Tethered 01 - Catalyst (15 page)

My heart raced as I continued to stare at the slightly ajar red door from where I stood at the bottom of the steps. Binks appeared by my side from out of nowhere to rub his head against my bare legs while he meowed, what I thought of as some sort of reassurance to me.

“How did that door get opened? It was broken before… The knob was broken,” I said, distinctly remembering how hard Vera and I had tried to open it.

Binks stopped rubbing against me and darted up the narrow staircase.

“Binks, don’t go up there,” I called after him as he disappeared behind the door and into the room. “Of course you aren’t going to listen. Why would you?” I scoffed after him.

There were scary movies with scenes like this in them—with the girl going into some creepy room and finding a monster of some kind or a serial killer lurking within. Either way, it never ended well.

If I’d been smart, I would have let the stupid cat come back down on his own. But I wasn’t smart, and it wasn’t just about the cat. I was curious to see what was behind the only painted door in the entire house. The only door that had been locked. After learning what I had about my family over the last few days, I was sure it would be something of interest behind there.

Before I realized it, my legs were moving and I was halfway up the narrow stairway.

My hand gripped the edge of the red painted door and slowly pushed it opened farther. The room was dark with little to no light filtering in through a circular window. I fumbled along the wall at my left for a light switch. Flicking on the light—which was nothing besides an exposed bulb hung in the center of the room with a short pull chain attached—I stepped farther into the room.

The air was thick and moldy smelling, like it had been sealed up for far too long.

Binks meowed at me from atop a folded white blanket on a table near a pedestal of some sort in the center of the room. Exposed wooden beams, dusty hardwood floors, and bright purple walls made up the basics of the room. The floorboards creaked beneath my bare feet as I made my way farther inside. A thick scent of moldy herbs clung to the air the farther I went. Glancing around, I found the source of the smell—dried bunches of something hung from the lowest section of the roof. I walked over to them, my eyes trailing every inch of the room as I went.

There were two walls of bookshelves—one filled with books with spines of every color imaginable and the other crammed with little glass jars, Ziploc bags clearly labeled, candles, and crystals galore.

It was a real witch’s room.

I reached out and touched the dried plants hanging from the ceiling. They crumbled upon contact, turning into a fine dust, and a brief scent of rosemary fluttered to my nose.

Pivoting to glace at the rest of the room, my attention was captured by a book sitting in the center of the room atop the pedestal. I brushed my hands together to get off the crushed rosemary and walked to where it stood. Strange symbols clustered into a diamond shape were carved into the brown, leather-bound book’s cover. I traced the first symbol with the tip of my finger. Red and orange flames sparked to life and danced within it. I pulled my finger back, startled, and the colorful flames disappeared, dying down to nothing but the dark color of the leather book once again.

I touched the symbol beside it, which looked like droplets of water chasing each other in a circle, and they began to move beneath my fingertip, slowly circling as they pursued one another in a never-ending chase. They turned a brilliant blue while doing so, and I let out a slight gasp.

“Wow…” I breathed, unable to contain my awe.

I moved on to the next symbol—two little leaves attached together. The moment my finger brushed over them, they became a vibrant green and began shifting from side to side. The last symbol resembled a pinwheel, and it spun in an unfelt wind once I touched it.

“It’s the four elements,” I said aloud. “Earth, Air, Fire, and Water.” My skin tingled as I said the words aloud, and I swore each of the symbols on the book gained more color and moved a little faster.

I gripped the thick cover of the book and flipped to the first page. It was crinkled by age and was a dingy yellowed color. The back of the cover was lined with a light brown fabric that had tiny red and gold flowers. The opposite page was gorgeous. Intricately designed letters made up the words:
Book of Shadows — The Eternal Elements.

