Witch's Promise : The Witching Hour Series Book 4

by Joanna Mazurkiewicz

  In this room the smell of lemons and limes was so strong that warmth embraced my body. I felt like Nathaniel was watching me, wondering how far I would go. The wardrobes were open, his suits and ties were lying on the floor. I walked to the large bedside cabinet and gasped.

  With trembling hands, I lifted the photograph of me. There were others of me as well. It wasn't like he tried to hide them; the pictures were on the top of the night table by his bed. My pulse started racing when I recognised the times when he took them.

  In most of them I looked happy, relaxed. Some of them were taken in Paris. My heart clenched in my chest and my pulse raced away. That woman, Elvira, she couldn't have seen these pictures if she slept here. Was it possible that he never brought her to his apartment?

  I didn’t know what to think anymore and started opening more drawers, wanting to find something, anything that could tell me he wasn't bad at all. Kate was dying, and Dad was going to be next. Dannika had witches in custody. I didn’t want to think about death and the end, but things were looking bleak.

  I walked around the bed and saw a thick envelope popping out of the smallest drawer. Nathaniel didn’t try to hide it very well. Maybe he was in a hurry and didn’t think anyone would try to break in.

  I took it out and sat on the bed, feeling excited. There were pictures in the envelope and some other papers. The first picture was taken from a distance, and on it, I recognised the witch from the party, the one he was dating. In the other photo she was stepping out of a familiar building. In the sunlight and with less makeup, her face looked much more deformed. There were a few more of these with some other women. My heart stuck in my throat when I recognised another woman with Elvira in the coffee shop. It was the witch from the yard, the one who Dannika had in custody. Then alarm bells started going off in my head.

  I didn't recognise the others with them, but my heartbeat tripled. I shuffled through more pictures and started reading some of the papers. There were a lot of dates and places. Many of the notes were handwritten and in one of them I recognised Nathaniel’s handwriting.

  We met in one of the hotels. She promised to help me; she promised to bring my mother back.

  I didn't understand. I knew that he loved his human mother, but was it possible that he was willing to sacrifice everything to bring her back? Something wasn’t adding up.

  There were other notes in the pile, invoices, the accounts in which he’d deposited large sums of money.

  I put a ton of useless stuff aside and then I found another picture taken recently. When I turned it over and saw the note on the back my world spun all around me.

  Emily Bishop. The head of the coven. The Swedish witch who desires immortality.

  My heart skipped a beat as I realised that the person who I had been looking for so long had been right in front of me all this time. Nathaniel’s date was Emily Bishop.

  CHAPTER 33

  BREAK IN.

  I didn’t know if this was a joke or reality. I was staring at the picture of the witch who had been in front of my eyes all this time, thinking this had to be some kind of mistake. Nathaniel’s date couldn’t have been Emily Bishop, the white witch that I was so desperate to find. The head of the coven, the woman who ripped away my dad’s and Kate’s soul during a necromancy ritual. She was supposed to be a healer, a good person.

  My hands were trembling as I picked up paperwork that showed evidence of her previous life. It was all clear then. Emily’s life in Wales, some pictures of her sister, the kids and Carla. There was evidence of her move to Sweden. Panic and anxiety seized me fast; my palms were damp with sweat. I couldn’t breathe staring at the picture of the only person who could bring Dad back. She couldn’t possibly transform from a human gifted with white light, but somehow, dark magic had reached her, infecting the purest of souls, creating the equivalent of a devil inside her. Gemma said Emily had changed, but this was all just too much.

  Nathaniel must have known who she was from the very beginning. I felt sick to my stomach, knowing that he’d kept this away from me, and from the police. There was a possibility that he didn’t know Emily was the white witch. Only Gordon and then Jasper knew her real name. Even now, holding proof of his betrayal, I still didn’t want to believe it. I’d done unforgivable things, hurt people to find her, and all this time she right under my nose. All because Nathaniel couldn't deal with the death of his mortal mother? None of this seemed right and it didn’t make sense.

