Everspell (13 page)

“Elizabeth, how could this happen?” I looked around wildly, as if the answer could be found in this room somewhere, even though I knew it couldn’t. “Is this possible?”

It was Eden who gave me the answer. “You were bewitched.”

It made perfect sense, and explained everything I had been feeling; my uncertainty about Declan when he wasn’t around, my inability to place that certain something I felt had been out of place with him; and now, my failure to remember our dinner together tonight.

I had been bewitched by Declan.

Chapter Twenty

SERENA

We were all gathered in the large family room in the back of the house. With the addition of Sully, Logan and Skylar, plus mother Lily and sister Jade, we numbered almost twenty now. I still marveled over the fact that no matter how large our group became, the gigantic family room never failed to accommodate us all. We filled every overstuffed chair and comfy lounge couch and still had room for more. The guardian dogs, all four of them, were there with us, and Lily and Elizabeth’s protector cats prowled the room restlessly. We were all anxious to hear what Eden had to say. Finally, she stepped to the front of our enormous group and began to speak.

“I think we know why I’ve asked us all to come together this afternoon. As much as I loath to speak these next few words, we know them to be true. Christophe has returned.”

Even though I and everyone else in the room expected what Eden said, it still surprised me when a murmur began and steadily rose in the room nonetheless. Eden let us talk among ourselves before she finally raised her hand, wordlessly asking for our silence.

“I know that several of us have had some kind of an encounter with him of one sort or another over the past few days and I think it would be beneficial if those of us who have had one, share that experience here with everyone, so we all know what we are dealing with. We can analyze each one and try to decipher why he is singling out each of us and maybe try and figure out what he is up to this time.” Seating herself, Eden gave me a meaningful look, implying that I should start the sharing off. I stood.

“Hello everyone.” A greeting murmured back to me. “Tabitha? Can you come over here?” My sister came to stand next to me. “We believe Christophe sent two of his demons to try and kidnap Tabitha by pretending to be two new friends from school. Tell what happened, Tabby.” With prompting from me, Tabitha told our coven sisters what happened that night at the library. She even showed the scars she still had from where they had taken her blood.

Following our portion of
show and tell
, Elizabeth stood up. “I have something to talk about, as well. But, it’s not about me. It’s more about the shop and it happened when I wasn’t there. Lily was.” Eighteen pairs of eyes swung over to where Lily sat. Logan leaned over to her and whispered something in her ear. She rose slowly.

“Yes, I was there. I’m not sure if it was Christophe or not, because I never saw anyone.”

“What happened, Lily?” asked Cordelia.

“Well, one minute everything seemed normal. I had just gotten ready to close shop for the day and I began attending to some last minute tasks, and the next thing I knew, the plants, well, they were….attacking me.”

“Oh my stars!” A collective gasp sucked the air from the room. Logan couldn’t believe it. He met Elizabeth’s eyes and saw the same disbelief in them. She hadn’t told anyone! He cut his eyes back to his mother as she continued.

“The scariest thing of all is that I had somehow become powerless in my own shop. If it hadn’t been for Logan and Serena coming to my rescue, I don’t know what would have happened.” Lily’s voice had dropped nearly to a whisper and she wrung her hands in her lap. Prudence jumped up and went at once to her side.

“Lily, you did nothing to invite or cause that. Why are you acting so guilty?”

Lily responded by jerking her head up. “Because I couldn’t do anything to help myself! I felt powerless, Prudence, don’t you understand? I had to let my son and his girlfriend help me. What’s happening to me?” Lily collapsed in her coven sister’s arms and began to sob quietly.

Elizabeth spoke up. “I think I know. There is only one thing that is different in your life, Lily. Only one thing new since before you lost your powers. It’s Declan.”

As soon as she spoke his name, a shiver went through my body, and I knew Elizabeth might be right. Without knowing it, we had invited the evil that is Christophe right into our own circle. I began to say this out loud to the gathered crowd, when Finola started to shout.

