Disclaimer: Here's Part XVI ... still don't own Sweep. Darn. We're working on that, through (wink). Read and review or we may just have to rip your arms off. I guess that's an empty threat, but review all the same. Hehehe ... the quote at the beginning comes from the Angel episode "Home." The song is Heather Nova's "It's Only Love." A random rambling: does anyone else think that Amy Lee from Evanescence would make a good Raven? The idea suddenly occurred to me while I was writing the beginning of this chapter. Feedback in the reviews! :P
Summary: Morgan and Killian begin to unravel their past after meeting another paternal half-brother.
Part XVI: Eternity
Flames wouldn't be eternal
If they actually consumed anything
Raven
"E-Excuse me? What did you say?"
Morgan was staring at Killian with a kind of mesmerized awe on her face, and her eyes darted to the guy standing behind him, partially cloaked in the shadows. He was looking at Morgan in undisguised interest, and when she looked at him, I could tell that she was partially unnerved by his penetrating gaze.
"What did you say?" she demanded of Killian again. "We don't have another brother. You said that it was just your siblings. You said that they were the only other ones." Her voice sounded accusatory.
"I was wrong," Killian said simply.
"What's ..."
Alexis was starting to come to. I looked at her anxiously.
"Are you okay?" I whispered, semi-afraid to disturb the scene occurring between Morgan, Killian, and Mike ... her other brother?
Alexis looked at Morgan, who was still staring towards the doorway. "Yeah, I'm fine, but what's –"
"I'm not sure."
"Mike's mother lived in New York City," Killian said, looking between Morgan and said Mike. "Da ... um, Ciaran, we believe, was not ... completely faithful to my ma. He had an affair and ..." He sighed.
"I came into being," Mike said with a slight shrug.
It was then that I began to suspect that hanging out with witches as powerful as Morgan, Hunter, and Sky was having an effect on those of us that weren't Wiccans by blood. I sensed, rather than felt, a familiar presence running down the street outside the lodge, and, much to everyone's surprise, Sky, closely followed by Robbie and Bree, burst through the door behind Killian as Hunter ran down the stairs from the upper floor.
"What's going on?" Sky and Hunter both immediately demanded. As the newcomers looked at the lobby scene in front of them, however, Sky's voice grew weaker.
"Okay ..."
Bree was looking at Mike, her eyebrows narrowed. She turned to Morgan. "Who is this?" She looked at Mike. "Who are you?"
Killian looked at them anxiously. "Um, this is Mike. He's –"
"Killian," Morgan said sharply, glaring at him, her face set. "May I see you in the kitchen, please? Alone?"
Killian, clearly noticing the coldness in her voice, had little choice but to follow his sister into the kitchen. Morgan promptly shut the doors behind them, and it didn't take a genius to figure out that she was probably putting up blocking spells as I considered the possibility that she was.
"What is going on in here?" Sky asked, a note of weak desperation in her voice. "A moment ago, I reached out back here and all I felt was terror. I've seen Scream 3, and it wasn't that frightening." She approached the sofa, looking back and forth between Alexis and I. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah," Alexis said shakily. I just took Sky's hand and rested my head on her shoulder.
"Yeah, we're okay."
"What happened?" Bree asked, looking at Alexis, who had shifted herself into a sitting position.
"Council thing," she said simply. "It possessed me, and that guy –" she pointed to Mike "- and his friend got it out. That's pretty much it."
Sky looked at the blonde teenager in suspicion. "Who are you?"
"I think we've established that his name is Mike," Robbie said.
"Yes, but –"
At that moment, Morgan slammed the kitchen doors open again. She stared around at us all, silently daring us to ask what was going on, before pointing at Mike.
"You. Don't answer any of their questions."
She glared at the rest of us.
"Don't ask any questions."
I used to think that I knew what we needed
I just assumed we would always be fine
Now I don't think that we lost the feeling
But we let everything build up inside
Morgan
My mind was spinning so quickly that I was having trouble distinguishing between thoughts. Killian was my brother. Yes, that was true. Next thought. I had another brother named Mike. Okay. It's a weird thought, but I guess it might be true. Next thought. Killian had brought Mike, my other brother, to Ireland with him. In person. Now that was what I was having trouble with.
