The Trinity Sisters

by Kristin Coley

  “This is most unusual. Some people have stronger gifts, are more in tune to magic and able to use it more easily. Your father has always been one of those. Much stronger than your standard witch or warlock—stronger even than some covens working together. While most would have been satisfied with that, your father sought even more power. Your mother believed your births were planned intentionally by him to create the trinity.”

  The shrill ring of the doorbell interrupted this bombshell, and I rocked back, even as Luke stood up.

  “Wait till I come back,” he instructed, looking between us, so I nodded, my mind whirling at the implications of Patrick’s statement.

  “This is better than Days of our Lives,” Garvin noted, taking a sip of his drink and making loud slurping noises when it was empty. My nod was dazed, as I considered the idea that my entire existence was nothing more than a ploy for power by my father. If he had truly gone to the effort of creating a trinity, then he wouldn’t easily give up on controlling what he had worked so hard to create. My thoughts were interrupted by Luke’s return with his sister, Jessie. She looked surprised to see us all sitting around the table, but recovered quickly. She gave me a small wave when she recognized me. I smiled at her warmly, glad to see her. She looked better than the last time we’d met. She’d filled out a little, less gaunt now. Her eyes were brighter and she seemed overall happier.

  “Hi,” she said, shyly to the group. There was a chorus of hellos back and smiles. No one mentioned what we’d been discussing, since she wasn’t a part of this. She held a plate in her hands, which she set on the table.

  “Mom made brownies for you and asked me to stop by with them,” she told Luke, holding her hands awkwardly, now that they were empty. He circled an arm around her, pulling her into a sideways hug.

  “Thank you. What did I do to deserve brownies?” he joked, his affection clear to us. I knew he was happy to see his sister safe and away from her usual crowd. She shrugged, “Mom bakes when she’s happy. You got the overflow. You should see the house. I’ve gained ten pounds since I’ve been home.”

  “Good, you needed too,” he retorted, peeling back the foil covering the plate and revealing giant squares of frosted brownies. There was a few ‘oohs’ and ‘ahhs’ at their appearance, but I was the only one to reach over and nab one.

  Garvin shook his head at me, “It’s ridiculously unfair that you never gain any weight.”

  “Why are you always fussing at me about this?” I asked, around a mouthful of chocolate decadence. “You don’t gain any either!”

  “That’s beside the point,” he said, airily. He gestured to my mouth, “You’ve got chocolate.” I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand, but must have missed it, because he sighed. “No, Roe, there, the left, your other left. Oh my goodness.” He spat on his finger and reached over to rub my cheek. “There.”

  “That’s not my mouth,” I exclaimed, popping the last of the brownie into my mouth.

  “I can’t take you anywhere,” Garvin muttered, causing the rest of the table to laugh. I rolled my eyes at him and turned to Jessie.

  “How are you? Luke told me you moved back in with your parents?”

  She nodded, taking a breath, “Yes. I’m going to stay with them, while I go back to college. I’ve only got a year left of classes to get my diploma. Seems like a good idea.”

  “It’s a great idea. I never made it to college, and I applaud you for finishing,” I told her admiringly. I’d never had a chance to experience the college life. I was barely able to pass the test for my G.E.D. and wouldn’t have, if Garvin hadn’t helped me. I knew college would never be for me, but I respected anyone who could and did graduate.

  Her smile grew a little more confident with my words, and I took a moment to study her more carefully. The last time I saw her, I’d placed a magical illusion on her skin and I wondered if it was still there. Most magic, or illusions in my case, tended to fade with time, and I needed to reinforce them if I wanted them to continue. I couldn’t actually see the illusion I’d placed on her, because it was a form of touch and not sight, so I wasn’t sure how to tell if it was still there. I squinted my eyes to see if that would help me ‘see’ my own magic. It didn’t, and I felt a bit foolish, squinting at her.

  Another idea occurred to me, so I hopped out of my seat and wandered over to Luke. He still had an arm around his sister, but readily hugged me close with his free arm. I cuddled into his side, hoping my idea worked.

