The Witch's Thief (12 page)

“I felt it earlier,” Basil admitted. “She must have tried to touch me.”

“There, there,” Sage said. “We will help you. Whatever must be done, we will do it.” To Basil, he said, “She is sobbing, poor girl. And I cannot hold her to offer any comfort. Never before have I felt so helpless!”

Basil agreed, although he was accustomed to feeling helpless against his own demons.

“What must be done? How is the curse lifted?”

Sage listened.

“A spell. The necromancer is seeking a spell and promises Julia that he will return Marianne’s spirit to her body when she finds it.” He paused. “He’s ordered Julia to search Merriweather Manor. She’s been searching for six months to no avail. She cannot find the correct spell.”

Basil nodded, remembering his father’s spellbook in the library. “So, that’s what she was looking for.”

“He says the spell must be found by the end of the full moon. He will not wait any longer. Why, that’s tomorrow night.”

“This explains her desperation,” Basil said. “Come, we must find Julia. We need to discuss what must be done.”

“Where do you think she has gone?”

“I have a suspicion she might have gone to the library. She was reading a spellbook there yesterday.”

“Let’s go,” Sage said.

When they arrived at the library, Basil could see clearly that Julia was no longer there. But, she had been.

The secret panel was, of course, opened. Three of his father’s books missing.

“Where would she take them?”

Sage listened, then let out a curse. “Marianne tells me she’s been communicating with the necromancer through the mirror in her room. It could be she means to bargain with him for her life, using the grimoires. Julia has not found the spell, but she worried she might have skipped a page. She’s been going over them every day for weeks.”

“If she means to pass them through the mirror…” Basil did not finish his thought. Instead, he ran from the room, daring to hope he could stop Julia in time.

Those books contained valuable, even dangerous, spells that could not be revealed to just any witch, and especially not a necromancer.

He raced for the stairs.

****

“Do you have what I seek?”

“Yes,” she lied. She hurried back to the bed, hefted the heavy grimoires back into her arms and waddled over to the mirror with them. “Here.”

Drake’s eyebrow rose. “You don’t know which one?”

“I haven’t the time to search thoroughly, but I am assured the spell you seek is in one of these grimoires. It must be. They were stashed away, hidden in a secret panel in the library. And they are old. Very old. Please, Drake,” she said, despising herself for the note of pleading in her voice. “I have no more time to search. I’ve been discovered. Please, you must release Marianne.”

“Give them to me,” Drake said.

“I don’t know the words,” she said. She hadn’t planned on using the portal. She hoped to have found the spell months ago and planned to travel to Drake’s castle to deliver it. She never traveled by mirror portal and preferred not to do so now, even to pass the books through.

However…

The pounding on the door heralded her urgency to overcome any uneasiness. The mirror portal was her only choice.

Basil was here.

Drake spoke the words, and Julia repeated them. The glass of the mirror vibrated, the waves rippling at a maddening rate.

A hand broke through the waves, large masculine fingers uncurled in her direction, seeking the books he desired. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

Was this a wise decision? Was this what she needed to do?

Julia could weep for uncertainty. She couldn’t trust Drake, but she dare not trust Basil either.

She was alone.

“Julia!” A man’s voice yelled from beyond the bedroom door, the pounding continued as he fought to gain entrance. The frame shook. It would only be moments before he broke in.

She handed the volumes over to Drake. Instead of grabbing the spellbooks, his hand grasped her arm and pulled.

****

He pounded on the solid door. Again and again, pausing only to listen to movement inside. At first he heard voices, but it grew silent, and the gnawing worry in his belly grew.

If Julia came to harm…

Basil needed to protect her. Every fiber in his being told him that. And once he held her in his arms again, he did not intend to ever let her go. He was a fool to abandon her all those years ago.

“Julia, open the door!”

Sage skidded to a stop behind him. “Back away,” he said and pushed Basil away from the door. Then Sage grasped the doorknob, closed his eyes and whispered an unlocking spell. When he turned his hand, the door opened. He looked at Basil with a smile. “You never could unlock a door like me.”

