Wicked (The Drake Chronicles Book 1) (4 page)

“You can hate me all you want but do not let your dark blood become dominant. If you do, you’ll kill; you’ll be like your father and corrupt our world. Luckily he was put down before he found a way to ruin everything. You cannot take after him. You are
both
better than that,” Mason explained, looking back and forth between the siblings.

Ethan was speechless, but it made him think about what he had done to the swim captain and to his sister just before Mason had arrived.
Was that a part of his dark blood?
For now, he was certain it was.

He turned to Emma and before he could say a word to her, she collapsed to the ground like a crumpled piece of paper.

2

The interior of the shed was lit by candlelight and a skinny fluorescent lamp that stood in the back of the room buzzing softly. The shed smelt of burnt paper and old, musty books and looked ordinary to any mortal person. But to Ethan, it was a place of curiosity, discovery, and magic.

It was also the only place that Ethan felt comfortable, besides his bedroom. Ever since they had moved into the house years back, Ethan felt a connection to the shed and when Mason had converted it into a spell room, Ethan could be found either nose deep in a book about a variety of creatures or causing a ruckus with spells that he’d never attempted before.

It was his sanctuary.

In the middle of the wooden shed sat a drawing desk, complete with a stool and a crooked lamp that was no longer working. On the walls, circles were drawn onto the wood with white spelled chalk, warding off strangers that were not allowed inside unless invited.

Finally, a large bookcase took up one side of the shed, while a cork board, various knick knacks, and a black futon bed swallowed the rest of the interior.

Ethan had been using the shed as his spare bedroom for the past two weeks, trying to figure out the language that garnished the pages of a journal he and Emma had found in their mother’s things. So far, he had no luck. Even Hilda, his boss at the book store didn’t know the odd language.

Ethan sat on a large red bean bag, his long legs pulled up into his chest and his eyes damp from crying. Emma was fine now and in her room resting. She had fainted.

Mason, on the other hand, was gone.

After he had helped Ethan carry Emma to her bedroom, he vanished without a word. But he left a note stating that he needed some time to himself and he had something to take care of. He also asked for them to stay in the house and not to leave under any circumstances.

Several hours had passed and Mason still had not returned. He had never left for that long and it was beginning to worry Ethan. Had Mason run off? Or had something happened to him? He was all they had.

Ethan had spent a few hours, researching spells that could help locate Mason but it seemed he had hid himself extremely well and there was nothing left to do… but wait for his return.

Ethan stared down at Katherine’s grimoire, looking preserved and ancient. Maybe there was something in there that could help him find Mason since the only spells he had were from Mason’s back up grimoire.

He didn’t know how well Emma would handle Mason’s departure, but he would do anything he could right now to bring him back.

Ethan stood up from the ground and caught a glimpse of a photo tacked to the cork board. It was of his mother, sister, himself, and a strange man Ethan had seen in a few other photos. Ethan had always wondered who he was, and suddenly, a thought came to mind.

Maybe, Ethan thought, this man could help them somehow, if he were still
alive
. Without a second thought, he retrieved his phone and called his sister. He coerced her into coming down to the shed, the place she hated most.

Waiting for Emma, he snatched the black crystal necklace that hung above a tacked bat wing, grabbed the photo from the cork board, and headed back over to the drawing desk.

Fixing the necklace so that it dangled from the built in lamp, Ethan stared down at the photo again. Just then he noticed something he hadn’t before. The man was wearing the star locket Emma adored. He swallowed hard. Why would that man be wearing a necklace that belonged to his mother?

Flooded with questions Ethan continued setting up the spell, even caressing the crystal with a vile of bat blood. He wiped the blood off on his pajama bottoms and jumped in surprise when the shed door swung open.

Emma stood in the dark doorway, glaring at Ethan.

“It stinks in here, like old books and sweat. What do you want; I don’t feel like messing with magic right now. I just want to go to sleep and deal with Mason—”

“—He’s gone, Emma.” Ethan pointed to the note that sat on the ground next to the bean bag he had just occupied.

Emma bolted over to the bag, snatched up the note and read it silently to herself. Ethan watched tears glide down her cheeks; she looked completely devastated.

“I can’t believe he just left like that, we need him.” Emma ripped up the note and threw it into the air. “Have you tried the locator spell?” she crossed the room with fury and grabbed Mason’s grimoire off of the desk.

“He’s hid himself. So, I’m trying
someone
else,” Ethan said.

