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| Evie & Jane prepare for the big announcement |
A light wind blew across the emerald green hills of Welshport Island. The morning sun was already in its 6th hours hitting close to afternoon. The mansion hidden deep in the Tirymor Forest was a buzz with activity thanks to Evie's very important news from just the night before.
Today, she was going to announce to the entire house that she and Matthew were going to be married.
In the dining room at Tirymor the best China was laid out over the large thick oak table. White lilies in two large silver pots crowned the center piece allowing the aroma of the spring to fill the room like a blanket of perfume caressing every wooden panel.
Evie carefully checked over the table with Jane to make sure everything was perfect for the morning breakfast with the entire family. Today was the day she'd announce her engagement to Matthew Winterborn.
"Everything looks perfect Miss." Jane said with a nervous smile.
"Do you really think so? I want everyone to feel happy when I announce, so making sure everything; from the food to how the plates are placed to every white lily, makes people feel happy." Evie said nervously. "That energy will set the mood, don't you think?" Sher added checking over everything once again.
Jane optimistically agreed.
"Oh, wow!" Matthew said walking into the room.
"Do you like it?" Jane asked.
"Its incredible. You two did all this just this morning?" He asked.
"Jane really came through, she has been so helpful." Evie gushed as Jane shyly smiled.
"I'll call in the family." Jane then added as Evie and Matthew took two big breaths and stood towards the back of the room while the family was brought in unaware of why today's breakfast was called in such a formal way.
"Everything is going to be fine, don't worry. Whatever they say, however they react, it's going to be fine." Matthew said.
Evie smiled, and snuggled up next to him with her arm around his waist holding on tightly as if she were preparing for a bumpy car ride.
In away she was. She had no idea how The Lord would react to her moving on from Sebastian with Matthew. They could perhaps be happy for her; but the fact she was pregnant with Sebastian's baby might be a bit of a struggle for them to comprehend.
As the two new engaged lovers took their seats, the family entered.
Jacob, Celeste and baby Fabian came in first.
Celeste greeted her best friend Evie with a giant hug and a double kiss on the cheeks. They hadn't had time to catch up since Fabian's birth.
Then Charlotte entered holding Rebecca's hand.
Aurora, Nik then came in chatting about the hospital. Nik looked tired but happy.
Finally Genevieve and Johnathon came in arm in arm followed by a solo Caspian.
They entire group took their seats and made small talk as the house staff brought in the breakfast. Evie looked nervous, Rebecca could tell but didn't question the formal breakfast. But to the matriarch of the house, she could tell this was a day where something was going to be announced. She'd been around enough stylish breakfasts, brunches and lunches to know that when a society women gathered everyone in a room in this manner there was news to be shared.
Rebecca stood up and carefully tapped a tiny egg fork on the porcelain of her tea cup.
"Everyone, attention please." Rebecca said, surprising Evie who was getting ready to make her own announcing. "I'd like to formally welcome our new guests to Tirymor. Johnathon, Genevieve, Aurora. I know that this house can be intimidating in it's vastness. Take it from someone who has lived here for over 4 decades, it never gets any smaller."
Her joke resulted in a few chuckles. "And to Caspian. Who has been my beacon. My light. My friend. I sincerely hope that all of you have a chance to visit with him and allow him to show you his gifts. He's given me a way forward after so much tragedy. Evangeline, you especially I should hope, would benefit from Caspian's good news as he brings to me. To goodness of his nature would do so much good for you in his your own life that had also seen so much tragedy. Your growing family would appreciate, I know it in my heart."
Evie shifted in here east feeling uneasy with Rebecca’s words. She could feel Caspian’s eyes locked on her from across the table. It was as if a weight was in his gaze that held her down like an anchor holding a shit steady on an uneasy sea.
Jacob cringed and narrowed his eyes. His uneasy and clear distaste for his mother’s obvious and odd obsession with her controlling supposed spiritual guide was palpable. His mother had never gushed over one of her soothsayers like this. It was clear Caspian's grip on Rebecca was more than a con job as Jacob did when he hired Gaspar to manipulate Rebecca in his favor.
