Lilith (19 page)

In the center of the room was a large ornately carved island. The white paint was cracked and
chipped. The metal handles worn by use and time. Everywhere around us was beauty. Old and forgotten mixed with the new and lush. I peeked through the glass windows out into the green house.

Sun streamed in through the mixed glass roof. Tables and dressers were covered with metal pots and ceramic flower boxes. Drawers filled with earth and flowers, herbs growing from old pitchers and glass jars. It was everything you ever expected to find in a witches garden. Dry leaves covered the white washed wooden floor.

I couldn’t help but wonder how old the house was, with its mix of country cabin, and old Victorian home. It was a mash up of generations. Like the architect had slapped them all together. The green house was the most different. The walls made out of glass doors and windows, no two the same. All of them held together by flaked white paint peeling wood. It was gorgeous.

“Wow.” I whispered.

Pillar smiled. “I know it’s a little…overwhelming.”

She glanced at the ceilings and floors. I looked across from the kitchen into the dining room. Glass see through cabinets were on both sides of the carved ornate archway. Everything dripped with time, and the
markings of being well loved.

“It’s beautiful.” I said.

Rhi, Wes, and Dean stood in the center of the entryway and turned in circles taking it all in. I could see a spiral rod iron staircase past the dining room. I walked through and looked up. It led to a loft above the dining room.

I hadn’t noticed it when we
first walked inside my attention pulled from the living room to the long wall of windows off the kitchen. Bookcases surrounded the loft, and in the center of the high ceiling was a sky light. I walked up the metal stairs unable to stop myself from exploring.

“Pacey.” Dean hissed in warning, but I didn’t stop.

If Pillar had wanted me to, she would have told me. The center of the loft was filled with large leather chairs and low coffee tables. Books spread across the tops. Some were open to marked pages, teacups in stacks at their side.

I sucked in a breath of surprise when I realized I wasn’t alone. A dark skinned man sat in one of t
he leather chairs, a teacup in one hand and book in the other. All around him, bright white light shimmered and danced. A pair of glasses covered his bright glittering green eyes. He wore a white button up shirt and jacket with dark pants.

“Oh I’m sorry.” I said in embarrassment.

He smiled and closed the book with a snap.

“Not to worry love, I was just leaving.” He set down the book and the
teacup and stood.

He was at least a foot and a half taller than I was. I stumbled back a step and he caught my wrist.

“Careful.” He whispered.

His voice was deep and rich, a
strange accent lighting his words. He dropped my wrist and walked gracefully down the steps. A cry of surprise rang up to me from Rhi.

“Hot damn, who are you?” She teased.

I shook my head and followed him down the stairs. Pillar wore a look of surprise when she saw her other visitor.

“Gideon?” She said.

He nodded once in her direction then walked through the French doors out to the green house. He disappeared through a glass doorway and was gone.

“Uhh who was that?” Rhi said with a smile.

Wes stared at her with worry. The stranger intrigued her, and I couldn’t really blame her. He was gorgeous.

“That was Gideon.” Pillar said.

Pillar walked into the kitchen and started pulling stuff from the drawers and cupboards. She tossed a thick leather bound book onto the table with a thump. She opened it to an important passage. The pages were so thick it wouldn’t close all the way.

She took out a long silver knife to weigh down one side and
a thick ceramic bowl for the other. I didn’t know how she could see anything on the browned pages. Leaves pressed into the edges and detailed drawings mixed with the writing.

Pillar
took a similar branch from a nearby jar and placed it in the bowl.

“Finger.” She snapped and held her hand out to me.

I extended my own and jumped when she stabbed my index finger with the knife. Three drops of blood dripped on top of the plant. She let go of my hand and hummed to herself while she ground the blood and dry leaf together.

“So…” I said, not sure what to say.

Pillar grunted. “He’s not important.”

“Is he you’re friend…boyfriend?” I asked. He definitely wasn’t
a relative. No one sane looked at their family the way she looked at him.

Rhi snorted and Pillars narrowed eyes flew to her. Rhi dropped her own and took a seat at the table. Wes and Dean joined her.

“No, and no. He’s neither.” Pillar said.

That was interesting, a man, a very handsome one at that, was in her house when she came home, and he wasn’t her friend or her boyfriend.

“He’s not your business. It doesn’t matter.” The green light that had been surrounding her all day sizzled. She was angry. At him or me, was anyone’s guess so I dropped it. She ground the leaf vigorously together with my blood and pulled out two similar round mirrors.

“The ritual itself is pretty basic,
blood, and oath, sealed with protection. When I start the circle no one, come into it or leave it. It’s important we get this right the first time. Are you ready?” Pillar placed her hands loudly on the table and stared at the four of us.

I shrugged. “Sure.”

