“Coffee’s on the table and the first batch of pancakes is almost ready. If someone will get the butter and syrup and bring them to the table, I’ll bring over the first four.”
William retrieved what was needed, and Caroline poured them coffee. After the next few batches were done, they all sat down to eat.
“So, Car, what are your plans for today?” Jilly asked her sister.
Caroline shrugged. “Not much; just hanging around I guess. Did you need help with anything?”
“Actually, yes. William and I need to find a spell that Liza may have written down in a diary or a journal or something. Do you think you can help go through books in the den with us after breakfast?”
“Sure, what’s the spell?”
“It’s an imprisoning spell. We want to hedge our bets a little with Sabine.”
“Makes sense to me. I’ll help any way I can.”
William’s cell phone buzzed in his pocket. The message on the screen said to go out back. He looked out the window and saw Liam standing a little ways off from the house. The protective spells around the house were doing their job; he couldn’t come within fifty feet of the house.
“Are you going to go out there alone?” Jilly asked, concerned.
William laughed. “I’ve known Liam for a long time, Jill; he’s not going to hurt me. He just wants to talk.”
Grabbing his coat from the rack by the door, he quickly went outside and down the steps. He stopped about ten feet from Liam, while he was still within the protective circle; just because he didn’t think Liam would hurt him didn’t mean he was stupid.
“What do you want, Liam?”
“Sabine wishes to speak to your witch. You can be present, of course. It will happen in six days. You may choose when and where. She wishes to know within the hour.” With that, he turned and melted back into the forest.
*
Jilly was watching from the back window. After Liam left, William stood where he was for a while before returning to the house. When he got in, Jilly pounced on him like a tiger.
“What did he want?” She was clearly wary of what Liam had wanted.
“It’s like we thought, Sabine wants to speak with you, and she wants it to happen within six days. I’m going to call to set up the time and place.”
Her face had gone ghostly pale as all the blood drained from it. She was frightened for herself, and also for William. She didn’t think that Sabine was going to look on their alliance favorably. Especially after the fun little dreams she’d been sending.
William went upstairs to make the call, and she sank into the nearest chair.
Caroline, who had been sitting quietly observing all of this, came to her sister’s side. “It’s going to be ok, Jill. William will protect you. Liza said he was the key to your safety. Do you need me here? I was thinking of going up and getting started.”
“No, you go ahead, I’ll be ok.”
With a last look at her to see if she was telling the truth, Caroline bounded up the stairs to the den.
Fifteen minutes later, William came back down to the kitchen. “It took some doing, but I convinced them to meet in six days behind the house in the forest. That gives us all week to find what we need. Is Caroline already up there?”
Jilly nodded. “Yeah, she went up after you did.”
Seeing how pale she still was, William pulled her into a hug. “It will be fine, Jill. I won’t let anything happen to you.”
“I know. I just hate not knowing what she wants from me.” She pulled away and shrugged her shoulders. “I guess we should get going then.” They grabbed a few sodas and headed up to help Caroline.
*
Three hours later, they all were tired of looking through books and decided to take an hour break. Caroline went to lie down, and the other two sat back on the couch, talking.
“I was thinking about Mary. Maybe we should be looking for her diary too; this obviously affected her deeply, and she was bound to have written about it,” William said thoughtfully.
“I’ve never come across anything with her name on it in here; I still think that she may have had some sort of hiding place in the house somewhere. I’m thinking of trying a discovery spell to see if there are any hiding places in the house. It usually takes two witches, but I don’t think Caroline is quite there yet, so I think I might try it alone.”
William agreed that the spell was a good idea, so they went down to the kitchen so Jilly could prepare. On the way they stopped by to see if Caroline wanted to watch, and all three of them went down together.
Jilly grabbed the grimoire and handed it to her sister, opening it to the page she needed. “I need you to read me what I need to complete the spell,” she said as she went to the pantry. “William, can you ready the fire under the cauldron please?” she asked from inside. She heard the whoosh of the flames against the fireplace and the scraping sound of the cauldron being pulled into place.