I’d heard of these before, from TV shows and books I’d read. They were books witches used to keep their spells and stuff in. The concept of my family having one fascinated me beyond words. I’d never heard of one being called The Eternal Elements before either. I ran my fingers along the edges of the book as I stared at the beautifully written words before me, feeling the magick that had awakened inside of me since coming to Soul Harbor lightly pulsate from the contact with the book’s delicate pages. I flipped the page, anxious to see what spells the book held within, but it wasn’t a spell that I saw. At least I didn’t think it was. It seemed more like a saying.

An it harm none, do what thou wilt.

My fingers traced across each word and I felt the impact of them seep through my fingertips, weaving their way into my soul, making an unspoken promise within me to obey. My eyes slid down the page to the next few sentences written in the same gorgeous handwriting.

Bide ye the Wiccan laws ye must, in perfect love and perfect trust.

Live and let live, fairly take and fairly give.

Cast the circle thrice about, to keep the unwelcome spirits out.

To bind the spell every time, let the spell be spake in rhyme.

Soft of eye and light a touch, speak little and listen much.

I stared at the book with its handwritten words scrolled across the aged page. Something about the poem, if that was what it was, seemed incredibly familiar somehow and resonated within me deeply. I shifted my fingers to the final words written and read them with an intense grasp of their meaning.

Mind the Three-Fold Law you should, three times bad and three times good.

“What is all of this?” I whispered aloud, my eyes never wavering from the page. Binks meowed as if to answer me, and I shifted my eyes to him. “I wish you could talk. You sure do seem to know a lot about this house and everything inside it. I bet you know a lot about whatever happened inside this room too, don’t you?”

He looked up at me as I spoke to him. His bright greenish-yellow eyes stared into mine as though he understood every word passing from my lips with the clarity of a human. I returned his direct stare, half expecting him to actually answer me. When he didn’t, I turned my attention back to the book.

Flipping the page, I read:

CANDLE MAGICK

The two words were written at the top of the page in the same handwriting as the previous pages. I scanned the page; it was a list of colors and their meanings. Some seemed pretty self-explanatory, something of common knowledge. Pink stood for love, affection, and friendship. Red was for passion, strength, and courage. But there were some that surprised me, mainly black. I’d always thought black would be associated with bad things—hexes and curses or types of negativity—but instead it was used as a color of protection, of banishing things, and absorbing negativity.

I continued to flip through the book, marveling at the wealth of information captured within its crumpled-by-age pages—spells for everything possible, lists for which days to do what magick, lists of herbs and crystals and their magickal properties, elemental blocks and how to remove them. The book seemed to be never-ending. There was so much to read, so much to learn. It was fascinating and overwhelming at the same time.

My cell phone rang from in my back pocket, startling both Binks and me nearly to death. Jumping, I jostled the podium the book sat on, causing it to rock and the book to slip off. It landed spine up at my feet across the hardwood floor. My heart hammered in my chest from the commotion as I reached for my phone. My stomach rolled when I saw who was calling—my mom. I didn’t want to talk to her right now, not in this room surrounded by all of this stuff. It seemed odd somehow. I left the book where it had fallen and darted out of the room and back down the stairs as I answered her call.

“Hello?”

“Honey, how are you? Is everything all right?” she asked frantically. Her hysterical tone made my heart race even faster.

“Yeah. Why? What’s wrong?” I asked out of breath.

“I just saw Clarice, Vera’s mother, in the grocery store. She said she had to meet you halfway this afternoon to pick up Vera, because she suddenly felt the need to cut her trip short and come home. Did you two get into a tiff?” The dinging of her keys being in the ignition while her driver’s side door was open echoed through my phone.

This afternoon? Wasn’t it still afternoon? I started down the second set of stairs to the kitchen, needing to check the time.

“No, we’re fine. I guess this place wasn’t as much fun for Vera. I don’t really know why she wanted to go home so suddenly. It was kind of strange actually,” I said as I rounded the corner into the kitchen.

My jaw dropped when I glanced at the clock hung above the back door; it was 7:15 p.m. I’d dropped Vera off nearly five hours ago. That meant I’d been in the attic room for almost two and a half hours already.

