Silverthorn (15 page)

I looked over my sister’s shoulder and saw Zephora lying on her side, facing up, clinching tight while her body trembled under the blanket she drew tight around her body like a wrapped mummy, giving the impression that snakes slithered beneath those blankets. Eyes closed, perspiration dotting her forehead, she opened her eyes and stared right at us.

I jerked back as though struck, obviously a little too jumpy at the sight of the most powerful witch that had ever lived.

Alexis, however, stood rigidly, unaffected by the image of Zephora shaking in place, while her gaze met ours, probably because she figured her mother was simply going through withdrawal from substance abuse. Nevertheless, she didn’t step inside; she just stood before the doorway, as though unable to move. Then she began whispering once more, but when she tried to take a step forward, her foot hit an invisible partition.

Zephora revealed the creepy smile she so excelled at showing at the most frustrating of times.

“How strange!” Alexis said, staring at Zephora. “That smile looks hideous…nothing like Mother. Then again, it could have been a result of dying. Maybe she came back wrong.”

I didn’t need to respond, figuring it best to let my sister discover any other oddities that might seem out of place.

“She hasn’t even blinked,” she whispered over her shoulder to me.

The grin on Zephora’s face grew wider.

“Mother, can you hear me?” Receiving no response but that dead stare, Alexis said, “Undo that spell, so we can help you. If you go to the hospital, they can—”

The blanket rippled, and she slipped an arm outside of the cover. It shook as she extended it toward us before pointing at me, her hand shimmying from side-to-side, no longer a consequence of drug withdrawal, but a result of harboring so much hatred for me…that she couldn’t control her body movements.

“What about her?” Alexis asked, turning to me with a querulous look.

I shook my head, trying not to reveal my fright. After all, Zephora had promised to murder me, and since I didn’t intend to die any time soon, I had to stay sharp at all times.

“You…” Zephora shrieked. She finally blinked, but in doing so, she scrunched up her face so much that her white teeth shined in the dark room. “Will pay!”

Alexis snickered and looked back at me. “You did kill her.” She shrugged. “Guess she wants payback. Who could blame her?”

“As I’ve said
numerous
times, I’ve forgiven you. That’s a righteous path.” I pointed to Zephora. “That is not!”

“If you killed me, you bet I’d get my payback. Same thing with Mother.”

“Okay, let me put it in terms you can understand. If Celestina stabbed you in the back and you died but managed to reincarnate fully aware of what you’ve done, would you want to kill her? Not just say it, because that’s too easy, but actually do it.”

Alexis frowned. “I may not be the best mother, but she wouldn’t have reason enough to kill me.”

“That’s not what I asked. If she killed you and you came back to life, would you kill her? Answer the question.”

“No,” she said without hesitation. “I couldn’t
ever
do that.” She hit me with a disdainful glare.

“Of course, it’s because you love her. That’s easy. But what if you carried her to term and then gave her up? Fast forward twenty years. Even if you hadn’t seen her in all that time, would you still be capable of killing your child?”

Alexis presented a stone-faced expression. “She’s going through withdrawal, and you killed her. That’s enough to throw anyone off-balance.”

It seems my argument wouldn’t make an impression on her, so I gestured toward Zephora. “Does she smile like that ordinarily? Does she stare at you without blinking?”

“Maybe after Celestina brought her back, she came back wrong. Besides, you see what she’s going through. Don’t you think she has reason to act weird?”

I couldn’t dispute that claim. “Even Celestina said that it’s not our mother. Why won’t you trust her?”

“With everything that’s been going on? Not only that, but she’s young and naive. She’s impressionable enough to listen to you.”

“You think I brainwashed her?”

“No, but she looks up to you. She wants you to like her, so she might ignore her better judgment and trust you without a second thought.”

Once again, I couldn’t argue that point. “So how do I convince you?”

From behind us came a quiet voice. “Maybe
The Book of Souls
can help us undo that spell.”

I spun toward Celestina. “But it’s not real.” Seeing her gaze swing from mine to her mother’s, I glared at Alexis. “It’s real? All this time, you’ve lied to me, saying that you were looking for it, accusing me of having it, and now you’re telling me…
The Book of Souls
is real? That you had it all along?”

