Ritual Magic (39 page)

Leo appeared in one vision, holding Cora's
hand and promising her that he was going to give her a taste at
shooting guns. I frowned at him as he turned his eyes to me
knowingly in the dream. It was like he knew everything that I was
thinking, but he was calm and patient with me. I heard myself laugh
as my dream-self nodded and allowed the two of them to run off
chatting about everything that they were going to destroy. The
dream shifted.

I was standing on a hilltop staring down at
a huge castle overlooking the ocean. It was a familiar location,
very much where I remembered seeing Gull Cottage. In fact, when my
eyes were cast down towards the shoreline, I was able to see the
stone staircase that snaked its way to the beach. My heart ached as
I realized that my beloved Gull Cottage had been removed to make
way for my hideously large castle.
Was this really where I
lived? Was I really a queen and the ruler of a kingdom filled with
mythical creatures?

When I heard my name called, I turned to see
Solomon's gorgeous eyes smiling down at me. The dream felt so very
real as Solomon swept me into his arms and pressed his cool lips
against mine, helping me to remember that this truly was a
dream.

The dream shifted again and I was standing
in a garden, holding the head of a hydrangea bloom in the palm of
my hands as I felt a warm hand on my shoulder. I turned to see
Cora's now adult face shining down on me, knowingly
. NO!

A sudden, sharp fear hit me right between
the eyes as my head swelled and my emotions swirled around me. Cora
was grown up in my dream, and I had missed her young life—missed
everything that I had been dreaming of experiencing with her. My
heart sank as Cora laughed at me with a twinkle in her eyes. Her
lips moved, but I couldn't hear a word that she was saying. My ears
were filled with a buzzing that was almost impossible to ignore—it
drowned out everything else around me as I began to feel my knees
buckle, and Cora's face immediately displayed her distress as she
reached around me and grasped my arms.

"Mother!" Cora's voice rang through my ears.
"Mother, are you alright?! Dad! Mother is ill!" I heard Cora's
voice right above my ear. The buzzing was finally gone. It had
obviously faded away when I wasn't paying attention, because now I
could hear everything clearly.

Solomon was instantly at my side, grasping
me under the arm and reaching down below my knees to swoop me up
into his strong embrace. "Celeste," he breathed down on me, blowing
his cool scent over my face, causing me to swoon from the smell of
him. "Are you okay, my love?" His voice sounded frightened.

"I...I think I am." I swallowed as I eyed
Cora hovering near us. "How long have I been out?" I shook my head,
trying to clear my mind.
I have got to still be dreaming. This
is a dream!
I shook my head again, closing my eyes and wishing
that I would wake up back in Leo's castle.
This has got to be a
dream.

Cora cast a glance over at Solomon. "Dad,
I'm so worried. Mother is acting strangely—she hasn't blacked out
at all." Her eyebrows bunched together with concern. She was
absolutely gorgeous, with her hazel eyes and long brown hair.

Solomon flicked his chin towards the castle
walls to signal Cora. "Run and find Mortisha, please, Cora. Tell
her that your mother is ill."

Cora nodded and flew away from our position
in the garden.

Solomon looked down at me with his rich
blue-green eyes as I listened to the ocean crash on the shore in
the far distance.

"Are you ill, my love? I will take you back
to the castle." He began to walk steadily towards the back of the
castle as my eyes fell on the path that he was following. I cast my
eyes up towards the castle and finally saw everything. The building
was in the style of a medieval castle made of stone and mortar.
There were vines climbing on all sides, huge turrets of stone
towering above, as well as glass windows that faced the ocean's
splendor.

I shivered and Solomon pulled me in closer
in response.

"I don't understand." My head swam with the
images from my dreams. "I...I was just dreaming."

"Dreaming of what?" Solomon smiled down at
me as if he figured that my dreams always held him in a starring
role.

"Of...the future...the past...everything."
My heart ached.
I'm dreaming. I'm dreaming right now. This is a
dream.

Solomon cocked his head to the side as he
paused on his path toward the castle. He looked down at my eyes,
trying to read my expression, but I was positive that all he would
see was fear and confusion. He nodded down at me and then began
walking along his determined way again.