Caspian seemed to control Rebecca in a mysterious way, something more potent and powerful was afoot. Jacob's mind continued to go back to the situation Charlotte told him about in the chapel. The heat. The fire. The frightened way Father Ryan fled that day.
Caspian for his part, sat at the table with a Cheshire cat grin allowing Rebecca to continue to pour love in words all over him while the others sat and waited for her to finish feeling uncomfortable by her odd treatment of the man.
Was she in love? Some thought. Was she infatuated? Beguiled? Under a spell?
Rebecca was not this way, this was not her nature to be so flagrant with affection for someone so new to her life-- and who wasn't even family. Jacob shot Celeste a look. She too felt something was odd about the whole situation.
Matthew grabbed Evie's hand and squeezed, a sign from him for her to take over the bizarre speech.
Evie took her fork when she saw break in Rebecca's gushing and tapped her own tea-cup.
"Thank you Rebecca for those wonderful words of advice, I truly appreciate them. And Caspian, I would..." Evie paused to choose the best word "um... like to meet with you as Rebecca suggests. I'm sure your guidance to her has been most cherished in her time of need. It couldn’t hurt." She added with trepidation.
Caspian lifted a brow. He sensed her hesitation, Evie then continued.
"I would also like to make a wonderful announcement. Actually, Matthew and I would love to make an announcement. Together." She added as the guests at the breakfast table all looked around and wondered what this could mean.
Aurora knew her daughter Evie like the back of her hand. She could already tell that a loving glow was billowing from the couple. Matthew smiled at Evie as she was standing there. He nodded with encouragement, telling her to continue.
"Matthew has asked me to marry him and I've accepted."
The group at the table irrupted with cheers. Aurora, the loudest. She shot up out of her chair, the napkin falling to the ground and she rushed around the chairs at the table in a flurry of satin fabric and grabbed her daughter by the shoulders and pulled her in.
"DARLING! I am so happy!! SO So Happy for you both, my joy! OH My love!!" Aurora said.
Celeste too rushed over to her friend and hugged her. "You deserve this happiness. All of it." She said.
Nik and Jacob, Johnathon and Genevieve all cheered.
"Congratulations, good man!" Nik said to his friend Matthew.
"Wonderful news!" Johnathon shouted.
Charlotte snuck a second breakfast roll as the others were distracted, but Rebecca, Rebecca sat back in her chair next to Caspian and fumed.
"We cannot allow this." She said to him under her breath. "The moment they leave this house you won't be able to get the child she carries and if that happens I will never truly see my Vivi again."
"We cannot stop them." Caspian replied to Rebecca's surprise.
"What do you mean? Of course we can. We can and we must. The child you have been pushing Aurora and myself to acquire for you is still a few months of being born. If she should marry that, that, fisherman Winterborn, they'll leave this house and out of our control. This is what you wanted. This is what you swore us to do for you. Now you give up? So easily?" Rebecca replied in frustration.
In truth, Caspian didn't give up on Evie's baby as much as he saw that there would be no use of the baby now that he knew the child was conceived by Sebastian after he had changed into a vampire. There would be no way for the child to be used for what Caspian needed initially. And to add to it, he had already decided he'd attempt the impossible, he would impregnate Aurora himself to then take on a true blood born child of his own.
"What would you suggest Madame?" Caspian replied coyly.
Rebecca's eyes look as if they'd pop out of her head. He had created a monster with the pact he had entered into with her. The mere mention of Vivi's name to Rebecca caused her to stop and nothing to get Vivi back, and if Caspian could do it, if he really truly could do that, then she'd give him anything he wanted.
Even Evie's baby.
But Caspian's change of plans were not Rebecca's change of place.
"I suggest stop the wedding. Stop it all. She cannot marry him." Rebecca said again as everyone continued to celebrate on the other side of the table.
Jacob kept his eye on his mother and Caspian whispering.
"They seem as though they have already decided on what to do. I can't seem to think of anything..." Caspian began before Rebecca interrupted.
