Secret Of The Rose (Legacy Of Magick Series, Book 2) (25 page)

“Yeah,” I said sighing.

Apparently getting into the retelling of the tale, Ivy pointed at her mother. “Then you and Old Man Drake showed up after Autumn tackled Holly to get her to stop her magick against Leilah. And
he
is going to take care of the damages— and make sure the poppet problems stop because Leilah Martin is his
daughter
?

Duncan sat on a stool beside her. “That pretty much covers it,” he said.

“And I
missed
it. Damn!” Ivy propped her elbow on the counter and dropped her chin in her hand.

Aunt Faye picked up her tea, shaking her head at Ivy. “This is a serious matter, young lady.”

Ivy’s head popped back up. “But I didn’t even know Holly could lose her temper, let alone do something that awesomely advanced.”

I grabbed a bottle of water out of the fridge and took the remaining barstool next to Duncan. “It was
scary
,” I said to Ivy. “There was nothing awesome about it.”

“Where’s Holly now?” Bran asked.

“She’s in my room, resting,” Gwen said.

“I wonder...” Ivy drummed her fingers on the countertop. “Do you figure she did that spell on the fly, or do you think she studied and had the elemental magick prepared?”

I felt a chill run down my back, and it was not from having damp hair. I didn’t even want to contemplate whether or not Holly may have planned and/or practiced those types of magicks in advance. I tried to consider what Ivy said but was distracted by all the peach tulle. “Do me a favor and go change. I can’t take you seriously while you are in that costume.”

“Yeah, it’s starting to bug me a little.” Ivy scratched at the glitter on her face and hopped off the barstool. “Don’t talk about anything good until I get back!” she said and raced up the stairs.

Bran drummed his fingers on the counter glaring at Gwen. “So the man dressed as
The Phantom of the Opera
at the Halloween Masquerade Ball was Thomas Drake?” Bran sounded scandalized. “Mom, you danced with him!”

I found Bran’s tone a little offensive. “Hey, so did I,” I pointed out.

“That was incredibly foolish,” Bran snapped at me.

“Up yours,” I shot back.

“Children...” Aunt Faye sighed at us both.

“Listen while Ivy’s out of the room, there’s something you all need to know...” I said. I psyched myself up and quickly told them everything. From my conversation with Drake on the terrace, to our talk during the dance,
and
how I’d screwed up.

Aunt Faye folded her hands on counter. “He knows about the pages, then.”

Duncan rubbed my back in sympathy. “He’s a manipulative old bastard. Don’t beat yourself up.”

“Yeah, but still. He told me if we returned to the manor within the hour that one of the problems we’d been dealing with would be taken care of,” I said. “And he was right.”

Gwen set her mug of tea down. “He came to me after you all had left and told me close to the same thing.”

“So you came home to check,” Bran said.

“Yes,” Gwen said. “And he followed me back here to prove his words.”

Duncan shook his head. “Do you think he set Leilah up?”

“You know... I have a hunch,” I said to the family. “He reacted when I mentioned the attack on the girls and the poppets. I bet that’s what made him realize it was Leilah.”

Bran dropped a fist on the counter. “Now that he knows we have a part of the grimoire... I think he might be playing us, by trying to act altruistic.”

Bran was right, Thomas Drake very well could be playing us. The five of us sat around the breakfast bar. Everyone seemed lost in their own thoughts. It had been a wild night, and there was a lot to take in.

Gwen broke the silence. “I suppose we should discuss, as a family, what happened with Holly.”

“I am
so
not up for the magickal re-hash,” I said and yawned.

Aunt Faye frowned at me. “Autumn!”

I peered up at the clock in the kitchen. “Guys, it’s almost three o’clock. We’ve had the post-masquerade and Old Man Drake analysis. Can’t we save the Holly-almost-brought-about-the-apocalypse chat until
after
we all get a couple hours of sleep?”

“My dear,” Aunt Faye shook her head at me. “We really must work on that sarcasm of yours.”

“It’s her superpower.” Bran announced and yawned loudly. “But she’s right, let’s all regroup in the morning.”

To my surprise, the family agreed. So we called it a night. After kissing me goodnight, Duncan headed back to his place. Aunt Faye strolled off to her room saying she wanted to meditate on the turn of events with her crystal ball, while Gwen started turning off the lights. I dragged my tired ass up the stairs and shuffled towards my room. I wanted nothing more than my bed. I opened my door and frowned.