"How dare you come down here without telling me about –"
"Morgan, you're allowed to be angry," Killian said quickly, holding up his hands in a vague effort of self-defense. "Furious, even. I should have told you what was going on earlier, but there isn't really a good way to tell you something like this easily."
"Oh, what, that I have another brother?" I yelled. "Like it wasn't hard enough finding out the first time!"
"Morgan, I had no one else to turn to!" Killian said angrily. "Where else was I supposed to go? Who else could I have told?"
"Maybe I didn't want to know," I growled. "Maybe things were complicated enough in my life without finding out about my extended family."
"Immediate."
"How many more are there?" I cried, throwing my hands up in the air in exasperation. "How many other kids has Ciaran had? Any more that I should know about?"
Killian just sighed; he looked exhausted, but I was strangely devoid of pity. "You can't pretend that this isn't happening, Morgan. Something is brewing out there and we need all the help we can get. Mike has powers, damn strong ones. Somehow, magick transferred from Ciaran's blood to his. It's a rare case, but not nonexistent."
I nodded slightly, thinking of one of our fellow coven mates, Alisa Soto, back in Widow's Vale. "Yeah. I know." The anger that I had felt towards my brother was ebbing slightly; instead, I was filled with such an extreme tiredness that I was surprised my legs didn't collapse right then.
"Listen ..." Killian looked at me anxiously. "He ... he needs somewhere to stay for a few days. I'm not sure how long it'll be, but ..."
"You want us to take care of him?" I asked, my voice hoarse.
Killian looked reluctant to give me the affirmative, but nodded his head slightly. "I have some business to take care of in Cork, and it might be dangerous for him to tag along."
I tilted my head to one side slightly. "What kind of business?"
"Does it matter?" he asked sharply. "Magickal business, that's all that's important."
Something that he had said earlier was tugging at the back of my mind. "What was that you said before about something 'brewing' out there?"
As I looked at him, he glanced at me uneasily. "It's nothing concrete, just ... stirrings, whisperings. Dark magick has been on the rise in the British Isles and the rest of Europe, so ..." He sighed and ran a hand quickly through his hair. "I need somewhere safe for Mike to stay. It might be overly protective, but I need to know that he's safe."
I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion. This was definitely a side of Killian that I had never seen before. I knew that he cared about me, his little sister, but I had never seen him acting so ... brotherly?
"You care about him a lot," I said quietly, more of a statement than a question. He nodded. "You feel responsibility for him."
"I can't explain why, but ... I suppose I do." He looked at me, his eyes begging me to understand. "You don't know what he's been through, Morgan. I know that you've been through awful things, magickally and personally speaking, but he's been through ... things that neither of us can imagine. His mother died when he was seven, and he's been shuffled from foster home to foster home ever since. He's never really had a family. I suppose I feel inclined to give him what he should have had." He gave me a wry smile. "I mean, at least I had my ma. Life was never simple, you know? But it was semi-acceptable. You, too. Even if they weren't related to you by blood, you've always had a family that cared about you. He hasn't."
I swallowed. "This is a lot to ask, Killian."
"I know," he said simply. "All I need is a yes or a no. If it's a no, then I'll take him with me. I don't want to and it'd be safer for him to stay here, but if you want me to, I'll take him with me."
I sighed in agitation. "Killian ..." I groaned, feeling the ripples of a massive migraine starting to pound my head.
"Hey, it's okay," he said quickly. "I'll ... take him with me."
I shook my head. "No, not if it's dangerous." I sighed, feeling that I would regret this decision later, but ... "Fine. Fine. He can stay with us." I shrugged. "We've been taking in a lot of people lately."
He grinned, and I couldn't help but feel slightly heartened by his broad smile. "Thank you, Morgan."
"It's nothing," I said nonchalantly, rubbing my forehead with the palm of my hand in an attempt to dissipate the imminent migraine. "Now get out of here and onto Cork before I change my mind."
It's only love
But love
Should make us strong
It's only love
But love has been hurting so long
Hunter
I was at a complete loss for everything that had just transpired in front of me. There was a teenage boy, the identity of whom was unknown to me, standing in the lobby, under strict instructions from his sister—what was the situation with that, anyway?—not to answer any questions. Bree and Robbie just looked confused, Alexis had noticed the uncomfortable silence and was quiet herself, and Sky and Raven were just standing there, sneaking nervous glances at each other and, occasionally, Mike.