"Caspian, I know what you are capable of. You've promised me my daughter's return to this world if I help you with Evie's child. I have promised you that help. I have, you know I have. And so has Aurora. Do you think Aurora will still remain here once her daughter Evie has moved out with her new husband? The only reason Aurora is here now is because I've allowed it, and because her daughter who is still a member of my family by marriage. Once Evie marries Matthew that will no longer be the case. Evie will no longer be a member of this family by marriage, and neither will Aurora." Rebecca replied.
Caspian realized what Rebecca was doing. She was telling him in words that were veiled that she would kick out Aurora once Evie was married to Matthew, Evie's Lord connection broken. Rebecca had noticed Caspian's keen attention to the beautiful Aurora Jordan and Rebecca was now stepping on the neck of Caspian's budding obsession for Aurora by throwing around her authority over who was going to live at Tirymor.
If Aurora was gone, he could not find a way to be with her, which meant, no child. Not Evie's. Not Aurora's.
Caspian would be left with only the bitter Rebecca and a house full of secrets and shadows.
"Do you understand me?" She asked as everything went over Caspian's dark mind. He couldn't believe he was being double crossed and blackmailed by her but she was doing everything he had brainwashed her to do, he had only himself to blame.
"Madame, you're absolutely right. The two will not marry, and nothing will change here at Tirymor. I can guarantee this to you. I will handle the fisherman. I will handle everything." Caspian said as his new plot to rid Welshport of Matthew to save his own plan and please the cunning Rebecca was now in motion.
The Island would not be prepared for what the devil had in store for them in just a few days time.
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| A worried Mary at her window |
Mary shook off her worry as just anxiety over everything happened and the dual dangers of Caspian’s looming darkness over them all and Sebastian’s search for the missing coven member.
It had been three days since Sebastian had taken off on his own to find one of the last descendants of the Sisters of Highgrove coven in Boston. Mary was beginning to worry. They were running out of time to rid the world of the demon Caspian and this illusive witch was their last result.
"He'll come back." Filipe said as he entered the room and saw the mother of his unborn child staring out of the window, her blond hair bright with the light of the sun. "Besides, it's day light. There isn't much he can do in the light." Filipe added.
"Well then tell me. Tell me about what you fear? Let it all out on me. That's what I'm here for, let all your frustrations and fears out so that I can take that extra stress off of you." Filipe said.
She turned to him from the window, his kind warm face shining in the ray of light that came from behind her out of the window.
"Mary we made a pact when we were trapped in that turret room at Tirymor that we would be each other's confidant. We thought we were going to die in that room and we came together and trusted each other with our last hours. Or so we thought. We survived Mary but doesn't mean we still can't lean on each other. So go... go on... tell me what you are fearing. It'll make you feel better."
Mary's concern melted away for a moment as she too remembered how they came together, and she walked over to Filipe and fell into his arms. She was filled with fears, so many that she couldn't express them all at once. She was worried that when time came, if the time came, she would not be able to compete what she needed to rid Caspian from Welshport and save Evie and her child from his evil grasp.
She worried as a soon to be new mother too, that she'd fail Evie and her baby. It came from deep inside, these insecurities as her novice abilities with her newfound powers would end up making Caspian only more powerful and even more dangerous. Sebastian needed to pull through, they needed to find the woman that would guide them in the direction in magic and in the mysteries of their magic.
"What if I fail." She said whispering as the held each other.
He, much taller than her, bent his neck down and kissed her on the head. He held her tight so tight that she could feel his heartbeat on her own.
"We all fail. But we also get back up from that failure and we push on. Mary, you will do this. You, me, Sebastian and whom ever this other witch is, we will vanquish Caspian Casador once and for all. Your faith needs to be stronger than your fear of failure." Filipe said.
She turned her head up towards his and kissed his plump lips. They felt so good on hers. She had never had this type of love. Someone who believed in her. Someone who wanted to protect her. Someone who wanted nothing from her other than her love in return.
"What if Sebastian never returns? He doesn't have to. He can live his life free from all of us away from here, away from the shadows." Mary worried.
