Sword of Elements Series Boxed Set 2: Bound In Blue, Caught In Crimson & To Make A Witch

by Heather Hamilton-Senter

  Tynan pushed the hair out of his eyes. “We asked around and no one could remember what you looked like or if you were in any of their classes. Except Lacey. She definitely . . . knew you,” he finished diplomatically. Lacey fidgeted beside me but remained silent. “She seems to be unaffected by whatever it is you do.”

  Miko thumped the table with a tiny fist. “The point is, I can smell the spells a witch casts from a mile away and I couldn’t detect siren or lorelei on you either.” She smirked at Lacey. “They both have a distinctly fishy scent, paranormally speaking.” She pointed at me again. “You couldn’t really be the Viviane Lynne’s daughter—that was ridiculous—but you’re not like any other Greylander we’ve encountered. Daley refused to even consider you might be an earth magician. . .”

  “That’s not true.”

  “. . . but he was right, you’re not. There isn’t an earth magician on record who could do what you did to the Cŵn Annwn. We just wanted to see how you would react and then Ty would have sent the hound back. Somehow you pulled the Cŵn Annwn’s power out and left something different behind. So, Anomaly!” she said as if that was proof of everything.

  A faint vibration passed through the table and I glanced outside the window to see if a storm was coming. The sky was clear. When I looked back, Daley had placed his hands flat on the table and was staring at me with a frown. I had the strange impression that the vibration was coming from him. “The three of you could use some time to process this. Peter can take you home. I’ll call for someone to pick us up. Come to the house at noon tomorrow and our father will explain everything.” It was a command, not an invitation “Go on. I’ll take care of the bill.” We were dismissed. Peter slid out of the booth and Lacey and I followed him.

  I stopped. Daley might be completely hot in an authoritarian sort of way, but I had to ignore that because there was something I needed to know. “Since you seem to have all the answers, who was my mother? Who was Viviane Lynne?”

  He considered me with stormy eyes that didn’t trust me at all. “She was the Lady of the Lake. Viviane was a goddess.”

  Lightning streaked across the cloudless sky.

  CHAPTER TEN

  I woke early the next morning feeling agitated and restless. My night had been filled with dreams of being chased by the Cŵn Annwn through twisted trees while lightning hit the ground around me.

  I decided to go for a quick run across the property to clear my head. Even though it was early, the farm hand everyone called Old Tom had already let the horses out. Two of them were munching on the grass near the fence in the back paddock. Doll and Galileo were chestnut-colored siblings and direct descendants of the farm’s most famous horse, Northern Dancer. As I approached the fence, Doll cantered over to see if I’d brought a treat.

  “Sorry, girl.” I kept my distance. The horses sensed my fear and reacted to it with their teeth. Every attempt to learn to ride had ended one of two ways: on my backside in the dirt or begging Peter to get me down.

  My nose twitched as I caught the scent of something funny underneath the usual horse and hay smell. I’d never been to the ocean, but it was what I imagined it smelled like: salty, sharp, and wet. Doll shook her head and backed away in a funny sideways movement. Galileo trotted towards us, snorting and huffing through his nostrils. They both seemed to be staring at something over my head.

  I turned around. Windfield was set up on a grid with tree-lined laneways branching off from the main road that led to the front gate. My house was about twenty feet down the second of those laneways. The two closest guesthouses were on the third and not too far from where I stood. The buildings were neglected and sinister; the perfect place for an intruder to hide. Northern Dancer’s bloodline was valuable property and even though the barns were locked down at night with a state of the art security system, Old Tom was always on the lookout for anyone trying to break in and get at one of the horses.

  Mauve shot with grey prickled on the edges of my vision as it occurred to me that security systems might not be too useful against someone—or something—with magic.

  I glanced back at the horses. Doll’s eyes had widened until the whites showed. Peter had taught me the signs; Galileo was anxious, but Doll was afraid. Maybe they’d been spooked by a rabbit and were acting up to get attention.

  Yeah, cuz thoroughbred racehorses are just neurotic that way.

