Secret Of The Rose (Legacy Of Magick Series, Book 2) (7 page)

Kate stood at a row of brightly painted lockers. She worked the combination and popped open the door and tucked a few books inside. She pulled her backpack out, and a doll tumbled to the floor. Kate frowned down at the doll and picked it up. She glanced around as if to see who had played a prank on her.

Kate shuddered as she stared down at the doll. She ran her fingers over the doll’s brown hair and fiddled with the crude fabric that was wrapped around it. The she hitched her backpack over her shoulder and closed her locker. She walked quickly down the hall and out the door where she seemed to debate as to whether or not to keep the doll. As she looked down at it, she shivered and pushed the doll in an outdoor garbage can that was painted in vertical blue and yellow stripes.

I came back to the present and told the girls what I had seen.

“Look again,” Holly urged. “Where is the doll now?”

I nodded and thought back to ‘seeing’ Kate toss the doll in the outdoor garbage can. But all I could see was the striped garbage can. I frowned and concentrated. Nope. All I saw was that can sitting right outside the door of the school building. I opened my eyes. “I think it’s still in the striped garbage can.”

I carefully set the crystal point down on the photo. I took a deep breath and grounded, centering my energy. Ivy opened the circle, and I sat there wondering what the girls would do next.

“We need to go right now to see if that doll is still in that can,” Cypress said.

“I’ll drive,” I volunteered.

“Okay,” Holly agreed, and the girls rose.

I went to my room for my purse and truck keys. “I can only fit two other people in the truck,” I reminded the girls as they all stood, waiting at the top landing.

“I’ll stay here; let Mom and Marie know what’s happening,” Ivy said.

I felt like something was pushing me to hurry, so I nodded to her and jogged down the decorated manor stairs with Holly and Cypress on my heels.

We grabbed a garbage bag, a carton of salt, then hopped in the truck. I backed up and drove out the conveniently open gates. So far as I knew, there wasn’t a remote control for them, and I still hadn’t figured out how the manor’s gates always seemed to be open or closed whenever I needed to come or go.

Shrugging that off, I drove to the girl’s high school as fast as the law allowed with two cheerleaders riding shotgun. The parking lot was deserted when we got there. I followed Holly’s directions and pulled around the far side of the building.

“This is the closest exit to Kate’s locker,” Holly explained as we all climbed out.

“Give me a second,” I said and fished a pair of gardening gloves out of my glove box. I joined the girls as they approached the garbage can that was, indeed, painted in blue and yellow vertical stripes.

“I can work a reluctance so people won’t notice what we are doing,” Holly said.

“Good idea.” I gave her a minute to work her magick.

Holly softly chanted, and, as I watched, Cypress joined in. In unison they both gestured out with their hands in a circular motion. I saw a shimmer billow out that made me think of a heat wave, and the girls lowered their hands.

“We’re good to go,” Holly said. “It will last for about five minutes.”

“Stand back,” I told the girls as I pulled on the gloves. There was no point in all of us digging in the garbage.

Cypress held out the garbage bag. “Go ahead,” she said.

I carefully pried open the lid on the can and cringed at the sour smell of food that was several days old. I sincerely hoped I would not ruin my new Ouija board t-shirt. With a grimace, I started to pick through the very full can.
God, what a nasty job.

Piece by piece I lifted out trash, and set it to the side of the can. When it got to the point that I would have to lean into the garbage can, I laid it on its side in the grass and kept digging. My eyes were watering and I was fighting back the urge to gag as I worked my way to the bottom.

I felt it before I saw it. My glove covered fingers bumped against something, and my stomach dropped. A shiver rolled down my back. “I think I found it,” I told the girls. But, instead of feeling excitement... I felt revulsion.

I pulled the poppet free and held it up to the afternoon sunlight. Sure enough, it was another fashion-type of doll wearing a crude imitation of the girl’s cheer uniforms. This one had dark hair that was cut to resemble the shoulder length style and bangs of Kate’s hair.

“That’s nasty.” I grimaced and dropped the doll in the new garbage bag.