"He's involved in this because Caspian sought him out, sought out his unborn child. He has more at stake than we do. He'll come back Mary. I've known him practically all my life. When I worked for Jacob and became friends with Sebastian -- when things matter, he never gives up."
Mary took a breath, her heart wanted to believe him but the clocks were ticking time away, time they didn't have.
Then, Mary turned back to the window -- the light from the day warming her face and shining in her blue eyes that were as bright as the sea and sky.
She could feel Caspian was getting stronger. In her blood. In her bones. She could sense the powers from the shadows creeping up through the earth and in the trees and floating into the sky on the wings of the owls and crows that floated and flew across both Welshport and Goode Islands.
Filipe was sure Sebastian was coming but for Mary's doubts consumed her.
But she had to be strong because the time would come to fight Caspian, and she would take center stage against him--- with or without the help of her Sister from Highgrove.
****
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| Caspian & Aurora on a stroll in The Village |
The evening felt cooler than usual. In the village the streets were lit with gas-lamps that glowed a particular deep orange glow as various small automobiles and horse-draw carriages puttered and clopped along the cobble stone streets almost in a musical cadence.
As the fresh sea air floated in over the shore and into the village of Welshport that evening, Aurora and Caspian walked along the streets on a stroll getting a bit of a break from Tirymor House.
He was eager to be with her in every sense of the word. Wherever she was, he wanted to be and most times she wanted to be away from Caspian, far far away from his crooked-toothed smile and hungry eyes.
But his instance at walking in the village with her was unavoidable. And it made Aurora’s skin crawl.
Now that Evie's baby was out of the question for him to cruelly sacrifice for his unholy plot, he needed Aurora to mother his own child, and his attempts to woo-her began on this night.
But she wasn't a sweet innocent socialite from London as her name and history recalled. She in fact, was a fiery New York City woman who just so happened to have married someone from England many years ago and settled into the inner circles of London high stature.
She could see a louse coming a mile away.
"You really didn't have to accompany me Mr. Casador, I really enjoy having some time to myself." Aurora said to him as they both slowly strolled through Village Park in the center of town.
"You are a very capable woman yes, I know." He replied with a smile. "But I wanted to celebrate with you, or at least continue to celebrate -- your daughter's engagement. You must be thrilled with the news at breakfast."
Her mind went back to Evie and Matthew, a wash of joy came over her face. "I've never been so happy." She replied. "I wasn't here when she married Sebastian and I don't know if I will ever forgive myself for being away so long from her and even Nikolas. I can now make up for all of that lost time and heal with them." Aurora replied as she stopped under a gas-lamp.
The glowing orange light above her illuminated her like she was surrounded by a bright halo. Her light green dress with matching coat and gloves looked even more green under the light, her eyes too seemed be a bright blue; in Caspian's glance he was falling in love. How could he? He needed her to carry out his plans but seeing the most beautiful woman he had ever come across in the eternity of his existence seemed clutch his heart and squeeze like noting he had ever experienced.
"I think that you are a wonderful, wonderful mother. You should be very proud of how equally as kind and special your children are." Caspian said flirting, he stepped close to her, so close she could feel his body heat.
He reached for one of her gloved hands that she clutched together at her stomach. Her gazed at her with a creepy grin that made her stomach churn. And just as quickly as he touched her she moved her hand away and changed the subject.
"How long do you think you'll be living in Tirymor?" She asked, starting their walk again.
"For as long as Mrs. Lord needs me." He replied quickly, annoyed that she did not allow him to touch her.
Aurora's resistance to him had been evident since the day they met, unlike Rebecca who had fallen under his spell over and over again with little to no fight. This ability to unlatch from his mind control intrigued him. He couldn't figure out why she was able detach from his powers so easily.
"I can't imagine someone her age would want to be surrounded by a man of your stature so often. I mean, the idea seems so odd to me." Aurora replied confusing Caspian.
"She trusts me, why wouldn't she want someone she trusts around her?"
Aurora stopped their walk again just outside of a small dress shop. She looked in the window but was really looking at their reflections. Hers was there just as she suspected, his was strange. He reflected a darkness, a shadow, something that did not reflect human like hers did. She gasped -- he noticed.
