Believe: The Complete Channie Series (10 page)

Daddy’s shield was like a sheet of glass against a brick. Momma’s was industrial grade steel. But even a skyscraper yields to a wrecking ball.

Channie didn’t even use the full force of Chastity’s power, but it knocked Momma off her feet. Daddy caught her before she hit the floor.

He glared at Channie and brushed a lock of Momma’s hair off her face with his thick fingers. “You all right, Prudence?”

Momma nodded without opening her eyes.

Guilt squeezed the air out of Channie’s lungs. She stepped towards Momma with an outstretched hand, her unspoken apology bitter on her tongue.

Momma’s eyes flew open. This time, when she cast the stinging spell, it found its mark.

Without quite meaning to, Channie retaliated with the remainder of Chastity’s power. It shattered Momma’s shield and tore her out of Daddy’s arms. She slammed onto the sofa with a sudden whoosh of expelled breath. This time, Channie did not feel guilty. All she felt was rage and raw power. The curse drained Channie, but there was so much negative energy in the air, her power-well was completely full again within seconds.

Daddy joined Momma on the sofa and stared at Channie, slack-jawed and wide-eyed.

“If I don’t have a cell phone by the end of the week, you’ll wish you’d never even thought about changing my name.”

“I already regret it, baby girl.”

“Your regrets don’t change a damn thing.” Channie pointed at Momma. “And the next time you try to curse me, I’ll double the power behind my retaliation.”

Daddy said, “I ain’t got no money, baby girl. You know that. How you expect me to buy you one of them fancy telli-phones?”

It was a good question and one that Channie had wondered about for years. No one dared question Daddy about money. Until now. “Where’s the rent money coming from?”

Momma gasped, but Daddy just sighed and said, “Your Aunt Wisdom puts money in a bank account for your momma every month.”

Channie’s heart leapt into her throat. “Aunt Wisdom knows where we are?” Not only was Aunt Wisdom Channie’s most favorite person in the world, she was the most powerful. She could help Channie get her old power name back.

Momma said, “Wizzie opened an account for me with First Bank in Whistler’s Gulch the day she named you.”

Channie’s heart tumbled into her stomach, but she refused to give up hope. “If you make a withdrawal, won’t Aunt Wisdom be able to trace it?”

“That’s why I use the bank in Littleton, south of Denver.”

Momma’s smirk made Chastity’s power buzz, but Channie held on to it and didn’t let it take over.

“If you’ve got all this money, how come you grovel at Daddy’s feet every time you want to buy groceries?”

Daddy puffed his chest up like a bullfrog and said, “I am the head of this family and as such all financial matters fall under my jury’s diction.”

“It’s ‘jurisdiction’ and that’s bull crap. If the money belongs to Momma, she should be the one in control of it.”

Momma rubbed her temples then folded her hands in her lap. “When I married your daddy, I promised to love, honor and obey him. Since it was said during a binding spell, I have to submit my will to his when he chooses to exercise his authority.”

“Well, that explains a lot.” Channie decided right then and there that the word “obey” would not pass her lips during her wedding. No way was she ever going to submit to anybody ever again—not even a husband. Which reminded her …

“Are you two gonna be able to change my name before my wedding night?” No man in his right mind would marry Channie in her present condition.

Momma and Daddy looked at each other and then at their shoes.

“Oh that’s just great. What the hell did you do to me? This is no ordinary spell is it?”

Momma sighed and said, “No, it’s not.”

“Well what is it?”

Momma and Daddy grabbed each other’s hands and raised their shields.

Channie rolled her eyes. “You know that’s not going stop me from cursing you. Now tell me the truth.”

Daddy patted Momma’s knee and said, “Better just go get the book and show her.”

Neither Daddy nor Channie said a word as they waited for Momma to come back downstairs.

She returned with a small bundle wrapped in coppery-brown silk and sat down next to Daddy. Her hands shook as she unwound the stained fabric and revealed an ancient, hand-bound book.

It was small for a spell book, about five and a half inches tall, four inches wide and an inch and a half thick. The wraparound leather cover was cracked and flaking. A tarnished silver chain—looped around a bone button, carved into the shape of a heart—held the book closed.

Channie stepped closer and leaned over to get a better look. Momma said, “Be careful. This is ancient magic and extremely dangerous. I’d advise you not to touch it.”

“What is it?”

“It’s a Book of the Dead.”

Channie arched an eyebrow and waited.

Momma sighed. Her breath skimmed the surface of the book and stirred up a cloud of reddish brown powder that smelled like rust. “About six hundred years ago, a powerful master-mage created this book. She spent years pouring magic into the animals that would provide the leather and parchment. And for ink …” Momma’s voice dropped to a whisper, “… she used her own blood.”

There was nothing more powerful than blood. A few drops was all any spell ever required. Why would anyone write an entire book with blood? Unless they were using dark magic.

Momma said, “Before she died, her daughter cut out her beating heart and replaced it with the book.”

The room spun. Channie sank to the floor and put her head between her knees. Human sacrifice—even of voluntary victims—was forbidden and punishable by death.

“Momma? Please tell me you didn’t ...”

“Dig up the body and retrieve the book?” Momma’s smile sent a shiver up Channie’s spine. “There wasn't much left besides bones...and of course the book.”

Channie’s stomach lurched. She clamped both hands over her mouth. When she was certain she could speak without gagging, she said, “How is this possible?”

