“See, Mom. There won’t be fighting. It’s okay now, right? So can I go?”
“Absolutely not.”
“But that’s not fair.”
“Congratulations! Now you’ve learned everything about life on planet Earth.”
“You mean like how the old one is hiding inside Granny’s body?”
Very good friends of mine,” I said, meeting her eyes. “You can trust them.”
“Okay, so what’s going on? Are you going to kill the impostor?”
I planned to follow up on her question, but since she regarded Zephora in the same way I had, when she had taken over Grams’s body, I felt even closer to her. “We’ll see,” I responded, staring at Alexis to prove I hadn’t imagined Zephora’s manipulations.
“Yeah,” Celestina said, backing off a bit with a disturbed expression. “You’re going to visit the old one.”
“Old one?”
Celestina blanched. “I told you. That’s not Granny.” She wrapped her arms around her chest, as though a chill had invaded her bones. “She’s someone else. She’s old…like really, really old.”
Alexis knelt down beside her, clutching onto her daughter’s arms. “Who? Who else is she?”
“The one granny told me about: Zephora. It has to be. Even Aunt Serena says so.”
“Oh,” said Alexis, exasperated. “Then it must be true.”
My sister, kneeling down before Celestina, rocked on her knees, almost tipped backwards as though shocked at her daughter’s admission before catching herself. “What are you saying?”
“Can’t you tell?” Celestina asked, scoffing at her mother’s confusion. “She was the first witch. Even Great Granny Lorraine knew. She told me to be careful.” Worried, Celestina met my gaze. “Be careful around her, okay, Mom?”
Alexis shot to her feet. “That’s enough!” She looked down the hall toward her mother’s bedroom. “We’re going to figure this out once and for all!” She headed in that direction.
I held out a hand, indicating to Kendall and Brandon to stay with Celestina. They didn’t even move in my direction. That didn’t surprise me. They knew nothing about my heritage and weren’t curious to find out about it. But Alexis knew enough, and I only hoped she’d pass some of that knowledge along to me sometime soon.
A moment later, I heard Shrek arguing with his wife, Fiona, on television.
I followed Alexis down the hall.
She stopped at her mother’s door, took in a deep breath then let it out, and tried to twist the knob, but Zephora had locked the door. “Stand back.” When I did, Alexis remained in place, and whispered words I couldn’t quite make out. The moment she finished, the lock on the other side of the door clicked.
“What did you say?” I asked, astonished by her skills. Of course, I knew that most witches knew how to perform enchantments, but since I didn’t belong in that group, I could only marvel at her knowledge.
Alexis didn’t respond, didn’t even look my way. Instead, she extended a hand and pushed the door open a few inches. She took in a deep breath and steadied her nerves, as though expecting an attack, and stepped forward…
But her foot stopped in mid air as it plunked against an invisible barrier. Alexis stepped back. “She put a boundary spell on this room.”
I looked over my sister’s shoulder and saw Zephora lying on her side, facing up, clinching tight while her body trembled under the blanket she drew tight around her body like a wrapped mummy, giving the impression that snakes slithered beneath those blankets. Eyes closed, perspiration dotting her forehead, she opened her eyes and stared right at us.
I jerked back as though struck, obviously a little too jumpy at the sight of the most powerful witch that had ever lived.
Alexis, however, stood rigidly, unaffected by the image of Zephora shaking in place, while her gaze met ours, probably because she figured her mother was simply going through withdrawal from substance abuse. Nevertheless, she didn’t step inside; she just stood before the doorway, as though unable to move. Then she began whispering once more, but when she tried to take a step forward, her foot hit an invisible partition.
Zephora revealed the creepy smile she so excelled at showing at the most frustrating of times.
“How strange!” Alexis said, staring at Zephora. “That smile looks hideous…nothing like Mother. Then again, it could have been a result of dying. Maybe she came back wrong.”
I didn’t need to respond, figuring it best to let my sister discover any other oddities that might seem out of place.