He grabbed her and turned her away from the window. He stared into her eyes, his glowing yellow, hers filled with fear. She couldn't move in his clutches. The deepening powers he consumed began to fill her body like an injection of poison; slowly entering her mind, her blood, her brain.
And then he intensified his powers. The energy was stronger than anything he had done before on a person. Not on Rebecca, not on anyone. He wanted to make sure she'd never break free from his control again and while his powers intensified a flash hit his own mind.
It was a signal to Caspian from Aurora's memories, which played out to Caspian like a moving silent film.
Aurora, stone faced and sullen, carried a candle in one hand and a small bottle of clear liquid in the other.
She walked slowly-- her heartbeat pounding in her chest. She opened a door, there, sleeping in a chair was her husband Robert Jordan.
Caspian saw her slowly walk up to Robert with the candle and the bottle. She poured the liquid onto a rag and placed it over Robert's sleeping face.
She held it there as Robert breathed it in as he slept.
Then, his body turned cold. She touched his wrist to check his heartbeat.
Robert was dead. Aurora killed him.
Aurora crumbled to the floor in tears, tears that streamed down her beautiful face and on to the wooden floor of their London Home.
Aurora killed Robert to save them from further destitution. She was tired of living the life of poverty that his gambling and loss of money has placed them into. After his death, his life insurance would save her and she'd use some of the money to come to Welshport.
**
In what seemed like hours but only seconds of grabbing hold of Aurora, Caspian let go as her energy poured into his mind revealing her murderous secret.
This is why he could not latch on to her for long. Her sin of murder, her deep cave of guilt was so painful and so counter all that is human and good blocked him every time he tried to grow close to her and pull him further into his web of evil.
She, while not as evil as he was, had her own shadowy past that would ruin her life if reveled.
"I think you should let go now." Aurora said sternly, not knowing he now knew her secret.
She did however feel as if she knew something about him more than anyone else. His reflection, albeit in the glass of the shop, was not human.
"Fancy meeting you both here." Constable Gregory Reigns said seeing the woman he too was interested in with Caspian.
"Constable! Good evening!" Caspian replied, his trans quickly melting off.
"Is everything alright?" Gregory asked suspiciously.
"We're fine." Aurora replied quickly as she rubbed her wrists from where Caspian was holding her.
"I saw that you had quite the grip on Mrs. Jordan, Caspian, care to fill me in?" the law-man asked.
"What?" Caspian played coy. "Oh! No! No, no, nothing for you to worry about."
"Aurora?" Gregory said, giving her a chance to tell her side.
"Nothing Gregory. It's fine, Caspian and I were just getting better acquainted. It seems he has a lot of history that I think none of us were really truly aware of." She replied as Caspian lifted a brow.
"I should say the same of you Mrs. Jordan." Caspian replied to her surprise.
"I can tell you both that from my point of view when I saw you the two of you were in a deep conversation and correct me if I'm wrong, but perhaps a contentious one. Someone doesn't grab on to a lady that way without there being something serious in the works." Gregory pressed.
Caspian tilted his head and smirked evilly "I don't like your insinuation Constable."
"I don't like your face Casador." Gregory said stepping up to Caspian.
"That's enough!" Aurora snapped. "I think I'm done here. Caspian you can take me home or you can stay out and have your little sword fight with Gregory, but I'm going home."
Aurora's mind felt scattered. Whatever Caspian did to her, he didn't control her, but he did make her feel unsteady. She had always felt something uncomfortable around him and now she could see that indeed there was something dangerous about the man Rebecca praised as practical saint. Aurora knew now she had to convince Rebecca to rid herself of him and rid the house of him too. His energy, his dagger like evil eyes were too much for her to look at any more.
But every the cunning devil, Caspian knew his hooks were in Rebecca too deep. She'd never listen to Aurora, and regardless of how her own sin of murder kept her from being under his total control, he'd find a way to get her to give him a his own child. He was creative in his evil work. She would be unable to resist him.
