Secret Of The Rose (Legacy Of Magick Series, Book 2) (24 page)

“Shut up, Leilah!” I snapped. I started to dial 9-1-1, but I’d only managed the number nine when a violent wind ripped through the side yard. The wind was unnaturally strong. Duncan, Leilah and I all struggled to stay on our feet. “Are you doing that?” I asked Duncan.

“No,” he said over the roar of wind, his eyes wide. “I think it’s your cousin.”

I swung my head to check on Holly. She had turned and was now standing in the darkness with her feet planted apart, facing Leilah. The look on my cousin’s face had my stomach dropping. “Uh oh,” I said dropping my phone back in my purse. “Shit just got real.”

The howling wind tore Holly’s carefully styled hair apart. It snapped in long coils behind her. “You wanna see magick?” Holly growled at Leilah, and then she tossed her hands down and out to her sides. I heard a low rumble of thunder as Holly slowly raised up one hand and bunched her fingers closed into a fist.

Instantly, Leilah fell to her knees, her hands tearing at her own throat. Her eyes bulged as her color changed dramatically.

“Holly, stop!” Duncan shouted, spinning to help Leilah.

Stunned at the transformation, I watched my cousin. Tipping her head slightly to one side, she maintained eye contact with Leilah. A vindictive little smile crossed Holly’s face as she squeezed her fingers into a tighter fist. Horrified, I realized that my cousin was actually
enjoying
this. With a terrible gagging sound, Leilah dropped farther down to all fours. I turned to the girl, amazed that I could see her belly heaving.

“Help—” Leilah made an awful gurgling sound and began to violently cough up water— seemingly out of her lungs.

“Shit!” I said. I jumped back away from where Leilah expelled the water, dropping my purse, the hat, and the poppet.

“Leilah!” Duncan grabbed for her.

My mind raced as I tried to make sense of what I was seeing.
Holly must be tapping into the element of water.
But she was using her elemental affinity to fill up someone’s lungs with water—someone who was standing on dry land
.
“Holly, stop!” I shouted.

As the wind tore around us, Holly didn’t react to me in any way. She was lost in her own spell— too angry and wrapped up in revenge to stop. The winds shrieked, and rain started to pelt down from the sky. Holly continued to focus, unblinkingly, on Leilah, who collapsed to her belly making a horrible rattling sound.

“What can we do?” I yelled to Duncan.

Duncan turned Leilah onto her back and pressed his ear to her chest. “Break Holly’s concentration!” Duncan shouted over the roar of the wind while starting CPR on Leilah.

“Damn it!” I snarled.
How to break her concentration?
I’d never seen anything like what Holly was doing. But I couldn’t stand by and watch my cousin
kill
someone with magick. I did the only thing I could think of: I hiked up my dress, kicked off my flats and ran full out, and straight at Holly. I hit her hard— a full body tackle— and we went down together with a hard bounce on the lawn.

Several things seemed to happen at once: The wind stopped as if it had never been, and the rain disappeared. Leilah started to gag, cough, and finally breathe on her own. I kept Holly pinned but raised my head, glancing over at Duncan.

“Is Leilah okay?” I asked him.

“I think so,” Duncan said. He rolled Leilah on her side in case she coughed up more water.

“Holly?” I checked my cousin. Her red-gold hair was tangled around her face, and I felt like I was looking at a stranger. Holly’s aqua eyes focused on me. “Hey,” I gave her a little shake. “Are you back?”

Holly sat up and seemed to come back to herself with a shudder. “Leilah,” she said in a grim tone of voice. But she scrambled up, going to the girl.

Duncan started to block her. “Holly?”

“I’m okay, now. I promise,” Holly told him. She reached past him and laid her hand on Leilah’s chest. Leilah began to breathe more easily. Leilah took several more ragged breaths, then opened her eyes.

Duncan stood over them ready, I think, to forcibly separate them if necessary. With a ragged shudder, Leilah was able to sit up with help from Holly.

Pale and shaken, Leilah sat on the patio. When she realized Holly was sending her healing energy, she recoiled and grabbed ahold of Duncan. “Keep her away from me!” Leilah’s voice was raspy.

“What the hell happened here?” Aunt Gwen ran across the lawn, still in her ball gown. “I could feel that elemental magick before I pulled in the driveway. Which one of you did that?” Gwen was furious, but she hadn’t returned to the manor alone. To my amazement, Thomas Drake was with her.

