Mystical (The Mystical Trilogy Book 1)

by Michael Weekly

  I hold the glowing rose in my hands and study it. I glance at the markings on my arm as they glow with the rose. This is the first time they’re actually glowing and it’s only because I’m holding this rose.

  I take out the note I stole from Miss. Canary’s house and read it.

  Thanks for the rose.

  Am I the only person with a rose like this?

  ***

  Our plan is to get back to Miss Canary’s house and ask about the rose she gave to me from Ellevil. I will also need to check back at home to see if my mom is all right.

  Jared ran out into the woods earlier. He says he has some business to take care of so I won’t be seeing him anytime soon. He’s doing things behind my back, and it makes me feel uncomfortable and worried. I wish he was more upfront with me because it’s all in my process of learning. It’s almost as if he doesn’t want me to learn to be a proper mystic assassin.

  I’m learning as I go, which is going pretty well in my favor. I mean, at least I killed off a mystic that wanted my head. Dawn and I walk down the strip and overhear a few girls from our campus talking about Stacy.

  “Yeah, I hear she’s having a party. We should definitely go.” The two girls walked away.

  Turning around with my keys in my hand, I look at Dawn. “She’s having a party? We need to find out when and go just to make sure she’s not holding some kind of evil gathering.”

  “I’ll take care of that. You just go to Miss Canary’s house and do what we’ve come to do.”

  “Thanks, Dawn.” I smile at her.

  She skips over to the girls and flawlessly joins in the conversation. This is beyond easy for her, and I let her work her magic.

  I hop into my car and drive to my old house. Coming back home feels eerie. It’s been months since I’ve last been here. I haven’t heard from Mom in a while. I’ve only seen her that one time at my house and at the club.

  I sit in my car, quietly turning off my engine. I notice someone opening up my mother’s door and walking out of it. On the steps, I see the first guy who stole my heart.

  Eric.

  What in the world is he doing at my old house? A smirk crosses his face and he looks around briefly. I duck to avoid being seen, and my phone begins to vibrate in my purse. I take it out and read the text.

  Dawn: It’s this Saturday at her town house. Everyone is invited. She found her boyfriend and it’s some sort of relief party.

  I’ve never been to any of the house parties hosted by students at the school I attend. House parties just aren’t my thing. I place my phone back into my purse and glance up. Eric is gone. Hopefully, he’ll be gone for good.

  Vinegar scent catches my attention immediately. It’s the same scent that came off of Miss Canary. I open the door and see that Miss Canary is taking groceries into her house. She disappears inside.

  Someone interrupts me from walking over to her. A whiff of strong cologne hits me as I turn around. My nose cringes. Arms force me against my car, creating a cage that holds me captive. I glance up to see Eric checking me out.

  “You’ve finally come out to play, huh?” he whispers in my ear.

  “Leave me alone,” I mutter, looking pass his shoulders to see if anyone I know can save me from him. He brushes his body against me. My back thuds against my car.

  “You stopped talking to me after our beach event.”

  “Yeah…I guess I did. Sorry I had some things going on.”

  “Oh really? What things?”

  I decide to change the topic.

  “You were in my mom’s house. Why?” I watch him carefully.

  His face turns blank, as if he didn’t expect me to see him walking out of the house. I wait for the many lies he’s about to tell me. I’m going to get the truth out of him either way.

  “She’s asked for my help with some things.”

  “Like?”

  “Like how to make you mine.” He grins.

  “Enough with the games, Eric.”

  Mom walks out of the house. She’s wearing white jeans and a black shirt. The sleeves on her shirt are ripped and I see scars on her arms. Her jeans are ripped as well. I see bruises on her neck, but she moves her hair to hide them. She’s a mess. It’s like she just got out of a fight.

  I watch her walk down the stairs. She glares at me. I notice the new markings on her skin. She’s not hiding them anymore.

  “Mom…”

  She looks at me, fixing her shades across her eyes. She doesn’t say anything. She just places her broomstick in her purse and walks to a black car. Eric goes to the car and Mom opens her door. She gives me one last glance.

