by Kari Thomas
He had to find the correct wording for the Spell. Kira needed to be dealt with. And, now, he had the added pressure of discovering why Sonia was bothering others from the grave. She should have been satisfied to stay where she had been sent. She got what she had asked for, after all was said and done.
He stopped in front of a floor-to-ceiling bookcase and his gaze scanned the shelves.
“This one, I think.” He chose a large leather-bound book and clutched it in his dry hands reverently. Clarity spells were basic and white witches used them for various reasons.
But the one he needed was going to be richly empowered with black magic.
He smiled. “A little surprise, and far less detectable, by meddlesome white witches, poking their noses where they don’t belong.”
Kira wouldn’t suspect a thing.
*****
Kira heaved an impatient and frustrated sigh, exhaustion pushing her to slump down into the bedside chair. The rest of her evening had been a total failure, spent tracking down an elusive spirit. Her gaze wandered around the room, searching, seeing nothing out of the ordinary. She couldn’t even feel the chill that had circled her earlier when her sister had whispered her cryptic message.
“Come on, Sonia,” she whispered desperately, “Answer me. I know it was you.”
Deafening silence met her heart-felt plea.
After hearing the voice whisper, “I followed mine and it killed me,” Kira had flown off the bed, surprised and shocked that her sister’s voice had been so clear. So close.
The bone chilling air that tended to herald the presence of an otherworld spirit had surrounded her and Kira had known, without a doubt, that her sister was there, in the room with her.
She’d beseeched Sonia to speak, to explain, but the chill had slowly disappeared, dissipating as if never there. Kira had tried every spell she could remember to bring her back, to get to the truth, and her failure made her feel disgusted with her lack of abilities. Granted, she hadn’t used her powers for years. But she’d been feeling surer of her powers, a joyous returning of her magical gift ever since she’d moved to Sedona.
She knew she was becoming stronger.
So, why then, hadn’t she been able to conjure Sonia’s spirit? Persuade her to stay and talk?
A light knock on the bedroom door broke into her troubled thoughts. “Come in,” she called out and, to her surprise and delight, Marissa came bouncing in.
“Good morning, Aunty Kitty-Kira.” She ran to her and climbed into Kira’s lap, giving her a hug.
“Hello, baby.” Kira giggled at the look of denial that crossed Marissa’s cherubic features. “Oops. I mean, ‘hello, little foxy’.”
“Aunty Kitty-Kira, have you seen my big Kitty? I can’t find him, or Uncle Wolfie, or Aunty Beary-girl. Nida says she doesn’t know where they are either.”
Kira made sure she kept her expression neutral and her voice calm. “It’s very early, sweetheart. Are you sure they’re not in their rooms?” Where could they be? Why would all three of them have left…especially after last night? Her anger surfaced but she pushed it back down.
Marissa should be their first concern and they’d left her alone. Okay, so there were countless servants, and Nida, the new nanny, but still! Kira shook her head, not believing their carelessness.
Aiden wasn’t going to like what she had to say about this!
Marissa cuddled close. “Someone woke me up. They were talking to me but, when I looked, no one was there. So I went looking for everyone and no one’s home. I wanted to go play with Moomer this morning, and Aunty Riana promised she would take me. Will you? Uncle Aiden says no talking to you about…Moomer and the others…but he didn’t say anything about visiting them, did he? Moomer is so cute. She’s still learning to walk and she trips over everything.”
Kira half listened as Marissa rattled on about her friends. Someone woke me up, talking to me, but when I looked no one was there? A tinge of hope surfaced. Could Sonia have visited Marissa?
“Sweetheart,” Kira hugged the little girl close, keeping her tone light and carefree. “What did the voice say to you?”
Marissa’s cherubic features wrinkled in a frown. “Can’t remember. She was whispering.”