“Ok, Jill, you’ll need sage, quicksilver, one blood orange, and three sprigs of mint. It’s funny how a lot of this sounds like recipes, aside from the quicksilver of course. Oh, and saltwater too.”
“Ok, come over and help bring this stuff to the counter by the fire please.”
The others came and grabbed what she asked, and she set about getting the saltwater from the basement. She had two large barrels of ocean water along with various other barrels of things she used in large quantities. She brought up a bucket and dumped it into the cauldron; it splattered over the sides with a hiss. She asked her sister to juice the blood orange and set the juice on the counter. She had to be careful with the quicksilver; it tended to meld onto any metal it came into contact with, and so she always wore gloves when handling it. Looking at the grimoire, she added four drops of quicksilver to the water and stirred until it was absorbed into the water. Then the juice, the sage, more stirring, and finally the mint. She watched as the mint dissolved into the mixture and stirred five more times before hanging up the spoon on the hook next to the fireplace.
“This needs to boil for thirty minutes so it will reduce down to a thick liquid. Who wants lunch?”
Everyone agreed they were hungry, so Caroline made grilled cheese and tomato soup for them. After lunch, they all sat drinking another cup of coffee while Jilly read through the rest of the spell.
“I’m going to need two small glass vials. I think I’ve got some in the pantry, and that’s it. We should be ready to rock and roll as soon as it’s ready.”
Glancing at the clock, she saw she had a few minutes left, so she went to the pantry to get the vials. After pouring the potion into the vials, she sat at the table with the grimoire in front of her. She held a vial in each hand and closed her eyes, repeating the words of the spell over and over. After a few minutes of this, the others noticed an illuminated light like footsteps leading the way upstairs.
Once the spell was complete, Jilly opened her eyes and saw the light. “I guess we should see where they go, right?”
They all got up quickly and followed the golden footsteps upstairs. They led toward the back of the house and stopped at what looked like a dead end. Jilly placed both hands on the wall and said a quick release spell, her hands flashing white against the wall. There was a soft click, and a door materialized where the wall had been. William opened the door, and they saw more footsteps leading back into the room. Both girls were surprised; they had never discovered this room before, and Jilly would wager no one since Mary had set foot in here; there was a layer of dust covering everything in the room.
They split up and began searching. There was a desk in the corner, and a bunch of trunks scattered around the room. William took the desk, and he sat in the rickety chair in front of it and began opening the drawers. The girls took trunks on opposite sides of the room and sat on the floor to dig through them. There were all sorts of old clothes, bits of ribbon, and semi precious stones in the one Caroline was looking through. William was faring a little better: the desk held book
s and old papers, but no journal or diary yet, nor the missing pages from Liza’s diary. Jilly’s trunk had a bunch of herbs in it. None of the jars were labeled, she held a few up to the lights to see if she could figure out their contents, but the light wasn’t strong enough to see through the cloudy glass. Moving on to the next trunk, she found that it was locked. She tried the quick release spell, but nothing happened. Mary must have put a protective spell on it so only the key would open it.
“Hey, guys, we need to look for the key to this chest; I’d bet whatever we’re looking for is in here.”
They all began to go through the rest of the trunks, piling the contents in the center of the room. Finally, Caroline held up a key. “Found it!”
Jilly tried it in the lock on the trunk. The lock creaked as she slowly turned the key, and finally, she heard the click of the release. Throwing open the lid, they all looked inside. There were a ton of papers. They all grabbed a pile and sat down to sort through them.
Twenty minutes later, William called Jilly over. He had found the missing pages of Liza’s diary. She glanced through them, but there weren’t any spells on them. Letting out a sigh of frustration, she went back to her own pile and continued to look.
