Love, Lies & Eternal Ties (Whitby Shadows Series Book3)

Chapter Three

Urgency took a hold of me finally and I ran into the house. "Mum? Hannah?" I yelled.

Hurtling into the kitchen, I saw them both sitting at the kitchen table, drinking cups of tea and eating cream filled scones.

Mum raised an eyebrow at me. "Is the devil himself chasing you?"

I shook my head, leaned down on the table, and stared at her. "Much worse. I can guess what the Elder Court is, but what I don't know is why it wants the two of you."

The half-eaten scone in Mum's hand fell, splattering into crumbs and chunks on the kitchen table. Her skin paled to an ashen white. She glanced at Hannah. Her throat bobbed up and down.

"Mum, talk to me!" I said, grabbing her hand. At the touch of her skin, I gasped. She was stone cold. "What's going on?"

She shuddered and looked at me. "Sit down, Caitlyn."

I sat down next to Hannah, who had paled to a shade whiter than milk. "Hannah, what's going on?"

She stared at her hands, wringing them together, and whispered, "You need to listen to your mum."

"What do you know of what happened when you were a child?" Mum asked.

I pursed my lips and thought about it. "Only really what Keres told me. You knew when I was born that I was something different, and by the time I started school you had to run and hide, so you asked Keres and the Elders to put a binding spell on me."

The faintest of smiles tugged at Mum's lips. "She's still as full of as much poppycock now as she was back then."

"I'm guessing that's not true then?"

Mum shook her head. "We knew by the time I was six months pregnant what you were, Caitlyn. My magic had become so unstable I couldn't even light a candle without either setting the room on fire or flooding it with water. At that point, Keres hadn't gotten her dirty paws on me yet to determine what you were."

"What did you do?"

"We hid. One of the Elders was your father's grandfather. Your dad trusted him and went to him with our situation. He was well aware of Keres' greed for power, and he knew this would tip her over the edge. He advised us on what to do and gifted us a potent spell."

I frowned. "A spell for what?"

Mum flickered her eyes over to Hannah. "There are certain bloodlines in gargoyles that are sought out for protection. Sort of like bloodlines for racehorses. Hannah's parents were already pregnant with her. Edwin, your dad's grandfather, spoke to them and told them of our plight. When I approached them with the spell, they were more than accepting for their child's destiny."

"That's how Hannah got her extra shot of magic?"

Mum nodded. "The level of magic boost Hannah had was something that is reserved for bodyguards of those of the highest order...the Elders themselves. No one knew of her strength until she had a temper tantrum in her terrible twos and flattened an entire supermarket. At that point, the Elders realised one of their own had been untrue. It didn't take long for them to figure out it was Edwin when they realised who Hannah's family was friends with."

I raised an eyebrow. "Dare I ask what happened to Edwin?"

"He vanished," Mum replied, sighing. "We don't know if it was by his own doing or the Elder Court. Unfortunately, when he vanished, it left an empty seat in the Elder Court which Keres then filled."

I shivered, hoping by some miracle it was his own doing. "What happened next?"

"I'd been performing daily spells on myself whilst pregnant, and once you were born, on you. It was to hide your magic but with every day that passed, the spell wore off quicker and quicker to the point that by the time Hannah had her incident, I was having to perform it twice a day."