"Aurora, wait!" Gregory said rushing over to her as she tried to get a taxicab.
"Gregory, really, I'm fine. I just want to go home." She said, feeling stressed from the overpowering Caspian had just done.
"Are you sure? You'd tell me the truth right? If he hurt you in anyway, I can help." Gregory replied sweetly.
She looked up at him from the street. She could see the true concern on his face. She smiled at him and touched his handsome chiseled jawline and nodded her head that she was indeed ok, even though she was terrified of what she had seen in the shop window: Caspian's odd, misshapen and dark reflection that was neither a man or human itself.
"I just need to get home and rest." She said.
Gregory nodded in return and looked up at Caspian who, of course, was back at Aurora's side like a leach sticking to the skin of a man.
Caspian could see there was something between them, something beginning in a romantic way. He didn't like it. He didn't like the sense and smell of the birth of new love.
"I'll take her home." Caspian said staring Gregory dead in the eyes.
Gregory did not let Caspian scare him. He was indeed falling for the beautiful Aurora. He was worried for her, he could tell she was bothered by the man she was with, and in fact Gregory had his own meeting planned with Jacob Lord in very short order about Caspian too.
The strangeness of it all gave Gregory a knot in his chest as he watched Aurora and Caspian get into a taxi cab and putter off. Caspian turned in the window of the glass in the back and smiled coldly to Gregory taunting him.
The devil had his claws in many pies in Welshport but now, Gregory too was involved. The darkness continued to pull over the island and in no way would anyone be prepared for what was to come.
****
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| Gregory & Jacob meet at The Siren’s Call |
The smoke from cigarettes and cigars mixed with wild laughter and ruckus from wall to wall of The Siren's Call Pub on main street in the village.
The wood carvings of mermaids and ships were freshly cleaned and sparkled under the glowing lanterns inside the pub where Jacob Lord sat alone in a both towards the back with a foaming beer for the guest he was expecting: Constable Gregory Reigns.
Reigns walked in. His mind still swirling over the strange interaction he had with Aurora and Caspian just 30 minutes ago. The gnawing feeling in his stomach made him feel that there was something, something tangible, to the strange call Jacob gave him earlier that day definitely had legs.
Reigns, politely smiling and shaking hands to drunk Welshportonians that greeted him on his way to Jacob's booth, quickly sat down and sipped the beer using the yellow liquid to calm his nervous stomach.
"Slow down there Reigns, we've got a lot to talk about." Jacob said under the glow of an orange lantern.
"I think I have a lot to talk about too." Reigns said. "I just had a run in with Casador tonight. He was in the village With Aurora Jordan. He is definitely an interesting fellow, so I can see your concerns now."
Jacob lifted a brow. "What did you notice?" he asked hoping to compare notes.
"Well, there was something about the way Aurora moved around him, her body language. She seemed uncomfortable around him, and he seemed a bit overbearing, almost like he was trying to convince her of something that she didn't need to be convinced of. He seemed as if he was trying to persuade her of something." Reigns explained.
Jacob nodded his head. "And did she seem to relent? Did she seem that she eventually gave in to him?"
"No. She didn't, which I don't think he liked."
"That's the different between Aurora and my mother." Jacob continued. "My mother seems to be fully under this man's control or...spell, or guidance. Naturally I wouldn't care what my mother was doing with her 'spiritual guides' but this one seems to have something more on her. I shouldn't even say that, my mother may not be the warmest person, but she doesn't a skeleton in her closet like the rest of us. In fact, despite her demeanor, she's quite the good person."
"But what would Casador want with both of them? Why would he be so interested in making sure the two of them were in his clutches like this? It just doesn't make any sense." Reigns asked.
Jacob shook his head sharing in Gregory's confusion. It was a true mystery to them at this point at what Caspian true motive was for his intense connection with Rebecca and his constant attempts to pull Aurora into the same fray.
Both men had different motives for solving the mystery too. For Jacob, he had always controlled the way his mother's so-called Spiritual Guides behaved and what information and guidance she actually received from them Money talked. And the former guides to Rebecca were well paid by Jacob. With Caspian, Jacob had no control, and thus, Jacob feared his mother would regain more and more of her own autonomy over things that revolved around the family fortune and business.
