After the Summerland (The Witches of Spring Hill Book 1) (29 page)

After skimming through
most of the entries, everything becomes clear and Marcus realizes that killing
Selene Silvan may just be a temporary solution.

Selene paces the living
room. She drove home excited at the power she discovered on the land. She’s not sure
whether it was the land alone or the magic from the circle she cast earlier
that gave her such power, but either way she barely moved toward Peter when she
felt his heart pounding in her hand. So much bravado, yet so much fear. It was
as easy as thinking about stopping his heart and he fell to the ground
clutching his chest. It was incredible!

She wishes she would have grabbed the
envelope with the evidence against her, but she knows that he probably has it
stored on a hard drive somewhere anyway. She knows Marcus and Liam are going to
come after her, and she can’t wait for them to arrive. She was furious when she
discovered that someone had been in her circle and burned her spell casting
tools.

She was most disturbed that
the key was missing, her last tie to her brother, Michael. She knew it was
Brianna, though she had no idea how she would have known about the key to her
brother’s book… unless Brianna has the book. As she paces the room, she
wonders again what is in that book and decides she has to go back up now,
before they have an opportunity to build their strength against her.

She can’t
wait to feel the same rush of power that she felt earlier. As she grabs her car
keys, she hears a vehicle pull into the driveway. She is shocked as she watches
Marcus Alexander make his way toward her front door. She smiles wickedly in
delight as she may have just found her way into the Alexander house.

Marcus checks again to
make sure the amulet he found inside the journal is tucked securely under his
shirt. Satisfied that Selene won’t know it’s there, he knocks on the front
door. When she opens the door, the look on her face is so smug that he can’t
help but look forward to the end of this conversation.

“Selene,” he says as he
steps through the doorway.

“Marcus,” she responds,
stepping aside for him.

“I won’t beat around
the bush. I know your history. I know who you are and I know what you want.
But, I have to say, Selene, you’re going about it all the wrong way.”

“And just what do you
think you know, Marcus?” Selene asks. “Because however you came across your
information, I’m sure your source cannot be completely trusted. Which I guess
you already know since you’re here. Am I right?” she asks smirking.

“Selene, I know you are
the reincarnation of John Scott, the brother of Abigail, Isabelle, and Cora
Scott. I also know that you think you have the right to the Scott property
because of that.”

“Well, I’ll give you
that — it seems you
do
know who I am,
or who I
was
. But do you know what
happened to John Scott and how I came to know of him? Do you know what kind of
life he had after your great grandfather sent him away?

When Marcus doesn’t
reply, Selene continues, “Let me enlighten you, Marcus. John Scott was just an
innocent baby when your grandfather decided that having a male witch in Spring
Hill would be too much of a challenge. He feared that John would become too
strong and would become competition against
you
.
God forbid someone other than an Alexander is chief of police. So rather than doing
the right thing and keeping all of them together, Aldo took John to live with a
woman that he read about in one of the Scott’s old journals.

When he got to the
woman’s house, he saw the filth the woman was living in. He saw there wasn’t
enough food for this woman, let alone a growing baby. He saw the poverty and knew
what kind of life John would grow up to have, but Aldo still left him. Left him
to grow up isolated in an old farmhouse with a woman who was shunned from the
community because she was suspected of being a witch.

The old woman tried to
raise him the best she could, but without any means, how could she give him
anything? Other than what she knew. So instead of sending him to school, she
taught him magic and forced him to work the farm. From a young age, he worked
the land during the day, planting and growing food so there was something to eat on
the table. Since people in town didn’t know him, whatever they didn’t
eat, he brought to sell to the townspeople, who bought up everything.

For a
short time, things were good for John. He excelled at the craft. His abilities
manifested early and he had no conscience so he manipulated people to get what
he wanted. Until the fateful day he met a witch who was more powerful than him.
John made the mistake of thinking he was stronger and when he challenged her,
he lost and died at the age of 19 years old. The witch he met? That was my
mother.