"What do you mean, my love?" His tone was
cautious.

I relaxed my head against his chest as I
closed my eyes and focused on the sound of the ocean in the
background. Just then I heard Tisha's voice in the distance.

"Celeste, Cora says that you are ill. What
has happened?" I opened my eyes and saw Tisha standing before me in
an emerald green dress, scraping the ground. She had her long blond
hair pulled back, the tips of her ears clearly more than human,
giving an impish look to her beautiful face.

"Tisha, I...I..." I burst into tears as my
arms reached out for Tisha and she ran to grasp my hands. Solomon
set my feet on the ground and I threw myself into an embrace with
her. "Tisha! I'm dreaming! I have to be dreaming!" I shook with
emotions that were beyond my comprehension. Every bit of my
apprehension and fear was poured into my voice. "Tisha, I don't
remember any of this! I don't remember coming here! How did we
get
here?" My voice shook as I began to waver and Solomon
swept me back up into his arms again. My chest heaved with a
stifling cry as the tears poured forward, releasing all of my
emotions in a furious torrent.

Tisha looked up at Solomon and spoke firmly.
"Take her to the castle. She must rest. She is in a delicate frame
of mind."

"What could be wrong with her?" Solomon
whispered as if I wasn't going to hear him. My tears continued to
flow as I shivered in his arms. "I'm concerned that something has
attacked her. What could have happened out here in the garden?" His
eyes darted around like he had just barely considered that there
could have been an attacker.

"Nothing has happened to her here." Tisha
rested her tiny hand on Solomon's bulging bicep. "She has had a
flash—I'm positive." She waved backwards as she turned to run in
the opposite direction. "Do as I say and take her to her bed. She
must lie down. I will be there shortly with my tools." She
disappeared in a flash and Solomon looked down at me as if he
didn't know what to do. He was at a loss, and so was I.

——————————

I was soon lying in my bed in a huge room
with beach colors scattered throughout. The room looked like it
belonged in my dear Gull Cottage. It wasn't like Gull Cottage could
have housed a room this size, but it contained the same color
scheme and the same style of decor. I was breathing slowly and
trying to calm myself with the thoughts of how much I adored my new
room and the memories of my dear little beach house. I looked up
from my huge bed to look at the canopy above me, covered with a
flowing fabric meant to mimic the sky over the ocean.

Solomon was pacing back and forth by the
bed, and it only served to make me feel anxious. He would pause
sometimes to smile down at me, pat me on the hand, and then he
would take his pacing back up to wear a path in the stone floor. My
eyes followed his pacing, and it stimulated my active mind again.
Solomon was here, with me, and he still loved me. There was nothing
wrong with that. Nothing at all.

The door opened slowly and Solomon snapped
to attention next to the bed, sighing deeply as Tisha entered, her
hands full of books. I eyed the books suspiciously as she walked
closer towards us, nodding at me like she knew exactly what was
wrong with me. I wanted to sigh too, until my eyes scanned the
books in her arms—they were photo albums. My heart skipped a beat
as she set them beside me on the bed and took a seat next to them.
She leaned forward and laid her hand on my forehead like she was
taking my temperature. Happy with what she felt, she sat back and
laid her hands formally in her lap.

Looking down at the albums she asked, "What
do you remember, Celeste?"

My heart sped up as I realized what she was
asking. "Do you mean my dream?"

Tisha shook her head and looked me square in
the eyes, searching deeply in my left eye like she was always known
to do. She was looking for the truth, and she was always able to
drag it up by looking in the one eye. She was absolutely unique
that way, but I was accustomed to her little quirks and it didn't
bother me. She leaned backwards and asked again, "What do you
remember
last
? Not your dreams."

I licked my lips and shrugged. "I remember
being at Leo's castle and being attacked by Maximilian and his
shadow demons."

Solomon hissed as if he was in pain, but I
refused to look away from Tisha. She smiled encouragingly at me as
if it weren't a big deal, and I should ignore Solomon's little
outburst.

"Go on." She smiled reassuringly.

