Blood Ties (32 page)

Later on that night, Chief Weylen mindlessly rocked in his favorite chair with a stiff, blank expression. The television was tuned to a cartoon on some kids’ channel. He couldn’t think of the name, and had always thought it such a silly show. But he had watched it so many times with Kaya. He looked over at her empty beanbag chair and imagined she was there watching it with him.

There was a weak knock on the door. In his dissociated state, the chief thought it came from the TV. After a few seconds, there was another knock, harder this time. This finally roused him. He slowly stood up as if he carried a weight of sadness across his back. He walked past Julie, who was staying with him. She stared out the window to where Hari’s body had been cremated. She wanted to stay close to his ashes until they were cool enough to collect.

The chief knew it was wrong, but he hoped it was not a tribal member seeking council or comfort about what had happened at the bonfire. He had nothing to give anyone else. He opened the door and was surprised and relieved it was the old woman. She had no immediate family affected by the massacre, so she would not need much.

“Evening, Chief. I don’t mean to bother, but may I come in?” the elder woman asked.

The chief looked with confusion at the still-beading sweat on her brow. “What is this about?”

“I was concerned about our tribe, and spoke to the spirits on what to do. They have a message for you.” The elder peeked around the chief at Julie. “And for her too. You both cannot let evil turn you into scornful people. You have to allow peace to reign, and help the young woman named Grace.”

The chief gave an unconvinced laugh. “Help those monsters? Did you not see what they did? They infiltrated us.”

“Aberrant creatures attacked us. The visitors did not.”

“If you are referring to the one called Grace, I beg to differ.

She ate one of us.”

“True. I had to overcome much opposition within myself to get past that. But the spirits have told me she is true, despite what she did.” The old woman pointed at Julie. “She has to go back to the witches.”

The chief stepped onto the porch with the old woman. “Are you crazy? I won’t let Julie go back into hell.”

“The spirits said she has to go back. That is what she’s has been fated to do. She plays an important part in this.”

“You want me to send her back to the evil ones.”

“She has to go back.”

The chief crossed his arms. “And what if I refuse?”

“There will be a great judgment upon you. For not doing what is right. Opting for what was easy. The lazy path has always been being hateful and vengeful. You must overcome your human instincts and go to your higher ones.”

Chief Weylen knew the old woman had been endowed with special spiritual power, and if she said it, it was right. But he still did not want to accept it. “They don’t deserve our help. They were the ones who let those Ancients—those evil beings—into their bodies, so consumed with revenge they were. And this is the result of it. We and all the earth have to suffer the consequences of it.”

“That is why it is so important for Julie to go back to them.”

The chief looked at the piles of ashes that were once bodies in the clearing. “Kaya was all I had.”

The old woman put her thin-skinned hand on his shoulder.

“Let Julie go back. She has to. There is no other way.”

“Julie is suffering so at the loss of her brother. And with her strong will, she will balk at your request.”

The elder woman smiled. “The spirits anticipated that. That’s Julie’s nature. But understand that her pain goes deeper than her brother. Her love for Grace was strong, and she feels her friend left her behind, and now sees her only as a servant. Despite that, with prodding, Julie will go back.”

The chief looked at Kaya’s pyre. “I guess that’s all then.”

Throughout the night not one hour passed that James did not shout out. And he only screamed one word: “Adrian!”

His oceanic rocking back and forth made me seasick in my own bed. I gathered my pillow and the comforter, and left James with the thin sheet. I tried to escape the room quietly, but he sat straight up and looked at me.

“Adrian?” he asked.

“No, honey. It’s only me. Go back to sleep.”

He grinned at me with half-closed eyes and put his head down. Fuck, that really creeped me out. I got out of there as quickly as I could.

The hallway was faintly lit with tiny wall lamps. I started toward the stairs, the lamps acting as guideposts. As I drew closer to the ritual room, I noticed James’s bloody handprint was still on the door. Why hadn’t I paid attention to it before? My first thought was simply to hurtle myself over the banister to avoid passing it. But I wasn’t too sure of my skills as a trapeze artist.

“Just don’t look at it,” I told myself as I got closer to the door. I passed it with a little hop, landing in front of the door leading to the attic.
Whew
, I thought. I walked down the hall a little farther, but stopped. The pendant around my neck started to glow. Mother was calling me. I turned and looked at the attic door.

It suddenly dawned on me that through all this bullshit, one person had never showed up to help. No words of encouragement or sage advice, let alone protective influence. That absentee person was my mother, Ilan. My lip quivered as anger rose up in me.

Who the hell did Mother think she was? She was the one who had started all this long ago, and I was owed some answers as to why she was MIA. I marched up the attic steps, making sure not to wake the others. I didn’t want them to try to stop me from cussing her out.

The mirror was still uncovered from when I’d spoken to Mother for the first—and, might I mention, the last—time. I closed my eyes and tried to summon her. “Come on, Mother. Show yourself.” I was being as cordial as my anger would allow me. But nothing happened. I rubbed the pendant, thinking that would help. “Where are you?” Still nothing. Now I was really pissed.

“I don’t even know you all that well, but this is probably so typical. You fuck people over, disappear, and expect them to do your dirty work for you. Fine! Whatever.” I ripped the pendant off my neck and threw it at the glass. The only thing I wanted was to destroy that mirror so Mother would never have any more influence on me.

I put all the force I could muster behind a kick aimed directly at the center of the mirror. However, instead of breaking, the glass warped and liquefied. It looked like an aqueous wall of silver. When I tried to touch it, I was sucked into the mirror. My body compacted into a long cylinder the diameter of a pencil lead. And then I turned into pure light.

