18. Chapter 18
I blink the haze from my eyes after coming down from several more world-shattering orgasms to see all three men lying on the pallet around me. I drool a little at the still-naked bodies on display, all of us still touching each other, and have to remind myself that I couldn’t survive any more playtime right now.
I try to subtly stretch, not wanting to wake anyone else and feel a sting between my thighs. Maybe we were a little rougher than I remembered.
A kiss on my hip drags my eyes down to meet Josh’s. “Hey, babe, how are you feeling?”
“Like I just had the best night of my life,” I whisper. “We should do it again. Just not right now. I need a day or two to recover.”
Another set of hands starts to roam over my body, our conversation enough to stir the other two as well.
“Well, that was something.” Matt smiles up at me.
“Yeah,” I agree. “It was.”
“Not to burst our cozy little bubble,” Patrick says, “but do you notice anything different? It feels like you have more magic now.”
I close my eyes, turning my focus inward and gasp. My magic is flowing around like bubbles, filling any empty space it can find. It’s so different, I wonder how I didn’t realize it immediately.
“It’s beautiful,” I whisper before trying to describe it to the others. My eyes blur as I blink away the happy tears.
“You’re glowing.” Matt’s voice is full of awe. He hovers his hand over my arms.
“Yeah, I’m really happy,” I tell him. “I don’t know how I lived before this.”
“No, Mor,” Josh says. “Look down. You are actually glowing.”
My eyes drop, and I gasp.
“Well, that was unexpected.” Patrick laughs. “I’ve heard of the powerful witches glowing from their power, but never thought I’d see it myself.”
“As awesome as this moment is,” Josh says. “Does this help us with breaking the curse?”
“One way to find out.” I close my eyes, ready to try to summon magic to make the leaves around us float, when a hand landing on my arm makes me jump.
“I love the enthusiasm, but maybe we should go outside before you start playing with magic. We don’t want to knock the house down,” Patrick reminds me.
We get redressed and leave the study. Entering the backyard, I see Timmy walking out into the yard. I hurry my steps to catch up to the young ghost. He’s staring straight ahead, eyes fixed on something I can’t see.
“Timmy,” I say, hoping to gain his attention. No luck. “Timmy!” I call louder. He doesn’t respond. He’s steadily moving toward whatever is calling him.
I reach out, not sure it will work, and close my hand around his arm. Timmy goes to step but jerks to a stop. His head slowly turns and looks down at the hand somehow holding on to his arm. He blinks a few times before he seems to see me.
“How are you holding me?” he asks.
“I’m not sure,” I tell him, letting my arm fall back to my side.
“But you touched me, and you didn’t pass out,” he says. “That’s new. And why are we outside?”
“I don’t know,” I tell him. “We were coming outside, and I saw you walking through the field. After talking to Nan earlier, something just seemed off. I tried to talk to you, but it was like you couldn’t hear me. You were focused on something out there, but I couldn’t see anything that would be calling to you. I acted on instinct and hoped for the best.”
“Well, however you did it, thank you,” Timmy says. “I don’t know what came over me, but I think it would have been bad. I think I should be getting back inside, though, just to be safe.” Timmy turns and floats across the field, disappearing through the door and back into the O'Byrne manor.
I make my way back to where the guys are waiting for me, recounting what happened and how instinct had led to me grabbing Timmy and being able to stop him from walking.
“Guess that answers the question of if your powers expanded,” Matt says. “Being able to touch ghosts seems like a big jump up.”
“It’s a good first step, but let’s not celebrate too soon,” Patrick advises.
“What do you think we should try?” I ask.
“How about creating a small hill?” Josh says. “Wasn’t that something you brought up last time?”
“Yep,” Patrick and I answer at the same time.
I close my eyes, smiling as the bubbles bounce around inside, ready to do my bidding. Cracking my eyelids open, I focus on the ground in the middle of our group, imagining a string sticking up that I can pull. With the briefest of thoughts, the ground responds, rising to the size of an anthill. I don’t feel any strain from the magic. I pull again, and again, the ground responds, rising higher.
“That’s really good,” Patrick says. “But how are you feeling?”
“I’m fine,” I tell him. “I could keep going. I can’t sense any drops in my magic or my energy. I think I’m as ready as I can be to go face this curse and end it once and for all.”
“Yeah!” cheers Josh. “How are we going to do that?”
I chew on my lip. “I’m not sure,” I admit, looking at the other two. “Do either of you have any thoughts?”
“A lot,” answers Matt, “but not about this.”
I roll my eyes. “Not helpful.”
Patrick points toward the edge of the woods. “I’d say let’s start walking the tree line and see if we can find the other crypts. As we do, you can open them. Well, until you get too tired or your magic starts to fade again.”
“Okay.” I nod. “It’s the only plan we’ve got, so let’s try it.”
We head to the edge of the property and start around the circle, passing both the crypts I had already opened.
As we reach the next one, a shiver races down my spine, and I freeze. “Do you feel that?” I ask.
Josh and Matt both say no, but Patrick says he can feel something off, like a heavy weight has landed on his shoulders.
