After the Summerland (The Witches of Spring Hill Book 1) (23 page)

Rowan and Xavier are quickly
falling behind their siblings. Every time Xavier sees something new, he has to
stop and look at it more closely. He recognizes plants and herbs that he has
only read about and realizes that everything growing on this land is meant for
witchcraft and casting spells. He also realizes that the Alexanders don’t quite
understand the uniqueness of this land. It is clear that Chloe is the one who
tends to everything in the garden since Rowan looks like she does not enjoy the
great outdoors. He can’t help but explain to her why each herb is special and
she seems genuinely interested. Maybe she just needed coaxing by the right
person, he thinks to himself.

Rowan admits that being
in the garden is much more enjoyable with Xavier. Even though Chloe is always
so eager to teach Rowan everything, she quickly gets bored and her mind
wanders. She can’t help but take an interest in everything Xavier points out to
her since he seems to be in awe of everything around him. She is finding a
depth to Xavier that is taking her by surprise. Not that she herself is especially
deep, but lately she has been thinking more and more what it means that she is
a witch.

Chloe suggested that maybe her abilities haven’t manifested
because Rowan is fighting being a witch. So now, instead of fighting it,
she is trying to think of it all as a gift, one that needs to be honored. Whenever
she has a moment alone, she reads one of the books hoping that she will
recognize something in herself.

Going back to Xavier, she
can’t deny she is somewhat attracted to him. I mean, how could I not be?
she
thinks. He is gorgeous and mysterious; all the things that
make girls fall hard. But, I just don’t feel the connection to him that Chloe
feels for Cian or even what Kaiden is feeling for Brianna, she admits to
herself. Chloe and Cian put off such intense vibes that their attraction to one
another is visible to anyone who looks at them and it seems that Brianna and
Kaiden are headed down that same path.

She likes being around
Xavier, but not in the all or nothing kind of way that her sister and brother
seem to be experiencing. She wonders for the hundredth time if she is different
from all of them because her abilities have not manifested, or, feeling
insecure, she wonders if her abilities are not manifesting because she’s not
like them at all.

Xavier draws her out of her thoughts by pointing out another
herb growing at the edge of the garden. She smiles and listens intently to what
he says; again, she is surprised by how much he seems to know about plants and
herbs. He’s going to enjoy the clearing, she thinks as she drags him away from
whatever captured his attention this time. “C’mon Xavier, you can spend time in
the garden tomorrow with Chloe. You’ll enjoy it more because she’ll have more
to say than I do.”

Xavier follows Rowan,
but under his breath, he says, “But… I’m enjoying being in the garden with
you.”

Even though Rowan heard
him, she ignores what he says and moves on through the path with him close at
her heels. She doesn’t want to give him the wrong impression about how she
feels about him. It’s nice to know he’s interested in her, but that doesn’t mean
she has to be interested in him or fall at his feet. She is not ready to go
there with her feelings and she won’t fake something that she doesn’t feel.

When Rowan and Xavier finally arrive at the entrance to the clearing, everyone is standing there waiting
for them.

“We wanted to experience it all together,” Chloe explains. And with that, they all take a step into the
clearing.

The moment they walk
into the clearing, it becomes clear to Xavier, Brianna, and Cian why their aunt
wants this property. This is what she is after, Brianna hears in both of her
brothers’ thoughts. She is surprised she can hear them since they both wear the
amulet that is supposed to keep her from being in their head. The energy in the
circle vibrates and just as quickly as they catch the earthy, musty smell, a
strong breeze blows it away, clearing the air.

“Our aunt wants this,”
Xavier says out loud. “She must know that the power here is more powerful than
anywhere else. Do you realize that the only place with this much power on this
coast is in Salem, Massachusetts?”

“How do you know that,
Xavier?” Chloe asks.

Xavier looks around at all of them and says, “My thoughts
are so crystal clear right now. I know because I can hear the spirits…
they’re telling me that this knowledge has always been within me and it’s only
transparent now because I am here, within this circle, with all of you.”

Cian falls to his
knees, and drops his head. “Cian!” Chloe and Brianna yell at the same time.
When Cian lifts his head, his eyes are wide open and his pupils are glowing bright
white.

