After the Summerland (The Witches of Spring Hill Book 1) (9 page)

When she passed him in the hall
after lunch, he caught just a glimpse of a grin. He smiled a big old sloppy,
puppy smile at her, which made her put her mouth back into that grim line. He
looked forward to seeing that grin again tomorrow.

He sighs and leans back in
his chair thinking about how to deal with this whole thing. He knows Cian and
Brianna are right. This thing with Aunt Selene and the Alexanders is a mess.

Lying in bed watching
the clock pass another hour, Chloe has already decided she won’t be going to
school tomorrow. She just has to convince Rowan and Kaiden to stay home so
they can go through the box in the attic together.

Since she learned that she
is the reincarnation of a woman who used to live in this house she has been
looking at everything with different eyes. She is trying to find something
familiar, some sort of clue that will jog her memory from her lifetime before.
Even though Dad said the house hasn’t changed much, she can’t find anything
that makes her remember. He explained to her that it would be highly unlikely
that she would remember anything anyway; but to her, it seems like anything is
possible.

Considering everything
they learned tonight about themselves, they had a fairly normal evening.
Grandpa Marcus and GG Peter stayed for dinner and then Chloe, Kaiden, and Rowan
each went to their rooms to work on homework. At dinner, they talked about
pulling down the box this weekend and going through everything then, but Chloe doesn’t
want to wait. She hopes to have more information before she sees Cian Saturday
at the library.

Kaiden popped in her
room after dinner and told her not to say anything about Cian just yet.
“Especially since we were just told to stay away from them,” he added. “He
seemed alright to me today, and even told me that you guys were meeting this
weekend, but I still think we need to be cautious.”

She smiles, grateful
that he is on her side, “I feel like I can trust him, Kaiden, but I can’t help
but wonder if he was using magic to make me feel that way,” Chloe says
honestly
.

“It didn’t feel strange
talking to him like it did when I saw Xavier in the hall or when we first saw
them,” Kaiden says. “By the way, I definitely don’t trust
him
and would not be okay with you going anywhere alone with him.”

“Don’t trust who?”
Rowan asks as she walks into the room.

“Xavier Silvan,” Kaiden
replies, making room for her on the window seat. “Something about him just
isn’t quite… right. And, did you
see
the way he looked at his mom when she was talking to dad? He looked pissed…”

“She’s not their mom,” Chloe
says. “She’s their aunt and Cian told me that she has only been around for
about five years, since their mom died. He also told me that she has… issues.”

“I wonder just what
kind of issues,” Kaiden asks aloud, while thinking back to the way she was
looking at their dad.

“I don’t know, but I agree
with you both that there is something weird about all of them,” Rowan says,
adding “but I must say that Xavier is totally hot and more than just a little
intriguing.”

“Rowan, what are you
thinking?” Chloe asks, looking at her sister suspiciously. “You look like you’re
working on some kind of evil plan.”

“I’m just thinking of
getting to know him a little bit better,” she says. “I just want to see what’s going
on in that handsome head of his. I think I can get him to talk — just give
me a day or two. Today he was just about following me around trying to get my
attention, and at one point, I swear he looked like a devoted little puppy,”
she says sweetly.

“So both of you are
going to spend time with the Silvans, even though Dad told us to stay away from
them, is that right?” Kaiden asks.

Rowan and Chloe look at
each other and then at Kaiden who smiles wide. “Well then, I guess I’ll just
have to see what I can find out from Miss Brianna Silvan.”

“Since I’m already
meeting Cian at the library on Saturday, why don’t you guys meet Xavier and
Brianna there too? That way, we are all together if we need each other,” Chloe suggests.

Kaiden and Rowan agree and
decide to work out the details later. They also agree not to say anything to Liam,
though they each promise to always tell each other everything and decide together
what, if anything, to tell Liam.

It won’t be easy to
convince Kaiden and Rowan to stay home tomorrow, Chloe thinks, as she remembers
how excited they both were to make contact with the Silvans. Once I explain
that knowing more about our own abilities will make it easier to deal with them,
I’m sure they’ll consider it. And if that doesn’t work, I’ll beg them,
she decides as she starts to nod off.

