Legacy Of Magick (Legacy Of Magick Series, Book 1) (24 page)

A female police officer had been watching me, and now she snapped open a little plastic bag. “I’ll take that.” She said quietly.

My eyes met Duncan’s, and I saw that he recognized the cuff link. Julian had been wearing cufflinks when he’s dropped by the house that afternoon. “I hope that helps.” I told the officer. And then, finally, we were allowed to leave.

I asked Duncan to come back to the manor with us, and he nodded and followed me in his truck. I saw that a police cruiser had parked on the street outside of the manor, and by silent agreement, none of us spoke until we were safely inside the manor.

The front door had scarcely closed when blurted out what I knew. “That cufflink belongs to Julian Drake!” I said to my aunt.

“What do we do, now?” Holly asked her mother.

“I’m going to that old mausoleum of a mansion and finding your sister.” Duncan told Holly.

“I’m going with you!” Bran, Holly, and I all said together.

To my surprise, Gwen was fairly calm. “That’s the first place anyone would look.” She sat on the bottom steps of the main staircase, and was obviously deep in thought. “We need to do this once, and do it right.”

Do what?
I wondered.

“Maybe you should have told the police about Thomas threatening Autumn.” Duncan said quietly.

“One of the officers at the scene is a member of our Coven. She was aware.” Bran supplied that information and had me gaping at him. “I guarantee the police are at the Drake house to question Thomas.”

Duncan raked his hand through his hair in frustration. “Knowing my uncle, he’s been in plain sight all afternoon, with a dozen witnesses to give him an alibi.”

“But why?” Holly asked. “Why did he go after Ivy now?”

Bran put his arm around Holly. “Maybe because she was right there and alone?”

“I thought we had more time.” Duncan said. “The full moon is still several days away. My uncle must have gotten impatient.”

“But it was Julian. We know it was.” I argued.

“Where would Julian take Ivy?” Bran wondered.

“I wish we still had my mother’s scrying mirror.” Gwen muttered.

“What’s that?” I asked her.

“It’s a black mirror that is used to divine the future or see into the past.”

“Was it lost?” Holly asked her mother.

Gwen rubbed her forehead as she explained. “It’s been missing for years...”

Oh shit
.
A black mirror...
“How many years has it been missing?” I asked quietly.

“For over twenty years...” Gwen trailed off.

“What did it look like?” I asked her, even though I had a horrible feeling that I already knew.

“It was a sterling silver antique hand mirror — with elaborate scroll work on the back.” Gwen explained.

“And the glass was all black? You couldn’t see any reflection?” I said, to be sure. When Gwen nodded in confirmation, Bran and Holly looked at me as if I’d finally gone around the bend.

I ran straight up the stairs for my bedroom and everyone followed me. I whipped open my closet and yanked out that packing box where I had last seen that weird, antique silver mirror and brush set.

“Dad, you were seriously like a magickal kleptomaniac.” I breathed as I tore the wrapping paper off and looked at that mirror like I was seeing it for the first time.

As soon as I flipped it over and scanned the black glass, it felt like I was falling into it. Somehow upon the blank surface, I saw a blood red moon shimmering against a midnight sky. With a squeak, I aimed the mirrored side back down towards the floor. I glanced up to see Duncan watching me intently.

“What did you see?” Duncan asked.

“A blood red moon.” With shaking hands, I wrapped the mirror back in the packing paper I’d torn off. In all the years I’d owned it, I’d never seen anything in the black glass before.

“Is that what I think it is?” Holly gasped.

“I swear to you. I
never
knew what it was.” I said as I held it out to Gwen. “When you described it, I realized...” I felt miserably embarrassed and tried to explain. “Dad had told me that it was valuable and to keep it. He gave it to me when I turned thirteen.”

“All that matters is that we have it now.” Gwen held the mirror like it was precious.

“I’ll contact the coven.” Bran announced.

“Yes, they should all be here for this.” Gwen looked out my bedroom window, judged the sky and said. “We have less than an hour until sundown; I want to be ready to go when night falls.”

“Oh, well I can hang out up here in my room, and stay out of the way.” I offered.

