Sea Cursed: An Adult Dystopian Paranormal Romance: Sector 13 (The Othala Witch Collection)

by Amy Lee Burgess

  “Yes? How do you?” Logan drawled, raising his eyebrows. Mutters erupted from the other council members.

  The Lord Regent curled his upper lip. “This is obviously part of the sea witch’s campaign of agitation. Regiment Thirteen had the hell of a time restraining the earth witch. She made the ground shake all around her. Nearly destroyed several houses. Of course she knows how to cast spells.”

  “Did you cast any spells today, earth witch?” Logan put me on the spot, and I wanted the ground to open up and swallow me. If I was such a great, powerful witch, why didn’t it? Instead, I remained seated, sweat dripping down my spine.

  “No. I don’t how I did those things. If I even did,” I said miserably.

  “You did,” Logan said matter-of-factly. “Just as you toppled the twin palms earlier.”

  When Logan mentioned the trees, the Lord Regent clutched the edge of the table so hard his knuckles whitened. I went rigid with terror. Why would he remind the Lord Regent of something like that? The palms represented the Regents, and I’d knocked them down as if I hadn’t known what on Othala I was doing. The symbolism was huge.

  Logan looked me and I could barely meet his gaze. “When you get scared or angry, the earth trembles.”

  “It never did before today!” I shouted. My hands shook uncontrollably, so I stuffed them into my lap beneath the cover of the table cloth.

  “You didn’t have the mark of Othala before today,” Logan said softly. His voice hardened when he addressed the rest of the room. “Her mother cast some sort of blocking spell on Demetria. Probably so they both could remain undetected and live non-magical lives in a much more affluent neighborhood than they ever could have managed if their witch natures had been known. That spell shattered today. Combined with the amp in power from the mark, the earth witch is frighteningly strong. And she can’t control or direct it.”

  Everyone stared at me as if I were some sort of monster. The Lady Regent reached beneath the table to press my knee with a hand. If she hadn’t, I might have rushed from the room, but her touch gave me the courage to remain seated under their merciless scrutiny. My mother had cast a spell on me? Is that why I had forgotten the dancing stones until today? Bewildered hurt coursed throughout my body.

  Logan sighed, and everyone’s attention switched to him. He waited a beat before saying, “Of course this is only rumor, but I’ve always understood the earth witch has the harder role in the Reutterance. Really, this is a very bad omen, don’t you think? This time next month the whole island might be covered in ravagers.”

  The lady seated across from me sucked in her breath and looked as though she might scream. Men’s faces paled.

  “Sea witch!” The Lord Regent dropped his voice into a terrifying whisper. “You will hold your tongue.”

  A trace of unease flickered across Logan’s face, but his grin never faltered. “Speaking the truth is so frightening?”

  “You are exaggerating the danger.”

  The two men glared at each other, each powerful in his own right. I braced myself for violence. What if Logan chose to use his magic now? Or the Lord Regent called his guards and had Logan dragged away for his insolence?

  The tension mounted until I wanted to shriek.

  Logan dropped his eyes first, and a shudder of relief swept through me. The Lady Regent let out her breath in a small sigh.

  “I don’t think I am.” Logan leaned forward across the table, even though he was several seats removed from the Regent. “Something has to be done. What do you intend it to be?”

  “You said witches are trained. They have mentors,” the Lord Regent said. “We shall get the earth witch a mentor. Perhaps that mother of hers. She must be powerful if she blocked the magic of a witch destined to be sea cursed. It’s as simple as that.”

  “Is it?” Logan pressed his luck, and my heart pounded. “Years of instruction and practice crammed into a few days? How long have we got? A week? Two? You think it’ll work?”

  “It damned well has to!” The Lord Regent snatched up the bell by his elbow and rang it with such vigor I was surprised the thing didn’t fall apart. “Matilda!”

  Logan looked at me from across the table, his expression so grim I couldn’t breathe. I stared back, too shocked and intimidated to respond.

