Haunted Covenant (Dying Covenant Trilogy Book 1)

by Amanda M. Lee

  “Yeah, ha, ha,” Sami said, giggling as Aric tickled her ribs before joining me on the other side of the counter.

  “Focus, Sami,” I said, patting the counter to get her attention. “What did it feel like when you exploded the purse?”

  “It felt … like something was ripping open the top of my head,” Sami answered. “It was like something was growing inside of there and it had to get out.”

  “That is … terrifying,” Aric said. “Does that happen to you, too?”

  “Kind of,” I said. “That’s why I vent to stop that from happening. It sounds as if she didn’t vent, which is why the purse exploded.”

  “Whose purse exploded?” Helen asked, walking into the room. “It wasn’t mine, was it? It’s new.”

  “It was at school a few months ago,” I said, irritated I had to parent in front of other people. “Sami got angry at another student and blew up her purse.”

  “Ooh, that sounds exciting.” Helen flashed a bright smile. “Did she know it was you?”

  Sami shook her head. “She switched schools between semesters, though.”

  “I remember that,” I said. “She was really tight with Katie Dolloway before leaving. I wonder why she left.”

  “Katie has been auditioning new best friends ever since,” Sami said, causing me to still.

  “Auditioning? Is that what’s been going on?”

  Sami shrugged. “I … no.”

  That was obviously a lie. “Well, that’s stopping right now,” I said. “You don’t need Katie to be your friend. She’s obnoxious and her mother may be evil. You’re better off without her.”

  “I second that,” Aric said. “Besides, real friends don’t audition. They just happen. Look at Mom and Paris. They’ve been best friends forever. Paris didn’t audition your mother.”

  “I would’ve still won the part,” I said.

  “Oh, geez. You can let some of them go,” Aric said. “You don’t have to win everything.”

  He was wrong, but now wasn’t the time for a fight. “Tell me about when you saw the answers in Trina’s head. Did you go looking for them, or did you just stumble across them?”

  “What now?” James asked, not looking up from the textbook. He was engrossed in the project.

  “Sami also managed to pluck the correct answers for a math test from one of her classmate’s brains,” Aric supplied. “I want to punish her for cheating, but Zoe thinks stealing gummy sharks from Sami’s dessert plate is more than enough punishment.”

  “I don’t know why you’re trying to shame me,” I said. “You know that never works.”

  “And yet I still do it. I must be a masochist.”

  “Quite possibly.”

  “I was hoping the answers would just pop into my brain, and they did,” Sami said. “It took me a second to realize they were actually coming from Trina’s brain. I didn’t know if I should use them.”

  “You obviously got over that quickly,” Aric said. “Why didn’t you think you should use them? Because you knew it was wrong?”

  Sami shook her head. “I was worried the answers were wrong and I didn’t want to fail.”

  I snorted, amused, and earned a hip pinch from my husband.

  “It’s not funny, Zoe,” Aric said. “She needs to learn this stuff on her own.”

  “You can’t learn it,” I pointed out.

  “I’m … not done.” Aric rubbed his forehead. “It is ridiculous and stupid, though. Whoever thought of it was a jerk.”

  “I kind of like it,” James said, licking his lips. “I don’t understand it, but it’s like a secret code, and I really want to crack it.”

  “Well, then get to it,” I said. “Someone needs to teach it to Sami. My schedule is full up with killing people.”

  “You are a wonder and a joy to be around,” James muttered.

  “I say that every single day,” Aric said, tugging a strand of my hair. “Not that I’m not enjoying talking about this, but we really need to decide how we’re going to handle this. What’s our next move?”

  “We need to get through the night. I want to search the woods tomorrow,” I said. “I have a feeling people have been close to the house – probably when Sami went into her trance – and you might be able to get a fresh scent for us to follow.

  “If that doesn’t work,” I continued. “I thought I might be able to use that old trick I whipped out when Rafael was missing and we followed his trail to Mark’s apartment.”

