Secret Of The Rose (Legacy Of Magick Series, Book 2) (17 page)

Rebecca offered up her spot on the sofa. “I’m going to make everyone some tea,” she said going into the kitchen. Duncan followed her to allow us a little privacy.

The twins sat side by side staring at me. I waited to see what they’d say. It was so quiet that I could hear the old clock on the mantle ticking. “I can’t believe no one ever told us.” Holly broke the silence first. “In all these years...”

“Bran’s technically our brother, since mom adopted him. But he’s your
biological
brother,” Ivy said.

“Half-brother. Technically,” I corrected.

“The fact that they kept this a secret from us, is such bullshit,” Ivy said, succinct as always.

“I’m gonna have to agree with you on that one, Shorty.” I leaned back in my chair.
God I was tired.

Holly scrubbed her hand across her face, smearing what was left of her makeup. “Mom said that you figured it out because of an old family tree you’d found?”

“I’ve actually got it with me,” I said to the twins. “Are you up for seeing the book?”

“Bet your ass,” Holly said.

I had to smile at the combination of the grim voice, and the smeared all to hell makeup, on my normally flawless cousin. I went over and pulled the book out of my backpack for the girls to see.

While the sun brightened the eastern sky, my cousins and I sat with the big old book on Duncan’s coffee table and studied the family tree. Rebecca fussed over us, which I found endearing. She passed out mugs of tea and offered support in her calm and gentle way. Duncan scrambled up a big batch of eggs for everyone, Rebecca handed Holly a washcloth and suggested she wipe off the rest of her makeup before she eat.

After breakfast, we were all pretty wiped out. Rebecca offered the girls a blanket, and Holly and Ivy crashed on the big sofa. The girls lay together, and within minutes they were asleep. As I watched, Rebecca murmured a few words, pushed her hands out in front of her, and a ripple of energy rolled out in an expanding circle. I felt a warm comforting energy hit me, and it spread throughout my whole body.

“For a little extra protection, I’ll check on everyone later,” she said, leaving quietly. Duncan locked the door behind her and we went to go lay down in his room.

“Your mom is one talented Witch. I could see and feel that spell ripple out. I wonder if she’d work with me. I really need to learn more, and I have to learn fast.”

“She’d probably love that.” Duncan toed his shoes off.

I yawned as I laid down on top the covers, still in my clothes from the day before. “Thanks for cooking breakfast for everyone.” My mind was spinning with everything I’d learned. “I owe you a dozen eggs,” I said randomly.

“No worries.” Duncan spooned up behind me and wrapped his arm around my waist. “Turn off your brain, and try and get some rest,” he suggested.

“I’ll try.” I yawned again, cuddled back against him and somehow managed to fall sound asleep.

***    

There was only so long we could avoid returning to the manor. Holly, Ivy and I decided we’d imposed on Duncan long enough, and by Sunday afternoon, we were ready to go back and face the inevitable. Duncan had called Officer Lexie, so we knew the police had concluded their investigation, and had finally left the house. I couldn’t quite manage a conversation with her after what I’d walked in on.
God, had it been only yesterday?

The ornate wrought iron gates at the end of the driveway swung open as we approached. I pulled my truck in behind several cars that were parked along the double driveway.

“I see Cora’s car, Marie’s car, and Violet’s van for the flower shop,” Holly said.

I pulled up behind a sleek hybrid car. “Whose car is that?” I nodded at the expensive midnight blue vehicle. There were vanity plates on the hybrid that read ‘I SEE U’.

“I don’t know.” Ivy frowned at the car.

The three of us trooped up to the front porch with me leading the way. I tripped over the last step when I spotted a quaffed elderly woman sitting on the porch swing. She had long white hair pulled back into a sleek braid that trailed over her shoulder. Boxy peach colored sunglasses covered her eyes, and she wore a patterned shirt in shades of red and yellow. Trim faded jeans ran down her legs and ended at brown leather boots.

“Hello?” I said, struggling to think of the last time I had seen an elderly woman look so fashionably put together.

“Well,” she tucked the sunglasses up on top of her head, and stared at us out of pale and piercing eyes. “The three of you decided to come back, after all.” She began to drum her fingers on the arm rest of the swing, and I saw large stone rings flashing on every manicured finger.

