The Moonstone (Enchantment Book 1) (7 page)

“Oh, I know, but Nathan loved it! I gave it to him as a gift, but when I erased his memories of us, I had to take it back in order to completely wipe me from his life. Gisèle and Charles, however, do have a penchant for flashy cars and the new ones are much too showy.”

“And a woman of your age at the wheel of an SS, that won’t be noticeable at all!” I can’t help but say.

“That’s why it stays in the garage. However, I do like to polish it, it’s my way of keeping him close to me.”

I hope someday to have an unconditional love like hers, to be ready to lose everything for one person. I can’t help but admire Gertrude for having sacrificed everything to save the life of the man she loved.

“Ok, enough dreaming, get in. We’re on our way to your destiny, my dear and tonight is the first night of your new life. It’s getting close to midnight and we need to move quickly.”

Gertrude takes a smart phone out of the pocket of the brown cape that covers her shoulders and sends someone a text message. The scene feels so odd that I feel as if I’m witnessing an anachronism.

“What? You think that only humans get to use them? I would love to have the power of telepathy, but sadly all I can do is change into animals.”

“It’s rather watching a woman of your age behave like you do that stuns me.”

“Appearances are deceiving, actually. I’m only in my middle age. I’ve texted Charles to let him know that we’re on our way. We’re going to his house by the lake. It’s gorgeous, you’ll see.”

The car starts up like a charm and Gertrude can’t help but grin. She takes the country roads and I admire the fields, crops swaying in the wind on this summer night. The stars and the moon give a mystical feel to the countryside. I can feel the fresh air on my cheek as it comes through the half-open window. I close my eyes and I’m somewhere else, far…really far away and I forget all my cares and worries. My breather is but a short one, though, because a thousand questions come to mind. Maybe I should take advantage of our time alone in the car and get as much information out of her as I can. While I re-knot the bun that has unwound during the day, I take a deep breath and adopt a serious tone, cross my arms, frown and turn my gaze to Gertrude. “I find all this very strange…you buy a house near where I live by chance, I work at the same place as Gisèle. Are you telling me that this is all some sort of coincidence?”

Gertrude looks at me and grins before turning her eyes back to the road.

“Oh, little one, there’s no chance in any of this. Your mother had very precise visions about many things. She couldn’t figure everything out, but she did know exactly which family would adopt you from the orphanage, so for me it wasn’t hard to choose my house. When I was forced into a corner with regards to my banishment, I was happy to find this little house next to your future parents’ home. For Gisèle it was easy. When we noticed your strong penchant for books, she used her powers to become manager of the library. Anyways, she loves tranquility and silence, so it was the perfect place for her to work. You might have chosen to work elsewhere, but the great number of weekends spent in the shelves of books didn’t lie.”

“Wow! I feel as if my life were scripted! Where is free-will in all of this?”

“Nothing was scripted, everything happened the way it was supposed to happen. But, what will happen from here on out won’t leave a lot of room for free will, as you put it. I love you very much, Lou, and your mother sacrificed herself for what is to come; but despite everything, I’ll ask you one question, just this once and your precise answer will determine everything. I can make you forget the events of today and you’ll never again be in touch with the world of magic.”

She turns and stares at me, straight into my eyes as if she could somehow pull the answer or consent out through them, then she continues in a less convinced tone of voice.

“Or, in a few minutes you will complete the ritual and your fate will be sealed for eternity. What do you choose? And don’t worry about your mother, she was the one who made me promise to ask you the question and allow you the choice without compromise.”

I looked out the window at the moon and I suddenly remembered the book.

“But it’s already too late…the inscription in the book…”

“Yes, I know, no going back, but for that, the ritual must be completed. So, right now we can go to Charles’ and he will concoct a forgetfulness potion like I did for Nathan and all will go back exactly the way it was.”

