Spellbound (26 page)

“Hello, Serena,” he said, when he reached me. His voice matched his outer beauty, warm and welcoming.

“Hello, Skylar. Thank you for coming.”

“No. It’s me who should be thanking you. You trusted me.

Thank you for that.”

“You’re welcome. And don’t worry. I am protected at all times.” I indicated the guard dogs, which were still lurking at the end of the field, closer now, and far more interested since Skylar’s arrival. “Yes, I get that. I am still grateful to you for allowing me to meet with you. I have wanted to since I learned of you. Of us.”

“I have as well.”

“I have to admit to you, I can’t get over how alike we are.”

I nodded. The similarity astonished me. Skylar leaned in and took my hands earnestly.

“Serena, I don’t have much time. Again, thank you for meeting with me, but I asked you here for a specific purpose.”

“What is it, Skylar?”

“To warn you. The Council is preparing to come for you. It’s you they want, Serena. You and your chosen one. They intend to make their move soon. You must be aware. You must be ready.”

“We know, Skylar. We have known for some time. A member of our coven is blessed with the gift of sight.” I referred to Prudence and her clairvoyance. “I have concerns about you, Skylar.

Are you safe? Is meeting me here today safe for you?”

“I must say I don’t know the answer, Serena. But I must go for now. May I….” he hesitated, as if what he were about to ask would change everything and simply uttering the words would change the course of his life. I had to encourage him to continue.

He did. “May I ask a favor?”

“Of course you can, Skylar. Anything. You are my brother, after all.”

“It’s good you feel that way. Because I don’t want to be in the Council anymore.” He stepped back and measured my reaction.

Wow! He actually said it. I needed to speak to Eden about this. It didn’t seem like a trick. Everything in me felt like he had been honest and truthful, but I wasn’t so naïve as to not understand that I might be a little prejudiced. I needed to run this by Logan and Eden both.

“Skylar, you
are
my brother. You are welcome in my world.”

That little statement may get me in a cauldron of hot water, but right at the moment, I never meant anything more.

Skylar’s face lit up. He reached for me and gave me a tight hug and quickly released me.

“I best go now. I don’t want to push my luck. Thank you, Serena. Thank you, my sister.” And he gave me his beautiful smile again, spun around and walked into a wavy blur that had materialized behind him.

I stood there for a while, feeling the breeze in my hair and the sun on my face and just enjoying the space where Skylar had been. I stood there until I knew the bell would ring. I cloaked myself and hurried back into the classroom and slid into my seat in the back. When the bell did ring, lunch couldn’t have happened soon enough for me.

Chapter Twenty-‐-Nine

LOGAN

I would have woken up excited about the party on my own, except I’d been awakened by my cell phone and on the other end was Dave, who had been even more excited than anyone.

“Logan! It’s Dave! Today’s the big day, man! Get pumped!”

“Dave. It is 8:30 in the morning. There is literally nothing to

‘get pumped’ about at 8:30 in the morning. Do not even try.” I rolled over and peeked through the curtains at Serena’s house outside my bedroom window like I did every morning. I don’t know what I expected to be there, but I always felt a huge relief when it looked the same as usual, untouched, maybe covered up more than before with the man-‐-eating rose bushes, but otherwise as normal as ever. In my ear, Dave would not be easily deterred.

“Dude! It is the day we have been waiting for!” The volume of Dave’s voice threatened to rapidly ruin my just-‐-begun day. I had to try again.

“Dave. It is the day
you
have been waiting for. We are all just along for the ride.” The roar from my cell phone in response got so loud I had to hold it away from my ear.

“Are you nuts? Are you insane? Are you certifiable? Do you need to be reminded of the magnitude of this gathering?” Dave became now close to making my ear bleed. If I did not get off of this cell phone soon, I would be in danger of needing medical attention.

I nearly informed him of that fact when, blessedly, the call waiting beeped.

“Dave. I have another call. I have to go. We will be there later, Buddy.” Without waiting for his response, which still blared when I clicked over, I took the incoming call.

“Hello?”

“Hi, sleepyhead. I thought I would rescue you from Dave. I almost couldn’t because I’m laughing so hard.” She snorted as proof. It became apparent to me that Serena had heard my exchange with Dave in her mind and found it hilarious.

