Forgotten Visions (The Divinities Book 1) (2 page)

Kalissa needed answers
. Eighteen months was long enough to sit by and wait for the authorities. The building frustration said it was time to take matters into her own hands.

After much debate and hours of heated discussion, she’d finally convinced her twin to go into the attic to search through their parents’ things in hopes of finding clues about their deaths.

On her way up the stairs of the mansion-sized farmhouse, the familiar country vibe their mother loved swirled around Kalissa. She and Khloe shared the same love of their home, and couldn’t imagine living anywhere else. That’s why, at thirty-two, they still lived there. It was almost customary. Witches lived in covens; communities where
magickin
—witches, fae, and other magic-born beings—lived away from human judgment and prejudices.
Magickin
lived together for most of their lives.

The fact that she and her twin were Divinities was all the more reason to stay close to the coven. There were things lurking in the shadows that wanted possession of the god-like powers running in their blood. 

In the attic, she cast a longing glance around the room and the boxes that held their parents’ lives. Converted to a home office a month after her parents had moved in, it looked like the rest of the rooms throughout the house. Walls painted white with honey maple wood trim. Their mother’s personal touches were scattered throughout the office, lavender and sage curtains hanging from the single small window. Family photos from all stages of life littered the shelves and walls. Kalissa didn’t have the heart to take any of them down.

That would be too much of a goodbye. So they would remain as a positive reminder of the loving family they’d once been.

She took a deep, shaky breath and pushed on. It was hard to part with their parents’ belongings, but they couldn’t hold on to everything. Kalissa’s heart ached for the loss of the two people she’d wrapped her life around.

“Hey, Lo, look at this,” she said as she pulled a sheet of paper out of a box. The drawing had two big stick people with two little stick people. There was no hair, no hands, and no feet. In the left-hand corner, was a round purple object. Kalissa looked at the drawing more closely. Little Ws in the sky represented birds flying, and the white, puffy clouds told her it was daytime. It was just like her mother to keep their drawings from when they were children. Kalissa inhaled deeply to keep from bursting into sobs.

“Oh, my gods! That is so funny.” Her sister leaned over to take the drawing from her. She had a smile on her angelic face that Kalissa hasn’t seen much of since the deaths. Khloe turned it over. “Mama wrote on the back.
‘Khloe, age four.’
”  

“This whole box is full of them. We could make scrapbooks of them by age.” Kalissa closed the flaps on the box and moved it to the ‘keep’ pile. She stood from her chair and stretched, arms straight up over her head with fingers laced.

With a heavy heart, Kalissa moved to the desk and picked up the pile of books that were going to the children’s hospital in Jacksonville. Their mother had read those books to them when they were little. Sorrow enveloped her at the thought of parting with them, but she knew the kids at Wolfson’s would enjoy them as much as she and Khloe had. 

“What’s this?” Khloe held out a star-shaped, wooden box.

Kalissa glanced curiously at the hand-carved oak container. After placing the books inside an empty box, she took the five-pointed star from her sister. At closer inspection, there was no visible opening. Puzzlement twirled in her mind, quickly replaced by a nosey need to figure the thing out.
What is it?
She silently repeated Khloe’s question.

It looked like one of her mother’s trinket boxes at a glance. But it was different. Magical essence coated the wood and made it warm to the touch. The wood felt almost alive, enchanted. 

“It could be spelled,” Khloe chimed in.

“Where did you get it?”

“In here.” Khloe looked inside the box that she was going through. A piece of her pink-streaked blond hair escaped her ponytail and fell on her face. Their hair and eyes were the only way to tell them apart. Khloe had teal eyes and had cast a glamour spell over her hair so it was a light blond with pink streaks on either side of her slightly oval face.

Kalissa never cared for glamour, never wanted to bring any kind of attention to herself. Her very vivid violet eyes did that enough.

“Ah!” Khloe extracted another, larger wooden box and opened it. “There are ritual items in here. Salt, chalk…” She lifted a piece of parchment paper and carefully unfolded it.

“What is it?” Kalissa moved closer.

“Instructions,” Khloe stated in a matter-of-fact tone. Kalissa rolled her eyes as her sister read through the directions.

“Set the star in a circle. Touch each point, and recite the corresponding element counterclockwise, starting with south.”

“What?”

Khloe laughed out loud, and Kalissa couldn’t hold back her own smile. Picking up the glass jar of salt, Khloe made a perfect circle on the hardwood floor, big enough for the star-shaped box. She took the box from Kalissa and set it inside the circle. Slowly, she touched the left bottom star point. “Fire.” She moved to the point to the right, “Air,” and continued around speaking the remaining elements of each point: earth, spirit, and water.

When she was done, she raised her hand above the pentacle and said, “I will thee to open. So shall it be.”

The top of the star clicked and unlocked.

Kalissa raised her eyes to meet her twin’s. Khloe gave a shrug and motioned to open it. A whiff of her mother’s perfume hit Kalissa as soon as the lid was removed. Tears stung the backs of her eyes as she lifted the box to her nose and inhaled. A blend of tuberose and vanilla oils invaded her senses, wrapping around her like the hug she longed for. Her mother’s face instantly came to mind. Her beautiful smile. The twinkle in her eyes when she looked at her family. Then Kalissa held the star out to Khloe and watched her vivid teal eyes fill with tears as she took in their mother’s scent.

