Seeress: Book Three (Runes Series)

by Ednah Walters

  I slipped my arms around him and squeezed hard. It was my turn to ease his pain. His crazy obsession with finding the person who sold his family’s things made sense now. I stepped back and studied his face. “Do you want to talk about it?”

  “No. I’d rather find out which one of the witches was playing mind games with your head so I can snap their scrawny neck,” he ground out.

  “You think someone was deliberately projecting images… No, impossible.” I shook my head.

  “Yes. It’s the only explanation. They find out your weaknesses and use them against you. Typical witches M.O.”

  Whoever did it knew about my fear, my father, and my relationship with Eirik. “You’re right. It makes perfect sense now, but who? Bash? His father? Why would anyone do that to me? I mean, I helped them.”

  Torin shuddered. “Damn ungrateful witches. I’m going to—”

  “No, you stay away from them too. I wouldn’t wish on anyone what they did to me. It was horrible.”

  “The more reason to hunt them down.”

  “No, Torin. And we’re not talking about me after you dropped that bomb about your father. Sit.” I pushed him onto the bed. “I want to know everything, because if he’s really the one after me, some of the witches know one of his cohorts. A woman by the name of Madam Bosvilles.”

  “Is she the one Femi is pissed off about?”

  “Yes. She’s been stealing powers from younger witches and…” I slapped his thigh. “You’re doing it again. Deliberately distracting me. We’re talking about you, not me.”

  Sighing, he leaned back against the headboard and crossed his legs. From his expression, he’d rather pull out his nails with pliers than talk. I curled my legs under me and waited. Silence followed. He really wasn’t going to talk until I pushed and nagged him.

  “Did you know he was Immortal?” I asked.

  “No.”

  “And?”

  “Come here.”

  I shook my head. I wanted to study his face while he talked.

  “I feel better when I hold you. This is very personal.” He faked a lost puppy look.

  Such a drama queen. I crawled over to him and let him pull me to his side. His chest was the best pillow, and after my vision of a certain half-naked dirty blond, I needed to surround myself with everything Torin. When he pressed a kiss on my temple, I patted his chest. “Okay, you got me. Start talking.”

  “My father and his clergy friends always had secret meetings. I didn’t think much of it when I was young. Most necromancers were clergymen anyway. This was three centuries before the witch trials. Mom found out what they were doing, and they killed her. I watched my father die three months later. He and his friends were having a meeting when the house caught fire. No one could have survived that fire.”

  I wondered if he’d started it. Didn’t he once say the necromancer who’d killed his mother and his friends had gotten what they deserved? “Did you—?”

  “No, but I didn’t stop it either. Not after what they did to my mother. So when the amulet resurfaced, I thought someone had robbed her tomb. I checked and found her body missing. Remember when you asked me if she was a witch?”

  “Yes.” He’d nearly bit off my head.

  “I might not have liked it, but you got me thinking. I wanted you to be right. I hoped she wasn’t dead. That she was an Immortal.” He frowned. “So I searched. The days I was gone, I followed trails of a powerful witch that seemed to appear every two or three decades then disappear.”

  “Madam Bosvilles?”

  “Possibly. Not many Immortals make their presence known to Mortals. As for my mother’s body, it turned out one of the earls had moved her. That’s when I realized whoever had auctioned the amulet, this portrait, and others trinkets did it to draw me out. The Norns confirmed it when they told you they were using me. They are using my father to come after you.”

  I lifted my head. “What do you think he wants?”

  “I don’t know. He’s obviously an evil Immortal.” He had that look in his eyes. Like he couldn’t wait for the showdown with his father.

  I shuddered. “When were you planning on telling me all this?”

  Torin traced my nose, stroking my freckles. “When were you planning on telling me about your visions of him?”

  My face warmed under his narrowed gaze. “You don’t answer a question with a question.”

  “Yet you do it all the time. You weren’t trying to protect me, were you?”

