Chapter Twenty-Five – Blinking
CT snorted. "Of course it would be some place that Max hasn't been. Anyone?"
Brianna walked over there and looked down at it. "I think Aunt Kayla had a map that went off that point," she informed them pointing to one spot where map ended, "but it dead ended in a room there." She pointed again not far from the first spot. "So I know you can't get through that way." And everything else seems to dead end around it."
"Who's Aunt Kayla?" Chris asked, looking up at her.
"I'm kind of in two covens," Brianna informed him with a shrug. "One's more like honorary membership, which is more than enough for me," she informed him with a shiver, "but they're my mom's friends, so some of them insist I call them Aunt or Uncle. Aunt Kayla was my mom's best friend. Uncle Ry called me his shortcake. It was utterly ridiculous, but made me smile. Aunt Shora always says I need to teach her how come I got blinking naturally and not one of her kids got it." She stuck out her tongue. "The thing she never got was that I don't have warlock powers. I never did."
Wyatt looked at her wide eyed. "Did you just say you can blink, but it's not a warlock power? Everyone knows it's a warlock power."
Brianna shook her head. "Everyone knows wrong then. Warlock's can get it sure, but it's just a magic power that either warlocks or witches get."
"But all warlock's have it," Chris protested.
"Are you sure you don't want me to just take you home?" Leo asked his son. It had surprised him when Chris had asked him to drive him back to The Manor. He had figured Chris would want to orb there to pick up his car or even pick it up the next day. And then he'd thought maybe Chris had wanted to talk, but Chris hadn't said a word the entire way there.
Chris nodded. "Yeah, thanks, Dad." "Is everything all right?" Leo pressed. Chris shook his head and blew out a breath. "I'm not sure. I'm just wondering if I made the right decision." "Tonight?" Chris shook his head. "No, last week with Emily." "Did something happen?" "She was spying on some people," Chris informed him. "She called the manor to let me know that she thought there was something magical about them. I don't want her spying on people. I don't want her involved at all. She's an innocent." "One who you involved when you saved her life," Leo reminded him. "What if she would have been fine?" Chris asked. "What if all I did was to expose magic?" "Is that what you think?" Chris moaned. "I don't know what to think. I just know she has no way to protect herself against magic and I can't let her risk her life if she can't even defend herself. She has no idea what's out there?" "Then, I guess it's up to you to either convince her or to figure out how to protect her from herself," Leo commented. Chris sighed. "Thanks for the ride, Dad." Leo smiled. "Be careful heading home. You've had a long day." Chris nodded. He headed across the parking lot to his black Corolla and leaned against it. He heaved in a deep breath. "I was wondering when you'd return," Bianca Holbrooke announced as she came out of the shadows by his car. In her arms she carried her daughter, Ashlyn. Chris looked at them in surprise. "Bianca? What are you doing here?" "Lawrence and I thank you for getting Ashlyn back, but Ashlyn wanted to thank you." She raised a questioning brow. Chris nodded. Bianca looked down at her daughter. "It's all right, Sweetheart," she told her daughter as she put Ashlyn down. Ashlyn walked over to Chris. "Thank you for bwinking me home." Chris frowned.
Did she just thank me for blinking her? Bianca looked him straight in the eye as she informed him that, "Ashlyn can't blink."
She had gone on to give him a short explanation that many had the ability to blink by unnatural means, Bianca included, and that it usually required the death of a witch, something she had refused to allow.
Now listening to Brianna he understood just a little more. Bianca could blink because a spell had been cast and a witch had died. In contrast, Brianna could blink because she had been born that way. For some reason she simply had two abilities that appeared to have nothing to do with each other. It certainly happened. Look at his Aunt Phoebe or their ancestor, Melinda Warren. Both had three unconnected abilities. Of course he knew that Phoebe had not been born with three abilities.
"So if you were born with the ability to blink, were you also born empathy?"
Brianna shook her head. "Like with Aka's abilities and CT's . . . natural ones . . ." when Chris frowned at her, she shook her head. "Never mind. Some abilities he came into very young and some only recently. I imagine you've had similar experiences and so has most everyone else born in the decade or so before magic stopped."
Thinking of his surprise at finding out he could turn himself invisible, Chris inclined his head. "That's true enough. So what do we do with this?"
Brianna looked at it and held a hand up. "Wait a moment." She heaved in a deep breath and blinked. Except the only blinking she did was closing and opening her eyes. She sighed. "Well, I can tell you one thing you aren't doing. You aren't going straight there."
"Straight where?" Seth asked as he fully materialized behind her. Looking down at the map his eye bugged out. "Wow! That's pretty impressive."
"Yeah, except all these blank spots," Brianna retorted.
Seth picked up the pen and glanced at her. "May I?"
She nodded. "By all means. If you know what goes there."
Seth started drawing some lines in. He drew all around where the crystal had fallen. And when he had finished the crystal was surrounded on all sides by walls. He looked up at them and asked. "Who's in the psych ward?"
A thank you to my reviewers:
Iris Sanchez 125 - I am glad that you are enjoying the story and I'm glad it lifted your mood. Feel free to ask if you have any additional questions. Unless it involves my secrets, I will answer. Chances are the real secrets will be so hidden into the storyline that you won't realize they are significant. I have put in seemingly random comments in various places that will be very important and sometimes ironic later on. Of course with those kind of things, it's more a case of hind sight is twenty-twenty. I'd love to see if anyone catches them, but if you don't, don't be too concerned.
Soraya - Me, too. We'll see how that goes. In writing the two part episode following this I learned it is possible to hospitalize someone without any human blood. Survival not guaranteed. If you think Max's family is messed up now, wait till you actually meet one of them. When you read the name Irixi . . . pay attention. She was . . . creepy.
What do you think Seth means by "the psych ward" and why does he know what's in that spot?
I had fun with the title of the next chapter, not mention I end it with torturing one of my characters . . . always fun.