Precious Anathema (13 page)

“
Freya, she caught me in
the Garden.” I was crying and talking so fast I could barely
understand myself. “Cora was in the garden, she trapped me and
could have killed me but she just spoke and flew away.” It was the
word spoke that Freya heard the loudest; she pulled me away and
looked me in the eye.

“
She spoke, what did she
say to you?” I caught my breath and remembered the dark, cold
feeling that washed over me as she hovered over my stiff
body.

“
She called me a little
girl and said that I wouldn’t destroy her, but her voice was sweet
and calm when she said it.” Freya’s eyes became large and her hand
flew up to her mouth.

“
Delilah, you heard her
speak. It was a test, she was testing you.” She grabbed my arm and
started to drag me through the hall, screaming for everyone in the
house to meet, but then she stopped and held my face in her
hands.

“
I am so sorry honey, I had
no idea this would happen.”

TEN

Sitting on the floor of the main study
listening to Freya speak from an old book made me feel more and
more nauseous with every spoken word. None of it was good, and all
of it was about me. The writings were from a hundred years ago,
about the connection between Cora and the one who would break the
curse. She would read a passage and then explain it to us; a few
paragraphs into the first page I found myself sitting with my knees
pulled up into my chest, just rocking back and forth in fear. The
words seemed to echo in my head, over and over again.

“
The
chosen
one will share the most with
the castor of the spell, she will have equal amounts of light and
dark inside her, she will have to use dark to conquer the tasks,
and she will turn dark in the end after taking the curse into her
soul so it can die with her.” Everyone stared at me as Freya spoke,
I couldn’t stop myself from getting on my feet and running. It was
all happening in slow motion, I made it to the doorway before Freya
even noticed I was running, I made it outside and ran through the
field to the woods, I didn’t care if Cora could see me or not. She
had a chance to kill me and for whatever reason she let me go. I
ran through the path to the river, I never stopped to catch my
breath, I never turned around I just ran, crying and began to
scream into the woods. The rain started to come down in a sheet but
I never stopped running. The sky turned black and I heard thunder,
I shrieked into the woods as loud as I could and I heard the
thunder again, it shook the ground as I ran and I fell to my knees.
I didn’t get up, the rain pelted my body and the thunder shook my
chest as I cried and hid from the world. I heard the rush of water
from the river and stood up; I walked slowly to the bank taking off
all my clothes as I sobbed. I stood on the bank, naked and soaking
in the pelting rain, I heard the scream of Cora in the woods near
me and I didn’t fear her, I just closed my eyes and I jumped. I hit
the water and the thunder clapped. I went under and wished to stay,
to hide, and to be alone with my burden but my body floated to the
surface and I heard Cora scream again. She knew where I was, she
knew I was alone and yet she didn’t move any closer to me. I took a
deep breath, felt the tears dry up and floated in the river, naked
and happy. I knew Cora had not gone anywhere, I would hear her
scream once in a while, just letting me know that she was watching
me. She could watch me all she wanted, the fact was she had a
reason to keep me around or she would have killed me when she had
the chance, or she would swoop down and kill me now, but she stayed
back and I had to find out why. I knew one thing, as long as she
was lingering in the tree’s nothing that could hurt me would come
within a quarter mile of this place, I stayed in the water for two
hours just hiding and clearing my head when I heard a voice above
me on the bank yelling. I opened my eyes and then dipped my head
under the water realizing I was completely naked in the crystal
waters, once again my head popped back up before I was ready and I
turned my head to look away from his smile.

“
I knew you would be down
here you know.” I knew he couldn’t see my face but I rolled my eyes
at him, he thought he knew me so well all ready. I waited to see if
he would say anything else, but instead I heard the splash as he
jumped into the river behind me. I screamed and started to swim
away, splashing at him.

“
Xander, I am naked in
here!” I kept splashing and he stopped swimming and started
laughing.

“
I know that, the pile of
clothes on the bank gave it away but don’t worry I am not naked and
I won’t look, well I won’t look much.” I splashed him again but
stopped swimming for two reasons. I trusted him, and I heard Cora
scream again.

“
Xander, you need to get
out of the water. Cora is watching me, she’s been watching me the
whole time but hasn’t made a move and I don’t want her to hurt
you.” He didn’t stop swimming, he didn’t even look scared as he put
his arms around my waist and pulled me close.

“
Delilah, have you
forgotten that I am just as much in this curse as you are? She
won’t hurt me because she can’t hurt me but I love you for trying
to keep me safe.” I couldn’t believe what I had just heard, and the
minute it came out of his mouth I waited to see the look of fear
wash over him, but it didn’t come, he just smiled at me and as his
dimples popped and the sun beat on our skin I squeezed him close
with my legs and kissed him so deep and long it actually took my
breath away. As we stopped kissing he put his hand to my chin and
rubbed it with his thumb. “Delilah I came down here to talk to you
about something else though, Since you arrived things are happening
and everyone is scared so I know you are, but you need to decide
now if you are going through with this or not because it will only
get worse the longer it waits and I know that if you chose not to
do it you will have to leave, and I hate that but I understand.” I
put my arms around his neck and heard Cora one last time in the
tree line before I saw a massive wing fly away from us.

“
Xander, what if Cora isn’t
as bad as they think she is?” He looked puzzled and worried. “What
if she wants the curse broken as badly as everyone else, I mean how
did she become the lechuza to begin with? When she spoke to me I
didn’t hear evil in her, when she was close to me I could smell her
and it was beautiful, not scary.” He looked me in the eye and then
backed away a little.

“
Did she do something to
you? Why would you think she was good, she has killed so many men
Delilah don’t you know that has to be evil?” I wasn’t
convinced.

