The Bewitching - Midsummer Aine - Book 2

Chapter 7 - Of Secrets and Nightmares

Elyssa sat completely enthralled as she carefully flipped through the aging and brittle pages of the little black book. Each passage appeared to contain a spell of some sort, some of which were several pages long. Some required ingredients, others intricate rituals, and finally there were those with long, beautifully written and poetically phrased pieces. She noticed that several of the spells also contained diagrams, in a strangely faded and odd red ink, that portrayed how the rituals were done.

Oddly enough though, very few of the spells contained a description of exactly what they did. Those that did contain descriptions seemed to be very vague in exactly what they did. The one word she did see consistently used in the few descriptions that the book contained was that of balance and the natural order of give and take in the world.

The very first part of the book had a whole passage on that very concept. In order for the spell's powers to be given something of equal value had to be taken away. That explained some of the items needed in the rituals, although Elyssa couldn't for the life of her figure out what would be taken away in the spells containing only words or rituals. The book itself was of no help in explaining that either, again tending to flow towards a vagueness of words.

For a moment, Elyssa debated casting one of the spells. Her curiosity was nagging at her as she flipped through the pages. The only thing that caused her to hesitate was Aine's note about the book's dangerous powers. She rubbed her eyes, shaking her head.

"Seriously. You're thinking like one of those dumb girls from a horror film. You might as well just tape a sign to your back that says 'Kill me now.'" Elyssa murmured under her breath.

Yet, she couldn't pull herself away from glancing through the various spells and wanting to know more about them. What a peculiar twist, she thought. A book of spells seems to have placed her under a spell of its own.

If it hadn't been for the sudden, loud noise she heard downstairs she may have seen her common sense leave her completely. The spells and curiosity were proving themselves to be just too tempting. Instead, her focus was now on who was roaming in the lower rooms of the house. She listened quietly for several moments, the footsteps downstairs roaming from room to room.

Her eyes wandered to the black book still in her hand and a thought sparked. Was Aine still in the house? The steps creaked outside the room. Whoever was there was now working their way up the stairs which meant it wouldn't be long until they approached her room. If it was Aine, there was no telling what she wanted or to what extent she'd go to in order to achieve it.

Placing the book down on the bed, and being as quiet as she could, she made her way across the room.  Her first thought had been to hide, but if it was Aine that was likely a useless exercise in futility. She considered magic and quickly remembered how even Dantes had been hesitant to attack Aine because of her power. Even with the powers Elyssa had gained from training, it was unlikely she herself would be able to handle Dantes just yet. If he had been afraid of Aine, then Elyssa knew she likely didn't stand a chance herself.

That's when she noticed something sticking out from beneath a pile of clothes. How she missed it before she didn't know, but she was more than thankful that she had spotted it now. It was also one of the few options she had at the moment so she chose to do the only thing that she could. She grabbed the baseball bat she had spotted before taking a place behind the bedroom door. If she couldn't hide from Aine, or beat her with magic, she might at least be able to catch her by surprise and knock her out before any trouble started.

Outside the room she could hear the footsteps as they reached the top of the stairs. A door down the hallway grated softly as it opened, followed by the creaking of floorboards approaching her room. Closer and closer the sound came, and then suddenly there was silence.