  “Who’s Mark?” Sami asked.

  “Your Aunt Paris’ ex-boyfriend,” I said. “Before Heath, she had bleeding tragic taste in men.”

  “I heard that,” Paris announced, striding into the room with a dirty look on her face. “I would argue with your mother, but … she’s not wrong.”

  “You probably picked bad guys because you were waiting for Heath to show up,” Sami said. “He’s your knight in shining armor.”

  “He’s definitely that,” Paris said, placing a hand on Sami’s head. “The baby wants ice cream.”

  “There’s more gummy shark cake in the freezer,” I said. “What have you been doing? I thought you went to bed early or something because you couldn’t take any more Winters family bonding.”

  “I considered that, and I did get comfortable and put up my feet,” Paris said. “I’ve been reading that book instead.”

  I narrowed my eyes. “What book?”

  “The one you found at the abandoned house.”

  “You brought it inside?” Aric asked, furious. “I said I didn’t want it in the house.”

  “Relax, drama queen,” Paris dismissed. “I scanned it to make sure it wasn’t cursed or anything. It could be a vital clue. I didn’t want to overlook it.”

  “Did you find anything?” I asked.

  “I did indeed find a few things, although … .” She glanced at Sami, unsure.

  “Go ahead and tell us,” I said. “I don’t think now is the time to keep things from Sami.”

  “It’s kind of dark and twisted.”

  “So is her math book,” I offered.

  “I think it’s neat,” James supplied, never glancing up from the page he studied. “I still don’t get it, though.”

  “Okay, so the book is really like a folklore tale,” Paris said, grunting as she heaved herself up on the stool next to Sami. “I need ice cream, Aric. The baby is really hungry.”

  Aric shot me a look but moved toward the freezer. He remembered my “the baby is really hungry” excuses from when I was pregnant with Sami and he had to get up in the middle of the night to track down pickled beets and cottage cheese. At least we had ice cream in the house.

  “I almost thought it was like fairy tales, but it’s too weird to be fairy tales,” Paris said. “That’s sobering in itself because what’s stranger than fiction?”

  “True life,” I replied. “How did you read the pages? They were so dusty.”

  “I cast a little cleaning spell,” Paris admitted, glancing over her shoulder. “Don’t tell Heath, because I promised to take it easy with the magic until the baby is born.”

  “Can I be in the delivery room when you have the baby?” Sami asked. “I’d really like to film it as a project for my human development class.”

  Aric made a horrified face as he shoved a plate in front of Paris. “You don’t want to see that, Sami. Trust me.”

  “Did you see me being born?”

  “Kind of,” Aric hedged. “I was with your mother the entire time.”

  “He wouldn’t look down there during the action,” I explained. “He was terrified we would never have sex again if he did.”

  “Mom! Gross!”

  “Yeah, I’m thinking that’s the way I’m going to go with Heath, too,” Paris said. “Anyway, where was I?”

  “The stories were weirder than fairytales,” I prodded.

  “Right. So the book starts in the early 1800s. It’s basically a diary about settling on the land,” Paris supplied. “The entries a
re short and make it sound as if the family was really isolated. It was a woman, her daughter and the husband. They were in the house for about a year when the husband disappeared.”

  “Disappeared? Are you sure? I thought we were laboring under the belief that these husbands were killed and anchored to the land by witchcraft.”

  “I haven’t ruled that out,” Paris replied. “I’m just talking about the first husband. You’ll see where I’m going and probably agree, but I don’t want to get ahead of myself.”

  “You tell a story like Zoe,” Aric complained. “Get to the point.”

  “I’m going to tell you fifty stories instead of rubbing your back later if you’re not careful,” I warned.

  “Oh, don’t be like that, baby,” Aric crooned. “You know I love your stories.”

  “Dad is whipped,” Sami said, imitating James and earning a guffaw from her grandfather.

  “So the husband disappeared and the wife and her daughter stayed on even though it was difficult and she had a lot of farm work to do,” Paris said. “She didn’t say what they were farming, but it reads like there was a mixture of animals and crops.

