Born of Shadows- Complete Series

by J. R. Erickson

  Sebastian smiled and lifted the tray from Abby's lap. He climbed over her, letting his curls brush her forehead, cheeks, her lips. When he kissed her, Abby rose to meet him. They kissed for a long time, holding and touching, without allowing their desire to carry them away. It was too soon to make love, but Abby already felt her passion regenerating her.

  ****

  Lydie lifted the baby from her bassinet and carried her downstairs. She cradled her head trying to mimic Helena who held the baby as if she'd been cradling babies for two hundred years. She probably had been. Lydie had never seen a baby at Ula. She was the last baby born at the castle and Lydie wasn't so sure another one ever would be.

  She sat in a chair by the window and the baby did not stir. Lydie examined her splotchy face and tiny misshapen head. Beautiful would not have been her first description for the baby, but she was special, so fragile and soft. Lydie found herself intrigued by this new addition to the Ula clan. Would she be a young witch? Would Lydie become her babysitter? Or mentor perhaps?

  Lydie lifted one of her tiny hands and the fingers curled around her own. She smiled at the baby's grip.

  "She's a champion sleeper," Oliver laughed. Lydie looked up, startled. She hadn't heard him come in. Oliver had been outside shooting his bow in the woods.

  "Yeah, Abby just finished nursing her. I figured I'd better grab her while she was in a food coma or she'd scream like a banshee," Lydie told him.

  "Nah. I bet you have mysterious baby soothing magic you're not even aware of."

  Lydie secretly hoped so, but didn't tell him that.

  "Where's Ezra been? I feel like I haven't seen her in a while..."

  "She's back in Chicago, rebuilding her life and all that. Dante and Marcus found an old building for sale. They're trying to set up a community garden, health clinic and yoga studio in the building and then live on the top floor. She's busy to say the least. And to be honest, she's salty with me for sending her back to Ula when the L'Obscurite were here."

  "And you're not joining her?" Lydie asked, trying to sound like she didn't care, but hearing the strain in her words. She blushed.

  "Lydie, I'm not going anywhere. Okay? My home is up here with you guys and if I ever decide to go somewhere, I'll be asking you to join me."

  "Don't you want a life like Abby and Sebastian with a house and a baby?"

  Oliver shrugged.

  "Depends on the day, but that life would include you, Lyds."

  "Does Ezra want you to move to Chicago?"

  He smiled and brushed a hand through his ruffled blond hair.

  "Giving me the third degree?" he asked.

  "It just seems like we haven't talked lately."

  "Ezra's happy on her own. Even if I was willing to move, which I'm not, she wouldn't pressure me to do it. Witches don't have to live in little nuclear families. In fact, they usually don't."

  "I guess it's hard for me because I think I want that someday. I want what my parents had and what Abby and Sebastian have." She ran her fingers through the baby's hair. It was so soft, like strands of fine silk.

  Oliver watched the baby and nodded.

  "I get it, Lydie. Maybe sometime I will want that too, but you'll come with me. And we'll do it just like this." He gestured to the house around them. "We'll have a mirror so we can hop back and forth to Ula whenever we want. We'll make it the best of both worlds."

  ****

  "I feel very guilty," Bridget confided to Helena.

  They stood, elbows touching, in the Vault. Bridget had spent days creating an elaborate family tree and time-line for the curse.

  "This is amazing, Bridget. You have a gift." Helena traced her fingers over each name and date drawn in elegant black calligraphy. It looked more like a piece of art than an investigative tool.

  "I saw a doll in my tea leaves, in the steam rising from my soup, in the clouds..." she trailed off. "The same doll that the L'Obscurite put in Abby's nursery."

  Helena turned and looked her in the eyes.

  "How can you possibly divine an unfamiliar symbol, Bridget? You're not a seer."

  "But had I taken the omens to y'all, somebody might have known."

  "You told Julian. You did your best," Helena promised. "Everyone was preoccupied and, unfortunately, the L'Obscurite seemed like the least of our worries."

  "Except they weren't," Bridget continued, growing flustered.