Duncan tried to peel Leilah off him. “What are
you
doing here?” He glared at his uncle.

Holly stood and faced her mother. “I caught Leilah breaking into our house.”

“What?” Gwen’s eyes swung from her daughter to Leilah.

I bent down scooping up my purse, the fallen hat and poppet. “She was carrying this.” I held out the poppet.

“So, you’re the one.” Gwen took the poppet frowning at the girl.

Leilah coughed but managed to stand to her feet. “Yeah, so what? That’s nothing compared to what Holly did to me. She almost killed me with magick!” Leilah glared and wobbled. Duncan put a hand out to steady her.

“Holly!” Gwen sounded shocked. “What did you do?”

“What did she do?” Leilah’s voice was hoarse. “She filled up my lungs with water!” she managed and started to cough again.

“Impressive,” Thomas Drake said.

I raised my eyebrows at Duncan.
What the hell is your uncle doing with my aunt?
I thought at him.

I have no idea.
He sent his thoughts back.

Gwen grabbed Holly’s arm. “Why would you do such a thing?”

“I lost control.” Holly folded her hands and stared at the ground. “I admit it.”

“Lost control?” Leilah rasped. “This isn’t over— not by a long shot.”

“Leilah, that’s enough!” Thomas Drake snapped. He stared her down, and Leilah’s chin dropped to her chest.

What the hell?
How could Thomas Drake get that kind of instant obedience from the girl? I heard the bell tower from the nearby church start to chime the hour— once, then twice.
Well, son of a bitch! He’d said to return to the manor within an hour and one of the magickal problems would be resolved.

“I assume...” Gwen said to Thomas, “that you would prefer to keep the police out of this?”

“Yes, I would,” he said.

“Alright.” Gwen nodded in agreement.

“As her father, I will pay for any of the property damages she has caused, both tonight, and previously.”

“Wait, Leilah Martin is your
daughter
?” I sputtered. Gwen didn’t seem surprised, but both Holly and Duncan did. Holly narrowed her eyes as she considered the news.

Duncan frowned over at the girl— his cousin technically. “Are you serious?” he asked his uncle.

“She
is
my daughter,” Thomas said defending his place as her father.

“I hate you,” Leilah said to him... Or maybe to everyone.

Thomas took the poppet from Gwen’s hand and studied it. “As to the poppets, and the attacks on the girls at the school... that stops. Tonight,” he said. He held out the poppet, and the bindings seemed to fall away on their own. The twine turned to ash before it hit the ground.

Leilah crossed her arms defensively over her chest and glared at Thomas— her father. “Fine. Whatever. You’ve never given a damn about me anyway.”

“I’ve been watching you for some time,” Thomas said to Leilah. He handed back the poppet to Gwen and dipped his hands in his pants pockets as he studied the girl. “And I’m not happy with what I’ve seen.
You
caused the accident at the parade, didn’t you, Leilah?” While his expression was bland, his tone of voice was threatening.

Leilah cowered away from Thomas. As I watched the drama unfold, it dawned on me that I
had
seen him in the crowd right before the accident. My stomach turned over.

Holly glared at the girl in reaction to the news. “Megan broke her arm that day. A lot of people could have gotten hurt because of you!” Another strong wind came whistling around the back of the manor, and my cousin started towards Leilah who had started to gag again.

“Hey!” I stepped between the girls and gave Holly a hard shove away from Leilah. “Knock it off!”

“Holly Irene Bishop!” Gwen’s voice lashed out like a whip, and the wind died instantly. “If you can not control yourself, go inside the house right this minute!”

“Fine!” Holly gave one last glare at a shaking, but breathing, Leilah, and she went straight indoors. She slammed the door behind her. What was left of the glass fell on the patio.

“What do we do now?” I said to Gwen as Leilah started to cry.

Gwen glanced at Thomas, who gave a small nod to her. Apparently, he was content in letting her handle this. Gwen reached out and took Leilah by the chin. “As for you,” she said, raising the girl’s face up to hers. “If I even so much as
think
you might be up to your old tricks... your father will be the
least
of your worries.”

Silent tears slid down Leilah’s face. “Yes Ma’am,” she whispered. Whatever she saw in Gwen’s eyes must have made an impression.

“I’ll take her home to her mother.” Thomas held out his arm, and Leilah walked to his side. “Let me know what the damages are to the manor, and I’ll have a check cut immediately to you.”