There was no way that was possible. I’d just gotten home.

“Well, Clarice said Vera never gave her a reason either, but she hoped you two hadn’t had a falling out. I told her I didn’t know anything, because I don’t. You haven’t called me a whole lot since you’ve been there, sweetie. I’m trying to not appear pushy because I understand this is your vacation and you’re trying to figure out what you want to do with that house.” She paused, like the mention of the house had left a sour taste in her mouth. “But, I would appreciate it if you called me at least once a day, especially now that Vera isn’t there with you anymore. I don’t like the idea of you being alone, honey. I’m sorry.”

“I’ll call you at least once every day. Promise. But, I’m not a little kid anymore, Mom, and…I think I’m going to be staying here for a while.” I closed my eyes and held my breath while I waited for her response.

“Oh, okay. For how long?”

I swallowed hard. “The summer at least.”

“Well, if you’re sure that’s what you want to do,” she said simply, but I could hear the hurt laced into her words.

It stung my heart.

“It is. I really like it here. And besides, I just…I really need time to clear my head.”

“Honey, I know the breakup between you and Ryan was hard, but it’s certainly no reason to leave town. That’s a little drastic, don’t you think?”

There was the harsh, irritated tone I had been expecting. I closed my eyes and blew out a puff of air.

“It’s not really about that. I mean maybe a little, but really it’s more about…my biological family. There’s a lot I’m learning about them, at least my grandmother and mother. I’m not ready to walk away from it all just yet. I’m sorry,” I insisted.

God, I hated to say that to her, but it was the truth. The reason I was staying was because of them, not Ryan. Not anymore.

“Oh,” that was all she said. It wasn’t what she’d said, but how she’d said it. There was so much emotion wrapped up in that one tiny word that it hit me square in the chest and made me hate myself. It made me feel guilty for being here and for wanting to stay. So incredibly guilty. “I understand, just please be sure you call me at least once a day. I’ve gotta get these groceries into the house. Love you, honey.”

“Love you too.” She hung up then, leaving me feeling like the most worthless, selfish adopted child in the world.

I let out a loud sigh and jogged back up the stairs that led to the second floor and then the narrow attic stairs. The book and Binks were right where I’d left them. I bent down and picked up the book, hoping none of the pages had been folded beneath its heavy weight. Incredibly, they hadn’t. My fingers smoothed along the page it had opened to. It grew warm to the touch, and I focused on the words written upon it as I sat the book back in its place.

To Reveal What Has Been Hidden:

(To banish a concealment)

To reveal something that was hidden, like car keys? A boyfriend’s true intentions? That could come in handy someday. If it worked. I read further.

To see clearly the ill effect that has taken place. To open your eyes to another’s cast upon you. To reveal.

A tingling sensation sparked across my skin. All I could think of was Vera and the true reason as to why she’d left. Then, I wondered if I would be able to do the spell without being initiated. Kace had said we could feel our magick, but we couldn’t use it until then. Maybe this was different. Maybe
I
was different. In books and movies about powers and situations like this, there always seemed to be someone who was the exception—maybe that was me. I would never know unless I tried. I read the list of ingredients.

— 1 copper or iron casting pot for banishings

— 1 black candle

— 1/8 a cup of rubbing alcohol

— 1 match

Glancing around the room, I searched for what it called for, unbelieving what I was about to do. My hands shook as I picked up a well-used iron pot on legs from the shelf with all the bottles of herbs and such at the far end of the room. I held my breath to stay quiet as I lined everything up on the table beside the pedestal where the book sat. I glanced at the page once more to see what was next.

Create your circle.

I thought for a moment, wondering what that meant. Create my circle? Then, years of movies and TV shows about witches flashed through my mind. They always created a circle made of chalk around them for some sort of protection or something. I glanced around the room, searching for something I could use to create such a thing. My eyes landed on a small piece of chalk that sat on a shelf near all the little bottles.