“I think Nan was right, and the curse is getting stronger,” I tell them. “We need to be careful. I couldn’t feel it at the other crypts until we were trying to open them, but this one is already trying to reach us.”
We slow our pace, checking the ground and the trees for any traps that may jump out at us. We stop a few feet from the doors. Nothing has moved. The air around us is so still, it almost seems like we shouldn’t breathe.
“Any thoughts?” I whisper. “This seems too easy.”
“Slow and steady,” Patrick advises. “See if you can stretch your magic out and reach the door.”
I nod, calling my magic forward with a thought and sending it toward the sealed door before us. It rushes out, pushing into the stone. The second my magic touches it, a line of fire streaks back down the connection, burning my arm. I scream and cut off the flow. The skin on my arm bubbles with angry blisters.
“Mor!” Josh yells, running forward.
The fire jumps from me to him, almost like it can sense when someone comes close. Patrick jumps in front of Josh, calling his own fire up to block the attacking flames.
Josh grabs my good arm and drags me back a few steps until the flames stop tracking our movement. When it seems to have settled, Patrick sets a wall of flame in front of it before coming back to the rest of us.
“Babe,” breathes Matt, “Oh my God! How are you still standing?”
I look down at my arm. The skin is turning an ugly black color around the blisters. I’m worried about why I’m not feeling pain, but then the blisters start to shrink, the skin healing and changing as we watch, until my arm is back to how it was.
“That’s even more impressive than the first time,” Josh says, reaching out to gently poke at my arm.
Patrick’s wall of flame hisses, drawing our attention back to where the cursed fire pushes through the protection and comes toward us.
“I don’t think slow-and-steady is going to work,” I yell, pushing the other three behind me.
Patrick agrees, coming up to stand beside me, reminding he also has magic to help fight back. “We need to attack it at the root,” he says. “I don’t think it is going to let us fight it little by little.”
“At the root?” I ask, pulling a wall of earth in front of us to block the fire. It’s effortless, my magic now responding almost like an extension of myself.
“You’re going to have to break all of them open at once, but we also don’t want to take out any of the houses around us. It’s advanced magic, but I have faith in you.”
“We all do,” Matt says. He runs over, grabbing two limbs about the size of baseball bats, and returns. “But maybe these will help us be of some use.” He passes one over to Josh.
I close my eyes, this time focusing on the world around me. In front of me, I can sense a darkness sucking the life from the area around it. Expanding my senses out, I can feel buildings on one side reaching into the earth, but other than being solid, they don’t seem to be bothering anything. On the other side, I find a combination of buildings and darkness. As I stand there, I can feel tendrils of the darkness stretching out, trying to connect to itself. I don’t know where the knowledge is coming from, but I know that if the darkness forms one solid unit, it will be really bad for me and everyone else in Spells Hollow and out on the main road.
I reach into the earth, pulling hard to create walls above and below the ground to slow the tendrils down.
The curse doesn’t like that, sending the fire bursting through the wall in front of us. Patrick moves forward, fighting fire with fire. I send a tremor through the ground toward the building in front of me. It shakes the crypt. The fire hisses, pulling my attention back to the fight in front of me.
“Keep going,” calls Patrick as the building comes to a halt.
Drawing a deep breath, I send more magic forward and some sideways toward the next spot of darkness. I feel the ground bucking under me, but my feet stay glued to where I am.
Shouts break my concentration as squawks fill the air. Cracking an eye open, I see a mass of black birds descending on us. I block out the noise as Josh and Matt swing their limbs and do their best to keep the birds back.
Patrick’s panting and cursing fills the air in front of me. As much as I want to focus on protecting my men, I know the only way to keep everyone safe will be destroying this curse. I close my eyes and focus on pushing the magic farther out toward more of the spots of darkness. My breathing steadies, the chaos around me settling into a dull roar like I’ve just put my head underwater.
I keep my magic focused on the curse, avoiding anything that doesn’t reek of darkness. Something sliding over my feet draws my attention back to the present. I glance down to see vines snaking over my legs, their bright flowers opening and closing like they want to eat everything in its path.
I shiver, feeling the vines start to climb up my legs. Focusing once again, I draw deep inside, pulling on my magic to push as much of it at the curse as I can. If I stop now, there won’t be another chance. I send my magic even farther out, almost reaching the far edge of the curse.
The vine reaches my waist, curling tight like it could squeeze the air from my body, while wings and beaks beat at my shoulders until I can feel blood dripping down my fingertips.
Shoving all thoughts from my mind, I drag more magic forward. Drawing everything. My arms are heavy, and I’m not sure I can open my eyes if I want to.
“Mor!!!” I hear through the din. I think it’s Patrick. “STOP!!!”
“Just a little more,” I slur, pushing all of me into breaking this curse. I finally find the edge of the darkness and push it farther into the earth until it has no hope of reaching the surface again, burying it under miles upon miles of earth and stone.
A loud pop reaches my ears, like a long-stuck door swinging open, before I give in to the welcoming embrace of oblivion.