Legacy Of Magick (Legacy Of Magick Series, Book 1) (10 page)

Now, from a psychic standpoint, peeking into someone else’s head, without an invitation, is pretty rude. But, I have to admit, it really pissed me off that my father had kept so many secrets both about my abilities, and his family from me. Also, I rationalized; I was living in a house full of practicing Witches. Maybe it was past time to stretch my wings a bit and see what I could do.

I looked at them all and considered. If Holly could sense an injury through touch, what would I be able to do if I deliberately touched someone with the intention of gaining information while using The Sight?

Since Bran was annoying me the most at the moment, I chose him as my target. Truth be told, I had no remorse about strolling through his head uninvited. I let all of the arguing flow past me and, since no one was looking at me anyway, I closed my eyes for a moment and concentrated on Bran. He stood there, within arms reach and still arguing with his sisters.

Find the family bond,
I thought to myself.
We share grandparents after all, our parents were siblings
. I concentrated harder and told myself,
find that blood connection.
Then I stretched out with my psychic abilities. Even though it pained me to do so, I focused on the family bond, the link between Bran and me.

I felt Bran’s personal energy easily enough. I imagined that it would be angry and flickering out from him in a shade of red. Everyone has some sort or energetic shield — an aura — around them, even non-magickal folks. Witches, I had recently learned, tend to have well defined auras and they typically turn them into strong energetic shields. But I had an advantage. Bran had no idea of what I was plotting, and I moved fast. From a magickal point of view, he never even saw me coming.

I opened my eyes and started to reach out my hand, I envisioned my own aura to be a bright vibrant purple. I had read somewhere that purple was a power color for psychics, so that’s what I chose. I took a deep breath, like I was about to jump off a diving board, and with intention, firmly grabbed a hold of Bran’s wrist. Between the physical contact, both of us being angry, and the unfortunate blood bond, this made for a strong psychic link. His personal energy did not even slow me down.

I heard him yelp in surprise at my clamping down on his arm, and then I stopped hearing anything at all. Everyone in the room faded away, and I was no longer standing in the turret room in the middle of a family argument. I was instead strolling through Bran’s head and looking into a memory of my cousin’s.

Seeing his actions through his memories, I watched Bran go into a spacious walk in closet that was off to one side of his room. The closet was huge and all arranged with a fancy closet organizer kit. He reached up and pulled down on one of a dozen ornate brass hooks, mounted high inside the closet, where belts and ties were hung. With a click, a hidden door popped open on the wall beneath the brass hooks. Then Bran reached in and pulled out an old leather bound book. The memory started to fade, became fuzzy and then slid away.

I let my breath out in a rush and released Bran’s wrist. The room spun slightly, but I held my ground and went for a sneer in my cousin’s general direction.

“Hey!” He said, rubbing his wrist. “I didn’t know you could do that! And damn it, I sure as hell did not give you permission!”

“Autumn, what did you do?” Gwen asked me in a chiding tone.

“She scanned my memories.” Bran said outraged.

“She did?” Ivy laughed at her brother, and slung an arm around my shoulder. “Ooh, let’s add postcognition to the girl’s talents!”

“She’s had virtually no training.” Bran said as he glared at me, “I
felt
her sift through my memories! She shouldn’t be able to do that.”

I tried to cover up how nauseous and light headed I felt with sarcasm. So I put my hands on my hips and raised an eyebrow at him, “Well Bran, maybe you’re not that talented of a Witch, because it sure was
easy
.”

“Oh really?” He narrowed his eyes, smiled challengingly, and stepped a few paces back. He clapped the palms of his hands together sharply. As I watched, he pulled them apart and a golden ball of light appeared between his hands.

Ivy let go of me in a hurry and scampered back a few feet.

Dumbfounded, I stood there while the ball of light started to crackle and glow brighter. I glanced from the ball of light held between his hands and then up to his face. His eyes were practically glowing a neon green and his expression was tough as nails. Honestly, he scared the crap out of me.
Bran?
I thought to myself,
Bran the uptight, conservative ‘librarian’ was capable of this?

CHAPTER SEVEN

“Bran,” Gwen laid her hand calmly on her son’s arm, “Stop, you’re frightening her.”