  When Bridget became stressed, her southern accent grew more pronounced and Helena smiled.

  "What are y'all grinning about like a mad dog? I'm tryin' to have a serious conversation."

  "I know you are, love. I'm sorry," Helena told her, wrapping her in a hug. "I hear you my friend. I swear that I do. But there's no peace in the past. We can't change it. I believe you did what you could. The next time a symbol appears, shout it from the rooftops. Do what you need to set things right in your heart, but let it go. Okay? It's time to let it go."

  Aepa, Helena's Siberian Husky, nosed the door open and walked in, lying at Helena's feet.

  Bridget nodded and shifted back to the long scroll that held the time-line.

  "Since we're on the subject, I might as well admit I've been having troublesome dreams," Bridget confessed, sighing.

  Helena leaned down to run her hands along Aepa's silken back. She glanced up at Bridget's admission.

  "About what, honey?"

  "Sebastian."

  Helena frowned.

  "Tell me."

  Bridget picked at the edge of the scroll until Helena moved it out of her grasp.

  "It's the same dream each time, several nights in a row now. He is sitting on a beach flipping a coin over and over. Next to him sits a snake, unless he flips the coin and it lands on heads, then the snake becomes a bird. When the coin lands on tails, the bird returns to snake form."

  "That's the entire dream?" Helena asked, chewing her lower lip.

  Bridget nodded.

  "What do you feel, Bridget? Do you have a sense of something when the dream is over?"

  Bridget nodded and blew out a long breath.

  "That the wheel of fate is spinning his destiny."

  Chapter 7

  "Well it's about time you came to visit your Grandma," Becky cooed, lifting Vidya from Abby's arms.

  Her daughter blinked her pale blue eyes at Becky's puckered mouth.

  "I want to eat you up," she continued, and Sebastian gave Abby a grimace that made her snort with laughter.

  "Sorry, mom," she told her, following Becky into the house. "But you could have come to visit us."

  "Hmph," she grunted. "After your wedding when we were abandoned by all the hosts. That poor woman Adora had to row us back, and she looked near to death, the poor thing. Cancer?"

  Abby rolled her eyes at Sebastian who set about the kitchen making a pot of coffee. They'd driven down early that morning after another long night of Vidya wake-ups and couldn't get enough coffee to wipe the sleep from their eyes.

  "Not cancer. But yes, she's ill. I'm happy she drove you," Abby amended.

  "Row, Abigail. I said row. Though your dad did most of it, bless his heart. Lord knows any muscle he had has gone to rot beneath the donuts and lasagna."

  Abby had only learned of her parents' fate after her near-death in the Ebony Woods. Despite her anger towards Victor, she had been grateful that he'd left her parents behind.

  "Where is dad?" Abby asked, having expected him to be there waiting for the baby to arrive.

  "Picking up sandwiches and signs," Becky told her, settling into a chair and balancing Vidya on her knees. "What a gorgeous little princess you are! And wait until you see the pretty little dresses your Grandma bought for you."

  She turned to Abby, excited.

  "You know those Polly dolls I got for you ages ago? They have a children's clothing line! I bought the lot. They're in your room upstairs, just gorgeous. Intricate little pearls sewed to the collars," she sighed dreamily.

  Sebastian walked in with steaming mugs of cof
fee.

  "Thank you," Abby sighed, sinking back into the couch with the mug pressed between her hands. She took a long sip and closed her eyes, savoring the rich flavor.

  "Are you breastfeeding?" her mother asked sharply.

  Abby left her eyes closed and weighed the possibility that if she didn't answer her mother would forget that she asked. Sebastian saved the day.

  "This is beautiful, Becky. Is it pine?" Sebastian ran his hand along a hutch filled with tiny floral saucers.

  "Oh yes, isn't it lovely? It's an antique. It belonged to my mother, but it's been sitting in our basement for years. Jim brought it up to stage the house."

  "Stage?" Abby asked sitting up straight.

  "Yes, dear. If you ever called me, you would know we're listing the house this week."

