The Necromancer throws an energy ball aimed at Lucille. With one sweeping hand gesture in the wind, Lucille deflects the energy ball and it fizzles into smoke. She starts to smile, eyeing the weak nemesis and conjures her own energy ball in her hand.
Before she could throw it, though, the Necromancer materializes behind her, trapping her in an embrace that is both intimate and fatal. One arm held her firmly against the Necromancer's body. His other hand rested directly above her heart. Lucille's eyes widen as the air in her lungs vacuums and the blood in her veins halts.
"I am honoured," the Necromancer murmurs in her ear. "After all these years, you've saved yourself only for me." Lucille's face pales to a deathly shade. With a kiss to her cheek, the Necromancer consumes the witch's life force, along with her powers, supplementing his own deficiencies.
"N-never!" Lucille struggles to speak in defiance 'til the end.
The Necromancer grins and lets her lifeless body slump to the ground. A wisp seeps from it, something he has been hungry for. In a swirling motion of his hand, the wisp forms a silhouette of Lucille. It is her spirit.
"Now, tell me," the Necromancer commands. It has always been easier for him to command the dead rather than the living. "Where is the girl? Where is our daughter?"
***
Rebecca shook her head to wipe away recollections of her last vision. We all died. That was the end. She told herself, and although she was shaking terribly from the shock of it, she didn't feel as bad as the other times her power showed her death.
"It's not set in stone," Grandma Vai told her, reading her thoughts. She and Jili heard the commotion at the library so they went downstairs to check with everyone. Kaven told them what happened when Lucille left the room. "You're wondering why this vision felt less real than the previous ones you've seen. It's because this particular one is only a probable future, one that can still be averted."
Rebecca frowned, understanding most of it but not entirely. Jili took her hand, still a little shaky, and explained.
"There are different kinds of visions, as far as the Gypsy Tradition is concerned. You've already seen glimpses of the past, meant to make you understand where things are coming from," Jili glanced at Grandma Vai, to which the Gypsy Matriarch only nodded. It was clear Jili was proficient in their culture and tradition. Rebecca thought she'd make a great Vision Mistress once she comes of age. "The one where Mr. Gainsboro showed you where to go is a different kind, one of guidance, meant to take you where you need to be, or find what you need."
"And this last one, it's of the future...to show me what'll happen next," Rebecca retorted.
"It's of a possible future," Grandma Vai corrected. "One of the many. One that, hopefully, is only a vision now, since you didn't take the binding potion."
Lucille went back into the room, in her hands was a tray with a steaming pot of tea and small cups. Without a word, she gently laid the tray on the table, arranged saucers and cups, and poured servings to each of them.
"Hmm, chamomile," Grandma Vai smiled at Lucille and sipped nonchalantly. "Thank you, dear."
Lucille offered a cup to Rebecca. "Don't worry it's not laced with anything this time." She reassured her. "And I promise not to make you drink anything without your knowledge."
Rebecca took it, feeling a little better with Lucille's gesture. "I understand," She took a sip of calming chamomile and spoke, "But it's time you trust me with my powers. I know it's not mine to have; it's Lilian's, technically, but for the meantime, it's mine. And you need to trust me to help you defeat The Necromancer. You can't do it alone."
"I'm sorry for what I did, Rebecca," Lucille stooped to wrap the girl in a tight embrace. "I trust you and I know you're right."
***
Rebecca spent the following days learning as much as she could. In the mornings, Kaven taught her martial arts and combat. Gypsy boys didn't inherit their mother's magical abilities, so they were trained and assigned to protect their women and their heritage. Although Lilian's body didn't have Rebecca's muscle memory, she remembered enough of her soccer training in the past and helped her persevere. Kaven wasn't a difficult teacher to deal with, but he could be annoyingly perfectionist at times.
By lunchtime, they would all gather at the Padureani table, sharing scrumptious meals prepared by Grandma Vai and sometimes Jili. Lunch and dinner were the only times Rebecca could rest her mind, as Grandma didn't like talks of supernatural over the table. They would discuss things like Jili going to school next semester, or the gardens tended by Grandma and Lucille. A smidge of normalcy in their lives.
In the afternoons, Lucille would teach her spells and enchantment. She found out calling on to witchcraft was not difficult, it came easy to her, it's controlling her magic that needed work. As expected, she excelled in divination, Masilda's gypsy side aiding her. She was also surprisingly adept at things Lucille was: simple telekinesis, pyromancy, telepathy and astral projection. She couldn't generate her own energy balls, like Lucille does, so Lucille taught her simple protection spells and potions instead. Anything to arm and protect her during battle.