Finally, after an hour of sorting, Jilly found a stack of spells that looked as though they had been torn out of a book. Flipping through them, she found the one they had been looking for. “You guys, I got it,” she yelled triumphantly. The others ran over to see. She held out the pages for them to look at and stood up.
“What do you think these pages were torn out of?” Caroline asked.
“I’ve been wondering the same thing. I’m thinking it’s from the grimoire. Each witch in the family writes down her life’s story, and I always wondered where Liza’s and Mary’s were. I guess one of them, I’m betting Mary, tore the pages out and it healed itself so no one knew they were missing. Mom always said the grimoire was more person than book. Maybe that’s what she meant by ‘at the beginning towards the end’. It was near the beginning of the grimoire, but towards the end of her life. I think we all need to get cleaned up and then we can meet back in the kitchen to plan our next step.”
They all agreed and filed out of the room, covered in layers of ancient dust and grime. Jilly’s mind raced at the possibilities the new spells might bring. She felt a sense of relief; they might all make it through this unscathed.
She stepped into the shower and washed away hundreds of years’ worth of grime.
*
An hour later, everyone met up in the kitchen and William started dinner while the girls looked over the spell.
“Can you do a spell like this alone?” Caroline asked, wondering if she could be more helpful than just a librarian or a janitor.
“No, it requires a lot more power then I have alone. I may have to bring in Emily. I hate to do it, but I’ll need an experienced witch to pull it off.”
“There’s no way I could help? I know I’m not trained, but you said yourself that I’ve been picking it up quickly.”
Jilly frowned slightly, not wanting to hurt Caroline’s feelings. “Those were simple spells; this is not. I’ve never seen a more complicated spell. I don’t even know if we’ll be prepared before the meeting with Sabine.”
William looked up from the pan he was tending. “We may not need it tomorrow, Jill. I don’t think she’ll do anything until after we hear what she wants. You’re valuable to her for some reason, and she won’t risk hurting you. I’m happier knowing we’ve got it as backup.” He turned toward Caroline and spoke directly to her. “I think you should listen to Jilly. I don’t want you getting hurt trying to do a spell you aren’t ready for. I know she would be heartbroken if anything happened to you.” His tone was firm, but his words were gentle.
Caroline blushed furiously and smiled at him. “I’ll listen, I promise. I just want to help any way I can.”
Jilly hugged her sister. “You’ve helped a ton, and I never would have found the spell without you.”
Caroline flushed with pleasure. She hadn’t realized how much her sister’s approval meant to her.
William went back to the pasta sauce he was stirring, and added a few more things to it after tasting. Jilly went to the pantry with the paper the spell was on to see if they even had what was needed to complete it. They were missing a few ingredients, but she figured she could send William out later to grab them. She grabbed a few Cokes out of the fridge and passed them out to everyone before perching on a bar stool at the counter.
“Do you think I should call Emily? I’m torn. I really don’t want her involved in this, but I need the help.”
“No, leave her out of it. You’ll have the help you need, don’t worry.”
“What does that mean? Who’s going to help me, you?” she said sarcastically.
“Actually, yes; I’m what you would call a warlock, but I have been called many things.”
Jilly’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. “Why didn’t you say something before? You told me everything else, why not this?” She had warring emotions. Between annoyance and curiosity, curiosity won out.
“Besides my brother, you two and my friends Nik and Kat are the only other people on earth who know. I don’t care for others of my kind to know for fear that they would find a way to use me to do evil.” He paused a moment and pointed at Jilly. “I’m powerful, but nowhere near where you are. I’ve never seen anyone like you in my entire life. It’s like you have magic in your veins flowing like blood. You’re really phenomenal.” He paused to dump the pasta in the boiling water. “I think that is why Sabine wants you so much, and I’m afraid it’s my fault. She never would have found you if I hadn’t returned home. She’s always hunting me. I thought it was safe because I had heard she was in Norway, but I guess my information was bad.” Both girls sat in stunned silence as he joined them around the counter.
“Ok, so is the fact that you’re a warlock why we have the connection?”
