The Witchling Seer

  Gingerly, Cassie turned the page. The old-looking paper was crisp, with writing on it that looked new. Cassie started at the top of the page and read what her father left her. It was instructions on how to make spells that didn’t need to be made or activated or remembered as a curse. He had figured out an easier way to get to the spells, and gave her directions how to do it. It was exactly what she needed. He had left her a way to defend herself. She wasn’t going to be a liability to the guys now. It wasn’t what she was looking to do, but she was going to be able to actually help.

  Jared had seemed surprised when Cassie wanted the witch supplies left in a bag by his bedroom door, but he didn’t say no. When Cassie explained that she wanted to make the same protection spell for him that she had made for Nate, he was surprised and happy to hear that. It seemed like he suspected that she was shielding her thoughts now, but he didn’t ask how or why. Jared was always like that—very respectful.

  Hurrying back up to her room, Cassie set everything up. The spell for Jared would take an hour to make. But that should give her enough time to read the book, practice writing out what she needed to do, and cut her hand to get some blood before the guys started asking what was going on.

  Once Cassie set up the potion, she got it going after the second try. The first didn’t work out because she was distracted thinking about the book.

  Her father had found that by combining sidhe blood and witch magic, he could layer the spells in his skin and be able to use them multiple times later. Cassie would have never come up with that as normal day human blood didn’t do anything special. Her protection spell was only possible because of her night human blood. The witches had given her an impossible spell to do to join the coven, as they not at all planned for her to actually join. They never knew it was her blood that would make it possible, and she wasn’t going to tell them.

  As her potion for Jared brewed, Cassie cracked open the book and read the first two pages again. She opened to the next page and found that the writing changed. Staring at the strange symbols did nothing to help her make much sense of it. Cassie turned back to the page before. It was written in normal English and made complete sense. Even the symbols her father had written looked like the words next to it. But as soon as she turned the page, it again was a puzzle, almost like a language she never knew existed and was nothing like anything she had ever seen before. What was she supposed to do?

  After checking on the potion she was brewing, she turned back to the book. Her phone sat silently beside it. Fiona did say to call if she had any questions. Her potion would need ten more minutes. That was enough time to call and ask one simple question. At least she hoped it was.

  “Hello?” Fiona answered the phone.

  “Um, hi,” Cassie sputtered out.

  Cassie hadn’t thought about what exactly to say before calling and now worried she was calling too late, or interrupting the sidhe that was being kind enough to explain everything to her. Hopefully, she was okay with another call. She was family, after all, even if a bit distant.

  “Ran into questions already?” Fiona guessed correctly.

  “Yes. The book makes sense for like a page or two, but then just turns into strange symbols,” Cassie explained. “I don’t know what to make of it. It doesn’t look like anything I’ve ever seen before.”

  “Guess he didn’t expect you wouldn’t turn out being a sidhe either,” Fiona replied, not close to answering the question.

  Cassie silently waited for a better answer.

  “He probably wrote it in sidhe,” Fiona explained when Cassie grew silent. “We have our own language and writing. Do you see any symbols that look like a box filled with wavy lines?”

  Cassie picked up the book and paged through. There were lots of symbols. She wasn’t sure, but a few might be what Fiona was talking about.

  “How ’bout I take a picture with my phone and send it to you,” Cassie suggested.

  “It won’t work. There’s magic all over the book. I’m sure it will look blank to anyone but you,” Fiona replied.

  Cassie looked back at the symbols. Yeah, there were a few boxes with wavy lines.

  “I think I see the boxes,” Cassie replied.

  “That means magic. I figured if he wrote you a book about magic, he’d have to write it somewhere in there,” Fiona explained her logic.

  “So do you go to school to learn this? Is there some sort of translation book I could borrow?” Cassie wanted to read more of the book. In fact, more than three-quarters of it was written in the strange symbols.

  “We don’t learn it in school. It’s one of those things that you just know when you are a sidhe. I think your father assumed you’d turn into one, and then you’d know how to read and speak sidhe. I really didn’t even realize how much we do that is in our native language until I moved away. I’d offer to come read it to you, but like I said, I’m sure there’s magic on that book to keep everyone out.” Fiona sounded like she was talking from experience. “Sorry, I can’t help more than that. Maybe Devin will be able to help when he finally visits.”

  “Thanks,” Cassie added while thinking that Devin might be too late. She needed to be able to help everyone out now, not later.

  Hanging up the phone, she turned back to the simmering potion. It was ready to transfer, and she poured it over more herbs. At least she now had the right ingredients and didn’t need to break into the school to get anything. That wasn’t a fun trip she wanted to repeat any time soon.

  Cassie went back to her book and brought it over to the table she was using as a potion-making station. While pouring the liquid, she continued to wonder what it meant. She was supposed to be a night human. It was strange enough that she never knew about them for the past eight years, but now to be told she was one of them was even more off. And then there was the problem that she was but wasn’t. She never once craved blood, and she was always able to get a good tan. Whitney said that most night humans didn’t like the sun, and they all needed blood. It was too confusing and added more to her already long list of questions.

