****
Sebastian found Abby at the eternity pool with Matilda. He paused at the glass doors and watched her.
She sat perched on the edge of the pool, facing the ocean. Her long golden-brown curls fell down her bare back. He studied the curve of her face, her small pouty lips in profile, and her little perfectly formed ear. He had kissed her ears, her neck, her lips. How many times already in the few short months that he had known her, had he gotten lost in the curve of her neck and the soft hollow of her throat? Watching her, all guilt at having seen Hannah vanished. With Abby, nothing and no one else existed.
He pushed the door open and she turned, seeing him.
"Hey there, handsome."
He kneeled beside her and kissed her shoulder, and then her lips.
"Has it been enlightening?" he asked, referring to her time with Matilda.
She nodded and returned her gaze to the ocean.
"Very. They performed a blessing on the baby and gave me a whole bag of herbs and oils to help with the pregnancy. Matilda also taught me how to create bubbles that carry things. She's a water witch too. Here, watch."
Abby stood and closed her eyes. Whispering beneath her breath, she drew water from the pool and formed a bubble the size of a beach ball. She opened her eyes, concentrating on the bubble, and slipped her sunglasses from her head.
"Water, wind, strong as glass
Help this bubble travel fast.
Deliver these glasses straight and true
To Julian who waits for you.
Blessed be."
The bubble sailed off toward the compound.
Sebastian laughed.
"That's awesome. We never have to trudge through snow to get the newspaper again!"
"We don't get a paper," she teased him.
"But now we can."
She laughed and pretended to push him into the pool.
"You're already wet," she said, touching his hair.
"I found a beautiful waterfall back in the woods," he told her, feeling the admission about meeting Hannah on his lips.
"Abby, we found that cookbook," Grace called, walking toward the pool.
Sebastian let the information die on his lips.
****
The Sky Mothers cooked together. Nearly every meal was prepared communally, and they invited their guests to join them in an enormous open-air kitchen where they prepared quinoa, roasted vegetables, platters of fried plantains, fresh fish caught from the ocean, and heaps of fresh fruit. Sebastian joined with fervor.
"To ensure that dinner is edible, I'm going to stick with cutting up pineapple. Care to join me?" Oliver asked Abby.
Abby laughed and nodded.
"Yes, my talents don't extend to the kitchen, and honestly, I'm so engrossed by the process that it's hard not to just sit and watch."
"Well, I'll hold the knife then so you don't lose any appendages."
A beautiful young witch stood at a butcher block carefully scaling fish. Her wavy golden hair was tied on top of her head and partially covered with a white lace scarf. She wore a white robe that flowed over her shapely body and cascaded to the floor. Abby noticed her because she seemed to be sneaking glances at Sebastian at every opportunity.
"Who's that?" Abby asked, nudging Oliver and inclining her head toward the woman.
Oliver glanced at her and shook his head.
"Not a clue, but she's gorgeous."
"Yes, she is."
The woman waved her fingers and the scales swept up and into a trash bin. She picked up another hunk of fish and again her eyes darted toward Sebastian who worked silently, focused on the enormous bowl of black bean hummus that he was making from scratch.
Helena and Julian helped Kit fry plantains and Helena laughed gleefully every time Kit blew the tips of her fingers like they were a smoking gun.
Matilda created a row of floating dishes that she walked from the kitchen toward the outdoor dining table.
The witch watching Sebastian stepped closer to him, and peered into his bowl.
"I didn't catch your name earlier. Sebastian, is it?"
Abby saw a flush turn Sebastian's neck crimson. Her own body tensed and she felt a wave of jealousy. A huge aquarium holding the day's fish exploded. Water and glass spurted in every direction. Both Matilda and Julian threw their arms up and the water and glass froze in mid-air. Together they directed the shards toward a series of wastebaskets.
The witches stopped what they were cooking and several gasped or cried out.
"Ouch," Helena murmured, touching her shoulder where a piece of glass had embedded in her skin.
Kit plucked the glass from her shoulder and pinched the skin together. It singed and closed at her touch.
"Not a drop of blood spilled," she said triumphantly.
"Is that a new kind of magic? Exploding aquariums?" Julian asked, smiling, but looking concerned at Matilda.
"Obviously not," she turned and gazed among the witches. Her eyes rested briefly on Abby, but she said nothing.
Abby also felt Oliver's eyes, though he did not look at her directly.
Sebastian left his post and hurried over to her.
"It didn't hit you, did it?" he asked, scanning her body for abrasions.
"No, I'm fine," she promised, avoiding his eyes.
She did not want to admit that her emotions had caused the explosion.
Over Sebastian's shoulder, Abby saw the beautiful witch watching them. She smiled and turned back to the table.
****
They ate dinner at a long wooden table next to the waterfall that they first encountered when they arrived at the Sky Mother's Coven. The table could sit at least fifty people. An arch of twinkling white lights, braided with bright red flowers hung over the table and created a fairy-like atmosphere that put Abby in a practical dream state. Or a would-be dream state if not for the witch across from Sebastian who took every opportunity to catch his eye.
Matilda had introduced them before dinner. Her name was Hannah and she clearly had taken a liking to Abby's future husband.