Emma turned to him and slammed the grimoire to the ground; a few yellowed pages fell out from the binding.

“Who are you trying? We don’t know anybody else, Ethan. He never took us back to Elsmere so we have no one!” Emma kicked the wall and the cork board crashed to the ground, scattering the rest of the photographs and trinkets on the wood paneled floor.

Ethan had never seen Emma like this before. This was brand new to him.

“This man,” Ethan pointed down to the photo on the desk. Emma leaned over and looked down at the photo. It was black and white and it looked like a party or a carnival was happening in the background.

There stood her mother, Ethan, her, and an odd looking man she did not know… but he was wearing her locket and that made Emma uneasy. Had her locket belonged to this man before her mother got a hold of it? She didn’t understand. How come she never noticed it in the photo until now?

All of this was happening so quickly, and she just hoped that she wouldn’t pass out again. She needed to know what the hell was going on. She couldn’t stop thinking about Mason.
Where was he?

“This man?” Emma pointed to the man in the photo.

“Yes,” Ethan said as Emma walked around the desk to the other side. She looked across into her brother’s eyes and nodded.

“Do it,” she commanded and held her hand out. Ethan exhaled in relief; he almost thought she wouldn’t go through with it. But he knew deep down she wanted to know everything just like him.

They needed to understand why everything was kept a secret, and why it was so important that they stayed in the mortal world and in the house.

Ethan reached across the desk and pricked Emma’s finger then his own with a safety pin. Both siblings squeezed a drop of blood onto the man’s face and began whispering the incantation until the crystal began swirling and the candles around them flickered and danced.

They felt their power surging through their veins like cool fire. Ethan felt his power burning to be let free, scratching beneath his skin like something demonic.

Something was different about his power, it was stronger and now that he knew they had dark blood, he couldn’t help but hold it responsible.

The fluorescent lamp bulb shattered with a pop and cast shadows upon Emma and Ethan’s face. The blood drops expanded, moving across the photo, growing in size and finally melting into the photograph like acid.

Soon a shimmering light appeared and an image formed in the blood. It was of a pale man, bald and burly, arguing with a boy across the room. They watched in curiosity as the man stood up from a chair.

The room seemed to be a lounge with a small fireplace roaring in the background. Emma could feel the heat bleeding from the photo onto her face.

The siblings figured that this was the man from the photo, now that they had been staring at him for a while as he yelled. His voice going in and out, making it difficult to understand what was being said.

He had beady luminous eyes, a small head, and his cheek bones were pointy like jagged rocks. His dark eyebrows were bushy and unkempt and he his lips were severely chapped.

The man’s voice grew louder and Ethan was growing annoyed. When was the location going to appear? They couldn’t do anything with a person; they needed a place to go.

Suddenly, the voices became crystal clear.

“Don’t you think it’s odd, dad?” the boy spoke, but Emma and Ethan still couldn’t see his face. He was in front of a large window, staring out into the night.

“No, I think it’s a bunch of bull. Those kids could not be living in the mortal world without being cloaked; they are too known for such carelessness. Besides that, they are supposed to be dead. I think you’ve got it wrong, it can’t be
them
.” The man’s voice was gruff.

He looked up from a glass of red wine he held in his hand and shook his head.

“They have the same names, stop trying to deny it.”

“If by chance it is them, you are going to stay away from them. They don’t remember you and they sure as hell don’t remember me,” the man snapped.

“I’ll do what I want.” The boy turned from the window. It was then that Emma and Ethan got a full look at the boy.

It was their new neighbor, Logan Hardwicke.

Emma’s hand flew to her mouth as she staggered backwards and nearly collided with the wall. Ethan snapped his fingers and the image disappeared, leaving behind a burnt black hole in the photograph.

He sat his elbows on the desk and raked his hands through his hair. He knew Logan wasn’t a regular human, and when he looked up to tell his sister that he was right, he saw the stunned look on her face. Maybe now wasn’t the time for laughs. But now they knew where the man was.

He was right next door.

“Are you okay?” Ethan asked.

“I—I just can’t believe that all of this is happening right now. This isn’t what our summer was supposed to be like, Ethan. It was supposed to be fun and normal. Now, we’re stuck in the middle of something we don’t even understand.”

“And to top it all off, the man in that photo lives right next door. This is just too much…
too much
.” Emma, rattled, combed her hair over her head and rushed to the door.