“She hasn’t even blinked,” she whispered over her shoulder to me.
The grin on Zephora’s face grew wider.
“Mother, can you hear me?” Receiving no response but that dead stare, Alexis said, “Undo that spell, so we can help you. If you go to the hospital, they can—”
The blanket rippled, and she slipped an arm outside of the cover. It shook as she extended it toward us before pointing at me, her hand shimmying from side-to-side, no longer a consequence of drug withdrawal, but a result of harboring so much hatred for me…that she couldn’t control her body movements.
“What about her?” Alexis asked, turning to me with a querulous look.
I shook my head, trying not to reveal my fright. After all, Zephora had promised to murder me, and since I didn’t intend to die any time soon, I had to stay sharp at all times.
“You…” Zephora shrieked. She finally blinked, but in doing so, she scrunched up her face so much that her white teeth shined in the dark room. “Will pay!”
Alexis snickered and looked back at me. “You did kill her.” She shrugged. “Guess she wants payback. Who could blame her?”
“As I’ve said numerous times, I’ve forgiven you. That’s a righteous path.” I pointed to Zephora. “That is not!”
“If you killed me, you bet I’d get my payback. Same thing with Mother.”
“Okay, let me put it in terms you can understand. If Celestina stabbed you in the back and you died but managed to reincarnate fully aware of what you’ve done, would you want to kill her? Not just say it, because that’s too easy, but actually do it.”
Alexis frowned. “I may not be the best mother, but she wouldn’t have reason enough to kill me.”
“That’s not what I asked. If she killed you and you came back to life, would you kill her? Answer the question.”
“No,” she said without hesitation. “I couldn’t ever do that.” She hit me with a disdainful glare.
“Of course, it’s because you love her. That’s easy. But what if you carried her to term and then gave her up? Fast forward twenty years. Even if you hadn’t seen her in all that time, would you still be capable of killing your child?”
Alexis presented a stone-faced expression. “She’s going through withdrawal, and you killed her. That’s enough to throw anyone off-balance.”
It seems my argument wouldn’t make an impression on her, so I gestured toward Zephora. “Does she smile like that ordinarily? Does she stare at you without blinking?”
“Maybe after Celestina brought her back, she came back wrong. Besides, you see what she’s going through. Don’t you think she has reason to act weird?”
I couldn’t dispute that claim. “Even Celestina said that it’s not our mother. Why won’t you trust her?”
“With everything that’s been going on? Not only that, but she’s young and naive. She’s impressionable enough to listen to you.”
“You think I brainwashed her?”
“No, but she looks up to you. She wants you to like her, so she might ignore her better judgment and trust you without a second thought.”
Once again, I couldn’t argue that point. “So how do I convince you?”
From behind us came a quiet voice. “Maybe The Book of Souls can help us undo that spell.”
I spun toward Celestina. “But it’s not real.” Seeing her gaze swing from mine to her mother’s, I glared at Alexis. “It’s real? All this time, you’ve lied
to me, saying that you were looking for it, accusing me of having it, and now you’re telling me…The Book of Souls is real? That you had it all along?”
“I didn’t lie. Mother lied.” She shrugged and a sneaky smile appeared on her face.
“It’s a lie of omission. You knew the truth and didn’t say anything!” Seeing that my rationale hadn’t affected Alexis, I said to Celestina, “Your mother and I need to speak alone.”
“Stay right there,” Alexis said. “We needed The Book of Souls, so while Celestina was bringing you back to life, I found it in your grandmother’s shop and hid it. Before I left, I took it with me.”
Celestina looked from her mother to me. “I should go.” She started down the hall.
“Hey!” Alexis shouted. “I said, stay here!”
“You need to talk,” said my niece. She continued down the hall until she hooked a left and vanished into the family room.