  The liquid made it through the mixture, and Cassie pressed the last of it to make sure to get it all. There was one more direction to do, but she wanted to be sure to get her spells from her father set at the same time. Cassie took a clean bowl out and had it ready beside her potion.

  ‘I’m going to cut my hand now to get some blood to finish the potion,’ Cassie told Nate and Jared at the same time. She had to, or they’d be in her room in an instant as the identical cut was about to break open on their hands, too.

  Picking up the blade, Cassie hesitated. She was going to have to make a deeper cut than just a finger prick to get enough blood for her father’s spells. How in the world was she a night human who was supposed to drink blood when just the thought of drawing her own made her stomach flip?

  Cassie placed the blade gently on the palm of her hand. Closing her eyes, she grabbed the blade tightly and pulled it back. She felt the slice and gritted her teeth. She needed to work fast. Dropping just one drop of blood into the potion, she turned to the empty bowl. Cassie squeezed her hand, making more drops come out of the already healing cut. Four drops fell into the bowl before it was healed over. Normally she would have been happy with her new super healing via Nate and Jared, but now it was more of a hindrance. She hoped four drops would be enough.

  The book was sitting open to the first spell, and Cassie grabbed her brush from the kit and dipped it into her blood drops. Using her own blood, she wrote the four symbols her father had written in the book on her left forearm.

  She wasn’t sure how they worked or if they really would work, but Cassie had higher hopes when the blood faded from her arm and seemed to seep into the skin. That wasn’t how blood was supposed to settle. Most blood dried and caked off, but that wasn’t the case now. There was magic in her blood even if she was the only person who knew it.

  Clomping on the stairs drew Cassie’s attention to Jared as he entered. He was bein
g extra loud as he walked because he could enter the room silently, and she would have never known.

  Cassie smiled up at him as she stood. She wanted to try out the spells from her father, but that was something she wanted to do alone. She was just happy there wasn’t dried blood all over her arms in a failed attempt she would have to explain. Now it was still her secret.

  “This is for you,” Cassie said, holding up the bowl that still had the warm, freshly brewed potion in it. “Just please don’t go giving it away like my cousin wanted to do. My blood is in it, and I don’t want to be bonded to any more people than you and Nate. Two mates are more than I can handle as is.”

  Reaching forward, Jared took the bowl. “Are you sure? I’d love to share you with a dozen more people,” Jared kidded.

  Cassie rolled her eyes as she shook her head. There was no way Jared would share her with anyone else. He could barely stand sharing her with Nate.

  “You promise this is a protection spell, not something to knock me out so you can run away with your new friends who taught you how to keep your mind closed?” he scolded her.

  Cassie shrugged, directing her gaze at the ground. He had figured it out what she had been taught.

  “I was going to learn eventually. I couldn’t have you guys in my head all the time,” Cassie replied when she finally looked up.

  Jared was grinning. He wasn’t mad in the least. He tipped back the potion and swallowed it all in one gulp.

  “Am I supposed to feel different?” he asked, setting the bowl down and wiggling his fingers.

  Cassie shrugged. It felt different with Nate, but that was because she completed the bond at the same time.

  “We could always test it?” Cassie offered. She was pretty sure she had made it correctly, but then again, she was a little distracted.

  “Silver poisoning right now doesn’t sound like fun. I’ll just go with the fact that you’re an awesome witch and made it correctly,” Jared replied.

  “Your confidence in me is overwhelming,” Cassie added. She didn’t blame him in the least. She wasn’t completely sure on it either, but she wasn’t about to tell him that.

  “You should get some sleep.” Reaching over, he brushed her cheek. “You’re getting dark circles under your eyes.”

  Cassie nodded as his thumb made a warm trace on her face. She hadn’t slept much in weeks.

  “We’ll figure this out together. You have to trust Nate and me to take care of everything. Stop worrying. We won’t let you down.”

  Cassie gave him a small smile before yawning. All the talk of sleep was making her more tired than she already was.

  Bending down, he kissed her forehead gently before disappearing back downstairs. She felt the warmth of his kiss just like his touch. He was always gentle and trusting. How could anyone think he was evil or a monster? Cassie knew better than to believe rumors, but they would have to deal with it. The wendigo caused tension at school. Not one person was as forgiving as Whitney was most of the time. Grabbing her book from her father, she sat back down on the bed. She wondered when Whitney would be back. She needed someone to talk to, and the guys wouldn’t fit the bill. They were too busy protecting her, and she doubted either would approve of her new experiment.

  Leaving the book on her bed, Cassie got up to rifle through her duffle bag to find her pajamas. She did need some sleep. Looking at the clock, she figured at least four hours should be enough. She could get up early and try to look more into seeing the future. She had done enough with making a potion for Jared. That was stressful enough, not including the book.

  After she was tucked into bed and had the alarm set, Cassie took out the book again. She reread the pages with the words she could read and skimmed over all the symbols on the following pages. Nothing new stood out, and she wasn’t close to being a night human, so she didn’t expect any more than that. Turning back to the first page and the symbols on her arm, Cassie read her father’s instructions. To activate the spells, she didn’t need to say a word or a specific command. All she needed to do was think it.

