Tethered 02 - Conjure (23 page)

Angela moved to sit on the carpeted floor, taking the bag with her. “What do you mean? How can I alter it if I haven’t even seen it yet?”

“Think about it for a minute. If you see something you like, then you’re going to do everything in your power to make sure it happens. And on the contrary, if you see something you don’t like, then you’ll do everything you can to make it
not
happen,” Susan said with conviction. It was clear she was trying to sway her friend from glimpsing the future at all. “So no matter what you see, it will never happen exactly like you see it because you’ve done things you probably wouldn’t have done otherwise just to make it happen. It’s an artificial future.”

Angela rolled her eyes as she set out the orange candle the Conjurer had given her to light when pouring the spell into a bowl. She found the rainbow-colored lighter she used whenever needing fire for a spell and set it beside the copper casting pot of her mother’s.

“Artificial or not, I still want to see it,” Angela said as she toyed with the pull strings on the bag. “Come on. Don’t you want to see it with me?”

“No.” Susan shook her head.

“I can’t believe how into reading the future you are, and yet you don’t want to see the future for real when you have the chance.” Angela’s face twisted into a devilish sneer, proud she knew the right things to say to push Susan’s buttons.

Susan’s foot stopped shaking and she uncrossed her arms to lean over the side of the bed and glare at Angela. “Stop it. I know what you’re doing.”

“And what is that?” Angela asked, feigning innocence.

“That whole
if I push her buttons a little more and twist my words this way then she’ll give in
thing.” Susan waved her finger at Angela. “It’s not going to work.”

“I’m not doing that.”

“Yes, you are,” Susan insisted. “And you’re only doing it because you know it will work.” She smiled and rolled her eyes as she slid off the bed to sit on the floor beside Angela.

Angela’s eyes lit up. “You’re in?”

“It’s no darker than using that Ouija board at Admer’s house over the summer, right?” Susan sighed. “Plus, I’d always wonder what if and kick myself in the butt for not doing it. Besides, I’m not breaking any rules by glimpsing
your
future with you, so no bad luck should come to me from it. It’s you I’m worried about.”

Angela’s full lips twisted into a wide smile. “That’s my kickass friend! And don’t worry about me… I’m not.”

“So what are we supposed to do?”

“Clear your mind and concentrate on seeing my future.”

Susan crinkled her nose. “Wait, aren’t we supposed to draw a circle first?”

“Mom will kill me if I use her new vacuum to clean up a salt circle. Remember how the old one clogged up last time and started smoking?”

“Well, what about chalk?” Susan suggested.

Angela shook her head as she reached for her lighter. “And how do you propose we get white chalk to show up on this funky grayish-white carpet?”

“I don’t know.” Susan pursed her lips together in thought. “But we have to do something. If we don’t, we’re inviting in darkness, aren’t we?”

“It’ll be fine. We’re just glimpsing the future; we’re not doing any actual spells.” Angela touched the orange flame of her lighter to the cream-colored wick of the candle. “Now scoot over a little more and focus on seeing into my future.”

Susan scooted closer to Angela just as she poured the contents of the purple velvet bag into the well-used copper casting pot. The girls both took a few deep, measured breaths to center themselves before clasping hands and lighting the mixture in the pot on fire. Thick smoke curled into the air, twisting around them and clouding their vision. After a moment, the smoke congregated in the distance between the girls and the orange candle, where it became a mirror of sorts. Like an old fuzzy movie clip, images of the future became visible on the floating mirror made from smoke. What played on the false reflection was a scene not even Angela could believe with her own eyes.

The vision was gray around its edges, as though it were infused by the emotions displayed within. People stood outside dressed in solid black beneath a cloudy sky. As the vision zoomed in, it became apparent that Angela and Susan were standing beside one another, mourning the loss of someone they loved. Their sobs echoed through the vision, making it pulse with grief.

The image flickered away, leaving Angela and Susan gasping for breath. A burnt scent filled their noses and caused their eyes to water as the smoke mirror dispersed.

“What the hell was that?” Susan asked, her voice coated with panic.

Angela shook her head and swallowed hard. “Whose funeral was that? The vision was too short.”

Susan wiped under her eyes with the edge of her finger. “I don’t know, but I can still feel the emotions from it—it was obviously someone we cared about.”

Silence grew between the two while they both pondered what they’d seen.

“Let’s do the other spell and see if we can get an idea of whose funeral it was,” Angela insisted.

“Right now?” Susan asked. The uncertainty she felt shone clearly in her blue eyes.

“Yes.” Angela nodded. “I need to know.”