“Hi roomie!” Ivy was practically bouncing in excitement as she sat on my bed in her Harley Quinn character t-shirt and black flannel pajama bottoms.

I had forgotten about my temporary roommate.
Give me strength.
“I’m tired. Really want to go to sleep,” I said and slapped off the overhead lights.

“Aw, really?” Ivy pouted. “I wanted to talk.”

For a split second, I gave serious consideration to smothering her with the pillows, but, instead, I shooed Ivy off the full size bed, pulled back the comforter and climbed in. Nimble as a monkey, she climbed over me and got under the covers. I put my glasses in their case, plugged my phone in to recharge, clicked off the nightstand light, and blissfully closed my eyes.

Merlin popped open the bedroom door a moment later and joined Ivy and me. He walked up to the center of the bed, chose the tiny sliver of mattress between us, snuggled in happily and began to purr.

I ran my hand over Merlin’s ears. “We can talk in the morning, Ivy. Let’s try and get a few hours of sleep,” I suggested. Exhausted, I started to feel myself drift off.

“Autumn,” Ivy said.

I jolted awake. “What?”

“Do you think Holly will be okay after all of this? Will she be the same?”

I sighed. “You know more about magick than I do. So, you tell me.” I rolled over onto my back and stared up at the ceiling.

Ivy, never one to respect personal space, tucked herself right up against me. She lay her head against my shoulder. “I don’t know. She crossed the line and used her magick to harm another on purpose.”

Merlin let out a soft meow, as if in agreement.

I automatically patted the cat’s head. “Yeah, she did,” I said. “But once she came back to herself, she also tried to repair the harm she caused.”
God I was tired.
I covered my mouth to hide a yawn.

I heard a scraping sound behind me, and I glanced up. Even though my vision was out of focus, I could see the trio of botanical prints that I’d hung above my bed— had tilted. “Are those hanging crooked again?” I asked Ivy.

“Yeah,” Ivy said yawning herself. “The two on the outside, the yarrow and lavender ones are crooked.”

“I’ll fix ‘em in the morning,” I said. “Go to sleep, Shorty.”

Ivy patted my hip. “I’m so glad you’re here.”

“Me too,” I said, and gave her hand a squeeze.

Merlin continued to purr and stretched a paw out over our joined hands. I smiled a little feeling that soft kitty paw and closed my eyes.

***    

It was the smell of the roses that woke me. Strong and sweet, the scent enveloped me. I opened my eyes and looked blearily around my room. I reached for my glasses and put them on. Now that I could see clearly, I discovered November sunlight streaming through my window. A dozen little rainbows shimmered across the walls from the prisms that hung in my window. But nothing else seemed out of place. I checked the time, it wasn’t quite 10:00 am.

Beside me, Ivy stirred. “Waz that smell?” she mumbled.

The scent of roses intensified.
Ro,
I realized.
Ro was trying to get my attention.
I cleared my throat, “Have I ever mentioned to you that our grandmother’s ghost likes to visit me?”

Ivy sat straight up, her hair was wild and her eyes were huge. “Grandma Rose?”

“I’ve never seen her in the house though, only outside in the rose gardens.” I leaned back against the pillows.

“So what’s with the perfume smell?” Ivy asked.

“She usually does that to get my attention.”

“Wait, what did you say?” Ivy cocked her head and looked at me.

“I
said
, she usually does that to get my atten—”

Ivy held up her hand. “Shut up!”

Surprised at the sharp tone, I did. Merlin’s head popped up from the nest of blankets as Ivy closed her eyes, seemingly listening to something. I sat up and gave her a few moments, then reached out and patted her leg to get her attention. “Hey,” I said.

“I can almost hear a woman’s voice...” Ivy frowned.

I thought back to the night that the ghost of David Quinn had wanted my help so he could communicate with Duncan. “Give me your hand,” I said to Ivy.

She held out her hand to me and as soon as we grasped hands, the voice Ivy could ‘almost’ hear, was now crystal clear— as was the owner of the voice who had materialized in that beam of sunlight.

“There you are, my beautiful girls.” Ro clapped her hands in delight and appeared very corporeal wearing her denim overalls, pink sweater and goofy gardening hat.

Ivy flinched and gasped. “Are you...” her voice trembled, but she recovered quickly. “You’re my Grandma Rose.”

Ro nodded her head. “I am so proud of you both.”