She was young and
strong and she saw what John was capable of and she wanted it for herself. She
had no trouble killing him and cast a spell so he would reincarnate at the same
place he died. When the baby, me, came, she took me in as her own and did past
life hypnosis in order to discover everything. At five years old, I was able to
tell her everything I remembered from John Scott’s life. In my vision, I saw him writing
in a journal.

My mother searched the old witch’s house until she found it,
filling in all the rest of the details that I couldn’t. Fortunately, the witch also kept a journal and my mother
discovered detailed information about your grandfather, Aldo. It seems
the witch was doing her own research, but unfortunately for her, my mother had
to kill her when she discovered she was making plans of her own for the
property that rightfully belonged to me.

Your grandfather decided
the fate for John Scott — something he had no right to do! Do you have any idea
how much John struggled and how hard his life was? I learned that I was his reincarnation
and was destined for the same life — all because you altered my path, my
destiny.

In reading the journals, we learned of the Alexanders, who are the
protectors of the Scotts. My mother came to Spring Hill to ask for financial help,
but when she got here, your dad, Peter, pushed her away. She came to town to
ask for help for
me
, but he literally pushed her ou the door.

When Peter saw my
brother, Michael, he took a special interest in him. Maybe he was trying to
redeem himself for what he did to John or he wanted to punish me further, but
he went out of his way to get Michael away from us. He sent him some money to
move to California, helped him find a job, and made sure he was taken care of.
I would have loved to know why he did that, but I guess it’s too late for that
…” Selene shrugs.

“He did it because
Abigail Scott had a vision. She saw your mother coming and she told him to
protect the boy at all costs,” Marcus says, filling in the blank for her.

“How do you know that?”
Selene snaps.

“Both my dad and
granddad kept a journal about everything from the day Aldo met the Scotts to
the day you broke into his house using magic. You filled in a lot of blanks for
me, so I’m returning the favor by telling you that.”

“Oh, Aunt Abigail…Well,
I guess I know where Cian got his ability from — but why the hell wouldn’t she
protect me?” Selene asks angrily.

“Selene, she knew you
were the reincarnation of her brother. She saw it in her vision, but she also
saw you followed a dark path. John would have been good, like them.
You
control your own destiny, Selene.
You didn’t have to practice black magic. You could have sought out a white
witch, someone to break the spell around you — and I have to say, it might not
be too late.”

“Why would I do that,
Marcus? I like my powers and I am about to become a lot stronger, thanks to my
niece and nephews and of course, your grandkids. You see, your grandfather sent
John away, taking away his birthright. Your dad sent away my mom, taking away
my birthright, and now, you are trying to get rid of me. But guess what? I’m
not going anywhere. I know the truth and I know what my powers can do, so you
can’t push me away so easily. Your family set up this course of action leading
to this moment. That is my land, my house, my birthright and I want it back!”

Selene throws out her
hand as if to cast a spell and is suddenly thrown backward.

“You don’t really think
I would come in here without protection, do you, Selene? We are asking you to
leave peacefully — with a vow not to return. If you don’t agree to leave, we
will kill you… simple as that. I’ll give you until the end of the day to
decide. I’ll be back in the morning. If you are still here, well, then you have
sealed your own fate once again, Selene. Goodbye for now.”

Marcus walks out the
door without looking back. He can feel eyes on the back of his head and his
knees tremble in fear. He knows that he just threw down the gauntlet to Selene,
and he also knows she will react just as he expected her to when he came here
today. He knows she won’t leave and now it is time to prepare his family for
battle.

Marcus arrives back at
the house to find everyone in the kitchen. With Peter gone, Marcus is the
patriarch of the family and it falls on him to tell his family what he has
learned. The secrets that Aldo and Peter kept and the lies they told could have
destroyed his family. Marcus looks around the room, sees the family dynamic has
changed and now his desire to protect his family includes the three Silvan
kids. He can’t help but wonder if Abigail Scott’s order to protect Michael
Silvan was not for Michael’s sake, but rather for his children.

He looks at Xavier and
Cian sitting close to Brianna, whose arms are wrapped in gauze up to her
elbows. When Marcus asks what happened, Kaiden is the one to speak up. He
explains that Brianna was burned from the energy within a circle cast at
Selene’s house and although Xavier and Cian have been trying to heal her,
nothing is working.

