The Psychic Legacy

Chapter 26: Belong

"I didn't bother with it because it was boring!" Sofia grumbled. She turned to Anne. "Hope she doesn't make you slog through learning this one, cuz."

Anne furrowed her brow. "Why would I? What do tea leaves have to do with auras?"

"To develop your abilities, it's important to study many forms of psychic reading to push your boundaries," Octavia replied, still not looking up from the cup. She twisted and turned it, inspecting it from every angle. "Even if it may seem boring at first."

"Learning?" I asked, curious now. "Are you mentoring her?"

Octavia nodded, still studying away. "Yes. I mentored them both. Sofia is my daughter, so of course I taught her the ways, but Anne is my niece and a new addition to my practice." She looked only briefly to smile at her. "She only began trusting in her talent recently."

I looked at Anne, who was glaring at me again. "Yeah, all thanks to you."

"Me?"

"That day at the shop," she said, "when I broke through the glass counter? It wasn't some freak accident. Something pulled me through the glass. I suspect whatever is tied to you did that." She narrowed her eyes further.

I gaped at her, though the scene was replaying in front of my eyes. Blood everywhere, and Anne's blank confusion as it gushed from the wounds on her arm. How it all reminded me of when the Malix had torn through my own arms as a warning...

"That sounds about right," Lillian interjected. "Malixes usually do go after people who get in its way. You're lucky it was still mostly bound by that point, otherwise it would've probably just killed you."

The colour drained from Anne's face. "Killed... me...?" she sputtered.

"Which is exactly why I didn't want them around," Sofia muttered.

"You don't have to worry," Lillian continued. "The Malix can't hurt you. It's currently trapped at The Gathering with Matilda, with Luc."

This seemed to draw Sofia out of her surly pout. She sat up straight in her chair. "They captured one?!"

Lillian nodded. "Not just any Malix either. This one has been around for decades. Centuries, maybe."

Sofia's eyes went wide. "What? How? Don't they disappear—"

"Not this one, because it's trapped in a cycle," Lillian explained, "passed down from generation to generation of Luc's family line."

"A generational curse...?" Sofia whispered. "Who was stupid enough to cast that?"

"I don't know that. Someone truly filled with hate, I guess," Lillian said, shrugging.

"Or somebody filled with stupid," I added.

"Or both," Sofia said, her brows pulled tight in horror, her gaze distant. "Unleashing a Malix like that..."

"That's how I died, you know," Lillian continued. "That's why I was messing with dark magic. I was trying to seal it away so that it wouldn't hurt him or anyone else ever again."

Sofia's face was hard, pulled into a tight grimace, but her eyes were softening. "What did you do?"

Lillian sniffed. "Is it important? It didn't work."

"I'd say it was important," Octavia said, at last tearing her eyes away from her cup. "Especially since you're planning on doing it again."

I started. How...?

Sofia glanced between her mother and us. "What are you going to do, Lillian?"

Lillian drew a deep breath into my lungs before telling her. "We're going to seal the Malix inside someone and then kill them."

Sofia's mouth dropped open. Anne stiffened at the words, her eyes going wide—I doubted she had considered me capable of murder, even while possessed. And if I was being honest with myself, I still wasn't sure if I was. Even if it was Matilda...

"And just who are you going to use?" Sofia said, her voice rising sharply again. Her gaze shifted, just a little, so that she was looking at me. "Not this girl..."

"Of course not! I'm not a monster like The Gathered likes to make me out to be," Lillian snapped, her voice getting truly sharp. "And this girl is named Rachel."

Sofia narrowed her eyes. "Well you have to kill someone, so don't act so high and mighty. If not her, then who?" Then she bristled, like she expected Lillian to try and snatch Anne or something.

Lillian chewed her lip instead of answering. From inside, I could feel her hesitation, the same hesitation that she felt when I had first suggested it—she still thought it was nuts that our best choice was Matilda. I didn't blame her. But we had no better option...

Sofia eyed us, her eyes narrowing like she could see the lie in our faces even though we hadn't said a word.

Octavia clucked her tongue. "See, that's the part that bothers me," she said. She was looking back into the cup. "That plan is sure to fail."

It was like someone had breathed cold air on my neck. My heart started pounding in my ears. No. No! "You can't know that—"

Octavia tilted her head at me. She didn't need to say anything. I already knew what I had said was stupid.

Of course she could know that.

But that made it all the worse.

I felt tears prickle in my eyes. "It has to work!" I cried. "I can't just leave him there. We have to save him. We have to!"

"Not this way," Octavia said. "Your vessel of choice is too strong. But, don't cry, my dear. There's a better way."

She held out the cup to me again. The dregs of tea were still arranged in random clumps at the bottom of the cup. I gave her an unsure look, but she just nodded and pushed the cup closer to me.

I took it, cupping my hand under its delicate bottom. I peered into the cup, staring hard, hoping for some sense in the mess. Then, as I blinked, I could suddenly make sense of the shapes.

The leaves clung together in long strokes with rounded edges, stacked atop each other in a neat pile... It was suddenly so obvious that I was surprised I hadn't seen it sooner.

Bones.

🔮

Something tells me the tea leaves isn't talking about chicken bones.

Where are they going to get some bones?!

🔮

Want to read the rest of the book? Check out my Patreon!
The rest of the chapters are available right now!