her head on Elda's shoulder.

  Faustine walked to the window and stared out at the lake.

  "Dafne? Did you hold Dafne's ring?" Faustine asked, his back to the group.

  Galla nodded. "I did, and nothing has changed. No images, but no..."

  "Darkness," Bridget finished.

  "Yes. I am sure that she still lives, but for how long, I do not know."

  Faustine pressed his palms together, frustrated.

  "Where have they taken her? Where? We've scoured the woods. Every Vepar lair that we've ever heard of has been searched. Tobias has fled. All of his old lair's are abandoned. What does it mean?"

  Elda stood and went to him. She held his hands and looked into his face.

  "The cave of elders. They were of great service to us last time; we must go again."

  ****

  Elda and Faustine returned from their astral travel to an expectant Helena. She sat in the dungeon, perched on the edge of the raised stone slab. Elda opened her eyes first and then Faustine.

  "No elders," Elda told her, disappointed. "No fire in the cave. Just cold night air."

  "Surprising," Faustine added. "I can count on one hand the number of times in my life I've gone to that cave and found it empty."

  "I've only been to the caves once," Helena admitted. "Right after I discovered I was a witch, for the initiation. They took me into their arms. I've never felt so loved. It was like I was being hugged by my mother, my grandparents, my siblings, everyone who ever cared for me all at once."

  "Yes, I remember it too," Elda agreed. "It was the one moment of light and ease during those turbulent years. After I met the elders, I knew that I would be okay."

  "So why are they gone when we nee
d them?" Helena asked, concerned.

  "Are they punishing us, Faustine? For all that transpired at Ula?"

  Faustine's face darkened, but he said nothing.

  Chapter 13

  "I have an appointment," Abby told the girl at the counter.

  She had found Leona French in an online directory. A psychic, medium and tarot reader, the woman operated out of a second-story tearoom on Canal Street. Sebastian had agreed to check out shops while Abby went in for a reading.

  The girl led Abby to a back room and then closed the door firmly behind her.

  "Sit with me," the old woman said, patting the couch beside her. "Can't see ya with these old eyes, but my hands know better anyhow."

  Abby glanced around the room, taking in the antique furniture, cluttered together, and the shelves jumbled with bones, feathers, stones and books.

  The woman sat hunched on her sofa, a spread of tarot cards fanned on the table before her. Thinning black hair showed patches of her scalp, spotted with age. She wore a dark robe, the hood resting on her shoulders.

  Abby looked into the woman's face and saw blue eyes veiled by a white film.

  Leona took Abby's hands in her own and stiffened. She traced her soft, worn fingers along Abby's palm, over each finger, gently probing the joints and knuckles. She released Abby's hands and moved to her face. She softly brushed Abby's eyes and lips and then continued to her skull, cradling her head and pressing into the bones along Abby's jaw and spine.

  Satisfied, she leaned back into the couch and folded her hands in her lap.

  "A water witch," she concluded.

  "How can you tell?" Abby asked, studying her hands for some clue.

  "I can feel it moving through ya. Cool and slow and deep. I can hear it in your voice. Nothing to it, honey. When you lose your eyes, that's when you really learn to see."

  "That's amazing."

  "It just is," Leona told her. "Now tell me about your ghost."

  Abby glanced at the cards on the table. She saw a moon suspended above two dogs and several cards with swords.

  "Are you a witch?" Abby asked.

  Leona cocked her head.

  "Is it fear that's got ya tongue tied? This ghost is haunting you good, ain't she? I'm a witch and a non-witch. I'm a little bit of the whole world and I'm nothin' at all."

  "Her name is Kanti."

  Leona frowned and nodded. She reached for the table and shuffled through the cards. She turned over a card. Abby read "Justice" upside down.

  "How do you read the cards?"

  Leona only smiled and lifted the card close. She held it in her hand for a long time.

  "Vengeful, this ghost of yours. Gonna get what's rightfully hers."

  "Can you feel her? Kanti?"

  Leona nodded and her whole body moved with the gesture.

  "She's here and then she's gone. Comes and goes real quick and dark. Has other business in the world, I think, but she's after you real good. She's old. How did you find this ghost, child? Diggin' a grave where you shouldn't'a been?"

  "No. She's connected to a blood curse. I was hoping you might be able to tell me more."

  Leona chuckled.

  "You young ones are always so hopeful. Lookin' outside yourself for the truth that lives right here." She tapped two fingers on Abby's chest.

  "A man directed me to you. He said that you would know what to do."

  Leona sighed and hung her head.

  "Father Ralph. He's been dancin' with skeletons long as I'm knowin' him. Still thinks I've got the holy grail, but darlin', look around you. Is this a palace of gold?"

  Abby stared at the floor and fought the sudden desire to cry. She wanted to be rid of the curse and Kanti. She wanted to welcome her child into a happy world where evil did not exist.

  "Gotta be protectin' this one here," Leona said, placing her hand on Abby's stomach.

  Abby shrunk away from her.

  "It's this one your ghostie is after."

  ****

  "You know what's been bugging me?" Julian said suddenly, breaking the dinner silence. "How did Alva get to France? He obviously didn't board an airplane to bring Dafne, Indra and the human woman home. So how did he get them back to Michigan?"