  I felt doomed, hurt and betrayed. Holding the evidence in my hands, it seemed as if I never meant anything to him. He held this precious information undoubtedly for weeks, lying to my face and pretending that he was helping. It would’ve been so much easier if he had just told me the truth, rather than sacrificing my father’s life for some necromancy spell. His mother died years ago; he couldn’t possibly bring her back. But maybe there was more to this than I realised; I just needed to get to the bottom of it and ask Nathaniel myself.

  I shook my head and paced around the room. I didn’t know what to do. I went back to the papers and checked to see if I could find her address. Then another shock came.

  The fucking bitch lives in Croydon, a few streets away from my own home.

  The world spun, and I tried to keep my balance. There was no way I could get to Dannika now. I needed to be sure that Emily Bishop did in fact live at this address. My friends were an important factor, but I knew I had to do this on own. It was simple: I had to check to see if she really lived there and then head back with the police.

  Emily Bishop was the white witch. Her sister had mentioned that she didn’t want to be human. Now I finally understood what Gemma meant when she said that Emily became evil. She chose necromancy and created her own cult.

  Tears were streaming down my face when I took one last look at the pictures of me that Nathaniel kept on his bedside table and all around his room. My heart was shattered, this soaring pain was worse than anything that I’d ever experienced. It devastated my soul, ruined our love. I couldn’t believe he betrayed me for a spell, knowing my father and Kate would die. I knew I needed to speak to him, but I wasn’t sure if I had the courage to do so.

  I ripped off the bit of paper with the witch’s address and stormed out of his apartment thinking about what I had to do. In the lift I wiped the tears from my face, staring at my reflection in the mirrored walls. I looked like a person who had just been broken, standing in a circle of witches as they laughed. I imagined being one of those paranormals who they used for one of their rituals.

  I found Nathaniel’s guard in the same position as before, his face staring blankly at the TV screen.

  "Right. I'm off," I said and whispered the formula for the spell that would make him forget I was in Nathaniel’s apartment. Sprinkles of light streamed from my fingertips and slid to the guard’s head. I wasn’t sure if it worked, but I didn’t have time to stop and make sure that my magic did what it was supposed to. I needed to get to the other side of London and double check if I had the right address.

  There was a parking ticket on my car and I burned it, feeling as if anger was steaming out of my ears. For the next few hours I had to forget about the agonising pain in my heart, about the fact that I was in love with a traitor, because my task was more important than painful emotions.

  I drove, sensing strong currents of my magic. There was always a limit and I just reached the point where I wasn't controlling my energy any longer. In my head I just had to get to her house and, make sure she lived there. The rest was up to Dannika and the Paranormal Unit.

  A swore a few times, waiting for the traffic to move. My heart was beating entirely too fast; my energy was rising. I kept experiencing hot and cold flashes. I rubbed my eyes, staring straight ahead at the busy road. I’d made so many mistakes, but now it was up to me to face the woman who held incredible healing powers.

  It took me an hour and a half to get back to Croydon, thinking and analysing the paperwork from Nathaniel’s apartment. She’d been in
London for only a few months. Maybe I couldn’t compare my own powers to hers, but I knew the area.

  I parked the car by my apartment and then decided to walk. Emily had been living under my nose the whole time, while I searched around the country for her.

  Part of me wanted to stop and scream for wasting so much valuable time. Part of me wanted Nathaniel to pay for his betrayal. It was something I couldn’t quite wrap my head around because he’d finally, after so much time had passed, proved to me that he loved me even after we decided to just remain friends—he took care of me. Even loaned me money to pay Gordon for information. Now this? I just couldn’t understand his motivations, even if he did want to bring his mother back, what did that say about his feelings for me? Again, too many questions rattled around in my mind with very few answers.