Relieved that Celestina left the room, yet startled (and proud) she’d disobeyed her mother, I said, “Don’t you have a conscience? Or is it lying at the bottom of a vodka bottle?” Had I seen a flash of anger cross her face before she fixed her customary flat expression back in place?
“I don’t care about that new ability you got,” she said. “I’ll find out how to fight it.”
I punched her in the face. The blow knocked her unconscious, and her body bounced off the invisible force field Zephora had created. I caught her and gently laid her onto the ground.
“What did you do?” Celestina screamed from the other room.
Glancing down the hall, toward the area she’d shouted, I didn’t see her. Had she heard the raucous?
A second later, however, she ran into the hallway and headed toward me. Gasping, she ignored me and skidded to a stop on the ground beside her mother, placing one hand on her shoulder and another against the side of her face. “Why did you hurt her?” She shook her mother.
How had she known I’d even touched Alexis? She’d been in the other room, separated by a wall. She could have heard my fist hit her mother’s face, but the high volume on the television would have masked the sound.
“She may be your mother, but she’s not a good person.” Deep down, Celestina knew the truth, but that didn’t mean she would always try to pretend otherwise. Therefore, I shouldn’t have stated the truth. It would only infuriate her.
“I saw you hit her.” She looked up at me with disappointment in her eyes. “How could you?”
“But how do you—”
“I don’t know how, but when I want to, I can see through other people’s eyes.”
I gave that some thought. It meant Celestina had a fourth ability! Yet, no witch in the family line had more than three abilities. Except Zephora. That’s when I recalled Darius stating that Celestina was the most powerful witch since Zephora. But in what way? That they had similar abilities?
“What does that mean?” I asked, confounded by her admission. “Can you enter another person’s body and possess them?”
She stared at me for a long moment, expression revealing deep frustration. Finally, she said, “No. Sometimes my thoughts drift until I find my way into someone else’s mind. Then I can see through their eyes.”
The idea made goosebumps rise on my arms. What if she could do that to me? Then another, more startling, idea entered my thoughts. What if she already had?
Celestina grabbed her mother’s wrist and felt for her pulse. Finding it, she let out a deep sigh of relief. “Why did you hurt her? She didn’t do anything to you.”
“You mother believes Delphine is still alive. She won’t believe that Zephora has pushed Delphine beyond the veil.”
“So you hurt her?” Her glare intensified.
Who could blame Celestina for acting out? I’d have done the same thing if someone had attacked Grams. “We need The Book of Souls to learn how to banish Zephora before she sets her plans in motion. And I’m sorry, but if it means knocking your mother unconscious to get it, I’ll do it. This is more important than me or her or even you!”
“At least you didn’t kill someone else!” Celestina said and turned back to me, her expression mangling into fury. “Why couldn’t you have tried something else?” She got to her feet in one fluid motion, her gaze full of rage. “Why did you hit her?”
My nerves clenched. I had severely underestimated Celestina’s love for her mother, just as I had underestimated Alexis’s love for our mother. But unlike me, they were unable to put distance between each other and see the truth.
No matter what I said, I’d never be able to convince my niece that I’d needed to incapacitate Alexis for a while in order to attempt to approach Zephora and potentially discover how to send her back beyond the veil. Therefore, I tried a different tactic. “Would your mother be okay with you entering her body to see through her eyes?” It made sense that Celestina had that ability, considering that Alexis could access another person’s mind, not to mention force thoughts into that person’s mind. “That’s sort of like what your mother does: stealing another person’s thoughts. You forced yourself into their world without their approval, Celestina! You’re a thief.”
“You didn’t need to hurt her,” she said, disregarding my statement.
The way she stared at me made me feel as tiny and helpless as an ant…while Celestina stood over me, examining me, trying to determine if she should stomp on me. “We don’t have time to convince someone who won’t listen to reason.”
“I don’t care!”
I moved toward her in hopes of shaking loose the retribution whirling through her soul that she wanted to bring upon me.
With alarming reflexes, Celestina directed her left hand toward me.