“
How do we know that the
men she killed were not the evil ones?” He took a deep breath and
pulled me close again.

“
I will give you the
benefit of the doubt, when we get out of here we will look up
everything we can find on the lechuza and see if we can find names
of some of her victims, but if we find nothing you need to get this
fantasy out of your head or it may be what kills you, ok?” I agreed
and kissed him again. His body made me tingle all over as the water
slapped between our bodies, his sweet breath made me long for more
than his kiss, and as I opened my eyes to see his staring back at
me I couldn’t stop myself as my hand went under the water. He said
he would wait forever if it took that long for me to make the first
move, I think we both knew I was too weak to make him wait that
long. As my hand touched the band around his boxer briefs he
started to push me away.

“
Are you sure honey?” I
reached inside and smiled at him. I was more than ready, and he was
everything I had ever wanted. We made our way to the bank and
became a tangled, sweaty mess as the sun shone brighter and
brighter on our bodies while we moved in sync with one another like
we had been doing this dance forever, and then the intense heat
shone on our bare skin from above us as my toes curled and I called
out his name in an explosion of energy, a bolt of lightning struck
a tree across the river and we both stopped and then began
laughing. He grabbed a fist full of my hair and gently pulled it
back exposing my neck, as he leaned in to tease me he whispered in
my ear, reminding me that I am still in control of what happens
with the two of us.

“
I will have to remember
that you do that beautiful.” With a wink of his eye we went from
laughter to more burns on our skin in record time. I was completely
in love, and whether I moved forward with erasing the curse or not
I knew I would always be in love with him. After another hour on
the bank of the river we made our way back through the woods, to
the clearing where I saw my whole family on the deck of the dining
room looking at the sky above us. I turned to look and saw Cora,
sitting high on a tree looking back. Not screaming, not trying to
hurt anyone, just looking. Xander pulled my arm and we started
running through the clearing. Eris and the others were screaming
for us to run faster but I couldn’t take my eyes off her. She could
move at lightning speed, and would have caught us by now if that
was her intention; she just sat and watched us run. None of this
made any sense to me, why wasn’t she trying to get me, why was
everyone so convinced that she was the evil? As we reached the deck
Freya hugged us and I turned to see her once more before she
outstretched her wings and flew away from us. I was more convinced
than ever that she was not evil; she was making sure I made it back
ok; she was trying to keep me safe, but safe from what or
who?

*

Running past everyone on the deck I
knew where I needed to go and went for Freya’s book, something
wasn’t adding up and I had to find out what they were hiding from
me before I went any farther. I ran past the parlor, past the
stairs, through the hall and I was hauling ass to stay one step
ahead of the crowd catching up with me. Suddenly a thought stopped
me dead in my tracks, they knew what I was doing I didn’t have to
run from them, if Freya didn’t want me to see the book she
certainly didn’t have to catch up with me to do it. I closed my
eyes and felt a strange sensation through my body, I had to catch
my breath as I opened my eyes, I was standing in Freya’s room and
the book was open on her alter. I had projected myself without
Kali, I looked around to make sure I was alone and bolted for the
book. Sure enough it was open to the Lechuza. I was shocked as I
read aloud.

“
Lechuza possesses
supernatural powers that are granted by her magic and her shape
shifting abilities. The Lechuza possesses a nearly supernatural
degree of strength, as she can pick up adults with her talons and
carry them off. This makes her more powerful than any known bird.
One of the distinguishing powers of the Witch Owl is her ability to
summon storms (and, quite possibly, to direct and control them). In
the olden days, sightings of La Lechuza almost always coincided
with the appearance of thunderstorms. One of the more obvious
abilities of La Lechuza is her power of shape shifting. She is able
to become a man-sized bird creature by night.”
I looked at the scary picture below the words and was certain
that the legends couldn’t be true, she wasn’t a monster at all she
was cursed like the rest of us and I couldn’t destroy her but I
could save her, it was at that moment I knew what I had to do and
it was for all of us, even the monster that lived in the trees and
watched me sleep at night. I closed my eyes again and as I opened
them I was face to face with Freya.

“
Did you see what you
needed Ella?” I smiled at her and nodded.

“
Actually I did, and I want
to start putting an end to this in the morning if you think I
really can.” She put her arm out and took my hand in
hers.

“
Ella, I know you think
that there is some good that can come to our families past but I am
telling you there isn’t. You can’t think about that, it’s more
important to look at today and the future if you want to succeed.”
I hugged her and then she pulled away with a stern face. “You can’t
move forward until you are ready Ella, I don’t want to take any
chances do you understand me?” I smiled again and we walked to the
stairs where I could see Selene in the corner be herself, she saw
me and pointed to the dining room. I knew that meant the mystery of
my father was over; she had put the pictures in the basement. I had
to wait till everyone was asleep before I went down but I felt good
and even got a smile from Selene as I walked by.

*

It was the smile that made me question
her motives, she had not said one nice word to me since we met at
my mother’s funeral, and suddenly she was not only being nice and
helpful but smiling at me too? I decided that since I could use
Kali’s gift without her hand, maybe I could use Carna’s gift as
well and as I walked into the dining room I sat alone at the table
and thought about Eris as hard as I could, if anyone could tell me
I wasn’t crazy it was her.

‘
Eris, if you can hear me
come into the dining room.’ I sat in my place waiting to see if
anything happened, and before a minute went by there stood Eris,
wide eyed and a little freaked out as she sat at the table across
from me. ‘Eris, nod if you can hear me.’ She did as I asked so I
decided to try something else. ‘I want you to try telling me
something Eris.’ She put her head down to look at the floor and
then looked up at me with wild eyes.