Tainted Waters: A Dark Paranormal Fantasy Novel (Paranormal Peacekeepers Book 1)

by Lucretia Stanhope

  “That sounds better than me ending up in the infirmary too.” He tugged the mask up. “Will you recognize enough of the words to be able to pick the right spell from the book? I did attempt to look at your books.”

  Her mouth dropped. “That’s rude.”

  “Time is ticking. The book zapped my fingers.” He wiggled his hands at her. “The one that didn’t zap me, has some interesting recipes and spells, but nothing useful for this.”

  “That’s private. It’s my, my family grimoire.” She fought back tears and pulled the other book from her bag that was resting beside the bed. “Were you going to tell me you invaded my privacy? I guess since you slipped my book back in the bag, the answer is no.”

  “There is nothing to tell. I didn’t find anything useful. Bring that here and open it.” Jasper waited in silence. The only sign of his impatience was a widening of his eyes.

  “Don’t get pushy. I’m not happy with how you treated my things.” Her fingers gripped the book she held pressed against her chest. “You stay out of my bag.”

  His boot tapped against the cave floor. “Let’s make progress, and if we have a solution before Decker is ready to go with you, I will let you invade my things.”

  “The texts?” The tightness of her grip loosened. Hope filled her voice. “You will show me the witch journals?”

  “Yes.” The muscle in his jaw twitched. “If we have time.”

  “Fine.” She sat the book on the table, closed her eyes, and felt her hands slip into the spell.

  The book’s spine groaned as Alice opened the cover. Grass and vanilla with an underlayer of mustiness drifted up from the pages.

  Jasper stood to her side, leaning closer to read over her shoulder.

  “Beautiful, almost romantic lines.” Her fingers traced the elegant writing on the first page. “This is two different scripts. They must have been very close. Maybe light elf and witch unions aren’t as uncommon as you think. Though, I never would have imagined Gretchen a romantic. None of the witches, really.”

  “Unions?” He snorted. “Romance is worthless. This book though. These names alone are priceless. Of course, if the witch is dead, not so much hers.”

  “It doesn’t say Gretchen. I don’t understand.” Neither of the names meant anything to her. Her gaze lifted to Jasper. The blackness looking back at her offered no answers. “I was so sure. It came from her room. Why doesn’t it have her name?”

  “It wouldn’t. These are not given names. They are soul names.” His voice was condescending and punctuated by him closing his eyes.

  “What is that?” Her brows pulled together. More things she should know. Why hadn’t she been prepared for any of this?

  “Did they teach you nothing? Didn’t you grow up with a witch mother?” His fingers drummed the table.

  “My mother was a garden witch. She grew things and made potions with the herbs and flowers she grew.” Alice ran her thumb along the edge of the book. “Sometimes I thought she was afraid to teach me, but I was young, and thought a lot of fanciful things.”

  “No.” Jasper shook his head.

  “What, no? I’m telling you. I never saw my mother practice magic other than with nature. She never mentioned soul names.” Alice turned back to the book, her frustration mounting. “I know you don’t want to help me, but you have to, so that I can help you.”

  His nose twitched. “You are far too powerful to be born of a human that plays in a garden. You are from a pure witch line. Your magic isn’t all elf. Understand, I am not hesitant to help you. We have so much to accomplish, so little time, and so much to lose if we fail.”

  “We?” When he started to reply, she put up a hand. If he were the elf blocking her path out, she needed detached enough from him to remove him as an obstacle. “Never mind, save it. I don’t have a soul name.”

  “Sure you do, but right now we have to focus on this.” He tapped his finger on the book. “This is an elfin name, when we are not so pressed for time, we can use the name to summon or bind the responsible elf.”

  Her attention settled on the other strange name. “Rosabella. That’s pretty.”

  He shrugged and nudged her hand. “It’s useless if the witch is dead. Turn the page.”

  “You grow more like Decker by the minute. If you get bitey with me, I’ll curse you again.” She narrowed her eyes, trying to look threatening.

