“You love me, Sasha, and I love you. I would go through anything to be with you. I’d cross the border of death itself to find you.”
“And climb the highest tower, and sail the largest sea! You’d even fly in one of those airplanes for me! Yes, yes, I’ve heard all this before.”
“All to bring me back to you.”
She puffed on her cigarette. “You look exactly as I remember. It’s hard to believe we’re together again, after all this time.”
“It’s been too long.”
“Yes.”
“I have a question I’ve been wanting to ask you forever, even though I know it might be too late.”
Sasha’s smile and her cigarette wilted. “You sound so serious.”
“It is serious. Sasha, I’d be honored if…”
“Yes?”
Larinda saw her cousin’s future unfold before her eyes. Sasha would get married and have children and leave Dark Root. Or worse, stay - a constant reminder that her life was better. “Don’t worry,” Sasha would try to console her. “You’ll find someone. And if you don’t, you’ll always have work here. We’re family.”
No. Larinda couldn’t endure that. Not while there was life in her body.
She dropped the illusion spell, no longer caring if she were spotted. Why should Sasha always get the best of everything? It wasn’t fair!
“I curse you, Sasha!” She spoke out loud. “I curse you to a lifetime of loneliness! May you never find love in this lifetime. May you never get married. And may all your children be bastards.”
She drew in all of her rage and fed it into the spell. Her body quivered with the effort and she grabbed hold of a side table to keep from falling.
Had the curse taken? Larinda couldn’t tell. The man didn’t rescind his adoration for Sasha. Instead, he stroked her cheek.
“I want you to take my name, Sasha. It would mean the world to me.”
“But Robbie--?”
Robbie? No, this couldn’t be!
Larinda blinked, looking at the man again. A soldier named Robbie had been mentioned in Sasha’s letters, but he had died in battle.
Two newspapers winked at her from the table she was clutching. One dated today declared that the end of the war was imminent. The other paper, older and yellowed, announced the death of a young soldier named Robert Maddock.
“I wasn’t able to give you my name in life,” Robbie continued, “but I can give it to you in death. Will you take it, Sasha?”
Sasha smiled warmly, tears pooling in her eyes. She sniffed, nodded, then wiped her nose on her lover’s shoulder. “Yes. I will take your name.”
Robbie reached into his pocket, removing several paper shapes. They looked as though a child had cut them out. He lifted each shape into the air, and Larinda saw that they were letters.
One by one he handed them to Sasha, announcing each letter as it passed into her hand. “M. A. D. D. O. C. K.”
“Maddock,” Sasha repeated, folding the letters into her cupped hands. When she opened them again, the paper letters were nothing more than salt.
“Shall we dance?” Robbie asked. “I’ve been looking forward to that red dress and this dance since your invitation. Although, as I recall, I thought you said there’d be sequins.”
Sasha laughed. “I’m just glad my séance worked. It’s violating a few rules, calling you here, so this might be our only night. The veil closes at 3 AM.”
“We don’t have much privacy, do we?” He looked around. “I didn’t mean to bring so many friends. They saw the tear in the world and I couldn’t stop them. Despite what they tell you, there’s not a lot of parties in the afterlife.”
Once again the music changed, this time to a classic waltz. The two locked eyes and danced their way across the floor, sweeping by Larinda without a word.
Had they not seen her at all?
Seven
The dancers continued their ethereal sway throughout the witching hour. Larinda huddled to the side, hidden by both shadow and cloak, too fascinated by the witnessing of true love to leave. One night, she too would have a lover who desired her so much that he’d travel across dimensions to be with her.
But that was not this night.
As the clock ticked down the minutes, the party slowed. Happy chatter was replaced with sad goodbyes and promises that could never be kept. There were tears as spirit after spirit uttered the dreaded words: The witching hour soon ends!
At precisely 3:00, a crack of light appeared in the far corner of the ballroom, hardly more than a scratch in the world. But to the spirits, the crack was unavoidable. Larinda knew they had free will - and the choice to stay - but in so doing, they’d be earthbound forever.
“I’m not going,” Robbie said. The last spirit had disappeared into the crack, which was beginning to close. “I’ll stay here with you, Sasha.”
“Robbie, I can’t live my life loving a ghost. We’ll be together again someday, but I still have work to do in this lifetime.”
“You’ll forget me by then.”
“No. Not for a moment.”
Sasha kissed him goodbye, weeping as he was sucked from her arms. The Rift ripped him away, swallowing everything along with it: candles, sheets, even light.
Larinda stared at her cousin, huddled in the thin band of moonlight spilling through the window. Sasha’s face was translucent, as if she too had become a ghost. And, for this one moment, Larinda had to admit, she was beautiful.
“The night we met, I was wearing a red dress,” Sasha said, not bothering to look up.
