The Darkness Within (29 page)

She stepped closer and pulled me into a hug. “My pleasure, Sam. Ethan deserves to be helped, and I’m glad I can do this for him. He’s responding really well to the spells. I located the center of his dark magic. It had moved to his stomach, believe it or not. I think that’s why he’s so hungry now. I was able to bring it out of him a little bit. I don’t want to take it all at once because it might have a negative effect on him
and
me.”

“Wait.” I pulled away so I could see her face. “Did you say you were able to remove some of the dark magic? Not bury it?”

“Yes. I didn’t want to say anything earlier and get anyone’s hopes up because I wasn’t sure it would be possible, but I was able to remove part of it and send it elsewhere.”

“Elsewhere?” Was there a safe place to send dark magic?

“Into a grave. My mother’s grave.”

“But wouldn’t that, like, reanimate her corpse or something?” Oh, God, please don’t tell me I just apologized to Mirabella after she’d brought her deadly witch of a mother back from the grave to come attack us all.

“No, no, no.” She laughed. “You have quite the imagination, Sam. My mother is gone. She won’t be coming back. The magic will lie with her for all eternity. No one will be harmed by it.”

I exhaled, relief washing over me. “Good. So when can you work with Ethan again? He doesn’t seem to need recovery time after this session.”

“I’ll monitor him, and if he’s still good this evening, we’ll do another session.”

“That’s great.”

She patted my cheek and motioned for me to go with her to the kitchen. Ethan was pigging out on chicken wings and cold French fries. Yuck! “Hey, join me.”

I sat down across from him. I didn’t feel like eating. I wanted to watch him. Even sucking on chicken bones didn’t bother me because he really did look like my Ethan again. Things were finally starting to turn around.

But my stomach lurched when I realized that, even though Mirabella might be on our side, we still had a coven of witches trying to find us. Trying to hurt Ethan.

30

“M
IRABELLA
?” I looked up at her as she made another pot of tea. I wondered if it was the tea that helped her maintain her youthful appearance. She certainly drank enough of it.

“Yes?”

“I was thinking. We have sort of a problem, and you should know about it since we’re in your house.”

“Oh?” She sat down with her teacup.

“We have a coven of witches after us. They traced the spell we used to find you, which means they can probably trace us here.” That must have been what they did. They caused that green snake on the merry-go-round because they’d been using dark magic to find us.

“I see.” Her lips pressed tightly together. “And given that you arrived yesterday morning, I’d say they probably already know you’re here.”

“We kind of took a few detours on the way.” Stopped for food, got pulled over, almost got flattened by a tree. “And the spell we used was on Ethan’s car, the one you sent back to the Poconos with our deer clones.”

“Well, that’s a plus. It means this coven might trace the car back to where you’re from.” She stood up. “Still, I should put a protection spell on the house. Keep it hidden from people who are searching for you.”

“That’s what I was thinking.” I stood up. “I’d like to help, if that’s all right with you.”

She smiled. “I’d like that.” Ethan smiled too, obviously happy I was getting along with Mirabella. I still wasn’t sold on her, but between the change in Ethan and having another coven after us, I was willing to play nice. For now.

“Do you have a spell in your spell book? I could get it for you.” I couldn’t get the book off my mind. I had a feeling I’d learn all I needed to know about Mirabella if I could see what was in that book.

“That won’t be necessary.” She tapped the side of her head. “I have the spell we need right here.”

Ethan and I followed her outside. Dylan was coming back downstairs. I’d somehow missed when he’d gone up there. Probably while I was busy checking on Ethan. “Where are you all off to?”

“We’re going to do a protection spell so Ms. Matthews and her coven can’t locate us here.”

“Can you use another hand?” he asked.

Mirabella nodded. “The more magic, the more powerful the spell.”