I flew backwards against the wall opposite her. My bones seemed to stick to the wall like a spider. My head slanted to the left, preventing me from looking at my niece without curving my eyes toward her.
She extended her arm and raised her hand up toward the ceiling.
Without moving a muscle, my body inched up the wall.
“That was mean, Aunt Serena. That was very mean!”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
My body continued up the wall for about two feet before stopping. I glanced down, once again only moving my eyes, and was shocked that Celestina had this much power, this much control. “What are you doing?” I couldn’t eliminate the fear from my tone.
Celestina took two steps forward. Emotionless, she cocked her head to the left, scrutinizing me. “Have you been…lying to me?”
“What? No!”
“I think you have!”
Footfalls pounded at the other end of the hallway: Kendall and Brandon. “Hey,” Brandon said, “what the—”
Celestina arched her other hand in their direction and flicked it at them.
Kendall and Brandon flew six feet backwards and fell in a heap of arms and legs onto the carpet in the family room.
“Celie,” I said, using my nickname for her. “Please don’t hurt them.”
“I won’t hurt them,” Celestina said, inspecting my expression for…something she couldn’t find. She held my gaze for another ten seconds, and then, as though a switch went off behind her eyes, the anger left her expression. She shrugged, and with that gesture, she once more returned to the easy-going niece I knew and loved. “Sorry, Aunt Serena.” She lowered her arm. “I had to be sure you weren’t lying to me.”
My body slipped down the wall, and my shoes hit the carpet again. Out of breath at the strange twist of events, I said, “Okay…” Because, really, what do you say when your little niece had possibly considered torturing you until you convinced her that you hadn’t planned to do her mother harm?
While I regained my wits, I said, “What just happened?”
Celestina’s wholesome expression turned sour. “You hurt Mom. I wanted to know why.” She paused. “I got my answer.” She smiled, but when her gaze fell to her mother’s unconscious form, that expression faltered. “She better be okay.” She stared at
me. “I hate that you hurt her.”
“I know.” I didn’t know what else to say except the truth. “I’m sorry.”
Her eyebrows drew inwards.
“What do we do with…” I motioned towards Zephora, whose smile no longer stretched from ear to ear because a sneer had taken its place. Nevertheless, she still shivered in place, possibly trying to determine the dynamic between Celestina and I, so she could manipulate either one of us later.
“She’s sick,” Celestina said, no doubt repeating words Alexis had spoken to her. “We need to let her get stronger.”
“No. We need to stop her, so she doesn’t get stronger.” But I’d already pushed my luck by striking her mother. Besides, Zephora made it impossible for us to enter her room. I only hoped she’d stay there. Even so, while she recovered from Delphine’s drug addiction, she still needed another day before her mind meshed with my mother’s body, garnering the supernatural powers that awaited her.
“We can’t leave her like this,” Celestina said, staring down at her mother.
“I’ll take care of that.” I hunched over, slipped my hands under Alexis’s armpits, and dragged her towards her bedroom. I couldn’t do it alone. “Brandon!”
We carried her through the hall, into her bedroom, and onto her bed.
He arrived a few seconds later and looked down at my sister. “Did she black out?”
“Sorta. Grab her legs.”
Satisfied that her mother rested in bed, Celestina said, “I guess we should get The Book of Souls, huh? To see if it’s really Granny?”
In the bedroom, Zephora’s lips snarled like those of a rabid dog, but she didn’t attempt to unfurl her blanket and attack us to prevent me from checking out The Book of Souls.
I nodded at Celestina and watched as she padded down the hall, ignoring Kendall and Brandon, who got to their feet, shrinking back as she neared them, before turning into the kitchen without even acknowledging their existence.
Now out of my niece’s sight line, I let out a heavy breath, shocked at the turn of events. I never would have expected her to attack me, or at least, render me helpless, while she looked on, acting as judge and jury. The notion frightened me. If she responded so coldly, so harshly, what else was she capable of?
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