Chapter Fifteen – Phoenix Blessed
It’s been an hour since we left Trevor’s sister. I’m still not sure how that works unless Trevor is part merman himself and I wouldn’t know how to digest that. Marco resumes his role as driver and the rest of us stay in the back muttering things every once in a while. All in all it’s a quiet and uncomfortable ride, even with Tammy’s good music choice thumping the speakers from the bass.
“You should take this,” the short girl says, filling some of the silence. She pulls a vial from her purse and tosses it to the back where Xan catches it gingerly. He shakes the pink liquid and we both examine the think that looks like Alice’s ‘Drink Me’ potion. “Once a demon has a hold on a Spencing’s scent, they can find them whenever and wherever.”
“What is it?” Xander uncorks the little glass bottle and sniffs. Apparently it doesn’t smell too good with the face he’s making.
“It’s Pulemp,” Trevor says flatly. He’s not in any mood to talk right now. Without his amber charm, his emotions are running amuck and I feel them sifting through the air. “It’ll change the way you naturally smell permanently. That way they can’t find you.”
“Any side effects,” Xan asks jokingly. He puts the bottle to his lips but pauses as Trevor nods.
“It will change you,” he tells us. “Mostly you’ll be the same but the way you react to things will be a bit different. But to be on the safe side, you’ll probably want to change your deodorant or cologne. Less chance of being found that way.”
“Shall I change it to something a little more fruity like yours?”
I smack Xander on the back of the head as a wave of anger emanates from Trevor. My best friend might not even know of his gender preferences but that is still never okay to say in my book. Xan looks to me with a goofy smile from his joke but I glare back. He quietly asks what the slap was for making me raise my eyebrows and signaling to the boy in the seat in front of us. He doesn’t get it so I just give up on the matter. Guys can be so stupid.
“Hang on a sec, different how?” I glance back and forth at the two boys. Trevor’s face is starting to be a little intimidating but Xan’s lack of care hits him right back. He doesn’t say anything but I know my best friend. He’ll worry about everyone else’s safety before his and if the demon’s can find him, Katie and his mom would be in danger.
Trevor mutters as Xander’s about to take a sip, “Maybe you won’t be as much of an asshole.”
That ends conversation fast. Xan takes the stuff anyway, glaring at the witch guy. He downs the liquid like a shot and grimaces at the taste. I’m left to stare out the window confused and hoping this day doesn’t get too much worse. Xander does the same and soon the music is again the only source of noise.
Reaching the Regal Haven doesn’t take too much longer. We march the grand staircase and Tammy lets us in with her key. Why does she have a key to the house?
“Let’s go,” Trevor orders us. I make a face at the command but enter. The Emerald is waiting fretfully on the stairs and rushes to our side.
“Tell me everything.”
And we do exactly that. The Emerald is filled in on the whole thing from the demons stealing me from my backyard to the Priya saving my life. Trevor finishes his part of the tale by looking at me and my bloodstained tshirt. Fiona won’t even glance in my direction. My feelings are building inside and that’s not good. We’ve been arguing for a while but nothing I say sways her mind.
“It is not the time to talk about this,” the Emerald tries to explain calmly. But I am anything but calm. Things are after me, trying to kill me or not kill me and use me all for a reason I don’t know.
“What better time is there,” I ask dejectedly. “What the hell is a Phoenix and why is everyone calling me that?”
She ignores me and instructs Tammy to take Marco home. Xander stays by my side but leans on the doorway to the dining area. He stares around the Regal Haven as I had done my first day here. It’s still just as beautiful and awe-inspiring as it was the first time I saw it. I’m guessing the Pulemp is taking full effect on him since normally he would be focused completely on the situation that concerns him. His new ignorance only ramps up my nerves.
“Trevor, please fetch some ice for this boy’s eye.”
“What are you not telling me?!”