“Oh, nice,” I said. “I’m so glad you’re finding this so humorous. Just remember, in a few hours, what you just experienced in a bottled version on the cell phone will be unleashed in the live, unbridled edition in person, all over the place at the party. Nothing like it exists in like, four counties, at least.”

That did it to her again. Serena laughed so hard now, it sounded like she had to move the phone away from her mouth. I started laughing too. I waited till she came back on the line and asked her, “So, are you ready for the party side of Logan Daniels?”

“Why? Is that a bad side?”

“Well, I get frisky and fresh with you. Can you handle me?”

“Logan, I can handle you just fine.” I imagined her smiling.

“Bring it on then, Twitchy. Don’t forget, the playing field has been leveled.”

“Meaning what?”

“Meaning I can do anything you can do.”

“Oh, you think so, tough guy.”

I laughed. She played along so well.

“Oh, yeah. I’m a well-‐-trained warlock, you know.”

“We’ll see.”

“Just wait till I get my hands on you.”

“And when exactly will that be?”

“Thought I’d pick you up about four?” Well-‐-trained warlock my eye. I still needed to wait till she gave me the word. More like a well-‐-trained boyfriend. Made me grin. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

“Four sounds perfect. Okay, then.” She blew me a kiss through my phone and broke the connection. Seconds later it beeped again and I got a text from Dave:
PARTY ON WAYNE!
I texted back
PARTY ON GARTH!
I knew he would be pumped to get it. He just made it so easy to like him. I swung my legs off the bed and went in search of my mom. This morning, I thought I’d make her some breakfast.

I padded around the house looking for her and almost quit and headed outside to wash my car for tonight when I found her.

She was in Jade’s room. We hadn’t gone in there since the Council took Jade and Sully that day at the drive-‐-in. In fact, not long after that I had quietly closed the bedroom door because it made my mom so sad to walk past it and not find my sister in there lounging on the bed or talking on her phone. Today, though, it was my mom who lay on the bed. She just stared straight up at the ceiling, motionless. I walked into the room and sat down at Jade’s desk without saying anything.

“Logan.” My mom spoke to me but she never turned to look at me or tore her gaze from the ceiling. “Logan, are you seeing it too?”

I followed her gaze up to the ceiling. Or rather, where the ceiling used to be. Because it wasn’t there anymore. It’s not like it became a hole in my sister’s ceiling, because it didn’t. It looked more like a canvas, with clouds on it. It had movement within it because it swirled around. My mom motioned for me to join her on the bed. Cautiously, I left the desk chair and sat on the edge of Jade’s bed. My mom scooted over and I stretched out beside my mom. As we watched the ceiling, it began to resemble a movie screen. Images flashed across it, too fast to make out, then shapes appeared.

I whispered to my mom, “Have you been in here before today?” She shook her head and whispered back, “No. I had been in the studio and I had this overwhelming urge to come to Jade’s room. Logan, I think she’s trying to communicate with us. Maybe this is the only way she can. Just be quiet and watch, honey.”

My sister’s ceiling morphed again and the movie screen it had created became larger and suddenly my sister’s face appeared before us. She had been laughing and smiling and the wind whipped through her hair. Oh! We were seeing her in a car. I had a picture of both her and Sully too!

“Mom,” I whispered tersely, “They’re in Sully’s car. She’s showing us the day they were kidnapped.” My mom’s hand found mine and gripped it tight.

On the ceiling screen, Jade and Sully had reached the overgrown, green field next to the drive-‐-in. We watched my sister take a pre-‐-packed picnic basket out of the back of Sully’s truck and he pulled a ratty blanket out from behind the seats. I’d never seen this side of Sully and watched, fascinated, while he spread a blanket on the grass and assisted my sister onto it. She opened the basket and spread the food out and they sat together and ate and talked. I hated to admit it, but they seemed kind of sweet. I was so busy watching Sully’s hands on the ceiling screen and where they might be touching my sister, I almost missed the real action happening on the outskirts of the field. My mom didn’t.