Mike was staring at the ground, not speaking, and toying with a Druidic blade that hung from his neck on a long silver chain. I scrutinized him, taking in everything from his mop of curly hair to his multi-charmed chains. I noticed that something indiscernible was hidden away in the pocket of his jacket.
"What's in your jacket?" I asked, perhaps a little more harshly than I should have.
He looked at me in surprise before pulling the object out of his pocket. It was an athame, and a brilliantly carved one at that. An entwined phoenix and dragon, carved from a deep black stone, were wrapped around an encircled pentagram, adorning the handle, and its two blades were made from silver steel. It radiated a sort of awing power, and I saw Mike's hand trembling slightly even as he held it.
"It used to belong to my dad," was all that he said.
"It's beautiful," Sky said quietly, looking at it with interest, as well. I caught her eye and raised an eyebrow. She just looked away.
The small click of the kitchen doors opening announced Morgan and Killian's arrival back into the lobby. Morgan's face was pale, and she was radiating agitation and confusion. Killian looked slightly calmer and even smiled as he looked at everyone else.
"Hello, all."
"Killian," was all that I said. Sky and Raven were silent, but I noticed the way that they both instinctively reached for the other's hand.
"Morgan," Bree said leadingly with a slight cough, nodding her head slightly towards Mike.
Morgan sighed. "Guys, this is Mike. Mike, this is Hunter, Sky, Robbie, Bree, Raven, and Alexis." She looked at him intently, and I could see a glimmer of curiosity in her eyes. "And it's suddenly occurred to me that you're my brother and I haven't even said hello." She held out a hand. "Very pleased to meet you."
Mike looked at Killian with his eyebrows raised, as if asking if Morgan was for real.
"Hey," Morgan said sharply, still holding out her hand. "I'm Morgan. I'm your big sister. We have a father in common, I believe."
I heard the collective intake of breath, and I realized that I had gasped, as well. This boy in the lodge ... no wonder I had felt such a scorching sense of raw power from him. He was a son of Ciaran. I stared between my soulmate and her newly discovered brother in stunned confusion.
"Wow ..." I heard Raven whisper.
Mike looked hesitant for a moment but shook Morgan's hand after a long pause. Morgan examined him cautiously.
"You have powers," she said firmly. It was not a question, but a statement.
"He got them from our da," Killian said softly. Morgan glared at him.
"I'm speaking to Mike, Killian," she said with a slightly dangerous edge to her voice. She looked back at him. "What can you do?"
"Morgan, that's enough with the third degree," Killian said firmly, stepping between Morgan and Mike with a glare in Morgan's direction. "You're pissed at me. Don't take it out on him."
Bree spoke up from her spot near the door, where she and Robbie were just watching the scene in stunned silence. "Killian, are you staying the night?"
"Planning on it, yeah."
"I'll show you upstairs, then."
Robbie held up a hand. "I'll come, too." He and Bree all but ran out of the lobby, followed at a distance by Killian, who motioned to Mike to follow him. Sky and Raven quickly excused themselves as well and helped Alexis back to her room before fleeing the lobby as well.
"What are you feeling?" I asked Morgan softly as she stood in the middle of the room alone, looking around at the emptiness of the lobby.
"Nothing," she whispered. "I'm too tired to feel tonight." She looked at me intensely, and I was struck by the harshness of her stare. She was upset about something, but she was bottling it up inside. It wouldn't be healthy for her ...
"I'm going to bed," she said after a moment. A moment later, she had disappeared up the stairs.
I sighed and ran an agitated hand through my hair. The lodge was eerily silent and empty now. I collapsed on the couch, propped my feet up on the coffee table, and fell back against the cushions with an exhausted sigh.
What had just happened?
What a challenge
Honesty
What a struggle to learn to speak
Who'd have thought that pretending was easier?
It's only love
But love should make us strong
It's only love
But love has been hurting so long
Morgan
I had slept for about two hours when I went to bed. I heard Hunter come in around eleven o'clock when I was lingering between consciousness and sleep. He said goodnight, but I didn't reply. My mind was still stinging from the shock of the information that Killian had just shared with me.
If I ended up having one of my nightmares again, I swore that I'd kill something.
