I pulled down my sweater’s sleeves and stepped back to the center of the room. “The book.” I winced. “Where’s the book?”
A cool draft filtered inside the chamber, swiftly enveloping my legs. I examined the wooden walls surrounding me, failing to find a window or shaft that would explain it. Something else stirred in the air, making the atmosphere denser, heavy with a dozen presences, if not more.
“Do you feel that?” I whispered, startled as I realized what it was. Meanwhile, candlelight flickered and grew, licking the walls of this forlorn chamber.
“Feel what?” Mer said.
“We’re not alone...” White mist escaped my lips as I spoke.
The room shook. A curtain of smoke, dust, and debris fell upon me, clouding my view. “Mer?” I said with a quivering voice.
“Kiera…” a woman called. The voice I did not recognize to be Meredith’s. I turned around, trying to find the voice’s owner.
“Kiera, are you all right?” Meredith coughed somewhere inside the heavy cloud of dust.
“Did you hear that?” I all but hissed.
She gave no answer. “I guess not then…” I added, stepping further towards the mysterious voice.
“Kiera, honey…” This time, it was a man’s voice. And this one rattled something in my core memory. A flash of an image struck my mind then. The last day I ever saw my parents alive.
A bank of white dense vapor scurried through my legs, warm as I stood on a platform. The cloud slowly dissipated, and the smoke-puffing metal beast that had taken my parents ten years ago stood before me.
“Kiera,” Dad said, leaning down until his gaze met mine. “Prim is going to take good care of you while we’re gone.” He pursed his lips, affection glowed in his blue eyes. “I’ll miss you, sweetie.”
“Be good, sweetheart.” Mom slipped on her leather gloves in a hurry. “Oh, blasted snowstorm… Will it ever stop?” she mumbled. She then knelt before me, arranging my scarf with loving care. Mom’s warm hazel eyes fixed on mine. Her crimson lips stretched in an endearing smile, the kind that could melt my heart away.
“Take care of my sister, will you?” she whispered in confidence. “I love you, honey.” The warmth of her lips pressed against my forehead brought tears to my eyes.
The beast’s whistle called all passengers inside. Mom got up again and readied herself to climb into the train’s car.
I prepared for the vision to be over, bracing myself for the imminent blows of pain that would follow.
“Darling…” Mom turned to say, and her witty eyes locked on mine. “Don’t forget to place the book in the center. Go to page 378.”
I frowned. That was certainly not part of this memory. Mom pressed a heavy leather-bounded book into my small hands. I hugged it tight against my chest. My mother smiled, pleased, as she hopped into the passenger car. Dad followed her inside.
“Page 378…” I mumbled, holding the book steadily. The number was important. Don’t forget about that number, Kiera.
Page 378.
The train’s chimney howled, pistons and cylinders churned. A blur of dense steam lifted from the ground and spread across the platform, clouding my sight.
“Kiera!” Meredith cried, grabbing my arm through the smoke. She tugged and pulled me towards her.
“Kiera, you’re back!” she said with panting breath.
“Back?” I furrowed my brow. “Back from where?”
“I’d love to know!” Mer said, waving her hands in the air. “You were here one minute and gone the next! You vanished into thin air! It was like—”
“Magic,” I said, looking down. Squeezed against my chest, clutched tight between my hands, was the grimoire my mother gave me.
There was no time to waste. I rushed to the table and set the book in the center of the circle. When I opened it, I discovered an inscription on the first page.
This Grimoire belongs to Laurel Stone,
Head Witch of the Stone Family of Witches.
“Head Witch?” I said, struck with bewilderment. My mother was a Head Witch!
I turned over the parchment pages, careful not to tear them. A myriad of spells and incantations flashed before my baffled eyes, tempting me to read further. But I refrained. This was not the time… Then I came upon page 378.
Beautiful calligraphy framed the heading of this section.
“Curses and Counter Spells,” I read aloud. Below were listed dozens of spells to combat all manner of curses.
“Prim’s curse, which one is Prim’s curse?” I frantically said.