Gregory's motives were slightly simpler. He was in love with Aurora, and Caspian's grip or attempted grip on her heart was a devastating blow to his own attempts to woo the beautiful Aurora.
"There's more." Jacob said, his voice lowering so that curious ears at the bar could not hear. "My daughter mentioned a strange situation a few weeks ago at one of my mother's private masses with Father Donavon Ryan." He explained. "Ryan comes to Tirymor and performs a mass for my anyone who wants to come that lives at the mansion. Its usually just my mother and Charlotte, sometimes Evie joins, sometimes Jane and some of the other workers at the house, but by and large, it's just my mother and my child. A few weeks ago, something strange happened, Charlotte recalled."
"What?" Reigns asked, leaning in to hear.
"Out of no where an extreme heat oppressed the room. And I don't mean the warmth of the after noon came in through a window or the suffocation of a breeze or anything like that. Charlotte says it was almost an instant heat. Fire. She recalled it hot as fire. Flowers died. Things began to change in the room, holy water boiled. She says it was terrifying. And that Father Ryan left the room in a hurry. He was scared. He believed there was some sort of evil present." Jacob said.
"Evil present." Reigns repeated putting his thumbnail under his front teeth and biting down in thought as if the nibbling of his finger would push the answers he sought into his mind. "What has Father Ryan said about this?" Reigns wondered as a bar-maid brought them more to drink.
"I haven't spoken to him." Jacob confirmed.
"Well then, now we have a lead." Constable Reigns said with a grin and grabbing on to his beer. "Looks like the two of us have a bit of a conversation with our good perish Preist Father Ryan."
"What would we ask him? Charlotte doesn't really know what she saw." Jacob mentioned.
"Whatever Ryan felt, whatever he saw, he'll tell us. He obviously did feel some kind of presence in the room, Charlotte at least noted that, and whatever he saw, he'll tell us. At least then we'll know what the devil is happening over at Tirymor with your mother, Caspian and Aurora."
"It has to be stopped, Reins. This man, this whatever he is, is making our lives a living hell. My mother is behaving like some kind of cult follower. Shes impossible." Jacob replied glancing over at his pocket watch.
As the two men continued to discuss their next steps in heading off whatever Caspian was planning, as they were sure he was plotting something even if they truly had no idea how sinister the plot was, Baxter Murphy, the editor of The Welshport Globe watched them behind a smoke screen from drunkards cigars and cigarettes. He wondered, to himself as he sipped from a whisky, what in the world the village Constable and the wealthiest man in town had to talk about.
What was the seriousness of the conversation, he thought. Then, almost as if he was pushed over to their booth, he found himself at the table smiling.
"Sir!" Baxter said, Jacob looking up at the man who seemed sweaty, nervous and slightly drunk.
"Murphy. Well, good to see you." Jacob replied, recognizing his own employee at the Newspaper his family's publishing company owned.
"Yes, sir, good to see you too sir." Baxter replied. "Constable." He added greeting the Village's top officer of the law.
"Murphy."
"I couldn't help notice the seriousness of your faces over here. Everything ok, I hope?" Baxter asked under a guise of friendly concern.
"Seriousness? No. Reigns and I are old friends, that's all. Just a friendly chat between old friends." Jacob replied lying.
"Old friends?! Interesting. He was responsible for botching several investigations regarding deaths in your family including Mary Goode and your own shooting yet you're old friends?" Baxter prodded.
"Mary Goode? OH Well, we all know she's gone, off to wherever she went, I don't know. But our family dropped the charges on Mary. Quietly. I couldn't in good conscience prosecute the mother of my child over something she had no control over." Jacob said.
Reigns shifted in his seat uncomfortable with where the conversation was going with the reporter.
"No control over? She was accused 2 years ago of attempted murder of your nephew. There were witnesses." Baxter shot back.