Shannon was walking toward the house as we stepped off the front porch. “Check out this crystal ball I made. I know it’s a little hokey since they aren’t real, but it’s so pretty, and I even made pink smoke swirl around inside it.” We all stared at her as she rambled on. “What? Did I miss something?”

I looped my arm through hers. “You’re just in time for a little magic.”

She smiled, always up for a spell.

Mirabella walked around the house, waving her arms in the air. She told us to picture the people in Ms. Matthews’s coven and focus on blocking them while she put the spell on the house.

“So the spell you’re doing masks the house, and what we’re doing is adding extra protection specifically against Ms. Matthews’s coven?” I asked.

“Exactly right,” she said, immediately picking back up with the spell. We circled the house twice for double the protection. “That should do it.” Mirabella sighed. “Who’s up for making a really big dinner, magic style?”

“You know I am,” Ethan said.

“How are you doing now that you’ve used your magic?” I worried that tapping into the source of his magic would bring on the darkness still lurking there.

“I’m totally fine.” He kissed my forehead. “Still hungry, though.”

We all headed into the house for dinner, which turned out to be really nice. Everyone talked, and for a little while, we forgot about all the things that were working against us.

Around seven, Ethan and Mirabella went back to the basement for another spell session. For the first time, my heart didn’t race with worry. He was getting better. I could see that now. I gave him a kiss and sent him to continue his treatment, which was how I was viewing this.

“So.” Shannon slumped onto the couch. “I’m too stuffed to do anything but watch TV. Is that okay with you guys?”

“Yeah.” Dylan sat in the recliner. “I need to put my feet up and let all that food digest.”

We’d practically made a seven-course meal. We had everything from salad, to potatoes, to steak, to fish, to you name it, and we’d tried all of it. Magical food tasted even better than the real stuff, and I wasn’t sure if she’d been joking or not, but Mirabella had said the magic food was calorie-free
and
guilt-free. For the time being, I was choosing to believe that was true.

Shannon turned on the TV—using magic, because the remote was way on the other side of the coffee table. I could’ve gotten it for her, but I had my head on the edge of the couch and my legs draped over the back. Before I’d gotten cancer, my dad used to ask how this position could possibly be comfortable. I couldn’t explain it. It just was. And I was too comfortable now to even think about reaching for the remote.

Shannon sat up slightly and nudged me with her elbow. “Hey, want to see if we can do a spell to make whatever show we want come on TV right now?”

I shrugged. Why not?

“How about a movie, then?” Dylan asked. “I’m always up for
Star Wars
.”

Shannon rolled her eyes. “Ugh, I should’ve known you were a Trekkie.”

“No, I said
Star
Wars, not
Star
Trek.”

“Oh. Whatever. They’re basically the same.”

“Let’s pick something we all can agree on.” I didn’t want to listen to them argue anymore. “
Transformers
? One and two were both awesome.” Ethan loved the movies, and while I had my suspicions that it might have had more to do with Megan Fox than the Transformers, I didn’t complain. The movies were actually really fun to watch.

“I’m good with that,” Dylan said.

“Me too.” Shannon waved her hand at the TV and the first
Transformers
movie started playing. “Look at that. I even skipped the previews and FBI warning. That’s some great spell work right there.”

We all fell asleep about twenty minutes into the movie. I saw Shannon’s eyes close, and Dylan was snoring softly in his chair. My eyes closed shortly after. I woke up and looked at the clock on the wall. I squinted, thinking I couldn’t be seeing correctly. It was two-thirty in the morning. Shannon and Dylan were still asleep, so I crept from the room and went upstairs. The door to the room Ethan and I were sharing was shut. I opened it slowly, trying not to make a sound. Ethan was asleep on the bed. He was still in the same clothes. The spell must have taken a lot out of him again, like the first time. Maybe doing more than one session in a day was pushing it too much. I’d have to talk to Mirabella about it in the morning.