“No, I don’t think so, although it’s a possibility. I’ve known many witches over the years, but none like you.” His eyes burned into hers as he spoke. The look in his eyes spoke of more than just magic.
She felt heat rising from her toes to her hair, and her skin took on a faint golden glow.
“Um, Jill?” Caroline said. “You’re glowing.”
“I’m what?” She ran over to the mirror in the living room to look at herself, and sure enough, she was glowing. She returned to the kitchen and sat back down.
“Have you ever glowed like that before?” William asked.
“Just my hands, and only when I’m doing a spell, or when I rub them together.”
“This is an interesting turn of events.” He moved closer to her and touched her cheek. The glow grew brighter at his touch. “Very interesting indeed. It’s as though your magic is calling out to mine, I can almost hear it in my head.” He cocked his head toward, her listening to something neither girl could hear. He got up and stood in front of her and placed his hands on her cheeks. The glow was almost blinding now, and Jilly could hear a faint singing in her ears, like the sound of her blood rushing past her eardrums. She placed her hands on his cheeks too and closed her eyes. She could immediately feel the heat come to her fingertips, and the noise in her head was deafening. A smile spread across her face, the feeling of pure joy coursing through her.
Finally they both stepped back and Jilly opened her eyes. She saw that William was glowing now too; a bright silvery white light illuminated his skin. Caroline was sitting with her hand over her mouth, watching in silence.
“Well, that was something, wasn’t it?” William said with a laugh. He went around the counter to stir the pasta in the water to avoid clumps, lifted the lid on the sauce, and gave that a stir as well. “Five minutes until dinner, so if someone could set the table while I finish up here that would be great.”
“So we’re just going to pretend like that was normal?” Caroline asked incredulously.
“Well, it�
�s obviously not normal, but I don’t really have an explanation for it right now, so I figured we’d discuss it later. Plus, I’m hungry,” William said with a sheepish grin.
Caroline set the table as Jilly helped with the salad, and William got out a big bowl for the pasta. A few minutes later, they were all seated at the table, eating.
“This has certainly been an interesting trip home for me,” Caroline said wryly. “This is not at all what I expected I would be doing when I decided to come, but I’m really glad I came. My life has been a mess for years. I’ve always felt like something was missing or off. I understand what it was now; I was denying who and what I am. Nothing I did before now would ever have been right.”
Jilly put her hand on her sister’s. “I’m glad too, Car. You’ve been amazing with all of this, and I’m glad you’ve finally come to terms with who you are.” She squeezed her sister’s hand.
They finished eating in silence, all of them lost in their own thoughts.
After they cleaned up the kitchen, Caroline went upstairs to practice her spells, and Jilly and William went into the living room. After lighting the fire, William sat down and pulled her close to him, breathing in the scent of her hair. “You smell like vanilla and peaches. It’s intoxicating.”
“That’s my shampoo. I made it myself. I’m glad you like it.” She smiled and nuzzled in closer to him, enjoying the warm feel of him against her. “So, do you really not know what’s going on between us? You looked like you had something to say before, but you didn’t want to talk in front of Caroline.” She turned to face him on the couch.
He pulled her in for a quick kiss before responding. “Yes, I know what’s going on. I’ve seen it only once before in Nikolai and Katya. It’s sometimes called soul mates, but that’s not exactly what it is. We were marked for each other at birth, Jilly. Something inside of us calls out to the other. I knew for sure when I saw the glow; I had only suspected before. I have walked this world alone for hundreds of years, trying to find you. I thought it was Liza I was searching for before, but it was you. I felt a connection with her, but I think that is because you would come from her family line.” His voice was full of emotion as he spoke to her, his eyes shining brightly in the firelight. “I’ve been fighting the urge to come home for a long time. I never knew what was calling me back until now.” He stopped talking and looked into her eyes. The emotion behind his words nearly took her breath away.
Mark of the Witch (Boston Witches) Page 9