  “At some point another woman, who she referred to as Abigail, showed up out of the blue,” she continued. “She was disheveled and hungry, and this woman – and I don’t know her name because she never wrote it down – gave her food and a place to stay. In return, Abigail helped with the farm and things got markedly better for everyone involved.”

  “Why is that important?” Aric asked.

  “I’m getting to that,” Paris said. “The diary kind of goes dead for a year if the dates are to be believed. There are two pages missing from that section, which means someone yanked them out. I have no idea what was on them. When the diary picks up again, Abigail and the author are … um … more than friends.”

  “Ooh, lesbians,” Sami said. “It’s like that prison show that Mom won’t let me watch.”

  Aric seemed intrigued by the lesbians, too. “Did she write about … you know … the stuff they did?”

  “Buy a porn magazine,” I said, poking his side. “Why is the lesbianism a problem? I would think isolation creates genuine need in some cases, and more power to them.”

  “Well, I had to read between the lines a bit, but I think it’s important because Abigail was a witch,” Paris replied. “There is no mention of spells or curses, but the author mentioned a drought and Abigail singing for rain. To me that sounds like a chant.”

  “Okay.”

  “The author died at some point. Her daughter, Dora, picked up the story when she was an adult and taking care of the house,” Paris said. “She left for a period and mentioned coming back and having to fix things up. She had a lazy husband who preferred making her do all the work. Then he disappeared, although it only happened after a woman showed up – disheveled – and claimed she needed help.”

  Uh-oh. I saw where this was going. “Was her name Abigail?”

  “It just so happens it was,” Paris said. “The second husband disappears. Abigail stays on to help. Dora wrote that she reminds her of the other Abigail, but they look different. She thinks it’s a mighty coincidence.

  “There’s more mention of crops and singing for rain and prosperity after this, and then Dora stops writing,” she continued. “After that, another person – I think this one’s name was Elizabeth – starts writing. She was Dora’s daughter, and she moved away after her mother’s death.”

  “Go back,” Aric prodded. “Were Dora and Abigail lesbians, too?”

  “You’re such a pervert,” I muttered, shaking my head.

  “I like hearing about lesbians, too,” James offered. “It’s not just him.”

  “That really doesn’t make me feel better,” I said. “What happened with Elizabeth?”

  “Her husband was a preacher on the side, and by this time there were a few more people in the area, so they started their own church,” Paris answered. “They were happy with their small life and daughter until the husband went off hunting one day and never came back.”

  “I have a hard time believing these women would be writing about the disappearances of their husbands if they were bumping them off,” I said. “Did another Abigail show up?”

  “She did,” Paris said. “Two weeks after the husband disappeared, here comes another Abigail. Elizabeth said she was blond when the Abigail she knew had black hair, but she helped her out and they forged a partnership.”

  “Were they lesbians?” Aric asked.

  “Let it go,” I ordered.

  “Just for the record, this goes on quite often. A new Abigail shows up each time,” Paris said. “This ended when the last daughter – her name was Marcy – just stops writing.”

  “So we have to figure out what happened to this Marcy,” Aric mused.

  “I doubt she was a lesbian, so don’t get your hopes up,” I said. “Was there anything else in the book besides the strange return of an Abigail witch no one thought to bar from their house?”

  “There is one thing,” Paris said. “There’s a prophecy written in different handwriting from all of the other entries. It’s next to a drawing of that weird pentagram – the one with the hooked corners – that was painted on the floor. Both the drawing and prophecy were in the back of the book.”

  “What does it say?”

  “Ultimate prosperity will come in the form of The Archimage,” Paris said. “She will either be our undoing or greatest triumph.”

  It was as if all the oxygen had been sucked out of the room.

  “What?”

  Aric was beside himself. “Son of a … !”

  TWENTY-ONE

  “W hat does that mean?” Sami was utterly confused.

  “It means … .” How could I explain this?