She drew a circle around her and me with salt. The bowl placed in the center of the floor in front of us the mirrors at its side. She lit the ingredients inside the bowl and hummed. The green light that surrounded her filled the circle. I felt the power sizzling against my skin. She spoke a series of words so quickly I couldn’t keep up. The green light tightened and got heavier around me. I felt like I couldn’t breathe.

“The names?” She prompted
and handed me the piece of paper.

I took a deep
useless breath and said. “Eve, Marrah, Akima, Sorah, Leriatte, Annah, Elizabeth…Patience.”

I felt the heat and power rise up around me. It swirled around
with the green light and flew into the mirrors. They glowed with bright white light. Pillar took the knife and grabbed my finger. This time I didn’t jump when she broke the skin. Two drops of blood fell onto each mirror. The piercing light intensified.

“Seal the mirrors with your power.” Pillar demanded.

I stared at her not understanding.

She closed her eyes in
annoyance and said. “Your spit…you have to spit on each mirror once.”

I grimaced and did as she instructed. The bright light flashed out once knocking me onto my butt and was gone. The heavy green power evaporated and swung back into pillar.
Her body shuddered when it hit her, her hair blowing out around her face like she was standing in the wind.

“Wow.” My three friends said in unison.

Pillar helped me to my feet then thrust the two hot mirrors into my hands. I glanced at my reflections in both. There was no blood or spit clinging to them.

“They belong to you now. No one can use them agai
nst you. When it’s time for you to
travel
call Charlie. I shouldn’t have made them for you, but I-I couldn’t just let you die.”

“What do you mean you shouldn’t
have?” I asked.

Pillar pressed a shaky hand to her forehead and took a deep breath. “Gideon being here changed things for me. I think he knew what I was doing. It was a warning. I can’t tell you anything else…only that you can’t repeat what happened here to anyone, or tell them about our town. Gideon is a creature of habit, old, grumpy, and intolerant, you break his
laws, and he will come after you. Be careful.”

A chill of fear
ran down my spine. “What is he?” I asked.

Pillar’s eyes widened in surprise. “I don’t know what you mean.” She lied.

“He was covered in white light the same way you are covered in green. Hell, all of those people in town were covered in something. What is this place?”

Pillar squeezed her eyes shut and then opened them. She started picking up the stuff she had used and threw it into drawers. When she picked up the bowl full of charred leaves and
blood, she tossed it into the sink. The sound of breaking glass followed and she stopped. Her shoulders bent.

“This place is our sanctuary away from you.”
Pillar glared at me, and then my friends.

“Humans have been persecuting
my kind for thousands of years.
Thou must not suffer a witch to live.
Does that ring any bells?”

My face paled. It was a quote from the bible.

Pillar shook her head and continued. “I can’t tell you what they are. It isn’t mine to tell. But you would be smart not to mention that little ability to anyone. Seeing our auras makes us targets and you…a weapon.”

Pillar
didn’t show us to the door, and I couldn’t blame her. She lived in a world outside of my own, a world full of magic and sorrow, and sadly persecution. We’d all learned about the Salem witch trials and the Spanish Inquisition in school. Innocent people murdered for being different, and not conforming to societal standards.

How many of them were people like her or the other people in her town. How many of them were something else we were
too scared of or intimidated by to accept. Witches, fairies, whatever they were, didn’t really matter. They needed to be protected at all costs. I had a funny feeling if my mouth got a little to open, that cost might just be my friends and me.

Chapter Twenty

The Otherside

I had to go into a natural body of water. The only problem was it was cold outside and October was nearly over. Living so near the ocean hadn’t toughened me at all. I didn’t go in the water. I would lay by it, or look at it, but that was it. The idea of seaweed and sharks cured any need I had to swim.

The nearest body of water outside of the ocean was either a river or lake. I had
my pick of creeks nearby, so I chose Culliver. Hoping the water wasn’t disgusting or cold. I probably would have had better luck wishing for it to rain gold.

Once I was deep enough into the water. I was supposed to say
three words in welsh.
Mont da Annwn.
Charlie said it meant to go to Annwn. Annwn was the Welsh word for The Otherside. A sort of otherworld that consisted of heaven and hell combined.

The idea of going to hell with a magic mirror by invoking a body of water…was terrifying. What if I couldn’t get back? What if I got there and I got hurt?

There were far too many ways going there could go wrong. I had to leave one of my mirrors behind as a marker so I could return. If anything happened to it, God knew what would happen to me on The Otherside.

Charlie thought that once I went over, I’d be able to find Lilith pretty easily. But there was no map and no way of knowing how long it would take. She said The Otherside shifted
constantly. What was in one place the first time you went by could easily move around when you went back? Making it impossible to navigate if you didn’t know where you were going.

The worst part was I had to go alone. No one who actually knew what they were doing was willing to risk it. Dean offered but my mirror could only take me. Pillar hadn’t said anything about being able to take a guest with me.