“I didn’t lie. Mother lied.” She shrugged and a sneaky smile appeared on her face.

“It’s a lie of omission. You knew the truth and didn’t say anything!” Seeing that my rationale hadn’t affected Alexis, I said to Celestina, “Your mother and I need to speak alone.”

“Stay right there,” Alexis said. “We needed
The Book of Souls
, so while Celestina was bringing you back to life, I found it in your grandmother’s shop and hid it. Before I left, I took it with me.”

Celestina looked from her mother to me. “I should go.” She started down the hall.

“Hey!” Alexis shouted. “I said, stay here!”

“You need to talk,” said my niece. She continued down the hall until she hooked a left and vanished into the family room.

Relieved that Celestina left the room, yet startled (and proud) she’d disobeyed her mother, I said, “Don’t you have a conscience? Or is it lying at the bottom of a vodka bottle?” Had I seen a flash of anger cross her face before she fixed her customary flat expression back in place?

“I don’t care about that new ability you got,” she said. “I’ll find out how to fight it.”

I punched her in the face. The blow knocked her unconscious, and her body bounced off the invisible force field Zephora had created. I caught her and gently laid her onto the ground.

“What did you do?” Celestina screamed from the other room.

Glancing down the hall, toward the area she’d shouted, I didn’t see her. Had she heard the raucous?

A second later, however, she ran into the hallway and headed toward me. Gasping, she ignored me and skidded to a stop on the ground beside her mother, placing one hand on her shoulder and another against the side of her face. “Why did you hurt her?” She shook her mother.

How had she known I’d even touched Alexis? She’d been in the other room, separated by a wall. She could have heard my fist hit her mother’s face, but the high volume on the television would have masked the sound.

“She may be your mother, but she’s not a good person.” Deep down, Celestina knew the truth, but that didn’t mean she would always try to pretend otherwise. Therefore, I shouldn’t have stated the truth. It would only infuriate her.

“I saw you hit her.” She looked up at me with disappointment in her eyes. “How could you?”

“But how do you—”

“I don’t know how, but when I want to, I can see through other people’s eyes.”

I gave that some thought. It meant Celestina had a fourth ability! Yet, no witch in the family line had more than three abilities. Except Zephora. That’s when I recalled Darius stating that Celestina was the most powerful witch since Zephora. But in what way? That they had similar abilities?

“What does that mean?” I asked, confounded by her admission. “Can you enter another person’s body and possess them?”

She stared at me for a long moment, expression revealing deep frustration. Finally, she said, “No. Sometimes my thoughts drift until I find my way into someone else’s mind. Then I can see through their eyes.”

The idea made goosebumps rise on my arms. What if she could do that to me? Then another, more startling, idea entered my thoughts. What if she already had?

Celestina grabbed her mother’s wrist and felt for her pulse. Finding it, she let out a deep sigh of relief. “Why did you hurt her? She didn’t do anything to you.”

“You mother believes Delphine is still alive. She won’t believe that Zephora has pushed Delphine beyond the veil.”

“So you hurt her?” Her glare intensified.

Who could blame Celestina for acting out? I’d have done the same thing if someone had attacked Grams. “We need
The Book of Souls
to learn how to banish Zephora before she sets her plans in motion. And I’m sorry, but if it means knocking your mother unconscious to get it, I’ll do it. This is more important than me or her or even you!”

“At least you didn’t kill someone else!” Celestina said and turned back to me, her expression mangling into fury. “Why couldn’t you have tried something else?” She got to her feet in one fluid motion, her gaze full of rage. “Why did you hit her?”

My nerves clenched. I had severely underestimated Celestina’s love for her mother, just as I had underestimated Alexis’s love for our mother. But unlike me, they were unable to put distance between each other and see the truth.

No matter what I said, I’d never be able to convince my niece that I’d needed to incapacitate Alexis for a while in order to attempt to approach Zephora and potentially discover how to send her back beyond the veil. Therefore, I tried a different tactic. “Would your mother be okay with you entering her body to see through her eyes?” It made sense that Celestina had that ability, considering that Alexis could access another person’s mind, not to mention force thoughts into that person’s mind. “That’s sort of like what your mother does: stealing another person’s thoughts. You forced yourself into their world without their approval, Celestina! You’re a thief.”

