Chapter 15
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Malcolm eyed the massive stack of books Finnigan had set down before him and Jasper in one of the private reading rooms of the town library. The yeti was still in his human form, and his piercing blue eyes met Malcolm’s.
“We may not like the answers we find,” Finnigan warned him.
“I know,” said Malcolm. “But it is my fault the wards are down.”
The yeti placed a palm on top of the books, stopping Malcolm from taking the one on top.
“I’ve been reading up on the lore of the older witches and the wards.
The wards are always weak this time of year.
You just happened to use an unstable spell when you opened the portal inside the boundaries of the wards.
According to my research any powerful witch or warlock would have broken the wards doing what you did by creating a portal from the outside to open up within the wards.
It just hadn’t been done before, because all of the witches or warlocks who’ve visited our town since the wards were raised never cast any powerful, unpredictable spells around Halloween.
What happened with you was simply an unpredictable accident.
Do not lay unnecessary blame on yourself. ”
Malcolm’s throat tightened and he nodded that he understood Finnigan’s point. Anyone could have done this…not just him.
“It doesn’t help that there is a prophecy here dooming me to destroy the town.”
“Yes, I can see that weighs heavily on you.”
Malcolm couldn’t help but wonder how many other people were burdened by the prophecies Finnigan had shown them.
“And yet, according to some seer when I was born, I’m also supposed to save magic? How’s that supposed to work?” He couldn’t hide the frustration in his voice.
“You know my feelings about prophecies,” the yeti reminded him. “It’s better to live your life without dwelling on things that are always open to interpretation and misunderstanding,. You cannot worry about what you do not truly know.”
“But I do know…” he groaned.
Finnigan arched a dark gold brow. “No, you think you do. There is a difference.”
“That’s not as helpful as you think it is,” said Malcolm.
“That’s where a shit ton of whiskey comes in,” said Jasper, trying to lighten the mood. “Maybe I’ll break out a bottle later. What do you think, Finnigan? Would whiskey drown out the prophecies?
The yeti chuckled. “For a night, perhaps.”
“Less grieving and more reading, I say. Let’s divvy these up.” Jasper separated the books into three separate stacks.
Hades paced around the library, unusually nervous.
It was hard to blame him, he wanted to be with Calli and Persephone too.
This is not how he had expected to spend the day after making love to Calli.
He wanted to keep her in bed, cook her dinner, and hold her on the couch by the fire while they watched a movie.
Instead, he was staring at old town records and diaries, trying to understand how a bunch of witch ghosts had possessed him and guided him to the Black Cliffs with the remnants of ancient spells, in the vague hope it would shed some light on the original wards.
They worked in silence for nearly two hours before Jasper suddenly sat up.
“Hey, I think I found something.” Jasper lifted up the leather bound book he was reading.
It had no title and no real spine. It was more like a folder made of cowhide that had been stretched over a collection of yellowed parchment paper.
He set the book back down on the table, revealing a scrawling script that had once been written in black ink, now faded to brown.
“Ah, the diary of Goody Leicester,” Finnigan murmured. “She was one of the granddaughters of the first witches in Moonstone.”
“Some of the writing is hard to read,” Jasper admitted. “Most of it, really. But here she’s talking about the original wards.” Jasper pointed at the script and slowly recited what he could understand.
“Thirteen witches to raise the guardian spell … Thirteen witches to perform the ancient rights. A witch-locked pair must shed their blood upon the soil. Their strength will rise and guard the town. Thirteen witches must toil to prevent further trouble…”
“What else?” Malcolm pressed, his breath held so long his lungs burned.
“That’s it. After that, she talks about the preparations for All Hallows Eve.”
Malcolm sank back in his chair. “She didn’t write anything else?”
Jasper scoured the next few pages. “I don’t think so…
but I’ll keep looking.” He gave Malcolm a supportive look that just barely buoyed his dampened spirits.
He had hoped for something a bit more substantial.
Mrs. Greenlee had already told him that a blood sacrifice was necessary.
All that he had learned here was that it seemed both witch-locked persons in a bond would be involved in that blood sacrifice.
He and Calli weren’t locked yet. If they did manage to bond before they got the wards back up, he wasn’t going to let Calli get hurt.