I slipped into bed, snuggling against Ethan. He felt cold, so I pulled the blanket up and tucked it around him. He moved a little bit but didn’t wake. I watched him, looking for other signs that he was worn out from the second spell today, but he looked okay. I wasn’t sure how I was still tired, considering I’d fallen asleep by seven-thirty, but sleep overtook me in a matter of minutes.

When I opened my eyes, the clock on the nightstand read 2:10. I bolted up in bed and grabbed the clock. “That can’t be right!”

“What?” Ethan stirred and rubbed his eyes. “Go back to sleep.”

“We’ve slept away most of the day. Look.” I shoved the clock in his face.

He pushed it away, but his eyes widened. “That can’t be right.”

“I already said that, but I think it is. The sun is out, and I don’t know—it just feels like afternoon.”

“I’m so tired, though.”

“I get why you’re tired. Those spells take a lot out of you.”

“The one before it didn’t. I felt fine.”

“Yeah, well, this was the first time you did more than one in a day. It’s too much on you. Stay here while I shower. Rest up, okay?”

“Rest up for what?” Even though he was exhausted, there was a devilish tone to his comment.

“Easy, Romeo. I really don’t think your body could handle that right now.” I kissed him lightly on the lips, but he was already asleep again.

I rushed through my shower, wanting to get downstairs and find out why no one had bothered to wake me, or Ethan for that matter. I had to drag him out of bed and physically put him in the shower. I made the water a little colder than usual to keep him awake. It worked. He jumped and reached for the faucet. Before long the entire bathroom was steamy.

“I’ll meet you downstairs,” I yelled to him before leaving. I turned toward the living room and nearly fainted. Shannon and Dylan were still asleep in the exact same positions I’d left them in last night. I rushed over to Shannon and shook her. “Shannon, wake up.”

She smacked my arm away. “Leave me alone.”

I tried Dylan next, but he was no better.

“Sam?” Mirabella called. “What’s going on?”

I turned to face her. She was in her pajamas at the bottom of the stairs. “Mirabella, what happened? We all feel asleep really early last night, and then none of us woke up this morning.”

Mirabella rushed to her bookshelf and started grabbing book after book. “It can’t be.”

“Can’t be what? Do you know what’s going on?” I picked up one of the books she’d dropped, since her arms were overloaded.

“Spread these out on the table.” She dumped her armful on the coffee table and began searching through them.

“What are we looking for?” She ignored me and continued to page through the books. “Mirabella.” I grabbed her arm. “I can’t help you if you don’t tell me what you’re looking for.”

“Sorry. I just can’t believe they’d do this.”

“Who?”

She stopped searching and looked into my eyes. “Who do you think would use a spell on us like this? One that would put us all into a deep sleep so they could sneak up on us?”

Ms. Matthews and her coven. “But we cast the spell on the cottage. They shouldn’t have been able to find us.”

“Apparently, they are a lot stronger than we gave them credit for. They’re definitely using dark magic if they broke through our spell.” She started flipping through the books again.

“How did they do it? Wouldn’t we have felt at least some trace of the spell?”

“Looking back, I think I did, but I attributed it to the spell I’d done with Ethan. I thought I was tired from using all that energy. He was tired, too. He went straight to bed.”

“Didn’t you two see us sleeping in the living room when you came up from the basement?” They had to walk right by this room.

She shook her head, trying to remember. “I was so tired. I don’t think I paid much attention. I’m sorry, Sam. I don’t remember. It must be the effects of the spell. Judging by those two,” she motioned to Shannon and Dylan, “we aren’t supposed to be awake right now. Somehow we broke through the spell.”

“I woke Ethan. He’s showering.”

“Good. At least he’s okay, too. As soon as we find what I’m looking for, we can reverse the spell on Shannon and Dylan.”

“What are we looking for? What kind of spell would undo this?” I wished I could be of more help, but I was still too new at this.

“I’m not completely sure. It would be easier if I knew how they did this to us. What kind of spell they used.”