“Oh, Logan! That’s where they were!” She pointed to the edge of my sister’s ceiling. And instantly I understood why Sully and my sister didn’t know what would happen to them. Because the things that took them were the same green colored trolls I encountered when I had taken my drive to the other side of town, creeping through overgrown grass that hadn’t seen a lawnmower yet this year and wouldn’t until drive-‐-in season commenced in the summer.

In horror, we watched the slimy trolls creep up on Jade and Sully and take them by surprise, wrapping their nasty green hair around them and restraining them with their misshapen arms until Christophe and more demon goons arrived. Their arrival turned out to be even more fantastic. The air seemed to blur and stretch in a vulgar way and Christophe appeared to rip through a seam in the air, leaving a jagged knife wound in the space behind him. The whole effect represented a violation of nature. He hadn’t changed much since I met him at the warehouse. Christophe would be gentle with Jade, but rough with Sully. He considered them both and with a wave, put them into what appeared to be sleep. On the ceiling screen, I noticed their chests moving, so I knew they were alive. I reassured my mom with this fact. She lay so stiff beside me, like if she moved even a tiny bit the ceiling would clear and the visage we were seeing would disappear.

The ceiling pictures changed then. Now we were looking at the face of my sister again. Jade stared right at me and my mom and started to speak. It startled me so badly I almost rolled off the bed. Next to me, my mom gripped my arm tight and I could her gasp. “Logan, you have to save me. I’m okay now, so is Sully, but I won’t be for much longer.” My sister spoke with a hushed voice.

Her voice broke and the image of her blurred and faded. She looked like she had been crying. This had to be killing my mom.

“You can’t believe what they want to do. You have to tell Eden and Cordelia and Prudence and everyone, Logan. You have to do whatever it takes to get me out of here. The head guy, his name is Christophe, and his disciples, they’re trying to make a bunch of super-‐-witches, Logan. They want my genes. They don’t want anything from Sully. I’m afraid for him. They’re not going to need him soon. They’re going to decide they, well, they don’t need him around anymore.” Her voice cracked again here. I knew now she cared for my friend. “I’m so afraid for him. And Logan, there’s more.” She paused here and tried to compose herself. Her voice became so low I had to strain to hear her. Her image wavered and faded even more and I knew the ceiling show would end soon.

“I’m not even who they want. They want Serena. She’s the real prize.” My sister laughed, a sarcastic snort. “Turns out she is special, big brother. You sure know how to pick ‘em. She just may be the most special witch in the whole world. All this mess is over her genes. Those are the ones they’re killing themselves over.” She paused. “I guess I mean killing
us
over.” My mom whimpered beside me. I reached my arm up and put it around her shoulders, shushing her, almost rocking her like a baby on my sister’s bed.

This had slain her. My sister’s voice went soft and baby-‐-like.

“Please, Logan. Please come get me. I know you can do it. Please save us. Please.” As she spoke the final word, the edges of the ceiling movie blurred and wavered and seemed to evaporate. The image of my sister’s worried, beseeching face warped and disintegrated and disappeared until my mom and I were left lying on her bed staring up at the same old popcorn-‐-covered ceiling.

****

My mom was a mess. After the show in my sister’s room, I couldn’t get her to leave it for almost an hour. I held her in my arms and let her cry and rocked her until she fell into a restless, tortured sleep. I tiptoed into the hall and whistled until I found Sheba and clucked my tongue and led her to jump up onto the bed and curl up with my mom. At least when she woke up she would have a friend with her.

I went into my own room to lie down and digest what the heck just happened. I wanted to tell Serena about it but first I needed to wrap my own head around it. One thing, at last I finally knew how they took my sister and Sully. I knew she truly wasn’t harmed, at least not yet, and I knew now why they had her. I shuddered a little when I thought of how they were going to get at her genes, that part gave me the creeps.

The main thing now, I had to take care of my mother. I needed to make sure she would be alright. This whole affair had stripped my mom of her ability to function and I couldn’t know what this latest delight might do to her. I puttered around downstairs tidying up and making some sandwiches in case she got hungry when she woke up, generally just killing time until then. I thought maybe I should call Dave and tell him I couldn’t go to the party, that maybe I needed to stay home and take care of my mom. She could be torn up over this last thing. I needed Serena’s opinion. Chances were she already knew what happened and was just waiting for me to call anyway. I was right.