Tethered 02 - Conjure (22 page)

“Funny. I love how you drop a bomb on me like that and then choose to have a sense of humor all the sudden.” I frowned.

“I’ve always had a sense of humor,” he said. He corked the lemon-scented bottle. “But I haven’t known you were such a basket case until now.”

“I’m not even going to justify that with a response,” I said, and then dropped my eyes to the table of stuff he’d brought with him. They landed on a black bag that rested in the center of the table. It seemed filled with something fairly large and in the shape of a rectangle. “What type of spell are you going to attempt tonight and how long will it take? Because I’ve got company downstairs, in case you haven’t noticed. I’d prefer if she didn’t wake up and find me up here with you performing Hoodoo spells or whatever the hell you call this.”

“She won’t. There’s a glamour in the living room. She’ll think you’re still sleeping on the couch beside her if she wakes. There’s also a noise reduction charm in this room so she won’t hear a single thing coming from it,” he said matter-of-factly.

I pursed my lips together and raised my eyebrows to my hairline. “Awesome, so you could kill me right now and no one would hear me or even bother to search for me until the glamour in the living room wore off. Comforting.”

“Trust me, if I wanted you dead, I would have let you die the night you jumped off the cliff,” he said as he mixed something that looked like brown dust into the bowl with the lemon-scented herb.

“That was before you realized if you saved me you’d be tethered to me for an unknown length of time,” I muttered. I pushed around some herbs he’d dropped with the tip of my finger along the tabletop.

“Doesn’t matter. I still wouldn’t want you dead,” he said with more conviction than I thought possible. Irritation swept through me, tightening my facial muscles and causing me discomfort all over. It came from Theo. “Contrary to popular belief, not every Hoodoo practitioner is out for death and destruction. We’re healers and helpers too.”

There was a sincerity that flashed brightly within his eyes. It was intensified by the conviction of his words and the belief he’d invested in them during our conversation. I was suddenly in awe of him as I realized he was a more complex man than I gave him credit for being.

“So…what’s in the bag?” I asked. We desperately needed a subject change. “You never did answer my question about the type of spell you were going to attempt tonight.”

“It’s a black mirror.”

“Black mirror? What’s that for?” I asked, bemused. I’d never heard of a black mirror before. Well, unless he meant one that simply was in a black frame. Somehow I doubted that was what he’d meant though.

“To see things…” he said as he unveiled the mirror.

It was a solid black mirror, which appeared to have a chalky texture smeared on the glass. Theo carefully leaned it against the bowl filled with the herbal and dirt-like mixture he’d concocted from several vials and bottles. He then rubbed an oil with a slightly minty scent along the edges of the mirror.

“To see what?” I stared fixedly at his movements.

“Why this tether was created in the first place.”

A sense of calm enveloped me as I thought back to what Admer had said to me, all the ways a tether could be broken. If we knew the reason it had been created in the first place—its purpose—then maybe we could force that along and speed up the entire process to make it disappear.

“Good, this is one of the ways to break it,” I blurted out.

Theo’s lips pressed into a fine line as he shifted his gaze to me. “How do you know that?”

I could feel his skepticism rising. His eyes continued to burn through me as I shifted between emotions of dread and nervousness, knowing he could feel both.

Theo stood to his full height. “What’s going on? What is it you want to hide from me right now?”

I shifted my gaze to Binks, who lounged on the love seat, unable to meet Theo’s eyes. He would definitely not like what I was about to tell him.

“Admer was there the other night, at the cliff. He saw us performing that spell.”

I didn’t have to look at Theo to know his reaction, because I could feel it. My pulse raced and heat spread through my body as each muscle stiffened within me. Theo was angry.
Very
angry.

“How did I miss him? How did I not know he was there?” he asked through gritted teeth.

“He was using a glamour, like the kind you use,” I offered, hoping this piece of knowledge calmed him some.

It did no such thing.

“Doesn’t matter. I should have been aware of him and I wasn’t.” He paced back and forth around where he had stood. “If he tells my mother or my grandmother, I don’t know what will happen.”

I swallowed hard. The thought of Admer telling the Van Rooyens of my tether with Theo had never crossed my mind. Now that it did, Admer knowing seemed like a bad idea.

“What would they do if they found out?” My voice was small and unsteady.

Theo paused in his panic and glared at me. “They may kill you to break it.”

My heart stopped and then restarted. Silence filled the room, suffocating me with its presence while I grew lost in my thoughts.

“He told me there are other ways of breaking the tether,” I said, hoping one of the alternatives to waiting it out sounded better to Theo than his family learning about it from Admer.

“I know,” he said. He pressed his palms against the table we stood at and hung his head. “The only one that sounds decent is this one—figuring out why the tether was put into place.”

I sighed. “I know.”

“Clear your mind and let’s get to it then,” he demanded, straightening himself.