  A mentor. Someone to teach me how to be a witch. My mother? I might see her again? But she’d kept me in darkness for so long. How could I trust her now? What if her mentoring didn’t work? It would be my fault if Galveteen fell to the ravagers. My fault alone.

  Chapter 6

  “How much influence do you have over Logan?” Regina – as she’d insisted I call her now that we were in her room gathering clothes for me and not at the dinner table – asked.

  I stood beside her as she sorted through her armoire drawers. Her question surprised me so much I nearly dropped the three beautiful evening gowns, two summer day dresses, and the frilly white nightgown that weighed down my outstretched arms.

  “I just met him,” I said. The way she so familiarly called him “Logan” made me wonder how many conversations they’d shared. Regina Trumbull might be in her late thirties, but she possessed an ethereal beauty that the years had sharpened and enhanced. Might Logan be entranced?

  A thin dagger of jealousy speared me, shocking and scaring me. What did I care? Did I care? I’d only met him a few hours ago. We were both sea cursed – meant to enact the spell of Reutterance together. Did that forge a magical bond between us perhaps? One I was powerless to resist? Any attraction he felt toward me – was it real or something witch-related?

  Regina shot me an amused smile that made her look ten years younger. Once in the confines of her room, she’d yanked the pins from her hair, and now it cascaded to her shoulders in a golden curtain.

  “I saw the possessive way he looked at you.”

  A jolt of excitement thrilled through me, almost erasing my irritation at the idea of anyone thinking they owned me. It had to be a magical bond. I’d never felt this way about anyone before – especially someone I barely knew.

  “We’re sea cursed. We have to perform the Reutterance. He’s not possessive, he’s looking out for himself because he knows I’m a liability.”

  “So you feel nothing toward him yourself? Except perhaps for the urge to prove yourself worthy?” Regina held up a shirt, but shook her head and returned it to the drawer.

  “Is that so obvious?” She was right, Othala curse her. “But I don’t want to prove myself to just him. To everyone.” I bit my lip. “At least I think I do. Most of the time I just want to run away.”

  “You’re no coward.” Regina piled some undergarments on top of the dresses. “Never been worn. I haven’t worn anything in this particular armoire.” She gave a small laugh. “David’s right. I do have too many clothes.”

  “You have no idea what or who I am.” I wanted to fling the clothes in her face. How dare she judge me – even to my credit? Nobody in this mansion knew the first thing about me except I was a witch, and a clueless one at that.

  She patted my shoulder in a most maternal fashion. “Nevertheless, I’ve made up my mind about you. Ask anyone. I make snap judgments about people. I’m mostly always right too.” She shut the armoire doors and turned to face me.

  “Now, please, answer my original question.”

  I shook my head. “I don’t know how much, if any, influence I have over him.”

  Regina sighed. “Pity. He’s out of his depth with David. Logan has no idea the danger he’s putting himself in by challenging David’s authority the way he does. I want you to make him stop.”

  “What could the Lord Regent do?” I tossed my head, wishing I could let my hair down the way she had. My hair weighed a ton pulled up like this. “There’s only one sea-cursed sea witch. It’s not like the Lord Regent could find another.”

  “No,” Regina agreed, an edge to her voice. “But he could make things extremely...uncomfortable for Logan. For instance, his family. He risks their
safety.”

  My blood iced. “The Lord Regent would have them killed? Is that legal?”

  “Witches have no real rights in this society. Perhaps he wouldn’t be so crude as to kill them. But he could imprison them for life on any sort of charge he cared to level. There are worse things than a quick death, Demetria.”

  “If he did that, Logan might refuse to cast the spell of Reutterance,” I said, anger igniting in my belly at the thought of anything happening to Logan’s innocent family members.

  “And condemn his people to a death like that? Ravagers?” Regina’s voice dropped in horror. “Would you do a thing like that to your loved ones?”

  “Not on purpose,” I said, struggling to breathe. “But Lady...Regina. What if I can’t learn how to perform magic in time?”