At those words I feel a slight sense of burning in my chest, one short sentence, with such an impact. What should I do? Deep inside I know the answer, there’s no going back to my day-to-day life, always wishing for adventure. I want to live and I don’t want to be a spectator of my own life! I’m already an outsider in my normal life and I don’t want to be half of who I was either. I think about my mother who sacrificed her life for me and I know that I must accept this new reality. I turn to Gertrude and smile. A real sincere smile without sarcasm, and I steel myself to pronounce the words that will seal my destiny forever. At that moment, a grinding sound rings out. I turn my eyes to the road just in time to see a man standing a couple of feet in front of the car, his hand raised towards us. The Chevelle brakes suddenly and at the same moment the rear end of the car jumps up, causing the car to rollover.

Instinctively I yell, “Stop!!”

Instantly time literally stops. The car comes to a complete stop in its infernal descent, it’s nose almost perpendicular to the ground. My heart is pounding and I turn to see if Gertrude is hurt. Her hair is hanging to the ground and her hands are gripping the wheel.

“Gertrude, what’s going on?”

Touching a piece of her white hair, I realize that she is completely frozen. Did I cause that when I screamed? What should I do?

“The man! Maybe he did this,” I say, talking to nobody in particular.

I untie my seatbelt and manage to lean on the dashboard so as not to go through the front window. I need to find a way to get us both out of here. Inching towards Gertrude, I get in front of her, my back to the steering wheel. I lean into the frail old woman and I slowly untie her seatbelt. She falls onto me under the effect of gravity. She is much lighter than I would have expected. Or, maybe it’s my new physical capacities that make everything seem easier. Whatever the reason, I don’t have time to think about it; I need to get us out of here as fast as possible. I then take Gertrude on my shoulder like a sack of potatoes and I open the door. The step is high given the position of the car. Best is to do like when taking off a Band-Aid and do it all at once. I jump and land perfectly on my feet, as would a cat, Gertrude still on my shoulder. On the side of the road, I find a thick tree trunk to sit the woman up against. I then walk over to the man who is also frozen. The closer I get to him, the more surprised I am at his appearance. He has a curved back with a hump on his left side. His head hangs forward and one of his eyes bulges from its socket. He has greasy, curly salt and peppered hair and a toothless mouth. I get close enough to notice a disgusting smell emanating from the stranger, a mix of sewage and blue cheese…if it weren’t for the fact that I’m desperate to find out what’s going on, I would run away from this scene as fast as I possibly could. As I stare into the whites of his eyes, I see his pupil jump and move in my direction. It’s as unexpected as having a corpse move it its coffin. Everything else happens in a fraction of a second. The man grabs me by the arm and shoves me aside. He points to the car and shoots a translucent jet towards it. The shock wave that it produces halts the car in its path towards the ground. It raises the car into the air and gently deposits it on the ground, on all four wheels as easily as if it were a sheet of tissue paper, all that with one hand gesture. Gertrude gets up and stretches nonchalantly as if she were stepping out of a comfortable bed. The man answers in a voice filled with arrogance.

“There, I don’t owe you anything anymore Gertrude, I want you to leave me alone and never cross my path again. Forget my name, I’ve had enough of the magical world, I want to be forgotten, do you hear me?” He doesn’t wait for an answer and disappears into the bushes.

Gertrude runs towards me, almost skipping. Incredible, her energy level returned and I’m flabbergasted.

“Oh my God, my dear, I knew it! Ether, it’s so obvious,” she said with the excitement of a child in front of a pile of Christmas gifts.

“What are you talking about, and what just happened? And who was that grumpy, crazy old man?” I say as I lean on the hood of the car, still steaming from its magical encounter.

“The grumpy old man who just left is Ernest. He owed me a favor. His sign is Ether and his gift is telekinesis, he can move objects. I asked him to wait for us here and to cause an accident. That was the only way that I could uncover your gift in an accelerated way. The same sign as your mother, it’s wonderful, she would be so proud to find out!”

“So I was the one who stopped the car back there? I can do telekinesis as well? I moved a jar of peanut butter this morning just by thinking about it. And what would have happened if I had had another sign? We would have died in the accident! Are you completely nuts? If you have a death-wish, please leave me out of it!”

Gertrude approaches, her arms wide, I imagine she wants to comfort me, but for the moment it’s a little bizarre, she’s crazy.