“What are you talking about?” Gwen frowned at me. “You’ll be the one to scry. It is your mirror, after all.”

“Mine?” I asked horrified.

“Of course.” Gwen said and then explained. “If you’ve had it in your possession for over ten years, then the mirror has aligned itself to you.”

“Me, scry?”
What if I did it wrong?

Duncan rubbed a hand down my arm “Autumn, your father must have had a reason for giving you the mirror. “You can do it.”

What could I say to that? “Will you explain to me how to do it?” I asked Gwen.

“As a clairvoyant, it will come naturally to you. But yes, I will walk you through the steps. And the coven’s magick will boost your ability.” Gwen reassured me.

“Which is why you are calling them in.” I said.

“If your family and coven would accept my help, I would like to stay.” Duncan said to Gwen.

“Absolutely.” Gwen said. “We would appreciate the assistance.”

Bran put his arm around Gwen’s shoulders and said. “Let’s get to work, then.”

***    

As night fell, the coven gathered in Gwen’s family room. A fire had been laid in the fireplace and it snapped and popped. I looked around at the members of the coven, as they formed a loose circle, and saw many faces I knew and many that I did not.

I saw Cora and Violet O’Connell from the flower shop. Marie from the tattoo shop gave me a big hug before she moved to take her place in the circle, right next to Violet. I met a gorgeous young man who introduced himself as Zach. He told me he was a massage therapist. I shook hands with his partner, a tall, quiet man named Theo. The female police officer who I’d passed the cuff link to was there. She introduced herself as Lexie. I struggled not to squirm when she gave me a steady look. A young couple came in last. The woman was very pregnant and she was out of breath, but she waddled into the room at a quick pace. They introduced themselves to me as Salvador and Maggie. To my relief, nobody was dressed in flowing black. It actually looked like everyone had come straight from work.

Along with Gwen, Bran, Holly, Duncan, and me, we had a large group. I did a quick head count and found we had thirteen Witches gathered in a loose circle. I brushed at my dirt stained gardening clothes, and tried not to feel self conscious. Gwen had told me to leave them on, as it would help me connect to the place and time when Ivy was taken.

I nudged Duncan to get his attention. “Have you ever worked magick with a group this large?”

“Back in college I was part of a grand coven.” He replied.

“Do I even wanna know what that means?” I whispered to him.

He simply took my hand, and gave it a friendly squeeze. “I’ll explain it to you later.”

When Gwen moved to the center, everyone fell silent. She took a deep breath and then gestured towards Bran.

“Hand to hand, I cast this circle.” Bran said and grasped Lexie’s right hand with his left. She repeated the chant, and took Zach’s hand. Around the circle it went in a clockwise direction until we were all joined.

A hum of energy rolled through me when the last hand was clasped, and it felt like the floor beneath me was vibrating. What a rush! My head fell back, and I reveled in the energetic overload from being in a circle of so many Witches. I looked around the circle at each of the people present, and realized that though they were all very different from one another, in an odd way, we were all the same.

Together, we would find Ivy. Hell, with this kind of power, we could do
anything
.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

The ritual was simple. Candles were lit in each of the cardinal directions. The elements of earth, air, fire and water were called. Fresh red rose petals, courtesy of the O’Connell’s, were scattered along the edge of the circle. Incense smoke was fanned around the perimeter, and then Marie sprinkled water all around. Once that was completed, Gwen invited the God and Goddess to watch over the group’s working. She addressed the group and announced our intentions for the evening’s work. Then she walked up to me and held out the scrying mirror.

As to not break the energy of the circle, Holly and Duncan slid their hands out of mine. They kept contact with me and skimmed their hands up to my shoulders. I gently took the mirror from my aunt, and kept its black surface facing towards the floor.

“Ground and center yourself now.” Gwen directed.

I shut my eyes and took nice even breaths. I envisioned roots sinking into the ground from the soles of my feet to add stability and strength to what I was about to attempt. Then, following Gwen’s softly spoken directions, I turned the mirror over and let The Sight loose. I looked at the black surface of the mirror.
Come on do your thing.
Show me the past.
I felt a pull right away, and instinctively tried to fight it.

