“Okay, I’ll drop you off first, and then we’ll head in.”
“Okay.” Simon put my phone down and then put a hand on my knee as I drove. He’d been increasingly cuddly since I’d woken up at Oliver’s. I didn’t mind, though. It comforted me somewhere in my tired soul.
We walked into the station, and Merick stayed close to my side. At first, I didn’t understand why, and then I felt the little pull of magic. I sighed and looked at him. “I thought the magic was gone. She’s in the containment center.”
“That’s not Adrianna’s. It’s Hope’s,” Merick said. “The situation with her mother woke her magic early.”
I cringed at that. “That poor girl.”
We stopped at the office and knocked on the door. Detective Mason opened it, and we both walked in. “Agent Collins, Merick.”
Hope looked up at us and smiled. “Abby,” she said softly. “It’s good to see you alive.”
“Thank you.” I sat down at the table in front of her, and Mason stepped up behind me.
Hope continued to color the picture she had been working on. “My name is Hope now. They told me that Mommy won’t be coming back, and I’ll have a new family.”
Her speech seemed so much better than when I first met her, which made me reassess how old she was. Five, possibly six.
She looked up at me. “They told me that you couldn’t be my family.”
“No, I’m sorry, Hope. I’m not ready to raise a child yet.”
“I know.” She slid a picture over to me, and I looked down at it. “Mommy says it’s not over, Abigail.”
The words made me shiver, but the picture stabbed me in the gut. It was a very child-like drawing of me against the wall covered in red. The symbols from the scenes were drawn on the wall.
“It’s not over,” she whispered again. “Her army is still out there.”
I put a hand on hers. “It is over, Hope.” I stood and took the picture with me. “There are people who will help you, Hope. They’ll help you walk that path of light, not dark, magic.”
“Am I capable of light magic?” She asked, raising scared eyes to meet my gaze.
I nodded. “Everyone is capable of light magic.” I walked out and looked at the picture again. Merick came out and motioned to the paper. “Make sure you leave that for Mason so he can get it to Hope’s therapist.”
“Yeah. I have no intention of keeping it.” But I couldn’t get her words out of my head. The witch was locked away. She couldn’t get me. I broke the spell that allowed her to call people to her.
The only person I had to worry about was Samuel in my head, and in a couple of weeks, that would be taken care of.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Two Weeks Later
Mario’s voice came over my phone. “She was O’Donald’s daughter.”
I walked into my house, cradling the phone on my shoulder. “And he didn’t know?”
“She was estranged.” That explained why the missing person file said ‘friend’ and not ‘father.’ “We’re still looking into it. Don’t worry. The council is going to talk about it tonight.”
“Good, keep Levi distracted.”
“The other thing is, Abby, I don’t think this is the end of it.”
“Neither do I, Mario. Look I have to go, thanks for updating me.” I hung up and walked into the living room.
I hadn’t been allowed alone for the two weeks once I fessed up that I heard Samuel in my head at the haunted house. Tonight was no different. Except tonight, Levi didn’t know we were doing the spell because we didn’t want him to try and stop it on Samuel’s command.
Levi at a council meeting would keep him from showing up here tonight. I was back to work full time, and I was ready to get this stupid vampire out of my head.
Merick, Liz, and Oliver all stood out in my backyard, and I sighed as I went to lay in the circle they’d drawn.
I closed my eyes as Oliver closed the circle. His magic snapped over me and called to my own. I took a deep breath because I knew what was going to happen next. Oliver closed his hand over the bite mark on my neck and started chanting.
I cried out as it burned through my body. Digging my fingers into the dirt, I tried to find my grounding. I tried to focus through the pain, but my mind was spinning.
‘Don’t let them do this, Abigail…’ Samuel’s voice came stronger than it ever had been. ‘You’ll never get the answers you seek. You’ll never understand what happened that night…’
“You’re lying,” I cried out, and another pair of hands held me down while Oliver continued to chant. I bucked against the ground as the pain became unbearable. Oliver’s magic burned through me, and my own magic tried to rise and meet it. I didn’t remember it doing that with the cleansing from Ira.
“Now, Liz.”
Liz’s magic flooded into me, blocking my own magic.
‘Abigail…your mother…” Samuel’s voice faded as the spell started to wind down.
“Fuck off,” I growled. “You ordered her death.”
‘Are you so sure about that?’ His voice faded completely, and I felt his influence leave me.
Liz’s magic floated back, and Oliver’s hands left my neck. I sat up and looked at him.
“Don’t believe anything he says, Abigail. He can’t be trusted.” Oliver pressed his head to mine. “You’re safe now, niece.”
Dear Reader,
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