“Great Aunt Faye!” Holly and Ivy leapt forward, and the woman stood up to embrace the girls.

I stood back, studying my grandfather’s sister. This was the relative who was also a Medium and a Seer, like me. The old photo I had gotten from Gwen hadn’t done her any justice. She had the face and build of a fashion model. As she embraced the twins, I wondered what she was doing here. Then with a sudden flash of insight;
I knew.

Faye looked over the top of the girls’ heads and studied me in return. “Hello Autumn,” she said to me formally.

I hooked a thumb over my shoulder towards the hybrid. “Nice vanity plates on your car,” I heard myself say.

“Yes, they are very appropriate,” she said as she continued to watch me.

“Gwen called you.”

“She did.” She made no move to embrace me as she had the girls.

“Are you here to help me
or
to help smooth over the recent family dramas?” I asked her flat out.

Ivy shook her head and laughed a bit. “Hard ass.”

“She needs to be.” Aunt Faye gave the girls a hug then focused on me. “You shoot straight from the hip. I like that. Honesty is a vital quality in a Seer.”

“But not a vital quality found in a large percentage of this family— apparently,” I said.

“I understand that you are upset…” Great Aunt Faye began.

“Lady, you don’t know the half of it,” I snarked back.

“We still have time to sort all of this out.” My great aunt walked to the front door and shooed the twins inside.

Holly and Ivy glanced back at me. “I’ll be right in,” I promised them. I hoped the girls were up for facing their mother, and when I heard voices raised in greeting, I knew that Violet, Cora and Marie were there, and were running interference.

“You’re protective of the girls.” Aunt Faye crossed her arms, regarding me steadily.

“Yes, I am.”

She nodded at that. “Good. They’ll need you.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked her.

Aunt Faye waved my question away. “Some of Gwen’s coven is here, helping to put the house back in order.” She held the door open for me, giving me a look that was clearly a dare to go inside.

I raised my eyebrows at her and strolled in.

“For now,” she said, “I want you to sit with me and tell me about this grimoire, the encounters you’ve had so far with ghosts, and what’s been happening here.”

“That might take a while,” I warned her.

“Then let’s get started.”

***    

I liked her. I hadn’t expected to. I’d figured Gwen had called the old Witch in to run interference, but damned if Great Aunt Faye hadn’t started to grow on me. I tried to figure out if her eyes were a pale green or icy blue. Maybe they were gray, but no matter their color, her gaze was startling and direct. I had no doubts the woman was a Seer. When it came to the subject of me interacting with ghosts, she’d smiled and simply assured me that she could help me gain a little control in that area. I sincerely hoped she would.

Aunt Faye and I had been sitting at the worktable in the now cleared potting room, when Bran walked by us with a bag of trash, and then past us again as he came back inside. He tried to ignore me, but Great Aunt Faye, it seemed, had other ideas.

“You, young man. Stop your sulking and show me these pages my great-niece has found.”

Bran’s head had whipped around. “I would be happy to show you the pages, Great Aunt Faye. If you’d follow me,” he said. While he was polite and formal to our great aunt— he still glared at me. “And for the record. I am
not
sulking.”

“Whatever.” I rolled my eyes. Now that I had gotten a good look at him, I could see that his nose was swollen. I tried not to feel proud that I’d done that, and failed.

That’s nothing to be proud of, young lady.
Aunt Faye’s voice was crystal clear in my mind, as we followed Bran up to his room to view the pages of the Blood Moon Grimoire.

I stared at the back of her silver head and concentrated on sending my thoughts back.
The condescending asshole had it coming.

Her shoulders shook from holding back laughter. Ah, so my message had been received. She could both send
and
receive thoughts. That made her a true telepath. I wondered what other tricks she had up her high fashion sleeves. And more importantly, would she teach me?

Oh, I’ll teach you, my dear. I give you my word.
I ‘heard’ her say in my mind.

I tried to repress my excitement at the hope that someone could teach me some control with the psychic abilities. So far, Gwen had taught me psychic self-defense, a little protection magick, Craft basics, the Witches holidays, and rules... Lots of rules. It was frustrating, but I’d tried to be patient.