  “Oh no.” I swept a hand along his shoulder. “These big shoulders can carry all the weight of the world.” And he had for so long. First, the mess with watching his mother grieve and not being able to help her. Then knowing the person responsible was his evil Immortal father. “You shouldn’t try to shield me from things, no matter how unpleasant.”

  His lips turned up. “Like how I told you not to hang out with the witches because they screw with people’s heads and you went ahead and did it?”

  I burrowed under his chin. Telling me not to do something was like waving a red flag at a bull. I barreled ahead at full speed. “They’re not all bad.”

  He stroked my arm and continued down to my jeggings-clad hips. He lifted my leg across his waist. “So what happened at the shop?”

  Did he really think I could concentrate now? I trapped his roving hand with mine and threaded our fingers. “Um, I saved several people and restored their magic.”

  He chuckled, the sound rumbling through his chest. “You only see the positive in the mayhem. Start from the beginning.”

  “Disclaimer first. I didn’t go to the witches. I listened to you and laid low. I was good. I was better than good.” He chuckled. “I was a model Seeress. Then they came to see me and thank me and touch me.” I shivered. “It got weird fast.” I went into details and finished with, “They also thought we’d called for help and insisted on staying, which means—”

  “We have a snitch. Whoever summoned them knows we are here and is working with my father.”

  Eirik. But until I could confirm it, I was not mentioning him. I focused on what happened at school with Sebastian and the twins, then the store. By the time I finished talking, Torin was sitting up. “Can you recognize the building in your vision?”

  “Yeah. It’s the old Grits Mill on Fulton Street and 10th North.”

  “Show me.” He rolled off the bed.

  “Just a second.” I raced downstairs. Femi was with Dad. I waved her over. “I need to show Torin something from my one of my visions.”

  She peered at me. “You okay?”

  I nodded. “I’m okay now. The visions were crazy.”

  “Not visions. An evil witch was messing with your head.”

  “I know. Torin and I reached that conclusion too. I just don’t know who would want to hurt me like that after I helped them.”

  “Stay away from them until we figure out what’s going on, okay?”

  I nodded. “I’ll be home to read to Dad.”

  Upstairs, I grabbed the nearest shoes and followed Torin through the portal to the top of Founders Hall, the tallest building in Kayville. Founders Hall was the oldest and the main administrative building at Walkersville University. The top had a dome and spire, the perfect place for viewing the entire town. I pointed out the Grits Mill building.

  “If he’s marking buildings to create a magical circle around the city, he’s going to etch runes or magical symbols on rooftops around town,” Torin said. “Go that way while I go this way.”

  I went to the right, searching everywhere for the triskelion. Below, students walked across the quad and into buildings. The university was already preparing for spring Aggie Day.

  “Got it,” Torin called out.

  The drawing wasn’t on the flat rooftop. It was on the town-facing side of the dome. Torin removed his artavus from the inner pocket of his leather jacket and pulled a Jackie Chan move—jumping off the roof and running up the drum and the dome. Only he did it better. At a Valkyrie s
peed. He etched a block-and-protect bind rune over the witch symbol.

  He landed gracefully beside me, like a cat, and flashed a smug grin. “Let’s see who will win this battle. Next stop, Grist Mill.”

  Father and son rivalry had just taken on a new meaning.

  ***

  “You’ve got some nerve demanding my presence, St. James,” Echo said, entering the kitchen at the mansion with Cora in tow. “I was in the middle of something, so this had better be good.”

  “My father is coming to town,” Torin announced.

  Andris choked on his drink. Blaine and Ingrid traded puzzled looks. Ingrid was still acting like I didn’t exist. I wasn’t even going to stress about it.

  Echo laughed. “Now that’s definitely worth my time.”

  Andris stopped sputtering long enough to say, “Your dad is dead, Torin.”

  “He’s very much alive and possibly an Immortal. An evil Immortal. He killed my mother to hide his necromancer activities and is now coming for Raine. We are going to stop him.”

  If he was going for shock factor, he nailed it. Jaws dropped. But once again, Echo didn’t seem surprised.