  I jogged over to the first house and tried the doorknob, but it was locked. The place was in pretty bad shape. These two guesthouses had always been hardly better than shacks and were used as accommodation for temporary workers back when things were thriving. The houses closer in quality to mine were on the far side of the property and had already been torn down to make way for the new subdivision.

  Flaking paint dug into my palms as I leaned on the window sill to get a better look inside. A kitchenette ran along one wall and a table with one missing leg leaned against the other. There was no other furniture. Two closed doors led to a bedroom and a bathroom. The house was as deserted as it should be.

  I decided to check on the second one, just in case. From the outside, it was identical to the first except for a triangle-shaped window set in the door a little above my eye level. Rising on my toes to look through, I leaned on the doorknob to prop myself up. When the knob twisted unexpectedly, I fell forward through the doorway and onto the wet carpet. Scrambling up, I started to gag at the smell, and then froze—all thoughts of mildew and mold and rotting things forgotten. Cold white veined in dank blue the color of a thrashing sea passed over my eyes.

  Beside the imprints of my hands in the soggy carpet, and all around the room, were the distinct marks of paw prints.

  The smell of the carpet didn’t seem to bother Peter at all. Years of mucking out the horse stalls had probably burned off the first layer of cells in his nose.

  “Why’d you come in here anyway?” he called through the open door.

  “I told you, the horses were acting weird.”

  Peter came out onto the porch and looked down the path to where Doll and Galileo were again happily munching grass. He snorted, but didn’t comment.

  “There was a weird smell too,” I added. He cocked an eyebrow at me and I amended the statement. “Weirder than that.”

  Peter crossed his arms and ran the thumbnail of his right hand up and down the groove between his bottom middle teeth, something he did when he was thinking and a habit both his mother and his dentist hated. Coming to a decision, he walked back into the house and kneeled down in the muck to measure one of the prints against his hand.

  I stayed on the porch. “Should we tell your Dad or Old Tom?”

  Peter shook his head as he stood and wiped his hands off on his jeans. “I don’t want to pull them into this.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “It might be something like that thing you killed, the Coowinanoon.”

  “Cŵn Annwn,” I corrected, “and I’m not sure I killed it.”

  “Well it isn’t a coyote or a stray dog; the prints are too big.” He pointed to some smaller marks. “And it has six claws on each paw.”

  Breathing through my mouth to keep out the smell, I took a step inside. “That’s weird, right?”

  “Yup.” Peter walked over to the kitchenette and opened a bottom cupboard, then quickly slammed it shut.

  “What is it?”

  “I think I found its lunch.”

  “What?”

  “Raccoon.”

  “Recent?”

  “From the amount of maggots in it, yeah. But something was chewing on it first.”

  We both turned and looked at the first closed door. Mrs. Larsen was a huge X-Files fan and used to say Peter and I were proof ESP really existed, but we just knew each other so well that sometimes saying things out loud wasn’t necessary.

  Peter stepped lightly across the soggy carpet and I squished after him. Twisting the doorknob carefully, he opened the door to a bedroom. It was empty. I caught the smell again—a whi
ff of salt air—and pointed to the bathroom door. Peter nodded and padded over to push it open. He stood there, staring.

  “What? What is it?” As I approached, I tried to ignore the disgusting slip and slide of my running shoes on the carpet; it was like walking through sewage.

  When I was ten, I went through a major Little Mermaid period—the original story, not the sappy cartoon. I collected all the storybook versions I could find and one of my favorites had an illustration of the Little Mermaid diving through waving kelp with her hair streaming out behind her. So I knew what I was looking at. Peter reached into the tub and pulled out something wet and slimy.

  A long strand of rotting seaweed.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Peter was pre-occupied and tense as we drove to the mansion. Except for a puzzled question about my now working air-conditioning which I dodged, we were silent. I didn’t mind. It had taken over half an hour to shower off the stink of mildew and seaweed and my head hurt.