“Kiera!” Meredith said. “You’ve got twenty minutes until midnight!”
“Fuck!” I growled, shutting my eyes close. “Prim, I love you. Fight Ransom’s curse with all your might, please! Ransom’s magic has nothing on yours.”
I opened my eyes and stumbled upon the spell.
Curse to strip a vampire’s immortality: Reversal.
I read the two-paragraph spell as fast as I could. “I’ll need your help, Mer.” Looking back, I noticed her, still shaken by my earlier disappearance. “I’ll need some stuff from your bag.”
Meredith offered me her tote with haste. I took out only the magical items required for the spell: a small clay saucer, sandalwood incense sticks and sage. I bound the last two with a red ribbon. I lit the bundle with one of the custody candles and allowed the fumes to envelop us before starting the spell.
“Time to say the words,” I said under my breath, heart beating hard against my chest. My mouth went dry. So much depended upon this going well. I could feel my body trembling inside.
Mer’s hand folded over mine. “It’s all right, Kiera,” she said with a soothing voice. “I’ll say them with you...” she hesitated for a second, “if that’s okay.”
I pursed my lips and nodded, fighting oncoming tears. “I don’t want to lose him, Mer...” I whispered.
“You won’t.” She smiled. “You’re a powerful witch, Kiera. You just traveled who knows where to bring back your family’s grimoire! If anyone can do this, that’s you.”
I forced a smile. “You always said you were a Stone Witch by adoption,” I mumbled. “So let’s do this, together.”
Both of us leaned closer to the book.
“What was bound is now broken.
I proclaim the curse from Drayce, the immortal, be lifted.
Be gone, evil magic.
Return to the depths of hell and cause no further harm.”
“That should do it,” Meredith said, victoriously.
Something jumped at me from the page. It was a fine print below the spell. For all my cleverness at giving Meredith an extensive magical shopping list, I had failed to add one crucial element to complete the spell.
“Oh, bugger!” I moaned.
“What is it?”
“This note at the bottom of the spell! It says: ‘Lock the magic into the chosen vial to be used by the immortal blood drinker’.”
“A vial?” Meredith shook her head, confused. “I don’t remember that being on the list.”
“It wasn’t,” I said, biting my lower lip.
“There must be something else we can use…” Mer stuck her hands inside her tote bag. Herbs and candles wouldn’t do the trick.
Defeated, I slipped my hands into my jeans pockets and heaved a sigh. “Wait,” I mumbled, digging into my left pocket. “This might work…” I pulled out the small tube and flashed it before Meredith’s hazel eyes.
“Chapstick?” She scowled, folding her arms over her chest. She then raised one eyebrow, giving me a cynical stare. “Are you being serious?”
“Absolutely. It’s either that or nothing at all.” Resolved, I opened the tube’s cap and hovered it above the magical fumes evaporating from the terra-cotta saucer. The red smoke swirled in the air and entered the container, tinging the lip balm crimson immediately. As the last of the magic fumes entered the chosen vial, I placed the cap back on, locking the magic inside.
“On second though
t,” I said, opening the cap. I rolled up the lip balm and smeared it on my lips.
“Kiera, what are you doing?” Meredith squinted, her mouth agape.
“It’s only right.” I simpered. “I’ll deliver the spell to him with a kiss.”
Meredith raised her shoulder in a half shrug. “Or, you could just give him the Chapstick.”
“I’m being practical.” My cheeks burned.
“Practical, huh?” she teased.
“Come on,” I said, heading to the stairs. “I’ve got a prince to kiss before midnight and then it’s off to save dear Auntie Prim... I’ll just get the book.” I turned, heading back towards the table when suddenly the world shook hard beneath my feet.
I stumbled against a wall. Meredith fell to her knees. Both of us clung to the walls as the entire building sustained blow after blow of gigantic invisible punches, one after another.
Dust and debris fell through the cracks of the old chamber. An immediate cloud of smoke covered it all while chunks of timber fell over our heads.
Meredith screamed.
I screamed.
“What the devil is happening?” Meredith said, finally getting on her feet. “Kiera, we’ve got to get out of here!”