“Prudence is having a vision!”

We all turned to look at her. She had been seated in the corner of the huge overstuffed chair in the back of the room and several of the animals were lounging around her. My dog, Zena, had been sleeping soundly at her feet and Logan’s dog, Charlie lay sleeping next to her. At Finola’s announcement, they both awoke and stood at attention. Lily and Elizabeth’s cats had been draped across the back of her chair and they, too, were now sitting awake and flanking her on the arms of the chair. The guardian animals had surrounded her as she experienced her vision.

She began rolling her head and moaning softly, then suddenly she reached her arms out straight in front of her and screamed “
No!
I won’t let you take her!” She began to thrash in the chair, knocking the cats to the floor as she grasped the arms of the chair for purchase.

Several of the coven sisters ran to her, to try and restrain her but I watched in horror as mine and Logan’s dogs began to growl and show their teeth.

Eden commanded the coven sisters to leave her alone. “The vision must not be interrupted! As long as the vision is allowed to continue, we might learn something.”

Everyone backed off and the dogs quieted, for the moment. Prudence continued to writhe in her chair for another few moments. When she finally stopped, she looked exhausted and drenched with sweat. I ran over to her and threw my arms around her. The dogs didn’t seem to mind at all; in fact, they began to lick my legs and my dog, Zena, lay her head at my feet and started to whimper low, under her breath.

Prudence stroked my hair. “I’m okay, Serena. I am. Don’t worry. And I think we’re all going to be okay, too. But there is going to be a fight. A huge fight. We will lose someone. Someone close and dear to us. I don’t know who. Don’t ask. But the Beast is indeed loose. And this time he wants more than just Serena.” Prudence sought Eden out and addressed her. “Eden, this time he wants all those who can continue the line. You know Serena is not the only one.”

Eden bowed her head and nodded. “Lily, Serena, Jade, Tabitha, and….” It shocked me when her gaze settled upon Logan. “…yes, and Logan. All of you carry the special gene Christophe covets.”

“Of course, the greatest prize would be if he got Serena and Logan both.” Prudence tried to explain. “The issue from the pair of you would be the most all-powerful magical being ever created. If he could control a child created by you from birth, he would have the tool to control this world, and all others. Goodness would cease to exist. Evil would be the only reality. There would simply be no hope at all.” The finality of her words made my blood run cold.

“What can we do?” The words were Logan’s. He appeared ready to fight.

Eden turned to him. “It’s completely like you to want to know what the options are, Logan. You never dwell long on the problem. Cordelia, Prudence and I have been considering the solutions for some time now. We have to destroy Christophe again, and this time, we have to make sure we do it so it lasts forever. We have to see him disintegrate.”

“We can’t just dump him in a hole this time.
That
has its disadvantages.” Cordelia interjected.

“We can’t return him to hell,” sing-songed Aisling.

“We need a stronger spell!” chimed Echo.

Once again, everyone started talking at once. This time, it took Eden quite a while to quiet us all down. When she did, she didn’t waste any time getting to her point.

“Logan, while I appreciate your willingness to step in, Cordelia, Prudence and I all agree: it will take a bit more brains than brawn to get Christophe this time around. We have a plan, but many of you will not like some of the components. We think we can lure him in by using a decoy. Based on some of the statements made here tonight, I’m sure you can guess who we are thinking of for the decoy.”

I watched Logan jump up and I felt his distress drill into my brain.
“No!”
he yelled, loud as he could, and ran over to his mom.

Lily seemed disoriented, much as she had the whole time we had been meeting.

My aunt Elizabeth jumped up and yelled too. “There’s something else you don’t know. I think Declan has been brainwashing Lily or putting her in some kind of a trance. I mean, look at her. She isn’t even all the way here right now. She’s been like this ever since she got back from her date with him last night. I don’t think she should be left alone. None of us should be.” She nodded, convinced of her decision. “She and Jade need to move in here, with us.” She sat down on the arm of the sofa next to Lily and cradled her head next to her leg.