  “Catch ya’ later, babe,” Eric says. He chuckles. I run to the car. This is my chance to stop whatever is going to happen to her. This is Mom. I will be reckless for her.

  I don’t look both ways before crossing, but Eric closes his door and zooms off with my mom down the road. I stand in the middle of the street, watching the car disappear. I know someone is approaching from behind me, but I don’t turn around or follow my instinct.

  “Oh my…Grace has changed, hasn’t she?” hums a familiar voice.

  I turn around to see Miss Canary holding a flower pot. Her ashy blonde hair is down and she looks like a forest bohemian nymph.

  She looks down at the soil in her pot with sad eyes. “Some things just aren’t meant to be watered. They’re meant to be dried out.”

  Sometimes she speaks in riddles and it annoys the crap out of me. She gracefully walks to the garden in front of her house and places the pot down. She then grabs a shovel and circles her fingers in front of the soil in front of her. The ground creates a perfect circle for her to place her pot into. Placing it into the earth, she repeats the same movement of her fingers as the soil covers the pot.

  “I knew you’d come today, and I know you’re aware of my kind,” Miss Canary says. “The thing about mystics is there are pure and there are corrupt. Pure mystics mind their business and try to live a normal life. However, corrupt mystics feed on innocence. I don’t need to feed to live a happy life.”

  “When you say feed, do they kill?”

  “It’s kind of like sucking out someone’s soul by kissing or leaving hickies.”

  “And they’re just left brain dead or turned into a mystic…”

  “You’re catching on.”

  She hums and walks back into her house and absentmindedly I follow her. She sits in her living room as she brushes her hair.

  “Do you have my note, dear?”

  “How did you—”

  “I’m an elf.” She grins and waits for me to ask her about it. “To answer the question you want to ask, yes, another person has the same rose.”

  “Is this why you provided me with it?”

  She blinks at me for a few moments. Her lips purse together.

  “Yes. Your mother wants to snap the rose, but she is not aware of the danger that comes with doing so, which is why it is important for her not to receive it.”

  “Why is everyone so interested in my rose? Why not the other person’s rose?”

  “Your rose is the link to everything, and something I am not allowed to talk about with you right now. Someday, you’ll learn about the rose you have and why it is special.”

  I figure arguing with her won’t be useful. It’ll just go back and forth with riddles.

  This rose is the link to everything? If that’s true, I have to make sure no one finds it. My mother is acting strange and beginning to hang around Eric and her new boyfriend. She’s becoming corrupt slowly from the influences around her, and I feel useless. I can’t stop my mom from becoming corrupt. Jared is trying to figure out what the problem is, but will he be too late? She’s changing drastically right in front of my eyes and I can’t stop whatever is boiling within her.

  I turn around to leave as I gaze at the floor. Miss Canary clears her throat as I stop in place.

  “It’s also important that you don’t show up around here anymore, Eliza.
You’re better off at your condo instead of trying to save your mother. She’s far too deep.”

  I glance to my side, shaking my head and chuckling to myself. I’m not going to let an elf tell me what to do. If no one is going to give me the answers I need, I’ll just find them by myself.

  I flick my hair behind my shoulders and walk toward the door. Closing the door from behind, I look up at my old house. I turn to my left and then to my right to see if my mom and Eric are back in the area.

  I cross the street and open the door to my old home. Clothes, paper, and the couches are ripped up. The house looks like a hurricane went through it. The smell of a mystic stench is stuck inside my nose. I cover my nose and walk around slowly.

  I take out my dagger and move certain things around with it. I don’t want to touch anything in here. In front of me, there is slobber and blood on the wooden floors. The sound of my boots as I walk around is the only sound in this dead place.

  My ears perk up. Suddenly, I hear something above me. Something must be upstairs. The noise stops as I become still. My heart skips a beat from how destroyed this place is.

  What has Mom been up to?