The room goes silent after my loud shout. Even the natural ambiance of the house seems to have quieted. Tammy and Marco sneak out the front door while the Emerald looks at me with a pleading look I replicate right back. It’s almost as if she’s fearful of me but if anything I should be terrified of her. Emotions swell inside me as Fiona turns her back. She stands staring out of the dining room’s window, lost in thought.
Trevor returns and hands Xan the ice pack grudgingly. It’ll be a tough thing for him to explain to Katie about his eye. And what about me missing my sister’s cheer-up plans? Disappointment and anger swirl in my chest. I wish I could flip back time and redo everything that has happened today.
“Gail?” Xan shuffles over awkwardly and wraps one arm around me in a side hug. The other is left to keep the ice on his face. “We should get going.”
In an automatic response, I nod and let him lead me away. Trevor halfheartedly waves goodbye and the Emerald hardly acknowledges my going. She is too busy thinking up plans for me and how to handle whatever it is I’m supposed to do. The curiosity of it tickles my mind and even the amber eagle Trevor returned to me isn’t suppressing the desperate urge to find out. I shake Xan’s grip from my shoulder and storm back to face Fiona. I’ve made up my mind and I need to know.
“I almost died because I’m not sure what’s happening,” I scream to the room taking everyone by surprise. The Emerald bows her head. “Maybe next time they take me they’ll use me for whatever it is I am. Or for what I’m not. Doesn’t matter to me because I don’t even know what the fuck is going on.”
“You didn’t die because she knew,” the Emerald retorts with a little severity in her words. She finally turns from the window to face Trevor. “I thought they took her for that reason. Gather the coven to—”
“What reason? Tell me!”
“I can’t!”
Another pause of silence. Never has the Emerald raised her voice to any of us. Trevor stands by her side with a defeated shyness in his posture while she recedes to the apothecary. I follow her out and stand behind her. There isn’t a better time to tell me what it is and she knows this. The best thing I can do is wait until my stubbornness outlasts hers.
“It’s for your own protection,” she whispers to me. Her pleading makes my heart physically hurt. An audible sigh escapes her lips and the feelings happen instantly. Her pain is becoming mine. Guilt, fear, anger and defeat; it all mixes in with my confusion. I can only guess this is another power we witches possess. My bottom lip quivers while my feet stagger backward. Xan is there to steady me, adding his own thoughts to our silent debate.
“How can she be protected if she doesn’t know what to save herself from?”
All at once, Fiona’s emotions leave me and we’re left with a long moment of uncertainty. I regain my composure while she debates the fair question. Kudos to Xan; maybe his ‘new’ self is smarter.
“Very well,” she murmurs softly. “Follow me.”
The three of us trail along after the Emerald, up the stairs and down the hallway. Her pale blonde hair sways with her every step in front of me. The two guys behind us share wary glances to each other. Whatever the witches are hiding from me, it’s something drastic.
“I apologize for my behavior. That was a defensive empathic spell,” she explains. “It happens when a witch feels cornered, specifically by one person. It works well when others need to feel what you go through but it can be dangerous if not properly controlled. It eliminates the lies that they think we speak when we cannot tell them whole truths.”
“Is it weird I can safely say I know how you feel?” The Emerald looks back to me with a strained smile on her lips. Sarcasm is not a language she fully understands, I guess. “Because it’s true now. I just need to know.”
Trevor’s hand rubs the small of my back as he climbs the stairs behind me. His warning expression makes me back off. From what I felt, I know this is serious.
Fiona leads us to the back hallway, a place of the mansion I have not been before. There is an array of rooms, each with a closed door. One in particular stands out to me with blaring green letters and ripped stickers covering its wood. It looks like it was supposed to say ‘Tamara Wirth’ but those letters were scratched off as much as possible. Instead a new sign hangs above, nailed to the wood and proudly saying ‘Tammy’s: Keep out’.