  “You need to focus on your training. This is why you must use your influence on Logan to stop baiting the Regent. Do you understand?” Regina took me by the shoulders and gave me a hard shake.

  I understood nothing. Had she such little faith in my abilities to learn magic that she believed the slightest distraction would derail me, or was I playing into her hands for some unknown strategy she had yet to reveal?

  If I told Logan his continued needling of the Regent might result in the imprisonment of his family, would that dissuade him? Perhaps he’d become even more angry and combative than he already was. He might wear a sarcastic grin, but I’d seen the smoldering anger beneath his amusement more than once. Telling him his family was at risk might be like putting a match to a fuse. I didn’t know him well enough yet to decide how he’d react – with prudence or recklessness.

  I wanted to trust Regina, but could I? She told me she was a quick judge of character, but she’d married the Lord Regent – a man I instinctively despised. They might appear at odds, but what if they were aligned beneath the surface and merely playing us?

  I shook my head. Even if they were, what did that matter? Logan and I were sea cursed. To hell with politics and people who hated us or even respected us. We had a duty to perform. Why couldn’t everyone leave us alone and let us get on with it?

  “Thank you for the clothing, Regina,” I said.

  Her eyes narrowed. “Demetria? You’ll speak to Logan, won’t you?” Although her voice was gentle and coaxing, steel coated her words. This was a woman used to getting her way.

  A shiver of unease drifted down my spine. Was I wise not to immediately fall in with her wishes?

  “I’m going to do whatever it takes to control my power,” I told her – which wasn’t precisely an answer, but she smiled as if it were.

  “Good girl.” She wound an arm around my shoulders, but for all her affection, it still felt like a vise. She steered me toward the door.

  When I staggered a bit on my unfamiliar high heels, she said, “Shall I have Matilda bring up your things?”

  That odious woman? “I can do it!” I said, perhaps more sharply than I’d intended.

  Regina nodded, a rueful smile quirking her lips as if she understood how much I loathed Matilda. “Be careful,” she said, as she saw me out into the hallway.

  “On the stairs,” she added, fluttering a hand in farewell as I moved down the hallway laden down with my burden.

  Chapter 7

  Late the next morning the windowless carriage stopped outside the gates of Moody Mansion. The fallen palm trees blocked access through them save by foot.

  Two men from Regiment Thirteen climbed down from the carriage. One of them opened the carriage door and stood aside to allow my mother room to descend to the cobblestones.

  She’d been given the opportunity to pack her things judging by the suitcase the guard inside handed down. She wore her best dress – the white one with the entwined ivy design. The hem fluttered in the sea breeze, and she clapped a hand to her skirt to keep it from blowing up and revealing her bare legs.

  Even from a distance she appeared nervous. She looked around at everything – taking in the stately mansion, the cobblestones, and especially the palm trees. When she caught sight of me standing on the front porch, our gazes locked for a long moment before she began to pick her way carefully around the downed trees.

  A terrible mixture of emotions ranging from joy to resentment slashed through me leaving me breathless.

  People my age laughed if you told them your mother was your best friend, but in my case, it was true. Or it had been. In the span of twenty-four short hours I’d gone from depending upon her and loving her, to staring at her as if I’d never really seen her before.

  Logan stood beside me, close enough to brush shoulders. I wasn’t sure what he meant by standing so near to me. Was he offering me comfort? A show of solidarity? Whatever his motives, I was grateful for his warm presence.

  My mother’s footsteps faltered when the front door opened and the Lord Regent stepped outside.

  “The Lord Regent!” shouted Colonel Murgatroyd. Every guard in the Regiment came to perfect attention.

  My mother stared at them lined up around the perimeter of the mansion, searching one man’s face after another, seemingly mesmerized.

  “Welcome to Moody Mansion, Helena Stone.” The Lord Regent spoke as my mother reached the steps, forcing her to look up at him.

  “Helena Stone?” I spoke before I could censor myself. I flushed when the Lord Regent gave me his full attention. A smile I didn’t trust lurked beneath his mustache.