  "Do we know that he brought them back to Michigan?" Bridget asked, reaching across the table for a cornbread muffin.

  "That's been bothering me as well," Faustine agreed. "And yes, I think they were all brought back. We know that Sebastian saw Isabelle in the Vepar's lair."

  "Is it possible that they had access to a magic mirror? That they somehow entered Sorciére through the coven's mirror?" Julian wondered aloud.

  Elda shook her head.

  "How could they? Only covens have access to those mirrors, and they are bewitched for only that night."

  Faustine stared into his stew, frowning.

  "What are you thinking?" Elda asked him.

  "Indra. From the beginning she has been the outlier. Why was she involved? She betrayed her coven, and for what? Because Dafne believed that Sebastian and Abby were next in line for the curse. Look at the risk she took, the peril she put her coven in for a witch she had a casual friendship with."

  "They were close, Dafne and Indra," Bridget objected. "Wouldn't you help your friend?"

  "No," Julian said bluntly. "Not at the risk of losing my coven and damaging my relationship with the magical world. Indra didn't just offer Dafne advice, she conspired. She helped her manipulate the energy in the Pool of Truth, she broke magical laws."

  "And now she is dead," Elda sighed. "I don't get the impression that she gained from her choices."

  ****

  "We have a plan," Victor announced.

  They had spent the day doing tourist things. They took Lydie to the zoo, visited a music museum and stuffed themselves on seafood and pecan pie. After an exhausting day of sightseeing, they had returned to their vacation house to nap and talk about how to approach the L'Obscurite a second time.

  The witches huddled around a wide leather ottoman. A round silver tray sat in its center, on which were arranged several glass bottles. Two of the bottles held a muddy red liquid and the third a greenish-hued paste.

  "I hope it involves dinner," Sebastian told them, eyeing the bottles dubiously. He and Abby had taken a long nap and despite the day of eating, he talked of food the instant they woke up.

  "No worries, my man," Oliver assured him. "Pizza is on the way."

  Satisfied with pizza, though Sebastian always preferred home cooking, he moved closer to the group.

  Abby took a seat on the floor between Lydie and Victor.

  "A plan for the L'Obscurite?" she asked.

  "Yep," Victor stated, pointing to a notebook revealing stick figures and little thought bubbles.

  "Looks professional," she joked.

  "Hey," Oliver chuckled, "I'll have you know that Lydie gave those stick figures an A+."

  Lydie smiled, but subtly shook her head toward Abby.

  "These witches are dangerous, right?" Sebastian broke in, scowling at the page. "It feels like you guys are making a joke out of this."

  He glanced toward Abby and she scooted closer to him, rubbing his back. She felt his heart beating rapidly through his back ribs. She had not told him what Leona French had said earlier that day. She knew that he was nervous enough without any additional stress.

  "Don't worry," Kendra told him, gesturing to the paper. "This is just a brainstorm. We have no intentions of approaching these witches again without a serious plan."

  "We're just having a little fun," Oliver added. "Ever heard of it? Fun?"

  Sebastian narrowed his eyes at Oliver, but before he could retort, Abby jumped in.

  "Okay, tell us the plan."

  Victor picked up one of the bottles.

  "This is a truth serum. We can't risk approaching Ethel, she's clearly the mastermind, but Sabre is a newer witch and should be way easier to crack. Abby will wander into the store like any old tourist and lure him out f
or a coffee or a drink."

  "No," Sebastian blurted. "No way. Abby is not bait."

  "She's not bait, Sebastian. She's a witch, a powerful witch and..." Oliver cut in.

  "No."

  "Sebastian," Victor began, looking to Abby for help, "we need Abby. Kendra can't seduce him because he's already met her. It's Abby or Lydie, and I'm guessing he's not the type to go for twelve-year-old girls."

  "Honey," Abby said gently, hugging Sebastian closer. "I'll be fine. I've never felt stronger than I do right now. And I'm doing the easy part."

  "The easy part? Going into that store and trying to lure him out under the nose of what? Twenty other powerful dark witches who are sitting upstairs having a drink?"

  Abby bit her lip and looked to Kendra. She needed another woman's voice.

  "Look at the big picture here, Sebastian," Kendra started. "We're here, we need this information. If you have another plan, then we're all ears, but as it stands..."

  "I'll go," he said simply. "I'll go and talk him into meeting me."

  "You're not a witch," Victor interrupted.

  "Exactly," Sebastian agreed. "That's exactly why it will work. That guy was an arrogant bastard. He'll jump at the chance to get me alone to work some spell on me that he can run back and share with his friends. They get off on it. You saw what they did to us."

  The other witches looked thoughtful. Only Oliver seemed to want to argue.

  "He may have a point," Victor agreed. "And you really pissed him off when you called him Mitchell. He'd probably like a go at you."

  "I'm not buying it," Oliver protested. "If you called him out, isn't he going to wonder how you knew his name?"

  "How did you know his name?" Abby asked, realizing she had not heard that part of the story.

  "I don't know," Sebastian shrugged. "It just popped into my head."

  Oliver frowned, but Victor and Kendra had clearly come to a conclusion.

  "It's settled," Victor said. "Sebastian draws him out. It's ideal. We'll still use the potion to cloak Sebastian so that the other witches can't pick up his thoughts while he's in the store, but now we can spare Abby's virtue."