“Relax dear, give me a chance to explain. You don’t have the gift of telekinesis, Lou, but something even better than that. The jar probably moved because you had just been looking at the book and sometimes that can mess with the energy that you give off. No, your gift is that you can stop time for a few moments, maybe even for a few minutes with practice. But don’t worry, if your sign hadn’t been Ether, Ernest would have been able to control the car. Although I have to say that once I saw the ground coming up at us, and the car started to rollover, the thought did occur to me that he might choose not to control it. Your gift to manipulate time gives you so many options! But, for now, it will take a lot of energy…that’s why you can’t yet do it on command.”

“But that was a little extreme, wouldn’t you could say?! I still have my heart in my throat! So, I’m like my mother? Does Ether give me other abilities?”

“As I told you, Ether is one of the rarest of signs and one of the most impressive. It will be a great advantage to you when you are at the training center as you will be able to create your own team, and that will help us later on, that’s for sure. Also, as a Moonchild and with your gifts, you will be very powerful. Those with Ether as a sign are holders of one of these four gifts: telekinesis like Ernest, clairvoyance like your mother, time-control like you and the last, which can be devastating when it falls into the wrong hands, manipulation. Those who have this ability often use it for nefarious purposes, so be wary of them. Each sign also controls a gift of attack that protects you, persuasion. It’s not like manipulation, as you can only influence people’s thoughts and you can’t control their actions.”

“Wow! I’ve a hard time believing that I’m now some kind of magician who can do all that!”

“Forget the word magician, magicians are charlatans. For the moment, your talents are still in the embryonic stage, but you’ll see, things will change quickly. As you weren’t able to grow up with the knowledge of your gifts and see them develop along with your physical development, they’re now already at their full strength, only dormant. Waking all this up so suddenly could be dangerous for you and you will need to learn to control your powers, that’s why we’re sending you to the warrior training that begins on Monday. It will be an accelerated course, a little like running full speed into a wall, but at least there you’ll be able to practice in a controlled environment. Ok, let’s go, I’m impatient to tell Charles I was right. I won the bet, and he owes me a meal. He predicted that given your love of nature, you would be of the Earth sign like him. Ha ha! I’m always right!”

“But hey, now that I think about it, I never packed my bags, I didn’t bring clothing for two weeks! We need to go back home!”

She walks towards the trunk of the car and opens it with a hop and with her arms crossed.

“I told you, I’m always right, and I knew that you would accept to follow me on this adventure. I thought of everything and I prepared a bag of all of your favorite things while you were sleeping today. That’s why you spotted me as Nyx when you woke up.”

“I should’ve known!”

“Yes, but honestly, with the day you had today, I doubted very much that you were going to dig through your closet to see if anything was missing. Come on, let’s go!”

I still don’t trust her and I can’t help but look in the bag to see if she did think of everything. Surprisingly, it’s all there, even an extra bottle of my violet-scented bubble bath. Resigned, I close the trunk of the car without looking at her, no need to show her she was right only to have her gloat, and I do have my pride. Gertrude happily laughs out loud and taps me on the head.

“Super,” I say, climbing into the car.

We continue our drive without another word and eventually turn on to a small dirt road bordered with dense vegetation. The air is humid and fresh, and its loamy scent makes me smile; I’ve always loved the smells of nature. The road is poorly kept up, and potholes dot the path like land mines. I’m afraid that the Chevelle might not be able to hold its own. At the wheel, Gertrude drives as if she was taking a bull by the horns and seems to be aiming for potholes as she goes along. The path finally opens up on a spectacular setting, and when I say spectacular, it’s a euphemism! I get out of the car, and am rendered so completely speechless that my chin hits the ground. A small lake surrounded by mountains is in front of us, and, if I can judge by the shadows, it seems isolated. The only house here is worthy of the best architectural magazines. It’s a two-story wooden house, is square and has floor to ceiling black-framed windows on two sides. Given the surrounding countryside, I can understand why the owner chose such large windows. Who needs walls and framed art when you have such an incredible view?