  When we pulled into the driveway and parked, Lacey was waiting for us beside a rusty old hatchback. Her cheeks went bright pink when Peter gave her a quick hug.

  Peter knocked on the front door and a middle-aged man opened it.

  “Yes?”

  “Mr. Taliesin?”

  The man laughed, his tanned skin wrinkling into deep lines. “Heaven forbid, no. But I’ll get him for you.”

  “We’re actually here for Ty and Daley.”

  “Oh I see, the new recruits. C’mon in.” The man disappeared down a hallway as we stepped inside.

  Lacey frowned. “What did he mean by ‘recruits’?”

  I shrugged and looked around. The foyer was two stories high and the staircase in front of us swept up to the top floor at the back of the house. Muted paintings hung on the walls and niches displayed tasteful decorative items.

  Lacey pointed up at a crystal and iron monstrosity. “Look at that chandelier! It must have cost thousands. This place is amazing.”

  I decided to refuse to be impressed. “It’s boring if you ask me.”

  “It’s a rental,” a voice with a lilting accent agreed. A trim man with close-cut salt and pepper hair and a neat beard entered from a side hallway. “It was more the location than the house that attracted me.”

  Lacey gave the man her brightest smile. “The house is beautiful, Mr. Taliesin.”

  “Please, it is simply Taliesin. Daley apprised me of the details of your misadventure yesterday and I agreed that I should meet with you to explain as much as I can. I have some business to attend to first, but I have asked Rowan to escort you to the dining room where lunch is waiting.” He gestured to the man who had greeted us at the door and now returned to the foyer. With a nod, Taliesin exited the same way he arrived.

  “C’mon kids.” Rowan waved us over with a friendly smile. “This way.”

  We followed him down the hall into a grand room where a table that could easily seat twenty stretched from the window to the entry. Tynan, Daley and Miko sat at the far end.

  “Ah, here the miscreants are,” Rowan announced genially. He gestured to a sideboard with serving dishes on it. “Fill up and take a seat.”

  We helped ourselves as Rowan led a discussion on everything from whether any of the movies out were worth the price of admission to if there was a chance the new Bachelorette would find love. We all relaxed except Daley. I could feel him watching me. I expected a flare of yellow or orange in response—or even the more complicated mix of scarlet and rose I was starting to feel whenever he was around—but there was nothing.

  “If you are finished, I would ask that you accompany me to the study.” Taliesin’s quiet appearance at the doorway was unnerving; the man moved like a ghost. Rowan thanked us for our company and as he left, all the ease and warmth left with him.

  We filed after Taliesin into another tasteful cream on cream room. He sat down behind a massive mahogany desk and we settled into the couch and chairs around the room. I chose an overstuffed armchair and regretted it as I sank into the cushions. Daley leaned against the wall with his arms folded.

  I examined Taliesin. The man wore dark jeans and a white cotton shirt, but his clothing was so crisp and tailored that it whispered, not shouted, designer. I knew I was anxious—a strong enough emotion to usually inspire some color—but all I could sense along the edges of my sight was a deep indigo. Pain suddenly swelled in my temples and I wanted to run and hide from this quiet, terrifying man.

  Rhiannon, listen to me! We cannot be seen! Hide in the shadows and be still and silent!

  Mom’s voice seemed to scream at me and I imagined myself grasping at wisps of misty blue until I finally managed to drag a few scraps around myself.

  Miko pointed. “She’s doing it again.”

  Taliesin frowned as his eyes flicked around the room. A haze passed over my eyes and the world went dim, but I couldn’t hold onto it. Mom’s color slipped away, and indigo—an oilier, denser blue—replaced it.

  “And now she’s back. See?” Miko’s voice was triumphant.

  Taliesin nodded. “Yes, I do now.”

  “Daley didn’t believe me.”

  Daley made an impatient gesture. “I didn’t say that.”

  “You did!”

  Their voices hurt my head. “I’m right here. What exactly do you think I’m doing?”

  Taliesin raised his hand and the room went quiet. “Yes, you are definitely here with us now, Miss Lynne, but I could not see you in the room even though I had been warned about your peculiar ability.” He leaned forward and rested his chin on steepled fingers. “No spell? No incantation?”