“You didn’t need to hurt her,” she said, disregarding my statement.

The way she stared at me made me feel as tiny and helpless as an ant…while Celestina stood over me, examining me, trying to determine if she should stomp on me. “We don’t have time to convince someone who won’t listen to reason.”

“I don’t care!”

I moved toward her in hopes of shaking loose the retribution whirling through her soul that she wanted to bring upon me.

With alarming reflexes, Celestina directed her left hand toward me.

I flew backwards against the wall opposite her. My bones seemed to stick to the wall like a spider. My head slanted to the left, preventing me from looking at my niece without curving my eyes toward her.

She extended her arm and raised her hand up toward the ceiling.

Without moving a muscle, my body inched up the wall.

“That was mean, Aunt Serena. That was
very
mean!”

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

My body continued up the wall for about two feet before stopping. I glanced down, once again only moving my eyes, and was shocked that Celestina had this much power, this much control. “What are you doing?” I couldn’t eliminate the fear from my tone.

Celestina took two steps forward. Emotionless, she cocked her head to the left, scrutinizing me. “Have you been…lying to me?”

“What? No!”

“I think you have!”

Footfalls pounded at the other end of the hallway: Kendall and Brandon. “Hey,” Brandon said, “what the—”

Celestina arched her other hand in their direction and flicked it at them.

Kendall and Brandon flew six feet backwards and fell in a heap of arms and legs onto the carpet in the family room.

“Celie,” I said, using my nickname for her. “Please don’t hurt them.”

“I won’t hurt them,” Celestina said, inspecting my expression for…something she couldn’t find. She held my gaze for another ten seconds, and then, as though a switch went off behind her eyes, the anger left her expression. She shrugged, and with that gesture, she once more returned to the easy-going niece I knew and loved. “Sorry, Aunt Serena.” She lowered her arm. “I had to be sure you weren’t lying to me.”

My body slipped down the wall, and my shoes hit the carpet again. Out of breath at the strange twist of events, I said, “Okay…” Because, really, what do you say when your little niece had possibly considered torturing you until you convinced her that you hadn’t planned to do her mother harm?

While I regained my wits, I said, “What just happened?”

Celestina’s wholesome expression turned sour. “You hurt Mom. I wanted to know why.” She paused. “I got my answer.” She smiled, but when her gaze fell to her mother’s unconscious form, that expression faltered. “She better be okay.” She stared at me. “I hate that you hurt her.”

“I know.” I didn’t know what else to say except the truth. “I’m sorry.”

Her eyebrows drew inwards.

“What do we do with…” I motioned towards Zephora, whose smile no longer stretched from ear to ear because a sneer had taken its place. Nevertheless, she still shivered in place, possibly trying to determine the dynamic between Celestina and I, so she could manipulate either one of us later.

“She’s sick,” Celestina said, no doubt repeating words Alexis had spoken to her. “We need to let her get stronger.”

“No. We need to stop her, so she
doesn’t
get stronger.” But I’d already pushed my luck by striking her mother. Besides, Zephora made it impossible for us to enter her room. I only hoped she’d stay there. Even so, while she recovered from Delphine’s drug addiction, she still needed another day before her mind meshed with my mother’s body, garnering the supernatural powers that awaited her.

“We can’t leave her like this,” Celestina said, staring down at her mother.

“I’ll take care of that.” I hunched over, slipped my hands under Alexis’s armpits, and dragged her towards her bedroom. I couldn’t do it alone. “Brandon!”

We carried her through the hall, into her bedroom, and onto her bed.

He arrived a few seconds later and looked down at my sister. “Did she black out?”

“Sorta. Grab her legs.”

Satisfied that her mother rested in bed, Celestina said, “I guess we should get
The Book of Souls
, huh? To see if it’s
really
Granny?”

In the bedroom, Zephora’s lips snarled like those of a rabid dog, but she didn’t attempt to unfurl her blanket and attack us to prevent me from checking out
The Book of Souls
.