"Mary was under stress -- and we all know the man she shot was not Sebastian, but an imposter from a botched kidnapping of my late nephew who returned ill and died of his illness." Jacob said covering up the truth of his own involvement in the shooting and the truth about Sebastian's supposed death.
"Intersting. Aside form that, my spies say Mary is on Goode island. She's back. And she's not alone." Baxter added surprising Jacob, as everyone thought Mary had vanished.
"Is she? Back? Hmmm." Jacob replied. He thought about what Baxter was saying. The woman he once loved, the woman he cheated on over and over again, the woman he got pregnany, deserted then took away their child from her. The woman he conned and manipulated into shooting Sebastian, the woman he thought had fled from prosecution was back.
Should he care?
Jacob shook his head as if to brush off the gossip Baxter was trying to push and get his reaction on.
"I have to go. And Mr. Murphy, it was good seeing you. If you see Mary, tell her I said hello. We're glad she's back---if that's true. I'm sure Charlotte will be happy to hear of her mother's return." Jacob replied not knowing Charlotte already knew.
"So you're ok with that?" Baxter again pressed.
Reigns got up and got between Jacob who was now standing and Baxter.
"Do you like your job Mr. Murphy?" Jacob asked.
Baxter lifted a brow.
"It seems you do. I suggest you look for other stories than stories that force you to sniff around my family. Keep that in mind, will you?" Jacon said tapping Baxter on the cheek as he and Reigns both exited The Sire's Call Pub.
Baxter took a breath and grabbed the rest of Reigns beer and chugged it down. He was indeed on to something. He saw Jacob squirm. The oddities that surrounded that family that owned his paper was slowly becoming a dangerous obsession of Baxter Murphy.
****
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETS
Highgrove Neighborhood
****
 |
| Sebastian arrives in Boston |
There were crows, he noticed, lingering in bunches of 3 and 4 on a roof top of the Inn all staring down at him like they were waiting for him to do something for them to act on. Just staring. Waiting. Taking in every inch of Sebastian's body and smoke from far up on the Inn's rooftop.
"Hey stranger." She said walking up to him sniffing his neck. "Are you lost?"
He tilted his head knowing what she wanted. "Are you?" He asked.
"Honey I've never been lost in my life. But I can help you find your way. What are you looking for?" She asked.
"Food." Sebastian grinned. He was a bit hungry, but not food that she could cook for him.
"Actually I'm too busy to eat." He said inhaling more of the cigarette.
"Miss Lanore, you don't know what you're getting into, trust me when I say this." Sebatian said, as the night fog began to fill in over the lower Boston cobble stone streets of the nighborhood.
She tilted her head to the side and gave him a half grin "What's a fine man like you doing in these parts anyway? Huh? Highgrove doesn't usually seem men like you with a soft top hat and velvet gloves. I can tell you're not from here. Anyone could. So what is it? What are you doing here?" Lenor asked.
"A girlfriend?" Lenore teased. Sebastian shook his head no. "A wife." she pushed.
"Lucky me." She said. "So tell me, who's this person you need to find?"
Her hair was up in tight curls and her pink lips were plump and pouted with worry of what was about to happen.
Lenor, the woman in pink feathers who continued to push Sebastian then revealed for a price she could give him anything he wanted. She offered him a place to say, he declined. She offered him a good long walk and talk on the docks where they could do whatever they wanted to do without the prying eyes of people of the city, he declined that too and just as the two strangers continued to speak in circles, the crows on the roof of Sebastian's Inn screamed loud crows and went to the air circling the East 6th Street in Highgrove.
Then they began to dive down from the air right at the woman and Sebastian. They flew into her hair. They pecked at Sebastian's top hat. One after another the birds swooped down and pecked and scratched and ripped at the two.
Lenore screamed as the birds snapped at her exposed flesh. Cutting her. Snipping at her more and more.
All the power in her small fist that was clenched behind her back as she helped Sebastian to parts unknown was the reason for the crow's carnivorous actions.
Her lips were cut. Her eyes were plucked out. Her prink dress now covered in blood from her open stomach.
Her magical instincts were right. And strangely enough, he had found the missing witch. Or she had found him.