  He laughed, and nudged again. “Turn the pages, please.”

  Alice flipped the page, her attention focused on the date. “This is older than me. How long has your water been cursed?”

  “Several moons, not years. Definitely not decades.” He double checked the date. “Why would they have worked together, if not to cast against an enemy? Look…” He pointed to the start of the first entry. “This is partially elf, and partially witch. It’s a jumbled mess.”

  “The spell on the water was like that too. Like the words were twisted into a riddle. It’s very advanced.” Her breath released in a huff. Why had a witch and light elf worked magic together for decades? “As much as I want you to help me understand this, and figure out why this strange relationship started, we may need lots of time on the water spell.”

  “Agreed. The mystery of why will have to wait.” His head cocked in a way that said, ‘turn the pages.’ “We might have a problem.”

  “Oh.” She stopped reading, and turned, noticing his eyes shimmered when he thought. “What’s wrong? Can you sense elves coming?”

  “No, nothing like that. The soul names.” Jasper paused, drawing in a long breath.

  “It’s fine. I don’t need to know.” Alice flipped the pages, continuing to scan.

  “But you might. I have the suspicion the spells they worked are all worked with their souls, not simple castings. These are powerful spells. Soul spells haven’t been used by witches in centuries.” The tip of his finger pointed to the page. “The way these words wrap each other in meaning and to cloud meaning from others, will take a deep magic. You have it, all witches with the blood of the old lines do, but you must connect with it, and to do that you will need to know your name.”

  “This is sounding more hopeless by the second. Do you really think I can undo some arcane spell just by knowing my name?” The darkness of the room pressed in as despair threatened to overcome her. “I’m not sure I can help, I wasn’t sure when I offered, and the more we find, the more you share, I just don’t know.”

  Jasper put a hand on her cheek. “I do know. That’s what oracles are for, knowing. I saw you fix our water.”

  “I will trust you, because I think finding the secrets in this book means more to you, than to me at the moment.” She turned away from his touch. Even though contact was something she longed for, contact with him confused her. “How do I find my name?”

  “We don’t have time for the needed ritual. There is one, and I can tell you about it, but the supplies are not here and the…”

  Her impatient sigh interrupted him. “I gather you know another way. Faster and less pleasant?”

  A grin lightened his serious face. “Yes.”

  Alice closed her eyes. “It’s awful, isn’t it?”

  “It doesn’t have to be, it could be. I won’t make it awful, but you will have to trust me.”

  “Trust you?” Trusting Decker ended in a missing piece of her ear. “Do all real witches know their soul names?”

  “No, it is a long-forgotten way to tap into power beyond imagination.” He cringed in a way that told her he didn’t intend to share so much.

  “Do you do that? Tap into the elf version of that power like the one who wrote this book?” Her questions came as they had been, in a flourish of enthusiasm.

  “You are the most curious creature.” He balled his fingers and then extended them, popping the joints. “It, I, between us?”

  “Trust? Is that what we are doing? Some exercise in trust?” Her bottom lip pulled between her teeth.

  “It is.”

  “I have no o
ne, remember? That means I have no one to betray you to.” She continued to chew her lip.

  “Yes, I know my name. It’s something only elders and scholars know how to do. Even rulers are not usually linked to that sort of power.”

  Alice noted that Jasper’s personality fluttered all over the place, as hers did. He was kind, yet harsh. He was wise and sharing, but closed and cold. A friend, and a monster. Did her timid bravery, and offers of friendship tinged with threats confuse and frustrate him as much as his changeability did her? “Why do you cower from Decker then?”

  “Things are always more complicated than a surface glance would indicate.” The way he looked at her said that his words referred to more than the dynamics between him and Decker.

  Alice refused to look at his eyes too long, not sure what she would see in the darkness. “What do you have to do? To help me find my name?”

  “I will need blood from us both.”