"This is delicious," Hannah told Sebastian, scooping hummus onto a piece of freshly baked sourdough bread.
"Thanks," he told her and then directed his attention to Abby.
"How are you feeling, babe?" he asked, lifting her hand to his lips. He kissed her knuckles.
Abby glanced at Hannah across the table. She watched them, smiling. Her expression revealed little, but something in her eyes made Abby uncomfortable.
"Good, great. I feel like we're in a wonderland." She gestured to the twinkling lights suspended just above them.
"We should do something like this for our wedding. What do you think Helena? Could we recreate this at Ula?" Sebastian called down the table and Abby noticed that Hannah's smile faltered, just a little.
"You're engaged to be married?" she asked Abby.
"Yes," Abby told her, studying her face and trying to get a sense of her intentions.
"And having a baby," Sebastian added.
Abby knew that he too sensed Hannah's interest and obviously intended to deter her, but something about his eagerness bothered her.
"What is this arch made from?" Helena asked Matilda, studying the canopy of lights and flowers above them. They seemed to be embedded in a gauzy white fabric, so thin, they could see the stars.
"Spiderwebs. Look." Matilda pointed and all of the witches craned upward.
Abby did not exactly see the spiders, but a subtle shifting in the fabric itself. As if the fabric got the chills and shuddered.
"I saw them at the All Hallow's Ball," she murmured.
"A journey they didn't appreciate," Kit told her. "We had to send them first class by air. The mirrors are too dangerous for such delicate creatures." She lifted her hand to the fabric and a line of spiders scurried down her arm.
Oliver recoiled.
"Sorry, it's not personal, guys," he told the spiders. "But my skin crawls just looking at you."
Kit smiled and cocked an eyebrow.
"Do you know that the silk in a spider's web is five times stronger than a strand of steel that is the same thickness? Spiders are magic in nature. These are all female. There are males, of course, but they don't colonize with our beautiful ladies. They just come in to grab a scrap of food now and then."
"Do you feed them?" Helena asked.
She watched the spiders with a curiosity that, like Oliver, held an edge of discomfort.
Kit laughed.
"Spiders are one of the most adept species on the planet. They've survived well over three hundred million years. What would they become if I fed them? Slovenly, disinterested, eventually extinct. What is wild is meant to be wild, take the creature out of the forest and he is no longer a creature."
"You've managed quite well," Hannah quipped.
Kit narrowed her eyes at Hannah but smiled, coolly.
"This papaya is amazing," Julian interrupted, cutting the tension that had begun to rise.
"Plucked direct from our own trees," Matilda told him warmly. She glanced at Hannah and her eyes looked stormy.
****
"He can do it!"
Abby paused. The angry sounding voice had come from behind a closed door.
"Hannah, you can't possibly know that. Don't you wonder if you're projecting Liam onto this stranger, vainly hoping to-"
"No," Hannah hissed.
Abby spun away and slipped behind a huge potted tree just as the door flew open and Hannah stormed out.
Kit followed, but turned and walked toward the ocean rather than chasing Hannah.
Abby waited another minute and then crept back into the large hall. The marble floors were cold beneath her feet, but a warm breeze seemed to always flow through the open windows and doorways. She shivered and stared in the direction that Hannah had retreated.
They were talking about Sebastian, she knew, but why? And who was Liam?
Chapter 5
"The day they took me," Adora started and then abruptly stopped. She took another sip of the tea that Bridget had prepared. "I was watching the well from a tree. It started to snow. I could barely see, and then I had a horrible sense they had found Abby in the car. I moved through the trees, and saw her, Abby. She was walking blindly through the snow. I could feel the heat just pouring off her. She began to get sick and then sat down in the snow. I started to go to her when Tobias walked out of the trees. Abby saw him, but her eyes were glassy and vacant like she was dreaming. He held a glass bottle in his hand and he handed it to her, whispering in her ear. I couldn't hear what he said. I jumped from the tree onto his back. I might have had him, but he wasn't alone. Another Vepar attacked me from behind. I remember them dragging me through the snow and my whole body had gone numb. I lost consciousness. When I woke again, I was in a lair. I felt the weight of the earth all around me. I had no power. I don't know how they stifled it, but I couldn't astral travel, I couldn't summon my element. I grew weaker. They were biting me to keep me unconscious, but it was more than that. I had memories of being in my body, memories not from my life. Somehow, they were stealing my body. Does that make sense?"
"Unfortunately, yes," Faustine admitted. "Continue and then we will fill you in on all that we know."
"I had memories of running through the woods. I remembered standing on a cliff and watching Lake Superior below me. There were all these black creatures flying in the sky."
"Skin-walkers," Elda whispered.