I nodded at Celestina and watched as she padded down the hall, ignoring Kendall and Brandon, who got to their feet, shrinking back as she neared them, before turning into the kitchen without even acknowledging their existence.

Now out of my niece’s sight line, I let out a heavy breath, shocked at the turn of events. I never would have expected her to attack me, or at least, render me helpless, while she looked on, acting as judge and jury. The notion frightened me. If she responded so coldly, so harshly, what else was she capable of?

“What was that?” Kendall asked with haunted eyes.

I shook my head, unable to answer that question. It seemed that, just as darkness pervaded Alexis’s heart, a similar force existed inside Celestina.

“Aunt Serena,” she called from beyond the kitchen.

“Coming,” I said, quickening my stride, lest I upset her. And that idea got under my skin, since I hadn’t responded this way towards Alexis, Delphine, or even Zephora. I probably acted that way because I hadn’t expected Celestina to exhibit the distant behavior of the aforementioned witches. I’d always considered my niece a practitioner of white magic…not black magic. There was no evidence to prove that Celestina dabbled in the dark arts, but her mercurial demeanor led me to believe I shouldn’t discount that possibility going forward.

“Aunt Serena!”

“Come on,” I said to my friends, both of whom looked reluctant to follow me through the kitchen and into the garage, where my niece had called for me. “She’s just a teenager. There’s no reason to be afraid of her.” But I turned the corner after saying those words because I wasn’t sure if I was trying to convince them…or myself.

I passed through the kitchen, entered the garage, and found Celestina in the center on the room atop the highest rung of a ladder. Only her knees were visible. The upper half of her body was inside the attic.

“I’ve got it,” she said.

I walked over to the ladder and held it sturdy to ensure that my niece had a stable platform to climb down. When she hit bottom, I stared at the brown, oiled leather book that contained so many pages that her arms trembled from the weight in her hands.

“But Zephora said it was a myth, concocted to fool witches who craved power.”

“Get real, Aunt Serena.”

I gave it more thought and realized that Zephora had lied to protect her own interests. Grams had stated that it existed, so why had I overlooked her knowledge and bought Zephora’s lies? Because it was less stressful that way. After all, why would the witches in our line believe it in its existence for centuries? Usually, a myth remained in place because no evidence supported the theory of whatever lay in question. But in this instance, the book existed, and while it wasn’t available for public scrutiny, those who protected it made sure that the others in our line were aware that it existed.

“Well,” Celestina asked. “I hope there’s a spell in here to trap Zephora’s soul in the box again.”

“Flip it open,” I said.

“I’ve never done that before,” she said, nibbling on her lower lip. “I’ve seen Mom and Granny hold it, but I’ve never seen them open it. They always looked afraid of what might happen.” She just stared at the book, as though expecting something to happen before her eyes. Uncertainty and fear crossed her face. “Would you…” She handed it to me.

If Celestina was second strongest witch in our line’s history, with the exception of Zephora, and she was reluctant to open the book, what made her think I’d want to do it? What if I opened it…and a spell cursed me to hell? Or stole my eyesight? Or removed my magical abilities? There were so many potential negative consequences of opening that book that I…did what my niece did, I just stared at it.

“Really?” Brandon asked, coming up behind me. He snatched the book from Celestina’s hands. “It’s a book, not a rat trap. Opening it up won’t slam a metal spring on your fingers.” He tried cracking it open at the middle, but no matter how much pressure he put into, he couldn’t open it. “Weird!” He tensed his muscles and did his best to pull it open. Soon his face turned red from holding his breath and straining to separate the pages.

“Wow,” Kendall said, feigning enamor. “Just don’t join any bodybuilding competitions anytime soon.”

Brandon gave up attempting to pry it open. Irritated, he stared at the book as his breathing returned to normal. He turned to Celestina. “Do you have a hammer?”

“Really?” I chuckled. “What’ll you want after that? A blowtorch?”

He gave me an annoyed expression. “It’s not as easy as it looks.”

“It’s a book. You open it with your fingers. How would a hammer help?”

Kendall said, “Not unless it was Thor’s hammer.” Even then, The Avengers’ flicks have shown that only Thor or The Vision could pick it up. She nodded at Brandon. “Besides, you don’t need a blow torch. Serena can burn anything you want.”