  “Someone here is working with him,” he continued, eyes narrowed as he glanced at faces around the room. We looked at each other as though trying to figure out which one of us was guilty.

  He was getting some weird kicks out of keeping everyone on edge. I walked to where he stood with his arms crossed and legs apart, clearly using his stance to try to intimidate the guilty party.

  “Seriously? This is how you’re going about this?” I asked.

  He cocked his brow as though surprised I was challenging him. “They need to know how dire the situation is. Someone here is working with my father.”

  “But we agreed yesterday that none of us is guilty,” I said. I glanced at the others. “Sorry, guys. He can be a bit melodramatic. The bottom line is someone here in the valley sent out a witch-in-trouble alert or the Call, as they refer to it. We don’t know if the witches are here to help us or to support his father.”

  “Do Hawk and Femi know what’s going on?” Cora asked.

  “Yes, but they’re not guilty,” I said.

  Torin grabbed me around the waist, when I could have walked away, and pinned me to his side. “Quit hijacking my meeting,” he growled in my ear.

  “Then quit behaving like a douche.” I tried to wiggle out of his arms, but his grip tightened.

  “I vetted Femi and Hawk, Cora,” Torin said. “They are loyal to Raine’s family. I believe that whoever made the call did it knowing my father would find out about it and follow the witches here. It might explain why they stopped going after Seeresses. We even set a trap in a witch’s shop in Philly, but so far nothing’s happened there either. He knows where we are.”

  “Just one question, St. James,” Echo interrupted. “What makes you trust me? My first loyalty is to mine.” He pressed a kiss on Cora’s temple. “Then to my goddess.”

  I expected Torin to lose it. Instead he smirked. “I don’t trust you, Grimnir, but I’m counting on Cora and your feelings for her. You wouldn’t do anything to hurt her best friend and screw up what you have going with Cora.”

  “He’s right,” Cora said, glancing up at Echo. “You betray my best friend and I’ll hurt you in ways you couldn’t possibly imagine.”

  Echo actually winced. Then he slanted Torin an annoyed glance. “What do you want from me? Like I said, I could be reaping or…” He winced when Cora elbowed him. “Woman, you jab me again…”

  Cora grinned.

  Andris watched them and shook his head. “How are we going to find out who is working with your father?”

  “We’ll draw them out. They’ve already started drawing their witchcraft symbols on rooftops. I think they’re creating a magical circle around the city to contain whatever mayhem they’re planning. I want to know what they mean and that’s where Echo, Ingrid, and Blaine come in. You all practiced the Old Religion at different periods and should be able to figure out what we’re dealing with.”

  “Can we see them?” Ingrid said.

  Torin pulled out his artavus and etched the symbols on the counter. He stepped aside and allowed the three to study them.

  Ingrid shook her head. “I recognize the triskelion, but it looks like things are growing on its legs.”

  Blaine traced part of it. “It is a combination of symbols.”

  “Move aside, Immortals,” Echo said. He removed his artavus and drew four different symbols, one on top of the other. When he was done, he’d drawn the exact symbol from the Walkersville dome. “They used the triskelion to hide the Ogham writing underneath it.”

  Ohm? “What is that?” I asked.

  Echo glanced at Blaine. “Want to tell them, Immortal?”

  Blaine ignored him.

  Echo smirked. “They’re Druidic and ancient Irish Celtic alphabet, something Pretty Eyes here should know. You know what this one means?” He pointed at the symbol.

  Blaine shrugged. “Before my time, Grimnir.”

  Echo chuckled. “But you must have seen them on stones in Ireland, or Scotland, or wherever it is you’re originally from.”

  Fire flashed in Blaine’s eyes. “Grave stones and cairns. They are also used to mark boundaries.”

  “Attaboy. I knew there was a brain behind those pretty eyes.” Echo glanced at Torin, oblivious to the fact that Blaine wanted to rip into him. “They’ve probably used Ogham to create a magical circle. We’ll need to find all the symbols to see how wide their circle is. It might cover the whole town or just Raine’s neighborhood to contain her within the circle.”

  I shivered.