Fortunately, however, I'm not a naturally violent person, or several people would have died after the vision that I had while in a strangely pleasant dream involving the consumption of cookie dough ice cream.
Drums were banging in my ears. I looked around, but the same thing met me everywhere I turned my eyes. Deep brown, cracked, wrinkled skin that looked more like scales. Bulging, bloodshot eyes. Misshapen, jagged, yellow teeth that crunched together in hunger, in lust. Wide nostrils breathing putrid breath; it stung my eyes. White stripes down the side of the face. Looked like tribal paint or something.
I saw the way the hideous, disfigured creature looked at me, and I felt one heart-stopping moment of pure, blinding fear. The look in its eyes was hunger. It wanted to kill me.
My eyes shot open, and it took me over a minute to rid the monster from my sight. Its imprints hadn't faded in twenty minutes, and I lay in bed, drenched in a cold sweat, while Hunter dozed peacefully next to me. My heart was hammering, so quickly that it hurt. My hands were shaking, and not just because the room was cold. My breath came in short, uneven gasps, and my head pounded with a kind of intensity that I had never felt before, even when I had cast the no-dreams spell on myself. It was gone now, though. Hunter and I had gotten rid of it.
Now I was paying the price.
I didn't fall back into unconsciousness that night. The monster's visage, gnawing teeth, and enraged eyes flashed to me every time that I closed my eyes. I plodded down to the kitchen at four o'clock in the morning, rubbing my red eyes and intent on stealing some Advil from the medicine box in the pantry. I had already reheated three of the pancakes that Sky had made yesterday and gotten myself a Diet Coke before noticing that Mike was sitting at the kitchen table.
"Hi," I said in surprise, coughing slightly to clear my throat. "What are you doing up?"
He shrugged. "Couldn't sleep. Thus, the oatmeal." He motioned the bowl of oatmeal that was sitting in front of him. I saw that he had mixed strawberry jam into it and couldn't help but smile.
I did the same thing.
Suddenly I felt guilty for my behavior the previous night. I was pissed off at Killian, but to take my anger out on Mike was nothing short of unfair. Mike hadn't done anything to me ... he couldn't help the fact that he had been born, I guess.
"You want to train after breakfast?" I said suddenly. "Before the others get up?"
He stopped eating his oatmeal in mid-swallow. "What do you mean?"
"Magick training," I said, suddenly feeling inexplicably nervous. "You know, learning to use your powers. It's like what I had to do when I first found out that I was a witch. Every witch has to have lessons." I raised my eyebrows hopefully. Maybe working some magick would help my psychological state, which was in desperate need of some repair right now.
"Um, okay ..." Mike said, sounding slightly hesitant. "I haven't really done that much before, but –"
"That's okay," I said quickly. "That's okay, because I will help you develop your powers so that you're as strong as I am."
Wow, where had that come from?
Mike was looking at me with a kind of amazed wonder on his face.
"This must be a complete 360 from yesterday," I said, drizzling syrup lightly over my waffle. "But I want to apologize. It was just a bit ... intense yesterday, you know?"
"I know," he said with a slight smile.
"So ... training?" I asked hopefully. "After breakfast? Meet me in the conference room upstairs?"
"Yeah."
I grinned, feeling mysteriously lightened all of a sudden. Then, suddenly realizing that I had nothing left to say, I gave Mike a hurried smile and rushed out of the kitchen. I fell onto the couch and immersed myself in early morning BBC programming, trying to clear my head of the terrifying vision and already forming a 'lesson plan' of sorts for our magick training.
And it's all a part of me
It tears at my heart
Only love
And it's all an eternity
Hoping to learn
Only love
Hunter
When I had awoken that morning, Morgan was apparently already out of bed and awake. After a quick shower, I stepped into the kitchen to find Bree, Robbie, Alexis, and Raven eating breakfast at the table. Sky was sipping a cup of tea at the counter.
"Morning, Hunter," she said cheerfully. "I made some for you, too." She motioned a cup of hot tea on the counter, which I gratefully gulped down.
"What is it with Brits and tea?" Bree asked in mild curiosity.
"Just a cultural anomaly," Sky said, grinning.
I swallowed the last drop of tea in my cup and, while pouring myself another, asked, "Has anyone seen Morgan this morning?"