  I thought of Mom’s voice and the words I heard her speaking in my head but decided not to mention it. “How would I even know how to do something like that?”

  His shrug was the barest of movements. “There is a great deal of dangerous information to be had if you know where to search. The internet has changed everything, even that. You had no idea that you were essentially rendering yourself invisible?”

  Something about the man put my back up and I didn’t like admitting what I’d already guessed. “Maybe everyone needs to get their eyes checked.”

  Taliesin leaned back in his chair and regarded the others. “Well?”

  Tynan brushed his hair away from his face and flashed me a shy smile. “I thought you might still be in the dining room.”

  Miko sat with her legs crossed on a small ottoman. “I couldn’t see her—which should be impossible since I’m the glamour girl here—but I’ve been working on keeping track of her just in case.”

  Great, now I have a tiny harajuku stalker.

  “Mr. Larsen?” Taliesin prompted.

  Peter snorted. “I think I would have noticed if Rhi had a habit of turning invisible.”

  “Typical Protector,” Miko said, smirking. “What about you, Lacey?”

  Lacey hesitated before answering. “I could see her.”

  “So could I,” Daley volunteered.

  Taliesin nodded thoughtfully. “Interesting. Given their close relationship, Mr. Larsen is likely Rhiannon’s bonded Protector and would be able to sense her presence whenever she was near. He might not notice that he was not actually seeing her with his eyes. Miss McInnis’ lorelei blood must protect her from this particular glamour as well. But why you, my son? None of your abilities should protect you from such a spell and I thought you said that you had trouble finding her at the school.”

  Something in my stomach jumped as my eyes met Daley’s, but then he shrugged and looked away. “I don’t know.”

  Miko fidgeted and twisted one of her ponytails around her finger. “Let’s not forget that Rhi can also see and hear the harp even without me wishing it.”

  Taliesin tapped his fingers once on the desk before responding. “Yes, ‘curiouser and curiouser’ as Alice in Wonderland would say. But perhaps I should first explain to our new friends what happened yesterday and what it meant.”

  Lacey stood and balled her fists on her hi
ps. “I know what happened. It was just some dog attracted to the garbage at the park. Miko saw how freaked out we were and thought she’d have a little fun. I don’t appreciate being messed with like that.” The two girls glared at one another.

  Taliesin gestured for Lacey to sit. “Miss McInnis, please.” His tone was firm and she obeyed. “I wish I could let you remain in ignorance, but the fact that we have taken an interest in you will not have gone unnoticed by the spies who make it their business to trade in this kind of information. Knowledge is needed now for you to protect yourself from those who would seek to make a trophy out of one of even your very limited ability.

  The expression on Lacey’s face shifted to outrage as she realized she’d just been told she was basically a magical non-entity.

  Peter wasn’t convinced. “Right, so I’m some sort of a magical security guard, Lacey’s popular because great-grandpa knocked up a mermaid, and everyone thinks Rhi can float away and disappear. Oh, and yeah, the woman who planted the friggin’ tulips in our friggin’ garden was the Lady of the Lake!” It was as close to swearing as I’d ever heard my best friend get and was proof of how upset he was.

  It was my fault; I should have prepared him for magic. Taking a deep breath, I came clean. “There’s some stuff I haven’t told anyone yet. The day Mom died, I met a woman named Morgan who said she was Mom’s sister. Then a guy called Thomas Redcap ate some of Mom’s skin—but that’s a normal thing for him,” I hastened to add when I saw Peter’s shocked expression. “When I fell and hit my head, I lost my memory of what happened for a while. But when I went to the lake to scatter Mom’s ashes, a river goddess tried to kill me and Redcap saved me. He told me Mom wasn’t my birth mother.”

  I turned to address Taliesin because I couldn’t bear the look on Peter’s face. Except for the silver-haired man and my colors, I’d never kept anything from him before. It was time to fess up about at least one of those.