“What about the book?” I said, trying to move towards the table with no luck. The place creaked all around us.
At that moment, the candles blew out. Pitch darkness filled the room.
“This whole place is coming apart!” Mer said, holding my hand fast. “Let’s go!”
We dashed downstairs as blasting sounds echoed in the chamber that led back to the shop. The old wooden staircase cracked under us. The entire flight of stairs collapsed and started to plummet behind us.
“Go, go!” I pressed Meredith as the small square of light filtering from the shop became visible.
Meredith slipped through the narrow doorway first. I followed, all but stumbling to the floor as a dark cloud of dust and smoke puffed out of the secret passage and into the teahouse.
“What the hell happened to you?” Alisa said, disturbed by our bedraggled appearance.
My gaze swept the vampire, from high-heeled leather boots to the piercing blue eyes staring down at me with utter condescension.
“We’re all right,” I mumbled, scrambling on my feet. “Thanks for your concern.”
I then spotted the lip balm rolling past Alisa’s fancy boots. In a flash, I lunged on the floor and reach to grab the tube with my ashen hands as if my life depended on it.
“My dear child…” Alisa raised an eyebrow, “chapped lips are the least of your problems.”
“Fuck,” I said under my panting breath, rolling on my back. My eyes fixed on the ceiling for a moment as I struggled to catch my breath.
Another powerful blow struck the building, and that shook me back into alertness.
I got on my feet at once, but nearly fell over as I drank in the scene playing out before my eyes. Shattered glass and dust spread across the shop, tattered chairs and split tables turned over and scattered in the room. Spectral fire burned the entrance and the trees outside the shop, columns of black smoke rising in the evening air...
The teahouse... it was a war zone.
Chapter Fifteen
“Alisa!” Alexander called, crouched behind one of the overturned tables. “It’s starting again. Take cover!”
The female vampire’s eyes widened as she stared down at me. In a flash, she vanished right before my eyes and reappeared huddled next to Alexander.
“What the devil is happening?” Meredith asked, hiding quick behind a knocked down bookcase.
“That Lara woman!” Alexander winced as a bolt of magic struck the table that secured them. “She’s fucking crazy!”
“That’s hardly surprising,” I grunted, crawling closer to the shattered window, hoping to catch a glimpse of the evil pair outside. “It runs in the family!”
“I’d be a little pissed off too if someone had bitten my son’s throat!” Meredith argued from her post.
“She deserved nothing less!” Alisa hissed, throwing her a frosty look.
I peered through the window. A ball of magic fire headed straight to my face. I ducked quick and covered my head, sustaining the blow as it shook the building to its very foundations.
A few seconds passed, and the movement stopped. Again, I took one quick look. There was Lara, standing across the street, casting balls of spectral fire as if this were the World Series. Standing next to her was Ransom, his neck and pullover drenched in blood, with no visible wound. Lara’s magic had been strong and healed him. But my heart sank fast as I saw Drayce, a prisoner in Ransom’s hold, too weak to fight back as the curse slowly ended his life.
“No!” I cried, running to the doorway. “They have Drayce!”
“How the hell did that happen?” Meredith grabbed my arm, all but dragging me back to safety.
“I guess your lucky charms were faulty.” Alisa sneered, ripping off the pendant I’d given her. She tossed the necklace to me.
The precious heirloom landed on my hands. I studied it carefully between my fingers, then held the stone against the light. There was something different about the quartz’s quality. It lacked brilliance and transparency. It made no sense. Unless... My eyes flew open. “Oh, hateful pixies!” I growled. “They switched the magic heirlooms with the replicas!”
“Pixies?” Alisa scowled.
“Please,” Alexander said, shaking his head. “I don’t even want to know. I’ve had enough magic for a lifetime!”
The shop’s grandfather clock chimed, an ominous gong that announced the third quarter.
Time was of the essence. I swallowed hard as I leaned my back against the wall. “Lara,” I said, sliding towards the doorway. “This is a witch’s affair.” I paused. “Let. Drayce. Go.”
