She wondered if any of the beasts were Alva or Victor, but doubted it. She remembered the Vepars she had first encountered when Devin had sent her on a death-mission to save her parents who weren't in danger. They had snarled and fought like animals. The one she had killed in particular seemed more beast than human. The memory of their blood-lust made her want to call out to her body and end the magic.
"Snake Island," she whispered. Dante's secret magic had taken her to Snake Island.
She moved from the forest along the beach to the water's edge. In the distance, she saw a house. Three stories tall with faded weather-beaten wood, it looked ready to collapse into the steady thrum of Lake Michigan's surf. She followed the line of the woods, occasionally glimpsing a skin-walker, but gaining confidence as they ignored her.
They can't see me, they don't have a clue that I'm here, she silently reassured herself.
At the rickety porch that surrounded the base of the house, she paused. A broad black door led into the home. Could she walk through it? She took the steps slowly, cringing if they made a sound. When she tried to step through the door, she realized she was not as ghostly as she believed. Her form stopped, unable to push through the wood. She touched the handle and felt the cool metal against her fingertips, pulling them quickly away.
Dante's strange magic unnerved her. She was not astral traveling, but she was also not physically present. Her unease only increased when she recalled Victor's dark energy consuming her when she had attempted to pull the witches back from the magic the last time it was performed. She pictured her physical body slumped over in the study. What if she somehow got trapped in this dimension of almost formlessness? Would Sebastian wake up to find her unresponsive? Would the witches of Ula have some way to draw her back?
Refusing the tumult of thoughts churning in her mind, she twisted the handle, stepped into the house and quickly closed the door. A musty odor greeted her. A grand staircase faced the door, its merlot colored carpets faded and mostly rubbed away. The dark rail revealed a thick layer of dust marred by fingerprints. A chandelier creaked overhead swaying like a pendulum, or perhaps the hand of a clock ticking the time there was left before it would pull free of the sagging ceiling and crash to the floor.
Kanti told her that Clyde's body, along with all the objects he bewitched, were on the island. Abby wanted the amulet in particular. With Kanti's help, she believed she could end Clyde once and for all.
A vast parlor opened to the right of the front door. She peeked in, scanning tabletops, fireplace mantel, searching for items lying about. It was a strange scene. The old house was clearly occupied and yet seemed abandoned, haunted even.
Julian and Elda had relayed what they learned from Nora about Serpent House. Abby could imagine it in its prime. A lavish dwelling place filled with witches embarking on the promise of the New World. Nora had described walking into the study and seeing Eugene for the first time. Abby moved through the parlor where two glass doors stood open to what she recognized as the study. A huge old desk piled with curling yellow papers sat near an enormous window with thick, dark curtains drawn to cover the view of Lake Michigan beyond. Abby searched through the office quickly. She did not touch anything, but scanned the items on the desk, ran to the bookshelves and studied the spines of books, looking above them for anything tucked into dark spaces.
The sound of footsteps thumped overhead, and Abby let out a little gasp. She listened as the footsteps pounded down the stairs, and she quickly tucked herself behind the heavy curtains. She peeked out, not sure if she could be seen and not daring to find out.
Victor strode into the room looking disheveled and grubby. His black hair hung in greasy pieces over his head. His eyes were rimmed in purple sleeplessness. Against his dark robe, Abby saw the pulsing red jewel nestled within the golden snake. Amazingly he took the necklace off the moment he closed the study doors. He looked around as if afraid someone would catch him. When the snake pulled away from his body, he let out a long, strangled sigh and sank to his knees. He pushed the necklace away with his foot and sat, trembling, tears rolling down his face.
Abby understood the regret in his eyes. She heard it on his breath, sensed it in the hunch of his shoulders.
He opened his cloak. His chest, where the amulet had lain, looked red and raw. He touched his fingertips against it and winced. For several minutes, he sat that way, unmoving. Finally, he stood, snatched the amulet by its chain and plucked a velvet box from a desk drawer. He dropped the necklace inside with shaky hands. All the while his eyes darted everywhere as if he knew that someone watched him.