It had to have been Sonia. Kira’s heart raced. I was right. Sonia’s spirit is worried about Marissa for some reason. Did last night have anything to do with Sonia showing up again? But why hadn’t she tried to warn her before that cat had attacked? And why hadn’t Sonia returned when she tried to summon her?
There were too many unanswered questions and Kira suppressed a shiver of dread, suddenly feeling that time was running out. She needed to find answers. Quickly.
Before it was too late.
“Maybe someone is playing hide and seek in my room,” Marissa suggested, “and they’re waiting for me to find them. Can we go look? Will you play, too, Aunty Kitty-Kira?”
Kira chewed on her bottom lip for a moment. Was it possible that Sonia might still lingering in Marissa’s room? There was only one way to find out.
She lifted Marissa in her arms and left the room. “Sure, I’ll play, sweetheart. Let’s go find your ‘playmate’.” When they entered Marissa’s bedroom, Kira immediately felt the chill in the air.
Sonia was definitely still there!
She sat Marissa down on her bed and made a pretense of searching under it, then in the closet. Marissa giggled and made suggestions on where to look next. As the minutes passed, the air in the room grew colder and Kira knew it was time. She sat down on the bed and hugged Marissa close. Keeping her voice playful, she suggested, “Let’s play a fun new game, okay? We can make the ‘hider’ come out by saying a little spell.”
Marissa looked up at her with such a solemn expression on her face that Kira nearly changed her mind. “But Aunty Kitty-Kira, Uncle Aiden said no more spells…ever. Mommy…’’ She paused and looked up, tears welling in her eyes. “Mommy said spells and Uncle Aiden got very mad. He said no more.”
Damn Aiden and his prejudice against Sonia…and Marissa’s…heritage!
He had no right to deny the child her birthright. She wasn’t going to let that continue ─ no matter what she had to do. “This is just a little spell,” Kira explained gently, holding up two fingers until they almost touched. “And we don’t have to tell Uncle Aiden, or anyone else about it.” Marissa still looked uncertain and it nearly broke Kira’s heart. Instead of being afraid, the little girl should be embracing her inborn talent, learning how to use it. “Ready?” Kira smiled broadly, encouraging Marissa to join in the fun.
“Okay.”
Kira touched her baby cheek. “Close your eyes for a few moments, sweetheart. Think of nothing but feeling safe and secure here in my arms. Think of how fun it will be to discover who is hiding.” She took a deep, cleansing breath and closed her own eyes. She’d need to word the spell so that only she, and not Marissa, saw what it revealed. There was no need to scare the little girl with the sudden appearance of her dead mother.
But she needed her there because she had the feeling it was Marissa that Sonia wanted to communicate with.
Softly, but with undeniable demand, she chanted,
“Clear as crystal is my mind.
Leave veils of doubt far behind.
Remove this web so only I may see.
This is my will. So mote it be.”
Kira realized she was holding her breath as she opened her eyes and searched the room for some sign of Sonia. She released it on a soft sigh and then repeated firmly, “This is my will. So mote it be.” Simultaneously, the room’s temperature dropped further and a soft sighing sound echoed around them. Kira glanced down at Marissa cuddled in her arms.
Shocked, she noted a dark amber aura surrounding the child.
Amber? Marissa should have the Douglas lavender aura. All the Douglas women had it, generation after generation. Before she could dwell on the baffling oddity, a gust of cold air blew across the room and suddenly stilled in front of
her.
Sonia. Her sister’s spirit was so transparent it was hard to see her clearly but Kira felt her. And…something else.
Anger. Fear. Frustration.
Sonia’s wavering spirit practically boiled with the stark emotions.
“Tell me,” Kira desperately insisted.
Thin, barely audible, Sonia spoke and the words chilled Kira to the depth of her soul. “Marissa. Danger. He will kill. Beware.”
Before she could even digest the warning, a deep voice, filled with suppressed rage, muttered behind her, “I should kill you for this.”