  Glittery, silver liquid and scratch marks cover the walls. She must’ve been fighting off mystics in this place. It smells like a dozen mystics have been in here at one time. Papers with writings and scribbles are all over the floor. I glance up to see the bookcase that has haunted me ever since I was a child. It stands quietly. I’m surprised nothing is moving in it.

  Laying my purse down on the surface of the counter beside of me, I walk toward it. I walk to the where the books are. Something is telling me I should pick at one of the books on the shelf. There’s a feeling within that always pulls me toward them. I don’t know if it is instinct or just my devious curiosity controlling me.

  I furrow my eyes and look at the strange structure before me. The same silvery book is right in front of me from when I was a child. I tug on the book.

  Several random books move around. They glow as they shift their position and brush against each other. Silver light beams across the living room. The air becomes stiff and I feel like I can’t breathe.

  I hear noise behind me and my hair is beginning to float. Something pushes me out of the way. I crash on the floor next to a chair and look up slowly to see my mother now floating in front of the books. Glowing, silver light flows onto her and a spotlight of silver is on her collar bone. The same swirling lines on my broomstick are on my mother.

  My heart skips a beat. Slowly walking toward her, I bump into the arm of the couch. I feel dizzy, and I know a massive headache is approaching.

  “Mo—”

  A loud grunt escapes from my mouth as I’m thrown against the wall again. My mother stands silently. She’s trapped in the middle of a fluorescent, silver, glimmering bubble. She looks up at me slowly and then at the door.

  Brushing my hair from my face, I force myself up. I lean my back against the wall and watch in horror. My ears pop as all of the noise suddenly stops. The bookcase splits in half, creating a silver circular entrance. Wind picks up around the both of us, eventually sucking my mother forward as her hair drops from floating.

  The wind’s pressure pulls her into the circled entrance by force. Then she vanishes. The bookcase flashes and shuts itself back together. The books jiggle back in place. It looks just as normal as it did a few minutes ago.

  I run after my mom, stopping in place, afraid that the bubble is still there but invisible. I thrust my arm out and punch the books, checking to see if anything will happen, if anything is there. I need it to open back up so I can save my mother.

  “Mom!” I yell. “No, no!” I scream as I punch the bookcase.

  I hear a car bumping with music outside. Is Dawn already here this early? I hear the sound of the car door closing and someone running up my steps and entering my damaged home.

  “Eliza!”

  I crumble a piece of paper beneath me into my hands as I look up at Dawn. Her eyes prove that she is now worried, probably because of the face I’m making. Only if she knew what just happened before my own eyes.

  I knew something was up with this bookcase.

  Slowly, I blink twice and take in everything that has happened to me lately. I reach in my pocket for my cell phone. My heart is beating frantically, but I don’t care anymore. I’m fed up with everything.

  I scroll for the directions to Witcher’s Place. Then I grab my purse from the counter and strut out of the house, just how my mom would have.

  “What’s up?” Dawn quickly follows. She slides into the passenger seat of my car and closes the door.

  “We need to go to Witcher’s Place,” I mutter.

  “Liza…” Dawn whispers, looking ahead at something. The day is becoming brown-orange and a bit colder as night approaches. “That white cat looks familiar,” she mumbles.

  I look up to see the cat Dawn is talking about running behind Miss Canary’s house. “Yeah, it does.” So familiar, it almost looks exactly like my brother, Jared.

  I turn on my engine and, without hesitation, zoom on the road back home.

  ***

  No one else is going to almost die, and no one else is going to go missing. I’m also going to figure out why Eric was meeting my mom and what they were planning. He’s worse than Stacy. I shudder. I can’t believe I went with him to Sweet Frog. Yeah, it definitely wasn’t a date.

  I slowly park my car into a spot outside of the creepy witch shop. The lights are off, so I’m sure Miss Canary isn’t working today. We step out of my car. I close my door and lock it with my keys, avoiding any sounds. I’m wearing a jean jacket and some shorts with my old Chuck Taylors. I leave my purse inside my car, place my broomstick in my back pocket, and hold onto my dagger.