“Just don’t get the S’mores. My control isn’t that great yet, and I’d hate to accidentally burn your eyebrows off.”

“No eyebrows?” Brandon asked, stroking his chin while giving that thought some consideration. “I bet I can rock that look.” Resigned to his inability to open the book, he handed it to me. “It’s probably a magic thing. Give it a shot.”

I accepted it. The leather shined under the light bulb overhead, and it looked and smelled as if someone had oiled it within the past week. It also had a faint dusty scent, which made sense since it had existed for over three centuries.

“Do you think there’s a spell on it?” I asked. “If the wrong person opens it? Since its real, maybe everything I’ve heard about it is true. Only the person who owns
The Book of Souls
can read from it or ask it three questions.”

Rather than allow my nerves to get best of me, I decided to plunge right in without considering the consequences of opening the book: I tried to flip the cover, but as with Brandon’s attempt, the book resisted my touch. I attempted to pull some pages back, but they didn’t budge.

“What now?” asked Celestina in an airy tone. She crossed her arms and pressed them tight against her chest as though a chill had invaded her bones.

“I always suspected Grams wanted you to have it.”

Stepping backwards, she waved off the suggestion as her eyebrows lifted in fright. “I don’t want to…”

Celestina didn’t need to finish her sentence. I knew exactly what she feared, the responsibility that came with accepting the book as her own. Who could blame her? If her mother and grandmother were awestruck at all of the knowledge contained within its pages, how could Celestina possibly have the strength of mind to make wise choices, let alone prevent others from stealing it from her?

I tucked the book in the crook of my arm, walked up to my niece with a smile, and curled an arm around her shoulder, pressing her close to me. “Grams wanted you to have it because she believed in you.”

“But she barely knew me.”

“Up until a couple days ago, I knew her all my life.” Just as I planned to continue speaking, emotion clogged my throat, making it impossible to continue.

“What Serena means,” Kendall said, “is that she thought Grams would have given the book to her, but she chose you instead.”

I nodded as the tears in my eyes no longer threatened to tip out and I once more found my voice. “It would have made me feel that much closer to Grams, knowing that she could depend on me to do the right thing.” And speaking that truth made the tears slip down my cheeks. Why wasn’t I good enough? Why didn’t she trust me? Why didn’t she believe in me enough to take on this task?

Now Celestina was the one who held onto me, passing her palm across my back in a circular pattern. This was how I preferred to regard my niece: kind, loving, and non-judgmental. Still, I couldn’t look past how she reacted under more heated circumstances. I tried to put the latter occurrence out of my mind.

“Meanwhile,” Brandon said, “there’s a psychopath in the house jonesing for heroin or some other toxic substance, and she’s planning to kill your family.”

“Huh?” asked Celestina.

“Yeah,” Kendall said. “After your mother helped you out to the car the other night, Zephora told us she planned to murder Serena.”

Celestina stopped trying to comfort me and instead stepped before me to look into my eyes. “But why?” With worry in her eyes and steadfast resolve in her jaw, she said, “We’re family!”

“She tricked Delphine into allowing Zephora’s spirit to enter her body, and then she moved in and locked the door.”

When Celestina offered me a skeptical expression, I said, “Zephora wants vampires and witches and werewolves and every other supernatural entity to return to this dimension so she could rule them.”

“What about people?”

“Our blood for vampires is like V-8 to a human. A nutritious start to every growing vampire’s day. And werewolves? I’m sure they’ll consider us a tasty morsel.”

After I cleared the tears from my cheeks and eyes, I said, “Grams thought you were our best shot at stopping Zephora.”

“Me?” Her shoulders curled inward. “What can I do?”

“Apparently a lot more than we know.”

“But I’m no one special. Even Granny said so.”

Delphine had verbally and physically abused Celestina. Whether her drug abuse had warped her mind or if Zephora had manipulated Delphine into victimizing Celestina didn’t matter. My niece was scared to death of Delphine. With that mental and emotional barrier, Zephora would be an incredibly difficult opponent for Celestina to defeat.