  As I looked at her again, a subtle glow emanated from her, again a bluish tinge, and I wondered if all magic was blue, or just mine. I mean, I did have oddly blue eyes. The glow seemed to cover her skin everywhere I looked and wasn’t faded in any way. In fact, it looked as strong as the day I’d created it. Granted, it had only been a week, but I would have thought the illusion would have faded some by now.

  “My two favorite girls,” Luke said above my head, causing me to smile, as his sister looked at me speculatively. I decided to change the illusion covering her to encompass anyone who wished to do her harm. If someone had ill intent toward her, they would be burned, as soon as they touched her skin. The glow around her flared for a split second before settling back down. I further tested my theory by slipping out from under Luke’s arm. The second I stopped touching him the glow disappeared. I reached over to touch him, and the glow reappeared. He gave me a curious look, but didn’t comment when I flashed him a smile. I kept my hand in his and pondered my new discovery. Something about our connection allowed me to see magic.

  Thinking back to the fight with my father, I realized Luke had kept in contact with me the entire time. My initial ability to see the threads of magic had been when I saw my sisters, and every time after that had been when Luke and I were touching. I was distracted from my thoughts, as Jessie told us, “I’m going to head out. I just wanted to run these over.” She reached up to give Luke a peck on the cheek. “Mom expects you this Sunday,” she mentioned, before her eyes flickered over to me. “Bring company.”

  He gave a low chuckle, as he squeezed her, “Tell Mom to set an extra place then.”

  She smiled at me, her gaze intent, as she looked me, before shaking her head lightly, as if discarding a thought. “It was nice to meet everyone,” she said, casually, waving to us, as she headed back to the door. Luke tugged me along, my hand still settled in his warm grasp, as he followed her to the door.

  “Be careful,” he warned her, his face concerned. She smiled at him, the words obviously familiar to her. “You too, Mr. Cop,” she replied affectionately, standing in the door, her smile turning mischievous, as she took in the sight of us standing together, hand in hand. “You better turn your phone off.” His eyes narrowed at this bit of advice, but before he could ask she told him, “Because once I tell mom about your girlfriend, it’s gonna be ringing off the hook.” His eyes widened, and he gave a short shake of his head, “You wouldn’t.”

  “Ha, oh yes I would,” she retorted, nodding. “Do you know what it’s been like since I came back home? You can take some of the attention now, brother. Consider this fair warning ....” She threw him a wink and slid out the door.

  He groaned, and I looked at him curiously. I wasn’t really familiar with parental concern over potential mates, but it seemed as if that was what this was about. He looked at me, debating.

  “You think Garvin’s mom is bad ... wait till you meet mine,” he finally said, looking at me like I should be running away screaming.

  I blinked at him, unconcerned. He gazed at me, confused by my non reaction.

  “You just watched my father try to kill me,” I reminded him, causing his expression to become pained. “I’m not worried about your mom. In fact, bring it on,” I joked to him, reaching up to kiss him lightly on the lips. I felt him release the breath he’d been holding, kissing me back. My nose brushed his cheek as our lips parted, and I caught a hint of the aftershave he used. The scent caused my entire body to tighten, and I pressed against him. He groaned at t
he sensation, the sound rumbling next to my ear.

  “You think anyone would notice if we disappeared?” he whispered against my cheek, his breath stirring my hair gently and causing me to shiver. Before I could answer we hear, “You better not be making out in the hallway like two teenagers. The rest of us would like to save the world.”

  We broke into laughter at Garvin’s well-timed interruption. “Damn, he knows us too well,” Luke muttered, rocking me side to side with the arms still wrapped tightly around me. “But he has a point.”

  “He always has a point,” I sighed. “And it’s usually a good one, even if I don’t like it.”

  Luke released me, keeping my hand in his, as we walked back into the kitchen.

