Descending

by C E Dimond

  “Fine.”

  She seemed to resign to my protest. At least, her words suggested as much. Her tone held a hint of something else entirely. I had a sinking feeling that this wasn’t going to be the end of the conversation.

  I was convinced that the Cavanaugh book would do us no good, not for what she wanted me to accomplish. Dream magic was a McLoughlin specialty, there was no reason to suspect we’d find the spell for it in a book from our mother’s side.

  It seemed like whatever progress I’d made with her was short lived as I saw the change in her green eyes, her lips parting, she spoke.

  “What if you don’t want to take it. We can just try whatever you did last time and that will at least give you a chance to look through the book freely! Keilan can write down the words you’re looking for and if you find the spell great, if you don’t that’s fine too.”

  “Wait,” I began trying to wrap my mind around the suggestion. “You want me to try doing the spell we’re looking for, to maybe, be able to find the spell we’re looking for?”

  Somewhere along the way, that had to make some sense, only I couldn’t seem to find any sense in it at all.

  “Exactly!” She spoke with such conviction like it was the clearest solution.

  “I don’t get you at all,” I told her.

  I turned my attention back to Keilan, looking at her for some support. She raised her hands in defense, as though she wanted to stay out of it.

  “Don’t look at me, I’m not a Witch, I don’t get how your magic works.”

  I sighed, I’d been hoping for something more. I let my tongue travel across my bottom lip as I turned the proposal over in my mind wondering if it was plausible. They had given me a fair amount of time with the Cavanaugh book at Broadhaven, but I’d never searched for anything specific.

  If I could find a concrete way of doing this spell consistently, it could make my search much easier. If it worked this time, it meant I could travel back to the McLoughlin home, search their scrolls.

  The possibilities would be endless.

  “Fine,” I grumbled. I had a bad feeling about it all, but I wouldn’t know until I gave it another try. “I’ll do it.”

  13

  “I am not certain that I am able to spend another night sleeping on the damp earth,” The male said with a sigh. “I know you said it would not matter where we were, but this is not what I wanted for you.”

  She was meant to have been a Queen, and she had given it up for him. Her life should have been in the castle. She should have had people tending to her every whim. Instead, they had this. Now, they were on the run for their lives, resting their heads on whatever rock felt most comfortable.

  “Only for one night,” her voice was soft and magical. It soothed the uncertain male in the worst of times. She had the ability to make every bad idea seem plausible.

  “We cannot run forever.” That was what it truly came down to. Would they truly spend their lives like this? Slipping away in the dark of night, hiding in forests, castles, homes that would take them. It was simply not sustainable. Not if they wanted to give life a real shot.

  “If running forever, means staying together, then I will run with you until I take my last breath.”

  ***

  Over the past few months, I had grown used to sleeping in strange places. What I hadn’t become accustomed to was being watched while I slept.

  So, when I lay on the surface of my bed, my sister seated on one side, Keilan seated on the other, I couldn’t seem to relax.

  “Do you think you guys could maybe come back once I’m asleep?” I asked. How was I supposed to get into a state of magical sleep with their eyes staring at me the entire time?

  “No,” Izzy said, not even taking a moment to consider the idea. “We need to be able to wake you up the moment something goes wrong.”

  “IF something goes wrong.” Keilan interrupted, and I felt relieved that Izzy had allowed her to come over.

  I really didn’t want something to go wrong. The last time, I’d fall over the edge of a cliff. The mark on my wrist was a reminder that I could still be hurt in that dream state. I didn’t want to risk dying in my sleep.

  I sighed nodding and clasping my hands together; I rested them on my stomach. I closed my eyes and tried to disconnect from my thoughts.

  We had decided that the likeliest way to initiate the spell was to think about what I wanted to see, what I needed. I had been thinking about Cormac when I’d appeared before him.

  Taking in a few deep breaths, I concentrated on the sounds of air moving through my lungs, the way my chest rose and fell with each inhale and exhale. I thought about Broadhaven, about the Cavanaugh house, about the book.

  It felt like an eternity passed while I repeated those three thoughts in my mind again and again, until I felt lightweight, almost like I was floating, and I heard a familiar voice that made my eyes fly open.

  “Look, I know I said we would only wait twenty-four hours, but the scry isn’t working!”

  I felt my throat tighten.

  It was Eamon and as I looked around me; I realized I wasn’t at Broadhaven at all, certainly not in the Cavanaugh home.

  I was back in Boston.

  “Shit” I muttered, and then quickly covered my mouth. I reminded myself that if I had succeeded again, they would be able to see and hear me. Moving with care closer to the voices I leaned my back against the wall to listen.

  What had happened? It was supposed to bring me to what I was thinking about, and I’d been thinking about Broadhaven, the Cavanaugh book, their house. I was willing to bet, most certainly, that I had not been thinking about Boston.

  After the incident at the harbor I would have been happy to never step foot in the city again. Was it possible that without even realizing it I’d been thinking about-

  “Eamon is right, something about this is off. Every single thing that came out of her mouth sounded wrong. It sounded like it was planned. We know her! She doesn’t think those things about us. I refuse to believe that she would ever say any of that and mean it.” Declan spoke this time and I could feel myself beginning to tear up. My beloved cousin was truly the light of the group.