Robbie shook his head. "No, but I heard her walking down the hall talking to Killian right before he headed to Antrim for the day. I think she and Mike are in the conference room upstairs."
"What are they doing there?" I asked.
"She said something about training him," Robbie said with a shrug.
"Like, in magick?" Bree asked inquiringly. "What kind of 'training' could there be?"
"Learning to use his powers," Sky said. "Scrying, casting out his senses, numerology, runes, divination, all sorts of things ..."
"I should go check on them," I said, setting down my mug and about to leave the kitchen.
"Hunter, just let them be for a while," Sky said firmly. "They need this time to get to know each other. Last night wasn't the best time for introductions."
I sighed and cast my senses upwards towards the conference room. I could faintly hear Morgan telling Mike something about the difference between being a blood witch and being a responsible witch—clearly, a lesson that Killian had neglected to share with his younger brother.
"All right," I said reluctantly. "But if I sense any inkling of trouble, I'm up there immediately."
"Why would there be trouble?" Raven asked. "She's just showing him what it means to be a witch."
I didn't say anything, just cast an apprehensive look upstairs. There was something that pulled me up there, but I knew that to interrupt Morgan with concerns about her safety would only increase the chances that she would throw witch fire at me. There was something about Mike that didn't feel right, though, something about him that I didn't trust.
What was it?
Morgan
"So how does this work again?" Mike asked, examining the tip of his athame with interest.
I grinned. "It's easy, watch." I picked up my mother's athame and began tracing runes of protection, defense, and concealment in the air in front of me. Infusing the athame with light and magick, I felt its power creating a strong shield in front of me, the air rippling and bending to follow its tip. I smiled to myself. Working magick always cheered me up.
"Throw the orange at me."
"What?" Mike looked surprised.
"Do it. Don't worry."
He looked apprehensive, but followed my instructions and picked up an orange that I had brought up from the kitchen. He examined it for a second, looked at me in a "well, here goes nothing" sort of way, and threw the orange directly at me.
I instinctively took a step back and held my hands up, but I needn't have bothered. The orange met the invisible shield that I had just traced in the air and immediately ricocheted off it as if it had just hit the wall. Mike's eyes widened.
"Wow ..."
I grinned modestly. "Well, it's not like it didn't take me a while to get that. Hunter practically went insane with frustration trying to teach me how to build the shield up strong enough that it didn't collapse immediately. Ready to try it?"
He still looked uneasy. "Are you sure?"
I nodded. "Completely."
I had found out earlier that Killian had already taken to teaching him the most basic runes and sigils, and with a little extra help, he knew all of the ones necessary for creating a magickal rune shield.
"Another eolh. Oh, and an ehwis next to the defense sigil. That spot feels weak."
With a shield in place that felt strong to the senses, I picked up the orange, which was lying looking slightly bruised on the floor, and tossed it lightly at the shield. As it sailed through the air towards him, I felt Mike mentally strengthening the wall of runes and sigils. I watched in anticipation as the orange hit the shield, wavered for a bit in midair, and fell to the ground. It didn't ricochet off the invisible wall, but it didn't go flying right through, either.
"Wow," I said in awe. "How much training have you had?"
Mike shrugged, a small smile appearing. "Not much. It was probably just luck."
"One lesson about magick," I cautioned, "luck will get you nowhere. You have to know what you're going to do and when you're going to do it." I felt awful giving him the same advice that I so hated to hear myself, but it had to be said. "It takes a lifetime to get to the point where you're powerful enough to repel any attack. Most witches never even get close." I cast an appraising glance at him and smiled. "But I think you can."
"Really?"
"Totally. Now let's try the shield again. If you picture it as flexible but unbreakable, it seems to help the rebounding a little more ..."
And it's all a part of me
It tears at my heart
Only love
And it's all an eternity
Hoping to learn
Only love
Sky
"What's wrong?" I asked Alexis, looking at her curiously as she sat at the kitchen table, giving herself a Tarot reading with a deck that she had borrowed from Hunter. Her face held a look of sour disgust.
"It's this reading," she said in frustration. "I'm asking for everyone's future, and all I get is the fool, judgment, and death. I've done it six times, and the same three cards always come up."