“Thank you, Thomas.” Gwen inclined her head in a regal nod.

Duncan shot me a look. I shrugged my shoulders. I was just as surprised as he was by the turn of events.

“Good night,” Thomas said. He and his daughter walked away through the back yard and past a startled Mad Hatter Bran who had returned home. While Bran gaped at them, Thomas and Leilah disappeared around the side of the manor.

I heard car doors close and an engine start in the still night. In another moment, I heard their car drive off. Gwen dropped down in an Adirondack chair on the patio. “By the Goddess.” She leaned her head back to stare up at the heavens.

“What in the hell is going on?” Bran demanded as he rushed to Gwen’s side.

Gwen patted his arm. “It’s alright, don’t worry.”

“Sparky, you just missed the big magickal showdown,” I said.

“Why was Thomas Drake and that girl here?” Bran asked.

“That girl,” Duncan said, “is apparently his daughter, my cousin, and the one who broke into your house.”

Gwen held up the poppet. “She’s also the one who’s been hexing the girls on the squad.”

“Well, for fuck’s sake!” Bran tossed up his hands. “Has everyone gone mad?”

I snorted out a laugh as the irony of his statement sank in. Gwen started to laugh too, and Duncan joined in.

Bran seemed confused by our helpless laughter, then he remembered, and his eyes rolled up towards his oversized Mad Hatter top hat. “Ha. That’s hilarious.” He yanked the hat off his head and glared.

I caught movement out of the corner of my eye. The rose garden was visible from where I stood, and I saw the ghost of my grandmother sitting on the concrete bench. She seemed lit up from within, not unlike David Quinn’s ghost had the night he’d helped Duncan and I locate Ivy.

Ro flashed me a smile, gave me a thumbs up, and her image faded away.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Duncan and Bran swept up the broken glass and covered up the smashed window with a piece of plastic tarp and duct tape. The rest of the family trickled back home shortly thereafter. Once the clean up was done, I headed inside to swap out my contacts for my glasses. Then I grabbed the shampoo, conditioner and old towels to wash out the colored hairspray.

I stood in a black camisole and my long, plaid pajama pants. My head was bent over the kitchen sink as I rinsed out the last of the conditioner. Duncan handed me a towel, and I wrapped my hair up in the towel— turban style.

I patted for my glasses on the counter and, finding them, I slipped them on. Great Aunt Faye, Bran and Ivy all came into focus. They sat, sipping coffee or tea around the breakfast bar, either in robes or their costumes. Gwen walked into the kitchen and handed me some cold cream and a washcloth. I ducked into the powder room, happily removing the makeup. I felt like I’d lost a good pound off my face after I’d taken off the elaborate cosmetics. With a sigh, I rubbed the towel over my hair and began to work the tangles out with a brush. When I walked back in the kitchen, Great Aunt Faye was scrubbing the painted mustache off Duncan’s face. Holly was still nowhere to be seen.

Ivy sat at the breakfast bar. “So to be clear, Leilah Martin, the JV cheerleader, is the one who made the poppets, cast the hexes
and
broke into the manor?” She swung her bare feet, still in her Glinda regalia.

“Correct,” Gwen said.

“How was she able to get inside anyway?” I said. “I mean the house is
warded
. Even when Viviane’s backpack had the poppet in it, she wasn’t able to carry it in the house.”

“During the preparations for Homecoming, Holly obviously invited Leilah inside the manor.” Gwen explained.

“Wait, are we talking like movie vampire stuff?” I asked. “As in, once a vampire is
invited
in you can’t keep them out?”

Gwen shook her head. “No. but I see how you’d come to that conclusion. When Holly invited her in, it basically rendered the wards ineffective to Leilah.”

“How’s that?” I asked.

“Mom, if you’d allow me?” Bran said taking over. “The wards are not like a force field. Instead they help to
turn away
and to repel negativity and evil intention making it harder for someone or something to get inside and do damage. However, if someone with negative intentions was formally invited inside the wards— it would make them uncomfortable, but not physically bar them. Classically, wards are designed to give the inhabitants of the house a warning that something is wrong.”

“Like a magickal heads up?” I asked.

“Exactly.” Bran nodded.

Ivy was practically bouncing in her seat. “So you guys came home and found Leilah, then Holly lost her temper, invoked the element of water and tried to
drown
Leilah while she stood on the back patio?”