She knew that leather and parchment came from the skins of animals, but these were so long dead that any ability the book had to hold magic should have faded away over a hundred years ago. Unless it had something to do with the blood sacrifice.

Momma nodded as if she’d read Channie’s mind. “Every person that retrieves the book, must repeat the ritual. If I can’t find Abby, it will fall to you to perform the sacrifice, but we’ll wait until my death is near—”

“No! I won’t do it.” The edges of Channie’s vision turned grey. A high-pitched hum rang in her ears, but it didn’t block out the sound of Momma’s words.

“Then the power of our line will die with me. You, Abby, Courage, Zeal, Savvy and all your posterity will lose the ability to use magic.”

“Did you know this when you dug up that...thing?” Channie’s hand shook as she pointed at the evil book on Momma’s lap.

“Of course not.”

“Then how do you know what’s required, or what will happen?”

“It was written in the book.”

Channie closed her eyes and repeated the words of the spell.
“Child of power, child of light, we now assert a parent’s right. The name of power we once bestowed, we now revoke ‘till you’re betrothed.
”
She opened her eyes and said, “Why did you need that evil book for such a simple spell?”

Daddy said, “It might be simple, but you have to admit it was powerful, and that was only the first part.”

Channie had been so busy trying to save Enchantment that she never heard the second half.

“What’s the rest of it?”

Daddy said, “I don’t rightly understand it, but it goes like this...
To keep you chaste and set you free. The name we give is Purity.
” Daddy shrugged his shoulders. “We changed it around a bit—‘To keep you pure and set you free, the name we give is Chastity.’ We probably shouldn’t have done that.”

Ya think? Sometimes Momma and Daddy’s arrogance was downright astonishing. “How is one spell supposed to keep me pure and set me free at the same time?”

Momma said, “Your new name has given you powers beyond your years. We cain’t control you no more. I just hope we done a good enough job of raising you to keep you outta serious trouble. So far, I ain’t too encouraged.”

Channie ignored the insult and said, “Did the book tell you how to break the curse before I get married?”

Daddy said, “Nope. I think that part’s up to you.”

“Oh that’s just great. How the hell am I supposed to do that?”

Momma bristled but she didn’t even try to cast a clean-speech spell. She said, “Unless you’re planning on getting married anytime soon, I wouldn’t worry about it.”

“I don’t want to wait until the last minute. Maybe you better look inside that book and find a way to fix this.”

Daddy said, “We already tried. The book is sealed to us now.”

“How could you do this to me?” Channie’s eyes stung, but she refused to let them see her cry. She turned her back and said, “Don’t forget about my phone,” then ran upstairs to her room and slammed the door.

Channie cried herself to sleep, then woke up in the middle of the night with a sore throat and a fever. She crept down the hall to Momma and Daddy’s room to ask for some magically enhanced chamomile to make a cup of healing tea. She didn’t think it would be a good idea to ask Momma to heal her outright since she was probably still mad at her. She’d just wind up cursing her, whether she meant to or not.

She wouldn’t bother Momma at all, except she kept her potted herbs in her room and the medicine kit in the hall was out of chamomile. Channie was surprised to hear murmuring voices behind Momma and Daddy’s bedroom door. They should have been sound asleep. They weren’t. They were talking about her.

Daddy said, “I want my sweet baby girl back. I don’t like what this power name is doing to her.”

Momma huffed so loudly Channie had no problem hearing it through the closed door. “You can blame her name if it makes you feel better, but your sweet baby girl has been a snot-nosed brat from day one. Her old power name just blinded us to it. She’s always put on airs and acted like she’s better’n everybody else.”

“Yeah, well you can thank your sister for that. Wisdom’s the one what went and filled Channie’s head with all that book learning, convincing the girl she needed an empty edge-you-ma-cation.”

Channie whispered “education” under her breath then bit her tongue when Momma said, “Ever-time that girl corrects someone’s grammar, I want to slap her face.”

It was an automatic response, but Channie vowed to resist the urge in the future.

Daddy said, “I don’t recommend slapping her, no matter what the offense. I’ve never been hit with a curse so powerful in my entire life—not even when your daddy caught me sneaking into your bedroom through the window.”

Channie did not want to hear any more of that particular story and went back to bed without getting any chamomile. She’d just heal her throat without it. It was always best to let someone else cast a healing spell, but Channie didn’t have anyone else.

She’d made a mess of Josh’s nose after his fight with Eric, but she’d used Chastity’s negative energy to fuel the spell. This was a perfect opportunity to try to reconnect with Enchantment.

Channie focused on finding Enchantment’s energy inside her heart-of-hearts. It wasn’t easy, it took her over an hour to find and activate Enchantment and another hour until she felt confident Chastity’s magic wouldn’t interfere. But once she was ready, it took less than a second to cast the healing spell that cured her sore throat. It worked like...well, like magic.

The
next morning, Daddy came into Channie’s room and sat down on the edge of her bed. He put a hand on her shoulder and said, “Your Momma and I had a nice long talk last night and decided we’d like to meet this boyfriend of yours. Go ahead and invite him over for supper.”

Channie blinked her eyes open and yawned. She sat up and leaned back against the headboard. “His name’s Joshua Abrim but he’s not my boyfriend. He might not even be my friend. I sort of zapped him the other day.”

“Zapped him?”