  "Listing it for sale?"

  Becky nodded, waving one of Vidya's little hands back and forth.

  "Yes, Grandma and Grandpa want to live closer to their new little grand-baby. Don't they?"

  Vidya gurgled and Abby widened her eyes at Sebastian. He shrugged, but Abby saw the slight downturn of his mouth.

  "Closer where?" Abby asked.

  "Sydney's old house. It hasn't sold. We're not even getting any showings. Plus, your dad and I need a new start. He doesn't have to work anymore so why not move north? Lots of retirees do it."

  Abby frowned. She had mixed feelings about the news. She loved Sydney's house, but the thought of her mother popping in unannounced, daily, made her want to run screaming from the room.

  "Are you sure that's a good idea, mom? Dad loves his work. And you always said living on a lake would be tedious. Plus, winters up there get brutal."

  Becky narrowed her eyes at Abby, but her stony demeanor melted when Vidya grabbed for her finger.

  "I'm a different woman now, Abby. A lot has changed and this old house feels stuffy. Why shouldn't we live on the lake? Your dad thought he'd buy a pontoon boat. We can all have picnics on the water."

  Abby bit back the laughter threatening. Every visit to Sydney's, for as long as she could remember, her mother complained about the bugs, the tourists and the boats. Most of all the boats.

  "That's great mom," she lied.

  Sebastian continued to examine the hutch though he darted a glance at Abby. She knew he had similar thoughts to her own. It was one thing to have a magic mirror that Oliver or Lydie might pop out of on a moment's notice and quite another to have her ever-critical mother standing on the doorstep. However, her mother's watchful eye was the least of her issue with the move. It wasn't safe in Trager City, especially for anyone in Abby's family. Clyde had risen, and it was only a matter of time before he would attack.

  ****

  "I met with Horace and he had some theories about the artifacts that washed onto the Serpent's House shore all those years ago," Faustine explained.

  Julian set aside the journal he'd been reading.

  "Who is Horace?"

  "A witch from Egypt. We met at an All Hallow's Ball decades ago. I thought it prudent to call upon his expertise regarding the Egyptian text."

  "I see," Julian said.

  "Horace told me about a group of witches in Egypt who devoted their lives, very long lives might I add, to creating immortality. They bewitched several objects that could contain a piece of the soul and, more importantly, could channel the life essence of those who still lived to enhance the energy of a witch whose life essence had waned. So long as they siphoned only a small amount of spirit from many, they claimed to be doing no harm. According to Horace, they justified their actions by insisting the world needed true elders who had seen and heard all, and could give a complete account of the history of the world."

  "How noble," Julian said dryly. "And all they had to do was steal a tiny piece of someone's soul."

  "Eventually the covens of Egypt formed an alliance against them. They raided the covens of these witches and took their magical objects and books. The witches survived for a period, but without new life to add to these artifacts, they gradually died. I have a theory that several of those items made it to a boat in the Americas and that boat capsized on Lake Michigan. Thus, the Serpent House intercepted some strange artifacts indeed."

  "How could Clyde have known their power?"

  "The books that washed up likely contained that information. Remember, you said Nora's grandfather was studying the items from Egypt. He must have created a rough translation from the texts that revealed the hidden nature of those items, which Eugene confided to Clyde."

  "Ah, the misguided trust among siblings," Julian sighed.

  "I told my brothers everything," Faustine admitted, looking wistful.

  "You had a brother, Faustine?" Julian asked, surprised at Faustine's revelation.

  "Six, in fact."

  "Six?" Julian asked, amazed. "Any sisters?"

  "Two," Faustine added. "Of the six of us, four were witches. Ula originally started as a family coven. Until Napoleon invaded Croatia and our little world dissolved around us..."

  He trailed off and Julian started to ask more, then thought better of it.

  "Why didn't the covens in Egypt destroy the artifacts? Why keep them?"

  "Apparently, they claimed to have done just that, destroyed all the immortality artifacts. However, over the centuries, Horace says several of them have popped up in various locations."