  She took a sideways step, moving herself and the book away from him. “What is it with you elves and blood? Does that mean Gretchen and whomever this elf was had some blood thing?”

  “Yes, though it puzzles me that a light elf would share knowledge with this sort of power with a witch. That was why they started the first war with us to begin with.” Jasper kept the space she put between them. “Considering what happened, I understand your reluctance. You have to realize that with what your blood did, it’s not a simple offer for me either.”

  “And here you are, ready to share the secrets with me? Doesn’t that go against your nature?”

  “Modern dark elves are very untrusting and greedy with knowledge. Maybe since I am a scholar and in touch with the arcane lore…” He paused. “No, it’s you.”

  “Me?”

  “We don’t have time. I need to find your name. We will need to touch souls, your soul and mine will exchange names when they mingle.”

  Alice edged further away. “That sounds very… intimate.”

  “I guess, yes.”

  “And wouldn’t that give me, the witch who you don’t trust, an awful lot of power over you?” When she finally met eyes with his, hers held mistrust.

  “No more than I will have over you, and I am practiced. It is a leap for us both.”

  “That makes me lean toward taking our chances with my natural ability.” Alice searched his aura, realizing that he didn’t feel abrasive, not like Decker, not like the witches. Could she trust him? He didn’t trust her, or did he? He was willing to touch souls, whatever that entailed.

  He stepped closer to her and offered a hand. “You may never meet another mage willing to help you, or with the knowhow.”

  “I may never need magic like this again.”

  Jasper’s muscles tensed. “I promise when the time comes, I will be in your corner.”

  She knew what he was saying. Her freedom. “We shouldn’t delay, if it is needed. Get your supplies. I’ll keep searching for the right spell.”

  “No supplies are needed.”

  Alice’s heart thrummed rapidly. The sound of blood rushing through her body filled her ears. Her hand trembled as she reached for his. “Oh.”

  Jasper cupped his fingers around hers. “It is a lot. First, let’s find that spell and make sure we can decipher it. If we can’t solve the riddle, then there will be no need to find your name.”

  Relief and disappointment both crashed over Alice. Again, she thought of how her and Jasper both were a confusion of differing things, at odds with themselves and each other. “Thank you.”

  “Thank you.” As the tension between them melted, he edged back in her space, so he could read.

  Alice flipped pages, as she suspected, the water spell was near the end. Though it wasn’t the last. “Here.” Her forefinger tapped the page. “These are some of the words I saw.”

  Jasper slipped away and returned with several thick pieces of paper. He transferred the words.

  “What now?” Alice watched him scribble furiously.

  “Now, I am making three lists. One of elf words, one of witch words, and one with both translated so you can read them. It could be two spells wound together or one larger one worked together. We need to look at them separated and as one.” He didn’t stop writing while he talked.

  Alice rearranged the words on the witch list that he passed to her, while he finished making the combined list.

  When he finished, he sat the combined list to the side and studied the elf list.

  They both scribbled, scratched out, rearranged, and muttered to themselves.

  “Anything?” Alice looked up from her page to see him tapping his pen on his own.

  “Nonsense. They must need each other to work.” He handed her his notes and took hers. “Let me get a fresh page.”

  When he returned, Alice watched him lose himself in deep thought and then did the same.

  “These three words are common starters for elf magic.” He tapped two from the elf list and one from the witch.

  “Yes, we start that way too. Well, the ones I’ve been taught.” She turned to him. “I guess because we learned from you.”

  When he lifted his gaze from the page, their eyes met. “Yes. That would make sense.”

  Alice looked back at her page. “We end with this, so mote it be.” Her pen scribbled and she crossed those off her new list.

  He stretched his neck. “I have one piece of fruit. Do you want it?”

  Alice’s stomach answered with a growl. “Yes, please. Thank you.”

  Jasper got her the fruit, and himself some stimulating roots to chew.