  “I thought The Archimage was a book,” Helen said. “It’s gone, because Zoe destroyed it.”

  “The Archimage was a book,” Paris confirmed. “Zoe didn’t destroy it, though.”

  “She absorbed it,” Aric muttered, dragging a restless hand through his hair. “I knew that book would come back to bite us one day. We should’ve destroyed it the second Paris showed up with it.”

  “I don’t understand.” Sami looked nervous, probably because she was picking up on Paris’ unease.

  The Archimage was still a sore spot. Paris brought it to our house months before Sami’s birth – before I was even pregnant with her – because she was on the run from a group who thought they could use the book to steal my powers. Things blew up – and then some – when she admitted to telling people about my powers. We made up eventually, but Aric had a hard time putting her betrayal behind him.

  “The Archimage was a magic book that people thought they could use to steal mage powers,” I said, opting to explain in the easiest manner possible. “Aunt Paris found it first and brought it to the house. Um … .”

  “We had a very busy life before you, Sami,” Aric interjected. “The bad people who wanted the book took Grandma and Grandpa Lake hostage. Paris, your mom and I went on an adventure to get them back. During that adventure there was a big fight, and to boost her powers your mom kind of … sucked up … the book.”

  “That makes it sound gross,” I said.

  “It was gross,” Aric shot back. “The book made your mother more powerful.”

  “So how would the people who wrote the diary know about the book coming here?”

  That was a really good question. The diary was written long before I absorbed the Archimage. “I don’t know.”

  “That prophecy made it sound as if the Dolloway family was waiting for a person,” Helen pointed out. “The Archimage was a book. Maybe they’re not connected.”

  Aric shot his mother a withering look. “Of course they’re connected,” he said. “The houses are too close to each other for it to be a coincidence.”

  “Don’t snap at your mother that way,” James warned, getting to his feet. “She’s trying to help.”

  “I�
��m sorry,” Aric said, instantly contrite. “It’s just … I thought the book was behind us. Now it’s back to rain thunder and lightning down on us again.”

  “The book made it storm?” Sami asked.

  “No, your mother made it storm when she touched the book,” James said. “Even if these people believe the prophecy is true and they’re somehow tying everything together, why would they go after Sami? Zoe is the one who absorbed the book. She’s the one with the Archimage power.”

  “I’ve been thinking about that,” Paris said, choosing her words carefully. “Zoe would’ve gotten pregnant really close to when she absorbed the book. We’re talking weeks here.”

  “So?”

  “So she had an extra power boost after that,” Paris replied. “She was really strong, and Sami was inside of her during that time.”

  “Oh,” James intoned, his face draining of color. “You think Sami absorbed some of that power, too.”

  “It would make sense,” Paris said, bobbing her head. “I’ve given it some thought over the years. I expected Sami to be really powerful. I think we all did. When she didn’t start blowing things up right out of the womb we all relaxed a little bit … well, some of us.”

  Aric rolled his eyes. “So you think Sami absorbed some of the book and the rest stayed in Zoe. What does that mean?”

  “I think the prophecy treats the Archimage as a human because the Dolloways probably had a seer in their group,” Paris answered. “I’m guessing it was Abigail. She was the first witch, and she converted the others. In fact, I’m guessing that there are a lot more wraiths hanging around than we’ve seen so far.

  “I think these people believed Abigail’s visions and anchored their souls to objects because they wanted to last long enough to meet the Archimage,” Paris said. “To them the Archimage is a person, because it technically is.”

  “Yeah, but is the Archimage Zoe or Sami?” Helen asked.

  Paris shrugged, helpless. “I have no idea.”

  “IF YOU’RE angry you should get it out of your system.”

  Aric continued slamming around the bathroom long after we retired for the night. He was distant for the remainder of our time in the kitchen, so much so that Helen promised she would sleep on the couch in case Sami woke in the middle of the night and needed someone to comfort her. It was obvious Aric and I had a few things to discuss.