"The memories were brief, snippets really, but I had the sense that each time they used my body, I became weaker. I couldn't walk, could barely lift my head at one point. I think they expected me to die. The memories stopped and I started to regain a bit of strength. Barely, enough to sit up, and then eventually to stand up. One night, I woke in my cell and my head was clear. It was the first time since I'd been taken that I couldn't feel their venom inside of me. I knew that I had to escape, it was my only chance. I started to draw on my power. It felt like ages before something broke through their barriers. I managed to draw a few shards of rock together and pop the lock. I got out of the room. It was a typical lair, a mind-numbing series of dark tunnels. I felt like I ran through them for hours before I finally smelled fresh air. I raced toward it and emerged on a cliff. I ran into the woods, but I was so weak. I gained as much distance as possible and then I found a little cave that I could fit inside. I crawled in and slept. I recognized Lake Superior. I knew if I could just find the strength to get to the island, to Ula, but I couldn't. I spent weeks in that cave trying to gain enough strength to come here, but I didn't seem to be healing. She touched the red welts on her head. Whatever they'd done to me, my air element seemed almost cut off, like I didn't have access to my power."
****
Matilda led Julian into the greenhouse to collect seeds. They grew a strain of plant that Kit had discovered and named he Peace Keeper. Seeds from the plant, when crushed, released an intoxicating aroma that rendered everyone who breathed it languid and blissful.
"I am sensing a strange energy from your witch Hannah directed at Sebastian," Julian told her.
Matilda stopped at a large bushy plant whose dark glossy leaves cascaded over its pot.
"I tried to create an errand for Hannah during your visit," Matilda confessed. "After Binda told me that Sebastian was a hybrid, I asked Hannah to travel to Sydney to retrieve some elixirs that a friend of mine makes, but she resisted. I believe she sensed the power in Sebastian and wanted a chance to know for sure."
"Why is she so interested in hybrids?"
"We have a secret place here," Matilda started and then paused, as if reluctant to explain. "We call it the dream wood,"
"The dream wood?"
"Hannah fell in love with a man, Liam, who disappeared into the dream wood. A hybrid man."
"I'm not following."
"The dream wood is a strange bit of magic. Witches cannot go there, though it was created by one of the original witches who founded the Sky Mothers. Her child was a hybrid and being hunted. She bewitched a portion of the forest to allow only his kind to enter. Liam stumbled upon it accidentally. Of course, we both know that it was not truly an accident. Did it call to him? Perhaps. He told Hannah of the things he saw and felt. In the dream wood, Liam could see into the past and the future, he could touch the trees and watch them become gold beneath his fingertips."
Julian frowned.
"I still don't understand."
"Nor do I, but it is believed that the hybrid child of the witch who enchanted the forest, spent his years in isolation there honing and playing with his magic. He created a sort of wonderland that is accessible only to those who share his cellular structure."
"Have you known other hybrids who entered the space?"
"One, a young man. His name was Fin and he went into the dream wood more than fifty years ago. He never came back out."
"Is that what happened to Liam, then? He disappeared?"
Matilda nodded and pulled her shimmering blond hair over one delicate shoulder. She had a fairy-like ethereal appearance. In her presence, Julian often felt light-headed and romantic. He knew it was one of Matilda's powers and not something she emitted intentionally.
"Liam went back several times. He grew addicted to the experiences in the dream wood. I told Hannah to warn him of the dangers, and she did, I'm sure, but she is impulsive. I fear that she too grew obsessed with his stories and perhaps with the possibilities. To see the future is a rare gift and it is easy to become entranced by it."
"But then he never came out," Julian mused, frowning. "What then? She hopes to send Sebastian to the dream wood to search for Liam? Impossible! Sebastian has too much at stake. Absolutely not."
"I agree with you, of course. However, I cannot prevent Sebastian from going into the dream wood any more than you can if he were to choose that."
"He wouldn't. Abby wouldn't allow it and honestly, I would prefer that he never heard of the dream wood at all."
"I fea
r it may be too late for that."
****
"Are you sure she came this way?" Sebastian asked, sensing that the witch leading him into the forest had an ulterior motive, but lost for what it might be. Why would she lure him into the woods?
He stopped and glanced back at the Sky Mothers' compound.
Hannah turned and smiled. Her golden hair hung loosely over her bare shoulders. She wore a sheer white dress with tiny straps made from pearls.
Sebastian swallowed. Hannah was beautiful and eager. He felt desire when he looked at her, followed immediately by guilt. He didn't want to be attracted to her, but he couldn't help it.
"Come on, not much farther."
She held out her hand and he nodded, but did not touch her. He wondered if she used some form of magic to enhance his desire. He thought touching her might increase the effects and he had no interest in going there.
As they walked, the canopy from the huge trees grew thick and no light penetrated. The forest looked as if it had never been logged. It would take three of him standing fingertip to fingertip to wrap his arms around one of their massive trunks.
Another ten minutes passed, and then twenty. Abby would not have walked alone so far into unknown woods. They had been walking on an incline for a long time. He could see the forest sloping down and back toward the ocean.
Hannah stopped and turned toward him.
"Okay, I lied," she admitted. She stared at him with huge inquisitive eyes. Her gaze shifted along his body and she stepped closer to him, trailing her fingertips over his bare arm. "You're not sweating at all."
Sebastian brushed away her hand and turned back.
"Wait," she said. Her voice had changed subtly. He heard fear and desperation.
"What? Why have you brought me here?"
"Do you see that footbridge?"
Sky Mothers (Born of Shadows Book 4) Page 4