"Hmm," I said thoughtfully. "You know none of those things mean literally what's on the cards. You have to interpret them. For instance, the fool represents not letting yourself be overwhelmed by life's pressures. Judgment means that things will come to pass as you make them for yourself. And death ..." I shrugged. "New beginnings, the end of something only to mean the beginning of something else."
"The last time I got death was at the hospital," she whispered. "My mother died two days later."
I stared at her, suddenly feeling like I had just dug myself into a very deep hole. "I'm sorry ..." I said, stunned at my own ignorance. "I didn't know."
"It's okay," she said with a nonchalant shrug. She looked closer at me, and I shivered slightly under her piercing gaze. "It's okay," she repeated again, a small smile on her lips. "Things are better now." She looked sadly down at the Tarot cards. "I just wish I knew why I keep getting these three cards. They're not evil, maybe, but they can't be good signs, can they?"
"What can't be good signs?" Bree asked as she and Robbie walked into the kitchen, both eating pieces of toast.
"I keep getting evil omens with the Tarot cards," Alexis said, simply as if it were an everyday problem that one faced.
Bree's face instantly lit up, and I remembered that she had a penchant for Tarot cards. "Ooh, I love Tarot cards! Can I try with them? I might get something different."
Alexis shrugged and scooted her chair over so that Bree could pull another one up in front of the cards. She shuffled them up for a minute or two and concentrated for a long moment.
"What does the future hold for us?" she whispered, and dealt three cards from randomly picked places in the deck to place face-down on the table.
Alexis, Robbie, and I all held our breath as she began to lift the first card, and Alexis went pale as Bree read off the card's name written in Celtic print at the bottom.
"The fool."
Robbie shrugged it off, but Alexis looked at me fearfully. I looked quickly back at Bree as she began to lift the second card."
"Judgment."
Alexis was practically bouncing up and down in her chair in apprehension and nerves as Bree lifted the final card slowly. When they saw the winged skull adorning the card, both of their eyes widened.
"Death."
An uncomfortable moment of silence was broken only by Robbie's inquiries. "So, does this mean that one of us will make a stupid decision, go to court, be found guilty, and be executed?"
Bree snorted. "Of course not, dummy." Then she looked at me fearfully. "Does it?"
"No!" I said quickly as Alexis gingerly climbed out of her chair.
"That's it," she said firmly. "I'm borrowing Hunter's lueg and I'm scrying until I get an answer about this thing. I want to know why those cards keep coming up."
Even though I couldn't help but think that they were all overreacting to this, I nodded. "That might be a good idea. When in doubt, I suppose it's the smartest thing to do."
We met Hunter on our way out of the kitchen, who was returning an empty coffee mug. "What are you guys doing?"
"Alexis sees death, so we're going to scry," Bree said simply.
"What?" he asked, his eyes widening.
"We got some less than positive Tarot readings from your deck," I explained. "We're just going to scry and see if we can come up with anything concrete."
"Well, let me come," he said, surprised. "I want to help."
I looked at the others. "I guess we could do a group scrying session. Those are normally the most accurate."
Looks were exchanged; eventually, after getting consensus, the five of us trooped upstairs to Hunter and Morgan's room, cautiously lifted Hunter's scrying lueg out of its protective blanket in his suitcase, and centered it in the middle of the room. We had seated in a circle when Raven knocked on the door, which we had left open.
"Hey, guys. What are we doing?"
"Scrying," I said. I patted the ground next to me. "Come sit."
Bree scooted over to make room for her, and then Hunter coughed. "Okay. Morgan and Mike are still upstairs, so ... let's do this while we can." He cleared his throat and looked into the lueg intensely. "We request that the Goddess and the God bless this scrying stone. We ask that all visions be pure and true, so mote it be."
I'm not sure how long the six of us sat on the bedroom floor in a circle, staring into a deep black stone for answers that seemed stubborn in appearing to us. I snuck a quick glance at Hunter in confusion; he looked equally puzzled.
I can't see anything, he messaged to me. It's not even like when Morgan and I used it once and the blackness of the stone was smoke. There's just ... nothing in there.
I could tell that he was about to tell the others to stop trying, that we would try again later, when Alexis suddenly laughed.
Bree, Robbie, and Raven, all of whom had sunk into deep meditations, all started suddenly as Hunter and I stared at Alexis in shock.
She was still laughing, and her voice sounded deeper suddenly.