  “I knew it! Kissing, while the rest of us are working,” Garvin exclaimed in mock disappointment, as we walked back in. I arched an eyebrow, looking pointedly at the now empty brownie plate. “Working. And you didn’t even save one for Luke?” Garvin looked slightly abashed at my question, as Luke chuckled behind me.

  I turned to Patrick, and he nodded.

  “I’ve always agreed with your mother’s thought that you were conceived with the intention of becoming the trinity,” he began and we settled down to listen. “The last trinity was so long ago that much information on how it was born has been lost. But we do know they weren’t sisters or siblings,” he continued, before explaining further.

  “A trinity doesn’t need to be strictly female or related, as you and your sisters are. In fact, it’s quite unusual you are related. It’s why I believe your births were intentional.” He paused, looking at each of us. “The moon and its phases are important to witchcraft, because they’re important to the Earth. We utilize certain times of the year and phases of the moon to tap into a deeper magic .... Your abilities must have been bound under a full moon. It would have been the only way your mother could work the magic that bound you so long, and I don’t think it lasted as long as she wanted.” He looked at me, and I shook my head, privately agreeing with him. I was sure our mother had thought it would last longer than the age of twelve.

  “Family members have an innate understanding of one another’s magic. Sisters who are a true trinity ….” He shook his head, disbelievingly. “It’s difficult for me to comprehend the kind of power you could possess and what you could do together; it boggles the mind. And I’ve seen you do magic. Your father would covet that type of power.”

  “How could he have planned us?” I asked, perplexed by this piece of the puzzle. What made him think he could beget a trinity?

  “I believe ... and how your father found magic this old ….” Patrick shook his head. “He could have only done it with the assistance of someone from the Council. But that’s another tale. He used moon magic.”

  “Moon magic,” I repeated.

  “He timed your conceptions with certain powerful phases of the moon. There were certain unusual or rare celestial events around the times you would have been conceived. Events your mother realized, while she was pregnant with your youngest sister. These events may be what triggered the forming of a trinity. Your father wanted to control the next trinity though, so he made sure you were born under these events.”

  “Wait,” I said, a thought occurring to me. “Does this mean there could be another trinity?”

  Patrick looked intrigued by my thought before shaking his head, “No, I believe you are the trinity that was prophesied.”

  “But, why?” I persisted, wondering if my father had screwed everything up.

  “Because what will be, will be,” he replied, smiling. “Your father is not as powerful a man as he would like to think he is. Your very existence was spoken of over five hundred years before your birth. The three of you were always meant to be the trinity. You just happened to be born as sisters.” He contemplated me. “Even with your father’s meddling ... you weren’t raised with your sisters. You were separated and forced to walk your own paths, free of outside influence over your decisions.”

  I frowned at his words saying, “At a cost.”

  “Yes,” he nodded. “There was a very high cost indeed.” His agreement caused me to remember the cost he had paid, the loss of his wife and mother, which sent him on an eighteen-year quest to stop the formation of the trinity. He caught the look on my face. “I blamed your father, and in my anger, I turned my focus to the wrong thing.” He paused, “Don’t get me wrong. Your power frightens me, but it was your father who made the choice to kill my wife and mother. Not you. Your mother chose to make the ultimate sacrifice to protect you from his intentions and to paraphrase the words of Dumbledore, ‘That type of sacrifice leaves its own form of protection.’”

  It startled me to hear him reference Harry Potter, but at the same time, I understood what he meant.

  “Your mother ... made a difficult choice in separating the three of you, doing what she could to keep you safe from his intentions. Your mother’s goodness far outweighs your father’s darkness. Her decision leveled the playing field, you could say.” He rubbed his jaw, his stubble a salt and pepper color. “You are your mother’s daughter. You look very much like her.”

  His observation made swallowing difficult. Here was a man who had known my mother, met her even. “What was she like?” I asked, thickly, curious about someone else’s perception of her, someone who had known her.