I’d actually learned more of what I was capable of from spending time with the twins and Duncan than formal lessons from Gwen. Ivy managed to sneak in a few more lessons over the past weeks, and Duncan had asked his mother to work with me. Learning from many different sources might be a good thing. At least I had a hunch it would be good for me.

We filed into Bran’s room and waited while he retrieved the pages from the hidey hole in his closet. To my surprise, the pages were now inside of a locked heavy box.

“You have the pages contained inside of lead,” Aunt Faye said.

“Yes,” Bran said as he flipped open the outer box to reveal the archival box. Inside the archival box, wrapped in acid free tissue paper, the pages of the grimoire waited.

“That’s new. Why a lead box?” I asked.

“Lead helps dull any magickal vibrations coming from the pages,” Bran said.

I frowned at him. “That’s a little bit of an overkill, isn’t it? It’s not like the pages are radioactive.”

Aunt Faye held her hands out over the pages, but did not touch them. “The pages do emit a very strong energy, and it
is
negative.”

“I have a hard time touching the pages, even with gloves on. They make me feel sick,” Bran admitted.

I glanced at the pages, and felt nothing coming from them. If anything, they made me want to pick them up to study them. I watched Aunt Faye. She carefully took cotton gloves from Bran, put them on, and then, using a pair of tweezers, turned a few pages. When she flipped over a third page, it slid off the tissue paper and landed on the floor.

She and Bran both jumped back.

I rolled my eyes and gently picked up the page by the outside edges. “Don’t you guys think you are overreacting?” I was more worried about the page being on the floor than touching an outside edge. But I still set the page directly back in the open archival box. “The pages are so pretty, why are you two acting so weird?”

I took a pair of gloves from the stack Bran had out, put them on, and rearranged the pages into two neat stacks. After I finished, I glanced up to find them both studying me.

“What?”

“Do me a favor.” Bran pulled a glove off my hand. “Touch the grimoire pages directly with your hands again.”

The look on both of their faces kept me from making a snide comment. So I peeled off the gloves, and gently set my fingertips at the edges of the pages, making sure to keep my fingers away from the illustrations and the printed words.

I felt a little tingle in my fingertips. My hands grew warm and a little hum of energy rolled up my arms. I smiled down at the pages. This particular one had an illustration of a rose bud in front of two overlapping triangles. Words in what looked like Latin were written around the central symbol. The various phases of the moon were beautifully drawn, curving above the rose and overlapping triangles. The design was stunning.

Bran said the pages made him feel sick. But to me, the sensation was warm, and it made me feel stronger. Almost as if the pages were infusing me with energy. I gazed down at the pages and blinked in surprise.
Wait a second, was something changing on the page?

I gasped, realizing that the illustration had started to move. “Wow, can you guys see this?” I asked them.

The images shifted as I held my fingertips on the page. The drawings and the print actually reformed, becoming something else. As I watched, the illustration of the rose bud transformed into a fully open rose. The pages seemed brighter, almost as if they were alive. Unsure of what to do, I peeked up at Aunt Faye.

“Hold on,” Aunt Faye said.

Bran had whipped out his smart phone. He was taking a video of the shifting images on the pages. “Autumn,” he said after a few moments, “let go of the pages and step back.”

I lifted my hands, and the images stopped moving. That strange illumination faded, and I made myself take a few steps back. It was hard though, I wanted my hands on the grimoire again.

Bran and Aunt Faye exchanged glances, then they both stared at me.

I crossed my arms over my chest. “I take it from your reaction, that hasn’t happened to anyone else?”

“No. It hasn’t.” Bran shook his head.

“Well shit,” I said.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Fun Fact: If you want to freak out a family of Witches—all you have to do— is be the only person able to handle antique grimoire pages, full of dark magick, without suffering any nasty physical side effects. Oh, and if you
really
want to make them jumpy... make the pages come alive and light up with your touch.

On the up side? My
brother
gave me a very wide berth for the next few days. If I would have known that’s all it would have taken, I’d have slapped those pages in the middle of the kitchen counter and showed off my mad ‘make-the-grimoire-come-to-life’ skills weeks ago.