*****
Warren concentrated on the words of the black spell, chanting them over and over. His insidious power strengthened with every cant and his exaltation rose. At first he wasn’t so sure that he had…yet acquired…the power to control this particular spell…especially against a witch as strong as his niece.
But the blackness radiating from the altar gave him the much-needed reassurance that it was working.
“Black spirits, hear my command.
Bend her will to my demand.
Through her eyes I will see,
This is my will. So mote it be.”
As clear as though flickering on a movie screen, a picture formed above the altar.
His niece sat on a bed, holding Marissa…and staring into a face full of deadly rage. When he saw who was leaning so menacingly over Kira, Warren chuckled. “You’ll cause your own downfall, Kira. All I have to do is sit back and watch.”
But, just in case…
He’d be ready to do whatever it took to further his plans.
*****
“You scared me, big Kitty.” Marissa jumped from Kira’s arms and crawled across the bed to where Aiden stood. “We were playing a game. Hide and seek.”
Never taking his hard gaze from Kira’s, Aiden lifted Marissa off the bed and set her on her feet. “Aunt Riana has made you a special breakfast, honey. Hurry to the kitchen, okay.”
“Are you and Aunty Kitty-Kira going to play without me?”
Aiden held back his simmering rage and answered calmly, “No, baby. Now, off you go.” He waited until she had scurried from the room before he spoke. It took every ounce of willpower he had to keep from reaching out and wrapping his hands around Kira’s throat, throttling her for her daring actions.
“I warned you, little witch. Yet you defied me.”
A rosy blush flushed over Kira’s cheeks but her gaze hardened and her pink lips thinned in a line of displeasure. “You have no right to deny Marissa her heritage,” she spat out between clenched teeth. “She’s going to want to know, sooner or later, when she starts sensing the power within her.”
“Never.” Aiden growled, the rough sound dangerous.
“Ha.” Kira stood up and faced him, toe to toe. “You arrogant—!” She took a calming breath. “You can’t keep her away from it, Aiden. It isn’t fair. Not to her, or her heritage. You can’t use ignorance and fear as your basis of judgment. Sonia was mentally unstable. It had nothing to do with her witchcraft. It started when we were much younger. I didn’t realize it had gotten so dangerous until it was too…anyway, Marissa will not inherit Sonia’s mental disability. It started when—’’
“Ignorance and fear?” Aiden grabbed her by the shoulders, his grip painful. “It wasn’t ignorance, or fear, that killed my brother. It was deliberate, malicious power that I should have been more aware of.” He shook her, his wrath threatening to boil out of control. “I won’t lose another family member to witchcraft.”
“Let me go.” Kira struggled vainly.
He tightened his grip, bringing her flush against him. “What were you doing when I came in?” he demanded. “Teaching her a spell?”
“It was a simple clarity spell and she couldn’t even see—’’
“Damn it, Kira. Finish that. She couldn’t see…what?”
Kira made the move to kick him, but he was holding her too close and she wasn’t able to do much damage. “Fine, Aiden. I’ll tell you. I was trying to contact Sonia.” No need to anger him more and tell him that it had worked. Sonia had disappeared the moment he came into the room. “I think she was here earlier.”
The foul words he spat out made her blanch and suppress a shiver. Kira tried to summon a calm she was far from feeling. “She came to Marissa. For a reason. I was trying to find out why.”
Aiden’s handsome features darkened like a thundercloud. “You were trying to summon …a dead woman…in front of Marissa? What kind of fool are you, Kira? Didn’t you even once think about the danger, the threat, to Marissa?”
Outrage hit her, hard. “Sonia would never hurt her daughter! And I’m strong enough to protect Marissa from any unseen threat. I would never place her in any kind of danger. How could you even think that?”
“You cast a…summoning…spell in front of Marissa and try to talk to a dead woman, while holding her in your arms, and I’m supposed to believe you had Marissa’s best interest in mind during this atrocity? Why the hell should I?” His voice deepened, low and ominous. “I could kill you for taking such a chance.”