“By the element of earth, this salt shall contain all evil intent,” Holly said as she poured salt down into the bag and on top of the doll.

While Cypress knotted the bag, I put the school’s trash back in the can as quickly as possible. Once I righted the garbage can and set the lid back in place, the three of us went directly to my truck.

“Autumn, we need to secure this.” Cypress set the bag holding the poppet in the open back of my pickup.

“I’m on it.” I climbed up in the bed and scooted my spare tire on top of most of the bag to keep it from flying out as we drove home. I stripped the gloves off and set them inside the truck bed.

“I don’t suppose either of you have any hand sanitizer on you?” I asked the girls as I climbed back down over the tailgate.

Holly handed the salt carton to Cypress and reached into the cab of the truck. “I do,” she said pulling a mini bottle out of her purse. “It’s made with lavender oil. Lavender is cleansing,” Holly explained.

“Nice.” I held my hands out as she squirted the lavender scented sanitizer. I briskly rubbed my hands together. The girls followed my example, and I glanced down relieved that I had managed not to get any of the nasty on my clothes. That was damn near a miracle.

I was about to climb back into the truck when Cypress put her hand on my arm. “Hang on a second.” Then, to my surprise, she poured a mound of salt into the palm of her hand and tossed all that salt across the bench seat of the truck.

“What’s that for?” I asked wondering how in the hell I’d ever get all that out of my truck.

“To help protect us on the ride home,” Cypress said to me as if I was slow.

I frowned at her. “That’s going to stick to us when we sit down.”

“I could always pour some salt down the inside of your shirt,” she said and started to pour more salt into her hand.

I held up my hands in surrender. “Okay, okay. Point taken.”

“You should see your face,” Holly said and climbed in the cab with a little giggle.

Cypress tossed that second handful of salt into the bed of my truck. It showered down over my gloves, and the tire that held the bag secure. “This is called: covering your ass,” she explained.

“Well,
your ass
can help me clean it up later,” I told her. We climbed in the cab on either side of Holly. Before I could even start the truck, a police car pulled into the school parking lot and slowly headed straight for us.

“Shit,” we all said together.

The officer cruised up and behind my truck. He rolled down his window. “You girls having car trouble?”

I stuck my head out the window, and smiled at him. And for the first time in my life, I lied to a police officer. “Picking up the girls from a late practice. We were just leaving.”

Cypress popped her head out the passenger door and gave a friendly wave. Clearly, the cop didn’t believe us. So, without another word, I started up the pickup and waited for him to move his squad car. I carefully drove out of the school parking lot and back to the manor. He followed us home and waited as we turned into the driveway.

As if by magick, the big ornate metal gates at the end of the drive swung silently closed behind us right after we pulled into the drive.

“One of these days, remind me to ask how that gate works,” I muttered to Holly.

***    

We brought our discovery into the garage and handed the bag over to Marie and Gwen. While the three of us scrubbed up at the work sink in the potting room, Gwen and Marie studied the new poppet.

Marie held her hands over the poppets. “We should remove the bindings,” she said after a moment.

“Agreed.” Gwen nodded.

“Can we watch?” Ivy asked from the doorway.

“You can,” Marie said. “But please stay out of the way.”

With the okay from Marie, Holly, Cypress, and I gathered around Ivy to watch the proceedings— from the relative safety of the potting room door.

“This is
nasty
.” Gwen hissed through her teeth, carefully un-wrapping the dolls from the strips of fabric and twine. “These dolls are filled with very sour energy.”

As I looked on, I noticed they were both wearing latex gloves. “What’s with the surgical gloves?” I said wondering why two experienced Witches would need them.

“They are protecting their hands.” Holly explained patiently.

“From what, chemicals?” I asked.

Cypress nudged me with her elbow. “They are protecting their hands from herbs or oils that may be on the dolls. Plus the gloves protect them from having direct skin contact with any negative energy.”

“Oh,” I said, feeling dumb. I’d worn gloves— but that was mostly because I was digging through the trash. “I didn’t think those two would need to wear them.” I shrugged.

“They are Witches, not super-heroes,” Ivy said.