The last thing she
thinks about before falling asleep is Cian Silvan and the way he seemed to look
directly into her soul. He knows, she thinks. He knows I’m a witch. And, instead
of being worried, she feels deeply comforted and finally drifts off to sleep.

The next morning, the
house is quieter than usual. Rather than waking up to the sounds of arguing,
the slamming of doors, hair dryers, or dishes clattering, Liam hears nothing. He
looks over at the clock and realizes that it’s almost 7:00. He jumps out of bed
and is about to wake the kids when he hears them talking softly downstairs. He
goes downstairs and finds them sitting in the family room in their pajamas
going through the box that he brought down late last night. Even though they said
they would look at it this weekend, he pulled it out of the attic — just in
case they found time before then. He knows if he were just told he was a witch,
and there was a box of books that would teach him everything he needed to know,
he would want to look at everything right away.

“Hey, Dad,” Rowan says, as she gets up to get what smells like a cup of coffee.

“Rowan? Are you drinking coffee?” Liam asks, surprised.

“Dad, please. I’m a
witch. I think I can handle a little coffee this morning.” She rolls her eyes
as she stalks off into the kitchen.

How can I argue with
that logic? Liam thinks to himself. “So? No school today? Maybe a holiday I
don’t know about?”

Chloe gets up and walks
over to hug him good morning. This is a ritual they have had since she was
little and although he expected it to end when she became a teenager, she still
does it every single morning.

“Dad, we thought we
should avoid the Silvans until we have a better idea of our own abilities,” she
explains. “I know that we will have to face them soon enough, but it was all so
much last night and we really don’t want to wait until the weekend to start
reading through all of this stuff. Oh, and thanks for pulling it down last
night.”

“It will take us the
rest of the week just to get through it all,” Kaiden chimes in.

“I see your point and I
agree. I’ll call the school and let them know that you won’t be there today and
I’ll clear my schedule so I can work from home,” Liam says.

“Dad, you don’t have to
stay home. We can go through all of this ourselves,” Rowan says as she comes
back in the room with three mugs full of steaming coffee.

Liam can’t remember the
last time he saw Rowan do anything for anyone other than herself so he is a
little taken aback by her actions.

“Um… I guess I can
go in for a little bit. But you know you can call me, Grandpa Marcus, or GG Peter
if you have any questions,” Liam says.

“Or,” Rowan replies, “we
do know how to look things up online, Dad,” again rolling her eyes at him.

And she’s back, Liam
thinks to himself. Feeling much more familiar with this Rowan, he says, “And I
don’t care if you are witches, you don’t need to drink any more coffee after
those mugs. Try some herbal tea if you are looking for something warm.”

Rowan reluctantly
agrees and grabs the book sitting closest to her and starts flipping through
the pages until Liam goes back upstairs to get ready for work. “Let’s wait to
start talking until after he leaves,” she says. “I know he wants to help but I
feel like we need to figure some of this out on our own — without parental
guidance.”

Kaiden and Chloe agree
and start pulling out some of the books and papers inside the box.

“Look at all this stuff,”
Chloe says excitedly. Picking up one of the books she reads,
“
Recordings, Recollections, and Recommendations,
and look, the last update
was 16 years ago by A. Scott. That must be Abigail Scott who lived here before
us,” she says, wondering if that used to be her own name, her own curvy handwriting.

Kaiden and Rowan look
over at the book Chloe is holding. Just like all the other books, everything is
handwritten, except this one is especially unique in that it has several styles
of handwriting indicating that several people have contributed to this book
over the years.

“All the entries are
dated and signed, and the very first entry dates back to 1647 by an A. Young,” Chloe
says. “I wonder who she was…”

Kaiden grabs his
iPad
and pulls up Google. “Let me see if I can find
anything,” he says, always up to challenge ‘The Google.’ “Oh my God! You are
not going to believe this!”