  “Strong,” he said, immediately. “Confident and so incredibly determined. It was like watching a freight train coming at you. There was no stopping her. She had made the decision to protect her girls, and absolutely nothing would sway her from that.” He reached out and touched my hand. “I often think about that night and what if I’d had the courage to make a different decision. I never agreed with my mother for turning away your mother, but I didn’t stand against her decision. I’ve often wondered if I had, if everything might not have turned out a bit differently.”

  I shook my head, “What’s done is done. I’m not sure you or any one of us could have changed how it happened.” I discarded the ‘what might have been’s’ from my mind, focusing instead on the future. “We need to find Kincaid. She can find Quinn.”

  “How can you be sure of that?” Patrick asked, curiously.

  “Kincaid is a seer,” I responded promptly, stunning him. I smiled at him, “Illusion, sight, and flight.” I waggled my fingers at him. “I’m illusion. Kincaid is sight, or seer would perhaps be the more accurate term, and that leaves Quinn with flight.”

  “How do you know that?” he asked, puzzled now by my words.

  “Three sisters born, a trinity formed,

  Illusion, sight, and flight, together will fight,

  Good and evil battle, when three sisters unite.”

  I recited to him, the words now etched in my memory. “It’s the only part of the prophecy I know,” I explained to him.

  “I’ve never heard that before, and I thought I knew every line of the prophecy,” he said, slowly, stunning me this time. “Your mother taught you that?”

  I nodded slowly, wondering now if she’d made it up. He gazed at the wall distractedly, his thoughts far away from us.

  “Gifts are generally inherited,” he muttered to himself, before focusing a laser like gaze on me. “Do you happen to know what your mother’s gift was?” I shook my head negatively. It had never occurred to me to wonder what either of my parent’s gifts were, but thinking about it now, I had a similar gift to my father: the ability to cast illusions. I didn’t recall ever seeing my mother perform magic using any special skill though. I knew now she had bound her powers the night she separated us, changing the brilliant blue of our eyes to a muddy brown as she did. She must have been a powerful witch in her own right.

  “So many different elements went into protecting you. She would have had to know the impossible to do what she did …” he trailed off, regarding me speculatively. “Almost as if she had the sight herself.”

  “But you said …” I replied, remembering him saying a seer hadn’t bee
n born in over five hundred years. He nodded, “That we knew of.” He gave a half shrug. “I couldn’t blame her for not announcing it, if she was. Every word out of her mouth would have been analyzed.”

  “But ... she didn’t know … what my father’s intentions were ... who we would become,” I stuttered, knowing it to be true. She hadn’t known, not until we had told her.

  “Seers have difficulty seeing the outcome of their own life, as a form of self-preservation perhaps, and she would have had trouble seeing your life as well, at least until she’d made the decision to separate her life from yours.” He paused, seeing the look of horror on my face. “The same for your father, her husband. Until she’d severed her life from his, she would have had trouble seeing his plan or path.”

  I thought back to my dreams over the years, the ones where my mother pled for forgiveness and told me repeatedly she loved me. I knew then she’d seen what the future would hold for me, and she had tried in her own way to apologize for the life she’d been forced to choose for me.

  “Again, your mother made impossible choices to protect you. She was incredibly strong,” he murmured, resting back in his seat.

  “You have no idea.” My reply was muffled by Luke’s shirt, as he drew me into his embrace.

  Chapter Thirteen

  “I’m so sorry, Claire-bear,” she wept, her face contorted in pain. I reached out to her, but she remained just out of reach.

  “I understand,” I tried to tell her, but it was like talking to an illusion. There was nothing there, but the ghost of her memory pled for my understanding. An understanding I could give her now, if only she was within reach.

  For the first time, I looked past her, aware it was a dream, and noticed where we’re at. It was a small meadow surrounded by forest, one eerily similar to where she’d bound our powers. She fell silent, her pleas soundless now, as I wandered away from her looking back at a memory. The circle was scratched into the ground, candles placed at the four points, the acrid scent of burning herbs tickled my nose. As I walked closer to the circle, I could hear an echo of the words she chanted that night.