Lily didn’t react one way or the other. I felt the distress level in Logan rise a notch.

Prudence stood and tried to regain control of the gathering. “Ladies, I think we need to stop and think some things through. Let’s try and understand why Christophe has come back. Why now? What has changed that makes coming back now so important to him?” Prudence gazed around the room looking for answers.

“So, you don’t think it has anything to do with our friends breaking ground for their new swimming pool?” asked Logan.

“I think that may have something to do with it, but that ground has been soft for several months. I think we may be missing something even more important to him. Something to do with one of the five of you.” She eyed us carefully. “Is there anything you want to share with us, any of you?”

I glanced over at Logan and found him looking back at me. We both shook our heads at one another, not knowing what Prudence might be getting at. I turned to face Lily to find her still being cradled by Elizabeth. It seemed she still carried feelings of guilt. But she had confessed to us about Declan. She had nothing left to hide. That left Jade. I spun around to face her. She sat straight up, looking as haughty as ever. Nothing shocking there. What I found interesting was Sully. He had backed away until he was nearly flattened up against the back wall, looking like he had killed his best friend’s dog. I exchanged looks with Logan.

Now that’s interesting
, I mindspoke with him

No kidding.
Wonder what that’s all about.

One way to find out.
You do it.
You’re his best friend.

Okay.
Standby.

I waited a couple minutes and pretended to listen to more of my coven sisters chatter so as not to draw attention to Logan. Finally, he came back to me.

Okay, Sully should never play poker.
He definitely has a tell.

What are you talking about?

He even looks guilty.

Logan, I’m starting to get worried, here.

You should be.
Sully and
Jade have been keeping a secret.

A secret?

Oh yeah. A huge one.
I think they’re the reason Christophe came back this time.
More to the point, Jade is the reason he came back.
Man, is my mom going to kill her.
If Christophe doesn’t get to her first.

Logan, you better tell me what’s going on.

Serena, Jade is pregnant.

Chapter Twenty-one

LOGAN

About the moment I had been telling Serena about Jade’s pregnancy, Jade herself admitted all to the room. Following her confession, all semblance of control in the room disappeared. My mom rushed to Jade’s side and gathered my sister in her arms. I stormed across the room with the intent to question my best friend’s state of mind. Serena met me half way.

“Logan, slow down and be reasonable. I sense there is more to this story than you think there is.”

I wasn’t going to be deterred by her soft voice of reason. “What? What more could there be? He’s already done the damage, hasn’t he?”

Prudence spoke up again.

“No, Serena is right. I’m sensing the same thing. There is more to this than just the pregnancy.”

Lily looked up sharply. “More?” She turned to her daughter. “How could there be more? Isn’t having a child out of wedlock enough?”

“Isn’t that kind of old-fashioned, Lily?” questioned Prudence. “That doesn’t sound like you at all.”

“I’m sorry. But wait until you have a child of your own and see if you feel the same.”

“Wait a minute!”
Totally
shocked to hear Sully finally speak. “She won’t be having any child out of any wedlock.” He puffed up with pride. “I asked her to marry me and she said yes. We’ve been married since the end of the summer. My boys are going to be Sullivans, like me.”

Lily almost fell out of her chair. “Married! You and Jade are married!” I watched my sister as she slipped off a little gold band she had been wearing on her right hand and placed it on her left.

“We were waiting for the right moment to tell everybody. Sully wanted to right away, but I kept telling him to wait. Then when I found out I got pregnant with the babies, he said we had to tell you. Then the whole thing with Christophe happened and it just wasn’t the right time.” Jade sat up next to Sully and rested her hand over her stomach.

Maybe nobody else picked up on it, but wasn’t that the second time she had referred to her pregnancy as a plural? I caught Serena’s eye and realized she had heard it too. I questioned her in mindspeak.

Did you catch that?
My boys?
The babies?
Is she saying what I think she’s saying?