"Sad that you don't know," she whispered, her voice full of malice. "You don't know what can be prevented ..."
Five pairs of eyes focused completely on Alexis as she rocked back and forth slightly in place, still laughing under her breath.
"It's too bad, really," she muttered and stared down at her feet. "He was so strong, could have really been something ..." She laughed mournfully, ironically, bitterly. "Guess it just wasn't meant to be. It's sad, he was so strong ..."
"What's she saying?" Bree whispered to no one in particular.
"Something's not right," I murmured, a feeling of horror and shock spreading through me. "She's not ..."
"It's too bad," Alexis continued, fiddling with the Tarot cards that she had brought upstairs with us. She traced the design on one of the cards. Death. "Too bad that he has to be the catalyst for her downfall. Too bad. She was strong, and so was he ..."
I didn't understand what she was saying. Her words were becoming more and more unintelligible, almost as if she were a rambling patient in a mental health clinic.
"Whose downfall?" I whispered. "Who is her downfall?"
She laughed again, a laugh of such pure and unrestrained delight that I shivered at the sound of it. "Him, of course! The strong one!"
She pointed to the lueg. Simultaneously, all pairs of eyes in the circle turned to look into the stone's murky depths.
Mike's face, crystal clear, looked back at us.
"Goddess," Hunter whispered, sounding horrified. "And she's up there with him right now ..."
I barely managed to bring down the circle before he split its boundaries and ran out of the room towards the western hallway.
And it's all a part of me
It tears at my heart
Only love
And it's all an eternity
Hoping to learn
Only love
Hunter
How could I have ever been stupid enough to trust him in her presence? I should have known that something was fishy about him; I had been getting an aura of negativity and secrecy from him the moment that I had first met Mike. That, coupled with the fact that he was Ciaran MacEwan's son, did not make me very intent on allowing him to do whatever he was planning on doing to Morgan. If he wanted to steal her powers, as Ciaran had wanted to in New York City, he'd have to go through me first.
Mike and Morgan sitting in a hand-drawn chalk circle on the floor of the conference room with a burning cauldron of fire in front of them was, understandably, not quite what I had expected to see. I had expected to see Mike trying to strangle Morgan or forcibly remove her powers with magick or stabbing her with his athame. I hadn't expected to see them exchanging childhood memories.
"See this here?" Moran asked, pointing into the fire. I realized that they were scrying just as we had been doing not three minutes ago. What's more, they were scrying with fire, Morgan's choice element. "This is my kitty Dagda."
"He's adorable," Mike said, grinning. He pointed into the fire, too. "That was my dog Francesca. She died a few years ago. She got out of the yard and a mail truck hit her."
Morgan sounded sympathetic. "I'm sorry. I can't imagine anything like that happening to Dagda."
"What the hell is going on here?"
My voice sounded excessively loud even to my own ears. Morgan and Mike both snapped out of their reverie, and the fire in the cauldron instantly burned down. Morgan stared at me, stunned.
"Hunter, what are you doing? We were scrying!"
I stared back and forth between Morgan and Mike in stunned shock; Morgan looked angry, and Mike was watching her, occasionally looking at me.
Suddenly I realized the absurdity of what I had just done. Casting my senses over the room, I felt nothing out of the ordinary. When my senses probed Mike, I felt him instantly put up a strong mental block. My eyes narrowed and I longed to break it down, to find what he was really hiding, but I didn't. I knew that it would be more trouble than it was worth ... not to mention the fact that Morgan would probably toss the cauldron at me.
"Hunter, what are you doing?" she repeated, her voice cold and furious.
I kept looking at Mike for a moment before meeting Morgan's eyes. "Nothing. Nothing. Forget I came in here."
I slammed the door to the conference room shut behind me, and as I was walking, or rather stalking, back down the hallway, I met Sky running towards the conference room.
"What happened?" she demanded, coming to a halt in front of me.
I just shook my head. "I don't know, Sky." I sighed. "I really don't know."
There's a part of you I'm trying to reach
Still a part I don't know
Tell me
Is devotion a gift or a thief?
Do you wish I'd let go?