  I was baffled when I entered a very quiet, modern neighbourhood with detached houses, using navigation on my phone. Humans lived there, magic was absent, and the houses belonged to ordinary families. My body didn’t even tingle. Nothing fit, the house, the neighbourhood, even the cars. Emily Bishop was one of the most powerful witches in London and she lived amongst humans, in this isolated neighbourhood.

  In was early Sunday afternoon. People were at home, so I used my magic and my spell flew to each house, making humans less receptive to streaming energies and noise. It was a precaution that I needed to take.

  I went around to the back; it was safer that way and I didn’t want to take any chances. I managed get through the gate that led to the back of all the houses.

  I crept along, roughly knowing that it was the third house on my right. On the other side there was a park and I was lucky enough that the thick trees were covering the small alley behind.

  I didn’t want to waste Dannika's time and I couldn’t call the police until I was absolutely sure that the witch would come back here at some point. In a matter of seconds, I changed my mind. I had to get inside, make sure that Emily actually lived there and then head to the station. I didn't sense any paranormals inside so nothing could go wrong.

  Once I figured out where house number forty-four was, there was another small problem. Somehow, I had to get through the fence. I had to rely on my upper body strength and shut my magic down.

  I wasn't scared or even anxious, but I felt really wound up that I was nearing so close.

  Instead of climbing, I circled the wooden fence and kicked a few loose parts. There was a large gap in the fence, so I squeezed through. I detested this woman but at the same time I needed her, and the fact that Nathaniel was most likely sleeping with her made me sick. My stomach made a flip as I emerged into an overgrown garden. Some rotten wood and bricks were lying by the fence. As I walked further and further towards the house I began to doubt that this was the place where she had been living.

  I felt like I was stepping into the wilderness until I reached the back door. My heart hammered between my ribs and a wave of my energy nearly enough knocked me off my feet. A pleasant crispy breeze ruffled my blond hair while I stood wondering how to get inside the house. There was no one inside; I was a hundred percent certain about it. Ever since I was little I could sense humans or paranormals, but the energy was clean, so I was pretty sure the house was either abandoned or no one had lived in it for quite some time.

  After bringing my magic back and fiddling with the back door for a moment, the lock snapped, and I was in. Clenching my fists, I stepped inside, feeling waves of my own magic crawling and circling around. It was a spacious kitchen with a large breakfast bar in the middle. I started moving my feet knowing I had to keep it together, get to the living room and find some letters. The funny thing was, that I wasn't even sure if she was using her real name.

  I looked around the kitchen, but something else pierced my attention—the photographs on the fridge. I approached slowly, not really prepared for what I was about to see.

  The fridge was filled with pictures of me, my dad, Mum, Kate, Kelsie, Ella and the agency. I stared at this whole sequence of familiar faces and my stomach began to tighten. The kitchen started closing in on me and my hands were trembling. There was a large lump in my throat and I couldn't swallow. My mind started running through a number of scenarios of why these pictures were here.

  One of them was taken last year, in the summer months when I was heading to work. In some of the other ones, I was with my parents, Kate, Kelsie, Ella and even Jasper. A cold and very scary chill passed down my spine.

  "Julia, it took you a long time to come, but you did eventually."

  The unexpected voice startled me and, turning around, I let out a scream. The lights in the kitchen turned on and I spotted Emily in a chair by the sink, which a wasn't there few seconds ago. I brought my hands together and called up a generous bolt of magic.

  She was wearing a black skirt that revealed her long, skinny legs that were crossed at the knee. Her face looked much more deformed in the light than at the Christmas party. I saw scars that ran over the side of her face, chin and forehead. Her eyes were incredibly pale. She was probably beautiful when she was younger.

  "You won't hurt me, you’ll only hurt yourself, so stop it," she said, lazily running her finger over her wand.

  I counted to five, wondering if I stood any chance with her.

  "I know who you are and what you can do," I said. She couldn’t have known that I would show up in her house. No one knew that I went to Nathaniel’s apartment. I wanted to scream with frustration, knowing that I should have gone to the police first.