Kira gasped. Sonia’s warning rang clear in her mind. “He will kill.” Was she trying to warn her about Aiden? Could he be the danger her sister was worried about? Fear made her voice a little less firm than she wanted as she demanded, “Release me, Aiden. Release me now.” She pushed hard against him, uttering a soft repelling spell, pulling free, taking a step back. That was when she noticed it.
The clarity spell she’d cast earlier was still working. Aiden’s aura was amber.
Dark. Pulsing.
Just like Marissa’s.
“Why?” She said the word aloud before she could stop herself.
Aiden frowned harder. “Why, what?” He didn’t like the way her shocked-filled eyes stared at him as if he was suddenly some kind of monster. Her complexion was pallid and she looked unsteady, as if her feet had been knocked out from under her. He stopped short of reaching out to pull her close, deciding that touching her wasn’t a smart move.
At least not right now.
The tension between them was dangerously explosive.
“It shouldn’t be.” Kira slowly shook her head. “It’s not possible. All Douglas females have the same…it’s never been any different…I don’t understand.”
Aiden’s patience was at an end.
Since walking in and catching Kira chanting a spell, while holding Marissa, his emotions had run the gauntlet of rage to confusion, to disbelief and disdain, then back to confusion. Damn, but he had to start getting better control over himself than this. He couldn’t let her continue to affect him this way.
It could only bring trouble.
“Are you going to explain what you’re mumbling about?” He folded his arms and stared hard at her, waiting for an explanation. Kira’s gaze flew over him and he felt it burn like a physical touch.
She opened her mouth to speak, stopped and took a deep breath before releasing it on a long sigh. “There’s only one explanation. And, even then, it shouldn’t be the reason.” She met his gaze, her own suspiciously teary.
“You’re Marissa’s father.”
Chapter Eleven
“What the hell are you talking about?”
Kira shivered at the sound of black rage barely suppressed in his deep, low tone. She’d never seen him so angry. She didn’t want to believe it but the proof was staring her in the face. The only reason Aiden would have the same amber aura Marissa had was if…they were father and daughter.
That was the only answer that made sense.
But why did the revelation hurt so much? The thought of Aiden…with her sister…in that way…was almost more than her heart could bear.
“Kira,” Aiden growled the words out through clenched teeth. “Answer me, damn it.”
Kira’s knees buckled and she sat on the bed with a numb, ungraceful plop. Her heart thudded hard against her breast, tears she didn’t want to show threatening to fall.
Aiden made a snorting noise, disgust tingeing his tone, “You’re looking like the world crashed down on you simply because Marissa’s aura is amber, and not the traditional Douglas lavender? So what? She obviously inherited it from her father.”
Kira slowly shook her head, wishing it were that simple. It had never happened, in all the generations of Douglas women. It was part of their magic heritage. The only explanation was that, for some reason, Marissa had inherited…her father’s…aura. It could only mean that her niece was a full Calhoun, with none of her mother’s gifted magic.
“She did inherit it from her…father.” Kira clasped her hands together to hide the trembling and slowly stood up. “The clarity spell was still working when you came into the room.”
“So?” Aiden’s handsome face was so dark and stormy she could feel the tension radiating off him like heat waves.
“Your aura is amber, Aiden.”
Aiden’s heart almost stopped beating. Kira’s whispered words echoed around them like she’d shouted the accusation.
Damn it all to hell.
This was the last thing he’d ever expected to come up against after allowing Kira into their lives. He’d never once considered the chance she’d use a spell that would possibly expose their secret. All shape-shifters had the same amber aura. It was only noticeable to each other, while they were in animal form, and Aiden had never thought twice about it.
Until now.
Damn, what could he say? He was torn between wanting to deny the truth and erasing that tearful look off her face, or trying to come up with a plausible explanation that would satisfy her. Either way, a line had been crossed now and there was no going back. “Kyle obviously had an amber aura.”