Once the dolls were unbound, the women took the fabric and twine to the backyard fire pit. I noticed that they put the disposable gloves in a brown paper bag and dumped more salt on top of those before disposing of the gloves in the outside garbage can. I stood and waited on the back patio next to the cauldron shaped fire pit with the twins, Marie and Cypress.

Gwen came out and joined us carrying a bottle of pure grain alcohol. As I watched, she poured the alcohol over the bindings that had been placed inside the cast iron fire pit.

“Stand back a bit,” Gwen said, and, as one, we did.

“By the element of fire,” Marie said. “I destroy these bindings and remove all dark magick contained therein.” Marie struck a match and tossed it into the fire pit. The bindings went up with an impressive
whoosh.

“The flames are blue,” I said, surprised to see the bright blue flames the alcohol had produced.

“That’s the point of using it,” Ivy explained. “The high alcohol content makes things burn hot and fast.”

Fascinated, I watched as Gwen and Marie tended the blaze, making sure that the fabric and twine burned away completely until it was nothing but ashes.

A short time later, we all stood contemplating the poppets on the garage workbench. Still within the original circle of salt I had poured, the two poppets lay side by side. Kate’s poppet was lying neatly next to the poppet that had been in Viviane’s back pack. The bay leaves were rearranged around them and even more angelica had been sprinkled on them.

I peeked over at my aunt, curious as to what she’d do now. Her mood was so grim, and I had a million questions, but I didn’t think this was the time to ask them. Whoever had created the poppets had put a fair amount of work into them. Well, before they had mangled them. I don’t know what was creepier, the effort to make the dolls look like Kate and Viviane in their uniforms or the way the dolls were beaten up.

“There’s still a lot of dark energy attached to these poppets,” Gwen finally broke the silence.

“So we are dealing with a real practitioner,” Marie put her hands on her hips. “Someone with
power
and not a dabbler.”

“A dabbler?” I questioned, unfamiliar with the term.

“Someone who plays at magick. They ‘dabble’.” Marie used her fingers to make air quotes.

“And dabblers are bad?” I asked for clarification.

Gwen crossed her arms over her chest. “A dabbler will try anything with magick, just to see if it works. They play at the Craft, typically disregarding any idea of ethics.”

Oh. I supposed that would be bad. I rubbed my forehead as I thought about the situation.

“I’m going to contain anymore dark magick coming from the dolls with silver,” Gwen said and went back in the house. She returned a moment later with a white piece of cloth, folded and tucked under her arm, and a handful of silverware. The real stuff. The heavy silver table knives were polished to a soft gleam. I had to admire the way Gwen neatly arranged the nine knives, tip to end, in a circle around the poppets.

“By the power of three times three, I contain any lingering negativity,” Gwen chanted as she placed the knives. “Within the silver circle round, all evil is forever bound.”

I felt a little tingle from her magick, then she stepped back and directed us to all join hands. I linked hands with my aunt and Holly and watched the rest of the group join hands as well. Gwen asked us to repeat the charm with her twice more, and I felt a little thrill of energy roll through me as we finished up the containment spell.

Merlin came out and went straight for the garage workbench. I started to reach for him as he sniffed at the poppets. However, before I could grab him, Merlin’s back arched up. His eyes narrowed, and he let out a loud feline hiss. He backed up, hissed again at the poppets, and hightailed it off the workbench scampering back into the house.

“Well,” I said and tried to keep a straight face. “I was wondering why you weren’t worried about the cat getting into all of that.”

“Merlin’s got better instincts than most people.” Holly smiled at that.

“The dark magick has been contained for now,” Gwen said as she unfolded the white cloth and covered up the poppets. “Viviane and Kate should both be safer and heal quickly.”

“What about us, Mom?” Holly asked. “Are we safe with those things in the garage?”

“I want to keep them here for now. It’s fine. Don’t worry about it.” Gwen headed for the door to the potting room.

As if in agreement, everyone went back in the house. I couldn’t help but look over my shoulder at the poppets that lay on the workbench under that cloth. It gave me the creeps knowing they were out there, but if Gwen said they magick was contained, I should trust her.

Shouldn’t I?