Morgan seemed to have thankfully calmed down slightly from her earlier rage towards me. She didn't speak to me at lunch, but when the others went into town for a bit of shopping and clearly trying to get their minds off Alexis's incoherent babbling—she didn't know anything about what she had said and didn't even remember laughing—Morgan found me in the lobby, where I was browsing a recipe for potato pancakes in Portrush's local newsletter.
"Hey, Hunter, can I borrow your lueg? Mike wants to try scrying with it. Fire isn't really his favorite medium."
I sighed and didn't say anything. Taking my silence for the affirmative, Morgan began rambling to me, as she often does, about things in random and nothing in particular. This time, Mike was the subject of her one-way conversation.
"I know you might not like him, Hunter, but I see something in him that I can't explain. I mean, obviously I can't explain it because if I could, I would, but I don't think you can understand. I don't mean that in a negative way, but I just mean that you've always known people like Sky and her sisters and Alwyn for your whole life and you've never really had to deal with meeting someone related to you like that that you didn't already know existed. I mean, I didn't know that Mike existed before, which is pretty obvious, I guess. But I feel this connection with him, you know? Like he knows what I'm going through, what I went through when I first found out that I was a witch. Like, he knows it better than anyone. I mean, when I first met Killian, I felt connected with him and I couldn't really explain it until I found out that he was my brother, but there was always something missing, you know? Like, he didn't connect with me on the level that I connect with Mike. I guess I'm using the word 'connect' a lot, but it's true. I guess I'm sort of rambling, too, but only because I'm so excited to finally have someone that I can talk to about things like the shock of finding out that one is genetically magickal and –"
"Morgan, can you please stop?" I finally burst out. "I understand, all right? Mike is special and powerful and all knowing. Yada, yada, yada ..."
Damn Bree and Robbie. That's the last time that I let them force me into watching a 12-hour Seinfeld marathon on TBS.
Morgan looked surprised. "Hunter, what is with you lately?" she demanded, taking a step closer to the couch where I sat. "You've been really uptight, more so than usual, and you seem to have a real problem with Mike."
"Maybe I do have a real problem with Mike," I muttered under my breath. Unfortunately, I realized too late that Morgan's witch-enhanced hearing had probably picked that up.
She had. "What do you mean?" she said, staring at me. "You have a problem with Mike?"
I snapped. "Yes, I have a problem with Mike!" I yelled, grateful suddenly that he was upstairs and probably couldn't hear me, judging from the immense number of blocking spells that I felt on his door. "Do you want the truth, Morgan? I don't trust him! There's something about him that doesn't feel right to me!"
"How would you know anything about him?" Morgan responded angrily. "You don't even know him!"
"Neither do you!" I retorted. "You don't know anything about this guy!"
"Yes, I do!"
"Oh, what, that he's your brother? As if he couldn't be lying! Morgan, every time that I get near him he puts up about a million mental blocking and protection spells! I'm a Seeker! I know better than anyone that it's not a good sign!"
"Look, Hunter, if you have a problem with Mike, I'm just going to tell you to get over it! He's my brother and, like it or not, he has to stay with us for a while! He's not going to try to hurt me or anything!"
"How do you know?" I said desperately, almost fiercely. "What do you really know about him? Nothing! Everything that you've been told could be a lie, and you'd never know it because you're too busy worshipping the wonder that, in your mind, is Mike!"
Morgan seemed to be trying to forcibly calm herself down. "Hunter ... I love you, but I just don't believe what you're saying. I have no reason to doubt anything that Mike has told me about himself, and neither do you! For the love of everything holy, he's just a teenager! He's learning to use his powers just like I was!"
"Morgan ..." I sighed. My head was starting to pound. "I just don't trust him."
"Why not?"
"It's quite easy, Morgan," I yelled, feeling another burst of anger explode within me. "No one in their right mind would trust a child of Ciaran MacEwan!"
I realized my mistake the second that Ciaran's surname left my mouth. The stricken look on Morgan's face, one of pure shock, sent chills through me. All of the anger in the room seemed to disappear from where it had been on the point of exploding a moment ago. Now, all I felt was coldness. Silence filled my ears, a pressing presence that should not have been there. I couldn't believe the words that had just left my mouth.
"Morgan –"
The slamming of the lodge door as she stormed out told me point-blank that I shouldn't have bothered opening my mouth a second time.
Author's Note: How can I improve the story if you guys don't give me feedback? Please review and tell me what you think!