The door to her house is whipped open. I turn around to see Donovan running in and activating his broomstick. Donovan’s whip slithers into Miss Canary’s house. She begins to choke and laugh at the same time. I turn around and face Donovan. I forgot that he was with me.
He walks into the house slowly. As much as I want Donovan to kill her, I know I’ll need more of the clues she’s giving me. I place my hand on top of his wrist and say, “Not now, Donovan…”
“I’ll ask one more time,” I say as he presses the button on his broomstick. I am surprised he’s actually listening to me considering how stubborn the witch is.
“I don’t know. Ask your brother,” she says. She starts humming again and cuts the dead ends of her leaves. What does Jared have to do with this? I press my lips together and feel a raging headache approaching me. I lift up my hands and cover my eyes as I let out a deep sigh.
We leave the elf’s house and Donovan tells me I was stupid to come to an elf for help in the first place. I listen to him yell at me, but I’m more worried about how Jare got in the middle of all of this. My mother is corrupt and there is nothing I can do to stop it. I’m not always with her since I moved out and the guy she’s with might be the reason she’s corrupt. I stop to think about all the possible influences. I look at my old house.
“Eric has something to do with my mom becoming corrupt.”
Donovan avoids eye contact as if he knows more about the situation. “Wait, look at me. Do you know more about this?” I say.
“Eric can be a lot to handle sometimes, but I don’t think he’s capable of corrupting another witch, Rose.” I still don’t trust him enough to give him my real name, so my last name will have to do. I just know that it was either Eric or the creepy new boyfriend Mom has been around with.
I lead Donovan to my old house. We enter to look for clues that might help us get Mom back.
“The elf said my mom was sucked into Ravamere.”
“Woah…That place is full of corruption. She must’ve been affiliated some way with the creatures in that world.”
“You’re actually acting afraid for once,” I say, shaking my head.
“It’s like the hell for witches. How do you not know about Rav?”
“I’m sorry mister know-it-all. I didn’t grow up with a willing witch parent to fill me in about this type of stuff, okay? And yes, I know about Rav.”
“Whatever…”
I walk him to the bookcase and place both of my hands out at it. “This is where Mom was sucked into.” Donovan quickly pushes the large book case to the side to show the wall behind it.
“Nothing, great,” I say.
I place my lingering hairs behind my right ear and look up at Donovan. “Well, thanks for coming to the elf’s house.”
“Yeah, you took off in the forest and just vanished. You were so fast I couldn’t keep up.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean exactly what I said. You were really fast. With a blink of an eye, you were gone.”
I feel the freezing marks on my left arm.
I ignore the sensation.
***
Saturday morning, I walk downstairs from my room to see Jared snuggled up in his little cat bed he’s made. The bleeding has stopped, but there’s still a dark spot under his furry belly.
“What are you looking at?” he says sarcastically.
“Jared, why were you even at Witcher’s Place?” I ask curiously.
He glances away.
“Your mother…” He stops. “Our mother asked me to do something for her.”
“Well, like what?”
“She asked me to open up a portal.” He glances back at me as he waves his paw.
“To Ravamere, right? Is that why you were outside her house that one day when the doorknob burned my hand.” He nods his head.
“There’s a portal in Witcher’s Place and a portal in Mom’s house. I don’t know why there’s one in her house, but you have to have someone trigger one portal in order for the other to activate. Why?”
“Miss Canary…” I mutter.
“What about the elf?” he says, then suddenly looks away, as if he’s said too much.
“No need to keep lying to me. I already know about Miss Canary being an elf. What a helpful brother you are, keeping things from me.”
“Mom asked me not to tell you certain things.”
“And now look where she is because of that.” I flick my fingers at him angry.
“She’s where?”
“Ravamere, Jare. She got sucked into the portal trying to save me.”
“Holy catnip.”
“Yeah…”
“I can’t let you go there,” he says.
“Why not? I need to get Mom back,” I say with conviction. “Why aren’t you as serious I am?”
“Your transformation is not finished. You’ll be corrupt in a heartbeat,” he says. “Everything revolves around your witch puberty.” He struggles to get up from his little bed.
“Sorry,” he says, avoiding eye contact.
I bite my bottom lip and hear a knock on my door. I open and see Dawn holding a plastic wrapped dress and a bunch of bags so tall they’re covering her face.
“You’re going to love me.” She smiles as she walks inside, her face fully covered.
There is no way I’m telling Dawn about everything that just happened. She’d go bonkers if she knew that anyone can possibly turn corrupt, including me.
“Okay, so there’s the dress. Just throw some white shoes on with it and you’ll be stunning.”
“You’re a lifesaver!” I hug her.
“Uhm, I’m supposed to be your lifesaver,” Jared snaps.
“Or, I mean, if we’re talking about the lifesaver candy, I can be Dawn’s lifesaver.” He purrs. I would so tell him off if I wasn’t hiding anything from Dawn. He’s nowhere close to being a lifesaver for this witch. Dawn covers her mouth, glancing at him sideways.
I walk outside to get the pumps out of my car. I see Stacy walking on the other side of the street, turning left. I look both ways before I cross the street and jog across. I follow her, trying to keep track of the vinegar smell in the air.