“Easier said than done,” I muttered as I closed my eyes and attempted to take in some calming breaths.

“I’m going to have to prick your finger again. This is the best way to gain a direct connection to your mother’s past,” Theo said, his velvety voice rolling over me as I continued to focus on my breathing.

I opened my eyes and held out a hand. “Dear God, please let this be the last time.”

A smirk twisted Theo’s full lips as he gripped my hand gently and readied himself to draw blood. That same spark of amusement flickered through me, carried on the current of incredible warmth caused by his touch.

“I hope so too,” he said as he pierced my fingertip with a needle.

A dark scarlet drop formed. Theo wiped it off with a piece of white cloth and then released my hand as quickly as he’d grabbed hold. I watched as he lit the piece of cloth on fire and dropped it into the ivory bowl. Long, curling tendrils of grayish-white smoke rose from within and swirled in front of the black mirror as though they were drawn to it.

“Center your mind and stare into the mirror,” Theo said, his voice sounding low and hypnotic. “We should both be able to see a glimpse into your mother’s past that involves this tether and its purpose.”

Inhaling deeply, I fixed my eyes on the chalky surface of the mirror and stared. Gradually, my breathing deepened and slowed to a steady pace.

“Concentrate on your mother and what it is you want to see,” Theo continued.

A few of the snapshots Callie had shown me flashed through my mind, until I settled on one in particular. The picture taken at the beach—the one where she was reading and casting a yearning glance in Admer’s direction. I shifted my train of thought to the tether then, reliving the moment it happened.

The smoke grew thicker, clouding my view of the mirror almost completely. It seemed to cling to the surface and dance across it at the same time. I looked intently at it, mesmerized by the way it moved. Theo stood beside me doing the same. His nearness hummed through my veins, and I could feel his wholehearted absorption in what he was doing and the anticipation of whether or not it would work flicker through me. I wondered what it was that he felt from me, but before I could dwell on the thought for too long, he began to whisper words in that strange language I’d heard him use before and the smoke cleared.

I watched, captivated, as the smoke dispersed into nothing. A sudden jolt of triumph flooded me; it mixed with my fear of the unknown, which twisted in my gut and made me instantly feel nauseous.

A sensation of motion occurred next. It tossed my mind slightly off balance, but only because I knew I wasn’t moving. I could still feel myself standing perfectly still. I was pulled into the blackness of the mirror then. Its chalky reflection was all I could see. There was only one way to describe what I felt—I was sinking into a vortex. My peripheral vision darkened, making the room disappear around me, and the mirror became the only thing visible.

A smudged image began to appear on its surface, but I couldn’t make it out. The hazy silhouette of two people sitting on a bed while staring at something began to form. I inhaled sharply when the image became clearer. It was my biological mother, Angela, and the other person was Susan, Callie’s mom.

My vision became distorted then. My ears hissed and rang loudly. My stomach twisted and everything suddenly felt as though it were moving again. The sensation of free falling made sweat bead against my brow. I wanted to speak, to cry out to Theo, but couldn’t… The vision had overcome me.

“I don’t know about this, Angela,” Susan said, her voice shaking with uncertainty. “This seems a little dark, doesn’t it?”

Angela shifted on the bed and glared at Susan directly in the eyes. “You were the one who suggested we ask the creepy Van Rooyen lady if glimpsing the future was possible.”

“I was joking,” Susan replied sternly. “I didn’t think you’d actually run off to strike a deal with the Voodoo Queen at the other end of town!”

Angela stroked the purple velvet bag. “I didn’t strike a deal with her, I paid her, and she’s not a Voodoo Queen, she’s a Hoodoo Conjurer.”

“You really think there’s a difference? Or that it even matters? She does bad things, Angela!” Susan shook her head. “I just don’t think we should be doing this. If you were supposed to see the future, then don’t you think you’d have that power instead of the element of Fire? It’s unnatural.”

“No, it’s not. It’s the same as those Tea Readings you’re studying about.”

Susan’s mouth dropped open. “Not even close! This, what you want to do, is Hoodoo! You want to glimpse into your own future and see what it holds for you and your secret baby! Looking at your own future is wrong, Angela! Plain and simple.”

Angela frowned at her friend. “All I want is to see what happens to the three of us.” She placed her hand on her stomach and a dazed look entered her hazel eyes. “I want to make sure we’re happy together… I want something good to look forward to.”

Susan scooted back against the cherry wood headboard and crossed her arms over her chest. “Well I’m not doing it. I’ll sit here and make sure you don’t go into convulsions or something from touching it, but I’m not participating. I want my future to unfold naturally.”

“That’s fine…” Angela said softly with a shrug of her shoulder. “I can always save the other one for a later date.”

Susan’s foot wiggled frantically as she glared at her friend. “You know by seeing this you’re altering your fate already, right?”