  Dawn looks at me and says, “Wow, you’re actually starting to change.”

  She nudges my shoulders. I can see the eagerness to help me in her eyes. My best friend has been here for me since forever.

  “Just trying to get down to things around here. I have no time for games. Stay quiet and use this as a weapon.” I hand her my dagger.

  Walking toward the shop, I look around to see if anyone is watching us. It’s past eight and mystics are out and about around this time. The lock is unlocked, so I push the door open gently. The doorbell dingles above us Dawn and I glance up immediately. I guess we’re both nervous about this.

  “Hold on,” I tell her, sniffing the air for the vinegar scent that’s been creeping in my nose.

  “Miss Canary?” I ask softly.

  I hear a loud crash and frantic cat sounds coming from the back. A white cat sprints past both Dawn and I followed by a black cat racing after it.

  Dawn screams, quickly covering her mouth as the cats vanish into the darkness. Watching the cats run, I squint my eyes and move my fuzzy hair away from my face.

  Chapter 19

  I turn back around to look into the store, and so Dawn and I continue to creep around. Since no one is here at the moment, I figure I might as well take some items that I might need. I walk to the weapon rack, remembering what Miss Canary said about the blue tipped, poisoned dagger.

  “Blue tipped...” I mutter out loud, deep in thought.

  My eyes wander across the wall in front of me. Different kinds of weapons are neatly placed on hooks. Breathing in slowly and searching for this particular dagger, a glint of light blue shimmers in my peripheral vision. It’s coming from the last dagger on the wall to the left. I walk to it slowly, exhaling in relief.

  “Are you sure this is the right dagger to kill a shifter?” Dawn asks.

  I look at her, holding the dagger in my hands. “I mean, I killed David with the dagger I own.”

  Her eyes grow wide. “Wait, what? You didn’t tell me that part…Liz, you killed him?”

  “It was either me living or being bitten by him.”

  She glances away, clearly uncomfortable. “I thought he was innocent, though.”

  “Dawn,
are you really that bothered? I told you, you don’t have to be dealing with this.”

  She shakes her head, looking behind me at the door.

  “Since when, were you so into weapons?” She blurts. “Put it back. We have to purchase these things, you know.”

  “This is me. I’m a witch. I thought you’d get it by now, Dawn.”

  I tuck the dagger into my purse. Dawn purses her lips as she watches me search the wall in front of me. She shakes her head in disagreement. After tossing some empty, clear tiny bottles in my purse, I move to the clothes.

  Dawn’s eyes grow wide as she stares at all of the sexy clothes in front of us.

  “Thought you’d like this part,” I joke, strutting to the middle of the black sea of leathery goods. Dawn races in front of me and throws clothes in my direction. She grabs a pair of white knee high boots and picks up another pair of black knee highs with silver studs traveling up the boot.

  “Okay, let’s go, before someone gets here.”

  “Wait, one last thing.”

  She holds up her index finger and shushes me. She hands me a black mask. It’s outlined in a silver color.

  “Every assassin has to protect their identity. Duh, you may not want to be one, but ninjas have them and they’re kind of the same, so why not?”

  She smiles, tossing the mask on top of the clothes she picked out for me.

  “They’re not the same thing.” I roll my eyes.

  “Whatever.”

  She takes some of the clothes from my hands to help me carry them. We run back to my car, throw the clothes in the back seat, and zoom off. We kind of just stole from a witch store, but I mean…I’m a witch, and I have every right to protect myself from the mystics we’re born to fight. Plus, these are items I may need when I’m on a mission to kill corrupt mystics. Stacy is my main target.

  ***

  When we enter our house, we throw the clothes from Witcher’s Place on my bed. I put on my glasses just because I missed wearing them. My thick hair gets stuck on the ends of the glasses. I shriek in pain. Dawn rushes to me and untangles it. Sighing in relief, I walk to the clothes and stare at what we just did. A smirk spreads across my face as I glance at Dawn.