  “Does that help you think? Is that what Decker had in the cave?” She could smell the bitter of the roots. As she leaned in to smell it closer, she noted he also had an earthy scent, like deep soil.

  “Back to work. You can’t have any, it might hurt you.”

  The tension between them eased as the hours ticked away and they made sense of the words.

  Ten words remained.

  Jasper scribbled and scratched out his notes several more times. “They didn’t finish it. From what I can gather, this is done in three steps, and the last makes the poison float. Like it is now. It needs their blood. Light elf and witch combined. Were you bleeding when you touched the water?”

  Alice’s hand went to her mouth. “Oh, Jasper. I was.”

  “It’s okay, we will undo it.”

  She looked down as his hand reached over and covered hers. “Of course we will.” Could they? Would she need to know her soul name?

  Chapter Thirteen

  DAVINA STOPPED WHEN her eyes landed on the golden elf who stood leaned with his back against a tree. Emotions she thought were long gone crept in as the smell of honey and chestnuts took her back to memories of his embrace. “You wanted to see me.”

  “Hello to you, my dearest.” The words ran over her in a sensual caress.

  She stood silent, preparing for his magic to grip her.

  His gaze trailed over her body, stopping a few times before resting on her face. “Beautiful, as ever. You are welcome for the healing.”

  “I didn’t ask for a healing, and I’m not your anything.” Her posture grew rigid as she felt being close to him start to affect her resolve. “Come to a point. Chit-chatting with you is the last thing I have time for, and certainly the last way I desire to spend my mornings.”

  “I’ve upset you? That hardly seems possible since you’ve stopped granting me the pleasure of seeing you.” The blinking of his eyes slowed and frustration edged into his voice. “You’ve been practicing. I suppose it should make me proud that you can take such strong control of your will. Rare in your kind. You know if I desired to push it, your efforts would be useless.”

  “What do you want? As you are now aware, I have my own issues to deal with.” At her side, the fingers of her right hand rubbed together, grounding her.

  “You have our issues to deal with, one of which you told me you took care of over twenty years ago.” His tongue licked the co
rner of his mouth. “How did you manage that? Surely even an abomination such as that thing needs a mother to birth it. It must be a spell worthy of our special book. Who raised it? Did you grow it in the soil?”

  “It’s irrelevant now that she is with them.” Hate filled her eyes as she spat the words at him. “I had her under control. She will die now. Do you understand how hard it is to lose her again? It tears my heart to pieces. You did that, didn’t you? Sent her to them. My love, indeed.”

  He growled. The sound rang as unnatural coming from a being of light. The rumble of his frustration sent goosebumps across her skin. “I did not. Gretchen did that.”

  “At your prodding, no doubt. She’s your daughter, Kheelan, and was no danger to anyone until you had her sent to her death. Who wouldn’t retaliate?” The air buzzed with her agitation.

  “Come here.” His eyes locked on her and his blinking slowed again. “Let me love you. This bickering is tiresome.”

  Davina stared at him, unflinching. The muscles of her jaw twitched as she used everything in her power to fight his attempt to bend her will. “You don’t know how to love me.”

  “Stop being so obstinate. I want to see the only creature out here I care about.” He stood straight, away from the tree and held out a hand. “Come. You are safe under my control. Have I ever hurt you?”

  A tear fell as she felt herself moving toward him. “Yes. Deeply.”

  “No, you let your fanciful heart hurt you. I didn’t do that. Witches shouldn’t harbor such emotions. I can take them. You know I can take everything that hurts, and make you feel nice.” The long fingers of his outstretched hand flicked toward himself. “Come here.” When she neared, he wrapped an arm around her waist and traced her features with his free hand. “Let me see. My beautiful human. Touching you is magic.”

  The warmth of his skin against hers strengthened her resolve. Davina shoved free before his effect took hold. “No. That is over. What do you want?”

  “Why was Gretchen in the swamps?” He waved her toward his open door. “Come, sit. If you don’t wish to take my comfort, I won’t force it on you.”