I spoke to Charlie for hours on the phone, going over pages and pages of data to help me find Lilith’s cave. She said my shared gift would help me. The blood blade would sense my desires and I’d end up exactly where I needed to be.

She had faith in everything working out the way
it should, but I wasn’t so sure. So far, it had all been a little too easy, and I hadn’t heard from Lilith in almost a week. I couldn’t seem to shake the feeling that something was wrong. She’d had countless opportunities to derail me. The knife theft was a prime example, and yet it was all silent on the western front. That silence, after so much death and blood, was creepy.

“Dad.” I yelled as I
marched down the stairs trying to stop the thoughts that kept pressing against my mind.

I didn’t want to think about Lilith’s lack of action and what it meant. I wanted to pretend that everything was going to work out the way Charlie was so positive it would.

I had an hour before Dean showed up to take me to the creek. Rhi and Wes were going to meet us there in Rhi’s car, giving Dean, and me some much-needed privacy. We’d been doing everything together lately, like the trip to Cal Poly, and then Concord.

“Dad.” I said a
gain.

He wasn’t in the living room or kitchen. I walked out the back door and heard
him working in the garage. Ever since his break up with Bridget, he’d been spending all of his time out there. I didn’t want to feel responsible, but I somehow did. He was lonely and broken, and I was going somewhere I may not be able to return from.

I wanted to tell him I was sorry about Bridget, even if I hated her and what he’d done. I wanted to tell him about Lilith. I couldn’t tell him so many things without putting him, my friends, and myself in further danger.

I felt alone.

“Dad.” I said from the garage doorway.

He shut off the table saw and turned to meet my eyes. “Hey Pacey, what are you up too today?”

I forced myself to
smile and the nausea back down. I was not going to throw up everywhere and blow my cover. I had to play it cool.

“We
, we’re going to study at Wes’s and then maybe go hiking.”

The cover was that if anything happened to me, they could say I fell into the water and never came up. That way I didn’t just disappear on my dad, that way, maybe he could move on if something did happen. I shoved the negative thought from my mind.

“I didn’t think you guys were into that outdoorsy stuff.” He said.

I laughed but it sounded empty.

“You okay Pacey. If something’s going on you can tell I’ll do whatever I can to help you honey. You know that right?”

“I’m fine. I’m hoping to get caught up on school work so I can go back in a week or so.”

My dad’s face brightened. “That’s excellent. You still have another semester of senior year; I’m sure you can catch up and do extra credit or something. You have to think about the future.”

“Yea.” I agreed.

I closed the distance between us and wrapped my arms around him. I breathed in his familiar smell and felt my heart squeeze with pain.

“I love you daddy.”

His arms slipped around me and he rested his chin on my forehead. “I meant what I said, you can tell me anything.”

I released him and swallowed back my tears. “I know. But I really am okay.” The lie tasted bitter.

His face glowed with concern and suspicion but he didn’t call me on it. I walked out of the garage without looking back. The time for words was over, only actions were left.

We drove to Culliver Creek in silence. I sat in the middle seat of Dean’s truck. The loud hum of the engine the only sound to fill the space. Dean’s hand held mine so tightly my bones were rubbing together, but I couldn’t complain. I didn’t want him to let go either.

Fear is a strange thing. It’s like a passenger you take with you, the ugly voice in your head that whispers all of the horrible things that can go wrong. Fear sat beside me in that truck. It’s cold icy hand clutching tight to mine. I couldn’t ignore it any more than I could if it were a real person. I only hoped my fear didn’t keep me from doing what was necessary.

Wes and Rhi were already waiting for us when we drove up. Dean parked the truck and pulled me into his arms. I sat on his lap and turned to face him.

“I love you.” I lowered my lips to his and kissed him harshly on the mouth.

Our teeth clanked together as our mouths opened and tongues explored. I could taste the bittersweet flavor of fear on my tongue. The kiss went on for a long time. Our mouths moving with the words we couldn’t seem to say. I was terrified that it might be the last time I ever saw him.

Dean drew back and peppered my face with whisper soft kisses. My heart slowed as his hands caressed my back and shoulders. I leaned my head against his chest. I didn’t want to leave.

“I love you.” His voice broke. “I hate that I’m not coming with you.”

He kissed the top of my head. Rhi was making choking motions through the window. I sighed and jumped from his lap.

“I guess
it’s time to get started.” I slipped across the seat but Dean grabbed my hand to stop me.

“Give me the other mirror.” He said.

I pulled one round mirror from my backpack and held it out to him. Inside was a spare pair of clothes, food, and water bottles. The blood blade was in a front pocket. I left my cell phone at home. It wouldn’t survive the journey, not to mention it probably wouldn’t work in The Otherside anyways.