“What? What did you
find?” Chloe asks, thrilled by her brother’s excitement.

Just then Liam comes
back downstairs. Kaiden powers down his iPad and Chloe
grabs a loose paper out of the box using it to mark her place before closing
the book.

“Well, I’m off. I
called the school and you are clear for the day, but you have to go back
tomorrow. When you get hungry you can make yourselves a sandwich and…”

“Dad! We’ve got this,” Rowan
says, clearly annoyed. “We’re not babies! We know how to feed and bathe
ourselves.”

Chloe, who always feels
protective of her dad when Rowan acts this way, cheerfully says, “Thanks, Dad! We’ll
call you if we have any questions.” She puts up two fingers and crosses her
heart, “We promise!”

Kaiden does the same
motion and finally after what seems like five full minutes, Rowan rolls her
eyes and follows suit. “Promise!” they say at the same time. Ever since they
were little they made this vow to each other so that the other person would
know for sure that whatever was being said was the truth. Kaiden and Chloe
still do it, mostly to make Liam happy, but when Rowan turned 12 she insisted
that she was too grown up to play silly games and refused to make the sign.

“OK, OK, I’m leaving.
Just one more thing.
Be careful if you try casting spells
today. Remember the land will make anything you do more powerful — in fact,
just don’t cast any circles or try any spells today at all. It will make me
feel better if you all agree to that.”

They all nod and agree
to no spell casting on their first day of being witches, well their first day of
knowing that they are witches. They watch as he walks toward the side door and
after they hear the door close and the jeep start up, Kaiden turns his
iPad
back on and reads, “A. Young, born in 1600 and died in
1667. And guess how she died?” Kaiden asks looking at both his sisters.

“She was obviously a
witch, Kaiden, so stop dragging this out and tell us,” Rowan says annoyed.

“Yes, Rowan, she was a
witch,” Kaiden says matching her tone, “but she was also the
first
person to be executed for
witchcraft in America,” he reads.

“She lived in the original thirteen colonies —
Connecticut to be exact — and she was hanged, though it doesn’t say what for. I
guess being suspected of witchcraft was enough,” he says. He wonders how people
would react if they knew they were all witches.

“I can’t believe you
actually found something about A. Young online, and I can’t believe this book
has an entry by her.” Chloe says, noticing that something dark just crossed his
mind. “Do you think this is her handwriting?” Chloe asks, holding the book up
for him to look at more closely.

Kaiden carefully takes
the old book from Chloe’s hands realizing that all the books and papers in this
box have been passed down for thousands of years. And, now here
he
is learning all about it because he,
himself, is a witch.

It seems surreal, but
he can feel something deep inside of him come to life as he holds the book. He
realizes that times are much different than the 1600s and nowadays of course
they would not be hanged for witchcraft. Besides, he has no intention of
telling anyone, ever, that he is a witch.

For the rest of the
day, pausing only to have lunch, Rowan, Kaiden, and Chloe look at all of the
books in the box, specifically the grimoires. Chloe pulls out and sets aside
several recipes that she wants to try, Rowan saves a spell that she found to
make someone love you, and Kaiden holds onto the book that Chloe gave him
earlier.

They all agreed that he
should be the recorder of anything that they discover during their lifetimes.
Rowan didn’t want anything to do with work of any sort, and even though Chloe
wanted to do it, she knows that it will be good for Kaiden if he has a specific
role to fulfill. She saw his face change from troubled to peaceful when he held
the book in his hands and she suspects he isn’t totally comfortable with being
a male witch.

They learned that the
land is sacred and magic is more powerful here because of the space known to
them as the clearing. One of the books described the clearing and the land immediately
surrounding it as an ancient Indian ceremonial site. The property originally
belonged to the Tuscarora tribe, who discovered that the area had strong
spiritual properties. Over time, various ceremonies were performed and the land
became more fertile as time went on. Even when Indian rituals and ceremonies
had long since stopped, more spirits were added during the Civil War when blood
from both sides was spilled on the sacred land.