Maybe the calm, matter-of-fact tone of Gwen’s voice did the trick. As I stood there with my heart pounding and watched, Bran’s expression changed. He closed his eyes and seemed to concentrate. He took a deep breath in, and slowly brought his hands back together. Then, Bran opened them and pushed his hands down towards the floor. The ball of crackling light fizzled out and faded away with a small pop. Bran blew his breath out slowly, opened his eyes, and regarded me steadily. It didn’t help much that his eyes still seemed to be glowing.

I heard a roaring sound in my ears, I felt my face get very hot, and then my knees went bye-bye. The next thing I knew my butt hit the floor. I saw spots in front of my eyes and felt someone shove my head between my knees. “Holy shit.” I heard myself say in a breathless voice.

After a bit, I realized that someone was stroking my hair and speaking in a gentle tone of voice. They smelled like sunscreen and red gold curls wavered in and out of focus in front of my eyes. I knew that hair and that voice... Holly. It was Holly. And after everything I had seen today, I suppose it made sense that the empathic cousin would be the one to offer comfort.

She pressed a hand to my shoulder and I felt her fingers grow warm. What ever magick she was doing started to work right away, my head stopped spinning, my stomach stopped churning, and the roaring sounds in my ears faded away. I raised my head and looked in her eyes. The pale blue-green color seemed to be more intense, but there she was, crouching down next to me like a catcher behind home plate, calm, pretty, and serene as ever.

“Better?” Holly asked me.

“Yeah.” I blinked a couple of times. I did feel better. I looked away from her eyes and tried to focus on my surroundings.

“Stand up now.” Holly directed me. While her voice was soft, it was also firm. I climbed slowly to my feet, with her help.

“Well, that was…
different
.” I announced.

“Okay, I’m going to ask,” Ivy stepped up and grinned at me, “What did you pull out of Bran’s head?”

“He has a hidden compartment in his closet.” I said. “Pulling down on one of the brass hooks opens the panel.”

Aunt Gwen merely raised an eyebrow at my announcement, and probably at my aggressive psychic maneuver, but she nodded her head in confirmation.

“Good job, cousin!” Ivy gave a knuckle bump. “Let’s go check it out.” She motioned to Holly who nodded her agreement. Merlin scampered out into the hallway, and then stopped as if waiting for us.

As soon as we stepped out into the hall, the door to the room closed smartly behind us. Ivy was showing off a bit, but it might slow Bran down. Maybe. My head was still spinning after seeing what
he
could do. Holly and Ivy grinned at each other as the three of us walked down the winding hall and headed towards what the girls called the Fortress of Solitude — AKA: Bran’s bedroom suite.

Merlin pranced along with us, and Holly actually smiled at hearing the turret room door rattle as Bran tried to open it. His outrage about the three of us going, uninvited, into his room, was easy to hear.

“Oh my, he’s really pissed off. How tragic.” Holly said surprisingly straight faced. Which made me chuckle.

Then Holly looked at me seriously, “He shouldn’t have raised energy like that in front of you, not when you’ve never seen anybody do something like that before. You’re a Seer, of course you would be able to see the manifestation of that much magickal energy.”

I stopped dead. “Hold up a second,” I said. “So what are you saying? Not everyone would be able to see that energy ball thing?”

“No, actually, a mundane, non-magickal person would see nothing. An empath would feel it. But a Seer would see the physical manifestation very clearly.” Holly explained.

“So what did you two see?” I asked them.

Ivy gave me an arched look, “I sensed the energy build and heard the crackle right as he clapped he hands together.”

“Which is why you got the hell out of the way,” I surmised.

“My mama didn’t raise no fool.” Ivy said with a thick southern accent.

I laughed.

“I could
feel
his anger,” Holly explained next, as she pressed a fist to her stomach, “The anger raised the energy ball very quickly, so it manifested more dramatically, but I don’t have to see it with my own eyes to know it’s there.”

I took that in and considered. I was going to have to start taking notes to keep track of all of this if I really wanted to learn.

Holly opened the door to her brother’s room and announced, “Besides, scaring you like that was a dick move.”

