Page 36 of Hidden By the Gargoyle

“Just close the door and turn the oven off. It should keep until we’re done talking.”

My appetite was non-existent right now anyway.

My aunt began the process of making tea, moving around the kitchen as though she’d been here many times. I knew she hadn’t because Dax liked to keep to himself. Other than Daniel and maybe Garrett, I don’t think anyone else had ever been here either.

“So, what happened?” she asked, putting the kettle on the stove, and lighting a burner.

“I was making dinner when I had this thought of going outside. It seemed to come out of nowhere. I tried to ignore it, but the thought just kept popping up. Then, the word freedom kept repeating in my mind, over and over. I was still fighting it until my feet just seemed to carry me outside. The farther I got from the cabin, the less I could control myself. It was like I lost control of my body first and then my brain. I didn’t even see Dax when he came to stop me. I kept moving. Even when he grabbed my wrist, I pulled away until I hurt myself.”

I lifted my hand to rub my wrist. Now that I was talking about it, I noticed the pain throbbing there. I looked down and saw the skin was already turning purple. I was going to have a bruise.

“When he leaned down and put his face close to mine, I hesitated. Something about looking into his eyes broke through for a second. But then, the thought came back. I had to walk away, to get to the edge of the forest. I would have kept moving if he hadn’t?—”

I fell silent. This was where things got complicated.

“Until he what?” Minerva asked.

“Until he kissed me. But it didn’t break through right away. It still took a few seconds,” I finally answered.

“But his kiss interrupted the spell?” she asked.

I nodded, still staring down at the bruise coming up on my wrist and rubbing a thumb absently over it.

Minerva came over to the bar and took my hand, lifting my injured wrist.

“I don’t have any healing balm with me, but it won’t help much now that the bruise is already forming.”

She waved a hand over it and a pale blue light emitted from her palm. Immediately, the pain dulled to a mild twinge. The bruise faded slightly, but there was still a dark smudge on my wrist. My aunt must have used a lot of magic today because she could usually heal such things easily. Guilt jabbed me. I hated that she might be exhausting herself in order to keep me safe.

“That will help with the pain,” she said.

My aunt leaned over and kissed my forehead.

“I do have something that will protect you from spells like that,” she said, moving back toward the stove to get the whistling kettle.

“How was the spell able to affect me, anyway?” I asked. “I thought the ward around the resort would deflect magic.”

Minerva sighed as she poured hot water into two mugs that she’d already put tea bags into.

“It should have, but dark magic is tricky. It changes the witch or warlock using it. Changes their power. It’s insidious and deceptive. There was only so much I could do in terms of the ward without the blessing of the coven for a full blood spell. Dax’s blood in the spell should have helped deflect the attack on you, but if Edgar has accessed stone magic somehow…” she trailed off. “There are a number of ways he could have gotten the spell through the ward. Unfortunately, I can’t see him in my visions. For the first time in years, everything I see of the future is all a grey and black fog.”

“It’s happened to you before?” I asked. “Not being able to see what’s coming?”

She brought one of the cups over and set it on the counter in front of me. “Yes, it has. Usually before something significant happens in my own life. The last time was a few days before your parents…”

She didn’t finish the sentence, but I knew what she meant. The last time she’d been unable to see the future was right before my parents died and she’d become my guardian.

This also meant that something was about to happen to her. The thought made my stomach clutch painfully.

I couldn’t lose Minerva. She was the last of my family. Beyond that, she was my closest friend. She’d become my touchstone in a world where I’d been set adrift at the age of eleven.

As usual, my aunt seemed to know the direction my thoughts had taken, and it had nothing to do with the fact that she was a witch. She’d always understood me. She said it was because I was so much like my mother and, being sisters, she’d understood my mother better than anyone else.

Minerva came over and laid a hand on mine. “Nothing is going to happen to me,” she said. “I’m not leaving you for a very, very long time.”

I turned my palm over, clutching her fingers. “Swear it.”

“I vow that I will not leave you.”

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