“I’m terribly sorry about all this, dear Kiera,” Lara said with a posh accent. “Give me the grimoire, and I’ll let the vampire go so he may die in your arms.”
“M-Mother!” Ransom scowled.
“I’m sorry pumpkin, but I really want that book. You understand, don’t you?” Lara said, cupping her son’s chin with her delicate hand.
“But… I don’t want to!” Ransom argued, dropping Drayce’s weakened body next to the lamppost.
“Oh, darling. Do not fret. He’s almost dead, anyway. Look at him.” Lara pointed at Drayce. His skin was ashen, the preternatural light that beamed from him had dimmed. He was no longer conscious.
“That’s not enough! I want to see him die before my very eyes!” A sour smile quivered Ransom’s lips.
“No one is dying tonight!” a voice said.
An unusual calm spread amidst the vacant street. The black smoke dissipated in the night, the licking flames receded until they disappeared. A gust of cool wind rushed through the street, sweeping a low bank of fog. And from that fog, a silhouette emerged. A woman, five and a half feet tall with a curvylicious figure; blonde wavy hair rippling down her shoulders, deep green eyes sparkling in the darkness like glittering jewels.
My heart swelled with joy as I laid eyes on her again.
“Primrose, what on earth are you doing here?” Lara asked. “Aren’t you supposed to be dying at the hospital?”
“You would have liked that, wouldn’t you, Lara?” Prim said, rolling up her sleeves as she strutted out of an alley into the street. “And you, Ransom… Next time you try to bump off a witch, make sure to pick one that doesn’t outwit you.”
“Leave him alone.” Lara stepped between them. “You’ve got to be the bravest witch in the world to dare set a foot in here,” she said with a smug tone. “Either that or you’re absolutely foolish.”
“Give Mum the book, Prim, so we can all go home,” Ransom whined.
“No.” Prim said in a matter-of-fact tone.
“What the devil are you saying?” he scoffed, perplexed.
“You’ve hurt my family enough.” Prim pursed her lips. “It’s about time someone taught you a
lesson.”
Lara laughed, a wicked resonant laughter that echoed in the silent street. “You’re a simple low-class witch. You are no match for my powers!” she said. “Are you honestly planning to stop me?” folding her arms over her chest.
“I wouldn’t dream of taking you on by myself, Lara…” Prim moved back. Out of the fog, twelve silhouettes lined up behind Auntie Prim. One by one, I recognized the faces stepping out of the fog. I had seen them often at home, especially on Book Club Night.
“The Coven witches,” I whispered in awe.
“What are you doing?” Lara nervously said, her gaze shifting from one witch to the next. “A coup? Don’t be ridiculous!”
The witches held hands fast. Together, they marched forward, a single chain of powerful females, fearless as they opposed Lara Knightley and her mischievous son in an unprecedented confrontation.
“Mother?” Ransom’s shaky voice broke off.
Prim and the twelve witches hummed a spell. It started as a low croon that softly dispersed in the night. Ancient Celtic words weaved into the melody.
The chain of witches soon encircled the Knightleys as the incantation continued. A low bank of fog emerged from the pavement, condensing fast inside the magic circle that contained Lara and Ransom.
“Mother, do something!” Ransom balled his fists, restless.
“I can’t!” Lara cried, stricken with grief. “My powers, they’re not working!” She opened her hands, struggling to project enough spectral fire to attack. However, not a spark burst through.
The chant suddenly ended, the coven witches unlocked hands, and the fog scattered and dissolved into the ether. One by one, the witches walked away, disappearing into the evening as mysteriously as they’d come. Only Prim remained. The purest sympathy twinkled in her eyes as she observed the Knightleys.
Lara sobbed bitterly. Ransom ambled back and forth, confused.
“You can come out now,” Prim said, turning to the teahouse. “They cannot hurt you anymore, or anyone else, for that matter.” A low giggle escaped her lips.
Prim was back, and I could not have felt happier to see her again, but Drayce still needed my help.
I looked at my wristwatch.
A Cursed All Hallows' Eve Page 103