“So… Sage explained this witch-lock thing to me,” Jasper said after a moment.
Malcolm glanced at his friend. He could feel the yeti’s eyes on them too.
“What did she say?”
“That it’s deeper than marriage. It’s like… forever,” Jasper said. “You know that, right?”
Malcolm nodded. “Werewolves and vampires call it fated mates.”
“But you?” Jasper asked. “Is this woman everything for you?”
Leave it to Jasper to look right at the heart of something.
“I think she is.” Malcolm closed the record book in front of him, sending a cloud of dust up into the air, making all three of them cough. The particles danced in the beam of light that poured over the table.
“It’s like I’ve been asleep my entire life, but the second I met Calli, I woke up. Everything is more intense. Even colors seem brighter.”
“That sounds like falling in love in general,” said Jasper. “How do you know it’s different?”
Malcolm chuckled. “It’s not just about how intense it feels when I’m with her.
I love her confidence, how she trusts herself.
Not just with her magic, but with her own life.
She hasn’t backed down from our situation or the wards failing or from me, knowing how much of a mess my magic is.
But she has made me better, stronger. I want to be the same for her. ”
It was true. While he’d never been a selfish person, he realized that this was the first relationship he’d been in where his focus had been on what he could do for someone else.
He wanted to be everything she needed. He would do whatever it took to make her smile and fill her life with joy.
She’d given his love of magic back to him, and showed him what he was capable of.
With her gentle teasing and coaching, she’d shoved open that door that he’d all but closed years ago.
It was no wonder Hades was pining for her and Persephone right now.
“Sounds an awful lot like falling in love to me,” Jasper said with a smile.
“It’s funny… I always thought falling in love would be a freefall, but it’s not.” Malcolm said. “It feels more like flying.”
“Does that mean you’ll stay here? In Moonstone?” Finnigan asked. The yeti had been listening in, but Malcolm didn’t mind. “Because Calli needs to be close to the woods.”
Moonstone Falls was the opposite of the life he’d had in New York. But he knew what he wanted. For Calli to be happy, for her magic needed to flourish and that meant only one answer.
“Yes. I’d stay… assuming the Salem Witch Council wouldn’t force me to move to Boston. The old me would’ve hated a town like this, but the new me likes it,” he admitted.
Jasper chuckled. “You won’t mind if I stuck around too, would you?”
Malcolm shot his friend a smirk. “Because you like the town, or the cute coffee shop witch?”
Jasper shrugged. “The town, of course.”
“You’re full of shit.”
Before Jasper could retaliate, several tourists walked past them in the library, whispering excitedly.
Malcolm glanced at the yeti, still in his human form. Even to Malcolm’s magical eyes, he saw only the faintest glimmer of a spell. He didn’t seem worried about the visitors, but watched them nonetheless.
“Hey, Finnigan, how does this all work? When the wards are not broken, I mean?” Jasper asked. “I’m fascinated by all of this.”
The yeti kept an eye on the tourists until they wandered away from the stacks nearest them before replying.
“The festival is on October 31, but the wards start to weaken around the start of the month. An unexpected guest or two might find their way into town early on, but it’s usually not until a week or so before Halloween that we see most of the non-magical people arrive for the end of the month festival. ”
Malcolm leaned in. “How exactly do you hide your magic? I mean the whole town? Calli never explained that to me.”
“Once the tourists start arriving, we warn those with magic to use it judiciously. We sometimes use magic in ways that people can convince themselves it’s just an illusion. People believe that easily enough, so they don’t question it. It’s all part of the charm of Moonstone Falls.”
Jasper spoke up. “Sage spent all morning redoing the spells in the café and hiring a few high school kids to help out with orders. It keeps the tourists from getting too suspicious.”
“Exactly,” Finnigan replied. “Everyone who lives here has their own festival protocol. We just had to initiate it sooner than usual.”
The mention of protocols got Malcolm thinking.
The witches in the town had a set strengthening ritual that they performed each year.
While he knew that a strengthening spell wouldn’t work now that the wards were gone, the diary mentioned that it had been done every year right from the beginning.
It might hold clues about how the original spell was made.
“What do the witches usually do to strengthen the wards?” Malcolm asked.