  Not quite ready for bed, Cassie wanted to practice just a tiny bit and see if it worked.

  The first spell she wrote down was a retrieval spell as he father called it. Basically, she would have named it a “come to me” spell. Cassie glanced around the room. There was the potion-making set still cooling across the room. Not a good idea to use. By the other window was a chair with fluffy pillows. That would work, but Cassie was more interested in moving something with weight. If the spell only worked for lightweight pillows, she needed to know that before trying to move a bowling ball to attack someone. Hey, it could happen. Glancing around, Cassie’s gaze landed on a bookshelf. Two books sat on top of the shelf like they were waiting to be put away. They would work.

  Come to me, Cassie thought, hopefully not loud enough for either of her mates to hear and have to explain. The books sat where they were. Cassie looked down at her arm. She couldn’t see the marks anymore as they had faded away. What if she wrote them wrong?

  The book sat open beside her, and Cassie studied the picture again. She was pretty sure she made it correctly. Maybe the spell wouldn’t work because she wasn’t a sidhe.

  Cassie glanced back at the two books. It would have been easier to just have them move like the spell was supposed to do.

  The books flew up into the air and across the room quickly. Luckily, Cassie’s hands were already up and ready to catch them. Otherwise they would have hit her in the face. Even as it was, she couldn’t help the thud as they rammed into her. They were much heavier than she expected.

  Jared appeared back at the top of the stairs.

  “Are you all right?” He glanced around the room like he was looking for an intruder. “Did someone come in here?”

  Cassie followed his gaze, confused. “Um, no. Just going to bed,” she replied, unsure of what was wrong.

  Jared settled down a little bit as he realized she was tucked in bed. “With a little light reading?”

  Cassie glanced down at her hands. The three-inch-thick books were not exactly reading material but more research guides, both on plants in the Pacific Northwest. She had studied similar books the whole time she was in her witchling classes, but the two books she held were way more extensive.

  “Yeah, just wanted to look something up,” Cassie fibbed, not sure what to tell him. For the most part, she didn’t understand it herself. When she had tried to use the spell it didn’t work, but it wasn’t written wrong. It did work. She’d just have to figure out how to get it right.

  CHAPTER 9

  It was still dark when the alarm went off for the third time. Cassie considered hitting the snooze button again, but she heard Jared already awake downstairs. She rubbed her eyes and found Whitney still in her cougar animal form at the foot of the bed. It seemed that not only could Nate change her into her animal, but she needed him to change her back. At least Cassie could kind of read her mind when looking into her eyes. Even though she still couldn’t read the future, she had spent the remainder of the night trying to figure out how to activate her four new spells. Besides, she was efficient at reading the past. Whitney had shown her everything the witches had done, and Cassie was ready to counter their spells.

  Cassie sat up in bed and stretched. She got more than her four hours, but that was because after figuring out how to make things move to her, make things move away from her, lift things in the air, and break something in half—the last one which left quite a mess to clean when she was done. After all her work, Cassie was confident that she could help fight back when the time came. It might have been because Whitney had returned toward the end, before Cassie went to bed, and Cassie felt better that she had seen what the witches had set up.

  “I can bring breakfast back for both of you,” Jared offered, sticking his head in the doorway. “Does she eat normal food like that or just raw meat?” He was grinning at the wild-looking cat on Cassie’s bed, not a hint of being afraid of her.

/>   Whitney lifted her head only barely and growled at Jared’s joke.

  “She’ll be human before you return,” Cassie told Jared. She could feel that Nate was already getting close to wendigo lands.

  Jared nodded because he also felt it across the bond.

  Whitney was now awake and looked like she wanted to ask Cassie questions about what she walked in on the night before. Cassie was happy her friend couldn’t talk. She didn’t have to spend time answering questions, and all she gave was a very quick explanation.

  “Don’t tell either of the guys about that,” Cassie told her friend. “There’s more I want to learn before I tell them.”

  She wanted to learn the rest of the book. The four spells alone that she had were amazing and were going to help her protect herself, but the book was full of them. Her father had left her over one hundred spells, and she couldn’t wait to learn them. There was just the small detail about turning into a sidhe that was the problem. Once the dust settled from the latest problem, Cassie hoped she’d have time to figure that one out. Hopefully, her friend Devin would hold the answers. He was the king of the sidhe people.

  Jared returned in no time with plates full of food. Cassie's stomach growled as the scent wafted upstairs to where she was changing. Whitney had left to meet up with Nate and change back to her human form. When Jared returned, Cassie could already hear more people with him. She finished drying off and threw on a T-shirt and jeans before grabbing socks and hiking boots. The coven didn’t like to hold events on an easily accessible path. They had a bit of a hike to do before they’d get to the ceremony circle.

  “It doesn’t matter if he likes it or not,” Nate was saying as Cassie came down the stairs. “We can’t allow them to come with us without being blindfolded.”