“You’ve never appeared inside the house before,” I managed.

“First time for everything,” Ro said. “I don’t have much time girls, so listen.”

“Go ahead,” I gestured to her with my free hand.

Ro took off the garden hat and held it in her hands. “This quest must be finished with three; as it was started with three. You must look in order to see.”

“What does that mean?” Ivy asked.

“She rhymes. It’s kind of a thing,” I said to Ivy out of the corner of my mouth. To my grandmother’s ghost I said, “begun with three, so the quest has to end with three. Got it.”

“Three what?” Ivy asked.

“
Sub Rosa
,” Ro said, fading.

“Hey, wait, don’t go!” Ivy wailed.

Our grandmother’s apparition held for a few more seconds. She blew us a kiss and disappeared.

I dropped Ivy’s hand, snatched up my phone, and hit the notes app, I added this new information down before I could forget anything Ro had told us.

Ivy flopped back against the pillows and rubbed her hands over her face. “I did not imagine that!” she said.

“Nope, you did not.” I set the phone down and patted Ivy’s arm. “Welcome to
my
world.”

“
Sub Rosa,
what’s that mean, anyway?” Ivy bounced up, climbed off the bed— over a very annoyed Merlin— and started to look around my room.

“It’s Latin. It means,
under the rose
, or a secret.” I watched as Ivy sniffed around the room.

“The scent’s fading.” Ivy stalked towards my closet and, with a flourish, yanked open the doors. “Ah-ha!” She cried, seemingly surprised to see only clothes and shoes inside.

“Ivy,” I tried hard not to laugh at her. “She’s not in there, hiding.”

“Well excuse the hell outta me!” Ivy flung her hands out dramatically. “I saw and communicated with a ghost thanks to you. I wanna check out the room. Maybe she left something behind.”

I got out of bed, “I’m gonna go brush my teeth. If you find any ectoplasmic residue, be sure to let me know,” I said straight faced.

Ivy froze. “Oh my god. Does that usually happen after a sighting?”

“No, I was teasing you,” I said.

When I came back to the room, Ivy scampered across the hall and came back in record time. She seemed disappointed that nothing other-worldly had occurred. “Nothing else happened while I was gone?”

“Nope. So far, so good—” I was cut off by a loud crash that came from right behind me. Merlin let out a screech and high tailed it out of my room.

“One of those old prints you had above the bed fell down,” Ivy whispered. “And it
jumped
right off the wall.”

Sure enough, the center picture was down. I rushed to see where the framed print had fallen. It was leaning against the wall behind my headboard. I hitched up my flannel pajama bottoms, climbed on the bed, and fished it out. The large, deep frame was broken, and the glass was cracked down the middle.

I carried the framed botanical drawing of a wild rose across the room. I knelt down on the rug and flipped the framed picture face down. “I hope the illustration didn’t get damaged.”

Ivy knelt down next to me. “Let me help.” When Ivy touched the frame, the bedroom door slammed shut. All by itself.

I shifted my eyes to Ivy’s. “Did you do that?” I asked her.

Ivy shook her head, no. “This ever happen to you before?” she whispered.

Suddenly, I got it.
Oh god, was it that simple?
“This is the rose illustration,” I said. “Sub Rosa,” I explained to Ivy. “Under the rose.”

Ivy sniffed the air. “Hey, the smell of roses is back.”

“Think our grandmother is trying to tell us something?” As soon as the words left my mouth, the overhead lights went on and off.

Ivy’s eyes were wide. “I’m pretty sure that’s a
yes
.”

“Let’s see,” I said, grabbing a hold of the corners of the broken frame. I pulled with all my strength, but the frame only opened up a little farther. The two large pieces of glass slid free and landed on my lap.

“Don’t move,” Ivy said, before I could ask for help. “Did you get cut?”

“No,” I said.

Ivy gently picked up the glass, setting the pieces aside. Ivy scooted closer. “Let me help you open up the frame.”

“Okay, good.” I nodded. “On three?”

“One.” Ivy took ahold of the opposite side of the frame.

“Two.” I took a deep breath.

“Three!” we said together and pulled as hard as we could. The thick wooden frame drew apart with a screech, and the matted print, backer board and something else, soft and rectangular, plopped onto the floor. I set my half of the frame down, and carefully picked up a thin, magazine-size bundle. It was wrapped in brown paper and tied with red string. As I turned it over, I saw that the package had been fastened with a decorative red wax seal.