Basil thanked him, then unceremoniously pushed him aside. He stopped just at the threshold.

Julia stood in front of a full-length mirror, grasping a protruding hand. She caught a glimpse of him before the man on the other side yanked her through the portal.

“No! Julia!”

Basil rushed to the mirror, but was too late. She was gone. However, the portal remained open, and he wasted no time in throwing himself into it.

There was no thought in his head other than to save Julia.

“Basil!” He heard Sage’s frantic yell as he tumbled through the portal.

He had a moment as he flung himself through that if Reed were here, he’d never hear the end of it. It was not a painful passage, merely uncomfortable. His body stretched, as if his arms and legs were tugged by unseen forces and his torso by another. In the space of two heartbeats, he found entry on the other side of the mirror.

Basil stumbled forward, falling to the ground. He landed hard, his face smacking into stone floor. His body felt oddly disoriented from the passage. Though his brain screamed to launch to his feet, his arms and legs were slow to respond.

He heard male laughter at the same moment booted feet appeared within inches of his face.

“What have we here?” the man said, his voice amused. “I do believe, Miss Grey, he has come to rescue you.”

A chill ran through Basil’s spine. He knew that voice. It was as well known to him as his own.

“No,” Basil whispered, the grief in his heart too much to bear. “It cannot be.”

He rolled onto his back, his body still not ready to command more than this simple movement. And once he was there, looking up at the man’s face, Basil wished he had remained staring at the stone floor.

Although ten long years passed since he had last seen Drake, his appearance remained the same, save for the bit of gray acquired along his temples. His face was identical to his memory. His eyes, however, were different. A hardness was there he had never seen before, and Basil understood he looked into the eyes of a man he loved, but did not know. The once blue eyes, always twinkling with merriment, now dulled to an icy color. Cold, hard. There was anger, pain and despair in his gaze despite his chilling laughter.

“Greetings, brother,” Drake said. “Welcome home.”

Chapter Seven

Sage fell through the mirror portal seconds after Basil appeared. He stumbled over his brother, but had better balance, managing to stay afoot rather than fall to the ground.

“Ah, Sage,” Drake said, with an eerie smile. “So glad you’ve joined us.”

He whispered a few words, waved his hand toward his brother and Sage stilled.

Frozen. Unable to move. Bound in spell.

Julia shook with fury.

“This was not part of our bargain.” She stepped forward, kneeling beside Basil who continued to stare at his brother. He was shocked. He hadn’t known of his younger brother’s evil-doing, and she had hoped to protect him from the knowledge. Surely he’d never discover the truth if he hadn’t followed her through the portal.

If Drake hadn’t pulled her through…

“Drake.” Basil moved first his arms, then his legs. Julia helped him to his feet. “What have you done?”

“No time for a reunion, dear brother,” the necromancer said. “We’ve work to do, haven’t we, Julia?”

He whispered the words for the binding spell and cast it on Basil. Julia jumped when a shock of electricity sizzled up her arms from her contact with Basil. The spell hadn’t been cast on her, but she felt the effects of it.

Basil stood frozen, unable to move a muscle, unable to speak, even to blink. He was a human statue, able to breathe and live, but no more.

“No, Drake, release them. Send them back. You have what you need. They can do you no harm. Send them back!”

Drake leveled a dark look in her direction. She took a step back, away from him. His raven-colored hair shimmered in the light of the fire burning in the massive hearth where a cauldron hung with a strange bubbling brew. The bones of his face protruded sharply as the shadows played along his skin. The wildness in his gaze gave away the madness that hid within.

Julia barely recognized the Merriweather boy who used to follow Basil around the estate, like a puppy following his master. Drake used to be dedicated to his brothers, to his family. She used to laugh at his silly games, and admire his strong loyalty.

Now…

He was changed. A cruel metamorphosis. Tragedy had claimed him, the death of Susanna had morphed him from goodness and light to darkness and evil. Was redemption possible for such a man? Could he change back?

Julia doubted such a miracle was possible.