"I remember Camela dying and my anger
getting the best of me." I was beginning to worry that Tisha was
judging me for my actions. "I remember attacking the shadow demons
and Maximilian." Tisha nodded again, pushing me on to confide in
her. "And I remember thinking that I needed to get us out of there,
away from the shadow demons that were trying to attack and hurt
Cora and me. I had to protect all of us." I looked down at my hands
guiltily. I felt like I had brought this all down on myself.

"Okay." Tisha nodded as she grasped one of
the photo albums. "This is going to be strange. Please look at
these pictures and tell me if you recollect any of these events."
She pushed the album towards me slowly and I looked at it as if it
were poisonous. My eyes darted up to Tisha and she winked
confidently, with a tilt of her head added for effect. "You can do
this."

I looked down at the leather cover that read
"Family Photos" and reached out to it with a quivering hand. Laying
my hand flat on the cover, my fingers slowly wrapped around the
edges of the album. The leather felt cold and the edges sharp. My
mind was imagining that this was a dangerous piece of torture
equipment. It may not have been too far off of the mark.

Closing my eyes, I flipped the cover open
and looked down at pictures that I didn't and
couldn't
remember. Cora in Leo's arms as a baby with him beaming out at the
camera, Cora with Gabriel as he held her stiffly and looked
uncomfortable, Cora in a beautiful little frilly dress as a baby,
Cora on the back of a horse as a toddler. I didn't recall any of
these pictures. I turned the page to see more images of Cora with
each father in different phases and points in her life. I flipped
page after page, slowly at first and then frantically at the end.
Nothing! I shook my head as I looked up at Tisha with tears in my
eyes.

"That's okay." Tisha smiled at me sweetly.
"What about these?" She pushed a new album towards me and I opened
it up to see pictures of Cora and me smiling back at the camera. I
was beaming with motherly love down at Cora wrapped up as a baby in
my arms. Another was of me holding Cora around nine months old on
my knee, trying to feed her a bottle. Another was of Cora taking
her first steps towards me, Solomon standing in the background,
grinning down like a sap. I flipped the page and saw more images,
heartbreakingly sweet memories that I had no recollection of. Cora
running into my arms, Cora walking on the beach as she held my hand
around four years old, Cora posing in a ballerina outfit leaning
against my leg as I had my hand gently on her shoulder and smiled
down at her as lovingly as possible.
This can't be
happening!

Tears welled up in my eyes again, which was
a fearsome thing since I was positive that I had cried as much as I
ever could in one day.

"What does it mean?" My shoulders shook with
the emotions filling my soul. "What could this possibly mean?!" I
threw my head back and yelled up at the canopy over my bed,
"WHY?!"

Tisha was making gentle shushing noises as
she pushed the photo albums to the end of the bed, throwing her
arms around me. "Shhhh, it's okay, it's okay..." Her voice was firm
and her arms wrapped around me in comfort.

My body continued to shake with my sobs. I
didn't know when or how I was going to stop crying.

"Mortisha, what in the world is wrong? What
has happened?" Solomon's voice washed over me with concern. I knew
he was staring at my back, which was now turned away from him. I
could feel his eyes drilling into me, trying to find a way to fix
me as if I were something mechanical that he had a chance of
repairing.

"I suspected that this day would come."
Tisha spoke over my head as my wailing continued to fill the air.
"It appears, and I only suspected that this may be the case, that
Celeste has been shifting through time."

My breath caught in my throat as if my sobs
had been stopped up by a cork. I gasped for breath as my head spun
and I pulled away from Tisha with a look of shock in my eyes. I
couldn't think, and therefore I was forgetting to breathe.

Tisha leaned in closer to me with a look of
concern, narrowing her eyes on my frozen expression. Pulling back
her arm in a wide arc, Tisha brought it back to my cheek in a
fierce SLAP!

"Breathe, dammit!" Tisha barked at me as I
gasped loudly, my lungs kicking back into gear with a sharp gasp.
Tisha's eyes went wide before she laid her now red palm against her
own chest. "Good. Breathing is good." She sighed exasperatedly at
me.
Well, no duh!