“He’s having a vision,”
Brianna says breathlessly, “We have to leave him be…”

“Have you seen this
before?” Rowan asks, moving slowly away from Cian and his freaky eyes.

“Never like this,” Xavier
says and then asks, “Brianna, can you see what he is seeing? Can you read his
thoughts?”

“No, I can’t see or
hear anything! Maybe if you touch me with your clarity, and I touch him, then
maybe I can see.”

Brianna kneels down in
front of Cian and takes his hands in her own. Xavier stands behind her and puts
his hands on her shoulders. They both close their eyes and wait to be let in to
whatever vision Cian is having. Overhead, lightning streaks across the sky and
the energy crackles within the circle.

Chloe, Kaiden, and
Rowan stand back from the Silvans. Not wanting to break the spell, but knowing
that a circle was never cast, Chloe suddenly grabs the bag that was dropped in
the middle of the circle. She quickly pulls out the altar and everything she
brought to cast a circle. Terrified that what she is doing is going to break
the magic, she begins preparations for circle casting. Chloe knows that opening
themselves up to this much magic without protection is dangerous.

“Kaiden, I need your
fire!” Chloe yells over the energy crackling within the circle. “Rowan, look in
the grimoire and find the spell to put a shield in place so we can protect the circle.”

Kaiden runs to Chloe’s
side and using his magic, lights the candles that she laid out on the altar.
Rowan rushes over to the book and quickly opens it to the page her sister
needed. As they stand together, Chloe begins the process of casting the circle.
When she finishes, she closes her eyes and begins a spell to cast a shield of
protection around them inside the circle, she calls out, “
We give the Earth this sacred salt and cast a circle to shield and
protect all within, from all that is evil… Make this be by your powers,
Spirits of the Land.”

When Chloe opens her
eyes she looks around and sees a glowing shield in place around their circle.
The lightning overhead stops flashing, but the energy within the circle
continues to crackle.

“Chloe, that was
amazing!” Rowan says, impressed by her sister’s abilities to act quickly.

“You see the shield?”
Chloe asks surprised that her sister can see it. The grimoire made it clear
that she would be the only one to actually see the shield, since she was the
one to call for it.

“What shield?” Rowan
responds. “I just meant that you acted so fast and stopped the lightning.”

Chloe ignores the
question, realizing that she had been holding her breath in hope that Rowan’s
abilities had manifested. Instead of saying anything, she looks over to where
the Silvans are sitting.

Cian has come out of
his trance and is staring at Chloe over his sister’s head. “Thank you,” he says
to her.

Chloe rushes over to
Cian’s side and wraps her arms around him. He says, “I felt myself falling
deeper and deeper and I didn’t know if I would find my way back. Your magic
brought me back.”

“Were you able to see
anything?” Kaiden asks Brianna, who is clearly shaken up by what she saw in
Cian’s mind. Tears fill Brianna’s eyes as she reaches for Kaiden. He wraps his
arms around her and can feel her trembling. “It’s going to be okay,” he says
trying to comfort her. “Whatever you saw, it’s okay.” She shakes her head and
pushes away, wiping her tears from her eyes.

“It’s her!” she cries
out, startling everyone, making them instinctively look toward the entrance of
the clearing. When Selene doesn’t materialize in front of them, they all
realize that the vision Brianna saw in Cian’s mind was about Selene.

“I saw her… and
she was surrounded by pain and death, which she is going to unleash on all of
us. She has so much anger, so much hatred,
so
much pain.
She doesn’t just want us all to die; she wants us to feel her pain. It’s going
to be bad…” she continues, before finally letting go of the tears she was
trying desperately to hold back.

“
Shh
,
it’s okay, Brianna,” Kaiden says comforting her. “She’s not here… you’re
safe now.” Kaiden feels her let go, while he rocks her gently in his arms.

“Well, I guess the line
has been drawn in the sand,” Xavier says, looking around at all of them. “It’s
all of us against her.”

“I would be comforted
by the fact that there are more of us if I knew how her abilities would
manifest on this hill,” Cian replies. “Because this is where it is all going to
go down.”