Stacy turns around slightly to check if anyone is following her. My heart pounds in fear as I quickly throw myself around the corner of a house.
I peek from the side of the home and notice her walking into a dark building. The door closes behind her. Slowly I creep near the building she went inside of. My ears perk up when I hear some mumbles from the outside.
“Are you still helping me? Do the thing before they find me,” Stacy says stiffly.
“I told you to buy me time. We had a deal. I’m growing weak,” replies a muffled voice.
“I don’t care about the deal anymore. I’m in danger. It wasn’t my fault,” Stacy says.
“It is your fault. You gave in to temptation, you let him use you,” the voice snaps. “I’m watching her. I said I’d protect you as long as possible, but it’s taking too long. I didn’t think it’d take this much time. I have no choice,” the voice whispers.
I step on a soda can, and it makes a loud sound. The curtains from the building Stacy ran into ruffle apart. Quickly, I bend down and lay on the ground. A few minutes later, I hear the curtains ruffle closed. “The witch will soon die. As for you, there’s no escaping your death,” the muffled voice says.
“You bitch!” Stacy spits.
The building’s door flies open. I race back to the corner of the building and peek out again. Stacy steps out. She glances around the area with worried eyes and fixes her hair. Then she struts away.
Another person steps out as well. Her dirty blonde hair glimmers as the sun rays bounces off of it. She glances in my direction. I move away from the corner, carefully peeking back at the building. She slowly follows Stacy.
The girl who almost caught me eavesdropping looked almost like Miss Canary.
Chapter 23
What could Stacy Mey
er possibly need from a lookalike Miss Canary? She looks like she’s around my age. She has similar features to an elf, but I’m not sure yet.
Great, I have another problem on my hands.
When I get back home, I pull out my grimoire to look for details about Ravamere. I didn’t find anything. Of course Great grandma Mellissa helped me find a page of notes scribbled everywhere, which explained that it used to be like some sort of boot camp for witches.
I toss the pages back and forth, looking for any more interesting details. I read something rather strange. It seems like mystics were entering the boot camp, but these weren’t pure mystics. They were corrupt.
Their corruption tainted Ravamere making it their own, so basically only corrupt mystics or witches live there now. I trace my index finger across a note:
Staying for too long will corrupt you.
Grace Rose
My mother wrote this note recently. I also see another one in her handwriting:
Met a man who may be the cause of everything in Ravamere.
I shut the book with the palm of my hand and look up at my clock.
“You’re not going there,” Jare says.
Going where?
“To Ravamere.”
I watch him curiously, wondering how he knew what I was thinking. He glances up, catching my gaze. “You’re, uhm…throwing off tension. I feel like you’re worried. It’s a cat thing,” he clears his throat.
“Oh. I didn’t know you could sense my emotions like that.”
“Well, I’m a witch-cat, so…yeah.”
“Right.” I chuckle, still thinking about what he just said. My stomach growls. It feels like an awful cramp is inside my stomach. My eyes force themselves shut. Breathing slowly through the sudden pain, images flash through my head.
I see myself on top of a high building, almost like Donovan’s secret hideout. My hands are red from blood. I’m holding my dagger and below me is my mother, staring at me lifelessly.
A forceful push throws me on to my couch as my head falls onto the pillows. I fall asleep, a single tear trickling down my cheek.
“Maybe she’s protecting you...from yourself,” Jared said before he leapt away.
“Instinct...” Mom said.
“You’ll never get through the transformation,” Donovan yelled. “Useless witch...” He said, the sword’s blade against my neck.
All of these memories are racing throughout my head like a song I can’t get rid of. I don’t know what’s happening. It’s like I’m awake and asleep simultaneously. I can feel myself twitching from all the memories of the many things people have said to me the past few days. Waking up suddenly, I take a deep breath as If I’ve just been saved from drowning. I crawl to my grimoire, which is now on the ground, and shout at it.
“Mellissa, I need your help!” I glare at the book.
“Are you going crazy?” Jared says.
The book starts to flutter rapidly with silver light beaming from the middle of the bind. Jared’s eyes dart up at me and then at the book. His fur begins to rise.
“What the hell have you been…?” His voice trails off. As soon as I look at him, I’m sucked into the book. After my body brushes against the pages, everything becomes brown. I fall onto wet grass. Thunder claps above me as I flinch from the sudden noise.
“Does this always have to happen? Why can’t I fall in, I don’t know, pillows or something?” I yell at my grandmother, brushing the wet hair strands behind my ear.
I see red hair in my peripheral vision, so I turn to it. It’s Mellissa.
“Quickly, sweetheart. Follow me,” she whispers, her voice muffled because of the loud rain.
“But where are…”
“Into the forest, Eliza,” she says, her voice gentle, just like my mother’s used to be before all of this. I follow her to the forest in front of us. Darting faster, she vanishes as loud men from behind us approach quickly. I increase my pace to try and catch up. Her black outfit brushes through the trees and dark green bushes. When she turns around to face me, her hair whips from her face as she glances behind me.
“Okay, we don’t have much of time, dear,” she quickly says.