Marcus attempts to make
eye contact with Liam, but before he can, Chloe clears her throat, “I think we
should go to the clearing and cast the healing spell for Brianna,” she says to Cian
with obvious concern.

“Did you have a vision,
Chloe?” Kaiden asks.

“I can feel the energy
of the land, drawing me there…please, can we just go?” Chloe asks, getting
more agitated as each second passes.

“I’m not sure if that’s
a good idea, Chloe… not with Selene out there,” Liam says.

“We all have to go now
or there won’t be time!” Chloe replies, frustrated that her dad isn’t hearing the
urgency in her voice.

“Time for what?” Rowan
asks. When Chloe doesn’t respond, Rowan grabs her arm and asks again, “Time for
WHAT, Chloe?”

Chloe pulls away from
her sister and grabs the journals from Grandpa Marcus, and before he can react,
Chloe hands Rowan the books and tells her, “Go put these with the other books,
Rowan.” To her grandfather, she says, “Those journals should be with the family
history and at some point there will have to be a conversation about them, but
right now, we can keep them safe with the rest of the books.”

“How did you…?” Marcus starts and then realizes that his
granddaughter’s abilities are much stronger than he thought.

Cian looks at Chloe,
who has clearly had some kind of vision and is reacting to what she saw. He thinks
again of the image he had of the two of them when they were old. Suddenly, he
is moved to action to make sure everyone else will survive the night. He stands
up abruptly, knocking his chair over, “Kaiden, grab the bag that you used at
the clearing. Brianna, are you going to be okay to walk down there?” Brianna
nods, and carefully stands up from the table. “Xavier, you want to start
walking with Brianna back to the clearing?”

Xavier nods and says, “C’mon,
Brianna. Let’s go.”

Brianna cautiously
steps out the door, holding her arms close to her body, careful not to touch
anything.

Cian thinks about how
his healing spell isn’t working on Brianna and it occurs to him that whatever
is going to go down has started. Selene has opened up a gate and things are about
to take a turn for the worse.

Cian moves around the
table and stands next to Chloe. In a low voice, he says, “I can feel something
has started.” She looks up at him and nods, “We don’t have much time, Cian.” He
looks out at Xavier and Brianna moving slowly in the garden, and sees dark
storm clouds rolling in overhead.

He leans in for a quick kiss and assures her
that everything will be okay. “Let’s just get everyone down there and go from
there. Have you seen anything?” She nods and gives him a kiss and hopes that
she passed the images in her mind to him.

He pulls away, holds
her at arm’s length, nods, and darts out the door, running to catch up with
Xavier and Brianna. As soon as they pass through the garden, thunder cracks
overhead and the wind whips the leaves around the yard. Chloe stands at the
window watching Cian make his way toward them and to the clearing.

Liam stands next to her
watching the weather worsen. “Is it really a good idea to send them back to the
clearing first? Alone?” he asks. Just then, thunder rumbles overhead and
lightning cracks in the sky. “God, I can’t ever remember a storm moving in this
fast. It’s magic, isn’t it?” he asks Chloe.

“Don’t worry, Dad,”
Chloe says distractedly, focusing on the backyard where Cian stepped through to
the woods and is no longer in sight.

“It’s time to go. Rowan
and Kaiden, you stay behind me. Where’s Rowan?” she says turning from the
window, noticing she hasn’t returned.

“I’m here,” Rowan says,
stepping into the kitchen. Chloe nods at her and looks to Liam and Marcus and
says, “Dad and Grandpa, you stay behind them. When we step into the clearing,
wait for us to control our energy before following. The clearing is very
powerful with all six of us inside. This is not like the night you told us about
our legacy,” Chloe says, a sad look crossing her face as she thinks of GG
Peter. Even with all the secrets, she knows he was only doing it to protect
them. “Once inside, we need you to stand at the entrance. You’ll know when it’s
time to come in the circle,” she says smiling at her dad and grandfather. She’s
taking charge just as her vision guided her.