“You will help me find the correct formula,” he said, his voice a raspy growl more like an animal than a man. “After we’ve found the spell, I will honor our agreement.”

He turned away.

“Truly?” Doubt colored her voice. He turned back, and Julia saw his face soften somewhat. A glimmer of the man she used to know.

“I may have gone mad, Julia, but I still honor my promises.”

She had no choice but to believe him.

****

Basil’s arms stretched above him, his wrists bound and chained to a stone wall. He’d been in the Castle Blackmoor, which Drake had inherited years ago. He was in the dungeons, although from the look of it, they had been converted into a laboratory. He remembered Drake had always held a fascination with science and had often tried to blend it with his magic.

His earlier shock had numbed the pain in his heart at discovering his brother was the man manipulating Julia into stealing books that at one time Basil would have gladly handed over to Drake.

But, things had changed while he traveled across the world many miles away from England. Things had changed horribly.

“You were surprised,” Drake said. He sat on a bench, leaning over one of the Merriweather grimoires on a table, carefully scanning each page before turning to the next. “They did not tell you.”

It wasn’t a question, but Basil answered, his mouth clenching around the words.

“They did not.”

Drake’s mouth tightened. “I do not rank high among our family’s gossip mongering. However, I suspected you being the eldest would have been notified of your younger sibling’s mysterious deeds. Or did you not ask after me?”

Basil squeezed his eyes shut at the bitter pain in his brother’s voice. No, he had not asked after him, not any of them. He assumed in ignorance his siblings fared well and expected Sage or Aunt Petunia to send word of any trouble. As in the case of Lillian and Melora.

“You were not here to say farewell to Susanna.” The pain in Drake’s voice pierced Basil’s heart. With the mention of his wife’s name, pain flickered over his brother’s face. In a moment it was gone. “I expected you.”

“I…” What excuse could he give? Nothing he said could erase the pain in Drake’s heart. Basil had not been here when his brother needed him most. He lived with the knowledge of his failure. He should have been here. “I could not.”

“Even Sage, with his ever-present wanderlust, attended her funeral. Where were you?”

Basil shook his head. “It was too late. I received the missive far too late.”

“You should have come home anyway.”

“I…” Basil said, beginning to make the excuses he continued to ramble on in his mind. He stopped, shaking his head again. “Yes, I should have been here.”

And it was true. Wandering the world brought him no closer to any resolution for this disease he suffered. Here he was, ten years later, far longer than he dared admit he might live, and all of this time what had he done? Flitted across the world in search of a myth, a fairytale, a dream.

He should have stayed home. Married Julia, gave her children, and lived happily for at least ten years. Been here for his brother in his hour of need. He could have saved them all from so much pain.

But how was he to have known he’d live longer than a month? Belit’s Curse was vicious, sparing no one of tainted witch blood.

Basil clenched his fists, his nails biting into the palms of his hand. Clever Drake had bound them tightly with cloth before locking the manacles around his wrists and stringing him to the wall. He could not chance Basil using his powers to escape.

He cast a glance around the room, wishing he could see Julia and Sage. But, Drake had taken them away, separating them and effectively halting any chances for escape.

“What do you seek, Drake?” Basil turned to face his brother.

He thought of all Marianne and Julia had suffered in the last six months. He wondered how Julia managed on her own for so long, caring and protecting her sister, only to have Marianne ripped from her and cursed. He thought of the pain and fear she suffered, of the loneliness of not being able to ask for help.

His chest tightened, but he refused to think on her further. He feared he’d be unmanned by his emotions. And he could not give Drake any more of an advantage as he already possessed.

Drake paused in his reading, contemplating, considering. At last, he looked up. “I do not believe you will understand.”

“Perhaps, I might help you,” Basil suggested, deciding on another tactic. “We are brothers, after all. I should have been here to help before, I know. All I can say is…I ask for forgiveness. I never should have left. My pursuit has been useless. But, I am here now. I can help you.”

Drake stood, marking the page in the book with a piece of leather before walking stealthily towards the wall where he had chained Basil.