  Then, out of nowhere, the pain came. I felt it in my skull, tearing, agonising pain that spread to the rest of my limbs. My light went away, and I crashed to the tile floor, taking sharp, shallow breaths. I gripped my head with my hands, gasping for breath.

  "Now, I told you this would hurt," she said, giving me a fake smile. The pain stopped as quickly as it started. I took a long deep breath, lifting myself off the floor.

  "What the hell do you want from me?" I asked. Well, it was an obvious question. She knew I was going to show up. There was something more to it than just her interest in Nathaniel.

  She looked at me then with her eyes wide.

  "I’ve been searching for the perfect sacrifice for years. Then I heard about you from my old teacher. He praised you and was truly convinced that you’re more powerful than any other elf who walks the earth," she explained. "Tron was always so sentimental."

  CHAPTER 34

  UNLIMITED BETRAYAL.

  I was too frozen by shock to move. I stared at her for several moments going over and over what she said.

  She kept staring back at me with a smile; my startled reaction didn't seem to surprise her. My energy rush was immediate, lighting up my adrenaline, thrumming through the air. I had enough strength to hit back, to fight. Tron might not have taught me a lot, but I had enough skill to defend myself. Except I wanted to know the real truth.

  "Tron? He used to be your teacher?" I asked.

  Elvira didn’t respond straight away.

  "Yes, when I was really, really young and I didn't understand myself. When I turned thirteen he left, claiming that his job was done, and I didn’t need him anymore," she explained, annoyed. "I came to London knowing that you lived here. It took me months to finally get closer to people who you knew. Of course, by that time, I had my little team behind me. Witches who had lost direction in life, witches who were hungry for power. These women felt betrayed by their men and associations. It was such a shame. Your friend Kate; she was so strong, so devoted to you."

  A sudden shot of anger and fear stabbed me in the gut. Kate was dying because of me? Because the witch wanted to get to me?

  "Kate is dying! What the hell did you do to her?" I shouted with fury, imagining what I could do to hurt this woman.

  "Your friend Katie didn't want to help me. I approached her and offered to teach her, but she refused. In the end you’re either with me or against me. I really believed her blood was pure enough, that I could use her body in th
e ritual but then—"

  "Bitch!" I roared, losing the last bit of control that held me away from her. A surge of powerful energy flew from me, but the lance of raw fire never reached her. I was lifted above the floor, feeling as if invisible hands were clenching my throat, burning my skin. Elvira held her magic wand. She snarled, creating a mass of blackness all around me. I couldn’t breathe, wheezing and panting for oxygen.

  "The ritual didn't go as I planned. The powerful werewolf that I tried to bring back rebelled. Marcus fought with me, and although your friend was strong and powerful, her soul had drifted away when he cut the connection. A few nights later I had another opportunity, but I didn’t have the vessel." She paused, smiling to herself. "Can you imagine how lucky I was that night? Your own father showed up, tracking me down on the outskirts of town, interfering with my magic. I was so lucky, knowing that if I had him in my collection you would come more eagerly. I also thought that with an older paranormal the ritual would work."

  She stopped talking and waved her magic, so the invisible hands loosened their grip on my throat. I inhaled loudly. Dad had probably been trying to arrest her, but I didn’t understand why he was on his own? Where was Stewart? My fear and anger had begun to settle down, but hatred rebounded again.

  "Julia Taylor, half-breed. Who would have thought you would be the one? I had real trouble with you. I thought you would make it easy for me, but no… you wanted to help your little friend, running around the city and asking questions. It was hard to keep an eye on you. You came so close. That vampire in the club…he knew too much." Emily continued talking. Fear danced over the nape of my neck. I’d suspected that Shaun’s death wasn't accidental.

  "The bouncer who worked for me killed him; he was going to ruin my plans and I wanted to stay anonymous for the time being. I had to have people everywhere," she said with a shrug.