Destiny of the Witch (The Other Witch #4)

21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21

Mum’s image filled the screen. She looked young and vibrant, her hair a lustrous red with not a hint of grey. I was looking at the mum of my childhood some thirty years ago.

She scrambled back from the video camera and sat on a chair. ‘Hi, Amber,’ she said and her eyes softened. ‘I’m sorry to leave you this video. I hope it’s not necessary, but if you’re watching this...’ She took a deep breath. ‘I don’t know where to start,’ she muttered to herself. She looked into the camera again. ‘It’s so hard to squint into the future and see you, Am. You’re so young and conscientious, so hardworking. I’m putting a lot on your shoulders and I am desperately sorry for it.’

She blew out a breath. ‘There was a prophecy. As you know, prophecies are normally read at birth but when we took you to the seers when you were a babe, they said that there were too many paths in front of you. You needed to come back when you were older, when some choices had already been made.

‘I was planning to take you again when you hit puberty, but instead we bumped into Melva at the Spice Shoppe and she recited a prophecy there and then. I’ll recite it as best as I can recall.’

She closed her eyes and intoned:

‘Through the veils of time, a mother’s plight

Her mind is the cost to set things right.

She weaves the threads of fate so tight

Her sacrifice made in love’s pure light.

A griffin’s wings on the loyal guide,

A familiar bond, forever tied.

Protecting as the fates decide

In shadows cast as realms collide.

The Witch, the Crone, her destiny clear,

Black witches tremble when she’s near.

With heart and rune, she’ll persevere,

In a hunt for justice, she’ll have no peer.

But lurking deep within the night,

The Coven’s head, her father’s might.

A reckoning waits in close sight,

A clash of dark and radiant ligh t

So heed the hidden prophecy spun

Of time, protectors and battles won.

The Crone shall rise like the sun

To face her father, darkness undone.’

Mum cleared her throat. ‘Okay, so what does it all mean? Well, first it meant I had to take a hard look at your father. All those evenings he’d been away for work suddenly took on a sinister tone. I hired a PI who took photos of him doing terrible things, horrific things. Don’t look at the photos, Amber. Get someone else to look for you, if you have someone you trust.’

She bit her lip. ‘I really hope you have someone to trust. If you don’t, you have my word that you can trust the griffin known as Bastion. I swear he has your best interests at heart.’ She paused, clearly warring with herself.

‘He’s your familiar, Amber,’ she blurted out. ‘I’m sorry, I’m so sorry. Maybe I did wrong keeping it from you … but a creature as a familiar? It hasn’t happened in centuries, and every single witch in history that’s had a creature familiar has turned into a black witch. I’m sure that won’t happen with you, but I’ve taken steps to make sure that the bond with Bastion won’t be known to you during your formative years. You already have so much to overcome. You don’t need this too.’

She took a deep breath. Lucille frolicked around her feet, kicking up her little legs as she ran around mum’s chair. Mum watched with a soft smile on her face. It faded as she sighed again.

‘You deserve joy like this,’ she said, gesturing unhappily to Lucille. ‘I don’t know if I’ve made the right decision, but I swear I’m trying to do everything right by you. When I found out what your father had done, I had to take steps to protect us from him. I needed something to ensure he wouldn’t ever harm us.’

She paused dramatically. ‘Amber, I found out that his black Coven had made a harkan.’ A harkan was an object of power. It was made by collecting one drop of blood at a time from a murder victim then crystallising the drops through magic. The bigger the crystal, the more deaths were required to make it and the greater the power it held. Rumour had it that the owner of a harkan crystal never needed recharge in the Common realm.

Her voice filled with horror. ‘It was so big, Amber.’ She shook her head. ‘I hired a wizard to help me get in and out of the Coven and steal the crystal.’ Her wry smile suggested it had been far from easy. ‘But we did it. And then what? I had the harkan, and I knew the black Coven would come for me – come for the crystal.’

She sighed. ‘I consulted with Grimmy. He told me the only way to protect the crystal was to bind it to me and my bloodline. If they tried to take it, it wouldn’t work for them the way they wanted or needed. And if they tried to use it there would be dire consequences for them.’ She said that with grim satisfaction.

‘I made sure that Shaun knew only you or I could use it properly. He will have to keep us both safe – or you, at least. He’s not the leader of the black Coven at the moment, but the prophecy said he will be. He’ll work his way up the ranks so he can protect us and, by extension, the harkan.

‘Don’t get emotional about his motivation, Am. He wants power.’ Her voice was bitter. ‘You can’t do what he’s done if you don’t crave power. So I stole the harkan, and with Grimmy’s help I bound it to me. And to you. To do that, I gave it sentience.’ She hesitated. ‘To bind it, I had to add to it.’

I stared at the screen, aghast. To add to the harkan, my mum had to have killed someone. I felt sick. Not only had my mum added to the harkan, Grimmy had known all this time?

She licked her lips. ‘I’ve hidden it. To bind it to me, I had to give it part of my mind and my soul. I can already feel that I am – less. I suddenly find I need to make notes all the time, and my memory can’t be trusted. With time – and if the harkan is used – the effects will worsen. I don’t know how long we have.’

She shook her head. ‘I’m sorry, I truly am. I had your mind cleared. I couldn’t risk that you might have seen your father do something dark, that he’d already started grooming you to become a black witch.’ Her voice softened. ‘And I wanted to ease your hurt, baby girl. You were crying for him so much and it killed me because he chose this. He chose to hurt and kill people for power.’

‘Don’t waste your tears on him, Amber. All the time he had us, he had another family – another wife, other kids, Rebecca and Edward. Half-siblings I have no intention of ever letting you meet. They had a third child, but he died. Shaun’s other wife is a black witch, too. She has embraced the darkness just like he has. I sometimes wonder if the child died of illness – or something far worse.’

She grimaced and tightened her lips. ‘I rue the day I ever met Shaun Bolton. I will protect you from him until my dying breath, Amber. And now, he will do the same,’ she said with grim satisfaction, ‘because only you or I can fully wield the power of their Goddess-forsaken harkan. And the black Coven knows it.’