Angela set everything up just as she had last time. The only difference was this time she told Susan to focus on seeing who was going to pass away. When the smoke congregated between the two and the orange candle again, this time the image did not have Angela or Susan
in it at all. This time it was an image of Angela’s daughter, fully grown and falling off a cliff due to something made of dark magick chasing her.

Afterward, the vision disappeared, same as the first. Angela held her stomach with her hands and cried. “That’s not what I wanted to see. I have to figure out how to change this all.”

Susan leaned back against the frame of the bed. No words came from her lips as she stared at her best friend with worry.

“I don’t see how those two visions are related to one another. But, we need to find out who dies and then figure out what’s chasing my daughter.” Angela straightened her back. “If that’s what living in Soul Harbor and being raised around magick does for her, then I want my daughter to have nothing to do with any of it. Ever.”

A heaviness settled in my limbs as my sight came back to the here and now. My knees buckled beneath me, and I sunk into a heap on the floor directly in front of the table we’d been standing at. Theo slouched down beside me, his movements more fluid than my own. We sat beside one another in silence for what seemed like forever until each of us had gained control over our breathing and rapid heartbeat.

“So what did that tell you?” I asked. My voice was low and a bit breathy. “Anything you didn’t know already? Because I already knew that part. Well, pretty much. The funeral they were seeing had to have been for Callie’s dad and my mom’s non-Elemental boyfriend, Talan.”

Theo let out a sigh. “It didn’t show me anything new, really.”

I looked down at my bare feet, wondering what we were going to do now.

“What we saw has already happened. That’s the tricky part about looking into the past or the future, you never see exactly what you’re hoping to,” Theo said.

“Right, so purifying baths, rituals performed at the spot the tether occurred, and looking in the past have all been a bust,” I said, ticking each off on my fingers. “What next?”

“I’m not sure.” Theo’s arms fell limply at his sides, and he leaned his head back while closing his eyes. “Seeing that did, however, give me more perspective on Susan.”

“More perspective? Why do you say that?”

Theo shifted to glance at me again. “I’m breaking client confidentiality by telling you this, but Susan is the one who’s been paying my family for the Hoodoo against you.”

My mouth dropped. “You’re kidding me, right?”

There was no way it was Susan! No way! She was so sweet to me and so loving. She had been my mother’s best friend. Why would she want me gone?

“I’m not,” Theo insisted. “She wants you gone. I’m guessing it has something to do with your mother and Susan wanting to stay true to your mother’s wishes of you never setting foot in this town.”

I lay down against the hardwood floor, exhausted both physically and mentally. “I never would have guessed it was her.”

“People can be deceiving.”

Closing my eyes, I thought of any telltale signs I might have missed. The only one I could think of was how shocked she had seemed when I’d first met her at Paisley’s. Then, the other morning when Callie had brought me those pictures, she’d said her mom had wanted her to check in on me. Maybe it was so she could see if the spell she’d paid the Van Rooyens to cast on me had worked yet.

I couldn’t believe it.

Theo must have picked up on my disbelief and slight amount of hurt and anger, because I soon felt soft tendrils of sympathy sweep through me.

“Don’t, Theo,” I said, pressing my fingertips to my temples.

“Don’t, what?” he bit out, obviously knowing exactly what I was going to say. He stood quickly and began cleaning up the mess he’d made across the table.

“Don’t feel sorry for me,” I said, leaning against my elbows and glaring up at him.

“I don’t feel sorry for you.”

“Bull, I can feel the sympathy oozing from you now.”

He dropped a small bottle into his bag and shifted to look directly at me. “I have sympathy for the situation, not you.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked, finally gathering enough strength to stand.

“Like I’ve already said, you remind me of someone and so does this situation.” He went back to loading his bag up with all his Hoodoo goodies.

“Who?” I asked. Did he mean himself? Because I sure as shit hoped he wasn’t comparing his broody ass to me.

“My cousin, Kyra,” Theo said as he slung his bag over his shoulder and exited the attic.

I bolted after him, dashing down the narrow stairs. “How?”

“How what?” he asked without glancing my way.

“How do I remind you of her? In what ways?” I asked, hating how he always seemed to say such cryptic stuff and then leave me hanging.

“She was tossed into something against her will just like you’ve been.”

I replayed his words in my mind before responding. “What was she tossed into?”

“Remember what I said, we don’t have to be initiated to gain access to our elemental magick, but we don’t have to have a balanced coven like you either. We’re free to use our elemental magick how we want.” Theo paused and stared directly into my eyes. “We also aren’t bound to do magick only with those in our coven like you. If you have one mix breed in your coven, then your group is not technically bound to each other and if I should move on…another Elemental with my element could take my place and you all would still be able to use your magick.”