Rather than respond,
Chloe stands up and says, “I think it’s time we go back to the house. We need
to tell Dad what happened.” Unsure of how wise it is to tell Liam, Xavier knows
the bond between the Alexander kids and Liam will make it impossible to convince
them otherwise.

Chloe releases the
spells, closes the circle and they all make their way back to the house. The
excitement they felt earlier is replaced with unease and uncertainty.

Selene watched Xavier,
Brianna, and Cian walk home from school. She thought she was going to be
disappointed until she saw the Subaru pull up and her niece and nephews come
bounding out the door with overnight bags.
Aww
, a
slumber party… how nice, Selene thinks to herself, happy that she spent
the money on the plane ticket. It appeared it was money well spent, since it’s
going to lead her right to what she wants. She notices how happy and
comfortable they all are with each other and she feels the rage boiling up
inside her.

She has to remind herself to calm down so that they won’t detect
her energy. She cast a spell over the area that would block their magic until
she releases it. They don’t know half of her abilities, and for the second time
today she is glad she didn’t share everything with them. Without a doubt, they
are way too comfortable with the Alexanders, which indicates just how much time
they have been spending together.

Selene didn’t need to
follow them to know where they were going. She parked back in the spot she
parked at before, cast a disguise spell on her car, grabbed her backpack, and
started the hike up the hill. She brought a pup tent to set up when she got
tired of climbing. Tonight she wouldn’t give up until she found her way up to
the house. She was hoping they wouldn’t resist the pull to practice magic
together, because as soon as they did she would be able to find them.

Not even an hour into
her climb, she felt the electricity rolling through the trees. Lightning
flashed overhead and Selene smiled up at the sky. Those fools, she thinks to
herself. She picks up her pace to follow the lightning and then just as
suddenly as the lightning started, it stopped again.

Selene looked up and
around; and although the forest was still crackling, she no longer had a beacon
to guide her. She smiled wickedly, wondering which one of the newbies cast the
protection circle. No matter, she thought as she continued on her climb, it
won’t be long now.

Occasionally Selene’s
thoughts are interrupted by the sound of crunching leaves. She figures it is a
deer or some other animal brave enough to wander near her. Although she has only
been hiking for a couple hours, dusk comes quickly. She feels her energy wane
for the first time all day. She sits down on a log, grabs an energy bar and a
bottle of water, and takes a short break.

Like the afternoon they hiked before,
Selene feels like she isn’t making any headway. Just as she stands up, a black and
white cat soundlessly jumps out from behind the log she was sitting on and
hisses at her. The cat quickly darts off into the woods and before she can pick
up her backpack to follow, the cat disappears.

“Damn cat,” she thinks
as she starts off in the direction the cat went. Assuming the cat is the
Alexanders’, she expects it will eventually lead her to the house.

As dusk falls, Xavier
stands in the window looking out over the treetops to the entire town spread
out below. The lights from town sparkle while the last of the daylight recedes
into night. He can’t help but wonder if his Aunt Selene is out there somewhere
nearby.

He shivers at the thought and starts to turn away from the window when
he sees movement out in the yard. His heart pounds in his chest and he skims
the yard again, refocusing his eyes, searching for any sign of movement. As far
as he can see everything is still, until again, he starts to turn away and sees
a sudden movement on the perimeter of the yard. Just as he is about to think
his eyes are playing tricks on him, he sees a black cat, dark as night, except
for its bright white tail, moving swiftly through the yard, chasing after some
unsuspecting prey. No doubt playing cat and mouse with it, he thinks to himself.
For the first time since coming up to the house from the clearing, he laughs,
even if it was at his own little joke.

Chloe calls everyone to
dinner, and although Liam offered to pick up a pizza, Chloe insisted on
cooking. Besides wanting to flex her newfound skills in the kitchen, she’s
learned that she draws power from preparing food, especially when the food
comes from their garden. Cian helped her in the kitchen and together they
prepared pasta primavera, loaded with vegetables from the garden. Cian baked an
apple pie made fresh from apples picked from their trees in the yard.