  “Go on? You were saying something?” he encouraged, and I knew I’d stepped into a neatly laid trap.

  My mother’s eyes, dark and imploring, opened wide.

  “Our last name is Adams.” If Logan hadn’t pressed his shoulder into mine and given me courage, I would never have been able to speak.

  The Regent’s smile widened into pure malicious amusement. “Witches are forbidden by Galveteen law to marry the non-magical. I’m afraid I’ve had to annul your parents’ marriage.” He sneered as he spoke the word ‘marriage’ underscoring what a farce he considered their relationship.

  The Regent returned his attention to my mother, who stood frozen at the bottom of the stairs. A gust of wind whipped at her skirt, but she made no move to hold it down.

  “I regret you had no opportunity to wish your daughter’s father farewell this morning. He’s far out to sea at this moment working as a fisherman on the Regina, one of Galveteen’s smaller boats, but she’s only five years out of the shipyard and very seaworthy.”

  Mother’s mouth fell open in protest. “My lord, he’s a tradesman. He’s never worked a fishing boat in his life.”

  “Until today,” the Lord Regent said. “Isn’t it marvelous he’s managed to make a career change mid-life? You see, when his employer discovered he was illegally married to an earth witch, he was quite adamant he had no place for a man like that.

  “Fortunately, there was an opening on the Regina due to reluctance on many fisherman’s parts to sail lately. The storms of Reutterance may come up at any moment, as you know. Yet, we on the island still need our fish, don’t we? Captain Hutchins was most grateful when your daughter’s father volunteered to sail with his crew.”

  I pictured my sedentary father used to all the comforts working the nets on a fishing boat. What if he were swept overboard? Or his heart gave up under the strain of such strenuous activity?

  “I’m the one who perpetrated the deception, my lord,” Mother said through stiff lips. “Michael had no idea I was an earth witch.”

  “That’s as it may be,” the Lord Regent said with a careless shrug. His expression turned grim. “Madam, you have wronged quite a few people in your supremely selfish quest to live in a nice house in a decent neighborhood. Did you know you still have family in Seawall South? They were quite anxious to help in my inquiries about an earth witch who went missing twenty years ago.”

  Mother sucked in her breath at the mention of her family, but her dark gaze didn’t waver from the Regent’s.

  They stared at each other for a long moment before the Regent
said, “Thanks to your negligence and gross duplicity, everyone on this island stands on a precipice. Your daughter, apparently the strongest earth witch on Galveteen, cannot direct her powers. Until yesterday, she didn’t even know she possessed them. You have much to answer for.

  “If not for the fact your daughter needs your tutelage, you would be on your way to a long incarceration where you’d be lucky to ever see the light of day. As it is, you will work whatever magic you can muster to whip your daughter into shape. She and the sea witch have a sacred duty to perform, and they will not fail due to your treachery.”

  Mother held her ground, lips pressed firmly together. Her courage amazed and shamed me. I trembled so hard, Logan put an around my waist to steady me.

  The Lord Regent gave my mother the iciest scowl I’d ever seen on another person’s lips. “If,” he said, “If your daughter is successful in the Reutterance spell, I will think about asking her father’s employer to make a place for him in the firm again. As for you – you will be allowed to return to your family in Seawall South. Consider yourself lucky, madam, that your services are required in this situation or you would be on your way to a dark cell at this moment. Is that understood?”

  “Completely,” Mother answered, the wind playing with her dark hair. She hesitated a beat – long enough for the Regent’s face to turn cherry red. “My lord. Your...” She appeared to search for the proper word, “– graciousness is much appreciated. My daughter will not fail.”

  I wished I had half her confidence. Mother locked gazes with me, and when she smiled, I couldn’t smile back. Hers wavered and died.

  “As for you, sea witch, I do hope you have been listening intently.”

  Logan stiffened against me when the Lord Regent spoke. He let his arm slip away from my waist as he turned to face the man.

  “From now on you will address me respectfully, without any trace of arrogance,” the Lord Regent drawled. “Or certain members of your family will suffer for it.”