  “There could be several messages hidden in the symbols, too,” Blaine said. “One using Ogham and another using the Celtic symbols. We should decipher both.”

  “Good. Let’s do that. Whatever my father is planning is not going to work,” Torin vowed. “Not in this town. We’re going to check every roof, until we find all the symbols. Then we’ll replace them with bind runes to protect the city and block runes to stop them from entering it. If they come into town, they’ll be forced to camp outside the residential areas. I’m talking about the forests and farmlands. Use your phones to take pictures of the symbols and the house. Andris, can you monitor which houses we’ve marked?”

  Andris got out his tablet and showed off his Holy Grail of software, an interactive map with satellite imaging. Once he explained how it worked, he handed it to Cora.

  “You don’t have an artavus, so make yourself useful,” he said.

  “Hey, don’t talk to her like that,” Echo warned.

  “Easy, big guy,” Cora said, patting Echo’s arm. “You don’t fight my battles.” Then she glanced at Andris and cocked an eyebrow. “What’s in it for me?”

  “I’ll help you with your dad’s blog.”

  Cora grinned. “Really?”

  “Throw the garlic bread in the oven before we get home and we have a deal.”

  “Deal. I’ve been wracking my brain about what to do with the blog.”

  We took off, leaving Cora in the house with the tablet. The guys zipped from street to street and scampered up roofs like monkeys on sugar rushes. Now I understood why Andris hadn’t wanted to be tied to his tablet. They were having way too much fun. Who was the fastest? How many houses and building could they mark? It wouldn’t have been so bad if they didn’t brag.

  ***

  It was dark by the time we finished. The guys were still on runic energy rushes.

  “Who won?” Echo asked when they got back to the mansion.

  “Dude, you shouldn’t even be asking that,” Andris said. “You were eating my dust most of the time.”

  “Andy, you didn’t stand a chance. Did I win?” Echo tried to see the tablet.

  “Was I supposed to keep a tally? Oops.” Cora turned off the tablet. “Hungry anyone? The garlic bread is ready and your housekeeper is an amazing cook.” She went to the oven and removed the bre
ad.

  Everyone crowded around the food. I just wanted to go home and figure out what to do about Eirik. Alone. After a long shower. All that running had left me tired. Maybe I should contact the Norns. They reluctantly answered my questions whenever I asked, and I needed some answers now. I shrugged off Torin’s jacket. He’d let me borrow it when it got cold.

  “I’ll see you guys tomorrow,” I said to the room and gave Torin his jacket. I saw the question in his eyes. “I’m just tired.”

  “But dinner…” He pointed at the tray the others were attacking.

  “I’m not hungry.”

  Wrong thing to say, because he got that look on his face. The one that said he wouldn’t stop until he fixed whatever problem was bothering me. He couldn’t fix everything, but try telling him that.

  He walked me out of the kitchen into the wide hallway connecting the foyer and the two downstairs bedrooms. My eyes found the door to the room that used to be Eirik’s.

  “Is anyone using Eirik’s old room?”

  “No.” Torin studied my face then glanced at the door. As though he could read my mind, he added, “Do you want to see it?”

  I nodded. He didn’t ask why I wanted to see the room and I didn’t explain. I wouldn’t know where to start. Sure I was taking the coward’s way out by not telling him about my visions of Eirik, but I would once I figured out why I was having them and how. He still felt threatened by my relationship with Eirik. He tried to hide it though.

  Eirik’s room was so far from the main part of the house it might have been meant for a housekeeper. Or maybe it was once part of the pool house and the original owners decided to connect it to the main house. Might explain why the kitchen’s back door opened into a hallway instead of the pool deck.

  Funny I hadn’t really thought about all that until now. But then again, Eirik had spent most of his time at my house, so we rarely hanged out here for me to notice or care.

  Torin and I didn’t speak again until I was inside Eirik’s room. Nothing had changed; even his bed was unmade. “Looks like someone slept in here.”

  Torin’s eyes narrowed. “We told Mrs. Willow not to disturb this room.”