My eyes popped wide and I started to laugh. Clearly I needed to look a little deeper at the twins, instead of simply thinking — Holly: sweet, compassionate, and kind. Ivy: dramatic, gothic, and funny.

Holly looked at me seriously, “I’m not all sweetness and light, you know.”

I reached out and playfully tagged on one of those wild, strawberry blonde curls. “Well thanks for the rescue in there. Oh, and Holly…I like you better when you’re sassy.”

That comment made her light up. She gave me a friendly hip bump and said, “I really want to see those family journals again, for myself.”

Ivy wiggled her eyebrows at the two of us, “Well then, let’s get to it.”

I hesitated right outside of the doorway to Bran’s room, half expecting some type of magickal whammy to hit me as I crossed into the room. I took a breath, prepared myself, and stepped in.

Inside his fancy, designer looking bedroom, the walls were painted a warm ivory. The room boasted dark, heavy, obviously antique furniture and a huge neatly made bed, with a hunter green bedspread. I saw a leather sofa and a few small tables set up to create a small reading area as well. I felt a slight buzz in the air but other than that, nothing. Ivy and Holly stepped in easily behind me and Merlin padded in, sniffing the air expectantly. We all stood still, waiting. I felt the buzz fade. And then...
nothing
happened.

No whammy.

No energetic smack down.

No magickal repercussions from entering his bedroom at all. And wasn’t that interesting?

Feeling bolder by the moment I marched right into his huge closet with my cousins following me, leaving Merlin to explore Bran’s previously ‘off-limits’ bedroom. I reached up towards the brass hooks, as I had seen Bran do in his own memory, chose the one I thought was correct, and pulled it down.

With a solid click, a medium sized panel swung open. Holly and Ivy both smiled, and together the three of us reached out and swung the small doorway fully open. There, on recessed wooden bookshelves about three feet wide and four feet tall, in shades of faded blue, green, brown and black, the old journals and hand written spell books, called grimoires, were arranged. Some of the books were leather covered journals and some were hard back books.

Oh wow.
Seeing all those antique books gave my inner museum nerd a thrill. “Do you have a suggestion on which book I should start with?” I asked and wondered how the family told the books apart.

“Let me try using psychometry.” she said. I started to step back but Holly snagged my left hand. She explained that holding my receptive hand while she scanned the books would help her be able to divine which book would be the best for me to start with.

“I’m not sure what psychometry is,” I admitted.

“Psychometry, or clairtangency, is the psychic ability to gather information by touch.” Holly said. “For example, I can read objects by touching them with my fingertips, or by holding small objects in the palm of my hand.”

Ivy wiggled up beside us. “Yeah. Like, if she found a set of keys picked them up and then concentrated, she would
feel
who the keys belonged to or maybe get emotional impressions about the owner. Stuff like that.”

So Holly held my hand, and using her own right, dominant hand she ran her fingers lightly above the spines of the old spell books and journals on the shelves. Her eyes were closed and her head was tilted slightly to the side she scanned them.

“This one has the strongest vibrations.” Holly pulled an old leather bound journal gently from the shelf.

Aunt Gwen cleared her throat, and we all turned. “That journal is an excellent place to start.” She stood there, outside of the closet door and waited.

“Didn’t figure that locked door would hold against your magick very long.” Ivy grinned at her mother.

Aunt Gwen playfully smacked Ivy upside the head as she walked past. “Brat.” She said, which made Ivy grin. Then she held out her hand for the volume. When Holly handed it to her, Aunt Gwen gently opened the cover and scanned the first page. “Yes, this one was written by Eliza. She was a sister to Patience.” She held the book out to me. “These books are irreplaceable, and must stay inside of the house at all times,” she warned me.

“Do you have any protective cotton gloves to keep the pages from being damaged?” I asked her. “These books should be handled very carefully. Please tell me that you have some archival boxes for storage, and that you know to keep the pages out of direct sunlight to lessen the chance of the ink fading?”

“Yes, we know how to care for the old grimoires.” Bran announced from the doorway, as he scowled at us all.

Then, I kid you not; he marched past me, reached into a drawer from his fancy closet organizer, and produced a couple packages of white gloves. He handed them to me.