  "So, they kept them," Julian shook his head angrily. "I'm starting to question the purity of witches. Once upon a time, I thought we were the divine answer to evil in the world. Now I'm beginning to wonder."

  "Everyone is fallible. It's not enough to do good work in the world, we must also plant those seeds in our own heart. If we plant seeds of hate then hate will grow, if we plant seeds of love then perhaps we can cover the earth in trees blossoming with kindness."

  Julian smiled, pleased in spite of himself. It was rare to see Faustine sharing in such matters, he appreciated the witch's desire to jump into the fray rather than standing neutrally on the sidelines as he'd done so often in their life.

  "One thing has become clear. Clyde got his hands on those items."

  "By murdering his brother," Julian said, disgusted.

  "Yes, though he likely murdered his brother to strengthen the dagger in particular. Horace told me that a transfer of power into the items occurs if death is inflicted by the item or in its presence."

  "Did he kill his brother simply to strengthen the dagger? Why not kill a stranger or a witch at Serpent House?"

  "It's not only energy attained by the killing, but also the attributes of the murdered," Faustine explained. "Clyde wanted access to Eugene's special powers, whatever they might have been."

  "And now he has Victor," Julian grumbled, crumpling the paper in his hand and then quickly smoothing it back out and setting it on the desk.

  "Did you tell Horace what we're up against?"

  Faustine shook his head.

  "It seemed prudent to keep this amongst ourselves," Faustine replied.

  "We could use the help," Julian added.

  "We have a lot at stake here. I fear the repercussions if other covens get involved. Abby and her new child are already at risk."

  Julian nodded, though he did not look convinced.

  "We need to know about the third item," Julian concluded. "Which means we need to return to Australia."

  "I agree. Clyde's mother will be the best resource, though I'm not confidant she will speak honestly."

  "Take the Crystal of Sight," Faustine encouraged. "The magic surrounding her may muddy the images, but I'm sure it will pick up something."

  ****

  "Guess what, Lyds?" Oliver announced, after exploding through the mirror in Abby's house and nearly causing Sebastian to drop his freshly poured cup of coffee.

  "You're lucky I wasn't holding the baby," Sebastian snapped, stalking out of the kitchen.

  Lydie sat on the kitchen counter drinking chocolate milk.

  "Sleep deprivation," she told Olive
r. "He's refusing magic. He's taking this natural parenting thing quite seriously."

  Oliver grinned.

  "We're going to Australia!" he bellowed, striking a pose with his hip jutted to the side and one finger in the air.

  "Are we disco dancing in Australia?" Lydie laughed.

  "We can do whatever you want in Australia. Well so long as it includes grilling Meghan, the mother of our worst enemy, for information."

  "We're going? Me too this time?"

  "Yes, you too. When Julian suggested he and I go, I insisted that we needed you this time. He was on board. It will be a short trip, but an awesome one."

  "Is Ezra coming?" Lydie asked, a slight blush rising up her neck.

  "Nope. I won't ask her. It will just be us, like old times."

  Lydie grinned and jumped down from the counter.

  "When are we leaving?"

  "First thing in the morning so better head to Ula and pack your stuff. I'm going to fill Abby in. Probably best if I avoid Sebastian if he's stomping around in a sleepless rage."

  "She's on the porch with Vidya," Lydie told him.

  ****

  "He's been allowing it," Faustine blurted, interrupting Elda who nearly dumped a cup of tea down her robe.

  She carefully set it back on the saucer.

  "Who's been allowing what, dear?"

  "Clyde!" Faustine held up the yellowing journal. "The number three denotes a powerful opportunity in the realms of all magic, and especially in this dark magic. Horace told me this magic uses three objects. We know of two. What we didn't realize is that three also applies to this century. We are in the third century of this curse, the third time it claims another heir. Clyde has been aligning everyone, using their desires to boost his own secret needs. If Kanti kills the bloodline, she defeats his enemies, and she channels all the power into a single child. The third child born to the curse."

  "But how could that help Clyde?"

  "The same way his own child helped him, but this time, he intends to complete the ritual."