Dean took the mirror gingerly in his hands.

“Didn’t Charlie say we might be able to use it to communicate?” He asked.

I shrugged. Inside a Ziploc bag, I had lots of notes explaining lots of things I didn’t understand. Using the mirror as a type of telephone was among them. I wasn’t a witch and neither was Dean. But just in case I
was stuck there, the notes were in the backpack, witch or not.

“I don’t know, we’ll see.” I said.

He cradled the mirror to his body then slipped it inside his front pocket. I could feel the tears rushing to the surface. I was so scared. Leaving Dean behind felt like dying. I didn’t think I could breathe without him nearby, and now a whole world would be between us.

Dean ran his hands up my arms to quiet the goose bumps covering my flesh.

Rhi knocked on the truck door. “Are we gonna do this or not?”

She was being impatient. Wes stood behind her shaking his head. He’d probably told her to back off, which obviously hadn’t worked.
Rhi had about as much self-control as a foodie at a cake and donut convention.

I took a deep breath and jumped out of the truck.
It was time. It didn’t matter what Lilith had planned for me when I crossed over. It was go time; no excuse I had to procrastinate longer mattered anymore. I hooked my backpack over one shoulder and walked towards the water. It was brown and moving quicker than I’d remembered. The recent rain hadn’t helped the clarity at all.

Dean took my hand and kissed it, then pulled me into a tight hug. Rhi and Wes followed behind him. Each one made my heart beat a little harder in my chest. I swallowed down the bile churning in my stomach.

“I hate this.” Dean hissed.

I pulled the mirror out with a shaky hand. “I know.”

“I’ll be here when you get back.” He promised.

I didn’t argue. Even when I knew that time moved differently in The Otherside than it did here. Charlie said it was different for everyone, if the Otherside wanted you it could make an hour crawl while weeks went by in the mortal world. She said at other times it could make the time speed up. An hour in the Otherside could be two minutes here.

Whatever happened to me was up to outside forces. What I wanted didn’t matter. The Otherside would choose for me. Having no control was almost as scary as travelling to another world alone…almost.

I waded into the water. The cold rose up my feet and spilled into my shoes. Its icy touch raising goose bumps on my skin.
I turned and faced Dean and my friends. Their faces were stark white with fear. They stared at me as I trudged deeper into the rushing water.

I held the mirror up as the water rose past my waist. This was insane. Why was I even doing
this? We didn’t even know if it would work. And if it did…tears sprung to my eyes. I looked into the mirror.

“
Mont da Annwn.” I said as a tear ran down my cheek.

The mirror started glowing, and the wa
ter around me began to heat. Bubbles rose out of the rushing water and froth covered its surface. A perfect glowing circle surrounded me. I met Deans eyes. The others stared at the water but Dean only stared at me. I mouthed
I love you.
He whispered it back. I took a deep breath and plunged beneath the surface.

This was the tricky part. Charlie said that submerging myself should pass me through, but the water just kept heating and a strange tug pulled at the center of my
stomach. It was an unnatural feeling, like being sucked down by the inside of your body. I fought against it but the pull just drew me deeper.

I swallowed a mouthful of foul hot water. It was too murky to see anything even with the strange glowing light.
A moment later, the tug was gone. I jumped for the surface of the water, the mirror clutched tightly in my dripping hand.

I wiped away the moisture from my eyes and looked around
coughing. The forest surrounding me was entirely different. The water was a glowing pink, and the trees a dark neon green. Their branches were eerie and skeletal, reaching out with mocking fingers. The sky above me was a dark vibrant purple.

It was
dreamlike.

Lathered with bright unearthly colors. Even the blossoms looked alive and deadly. I just knew behind their perfect pristine petals teeth lurked.
I heard birds squawking in the distance and turned to find them resting in the trees. They had enormous orange bodies covered in scales. Their wings looked papery and delicate, but I had a feeling they were anything but. They had long sharp talons and saw edged beaks.

My eyes passed over both sides of the shore
, I didn’t want to go anywhere near the birds. Their bright yellow eyes followed me as I moved. I felt something slither across my leg and I jumped. Two glowing eyes were looking up through the water.

I screamed and swam towards shore.
The birds weren’t my only problem. A long iridescent tail flicked out of the water. I shrieked again and crawled on hands and knees out of the water. The sand was warm under my fingers. I lay across it and rested my cold face on its wonderful heat.
Now what?
I hadn’t actually thought it would work. But the purple horizon and pink water was a dead giveaway.

My shoes were soaked. I pulled them off and studied my surroundings.
There were no buildings, but the forest was thicker than the one I’d come from. I glanced back at the pink water and looked for the glowing eyes. The water trickled by quietly, its pink alluring water a mask to hide the horrors that lay beneath. At least the trees weren’t like that, one look at them and you knew not to get close.