Chapter Four
Silence fell as Adam absorbed everything his father had just told him. He understood completely what his dad meant. He remembered that he and Cassie had been in love, but he didn't understand why. He didn't 'feel' like he had ever been in love with her, not in the same way he remembered loving Diana.
"Did you ever love my mother?"
It was a question Adam had wanted to ask for a very long time, but hadn't been ready to hear the answer until now.
"Yes." Ethan said with conviction.
He placed his hands on Adam's shoulders. "I am sorry if I ever made you doubt that. Your Mom was everything to me. She healed the wound in my heart that Amelia ripped open when she left me for Blackwell. She taught me how to be open to love again after having mine broken, and she never made me regret it. She was an amazing woman who made my life better, and best of all, she gave me you."
Adam blinked back the sudden rush of tears that flooded his eyes at his dad's words. He swiped a hand across his eyes to brush the moisture away and wiped it on his pants. "You really believe that this elixir Mrs. Chamberlain knows will make Cassie and I remember what I felt for one another?"
"Yes I do." Ethan told him. "But the decision to drink it has to be yours. I'm not going to force you into anything you don't want to do."
"The attraction I have had for Cassie from the very start is still there, as well as the knowledge that I loved her once. But I don't 'feel' anything, and that's just wrong. I should feel 'something', like I do in regards to my ex-relationship with Diana." Adam admitted. "I want what I felt for Cassie back. If this elixir is going to do that, then I have no problems drinking it."
"Good."
A female voice said from behind Ethan.
Both Conant men turned to see Dawn standing in the doorway with a small box in her hands. They had been so caught up in their conversation that neither of them were aware of her arrival at the abandoned house.
"Someone get the lights so we can get started on the elixir." Dawn said as she moved into the room.
Adam gave a wave of his hand and saw his dad's eyes widen as every lantern and candle lit, flooding the room with a flickering glow of light.
"Hydrokinesis." Dawn said approvingly. "Apple doesn't fall far from the tree, does it Ethan?"
" Nope." Ethan grinned proudly at Adam, who flushed at their words.
"Is that what it is called?" Adam asked his dad.
"All Conants are gifted in Hydrokinesis." Ethan explained. "The level differs between each individual. Just like each member brings their own unique gifts to their Circle."
"Night's getting later, and my bed is calling my name, " Dawn said as she moved over to a worktable crowded with an assortment of bottles, tins, and other kinds of containers in varying shapes and sizes. She set the box she carried into an empty area, murmured something, and snapped the fingers of her right hand.
Adam and Ethan both watched with fascination as every bottle, tin, and container crowding the table, shuffled into organized rows on one side of it.
"Pick your jaws up and let's get to it." Dawn said. "Adam, do you have any idea about what ingredients John used in his elixir?":
"I know all of them." Adam said. "Cassie, Melissa, and I all helped him gather the ingredients, and make the elixir. Melissa has a gift for remembering everything she reads and hears. After Blackwell finished the elixir and left, she wrote everything down so we could keep it."
He stopped himself from telling his Dad and Dawn that their Circle was writing their own Book of Shadows. A joint Book of Shadows for all of the members to use. Each spell they had used out of Diana's family's Book of Shadows was already written in it.
He walked over to the corner where a cupboard stood, opened the doors, and sifted through the pages of their joint Book of Shadows until he found the spell with the recipe for the elixir written on it.
"Here it is." Adam handed the spell to his father, who moved to stand on one side of Dawn.
Adam joined them at the worktable. While Dawn pulled out the items she had brought with her, Adam began searching through their own cache of ingredients his Circle had, looking for the items Blackwell had used for his elixir.
Ethan helped with measuring out the ingredients, which included clipping herbs, shaving roots, and pouring liquids and powders into empty bowls and cups. Adam watched his dad and Dawn work efficiently together as they readied everything for the ritual.
"Adam change places with me." Ethan stepped back so Adam could stand beside Dawn. "Your power joined with Dawn's will make the elixir more powerful."
Adam took his dad's place. He followed Dawn's instructions as they did the ritual, repeating her words, adding ingredients in as she directed, until a foamy liquid had formed in the bottom of the small bowl.
Ethan carefully filled two bottles with the dark pink liquid. Adam gazed at the bottles and felt hope stir within him. He knew he wanted to drink the elixir. Now they needed to find out if Cassie wanted to as well.
"Let's head to Cassie's." He told his dad and Dawn. He picked up the two bottles of elixir and headed toward the door.
He waited until they had exited the room, before waving his hand to extinguish all the lanterns and candles. Last thing they needed was for the abandoned house to burn down because they were careless. He followed his father and Dawn downstairs, out of the house, through the woods where their cars were parked. As he slid behind the wheel of his vehicle, started the engine, and followed his dad and Dawn's cars down the dirt road, the flicker of hope he had felt ignite when they finished the elixir, grew stronger by the time they arrived at Cassie's house.
He parked his car in front of Cassie's house, got out, and waited on the sidewalk for his dad and Dawn to join him. Together they started up the walkway to her front door.