For a moment, Victor's eyes settled on her. His dark pupils locked on her own. Seized by panic, she reached through space for her physical body. Serpent House and Victor's sad, angry eyes disappeared.
Abby came to, still sitting on the floor. Her glass of juice had fallen over. A dark red stain seeped into the cream carpet. She held her hand above the stain and drew upward. The stain vanished, and the juice hovered in the air for a moment before she directed it back into her glass. She nodded, smiling, continually amazed at her developing abilities. A silly one, perhaps, but useful nevertheless.
The clock blinked 2am. For that moment, she knew where the amulet was hidden. If she hoped to steal it, she had little time to waste.
Chapter 17
Elda took another bite of her pudding and then set her spoon down with a clatter against her porcelain plate.
"Is everything all right, love?" Bridget asked, looking at Elda with concern.
Lydie sat up straighter across the table and her eyes darted toward the window as if she expected to see a raven or some other dark omen hovering nearby.
"Yes, oh yes. I'm sorry I startled everyone." She stood, smoothing her hands down her dark cloak. "I've been summoned to the cave. It hasn't happened in so long I didn't recognize the sensation."
"Water down your spine," Bridget murmured, nodding. "I haven't felt it in ages myself."
"Why?" Lydie demanded. "Is something wrong?"
"I'll know soon enough, but I think not. Only lightness surrounded the call."
"But why?" Lydie asked again. "I mean who would call you there?"
"That's the beauty of the cave, my dear. You can contact any witch in the world. Of course, they might not hear you right away, but the cave is how we've communicated safely for hundreds of years."
Lydie wrinkled her brow.
"Why does it always seem so hard to reach out to anyone then? The witches in Chicago? Even Abby sometimes," she asked.
Elda smiled, sitting on the edge of her seat.
"New witches often don't understand the sensation for many years, so many elder witches choose not to bother with the caves until the witch is old enough to recognize the call."
Lydie frowned. "How will they ever recognize it then?"
"Bless your pea-pickin little heart," Bridget told Lydie, giving her a motherly smile. She waved Elda toward the door. "You go on now, I'll tell Lydie all about the cave of elders and by the time I'm finished, you'll be back with your news."
Elda stood and offered Bridget a little curtsy.
"I promise I'll answer any other questions you have later, Lydie."
Elda moved swiftly toward the dungeons of Ula. Settling into the velvet-backed chair, perched on a stone slab, she slipped from her body into the astral plane. Elda opened her eyes to the cave of elders. She moved into the tunnel to the right and drifted toward the glowing flames that filled the mouth of the cave. The witch Ellen, that Elda had met previously, stood at the split in the cave watching the night sky. Her white hair flowed long over her blue cloak.
"Elda." The witch moved toward her and clasped her hands. The soft coolness that accompanied physical contact in the astral world moved against Elda's hands. "Thank you for coming."
"Of course," Elda said. "Has something happened to Nora?"
Ellen shook her head.
"Not exactly, though she is the reason I'm here. Since you lef
t, she'd been having vivid dreams of her time at the Serpent House with Eugene. Powerful memories have returned, and she feels compelled to share them with you. We hoped you might return and speak with her."
"Yes. I can come tomorrow. Will that work for Nora?"
"It will."
****
Abby swam hard and fast. Her body streamed through the frigid water, but the cold did not reach her. She had eaten one of Helena's pepper plants and swam nearly two hours before returning to the house. Sebastian, holding Vidya, sat on the porch with Helena and Oliver. They drank coffee and watched the early morning fog drifting off the lake.
Abby walked from the water, her muscles warm and hard beneath her skin. Surrounded by her element, the weariness of the world fell away. Sometimes she imagined swimming until she reached Wisconsin, not to run away, just to go hard enough that she left their present moment behind. Perhaps they wouldn't have to break the curse, she could just burst through some time/space continuum and on the other side, they'd all be free.