  He was right, I would never have said those things, but I had. I had made the conscious decision to hurt them in hopes that by doing so I’d keep them safe from my father.

  Only, now, with the very real possibility that my father might not be the enemy everyone had made him out to be, I was wondering if I’d made a grave mistake.

  “You two can make all the excuses in the world for her, but she still made the choice to say those things.” Caine said in his familiar growling tone. He turned his attention Declan. “She chose to say the things she knew would hurt you, her own blood. You can continue doing whatever the hell you like, but I’m done. She broke the Coven rules, and she needs to be put in check before she becomes the villain of our story.”

  “He’s right,”

  It shocked me to hear that this time it was Eamon’s voice chiming in again agreeing with Caine. Those two simple words had felt like a knife straight in the heart.

  “She attacked Caine, that means she broke the Coven rules. I wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt, to give her time, but it’s been days and we can’t find her. It’s over. It’s not for us to decide what happens to her.”

  “If she meant even a fraction of the things she said, she might be too far gone to bring back.” A voice that had stayed silent until that moment finally chimed in. I couldn't breathe now, it felt like the knife had just been twisted for added pain.

  Even Neely O’Brien, who had always been my ally, was now agreeing to turn me into the coven elders for punishment. They had been holding out hope for me, that I would come back, or that they would find me. I’d disappointed them, and part of me wanted to make my presence known.

  A single tear escaped my left eye then, and another followed before I could feel them begin a steady trail down my cheeks. I choked back the s
ound of my cry and shifted in place.

  Well, at least I knew that it had worked. This was what I had wanted after all. This was why I had made the decision to leave them behind. I had wanted them to be angry with me, wanted them to turn on me. I had to be more careful what I wished for.

  My choked efforts failed me, as a painful sound of my cry escaped me then. I took a step forward, accidentally knocking into the table next to me before I felt that familiar sensation of falling.

  I sat up with a gasp, this time no one in my path and I could feel my body was shaking. My very real tears were still warm and streaming from my eyes. I felt as though I couldn’t catch my breath and my sister and Keilan were both by my side in an instant.

  “What happened?” Izzy was speaking to me there was an eagerness in her tone, and I knew what she was really asking me, had it worked?

  “It worked,” I managed out my voice croaking through the tears. “But not the way that we wanted it to.”

  I stood from the bed and moved past the both of them, rushing into the hall. I ran down to the end of the hall and opened the door to the bathroom, turning on the water in the skin to splash on my face.

  I thought it might have helped, but it turned out that even ice-cold water couldn’t take away the pain of hearing their words.

  “Finn?” The soft inquiry coming this time, not from my sister but from my friend. As I lifted my head to look into the mirror, my blue eyes rimmed in red. I could see her standing behind me.

  “It didn’t take me to Broadhaven,” I said, turning around to face her I stepped toward the towel to dry my hands and face. “I thought it was supposed to take me to the place I was thinking about, but I don’t think it works that way.”

  Maybe it took me to whoever was calling for me? My father the first time, The Coven the second. They had been scrying for me after all, maybe my magic could sense that.

  “It took me to them.”

  I had started crying again, and I soon found a place on the wall, my back pressed flat against it for support as I slid down it to the floor, pulling my knees close to my chest.

  I didn’t know why I was so upset. I had hoped this was what would happen. When I’d made my plan to fake turning on them, I had wanted them to be angry. I think a part of me had hoped they would see through the facade.

  I told her then, everything that I had done. Where we’d been, how I’d gone about leaving them behind. I told her that I’d never wanted to hurt them but that I thought that I’d needed to protect them from my father, our father.

  It was all spilling out and nothing I could do seemed to be able to stop it. I told her everything I’d learned about him at Broadhaven how they said he killed my birth mother, the mothers of other Coven members, how they thought he had been responsible for my sister’s death. I told her how now, I wasn’t even sure if he was the real threat.

  “I feel like everything I thought I knew is just one big lie. I don’t even know who to trust anymore.”

  Clearly, I trusted her. I didn’t even realize that she had taken a seat next to me on the bathroom floor and the two of us sat there together in silence, once I was done ranting.

  “This is what I wanted. Why does it feel so bad?” Like the world as I knew it was beginning to come crashing down around me.

  “Sometimes what we think we want, isn’t really what’s in our heart.” She offered like a wise old owl. I left out a gentle laugh and offered a nod.

  “You should print that on a tote bag.” I added.

  It was her turn to laugh then, and I realized, getting all of my secrets out, off my chest felt like a huge weight had been lifted.

  “I know we’re not the same, but I understand family tradition, rules, expectations.” She promised. “It’s not always easy to live up to those and you should never feel the pressure to have to. You are not your Coven. You are your own person Finn, and that’s okay.”

  Only, it wasn’t okay. I might have been my own person but there was a very real possibility that our families’ entire existence, their history, was all riding on what I decided to do next.