Blinking back the tears, Kalissa pulled a single sheet of paper out of the container. It was a letter from their mother.

Hello, my angels,

If you are reading this, then I am not with you. That thought deeply saddens me. I had hoped to explain things to you before my passing. I wish I could be there to help you on your journey. I regret not sharing what I’m about to reveal to you before now. For that, I am so sorry. I had only meant to protect you. The demons are looking for the Sinew, the Divinity power source. It is now up to you to recover the Sinew and find others like you. You will know each other through your birthmarks. Remember what I taught you about your special gifts. Follow the clues I left at the address inside the pentacle, rebuild the Divinities, and protect the Sinew from evil.

Love always, Mom.

Other Divinities?
The only others Kalissa knew of were their mother, Noah Daniels—the Maxville Coven elder—and Ayden Daniels—Noah’s grandson and the new sheriff. As far as she knew, there weren’t many Divinities left. They were born to rare and ancient witch bloodlines. Each bore a unique birthmark, a vivid red rose with a lush green stem and leaves etched on the inside of their left forearm. 
Magickin
lore claimed that they were gifts from the gods to help protect them from evil with their Divine gifts and god-like powers.

So what was she to do? Go around searching witches’ arms for the Divine Rose?

Kalissa peered back into the pentacle case for the rest of the contents. Sure enough, a second slip of paper that held only a street address rested inside.      

Khloe shifted to the laptop they’d brought with them and did a Google search. The address came back as a small law office in Charlotte, North Carolina.

They looked at each other knowingly. A spark of hope rose in Kalissa’s aching chest. This had to be the lead they were waiting on. Of course, the address could prove to be nothing, but it was more than they’d had moments before.

“I guess you’re going to Charlotte?”

Kalissa frowned at her sister’s soft-spoken tone. The longing to investigate together lingered between them. She wanted Khloe to come too but knew a certain deputy would put a halt to all travel plans. “You have to stay here and cover for me. You know what Zach said at the accident site.” And several times during the last year and a half.

Khloe smirked. “I know. He’s going to be so mad at us.” 

Kalissa rolled her eyes. He had told her not to follow leads on her own, but she had to search this out. No way was she telling Zach Manus, deputy and acting sheriff until Ayden arrived, about the letter and that she was doing her own investigating. He would wrap up this morsel in so much red tape it wouldn’t see the light of day. He would say it was a matter of police business. But he would be wrong. It was Divinity business, and as a Divinity herself, Kalissa had every right to explore the one clue left by her mother.

After discovering the address, they sat down to collaborate on a story to tell Zach. It would be the first time either of them had ever lied to him. Since he was empathic, could they even pull it off?

The following morning
, Kalissa hopped into her Mercedes and headed to Charlotte.

Guilt crept up inside her for leaving Khloe home. Feelings of shutting her out played heavily on Kalissa’s mind. But they did have two businesses to run. Even though the Coffee Café did well enough and had a very dependable staff, she still worried about leaving town.

Bradenton Design, on the other hand, was Khloe’s domain, and she had a deadline to meet.

One of them had to stay behind. Since Khloe had threatened bodily harm if Kalissa ever got near her computer graphics business, Kalissa had made the trip to check on the address.

Five hours into the trip, her phone rang, like it did every hour. She pressed a button on her steering wheel that allowed her to talk hands-free—thanks to Bluetooth technology and Khloe’s know-how to install it.

“Hi, Lo.”

“Are we there yet?” Khloe giggled.

Kalissa laughed. “Almost. Tom Tom says it’s another thirty minutes away.”

“Oh, good. Because I am exhausted.”

Kalissa rolled her eyes, only realizing her sister wasn’t there to see it. “You’re not the one driving.”

“Yeah, but all this anxiety has done a number on my nerves.” The smile had left Khloe’s voice.

Kalissa sighed. They hated to be apart from each other. The only other time they’d spent more than twenty-four hours away from one another was when Khloe had stayed the night in the hospital after taking cold medicine. They’d found out the hard way that night that she was highly sensitive to medications and alcohol.

“So, what time are you going to the…conference in the morning?”

She smiled. Zach was there, and Khloe didn’t want to give anything away. They’d told him Kalissa was going to a restaurant seminar just outside Charlotte. Kalissa had every intention of attending the seminar. Zach thought it was a weekend-long conference and trade show. It was actually a lunch-and-learn event. The attendees were to meet at the conference room in the hotel Kalissa was staying at around noon, have a catered lunch, and then listen to a couple of CEOs from some of the largest restaurant chains in the United States talk about management and leadership skills. It was going to be a very boring afternoon. If all went well, Zach would never know her real reason for going to North Carolina.

Zach, Khloe, and Kalissa had grown up together and treated each other like family. He was the protective older brother they’d never had, and he would blow a gasket if he knew what Kalissa was up to. He’d told her that he would handle it and that she was to trust him to get to the bottom of her parents’ deaths. Eighteen months later, Zach was no closer than he was the first day.

She doubted the new sheriff would be any better. Even if he was Zach’s cousin.

“I’ll be there as soon as the doors open,” she answered. Khloe fell silent. “I’ll let you go and call you in the morning.”

Khloe released a heavy sigh. “Okay. Call when you get up before you do anything else.”

A soft laugh escaped Kalissa’s lips. She could almost see the pout on her sister’s face. “I promise. Love you.”