"I've got a fresh cup with your name on it," Sebastian called, holding out a mug of coffee.
Abby toweled off and waved.
"Let me grab my robe."
Abby had not told Sebastian, but she had an ulterior motive for her swim. She wanted to get comfortable in the water for long periods of time. She practiced holding her breath and had surpassed four minutes. That afternoon she planned to return to Snake Island.
****
"We'll be back before you know it," Elda promised Lydie who stood on the dock at the lagoon's edge. The castle towered behind her and low drifting clouds crowded the turret's peaks. Aepa, Helena's Siberian husky, rubbed along Lydie's back legs and nearly pushed her into the water.
"Back off, Aepa," Lydie told the dog, rubbing her ears. She would be alone at Ula with Faustine and Bridget until Oliver returned that afternoon. She half considered jumping through the mirror to see what he and the others were up to.
"I'll be fine," she promised.
Elda and Julian climbed into the Boston whaler, Faustine at the helm. They were going to visit Nora, the witch in Montana, who had known Clyde centuries before. Oliver had told Lydie most of the details though the history of the curse had become so cumbersome it gave her a headache to think about.
She returned to her Dream Room in Ula and climbed into the tree house settling onto a butterfly chair with her notebook. She wrote a long letter to her Aunt Camilla. She wanted to tell her everything about the curse, the deaths of Max, Dafne and now Ezra, and the fear that chased her everywhere. Sleep had become a stream of nightmares punctuated by thought-riddled periods of exhaustion. Instead, she wrote about the weather, Abby and Sebastian's new baby and the hope of seeing her aunt again soon.
****
Sebastian ran his hand beneath the faucet.
"Perfect temperature," he told Vidya, gently lowering her into the mesh baby bathtub propped in the sink.
She cooed and blinked at him with her shining blue eyes. His eyes.
As the water rolled over her, her eyes opened wide, and she caught her breath.
"Did that surprise you?" he asked, cupping the water in his hands and opening it over her belly.
She smiled and closed her eyes, falling asleep.
He took the duckie washcloth that Abby's mother gave them and squirted it with soap. It smelled of lavender. He washed beneath Vidya's chin, her feet and under her arms, unable to tear his eyes from his daughter. He and Abby had created this tiny, perfect being. When he thought of the depth of his love for his daughter, his heart felt like it might explode within him.
Other feelings arose too, darker feelings. He imagined Claire, his beloved sister, stolen before she ever experienced that kind of love. She would never have a daughter. She would never fall in love. Clyde was behind it all. An ancient monster who'd been sucking, stealing, raping the lives of others for his own sick, greed-filled desire. He started to squeeze the cloth, the soap oozing out and he immediately dropped it. Julian had warned him about mastering his thoughts. With Vidya, he couldn't afford to lose control. Whatever powers he had, they were explosive and uncontrollable. He remembered the crow in the woods the day that Julian had been trying to train him in meditation. He had killed it and not even known he held it in his hands. He turned off the water and took several long breaths, envisioning the thoughts floating away on Vidya's soap bubbles.
"I will focus only on love when I am with you," he told Vidya, though she slept soundly now.
"Oh my, is it bath time?" Helena asked, sweeping into the kitchen in a long red and purple dress. Her auburn hair was braided and her wrists jangled with gold bracelets. A sweet smelling mist seemed to hover around her. Sebastian blinked as if he might be hallucinating.
"Oh, don't worry, honey," she laughed, waving her hand to dispel the mist. "I was conjuring a bit of honey love."
"Honey love?" he asked, sniffing at the air. It did smell a bit like honey.
"An old charm I discovered in a book of shadows when I was just a girl. It infuses a house with sweetness, takes the edge off, so to speak. With all the sadness lately, I wanted to lighten your house up."
He smiled.
"Thank you."
"What a lamb," Helena whispered, touching Vidya's slippery soft cheek. "Have you ever seen such an angelic child? Sound asleep in water. She might take after her mama."