“My daughter thinks herself a rebel,” Fiona sighs, trying to make idle conversation. It doesn’t work, making me instead more uneasy about what is next. “It’s probably why she’s taken such a liking to you.”
Liking? Tammy? Wait… My eyes go wide at the first bit she says. I mouth the word ‘daughter’ to Trevor but he keeps me moving along. We are led into the last room and ushered in. The place is decorated quite elegantly with shades of rich purples, blackened furniture and white carpeting. It’s much more gothic than the rest of the house; dark and mysterious with just enough life. More books line this room than the other library too.
“When witches are drowned they turn to scales,” Fiona speaks clearly, taking back my attention. She doesn’t need to open to the proper page before reciting the poem. It takes a second to remember I’ve heard the thing before; it’s in The Shadowed Past book. I concentrate on the words as she goes on. “Condemned to life in water. When witches breathe earth they greet the soil, becoming nature’s daughter.”
“When witches are burned they turn to ash, reborn and Phoenix blessed,” Trevor continues. They both turn to me causing me to step back. I expect them to continue what I know is the rest of the poem but they stop. Their intent stares make me cringe a bit. Even Xander watches quietly behind me with his one good eye.
“What do you mean burned?”
“When a witch dies a certain way, their soul lives on,” Trevor explains. “My sister, Priya? She drowned. She was a witch like us but she chose to live life in water with her lover.”
“What does that have to do—?”
“The lady in the trees,” the Emerald interrupts, planting an image in my mind. The force of it drives me back a bit but I see clearly the dancing woman from the night of the party. “She chose to be buried alive before her time so she may inhabit the forest she dearly loves for the rest of eternity.”
“But I don’t—”
“It means you’ve died, Gail,” Trevor tells me bluntly. “You lived a life before burning alive.”
My head shake no violently. Even Xander behind me coughs, stunned. This isn’t right or true or… This can’t be right. I’m Abigail Hendrix, daughter of a witch apparently but other than that I am normal. I have to be normal. My hands clasp over my mouth as I struggle to contain the shock. They keep their gazes on me with more knowledge behind their tight lips.
“Delivered by flesh and reborn in ashes,” the Emerald speaks. I take a seat on a chair by the wall. Xander stares at me as if I’m someone completely different and I don’t like it. He’s starting to grow afraid and I can feel the rush of it wave over to me. Even the amber can’t keep his feelings a secret. And I don’t blame him. The Emerald clears her throat and leaves the witch guy at the book stand alone. “Trevor, if you please. Speak the words of the Peridot’s prophecy.”
He nods and inhales deeply. Our eyes meet before he speaks. I see a tear roll down his cheek before he turns and wipes it away. Oh god, what could be that bad? My knees fold to my chest as I anxiously listen to the prophecy.
“Water, Earth, Fire and Soul,” he says with more than a flicker of dread in his voice. “There will be four daughters of the angry elements. A coven of unimaginable strength. If bound by water, they bring their healing. If bound by earth, their peace. If bound by fire, their protection. But if they be bound by hate… they bring their end.”
There is a moment of uncertain silence between everyone. My gaze catches Trevor’s before I move to look at Xander. Gradually he creeps over to my side, taking my hand and squeezing it in comfort. I still feel his apprehension but he knows I need him now. My best friend is the only reason I’m still able to breathe and I’m grateful. Nervously, I turn back to the Emerald.
“The end of what,” I manage to ask. My voice is hardly above a whisper but the Emerald hears me. Barely speaking herself, she turns from scanning the shelves of literature and gazes mournfully in my eyes.
“Every Spencing,” Fiona answers timidly. “If the demons succeed, every single non-mystic person… People not born of witch bloodlines will…”
Noticing her hands are shaking, I don’t even know if I want to know anymore. But they also can’t leave it there. Xander is a Spencing so what would happen to him? What happens to the Spencings?! I’m about to ask her but Trevor stops me. Our eyes meet and his response freezes me where I stand.
“They die.”