  “Thank you,” I said anyway.

  Talking to her had helped and as I looked up at the door, I realized that Izzy had joined us to.

  “I’m sorry.” She said, and for once there seemed to be a genuine concern in those unsettling green eyes of hers. “I never should have pushed you to try that again. I never wanted you to get hurt.” Even her words sounded genuine, and I nodded. “We don’t need that book; we have everything we need right here. We can do this together.”

  I smiled, nodding in agreement. I didn’t think, honestly that we were going to find what she was looking for in the Cavanaugh’s book anyway. It would have been a wasted trip through the astral plane.

  “No more dream travel,” I said. I could feel my body ache just from the strain of it all. “But let’s go take a look at this prophecy.”

  14

  When Blood of Blood returns to the place where sleeping kings lay, the final awakening will occur, and the power will once more descend upon the land.

  That was a loose translation at least.

  She had been right. The prophecy, or at least very undetailed mentions of it, were in the McLoughlin book. This was it, the reason that the Coven hadn't wanted me to go anywhere near this particular book of magic. It would give me something they would rather I didn’t have, a clue.

  It all centered around using blood magic to break some sort of sleeping curse to awaken the ancient power of the Island. When I say it was undetailed, I mean it didn’t mention who had cast the sleeping curse, who it was on, or how to properly break it.

  Basically, it offered us a whole lot of nothing. Most of the details were things they had already known. The things we needed to know were conveniently missing. Was it a person, or was the Island asleep? The book offering a lot more questions than answers.

  “Well, that was enlightening.” The sarcasm that was normally reserved for my elder sister had escaped my own lips this time.

  “I guess a prophecy isn’t meant to be informative.” She offered, and I had to admit she really wasn’t wrong. They were supposed to be puzzles, riddles meant to be given and eventually solved but no one ever handed you the decoder ring.

  Keilan had stayed behind to help us translate but once she’d gotten it all written down, she’d headed back to the hostel. John would be looking for her she pointed out, and I’d understood. Now, it was just my sister and me, pouring over a single page of loose-leaf, two twenty-first century minds trying to make sense of an ancient Prophecy.

  “What do you think this means?” I asked pointing to one particular line that had caught my attention. “Where sleeping kings lay.”

  “I don’t know,” She admitted. “A bed in a Castle somewhere?”

  My face twisted into a look of uncertainty and I shook my head. That seemed far too obvious, and nothing about any of this seemed obvious. Otherwise, it wouldn’t have taken so long for someone to make sense of it. It would have already been broken.

  A new thought dawned on me then and I had almost opened my lips to express it before quickly changing my mind. I’d wondered to myself if there were other clues from the prophecy in the rest of the family books. I didn’t want to start down that path again.

  Iseult had promised me that she wasn’t ever going to ask me to do that again. But, that had probably been in combination with the fact that she’d come to terms with the real possibility that nothing helpful could be gained from the other books. I didn’t want to plant this idea in her head and get us back to square one.

  “There are no Kings.” I mused, at least not any more so it would have been a reference to the old ones. That much was clear. “Where sleeping kings lay,” I repeated. I was tapping my fingers on the table my brain fired off trying to connect the dots of the million thoughts that had started dancing around in my mind.

  “Which Kings?” My sister added, and she had a point.

  I turned
back to the page in the book where we’d found the prophecy and there was no date written on the entry. Of course not, they couldn’t make things too easy on us.

  “Maybe it’s a tomb but, without knowing who-”

  “Then we won’t know where.” She added in agreement.

  “Exactly.”

  I sighed turning my pen repeatedly in my fingers, as I stared at the words before me, willing them to make sense. This was like the world’s worst riddle.

  “How does blood magic work?” I asked. That was something we hadn’t covered at Broadhaven.

  “Blood magic is the strongest type of magic. The person who breaks a spell, or a curse has to be the person that cast it, or they have to be in their family bloodline.” She explained. “So if your Grandfather cast it, you could break it, and so on. Not all spells are cast with blood magic, in fact only a very few. Usually, ones that people don’t want to be broken, or at least not broken by the wrong people.”

  “So these ‘sleeping Kings’ might be from our Bloodline.” I deduced. They had to be if we were the ones meant to break their sleeping curse.

  This brought me back to the issue of wanting to trace our ancestral line. The task that had brought me there in the first place, seemed to be the answer to our mystery.

  “I’m going to assume so. That would only make sense. Probably the real reason everyone was so eager to find you. From which line though?”

  She was right, Cavanaugh or McLoughlin. That would send me straight back to where I’d spent most of my time here.

  “How are we supposed to know where they were buried?”

  “Looks like a job for the archives,” I mumbled.

  To my surprise, my sister didn’t argue with me this time. She seemed on board with the idea, but we decided to work on the rest of the prophecy that night before I took off running. The more information I had to work with, the easier it would be to find what we were looking for.

  This was, I assumed, most of what my father had also had to work with. This, for whatever reason, gave him the idea that I would be able to break this curse, awaken this power. He must have known more than what we had but if he did, my sister didn’t know what it was.