"I hope so," Sebastian said. "Do you want to finish up here? I thought I'd check the gas in the lawn mower."
Helena cocked an eyebrow at him. He wondered if she could sense his anxiety.
"I would love nothing more than to wrap up this little bundle and rock her. You go get stuff done."
He left the house and walked to the shed, mostly for the sake of appearances. After pretending to check the gas, he left and walked into the woods.
Discovering that he descended from Clyde had been a blow. Abby did too, of course, but the lineage of the men told a much darker tale. Alva, Tobias and Victor were all men from that blood line. They were seduced by power and control. Sebastian's own thoughts often veered toward that darkness. He'd been obsessed with killing Tobias. Since Claire's death, it had been the single motivating force in his life. That rage had not dissipated with Tobias's death, but instead shifted. Now Clyde consumed his mind. He wondered if Clyde experienced that rage over his brother's power. Was it Clyde's rage that lived inside of Sebastian now?
He flexed his hands staring at the lines of blue vein snaking to his fingers. He remembered the power from his dream of Ezra. Her life force had flowed into him. It terrified him to admit it, but he craved the sensation.
****
"They called it Snake Island," the old man told Abby, pulling off his worn ball cap and slapping it hard against his thigh. A spray of sweat flew from the hat before he returned it to his head.
"Snake Island?" Abby asked, looking at the choppy Lake Michigan waters. She wasn't surprised to hear him speak the name, but it unnerved her just the same.
Anyone who grew up near the great lakes knew they held as many stories, and ghosts, as the ocean. Massive bodies of water that were major passageways for trade and travel were bound to be filled with secrets. She had never heard of Snake Island until Lorna mentioned it months before, but she knew the lake held dozens of islands, large and small, that rarely saw more life than an errant squirrel or bird.
"Probably five miles off the shore here, give or take," he continued, pointing into the fog that blanketed the lake.
"Do people live there?"
He laughed and shook his head.
"Not anyone in their right mind. Used to be an old man who called it home, a snake charmer people said, but I was a boy then, so he's long since turned to dust."
Unless he's immortal, Abby thought.
"Does anyone go out there? Tourists?" Abby knew the answer, but asked it anyway.
He hooked his thumbs into the belt loops on his grease smeared jeans.
"Not likely. Some's say you can't nev
er find it twice. What do you want with it, anyhoo?"
"I'm writing my thesis on insect life that has been largely untouched by modern man," she lied. After she saw Victor remove the amulet at Serpent House, Abby knew she needed to figure out how to return to the island in her body. She had tracked the man down online. He was known locally in Trager as an old-timer with stories about local folklore. He was also cited in the book that she and Sebastian had found in Rod's loft that referenced Snake Island.
"Bugs?" he nodded as if it was a completely logical answer. "Probably won't find too many out there. Snakes and all."
"Good point," she agreed. "Well I guess, I'll keep looking. Thanks for your time."
She shook the man's hand and returned to her car. When she watched him climb into his pickup and drive down the rutted four-season's road that they'd followed in, she stepped back out of the car.
Five miles out was a long swim, but Abby was not concerned. She could do it. Or she could return to Trager and tell Sebastian her plan. They could rent a boat and drive to the island together. She would lose time and the element of surprise. Worse, she would put Sebastian in danger. One way or another, she would get that amulet and she would do it alone.
She stripped out of her clothes, revealing the black one-piece swimsuit she put on that morning. Over that she layered a short-sleeved wetsuit. Her body created ample heat, even in frigid water, but the wetsuit would add a layer of water surrounding her body, which would enhance her element when she left the lake. Using the same invisibility potion she had discovered at the Sky Mothers, she quickly swallowed the contents of a glass bottle tucked beneath her seat. It burned a trail into her belly and she didn't hesitate, running for the water. Twenty minutes to the island, ten minutes inside and twenty minutes back was her plan. She needed invisibility for just under an hour and in truth, she had no idea how long the potion lasted, but an hour seemed about right.
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