“What do you mean?” I whisper, looking at her slender body and then at the tattoos on her arm.
“The more you stay here with me, the more the future changes. Since this is the past, anything you do will change the future.”
“Well, doesn’t that mean it’s already changing, since you’re talking to me?”
“Not exactly. I’m enchanted. I called you here. The grimoire your mother gave you is certainly powerful, more powerful than you think.”
Her eyes dart pass me again. Suddenly, her expression changes and she glares at me.
“And I don’t like you throwing the family’s heirloom across the room and keeping it under your bed.” She crosses her arms, snapping at me.
“About that…” I say, avoiding eye contact.
“It doesn’t matter right now. What matters is the house party you’re getting ready to go to,” she says, pursing her lips and brushing her eyebrows together.
My dead great grandmother is getting ready to lecture me about a stupid party?
The rain slows down to a drizzle. Thin strands of rain tickles the tip of my nose as I lean against a wet tree.
“It’s just a party,” I answer slowly, staring at her.
“Yes, yes, I know,” she blurts. “I sense evil on that date,” she mutters under her breath. I watch her pace around the forest as the rain creates a natural musical around us.
“You, uh, sense it?”
“Yes. Instinct, dear.”
“Oh, right. So that must be what I’m feeling during these fights with mystics.” I cross my arms.
Mellissa looks at me and nods. “Eliza, don’t go to the dance.” The men I heard earlier yells out chants. “Grandma, what’s happening?”
Mellissa glances behind me as the bushes in the forest and tall grass ruffle with movement.
“Stay safe, Eliza.”
She hugs me and whispers something into my ear. Then she pushes me into a deep puddle. Water splashes all over me as my body sinks deep into the depths of the hole.
I crash onto my bed, not wet all. It feels like the insides of my body are twirling. I cover my mouth. I feel sick to my stomach.
I close the grimoire and trace my fingers over the silver swirly lines on the bind.
Exhaling slowly, my dry lips brush against each other. I hear hard thuds on my front door. Jared knows something happened, but he doesn’t question it. He just looks worried at me. He scratches behind his ear as he looks away.
I walk downstairs to open the door.
Miss Canary is standing in front of me in her yellow dress, watching me carefully. Breathing slowly, I stare back at her.
“What are you doing here? You’re not welcome in my home.” She looks behind me and then up at my eyes.
“I know it may have seemed that I was of no help. There’s only certain things I’m allowed to tell you. I don’t want anything else bad to happen. Being an elf comes with its consequences. Yes, we’re able to see the future, but everything we say must be watched with care.”
She fixes her scarf that is around her head. She looks very bohemian. “The note you’ve taken from my home. Where is it, dear?”
I walk inside of my house to find the note for her. I hear a shock from my door as I turn to see Miss Canary get hurt from the static shock. I look at the cracks in my doorway. I guess the charm around my house is still working. I keep forgetting that she’s one of them, one of the many mystics in this world. Whoever Stacy was talking to in that building could be the reason why she wasn’t shocked. She has some sort of deal with someone that’s masking who she really is.
Suddenly, her eyes glow green while she chants some phrases. She circles her hands at the door as a green light traces her movements. She stops chanting with a sudden hum of a melody ending with a burst of green light from her
eyes.
“How dare your mother try to charm me out of this place, from all that I’ve done for that witch.” She clears her throat, shaking her head.
I don’t even ask how she did what she did. I’m not afraid of her hurting me here. I know Donovan is on his way because of how strong her stench is, and I have a few daggers lying around my home. I allow her to follow me as I find the note behind some school books. I see the rose that I found in my purse. I step in front of the purse, blocking the rose.
I hand her the note. “Here you go.”
“By any chance, do you have the rose? I’d like to see my gift. Don’t worry, I don’t need it.”
Maybe she can get rid of it completely so that I can live my life. Being a witch is anything but normal, and I at least want to try and feel normal, like everyone else. I didn’t ask to be a witch or fight off evil. I turn around with my rose in my hand. Its green little markings begin to glow as I walk toward the elf. I hand the rose to Miss Canary.
She hums another melody as the markings on the stem glow brightly and then vibrate. I know she isn’t one of the people who want the rose, for whatever reason. Also, Mom has told me countless times to come to Miss Canary if things were going wrong. The noise is so loud I can feel it. It’s like being underneath a loud firecracker. It frightens me, and the markings on my left arm begin to freeze.
“Quickly. Let me see the markings, dear.”
She rushes over to my arm with the new markings and traces them. Her eyes glow green and a slight grin appears across her smooth face. Her eyes narrow, lifting up her gaze.
“No!” Jared hisses from up the stairs. He leaps off the steps to claw at Miss Canary.
“It’s already done, Jared.” She glances up, dodging Jared and swiftly exits the house.
Jared lands on the ground and gives me an irritated look.
Chapter 24
I’m still confused about Jared and Miss Canary’s relationship. The way they talked to each other…it’s as if they’re enemies. I thought she was a family friend and my mother’s companion. There’s still so much that I don’t know yet about Jared and Miss Canary. What could she have been chanting and was this all part of a plan to harm me?
Mystical (The Mystical Trilogy Book 1) Page 22