At night, she took to reading and researching by herself. There were volumes on necromancy at their library and she read as much as she could before falling asleep. Just to have an idea about their enemy and how best to defeat him. She read and re-read the Grimoire over and over, occasionally asking Lucille about words and terminologies unfamiliar to her.
In just the span of days, she had progressed from a clueless witchling, to a formidable witch.
***
"We still haven't found his lair," Kaven slammed the table, making Jili clutch to her scrying crystal tighter. "It's been three weeks and nothing!"
Jili was about to repeat an adage about patience, but Rebecca shook her head and stopped her.
"It's five days before the next new moon, and the sooner it comes, the more likely he's going to attack." They let him vent. They learned The Necromancer's powers were strongest during the new moon, when the night is at its darkest. "We can't just sit out here doing nothing!"
"Kaven..." Rebecca stood up from her position on the floor. Books piled up around her like a small fortress. She'd been comparing notes and literature on casting different spell on top of one another but she has not been able to do it yet. "We're not doing nothing. Jili's and Grandma Vai have been scrying for days, and Lucille and I have been trying different ways to find him. If his powers are indeed growing with the darkness of the moon, then it's only logical that his cloaking abilities are growing as well."
"I'm sorry," Kaven breathed out. "It's just...we're so close, I feel it. That moment where we either win over him or die trying." He held up his tattooed arm and stared at the Gypsy Insignia as if he was trying to see the future in it. "But we're still lost."
Jili stood up and ran to her brother. She wrapped her arms around him. "I'm scared, too."
Rebecca felt her chest tighten. We're all scared. She wanted to say but decided against it. Instead she excused herself from the room and walked out towards the back porch. She needed some air.
Outside, Lucille was sitting on the wooden bench, an empty teacup sat beside her. The night breeze was cool and soft to the skin. Lucille's long hair billowed in the wind when she turned to Rebecca. "HI," Lucille said.
"Hey," Rebecca sighed. "Mind if I join you here?"
Lucille shook her head, smiled a tight smile and picked up her teacup so Rebecca could sit.
For a few minutes, no words were exchanged between the two women. Only the chirping of night insects, an occasional hoot from an owl and the rustling of leaves in the wind filled the silence between them. Thoughts stirred frantically and questions hung in the air, but no words came between them. Not until Rebecca finally asked, "Did she only see death?"
Lucille blinked but her expression didn't change. She already knew where Rebecca was going on with this but she let the girl finish.
"I've been here for a month and from the very first vision to the last one I got from you, all they've shown me were deaths. You said clairvoyance was Lillian's power, and all I've read about it told me it was a gift of sight, of knowing things beyond the logical, but all I have been seeing are people's last breaths. Is this because she was the necromancer's daughter? Is that the manifestation of her blood's link to his powers over death? Because this is horrible." Rebecca's voice shook, like she was about to cry. Lucille glanced at her and saw anger, and fear, in her eyes. "I'm starting to feel sorry that Lillian had to have this power, and I'm starting to be afraid of it myself."
"No," Lucille said simply. "To answer your question, seeing death wasn't Lillian's power. It was just...seeing."
Rebecca's forehead knotted. She needed more explanation.
"She would see random things, like, the number of kittens our housecat would give birth to, or the type of flowers that would randomly bloom on our front planters. She saw herself getting admitted to the hospital, but she also saw the wonderful people, doctors and nurses, even patients, that would make our lives there...bearable. She saw bad things, too, Rebecca, maybe not as horrible as the ones the power has let you see, but it wasn't all bad. She saw good things too."
Rebecca leaned closer and rested her head on Lucille's shoulder. "Then when would I be able to? I want to see some sunshine, some sort of light in this darkness."
"You wouldn't need powers to see that," Lucille replied and planted a kiss on the girl's head. "All you'd need is hope."
A/N:
Hi, Hey! This is finally updated! Woohoo! After seven months! Haha...*ahem, I'm sorry.*
So, this halloween, I got super inspired and motivated to write a chapter so I did. :) It's short, I know, but I'm working myself back into the Fantasy vibe (after writing romances the past couple of months) so here it is.
I hope you like it!
*and I hope to update another chapter before the week ends? We'll see. haha.
XOXO