Larinda kneeled beside her cousin, placing a hand on her shoulder. “How do you endure losing a love like that?”
“I suppose because I have to.”
“Do you think I’ll ever find a man who looks at me the way that Robbie looked at you? With light in his eyes?”
Sasha stood, staring into the blackness where the tear had been. “I truly believe you attract the person you’ve become.”
“What does that mean?”
“Do good things, Larinda. Bring light to the world. Then someone else will look at you the way you want to be seen. Do you understand?”
Larinda heard, but her mind returned to Sasha’s earlier statement: I truly believe you attract the person you’ve become.
On this night, her cousin had become Sasha Maddock, forsaking her name to pledge love to a man she would never hold in this world again.
That might be enough for Sasha, but not Larinda.
She had greater aspirations. She was a witch, after all, still young but growing stronger day by day. She wouldn’t pine after spirits the way her cousin did. She was gifted with glamour magick. Illusions.
She could become anyone.
Which meant, she could attract anyone.
Larinda stared into the darkness that had stolen Sasha’s lover. “You are right, cousin. I will work hard to become the witch I’m meant to be.”
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More Books in The Daughters of Dark Root Series:
Four sisters try their hands at love, life, and magick in this paranormal fantasy series.
Book One: The Witches of Dark Root ~ When Maggie Maddock is called back to her hometown of Dark Root, Oregon, she is expected to take over the family coven. Will Maggie embrace her birthright as Leader of The Council, or will she run from her responsibilities once again?
Download it here: https://amzn.com/B00D6OUDDG
Book Two: The Magick of Dark Root ~ Maggie Maddock and her sisters are back, training under their coven-leading mother Miss Sasha Shantay to take over as the new leaders of The Council. But life isn’t as smooth as Maggie had hoped it would be. Harvest Home’s taxes have come due, and her mother’s illness has returned, stronger than ever. Desperate, Maggie and Eve devise a scheme to make money through witchcraft. And that’s when things go terribly wrong.
Book Three: The Curse of Dark Root (Part I) ~ In this third installment of the Daughters of Dark Root series, Maggie's life is endangered by a terrible curse from an unknown source. Her only chance at saving herself, and her unborn child, is to reveal the memories kept within a set of crystal globes. They alone hold the key to Dark Root’s secret past, and who she really is.
Book Four: The Curse of Dark Root (Part II) ~ Things are tough in Dark Root. Shane is missing and presumed dead. Julianna Benbridge is haunting the town. And the mysterious curse has tightened its grip on Maggie. Can Maggie save herself and her family from the deal made with Larinda? Or will she be too late?
FOR MORE ABOUT APRIL AASHEIM
VISIT HER WEBSITE
BOOK LIST
The Daughters of Dark Root Series:
The Witches of Dark Root––http://amzn.com/B00D6OUDDG
The Magick of Dark Root––http://amzn.com/B00KRQ2KAK
The Curse of Dark Root: Part One––http://amzn.com/B00UQVGUF2
The Curse of Dark Root: Part Two––http://amzn.com/B01BO6U1HK
The Shadows of Dark Root (Coming 2017)
The Children of Dark Root (Coming 2018)
Dark Root Companion Novellas:
The Council of Dark Root: Armand (A Daughters of Dark Root companion novella)––http://amzn.com/B00PQXVP0A
A Dark Root Christmas: Merry’s Gift - http://amzn.com/B017TFU7KQ
A Dark Root Halloween: The Witching Hour (A Companion Short Story) https://amzn.com/B01M6UI4JK
Other Books by April Aasheim
The Universe is a Very Big Place (A quirky rom-com) – http://amzn.com/B008QSTLQ2
The Good Girl’s Guide to Being a Demon – (A New Adult Urban Fantasy) http://amzn.com/B016NZTP4C
Touch of Light: A Baylee Scott Paranormal Mystery (Coming Fall 2016)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
April Aasheim learned to love magic at an early age. Her mother was a fortune teller who always had books on magic and the occult in the house, which April devoured. April fell so in love with the paranormal world, in fact, that at age eight she declared herself a witch and wore a pointed hat for nearly an entire summer. It was at that time that she also discovered books (written for kids) about witches and April hunted them out in libraries and supermarkets. Her favorites were always the ones where witches and ghosts ‘could be real’.
April continued her love of the supernatural into her adult life, studying the occult, spirituality, and world religion. She also loved writing but never thought of combining her two pastimes, until the day she accidentally wrote the sentence “If I were a real witch…” and The Daughters of Dark Root series was born.
April currently lives with her husband and family in Portland, Oregon. When not writing she enjoys dancing, reading, hiking, crafting, and binge Netflixing. Get in touch with April on Facebook or visit her website at: www.aprilaasheimwriter.com.
Table of Contents
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
DR0. The Witching Hour Page 3