Like popping out of a vacuum, I arrived at what appeared to be the Valois castle garden, but it wasn’t. I was surrounded by a hyper-real world. The colors were exceedingly exaggerated, with an intensity almost too great to bear. The ground was soft and cushy like condensed foam, but covered in the most-lush grass imaginable.

I was drawn to a narrow path that led into the woods. Deep inside there was a gazebo where a figure sat serenely, her back to me. I recognized her immediately as Mother and realized I was not on the Valois estate, but her personal realm. It existed somewhere between heaven and earth, life and death.

Though the sun was shining, diamond-like snowflakes fell. As I tried to storm over to let Mother have it, I saw the snow miraculously dissipating right above my head. None ever hit the ground.

“I’ve always loved the snow,” Mother said in the softest voice.

I stood in wonder for only a brief moment, as I had a more pressing issue to take care of: getting some answers from my mother. But the closer I got to her, the harder it became to walk. I looked down, and the grass was like green molasses sticking to the bottoms of my feet.

“What in the heck are you doing to me?” I asked.

Mother did not turn around. “The grass is a safeguard. I will not permit anyone, including you, to approach me in anger. I am not only your mother. I am a high priestess in the Valois court, and I will be treated as such.”

I thought,
Really? Now’s the time you pick to power trip?

“Yes, ma’am,” I said sarcastically. The grass turned back to blades, and I was allowed to regain my footing. As I walked toward Mother, she stood and turned to me—smiling, of course.

“I see you are angry, my dear.”

“Angry? Naw. Things are really swell right now.”

I waited for her to come down and at least give me a hug. She stayed rooted. “How do you like this place?”

“What are you talking about?” I wondered why we were discussing nonsensical stuff.

“My heaven. You’re in it.”

“Okay, so?”

“I created it. Don’t you think it’s beautiful?”

“I don’t care about your heaven. I’m here to tell you about yourself. You lied to me.”

Mother went on with her own conversation. “I created it like I created you. And what I create is beautiful and has purpose. And I didn’t lie.”

“Everything has gone wrong. You said you’d be there. Instead you sit here in your storybook paradise. It was selfish and stupid for you to create me. You should have dealt with Catherine on your own. Putting it off on me wasn’t fair.”

“You were not only made for a mission. You were made out of love. You were always more than a golem.”

Oh, here we go again. Some other shit I don’t want to know
ab
out myself.
I took the bait and asked anyway. “What’s a golem?”

“A golem is a being made to serve its creator. You’re more like a half golem. I needed something that had the potential to be more powerful than any of us natural-born witches could ever be. That’s why I created you. That’s why you are unique. That’s why other witches are terrified of and hate you at the same time.”

All I could do was laugh and cry at the ridiculousness of all this.

Mother went on. “I know your confidence is low, but you can do this. You’re the only one who can achieve the task. ”

“How could you do this to me?” I asked.

“You will come to understand that sometimes being there means
not
being there.”

What the fuck with the damn riddles?

Mother finally stepped off her gazebo, but she didn’t look like she was coming over to give me a hug.

“There’s something else. You have done a grave wrong that has endangered the mission. You fed on an innocent.”

“You mean the shape-shifter girl?”

“We only eat in ritual, and we only eat those who deserve punishment. You fed like Catherine feeds. Now there is an imbalance that has caused the future to favor Catherine. You’ve weakened not only your chances of success but the energy of those sent to help you. The scales are heavy on the side of evil.”

“I was dying,” I said, totally exasperated.

“I am telling you the consequences. Catherine now has the knife, and on top of that, you ate like an animal. There is only one way to combat this.”

“What? Feed more?”

“You can’t just go feeding on people. Feeding is only to be used on rare occasions and always during ritual. In fact too much feeding will cause your demise. You will have to become ingenious enough to find other ways to solve your problems.”

“Okay, is there some book with all this information?”

“What I’ve discovered since I’ve been in this place is that witches never learn it all. Everything is on a need-to-know basis.”

I couldn’t be a bitch anymore. I had to get over myself and get on with the task. “How do I fix it? I’ll do anything.”

“You have to go see the Three Sisters. They have something you need and I can’t give you. That’s the only thing left to help you defeat Catherine.”

Shit… More fucking riddles.

The Three Sisters? No one had mentioned them to me before. “Who are they? What do they need to give me?”

Mother didn’t answer my questions, but said, “And you must go alone. No Evelyn. No Addison. And especially no James.”

Before I could ask—or rather demand—any more information, I felt a pull from my navel to my spine and was yanked backward through the dimensional warp. I reached out toward Mother, but she just waved goodbye.

“Wait! I need you. I can’t do this alone. Not now. Please!” I pleaded.

I was thrown through the mirror like I was surfacing in a silver pool. I landed hard on my belly. “Next time tell me to buckle up.”

The pendant was right under my face. It was still glowing lightly, and then it extinguished. Once again Mother had flashed in and out of my life.

When I opened the attic door, I could see the faint glimmer of dawn. I must have been up there for a few hours. As I stepped out into the hall, I heard something bumping around. The sound came from a bedroom. I figured Addison must have decided to forego sleeping on Adrian’s bed and get in her own. I opened the door and was met by Julie’s glowering eyes.

My body went forward and back as I tried to decide whether to enter or retreat. “Uh… I didn’t know you were here.”

Julie looked away and continued going through her dresser drawers. I noticed she was still wearing what she’d had on at the bonfire. I didn’t wait for her to welcome me in. If I had, the invitation never would have come.