Relax,
I heard Duncan’s voice push clearly into my mind.
Let your mind travel backwards in time.

“Don’t stare at the surface,” Gwen suggested in a soothing voice. “Instead let your eyes naturally unfocus.”

I took another deep breath, like I was going to jump off a diving board, then I heard David Quinn’s ghostly voice say,
The answers you’ll seek to save one in the future, lie in the past
.

The past. He had told me that hadn’t he? Okay if that’s where I needed to go, the past it was then. I thought about it, and visualized the hands on a clock spinning backwards. I tried again, looking through the mirror’s dark surface, instead of into it. And then everything changed.

I saw Ivy kneeling alongside the flower bed. She was planting pansies and listening to her music. I saw a man walk up from behind, wave his hand in the air over Ivy, and then grab her with his hand clamped firmly over her mouth. It was Julian Drake. Ivy fought like a wildcat as he dragged her out of the flower bed, down the curved flagstone path, and towards the driveway. Her iPod fell and broke when it hit the concrete. For a moment, I focused on the red iPod, and then I was able to move past it. I saw Julian struggle to keep ahold of my cousin. And Ivy’s mouth moved as she tried to shout for help, but strangely no sound came out. As she gamely tried to fight him, Julian hit Ivy in the face.

Her head snapped back, and, infuriated, she fought even harder as he hauled her down the driveway and closer to the street. Ivy reached out and groped at the big pockets of her camouflage cargo shorts. She pulled out that purple handled garden trowel and jabbed Julian in the thigh. He yanked the trowel away from Ivy, and backhanded her. Julian tossed the trowel aside, where it landed in the mums under the mailbox. Ivy was limp and unresisting now. So he picked her up, and then quickly stuffed her into the open trunk of his car. He shut it, limped into his car, and zoomed away.

Then I saw Julian drive up to a dilapidated house, and pull around the back into a big, old garage with a beat-up broken weather vane tipped drunkenly over the point of the garage roof. Julian got out, looked around nervously, and then pulled the stained, blue, double garage door closed behind him.

I felt something wet plopping on the back of my hands, and it was tears. That jolted me out of the vision. I took a ragged breath, blinked my eyes clear and relayed to the group what I had seen.

“That’s enough.” Gwen told me, and took the scrying mirror away.

“He used some kind of spell to muffle any noise, when he took her.” I blinked at Duncan, and then focused on my aunt. “I’m sorry. I didn’t recognize the old house that he took her to.” I cried silently in frustration. Holly pulled up a chair for me; I sat down heavily, and felt like an abject failure. “I’m sorry, Aunt Gwen.”

“You just wait. Sit quiet, now.” Gwen commanded.

I was so surprised at her sharp tone that I did exactly that. The group closed their ritual down, and opened the circle. Someone hit the lights and everyone started talking at once.

Duncan grabbed his cell phone and started searching. Well that made sense, he did rehab old houses, and maybe he was trying to figure out the location. I saw Lexie, the police officer, walk up to him. “Looking at real estate websites in the area?” She guessed. They exchanged a look, and then she excused herself and went to make a call in private.

Bran offered me a glass of water. “She will have to call in that they’ve had a tip to check abandoned houses. An anonymous tip.” Bran explained.

I sat and sipped at my water, and tried to focus back on the details of the vision. The room felt very closed in all of the sudden. I excused myself, grabbed my jacket from the rack by the front door, and stepped outside on the front porch to get some air.

The waxing moon was bright as it peeked through a few remaining clouds, and I shivered. Not sure if it was from the chill in the air, or a reaction to the ritual, I zipped up my red hoodie. I sighed and leaned my hands on the railing, relieved to see a police officer at the base of the driveway. If only Ivy had been protected like this earlier. I could hear everyone inside talking and wished that I could have done better, given them more specific details, or seen an address or something.
Anything
more helpful
.
I blew out a breath as I focused again on the police officer by the street. His uniform was different from the all black that the other officers wore today.

It’s David Quinn.
I bolted off the porch to the end of the driveway where he stood, waiting. “David!” I called. In a beam of moonlight, his image was semi transparent. But he was there, and he smiled as I rushed forward.